The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1903-04-29
EDUCATION WILL
ACC0MP PL|SH MUCH
Bishop Van Buren and President
POtt Describes Spread of Gospel
in Porto Rico and China.

the former including a great deal or the
wealth and intelligence. and the latter
making up the great majority and having
some intelligence, but not 10 great ex-
tent. These two parties are In deadly OPP
position TO each other, and at the present
time the Republicans are In office and the
Federals out The time OF election Is
very serious time. and IL Is very dlnlcult
10 keep order because the policemen
there are very much in politics. The SIT
uation Is additionally complicated by the
fact that the Porto Ricans have yet 10
understand the sacredness OF self-govern-
ment.
The governor II appointed by the presi.
dent and there Is an executive couTcl
comprising the heads OF the various de-
partments Six OF these counciimen are
Americans and five Porto Ricans. Then
there is the Popular Assembly OF IS mem
bers The assembly liz similar TO our
house OF representatives, the executive
council 10 our senate. so that IL bad
measure passes the Popular Assembly, IL
may not pass the executive council ana
should II pass the council IL may De We
toed by the governor. SO the government
is pretty fairly perfect.
LAS to the religious conditions. origin
ally the island was Roman Catholc
country, but under our flag, OF course, IL
is not Roman Catholic island. II cannot
be any more than 1t can be a Baptist ISL
and.
RELIGIOUS ASPECTS.
"rhe whole island is put down as l.
600 600 Roman Catholics, while as a mat
ter OF fact q large proportion or the peo-
pie are only nominally connected with tue
Catholic church. In the city OF Ponce the
Baptists have built place or woIsn,p,
and on one occasion l saw that the
church which holds 500 people was crowd
ed and there were many more on 'he
sidewalk.
THE children are our hope. We cant
expect to do a great deal wsth the poh-
ticians or with the old people, any way,
but there are 6o,0Oo children In Porto hico
who are going to develop with an Ameri-
can spirit.
The work of our parochial school Is a
small work, comparatively, yet IL is BET
ter TO start I'm small way and 10 devel-
op IL accommodates 20 children Inc
public schools of San Juan are built 10
accommodate only 1000 while there are
| eooo children az a school age In the city.
/ After describing what he had accom-
! plished in the way OF building churcness
and opening schools and what ne .,,ss nopes
| soon to accomplish in those oirecuvns ,hn'
| tho h,shop closed with the assertion ina
under this government would come w w
redemption of the country. for where VIZ
as goes the ncuia eIoTs nndSrstSnd ioa~ at all tn
problem of China we must try patleu,.,i;
to take the Chinese point OF view "h,y, W,
is dramatically opposed TO OUTS. "
have seen China striving TO Keep th'
West out. and we see the West strlvint
TO break down these barriers ana o,ar ar
where they consider that they nave per
/ feet right. ,.. ., he
educational system, of everytniIsY, IsY - -
fact. and has looked upon the peopie ~
| ,he west as barbarians IL mas on!
been very recently that she has toun' n,'
! thai she can learn anything at all iron
u, tftor tha weakness OF China was ex
nosed i'm 1904 the powers adopted ponc!
Of aggression which Is after al tne es rea
cause Of the Boxer outbreak OF the ,r yea
1000 We. perhaps, look upon the horror .,
and barbarities OF that movement IN pu Y
one light. but IL we take the Cninss
point OF view we see this movemen' ,n T
rreaily one inspired by patriotlsm; A., !
| tSair ipnorance the Boxers believed Una