OCR Text |
Show IS IT WISE? The Catholic Record of London, Canada, is the ablest defender of Catholic doctrines and interests published in the Dominion. Its editorial colums are bristling with argumentative strength, and the paper itself is a Catholic military fort efficiently manned, and from which shot and shell are weekly sent with precision into the ranks of the bigots and fanatics for which Ontario and Manitoba, like many of our own states, has an unenviable notoriety. Its circulation is the largest of any Catholic weekly printed in Canada. It was said of old that the great Homer himself sometimes nodded, and, we are of the opinion that at times the editor of the Record occasionally forgets the amenities of journalism. The organ is the enemy of the saloon an un- I , compromising enemy and when its editor enters the arena he calls for a twenty-four-foot ring, a bare-knuckle fight and London prize ring rules. In a fierce onslaught, which he lately made upon his enemy, he is charged by a spectator of the fight with striking below the belt. To give himself time to answer the accusation of foul fighting, he asks the umpire while still in the ring for a suspension sus-pension of the rules, and here is his indignant re pudiation of the spectator's charge: "A communication penned at high pressure is sizzling on our desk. It is a document of adjectival splendour and of invective to warm the heari of the rr ost rampant ward heeler. But tie writer is using good paper to no purpose, and this for several reasons. rea-sons. While he may consider that our deniiPciatien of the saloon and criticism of its owner are unwarranted, unwar-ranted, he may grant us the privilege of being able not to see eye to eye with him on this question. We admit that the saloon, one of the greatest curses in the world, will not be destroyed by verbal onslaughts. on-slaughts. However, he must see that the saloon is not in honor, and that the average citizen shrinks from it, as a mode of livelihood, as he would from a pestilence. As for the saloon-keeper, he is merely a grave-digger, paid indeed with money, but with tears and maledictions." Great as is our admiration and respect for the editor of the Record, we are of the opinion that he has not been trained for a long fight, that he will lose out, and will injure the cause for which he is so valiantly fighting. Was it not in answer to a notorious bigot, Rev Ray Wilson, that Thomas Hood wrote hh memorable mem-orable lilies: "Mild light, and by degrees, should be the plan ' To cure the dark and erring mind; For who would rush at a benighted man And give him two black eyes for being blind 1" We are not very old, but we yet remember the advice ad-vice that eloquent and saintly prelate, Bishop Keane, gave to all present at the Total Abstinence Convention which met in Philadelphia in the summer sum-mer of '86. After congratulating the delegates on the progress made by their organization, he said: "Go to our Catholics who are engaged in the liquor trade, do not abuse them, do not heap odium on them, but persuade them that it would be more to their credit, and' more to that of their church if they would abandon the business. It is a delicate theme, and because it is a delicate theme, speak to them gently, speak to them fraternally. Gentlemen nothing has ever, or will ever, be pftW,n.uj :' the moral order by abuse." In all the writings, speeches and addresses of th Apostle of Total Abstinence, Father Mathew we have not met a solitary word not one insulting to the seller of liquor. Now, let us have a heart-to-heart talk on this liquor li-quor proposition. One-third of the saloons of Toronto To-ronto continue in business solely by the aid and influence in-fluence of Eugene O'Keefe and Lawrence Cosgrave Eugene O'Keefe is one of God's noblemen, honored by the Supreme Pontiff for his splendid charities and his loyalty to the Catholic church. Lawrence Cosgrave was educated at St. Michael's College Toronto, To-ronto, is a practical Catholic, a most generous contributor con-tributor to his. church, and a straight up-and-up man. The two breweries owned by these gentlemen barrel out more beer to saloons than any three other breweries in the Dominion. The Seagram and Walker distilleries, right at the door of the London Record, ship and sell more whisky than all the distillers, if we except the Gooderhams, from Gaspe to Sarnia. Xow, if tho editor of the Record care to enquire, he will learn that Joseph Seagram and Hiram Walker were lib- j eral contributors to the buildins: of the London Cathedral Ca-thedral and other churches in the diocese, and that , the late and eminently practical Bishop Walsh was very grateful for the. help they gave him out of the fortunes they had made selling whisky. We think Hon. McCarling, the London brewer, was also a generous friend of the Bishop, of London. Xow, why does the able editor of the Record not train his guns on these men, who control and su- if , tain eighty per cent of the saloons of Ontario; I J What is the use of lashing the streams, of damning literally and figuratively the rivers when the reser- voirs and lakes supplying the rivers are left un- touched '. ? Lot us use a little horse sense. The pro-prietors pro-prietors of the big hotels of London, of the King Edward, the Queens, the Rossin House of Toronto, : , what are they, when we follow them to bedrock, but saloon and lodging house keeoprs? In his sweeping sweep-ing excommunication of the saloons, where will the editor draw his line, or is he in the field for that impossible im-possible sham for that dream of fanaticism to-tal to-tal prohibition? To our mind, Toronto has solved, , so far as it can be solved, the liquor problem, by j taking the saloon out of the hands of unworthy men and placing it in the keeping of decent men. Let the Record, with its admirable -sincerity and srreat ; ability, endeavor to put honest men behind the bar, and it will merit the applause of men of common i; sense and go far to achieve the possible. ': |