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Show FEW ILLITERATES FOUND IN STATE Excellence of the educational system in Utah and the perfection with which knowledge is beinp; disseminated is shown by statistics from the government govern-ment received by A. C. Nelson, state superintendent of public instruction, which show that in point of low percentage per-centage of illiteracy, Utah stands fourth in the list of forty-eight states. Only Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas hive a lower percentage of illiteracy thai Utah and the state of Washington shows the same percentage. This showing is considered by edurational authorities as remarkable, especially considering the comparative newness o : Utah as a state, the ' scattered pop- ulation of the 'rural districts and the obstacles wh'ch have ha 1 to be overcome jn extending the educational system throughout the state. The states of the effete and commonly common-ly supposed refined and ultra- educated east are all behind Utah in literacy. Massachusetts, which might be termed the mother state of higher education in this conntry, the home of Harvard; Connecticut, the- home of Yale, and Pennsylvania with all its fine schools have a much higher percentage of illiteracy illit-eracy than Utah. ! Government statistics show that in ' Utah the number of illiterates per ICO ' of population is but 3.1. The percent- age in Massachusetts is 5.9, In Connecticut Con-necticut 5.9, Pennsylvania 6.1, while Louisiana shows the high percentage of 38.5. I "Utah stands well educationally," says Superintendent Nelson, "and every loyal citizen is proud of the progress being made from year to year. It would be an impossible task to say exactly ex-actly how Utah stands with other states educationally, but t ,e relative standing of Utah with other states in regard to illiteracy is not difficult to indicate. "It will be of interest to the citizens and teachers of the state to present a table of comparative statistics on tl.e subject of illiteracy. To the student of education and sociology these statistics have their true sign.ficance a meaning which might be misunderstood by the casual reader. For instance, by consulting con-sulting the statistics it will be seen that Iowa, Nebraska and Utah have a much lower percentage of illiteracy than Maine, New York and Massachusetts, Massachu-setts, but this fact would not warrant the conclusion that the former states have better school than the latter have Their schools may be better or they may not be so good. These figures do not deal with the question of which state has the best educational system. No such statistics are available." The following figures, compiled by the governmenc census bureau, show the comparative illiteracy in the various states: Iowa, 2.3; Nebraska, 2.3; Kansas, 2.9; Utah, 3.1;Washington, 3.1; Oregon, 3.3; Ohij, 4.0; Wyoming. 4.0; Minnesota, 4.1; Illinois, 4.2; Michigan, 4.2; Colorado,4.2 Indiana, 4 6; Idaho, 4.6; Wisconsin, 4.7; California, 4.8. South Dakota. 5.0;Maine achuaetts, 5.9; New Jersey, 5.9; Con ' necticut, E.9; Pennsylvania, 6.1;Mon-l tana, G.l; New Hampshire, 6.2; Miss-! ouri, 6.4; Rhode Island, 8.4; Maryland, ' l'.l; West Virginia. 11.4; Delaware, 12.0 Nevada, 13.3; Texas, 14.5; Kentucky, 16.5; Arkansas, 20.4; Tennessee. 20.7; Florida, 21 9; Virginia. 22.9; North Car-ol Car-ol na, 28.7; Arizona,29.0; Georgia, 30.5; Mississippi, 32.0; New Mexico, 32.2;Ala-1 bama, 34.0; South Carolina, 35.9;Louis-ana, 35.9;Louis-ana, 38.5. |