Catholics in America Maintain 9,783 Schools

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

Interesting figures throwing light on the educational activities of the Catholics in the United States, who number 18,654,000, were made known here with the publication of the new Directory of Catholic Colleges and Schools, just issued by the Education Department of the National Catholic Welfare Council.

According to the directory there were in the school year 1924, 9,783 Catholic educational institutions in the United States, with 71,705 instructors on their faculties and 2,313,183 pupils in their classes.

In comparison with a survey made in 1922, these figures show a 4 per cent increase over the 9,411 institutions open in 1922. The number of teachers at the time of the present survey was 13.5 per cent greater than the 63,138 instructors in Catholic schools in 1922, and the number of pupils increased from 2,174,204, a gain of 6.4 per cent.

In 1920 there were only 8,706 schools with 54,265 teachers and 1,981,051 pupils.

The elementary schools were most numerous. A total of 7,198 such schools are given in the new Directory, with 51,623 elementary school teachers and 2,036,569 pupils. Among the pupils there were 739,561 boys and 780,533 girls, while 516,475 have not been put into classifications.

The secondary schools, in the present survey, numbered 2,181. They had 185,098 pupils, who were taught by 2,473 religious men, 7,939 religious women and 1,498 lay men and women. In all, there were 11,910 teachers in these schools. Of the students 77,656 were boys and 104,693 girls, with 2,749 not classified.

The first survey of Catholic secondary schools was made in 1915, when it was shown that there were 1,276 such institutions. In 1920 there were 1,552 of these schools, and in 1922 there were 2,129. Between 1922 and 1924 there were 52 new secondary schools opened. This was a gain of 2.5 per cent. Between 1915 and 1924, 905 new schools were opened.

The pupils increased from 74,538 in 1915, to 129,848 in 1920, to 153,679 in 1922, and to 185,098 in 1924.

According to the new Directory there were 95 normal schools, 92 of which were religious, in the United States. They cared for 17,067 religious pupils and 296 lay pupils. These were taught by 1,645 religious and 46 lay instructor. In the religious normal schools there were 546 men students and 16,503 women, while in the lay normal schools, where the pupils are women only, 296.

The increase in the number of Catholic colleges and universities was small. The new Directory shows that there were 139 institutions. In 1922 there were 133.

The latest figures show that the student bodies of these institutions totaled 60,169, of which number there were 46,282 in the colleges for men and 13,887 in the 63 colleges for women.

Of the students in 1924, 33,373 were men and 26,796 women. Thus between 1922 and 1924 there was an increase of 8,440 men students and 7,305 women students, totaling 11,281, and an increase of 530 in teachers. As compared with 1920 there was an increase of 26,371 students and 1,018 teachers. The increase in students was 13,534 for the men, 15,764 for women.

Contributions to the national Episcopal church last year amounted to $41,756,000, an increase of more than $2,500,000 over the previous year, according to a tabulation in the Living Church annual, Episcopal year book.

The contributions to the Episcopal church in 1924 for all purposes were $39,243,127, according to the report. The average contribution during the year per communicant was approximately $35, of which about $2 was for general church purposes and the remainder for parochial or local activities. The average income of parishes and missions, numbering 8,397, was about $5,000.

The increase in giving to the church was in local work, the report shows. Givings to national work decreased approximately $40,000, the entire increase thus going to parochial and local endeavors.

The total number of communicants in the Episcopal church of the United States now is 1,193,321, the summary shows, a gain of 27.078 over the last report. Clergy in the church number 6,140, Sunday school teachers, 55,790, and Sunday school scholars 498,814. The latter is a gain of more than 10,000 over the previous year.

Jewish postal employees of the City of New York will be excused from work for the two days of Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur, according to a promise given by Postmaster Kiely to Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America and Congressman Nathan D. Perlman of New York who helped organize the Jewish Postal Workers Welfare League of New York City.

In the past a great many of the Jewish postal workers, because of the need of delivering a large amount of mail matter, were obliged to work on those holidays.

Rabbi Goldstein and Congressman Perlman presented a plan whereby the Postmaster place small posters on the mail boxes in the Jewish Sections of the City, asking that all Jews who desire to mail New Year’s cards do so a few days before Rosh Hashonah. This would eliminate a great deal of the heavy mail that would have to be delivered on the two days of the holy days, which would require full attendance of postal workers on these two days in the Post Office Stations on the East Side of New York. Harlem, the Bronx, and other Jewish sections of the city.