Mrs. GITTERMAN. I do not mind being interrupted if any questions occur to any members of the committee. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, Congressman Goulden, and fellow-guests, the chairman asked a few moments ago: What we want to learn is whether it is wise, in the first place, and necessary, in the second place, or the reverse, for the Federal Government to exercise any more authority than it has heretofore exercised in this matter; and if so, what would be the most practicable method to be pursued? * *My question was not as to enlarging the authority, but as to enlarging the exercise of the authority that it already has. * * * I do not know of any dissensions in the committee with reference to the limitations of the Government in this matter. The only question in our minds is to what extent should the activities of this department or division be enlarged over those of the past and present, and if they are to be enlarged, what would be the actual benefit to the country? What is there in the way of justifying an appropriation of double the amount they are spending now, or quadrupling that amount? It seemed to me that the first argument in an intelligent answer to those questions would be an argument from analogy. What are other countries doing? They are all older countries than ourselves, and it is therefore interesting to know what they are doing. By the way, I am quite sure that Congressman Goulden well knows that he could not have been kept busy about anything more important or better than what he was kept busy about. I am sure you will agree with me about that. [Laughter.] He secured for us the first organic school law which the District of Columbia ever had. I will read to you, first, a list of those countries which have a cabinet minister of public instruction under one name or another officials who represent nothing but public instruction in the government of their respective countries: The Transvaal and Orange River Colony have one together; Bulgaria, France, Alsace-Lorraine (Imperial Territory), Italy, Japan, Cape of Good Hope, Transvaal and Orange River Colony, Egypt, Natal, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Jamaica, Cuba, Guatemala, Venezuela, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, West Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania. These are the countries which have federal officials of cabinet rank who represent nothing but public instruction within those countries. These sit pari dignitate in the highest select council of executive departments in their respective countries or colonies, visible proofs of the consideration in which education is there held. AustriaHungary, for example, has no imperial or federal officer, but, on the other hand, Austria has an officer who represents worship and instruction (a combination natural in the case of a Government that has a state church); and Hungary also has one, a Count Apponyi, a gentleman whom I met when he came over here a few years ago to investigate school methods and instruction in this country. Another country having a similar cabinet officer of public instruction and ecclesiastical affairs is Denmark. The German Empire has an imperial school commission, but no imperial officer; however, each one of its constituent 26 States has a minister of education, although with other duties added to the supervision of education, except in the case of Alsace-Lorraine. For instance, in Prussia, Doctor Halle is minister of ecclesiastical and educational and medical affairs. The result was well shown in Prussia, where the statistics of illiteracy, which we will come to in a moment, show that there is 1.1 per cent of illiteracy in Prussia among enlisted men 21 to 24 years of age. Some years ago a man was found in the German army who could neither read nor write. The general illiteracy comes largely through the women in Germany, by the way. I heard the army instance discussed and described by a German who knew all about it, to illustrate: Upon the discovery of the one illiterate recruit there began a small packet of papers in the hands of a sergeant who had charge of him, which gradually grew and grew until a huge pile of papers went up to the minister of education, who added to the pile and sent it downward again with the one word "Why?" and at last it was discovered that this one man, who after fifteen years had been found to be illiterate, had passed his boyhood on a canal boat, and therefore the school authorities had not been able to get at him. We are all Americans, and the difference between those countries and ours, which we find in the census reports, must give us pause. According to Table XIV, page 23, of Census Report on Illiteracy, 1900, the total population in the United States in the year 1900 was 26,041,940 from the ages of 5 to 20, out of a total population of 75,994,575. Now, the percentage of the number of persons of school age to the total population was 34.3, which means more than onethird, surely a large enough constituency to warrant a department, especially as state superintendents for the most part deal with the pupils rather than with those not attending school who could have gone. The total population 10 years of age or over, according to Table III, page 11 (op. cit.), was 57,949,824. The total population of the illiterate people at least 10 years old was 6,180,069, and the proportion was 106.6 per thousand, or over one-tenth. The CHAIRMAN. Ten per cent plus. Mrs. GITTERMAN. Yes; 106.6 per thousand. That is 10.6 per cent. In Prussia it is 1.1. I am trying to answer that part of the question that was asked. The proportion in 1900 for illiteracy in the North Atlantic division of the States per thousand in white male population 21 to 24 years old was 13.2. (See Table II, p. 9, op. cit.) In Germany, as I said, for 1896 it was 1.1 for the same sex and age class. In Sweden and Norway in 1893 it was 1.1. In Denmark in 1891 it was 5.4, and in Switzerland in 1897 it was 3. These figures are from Table I, page 9 (op. cit.). Mr. LEVER. Do I understand you to say that the illiteracy there was mostly among the women in foreign countries? Mrs. GITTERMAN. In Germany, because the men are obliged to read and write. They get hold of the men during their period of service in the army and also have better shcool facilities for the men. In the southern South Atlantic States 120 out of 1,000 white men of army age are illiterate. In Belgium the proportion of illiteracy in 1897 was 128 per thousand, only 8 per thousand more, for the same class, and the southern Atlantic States Mr. NEEDHAM. These are the gross statistics? Mrs. GITTERMAN. No. They are taken from Table II, page 9 (op. cit.), and they do not include the colored people, nor anyone but white men 21 to 24 years of age, 120 per thousand in the southern South Atlantic States, as the census calls North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida; and 128 to the thousand in Belgium. It was only 49 per 1,000 in France in 1897, which is the next largest between those that I have read to you before, and Belgium. Now, the proportion of illiteracy in continental United States, the colored people being absolutely excluded from those statistics which I am about to give you, and the white people alone being considered, and only the men, and only the men between the ages of 21 and 24the reason for this being that this is the army age abroad, where the statistics of recruits are very carefully kept, and therefore for purposes of comparison it was necessary to eliminate the colored and to eliminate the women, and also all men below 21 and all men above 24 therefore, for white men between 21 and 24 the proportion of illiteracy for continental United States, not counting the Philippines or Hawaii, or anything of that sort, is 38 per thousand native, plus 120.6 per thousand foreign born, or a total of 50.3 per thousand. In Switzerland the same class exactly is 3 per thousand. In Scotland it is 35 per thousand, and in Finland 16 per thousand, and in Denmark 5.4 per thousand; with us 50.3 per thousand. That is a condition. and not a theory that confronts us. The CHAIRMAN. What is that in Germany? Mrs. GITTERMAN. One and one-tenth. Mr. WICKLIFFE. For what year? Mrs. GITTERMAN. For 1896. Unfortunately we have no statistics at hand since the publication of the United States Census Bulletin No. 26 on Illiteracy in the United States, in 1900. Mr. WICKLIFFE. There has been much improvement, has there not been, in the United States since then in that respect? There has been general interest in education. What is your personal opinion as to the gain or decrease with a view to illiteracy? When Mrs. GITTERMAN. Yes; we can all believe that there is less illiteracy in the United States now, but we do not know. Do you see? the next census report comes out it will, of course, show what improvement has been made, if any, but the influx of immigration may, on the other hand, bring up the figures of illiteracy, which the growing interest in education of which you speak may have tended to bring down, so that we can not say surely that there will be less illiteracy brought out by the new census than there is now. Therefore, I think it is fair to use the 1900 statistics. But I will endeavor to ascertain the trend since 1900, by States' statistics, if available, and by later German statistics. (Thereupon, at 12 o'clock noon the committee adjourned, to meet again Tuesday, February 8, 1910, at 10.30 a. m.) COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C., Tuesday, February 8, 1910. The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. James Francis Burke, of Pennsylvania, in the chair. The following members of the committee were present: Messrs. Burke, Volstead, Graff, Kinkaid, Loud, Lever, Garrett, and Wickliffe. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Goulden, do you desire to be heard? Mr. GOULDEN. I have some matter here that I want to put into the record, but I want to allow Mrs. Gitterman to continue this morning. One thing I want to put in is a letter from Mr. Brown, Commissioner of Education; another is the article from the Report of the Commissioner of Education regarding the Uplift Commission. I would like to have this put in as a part of my remarks. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIor, Bureau oF EDUCATION, Hon. JOSEPH A. GOULDEN, MY DEAR MR. GOULDEN: Referring to the recent hearing before the House Committee on Education on your bill for the establishment of a department of education, I take the liberty of sending you herewith, under another cover, copies of recent publications of this office. I am sending also, inclosed herewith, copies of several letters recently received, which indicate that our new report has actually been read with considerable interest in different parts of the country, and a tabular statement of the present appropriations for the bureau, together with the proposed appropriations which I hope to secure within the next year or two. With warm appreciation of the help you are giving toward an expansion of the work of the Bureau of Education, I am, believe me, Very truly, yours, ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN, Commissioner. Appropriations now received by the Bureau of Education for year ending June 30, 1910. Additional appropriations proposed by the Commissioner of Education for the year ending approved the following, which are included in the estimates formally presented to Congress: Of the above additional appropriations proposed the Secretary of the Interior has Specialist in higher education.. One additional clerk... $3,000 1,000 Hon. ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN, WASHINGTON, December 8, 1909. Commissioner of Education, Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. COMMISSIONER: I have received the volume you were so good as to send me, and I beg to offer my sincere thanks for your kindness, as well as my compliments for the vast amount of useful information which you so well condensed (as is your wont) in this important publication. Believe me, very sincerely, yours, Dr. ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN, JUSSERAND. LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. * MY DEAR DOCTOR BROWN: * * Permit me also to say that Volume I of your 1909 report is far and away the best we have ever had from your office. I find the summary of the educational work in this country which you include is a pleasure to read, and I know that you have only made a beginning in this matter. Yours, very sincerely, Hon. ELMER E. BROWN, * * * ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, Urbana-Champaign, Ill., December 18, 1909. United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. COMMISSIONER: I want to congratulate you on your last report. It is so full of interesting matter that when one begins to read one is inclined to read it right through from the beginning. You are making the reports ever more valuable. Faithfully, yours, EDMUND J. JAMES. Hon. ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN, WILLIAM PENN HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. DEAR DOCTOR BROWN: * * * I congratulate you on the prompt appearance of the first volume of your report, and also on the favorable impression which this volume makes. It seems to me that you are going in the right direction in furnishing brief up-to-date accounts of current educational information. I find in this report the sort of thing which such a report should furnish, namely, an insight into happenings and tendencies in the educational field and the pointing of the way for further study in topics in which I have special interest. Sincerely, yours, CHEESMAN A. HERRICK, Principal. OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, Hon. E. E. BROWN, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SIR: In the introduction to your annual report for 1909 you suggest that criticism of the methods and the materials of the report will be welcome. It seems to me, however, that commendation may likewise be acceptable. Personally, I feel that I should like to congratulate you upon the excellence of the report which you have issued, particularly the section devoted to current topics. No one thing has proved so valuable to me as has this portion of your report. The whole report, it seems to me, is exceedingly valuable, and I trust that others will appreciate your work and cooperate with you in making it a success. Yours, very truly, GEORGE H. TRACY. |