that, therefore, while each part of the process of education must be related to its appropriate stage, the goal of all education must be citizenship—that is, the rights and duties of each individual as a member of the community; and the whole process must be the development of the individual in his relation to the community.

"3. That the established democracy being not passive but active participation by all in citizenship, education in a democratic country must aim at fitting each individual progressively not only for his personal, domestic and vocational duties, but, above all, for those duties of citizenship for which these earlier stages are training grounds; that is, he must learn (a) what his nation is, and what it stands for in its past history and literature, and what is its place among the other nations of the modern world; (b) what are his duties to it, from the elementary duties of sharing in its defense and submitting to its laws up to the duty of helping to maintain and even to elevate its standards and ideals; (c) the economic, political and international conditions on which his nation's efficiency and well-being depend and the degree to which it can now or in the future enter into closer relations with other civilized nations for the just treatment of less developed races, for the furtherance of international co-operation in science, medicine, law, commerce, arts, and for the increasing establishment of world peace.

"4. That while it is true that the great mass of a people in the modern industrial world cannot become close students of history, geography, or economics, yet it is also a truth, and a truth brought out by this war, that there is latent in the mass of our people a capacity far beyond what was recognized, a capacity to rise to the conception of great issues and to face the difficulties of fundamental problems when these can be visualized in a familiar form. They only require teachers and leaders whom they can trust; and here, as always, the successful working of democracy depends upon the people recognizing the natural aristocracy that is among any body of men.' It follows that while the thoughtful and studious, who will naturally lead the opinions of their fellows in mine, factory or shop, can never be more than a few thousand, yet the millions of the rank and file can certainly get the two educational essentials which will enable them to recognize those natural leaders; these two essentials

being (a) the development of an open habit of mind, clearsighted and truth-loving, proof against sophisms, shibboleths, claptrap phrases and cant; (b) the possession of certain elementary information and essential facts about such main questions as our government, the relations between capital and labor, the relations between science and production, and other such subjects.

"5. That the necessary conclusion is that adult education. must not be regarded as a luxury for a few exceptional persons here and there, not as a thing which concerns only a short span of early manhood, but that adult education is a permanent national necessity, an inseparable aspect of citizenship, and therefore should be both universal and lifelong.

6. That the opportunity for adult education should be spread uniformly and systematically over the whole community, as a primary obligation on that community in its own interest and as a chief part of its duty to its individual members, and that therefore every encouragement and assistance should be given to voluntary organizations, so that their work, now necessarily sporadic and disconnected, may be developed and find its proper place in the national educational system."

3. AMERICANIZATION IN INDUSTRY

We give here practically in toto a bulletin of the State Department of Immigrant Education.

AMERICANIZATION IN INDUSTRY

Advancement improvement in condition is the order of things in a society of equals.”—Abraham Lincoln, July 1, 1854.

From the beginning of colonial history, general education has been a chief concern of the American people. We have proudly considered our public school system the foundation of democracy and have been overweeningly confident of its power to fuse all opposing elements in our population. The disillusioning reports during the war shocked our complacency and indicated that the percentage of illiteracy given in the United States census of 1910, when tested practically, was altogether too low. According to data accumulated by the War Department, 25 per cent of the selected young men of our Nation, called together by the draft,

were unable to read newspapers or write letters home. "A large proportion of this 25 per cent were as completely incapable of writing their names as the coolies of inland China." This deficiency, a tremendous disadvantage to these men as individuals in times of peace, became, in the mass, in stress of war, a formidable obstacle to their efficiency as soldiers and as members of the industrial forces. In a great crisis an unfair burden was put on them and their officers to overcome this handicap.

During March, 1918, Secretary of the Interior Lane said, in letters to President Wilson and to the congressional chairmen of the committee on education: "I believe that the time has come when we should give serious consideration to the education of those in the United States who can not read or write. The war has brought facts to our attention that are almost unbelievable and that in themselves are accusatory. An uninformed democracy is not a democracy."

2

Commissioner Finley said before the New York Legislature, after he had visited a cantonment: "What a commentary upon our educational shortcomings that in the days of peace we had not taught these men, who have been here long enough to be citizens (and tens of thousands of their brothers with them) to know the language in which our history and laws are written and in which the commands of defense must now be given!

LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK

To meet the need of the great number of illiterates in our State and of the non-English-speaking, both literate and illiterate, and to prepare them for citizenship 3 amendments to the Education Law were made, which took effect September 1, 1918. These amendments are:

1. To require night schools throughout the State.

2. To require attendance at some day or evening school or some school maintained by an employer of every minor between sixteen and twenty-one years of age "who does not possess such ability to speak, read and write the English language, as is required for the completion of the fifth grade of the public or private schools of the city or school district in which he resides. . . . Any

1 The New Nationalism and Education, by Robert W. Bruere. Harpers Magazine, July, 1919.

2 Letter quoted in the Official Bulletin, March 16, 1918.

8 According to Census of 1910, illiterates numbered 406,020, and nonEnglish-speaking, 597,012; aliens by state census of 1915 equaled 1,628,229.

employer may meet the requirements of this act by conducting a class or classes for teaching English and civics to foreign-born in shop, store, plant or factory under the supervision of the local school authorities."

3. To authorize the Commissioner of Education to divide the State into zones and to appoint such persons as would be necesto promote and extend educational facilities for the education of illiterates and of non-English speaking persons." 1

sary

NIGHT SCHOOLS

Most of the illiterates and non-English-speaking are above legal school age. Indeed, the large majority are over twenty-one. Night schools have never reached more than a negligible number of these who most need instruction. It is only the younger and the ambitious who enrol for an evening course, and many of these soon drop out. There are many reasons for this failure to meet a great educational need, one of the chief being that men and women, tired from a hard day's work, have not the physical strength to exert themselves for exacting mental effort. To hurry through supper, change one's clothes, and rush out again, to reach a school a long way off, seems too much of a burden. After an all day's absence they are loath to leave their families. Indeed, most of them have not the slighest desire for book-learning, for they have come from countries where, for the masses, there is no tradition of education.

Miss Sarah Elkus, who with the board of education of New York City for four years has been organizing classes in settlements, stores and factories, says:

"In considering this great problem, the query naturally is made: Why are not the evening schools sufficient to educate the foreign-born? There are several answers to this question. First of all, the worker is tired when the day's toil is over and he or she prefers amusement to instruction. Second, the foreigner who speaks no English finds the evening school uncongenial because he is at a decided disadvantage when surrounded by more advanced pupils who may thoughtlessly laugh at his mistakes.

"When I asked one man why he did not go to evening school, he said he did not like to put his boots on after he had taken them off. We have found that the only successful way to get

1 Public Facilities for Educating the Aliens, F. E. Farrington. Bureau of Education Bul. 18 (1916), p. 33–35.

results with non-English-speaking foreigners is to have classes in the factories where they are employed. When given an opportunity to attend the factory classes, many workingmen and women gladly devote an hour to study, after work is over, and some of the pupils make remarkable progress in a very short time."

Night schools have been too little advertised, too meagerly financed and too inadequately planned and equipped to meet the need of adults. They have never been given the same thoughtful care as day schools. A comparison of the figures given herewith, representing the non-English-speaking and illiterate foreign-born whites in New York State and their school attendance, does not lead to complacency.

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF FOREIGN-BORN WHITES IN NEW YORK

Since the necessity for increased facilities of education is obvious, and since night schools will inevitably reach only a small portion of those most in need of instruction, classes in work places are an essential to democracy. We must make learning accessible. This idea of taking school into industry is not new. Apprentice and corporation schools, vestibule, corridor and co-operative classes, have been widely tested. Teaching of English and civics to groups in factories is a commonplace in many cities.

These classes in English and civics will not be the cure of all troubles in a factory, but if they are intelligently and wholeheartedly conducted, they do much in bettering conditions. In advocating this instruction, the State is primarily interested in the individuals who otherwise would remain illiterate and unable to speak English. Both employers and employees, however, before

1 Census of 1910.