Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-09
FRANCE NOW
IN DANGER.
W Some Religious Trouble
Breaking Out.
FRENCH CLERGY ACTIVE
DreyfuS Case Is Taken as a
Pretext by Opposers Of
Present Government.
AN EFFECTIVE INSTRUMENT
Is Found in Newspaper, The Croix,
Which CirculateS Through all the
C0untry--Some of Its UtteranceS
Of Late Are Quoted.

| New York. Oct. 9.-The Tribunes Paris
correspondent says: The militant atti-
tude of the Roman Catholic clergy Of
France from the very outset of the Drey-
fus agitation may be followed by far
reaching consequences. Not since the
clerical encroachments which led to the
coup d. etat of May 16, 1877, have the
French clergy taken such violent part
in active politics.
M. Jonnart, the influential deputy from
the Pas du Calais, moderate conserva-
tive republican and a liberal Catholic
who occupied the portfolio of minister OF
public works in the Casimir- Perier min
istry in 1899, has written a remarka Bile
letter to M. Cornely, in which he points
out that the Dreyfus affair has been uti-
lized by the clericals and monarchists
solely as a preteXt for making a desper.
ate onslaught upon the republic and up-
on all liberal institutions and ideas. NJ.
Jonnarts views are endorsed by the FL.
garo. the Temps. the Matin, the Steele
the Aurore and by all the newspapers
that had the courage or honesty to es-
pouse the cause of truth and Justice.
Sledl Hedueu conservative tatnOllcS like
NJ. Hebrard, the editor of the Temps, NJ.
Rodays, editor of Figaro, NJ Cornely and
M. Jonnart. who not hesitate to declare
that the open hostility of the French
clergy toward the republic is such that
they fear not only that there will be an
u-clerical reprsals. but that when these
reprsals once begin they will become so
vindictive that no one can say where
they will end.
The radical and social press already
demands the expulsion of Jesuits and all
the religious congregations. The cler-
calls utterly ignore the encyclcal which
Leo NH recently addressed TO the
French bishops enjoining them in mild
academic language to use their influence
TO restrain the partisan zeal of the lower
clergy. The encyclcal is very different
from the forcible one of Feb Is, 1892 in
which the pope SO clearly indicated to
French Catholics that it was their
bounden duty to accept the republic as
the firmly established form of govern
ment Both of these papal admonitions
are unheeded and the clerical organs
more violent than ever declare that in
order to be a good Catholic one must
first of all be IAN anti Dreyfusard
During the last five years the religious
congregations which We're dispersed in
1880 have re-established themselves and,
adroitly profiting by their former expert
ence. have more than regained their for
mer power. This is especially so with
the Jesuts and the AssumDtonists of
Paris. 1t is the Assumptionists who
have their headquarters in the Rue Fran
co.'s Premier and who began the first pro-
paganda against Dreyfus. Under the
leadership of Fathers Picard and Bailly,
who threw themselves into the movement
with an impassiOned conviction worthy
of Peter the Hermit, the Assumptionist
newspaper, the Croix. was converted into
an effective instrument to attain their
ends. The CroiX was founded 20 years
ago. Although rarely seen outside of
France. it has an enormous influence
with French Catholics. The subscrip-
tion lists opened in it's columns for the
dome of the church heart at the Mont
martre speedily reached sun, Of nearly
100000. It's Paris edition is said to have
a circulation of 300 900 There are over
GO subsidiary Croix throughout the coun-
try districts. There is Croix de Rem
nes, the Croix d'Auvergne, the Croix de
Bordaux and there are sroix in every
department and every important town Of
France. All these croix have the same
general appearance. In the left hand
upper corner there is large figure of the
crucifxion with the motto "Ad Veniat
regnum tuum." There is a prominent
rubric entitled LIE Courier Miitaire in
which purely military topics are trea led
and in which answers are given to all
sorts of queries from soldiers relating
to their comfort and welfare in barracks
or elsewhere La croix has large c.r-
culation in the army and it is distributed
to soldiers gratuitously. The price of
the paper, which usually consists of
eight pages. is one cent. II was in the
1nt = T.
to commemorate the memory of the late
Colonel Henry. the forger.
The Croix on Sept. II contained the fol-
lowing editorial in referee "a to the Rennes
verdict: Justice has be DONE Drey-
fus has been condemned. AS French