Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-07-16
The Bishops Firm Stand on Com
pulsory Education.
STATES CONT ROL OF CHILDREN.
Principles of the Bennett Law Upheld by
the Celebrated Catholic Divine
Declaring for Religion in the
Public Schools - Stir
ring Address.

OPP 1Tolduu ucllNcTCQ all dQuroSS DOlOIo
the National Teachers Association that
caused profound sensation. He de-
clared himself in favor Of COM
pulsory education in the most
pronounced manner, and en-
dorsed the school laws recently
enacted by Illinois, Wisconsin and
other states, only urging amendment in
one or two slight particulars. He also
declared himself in favor of religious
exercises in the public schools, Catholic
or Protestant, as the pupils OF either
religion might be in the majority
in each school, and announced
his approval of the remarkable reform
movement inaugurated in the public
schools of Poughkeepsie, n. Y, and
other eastern cities The Archbishop
was accorded the closest attention and
was warmly applauded. He said:
II will be permitted to make at once
my profession of faith: / declare most
unbounded loyalty to the constitution
of my country. / desire no favors,
claim no rights that are not i'll con-
sonance with its letters and its spirit.
The right which the constitution allows,
do claim, and in doing so am but the
truer and the more loyal American.
II uphold the parish school, but
oil tot
To the child must be impaired instruc
ton in no mean degree, that the man
NAV earn for himself an honest COM
petence, and acquaint himself of the
duties which society exacts from him
for his own prosperity and life. The
imparting of this instruction is primari
ly the function of the child's parent.
The state intervenes whenever the
family cannot or will not do the work
that is needed. AS things are, tens of
thousands of children will not be in
structed if parents remain soley in
charge of the duty.
The state must come forward as an
agent of instruction; else ignorance will
prevail Indeed in the absence of state
action there never was that universal
instruction which we have so nearly at
tanned and which we deem necessary.
In the absence of state action l be,
lieve universal instruction would never
in any country be possible.
No tax is more legitimate than that
for schools, and it should be disbursed
by state officers for this specific pur-
pose.
II unreservedly favor state laws max
ing instruction compulsory.
INSTRUCTION is so much needed by
each citizen for his own sake and for
that of society that the father who neg
lects to provide for his child's instruc-
ton sins against the child and against
society, and it behooves the state to
punish him.
''Of course, first principles must not
be forgotten, and since. instruction is
primarily the function of the parent,
the parent enjoys the right to educate
his child in the manner suitable to him.
self-provided always that the educa-
ton given in this manner suffice for
the Interior duties of the child toward
himself and society.
Compulsory education implies at.
tendance in schools maintained and
controlled by the state, only when
known to be competent to impart in
struction in the required degree.
'The compulsory laws recently enact
ed in certain states of the Union are,
to my Judging, Objectionable in few
Incidental clauses. These, I am con-
fdent, will readily be altered in ap-
preaching legislative sessions.
"With the body of the laws and their
general intent in the direction of has
tening among us universal instruction,
am IN most hearty accord.
''The secular Instruction in the state
schools is our pride and our glory. and
| regret that there is the necessity for
the existence of the parish school. The
spirit of the parish school, if not the
school itself, is widespread among
American Protestants, and is made
manifest by their determined oppo-
sition to the exclusion of scripture read
ing and other devotional exercises from
the school room.
There is dissatisfaction with the
state school as at present organized.
The state school, it is said, tends to the
elimination of religion from the minds
and hearts of the youth Of the country.
This is my grievance against the state
schools ofto-day.
Believe me, my Protestant fellow
citizens, that | am absolutely sincere