The Papacy and the Combine.

As in this consequence of the coal strike there has already been blazed the way to a one-man power, so also in it there has appeared even in sight the religious despotism that attaches to the one-man power. In the choosing of the commission to settle the coal strike, it was stipulated that the commission should consist of five men, each chosen from a certain calling that would make him in a sense an expert. However, when the five had been chosen, the President went beyond this, and added a sixth member. This sixth member was added “as a commission to the strikers.” And who should be he but Bishop Spaulding, of the Catholic Church, for the reason that he “should be an imminent Roman Catholic prelate, nearly all of the miners being adherents of the Catholic Church.” In addition to this, the President appointed a recorder to the commission. And this recorder was a man who “freely admits his admiration for the magnificent organization of the Roman Church and his appreciation of its strong and elevating influence upon artisans and wage-earners,” and who “has been for many years an active teacher in the economic department of the great Catholic university at Washington.” In addition to all this, the President appointed two assistant recorders, and one of the two “is professor of political economy at the Catholic university, located near Washington.”OMP 11.1

And yet even this does not exhaust the list of Catholic influences connected with the commission, so that it is safe to say that the Catholic Church held the dominating influence in connection with that commission which originally was to consist of five men chosen from specific callings. Under the circumstances, with “nearly all the miners being adherents of the Catholic Church,” and they being one of the principals in the controversy; and with the large Catholic influence attached to the commission; it was in no small degree simply the Catholic Church arbitrating her own cause and settling her own case.OMP 12.1

And when thus stands her power and her influence at the very outset, in the very nature of things her power in these things will grow as these troubles grow upon the government, and when from it all there is developed the inevitable one-man power, there will she be close beside him, the same perpetual Papacy. This is not to say that the Papacy herself will be the one-man power. It is only to say that she will be the inspiration and the directing voice of that which, apart from her personally, will be the one-man power.OMP 12.2

Yet this power and influence which she has gained and will hold in connection with the strikes, combines, and complications is only a part of the true standing of the Papacy in connection with the United States Government of to-day.OMP 12.3

The opening of the Spanish-American War presented to the Papacy a grand opportunity, which she instantly seized, and which she has been working to the utmost at every stage of proceedings since. The entanglement of the question of the friars in the Philippines she so worked as to draw the national government one official communication with the papal government in Rome. She secured a commission from the United States Government to be sent to Rome to deal with the Papacy on her own ground in the Vatican. This commission consisted of three persons,—Governor Taft, of the Philippine Islands; Bishop O’Gorman, of the Catholic Church; and Attorney James F. Smith, a Roman Catholic and associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. That is to say, the United States Government and the Papacy are two parties to a controversy or negotiation. The United States Government sends a commission of three to represent the United States, and two of the three are themselves Papists. This, then, was nothing else than another instance in which the Papacy is professedly dealing for the United States Government simply deals with herself. For is there anybody in the world so obtuse as not to be able to dis- cern that the papal two-thirds of that commission sent to deal with the Papacy would inevitably work for the interests of the Papacy first of all? that they would represent the Papacy instead of the United State?OMP 13.1

This two-thirds papal commission went duly to Rome, and entered upon negotiations with the Papacy; with the result that the question in controversy was relegated to Manila as the place of the further consideration of it, and Governor Taft and the papal apostolic delegate, Mgr. Guido, as the persons to conduct the further negotiations, with “the Philippine Government expressly recognizing the official character of Mgr. Guido, and has pledged itself, over Mr. Taft’s signature, to treat with him as a duly-accredited representative of the Holy See.” And this is but the recognition of the papal government by the United States Government in her Philippine possessions and jurisdiction.OMP 14.1

In the negotiations Governor Taft proposed four articles as a basis of procedure and settlement. One of these articles proposed a tribunal of arbitration composed of five members, two to be appointed by the pope, two by the Philippine Government, and the fifth to be chosen by “an indifferent person, like the governor-general of India.” By the Papacy these four articles were expanded to twelve; and this particular one was so changed as to have that arbitration board composed thus: “Two shall be named by the Holy See, two by the Philippine Government, and the fifth by the common accord of the same four; and if such accord can not be reached, his holiness the pope and the President of the United States shall come to an understanding as to the choice of said fifth member.” Negotiations were at this point abruptly broken off, so that the matter went no further. But this one item shows plainly enough how ready is the Papacy to set traps by which she shall involve the United States Government in such a way that it shall be caused to work hand in hand with the Papacy in behalf of the Papacy. If that proposition had been accepted, can anybody believe that the four would ever have agreed upon the fifth members, when the alternative was that the pope and the President of the United States should work together in the matter, thus becoming a union of the United States and the Papacy?OMP 14.2