Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/220

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UNITED STATES

mented by private and parochial schools. Nevertheless, owing partly to the former existence of slavery, and partly to the constant influx of numbers of uneducated immigrants, there exists a large mass still totally ignorant of the first elements of education. According to the census of 1880, in the whole country, out of a total population above ten years of age of 36,761,607, 4,923,451 (13.4 per cent) were returned as unable to read, and 6,239,958 (17 per cent) as unable to write. The figures of the eleventh census, taken in 1890, show that the rate of illiteracy was reduced during the decade to 13.3 per cent of the entire population ten years of age and over. The following table gives the total population of the United States, the number and per cent of each element going to make up this population, the population of each ten years of age and over, the number and per cent of illiterates to each :

Total Population Per Cent of Total Popula- tion Population 10 Years of Age AND OVEK Total ILLITERATES Number Per Cent Native whites. Foreign whites. Colored 45,862,023 9,121,867 7,638,360 73.2 14.6 12.2 33,144,187 8,786,887 5,482,485 2,065,003 1,147,571 3,112,128 6.2 13.1 56.8 Total 62,622,250 - 47,413,559 6,324,702 13.3

The United States Government makes no direct appropri- ation of moneys for the support of the elementary public schools, except in the District of Columbia, but has set aside for that purpose in each of the newer States a certain portion of the public domain, two "sections" (or square miles) in each township six miles square, the proceeds from the sale of which form the chief part of the permanent school funds of those States, the income alone being used for the support of the schools. This income is supplemented by State and local tax- ation, so that it constitutes about five per cent of the total school revenue of all the States. In 1896-97 the amount ex- pended on public schools was f 187,320,602. The Universities and colleges had an income of $18,972,414 from productive funds, from fees, and from United States Government, State, or municipal appropriations. The schools of technology had an income of $3,500,190, and the colleges for women, $3,135,- 842.