The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-04-06
s'WE AMERICANS WILL
DIE TO SET 1T RIGHT"
Thomas 3. Minahan to the Knights
of Columbus of Seattle.

The Hon. Thomas b. Minahan, first
president Of the American Federation
of Catholic Societies, vice president of
the American Savings Bank q Trust
company. Seattle, Wash. and a prom
lnent member of the knights Of Co
lumbnus addressing the knights at 4
recent local gathering, said, among
other things:
In tie matter of our country's solu-
ton of delicate and difficult problems
let me select a single striking instance
one, too. of special interest to us
Catholics from the present trend of our
country towards d broader religious
liberation. Perhaps l can best con-
dense my tHougts by an illustration.
A little while ago. when the gTea
Lion Of the Fold Of Judah'-when the
world leader. Leo XIII, laid down the
masterful ard gentle life that had so
long enriched all Christendom, you re-
member how our Catholic fellow-Citi-
Zens. the humbest as well as the most
distinguished, of every condition and
Of all denominations, you recall how
theiy We'd, one with the other. to be
the first to place upon the sarcophagus
Of the dead Poutif the wreaths into
whose leaves of ivy were entWined
Americas highest esteem. her keenest|
regret and her profoundest sorrow.
This tender non-Catholic tribute of Jew
and Gentle of minister and layman
alike, touched deeply the Catholic
American heart. In the beauty of it's
noble sentiment one recognized the
brighter day.
1T convinced us that the problem
of wiping out the last vestige Of intol-
erance IS after all only a question of
education. In the intellectual fight of
today every unkindlly sentiment with
erS and shriVels as though touched
with a flame from the lamp of uni |
versal brotherhood upon the high al |
tars of our God-blended American citi- /
zenship.
mo more of the mistrust born of |
misunderstanding no more forever of |
hatred because of honest difference of |
religious conviction This, / take it. /
my fellOw-knights, is the WhteSt |
flower Of our cOuntry's best civiliza-
ton: the fact that here at the broad
hearthstone of our common citizen
ship the Almighty has voUchsafed to
Americans to see at last unraveled the
too long tangled and bloody skein of
race hatred and of creed bitterness!
The fact that here in the great lum-
nous temple Of human freedom, we
the removing all the idols of the past
whose ignorant worship darkened
minds and emhittered hearts that
should have blended and throbbed as
one,
"This-let me repeat it-this is the
Whitcst flower, as ii is the grandest
Americas cultured broad CT
vilization has put upon the deathless
folds of the flag of George Washing
ton and Abraham Lincoln: upon the
flag of Theodore Roosevelt and Will
liam J. Bryan (Applause)
IN this same connection permit me
10 link single thought in practical
ouch with conditions of the hour.
To-day another great Pontiff, Plus /
y. with unweapCned hand. but piano. Z
1lied in the light of Catholic truth.
'lothed in the arInor of Christian right
ma justice. stands in gentle but stern. s
clentless grandeur. defying the inf s
lei, atheist government that shames o
he fair name and sullies the proud V
anne Of the land of Lafayette and r
Socham beau. h
out upon this bastard sham of re- q
ublicanism, Away with the atheistic %
narchist spawn that insidiously seeks t
o clothe its Villainy under the Amer c
can and Catholic doctrines of 'separa- h
ion of church and state as we have O
{. in order to repeat again the days n
{ a Robespierre, Marat, and a Dan Y
ON to flood the streets Of Paris with ii
he best blood of its Catholic citizen a
hip.
Upon the influence, upon the might s.
f American public opinion, the great b
'sue IN France now appears to turn b
'ur country's stern sense of "a square
cal Of what is right and just. no Il
natter the creed in whose name it may n
q nVOked-America's sense of fair
lay, of Christian justice, will ring as n
rue here in Seattle as it does in every
actiOn of the country. 1t may find
IMPRESSION here in a public demonstra- E
ION, but perhaps / should leave this
} the better judgment of men longer
] this community.
My time limit has expired. Let me. =
eerefore. propose to you this senti- a
tent: Our country; may it always be ci
ght: but if ever in the wrong. we W
mericans Will die 70 set it right " Ell
Applausc)
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