In the following-named States authority is vested in local boards or voters to determine whether text-books shall be furnished free: Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin (15 States).

IN CITY SCHOOLS.

In January, 1903, the following inquiries were addressed to the superintendent of city schools of each of the 161 cities of 25,000 population and over in the United States:

1. Are text-books furnished free to all the pupils in any of the grades of your city schools?

2. In what year did the city begin to furnish free text-books in any of the grades? 3. In which grades were they then supplied to all the pupils in said grades? 4. In which grades of your schools are they now furnished to all the pupils? Responses were received from 159 of the 161 superintendents. In many cases the information was not complete. The answers to the inquiries, so far as could be tabulated, are given for each city in the following table:

a Free books and stationery will be furnished all grades September, 1903.

b Spellers, 3 to 8, inclusive. Geographies, 4 to 8, inclusive.

e Since 1848, all grades.

[The Bureau is indebted to the courtesy of the honorable the Secretary of State for the following translations of articles on education in Cuba and the district of Mexico, and for the report of a visit to the public schools of Cienfuegos, Cuba, by Mr. Max J. Baehr, United States consul.

The account of the condition of education in Cuba is taken from the message of President Palma while the article relating to Mexico is taken from the message of President Diaz.

Consul Baehr's report of his visit to the schools of Cienfuegos is especially interesting as being the testimony of an outsider to the condition of schools in a Cuban city.]

EXTRACT FROM MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF CUBA.

The Government continues to devote special attention to the important branch of public instruction, convinced that individual and collective culture is the fundamental basis of modern democracy and that it is indispensable, in order to make out of the Cuban people a people prosperous and obedient, to persevere in the sacrifices required by the propagation of learning in all its grades, primary, secondary, superior, and

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professional. The work is slow; the results are not felt at once, as are those produced by the efforts to materially improve. However, the product will be certain and the harvest abundant. We are behind in the race in which civilized peoples have been competing since the dawn of the nineteenth century, and we must regain the time lost by energy and constancy. The aim is eminently social and can not be attained without the cooperation of all who constitute our population, some exercising the initiative corresponding to them by reason of their superior culture, the others-who, unfortunately, form the greater number-following the counsels and guidance of those best fitted.

Our scholastic organization, based on military orders 266 of 1899 and 368 of 1900, with some modifications contained in later orders, calls upon parents to directly participate in the matter of schools, through the boards of education clothed with the powers necessary, although under the general supervision of the State.

There has been a decrease in the number of schoolhouses during the present year. The average of the four months is 1,847 schools for last year, with 3,489 schoolrooms, against 1,373 schools and 3,328 rooms for the present year, or, that is, 161 schoolrooms less.

Divers causes occasioned this decrease. It has been endeavored to group the greatest possible number of rooms in the same premises for the purposes of economy and add to others existing, where the scholastic population is more dense, the pupils of those which have been abolished on account of the very small average of attendance. Furthermore, after the last examination the number of teachers qualified legally to teach in public schools was found to be short. For this reason many rooms were without teachers. Several have since been provided for, but to do so it has been necessary to qualify persons who in the examinations had obtained the best marks among the nonaccepted. Notwithstanding, not a few rooms are still without teachers, principally in the rural wards of districts like Jiguani, Sagua de Tanamo, Baracoa, Mantua, and Guane, for which no aspirants present themselves, due, without doubt, to the difficulties of communication.

The average number of scholars during the four months was 158,104 in 1901–2— 84,191 males and 73,913 females, and in 1902-3 140,276-80,654 males and 67,622 females, a decrease of 9,826. This difference is due in part to the number of schools without teachers in the remote rural districts and principally to the efficacy of the ́ administrative and pedagogic inspection of the schools, since with the experience acquired the school lists have improved, they having been deficient before on account of the desire of many teachers to maintain the greatest number of inscriptions therein. It was the custom to show as scholars throughout the course those who had at some time attended the school; now the scholar who fails to attend for a whole month is not included in the lists.

The causes shown for the decrease in the lists also explain the slight decrease notel in the average daily attendance-116,773 in 1902-3 against 119,995 in 1901-2. However, if the percentage of daily schoolroom attendance is compared with scholars registered we find an increase in favor of the present year amounting to more than 3 per cent in November and December, 4 per cent in January, and 2 per cent in February. The attendance would have been greater in January and February if there had been no epidemic of smallpox, ophthalmia, and grippe. In some cases it has been necessary to temporarily close a school. Another fact that is revealed by the scholastic statistics and reports received in the department of public instruction is that the rural populace is rapidly returning to its respective districts as the agricultural reconstruction advances. They again take up the old farms and in the towns and villages the scholastic population is decreasing, moving to the country. Thus it results that attendance is decreasing in the urban centers and it is necessary to move schools or rooms in order to put them within the reach of the country folk. This is now being done-not always, unfortunately, through the initiative of the boards of education,

the most called upon to know of those changes in residence-but through the work of agents of the central government. The result of the scholastic census made in this second half of March past is not yet known. As soon as it is definitely learned the establishment of schools as demanded by circumstances will be prepared and carried out. The executive is awake to the necessity of propagating the advantages of instruction among our sober and industrious country people.

As a result of the reforms made up to the present time in the distribution of schools an economy in salaries of $23,727.82 and in rents of $10,454.42 has been obtained. It would be highly advantageous for the State to use these savings in building schoolhouses, beginning with the rural districts, where building can be done at small cost and with economy to the treasury and advantages of instruction. High rent for bad palm houses is now paid and the State not only suffers a loss but the children of our country districts do not find the comfort to be desired in the school.

With the publication of order 4 of 1902, the cooperation of private initiative in the work of popular education was formally recognized by the State. Private schools had grown to 610 in number, with a total of 24,333 pupils, but since then the number has been reduced to 428 schools with 25,675 pupils.

That the public school is acquiring prestige is not to be doubted. Many are the districts in which there are no private schools, and the scholastic populace, without distinction of classes, attend the public schools. The administration recognizes the liberty to teach, following the principle of the law; however, it will see that the teachers have the fitness necessary and that the schools are installed in a way adapted to their purpose.

As is known the State provides secondary instruction in the secondary instruction institutes. To some of them special or professional teaching and preparatory courses are added, in which is comprised the superior primary instruction not yet furnished in our public schools.

The total number of registered scholars in these institutions, including the pupils of incorporated colleges, amounts to 1,016 in the present course. The number of registered scholars in the university during the current academic course is 534, as per the following summary:

The progress made in both the institutes and the university is notable, thanks to the efforts of the professors and the cooperation, each day more efficacious, of the scholars. While the number of scholars in some studies considered separately is very small it should be taken into account that these studies are of recent creation, and that it is necessary to preserve them because later on when the country shall have recovered from the losses of the war they will be of genuine advantage.

The new premises to which the university has been transferred—so advantageously situated-required considerable improvement to properly adapt them to the purpose to which they are now applied. To this end an allotment of $50,000 already appears in the general estimates, and this is but the first of the allotments which must be applied to the improvement. The botanical garden and the experimental agricultural station are the object of special attention by the Government. Another thing that is the subject of study, and will later on be subject of a communication, is the necessity of preparing young men for the telegraph service, and attaching to some institutes of secondary instruction the instruction indispensable to the profession of navigator, on account of the advantage and necessity of preparing seamen qualified for our merchant marine, which may become relatively large in an insular country