A Big Boycott

New Zealand Tablet, 6 September 1906, Page 10

A Big Boycott

/There is nothing on this earth so heartless ". as a monopoly when it is "in .untrammelled operation, and nothing .so virtuous when -it- is in "danger. 'Its heartlessnesses all its own ; its virtue is the oily pretence of a Pecksniff and aJJhadband. Monopolies of public employ-" * ment— especially .when held >>y favored creeds— usually live -long and die lingering deaths, protesting .against .* injustice 'to their* latest bteath. After seventy-seven years, of • emancipation;'. Irish Catholics in their Native-land.-are still (as we have shown full nis^ny a -time) subjected to a very real and searching boycott, in the matter of State . employment. The ' plums ' of every public Department in the most distressful country are to this hour the recognised perquisite of members .' of certain Reformed creeds. In some of the, great railway corporations matters were, if possible; even worse.' Two years ago -the' Great Southern and Western Railwayafter a ;long~ agitation, and hy the face of' a Violent clamor of • injustice ' from the monopolist creeds—decided to allot its offices by public competitive examination. v The boycott of . Catholics by the Great Northern Railway, was : still more searching .and .wholesale. There, however, the monopolists" setlp.U<blic;: opinion and public .• agitation at .serene defiance. At "last,, a . few weeks ago, Parliament stepped in and forced their hands, as it forced the Deny and Belfast corpoiratfions in 1896 to permit a few. • Papishes ' to sit and vote at their council tables. , And on all three occasions the advocates of this' meanest" form of religious persecution treated a sarcastic and irreverent public to soulful homiijes on "'.justice ' and ' vested rights ' and • equality ' 'and ' brotherly love '. Some one has said that the' worst form of stupidity is , to think that other people - do; not thirik. Such monopolies as we speak- of have neither a head to think nor a heart to feel,, nor (as en old saw hath it)_a.body to kick nor a soul to. save/ And religious passion is never so . odious a 6 when it , pulls a >long face and claps a tinsel aureola upon its- - head. '?-<■« * ' , : rMr-.taJbouchere has the following, remarks in London '/.' T ruth I; to the Northern Railway boyecftt of f Ga^holics*:/'.* The idea of religious intolerance being manifested in- the administration of a railway, is so ludicrous .that I dare say a, great many people "could scar-cely-credit the statements that were made in thej discussion on the Great Northern -(lreland) Railway Bill .in the House of Commons last week. But, as I showed some three or four years ago, it is unquestionably' the fact that Irish Protestant bigotry lias been extensively manifested in -. railway management, being . more or less, rigorously excluded from all but ttie?hum-•-blest berths. Some of _the lines on which" this- was ; done were largely owned^y Catholic shareholders, be1 sides; tfringf-almdst wholly dependent upon the Catholic population for" iK&r Iraffic, and in consequence of-;the protests -tfeat. . were made the directors adopted a systepv pf competitive examinations for. clerkships and , -other, The- , directors . of the Great. Northern, ■ however, were obdurate,- and at the -present time :that railway is almost entirely ' staffed ' "by 1 Protestants, ..chosen *fo"r their ..situations on. account of ' their \ Protestantism. The House 'of . Commons -has . now~ very- properly that an" end shali.be put "to this scandal by the- insertion iir thS company's Bill of a clause ' providing*, - that Appointments "to clerkships ' and other' positions shall be made by open competitive exam-inations. It . is^ nonsense to argue that this is an improper interference with the company's affairs. The" State is asked -to grant the company valuable facilities for carrying on 1 its business, and it is entitled to say on what ' conditions it will do -this.' .