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Show LATIN-AMERICA SHOULD BE STUDIED. Special study of the countries of Latin-America in schools in the United States is urged by Dr P. P Claxton, Commissioner of Education, In a letter to high-school principals Dr Claxton Clax-ton declares: "We should teach in our schools and colleges more of the geography) history, his-tory, literature, and life of the Latin-American Latin-American countries, and we should offer of-fer instruction in the Spanish and Portuguese languages to a much larger larg-er extent than is now done. "All our relations with the repub- lieq to the south of us are bound to become much more intimate than they have been in the pasL The completion comple-tion of the Panama Canal, the changes in commercial relations brought about by the war in Europe, as well as other recent events, have served to call the attention of the people of the United States to the recent rapid growth and development of the I a tin-American re-1 publics. "These countries comprise an area three times as great as the United States They are rich In minerals, forests, water power, and a wide range of agricultural products. They have 70,000,000 of people, with governments gov-ernments modeled after our own. Their foreign commerce amounts to more than $3,000,000,000 annually and Is rapidly Increasing. "The third American r-ity in population popu-lation Is in Latin-America Another Latin-American city has 1,000.000 pop-ulaton. pop-ulaton. Three others have approximately approxi-mately 500,000 each, and five others have each 200,000 or more. Some of these cities rank among the most beautiful and attractive in the world "These countries are making' rapid progress in elementary, and secondary education and in Industrial ('duration Several of their universities enroll from one to 2,n00 students each The history of their eniintries I interesting, interest-ing, and they possess a rich and varied var-ied literature "A further reason lor teaching Spanish Span-ish in our schools more than we do is that It Is the language of one-tenth one-tenth of all the pr-npir- claiming protection pro-tection under the American flag, as well as of one of the- culture nations of Europe." |
