CATHOLIC INFLUENCE IN MINNESOTA.
We have received a communication from a correspondent which sets forth the conduct of the superintendent of public schools in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The population of the place is largely Catholic and the superintendent is himself a Roman Catholic. He has not only introduced into the public schools a Catholic reading-book; but provided that the children of Protestant parents shall be sent home on two afternoons of each week, and that then the children of Catholic parents shall be instructed by the priest in the Catholic catechism. The Protestants of the place have appealed to the school superintendent of the State for relief, and as yet without success. Other towns are mentioned, where, notwithstanding the prohibition of sectarian instruction in the public schools by the constitution of the State, similar practices are pursued. Of course, all this is an outrage upon the rights of Protestants, and indeed, all parties but the Catholics, and should be denounced and resisted. And perhaps we do not overstate the case when we say that it is an indication of what Catholics would be very likely to do if they had the power, as they seem to have in St. Cloud. It is, however, no worse for Catholics to do this than it is for Protestants to do substantially the same thing in the public schools. The one lesson for both to learn is that the public schools, supported at the general expense, ought not to be made the instrument of religious and sectarian teaching, whether it be Catholic or Protestant. Such teaching in either form involves injustice.—Independent.