Statistically, there can be no doubt that Argentina belongs unreservedly to Rome; only the merest fraction, perhaps forty thousand, of the population is outside that Church. In 1895 there were sixty-eight Reformed Churches, but of these twenty-five belonged to the Welsh colonists at Chubut. There were 1,019 Roman Catholic churches, or one to every four thousand inhabitants. The prevailing religion is also the State religion, but all others are tolerated. There is an archbishop at Buenos Aires and eight suffragan bishops, including one for Paraguay. Education has not made remarkable strides in Argentina, for exactly half of the people over six years of age are illiterate. In 1885 some 25 per cent. of the children of school-going age attended school, and in 1904 the percentage had only risen to 45, and of these only a fraction could read or write. The defects of primary education[84] are comparatively unimportant, for the country needs agriculturists rather than clerks, and when the peasants really desire instruction they will not be long in obtaining it. But indifferent University and secondary education are the curse of Latin America. Beyond anything else Argentina requires a real aristocracy--a large, cultivated, and public-spirited upper class--and this class, owing chiefly to defective education, is now very small. There are at Cordoba and Buenos Aires national Universities, and provincial Universities at La Plata, Santa Fé, and Parana. But the unfortunate materialism is not eradicated by these institutions, which, in Latin America, are too often merely bread-winning concerns, which neglect humane studies because they are "useless." If the Holy See would encourage the foundation of a religious University, the country would benefit in every way. Secondary education (it is difficult to obtain up-to-date figures) does not appear to have been particularly flourishing in 1905. There were 16 lyceums, 450 professors, and 4,103 pupils. There were also 35 normal schools with 2,011 pupils. It is, of course, a common practice for wealthy parents to send their children to Europe to be educated, and perhaps, under the circumstances, that is the best course. But with a sound and liberal course of studies and good moral and religious discipline, the young might be kept in the country till they had completed their University career, and then sent for a short residence abroad. There is a temptation that besets cultivated Argentines, who are the most necessary to the welfare of their country, to seek diplomatic posts or some duties that will take them abroad. Most of the distinguished authors publish in Madrid or Paris, and thus there is an intellectual and moral drain which would be checked if the system of education were improved.