| OCR Text |
Show 1 THE CATHOLIC PRESS. In an article entitled "A Menace to Civilization" Harper's Weekly thus justifies its sympathy with England in her war with the Boers: "The reverses with which Great Britain Brit-ain has met in her war against the Boer republics cannot be lightly viewed view-ed on this side of the water. Not only our nearest kin and our friends in need are stricken, but the work which the English have done in the tropics I is threatened. We cannot face this fact I with a light and careless heart. Wheth-ed Wheth-ed we think the war against the Boers wag unjust or for the welfare of civilization, civili-zation, what sympathies we have to express today should be for the sufferings suffer-ings of the mother-country. We may deplore the attack as one upon the essential es-sential principle of self-government; we may question the motive of the statesr-man statesr-man who compelled it; we may point out that in general the evils of blood-thirstiness blood-thirstiness are, in this stage of the world's progress, those of the victim's own needless making; we may dwell philosophically upon this new evidence, underscored by Boer rifles, that in a land ruled by the highest civilization and. the most intelligent righteousness, and where reign justice and fair dealing, deal-ing, the aptitude for war is disappearing; disappear-ing; but we cannot lose sight of the stupendous fact that British prestige is in moral danger; nor can we fail, if we have a proper pride of race, or a decent de-cent sens of gratitude, or a consciousness conscious-ness of what the English have accomplished accom-plished in the homes of the savage races, to mourn over these disasters." This of course is all very nice as a bit of sentiment, but it has the radical defect of overlooking the fact that justice jus-tice is always justice and it cannot be denied to any individual or nation, without entailing grievous penalties. When wa find a high class journal referring to England, as a nation "ruled by the highest civilization and the most intelligent righteousness" It is hard to keep back a smile. Wherein has there been righteousness in England's Eng-land's dealings with Ireland? A blacker black-er page cannot be found in history than that which records the cruel treatment meted out to Ireland by cruel and rapacious ra-pacious England. Indeed we could fill the whole page with instances of England's Eng-land's unrighteous deeds, but it is to the contention advanced by Harper's Weekly that we now address ourselves. Aside from the maudlin sentiment j contained in the above quotation there is the startling proposition that notwithstanding not-withstanding the obvious fact that the Dutch Republic stands on right and justice in its contention with England, that some right and justice should be trampled upon because forsooth "British "Brit-ish prestige is in danger.' What a pity! We would like to see the prestige pres-tige which seeks only the glory of power and gold shattered and driven from the face of the earth. It is because be-cause the people of all advanced nations of the earth appreciate fully what English greed is that the sympathy of the whole world goes out to the little Boer Republic's struggles to be free. It ia a pity that such a.paper as Harper's Har-per's Weekly finds itself in such financial finan-cial straits as to be compelled to treat its readers to the pro-British rot which we quote above. |
