Royal Governor Berkeley, writing home to England in the seventeenth century, “thanked God that no public schools nor printing presses existed in the colony,” and added his hope that none would be introduced for a hundred years “since learning brings irreligion and disobedience into the world and the printing press disseminates them and fights against the best intentions of the government.” George Washington and the other founders of our Nation held views just the opposite of those expressed by Lord Berkeley and they, almost without exception, left their message urging that the people be enlightened. Washington made a provision in his will that his negro slaves under twenty-five years of age should be taught to read and write. This is significant. It shows that the Father of our Country believed that even those who were physically enslaved should be mentally free and, also, that he considered learning to read and write a process not necessarily confined to childhood. The Chinese have a tradition that when the art of writing was born all nature was moved, Heaven rained millet, demons wailed in the night and dragons hid in the depths. One can well believe that its appearance on the earth created this commotion when it is realized that with writing came the mightiest power for combating error and removing all manner of evil. How strange it seems that men have not poured out this power more freely on their fellow men! Life itself is more or less dependent upon the ability to read and write. In no place is disease so prevalent or life so menaced as in illiterate sections. During the influenza epidemic of 1918, doctors and nurses found themselves helpless in communities where illiteracy prevailed. The death-rate is high where illiteracy exists and infant mortality mounts to the topmost round. Here the precautions of sanitation are little known and practised, and innocent children pay the penalty with their lives. “You say you have six children,” said an illiterate mother to an educated one, “That’s nothing. I’ve buried twelve.”