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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
3
WATSON’S WHITE GIRL SLAVE PENS
(AN OPEN LETTER)
TO THE JUNIOR SENATOR FROM GEORGIA,
United States Senate, Washington, D. C.
In the May 16, 1921, Columbia Sentinel,
of Thomson, Georgia, edited by the Junior
Senator from Georgia, the following state
ments appeared:
“We learn that 65,000 girls disappeared from
their homes last year and nothing is known of
their whereabouts.
“A great majority of these girls were cap
tured by Catholic priests and sentenced to slav
ery in the Houses of the Good Shepherd, etc.
, “In Keiley’s establishment at Savannah, Geor
gia, there may probably be a score or more of
those ‘missing' girls.”
In the June 27 issue of his paper, the
Junior Senator from Georgia admits re
sponsibility for the above, and says: “I re
peat it; and 1 can 'prove it.”
For years prior to his election to the
United States Senate, the Junior Senator
from Georgia as a private citizen constantly
.villified and calumniated the Catholics of
this state and misrepresented their teach
ing and belief. The Catholic Laymen’s Asso
ciation of Georgia consistently ignored the
man and all he said. They sent out thou
sands of letters and hundreds of pieces of
printed matter correcting misstatements of
others about Catholics, but never mentioned
this man’s name or anything he wrote. They
did not believe he was honest.
They do not believe it now, but when one
holding the office of a United States Senator
makes such statements as the foregoing,
which the Junior Senator from Georgia says
he can prove, it compels attention and, there
fore, the Catholic Laymen’s Association of
Georgia proposes to the Junior Senator from
Georgia the following questions:
1. Of those 65,000 girls reported missing last
year, will he name one—not a majority but
ONE—who was captured by Catholic priests?
* * *
2. Will he name one—not a score or more but
ONE—in any Catholic institution in Georgia?
* ❖ *
3. He says he has proof—has he advised the
parents of one of those missing girls where their
child is to be found?
4. He sold his services to keep men out of
the army during the war. Has he offered his
services to help one—just one—of those girls he
says was captured by Catholic priests and en
slaved?
* * *
5. Has he ever informed any prosecuting at
torney or grand jury in the United States of an
instance where one of those missing girls was
captured by a priest?
Hs H* ❖
6. Has he offered to prosecute or aid in the
prosecution or even suggested to any State’s at
torney the prosecution, of any certain person
for kidnapping one of those missing girls?
* * *
7. Has he offered to prosecute or aid in the
prosecution or even suggested to any State’s at
torney the prosecution, of any certain person for
detaining against her will one of those girls?
sH sis sj:
8. Has he instituted or requested any State’s
attorney to institute, criminal or civil proceed
ings against any certain person for holding in
involuntary servitude one of those girls?
❖ * *
9. Has he informed the grand jury, the pros
ecuting attorney or any Court of Chatham
County. Georgia, of the name of one of those
girls who is in a Catholic institution in Sa
vannah?
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10. Does he believe that any person in Sa
vannah has such influence over the prosecuting
attorney, the courts and grand juries of Chat
ham County, that they would not prosecute that
person on information or evidence that he had
violated the law?
* * *
11. Does he believe that the prosecuting at
torney or the courts or the successive grand
juries or the people of Chatham County, would
permit a white girl—not a score or more but
ONE—to be kidnapped, or forcibly detained, or
held in involuntary servitude, by any person in
Savannah?
The Junior Senator from Georgia is law
yer enough to know that these simple ques
tions must be answered in specific terms by
one intending to tell the truth. They can
not be answered by generalities, arguments,
by historical perversions or cuttlefishing.
The Catholic Laymen’s Association of
Georgia is inviting the Junior Senator from
Georgia to stand up and be counted.
THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA,