The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-11-16
THE BROWNING RESOLUTION.


| The Roosevelt administration will
soon revoke the Browning ln,liail
school ruling which compelled Catholic
Indians to send their p:npoOSrS to the
! government schools in which no re-
li-inllS instruction is impaired. For the
past tive Years the bureau of Catholic
missions liars hrrn trying to get the
obnoxious ruling ;hrogatcd, hut to no
avail. II is only recently that Sccre-
tary liitchrork assured Archbishop
Ireland AMI Archbishop Rior,lan that
the tyrannical ruling will NE revoked
and that the Indians cam in future en-
rrriSr the right of sending their chill
'lrcn I" religious schools. The Western
Waterman comments on this change
of policy in tho following forcblc style:
For years the Catholic church has
maintained schools of her own nmoll.
the Indians. Others she has conducted
with funds supplied NY the governments
Sore time ago a gentleman. now
Spreading HE light of Professionalism
in st. Louis. took charge of the Indian
schools: and since the day he stepped
into office the poor Indians have been
Obliged to SEM: their children to schools
"nliltaincd by the government i'm
Which no religion is taught For q
while they were allowed to attend
Catholic schools: but their deserved
popularity soon drew all the children
TO their llalls. and there were no MI
pills left for the embryo preachers sent
out by the Protestant boards. In their
extremity they appealed to the govern
mont and Il method was devised to
thwart "thc prosclytizing efforts of
Rome a resolution was passed,
known rs the browning resolution,
which gave the commissioner, and
through him the government agents
the power to compel parents to send
their children to their non scctaran
schools. Strange to say. this outrage
found favor Among the preachers of
the country, and tlEt it was not rene
died long ago was owing to their per-
Sistcnt effort to have the vile system
continued. And were it not for the
good offices of the Archbishop of St
Paul. aided by the presence and coun-
sci of the archbishop of san Francisco, !
that ubiquitous resolution would hr al
lowed to continue in force indefinitely. |
Knowing THAT the government would
do justice to the Catholic Indian. now ,
that the preachers wore no longer i'm |
control Of the Indian department. |
President Roosevelt was nppca'cd tn,
and the moment the case WAS placed ,
before Him orders were issued ,
to have liberty Of conscience and Of .
forward. any Indian who wishes to
SEMI his Catholic child to a Catholic
school will he permitted to do so; and
# the government non scctarian schools
cannot maintain themselves the uncm-
ployed teachers may resume their for
mcr occupation of selling swindling
patent rights or hawking A. P. \. lit
rraturr.
If the preachers had their way they
would have compulsory attendance at
the government non-sectnrian schools
extended over the entire Philippine
archipelago. The first commandment
Of the Protestant law is ITO thwart
Rome" Every other law is secondary
and subordinate to them. If our In.
dian school laws We're proclaimed in
the Philippines the whole Catholic
world would be aroused. There is no
danger that anything like that will
ever he attempted there. But the poor
Indian at our door has no friends: or
those he has do not know how to pro-
tect him. We think. and we repeat.
that the government of the United
States is non-anti- Catholic If it
wrongs the church it is through ignor-
ance or inadvemcnce We think We
owe it to ourselves and the powers that