NEW MEXICO.

GEOGRAPHY.

The Territory of New Mexico, as transferred to the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and organized by the act of Congress, approved September 9, 1850, embraced also the southern portion of Colorado and the whole of Arizona Territory. The present area of New Mexico is 121,201 square miles, or 77,568,640 acres. This area is divided into ten counties, which are generally separated from each other by natural boundaries of mountain barriers.

POPULATION.

The inhabitants of New Mexico, not including those connected with the United States Army, may be classed in four distinctive divisions, as follows:

Pueblos..

Wild Indians.

Mestizos, with a small percentage of whites, (census of 1860.).........

Total

7,000 12, 097 83, 009

102, 106

MESTIZOS.

That part of the population called Mexicans, are almost wholly agricultural and are settled in plazas, as their villages are called, varying in population from fifty to several thousand souls, generally sustained by flocks and suburban farms. This method of settlement, peculiar to the whole intermountain region of North America, results from two causes; first, the necessity for coöperation in conveying the waters of the streams in ditches for the irrigation of the land, which is necessary to the successful cultivation of the soil; and second, for mutual defense against the numerous nomadic and warlike tribes of Indians. This gregarious method of life gives an opportunity for the establishment of schools surpassing that enjoyed by any other portion of the United States, especially the sparsely settled frontier portions of the West; and yet, as if to show to the world the most criminal example of how good opportunities may be neglected, here exists the most schoolless, ignorant, and poverty-stricken people speaking a civilized, though foreign language, within the boundaries of the United States. In 1850, the number given as attending school was 460, out of a population of 61,574. In 1860, but three per cent. of the population of school age, according to the census, were attending school.

STATEMENT OF THE GOVERNOR OF NEW MEXICO.

The Hon. William A. Pile writes, under date of October 20, 1870, that there is no general school law, and not a public school or a school-house in the Territory. In Santa Fé, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Taos, La Mesilla, and in some smaller towns, the Catholics have schools. It is mentioned that there are four Protestant schools also, but the size and efficiency of any of the schools are not stated. His excellency also speaks of the deplorable illiteracy of the great mass of the population, and the indifference of the legislature on the subject. Governor Pile sent the following to the legislature during its last session:

EXTRACT FROM THE GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE.

"It is not presumed that, in the limited time that your honorable bodies will now remain in session, you can mature and adopt a perfect system of public education; but the subject is one of such immediate and pressing importance that I cannot close this message without referring to it. In all communities where the character of the gov ernment depends on the people, public education assumes an importance far above that which attaches to it under other circumstances. For years this subject has been urged upon the consideration of the territorial legislature. The necessity and importance of the matter is so apparent, that to stop to reason with you upon it would seem to be an insult to your intelligence and understanding.

"That your early and earnest attention to this subject is required by every consideration of public duty, welfare, and interest, cannot, with you I think, be a matter of doubt. If provision was made even for one public school in each county, it would be a great public blessing. Anything that will be a commencement shall receive my hearty approval and cooperation. Let these schools be free from any religious or denominational control, or under the control of any church your honorable bodies may think proper. If only the children of the Territory are furnished facilities for acquir ing a knowledge of the elementary branches of a common education, I shall be satisfied.

"Lot us make a beginning, if it is ever so small and inexpensive. Increase and improvement will come from experience.

"Economy in public expenditure is a necessity of our condition, but it is false economy to fail to expend a reasonable amount for public education-to economize at the expense of intelligence and morality. In all communities where society and public sentiment are in a transitory state, it is the duty of legislators, public officers, and men in high social and political position, to become leaders and instructors of the people, to guide and give shape to public opinion, so that the future of the community may be prosperous and happy. The future of this Territory depends largely upon your wisdom and prudence. I entertain the strongest hope that this session of your honorable bodies will not finally close without making at least a commencement of a system of public schools."

POPULAR HOSTILITY TO FREE SCHOOLS.

If more proofs of the present unfortunate condition of the Mestizos were wanting, it may be shown that their indifference to education reaches not only hostility, but a hostility which has, perhaps, been expressed with more unanimity at the ballot-box than any similar instance in history.

"The territorial legislature, at the session of 1855–56, passed an act establishing a system of common schools, to be supported by a tax levied upon the property of the inhabitants. Four counties were exempted from the general operations of the law, and the citizens thereof were allowed to vote on its acceptance or non-acceptance. The election was ordered by the proclamation of the governor, and was held March 31, 1856, with the following result:

"The returns show that in a popular vote of 5,053 there are only 37 men to be found in favor of public schools-a fact which exhibits an opposition to the cause truly wonderful. This great enmity to schools and intelligence can only be accounted for as follows: that the people are so far sunk in ignorance that they are not really capable of judging of the advantages of education. From this result the cause of education has but little to hope for from the popular will, and the verdict shows that the people love darkness better than light."

The law was repealed ten months after its adoption, and even the fines collected under it were ordered by the act repealing to be returned to those from whom they were collected.

The preceding extract is taken from "New Mexico and her People," by Brigadier General W. W. H. Davis, of Pennsylvania, who was, at the period alluded to, United States attorney for the Territory. The following is also taken from the same work: "The American missionaries who have come into the country have also taken an interest in the cause of education, and, wherever stationed, have endeavored to establish schools. In some instances they have been able to gather together a few scholars; but the opposition of the priesthood to the children being educated in Protestant schools is so great that they could not accomplish much. It is to be hoped, however, that the few seeds they have sown will in due season spring up and bring forth good fruit. The Rev. Mr. Gorman has extended his labors into a new vineyard, and established himself in the Indian pueblo of Laguna, some fifty miles west of the Rio del Norte. He opened a little school which some of the children attend, and a few of the adults seem desirous to be instructed in the knowledge of the white man." (p. 194.) The minds of the people are as barren as the land, with as little hope of being better cultivated. Congress has donated two sections of land in each township for school purposes; but so large a portion of the country consists of rocky mountains and barren plains that there is poor prospect of the donation ever yielding much for the cause of education. In lieu of the land, Congress should make an appropriation in money, as an education fund, to be expended in such manner as they might direct-the principal to be properly invested, and the interest arising from it only to be expended.' (p. 430.) Since 1856, several acts for the establishment of common schools, to be supported by

payment of a tuition fee, and even laws for compulsory attendance at school, havo been passed, but always repealed before they were carried into effect.

THE PUEBLO INDIANS.

These Indians number about 7,000, and are settled in nearly a score of compact villages, scattered through the Territory. Nothing has ever been done for these Indians by the Government, in the way of improving their social condition, by instruction in industrial arts, or in any necessary knowledge since they became its wards, in 1846. During the period of Spanish rule, schools were established and flourished under the fostering care of the Government. But after the independence of Mexico they were allowed to fall into decay, from want of Government support, until to-day there are very few indeed who can read and write, and these are old men, whose numbers are decreasing; so that in four or five years there will not be found one of all this once enlightened race who will be able to read the title-papers to his land. These Indians have never been an expense to the Government, as have other tribes, to reduce them to submission by long and costly wars, nor have they asked a single dollar for their support. They keenly appreciate the helplessness of an uneducated condition; they absolutely crave education, and yet they are allowed to remain in ignorance for the want of an annual appropriation for the erection of buildings and the employment of teachers.

UTAH TERRITORY.

Organized by act of Congress, September 9, 1850.

Area, 84,476 square miles. Population, about 110,000.

From the report, for the year 1869, of the Hon. Robert L. Campbell, territorial superintendent of common schools for Utah, the following summary of school statistics is taken. More detailed statistics, by counties, will be found on page 331.

Number of districts..

Number of schools..

Number of scholars enrolled

Number of male scholars enrolled..

Number of female scholars enrolled.

Total number of children between four and sixteen years..

Average daily attendance....

Percentage of school population attending school

Number of months school has been taught during the year

Number of male teachers

Number of female teachers.

Amount paid to male teachers.

189

243

15, 100

7,524

7,576

24, 138

10,618

44

71

173

169

$54,559 37

Amount paid to female teachers.

Total paid to teachers

Amount of taxes appropriated to use of schools.

Amount of building funds raised..

$25, 120 25 $79,679 62 $7,011 33 $35,142 70

The character of the school system of Utah does not fully appear, either in the school laws of that Territory or in the last three reports of the superintendent. The inference is, however, that a tuition fee per scholar is charged for the payment of teachers; that the school-houses are built by taxes voted by two-thirds of the tax-payers in a district; and that tax-payers in districts may elect to pay their teachers by a self-imposed tax. A noticeable feature in the expenditures is, that 173 male teachers were paid much more than twice the aggregate amount of wages than were 169 female teachers.

"The great desiderata of our educational interest," says the superintendent, "is a supply of school-teachers." In a previous report Mr. Campbell says that "the universal interrogatory by school trustees from every part of the Territory, who are attending to their duties, is: Can you send us a qualified teacher?" He urges upon the legislature the importance of providing a number of free scholarships in the normal course of the University of Deseret, and upon districts to unite and bear the expenses of some of the young women to attend a normal course.

The superintendent has hopes of realizing an available school fund from the school lands when Utah shall be admitted as a State, the Territory not being able to use the proceeds of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections. Commenting on this unfortunate position of Utah toward the school lands, the superintendent says:

"It is said that the Territories sustain the relationship of wards to the General Government. What would be thought of a guardian, in whose possession there were munificent legacies specially designed for educational purposes, who would turn round and say to his ward, 'True, there are liberal provisions inade for your education, but

these grants are not usually given to wards until they become of age.' Would not the ward have just cause of complaint? That in the greatest time of need, the most seasonable period of life, educational facilities should be withheld-that the most liberal and free government on earth should thus act toward its wards, is indeed astonishing."

DESERET ALPHABET.

Much of the reports of the superintendent for the years 1867, 1868, and 1869 are occupied in the discussion of the defects of English orthography and the advantages of the "Deseret alphabet," which President Brigham Young and the regents of the University of Deseret are making efforts to establish in that Territory. The following extract from the report of 1868 gives the best explanation obtainable of the merits of the reform:

"The inhabitants of these mountains are preeminent for reform. They hail every invention and discovery as a blessing from Heaven to man, and fail not to acknowledge the source whence all blessings emanate.

When Pitman's system of phonetics was introduced in Illinois by Mr. George D. Watt, in the year 1845, the leading men of this community immediately adopted it, and the same has been taught in almost every nook and corner of these mountain settlements.

"The design of the Descret system is to teach the spelling and reading of the English language in an easy manner. The principal feature is to reduce to simplicity English orthography, and to denude the words used of every superfluous character. In this system the child is taught the thirty-eight letters which represent the number of sounds heard in speaking the English language. Each letter of the alphabet represents a definite sound, as fixed as any one of the digits which invariably represents the same power. The acquirement of reading, therefore, is divested of the uncertainty, contradiction, and difficulty which attend the acquisition of the present system."

In his report for 1869 the superintendent gives an account of his further work and encouragements in advocating this alphabet during his school visits, and recommends the legislature to appropriate $2,000 for the publication of a spelling book or elementary dictionary.

FEATURES OF THE SCHOOL LAWS OF UTAH.

The county courts in each county are authorized to create or change the boundaries of school districts of the respective counties.

The owners of taxable property in each school district elect their trustees, who tako an oath of office and give bonds to the county court, and have power to appoint a clerk, an assessor, collector, and treasurer. The trustees have power to prescribe the manner in which schools shall be conducted, build school-houses, &c., take a census of children between the ages of four and sixteen in their district, and shall report annually to the county superintendent.

The county court in each county also appoints a board of three examiners, to judge of the qualifications of school-teachers, and grant certificates to them.

The electors, owning taxable property, also vote upon the rate per cent. of tax for school purposes, and for an increased sum for the purpose of building school-houses "a vote of two-thirds of the tax-payers" is required.

"A superintendent of common schools," by which term is meant all schools organized by the boards of trustees, and under their supervision, is elected annually by the territorial legislature, to whom he must annually report "during the first week of its session." He also performs the other usual duties of State superintendents.

The county superintendents are elected at the general election, on the first Monday in August, and hold their offices two years.

UNIVERSITY OF DESERET.

This institution was incorporated in 1850, but the first department of instruction was not organized until 1867. In 1869 it was more fully organized as an institution of scientific and classical instruction, and from the second annual catalogue, published the present year, it appears with a faculty of 14 professors and teachers, and 307 male and 239 female pupils-total, 546. The university includes a normal course in its curriculum, for which tuition is charged.

An educator in the southern part of Utah states, in a letter of recent date, that less than one-half of the children between the ages of four and sixteen attend any school during the winter, while during the summer one-sixth of them only attend school. Of the 250 schools that are open during the winter months, not more than 100 are continued during the summer. In one place mentioned, where there were four schools in

operation during the winter of 1869-70, there were but two during the summer of 1870, and this was above the average for the whole Territory.

He further says, that the people of Utah are not able to maintain a sufficient number of good schools without aid from Congress.

"The citizens of this Territory have done much to establish schools, build schoolhouses, and support teachers; but if they have failed in reaching the standard of the average of other Territories and the States, it is not from an unwillingness on their part; the great majority came here poor, and have had to undergo many privations and be deprived of many of what would be called necessaries elsewhere, to get-to use common parlance-a start. There has been an increase from the year 1864 to 1869 of about 35 per cent. in the number of schools kept in the winter season, but with the large emigration to this Territory, and the rapid increase in the number of children who should be in school, compared with other portions of the Union, I presume this will be considered a small increase."

The amount of aid Utah needs to render her schools sufficient and efficient, he says, "is a problem I cannot attempt to solve."