The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-06-05

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| ing to them the plain gospel Of Christ.
They prefer to give the wealthy mem
kers of their congregations. a disqnisi-
ton of literary or philosophical nature
instead of sermon intoxicating tho
observance Of the Ten Commandments
of Gcd, which Christ said it was neces-
sary to "keep," If one wished to "enter
into eternal 1ife''
Whatever be the cause for small fam
lilies among the American people, it
cannot be denied that they exist. Some
time ago in the city of Cleveland an
Irish woman gave birth to- triplets, and
one of the papers declared that she had
done more for the American republic
by that one act than all the women
residing on aristocratic Euclid avenue
had done in year.
In this connection we quote the fol-
lowing extract from the Advance" the
organ of the Congregationalists, pub
lished in Chicago, and bearing the date
of May 20, 1897:
I'm canvass made by the Cenneeti
cut Bible Society, III the town Of Wind
ham, some instructive facts were
brought to light. Protestant families
were found to have many more Bibles
than Roman Catholic families, but on
the other hand the average Roman
Catholic family could outyote the aver
age Protestant family two to one, in
the number of children in the house.
hold. Half of the people are now
Roman Catholic, and the proportion
increases with each generation. The
priests note this, and say, with social
statistics to sustain them: we shall
soon outvote the Professionals, for we are
certain to outpopulake them by a supe-
rior birthrate.' The fact is undeniable
and the Protestant population of New
England, if they retain their numerical
superiority, must do one OF two things
The families of the native population
must double in size, OF converts must
be won to Professionalism from Roman
Catholic families. The time was when
New England families were Hebraistic
in size, when the households of Connec-
ticut sent forth families like a Aock;'
but such is not the case now, except
in French, Irish and other families of
foreign extraction. So far as the ten
dency is concerned, il is easy to fore
cast the result The Yankee does not
seem to be taking New England. Not
many years hence he will be vastly
outnumberei ON his own grounl--and
his supremacy will be gone--unless, by
religious and educational Influences he
can transform an increasing proportion
Of the population which is now more OF
less alien, into 4 population which will
be favorable to New England ideals.''
There is no danger that the members
Of Catholic families in New England
will abandon their faith to enable ths
American Professionals tc retain a :u-
mercial superiority, il the Catholic
clergy attend to- the spiritual and moral
training of The lambs Of their flock, and
we believe they will. Fhe loss to Cath
olicity in New England in the past
must have been enormous, from the
activity displayed by: Protestant prose-
lytizing soeieEies. if we can judge from
the large number of Protestants bearing
Irish Catholic names that We meet with
in the West. The waits and strays of
the streets were gobbled up by those
wolves and reared III the Protestant
creeds. The bitteress enemies of Cath
olicity in this country today are men
and women Of Catholic ancestry; and
some of the brightest preachers in -Pl OF
estant pulpits who utter TRADES against
the Catholic church are descended from
ancestors who made every sacrifice In
the days of religious persecution in Ire
land to retain the faith taught by St.
Patrick. If the Catholic priests and
Catholic laymen Of New England per-
form their duty faithfully, the only
alternative left to the Professionals for
numerical superiority will be the doub-
ling of their families in size.