New-York tribune., 1901-10-08

tolerant soil Apparently they did not feel
strong enough TO engage in conflict with the
government. and would not humiate them
selves by asking permission to remain on terms
prescribed by the civil authorities.
To the impartial outsider the case
somewhat of meeting intolerance with intoler-
ance. 1t is the simple truth that both parties
in France-the Clericals. which does not by
any means signify the Roman Catholic Church
as a whole. and the Radicals. which does not
mean altogether those outside of that Church,
since many Radicals are loyal Catholics-have
at times both displayed deplorable spirit of
intolerance We all remember the bitterness of
the Clericals against Radicals if not against
the republic itself, during the Dreyfus contro-
versy and in the whole Jew-baiting campaign.
On the other hand the Radicals have since
been showing an equally bitter animus against
the Clericals. 1t wifi be remembered that some
twelve years ago the government, in n spirit of
half hostility to the Clericals. enacted that stu
dents for the priesthood should be compelled to
do military service the same other men. At
that time Radicals exultingly predicted that the
effect Of the law would be to keep men out of
the priesthood altogether and to break up Cler-
icalism. When once young man had got
taste Of army life. they said, he would never go
back to the clerical seminary. In this the Radi-
a
was a slight decline in the number of ordina
tions of priests, but in the last half dozen years
the number has been steadily increasing, and
seminarists have been fOclling from the bar
racks back TO the seminary and to the priest
hood. This has excited the ire of the Radicals
to the extent that the chairman of the Army
Committee in the Chamber of Deputies recently
made the extraordinary declaration that these
future priests putrefy their fellow soldiers by
''the conta gion of their virtue" And the
Radicals anxious to exclude sem
inarists from the army as they formerly Were
to force them into it.
This incident is cted as only single example
of many manifestations of bitterness and ntol-
erance between the Clercals and the Radicals.
In the exodus of the orders the Radical cam
paign finds at least for the present. its climax.
We shall see within year probably. whether
this measure will prove effective or will react
against its authors. The anti-Clerical campaign
of NJ. Ferry years ago did not result altogether
satisfactorily 10 its leader. And across the
Rhine even resolute and strenuous a states
man Bismarck constrained in time to
reverse his policy and TO seek the friendship
of the Church which he once so vigorously
opposed. The outcome of the present conflict
in France probably depends upon the attitude
of the Catholic Church at large toward the
monastic orders. If it champions them and
demands their rehabilitation the government
may have to yield. For France is still Catho-
lie country. Despite the growth of Protestant
ism on the one hand and of open unbelief in
any creed on the other probably one-third OF
the French people are still devout Catholics. and
more than half of them at least nominally
attached to that Church. And next year comes
general election. in which above all else the
electorate will be asked TO express its opinion
of the governments action against the Clerical
orders For both Clcricals and anti-Clercals
that will he the most momentous election for
many a year. Meantime ii is To be observed
that the Waldeck Rousseau Ministry which has
committed itself TO This anti Clerical policy, and
which openly antagonzed both the Clercals
and the military party in the Dreyfus case and
in the Jew-baiting campaign. has been in office
longer than any other in the history of the
Third Republic. and seems still TO command the
confidence and approval of the nation.