Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 37
Father Tobin Makes Light of the
Inquisition .
Dime Novel Horrors, He Says.
It is always just to judge a tree by its fruits
—a system of laws, society, government, economics,
or religion by its actual results.
When we compare Scotland to Ireland, we
cannot fail to see that the same race of people,
separated by narrow seas, present the strongest
contrast, the one being extremely progressive,
while the other is extremely backward. The Scotch
are not priest-ridden: the Irish are; and wo can¬
not escape the conclusion that this factor has in¬
fluenced the destinies of the two countries.
To make the illustration all the more striking,
we have only to compare the Protestant provinces
of Ireland itself to those that have been degraded
by the priests.
Belfast is to Dublin what Glasgow is to
Naples.
A church whose fruitage is the rack, the
water-cure, the gibbet, the boot, the iron Virgin,
the underground dungeon, the burning stake, the
pitiless massacre and the galley-slave, cannot be a
church of Christ.
Such a system is not religious, but political:
its real purpose is not to save souls, but to enslave
bodies: its true ambition is not the glory of God,
but the supremacy of a sacerdotal caste.
No truth taught by Christ ever needed tlie
ministrations of the sw’ord, the fagot, the diaboli¬
cal invention of instruments of torture, and the
public burnt exhibitions of men, w T omen and children
to ashes at the stake.
“We never expected to find such things out¬
side a dime novel,” writes Father Tobin.
I don’t know the price of the works of fiction
familiar to this South Carolina priest, but I pre¬
sume he means the stories of Trappers, Hunters,
and Indian-fighters that used to fascinate us when
wo were boys.
These tales of the border were based on grew-'
some facts: in standard histories, we are told about
the savage torments inflicted by the Red men upon
their White prisoners.
You may read of it in Roosevelt’s “Winning
of the West,” and in many a biography of the
Pioneers, Pathfinders, and early Explorers.
But the Indian did not torture his victim “for
the glory of God:” the savage did not burn the
members of his own tribe, because of a difference
of religious opinion.
The Roman Catholic Church is the only or¬
ganization claiming to be modelled upon Christ,
that ever exhausted the ingenuity of the mind in
discovering new ways to inflict the pains of hell
upon other Christians.
Father Tobin of Columbia, S. C., is pleased to
take a humorous view of all this: he writes—
U* * * * when we start out upon the
♦thorny road of anti-Catholic controversy,
we are apt to catch up with some funny
companions.
“The Spanish Inquisition and St.
Bartholomew’s Day. We smiled when we
saw them mentioned; for we knew they
were coming. Every anti-Catholic ranter
carries them in his outfit. Mr. Tucker for¬
got Bloody Mary, however, and Galileo,
and the Albigenses, and I thought I’d
cudgel his memory, in passing, in their
regard.”
I wouldn’t call the Spanish Inquisition a fun¬
ny companion, nor is St. Bartholomew's Day so
very amusing: the Spanish Inquisition wasn’t fun¬
nier than that of the Popes in Italy and Holland,
nor was St. Bartholomew’s Day more hilarious
than that when the Jesuits caused the massacre of
every Protestant in the fallen city of Madgeburg.
Father Tobin says he smiled when he saw
these things mentioned: it was natural for him to
do so: the Pope also rejoiced at the Massacre of
St. Bartholomew, had medals struck in commem¬
oration of the event, and decorated the walls of
the Vatican with pictures of Catholic assassins
slaughtering unarmed Huguenots, old and young,
till the gutters of Paris ran red with innocent
blood.
Father Tobin says he smiled: Kirg Philip II.
of Spain not only smiled, but laughed, for the on¬
ly time in his bigoted, sanguinary career.
Father Tobin should go tho whole hog: he
also should laugh.
Lest the Rev. J. P. Tucker forget them,
Father Tobin mentions Bloody Queen Mary,
Galileo, and the Albigenses—again smiling, no
doubt.
Yes, those fires at Smithfield still blaze, as the
heroic Latimer said they would: the Christianity
which rose triumphantly above the sufferings of
those martyrs will never die, however often the
Pope’s priests may smile.
'Galileo’s earth yet turns on its axis, in spite
of Papal rack and Papal denial: and in front of
the Pope’s thousand-room palace, towers the monor
(Continued on Page 3)
0 m
Price $2.00 Per Year
EDITORIALS By THOS. E. WATSON.
iHE POPE’S LEAGUE OF NATIONS.
Was there ever a bigger proposition more
suddenly and msyteriously sprung upon the world
than that which has been thrust upon us by the
advocates of the League?
When did you first hear of it!
Look back in your own mind and search your
recollection.
You will be amazed to find that your memory
cannot carry you back two years: in fact, the sub¬
ject has not been under discussion one year.
Apparently its authors do not want it dis¬
cussed: they make speeches for it; publish one
sided articles about it and are irritably impatient
of opposition.
There has been a determined purpose to rush
the thing through: it was to be accepted without
hesitation: those who saw its revolutionary char¬
acter were men of “pygmy minds,” who would
hereafter be “ashamed of themselves.”
In the Victory Loan prospectus, the Hon.
Carter Glass said that we went into the War to
save our freedom: in his Memorial Day speech
near Paris, the President said that our soldiers
had died for the League—in Avhich we most as¬
suredly lose at least a part of our freedom.
Who spoke of the League when the President,
was running for reelection in 1916?
Mr. Hughes did not: Mr. Taft did not: M.t,
Wilson did not: nobody did.
When the President went before the Congre?^
in April 1917 he did not mention the all-important
League, nor did Congress mention it: nobody did.
Congress declared that Germany had been
guilty of repeated acts of war against us, but no
recent acts were enumerated.
Shortly afterwards, the President, made his
Red Cross address in which he stated that we had
not gone to war because of any special grievance
of our own.
Subsequently, it was variously stated that we
were in the war to pay our debt to La Fayette,
crush German autocracy, emancipate weak people*,
give all nations the right of local independence,
reduce armaments, free the seas, abolish sec rv
diplomacy, avenge Belgium, ditto Norther
France, make the world safe for democracy, and
carry our “mission” to the remotest quarters of
the globe.
The truth is. that the causes of war varied
with the time, place and circumstances; and no
two men have ever yet agreed on a plain straight¬
forward consistent statement.
Usually we say we fought for our “liberties,”
and we let it go at; that.
There is one lot of men who know why they
favored the war; and they are the Big Bankers,
Packers, Munition Men etc., who had risked such
prodigious sums of money on England and
France.
It need not surprise you, if Morgan, Baruch,
Lament., and the other High Financiers, prevail
upon our government to cancel the nine-thousand
million-dollur debt we hold against those Euro¬
pean nations in order that those borrowing na¬
tions may the better bo able to settle with the Mor¬
gan crowd.
To make a new Constitution for the world, is
SENATOR SHERMAN AND THE POPE.
At last, the anti-Catholic question has been
sprung in Congress.
Better late than never.
Now that Senator Sherman has sounded the
bell, it will ring and keep ringing, until this whole
country rouses itself to again combat the deadliest
enemy the human race ever encountered.
Samuel F. B. Morse discovered the telegraph,
and he wrote a book warning the American peo¬
ple against popery: the telegraph was eagerly
welcomed, but the book was never noticed.
The American Party made the effort to organ¬
ize against Rome’s secret societies, but the Civil
War came on, and other issues absorbed attention.
General Grant, dying Mount McGregor,
wrote his last words of protest against the foreign
potentate who rules American Catholics, but they
did no good.
People wouldn’t see, and wouldn’t hear: the
Roman danger was a thing of the past, and it
could never trouble us again.
We did not know what the priests were do¬
ing ih Spain, in Portugal, in Austria and Italy,
in Central and South America, in Cuba, Mexico,
and the Philippines.
We could not realize that Rome had never
changed, and that wherever the priests were in
the ascendant they debauched the people.
When statesmen like Bolivar, Jaurez, Gari¬
baldi, Cavour, Gambetta, and Bismarck declared
intense hostility to the Roman church, we did not
take the subject seriously to ourselves.
II was foreign: our interest in it was casual:
Harlem, Ga., Friday, June 27, 1919.
a stupendous thing ', who authorized it?
Did anybody empower President Wilson to
act as our agent in framing a Government of the
V orld, in which we would take our seat on the
same plane of equality with the negroes of San
Domingo and Liberia?
Were you notified that any such revolutionary
change was contemplated?
When the President spoke of “open covenants
openly arrived at,’’ did you dream that he had
such a card as this up his sleeve?
How cunningly some men can use fine words
to cover evil designs!
How cynically some men can set aside a
solemn oath of office!
If the American people want to change their
form of government, it is their sovereign right to
do so; but President Wilson and Col. House are
not the American people.
If our country is willing to sink to the level
of the Arabs of the desert and bo governed by
nino men sitting in a foreign country, that wil¬
lingness should be expressed at the ballot-box.
Bv popular vote, our national government
was made: by popular vote it can be unmade:
but two Americans in Paris—uninstructed and
without authority—should not rob this Republic
of its Sovereign Independence.
The President said that world must be made
safe for democracy but there is no democratic
feature in this League.
Its origin is not democratic: its law is not
democratic: its officers are not democratic: the
whole tiling is autocratic, and based on militarism.
Already General Marsh is demanding an
army of half-a-tnillion men, in this country, be¬
cause of the League.
1 hus, instead of Wilson’s “disarmament”
programme, we start at once on the German armv
plan!
h reedom of the seas has been abandoned !
I he door of hope for smaller peoples desiring
e P en< ^“ Rce 1,a,i ' ieen elosed.
Out of the “open covenants” hypocrisy, has
come the most secret and most deadly foe of
democracy. '
.
And the Pope will rule the League!
He will do it through the Jesuits, through
the Knights of Columbus, through the Red Cross,
through the Catholics of Spain, through the Pan
American Union, through the Catholics of South
and Central America, through the Catholic.-: of
Belgium and Bavaria.
Count up the countries taken into the League,
count the populations, weigh the baleful influence
of Ireland and our own Irish secret societies,
count the certainty that Austria will come in and
that Germany will ever bo on the Pope’s side,
count Catholic Poland and Catholic Hungary—
and remember that the Pope is, first of all, a claim¬
ant to universal temporal dominion, with the
same laws that once darkened the world and filled
it with the persecuted dead—count all this and
then begin to realize the enormity of the crime
committed against you by the apostate who has
fboled you by so many fine words.
no such question was among our problem.s
Even when Mr. Gladstone, in 1875, published
a book against the Vatican decrees, T remember
that most men smiled, to see the veteran enter the
arena of theological controversy.
In vain did ex-priests, like Gavazzi, Chini
quy, Hogan, McCabe, Ferrando, Blanco White,
Guetee, Llorente, Hoensbroech and scores of otb
rs do their utmost to open our eyes.
In vain did ex-Catholics like Walsh, De Las
teyrio, De Cormenin, Crowley, Sequin, Freydaissa,
Miss Carrol], the Baroness Von Zettwitz. as well
as the Nun of Kenmare, reveal their actual exper¬
iences—all of which revelations are in full accord
those of Erasmus, of Calvin, of Luther, of
Burchard, of Petrarch and of the confessions laid
before the British Parliament in the reign of
Henry VIII.
No! Our people could not be awakened.
Dr. Dwight tried it and failed: Bishop Hop¬
kins tried it, and failed: Dr. Beecher and Dr.
Strong both tried it: Dr. Justin Fulton gave his
fearless life to it: Doctors Draper, Cathcart, Eag¬
er, Berg, Rule, and Edgar all tried, and all failed.
Why did they fail?
The reason is psychological: nobody believed
there was any danger and nobody wanted to talk
about it
There was a Roman emperor who said that
the peculiar misfortune of his position was, that
he ooald not convince anyone that he was in dan
(Continued on Page Two.)
\
Issued Weekly
^L'l’L JSta"
In the Matter of the League of Nations.
Is there a man who does'not carefully consid¬
er the consequences of making a complete change
in his business, his place of residence, his politi¬
cal affiliations, or his mode of life?
None but a very thoughtless person will revo¬
lutionize, himself without weighing the pros and
cons.
And above all things, each citizen wants to
decide for himself , when it comes to a radical
change affecting his well-being in this world.
* Few men love to be driven into new relations
and new conditions.
Now let us take a calm view of the proposed"
League of Nations, and test it by the rules of
common sense.
(1) . You are asked to exchange your pres¬
ent political independence for a place in a new
system in which you will be dependent.
Is that denied? No: it is admitted: President
Wilson said so in his Boston speech.
(2) . You are asked to ratify a new Consti¬
tution, which you did not authorize any one to
make, and which you do not fully understand.
Isn’t this the truth?
It, is the truth, and no such imposition was
ever before attempted.
In 1787, the Philadelphia Convention, com¬
posed of the best men the States could select,
made our present Constitution, which was then
published, and submitted to each. State separately
for approval.
“Four old pitiful men”—as the irreverent now
call them—locked themselves in a room in Paris,
and formulated a Constitution for the League of
Nations.
You did not authorize these men to make any
such Constitution.
They usurped the authority to make it, and
they now propose to bind you by it without any
vote on you part.
In other words, they supercede the Constitu
tion your forefathers ratified, and then do it with
-out haying Jjjfcn deleglrtod U-' ICN, „ud ui® av»
mand that, you submit, to it regardless of State sov
ereignty, national independenc, or the will of the
people.
When the Anti-Saloon forces desired to change
the U. S. Constitution, they proceeded in the legal
way, and secured the consent of Congress and of
the States.
When the Woman Suffragists sought a consti¬
tutional change, they pursued the same legal course.
But, when President Wilson and his Col.
House seek to set aside the whole Constitution and
enthrone a new ono above it, they do not consult
the Congress, or the States, or the sovereign people.
These usurpers have the amazing effrontery to
virtually amen > the IT. S. Constitution into a set of
bye-laws for a Supreme Union of Foreign Poten¬
tates.
You arc not asked to elect delegates to State
conventions to discuss this revolutionary change in
your government.
There is not to be the separate deliberation of
forty-eight Sovereign States.
There will not be a referendu ■ ' > the pqople,
at the ballot-box.
No ! It is proposed that Mr. Taft, hurry around
and make speeches: that Mr. Wilson meander about,
making speeches: that Magpie editors publish daily
echoes from the Publicity Bureau; but they don’t
dare submif the question to a vote of the people,!
What are the League patriots afraid of?
Have they ceased to be “Servants op
the People?”
(3). You are asked to lower the Stars and
Stripes to half-mast, while Siam, Liberia, Uruguay,
and Japan run up the new flag of the League, un¬
der whose folds your Republic will meekly take a
seat of equality along with the Mohammedan
Sheriff of Hedjaz.
As Germany is to be forgiven and admitted
into fellowship with us in the League, the Kaiser
may find that he, also, may return, and take seats
with us, and the Negro from Liberia, the Spaniard
from I^eru, the Dago from Italy, and the Arab
from the Prophet’s tomb.
Almost anything may happen: Get ready for ill.
(L) You are asked to surrender the im¬
pregnable position you hold, as a water-bound Con¬
tinent, grandly isolated, secure from foreign at¬
tack, sufficient unto yourself, and asking no odds of
any possible combination of European powers.
Upon what basis did England rear her Em*
pire?
What was the secret of her strength?
11 was her isolated position as an ocean-girdUd
island.
Her enemies could not get at her !!
The continental nations were separated from
one another by invisible lines, and there was no
natural barriers between foes.
Germany could at any time invade
(continued on taoe rOTTE.)
No. 40 .