taught, a class in philosophy established by the Dominican monks, and a few private schools attended by the children of the wealthier citizens. During the next forty years a number of private schools and a few colleges were opened, but it was not until 1845 that public primary schools were provided for. For a full account of education in Porto Rico the reader is referred to Senate Document 363, Fifty-sixth Congress, publishing the report of Gen. George W. Davis, Military Governor of the island.

The system was the same as that of Spain, which is fully described in the Report of the Census of Cuba.

On June 30, 1898, there were in existence in Porto Rico 380 public schools for boys, 148 for girls, 1 for adults, and 26 private schools, having an enrollment of 44,861 pupils. The total amount annually expended, including the subsidy granted by the insular government to private schools, was 309,810.75 pesos, or $185,886.45.

At the end of the school year 1899 there were 525 public schools, having a total attendance of 21,873 pupils, at a cost of $203,373. The number of children of school age at that time without school facilities was 268,630.

Gen. Guy V. Henry, U. S. A., who succeeded General Brooke as Military Governor, took an early interest in education, and on May 1 established a code of school laws which provided for school boards in all municipal districts in which schools were in operation and abolished many of the evils of the Spanish school system, as, for example, the payment of fees by parents who could afford it, and the teaching of religion and church doctrine. He established a teachers' manual and free text-books, graded the schools, and made provision for high schools, and the necessary professional schools.

Under Gen. George W. Davis these laws were carefully revised and modified by the introduction of many beneficial changes suggested by experience.

On August 12, 1899, General Davis substituted for the bureau of education an insular board of education having general charge of public instruction. The first public school building was erected under his supervision in 1899 in the city of San Juan. Others will doubtless follow as funds become available in the various municipalities.

As in Cuba, no subject is of greater importance to the inhabitants of these islands than the education of the children who will in time be called on to perform the duties and assume the full responsibilities of citizenship.

LITERACY.

[See Tables XVII and XIX.]

A census can take cognizance of the degree of education of a people only as it is indicated by certain simple tests, which refer usually to formal or book education, not because that is necessarily the most

important, but because it is the most easily tested. The tests used by the present census were attendance at school, ability to read, ability to write, and possession of higher education. It is obvious that attendance at school certifies nothing regarding a person's educational attainments, yet if the entire population is to be classed according to degree of education some assumption must be made regarding children attending school. It can not introduce serious error to give such children the benefit of the doubt and assume that all of them were able to read and write, but that all under 10 years of age and not attending school were not able to read. On these assumptions the population of Porto Rico may be classed as follows:

In the preceding table the classes are not mutually exclusive, but each succeeding class includes all those in the preceding. From this table the following may be derived by taking the differences in the successive numbers of the preceding:

From this table it appears that the three classes of those able to read, but unable to write, those with higher education, and those not answering the educational questions, including together less than onefortieth of the total population, were numerically insignificant. Attention, therefore, may be centered on the other two classes. The several departments of Porto Rico had the following numbers and proportions of persons able to read:

In the whole island about one person in six is able to read. The seven departments fall into two groups, four in which the percentage of persons able to read is below the average of the island, and three in which it is above. These three, it will be seen, are those which contain the three cities of Mayaguez, Ponce, and San Juan. It is likely, therefore, that ability to read is more prevalent among the inhabitants of these cities than in the rural districts. The following table presents the facts on this point:

This table shows that in the three cities of Porto Rico about half the population are able to read, a proportion nearly four times that in the rest of the island. Accordingly it seems fairer to compare the three departments containing these cities with the other four only after the urban population has been excluded. This is done in the following table:

This table, supplementing that on page 73, shows that outside the large cities ability to read is much more general in the department of Mayaguez than in any other, and that next to this come the two departments at the eastern end of the island, Guayama and Humacao, while the two northwestern departments, Aguadilla and Arecibo, have the smallest proportion of persons able to read. This result is surprising in that it shows that the departments containing a very high proportion of colored (p. 59) have also a large proportion of literates, while the departments containing the largest proportion of whites are those in which illiteracy is most common. From an examination of the table showing by departments the proportion of population living in cities of 1,000 inhabitants and over (p. 44), it appears that those departments with the smallest population able to read are just the ones which have the smallest proportion of urban population, while Guayama has, after Bayamon, the highest proportion of urban population, and Humacao has a proportion decidedly higher than that for either Aguadilla or Arecibo. It seems probable, therefore, that the propor