EDUCATION AND RELIGION 



Delivered at Canisius College, Buffalo, 1913 



THERE is no part of our modern life in this State 

 which has progressed so rapidly as education. In the 

 earlier days of the Republic there was not the abun- 

 dance of educational apparatus which is enjoyed by us. Then 

 the State had not conceived the idea that teaching was one 

 of its functions. 



At the beginning of the nineteenth century colleges and 

 academies — for there was then scarcely such a thing as a 

 university — were founded and maintained almost wholly by 

 individuals. Once in a great while they obtained subsidy and 

 assistance from the State — but that was a rarity — and the 

 State left them to their own devices. The primary schools, 

 as we should call them nowadays, were maintained by private 

 means. But at the end of the third decade of the century 

 there came a change. Municipalities, and afterwards the 

 State itself, took up and monopolized the system of public or 

 gratuitous primary instruction. Gradually this was extended 

 to secondary education, and it has grown, until to-day the 

 State exercises supervision, if not actual rule, over every 

 form of teaching within its borders. 



When I speak of the State, it may be considered as apply- 

 ing to the State of New York, but in reality it is applicable 

 to any of the various commonwealths which make up our 

 United States. But, to have a comprehensive idea of what I 

 mean by the State, I may briefly define it as meaning "all of 

 us." It is not a vague entity, overwhelming the individual or 

 antagonistic to church or creed ; it is, in my meaning, the re- 

 sultant expression, in concrete form, of the united, dissent- 

 ing or modifying views of the entire mass of the citizens. It 

 is in this sense that I use the word. 



Since, therefore, the State has taken upon itself the super- 

 vision, where it does not actually take the direction, of all 



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