Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 15 June 1911, Page 1093

Current Topics

hiiiii} ■ ': —.1 1 .. 'T—- * This Is Auckland * l , Expectation had run high’ in regard to the Auckland meeting; but the result—both in money and in enthusiasm outran the most sanguine anticipations. At the close of f the - Home Rule - meeting ; in Auckland ; four •, and .. a-half years, ago, the result of the collection was announced as £550; on this occasion it was announced as £IOSB an easy record for the Dominion.' It is commonly agreed that money talks ’; and in this case it speaks . eloquently of capable organisation, and of the unbounded enthusiasm and generosity of the Auckland people. In Dunedinthe city of canny Scotchmenthe hope can hardly be entertained of even distantly approaching the . Auckland total ; but the magnificent successes of the northern centres s —Wellington/ Christchurch, and Auckland—will be an inspiration to southerners to put their very best foot for- ' ward.;/,--■ :■ > ■■ '■/ ■ / '■ ■ - ■ - * ■ - - ■ ■ •; ;• Apropos of the envoys’ meetings, we take this opportunity of mentioning that in centres where we are not represented by regular correspondents, promoters will do us a favor by sending us at the earliest possible moment marked copies of papers containing reports of/such meetings. „So far it has been our fortune to receive the great mass of such material on Wednesday morning the day on which we go to press— this, although the meetings had taken place at some time during the previous week. We confidently depend on promoters — in our interest and in their own — avoid unnecessary delay in respect to future meetings. State Aid: An Anglican Ally The June number of our Christchurch Anglican contemporarythe Layman is . notable as containing an earnest, thoughtful, and .comprehensive leader on the edu-cation-question. Both in respect to principles and to practical proposals, there is much in the article with which we. cordially agree. The following, for example, expresses a point of view which has often been emphasised in the columns , of this. paper. ..., ‘ That education can be purely secular, that children can be trained and disciplined without the sanction of religion is purely a modern invention, and was never sd much as dreamt of by our fathers. And it ; is interesting to, observe how - now in the twentieth century, leading authorities are coming back to the old simple stand-point, and are calling the attention of educationalists to the importance of remembering that the best outcome ■: of education = is riot intellectual attainment, but self control, and the formation of right character. This is the characteristic, and shall we say, historic English connection, and must be borne in mind and reckoned with by those who would help to develop and reform our present education system. , The-great thing to recognise is that we have erred, that in the severities, though much good was -done, this fatal mistake was made that education was conceived as affecting only the mental and Hot the spiritual part as well of the child.’ * ■ / And the following, on the practical side, is of even greater interest That it is possible to include religion daily in ! the syllabus and not overcrowd it or detract from its general efficiency is proved from the fact that admirable Church schools exist in the city of Christchurch, and throughout the Dominion, and that pupils in these schools are not one whit behind their contemporaries in the-State schools. For Church schools of this type that we have or may be led to establish we must learn to ask for State aid, and to join hands with the Roman Catholics, if need be, to obtain it. If, for instance, the Church educates in Christchurch some hundreds of pupils and satisfies the Government inspector as to proficiency in secular matters, we have , a right to ask for the money we have saved the State. This we may not get without long and: persistent asking, but when we are in earnest about this vital question of religious education, the Church of. England can, . and, should, get all for which she asks. In this matter her members must make their political power felt.’ * If the Layman can succeed in leavening the'Anglican body with these sentiments and principles, and in getting its readers in earnest about this vital question,’; it will have deserved well both of the Church which it represents,' and of the whole community. With regard to the suggested 1 joining of hands, the proposal seems to us to be a matter of elementary common sense.' This is the day of deputations'; and if two' considerable bodies of ' electors both ,want precisely the same thing, why should they not make

a joint demand of f lire : ' Government—and, in the event of refusal, afterwards make their power felt. Home Rule Finance ° ; IE i/l. Our esteemed but painfully conservative contemporary, the Dominion, is still- harping on the- fact that at the present time the amount of' revenue which Ireland contributes to Imperial purposes is less than the amount of Imperial expenditure on Ireland. Admitting the fact though by no means acknowledging the correctness of the figures adopted by our contemporary —the Dominion either misunderstands or grossly exaggerates its significance. It ignores, or is unaware of, the fundamental distinction between Irish expenditure and expenditure in Ireland. Perhaps the following illustration from the admirable paper by Prof. T. M. Kettle, to which we referred at length a fortnight ago, will help to clarify our contemporary’s ideas. ‘ln the Daily Mail articles,’ said Prof. Kettle, these words occurred: “ But with all this said I admit that more money is spent in Ireland than is raised there.” Instantly there came a clamor from “Extremists,” Tories, King’s Counsel, and others to the effect that now at last the mask was off. Nationalist testimony had clearly admitted the insolvency of Ireland. Persons who echo that absurdity have not grasped the fundamental distinction between Irish expenditure and expenditure in li’eland. If I have obtained possession of your property, and thereby initiated you into “disloyalty” to me, and if, with the income of your property, I hire a policeman to baton you, a soldier to suppress you, a judge to admonish you, and a jailer to lock you up, I can hardly put in a trustee account - exhibiting all these charges as part of your expenditure on the ground that they were spent on you.’ v , - 'Ar As is well known to everyone familiar with Irish affairs, the Imperial expenditure in Ireland is swollen to a ridiculous extent by wasteful, extravagant, and ..worse than useless expenditure on a horde of Government officials. Scotland has a larger population than Ireland. Yet the number of Government officials assessed for income tax in Scotland in 1908 was 963, in Ireland, 4539. Their salaries in Scotland, £311,694; in Ireland, £1,412,520. Ireland is forced to spend £3 for every £1 spent by Scotland on law and justice, although she has less crime to deal with. The cost of the Law. Courts in Scotland was, in 1907/ £202,608; the cost in Ireland, £368,714. Irish police cost practically £1,500,000; Scotch police cost about £500,000. The Irish Prisons’ Board, with only 2500 convicts under its charge, costs £107,000 per annum; the Scotch Prisons’ Board, with 2900 convicts, cost £87,000. The excessive cost of Irish Government may be illustrated in another way. Of her national income of £1,800,000,000, a year, England spends less than one-fortieth part on her home, government. Of her national income of £70,000,000, a year, Ireland is forced to spend on her home government more than one-tenth. In introducing his Home Rule Bill of 1886, Mr. Gladstone said ‘ The civil charges per capita at this moment are in Great Britain 8s 2d, and in Ireland 16s.’ In 1908 the civil charges in Ireland were not 16s, but 28s 6d ; per capita. As Prof. Kettle truly says : ‘ The only Government that can afford to be. frugal is a Government that possesses the confidence of its people. Home Rule, arid Home .alone, can realise those huge economies in Irish administration which men of all parties agree to be desirable.! A Methodist ‘Convert’ The Rev. Everett S. Stackpole, D.D., a New England Methodist minister, who was at one time a missionary in Italy, tells us in his Four and One-half Years in the Italy Mission, . that the ‘ex-priest’ converts of the Methodist Mission in Rome are a poor lot, who work merely for the pay, and who go elsewhere as soon as they find-higher wages offered them. ‘ Some ex-priests,’ he says, ‘ are “ex’s” necessarily. They have quarrelled with their superiors, or they have been guilty of some immorality, or they want more salary, or they desire to get married. . . . Men of mercenary spirit in other denominations learn that We pay our preachers “magnificently,” as one of them said, and hence they seek admission into our Church and betray their own.’ These words were written a good many years ago; but to judge by the following cable, which appeared in last week’s dailies, .they are as true to-day as when they first appeared. The message is dated, Rome, June 6, and runs thus: ‘The criminal' tribunal has sentenced an ex-priest named Verdesi, now a Methodist, to 10 months’ imprisonment, besides a fine, for libel in alleging that Father Bricarelli had- violated the . secrets of the confessional by revealing to the Pope' the names of certain Modernists.’ By the time Verdesi has ‘ done ’ his ten months, he will have learnt a salutary lesson; and will — is safe to predictdropped- his Methodism. ‘ Whoever has been in the pay of our mission;’ writes Dr. Stackpole, ‘as preacher,- Bible.-woman, organist, janitor.

etc., and has, for any cause, been discharged, has' become at once a bitter opponent of our Church, proving thereby that his or her motive in Uniting with us was a mercenary one.’ • ■ v - : - >'l •• - ■■ - , . ‘ " -- v-’ ' As to the charge of violating the seal of the Confes—which has evidently been conclusively disprove*.! in the present case is a remarkable thing that history furnishes us with no instance,, all down the. ages, in which a confessor has proved unfaithful to his sacred trust. On the contrary, it has furnished many instances in which priests have faced imprisonment, and even death, when the occasion demanded it, rather, than violate the obligation of perpetual secrecy; and there is a long and glorious roll of sufferers for the seal. We cite ‘two specimen cases, in which the sufferings of the heroic victims were attended with circumstances of tragic interest. The story of Father Kobylowicz was told in 1873, by the ' Beichzeitung of Bonn. He was parish priest of Oranon, in Kiev (Russian Poland), and bore a high reputation for piety and zeal.' A murder was committed in his parish; and his gun, recently discharged, was. found concealed under the altar. He was tried, found guilty, and condemned to penal servitude for life in. the mines of Siberia. Twenty years later—in 1873 —the organist of the Church at Oranon lay dying. He summoned the authorities, and confessed that he was the murderer. He had used the priest’s gun, hastily concealed it beneath the altar, and in the search which ensued had contrived to cast suspicion on Father Kobylowicz. In a remorseful mood he soon afterwards confessed to the priest, but had not the courage to surrender himself to the hands of. justice. After his dying confession, orders were sent to Siberia. for the immediate release . of Father Kobylowicz. He had died a short time previously. He had endured the slow martyrdom of Siberian mines for twenty years. He had borne that far keener agonythe fearful ceremony of public degradation at Zhitomeer. He bore his heavy cross in silence with him to the grave. - ; , ■. * 7 v ’ ’ ■ The other case is . still more recent, and - the victim served his sentence almost at our doors. It is the case of the French priest, the Abbe Dumoulin, which aroused the attention of even the secular press. The facts of the case were thus recorded, at the time (1892), by the' Sydney Morning Herald 1 The Abbe Dumoulin, a priest of the archdiocese of Aix, in France, was . three years ago convicted , of the robbery and murder of a wealthy lady. She had come to him for a sum equivalent to £4OO of trust funds belonging to a religious society with which she was connected, and four days after her dead body was found in a cell in a deserted monastery, attached to the presbytery buildings, through which she had to pass. The money was gone, and a large table knife and .handkerchief, stained with blood, were found near, both having belonged to a relative of the Abbe. On circumstantial evidence the Abbe was convicted and sentenced to transportation for life, and for three years he had been serving his sentence in New' Caledonia. But the truth has come to light, and it is as thrilling as fiction for, some months ago, the sexton of the church confessed that it was he that had committed the murder, and that on the day on which the body was discovered he had gone to the Abbe himself and confessed the crime. He had not the courage to give himself up to the law, and the Abbe, with the secret of the confessional hidden in his breast, allowed himself to be tried, and convicted and sentenced for murder.’ Father Dumoulin wore the prison garb, and toiled for three years under a tropical sun, herding day and night, as the S.M. Herald said, with 'the basest of the outcasts of society.’ Even that secular journal declared that his ‘ heroic devotion to a sense of duty constituted an act of heroism to which it would bo hard to find a parallel.’ Weighed and Found Wanting A little more than a year ago, Milwaukee, one of the largest cities in America, elected a Socialist Mayor by a large majority ; and the administration of local affairs was definitely placed in the hands of the Socialists. The result of the elections—unexpected even by the Socialists themselves—naturally gave rise to much jubilation in Socialistic circles ; and the incident was hailed by the Socialistic press throughout the world as the prelude to many greater victories, and as the inauguration of a new and glorious era for humanity. Special interest attached to the contest by reason of the fact that there is a very considerable Catholic vote -the city being a large Polish centre—and the Socialist victory was advanced as conclusive evidence of the extent to which Socialism had succeeded in capturing tvtm G Catholic body. Both the general significance of the Milwaukee election, and its special relation to th° Catholic voters appear to have been greatly misjudged" The citizens generally voted the Socialist ticket mainly as a protest. against a politcal administration that had long

become, distasteful and unpopular. Catholic voters acted on precisely the same 1 principle. - Socialist doctrines, .as such, ere not. considered. There was a universal desire for - local reform; the Socialists promised this in large measure; and the. peopleon the 'principle: that things could-hardly be worse than they decided to give them a chance. ) It as noticeable that during the election, and for a short time afterwards, not. a < word ..of vituperation was uttered by the Socialist leaders cither against individual Catholics, or against the Catholic Faith. ■ " * ’;. ■ ’ : , ; The Socialists have now' had over a year of office; and they have been, given, by all classes, a fair opportunity ,to ‘ make good.’ So far as can be judged at this distance, they appear, to have utterly failed; and there is a notable reaction and revulsion of feeling against them. The Milwaukee Catholic Citizen of April 22, in a dispassionate discussion of Milwaukee’s Socialist experiment, gives the following summary of the short-comings of the Socialist administration : 1 The Milwaukee Socialists,’ it says, ‘ had a good opportunity. And they actually gave some indications of improvement in such matters as better public accounting, and at least in the. proclamation of better methods of conducting public works, involving the breaking down of contractors’ rings. They also turned in a right direction when they developed an interest in public welfare conditions and amusements. But along with these good intentions, there cropped out some bad traits, which turned public opinion decidedly against the Socialists. ,We mention: (1) Incivism (i-e., bad citizenship). Especially manifested in a disposition to consider exclusively the wishes of their own class, to consult the decision of an inside ring of their party and to contemn and flout and even insult merchants and manufacturers, judges and clergy and other elements of the community. (2) Extravagance. The increase of taxes (due to the previous administration, but credited tip to the party in office, as is the way in politics), together with proposed vast bond issues, championed by the Socialists, and, special legislation sought for by them at the State capital, alarmed and exasperated the tax-paying element, which still commands two-thirds of the voting strength in Milwaukee. (3) Blunders and Impolicies. The Milwaukee Socialist party showed itself as mal-adroit as any of the old parties, in not a few', matters. It was careless about the i legality of its proceedings. The possession of patronage (something which an aggressive party can better do without), proved a positive injury to the Socialists, . finally, , as towards the argumentative attacks of Catholic critics, the Milwaukee Socialists gave the task of reply to their A.P.A. contingent, who handled the matter about as uncleverly and tactlessly as —permanently alienating an element from which Victor Berger declared the party drew a third of its vote, (“one-fifth” would . be a - more accurate estimate). Instead of attempting to meet the issues raised the blunder was committed of aspersing, in a wholesale manner, the citizenship of Catholics as fund amentally dangerous to American institutions. y ■ •* ■ , ■ The extent to which local opinion in Milwaukee has turned against the Socialists is shown by the following election statistics: Total Socialist Per Cent. ' , •. min City Vote. Vote. Socialist. April, 1910 ... 59,484 27,608 46i Nov. 1910 ... 52,783 20,883 39* April, 1911 ... 36,235 12,254 31 It is shown still more in the actual results of the elecions in April last. In that month the citizens elected judges, and school directors. Of ten candidates for positions .on the school directorate four were Catholics. The Socialists nominated candidates in opposition; and carried on an anti-Catholic campaign reminiscent, in its bitterness, of A.P.A.-ism at its worst. One of their cartoons represented a tiger, labelled ‘The Jesuit,’ barring the way to the public school, and the Catholics were warned that they might force another “Reformation” which would do a more thorough job because it would have a vein of the trench revolution running through it.’ The Milwaukee citizens—Catholic and non-Catholic — resented such intolerance; and in the result, three of the four Catholic candidates: were placed at the head of, the poll, and not one Socialist candidate either for the school directorate or the judicial appointments was successful. Milwaukee’s abandoned experiment has thus to be added to the already fairly long' list of unsuccessful attempts to give the Socialist programme a local habitation and a name: Incidentally, it has also served to show how Socialism, in its ultimate development, in practice as well as in theory, ranges itself against Catholicism. •