Life, 1915-04-15 · page 32 of 44
Life — April 15, 1915 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes Catholic anxieties about anti-Catholic discrimination in early 20th-century America. Rev. Thomas Thornton claimed an organized campaign was barring Catholics from government office, warning of Catholics reduced to "tribute-paying aliens" if this succeeded. The magazine's response is dismissive mockery. The cartoons show a figure labeled "The Touch of a Vanished Hand" (suggesting outdated concerns) and a domestic scene captioned about keeping quiet—implying the complaints are exaggerated or tedious. The text argues Catholics are already well-represented politically, particularly in Boston, which has a Catholic governor and mayor. It suggests Catholics, like Protestants and Jews, won't form separate political blocs anyway, and that complaints about being excluded from "the political trough" are absurd given Irish-American political dominance. The satire's point: Catholic political power is real and growing, so claims of systematic exclusion are either false or hypocritical.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
aot i ea Intolerance: Nothing Doing! Na report of an address of Rev. Thomas ‘Thornton before the Knights of Columbus, in St. Patrick's Cathe- dral, New York, on February 22d, one reads that he sai “There is an organized movement throughout this country to disbar Catholics from offices of government Only recently those persons engaged in the campaign of ‘putting only Americans on guard’ boasted that nearly fifty men were defeated for Congress because they were tholies. “If this effort is universally successful Catholic citizens in the United States will be reduced to a con- dition of tribute-paying aliens. The logical result will be the tearing down of the Stars and Stripes and the hoisting ef the black flag of intolerance.” Reverend sir, do not worry. One could ng on in this country with all ame fifty organized movements g the steam they can command, whereof it can be averred or for safety say any three—of them were that if any one universally successful, we should have to give the country hack to the Indians and go and live in caves and trees These movements are never universally successful. They are fads, and when they get going too hard, bang go their tires and they slow down again. If you want more offices, why not start a Cle A Clerical party would al party, such as one finds in Europe? dicker for recognition. But could you get the Catholic laymen into such a party? “THE TOUCH OF A VANISHED HAND” “KEEP STILL A MINUTE, MOTHER-IN-LAW, THERE'S ON Your MEAD” Probably not. Probably a very large proportion of the Catholic laymen would decline to line up in any separate political organization So, undoubtedly, would Protestants, Jews, Mormons and unreligious citizens decline to line up with any anti-Catholic organization. If some of them think they see too much Clerical-Catholic control of government, they will fight it: but it will always be a fight to keep the highly organized Roman Catholic Church from too mu control of politics, and not a fight to keep Catholic citizens out of offices they want and are fit to hold. Your picture of Catholics as “tribute-paying aliens” makes one smile. Most of the Catholics in this country are of Irish birth or descent, and nearly all the Irish are Catholics. Really, reverend sir, a man who stands up in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, on Fifth Avenue, in New York, and suggests to the Knights of Columbus that the Irish are not getting their turn at the political trough is in danger of being charged with lack of humor, But the leading Roman Catholic American city at present is not New York, but Boston. Massachusetts has a Catholic Governor ; Boston usually nowadays has a Catholic Mayor. If you have any doubt that the Stars and Stripes are still rightfully ying in the old Bay State, send over and have the Massachusetts officcholders sorted as to their religion, and please report what you hear. the great mass «