The Irish standard., 1901-06-15
Testimony to That Effect is given by the
Protestant Authorities of
the British Isles.
In the United States Catholics Have More
Schools and Scholars Than
Any of the Sects

And the scholarly Farrar says: Con
slider what the church did for educu-
tion Her ten thousand monasterics
kept alive and transmitted that torch
of learning which otherwise would
have been eXtinguishcd long before. A
religious education incomparably SUI
perior to the mere acStheticism Of the
mobiles hall was extended to the mean
est scrf who wished for it."-"Chrs-
tianity and the Race" p. 1856.
Joseph Kay in his famous work,
Social Condition of the English Pco-
ple' (. 2oS) holds up the Catholic
countries to his own countrymcn rs
models in education: "Romanist coun-
trles,' he says, "have far oltstcppcd
us in the cagcrncss with which they
are promoting the education Of the pco-
pie. They understand the signs of the
times: we have yet to learn them"
This is what the late Michael G.
Mulllall, the greatest statistician of the
nineteenth century, tells us of the COM
parativc number of pupils being edu-
Gated in Catholic and Protestant coun.
tries in the year 1892. Average attend
ancc Of school children per 1000 OF
the population: France 40; Belgium,
l"3; Austria, 100; Spain, JOG; Italy, 90.
All these are marked "Cutholic coun-
tries" Some Protestant countries are:
Great Britain, 1913; United States, 13O:
CAnhdn, 100. THESE statistics are in
structivc. Three Catholic countries
come first. Even poor maligned Spain
is only little less than England, and
Is more than CHnada, where they pride
themselves on the extent and excellence
of their system of popular education.
The few figures we have given refer
chiefly to primary education If we
take a few statistics Of higher or uni
vcrsity education the result will be
somewhat startling. According to the
report Of the United States commissions
cr OF education the total number Of
universities founded by the Catholics
in Europe IS us; the total number
founded by Protcstants is 81. OF
course, the Protcstants might say they
did not need to found more, as they
took all they wanted from the Catlo-
lies. AS to the number of students i'm
these universities Mulhall says: "The
number Of university students, COM
pared with the populations, is much
Srcarr in Spain and Belgium than in
any other European country" And the
United States commissioner of educa-
ton says in his report that in 1888 SO
the number of pupils in the English
universities amounted to $500, and
those in Spain at the same date to
13,1S7 And the population of Eng
land in 1887 was 27,S2G,79S, and in
Spain only 1G,9l5,7SG.
We commend these figures to those
who are continually dcnomcing the
Catholic system Of education, as there
in they will find SOME food for rclcc-
ton; also, in the fact that in South
America there are eighteen UNIVERSE
ties, while in England there are only
four. But, perhaps, the most striking
fact Of all in this matter of higher edu-
cation is Italy. For her population of
2S,OOO,OOO she has II universities, with
1G,922 students. Summing up the sta,
tlstlcs OF primary university education
III Italy, Lang says: "In every street
in Rome there are at short distances
public and primary schools for the cdu-
cation of the children of the lower and
middle classes in the ncighborhOod.
Rome, with Il population of 15GG7S
souls, has BIZ public primary schools"
In the United States the Catholics
have more schools and schol-
ars than any other denomination, ac-
cording to comparative numbers while
Catholics prove how they prize educa-
tlon by paying double for it. There
are in the state Of New York 424 par,
ish schools, with an attendance of
13G,239 pupils. In the whole United
States there are 1888 parish schools
with S53,725 pupils. Allowing 500 to
be the average cost Of a pupil in the
public schools, the Catholic schools