The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1905-06-24
however. that is tainted with dishonor

! AACAS POAtACAoA WIZ plSyS upOA tuo
body polite" AS he sips his bouillon
this highly respectable rascal reads
with horror of political deal" Tc
the ribald minded the example of the
mote and the beam returns.
Where is the ethical standard? AS
forgotten as the SHOWS OF yester.year
A trust drives out it's competitors by
arbitrarily fixing prices; stock as
worthless as Confederate money is
marketed by glib-tongued rogues; a
rival concern is driven to the wall by
sharply taking advantage of its neces
sities-these are practised every day
by men who are pillars Of Boston club
list, who pride themselves on their
benefactions, and austerely wrap their
robes about them when there is ques.
ton of the Catholic church or of the
value of the Irish character in civic
life.
Are not thees indicative OF lack of
reverence for authority, OF lack Of
respect for the old Catholic ideal of
loyalty to sacred trust? These men
are the logical outgrowth of society
based solely upon the idea of rights
and contemptuous of the idea of obli-
cation.
The thrill of awe" is, as Goethe
said, the divinest asset of humanity.
As people we are fast losing il. The
current philosophy is neatly summed
up in the formula: DO others, or
they'll do you" 1t is the philosophy
of the gutter, the ethics of the street
and crowd. But it permeated business
life. 1t is the basic principle of high
finance. 1t is enthroned in the high
places. Life is reduced to a htdeous
struggle for success. Tende 'uess,
mercy, the pity that is of the ess .nce
of Christianity is ignored. There is
little regard for what we Ought" to
do and much abject reverence for what
we "can" do.
The mutiny of the Chicago school
children is merely another evidence
OF the widespread prevalence of this
ruinous spirit. Authority is a word of
little meaning. Parents, teachers, EN-.
ployers have felt the last. Children
breathe in the noXious fumes of doc
trine which teaches them that their
wills are the standards which their de-
sires must respect. If teacher or
parent question the full primacy of
young America-well, he is simply be-
hind the age! 1t is the result of the
Protestant theory of human life.
Where is the Christianity in it? To
be told that you live in a Christian
country is not enough to make you a
Christian. The children are scarcely
to be blamed if they seem to set au-
thority at naught. They live in an at
mosphere tainted with cynicism, with
lack of reverential awe. Protestant
ism has run it's course. Men craved
for the bread of life-and it gave them
a stone. At the best it gave them a
false humanism which has failed them
as the lilac against which Maurice de
Guerin, trusting nature, leaned, broke!
To speak of this condition as q
menace decade ago would have
seemed ridiculous. Today observers
are shaking their heads gravely. Is
not anarchy the logical result of pri.
vate judgment? Only on Tuesday Of
this week the placid New Englander
was stirred by the news of the anar.
chistic demonstration in st. Joseph's
church, Lynn. It was only the firm.
ness Of priest and the prompt action
of the police, which averted serious
consequences. Instinctively they at.
tackled the Catholic church. It stands
for order-which they abhor; for rev.
erence-which they hout; for the
rights of person and property-which
they scott at.
To imagine an anarchistic demon
stration against Professionalism would
be as preposterous as the picture Of
Tom Lawson debating with a three
year-old child.
From the bosom of the Catholic
church must come the remedy for con-
ditions so unbalanced, so dangerous,
so threatening that the surface flurries
we have pointed out are trivial and
frivolous, serious as they are, in COM
parison with what will follow.
The Catholic church, created for
the people and Of the people, will soon.
err or later be called on to lead, to per-
meate, to remedy.
AS Cardinal Gibbons once said:
The Church must permeate as salt
permeates and savors. 1t alone car
ries healing; it alone bears the scep.
ire of spiritual power; it alone has
the future in it's keeping"
The Celt has seen this-and today,
to the Celt even in America, The Re.
public would say: We cannot begin
soon enough to rain the tender sense
of beauty, to crowd the eye with vi
sions of what is according to the best
criteria in all the provinces of all
ethics, to stamp with the final author.
ity of immortal names certain posi-
tive conclusions in the mind of youth
Fitted out with this array of wise and