The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-05-10
THE KAISER AT ROME.

/ From the New York Evening Post
Even Bismarck after his proud I'VE
will not go to Canossa.7 lived to need and
seek the political aid of German. Catho-
lies. It is not strange, therefore, to find
the Emperor william, in the pursuit of
the great policies which he has at heart,
going all the way to Rome. His visit to
the vatican-for 1t is obvious that his
real destination was there, and not at
the quirinal-was made as imposing as
outward pomp could render 1t, and falls,
unquestionably, at a most significant crt-
sis. We do not refer to any domestic
difficulties of Germany, as touching
Catholic questions Embarrassments ex-
list in connection with the return of the
Jesuits which Won Bulow promised to
permit to return for necessary clerical
votes In the reichstag, and there are GER
tain aspects of the school and university
questions which are making trouble; but
these are only minor and incidental mat
ters.
What the kaiser is really thought to
be concerning himself about is much
larger question 1t relates to his vast
colonial schemes, and has to do especially
with the prestige of Germany In the ORR
ent. In a word, he is apparently bent on
supplanting France as the titular pro-
tector of the Catholic church in the east
Just at present, the relations between the
vatican and the French government are
exceedingly strained. The harsh en-
forcement of the rigid law against the
religious orders in France has led not
merely to many incidental hardships, but
to a great deal of bad feeling and indig-
nation. The advisers of the pope might
we'll urge him to break with a republic
that has shown itself so ungrateful for
Y i IA. IT,
er at home, and at least to refuse 1t the
honor of posing longer as the official de-
fender of the Catholic faith in the Orient.
At this juncture, the kaiser comes for
ward to offer the services OF Germany,
at time when, as he said In one of his
speeches in Palestine, five years ago, the
German empire and the German name
have now acquired throughout the empire
of the Osmanli higher reputation than
ever before"
France has had distinct warning that
she could not go on fiouting the Holy See
at home while representing 1t abroad
When the Law of Associations. aimed at
the Catholic orders, was still pending the
pope wrote a letter to the cardinal-arch-
bishop of Paris, in which he made very
significant reference to the ''protectorat'
which France exercised over Catholic
missions In the east. French Catholic
missionaries, observed his holiness, had
done an incalculable work in extending
with the Gospel, the name, the Ian
guage, and the prestige of France
| throughout the ends of the earth. The
pope was arguing, OF course, that coun-
| try bound by such ties to the church
ought not to appear as its prosecutor.
And the fair inference was that if, In
spite of the warning, a doctrinaire anti
clerical government went rashly on in
the work of expelllng Catholic monks
and sisters from France, the vatican
would be compelled to seek another pro-
| tector in the Oriental world.
How important, in a governmental and
commercial way, the official connection
with the Holy See has been to France,
1t would be easy to prove from the writ
ings and speeches of French economists
and statesmen. M. Rene Pinon, writing
recently, In the Revue des Deux Mondes,
of the stake of France in the extreme
Orient said that 1t is a mere common
place to affirm that long and historical
cooperation has rendered the interests of
France and those of the Catholic church
! inseparable.". Scarcely a debate takes
place in the chamber on the policy of the
| government, as respects colonizing and
trade in Syria or China, which does not
bring from the foreign minister an ac-
acknowledgement of Indebtedness to Cath
Ollie missionaries. M. Delcasse spoke In
| Lndl SENSE, HOT lOnB dBO WHeu rItilCli
| influence in the Turkish empire was UNI
| der discussion. 1t is thus a serious blow
to France which the vatican would be
able to deal in giving to another the role,
In the far east, of protector OF the Cath
| Ollie church and defender or the Catholic
faith
| What qualifications has Protestant
| Germany to take up the work, in case 1t
| is removed from the hands of nominally
| Catholic France? Going beyond the first
| incongruity of the idea, we see how the
| thing would fit in with German plans and
aspirations. In Syria and throughout all
| Mesopotamia, German railway enterprises
| are taking on a great Importance. In
China, the Germans are exploring and
exploiting their holdings In a fashion
to claim new consideration in all eastern
| questions. With a restless and versatile
| emperor. a growing naval power and a
| nation bent on great schemes of trade
| and colonization across the sea, 1t Is evil
| dent that Germany could both get and
| give aid in such an alliance with the
| Papacy as that which France has long
| enjoyed, but seems now to be on the
point of losing. 1t Is not impossible
| therefore. that on his next journey to
| the Turkish empire, the kaiser may an
nounce himself not only as the friend of
the sultan and the defender of the Pro-
testant faith In Palestine-sueh he pro-
claimed himself 1S93-but the chosen rep
| resentative of the Holy See as well.
| -