Читать книгу The Goslings: A Study of the American Schools онлайн

57 страница из 161

Understand, Mr. Oxnam was not the head of this ticket; he was only one of seven. But from the day he stood upon the Civil Liberties platform, the ticket became the “Oxnam ticket,” and his candidacy was an effort of Upton Sinclair and the “soviets” to take possession of the schools. All the minor organizations of the Black Hand, the business clubs, the women’s organizations, the little educational bosses—all these adopted resolutions denouncing the conspiracy to turn the schools of the city over to the “Reds.” There is very good reason to believe that the praying of a prayer for the Constitution of the United States not merely cost Mr. Oxnam his election to the school board, but cost his associates their election as well. So, at the risk of making my story too long, I print the prayer that Mr. Oxnam prayed, and that a stenographer took down for his protection:

Our Father, we lift our voices to Thee in Thanksgiving. We are thankful that Thou hast created us thinking beings. We are thankful that we are not mere automatons, but that Thou hast given to us freedom of choice, and that in large measure our own destiny and that of our brothers lies in our own hands. We pray Thee, that just as Thou hast granted to us the right to think and to speak, so too we may grant to our citizens the right to think and to speak, to the end that that glorious day may come at last when all men share the abundant life Jesus of Nazareth died to bring to men.