“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.