Omaha daily bee., 1906-12-15
OTHER LANDS THAN OURS.

Whatever doubt existed as to the de- !
termination Of the French government TO I
enforce the separation law the events OF
the week have set at rest The order Of
Pope Puts X forbidding the clergy to bow
to the law or compromise on the less eN-
acting law Of 1881, as a majority were dis
posed to do, left the government the choice
OF two Courses-retreat or advance. Re
treat meant overthrow for the ministry.
Tho action Of the head of the church
rendered compromise impossible. Hence
| the ministry chose the only course that
! Insured its existence and proceeded to en-
force the law with drastic vigor. The
situation thus preclpitated is deplorabe
from every point of view. The issue Is not
separation Of church and state, for sep
I aration Is fact accomplished. II involves
the destruction OF the autonomy Of all
churches and the division OF ownership and
control of church property among laymen
! organized fl associations subject to state
license and state regulation. The church
authorities knew from experience the world
over the insecurity Of lay control and
| evidendy elected 10 face the crisis at once
rather than a prolonged agony under the
onerous provisions Of the separation law
Conhscation OF church property seems in
evitable. In n contest between church.
men passive and opponents of religion
! entrenched in power and challenged to do
their worst, reprisal Is likely TO go TO the
| limit Unless the unexpected happens
! churches and religious Institutions, fam
| Gus in the history Of the nation and
/ hallowed by associations running back over
! centuries, will be shorn Of their charac-
ter and become loot for avaricious COM
munities.
| The present situation extends back to the
French revolution. In that bloody up
| heaval the expensive property Of the
| church was seized by measures Of con-
| hscaton. Eventually the claims OF the
| church were commuted by an agreement
| embodied In the concordat signed in 1901
| BY this the church abandoned It's claims
! to the property of which Il had been dis
| possessed and accepted annual grants from
the state for the support Of its organ
! ization. In repeating the corcordat and
| terminating the annual grants the govern
| rnent takes the position that at the same
| time the church loses all legal rights TO
| the church property it has occupied and
| used for public worship, except by the
grace OF the state, which can be obtained
! only In the way prescribed by law. In
! detaut OF this the government claims
| the right TO eject all congregations
| and priests from their houses Of worship
| and all bishops and other church officials
! from the buildings occupied by them The
law applies even to some 1900 churches
built by private subscription or bequest
| including some built by American sub
scription. The theory of the law is that
the church property has been acquired on
the basis Of revenues derived from the
state and is in the nature of a usufruct
belonging to the state and available by the
church only on such terms as the state
sees fit to accord
The latest phase of the Americanlzation
| OF Germany is the substitution of messen-
ger boys for the "Dienstmanner. In
Munich one still sees many of these nor
tiers, with red caps, standing at street cor
ners, ready for any job, from helping one
TO find lodgings to carrying bundle or a
| message or taking a trunk to a station.
| In Berlin only a, few of them are left
mostly at the railway stations. The others
have been put out Of business by the now
general mercantile custom of delivering
packages at the homes of purchasers, and
by the additional facilities offered by the
telephone and the "Rohrpost," or pueu-
matte mail tubes, Nevertheless II has been
found that there are occasions when all
these means of communication fail, and an
"Eilboten-Institut" has been established in
Frankfort and in Berlin for supplying mes
senger boys.
The Italian government came to the con-
clusion some time ago that too many Off
cial free kilograms were forwarded within
the kingdom. The number of these mes
sages was In one year 24S7419 against
O,A4OO0 that were paid for whereas Ger
nnHa
100000 that were paid for, while the pro-
portion in England was still lower-448, 900
to SS,OOOOOO Notwithstanding the edict, a
slcilian prefect sent out the other day 800
telegrams stating that certain person
had lost COW and requesting that she be
returned to the owner. This dispatch was
sent not only to Sicilian stations, but all
over southern Italy. A socialist journal
got wind of the remarkable proceeding and
made so much ado over II that the gov
ernment ordered an investigation, The
prefect explained that he had Intended the
; dispatch for Sicily only, and never thought
! 1t would be forwarded across the water,
! which the COW was certainly not likely to
swim; but IT was deemed advisable to make
an example and he was fined 5O7 lire.
,
In the upper house OF the Hungarian
foFHdneht various reI!Slohs OF the country
are represented by prominent church digni-
taries. There are about 10000 Jews in
! Hungary but the religion not having been
officially recognized until 1895 1t has never
had a representative in the House Of Lords.
The municipality Of Tolua has called this
fact TO the attention of the government
and has asked that steps be taken toward
Jewish representation. II is believed that
in consequence of this petition rabbi viii
soon be named for a place among the
peers 1t will be difficult, however, to find
a man who Will be acceptable alike to the
Orthodox and the Reformed Jews, and as
both wings are officially recognized, two
rabbis, one Orthodox and one Reformed
may be named.