CONSERVATION THROUGH ENGINEERING. 35 



'" If we continue to neglect them, there are influences at work that will sooner or 

 later convince them who now fail to appreciate the worth of our Government that the 

 Government itself has failed crowd the melting pot with class hates and violence 

 and befoul its yield. 



" We must not be tried by inquest. We demand the right to vindicate the merit 

 of our systems wherever their integrity is questioned or maligned. 



" We demand the right to regulate the cheating scales upon which the Eepublic 

 is weighed by its ill-wishers. 



" We demand the right to protect unintelligence from Esau bargains with hucksters 

 of traitorous creeds. 



" We demand the right to present our case and our cause to the unlettered mass, 

 whose benightedness and ready prejudices continually invite exploitation. 



" We demand the right to vaccinate credulous inexperience against Bolshevism and 

 kindred plagues. 



" We demand the right to render all whose kind we deem fit to fight for our flag fit 

 to vote and prosper under its folds. 



" We demand the right to bring the American language to every American, to qualify 

 each inhabitant of these United States for self-determination, self-uplift, and self- 

 defense." 



Dr. Philander P. Claxton, Commissioner of Education, in his analysis of the illiteracy 

 figures of the census, said : 



" Illiteracy is not confined to any one race or class or section. Of the 5,500,000 

 illiterates as reported by the census of 1910, nearly 3,225,000 were whites, and more 

 than 1.500.000 were native-born whites. 



" That illiteracy is not a problem of any one section alone is shown by the fact that in 

 1910 Massachusetts had 7,469 more illiterate men of voting age than Arkansas ; Michigan, 

 2,663 more than West Virginia ; Maryland, 2,352 more than Florida ; Ohio, more than 

 twice as many as New Mexico and Arizona combined ; Pennsylvania, 5,689 more than 

 Tenne-ssee and Kentucky combined. Boston had more illiterates than Baltimore, Pitts- 

 burgh more than New Orleans, Fall River more than Birmingham, Providence nearly 

 twice as many as Nashville, and the city of Washington 5,000 more than the city of 

 Memphis. 



" It is especially significant that of the 1,534,272 native-born white illiterates reported 

 in the 1910 census 1,342,372, about 87.5 per cent, were in the open country and small 

 towns, and only 191,900, or 12.5 per cent, were in cities having a population of 2,500 and 

 over. Of the 2,227,731 illiterate negroes 1,834,458, or 82.3 per cent, were in the country, 

 and only 393,273, or 17.7 per cent, were in the cities." 



ADDITIONAL COPIES 



OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM 



THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS 



GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT 



10 CENTS PER COPY 



V 



