Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 18, 1913

“America”

According to the Advance of Sept. 25, 1913, earnest protests are coming in from Catholic priests and politicians against the use of the hymn “America” in public schools and general patriotic services. They charge that it was written by a New England parson, and that it is narrow and sectarian in its scope.

Says the Advance:—

This paper stands for no spirit of bigoted hostility to the Roman Catholic Church, but we earnestly resent the machination and hostility to American institutions which underlie movements of this character. . . . But a deeper reason for opposing and resenting this movement is that it proceeds from a bigoted spirit of sectarianism, thoroughly hostile to our most cherished American institutions. Save America!