removing this obstacle to naturalization and assimilation therefore requires the attention of legislatures and educators. It is the point at which immigrant education must begin.

ILLITERACY OF FOREIGN-BORN WHITES.

Illiteracy is a serious obstacle to the foreign born in his ability to acquire English. In 1910, the number of illiterate foreign-born whites 10 years of age and over was 1,650,361; more than one-half of them unable to speak English. It is a reasonable presumption that almost all of these illiterates were non-English-speaking.1 Of the foreign-born white population 12 per cent can not read or write in any language. This is true of but 3 per cent of the native white population. Of the males 21 years of age and over, 111% per cent, or 788,631, are illiterate. In New York alone 362,025 persons 10 years of age and over can not read or write. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Illinois follow in the order named, with over 100,000 each. Over 245,000 are under this handicap in New York City. Thus the city, State, and Nation are confronting a definite condition of illiteracy among the foreign-born whites.

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

The foregoing facts are especially significant as affecting school attendance. Only 651,506 foreign-born whites attended school in 1909-10, i. e., 3.6 per cent. The greatest number attending school belong to the class from 10 to 14 years of age; from 15 to 20 years of age, slightly over 102,000 attended; and for 21 years and over, only 35,614. In other words, against 358,330 of the first group, of whom 56,405 did not speak English, 308,492 attended school. Against the 932,274 of the second group, of whom 330,994 did not speak English, only 102,639 attended school. Of the last group, against 2,565,612 unable to speak the language, only 35,000, or 1.3 per cent, attended school.

Immigrant education deals with two classes-child and adult. The first is of minor significance, since compulsory attendance upon public schools is general. Special attention upon the part of the teacher will give the child a command of English sufficient to give him a grading. Education can then take the same course as with the native child. The real problem begins at the age of 16. Beyond this point, with one exception, compulsory-education laws do not apply. With the minor between the ages of 10 and 21 years there is some tendency to study English or secure industrial training; but with the adult immigrant aptitude and desire for instruction are less decided, habits of thought are more fixed, and ability to acquire languages largely lost. In the education of the latter class special difficulties are presented.

1 No figures are available to substantiate this presumption.

II. LEGISLATION AFFECTING IMMIGRANT EDUCATION.

The types of schools adapted to the education of the immigrant are evening, industrial, part-time, and camp schools. Provisions creating and maintaining such facilities show the beginnings of new State policies on the subject.

NEW JERSEY'S DIRECT METHOD.

The most definite legislation for foreigners is to be found in New Jersey. In 1907, before the subject of adult immigrant education had been much discussed, the legislature passed a law, providing that— the board of education of any school district may establish and maintain a public evening school or evening schools for the instruction of foreign-born residents of said district over 14 years of age in the English language and in the form of government and the laws of this State and of the United States.

With the idea in mind of insuring uniformity of administration and instruction, provision was made that the State board of education in preference to local authority—

shall prescribe rules for the proper control and management of such schools, for the inspection thereof, for the granting of certificates to teach therein, and for carrying into effect the purposes of this act. The course of study in each of such schools and any changes therein shall be submitted to and shall be approved by the State board of education.

Centralized control and supervision over this type of training is further strengthened by the following provision:

The State board of education may from time to time appoint suitable persons to assist in carrying out the provisions of this act and to encourage the establishment of such evening schools.

State aid to local schools was authorized equal to that raised locally. This is the first instance where the necessity for special facilities for foreign-born residents of the State is recognized by

statute.

ACTS AUTHORIZING EVENING SCHOOLS.

Other States have taken a less direct method by providing evening schools for native as well as foreign born persons. Statutes enabling local school authorities to establish and maintain such schools are of two kinds: First, those permitting local officials to use their discretion; second, those making the establishment of evening schools in larger cities mandatory. In both cases the specific provisions generally take effect automatically upon the petition of a stipulated number of persons. Massachusetts, exemplifying the second type, was one of the first States to authorize the establishment of evening

1 Under this statute Hoboken in 1907 received the sum of $700; in 1908 it received $500, and the city of Elizabeth $1,846.36; in 1909 the cities of Hoboken, Caldwell, Elizabeth, and Princeton received altogether $9,260; in 1910 Princeton received $50; in 1911 Caldwell and Hoboken received together $2,200; and in 1912 Hoboken alone received $4,000.

schools. In 1857 the legislature authorized what were called "adult schools." In 1870 cities and towns of over 10,000 population were required to conduct evening classes in mechanical drawing. The scope of these provisions was again extended in 1883, when such municipalities were required to maintain night schools for persons over 12 years of age and to teach certain common branches. The claim of the foreign born to special facilities was partially recognized in 1898 by the addition of the subjects of English language and grammar to the list of required courses.

In New York the maintenance of free night schools is optional with the board of education of any school district or city. In Pennsylvania evening classes are optional with the board of school directors in each district, except that in districts of the second, third, or fourth class establishment is mandatory if the parents of 25 or more pupils apply for such accommodation. Similar provisions for night schools are made by the other principal "immigration" States.

CAMP SCHOOL LEGISLATION.

Many foreign-born laborers are isolated in labor camps, where opportunity for acquiring English is limited. The nature of employment on railways, highways, etc., demands the use of little English, because the foreman generally speaks the vernacular of his laborers. To provide educational facilities for labor-camp men, New York has made an innovation in school extension by authorizing the establishment of camp schools. In 1912 the commissioner of labor was authorized to establish and supervise classes in labor camps for adult and minor aliens, but no funds were appropriated. To make this new type of school a recognized part of the educational system, the legislature, in 1913, amended the education law by providing for the creation of "temporary school districts." Such districts may be established outside of cities and union free school districts "whenever any considerable number of persons shall have been congregated in camps or other places of temporary habitation who are engaged in the construction of public works" under contract with the State or any municipality. Each district is entitled to a stipulated quota from the State school funds. Additional support is made a charge upon the particular State or municipal funds appropriated for the construction of the public works. Immediate supervision is vested in an official of the State department of education, i. e., in the superintendent for the supervisory school district within which the temporary district and camps are located. General control and supervision are centralized in the State commissioner of education. Following the example of New York, the California commission of immigration and housing, created in 1913, was authorized to

cooperate with proper authorities to extend this education for both children and adults to labor camps and other localities from which the regular schools are not easily accessible.

These provisions point the way for extending the usefulness of the public schools, and if followed by other States will go far to facilitate the assimilation of the many thousands of foreign laborers employed in construction work.

COMPULSORY EDUCATION OF ILLITERATES.

In 1887 Massachusetts began an experiment in the compulsory education of illiterate minors. Such persons between the ages of 14 and 21 years were required to attend some school if they were in continuous residence for one year in a city or town where an evening school is held. These early provisions prescribed, as a test of literacy after instruction, "the ability to read at sight and to write legibly simple sentences in the English language." In 1906 this test was interpreted by legislation to mean—

in the year 1906 such ability to read and write as is required for admission to the second grade; in the year 1907 to the third grade; and in the year 1908

*

* *

and thereafter * * * to the fourth grade.

In 1913 the test was raised to the completion of the fourth grade. In 1909 the labor law was amended to prohibit the employment of any minor within the provisions of these acts, unless he is an attendant at a public evening school. The effect of all this legislation is to require that every minor between the ages of 15 and 21 years, employed or unemployed, married or single, who is unable to pass the requirements in reading, writing, and spelling for the completion of the fourth grade of the public school shall be in regular attendance at some public evening school while in session.

No other State has gone so far as this in attacking the evil of illiteracy. The significance of this legislation becomes apparent when taken in connection with the fact that Massachusetts, with an exceedingly mixed population, has a percentage of illiteracy among foreign-born whites lower than 15 other States, and among those native born of foreign or mixed parentage lower than 30 other States.1

SPECIAL JURISDICTION OVER IMMIGRANT EDUCATION.

From time to time States have created so-called immigration commissions for the purpose of inducing the migration of desirable persons as settlers. Examination of the laws creating such commissions shows that many of them were authorized to disseminate information with reference to the educational facilities of the respec

112% per cent, and seven-tenths of 1 per cent, respectively.

tive States, as in Kansas and Missouri, for instance; but such provisions were primarily for the object of inducing immigration.

In 1908, however, the State of New York passed a law establishing a commission of immigration to inquire into the condition, welfare, and industrial opportunities of aliens, and its provisions included an inquiry into the educational facilities provided for immigrants. The recommendations of the commission caused the passage of a law in 1910 establishing a bureau of industries and immigration under the department of labor. This law authorized the distribution of the names of alien children arriving within the State and required the commissioner of labor to cooperate with various educational authorities

to devise methods for the proper instruction of adult and minor aliens in the English language and in respect to the duties and rights of citizenship and the fundamental principles of the American system of government, and otherwise to further their education.

Massachusetts, in 1913, when providing for the appointment of a commission on immigration, required it to make a full investigation into the educational facilities for immigrants. New Jersey, in 1911, and Rhode Island, in 1914, also took similar steps.

Peculiarly significant is the action of California, which, in 1913, in the law creating the commission of immigration and housing, provided that

The commission shall cooperate with the proper authorities and organizations, Federal, State, county, municipal, and private, with the object in view of bringing to the immigrant the best opportunities for acquiring education and citizenship. To that end it shall procure from, or with the consent of, the Federal authorities complete lists giving the names, ages, and destination within the State of all immigrant children of school age and such other facts as will tend to identify them, and shall forthwith deliver copies of such lists to the superintendent of public instruction or the several boards of education and school boards in the respective localities within the State to which said children shall be destined, to aid in the enforcement of the provisions of the education law relative to the compulsory attendance at school of children of school age. The commission shall further cooperate with the superintendent of public instruction and with the several boards of education in the State to ascertain the necessity for and extent to which instruction should be imparted to immigrants within the State and to devise methods for the proper instruction of adult and minor aliens in the English language and other subjects.

III. SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE FEATURES.

TERMS, SESSIONS, AND CLASSES.

The normal term during which classes in English are conducted is from about the first of March. In some cities the term is only 6 or 8 weeks; in others it is as long as the day-school term. In New York 7 towns conduct classes for less than 40 nights; in 17, the terms are less than 60 nights; while the average for 31 towns and cities