Education in Spanish times.—Work of Hostos.—School organization.—Professional institute.—Primary and secondary education.—Literacy.—Libraries.—Newspapers.—Literature.—Fine Arts.

As in other Spanish colonies, it was not the policy of the Spanish government in Santo Domingo to foster popular education. Learning was confined to the clergy and the aristocracy and was imparted only by servants of the church. As early as 1538, the Dominican friars obtained a papal bull for the establishment of a university, and in 1558 the institution known as the University of St. Thomas of Aquino was inaugurated by them in Santo Domingo City, with faculties of medicine, philosophy, theology and law, the principal branch being theology. This university acquired considerable celebrity, but practically disappeared during the colony's decline, being revived by royal decree of May 26, 1747, which gave it the title of Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Domingo. The cession of the island to France and the wars which followed weakened the famous institution, which was definitely closed by the Haitians when they assumed control of the government. The Haitian occupation and the civil disorders of the first forty years of the Republic were not propitious for the spreading of education. Beyond a theological seminary founded in 1848, there were only a few humble public and private schools, leading a precarious existence. An eminent Porto Rican educator, Eugenio M. de Hostos, was responsible for the intellectual renaissance of Santo Domingo. This remarkable man was one of those talented dreamers produced by Latin-America, a lover of the abstract ideal in government, philosophy and pedagogy, erudite, eloquent, with an enthusiasm which fired his pupils and hearers. Early in life he conceived the idea which he preached unceasingly: that of a Confederated West Indian Republic, in which the principal states were to be Cuba, Santo Domingo and Porto Rico. Inspired by the Cuban war of independence of 1868 to 1878, he wrote and spoke throughout Spanish America in behalf of the union of the Spanish speaking peoples of the West Indies, the first step to that end to be the independence of Cuba. In 1880 he arrived for the third time in Santo Domingo, where he was then less known than in South America. Having obtained from the government a commission to found normal schools in the Republic, he was appointed director of the normal school of Santo Domingo City. He came as the right man at the right time. His teachings touched a responsive chord in the hearts of the Dominicans; his unsparing condemnation of old pedagogical methods and eager advocacy of new ones gave rise to discussions which awakened a general interest in education and letters; and his aggressive enthusiasm smote the rock which held Dominican literature bound. A prominent Dominican historian, Americo Lugo, says: "I believe that what may be called national literature does not begin until after the arrival in the Republic of the eminent educator Eugenio M. de Hostos."

Hostos labored in Santo Domingo for eight years, during which time he had as pupils many who have since become prominent in the councils of the Republic. The baneful policies of Heureaux forced his departure, and he settled in Chile with his family, being appointed professor of constitutional law at the National University. Upon the conclusion of the Spanish-American war, when it became apparent that Porto Rico would be American and his ideal of an Antillan Confederation definitely shattered, he journeyed to Washington to labor in behalf of Porto Rico, returning later to his native island in the hope of uniting the Porto Ricans in a demand for autonomy. There political passion ran high, and Hostos, disappointed, went back to Santo Domingo, where his entry was almost triumphal. He again assumed charge of public education though the civil disorders filled him with sadness. In 1903 he died in Santo Domingo, but the seed he sowed lives and flourishes and his memory is revered by Dominicans.

In 1884 a general school law was passed, repeatedly modified since, according to which primary instruction is a charge upon the municipality, while the cost of secondary instruction is to be defrayed by the state. Supreme inspection over educational matters was given to the Minister of Justice and Public Instruction, who was assisted by a superior board of education with school inspectors in the various provinces. There were further special boards of education in each province, presided over by the governor, and school boards in the communes which are not capitals of provinces and in the cantons. Owing to the difficulty of finding competent personnel, the inspection of the educational institutions has generally been perfunctory and the teachers have done pretty much as they pleased. Unfortunately the financial limitations of the country have not permitted the development of the schools in the measure desired. Since the middle of 1917 numerous changes in the school system and curriculum have been decreed by the Department of Public Instruction and the system is undergoing a general reorganization.

In 1882 a "Professional Institute" was founded, the name of which was in 1914 changed to "University of Santo Domingo," and it is now called the Central University of Santo Domingo. It occupies the same building in the capital, adjoining the church of St. Dominic, where the old university was located. It confers degrees in five branches: law, medicine, pharmacy, dental surgery and mathematics and surveying. Practically all the lawyers of the Republic have graduated from this school. Most of the native pharmacists, also, have studied here. With reference to instruction in medicine and surgery, and in dentistry, the institution is handicapped by the lack of a suitable hospital and clinic. As a result those who wish to adopt any of these professions pursue their studies abroad, if possible, and all the best known physicians are graduates of foreign universities. The entire annual appropriation for the University is only about $24,000. A similar institution, on a smaller scale, is the Professional Institute of Santiago, founded in 1916. In several cities there are high schools called normal schools, and other institutions called superior schools, and the capital has an academy of drawing, painting and sculpture.

With the exception of a few private schools, primary education is in the hands of the municipalities, which are assisted by small subventions from the national government. In the municipalities there is more enthusiasm for education than in Congress, if we judge from the figures presented by the budgets. Every little town takes pride in making its budget for education as large as possible, year after year. The total amount spent for educational purposes, however, including salaries, rent, supplies, subventions and teachers' pensions, is only in the neighborhood of $500,000, contributed about in equal shares by the state and the municipalities.

The total number of scholars enrolled is only about 20,000. The schools are generally located in rented houses, there being no buildings erected expressly for school purposes. Their equipment is as a rule deficient. The teaching force is handicapped by lack of facilities and training. The salaries of the elementary teachers are very small, and while some municipalities are prompt in their payments, others lag far behind, and the Spanish saying "as hungry as a schoolmaster" has not lost all its meaning.

If the amounts expended for education are not large, it is due to lack of money and not to lack of realization of the advantages of learning. The interest manifested in education and the eagerness of parents to furnish their children as much schooling as possible, are among the most hopeful signs for the future. In the towns and villages where the schools are located, most children learn at least to read and write, but out in the country illiteracy and ignorance reign supreme. In the absence of statistics it is not possible to determine the proportion of illiterates; there is no doubt, however, that it is very large, and I have heard it estimated at all the way from seventy to ninety per cent of the population over ten years of age.

Some of the best schools are private institutions, one of the best known being the institute for girls and young ladies, founded by Santo Domingo's foremost woman poet, SalomÉ UreÑa de Henriquez. It is the custom also for well-to-do families to send their children abroad for study and to travel themselves, and the Dominicans are not few who, besides their native Spanish, speak other languages, acquired abroad. Within the country, too, there is a predilection among the upper class for the study of foreign tongues, and many learn English and French in the family circle or by association with persons speaking these languages.

As a result of the educational limitations, the population of the country may be divided into three groups: first, a number of persons, small in comparison with the whole number of inhabitants, who compare in culture, education and accomplishments with members of the best society in any country; second, a much larger group of persons who possess knowledge more or less rudimentary; and third, the great majority of the inhabitants, who are unlettered and unlearned.

One obstacle to the spread of information is the lack of public libraries. There is a public library in Puerto Plata, and various clubs in the larger towns have libraries, for their members or the public, but they are all very small and limited. The newspapers, therefore, furnish the only source of reading for the majority. Practically all the papers are published in the cities of Santo Domingo, Santiago and Puerto Plata, and all are of modest dimensions. Many newspapers have been founded in the Republic and after leading an ephemeral existence have succumbed, some because their editors were persuaded by threats or rewards on the part of the government to cease publication, and the greater portion because of financial embarrassment. Notwithstanding the constitutional precept guaranteeing free speech, editors of the opposition have generally found it more healthy to withdraw to the neighboring countries and conduct their campaigns at long range. On the other hand, it must be said that several governments have honestly endeavored to allow the press full liberty, but that the privilege has always been abused. The principal daily newspaper of the Republic, and the one having the largest circulation is the "Listin Diario" of Santo Domingo. It is a four-page sheet and its daily edition is about 10,000 copies. It is the only paper having a cable service, and it receives its cablegrams from the French cable company, whose line crosses the island. It is also one of the oldest of the existing newspapers, having been founded in 1889, and maintained itself by constantly observing a prudent attitude. In the capital there also appear the "Gaceta Oficial," in which the laws and governmental decisions and announcements are published; the "BoletÍn Municipal," containing municipal announcements; several reviews whose character is indicated by their title: "Revista MÉdica," "Revista de Agricultura," "Revista Judicial," "BoletÍn MasÓnico"; two small humorous papers; two commercial sheets; an illustrated paper, "Blanco y Negro," and a well-known literary monthly, "Cuna de AmÉrica" (Cradle of America). Santiago also boasts a daily paper, "El Diario," as also several smaller papers and literary periodicals. In Puerto Plata "El Porvenir," the oldest of existing Dominican newspapers, is published, as well as three less important sheets.

Especially interesting among these publications are the "Cuna de AmÉrica" and others devoted to belles-lettres. They constitute a reflection of current Dominican literature, being given over to poems, lyric compositions, biographic, historical, philosophic and other articles, and extracts from new plays and books. In these periodicals most of the poems which have brought fame to Santo Domingo have appeared.

Before the intellectual awakening incident to the labors of Hostos the number of Dominican writers was small. Little was done in colonial times. In the turbulent period following the cessation of Spanish sovereignty at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the situation of the country was not favorable for the cultivation of the muses, but scions of the families who then emigrated have made their names immortal in the literature of Cuba and other neighboring countries. Juan Pablo Duarte, the liberator, Antonio Delmonte y Tejada, the historian, and a small group of others who flourished shortly before or at the time of the establishment of the Republic, may be said to initiate the literature of the country, but their fame is mostly local. The first generation of Dominican citizens furnished a somewhat larger proportion of literary men, among whom may be mentioned the venerable Emiliano Tejera, the late Archbishop Fernando A. de MeriÑo, Francisco X. Amiama, Francisco Gregorio Billini, Mariano A. Cestero, the historian Jose G. Garcia and the novelist Manuel de J. Galvan, though it is significant that the best productions of some of these appeared after 1880. It is since that year that literature has really flourished. So fecund have Dominican writers been, and so excellent their productions, that Santo Domingo occupies a proud place in the beautiful field of Latin-American literature, where only a few years ago it was practically unknown. There is an abundance of poets, essayists, historians and novelists worthy of mention, and an attempt to single out a few might lead to unjust distinctions. A number of the best writers are women, and all prominent newspaper men are also distinguished in literature.

In poetry, especially lyric poetry, the Dominican writers excel. They show great depth of feeling and a full command of the sonorous Castilian tongue. A favorite theme is, of course, the old story which is ever new. The civil wars have inspired many pathetic compositions, and poems like SalomÉ UreÑa's apostrophe to the ruins of colonial times, Bienvenido S. Nouel's elegy on the ruins left by the late revolutions, and Enrique Henriquez' "Miserere!", gems of verse, are veritable cries of anguish at the desolation wrought by fratricidal strife. Perhaps it is the poets' sorrow at the misfortunes of their country which is the cause of the note of sadness so often to be remarked in Dominican writings. Some writers are classed as poets though they have versified little or not at all; of these Tulio M. Cestero, one of the most popular of the younger writers, is an example, it being said of him that "he writes his poetry in prose."

The love of poetry is by no means confined to persons of higher education, but is general throughout the country. It has been said that if there were one engineer in Santo Domingo for every hundred poets, there would be fewer mudholes in the roads. The productions of some poetasters are characterized by an abundance of rare adjectives, which are introduced as well to give an impression of depth of thought as to advertise the author's erudition. However, there are so many good poets that forgiveness is readily extended to the others.

The national song of Santo Domingo, an ode to liberty, was written by a school teacher, Emilio Prud'homme. The music was composed by JosÉ Reyes, who died several years ago, and is agreeable and almost majestic. Reyes occupies probably the most prominent place among Dominican composers. Others have also obtained prominence, and their number is constantly increasing; among them special mention may be made of JosÉ de J. Ravelo, one of the younger men whose work has attracted attention and gives promise of even better things.

In painting and sculpture several Dominicans have attained prominence of late fears. The principal artists are Arturo Grullon, a prominent oculist; Luis Desangles; and Miss Adriana Billini, whose paintings have received prizes in Paris, Porto Rico and Havana respectively. Desangles painted the picture "Caonabo," which hangs in the session hall of the City Council of Puerto Plata and shows the Indian chief in chains. The sculptors are few, and their fame so far is only local, The foremost is Abelardo Rodriguez U., a photographer of the capital, who is something of an artistic genius. His photographs can compete in artistic merit with the best produced anywhere, and he is also a painter of no small merit. His best known sculpture is the figure of a dying guerilla soldier, significantly entitled, "Uno de tantos"—"One of so many."

Powerful assistance has been given to education and artistic development by various clubs and literary associations, especially women's clubs, throughout the country. Though at times eclipsed by revolutionary turmoil, their work has continued undaunted and has had gratifying results. The educational plane attained by Santo Domingo in spite of all obstacles, and the general recognition of the supreme importance of public instruction, justify confident predictions of advance in the future.