Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-07-01
sEcTARIANIsM IN SCHOOL.
Salem, Oregon,
Nov. 10, 1917.

Salem, Oregon,
Nov. 10, 1917,
Dear Editor:
In the Polk County Observer of Date
November s, 1917, reporting our COVER
nor IS address at mass religious conven-
ton, that none of the delinquent child
ren in state institutions had ever had
tho benefit of Sunday school training;
and that the nation rests on the Chris
tian foundation of character which the
Sunday school and churches must lay.
III this connection l beg to offer let
ter by me, written to Governor West
at the close of the 1911 session leaving
bills for the governors IS action. Relative
to the dual ehaplaincy bill | wrote the
governor as follows:
Mccoy, Or, Feb. 90, 1911,
Dear Governor:
| House Bill No. 1862 by Collins is an
outrage. There is no authority for cruel
and unusual punishments and none
should be inflicted upon the inmates of
our special institutions. The public is
under no obligation to perpetuate the
relies of the savage and barbarian ages; !;
or Of the ignorance and superstition Of
those ages
Supt. James a Methodist religionist
and the son of Methodist {" sky pilot" +"
made report to the governor in 1865
of his two years management of the pen
itentiary and in that report l find at
that time there were 332 prisoners (page
40 of report. OF these 332 prisoners at
that time 215 or GA "a per cent were
church member religionists; 1l5 or "a
76-lG0 per cent were believers in re-
ligious dogma. 2 or 6-10 of l per cent
were anti religionists; $50 or SO 4-10
per cent therefore were believers in re-
ligion. These rligionists and thir sky
/ pilot agents therefore furnish 80 4-10
per cent of our convicted criminals. No
great wonder the statement Of the Rev.
| st. Pierre the then self-constituted chap
lain who was allowed to invade this
report at public expense and listen:
Page 13, "The religious work has been
non. sectarian. 1t has consisted in
holding of services Sundays in the pris
ON chapel the attendance on which has
been optional with the men. In spite Of
this the attendance has always been
most encouragingly large" You see
they take to it like a duck takes TO
water; they have grown up on it. 90
years ago Protestant Chaplains only
were employed for the New York penal
institutions wherenpon a Catholic mem
Der of the state assembly introduced a
bill entitled "a Freedom Of Worship
Bill'', and in advocacy of this bill upon
its final passage said: ga large num-
Der of the inmates of these institutions
are of the Catholic faith, and they have
a right to the consultations Of the re-
ligion Of their choice" And this is
House Bill 1862 Governor They people
the prisons about half and half; hence
they too want to load upon the state
two of the agents of your excellency IS
pardner to prevent and forestall
change. We well may admit their claims
as to the product Of their work, That
they people our prisons. But when we
are compelled to restrain and support
a product tell these agents to get off
their neeks and ours. These reverend
and fathers are not representatives Of
morality and their tendency is the oppo-
site Of morality as these cOnvicts con.
firm.
At the Methodist church in Salem two
years ago this month Bishop Homan,
president of willamette University said
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