CATHOLIC PRESS ACTIVITIES IN HOLLAND

New Zealand Tablet, 22 January 1914, Page 9

CATHOLIC PRESS ACTIVITIES IN HOLLAND

* ‘ I trust to God in the day of judgment I shall not be reproached with having failed to warn. you, in season and out of season, against the paramount danger of our times, the evil press.’ These grave and weighty words, rendered doubly impressive by the place and the occasion, were uttered last August by a Dutch ■ Bishop from the ambo in front of the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. His audience mainly consisted of some fifteen hundred devout pilgrims, mostly of the well-to-do class, who made up the 25th annual pilgrimage from Holland to the world-famed Pyrenean shrine. Holland and her great neighbor to the East, though both with an overwhelmingly Protestant population, have within the last two decades attracted widespread attention by their singular achievements in the field of Catholic journalism (says a writer in America). The 1913 Tear-hook of the first-named country, under the heading, ‘ The Catholic Press,’ enumerates seventeen Catholic dailies, twenty-nine bi-weekly papers, sixtynine weeklies, and fifty-four monthly magazines of a diversified character. With the exception of three or four that enjoy a wider circulation, the Catholic dailies of Holland are mostly local or provincial papers, being issued from the larger centres of population and covering the country districts contiguous to each. Thus Haarlem, Leiden, The Hague, etc., each has its own Catholic daily, Amsterdam may boast of as many' as three, with he. Tyd, the oldest Catholic organ in the country, conspicuously in the lead. Rotterdam is represented by two Catholic dailies, one of which, De Maasbode, of recent years, has forged ahead so as to rank at present at the leading ‘ Catholic journal of the Netherlands, with morning and evening editions.’ All These Dailies May be Classed as Live Newspapers, each giving regularly the associated telegraphic news, more of less extensive market reports, and, apart from the Catholic tone pervading their editorial and news columns, being similar in all respects to other papers. The weeklies likewise deserve to be ranked as newspapers. So far from their being edited on the assumption that their readers get the news from the secular press of every shade, every one of these papers weekly contains a chronicle of foreign and domestic happenings amply sufficient to satisfy on this point the demand of their readers, especially those of the farming and laboring class. * Both dailies and weeklies are generally well supported ; one weekly is reported to have 30,000 subscribers. An excellent spirit in this respect seems to prevail among the Dutch Catholics, who generally look upon the duty of supporting their press in the light of an Eleventh Commandment, while patronising the secular press to the exclusion of their own is regarded. by them as a. mark of religious torpidity akin to apostasy. Very,, rarely, if ever, is a Catholic paper heard of as having to suspend publication' for lack of financial support, On the contrary, new papers are

being started from time to time, the latest addition to the ranks of the dailies being Ons Soorden (Our North), which within the last three months has appeared as the Catholic organ for the Provinces of Groningen and Friesland. This makes a grand total of Eighteen Catholic-Dailies in a national constituency slightly exceeding in numbers the aggregate Catholic population of, say, Greater New York ! In the face of this ideal showing, the Bishop’s remarks, quoted at the outset, nevertheless would seem to hint at something more to be desired on this score. There is a vast difference between a local or provincial daily, with its restricted space and limited resources, and the great metropolitan press, with its commercial ramifications and news .agencies extending to every quarter of the globe. This latter division of the public press in Holland, as in most European countries, is almost exclusively controlled by the liberal and radical element, and therefore of a decided anti-clerical bent in general and bitterly hostile to Catholicism in particular. Nevertheless on the plea of the complete- , ness of their news columns, these papers were still largely patronised by Catholics of the professional and business classes. In order to remedy, this unsatisfactory condition, De Man shade of Rotterdam, with great pluck and enterprise considering its relatively small resources, some five years ago greatly enlarged its size, put its commercial and financial departments up to the highest level, and began publishing both morning and evening editions. .In its present make-up the paper is the peer of any secular sheet in the country, and contains such ample daily news, both foreign and domestic, as any banker, broker, or wholesale merchant might require. But it takes time to dislodge an enemy once he has obtained admission to the premises on the pretence of his liberal theories. Such is especially the case in the two southernmost Provinces of Holland, where Catholics largely predominate, and therefore had exceptionally benefited by the political reforms introduced under the early Liberal administrations of the fifties. The bitterly-fought electoral campaign of last summer, however, has aroused anew the fighting spirit of the great Rotterdam daily. So vicious and vituperative had been the daily attacks on Church, clergy, and religious, that the paper in dead earnest set itself to the task of gradually displacing those'virulent commercial sheets wherever they are found circulating among Catholics. With the unanimous approval of the Episcopate, committees, composed of the leading clergy, professional and business men, have since been formed in all the great centres, particularly of Holland proper, North Brabant, and Limburg, for the purpose of carrying on An Active Propaganda to extend the circulation of De .1/ aashade in professional and business circles. Evidently the Bishop aforementioned had this in mind while addressing some of his wealthier countrymen at the Grotto of Lourdes.

Cardinal Van Rossum, while visiting Holland last summer, also warmly espoused De Maasbode’s cause, and publicly commended the paper for its courageous stand and high purpose. Encouragement is further being received ; from the very class whom the movement chiefly concerns. One leading merchant with foreign business connections writes to. the paper that Catholic business people henceforth have no excuse whatsoever in patronising the secular press, since De, Maasbode contains all the daily news and business man in any branch of trade at homo or abroad may be looking for. Apart from this movement, the paper has recently opened a public subscription for the purpose of sustaining, financially as well as morally, its active and persistent fight against the judeo'-rnasonic press. Upwards of 10,000 gulden have so far been subscribed by sympathisers of every rank and condition. No better proof could be had of the Catholic public’s endorsement of the paper’s stand in the pursuit of which its editors and managers seem to be straining every nerve. And the signs all point to their energy and grit not being wasted. It should be remembered that Holland geopraphically is a rather small-sized country and that its Catholic population barely exceeds two million souls. While there seems to be ample scope for all of its local papers and every indication of their being successfully supported, the area of the country and the circle of the reading public are necessarily too limited to maintain more than one Catholic commercial daily up to the high standard of modern requirements. Consolidation has been in the air for some time past, and though nothing definite has transpired so far, eventually, it is believed, the two leading papers, Be Ti/d of Amsterdam, and Be Man shade of Rotterdam will be merged into one superior Catholic journal wherewith effectively to offset the many advantages that largo capital and political pull afford the great secular pres.?. - - In connection herewith what greatly perplexes intelligent Catholics in Holland is that so far not a single English Catholic daily has made its appearance in the great United States. The gist of their argument seems fairly well reflected by Kipling’s familiar lines: ‘We have got the ships; wo have got the men we have got the money, too!’ As they view it, all wo lack is the spirit that prompts Catholics individually to subscribe the necessary capital and editors and managers to be content with a ‘living wage,’ and all for the success of a cause that should be dear to us beyond all else. This alone, they claim, holds the secret of their remarkable achievements of late years in the journalistic field.