"I believe in the public school system. It has been the salvation of our democracy: but the private schools and colleges have been the salvation of our public schools. These private institutions have their place in our educational system. They prevent it from becoming autocratic and arbitrary, and en

cause of their benign spiritual influence, private and religious schools have always been not only permitted but encouraged in the American Republic, and have been regarded as helpful to civil society.

17. The proposed law is wrong, because it makes possible the destruction of private and parochial schools. No less an authority than the former United States Commissioner of Education, Hon. P. P. Claxton, said in June, 1919:

existence as an after-thought, to educate those whose parents could not afford to send them to private schools.

The private and denominational schools in which the founding fathers received their education developed the finest citizenship and the highest and loftiest patriotism ever produced in any nation. Then why give county superintendents the power to close such schools?

This proposed legislation has in it great possibilities for evil. Proponents of this anti-parochial school amendment have declared publicly, that if, after the destruction of private and sectarian schools, there is a demand for it, the authorities can introduce religious instruction into the public schools. This suggestion is the logical and inevitable outcome of the proposed legislation. Every American should take notice of this fact before he assists in opening the floodgates to legislation defining the brand of religion his children shall be taught. Compulsory religious instruction would provoke bitter religious controversy, and would destroy the salutary influence of the public schools.

To teach religion in our public schools is out of harmony with our American ideals and laws. Former Commissioner Claxton said in an address before the National Reform Convention in Pittsburgh:

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"We do not teach religion in our publ schools, because it is at variance with th fundamental principles of our government the separation of church and state. . . . I this country we have, and I hope we shall cor tinue to have, separation of church and state It is not the prerogative of the public school to impart religious teaching under our syster of government. . . . The object of our publ schools is to make good citizens for the stat ... It is the business of the churches to tese religion."

U. S. Grant clearly defined the Amer ican attitude toward such questionwhen he said:

"Leave the matter of religious teaching the family altar, the church, and th privat school, supported entirely by private contr. bution. Keep church and state forever sel arate."

Let us preserve the true principles of Americanism which have made us th greatest, most prosperous, and mes peace-abiding nation in the world, and let every patriotic citizen of Oregon voi "No" on the proposed amendment.

NE of the most astounding and cruel cases of oppression

and false imprisonment ever brought to light in this country was aired recently in Judge J. A. Park's court in Pueblo, Colo.

The law of Colorado provides for a lunacy commission of three, appointed by a court, which may, upon satisfactory evidence, pronounce any person insane against whom a charge of lunacy has been filed, and such person may be committed to an insane asylum until discharged by competent authority.

A rather unusual feature of the law is that according to the statute (chap. 88, par. 4125, Sec. 1, of Colorado Statute on Lunacy, Courtright's Revised Statute of 1908), "The term "lunatic,' as used in this chapter, shall be construed to include idiots, insane and distracted

son who by reason el intemperance, or any dis order or unsoundness mind, shall be incapable managing and caring for his own estate." It seems that several years ago a Mrs. Hunt and her two grown sons took homesteads on government land i Ouray County, Colorado. Cattlemen had been grazing their stock on this land, and it is charged that they soon began to annoy the Hunts in every possible way. Horses were driven off at night, it is said, drinking and stock water was poisoned, buildings, fences, and crops were destroyed, etc.

Finally when Mrs. Hunt and her sons were incapacitated from the effects of some sort of poisoning, they were falseh charged with lunacy and all three wer committed to the insane asylum. One of

Ir is a natural tendency to look upon all great movements, as suddenly bursting forth, without any previous announcement. It was long thought that the Declaration of Independence was the work of a few men of genius, such as

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others, instead of being what modern historical investigation has shown it to be, the fruit of ages of slow development, reaching maturity under the favorable conditions of a new climate and a virgin soil. American freedom is not the invention of one man or of many men, but the end-result of a process "slowly broadening down, from precedent to precedent." -"John Huss, The Witness," Oscar Kuhns, p. 10.

THE National Reform Association, composed principally of Presbyterian clergymen, states in the Christian Statesman, their official organ, that "Seventhday Adventists seem to be in most distressing rage because there is prospect of a Sabbath law for the District of Columbia." Mistaken again! They placed the shoe on the wrong foot. It is the Presbyterian presbyteries from all parts of the country whose names are appearing in the Congressional Record from day to day petitioning Congress to pass a drastic Sunday bill for the District. It is the National Reformers who procured the introduction of this drastic Sunday bill who are in a rage at the prospect of the defeat of their measure. They want to make an innocent organization the scapegoat.

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ICKSBURG, MISS., was recently afflicted with a Sunday blue law crusade, led by the Ministerial Association and the Law and Order League, represented by a committee appointed by the Federated Churches. It was a case of the church societies and committees dictating the legislation of the city of Vicksburg. The result was a bitter fight and religious war of hatred and incrimination, of accusations and animosities, of intolerance and persecutions, until the peace and good will which once prevailed in the community were utterly destroyed.

Any law which produces such evil results in any community, should be labeled for the repeal calendar of the legis lative body and for the scrap heap by the civil courts. And this is just what is happening to many of the Sunday laws that are so oppressive and out of har

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mony with the spirit of the times and with true Americanism.

The Sacramento Bee, commenting upon the situation, said:

"In Vicksburg, Miss., they have set the calendars back to the seventeenth century. The city council there has started in to suppress Sunday amusement places, bootleggers, gamblers, and disorderly places-evidently naming first that which is most offensive in Vicks burgian eyes.

"Also it has ordered that no labor shall be done on Sunday on any paper. So the Daily Herald worked its men until 11: 55 on Saturday night; started in again at 12: 01 on Monday morning - and thus rushed out its 'Sunday

edition.

"Let us hope these fanatic atavisms of a bigoted and supposedly dead-and-damned [eondemned] past will be thrown into the political and social discard before long, and kept there forever.

"Meanwhile, history can record three partieular spasms of crazy 'Christian' tyranny on the part of English-speaking peoples,- the

Cromwellian in England; the Puritan in New England; the Sabbatarian [modern Sunday blue law all over the United States. .

...

"And undoubtedly many of the zealous souls who believe they please God the most when most they interfere with the methods and the liberties of others in His worship, yearn for the return of those blessed times when their forefathers viewed the flames that tortured heretics as prayerful incense arising to the Everlasting incense that, while it preceded the departure of the doomed souls to hell, was at the same time the avant-courier to the future glorious entrance into heaven of their judges and executioners, and was therefore doubly grateful in the nostrils of the Almighty."

According to the Vicksburg Evening Post of July 3, under the caption "Blue Sunday Laws,"

Vicksburg got a huge taste of the blue laws Sunday.

"The lid was down tight on everything not exempted under the State Sunday laws.

"Even the publication of the Sunday newspaper and the sale or circulation of the out-oftown Sunday papers were forbidden.

"All amusements and entertainments were barred.

"A thirsty man could not get a cool drink, a householder might not purchase a loaf of bread, the smokers were denied the solace of a cigar or cigarette, unless they had a supply on hand. . .

"The Sunday laws as written on the Mississippi statute books are denominational and religious in character.

"They interpret the Sunday observance in strictest fashion.

"There are many religious people who give a broader interpretation to the manner in which they think Sunday might be properly observed.

"Sunday baseball games, Sunday moving pictures, places where one may secure cooling, harmless drinks on torrid days, are not held harmful by a large number of persons who believe in Sunday worship, but who also think that the masses of the people are entitled to proper amusement and recreation on the only day of rest in the week.

"These people resent that they must be forced to obey the religious views of some as to what constitutes the proper way to observe Sunday.

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Many church people have taken the stand that the picture shows, harmless in themselves, furnishing simple amusement and instruction, should be permitted to operate on Sundays.

"Last week one Episcopalian clergyman came out boldly in print, asking that the Sunday shows be permitted to run.

"Some of the minority here now who stand for the blue Sunday laws which tally with their religious views, would resent it if other churches were able to get laws on the statute books compelling observance of the teachings of other churches.

(Continued on page 140)