Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-03-19

MILWAUKEE, March 14.-The Bennett
law is all right, but it must be made
more explicit and binding. Such was
| the meaning of the declaration adopted
by the West Side Turner society, the
largest Turner's organization of Wiscon-
sin, last night. The spacious assembly
hall was filled with people. Chris.
Paulus presided, and for once D. c..
Luenlng, the ex-president of the socie-
ty and principal of the Second ward
school, defended the same ideas and
principles as Editor Herman Boppe.
The sentiment in favor of the law was
unanimous, and it was plain that while
advocating a revision of the law, the
Turner's wanted it revised in direction
directly opposite to that advocated by
It's enemies. What the German church
men would like to see eliminated, :"
the Turner's presided over by Mr.
Paulus, desire TO remain and be made
still stronger and more rigid, while the
clause, unobjectionable to the cham
pIons of pure Germandom, the Turner's
were IN favor of rejecting. The discus
sion was not tlong, nor exciting Editor
Boppe, ID. c. Luening and Otto Zwie-.
tusch did all the talking. The Turner's;
defined their position with reference to-
the teaching of English. They declared
themselves in favor of a compulsory
education law and indorsed the spirit
of the law under discussion.
The declaration, or resolution, intro
duced by Editor Boppe, translated into
English, is as follows:
In accordance with the platform and
declaration OF principles of the North
American Turner bund. the Turner So
ciety of Milwaukee declares:
That it is the right and duty of the
republic to maintain public schools;
That 1t is the right and duty to estab-
lish the principle Of compulsory, uni
versal education by a legislative enact
ment;
Ihat 1t must necessarily, in order to
exercise its rights and carry out it's du-
ties, without detriment to the principle
OF educational liberty, be also in posi-
ton to exert an influence upon schools
not maintained by the state or COM
mun1tles IN degree that would make
it certain that parental levity cannot
deprive the children of the necessary
school education and that a certain
mlnlmum OF instruction is attained at
the private schools.
The Bennett law meets our uncondi-
t1onal approval to the extent in which
1t aims to embody the foregoing funda-
T1H fol loo,
guage being the recognized legal and
judicial language, we pronounce as lust
the demand that in the cirriculum of
every school the English language
should be taken into account in such a
manner as to make the practical knowl-
edge OF 1t one Of the aims of the school.
But careful investigation of the
Bennett law shows that it contains sew
eral provisions which are not clear
enough and which can lead to misinter-
pretations and abuse by careless or
over-Zealous authorities.
We, therefore, declare that a revision
of the law Is absolutely necessary. The
law must be drawn in such a manner
that no school known as attaining de-
sired grade in instruction should be
1nterfered with, and that it should in
no wise be interpreted as aiming to
prevent instruction in language outside
Of the English and as seeking to mono
police English instruction for certain
branches
All sincere friends of public schools,
regardless of nationality, ought to work
harmoniously together to bring about
the necessary change in the Bennett
law and to carry out the prio ciple of
compulsory universal education in a
way that the natural right of education
of no child be abrogated, and that the
public schools, at the same time, make
no claim for a monopoly; that is, that
educational and religious liberty is not
infringed upon.