Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-09-25
CRITICISM Of
billie PARKER
Webster citian Writes Entertaining
ly Of the Address Delivered
in Wilson's Hall.

like to suggest that the Catholics Of
Webster City present a 3O-cent
chrome to the man, "Billie' Parker,
who recently delivered a lecture in
Wilson's hall under the auspices of
members of "The Free Press De-
tense League" If what the speaker
said is truly reported by the Free
manTribune, it is most certainly an
honor to be Catholic, and we be-
lieve that part he said is true. And
right here we want to extend our
compliments to the Catholic people
for the high and intelligent class of
citizens who worship at her shrine.
Here is the high compliment that
the speaker unwittingly pays to the
church and the Knights of Column
bus. He declared that "the national
capital is dominated by Catholics
very rare compliment indeed, if
true. Again, according to the re-
port, he named public men high up
in the ranks of officialdom who, he
says, are members Of the Catholic
faith or knights of Columbus. These
names include such men as Secretary
Tumulty, private secretary to Pres
ident Wilson; Chief Justice White of
the Supreme bench, and his right
hand man and logical successor, and
numerous others of but shade less
in Importance, down to the janitor
of the senate. Indeed, 1t seems to
the writer that to be Catholic and
knight of Columbus a man would
have some very fine people to asso-
ciate with.
Again he says, in furtherance of
his point, that Washington is dom
mated by Catholics, 'the hills
around are topped with mission
buildings belonging to the various
Catholic organizations. Should the
capture of the city become desira-
Bile, it could be accomplished in two
hours by guns and men stationed in
these Catholic vantage points" Ac-
cording to the speaker, the Catholics
at the present time dominate the
city and no one with any intelli-
gence would even intimate that they
would try to shoot up city that
they already controlled which con-
vinces the writer that al idiots are
! not in the insane asylum. Further
along he refers to the mystifying ex-
perience of two Methodist bishops.
Evidently the President was not
interested that morning in seeing
Methodist bishops, as the President
is very busy man and cannot be
expected to give his time to anyone
only those who have very important
business matters to discuss" He
says, however, that two archbishops
of the Catholic church arrived and
were greeted warmly by the secre-
tary and were at once admitted.
Very probably they had important
business with the President, and to
even intimate that the Catholic
bishops were received by President
Wilson simply because they were
Catholics, and the Methodist bishops
were turned down by the President
and his secretary just because they
had no interest in bishops, other
than Catholic bishops, is rank in
justice to the President of the United
States, and at this time in this great
national crisis any man who is go
ing over the country trying to stir
up religious hatred or hatred of any
kind against the President should be
dealt with quickly and very severely,
at this time especially. We as a
great people are not interested in
the fact whether our citizens are
Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists
or Catholics. Eli we as a nation
dom lOyutty anu WV PiA'A
lege to serve God according to the
dictates of conscience. AS the
Freeman-Tribune has said, "The
Catholics are proving loyal in every
particular The writer wants to
say that during the Spanish-Ameri-
can war the Catholic people were as
loyal as any class in the country.
Furthermore, the writer wants to
say that the knights of Columbus at
the present time have launched a
campaign to raise $4,000, 900 for the
comfort of United States soldiers.
The writer's impression is that no
A. P. A. organization or Knights of
Luther organization has raised 25
cents for the comfort of the boys
who will soon be fighting in the
trenches. The writer is no Cath
Ollie, but he admires the liberal spir-
it of the organization in what she is
-, III