All talk of a lack of the spirit of adaptation on the part of Catholics is so much ignorance or malice. It may be true that Catholics from those countries whose language is altogether different from ours may be slow to accommodate themselves to American ways and institutions. But this is not because they are Catholics but because they are foreigners, strangers in language, customs and traditions. This aloofness manifests itself chiefly in the immigrants themselves. The first generation after them often become more American than the generality of Americans. The roster of the World War proclaims only too eloquently the Americanization of the children of immigrants. We may conclude this phase of our subject by saying that the conspicuous feature of Catholics in America is their thorough Americanization.

With regard to the other phase of the matter in hand, the attitude of Catholics towards the public schools, it will be made evident that Catholics are not opposed to public schools because they are public, but because they are lacking in what Catholics hold to be essential to education. Every branch taught in the public school is taught in the parochial school, and just as well, if not better, as is apparent from the public records. Catholics find no fault with public schools for those who are satisfied with the education they afford. If parents wish to send their children to a school where only the mind and body are the concern of the school, well and good. But Catholics hold that there is something of more concern than success in this life, that beside mind and body there is the immortal soul which needs to be guided and directed aright, and instructed in the things of the spirit. Education without religion may make clever and capable people. But the country is full of clever and capable people who are a menace to it. On this subject let us hear Dr. Charles Gray Shaw, head of the department of philosophy, New York University: "Religious development is just as essential as is intellectual. Any one who thinks otherwise is a moron. We have altogether too many intellectual or artistic or musical geniuses who are religious Religion and education should go hand in hand to achieve the final goal of a life better fitted to success. I find the greatest men in the greatest fields devoutly religious.

morons.

Religion is necessary, and should find a place in every educational institution, from the primary 'school to the university." Thus speaks a distinguished educator. It is because the Catholic Church realizes the necessity of religion in the right education of her children that she maintains parochial schools.

Knowledge without character formation is a dangerous acquisition. Many of the worst criminals of the country today are men of more than ordinary education, as education goes. This is not to say that one who has had a thorough education both of mind and character may not turn out badly. Not at all. But other things being equal, the man whose education has embraced soul as well as mind, character as well as erudition, will be the kind of citizen that makes for the welfare and glory of country. Merely from the standpoint of patriotism the Catholic system of education is far superior to every other which does not include the element of religious instruction and religious motive. Catholic education fosters patriotism.

A fundamental tenet of the Catholic faith is reverence for authority. A man cannot be a good Catholic and a bad citizen. The late Mark Hanna once said that the two greatest supports of the Constitution were the United States Supreme Court and the Catholic Church. The only persons who assail the Catholic Church for lack of patriotism in this country, are those whose environment and education have made them color blind with regard to whatever concerns her. It is doubtful if any class of our citizens, collectively or individually, made more or greater sacrifices for country than did Catholics during the recent World War. Indeed, it is to be feared that one reason for recent hostility to the Catholic Church was the enviable record for patriotism Catholics made in the trying period of the great War.

It is objected by some fanatical religious organizations that Catholics are not whole-heartedly back of the recent Constitutional Amendment concerning Prohibition. This is a calumny pure and simple. Catholics stand by and for the Constitution and its Amendments. There are literally millions of good citizens of every denomination who are convinced that the manner of carrying out the Prohibition Amendment does not serve the best interests of the country, but rather defeats the very purpose

of the Amendment. Because a man is a Catholic it does not deprive him of his constitutional rights, one of which is to express his views on what concerns the welfare of his country. A certain class of our people have erected Prohibition into a religious dogma, and anathematized everybody who does not agree with them in their interpretation of the way it should be carried into effect. Prohibition, as a Constitutional Amendment, is as sacred to Americans as is the rest of the Constitution. Catholics will uphold that Amendment with the best of their fellow citizens. But this does not mean that, if it seems detrimental to the real welfare of the country, Catholics, as well as other law-abiding citizens, should not use constitutional means of modifying it accordingly.

Every Catholic knows that the Constitution and its Amendments are the expression of legitimate authority. Every Catholic is taught reverence and obedience to lawful authority. Hence Mark Hanna was right when he said that the Supreme Court of the United States and the Catholic Church were the two greatest supports of the Constitution. People in glass houses should not throw stones. Among the bitterest assailants of Catholics for their expression of opinion regarding the method of carrying out the Prohibition Amendment, are those who have done their best to make null and void the Constitutioned Amendment granting the electoral franchise to our colored citizens. Why are they so solicitous for one Amendment and so destructive of another Amendment? It serves to show that it is not solicitude for the Constitution that animates them but a narrow view which seeks to impose itself on everybody else. I have touched on this matter of Prohibition since it is one of the series of charges made blindly and bigotedly against the loyalty of Catholics. Perhaps a more widespread accusation is that the Catholic system of parochial schools is hostile to the spirit of American unification and solidarity.

It is against the parochial school that certain organizations whom I do not need to name have trained their heaviest artillery. They assert that the parochial school tends to create division among citizens. Yet they who so assert are doing the very worst possible damage to united citizenship. By their campaign

of religious and race hatred they are introducing worse divisions among the people than could be brought about in any other conceivable way. They forget that the first schools established in this country were religious schools. Denominational schools dotted the land. There were Quaker schools and Lutheran schools and Episcopalian schools, not to mention others. Against these there was and is no opposition. But the parochial schools, being Catholic, and many, drew down upon them the envious opposition of a group of religionists who thought they had a monoply of patriotism as well as of religion. It is a fact that the parochial school is, in a country like ours, where there are so many religions, as well as so little of religion, a factor of prime importance to Catholics. We may judge of its importance by the sad state of religion among those denominations which disregard the religious school. Recently a great non-Catholic religious denomination discussed most seriously the adoption of the religious school, similar to the parochial school of Catholics.

The rising generation of many religious denominations do not, as is well known, go to church or to Sunday School. They are almost absolutely divorced from religious instruction. They do not receive it at home and they do not go where it may be obtained. The result is the almost pagan spirit which dominates a large part of our people at present, and which presages an even worse condition for the future. If religion is to be kept alive it must, like everything else, be cared for. Generally speaking parents are too busy or too unqualified to impart religious instruction to their children. Even the hour a week which Sunday School affords to the diminishing few who attend it, is inadequate for the religious training of the young. An hour a week for a child who must spend the other 167 hours amidst what is frequently an irreligious environment, will not make religion a dominant factor in life. And religion to be practical must be a dominant factor of life. In the parochial school the child is taught every branch that is useful for success in this life, and is beside instructed in the things which make for eternal welfare. Unless a child educated in the parochial school goes directly against all that has therein been inculcated, he is bound to be a good citizen. This cannot be made too plain to those who ignorantly assail

the parochial school and make it a pretext for declaring it unAmerican and for attacking Catholics in consequence.

But I firmly believe that in their hearts the various antiCatholic organizations know that the training of the parochial school is admirable and patriotic. Ordinarily they assail the parochial school and Catholicity because they see their own creeds vanishing and do not want to witness the triumph of the Catholic faith. If Catholicity were weak and insignificant it would not be assailed. Very often, however, those who oppose the Catholic Church do so in good faith. Many converts to Catholicity have told me that from infancy they were nourished on the worst kind of misinformation regarding the Catholic Church.

After they became Catholics, or in the process of taking the step, they were amazed at finding their previous views of the Church so absolutely at variance with the truth. "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" seems to apply to Christ's Church as well as to Himself. Let it be said in brief that in this country the Catholic Church would be false to her divine commission if she did not foster the parochial school. She shows the greatest practical common sense by her attitude towards religious education. The proof is in the results. Wherever the parish school flourishes religion flourishes. And this is only natural. A child at its most impressionable age has presented to it continuously the high ideals of the Gospel. Everything about the parochial school speaks of God to the Child. God becomes a reality in life, not an abstraction. It is impossible for a youth so educated not to go out into life rightly equipped for its struggles and temptations. Such a one may slip, but ordinarily will not remain fallen, at least permanently. It is, alas, too true that the best religious training is lost on some. That does not signify that such training was not right and desirable. Sometimes we see the best home training by the most devoted parents and family lost on some member of the family. That does not condemn home training. One of the twelve Apostles, instructed under the example and teaching of the Master, went wrong.

We can but do our best and trust that good seed will fall on receptive soil. If the parochial schools were rightly under