The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1867-01-19
!" The Catholic school BIll.v

Territory nave seen NJ W COuuOMH ULAl in-
troduced in the late Legislature, which passed
both Houses, and was finally vetoed by the
Governor. They have totally misrepresented
the objects of the bill. 1t was not for the
establishment or endowment of Catholic
schools. 1t was not for the purpose of ben
citing any sectarian school. 1t did not at all
interfere with the Common School Fund. 1t
proposed to do simply this to appropriate
the sum of 100000 towards the establish
ment of four or more schools in the Territory
of Idaho, for the education of all children,
without regard to sects or creed, the said
schools to be under the charge of certain
named Orders of the Catholic Sisterhood.
But this appropriation of $4,000 was made,
for the Sisterhood, hazardously contin-
gent. In the first place the sum was to be
paid only and exclusively out of the sales of
lands in Section SO, donated by the General
Government to the Territory, not for Common
School purposes, but for what is known as
the University Fund. The total number of
acres thus donated by the Government is
about l 100000. The usual price of public
land per acre IS 81 25. But say the whole
donation to the University Fund brought in
the market only $4,000, it would leave
$4,000 to be devoted to other educational
Institutions in this Territory, after deducting
the stated $4,000 for the purposes of the
measure in question. Itso happens, however,
that none of these public lands are surveyed,
and no immediate means could have been
voted. The contracting parties, on behalf of
the Sisters, engaged to do this: to establish
four schools in stipulated points in the Terri
tory to trust to the honor and good faith of
the Territory to pay the $4,000 agreed upon
ont of the sales of the specified Section SO,
and until these sales were made they would
not ask any compensation from the Territory
yet, as soon as the bill became law, they
agreed to proceed to the establishment of the
stipulated schools.
Let it be remembered that Section Is is
donated especially for Common Schools; that
Section SO is donated tor University purposes.
The bill in question in no way trenched upon
the Common School fund or lands. 1t merely
provided for an appropriation Of say one
fourth (really one-twentieth) of the value of
the University lands. Under our form of
government it is not legitimate or proper to
mingle religion with politics, to teach Sec
tarianism in thepublic schools. But these
very things are done in our public schools,
and the fact is patent that under the present
Common School system Catholic parents
have the alternative either to have their
children taught that their own religion is a
vile heresy and themselves are heretics, or to
keep them entirely from the public schools.
The Common Schools are sectarian. And
we venture the assertion that, if all the chief
men of various Christian Churches OPP
posed to Catholicism were to be given the
choice of public school system, they could
not agree upon one more in conformity with
their desires, so far as antagonism to Cathol-
lcism is concered, than that now in general
usage in all the Northern States and Terrific
RES. Thus, the public schools are anti
and consequently antagonistic to at
least that sect.
Fully one-half the taxpayers of this Ter
ritory are Catholics. They are citizens, and
as such are entitled to equal rights and priv
ileges with those of any other denomination
Is it right to compel them to pay school
tax, and then to use the money so extracted
from them to teach their own children that
their religion is heresy and themselves
the parents] beretics? Have they not
clear right to some of the benefits of that
money which they pay towards the support
of public schools2 And are they not also
entitled, by virtue of their contributing
equally with the citizen of any other faith,
to all the benefits derived from the General
Government to the Territory? We take the
ground that they are. The bill in point gave
them not so much. 1t provided for schools
in which the children of all citizens could
be taught alike, and in which religious opin-
ions and tenets were not to be in any way
introduced. The schools were to be under
the charge of Catholic Sisters, but not
"Catholic Schools" There are hundreds of
such institutions all over the United States,
and they are principally supported by Prot
estants for the simple reason that children