ROME IN THE IMPERIAL POLICY.
By C. M. S.
THE Roman hierarchy has been, in heart, opposed to the fundamental principles of this government from its inception to the present time. Fidelity to the character of her laws and institutions demands that she be so. She never professed anything but hostility, open and avowed, to the Constitution of this country until it was "interpreted" by our Supreme Court in accordance with her own desires—an interpretation, by the way, which has twisted and distorted it out of all semblance to what its framers intended. That same power is now riding on the crest of a great wave of imperialism that is sweeping over the country. Its aim is to induce the United States Government to annex all the territory abandoned by Spain in consequence of the late war; and subtle are the arguments which she is putting forward to accomplish her design. The Protestant church membership in the United States is now 17,500,000 in round numbers; the Roman Catholic, 8,378,000. With these Roman Catholic countries as a part of our domain, the Catholic population of the United States would be nearly, if not quite, as large as the Protestant. The greater rate of increase in the number of her adherents, coupled with this formidable foreign acquisition, would soon place Rome in the position of dictator in the affairs of this government by the very power of a popular vote. This is what she is looking forward to; this is what she expects to attain. That her power would be paramount under such conditions is certain. With the conditions as they are now, her bold demands are catered to in the support of her Cuban clergy, in the arrangements for the education (under papal supervision) of the Cuban people, and in the retention by the church of the millions of dollars worth of property which she has extorted from those people. She dares not advocate that Cuba and the Philippines become republics. There is a well-established precedent against it in the confiscation of church property, by the republic of Mexico. If Cuba does become free, Rome has the promise of this country's influence against such a calamity as overtook her in Mexico when her glittering spoils of centuries were stripped from her. In carrying out her purpose the Catholic Church is supported by a majority of the influential journals of the day, which are doing their utmost to advance the cause of imperialism. This is Rome's object in forcing the Government of the United States away from the principles of its organic law into the whirlpool of imperialism, just as she and those who are warring with her weapons have forced the expounders of our Constitution to defy its founders and declare that this is a Christian nation. The nation is at the parting of the ways in this matter. How far will she follow the leadership of Rome for Rome's glory and her own undoing?