The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-08
PR0TESTANTS IN ARMS
INTERESTING FIGHT OVER THE IN
DIAN SCHOOL QUESTION.
Catholics Accused Of Scbeming to Sc
cure Government Aid for Their
Church in New Possessions.
nec,a1 to Tho Tndiananolis journal.

| Special to the Indianapolis Journal.
| NEW YORK, Jan. IA pretty fight is
! on between Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore
ana the Roman Catholic archbishops of the
! United States on one side, and all of the
| secretaries of Protestant home mission So
| cieties that are interested in Indian educa-
| ton The charge is made that both sides
| are aware however, that the Indian is again
| being used as the Indian that he is and
| political football that he always has been,
| and that the real cause of the lately devel-
oped strife is United States government aid
for Roman Catholic schools, hospitals and
| perhaps churches in Cuba. Porto Rico and
| the Philippines. The initial action at this
time was taken by Archbishop Ireland and
| Cardinal Gibbons, so it is charged, when
the former went to the President and the
latter carried privately to some members
| of Congress a petition asking that the old
! contract school question be reopened
Cardinal Gibbons and the Roman Catholic
archbshopS desire to have appointed, not
| in the present, but in the next Congress, a
committee of inquiry into the subject of
Indian education. The naming of such cum
mittee these Protestant secretaries are taxi
ing steps to prevent They charge that In
dian education is not in the minds of Cardi-
nal Gibbons and the Roman prelates at all,
or al most only as a catspaw, and that their
real purpose is to familiarize the American
public mind with sectarian aid to certain
kinds of schools, and thus pave the way for
aid to Roman Catholic institutions in new
American possessions.
Those who make this charge, and who are
leading in the move to prevent the reopen
A. Ill
ton question with it's sectarian adjuncts,
are the Rev. DR.. G.. L. Ryder, of the Amer
lean Missionary Association; the Rev. DR..
Charles L. Thompson, of the Presbyterian
Board of Home Missions; Gen. Thomas J.
Morgan of the Baptist Home Mission So
ciety; the Rev. DR.. j. M. King, of the So
ciety for the Protection of American Insti-
tutions, and one or two others.
Most readers will remember that for
at least a decade this subject of
contract sectarian schools in con-
nection with Indian education was in
Congress. Five years since Congress voted
to terminate what these Protestant secre-
taries term "the copartnership between the
government and a church." Immediately
on that vote being announced the Protest
ant societies began to close their schools on
principle, and before a year had expired
not one of them any longer received money
from the government Indian education
account. By an arrangement which these
secretaries now characterize as zone of
great indulgence toward the Roman Catholic
Church." the government consented to grad
ually withdraw its appropriations at the
rate of 20 per cent annually The five years
have now elapsed, and according to law
the Roman Catholic Church and the
United States government can no longer do
business as one concern.
These Protestant secretaries say they at
one time truly represented Congregational,
Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist and Presby-
terrain sentiment and believe they still do 1.-The
overwhelming majority of our citizens who
have any convictions upon the safe and nor
NAL relations Of the church and state" and
they venture to speak in the name of these
citizens and ask that definite and perma-
nent principle be laid down for advancing
education among the Indians on the basis of
the American free common school system,
in order that dangers involved in a possible
departure from this American principle, es-
pecially in our new possessions, may be
averted. Speaking upon this matter one of
the secretaries referred to said yesterday:
I'VE are not entering this protest because
we are Protestants and those who oppose
US are Roman Catholics. l am Congrega-
L
protest against Presbyterian and United |
States government partnership, or a Metho- !
dist and government one, l between |
the continuance OF this Roman Catholic !
and government one. Roman Catholics have
been dealt with in the matter of the with
draWal OF government aid to their schools |
IN way that they do not seem capable of
approaching. Least of all ought they to
come forward for anything additional, even
If that additional was only a committee of |
inquiry which the cardinal and his prelates |
desire. That is one trouble with the Roman !
hierarchy. 1t wants all the favors going, |
wants nobody else to have any, and then |
coolly asks for an extension, not all around |
but for itself alone. / tell you the people |
are tired of this whole matter. The COM |
mon school that is the proper thing for the |
white man is the proper thing for the In |
dian.
I'VE know, though, what this Indian mat
ter is brought forward again for. 1t is to
keep the American public in the habit of |
expecting that under certain peculiar con-
ditions, which are supposed to exist in rela- |
ton TO Roman Catholics and do not exist |
In relation to other people, government |
money must go into Roman Catholic Golfers |
Slse SOMEBODY Will somehow not nave re-
hglous freedom. That may be clumsily |
said, but Roman Catholics want it so stated. |
If it is not befogged in some way the public |
will see through the whole business Keep !
the matter in the public mind and by and |
by the public will think it essential that aid |
be given Roman Catholics in order that |
they may maintain their converts in Cuba, |
or at least in Porto Rico. There are said |
to be two hundred of them. To support all |
OF luem VIII De Il nedNy DuTueH, especially |
in Porto Rico, where the people, Immediate !
ly they had been warned not TO attend a |
Protestant service, hOcked in great numbers !
TO ii, not IN one but IN scores CT towns all |
over the island. Those who oppose terri |
torial expansion probably have just this |
condition in mind. This petition of Cardinal |
Gibbons and of the Roman archbishps is |
one of the first of the home troubles that
are TO visit us on account of taking upon
our shoulders the care of these Latin races,
their government helplessness and their re-
ligion upheld by and interviewer with the !
state. There is no more reason why Roman
Catholics should be hired to teach Indians
than that Epscopalians or Baptists should.
The present petition is the initial sectarian
aim at government revenues, not collected
here. but collected in the new possessions
themselves. 1t is a specious plea. We shall
fight it, and when we win. as win we SHALL
we will have done an estimable service for
the America of the future"