Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/58

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NEW YORK


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NEW YORK


under the legislative control of tlio roponta and tlio di- rection of the statutes of tlic>Statci>asscd by the legis- lature. The colli'fjes and universities of the State arc separate corporations, formed cither by the regents or by special statutes. They are under either private or municipal control. There is no State university as such, although Cornell University has been given many of the privileges and State aids usually granted to such an institution. These corporations are sub- ject, however, to the provisions of the I'iducation Law and the jurisdiction of the E<liicati()n Department. The academies or secondary schools are also either private or public. The public secondary schools are directly in charge of the school boards and boards of education of the various divisions of the State. The private academies may enroll themselves under the Department of Education, and receive the privi- leges of the public academies in respect to examina- tions and certificates from the Education Depart- ment. There is, however, no legal compulsion put upon them in this respect. The common schools of the State are divided generally into those which are controlled by the local boards of education in the cities and more populous centres, and tho,se which are con- trolled by the local school officers elected by the peo- ple in the school districts in other parts of the State. Woman suffrage is granted in school officers' elections. In the great cities of the State the common and sec- ondary schools are usually placed in charge of school boards and officers provided for in the city charters, which are in the form of statutes enacted by the legis- lature.

In New York City is situated the large college known as the College of the City of New York, main- tained at public expense. It has the most extensive buildings for educational purposes in the city and an enrolment of more than 3736 pupils. On the Hudson, at West Point, is situated the famous United States MiUtary Academy for the training of officers for the army. It is entirely under Federal control through the War Department, and has 525 cadets in attend- ance. The professional schools of the State of all classes are controlled by the Education Department under stringent provisions. Admission to the secular professions generally is granted by State certificates awarded after rigid examinations by State examining boards. The schools for the training of teachers are also either under departmental control or, in the more populous centres, under the control of the several boards of education of the localities. Primary edu- cation is compulsory between the ages of seven and Buxteen years. The state does not interfere, however, with the liberty of choice of schools by parents. No discrimination is made against parochial and private schools, which have enrolled themselves with the Education Department: they receive, however, no pubhc financial aid, if the small grant made by the Department to defray the cost of examinations in the enrolled secondarv schools be excepted.

In 190S there were 1,841,638 children between five and eighteen years of age in New York State; there were 1,273,754 pupils and .36,132 teachers in the pub- lic schools. The academies or secondary schools of the State had 95,1 70 pupils and 1.523 teachers; the col- leges and universities 22,097 students and 2699 teach- ers. There were 12,068 public school buildings, 144 public secondary schools or academies, and 30 colleges and universities. The appropriation of public mon- eys for educational purposes in New York State for the year 1907 was §71,838,172. The City of New York alone paid in 1909 for public school education $36,319,624. Its schools contained 730,234 pupils and had 17,073 teachers and directors. The public statistics of the Department of Education of New York available show that 451 parochial schools, be- sides numerous academies and colleges, were con- ducted under the auspices of the Catholic Church in


New York in 1908. The number of pupils in the Cat hiilie educational institutions of the State cannot be ascertained with certainty. A large number of Cath- olic schools and academies make no public reports, but it is conservatively estimated that 210,000 pupils were in the Catholic schools in 1908. The State Edu- cation Department reported that in 1907, 179,677 pupils were registered as in the Koman Catholic Ele- mentary Schools alone. The Catholic Annual of 1910 est imates the number of young people under CathoHc care including the orphans and other inmates of char- itable institutions as 269,420.

There are many excellent high schools and acade- mies in the State conducted by the Catholic teaching orders of men and women and by secular priests and laymen. The colleges under Catholic auspices are: Fordham University, St. Francis Xavier College, Manhattan College, Brooklyn College, St. Francis College, St. John's College, Brooklyn — all in New York City; Canisius College at Buffalo, Niagara Uni- versity at Niagara Falls, and the College of New Ro- chelle, a flourishing college for women in charge of the Ursuline Nuns. All of these institutions are under the jurisdiction of the Education Department of the State of New York. In 1S94 there was inserted in the Constitution of the State a provision that neither the State nor any subdivision thereof should use its property or credit or any i>ublic money or authorize or permit either to be used directly or indirectly in aid or maintenance other than for examination or inspection of any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control or direction of any religious denomination or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught. The Catholic seminaries for the education of priests are flourishing. The great novitiates of the Jesuits, Redemptorists, and Christian Brothers, and several others maintained by various religious orders, are in the Hudson Valley, south of Albany. The seminary of the Archdiocese of New York at Dunwoodie, Westchester County, which is the monument of the late Archbishop Corrigan, is one of the leading seminaries of the United States. The dioc- esan seminaries of St. John's at Brooklyn, St. Bern- ard's at Rochester, and the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels, conducted by the priests of the Mission at Niagara Falls, in the Diocese of Buffalo, .are of the highest standing for scholarship and training.

Militia. — The militia of the State, which is com- posed exclusively of volunteers, numbers 17,038 trained officers and men in all the arms of the military service. It is intended to form the nucleus of a mili- tary force in time of need by training volunteer citi- zen-soldiers in the military art. It is most liberally supported by the State and most carefully trained in co-operation with the Federal Government.

Libraries. — The libraries of the State are numer- ous and important. The Education Department maintains a generous system for the establishment of hbraries and provides generous State aid for their sup- port. The great library of the State is the New York Public Library in the City of New York, which in 1909 owned 1,. 549,260 books and 295,078 pamphlets, in all 1,844,338 volumes. It w'ill soon (in 1911) occupy the magnificent building erected by the City of New York in Bryant Square at Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street, which has just been completed. It is largely endowed by the testamentary gifts of John Jacob Astor, James Lenox, and Samuel J. Tilden, and re- ceives aid from the City Treasury.

History. — The territory which now forms the State of New York may, as regards its history, be di- vided into two parts. The first part includes the Hudson River valley, the valley of the Mohawk, the land arounfl Newark Bay and New York Harbour, and the western end of Long Island — which, speaking generally, were, together with the sparse Delaware River settlements, the only portions of New Nether-