| 635 October 20 Governor A. L. Thomas, of Utah, made his report to the Honorable John W. Noble, Secretary of the Interior, and among other things stated the following regarding the public schools, and the attitude of the Utah church towards the same.
Under the provisions of the Edmunds-Tucker Law, the Territorial superintendent of public schools is appointed by the Supreme Court of the Territory. He is required by law to make an annual report to Congress, and to give in his report detailed information respecting the schools. I shall therefore only refer to the subject in a general way. The importance of free public schools and an efficient public school system in which the youth may be educated, is universally recognized. While Utah has a very fair system of public schools, they fall far short of what they should be. The tax collected for the support of the schools does not pay one half the expenses of maintaining the schools, consequently the pupils must pay tuition fees or the schools be closed. In many of the poorer districts the children are denied school privileges for many months of the year.
There is but little prospect, in fact there is no prospect, that this will be changed. I am led to this conclusion by the fact that the Mormon people with almost entire unanimity are quietly preparing for denominational schools, in which their children may be taught Mormon theology in addition to the ordinary branches of education.
Stake or county academies have been established under church auspices, and in some of the school districts the Mormon children have been withdrawn from the public schools and placed in church schools.
The following extract from a letter written by Wilford Woodruff, the president of the Mormon church, shows very clearly the object and purpose of establishing these church schools:
"We feel that the time has arrived when the proper education of our children should be taken in hand by us as a people. Religious training is practically excluded from the public schools. The perusal of books we value as divine records is forbidden. Our children, if left to the training they receive in these schools, will grow up entirely ignorant of those principles of salvation for which the Latter Day Saints have made so many sacrifices. To permit this condition of things to exist among us would be criminal. The desire is universally expressed by all thinking people in the church that we should have schools where the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants can be used as text-books, and where the principles of our religion may form part of the teaching of the schools."
It is very plain that the church has decided to take its place as an enemy of the public school system and the principles which are at its foundation. The remedy for such an evil is obvious. Congress should at once place the control of the public schools in the hands of those who are
(page 635) |
