School Tyranny

New Zealand Tablet, 15 November 1906, Page 22

School Tyranny

Victoria (as we have., shown from time to time) has furnished some instructive examples of t he. sort of - things that may befalP Catholic and Jewish children..' under a" 'free, seculai:, / and. compulspry ' system of , State ..dnsU'uetion, -with.^'.cquataigh-ts for all.' Pennsylvania has $pf late been- emulating ; its more -southerly ', rival, ( as"the-. follbwing"; 7 para^a'ph J j froW;'the^\- i Milwaukee '• .' Oatijblic Citizen' 1 of, •September --29 shows: .'The" A.P.-A. of JWilliamstown,--Pa.y-,have. won- the first legal ? victory in- their an ti-Gatholic' crusade. ■ At their request -. the school directors ■ofj4ha't ! ;;t 1 6wh* ordered 1 the .Pro-.! testant vcrsio'n of; the. ,Bible7to/ be ,read in the ■ public ' schools. Catholicr parents decided „to send their children -to 1 the schools 1 ' w"hen the- Bible. reading was over. I But then thejr were ."refused .admittance. They thereupon applied' r 'fbr a mandamus compelling, t/he .directors - to "allow- the, children to f ( enter t( - after the .Protestant" -Bible -is--' read; Judge -'^KunkeL <* has refused to", "accede- *to their request-;- and 'so/- until a 'higher court , pronounc^slup'oii" the., '.point, C^athoiic children' are forced 1 . v to attend sa . sectarian ■ ■ service t an the , public, -school. ' The, Philadelphia. ''JCatjfioiic ; -.Standard (. "of September.. -22 states .that Judge cKunkel's decision was given in the] -Dauphin County- Court';* tJiat' 'We version of : the Bible read ~tnose r . public "ip'chools ' : ,is', the -.Protestant one;i tliat Catholic .children .will",, (by yir^tue , of the iudgment),be compelled tovattehd - -the Protestant, religious ■ ,in--struction under ~p'ain p -of 'expulsion-; "and that -the Je"ws H as' "well as' pur,' coreligionists, '"are. aggrieved *by this- \; If -^Ga.iholics",' Jews^^Bjid'dhists,; agnostics, or' ratheists .secured -; a majority on the- School vßoatd, they; woulfl-*(in virtue -pi Judge -Kunkel's- decision) sbe5 be legally r empowered to 'force the children of minorities " to- at-?. tend the expositions of, the religious belief or. unbelief of the dominant party. We have pointed out all this before in speaking of the Bible-in-sphools movement in

..^ V : r.?i aland - \,i^nd ypeMsyivania,' be; it;n<j|ed, '^ rpne of „the '^States of •„t he Union that have, 'jii[ejnparaded by Bibie^in-schools^adv-ocates^ as shining examples of the conditions' UiaV should prevail in the public schools dfvNewJZealanaliilf-ih CeJgr^n .wood they do these things, -what shall- be- done "in" the dry ? The .situation (as experience, in Ireland, and ; Australia, shows) Js <no.t substantially^ improved - by: conscience clauses, which , are, mere., prnamental, make-believes, ami, like cla y,. . Pigeons, , are meant to" be knocked into smi.ther,e.ens as. . soon as. the occasion, offers.. „ s „.,.-. „-,,'