AMERICAN
THEJERICAN
Cksspest fr,:" 4wrfci.
utcrib for
THE AMERICAN.
BOo to Jan. I, 1897.
t:
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER.
Volume V
"'tllM.
2 , . . al
THE GREAT A. P. A.
Its Policy and Power in This
Country Very Fully
Defined.
Ex-President W. J. H.'.Traynor
Gives His Views on the
Order and Its Princi
ples. The following are extracts from ex
President W. J. H. Traynor's article
In the June number of the North Ameri
can JZevieic,,under the title of "Policy
Power of theJA. P. A."
The American i Protective Associa
tion, or as It isemore generally known.
the A. P. A., iis now in the tenth year
of its existence. No organization in
the history of (the American republio
ever had so spontaneous a birth, so re
markable a career, so radical an effect
upon American (politics, or has been
the subject of such general interest and
friendly and J adverse comment as this
association, while no institution has
been so widely misrepresented or mis
understood.
The American Protective Associa
tion iS'Leither a religious body nor an
lnstitutlonjadverse to the religion, per
se, of any'person,"6ect or faith. It was
organized,neither to oppose the relig'
lous dogmas of any'ecclesiastical cor
poration, nor to 'direct, dissect, main
tain or destroy theology, old or new.
While I am fully aware that the op
ponents ofj the association, and those
who, though not opposing, are unin
formed, assert to the contrary, and
while I am also aware that the indis
creet expressions of individual members
of the order here and there have oc
casionally given color to such expres
sions, the 'constitution of the associa
tion does not, nor does the ritual or
secret work of the organization war
rant any such conception of the pur
poses of the order, or any such con
struction of its principles.
It would be superfluous to introduce
AMERICA FPU AMERICANS" We hold that-all men are American! who Swear Allegiance to the United
- "'
THE IRISH
in an article of this kind the specific
reasons leading up to the founding of
the order, more especially as they have
been discussed at some length in previ
ous issues of the North American Re
view, or to introduce arguments pro or
con. The reasons advanced by the
founders of the order for its institu'
tion were, practically, upon the follow,
ing grounds:
1. That the spirit of the national
constitution was being violated in va
rious ways by certain persons and bod'
ies in the United States.
2. That certain members and sec'
tions of the national government were
in connivance with the said violators.
3. That the conditions governing
our national immigration were such as
to weaken our democratic institutions
and form of government, and to substi
tute therefor a system of government
not in harmony therewith.
4. That the immigrant vote, under
the direction of certain ecclesiastical
institutions, has become so dominant a
factor in politics as to virtually con
trol it.
5. That this domination has re
sulted In political prostitution, corrup
tion and favoritism of the worst kind.
6. That the great majority of the
American people, while painfully cogni
zant of the sinister and debasing re
suits of these conditions, and desirous
of amending them, were either igno
rant of any efficient means of counter-
organization or fearful of the injury, to
their personal interests at the hands
of their powerful and organized oppo
nents.
The current history of the period to
which I refer must answer the ques
tion whether the projectors of the
American Protective Association were
right or wrong in their assumptions.
Although in effect the efforts of the
organization were directed against an
institution nominally theological, they
were Intended to antagonize only those
sections of the institution which 'were
political as well as theological,
or subversive of the principles of the
national constitution and the laws and
statutes of thejland. Nor was the as
sociation formed for the mere purpose
of combatting what Its founders con
OMAHA. NERRARKA. FRIDAY. JUNE 2rt. !S9G.
NATIONAL TOURNAMENT AT
sidered the unpatriotic attitude and
politically demoralizing influences of
any one or more theological bodies in
particular, but rather to erase from
our national statutes all legislation
which had been enacted in opposition
to the constitution, and to erect a bar
rier of legislative enactments between
the church and state that should be
eternal, and prevent a recurrence of
those conditions which, at that period,
threatened to exalt the ipse dixit of the
eccleslast above the sovereign will of
the people, and render the state sub
servient to the interests, will and ca
price of the church. The A. P. A,
then, was founded, not as an organlza
tion specifically hostile to any existent
institution, but rather as the exponent
and champion of a principle to be
maintained against all antagonistic in
fluences, existent or prospective, what
soever.
While there existed, and still exists,
severai religious sects whose principles
materially conflict with the principles
enumerated in the national constitu
tion, and which, if permitted to ob
tain, would result in a union of church
and state, with the church the dicta'
tor, it is not strange that the founders
of the A. P. A. should have selected
that sect as the special object of their
antagonism whose past record was
least reconcilable to American condi
tions and which most strongly indi
cate, through the authoritative past
and current utterances of its represen
tatives, an Intention to pursue in the
future that policy which had been so
subversive of liberty of conscience and
person in other days, and whose
strength, organization and ability of
self-assertion rendered it the most dan
gerous to that sovereignty of the peo
ple which the signers of the Declara
tion of Independence endeavored to se
cure . and perpetuate. The Immense
growth of the order from efforts
comparatively insignificant, Indicate
that, while not openly expressed,
or practically demonstrated before, the
sentiments of a large portion of the
thinking publio were identical with
those expressed in thd principles of the
organization, i'or the first two or
three years the growth of the order
BRIDGEPORT, CONN., JULY
was practically spontaneous, indicat
ing that the movement was neither a
craze nor the conception of cranks, but
the spark of consequences, which fired
a train of circumstances laid by cor
rupt legislators and self-seeking eccle
Blasts and their adherents through a
course of many years. It is not surpris
ing that a sect so tenacious of its prin
ciples, the assumed rights of its head
and the antiquity of its institutions, as
the papists of the United States, were
in no mood to brook any abridgement
of the privileges which the perfection
of their political organization had se
cured to them, more particularly as
they (the Irish papists especially) had
been the dominant and courted ele
ment in the politics and government of
the nation for many years. Their re
prisals for the political opposition of
the A. P. A. took the form of the
deadly boycott politically, personally,
socially and In business. This boycott
was prosecuted all the more harshly
from the fact that the boycotters were
composed for the greater part of the
most illiterate element of the nation.
Nearly every member of the A. P. A.
who made himself prominent in the
movement found himself ruined politi
cally, and consequently only a small i
percentage dared brave the storm that
inevitably followed membership in the
order. These conditions led to the en
forcement of absolute secresy, both as
to membership and place of meeting,
The dally press, which was almost
unanimously adverse to the movement,
took special pains to hold the order up to
publio odium, while the two dominant
parties used every effort to crush an
organization which it soon became pal
pable to both they could not use with
out seriously disarranging their own
machinery. This was the period when
the order was too weak to meet the
forces of their opponents openly with
out the certainty of defeat It was the
period, too, when the acts of the order
were almost entirely defensive and ab
solutely negative.
Following this came the period of
construction and organization, when
the administration applied itself to the
adjustment of Its political machinery,
and began to make the principles of
SUtfi without a mental rraervatlon.
3, 4, 5 and G.
the organization known through many
states. In a large number of our im
portant cities the seed thus sown pro
duced great results, and councils num
bering 3,000 In membership were to be
found in our large cities. Then fol
lowed a series of sharp, decisive politi
cal victories for the order, which sur
prised the oldest of political campaign
ers. The order still pursued its nega
tive policy, UBlng iU influence against
the candidate with a bad political rec
ord, and it is but doing the organiza
tion simple justice to state that the
Protestant candidate whose record was
bad fared no better than a papist of
the same stripe. The result, however,
was undeniably creditable, both to the
order and politics generally, and un
doubtedly served to elevate the latter.
Between the years 1890 and 1893 the
Initiated membership was scattered
but sparsely through less than twenty
states, but It was a period of undoubted
health and usefulness, from the fact
that affiliation with the order was
rather a disadvantage thananadvan
tage, and it attracted to Its ranks the
disinterested almost exclusively. The
year 1893, however, showed such re
markable success for the order in the
political field that the conditions
changed, and ambitious politicians sud
denly awoke to the realization that
baptism in A. P. A. water was attended
with pleasure and profitable political
consequences.
In the two years that followed the
order planted itself firmly in every
state and territory In the Union, and
was instrumental in overturning the
entire political machinery in four
teen states. With these victories com
menced a general policy of active ag
gression.
The opening of the Fifty-fourth con
gress demonstrated the power of the
organization as no event had previously
done. dearly 100 members of the
house of representatives were elected,
pledged to support the principles of
the order, while several members of
the senate were elected under similar
conditions. Many accepted the prin
ciples of the order as the means of ob
taining A. P. A. votes, and lost no
time in repudiating those principles
PRICE K1VK CENTS
when their political Interests suggested
It. However, in no Instance was a rep
resentatlve elected as a member of the
A. P. A.,-but as a member of one or the
other existent political parties. Hence,
be was only secondarily a member of
the organization whose principles
were considered Injudicious, even if
not politically pernicious, by all par
ties who were compelled to cater, mora
or less, to the Catholio vote. Thus he
stood in the position of a man with two
masters, the one promising material,
the other moral punishments. It Is
eminently to the credit of those who
have maintained their obligations to
the order entire. The aphorism that
half a loaf Is better tban no bread has
exerc'sed a most pernicious and ener
vatlng influence upon the organization
in many sections pernicious because
It has paved the way for compromises
with those acts of the old parties which
the order was organized most strenu
ously to resist; enervating, because It
leads to the suggestion that the least
of two evils Is itself good. It should
have been the unfaltering policy of the .
association to maintain the position of
endorsing no political candidate who
was unprepared to piedge himself
openly to the principles of the order,
and, as an alternative, to place an in
dependent candidate in the f eld, even
in the face of inevitable defeat defeat
under such conditions being infinitely
preferable to a victory so questionable,
and involving such serious conse
quences to the order, as in many cases
it has. Some Democrats and Republi
cans may be found in the order who
joined it for the purpose of destroying
It. The American Protective Associa
tion is the strongest and purest politi
cal force the western world has ever
known. It grew from the parent stem
of pure motives and patriotism. It is
intensely human, and therefore very
imperfect. Yet, imperfect as it is,
there is nothing like It in the world. It
holds the political balance of power in
the United States, and Influences at
least 4,000,000 votes.
F.nally, it should not be forgotten
that 95 per cent of the members of the
order are Americans first, A. P. A.'s
next and elements of party last of all.