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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (June 15, 1892)
Catholic chlltlicn may lie sent thete, without endnngciing theii moinl chaiactets." In New Yoik, Massachusetts, and other slates the Catholics have such complete contiol of the legislattues that this most unreasonable leanest lias been Hiautod. The teal attitude of the ehuieh of Rome, towaid our public school system, is well shown by an tntiele in n leading Roman oigan, the Cincinnati Ctitholic Tekgniph, in which they decline, "It will be a glorious day for the Catho lics of this countiy, when, undei the blows of justice and moi alily, oui fiee school system is sniveled to pieces." Sajs Hishop Toebbe ot Covington; "The public schools aie infi del .and godless, nnt' must theiefoie be avoided." The bishop of Denvci icceiitly voiced the genet nl scntiinent of the Catholic chinch, when he said: "Taxing of Catholics to sup poit the public schools is oppiessinu " Hut what is this fiee school to which Catholics aie so hos tile? Review the e.nly histoiy of oui ovui imiuiit, fioin the lauding of the pilgiinis to the adoption of the constitution, and evidence of its inestimable woith won It may be found on eveiy page. My leading and guiding out foiefatheis, well did it cam its light to the title "(iuaidian Angel of the In fant state." TJnough out whole national existence oui gieatest statesmen, ablest politicians, biightest theologians, our woithiest citiens, owe theii poweisto eaily tiaining ic eeived in the public school. Such is the institution, which the Catholics attack. This, it is, that accouling to thcii own uttetanccs, they only undine because they lack, a-, jut, the power to destiny. Does anyone imagine that the ical nttitudu of Route is fa voiable to education? (Jo to Catholic counttius, wltute she is not compelled, in self defense, to piovide foi the education of the masses. In Italy, the seat of the Papal powei, seventy tlnce per cent, ot the inhabitants cannot lead or wiite. In Catholic Spain, eighty per cent., and in Mexico, ninety-thiee percent, belong to this class, Thete aie in the United States neatly ten thousand Catho lic piiests nil of whom, with i.ue exceptions, ate by bit th, nnd by education, foreign to Aineiican institutions. All ate swot n to obey the mandates of the Pope at Rome. I I.ue Amuticans cause to feat their attempts to unite chinch and state? Look to New Voik, wheie the continued victotius of "Tnmntaiy" tell to all the stoty of theit stteugth. In Sena tor Hill's convention, of Kebiuaiy 22, two delegates at-latge, thitty-nine of the sixty-eight distiict delegates, and foity-two of the sixty-eight alternates appointed, and a inajotit) of the thiitj-six electors nominated, were Roman Catho lies. So complete is theit contiol of the municipal govern ment of Chicago, that they ate enabled to compel all police men 1'iotestant as well as Catholic to pay a monthly tiib ute to the Roman nuns. In San Francisco, the only 1'iotest ants, who can obtain important municipal offices, aie of the kind that give their sons away to the Jesuits, 01 their dattgli tets to the nuns. "The boy is fpther to the man." The childten of to-day are the yoteis of to-niotiow, and upon t!e eaily tiaining of the American youth depends our nation's future. Knowing this, the church of Rome seeks to direct the instruction of the tising generation. Not content with establishing and main taining a patochial school system, nairov and un-American in its aims and ends; not content with attacking and vilhfying the Aineiican schools; not content with obtaining, in pattsof Mis souti and Wisconsin, a division of the public school tax, it even seeks to obtain contiol of the public school itself. So effectual have its efforts been that, in Boston, Romish piiests books the Protestant childten, attending the gBwJHHSBlHWWBefwff ItuwiM ifcii w 1 '? pm w w bidden by Roman pt elates to send thcii chihiien to the Aiuei icatt schools, and no less authorities than Aiehbishop Kcene, and Caidiual Cibbons justify ex-coinnuinicaticn as a punish incut for this offense. In many parts of Iowa, the Roman cnt achisnt is legulaily taught in the public schools. In Ttoy, N. V., at the bidding of Catholic piiests, twenty-one e pt'iienced l'loleslant tcacheis of unquestioned efficiency, weie iccently icplaccd by Romanists. Over sevcnty"per""eentrof the tenchcis in the Chicago public schools ate Romanists. The patochial schools of Chicago, alone claim an attend ancc of ovei fifty thousand. '1 hese childten aie ttained to become loyal subjects to the l'ope tiaitois to their native land, and all of the bo)s, ovei twenty-foui thousand in iiiint bet, aie gien a most thoioiigh tnilitaiy tiaining, in oidci that, as a Milwaukee ptiest declined, "when the time shall come the l'ope of Rome will have but to stamp his foot, and thete will atise, ft om Aineiican soil, an tu my of Romans." A few ntoie llennett laws defeated; a few tnoie (lovcinot Pecks, and Si'iutot Hills; a few tnoie tiiuniphs of the Catholic vote, and the fate of oui countiy is sealed. Let the paiochial school be banished, l.ct the political powct of the chinch be biokctt. Allow to no one the poweis and blessings of citienship, while he submits himself to the dictates of a foieign powei. Let Ainuiican childten be teaied in the fiee iitinospheie of Aineiican institution',, whetc they may leant to sing "Hail Columbia," and not "Hail Maty." Then may we icst seciue, that our countiy is safe tiomthe ravages, which always attend a union of chinch and state. 'lloro WorHhl." In every age in which man has existed there have lived pcisons who, ftom some supciiouty of physical, of mental 01 of motal woith, have been legatdcd by thcii fellows as living upon a highct plane wheie no common foot (hue tread with impunity. Among the ancients whose knowledge ot the natuial laws was vety limited this homage paid to supeiiot beings is easily muletsto.d. That the untutoied savage should woiship .1 btave chieftain dining his life nnd deify him aftei his death, is not stt.tnge to one who has wit nessed the adotation bestowed upon gteat modem geneials but that civilized people should bow down befote some idol' be it c.lhei man, woman, 01 poodle dog and woiship it to the utmost ol Uieu ability, just because fieedom of thought and of action is allowable 111 the nineteenth centuiy, shows a 1nu11l.1l eondilion in those petsons that, in ninny tespects little excels lite state of their tetnote ancestois. The tuim "heio" is genetally used of peisons who by ..mm. iit ..I l.t i'i .. ... r ..ir tnm ir?. . . . ..... ,.w ... ...... v.. j . w. .n lUHn.t won universal aumit- ation. The wotd nni), however, be used in another sense an) piotninent 01 extraoidinaty pcison is a heio. Such a heio is, lo a gieat degiee, the cieation of his woishippcis. Hut since lite inajonty of wot shippets exetcisc little discte lion as to whom they woiship, not all aie heioes in the true sense of lite woid who teceive univeis&l admuation. One neei' not possess inaivcllotts poweis to be woishiped. The model 11 mind loves change and with that change excitement. It little ntaltcis what the cause of the excitement may be. Some divine causes an upt oat by his utterances; an authot wutus a stattling book; a pugilist cleais the ting of his an tagonist; and each finds thousands watting in anxious expec tancy to bung a new hero to the fiont. People peteieving this desne foi the sensational and pethaps as anxious for then next meal as foi the notoiiety they will icceive, make a good living oil the gnllabiltty of the public. They swim ihe Ntagaia, they swallow swoids, st.ut tjew ,eJjglonh,nml,.KUlg.
