Loyola University Maryland - Evergreen / Green and Gray Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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mttlf-©ntunpr Sill. Charles J. Ciotti, ’20. The Smith Bill was introduced in the United States Senate on October 10, 1918, and was revised and re-introduced on February 19, 1919. It was sponsored and upheld in the lower house by Hon. Horace Towner of Iowa. The purpose of the bill is to create a department of education, and by the appropriation of money, to encourage the States in the promotion and support of education. That which is directly aimed at bj Senator Smith is the centralization of education by the appointment of a Secretary of Education who will rule the schools of the countr} from Washington. That the Smith Bill is by no means dead is plainy shown by the announcement made by the National Educational Association in The Bulletin of January last: “The Smith-Towner Bill is still in committee in both the Senate and House. It will hold its present number and designation throughout the 66th Congress which will expire March 4, 1921. We shall do all in our power to secure the passage of this bill by the present Congress.” The bill should be defeated. One good reason would be sufficient to prove this statement, but several may be cited. First, it establishes an educational bureaucracy at Washington controlling the free schools of a free nation, thereby dragging education into politics; second, it will place enormous and unnecessary taxes upon our people; third, it will injure, if not utterly destroy Catholic education. If the bill becomes a reality, the Secretary of Education will be vested with great powers indeed. He will exercise supreme control over almost twenty millions of our inhabitants. By following the course outlined by the Smith Bill, no matter what his wishes may be, it will be impossible for him to keep the school out of politics. The bill aims at encouraging the States in their work of education. Its passage, however, will tend to lessen and practically to confiscate their power. The conduct of the schools will not belong to the States, for the schools must conform to the orders formulated and enforced by l)oliticians at Washington. The Secretary of Education may consult with the State authorities, but he is not obliged to do so. In the event of any dispute, it will be with the Federal, and not with the State authorities, that the final decision will rest. To oppose the Smith Bill on the ground of its additional needless taxation is but a matter of common sense. Prior to the war our public 28

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Jus t how many fighting Irishmen were buried alive was never known to me but we did know that they were there in “that place of pain and pride.” Hardly an appropriate grave for fighting men — just a labyrynth of logs, rocks and sandbags. Yet “it was a worthy grave, that place, where they nobly fought and nobly died.” Ever submis- sive were they “that pain may cease they yield their flesh to pain, to banish war they must warriors be.” ’Twas in the Rouge Bouquet. “Such was their life and the end thereof.” This is the story of Kilmer’s Rouge Bouquet, but who could tell it as he did? Who could bring before our minds the awful gruesomeness of that incident in such style that it would appeal so strongly to us? And as he wrote of his comrades of the “Fighting Sixty-ninth” so it must be written of him that “he nobly fought and nobly died.” For Sergeant Joyce Kilmer was killed on July 30, 1918, in the advance on the Ourcq. And on the banks of this historic river he was buried in much the same fashion as Thomas More, “with not a drum heard nor a funeral note.” Thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free; So did’st thou travel on life ' s common way In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay. 27

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debt was a little more than a billion dollars. Since that time our debt has advanced with such rapidity that it is now around the appalling figure of twenty-six billion, twenty-six times our national debt of three years ago. The Smith Bill calls for an initial appropriation of one hundred million dollars, or an annual payment of almost one dollar for every man, woman and child in the United States. The provision would likewise require the States to appropriate amounts equivalent to their respective al lotments by the Government. Surely there is a sufficient burden of taxes to be carried by the people without adding thereto for the purpose of setting up an educational dictator in Washington. Opposition to this bill is also urged because it expressly discrimi- nates against all schools Avherein principles of Christianity are taught and inculcated. The press of our entire country is greatly excited over the spread of Bolshevism in our Public Schools. We should not be surprised at such facts as they are far from being new. For at least five years many poorly-educated teachers have been permitted to imbue the minds of tlieir pupils with Bolshevick doctrines thoroughly destructive of morality and otherwise injurious to the welfare of their respective communities. Yet, unconsciously, the Smith Bill tends to favor teachers of this stamp; for it practically excludes all schools which teach the pupils their duties to God and their fellow-man. The only schools Avhich can properly oppose Bolshevism, Socialism and any other anti-American principles are those in which the sound doctrines of morality are tauglit. They alone are able to protect the children and teach them those truths which will make them true and loyal Americans. The meaning of the Smith-Towner Bill is thus well put in an edi- torial of the Cincinnati Enquirer: “Under the guise of nationalizing the public-school system of the United States, efforts are being made to introduce, through a congressional enactment, precisely the system that Prussian autocrats utilized a half century ago. It is proposed to direct curricula and training of teachers from the banks of the Potomac and to place in the President’s Cabinet a Secretary of Public Instruction. “An end, and a sudden end should be put to these machinations. It is a cardinal principle that control of education should be kept cfosC to the people. . . . Federalization of education is a serpeant that ought first to be scotched and then slain.” Surely Catholics will not remain apathetic in face of this danger threatening religion and society. “If the Smith Bill ever becomes a Federal Statute,” says America (December 28. 1918), “the parochial school, humanly speaking, will be an impossibility.” 29