The menace. [volume] (Aurora, Mo.) 1911-1920, 1914-12-26
Theodore Roosevelt
Rome's Advocate Extraordinary

q majority Of the citizens Of the town which
stated that the town was an A. p. A. one,
and urged the appointment Of Jones. That
letter solved the question, and immediate.
ly selected Donnelly."
Though this remarkable statement had
FOR lie immediate object a pleasing effect
upon an Irish Catholic audience, il is even
more significant in its plain determination
Of Ar Roosevelt 70 ignore the wishes Of a
towns majority a. a means Of antsgonizing
the American Protective Association and Of
throwing political patronage to q papist
IT Is now over twenty years since the Don.
Il nelly and Jones episode was told 10
sdorn Rooseveltian discourse before an
Irish Catholic audience; but similar stories
were for years hatched and dispatched, and
always before a Roman Catholic gathering
At a papsl conclave at Lake Champlain, in
1899, the story was revRmped and impress
sively delivered in slightly altered form.
Now please note that this oft repeated
story was not told 20 Protestant audiences
10 reprove Protestants for their "bigotry," F"
but In every instance 20 congregations Of
Roman Catholics for the effect It might have
upon them. Every effort was to please
papists and prod the Protestants.
These outspoken sentiments in behalf Of
the papacy might be overlooked IL we could
find any similar statements made in behalf
Of PrOtcStants or non-Catholics. But not a
single instance is known Of where Mr.
Roosevelt rebuked a Catholic priest or lay
man for their many attacks upon the public
school and other American institutions.
ON the issue Of AmericaniSm versus
~ popery, Theodore Roosevelt is always
found talking and writing on the side
of the anti-Amcrican interests From then
until now he has played the part Of patron
and defender of the poor Irish who were
being separated from place ut the pie
counter by the intoler3nt Yankee. AT about
this same time Mr. Roosevelt gave express
sion TO the following:
THE Know.nothing movement in every
form is entirely repugLant 10 true Amer
icanism, and that is essentially the case when
il Is not merely directed against American
citizens of foreign origin, but also against
natural born American citizens Of a diff
ferent creed"
When the Catholic Federation declared
its purposes to be first OF all political at its
annual convention at Detroit in 1904, Theo-
dore Roosevelt sent il not only a telegram of
approval and conRamlstion, % President
of the United States, but also wrote a letter
TO a state convention of the same Federation
praising il for its good work"
And so does Mr.. Roosevelt praise the fore
most political organization of Rome in the
same breath that he Genounces the A. p. A.
By so doing he plainly stated his preference
for a secret political society of Rome and
popery which is the Svowed enemy of the
public schools, and his hostility to an Amer
l. IL
the public school as well as its members.
TT is impossible TO enumerate all the fa-
i vors shown papis,s by Roosevelt when
president. A Milwaukee Catholic pa
per, in 1902, called attention of its readers
to Catholic appointments made in the pre-
ceding few months. He had sent commits
sion TO Rome to treatlwith the head of the
church. He had appointed the Catholic
Archbishop Ryan Indian commissioner. He
had appointed a Catholic (Wynne) as first
assistant postmaster general. He had APP
pointed Chas. J. Bonapsrte, Catholic lay
man, as Indian commissioner. lie had
appointed Gen. J. f. Smith, prominent
Catholic and democrat of California, a
member Of the Philippine commission.
To Mr.. Roosevelt also belongs the dis
tinction of being the FIRST president to at
tend Pan-American Mass in the city of
Washington on Thanksgiving Day. AS
president he lent the prestige of that high
Office to the vicious custom that has pre-
vailed until this year when broken by Presi-
dent Wilson. II may be that Rome's advo-
cate is also offended at President Wilson s
eommendable abandonment of "my pol
icies."
TN his communication to The Outlook when
i on his trip to South America, Mr..
Roosevelt has much to say of,the priest,
Father Zahm, who accompanied his party I;
and Of the priests, monks, Sisters of Mercy,
and other Catholics visited on the trip.
Though he probably met many Protestant
missionaries at the same time, they are
given little or no mention.
The one thing in South America that at
tracts the attention Of all North American