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I foL 37 EDITORIALS AND SHORT COMMENTS ON THINGS IN GENERAL % THOS. E. WATSON. . It is an extraordinary thing to see the wealthy Jews in some American cities form an alliance with the Catholics. Who drove the Jews out of Spain, barbar¬ ously, causing thousands of them to perish in their sudden flight across the seas? The Catholics did it. Who massacred the Jews in France, accusing them of poisoning wells, and doing all sorts of im possible deviltry? The Catholics did it. Who tortured them, and tore the teeth from their mouths, to extract money from their wallets? The Catholics did it Who herded them in ghettos, separating them from other races, and treated them as pariah dogs? The Catholics did it. * Who enfranchised them, lifted the racial barm, opened the courts, the legislatures, and the highest offices to them? Tim Protestants did it. When did any massacre of Jews ever take place in a Protestant country? No such thing ever occurred. It happens in Catholic countries, always : Greek Catholic Russia, and Roman Catholic Poland, have the same hatred of the Jew. Do you I'emember what a ferment was caused among the Catholics, when a Jew, named Nathan, was elected Mayor of Rome? Do you remember how the Catholics threaten ed to boycott the California Exposition, because the King of Italy had appointed Mr. Nathan to represent his country at the Fair? The Jew who now turns lovingly to the Cath die, has lots to forget. It has not been 90 very long ago, since Pope Pius IX. caused the only son of a rich Jew to be kidnapped, hidden away in a monastery, and educated as a Catholic priest. In vain, were the remonstrances and appeals o< the Emperor Napoleon III., and others high in powder: the Pope refused to release the boy. Of this Mortara case, W. W. Story asks, in his book, Roba Di Roma “Was there ever & sadder spectacle than that sorrowing mother, following from town to town the child which had been rav - ished from her arms, and , in anguish of heart , praying for her maternal rightsf" Tliis crime was committed by the Pope who foroed the Vatican Council to adopt the dogma of papal infallibility; and he it was that brought Austrian armies upon Italy, to put the bayonet to Catholic democracy. (He died in 1878.) W W Story was the son of our great lawyer, Joseph Story, whom President Madison appointed Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. The younger Story went to Rome, where he lived many vears, and established his fame as a sculptor and'scholar. He held a degree from the University of Oxford, and another from that of Bologna. The" I will draw the facts, book from which as to the detestable manner in which the Popes themselves have treated the Jews, was written in 1870, before Pius IX., kidnapper of the Mortara hoy,’had lost his Temporal fact, Power. that authority Take notice of the my brings the record dovm to the very end of the Papal Monarchy: hence, it makes a complete case, Mr. Story does not go out of his way to attack the Catholics; at that time it would have been most imprudent for him to have done so, since he lived in the Jesuit and Dominican stronghold. He de Voted his book to a general description of Rome, ifs historic ruins, its street-life, its markets, its fes tivals, its fountains Ac. “The Ghetto”’ is merely the subject of one of his chapters, just, as Chinatown or Little Italy would necessarily enter into a book on “Life in New York.” After having mentioned the many decrees which Popes had issued against the Jews, in past oenturifis, Story comes directly to the reign of Pius IX., and asks— “What then is the present condition of the Jews in Rome? It is shameful, intolerant, and un¬ christian. “A bann is upon these poor children of Israel . . . . They are branded with ignominy, oppressed by taxes, excluded from honorable professions and trades, and reduced to poverty by laws which be¬ long to barbarous agea “Shut up* p their Ghetto, and forced to earn they a miserable liv 'mood by the meanest traffic, are then scorned as a filthy, dishonest people. “Forbidden to raise their head, the Church that has crushed them under its decrees, points at them the finger of scorn because they creep and crawl under their burdens. They are prohibited from holding my civil, political, or military office, and from the exercise (Continued B W 5 on ffl (Mimiiii 1 Price $2.00 Per Year WHAT CAUSES MEN TO FIGHT. The League of Nations is not meant to prevent war: it is meant to suppress democracy. Nobody but a lnnatic believes that wars can be forever prevented, but potentates easily per¬ suade themselves that the people can be kept under. The Holy Alliance of 1815 furnished evidence 6 °“i d do: 16 the } ' 0 P® solutions and , tb e which Kings commenced thought they in 1823 ’ ran on irre &« lar jy until the Pope was de throned in . Italy, (1«70) and the Bonaparte bas tard-dynasty expelled from France, in 1871, show *** !wbattfla People can do, and will do , when those in P ower become intolerably corrupt and oppres- 31761 T a democracy, authority ... rests those at the in bottom > not in those at the top. In a despotism, authority is usurped by those at the top, and no liberty of control, or correction, is allowed to those at the bottom. The democratic spirit is embodied in the refer¬ ence of all public questions to the people; the recognition of the rights of the governed to inl¬ tiate .... leg l tion which . they need; the ls a and supreme, sovereign prerogative of controlling their public servants. ' ien “ l03e on top disregard the restrictions P !ll ' cd upon their official action; and when they trample upon the vested,time-honored liberties of tbe people; and when they go ahead, with their own ar r°gant, self-given dictatorship, proposing lm ’ te thls Republic with monarchies, despotisms, 7 apalism, and Toryism, throughout, the world, it is time we heard the word Impeachment. Nobody believes that such men as Clemenceau, Lloyd-George, Orlando, and Wilson have any ^ adb j* 1 a P er P e lunl League of Peace. l hose men know very well that the seeds of war were sown in human nature when God made man. According to the Old lestament, God him self was a jealous pugnacious God—and I mean no r 7 ’ “f delighted in . fighters! , ^ asn asn , f f “iere the ft Devil war in been Heaven? at war with the Almighty, . he lost the ever since battle which Mil * on 30 badly describes in “Paradise Lost?” " ar general between R°bert Jehovah Toombs and Satan used had to say lasted that 6,000 the and tbat Satan seemed to be holding his hand surprisingly , well. »° h « do 6 s- Took at your daily paper and see th ® record of the Devil ’s daily doings. It’s awful; and 301116 irreverent, skeptical people ask, “Why do «*t God put the Devil out of business?”’ You turn to Paradise Lost,” and you read of ^he wars m Heaven: you read the Iliad,” and you ^ earn h° w the Greeks fought the Trojans for ten V ea ™, because a Trojan ran away with the wife of a Greek. Cyrus made war on Croesus, because Croesus bad heaped up treasures on earth, too tempting to a stronger King; and Herodotus says that the rape of a woman caused the Persian wars which wreck e d the empire of Xerxes and Darius, As a historical fact, we know the the long civd . war which ended the power of the Greek states was caused by the Bcetian “squatters,” who bad taken into cultivation some unoccupial land belonging to one of the temples, The King of France made a coarse and sorry j <)ke about the corpulency of William the Con queror; and the offended Norman went across the Channel, with an English army at his back, to pun ish the French people for the insulting taunt of tbeir Kin d- As you will remember, the Conqueror lost his life in this expedition because of a saddle bruise he received, when his horse stumbled amid the smoking ruins of a French city he had taken, and & ren over to fire and sword. Then you can come on down to the Hundred Years’ War, between England and France; and, if f A PEACE WHICH PROVOKES war. After the great Congress of Berlin, following the struggle, between Russia and Turkey, there was the usual blare of trumpets, and the British diplo mats—D’lsraeli and Salisbury—were particularly proud of their performances which had brought “Peace with honor.” Soon afterwards, it became known that were secret articles to this Treaty of Berlin; and that the lambs of the Balkans had been left to the protection of the wolves of Austria. The pivots on which the whole problem turn ed, were Bosnia and Herzegovina. At that time, when the world was praising the Treaty of Berlin, one obscure editor laid his finger on the acorn that was to grow into a greater War. It was Finch, of the Atlanta Constitution; I Harlem, fia., Friday, May 16, 1919. yon investigate its beginnings, you will find that a pious monarch, Louis VII., allowed the monks to cut. off his long curling hair—when long hair for men was the fashion—and that his Queen became 30 di^guested with her too monkish husband, that she ^stowed her love upon a manlier man Queen Eleanor of France owned the great provinces of Poitou and Aquitaine; and when she married Henry Plantaganet, T)uke of Normandy, he came into possession of those French territories. Here was the source of wars which lasted 100 years. Two Italian states, Pisa and Bologna, fell out about an old well-bitcket: they went to war, and 10,000 men were killed. I don’t know what became of the bucket. of .bJ'SS.tisUat*rssss?^ King Louis XV : the offended lady persuaded her royal lover to lend military aide to Austria, in tlie war against Frederick, and the results were, that, the, French got a tremendous defeat at Itoss baeh, and finally lost Canada. The Thirty Years’ War in Germany began because the Catholics burned two Protestant churches, and the Protestants Hung two Catholic councillors out of a high window of the Castle at Prague. England and Spain went to war, and battled with each other for years, because an English sailor—Jenkins, by name—exhibited in London one of his ears which the Spaniards had cut off. when they stopped a British vessel in “the Spanish Main.” Jenkins told his talo to all he met, and he showed his cut-off ear to everybody he talked to, and the subject took hold of the public ear, and a wave of popular indignation ran over the coun¬ try, and Parliamentary orators began to make fiery speeches about Jenkins’ ear, the government ind’his wac «t length forced to recognize Jefikiiia ear—and so England and Spain went to war. I don’t know what became of Jenkins ami his epochal ear. It is well known that Louvois, the Premier of King Louis XIV., plunged France into war with Germany, because the King had said that two of the windows in the Palace of Versailles, theu l>eing bult, varied in size. Louvois contended that the windows corres ponded with each other, exactly—whereupon the King waxed wroth. His minister, fearing that the King’s displeas¬ ure might lead to his own fall, immediately con coded plans for another German war, in order that Louis might forget the dispute about the windows. Now, when history presents so many examples of bloody wars, provoked by trifling matters, what is the use of pretending to believe that any sort of combination of established governments will pre¬ vent future wars? The detestable Kaiser himself claimed that he had preserved the peace of Europe during the whole of his reign—aircTthen he set the world afire. Napoleon III. used to proclaim the doctrine, that “The Empire means peace?' yet he made war upon Austria, upon Mexico, upon Russia, and up¬ on Germany. In short, the same things that men, individual¬ ly, fight about, cause nations to fight.. The makers of the League of Nations are ex perienced persons: they are not dreaming of Uto¬ pias, Elysian fields, the Golden Age, or the Mil¬ lenium. Those League-framers are trying so save to the Privileged few, in each nation, those monopol¬ istic exploitations of the land, of the wealth, of the annual produce, of political power, and of cler¬ ical domination, which are the curse of Christen¬ dom and of Heathendom. have no doubt that he is remembered by Sam Small, and, perhaps, by Clark Howell. Day after day. Finch wrote about the inevita ble future war that was to grow out of the arbitra ry, perverse disposition of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nobody paid any attention to Finch. Before /, too, am forgotten, let me forewarn you that the Treaty of Versailles is a house built on sand, and carmot endure. The Sarre region is German; German in in blood, in custom; it cannot be made French by written agreement. Has the lesson of Lorraine been so quickly forgotten ? Silesia "" ' tom from Austria by was Frederick (continued on page three.) Issued Weekly A Kansas friend, writing from Emporia, asks mo ™ hat * think <>f Socialisin > in its relation to world - condl tions. The question is a hard one, and it goes to the bottom of things: on such a theme one should not aogmfttl , f As Ig ° fown the hill, I see many things in a „ \ , th “ n 1 Used d<>: and 1 less am »» t0 COmbat an >’ ^ow-creature, about , his °P ini0ni ‘ It has always seemed to me that, Socialism, as 6X P°™ ded .„j hy 1 u Hebei , , and , Carl „ , Marx, ,, antagon¬ ized the elemental traits of human nature. Every normal man wants a home that is his: he cannot be content in a house that belongs to society. In like manner, every normal person wants + o> Ms ,or ”■* As to the woman question, the Socialists of America do not hold the same doctrine laid down in Bebel’s book ‘‘Woman under Socialism.” I myself believe in the doctrine of Socrates. Solon, and Thomas Jefferson, namely— individual ¬ ism. In many respects, I am a good Jew, so far as the basic principles of government are concerned: yet, strange to say. the pioneer Socialists were Jews. Like Jefferson, I believe that the less the in dividual is hampered and bossed hy the govern ment. the better it is for the country Let the Individual alone! Give him a free field and a fair tight for his ,)Wn material advancement. I No man was ever fully developed by a tutor: throw the Individual on his own feet, and let him work out his own salvation. That’s democracy. Of course, this may mean the survival of (lie fittest; the strong man goes on and up, while the wet* goes down and under. But. cue Socialism do "yett:,r? We must take the world as we find it, and human nature as God made it. The book of llerr Hebei abolishes God and religion; but even then we have Humanity to deal with. No matter what its origin, it is here, and it is the same that it was when the wastes of Meso¬ potamia were as thickly populated as the densest portions of modem China. To bo quite candid, it seemed to me that both Christianity and Socialism exposed themselves as ghastly failures, in the Great War. I will not argue the question, nor wilt I dwell upon it. The religion which cannot prevent the butch¬ ery of (5,000,000 Christians, hy other Christians, has somehow failed to accomplish its mission, if that mission meant what the angels sang on the night that Christ was bom. And Socialism, as an international force and brotherhood, went all to pieces, when {he War put it to the test. Even in this country, the carpet-knight Socialists became fire-eaters, and they fiercely join¬ ed in the War-dance which was so suddenly start¬ ed in April, 1917. Consequently, Socialiem lost ground: it did not stand the ordeal by fire. Perhaps, a majority of thinkers believe in socializing public utilities, applying to railroads Ac. the same principle that is applied to public highways, navigable streams, and harbors. It seems absurd to charter a private railway which virtually throws into the commercial discard the Mississippi River, the Potomac, Hudson, and Ohio. It seems monstrous that, any private corpora¬ tion should be chartered to tax persons and proper¬ ty, when we know that the power to tax is the power to destroy. It seems even more monstrous that the Govern¬ ment should abdicate its functions of creating and issuing its own money, when wo remember that this sovereign power has always been a royal preroga¬ tive. From the days of the remotest. Chaldean Kings, the royal mints made and issued the nation¬ al currency. In any extensive collection of coins, you can see the money of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Jews, the Romans, and the Greeks. Not until the lax, immoral English King,. Charles II., was restored to the throne, after Oliver Cromwell’s death, did the bankers secure the privilege of coining money. They managed this through Barbara Villiers, one of the several concubines of the dissolute monarch. She was bribed, of course. Never since that time—the middle 1 of the l7tK (CONTINUED ON FACT TWO.) A/o. 3<S.