100 Years Ago This Week: Oct. 23-30

From The Indianapolis News, Friday, October 29, 1915: Indianapolis Schools will join schools in about 150 other cities in carrying out the Bureau of Naturalization’s naturalization campaign. Superintendent Jacob G. Collicott said the Indianapolis schools will become part of the national movement for the Americanization of candidates for citizenship. The bureau will provide names and addresses of aliens in Indianapolis who filed petitions of naturalization so school authorities may get in touch with the applicants to give them valuable assistance in preparing for citizenship with instruction in the English language and the duties of citizenship. Wives of aliens may also receive instruction in English so that they may keep pace with their husbands. In 1910 the foreign born population of Indianapolis was 8.5% of the total population; 3,441 above the age of ten were unable to speak English.