The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-08-26

ty to Roman Catholicism, but an ov-
erwhelming majority of them are
good Roman Catholics for all that.
Incidentally, there is the best author
ity for the statement that one-half
the members of the College of Car
dinals believe the vatican is making
a mistake in supporting the Spanish
State Church, or that, at any rate, it
is making a mistake in supporting it
SO unqualitiedly as it is doing. So
that if the Spanish anti-clericals are
injuring their standing as Roman
Catholics by opposing the Papal ad-
minlstration. a majority of the Car
dinals are injuring theirs. too.
The whole of the present trouble
is due to the fact that the church, as
d vested interest, has been appropri-
ating to itself so large a pro-
portion of the c%ountry's wealth that
the masses of the people have been
and still are kept upon the very verge
OF starvation. As might naturally be
expected of SO enormous a vested in
terest, the Church is intensely con-
%servative, not to say r~eactionary, and
as it has had until very recently the
highest kind of a grip on the gov
ment, it has been able hitherto eff
fectually to suppress every attempt
in the direction of progress, or i'm
provement in the peoples condition.
With that portion OF the great
army of churchmen which
itself purely with spiritual matters
that is to say, the parish priesthood
no fault is found. This class, in
deed, is practically as poor and OPP
pressed as the masses of laymen. It
10 the so-called religious establish
ments" against which the anti-cleri-
cal campaign is being waged. The
members of the various "orders"
which conduct them are estimated at
upwards of 100000. They conduct
agricultural operations upon an enor-
nous scale, run factories, laundries
and mercantile concern loan mon
ey, manage vast estates and, in fact,
engage in every line of business open
to the lay community.
1t Is not so much that they do all
these things, however, that the anti
clericals complain of, as that they
do them under conditions giving
them n overwhelming advantage ov-
er private enterprise. The enormous
capital at their command makes
them, to start with, exceedingly for
midable. Secondly, they are wholly
independent of the regular labor
market, the rank and hle of the
members of the orders" uoing all
work required. in return merely for
the living the Church allows them.
And finally. they pay no taxes.
Against a monster trust SO ia
vored and so powerfully entrenched,
the anti-clericals say it is practically
impossible for any lay enterprise to
stand. More than this, the masses of
the people are compelled, out of the
meagre share of the country's re-
sour es which the Church leaves to
them, to pay the entire expense Of
government.
The Church does not want to fight
at all if it can avoid it. 1t knows
that fighting will involve it in heavy
risks. 1t hopes against nope that
the State will yield. If the State
should show a disposition to do so,
the Church would do anything in it's
power to make surrender easy-to
save the States face.
But when it actually comes to the
point of making up it's mind whether
to fight or to surrender any part of
its power and privilege, the Church
Will fight. 1t is already preparing to
fight. Its wealth, it's innuence, and
ieo AALeAIIScuCe are enormous and Its
Preparations are ominously thorough.
On the States side will be the
King, the cabinet. the whole of the
Liberal and official forces, the pow.
erful Republican organizations and
the Socialists; on the Church's the
episcopate and clergy, the entire Con.
sentative party, the aristocracy, all
the ignorant classes and practical.
~ all the ONE of the country.
How a fight between Alfonso and
Jaime would 'result-admitting the
latter to be supported by the cleri-
cals-nobody knows. 1t rather looks
as if Alfonso would win but the cler.
icals are Tremendously strong.
Alfonso's change from the cleri-
Gals to the anti-clericals has changed
the situation somewhat since last
summer. The issue was clear cut