The Sentinel=record., 1909-11-07
STATEMENTS ARE
 DISCOURAGING SWITZERLAND HAS HAD COM PuLSoRY EDUCATION FOR
 OVER 100 Years.
Holland Has Made Much Progression Along the Literary Lines-AIl Schools Receive Govern
 ment Aid.
nent Aid

The Arkansas Gazette of Monday. Nov. i. 1909, gives out some rather dis couraging statistics concerning the il. literacy even of the white people Switzerland has not even per cent H. literates and education there has been compulsory for hundred years, but the state schools are so satisfactory that Protestants are just as well sat isfied with the system as the Catho- lies. Also the highly civilized Holland has some time ago adapted it's school system to that of the oldest Republic. trying to be as just to it's different Protestant denominations and to the Catholics as it is to those who do not wish denominational school.
 It might be interesting to know what Holland has accomplished along these lines For the law regulating primary and secondary education in Holland might well serve as model for other countries where the vexed problem of public instrucuon causes so much embarrassment to those charged with its solution.
 The principles which have guided the Dutch legislator in this matter are unquestionably just, and their ap- plication can involve no hardship whatever on any section of the com munity
 School attendance in Holland has been made legal. compulsory, but then this compulsion is tempered by conditions which render it quite un. objectionable,
 In the first instance, no father of family is obliged to send his children to school if within a radius of four kilometers from his home there is no school in which instruction is given in harmony with his religious conyic- tions.
 He represents his case to the off cial authority, and if, on inquiry, his objections are found valid, he is re leased from the obligation imposed by the law.
 Again, should twenty heads of fam. flies in any district agree to demand school of denominational charac- ter their request must be acceded to, although other schools, public and pri. vate, may already exist in the local. ity.
 Religious minorities are thus ade quately protected, and wherever they insist on having thdir own special schools they can easily support them, thanks to the government grants-in- aid.
 The primary schools, both public and denominations being placed on a footing of equality as regards the amount of government aid and the conditions under which it is given, Catholics have little or no cause of COHipldilll On tuiS SCOIt-
 To the commune for it's public schools, and to the governing bodies of private schools the state allows twenty-five per cent of the total ex- penditures on buildings; in the case of the latter the payment is made by instalIments extending over some years.
 Teachers in commercial and denom- national schools receive equal treat ment on the matter of salaries and pension, no exception being made even in cases where the teachers in the denominational schools are men. bers of religious communities
 The salaries are fixed by law, the amount naturally depending on the grade of the school and the number of pupils.
 If a communal council or the gov erning body of private school with es to grant higher than the pre-. scribed salary. or thinks proper to appoint more than the regulation mum her of teachers. the council or gov erning body must from it's own re sources make ID the enhancement in expenditure.
 As regards pensions for windows