THE PROGRESS OF CHURCH AND STATE UNION.
[From our correspondent at Washington, D. C.] The State as a Teacher of Religion.
WHAT the opponents of the idea of the state's assuming to teach religion have maintained ever since the proposition was suggested, is at last admitted by one of the foremost advocates of such a scheme. Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts assures the Washington public that "nothing new is proposed" in the movement now on for religious instruction in the public schools, that "teachers are not required to teach Christian morality," that "the present law requires the reading of the Bible in the schools, the repetition of the Lord's Prayer, and the teaching of Christian morality, including 'the laws of God.'" "What is proposed," says Mr. Crafts, "is to require that this teaching shall be mapped out definitely by the board of education, instead of being left, as now, to the discretion or indiscretion of the individual teacher." "Manifestly," he says, "the teachers would be far more likely to work in their personal opinions under the present plan than under the new one proposed, under which the board of education would carefully prescribe just what is to be taught." Exactly, Mr. Crafts, and you could not have more thoroughly indicted this scheme nor more fully exposed its danger than by the explanation you have so freely proffered to the public. Already religious teaching is required or permitted, but the matter can not be allowed to rest there; the teaching must be "mapped out definitely" by some authority which "must prescribe just what is to be taught." There must be no opportunity left for personal opinion or individual discretion in the religious teaching; it must come from some authority and the teachers must be mere machines in teaching the religion prescribed by that authority. Mr. Crafts has brought to view a tendency which inevitably begins the moment government touches religion, and which, if it continues to deal with it, must inevitably lead to a governmental bureau of7religion with a Popiedenzeff or a Crafts at its head to prescribe and map out definitely just what shall be taught and believed in religion in the country. It is significant that Mr. Crafts has so plainly brought to view the fact that this movement now on in Washington for the teaching of religion in the public schools is a movement for the elimination of personal opinion in religious teaching and for the substitution, therefore, of official authority to map out definitely and to prescribe just what shall be taught in religion. It is safe to say that no one has done more than Mr. Crafts to show the inherent evil of this church-and-state scheme now on in Washington, which he is actively supporting. Catholics and the Y. M. C. A.
A recent news item in a Washington paper, announcing that "Catholics and Y. M. C. A. will co-operate in work among the laborers on the isthmus," reads: Archbishop Ireland had a conference with Secretary Taft yesterday on the subject of the religious welfare of the men employed in the construction of the Panama Canal, especially in connection with the plan for the establishment of branches of the Young Men's Christian Association in the Canal Zone. It was made clear that there is no antagonism between the Catholic Church and the Young Men's Christian Association, and it is said that an effort will be made to have the two bodies co-operate in the work of extending the Christian spirit among the workmen. One can but wonder what the Secretary of War has to do with such a matter. But, perhaps, looking after "the religious welfare" of the people of the "appurtenant" territories has become one of the functions of the War Department. It would seem so from incidents like the above that transpire from time to time. Church and State in the Philippines.
On December 15 last, the Secretary of War and the Roman Catholic apostolic delegate to the Philippines, Mgr. Agius, who was on his way from Rome to the Philippines, "were in conference for some time touching Philippine affairs in which the Catholic Church authorities are interested." While "one of the matters related to claims for damages for the occupation of the church lands and church buildings," we were told that "a more important matter to the church authorities was the controversy between the Roman Catholic Church and the Aglipayan Church." It would hardly seem that this other matter came within the proper sphere of the War or Colonial Department, unless, indeed, it has undertaken to look after the religious, as well as the civil, affairs of the people in these possessions. The conference on this occasion between the Secretary of War and the papal delegate "was held at the residence of Secretary Taft, so that it might be informal and the conference be uninterrupted," and on this occasion the Secretary entertained at luncheon besides the "apostolic delegate," "Mgr. Falconio, apostolic delegate to the United States, and former District Attorney Philbin, of New York, a prominent Roman Catholic layman. In the evening of this day "Secretary Taft and Mgr. Agius called at the White House and discussed for some time with the President matters relating to the Philippines." One of the objects of the whole proceeding, we were told, was "to exchange views with reference to the important question of the relations between the Catholic Church and the government in the Philippines." From these incidents and other things that are seen occasionally, it would seem that it is about time there was some exchange of views on the part of the people of this country with reference to the important question of the relations between the Catholic Church and the Government in the United States.