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ON INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL COMPARISONS 53
the year. In Nebraska the returns for 5,4°7 schools show 3,904 to
be kept open for six months and upwards, 529 for more than four
but less than six inonths, and 974 for less than four months. In New
Hampshire the average length of the school term is 22.9 weeks; in
North Carolina it is twelve weeks; in South Carolina, three and a
half months. In Texas the towns give an average of eight months,
and the country districts five months. On the other hand, in some of
the Atlantic States the rate is much higher. In Pennsylvania, ex-
clusive of Philadelphia, in which the school year includes ten months,
the average is 7.17 months; in Rhode Island, nine months eleven
days;' ,nd in New Jersey, nine months ten days. It is manifest, there-
fore, toat the figures representing the regularity of attendance require
material correction and reduction before they can be properly com-
pared with the statistics of European countries in which schools are,
as a rule, kept open during nearly the whole of every year."
From this it is quite clear that one has the greatest
difficulty in discussing such a question as the education
of a pepple. You can hardly get to know to what extent
children of school age are attending schools of some
kind. There are other diffi~ulties behind, as the report
from which I have quoted shows, such as the difference
of surroundings in which children find themselves when
they leave school, the United States, from the general
vigour and energy of the whole population, being much
more favourable to the development of general intel-
ligence and mental cultivation among its people than
countries. which may be more fortunate as regards
primary school education. There is also the difficulty
caused by the kind and character of secondary educa-
tion, and the extent to which it is diffused. Simple at
first sight as the problem seems, then, there is nothing
more difficult than to compare some countries with each
other as regards the degree of their education. .
The second subject I have named in this connection
is crime, and in thinking of it I confess I have had in
mind certain comparisons which have been made in
England by visitors returned from Australia to the dis-
advantage of Australia. There is twice the crime in
Australian colonies per head of population, we have
been told, that there is in England. But, as we all know
who have to handle statistics, there are few statistics