The Minnesota fiery cross. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1924-19??, 1924-02-22
CHURCH element IN UNITED STATES IS ONLY FORCE 0BSTRUC1MG
PUBLIC EDUCATION DECLARES DR. EVANS IN INDIANAPOLIS SPEECH

second. 1t Is fundamental, organic,
whereas the rest is a matter of eff
cheney.
II there be the slightest doubt as
to what a department of education
would mean to the public school sys-.
tenn, that doubt will disappear when
you understand the attitude toward
it Of the enemies Of democratic edu-
cation. In a few minutes shall dis
cuss the forces, or rather the only
organized force, that is opposing the
American public school system. At
this point / desire only to show that
this opposition by the Roman Cath
Ollie church hierarchy is aimed chief
ly at the idea of department Of ed
ucation That is what they fear.
You will remember that there was
little activity in behalf of the Smith
Towner bill during the Sixty-seventh
congress. because of the pending
measure to establish a department of
public welfare, with education only
bureau in it. With respect to that
situation. I quote in part a letter,
issued on May 4, 1921, by the Nation
al Catholic Welfare Council, as fol-
lows:
at should further be noted
that other measures are now I'M
der consideration by the leaders
in congress, which may obviate
the need of opposition to the
Towner bill. Should the McCor-
mick bill, e. g.-be passed and
the department of public welfare
established, the bureau of educa-
| ton would simply be transferred
I from the department of the in
terror to the department of pub
lie welfare; it would not be erect
ed into a separate department.
In that case, the situation would
practically be what it is at pres
emit"
In other words, the hierarchy does
not oppose legislation that leaves
matters as they are, with a poor,
powerless, undignified bureau Of ed
ucation, instead Of a department of
education, which would at once and
| forever suggest to every American
that at last our public schools had
been given the recognition and stand
ing that should have been their gov
ornamental position from the very be-
| ginning.
Therefore, I say to you that this
part Of our program is the all-im-
portant part; that there must be no
compromise upon this issue.
When we have given public organic
significance, as the creation of a de.
partment of education will do, while
that belated act cannot alone at once
remedy the enervating results of one
hundred and thirty-five years of neg.
lected duty, of wasted citizenship,
IL will ease the national conscience
and be followed quickly by new and
constantly accelerating educational
yigOr throughout the republic. 1t
will mark the beginning of rising
tide Of common intelligence, health,
and virtue among both the native
and adopted sons and daughters of
America.
The Shameful Inadequacy Of Educa-
tiOn
The indictment is that "the defects
OF education are too numerous to
catalog." How much more impossi-
BILE is it to catalog the consequences
of these defects. When we face the
results Of our inadequate public
school system, the situation becomes
positively appalling.
Each year, there is made for taxa
tiOn, an appraisement Of their ma
terial wealth. An inventory, on as
exact and scientific a scale, of the
much more vital human values has
I never been attempted. 1t happened,
however, quite incidentally, that the
nation was permitted to get glimpse
at the menacing aftermath of educa-
tiOnal inadequacy.. When our young
manhood was conscripted for service
in the great war, they were examined,
mentally and physically; tests were
made and recorded; the results are
known. At last we may look square
ly at the terrible truth about our
composite humanity, and relate it's
degeneracy directly to the failure of
our school system.
The census returns had been telling
1