River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-10-23
PAMPHLET NO. 2.
Published by the Anti-Bennett State Central
Committee

Above is the heading given to a
seven-paged pamphlet, misrepresenta-
tive and untruthful to an unusual de-
gree even for those who oppose the
law which looks to the dissemination
of intelligence and the development
of good citizenship. The limits of
this notice are too narrow to admit of
a detailed discussion of the egregious
blunders and palpable misstatements
the pamphlet contains.
Any one who uses even an infini-
tesimal quantity of sense will see at
glance that a compulsory law to have
particle of utility must specify what
shall be school under the law, else
one might claim exemption from the
operations of the law if attending a
daily meeting of pick-pockets taught
by an expert.
The law wisely says that (Sec. 81 mo
school shall be regarded as a school
under this act unless there shall be
taught therein, as part of the elemen-
tary education of children, reading,
writing, arithmetic and United States
history in the English language" 1t
is this provision that has brought
down upon the law the anathemss of
those who deny the right of the state
to compel children to learn. not some-
thing better, but something more
than a Lutheran Catechism in the
German language.
In one portion of the circular it is
claimed that the opponents of the law
do not object to the teaching of Eng
lish, but that on the other hand they
do teach it in their schools, and speak
it, and write it. A little further on
with stupidity worthy the opponents
of popular enlightenment it claims
through the law to confscate the
parochial school.
One must be like Old Gobbo. "more
than sand blind, high-gravel blind"
not to see the inconsistency of three
statements made in the pamphlet.
First, The object of the law is to COM
pei children between the ages of seven
and fourteen to learn the English
language. Second, We endeavor to
furnish our children with the best
instruction in the English language.
Third, The state wants TO coniiscate
our parochial schools.
Now the illiterate author of this Plea
for Prejudice may be unable to see
that when the school is teaching even
portion of the year in English the
pupils who attend it are exempt from
the attendance at the public school,
and are therefore outside The realm OF
even compulsory attendance, to say
nothing of the morbidly imaginative
confiscation spoken of in the pamphlet.
But if the author cannot see it, Intelli-
gent people can.
The whole tenor of the document is
a misrepresentation in conveying the
impression that the law is aimed at
parochial schools, when the least pos
sible judgment shows plainly that it
is aimed at no class of schools but is
aimed at the hydra, Ignorance.
The whole pamphlet is so full of de-
ception that it must certainly pull the
wool over the eyes of none but those
already blind, and hence will perhaps
prove harmless to the cause of educa-
ton in Wisconsin.
The following are a few sentences
culled from this wonderful production:
aThe opposition is not to the public school"
They (the opponentsl know full well that
. their children viii learn English"
..The state generously grants the right Of
| churches TO establish church schools: but when
| the schools are once established then the state
merely asserts the authority 70 turn them into
state schools at the churches expense.
sswhy is Il not necessary that the parents
should learn it (Englishl also
| s.Is every person necessarily thief or q muir
| derer or an outlaw who does not speak the
| English language!
swhy does not Wisconsin enact law .
declaring that amer certain time, say three or
six months everybody in the state shall use
the English language exclusively. or else have
his tong ue cut outg'
Now, if the American Sentinel of
New York is, as is claimed, the father
of this drivel, and in this manner
arrays itself against the intelligent
men and women of Wisconsin who by
large majority sympathize with the