The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-01-23
Presidont-Eleot Presses Catholics.

| president-elect Taft addressed the
! Protestant ministers of Augusta recent
! ly and expressed his views regard ne
! the influence of the church upon civil
! izatiCn and its usefulness in aiding in
governmental development. Mr.. Taft
began by thanking them for their good
viii and their prayers. adding:
I'm carrying on the burden OF a gov
eminent. which, W til its increasing
usefulness. necessarily entails = atsr
tasks. they who are charged with the
execution need every assistance and
sympathy.
Mr.. Taft referred to the moral awak-
ening during the past four years as an
indication of the healthful state of our
civilization. The people had demanded
a moral reform, and in this he said,
the clergy must take an important
part"
In his experiences in the north and
south and in the Philippines. Mr.. Taft
said he had been able to study many
different phases of civilization. espe-
Cially in the mater OF church influence.
Leaving out the sectional distinc-
TONS he continued. the ,ndispensab g
presence of church influence In the i'm
provement of our civilization no one
can be blind to who has shared i'm the
slightest responsibility for government
and the responsibility for Improvement
II 4 people. as | have been. That was
a responsibility in respect to race
that is now in a state of Christian tute-
lage and must be uplifted. in my judg-
ment, by us and through our guidance,
before we shall have discharged the
obligation that Providence has thrust
upon us. And in the study of the de-
al. ~ - lor DO tD
me the enormous influence that the
church must exercise in order to make
our progress there effective.
The Catholic church was there for
years and preserved that state of
Christianity tutelage to which I have
referred. Now the ban has been re-
moved from other denominations, and
they are all in there on an equality in
the spirit of Christian emulation. at
tempting to upl # those people, and we
tfor the government, by q system OF
secular education, are aiding in that
uplifting: but without the moral infiu-
enCe of the churches there we could not
accomplish anything. It is that sort of
experience by which there is borne in
upon US the Importance of the main
tenance of q church and its influence at
all hazards.
1T is difficult sometimes to explain
to one who has been used to the close
union of church and state. such as was
preserved in Spain, such as is pre-
served in some other countries. the real
attitude of the American government
toward the church. He assumes that
If we separate the church from the
state it means that the state does not
favor the church.
II had the honor to represent this
country in transaction of a business
character with Leo XIII at the Vatican,
and there | pointed out to him, with all
the emphasis possible that the separa-
ton of church and state was in the in
terest of the church, and that in Amer
lea he could count on the sustaining of
the rights of the church and it's en-
by every legitimate means
on the part of the people without it's
assuming any governmental function
or having any governmental right. such
as 1t has in other countries"