Omaha daily bee., 1895-09-22
TIrE RisE or rms oMAHAs.

The cartoon which we reprint OF
"rhe Rise of the Omahas,' ~strikingly
portrays the outrage pcrpetrated by the
star chamber combine which dominates
our public school system at the present
time. Members Of the Omaha Board of
Education are pictured as iconoclastic
savages, with Colonel Akin as chief
ghost dancer, while Education hangs
her head in shame, federation wrings
her hands and Liberty awaits the onset
of the attacking tribe. sure that she Is
10 De the next to succumb.
The disrepute into which omaha has
fallen by reason of the pernicious
proscriptive methods that have been in
iected into the management of Il
public school system will require years
Of time to counterfeit. Not only have
the leading educational journals of the
country made unfavorable comment
upon the treatment of eX-SNperintendent
Marble, but prominent educators have
given free expression to their surprise
and disgust. One of the most eminent
school superintendent in the country,
in Il letter recently written to one of
our citizens, refers to the matter in the
following caustic terms:
am gradually taking in the astonishing
news regarding the action of the Omaha
school board. Is it not amazing that just
when the Catholic church of this country is
making the greatest effort to adapt itself to
,. s..4..-.go.. aal tIrnur p,I itg nltrarnnn-
tain policy that there should be such a stir
and such a reaction against 1t on the part
of people inclined to A. p. A.ism. Even the
present pope and his college of the propa-
ganda in Italy are doing their best to mod
fly the traditions of the church and set them
selves right with the democracy and free In
stitutions. and are working desperately even
to bring their people to the idea OF free
schools, and evidently in the near future
to discontinue the parochial schools. All
this. and here we have the worst attack Of
A. p. A.ism that we ever had. | nope II VIII
lead in the end to a better mutual UNDER
starding. because those who go into this
movement must see for themselves that there
is very little to be fighting about.
Prof. Nicholas Murray Butler,
dean of the School of Philosophy in
Columbia college and recently president
of the National Educational association,
refers to the A. l.. A.. attack upon DR..
Marble as the work of ''the forces of
bigotry and unreaSon."
The New York Nation. n recognized
standard in educational circles Il
potential factor in all that is progressive
in everything pertaining to public
morals and education, makes this com
ment in II recent editorial:
Senator Hoar takes the bull by the horns
when he declares in his admirable letter on
the A.. p. A. business that Catholics other
wise qualified ought to be allowed to teach
in the public schools. The Catholic teacher
has from the first been the great bughear o!
this movement. 1t was Superintendent Mar
ble's impartial cours, regarding appointments
in Mr.. Hoar's city of Worcester which was
made the lever by the A. P. A. element for
turning that able and experienced instructo:
out of his place a year ago. 1t is, there.
fore. instruction that Is much needed in his
own home, as well as in Boston and other
places which the senator gives when he say:
that he does mot wish to excludo Ca, holes
lIOIl pSluS punt SNhOJi CaNiC VI 80
will keep their peculiar religious ten:ts cut
of the Instruction., because of their religious
faith, any more than / would have excluded
Phil Sheridan from his Off &c in the army, or
could have refused to support him for any
public Office If he had been noninated for
it." The only wonder is that a state that
has always prided itself upon is progr sss.ve-
ness should need at this late dsy to be Taught
this fundamental lessen in equality.
1t remains for the good citizens Of
Omaha and the true friends of education
to redeem this city from disgrace and
misrule. They must purge the public
schols of sectarian politics. They
must restore the school system of this
city to the high place in the educational
world which it held before it was made
the foot ball of politicians and spoils-