Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/287

 ITALY

241

ITALY

There were, moreover, 2 battleships, 1 protected cruiser, and 10 torpedo-boats in course of construction.

In 1909-1910 the expenses on naval construction are anticipated to amount to nearly $9,000,000. Italy is the seventh of the naval powers and has an efficient tonnage of 150.9S0. The naval academy at Leghorn and the engineering school of Venice provide officers for the navy.

Education. — In the Kingdom of Italy education is divided into primary or elementary, secondary and superior, and the scholastic administration, in general, is under the Ministry of Pui)lic Instruction, which is assisted l>y a partly elective Superior Council, consist- ing of thirty-two members; local educational admin- istration, excluding universities, is under the prefect,

so far as the communes and the heads of families are concerned, is as yet only a laudable wish, seeing the very slow diminution in the numbers of those unable to read and write. Those who did not know how to read and write, according to the census of 1872, con- stituted an average of 68-7 per cent of the population; the same class, in the census of 1901, furnishes a corre- sponding average of 52-3. The illiterate among the army conscripts born in 1886 numbered 50,642, or 29-3 per cent of the enrolled, and the corresponding figures of the navy conscripts born in 1885 were 5833 or 48-7. In the marriages contracted in 1906 there was a proportion of 29-3 per cent of the men, and 42-1 per cent of the women illiterate. The causes of permanent illiteracy, notwithstanding expenditure and govern-

ARCHDIOCESES AND DIOCESES OF ITALY

Suburbicarian

Ostla and Vellelrl

Porto and S. Ruflna

Albano

Frasrati

Palest rina

SabiDa

I. Subject IiT d lately to Holy See

Camerino

Catania

Cosenza

Ferrara

Gaeta

Lucca

Perugia

Dioceses Aci-Reale Acquapendente Alatrl Amelia Anagnl

Arezzo

AscoU

Assist

A versa

Bagnorea

Borgo S. Donnino

Cava and Sarno

Citti della Pleve

Clttii dl Castello

Civit& Casteliano.

Orte.andGallese Cornelo Tar- nla, and

Civitavecchia

Savona and

Noll Tortona Ventimlglla

Alba Aosta AstI

Mondov! Plnerolo Saluzzo Susa

Bielia Casaie Mon-

ferrato Novara Vigevano

Milan Bergamo Brescia

Como

Crema

Cremona

Lodl

Mantua

Pa via

VI Venice Adria BelluDo and

Feltre Ceneda Chioggia Concordia Padua Treviso Verona Vicenza

States of the

VIII Fermo

Maoerata and

Tolentino Montalto Rlnatransone

Ravenna

Bertlnoro

Cervia

Cesena

Vado and Urban ia Caglia

Tuscany and

Florence Borgo San

Sepolcro Colle dl Val

d'Elsa Flesole S. Miniato

XII

MODENA

Carpi

Carrara Regglo

XIII Pisa

Leghorn Pescia PontremoU Vol terra

Chiusl Grosseto Massa Marittima

^l-,

Cortona

Fabriano and

Matellca Fano Ferentlno FoEgia Foligno Gravina and

Monte Peloso Gubblo Jesl

Lunl-Sarzana S. Marco and

Bisignano

Mlieto MoUetta. Ter- lizzi. and

Monopoli Montalcino Monteflascone Jlontepuiciano

Term Nocera Norcia Orvleto Osimo and

CIngoll

Rccanatl and

XV

acerenza a] Matera Anglona-TursI

XVII

Benevento

S. Apata del GotI

AUre

Arlano

Ascotl. Satrl-

ano and

Clrlgnola

TodI Trela Trlvento Trola

AvelUno

Bojano

Bovlno

Larlno

Lucera

XIX

APUA

Calazzo Calvl and

Caserta Isemia and Venafro Sessa Aurunca

XX

'; Angelo del Lornbardi and Bisaccia

'ampagna

XXXII

Messina LI pari Nicosia Pattl XXXIII Monreale Caltanissetta Girgentl XXXIV Palermo Cefalfi Mazzara del

Vallo Trapani XXXV

Syracuse Caitaglrone

XXXVI

Caglia Ri Gaitelli-Nuoro Igleslas

XXXVIII

Sassari Alghero

Armerlna I Bosa

XXII Lanciano Orion a XXIII Manfredom Viestl XXIV Naples Acerra Ischia Nola Pozzuoll XXV Otranto GalUpoll

XXVI Reggio Bova Cassano

ail' Ionic Catanzaro Cotrone Gerace Nicastro Nicoteraand

Tropoa

I XXVII

Salerno Acerno Capacclo-

del Paganl Nusco Poll cast ro

Bussentlno

XXVIII . Severina

Cariatl

XXIX

Sorrento Casteilamare dl Stabla

XXXI

Than I and

Barletta Andrla

a provincial scholastic council, the superintendent of studies, the board of vigilance for the technical and nautical institutes, and the district inspectors of the elementary schools. Elementary instruction is di- vided into two grades, the lower and the superior, each of which is divided into three classes, and the law compels the communes to furnish it; it is, as a rule, gratuitous, and jiarents and guardians are obliged to see that their charges receive it between the ages of six years and twelve years, unless they provide otherwise for their children's instruction (laws of 15 July, 1877, and S July, 1004). The State furnishes pri- mary instruction, also, in schools estabhshed in for- eign parts. No citizen is allowed to vote who has not passed the examination at the end of the primary course. The normal schools train the teachers of the elementary schools. It is evident, however, that com- pulsion in regard to this elementary education, both VIII-— 16

ment effort, are poverty of workingmen's famiHes, which are constrained to make their cliildren earners before they have reached the age of twelve years; the moral debasement of the teachers who. with some ex- ceptions, have become apostles of sociahsm and athe- ism, because of their miserable remuneration, which is inferior to the salary of a workman ; the want of care on the part of the communes in regard to the hygiene of the schools, which makes the school a repellent rather than an attractive centre; the fact that the agricul- tural population is scattered through the country, which makes profitable attendance at school difficult for the children; many children leave school without having acquired instruction, knowing scarcely how to write their names. What are the remedies? There is only one: the liberty of elementary teaching in the broadest sense of the worfl, not only as regards the teachers but also as regards the course of studies, ex-