Blue-grass blade., 1891-01-03

ISSUE" a. Father Boulton says.
! She has not even spoken obligatory
on the question Of Total Absti-
hence save as to those who are in
the ranks of the excessive drinkers.
She commands temperance, and if
all her children needed that no
total abstinence societies would en-
ist or be necessary. She has spoken
encouragement to total abstainers.
she has blessed their efforts, and
the present Pope has advised "thc
priests TO be models of total absti.
ncncc; "not Of temperance, but Of
total abstinence, mind you.
AS regards the liquor traffic, she
is almost on the verge Ofcven Pro-
hibition The last Plcnary Coun.
Gil of Baltimore surely spoke hard
and condcmning words Of the traf.
fic. 1t urged pastors to advise
Catholics "to abandon the traffic
and choose a more honorable way
of making living Her words
from the Council of Baltimore are
the basis of my belief in the right
fitness of prohibiting the traffic.
For surely the business my
church has condemned, and the
only one she has publicly declared
she does not want her children to
he in, is the very one should not,
as Catholic citizen, uphold by my
vote, apart from my obligation as a
pledge abstainer "to discountenance
the cause and practice of intempe-
rance"
Protestant Prohibitionists have
never tried "to whip in Catholics
to the support of Prohibition"
They cannot even whip in Profess
tants. 1t is neither Catholic nor
a Protestant question. If it were
Protestant, in most States Profess
tants could carry the measure.
I have been an avowed and pub
licly known Prohibitionist for years
and have let no one among Catho-
lies pass me in upholding It, as my
paper, the l. c. b. " Journal is
evidence. / know the favor with
which Prohibition is regarded by a
great number of Catholics. and l
know the progress it is nsking
among Total Abstainers, espet. al
~. ~
Catholics have but to be sho&
that Prohibition is not contrary to /,
any dogma or law of the Catholic
and that it can be MAIN
tanned on Catholic principles, and
they can he won to it, for "whip-
ping them into any cause, cannot
be thought of. Nothing is such an
evil to the Catholic church as rum.
Nothing has so injured her in this
country. Nothing has caused the
loss of so many Of her adherents.
Nothing has made so many UNI
faithful to her as rum. Her great
enemy in this land is rum. Profess
tanlsm and infdelity are but slight
obstacles in her path of progress to
that of rum. She blesses in a spe-
cial manner all who have pledged
themselves against its Use, even.
Her head, Christ's vicar on
earth, has advised, in a special let
ter to the clergy of this country,
her priests to be "models of total
abstinence" and she has advised
Catholic rum dealers to abandon
the business. What more can she
do? She will do what is needed
for the salvation of souls. If her
warnings and advice are not needed
she will, as her Divine Founder
drove the profaners of His Temple
out, she will speak commandingly.
God is not going to let this land
be desolated and the people des-
troyed. He has given this land to
the people. Here all the problems
agitating mankind will be settled,
and rightly settled to the peoples
good.
Here, above all other lands, our
Catholic church enjoys the fullest
freedom to do her work for the
peoples good. She is the church
ofthe people. She is the church of
the future of this country, and she
is not going to see her children
torn from her by rum and not
strike rum. She is not going to
see countless thousands of good liv-
ing non-Catholics kept from COM
ing to her arms because the rum
ruined lives of so many who call
her mother shame her and blacken
her fair form and obscure her
beauty from those who seek the
soul sustaining balm which she
alone possesses.
In this spirit we Catholic Prohi-
bitionists work for the salvation of
souls and the good of our dear
country-for "God, home and ma.
tive land" May God give us all
courage for the battle we are in.