The people's voice., 1959-01-16
By DICK WARDEN

ject to high schools in principle MOI
do it's communicates protest sending
their children to public secondary
schools until they reach the age OF
16, providing a system is devised
wherein such schools are admins
tered similarly to the primary schools
Hutterite children attend.
This is the essence of a statement
by the Rev. Joseph ]. Kleinsasser,
pastor of the Milford Hutterite Col
ony, regarding the controversy kin
died anew in September when a
Lewistown justice of the peace ruled
that Hutterite parents of children
under Is must comply with a 1855
state truancy statute requiring that
children attend an accredited public,
private or parochial school until they
reach Is years of age.
Kleinsasser explained that, although
the religious, agrarian sect does not
oppose the philosophy of public sec
ondary education, Hutterite religious
beliefs prevent high school age chill
dren from mixing with children of
other denominations.
A unilateral action by any men,
Der of the sect in complying with
court orders would mean automatic
accommodation. 1--WE shall not
send our children out to cities and
expose them to the fast life," the
spiritual leader of the colony IS
miles south of Augusta said.
Believing in true fellowship in
spiritual and material possessions and
in united, closely knit brotherhood,
the Hutterites are convinced that
salvation is unattainable unless an
absolute remuneration of the pleas
ures of music, dancing and other
worldly amusements associated with
high school life is practiced.
The educational practices of the
Hutterite Brethren, like their COM
munal and religious customs, have
four-century heritage. The sect origi-
mated in southern Germany in the
work of Jacob Hutter, an Anabaptist
protestant who was burned at the
stake in 1886.
Inspired by the example of Christ
and the Apostles who chad all things
in common and parted them to all
men as every man had need" (Acts
ii 55-45), the Hutterische Brueder,
as the sect was known in Europe. be-
gan an Odyssey of centuries in which
they found temporary havens in Bo-
hemia, Hungary and Russia.
Prosecuted throughout Europe for
their belief in Anabaptist protestant
ism Opposition to infant baptism)
communal life and pacifism, the sect,
in 1878, after directives by the Rus
sian tsar circumscribed religious free
dom, turned to the United States.
In petition to President Ulysses
S. Grant, Hutterite officials re-
quested that they be exempted from
jury duty, military obligations and
given the right to administer their
own schools.
Grant referred the application to
Secretary of State Hamilton Fish with
the following notation:
VI SOoAoO, iiO Pl FilCSOo Gall De
afforded to foreign-born citizens not
accorded to all citizens. But it may
be proper to state to these people
that it is entirely improbable that
they will be called upon to perform
involuntary military service"
q Receiving no encouragement from
the State Department, a Hutterite
petition was addressed to Congress
asking that legislation be enacted au-
thorizing the setting aside of gov
land upon which they might
settle. This request also went un-
needed, and a number of the sect went
70 Manitoba where they had been
offered land on relatively liberal
,erms.
In 1873 another Hutterite deputa-
ion purchased land in Bon Homme
county, South Dakota. Between 1875
and 1877, 800 members of the sect
settled in three colonies. For forty
years the Hutterites lived peaceably
With their South Dakota neighbors,
md by 1918 twelve colonies were
,rospering. !