A Survival of the Unfittest

The Catholic Standard and Times

It is not to be wondered at that The Pilot' enters a strenuous protest against the Rev. Dr. Everett Hale's contribution to the Christian Register on the subject of "Christopher Columbus." Our esteemed contemporary is properly jealous of the fame of Boston as a centre of liberal enlightenment, and Dr. Hale's paper is a startling revelation of the fact that the old leaven of narrow intolerance rankles in some circles there still. It is a pitiful spirit, indeed, which seeks to rob the great discoverer of the glory which is his in regard to the addition of a new world to the coronet of human civilization, for the shallow purpose of laying it at the feet of British Protestantism.

To be sure, Dr. Hale does not attempt to stultify himself by denying that Columbus did discover the American continent, but he does his best to maintain the proposition that it was the Puritans who brought the seeds of liberty and prosperity with them. That prosperity, he boldly declares, "was due to the Protestant Reformation," working out in "the development of the United States."

A far-fetched theory indeed. If we admit the premise that it was the Puritans who brought these good things to these shores, we must reject the conclusion that to the Reformation the praise is due, since it was from the triumphant Protestantism of the Reformation the Puritans fled.

devices in government or in the arts which were due to Jesuits, Franciscans or other leaders of the Roman Catholic States." The slavery of the United States was the crime of the people of the United States, shared in by the people of England. Our slavery came to us by the way of Liverpool and London, brought over in English-built ships. Liverpool, whose seventh centenary was celebrated with brilliant and scenic pageantry a little while ago, was the chief entrepot of the slave trade for the Western Hemisphere. Cooke, the great tragedian, told a Liverpool audience who offered him an insult on one occasion, "There is not a stone of your city that is not cemented with the blood of slaves." And he was justified in casting the bitter taunt. The banks of the Zambesi are not more saturated with the blood and sweat of slaves than were the banks of the Mersey for two centuries. The late Mr. Gladstone's fortune was largely due to the profits of his progenitors in the traffic in slaves. Las Casas brought African labor to South America from the high motive of lessening human suffering: the English and American slave traders from the infamous motive of greed.

And Dr. Hale forgets, if he ever learned, that the Spanish sovereigns, by successive Royal Decrees, banned and prohibited slavery in Spain's colonial possessions-which is more than any British sovereign ever did. The fact that the colonial planters resisted these decrees to the utmost extent of their power by no means nullifies the good intentions of the Spanish kings and queens.

Dr. Hale is a clergyman, a scholar and an octogenarian. He is also chaplain to Congress. He has written books

state of "The Man Without a Country." He has taken up his pen now to show

how erroneous may be the belief that education, the sacred ministry, the public confidence, the experience of eighty years of life, may be effectual to eradicate the seeds of ingrained and inherited religious prejudice. There are some things worse than the deprivation of a patria. Absence of charity, absence of historical conscience, for instance. Well may Boston congratulate herself on the fact that only one such voice is now heard thus calling upon the memories of a shameful and un-American past.

Hale was a great name for justice in the better English days. Sir Matthew Hale was that large-souled judge who denounced iniquity in a brother judge, and made him descend from the bench he had dishonored by an iniquitous decision. A decision against the weight of evidence in history differs but little in its spirit from a similar decision in a lawsuit.

The War on Christianity

N. Y. Freeman's Journal

A people which has lost its faith, writes Karl von Hase in the Deutsche Revue (Leipzig), is also in danger of losing its nationality. We have the most palpable evidence of this truth in France at this moment, where politicians are boasting that they are forestalling time. by accomplishing now what must happen in the natural course of events, namely, the effacement of God from the life of men. There, as in some other countries, religion is regarded by many as but a mere part of the educative curriculum of men's lives or as an excellent thing for women and children. The consequence is that men in whom the need of religion and belief in a Beyond is necessary, are turning in large numbers to Buddhism or Spiritualism. Yet in these so-called beliefs, nothing that can satisfy the aspirations of reflective men is to be seen, the reason being found precisely in an absence of an enduring principle for which the expo

nents of such creeds would be willing to die. About the time of the French Revolution, one La Reveillere, it will be remembered, sought to propagate a religion which he had "invented" to take the place of Christianity. Finding that his new doctrines did not obtain as ready an acceptance as he could have wished, he sought the advice of Tallyrand, ex-Bishop of Autum, as to the most likely methods of placing the new faith on a permanent and progressive basis. "You must remember," said the diplomatist, "that Christ had sufficient faith in His religion to consent to die upon the Cross for it. You must emulate His example if you would found a religion that will endure." Even to-day we find in the multiplicity of so-called creeds, an absence among their teachers of anything like a living faith; convictions seem to have gone out of fashion and there remains but a dead energy to combat the living menace of atheism rampant. Herein lies the power of Catholicity, that its forces are all united, that its doctrines are all independent of place or circumstance or language, since the truths she has to teach are one and unchangeable, comprehensible to the meanest mind, as they are intelligible to the highest.

Ignorance is the real source of the absence of faith among men to-day. Fischer, the Heidelberg philosopher, once observed that he found ignorance always ready to decide on questions of religion, ever disposed to "explain" difficulties of doctrine. On other subjects, men thought themselves either fit to speak, or not, according to their knowledge or ignorance, but no man had any illusions as to his ability to discuss the most abstruse points in the most difficult and most important of all subjects. The result was that men were ready to fight against religion without in any way comprehending it. Now, more than at any other time in the history of mankind, men are ever more disposed to look for

proofs of every doctrine that is seeking to engage their minds and hearts and our age has become too realistic and too materialistic for men to consent to ideal theories. Even the child begins to express his doubts; he cannot believe everything that is in the Bible and if he sees contradictory statements, he straightway asks himself where is the inspiration he had been taught to expect. Others tell us that the idea of a God-a personal, positive God-is more than they can accept; that God did not create men after His own image, but that men created God after theirs, and so between their doubts as to the reliability of the Bible as a guide, and their disbelief in the personality of God, they gradually drift into the sea of doubt, the majority of them to be lost forever.

What is the Church to do against this spread of materialistic and atheistic activities? Her duty is clear. Men must be supplied with the truths their minds. crave. Knowledge and education must be fostered, both among the teachers and the taught. The truth can only be taught when it is divested of all obscurities of rhetoric and style, and equivocation must be absent in the treatment of such subjects as Is the Bible God's Word? Is there a God? Is there a life after death?-the whole basis of the belief of mankind. Nothing can be accomplished without a thorough overhauling of the resources at hand with which the enemy can be overcome. The importance of the Sunday school and a clear exposition of the Catechism, not a perfunctory recitation of it, is of paramount importance. The child must be taught to understand and to explain the nature of that which it recites. Young men's clubs should be improved in comfort and in the resources for enjoyment which they offer. Catholics should cultivate a pride in being Catholics and should organize socially as well as religiously. Churches should be active in promoting daily visits by parishioners,

giving them the advantage of lectures or organ recitals. The Catholic press should be supported and should, by those who are responsible for the production of newspapers, be made so interesting and so full of information as to be worthy of support by Catholics. Organization alone can fight the battle of the Church against Atheism.

A Word About Reading

Sacred Heart Review

The reason why cheap and tawdry. magazines and papers are so popular, is thus stated by an editorial in the New York Evening Post:

"The great majority of our citizens have had the benefit of no formal education beyond the grammar school. They are incapable of sustained attention, and they therefore demand all sorts of scraps and snippets; they must have the short story shortened still further into the "storiette." It is for a clientele of this grade that many of our most widely circulated magizines are obviously intended. The managers of these periodicals point with pride to their hundreds of thousands of readers, and thus secure the overwhelming bulk of the advertising. These cheap and vulgar productions not only crowd out decent magazines where they might otherwise be read, but by gobbling up the advertising they leave the magazine of respectable but limited circulation with little or no financial support."

Among Catholics may be found eager buyers and constant readers of flashy magazines and papers-more's the pity! -and a great many read nothing else the year round save the trash they find in such publications. Their taste becomes vitiated, and it bores and tires them to attempt to read anything else. By their course of pernicious reading they have destroyed the faculty of being interested in what is good and permanent in life and literature.

To all our friends and well wishers of THE ROSARY We offer greetings and wish them a bright and blessed Christmas.

An encouraging sign of the times is the increasing interest of Catholic capitalists in the secular press. The Catholic daily has its enthusiastic advocates; but it is a very serious question whether a daily paper professedly Catholic could exist under present conditions. There are in all the large cities enough Catholics, and more than enough, to support a Catholic newspaper. But would support be forthcoming if such a journal were started? We seriously doubt it, in face of the fact that many excellent Catholic weeklies are so poorly patronized. Fortunes have been squandered in Catholic newspaper enterprises, and no year passes without its contribution to the long and ominous list of newspaper suspensions and failures. There are those who contend, and not without truth, that not a few Catholic papers have no sufficient reason for existence, that they are wanting in all the elements. that constitute worth and permanency and success. But the fact remains that even the very best Catholic journals and periodicals are but poorly encouraged and supported by our Catholic people. The Catholic press has its limitationsand these very limitations constitute its greatest strength and security. No self-respecting Catholic editor would pander to the passions of the vicious and the prurient by exploiting in his paper the crimes and scandals that contribute so largely to the popularity of the secular sheet; neither would he stultify himself and disgrace his honorable and holy profession by throwing open the pages of his magazine to the discussion of subjects of questionable morality under any form whatever, whether in the guise of the "problem"

novel or otherwise. His line of duty is clearly defined, his conduct is prescribed by eternal laws which he may not disregard. From the point of view of the worldling the Catholic publication must perforce be uninteresting and inferior. But the Catholic publication appeals not to the worldling, but rather to the ordinary, intelligent Catholic reader; and just why the appeal is so fruitless is a question that has for years been uppermost in the brightest minds in the Church and is a question that remains. to-day practically unanswered. time will surely come when the Catholic daily will be a realization. But till that blessed day arrives let Catholic men of means and sterling character and influence identify themselves with the great secular journals and secure, if possible, a controlling financial interest in a few. They will then be in a position to direct the policy of these papers along lines that will make for the social, moral and religious uplifting of our people.

The

Remarkable in every way and deeply significant has been the progress of temperance during the past year. The temperance sentiment has not been confined to any particular locality but has extended practically over the entire country-and the end is not yet. Much credit is due to the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America for its part in bringing about the defeat of the allied liquor interests, and for its campaign of education among American Catholics, young and old. Writing of the Union, of which he was elected President at its last convention, Archbishop Keane says:

"Who but the recording angels of the Lord can calculate what the Union, by its firm resistance to the domination of the liquor-power, has accomplished in all these years for the welfare of our

country? When we began the work, the drink habit had so intrenched itself in the social customs of the country, that he was apt to be considered 'no gentleman' who raised his voice against. it. Since then, every department of trade and business in the land has joined in the proclamation that only sober men can be successful business men, or can be entrusted with business interests. The year now closing has, more than any that preceded it, heard that proclamation go forth in the principal centres of our country's life. Not only sobriety, but total abstinence is declared, in business conventions and in political elections, to be essential for the popular welfare, for social tranquillity, and prosperity, for individual success in the competition of life. Thanks be to God that the seed which we planted, often in tears and in the face of resistance and obloquy, is bringing forth such a harvest of universal insistence on sobriety."

We take pleasure in announcing that we have secured for serial publication. another volume from the versatile pen of the Rev. J. E. Copus, S. J., whose work, "The Son of Siro," published in this magazine recently, elicited from every quarter such favorable comment, and which some critics have not hesitated to compare favorably with "Ben Hur."

The new companion volume of "The Son of Siro" bears the title of "Andros of Ephesus" and treats of the early Christianity in the city of the great Diana. It is a work as remarkable for its vivid coloring as for its literary style and reverent tone. The subject, time and place of the story all lend themselves to large literary canvases and to a unique atmosphere which has been successfully caught.

Father Copus is a firm believer in the fact that the Christ-time, as well as the immediate post-resurrection period, offers an almost unlimited literary field.

for the writer of Catholic religious fiction, and he proposes to endeavor to do his share, if not in preempting, at least in redeeming this field of Catholic letters a field which is ours by right of inheritance, and which has been hitherto almost completely occupied by Protestant, or non-Catholic, writers of religious fiction-writers who, whatever literary charm they may possess, lack either conviction itself, or the courage of conviction in announcing boldly, and in making their plots centre around, the one main central fact-that of the divinity of Christ. Without this fact acknowledged, and acknowledged unflinchingly, works of this class are vacuous, insincere, and lack the true literary ring. There are, consequently, too many flaws in too many facets of their literary diamonds.

With what measure of success Father Copus' efforts have been crowned we leave to the judgment of those who have read "The Son of Siro," and who will soon have the opportunity of reading "Andros of Ephesus."

The action of President Roosevelt in ordering the omission of the words: "In God we trust" from the new coinage has elicited a storm of protest from all parts of the country. Concerning the incident, the President writes:

"My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins, or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good, but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence which comes dangerously close to sacrilege."

We believe the President has made a mistake in this matter. Scoffers at things holy there will be till the end of time. But America is a Christian nation and the great majority of our people hold in reverence God's holy name. Surely no "positive harm" can come from a public declaration of faith and trust in our Creator.