The Irish standard., 1908-05-23
The Danger That Threatens This Nation is
Socialism, the Evil That Corrodes
It is Divorce.
Growth Of Catholicism Being Inevitable,
the Foundations Of the Republic
Are Immovable.

At the Catholic Centennial celebra-
ton. recently held in New York city,
Hon. William Bourke Cochran, the
noted Irish American orator, spoke at
some length on Socialism and divorce.
He said:
The danger that threatens this na'
ticn is socialism,; the evil that corr
,odes it is divorce, which by loosening
the marriage tie is undermining the
foundations of the Christian state;
chief among the benefits that bless it
is education through which the life of
the republic must be saved.
As Catholicism grows all danger of
Socialism must be defeated; that so-
cial leprosy divorce, will be expelled
from our system, the scope of educa-
tion will be extended until it becomes
in very fact the exhaustless fountain
cf meritorious citizenship.
The antagonism between Christian
ity and Socialism is inherent, and
therefore. irreconcilable. Il is not
new. It is as old as Christianity it,
self.
Socialism is Servitude in Labor.
Socialism, however it may be dis
guised from its own votaries, is an at
tempt to revive that servitude in labor
and despotism in government against
which Catholicism has always contend
ed, and after eighteen centuries of
strenuous conflict has finally over
thrown. Christianity seeks always to
improve the moral excellence Of the
individual; Socialism to extend the
power of government. Christianity
comedies man may sink to degreda-
tion almost inconceivable, but holds
that he is also capable of attaining
such excellence that God Himself
could assume human form and nature
without any inpairing of his divin-
ity. The mission Of redemption en-
trusted to the Church by the Divine
Redeemer was not to affect directly
LllS pO1lllCStl VI HdIlOIlS,
or tribes, or communities, but to con-
vert and improve the individual hu-
man units that compose them. Not
word was addressed by our Lord, to
a ruler, a state, a government, or
political division. Every word that fell
from His divine lips was addressed to
the individual, warning him, whether
he were slave or emperor, that there
was one domain in which his authori-
ty was absolute and that was his own
conscience. For every exercise of it
he must render strict account. Others
ne was forbidden to judge; himself
he was directed to judge vigorously
and the rule Of life prescribed for him
was that next to loving God above
all things he must love his neighbor
as himself.
The Government for Which We Would
Die.
AS Christianity spreads and the
number of men multiply who were
tlluS DOuHQ 10 love all OLner men as
themselves, there must be less and less
occasion for invoking, the power of
government, at least its coercive pow
er. If all men were obedient follow
ers of Christ none would attempt to
injure, or oppress or defraud his
neighbor. There could be no occa-
tion to enforce justice, where love of
justice was the passion of the entir.
population. The effect of Christianity
i., therefore, to narrow the domain of
government and enlarge the domain of
individual effort. But this is demo-
cratic government-our government
the government under which we have
lived peacefully, through which we
have prospered enormously, for which
We would die unanimously.
As the essence of democracy is con-
fidence in human virtue, all other pol
itical systems are built on distrust of
human vices. When Christianity was
first preached, the masses of men were