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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? s{c sfc 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,