The provinces are administered by intendentes, and the departments by gobernadores, both appointees of the national executive. The sub-delegacies are governed by sub-delegados appointed by the governors, and the districts by inspectores appointed by the sub-delegates. Directly and indirectly; therefore, the administration of all these political divisions is in the hands of the president, who, in like manner, makes and controls the appointments of all judicial functionaries, subject, however, to receiving recommendations of candidates from the courts and to submitting appointments to the approval of the council of state. This gives the national executive absolute control of all administrative matters in every part of the republic. The police force also is a national organization under the immediate control of the minister of interior, and the public prosecutor in every department is a representative of the national government. There is no legislative body in any of these political divisions, nor any administrative official directly representing the people, with this exception: under the law of the 22nd of December 1891, municipalities, or communes, are created and invested with certain specified powers of local government affecting local police services, sanitation, local improvements, primary instruction, industrial and business regulations, &c.; they are authorized to borrow money for sanitary improvements, road-making, education, &c., and to impose certain specified taxes for their support; these municipalities elect their own alcaldes, or mayors, and municipal councils, the latter having legislative powers within the limits of the law mentioned.
Justice.—The judicial power consists of a Supreme Court of Justice of seven members located in the national capital, which exercises supervisory and disciplinary authority over all the law courts of the republic; six courts of appeal, in Tacna, Serena, Valparaiso, Santiago, Talca and Concepción; tribunals of first instance in the department capitals; and minor courts, or justices of the peace, in the sub-delegacies and districts. The jury system does not exist in Chile, and juries are unknown except in cases where the freedom of the press has been abused. All trials, therefore, are heard by one or more judges, and appeals may be taken from a lower to a higher court. The government is represented in each department by a public prosecutor. The police officials, who are under the direct control of the minister of interior, also exercise some degree of judicial authority. This force is essentially military in its organization, and consisted in 1901 of 500 officers, 934 non-commissioned officers and 5400 police soldiers. Small forces of local policemen are supported by various municipalities. The judges of the higher courts are appointed by the national executive, and those of the minor tribunals by the federal official governing the political division in which they are located.
Army.—For military purposes the republic is divided into five districts, the northern desert provinces forming the first, the central provinces as far south as the Bio-Bio the second and third, and the southern provinces and territory the fourth and fifth. Large sums of money have been expended in arms, equipment, guns and fortifications. The army is organized on the German model and has been trained by European officers who have been employed both for the school and regiment. Though the president and minister of war are the nominal heads of the army, its immediate direction is concentrated in a general staff comprising six service departments, at the head of which is a chief of staff. After the triumph of the revolutionists in the civil war of 1891, the army was reorganized under the direction of Colonel Emil Körner, an accomplished German officer, who subsequently served as chief of the general staff. In 1904 the permanent force consisted of 12 battalions of infantry, 6 regiments of cavalry, 4 regiments of mountain artillery, 1 regiment of horse artillery, 2 regiments of coast artillery, and 5 companies of engineers—aggregating 915 officers and 4757 men. To this nucleus were added 6160 recruits, the contingent for that year of young men twenty-one years of age compelled to serve with the colours. Under the law of the 5th of September 1900, military service is obligatory for all citizens between eighteen and forty-five years, all young men of twenty-one years being required to serve a certain period with the regular force. After this period they are transferred to the 1st reserve for 9 years, and then to the 2nd reserve. The military rifle adopted for all three branches of the service is the Mauser, 1895 model, of 7 mm. calibre, and the batteries are provided with Krupp guns of 7 and 7.5 cm. calibre. Military instruction is given in a well-organized military school at Santiago, a war academy and a school of military engineering.
Navy.—The Chilean navy is essentially British in organization and methods, and all its best fighting ships were built in British yards. In 1906 the effective fighting force consisted of 1 battle ship, 2 belted cruisers, 4 protected cruisers, 3 torpedo gunboats, 6 destroyers and 8 modern torpedo boats. In addition to these there are several inferior armed vessels of various kinds which bring the total up to 40, not including transports and other auxiliaries. The administration of the navy, under the president and minister of war and marine, is confided to a general naval staff, called the “Direccion jeneral de la Armada,” with headquarters at Valparaiso. Its duties also include the military protection of the ports, the hydrographic survey of the coast, and the lighthouse service. The personnel comprises about 465 officers, including those of the staff, and 4000 petty officers and men. There is a military port at Talcahuano, in Concepción Bay, strongly fortified, and provided with arsenal and repair shops, a large dry dock and a patent slip. The naval school, which occupies one of the noteworthy edifices of Valparaiso, is attended by 90 cadets and is noted for the thoroughness of its instruction.
Education.—Under the old conservative régime very little was done for the public school outside the larger towns. As a large proportion of the labouring classes lived in the small towns and rural communities, they received comparatively little attention. The increasing influence of more liberal ideas greatly improved the situation with reference to popular education, and the government now makes vigorous efforts to bring its public school system within the reach of all. The constitution provides that free instruction must be provided for the people. School attendance is not compulsory, however, and the gain upon illiteracy (75%) appears to be very slow. The government also gives primary instruction to recruits when serving with the colours, which, with the increasing employment of the people in the towns, helps to stimulate a desire for education among the lower classes. Education in Chile is very largely under the control of the national government, the minister of justice and public instruction being charged with the direction of all public schools from the university down to the smallest and most remote primary school. The system includes the University of Chile and National Institute at Santiago, lyceums or high schools in all the provincial capitals and larger towns, normal schools at central points for the training of public school teachers, professional and industrial schools, military schools and primary schools. Instruction in all these is free, and under certain conditions text-books are supplied. In the normal schools, where the pupils are trained to enter the public service as primary teachers, not only is the tuition free, but also books, board, lodging and everything needed in their school work. The national university at Santiago comprises faculties of theology, law and political science, medicine and pharmacy, natural sciences and mathematics, and philosophy. The range of studies is wide, and the attendance large. The National Institute at Santiago is the principal high school of the secondary grade in Chile. There were 30 of these high schools for males and 12 for females in 1903, with an aggregate of 11,504 matriculated students. The normal schools for males are located at Santiago, Chillán and Valdivia; and for females at La Serena, Santiago and Concepción. The mining schools at Copiapó, La Serena and Santiago had an aggregate attendance of 180 students in 1903, and the commercial schools at Iquique and Santiago an attendance of 214. The more important agricultural schools are located at Santiago, Chillán, Concepción and Ancud, the Quinta Normal de Agricultura in the national capital having a large attendance. The School of Mechanic Arts and Trades (Escuela de Artes y Oficios) of Santiago has a high reputation for the practical character of its instruction, in which it is admirably seconded by a normal handicraft school (Slöyd system) and a night school of industrial drawing in the same city, and professional schools for girls in Santiago and Valparaiso, where the pupils are taught millinery, dress-making, knitting, embroidery and fancy needlework. The government also maintains schools for the blind and for the deaf and dumb. The public primary schools numbered 1961 in 1903, with 3608 teachers, 166,928 pupils enrolled, and an average attendance of 108,582. The cost of maintaining these schools was 4,146,574 pesos, or an average of £2:17:3 per pupil in attendance. In addition to the public schools there are a Roman Catholic university at Santiago, which includes law and civil engineering among its regular courses of study; numerous private schools and seminaries of the secondary grade, with a total of 11,184 students of both sexes in 1903; and 506 private primary schools, with an attendance of 29,684. The private schools usually conform to the official requirements in regard to studies and examinations, which facilitates subsequent admission to the university and the obtainment of degrees; probably they do better work than the public schools, especially in the German settlements of the southern provinces. A Consejo de Instrucción Pública (council of public instruction) of 14 members exercises a general supervision over the higher and secondary schools. There are schools of music and fine arts in Santiago. The national library at Santiago, with 116,300 volumes in 1906, and the national observatory, are both efficiently administered. At the beginning of the 20th century there were 41 public libraries in the republic, including public school collections, with an aggregate of 240,000 volumes.
Charities.—According to the returns of 1903 there were 88 hospitals in the republic, which reported 79,051 admissions during the year, and had 6215 patients under treatment at its close; 628,536 patients received gratuitous medical assistance at the public dispensaries during the year; there were 24 foundling hospitals with 5570 children; and there were 3092 persons in the various hospicios or asylums, and 1478 in the imbecile asylums.
Religion.—The Roman Catholic religion is declared by the constitution to be the religion of the state, and the inaugural oath of the president pledges him to protect it. A considerable part of its income is derived from a subsidy included in the annual budget, which makes it a charge upon the national treasury like any other public service. The secular supervision of this service is entrusted to a member of the president’s cabinet, known as the minister of worship and colonization. The executive and legislative powers intervene in the appointments to the higher offices of the Church. The greater part of the population remains loyal to the established faith. The law of 1865 gives the privilege of religious worship to other faiths, and the laws of 1883 made civil marriage and the civil registry of births, deaths and marriages obligatory, and secularized the cemeteries. Under the reform of 1865 full religious freedom is practically accorded, and it is provided that the services of religious organizations other than the Roman Catholic may be held in private residences or in edifices owned by private individuals or corporations. Of the 72,812 foreigners residing in Chile in 1895, about 16,000 were described as Protestants. Notwithstanding the opposition of some political elements to the Church, the Chileans themselves may all be classed as Roman Catholics. The ecclesiastical organization includes one archbishop, who resides at Santiago, three bishops residing at La Serena, Concepción and Ancud, and two vicars residing in Antofagasta and Tarapacá. These benefices are filled by appointments from lists of three prepared by the council of state and sent to Rome by the president, and in the case of an archbishop or bishop the appointment must also receive the approval of the Senate. The Chilean clergy are drawn very largely from the higher classes, and their social standing is much better than in many South American states. The Church also possesses much property of its own, and is therefore able to maintain itself on a comparatively small subsidy from the public treasury, which was 985,910 pesos (£73,943) in 1902. The Church maintains seminaries in all cathedral towns, and these also receive a subsidy from the government.
Finance.—For a long time Chile was considered one of the poorest states of Spanish America, but the acquisition of the rich mineral-producing provinces of the north, together with the development of new silver and copper mines in Atacama and Coquimbo, largely increased her revenues and enabled her to develop other important resources. During the decade 1831-1840 the annual revenues averaged about 2,100,000 pesos (of 48d.), which in the decade 1861-1870 had increased to an average of only 8,200,000 pesos—and this during a period of considerable agricultural activity on account of wheat exports to California and Australia. After 1870 the revenues increased more rapidly owing to the development of new mining industries, the receipts in 1879 amounting to 15,300,000 pesos, and in 1882 to 28,900,000 pesos. The revenues from the captured Peruvian nitrate fields then became an important part of the national income, which ten years later (1902) reached an aggregate of 138,507,178 pesos (of i8d.), of which 105,072,832 pesos were in gold. In 1906 the receipts from all sources were estimated at 149,100,000 pesos, of which 62,200,000 pesos gold were credited to the tax on nitrate, 39,800,000 pesos gold to import duties, and 23,500,000 pesos currency to railway receipts. During these years of fiscal prosperity the country suffered much from financial crises caused by industrial stagnation, an excessive and depreciated paper currency and political disorder. To ensure an income that would meet its foreign engagements, the government collected the nitrate and iodine taxes and import duties in gold. As a considerable part of the expenditures were in gold, the practice was adopted of keeping the gold and currency accounts separate. In 1895 a conversion law was passed in which the sterling value of the peso was reduced to 18d., at which rate the outstanding paper should be redeemed. A conversion fund was also created, and, although the government afterwards authorized two more large issues, the beneficial effects of this law were so pronounced that the customs regulations were modified in 1907 to permit the payment of import duties in paper. The national revenue is derived chiefly from the nitrate taxes, customs duties, alcohol tax, and from railway, postal and telegraph receipts. There is no land tax, and licence or business taxes are levied by the municipalities for local purposes. The national expenditures are chiefly for the interest and amortization charges on the public debt, official salaries, military expenses in connexion with the army and navy, public works (including railway construction, port improvements, water and sewage works), the administration of the state railways, telegraph lines and post office, church subsidies, public instruction and foreign representation.
The ordinary and extraordinary receipts and expenditures for the five years 1899-1903, in gold and currency, in pesos of 18d., were as follows:—
| Receipts, pesos. | Expenditures, pesos. | |||
| Gold. | Paper. | Gold. | Paper. | |
| 1899 | 83,051,604 | 45,239.970 | 31,732,797 | 76,749,793 |
| 1900 | 89,869,178 | 46,515,102 | 30,564,821 | 82,143,742 |
| 1901 | 74,665,061 | 35,394,434 | 39,808,517 | 91,087,171 |
| 1902 | 105,072,832 | 33,434,346 | 45,093,278[5] | 89,170,087[5] |
| 1903 | 108,503,565 | 32,490,145 | 12,508,075 | 84,721,437 |