The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1876-02-10
THE TRUsTEEs' : DEFENCE. :

We cheerfuliy give place this week
to the statement which tho Trustees
of School District No. 1 have docid-
ed to make to the public in answer
to the complaints of Messrs. Robert
sou and Obermiller-publishing it
verbatim as it was handed in. We
only regret that they have not been
able to give a more satisfa Glory de-
tense, and to relieve themselves from
the charges of a failure to do their
duty. But the truth is, their state
ment is sorry mixture of seifcon-
tradictions, false statements and weak
evasions. Even the most casual ex-
animation will show this. They start
out with the declaration that the
charges of Messrs. Obermiller and
Robertson ''are false in every import
ant particular" Let US see. These
gentlemen had charged:
1. That the Catholic catechism
was taught in the school by a Catho.
lie priest for one hour on! Tuesday
and Friday afternoons Of each week.
This the Trustees admit.
2. That the Trustees were RESPONSE
bic for this. This they also admit,
and volunteer the further informa-
ton that they had made special pro-
visions "for the priest of the parish
to impart religious instruction" by
setting aside part of two afternoons
of each week for this purpose. If
these Trustees could take one hour
from two afternoons Of each week
for religious instruction, why could
they not take one hour from every
afternoon in the week? And if one
hour, why not two hours? three
hours? the entire day? Where
would they feel called upon to p lace
the limit?
3. That a Catholic reader in Ger
man was used as regular text book
in the school. This the Trustees al
so admit. They admit that they
were not CONFORMING to the law" but
intimate that they would conform to
it after awhile when they should see
fit. The excuse they offer for using
this book, viz: that "a bill was about
to pass our Legislature providing for
a uniform system Of school books"
il an exceedingly lame one. They
had been using this book in the public
school long before the Legislature as
sembled. There was already in tho
statute books a law providing for a
uniform system Of school books" and
this law they were willfully NO.
lating. 1t had not been said that
this Catholic reader had been "intro-
duced" into the school, but if
this had been said there would
have been no "mistake." If the reg
ular daily use Of book as text
book Is not Introducing" it, we fail
to understand the meaning of words.
4. That the teachers in the school
are not capable of teaching the En-
glish language and cannot properly
pronounce it. This the Trustees do
rot deny.
5. That the priest inflicted corpor-
al punishment upon the children dur
ing school hours. This they do not,
at least in terms, deny.
1t will, therefore, be somewhat diff
fcult to discover, from the Trustees
own showing, wherein Messrs. Rob
ertson and Obermiller have been at
fault even in one particular. The
doubt expressed by the Trustees as to
whether these gentlemen have ever
visited the school during school hours
raises a question Of veracity between
the two parties with which we have
nothing to do.
The Trustees 60 far out Of their
way to make willful misstatement
when they say that, in our comments
last week upon his matter, we "man-
ifested much partisan spirit and SEEM
ed to enjoy the occasion as afFording
an opportunity for saying severe
things against the Catholic church"
We took especial pains, in that ar
ticle, to disclaim any and all purpose
of calling in question any mans re-
ligion. In referring to Prof. Kaiser
we said "That he is Catholic is,
in itself, a matter of no consequence.
His religion is bis own and he has a
perfect right to it. 1t is no part Of
our purpose to call into question any
mans religious belief" No reference
,ehateuer was made to the religion Of
the Trustees, we considering that "the
public were not much interested as to
what they might happen to believe so
long as they performed their duties
a. Trustees" It was the official dere-
Lotions of these gentlemen that we
animadverted upon, and not as to
what church they attended or wheth-
er they attended any at all. The
Trustees here attempt to raise a
false issue behind which to screen
their own SHORTCOMINGS, and to escape
censure by exciting religious preju-
dices. 1t is a very shallow subter-
fuge, but 1t appears to be the best
they can do. 1t is known and ad-
mitted by all fair-minded and intelle-
gent Catholics that The JOURNAL
has been uniformly as liberal and
fair toward that church as toward
any other-giving it as full and free
use Of its columns as was accorded
TO any other denomination.
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