Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-07-20
fFor Sunday Reading.f
: All Sorts OF Opinions. !
Observation-Disclosures
Catholics and the yellow Press.

Catholics and the yellow Press.
Catholic papers complain that
| something is radically wrong in the
attitude of Catholics toward the Cath
Ollie press in the United States" The
Catholic Tribune, Dubuque. Iowa. as
serts that both itself ana other Catholic
papers are doing their best to exc out
an honorable existence in the face OF
! the disgrace that the foreign born ele-
ment. speaking other languages than
| the English, have Catholic daily news
papers, while the numerically much
greater body of EnglishS speaking
Catholic American take their food from
the hand of non-Csrtholic and fire.
quenty anti Catholic publishers of
daily newspapers" In an endeavor to
find the Specific reason for This pitt
able state of affairs" The Tribune
quotes from The Catholic For,nightly
Review, ST. Louis, what 1t calls IAN
Illustration Of our press misere" that,
1 it believes sheds much light on the
causes underlying the recent disgrace
full status of affairs The quotation is
as follows:
The Chicago Examiner and Ameri-
can. one of Hearst's yellow journals
recently instituted a coupon contest
for three trips to Palestine, three to
Europe, five to Cuba, five to Mexico,
| five to California, etc. In which most
of the winners, as announced In that
papers edition of March 3, We're Cath
Ollie priests.
The clergyman heading the list,
Rev. Francis Gordon. G. r.. received
no less than 1.13e.534 votes The Sec
ond Rev Fred Camel, nearly a mil
lion; the third. Rev. p McGee, 744,-
776.
"a priest of the Chicago archdio-
cese says:
If the money and energy put into
this contest were applied to the cause
of Catholic, daily newspaper would
this long-desired and necessary desid-
eratuin be easily provided? And to
think that all this Was done for such
a paper. OF the tifty-one clergynen
named as winners and as coming close,
to the winners. thirty three $3.50 are
Catholic priests!'
No weli-meaning Catholic viii
grudge these priests the benefits of
their trips to the Holy Land. etc. But
Is 1t not awful to contemplate the
fact, so clearly Indicated by the re-
suits of this Palestine contest" that
it is largely, if not chiefly. the Cath
olfcs of Chicago that read and support
the yellowest of the yellow journals
which disgrace that metropolis? And we
have been told on seemingly good au-
thority that similar conditions exist In
New York and San Francisco; that
there, too, the yellow Hearst papers
enjoy the patronage of Catholics to
such an extent that they would prob
ably cease to be profitable were they
entirely deprived from Catholic sup
port"
The Catholic Tribune goes on to.
ask: Can 1t be true that it is Cath-
olics who are responsible, to a great
extent at least, for yellow Journalism.
one of the most frightful evils with
which twentieth century America is
cursed?" Such papers as The Catho-
lie Universe (Cleveland) and the Ave
Maria (Notre Dame Ind) recommend
their bishops and priests to refrain
from giving interviews TO daily papers.
especially to the yellow ones"
IuTt0dliSin ana Religion.
Puritanism, as ii existed in the days
of Oliver Cromwell, is a dead thing
and yet it has done its work and left
its undying impression on the relig-
ious life of the world. Who would
think that the Congregationalists of
today had anything In common with
the Roundhead preachers who were
the object of Buffers satire? Yet, Mr..
w f. Moulton, in the London Quar-
terly Review does ample justice to
the Puritan spirit wherever and when
ever it appears. altho in its origin
those who represented it We're con-
spicuous for indifference, the mar
roWness of their conception of life, and
their heavy hand" of persecution.
Nevertheless, Puritanism has added
much to the strength and pertinacity
of Anglo Saxin religion. To quote Mr..
Moulton:
1T has been a quickenng influence,
a needful complement and corrective,
to institutional religion. that Puritan
ism has contributed most to the spir-
itual life of the nation. Its failure as
q system, a dominant power. in no
degree detracts from it's value as an
influence for experience shows that
it is Impossible to materialize a spir-
itual conception into a system with
out signal deterioration. Savona rola,
Luther and Calvin were infinitely
greater, more righteous, more sane
when they worked like leaven than
when they ruled like magistrates; and
on the pages of history there can not
be found a record of any reformer or
reforming movement which has pre-
served unimpaired it's quality when it
has passed from the sphere of proph-
etism into that of authority. Those
who decry Puritanism as disposition
,yfYSA yss. !. . .,ela ...i ~