Father Burke’s book is divided into twenty-three chapters with titles common to the usual economics textbook. Its unique feature lies in the treatment of various economic theories from the point of view of the “Catholic School.” The doctrine of Malthus is rejected for moral and economic reasons, which take their course in “human injustice and selfishness in the spirit of greed that closes the hearts of men to the dictates of charity and fairness,” and which lead to “improper methods of the distribution of wealth.”[562] The author expresses a belief in the inequality of man, through which comes inequality of distribution. Such a hardship is due, in no small degree, Father Burke declares, to the “fallen state” of man. Because of the sin of his first parents he is “subject to death, to sufferings, to misery, and to labor.” This can be proved, it is averred, by the Book of Revelation. “Hence,” asserts Father Burke, “evils may exist in this world, injustice and oppression may go on, and the equilibration of things may never take place here; the wicked may prosper and the honest and just may be oppressed, and no adequate remedy may appear; yet the moment of compensation, of perfect justice, will come, if not in this life, then in the life of eternity.”[563]
Such a presentation of economic theories has been acclaimed highly satisfactory in Catholic reviews, for, “since ethics as a science directing human actions according to right reason embraces of necessity all of man’s activities, it follows that political economy is rightly subject to the laws of ethics.”[564] “This clear understanding of the state of the question ... enables us at once to detect the errors and dangers of many of the high sounding economic theories which occupy so much space in the literature of the day,” declares one reviewer.[565] Another reviewer in Extension believes that an accurate knowledge of economic principles is impossible “from an examination of the text-books used in some of the secular colleges and universities” in which not only are “some of the so-called principles false, but the resultant deductions, where they are not entirely fallacious, are frequently misleading.”[566] The Pilot offers its endorsement of the textbook because “in these days of industrial and economic unrest, when so much that is false and misleading is written on political and social problems, a book on political economy for Catholic schools is most welcome. Catholic philosophy sets forth sound and unimpeachable principles bearing upon the rights of the individual and of the family, and upon the powers and functions of ‘the State.’”[567]
The purpose of these books is to place emphasis upon Catholic contributions and the power of the Church. As indicated in a textbook written in the later nineteenth century, whose content is much the same as the more recent Catholic textbooks, it is “the manifest duty of those who are entrusted with the education of our children to see that in learning the history of the country they do not lose sight of the rise, progress, and social influences of the Church in the United States....[568] And finally, as religion is always the sweetest inspiration and support of patriotism, the breaking down of religious beliefs in various modern nations, and notably in our own, is accompanied by a loss of patriotism.... Reverence for authority is lost, and society, in order to protect itself, is driven to appeal to force. Nothing can avert the danger but the influence of a great moral power endorsed with all the attributes which create respect and encourage obedience. The Catholic Church is this power....”[569]
In turn, these textbooks have been criticised because of the amount of space given to the Catholic Church in comparison with that allotted other churches. One critic has asserted that the history by the Franciscan Sisters does not mention a single Protestant body after the period of the Revolution, and that “one ignorant of the true situation and reading this particular history would imagine that the United States was a Catholic nation.”[570] Further criticism has arisen because, in the critic’s mind, facts of history are mixed with “acts of Catholic piety.” As proof of this objection is cited an excerpt from a Catholic textbook in which is given a description of the death of Pizarro: “Just before he died he called upon his Redeemer and tracing with his bloody finger a cross upon the floor, he kissed the sacred symbol and expired.”[571]
Further evidence of this is seen by the same writer in the statement that “as the missionaries made their way westward, the worship of St. Mary marked their path till the great Mississippi, the River of the Immaculate Conception, bore them [down] toward those Spanish realms where every officer swore to defend the Immaculate Conception.”[572] To this objector of a separate history for Catholic schools, “it is the very evident purpose of these texts ... to propagate Catholic ideas and not to give a true picture of the development of America.”[573]
TEXTBOOKS IN CIVICS, ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY
Criticism of public school textbooks and teaching is not confined solely to the subject of history but includes in its ever-widening circle books in the allied fields of civics, economics and sociology. Especially is this true of those in government or civics. Since the close of the World War a movement for the teaching of the Constitution has closely paralleled that for the study of American history. Organizations and individuals with the avowed purpose of inculcating patriotism have urged that more attention than formerly be given the study of the machinery of government. To this end influence has been exerted for the passage of laws requiring the subject of civics in the schools, and many books on the Constitution have appeared to meet an increased demand.
Among the organizations which have sponsored the movement for instruction in the Constitution have been the American Bar Association, the National Security League, The Constitution Anniversary Association, and the Better America Federation. Organizations such as the Sentinels of the Republic are engaged in a similar program in adult education.
In 1922 in pursuance of a resolution adopted by the executive committee at Tampa, Florida, the American Bar Association appointed a Committee on American Citizenship “to devise ways for promoting the study of and devotion to American institutions and ideals.” This resolution was interpreted as laying upon the Committee “the duty to prepare a program under which the lawyers of the United States, coöperating with every patriotic society and organization, and with every true American man and woman, shall be urged to join in an earnest effort to stem the tide of radical, and often treasonable, attacks upon our Constitution, our laws, our courts, our law-making bodies, our executives and our flag, to arouse to action our dormant citizenship, to abolish ignorance, and crush falsehood, and to bring truth into the hearts of our citizenship.”[574]
The Committee recommended the appointment of a standing committee on American Citizenship, the appointment of local committees “to see that the Constitution of the United States is taught in every school ... to report to the bureau the courses in each state, the textbooks used, and the qualifications of teachers for teaching American citizenship.” In addition it was suggested that the coöperation of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws be enlisted “in an effort to have enacted in each state suitable laws making a course each year in the study of and devotion to American institutions and ideals part of the curriculum in all schools and colleges sustained or in any manner supported by public funds.”[575]