The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1899-01-23

daily during July, August, and September
( The city Of San Juan, being the seat of
/ government, is comparatively favored in
the number and quality of its schools. Be
! sides its twenty-nine common schools il
| has normal school for each sex, a man.
ual training school and the institute
| There are said TO be about so pupils at
each of the normal schools and about 200
AT the manual training school, which. al
! though only in existence for six months, is
| a pronounced success. The principal ed
vocational establishment of the island is the
| Institute and de Segundo EusenanZa de
| Puerto Rico" in which, according to
| the catalogue of 1867. there were 323 pu-
! pills enrolled, classified as follows: Official.
| 81; private, POS; domestic, H. and ad-
vanced, Is.
One Course Abandoned.
only those classified as official and ad-
vanced attend the lectures OF the institute
| itself. The private pupils attend private
I or subsidized schools in other cities afili-
ated with the institute and are examined
by itinerant professors of that faculty, as
is the case with domestic pupils who pur-
sue their studies at home The usual age
for entrance is eleven years for boys taking
the regular course, which comprises the
following studies: Latin, geography. his
tory. rhetoric, poetry, mathematics.
French, philosophy. natural history. phys
les, chemistry, and agriculture. The ad-
vanced course has been given up, as no
one took degree. II was strictly BUSH
ness course. There is a registration fee
Of five pesos but otherwise the cost Of
education is betrayed by the state. OF all
those enrolled not more than fifteen or
sixteen annually take the degree of bache-
Tor. Affiliated with the institute are seven
small schools, private, subsidized, and re-
ligious, situated in various cities, with a
total enrolment OF rather more than 200
pupils.
As each township pays for its own
schools. it is impossible 10 estimate the
amount spent on education annually in
, the island. But the States contribution
amounts to about $4,000 pesos per year,
out OF which is supported the institute, the
manual training school the two normal
schools, and the board of education sub
! sides being paid TO TWO or three minor
/ institutions.
In view OF the Incidence of the people.
I IT is hard TO see exactly how any remedy
can be supplied for this state of things
which will bear fruit for long time 10
/ come. The people must be raised from
the poverty which is the result of their
own faults, or mothers will continue TO
keep their children at home because they
have no clothes in which TO send them
10 school Captain Gardner uses the
term no clothes" in its absolute sense.
4 Compulsory LAW Necessary
Unless the compulsory school attend
apce law is enforced" he says, mo pro
gress can be made. Better paid and NOR,
competent teachers must be employed il
the rural schools and many new one!
I established. The truant officer must com,
into existence and the children must b,
more vigorously handled. Schools mus
be closed during the worst of the rainy
season, or the classes cannot be kept To-
gether. Summarizing the situation as
whole. there exists on the island fairl!
good skeleton on which to construct
school system. The difficulty arises from
the scarcity of competent and reliable
teachers. in the nature of things, for th
present, but little progress can be mad.
by American teachers sent TO the island
Their sphere of usefulness will not includ,
Porto Rico until such time as knowledge
Of the English language has begun to per
meate all classes.
with regard TO the religious question
it does not appear that the inhabitants o
the island have ever taken their religion
with any degree of seriousness probabl,
I owing TO the fact that the church is re
garded as one OF the means by which
Spain undertook 10 maintain her sover
eighty on the island and TO provide for tn
maintenance of such OF her clergy as coul,
not be supported al home. Altogether tn
clerical establishment maintains no NOR
than 2i0 priests and assistants, the sun
total of whose salaries amounts to abou
10000 pesos annually, the salaries rangini
from 5000 pesos per year for the bishop
down to $50 pesos per year for the sacris
tans. OF these 10000 pesos rather mor'
than 10000 are paid to the clerica
force of the cathedral at San Juan alone
With the exception of the capital ant
Ponce there is but one church in each o
the seventy townships into which the Isl
and is divided. Even MayagueZ, with 80
600 inhabitants, scattered over vast eX
tent Of territory, has only one ecclesiasti
cal establishment, one curate with a sal
airy OF 1900 pesos, two assistants with
salary OF 800 pesos each, and one or tw'
sacristans.
In few of the larger cities. notably il
Ponce. which is rich, the fees received by
I the clergy amount to as much as four ol
five thousand pesos annually for sucl
items as marriages, burials masses, anC
I special fees for the removal Of impedi
ments to marriages. This last item i,
sometimes a source of very handsOm,
profit to the priests, as it includes the cos
Of obtaining the necessary dispensation TO
I the MARI ldEtS OF lODst VINO are Bl ulutTeD
beliefs or OF too close a degree of consan
guinuity, or, as sometimes happens, differ
4 ent citizenships In the greater number
Of towns the priest is Obliged TO live prac
tically on a salary alone, which is by NJ
means munificent. In ordinary townships
his salary amounts 10 800 or 600 peso
annually. Since the invasion of th'
American troops. the salaries of all thes'
priests. which have heretofore been pal,
by the state. have been ont off state o
affairs which seems 10 be viewed with per
feet equanimity by all except the priest
hood itself For the most part. the priests
are expected to return home. and | can
not find that the leading citizens OF Port,
Rico seem at all worried at the prospec
of their daughters being married by civil
instead NJ religious processes.
Ia Maintain the Churches
''I' j. 6oItl that some means or othe
may be devised for the maintenance of tn,
: fine old churches themselves. as the out
lay for this purpose heretofore has beer
only little over q, coo pesos per year 70
the whole island, paid, OF course, by tn,
state. That the Porto Ricans like other