A Significant Demand by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Apr 1, 1909

A Significant Demand

By Editor

It has been broadly intimated that the election of Mr. Taft to the presidency was due to the solid Roman Catholic vote in the large cities of the North, but we hardly expected that this would be pleaded by Roman Catholics themselves as a just ground for asking President Taft to appoint a member of that church to an important position in the diplomatic service. A paragraph, however, in the Western Watchman (Roman Catholic) of March 18, presents this claim with commendable frankness:—

We are informed that Mr. Taft fully recognizes the debt he is under to the Catholics of the United States. This being so, we can assure him that he could do nothing that would better please that great body of loyal citizens than appointing their honored fellow Catholic to a distinguished foreign post. There is not a Catholic in the land, from Cardinal Gibbons down to the altar boy in his parish church, who would not feel personally complimented in any honor bestowed on Mr. Kerens. For this reason we repeat the suggestion made in these columns at the close of the late presidential election; and ask President Taft to send our noble-souled townsman to represent the country at a foreign court. And in urging the appointment we are candid enough to admit that a refusal to do so on the part of Mr. Taft will be regarded by us all as a rebuff, which even in politics leaves unpleasant memories in its wake.

When the communicants of any church vote as a body and as church-members rather than as citizens, such a church becomes a menace to the country.