The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-10-11
The PWotaIHgure
at The Hague

| w lllldIn L. SIGdu, WIll4liS 1IOill LUZ
don, Sept. 26, contributes the following
| interesting article to the San Francisco
| Examiner:
The one conspicuous figure in the
court of arbitration now trying the
dispute between Mexico and the Unit
ed States concerning the Pious fund
of California, is not M. Matzen, the
president of the tribunal, nor the four
arbitrator who sit with him, nor the
agent of the United States govern
/ ment, nor the counsel engaged in the
case. The figure around which the
drama of the court revolves is Arch
bishop Riordan of San Francisco. He
| sits quietly at table in the rear OF
| the counsel, and does not speak, but
one discovers quickly that Archbishop
| Riordan is the pivot around which the
! whole case revolves.
| Archbishop Riordan introduced me to
| Mr.. McEnery, the San Francisco law
yer who eloquently presented the
American case to the court. We dis
cussed the fund, it's founders and the
| claims of the Mexican government and
| the Catholic church Of California.
There is no necessity to recapitulate
| the arguments supporting the Ameri-
| can claim. The archbishop asked me
about the arbitrator, most of whom
were known to me, but it is notable
that he q not ask question about
their re Gus faith.
HONEST MEN WANTED.
"What we want" said Archbishop
Riordan, lis an honest man, with a
level head, who will give impartial at
tention to the facts that we shall lay
before him. The origin of many foun-
dations is buried in obscurity, but
in this city the facts are, fortunately,
indisputabel and rest upon historical
evidence of the very best kind. That
the money was left for the Catholic
church of California when the state
and surrounding territories formed a
part of the Mexican dominions can
not be gainsaid. We have the clear
est possible evidence as to the objects
of the founders. The portion allotted
to us as a moderate compromise by
Sir Edward Thornton in 1859 we have
applied to religious and educational
purposes, for which it was destined by
the original donors"
Then the archbishop launched into
a panegyric upon the munificence OF
the Spaniards in everything relating
to the service of the church.
TRIBUTE TO SPANIARDS.
"They had their faults" he said,
'as we all have, but in religious mat
tiers what they set apart for the serv-
ice of the sanctuary was of the best.
They did not put electroplated goods
on the altar. What was given to the
church must be of the purest gold.
Never forget" continued Archbishop
Riordan, that they are a Virile race.
They are the only European race which
has succeeded lin impressing both its
language and it's religion upon the
81 1oI 1ryIi
came in contact. From Cape Horn to
California the whole people have adopt
ed the Spanish language and the re-
ligion of SPAIN
l ventured to suggest that in the
Philippines the Spanish religious orders
do not seem to be particularly popu-
lar. The archbishop declared that on
the authority of many eminent Amer
lean religious lights there had been
great misconception concerning the
friars.
IF some of the religious orders have
been unpopular it is not because of
their moral deficiencies, religious fail
ures and shortcomings, but because
they unfortunately drifted into the po
sition of landlords. Landlords seemed
to be as unpopular in the Philippines
as in Ireland, though not for the same
reason.
CATHOLICS AT HEART.
Notwithstanding their unpopularity
with their tenants, the Filipinos were
Catholic to the core and the arch |
bishop recounted with much humor a
conversation he had with some pious |
Methodists who had dispatched a mis- |
sionary for converting the new Amer |
lean, subjects to the gospel according |
to John Wesley. 1t must be admitted !
that children who have been accus- !
toned from infancy to the gorgeous
and stately ritual with the
imposing color of Catholicism would !
find the bare walls of a Methodist
coventicle somewhat chilly; nor as the
suggested were they likely
to receive with much enthusiasm a doc
trine of faith of the Englishmen in
the eighteenth century in the person
Of John Wesley. This by natural dis
gression led to a eulogium upon the
unity of the Catholic church and in
to tribute to the advant-
ages of using the Latin language of
the ritual for a church. In every
land a Catholic is at home. In every
country he has only to enter a Cath
Olic church ito find the symbols with
which from earliest infancy he has
been familiar. And so the CONVERSE
ton proceeded from things ecclesiasti-
caI to things secular, the archbishop
every topic with general good
humor.
departed feeling that there was