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lp)ublic Ebucation.

A brief Statement giving Report
Attendance and Expenses of Parish |^
Schools in the City of New York. "

THE CATHOLIC BOOK EXCHANGE,

1 20 West 60th Street,

New York.

1902

1 1
•/■'

THIS pamphlet is reprinted from the Janu-
ary issue of The Catholic World
Magazine. The Catholic World Maga-
zine is published by the Paulist Fathers, at
1 20 West 60th Street, New York. $3.00 a
year.

SUBSCRIBE FOR IT.

W^M

CATHOLIC CITIZENS AND PUBLIC EDUCATION.

A BRIEF STA TEMENT GIVING REPORT OF A TTENDANCE AND
EXPENSES OF PARISH SCHOOLS IN THE CITY OF NEW
YORK.

THE PARISH SCHOOL is a factor in the public educa-
tional work of the United States and should not be classi-
fied under the heading of Private Schools, in which large tuition
fees are charged and social distinctions recognized to favor the
children of the wealthy. No such limitations are met with in
the Parish Schools, founded and supported, with few excep-
tions, by representatives of the common people.

According to existing laws in New York State, citizens
have the unquestionable right as parents and guardians to pro-
vide for the religious and secular education of their children.
This right is exercised by the educational associations, formed
within parish boundaries, to establish and perpetuate Parish
Schools chiefly for kindergarten training and elementary instruc-
tion. The citizens who form these societies are sincerely de-
voted to the public welfare, and would quickly resent any
imputation against their patriotism. They demand for their
children definite and dogmatic religious instruction, according
to the faith professed by at least two hundred and fifty milHons
of Catholics throughout the world. It is well understood that
the teaching of religion is not within the power of the State :
neither can the public funds be used in aid or in maintenance
of any particular form of religious belief.

At the present time, in New York State, the patrons of
Christian Education are paying from their own hard-earned
money the cost of educating about one hundred and fifty thou-
sand children in the Catholic Parish Schools. For the defence
of their conscientious convictions, they have erected in many
places commodious fire-proof buildings, thus relieving their fel-

of love to assist in the movement to remove false impressions
and bring about a better understanding of the gigantic work
that has been done in Catholic Schools for God and our

Country.

Right Rev. MONSIGNOR MooNEY, LL.D., V.G.,

Director of the Sacred Heart School.
Very Rev. Denis Paul O'Flynn,

Director of St. Joseph's School.
Rev. Michael J. Lavelle, LL.D.,

Director of St. Patrick's Cathedral School.
Rev. Thomas McMillan, C.S.P.,

Director of Schools of Paulist Fathers.

Committee of
Nezv York
Catholic School
Board.

ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK.

Report of the cost of maintenance, number of pupils, nutnber of Teachers,
and the valuation of Parish School Property in the Boroughs of Manhattan,
Bronx, and Richmond, New York City, for the year ending December ji, igoi.
Manhattan Borough.

Property and

Buildings.

Value.

Name.

Location.

Cathedral, .
St. Agnes, .
St. Alphonsus,
Annunciation,
St. Ann, . ,
St. Anthony,
Assumption,
St. Boniface,
St. Brigid, ,
St. Cecilia, .
St. Columba,
Epiphany, .
St. Francis, .
St. Fr. Xavier,
St. Gabriel, .
Holy Cross, ,
H'ly Innocents,
Holy Trinity,

111-113 E. 50th St.,
152-156 E. 44th St.,
328 W. Broadway,
West 131st St.,
1 1 5-1 17 E. nth St.,
60 McDougal St.,
West 49th St.,
312-314 E. 47th St.,
302-304 E. 8th St.,
2 1 8-224 E. io6thSt.,
331 West 25th St.,
234-238 E. 22d St.,
146 West 32d St.,
122-126 W. 17th St.,
307-321 E. 36th St.,
332-336 W.43dSt.,
130-132 W. 37th St.,
212 West 83d St.,

Pupils.

Teach-
ers.

1,485
785
706

35
17
13

590

IQI
887

3
15

537
261

742

1,182

467

732

154

1,101

1,694

1,025

329

Cost of
Maintenance.

$19,689.84

6,173.46

4,914.05

979.03

702.44

950.09

1,054.26

126.50

6,953.09

8,452.49

2,549-35

6,361.60

1,093.11

10,456.21

12,927.71

10,865.62

5,838.99

5200,000

125,000

25,000

100,000

30,000

50,000

40,000

39,000

160,000

75,000

100,000

30,000

180,000

150,000

125,000

60,000

Name.

St. Ignatius,
Imm. Coiicep.,
St. James,
St. Jean Bap't,
St. John Bap't,
St. Joseph, .
St. Joseph, .
St. Joseph, .
St. Margaret,
St. Mary, .
St. Mary

Magdalen,
St. Michael,
St. Monica, .
H'ly Redeemer,
St. Nicholas,
Our Lady of

Loretto, .
Our Lady of

Mt. Carmel,
Our Lady of

Perp. Help,
Our Lady of

Angels,
Our Lady of

Sorrows, .
St. Patrick, .
St. Paul, . .
St. Paul the

Apostle, .
St. Peter, .
Sacred Heart,
St. Stephen,
St. Stanislaus,
St. Teresa, .
Transfigurat'n,
St. Veronica,
St. Vincent

Ferrer,
St. Vincent

de Paul, .

Location.

46 East 84th St.,
5 1 1-5 13 E. 14th St.,
27-31 James St.,
187 East 76th St.,
206-208 W. 3 1 St St. ,
1 1 1 Washington PI.,
420-422 E. 87th St.,
1348 Columbus Ave.;
Riverdale,
262-268 Madison St.,

523 East 17th St.,
377-381 Ninth Ave.,
406-416 E. 80th St.,
222-224 E- 4th St.,
121-135 E. 2d St.,

299-301 Eliz'beth St.,

443-445 E. iisthSt.,

321 East 6ist St.,

229-239 E. 1 1 2th St.,

Pitt and Stanton Sts.,

Prince St.,

120-122 E. 1 18th St.,

124 West 6oth St.,
98-102 Trinity PI.,
450-456 W. 51st St.,
141-147 E. 28th St.,
103-107 7th St.,
6-8 Rutgers St.,
29 Mott St.,
1 1 6-1 18 Le Roy St.,
Lexington Ave. and
65th St.,

116 West 24th St.,

Pupils.

Teach-

ers.
16

610

i>893

1,008

345

337

1,017

953

550

640

195

1,540

1,020

829

420

723

848

351

367

335

2,100

575

1,125

844

2,350

957

343

320

480

875

550

37,453

747

Cost of
Maintenance.

$4,779.48

18,658.98

9,801.41

2,872.65

1,793-25
17,060.69
13,205.90

4,905-13

5,699-43

1,000.00
12,912.58
6,631.39
4,924.05
5,368.64

2,476.99
3,138.44

3,791-97

6,111.00

15,708.48

3,252.30

12,006.92

13,975-13

23,819.46

9,427.20

207.90

2,837.49

982.36

4,552.14

8,730.76

6,257.45
328,989.89

Property and

Buildings.

Value.

4,639,000

Recapitulation.

Manhattan Borough,
Bronx Borough, .
Richmond Borough, .

Grand Total, ,

37,453
2,409
1,287

41,149

747
42
22

811

$328,989.89

9>469- 73
5,824.98

$344,284.60

|.,639,ooo

200,000

60,000

1-, 899,000

Note. — The value of school buildings as stated is probably well below the actual value
to-day, representing as it does in practically all cases merely original cost. As regards main-
tenance, it will be noticed that the average cost per pupil in Manhattan was only about eight
dollars. The reason for this is, of course, mainly in the fact that a very large proportion of the
teachers in the Catholic parish schools are religious, who receive little pay for their work. An-
other reason for the low maintenance cost is no doubt the fact that in many cases expenses
of lighting and heating the schools, interest on mortgage for school building, etc., are charged
directly to church account of each parish.

The figures here given indicate only the attendance at Par-
ish Schools in the boroughs mentioned, excluding colleges,
academies, and institutions containing children not living at
home with their parents. It is important to make the distinc-
tion that the Parish School is in direct communication with
the home influences, and is to be differentiated from institu-
tions for destitute and homeless children. In the whole Arch-
diocese of New York, which extends up the Hudson River as
far as Newburgh, there is a total of 49,752 pupils in the Par-
ish Schools. This number, taken in conjunction with the re-
ports from asylums and institutions, shows about 71,000 under
Catholic care and instruction.

By a peculiar juggling of the figures in the official reports
of education in New York State there has been as yet no satis-
factory statement concerning the Catholic Schools, no distinct
mention of the large number of volunteer workers for the up-
lifting of the masses. Among these workers who have been
thus deprived of honorable mention are to be found represen-
tatives of many prominent families enrolled in philanthropic
and religious organizations. A census that misrepresents the
work done by the people of New York State for education, or

which presents only in a partial way the evidence of their gen-
erous zeal, deserves severe condemnation. It is to the glory
of the Empire State that so many of its citizens do not need
any compulsory law to enforce attendance at school. They
take the initiative in promoting the standard of intelligent citi-
zenship. It is to be hoped, therefore, that public officials will
give adequate consideration to the following summary of at-
tendance in the Parish Schools of New York State, and the
estimate of Catholic population according to the dioceses repre-
senting all the counties :

New York, ....
Brooklyn,* ....

Buffalo, ....

Rochester, ....

Albany, ....

Syracuse, .....
Ogdensburg,

Pupils.

Catholic Population,

49.752

1,200,000

34,161

500,000

22,712

171,000

15,734

105,000

15,000

145,000

4,943

70,000

3,400

79,000

WORK OF THE PARISH SCHOOLS.

Our Catholic school system includes all grades of instruc-
tion, from the nursery and the kindergarten to the university.
It comprises orphan asylums and industrial schools, parish
schools, convents, academies, colleges, seminaries, and univer-
sities. They all of them have this in common: That, while im-
parting such knowledge as is required for the secular profes-
sion, the chief cause of their existence is to educate Catholic
children in the doctrines and practices of their faith. No at-
tempt has been made to organize our Catholic institutions into
a complete system, a living whole, with unity of plan and pur-
pose. They have sprung up according to exigencies o5 time
and place. . . . Liberty of action in using different methods
need not interfere with efficiency of work done. . . . But

* Parish schools of diocese of Brooklyn are chiefly located in boroughs of Brooklyn and
Queens.

amid all this variety as regards the means, there is unity as
regards the end for which our Catholic institutions exist.
Keeping in view that end, we shall cast a hasty glance at our
schools.

That portion of our educational system which is dearest to
the heart of every Catholic is our Parish Schools. These
schools have been multiplied and fostered at great sacrifices —
financial sacrifices on the part of the laity who contributed to
their erection and maintenance ; sacrifices of life on the part of
religious teachers ; . . . sacrifices on the part of the clergy
who deprived themselves in many ways in order that the par-
ish schools might flourish. The parish school system, be its
defects and shortcomings what they may, is indispensable for
the preservation of the Catholic religion in the hearts of our
CathoHc children. It is the nursery of the faith for the rising
generation.

Every Catholic clergyman ministering at the altar of God;
every Catholic layman having at heart the survival, the
strengthening, and the propagation of his faith, desires a parish
school in which those boys and girls who are to be the future
men and women of their Church shall receive a solid religious
training. Our Protestant brethren attempted another plan.
They sent their children to schools from which all religious
creeds were banished, and by their Sunday-schools and reli-
gious libraries sought to supply the lack of religious training.
Did they succeed ? . , . Their plan has ended in failure.
From Methodist and Lutheran, from Baptist and Presbyterian
and Episcopalian, the wail has gone forth that the young men
and women of the day are abandoning the creeds of their
fathers and that their churches are becoming deserted.

Would matters have been any better a hundred years ago
if the early settlers had not maintained strictly denominational
schools ? Would Catholicism flourish in the country as it is
now flourishing if there had been no Catholic schools in which
children might inhale a Catholic atmosphere, study CathoHc
catechism, learn their Catholic prayers, and imbibe for the
Church, her sacraments, and her clergy that reverence which. is

the envy and the admiration of the outside world ? Certainly
not. There may be difference of opinion as to the ways and
means by which Catholic education is to be imparted and
Catholic schools are to be supported, but there can be none
regarding the self-evident truth that if the Church in America
is to be perpetuated in a robust, God-fearing and God-serving
Catholicity, it is only by the establishment of a Catholic school
in every Catholic parish. This result is not accomplished, this
result cannot be accomplished, in neutral schools.

When we consider the history of Catholic education during
the fifty years that have just elapsed, and note the many seri-
ous obstacles which our Catholic schools have had to contend
with, and at the same time go over the r.oll-call of prominent
Catholics who have had their early training in these schools —
archbishops, bishops, and priests, and religious men and women
whose vocation has been fostered in them; eminent laymen
now filling positions of trust and honor, whose consciences were
there formed, and who had there learned to be proud of their
faith and to practise its teachings to the best of their ability —
we are compelled to regard these schools, even in their least
efficient forms, with great respect. In no sense are they fail-
ures. In no sense are they to be abandoned or neglected;
rather, in the very words of Leo XIII. concerning these schools,
" every effort should be made to multiply Catholic schools and
to bring them to perfect equipment." . . . There are . . .
great difficulties to be overcome in maintaining and promoting
the parish school. The fact is not for a moment to be lost
sight of that our parish schools, as at present managed, are a
great burden upon the people and a great source of solicitude
for the clergy. On account of their limited resources they are
restricted in the sphere of their usefulness.

The brotherhoods and sisterhoods that are teaching orders
are with great difficulty and much economizing scarcely enabled
to make ends meet, out of the pittance that they receive as
salary. . . . Inquire into the extent of that salary; think
of the plain, bare mode of life that these religious lead ; figure
out their many privations — not physical or mental privations,

for these they do not reckon, but privations as regards books,
charts, school apparatus and conveniences for study, that it is
impossible for them to purchase and that they must go with-
out, unless indeed a thoughtful pastor should supply these
deficiencies at his own expense or the expense of his parish —
and you may form a slight conception of the odds against
which they are working, and how heavily handicapped they are
in the race for excellence. Withal they have shown that a
skilful workman, even with an inferior quality of tools, can
produce good results. But, could these privations be lessened,
and the burden upon the parishes lightened, could our religious
teachers receive sufficient support to enable them to enter upon
their work untrammeled, then indeed might we look for results
that would be worthy of the cause. — Adapted from a Paper by
the late Brother Azarias.

MORAL TRAINING FOR CHILDREN.

The Educational Review contains this remarkable statement:
" It is a matter of statistics that one-half of all the children
who go to school leave before the age of eleven, and that three-
fourths of them leave before they are twelve" Here is an un-
questioned fact for earnest students of the science of education
to consider. Patriotic citizens must take cognizance of the
moral welfare of this vast body of children who leave school
before the age of twelve. Theories will not suffice. Practical
methods of teaching morality are urgently demanded.

No one has yet dared to affirm that moral training for
children is unnecessary, or that the state should assume an
attitude of indifference toward virtue and vice. Various opinions
exist as to the ways and means best adapted for the teaching
of morality, but there is now becoming manifest a general
agreement among Christian denominations that the most im-
proved methods of the modern educator should be utilized in
favor of the soul's higher aspirations.

The good citizen, the reliable merchant, the incorruptible
official holding a place which demands a lofty standard of con-

duct, are personifications of moral convictions. Great Is the
demand for men of this type, and the supply is not regulated
entirely by the demand. The same rule is true in the domes-
tic circle. Progressive civilization has not yet produced too
many good husbands and exemplary wives. The moral virtues,
prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, are incorporated as
parts in a whole, and take concrete shape in the great charac-
ters of every nation.

Experience shows that these noble moral qualities are not
of spontaneous growth. There is a process of evolution in each
individual which is variable and dependent on external as well
as internal causes. A large class of people in the United States
seem unable to distinguish between the Christian and pagan
standard of education. The charge reasonably made against
them is, that they profess to be satisfied with very imperfect
results in religious instruction, and unjustly accuse of a want of
patriotism those who try to point out their error.

We Catholics have no desire to disturb the friendly rela-
tions existing among American citizens when we assert our
convictions as to the teaching of Christian morality. It is a
subject on which we are entitled to form an opinion and ex-
press it vigorously. The good work done in Catholic schools
for secular education demands official recognition and a fair
share of the funds which the State collects for school purposes.
It is false Americanism, and was condemned by the founders ot
the Republic, to establish by law a system of education which
imposes taxation without representation. — Rev. Thomas Mc-
Millan, C.S.P.

SECTARIAN SCHOOLS.

To the Editor of the New York Times :

Very many of your readers have been pained by an editor-
ial that appeared in your issue of April 22 on the subject of
"Sectarian Schools." Throughout the article it seems to be
assumed that the public schools are non-sectarian. This word,
"non-sectarian," as applied to institutions, had been used m
such a loose way that many have come to think that it means

an institution that is not ostensibly Protestant, Catholic, or
Jewish. I would not wish to think that one so scholarly as a
Times editor would so use the word. What is a non- sectarian
school ? Certainly it is any school that is not directed accord-
ing to the principles of any sect, whether religious or irreligious
— for we have irrehgious sects, like the Agnostics and Indiffer-
entists, quite as well as religious sects like the Presbyterians or
Methodists.

Is a non-sectarian school possible ? Let us see. Either the
school admits in its teaching that God exists or that He does
not exist, or that it does not know whether he exists or not.
If it admits that He exists, then it is theistic; if it supposes
that He does not exist, then it is atheistic; if it professes not
to know whether He exists or not, then it is agnostic. We
will go a step further. The ideas directing the school admit
either that God has made a revelation, or deny a revelation, or
hold that they do not know or that they do not care whether
there is a revelation, or that they will have nothing to say on
the question, and leave the pupils to think as they please of it.
In every one of these cases the school is still " sectarian," and
the principles advocated determine the school and put it in ac-
cord with a particular set or sect which advocates these princi-
ples. There may be no name yet invented for the sect of men
who advocate the particular principle involved, but since there
must be a principle at the root of every school system that
system becomes allied to the sect advocating that principle.

Now, are our public schools influenced by the principles of
any sect ? Most certainly they are. They are influenced by
the principles of the sect which wishes to have schools without
any religious instruction. You may remember that our great
statesman, Daniel Webster, gave his opinion of such schools in
his famous speech in the Girard case. He said : " It is a
mockery and an insult to common sense to maintain that a
school for the instruction of youth from which Christian in-
struction by Christian teachers is sedulously and religiously shut
out is not deistic and infidel both in its purpose and in its
tendency." And Mr. John C. Spencer, Superintendent of Public

Instruction in the State of New York about the beginning of
the present school system, writing to Governor Seward in regard
to sectarianism in education, said : " It is an error to suppose
that the absence of all religious instruction, if it were practicable,
is a mode of avoiding sectarianism. On the contrary, it would
be in itself sectarian, because it would be consonant to the views
of a particular class, and opposed to the opinions of other
classes. Those who reject creeds and resist all efforts to infuse
them into the minds of the young would be gratified by a
system which so fully accomplishes their purpose."

According to Mr. Spencer, our public schools are "sectar-
ian," though they exclude all religious instruction, because they
are guided by the views consonant to the sect of Indifferentists
and opposed to the views of many other people.

We are all taxed for the education of the children of this
State. More than $30,000,000 are to be devoted to this pur-
pose during the present year. Why should any of our citizens
who wish to have children educated according to their own
particular views not have a right to their own share of
the money appropriated for education ? They do not ask
"money from others," as the Times editorial put it. The taxes
appropriated are for the education of all the children in the
State. If the Methodists have thousands of these children in
their missions and the Episcopalians thousands more in their
institutions, and the Jews an equal number, and the Catholics
their thousands in the parish schools, why is it unjust to rec-
ognize the educational work that is done according to the will
of these parents ? If the State is going to interfere in educa-
tion, it ought not to educate only according to the views of the
Indifferentists and tell all Protestants and Catholics who object
that they are asking other people to pay for the education of
their children. There is no reason why Methodists, Lutherans,
and Episcopalians may not justly claim their pro rata for the
education of their children, and Catholics and Jews do the
same. Thej^ are not asking other people's money. The Catho-
lics, Protestants, and Jews have been taxed as well as the Indif-
ferentists, and these last gentlemen have no right to absorb

practically the whole education fund, and then say to other
people: "You cannot have any of our money." By what right
do the handful of Indififerentists call the public money gathered
through general taxation theirs ? It is set apart for the educa-
tion of all the children in the State, and every child has an
equal right to a share in it.

The parents have the final right to say in what religion the
child is to be educated ; the State must devise ways and means
to satisfy this just demand. This has been done in England
and in many other countries, and can easily be done here.
The State, having set apart the money of citizens for education,
has no right to insist that its citizens must pay again for special
schools, or else send their children to public schools " infidel in
purpose and tendency."

This whole school question may be settled in the same way
as the question of charitable institutions has been settled. In
these institutions the State pays from its general taxation per
capita for the work done for its wards. So with the education
of the children. If the State is to support education by general
taxation, it ought to consider the rights of the citizens to free-
dom of conscience in the education of their children. The State
cannot in justice say to any of its citizens : You must be taxed,
but you cannot have any share of this taxation for the educa-
tion of your children unless you surrender these children to a
system which Daniel Webster insisted is infidel in its purpose
and tendency. An Educator.

New York, April ^5, igoi.

THE SCHOOL QUESTION,

FROM A CATHOLIC POINT OF VIEW.

BY THE REV. PHILIP R. McDEVITT,
Superintendent of Parish Schools in Philadelphia.

In the Report for 1 899-1 900 of the Commissioner of Edu-
cation, Hon. W. T. Harris, the following interesting and valua-
ble statistics are given. There are in the

Elementary Schools,
Secondary Schools, .
Universities and Colleges,
Professional Schools,
Normal Schools, .

Public.

Private.

14,662,488

1,193,882 pupils,

488,549

166,678

30,050

73,201

8,540

46,594

44,808

23.572

15,234.435

1,5^3.927

ENROLLMENT IN SPECIAL SCHOOLS.

City Evening Schools,

185,000

Business Schools, ....

70,686

Indian Schools, ....

23,500

Schools for Defectives, . ...

23,691

Reform Schools, ....

24.925

Orphan Asylums and other Benevo-

lent Institutions,

14,000

Schools in Alaska, . .

1.369

Kindergartens, . . . .

93.737

Miscellaneous, .....

50,000

486,908

Summarizing, then, we find total enrollment was 17,225,270,
distributed as follows :

In Public Institutions, .
In Private Institutions,
In Special Schools,

15,234,435

1,503.927
486,908

Under the term Common Schools the Report includes
public schools of elementary and secondary grades ; the former
including all pupils in the first eight years of the course of
study, and the latter the pupils of the next four years of the
course usually conducted in high-schools or academies.

In educating the vast number that attend the Common
Schools (15,151,037), 415,660 teachers were employed, and to
meet the expenses of these schools the sum of $204,017,612 was
raised; the average expenditure for each child being $18.99.
This enormous outlay, as well as the vast number of pupils
enrolled, clearly demonstrate the high place that popular edu-
cation holds in the estimation of the American people ; this
fact is emphasized when we compare with it the corresponding
data shown by other countries.

THE CATHOLIC-AMERICAN IS NO LAGGARD.

That the Catholic-American is no laggard in this great
educational work is proved by statistics of our Catholic educa-
tional institutions during the year 1 899-1 900, which give 3,812
parish schools with an enrollment of 903,980 pupils, 183 col-
leges for boys, and 617 academies for girls; the enrollment in
the latter not being given. It is safe, then, to say that nearly
1,000,000 pupils of all grades are being educated under dis-
tinctly Catholic influences. While, therefore, other private edu-
cational institutions outside of the Catholic Church are important
in number, character, and enrollment of pupils, it is clear that
the Catholic schools contain double the number that are being
educated in all the other schools not of distinctly public
character.

In the education of the youth of our country, then, we find
two clearly defined agencies working side by side : one, the
creation of the state; the other, the offspring of private en-
terprise. The state supports hers from a revenue obtained
by the taxation of all classes without exception ; the other is
maintained by the generosity of private individuals, and receives
no financial aid, and very little professional recognition, from
state authority. The dominating thought and purpose of both

agencies are the same — the formation and development of
character, and the instilling of those principles which beget the
highest ideal of true womanhood and manhood. Though this
high end is the aim of all educators, there is some variance of
opinion as to the means best suited to accomplish the end.
The vast majority seem to believe that that end can, under
existing circumstances, be best attained by the plan of educa-
tion ofifered to all children in the common or state schools,
while others find in that same plan a lack of what to them is
essential in the development of a human being, namely, the
religious instruction so wholly ignored in the public-school
system. This difference of opinion accounts for the existence
of both public and private schools. A few private institutions
of learning owe their existence to the desire of some parents
for social distinction, and their disinclination to allow their
children to frequent schools wherein the lines of social caste
lose effect ; these schools differ from the public schools only in
their exclusiveness. The majority, therefore, of private schools
exist because conscientious and God-fearing parents recognize
the necessity of daily religious instruction; and, as a result,
parish schools are not merely private but distinctly Catholic,
and the difference between them and the state school consists
in the presence or absence of a religious atmosphere.

DIFFERENT VIEW-POINTS OF EDUCATORS.

All educators who believe in Christianity agree that re-
ligion and morality must have a share in the education of
youth; they differ, however, as to the manner and time and
place in which religion and morality are to be taught.

Education in its true and complete acceptance is the bring-
ing out of all the powers of man. It means the training of
the heart, the cultivation of the mind, and the development of
the physical powers. A system of education which ignores any
of these is defective, and becomes disastrous in proportion to
the dignity and relative importance of the part that is neglected.
I take it that, in the main, non- Catholics hold that moral train-
ing should be a part of the daily curriculum. Thus, in the

Boston course of study for the high-school we read: "In giving
instruction in morals and manners, teachers will at all times
exert their best endeavors to impress on the minds of youth
the principles of piety and justice, and a sacred regard to
truth ; love of their country, humanity, and universal benevo-
lence ; sobriety, industry, and frugality ; chastity, moderation,
and temperance." This moral instruction, however, it is de-
clared, shall have no trace or shadow of sectarian or doctrinal
teaching, for in the course of study for primary schools of the
same city it is said : " In giving this instruction teachers should
keep strictly within the bounds of manners and morals, and
thus avoid all occasion for treating of or alluding to sectarian
subjects."

Again, I say, it is evident all agree as to the necessity of
moral and religious teaching; there is no agreement as to the
manner, places, and times wherein it is to be given. Outside
of the Catholic Church it is almost universally maintained that,
though morahty may be inculcated in the school-room, all
religious teaching is to be relegated to the church and the
family circle.

THE CATHOLIC IDEA OF EDUCATION.

Catholics hold that as ever and always the child's soul and
his duties to God are the highest and greatest, so there is no
place, time, or method from which the teaching of morals and
religion may be eliminated. They hold that as the knowledge
of the relations of the creature to his Creator is the most
sacred and essential of all subjects, the most imperative of all
obligations, these relations shall receive at least as much atten-
tion as is given to any secular branch ; that as a child cannot
become proficient in reading, writing, or arithmetic without
daily instruction therein, so neither can he acquire the neces-
sary knowledge of God, his laws, his rewards and punishments,
without the daily presentation of these truths. Nor do they
believe that morality and religion are separable ; that men
will revere the law, if they ignore the lawgiver. Now, since
morality has Divine sanction, to attempt to teach its princi-

pies without reference to the Divinity is to ignore the law-
giver; yet just as surely as you speak of the Lawgiver, so
surely do you trench on the ground of doctrinal teaching.
But even should any one hold that religion and morality are
separable, the Catholic Church, with her ages of experience,
with her realization that religion and morality must be united ;
and knowing from the same experience that the instruction
given her children at church and at home is inadequate for
the requisite religious training of the child, has created a sys-
tem of schools wherein religious, moral, and secular training
shall go hand-in- hand for the perfecting of the whole human
being. As says one of the ablest Catholic educators :

" However, we do not hold that religion can be imparted
as is the knowledge of history or grammar; the repetition of
the catechism or the reading of the Gospel is not religion.
Religion is something more subtle, more intimate, more all-
pervading ; it speaks to the heart and the head ; it is an ever-
living presence in the school- room; it is reflected from the
pages of our reading books. It is nourished by the prayers
with which our daily exercises are opened and closed ; it is
brought in to control the affections, to keep watch over the
imagination ; it forbids to the mind any but useful, holy, and
innocent thoughts ; it enables the soul to resist temptation, it
guides the conscience, inspires horror for sin and love of vir-
tue. It must be an essential element of our lives, the very
atmosphere of our breathing, the soul of every action.

" This is religion as the Catholic Church understands it,
and this is why she seeks to foster the religious spirit in every
soul confided to her, at all times, under all circumstances,
without rest, without break, from the cradle to the grave "
{Brother Azarias).

In the maintaining of her parish school the Catholic Church
not only contends for the union of secular learning and re-
ligious training, but, furthermore, in the very contention, em-
phasizes the conscientious duty of Catholic parents to thus
educate their offspring.

DANGERS OF STATE PATERNALISM.

There is undoubtedly at the present time a more than mere
tendency towards state "paternalism." It is a fact, however
much it may be deplored, that many parents are only too
willing to relegate to the state the rights, duties, and respon-
sibilities that devolve on them in this matter of education.
The result of this shirking of duty on one side, and the as-
sumption of it on the other, must, ultimately, be harmful to
both. The family is the basal unit of the state ; any weak-
ness, much more any unsoundness, in the foundation or in any
of the component parts imperils the whole of the edifice. If
the parent does not fulfil his duty — far worse if he deliberately
ignores it — the resultant moral and civic weakness must show
itself in the character and stability of the state. Let me not
be misunderstood on this point. I would not derogate one iota
from the right of the state to look after the well-being of its
citizens. But this right has its legitimate limits ; neither do I
admit the state's right of absolute control of the character of
the education to be imparted to a pupil, any more than I
would accord It the privilege of determining that pupil's re-
ligion.

The state surely may, and should, insist that her citizens
should be fitted for the discharge of their duties to the com-
monwealth. If parents fail in their duty to their children, let
the state step in and become father and mother to the outcast
and neglected ones; but, in the name of natural right, let us
remember that the state is not the natural but only a foster
parent, and that the first duty and privilege as regards the
child belongs to its parents by nature.

CHURCH STANDS FOR LAW AND ORDER.

More firmly than any other teaching body, the Church has
ever stood for law and order. Her enemies make it a reproach
that her conservatism at times stifles the aspirations of an op-
pressed people for natural freedom. But, guided by the Holy
Spirit, and rich with the experience of nineteen hundred years
among the nations of the earth, she insists that her children

shall respect and obey all civil power, because all authority-
comes from God. She may both see and feel the tyranny and
oppression that are weighing down the people, but she knows
that sometimes it is better to bear the ills we have than to at-
tempt to escape to others v/e know not of.

The simple fact that the child lives in a little world, whether
in a state school or in any private school, wherein it sees
order, discipline, and self-restraint, exercises a deep influence
on its whole being. Even in schools from whose curriculum
all religious instruction is eliminated, if the cultivation of natu-
ral virtues from even purely natural motives be there empha-
sized, habits of mind and heart are developed that will have
much to do with the character of the future citizen.

When, however, this wholesome influence is intensified by
positive religious instruction that demands the acquisition and
cultivation of virtues, not merely from natural but from super-
natural motives also, then a mighty power works in the heart
that will develop a deep and lasting reverence for all legiti-
mate authority, and eventually give to the state a faithful citi-
zen, a strong upholder of right and order. Well do we know
that the more faithful a Catholic is to his faith and its teach-
ing, the more loyal is he to the laws of the land ; the God-
fearing man must necessarily be the upright, law-abiding citi-
zen. God and Fatherland are the dominant notes of Catholic
teaching.

In the words of her Divine Founder, she bids her children
" Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." If any one
bearing the name of Catholic be found a law-breaker or a
traitor to his country, he is a Catholic but in name. And to
the same extent that he breaks the laws of the land, in so far
does he ruthlessly defy the teachings of her whose name he bears.

LIBERTY TO EDUCATE AS IS DEEMED BEST.

As the very fact of our having Catholic schools has at
times aroused comment, and even ill-feeling, I shall here ad-
vert to some facts that ought to be taken into consideration.
One is the constitutional right of Catholics or any body of

citizens to establish schools, provided such schools be not in-
compatible with public morahty, or not opposed to public wel-
fare. Citizens have a right to use the public schools; ifothey
renounce that right, it is no privilege to allow them to estab-
lish their own educational institutions. We often hear the
self-constituted defenders and justifiers of the state system use
emphatically the term "our schools," and "our public-school
system." Allow me to lemark that it is an impertinence for
any individual to refer to the public schools as "our" schools,
to the exclusion of Catholics, or any other members of the
commonwealth. If the state schools do not, in Catholic esti-
mation, afford all the facilities necessary for the acquisition of
the highest moral virtue, we have the liberty of stating this
fact and of providing other means ; for it is also the constitu-
tional right of any citizen, whether Catholic or Protestant, Jew
or infidel, to. criticise, condemn, approve or disapprove any in-
stitution which is the creation' of the state and supported by
general taxation.

Those outside the Church sometimes declare that the Catho-
lic laity are not in sympathy with the policy of the Church in
the matter of education; that it is bishops and priests alone
that are unreservedly insistent on the question. Certainly it is
true that some Catholic laymen think the position of the
Church on education extreme and unnecessary. But to say that
the Catholics of America are not substantially united on the
Catholic Parish School question is to be sadly ignorant of the
actual state of affairs. Catholics would indeed rejoice were
they able in conscience to partake of the educational advan-
tages provided by the state, for they are taxed to provide
those advantages, yet they are also eager to support their
parish school ; and should they desire for their children an
academical or collegiate education, they are willing to bear the
additional expense incurred thereby. To their credit be it
said, when the question of a choice between an education with-
out religion and an education with religion is put plainly be-
fore them, there is no mistaking their position, even though they
thereby burden themselves with financial sacrifice and self-denial.

L, of «•

The history of Catholic education shows that the most ear-
nest advocates of its undying, unchangeable principles have
been laymen, and, were any distinction to be made, the honor
should go to laymen who are converts to the Catholic faith
and have had personal experience of the disastrous effects of
education without religion. Were this not the condition of
affairs, neither the Church nor any other organization could
force upon the people an institution as broad, as far-reaching,
and as expensive as the parish-school system.

CATHOLICS NOT ALONE IN OPPOSITION TO EDUCATION WITH-
OUT RELIGION.

The opponents of Catholic education also say that we are
practically alone in our opposition to purely secular training
which eliminates religion. If they are at all conversant with
current facts and opinions, such a contention is false ; for
among the most earnest defenders of religion in education are
found men, non-Catholics, who voice their protest in no doubt-
ful terms. I might cite many proofs of this, but shall content
myself with the words of one who is an esteemed minister of
religion — one who has been an educator for many years, has
occupied a chair in one of our largest universities, and at
present is president of the high-school of a city that boasts of
nearly a million and a half population. I refer to Rev. Robert
Ellis Thompson, President of the Central High-School of Phila-
delphia, who says:

" As to the sufficiency of religious instruction in church
and Sunday-school, we reply that one of the first practical
dangers of society is that the greatest truths that bear on
human life shall come to be identified in the public mind with
Sundays, churches, and Sunday-school. We certainly are help-
ing that when we provide that the most aroused activities of a
boy's mind shall be divorced from those truths, and that the
subjects of science, literature, and history, with which church
and Sunday-school cannot deal, shall be taught with a studied
absence of reference to 'the Divine Intelligence at the heart of
things.' What is this but a lesson in the practical atheism

that shuts God out of all but certain selected parts of life with
which the young man may have as little to do as he pleases.
What would be the effect upon a child's mind of excluding
studiously all mention of his earthly father from his work and
play for five or six days of the week, of treating all his be-
longings and relations without reference to the parents to whom
he owes them, and permitting such reference only on stated
times when they are declared in order."

" But the monstrosity and the mischievousness of such an
arrangement would be as nothing to the scholastic taboo of
the living God, to whom the child owes every breath of its
daily life, who lies about it as a great flood of light and life
seeking to enter in and possess its spirit, and who as much
feeds its mind with knowledge and wisdom as its spirit with
righteousness, and its body with earthly food, in providing 'food
convenient for it' " {Divine Order of Human Society, pp. 189, 190).

Now, has any Catholic priest or layman spoken more em-
phatically on this subject than has Dr. Thompson ? Again, he
says:

"The Church, through its clergy, can bring to bear an
authority in education of a highly ethical kind, which it is not
easy for laymen to exert. It can supplem.ent or replace paren-
tal authority more readily than a force of lay teachers. And
it is less likely than they to be swayed by the intellectual
fashions of the time, and the place ; less likely to accept as its
divinity the spirit of the age, because committed to a prefer-
ence for what Jean Paul calls 'the spirit of all the ages.'"

There is no reason why the state should desire or claim
the sole right of educating the youth of the country ; to assert
that it alone can properly carry on this work is to ignore or
condemn the splendid history of the past, when the church or
private energy were the only agencies that looked after the
education of the masses.

THE STATE IS UNABLE TO EDUCATE ALL THE CHILDREN.

In many parts of this country the state is either unable or
refuses to carry on alone the work. It is noteworthy that in

the City of Philadelphia there are not adequate school accom-
modations for thousands of children who are not Catholic, and
this is only one instance of the existing state of affairs in other
sections of the country. With such a shameful truth confront-
ing it, the state should welcome the aid of other agencies in
this great work. I may remark here, incidentally, that as the
parish schools are educating 35,000 children in Philadelphia
alone, were these schools to be closed 35,000 more would be
on the streets. The most dangerous of all monopolies is that
of education. Catholics are not singular in seeing danger in
the state arrogating to itself the exclusive work of education.

Says Dr. Thompson :

" Nor do we really escape from the narrowing influence of
class in setting aside the church's ministry in educational work.
We only create another class, more certain to be narrow, pro-
fessional, and, in the long run, obstructive to sound progress."
"The teaching profession, in those countries of Europe in
which the state system has been longest established, consti-
tutes a new clergy, not behind any other clergy in dogmatism
and intolerance, even while it claims to be pervaded by the
' liberal ' and the ' modern ' spirit. And those who are familiar
with the teaching class in America, I think, must be aware
of the tendency to move in the same direction, to regard
teachers as a distinct body governed by an esprit de corps of
their own, and bound to act together against every opposing
interest, on the assumption that their ideas of the right and
the fit are coextensive with sound principles of educational
policy. — We may yet have a new clergy on our hands in
America, and one whose numbers and unity may make them
as inimical to the public interests as any priesthood of any
church could be."

By judicious encouragement, by helpful sympathy, just
financial aid, and proper supervision of private schools the
state can accomplish all that can be achieved by its assuming
complete control of education ; yet by this mode of procedure
it would avoid interfering with the parental rights and con-
scientious belief of her citizens.

I mighi: touch here on the widely discussed policy of state
recognition of Catholic schools. A stranger to our institutions
and methods of government coming to this coimtry and read-
ing certain articles bearing on the school question might believe,
were he a merely superficial observer, that arrayed on one
side were the followers of the Catholic Church, insignificant in
numbers and influence, hostile to existing state institutions,
and out of harmony with the progressive spirit of the age ;
on the other were their opponents, influential in numbers,
wealth, and intelligence ; representative of all that is best
and noblest in this broad land. He might also be led to think
that Catholics were so unreasonably exacting, so unjustly in-
sistent for recognition, that they were striving to force by law
their non- Catholic fellow-citizens to support Catholic educa-
tional institutions.

CATHOLICS ARE NOT AN UNIMPORTANT MINORITY.

Yet Catholics are not an unimportant .minority : they com-
prise from ten to fifteen millions of the population, they are
an integral part of this great country, and history demonstrates
their loyalty to the land of their birth or adoption, since in
every crisis of our history their patriotism and fidelity have
been in evidence. They look for no favor, privilege, or charity ;
they do demand a constitutional right to have a voice in the
affairs of government. In seeking some financial recognition for
their schools they are but asking that their own money, not
other people's, shall be applied to the education of the children
of the nation. Who shall dare say they ask more than their
right ? The state is not the absolute master of all moneys in
its treasury. It is the custodian only, and justice requires that
the moneys raised by general taxation be distributed according
to the reasonable and just wishes of the tax-payers. Our op-
position to the existing state of affairs proceeds from no sinister,
selfish purpose.

The history of the agitation concerning denominational
schools cannot but make Catholics think that partisan feeling
and religious prejudice, and not the merits of the question.

have brought about the present state of public opinion — the
unwillingness to look calmly and justly on the claims of the
Catholic minority. It is a notorious fact that the so-called
"non-sectarian" character was given to our state system of
education only when Catholics asked, in justice, for such con-
sideration as was accorded to the Protestant sects. One who
is far from being jitst, much less partial, to the Catholic Church
writes: "Many may be surprised to learn that the first appeal
for a division of the public funds in the country was made by
a Protestant denomination, and the first sectarian division ac-
tually made was to that body. The other Protestant churches,
instead of objecting, attempted to obtain their share of the
public school fund " [Romanism vs. Public School System, p. i).

TO EXCLUDE RELIGION IS TO PROFESS IRRELIGION.

A common objection to the appropriation of any money
from the public treasury to denominational schools is that such
an act would be a violation of the fundamental law of the
land, which recognizes no religion or sect. The government's
basis is broad, ignoring party and creed. Does it ever occur
to those who insist on this view that the very policy of ex-
cluding religious instruction from schools maintained by a gene-
ral taxation is a de facto class legislation in favor of unbelievers
and agnostics, and utterly opposed to the principles of Chris-
tian denominations ? Unbelief is actually some kind of belief.
Consequently, may not the mass of Christians justly protest
against a system which permits any state institutions becoming
tacitly an agency for the spread of infidelity ?

It is said that the official machinery required to carry out
a system which recognizes denominational schools would be so
complicated as to be practically impossible because of the mul-
titude of sects in the country which would claim recognition.
Any agency wh'ch will meet the requirements of the state in
the amount and character of the education demanded ought to
receive recognition. The difficulties incidental to such xecog-
nition should not rule out of court any just claimant. Does
the national government refrain from collecting its revenues

simply because from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico,
from the Atlantic to the. Pacific, a thoroughly disciplined army
of revenue officers must be drafted into service ? Does the
insignificance of the tribute render the humblest citizen in the
remotest town of the Union free from the tax-gatherer's de-
mands ?

THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM CANNOT BE IGNORED.

All that is asked is simply the recognition of results secured
in good educational work. It is a good policy, affirmed over
and over again in municipal administration, to utilize existing
agencies. A hospital, though it be under denominational con-
trol, yet has facilities to treat accidents. The city authorizes
it to run a pubHc ambulance, and pays it for the pubHc ser-
vice it renders. Why not apply the same principle in matters
of education ? It makes no difference to a municipahty what
particular form of religion is taught, as long as good citizen-
ship is cultivated ; and if a corporation of men will give as
good an education when tested by examination as the common
school, why not compensate them for the work done ?

There is no argument against the system. What is done in
England, Germany, and Canada should not be impossible in
the United States. In all these countries denominational
schools are recognized. No unanswerable argument has ever
been adduced which destroys the justice of the Catholic claim
in the matter of education. There is a just solution of the
difficulty. Catholics are not clamoring for what is unjust or
unreasonable. The Catholic school system cannot be ignored
by the state. It is a fact, a mighty fact, and one that has
come to stay. The Catholic Church is contending for a princi-
ple, from which she can never recede.

Whether recognition come or not, she will continue her
mission of educating a million children. If the state be sincere
in the declaration that it looks to the welfare of the whole
people; Catholic education will yet receive proper consideration.
It should be recognized, because recognition of the reasonable
demands of the minority has ever characterized broad states-

manship and wise leadership. Fair treatment harmonizes and
makes loyal the minority of a country.

The summary dismissal of every Catholic protest and peti-
tion with wild charges of sinister designs upon the government
by the Catholic Church is no answer to a just contention, and
is not calculated to strengthen in the hearts of Catholics loyalty
and respect for the laws and Constitution of their country.
May the day soon dawn when America and Americans will
clearly see what the Catholic Church has done in her parish
schools for the family and the state by jealously safeguarding
the moral, religious, and intellectual welfare of the child, and
when all will recognize the necessity and the permanence of
the Catholic parish school !

PRESIDENT ROOSEVEI.T ON EDUCATION.

In a recent address before the Long Island Bible Society, President
Roosevelt set forth a view of education held by the Catholic Church. There is
in the English language no word more abused than that of education. The
popular idea is that the educated man is one who has mastered the learning of
the schools and the colleges. That sort of learning is but a part of education.

The Catholic Church, who through the centuries has kept the lamp of
knowledge brightly burning, sets great value upon book learning. The Uni-
versities of Oxford, Cambridge, and other European seats cf learning which
came into existence under her fostering care attest how desirous she has always
been to promote the cause of letters. But she knows that to have the perfect
man intellectual development is not sufficient. It must be accompanied and
purified by moral teachings. Hence the insistence of the Catholic Church
upon the linking of the two.

President Roosevelt, therefore, took the Catholic view in his address be-
fore the Long Island Bible Society when he said :

" We must cultivate the mind ; but it is not enough only to cultivate the
mind. With education of the mind must go the spiritual teaching which will
make us turn the trained intellect to good account.

" It is an admirable thing, a most necessary thing, to have a sound body.
It is an even better thing to have a sound mind. But infinitely better than
either is to have that for the lack of which neither sound mind nor a sound
body can atone — character. Character is in the long run the decisive factor in
the life of individuals and of nations alike.

" Sometimes, in rightly putting the stress that we do upon intelligence, we
forget the fact that there is something that counts more. It is a good thing to

be clever, to be able and smart ; but it is a better thing to have the qualities
that find their expression in the Decalogue and the Golden Rule. It is a good
and necessary thing to be intelligent ; it is a better thing to be straight and
decent and fearless."

This is a condensed exposition of Catholic teaching in regard to education.
The Church in this country has tried to carry it out by the establishment of
parish schools, in which the minds of the young will be trained not in mere
iDOok learning, but, to use the words of President Roosevelt, "in the qualities
that find their expression in the Decalogue and the Golden Rule." Education
of this kind is a distinct gain to any country, as it will produce citizens who
will recognize allegiance to the moral law. — Fro77i the New York Freeman's
Jo2irnaL

OPINIONS FROM NON-CATHOI.ICS.

Rev. W. Montague Geer (Episcopalian), before the Sons of the Revolution,
in New York City, just after the death of President McKinley :

This dreadful calamity looks very much like a visitation on us of the
wrath of the Most High. We must get back to the guiding principles of our
forefathers. There were two evils in our great country : first the sin of
slavery, — that we have expiated and wiped out; then the sin of intemperance,
— ^that we can master and are mastering. ... Is there, then, any evil still
in the land so widespread as to call down the wrath of God upon us? There is.
Our Godless system of education is a far worse crime than slavery or intem-
perance. I believe that the United States is suffering from the wrath of God
to-day because our people have consented to the banishment of Jesus Christ
from the daily lives of our children. If to-day Christ were on earth and should
enter almost any public school-house in the country, the teacher acting under
instruction would show Him the door. If, on the other hand. He were to enter
any of our private (parish) schools. He would be worshipped by teacher and
scholars on bended knee. Here is our fault, here is our sin. The question
now is, To what extent can we remould and remodel our educational system?
Almost any system is better than the present one. It would be infinitely better
to divide up the money received from the school tax among the various Chris-
tian denominations and the Hebrews than to continue the present irreligious
system. — St. PauVs Church, New York City, September, igoi.

The Methodist writes editorially :

In our judgment the denominational schools of the land, as compared with
the purely secular or state schools, are on moral grounds incomparably the
safer. Our state institutions, as a general thing, are the hotbeds of infidelity —
not less than of vice. That unbelief should be fostered and fomented therein
is not unnatural We thoroughly believe that our Church should invest at least
ten millions of dollars in the next ten years in denominational schools. Why?
Because we believe this system is the AMERICAN ONE AND THE ONLY SAFE
ONE. — Literary Digest, Vol, vii., No. 7.

From the Brooklyn (N. Y.) Eagle, June i, 1902 :

Right and wrong in the affairs of conduct are not matters of instinct ;
they have to be learned, just as really in fact as history or handicrafts. Is
this knowledge being imparted to our children in any efficient way and by any
efficient teachers? Is the public school doing it? Is the Church doing it?
Are fathers and mothers doing it? We are compelled to say No to all these
queries. . . . The truth is, we are taking for granted a moral intelligence
which does not exist. We are leaning upon it, depending upon it, trusting to
it, and it is not there.

Our whole machinery of education from the kindergarten up to the uni-
versity is perilously weak at this point. We have multitudes of youths and
grown men and women who have no more intelligent sense of what is right
and wrong than had so many Greeks of the time of Alcibiades. . . . The
great Roman Catholic Church ... is unquestionably right in the con-
tention that the whole system as it now exists is morally a negation.

The great company of educators and the whole American community
need to be sternly warned that if morality cannot be specifically taught in
the public schools without admitting religious dogma, then religious dogma
may have to be taught in them. For righteousness is essential to a people's
very existence. And righteousness does not come by nature any more than
reading or writing does. . . . We are within measurable distance of the
time when society may for its own sake go on its knees to any factor which can
be warranted to make education compatible with and inseparable from mo-
rality, letting that factor do it on its own terms and teach therewith whatso-
ever it lists.

Rev. Hamilton Schuyler, Rector of Trinity Church, Trenton, New Jersey,
December, 1902 :

Another point, which it seems to me calls for our admiration, is the su-
preme importance attributed by Roman Catholics to the religious education of
their children. Viewing the matter from this stand-point, we must admit that
they are justified in establishing their own schools, where their children may
be taught the religion which they profess. The absolute necessity of inculcat-
ing the truths of religion while the child is yet in its most impressionable stage
is one which is generally recognized by all parties. Bodies other than Roman
Catholic attempt to do this in Sunday-school. Roman Catholics believe that
such teaching of religion is not sufficient. They desire that religion shall enter
into the daily life of their child, and that a knowledge of it shall go hand-in-
hand with secular studies. Who shall say that they are wrong? Certainly the
fact that they willingly bear the great expense of supporting their parish schools
when they might send their children without cost to the public schools, is the
best evidence that they are animated by purely conscientious motives.

Rev. R. C. Moberly, D.D., Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology in the
University of Oxford ; Canon of Christ Church :

It cannot be too often or too strongly insisted that there is no such thing

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

'\ 0 029 445 882 7

as purely negative teaching. Every negative contains an affirmation, and every
omission implies a positive precept. You cannot, by any possibility, forbid the
teaching of what is distinctive . . . without thereby necessarily teaching
that insistence on these things may be amiable but must be untrue.
It is only by a serious revolt against the whole principle of their own education
that pupils will ever escape from its practical influence.

The fact is, that undenominationalism, so far from being unsectarian in
character, is itself an instance of the sectarian spirit in its most exclusive and
aggressive form. It is really itself of the nature of an attempt at a new denomi-
nation, more latitudinarian and rationalistic in basis, more illiberal and perse-
cuting in method, than any that before exists. It sins so flagrantly against the
first principles of liberalism as actually to attempt the suppression by force of
the liberty of every denomination other than itself. ... It does direct in-
justice, whether more or less, to every one who has serious convictions upon
theological subjects. — From pamphlet on Undenominationalismy published igo2
by John Murray, Albemarle Street, Londoft.

From the North America^i Review, January, 1898 :

I am a Protestant of the firmest kind. . . . The Catholic Church has
insisted that it is its duty to educate its children in such a way as to fix reli-
gious truths in the youthful mind. For this it has been assailed by the non-
Catholic population ; and Catholics have even been charged with being
enemies of the people and of the flag. Any careful observer in the City of
New York can see that the only people, as a class, who are teaching the chil-
dren in the way that will secure the future of the best civilization are the
Catholics; and, although a Protestant of the firmest kind, I believe the time
has come to recognize this fact, and for us to lay aside prejudices and patrioti-
cally meet this question. The children and youth of to-day must be given such
instruction in the truths of the Bible and Christian precepts as will prevent
them in mature years from swinging from their moorings and being swept into
the maelstrom of social and religious depravity, which threatens to engulf the
religion of the future. Such instruction can only be given successfully by an
almost entire change of policy and practice on the question of religious teach-
ing in the public schools, and the encouragement of private schools in which
sound religious teaching is given.

From the Age of Steel, October, 1 896 :

A boy may be kept at school for several years, . . . but if his heart
is not educated with his head, his conscience with his memory, a knowledge of
arithmetic and skill in penmanship, of the date of the battle of Bunker Hill
and the number of gallons of water in Lake Michigan, are no guarantee that
he will not use his acquired knowledge in putting the finishing touches to as
consummate a scoundrel as ever entered a prison cell. So far as education
goes, there are rascals who understand geometry, and can give you the dis-
tance of the sun, moon, and stars as easily as a railway conductor can punch a
mileage book. — Fred. Woodrow.

TOIlbat is tbe Catbolic Bool? Bjcbange?

The Catholic Book Exchange is a Mission-
ary Institution, organized and controlled by the
Paulist Fathers, for the dissemination of Catholic
literature. Its object is to distribute as wide-
spread as possible Books, Pamphlets, and I^eaflets
at a cost which provides simply for current ex-
penses. Its purpose is to further the Apostolate
of the Press by the sale of printed truth and to put
the price of Catholic books within reach of all.

With this object in view it has printed 426,0'"
copies oi Plain Facts, a book of 360 pages, and it se
for $5.00 a hundred ; also 300,000 copies of /;'
Mass Book, a complete Prayer Book, for 5 cr'*^
copy. 120 West 60th Street, New York.

Orders for this pamphlet may be sent
Book Exchange. It sells at the followiv
1,000 or more i cent each.
100 for 2 cents each. t

Single Copies, 5 cents, Postage

__f President Hyde, of Bowdoin College, before the Massachusetts Teachers
Association of Boston, November, 1896:

The public school must do more than it has been doing if it is to be a
real educator of youth and an effective supporter of the state. It puts the per
of knowledge in the child's hand, but fails to open the treasures of wisdom tc
his heart and mind. Of what use is it to teach a child how to read, it he cares
to read nothing but the sensational accounts of crime ? These people who
know how to read and write and cipher, and know little else, — these are the
people who furnish fuel for A. P. A. fanaticism ; who substitute theosophy for
religion, passion for morality, impulse for reason, crazes and caprice for con-
science and the Constitution.

From the Educational Review, February, 1 898 :

A little less than fifty per cent, of all the children of our country frequent

y Sunday-school. The meaning of these figures is simply overwhelming.

-e than one-half of the children of this land now receive no religious educa-

. . . Even this feature does not show all the truth. It seems to

that those who attend Sunday-school are receiving proper religious in-

m; but every one knows this cannot be granted. — Z^r. Levi Seeley tf

'e Normal School, Trenton, N. J.

Vallace Radcliffe (Presbyterian) :

Church-life we recognize the Trinity : home, school, and Church,

X not easily broken. The home is a school, the school is a home.

itelligible Christianity which loses sight of this important factor

'■ our Church. . . . It is something that your children go

' more that they go to a school of your own religious belief.

•nmon you to bring up your children in your own faith. Let

s . . . and teach our religious convictions. — Washin^-

■ 7, igoo.

Wolf, Professor at Gettysburg Theological Semimary,
Alliance :

'or the most part been cast out of our public schools.

highest and noblest, is exercised and invigorated;

v-that which is designed to animate and govern all

■^nored ; and, unless its education can be secured,

'ill be graduated from our schools as moral imbe-

g a grave social problem. — The Philadelphia

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

0 029 445 882 7 #

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