244 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



native whites of foreign parentage attend more steadily and per- 

 sistently than native whites of native parentage, and in this regard the 

 foreign born children lead both the other classes. 



Table I. 



Table II. 



Table III. 



Illiteracy is seldom a matter of choice with the peasant. It is 

 usually a matter of bad government. The governments of certain coun- 

 tries maintain no free school system, and paid schools of academies 

 are out of the reach of the miserable peasants. 



In other countries the government places monetary or religious 

 restrictions upon certain races which prevent their attendance at 

 school. One often hears the query, ' What is the effect of a mass of 

 illiterate foreigners upon society?' There is very little effect. The 

 illiterate foreigners in our own large cities are ostracized socially, as 

 strictly as the negro in the south. ' These foreigners do not assimilate ' 

 is heard every day. How can they? They can not take the initiative. 

 The Italian, or the Jew, or the Slav, do not shrink away from their 

 American neighbors more than their American neighbors shrink from 

 them. 



This mutual aloofness will persist through one or two generations. 

 No sane man expects the Americanization of any but English-speaking 

 immigrants in the first generation, but there is hope, and bright hope, 

 for the immigrants' American bred children, even if their parents be 



