The Portland daily press., 1893-01-12


appropriated for educational institu-
tons under sectarian control. The gen
lenen who compose this League are not
fanatics, they are not men OF one idea,
tiiey are not irreligious men. They are
gentlemen from all departments of life
lawyers, doctors, clergymen, mer-
,ilants and mechanics. They are thought
fal men who have given this question
study, and are acting with profound
conviction that such an amendment as
they propose is necessary for the preser-
aation of the integrity of the American
common school system.
But some one will say, What harm
can come from the appropriation
Of public money for the aid of such
institutions as Kent's Hill and Wash
ington Academy and the other
academies and seminaries which
have from time to time been the bene-
liciaries of. the State? Everything which
involves an injustice is harmful in the
long run. 1t may not be possible always
to foresee precisely when or in what
form harm will crop out, though in this
case we think it is possible to do SO, but
that it will crop out somewhere and in
some form is very certain. Now it is not
just to tax the Congregationalists of this
State for the support of UNIVERSAL t
school nor uice versd. Yet in making
these appropriations for sectarian insti-
tutions this is what is done. The spirit
of our laws, if not their letter, demands
that taxation shall be for the general
good, and that its objects shall be such
as all the people can share in without do
ing violence to their conscience. Taxa
ton for sectarian schools is inconsistent
with this fundamental proposition, and is
therefore unjust. Because it is unjust it
should be abolished, even if no specific
iarm could be shown to flow from it.
But in this case it can be shown that
specific harm will flow from it, and that,
too, of a very serious nature. Our COM
mon school system is acceptable to all
religious denominations with one nOta-
BILE exception. The Catholic denomina-
ton, or more correctly some elements of
it, is opposed to it, and great many of
its governing authorities have openly
avowed their hostility to it and their
desire to break it down. Their hostil-
ity is professedly based upon the fact
that these schools do not teach sectarian
religion, for though they use the word
religion without the qualifying adjective
they mean every time the Roman Catho-
lie religion. There is no claim that
anything taught in them does vio-
lence to the Catholic conscience.
The plan for breaking down
these schools is to sequester the
taxes paid by adherents of the Catholic
church, to detach them from the general
school fund and turn them over to the
Catholic hierarchy to establish and main
tain such schools as meet their approval
To all intents and purposes this is ask
ing the State to appropriate a certain
amount of the taxes paid by the people
to the support of sectarian schools.
Whenever this is done the common
school system will begin to crumble to
pieces 1t is not in accord with human
nature for one religious denomination to
see another receiving part of the pub
lie money for the support of its sec
tartan schools without asking the
same privilege for itself, and hav-
ing been granted to one it could
not consistently be refused to an
other. Let the precedent for dividing
the school money raised by taxation
once be established, and the division will
have to be repeated again and again,
until there is nothing left for support of
what are known as public schools. Now
the harm of the appropriation by the
State of public money for sectarian aead-
emies and seminaries-aside from the
harm which it does directly to the public
schools by Withdrawing money that could
be better spent on them-is that it puts
a potent argument into the hands of the
enemies of the common school system
for the thing that they want done. Sup
pose Catholic advocate appears before
the legislature and makes this kind Of
an address: 'sYou have been taking for
years, you are now taking, money raised
by the taxation of the people, Catholics
as well as Protestants, and appropriate
ing it to the support of seminaries and
academies under the control of scots
whose religion we are not in sympathy
with, and which seminaries and acad-
emies either do not teach religion at all,
in our view fatal defect in any school,
or teach kind of religion which our
do not approve of; now we
ask you to take so much of the public
as is paid by Catholics and ap-
it for schools which we do APP
prove Of" Suppose a Catholic advocate
makes this argument, what is the reply
to it? There is none. The legislature
must either grant the request, or CON
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