Illiterates, even though blind to books and helpless to ameliorate their own condition, are not without certain power to weaken, harass and damage a nation. Pancho Villa, the illiterate Mexican outlaw, disturbed the peace of two nations. During the period of unrest following the War our Government faced a critical situation. While we struggled with bomb plots on the east coast and with strife and disturbance on the west, the danger from anarchist, Bolshevist and anti-American sources was greater than the general public ever knew. The poison spread by them could be neutralized among the educated classes through government bulletins and newspapers and magazine articles but was not so easily counteracted among the illiterate masses. Here walking delegates found fertile soil for their pernicious doctrines. Not only in time of war or in reconstruction but at all times are the illiterate masses easily influenced and misled. There is a poor blind Samson in this land, Shorn of his strength and bound with bands of steel, Who may, in some grim revel raise his hands And shake the pillars of the Commonweal. Would that it could be said of the United States as a certain citizen of Copenhagen said of his country when touring America in 1919, “Bolshevism would make no headway in Denmark, as there is not a person in that country who cannot read or write his name, in fact write a letter. Where there is education, there is little chance of Bolshevism gaining a foothold.” The majority of America’s illiterate millions, though born upon her soil, are as ignorant of the principles and traditions of their own country as they are of those of Italy or Spain. They have never realized or claimed their heritage of citizenship, never felt the thrill of intelligent patriotism that others have known. To teach them would not only enrich them as citizens but in the words of the prophet Isaiah would, “increase the nation and extend all the borders of the land.” Illiteracy is one of the great handicaps to religion. In its centers churches and Sunday schools cannot thrive. The most literate county in the State of Kentucky has numerous churches while the most illiterate county has but one, and that is in the county seat. The number of Sunday schools in Rowan County doubled after the illiteracy campaign. Men need mental development to put them into intelligent relation with their Creator, to give them an understanding of the Divine Being. “I cannot give an illiterate man even an intelligent conception of God,” said a woman who attempted to teach a Sunday school class of illiterate men in prison. If the Christian world could realize how illiterates yearn to read the Bible, the followers of the Master would hasten with swift feet to unlock its pages to them. Had it not been the will of our Heavenly Father that all should be taught to read and write, He would not have given His Word to the world in the form of a book.