much upon. There is need now because our parochial schools are widening out into higher courses of study, of a system of high schools supplementing our parochial schools, and a system of high schools must inevitably come out of it, and they are surely coming. The problem of our high school is not nearly so perplexing now as was the problem of our parochial school thirty or forty years ago. Just as we have built up out of little beginnings the great system of our parochial schools, and then have jumped up into the colleges and universities, so this other system of high schools that will be coordinated in some way with them, will surely come. The present is the promise of the future, and the future is but waiting for this Association in the United States to give us a curriculum on which we can all agree. and with which we can be satisfied as a working rule. I feel certain that all who have the interests of Catholic education at heart will take up the curriculum coming out of the best thought of this Association, and will put it into practice, and there will be harmony and mutual relations between our lowest form of education and our highest. This Association has done a great work in the cause of Christian education in its furtherance an in the promotion within our Catholic schools of the true Catholic spirit; and I am sure, I am quite satisfied that the coming generation will have the benefit of this curriculum and the benefit of all that which the best friends of Christian education now desire and are striving for.

I can only repeat that I appreciate truly and sincerely your coming and your presence here. I feel that you have done Pittsburgh a great favor and a lasting good by the encouragement and the inspiration of your presence. Your work and your studies during the past few days have aroused in our hearts an enthusiasm and encouragement that we shall long remember; and I hope that it will not be many years until the Association will return to the city of Pittsburgh, and share again our poor but sincere hospitality and welcome, and give us again the benefit of your counsel and of your prayers.

Bishop Canevin gave his blessing and after singing a hymn the meeting adjourned.

PUBLIC MEETING

A public meeting was held in Carnegie Music Hall, on Thursday evening, June 27, at 8 p. m. Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph Suehr, V. G., presided. The hall was filled and the following program was given:

PROGRAM

1. Organ Overture, Allegro Appassionata, 5th Sonata

2.

Mr. Philip Bansbach

A. Guilmant

Address, "Freedom of Education"... Hon. Ambrose B. Reid
Judge of Common Pleas Court, Allegheny County, Pa.

3. Chorus and Organ, "Tu es Petrus"...Canon Michael Haller Address, "The Work of the College in Forming Public Opinion"

Very Reverend John Cavanaugh, C. S. C., President of
Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, Indiana.

5. Chorus and Organ, "Oremus pro Pontifice Nostro"

6. Song, “America”

Chorus and Audience

Mr. Joseph Otten, Conductor of Chorus
Mr. Philip Bansbach, at the Organ

Singenberger
Smith

The following cablegram was received from His Eminence, the Cardinal Secretary of State:

"His Lordship, DR. CANEVIN, Bishop of Pittsburgh:

"The Holy Father, greatly pleased with the filial homage of the Catholic Educational Association, returns his thanks, and with all his heart grants to you, to the President, and to all the members of the society the Apostolic Blessing.

"CARDINAL MERRY DEL VAL."

FRANCIS W. HOWARD,
Secretary General.

PAPERS READ AT THE GENERAL MEETINGS

THE FAMILY, THE STATE AND THE SCHOOL

REV. PETER C. YORKE, D. D., PASTOR OF ST. ANTHONY'S CHURCH, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

It is with great reluctance that I approach the consideration of this subject. In the first place, I remember the domestic controversy that raged some twenty years ago over its theoretical aspect, and I should be very sorry if any word of mine might lead to a revival of that unhappy dispute. In the second place, a consideration of the extrinsic and intrinsic principles that must determine our practical attitude towards present tendencies involves questions that are very much in evidence at the moment, and it might appear to the captious that our discussion of them in this gathering is not without ulterior motives. In the third place, I must confess that I am not sufficiently conversant with the literature of the subject to offer you a learned paper, nor have I the opportunity now for that research which the importance of the matter and the dignity of this assembly demand. At the same time I know your kindness will make allowance for my shortcomings, because I am writing, as it were, under obedience, and because I do not intend to enter on the thorny road of rights and duties. We are, as Cleveland said, facing conditions, not theories, and my object is to give you a plain description of those conditions, to discover the causes that produce them, and finally to suggest the practical, matter-of-fact attitude we, as Catholics and Americans, should take toward the Family, the State and the School.

I. THE CONDITIONS

That our present conditions in the United States are very different from what they were twenty years ago, is evident to

the most superficial observer. Indeed, it would be strange if they were not, for human conditions are always changing, not in America alone, but the world over. The very name we bestow on our civil society, the State, is a witness to this truth. Its significance therefore lies not in the fact of the change, but in the direction of the change. Whither are we drifting? Or if we are pursuing a set course, by what stars do we sail?

I think you will all agree with me that the general trend of public opinion in this country to-day is towards an exaltation of the idea of civil society, an enlargement of its powers, and at more frequent exercise of its activities a process which, for the want of a better word, I will call the "magnification" of the State. By the "magnification" of the State I do not mean the natural political growth of the central power at the expense of the local units which began at the first confederation and was made secure by the results of the Civil War; that is, I am not speaking of the growth of the National or Federal Government as against States' Rights. I mean rather a change in the idea of the State itself, whether it be represented by the President at Washington or by the humblest trustee of a village school. It is especially significant that this "magnification" of the State is looked upon, not as something exceptional, but as something natural and normal. Just as we say, "Inter arma silent leges," so we know that there are abnormal conditions in which the State may undertake enterprises that in ordinary circumstances it will leave to private initiative. In a famine or a flood, in a fire or an earthquake, in a plague or a panic, the State has to act, and to act quickly. In such cases the individual withers and is lost in the general need. Moreover, in States that are composed of superior and inferior races or are made up of various classes or strata of differing degrees of prosperity and culture, usually the results of one or more military conquests, we expect to find a modern government in its just desire to benefit all classes of its citizens, adopting measures that savor of paternalism. But here in America we are dealing with a homogeneous people that has enjoyed freedom for nearly a century and a half. We are dealing with a race which (neglecting the colored population) has had during that time a government the

most democratic that has ever existed. We are dealing with a country where one man is as good as another, and where popular education has been worshipped as the palladium of popular liberty. We are dealing with a Constitution in which free thought and free speech have been maintained as in no other form of civil society. We are dealing with citizens whose franchises are of the broadest description and who sit in their curule chairs, not only as the kings the barbarian saw in the Roman Senate, but also as philosophers, the decision of whose wisdom is the court of last resort. Let the people rule, let the people decide, is the slogan under which our hosts are marching forth to war, and it is on this people, this assembly of rulers and judges, in a time of peace and prosperity, that the "magnification" of the State is invoked as the only cure for the multitudinous evils that afflict us.

To describe adequately the process which I have called the "magnification" of the State would require a survey of all the departments of government and an examination of all the lines of national and local development. Such a survey would exceed the limits of a paper, and is of course not to be thought of. I will therefore take one specimen of the process, a specimen which I think will be of general interest to you as citizens, and of special interest to you as members of the teaching profession. I mean the "magnification" of the State in reference to the Family and the School. There is not one of you, I am sure, that has not had forced upon him the actual and pressing question of the increased cost of living. No words of mine could add to the discussions in the public press or describe the feelings of those who nowadays contemplate their monthly bills. So harrowing a subject is best left to silence. But we may ask, What is the cause of the growing dearness of the necessities of life? No doubt, there are many causes. Some will fix on the tariff and some on the trusts. I notice very few call attention to an element that is certainly as important as tariff or trusts, namely, the rising rate in the expenditure of the public funds.

The association of the words "publicans and sinners," so striking in the Roman period of Sacred History, is no longer in this country an idea "not understanded of the people.” The tax