The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1919-06-06
THE CATHOLICS
AND PROHIBITION

gibbons entered MS protest. IL was
made on the ground that the Catho-
lie church could not secure wine for
sacramento purposes. More recent
ly, President Wilson called congress
recommending the repeal of nation
al prohibition as a war measure. 1t
was announced by the Associated
Press last week that Archbishop John
w. Shaw, of the archdiocese of New
Orleans, secured the prohibition
measure before the Convention of
Catholic Societies in it's session at
New Orleans. Archbishop Shaw's
diocese, besides the archdiocese of
Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkan-
sas, Mississippi and Alabama. Be-
fore the same convention, Rev. Geo.
Mahoney, C.SS.P., declared that pro-
hibition was Granite farce" 1t
is but fair to say that these high Of
ficials of the Catholic church have ex-
pressed the position of Catholics in
general on the prohibition question.
If they have, then the Catholic church
is squarely against it.
If there is no collision between the
Catholics and President Wilson on
prohibition, it is extremely unfortu-
nate that Catholic utterances and the
recommendation of the President to
repeal the prohibition measure coin
eide. Whether there is collision or
not, their views coincide. But the
public will believe that there is col
fusion between the Catholics and the
President. 1t begins to look like these
collisions are somewhat general, and
they may explain the special favors
which have been shown the Catholics
by the present administrator. Wheth-
er this is true or not, the Protes-
tants and Baptists of this country are
squarely against the position of the
Catholics and President Wilson on
prohibition, and the Northern and
Southern Baptist Conventions and
the Presbyterian General Assembly
have so expressed themselves.
All the denominations use wine for
sacramento purposes, and it is
strange that only the Catholic church
raised a protest against prohibiting
the manufactur of wine and beers.
Prohibition is a humanitarian, Geo.
nomic and moral measure. 1t was for
all three of these reasons that nation
al prohibition was enacted by con-
gress as a war measure. The army
and navy needed fit men, and drink
ing men are not fit for military SER
vice. For this reason it was made
unlawful from the beginning of the
wa rto sell or give intoxicating Ii
quors to soldiers. Fit men are need
ed in civic life as we'll as in army life,
and if prohibition is a good thing in
time of war it is a good thing in
time of peace. Nothing adds more to
the fitness of men for military duty
than good morals, of which wine and
liquors are violent enemies. Even
so, good morals add to the fitness of
men for civic duties. The liquor traf-
fc was too great a financial strain
upon the country in time of war, and
if so it is too expensive in time of
peace. The position of the Catholics
and PRESIDENT Wilson is against the
economic and moral well-being of
our American people.
The disregard of Catholics for the
moral and economic good of the peo-
pie has furnished a tremendous har-
vest of sin and poverty in the coun-
tries in which they dominate. Those
who have travelled in Cuba, Old Mex
leo, Spain, Italy and other Catholic
countries as we have will bear testi-
mony to these distressing facts. Shall
our American people let 100000
Catholics thrust the liquor traffic
back on them under the pretense that
the Catholic church must have wine
for sacramento purposes? They may
call prohibition a frantic farce" as
much as they please, but the evangeli
cal Christian forces of this country
and those in sympathy with them
have passed the day when they will
submit to the rule of John Barley
corn. In patriotism our people have
followed President Wilson to the last
ditch in order to win the war, but
they will not follow him nor the
Catholics an inch in their efforts to
repeal national prohibition. The
world war was fought to the bitter
end for the freedom of humanity
from the rule of autocracy. Even so
the battle against the rum demon
will be fought to finish for the free
dom of humanity the world over from
its tyrannical rule.-Christian Index.