people with it, since, in free elections, the <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> could
hardly get a deputy, much legs a statesman, in <enttype='ORG'>Congress</ent>. <enttype='NORP'>French</ent>
culture was solidly anti-<enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent>. Its hundreds of scientific men were
nearly all <enttype='NORP'>Atheists</ent> -- even <enttype='ORG'>Pasteur</ent>, <enttype='PERSON'>Fabre</ent>, and <enttype='PERSON'>Bernard</ent> were not
<enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> -- and of its leading writers nine-tenth's were anti-<enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent>.</p>
<p> But I need not labor the point. Reviewing the position
carefully in 1937, after 18 years of the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> influence of
<enttype='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<enttype='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent> and the government's encouragement of the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent>,
-- I found <enttype='NORP'>French</ent><enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers agreed with me. <enttype='PERSON'>Andre Goddard</ent>
(Le surnaturel contemporain, 1922) described his country as
overwhelmingly irreligious and said that in no other age had
<enttype='NORP'>French</ent>men been "so little interested in the truth." <enttype='PERSON'>Georges Goyau</ent>
(L'effort <enttype='ORG'>catholique dans</ent> la Franee d'aujourdhui, 1922) gave an
account of all the supposed triumphs of his <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> in <enttype='GPE'>France</ent> since
1919 (so much admired in the <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> press) and finally
left it open "whether there are in <enttype='GPE'>France</ent> today ten million
practicing <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent>, as some say, or only five million, as others.
say." <enttype='PERSON'>Denis Gwynn</ent>, a strictly orthodox <enttype='NORP'>Irish</ent> writer and, as an
important foreign correspondent in <enttype='GPE'>Paris</ent> a high authority, agreed
with <enttype='PERSON'>Goyau</ent> and distrusted the higher figure of 10000000. This
agrees with my finding after a severe analysis of the evidence in
my 'Decay of the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> of <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent>' (1909). I said that there were
5000000 to 6000000 <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> in <enttype='GPE'>France</ent>. The eminent <enttype='NORP'>French</ent>
authority on religion P. <enttype='PERSON'>Sabatier</ent> insists that I was too generous:
that the figure was 4000000. The incorporation of <enttype='GPE'>Alsace</ent>-<enttype='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent>
in 1919 raised my figure to 7000000, and this is supported by the
<enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent><enttype='PERSON'>Goyau</ent> and <enttype='PERSON'>Gwynn</ent>. Now that <enttype='GPE'>Alsace</ent> and <enttype='PERSON'>Lorraine</ent> have gone
the figure drops again to between 5000000 and 6000000. Take the
more generous figure. We strike off, with the leading <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
experts in agreement, 33000000 from the number of <enttype='NORP'>French</ent>
<enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> in the world-total.</p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
4
.
<enttype='GPE'>ROME</ent> PUTS A BLIGHT ON CULTURE</p>
<p> Of <enttype='GPE'>Germany</ent> I have written so mush recently that I will be
brief. There never were in <enttype='GPE'>Germany</ent> the 24000000 <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> claimed
in Orhis <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>us and the <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>na. The election-figures and
explanations which I gave in <enttype='EVENT'>the First Series</ent> of these booklets
proved that beyond question <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> were one-seventh, not one-third, of the adult community or, including children a little more
generously, about 10000000 to 12000000. <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> papers which
I quoted admit that they are far less today, but we will avoid the
present compared period. The 24000000 <enttype='NORP'>German</ent><enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> included
in a world-total of 300000000 or more were not in reality more
than 12000000. We strike off a further 12000000, or, if the
biggest <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> figure is pressed upon us, we strike off
20000000 on the ground of indisputable facts and statistics.</p>
<p> The <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>s (42000000) are "practically all <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent>,"
Says the <enttype='ORG'>Orbis</ent>, though the <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>na claims only 32000000.
Strange how these mighty <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> majorities are so helpless
politically until some <enttype='NORP'>Nazi</ent> or <enttype='NORP'>Fascist</ent> thug is called in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> had
for 50 years (from 1870 onward) a government and a monarchy which
were under the ban of excommunication. I traveled all over <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> in
1904 as a delegate to a <enttype='ORG'>Congress</ent> of Freethinkers, and my yellow
ticket evoked friendly smiles and reductions of price everywhere:
novelists, poets, and dramatists as well as the scientists were as
in <enttype='GPE'>France</ent>, Freethinkers. . . . But enough. The electoral figures I
gave in No. 1 of the Appeal to Reason prove that at the time when
innocent foreigners were talking about 40000000 <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent><enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>s
they were not more than a third of the population. Strike off at
least 20000000 (<enttype='NORP'>Liberals</ent>, Socialists, and <enttype='NORP'>Communists</ent>) from the
grand total.</p>
<p> The case of <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent> ought to be still easier. but when a non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer like <enttype='PERSON'>Seldes</ent> assures <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> that all are <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent>
in <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent> except 100000 we wonder. At the time when <enttype='PERSON'>Seldes</ent> said
this (The <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Crisis, 1939) an anti-ecclesiastical government,
established at one free election after another in spite of the
hysterical curses of the hierarchy, had ruled <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent> and defied the
<enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent> and <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> for five years, and it took the sweepings of
Fascism after the unfortunate <enttype='NORP'>Communist</ent> episode, they are not
13000000 but are officially returned as 65 percent of the actual
population or 6000000. Deduct a further 12000000.</p>
<p> In <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>, which the <enttype='ORG'>Orbis</ent> significantly overlooks, the
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>na audaciously claims 11000000 <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent>! How the
... you ask. It is like so many frauds, simple. The <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer
refer's -- and again inaccurately -- to the <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent> of more than 20
years earlier, when it ruled <enttype='GPE'>Poland</ent>. Well, you may say, any man of
common sense will allow for that, but you do not see the point. The
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>na says that <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> number 294000000 today and through
this geographical shuffle is able to count many twice. We shall see
a very pretty specimen of this pious work presently.</p>
<p><enttype='GPE'>Belgium</ent> (population 8000000) is credited with 7000000
<enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> (<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>na) or "most of the people" (<enttype='ORG'>Orbis</ent>). I lived (as
a monk) for a year there, and the <enttype='NORP'>Belgian</ent> friars forbade me to
appear in my robes on the streets of <enttype='GPE'>Brussels</ent> as the ensuing
blasphemy would be painful. This was 45 years ago, and the
<enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> have waged an even battle with the contemptuously anti-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent><enttype='NORP'>Liberals</ent> and Socialists ever since until the devout <enttype='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>
the butcher <enttype='PERSON'>Salazar</ent> joined <enttype='ORG'>the Butchers Union</ent> of Europe. <enttype='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<enttype='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> (15000000 until 1939) is described in the <enttype='ORG'>Orbis</ent> as 80
(and partly from <enttype='GPE'>Quebec</ent> and <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent>) and their descendants. And in
this connection I have to notice the funny and learned book of
Father Professor <enttype='PERSON'>Shaugnessy</ent>,'Has the Immigrant Kept the Faith?'
(1925). The zealous priest had noticed that a dozen <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
authorities asserted that there has been a monstrous secession --
their estimates vary from 15000000 to 25000000 -- from the
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> of these immigrants and their descendants, and he sets out
to rebuke all this nonsense by a "scientific" analysis of the
official statistics. He does not condescend to notice that I
published a severe analysis of these figures in 1909 and proved
that there was a leakage of over 15000000. Even in his lengthy
and learned-looking bibliography my book is not mentioned. That is
how <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> are treated even by their "professors." But I will
not imitate his rudeness by ignoring his book.</p>
<p> He proves triumphantly that the immigrants have kept the faith
and that there has been no serious leakage, but one illustration of
his method will suffice here. In a final summary table he gives the
number of immigrants between 1820 and 1920 as 14592613 from
"<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries" and 19062190 from "non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries."
You at once notice something peculiar. In the former category he
includes only 165000 <enttype='NORP'>Poles</ent>, and he must have known that in 1920
there were, according to the official census, 284000 persons in
<enttype='GPE'>New York</ent> and <enttype='GPE'>Chicago</ent> alone who had been actually born in <enttype='GPE'>Poland</ent>!
Surely, you will say, everybody knows that there have been millions
of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent><enttype='NORP'>Polish</ent> immigrants. Observe the cleverness of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
science. Before 1920 there was no <enttype='GPE'>Poland</ent>. The country was mainly
under <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent> is a "non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>" country, so the
immigrants are all put under <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>. <enttype='GPE'>Germany</ent> again, which sent
nearly a fourth of the immigrants, is a "non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>" country. But
during that period it was one-third <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, and its immigrants
came predominantly from <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> provinces. In fine, if you add the
millions of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent><enttype='NORP'>German</ent> and <enttype='NORP'>Polish</ent> immigrants to the total from
<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries (taking off a small percentage for non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent>) you get well over 20000000 <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> immigrants; and
since the majority of these came in between 50 and 100 years ago
they ought now to number between 40000000 and 50000000! "Where
are the snows of yesteryear?"</p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
7
.
<enttype='GPE'>ROME</ent> PUTS A BLIGHT ON CULTURE</p>
<p> Apart from these little oddities of apologetic literature
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> statistics are weird and wonderful. In the last
edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which was revised by
said that the "official figure" for the year 1928 was 19689049 --
the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Press Directory said 21453928 -- the "generally
accepted" figure, 22733254, and the "true" figure 25000000.
Observe the accuracy down to a unit of most of these figures,
though they differ from each other by millions. However, the
"official" figure in the latest census of religions, after ten
year's of glorious fertility of <enttype='NORP'>Irish</ent>, <enttype='NORP'>Polish</ent>, <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>, and <enttype='NORP'>German</ent>
<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> families, a fair amount of further immigration, and half
a million converts, is 19914937, and the <enttype='ORG'>Orbis</ent><enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>us,
Encyclopedia <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>na, and <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Directory are content with
20000000. <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> statistics in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> are farcical and their
"remarkable growth," as <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> officials in <enttype='ORG'>the Census Bureau</ent> are
allowed to call it, is a myth. Even their own figures do not show
the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> growing, in spite of its higher birth rate, at the same
pace as the general population.</p>
<p> How many really are there? They do not know themselves. The
official (<enttype='ORG'>Census</ent>) figure is made up of claims by the priests and
the bishops. The egregious Fr. <enttype='PERSON'>Shaugnessy</ent> goes so far as to say
that the parish priests often deliberately understate (which means
lie about) the number of their parishioners so that the bishop will
not be tempted to split the parish (and -- the apologist does not
say this -- halve the income of the priest). What a disreputable
suggestion! I mean, the priests do notoriously lie, or, inflate the
numbers, but it is for the glory of the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> and is covered by
the canonical principle that a <enttype='ORG'>seceder</ent> is still a <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>.</p>
<p> I made a very thorough study of the matter, following upon the
analysis of official statistics in my Decay of the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> of <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent>
have 18 men and 0.6 women. The <enttype='NORP'>Episcopalians</ent> have 156 men and 18
women: the <enttype='NORP'>Unitarians</ent> (who are largely freethinkers in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>)
have 1185 men and 103 women per 100000. In other words, the
farther a <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> is removed from the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent> -- belonging to the
<enttype='NORP'>Episcopalian</ent> is, of course, a matter of respectability -- the
higher its cultural distinction.</p>
<p> What do the <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> say to that? They say that it merely
shows the snobbishness of non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> and the manly modesty of
<enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent>! I should like these <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers who have this fine
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n contempt for snobbery to study the <enttype='NORP'>British</ent><enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>. Who's
Who. It is, at least, published in <enttype='GPE'>London</ent>, but Al Smith and other
"great <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>ns" figure in it. In discussing this cultural poverty
of the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>, to which he quotes several <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
witnesses, J.F. <enttype='PERSON'>Moore</ent> (Will <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> Become <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>?) speaks of
<enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent>ism in <enttype='GPE'>Britain</ent> as more distinguished. There are, he says, no
<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writers in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> to compare with <enttype='PERSON'>Chesterton</ent>, <enttype='ORG'>Noyes</ent>,
<enttype='PERSON'>Shane Leslie</ent>, Benson, (Father) <enttype='PERSON'>Martindale</ent>, (Father) <enttype='PERSON'>Knox</ent>, and
Sheila Kaye-Smith. If you have read these you will reflect that the
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> body must be very poor indeed, in illumination if
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
11
.
<enttype='GPE'>ROME</ent> PUTS A BLIGHT ON CULTURE</p>
<p> But the chief reason why I recommend you to see this <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
Who's Who is because you will find it the most amusing Book of
Snobs on the market. I should explain that, although it is
published in <enttype='GPE'>England</ent> it has no patriotic limitations. Chiefly, I
imagine, because the compilers felt that there are a few scurvy
folk who would count how many real intellectuals there are amongst
the thousand names and all that they could find in Great <enttype='GPE'>Britain</ent>
were three or four teachers of chemistry or mathematics at minor
universities, they searched the whole <enttype='GPE'>Empire</ent> on which the sun never
sets and the whole English-speaking world, ransacked Eire and <enttype='GPE'>Malta</ent>
(which are as full of titles as fleas), and dipped into <enttype='GPE'>France</ent>,
<enttype='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and a few other countries. So they got together a
body of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> scientists, with your <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n Dr. J.J. Walsh as
the supreme representative, who would almost fill a Junker plane.
I forgot how many laborious days it took me to collect from the
book just as many <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> teachers of science in the area covered
(total population about 250000000) as I can count on the fingers
of two hand's.</p>
<p> But that is incidental. The chief purpose of the book is to
give the cream -- and it is very rich cream -- of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism in
<enttype='GPE'>Britain</ent>, Eire, <enttype='GPE'>Malta</ent>, etc.: the aristocratic and semi-aristocratic
families down to junior lieutenants of the army and <enttype='ORG'>navy</ent> provided
they belong to families which never sank to the level of earning
their own living. These and the clergy nearly fill the book.
Titles, diamonds, and gold glitter on every page. The book seems to
cry at you: Look whom you may hope to meet if you join the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent>. Next in importance are the diplomats -- the gentlemen who
kept the blinds down at <enttype='GPE'>Paris</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Brusseig</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Vienna</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Madrid</ent>, and
<enttype='PERSON'>Lisbon</ent> while the bandits armed and the traitors said their prayers
-- the naval and military commanders, and the high civil servants
and legal officials, who are all of great service to the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent>.
After that you will surely not be disgruntled because the men of
intellectual distinction, if you grant that description to ordinary
university professors, are less than a dozen out of the, thousands
of professors in the area covered.</p>
<p> Some <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> meet this by saying that it is a vulgar
business counting heads (unless they bear coronets), or that they
prefer to think about the really great men of science of earlier
times; especially, it seems, of the time when in the eyes of the
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> the only good scientist was a dead scientist. We will return
to that in a later book. These pleas are, in any case, frivolous.
The compilers of the book ranged from <enttype='GPE'>California</ent> to <enttype='GPE'>New Zealand</ent> in
search of scientists or other men of intellectual as opposed to
artistic or social distinction and they did not find enough to make
a football-team. There is another, a very impartial and objective,
way of proving this.</p>
<p> I suppose the <enttype='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s have included in their monumental thefts
the seizure of the fund which <enttype='PERSON'>Alfred Nobel</ent> left in <enttype='GPE'>Sweden</ent> to
provide five rich prizes every year for the world's most
distinguished workers in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature,
and the cause of peace. However, the prizes have been awarded for
nearly 40 years and apart from a little patriotic bias in favor of
same work for the first decade of this century fully confirm the
truth as far as they go. Whatever allowance you make for different
standards of classification and degrees of police efficiency, the
more criminal status of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries and the far greater
success in reducing crime of non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries leap to the
eye, as the <enttype='NORP'>French</ent> say.</p>
<p> One requires great caution in handling criminal statistics,
particularly in the relation of crime to religion. Countries like
<enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent> and <enttype='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, for instance, and especially the <enttype='NORP'>Latin</ent>-<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n
Republic's had far more crime than the figures published by the
inefficient police. I will return to the subject in the last book,
but certain undisputed facts may be given here.</p>
<p> Great <enttype='GPE'>Britain</ent>, in which the <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> (mostly <enttype='NORP'>Irish</ent>) are less
than one-twentieth of the population and have no influence whatever
on the formation of the national character (except to swell the
criminal statistics) has the finest-record in the modern world in
reducing every class of crime and delinquency. The few figures
given in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (which has not
dared to touch the question of crime and religion) are confused,
but <enttype='PERSON'>Mulhall</ent> gives authoritative tables. From these we learn that
since 1840 grave crime has been reduced to one-third of what it
used to be though the population has nearly trebled. Other social
offenses have been reduced in the same proportion. <enttype='GPE'>France</ent> has the
with a claim that it must pay special heed to a <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent> who has
300000000 subjects and a national <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> which is not
only the largest religious body but the finest educational and
moral agency in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>. Well, the <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent> has not 300000000
subjects unless you care to count the millions who rot in the jails
or cower under the spiritual police in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Portugal</ent>,
<enttype='GPE'>France</ent>, and <enttype='LOC'>South</ent><enttype='GPE'>America</ent>. The <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> compiles its
total of 20000000 by the same dishonest method and is neither an
educational nor a moral force. Its priesthood so confines the
intelligence that few men and women of real intellectual power
associate with it, and its religious-moral education is of such a
nature that it actually supplies more to the criminal class than
any other <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> does. It is the poorest in the kind of higher
culture which is a real factor in the advance of a civilization and
the richest in criminal or potentially criminal elements.</p>
<p> Chapter III</p>
<p><enttype='GPE'>ROME</ent> LOVES THE POOR ILLITERATE</p>
<p> Just as I write my mail brings me a letter in which an
estimable lady, one who is eager to have the truth about the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> known, gently chides me for the "brutality" of the way in
which I put that truth before the public. She sends me authentic
information about life today in a <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> country, a country whose
ruler is always treated with great respect in the <enttype='NORP'>British</ent> and
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n press, which, when I hand it on -- probably in the next
book -- will make your hair stand on end. But I am urged to put it
more courteously. "Brutality" is, of course, a friendly
exaggeration, and I gather that the idea is that it would be more
effective to "let the facts speak for themselves."</p>
<p> I occasionally get such letter's. A few weeks ago a university
professor argued with me in the same vein. I "defeat my own end"
and so forth. And to all of it I reply that 45 years of experience
in such work, not bad temper, dictate the tone of my writings on
the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent>. Forty years ago I wrote a little work on the
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> of <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> which so astonished Hilaire <enttype='PERSON'>Belloc</ent>, to whom a friend
lent it, that he thought, that in view of its extreme moderation,
it must be a forgery. It was a more dismal failure than any other
book I have ever written, whereas books in which my pen was allowed
to take its natural caustic course have had numbers of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
readers and hundreds of thousands of others. Most people don't want
appeasement. When facts are brutal and doctrines are stupid say so.
Although this information which just reaches me is startlingly
picturesque and largely relevant to issues of the day no newspaper
in <enttype='GPE'>London</ent> would admit it, and no publisher would accept a book on
it. That goes also for <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>. They must not "offend <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent>."
And you will not alter that by simply telling facts. You need to
kindle indignation and resentment in your readers and persuade them
to pass on the facts to others. Courteous talk about <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
matters is so often merely a sign of prudence and calculation in
the writers that the kind of man or woman I want to read me resents
or suspects it.</p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
18
.
<enttype='GPE'>ROME</ent> PUTS A BLIGHT ON CULTURE</p>
<p> If I so; often blame the press I shall not be misunderstood.
No one expects a paper to defy a <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> threat to injure its
circulation or cut off its <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> advertiser's. I have worked on
several papers, as an outside member of the staff, and we
understand each other. I attack the system which imposes this
humiliating subservience on them, and more than one journalist or
publisher has wished me more power to my elbow.</p>
<p> And one of the most important moves in the attack on the
system is to expose the fraud of <enttype='ORG'>the Black International</ent> in
representing that the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> is far larger and more useful than it
is. Fraud? There you have at once the illustration of what I have
been saying about "strong" and "tactful" language. The <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
representation is fraudulent, and you do not tell half the truth
unless you say so. Every <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> writer knows as well as I do that
his figure of 300000000 includes the 100000000 who, as I
showed, have left the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent>, and he knows that the general public
does not suspect this, He knows as well as I do the cultural
poverty of the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> and its richness in crime, and he tries to
confuse the public mind about these facts by rhetoric and
sophistry. He knows, while he represents the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> as the mother
of education, the patroness of learning, the inspiration of clear
and honest thinking, that, as I will now show, it prefers people
who do not think at all, and the majority of its actual 180000000
subjects are either children or illiterate.</p>
<p> Practically all statistics that would give us sound material
for settling such a question as the social value of religion are
either fantastic or gravely defective. Our sociologists continue to
include religion amongst the factors of civilization, and our
politicians, journalists, and essayists are quite sure of it. But
in an age in which most other statistics are precise to a doctrinal
point the statistics which bear upon this question are grossly
<p> It need not be said that the countries -- nearly all non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> -- in which the percentage is only of the adult population
have slightly better records than they appear to have, and that the
quickening of educational work since 1900 by the pressure of world-opinion and the rise to power of <enttype='NORP'>Liberal</ent> governments has greatly
lowered the worse figures. From the scattered data in the
Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences for 1920 - 1925, moreover, I
find that still all countries with less than 1 percent illiteracy
(<enttype='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Sweden</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>England</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Holland</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Scotland</ent>, and <enttype='GPE'>Switzerland</ent>) are
non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>, all countries with 5 to 25 percent are non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
with a very high proportion of <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> and were formerly under
<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> rule, and all countries with 30 percent or over illiterate
are solidly <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>. It further appears that <enttype='GPE'>Poland</ent> had still 32.8
percent, <enttype='GPE'>Chile</ent> 40.8 percent, <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent> 62.2 percent, and <enttype='GPE'>Brazil</ent> 71.2
(and probably higher) percent in 1920-1925.</p>
<p> In discussing social questions, such as the genuine social
value of an institution, an ounce of fact is worth a ton of
rhetoric. In the foregoing table, the items of which are not
selected by men, but by the highest educational authority in the
<enttype='GPE'>United Sates</ent>, you have the facts, and they make a mockery of the
claim that the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> is the mother or inspiration of
education. They show that it is, on the contrary, the enemy of
education. It professes a zeal for it only when a large non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> majority watches it critically. In the <enttype='GPE'>Columbia</ent> table all
an accomplishment that the figure of percentage meant little.
Teachers received -- when they were paid -- $100 per year, but the
state would not pay it, and the parents generally refused. A law
was passed that there should be no, bull-fights where people would
not pay for a teacher, so in some places they gaily drove the
master to the ring and baited him instead of a bull. The schools
were barns, and the teachers had to do other work to get a living
of $3 a week. All the summer the children were wanted for
agricultural work. In short, until the Socialist-<enttype='NORP'>Liberal</ent> government
of 1932-36, which the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> ruined, began real education, half the
supposed literate one-third of the nation might be dismissed as
illiterate. That is true of <enttype='GPE'>Portugal</ent> and, apart from <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent> and
<enttype='GPE'>Argentina</ent>, of <enttype='NORP'>Spanish</ent> and <enttype='NORP'>Portuguese</ent><enttype='GPE'>America</ent> today. In <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent> itself
<enttype='PERSON'>Franco</ent> and the hierarchy have demolished the splendid school-system
which the wicked <enttype='ORG'>Reds</ent> (with the cordial cooperation of most of the
university professors) had set up.</p>
<p> But all the figures I have given relate to the present
century, and by 1900 the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> had been compelled by the advance
of civilization to dissemble its hostility to the education of the
workers. What it did or did not do for education when it had
supreme power in <enttype='LOC'>the Middle Ages</ent> we will briefly consider in the
next chapter. All that concerns us in this book is the quality of
the 180000000 actual subjects of the <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent>. It is, however,
necessary to be quite clear that the reduction of illiteracy in
<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries points to no zeal on the part of the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> but
to the pressure of critics. Study the language used by the <enttype='ORG'>Vichy</ent>
group of pious traitors today. Petain is honest, if senile, and
was destroyed and the priests settled down everywhere to a renewed
lease, as they thought, of their medieval power and exploitation of
the people. It will be enough to consider the case of <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, one-third of which was ruled by the <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s and administered almost
exclusively by priests, while the southern section in addition was
-- <enttype='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Croatia</ent>, etc. -- are patches of deep <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>ism and
dense illiteracy. Read how the moment a state falls back under
priestly domination, after a spell of anti-clerical control its
educational system is destroyed or eviscerated. Ten years or less
ago <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n and international paedagogists were talking with great
admiration of the fine educational work at <enttype='GPE'>Madrid</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Prague</ent>, and
<enttype='GPE'>Vienna</ent>. They are now silent. The cultural blight spreads from <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>
and <enttype='GPE'>Austria</ent> to <enttype='GPE'>France</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> provinces of <enttype='GPE'>Holland</ent>,
<enttype='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<enttype='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>, and wherever the <enttype='PERSON'>Butchers</ent> smirkingly lead back
their friends the priests to power. <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> loves the illiterate. They
are so easily persuaded to burn heretics and kiss bogus relics.</p>
political and economic theory of the <enttype='NORP'>Marxists</ent>; nor can we suppose
it to be particularly interested in their choice of a color. The
bitter hostility to them which was roused by the <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s throughout </p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
23
.
<enttype='GPE'>ROME</ent> PUTS A BLIGHT ON CULTURE</p>
<p>the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> world was based upon a tissue of lies about outrages
and one admitted fact -- that wherever Communism spread the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> lost millions of followers. And the reason why people fell
away from the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> in such crowds was that for the first time
their eyes had been opened -- by formal education in the school
(child and adult) followed up by special enlightenment on religion.</p>
<p> Is this a coincidence? When, as I told in an earlier booklet,
the <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent> opened his campaign, he said that <enttype='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> must be
destroyed in <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>China</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent>; and at that time the
educational world everywhere was discussing with lively interest
the remarkable progress in education that was taking place in
<enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent>, and the <enttype='NORP'>Communist</ent> provinces of <enttype='GPE'>China</ent>! The
<enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent> would have added <enttype='GPE'>Austria</ent> but he had already got his agents in
<enttype='GPE'>Vienna</ent> and their <enttype='NORP'>Fascist</ent> allies to destroy that great social
enterprise. He could count upon his "chivalrous" <enttype='GPE'>Japan</ent>ese friends
to undo the work in <enttype='GPE'>China</ent>, and he blessed the savage vandalism of
his allies in <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>, where for three years educational progress had
commanded the respect of all experts. There remained two countries
in which education was making rapid progress, <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent> and <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>,
and <enttype='GPE'>Austria</ent> and tried to get done in <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent>. I say again that the
most wonderful educational work in all history was being done in
<enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>, as leading educationists in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> admitted, and the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent>
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> was one of the guiltiest agencies in the world in slandering
<enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent> and calling upon <enttype='GPE'>Germany</ent> and <enttype='GPE'>Japan</ent> to annihilate the
government and all its work. On the other hand, the vilest
prostitution of education in modern history was at the same time
proceeding in <enttype='GPE'>Japan</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Germany</ent>, and <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>. And the <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent> pressed his
affection upon the <enttype='NORP'>Nazi</ent>s, cooperated in education in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and
gave gold medals and paternal blessings to the <enttype='GPE'>Japan</ent>ese. But I
remember my manners and will just conclude politely that I really
do not think that the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> of <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> is a friend of education.</p>
<p> Chapter IV</p>
<p> THE MYTH OF ITS PATRONAGE OF LEARNING</p>
<p> We are now in a position to reply to the question which I put
on an earlier page of this book: Who are these <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent>?
They claim a privileged position in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> on the ground that they
are the largest religious body in the country and their <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> is
the largest and most important in the world. On the first point we
reflect that the fact that <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> form one-eighth -- it is
and civic authorities who would relieve non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> mothers of
excessive child-bearing, take the lead in fomenting racial
bitterness against the <enttype='NORP'>Jews</ent>, dominate the school-system (even non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>) in some cities, arrogate a most insolent control of
public instruction by newspapers, books, and libraries, impose
their narrow-minded views on all theaters and cinemas, and so on.
It is really extraordinary how the <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n who boasts of his
freedom and independence submits to this sort of feudal insolence.</p>
<p> Back of it all, apparently, is respect for the larger claim,
that the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> of <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> really is unique in its colossal
membership, its world-wide organization, and its massive service.
In this book I am exposing the fallacy of this idea. On the face of
it there is a monstrous deception of the public because priests
know, and are aware that the public does not know, that the total
of 300000000 <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> contains at least 100000000 who have
left the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent>. The simplest analysis of the figures at once shows
that, as we saw. It is reasonable to put the genuine total at
something like 180000000.</p>
<p> Of these 180000000 a little over one-fourth are children
under the age of 10. The official <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n census gives that as the
proportion. As <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> generally leave the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> after that age
and many seceded parents let their women-folk or relatives have the
infants baptized -- a good booze hallows every cause, to paraphrase
<enttype='PERSON'>Nietzsche</ent> -- the proportion of children under ten is probably
higher in the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent>, with its high fertility-rate in
backward countries. However, we will, as usual, be moderate and say
that about 50000000 of the 180000000 are children under 10
whose allegiance to the <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent> is not very clearly a thing to boast
about.</p>
<p> This applies also to many millions over the age of 10 and
under 20, but what we learned in the last chapter opens up a
different perspective. The fact is, apparently, that of the
130000000 subjects of the <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent> over the age of 10 at least
90000000 are totally illiterate. Turn back to the table I gave.
Taking one <enttype='NORP'>Latin</ent>-<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n Republic with another the gross
illiteracy of the whole 80000000 people is over 60 percent. The
Eire, and the foreign missions. The grand total of illiterate
subjects of the <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent> must approach 100000000. Add these to the
50000000 under the age of ten.</p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
25
.
<enttype='GPE'>ROME</ent> PUTS A BLIGHT ON CULTURE</p>
<p> Pray do not think me as snobbish as the <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> who write
glittering Who's Who. I have had many a friendly talk with these
folk in <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent> and <enttype='GPE'>Cuba</ent>, in <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent> and <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>. But when your <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
friend throws his 300000000 at your head you would like to know
just how significant the number is. Perhaps between 30000000 and
40000000 of them could sign their names or read a newspaper. I am
sorry if I am wasting your time but I fancy that that is news to
you. Yet it follows inexorably from the facts I have given in this
book. The <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent> has certainly not 50000000 subjects who could
write their own names. And, not to put too fine a point on it, what
is the value or significance of the beliefs of most of the
"literate" 30000000 or (if you prefer) 40000000? The majority
in <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries -- and even in <enttype='GPE'>Germany</ent> -- are peasants; and
you probably know more than I do about the majority of the <enttype='NORP'>Irish</ent>,
<enttype='NORP'>Polish</ent>, <enttype='NORP'>Italian</ent>, etc., <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> workers of <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>.</p>
<p> In short, in how many cases is the faith of even a literate
<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> intellectually impressive? I described the work of the
school; and very few of those who pass through it have the courage
to defy the prohibition under pain of hell or read in later years
a book that tells them the truth about their creed and <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent>s. Their
colleges and academies are just as narrow, and the youths and young
women in their Normal <enttype='ORG'>School</ent>s naturally learn history only as they
have to teach it. The kind of lecture on science, history, or
philosophy that is delivered in the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> University you can
judge at any time by the publications of the professors and by the
articles in the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia. The upshot of it all is
plainly seen in the miserable representation of <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent> in higher
culture which I described. There is a blight on the whole system.</p>
<p> I sometimes imagine myself getting an <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n statesman in a
quite corner and putting these things to him. I fancy he would nod
and listen and then say: "You damned fool, they have 10000000
votes and those are worth more than a hundred scientists and
philosophers." If I tried an editor he would point out that they
have rich advertisers and a shocking power to shift a body of
readers from any paper they denounced to one that plays up to them.
If I turn to a publisher he reminds me, regretfully, that <enttype='NORP'>Catholics</ent>
forbid the press to bring my, name or my works to the notice of the
public. And this pernicious system will explain to you the vague
reputation which the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> has -- for learning and the patronage
of learning. Its apologists can say what they like with little fear
of contradiction.</p>
<p> Their case, when they go into detail, is the usual mixture of
mendacity and sophistry. First, it was the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> of <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> that,
when it emerged from the catacombs, "gave the world schools." And
since there is not a manual of the history of education, not an
encyclopedic article, published in the last 50 or more years that
does not describe how the pagan <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='GPE'>Empire</ent> had a system of
universal and free schools for the people, "mendacity" is the only
word to use here. The few paltry schools which the <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> opened in
one or two cities, were, of course, like the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> schools
today, to prevent their own children from going to the pagan
schools. And there is no more dispute about the fact that the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent>
school system was entirely destroyed when the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> obtained
