The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1872-05-11
The Free Trader Denounced.

We confess to good deal of surprise On
learning, on Sunday last, that at the morning
service in The Catholic Church in this CITY,
both Fathers Terry and Heating took coca.
sion, in very severe terms, to denouace the
publishers of this paper for admitting into its
columns the communication headed Mrs.
Mullony on the School Question" We have
been able to get but very indefinite account
Of what was said, but gather generally,
chat the main cause of offense was /. That the
communication implicitly held the Roman
Catholic people of this city, and more partic-
ularly the Irish people, with the Catholic
priests responsible for the alleged movement
in the school board to impair the efficiency
and usefulness Of our public schools. 9. That
it spoke lightly and Aippantly of the Sisters
School; and 3. That being written In the
Irish pato,s or previncialism. its object was to
ridicule and insult the Irish people.
While we can have no dispute with these
highly respectable and Reverend gentlemen
whether the communication is really liable to
these ugly objections, We muat be permitted to
say that with the proneness of all editors to
accept, without much scrutiny, communica-
tions from authors who generally write ably
and acceptably, in the hasty reading which
we gave the communication IN question be-
fore its publication, We failed, perhaps from
innate dullness, to see any of those fercely,
Objectionable points with which it seems to
have bristled all over; besides which we
have the solemn word of the author that NO.
thing of the kind was intended. Yet with the
knowledge that on the street such charges
against our Catholic fellow citizens are often
and freely handled, we can readily sec that
the conclusion on their part that the commu.
nicstion was intended in this offensive sense
was natural and perhaps inevitable. But let
that pass.
The only other observation we feel called
upon to make on the subject is, that, SO FAY as
we are individually concerned, We defy any
one to point out the line we have ever written
and published editorially, or even in the shape
of communication, so far as our recollection
goes, (axcept the unfortunate one last week,
assuming the correctness of its offensive inter
pretation) that intimated even remotely, that
the Catholic priests or people Of this city, as
such, were engaged in any movement to in
jure or lower the standard of our public
schools. We have never said so because We
never believed so,-never entertained any such
notion.
The local quarrel about our public schools
originated in the removal of Mr.. T. H. Clark
, from the principalship Of the High School.
That movement was engineered more by
, Americans than Catholics or Irishmen, and
, while we could 60 into the cause of it minute.
) ly, we shall only say here that it was In no
sense religious question. The school board,
, in which at the time there were but two Irish.
men to five Americans, instead of gong about
the work manfully, and removing Mr.. Clark
, by direct vote and appointing another man
in his place, drove him off indirectly by reduc.
ing his salary. Mr.. Clark got $780, He
, was worth that because he could and did com.
, mand that and even larger salary at once in
neighboring city. BY cutting down the SAL
airy of the principal of the High School to
, $l.250, therefore, we contended that the action
of the board amounted to an exchange OF a
81 500 man tor 1880 man, and to that ex.
tent was degrading ard lowering the standard
, of the High School. This was the whole sum
and substance of our fight with the school
e board-the movement, as we commended, be-
e ing to degrade and lower the standard of the
f high school, and also, by dispensing with a
D superintendent, to impair the uniformity and
. efficiency of the schools OF lower grade. Had
: the hoard manfully discharged Mr.. Clark and
4 appointed a man as good IS he to take his
= place Mt the same salary, although We should
$ have regretted 1t, for we regarded him as a
very superior teacher, yet the fight over our
public schools, so far as we are concerned,
would have been over IN week
As to the late movement of DR.. Paul, to in
E augurate In our high school, instead of the
= ordinary studies of such school, sort OF
highfalutin and absurdly unpracticable seen.
tlfic course, to say that the movement was engi.
neered or favored by the Irish people or Ro.
!, man Catholics, when there was not an Irish.
man and but one Catholic on the school board,
> is farcically absurd, and we are most happy ia
be able to state, in this connection, that manly
through the good practical common sense Of
Mr. nirrcknr Muiorh Ofor tha vko1s