over the Republic to the National University at the capital," the following excerpt from El Excelsior, of Mexico City, for December 21, 1918, will be found illuminating:
"One hundred and sixteen thousand three hundred eleven children of school age in the Federal District are receiving no instruction at all. This figure, which is all the more significant and discouraging in that it relates to a section which is usually considered the most cultured of the Republic, has been taken from the statistical data just published by the Bureau of Education.
"The present census gives the Federal District a population of approximately 1,000,000 inhabitants. Applying the generally accepted rule which gives 20 per cent, of the total population to children of school age, there should be 200,000 such children in the Federal District.
"The school census taken at the opening of the present year which was unquestionably deficient in several respects shows an enrolment of 89,689 children, thus leaving 116,311 children who are receiving no instruction at all. These figures, which offer much food for thought, bring out strikingly the backwardness of education as compared with former years.
"In 1910, when the population of the Federal District according to the census of that year, was 720,752, the school enrolment was 86,896, a difference of less than 3,000, with a population of 300,000 less than in the present year. "But even more recent years have shown a
