The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-16

nents of this cherished institution Of our
fathers; and if we are any longer attracted to
side issues in the matter of public education,
it is surely our own fault
What that portion of the Jews, the Protes-
tants and the Catholics who are attacking our
common school system object to is, not that
the schools are sectarian, but that they are
not sectarian. And, in this issue between
sectarianism and broad, national education,
there can he no doubt which side patriotic
citizens will espouse. Mr.. Preston tells us
that, in his view, ''it is impossible to have
public schools that are non-sectarlan, and
again, that sit is impossible there could be
schools without religious bias" That is the
position taken by all those, whether "free-
thinkers" or Catholics, or Protestants, who
demand that our common school system shall
be shattered to fragments, and its remains
divided piecemeal among rival sects.
On the other hand, the people, who know
how much of their present prosperity is based
on our free school system, and how much OF
the future is dependent on it, declare that it
must be preserved intact; that, as there is
no established Church in the country, so
there shall be no established Church schools.
Rightly considered, then, the present is not
a question of Bible or anti-Blble in the
schools. ''As to the reading of the Bible,
says Mr. Preston, 1--WE don't consider that q
importance, and he adds
1--WE demand that we shall receive our propotlon
in regard to the number of children instruG%eu, % vi
the fund so raised, and the State is bound recog-
niZe this, and that every school, private orRuDiC OF
denominationa so that it be erautouS Sda Te
Ceve from the State its proportion OF thfiuhu Iaseu
for general education, and no more"
There is the whole question u nutsneI;
and it is precisely on this g09nSdo a. that o FRO.
testant sectarian schools receved $62,oOo out
of the last city tax levy, All Oatnoic secta-
rian schools double that amount-thus mis-
appropriating funds the ought TO nave gone
to the support of our ommon scnool system
The question, WIN put on thls ground
ceases to be relipicls and becomes political.
And having becme question of European
policy as aGaine American policy, it seems to
! nc frat tbere can be no ground of compro-
misc We IN respect the conscience of Jew,
or Catboli, or Episcopalian, or Universalist,
Iybo ,yieJJs his Church or his family to mo-
nonol;9 the religious education of his chill
| dran But when it is proposed to impair or
obosh the essential national characteristic
| oS our American free public school system,
1e pride and glory of the nation, and to SUBJ
'stitute for it the European system of secta-
rian schools, supported by a common tax we,
as Americans, and not as religionists, protest.
Mr.. Preston rests his arguments ON the prac-
tice of ''all the European countries, where,
he tells us, denominational schools are sup
ported by taxing the people. That is the very
reason that our people will not substitute this
system for the one dear to their traditions,
and on which they have grown to be what
they are. Denominations and sects may esta-
blish their own sectarian schools and support
them with their own funds; the people will
not have sectarianism in schools, and will not
be publicly taxed to teach the doctrines of
sects either to their own children or to the
children of anybody else.
1t is due solely, we believe, to party machi-
nations that this question has assumed its
present gravity. Twenty years ago the prin-
ciples set forth by Mr.. Preston were repu-
dated, not on religious but on patriotic
grounds-the people would have no union of
sect and State. But last winter Senator
Tweed, as a party stroke, and with a view
to make political capital, introduced a bill
attacking our public school system. That
bill provided that whenever there shall be
established, or has been established and
maintained, in any city of this State, any
free school or schools, in which not less than
two hundred children have been or shall be
taught and educated gratuitously, it shall
become the duty of that city, or of the
county, to provide for the expenses of such
school or schools" Other provisions in the
bill declared that these Expenses" should be
neI Dy JaA Oh Cne Ju&dDle property Vi Iue
CITY," and that this tax should amount to
eight dollars for each pupil. We say that this
was a political move and designed for local
partisan effect. 1t was intended to rally all
those benefited by it in such cities as New
York to the support of the Tammany ring,
which Mr.. Tweed represents; it was shame
less blow, dealt ia the interests of party, at
the peculiar pride and boast of American in
stitutions. We need hardly add that the bill
received no favor in the Legislature, and that
its purposes were only partially carried into
effect through that monstrous engine of
wrong, the ''city tax levy"
Mr.. Preston proposes, in effect, to renew
the effort begun. by Mr.. Tweed, with this
difference-that what the Tammany leader
sought to accomplish covertly, by stealth and
the use of false pretenses, the recognised ex-
ponent of Catholic aims proposes to urge
openly, candidly, and for reasons which leave
none in doubt as to the issue involved. We
yet hope that contest so fraught with pas
sion and prejudice-so irritating in its nature,
and so dangerous in its tendencies-may be
once more averted.
MORMON ACTIVITY.