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Show Editor Intermountain Catholic: The advice and warning which the Deseret News gives the president concerning con-cerning the proposed expulsion of the Spanish friars from the Philippines, reminds, re-minds, one of the Etonsvllle Gazette and its leading editorials directed to the czar of Russia, found in one of ; Dickens' novels we - believe it is In "Nicholas Nickelby." Our Salt Lake contemporary, anticipating that the negotiations between the Vatican and the Taft commission will not result in complete compliance; with the plan to coerce the friars . into, a forced purchase pur-chase of their lands, adises the president presi-dent to ignore the Vatican and go ahead anyway, because the displeasure of the. people of this country would be mightily , aroused should these hated friars be, allowed to rcontinue in their exercise of politics with religion. The knowing ones in Utah will smile over the chief; objection presented by the Deseret News, i. e., the association of politics with religion. But let that pass. The plain fact remains that these friars have just as clear a title to their property as the Mormon church has in its,;temple in Salt Lake, clearly confirmed : by- the treaty of Paris. The Spanish friars could even disobey the mandate of the pope and retain their property, if they elected to be unfrocked and remain on the islands as alien Spaniards.. - American Catholics, generally, would not cry down salt tears should the last of the Spanish friars leave his footprints foot-prints on the pebbly sands of those islands isl-ands Along with the editor of the Deseret News, we have it in for the Spanish friars, but for different rea-I rea-I sons. Ill-gotten wealth acquired through avarice and unrequited iabor of their tenants is charged up to the Spanish friars, and., this infirmity of selfish man is no part of Catholic faith. Neither do we believe that virtue and religion can flourish where a pastor is hated by his flock. For these reasons would we rejoice to see the Spaniards go, even should their property be confiscated and turned over to the native farmers; not for the sake of restoring peace in the islands so much as for the salvation of souls under the administration of American priests. We have not lost hope that Rome and Washington will come together and settle on some amicable plan. And we can see in the mind's eye, in the not distant future, a monstrous brewery on the Spanish slope of the Pyrenees, with the erstwhile monks of the Philippines Phil-ippines chanting their matins at night and in the daytime doing their very best to compete with the ubiquitous Yankee. . Salt Lake, July 16, 1902. |