Straws Tell Which Way the Wind Blows.
THE Freidenker is a German paper published in Milwaukee, Wis., devoted to the interests of religious liberty. In the issue of May 26 are some resolutions passed on Catholics’ Day at Vienna, during the first week of May last. The document reads as follows:— In consideration that the general observance of Sunday rest is of the highest importance in a religious and social view; and, In consideration that the Christian holidays are to the Catholics just as sacred as the Sundays, and that they are the holidays of the by far overwhelming majority of the population of Austria; Therefore, the Catholics’ Day asks that the law prohibiting industrial labor on Sundays be carried out more strictly than heretofore, and that the granting of exceptions by means of special ordinances be restricted still more by law. 2. That the prohibition of all industrial labor be extended anew to all Christian holidays. 3. That the benefit of rest on Sundays and holidays be extended by law to the employes in public offices, as well as to all private offices not in the service of the Government, and especially as much as possible to the officers and employes of the public institutions of transportation and travel. The language of the above petition is plain, and shows the inevitable drift of all religious legislation by the State. By this straw, although in a foreign country, we may easily forecast the prevailing direction of the wind in the United States when the Blair measures shall have been enacted into laws. At that meeting the Catholic loyalties of the entire Austrian Empire were represented by delegates, under the guidance of their priests, bishops, and cardinals, working in the interest of the church. The European powers were urged to re-enthrone the Pope of Rome, and delegates pledged themselves to support and favor the church press and the church schools. With the Protestant churches in America banded together in a “National Reform Association” to further the work of making an image to the Papacy within our own Government, is there not cause for alarm at the menace to our religious liberty. May the American people read correctly the signs of the times. There are breakers ahead.