Evening star., 1948-06-22


any plan where religious education is con-
Quoted on school premises but during school
hours and with the active cooperation Of the
school administration. pupils being released
from the regular school,, and teachers and
church authorities cooperating in keeping
attendance records. Some schools in ut least
these "a States have that type Of plan: Ala
bama, Arkansas California, Colorado, Com
necticut. Florida, Georgia, Idaho. Illinois. In
diana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missis-
sippi, Missouri, New jersey. New York, Ohio.
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Is
land, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah,
Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wiscon-
sin and Alaska and Hawaii. In New York
State this type of plan was upheld as consti-
tutional by the Court of Appeals in q suit by
an atheist and later embodied in the States
education law.
Cooperation Of Church and State Not Barred.
The First Amendment provides that: "Con-
gress shall make no law respecting the estab-
lishment of religion or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof" The Fourteenth Amendment
has been construed by the court to extend to
lawmaking by a State the prohibitions con-
tanned in the First Amendment. Looking at
the matter in the light of our countrys
4lISCO1y dS JuSllCc xtcCQ uIkcu, ~ Is
cult to see how the Constitution was violated
by what the local community and school
board in Champaign did. Did it constitute an
establishment" of religione Was not "the
free exercise" of religion denied by what the
court did rather than by the State law? Mr..
Justice Reed said that the Amendments do
not Ear every friendly gesture between church
and State" and are not "an absolute prohibi-
tion against every conceivable situation where
the two may work together" 1t has never
been so in our history.
James Madison wrote that: ''He appre-
hended the meaning of the words to be, that
Congress should not establish religion and
enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor
compel men to worship God in any manner
contrary to their conscience" Thomas Jeffer-
son, oft-quoted foe of giving governmental sup
port to any one religious sect or faith to the
exclusion of others, did not oppose the use Of
public funds in support Of religious education
along with other education. On the contrary,
he recommended for his beloved University Of
Virginia theological school for the training
Of clergymen a large room for religious wor-
ship, an elaborate arrangement for students OF
the religious institutions which he proposed
that the various denominations should set up
in connection with the university-all at public
Jefferson used public funds and Government
properties in aid Of religion and religious edu-
cation in various ways, as has every President
to this day. Recognition of an interest in and
support for religion Of the recipients choosing
has not been regarded as an establishment"
so long as no one faith is singled out, favored
or established to the exclusion of others.
Sessions of the Senate and House Of Rep
resentatives, under their historic rules, are
opened always with prayer by chaplains paid
from public funds. Chapels are maintained
on the Government reservation at West Point
and Annapolis; mo cadet will be exempted
from attendance" Millions OF dollars were
spent in erecting and maintaining chapels at
Army camps and bases during World War II;
they were used INTERCHANGEABLE by clergymen
of the different faiths. Chaplains went every
where with the troops and on ships Of war and
conducted services. Money Of taxpayers and
properties of Government were used freely to
see to 1t that our young men who went into
the face of danger and death did not lack the
mnistrations of those who believed In God
and the verties of religion. Must State and
local governments do less for those who are
being educated for citizenship and life?
Government Aid to Religion Cited.
Under the 1914 legislation, discharged vet
eran may be educated at public expense to be
a clergyman, in denominational school of his
choice. A month after the decision in the Nc
Collum case, the Congress passed and the
President signed an appropriation OF 100000
to erect chapel for religions at the United
States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings
Point, N. Y. On May 2s the United States
Post Office placed ons sale a postage stamp
bearing the legend: These Immortal Chap
1oip 4 Z Z Tpfo rfoit In hearG
traits of four young ministers Of religion-a
Methodist, Roman Catholic priest, a Jewish
rabbi and Baptist-and also painting Of q
torpedoed troop ship which carried them to
their graves off Greenland on February 3,
1943-the S. S. Dorchester of our Navy. They
were on Government property at taxpayers
expense, to hold religious services and give
instruction and ministration in religion. And
when they made their way to the deck OF the
stricken ship, they gave their lifejackets to
four young men who had lost theirs in the
confusion. Having given away their own
chance to live, the four chaplains stood close
together, holding hands, as the ship went
under-an immortal demonstration Of the unity
of religious faith and what religion does for
people-now appropriately commemorated by
our Government. Was all this "constitu-
tional"? Maybe there was something in the
Dorchester incident which the majority in the
Supreme Court missed-something to which
the highest courts of our States and countless
local communities have held fast.
The Constitution of the Soviet Union pro-
vides (Article 124: I'm order to insure to
citizens freedom of conscience, the church In
the u S. S. R. is separated from the state
and the school from the church. Freedom of
religious worship and freedom of antireligious
is recognized for all citizens"
Fortunately the trainers of our Constitution
did not go that far, and the institutions and
practices Of our people have not gone that far.
Nothing in our Constitution commands that
the First Amendment should now be inter-
preted as though it read like the above-quoted
provision. Nothing in our Constitution COM
mands that freedom of religion" shall be