Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-05-31

where the shoe pinches. To men of ] MT Brooks caliber the Irish have al-
 ways been a bugaboo. MT Brooks,
 before you were born Irishmen were
 coming here in goodly numbers, aye, l by the thousands, and yet ''mirabile I dictu," the country has survived. How
 do you explain it, MT Brooks? Accord 1 ing to your notion of foreigners the
 country should have gone to the. dem- nition bowwows long ago. That the
 Irish who come are not all good even l their. most enthusiastic supporter
 must admit. Neither are all Baptist 1 ministers But they are a liberty
 loving race and their history shows it.
 They are for the most part a law-abid- i ing people whose main faultsAare on l the exterior and are, as some one has I paradoxically said, the excuse of their virtues. So great an American pat riot as George Washington paid his l glowing tribute of praise to the Irish and if with unbiased mind eff you are capable of that you read the history of your country you will learn that many of the brightest names in Amer 1 ican history are names of Ir1shmen. l And if. furthermore. you read English history you will learn what you seem to lack, the knowledge that the Irish came here because just of such little, l narrow minded ideas as yours would not let them at peace in their native | land, would not let them be religiously l free as you express it yourself. As remarked above, the Irish were here before you were born and had done | good service to the country, and their descendants are still continuing to ap- preciate the adopted land of their I forefathers. And ] have no heSita- tion in saying that when you and those of your ilk have passed over the great ocean the Irish will still be coming here, And If you will initiate some of the manly virtues that adorn the true Irish character you will be better man, a better American citizen, and l may add better Baptist minis ter. Do you desire to stop Irish im- migration? If so you are right in line with the Irish hierarchy who are making every endeavor to keep the Irish in their native land. If the Irish bishops ever hear of your dia- tribe they might be thankful for your unwilling cooperation.
 MT Brooks has no fault to find with the foreigner who comes here to be- come good American citizen. Those of us who deal with the foreigner little more extensively perhaps than does MT Brooks, can assure him that he desires to become a citizen. That is notably so of the Irish. That he does not always become a good one is chargeable in a great mea sure to the circumstances in which he finds him. self. He sees political fraud and bribery rampant; he sees, not always the foreigner. but too often the native born making mad rush for political power, He finds the native-born we'll schooled in all the tricks of poli- tics, and with such beautiful examples before him it is scarcely to be won dered at if he imbibes the atmos- phere by which he is surrounded. MT Brooks. take the beam out of the na- tive American eye and then you will see better to take the mote out of the foreigners eye. Take some of our backwoods Connecticut towns where foreigners are few, and who does the buying and the selling?
 Mir Brooks fears the influence that to his mind is being made to place the schools under the domination of the church, and although in sudden burst of fair mindedness he protests
 
 against any church." yet it is only few lines further when his animus be- comes apparent. He alludes to an encyclical that he calls 155. A few years ago there was quoted another encyclical which was to the purpose that on certain day all Catholics should arise in the land and extermin- ate their Protestant brethren. That no such encyclical ever existed has long since been proved, and no one but those interested in fra ming such mendacious document, the illiberal, l the mephitic, the un-American A. F. | A, ever gave it the slightest notice | Mayhap Encyclica1 155 is of the same nature. I can assure you, NIr Brooks, that the pope has not and will not | make any attempt to bring the public | schools of America under his domina- ton. He knows enough to mind his own business and that is lesson oth- i CTS might learn without any harm to l truth or charity or justice. We Gath l olics are making stand for religious | education of children in our schools | and that We are not alone in seeing | the necessity for it Is evidenced by | the testimony of many a non-Catho- lie. No greater proof of this neces- slty coulo pernapS De given than the | testimony of the immense gathering at Boston last summer which declared | that the present system from a moral | standpoint Is a distinct failure MT Brooks. don't try to revive any anti papal crusade in this country. The at tempt has always been failure and will be because the American people have outgrown the days when the bone was tha huphHar If Avap,v Y711rs