Chapter 382: , Laws of 1889, to read as follows (3)

"At the place I supposed the consulate to be there was nothing
but a heap of ruins, iron beams, splintered wood, bricks, and
stones in hapless confusion. I was not sure of the spot and
climbed over the ruins to see if I could find anything
familiar. Finally I came across a battered teapot, which I
recognized as the property of Mrs. Cheney, and remembering the
spot where it had stood, was able to get my bearings. I
climbed directly over the spot where their room had been, and
called, in the hope that if they were still alive, they would
answer. I heard nothing, however, and further search revealed
a piano covered to a depth of about ten feet in rubbish. I
knew that the Cheneys had no piano, so it must have come down
from one of the upper stories. As the shock was so strong that
no one could stand, and the consulate went down almost
immediately, it was absolutely an impossibility for Dr. Cheney
to have opened four doors and gone down a long flight of steps
which had three sections. Nothing belonging to the office
could be seen except the teapot. …

"People were beginning to appear by this time, some
half-clothed, others entirely naked. I gave part of my clothes
away, but found I could do nothing, there were so many. People
were calling from upper windows, asking that some one should
aid them, but ladders and ropes were necessary, and they had
to be left. Some men were trying to lower an old lady from the
fourth floor, but as soon as the weight came upon the cord, it
broke, precipitating the poor soul to the pavement below.
Another upper window was choked with rubbish, out of which
stuck a man’s arm. He was unable to call out, but rattled
against the railing with a stick, trying to attract attention.
Without men and tools it was impossible to do anything, so I
kept on, trying to shut my ears.

"Almost all the natives were hysterical, shrieking and
moaning. Some were held by their friends, as they seemed to be
absolute maniacs. … Light shocks were felt every few minutes,
adding to the alarm of the people. About eleven o’clock I went
on board the steamer Chesapeake, belonging to the
Anglo-American Oil Company, and managed to get a cup of tea
and a sandwich. Captain Mort was very kind, and told me to
send people in need on board, and he would do anything he
could for them. I went again to the shore to see what could be
done, and by that night over seventy, principally women and
children, were on board. About three o’clock rain began to
fall, adding to the misery of the people. Scores and hundreds
of them were to be seen sitting in all the squares or wider
streets, and looking as if they had abandoned all hope."

{189}

From all directions, by all communities and governments,
relief to the stricken cities, for the rescue, feeding and
shelter or removal of the survivors, was hastened with the
greatest possible speed. War ships from many navies, Italian,
French, Russian, British and German, were quickly at the
scene, their sailors and marines performing heroic work in
discovering and saving many still living people, who had been
entombed under mountains of ruin for many days. Even after
such burial for thirteen and fourteen days some victims were
found alive. The rescuing forces were soon in excess of the
need, and a want of systematic organization and direction
among them became a subject of complaint. But the outflow of
sympathy and eager generosity of helpful desire in all the
world was the noblest, without doubt, that has ever been
called forth.

By good fortune, when news of the disaster came, a supply ship
of the United States Navy was being laden at New York with a
million and a half of rations, destined for the fleet of
American battle-ships then voyaging round the world. The
supply-ship was to meet the fleet at Gibraltar; but orders
were given immediately for dispatching it to Messina, with an
added shipment of tents, clothing, blankets and medical
supplies. Furthermore, from the fleet itself, which was about
to enter the Suez Canal, a store ship was hastened forward to
Messina for such offerings as it could make. The American
Congress, reassembled on the 4th of January after the
Christmas recess, by action of both Houses that day,
appropriated $800,000 for further relief of the Italian need,
and a large part of this sum was expended according to the
following statement made public by the Secretary of the Navy,
January 16:

"The Navy Department has arranged for the expenditure of
approximately $500,000 in the purchase of building materials,
including all articles necessary for the construction of
substantial frame houses for the Italian sufferers, and the
shipments will begin by the sailing of two steamers probably
on Monday. This lumber is being delivered to-day in New York,
and the sailing of the vessels will proceed as fast as they
can be loaded. Each ship will carry all the materials for the
construction of about 500 houses, and it will require not less
than six steamers for the entire amount purchased. If
possible, the department intends to send with each vessel
several civilian house carpenters, with plans, to assist in
the erection of these houses."

With this material a suburb of 1500 detached frame houses, of
two or four rooms, were built at Messina; 500 were constructed
at Reggio, and the remainder at other towns and villages.

The Italian Parliament appropriated 30,000,000 lire
($5,000,000) for immediate relief and for the reconstruction
of the ruined cities. The plans formed by the Italian
Government included measures to provide for the temporary
protection of the orphaned young, the deserted, and the
insane; to prosecute the recovery of personal property: to
draw up official lists of the dead; to rewrite the civil
registers and the records of property transfers; to
reestablish, provisionally, administrative and judicial
districts within the provinces of Messina and Reggio. New
building regulations were to be enacted by a royal commission
in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Works. To encourage
the reconstruction of the ruined places, all new buildings
were exempted from taxation for a period of fifteen years.
Loans from state and private financial institutions to be made
at a rate of interest not exceeding 4 per cent., to be repaid
within thirty years in semi-annual instalments, the Government
to contribute half of these periodical payments.

To the effective help and relief rendered by her Mediterranean
squadron, Great Britain added large contributions of money,
mainly collected as a "Mansion House Fund" by the Lord Mayor
of London. There, and everywhere, the Red Cross Societies were
instant in the field and untiring, receiving and expending
immense funds and sending large corps of trained workers to
the scene of distress. No summary has yet been made of the
whole outpour of gifts and service to the suffering people,
and it is impossible even to indicate what a world-feeling it
expressed; but its like was never known before.

Estimates of the total destruction of life by the earthquake
are still uncertain. Mr. Crawford, when he wrote, thought it
doubtful whether as many as fifteen per cent. of the
population of Messina were then alive, scattered in groups
throughout Italy. That would mean that only about 20,000 out
of 150,000 in the one city escaped. Of the loss of life on the
other side of the Straits he said: "The proportion of those
saved on the Calabrian side is certainly larger—principally,
I think, because the houses in Reggio, Villa San Giovanni,
Palmi, and the other towns destroyed were much lower than
those in the city. Moreover, as will be seen before long, many
persons died of hunger and thirst in Messina, where the whole
water supply was cut off by the ruin of the first shock, and
bread was not obtainable at any price for many days; but on
the Calabrian side the survivors camped out in the orange
groves, and the fruit, which is almost ripe at Christmas in
that latitude, stayed their hunger and assuaged their thirst."

Generally, the total of deaths from the earthquake, in Sicily
and Calabria, seems now to be estimated at 200,000.

A report from Rome, issued on the 3d of August, 1909, by the
Central Relief Committee, of which the Duke of Aosta is
president, announced that the receipts of the Committee to
that time had been 25,100,000 lire (£1,004,000, or
$5,020,000). The fund for the orphans had all been handed over
to the Queen Helena Home.

For the building of shelters the sum of 4,000,000 lire had
been paid over to the Minister of Public Works for the
construction of 3,000 shelters. The number of persons assisted
had been 14,000, but it would eventually reach 20,000.

EARTHQUAKES: A. D. 1909 (July 1).
A second shock at Messina and Reggio.

During six months following the great catastrophe, Messina had
been so far rebuilt and reoccupied as to have acquired a
population of somewhat more than 25,000. To them, on the
evening of June 30 and the morning of July 1, came once more
the dread quaking of their unstable portion of the earth. The
shocks as described in despatches to the Press "were similar
to the fatal disturbances of December, and were accompanied by
the same roaring noises. The people fled with cries of terror.
They hurried to the open places of the city and the
surrounding country, praying to the saints that their lives be
spared. …
{190}
So far as is known, however. only a few people were hurt, and
this undoubtedly is due to the fact that the city was only
partially rebuilt. Had the walls of all the houses been
standing the loss of life would have been heavy. One woman was
killed by a falling wall, and a child was seriously injured."
Reggio, as before, shared the experience, but there is said to
have been no loss of life.

Late in the year it was reported to a London newspaper that
"at Reggio a very fair advance, has been made, and the city is
already acquiring some air of its former busy prosperity; but
in Messina and its neighborhood, little or nothing has been
done in the way of permanent work, while the temporary
accommodations for the survivors still leave much to be
desired."

EARTHQUAKES: Jamaica: A. D. 1907.
The destruction of Kingston by earthquake and fire.

‘On Monday afternoon, the 14th January, 1907, at about 3.30 P.
M., the city of Kingston and its suburbs was almost entirely
destroyed by heavy earthquake shocks. There was little or no
wind at the time; what little there was was from the east, and
the atmospherical conditions were quite normal. The shocks
apparently approached from the south at first and then from
the west. They are variously estimated to have lasted from ten
to thirty seconds, the latter estimate being the general
opinion. On the other hand, several Englishmen who were in the
open at the time and in no immediate danger from falling
houses, &c., consider 20 seconds the outside limit of time
taken by the shocks. During this period an enormous amount of
damage was done to life and property. Large numbers of
buildings at once collapsed. As is, unfortunately, usual in
such cases, fires broke out in several places in the
commercial portion of the town. …

"Unfortunately, the Central Fire Station was destroyed by
earthquake, so the fire engine was not available. The means at
hand were thus very inadequate for fighting the flames,
although they were supplemented greatly by fire-extinguishing
appliances from the various ships alongside the wharves, and
those belonging to the wharves themselves. The fire, however,
spread with terrible rapidity, and all efforts were directed
towards isolating the burning area. During this time the light
wind blowing was about north-east, but it later in the
afternoon went round to the north and north-west, thus lending
tremendous assistance to the people in their efforts to
extinguish the fire. Many injured persons, buried in the
falling debris, were burnt to death. Meanwhile, vast numbers
of the inhabitants were flying northwards to the racecourse
and open spaces outside the town, where they spent the
night—small earthquake shocks being felt at frequent intervals
during that time. It may be said that the whole of Kingston
and its suburbs are either destroyed or in ruins. A few of the
substantially built houses are still standing, but so shaken
and injured by the shocks that it will be impossible to repair
them. …

"It is extremely difficult to estimate the total loss of life
in the earthquake and fire. The Government have called on the
inhabitants to register the names of their killed and missing,
but up to this date [January 29] there has been little
response. On the 25th January, some eleven days after the
catastrophe, the numbers recorded at the Registrar’s Office
were only 121, although at least four times that number are
known to have been buried or cremated. The careful opinion of
prominent officials in Kingston is that the loss of life will
be about 1000. Of the injured the daily number of in-patients
at the hospital is about 300, mostly cases of concussions and
legs amputated. …

"The large numbers of women, children, and old or disabled men
encamped in the Public Gardens and racecourse, &c., were
supplied with food rations daily, under the supervision of the
Relief Committee. Over 3,000 people daily have been receiving
this relief. At no time does there appear to have been a
scarcity of food or water. A tremendous strain at once came on
the staff of the hospital, the place being besieged with the
injured and their relatives. Large numbers of medical men from
the out districts at once proceeded to Kingston and assisted
in attending to the wounded. With the aid of their ready
assistance, and that of many volunteer nurses from the civil
population, the hospital staff were enabled to cope with the
situation, and at the present time work is proceeding there
with great smoothness and regularity. The American ships
‘Indiana,’ ‘Missouri,’ and ‘Whipple,’ also, on arrival, landed
their surgeons, who at once established a hospital on shore
and rendered great assistance. …

"Directly after the earthquake, and while the fire was in
progress, the greater portion of the black and coloured
population were stupefied with terror and amazement, and lent
little or no aid to the white members of the community and the
troops and firemen in their rescue work. Vast numbers of them
fled from the city. Some became frenzied and ran here and
there declaring the end of the world had arrived, impeding the
work and terrifying the workers. Others formed groups and
commenced praying. At the Penitentiary, the prisoners, who
remained seated in their ranks on the parade ground all night,
spent the time in singing hymns without ceasing. As soon as
the first panic had subsided, the black population became
quite apathetic, and it was with great difficulty that the
Government were able to get able-bodied men to take part in
the work of demolition and clearing the streets. This, in
spite of the fact that the wages offered were 25 per cent.
more than the usual rate. …

"Considering the magnitude and widespread nature of the
disaster, the loss of life might easily have been on a much
larger scale. The earthquake came at a time of day when the
labouring part of the population were at work away from their
houses, and the streets in the busy commercial quarter
presented the comparatively deserted appearance so usual in
the afternoons in tropical places. As the streets in this
quarter were very narrow and the buildings on each side of
them lofty and of solid construction the loss of life must
have been largely increased had the earthquake happened during
the busy portion of the day. …

"Owing to the dry weather now prevailing here, the homeless
population, roughly encamped on the open spaces, are suffering
little or no hardship. It is to be hoped they may be
permanently sheltered before the wet season commences."

_Report by Major Chown, R. M. L. I., of
H. M. S. "Indefatigable"
dated Kingston, January 29, 1907._

{191}

Relief to the stricken island came so swiftly and profusely
from all parts of America, Europe, and almost every part of
the world, that Governor Swettenham was able to telegraph on
the 23d of January: "Money and provisions more than ample for
relief. Except for rebuilding no funds needed." Three ships of
the United States Navy, despatched by Admiral Evans from a
Cuban port on the instant of receiving news of the disaster,
reached Jamaica on the 17th and gave assistance in clearing
the ruins, besides rendering hospital service and furnishing
food and medical supplies. For the general lifting of the
community from its prostration, the British Government, in
May, by vote of Parliament, made a free grant to it of
£150,000, and a loan to the Colonial Government of £800,000
more.

_Correspondence relating to the Earthquake at Kingston,
Jamaica (Parliamentary Papers, Cd. 3560)._

EARTHQUAKES: Persia: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY).
Destructive shock in Luristan.

Seismographs in many parts of the world gave token of a
violent earthquake on the 23d of January, 1909; but three
weeks passed before the locality of the shock was learned. It
proved to have been centered in Western Persia, in the
mountainous province of Luristan, and to have been heavily
destructive of life. Its greatest severity was reported to
have been in a region at two days journey from Burujurd. Many
villages were wholly or partly destroyed, several having been
completely engulfed, and the loss of life is estimated to have
been between 5000 and 6000 people.

EARTHQUAKES: Portugal: A. D. 1909 (April).
Lisbon and its neighborhood upheaved.

Lisbon and the country surrounding it were shaken violently on
the evening of Friday, April 23d, 1909. There were no
fatalities in the city, but the outlying districts suffered
severely, especially the towns of Benavente, Samora, and Santo
Estevan. Reports three days after the disaster announced 46
killed and 38 injured at Benavente and Samora. Both villages
were completely destroyed, and their 6000 inhabitants,
starving and homeless, were encamped in the fields

EARTHQUAKES: Sumatra: A. D. 1909 (June).
Shocks and sea-wave in Upper Padang district.

News was received at The Hague in June, 1909, of severe shocks
of earthquake, on the 3d of that month, at Korinchi, Upper
Padang, Sumatra. The shocks were accompanied by an enormous
sea-wave. Two hundred and thirty people were killed and many
injured. Much damage was done.

----------EARTHQUAKES: End--------

ECHEGARAY, Jose.

See (in this Volume)
NOBEL PRIZES.

ECONOMIC FORESTRY.

See (in this Volume)
CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES.

ECUADOR: A. D. 1901-1906.
From revolution to revolution.

General Eloy Alfaro, who was made President by the revolution
of 1895 (see in Volume VI.), was succeeded peacefully in 1901
by General Leonidas Plaza, and the latter, in turn, by Lugardo
Garcia; but in 1906 the revolutionary method was revived in
favor of General Alfaro, and he ousted Senor Garcia from the
presidential chair.

ECUADOR: A. D. 1901-1906.
Participation in Second and Third International Conferences
of American Republics, at Rio de Janeiro.

See (in this Volume)
AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

ECUADOR: A. D. 1905.
Arbitration of boundary question with Peru.

See (in this Volume)
PERU: A. D. 1905.

EDMONTON:
Capital of the Province of Alberta.

See (in this Volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1905.

----------EDUCATION: Start--------

EDUCATION: AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1907.
Latest Statistics of State Schools.

Statistics published in July, 1909, by the Commonwealth
Government show that over £2,500,000 was spent on education by
the Australian States in 1907 in 7500 State schools. The total
daily average attendance at the schools for the year was
444,000. The disbursements of the States on University
education amounted to £113,000.

EDUCATION: CANADA: A. D. 1905.
The question of State Support to Sectarian Schools revived on
the creation of two new Provinces.

See (in this Volume)
CANADA: A. D. 1905.

EDUCATION: CANADA: A. D. 1907.
The founding and endowment of Macdonald College.

On the 16th of October, 1907, there was opened a new college
of fine character and great importance, on a noble site,
overlooking the Ottawa river, at Sainte de Bellevue, twenty
miles west of Montreal. It bears the name of its founder. Sir
William Macdonald, from whom it received an endowment of
$4,000,000. This Macdonald College is divided into three
schools: The School for Teachers, the School of Agriculture,
the School of Household Science. Its main purposes are
announced to be:

(1) "The carrying on of research work and investigation and
the dissemination of knowledge, with particular regard to the
interests and needs of the population in rural districts"; and

(2) the providing of "suitable and effective training for
teachers, especially for those whose work will directly affect
the education in schools in rural districts." It thus
appropriates to itself a field of education for the betterment
of farm life and work, the important need of which, looking to
everything in national character and prosperity, is only
beginning to be understood.

EDUCATION: CHINA: A. D. 1887-1907.
Christian Mission Schools.

"In the historical Volume presented in 1907 at the Shanghai
Conference Dr. Arthur H. Smith makes the following interesting
comparison of the statistics presented at the three Protestant
Missionary Conferences held in China in 1887, 1890, and 1907:

See, in this Volume,
MISSIONS, CHRISTIAN.

1876. 1889. 1907.

Number of societies. 29 41 82

Foreign teachers. 473 1,296 3,833

Stations and substations. 602 5,734

Pupils in schools. 4,909 16,836 57,683

"The above statistics, although incomplete, do serve as an
indication of the vigorous growth of Protestant missionary
educational activity in China. In this work the various
missionary foundations made their most notable advance in
interdenominational cooperation. In many instances several
denominations have combined in union schools or colleges. …
One of the chief agencies in reaching this unity and effective
cooperation has been the Educational Association of China,
founded as early as 1887. …

{192}

"No survey of missionary education in China would be complete
without mention of the widespread, well-organized Roman
Catholic activities. Of the eleven different Catholic orders
having representatives in China, the Jesuits are carrying on
the largest educational work. In 1907, in their five colleges
and seventy-two schools, a total of 25,335 students were
enrolled. All the Catholic orders together supervise the
instruction of over 75,000 Chinese students; this total, it
will be seen, being somewhat higher than that of Protestant
missions."

_George Marvin,
The American Spirit in Chinese Education
(The Outlook, November, 1908)._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1901-1902.
Edicts of Reform.
Modernizing of Examinations for Literary Degrees
and for Military Degrees.
New Universities, Colleges, and Schools.
Students sent abroad.

"An Edict on Reform in Education, published by the Chinese
Government on the 29th of August, 1901, commanded the
abolition of essays or homilies on the Chinese classics in
examinations for literary degrees, and substituted for them
essays and articles on modern matters, Western laws, and
political economy. The same procedure was also to be observed
in the future in the examination of candidates for office. By
the same Edict it was ordered that as the methods in use for
gaining military degrees—namely, trials of strength with stone
weights, agility with the great sword, and marksmanship with
the bow and arrow on foot and on horseback—were not of the
slightest value in turning out men for the army, where
knowledge of strategy and military science were the sine quâ
non for military officers, these trials of strength, etc.,
should be thenceforth abolished forever.

"Another Edict for the establishment of new universities,
colleges, and schools in China was published on the 12th of
September, 1901. It commanded all existing colleges in the
empire to be turned into schools and colleges of Western
learning. Each provincial capital was to have a University
like the Peking University, whilst the colleges in the
prefectures and districts of the various provinces were to be
schools and colleges of the second and third classes.

"Another Edict, for sending students to be educated abroad,
was published on the 17th of September, 1901. It commanded the
Viceroys and Governors of other provinces of the Empire to
follow the example of the Viceroy Liu Kun-yi of Liangkiang,
Chang Chihtung of Hukuang, and Kuei Chun (Manchu) of Szechuen,
in sending young men of scholastic promise and ability abroad
to study any branch of Western science or art best suited to
their abilities and tastes, so that they might in time return
to China and place the fruits of their knowledge at the
service of the empire.

"Those who are acquainted with China know very well that many
of the Edicts of the Government do not amount to much more
than waste paper. In this case, however, it has not been so.
The Imperial College in Shansi has been opened, with some 300
students, in the hope that it will develop into one of the
provincial universities. It is divided into a Chinese and a
Foreign Department. … The Edicts have not been a dead letter
in the other provinces either, though there has been enormous
difficulty in getting a sufficient number of professors to
teach or of text-books to use. Some Chinamen who under the old
system of education would not have got more than £30 per annum
now get £240, and there are not enough of them. At the lowest
estimate text-books and books of general knowledge of the West
to the value of £25,000 must have been sold during this year
alone. Books to the value of £6,000 were sold by the Society
for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge.

"I subjoin a list of the new colleges opened in ten different
provinces in 1901-1902:

Provinces. Funds provided.

Chekiang 50,000 strings of cash per annum
(about Taels 50,000, or over £6,000).

Honan. 30,000 Taels per annum.

Kweichow. 20,000 Taels per annum.

Fookien. 50,000 Mex. Dollars per annum.
(about £5,000).

Kiangsi. over 60,000 Mex. Dollars per annum.

Kwangtung. 100,000 Taels per annum.

Soochow several tens of thousands of Taels.

Nanking —

Shantung 50,000 Taels per annum.

Shansi 50,000 Taels per annum.

Chihli —

Prefectural Colleges
in Soochow. Taels 10,000.

Prefectural Colleges
in Shantung under
R. C. Bishop Anzer. Taels 2,000

"This comes to about half a million of Taels annually for the
whole Empire for modern education. Such is the new departure,
which dates from 1901-1902."

_Timothy Richard,
The New Education in China
(Contemporary Review, January, 1903)._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1906.
Chinese Students in Japan.

The following is from a communication to the State Department
at Washington from the American Legation at Tokyo, under date
of January 3, 1906:

"During the past year Chinese students have come to this
country in continually increasing numbers. Last summer the
number was estimated at 5000, of whom 2000 had been sent at
the expense of the Chinese Government. In November the number
is said to have reached 8000. In addition to the supervision
of the Chinese legation the students are looked after by eight
superintendents sent to reside here by their Government.

"Until recently the Japanese authorities seem to have done
nothing in this matter, but the magnitude of the number of
Chinese students finally made a certain degree of supervision
on their part seem wise. Accordingly, regulations for
controlling schools open to the Chinese were promulgated by
the minister for education on November 2, to go into effect
from the 1st instant. … The publication of these regulations
was greeted by a storm of protest. Bodies of Chinese students
passed indignant resolutions, saying that their liberty was
being assailed and seemed to find in the new rules an
indignity to their nationality. The restriction in choosing
schools and lodgings and the need of a letter of
recommendation annoyed them most. The agitation was so great
that over a thousand students returned to China; and no more
have been coming since the trouble."

{193}

EDUCATION: A. D. 1908.
The administration of the Department of Education in the
Chinese Government.

Under the date of November 9, 1908, the Peking correspondent
of the London _Times_ wrote of the administration of the
governmental Department of Education as follows:

"The Ministry of Education is under the presidency of a
learned scholar of the old type, Chang Chih-tung. The old
system of examination has entirely been abolished. Education
is improving, but there is little attempt at uniformity. There
is no lack of desire to learn, but the teaching outside of the
mission schools or of colleges under foreign control is quite
unsatisfactory. No attempt is made to obtain the services of
the best man. Japan engaged the best foreign teachers that
money could find, with the result that the standard of
education is there very high. But China seems to think any
teacher good enough so long as he is a shade better educated
than the pupil he has to teach."

On the other hand, Professor Thomas C. Chamberlin, of the
University of Chicago, who spent four months of the past year
in China, investigating educational conditions, has reported
that "the old education has practically passed away, and the
government is making strenuous, and on the whole remarkably
successful, efforts to build up a system of education modelled
on that of Europe and America. In all the larger cities of
China buildings have been erected, teachers and pupils
gathered, and schools of the modern type organized. In not a
few cases, as, for example, at Foochow and in the far west at
Chentu, the old examination halls have been torn down to make
place for schools modelled on those of the west."

EDUCATION: A. D. 1908.
Chinese Students in America.

"The disposition on the part of the Chinese Government to send
picked students to America for their education, although
interrupted formally years after the first set of twenty came
in 1872, has since 1890 shown a comparatively steady growth.
During the past year 155 Chinese students were maintained at
various educational institutions in this country on
foundations provided either by the Imperial or the Provincial
Governments. Out of this number seventy-one are under the
charge of the Imperial Chinese Legation at Washington;
twenty-seven are under the direction of Chang-Chuan,
Commissioner of Education for the Viceroyalties of Hupuh and
Kiang-man; fifty-seven others have been during the past year
under the direction of Dr. Tenny, at present Chinese Secretary
of our Legation at Peking. These last, although coming from
various parts of the Empire, all received their elementary
education at the Peyang College in Tientsin, of which Dr.
Tenny was formerly principal. At the request of Yuan-Shih-Kai,
then Viceroy of Chihli, of which province Tientsin is the
chief city, Dr. Tenny in 1906 assumed charge at Cambridge of
the Peiyang candidates sent to America, including those now at
Harvard and the various other colleges where, at his
suggestion, they were quartered. Since Dr. Tenny’s return in
July last to Peking, his position has been filled by the
appointment of Mr. H. F. Merrill, for many years Commissioner
of Customs at Tientsin. …

"Quite apart from this official recognition of the advantages
of an American education, many Chinese families send their
sons at their own expense to schools and colleges in this
country. It has been impossible to procure exact statistics of
the number of these privately supported students, but,
according to the best advices obtainable at the Chinese
Legation, there are about two hundred. …

"More important than anything that has yet taken place in this
movement of Chinese education in America is the recent
determination on the part of the Imperial Government to devote
a sum equal to that placed at their disposal by the remission
of the Boxer indemnity to the founding of an Educational
Mission in this country. … According to the terms of the
agreement contained in the note of Prince Ch’ing to Mr.
Rockhill last July, by the end of the fourth year from the
inauguration of the scheme four hundred students, sent by the
Imperial Government, will be added to the large and growing
number of their young fellow-countrymen already coming to
America."

_George Marvin,
The American Spirit in Chinese Education
(The Outlook, November, 1908)._

An English correspondent, writing from Peking, September 24,
1909, reported: "This week 47 students selected by examination
for proficiency in English and Chinese are leaving Peking for
the United States to enter upon studies paid for by funds from
the unexpended balance of the Boxer indemnity. They have been
selected from nearly 500 candidates who competed for this
great reward from many provinces of the Empire. An excellent
body of young men, they ought to do credit to their country."

See (in this Volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1901-1908.

EDUCATION: A. D. 1909.
Progress in Technical Education.

The following statements were in a Press despatch from
Tien-tsin, July, 1909:

"Technical education in China shows unmistakable signs of
extension. A very few years ago nothing existed which was
worthy of the name, while now it is not too much to say that
in the course of a few years the engineering schools of China
will be second only to the best in Europe and America.
Engineering courses are now being given at the following
institutions:
Imperial Polytechnic Institute, Shanghai;
Imperial University of Shansi, Tai-yuan-fu;
Tangshan Engineering and Mining College, Tangshan; and
Imperial Pei Yang University, Tien-tsin."

EDUCATION: A. D. 1909.
Formation in Great Britain and America of the China
Emergency Appeal Committee.

"Speaking at the Mansion House meeting [London] of the China
Emergency Committee held under the presidency of the Lord
Mayor on March 16, 1909, Sir Robert Hart, whose long work as
Inspector-General of the Imperial Chinese Customs has given
him the profoundest knowledge of China and its people, said:
‘We are alarmed lest Western knowledge and Western science may
give the Chinese people strength without principle, and may
even bring in a crude materialism without that higher teaching
and higher guidance which are necessary for the best welfare
of any people.’

"It is the realization of that danger, but even more a
realization of the needs of China, which have led to the
formation of the China Emergency Appeal Committee. … It is the
object of this Committee to utilize to the full the unexampled
present opportunity of establishing in China institutions
through which the Chinese people may be trained to educate
themselves in the Western knowledge and civilization which
they have set themselves to acquire.

{194}

"There is, first, China’s crying need of medical education—of
schools and hospitals in which Chinese students will be taught
and practise medicine and surgery. … Not less needed is the
establishment of colleges and centres for the training of
Chinese teachers for the primary and secondary schools which
are being established everywhere throughout this Empire of
400,000,000 inhabitants. The China Emergency Committee appeals
for £40,000 to build and equip these training colleges.
Thirdly, there is a demand throughout China for translations
of European books. The demand far exceeds the supply, though
it is only through literature that the Chinese gentleman will
acquaint himself with Western thought and learning. The books
sell in vast numbers, but the work of translation involves
heavy preliminary expenses. … These are the three objects for
the attainment of which the China Emergency Committee has been
established."

_London Times,
July 17, 1909._

On the initiative of the English Committee, of which Sir
Robert Hart is chairman, a proposal to move similarly in
America came before a recent conference of foreign mission
boards of the United States and Canada. A committee, Rev. Dr.
Arthur J. Brown, chairman, to whom the proposition was
referred, reported favorably. The conference approved the
report, and provided that a permanent committee be appointed,
to consist of those serving with Dr. Brown, together with
twelve laymen, to be chosen by the committee. This new
committee is "to promote a larger interest in Christian
education in China." It will assist the boards and other
Christian agencies and cooperate with the general education
committee appointed by the Shanghai conference and with the
China Educational Association.

EDUCATION: Cuba: A. D. 1899-1907.
Organization of Schools during the American Occupation.
Census-showing of results in 1907.

"During the American occupation of Cuba especial attention was
given to the establishment of common schools and other
educational institutions. The enrollment of the public schools
of Cuba immediately before the last war shows 36,306 scholars,
but an examination of the reports containing these figures
indicates that probably less than half the names enrolled
represented actual attendance. There were practically no
separate school buildings, but the scholars were collected in
the residences of the teachers. There were few books and
practically no maps, blackboards, desks, or other school
apparatus.

"The instruction consisted solely in learning by rote, the
catechism being the principal textbook, and the girls
occupying their time chiefly in embroidery. The teachers were
allowed to eke out their unpaid salaries by accepting fees
from the pupils. … At the end of the first six months of
American occupation the public school enrollment of the island
numbered 143,120. The schools were subjected to a constant and
effective inspection and the attendance was practically
identical with the enrollment. …

"All over the island the old Spanish barracks and the barracks
occupied by the American troops which had been withdrawn were
turned into schoolrooms after thorough renovation. The
pressure for education was earnest and universal. The
appropriations from the insular treasury for that purpose
during the first year of American occupation amounted to four
and a half millions.

"At the close of American occupation there were 121 boards of
education elected by the people (the system was kept out of
politics); the work of changing the old barracks throughout
the island into schoolhouses had been completed; a thoroughly
modern school building costing $50,000 had been erected at
Santiago; one school building in Habana had 33 rooms, with a
modern kindergarten, manual-training branch, two gymnasiums,
and baths; large schools had been established by changes in
government buildings at Guineas, Pinar del Rio, Matanzas,
Cieguo de Avila, and Colon; over 3600 teachers were subjected
to examination, and approximately 6000 persons applied for and
received examination as teachers. For six weeks during the
summer vacation of 1901, 4000 teachers were collected in
teachers’ institutes."

_Establishment of Free Government in Cuba
(58th Congress, 2d Session, Senate Document number 312)._

"The public-school system organized under the first
intervention in Cuba, is producing excellent results. Of the
population 10 years of age and over, 56.6 per cent could read,
showing a decided gain in that respect since 1899. Of the
native whites, 58.6 per cent could read, and of the colored 45
per cent were similarly educated."

_National Geographic Magazine,
February, 1909, p. 202._

EDUCATION: Egypt: A. D. 1901-1905.
Recent Development of Public Primary Schools.
Schools for Girls.

"Before the English occupation great masses of Egyptians
remained ignorant. Over 91 per cent. of the males and almost
99½ per cent. of the females could neither read nor write.
Until within the last five years public primary education for
the poorer classes, aside from the mere learning of the Koran,
was almost unknown. At the present time public schools are
being established everywhere, and grants in aid of these
schools are paid in proportion to the attendance and the
records made by the pupils. Likewise, certain positions in the
civil service can be filled only by those who hold
certificates from schools of certain grades. As a consequence
there has been a great awakening of interest. Most of the
teachers of these public schools are Mohammedan, and the
schools are non-Christian in their instruction. The Koran is
still used as a text-book for many purposes, but the education
is practical in its general nature. The children are taught,
besides reading and writing, the elements of the sciences, and
they choose either French or English as the foreign language
which they will learn, and that in which they will receive
instruction in the more advanced studies where Arabic
text-books cannot readily be provided. It is a noteworthy fact
that while, in the earlier days, French was the language more
frequently chosen, nearly all the pupils are now selecting
English. There are also provisions for training in law,
medicine, agriculture, engineering, etc. The law school is the
most popular, while the agricultural college—although the
basis of Egyptian wealth and prosperity is and must always be
agriculture—suffers from lack of pupils. Female education has
not been neglected, and we may expect in the near future that
instead of 99½ per cent. of the women being unable to write, a
very large per cent. of the mothers of the country will be
able to give their children the rudiments of education at
home."

_Professor J. W. Jenks,
The Egypt of To-day
(International Quarterly Review, October, 1902)._

{195}

"A revolution is a growth, not a cataclysm: the seeds of the
Egyptian Revolution were sown in the autumn of 1901 when Miss
Amina Hafiz Maghrabi was admitted to the Stockwell Road
Training College for Teachers. Miss Amina is the daughter of
one of the Officials in the Ministry of Public Instruction at
Cairo, and after passing a preliminary examination was sent to
England to be educated at the expense of the Egyptian
Government. … Miss Amina spent nearly three years at
Stockwell; then she returned to her own people; now she is a
teacher at the Abbas Public Girls’ School at Cairo, and the
right hand of Miss Spears, the Principal; this seed is bearing
fruit. No Revolution can be a success unless the women take it
up, and it is the women who are going to turn Egypt upside
down; it is the Mussulman women who have already begun to do
so. …

"The really astonishing work that has been going on for nearly
two years is the education for the teaching profession of
girls of the better class aged from about fourteen to twenty.
There are two or three schools where these girls are received
as boarders, and carefully tended by European mistresses; the
amazing thing is that they throw aside their veils and consent
to be taught by men. … In all the State schools of Egypt the
Koran is taught. In one corner of the garden is a small room
built to serve as a mosque; attendance is voluntary, but three
times a day each girl retires there for private prayer.

"These schools have been recently founded to provide female
teachers; they have not been in existence long enough for any
girls to have completed the two-years’ course; it may be they
will fail in their primary object; it is possible that the
girls who have been educated will none of them persevere in
the teaching profession; nevertheless, as Egyptian wives and
mothers, they must become the leaders of the revolution."

_Edmund Verney,
A Revolution in Egypt
(Contemporary Review, July, 1905)._

EDUCATION: A. D. 1908.
Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum.

From the eighth annual report of the Director of Education in
the Sudan it appears that the Gordon Memorial College, founded
at Khartoum in 1899 (see, in Volume VI. of this work, EGYPT:
A. D. 1898-1899), is now composed of the following educational
units:

"The primary school, which has been attended by 190 pupils,
the training college—vernacular and English—by 178, of which
150 belong to the vernacular side, and the upper school for
the training of engineers and surveyors by 28 students. One
hundred and seventy-two are on the roll of the instructional
workshops. There is, he remarks, no doubt whatever about the
popularity of the military school among the inhabitants of the
country, both Arab and Sudanese. Some 20 young men have now
received commission in the famous black battalions, or in the
new Arab levies now being raised. They have almost all been
well reported on. He understood that the responsible Army
authorities propose to increase this school substantially, and
to render it capable of holding twice the present number of
cadets." The College is reported to have "felt the strain of
existing financial difficulties very keenly, and the rate of
progress has hardly been maintained this year."—1908.

EDUCATION: England: A. D. 1902.
The Education Act, in the interest of the Voluntary or
Church Schools.
Text of its provisions most obnoxious to the Nonconformists.
"Passive resistance" among them to the law.

The Education Act of 1870 created in England for the first
time a system of officially regulated and publicly supported
elementary schools.

See in Volume I. of this work,
EDUCATION: MODERN: ENGLAND: A. D. 1699-1870.

Those schools divided the work of elementary education with
schools of another, older system, founded, maintained, and
managed by the churches of the country,—mainly by the
predominant Established Church of England. The public
elementary schools, supported out of local rates and governed
by locally-elected school boards were called Board Schools;
the others were called Voluntary Schools. The latter received
some public money from an annual Parliamentary grant, but
nothing from the local taxation which supported the former. In
the Voluntary Schools under church control religious teaching
was prescribed and given systematically; in the Board Schools
it was not. Those who held religious teaching, of their own
denominational orthodoxy, to be a vital part of education,
were ardent partisans of the Voluntary Schools. Those who
approved the exclusion of theological differences from the
teaching of the Board Schools were equally ardent champions of
those. As a rule, the adherents of the Established Church and
of the Roman Catholic Church were opponents of the public
system, while the Dissenters or Nonconformists of all sects
gave it strenuous support. Thus the two systems were
mischievously antagonized, and almost from the beginning of
the operation of the Act of 1870 it had been manifest that one
or the other must ultimately give way to its rival.

In 1902 the Conservative party, in which the Established
Church of England is most largely represented, found itself
strong enough in Parliament to undertake the nationalizing of
the Voluntary Schools in England and Wales, incorporating them
with their rivals in one reconstructed national system, but
securing their domination in it, along with equal sharing from
the public purse. A Bill for the purpose was proposed to the
House of Commons on the 24th of March by Mr. Balfour, then the
Administration leader in the House. In his speech on a motion
for leave to bring it in he spoke of the need of a single
authority for education, primary, secondary, and technical; of
the disadvantages of the two organizations of elementary
schools, and of the absurdity of supposing that the great
number of Voluntary Schools and Endowed Schools could be swept
away and replaced at enormous public cost. The proposed Bill,
based on these views, would extinguish the local School Boards
and make the County Council in counties and the Borough
Council in county boroughs the one local education authority.
As introduced subsequently and enacted, after heated and long
debate, the Bill accomplished its leading objects, so far as
concerned elementary education, by provisions of which the
following is the text:

{196}

"Part III. Elementary Education.

5.
The local education authority shall throughout their area
have the powers and duties of a school board and school
attendance committee under the Elementary Education Acts, 1870
to 1900, and any other Acts, including local Acts, and shall
also be responsible for and have the control of all secular
instruction in public elementary schools not provided by them,
and school boards and school attendance committees shall be
abolished.

"6.
(1) All public elementary schools provided by the local
education authority shall, where the local education authority
are the council of a county, have a body of managers
consisting of a number of managers not exceeding four
appointed by that council, together with a number not
exceeding two appointed by the minor local authority. Where
the local education authority are the council of a borough or
urban district they may, if they think fit, appoint for any
school provided by them a body of managers consisting of such
number of managers as they may determine.

"(2) All public elementary schools not provided by the local
education authority shall, in place of the existing managers,
have a body of managers consisting of a number of foundation
managers not exceeding four appointed as provided by this Act,
together with a number of managers not exceeding two
appointed—

(_a_) where the local education authority are the council
of a county, one by that council and one by the minor local
authority; and

(_b_) where the local education authority are the council
of a borough or urban district, both by that authority.

"(3)
Notwithstanding anything in this section—

(_a_) Schools may be grouped under one body of managers
in manner provided by this Act; and

(_b_) Where the local education authority consider that
the circumstances of any school require a larger body of
managers than that provided under this section, that authority
may increase the total number of managers, so, however, that
the number of each class of managers is proportionately
increased.

"7.—
(1) The local education authority shall maintain and keep
efficient all public elementary schools within their area
which are necessary, and have the control of all expenditure
required for that purpose, other than expenditure for which,
under this Act, provision is to be made by the managers; but,
in the case of a school not provided by them, only so long as
the following conditions and provisions are complied with:—

"(_a_) The managers of the school shall carry out any
directions of the local education authority as to the secular
instruction to be given in the school, including any
directions with respect to the number and educational
qualifications of the teachers to be employed for such
instruction, and for the dismissal of any teacher on
educational grounds, and if the managers fail to carry out any
such direction the local education authority shall, in
addition to their other powers, have the power themselves to
carry out the direction in question as if they were the
managers; but no direction given under this provision shall be
such as to interfere with reasonable facilities for religious
instruction during school hours:

"(_b_) The local education authority shall have power to
inspect the school;

"(_c_) The consent of the local education authority shall
be required to the appointment of teachers, but that consent
shall not be withheld except on educational grounds; and the
consent of the authority shall also be required to the
dismissal of a teacher unless the dismissal be on grounds
connected with the giving of religious instruction in the
school. … [Here follow provisions relative to schoolhouses and
teachers’ dwellings.]

"(_3_) If any question arises under this section between
the local education authority and the managers of a school not
provided by the authority, that question shall be determined
by the Board of Education.

"(_4_) One of the conditions required to be fulfilled by
an elementary school in order to obtain a parliamentary grant
shall be that it is maintained under and complies with the
provisions of this section.

"(_5_) In public elementary schools maintained but not
provided by the local educational authority, assistant
teachers and pupil teachers may be appointed, if it is thought
fit, without reference to religious creed and denomination,
and, in any case in which there are more candidates for the
post of pupil teacher than there are places to be filled, the
appointment shall be made by the local education authority,
and they shall determine the respective qualifications of the
candidates by examination or otherwise.

"(_6_) Religious instruction given in a public elementary
school not provided by the local education authority shall, as
regards its character, be in accordance with the provisions
(if any) of the trust deed relating thereto, and shall be
under the control of the managers: Provided that nothing in
this subjection shall affect any provision in a trust deed for
reference to the bishop or superior ecclesiastical or other
denominational authority so far as such provision gives to the
bishop or authority the power of deciding whether the
character of the religious instruction is or is not in
accordance with the provisions of the trust deed.

"(_7_) The managers of a school maintained but not
provided by the local education authority shall have all
powers of management required for the purpose of carrying out
this Act, and shall (subject to the powers of the local
education authority under this section) have the exclusive
power of appointing and dismissing teachers.

"8.—
(1) Where the local education authority or any other persons
propose to provide a new public elementary school, they shall
give public notice of their intention to do so, and the
managers of any existing school, or the local education
authority (where they are not themselves the persons proposing
to provide the school), or any ten rate payers in the area for
which it is proposed to provide the school, may, within three
months after the notice is given, appeal to the Board of
Education on the ground that the proposed school is not
required, or that a school provided by the local education
authority, or not so provided, as the case may be, is better
suited to meet the wants of the district than the school
proposed to be provided, and any school built in contravention
of the decision of the Board of Education on such appeal shall
be treated as unnecessary.

{197}

"(2) If, in the opinion of the Board of Education, any
enlargement of a public elementary school is such as to amount
to the provision of a new school, that enlargement shall be so
treated for the purposes of this section.