Francisco Ferrer; his life, work and martyrdom, with message written ...

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34 Francisco Ferrer^
back six months prior to the prosecution. Later particulars,
furnished me by the late co-editor of the Boletin,
Senor Colominas Maseras, indicate that some fifty additional
schools had already been founded up to February,
1908, and that most of them were in a flourishing^ condition.
The statistics of ten schools alone in Barcelona
show a school-roll of 1,000 pupils, in addition to the
school at the Casa deJ Pueblo, with its 100 pupils, three
professors, and modern equipment.
In anticipation of a possibly renewed attempt upon the
life of the Escuela Moderna and upon the very existence
of Rationalist education in Spain, an "International
League for Promoting; the Rationalist Education of Children"
was formed, with Ferrer as its president and Professor
Haeckel as one of its vice-presidents. The League
had the support of a number of well-known Rationalists,
including Prince Kropotkin, Professor Sergi, and Alfred
Naquet. In order to widen the interest in Rationalist
education the League issued a weekly eighteen-paged
review (in French), edited by Ferrer himself L'Ecole
Renovcc. A special monthly edition was issued in Spanish
from Barcelona, and in Italy a review on similar lines
in aid of the same general movement La Scuola laica—
was also published. The object of the League and of
the foregoing reviews expressive of its principal aim
was to discuss the general ideas concerning the physical,
intellectual, and moral education of children on the lines
indicated by modern science ; to study the child and the
development of its faculties both from the physiological
and psychological side ; and to elaborate a rational plan
of education that shall seek to coordinate the physical
and intellectual organization of the school. The Ecole
Renovce was the international extension of the work of
the Escuela Moderna of Barcelona, and national committees
for the purpose of implanting its principles in
the school life of other lands are proposed to be formed.
Already at Paris, Brussels, and Frankfurt national committees
have been launched, with a number of eminent
educationalists and scientists at the head. Among these
figures Professor Haeckel, who, in addition to his Vice-
Presidentship of the International Committee, gladly accepted
the Presidentship of the German section formed
at Frankfurt. The Escuela Moderna and the League