OCR Text |
Show Washington's Religious . tolerance. For several reasons the patriot's who once composed the American Protective Association must regret that it is no'longer alive. While they lived, one of their favorite customs was to invoke the name of Washington and boast themselves similarly patriotic. Today there is now light on Washington. In the July number of the American Catholic Historical His-torical Researches, Mr, Martin I. J. Griffin, who has a national reputation as a student of history, picturesquely pictures-quely tells how for years he searched for undeniable proof of a story often heard that, while he was president, presi-dent, Washington gave $50 toward the erection of the old St. Augustine's Church, Philadelphia. Fair traditional tradi-tional proof was accessible, but nothing positive could . be discovered. Recently, however, at a sale of the Washingtoniana of the late Methodist Bishop Hurst, the Historical society so-ciety of Pennsylvania bought Washington's Personal Expense Book, kept by his secretaries, Lear and Dan-bridge, Dan-bridge, while he was in office. After careful examination examina-tion Mr. Griffin came upon this entry: "November 24th, 1796., gave, by order of the president, toward building a Catholic Church in Philadelphia, $50." .'. This settles the case. The Father of His Country helped to build a Catholic Church. Mr. Griffin deserves great credit for the successful result of his long, patient search. It may be of interest to state that the native Americans burned doiTi. in 1844, the very Church which Washington's money helped to erect. . Intolerance invariably in-variably undoes the work of the noblest patriots. New World. , Good Word for Iowa Free Masons.' We are glad to be able to say a good word for the Iowa Grand Lodge of Free Masons. Its committee on fraternal correspondence has put itself into entire accord ac-cord with the discipline of the Church by issuing a formal statement to the effect that "we are inclined to doubt the advisability of admitting Roman Catholics to membership in the Masonic lodge." True, the reasons which influenced the Iowa brethren arc somewhat different dif-ferent from those .on which the Popes have acted: "Should he return to his Church, as in the greater number num-ber of instances is done, there would be a necessity for penance which would include violation of all obligations. obliga-tions. Masonry has no real place for renegades." We have observed in recent years a marked improvement im-provement in the tone adopted by representative Masons toward the Church much the same growth of toleration tolera-tion that we find in the other sects, and an eager anxiety in the American fraternity to dissociate themselves them-selves from their Continental brethren. But in the present discipline of the'Church a Catholic who allies himself with the Masons is a veritable "renegade," and the lodges would act wisely in excluding all such by a general law. A spirit of charity prompts us to assure the Iowa committee, however, that Catholics who return re-turn to the Church after making experience of the lodge are nowise obb'ged to violate Masonic obligations. There isn't much to.be revealed, anyway. Priests are not so curious as womem-i-Avc Maria. ' Priest's Wireless System. Father Joseph Murgas 6f Wilkcsbarre, Pa., the priest who is perfecting a wireless telegraph system, the invention, of which he had patented on May 10, has arranged ar-ranged to locate a station at . Scran Ion, twenty miles from Wilkcsbarre. He will then carry on a scries of experiments to perfect his apparatus. . His plan calls for the musical tones to represent the dots and dashes of the Morse system. In the local experiments ex-periments he has, conducted he has used only two tones, one to represent the. dot. and the other the dash. He' hopes now to perfect an apparatus by which each letter of the alphabet may be represented by a tone and in this way gain speed. German Element in United States. A German writer says that in 17!)0 German blood ran m the veins of about one-fifth of the. population of the Lnited States. .la .1830 the, Anglo-Saxon-Puritan element numbered 2,904,717, the German clement 2,095 -16 , and ihe American population, in which the several European strains had already become so thoroughly blended as to be no longer easily .'distinguishable, 4,852 -'l''-At thc century's end he finds in the United States 2d.4i,562 Germans, as compared with 12,713 030 descendants of the "American" inhabitants in 1S30, and 12,118,040 Anglo-Saxons. The Teutonic element (Germans) (Ger-mans) is given as 43 per cent of the total white population. popula-tion. - 11 |