ned knowledge of this fact is
in some respects as essential as if it were an article of faith,
especially in Western Canada, which, as Father Daly points out, is the
classic land of the school problem.

"Doubtless attempts will be made in the future to bring elementary
education through the pretext of Canadianization, under the "invisible
head" of this country. Or as in the United States segregated attempts
may be made to abolish parochial schools altogether.

"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 t