The Progress., 1893-03-18

that there shall be no appropriation or
moneys for sectari3n purposes of any
sort. But it is proposed to evade that
and establish sectarian schools that shall
be solely supported by the state, and
whose teachers shall be appointed by a
parish priest and run absolutely by Cath
Olic power We have in one sense an
absolute separation of church and state
| believe i'll it. believe the state itself
is divine; that it needs no interference
from any sect as sect, or denomination
as denomination, to make its Offices any
more high or holy. The state is part
of the true church of the true God, and
any effort on the part of priestcraft to
unite the state with itself is simply an
effort on the part of the priest to aug
ment the power of the priest as against
this wider church God is bringing to
pass, incarnating it in the life of the peo-
pie, in their commerce, society and gov
eminent
Suppose you should bring about new
theory and subsidize your sects. hate
sectarianism, be it in little Baptist
church or big Catholic church. 1t al
ways disgraces itself with such power.
When the Puritans were driven from
England and came over to the new
world. they were no better than their
prosecutors after awhile. With all their
boosted desire for liberty they Whipped
the Quakers numerically. Suppose you
gave the Baptists power to teach and
govern. The first thing taught, if the
Baptists ran the public schools, would
be that Roger Williams was the man
that founded this nation and discovered
| America.
If you let our Catholic brethren run
the whole thing, they will teach your
/ children that it was Jesuit priest who
| discovered America, and the pilgrim
fathers had nothing to do with it. Give
to this or that sect the power of your
state, of subsidized treasury, and that
moment you have turned over one of tie
fundamentals on which the grandeur Of
your republic rests. Our forefatners
| built better than they knew wher they
wrote it thus-that there shall be the
broadcast tolerance, no state religion of
any sort. But the state itself is a reli- |
gion. Patriotism is one of the first prin- /
ciples of religion. Let the state be sa- ,
cred and holy-a separate high altar to .
the Most High God.
In the old world TODAY you have these .
old wars and hatreds, because the state
and church are mixed i'll their treasury.
Do you want that Introduced into Amer
lea? There is nothing so utterly devil
Il 80. |
Christianity or religion or worship of
God in them-rothing but unadulterated
devil 1t is o source of weakness today
wherever yod find it. Go to Mexico, and
you will fpd condition in which sub
sidized cbdrch has led to a civil war. in
which the president of the republic has
set his FOOT on the established priesthood.
Fraace, in her substituting of church,
arragned the heart and reason of the
French nation against the church and
drove out of the church the brain and the
heart of France years and years ago. So
the substituting of the Protestant church
in Germany has made hundreds and thou
sands of infidels today. If the church of
Christ is triumphant is mighty, the
church of Christ must be free, and the
church spiritual, divine, can never be
free if tied TO pothouse politics, whether
in America or Europe or South America
or Italy or Germany.
The moment you introduce this secta-
rian principle into your school system
you have violated that principle of free
lom. If the Catholics get their share Of
the school fund, which in New Jersey
would be $GS1 900, and the Baptists call
for their share, the Presbyterians for
heir share, the Episcopalians for their '
share, the question would be, How many
could be mustered in a par I
sh so as to secure so much money per {
;apita for the religious machine? {
Third-The moment you introduce
hat principle of division of funds, that l
the public school system has c
zone to the dogs. If the state goes into a
he sectarian business, the state resigns
is function as the supreme power. 1t h
urns it over to factions who will fight a
mong themselves, and when they get d
trough the children will not be educat- J
d. They say they want to increase the ]
chool fund. That reminds me of v
roposition to build a new Jail. The a
ounty Jail commissioners met together v
nd made four resolutions: First, to &
uild it; second, on the site where the s.
Id one stood; third, to build it out of the G
ricks of which the old one was made; S,
'urth, to keep the prisoners in the old T;
ne while they built the new. The a
roposition to increase the efficiency of r,
ur school system is brilliant piece of il
igglery conceived in the mind of a
enius, but whose first lookout was for
lie ends of his own machine rather than
II the people. @,
EDUCATION AND THE STATE 2,
Fourth-If that scheme was introduced Z,
would threaten the very life of your r.
public. This republic cannot live I'M tr