The Irish standard., 1916-08-05
WRITER IN BAPTIST WORLD
SCORES POLICY OF MENACE
Declares 1t is Nonsense to Share in the
Conclusions Drawn by This
Publication.

i'll the hit made by Artemus Ward
when he said of the Puritans of New
England that They came to this coun.
try to worship God accordin' to the
dictates of their own conscience and
to keep other people from worship,
ing him accordin to theirn.'
1t is fundamental principle in our
government, grated on the constitu
ton through Madison, who was elect
ed to Congress by the Baptists to do
this very thing, that people shall wor,
ship as they please without molesta-
ton. To pursue any people relentless
ly for things merely imaginary that
they are supposed to wish to do. and
to dog them on an imaginary basis
OF apprehension. comes well-nigh be-
ing persecution.
Now I'm an old-fashioned Baptist,
and couldn't be anything else so long
as l understand the New Testament
as l do, and there's not much danger
of my having any change of view on
the subject. Being Baptist, am for
liberty, and therefore am opposed to
even semblance of persecution, no
disguised. Let every tub stand on it's
own bottom. no matter whose tub it
is. So long as the spirit of the con-
stitution is complied with, am for
anybody worshiping his way.
All this is suggested by the policy
OF paper which has gained wide cir
culation throughout the country, which
paper is called the Menace The
menace" resisted by that paper is the
Roman Catholic system Of America.
While ] am about as far from SYM
pathy with the views and principles
of the Roman Catholics as one can
we'll be, and while know the history
of the system tolerably WE'LL don't
at all share in the policy of a paper
that not only imagines dire disasters
and predicts havoc, but magnifies
these dreams of distortion and seeks
to treat them as facts. These things
are not facts, and yet the Menace ex-
ploits them as though they were, and
seeks to influence the public mind as
though they were actual.
| am opposed to the whole business
on the score of fairness, and will go
further and say that do not share in
the alarm that the Menace seeks to
raise, and positively decline to par
ticipate in the Inflammation of senti-
ment which that paper seeks to pro-
duce. 1t will be time enough for in
imagined things come to pass 1t is
idle to say that it will then be too
late. do not believe a word of it,
This country is too intelligent, too
cautious, too wise and too wide-awake
to suppose for a moment that any sys.
TEN can be clandestinely nlrtured and
maintained to the extent OF disrupting
and bring about the dire ruin that
abides for the most part, in the imag-
mary compartment of the brain of
the Menace.
Looking at it's attitude and policy,
its utterances and wild predictions,
there is danger OF the Menace per-
scouting while seeking to provide
against persecution. The logic of the
whole business is that we constittl-
tionally provide for the Roman Cath
Ole church and then turn round and
make it as intolerablc for it to exist
i'll America as possible. Ii everybody
outside Roman Catholicism agreed
with the Menace we should practically
say: "Yes, come along; you have as
much right here as anybody, but I'M
derstand that we are going to make
it as hot for you as we can. We are
going to ding-dong at you and make
you rue ever wishing to plant your
selves on American soil" That is pre-
cisely where the logic of the Menace
carries it. l submit that it would be
much more honorable and fair lust
to raise the barrier of intolerance out
right and say to the Roman Catholics :
I'VE draw the line on you; you must
be excepted from the universal prn-
ciple embodied in the first article of
the constitution, which provides that
all religiOnists, of whatever possible
type, may worship as they wish"
am very far from defending or
advocating the Roman Catholic re.
ligion; that is their business; but |
am just as far from building plat
form of imagination or of pure suppo.
sition and proceed to dog and ding
dong everlasting from this airy posi-
tion. This is in the interest of sheer
fairness and humanity. The Roman
Catholic has right to be here; he
has right to worship and conduct
his system his own way; and we have
a right to criticize it, to expose it as
much as we please, to call all the
attention to it we wish, to show that
it is decidedly undemocratic in it's
tendency, If that can be established,
to go back and show what its history
has been and all else; but when we
undertake to infer and conclude from
certain premises what the outcome
will be, treat those differences as facts
and nrOceed tn fan a famo IF CONT