The Irish standard., 1892-02-06
MORE LIBERTY DEMANDED

Anyone who dispassionately examines
the motives on account OF which the pa
rochial system OF education WAS lnaugu-s
rated and the amount OF success It has
attained Notwithstanding the limited
means OF the Catholic people, cannot fail
to admire their ideal in education and
their self-sacrifice In endeavoring to at
tain it. at the same time every true
American must deplore the necessity
which withdraws from the national sys-
tenn Of education such large proportion
Of American citizens, infiicts a double
taxation on those least able to bear it :,
renders inharmonious, il not antagonis-
tic, the educational forces of the coun-
try and continually hampers legislation
for the advancement and extension OF
learning. A free text book bill, a COM.
pulsory education bill aud such like,
however praiseworthy under other cir
cumstances, only impose, in fact, an adj
ditional burden on Catholic citizens, and
consequently such bills meet with their
opposition. Thus il happens that those
who make the greatest sacrifices for edu
cation, through circumstances over
which they have no control, are made to
appear it's enemies. Such inglorious
odium is not the only burden they have
to bear. In many instances for. the one
gem Of Faith they are forced to sell all
they possess, or should possess the Ian
guage, the spirit and the advantages Of
the republic. The republic in turn loses
whenever the least Of its citizens loses.
Nothing is more sensitive than govern
ment, and no government is so sensitive
to the drawbacks Of people than gov
eminent by tbs people, Such state of
things is dramatically opposed TO the
spirit of the country. According to the
law of the survival Of the fttest, the
spirit of Calvert and Of Penn was the
only spirit that outIived the Colonies. It
passed into the constitution of the
United States, it moved the soul OF
Washington in his great addresses to
the country, and despite some spasmodic
efforts of ACKNOWLEDGMENT, it remains
the spirit of this land. This spirit fos~
ters religion tbs guardian Of morality.
But it cannot surely be said that a sys-
tenn of education which allows equal re-
ligious disadvantages fosters religion. 1t
is legislation Of the most drastic ilk to
cast popular institutions into such an
infexible mould that God-given religion
| or time honored and praiseworthy GUS
tom should bend oft. Whenever, there
| fore, it is suggested for the cake of a
popular institution like our peculiar
form Of pnblic school, to destroy a deep
or rooted, and higher motived and q
better cause, like the religion Of the peo-
! pie, Catholics with tnat just apprecia-
ton of what is right must scorn this sug-
gestion as tyrranical, unconstitutional
and Spartan in the highest degree
Legislation of the nineteenth century
that eschews New England intolerance
and breathes the spirit of Mary
land freedom, meets the people
| it does not thwart them. The great
Catholic body demand that they be met
half way. 1t is tyranny to ask them to
ignore their rights OR the rights of thei1
children, and it is tyranny altogether
foreign to the original spirit of this land
Catholics must be taken as they are, and
| national legislation must recognize them
as they are, and while the central idea OF
education must be saved, it must be sc
! wed that neither Jew nor Gentle
! Catholic or Lutheran can complain. This
| is liberty. DISTINGUISHING people, ignor.
ing them, trampling upon them, whethe,
it be done for education or religion, is
tyranny.
BuDD Reeve, Of Buxton, n. D., advises
all the farmers to hold their wheat AND
j