The West....................... 1.7 0.8 9.5 7.0

For the children of school age from ten to fourteen, the following
table shows the percentage of illiteracy:

United States as a whole....... 2.2 0.6 3.5 18.9

New England ................ 2.2 0.6 3.5 18.9
South Atlantic................. 5.0 0.8 5.3 18.9
East South Central............. 5.8 0.9 11.4 20.7
West South Central............. 4.1 11.2 34.6 22.4
Etc............................ --- ---- ---- ----

[Footnote A: United States Census for 1910].

In some Western states the percentage of illiteracy is as low as
one-tenth of 1 per cent.

* * * * *

An examination of schools in fifty-two cities representing with
fairness the entire United States, shows that the majority of
children who enter complete only the fifth grade; of one thousand
children of school age, only one hundred and twenty graduate from
the grammar school and six from the high school. [Footnote: Henry
C. Vedder--The Gospel of Jesus and the Problems of Democracy.]

It is axiomatic that if children are to be spared by law the strain
of enforced labor upon immature bodies and minds, and to be properly
conserved because they are the most precious of the nation's resources,