The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-05-02

politics and religion is discussed and
! the dangers of a political systm dis
associated from religious influences are
examined.
CONVERSATION VIL-CONTINUED.
THE south, Father John went on,
''is less deeply imbued with the spirit
of trade than the north; but the slave
system which it supports is a most i'm
portant element in the mercantile sys-
tenn which now governs the world.
That mercantile system is the worst
system that has ever prevailed in hui
man affairs. 1t installs Mammon in
the place of God and puts trade in the
place of religion; and is more degrad-
! ing, more brutaliZing, more fatal to
morality, to the virtue, the integrity,
the well-being of the people, than any
system of ancient or modern Gentle
| superstition and idolatry. 1t lives and
thrives only by Undertaking. the pres
emf and discounting the future; and the
reason why its fatal tendencies are not
detected is that it obscures, like all
| false systems, the intellect, blunts the
moral sense, and degradeS the soul to
its own level. But that system gov
/ erns the governments and they cannot
subject it to their power. 1t is too
strong to be broken up by any possible
governmental policy or measure. Gov
ernments can do nothing against it,
and even the pontifical government it
self has been forced to yield III some
measure to its influence; and nine
/! tenthS of the things which modern lib
erals, even of the moderate school, de-
nounce as evils or abuses in the gov
| ernments of old Europe are regarded
as evils only because they are not in
! harmony with the interests of the mer-
| camille system which has supplanted
! the Catholic system introduced under
! Charlemagne. The system can be
weakened and ultimately broken up,
| only as was the old system of Graeco-
Roman dolatry and superstition
against which Peter erected his chair
that is. by recalling men to the fact
| that this world is not their home, that
| their destiny is not in this life, and
| that their supreme good is not found
! in the goods of the natural order. Re
! ligion. operating on the hearts of in
| dividuals, detaching them from the
/ world. eleVating their affections to the
| invisible and the eternal and fixing
them on the heavenly and the spiritual
not government, is the agent that must
work out the changes, and introduce
the ameliorations. my friends so ar
| IDENTIFY and so justly desire. A pro-
| tective tariff would, to some extent
affect unfavorably the trade of Eng
land with this country, but it would
neither annihilate nor shake her mer-
camille supremacy. With large part
of Europe bound in the meshes of her
all central and southern Asia, all Can
ada and Oceanica, to say nothing OF
Africa, open to her trade, she can bear
without any great damage a serious
falling off in her trade with US. If
the American system of 1924 had been
persevered in it would have done
something to prevent the wonderful de-
velopments and expansion of British
commerce; but it is now too late for its
revival to produce a perceptible effect.
"The revival of the protective sys-
tenn" continued Father John, would
give a new spring to our manufac-
lures. and promote the interests of our
industrial, as distinguished from our
agricultural, labor. 1t would do some
thing to render us less dependent on
foreign industry; but it would, at the
same time, lessen the power of foreign
nations to consume our agricultural
products, and thus render them less
dependent on u.s. 1t would, for time.
sacrifice what is with us the stronger.
interest to the weaker, and that, too,
without building up for us a system
of real home or domestic industry. I'm
der an economical point of view, the
factories of Lowell, Providence or
Pittsburg are no more domestic in re-
lation to the Carolinian, Georgian or
Albanian, than those of Manchester,
Leeds, Birmingham or Glasgow. Inc
so-called American system might AID
and encourage what the French call
la grande industrie. but what we want
is the small industry, which may be
taken home and carried on in the
bosom of the family. But that is
n
catastrophe more terrible than that of
the fall of western Rome before the
advancing hordes of northern barba-
rians. The protective tariff might help
to emancipate us from the remains OF
our colonial bondage, but it would only
serve to rivet still firmer the chains OF
the mercantile and credit system. But
our speculations are idle. The Amerl-
can people will not revive it, or if they
should by a spasmodic effort re-enact
it, thew would not steadily sustain II.
The agricultural, mercantile and rail-
road interests are too strong for that
of industry even when backed by the
strong anti-slavery sentiment of the
free states.
THE great evils added Father John
in conclusion. "of modern society are
too deep and too widespread to De
reached by political and economical de-
wees
head is sick and the whole heart is
faint. The endeavor to restore society
to health and soundness by govern
mental action will only make matters
worse. as is proved by the example OF
the United Kingdom ard the United
States. In fact the evils complained
of originated in the triumph OF the po-
ltical system over the religious: II
became inevitable when the politiques,
victory of the Ligue and of the Hugue-.
nots. succeeded in placing Henry OF
Navarro on the throne of France as
Henry ~. Then was inaugurated the
system of independent politics-a sys-
tenn which tolerates all religions ana
submits to none, and governs the Worla
with sole regard to human and tenn
moral interests-a system which e&
cl,ldes religion from the state, subor-
dina+es the moral and spiritual interest
Of mankind to the political. or treats
them with haughty disdain. or pro-
found Indifference In this system Oh
indanendent politics. which has become
nearly universal and is the boast OF
the modern world. is the source OF those
evils which prey upon the heart OF
every contemporary civilized nation. :
They originate in the very attempt 70
evcI1Ide God from the state, and to
secure the progress and well-heing or
man and society. by political and legis-
lative action. They lie in the very
heart of the age, in the prevalent pc,
litical atheism, in the universal carnal
Judaism, which renews every day the
of our Lord. Till you lay
the ak at the root of that evil revive
faith in the heart of man, and cure his |
neglect or contempt of religious duty
and the retributions of another life, !
YOU have no remedy. no hope"