This silent drive is the necessary background of the open propaganda of which we would now say a few words.

The sincerely aggressive Catholicism of the laity cannot confine its activities to the home and narrow circle of friends, no more than that of the clergy can find its limit in the pulpit and the confessional. Let us go into the open. The sun of liberty is blazing bright for us all, under the blue skies of Canada. To witness at times, our cringing spirit, our childlike timidity, our cowardice, one would think that we were still under the penal laws and legal disabilities known by our fathers and forefathers. "What is there to check our dash forward?" we would ask with Father Vaughan. "Absolutely nothing, but ourselves, nothing but what we term prudence." Prudence! thin veneer, hardly able to conceal our apathy and unwarranted timidity.

Has not the time come to throw off this false timidity and "To go out into the highways and hedges and compel our separated brethren to come in, that the Master's house may be filled." (Luke Ch. 14). Long enough have we waited for them to come to us. An intelligent Methodist was recently asked the question: "What do you think is the greatest obstacle to the spread of the Catholic Faith?" And he answered: "Ignorance,—because Protestants do not understand what Catholic teaching is, and if your people have the courage of their convictions and claim that they know the truth, why do they not come out like the Socialists, Radicalists, Salvation Army, and other bodies who have come out, and explain to the public what they believe and why."

Did not Cardinal Newman in the conclusion of his lecture: "The Position of Catholics," make similar statements? "Protestantism," he says, "is fierce because it does not know you; ignorance is its strength; error is its life. Therefore bring yourselves before it, press yourselves upon it, force yourselves into notice against its will. . . . Oblige men to know you. . . . Politicians and Philosophers would be against you, but not the people, if it knew you."

Yes, we willingly endorse what the English Dominican, Father Hugh Pope, advocated in his article, "The Modern Apostolate," in the August issue, 1919, "The Ecclesiastical Review," and in several other English newspapers and magazines. Has not indeed the time come when we should revolutionize all our methods, when we should apply to Home Missions something of the methods which now we have fancied pertained solely to the Foreign Missions. Some we know will criticize this forward policy as bold, open to ridicule, an innovation, an undignified intrusion, a Billy-Sunday method, etc.—"On analysis what does all this opposition come to, but that we are afraid." "Afraid!" our critics will exclaim, "of what? I should like to know?" Is not the answer: "Yes, afraid of what the people will say" (Father Pope, O.P.). Anchored in the past they will continue to spend their energies in giving what we would call "spiritual delicacies" to the few good souls around them, while at their very doors crowds are dying of spiritual hunger for want of bread. And in all tranquillity of conscience they will raise their eyes to Heaven and thank the Lord that they are not like them. If indeed we wait until the non-Catholics come to our churches and to our rectories and ask to be received into the Church, we shall wait until Doomsday. After all, what we here advocate, is nothing new. Is it not the modern interpretation, suited to our times, of the "Omnia Omnibus"—"All things to all men," of St. Paul?

Along what definite lines should this aggressiveness be developed? Zeal, we know, is very ingenious in its ways and means, and has in their use the freedom of the spirit of God. Yet, there are certain methods, certain activities, which have proved successful and could be adopted to suit the circumstances of each community. Missions to non-Catholics and lectures in public halls, if well and intelligently advertised, will always draw an audience. Nothing appeals more to the mind of the inquirer than a lucid and simple exposition of the Faith. Controversy beclouds the issue. Were there any particular doubt in mind, the Question-box affords an opportunity to elucidate it. The distribution of literature will confirm the message of the spoken word and continue to carry on its work, helping the seed to germinate in God's own time. Inquiry classes and information bureaus are of a great help to those who are reluctant yet to meet a priest, or to be known as wavering in their faith.

The great error in connection with this matter is to expect immediate results from such work. Truth and Divine Grace work slowly. To measure the success of a lecture or a mission to non-Catholics by the number of immediate converts is completely unfair and against reason. The main and direct object of these lectures is to combat the three obstacles in the way of conversion, indifference, ignorance, and prejudice, and to prepare the soil for the Great Sower. The important point we should not forget is that, as in all propaganda, the "systematic follow-up work" counts. The persistency and recurrence of the message give it its strength and influence.

In all we have said and suggested it must not be supposed that we forget Faith to be a gift of God . . . Donum Dei. The salvation and sanctification of a soul are essentially a supernatural process. We can no more trace the ways of God than we can forecast the ways of the wind. Therefore the greater our activities are, the greater should be the supernatural force behind them. Prayer, constant and fervent prayer, for the conversion of our separated brethren should be ever on our lips and in our hearts. Yet, strange thing! We hardly ever hear of public prayers and masses said for this great work. If our desires were more real, should they not find expression here and there in some public form of prayer.

We should close this chapter with the instructive and inviting example that comes to us from our Catholic brethren in Protestant England. A wonderful Catholic campaign is now on through Scotland and England. Various societies have grouped the active Catholic laity into various units, with the one great object in view, to give back to England the faith she has been robbed of centuries ago.

The "Catholic Truth Society" stands in the background as the heavy artillery that has been firing at long range at positions the enemies are gradually leaving. For the last thirty years it has been breaking the way to victory. "The Catholic Evidence Guild" and "Social Guild," like the light cavalry are reconnoitering the lines and positions. The "Motor Chapel" and "The Bexhill Library"—that Catholic Post-Library, with its 16,000 volumes—are what we call the flying corps of this great Catholic army. And while the various militant units are pushing forward their lines, the members of "Our Lady of Ransom's League" are praying on the mountain with up-lifted hands for the conversion of their Country.

The Catholics of the United States are following suit. The Paulist Fathers with their missions to non-Catholics, their press and "Catholic Missionary Union," devoted to the conversion of America, have undoubtedly done splendid work. The Catholic laity have also been most active under the auspices of the Knights of Columbus. MM. Goldstein and Peter Collins, Dr. Walsh and Mrs. Avery are lecturing through the country and have met with great success. This awakening of the missionary spirit is one of the most healthy signs of the Catholicity of the Church across the border. It is with reason that the Holy See looks to America for the future wants of the Mission Field.

These examples of an apostolic awakening that come to us from countries where religious conditions are very much the same as those that prevail in Western Canada, are most illuminating. They sound to us like the Master's voice: "Why stand idle all day . . . go you also into my vineyard."



[1] Since the principle of charity is God and the person who loves, it must needs be that the affection of love increases in proportion to the nearness to one another of these principles. For wherever we find a principle order depends on relation to that principle. (Summa. II, II Qu. 26 art. 7.)

[2] Cfr. "Army and Religion."—Book written by Protestant Army Chaplains. It is a candid record of the failure of the Churches, Anglican and Evangelical, at the front, during the great war.



CHAPTER VII.

PROS AND CONS

Obstacles that impede. . . . Circumstances that help the work of the Church in Western Canada.

The opening of the North West Territories to immigration, and their creation into distinct Provinces of the Dominion stand as land marks of portentous meaning in the History of Canada. The settlement and development of these immense fertile prairies of the West were bound to react on the economic powers and political outlook of our Country. By the sheer weight of their economic value these new Provinces have leaped into prominence and forced themselves upon the attention of the Country at large. The Western issues are now so weighty that only the greatest prudence and wisest statesmanship will maintain the equilibrium between the conflicting forces of the East and the West of our broad Dominion. Canada now stands at the parting of the ways in its home and foreign policy. Every true and patriotic Canadian is proud of the progressiveness of these new Provinces beyond our great Lakes and anxious to see them bring their contributions to the Commonwealth by sharing in the direction of its government. Their presence around the family table is not that of strangers or intruders, but of young, stalwart and rightly ambitious sons.

Yet, as Religion is the necessary factor of true prosperity, the religious outlook in these young Provinces is what naturally appeals to the Catholic mind. What are then the prospects for the Church in Western Canada? A rapid survey of conditions will enable us to take our bearings and impress upon our minds the value of our co-operation at this juncture of our History. The Church in the West is in its making and we cannot over-emphasize the responsibility of every Catholic in the matter. The knowledge of existing conditions will be to us what the topography of the country under survey is to the engineer. It helps to adjust the vision, to give the sense of proportion and to suggest the easiest grades.

To know well an obstacle is often the best means to overcome it, just as in modern warfare to locate the enemies' batteries is to silence them. In our Chapter, "The Call of the West," we have explained the obstacles with which Catholics have to contend on the prairie and in small towns. We pointed out those obstacles, geographical (distance and climate), ethnical (race and language), religious (absence of catholic traditions and surroundings), and marked how they were as wide crevices through which vitality is being lost to the Church in Western Canada. It is our intention here to dwell only on difficulties of a general character, inherent to the state of this new country and effecting the Church in its corporate existence.

The materialistic spirit, in all its forms, characterizes the West. The youth of our Eastern Provinces and foreigners from every shore flocked to this Eldorado by the thousands and hundreds of thousands with the one particular aim in view, to better their material condition. Their success has been so great that we may well say that the very atmosphere of the West is surcharged with commercialism. The "crop" is the ever-recurring factor and eternal topic of Western life. No better picture reflects this attitude than that which is offered to the traveller as his train goes rolling on through the even prairie. Ever emerging on the horizon and dotting the landscape of the bald plain the grain elevator stands indeed as the most conspicuous land mark of our Western towns. The elevators are in our prairie landscapes what the church spires are in the Quebec villages, along the shores of the St. Lawrence. Here and there they stand as symbols; they interpret an ideal. Naturally a population so immersed in material pursuits and frequently, not to say always, separated by the very force of circumstances from the vitalizing contact of spiritual influence, rapidly loses grasp of the supernatural and becomes refractory to the doctrines and practices of the Church. Nothing is more adverse to the influence of Christianity than material prosperity combined with the absolute ignorance of its divine teachings. The wealthy and prosperous farmer out West is inclined to look down on the Church and consider Her "out of date." [1]

This materialistic atmosphere and the absence of catholic traditions and associations act also as a corrosive on the faith of Catholics, particularly of our young people. Like a strong acid it eats away the teachings of good Christian parents and the impressions of a Catholic home. Only those who have seen at close range these sad soul transformations can believe in their painful reality and explain their frequency.

The activities of non-Catholic bodies among the foreign element are another obstacle to the work of the Church. Like the locusts of Egypt a cloud of proselytizers have alighted on those parts of the Provinces where the new Canadian is in the making. We have seen in another chapter (Pro aris, et focis—or, the Ruthenian Problem) how under the cover of Canadianization, the foreigner is being weaned away from the Faith of his Fathers and what menace this is for the Church.

This systematic effort of the various denominations is being supported by the combined action of their clergy and laity in the East. Men and money are flowing into the West to Christianize (sic!) our Catholic foreigners. The final result of this proselytizing effort is not a permanent increased membership for these churches, but rather indifference and irreligion among our foreign element. Facts and figures prove it. And to re-establish these souls in the Faith of their Baptism is no easy task, we all know. It is far easier to tear down than to rebuild.

This united action of the different Churches stands out in sharp contrast with the lack of co-operation among Catholics throughout Canada. The absence of co-operation of the East with the West affects very seriously the welfare of the Church in the new Provinces. We all willingly and gratefully acknowledge the contributions in men and money that have come from the East through the channels of the Religious Orders, of the Catholic Church Extension and from other sources. But absorbed by parochial and diocesan interests the Catholic Church in Eastern Canada has not as yet fully realized the seriousness of our Western problems. With its co-operation only can the weight of the Church as a whole be brought to bear in their solution.

This policy of unity of action is also most urgent for the Catholics of the Western Provinces. We are a minority in each Province; concerted action can alone press our legitimate claims and bring to us success in these activities which necessarily overlap the boundaries of dioceses and provinces, as is the case with the Catholic Press and Higher Education. Diocesan isolation, if we are not careful, can become the weakness of our strength, in these critical stages of rapid development. Yet, there are no Provinces in the Dominion where the Church faces so many identical problems under identical conditions as in the Western Provinces. Should not this alone suggest to our leaders a unity of plan and realize among our Western Catholics concerted action?

* * * * * *

As there is a silver lining to the darkest cloud, there is a bright side for the Church in conditions out West.

The striking feature of the Canadian West is the newness of the country. Youth is stamped everywhere clear and bold; the dash and buoyancy of the people reflect it faithfully. Optimism is the predominant note in that land of immensities and great possibilities. Untrammelled by set traditions and cast-iron customs, every one is there to start a new life. The past does not seem to exist for the Westerner; the future is his sole concern.

This newness of the country and the optimistic mood which it creates can be called into the service of the Church. They form an atmosphere of tolerance which proves most helpful for the preaching of Her doctrine and the maintenance of Her institutions.

The youthfulness of the country has left its mark on the character of the Westerner. There is something of the vastness of the prairie in his mind. He is generally broad, and boasts of it most willingly. This trait is very noticeable in his passion to revaluate theories, to redefine notions brought from the East. The great success with which he has met in various co-operative schemes has also developed in him a high sense of self-reliance. The only danger is that he carries that same self-assurance into domains where he often over-reaches himself. This fact is very noticeable in the various annual Conventions. Unconsciously, in matters beyond his grasp, he is at the mercy of a few leaders. Resolutions are passed, legislation is suggested, without realization of their consequences.

The rapid disintegration of Protestantism is another factor with which the Church can count. Church union is in many places an accomplished fact. This alone is a convincing proof of the want of grasp, of definiteness that exists in religious matters. We would refer our reader to the Chapter "Ploughing the Sands." To what extent this rather negative disposition will hasten the spreading of the true Faith, is difficult to state. Will it, as is evident in England, promote a movement of return to the Church or accentuate, as in the United States, indifference and unbelief, the future alone can tell. But, is it not our duty in the meantime to make use of every tide and wind to bring the ship to port? The tide, as it is now running, shall bring to the Church many a shipwrecked soul.

This is our firm belief.

This rapid survey of Western conditions in their relation with the Church, without being a searching examination, outlines, as it were, the actual religious topography of our new Provinces. Our sole ambition is to help to wipe away, in our work, useless curves, make easier the grades and map out the straightest and most direct route to success. With the knowledge of conditions, less energy will be lost and more time will be gained. Time and energy are the necessary factors of true and permanent progress.



[1] "Catholics to a certain extent will remain an alien body. We differ from those around us in a profound fashion, not in matters of direct doctrine, for which the modern world has largely ceased to care, but in the effects of that doctrine. The Catholic's whole conception of man and of the fundamentals of human life is a different thing from that held by those about us."—H. Belloc.



PART II

EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS

"To-day's boy is to-morrow's man."



CHAPTER VIII.

WHY SEPARATE?[1]

A Moral Reason—A Social Reason—A Political Reason—A National Reason—A British Reason—A Historical Reason—A Religious Reason—For "Separate Schools."

The West is without a doubt the classical land of the "School problem in Canada." The Prairie Provinces will remember the struggles that have marked their birth in the Dominion. The words, "separate schools," rang loud and angry over the cradle of these youngest partners in our Confederation. The conflict has not subsided with years. Although the rights of the minority, at least in Saskatchewan and Alberta, are partially recognized by law, there are yet some who seem to have a mission to reopen the conflict by ever dragging the problem into the open arena of our political life. Under the specious pretext of national welfare they would foist upon the Canadian Public opinions and measures opposed to our existing system and to the broad spirit of liberty that inspires and maintains it. But we all know that in this persistent and methodical opposition to our separate schools the fundamental issue is a religious one. Life, after all, is a spiritual value. The school is the great loom on which the rising youth weaves its thread into the great and amazing tapestry of the nation. Who has the mastery of the school, has in the making that mysterious tapestry of human life.

This problem is but an aspect of the eternal struggle between the Christian and the Pagan ideal. The pagan ideal of civilization is the absorption of the individual by the State, the confiscation of liberty by the political monopoly of the nation.

The Christian ideal is the State at the service and for the protection of the individual and of the family. "To Caesar what belongs to Caesar; to God what belongs to God." Before the ever recrudescent forces of neo-paganisim it is most useful, we contend, to reassert in plain, terse language the principles, the reasons that explain and justify our persistent attitude on the school problem. They will be our answer to the question which is ever thrown at Catholics in Western Canada:

"Why separate?" We have placed the discussion of this problem on the higher plain of the unchangeable and unchanging principles of truth and justice, for, we are firm believers in the pacific penetration of ideas and in their conquering power. In truth alone, the Master stated, is true and abiding liberty: "You will know truth, and truth will make you free." Every true Canadian readily grasps the transcendent importance of the problem under examination and should bring to its discussion open-mindedness and sincerity.

I.—A Moral Reason

It is the right and duty of the parent to educate his child. This right is founded on nature. The child is the offspring of the parents, the continuation as it were of their own life. They are therefore the natural educators of their children. When they commit them to the care of others for instruction it is their right to have them educated as they wish. As by the supreme and sacred right of conscience man is free to give to his life its moral direction, so also does the same principle apply to the education of a child for whose conscience, as for whose life, the parent is responsible. The moral right of the parent, which is one with that of the child in that period of life, is fundamental. It constitutes the bed-rock on which rest all other rights in matters of education. To deny that principle, to deflect it from its proper meaning, to recognize it only partially, is to blast the very foundation of human nature. No reason of common good, of citizenship, can overthrow this right; on the contrary, it presupposes it; for, the State can only interfere to protect and help this right. It can never suppress it, and only supplement it when the parents are deficient and fall short of this sacred duty they owe their offspring.

II.—A Social Reason

Society is made up of various units, lending to one another support by the mutual participation in the activities of life. The family—the first in order of time and dignity—is beyond doubt the principal and central unit. The other social factors presuppose it and exist for its protection. Is it not the source from which springs the very life of the individual and wherein society replenishes its forces? The placing of the individual as the specific social unit of our modern democracy is a pernicious error. This fallacy has destroyed Society by upsetting the essential order of its units and has robbed the individual of his most elementary rights.

The substitution of the State for the family is most detrimental in any sphere of life. In matters of education it is nothing short of a disaster. The "State School Teacher" is an anomaly. It is the subversion of true social order for it constitutes "an unwarranted interference of the State in a function preeminently social. Education is a social function and cannot be converted into a governmental charge without violence to it." What Treitsche said of the Judiciary Power in a country may well be applied to education. "We find the first and fundamental principle of jurisprudence to be that no one should be withdrawn from the jurisdiction of his natural judge." The natural school of the child is the family; the common school should be nothing but an extension of the home. The mission of the school is to supplement the home and not to supplant it. The child and the parent therefore are entitled to have the same atmosphere pervade both school and home. Everything that is relevant to education belongs to the family. A policy that favours intrusion of an undue influence of the State in the school and destroys home authority and parental influence is unnatural and therefore anti-social. The State is not the natural teacher of the child.

This fusion of the political and social orders—which in reality means the suppression of the latter to the profit of the former—is the fatal error of the day and producive [Transcriber's note: productive?] of great evils. An Educational Department is the open door through which any Government may force its particular views on the growing generation. The monopoly of State education is nothing else but the conscription of the minds, an "intellectual militarism," which eventually leads to the absorption of the individual and the family and to greater disasters than war. Under the cover of citizenship it will legalize a country into servitude. The school ambitions of Prussia prepared the catastrophe the world has just witnessed. Always and everywhere the same cause will produce the same effects.

III.—A Political Reason

Authority and liberty are the two poles on which revolves Society. The perfect equilibrium of these two contending forces, one centripetal, the other centrifugal, make for its safety and welfare. The encroachment of one upon the other displaces the social axis and throws a nation out of its natural orbit. Political Society then oscillates between autocracy and anarchy. The infringement of this supreme law of moral gravitation has strewn the paths of history with the ruins of kingdoms and empires. The violation of a natural law bears always with itself its own punishment. For, society is not the conventional creation of man; it is governed by laws that man does not make, but, which his reason and experience discover and to which he must submit.

This perfect equilibrium of authority and liberty is perfectly expressed in Lincoln's famous definition: "A sane democracy is one of the people, by the people and for the people." The reason of this law of the political order is that liberty is previous to authority, for authority only exists to protect liberty against tyranny and to safeguard it against its own excesses. He is best governed who is least governed. LePlay, the celebrated French economist, made this just and pertinent remark: "The truly free nations are those who, without compromising this prosperity, extend the benefices of private life at the expense of public life." (Reforme Sociale II, page 92.)

Therefore the ideal State exists when all civil or social rights—which stand for the public enjoyment of all natural rights—are fully protected by political rights. These political liberties moreover claim not only the negative protection or non-interference of authority, but also its positive financial help. For political liberty exists for the protection of civil liberty, and not vice versa. The collective forces of a society are for the benefit of the individual and not the individual for them. A State is an institution for the protection of rights inherent to a free people.

The negation of this principle leads to the State paternalism which stands for the interference of State in matters which by right belong to the individual and the family. Never has State interference and State protection been more exaggerated than they are nowadays. The passing and pressing emergencies of the great war have accentuated these tendencies. The nations have kept the habit of being governed by orders-in-council, by arbitrary censorship and dictatorial methods. "The Executive has usurped the functions that rightly belong to the legislative assembly, with a virtual dictatorship as the inevitable result." The consequence of State Paternalism is the death of individual liberty either through socialism or autocracy. Man becomes the chattel of a bureaucratic government.

Of all civil liberties there is none more sacred, more fundamental than that of education. The freedom of education means the right of a parent to give to his offspring an education in harmony with his concept of life, with the dictates of his conscience. As education is nothing but a preparation for life, its theory goes hand in hand with the theory of life. To this liberty of the parent should correspond in society a political right. To deprive a free citizen of this right is to penalize him and oblige him—as is the case in Manitoba—to buy twice over a right of conscience. This condition wherever it exists is a flagrant abuse of political authority and consequently a social disorder.

Some may object to our argumentation and answer that in a modern democracy the majority rules, and the majority in the West are against "separate schools." The political right of the majority cannot cancel a moral right of the minority. It is a case here of repeating the statement of Burke: "The tyranny of a democracy is the most dangerous of all tyrannies because it allows no appeal against itself." This autocracy of numbers is often more dangerous and more brutal than that of a caste, of a czar, or of a king. Russia is giving us an illustration of this autocracy of number. Did not Germany use the same argument to crush Belgium and to try to dominate the World? Our sons have fought and died in this war against Prussianism and yet some of our Canadians—not worthy of the name—would willingly vote drastic measures of governmental repression which would make the Kaiser smile and the Czar Nicholas turn in his grave. The velvet glove may cover the mail-fist, but the blow is the same.

Others may claim that the State has a right to "Uniformity in the education of its citizens." This is the pretension of those who now are advocating so strongly and so widely the "federalization of our schools." We will not discuss the value of this plea for uniformity. It would open a very interesting pedagogical debate and we are inclined to believe that the "anti-uniformists" would carry away the honors. We do not pretend that the State has no rights in matters of education. But its interference should be consistent with the prior and more fundamental rights of the individual and the family and not become a usurpation or abrogation of them. Otherwise it would be the wrong way of doing the right thing.

IV.—A National Reason

The Constitution of a country has as its specific object the maintenance of the perfect equilibrium between authority and liberty. "It is the charter of a people's liberties, the shield of the individual against the possible tyranny of government, the effective check upon the ambition of every government to extend the sphere of its delegated powers. Unlike the law, its primary purpose is to restrain the Government, not the citizen. . . ." (P. Blakely, S.J.) America, Sept. 18, 1920.

The greatest liberty for the individual, combined with the greatest good of the commonwealth, has always been the ideal aimed at by the Fathers of a democratic country. To tamper with the Constitution on vital issues, to conceive it as an experiment, to ignore its spirit,—that obvious intention of its framers—is always eventually fatal to the peace and welfare of the nation. No one lays hands with impunity on that Ark of the Covenant. The essential changes in the Constitution of a country act as a time-fuse. An explosion necessarily follows, although it may take years and generations for a faulty legislation to disclose its real consequences. This is particularly true in matters of education. Laws of the educational departments may change to become more efficient in their administration but should never touch the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

In Canada the protection of the minority rights is a principle embodied in our Constitution, in the Imperial Statute of the British North America. Act. Even where the letter of the Provincial Law has established the "public school,"—as is the case in the Maritime Provinces—the spirit of the law is generally observed, and by a compromise and tacit agreement the rights of the minority are to a great extent recognized.

In the West, Manitoba stands out in Canadian History as the battlefield of educational rights. Although the British North America Act, 1867,—that intangible charter of Canadian liberties—stipulates, section 93, that in the carving out of new Provinces in the vast domains of the North West Territories the existing educational rights guaranteed to the minority should be respected, yet, the Manitoba Legislative Assembly has broken away from the letter and spirit of the Constitution and constituted a grievance which demands rectification.

The Federal Parliament partially recognized the principle of Separate Schools in the formation of the Provinces of Saskatchewan and of Alberta, by introducing, in section 17 of the Autonomy Bills of 1905, the section 93 of the B.N.A. Act, and by reasserting the existing rights granted by the N.W.T. School Ordinances of 1901. We say "partially," for it is not the right of collecting separate taxes and teaching Religion during the last half hour of the school-day that constitutes a really Catholic school.

The "Separate schools" in Saskatchewan and Alberta stand on the solid granite of our Constitution. The highest tribunals of the land and the Empire have implicitly recognized the principle of the minority-schools in many of their decisions. Moreover, let us not forget it! the separate school system in Canada is "protestant" in its origin. It was to protect the protestant minority of Lower Canada that this system, Catholic in Ontario, Protestant in Quebec, was adopted on September 18th, 1841. In the West the minority school-law was also enacted to protect the protestant minority of the Territories. Our Non-Catholic opponents should not forget this origin of our separate schools. What their fathers appreciated then for their children, we appreciate now for ours. The principle remains unchanged.

Some may be surprised at our contention to make an argument in favour of separate schools out of the very point on which rests the scaffolding of those who oppose them. They claim that the minority school principle is the greatest enemy of Canadian Unity. What we need, they say, is to standardize our schools, and bring all Canadian children under one system. No genuine "Canadianization" is possible without this unity of education. The advocates of these ideas are now at work promoting through the country the "nationalization of schools." The Conference of Winnipeg, 1919, was the first tangible result of this movement. A National Bureau of Education—a non-government institution, at least for the time being; a survey of school text-books throughout the Provinces, a study of matters affecting the status of the teaching profession—such are the duties that this National Council of Education has assumed at its first gathering.

This movement towards Federal control of schools involves the denial and the eventual suppression of the minority-principle in our system of Education. This nationalization of Education, we claim, is erroneous in its principle, anti-constitutional in its operation, and dangerous in its consequences. Uniformity in education, as a source of efficiency, is one of the fallacies of our materialistic age. Schools to be successful have not to be submitted to the same laws of a commercial or industrial combine. Ethnical and moral values do not follow the laws of the mart and the stock exchange. If in our extensive Dominion even a unity of tariff, readily acceptable to the East and to the West, is Utopian, how much more so would be the unity of the school system? Education, to be effective, must take the colour of the environments to meet the needs of the community. The levelling process would be most detrimental, for uniformity in education is the seed of decay.

And it is on the plea of making better Canadians that the promoters of "national schools" are drifting from the very basic principle of our educational system, from the law and spirit of our Constitution. Our form of Government, as we all know, is dual. Matters of education are relevant to the Province. The more the Province will abdicate its claims, and submit to the growing influence of the Federal powers, the greater will be the danger of losing the political equilibrium of Confederation. Unstable equilibrium, once disturbed, is hardly ever re-established. The centrifugal forces of the Province protect our liberties against the possible excesses of the centripetal forces of the Federal Government. Any movement that tends to break the harmony of these forces is, we claim, anti-Canadian. The Premier of Quebec speaking to the Deputy Ministers of Education and Superintendents of Public Instruction, at an inter-provincial Conference sounded this note of warning: "The absolute control by each Province of its educational system is the keystone of our Confederation; and the whole structure of Canada would crumble away if any attempt were made at suppressing that which holds its several parts together." (Nov. 4, 1921.) Quebec is blamed for being the great obstacle to the realization of the dreams of our nationalizers. Quebec, we maintain, is the most sane Province of the Dominion, and the greatest help to the maintenance of Confederation. This is now an admitted fact by every serious and broad minded Canadian. Its conservatism acts, we would say, as the governor on the complicated machine of Canadian political life. It regulates its speed and keeps it within the limits of safety. Moreover, we ask, how could a system which would deny the principles and rights of over forty per cent. of the population be rightly and justly named "national"? No one has the right to assume the monopoly of "nationalism."

"The self-appointed or State-appointed nationalizer, we would say with Father Millar, S.J., ignorant of our real history or its true meaning, is fast becoming a menace to the sanity of our laws and to the supreme wisdom of a traditional national policy." [2]

And what will be the consequences of this levelling uniformity that crushes parental right and fuses the powers of Provinces into a Federal unit? The Prussian ideal is the answer. We all know what that means and where it leads. Its principles are the solvents of what remains of Christianity—unconscious to many, it is true—in the political life of our country. The armies that our boys fought on the fields of Flanders were formed and trained in the national schools of Germany.

V.—A British Reason

The great misfortune of many who clamour against our separate schools is their total ignorance of our history and of the spirit that the liberty-loving Fathers of the Confederation have breathed into our laws. To them "national reasons" may not appeal. This is very often the case of the average Westerner. The West is in its making and has no past behind it. This fact alone can explain how easy the Western mind is open to influences opposed to the spirit of our Canadian institutions. It has no traditions, and traditions are the hidden roots that plunge down into the soil of history, into the hearts of past generations, and give to a people, its real national life. Therefore, a "British reason," a reason founded on British traditions, on the British way of doing things in the Colonies, may make a stronger appeal to our Western mentality.

Freedom and fair play for every citizen within the Empire, the recognition of racial and religious rights, have been the strength and success of the British Government in its Colonial policy. (We underline "colonial policy" for, we cannot say the same of England's policy with Ireland—) We would quote here what a well known Western public man wrote some years ago when, under the pen-name of "Daylight" he discussed the "Separate School problem" in the columns of "The Regina Leader," January 3rd, 1916.

"In conclusion there are one or two general remarks I should like to make. It has always appeared to me that there is among our English-speaking people of Canada a section of the community that holds extreme views on all matters pertaining to nationality and religion. This section holds and advocates the idea, that there must be no compromise in dealing with matters pertaining to race and religion. In a word, they would set about at once to "Prussianize" our complex population. They forget, or entirely ignore, the fact that this is not the British plan. If the British Empire is the glorious Empire it is to-day is it not because of the fact that long ago the British statesman and the British citizen have learned the lesson of tolerance? To-day, Great Britain with its forty-five millions of people rules over hundreds of millions of people of diverse nationalities and religious faiths, and throughout the whole scheme of government and constitution runs the idea of reasonable and just tolerance and compromise. Were this not so the British Empire would quickly fall to pieces. Why then should we not have more of this spirit in Canada, and particularly in Western Canada? Some people are mightily concerned about our foreign-born population. They imagine that the process of assimilation can and should be accomplished in a day. Nothing is further from the truth. The process is necessarily a slow one. It is bound to take two or three, and in some cases, more generations. In the meantime we should strive to make these people feel that they are welcome to our broad open plains and to our citizenship. As to the final outcome no one need have any doubt."

The principle that has created the British Empire is the only principle that will keep it on the map of the world. This is history, philosophy, and common sense.

And when we see England recognizing the Catholic elementary schools and subsidizing to a certain extent our secondary schools, when Scotland has just brought the Catholic schools of several cities into its system, is it not painful, to say the least, to hear our ultra-loyalists ever up in arms against our separate schools? To them we feel like saying, "Go back to England and Scotland, from whence you or your forefathers came and learn from the Home Country the lesson of tolerance, of sane political government."

VI.—A Historical Reason

In the discussion of many problems we are liable, particularly in the West, to limit our vision to conditions as they present themselves to the observer. This is more noticeable in the educational field. This frame of mind may be traced to various causes. But there is one cause which, we believe, is more responsible than others.

Unconsciously our age is "evolutionist." "The intellectual movement of 'evolution,'" said Glenn Frank, "was not the private plaything of biologists in sequestered laboratories, but a force that altered men's conceptions in every field of affairs." ("Century," Sept., 1920.) The theory of evolution has such a grasp on the modern mind that its concepts of government, of economics, of education are looked upon as the last and improved effort of man in his eternal struggle to express an unknown and always receding ideal. This has accustomed the mind to look upon the past but as a rudiment, an outline, a preparation of the future.

Without entering into the discussion of the objective evidence of the theory of evolution we may say that as far as education is concerned its premises are false. The human soul remains substantially the same and the process of its education has not varied very much with centuries. Those therefore who look upon our modern Educational system as the apex, the summing up of all past phases, are greatly mistaken. "The lessons of past history," writes Dr. Walsh, "are extremely precious not only because they show us where others made mistakes but also because they show us the successes of the past. The better we know these, the deeper our admiration for them, the better the outlook for ourselves and our accomplishment."

The State-school is an institution comparatively of very recent date and has no right to be heralded as the final expression of an educational system in a democracy. The history of education shows a lineage of men who can be more than favorably compared with the sons of our common schools. The mass of the people have indeed more instruction but, at times, we doubt if they are better educated. Results are the best judges of educational values. History and experience prove that success in education depends more on the sense of responsibility in the parents and of duty in the children, than on palatial school-houses and elaborate programme of studies. This sense of duty and the feeling of responsibility are not a necessary consequence of state schools. On the contrary they are more liable to be found in independent institutions. For, as we have seen, when the State substitutes itself for the family, the first consequence is the unchallenged yield of parental rights.

Those who would make an excursion into history and compare our modern educational systems with those of the past will find illuminating points of comparison and instructive conclusions. We would advise them to take Dr. Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., Litt.D., as guide. His books: "Education, how Old the New"—"The Thirteenth Century"—will prove most interesting reading.

Already a reactionary policy is being enacted in several countries where for years the State-School was the only one to share in the public treasury. In Holland, the Parliament of June, 1920, by a vote of 72 against 3, passed a new school-law which recognizes and subsidizes all separate primary, high and normal schools. In Italy, the Minister of Education, Benedetto Croce, in a speech on the "reorganization of education," stated publicly that the neutral school was theoretically absurd and practically impossible. In Spain,[3] by a Bill of May, 1919, the State universities have passed out of the hands of the Government. France, Portugal, Argentine Republic are fighting for the same freedom. In Poland's new charter of liberties, granted by the Treaty of Versailles, the rights of the minority in school matters are guaranteed. Our Canadian representatives signed this document. We were granting then to the new Republic a sacred right which we still refuse to our own at home, in the Province of Manitoba!

VII.—A Religious Reason

The creation of the state-school, necessarily undenominational in character, has made the "separate school" an absolute necessity. If religion has any meaning in life this reason of our separation should be most convincing.

In education one cannot separate the utilitarian side,—the fitting of the child for the struggle of life,—from its main purpose,—the development of moral character. The moral aspect alone gives to human life its true character, its real value. As there is no morality without religion, the system of education that would debar this essential feature falls short of its full meaning. With this principle in view any fair-minded man will understand how true Christian parents demand a school where their children will receive religious education. They are in conscience bound to exact for their offspring such education, and, where the State refuses them their own money to support their "separate schools" they willingly penalize themselves to give them this benefit. The child's eternal welfare is not to be sacrificed to a school system that has not even accomplished the purpose for which it was established. For, as we shall see, a neutral school is a practical impossibility.

Those who fail to understand the pressing force of this viewpoint have in our opinion lost the sense and sacredness of religion. They are astonished at the bitterness that characterizes at times the conflict. Are not religious and racial issues so intimately united with the very conception of life that they hold to the most intimate fibres of the human heart? For a Catholic, Religion is life itself in its most sacred aspect.

But, our opponents will argue, in a country like Canada, where "organized" religion—to speak their language—is so denominational, religion in school is an impossibility. Is it because other denominations cannot agree as to their religious tenets that we, who count over one-third of the total population and who stand united in our faith, are to surrender what we consider most essential in education and—lest we forget it—most protective to the best interests of our Country?

What does the State give us to replace the "separate school"? A neutral, undenominational, irreligious school. This neutrality we claim, is erroneous in theory and impossible in practice. The theory of the neutral school is erroneous because it is against the teaching of sound psychology and true pedagogy.

The soul of the child cannot be, as it were, divided into watertight compartments so as to segregate religious influence from its daily training. As Cardinal O'Connell stated, "We Catholics believe that as character is by far the most important product of education, the training of the will, the moulding of the heart, the grounding of the intellect in clear notions of right and wrong, obligation and duty, should not be left to haphazard or squeezed as an afterthought into an hour on Sunday. The moral and spiritual growth of the child ought normally to keep pace with his mental growth and the Church is convinced that taking human nature as it is, the result cannot be obtained effectively without including a judicious mixture of religious training with the daily routine of the school."

In fact a neutral school is an impossibility. We will simply ask our readers a few questions and rely on their fairmindedness to formulate the answers. Can the teaching of history be neutral? The Catholic Church and the Reformation are historical facts: how are they to be judged? How are ethics to be treated, without reference to God, to Jesus Christ, to an eternal sanction? Can a teacher divest himself of his mental attitude in the teaching of these subjects and answering the questions of the pupils?

Were the teaching really neutral, the very atmosphere of the school-room is what counts. This atmosphere is indefinable and yet everywhere felt. It is made of trifles, but of trifles that count at that receptive age of childhood. As a subtle perfume it impregnates the soul of the child with ideas and impressions which it will carry through life. Therefore the atmosphere of the class-room, we claim, should be as near as possible, that of the home. The parents have a right to see that it should be so. Is this possible in a neutral school? Its very negative character impregnates the class-rooms with an irreligious feeling which the impressionable mind of the child cannot but notice. How is the child to grow up with the feeling of Religion's importance in life if the ban is placed upon Religion the moment he passes the threshold of the school-room? "What we most dread," said Bishop McQuaid, "is not the direct teaching of the State-school, it is the indirect teaching which is most insidious and most dangerous. It is the moral atmosphere, the tone of thought permeating these schools that give cause for alarm. It is the indifferentism with regard to all religious belief we most of all fear. This is the dominant heresy that, imbibed in youth, can scarcely ever be eradicated. It is one that already has in our large towns and cities decimated Protestant Churches."

Even the provision of optional religious instruction at the dying hour of the class-day cannot redeem the neutral school. In fact the Survey of School conditions in Saskatchewan conducted by Dr. Foght, in 1918, revealed there a state of things which in our mind is an eye-opener in the matter under examination. Out of over 4,000 schools not more than 212 reported as availing themselves of the law on religious instruction. We leave to the reader to draw the conclusion these recent statistics suggest.

To conclude this already too lengthy argument, facts are vindicating in every country the saneness of the Catholic view-point on religious instruction and atmosphere in the school. The alarming increase of religious indifference, the rising tide of anarchy, the universal feeling of unrest, have prompted the unequivocal admissions of leaders of thought as to the moral failure of the neutral school.

Mr. William Jennings Bryan, in an address before the constitutional convention of Nebraska, a few years ago, brought this striking indictment against the State educational system of the United States. "The greatest menace to the public school system of to-day is, in my judgment, its Godlessness. We have allowed the moral influence to be crowded out. When I say moral, I mean morality based upon religion. We cannot build a system of morality on any other than a religious basis. We have gone too far in allowing religion to be eliminated from our schools. I would not have religion taught by public school teachers, but all sects and creeds should have equal opportunity to furnish at their own expense to students whose parents desire it, such instruction not to interfere with the hours of school. Our people will be better citizens and stronger for their work if along with the trained mind there is also an awakened moral sense."

In a recent report of the Interchurch Movement, based on a survey of American Education, prevailing conditions that now threaten the safety of State and Church are openly imputed to the neglect of religious training of childhood and youth in the schools. This deficiency in religious education on the part of the Evangelical sects is called by the authors of the report "Protestantism's weakest spot." Emphatic endorsement is given to the "denominational school" and full credit is not denied to the emphasis placed upon religious teaching in schools by the Catholic Church.

"It would be absolute madness," said Cardinal Bourne, at an Educational meeting in Edinburgh, "on the part of any civil authority at the present day to spurn and reject the educational assistance and educational power the Catholic Church was willing and ready to place at their disposal."

In our own country, the urgent necessity of introducing religion in our public school is now for every serious-minded Canadian an agonizing problem. How many attempts have been made to solve it? Was it not the principal topic discussed at the Educational Conference of Winnipeg (1919)?

The neutral school, we conclude, has been weighed and found wanting. The hand-writing is on the wall of every country where the experiment has been made and tells the same tale. Facts and principles give reason to our "Separate Schools."

* * * * * *

Why "Separate Schools?"—Because it is our right and our duty to have them.—This is our simple and straightforward answer to the ever renascent objection of those who are not of our opinion. That right rests on the solid rock of Justice, of History and of Religion; that duty we owe to our children, to ourselves, to our Church, and to our country.



[1] This chapter formed a series of articles in the North West Review of Winnipeg. The following editorial comment accompanied our concluding article.

"This week we publish the last of the series of articles by Father Daly, C.SS.R., dealing with the separate school question.

"We consider his contribution on this ever topical and historic problem one of the best reasoned and for the average man the most concise and useful yet published. It might well be issued in pamphlet form and kept for reference in every Catholic home in Western Canada, because the subject is one likely to be controversial for an indefinite period. Sometimes one finds Catholics who are not as well acquainted with the fact as they should be that the question of Catholic education can never be compromised. A solid and reasoned knowledge of this fact is in some respects as essential as if it were an article of faith, especially in Western Canada, which, as Father Daly points out, is the classic land of the school problem.

"Doubtless attempts will be made in the future to bring elementary education through the pretext of Canadianization, under the "invisible head" of this country. Or as in the United States segregated attempts may be made to abolish parochial schools altogether.

"Where there are so many probabilities and so much at stake it might be well for the average Catholic to be in a position to give a good account of himself by showing a thorough understanding of the question.

"If the present civilization succeeds, it will do so by adopting the methods of some, if not all, of our big corporations of to-day, and thus make of nations, huge Trust socialisms where the individual will hunger no more for freedom because of his having never tasted it. The one great desideratum to this end is the absolute control of education—an end that will never be reached so long as the Catholic Church continues to save Christian civilization through its religious schools.

"Would that our fellow citizens of other faiths knew the ruin that they court by relinquishing to a material power control over the minds and hearts of their children.

"In every country the public school is bringing young minds under the spell of worldliness. The result is selfishness, jingoism, narrow nationalism—an unthinking, a gullible generation to become the easy prey of exploiters and the docile slaves of commerce.

"No man who has drunk into his heart and mind in youth the truths of religious education can readily become the willing dupe of a materialistic state.

"Commerce to-day is the God of nations. It makes wars, compels peace and tramples upon morality and justice. Surely then Catholics should study in a particular way the only safeguard left them against such a fate—the sound philosophy of a religious education."

[2] America, Aug. 21, 1920.

[3] Cfr. Article by Father Vaughan, S.J., on this subject—America, Feb. 21, 1920.



CHAPTER IX.

A WINDOW IN THE WEST[1]

A Crusade for Better Schools in Saskatchewan—Its Lessons: an Invitation and a Warning.

"A Window in the West!"—This was the suggestive title given to a course of pedagogical studies instituted in a Folk High-School of Denmark. The object of this course was to promote the study of these English and American educational ideals which Denmark may assimilate with profit. They looked to the West for light!

May we be allowed also to open here, in this Educational Conference. . . . "A Window in the West." Through that window will come to you the bright vision of the educational activities of our Western Provinces, and, with that vision, I hope, the sunny and breezy atmosphere of new and progressive ideas. I will limit my present remarks to a brief sketch of what was known in Saskatchewan as the "Better School Movement." This educational movement has an interesting history and carries with it a very profitable lesson. As the object of this Conference is to forward the cause of education in this part of our great Dominion, we thought it would be both interesting and instructive to hear that history and learn that lesson that comes to us from beyond the Great Lakes.

The West, we know too well, has many things yet to learn from the East; but good old Mother East should at times forget "what has been"—and consider more "what is to be." In many points her growing western daughters can give her helpful suggestions. Moreover this exchange of ideas in an immense Dominion like ours is, we claim, absolutely necessary to keep the mental equilibrium between East and West. There are let us not forget it, many other problems beside the tariff problem which are widening the breach, deepening the chasm between these two sections of our Country. True patriotism demands co-operation, and not antagonism, between these two main sectors of that immense firing line, which is flung between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

1. History.—The history of the "Better School Movement" in Saskatchewan is not very old, but, like the vegetation on the western prairies had a rapid and healthy growth. It crowded into a few years a whole epoch of the educational life of the Province. On June 22, 1915, the Hon. W. Scott, then Premier and Minister of Education, made his epochal speech which launched the idea of a reform movement. The object of this movement was the re-adjustment of the school system, of its curriculum and administration, to conditions existing throughout the Province. The people of Saskatchewan were invited to constitute themselves a grand committee of the whole on education, to study facts and to suggest means. This invitation of the keen-sighted Premier was accepted by the people without any distinction of race, creed or language. The leader of the Opposition indorsed the idea and pledged the support of his party. This non-partisan movement crystallized itself in the "Saskatchewan Public Education League" which was formed at the general meeting of delegates from all over the Province, held in Regina, in Sept., 1916. The league became a forum for the expression of public opinion. The newspapers of the Province gave wide publicity to the new movement and threw open their columns to a public discussion. Teachers' associations, inspectors' conventions, church synods, grain growers' meetings, labour unions, medical councils, trustees' conventions particularly, made school improvements a fruitful topic at all their meetings of the year. Educational problems and reforms were in the air: never have we better understood the educational value of a publicity campaign; never have we seen it crowned with such a success. The climax of this campaign was a public holiday, June 30th, 1916; meetings were held in all the school districts of the Province, speeches were made, resolutions passed. Public opinion had been moulded and was ready for a "Survey" and Legislation.

By order in Council, June 7th, 1917, Premier Martin, successor to Hon. W. Scott, whom ill-health had forced to retire—made definite provision for an educational Survey. "This survey is in no sense of the word an investigation; for investigations are necessarily based on assumption of some sort of misfeasance or malfeasance. It is instead a sympathetic inquiry into the schools of the people as the schools actually exist. Suggestions for enlargement and re-direction are made throughout."

These are the very terms of Dr. Foght's report to the Government. This specialist in rural school practice, of the Bureau of Education, Washington, was engaged in this survey from August to November, 1917. His report was dated Jan. 20, 1918. At the session of that year it was submitted to Parliament and served as the basis of new legislation. Its reading will prove most interesting to friends of education, and most suggestive in the outlining of new policies of administration and in the remodelling of the curriculum.

II. Lesson.—This Saskatchewan Crusade for better schools carries with it a pointed lesson. In our humble estimation and from our view-point this lesson is a call for action; at the same time it sounds a warning.

1. An Invitation.—There is nothing, we believe, nothing more inviting than the readiness of our Western Provinces in dealing with problems. Here we have a beautiful example of that boldness of western youth, so confident in its resources, so optimistic in its views.

Like the West, let us diagnose our educational problems; a survey of prevailing conditions will show facts and figures. Let us see and admit the truth; camouflage is a poor policy in matters of such importance.

This diagnosis will naturally suggest remedies. Although there are certain standards in education, which are as stable as human nature itself, nevertheless, we must not forget that the human mind is a living thing—ever re-adjusting itself to environments that various factors have created. This readjustment of our methods in teaching and of our policies in administration, we know, is a very delicate process. But it has to be done and done rightly if education is not to be a misnomer.

This re-adjustment will demand the co-operation of the educational expert and the masses. The expert has his ear to the ground, his hand on the pulse to grasp the trend of human thought. He walks ahead to blaze the way. To find or, at least, to train specialists to direct the forward march is the easiest part of the problem. The greatest difficulty in all great movements is to overcome the profound and widespread indifference of the masses. Yet through this co-operation of the people will come the only valuable and permanent reforms. Without it our experts will court failure.

Two initial tasks impose themselves if we wish to enlist in this great educational movement the sympathies of the people: 1. To arouse interest in local communities. 2. To organize individual and group action.

A wide publicity campaign (in the papers, by means of lectures, distribution of literature, in season and out of season) is the only means of arousing the people from their apathy. It takes time to see the ideas of leaders and experts filter down into the lower strata of society. Yet we should always have faith in the mastery of ideas, in the ultimate triumph of truth and right.

The organization of units for a concerted action is a work of time and patience. Like the incoming tide it creeps in. This will suppose, to be efficient, a recognized leader and an established and well thought-out plan. This should be the definite result of this conference.

2. Warning.—But all is not gold in the El Dorado of the West. Many schemes and laws have its lustre; but they have the brassy sound of the neo-pagan state-monopoly ideal. This thought of the supremacy of State in matters of education permeates Dr. Foght's report from cover to cover. In general, legislation is looked upon in our new Provinces as the universal panacea for all evils. The West is the land of experimental legislation. In this we should not imitate our younger sisters. Let us beware of fads! Let us never forget that legislation, to be just and beneficial, should but help the individual and the family in the forwarding of their true interest and in the protection of their inalienable rights.

This extent of State Monopoly is noticeable in two of the most important recommendations of Dr. Foght's report. They are the enlargement of school districts, so that the limits of the district will coincide with those of the municipality, and the consolidation of rural schools. Reasons of better administration and great efficiency, no doubt, militate in favour of this change. Particularly "Consolidation" is on a working basis in many Provinces. But the great danger we see in this change is the placing of primary schools further away from the influence of the parents. The school ceases, to a great extent, to be "the extension of the home." The control of the parents is less direct. The doors are wide open to State interference.

These are the lessons we may take from the "Better School Movement" in Saskatchewan. Let us accept the invitation and heed the warning.

* * * * * *

One parting word.—Let the people of Nova Scotia be up and doing! The West is draining the East to its advantage. Your sons and daughters are doing the thinking for those new Provinces and creating another Dominion beyond our Lakes. If conditions are not changed, the Provinces "down by the sea" will lose their influence and cease to play their part around the family table of our vast Dominion. "Light comes from the East"—our Maritime people will proudly claim. "Yes! . . . and it travels westward!" . . . answers the Westerner.

[1] This chapter is the substance of a lecture given in Antigonish, N.S., at the Educational Conference, Aug. 11, 1919.



CHAPTER X.

UNICUIQUE SUUM[1]

Principle on which should be Based the Division of Company-Taxes between Public and Separate Schools.

When a point of law is ever before the courts it is an evident sign that the legislation governing that issue has been either defective in its basic principle or deficient in its proper application. Such has been the case of the "Company-School-taxes" in the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Every court in the land has had to deal with this problem, and if legislation is not changed and placed upon a more just and solid basis, it will ever be a source of trouble for the community.

Before dealing with the merit of this school question, we beg to state that the time for co-operation in educational matters has come. The day of wrangling and narrow conceptions has passed, we hope. If there is a sacred liberty ever protected by the British flag it is surely that of education.—The recognition and protection of ethical and religious ideals are the most potent factors of the British Empire. He is a true lover of British ideals who places himself upon that higher level to judge the rights of minorities and the duties of majorities. If our Province of Saskatchewan has not known the sterile struggles of a sister Province it is because this principle has been respected and protected by our legislation. In suggesting a remedy to our laws governing Company-school-taxes, I appeal to that broad and fair minded spirit which seems to characterize our banner Province of the West. The solution we propose would give more satisfaction to the interested parties and relieve the problem of its acrimony.

* * * * * *

In the Provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta the separate schools are an integral part of the public primary educational system. They are not parochial nor private schools, but public separate schools. Their existence is not a favour conceded to the Protestant or Catholic minority, but rather, the acknowledgement of a natural and constitutional right. Therefore the separate schools come under the common law. With the purely public schools, our separate public schools share equal obligations and equal rights. The same official inspection, the same qualifications for teachers, the same curriculum of studies, the same school text-books are required in both cases by the Department of Education. Equal right to public money is recognized in the indiscriminate distribution of Government-grants. So both schools stand side by side with equal duties and equal rights. If this point of law had been kept in view no painful issue would ever be raised; co-operation, and not antagonism, would be the aim of the community at large in the great and sublime work of education. Hard and bitter things have been said in the press, on the platform and even in the pulpit: but they do not change a right. Might itself cannot stamp out RIGHT.

* * * * * *

Public service is the principle of taxation. In return for the benefit which a business corporation derives from dealings with the public, distributive justice demands that part of the profits made, return to the community under the form of taxes. This feature of a business corporation makes it, I would say, soulless. One goes into business not to make a profession of faith, but to make money. He deals with every one indifferently. The dollar of a Christian or of a heathen has the same value as the dollar of a Jew. Were a company to discriminate with the public on lines of creed the public would be justified in retaliating.

Public utility, in matters of Company-taxes, is the basic principle of assessment; it should also be the reason of their equitable distribution. As the money of the public goes to Companies, irrespective of creed, so also should the taxes of these Companies come back to the community, irrespective of creed. As Companies are assessed in school matters for the benefit of the children of the community, the proceeds of the assessment should be therefore divided—not according to the faith of the shareholders of the company, but according to the number of children in each school district. And as the majority rules, the school district in the majority should strike the rate of taxation for both districts.

* * * * * *

The division of Company-taxes according to the faith of the shareholders is neither just, nor practical. It is not just for the reason we have brought forward. The principle involved in the present law is just when the individual is concerned, especially when the individual is the father of a family. As such, one has a right to support the school which his conscience obliges him to support. This natural right, our present law recognizes. But in the case of a company the principle of public utility and not the test of faith should be invoked, we believe.

This present law governing Company-taxes is not practical. The onus is on the Separate School-Board to enlist each year the sympathies of the companies. Before how many Boards of Directors is the matter brought up? The local manager is the one who deals with the problem, and he often is a stranger to the laws of the Province, with no sympathy for separate schools. Facts, stubborn facts, are there to prove our contention. In no city of the Province of Saskatchewan is the Separate School Board getting its part of Company-taxes. This is one of the reasons why our rate is often so high when compared with the Public School rate, and why our Boards are crippled in their finances.

* * * * * *

This simple reasoning should appeal to every fair-minded man. This change of legislation we advocate in the matter of Company-taxes, is not a favour we beg—but the mere recognition of a principle of distributive justice we ask.

NOTE. 1. The argument as presented herein is still stronger when applied to Companies of public utilities such as tramways, express companies, etc., for their nature and profits depend absolutely on the public.

NOTE. 2. SCHOOL LAW OF QUEBEC PROVINCE IN THE MATTER. No. 2892.

"When immovable property of such corporations and companies is within a territory, placed under the administration of two corporations of school commissioners of different religious beliefs, established in virtue of Article 2590, the corporation which comprises the greatest number of rate-payers entered on the valuation roll, shall be bound to levy the taxes affecting such property and to divide the same proportionately to the number of children from five to sixteen years of age residing in each municipality."—62 V. c. 28, s. 399.

[1] This memoir was presented to the Premier of Saskatchewan at a time when this problem was widely discussed in the Press. As the legislation, then enacted, did not bring a satisfactory solution we thought that the argument as presented would be of service for a future date.



CHAPTER XI.

DREAM OR REALITY[1]

Higher Education in Western Canada—Duty of the Hour—University Training Condition of Genuine Leadership—For Catholics Higher Education means Higher Catholic Education—The Concerted Action of all Catholics in Western Canada can make a Western Catholic University a Reality.

Never has the world manifested a keener and more general interest in higher education. The facilities which Governments offer to place within the reach of the mass of the people; the benefits of university education; the enormous sums left by wealthy individuals for the endowment of chairs and the foundation of scholarships; the eagerness with which these offers are grasped by men of all classes; the extraordinary success of the Overseas University in the American Army, which had a student body of 10,000—these are, without doubt, manifest signs of public opinion on the matter of higher education. The world-struggle, we all feel, has shifted to another battlefield, and the future in every realm of human activity rests on the mastery of ideas. In that intellectual conflict, the primary school rooms are the trenches on the first line of defence; the college and university lecture halls stand out as the strategic heights from which the heavy artillery of ideas smashes the way to victory. Hold the college and university heights to-day, and the hinterland of industry, commerce, science, art and politics will be yours to-morrow.

Catholics throughout our Dominion begin to realize that higher education is the price of leadership. "Of the many points of contact between the Church and the modern world, education is the point where Catholicism has most to gain by energetic thought and action, and most to lose by an atmosphere of indifference." We are waking up from our deep lethargy and beginning to understand that we shall not have our share in the shaping of the destinies of our own Country until our leaders, particularly among the laity, impose themselves upon the nation by their number and their value. The magnificent campaign of the "Antigonish Casket" in favour of higher education and the exchange of views this point at issue brought from various correspondents, the successful drive in favour of Loyola College of Montreal, the growing influence of the Catholic student bodies in the various universities, the creation of Laval, in Montreal, as a distinct unit from Quebec; the tremendous success this newly born organization met with in its drive for $5,000,000; all these facts indicate concentration of forces in the direction of higher education. The national Catholic conscience is awakened into action. "One of the most pressing needs of the Church at the present time, is to have a well-connected body of university-trained Catholics." This statement of Father Plater, S.J., is true also for Canada and more particularly for Western Canada. And indeed, this pressing need of higher education has come home of late to our western Catholics as is evidenced by the great efforts made to establish colleges in the various Provinces. As this move is of the greatest importance for the welfare of the Church in that promising part of our country, we thought to be of some service to the Western Church in drawing the attention of Catholics to this important issue and bringing to a focus certain indefinite, hazy views on the subject.

Higher Education—Duty of the Hour for Western Catholics.

"When a reflective man of middle life walks along the embowered paths of Oxford and Cambridge or through their quadrangles whose walls have echoed to the footsteps of so many brainy men of England, he realizes what these institutions have been and still are to Great Britain and the Empire." From the lecture halls of these seats of learning have gone, generation after generation, the men who framed and directed the course of studies of other universities, the legislators and statesmen that have shaped the destinies of the British Empire. "There is not a feature or a point in the national character which has made England great among the nations of the world, that is not strongly developed and plainly traceable in our universities. For eight hundred or a thousand years they have been intimately associated with everything that has concerned the highest interest of the country." (W. E. Gladstone.) This example of the power of Oxford and Cambridge is so typical that one immediately grasps its meaning and appreciates its full value. On that immense background of the Empire they stand out indeed in bold relief as the embodiment of higher education, as the great portals that open on the highway of true leadership. Is not the affiliation, that subtle intellectual bond which units our universities of Canada to those two great seats of learning, a permanent and living proof of this fact?

A university is the vital centre of a nation's life. Around it, by a gradual process of elimination and a natural force of gravitation, centre the master minds; from it, as from a fountain-head, flow with true leadership in every branch of human society, progress, wealth and prosperity. On the force of this centripetal and centrifugal movement of a university depends its value in the community. "The increase in number and efficiency of universities," said Bishop Spalding, "is the healthy proof of the vitality and energy of a nation."

In the educational system of a country the university stands out as the apex, the culminating and crowning point of its intellectual life. For, as the college course develops the studious and acquisitive powers of the mind, the university course has in view its creative and formative powers. "Glorious to most are the days of life in a great school," says Morley, "but it is at college that aspiring talents enter into their own inheritance." "It is the function of education in the highest sense, to teach man that there are latent in him possibilities beyond what he has dreamed of, and to develop in him capacities of which without contact with the highest learning, he had never become aware." (Haldane.) We may well call the university "the brains of a nation." It equips the student with standards and tests of objective truth. . . . It makes him dig down to the bed-rock on which truth in its various manifestations rests. . . . Universities are indeed the nurseries of the higher life, the living sources from which knowledge and culture flow in abundant streams. They do the thinking for the teeming masses who have neither the leisure nor the opportunity to think for themselves and who live on that mental atmosphere we call "public opinion." From the heights of our universities, ideas and principles gradually filter down into the lower strata of the nation. The novel, the Sunday supplement, the stage, the cinema screen—these post-graduate courses of the working man—are popularizing to-day the theories and ideals that were yesterday honoured in our secular institutions of higher education. It may take time, perhaps centuries, for this process of intellectual filtration; but ideas, like the stream, are bound to follow the incline of the water-shed.

If the change that takes place in the mind and conscience of the individual is a slow and subtle process, what should we not expect when there is question of a nation? Yes, the process is slow but it is sure. The permeation of evolutionism into every domain of human thought is a recent and most striking illustration of it. This fact stands out conspicuously on the pages of history. "Lord Acton's view of history," said Shane Leslie, "was that ideas, not men or events, made the differences between one era and the next." The mind is always the storm centre of revolutions, the breeding ground of the most conflicting theories. The great storms that sweep over humanity always gather on the high summits of religion and philosophy, blackening the mental horizon; sooner or later, they break out on the lower plains of the economic social and political world, spreading everywhere revolution and destruction. The blasphemous Proudhon gave utterance to a great truth when he wrote: "It is surprising how at the bottom of every political problem we always find some theology involved." We lay stress upon this aspect of universities, for, in our mind, from a catholic view-point, it is of the greatest importance in the discussion of the present issue.

The university is not only the focus of the intellectual life of a country; by its research work, by its applied science it becomes also the very fountain head of all national progress and prosperity. The natural resources lie dormant, the soil—that perennial source of wealth, is stagnant, the export-trade of manufactured goods and agricultural products is at its lowest ebb, until touched by the magic wand of the university expert. It is he who discovers, develops and shows how to make use of with profit, the hidden wealth of the land. The research bureaus instituted by the Government of Canada and the United States, co-operating with the various universities, are now considered as the most important factors of national prosperity. The Reclamation Service of the U.S. by irrigation, drainage and the pulling of stumps will reclaim nearly 300 million acres for colonization. To bring the economic value of a university nearer home to us, who does not know the beneficial influences of Saskatoon University on the agricultural pursuits of Saskatchewan? This relation of the university and the material prosperity of a country is so marked that the Mosely Educational Commission sent by England to the United States, most strongly emphasized that living connection and necessary correlation between the universities and the industrial and manufacturing prosperity of the United States.

A university is therefore not a mere luxury, but rather a necessary asset in a nation's life. "The development of the true spirit of the University among a people is a good measure of the development of its soul, and consequently of its civilization" (Haldane). "No country," we will conclude with "Catholic" in the Antigonish Casket, "ever attained to any degree of political influence, nor have any people ever risen from a lower to a higher level of intellectual and social culture, without the light and inspiration that flow from a genuine university." This vision was before the eyes of Cecil Rhodes who founded scholarships throughout the British Empire. These scholarships glean every year in the wide fields of the Empire the brightest minds and throw them as a beautiful sheaf at the foot of the great English Alma Mater, Oxford. Millions and millions have been left for the same purpose to the American Universities.

The university may well then be called the Alma Mater—the nursing mother, of the leaders of a nation. From its halls "emerge those who have that power of command which is born of penetrating insight. Such a power generally carries in its train the gift of organization, and organization is one of the foundations of national strength." (Lord Haldane.) The belief that the self-made men were the real successful men is a thing of the past. A careful investigation has proved that ninety per cent of the men who stood at the head of large financial, political, philanthropic, economic, industrial and commercial institutions of the world were graduates of universities.[2] The self-made man as a leader is the exception and has necessarily his limitations which he is the first to feel and acknowledge. Munsterberg in his book "The Americans" has a page which is very much to the point. "The most important factor of the aristocratic differentiation of America is higher Education and culture and this becomes more important every day. The social importance ascribed to a college graduate is all the time growing. It was kept back for a long time by unfortunate prejudices. Because other than intellectual forces had made the nation strong, and everywhere in the foreground of public activity there were vigorous and influential men who had not continued their education beyond the public grammar school, so the masses instinctively believed that insight, real energy and enterprise were better developed in the school of life than in the world of books. The college student was thought a weakling, in a way, who might have fine theories, but who would never help to solve the great national problems—a sort of academic "mug-wump," but not a leader. The banking house, factory, farm, the mine, law office and the political position were thought better places for the young (American) man than the college lecture halls. . . . This has profoundly changed now, and changes more, with every year. . . . The change has taken place in regard to what is expected of the college student; distrust has vanished and people realize that the intellectual discipline which he has had until his twenty-second year in the artificial and ideal world is after all the best training, less by its subject-matter than by its methods, is the best possible preparation for practical activity. . . . The leading positions are almost entirely in the hands of men of academic training and the mistrust of the theorizing college spirit has given place to a situation in which university presidents and professors have much to say on all practical questions of public life, and the college graduates are the real supporters of every movement toward reform and civilization." (Munsterberg—"The Americans" 600-602.)