Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/41

Rh much more favorable showing than those in mi official estimates. These indicate an illiteracy ranging between 80 and 85 per cent. Some of such estimates are based on the total population, which is evidently an unfair standard if education is being considered in relation to ability to understand public affairs as presented through the printed page and in relation to ability for self-government. The estimates of many careful observers agree, however, that the census returns, even making all allowances, present the picture in a very favorable light and calculate the illiteracy of even the adult population at near to 70 or 75 per cent.

Whichever standard most closely approximates the truth, it is clear that literacy in Mexico, as elsewhere, if taken as a test of general intelligence must be considered along with the actual amount of reading done by the population, the circulation of books, magazines, and newspapers, and the general intellectual activity of the community. In these respects the life of Mexico, with the exception of that in the cities, is backward, even more so, it seems clear, than the official figures or individual estimates indicate.

Accepting the official figures as a basis for comparison of the relative prevalence of illiteracy in different districts it appears, as would be expected, that the northern states and those in which the larger cities of