MR. ROOSEVELT seems to talk as tho he believed the Bible, and professedly he belongs to an evangelical church. He is convinced of “the admirable type of work done by the Y. M. C. A.,” a professedly evangelical organization, which in a general way at least stands for the Bible. Being an evangelical association, the Y. M. C. A. must of necessity debar those not considered evangelical, among whom are Roman Catholics. Mr. Roosevelt, at the request of the editors of the Monitor, a San Francisco Roman Catholic paper, has authorized the publication of a letter in which he says:
It seems to me both unwise and ungenerous to bar Catholics from admission to directorships on Y. M. C. A. boards. I did not know that such was the custom, but am now informed that it is. I feel that it is of the utmost importance to this country that our people who are straight and decent shall associate together as much as possible without regard to theological differences, and from my own knowledge of Y. M. C. A.’s I know that no Catholic is denied any privilege therein accorded to any Protestant, and that no man has any species of religion thrust upon him, but is simply given the opportunity to get it if he wishes.
Wherever a Catholic priest or layman is in hearty sympathy, as I know many Catholic priests and laymen are, with the purposes and work of the Y. M. C. A., I believe that they should be admitted to directorships and to every other position of influence just as freely as Protestants.
The Roman Catholic parallel society to the Y. M. C. A. is the Y. M. I., the Young Men’s Institute. Let Mr. Roosevelt plead with his Roman Catholic friends to admit Protestant clergymen to directorships in the Y. M. I. Would they do it? We doubt if these clergymen would be admitted to membership in any way, to say nothing of directorship.
This letter given out for Roman Catholic publication either shows that Mr. Roosevelt is more Catholic than Protestant, or he is doing it for political effect. Let the Young Men’s Christian Association still stand for evangelical Christianity. It loses that as soon as it adopts the advice of Colonel Roosevelt; for Roman Catholicism is not Protestant evangelical. Of course Roman Catholic priests would like to mold every Protestant organization under the sun after their own ideals. They are not permitting themselves or their own to be molded. They are much more consistent than Mr. Roosevelt. He would leave Roman Catholicism its own cardinal red; he would make Protestantism colorless.
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Increasing Crime.
A magistrate of eight years’ experience in New York City says:
The more serious crimes, such as murders, shootings, stabbings, gang feuds, highway robberies, burglaries, assaults, and larcenies from the person, grow in number undetected and unpunished. The police force is demoralized and terrified. The men feel that they and not the criminals are the hunted, that (as many have told me) “if a man can keep out of trouble he is doing well,” and that the only safe and sure way to do is to “look the other way” when a crime is being committed.
The Grand Central Station built in 1871, now outgrown
An editorial in the National Prohibitionist (Chicago) remarks that New York is not alone; that in Chicago “there never was a time when crime was more rampant. Murders are committed by the hundred, and are punished, at best, by the half score. Crimes of violence against the lives and persons of citizens are perpetrated every day, and the police do not even arrest a suspect. Policemen shoot down unoffending citizens on the street and go scot-free. Never in the city’s history had the saloons less regard for the law. Never in the city’s history was the infamy of prostitution more open and defiant. Never in the city’s history was the gambler finding his prey more easily or the assistance of the public officials more surely. What is true in New York and Chicago is true, with momentary, passing variations, in every large city of the continent.”
The center is a picture of the first Grand Central Station, where Madison Square Garden now is. It could be placed in the express concourse of the new station.
And looking forward to this time the Word of God declares that “iniquity shall abound,” and that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.”
