Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Vol. 37 What Does America Owe to the Roman Catholic Church ? In one of his articles in The Evening Herald, (Rock Hill, S. C.) Father William A. Tobin of Columbia sets forth, at great length, an itemized account of the immense debt which America owes to his foreign church. His claims follow the beaten track of Cardinal Gibbon’s pathfinding, and have become so stereo¬ typed that nearly every priest can toddle along in (he samo route. These claims are so extraordinary in their dis¬ tortion of historic facts, and are being so indus¬ triously written into the text-books thrust into our schools by the American Book Trust, f that it may be worth while to examine them, one by one, in the hope that other writers may hereafter profit by an exposure of the errors of Gibbons, Keiley, Tob¬ in et ad. The first item in the credit account of the Ital¬ ian church is, that a Catholic discovered America: you have heard that before: you must try to remem¬ ber it. Whenever a foreign potentate, calling himself God-on-arth, preaches a crusade against your pub¬ lic schools, or tells such arrogant priests as Bishop Keiley to defy the convent-inspection law, or in¬ fluences Congress to abridge freedom of the press, or compels a flabby President like Taft to violate the Constitution by converting Indian schools info Catholic schools, or publishes an insolent Ne temere decree which breaks up homes where husbands and wives were happily living under civil marriage, or re-proclaims the infamous doctrine that yonr wife and. mine are concubines, living in adultery— you must quell every feeling of righteous indigna¬ tion by remembering, that Columbus was a Cath¬ olic. Columbus died without knowing of the exis¬ tence of this North American continent; but he lived long enough to introduce slavery into the West Indies, whence it spread to North and South America,?7i«,s laying the foundation of the bloodiest, most unnatural Civil War that ever shook the World. He was a grasping gold-hunter, whose barbar¬ ous -pracTTseJs 'iipoh ‘tIie helpless C'arib Indians re¬ sulted in the- utter extermination of the race. Yes. lie was a Catholic, just as Macchiavelli was a Catholic, just as Caesar Borgia was, just as Richard III., and Louis XT., and the Duke of Alva, and Amerigo Vespucci were Catholics. In those days, the Popes and the priests dili¬ gently sought out Christians who were not Catho¬ lics, and straightway put them to death: therefore, all who wished to live, professed to be Papists, whether they were or not. In those days, the bagnios operated under the Pope’s license; and professional courtesans who made physical devotions to the Pagan Venus, main¬ tained their spiritual orthodoxy by worshipping the Papal Madonna. Not until the great revolt against Rome’s hor¬ rible system, could mental independence assert it¬ self; and it was not till such men as Luther and Calvin defied the Popes, that the discovery of America benefitted mankind. It was the enterprise of the Protestant, Sir Walter Raleigh, that unveiled Virginia to Europe, and Jed to the planting at Jamestown of the Protestant principles upon which this Republic was afterwards established. Those principles were, representative govern¬ ment, MANHOOD SUFFRAGE, TRIAL BY JURY, AND LOCAL BELF-RULB. Can Father Tobin find a trace of these glor¬ ious principles in the Canon laws of his Italian Church ? Did Christopher Columbus, Cortez, Pizarro, Balboa, Melendez, Father Marquette, De Soto, Ponce de Leon, or any other Catholic, introduce those democratic germs into America? What did they introduce? They planted in the New World the upas-tree of slavery: they brought the devilish Inquisition: they kindled the fires of ruthless persecution: they imported a foreign domination that created relig¬ ious terrorism, and planted superstitions more de¬ basing than any the native races had ever known; and, to crown it all, the unmarried priests of Rome sank the Indians into depths of immorality and ig¬ norance in which they wallowed for hundreds of years, while Protestant America was building the civil liberty and enlightened civilisation which Rome now seeks to undermine and overthrow! That’s the record, Father Tobin. Your Spanish Flarida was a pestilential Roman fief, until the Protestants took possession of it. Your Spanish Florida was a pestilential slave-plantation, until the Protestant pioneers con quered it. Your American monuments are, the besotted millions of Mexican peons, Central American hy¬ brids, South American illiterates, over whom no sun-rise ever shone, until the 19th century rebell (CONTINUED ON PAGE THREE.) ♦ m n — ' h h ( ¥ l Price $2.00 Per Year EDITORIALS By THOS. E. WATSON. SENATOR SHERMAN’S FIRE-BELL. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS IS A ROMAN CATHOLIC IDEAL. When the aged Thomas Jefferson, in retire¬ ment at Monticello, heard of the Wilmot Proviso which injected the sectional line into the' slavery question, he said that it fell upon his ear like a fire bell at night. Republic would be He realized then that the rent asunder by that fatal division. Senator Sherman of Illinois did a brave thing, when he rose to the occasion and denounced the League of Nations as a federation which Popes will rule. He did a patriotic thing, when he called at¬ tention to the fact, in the formation of the League, the Roman Church is given a majority of votes. The statement cannot be denied: no Senator undertook to challenge its correctness. Senator Ashurst characterized Senator Sher¬ man’s objection to the League “as foolish.” Why foolish, if true? If untrue, another word than “foolish” should have been employed. Senator Thomas “deplored the injection of religion into the treaty debate.” But did Senator Sherman inject religion into the debate? He did not. No article of Catholic faith was assailed: no dogma of the Church was attacked: no word that could justly offend a Catholic was used. So free from objection on that .score was Sena¬ tor Sherman’s speech, that it is reprinted without censure in The Catholic Bulletin, Cleveland, Ohio. Apparently, this widely-circulated organ of the Roman Church takes the samo view of the League that the Illinois Senator expressed. If Senators Ashurst and Thomas can refute the statements of Senator Sherman, they should lost no time in doing so. To “deplore the injection of religion into the debate,” is itself deplorable, if that’s the best ans¬ wer Senator Thomas can make. To classify Senator Sherman's.speech as “fool ish,” benefits nobody, in the absence of of the Senators facts. Let us face this issue, and have it out: let us not try to dodge it, or pretend not to see it: let us face it, like men! What is the real question raised by Senator Sherman, and now being discussed, with more and more seriousness, throughout this Wilsonized Union ? It is this: Given a League in which the majority voto is to be cast by a foreign Potentate who claims—as God’s earthly personification—universal dominion, temporal and spiritual, what may we expect that foreign Potentate to do with that majority vote? Senator Ashurst may call this question fool¬ ish, hut it has got to be answered. Senator Thomas may deplore until he exhausts his capacity for regret, but he must face the issue. It is in the League; and the League is being rammed down our throats; but the men who rush¬ ed us on war-questions have not yet gagged us so completely that we can’t speak what we think about this League. A little more than three years ago, a friend isent me a clipping from The Boston Globe, in which there was a three-column article, by the Rev. John E. Sexton, D. D., Professor of Church History in St. John’s Ecclesiastical Seminary, Bos- Melancholy news comes from italy: it is not about Fiume, this time, but Loreto, where the priests keep the house which the Virgin Mary used to keep. Instead of considering themselves amply com¬ pensated by the hare honor of being custodians of the Virgin’s venerable and most blessed shack, these priests brutally demanded wages; and, this being a time when the force of circumstances has in¬ creased the cost of living, these priests at Loreto asked for an advance. They saw evrybody else doing it, and why shouldn’t they do it? But let me lay the facts before you: “Rome, Thursday, June 19.—A strike of priests, which is without precedent, hhs just occurred at Loreto. The priests asked for an amelioration of their financial con dition, owing to the high cost of living, and when their claims were not granted they stopped celebrating masses and per forming other religious duties. “Monsignor Andreoli, bishop of Re canati, in whose diocese Loreto is located, is trying to persuade the priests to resume their duties, promising to do everything possible to satisfy their desires.” Observe the elegant choice of words used in the phrase, ‘■‘‘The priests asked for an amelioration’ of their financial condition.” 1 Harlem , Ga., Friday , iJuSy 4, 1919. ton. In this elaborate article Dr. Sexton advocated just, such a League of Nations as we are consider ing. and he gave, as the principal advantage of such a League, the Popes power to control it. So far is I can learn, this was the first time the League of Nations was proposed. The date was April 30, 1910, a year before the United States declared war. - At that time, neither Mr. Taft, nor Mr. Strauss, nor Mr. Wilson, nor Mr. Hitchcock, nor Mr. George Wickersham, nor Mr. John Sharp Williams had said one word about a League—a League which alone can avert anarchy, chaos, cataclysms, upheavels, convulsions, turmoils, tu¬ mults, distractions, hysterics, nightsweats and hay-fever. In opening his argument in favor of a League of Nations, Dr. Sexton quoted the dying words of Pope Gregory VII., the prelate who carried to its full length the Roman Catholic doctrine of univer¬ sal papal supremacy. As all the world knows, it was this Pope who waged with the German, Emperor Henry IT., the epochal contest over that very question, and who claimed the right—and exercised it!—to deprive the Emperor of his crown, which lie, the Pope, gave to another! (The Canossa episode in this long struggle is too familiar to need another tell Pope Gregory compared the civil power with the spiritual, saying that the latter was as superior to the former, as the sun is to the moon. In the enforcement of this papal doctrine, Pope Innocent III., deprived King John of the crown of England, and compelled that prince to receive back the kingdom as a papal fief. It. was this Pope who anathematized the Great Charter of our liberties, and excommunicated the barons who had forced King John to sign it. Dr. Sexton glories in the assumption by the Popes of universal dominion; and he of course ar goes that this dominion made for universal peace. He cites Innocent III., and shows how this Pope acted as “Judge of Nations.” Dr. Sexton contended that the Papacy offered that only tribunal which could act as international arbitrator, peace-maker, standard of law, of right, of morals. In short, this Catholic Professor of Church History advocated, three years ago, the identical League which, like a jack in the box, was so sud¬ denly sprung on us. when President Wilson mod¬ elled his Fourteen, Points on the Pope's. Let us acknowledge the truth: it was Pope Benedict who first proclaimed the essential princi¬ ples that Wilson afterwards published as his own! Could the President have been unconscious of the leadership of the Pope? Or was it merely a “singular coincidence”— two great minds running in the same channel? At any rate, the League which Dr. Sexton wanted for the Pope, is now wanted by the Presi¬ dent. Was it' by accident that the Pope was given control of this League? With a Catholic majority to start with, the Popes will have lost their cunning, if that initial is ever lost. THE TROUBLE AT THE VIRGIN’S HOUSE. Had they been carpenters, bricklayers, or mill hands, they would have struck for higher wages; hut, seeing that they were ordained priests—holy, ones of God—they merely stopped performing reli¬ gious duties until the Pope would ameliorate their? financial condition. This is much better than strike. j a i Cannot this dispute be arbitrated? Could not Mr. Burleson pour Standard Oil upon these troubled waters? Is such an untoward incident as this tfr 1 } essen the efficacy ... of the Balm of Gilead which Woodrow Wilson has soothingly dripped upon the mflHds of European humanity? ’A '*<'1 session If the of the Pope Virgin’s will let little us Protestant^ wiil ligye pos¬ without demanding cabin, we lajep it, with victuals any wages: we ,be satisfied our and clothes. Since Fiume has been relegated tq the League of Nations, how would it do to make the sajnp dis¬ position of Loreto? The Virgin’s house mustn't be left ■ without caretakers; and, as the League is to be the Mother in-law of the Hottentots, the , lArabk/ thh Niggers, the Parsees, the Portuguese, the Chinese, the Jap¬ anese, the Siamese, the ,Chians, ttuk:Brazilians, the Peruvians, the Aborigines, and of alli tfiobls who fall upon the weaker bi1otheiVt-\vh.y, thet League would seem to be thp ihpaViemnteanti icustodian of the Loretoeee. Issued Weekly How Much Longer Will It Take Wilson to Ruin this Country ? 1 he official report of John Sherman, Secretary of the IT. S. Treasury, shows that in the year 1880 the total expenses of the Federal Government were $207,000,000. (] omit fractions of a million.) The total of taxation was $389,000,000. Thus, there was a surplus which was being used to finish paying the war-debt, of the Sixties. l'he Republicans were in power, the Demo¬ crats were out, and therfore every Democratic edi¬ the tor, throat Congressman, local barker,'etc., was hoarse in from continual denunciation of the wick¬ ed profligacy of t)ie Republican party. IV hat frugal national housekeeping the Re¬ port of 1880 now seems! , The U. S. Government had sustained armies and fleets during four years of titanic civil war, at a cost of less than $3,000,000,000. The same Government sustained armies and fleets for a year and a half in the present War, at an expense of $14,000,000,000. In the War between the States there were two objects in view, the one avowed by the Govern¬ ment, the other, by the Abolitionists, and both were achieved: the Union vras maintained and Slavery was abolished. In the War between the Nations, what object did our Government have in view? It should be easy to answer the question, but can you answer it? Congress declared war, because Germany had been guilty of acts of war against us. Can you specify the acts, and give the dated Congress Because the did not: the President did not —whiff acts and the dates all go hack of II Usoh’s re-election, on the platform of “He 'kept us out of War !” M'toin 11 you can find a man who is able to speeIf\ ,1 'aV» act of war. subsequent to II oodrow II ilsoic s u olive branch message to the Raiser, at the < nd'ilf Jan¬ uary, lUli, I will make that man a presititt hf"k I rained M hat lithograph did the of Wilson meeting thi' 1 'lKffiei' Supreme Court say was the reason why we went into the Great Wap?: pfebiUjirirl’iVi 1 " ’ In deciding the test-case which 1 'ringing, the Chief Justice declared'Vlffit'we writ to war to maintain “our rights and honor?"* 1 ’) 5 03 11 you were hired to hunt vague terms, you couldn't beat those, to sa ve your l eHtrall§. m '''' Our rights and our honor! ruin eJii-Ae gm Hie word “rights” always feifdbds "iWp'of'H colored gentleman who rails nt the cause of the Ethiopean skin; and the word “honor” reminds me of the ancient l “bNiH^l4”'' 1 Hvh^h jiJ^tM§> re¬ quired one American to “eall o^n^’blr l 'mft’ 8 3rti<iBVi?, ,l of a slight difference of till/*' and Kentucky Resolutions/’ .invaed M hat did the President say we went to war for—after we had “wenW” P®H is'lit He said we went“)rHt b/TfuftM 1 grievance of our own,« to'VlHliicktt'M pfflM way the general interests of the human nice. . .Ml He also said, from time tp time, that we went and into wished the war to becau&’Hite rrfkfffThetrt 1 M^W'tlJfMn^eople the Kaiser and PlP'OellM-Hl MS loi noiJKjh^dab Professor W1 to war to accomplish “the full fruition” of. the pur poses for ft? Republic. •os Jnoinmitfiojfio ah JjuIJ boEioofn ti a* Universal’^W^^j^p^Bra^^MBlfefe Fu r thrtdu«M,dlh«S/¥#fl^irf lift fyoilto'Wf enthralled peoples, more particularly fill- the little, ones. HWWs 'ivfai ‘dM olfpr’sen-gov ernrfma: 4 tM Wit Me 1 ® gered, : n we yiKfFqtuansiflldtp He likewise stated, (especially Liam En&lbtud whose conscience hits aiwitys ^regulated its foreign .F.°l.W e 3>j) gVUie ii»ttiolhfc| iWarK.tb en kkpidWrtfli!'fdree§|iof qf,,thm>wwld; soiitbafcThenfcT ft ifche > mii wmtsi*, < ,wnmtfid ,!» ni sasm olltil tub ad nml/. aJu ad Moreover, ho asserted that our sohlioerrlhefl died to fetch Siam, HefljaJ, Shn Domingo, Liberia, et«i,i ipitol a>iLeuf|tiB .with u*p- w ll«t«iln:lttoUdiff'elencfLa nod! animosities of Mew, custom, religion, eottfmfefcet, smell, swifl so-fortlty -would 1 alt 'disappear, .wooli of itha -Negro rwonid -bto'Ikst'etfarghten'into hair. .mid oJ >i-Si;d ii snibrnul to! eyod hui In short, Woodrow* Wilson has never been 'different able to (hake the- ! stung 1 sbttehieffit-, in 'two* speeches, 'of the real rehsohs which pluilged till liito the War,- md'it'-U 'flte'lM- jfot* him, or-ijo% or me, io state : tAe real ‘reason. Did you hapj&il tip read the Meitihrial Day speeches made by Congressmen, in Congress? Tf so, yp\l must have ’been struck hv the fact, that evety speaker assigned War. ii different reason 'Mr I our till going bun into T the fl'i'i “ ! IS I I ill! V < 11 rigno.J oaff'iox' lavo iuo vo ~ (Continued on Page Three.) Ho. 41 .