The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-03-28
The American Protective Association


We recently promised to give atten-
ton to the declaration of principles of
the American Protective association.
These principles number thirteen.
The first Is loyalty to true American
ism, which knows neither birthplace,
race, creed nor party" yet aims a pro-
scriptive blow at one creed, and that
the most numerously worshipped creed
on this continent. The second enjoins
political activity along civic rather
than partisan lines. The eighth, ninth,
TENTH eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth
relate chiefly to immigration and nat
urali2ation and embody generally ac-
cepted ideas, as to which there is no
room for discussion. Those principles,
on the contrary, wherein lie seeds of
discord are these:
Third-Subjection to and support of any
ecclesiastical power not created and con-
troled by American citizens, and which
claims equal, If not greater sovereignty
than the government of the United States
Of America, is irreconcilable with Amer
lean citizenship. We are therefore
opposed to the holding of offices in ma
tional. state or municipal government
by any subject or supporter of such ec-
cleslastical power.
Fourth--We uphold the constitution of
the United States of America, and no
portion of it more than its guaranty of "e-
ligious liberty, but we hold this religious
libprty IN ha pIla rn N cod n the individual.
and not to mean that under its protec-
ton any un-American ecclesiastical power
can claim absolute control over the edu-
cation of children growing up under the
Stars and Stripes.
Fifth-We consider the non-sectarian
free public school the bulwark of Ameri-
can institutions, the best place for the
education of American children. To keep
them such We protest against the en-
ployment of the subjects of any un-Amer-
lean ecclesiastical power as officers or
teachers of our public schools.
SXth-We condemn the support out of
the public treasury by direct appropria-
tion, or by contract, of any sectarian
school, reformatory, or other institution
not owned and controlled by public uu-
thorlty.
Seventh-Believing that exemption from
taxation is equal to a grant of public
funds, we demand that no real or personal
property be exempt from taxation the title
to which is not vested in the national or
state governments or in any of their sub
divisions.
1t is sufficient answer to the first
of these five declarations that no
ecclesiastical power" on this continent
does claim either equal or greater sov-
ereignty from its membership than does
the government of the United States,
hence the present needlessness of rais-
ing a passion-provoking hue-and-cry.
AS to the second. while we regard with
unboundcd favor the free public
schools, it must not be forgotten that
the right of the parent to choose his
school is as sacred as is his right to
choose his church. In relation to the
next declaration, we will go a step fur
ther than it, and protest against the
employment of any sectarian, "un-
American" or otherwise, as a proselyter
in the public school room. The sixth
declaration is already in force in Penn
sylvania, and the seventh, while in our
opinion wise, is so generally opposed
as to be far from realization.
But it Is not in these curiously mixed
and ill-assorted principles that we find
our greatest condemnation for the
American Protective association. We
find it, instead, in the impertinent and
insulting notion that American patriot
ism is something which needs to be
kept alive by the taking of oaths, by
secret assemblage and by mysterious
signs and symbols. American patriot
ism of the genuine sort, far from hiding
in dark corners, openly courts the clear
est light; and rises TO its noblest
achievements in the full view of real
emergency. To invest it with secrecy
is to stifle it's spirit and clownishly per-
vert its grandest meanings.