The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-03-16


public expense. The proposition pro,
poses ostensibly to be exceedingly patri.
otic.
II Is a Jesuit undertow from the order
of the pope undoing what the pope has
already done in the first edict he issued.
The men who are fatheiing il arc simply
the unconscious tools in tho hands OF
shrewder men, who, back Of them, arc
seeking to stir up bitter war on this
| question. Their proposition is that the
school fund Of the state Of New Jersey
shall be eparated-that is, that where
there are children gathered in parochial
schools the state shall pay out of its
| treasury $500 900 into the hands Of teach.
ers who are under the control Of the
| priests. II is a simple proposition to di.
vide the school fund for the purpose Of
establishing and maintaining sectarian
schools when the people themselves have
refused to maintain them.
II is the duty today of Catholic and
Protestant, in the very beginning of that
attempt TO divide the free school fund in
the interest of SectdrtdniSm, to crush ii
in its Uery birth and to stamp upon ii
iCih an emphasis, tcih a po,cer, that
| shall not be misunderstood either by the
| friends or enemies Of the public schools
| in America.
First-The effort made in that legisla-
ton to divide the school fund is a piece
Of Jesuitical trickery and misrepresents
both the pope of Rome and the Catholic
| people in America today. | say that
that proposition is against the pope's ut
terances. He distinctly declared that
there should be entire freedom on this
question; that the people shall send their
children where they please. In the Prot
estant church we do the same. If a man
does not want his children to mingle
with the mob, he has the right to send
him to private school. But if he says,
81 have taken my child from the public
school and will not contribute my share
of the school fund" that is different
proposition altogether, and would be the
entering wedge of what would practical.
ly be a revolution.
Cardinal Gibbons, the highest Roman
ecclesiastic in America today, voices the
desire of the pope himself that there
shall be no subsidy between the state and
the Catholic church in America. He
knows, as a true born American citizen,
that the prosperity OF the Catholic
church depends on keeping her hands
out of the treasury of the country and
keeping the hand of the ofticeholder off
the throat of the ecclesiastic. So the
men who make those propositions mis-
represent the authority at Rome and the
highest representative of that authority
here in America.
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
Any man who attempts to divide the
school fund after what has been said
attempts TO unsettle what has been al
ready settled. What more right has
Catholic to do it than Baptist or Pres
byterian or Episcopalian? We send our
children where we please. If we want the
luxury Of private school, we pay for it,
and if Catholics want private schools
let them pay for it themselves want
to read oyou from The tablet, Catholic
newspaper published in the city of New
York, on this subject:
"The pretense of the enemies of our
public schools that tho scDoolroom is a
point of attack against the faith of Cath
olic children is preposterous and is cal
culated to excite the Indignation and re-
sentiment of nOn-Catholics who know it
to be untrue Neither is it true, as pre-.
tended, that there is any attempt made
in the public schools to lead the young
into Indifference with regard to all reli-
gion, which is sure to end in infdelity
How, it may be asked, can the teaching
Of reading, writing, arithmetic, drawing,
singing and kindred branches taught in
our public schools conduce to indiffer-
ence to religion or a loss Of faith2 Is
there not quite as much danger incurred
in learning any ordinary branch of busi-
ness or any Of the mechanical trades?
Children attending the public schools
have, besides, Saturdays End Sundays
and the hours not spent in the school
room, which may be devoted to religious
instructions if those whose duty it is to
impart such instruction perform it.
"The separate education Of the youth
Of the country tends to destroy the prin-
ciple of homogeneity in our population,
creates suspicion and distrust in its
ranks, which is often perpetuated after
the youth attains to manhood to the in
jury Of the individual and the commu-
nifty.
Nor should it be forgotten in relation
to this problem of education that in tho
majority of localities parochial schools
are an impossibility, owing to the few
ness or poverty of the Catholic popula-
ton, and that in no place are they equal
to the public schools in efficiency. This
is natural, as the state can furnish better
equipments than can be secured by vol
untary effort. Hence children educated
in the public schools have an advantage
over their rivals in beginning their life
work and can surmount its difficulties
more readily"
DIR. DIXON HATES sECTARIANISM.
That is the voice of representative
Catholic newspaper, which voices the
sentiment Of the patriotic Catholics in
America today.
Second-It would be simply nothing
less than the destruction of one Of the
fundamentals of our constitutional law.
The constitution of the state provides
that there shall be no appropriation of
moneys for sectarian 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
parish priest and run absolutely by Cath
Ole power. We have in one sense an
absolute separation Of church and state,
believe in it. believe the state itself