Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-03-13

papers ana q clique or small-b0re
Democratic politicians" he said.
$50 far as the priests are concerned
they are, as a rule, bigoted, intole
rant set, but few of whom ought TO
haYe lived later than the eleventh
century. They are active and vic
ious, ana as full of venom as John
Calvin or Torquemada. They seem
to have no more regard for the truth
than Ananias and Saphira and have
most wilfully and persistently lied
about the Bennett law.
1t makes judicious Christians
grieve TO hear them pirate and preach
that knowledge of the English
language tends to make people i'm
moral and that the law is a blow
aimed at religion and parochisl
schools. Such falsehoods are not
believed by English-speaking people,
but will have weight with many Of
their parishioners whom they have
purposely kept from learning the
language of the country. There is
no liar so bold and INSCRIPTIONS as
your ecclesiastical liar.
"These gentry are struggling for
bread and butter and to that end try
to keep their Pensioners Ignorant
of affairs and wholly dependent on
them for political as we'll as spiritual
doctrine Their churches are gen
orally reported to be in ruinous
state at every general election, and
the candidate who contributes most
to the priest for repairs usually gets
the most votes among the flock.
alt must IN Ccndor be said of
these ecclesiastics that that they are
one and all honestly animated with
a common purpose, and that is dead
ly hatred of the common schools.
The common school system is the
genesis of democracy, and antago-
nizes hierarchy as well as monarchy.
"There has been great activity of
late among the enemies of the com
mon school system of the country.
AT the Catholic congress held at
Baltimore in November last the
common schools were bitterly de-
nounced by ex-JEdge Dunn and
other laymen from the platform in
the presence Of high church digni-
taries. They were called goddess
Schools and the speakers demanded
that moneys raised for school pur
poses be divided between the com
mon and parochial schools. In the
December number of The Forum,
Bishop McQuade INDUCES in most
bitter and offensive TRADE against
what he is also pleased to call the
goddess schools, and christens the
common school children of the
country as 'the states pauperized
pets and styles the common school
system as state paternalism and
state pauperism.' 1t is ding-donged
into our ears that secular aud relig-
ious education should 90 hand in
hand, and together be taught in the
schools. To the Catholic this means
that the pupils shall be instructed in
the Catholic faith, to the Lutheran,
in the Lutheran creed, to other sects,
the benef of their respective
churches.
"rhe church for centuries has had
the exclusive secular and religious
training of the young in Italy,
Spain and Portugal. The result is
that the grossest ignorance prevails
among the common people in those
countries, and so it is wheresoever
the people have been compelled to
rely solely on parochial schools.
The thumb of the church has al
ways left the black mark of ignor-
ance upon the forehead of every
people of whose schools it has had
the exoluside control.
"The common schools have made
the people of the United States
manly, self-reliant, Independent and
intelligent. The parochial system
of the old world has bred servility,
and ignorance, Iazzar0nj and monks.
Sermonizing, with the Bennett law
for a text, is subterfuge resorted
to by the priests TO escape popular
condemnation of their real purpose,
hostility to the common schools.
This state Is most fortunate in
having the constitutional inhibition
that no sectarian instruction shall be
allowed in the common schools.
"The German newspapers oppose
the Bennett law for revenue only.
In proportion as a knowledge of the
English language increases among
the German people, the circulation
and influence of German newspapers
will decrease. And no matter how
seryile and cowardly the politicians
may be in their anxiety to catch the
German vote, the English tongue
will prevail, and the time is not far
distant when a German newspaper
published in this country will be as
hard to find as Sir John Franklin.