Smyrna times., 1873-11-05
The Catholics and the Public Schools.

There Is one point which every voter should
remember in this and in every election. 1t is
the resolution of a large and able body to de-
stroy the present system of the public schools
by division OF the school money among the
various sects, and confessedly for sectarian in
struction, 1--WE admit" said Father Preston
recently-and he is the most plausible, and not
the least able of the advocates of this policy
we admit we wish to preserve our faith and
teach 1t to our children. That is very natural
and very proper. Why, then, do not he and
his fellow clergymen do it? They have every
opportunity, and they have Sunday schools for
that very purpose. Why do they insist that
the secular schools shall be sectarian also? To
call them goddess" because they are not de-
nomlnatlonal, and because religious teach
ing is not part of the system, is simply ridi-
culous. Counting rooms and factories of all
kinds, In which children are taught various
kinds OF business, might be as wisely denoun-
ced as irreigiOus.
Again, Father Preston says, "To support
the State in its benifcent mission large sums
are raised by taxation Catholics bear their
share of the burden. Have they not lust
claim to their proportion of the fund.-" So
butchers and bakers and carpenters and manu-
tacturers and importers bear their share of the
burden. Does Father Preston wish the fund
to be divided accordingly? These persons he
and shoe-makers, but as citizens. And the
jew and the atheist, and the CHRISTIAN of any
name, does not pay as such, but as a citizen
Does the father propose that Jews and atheists
shall have their share of the fund to propagate
their views as such? If the money raised for
the general benefit is to be divided among the
citizens because of their religious faith, so it
may be because OF their various business en-
ployments. But that is not the American
prl"clple, nor the principle of sound states
manship any where.
Yes, says Father Preston but I'VE can not
use the common schools, because they answer
not our end, nor satisfy our conscences." We
have known honest and intelligent men who
could not consclentiOusly pay aUy taxes what
ever. One such man We knew who went to
Jail rather than pay. His plea was perfectly
| honest. Does Father Preston think that such
a plea could be generally received by society
instead OF the tax? The Roman Catholic OBJ
lection to the public schools, it will be remenb-
cred, is not that they teach wrong religion,
but that they do not teach any and the OBJ
lectors say that they can not conscientiously
have their children taught the MULTIPLICATION
cable in school in which the Roman Catholic
faith is not also taught Do they make the
same objection to the dancing schools and the
writing schools to which they send their child.
rem VI course these last are not supported
by the public money. But that does not affect
their religious character. Are such schools
godleSs" and irreligious because they do not
teach Roman Catholic theology? Ii they are
not, neither are the public grammar schools.
1t they are, why do not the objectors insist
that sectarian instruction of the kind they pre-
fer be added? The objection must be uniform
and consistent, or it is contemplate. All
schools for every purpose must be denounced
in the words of the st. Louis Roman Cath.
ollc ConventiOn-as curses to the country.
food-gates of atheism and senSuality. and of
civil, Social and national corruption, because
they are not sectarian, or none can Justly be
called SO. Ii all are SO denounced the folly is
evident But if all are not, then a public
school designed TO teach grammar, geography,
and arithmetic is no more irreligious because
1t does not also teach some sectarian catechism
than school designed to teach dancing or
writing. The State must have all the child.
rem taught. To that end it taxes the citizens.
Ii any OF the tax payers wish their children
taught sectarian catechism, the State prom
erly replies that it cannot recognize sects of
any kind. If then it is asked to divide the
money among certain Sects and let them teach
themselves, 1t replies again, and finally. not
only that any just division Of the kind is in It's
elf absolutely impossible, but that it would be
the very recognition of which it can and should
know nothing.-Harptrs Weekly