New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-10-01


mon schools and the necessity of keeping
Church and State forever separate. Ills dis
claimer in advance of any intention to
bring politics into the assemblage, seer
"tainly not partisan politics." would seem
to indicate that his remarks upon that ques-
ton did have political bearing; and the APP
parent earnestness with which he urges that
not one dollar appropriated to the common
schools shall be applied to The support OF any
scctarian institution, as safeguard without
which it may happen that the bat
ties of the war were fought in vain,
shows that he considers the question one
of unusual importance. That he ID en-
tirely right as to the necessity OF preserving
our common schools from sectalian influences
we have strenuously maintained. The mystery
is, why he should have introduced the subject
i'm so formal q manner and upon such an
occasion. The school question does enter some
what into local politics in Ohio and possibly
in one or two other States. Even there 1t Is
not an ovcrshadOwing issue, simply because
no serious or concerted resistance has been
made to the American idea, which,
whenever disputed or resisted, viii he over
whemingly maintained that our schools must,
at all hazards, he kept free from any sectanan
faint. Bur it is not, and cannot be made
national question. The General Government
does not control schools or school policies. 1t
does control finance and currency and admin
istrativa reform, and on these points there Is
now wide discussion, and a demand ior linme-
date legislation. They are the topics which
OCCUPY the public mind, and an earnest word
or two on these. particularly on the currency,
upOn which the Presidents position IL
so satisfactory to the honest sentiment of the
country, would have been great deal more
to the purpose. AS il is, men can only won
der why he passed over the questions on which
the parties have joined battle, and in which
everybody feels a vital interest to take up
one which is not prominent in more than
single state, is not lending issue even there,
and cannot in any way become a subject OF
national action, or Il leading element in the
policy of a national party.
If, as seems quite likely, the President in
making this address has lent himself to the
effort now making by some of the Republican
managers to divert public attention from the
subjects of the currency and administrative
reform which at present engross it, we think
he has been led into committing great
mistake. The school question whenever it
comes up, and how soon that may be We
cannot tell, will be settled, beyond the posi-
bility of doubt, upon the basis Of freedom
from all sectaIianism; but it is not to-day IN
issue upon which parties are divided OF ma
tional contest can be fought. The attempt to
elevate il TO prominence is the work OF
men who aim only to divert public attcn-
ton and public discussion from subjects upon
which they feel that thcy and their party are
held at disadvantage. The Presidents speech
is q contribution to the curiositics of official
literature, and, in its essential propositions, it
does not differ from The common sense of the
vast majority Of his countYmcn bat it adds
nothing to the general fnnd Of political ilfor-
ma