tiaries are filled from the bar-rooms and other places where intoxicating liquors are sold. . . . . By every token it appears to your committee that it is the duty of all good men to unite in all wise and practicable methods for the suppression of the traffic. They also rejoice in the obviously growing sentiment in favor of the prohibition of the traffic that has wrought so much evil in the world.' In the year 1883 the conference denounces the traffic, and "thanks God" for encouraging indications: "local prohibition is sweeping over Georgia," etc. In 1884, the same conference resolves "that we regard prohibition the only rational and practical solution of the liquor problem. 2. That we will use our influence to create, organize and intensify prohibition sentiment. . . . 4. That we will endeavor to have all prohibitory laws in the different counties of the State enforced."

The status of the whole forty conferences is indicated by the sentiments of the one from whose declarations these quotations are made:

"The Southern Methodist Church is a unit in its opinion on this subject. Our people throughout the church have reached the deliberate conclusion that prohibition is the only feasible solution of the liquor problem, and they do not propose to cease their efforts until the whole South is solid on this line."

As a Northern man, I beg our Southern friends to enlarge their sphere of action, to take in the North also, and continue their efforts until both North and South are solid on the same line of prohibition - even national prohibition. "Come over into Macedonia and help us!" I get this information from Rev. J. W. Lee's most excellent sketch in "One Hundred Years of Temperance," and feel that the following quotation should also be given, for the benefit of-everybody. He says: "Prohibition, as it presents itself to the minds of our people, is not so complex and delicate a question as it appears to be in many of the Northern States. We think this is due to the fact that, with us, prohibition has not become entangled with party issues nor blended with political measures and promises. We have not permitted the politicians to complicate it with Democracy or Republicanism, or with the measures of any party. . . It is a pity that anywhere this, the most important of moral

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and social questions, should be tacked on to a political party. It is the earnest conviction of the Southern Methodist Church, then, that this question must be settled outside of political parties." He cites the result in Atlanta as an example of non-partisan success for prohibition.

It will be fortunate indeed when the prohibition sentiment is so strong that all parties compete for the first opportunity to deposit their votes for prohibition. But in some parts of the country no party will adopt prohibition; on the contrary, all parties strive to exclude it from the sphere of political action, which may be very different from partisan action.

The body-politic must act, or there can be no law. If there be strong opposition, there will be parties. So far, at the North, the temperance issue has been in search of a large party for its father. Sometimes, generally, the Republican party has been kindly disposed, but, at best, prohibition has been much out in the cold.

Prohibition will have ample accommodations, with all the modern improvements, in this country yet. If neither of the old parties will take her in, and treat her as one of the family, she will build a house to suit herself. In fact, she has already put up one wing of a building, with the largest plan, out of material obtained by tearing down portions of the houses whose occupants exclude her. The end is not yet. That party is wise which first gives her a permanent home.

Mr. Lee concludes thus: "We think it about time for the people of these United States to know that they have the power to rid themselves of the evil of intemperance. And as long as they have this power, and do not use it, they are responsible for the drunkenness, and the crimes growing out of drunkenness, which disgrace us."

"And Nathan said unto David, Thou art the man!''

I have now stated the position of all the leading Protestant denominations of our country upon the temperance question. That position is almost unanimous for total abstinence of the individual and total prohibition by the law of the land. Here, then, is the solid Protestant church against the liquor traffic thirsting for its destruction, and killing it. Why is this?

CHAPTER XXII.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Important Factor, Seven Million American Adherents American Catholic Total Abstinence Union - Leo XIII.'s Letter to Bishop Ireland, 1887 - Baltimore Council; Cardinal Gibbons - Murray's "Catechism of Intemperance" - Catholic Total Abstinence Union Established 1872-Father Cleary at the Philadelphia Temperance Centennial Powderly, Archbishop Ryan, Bishop Ireland; Father Mathew, Cardinal Manning, and Father Nugent - Catholic Temperance Magazine 1887 "The Loss of our Children " — Catholics in Labor Organizations - Father Conaty's Two Addresses “Total Abstinence Organized on Catholic Principles " — The Catholic Church and her followers will eventually demand Prohibition.

I

DEVOTE all the space possible to this sketch of the Catholic Church, because of the great population in our own and in other countries who are embraced within its influence; nor do I think the advanced ground it now occupies as a temperance body is generally understood. I may be pardoned for adding that I also cherish the hope that more knowledge will lessen prejudice, promote harmony, and lead to co-operative action among religious bodies, against an evil which threatens all.

The Christian population of the world is thus stated by Mr. Spofford, in the American Almanac for 1886 it being an estimate from Schem's statistics of the world:

There are in the United States 7,000,000 adherents of th Catholic faith (as stated in the Catholic Directory, 1883), out of a total population of about 60,000,000. The temperance movement is probably more important to the welfare of the Catholic population of this country than to any other equal number of our people; while the relation of the church

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to that movement, in the world at large, is one of the chief factors which must determine the future of the race.

I have, therefore, felt peculiar anxiety, in the preparation of this book, to secure authentic information and to state fairly the Catholic position in this great struggle with the foes of a common Christianity and civilization. Addressing Cardinal Gibbons upon the subject, that eminent prelate and most courteous gentleman referred my request to Rev. Father Mahony of St. Paul, to whom I am under special obligation for documents and references, from which much of this matter in regard to the Catholic Church is obtained.

The Pope is, in an important sense, the church; or, as the Catholic Temperance Magazine of May, 1887, expresses the idea, "Without the approval of Rome and the blessing of God's Vicar on earth, no Catholic cause can succeed. Every Catholic knows this, and it is thus his first anxiety to secure, in some form or other, the encouragement of the Holy Father for every good work in which he is interested." From the same number of the magazine, I take the following letter from Pope Leo XIII., in which he expresses his approval of the cause of temperance, and of the American Catholic Total Abstinence Union, with a completeness and power which even from a layman of the church should exert a wide-spread influence. I am sure that it must excite the gratitude and admiration of every lover of the cause of temperance to read this authoritative expression from the Pope in favor of the temperance work. The letter is addressed to Bishop Ireland, the Father Mathew of our time; who, in securing this important temperance paper alone, has rendered a greater service to the cause than could have been rendered by many a long life devoted to its promotion.

66

The following is a translation of the Pope's letter:

"To Our Venerable Brother JOHN IRELAND, Bishop of St. Paul, Minn.; LEO XIII., Pope.

66 Venerable BROTHER, HEALTH AND APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION. "The admirable works of piety and charity by which our faithful children in the United States labor to promote, not only their own temporal and eternal welfare, but also that of their fellowcitizens, and which you have recently related to us, give to us exceeding great consolation. And, above all, we have rejoiced to

learn with what energy and zeal, by means of various excellent associations, and especially through the Catholic Total Abstinence Union, you combat the destructive vice of intemperance. For it is well known to us how ruinous, how deplorable, is the injury, both to faith and to morals, that is to be feared from intemperance in drink. Nor can we sufficiently praise the prelates of the United States, who recently, in the Plenary Council of Baltimore, with weightiest words, condemned this abuse; declaring it. to be a perpetual incentive to sin, and a fruitful root of all evils, plunging the families of the intemperate into direst ruin, and drawing numberless souls down to everlasting perdition; declaring, morever, that the faithful who yield to this vice of intemperance become thereby a scandal to non-Catholics, and a great hindrance to the propagation of the true religion.

"Hence, we esteem worthy of commendation the noble resolve of our pious associations, by which they pledge themselves to abstain totally from every kind of intoxicating drink. Nor can it at all be doubted that this determination is the proper and the truly efficacious remedy for this very great evil; and that so much the more strongly will all be induced to put this bridle upon appetite, by how much the greater are the dignity and influence of those who give the example. But greatest of all in this matter should be the zeal of priests, who, as they are called to instruct the people in the word of life, and to mould them to Christian morality, should also, and above all, walk before them in the practice of virtue. Let pastors, therefore, do their best to drive the plague of intemperance from the fold of Christ, by assiduous preaching and exhortation, and to shine before all as models of abstinence, and so the many calamities with which this vice threatens both church and State may, by their strenuous endeavors, be averted.

“And we most earnestly beseech Almighty God that, in this important matter, He may graciously favor your desires, direct your counsels, and assist your endeavors; and, as a pledge of the divine protection and a testimony of our paternal affection, we most lovingly bestow upon you, venerable brother, and upon all your associates in this holy league, the Apostolic Benediction. "Given at Rome, from St. Peter's, this 27th day of March, in the year 1887, the tenth year of our pontificate.

"LEO XIII., Pope."

To show the energetic interest of those directly in charge of the Catholic polity in the United States, in the temperance reform, I quote from the declaration of the council of