The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-07-29

money is paid to secure the advantages Of Cath
Ole education for their younger children.
"Now delegates that work Is not yet completed
Our Catholic parochiaI school system is not perfect
vet nor as / said before will it attain to our
IDEAL 1t is for you and your deliberations to inter
change views Judgments and experiences on the
hest methods of still furthering the advantages all
ready made.
Il would like to say word on three of four
educational establishments which you have In view
TO improve but L will confine myself to word
about colleges, whose interests you will cousidc
in vour deliberations. Our Catholic colleges hay.
done magnificent work. If compare the
sources they have had to rely upon with the ra.
sources of colleges of other denominations and mo-
denomnations-thos outside the Church-you vii.
find that where we receive thousands they received
millions in donations and endowments. And yet
what have colleges done that rely solely the
pensions of students. They have covered the land
with body of representative American eitizeu-
There is not position from the cabinet or supreme
court of the United States down to the less prom
inent walks of commerce and trade where they hav.
not their alumni, full of Catholic faith, men
imbued with profound sense of purity. of Catholic
morality nbibed during their in their Cath
olic alma mater But when all this has been said
and conceded it would seem that our colleges hav.
not the full, entire confidence of our Catholic
well-to-do people. They see the sacrifices being
ing orders, men who labor with all their heart and
with all their SOUL praying as well as teaching for
the welfare of those committed to their care: men
who ask for nothing but their simple food and raj
ment for earthly reward. Still. notwithstanding
all this sacrifice, there are Catholics Throughout
the country who prefer to send their children TO
non-Catholc institutions. to places where we all
know their faith is in danger, shipwrecked only
too often, and where they turned into at least
in + T..
remedied, delegates of the Catholic Educational
association! | say 1T now, under all reserve. and
with that intensity of conviction which l cannot
shake off and which has had hold of me for 1nauv
years, that if the bishops could exercise the same
jurisdiction over our colleges as they do over our
schools, then L hold that their Improvement in eff
cheney would equal that of the schools and would
thereby procure the entire confidence of our people
even as the schools have.
II hold it is the duty of you gentlemen to look
at your institutions others look at them. The
only path of progress is to look honestly at our de
fects- going to the root of faults and analyz-
ing them, and applying the remedy. We are passing
into period of transition; may and must and
ever Will as time goes and progress Is made
have to sacrifice many of our ways of doing things
without, however, infringing Catholic principles
Put aside prejudices especially if find that pre-
JUDGES stand in the way of Improvement. Our col
leges do not seem to stand today much higher in
the esteem OF our people than they did twenty-five
years ago, and that is seen from the number of our
young men that crowd the universities elsewhere
and from the attendance at our Catholic colleges
These are plain facts, hard to hear but unless tax
en- as facts there will be no progress made. trust
that you, gentlemen and others of the delegates of
this Catholic association will take this matter up
and act efficiently. Your association is voluntary
one, your legislation and your decisions are not
binding upon any, but the fact that you meet to-
gether to improve each others institutions is an
honest confession that improvement Is necessary
Il trust after this needed action is taken. that
financial aid and patronage will be so increased in
favor OF our colleges that no one will have right
afterward to seriously complain. May Gods bless
ing descend upon you and may the light of the Holy
Ghost abide with you, and may your movement 90
on and increase and It's fruits multiply until our
Catholc colleges become leaders in the land until
they have taken that leadership which belongs to the
Church and which she held for 1900 years in Chris
tendon until deprived of it by fraud and violence"