"We demand the right to regulate the cheating scales upon which the Republic is weighed by its ill-wishers. "We demand the right to protect unintelligence from Esau bargains with hucksters of traitorous creeds. "We demand the right to present our case and our cause to the unlettered mass, whose benightedness and ready prejudices continually invite exploitation. "We demand the right to vaccinate credulous inexperience against Bolshevism and kindred plagues. "We demand the right to render all whose kind we deem fit to fight for our flag fit to vote and prosper under its folds. "We demand the right to bring the American language to every American, to qualify each inhabitant of these United States for self-determination, self-uplift, and self-defense." Dr. Philander P. Claxton, Commissioner of Education, in his analysis of the illiteracy figures of the census, said: "Illiteracy is not confined to any one race or class or section. Of the 5,500,000 illiterates as reported by the census of 1910, nearly 3,225,000 were whites, and more than 1,500,000 were native-born whites. "That illiteracy is not a problem of any one section alone is shown by the fact that in 1910 Massachusetts had 7,469 more illiterate men of voting age than Arkansas; Michigan, 2,663 more than West Virginia; Maryland, 2,352 more than Florida; Ohio, more than twice as many as New Mexico and Arizona combined; Pennsylvania, 5,689 more than Tennessee and Kentucky combined. Boston had more illiterates than Baltimore, Pittsburgh more than New Orleans, Fall River more than Birmingham, Providence nearly twice as many as Nashville, and the city of Washington 5,000 more than the city of Memphis. "It is especially significant that of the 1,534,272 native-born white illiterates reported in the 1910 census 1,342,372, about 87.5 per cent, were in the open country and small towns, and only 191,900, or 12.5 per cent, were in cities having a population of 2,500 and over. Of the 2,227,731 illiterate negroes 1,834,458, or 82.3 per cent, were in the country, and only 393,273, or 17.7 per cent, were in the cities." ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D.C. AT 10 CENTS PER COPY