A "HERETIC."

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18671, 21 April 1926, Page 7

A "HERETIC."

SCHOOLMASTER IN INDIANA. (rBOM OUR OWN COBSESPONDBNT.) ~ SAN FRANCISCO, Mai<ch 9. The right of youth to mix sports with its studies, and enliven its leisure with recreation, even on the Sabbath, went on' trial in the little wooden building which houses the congregation of the Church of Christ in Palmyra in the State of Indiana. Specifically the defendant was Clyde Martin, 40-year-old scientific farmer, who. until recti..-iy was principal of the tiny High School in Palmyra, and now, us an added feature of liis activities, operates a community hall, which he built at his own expense, when his fel-low-citizens frowned upon the proposal as "a project of the devil." Palmyra—at least that larger part of it which belongs to the church—holds just the opposite beliefs. Martin, in forming baseball, basketball, and football teams among the students when he was principal of the- high school, was teaching them to waste tneir time, they snid. When he encouraged practice, of band instruments and roller' skating on Sunday, he was, according to his accusers, , violating the. Commandment to "keep the Sabbath holy." Martin was admonished then, and r.o further punishment h and his "unchristian activities" were given_ the stamp of disapproval by the election of another man to bis position. A demand was made that he close the community hall.. Martin refused, and H* was found a heretic and expulsion demanded, whereupon Martin demanded a public trial. • In a public .tatement .Martin said he believed the hearinp would be a great thing for the cause of reconciliation. . "The trial will spread some ideas in the community, about having a good time," said the dethroned Hoosier schoolmaster. "It will be a test case between the old and the new." Martin went, to Palmyra two vears ago as the chief of the high school. He had been in a Mid-western agricultural college. He soon became beloved by the younger section of the community, but the parents worked up an agitation against him, culminating in his being stigmatised as a heretic of the worst sort. "I love the young neople of this community." Martin said. ''The fact that their parents are backward is no sin."