Religion and State Aid
By Editor
Religion and State Aid.—Roman Catholic papers will tell us on one page how much they prize the blessings of liberty and the separation of church and state in this country. On the next page, or the next week, they will fiercely tell of the rank injustice of France in withdrawing state aid. Now the Western Watchman tells us: “Time has finally silenced the religious pessimists of Paris. The twenty-odd new parishes that have been erected in that city since the law of separation are all flourishing. They are in the faubourgs, but receive their support from the rich parishes of the interior. They are composed chiefly of working people, the number of whom has increased enormously of late years, and they have parish schools attached.” Separation from outside aid demands sacrifice on the part of those who compose the religious body, and sacrifice is a law of growth even in worldly things. In the light of the lesson of France why should the church seek to hold Spain? The “Health Magazine” tells a strange story of an episode in the life of Atlanta, Georgia. It seems that a company of ministers, lawyers, doctors, and other representative people met to form an anti-vaccination society, as they had a perfect right to do. In the midst of their meeting burst an M.D., the city health officer, with eight policemen, who told the meeting that he did not approve of their work and demanded to know whether all had been vaccinated. He did not vaccinate any one that night, but threatened them with arrest if they did not submit. Later one of the gentlemen was followed and arrested, thrown into jail, brought into court, and set free, as no charge could be held against him. The arrested man had no redress. We yet believe in proper vaccination, but this is a shame; and yet this action lies right along the same lines of the religious legislation clamored for before every parliament of the people, state and national. The sad fact is that such things as this of to-day will be forgotten by the people in the rush of to-morrow, while in the future they will be used as precedents by the promoters of religious and paternal legislation.