The Irish standard., 1914-01-24


must not only do no political wrong
with their votes, they must do much
political good. 1t ought to be fore.
gone conclusion that Catholic names
should be foremost in every movement
for social betterment. Instead of
Strengthening the hopeless inertia that
all seekers after improvement have to
struggle SO hard to overcome, they
should be prominent in arousing the
social conscience to action. You who
pray so many times a day, Thy king
dom come, Thy will be done on earth
as it is in Heaven, might reasonably
one might think, be counted upon to dc
something to make Gods will more eff
fective here and now.
You cannot give as an excuse for
standing here all the day idle that nc
man has hired you. You belong to the
chosen people, and Christ has called
you from our baptism to be light unto
the nations that know him not. 1t
is useless for you to say, Il do no
harm, l hurt no one" God did not put
you here merely to do no harm. The
commandments of the old law were all
negative. Thou shalt not bear false
witness, thou shalt not steal, and so on
But the commandments of Christ are
positive. The rich young man, who
from his youth up had kept these mega.
tive commandments of the old law,
had not done enough. He was told to
sell all he had. Christ does not say
do no HARM" but, Love God with
your whole heart, and your neighbor
as yourself; render to Caesar the
things that are Caesars; do unto 9th.
ers as you would have them do unto
YOU"
Therefore, in our political life, a
mere negative goodness will not do
If we are good trees, we must produce
good fruit. 1t is not sufficient that we
should simply not produce bad fruit,
if, indeed, such a thing be possible.
For Christ said, He that is not with
Me is against Me, that gathereth not,
scattereth, and he who is not working
to produce good is at least permitting
evil. This is especially true under our
form of government. The forces of
evil are ever active, and if a good wom-
an merely refrains from voting be.
cause it is raining or it is too much
trouble or for some other equally
weak reason, she is really placing this
vote in the hands of corrupt politi-
clans. 1t was in her power to offset
the vote of one of the ignorant or
vicious men who are always under the
thumb of ward-heelers, and she did
not do it. She is not merely not do.
ing good--she is doing evil For, to all
intents and purposes, she is casting a
vote for the machine, she is strength.
ening the grip of corruption upon our
government.
We have right to expect that the
Catholic women of Chicago will do all
in their power, will exert themselves
to the utmost, to bring about the so.
cial good. We are members one of
another. We were born into society
and cannot escape from it if we would
1t is not too much to say that we owe
all our comforts, even our lives, to so.
ciety, and we are bound to make some
return. Whether you be high officials
or low, women of large influence or
simply with vote to cast, you are
obliged in the sight of God to use your
power, such as it is, for good and
against evil. You must In conscience
vote for the good man as against the
bad, the honest man as opposed to the
CRATER.
! don't believe that we shall be dis.