The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-05-21
Seoteb=Trisb and
the Otber TrisD
New York SUM


The many controversial letters we are receiving
on the question of the Scoch-Irish and the other
Irish Justify us in repeating admontion we have
uttered several times already. 1t is that the in
PRODUCTION into this country of the racial and re-
hgious controversies OF the Old World Is Doth TN
profitable and mschlevous.
In the first place, they never be settled here
any more than they have been settled on the other
side of the water, after centuries of more or less
violent dsputation incidentally, our correspond
ents quarrel over the proportonate share of the
Catholic Irish and the Presbyterian Irish i'll the
securing of the independence of this republic IN
the war of the Revolution. 1t is an idle contro-
versy Both rendered splendid service i'll that con-
test from both have come many of the men most
distinguished in our history, and all people OF
Irish lineage and of every lineage here have reason
for pride and gratitude because of their achieve
ments Few American families coming down from
that Colonial period have not in them infusion
of Irish blood whether of the strain or the
other IF you strike at either, you may hit some
of your own ancestors.
After the Revolution, during the period from
1920 TO 1850 there came to the United States from
Ireland more than million immigrants. In 1920
the population of the Union was only 9.633S22, and
in 1850 it was only 23,191,S76 How great an in
Huence on our American stock III those days this
large infusion of Irish blood had is thus made
manifest 1t affected the extraction of the
population of every state. From 1920 to 1900 the
millions They were people of vigorous, enduring
and prolific race whether Catholics or Presbyte-
rians of Scotch or of Irish descent, and they and
their descendants make up a very great part
of the population.
In the city of New York alone in 1900 there
were 727,464 people of Irish birth and their chill
dren native to this country. Add the whole num-
Der of the inhabitants of Irish descent whose line
age goes back to the earlier Irish immigrants, and
how many of the 3437 POP inhabitants in 1900 were
without some trace of that blood!
In the south, unfortunately, the foreign lmml-
grafton of more than twenty millions during the
eighty years from 1920 to 1900 relatively snEll.
African blood takes the place there of the white
European blood brought to the northern states by
that immigration, and because of it race and color
line has been established, while at the north the
tendency is, happily, to the mixture of white races
by intermarriage.
Take the social circle in New York which is of
most fashionable prominence, and how many OF
the families in it are without some of these for
eign strains? Look around the box circle at the
opera and count UP. How many of the old stock
of New Workers. Dutch English, do you find
among them? Scarcely is there one in which there
is not some infusion of this immigrant blood.
Paddy" He is everywhere. A family of wholly
colonial lineage is practically unknown.
We also have here in New York more than eight
hundred thousand of the German born and their
native children, something like seven hundred thou
sand Jews, toward hall nllllon ltdlIaiis, Loo "'
the faces in the street cars and you will COM
paratirely few which bear the marks of a long
American lineage, and fewer still ipcontestabiy
English or "Anglo-Saxon." Read the names on
the mercantile signs. Go down to Wall street look
over the names Of the members of the stock ex-
change and of the bankers dominant there, and see
what you find The Yankee is only drop IN the
bucket in New York.
Scotch-Irish or Irsh-Scotch. We know of no
such divisions They belong to another continent
and another political and social system. Here are
only Americans, and. as have said, Americans
had better be careful about hitting at any Euro
pean race lest they strike at some of their own
ancestors.
Catholic or Protestant? That is not the ques-
ton to ask. Are you bearing witness in your life
to the blessed effects of your religion you?