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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
3
U. S. SENATOR’S PAPER ATTACKS COURTS AND GRAND
JURIES OF GEORGIA
The Columbia Sentinel Says There Are White Slave Pens in Our State While County
and State Officials Stand Idly By.
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
Washington, D. C., June 13.—The Catholic Lay
men's Association of Georgia has requested and re
ceived the co-operation of the National Council of
Catholic Men in a movement initiated by the Cath
olic Laynien’s Association to bring to the attention
of the United States Senate, the authorities and the
people of the State of Georgia, and the American
public generally, accusations made by Senator Thom
as E. Watson of Georgia that the authorities of the
State of Georgia are permitting and conniving at
very serious infractions of the law by not taking
steps against Rt. Rev. Benjamin J. Keiley, D. D.,
Bishop of Savannah, who is declared by Senator
Watson to be conducting a white slave den in Sa
vannah for immoral purposes.
Senator Watson’s Infamous Allegations.
Marked copies of the Columbia Sentinel, of which
Senator Watson is editor, for the issue of May 16th,
which contains the charges, are to be sent by the
Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia to Presi
dent Harding and the members of the Senate, with a
letter calling their attention to passages in which
are made the accusations that the great majority
of sixty-five thousand girls who disappeared from
their homes last year “were captured by Catholic
priests and sentenced to slavery in the Houses of the
Good Shepherd, etc.,” and that “in Keiley’s estab
lishment, at Savannah, Georgia, there may probably
be a score or more of those ‘missing girls,’ ” ard
similar statements; another one being that “the
Roman Catholic Church dictates to President Hard
ing, just as it dictated to Wilson.”
Advertisements are to be inserted in the Georgia
newspapers by the Catholic Laymen’s Association
calling the attention of the authorities and people of
the State of Georgia to Senator Watson’s further
statements that “the laws of Georgia require that
Bishop Keiley’s slave pen shall be inspected by offi
cers of the courts of Chatham county, but the Bishop
of Savannah informs us that he gets his law from
Rome, and therefore, he cannot recognize laws made
in this country. The question is, Shall Bishop Keiley
be permitted to continue to laugh at our laws?”
The action to be taken by the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia was discussed at a meeting
held in Savannah Sunday, June 6. This meeting
was attended by the Executive Committee of the As
sociation, a committee of the Knights of Columbus,
and a representative of the National Catholic Wel
fare Council of which the National Council of Cath
olic Men is a branch. The full text of the article in
the Columbia Sentinel, which is signed by G. C.
Edmondson, whose editorial address, together with
that of Senator Watson, and Mrs. Alice Louise
Lytle, the managing editor of the paper, is given in
the paper as being Room 129 Senate Office Building,
Washington, D. C., is reproduced elsewhere in this
The defamatory article was read at the meeting
and the whole subject thoroughly discussed by the
delegates present. At the request of Bishop Keiley,
the decision as to what action to take was entrusted
by the meeting to the Publicity Committee of the
Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia, acting in
co-operation with the National Council of Catholic
Men. When asked for a statement in regard to his
attitude in the matter Bishop Keiley stated that he
was opposed to any legal action being taken by his
friends expressly on his account, as it seemed to him
a matter that concerned the entire body of the citi
zens of Georgia much more than it did him per
sonally.
Bishop Keiley’s View.
“I have suffered similar attacks from that man
for many years, and surely I need no defense now
after thirty-five years lived in Georgia and when I
am nearing the time when I can hardly expect to
spend many more years among my friends,” said
Bishop Keiley. “However, it seems to me that this
is a matter that should interest the public-spirited
citizens of Georgia. It is they who are challenged.
The integrity of their laws and institutions are im
pugned. The honesty of their courts and grand
juries is called in question, and these horrible impu
tations on Georgia are vouched for by one of its Sen
ators. These frightful charges come on top of a
shameful record of lynching and peonage which al
ready has made Georgia notorious. No, it is not I
who needs defending, but Georgia, and it seems too
bad that it should require to be protected from its
highest placed public official, one of its representa
tives in the United States Senate.”
The marked copies of the Columbia Sentinel, the
letters to President Harding and the members of the
Senate will reach them this week. The Publicity
Committee of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of
Georgia is also preparing the newspaper advertise
ment and collecting the material for a pamphlet
which will be widely distributed in Georgia and else
where.
In reference to the statement in the article in the
Sentinel in regard to “Keiley’s establishment in Sa
vannah,” it is pointed out that there is no house of
the Good Shepherd in Savannah or anywhere in
Georgia. There is, however, a community of the
Sisters of Mercy in Savannah, who conduct a regu
lar parochial school. At the meeting last Sunday
one of the delegates stated that the Sisters were
also taking action—the same action that they have
been putting into effect for a number of years, as
have many other communities in Georgia, namely,
the offering up of prayers for the welfare of Senator
Thomas E. Watson, one of whose daughters was
educated in a Georgia convent for more than a year
and a half, and some of whose grandchildren have
very recently attended Catholic schools in Georgia.
TEXT OF LETTER TO PRESIDENT HARDING, VICE-PRESIDENT COOLIDGE
AND THE MEMBERS OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
The text of the letter sent by the Catholic Lay- Dear Sir:
men’s Association of Georgia to Hon. Warren G. You will be interested in the enclosed copy of
Harding, President of the United States, Hon. Cal- the Columbia Sentinel, published at Thomson,
vm Coohdge, Vice-President, and the members of Ga. The Junior Senator from Georgia is the
the Senate, follows: editor of this paper.