FATHER VAUGHAN'S WARNING.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLIII, Issue 93, 5 June 1917, Page 3

FATHER VAUGHAN'S WARNING.

Rev. Father Vaughan, at a Sunday afternoon lecture at His Majesty's Theatre, London, said:— "Proud as we have a right to be of the extent and population and wealth of our Empire, the greatness of an Empire is to be measured not by its material splendor, by the character of its people; and the chief engravers of character are hereditry and environment. At present in this city environment is destroying some of oxir brave soldiers more quickly than machine guns. We need better homes for the people, and we must have them if it costive millions a day to build them; and they must not have written over them, 'Children not needed here.' J am not in the least apprehensive about the end of the war; I know we shall win. But when the war abroad is finished a war at home will be started, and we ought to begin to build character now. I see the clanger signal of industrial discontent. I am told that soldiers will want to go on the land; but they will want nothing of the kind—not even at a minimum wage qf 255. I see the danger signal of a lack of teachers, and the terrible, cruel danger-signal of the birthrate. It has never been so low as now. and it is going to be much lower after the war. There will not only lie fewer men to become fathers, but so many women unfitted to become mothers, and so many unwilling to bend to the yoke of motherhood. What is wanted to solve these problems is faith—faith in our mission, in our country, tremendous faith in God. The measure of a country's greatness is in its faith."