for each inmate. If we make the like calculation based upon the appropriation for 1875 the result calls for 4,008 inmates for each day of that year, and in 1886 the appropriations were made upon a basis of 10,144 beneficiaries cared for every day of that year. If the calculations showing these results are correct, they prove not only a remarkable but a most dangerous growth of pauperism among the Roman Catholics of our city, and these liberal donations of public moneys are chiefly responsible for the enormous increase. So long as these institutions can obtain from the public Treasury $2 per week for the support of each child they can capture, just so long will apparent pauperism continue to grow. The great profit flowing from these pretended charity operations and accruing to the Roman Catholic Church became practically apparent during Tweed's reign, for we find, by reference to the list of "institutions" while he was in power (1869 and 1870), five of them came into existence and have been drawing large sums from the Treasury ever since, and from 1877 to 1884 nine more, controlled by the same power. To me the proposition is almost self-evident, that while there may be much charity work performed by the management of these numerous associations, their business is carried on largely in the interest of making money for the Roman Catholic Church; and the appropriations from public moneys, to a considerable extent, go for building churches, parochial schools, or other purposes not contemplated by the law authorizing the appropriations. This particular field of industry has proved so unexpectedly profitable that in a bill now pending before the Legislature at Albany the parties in interest have had a provisiou inserted extending the authority to commit to these institutions under Roman Catholic control, and others, children up to the age of 14; the present law providing only for the committal of those under 12 years. The money question involved in In this iniquitous policy, is not of as much importance as the economic and moral question. It is a question which concerns every citizen in the State and society at large. view of the fact, often proved, that the Roman Catholics furnish over 80 per cent. of the criminals and paupers of the city of New York, is it wise or sensible as a measure of public policy, having a direct bearing upon the welfare of our local society, that these great amounts of money should be paid to institutions which are conducted with special reference to manufacturing more Roman Catholics, many of whom are likely to become criminals and paupers? The culmination of this misappropriation abuse occurred in 1886, when the Board of Apportionment, consisting of Grace, Mayor; Loew, Comptroller; Nooney, President of the Board of Aldermen, and Coleman, President of the Tax Commissionthree Roman Catholics and one German Protestant-donated to these institutions $1,055,622.65.-There are thirteen other city charitable institutions aided from the same source and organized substantially for the same object, but under non-sectarian and Jewish control. These thirteen non-sectarian institutions, during the same period, received from the city the sum of $4,467,310.33, that is, $3,585,218.15 less than was awarded to the sectarian Roman Catholic institutions. And yet it is believed that the non-sectarian Protestant and Jewish institutions supported more dependent children than the sectarian Roman Catholic. Of course, there is way of accounting for this excess upon the assumption that it was drawn for the support of pauper children at $2 per head per week. no Such astounding facts need no comment. But they suggest the practical inquiry, Where is this thing to end? Whither are we drifting? Will Protestants never assert and vindicate their rights? Will Protestant taxpayers, groaning in all our cities under the burden of taxation, sit supinely and let a few officials and intriguing Romish priests and politicians trample on justice and liberty, and rob them in the name of sweet charity? Sectarian and Speccial Legislation. There are two bills pending in the Legislature of the State of New York of a most interesting character, and which are an outrage on the Protestant sentiment of the country. Our It is readers will recall the persistent efforts of Roman Catholics in past years to force the so-called Freedom of Worship bill through the Legislature. An aroused public sentiment has hitherto defeated that measure. But the two bills referred to aim at the same results, and are covert but palpable assaults upon our public schools, the school fund, and religious freedom. One of these bills provides for the "commitment of idle, truant, vicious, and homeless children" to the Catholic Protectory of New York, and likewise provides that "the schools established and maintained by the New York Catholic Protectory shall participate in the distribution of the common school fund in the same manner as the common schools of the City and County of New York." Now, it is a well-known fact that the chief object of this Protectory is to secure to the Romish Church the numerous children intrusted to its care. entirely and intensely sectarian in its teachings and whole management. The bill now pending proposes to place the purely sectarian schools of the Protectory on precisely the same basis as that of the public schools of the City and County of New York. This is the point at issue between Protestants and Catholics; it is in direct conflict with the law of the State prohibiting sectarian appropriations; and yet this bill concedes all that is claimed by the advocates of sectarian Catholic schools. If this may be done in one case, it may be in all; if conceded to the demand of the Catholic Protectory of New York, then it must be to the Kings County Roman Catholic Protectory, now seeking an act of incorporation of the same Legislature, and, indeed, all over the State. This bill, enacted, would be the entering wedge for the destruction of our common school system as now organized. The State itself, through its taxing power, would become a propagator of the Catholic faith, and all taxpayers in the city would be compelled to share in the expenses of Catholic propagandism. The Evangelical Alliance of the United States calls attention to another bill, No. 575, equally audacious in its defiance of the Constitution of the State, and equally subversive of American principles. The bill is to incorporate the King's County Roman Catholic Protectory, with a surrender by the State of the guardianship of its wards, and a share in the School Fund. A few items of the bill will reveal its intent. All children of "Catholic parentage or training shall be committed to this corporation, and to no other." Power is given "to bind out or indenture in this State, and also in any State in the United States, the children entrusted to its charge, the males till 21 and the females till 18 years." The corporation is made "the guardian of every child bound or held in service," and they are to report yearly the number indentured, but the names of such children need not be included in said report" (no trace of a child after commitment). "The schools established and maintained by the Kings County Catholic Protectory shall participate in the distribution of the common school fund in the same manner and degree as the common schools or public schools of the city of Brooklyn and of the several towns of Kings County; and such schools shall be subject to the general superintendence and visitation of the Board of Education of the city of Brooklyn, but shall remain under the immediate direction and management of this corporation.” This is a bold scheme for pauperizing children for the benefit of a sect and at the expense of the people, similar to what has long been pursued in the City of New York. From the Nineteenth Annual Report of the State Board of Charities (January, 1886), we give some startling facts bearing on this subject: "In Kings County there were in August, 1875. about 300 children in the Nursery,' a branch of the Almshouse. were at that time transferred to sectarian institutions, and the number of dependent children at once increased wonderfully. In August of the succeeding five years, the number in the county was as follows: "1876.. 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880. These 670 874 1,169 1,404 1,479 "That is an increase of FIVE HUNDRED PER CENT. in six years, dating from and including 1875." The cost of supporting these pauper children rose from $40,000 to $172,000. The number in the several asylums was: Roman Catholic, 1,288; all Protestant denominations, 266; Jewish, 17. In view of such astounding statements no time should be lost and no effort spared to send up so loud and indignant a protest to the Legislature as shall secure the defeat of both of these obnoxious bills. Current Religious Thought of Continen- PAGE 140 146 470 53 287 Morgan, W. E., D.D., The Final End. 243 335 Raymond, Prof. George Elocution in 263 243 492 456 97 Rice, Rev. Edwin B., the Law of Chris- the Wetherbe, Rev. C. H., Ministerial En- Wilkinson, Prof. W. C., D.D., Pastoral 195 135 Woods, Rev. Byron A., The Query of the 241 INDEX OF SUBJECTS. PAGE 287 Applied Christianity. No. I, The Rela- gregation, by Albert G. Lawson, D.D. 476 Some Analogies, by J. M. Ludlow, Germany, Conflicts of the Evangelical God, Faith in, by Bishop Andrews. D. Hoge, D.D. Sensibility in Morals, The Place of the, Religion, Desperation in, by Rev. J. S. 59 Ritschl's Theology, by J. H. W. Stucken- 279 109 221 217 Jerichos in our Hearts and Lives, by Hen- 233 Joseph the Carpenter, by Rev. Fred M. 465 184 Spiritual Assimilation, by Edward Brais- 236 Sunday Newspaper, The, by T. W. Medical Missions, by A. T. Pierson. 166 Chambers, D.D. 16 5 Sword - Grasp, A Heroic, by J. S. |