voL. xxvn. YADKINVILLE, YADKIN CO., N. C., THURSDAY, JULY M, !921 _ % NO. 27 LUTKACY Decrease of From 22.9 to 16.1 Per Cent in Ten Years Shown in Aiabama. i- _— HEGLME !N OTHER STATES Marked Improvement !e Shown in the } Education of the Negro Peputa tion in the Southern States— Funde Are L!m!ted. & Wash!n^ton.—Th^t iHiteracy is waaaing in this country fs indicated by * survey of eariy reports from the cen Wus ofBce by Sara L. Doran for the Bureau of Education of the United States. The figures for Aiabama, Ar kansas, Deiaware and the District of Columbia have been pubiished and ail ef them show substantiai improvement Since 1810. In Aiabama the proportion of per sons ten years oid and more who can uot write in any language has dropped from 22.9 per cent to 16.1 per cent: In Arkansas from 12.6 per cent to 9.4 ) per cent, in Delaware from 8.1 per cent to 5.9 per cent, in the District of Columbia from 4.9 per cent to 2.8 per Cent. "The condition is even more encour aging then the Sgures that relate to the total population seem to indicate," continues the investigator, "for it is evident that the coming generation of^ native Americans wiii he practically free from illiteracy in nearly every part of the country. "Alabamans have been constantly mindful of the evils of iHiteracy dur ing the last 20 years. The census of 1900 showed a marked increase in the actual number of illiterates in the pre vious decade. The figures were pub lished widely throughout the State and the people awakened to the fact that the public school system was not hold ing its own. Tim resuit was shown in the census returns of 1910. The ten dency to increase in numbers which had appeared previously was entirely overcome, the iiiiterates were reduced by 91,880 and, the proportion of il literates in the total population was cut from 84 per cent to 22.9 per cent. Government Heips. "These numbers were recognized as much too high, and the agitation for universal education continued. This Culminated in a survey of educational conditions throughout the state under the direction of the United States Commissioner of education and a gen eral revision of the laws In consonance Vrith the recommendations of the sur vey commission. Alabama's first com- ! pulsory education iaw was passed in i 1915, and an iHiteracy commission was established in the same year. It has Wince been engaged in direct efforts to educate iiiiterates. "The money available for these pur poses has been limited, however, for the Snances of the state have not been j In an entirety satisfactory condition, ; at!d the efforts of education have been hampered by that fact. No state money ' has yet been appropriated for the U- } literacy commission, although it was ' established by legislative action; ad ' tua& irum private sources. 'It i$ well known that the greater ' part of the Illiteracy that exists In the southern states is among the negroes, j In 1800, seven negroes in every ten iu Alabama were unable to write. This proportion has been reduced at every Census since that time, and in 1920 it ; yas three in every ten. Nearly 211,000 Alabama negroes were reported illiter ate in that year. A similar lack of education prevails to an undue extent )Mnong the native white people of the , Mate; 67,287 of them cannot write. ; That number is 6.4 per cent of the Native white population over ten years j *i age. ^ "^yith a much smaller proportion of Negroes in her population, Arkansas May be expected to excel the showing Made by Alabama in the education of her citizens. The number of taxpayers Nmong negroes is relatively small in the southern s%$tes §nd (he amount Viey pay in school taxes is not enough to maintain their own schools. The whites, therefore, must educate not lonly their own children, but those of the negroes as well. "Arkansas has within her borders }121,837 persons ten years old or over ptrho cannot read; 40,753 of them are pative whites and 79,245 are negroes. The percentages of the corresponding total population are 4.6 per cent, an 1 ^1.8 per cent, respectively. Clearly, Arkansas is better oft educ^ ionally than Alabama. ^ "Like Alabama, and presumably Many other states, Arkansas has much less of illiteracy in the cities than in ^he rural portions of the state. "NegrOes constitute only 13.0 per &ent of the population of Delaware. And the proportion is decreasing. State News Items W. C. Ha!l, of Johnston coun ty, has raised an ear of corn with six different colors of ker nels on it. The colors are red, white, blue, gray, pink and yel low. * A Jersey cow belonging to Mrs. J. R. Matthews, of Raleigh, gave birth to twin calves July 2. It being the day of the Dempsey Carpentier battle, the calves were named after the pugilists. Ought to make fine cattle when they grow up. A. C. Huneycutt, an experien ced newspaper man of Albe marle, has bought the Mocks vtlle Enterprise and will contin ue the paper as a Democratic weekly. Walnut (Jove puts out the wo rd that it has the eldest man in the country in the person of *'Uncle" Ludlow Joyce, colored. Joyce says he is 126 years old and can see to thread a needle without glasses. He says he ex pects to live a hundred years longer. A Ford automobile driven by G. L. McKnight near Moores villc was struck by lightning during an electric storm a few days ago. The two men in the cai escaped injury. "Cyclone Mack" the noted evangelist, will begin a revival at North Wilkesboro Sunday. Otto Clanton, aged 16 years, son of Reyt Mr. Clanton, of dliddenite, was drowned in the Catawba river last Friday. He was with a fishing party and got into deep water. Frank H. Fleer, the miilion arie chewing gum manufacturer of Philadelphia, was married in Gastonia Saturday to Miss Wil lis Jeukins, of that city. Editor Wade H. Harris, of the Charlotte Observer, has been named president of the North Carolina Railroad, Editor Archi bald Johnson, of Charity and Children, secretary and treasur er. James Fagg, general manager of the Spray cotton miks, was seriously injured Sunday aker noon when his automobile went over an embankment near Spray. A young may riumg) with him was also pammky in- j jured. j 1, CQuitm, prominent cid-' zenandiiu^inesa man of eigh, \va ;nm down a- u ki'icd] by a train near Rd'cigh Fuc^day ! afternoon ! The Statesviiie Lumber Com-! party's suwmid at Rtnmoou as destroyc