The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-03-18
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
MARYLAND DAY.
Something for the Speakers to Think
Over.


SYKEsvILLE, Nd. March 18th, 1905.
Messrs. Editors The superintendent Of Car
roll county public schools. Rev. S. Simpson, of
Westminster, has sent letter of instructions to
the teachers of Carroll county regarding the
celebration of Maryland Day on March 24th. In
part he says:
1.-THE school children this year will have les
son on the federation Act an ordinance of re-
ligious liberty, laying deep the foundations of
freedom in the worship of God according to the
dictates of conscience. The act passed at an
early day, places Maryland in the forefront in
the broad principle of charity, and guarantees
to every man the privilege and right to worship
God in a Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist or Catho-
lie church or in any other Christian church
without hindrance, dictation or interference
from any source"
Yes, thankful we are that Maryland stood In
the forefront for religious liberty and that at
the present day religious persecution is consd-
cred thing of the past But now we speedily
want in Maryland q federation act" for civil
liberty-an act by which the compulsory educa-
ton law of Baltimore city and Allegany county
may be repealed, and an act by which every city
and county of the State may be rendered forever
free from its incubus.
If such federation act cannot be granted it
will be In vain for us to boast of the act of the
past, for it will prove that we have only trans
ferred persecution from religion to education,
and that the same bigotry and self-righteous-
ness prevail now as in some quarters in the past.
The religious prosecutors of the past sincerely
believed that they were doing Gods service and
making citizens for heaven, while the educa-
tional prosecutors of the present as firmly be-
lieve that they are periodically serving their
country and making good citizens for the world
here and now.
In their zeal they are blinded to the fact that
crimes Of all kinds are greatly on the increase in
the very sections they claim as most emphatic
in the enforcement of compulsory laws; but,
nothing daunting, the less the good results the
more their demand for their fads and their COM
pulsory attendance laws.
Thus It has ever been all down through the
ages-one age has ridiculed or denounced the
prosecutors of another age, while it has equally
prosecuted under some other plea. Education,
civilization, enlightenment and all the other
Wanted possessions Of this age have not sufFiced
to elevate the latter-day human above his pre-
decessors.
Therefore. unless inspired betimes, right on
March 24th we will see in every county town of
our State one or more speakers glorying in the
liberty of the times In one breath, and In the
next Gaining lOr tuo cOmpuloOEy euuCatiOh Ia"
for the whole State, while pointing to the states
of the East, North and West as our examples
along this line.
Just the other day five fathers were sent to
Jail in batch in Chicago for failing to send their
boys to school. Heartrending scenes are con
tinually enacted in all the juvenile courts of the
compulsory cities. Generally. boys are arrested,
not for crime, but for remaining home 70 work,
sometimes with sick fathers ard mothers and
starving little brothers and sisters to be pro-
vided for.
Thus it is that God ordained work is sin and
a crime in the eyes of the educators. Is 1t any
wonder that our land oyernows with tramps,
wonder that white and black youth. unframed
to work, resort to sharp practices and crime2
Between this and the 24th day of March let
the speakers for Maryland Day think over these
things, letting this. my letter OF Instructions"
supplement that of Prof. Simpson and inspire
them to voice for liberty all along the line.
OBSERVER