These figures must stagger every thoughtful Kentuckian. They would shame us to the point of concealment, but for the need of these young men for immediate relief. Concealment works no cure. Only prompt and decisive action can do that.
These young men are not to blame for their misfortune. The enlightened citizens of Kentucky, who have tolerated lax compulsory attendance laws, and have submitted to the non-enforcement of such school attendance laws as are on our statute books, are mostly to blame. But there is no time to waste in crying “shame” or in fixing the blame. This is a time to atone in such measure as we may.
It is unfair that these young men should be torn from their homes and dear ones and sent across the water to fight your battles and mine without being able to read a letter or to write a line back home. Next to actual engagement in battle, the most momentous event in the life of a soldier is the arrival of a letter from home. To his anxious mother a letter from her soldier boy is a comfort above price. No third person, however willing, can convey the sentiments and secrets of these two to each other.
The Y. M. C. A. provides an abundance of reading and writing material, but these boys can only gaze upon it hungrily as a thing they crave to use, but cannot. Such printed reminders, posted about the Y. M. C. A. camp, as “Write home,” “Have you written to mother today?” are unintelligible to them.
A Committee hands to each boy a pocket testament as he passes through the port of New York to embark for the war zone. 30,000 Kentucky boys can get no comfort from the Bible, even when it is given to them.
These young men may be called into camp September 1st. Beginning July 23rd, we can give them a six weeks elementary course in the moonlight schools, such as will enable them to read and write their own letters, and to peruse elementary books and to read most items in the newspapers. Such as cannot attend the moonlight schools can be taught individually at home. Public school teachers, who are already in their schools have the best opportunity. Every one of these I am sure will gladly serve, but in counties where the schools are not in session and where the teacher is not on the ground, former teachers and educated citizens can start night classes in the public school-houses.
There may have been a time when these young men were sensitive about this affliction, or when they were indifferent, but that time is past. It is an hour of crisis with them, and they will be seeking teachers as earnestly as teachers could, possibly, seek them.
It is the duty of every public school teacher in Kentucky to volunteer. Some have already done so on the mere suggestion of such a call. Some even who are not teachers have volunteered. It is a high privilege to render to these unfortunate ones and to our State and Nation this service. We may have been unable to invest in Liberty Loan Bonds. It may not be ours to follow the boys to France to minister to them under the Red Cross, but we can add to their comfort, their self-respect and efficiency by giving them this training before they go.
Shall Kentucky Send Thirty Thousand Illiterates to France? God forbid! Why should she send any? Hasn’t she an Illiteracy Commission, 11,000 public school teachers and as patriotic people as ever the sun shone on? To the guns, yes, every man of them—even though with their affliction they might well be exempt from military duty, I believe—but to the books first, and then they’ll go to the guns more content and with less embarrassment and less handicap.