The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1894-03-17
\ IIE IRISH STANDARDS sATU RDAY, MARoH IL.
IaNATIUs DONNELLY's VIEWS.

5.AFlJRDA I I. lAs Y : ! I!
1aNArIus DoNrEL1Y's VIEWS.
He Lectures on the "A. p. A. and the School
Question at the Lyceum.
Wednesday evening the Lyceum Thea
tire was we'll filed by an intelligent audi
euce who listened to lgnatius Donneliy
for two hours on ..The A. p. A. aud the
School Question It is an intellec suai
treat to hear Donnelly on any subject
and his effort on Wednesday night was
relished by all, whether they agreed with
him or Tot.
He came, he said, as q peacemaker,
preaching the creed Of brotherly love,
and he then proceeded with an able and
eloquent defense OF the public school
8, stem, saying that he considered it 80
the height OF folly to wrangle over the
bones OF dogmas. He said that the pub
lie school is the poor mans college, ana
that While all the colleges and univeral-
ties could be done away with, the nsessn
would not survive the destruction OF the
pubic schools single generation. Inc
great bus quiet revolution in liberation,
intelligence, learning and the broad spirit
of American freedom, as brought about
by the public schools, was eloquently de-
picted, and he drew vivid contrast BE-
tween the patriotic spirit of our country
and the ,ruelties enacted in past ages oy
religious hatred and fanaticism:. The
ozressive spirit of the times was por-
trayed in glowing metaphor, and ne SAID
| it could not be stopped any more tnan
the atmosphere could be shut out by a
barbed wire fence. Regarding the par
ochial schools, he said the Catholics,
Epis. opaliane and other sects had often
segregated their children in private
schools s,f learning, but that such q thing
as q division of the state school fund
would l,e unconstitutional and impos-
sible, and that no man dared to make
such proposition on the tioor OF the
leeislature, It such proposition were
ever inside it would be opposed by ali
patriotic Catholics.
The A. F.. A. was given some keen
thrusts, and he time and again pierced
this pernicious fallacy with the sharp
! rspier o. his ridicule, of which he is tie
accomp ished master. 1t is inconce1v-
able, he said, how any human intellect
could b., 80 degraded as to believe in i's
so.called principles.
incidentally, the controversy between
tArchbishops Corrigan and Ireland was
alluded to, and, while he condemned the
attitude of the former, he complimented
lthe latter in the highest terms. The oath
Of the 4. F. As was read, and IN refer
ring to this he said 1t was a satanic de-
vice anil it deprived men Of the right OF
self defe nse, the origin Of the order being
traced 10 the British aristocracy. John
Bull vas dealt some ponderous blows
between the eyes. lin this connection he
gave President Cleveland and both poll
tical Parties smart rap.
He alluded to the part he had taken in
congress in securing the establishment OF
an educational bureau, still part OF the
genera government. He believed the
worst ming that could happen to Cath
olics vas to go out or keep out OF the
| public schools, as the schools brought the
children of all denominations together
! and created mutual good will between
them, and 80 did away with shose sus'
picions. doubts and bigotries which made
one creed hate and fear another. He
said il was impossible to exclude the
spirit ct the age from the minds OF che
people; that spirit meant advancement
to a higher civilization. You could no
more ahut out the spirit of the age than
YOU ce,s,ld shut out Che atmosphere with
q barbad wire fence. Nothing that was
of real value in religion had persisted; a
great many side issues and superstltlons
! might nave fallen by the way, but the
essentials OF truth only shone out the
more resplendent. He drew an amusing
picture Of attempting to restore today
the belief in witchcraft, ghosts and hob
I Qoblius. You could not put the nine
tsenth century back into the stomach OF
the fifteenth, he said.
He showed that the 'sapaism" was
based IN fictitious terrors; that the idea
of sixth of the people rising up to mas
sacre the other Eve sixths was extremely
absurd. He said the A. P. A. society
proposed to lessen a man or woman's
Chance to get living because they be-
longed to the religion they were born in;
this rgas to punish one for an accident,
for nine-tenths of all who belong to any
churcl, held to the creed OF their parents.
He charged that the A. P. A. was estab-
lishea to divide up the laborers, and
that part Of their oath was that they
must not euter into any "strike' that