The fear of Catholicism expressed by the Westliche Post, now affects even the Anzeiger of Cleveland. A few days ago the latter paper wrote the following nonsense:

"The City of Chicago has a Democratic administration and the Board of Education has many Catholic members. These members of the Board of Education made a motion that none of the present schoolbooks published by Harper's Publishing House of New York be used any longer in the schools of Chicago..... The motion was a matter of spite, because Harper's Weekly has for some time objected to the rule of Catholicism in this country and particularly to the Catholic hierarchy's attacks on the free school system.

"If we have reached the point where Catholic priests may ban the books of a publisher because he defended our national constitution, it is time for the public to interfere.....

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"The Pope must realize that the time is not yet ripe for America's conversion to Catholicism and that the expectations which he expressed....to students of Catholic colleges, lack a firm foundation. At that time, the Pope declared that America could soon be converted to the Catholic faith.....

"There is still a people living in the United States which will defend its free institutions against onslaughts of a priestly caste which seeks to rule by keeping the masses in ignorance."

Although we knew that this accusation was not based on fact, we considered it advisable to send a reporter [of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung] to interview Mr. John C. Richberg, president of the Board of Education [in Chicago, Illinois].

Mr. Richberg read the article (he was born in Germany), and then answered the reporter's questions.

Reporter: Mr. Richberg, are you a Catholic?

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Richberg: No!

Reporter: In regard to the members of the Board of Education, are the majority Catholics?

Richberg: No, positively not! There is only a single member of the Board of Education who is definitely a Catholic and in touch with that church, and that is Mr. English. Two others, I believe, were born Catholics, but one of these, Phil. Hoyne, declared that he does not belong to any faith and does not wish to be regarded as a member of any sect. The other, Mr. Olinger, subscribes to the same ideas, I believe, and undoubtedly is not a strong Catholic. As to the other twelve members, some are Protestants and some have no religion.

Reporter: This, then, disproves the assertion that a great many members of the Board of Education are Catholics. What about the books?

Richberg: That matter was distorted. These are the facts: No attempt was 4made at any time to discontinue books of Harper's Publishing House, after such books were accepted in the public schools. But we did attempt to introduce a new book of the same publishing firm, Swinton's Language Lessons, which combines spelling and grammar. The question simply was whether we should introduce a new book which had not yet proved its merit, whereas we now have suitable books of proven value. The question about the publisher of the new book never arose during the committee meeting. Of course, Mr. English was opposed to the introduction of the new book, but his entire argument was based on the fact that we have good books and that it would, therefore, not be desirable to burden parents with new expenditures, especially when the value of the book has not yet been proved.

Someone in favor of the book attributed Mr. English's opposition to religious motives, although Mr. English himself gave no such indication.

Reporter: After all, was not the recent fight involving new schoolbooks based on economy?

Richberg: Of course! But to prove to you how unimportant the religious 5angle was, I will show you the results of the vote on May 25, when a motion was made to introduce Swinton's Language Lessons.

Only three voted yes: Covert (Methodist), Reed (State's Attorney, not a church member), Welch (not a church member).

Seven were opposed: Bluthardt (not a church member), Chetlain (Protestant), English (Catholic), Hoyne (not a church member), Oleson (Protestant), Olinger (doubtful Catholic), Richberg (Protestant).

On June 8 advocates of the book made another effort to introduce it, but with no success whatever. Otto's instruction books for the German language were intended to take the place of Ahn's book and met the same fate.

This interview will suffice to prove to the Anzeiger von Cleveland that that paper's fear was groundless. The Board of Education of the City of Chicago has comparatively few Catholic members. No motion was made to eliminate the schoolbooks of the Harper Publishing House. The question was whether a new book should be introduced, and that proposal was rejected by 6a great majority, The rejection was not based on the fact that the book was published by Harper, but was made because the work was superfluous and contained many errors. Besides, the introduction of the book would have been contrary to the policy of economy practiced by the Board of Education.

The entire accusation appears to be based on the fact that an advocate of the book attributed religious motives to his eloquent adversary--without evidence to sustain his charge.

As the above report was ready to go to press, we received the following note from Mr. John C. Richberg:

"To the Editor of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung:

"In regard to the interview with your reporter today, I overlooked the following, that Harper's book house also offered us Dalton's Physiology because some members of the Board of Education believed that the book we now have is not suitable. Although another book concern offered a new work on the same 7subject, Hookin's Physiology, the Board of Education decided--with only one dissenting vote--to accept Dalton's, the book published by Harper. Mr. English, as well as the other "Catholic" members voted for its acceptance.

"Yours, John C. Richberg."

This not only suffices to disprove all accusations that the Board of Education is dominated by the Catholic clergy, but it also eliminates all suspicions that Mr. English's official behavior is influenced by religion.