tant one, the period at which it is held is equally so, not only on account of the great things which God is accomplishing in the world, but also by reason of the great evils which the spirit of darkness is spreading throughout Christendom. The despotic and arrogant pretensions of Rome have reached in our days their highest pitch, and we are consequently more than ever called upon to contend against that power which dares to usurp the divine attributes. But that is not all. While superstition has increased, unbelief has done so still more. Until now the eighteenth century. the age of Voltaire - was regarded as the epoch of most decided infidelity; but how far does the present time surpass it in this respect! . . . But there is a still sadder feature of our times. Unbelief has reached even the ministry of the Word."

Political corruption is preparing the way for deeper sin. It pervades all parties. Look at the dishonest means resorted to to obtain office,- the bribery, the deceptions, the ballotstuffing. Look at the stupendous revelations of municipal

CORRUPTION IN HIGH PLACES

151

corruption recently brought before the American public. Look at the civil service of this government. Speaking on this point, The Nation, of Washington, D. C., bears striking testimony. It says:

"The newspapers are generally believed to exaggerate most of the abuses they denounce; but we say deliberately, that no denunciation of the civil service of the United States which has ever appeared in print has come up, as a picture of selfishness, greed, fraud, corruption, falsehood, and cruelty, to the accounts which are given privately by those who have seen the real workings of the machine."

Revelations are continually coming to light, going beyond the worst fears of those who are even the most apprehensive of wrongs committed among all classes of society at the present time. The nation stands aghast to-day at the evidence of corruption in high places which is thrust before its face. Yet a popular ministry, in their softest and most soothing tones, declare that the world is growing better, and sing of a good time coming.

The Detroit Evening News says:

"Washington seems to be ingulfed in iniquity and steeped in corruption. Disclosures of fraud in high places are pushing one another toward the light. Where the black list will stop, Heaven only knows."

Further enumeration is here unnecessary. Enough crops out in every day's history to show that moral principle, the only guaranty for justice and honesty in a government like ours, is sadly wanting.

And evil is also threatening from another quarter. Creeping up from the darkness of the Dark Ages, a monster is intently watching to seize the throat of liberty in our land. It thrusts itself up into the noonday of the twentieth century, not that it may be benefited by its light and freedom, but that it may suppress and obscure them. This monster is po

Photo by Paul Thompson, N. Y.

litical Romanism. We
use the word "polit-
ical" here because we
recognize the fact
that there are multi-
tudes of Roman
Catholics in this coun-
try who do not desire.
a union of church and
state in America; and
we preface what we
have to say on this sub-
ject with an appeal to
the liberty-loving, pa-
triotic Catholic peo-
ple of this country-
to those who take their
religion but not their

Chas. I. Denechaud, of New Orleans, President politics from Rome to stand with their

of the Catholic Federation

fellow-religionists in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and the republics of South America, in opposing any movement which would bring the state under the domination of the church.

This appeal is not based upon fancy or groundless alarm. With startling rapidity events of the most ominous significance in this respect are following one another in this country. to-day. So strong has the hold of Rome already become upon this government that leading representatives of that church. are beginning to talk and act as though this were actually a Catholic nation. It will be appropriate here to make mention of some events of this character.

There was organized in this country in December, 1901,

THE CATHOLIC FEDERATION

a Catholic federation,

153

known as the American Federation of Catholic Societies. In the first twelve years of its existence this organization has grown to a membership of 3,000,000, has spread over the entire union of States and even into the island territory of the nation, and has affiliated with it twentyone national Catholic organizations. This federation was strong enough in 1907 to deter the United States government from taking action for the relief of conditions in the Congo country, in the face of many appeals for intervention from Protestant sources. It has taken care to announce that it is not in politics, meaning by this that it is not in alliance with any one political party; but it has given the plainest evidence that it is in politics in the broadest sense in which it is possible for any religious organization to be in politics,- that is, it is in politics for the purpose of controlling all parties, by holding the balance of political power, which its numerical strength enables it to do. With a growing membership which has now reached the three million mark, it is certain that neither of the two dominant political parties in this country will feel that it can af

Anthony Matre, of St. Louis, Mo., Secretary of the Catholic Federation

ford to be indifferent to the aid or reckless of the opposition of this organization. The federation is thus virtually in alliance with both the leading parties in the government, and is certain to profit from its position regardless of the varying political fortunes of either one.

The purpose of this organization, it may be stated, is to

mold public sentiment

Bishop McFaul, of Trenton, N. J., Founder of and influence legisla

the Catholic Federation

tion, both State and national, in the interests of the Catholic Church. Το these ends its energies are constantly directed, as shown by its act of intervention in the Congo question, already mentioned. One chief aim of the federation is the suppression of all anti-Catholic literature, in which effort is included the removal from public libraries of all histories and other books which speak unfavorably of the papacy and the barring of all such books from use in the schools and colleges. In securing control of the education of the rising generation, Rome sees the shortest and easiest way back to the coveted goal of her former supremacy. While we are many generations removed from the Dark Ages chronologically, we are but a single generation distant from that period educationally.