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.”