The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-08-06
aMisrrHaurnus.
AN EDUCATIONAL STRUGGLE WITH
THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.

man Catholic who was selected for that
Office in the belief that he was ''liberal"
and a friend of American progress. He
proves to he an ardent ultramontane.
He has recently delivered n lecture
against the American system of educa-
tion. The Legislative Hall at Tucson,
the capital, was, it seems, Offered him
for that purpose. A large audience as
sembled, and such was the effect of his
oratory that when a bill was introduced
soon after in the Council of the Territory
establishing sectarian schools and over
turning the common school system, it
was defeated only by n single vote. The
controversy ranges among the silver
bearing mountains of Arizona. and it is
still in doubt whether caste and secta-
rianism may not win IA complete triumph
la a region where pure republicanism
might well find IFS natural ho!ac. That
Z, chief Justice OF "a nigh court should
-mpiny his leisure in asS;Iiling the com
mon schools is an uneXampled event. 1t
lIns usually been thought that the digni-
ty of the bench was best assured by the
abstinence of its occupants from all po-
litical controversy; but ultramontanc
zeal, it seems, is insensible to the IL
straints of common propriety, Gnd the
hupartlality of the Judge is laid aside in
the ardor of tha advocate.
Justice relies are nQtnew. The Church, ;"
he asserts, is the only power that has the
right to teach; the state has none. State
teaching is necessarily immoral and
goddess, because it wants the authority
of the "Church." The state has 10 right
TO enter your house and tear your child
from your arms The theory of the
cpmmsn school education is plain Com
munism, and may lead to the mad orgies
of Paris. Tile Church, he asserts,
will never yield this power TO the state.
The conflict is irreeoneilablt, and war
must begin WHICH ian Gniy emf in an
arrhy and ruin. The ultramontanes are,
it seems, resolved never to permit the
state to educate their children. But TO
this mode of reasoning there is Tut one
answer: the Roman Catholic, like every
other citizen, must submit TO the law.
And the plain reason of the educational
law is that neither the Rom3n Catholic
Ohurah nir any other iias sh0wn ltsslf
fitted or able to instruct nations. The
only successful system of edneatian Is
that established and controlled by the
state. The olearest testimony, that of
recent statistics, shows that the educa-
tion afforded by the Roman Catholic de
nomination must be both goddess and
immoral" since it leads only to the
grossest criminality, while the education
provided by the different states diinin-
ishes crime and produces usually honest
and industrious citizehs. Tie massacre
aU Acapulco and the murders at San
Miguel are conclusive arguments against
leaving edu1atiOn in the hands Of the
"Chuf1h. .. - - - ''''''''
In Roman Catholic countries both the
education tolerated end the nfEIeat Of
education seem equally dangerous to
freedom and good morals. IN Massa-
chusetts, for eKamRle. one seventh afthe
population IL foreign born, and educa-
ted, or rather ! # wholly uneducate I, by
the Church" From this one seventh
part of the population come nearly
three-fourthE OF tn. efima saystne Fe-
port of 1871: "1lia third grand fact is
that not far from seveaty-tiye paF cent.
of New England crime is committed by
persons of foreign extraction" The
same proportion is found To apply 10 the
other New England States, and also to
New York and the West (see Report of
the Commissioner OF Education, 1874 p.
sis), and tine inference necessarily foI-
! lows that the Church. is the parent OF
the larger part of our criminal pOpula.
ton. BY its neglect of education it pre-.
pares its members for the allpShopse and
the pail If ali Massachusetts, were un.
| der the supervision of the pltramontaue
priests, it would produce sevenfold the
amount of crime and pnnperlsm it does
at present, and It's easy to compute how
soon, under such arule, that prosperous
community would be reduced TO the con.
dition of Mexico or Spain If Arizona
is to be educated under similar condi
tions, it can never hope TO rank hiel
among its sister States, or to rival the
prosperity OF California and Colorado.
That the Roman Catholic Church-at