The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-05
CONTROL OF THE SCHOOLS.
A Manifesto From the American Pro-
teCtiVe Association.

The Old Cry Raised Against Dividing
the Public School Fund With the
Roman Catholicism Claim That the
Object Sought Is a Selfish One and
That a Majority of the People Are
Against 1t.
New York. Dec. THE national league
for the protection of American institu-
tions, known as the American Protective
Association. tonight issued a manifesto
on the school question, which has re
Gently agitated the religious world.
Popular suffrage. " the manifesto says,
s'here rests Tor its safe exercise upon the
character and intelligence of all classes
of the people. The republic, for its own
preservatiOn has established and
must insist upon maintaining a
free common school system of educa-
ton. 1t must be maintained without
compromise. It is the only institution
capable of converting the dangerously
Heterogeneous elements of our population
into safely homogeneous citizenship.
The tax for the maintenance OF public
schools, levied upon all citizens, whether
they have children to educate or not, is
for the public good and not for private
benefit The state opens It's schools
with equal advantages to the children
of all citizens Its laws make 10 distinc-
ton as to the creed of individual in the
choice of its teachers. In the state of
New York no compulsory law exists re
curing the attendance of children upon
the common schools of the state. The
state does not deny the right to parents,
organizations or churches to establish
and maintain private or parOchial schools
at their own expense.
A MOVEMENT TO DIVIDE THE FUNDS.
"a movement. however, with audacious
demands and specious claims is on foot in
the state for the ndivisiOn of the public
school funds on sectarian lines, and it
is announced that the same programme IS
proposed for all the states. That this has
mainly in view selfish and not public ends
is shown BY the fact that the movement
is being pushed almost by single rell-
gious denomination which for many years,
by its chief authorities, has been aSsaultng
the public school system A few of its
more liberal representatives have tOler-
ated the system, and have sought in many
ways to control it. Every compromise,
however. between seCtarian and public
schools, which has previously been tried,
has invariably resulted in the humillat-
ing surrender of some vital principle of
public school education. 1t is undoubt-
eddy true that majority of
the citizens of even the denomina-
ton making these demands prefer the
public schools for their children and
patronize them whenever free TO do so.
II is unquestiona5ly true that a full pro
portion of the teachers in the public
schools are attached to the church which
by many of its officials antagOnizes this
common school system.
CLEAN CUT ISSUE.
"Itis suspicious forthe republic that the
demands made are now plainly set forth
and clearly defined There is now no op-
portunity for the compromising citizen or
politician to evade the responsibility. The
question is not, are these common schools
capable of improvements The questions
presented by the proposed bill, and which
now demand an answer, are:
Il. Shall the whole principle on which
the common school rests, i. e.: the
right and duty of the state to educate
impartially its own children for intelli-
gent citizenship, be surrendered to its en-
emiesl
~. Shall the common schools be disin-
tegrated and destroyed by the dispersion
and use of their funds for sectaran endsl
20. Are our citizens in favor of the
union of church and state in the most
dangerous possible feature of such union
viz. in the fundamental and elementary
education of future citizensl
The questions now demand an answer
and must be permanently settled for veal
or woe. We believe they will be settled
in the interest of the whole and not the
interest of any one class of our citizens
however specious their claims or urgent
their demands