THE A.P.A.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 12, 29 July 1898, Page 28

THE A.P.A.

HOW IT FIGHTS AND HOW IT DES

Most readers of the N. Z. Tablet are aware that the A.P.A. (American Protective Association) is a Becret, oath-bound conspiracy against Catholics, running on the same lines as the Orange Society. The A.P.A. endeavoured to make the present war a fresh pretext for hounding down the Catholic body as disloyal. We had an echo of their hoarse cry in Dunedin. But where fighting was to be done the members of the A.P.A. were as conspicuously absent as the Catholics were conspicuously to the fore. The ' btart for Halifax ' ih the subjoined poem is a reference — more readily understood in the United States than in New Zealand — to the number of A.P.A. leaders who found it necessary to make a bee-line for Canada to, escape the officers of the law. The action of the A.P.A. reminds one strongly of that of the Ulster Orangemen, who in the twenties, sixties, and eighties wero for ever threatening- to send ' 100.000 meu' to ' line the ditches' north of the Boyne and fiyrht the forces of the Crown, in case Parliament should dare to grant Catholic Emancipation, the Disestablishment of the Protestant Church in Ireland, or Home Rule. Some Nationalist newspapers twitted them with this in 1851 and 1857, and called upon them to send a brigade, or even a battalion. to fight for the Crown in the Crimea or India. The L.OJ. did not send so much as a corporal "s secretary. The Boston Post gives the following as the battle cry of the A.P.A.— ' War is coming ! Blood must flow ! ' Mary, get my satchel packed, ' We must meet the craven foe ! ' Mary, get my satchel packed — ' There are wrongs that we must right, Freeborn men prepare to fight ; 'Tis no time for childish fright' — Mary, get my satchel packed. ' Now, let all the world give ear ' — Mary, get my satchel packed, We've begged for war for half a year "—" — Mary, get my satxihel packed. ' The President, at last, is stirred, We have spoken, he has heard ; Now, then, for the final word' — Mary, get my satchel packed. ' Clouds of war obscure the sky ' — Mary, get my satchel packed, ' Cuba's hope is mounting high,' Mary, get my satchel packed. ' Let our tars prepare to fight, Let them battle for the right — I start for Halifax to-night,' Mary, get my satchel packed. Troubles have been thickening of late upon thu A.P.A. The Boston Pilot of June 11 tells how the affairs of its organ, the JJailf/ Standard — lately deceased — were brought before Judge Richardson in the Superior Court on June 2, on the report of Brenton H. De Wolf, receiver of the bankrupt concern. After going over the accounts it appears that the creditors with claims to the amount of abount fc>o,OOOdols. (£10,000) had the munificent

sum of one dollar and five cents from which to-iave their claims liquidated. Among the creditors are former emdoyes of the newspaper whose claims amount to the aggregate "of 5,700d015. ; and the city of Boston- is out to the amount of 850dols. for taxes. The Standard had a short but significant career. Born on the eve of All-Fools' Day, 1895, it expired on the eve of another tostival of the same general character, Orangeman's Day, 189(fl^ It was ushen d into existence under false pretences. The day after its birth the Standard made its appearance -ma -s alutatory announcing that it did not desire the patronage of the ' longlipped, low-browed, ignorant Irish,' nor the advertisements of anybody who wished for the trade of the aforesaid ' long-lipped, lowbrowed,' etc. Then the Pilot took a hand in the game. It accepted the challenge of the Standard, and advised its readers to avoid offending the tender susceptibilities of advertisers who did not want their trade. The Standard said that the Pilot was trying to boycott it, an entirely erroneous and superfluous proceeding. By way of reprisal, it employed one of its men as a walking: delegate to demand, in tho name of the A.P.A., that the Pilot should depart from the policy which it had followed for sixty years' under the management of Patrick Donahoe, D'Arcy McGfee, John Boyle O'Reilly, and of its present editor, in order to 'take the curse off ' the A.P.A. Standard. The trick failed, and the Standard struggled along until the day when William J. Bryan was nominated for the presidency and the last chance of bringing xeligion into national politics was lost. Then the Standard gave up the ghost. Liabilities, SO.OOOdols. ; assets, Idol. 6 cents.