All of the agitation against adult illiteracy, in which the moonlight school has been the pioneer and dramatic factor, has made illiteracy appear as a disgraceful and unpopular thing. There is an odium attached to it to-day that was lacking in the years gone by. Illiteracy has been stigmatized where the crusade against it has been waged and made to seem a thing to flee from as from leprosy. One who makes his mark is not now ignored or overlooked, but in many communities and in most of the states he is a subject of deep concern. His act will scarcely be passed by without discussion. Those who observe him in this act will relate his story with all its pathos and the disgrace connected with it and will not fail to apply the moral. The result is usually the supplying of the unfortunate with books and teaching him to read and write. There are communities to-day that feel a sense of responsibility for teaching every illiterate, and for doing it within a brief and definite time. There are some districts that feel illiteracy to be a reproach under which they cannot rest. Governor Henry J. Allen, of Kansas, who made an investigation of the moonlight schools, wrote in a magazine article as follows: Two men met on a mountain pathway, and began to talk about how soon their county would be “Cleared up.” They were not referring to weeds or underbrush or timber, to insects, reptiles or malarial fever. They were referring to the elimination of illiteracy. Nothing just like it has found expression in any educational system, in any age; the sureness of faith of those who teach, the simplicity of their efforts, the general response. I have seen three generations studying the same books in one moonlight school. “There are 2,442 illiterates in the county,” said a man to me in one of the counties in the Cumberland Mountains. “It will take two years to wipe out illiteracy.” Think of the calm faith of it! I believe that the story of the moonlight schools is the most exalted and sacrificial that has been told in the educational effort of America. The newspapers now find a fertile field in illiteracy statistics and have come to devote space and headlines to them, giving them ranking interest with the most vital things of the day. The purpose of the moonlight school is so outstanding that it has captured the pens of cartoonists. These have vividly pictured illiteracy in all its evil, its weakness and its disgrace. It is only a matter of time until poets, sculptors and artists will here find a theme for their art.