Milford chronicle., 1925-11-13

religious congregations OF that low
led by the Rev. Otis Jefferson, a fol
mer school teacher of Delaware
may be taken, the final steps leac
ing to the State Board of Educatio
giving its consent to the desire G
any communities which want schoc
children instructed religiously.
While this latest phase of tn
mOvement-a proposition which ha
been threshed out pretty general,
in Wilmington and was defeated
here a few months agO-was pre-
sented to the State Board of Educa
ton before President. Coolidge made
his important address in Washing
ton the past week, in which he sci
forth that laws were not to be ex
pected to be enforced by force, bui
that obedience must come through
an awakening of the public con-
science, it has been discussed many
times in the past few years.
The effect of President Coolidge
ideas which seem to fit in most eff
fectively with Pastor Jefferson's
ideas and which DR.. Harry V. Hol-
loway, commissioner of education
for Delaware, approves, have had a
far-reaching influence.
DR.. Holloway drafted a resolution
for the State Board of Education,
which body deferred action until it
could learn the sentiment OF the
various communities. This resolu-
tion reads as follows:
The Plan Under Consideration
WHEREAS, The Father of our
Country in his Farewell Address
to his countrymen declared
that "Of all the disposition and
habits which lead to political
prosperity, religion and moral
ity are indispensable supports"
and again Whatever may be
conceded to the influence of re-
fined education on minds of pc
culiar structure, reason and
experience both forbid us to eX-
pect that national morality can
prevail in exclusion of religious
principle" and
WHEREAS, The prevalence
of crime and the present wide
spread disregard for law are
becoming a serious menace to
the life, liberty and pursuit of
happiness" which constitute
the ends for the institution of
governments among men, and
WHEREAS, 1t is now esti-
mated that more than 60,000,-
900 of the people in this cOun-
try have no connection with any
church, and 15,O00,OO0 of our
children receive no religious
guidance, and
WHEREAS, The State of Del
aware has without doubt its
proportionate share of these
unchurched people and religi-
ously unframed children, and
WHEREAS, 1t is felt that
the conditions of crime and
lawlessness are due most large
ly to the loss of that connec-
ton between education and reli-
gion pointed out by Washing
ton to be essential to political
prosperity and known by us to
be equally necessary to our per-
sonal safety and our social well
fare, and
Not a School Function
WHEREAS, The teaching of
religion is not nor can be un-
der the Constitution of the State
of Delaware the function of the
public schools, and
- WHEREAS, The exigencies
of public education are not such
as to demand all the time of
public school children to such
an extent as to exclude the
possibilities of their receiving
weekday religious instruction
therefore be it
RESOLVED, That in any
school district or special school
district in the State of Della
ware under the authority of the
State Board of Education where
they may be provided sufficient
teachers qualified for the CIV
ing of religious instruction in
accordance with the rules that
may be set up by the religious
denomination under whose au-
tRQrity religious instruction ]
may be given, to give to all pub |
lie school children in a given
district, or to all the children l
in a given school in the said
district and where the Board of a
School Trustees or Board of t
Education shall request the t
same, it shall be permissible for
the said board to shorten the C
regular sessions of school or n
schools in said district not to o
exceed two hours in any given T.
week, to enable the children of b
such district to receive during G
that the religious instruction II
and further
RESOLVED, That the regular If
school session as now recog- a.
nized shall not be shortened -
more than one hour in any one n
day, and that the said hour II
must be at either the beginning II
or the end of the morning or the lo
afternoon session OF