The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-14
rdinaI Gibbons Says American
Public Has Been MisIcad
QUOTES The ANT|-CLERICALS
The Day Passes Quietly In Paris, With
None of the Sensational Incl
dents That Had Been
Anticipated.

Baltimore, Md, December 13.-"The
American public does not understand the
present crisis in France" said Cardinal
Gibbons this afternoon, when asked for
his opinion on the correspondence. He
continued:
I am getting old now but I think
my countrymen love fair play. they love
liberty; they love to see humane deal
ings of man with man, and the late
years have shown how cordially they
hate injustice, tyranny and inhuman-
ity And vet France has throttled her
mobiles and citizens with injustice and
inhumanity, and America. which has
sympathy for the oppressed of all rela-
tions, raised no protest or uttered a
word of sympathy.
"If 1 believed that my countrymen
would knowingly see a great and bene-
fcient organization unjustly deprived of
its property, and the means of continued
usefulness; would knowingly see tens Of
thousands of honest men and noble wo-
men robbed of their just income and
means of support; would knowingly see
! millions of people brntally wounded in
what they hold dearest and most sacred; ;
would knowingly see a majority in the
chambers utterly disregard and trample
upon the rights of millions of their coun-
trymen--in the name of liberty-woud
knowingly see tens of thousands of men
and women who happen to be priests
and nuns turned out of their homes for
no crime but that of loving God, L say if
my countrymen can see and recognize all
this injustice and tyranny and cruelty
and refuse genuine sympathy, then I will
leave life without that faith of Ameri-
can love of liberty and humanity which
has been my comfort and special sup
Question Not Fairly Put.
"But the American people have not
had these things put fairly lefore ths =
OR own press has been to considerable
extent the reflex of the Partisan anti
clerical press Most people over here
have little conception of the French
anti-clericals. They look on the lead
J ers of this party as enlighted states
men seeking to preserve the republic
s}from an attack of an aggressive clergy.
There have been honest and sincere lovers
of republican government among anti
clericals | admit. but the majority of
them have far less love of the republic
than they have hatred of religion. L
am Weighing my words and | say with de-
liberate conviction that the leaders of
the present French government are ac-
tuated by nothing less than hatred of
religion. We have no spirit akin to theirs
in this country We have here much in
difference to religion. but we have no
body of men, no great party that makes
It a chief aim to weaken the power of
religion and if possible to utterly de-
stroy it out of the land.
Jacobin Party Not Dead.
"But in France the Jaeobin party is
not dead Their spirit is as live today
as it was in the last decade of the
eighteenth century. They hate God; they
hate Christ: they hate His religion as
much as ever their fathers hated them.
But they have learned more prudent
and measured method of attack. They
are almost scientific in the means theN
take to suppress Christianity. And vet
the utterances of such men are received
as unsusnectinglv by many Americans as
vo,1d be a discourse by Mr. Cleveland
or Mr.. Roosevelt or Mr.. Taft-men who
recognize the powerful influence that
Christianity plays in promoting the well
fare of society.
ar is easy to show that I am not
m1SrcQ1cSeIllllS
Gals. They make no secret of their
hatred of Christianity. They avow it in
the press and in the chambers. Let me
give YOU a few examples of the Ian
guage of these men, and you can judge
II the American people have ever heard
anything similar from their own leaders,
or if any American statesmen would
dare to utter such statements. In the
course of long speech in the chamber
of DEPUTIES the well-known socialist lead
er Jaures, said:
Quotes From Anti-Clericals.
"Tf God Himself appeared before the
multitudes in palpable form, the flrst
duty of man would be to refuse him
obedience and to consider Him not as
master to whom men should submit, but
as an equal with whom men may argue.
M vivian, the new minister of labor,
snealinr also In the chamber of deputies,
gave utterance to these sentiments;
".All of us together, first by our fore
fathers, then by our fathers, now by our
selves, have been attached to the work
OF anti-clericalism and irreligion. We have
snatched the human conscience from be-
lief in a future life Do you think the
work is at an end? No. it is beginning.
..The chamber decreed that the dis
course from which this is extracted be
placarded in every town and village oil
France.
In the same strain lHe piCScht
ter of public worship. and the most siren
nous advocate of the law of separation,
NJ BRAND, said in an address to school-
teachers:
THE time has come to root up from
the minds of French children the ancient
faith which has served its purpose and re-
place it with the light of free thought,
it is time to get rid of the Christian idea.
We have hunted Jesus Christ out of the
army the nay. the schools. the hospitals
insane ana orphan asylums, law courts
and now we must hunt him out of the
state altogether.
Before the Revolution.
"In order to understand the present sit
uation it must be borne in mind that be-
fore the French revolution all churches,
all ecclesiastical lands and properties be-
1onged to the church by as just title as
property is owned in our country by the
Catholic. Methodist or any other religious
denomination. During the revolutions all
buildings landed properties. funds etc,
were confscated by the revolutionists.
But the injustice of this was soon recog-
nized- and the constituent assembly
pledged itself to render some sort of JUS
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