Cbe Conservative.
"DANGER ON THE I.EE. "
There is one strikingly couspicuous
feature of Mr. McKiuley's policy wliich
seems not yet to have impressed the
public mind in general ; but which the
more thoughtful portion of our citizens
have long observed with anxiety , es
pecially as in this direction his conduct
is decidedly autocratic , while his motive
is unmistakably selfish. This feature is
a tendency to use religion as a factor in
politics , and it shows itself in various
forms and ways. The memorable speech
at Ocean Grove is one instance. The
president of the United States had no
right to appear at a public religious
meeting as champion of "imperialism"
advocate of party plans respecting the
fate of the Filipinos. Apart from the
monstrous incongruity of his speech
with the occasion , his being there at all
in his official capacity was treason to
the conditions of his position , and ought
to have been resented as such by the
whole country. Nor does he , apparently ,
confine his propensity to meddle in this
direction to the denomination which
claims him as a devout member. The
whole matter may be summed up in the
familiar newspaper heading which has
occurred so frequently as to have passed
into a proverb , "Ireland Sees McKinley -
ley , " which , being interpreted , means
that Mr. McKiuley wishes to secure the
Irish-American votes for next Novem
ber , and therefore yields to the demands
of Archbishop Ireland in behalf of the
Catholic church.
The question is not what Archbishop
Ireland is doing , or trying to do. The
Catholic church in the United States
stands on an equal footing with all other
religious organizations and has as much
right as any other to government
recognition and assistance ; as much and
no more , and that much is absolutely
nothing at all.
The constitution forbids any meddling
with religion on the part of the govern
ment , the object of the prohibition being
to prevent the establishment of a state
church and to secure complete religious
liberty to every citizen. This wise and
just regulation boa long been trans
gressed in the exemption of church
property from taxation , and there is at
present an increasing disposition to sub
vert the original intention by introducing
a constitutional amendment expressive
of the national acceptance of Christianity
as the only true religion for mankind ;
while the manifestly necessary exclu
sion of religious exercises from the public
schools is opposed and eluded and dis
obeyed by zealous protestauts in every
quarter of the laud.
The accomplished and the threatened
infringements are sure to make trouble
if the interested parties persist in such
endeavors. The exemption of church
property from taxation is an outrage
upon the rights of the people ; because
there are numerous sects too small and
too poor to acquire laud and houses for
their worship ; while a large and rapidly
increasing proportion of the population
ignores churches altogether and has no
formulated system of belief , and yet all
these are forced indirectly to pay their
share of the profit lost to the general
public through the accumulation of untaxed -
taxed wealth by the churches. To
insert an amendment to the constitution
implying coercive belief in Christianity
would bo also an outrage upon the equal
rights of all citizens , seeing that the
population contains not only nominal
Christians , but also Jews , Mohammed
ans , heathen , infidels , believers and
disbelievers and unbelievers of all sorts
and shades of opinion , whose claims
upon the protection of the government
are incontrovertible and equal.
These questions must and will even
tually be settled by the community at
large , the existing evils not being due to
any one responsible person. The case is
somewhat different when the head of
the government , upon his own authority ,
disobeys the law by favoring certain
religious sects , and by using the public
funds for sectarian purposes in order to
further his own ambitious designs.
This is what Mr. McKiuley is accused
of having done in granting large tracts
of the public lauds to the Catholic
church at the request of Archbishop
Ireland , whose demand was doubtless
founded and fortified upon his knowledge
of similar favors already granted by Mr.
McKinley to the Methodists. If these
charges are a slander they ought to be
denied and refuted without delay ; if
they are true , they ought to be investi
gated ; also without delay. Among the
other statements in the published sum
ming-up of the results of "Ireland Sees
McKinley , " are the appointment of
Judge McKenna as attorney general and
later as a judge of the supreme court ,
the nomination of Bellamy Storer for
assistant secretary of the interior , and
his later appointment as United States
minister to Belgium ( both of these men
being prominent Romanists ) ; the sug
gestion of the Pope as mediator between
the United States and Spain ; the pro
tection granted to church property in
Cuba and the Philippines ; the payment
by the United States government of
high rents for the use of church property
in Manila and for the continuance of
Catholic worship in the churches of that
city ; the appointment of General Otis
to command in the Philippines , and his
official relations with the Spanish Arch
bishop ; the declaration of Spanish news
papers respecting "a new political power
of great influence , " naming Archbishop
Ireland as the representative of that
power ; the frequent appointment of
Catholic priests as chaplains by land and
by sea ; the payment of Catholic school
teachers by the government in the
Philippines ; the government contract
for five thousand rosaries for Catholic
soldiers ; the government order for the
Jesuit-Marquette stamp ; the appoint
ment of the designer of that stamp as
postmaster at Washington with a salary
of six thousand dollars ; the choice of
Archbishop Ireland as representative of
the United States at the peace conven
tion at The Hague ( the said choice
being annulled by the Pope ) ; the sen
tence against General Eagau changed tea
a six years' vacation , with pay at $5,500
per year ; government contracts with
papal Indian schools renewed in spite of
protests ; the contract for carrying
Spanish prisoners home given to a line
of steamers owned by the Jesuits ; Judge
White , a Jesuit , named for the Paris
peace commission , but obliged to resign
on account of public opposition ; twenty
papal saints' days made public holidays
in the Philippines by order of General
Otis ; Henderson , "the champion in
congress of papal schemes for looting
the public treasury"elected as successor
of Reed for speaker ; permission granted
to build a Catholic chapel on West Point
grounds.
These charges are not all of equal
importance , and some of them , sound as
though prompted by that spirit of
ignorance and intolerance which ani
mates the sayings and doings of the
"A. P. A. " society and other affiliations
whose object is to oppose the Catholics
on account of their religion. If Mc
Kenna and Storer are suitable men for
the offices to which they were appointed ,
their religion has nothing to do with the
matter ; so , too ( if such a functionary
is needed at all ) , it is proper to appoint
Catholic priests as chaplains to ships or
garrisons where the soldiers and sailors
are mostly Catholics ; if a protestant
chapel is allowed upon West Point
grounds there is no reason why a Catho
lic chapel should not be allowed there
too ; a line of steamers owned by Jesuits
may be just as suitable for the transpor
tation of Spanish prisoners as though
the owners were Wesleyan Methodists ;
the work of Marquette in America cer
tainly deserves commemoration ; if the
government makes contracts with
protestant schools there is no reason for
refusing contracts with Catholic schools ;
that Judge White is a Jesuit was no
reason for making "a public outcry"
against his membership of the Parid
peace commission. There is prevalent
in America an ignorant and unjust
prejudice against Roman Catholics in
general and the Jesuits in particular , a
prejudice in which the Methodists have
a full share , which makes Mr. McKin-
ley's apparent subservience only the
more conspicuous. As missionaries ( sup
posing missionaries necessary ) the
Jesuits have always shown more wisdom
and tact and sympathetic kindness than
the emissaries of all the other sects
together , and it must not bo forgotten
that in all the troubles between the
Spanish monastic orders and the
Filipinos , the natives exempted the
