BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1904-07-05
The Hanishing and Raggggsls agggs Children
IN Porto RieO'S ScbOOhOaSes

III a uCWSpdp pCi WAIbtCA ~ eAAS HoAA1
employed in governmental service the
statement has been made that those
eternally discontended with the pre-
sent state of affairs do not fix their
attention. to cease in their structures
, on the Administration, on the roads
that have been made and the school
houses that have been constructed.
We propose to reply to what IN this
assertion can apply to us indirectly
though it be a repetition of what we
have already said on several occasions,
at the same time amphfying somewhat
more one of the terms which calls for
this reply
In the first place, the roads of which
Our colleague speaks with SO much
satisfaction-wherea are they7 Almost
DESTROYED, useless, impossible, some of
them abandoned in the midst of cons
truction; such are most Of the roads
The school houses, save that they
are built at the expense OF the tax
payers and in accordance with the
prescriptions of modern pedag ogy--do
they serve the purpose for which they
have been built in many places, IN
many towns of the island? Il does not
seen to us that they do, and we do not
St6ak thus to SOW disContent IN minds
of those who force thems elves to be
optimists. We say it that we MAJ not
declare resolutely that the school,
under the Narrowing conditions OF lite
in Porto Rico is a failure, verltable
failure.
The children, hungry, without cere-
bral energy for lack of sufficient and
nutritious food, will not be able to
derive auch advantage from their
presence in the school, which cannot
be continuous because children without
clothes are not admitted to the classes
and for this reason many are unable
to enjoy the advantages thet Our col
league celebrate with bells and notes
of the flute.
A painted school house, with very
high and wide windows, with hardl
room for tp wall between the edges
of the two ldows fine schoolhouse
From thq acious rooms is seen a
campus aIY Us green and beautiful
AS a rule| he schoolhouse stands at
the entrante to town, by itself, with
windows ol,.the four sides and plenty
of air. We'll then-ln viewing the
beautiful ind tropical campus sur
rounding lie building, at the sight Of
the fertile soil covered with brambles
and wild flowers those children attend
ing school-that is those able to &C
inasmuch as they have four scanty
pieces of raiment to clothe themselves
must naturally ask how il is that, the
earth being so fertile the men VIII,
live on it cannot eat, how it is that 1t
does not produce a better allment
more abundant for children; and why
are the lands wild, why don't they
cultivate them and make them produce
more.
Whv? That is it, why? The farmer
who has no market for his products
who sees his efforts and labors lost
who does not even obtain price thai
reimburses him for his expen ses-why
does he 90 on cultivating the fields
and plan tations?
A delightful perspective they will
be able to enjoy, these beings who
are anaemic because their food Is
lacking in nutritive properties. The
country is picturesque when not cul-
tivated. Nature in her most beautiful
form will the children be able to
contemplate from the great windows
of the school houses.
But in those huts, so picturesque
when viewed at distance and SO
sombre and sad when seen near at
hand, are who knows how many rag
ged and famishing children who are
unable to go school for lack Of clothes.
Of what good is the school to these
creatures?
And what matters it to them if the
road be good and wide if there be not
beasts of burden to pass over it dram
inc loads of the fruits of the earth, If
through these arteries the blood Of The
country's life do not flow; what mat
tiers it to children or men wide road
if they have no occasion to travel 1t,
unless it be to carry to the cemetery
those whom disease and hunger con-
tinue to destroy day after day?
Now all that we have said has been
in the favor Of that sheet which the
pens of newspaper writers in the Ad-
ministration S employ edit.
For we have not yet even made
II. oh 4