The New York herald., 1921-12-03
PRIEST CRITICISES
/ MODERN HISTORIES
Pro- British Tone Gives Lie to
F., independence Declaration,
I Says Father Cormican.
SCHOOL BOOKS AT ISSUE
Yelled Attack on DR.. Buffers
London Sentiment Is Seen
in Statement.

The Rev. P. J. Cormican. s. J., Of
before subcommittee of the Board Of
Education which was appointed re-
Gently TO consider complaints that some
OF the American histories now being
used in the public schools are pro-Brit-
ish and un-American in their treatment
OF the American Revolution. Father
Cormican declared the Declaration Of
independence mentioned twenty-seven
grievances against the King of England,
but that if modern histories are true
then the Declaration is false.
"a noted American educator in Lon
dom" he said, recently advocated that
the United States abolish Independence
Day and that English speaking nations
celebrate Magma Charta Day instead.
Such proposal you would think would
come from modern Benedict Arnold.
II this change is intended to cultivate
friendship with England it rests on
falsehood and would be at the expense
OF our Revolutionary heroes"
Persons attending the hearing inferred
that the American educator referred to
by the priest was DR.. Nicholas Murray
Butler. president of Columbia Uniyer-
sity, although Father Cormican did not
mention his name. DR.. Butler was told
last night what the priest had said, but
declared that since his name was not
mentioned he would make no comment
Mrs. Samuel J. Kramer, regent OF the
Washington Heights Chapter OF the
Daughters of the American Revolution,
was applauded when she said:
Our school histories ought not to
teach hatred of any country. AS girl
I was taught hatred of England, and l
kept it up until 1 grew older and read
history for myself and found out that
The Magma Charta was the first charter
OF liberty. 1t gave a man the right to
his own body, to trial by jury and
established the principle of no taxation
without representation. We should not
try to teach our children hatred of one
country in behalf of another"
Mclaughlin and Vantine's history.
published in 1919, and another volume
by Everett Barnes, issued the same year.
came in for criticism yesterday at the
hands of Liam Reamonn MacEocogain,
representing the Irish Patriotic League
the Rev. Father Cormican. Patrick J.
Lang of Jersey City, who said he was a
naturalized citizen who valued his citi-
zenship more than some of the native
born; Charles Grant Miller and others
Barnes is expected to defend the ac-
curacy of his book at the next hearing
OF the subcommittee at 80 r. NJ. De-
cember Q.
Prof. C. H. Ward of the Taft School
in Watertown, Conn. author of preface
TO an American edition of Burke's Con
ciliation of America" which has me
with caustic criticism by Mr.. Miller a!
being pro- British, said he was born II
Nebraska and, until he was 15 "hearc
OF the British only as a joke"
1T is the task of my critics." Prof
Ward said. first to prove that al
standard American histories are wrong
Hildreth and the Yale Chronicles o.
America are the only two author e.
which do not bear out what have wit.
y. ten that the revolutionary war wa,
brought on by King George III. rather
than by the British people"