The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-01-18
THE CATHOLIC POWER.

Prof. Lee of Springfield, Mass, spoke
on Emigration and Its Relation to
Church and State,' at Second Parish
church, yesterday afternoon, before a
very large and interested audience. Rev.
J. G. Merrill, the pastor, presided, and
after the usual services Prof, Lee occu-
pied the desk. Prof. Lee is professor in
the French college at Springfield, and it's
graduates are engaged in the missionary
work of converting their French Canadi-
an Roman Catholic brethren in this coun-
try to the Protestant faith, in which thus
far they have been quite successful.
Prof. Lee began by saying: What shall
be done with the stranger? The
general cry now is keep him
out. But he is already
here. In Massachusetts, in 1885 there were
| SS5, 200 of native parentage to over 90O,--
600 foreign born citizens. When will
either political party dare to put a string
ent resolution in its platform in regard
! to the great influx of emigration from
abroad, 60 before the public with it and
ALLEVIATE the foreign vote? There is one
steamship company that has $500 agents
in Europe and $500 in this country secur-
| ing emigrants and placing them here.
| This is but one company and there are 20
others with great capital engaged in the
same business. We not only welcome
| foreigners to the benefits of our instltu-
| tions, we invite them to partake IN our
councils. When the Grand Army a few
years ago marched through Boston, the
| Springfield Republican called attention
| to the foreign born crowds that filled the
| sidewalks and streets through which the
| column of veterans passed, column
that is waning every year. The veterans
made the history of the country, his
| tory in which the thronging crowds on
the sidewalks had no sympathy. 60
| through the streets of Lowell, Worces-
ter, Springfield, possibly Portland, OF an
evening between and o'clock, said the
speaker, and you will find their side
walks swarming with foreign born citi-
zens. with whom you will fall into line
or you will get off the sidewalk. What's
to be done with these people on the side
| walks? They must be brought into sym
! pathy with the people marching to the
music of the Union. The thing to do IS
| to assimilate the stranger to our national
| life. The way to do this is by the preach
ing of the gospe of evangelization and
education, and this is the only way to
solve the emigration problem.
Whois the foreigner? He is the man
with foreign aims and sentiments. He is
the man who doesn't read the Protestant
Bible. Ours is Bible civilization. The
foreigner doesn't read it. The priest gov
erns him. If you convince him today,
under the influence of the priest he is
back tomorrow where he was yesterday.
&c icI, oh 9
it was a thousand years ago. 1t meets a
man from childbirth to death with sac
rament. The man gets stone for bread.
The sacrament is administered by the
priest when the church dues are paid, at
baptism, confirmation, marriage and
death. The average Romanist under
stands that his hope of salvation is in
the hands of the priest. In the Protest.
ant church, man looks up to his God for
direction and then relies on his own judg-
ment. In the Romish church, helooks to
the priest for direction and relies on his
Judgment. Any man who shapes his
course from fear of any human authority
degrades himself thereby.
The Romish church is and has been for
over thousand years political organi-
cation, with definite political aims as
plain to her as the Mckinley bill to the
Republican party. The speaker illus
trated the power of the Pope
nv citing the occasion in the German
Parliament when Bismarck wanted to
carry measure and couldn't get it until
he made overtures to the So papal mem
bers, who, by authority of the Pope,
enabled him to carry his point. He also
claimed that home rule in Ireland was
only prevented, when Gladstone had
nearly secured it, by the Marquis of Sal
isbury making bargain with the Pope.
He also referred to the success of the
,Jesuits estates case, in the French par
lament in Canada by similar means.
In our own Congress a few years ago
Romish priests succeeded in having
three of their schools placed ON the ex-
pense account for public instruction, and
| last year obtained money from Congress
for their parochial schools in Indian Ter
ritory, because, as one legislator SAID,
mo public man can antagonize the Rom
ish church"
| What, then, is the remedy? The
| French-C Canadians, who started in with
| the defeat of Montcalm in Canada, num-
bering some two and a half millions of
| people, have, with their increase, not adj
yanced under their Catholic teaching
step beyond where they were $50 years
ago. They swarm all over our country,
emigrating in great numbers every year.
It is the object of our college to follow
them and convert them. Our students
start from the beginning, with the Bible
and the school. The ultimate
American is not going to be Anglo-saxon.
He is going to have the brilliancy of the
Frenchman, the grace OF the Italian, the
imagination of the Celt, the sturdiness of
the German, and, if we meet these repre-
sentatives of these foreign nations as
they come to lis with the Gospel and
train them in the teachings OF Christ Je-
sus, we shall obtain an ultimate man
hood that shall be of the highest and
blessed of God.
The service ended with the singing by
the congregation of ''My Country It's of
Thee"
Finances of the woodfords Congregation
al Church.
| Before the beginning of the service at
uoodfords Con0reoational church. Mr.