The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-02-24

main object is to. make good Catholics, and the
hrst requisite of a good Catholic is obedience
70 the priesthood. Catholic teachers are. by
their bigotry, shallowness and general ignor-
ance, totally unfit to be instructors OF youth.
mean those teachers whom the church has
prepared for the m ssion of teaching.
IN our public schools are some excellent
teachers who are Catholic-excellent because
schools.
How can monks and nuns, immured from
c On 1: within gloomy walls, and subjected
10 discipline which eradicates every spark of
iin1aependent thought, perverts the conscience,
pllnqs the understanding, and stupefies every
f.aeulty with the accumulated superstltlons OF
hlteen centuries; how, say, can such teachers
acquire the knowledge, the broad capacity
necessary to impart instruction to future
American citizens?
Such teachers can onIy reproduce themselves
IN thelr pupils. Children educated by them
WIZ not, as rule, get beyond the hobgobhns
ana the resurrected chicken stories OF their
cnurcn. Think of men and women attempting
10 traln children for that great battle OF lite
from which they themselves fled in cowardly
a naste well disciplined and thoroughiy edu-
Gated mind would not long find place for the
gross superstitions and crazy doctrines and
practices of monasticism.
we do not want, nor will we have, the abject
slaves OF a foreign power, power deadly hos
tile to this republic, training our future
citizens.
We want no schools dedicated to the slavery
OF men, schools that restrict and hem in human
faculties, So that the solemn and stupid absur-
ul.les OF superstition may take root and that
priests may live in luxurious ease upon those
prove the mind and develop it to its highest
capaclty, calling out all its powers.
We want schools in which are taught true
history and the beautiful and useful facts af
science, even though they do upset Catholic
teachings of God and the devil, hell and
heaven, indulgences and scapulsrs, marvels
ana miraclss. priests and purgatory, popes and
politicians, holy coats and virgins.
FOr fifteen ceQtu rieG this church has been
the enemy OF struggling liberty. She has left
scars, deep furrowed, in every country cursed
by her presence. She is the same relentless
zoe to civilization here as elsewhere. The
same methods mark her course. But FORUM.
ateiy we can rroft by the m!sfortunes OF
Rome's victims. We know her history, and if
she would preserve her lease of life in this re-
PUBIC she must learn that our secular schools
are the apple of our eye, and she must keep
our political affairs. The American people are
torbearlng to the last degree, but when they
are once aroused they will brook no further
needing with their cherished institutions by
the agents of this hoary diaboism of Rome.
For meddling with the affairs of State Jesu-
Its have been repeatedly and deservedly driven
from almost every country in which they have
been tolerated, and it may be that we, too, will
nave TO follow the example or some OF the
other great nations of the world, and expel
the traitors who know no country but Rome.
Ihat the Catholic church has rights in this
country is not denied, but she has no right to
force ner endless round OF useless and super
Stltlous practices upon those who do not
want them. Catholics have right to fast, to
count their beads, 10 pray, to adore their cru
cihx, to worship their images and venerate
their saints.
But they have no right to give their allie
glance TO any power other than that repre-
sented by the stars and stripes, and in doing
SO they are traitors to government whose
generosity they abuse, and if they continue to
conspire against the state their sham covering
OF sanctity and holy hypocrisy will not save
them.
rrl..
education and liberty and they thirst for more,
and they will stand solidly by that institution
which above ali others creates q desire for
knowledge and teaches the equality of all citi-
zens.
In the public schools the children of the rich
and poor stand on the same level. The schools
unity the coming citizens, they exalt the
brotherhood of men and create sympathy be-
tween heart and heart.
That our public schools are immoral is
charge as false as the source from which it
comes is foul.
In our schools are taught the reign of law
throughout the entire domain of matter and of
mind, whether OF earth or star-gemmed sky,
whether of individuals or institutions. Law
reigns supreme, and that by men, women and
children, by placing themselves in harmoni-
Gus relations with natural law Will receive
natures choicest blessings.
The Catholic Church does not want our
children taught the immutability OF natural
law, because this grand truth does away with
the necessity or the possibility of the interven-
ton of her mouldy saints, ana renders useless
and criminal the superstitious practices with
which she preys upon ignorance and fear.
The public school is the institution around
which cling and cluster the virtues and the
hopes OF the American people
Friends, as a closing word permit me to say
that America was never intended a home
for superstitious slaves. Her beautiful ard
fertile and wide-extended valleys were meant
for free men.
=, The rock-ribbed Appalachians and the grand
old Sierras were never erected as monuments
to popery. The ocean voices of the Atlantic
and the Pacific were never tuned to sing the
requiem OF American liberty. America, bright
est land of earth!
Her green-bound hills be-gemmed with
flowers, her spow-crowned mountains with all
their lofty majesty, grand in their physical
beauty, are but symbolic of the moral and in
tellectusl grandeur of our people, when true
Americans shall stand on guard and native
ever lost their power.