Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 206, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1917 — Use Bible in Literacy Test For Aliens Under New Law [ARTICLE]

Use Bible in Literacy Test For Aliens Under New Law

The Bible has been designated by the department of labor as one of the bcoSs to be used In the literacy testJCor a’lens under the new Immigration Ir.w recently enacted by congress. Passages will be selected from the Bible In more than 100 languages and •dialects. The reason for the use of lhe Bible In such literacy tests Is not because the Bible is the word of God, birt because it is now the only book translated Into virtually every language In the world, says the Christian Observer. The department gives this fact as Its reason for the selection of the Bible and adds: “Translations of the Bible were made by eminent scholars, and what is more to the point, the translating was done by men whose purpose it was to put the Bible in such simple and idiomatic expressions in the various foreign languages as would make it possible for the common people of foreign countries to grasp the meaning readily and thoroughly.”