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Monday, February 23, 2015

Should Prospective Soldiers Be Rejected Because They Can't Read? 1951

“Claims Army So-Called Mental Test Is Not A Mental Test At All,” from the Feb. 1, 1951 issue of the Statesville Landmark

Greenville, N.C., Feb. 5—“Why should a man who is making a living in a skilled trade be refused by the army because he can’t pass a true-false or a multiple-choice examination?”

This is the question being asked by a board of inquiry into the reasons for the unusually high number of draft rejections in Pitt county. The results of a study made by the board and released yesterday, claim the army’s so-called mental test is not a mental test at all—but an achievement based on a person’s ability to read.

Found among the rejects in Pitt were mechanics, shoe repairmen, bakers, cooks, and pressers. And Colonel T.H. Upton—State Selective Service Director—says he wants the board to send a report to Washington authorities. The Colonel asserts that “something certainly might come out of it.”

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