THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



1880 1890 - 1900 ■ 1910 1915 



3,300,000 

 3,200,000 

 3,100,000 

 3,000,000 

 2,900,000 

 2,800,000 

 2,700,000 

 2,600,000 

 2,500,000 

 2,400,000 

 2,300,000 

 2,200,000 

 2,100,000 

 2,000,000 

 1,900,000 

 1,800,000 

 1,700,000 

 1,600,000 





II 







., r J— i» i ! 1 1 





Negro 





u,\jvu ) J | i | 













^3,042,668 | | 















1 1 















\2,853,194 















\ 1 1 















\l 1 















\ | 2,461,101*) H 











A l i 





Native 









! \l / 







white 



-2,25 



5,461 



1 | 2,227,731 \ / 













2,065,003 i |\/ 















1 1 h 















1,913,611/ \ 















\J 



/ 1,914,949*) 



























l\> 



1,650,361 



1 1,500,000 











\ys 



1,534,272 



I 1,400,000 



















1,300,000 

 1,200,000 

 1,100,000 

 1,000,000 

 900,000 

 800,000 





















1,147 



',571- 





1,287,135 





144,6 



03*)- 







i 



1>< 









1 1 ! 



















1 









Foreign- 











1 









j 700,000 



born 



'763,620 





1 









600,000 



white 











1 









| 500^000 













| 









*) Estimated 



CHART SHOWING THE) RAPID SCALER AT WHICH OUR EOREIGN- 



EORN ILLITERATES HAVE; BEEN INCREASING WHILE OUR 



NATIVE-BORN ILLITERATES HAVE BEEN DECREASING 



Illiteracy among both the native white and negro population in the 

 United States has been decreasing with gratifying rapidity for 35 years, 

 but the number of foreign-born illiterates has been increasing alarm- 

 ingly, especially from 1910 to 1915. 



own country. They 

 <lid not know Rus- 

 sia as a nation. 

 They had followed 

 their leaders. They 

 did not know the 

 signifieance of Rus- 

 sia's position in the 

 world. 



They did not 

 understand what it 

 meant to have a 

 republican for m 

 o f government, 

 through which, by 

 their own intelli- 

 gence, energy, and 

 aspiration 

 could 



whatever form of 

 life they desired she 

 should have. 



out oe ignorance 

 has come Rus- 

 sia's IGNOMINY 



Russia was the 

 victim of the igno- 

 rance of her people, 

 and out of her ig- 

 norance has come 

 her ignominy. Her 



thev 



gm Russia 



German and Austrian prisoners, the con- 

 trol of Russian industries, the sympathy 

 of the Russian property-owning class, 

 through the insidious and devious means 

 of suggestion now being so clearly re- 

 vealed, there came Russia's break-up. 

 This may have been true superficially, 

 but not fundamentally. 



The cause of the Russian disaster, the 

 reason that she has deserted that eastern 

 front and has thrown the whole burden 

 of supporting civilization upon us in the 

 West, is the ignorance of the Russian 

 people, 80 per cent of whom cannot read 

 or write, none of whom, practically, had 

 ever participated in the affairs of their 



people were lovable, 

 charitable, kindly ; 

 they had the sense 

 o f neighborliness, 

 but not the sense of 

 nationality. T h e 

 Czar was the head 

 of the common church, and the Czar was 

 the leader of the people. When he fell 

 they collapsed, because they did not have 

 the power to visualize any other leader- 

 ship. 



If they had had a Washington he might 

 have saved them, though I doubt it ; for 

 behind a Washington there must be a 

 people who have a sense of coalescence 

 and a sense of conservatism which keeps 

 them from destroying themselves while 

 attempting to make themselves. 



If America is not to be Russianized — 

 and there is no fear of that — we must 

 put into our own hearts a truer apprecia- 

 tion of the things that we believe Amer- 



