Anti-Catholic Publications
A PRESS dispatch conveys the intelligence that plans have been completed “for an organized campaign against anti-Catholic publications and movements.” Prominent men are connected with this campaign, and fifty thousand dollars has been set aside to carry it forward. The activities of this propaganda are shown, among other things, in bills now before Congress providing that the postmaster-general can throw out of the mails publications that are objectionable to the religious views of certain citizens of the commonwealth. Politicians as a rule do not stand for principle. Their great object is to secure and hold office. Those who are in politics know this; and all who are out of politics know it just as well. Hence the politician will always bow to any strong influence, regardless of the principles involved. And when an organization of religious people begin to seek to carry forward their work by influencing politicians in their favor, they have shown themselves to be on a very dangerous road. History has ever been repeating the experiment of uniting religion with the state and undertaking to have a code of civil laws to regulate men's faith. Some have thought that the world was done with that kind of experimenting, but we see that it is not. The enlightened Catholic people of America ought to oppose any plan that would curtail open, frank discussion. No worthy cause was ever hindered by being discussed. Even persecution and martyrdom do not stop or seriously obstruct the progress of truth. These are principles that Catholic and Protestant alike should be able to see, and we should alike be able to see that only bigotry and a bad cause are afraid of being discussed or considered in the most public manner.