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VOI. IV. NO. 8.
AUGUSTA, GA., APRIL 25, 1923.
$2.00 A YEAH
ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY
ANTI-CATHOLIC TACTICS
ELECT CATHOLIC MAYOR
IN CHICAGO CAMPAIGN
Prejudice Inspired by Klan
Rebuked at Polls—Chicago
Tribune Makes Spirited
Plea For Tolerance.
r Chicago—Anti-Catholic prejudice
and Ivu Kluxism, which figured in
a whispering campaign before the
municipal elections, was given a
stinging rebuke when the voters elec
ted William E. Dever, Catholic and
Knights of Columbus, as Mayor, over
Arthur C. Lcudcr.
The Democratic candidates for city
clerk, Aloysius F. Gorman, and for
city treasurer, John A. Cervenka,
both Catholics, were also elected.
Negroes Voted Democratic Ticket
In the negro wards the “whisper
ing campaign” had the result of
turning the normal Republican vote
to the Democratic candidates, and
a similar result is noted in the wards
with strong Jewish population.
The heads of the opposing parties,
candidates and newspapers, from the
beginning of the campaign decried
the introduction of religious and ra
cial issues, but notwithstanding this
a “whispering” campaign was start
ed. Cards, stickers, and placards in
tended to arouse religious bigotry
were used extensively. Experienced
. politicians here interpret the result
K.of the elections to be the crushing
kof the spirit of bigotry and Ku Klux-
| ism in Chicago for a long time to
come.
During the last few days of the
campaign, after the whispering tac
tics had been discredited publicly
by Candidate Lucder and his orga
nization leaders, and after the very
newspapers which had forced him in
to the campaign had bandoned him,
the tactics became more open al
though still carried on anoymously.
“Do you want the Pope for Mayor?
and “Dever is a Catholic—an enemy
to the Public Schools” are typical of
the legends carried on stickers and
cards distributed. So offensive to
public opinion did the whispering
campaign become that Lueder pub
licly repudiated it and the Chicago
Tribune, which supported him, print
ed the following editorial comment
on the morning of election day:
Press Plea for Tolerance.
“Chicago voters arc electing a
mayor today. We have all hushed
and deplored the issue which is gov-
erining a large mass of the voters.
It has nothing to do with the ad
ministration of Chicago affairs, and
after the election, will not be ap
parent in the city hall, no matter
who wins.
“We have had Protestant mayors
and we have had Catholic mayors.
Religion never has influenced them.
f-Tliompson, a Protestant, whose com-
paign stirred up a lot of religion
feeling, appointed a Catholic as Chief
of Police, a Jew as corporation coun
sel, and Catholics in other impor
tant places. Dunne, a Catholic, ap
pointed a cabinet nearly all Protest
ants. What do people get so crazy
about in their campaigns. The can
didate they elect pays no attention
to the thing that sent them off their
heads. It is known as bad politics
to pay nay attention to it.”
Judge Dever began life, the son of
a tanner at Woburn, a suburb of
Boston, and his first work was in
the tannery. He was graduated from
the public schools. When he grew
to young manhood he started west
to make his way after the advice of
Horace Grecly, “Go West, Young
Man.” His first pause was at Olean,
New York, where he says his first
best bit of fortune came to him.
There he met and married Katherine
Conway.
The young people came to Chica
go in 1887, where young Dever, fol
lowing his trade as a livelihood, stu
died law at night, and finally en
tered politics in a small way.
He progressed in both professions,
becoming a good lawyer and being
elected to the city council, where
lie became a strong figure. Later he
was elevated to the bench, from
from which he steps into the mayor’s
chair.
As judge, Mayor-elect Dever lias
presided at a number of the most
important trials, civil and criminal,
in recent years, with credit to him-
’ self and impartial justice to the
litigants.
St. Louis Paper's Libel on Missing
Priest is Overwhelmingly Disproved
Story Under Flaring Headline in St. Louis Times Declaring
That Slain Bandit Was Father Vraniak in Spite of Uni
versal Testimony to the Contrary Arouses Catholics.
St. Louis, Mo.—A monster mass
meeting was held at Knights of Co
lumbus Hall, 3547 Olive Street, on
Tuesday, for the purpose of setting
forth the facts in regard to the
identification of the body of Steve
Boleansky, alias Charles Wuyber,
and to protest against stories pub
lished in the St. Louis Times, in
which it was stated that the body
was that of the Rev. John A. Vran
iak, the Virden, 111., priest, who has
been missing since March 5th. Those
who attended the mass meeting fill
cd six halls in. the K. of C. build
ing, and thousands who were un
able to obtain entrance crowded the
streets in front and were addressed
from the. second-story windows by
the same speakers who spoke in
side. It was estimated that G,000 men
and women crowded the halls, while
4,000 or 5,000 remained on the out
side.
This mass meeting was called by
the Knights of Columbus, headed by
Harry G. Whelan, Faithful Naviga
tor of the Fourth Degree Assembly,
as a result of sensational and false
statements made in the St. Louis
Times beginning Friday, April 6th,
when an extra edition of that paper
contained, under flaring headlines,
the following assertions:
“Rev- Father John A. Vraniak is
dead. Tile body of the missing Vir
den, 111., priest is in Bopp's under
taking shop at Kirkwood. The St.
Louis Times found it there yester
day. Father Vraniak is attired in
the clothes of'the bandit who fatal
ly wounded Patrolman Jacob Busch,
of Webster Groves, and himself was
killed by a fellow officer of Busch.
L. A. Bopp, proprietor of the under
taking place, former sheriff of St.
Louis County, told the Times that
the body is that of the bandit.”
When Harry G. Whelan saw this
story in the Times Friday evening
he immediately called up the other
three papers, namely, the Globe-
Democrat, Post-Dispatcli and Star,
and asked them why they had not
published the story. They told him
that the reason was that the story
was not true. It was announced Sat
urday that a mass meeting would be
held in protest against the publica
tion of this story in the Times.
Steve Boleansky, alias Charles
Wuyber, was killed March 11th, at
Webster Groves, where lie was
caught in the act of breaking into
a house by Patrolmen Jacob Busch
and Patrick Whalen. He was killed
by Officer Whalen after he had
fatally wounded Officer Busch. The
body of the burglar was taken to
Kirkwood and had beenkept there
three weeks before the Times story
was published. One of the first to
view the body of the bandit was the
Rev. Henry Linck, of Holy' Trinity
Church, St. Louis, who instantly de
clared it was not the body of his
missing- friend, Father Vraniak.
This statement of Father Linck
and of others was accepted as true
by all of the newspapers except
the St. Louis Times. The Times “in
vestigators ’ summoned Frank Vran
iak, a brother of Father Vraniak,
and he went to Kirkwood Friday
morning with the Times reporters
and when he saw the body of the
bandit he knew, as he has stated to
the N. C. W. C. correspondent, and
at the mass meeting, that it was not
that of his brother and so stated
to the Times man. Frank Vraniak
remained throughout the day at
Kirkwood and repeatedly denied that
the body was that of the priest, and
yet the Times story that appeared
about 5 p. m., made no reference
to these denials.
Friday night about 11:30 o’clock
(Continued on Page Two)
Four Richmond Protestant
Churches Are Now Catholic
Richmond, Va.—Four Protes
tant churches in Richmond and
the vicinity have been “con
verted into Catholic churches
during the past few years and
arc now being used by congre
gations that are growing rap
idly.
St. Paul’s Church so called by
the Right Rev. Denis J. O’Con
nell, in honor of the first great
convert to Christianity, was for
merly the Barton Heights Me
thodist Church. Established
less than a year ago, St. Paul’s
parish, in addition to a thriving
congregation, has already a pa
rochial school with six grades
and a kindergarten, and has an
attendance of seventy-five chil
dren.
The Rev. E. P. Shaughnessy is
pastor of St. Paul’s.
St. Francis Church of Clare
mont, St. Anthony’s Church and
St. Peter Claver's, the last for
colored Catholics, were all for
merly used by Protestant con
gregations.
AGE OF MARTYRS
Still Here Apostolic Delegate
Says of Russia.
Baltimore—‘The age op martyrs
is not over yet for the Catholic
Church,” was the comment made
upon the execution of Msgr. Bud-
kiewieez in Russia, by the Most Rev.
Pietro Fumasoiji-Biondi, Apostolic
Delegate to the United States. The
delegate was in Baltimore as the
guest of Archbishop Curley to meet
the priests of the archdiocese.
Further discussing the Russian
execution he said: “The vicar gen
eral showed the same spirit as did
those who for long centuries have
died for their faith. It was a ter
rible thing. There doesn’t seem to
be much to add to what the news
papers have said. Men died for
their faith in Asia, in Japan, in
Rome, in many other countries. This
execution shows men still must be
prepared to die for it.”
THE CHURCH IN THE SOUTH A CENTURYAGO
u
Rev. Dr. Peter Guilday Discloses in the Ecclesiastical Review Story of its Reconstruc
tion in South Carolina and this Section While the Republic was yet Young.
After repeated requests from
Archbishop Marechal, the Holy Sec
created the Diocese of Charleston,
on 12 July, 1820, and appointed
appointed Father John England,
then parish . priest of Bandon, "In
the Diocese of Cork, Ireland, Bishop
of the new see. Unfortunately', the
equanimity of the Baltimore metro
politan was disturbed by the fact
that Richmond had also been made
an episcopal see, with Bishop Pat
rick Kelly as its first incumbent.
Geographical knowledge of the
United States was not very exten
sive at the time among the offi
cials of the Congregation de Prop
aganda Fide; for, if we are to be
lieve Father William Taylor, of
Boston, who was then in Rome,
there was serious difficulty in per
suading Cardinal Fontana, the Pre
fect, from establishing the city of
Hartford, Conn., a'S the episcopal
See of the Diocese of Virginia.
Marechal never forgot this act of
Fontana, and those who are famil
iar with the extraordinary scene
which occurred when Bishop Kelly
presented himself at Baltimore, can
well understand how Dr. England
came in for a share of Marechal’s
misgivings during the rest of that
prelate’s lifetime. Bishop England
knew very little about America at
the time of his consecration. There
had been an intimate, though wary,
correspondence between the metro
politans of Baltimbrc and Dublin, in
Dr. Carroll’s time, but there was
little affection between Archbishop
Troy of Dublin and the young cler
gyman of Cork who had so bril
liantly disagreed with him on the
tortuous question of the Veto. Car-
roll’s letters in the Dublin archives
would have furnished Dr. England
with a rough estimate of the con
dition of his diocese, since the mal
contents who had thrown it into
confusion came to America with Dr.
Troy’s letters of recommendation.
Dr. England’s friend, Bishop Moylan
of Cork, who had ordained him,
was the brother of General Stephen
Moylan, Washington’s aide-de-camp
and Commissary-General of the
Continental Army; hut General Moy
lan had died nearly a decade before.
The newly-consecrated prelate came
therefore, to his diocese with lit-
tl information except that given him
by one of the two priests who had
blocked Carroll, Neale, and Marechal
in the performance of their duty to
the church there. This, strange to
say, was not of- England’s own
choosing, hut in obedience to Prop
aganda Fide which had suggested
his being guided by the clergy
man in question.
The condition of the church in
his diocese, which included the two
Carolines and Georgia, was a de
plorable one. The Jesuits, Fathers
Benedict Fenwick and Wallace, had
succeeded in bringing some sem
blance of order into the misrule
created by restless spirits like Si
mon Felix Gallagher and Robert
Browne. The outstanding fact of
Dr. England's coming to Charles
ton is that it prevented the scheme
these two men had organized for
the establishment of a Jansenist
bishopric of the Southland, direct
ly subject to the Archbishop of
Utrecht. How little Bishop England
knew of the. colossal task before
him is evident in his letter from
Bandon, 13 July, 1820, to the “Prin
cipal Roman Catholic, Clergyman at
Charleston,” asking for an advance
of three hundred pounds and suf
ficient funds for the expenses of
his voyage across the Atlantic. It
would have been impossible at the
time to have raised that amount by
a national collection. Poor Fen
wick, who was to succeed Bishop
Cheverus at Boston, a few years
later, simply gasped at the request
and passed the letter on to Mare
chal, with whom undoubtedly it did
harm to Dr. England. The request,
however, was characteristic of the
man; from the date of his arrival
at Charleston (31 December, 1820)
until his death twenty-two years
later, the vcscovo a vapore, as the
Roman officials learned to call En
gland, knew no rest, recognized no
obstacle in perfecting the task giv
en to him by the Holy Sec, and
never failed on any one single oc
casion to insist with the laity on
the necessity of support for all dio
cesan works. Sad as was the dis
ciplinary and financial condition of
the diocese, there is seldom a weary
note in Dr. England’s correspond
ence with the Holy Sec or with his
fellow-bishops in the United States.
Schism, disorder and worse, had
reigned in the larger centers of his
diocese for years before his arrival,
and he was obliged to cope with
problems seldom paralleled in the
Church of God in this country.
Forma gregis, forma pastoris; and
one has not the heart to write open
ly of the clergy of the Southland
at that time. Between adherence to
trusteeism, Freemasonry and inde
pendence of spiritual rule, the laity
were a broken reed, and it hardly
added to his contentment to find
one of their leaders bearing his own
name—Alexauder England.
In a long report on the state of
the Church in the Southland, as he
had found it during a visitation that
occupied the first four months of
his residence there. Bishop England
told Cardinal Fontana of 4he prog-
(Continued on Page 11)
EXECUTION OF PRELATE
RESULT OF SOCIALISM
SAYS D.A.R. PRESIDENT
Movement Aimed at Religion
is Not Confined to Russia,
Says Mrs. Minor, Who Also
Condemns Birth Control.
Washington—Citing the murder of
Msgr Butkiewicz as the logical re
sult of so-called “liberalism” and
socialism, Mrs. George Maynard
Minor, president-general \ of the
Daughters of the American Revolu
tion, called upon the delegates to
the national convention of the or
ganization here to fight against the
spread of bolshevistic teachings in
the United States.
“Under the mask of peace and
freedom movements, of human bro
therhood movements, of internation
al friendship movements,” she said,
“this socialism, by whatever name
you call it, masquerades as though
it and it only were that ‘one far-
off divine event toward which the
whole creation moves.-’ Tear off the
mask, and you will see it as it is
—the denier of God, the negation
of all that men have held sacred
from time immemorial, the denier
of phonies and the denier of coun
try. Has not this onslaught upon
religion, this attempt of socialists
to abolish God, had frightful fruit
in the murder of a vicar-general
of the Roman Catholic Church by
the reds of Russia? The whole
world stands aghast at a crime per
petrated not alone against the indi
vidual but against the sacred reli
gious instincts of all mankind, re
gardless of church or creed.
“It was an example of bolshevist
repudiation of God and bolshevism
is socialism and is not confined to
Russia- It is over here in this coun
ty deriding our faith in a God of
righteousness, sneering at spiritual
things, leading astray our young
people, some of whom are saving
‘There is no God.’ ”
Continuing, the speaker declared
that members of the D. A. R. could
best serve their country by build
ing up real homes, with large fam
ilies.
“It is not birth control that
America needs today,” she said, “f ir
our country is 43 per cent, foreign
and birth control will not be prac
ticed by the foreigner, and the poor
whom it professes to benefit. It
aims straight at the hearthstone of
the American home. Make no mis
take about that.
“It is for you to keep the homes
of the nation firmly built on tin
sure foundations of the past,” Mrs
Minor told the convention delegates
“the foundations of a strong, purr
family life around the family lamp
as a centre from which glows all
that is highest and best in the na
tion’s character. For a nation car
rise no higher than the level ol
its home, and the character of its
mothers.
DIVORCE COURT DETAILS
Publicity Protested by Cath
olics of England.
London,—Blackburn Catholic Fed-
erationists, with Bishop Hanldn at
their head, are taking active steps
to support the . movement started
in England to have* detailed reports
of divorce cases omitted from the
press.
Catholics have been agitating for
this reform, but as the press is
practically controlled by large fin
ancial interests, little has been ac
complished. It is just, however, to
state that papers like the “Morning
Post,” the “Times,” and others of
that calibre, print such reports am
ong the law records and without
headlines.
The Blackburn Federationists are
strongly in support to the Lord
Chancelor by a secular delegation.
The objections made by this delega
tion arc quite in line with Catholic
moral principles, and so the Salford
Catliolice are prepared to join with
other froces to jrest home the moral
point of view.