The purpose of this study is to determine, by actual classroom experiment, the relationship between mental ability and reading achievement; and to ascertain the best methods of increasing reading ability. A secondary purpose in connection with this study was the critical evaluation of a testing program.

With the rising tensions and strains created by modern America, historians have sought diligently to discover the answers to industrial America's problems. One answer lay in American reform movements, and as the New Deal reforms came under fierce attack in the 1950's, liberal historians sought diligently to give to reform movements historical authenticity.