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Show No Religion In Schools. Extreme churchmen, notwithstanding the theory the-ory and tho success of the public schools in America, still think there ought to be religious services in schools, and every little while we find that some denomination is advocating that change. There is nothing in it; there can be nothing in it. Our public schools are founded on the idea, first, that all children ought to have an elementary education; and, second, that the schools ought to be such that children whoso parents belong to all the denominations in tho world can meet on common ground, on an exact level, and acquire that elementary education without restrictions. The system has worked magnificently, it is the only system, and when churchmen argue in favor of religious services in schools, when we come down to the point we And that if the churchman is a Presbyterian ho wants a Presbyterian school; if he is a Catholic, he wants Catholic schools; if he is a Baptist, ho wants Baptist schools; if he is a Mormon, of course there is but one school in the world, that i is a Mormon school. That shows how if the dis- position was to have religious teaching in schools, the very fact of introducing it would break up the schools. There is another fact beyond that, which is that where religion is introduced into public schools it does not make boys and girls any bet: ter; rather, it is a detriment. And the further that where religion is introduced into public in schools, that is the work for the home, and when boys and girls come out of homes that are not religious homes they are never converted in ' schools it does not make boys and girls any bet- And there is one question on which the govern- S ment of every state ought to be pronounced. It j is that a man, no matter how good he is or how j pious he is, who would change our public schools j and give them religious direction, is, unconsciously, uncon-sciously, an enemy to the schools and an enemy to the state. |