SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS.

Literacy-Conjugal condition-Visits abroad-Age classification of employees and members of their households-[Text Tables 96 to 113 and General Tables 32 to 41].

LITERACY.

The following table and accompanying chart show the percentage of male employees engaged in the iron and steel industry who read and the percentage who read and write.

TABLE 96.-Per cent of male employees who read and per cent who read and write, by general nativity and race.

(STUDY OF EMPLOYEES.)

[This table includes only races with 40 or more males reporting. The totals, however, are for all races.]

In general, the foreign-born, as can be seen from the preceding table, show a considerably lower degree of literacy than do either of the native-born groups. The native-born negro, however, exhibits the lowest degree of literacy. The native whites born of native father exhibit over 99 per cent, and those who were native-born of foreign father about the same proportion who can read and who can read and write, while with the native-born negro the proportion is only about 75 per cent for those who can read and 73 per cent for those who can read and write.

Of the foreign-born races of the older immigration, the Canadians other than French, and the Scotch, are credited with 100 per cent, and the Swedes, Norwegians, English, Finns, Welsh, Germans, Danes, French, Dutch, and Irish, each with 93 per cent or over, who can both read and write.

All of the newer immigrant races are rated between the minimum. figure 66.1 per cent of the Hebrews other than Russians and the maximum 90.1 per cent reported by the Magyars.

The following table shows, by sex and general nativity and race of individual, the percentage of persons 10 years of age or over in the households studied who are able to read and the percentage who read and write.

TABLE 97.-Per cent of persons 10 years of age or over who read and per cent who read and write, by sex and general nativity and race of individual.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 40 or more persons reporting. The totals, however, are for all races.]

TABLE 97.-Per cent of persons 10 years of age or over who read and per cent who read and write, by sex and general nativity and race of individual—Continued.

Of the total number of persons considered in the preceding table 73.1 per cent can read and 71.7 per cent can read and write. In each case the proportion of males who are literate is greater than that of the females. The highest level of literacy is among the native whites born of native father, the lowest among the native negroes. The persons native-born of foreign father closely approach the standard of literacy of the native whites born of native father. The foreign-born, however, fall considerably below. Among the persons native-born of foreign father the English, Scotch, and Slovaks can read and write without exception. The South Italians, on the contrary, have only 83.3 per cent literate, and it is also noticeable that the proportion of this race who can read and write or only read is greater for females than for males.

Among the foreign-born ability to read and write or to read only is most common among the races of past immigration-the Scotch, German, English, and Irish. The Ruthenians and the South Italians reach the lowest level of literacy among the foreign-born. In addition, the Servians, Croatians, Poles, and North Italians have comparatively small proportions who can read and write or only read. The most striking difference in the literacy of the sexes is among the North and South Italians and Bulgarians, the proportion of literate males for each race being greatly in excess of the proportion of literate females. For the greater number of races the proportion of males who are literate is only slightly larger than the proportion of females, but among the Bohemians and Moravians, the Croatians, Germans, Irish, and Slovenians literacy is relatively more prevalent among the females. It is noticeable that in the majority of cases the proportion who are able to read is only slightly greater than the proportion who both read and write.