Santa Fé County, under the leadership of Superintendent John V. Conway, led the state. Superintendent Conway and his corps of teachers made the record of establishing a moonlight school in every district with 1,549 adults enrolled. This county had a large Mexican population, some of whom could read and write in Spanish, but came to the moonlight schools to learn to read and write English. The majority of Mexicans enrolled, however, were illiterate, and these were taught in English. The record of this pioneer county inspired the entire state and has been the foundation upon which New Mexico’s work among adult illiterates has been built. It led to the enactment by the New Mexico Legislature of several laws, for the benefit of illiterate adults, one of them providing compensation for those who would teach a moonlight school with as many as ten illiterates enrolled. [Illustration: A class of Mexican mothers in California learning to read and write.] [Illustration: LETTER FROM NEW MEXICO MOONLIGHT SCHOOL] The illiteracy crusade spirit was abroad in California and found concrete expression in 1915 when the State Department of Education, the Immigration Commission and the California Federation of Women’s Clubs jointly launched a state-wide campaign. The Federation announced its plans as follows: The Education Committee is asked to center its efforts upon the eradication of illiteracy and the Kentucky plan is recommended. The program is to vitalize the state into educational responsibility and activity in behalf of a considerable part of our population and to raise California to the first place in the literacy column. California passed the “home teacher” law in the same year. The law provides an itinerant teacher to go from house to house and instruct illiterates and others. To this has been added other wise legislation in behalf of the illiterates, at the instance of Honorable Will C. Wood, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and a comprehensive program for the elimination of illiteracy from California has been adopted and is being carried on under the State Department of Education. Los Angeles is one of the cities in the United States that has made great progress in redeeming illiterates. Kate Douglas Wiggin wrote a story--“The Girl and the Kingdom”--and gave it to the teachers of this, her home city, to be sold and the money used to defray the expenses of the local illiteracy campaign. The moonlight schools were begun in Georgia in 1915 under the leadership of Honorable M. L. Brittain, State Superintendent of Schools, who tells of its progress in the following report: The first notable instance of training illiterates under State auspices originated in Kentucky several years ago. The work attracted attention throughout the country and several states organized somewhat similar classes.