I think that a little bit of that spirit in American life, a little of the community spirit, is needed in dealing with this great question. He has no opportunity. He comes from Ellis Island and he goes to Chicago, comes on through, and then he goes to his own group and he lives there.

I have missed one point, and I want to come back to it. It is a matter of our rural schools. A State superintendent deals so directly and so vitally with the rural-school system, and last night talking on consolidation, I was glad that the committee showed the deep interest that they did in that problem. We want teachers. I have been dealing with a condition. I have, because I have taught in the country, and I felt more keenly when I became a county superintendent some years ago the conditions and where the teacher has to live. You perhaps will remember the time when the teacher "boarded around.' Some weeks you had a very pleasant time of it; you were with a good home maker and it was a delightful week. On the other hand, sometimes you were glad when the week was over. Then came the time when the people wanted to board the teachers at a compensation. It helped to pay the grocery bill, and they were glad to get the teacher as a boarder. I remember when I was teaching on the plains of Minnesota when they wanted to board the teacher. It came to the point where if a teacher changed her boarding place much feeling was created.

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And then came the time when no one wanted to board the teacher. I dealt with them very directly as a county superintendent. Mrs. A says, "I won't board the teacher this year." Mrs. B says, "I won't." Mrs. C says, " Well, we have 10 children and only 2 bedrooms," and in the end Mrs. C takes the teacher. So when we find a well-trained teacher and when we send her out into the country, we have to think beyond the classroom and must think of the living conditions of the teacher. It is very hard for them to secure board now, because the farmer has been making a whole lot of money, and he does not want any $2.50 a week for the teacher's board, or $5 a week.

One farmer came in to see me and he said that he was not going to board the teacher, and it was quite necessary that he should, because he was the only man in the community that had an extra room. He did not want the teacher to be with them in his house. He said he could not have the privacy of his home that he desired. I said to him, "You put a stove in her room. You give her the privacy of a good room. That is the way to get around that. You give her the privacy of a good room, and you will find you will not have her with your family at all." Well, he said, "Mrs. Preston, if I found any teacher who was too good to sit with my family, I would not have her for a minute." It ended by his taking her.

I want to say in conclusion that I consider this a most important bill, and I believe that if it is enacted into law it will do more to help solve our problems than any educational law ever passed by Congress. The CHAIRMAN. We are very much obliged to you, Mrs. Preston. The committee will now be glad to hear from Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart, president of the Illiteracy Commission of the State of Kentucky.

STATEMENT OF MRS. CORA WILSON STEWART, CHAIRMAN OF THE KENTUCKY ILLITERACY COMMISSION, FRANKFORT, KY.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: There is a most intense interest in this bill the country over, I find, and especially is it so in Kentucky, my own State. In Kentucky the different organizations have been running a race to see which could indorse this measure first. The Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs had that honor. The Daughters of the American Revolution, the Kentucky Education Association, and the Kentucky Press Association are among the organizations that followed close behind. All of these organizations have sent their indorsement to the members of the Kentucky delegation in Congress and requested them to give the bill their solid support. The Kentucky Press Association has had a long-established rule that it would indorse no legislative or other measure that did not pertain directly to the newspaper business. The SmithTowner bill appealed to the editors of Kentucky with such force that they broke that rule and at their annual meeting in June, 1919, unanimously voted their indorsement of the measure. Immediately after they had passed the resolution indorsing this bill, another matter was presented to them of vital interest to the State, upon which it was believed that they would take action. They promptly refused to take a stand either for or against the resolution presented, and adhered to their former plan of keeping out of all matters not relating to the press. I am stating this in order to show you how much more deeply interested the editors of Kentucky are in this bill than they are in anything else.

I wish to repeat that the same interest prevails all over the country; especially is this manifest among soldiers who have returned from overseas. The soldiers do not, as a rule, wish to talk about themselves or their experiences or achievements. When they are asked to talk about themselves, most of them will change the subject. They want to talk about this country and the things necessary for its improvement. The last soldier I talked with was Maj. Perry, of Wisconsin. He was distressed because he had to make a speech to his home people on the Fourth of July. I suggested that he could do no better than to talk to them about his experiences overseas, and he said, "That is the very thing I do not want to talk about. I want to talk to them about this country and about education in particular. We have realized during the war the need of improved educational opportunities for America." He said, "We want better public schools; we want better trained teachers for our American children; we want equal opportunities for all. We have seen whole divisions from ore section of the United States in which the men were all high school and college graduates, and we have seen divisions come from other sections of the country in which one-fourth of the boys were illiterate and the others had only a second, third, fourth, or fifth grade education. We believe," he added. "that there should somehow be equal opportunities provided for the boys and girls of Florida with those of the New England States and those of the West. We want the illiterates taught to read and write. We have seen how illiteracy handicaps a soldier, and we know that the handicap is almost, if not equally, as great in civil life. We have

seen boys, who could not understand their orders when they enlisted, learn to read and write in the Army, and become effective soldiers. We know that they can learn; we believe that they should be taught, not only the men, but their wives, fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters."

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You are talking now about the Smith-Towner bill," I said, and, taking a copy of this bill from my brief-case, I gave it to him to read. He read it over carefully and said, "Here is my speech. I am going to talk about the Smith-Towner bill on the Fourth of July." That is how the soldiers and others who are thinking regard this bill. It is a joy to advocate such a measure, because everybody worth while seems to be in sympathy with it.

My especial interest in this bill is the opportunity that it will give to the 5,516,163 adult illiterates of this country. It is not the first time I have been before the Education Committees to urge some reliet for these millions who are enslaved in the worst of all bondage. Whenever I have a chance to appear in the behalf of these unfortunate people, I esteem it a privilege and a pleasure to do so. I am happy in the prospect that in this bill there is to be provision made by the Government for them. This measure makes the most adequate provision for them of any that has been presented and that is the reason why I am here to champion it. The sum provided is none too adequate, however. I do not mean, Mr. Chairman, that it seems to me a very large sum of money and I know that Congress will not so consider it. It is an appropriation of only a little more than $1.35 annually for each illiterate. This investment will pay the largest dividend, I predict, of any that the Government has ever made. These people when redeemed from illiteracy will soon repay this sum to the Government in the postage stamps alone which they will buy. At a postmasters' convention a few years ago, an estimate was made of the number of postage stamps used weekly by those who could read and write. It was estimated that those who could read and write would mail, on an average, two letters each week. The Members of Congress, after they have examined the flood of letters which school teachers, editors, clubwomen, soldiers, and others write to them about this bill, will likely conclude that this estimate is too low. When the 5,516,163 illiterates in this country are taught to read and write, should they write but two letters each week, that would pay over $11,000,000 into the United States Treasury annually.

In other words, Uncle Sam is losing at least $11,000,000 annually on postage by reason of illiteracy. I know of many who have recently learned to read and write who are writing more than the two letters each week. Especially do I recall one old woman in the mountains of Kentucky who wrote to me saying, "I am so glad I learned to read and write. I can now write to my children. Since I have 12 and they all live in different States and I write to them all each week, it keeps me mighty busy." If they all wrote as many letters as this old woman, Patience Lunsford, they would pay back every year many times the sum Congress is asked to appropriate. Not only in this way would they repay this money to the Government, but also in their increased earning power. Those who are now illiterates are wasting their talents. If given an opportunity to develop their talents, they would pay millions and millions of

dollars in taxes into the Treasury of the United States. I know of thousands of instances where men after being redeemed from illiteracy have doubled their earning capacity and have been promoted to lucrative positions.

It has been my privilege for the past eight years to deal exclusively with adult illiterates in my own and other States and from that experience I have found how eager these people are to learn, how grateful they are for a chance, and how rapidly they progress. In 1911 we started the movement to eradicate illiteracy in one county in the State of Kentucky. Later it developed into a State-wide movement to eradicate illiteracy before 1920. Other States took up the plan and began to campaign against illiteracy until now almost every State in the Union is making an attempt to stamp illiteracy out of the Commonwealth. In some States this work is being done under the direction of illiteracy commissions; in some, under State departments of education; in others, under volunteer organizations. The State that is not doing something to relieve adult illiterates is the exception.

Senator KENYON. May I suggest, Mrs. Stewart, that you are talking altogether too fast for the shorthand reporter to take your remarks?

Mrs. STEWART. I have been talking to the committee and fear that I have forgotten what is due the stenographer. Thank you, I shall try not to talk so fast.

Senator KENYON. It is important that you have your remarks in the record, you know.

Congressman TOWNER. I am going to say right here—I know Mrs. Stewart's modesty prevents her from saying it that Mrs. Stewart is the pioneer in the illiteracy movement, the movement to remove illiteracy, and the beginning of that movement in Kentucky in the county that she has referred to was in the county where she was at that time county superintendent. The movement was started by her and spread from that county throughout Kentucky into a great many of the other States. Mrs. Stewart is the pioneer and the head of the work for the removal of illiteracy in the United States. She is recognized and accorded that distinction all over the country. Senator WALSH. Has Kentucky appropriated money especially for that purpose

Mrs. STEWART. Yes; it has. I am going to explain that later. The CHAIRMAN. As an educator of 25 years' experience, I want to say that thinking I knew the situation educationally in this country, Mrs. Stewart is the only one that made startling statements in the committee of the situation of illiteracy and the methods by which it could be removed. I want to say that she energized my own mind, which at that time was very suspicious, and I want you people to hear her, and I want myself to hear her, in order that she could keep in my mind the situation that I thought could not be done, so she is speaking now with a great deal more interest to me than when I heard her before.

Mrs. STEWART. Senator Walsh has asked the question whether or not Kentucky has appropriated money for the removal of illiteracy from the State. Ten thousand dollars was first appropriated for the purpose, and later the interest was so increased that the legislature

appropriated $75,000, making $85,000 in all that Kentucky has appropriated for the relief of adult illiterates.

Senator WALSH. How do you expend that amount?

Mrs. STEWART. We expend it mainly for State and county illiteracy agents. The county illiteracy agent organizes and directs moonlight schools; he helps to get adult illiterates into the moonlight school and children into the day school. He works at both ends of the line-toward the removal and prevention of illiteracy. State field agents direct the work of the county illiteracy agents. Senator WALSH. How do the night schools operate? Are there any compulsory-attendance features to it?

Mrs. STEWART. Unfortunately, we have no compulsory-attendance law for adults, although we hope to have later.

Senator WALSH. It is the system that you have. Do you get them to attend the night schools? How do you do it?

Mrs. STEWART. We get them to attend by personal solicitation. The teacher and the county illiteracy agent visit the illiterates, explain to them the opportunity, and urge them to attend school. They must be approached personally, for they can not read advertising or written invitations.

May I say that Kentucky is not the only State which has appropriated money to carry on work among adult illiterates? However, it was the first State to appropriate money for this purpose. Some of the other States have appropriated as generously as they could. The South Carolina Legislature appropriated $25,000 during the present year. In North Carolina $25,000 annually has been appropriated. New York recently made an appropriation of $100,000 for a campaign against illiteracy. Gov. Smith signed the bill on May 15, and at that time he gave out a statement to the public, expressing his hope that illiteracy would soon be abolished from the State. He did not call it a movement for Americanization, for it is well known that a campaign for Americanization in New York would require many millions of dollars. It was called by the governor and the press 66 a campaign to abolish illiteracy." It was very gratifying to some of us in Kentucky when New York took this important step, first, because of the large number of illiterates there, and second, because they had sneered at our efforts to wipe illiteracy out of Kentucky. A New Yorker was in our State in 1915 when the uniform system of accounting was installed. He remarked one day, I never heard of as much illiteracy in my life as you have in Kentucky. You have the figures placarded on every billboard and barn and in every railroad station. In New York we never hear of an illiterate. If a man in our State should confess that he could not read or write, it would shock us so we would drop dead. I do not suppose there are 25 illiterates in the whole State." "You have them in New York just the same," I replied. I took occasion to look up the statistics on illiteracy of New York, and when I saw this gentleman again in the evening I remarked that I had been looking up the illiteracy statistics in New York. "How many have we?" he asked. "Only 406,020," I said. "You may leave off the 20," he remarked dryly. I am glad that New York has awakened, and that the illiterates of that State as well as those of Kentucky and the other States are to have a chance.