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Doctor Fine adds char: “poorly tratend, income. tent and, im some reset, emotionally waiteble mew and women, withow! ihe lightest interest i ede. tation, Bave veplaced worthy teachers who beve left the feofertion. Maia bulwerk of the demo. cratic way of bife, the whools beve deteriorated alarmingly siecs Poet Harbor, Teacher mores is at the lowest it hes ever been... . Public conf. dence in the sebools bes dropped sharply. Ara ne walt, parents are inrning ix increasing mumbers to private, parochial, end religions schools im the bope of getting ¢ decent education for their children, Wile tbe peblic sebools beve beew going down. BR, ibe petvate end independent schools beve gained im statsre, Many parents, ibe country over, sve sending their children to won-public schools. They give the simple yet adequate ves- sem: 'The public tcbool in ony acighborkood does wat offer my child 2 good education?” Demmer of Withdrawal . Hf chit wsfortunaze trend does no more thin amake ue smug and satisfied with our own educa- sonal advantages, chen we will not galy be lack- ing in Obristian charity, but we will likewise be exposing ourselves to che same unfortunate mirtake thst many German Catholics made in the early wage: of Nazim. Instead of bringing cheir own sound values inw the main-ecream of German edu- gation, they withdrew farther and farther away from ix, Jesving the field almost mntively at the disposal of Hitler who saw the clasrroom as 5 paw- erful medium for the spread of his fatal doctrine. Engulfed by this retreat, Hetle did uhese Csth- olics seslize that this retirement from the arena, instead of protecting them, would eventually overs - hele: them, tos. What 2 different and far bsp- pier scocy there might have been if those who knew betver—long before chey wert caught in the death strogtle end iniead of withdrawing and fogging the frath oy chemuelver—bad posemed the foresight and daring vo plunge into the key @ \ channels of German Life with God's croth, Noth. ing could bave stood up ageinat them! . Yo the tremendous responsibiliry sow facing a the God-fearing people of America, Catholics must neither overlook wor shirk their share of the reeponsibility. Ax 26 time thould we be stisied with merely saving oomelves, Now sore dan eret before boxe we she ecriour duty aud extracr- dinery privilege of chowing & eolicitade for all ‘Americans... of being truly Catholic, by inctud- ing all and eacluding none, Baneren ta Time af Wer During the recent wat, American Catholics were anusually generous in the defense of their country. Statistics show that they provided nearly one-thitd of the armed services, or almost 4 million out of the 14 million Americans in the variowt branche of service, despite the face that Catholics in this gountry number best thas 3 million sat of every 14 million persons in the sation. Bur, ready end willing as we are in times of emergency, we mase sdmit we make « rather poor showing during ptsee time. If we displayed talf as much enthusiasm in protecting the foundacions of ou country as others show in wrecking them, the whole world pictus might be much brighter today. Be the record chows clearly thar the wast ima- jority of us American Catholics and mest. ochers who acknowledge » Supreme Being tend to Live in por own litle worlds and leave the running of the big world to thove who are agsinst God. Far from doing our share in providing leaders in the grest spheres of influence, despite our proven capacity for leadenhip, statistics demonserste that we are lagging behind is every Geld. ‘Wich gor beck~ ground of 20 centuries of Christian culcore, and with the stroag sense of duty and responsibilicy which bax been iavcilled in wt from the cradle on, we sctually should be giving our country more chun our proportional share of leadership. ‘The . ?