Robert slept late the next morning, ate a combination breakfast and
luncheon and returned to his room. McCall! Friendship! The torn
leaflets had been removed by the maid.
Robert removed his coat, collar and shirt and began, very deliberately,
to shave. He had never distributed the Knights of Columbus oath.
Freeman had assured him that whatever might be the veracity of the
articles in The Beacon, the Knights of Columbus oath, at any rate, was
accurate. It had been obtained by the Tribe itself.
Robert dried his face. Why must a person always defend what he has
done? One may act simply on an impulse--because some one else wants
him to do something, because the community in which he lives, his
social set or public opinion desires it. But once a person has acted,
he builds up reasons to justify himself. Take the Knights of Columbus
oath. He had not troubled to investigate it. He had accepted it because
it was part of the Tribe’s propaganda and because his father, his
mother, Margaret, his social set, believed in the Tribe. The rational
thing would be to weigh its value, to investigate its authenticity--and
then to accept or reject it. It was the same way with other propaganda.
If it was false, Freeman was always inventing excuses. Why had he not
investigated their truth before circulating them! And yet, Freeman had
insisted that the oath was true.
The telephone bell rang.
“Hello!” It was McCall. He was coming up. Robert took a long breath.
McCall! Robert had not expected him to come back again. He wondered
why--and was glad, immensely glad. The door opened.
“God, I’m glad--” Robert held out his hand.
“Shut up!” McCall looked very pale and serious, his lips tight. “I want
you to listen to me! I think you’re either a scoundrel or a damn fool.
I’ve thought it over all night and I’ve decided to be charitable and
call you a damn fool.”
Robert started to say something. McCall put up his hand.
“If you interrupt me, I’m going. And if I go, you’ll never see me
again. I said I decided that you were a damn fool. I decided that you
joined the Tribe because you couldn’t get out of it or because you
didn’t know its real object. Most members don’t. They think they’re
joining some sort of a crusade. I think Lister is a sincere man, a
sincere fool, a fanatic who would have fitted in somewhere beautifully
in the Middle Ages and who didn’t know any more about the meaning of
Christianity than the fanatics who burned heretics and witches three
hundred years ago. That includes Catholics as well as Protestants. I’m
not handing myself anything.
“Griffith I think is a crook--I say I _think_ he is--because he
personally gets a rake-off on every member, because he sells robes and
masks at a profit that the Tribe would boycott a Jew for making, and
because he sells the muddy river water used in your Tribal initiations
for ten dollars a quart. I can’t conceive of any man with the broad
mission he says he has, starting out by overcharging the brothers who
are to carry out that mission with him. If you are an official, you
know that these are facts and you also know that you get a rake-off for
each new member. It is to your interest and to the interest of every
Tribal officer to get as many memberships as you can--no matter how
much class and racial hatred you spread in getting them--because it
brings you actual money. If you can make people believe that the Pope
is trying to control the American government, or that Jews, who form
about three per cent of the population, are trying to overthrow all
government, or that Negroes, who have been persecuted and tortured all
their lives and are afraid to move, are plotting with the Bolsheviki or
the Hindus to overthrow civilization, it means three dollars for Mr.
Griffith, four dollars for the salesman who calls himself a Bogey and
one dollar for the state salesman or Grand Bogey--per convert.
“But I won’t inquire into your motives for joining the Tribe. I shall
assume that they were worthy and that you were simply gullible. The
Tribe’s antagonism to the Catholic is evidently based on its conception
of the relation between the Papacy and the United States. The Tribe
evidently believes, or pretends to believe, that the Papacy means
to control the government of the United States, and that spiritual
allegiance to the Pope in some way interferes with secular allegiance
to the government of the United States. I say that these are the
reasons for the Tribe’s opposition to the Catholic, because the Tribe
professes to believe in the freedom of worship. In other words,
admittedly the religion of the Catholic, and similarly of the Jew, have
nothing to do with the Tribe’s opposition.
“Now, Hamilton, if I can prove to you that the Catholic church is not
attempting to control our government and the Catholic church in no
way interferes with one’s loyalty to his country, will you promise to
resign from the Tribe? If the Tribe is wrong, you will want to resign.
If I am wrong, if the Catholic church does mean interference with my
Americanism, I will not want to be a Catholic--and I will quit the
church. Is that fair?”
“Yes--you give up the church or I give up the Tribe.”
They shook hands. It seemed fair enough. Robert had joined the Tribe
because he believed it stood for certain principles. That it attacked
certain institutions, not because of blind prejudice, but for definite
reasons. If these reasons proved false, there was no reason for the
Tribe’s existence--no reason for Robert belonging to it. To continue to
be a Tribesman under those circumstances would be dishonest. It would
be lending his force, his personality, to a lie.
“Now for the proof,” said McCall. “Hell, what do you or I know about it
anyway? Father Callahan does. And if he doesn’t convince you, I’ll quit
the church.”
Father Callahan, of St. Gesu Church, proved to be a pleasant,
ruddy-faced man of charming manners and ready knowledge. He received
them in his library.
“It was quite right of you to come to me,” he smiled, “because many of
the attacks of the Trick Track Tribe have been made against the Jesuits
and, inasmuch as I, myself, am a member of the Society of Jesus--by
the way, Mr. Hamilton, I observe that the Knights of the Trick Track
Tribe boast of the most sublime lineage in all history, but I believe
that the organization to which I belong may lay claim to a still more
sublime lineage.” He smiled. “The lineage of the Catholic church
can be traced back some 1850 years before the origin of the Tribe,
granting even that the present Tribe is the legitimate descendant of
the original Tribe formed in 1867. Inasmuch, however, as the old Tribe
was abolished, both by its founders and by the federal government, one
may well question how the present Tribe may justly claim to inherit its
lineage, which was not too sublime to make the fathers of the order
heartily regret that they had ever founded it.”
Father Callahan had a rather delightful way of imparting the mildest of
sarcasms. He leaned forward and touched Robert on the knee.
“And I believe the Tribe has also called itself the most dauntless
organization known to man. Whether it is really more dauntless than the
secret societies of the heathen savages who also fight behind grotesque
masks--some splendid examples of which you may be able to find at the
Field Museum or, at any rate, in any good book on anthropology--still
the fact remains that members of the society of which I am a member
have also accomplished certain dauntless deeds. There is no natural
monopoly of that quality. You may remember that Father Marquette, for
instance, preceded me, in the name of the church, some three hundred
years ago, as did also Father Hennepin. You may remember that Joliet
and La Salle also showed themselves not lacking in bravery in their
explorations which opened up Canada and the entire Northwest. The first
trappers and traders with the Indians, who became the first merchants
of Chicago and the founders of its first industry, also belonged to the
Catholic Church.
“By the way,”--the priest rose--“this discourse may strike you as
rather dry. But national prohibition will not go into effect until
January and I don’t suppose I should be offending even the keen love of
law and order of a Tribesman by offering him a little wine and cake. If
you excuse me for a minute?”
Robert settled back comfortably in his chair, his nervousness entirely
gone.
“Well, what do you think of him?” asked McCall with a smile.
“Well, I’ll bet he makes religion attractive.”
“Certainly! Why shouldn’t it be? It ought to be the most sublime
thing in the world.” They laughed at the accidental use of the word
“sublime.” “I look at religion as the most beautiful symbolism in life.
I couldn’t worship in an ugly church or under the guidance of a cold
and narrow minister or priest.”
Father Callahan appeared in the doorway, his ruddy face smiling and his
merry blue eyes sparkling. A servant followed, bearing a small tray on
which were three small glasses of red wine and a plate of cake. The
latter placed the tray on the table and the priest offered the glasses,
invoked a blessing on the food and drink, and took a swallow.
“Ah! Now,” he said, “the really very silly notion that allegiance to
the Pope interferes with the loyalty any citizen owes his country, has
been exploded a long time ago and is used by no one save a few bigots
who do not themselves credit the nonsense they utter. It is really
remarkable how such ideas linger, yet I notice that this forms the real
basis of the Tribe’s opposition to the Catholic as such. Of course, the
church is Catholic and its missionaries go forth to all lands seeking
converts. Every human being, we believe, has a soul, and before God
all souls are equal. The Church of Christ is not ashamed that many
of its members are of the eastern and southern European countries,
whose immigrants at present may be regarded as undesirable by American
statesmen. We rather take pride that the church has considered the soul
of no man unworthy of saving. Our statesmen can probably best determine
which elements are most needed in making up the population of the
United States. But the church maintains that the desirability of no man
as a citizen is ever diminished by his belonging to the Catholic church.
“A man can be a good subject either of a republic or a monarchy
and, at the same time, be a devoted adherent of the Holy See. Even
non-believers in Catholic doctrine have come to recognize that the
better Catholic an individual is, the better citizen he therefore
becomes of the country in which he lives.”
Father Callahan took a bite of cake and another swallow of wine.
“The old absurdity,” he went on, “of owing allegiance to a foreign
potentate, which was the charge made against American Catholics in Know
Nothing times, has been rarely heard and would have been relegated
to that obscurity which it deserves except for the sudden rise of
the Trick Track Tribe. Spiritual allegiance to the Pope will never
interfere with the duties an honest state exacts from its citizens,
but, on the contrary, will inspire each citizen to perform his duties
better and more conscientiously. But you must have some more cake.
That’s right.”
The priest rose, walked to a bookcase and, after studying it a minute,
pulled out a volume.
“Can you prove what you have just told him, father?” asked McCall.
“That is exactly what I am about to do. Although I have some authority
in the church, you, Mr. Hamilton, will want some greater authority
than mine. Have you ever heard of the Baltimore Council? Shortly after
Pope Leo the Thirteenth had conferred with the American prelates in
Rome, a plenary council of the Catholic Church of the United States
was ordered, late in 1884. The acts of this council were approved by
the Pope and are enforced throughout the United States. Now, very
fortunately, this very subject of church and state was discussed by the
fathers of the Baltimore Council and this, by the approval of the Holy
See, is the official position of the Catholic Church.”
The priest turned the leaves, found the proper page and handed the book
to Robert.
“We repudiate with equal earnestness,” he read, “the assertion
that we need to lay aside any of our devotedness to our church to
be true Americans; the insinuation that we need to lay aside any
of our love for our country’s principles and institutions to be
faithful Catholics. To argue that the Catholic Church is hostile to
our great republic, because she teaches that ‘there is no power but
from God’; because, therefore, back of the events which led to the
formation of the republic, she sees the providence of God leading to
that issue and, back of our country’s laws, the authority of God as
their sanction--this is evidently so illogical and contradictory an
accusation that we are astonished to hear it advanced by persons of
ordinary intelligence.... To both the Almighty and to His instruments
we look with grateful reverence, and to maintain the inheritance of
freedom which they have left us, our Catholic citizens will be found
to stand forward as one man, ready to pledge anew their lives, their
fortunes and their sacred honor. No less illogical should be the notion
that there is aught in the free spirit of our American institutions
incompatible with perfect docility to the Church of Christ.”
The next sentence Robert read several times. It seemed to strike at
the union of church and state, although--and this seemed natural--such
union was blamed upon the selfishness of secular monarchs, seeking
greater power. It was natural that the Catholic Church, if it now
condemned this union, should see in it, not a usurpation of secular
authority by the church, but of ecclesiastical power by the state.
“Narrow, insular, national views and jealousies concerning
ecclesiastical authority and church organization may have sprung
naturally enough from the selfish policy of certain rulers and nations
in bygone times, but they find no sympathy in the spirit of the true
American Catholic.”
“I see,” said Robert gravely, handing the book back. It seemed queer
that both the Catholics and the Tribesmen should issue proclamations
against what was probably the same thing. It was like the two knights
fighting each other all day because one declared the shield was red and
the other that it was black and then discovering, as they lay exhausted
on the ground, that the shield was black on one side and red on the
other. Tribesmen and Know Nothingers feared that the church wished to
control the state; the Catholic fathers that the state should try to
control the church.
“Have you the real fourth degree oath of the Knights of Columbus?”
asked McCall.
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” said Robert.
“Yes, it is. You must be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt. The
Knights of Columbus, Father, are supposed to be trying to seize control
of the state by, well, it amounts to murder. Read this.”
He handed over the circular. The priest looked at it and frowned.
“This is a more serious charge,” he said. “I can forgive a person for
being honestly mistaken in his view of the relation of the Catholic
Church to the state, but this oath must have been written by one or
more persons actuated by a hatred of Catholicism and who knew that it
must be false. It is not a case of honest ignorance.”
He continued reading, his eyebrows drawn together in a scowl and
nodding his head from time to time. Finally he looked up.
“Mr. Hamilton, that charge is not new. It is surprising that it should
bob up again, inasmuch as the real oath of the Knights of Columbus
was made public several years ago in the course of an investigation
into the matter by the Masonic bodies. It was also made public in
the course of a contested election case. The false oath, this oath I
have here, had been circulated to defeat a candidate who was a fourth
degree knight. Inasmuch as the real oath has already been published
by our own courts and by the Masons, who are hardly pro-Catholic, I
should be violating no confidence in repeating it. It runs: I swear
to support the constitution of the United States. I pledge myself as
a Catholic citizen and Knight of Columbus to enlighten myself fully
upon my duties as a citizen and to conscientiously perform such duties
entirely in the interest of my country and regardless of all personal
consequences. I pledge myself to do all in my power to preserve the
integrity and purity of the ballot, and to promote reverence and
respect for law and order. I promise to practise my religion openly and
without ostentation and to so conduct myself in public affairs and in
the exercise of public virtue as to reflect nothing but credit upon our
Holy Church, to the end that she may flourish and our country prosper
to the greater honor and glory of God.’”
Robert’s brain whirled. He felt himself growing angry. His fists
involuntarily clenched and he bit his lips. Lies, lies, lies. It
had been nothing but lies ever since he had joined the Tribe. Lies
against the Negro, lies against the Catholic, lies against the Jew.
When anything untruthful or mistaken or illogical had been pointed
out, the leaders had always disclaimed responsibility. They had
always disclaimed responsibility for violence, yet wherever the Tribe
flourished the strongest violence and these damnable lies were most
numerous.
“Show him the official Knights of Columbus ritual,” McCall was saying,
and, although Robert protested that it was not necessary, Father
Callahan procured the volume, opened it at the proper page and showed
it to him.
“There’s some nonsense about the prediction of Abraham Lincoln that
some day there would be a clash between Rome and this country,
something about seeing a cloud coming from Rome which forebode war.”
“Please don’t----” began Robert.
“You must. Let him look through your complete works of Lincoln.”
In spite of his protests the ponderous volumes were pulled out of their
shelves and laid on the table.
“This is supposed to contain everything Lincoln ever wrote or said,”
McCall turned to the index volume. “Now look for Catholic. Now try
Rome. Now try Pope. Now try Papacy.”
Robert looked. There was nothing. There were two short letters in which
Lincoln repudiated rumors that he belonged to the Know Nothing party.
Nothing about Rome or the Pope or Catholicism.
“If you can find any such statement by Lincoln in any authenticated
work in the Chicago Public Library, in any library, or in any original
document, I’ll believe you,” said McCall.
“No, that’s unnecessary,” said Robert. “It’s a standard work. It would
be of such tremendous importance, any statement like that, that it
would undoubtedly appear in any standard collection of letters and
addresses. It would be of such importance that it would appear in our
histories. No, you’re right, Bill.” There was a lump in his throat.
“Can you forgive me? I am----”
“No, you won’t resign yet,” said McCall, “there are certain lies about
the Jews. Father Callahan could probably answer most of them, I could
answer some, but I am going to take you to Levin’s. Levin’s father is a
rabbi.”
“No,” said Robert, “it’s not necessary.”
“Yes, you’re going.”
“Of course, there is one thing,” broke in the priest with a smile,
“there is no one body that represents the Jews as the Holy See
represents Catholicism. There are Zionist Jews and anti-Zionist Jews,
orthodox and reformed, German and Russian and Polish and Hungarian
and English. There is no one conference that all the rabbis attend.
In other words, the Jews are not a unit as the Catholics are. I could
point out what the Baltimore council said, and that meant the official
attitude of the Catholic church. There is no such official office of
the Jews. There is no Jewish pope, in other words, who could state the
position of all Jews about anything. Take the ridiculous charge that
they plan the overthrow of all governments. Every Jew would deny it,
but there is no central Jewish authority that you could consult.”
“That’s all right, father,” said McCall. “Levin’s father is one of the
orthodox rabbis. He still wears a skull cap. He still keeps the old
dietary rules. He is a Zionist. He belongs to a lodge that represents
the most Jewish of the Jews of Chicago. If he can’t tell you what Jews
are thinking about and what their ideas and ideals are, nobody else
can.”
The priest shook hands with them, made a passing allusion to the joy
that attends the recovery of one sheep that has strayed from the fold,
and invited them to come again.