Chapter 195

ascribed “the cause of secession, which was the cause of the war,” to the fact that “Congress kept passing laws which it had no right to pass according to the Constitution.”[509] Further, in speaking of the withdrawal of South Carolina from the Union the author asserted that “she had a right to do this; that is, if the States rights party of the South was correct in its doctrine.”[510]

The Report condemned another history textbook, written by Blackburn and McDonald, because of the following passage: “The second year of the war now commenced; it found each section preparing with terrible earnestness for the conflict. The South was straining every nerve to resist the Northern multitudes; ... To fill her armies the North had a better and more successful mode, she offered immense bounties and high pay. Induced by these, thousands of European mercenaries enlisted. The South had nothing but her gallant children to put in the field and thus she was condemned to stake her most precious jewels against the trash of Europe.”[511]

Other grounds for criticism were found in Alexander Stephens’ common school history which was guilty of an effort “to indoctrinate the youth” of the South with the “monstrous heresy” of state rights and secession.[512]

“These Southern histories do not fail to make known their side of this question. They are full of it,” concluded the Committee. “What we deem treason is there made respectable. While our histories on the same subject are comparatively silent, indeed are so lamentably deficient upon this question that it were far better to discard all history of our country during the epoch of 1860-5 than to admit them to our schools as now compiled. It is indeed time to cease toying with treason for policy, and to cease illustrating rebels as heroes, as in the case of some of our school histories.”[513]

The Report of 1888 inaugurated a practice extending over a period of more than twenty years. The Report of 1892 laid its emphasis upon the fact that the textbooks in history “slandered the North and the cause of the Union, ... depreciated the value of our troops, and represented that the South was in the right, and that the army which saved the Union was a wicked aggressor....”[514]

In 1895 the Encampment, meeting at Louisville, had its attention called by the Department of Indiana to the character of history textbooks used in Northern schools. In that state alarm had been excited by Montgomery’s _Leading Facts of American History_, “the authorized history” for the public schools of the state. Under the auspices of the local G. A. R. an investigation of this book had been conducted. As a result, seven charges were presented against it, the indictment stating that Ellis’ _Eclectic Primary History_ and Barnes’ _History_ were believed to be “equally objectionable.”[515]

The objections of the Indiana G. A. R. received the endorsement of the national encampment, and Montgomery’s history was found guilty on the following counts: first, it contained “no suggestion or intimation that the men who fought for the preservation of the Union were right”; second, there was “a general unfairness of treatment of the people of the North, of the officers and soldiers of the Union armies and the battles fought by them”; third, it was “calculated to give the student false impressions as to the relative courage, heroism and achievements of the contending armies, and of the endurance, devotion and sacrifices of the people of the two sections of the country engaged in the conflict”; fourth, “the accounts of the victories of the Confederates” were “exaggerated, while those of the Union armies” were “dwarfed and made insignificant by comparison”; in the fifth place, “all statements of a commendatory and eulogistic character” were “reserved for the Confederates, while nothing of like character” was said “in favor of the Union soldiers or people”; sixth, that it was “unpatriotic and

## partisan in statement, tone and sentiment”; and seventh, that it was

“unreliable in its statement of facts.”[516]

Among objectionable history textbooks “written by Southern authors, for the avowed purpose of giving a history of the War of the Rebellion from a Southern standpoint,” was that of “Reverend Dr. D. W. Jones, published in 1896.”[517] This book was taken “as a fair sample of its class” by the Committee on School Histories reporting in 1897. The Veterans rested their case upon such a statement as: “The seceding states not only had a perfect right to withdraw from the Union but they had amply sufficient cause for doing so.”[518]

In the “careful examination” to which the school histories of the North were subjected by the Committee of 1897 no book was found which deserved “unqualified endorsement.”[519] This was due to the “one vital defect” common to all the histories--that all of them treated the War “as a contest between the sections of the country ... and not as a war waged by the Government for the suppression of rebellion against National authority and meant to destroy National existence.”[520] Indeed, the Committee had reached their conclusions regarding the “histories in general use in all sections” after “two days of examination.”[521] During this time they had found in “many of these works extravagant expressions as ‘this crushing defeat’” in speaking of the Northern army, and such a statement as “‘the Confederates could not be conquered until they were destroyed,’”--all equally obnoxious and uncomplimentary to the North.[522] Such a condition, the Committee felt, arose from “a commercial spirit” which “largely controls and inspires these publications.”[523]

In view of the situation as it then existed, the Committee asked that the “Encampment record a solemn and emphatic protest against the further use of any history of the Civil War in the public schools of this country which does not teach that this war was a war waged by the National Government for the suppression of rebellion and the preservation of National existence; that there was a right side and a wrong side, ... that in the decision of this question the victors were right and the vanquished wrong.”[524] They further recommended that the agitation for “improved text-books” be continued, that a permanent committee on the teaching of patriotism in the schools be appointed, and that the Grand Army of the Republic and its allied organizations “give direct and persistent attention to the removal and exclusion of improper histories ... in use.”[525]

The results of the agitation for “unbiased” histories which the Confederate Veterans felt had been achieved by 1896 in the South, the G. A. R. through their activities failed to accomplish in the North before 1898. However, at that time they felt “justified to report substantial improvement in the tone and sentiment” of textbooks,

## particularly in “the more recent publications.”[526] Yet they urged “a

continuance of effort ... to place before the children of the Republic truthful and patriotic histories” of the Civil War, and registered a “solemn and emphatic protest” against the proposal that the struggle of 1861 to 1865 be called “the Civil War between the States.”[527]

The following year the Committee report rang with a spirit of optimism because of the changed character of history writing and instruction brought about by “our organization.” As proof for their gratification they pointed out that “in one of the leading works in use more than fifty substantial changes of the text have been made in that portion presenting the history of the rebellion.”[528] Yet regret was expressed that no history known to them made “it clear in statement that the war for the preservation of the Union was prosecuted on the one side by the National Government and on the other by those in armed rebellion against its authority.”[529] To insure continued vigilance the Encampment approved the appointment of an “aide” to each department to keep in touch with the school histories in his state, and to “confer with school authorities and endeavor through them to secure the best obtainable school histories in the schools and the exclusion of such as are unfit.”[530]

The satisfaction expressed by the Committee of 1900 was reiterated at the encampment the following year. But the Committee were robbed of much of their gratification when they considered the “avowedly sectional standpoint” of histories in the South, where it was still taught that the Confederate States were “a lawful government.”[531]

The agitation to investigate history textbooks lost much of its vigor and aggressive anxiety with the opening of the twentieth century. In 1904 the chairman of the school history committee suggested “in view of the utter want of interest exhibited throughout the whole country in regard to this matter” that the committee “be abolished.”[532] Warren Lee Goss, national patriotic instructor, reporting at the forty-first encampment in 1907 declared it his belief that the G. A. R. were “not called upon to interfere in any way with the regular instruction in the schools in United States history, but rather to supplement that instruction by special observances.”[533] Two years later the portion of the report on patriotic instruction devoted to “histories” merely listed the textbooks most commonly used,[534] and in 1910 a similar report eulogized “the loyalty and patriotism of the majority [of those living] who wore the gray.”[535] This sympathetic and tolerant attitude seems to have remained unchallenged in the successive encampments of the G. A. R., and unlike the Confederate Veterans of the last few reunions, the Grand Army of the Republic have not sought to rekindle old animosities.

TEXTBOOKS FOR ROMAN CATHOLICS

As early as 1834 the Roman Catholics of New York urged upon the schools textbooks which would show agreement with their point of view. In 1828 the Public School Society, an organization designed to educate poor children not provided for by any religious society, was allowed to levy a local tax for its support. To this the Roman Catholics raised objections, since they were permitted to dictate neither the kind of instruction offered nor the textbooks adopted. Among the points in controversy was the request of the Catholic clergy that no book should be used but such as had been submitted to the Bishop and declared “free from sectarian principles or calumnies against his religion.”[536] In those books where objectionable statements were found, it was suggested “that such passages be expunged or left out in binding.”[537] The censorship requested was not granted, and in 1840 the agitation regarding textbooks was renewed. Again it was charged that some books contained passages not merely displeasing to the Roman Catholics, but hostile to their faith; whereas others indulged in statements which were both “defamatory” and “false.”

The trustees of the Public School Society, avowedly anxious to dissipate these objections, took measures to secure information from various sources, including both laymen and clergy, with the hope that a removal of the complaint might be effected. They adopted a resolution declaring that they would submit for examination, to the Reverend Felix Varela, some textbooks used in Public School Number 5. As further proof of their desire for harmony, the trustees appointed a committee of five to see whether the books in the schools or libraries contained passages derogatory to the Roman Catholics.[538] Following their action Reverend Mr. Varela pointed out certain objectionable features in some of the textbooks. In one geography he discovered a passage in which the Catholic clergy were characterized as having great influence but being opposed to the diffusion of knowledge. He also disapproved of the description of Italy in which were statements which would “tend to diminish the consideration that a Catholic child has for the Catholic Church.”[539] In another textbook, the discussion of the character of Luther proved objectionable, for, although it might please the Protestants, he felt that there was implied an attack on the Catholic Church.

On July 9, 1840, John Power, vice-general of the diocese of New York, wrote a letter to the editor of _Freeman’s Journal_, in which he voiced his disapproval of the textbooks employed to instruct children. Odium, he felt, was attached to the Catholic clergy because they were represented as keeping the people in ignorance to promote their own interests, and libraries contained books with “most malevolent and foul attacks on their religion ... no doubt with the very laudable purpose of teaching them [Catholic children] to abhor and despise that monster called popery.”[540]

With failure attending their efforts at censorship, the Roman Catholics resorted to an address to their “fellow citizens of the city and state of New York” in which they appealed for a redress of their grievances. “We are Americans and American citizens. If some of us are foreigners,” they declared, “it is only by the accident of birth,.... But our children, for whose rights as well as our own we contend in this matter, are Americans by nativity.”[541] Repeating the assertions of the priests, the address remonstrated against the false “historical statements respecting the men and things of past times, calculated to fill the minds of our children with errors of fact and at the same time to excite in them prejudice against the religion of their parents and guardians.”[542]

In answer to the exceptions raised by the Catholics, the trustees of the Public School Society expressed doubt as to the wisdom of expurgation, for they believed “nothing of a mere negative character” would be acceptable. “The books selected for the children,” they stated, “have, from the first, been those used and most highly esteemed as school-books. The passages objected to, or nearly all of them, are historical, and relate to what is generally called the Reformation. The writers were Protestants, and took a view of the men and incidents of that excited and eventful period directly opposed to those entertained by the members of the Roman Catholic Church. These portions, must, of course, be offensive to Catholics, and they furnish just cause for complaint.... The objectionable passages are not numerous, but the books are not to be found without them.... The difficulty of procuring books entirely exempt from objection cannot perhaps be more forcibly illustrated than by the fact that one work containing passages as liable to objection as almost any other, is now used as a class-book even in the Catholic schools. It is the intention of the trustees, nevertheless, to prosecute the work of expurgation until every just cause of complaint is removed.”[543]

As a result of the agitation, revised and expurgated books appeared; in some instances the objectionable passages were stamped out with ink from a wooden block or the leaves pasted together or removed. In some cases the books under criticism were prohibited in the libraries and the schools. Yet this failed to satisfy the Roman Catholics. When the expurgated editions were worn out, they were replaced by new books without changes, and gradually this discussion over textbooks subsided.

During the ’eighties it again became a matter of speculation with the Roman Catholics whether they should be taxed to support schools from which their children got “no benefit,” or, if attending, suffered “positive injury and injustice.”[544] They were indeed skeptical as to the merits of a non-sectarian education which they held “professedly non-Christian,”--a system that occupied itself “as little with the mission, history, and teachings of the divine Founder of Christianity” as it did “with the life and doctrines of Confucius or Buddha.”[545]

A storm center of the agitation was Boston, where the Catholics formed a considerable number of the population. Here a denunciation of public school instruction included both teachers and textbooks, resulting in the removal of Swinton’s _History_ and the dismissal of a teacher (a Mr. Travis) for “erroneous and misleading” statements about the granting of indulgences.

“It is very hard,” declared one writer on the controversy, “that a young man who teaches only what he has been taught himself, only what thousands of young men and women have been taught and are teaching, should be singled out and set aside for penalty while others go scot free.... While the Roman Catholics were weak they could not help themselves, and we went on saying what we pleased. Now they are numerous enough in some places to hold the balance of power, and they hold it with a mighty grasp....”[546]

In an effort to prevent the exclusion of the textbook from the schools, the Protestants advanced various arguments: that it had been in use ten years without protest, that “the outcry” was not “honest,” and that the agitation was “simply the opening wedge for riving our school system and dividing the public school money between Catholics and Protestants.”[547]

Other histories than Swinton’s were in like manner placed by the Catholics in the objectionable list. It was alleged that Prescott’s works “swarm[ed] with Puritan prejudice against all things Catholic” and that Macaulay’s _History of England_ emphasized the worst traits of Catholic personages and gave little credit to the Jesuits.[548] So far as Macaulay was concerned, one Catholic objected to sending his children to school to study history from a book acknowledged by the Protestants to be “a gloriously Protestant book,” by which his children would be “gloriously indoctrinated into Protestantism and a hatred of their parents’ religion.”[549]

As a means of settling the controversy it was suggested that all history or the parts relating to the Protestant and Catholic churches be omitted from the curriculum. This could be done, one writer maintained, “without missing anything of value to our common school system or to our other cherished institutions.” Moreover, it was also held that there were “plenty of undisputed topics” to be studied in the schools which were looked upon with “entire unanimity” by “all creeds,” such as two and two make four. For “nothing should ever be taught in schools supported by common funds except that which is accepted by the common faith.”[550]

With the great expansion of the Catholic Church in the United States since the Civil War and the growth of parochial schools in all parts of the country, the particular needs of the Catholics have been met by the enterprise of publishers in supplying special textbooks for their use.[551] As a result today there are found in parochial schools such social study textbooks as McCarthy’s _History of the United States_, O’Hara’s _A History of the United States_, _A History of the United States for Catholic Schools_ by the Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration of St. Rose Convent, La Crosse, Wisconsin, Lawler’s _Essentials of American History_, Betten’s _The Ancient World_, Betten and Kaufman’s _The Modern World_, and Burke’s _Political Economy_.[552]

The desire to present events in American history in such a way as to show the importance of the Catholic Church has led to the preparation of textbooks like McCarthy’s _History of the United States._ In this

## book it has been “made clear that Catholics discovered, and in a large

way, explored these continents, that Catholics transferred civilization hither, that they opened to the commerce of Europe the trade of the Pacific, and that they undertook the conversion of multitudes of dusky natives, of whom few had risen to the upper stages of barbarism.”[553] Although the “war for independence” was begun largely by Protestants, the author avers the help of Catholic nations like France and Spain gave “undoubted assistance to the New Republic.” Norse settlement and discovery are treated extensively, and Columbus’ missionary spirit receives considerable attention. Catholic notables like Governor Dongan, the Calverts, Captain John Barry, and Thomas Macdonough are given more space than ordinarily allotted in school histories. “The winning of the West, in which Catholics acted an important part,” the war on the sea in which are enumerated “the exploits of the O’Briens of Machias, Maine,” “the beginnings of the Catholic Church in America” and “Washington’s patriotic letter to his Catholic countrymen” are other unique features.[554]

Similar in point of view is the textbook written by the Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration. Its contents, announces the _Foreword_, are not immured within the bounds of “the usually taught historical facts,” but include “the too often forgotten efforts of the Church in American History.” Not only is the story of “the venturesome explorer, the intrepid colonizer, the hardy pioneer, the noble warrior, the eloquent statesman” narrated, but there is also depicted “the quiet heroism of the loyal sons and daughters of the Catholic Church.” “Our country is justly proud of the liberty she offers to all her children,” affirm the authors, “but these children are many in faith, and diversified in race peculiarities. Common interests may seem to unite them from time to time, but there can be no true, permanent union except where the spirit and the faith are dominating forces. But where is such a bond of unity except in the Catholic Church? Mother Church folds her arms about all her children and questions not their color or their race.”[555]

To the teachers, the authors offer certain aids and directions. The importance of a “proper setting of United States history with a knowledge of the threefold chronological divisions of world history” and an insight into the “difference between Sacred history and Profane, or Secular history” are indicated. In the period of colonization, teachers are urged to make clear, among other things, “how the Catholic Church, like the mustard seed of the Gospel, has flourished and grown, as it were, into a mighty tree.” The Sisters urge, also, a thorough delineation of the growth of the educational system of the United States including an understanding of “how our cherished parochial schools grew from humble beginnings into the splendid system which now labors so zealously for the spiritual and intellectual welfare of our country.”[556]

The Betten-Kaufman histories, _The Ancient World_ and _The Modern World_, are typical of Roman Catholic textbooks in the field of European history. Based upon West’s _Ancient World_ and his _Modern World_, the authors have introduced changes desirable for the purpose of “promoting the great cause of Catholic education.”[557] The chief departure from the traditional European history textbook used in the public schools is in the discussion of Luther and the Reformation. Although Tetzel’s use of the theory of indulgences is criticized in the Betten and Kaufman textbook as “ill advised,”[558] Luther’s theories regarding the remission of sins are characterized as “monstrous.”[559] The Church as an agency for good and for promoting the civilization of the world is given significant attention; the “Catholic view” of social evils is set forth in opposition to other theories, and a discussion of “harmonious coöperation” between church and state is intended to disclose the influence of the Church in the solution of the world’s evils.[560]

In an allied field Father Burke has written his _Political Economy designed for use in Catholic Colleges, High Schools, and Academies_. Here political economy is discussed not only from the standpoint of “the merely concrete, material things that enter into the science, but also with reference to the personalities of the members of society whose activity is exercised on these concrete, material things.”[561]

Father Burke’s book is divided into twenty-three chapters with titles common to the usual economics textbook. Its unique feature lies in the treatment of various economic theories from the point of view of the “Catholic School.” The doctrine of Malthus is rejected for moral and economic reasons, which take their course in “human injustice and selfishness in the spirit of greed that closes the hearts of men to the dictates of charity and fairness,” and which lead to “improper methods of the distribution of wealth.”[562] The author expresses a belief in the inequality of man, through which comes inequality of distribution. Such a hardship is due, in no small degree, Father Burke declares, to the “fallen state” of man. Because of the sin of his first parents he is “subject to death, to sufferings, to misery, and to labor.” This can be proved, it is averred, by the Book of Revelation. “Hence,” asserts Father Burke, “evils may exist in this world, injustice and oppression may go on, and the equilibration of things may never take place here; the wicked may prosper and the honest and just may be oppressed, and no adequate remedy may appear; yet the moment of compensation, of perfect justice, will come, if not in this life, then in the life of eternity.”[563]

Such a presentation of economic theories has been acclaimed highly satisfactory in Catholic reviews, for, “since ethics as a science directing human actions according to right reason embraces of necessity all of man’s activities, it follows that political economy is rightly subject to the laws of ethics.”[564] “This clear understanding of the state of the question ... enables us at once to detect the errors and dangers of many of the high sounding economic theories which occupy so much space in the literature of the day,” declares one reviewer.[565] Another reviewer in _Extension_ believes that an accurate knowledge of economic principles is impossible “from an examination of the text-books used in some of the secular colleges and universities” in which not only are “some of the so-called principles false, but the resultant deductions, where they are not entirely fallacious, are frequently misleading.”[566] _The Pilot_ offers its endorsement of the textbook because “in these days of industrial and economic unrest, when so much that is false and misleading is written on political and social problems, a book on political economy for Catholic schools is most welcome. Catholic philosophy sets forth sound and unimpeachable principles bearing upon the rights of the individual and of the family, and upon the powers and functions of ‘the State.’”[567]

The purpose of these books is to place emphasis upon Catholic contributions and the power of the Church. As indicated in a textbook written in the later nineteenth century, whose content is much the same as the more recent Catholic textbooks, it is “the manifest duty of those who are entrusted with the education of our children to see that in learning the history of the country they do not lose sight of the rise, progress, and social influences of the Church in the United States....[568] And finally, as religion is always the sweetest inspiration and support of patriotism, the breaking down of religious beliefs in various modern nations, and notably in our own, is accompanied by a loss of patriotism.... Reverence for authority is lost, and society, in order to protect itself, is driven to appeal to force. Nothing can avert the danger but the influence of a great moral power endorsed with all the attributes which create respect and encourage obedience. The Catholic Church is this power....”[569]

In turn, these textbooks have been criticised because of the amount of space given to the Catholic Church in comparison with that allotted other churches. One critic has asserted that the history by the Franciscan Sisters does not mention a single Protestant body after the period of the Revolution, and that “one ignorant of the true situation and reading this particular history would imagine that the United States was a Catholic nation.”[570] Further criticism has arisen because, in the critic’s mind, facts of history are mixed with “acts of Catholic piety.” As proof of this objection is cited an excerpt from a Catholic textbook in which is given a description of the death of Pizarro: “Just before he died he called upon his Redeemer and tracing with his bloody finger a cross upon the floor, he kissed the sacred symbol and expired.”[571]

Further evidence of this is seen by the same writer in the statement that “as the missionaries made their way westward, the worship of St. Mary marked their path till the great Mississippi, the River of the Immaculate Conception, bore them [down] toward those Spanish realms where every officer swore to defend the Immaculate Conception.”[572] To this objector of a separate history for Catholic schools, “it is the very evident purpose of these texts ... to propagate Catholic ideas and not to give a true picture of the development of America.”[573]

TEXTBOOKS IN CIVICS, ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY

Criticism of public school textbooks and teaching is not confined solely to the subject of history but includes in its ever-widening circle books in the allied fields of civics, economics and sociology. Especially is this true of those in government or civics. Since the close of the World War a movement for the teaching of the Constitution has closely paralleled that for the study of American history. Organizations and individuals with the avowed purpose of inculcating patriotism have urged that more attention than formerly be given the study of the machinery of government. To this end influence has been exerted for the passage of laws requiring the subject of civics in the schools, and many books on the Constitution have appeared to meet an increased demand.

Among the organizations which have sponsored the movement for instruction in the Constitution have been the American Bar Association, the National Security League, The Constitution Anniversary Association, and the Better America Federation. Organizations such as the Sentinels of the Republic are engaged in a similar program in adult education.

In 1922 in pursuance of a resolution adopted by the executive committee at Tampa, Florida, the American Bar Association appointed a Committee on American Citizenship “to devise ways for promoting the study of and devotion to American institutions and ideals.” This resolution was interpreted as laying upon the Committee “the duty to prepare a program under which the lawyers of the United States, coöperating with every patriotic society and organization, and with every true American man and woman, shall be urged to join in an earnest effort to stem the tide of radical, and often treasonable, attacks upon our Constitution, our laws, our courts, our law-making bodies, our executives and our flag, to arouse to action our dormant citizenship, to abolish ignorance, and crush falsehood, and to bring truth into the hearts of our citizenship.”[574]

The Committee recommended the appointment of a standing committee on American Citizenship, the appointment of local committees “to see that the Constitution of the United States is taught in every school ... to report to the bureau the courses in each state, the textbooks used, and the qualifications of teachers for teaching American citizenship.” In addition it was suggested that the coöperation of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws be enlisted “in an effort to have enacted in each state suitable laws making a course each year in the study of and devotion to American institutions and ideals part of the curriculum in all schools and colleges sustained or in any manner supported by public funds.”[575]

The Reports of 1923 and 1924 again envisaged “the need of activity” because of “the socialistic doctrines ... taught in many of our schools and colleges,” and pointed out that efforts of the Bar toward laws requiring the teaching of the Constitution had received encouragement from legislators and the public in general.[576] In 1923, according to the Report of that year, twenty-four states had definite laws, in five states laws had been introduced and in nineteen states there was no such statute. The principal difficulty which the Committee had encountered in having such a law passed had arisen out of “the conservatism of school authorities,” who appeared “fearful that the mere requirement” would “not necessarily be the best means of promoting the teaching of the Constitution,” and who were “slow to change from long established methods that had been used in connection with the school curriculum.”

In their advocacy for a wider-spread knowledge of the Constitution the American Bar Association received the coöperation of other organizations interested in the same work, such as the American Legion, patriotic societies, women’s organizations, the Masonic Service Association, the Knights of Columbus, Chambers of Commerce, the Rotary, Lions, and Kiwanis. Yet they felt that “the most powerful influence” that they could evoke “undoubtedly would be the association of teachers,” for they wished “to reach the mind of the child while it is still plastic.” They affirmed as their “ultimate aim” that “no child should leave even the common schools without an elementary knowledge and appreciation of our Constitution and what it means to every individual.”[577]

By 1924, the Committee reported the existence of a law requiring the teaching of the Constitution in thirty-one states, and in other commonwealths regulations of the state department of education effecting the same purpose.[578] One of the aspects of the situation which appeared to the Committee as more important even than properly qualified teachers was “the proper attitude toward our government and the spirit in which the teaching is performed”--a teaching which should be grounded “on bed-rock Americanism” and “imbued with a desire to communicate such spirit to their pupils.”[579] Indeed, it was held that “the schools of America should no more consider graduating a student who lacks faith in our government than a school of theology should graduate a minister who lacks faith in God.”[580]

According to the Report the educational activities of the Committee were many, “even going so far as to suggest to the ministers appropriate texts for Thanksgiving Day which should call attention to the blessing of our form of government.”[581] Members of the Bar had written special articles for several periodicals on good citizenship as well as furnishing cartoons for the press of the country. The Committee had aided in the display and sale of books on the Constitution, they had sponsored “a nation-wide celebration of Constitution week,” they had appeared as speakers on community programs and otherwise had helped in the celebration of national holidays. In addition they had prepared a “citizenship creed.” This creed stressed the obligations of citizenship and a faith in the American government, “the best government that has ever been created--the freest and most just for all the people.” To uphold and defend the government was at all times a duty of the citizen. “Just as the ‘Minute Man of the Revolution’ was ready upon a moment’s notice to defend his rights against foreign usurpation” so it was the citizen’s duty “as a patriotic American to be a ‘Minute Man of the Constitution’ ready at all times to defend the long-established and cherished institutions of our government against attack, either from within or with out,” and to do his “part in preserving the blessings of liberty” for which his “Revolutionary forefathers fought and died.”[582]

The National Security League is likewise engaged in the movement for teaching the Constitution in the schools. Through the Committee on Constitution Instruction and its Civic Department, the League has campaigned “for over three years” to have passed a bill requiring definite courses in the Constitution in all public schools.[583] According to literature circulated by the League, the Committee was rewarded by the passage of such a requirement in thirty-six states, in most cases the legislatures taking over verbatim the bill drafted by them.[584]

To the League’s program opposition to a mandatory legislative control of education occasionally arose from educational authorities in states where the bill had been introduced. But the chairman of the Committee was “glad to say that state legislators generally, representatives of the public will, have not agreed with these gentlemen and their arguments, and have looked upon a knowledge of the Constitution as an essential in citizen making.”[585]

In addition to legislation which requires the study of the Constitution, thirty-three states by May, 1925, made mandatory a teacher’s examination on the Constitution.[586] So far-reaching were the results of their activities, that the League’s Committee on Constitutional Instruction estimated that 200,500 teachers were required to teach the Constitution of the United States to a total of over 4,000,000 school children.[587]

To find suitable textbooks became a problem, for the Committee held that “while there are many books which satisfactorily explain the Constitution to advanced students and adults, there is practically nothing which suitably transmits the basic principles of our government to the minds of children.” For this “short stories” on the Constitution were necessary in order that facts concerning the history of the document would be “readily understood by the average child,” because when “eloquently taught and interpreted in story form by a teacher who knows it and reverences its provisions, it will rouse any class to enthusiasm.”[588]

Besides the “nation-wide popularization of the Constitution” through the distribution of almost a million copies of a “Catechism of the Constitution,” the National Security League endeavors to assist teachers in passing their examinations for licenses by publishing a Course on the Constitution for Normal Schools.[589] Its literature on the Constitution has been sent by request to 2038 teachers, to whom was also made available Dr. Jean Broadhurst’s book, _Verse for Patriots to Encourage Good Citizenship_, “of special value in teaching English literature and patriotism” and for holiday program materials.[590] In the campaign for education, Beck’s _The Constitution of the United States: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow_ was also sent “to the governors of all the States where the bill requiring the compulsory teaching of the Constitution has become a law, ... with the advice that the

## book is available for all teachers and instructors in their states

upon application.”[591] A teachers’ manual “which is attracting wide attention under the title ‘Our Constitution in My Town and My Life’ which contains 115 questions and answers on the Constitution for classroom use” has been written by Miss Etta V. Leighton, Civic Secretary.[592]

As an “evidence of the value” and of the influence of the Security League’s educational program, the “Report” for November 15, 1925, recounted “that the Professor of Political Science in a large western university will use our suggestions in revising her text book on the State and National Constitution.”[593]

The Constitution Anniversary Association, incorporated March, 1923, is another organization engaged in promoting a study of the Constitution in order to familiarize to a greater degree the people of this generation with “those historic days incident to the writing of the Constitution,” that they may “recognize their value” and understand “the danger of our drifting during recent years away from representative government toward direct action; from individual property rights to socialism; from individual responsibility for individual conduct toward class consciousness, class agitation and class legislation,....” A purpose of the Association is “to arouse interest in the men who wrote the Constitution ... to make clear that they were governmentally-minded as Edison and Marconi are electrically-minded; as Emerson and Socrates were philosophically-minded; as Shakespeare and Longfellow were literary-minded; as Mozart and Mendelssohn were musically-minded; and that in the light of all that history and experience could teach, they were making a contribution as important to the science of government as was [_sic_] the ten digits to the science of mathematics, the scale to music, or the alphabet to language.”[594] A further aim of the organization is “to urge upon educational institutions that in the teaching of History, Civics and Political Science the Constitution be given the place of prominence and importance which it deserves.”[595] The observance of Constitution Week, as the name of the Association attests, is of primary interest to the organization.

Harry F. Atwood, author of _Back to the Republic_, _Safeguarding American Ideals_ and _Keep God in American History_, directs the

## activities of the Constitution Anniversary Association. Since 1918 Mr.

Atwood “has spoken in all parts of the country to various types of audiences on the Constitution.”[596] While addressing a Los Angeles gathering under the auspices of the Better America Federation in May, 1922, Mr. Atwood sowed the seed for the National Oratorical Contest on the Constitution. It was at this meeting that Mr. Harry Chandler, of the _Los Angeles Times_, conceived the idea “of developing interest in the Constitution” by conducting such a contest in the schools of the state. As a result, “the school year of 1922-23 witnessed the preparation of over 8000 orations,” and “the final contest was held in Los Angeles where prizes aggregating $5000 were awarded.”[597] This led to similar contests in other states, supported by “the American Bar Association, the Constitution Anniversary Association and other patriotic organizations.”[598] The contest became nation-wide, the final meeting being held at Washington. In the second contest (1924-1925) over 18,000 schools entered; the awards amounted to $45,600, and 1,500,000 high school students competed. Twenty-eight daily newspapers across the continent conducted this contest.[599]

Mr. Atwood carries his advocacy of a knowledge of the Constitution and of representative government to the people not only through his addresses delivered throughout the country but also by means of his writings. It is his belief that “we have drifted from the _republic_ toward democracy; from statesmanship to demagogism” in “an age of retrogressive tendencies.”[600] He holds that a republic provides the “golden mean” of government, autocracy and democracy offering “undesirable extremes.” To make clear his meaning parallels are drawn between “the realm of nature and of human activity” and the realm of government, attributing to each “two extremes and the golden mean.” For instance, he believes that “what thirst is to the individual, autocracy is to government; what drunkenness is to the individual, democracy is to government; what temperance is to the individual, the _republic_ is to government.”[601]

According to Mr. Atwood “the most defective portion of our thinking and teaching in the schools is that phase of education which pertains to civics, economics and history.”[602] So far as textbooks are concerned, Mr. Atwood was convinced that “there are comparatively few who will contend that there has ever been written a good history of the United States of America.” The same statement holds true for textbooks in civil government, for none makes clear “to the average student the form of government that was established here under the Constitution.”[603] Mr. Atwood was concerned still more with the fact that so few students had read the Constitution,--students who had received from twelve to sixteen years’ education at the expense of the state. “So long as the expense of the public schools and State universities is paid by the government,” Mr. Atwood declared, “one object at least should be to turn out well informed and patriotic citizens, and the best possible way to do that is to give them an understanding of the meaning of the Constitution and a high regard for its wise provisions.” Mr. Atwood is, moreover, sympathetic with those who maintain that “teachers in the public schools should be impressed with the fact that their salaries are paid at public expense.”[604]

The sentiment of the Better America Federation of California regarding the study of the Constitution in the schools is not unlike that of the Constitution Anniversary Association. Mr. Woodworth Clum in “America is Calling,” a pamphlet to the students in high schools and colleges, sets forth the tenets of his organization, in his declaration that he would like to see “every school and college student in America not only learn the _Preamble_ to the Constitution so that they could repeat it verbatim at any time or any place, but ... also have them know its _meaning_ so well that when they repeat it they would recall the entire philosophy of the American government.”[605] Much apprehension was felt by the Better America Federation because of “groups of free thinkers or radicals” agitating for some other form of government under which there would be “no profits ... in business.”[606]

In accord with an interest in education evident in its earliest meetings, the American Federation of Labor has carried on investigations as to the character of teaching and the content of textbooks in the social studies. In 1903, the Executive Council was directed “to secure the introduction of textbooks that will be more in accord with modern thought upon social and political economy, books that will teach the dignity of manual labor, give due importance to the service that the laborer renders to society, and that will not teach the harmful doctrine that the wage-workers should be content with their lot, because of the opportunity that may be afforded a few of their number rising out of their class, instead of teaching that the wage earners should base their hopes upon the elevation of the conditions of the working people.”[607]

In 1919, the Executive Council was instructed “to appoint a committee to investigate the matter of selecting, or of preparing and publishing textbooks appropriate for classes of workers,” because the convention found “one of the chief difficulties in securing appropriate classes for the workers is the dearth of unbiased and suitable textbooks.”[608]

The committee thus appointed reported in 1920 an insufficient and inaccurate teaching of industrial growth and of the trade union movement. The responsibility for this condition was assessed upon the economists of the past “whose teachings still largely dominate in the educational institutions of our time,”--teachings “which have failed to stand the test of experience and of unbiased investigation.” Ideas held faulty were thought, furthermore, to be in no small measure the outgrowth of ideas gained from books failing to “state accurately and interpret correctly economic laws and their application to our modern industrial society.”[609] The Committee therefore recommended the preparation of a textbook by a competent trade unionist under the direction of the executive officers of the American Federation of Labor with a special committee for this purpose, and “the teaching of unemasculated industrial history embracing an accurate account of the organization of the workers and of the results thereof, the teaching of principles underlying industrial activities and relations, and a summary of legislation, state and federal, affecting industry.”[610]

The attention of the convention was focussed in its educational program the following year upon a proposed investigation of textbooks in civics, economics and history. The committee to whom this task was delegated reported in 1922. Their report, published in 1923, pointed out the importance of “instruction in social and economic studies,” because such studies are “vitally concerned with wide-spread understanding of our social and economic institutions and forces.”[611] Yet the American Federation of Labor expressly denied a desire to have their point of view “stressed to the exclusion of all others.” They wanted merely “an emphasis commensurate with its significance.” Nor did they wish “public education to be influenced by partisan bodies of any kind.” For they esteemed “the persons most competent to judge in detail what should be taught and how it should be taught ... those who are themselves engaged in the educational profession.”[612]

Inasmuch as “there are no more important determining factors than the economic fabric to which the majority of citizens contribute the larger share of their creative energy” the Federation considered essential a knowledge of the trade-union movement and “of all other social problems having to do with the welfare of the working people.”[613] The information held important for the worker they felt should be taught in the junior as well as in the senior high school, in order to reach those students who leave school early.[614]

In the consideration of the textbooks most commonly used in the public schools, the Federation’s committee held it “obvious that old-fashioned didactic methods of teaching are not suitable to the new treatment,” that “subjects should be presented not in the form of finished judgments and dogmatic rules ... but rather as observations of the world about us, concerning which the pupil must to a great extent exercise his own judgments;” and that “in the case of highly controversial subjects, important dissenting views should be fairly and adequately presented.”[615] Although special pleaders for some change in common educational practice, they asserted that “the labor movement, unlike selfish interests, does not and cannot depend for public favor upon narrow propaganda; what it wants and needs is the light of day and freedom of opinion. The more people know, and the more they think, the better in the long run for working men and women, and for all our citizenship.”

As a consequence of their premises, the Committee applied to the textbooks considered the following tests: “In the first place, is the book of old, narrow type, or of the newer and broader type? In the second place, is its general method that which inculcates certain fixed principles which may have been acceptable some time in the past, or, on the other hand, that which portrays society as a group of growing and changing institutions? In the third place, does it include adequate information about important subjects, particularly subjects of concern to the wage-earning population, such as trade-unionism, collective bargaining, standards of living, hours of work, safety and sanitation, housing, unemployment, civil liberty, and the judicial power? And in its treatment of these subjects, does it fairly present labor’s point of view as well as that of others?”[616]

The application of these tests to one hundred twenty-three textbooks--forty-seven histories, forty-seven civics, twenty-five economics, and four sociologies, revealed that fifty-five per cent were of “the newer type dealing with the broader aspects of government, and the social and industrial life of the people rather than with forms of organization, military events and abstract themes.” Sixty per cent were found to be “dynamic rather than static in their method of treatment” in that they recognized “to a greater or less degree the power for growth in our institutions.”

On the other hand, the Committee decided that “a majority of texts fell short of the standards in one or more important respects,”[617] although, on the whole, “the newer type of text” attempted “to give the labor movement in the problem of industry adequate and just consideration.”[618] Failure to do so the Committee attributed either “to ignorance of the author or to a hesitancy to deal with this difficult subject, rather than to a deliberate attempt to keep the facts of industry out of the schools.” The survey found “no evidence that text books are being used for propaganda purposes.”[619]

The Public Service Institute through its chairman also has urged a more extensive study of “labor civics,” and commended the New York course in civics for older grammar grade children and first year high school pupils.[620]

Still others have become censors of the character of social study instruction in the public schools. Books treating the modern problems of race, labor and capital, immigration, private property, and topics of like nature have been examined with a critical eye. The portrayal of facts relating to races and nationalities in the United States has proved a fruitful source of attack. Authors have been asked to omit or make colorless references to controversial topics in the preparation or the revision of textbooks which would discuss, for example, the Chinese and Japanese in America, the Italians and the Jews. In one city the negroes protested the use of a textbook because of a statement to the effect that the Southern white man tried to keep the negro from voting, the protest carrying enough weight to cause a special edition of the book to be printed for use in that city.

Its presentation of the subject of private property was the source of an attack upon Berry and Howe’s _Actual Democracy_, “an elementary discussion” of present-day problems in America. Exception was taken to children being taught that “private property is one of the fundamental institutions of American democracy ... an unmistakable index of social progress ... [which] cannot be destroyed without destroying also the ideals of liberty and democracy in which Americans believe.”[621]

Its method of discussing trade-unionism[622] and immigration likewise met disfavor. In the case of the latter subject, the critics were disturbed because, among other things, the authors concluded “that the immigration situation has rendered necessary a profound change in the very structure of our government. [For] in order to control the turbulent non-American elements, we have been compelled to modify many of our earlier democratic ideals and to adopt centralization of authority, which is far different in spirit from American traditions ... [and] that [due to immigration] American democracy is facing a life and death struggle with Marxian socialism.”[623]

In treating freedom of speech the author of the secondary school textbook is to no less degree upon slippery ground, for here again critics have acclaimed partisanship and bias evident in discussions. On this charge A. T. Southworth has been adjudged guilty in his _The Common Sense of the Constitution of the United States_ in that he says, “This amendment [the first amendment] also guarantees the right of free speech. There can, of course, be no such thing as absolute free speech. The only persons who say exactly what they think every minute of the day are babies and fools.... There is reason in all things, and on general principles a person may say in this country anything he pleases, provided what he says is not libelous or slanderous, or contrary to the public morals; and provided that he does not advocate the overthrow of the government by force. In this country where we have a government, not of men but of laws, it is not reasonable that anyone should preach the overthrow of the government by force. If B says, ‘Murder A, throw him out of office, and let me rule,’ then it is perfectly logical for C to advocate the murder of B after B has set himself up as a ruler. This is anarchy.”[624]

The allegation that textbook-making has been directed by “Big Business” has also been made. As a case in point, Hughes’s _Text-Book in Citizenship_ has been cited as one which carries many illustrations printed “by courtesy” of such corporations as the Carnegie Steel Company, the International Harvester Company and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.[625] “And,” according to the critic, “it is not pictures of blast furnaces with sweating men ... but pictures of Americanization schools ... factory gardens ... model factory buildings ... and a group of twenty-four elderly men, who having labored for thirty-five years each in the employ of the Carnegie Steel Company are posed at the annual picnic given to the employees as a reward for services rendered.”[626] A section in the same textbook, “Employers of the Right Sort,” in which is discussed profit sharing by the employees of the United States Steel Company, also met with disapproval. Equally disliked was Mr. Hughes’s discussion of the I. W. W. because he said: “It is hard to see how a right-thinking American can possibly indulge in such performances or hold such theories. A decent man finds it difficult to sympathize with even oppressed people who use any such means to have their grievances corrected.”[627] The textbook was further adjudged biased in its discussion of Lenin and Trotsky as “two able and unscrupulous leaders” and of the anarchists whom “no civilized people can tolerate.”[628] On the other hand, the same author’s book _Economic Civics_ was attacked by a member of the American Car Company of Berwick, Pennsylvania, on the ground of being “Bolshevistic.”

Other books have incurred the disapproval of business interests. _American Economic Life_ by Henry Reed Burch has been charged with being “unfair” in its treatment of monopolies for saying: “Trolley lines, subways and ’bus companies often possess great monopoly power. For example, in a city of one million and a half the competitive cost of transportation perhaps does not exceed three or four cents a passenger, yet the actual price paid by the passenger is usually from five to eight cents. This difference between the price paid and the competitive price represents the extent of the monopoly power.”[629]

Many business organizations have interested themselves in a program for education not only among their own employees but among the people in general. Pamphlets and other published materials have in this way been distributed to set forth the point of view held desirable. Such a motive doubtless led to a survey of books dealing with the subject of banking in 1919 by the American Bankers Association. The examination of the books induced the Association through their Public Education Commission to publish and distribute a series of talks to be given in the schools, since the books examined were, on the whole, found to be “prepared from the standpoint of bankers, and not the standpoint of the mass of students who attend high school.”[630] The talks were designed to be delivered by bankers to pupils in the eighth grade, the senior year of the high school, and to civic, business and fraternal organizations in order to acquaint people more thoroughly with methods of banking.[631]

During the World War the preparation of a series of lessons entitled _Lessons in Community and National Life_ under the auspices of the Bureau of Education and the Food Administration provoked adverse criticism from the National Industrial Conference Board. In the lessons topics pertinent to a study of community civics were treated, and included discussions on international trade relations, manufacturing methods, labor organizations and similar subjects. To these, exception was taken, and it was asserted that “opinions on controversial subjects are frequently introduced into the Lessons by suggestion rather than by direct statement, and through the whole fabric is woven a thread of propaganda in favor of the eight-hour day, old age pensions, social insurance, trade-unionism, the minimum wage and similar issues.”[632] A “partisan” attitude was said to be expressed in such a statement as: “We are told that in the United States somebody is injured while at work every fifteen seconds, and somebody is killed every fifteen minutes. We cannot wonder at this when we realize how many dangers there are in modern industry.”[633] According to _The_ [New York] _World_, Magnus N. Alexander, managing director of the National Industrial Conference Board, alarmed a convention of the National Boot and Shoe Manufacturers’ Association when he told them that these lessons were spreading “insidious, unwarranted propaganda, particularly injurious for reading by youth in the plastic age when youth is inclined to take for granted and as proved all that is said through the medium of the books in his classroom.”[634]

These criticisms caused editorial comment in different periodicals throughout the country. _The Capital Daily Press_ of Bismarck, North Dakota, declaring that “for generations the reactionaries have maintained their grip on the control of our educational institutions, and from the kindergarten to college the ‘plastic minds of our youth’ have been sedulously taught the superior sacredness of private property and the supremacy of dollar rights over human rights. This is one thing which has made political and industrial progress so slow.”[635]

To the editor of _The School Review_ the whole discussion furnished “a legitimate opportunity to call attention to the fact that the schools have been very deficient in times past in their treatment of social problems.” He felt that the time had come “when there ought to be a very clear and explicit assertion on the part of educational people that they will not be dominated by such criticism as here presented,” for he believed “the schools of a democracy have a right to discuss democratic and popular matters.”[636]

FOOTNOTES:

[411] Stephens, H. Morse, “Nationality and History,” _The American Historical Review_, Vol. XXI (January, 1916), pp. 225-237.

[412] “Our School Books,” _De Bow’s Review_, Vol. XXVIII (1860), p. 435 _et seq._

[413] _Ibid._, p. 439.

[414] _Ibid._, p. 437.

[415] _The United States Telegraph_, October 5, 1836, in which appeared Duff Green’s prospectus for the American Literary Company, which was to have a capital of $500,000 to print the _Telegraph_, manufacture paper, publish books, prepare a new series of elementary school textbooks, elevate the general standing of literature, and “render the South independent of Northern fanatics.”

[416] _De Bow’s Review_, Vol. XVIII (1855), pp. 660-661.

[417] _De Bow’s Review_, Vol. XXVIII (1860), p. 435 _et seq._

[418] “Southern School Books,” _De Bow’s Review_, Vol. XIII (1852), pp. 258-266.

[419] _Ibid._, p. 265.

[420] _Ibid._, Vol. XV (1853), p. 268.

[421] _Ibid._, Vol. XVII (1854), p. 508.

[422] _Ibid._

[423] _Ibid._, Vol. XXI (1856), p. 553.

[424] _Ibid._, Vol. XXII (1857), p. 104. Committee was composed of J. D. S. De Bow, of Louisiana; H. Gourdin, of South Carolina; and D. McRae, of North Carolina.

[425] _Ibid._

[426] _Ibid._

[427] _Ibid._, Vol. XXV (1856), p. 117. Article on “Southern School Books.”

[428] _Ibid._, p. 597.

[429] Peter Parley was the pen-name of S. G. Goodrich.

[430] “Education at the South,” by “A South Carolinian,” _ibid._, Vol. XXI (1856), pp. 651-652. Peter Parley’s (Goodrich’s) _Pictorial History of the United States_ was also criticized. _Ibid._, p. 657.

[431] _Ibid._, Vol. XXIX (1860), p. 219.

[432] _Ibid._, Vol. XVIII (1855), p. 661.

[433] _Ibid._, p. 663.

[434] _Ibid._, Vol. XXI (1856), p. 653.

[435] _Ibid._, p. 653. The italics are supplied by the transcriber.

[436] _Ibid._, Vol. XXII (1857), P. 557. Criticism of Willson’s _Outlines of History_ and his _American History_.

[437] _Ibid._, Vol. XXVIII (1860), p. 438. “Our School Books.”

[438] _Ibid._, Vol. XXII (1857), p. 557. Again in an article on “Southern School Books,” Vol. XXV (1858), p. 117. Geographies and readers received similar criticism, because they, too, contained “invidious” comparisons or sought to “inculcate improper precepts” in the minds of the children on the subject of slavery. In 1868 Willson’s _Intermediate Readers_ were condemned because the fourth of the series declared: “The Great Rebellion was a war set on foot for the purpose of destroying the government of the United States.”

[439] Russell, William Howard, _My Diary North and South_ (Boston, 1863), p. 25. “Mr. Appleton sells no less than one million and a half of Webster’s spelling-books a year; his tables are covered with a flood of pamphlets, some for, others against coercion; some for, others opposed to slavery,--but when I asked for a single solid, substantial work on the present difficulty, I was told there was not one published worth a cent.”

[440] _Acts_ of Louisiana, 1859, No. 244, p. 190.

[441] _Minutes of the Third Annual Meeting and Reunion of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1892, pp. 98-99.

[442] _Minutes of the Fourth Annual Meeting and Reunion of the United Confederate Veterans_ ... 1894, pp. 3-12.

[443] _Ibid._

[444] _Ibid._ The meeting of the Veterans was at Birmingham, Alabama.

[445] _Minutes of the Fifth Annual Meeting and Reunion of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1895, p. 13.

[446] _Ibid._, p. 15. The Committee of 1895 added to the list of acceptable textbooks drawn up in 1894 the _History of the United States_ by Susan P. Lee.

[447] In the meeting held in 1896 the following histories received endorsement: _School History of the United States_, by J. William Jones, D. D. of Virginia, _Brief History of the United States_, by Susan Pendleton Lee of Virginia, _Our Country, A History of the States_, by Oscar H. Cooper and others of Texas. _Minutes ... of the United Confederate Veterans_, ... 1896, pp. 28-50.

[448] _Minutes ... of the United Confederate Veterans_ ... 1897, p. 49. See also _Journal ... of the Grand Army of the Republic_ ... 1897, p. 233. The activities of the G. A. R. are discussed later.

[449] _Minutes ... of the United Confederate Veterans_ ..., _op. cit._, p. 46.

[450] _Ibid._

[451] _Minutes ... of the United Confederate Veterans_ ... 1898, p. 87.

[452] _Ibid._, pp. 44-52.

[453] _Ibid._

[454] _Ibid._

[455] _Minutes ... of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1898, pp. 144-154.

[456] _Ibid._, p. 147.

[457] _Ibid._, p. 152.

[458] _Ibid._

[459] _Minutes ... of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1900, pp. 78, 80.

[460] _Minutes ... of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1902, pp. 54-59. The Report of 1901 pointed out that “one of the most favorable omens of our times is the catholicity with which thoughtful men, both North and South, now speak and write of the issues of the war between the States.” _Minutes ... of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1901, p. 61. A similar sentiment was expressed at the Reunion of 1904. _Minutes ... of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1904, pp. 32-33.

[461] _Minutes ... of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1909, pp. 30-38.

[462] _Minutes ... of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1910, p. 101.

[463] _Minutes ... of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1903, p. 164. The Southerners felt that Northern histories failed to recognize any successes of the Confederate forces. The objectionable points in Stratton’s book were found on pages 257-258, according to the _Minutes_.

[464] _Minutes ... of the Confederate Veterans_ ... 1911, p. 11.

[465] _Ibid._

[466] _Ibid._ This appeared in large black-faced type in the _Report_.

[467] _Ibid._, p. 12.

[468] _Ibid._, p. 13.

[469] _Ibid._

[470] _Ibid._

[471] _Ibid._

[472] _Reunion of the United Confederate Veterans Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Reunion._

[473] _Minutes ... United Confederate Veterans_, 1921, p. 11. Report of the Rutherford Committee, October 24, 1921, C. Irvine Walker, general chairman.

[474] _The New York Times_, June 21, 1922. Miss Rutherford’s ideas had been endorsed by the United Confederate Veterans in Atlanta, October 7-11, 1919. See _A Measuring Rod for Text-Books_ prepared by Miss Rutherford (Athens, Georgia). This pamphlet sought to establish some of the facts later brought out in _Truths of History_.

[475] _Ibid._

[476] _Chicago Daily Tribune_, June 23, 1922, editorial.

[477] _The New York Times_, June 23, 1922, editorial. The _Times_ felt that “quite the gravest of Miss Rutherford’s charges against Lincoln, ... is that he wanted a civil war and forced the South to begin one that inevitably would end in her defeat and ruin.” Objection was also raised to Miss Rutherford’s charge that Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was worthless. Rutherford, Mildred, _Truths of History_ (Athens, Georgia, 1921).

[478] _The New York Times_, June 28, 1922.

[479] _Ibid._, June 24, 1922.

[480] _Ibid._, November 4, 1922.

[481] Written in 1917 and sent to Miss Rutherford who added to the contents and produced her _Truths of History_.

[482] Rutherford, _op. cit._

[483] _Ibid._, p. 64. Miss Rutherford gave no source for this quotation.

[484] _Ibid._, p. 70. Miss Rutherford ascribed this quotation to Lamon’s _Life of Lincoln_.

[485] _Ibid._, from Lamon’s _Life of Lincoln_.

[486] _Ibid._, pp. 77-78. Quoted from Charles Francis Adams, Lamon’s _Recollections of Lincoln_, Mr. Everett, and Mr. Seward.

[487] _Ibid._, p. 71.

[488] _Ibid._, p. 57.

[489] _Ibid._, p. 1.

[490] _Ibid._, p. 11.

[491] _Ibid._

[492] _Ibid._

[493] _Ibid._, p. v.

[494] Davidson, William M., _History of the United States_ (Chicago, 1903); Montgomery, David, _The Beginner’s American History_ (Boston, 1899, 1920); Muzzey, D. S., _An American History_ (Boston, 1920).

[495] Rutherford, _op. cit._, p. 104.

[496] _Ibid._, p. 110. This quotation from Muzzey’s is incorrect in _Truths of History_. Muzzey, eulogizing the Southern women, adds this statement: “It is impossible for the student of history today to feel otherwise than that the victory of the South in 1861-1865 would have been a calamity for every section of our country. But the indomitable valor and utter self-sacrifice with which the South defended her cause both at home and in the field must always arouse our admiration.” Muzzey, _An American History_, pp. 372-373.

[497] Rutherford, _op. cit._, p. 104. In her chapter entitled “Reconstruction was not just to the South. This injustice made the Ku Klux Klan a necessity,” Miss Rutherford, pursuing a policy peculiarly inharmonious for a writer of _Truths of History_, allowed herself again to become negligent as to the accuracy of her quotations. Citing Muzzey as one authority for the title of her chapter, she ascribed the following statement to him: “The rules of these negro governments of 1868 was an indescribable orgy of extravagance, fraud and disgusting incompetence--a travesty on government. Unprincipled politicians dominated the States’ government and plunged the States further and further into debt by voting themselves enormous salaries, and reaping in many ways hundreds of thousands of dollars in graft. In South Carolina $200,000 were spent in furnishing the State Capitol with costly plate glass mirrors, lounges, armchairs, a free bar and other luxurious appointments for the use of the negro and scalawag legislators. It took the South nine years to get rid of these governments.” In reading Muzzey’s book, the reader cannot but wonder at the reason for the inaccuracy of the quotation, for precisely the same end would have been accomplished had Miss Rutherford quoted verbatim: “The Reconstruction governments of the South were sorry affairs. For the exhausted states, already amply ‘punished’ by the desolation of war, the rule of the negro and his unscrupulous carpetbagger patron was an indescribable orgy of extravagance, fraud, and disgusting incompetence,--a travesty on government. Instead of seeking to build up the shattered resources of the South by economy and industry, the new legislators plunged the states further and further into debt by voting themselves enormous salaries and by spending lavish sums of money on railroads, canals, and public buildings and works, for which they reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars in graft.” In a footnote Muzzey adds the following from which Miss Rutherford has culled the idea for part of her quotation: “The economic evils and social humiliation brought on the South by the Reconstruction governments are almost beyond description. South Carolina, for example, had a legislature in which 98 of the 155 members were negroes ...; in one year $200,000 was spent in furnishing the state capitol with costly plate-glass mirrors, lounges, desks, armchairs, and other luxurious appointments, including a free bar for the use of the negro and scalawag legislators. It took the Southern states from two to nine years to get rid of these governments.” See Rutherford, _op. cit._, p. 87; Muzzey, _op. cit._, pp. 387-388.

[498] Horton, Rushmore G., _A Youth’s History of the Great Civil War in the United States from 1861-1865_ (New York, 1866).

[499] Lee, _New School History of the United States_, p. 261.

[500] _Ibid._, p. 357.

[501] Evans, Lawton B., _The Essential Facts of American History_ (Benjamin H. Sanborn and Company, 1920); Evans is from Augusta, Georgia. Thompson, Waddy, _History of the People of the United States_ (D. C. Heath and Co., 1919); Chambers, Henry Edward, _A School History of the United States_ (American Book Co., 1895); Stephenson, Nathaniel Wright, _An American History_ (Ginn and Co., 1913, 1921); Estill, Harry F., _The Beginner’s History of Our Country_ (Southern Publishing Co., Dallas, Texas, 1919).

[502] Alabama, James and Sanford’s _American History_; Arkansas, Evans’ _The Essential Facts of American History_; Florida, Stephenson’s _An American History_; Georgia, Evans’ _First Lessons in American History_ and Evans’ _Essential Facts of Lessons in American History_; Louisiana, Estill’s _Beginner’s History of Our Country_, Evans’ _Essential Facts of American History_ and Stephenson’s _An American History_; Mississippi, Estill’s _Beginner’s History of Our Country_ and Mace-Petrie’s _History of the People of the United States_; Texas, Cousin and Hill’s _American History_; Virginia, Andrew’s _United States History_. These data were secured from a questionnaire. North Carolina reported state adopted textbooks but did not name them; South Carolina failed to report.

[503] Evans, _The Essential Facts of American History_, p. 364.

[504] Stephenson, _An American History_, p. 399.

[505] _Ibid._, p. 486. However _cf._ Muzzey, _op. cit._, p. 387 _et seq._; Guitteau, William S., _Our United States_ (Boston, 1919), p. 47 _et seq._; West, Willis M., _American History and Government_ (Boston, 1913), p. 627.

[506] _Journal of the Twenty-Second Annual ... Encampment Grand Army of the Republic_, 1888, pp. 210-217. The U. C. V. Committee first reported in 1894, no reunion being held in 1893.

[507] _Journal_ ... _op. cit._, p. 210.

[508] _Ibid._

[509] _Ibid._

[510] _Ibid._

[511] _Ibid._, pp. 212-213. Criticism of a history “By J. S. Blackburn, Principal of the Potomac Academy, Alexandria, Virginia, and W. N. McDonald, A. M., Principal of the Male High School, Louisville, Kentucky, Twelfth Edition Revised.”

[512] _Ibid._

[513] _Ibid._, p. 215.

[514] _Journal of the Twenty-Sixth National Encampment Grand Army of the Republic_ ... 1892, p. 207.

[515] _Journal of the Twenty-Ninth National Encampment Grand Army of the Republic_, ... 1895, p. 230.

[516] _Ibid._, p. 331. Montgomery’s books were disapproved by the South. _Cf._ page 159.

[517] _Journal of the Thirty-First National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic_ ... 1897, p. 233. This book was endorsed by the Confederate Veterans in 1896, but the author’s name is given as J. W. Jones. _Minutes ... of the Reunion of Confederate Veterans_ ... 1898, p. 31.

[518] _Journal_, _op. cit._

[519] _Ibid._, p. 234.

[520] _Ibid._

[521] _Ibid._

[522] _Ibid._ The books in which the quotations appeared were not named.

[523] _Ibid._

[524] _Ibid._

[525] _Ibid._, p. 238.

[526] _Journal of the Thirty-Second National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic_ ... 1898, p. 192.

[527] _Ibid._, p. 194.

[528] _Journal of the Thirty-Third National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic_ ... 1899, pp. 244-246. The textbook was not named.

[529] _Ibid._

[530] _Ibid._

[531] _Journal of the Thirty-Fourth National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic_ ... 1900, p. 145.

[532] _Journal of the Thirty-Eighth National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic_ ... 1904, pp. 244-246.

[533] _Journal of the Forty-First National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic_ ... 1907, p. 173.

[534] _Journal of the Forty-Third National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic_ ... 1909, p. 164. The list included McLaughlin’s _History of the American Nation_, Montgomery’s _Leading Facts of American History_, Mace’s _School History of the United States_, McMaster’s _History of the United States_, Gordy’s _History of the United States_, Eggleston’s “_History_,” Johnson’s “_History_,” Barnes’ “_History_,” Fiske’s “_History_,” Scudder’s “_History_,” Anderson’s “_History_,” and in the South “Waddy Thompson’s _United States History_, revised and improved by the late General John B. Gordon.”

[535] _Journal of the Forty-Fourth National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic_ ... 1910, p. 219. The Phil Sheridan Post No. 4, G. A. R., joined with the Sons of the American Revolution in 1922 in an effort to eliminate West’s _History of the American People_ from the acceptable textbooks of the Boise, Idaho, schools. In addition to criticisms regarding West’s discussion of the American Revolution and the War of 1812, the Veterans objected to the treatment of the Civil War period. See p. 265 and the _Idaho Statesman_, December 9, 1922.

[536] The controversy related to Public School Number 5. The Public School Society was organized in 1805 and gradually extended its

## activities until 1853, when it gave its buildings and property to the

City Board of Education. See Bourne, William Oland, _History of the Public School Society of the City of New York_ (New York, 1870), p. 324 _et seq._

[537] _Ibid._, p. 324. No action was taken at that time, but a Roman Catholic teacher was employed for Public School Number 5.

[538] _Ibid._, p. 325.

[539] _Ibid._, p. 328.

[540] _Ibid._

[541] _Ibid._, p. 331.

[542] _Ibid._

[543] _Ibid._, p. 342.

[544] Deshon, George, “A Novel Defence of the Public School,” _The Catholic World_, Vol. L (February, 1890), pp. 677-687.

[545] _Ibid._

[546] Hamilton, Gail, “Catholicism and Public Schools,” _North American Review_, Vol. CXLVII (1888), pp. 572-580.

[547] _Ibid._

[548] “The Anti-Catholic Spirit of Certain Writers,” _The Catholic World_, Vol. XXXVI (February, 1883), pp. 658-667.

[549] Deshon, _loc. cit._

[550] Hamilton, _loc. cit._

[551] In 1815 there were “about 70,000 Catholics to be found in the United States,.... In 1918, ... its Catholic population had increased to 17,416,303,....” McCarthy, Charles H., _The History of the United States for Catholic Schools_ (New York, 1919), p. 421.

[552] McCarthy, Charles H., _The History of the United States for Catholic Schools_ (American Book Co., 1919); O’Hara, John P., _A History of the United States_ (The Macmillan Company, 1919); _A History of the United States for Catholic Schools_ prepared and arranged by the Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration (Scott, Foresman and Company, 1914); Lawler, Thomas B., _Essentials of American History_ (Ginn and Company, 1918); Betten, Francis S., _The Ancient World_ (Allyn and Bacon, 1916); Betten, Francis S., and Kaufman, Alfred, _The Modern World_ (Allyn and Bacon, 1919); Burke, E. J., _Political Economy, designed for use in Catholic Colleges, High Schools and Academies_ (American Book Company, 1913).

[553] McCarthy, _op. cit._, preface, p. iii. Professor McCarthy is Knights of Columbus Professor of American History at the Catholic University of America.

[554] _Ibid._, preface, p. iv.

[555] The Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration, _A History of the United States for Catholic Schools_ (Chicago, 1914), pp. 3-4.

[556] _Ibid._, pp. 5-6.

[557] Betten, _The Ancient World_, preface.

[558] “This much maligned priest [John Tetzel], personally of blameless character, undoubtedly went too far in his endeavors to procure financial success. He insisted indeed on the necessity of contrition and confession for all those who wished to obtain the remission of temporal punishment for themselves; but his teaching concerning the indulgence for the dead was not free from serious errors. To secure this benefit for a soul which has, of course, departed this life in the state of grace, nothing, according to him, is required but the alms. This doctrine, though at his time actually taught by some irresponsible preachers, has never been supported by ecclesiastical authority. Tetzel’s own brethren in religion openly reproached him for his ill-advised tactics, which soon became the talk of the whole country.” Betten and Kaufman, _The Modern World_, p. 376.

[559] “At least he [Martin Luther] imagined that he had made the discovery that the doctrine of the Church concerning the remission of sins was altogether wrong. He thereby implied that Christ, contrary to His solemn promise, had allowed the Church to fall into a most disastrous error. The new system, which gradually developed in Luther’s mind, confused the nature of sin with concupiscence, which is a consequence of original sin, and while it makes man inclined to sin is no sin in itself. By the sin of Adam, he thought human nature was corrupted beyond recovery; man’s acts can only be bad; but Jesus Christ covers the soul with His infinite merits, which, as it were, conceal all trespasses from the eye of the just God; if sinful man expresses his firm ‘belief’ in this merciful dispensation, God will not punish him, though the sin is not taken away, but merely covered; the sinner therefore remains a sinner;.... It is evident that such a justification is no justification at all, and it will always remain a riddle how Luther could maintain that he had found such a monstrous doctrine in the Bible.” _Ibid._, pp. 377-378.

[560] “The causes of the social evils are _not only economic, but moral and religious as well_. It is true that present economic conditions are far from satisfactory. Though production, on account of the introduction of machinery, has increased enormously, wages have not kept pace with that increase.... But the moral and religious causes are not to be overlooked. The breaking loose from practical Christianity, so characteristic of the last two centuries, has developed an intense selfishness, a struggle for wealth in which each one seeks his own material advantage at the expense of his neighbor.... What, then, are the remedies proposed by Catholics? Certainly not the adoption of Socialist views.... The Socialists deliberately ignore, yea exclude, religion from coöperation in the solution of the great social problem. They forget that man’s happiness here below is not his ultimate end, that the Creator did not want equal wealth and equal material advantages for all.... The state having at heart the temporal welfare of its citizens, should by wise legislation protect the workers, their health, and morals, and that of their family. But the change of hearts which is so necessary for the cure of modern evils is the principal task of religion. Hence the Church should be free to carry out her mission.” _Ibid._, pp. 630-641.

[561] Burke, E. J., _Political Economy designed for use in Catholic Colleges, High Schools, and Academies_ (New York, 1913), p. 1. According to Bullock’s _Elements of Economics_, one textbook used in the public schools, “Economics is the science which deals with the efforts of mankind to secure the material commodities and personal services which are needed to support life and to make a civilized existence possible.” Bullock, Charles J., _Elements of Economics_ (Boston, 1913), p. 4.

[562] Burke, _op. cit._, p. 57.

[563] Burke, _op. cit._, p. 386. Although “followers of the Catholic School do not deny that much of the evil existing in society is due to defective methods of distribution, they suggest no such drastic action as the Socialists.... They appeal to the influence of the Church’s teaching and the power of Christian doctrine to bring about a spirit of charity and justice in the mutual dealings of capitalists and labor.” _Ibid._, p. 392.

[564] Advertising pamphlet entitled “The Hospitality given Father Burke’s Political Economy.”

[565] _Ibid._, p. 6.

[566] _Ibid._

[567] _Ibid._, p. 4.

[568] Hassard, John R. G., _A History of the United States of America_ (New York, 1878), p. vi.

[569] _Ibid._

The National Lutheran Council had, in 1923, a committee on history textbooks, whose purpose was to make known any “flagrant or actual misrepresentations” of their church in history textbooks used in the United States. Letter from Lauritz Larsen, President of the National Lutheran Council to the author under date of January 13, 1923. No report of the committee was given. The writer of the letter also stated that there had been no “organized effort to suggest the content of history textbooks in the public schools, not even as this might pertain to the teaching of the history of the Reformation in the public schools.”

According to Werner, Brigham Young “insisted that the school-books should be published in Utah, and written there if possible, rather than imported at unnecessary expense from the East. The teachers, too, he wrote should be Latter-day Saints, so that the children might learn only what they ought to know.” Werner, M. R., _Brigham Young_ (New York, 1925), p. 451.

[570] Sweet, W. W., “Religion in Our School Histories,” _The Christian Century_, Vol. XLI (November 20, 1924), pp. 1502-1504.

[571] The textbook is not named in the article.

[572] The title of this book is not given in the article but such a statement appears in _A History of the United States_ by the Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration, p. 68.

[573] _Ibid._

[574] _Report of the American Bar Association_, Vol. XLVII (1922), pp. 416-423.

[575] _Ibid._

[576] _Report of the American Bar Association_, Vol. XLVIII (1923), pp. 442-451. The committee was composed of R. E. L. Saner, chairman, Walter George Smith, Andrew A. Brice, Wallace McCamant, John Ford O’Brien.

[577] _Report of the American Bar Association_, Vol. XLIX (1924), pp. 255-269.

[578] _Ibid._