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Show I HOT AIR CATHOLICS. i i ' I Thcteditor of tjie Catholic Register, publisdiod at Kansas City, Mo., was one of the delegates to the recent convention of the Catholic Total Abstinence Ab-stinence union. Like all conventions, religious or ! political, this one was long on resolutions and short on consistency. For example, one resolution was adopted- pledging support to the Catholic press. Apparently this had a string to it, for another an-other was adopted, according to the Register, "deprecating "dep-recating the fact that some Catholic papers publish pub-lish liquor advertisements." What the editor said on the floor of the convention con-vention while these resolutions, or resolution, was up for debate, is not given in his paper. What he wrote after he got home and tackled the proposition propo-sition in his sanctum, is a "corker" for the resolution resolu-tion promoter and the whereas composer. -' The editor knows whereof he writes, and it has been along ihe t.horny path of newspaper experience, lie said: ' e ooubt if there was a stronger advocate of temperance in that convention than Is the editor of the Catholic Register, yet, knowing the inadequate and half-hearted support given the" Catholic press by Catholic total abstainers generally, we are inclined in-clined to excuse the grasping of a few dollars from the liquor dealer by the financiallly embarrassed Catholic editor. We have atte.idei hundreds of conventions con-ventions of Catholic societies and listened to the stereotyped resolutions, always passed unanimously, to support the Catholic press. Perhaps not one-fourth of the members present subscribe to a Catholic paper, not even the member who introduces the resolution. Year after year this farce is kept up by Catholics who could not tell the name of the Catholic paper published in their diocese. , And Catholic total abstinence societies are no better bet-ter supporters of the Catholic press than are other Catholic societies. The Catholic Register, in its early career, was obliged to accept advertising condemned by the Union in order to make up for the lack of support that it should receive from temperance people. peo-ple. We will admit that this class of advertising was distasteful nd its publication troubled our conscience. Finally, we excluded it, thus turning away a very convenient revenue. We wish we could say that our temperance friends had given us their substantial approval, but whether they do or not, the Catholic paper Js no place for a liquor advertisement and the Catholic Register will be added to the long list of defunct Catholic papers before it again prints one. If we read him aright, the editor's resolve to exclude the liquor advertisements proceeds from conscience rnthcr than from seal -to spread" Hie" ex pressed displeasure of the Catholic Total' Absti- j nc-nce union, although on - this point he is not altogether al-together clear. However, iie ha the courage of his convictions, and his criticism along other lines is timely and not unjustly severe. The newspaper which places its hopes of expansion in the bosom of Catholic societies is sure to be frost-bitten. The vspaper that thrives is the one which deserves support, goes out for business and cares nothing for hot air from this or that society. A lifptor advertisement does less harm than the one displaying dis-playing the merits of a patent medicine one-third drugs and two-thirds gin, and impure, cheap gin at that. . |