Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/408

372 of the Republic being a land-owner. Now every man is a man. The sons of the former slaves are to-day lawyers, doctors, surgeons, architects, engineers, sculptors, chemists, skilled artisans, shrewd business men and good laborers; some of them, without being multimillionaires, live on large incomes. The Haitians operate their own telegraph and telephone systems. Under the French control there was not even a good primary school in the island; to-day Haiti devotes almost a sixth of its revenues to education. All the public schools are free, from the elementary ones to the highest grades. There are schools of law, medicine, pharmacy, electrical and applied sciences (sciences appliqués), even a school of painting; and these are open to all. Not satisfied with the education which can be had at home, many Haitians go to France to obtain still higher or special instruction, and achieve success in the French schools of mineralogy, agriculture, moral and political sciences, etc.

In the light of these facts, which may be easily verified, I may confidently appeal to the fair-minded and intelligent reader to decide whether the assertions so frequently made, that the Haitians are relapsing into barbarism and falling back into a state almost of savagery, are worthy of credence, or whether they are merely unjust and ungrounded aspersions upon a people who since their independence have been striving, with success commensurate to their opportunities, to attain the practical ideals of modern civilization!