OCR Text |
Show Appeal For a Worthy Cause. AN EARNEST appeal is issued by the Catholic Indian bureau for funds to maintain the Catholic schools, from which congress has withdrawn the appropriations formerly made for services rendered. Though conducted in the most economical manner, man-ner, the aggregate of cash necessary to keep these pious and charitable enterprises enter-prises in operation is a large one. '. ne only resource left to the devoted men and women "who have consecrated their lives to the Christianization and civilization of the'.'children of the surviving sur-viving remnant of aborigines, is i.ie volunttary benevolence of the Catholic masses. If this fails them, the worthy work must be enormously curtailed if not wholly abandoned. The history of Catholic generosity in i the support of every form of deserving charity precludes fear as to the response re-sponse which this urgent plea for a singularly sin-gularly meritorious object will meet, says the editor 'of.' the Monitor., The Catholics of the United States will not stand by and see the efforts of the self-sacrificing self-sacrificing men and women who have labored so long and arduously for the uplifting of the wronged and neglected Indians, brought to naught for lack of the necessary means to continue the work. It is not necessary to refer here to the injustice and violated pledges which have thrown these missions back upon the private bounty of the Catholic body. Nor is it worth while to recite anew the influences of narrow-bigotry narrow-bigotry responsible. These things ar familiar to all who have followed th story of the nation's broken faith in its dealings with the Catholic Indian missions. The fact that prompt and substantial ! aid is indispensable to the continuance uicsc nwinuuuiis is ine main consideration con-sideration now. Something must be done, and at once. That something consists of the prompt and geherous subscription of needed funds by the Catholic community. Those who appreciate ap-preciate the urgency of the cause do not have to be reminded of the danger of waiting for some concerted movement move-ment for its promotion. Each one can act on his own initiative, sending at once what he feels he can afford to the Rev. William H.Ketchum, in charge , of the buerau of Catholic Indian mis- I sions, Washington, D. C. In a case of this, kind promtness very often doubles the value of the gift. No sum is too small to be of use in the furtherance 'of this great charity. Many mickles make a muckle. The aggregate of a multitude of trifling individual contributions contri-butions may be sufficient to insure the safety of the impoverished institutions. |