Durango semi-weekly herald., 1907-04-22

ta1s M q hotuid da iS'utS tht oShcc'S
are going down. The government ap-
propriates $6,000,000 year for edu-
cational purposes, but the larger pro
portion of it Is wasted. The local
school boards are entirely under po-
litical reasons, so that good many
of them are ignorant and illiterate.
| have not seen 1t myself, but l have
been told that an official circular CIV
ing instructions concerning the man
ner in which applications for appoint
ment as teachers should be made con
tans a foot note stating that apph-
cants who cannot write will be per
mitted TO make the sign of the cross |
There is bureau of education super |
vision all this, but there Is no normal
school to prepare native teachers, and
it will not employ foreigners. 1t Is
all politics.
THE parents generally. particularly
| among the poorer classes, are eager
| for education, and often send their
children to parochial schools, which
are defective and do not give thor
ough education. This is particularly
true of the converts and other Cath
Ollie schools for girls, where they teach
music, embroidery, the legends of the
saints and the catechlsm, but very
little else Since the present inter
vention there has been no improve
ment in the condition of the schools.
Very little or no attention has been
paid to them; indeed, in several cases,
children have been turned out of
| in, n mn a Ia,
detachments OF United States troops.
At the town of Guines, about forty
miles from Havana, there is a splen-
did school building, but the children
were driven out last October and the
building Is now occupied as a bar
racks.
There are $4,000 primary schools in
the island supported by the govern
ment, according to the statistics" con-
tinued Mr.. Greene, but they exist In
name only. The attendance is falling
off year by year because of the in
efficiency of the teachers, and Presi-
dent Palma in his last message de
plored the fact that it was $4,000 less
in 1906 than in the previous year
The general government appropriates
l
money for an academy in each prov
ince, and for university at Havana
t at which there are now between 5Ol
and 500 students, but the whole sys
TEN is defective and unprogessive and
= grows more and more inefficient be
( cause Of political Interference. 1t may
4 he truthfully said that the people oi
4 | Cuba are in a state OF intellectual
B stagnation.
D "The lack of schools will perpetuatt
t present conditions, and the people will
y continue incapable of self-governmen
t fer another generation, because only
!. the favored class is being educated
!, The rich, who can afford to pay tut
e ton, send their children to private
l. schools, but nothing is done for the
y poor-not so much as was done by thu
e Spaniards. The 100000 negro popula
= ton is growing up entirely illiterate
e and throughout the island you will b'
h fortunate If you can find twenty mel
S out of hundred who can read o
d "The Protestant sfafRtfraia rcaiahrTGRegse Rre uon,
n all they can with the money and th
II forces at their disposal. but 1t il
e an insignificant trifle compared will
J. what ought to be done. There is al
l. most universal yearning among tn
|, common people to have their children
It educated. They realize the advantage
n THE Cubans as mass are an ex
cellent people. They are industrious
J. temperate, gentle and law-abiding, an,
J. the worst of them are not wholly bad
j. They can teach us many things. TIL,
l. hope of this island is in the educa
II tion of the working class, and not il
n the disposition of the property own
$ ers. We think altogether too mucl
: of the property owners and too littl,
J. of the wage earners, who need oul
, consideration more. The hearts o
5 the Cuban peasantry are true. The!
= are generous. affectionate. amiable
e hospitable and easily handled with tac
: but they cannot be driven and will no
+ be dictated to. They have ambition
and keener sense of pride than the
= Angle c-Saxons. They are exceedingly
, sensitive to sights. Their cruelty ant
4 barbarisms and vices are the conse
r quence of their ignorance and the ex
ample of the Spaniards. The Span
: iards are very poor teachers of NOR
5 ais or civilization. For centuries the
common people of Cuba have had the
: worst instruction and the worst ex
ample In the world. They have been
= taught dishonesty. duplicity and de
! cepion. without encouragement or
even hope of better things, and they
don't get very much encouragement
now.
The secret of the influence of the
insurrectos over them is due to the
! promises they make. The liberals
promise them everything and they
hope to get something. The moderates
never promise them anything and do
nothing for them. The Palma gov
ernment was the perpetuation of the
old Spanish traditions. It did nothing
for the poor people and therefore could
not expect their support. The con
servative classes are thoroughly self.
ish and think only of the danger of
the loss of their property or the in.
| terl1IDtiOn of their husinaar ar faa -