The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-09-28

aTter-FIrry-one Out or TWO Thou
sand Teachers Wear Distinctive
CARDS.
The controversy aroused by the anti.
garb order of Mr.. Valentine, Commits
sioner of Indian Affairs, has at length
been settled by President Taft. 1t
will be remembered that last January
Mr.. Valentine, without consulting the
Secretary of the Interior or the Presi-
dent, issued an order forbidding the
wearing of religious garb by any
teacher in the Government Indian
schools. The order was suspended by
President Taft until the matter could
be investigated by the Secretary of
the Interior.
After a thorough investigation of
the case, President Taft has decided
that the religious garb may be worn
by the teachers now employed by the
Government in the Indian schools who
were placed under the civil service
rules when the schools were acquired
by the Government; but, in future, no
teacher who wears a religious garb
will be accepted as teacher in any of
the Government Indian schools At
present ffty-one out of two thousand
teachers wear religious garb, and
President Taft says that 'to direct
them to give up their religious garb
would necessarily cause their leaving
the service because of their vows un-
der which they have assumed the
garb." He endorses the opinion of
Secretary Fisher, of the Interior, that
there is no legal prohibition against
the employment of Government teach
ers who wear religious dress; and it
is pointed out that no sectarian re-
ligious instruction is given in any of
the schools now under Government
control.
In his order President Taft says in
part:
I'm the first place it appears that
all religious insignia have already
been removed from the walls of Gov
ernment schools by the voluntary &C.
tion of those who put them there be-
fore the schools were transferred to
the Government, and no question
arises, therefore, with respect to such
| insignia, and no order is necessary.
The issue, therefore, is confined to the
question. whether those persons en-
gagged in teaching Indians in the Gov
ernment Indian schools, and who are
members of the Government civil serv-
ice, should be required to lay off their
distinctive religious garb while they
ers.
The Solution of the Question.
'The Secretary of the Interior, after
very full and patient consideration,
has reached the conclusion, stated in
letter to the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, that the order ought not to be
made, and that those persons who are
now engaged in teaching in Govern
ment schools as members of the Gov
ernment civil service, and who are
wearing the garb, should be permitted
to remain in the service and while dis
charging their duties to wear the garb.
l concur in this view, and the order
as revoked will not be revived.
'The Secretary of the Interior, holds
as a matter of congressional policy,
that all orders hereafter made should
be directed toward securing the secu-
lar and non-sectarian character of
teaching; that this is the evident pur-
pose of Congress from its legislation.
He holds, further, that the wearing of
distinctive religious garb is not, as
claimed by some before him, viola
tion of any constitutional limitation in
respect to religion; that it does not
violate the freedom of religion; that it
does not constitute an established re-
ligion; and it does not prevent or i'm
pair the separation of Church and
state.
/ .Prescribes Rule for the Future.
"On the other hand, he finds that
while the wearing of the religious
garb is not violation of the consti-
tutional limitations referred to, reg
ulation forbidding the wearing of such
garb by teachers to be hereafter ap-
pointed would be equitable, reason
able, and within the authority of the
| Secretary of the Interior to prescribe.
In the exercise of his lawful discretion
as Secretary of the Interior, therefore,
and in order more certainly to secure
purely non-sectarian teaching in the
schools, the evident object and aim of
congressional legislation ON the sub
ject, he believes it wiser that here
school plant and teachers of any de
nomination to the Government school
should be made, and that no set of
teachers wearing distinctive religious
garb should be by order in the future