Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1917 — The Lewiston School Teacher is Heard From. [ARTICLE]

The Lewiston School Teacher is Heard From.

We are publishing today some articles handed us by Mr. Sparks, the Lewiston school teacher, who a short time ago was reported to have made remarks which were very offensive to thp members of the G. A. R. and about which they handed us a Abatement which we published. We believe the young man would ■have been much better off had he not written the articles which we publisn. He would have us believe that he should not be grouped with the unpatriotic but belongs in a class with Jefferson, Lincoln and many others of the world’s most famous people. - The article is bombastic and we feel there is much room to believe that his remarks, both'in reference to the flag and the Bible, make him an unfit person to train the youths. This illustrates what a county must accept as a teacher when our own splendid young people are turned down and our schools filled with imported teachers who have been cast off by the school officers of their own county. Mi. Sparks has taught school for /bur years and accepted a school in this county, which does not indicate that he has been capable of promotion. He says himself that he was unable to agree with County Supt. Reed of White county. The articles follow: Lewiston, March 3, 1917.

To the Public of Jasper County: It has been rumored .that I aim an anarchist, German spy, and atheist. To correct the statements made in the press to that effect, I do now tell the exact case as it really happened. The remarks made concerning the American flag and the Supreme Being were made in our December institute and neither of these* topics ’have been discussed in my school and before my pupils. lam an American and proud of it and I believe in a Supreme Being and am not ashamed of it. Very briefly, in regard to my religious views: I embrace the faith of many of our illustrious Americans, men as Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Frank i in. Abraham Lincoln and others. I am a Deist, if you please and am substantially in accord with the work of Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley and Ernest Haeckel in the science of evolution. Now I believe the opposition are dhiefly offended, because I am not a Methodist. Well, I have sisters who are members of that church and certainly I may be accorded the liberty of choosing my religious faith. And however much they may wish for the thumbscrew and the rack to force my adherence to their faith, the world has advance 1, through the leadership of intelligent and progressive men to a state far removed from the middle ages. But enough. Since the greatest hullabaloo has been raised because of my purported attitude toward our flag, I shall in all fairness to my opposition, stare that I really think my remarks were misunderstood and that they have imagined much that is unfair to me. My fellow teachers feel that I had no thought whatever of being disloyal when I spoke and .they are right, for it was not at all my intention to be such. Following are the remarks made: Some teacher told of a boy who said “Wouldn’t it be fun to shoot that flag,” or “I wish I had a gun to shoot a hole in the flag,” or some suohrernark and stated that that boy certainly wasn’t patriotic. I took the Stand that we can not be loyaland -t-rne~^Z>" - understand and that the boy did not understand the meaning, the real significance of the flag. He would just as soon made the same remark had the flag been the French or Englisa flag. Such a boy, as the fictitious one, was but giving spontaneous expression to -racial instincts inherent in him. And here let me say I conceive the art of teaching to be a profession just as truly as law or medicine and that the lay mind, not being trained .in the profession, is incapacitated when it comes to the consideration of the scientific aspects underlying the profession. Psychologically I am entirely correct in my remarks and my wish for 25 such boys as the fictitious one was only a wish for boy® with energy, life, action and the will to do things, not for the “sissy” do nothing sort who never want to play the same’ games as the other children and are always staying around home. In closing, I wish to thank those noble men and women who have believed in me when others were bitterly accusing me. RALPH SPARKS.

Lewiston, Ind., Feb. 28, 1917. To the Public, of Jasper County: ; We, the undersigned patrons of the Lewiston school, indignantly resent the, vicious and untrue article appearing in a recent issue of the Rensselaer Republican, against our teacher. We feel that we owe it to Mr. Sparks to publicly state that we have never known him to be at all un-Aimencan or disloyal to our country. Further, we are well eatiwfied - with his work with our children and we have no reason whatsoever to wish for his removal. Signed: Asa Elliott, L. L. Hoeferlin, W. A. Hoeferlm, C. A. HoefeuJin, Geo. V. Long, John Claussen, George Pfledderer, Chas. Harper, S. J. Britton, Fred Kupkp, Fred Popp, A. Blitstein. _

Rensselaer, Ind., March 2, 1917. To the Public of Jasper County: We, the people of the Center Literary, Society, township, having read or heard of the slanderous article in the Republican of February 23rd, against Mr. Spark®, wish to state that we know Mr. Sparks and

that we feel that he s loyal to the United States and the American flag. We base our opinion upon remarks made by him in this society. We hereby take this opportunity of telling the public of our faith in Mr. Spm*ks« Signed: Louis R. Zellhart, Pres. Sec. Ruby Baker.