The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1913-10-09


At present the principal of the Nc
Donogh Fund invested in New Or
leans Premium Bonds is worth about
$500, 900. The McDonogh Schools
Of New Orleans are operated in con-
nection with the public school sys-
tenn. In none of the New Orleans
McDonogh Schools, though, has the
Bible ever been used. This is all
the more remarkable in that there
is no provision in Louisiana's laws
which forbids the use Of the Bible in
her public schools.
Since 1906 the Protestant Minis
ters' Association of New Orleans
have repeatedly called the matter to
the attention of the New Orleans
School Board, the McDonogh Com
missioners, the Mayor and City
Council of New Orleans, the Attor-
ney-genera1 and the Governor of
Louisiana. The facts as stated above
have been clearly set forth, and
shown to be undisputed and indis-
putable; but with a normal callous-
ness that makes one tremble for the
perpetuation of our boosted institu-
tons of freedom and truth, these
facts and most earnest pleas for the
execution of the supreme condition
of McDonogh's will requiring the
use of the Bible in the schools built
with his money, have been complete
ly ignored or else shamelessly
lodged.
Still worse, there seems to be a
deliberate plan afoot to annihilate
the McDonogh Fund and destroy the
McDonogh schools. Since the Pro-
testant Ministers Association began
their public effort to enforce the Me-
Donogh will in the matter Of the use
of the Bible in these schools, no ad-
ditiona1 McDonogh Schools have
been built in New Orleans. Quite
recently three new High Schools
have been erected by the city to take
the place of the three McDonOgh
High Schools. None of these new
High Schools are named for John
McDonogh, but one of the former
McDonogh High Schools which was
erected out of the McDonogh fund
at a cost to that fund of $4,000
was sold the other day for $500.
The other two old McDOnogh High
Schools will probably be sacrificed
in the same manner. This shameful
thing is being done openly with the
full sanction of civil authority. The
protests offered against it are treated
with contempt; while the local Ro-
man Catholic forces are on the alert
to see that the supreme condition Of
McDonogh's will requiring the use
of the Bible in the McDonogh
Schools shall not be enforced.
The public school children of New
Orleans have built a monument to
John McDonogh which faces the city
hall. Each year in the month of
May, on Founders Day, they cover
this monument with flowers, in ac-
cordance with a pathetic clause in
their benefactor's Will This touch
ing custom, though, in the face of
the continued violation of his SUI
preme wish about the use of the
Bible in his schools, is almost a
moekery.
May we not hope, however, that
when the story of the man McDon-
OCH and his thwarted will is rightly
told and widely heard, there will yet
be a satisfying and glorious outcome
to this life of self-sacrifice and this
splendid loyalty to noble purpose?
May not that story have much to do
with awakening the American peo-
pie to an imminent peril which con-
fronts them, but to which they now
seem utterly Indifferent? Unless
our civilization is to become goddess
or else reltpse into Romish super