Omaha daily bee., 1902-02-12
BOYD COUNTY HOMESTEADS
ststs Beard Grants Application Of Alexander
Blair and 0thsrH.
LAND RELEASED TO GENERAL GOVERNMENT
Present Occupants May Recover II by
Further PrOcess-state Resists
the Mode Of Settle
ment.

LINCOLN, Feb. 11.-Cspecial Telegram.)
The State Board Of Educational Lands
and Funds has decided by a majority vote
to grant the application Of Alexander Blair
and seventeen others for government deeds
to homesteads in Boyd county. According
to che terms Of the settlement the land is
to be released to the general government,
from which It may be afterwsrd recovered
by the present occupants.
Land Commissioner Folmer resisted the
settlement on the ground that the home
vteads are state land and cannot be re-
IinauIshed. The deeds cannot be executed
unless signed by the land commissioner,
and II Is likely that oficial will withhold
his approval pending receipt Of an opinion
by the attorney general. The matter has
long been In dispute and an extended ar
Eument was INDUCED in at a meeting Of
the board last week and again today by the
representative Of the homesteaders, who
are seeking to have the lands decided to
the government.
in Public Schools.
John H. Lindale Of Gage county has APP
peared as a friend OF the supreme court In
the case OF the State ex rel Freeman against
John scheve and other directors Of a
Gage county school district. He begs leave
to call attention to the danger which he
says threatens the rights OF a large body
Of people who constitute an integral part
Of the citizenship. the membership Of a
great church. Mr.. Lindale refers to the
Roman Catholics.
The case in which Mr.. Lindale appears
arose from an application in the district
court of Gage county for an order re-
straining the authorities from causing the
certain sections and versions Of the bible
TO be read In the public schools.
Mr.. Lindale begins his argument by as
sorting that the separation Of the church
and state In this country is the result Of a
compromise. He says:
when the constitution was formed.
there were Congregationalists in New Eng
land, Dutch Reformers in New York, Luth-
Grams In New Jersey, Quakers In Pennsyl-
vania, Catholics in Maryland. Methodists in
Georgia, Calvinists in South Carolina, Epis-
copaiians In Virginia, and everything and
what not In North Carolina. In order
that all should be on an equal footing, 1t
was provided that congress should make no
law respecting an establishment Of religion.
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
This was the first amendment, the first
article Of the "Bill Of Rights as the first
ten amendments have been styled. Under
this "Bill Of Rlghts"-under this provision.
every denomination acquired vested rights.
This spirit of federation gradually altered
down into our state constitutions, till it has
become the genius Of our institutions.
Our own state constitution provides:
"'All persons have a natural and inde-
feasible right to worship Almighty God ac-
cording to the dictates Of their own con-
science. No person shall be compelled to
attend. erect or support any place Of wor-
ship against his consent. and no preference
shall be given by law to any religious
society, nor shall any interference with the
rights Of conscience be permitted.
'.comprlsory education has been in force
In this state from time immemorial. l have
but to refer to the act Of March 30, 1901
TO subdivision xvi of chapter xxx, of the
Compiled Statutes of 1899. and the other
links in the chain.
"If the bible is used In public schools, II
hymns are sung. and II children are COM
PEELED to attend school. you compel attend
ance at a place Of worship. which Is con-
trary to the state constitution. Hymns are
but prayers In meter.
but the bible, you say, is common to all
Christians. The Catholic yields to no one
In his reverence for the Word Of God. In
a recent editorial in the New York Sun the
tolloWlnB paragraph appears:
"As 1t Is now, the pope is the sole, bold
positive and Incorporating champion Of
the bible as the word Of God
THE Catholic church has condemned the
so-called high criticism which is nothing
but Tom Paine in a parsons cassock. Tho
Catholic must take his gospel straight with
no sugar-coating. or let him be anathema
But we do not purpose to have James
stuart's translation forced Town our throat
without a protest. II would SAVIOR Of pc.
dantry and would serve no useful purpose
to point out the difference between Kins
James version and the Douay edition.
1--WE are not asking to have the Douay
edition read In our public school. We DE-
not think II proper. II we did. what q
howl would go up all over the land. TIL,
arrogance OF Rome!' 1t does make a differ.
ence whose or Is being gored. 'orthodo,
Is my doxy and heterodoxy lie your doxy
has been the song Of every religious tyran'
from Jew-barning Torquemada to witch.
burning Cotton Mathers"
In closing. Mr.. Lindale remarks: 9TH,
gods Of Olympus are back numbers. No
body believes In them. It is safe to sa!
that for fourteen centuries nobody he's
The difference between Homer and tn
bible is the difference between a dead wir'
and a live wire. You cannot disassociat,
any version Of the bible from religion