The Irish standard., 1894-04-14

and laughter 81 his sarcasm and Wit.
In part he said: s |
Nov, what is the issue? The census
Of the United States, taken 10 1896,
shows that there arein the United States
$500 900 members of the Catholic
Church. The total popu1a ttiion i sov'e,ar
"a, 100000. SO that tho Catholics, accor-3
ding to the census, number about one SO
ten. Now, the professor will tall you.
that the Catholics have claimed as high
as 100000 or 1900 600. All the
churches seek to make il appear tbat
they are strong; but even il We put. it at
100000, there are then, with the in
crease in population by the natural ratio
Of growth, over 70, 900 Of people in
the United States today; SO that still the
same proportion exists of one in ten.
Now, then, what is all this hubbub about?
Why, it is terror working upon the
souls Of the people, that this one-tenth
is going to swallow up the other nine
tenths. daughter and applause.) They
tell the story of two colored gentlemen
who were discussing the miracles of the
New Testament. One of them got his
Biblical record somewhat wrong, and he
said to the other: "Why, there were seven
men and five women, and Christ fed
them with five Thousand loaves and
fishes" (Laughter.) ''Well," says the
other colored gentleman, "where was the
miracle in that?'' "Why," said he, "the
miracle was that they didn't bust. !"
Laughter) Now. my friends, if you can
take 100000 of non Catholics in this
country and force them down the throats
of 100000, it will be a miracle if they
don't bust. (Renewed laughter.) Why,
my friends, it is nothing-the professor
will pardon me, for do not use the term
as to him it is nothing but fad, fad
to get into Office. (Laughter) There is
nothing else to it. Now, the professor
tells you that the Catholic religion is
wrong, that it has many bad traits and
points that can be urged against it. Ii
the subject of discussion here tonight
was the question whether this audience
should or should not turn Catholic, that
would be perfectly legitimate, but it is
not. The question is whether great
party should be organized and tue pol.
itics of this country run upon the basis
of opposition to the Catholics. That is
the question. applause, and cries OF
s'That is it.">
Now, my friend says this is Protest.
ant country. Numerically that is true.
There are more Protestants-well, was
going to say there IRE more Protestants
than there are any others in this coun'
try, but have seen some recent statis'
| tics that claim that the men in this
! country ttat do not beiong to any church
outnumbered the members of all the
churches. (Applause.) But take issue
with that. Governmentally this is not 9
Protestant country. The Jew has just
as much right here as the follower OF
Christ The pagan has just as much
| right here as the Christian. The found.
ers OF this government refused, upon dis.
c7lssiou, to put the word God into the
constitution, because they said some
creed would climb upon it and dominate
the whole country. (Applause.) No,
take issue upon that. The essence Of
this government is the total and absolute
separation OF church and state. (Great
applause, and cries of Brightly It was q
new creed born into the world, and there
| is terrible record of the past in the
struggles of the different churches to
control the nations in which they dwelt
and the Professionals were just as bad, as
my friend we'll knows, as the Catholics
we're. John Calvin sent Michael Serve.
tus, Protestant, to the stake; tho Epis.
copalians burned Brouchiat. They
burned the Puritans, and the Pu4itana
| under Oliver Cromwell burned the Epis.
copalians, And when the Puritans
crossed the ocean, they had hardly got to
work prosecuting the Quakers, branded
them, murdered them, dragged them at
the tails of horses, right in this America
of ours. Why, my friends, could any
man think today of getting up an anti
Puritan party on the strength Of these
cruelties Of the past?
Then my friend objects to the infalli-
bility of the Pope. Well, I do not be-
lieve that any man in this world is free
from the capacity Of making mistakes.
"To err is human" But IS understand
the infallibility of the Pope, it is simply
this that he represents the ultimate au-
thority just as our supreme court ut
Washington represents the ultimate au-
thority upon question at law. (Ap-
plause.) 1t you are to have coneoli-
dated church you have got to have some
ultimate authority, from which there is