policies, land laws, land-dealing methods. In even a more striking way
did the field study of immigrant education in the rural districts lead
to the question of general public education in rural communities
regardless of their racial composition.

[Illustration: THESE CHILDREN AND TEACHERS IN NEW MEXICO JOIN FORCES TO
WIPE OUT ILLITERACY]

[Illustration: THE LARGEST GIRL WON A PRIZE FOR SCHOLARSHIP]

Education has always been more of a problem in rural districts than urban.
Evidence of this is found in the 1910 Census, which shows that for every
illiterate person living in an urban community there are approximately two
living in rural communities. The higher per cent of illiteracy in the rural
districts is even more marked in the states where immigrants are settling
than in the country as a whole. In New Mexico, Arizona, and California the
ratio is about 250 illiterates in the country to every 100 in the city.
Among the foreign born in rural districts in three of these states an
exceptionally high per cent of illiteracy prevails. For Texas 35 per cent,
New Mexico 34 per cent, and Arizona 37 per cent, of the rural foreign born
are illiterate--in contrast to 13 per cent for the United States. With the
exception of Louisiana these per cents are the highest in the country and
presage a problem that cannot be overlooked in a consideration of land
settlement for the foreign born.

Equally significant are the 1910 comparisons of the figures for
immigrants' inability to speak English in urban and rural communities.
Although the contrast for the country as a whole is not so striking,
being 21.9 per cent in cities as compared with 25.2 per cent in rural
districts, the differences in the four states where new immigrants are
settling on farms are considerable.

TABLE IV

PER CENT UNABLE TO SPEAK ENGLISH, OF TOTAL FOREIGN BORN, TEN YEARS OF
AGE AND OVER, IN URBAN AND RURAL COMMUNITIES[21]
================================================
| Per Cent |
---------------+---------------| Ratio of
| Urban | Rural | Rural to Urban
---------------+-------+-------+----------------
Texas | 41.8 | 64.0 | 153.1
New Mexico | 28.5 | 61.7 | 216.5
Arizona | 48.2 | 62.6 | 129.9
California | 10.5 | 22.4 | 213.3
|-------+-------+----------------
United States | 21.9 | 25.2 | 115.0
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