The menace. [volume] (Aurora, Mo.) 1911-1920, 1913-08-23

for discussion AZ the opening
meeting Of the Catholic womsns
convention, At ST. Johns cathedral
auditorium, Monday morning.
The initial gathering was pre-
Eded ever By Archbishop Mess
msr, Milwaukee, who outlined
the aims and hopes Of the prOposs1
national organization Of CstAots
women
I'VE can eliminate . Ereat deal
Of discussion and perhaps save .
great deal Of time By Gnneuneing
now that the subject Of womAns
suffrage will not be taken up a.
this meeting" declared Arch
bishop MeSsmer, and q goodly
number Of the 400 women attend.
ing the convention applauded
1--WE shall neither take a stand
in favor Of womAn's suffrage nor
position opposed TO H." an
nouneed Archbishop MesSmer.
The Milwaukee archbishop was
just a. decided in his declaration
that Il would be futile for anyone
70 oppose the formation Of the or
ganization. He said that the or
ganilation would be formed
whether there were 100000 or
900 members ready 20 join Il.
There was hearty applause on
the part Of the women when Mess
mer announced that he believed
the women's organization should
be entirely independent and apart
from the mems organization
There was some sentiment In ia
vor Of making Il merely an auxil-
iary Of the mems federation.
In discussing the position Of
the Catholic church toward wom-
ans suffrage, Archbishop Mess
mer hit at Cardinal GibbonA
whom he declared had voiced his
opinions on this question while
the Catholic church had not com
mitted itself in any way.
eft Is unfortunate that the
Catholic church is not prepared
10 state its position on a question
of such great moment" declared
Messmer. "The woman's prob
lem which Is now receiving 50 much
attention is q deeply religious
problem. There is not a single
Catholic book or pamphlet that
takes up this problem from the
Catholic standpoint.
"lt is q problem that can not
be solved by the printing Of ar
ticles in newspapers and maga-
zines We must give IL our earn
est study"
The Romanists stand in mortal
fear Of the question OF woman suf-
frage. They would like to op-
pose II, at least the hierarchs
would, for the reason that il will
have q tendency TO make women
think and thereby weaken the
confessional, but Catholics are not
allowed TO think for themselves,
and since there has been no ex-
preston on the matter from the
"holy father" they are compelled
to let it alone for the time being.
Ban on New Dances.
In a convention Of this kind Il
is necessary to digress from things
political in order to fool the peo-
pie. In doing this, Of course,
some manner of so-called vice Is
condemned and the orators wax
eloquent in their excavations.
The newspaper reports show that
the Milwaukee convention went
on record as discouraging such
dances as the Jungle Dip"
bunny hug" turkey trot," and
grizzly bear"
This is done for stage play, Of
course, and to kill time and avoid
the possibility of being criticised
for not oondemning some Of the
real vices with which Rome COM
promises, such as the liquor traffic,
prostitution, white slavery, etc.
State Aid Wanted.
II is generally understood that
the most important part Of the
federation's work is agitation for
a division of the school fund, or
state aid for Roman Catholic
paroehial schools. The desire for
such aid was embodied in al
their resolutions touching this
question, and their work in the fu.
ture win be that of whipping the
politicians into line and bringing
about the desired logislotion in
this direction, but it is evident
from the reports at hand that the
convention struck a snag again
when it tackled the school ques-