Education: In Rode Island

Monday, Sep. 10, 1923

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In Rhode Island

The question of the compulsory teaching of English in the schools has turned the State of Rhode Island Democratic, and it may dominate politics there for some years to come. Rhode Island is the most foreign state in the Union.* One-twentieth of its population is French-Canadian. The French-Canadians desire, to retain their hyphenated distinction. They therefore: opposed the law passed by a Republican House in 1922 making English compulsory in the schools, and they turned out the Republicans who had passed it. In 1923 with a Democratic House, a Republican Senate and a French-Canadian Lieutenant Governor they failed by the narrowest of margins to secure a repeal. And they have not yet given up their attempt

^{* R. I. has 28.7% foreign-born whites; Mass., 28% ; Conn.,
27.3% ; N. Y., 26.8%.}