State v. Bartels

• Decision Date: 12 February 1921
• Docket Number: No. 33509.,33509.
• Citation: 191 Iowa 1060,181 N.W. 508
• Parties: STATE v. BARTELS.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

191 Iowa 1060

181 N.W. 508

STATE

v.BARTELS.

No. 33509.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Feb. 12, 1921.

Appeal from District Court, Bremer County; M. F. Edwards, Judge.

The defendant was convicted of a violation of chapter 198 of the Acts of the Thirty-Eighth General Assembly, which prohibits the use of any language other than English in teaching secular subjects in the public or private schools of this state. From such conviction and sentence thereon this appeal is prosecuted. The opinion states the facts. Affirmed.

Evans, C. J., and Weaver and Preston, JJ., dissenting.Pickett, Swisher & Farwell, of Waterloo, and F. P. Hagemann, of Waverly, for appellant.

H. M. Havner, Atty. Gen., F. C. Davidson, Asst. Atty. Gen., and W. H. Wehrmacher, Co. Atty., of Waverly, for the State.

FAVILLE, J.

An information filed with a justice of the peace charged that the defendant, on or about November 10, 1919--

“did use a language other than English, to wit, the German language, as a medium of instruction in the teaching of a secular subject, to wit, reading, to Selma Steege, Cordelia Griese, and Lawrence Phipo, the said persons then and there being scholars in a private school in the aforesaid township, county, and state and receiving said instruction below the eighth grade in said school from said defendant, who was then and there a teacher in said school.”

He was found guilty, and on appeal to the district court the case was submitted on stipulation of facts from which it appeared that:

(1) “A rural church known as ‘St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church,’ located in Maxfield township, Bremer county, owns and uses a church edifice and parochial school building, and other property in connection therewith, of the value of approximately $40,000, and during the period in question had a congregation of about 300, of whom 200 were communicants; that it is a religious organization affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa and other states, and that the said church and its parochial school have been continuously supported and maintained by the members for religious purposes in accordance with the beliefs and practices of the said Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa and other states. That among the beliefs and practices of the said church and the synod with which it is affiliated is the belief and practice of having the children of the members and communicants attend its parochial school until after their confirmation and acceptance into the church as communicants thereof, and that the object and purpose of the parochial school is to give the said children of the members and communicants a Christian education in the catechism, beliefs, and practices of the said church at the same time that they are receiving their secular education in the common branches, and to conduct daily in said school devotional exercises in accordance with said beliefs and practices.”

(2) Those attending said school are children of the members of the church, approximately 36 pupils in number, of the ages between 6 and 13 years, both inclusive. That the said school is in session 36 weeks of 5 days each, with school hours from 9 o'clock a. m. to 12 o'clock noon, and from 1 o'clock p. m. to 4 o'clock p. m. each school day, beginning about the middle of September and ending about the middle of the following June, with the ordinary holiday vacations. That ordinarily the children of the school are confirmed and received into the church on attaining the age of 13 years, at which time the said pupils are expected to, and as a rule, have completed the seventh grade in the common school branches, and usually thereafter attend the public schools in the community, entering the eighth grade thereof. The school year of the parochial school is a month or more longer than that of the public schools in the same community. The branches taught are the common school branches of reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, American citizenship, physiology, and United States history, and these are taught in the English language, with English as the medium of the instruction, the text-books being the same as those used in the public schools in the same community, and the instruction being substantially the same as the instruction given in the common branches of the public schools in the community.

(3) The defendant, Bartels, is “the duly appointed, employed, and acting teacher of said parochial school continuously during the last 5 years. That said defendant is a competent teacher, possessing the necessary qualifications and moral character for that purpose.”

(4) The members of the said church whose children attend this school are of foreign extraction, but they, as well as their children and this defendant, are citizens of this country.

(5) “The members and communicants of said church have always been accustomed to worship in the church and have devotional exercises in the home in the German language, and that the devotional exercises and religious instruction of the children in said parochial school for many years was exclusively in German. During recent years religious instruction in the said parochial school has been, and is now, given in both the English and German languages. This instruction has been given in this way in order that the children might be able to participate intelligently with their parents in religious worship in the home and in the church. It is done for the purpose of enabling the parents to supplement the religious instruction of the school by instruction in religion and morals in the home. It is the desire of the parents of the children who are in attendance at said school that their children be given instruction in religious matters in the German language to enable them to read intelligently the church catechism and the Bible in the German.”

(6) Part of the communicants and members “have insufficient knowledge of the English language to freely and clearly receive or impart instruction in the matter of religion and morals, or to take part with the same freedom and the same understanding in religious or devotional exercises conducted in the English language that they would in the German; that among the duties enjoined by said church, and which are the beliefs and practices of the communicants of said church whose children are now attending the aforesaid parochial school, are the duties of assembling with the members of their families and attending at stated periods devotional services conducted in the home, and of attending with their children religious services conducted in said church, consisting of sermons, instructions in matters of faith and religion, and singing of hymns and other religious and devotional exercises usual in Protestant Christian churches. That knowledge of the catechism is essential to confirmation in the church, and that is the belief of the members and communicants of said church whose children are now attending the aforesaid parochial school. That the training of their children in religion and Christian citizenship will be materially and irreparably interfered with unless the said children learn to read the language used by the parents in worship in the church and the home. That it is the belief of the said church and the members and communicants thereof that children should be prepared for confirmation at about the time they complete the seventh grade in the secular branches, or when they have attained the age of 13 years. It is also the belief of the members and communicantsof the said church that parents will not be able to perform their full Christian duty toward their children in accordance with the beliefs and practices of the church if they are unable to supplement the religious training of their children through admonitions and worship at the home conducted by the parents in the German language in which they are accustomed to worship.”

(7) The defendant through the medium of the English language taught the common school branches heretofore mentioned, and also taught reading in the German language to the pupils named in the indictment, and others, who were of ages “between 6 and 13 years inclusive, and were below the eighth grade.” “The text-books used in teaching reading in the German language to said pupils were printed in the German language, and contained such reading lessons as ordinarily appear in elementary reading text-books printed in the English language, and used in the public schools of the state, and are hereby admitted to be of a secular character rather than of a religious character.”

German was used as the medium of instruction by defendant in teaching reading in the German language. This German reading was taught at the request and with the full consent of the parents of the said children, and for the purposes of teaching said children to read the German language sufficiently to enable them intelligently to read the catechism and Bible in that language and to understand and to take part in religious services conducted in said language in the church and Sunday school and in the home. The facts so stipulated were held to establish defendant's guilt, and he was sentenced to pay a fine of $25. He appeals.

[1] From the foregoing it will be observed that the accused taught in a parochial school connected with St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bremer county, and had so done from the middle of September to November 10, 1919. The instruction was in branches below the eighth grade. He employed English as a medium of instruction in all the common school branches, but taught the pupils to read in the German language, and used German in so doing. The text-book used was printed in the German language and contained reading lessons such as ordinarily appear in the English reading text-books in the public schools, and was admitted to be of a secular character rather than a religious character. Such are the facts, and it is plain enough therefrom that the accused (1) employed the German...