Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1892-05-19

SCrOng arguments LOT lUS annexation.
Certainly the United States can not,
consistently with its own interests, allow
England or any other European nation
to grasp these islands.
THE POPE AND THE SCHOOLS.
Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette.
The attitude of the Romish pontiff
toward the educational policy known as
the Observation-Disclosures plan introduced
by Archbishop Ireland is one of tolera-
tion merely. That is to say, the Roman
Catholics are warranted, where they are
numerous enough, in taking charge of
the common school system in any given
district, making the school parochial,
employing none but Catholic teachers,
paying for their support out of the pub
lic-school funds, and, by way of conces-
sion to non Catholic parents who have
children to educate, postponing religious
instruction until the last hours of the
day, previous to which Protestants and
others who do not desire to have their
children drilled in Catholic dOgmas are
permitted to withdraw them.
1t is this plan which the Pope, acting
on the advice of a committee of cardi-
mails, has conditionally affirmed. The
condition is that there is to be no dero-
cation from the decree of the council
of Baltimore on the subject of education.
The spirit of that decree was that there
could be no compromise by any Catholic,
of whatever rank or condition, with the
free schools as they existed. The pub
lie school system of the United Sta tes
was pronounced irreligious and immoral
by the Baltimore council, and it was
made the imperative duty of Catholics
to send their children to parochial schools
where they could receive religious in
struction.
Whether Archbishop Ireland, who has
been so highly commended for his
patriotism, has made any compromise"
looking to harmony of interest between
the advocates of sectarian and non
sectarian education, the friends of the
com1a9n school system can judge. Rome
derogates nothing from the stand taken
by the superior power of the church
that the American system of popular
education is not only Goddess but de-
moralizing, and, therefore, dangerous to
both church and state. At the same
time the Pope tells his archbishop that
his conduct of the Faribault and Still
water schools will be tolerated" under
existing circumstances.
The American people can learn from
this the very important lesson that it
would not satisfy the Roman hierarchy
were every free school in the land run
on the Faribault-Stillwater plan. 1t is
not enough that they be placed under
Catholic teachers and supported by
public funds. They must meet the re-
quirements of the Catholic church in the
matter of religious training. In other
words, their non-sectarian character
must be wholly eliminated and they
must be made nurseries for the church
of Rome. This is the issue fairly pre-
sented in the correspondence published
in this paper, and it must be clear that
if the common school system is to b.
preserved as a distinctive institution,
there must be no affiliation with Roman
Catholicism. 1t is pronounced and
implacable enemy of non-sectarian ed
ucation.
MICHIGAN's ELECTORAL LAW IN COURT.
New York Press.
Legal proceedings have been begun
in the Supreme Court of Michigan to
have the so-called Miner Electoral law
declared null and void. Under this
lrw, which was passed by Democratic
Legislature, provision is made for the
choice of Presidential electors by Con-
gressional districts, the electors at large
to be elected in two arbitrary districts
into which the State is divided. The
Republican case is made up in the form
of an application for mandamus to
compel the Secretary of State to issue
his notices of election under the old
Federal law, and it is the intention of
the Republican managers of the State
to carry the issue to the United Stotes
Supreme Court if the ruling of the State
Supreme Court is adverse to their claim
that the law is in conflict with both the
Safe and Federal Constitutions. 1t is
claimed that the law is repugnant to
the fourteenth amendment to the Federal
Constitution; that it is in conflict with
the act of Congress fixing date for the
meetings of the electoral colleges and
relating to the certi6cation of election,
and also that it is in conflict with Article
2 of the Federal Constitution.
These three points will be relied upon
as the basis of appeal if it becomes nee
essary to carry the case to the highest
national tribunal. The legal talent en-
gagged will be recognized when an
nounced as an array such as has seldom
appeared in the Supreme Court of the
United States, and the issues Of the case
will be watched from every part of the
country with deep attention. The pc
culiar wording of the fourteenth amend
ment will be maintained as preventing
the division of the State into two dis
tricts for the election of the electors-at-
large, because that is to "abridge the
privileges" of citizens of the United
States, which they possessed in every
State when that amendment was adopt
ed. Lawyers of great eminence have
given their opinion that the change to
the district system or the selection of
the electors by the Legislatures of States,
or any other method than popular
vote. is contrary to popular rights as
established by the Constitution.
CONFERENCE TO EXTEND sILvER's USES.
New York Press
The announcement by cable that
England has decided to accept an in
vitation received by her government on
the 9th inst. from the United States
Government to participate in an inter-