| Show OUR CHICAGO LETTER what with german lutherans Luth erans dutch catholics and scotch irish americans we are having quite lively times here at present the labor troubles are not prominent though the question is far front from settled the cooks and waiters are now in tie t ie field the rhe culinary alliance and the I Gary mede league are realities as organizations the black man inan joined his white brother in the tho strike but strikes wont settle the race issue rhe fhe scotch irish congress in pittsburg claimed general sheridan RS as one ot their race ani also alao general grant the dutch catholics claim that this continent is theirs by reason of priority of discovery rhe fhe german luther ans claim that all modern civilization is attributable to themselves the yankee is left nothing to lay hold bolt on though wendell phillips said the yankee would catch a silver dollar if it were at the other side of just at present however we are all over education illinois and wisconsin passed laws compelling education in the english language and that is what stirs the bile in the codies of the followers rf of riem rhose compulsory education acts which are now causing 0 o much ex cit ement in religious and political circles are apparently very mild and md m iterate moderate erate enactments the illinois act was approved may 24 1889 and was draffe I 1 by a mixed committee of romanist lutherans Luth erans and agnostics it occasioned ionel no alarm at the time mossback catholics narrow gauge lutherans Luth erans and arede predestinating presbyters presbytery presby all approved it the wisconsin law was or is almost a copy of the illinois law in that state there was no opposition to the law at first except that a few patriotic germans construed it in the light of an insult to their race but in our time history is being male very fast and from may 1889 to ID M iy ay 1890 covers a period of american history which future historians will refer to as a marking pot point nt I 1 in u the worl pa Is affairs awl and judging from recent developments in the courts of the united states people who are alive t to what is going on around find in these education laws the gering germs of the most moat intolerant absolutism here is the clause of the Illi Illino noi iu laws which occasions all the alarm alarca and excitement every sievern person having under tinder his hia control a child between the ages of if seven and fourteen years shall annually cause such child to attend for at least sixteen weeks at least eight weeks of which attendance shall be consecutive some public day school in the city town or district in wirich which he resides 0 0 for eve every neglect of such duty the person 07 offending shall forfeit to the use of the public schools of such city or district a sum not less than one nor more than twenty dollars and shall stand committed until fine and costs of suit are paid but if the person so neglecting in shall show to the satisfaction of te the board of education or of directors that such child has attended for a like period of time a private school approved by the board of education or of directors of the cit cita Y town or district in which such child resides then such penalty shall not be incurred I 1 I 1 oo on reading this first clause there seems to be iu in it but little to find fault with anil and one year ago even that little was not then seen the whole secret lle lie in the words approved by the board of education rhe die act then empowers an edul edu cation board to decide what is or is not a school if this board were so minded it might decide that the washington catholic university was not a school in the sense of the illinois education act but it might he said no board would so sk stultify itself and that is what people did s m y oue one year ago A year however brings changes and we have seen what the supreme court of the united states have done in the cast cask of I 1 baho citizens and in the case of the jatter day saints church in utah when the supreme court of this republic virtually tries to decide that mormonism Is not a religion what could be expected from an education board composed of anti mormon politicians in deciding what a school should be such a board would decide that the brigham young academy was not a school and there is but a step from condemning that to condemning tle tie washington it is the developments in utah which have aroused the instincts of self preservation in dutch catholics and german Luthe rians governor thomas in his official reports anti and in his newspaper interviews had bad a good deal to say on educational matters if he has perused the reported proceedings ce of tile the wisconsin catholic Cath ohto convention in milwaukee he be will find fand something to put in his pipe to smoke and to kive give him inspiration for his next official document but as the business of that convention was all transacted in german perhaps governor thomas will regard wisconsin as outside the united statts it was a good joke on amer icari papers to compel them to trans I 1 lite ite news from the germania Oer mania ana bafs Zee tuny the rho milwaukee assemblage was officially denominated the state convention of the german catholic benevolent society but it was in I 1 n reality a political convention wm win casper capper one of the principal i speakers wanted the constitution of toe the central catholic society so ao amended that it could take part in politics he del delivered ivend a long speech denouncing anti catholic legislation anti and wouna up by saying politics does not belong in the churco but so long as our clercy cannot mi I 1 politics it is our du y to do so 80 and I 1 nope hope gentlemen that after the convention you will go to your homes and set about at once to organize if men opposed to us are nominated for political hoffines oppose them do not suffer them to go to the legislature leg 8 lature the men there must do 11 us justice mr horst of st louis president of the federated catholic society of the U united cited states spoke next and soke in no uncertain terms he said this is a land of liberty we are told and why should we not have lave tle the liberty to educate our children as we please why should any state arrogate to itself the right to dictate to UR how we shall educate them or to what school we shall send them I 1 am not in favor of our societies being dragged into politics but of course the history of our country teaches us that a great many queer ideas have been brought into politics in our time and we must be prepared to meet them and deal with them they tell us that this is a government of the people and for the people but we all know that it is not so 80 the catholic church loves liberty and promotes it and we must stand by that baurch against all the foes which assail it truth must conquer and if we maintain the truth and maintain our liberties we tilso also shall conquer in the fight judging from this the gentleman from st louis i eads the utah papers how else could lie he know that this government is not tor for the people utah aidi idaho are the only places where the IL LT S government has trampled on popular rights and where political adventurer vagrants call themselves american patriots and incredible to related relate it is ie at the instigation of such vampires that 7 the congress of the united stiles states turned out laws worthy of the spanish inquisition or of the penal times in ireland no wonder the practical farseeing tar seeing german sees danger ahead bishop fleisch who is a popular churchman told the convention that as catholic so they could not mix in politics hut but that as individual catholics each could gouid constitute himself a society I 1 to defend liberty of conscience truth and freedom of rell religion gion Y but the plumed knight of the convention was found in bishop katzer of green bay his speech had the effect of rousing the phlegmatic r to almost ceisl celtic impetuosity his speech was a long and exhaustive one the following copious extract will give ft a fair idea of the speaker who was the soul of the convention H here ere it is 11 1 I believe wat that no single catholic society nor any assembly of catholics who are here present presen t should go away without saying something about this obnoxious bennett law I 1 speak to to you tod today ay bebau because 8 e the assembly tako action upon th r P subject and ir ic order to give you my ideas about this law this law is the stev step by which the state has gone beyond its ita limits it is ia the step by which the state has taken the first step to deprive it its eq citizens of their rights and to assume absolute powers which are to transcend and override the rights of parents to educate their children in the teachings of the church to which th f y belong this law is the step by I 1 which h the church is impeded in its work and the very entrance by which the antichrist anti christ of freemasonry will try to break into our catholic principles our catholic schools and our catholic churches I 1 have said this law is the step by which the state usurps to itself rights which no state possesses and in order to judge what a state is and what rights a state has we need not go to huro europe 1 I wl will 11 tell you what a state is no if you will allow me to do so HO from a natural and historical standpoint herband here and everywhere r here else the individual is before tu the tate state first comes the individual then the family aud then the state slate god did not make a state first he made adam first and then after r he had made adam he him eve as his wife then came and then as the families grew of course when called of god the state developed itself more families came upon the face of the earth and then diff differ er ent states camo came so you see first came the individual il then the family and then the state and since god has put the individual in the farat place he has given him hichi freedom given him rights and liberties and to these rights he has added duties and these theme duties are first to the individual and then to the family As soon as the family comes then the family has rights and duties and these rights and duties cannot enter into collision or in any way interfere with or become antagonistic to the rights of the individual the convention unanimously adopted a series of resolutions affirming parents as the natural and religious guardians of children as also I 1 tha he proper educational caterers cateress cater ers for such children but the negligent the improvident and impoverished parent is not forgotten and for such compulsory education and general taxation are required the unconditional repeal of the bennett law to is demanded and a strict injunction given to voters to vote only for candidates who pledge themselves for its repeal in wisconsin alone there are some german catholic societies or ve reins all hy harmony and under the guidance of the church the catholic religion in that state is by far the predominating one there are area a good many french and although they dont like the germans yet in a religious issue they will join Asto Astol frish rish catholics why of course as long as the democratic party espouses freedom of religion the irish will wil I 1 go with the dutch in this in fact all the decent reputable industrious irish catholics always voted the strut straight ht democratic ticket and nothing elfi ele le lately the clan na gabl catl irishmen the professional patriots and catholics voted the other ticket because there was money in it of course the bennett law will go in Wlee wisconsin omin the politicians are crowding each other to repeal it even the governor who swore at first to stand by it has deperte I 1 his post the republican party which intended to make it an issue has come in out of the cold and declares the law must go wisconsin at no distant day will be a province of the rhine and if his holiness desires to leave leav e rome he will find comfortable quarters good cool beer and stout bologna sausage in milwaukee and what is better more devoted more sturdy followers than his bis present dago adherents ane german lutherans Luth erans are even more vehement than the catholics in denouncing the bennett law of wisconsin and the noname no name law if f illinois they held a rousing meeting in this city one night last week and though no advertisement was wan made in the english papers of the meeting yet central music hall was packed with disciples of the immortal martin from cellar to garret the german lutherans Luth erans art are very strong in illinois they a always voted the republican ticket but lately the leaders of the lican party are showing so much of the old hi le bound know nothing ism of its early days that the good lutherans Luth erans took alarm at the compulsory education laws or rather at c ertain certain clauses contained in them rhe fhe lutherans Luth erans are much the same as romanists Romanis ts in all doctrinal matters in fact except not recognizing the pope the lutheran is virtually the fac simile of her roman mother the lutheran believes in the real presence the actual body of christ in the communion anti and as the united states courts see no distinction between belief aud and practice e the pious lutheran is apprehensive lest some fine nut day an illinois judge anderson may disfranchise him for cannibal lam ism the speeches at this meeting went further than the catholics they ridiculed the puritans of new england and cracked jokes over the C of virginia they even held up uncle sam as a kind of cross between yankee doodle and dan mcginty they went so far as to say that members of cod congress and of state legislatures could not write nor speak a dozen sentences consecutively of correct english A few days ago the Demor democratic jatie state convention of Il illinois linIs wan held at springfield the platform adopted is such that Germau lutheran anand and catholic alike cannot find fault with it pronounces unequivocal in favor of absolute religious free dom the republicans are alarmed with the germans at the other side the grand old party would soon be named dennis A deputation of chicago citizens waited Governor on fifer at springfield urging him to to call a special session of the legislature to repeal the illinois know I 1 nothing law in his reply to the deputation govenor pifer fifer actually said that abat he signed the illinois law without reading it and took it for granted that it was a good one because judge prendergast and washington I 1 hessing were partly its authors these two latter are politicians of the unscrupulous type they form the end men of the popes pope a brass band in chicago one is a dutchman one an irishman both are nominally democrats but judging from the implicit faith placed in them by gov fifer a republican and a 0 A R m man it seems to me they are democrats for revenue only but the craw fishing fifer is a pitiable spectacle bacle if snobbery and political servi servility liti he is the man who wanted a pension without showing his wouL wounds but commissioner black insisted on seeing the wounds joseph private joe fifer he to Is called was wounded wo in a aiace lace that showed him on the retreat tre an and he did not like the world to know it now he be is on the retreat but be is on bis big knees to archbishop bishop fleisch in this matter of party versus religion I 1 am reminded ot of an editorial I 1 read in last weeks irish world of new york it was written on the decision of the supreme court on the utah church case here is the closing paragraph of the editorial considerable surprise has haa been occasioned casio ned by the fact that party lines were drawn by the judges in rendering their decision chief justice fuller fialer and the two democratic associate mittel justices ices field and lamar submitted a dt dissenting opinion in which they claim that congress transcended its power in passing the law |
