The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-10-21

being carried, on. But that sta
tistics in regard to particular dis
tricts and classes of the people is
a great and indispensable aid to
the doing of good among them
must finally be recognized.
1t was so recognized by one
whose name has stood out bril-
liantly in Catholic social activity.
Those who have read the
simple but attractive social
stories of Olive Katherine Parr
know how beautifully in "The
Little Cardinal" the charac-
ter of Cardinal Vaughan ap-
pears. His work for the lit
tie children has made him note
worthy even among those who did
not appreciate his ideals. and his
efforts. In the seventeenth chap
ter of his Life" Of the Cardinal,
u. G. Snead-Cox has shown the
prelate's work as Bishop of Sal
ford "for the children's sake" and
how he used statistics to advan-
tage in that work.
The then Bishop had found
that many children were suffering
the loss of their faith in his do
cese, partly through the ignorance
of their parents and partly
through the activities of proselyt-
ing societies. These were espe-
cially the children of the very
poor who could be weaned from
their faith through the relief Civ
EN- to their poverty. Knowing
that but little could be done with
out some accurate notion of the
exact number of those thus af-
fected and the definite causes for
their detection, the Bishop called
together the Chapter and an
nounced the appointment of a
board of inquiry to examine into
the details of the case. The board
was to discover how many chill
dren had lost their faith by rea-
son, respectively OF the neglect or
death of their parent, the activi-
ties of PROSECUTING societies, and
the workhouse system.
In February, 1885, the board
was appointed; five months later
it made its report, giving a mass
of valuable data on the last two
points, but recommending that the
real extent of the problem could
only be shown by a census of all
the Catholics OF the diocese. This
che Bishop Immediately ordered to
be taken, although he realized full
we'll the hugeness of the task. For
in order to be adequate in any
way, this census necessarily had
to include those who were not reg
ular in their church attendance or
laffiliation. The results of the CEN
sus, however, were we'll worth the
effort that was made. They were
of the greatest aid in the work
that was to be undertaken.
"By May i'll the following year,
1886, though the census was still
far from complete, it was ascer-
tanned that out of an estimated
population of 100000 in Manches-
ter and Stafford $4,000 names had
been registered. Out of these o.
900 had been carefully analysed.
At the annual Synod held in May,
the Bishop, after explaining that
by dangerous cases were meant
unusual danger to faith and NOR
ais, said: The total number of
dangerous cases under sixteen
years of age amounted to 8,4445.
|Of these 1858 children were con-
sidered in extreme danger, as
never attending church or Cath
olic school, or as hopelessly hav-
ing bad PARENTS" (Life of Cardi-
nal Vaughan, 1910, p. 1867 The
necessity of accurate information
was indicated by the fact that only
1876 cases Gin danger between the
ages of 16 and Fl years were
known to the clergy, as compared
to S,445 under the former age.
The memorable rescue work
which resulted from the facts thus
discovered is we'll known to the
student of Catholic charity. 1t