gion is an inspiration and safeguard to education.-Henry Van Dyke, Princeton University.

Neither proposition is true as it stands. With proper explanation both propositions may be accepted. "Sound education is religion" is correct in the sense that no education is sound without morality, and no morality is sound without religion. True religion is always sound education," but not the whole of it.— W. B. Rogers, S. J., St. Louis University.

In my opinion these two statements must be separated; they are not equivalents. I do not believe that sound education is always religion, but I believe that true religion is always sound education.--John H. Converse.

If "sound" education is the training of the whole man, then it must include religion, because the spiritual is an essential part of human nature. If true religion is the salvation of the whole man, it must embrace in the scope of its redeeming the physical and intellectual. In the words of the marriage service, "Those (education and religion) whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder."-William A. Gurry.

Prof. George A. Coe, of the Northwestern University, Chicago, addressing recently a convention of teachers in that city, asserted that

True education must develop a normal condition of the mind. Religious education should be a part, and is a part, of that normal condition. Religion is an essential factor in human personality, and a place must be found for it in the secular curriculum. Education decides what a child is, while religion decides what a child will be in the future. It is necessary that the ideals of the people should find expression in the education of the people and their children. These ideals we draw and take from the best. It is certain that we should not put ideals in our school system from among those who have the fewest and worst ideals.

Outside of the United States, many of the best minds, the choicest spirits of the age, are in favor of the religious principle in education. In France, Brunetière, Francis Coppée, Huysman, and others hold this view after years of wandering in the field of agnosticism and a belief in a purely secular system of education.

In Germany the school of Rudolph von Encken has made a profound impression, insisting that religion is a necessary basis for genuine progress; and Mr. Balfour, in his Foundations of Belief, has put the matter very clearly when he writes: "The historical fact is very clear that there is no force comparable to religion for uniting and assimilating a people."

Hence we see to-day a growing demand everywhere to make education more Christian. Thinking men are becoming alarmed at the growth of crime, especially among the young. The theory that "all sin, vice, and crime were due to ignorance," is now exploded. Says a writer in the Century Magazine for November, 1903:

The number of crimes committed by the highly educated is an alarming feature of the situation. The list of defaulting bookkeepers, bank tellers, clerks, and college graduates constantly lengthens, reflecting a lurid light upon the theories of those who attempt to account for the origin of all sin, vice, and crime by ignorance. It is the aim of the friends of Christian education to lessen this rising tide of immorality and crime by fostering religion in the young. It is their endeavor to train better men and women, and thus give to the State better citizens by making them better Christians. The advocates of the parochial school system do not condemn the State for not imparting religious instruction in the public schools as they are now organized, because they well know it does not lie within the province of the State to teach religion. Catholic citizens simply follow their conscience by sending their children to the parish school, where religion can have its rightful place and influence. And in doing this they are doing a great and lasting service to the State.

MULTIPLY THE SCHOOLS.

It was this end they had in view when the bishops in the Third Council of Baltimore urged the Catholic people of the United States to multiply and perfect the parochial schools. "We must multiply them," they insisted, "till every Catholic child in the land shall have the means of education within its reach." Parents and pastors should not rest until this is done. No parish, they declared, is complete till it has schools adequate to the needs of its children. The pastor and people should feel that they have not done their entire duty until this is accomplished. And the Catholic hierarchy legislated in accordance with these views. Parochial schools were to be established in every parish where it was possible to do so. Nor was this all. The bishops provided that the parochial school system be perfected. They repudiated the idea that the parochial school need be in any respect inferior to any other school whatsoever. "And if hitherto, in some places," the bishops went on to say, "our people have acted on the principle that it is better to have an imperfect Catholic school than to have none at all, let them now push their praiseworthy ambition still further and not relax their efforts till their schools be raised to the highest educational excellence." And they concluded their appeal by imploring parents not to hasten to take their children from school, "but to give them all the time and all the advantages that they have the capacity to profit by, so that, in after life, their children may rise up and call them blessed.'"

FACTS AND FIGURES OF PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS.

As the result of this action of the Catholic hierarchy the parochial school system began to extend itself very rapidly. In the New England dioceses especially marked was the establishment of parochial schools; also in the dioceses of the Middle Atlantic States and in the newly formed dioceses of the West the development within a short time was very pronounced.

Within the last thirty years in the dioceses of New England Catholic educational institutions have multiplied threefold. To-day there are 352 such institutions as against 100 a quarter of a century ago, and 142,000 Catholic pupils in attendance at these schools as against 20,000 in 1875. In the archdiocese of Boston the Catholic schools almost equal in number those which were flourishing in the entire province (86 as against 100), while the number of children in the parochial schools, colleges, and academies of the archdiocese far surpasses the total attendance of the Catholic schools of the New England of thirty years ago-46,000 as against 20,000.

In the archdiocese of Philadelphia the same marked growth of parochial schools is to be observed. In 1869 there were 42 parochial schools, with an enrollment of 15,232 pupils, while last year (1902-3) there were 113 schools, with an attendance of 45,352 pupils, showing an increase over the preceding year of 1,029. The same steady growth can be witnessed in almost every diocese throughout the country. To-day the Catholic educational system elicits the respect and earnest study of many eminent educators, and doubtless its continued development will do more than anything else to induce a more fair-minded and conciliatory attitude on the part of the public toward Catholic parochial schools.

In endeavoring to ascertain the present numerical strength of Catholic education the sources of information I have made use of are the Catholic Directory and the Report of the Commissioner of Education, supplemented, so far as possible, by private inquiry. The following statistics exhibit the results of the investigation, the attendance being summarized, for the sake of comparison, under the titles "Elementary," "Secondary," and "Higher education," in accordance with the well-known classification adopted by the United States Bureau of Education.

Catholic school enrollment.

Elementary

Secondary--boys (high schools, academies, and preparatory departments of colleges)

Secondary girls (high schools and academies)

Higher education (colleges and universities, not including seminaries).

Total

967, 518

14, 127 20,874

4,010

1,006, 529

If we assume as the normal the ratio which the total school attendance in the country bears to the total population, we can ascertain roughly the relative numerical strength of Catholic education by comparing with this normal the ratio which the Catholic school attendance bears to the total Catholic population. In the following table I have attempted to do this. Taking the Catholic population as 10,774,989, as given in the Catholic Directory, for the year 1900, the ratio of attendance in each class of Catholic schools to the Catholic population is compared with the ratio of attendance in all schools of the class in question throughout the country to its total population. As the ratio of percentage would be too small for the purpose of this comparison I have chosen as more convenient the ratio of 1 to 10,000. It appears, then, that there are for each 10,000 of respective population:

It is observed that the lowest level of numerical strength is reached in the case of our secondary schools, or high schools, for boys. The attendance here falls short by two-thirds of what it ought to be. The parochial school enrollment appears as almost one-half of the normal. In higher education the attendance is just one-half of the normal. Contrary to a widespread impression, our academies for girls have much less than their due proportion of secondary pupils. The number of academies is indeed very great, amounting all told to 672, but in most of them the secondary pupils are comparatively few, and probably the great majority of them are to be regarded in the main as select elementary schools.

The Catholic population is increasing rapidly, and it will tax our energies severely to provide additional school accommodations proportionate to this increase. Free text-books and the like in the public school accentuate the ever acute realization of the financial problems. Yet, in view of that which has been done, we may not doubt that the loyal and self-sacrificing generosity of our people will be equal to the solution of these and other problems that will arise in continuing and completing the work of Catholic education. The single fact that the parochial schools have nearly a million pupils (see statistics of parochial schools appended)-almost one-half of the Catholic children of elementary school age in the country--is splendid evidence of the solid growth of our educational system, as well as an eloquent testimony to the spirit of zeal and self-sacrifice on the part of both clergy and laity that has made such a result possible. The growth of the colleges and academies for girls has kept pace with that of the parochial schools, and if the statistics of our high schools for boys exhibit a weak point in the systom, an analysis of the condition of these schools permits the encouraging hope that the present expansive movement in this department of Catholic education will succeed in bridging over the gap that has hitherto too widely separated the

ED 1903-69

parochial school and the college. The difficulties already surmounted are greater than any that the present or the future can possibly hold, and we may be permitted to hope that the new century will witness long before its meridian the realization of the ideal of Catholic education set forth by the third plenary council, of Baltimore, a thoroughly coordinated system of Catholic schools, embracing parochial school, high school, college, and university, with an enrollment including practically the whole of the Catholic school population.

Besides the figures above given for the parochial schools there are 37,108 Catholic children cared for and educated in the elementary branches and in manual training in 257 institutions. These are the refuges, protectories, and orphan asylums under Catholic management throughout the country. Including these the Catholic Church at the present time is educating and caring for 1,113,031 children.

This is truly a splendid record of zeal and devotion in the cause of Christian education. Elsewhere in this paper it was stated that this is the "greatest religious fact in the United States to-day-over a million children educated in the Catholic parochial schools without any aid from the State," and surely it is. It has been done at a tremendous sacrifice by a people for the most part poor

in

material goods, but rich in faith. It has been done through the noble efforts of consecrated religious men and women, and a zealous priesthood who have generally united with the bishops of the United States in giving to Catholic children the best secular knowledge, side by side with the higher knowledge of God and religion.

PERFECTING THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM.

We now come to describe the typical parochial school as we find it at work to-day in the United States. We shall also sketch its management, its course of study, the character of its teaching and its teachers, and lastly its educational results.

And first a word about the building itself. At the present time there is a wonderful improvement over what served as the parochial schoolhouse of twenty-five or thirty years ago. As the rude cabin of the wilderness has given way to the magnificent cathedral of the populous city, so the plain, simple structure, oftentimes the basement, as we know, of a church, has yielded place to the imposing parochial school building that is now to be seen in all our large towns and cities. The Catholic school authorities fully recognize the necessity and importance of properly constructed buildings, and in their construction have paid due attention to all that is required to make them both healthful and attractive. The average Catholic rector fully understands that children are affected by their environment and that of necessity much of their time is to be spent in the schoolroom. Hence he gives this subject much thought and attention and usually employs a competent architect. As a consequence we find almost everywhere, especially in the cities, substantial and oftentimes imposing parochial school buildings, well designed class rooms and so arranged as to give the best results as to seating, lighting, hygienic and sanitary arrangements, with the necessary halls, cloakrooms, etc. These buildings are usually of stone or brick, and compare favorably with the public school buildings in the same place. The class rooms are provided with the latest style of desk and ample blackboard space. The ventilation, heating, and lighting are found to be, in most of the schools that the writer of this paper has seen in the last few years, all that could be desired. Many of the parochial schools have also ample playgrounds. So we see nothing has been left undone in a material way to make the parochial school house an inviting place for the pupil. The cost incurred is oftentimes very great, running anywhere from ten thousand to one hundred and even as high as two hundred thousand dollars for a single building. But our Catholic people are willing to meet this heavy outlay that their children might have an environment and education equal to the best.

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT.

The management of the parochial school ultimately rests with the rector of the parish. He is usually aided by a local committee or school board made up of competent laymen who are interested in educational matters. The council of Baltimore suggested the appointment of such a body, and it has been found by experience that its services are most helpful. The members of the school committee visit the schools regularly, at least once a week; they inspect the building, are present at recitations, usually question the pupils, and in many other ways contribute to the efficiency of the school. The gentlemen who are selected for this position regard it as a special mark of honor and give their time and services cheerfully. They are a great aid to the pastor in his school work. They meet, usually once a month, in conference with the rector, when the daily workings of the school are discussed and suggestions made for remedying any defects or for bettering conditions.