The Saloniki has taken active part in many causes designed to be of benefit to the Greeks of Chicago and America. The one we are discussing today is probably the most important one of all.

We appeal to the clergy of our Greek Orthodox churches to sound the alarm,because a great danger is threatening our religion and language here in America. It is a danger that can only be averted by eternal vigilance on the part of the church and family, and by the construction of better and more numerous Greek schools.

The Saloniki is proud to state that it is the first Greek paper in America to devote any time or space to this very important subject; but we will be honest enough to admit that we received our incentive from the exhortations of a 2Jewish rabbi. He spoke before the city council of Gary, Indiana, and stated that religious teaching should not be compulsory in public grammar schools.

There is a clause in the Constitution of this country that forhids any compulsory religious training; people in America are supposed to have the right to worship in any way they please. No religious training of any sort is given to the children in the grade schools. As a result, they are entirely unaware of the part religion plays in their daily existence.

The city council of Gary, which is largely composed of Orthodox Serbians, voted to have the tenets of the Christian religion taught in all the city's grammar schools. Immediately the rabbis protested. They claimed such instruction would create chaos, and they demanded that religious instruction be confined to the church and the home.

This is exactly why the Catholic Church found it necessary to erect and maintain Catholic schools. Religious training in these schools is thorough and it is 3compulsory. The Greek Church must emulate the Catholic Church if it wishes to survive in America. Greek schools, in which Greek children can be taught the Greek language and religion, must be built.

The Protestant churches provide Sunday schools and Bible classes for the religious instruction of the young children. The Hebrew synagogues also have regular Sunday school classes. In fact, the Greek Orthodox Church is the only church we can think of that takes no measures to provide instruction and guidance for the children. We have yet to hear a member of the clergy make any suggestions, or even to mention this all-important subject.

Baptism is not enough. True, it is a religious ceremony, but it is not enough for a young child; he must at least understand what it signifies.

The Greek schools in America are truly in a deplorable condition. They hardly manage to attract one out of every five hundred Greek children of grammar school age. The ones they do get go as far as the fourth grade only, and then 4they transfer to the American schools. If these children ever received any religious instruction, they promptly forget it when they enter the American grammar schools. Why do they leave the Greek schools? Because, as the slang expression has it, "that's all there is--there ain't no more", meaning, of course, that the Greek school has only four grades. This "half-and-half" religious training is making the Greek children quite indifferent to the Orthodox religion.

We are confident that the efforts of the first Greek immigrants to build Greek churches have not been in vain. But their efforts will have proved futile if there is no one to go to those churches and support them in the years to come.

Today, we are opening the discussion of this pertinent question facing the Greeks in America. This is a holy and patriotic matter, and we expect to arouse the community's interest in it even if it takes all the editorial columns of the future issues of Saloniki. We invite all teachers and members of the clergy to give us their opinion on this subject. What do the presidents of the church 5parishes think of the views presented here by the Saloniki?

We seek the opinion of all the Greeks in Chicago and in the rest of the United States. Action must be speedy, because twenty-five thousand Greek children are in danger of growing up in complete ignorance of their religion and language. The Saloniki pledges its sincerest and greatest efforts to remedy this backward condition.