f private schools in the
larger towns, usually maintained by religious organizations. The
reform programme of President Reyes included a complete reorganization
of public instruction, to which it is proposed to add normal schools
for the training of teachers, and agricultural and technical schools
for the better development of the country's material resources. The
supreme direction of this branch of the public service is entrusted to
the minister of public instruction, and state aid is to be extended to
the secondary, as well as to the normal, technical and professional
schools. The secondary schools receiving public aid, however, have
been placed in charge of religious corporations of the Roman Catholic
Church. The expenditure on account of public instruction, which
includes schools of all grades and descriptions, is unavoidably small,
the appropriation for the biennium 1905-1906 being only L167,583. The
school and college attendance for 1906, according to the president's
review of that year, aggregated 218,941, of whom 50,691 were in
Antioquia, where the whites are more numerous than in any other
department; 4916 in Atlantico, which includes the city of
Barranquilla, and in which the negro element preponderates; and only
12,793 in the federal district and city of Bogota where the _mestizo_
element is numerous. Although primary instruction is gratuitous it is
not compulsory, and these figures clearly demonstrate that school
privileges have not been extended much beyond the larger towns. The
total attendance, however, compares well with that of 1897, which was
143,096, although it shows that only 5% of the population,
approximately, is receiving instruction.

_Religion._--The religious profession of the Colombian people is Roman
Catholic, and is recognized as such by the constitution, but the
exercise is permitted of any other form of worship which is not
contrary to Christian morals or to the law. There is one Protestant
church in Bogota, but the number of non-Catholics is small and
composed of foreign residents. There has been a long struggle between
liberals and churchmen in Colombia, and at one time the latter
completely lost their political influence over the government, but the
common people remained loyal to the Church, and the upper classes
found it impossible to sever the ties which bound them to it. The
constitution of 1861 disestablished