70 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



§ 3. Education. 



In order to raise the intellectual and moral level of immigrants the Com- 

 mission has engaged, in accordance with the Act, in a campaign against 

 ignorance. A considerable proportion of the foreign laboiirers are illiterate. 

 The first efforts were naturally made in the towns where evening schools 

 and classes in civdcs teach the English language and the rules of political 

 and social life to an increasing number of aliens. An Act approved in April 

 1915, which had effect from the following lotli of August — the Home Tea- 

 cher Act — brought education to the women and girls who had previously 

 been neglected. By its terms " home teachers " are appointed " to work 

 in the homes of pupils (of the common schools) instructing children and 

 adults in matters relating to school attendance and preparation therefor ; 

 also in sanitation, in the English language, in household duties such as 

 purchase, preparation and use of food and of clothing, and h\ the fundamen- 

 tal principles of the American s}' stem of government and the rights and du- 

 ties of citizenship ". 



The educational programme we have outlined is however designed to 

 benefit only the immigrants who live in towns or within reach of rural schools. 

 The thousands who live in labour camps and other isolated places have to 

 be reached in other wa^'s. In the 663 labour camps inspected b3^ the Com- 

 mission between July 1915 and January igi6 there were 17,140 foreign-born 

 persons of whom only 1,786 or 10.4 per cent, were naturalized citizens. Of 

 their number 4^371 spoke no English. Instruction was offered in only '/k, per 

 cent, of the camps and only 36 per cent, of them were within a mile of a 

 public school. Attendance at a night school more than a mile away can 

 hardly be expected of tired working men. The data collected in labour 

 camps in the past two 5^ears show that, at a conservative estimate, 

 some 75,000 people live in them either all the 3^ear round or for a consi- 

 derable part of each year. 



The Commission found that it was absolutely necessary to provide 

 schooling for some 5,000 children in the labour camps. A system of 

 correspondence courses for adults has been mapped out, with a view to 

 allowing migratory workers to pursue their courses as they pass from camp 

 to camp ; and it has been planned that an instructor shall visit the larger 

 camps at regular intervals in order to give personal teaching and keep 

 aUve the interest in self-education. 



§ 4. Statistics as to labour camps and their sanitary condition. 



The labour camps of California are for agricultural labourers and lum- 

 bermen and for industrial workers. To the former of these two categories 

 belong persons employed on i) beetroot cultivation, 2) fruit growing, 

 3) in vineyards, 4) in hop-yards, 5) in woods, and 6) on ranches. As regards 

 the numbers of residents of camps thus severally employed the Comniis- 



