Part 7

There are few drug users in the Island, and the strict enforcement of the Harrison Drug Law will prevent drug using from becoming the menace to health and morals to the extent that we find to be the case in many of the cities of the United States. There is, however, a large quantity of patent medicines used, many of which have a sufficient amount of alcohol or narcotic drug element to render them dangerous from the point of view of habit formation.

Many of the poorer people do not have the money to pay the fees of a doctor and to purchase at a drug store the medicine which he prescribes. Moreover, many medical men do not listen with as much patience as they might, to the detailed list of complaints which the countryman has to offer. As a consequence, the countryman buys a bottle of medicine which has been recommended to him by a friend, or perhaps by the druggist, who often serves as a consulting physician in the smaller towns. If the medicine makes him feel better, he becomes a firm believer in its power to cure. Whether the result produced is actually a bettering of his physical condition, or merely a deadening of the nerves by means of a narcotic, he does not stop to ask. He recommends the medicine to his friends as a sure remedy for all their illnesses, and probably makes of it a household remedy, to be used by all members of the family when they feel indisposed. The author has known of many instances in which medicine has been purchased from patent medicine firms in the States, because of advertisements in the newspapers, and of several cases, where the money was returned by federal authorities with the statement that the company addressed had been closed by the post office authorities because it was found that their claims were not legitimate and that their medicines were valueless. The average Porto Rican places a great deal of confidence in what he reads in the newspapers, and the papers are not as careful as they should be regarding the question of admitting advertising matter.

There is no great amount of public opinion against the use of alcohol in Porto Rico, and until, through the schools, the press, or some other agency, the people as a whole can be brought to see the disadvantage of its use, there can be but little accomplished in the direction of temperance and prohibition. The prohibition movement in the United States is not a matter of the moment alone, it is a movement which has been growing for years, and at the present time seems to have the majority of the population behind it. This is not the case in Porto Rico, and it is doubtful whether an abrupt change, unless backed up by strong public opinion, and the authority of the great majority of the people, would accomplish much in the way of betterment of conditions.

JUVENILE DELINQUENTS

ONE of the most difficult problems that faces organized society to-day is the disposal of delinquent children, and in order to meet this problem, the Juvenile Court system has been established in the United States, and by a law approved March 11, 1915, the Juvenile Court system was introduced into Porto Rico to take effect on June 1, 1915.

Up to within recent times juvenile offenders have been subjected to the same laws and the same penalties as hardened criminals, and there is no doubt but that a great many boys and girls who had broken some law or local ordinance, often through carelessness or ignorance, were placed in detention houses with older criminals and in this way became accustomed to the criminal classes and frequently were induced to enter upon a life of crime.

The prevailing idea of criminal law is to punish the offender for the offense committed against the laws of the state. Modern social science teaches that it is unfair to boys or girls of tender age to visit a punishment of this sort upon them, especially when it may lead to a continuance of crime, rather than to an avoidance of it in the future. Consequently, with the introduction of the Juvenile Court system the cases are taken out of criminal procedure and placed under the jurisdiction of courts of equity. The trials are usually informal, although the child has a right to a trial by jury in case he is accused of a serious offense, and he has the right to legal counsel, if he so desires. These rights, however, are very seldom exercised, inasmuch as it is coming to be recognized that the judges represent an actual attempt to do what is best for the child and do not represent in any way the prosecuting power of the state.

The principal figure in a Juvenile Court is the judge of the court, and wherever it is possible to do so, men especially trained in juvenile psychology should be appointed to this office. A knowledge of children and an understanding and appreciation of their feelings is necessary on the part of the judge, and he should be a person of sufficiently magnetic personality to win the sympathies of the children and to enable him to gain their confidence. To what an extent the influence of a single man may reach in the case of juvenile offenders and how far his influence may prevent crime among children, is well seen in the case of Judge Lindsey, of Denver, Colorado.

The second official in the court is the probation officer, who is under the authority of the judge, makes the necessary investigations when cases are reported to him, and presents the facts in the case to the judge of the court. He also must look after the children who have passed through the court to see that the sentences of the court are carried out; and if the children are placed on probation under the guardianship of relatives or friends, he must make visits sufficient in number and often enough so that he can be sure that the best interests of the child are being safeguarded, and if he finds the case to be otherwise, to report the facts to the judge of the court.

As the financial situation in Porto Rico did not permit the establishment of a completely new judicial system, it was decided to appoint the judge of each of the seven district courts of the Island to act as judge of the Juvenile Court. The prosecutors and municipal court judges are also probation officers _ex officio_, and the justices of the peace and others appointed by the district judges may be asked to serve as special probation officers. The Juvenile Courts in Porto Rico have original jurisdiction over juvenile offenders, and any case appealed from the Juvenile Courts may go directly to the Supreme Court of the Island. The courts are courts of record and the judges have authority to set the dates and places when and where sessions of the court will be held, to summon witnesses and compel them to appear in court. The jurisdiction of the Juvenile Courts in Porto Rico extends to all children under 16 years of age who are accused of any crime whatsoever, and it also applies to all people under 21 years of age, if they have ever been under the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court before they were 16. The Juvenile Court also has jurisdiction over adults who have been responsible for the abandonment of children or who have contributed in any way to the delinquency of the child.

Of course, this situation is not an ideal one for the best working out of the problems that confront a Juvenile Court system. In the first place, it is practically impossible for men who act as criminal judges or criminal prosecutors to adopt the attitude so necessary for the fulfillment of the work of a juvenile court officer, as their training has been such as to influence them to believe that the prisoner is an offender and that violations of the law must be punished with sufficient severity to prevent a repetition of the offense on the part of the prisoner, and to serve as a warning for others who might be tempted to commit the same offense. The Juvenile Court officer, on the other hand, should regard only the best future interests of the child, and the question with him should not be as to whether a proper punishment may be inflicted for what the child has done, but as to how the future conduct of the child may be bettered after a due consideration of all the influences of heredity and environment in each particular case.

From July 1, 1915, to January 1, 1916, a total of 164 cases came before the Juvenile Courts. Of these, three cases were girls accused of petty larceny, and two were charged with being abandoned. The remaining 159 cases were boys. The cause given in nearly every case for the bad conduct of the children was one of the four following:

1. Lack of parental authority. 2. Bad environment. 3. Ignorance. 4. Poverty.

Of the total number, 83 boys were accused of larceny, 25 were abandoned children, 18 were accused of fighting, 9 were accused of gambling, 7 were accused of breach of the peace, 4 were accused of attempts at larceny, 3 were accused of stoning buildings, and the rest were accused of various minor offenses.

An investigation of the home conditions of these boys brings out some pertinent facts in connection with the influence of a broken home upon the actions of the children. Of the total number of cases presented, 21 lived with their parents, 54 lived with their mothers, 23 lived with their fathers, and 22 lived with relatives, 13 lived with guardians, 13 had absolutely no homes and existed as best they might, with no permanent dwelling place, while 8 lived with friends. Thus we see that in the great majority of cases the children came from homes where they lacked the guidance and authority of at least one parent. Only 50 of the 164 had attended school, and only 15 had succeeded in passing the third grade in the public schools. Of the total number, 85 were illegitimate children, and 15 did not know whether their parents were married or not.

It is estimated that the city of San Juan alone has 500 homeless children and that there are at least 10,000 children in the Island who have absolutely no home and who are entirely without the influence of parental control. Doubtless, a great majority of these children are the result of illegitimate unions. What that means to the future of Porto Rico can very easily be imagined when we consider that they are growing up absolutely without control and without respect for authority of any sort. In very few cases do they attend the public schools, and they must remain in this homeless condition, living as best they can, stealing or begging, when honest means of obtaining food do not avail. Thus they grow up learning the vice that can be found among the most poverty-stricken and criminal classes with whom they associate, and forming a group of people with criminal tendencies, and in their turn causing to be produced another generation of children who will be handicapped by the environment and the training which their fathers have received. The Government should colonize these homeless children on government lands where they may be taught a trade and where an attempt should be made to give them some idea of what life may mean to the educated, industrious citizen. The results would more than justify the necessary expenditure of money.

The Juvenile Court in Porto Rico has three means at its disposal for taking care of children that fall under its jurisdiction. It may send them to the Reform School at Mayaguez, in case they are boys. (There is no Reform School for girls in the Island.) It may also send them to one of the two charity schools in existence, or it may place them under the supervision of a friend or relative who must respond to the probation officer for their good conduct. The Reform School at Mayaguez will accommodate only 100 inmates, and as these are usually required to complete a rather long term of years in the institution, the number of vacancies occurring in the school each year is very small. The charity schools, both for boys and girls, are also overcrowded, and there is very little chance of the Juvenile Court being able to send any of its cases to either of these institutions. As a result, special wards have been prepared in the Insular penitentiary, and the most serious cases are assigned to these wards until such a time as there is a possibility of their being placed in the Reform School. An attempt is made to give the inmates of these special wards industrial work and some academic instruction, and they are kept absolutely separate from adult prisoners.

Of the 164 cases mentioned, the following disposition was made of the children: 34 were sent to correctional institutions (most of these were sent to the special wards in the penitentiary), 38 were placed under the care of their mothers, 24 were placed under the care of their fathers, 9 were placed under the care of both parents, 8 under the care of friends, 12 under the care of guardians, 17 under the care of relatives, and 6 were sent to the charity schools.

The problem of juvenile offenders is more acute in Porto Rico than in the United States, due to the fact that there are more opportunities open in Porto Rico for juvenile offenders than are to be found, possibly with the exception of the largest cities, in the United States. The early physical development of the tropics adds to the difficulties of the situation, and also the temptations that surround homeless children even at a comparatively early age. In addition to this, we have many instances of consensual marriages, which offer a temptation to even the very young to lower the standards of morality and to become careless regarding the marriage relation. The large number of poverty-stricken and homeless undoubtedly contributes a great deal to physical as well as mental and moral degeneration, and the combination of these factors may perhaps account for the large number of weak-minded and insane that we find at large in the majority of the towns of the Island. In addition, promiscuous sexual relations undoubtedly contribute to this degeneracy, and if active steps are not taken to prepare these homeless children for better living and to enable them to earn an honest living, they will serve as the propagators of another generation of equally homeless, pauperized, and degenerate citizens.

RURAL SCHOOLS

ONE of the most perplexing problems which the Department of Education has to face in Porto Rico is the problem of the rural schools. In addition to a school budget too small to provide the number of rural schools necessary for all of the children of school age, there are added difficulties in the way of poverty and sickness among the country people which lead to irregular attendance on the part of the children, poor roads, and the keeping of children out of school in order to help earn money to support the family, especially in districts where child labor may be used profitably; and above all these difficulties is the great difficulty of furnishing the rural schools with teachers who are adequately trained and who have a comprehensive view of their mission as teachers and of the duty of the school to the community in which it is located.

The rural school problem will never be solved until we are able to provide teachers who are thoroughly prepared for the work which they have to do, and who look upon this work as being as important as any other profession. At present the rural school teachers fall into two rather large classes: first, the young, inexperienced, and often untrained teacher; and, second, the old, often out-of-date teacher, who has been unable to keep step with the progress of the town schools and has been pushed out into the country. Neither of these classes is fitted to give the best instruction in the rural schools; neither of them considers the position of a rural teacher as a permanent one, and in order to accomplish his best work the rural teacher should be expected to live in one community for a term of years so that he may fully understand and appreciate the problems of that community and become thoroughly acquainted with the patrons of his school.

The wages of the rural teacher should be such as will enable him to live in comfort, and as part of his wages the Government might very well assign him a parcel of land, together with living quarters, which would tend to make his residence in the district more permanent and which would enable him to carry on experimental work in agriculture at his own home.

There is no doubt but that the time will come when consolidated schools will be established in each _barrio_ for the benefit of the children of the community. In this way, better teachers, better school buildings, better equipment, and a better arranged schedule of studies can be provided, as an untrained teacher who works with poor facilities and who has to handle two different groups of children in the day and who may have six grades to teach, is working under a disadvantage which greatly handicaps the work. This is especially true when the teacher has no permanent interest in the rural school problem and regards his term of office there simply as a stepping-stone to a place in the graded school system of the town. In the annual report of the Commissioner of Education for 1914-15 we find the following data in regard to the rural schools of Porto Rico:

"The rural schools are located in the _barrios_ or rural subdivisions of the municipalities. Of the 1,200,000 inhabitants which comprise the total population of the Island, about 79 per cent live in this rural area and about 70 per cent of them are illiterate. At the present time there are approximately 331,233 children of school age (between 5 and 18 years) living in the barrios. Of these only 91,966 or 27 per cent were enrolled in the rural schools at any time during the past year. This shows a decrease from the figures reported last year, but the fact is accounted for by an order issued from the central office prohibiting rural teachers from enrolling more than 80 pupils. In some of the populous barrios the teachers were enrolling 150 pupils and sometimes more. Inasmuch as neither the material conditions of the school buildings nor the professional equipment of the teachers justified such a burden, it was deemed wise, even in the face of an overwhelming school population for which no provision is made, to limit the enrollment to a size compatible with a semblance of efficiency. The average number of pupils belonging during the year to the rural schools was 76,341. The average number of teachers at work in these schools was 1,243. This figure includes a number of teachers whose salary was paid by the school boards from their surplus funds. The corps of teachers for the entire Island is fixed by the legislature each year when the appropriations to pay their salaries are made, the commissioner being charged with its distribution among the various municipalities, but the school boards may, within certain limitations, increase the number allotted to them provided they pay their salaries from any surplus funds at their disposal. The average number of pupils taught by each teacher was about 63. The average daily attendance was 69,786, or 89.7 per cent, which gives an average of about 58 pupils receiving instruction daily from each teacher. About 59 per cent of the pupils were boys and 41 per cent girls. The average age of all pupils in the rural schools was 10.1 years.

"The above figures show, in a way, the magnitude of the problem to be solved before the people of Porto Rico can assume in full the duties and privileges of self-government. That enormous mass of illiterates, in its primitive, uncured condition, is not safe timber to build the good ship of state. We realize that there are serious social and economic problems to be solved before the people of Porto Rico reach the desired goal. But the pioneer work must be done by the rural school. Those people must be brought to a realization of their condition and to wish to improve it. The rural school, adapted more and more to actual conditions, is the one agency that can bring this about. At present, we are making provision for less than one third of the rural school population. It is as if we had an enormous debt and our resources did not permit us to pay the interest on it. The problem calls for heroic measures.

"Of the 1,243 teachers in charge of the rural schools during the past year, 1,217 or 91 per cent had double enrollment, i.e., one group of 40 pupils or less in the morning for three hours, and another similar group in the afternoon for the same period. The distribution of time among the various subjects of the curriculum depends, of course, on whether the school has double enrollment or not, as well as on the number of grades grouped in any one session.

"The course of study of the rural schools extends over a period of six years. Of the 91,966 different pupils enrolled during the year, 49.1 per cent were found in the first grade, 25.7 per cent in the second, 15.9 per cent in the third, 8.4 per cent in the fourth, and the remaining 0.9 per cent in the fifth and sixth grades. Of the total enrollment 93.2 per cent were on half time, the remaining 6.8 per cent receiving instruction six hours daily.

"Any enrichment of the rural course of study has been necessarily conditioned by the meager professional equipment of the rural teaching force, many of whom entered the service with nothing more than a common-school education and a few scraps of information about school management gotten together for the examination. Up to the present the academic requirements for admission to the examinations for the rural license have been limited to the eighth-grade diploma or its equivalent, and the examinations for the obtention of the license have covered the following subjects: English, Spanish, arithmetic, history of the United States and of Porto Rico, geography, elementary physiology and hygiene, nature study, and methods of teaching. It has been announced already that in all probability candidates for the rural license will have to present four high-school credits for admission to the examinations. The excess of teachers now obtaining and the increasing output of the Normal School will afford opportunity for selection and will raise the standard of efficiency of the force. At its last quarterly meeting the board of trustees of the University of Porto Rico voted to raise the entrance requirements of the Normal Department from four high-school credits to eight. In view of this, the Department of Education will probably increase the requirements for admission to the examinations for the rural license sufficiently to bring them up to the standard established by the board of trustees for admission to the Normal Department of the University.

"The rural teachers are elected by the school boards, subject to the approval of the Commissioner of Education, who pays their salaries from an Insular appropriation. The teachers are divided into three salary classes, as follows: First class, $40; second class, $45; third class, $50. All rural teachers begin at the $40 salary, and after three years of experience pass to the $45 class and after five years to the $50 class. Last year all rural teachers received a salary of $38 only, due to financial embarrassment.

"The rural schools were housed in 1,193 separate buildings, containing a total of 1,250 classrooms. Of these 1,193 rural buildings, 320 are owned by the school boards and were especially constructed for school purposes from plans approved by the Department of Education and the sanitary officials. Most of the rural school buildings contain but one room, although not a few have two, three, and even four, the tendency toward the centralized school growing steadily. In all, 24 new rural school buildings have been erected during the year. Most of these are frame structures, but some are built of reënforced concrete and have a very pleasing appearance."

THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY