In the table given by Mulhall for the year 1885 the countries with more than 80 per cent. The relative positions were much the same at the end of the century, according to statistics in the Cyclopaedia of Education, published by Columbia University, and a report of the U.S. Commissioners of Education quoted by Webb for the year 1900. Although these statistics, furnished by a Government department of America, were available everywhere, American Catholic apologists continued, like those of England, to boast of the Church's zeal for education in all ages. Until five years ago all systems were under secular authorities, and the figures rose, but the triumph of clerical-Fascism has ruined education in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Austria, and is debasing it in France. But the mere capacity to read and write is not enough.
Progress depends on the matter taught in the schools and available for reading afterwards.
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