358 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



original sources or the exact points involved merely for the 

 sake of enhghtenment or for the correction of misinformation, 

 it will produce an impression far greater and lasting and will 

 be welcomed by all who desire to hear all sides of a question. 

 It is therefore to meet this want, and other kindred wants, that 

 we believe a society such as we contemplate to be necessary. 



A healthy, appreciative public opinion cannot be formed in a 

 moment. Assuming, for instance, that we succeeded in remov- 

 ing many false impressions about the struggle in France and 

 corrected much erroneous information, it does not mean that 

 we shall not have to do the work over again to-morrow or the 

 next day, when a new batch of news comes over the cables, or a 

 fresh crisis arrives. In the English tradition and literature, 

 which we in America inherit, bias and prejudice against Catho- 

 lic principles and Catholic history have been so interwoven that 

 a distrust or tendency to hasty and adverse judgment on things 

 Catholic exists in nearly every man who has not either taken 

 the pains or had the leisure to inform himself about them. 

 Sometimes malevolence makes such adverse judgment worse. 

 It becomes, therefore, our duty when the occasion arises, to 

 lay before our fellow-citizens in America such an array of facts, 

 information and correct deductions concerning the current civil 

 and temporal relations of the Church with the nations and peo- 

 ples of the earth, and particularly in our own country, in a 

 temperate and dispassionate manner, so that our fellow-Ameri- 

 cans, even if they do not wholly agree with us, may nevertheless 

 obtain and disseminate correct news of any event or question 

 involving the Church. The American public should be as well 

 informed upon questions touching the Catholic Church and her 

 duly constituted authorities, as upon the tariff, the railroad, the 

 currency, or the foreign policy of the United States, or upon 

 the science, literature and art of the day. And it should be our 

 duty to supply such information in an appropriate manner, 

 giving a dignified statement of the facts and principles involved 

 in the particular case under consideration. 



How this may best be accomplished and what particular form 

 it shall take, is one of the problems confronting us. What we 

 consider here are the most obvious wants at this particular time 

 and the means we shall have to use in order to supply them. It 

 goes without saying that a fair amount of money will be re- 

 quired to put the association upon its feet and to make it really 



