Ireland

men saw an attack on the public school system.
The Catholic press was divided. Jesuits scented
irregularity, as did some churchmen who favored
Cahenslyism. Certain articles were unfair, in-
sisting that the plan was contrary to the Roman
instructions and the prescriptions of the Third
Plenary Council of Baltimore. The plan was not
new, however, for there had been similar con-
solidations in other dioceses; but not until Ire-
land acted were passionate protests aroused. The
attacks were silenced when the Propaganda, Apr.
21, 1892, declared that Ireland's plan could "be
tolerated in view of all the circumstances, the
decrees of the Council of Baltimore on parochial
schools remaining firmly in force." The Fari-
bault plan was nevertheless abandoned, and Ire-
land built parochial schools almost as rapidly as
parishes. Without changing his attitude, he came
to realize that no compromise would save his
people from a double school tax (Report of the
Proceedings of Catholic Education Association,
I9I5> P- 30-44; Catholic Mind, Apr. 22, 1913,
July 22, 1915, Aug. 22, 1920). In 1885, he es-
tablished St. Thomas Seminary, which in 1894
became St. Thomas College, a military academy,
which was awarded first honors by the War De-
partment. In 1894 he opened the St. Paul Semi-
nary, which was endowed by James J. Hill [#.#.].
In 1905, he aided the Sisters of St. Joseph, of
whom his own sisters were leaders, in their foun-
dation of the College of St. Catherine.

At the World's Congress Auxiliary, Ireland,
as a member of the advisory council, spoke on
"Human Progress," Oct 21, 1892, and at the
twenty-fifth anniversary of Cardinal Gibbons'
consecration, Oct. 18,1893, he preached on "The
Church and the Age," eulogizing Leo XIII, Gib-
bons, Manning, Von Kettler, and Lavigerie as
men who would reconcile the church with the
age, and dedicated himself to the same cause, re-
minding men that, "The watchwords of the age
are reason, education, liberty and the ameliora-
tion of the masses."

In the early nineties, when Ireland was forced
to get a Wall Street loan secured by his hold-
ings to clear the diocese of threatening debt, he
took occasion to condemn the machinations of
Tammany, to the annoyance of local churchmen.
Indeed, Ireland's Republican affiliation was
viewed by some Catholics as a touch of hetero-
doxy. Because of his support of Sylvester Ma-
lone [g.'p.] for appointment as regent of the
University of the State of New York in opposi-
tion to the candidacy of Bishop McQuaid and
his friendship with Fathers Lambert, Burtsell,
and McGlynn [g#.z/.]> McQuaid denounced him
from Ms cathedral and Archbishop Corrigan's

Ireland

coolness became marked. In 1896, through Re-
publican leaders, Ireland checkmated J. M. King
of the National League for the Protection of
American Institutions, who tried to force a plank
into the Republican platform relative to the union
of church and state and the use of public money
for sectarian purposes. Therewith he was as-
saulted in King's Facing the Twentieth Century
(1899) as "the most specious and deceptive foe
of the public schools." The "A. P. A." move-
ment, however, caused Ireland little anxiety,
since he recognized that it was ephemeral. Pro-
tests were bitter when his denunciation of Bryan-
ism as a form of secession was broadcast by the
Republican committee. The press, Oct. 2, 1896,
gave wide circulation to his interview warning
against Bismarck's suggestion that the United
States experiment with bimetallism (H. T. Peck,
Twenty Years of the Republic, 1907, p. 510). An
admirer of President McKinley, he was also close
to Roosevelt, to whom he promised support in
case of a Hanna boom. He was not so stalwart
a Republican, however, that he could accept
Roosevelt's Panama diplomacy. F. E. Leupp in
The Nation (Sept 2, 1915) correctly observed
that the archbishop "could no more keep out of
politics than he could turn infidel."

Ireland, despite an outcry, sought to prevent
war betw'een Spain and the United States (J. F.
Rhodes, The McKinley and Roosevelt Adminis-
trations, 1922, p. 62), but when the war party
won, he informed Rome that further peace efforts
would be futile and publicly announced that he
would support the war. When the war was over,
he urged Roosevelt to send a mission to Rome to
negotiate concerning the "friar lands" in the
Philippines. He held that the final settlement
was generous, though the religious orders were
far from satisfied, and urged the gradual replace-
ment of Spanish priests by Americans. McKin-
ley, John Hay, and Roosevelt (as governor and
as president) were anxious that Rome under-
stand American esteem for Ireland, in the hope
that he would be elevated to the cardinalate, but
the hope was not realized Ireland's interest in
the red biretta was not such that he confessed
disappointment. Protestants agreed with The
Nation (Sept. 2, 1915) that: "The complaints
against Ireland, so far as they have reached this
country, have related to his advanced modernism
and his independent manner of expressing him-
self," hardly realizing that his bitterest oppo-
nents were in American and Spanish ecclesias-
tical circles. In 1911, his friends were again
disappointed when Archbishops Farley [#.#.]
and Q'Connell were made cardinals. In 1915, it
Was rumored that Benedict XV intended to give

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