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Vtil. 14, No. 18
VI7HEN a nation goes to war, it expects to
v resume business at the old stand, in the
same old way, after the war, but it never does.
“The mill will never grind again with the
water that has passed;” and this is true of
governments, too.
Aly illustration is homely; and it does not
compare, in dignity and academic elegance,
with the literary War Whoop of Professor
Woodrow Wilson; but, if we all live to see
the end of this bad adventure, you will then
be better able to judge between Wilson's fore
sight and mine.
What is it that President Wilson sees in
the future?
What is he aiming at? What does he hope
to accomplish?
What is his conception of the after claps
©f this European War, into which he is plung
ing us ?
Virtually, the Government is already com
mitted to burdening itself with a huge
bonded debt, far greater than that incurred
in the War between the States.
Virtually, the Government is already com
mitted to military plans which call for an
Army larger than all the armies raised dur
ing the Civil War.
It is amazing! It is appalling! It is
almost incredible!
Men whd are ordinarily cool and level
“dhe Catholic Laymen’s Association” Re-writes History, Placing
Fables Where Fadis Belong
IT is comical to see such men as compose the
* Catholic Laymen’s Association transform
ing themselves into megaphones, through
which the Jesuit priest can talk “history” to
the unwary.
Let us examine a few points in the Lay
men’s historical discourses, and see how they
agree with historical facts.
“WYCLIFFE DIED IN HIS BED.”
Addressing a circular letter to my friend,
Rev. S. G. Woodall, of the LaGrange, Ga.,
Graphic, the Laymen's chairman, J.- J. Far
rell, thus repeats the lesson taught him by his
Jesuit priest:
“Wycliffe died in his bed, on the 31st of De
cember, 1384, from a strbke of apoplexy received
three days previous, on the 28th, visile he was
assisting at the holy sacrifice of the Mass.*’
Like the majority of our Protestant minis
ters, Mr. Woodall was born in a rural district,
where books of reference are seldom found;
therefore the Jesuit, who is megaphoning
through the Laymen’s Association, deemed it
safe to dispose of Wycliffe, in one deceptive
sentence.
The impression sought to be made, in the
case of the Great Reformer, is, that he lived
at peace with Rome, and virtually died
AS TO SENDINGJTROOPS TO EUROPE
Let Us Look Before We Leap.
Thomson, Ga., Thursday, May 10, 1917
headed are acting like inebriates. A strange
intoxication exalts them, sweeps them off their
feet, fastens them and leads them on. cm,
and on. until they are mere echoes of the slo
gans which are sounded in Washington.
Like folks at a revival that has been run
ning for weeks, and which has caught up the
whole community in its swirl, men are hardly
conscious of what they say and do, but are
mesmerized by that irresistible current of
unusual emotions.
Before a shot is fired, a war debt, equal to
double the amount of all the gold standard
money on earth, is rapturously incurred by
this Republic.
With no enemy in sight, and no attack
made upon us, different from what other neu
trals have suffered, we gayly start out to raise
an army of a million men.
For what?
To send to Europe !
If we were not excited, off our balance,
and intoxicated by contagion, we would know
that such a proposition is preposterous folly.
But we are excited, we are off our balance.
are intoxicated by contagion, and hence we
have temporarily lost our common sense.
Like the gay chap having a glorious time,
we toss off the glass of liquor; we feel exhili
rated; we expand; we grow rich in our mind;
we mount the pinnacle of geniality; we see
while celebrating Rome’s distinctive rite, the
Mass.
Yet, any one who has access to the Encyslo
pedia Britannica—before the Jesuits doctored
the last edition—will at once realize how the
Laymen have evaded the story of John Wy
cliffe.
(See the United Editors’ Encyclopedia, the
Columbian, Johnson’s, Harmsworth’s, Apple
ton’s, Cassell’s, or any other, except those
that the lying Jesuits have mutilated and
changed—as they recently were permitted to
do with the Britannica.)
Did 'Wycliffe live and die, a good papist, at
peace u'ith Dome?
Let us get at the facts, briefly: using the
latest and best ‘VLife” of the Reformer, by
Prof. Gotthard Lechler, of the University of
Leipzig. 1878.
On pages 165, 6, and 7, the learned German
scholar states the causes which led Pope
Gregory XI. to seek the life of the English
priest.
The first great cause was, that Wycliffe had
contended, that the Roman church had no
moral right to own and enjoy such vast
properties, unless the church used this
property for religious and charitable pur
poses;
Secondly, Wycliffe contended that the Pope
everything in the rosiest colors—and we take
another drink.
Then we want another, and one more, and
then a couple; and then all is over, until ’"next
morning'—well, any of the b'hoys can tell
you about the feeling of ’next morning."
I admit that my illustrations are homely:
they don’t begin to compare in literary beauty
with the flowers of Wilson’s rhetoric; but.
while my career shows far more of the fighter
than that of Woodrow Wilson, I'll tell you
right now, that it would make me sweat blood,
to have to do up my rhetoric in such a man
ner as to fitly decorate the graves of a mil
lion American boys.
VOLUNTEERING GIVEN A BLACK EYE !
What was it that checked volunteering?
It was talk of sending our troops across
the ocean.
That’s what cooled the country: and the
talk cf conscription brought on a chill.
What right did those War-feeding Corpo
rations have to insult our young men. by say
ing in advance, that they wouldn't fight, un
less they were made to?
What right did our Prussian militarists
have to demand that we be shackled by Prus
sia nism, at the very start?
(continued on page two.)
could not use the power of “the keys,” ex
cept in conformity with the gospel. In other
words, the English priest appealed to the
Bible, as Luther did at a much later date,
and as the persecuted Minorities of Italy had
done in the 13th century.
Thirdly, Wycliffe denied that every priest
had free power to forgive “all manner of
sin.”
The Laymen’s allusion to 'Wycliffe gives
you no hint of this deep and protestant
character of Wycliffian “heresy;" nor do the
Laymen give you any hint of the narrowness
of Wycliffe's escape from death by fwa —i
fate which afterwards overtook John Huss
and Jerome, on account of this same Wy
cliffian “heresy.”
The powerful Duke of Lancaster saved
Wycliffe’s life, from papal vengeance, by pro
tecting him with a military escort at his trial,
defying the blood-thirsty papal court, and
taking Wycliffe away from London.
Tn practically the same manner, the Elector
of Saxony protected Martin Luther and saved
his life, when the malignant papists were de
manding that he be burnt at the stake.
Did Wycliffe die of a stroke of “apoplexy,”
while he was “assisting at the holy sacrifice
of the Mass?”
He did not have a stroke of apoplexy. liq
(continued on page three.)
Price, Five Gents