The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-03-13
PRIEST IN POLITICS.

At the several masses At the Church of
Our Lady Of Grace, Hoboken, yesterday.
Rev. Patrick Corrigan, the Pastor, an
nounced that in the evening he would
talk politics. and he wanted every
voter in the parish to be present. AT
the pulpit there were fully
$500 people in the church. Every seat
was occupied and there was a large crowd
standing in the rear. The politics re-
ferred to was the recent effort OF Catho-
lie priests to pass The parochial school
bill.
The cause of the defeat of the bill he
lay at Catholic doors, and said that more
Justice could be secured from Protestant
Legislators than from Catholic ones. He
also denied that he was the author OF the
bill, and said that IL was drawn by an
able lawyer, who some years ago was a
Superintendent of the public schools.
1.-THE idea," said Father Corligan. "of
saying that the State can't appropriate
money to corporations is all right, but
the provisions of the bill obviated the
unconstiSutionaltty OF the measure.
PITCHING M RUTGERS.
EVERY School Board conducting a
school nowadays Is q corporation. The
objection to Jur bill was not on consti-
tutional grounds, but siinply be-
cause we were not Professionals. Rut-
ger's College, q private corporation
asked for $1,000. They were answered,
No, not constitutional. The legisia-
ture said constitutional or not we will
| give them the money, and gave it. The
| had 1t not been for the excitemens our
| bill created, the college would have
| got the $4,000. They got scared
at our bill. We could have gotten the
| bill passed If we were Protestants, but we
are Catholics. The man who rnised the
question of constitutionaiity was
= Protestant, Mr. : Wright;
are wrong; you ave no right to raise
| this question: AT any rate we got the
bill out of the committee and had it
| reported favorably. Mr.. Wright told me
| that he had been requested by a Catholic
| gentleman to raise the objection. That
Catholic gentleman was lobbying for
| office for himself, and he was afraid the
bill would hurt his chances.
LIBERAL AND STRICT INTERPRETERS.
II was informed there were TWO parties
in Trenton, one that lnterprets the law In
q liberal spirit, and the other in a
strict sense. II they wnnted to be
liberal they could have overcome this OBJ
lection of unconstitutionality. but they
got scared, aud the one who got The most
scared WAS a Catholic Senator.
sThis was not a Catholic bill for all cor.
porations. nc matter what their religious
belief, could avail themselves of the pro-
visions of the bill. The priests who
started this did not start on time. I only
knew Of It three weeks ago..
"Mr. Coyle~ introduced 1t and spoke ably
Tor it, One Catholic literally burst out
crying when he found il likely the bill
would be referred to mis- committee. The
treatment the priests received from both
republicans and democrats was very
| kind.
1.-The priests have organized, but not
| every priest has joined Some priestssare
opposed to it because they don't under
stand the matter. Wa don't want
the Public School money, but
we do want it to reach the
people whom the State intended shopld
get 1t. The public schools have gone far
beyond the original intentions. The child
public school. The poor man pays
his share .of the tax for the
| education Of the millionaire's son and
daughter. There are tens of thousands
of dollars spent unnecessarily. In Hobo
ken statistics say there are some 17,4O0
aud the State allows tie
city for them $500 per year. In the
| schools there are actually educated every
year some 5000. These 5000 get the
SOS, 600. What of the other II 600 chiidrepP
Who gets the money the State APP
propriates for them? They don't, In
this parish we lave 5000 children OF the
school age who never get s cent
| of that money. What authority
has any Board to take this
money from 5000 children. and spend It
on the 5000. The objact Of the State Is
that this meney reacn all children, IN
we are providing thatmeans whereby This
money will get I o the children for
whom 1t was intended. These children
| are not Fathsr Currigan'H children-
| They are the children OF the State. and
have = right TO the money and ought to
get iku