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


children That u was q Jesuit priest VIII,
discovered America, and the pilgrim
fathers had nothing TO do with IL. Civ,
TO this or that sect the power of YOU
state, of subsidized treasury, and that
moment you have turned over one of tho
fundamentals on which the grandeur oI
your republic rests. Our forefather,
built better than they knew when they
wrote it thus-that there shall be the
broadest 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 so.
cred and holy-a separate high altar tc
the Most High God
In the old world today you have these
old wars and hatrcds, because the state
and church are mixed in their treasury
Do you want that introduced into Amer.
lea? There is nothing so utterly devil.
ish as those religious wars. There is nc
Christianity or religion or worship oi
God in them-nothing but unadulterated
devil. 1t is a source Of weakness today
wherever you find It. Go to Mexico, and
you will find a condition in which sub.
sidized church has led to civil war, in
which the president Of the republic has
set his foot on the established priesthood
France, in her subsidizing of a church,
arraignod 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. Sc
the subsidizing 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
dom. If the Catholics get their share OF
the school fund, which in New Jersey
would be 1851 ,000 and the Baptists call
for their share, The Presbyterians fol
their share, the El scopaiians for their
share, the question would be, How many
ragamufIins could be mustered in a par.
ish so as to secure so much money per
capita for the religious machine2
Third-The moment you introduce
that principle of division of funds, that
moment the public school system has
gone to the dogs. If the state goes into
the sectarian business, the state resigns
its function as the supreme power. II
+,,,-,, - o,,o,. 20 f,g+ip,S ,yIo mill Gnl,t
among themselves, and when they get
through the children will not be educat-
ed. They say they want to increase the
school fund. That reminds me of a
proposition to build a new Jail. The
county Jail commissioners met together
and made four resolutions: First, to
build it; second, on the site where the
old one stood; third, to build it out of the
bricks of which the old one was made;
fourth, to keep the prisoners in the old
one while they built the new. The
proposition to increase the efficiency of
our school system is brilliant piece OF
jugglery conceived in the mind of a
genius, but whose first lookout was for
the ends of his own machine rather than
for the people.
EDUCATION AND THE STATE.
Fourth-If that scheme was introduced
it would threaten the very life Of your
republic. This republic cannot live un-
less the people are educated. Your sal
vation depends on educating the people
universally. Your forts and your militia
do not amount to anything. Your little
military organizations here would not be
snap if the great. dark, vulgar mass
within and without this city should issue
their decree to fight it out. The perpetu-
ity of your constitution does not depend
on the strength of your guns, or the
equipments of your militia, or the forts
along your wild coasts stretching out
hundreds of miles, but upon the educa-
ton of your boys and girls. Educate
them, and your republic shall stand the
crash Of ages, and there can be mustered
no army that can stand that assault;
there can assail your coasts no contend
ing hosts that can Withstand them. But
neglect it, and your very structure will
fall of dry rot-be consumed of its own
fire within.
The perpetuity Of your republic de-
pends upon universal education. If that
is true, the state is the only institution
that can give that education. The church
never has done it, nor can it do it, not if
it had the whole revenue of the state. The
church is incapable as an organization
to educate the masses of the people. !
challenge the pages of history to prove
it. If the people, as a people, are to be
educated, it must be done by the masses
Of the people through their supreme rep
resentative, the state. The taxing power
Of a state is the only power that can
bring in revenue adequate to the educa-
ton of people.
Besides, the state is the only power
that can compel people to be educated.
The church cannot do it. The parents
won't do it. They do not want to put
their children to school. They would
rather put them in mills and shops,
and the state must lay its strong
arm on them and say: "You cannot
work that child. 1t has got right to
live, to be a man or woman, and you
cannot thus destroy its chance Of life"
The state, then, alone can educate a
race, and if the state does not see to it
the child will see to it by and by, when
those little fingers have grown to tigers
claws, and the result will be prison or
reformatory. Will the state put the
child to school, or will 1t take the sur
geon's knife by and by and eliminate it
from society, or will it electrocute it?
CITIZENSHIP AND PATRIOTISM.
The state only has q right to educate
the child. For person to say-because