DUTCH SCHOOL CHILDRliN 



Few countries are more insistent than Holland upon the education of her children. 

 Primary public instruction is given to all children and compulsory education is in force. 

 The school age is from 6 to 13. Out of the total number of children of school age 5.3 per 

 cent were not receiving elementary training in 1910. 



tivity of the place would seem to indi- 

 cate the probability of this prediction 

 soon being realized. 



If the rating of a nation were based 

 alone upon population, what an insignifi- 

 cant position would be occupied by the 

 Dutch ! Still, with a people numbering 

 only a little more than six million and 

 with an area only about one- fourth the 

 size of the State of New York, this little 

 nation ranks third among the countries 

 of the earth in the number of its colo- 

 nials and fifth among them in the area of 

 its colonies, 



Only Great Britain and France have 

 greater colonial populations, and only 

 Great Britain, France, Germany, and 

 Portugal have greater colonial areas. 

 The Dutch rule six times as many peo- 

 ple — 38 million — outside of Holland as 

 there are within its boundaries, and gov- 



ern colonies fifteen times as great in area 

 as the mother country. 



Measured by the standards of trade, 

 Holland is an important member of the 

 family of nations. With an area no 

 larger than that of Massachusetts _ and 

 Connecticut, the country is so thickly 

 populated that it has almost as many peo- 

 ple living within its boundaries as dwell 

 in all six of the States of New England. 

 In fact, its population is so dense that 

 only Belgium, among all the nations of 

 the earth, outranks it in that regard, and 

 if France could match it she would have 

 ninety-six million people instead of thirty- 

 nine million. 



Yet with all that seeming overcrowd- 

 ing and lack of elbow room to gain a 

 livelihood, Holland has imports amount- 

 ing to $236.40 per capita annually, as 

 compared with $18.41 per capita in the 



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