GREECE 



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GREECE 



slag show that the ancients worked this field, 

 but it was done so poorly that it has paid 

 modern investors to rework the slag. Most 

 famous of all the mineral products of Greece 

 is the marble from Pentelicus and the island 

 of Paros, which has been known since the 

 great sculptors of antiquity carved their match- 

 less statues. 



Other Industries. The manufactures of 

 Greece are of very little importance. Cloth 

 and carpets are woven in the homes of the 

 peasants, and there are occasional silk mills, 

 flour mills or machine shops, but that is prac- 

 tically the extent of manufacturing. Nor does 

 it seem possible, considering the absence of 

 coal and of rivers to furnish water power, that 

 manufactures can increase largely. Shipbuild- 

 ing, however, is carried on in all the ports, for 

 the Greeks are among the world's most en- 

 thusiastic seafarers, and large fleets of pri- 

 vately owned ships constantly sail the Aegean. 



Transportation and Commerce. To the 

 Greeks the natural means of transportation is 

 the sea and not the railroads, for few places 

 in the entire country are more than forty miles 

 from the coast. Railroads, therefore, are few, 

 and in the entire country aggregate less than 

 1,000 miles. But ships, as stated above, are 

 numerous, and by means of them easy com- 

 munication is maintained with the rest of 

 Europe. It was believed that the canal across 

 the Isthmus of Corinth, completed in 1893, 

 would be a wonderful help to commerce, but 

 it has not been much used because of its nar- 

 rowness and the strong currents which flow 

 through it (see CORINTH). 



The commerce of Greece is not large, 

 amounting in a year to less than $60,000,000. 



The imports slightly overbalance the exports, 

 and Great Britain has the larger part of the 

 import and the export trade. Currants form 

 about one-fourth of the exports, and wheat 

 more than that proportion of the imports. 



Education and Religion. Though Greece has 

 a system of schools which includes elementary 

 and intermediate departments and a national 

 university at Athens, education is by no means 

 widespread, for the people are slow to avail 

 themselves of. their opportunities. The per- 

 centage of illiteracy of those over ten years of 

 age is fifty-seven, as compared to 7.7 per cent 

 in the United States and eleven per cent in 

 Canada, but conditions are gradually improv- 

 ing. There is a compulsory education law, but 

 in the country districts it is not well enforced. 



There is a state religion Greek Catholicism 

 or Orthodoxy and the king is the head of the 

 Church, but complete freedom of worship is 

 allowed. The Holy Synod, a permanent coun- 

 cil which meets at Athens, manages the affairs 

 of the Church. 



Government. The government of Greece is 

 a constitutional monarchy, the office of king 

 being hereditary. There is but one legislative 

 body, a House of Representatives of 235 mem- 

 bers, which is chosen by popular suffrage and 

 is known as the Boule. To aid the king in all 

 his executive functions there is a mini>trv 

 composed of the heads of the six state depart- 

 ments, and any male subject is eligible to any 

 office; but the government is not as demo- 

 cratic as it would seem from this description, 

 for promotion is largely by favor and a dis- 

 interested election in which people vote for 

 the candidates whom they believe the country 

 really needs is almost unknown. 



Physical Features 



There is a very special fitness in bringing 

 the discussions of the geography .and the his- 

 tory of Greece as near together as possible, for 

 the two are closely related. It is impossible 

 even to imagine what the history of the coun- 

 try would have been had land communication 

 been easier and sea communication been more 

 difficult, but it is certain that it would have 

 been very different. 



Coastal Peculiarities. The first point that 

 strikes an observer of the map of Greece is the 

 broken character of its coast, and the conse- 

 quent length of shore line. Gulfs and bays 

 penetrate far into the land, and the southern 

 end of the peninsula, 'the Peloponnesus (which 



see), is almost cut off from the northern by 

 the deep gulfs of Corinth and Aegina. Of all 

 the countries of the world, Greece has the 

 largest proportion of coast line to area nearly 

 2,500 miles of coast line, or one mile of coast 

 to every ten square miles of surface. Small 

 wonder, then, that the Greeks have been at all 

 times a sea-loving people. Good harbors are 

 not numerous, though there are some excellent 

 ones, notably Piraeus, the seaport of Athens. 



Surface and Rivers. In the main, Greece ia 

 mountainous, even its islands being but the 

 tops of submerged hills. The Pindus Moun- 

 tains, running from northwest to southeast 

 almost through the center of the peninsula, 



