The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-04-14
EDITORIAL COMMENT.
The Bible and the Schools.


/ Washington Post:
It is announced IN a news dispatch
I from San Francisco that States Attor-
! hey General Webb has rendered an Off
cial opinion declaring the use of the
Bible in the public schools of California
to be unconstitutional. Not only may
teachers not use Scriptures as text
! books, but even reading from thems as
is the custom frequently at the opening
exercises. is barred.
Forty years ago, an event like that
happening IN any part of the country
would have created wild excitement
Now the action of CALIFORNIA; principal
! law official win stir up few protests. 1t
has come to be generally accepted that
under the constitution of the United
/ States, which guarantees equal rights
/ to all religions and all shades of belief,
! the Bible should not be read in the
4 schools. This conclusion is as nearly
universal among the most devout Chris
| tians as among their free-thinking fell
1 low citizens. All concede that, in q
/ broad sense the Bible Is a sectarian
/ book 1t is sectarian to the Jews, who
reject the New Testament and it is
/ equally sectarian to various other
/ classes Of citizens. Inasmuch as the
schools are sustained by taxation,
/ which takes the property of all classes,
the courts sustain such rulings as that
Of the attorney general of California
What is the plain lesson and impera-
tive admonition to the Christian people
the Bible and all parts thereof from the
schools in which their children are edu-
/ ca-ed? What duty does it impose on
the churches and their auxiliarieS2 It
seems to US that it imneasurab bly, en-
hances the Importance of Sunday school
/ work. The Post is never inclined to
( pessimistic views. but it regrets the con
/ tinuous decline of the good old custom
of Bible reading at home. Are the
holy Scriptures frequently read in
Friends families?, is one of the queries
in the Quaker discipline It is read and
answered in meeting every month. That
is one Of the reasons why the children
/ of that little body of Christians are ex-
/ ceptional1y familiar with Bible texts
The Sunday school IS the country's
/ chief reliance for the religious education
! Of millions of children. And this is
subject the interest Of which is not
confined to religious circles. The bust
ness world cannot afford to neglect it.
All interests. moral and material, secu-
lar and religious are directly affected
by the average of character. An ire
ligious community IS rot likely to be an
/ intellectually or morally progressive
community, The fewer and smaller the
I churches the more numerous and larger
the jails. 1t is the duty of Christians
and we use the word in its large sense
embracing all who desire the prevalence
of Christian morality, to see that the
absence of the Bible from the public
schools does not come to mean the alb
sence of Bible texts ard influences from
any coming generation And no other
| agency for the discharge of this obliga-
ton is comparable to the Sunday school.
Crime in the Drama.
Newark News
The police authorities of Jersey City
have taken a laudable stand in their
avowed determination to prevent the
production of plays there whose ten
dency is to glorify crime. In this they
are backed by Prosecutor Speer, OF
/ Hudson county, in an opinion, the gist
of which is to be found in the following
words: If the theatrical performance
is designed and has a clear tendency to
elevate vice and degrade virtue, and to
furnish a glittering and attractive in
element to youth to enter upon a ca
reer of vice and crime, it IS corruptive
of public morals and indictable as a
public nuisance" This is, we believe,
good law. Certainly it is good common
sense and quite in keeping with public
sentiment.
Plays of the kind here contemplated
are more destructive to youth than
their parallels in literature, inasmuch
as the play makes a seductive appeal
to the senses through its realism that
book cannot hope to even approximate.
The hero is seen and heard. The action
really transpires before the view, and IN
an environment that is peculiarly at
tractive to the unframed Imagination of
a certain type of boys and young men.
1t burns itself into the intellect of these
and becomes q factor in forming their
characters as mere book reciting the
same events, could never do. If it have
a baleful moral tendency it is therefore
peculiarly "coTruptive of public NOR
ais" as Prosecutor SDeer affirms, and
in its vivid Indictment to vice clearly
comes within the purview of the law
The cheap melodrama of the Tracy,
! he
a tremendous amount of it on our stage,
is not to be defended upon any ground
whatever 1t violates every canon of
good taste. It does not appeal TO a sin
gle wholesome instinct. It's whole mer
tai tendency is demoralizing. This doe 3
not necessarily make its production
crime however. It is its appeal to and
education of the criminal tendencies IN
the hearer, its direct and outspoken ap-
prevail of the worst forms of outbreak
ing vice. that makes it q menace to So
ciety and call for its suppression. The
police authorities of other towns would
do we'll to study the example of Jersey
City in this matter.