St. Paul daily globe., 1890-04-13
THE RENNErI LAW.

in the fray.
We allude to the clash of ideas in re-
lation TO the conduct of our public
school system which has been inaugu-
rated, and is being forced to contest
through the over-Zeal of religious
fanaticiSm. 1t has been the history of
the world from the beginning to the
| present time, that all conflicts originat-
| ing in religious sentiment have been
the bitterest and the least capable of
control. 1t is due to the fact that, when
the religious nature Of man is aroused,
| it involves all that is worth Ii wing for,
| or worth dying for. Consequently, the
| unconqueraple forces of humanity are
| brought into play; and when the strug-
| gle begins in earnest, the war is waged
under the black flag of fanaticism until
the contest closes with the eXtermina-
ton of one side or the other. After
the battle begins there can be neither
compromise nor surrender; hence the
wisdom of our nineteenth century civ
ilization has prompted the policy of
wholly avoiding the mingllng of re-
ligious and political issues.
1t is in this light particu larly that the
folly of attempting to enforce the BEN
NETT law in Wisconsin is most appar-
ent. In the first place, such a measure
is an assumption of paternalism Oh the
| part OF the state totally inconsistent
with the spirit of republican institu-
tons. Ii the principles embraced in
| the BENNETT law were right. then CON-
| pulsory enforcement by legal processes
| would be wrong. 1t is not within the
| province of statutory law to prescribe a
| code OF ethics for the government of in
| dividual conduct. 1t may prevent one
from going wrong, but it cannot prompt
one to do right. The chief force of
statutory law is in prohibition, and all
that it can do in it's substantial provis-
| ions is to restrain. It can command
| nothing, except in the subsidiary ma
chinery. And least of all has it the
power to regulate conscience or to COM
pei individuals to surrender that free
agency with which the Creator has
endowed them.
The BENNETT law. which is now
creating such hubbub in Wisconsin,
is wrong in principle. and consequently
there is less excuse for its enforcement
than if it embraced a doctrine that Was
universally recognized to be right.
However the friends of the measure
may seek to disguise its real purpose
| under the plea that its object is to
Americanize the youth Of the state by
compelling them to adopt the prevailing
language of this country. the fact is
none the less conspicuous that the sole
aim and intent of the BENNETT law is
to compel the ab0liShment of parochiaI
schools.
We hold that the two Fundamental
principles of American government,
free speech and religious tolerance. are
assailed by the BENNETT law. We adj
nit the deSirability of Americauizing all
American youth, yet we deny the power
of the state TO attempt to attain that end
by enforcing doctrines wholly repug-
nant to the spirit of American govern
ment. 1t is right inherent to every
American citizen to speak in the
language of his choice, or not to speak
at all If he prefers silence. The true
way to Americanize youth of foreign
birth or foreign parentage is to excite
their admiration for our institutions by
a display of liberality that they can
find under no other government OH
earth. When we have done that we
have made ardent Americans of them.
The BENNETT law reverSeS this plan by
seeking to AmericaniZe them by COM
pulsOry process that does violence to
their conscience, that dishouorS their
mother tongue, and inspires them with
q belief that instead of having come to
a land of freedom. where every man is
allowed to dwell under his own vine
and fig tree and worship God according
to dictates of Individual conscience,
they have really come to live under a
more rigorous despotiSm than prevailed
in tatherland.
1t is enough to say in opposition to
the Wisconsin law that with his iron
will, his indifference to religious senti-
ment, and his utter disregard of popular
rights, BISMARCK would not have ared
to suggest to the German reichstag to
have put such law into operation in that
country. The average Germans par
tiality for his own language is we'll
known. Yet, if he wanted to teach
French, or English, or Arabian to his
children, the power of the German en-
pire could not restrain him from doing
it. Shall we, then, be more despotic in
the management of our public schools
than the imperial governments of Eu-
rope?
But the boldest form of despotism
manifested in the BE NNETT law is its
covert design to Stampout the parochial
schools which the Catholics and the Lu-
theraus maintain. 1t is we'll known that
these parochial schools are founded and
supported by their patrons, because
they desire to have their children re-
ceive religious instruction which
cannot be obtained in the public schools.
1t is matter of conscience with them,
and they cheerfully submit to the pay
ment of double tax in order that they
may have the opportunity to exercise
their religious belief, They real
ize that it is the well-settled
policy of this country to keep
church and state apart, and to that end
all Sectarlan teaching or religious train
ing is carefully excluded from schools
that are supported at public expense.
Any effort liz a contrary direction will
be promptly and vigorously resisted by
the masses of the people. Religious
freedom, according to au American in
terpretation, means the full and unre-
stricted exercise of conscience in mat
ters pertaining to the education of chill
dren; therefore, religious instruction
can have no place in the public school
system. And by parity of reasoning,
the state has no right to interfere with
the method of instruction in schools not
supported at state expense. The most
that the state can do is to put the public
school in competition with the parochial
school, and leave it to the preference of
the individual as to which he will pat
r0nize. The parochial school is as much
l.x- 4t4 ~