No Princes in the United States

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 18, 1912

No Princes in the United States

EXCEPT, perhaps, among some of the Catholics, cardinals will not have official rank as princes in this country. We do not know the rank of "prince" here. It means nothing except, perhaps, in a visitor. The cardinals are distinguished and representative men, and will be honored as such, but they won't take rank as princes in the United States.

And as to Governor Foss and Cardinal O'Connell and the seat of honor, displeasing as it must be to any gentleman to claim for himself a seat that some other gentleman prefers, Governor Foss was right, of course, in feeling that in the State of Massachusetts the seat of honor always belongs to the governor of Massachusetts, except when it is occupied by the President of the United States.

There is no example the new cardinals can better set than the example of humility and meekness. It is a Christian example, and always needed. Princes or not, they are very eminent men whom all conditions of men will be ready to honor. But they will be apt to be honored inversely to their claims. Precedence will be thrust upon them except where it is demanded; but when it is demanded, it will be found to rest solely on courtesy and good will, and it will be refused when it seems necessary to refuse it.—Harper's Weekly, March 30, 1912.