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Show WHAT AILS THE NATION? In his recent speech in advocacy of separate schools in the new provinces of Alberta, and Saskatchewan, Sas-katchewan, which has been the subject, of much comment on the part of the. newspapers of this eounlry. Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Premier of Canada: spoke, in part, as follows: "I offer at this moment n opinion a! all upon separate school as an abstract proposition, but, I have no hesitation in saying that if I were to speak my mind Upon separate schools, I would say that I never could understand what, objection there could be to a system of schools wherein, after secular matters have been attended to, the tenets of the, religion of Christ, even with the divisions which exist among his followers, are allowed to be taught. Wc live in a country wherein the seven provinces that constitute our nation, either by the will or by Ihe tolerance of the people, in every school. Christian Chris-tian morals and Christian dogmas are taught to the youth of the country. We live by the side of a nation, a great nation, a nation for which T have the greatest admiration, but whose example T would not take in everything, in whose schools, for fear that Christian dogmas in which all do not believe might lie. taught. Christian morals. are not taught. When I compare these two countries, when I compare com-pare Canada with the United tSates, when I compare com-pare the status of the two nations, when I think upon their future, when I observe the social condition condi-tion of civil society in each of them, and when I , . i i r observe in this country ot.ours. a torai aosenco ul j lynchings and an almost total absence of divorces and murders, for my part, I thank heaven that we are living in a ..country where the young children of. Ihe land are taught Christian morals and Christian dogmas." No intelligent, thinking man will tae exception excep-tion to the assertion that the character, ideals and j standards of the people of a nation are largely the I fruit of the principles and ideals inculcated in j youth. ! Is there not, therefore, a suggestion of vital significance sig-nificance in the foregoing remarks of our neighbors' neigh-bors' illustrious Premier? No one who. is at all competent to judge will deny that their is vast, room for improvement in the ideals and standard of morals tlvat prevail among the people of America Ameri-ca today. ' The industrial unrest and the perennial j conflicts, of so distressing a nature, between cm-! cm-! plovers and employes, caused by insatiable greed and ruthless self-aggrandizement ; the appalling menace to society on account of the- alarming growth of the divorce evil;- and the lax views that prevail as to moral obligations and restraints in general, as manifested by the frequency of moral transgressions in the form of murders, lynchings, suicides and other crimes: all this proclaims in thunder-tones that there is something, radically wrong with the moral standards of American society. so-ciety. To thinking men it should not. be difficult to locate lo-cate the fundamental cause of the evil indicated. Indeed, the danger to our society, inherent in a Godless system of education, has been publicly des-cussed. des-cussed. in rocqnt years, by more than one promi nent educator, not of the Catholic faith, in their I earnest solicitude for the well-being of the American Amer-ican nation. Shall their solicitous, earnest and wise warning remain all-unheeded? Or will the American public, patriotically setting aside all sec tarian prejudices, accord a due meed of encouragement encour-agement and support to those among us who would devotedly and assiduously instill Christian principles prin-ciples and ideals into the hearts of our youth? Either must the religion of Christ be permitted to exercise it legitimate influence in our cherished land, or it must, sooner or later, meet the doom wrought by Atheistic materialism and gross sensual sensu-al indulgence. - May the (iod. of nations be benignly propitious to the prayers of the faithful and vouchsafe to our people the beneficent reign of Christian principles, that America may become, indeed, tlw greatest and most glorious' nation upon earth; the blessed abode "of great and noble men' and women, and the universally esteemed exemplar of national rectitude recti-tude and grandeur to generations yet unborn I |