age of the Bill. The only copy of the letter that reached Oregon before that date bore on the reverse side in Thurston's handwriting the following note:

"Keep this still till next mail, when I shall send them generally. The debate on the California Bill closes next Tuesday, when I hope to get it passed-my land bill; keep dark till next mail.

"June 9, 1850."

"THURSTON."

No wonder he wished the proceedings to be kept in the dark. They would not bear the light.

In the debate on the Bill, Thurston declared that the Hudson's Bay Company had been waging war on our country for forty years. He continued: "Dr. McLoughlin has been their chief fugleman, first to cheat our government out of the whole country, and next to prevent its settlement. In 1845 he sent an express to Fort Hall, 800 miles, to warn American emigrants that if they attempted to come to Willamette they would all be cut off; they went and none were cut off. How, sir, would you reward Benedict Arnold, were he living? tles of the country, yet by one act of treason forfeited the respect of that country. A bill for his relief would fail, I am sure; yet this bill proposes to reward those who are now, have been, and ever will be more hostile to our country-more dangerous because more hidden, more jesuitical."

He fought the bat

As soon as it became generally known that Thurston was resorting to falsehood and calumny to deprive Dr. McLoughlin of his land a public mass meeting of protest was held in Oregon City. A resolution was drafted repudiating the selection of McLoughlin's property for a University reservation, declaring that McLoughlin "merits the gratitude of multitudes of persons in Oregon for the timely and long continued assistance rendered by him in the settlement of this Territory." A memorial was sent to Congress setting forth that McLoughlin was justly entitled to his land claim. But the Bill had become a Law before the memorial reached Washington and the attention of Congress was being devoted to more important concerns than the property rights of an old man in the wilds of Oregon. Shortly after the passage of the Bill a mass meeting was held

at Salem, the stronghold of the mission party. Resolutions were drawn up strongly upholding the action of Thurston; declaring that "the Hudson's Bay Company, with Dr. McLoughlin as their chief fugleman, have used every means that could be invented by avarice, duplicity, cunning and deception to retard American settlement, and cripple the growth of American interests in Oregon." And the framers of this resolution were of the men whom Dr. McLoughlin had fed and clothed and housed. He had cared for their families and nursed their sick. He had loaned them thousands of dollars which they had never returned. He had saved them from the cruelty of the Indians. And this was their expression of gratitude!

In 1854 the lower house of the Oregon Legislature refused to memorialize Congress in favor of the restitution of McLoughlin's claim to its rightful owner, and even a resolution expressing the gratitude of Oregon for McLoughlin's work was indefinitely postponed. And so the Father and benefactor of Oregon became impoverished; his lands confiscated, his extensive improvements rendered useless and unsaleable, his very home taken from him by the iniquitous conspiracy. He was indeed suffered to occupy the house simply because no one had any interest in evicting him. It was no longer his. In a document already referred to, Dr. McLoughlin thus sums up the results of his labors in the Oregon Country: "I founded this settlement and prevented a war between the United States and Great Britain, and for doing this peaceably and quietly, I was treated by the British in such a manner that from selfrespect I resigned my situation in the Hudson's Bay Company's service, by which I sacrificed $12,000 per annum, and the Oregon Land Bill' shows the treatment I received from the Americans." Fortified by the last rites of the Church Dr. McLoughlin died at Oregon City, September 3, 1857, a brokenhearted man. His body lies in the churchyard. The place is marked by a simple stone.

In October, 1862, three years after Oregon had become a State, the Legislative Assembly did tardy justice to the memory of McLoughlin by returning to his heirs the confiscated land claim. Twelve years had elapsed since the passage of the

Oregon Donation Land Bill reduced him to destitution, and five years had flown since his body had been laid in the churchyard. Dr. John McLoughlin was beyond power of legislative enactments, but the State of Oregon did credit to itself by this official condemnation of the conspiracy against its greatest benefactor. Still no appropriate recognition of the services of McLoughlin has yet been shown by the Oregon Country. In 1887 the people of Portland had a life sized portrait of McLoughlin painted for the Oregon Pioneer Association. The portrait now hangs in the place of honor in the Senate chamber of the State Capitol at Salem. In St. John's Catholic Church, at Oregon City, is to be seen a memorial window representing McLoughlin as a knight of St. Gregory. The most fitting monument yet erected to his memory is the parish school, at Oregon City, named in his honor the 'McLoughlin Institute,' which was dedicated with fitting ceremonies and addresses on Sunday, October 6, 1907.

The Catholics of the Pacific Northwest may claim as their own the Father of Oregon', they have a hero that is found without blemish. "Of all the men," says Mr. Holman, in the concluding paragraph of his Life of McLoughlin,' "whose lives and deeds are essential parts of the history of the Oregon Country, Dr. John McLoughlin stands supremely first-there is no second. In contemplating him all others sink into comparative insignificance. You may search the whole world, and all its histories from the beginning of civilization to today, and you will find no nobler, no grander man than Dr. John McLoughlin. His life and character illustrate the kinship of man to God. He was God-like in his great fatherhood, in his great strength, in his great power, and in the exercise of his strength and of his power; he was Christ-like in his gentleness, in his tenderness, in his loving-kindness, and in his humanity."

EDWIN V. O'HARA.

PORTLAND, OREGON.

CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTIVITY IN EUROPE.

In the preface to his latest book,1 Professor Max Turman, of the University of Fribourg, declares that for the Catholics of France the supreme need of the hour is the mutual reconciliation and the union of all men of good will who appreciate moral and spiritual ideals. He believes that the field of social endeavor presents splendid opportunities for meeting this need, and submits the studies and discussions contained in this volume as proofs and illustrations of his faith.

The book is divided into four parts, of which the first deals with the Industrial World; the second, with the Rural World; the third, with Certain Organizations for Social Propaganda; and the fourth, with Some Social Laws and Facts. In the opening chapter he calls attention to the lack of social training in the schools and colleges of France, and points out the great need of such training for an employer or director of industry. An employer cannot adequately fulfill his directive and industrial functions except he is personally acquainted with his employees, thinks of them always as human beings, and takes a sympathetic interest in their families, homes, and general conditions of life. To this end experience is, indeed, necessary, but there is also need of instruction in the moral and social principles that should be applied in his relations with his employees. As an illustration of the difficulties and the opportunities bound up with this neglected side of the employer's function, the author cites the experience of M. Emmanuel Rivière. When this gentleman took control of the "Grande Imprimerie" at Blois, he found a great deal of Sunday work, many operatives absent from the shops on Mondays, much drunkenness, and very little practical Catholicity. His first steps were to abolish the practice of working on Sunday, to insist upon promptness and regularity, and to forbid smoking and drinking in the establishment. He was fully aware that

1" Activités Sociales," par Max Turman, VIII, 393, 2iéme ed., Paris, 1907.

these regulations would be resented by the workers, but he deliberately set himself the task of making them popular. Assembling his employees, he informed them that henceforth they were to meet him regularly for the sake of mutual acquaintance, the prosperity of the industry, and their own as well as his welfare. Notwithstanding the suspicion and indifference with which this proposal was received, he persevered until he had convinced them of his good will and sincerity, and made them responsive to his plans and devoted to his interests. Space is wanting for a detailed description of the complete and manifold success, material, moral and religious, that followed his efforts. Fundamentally it was all due to his deep and disinterested love for every one of his workers. This love he was able to prove by deeds, by the knowledge, interest, and sympathy which he manifested concerning their conditions, needs, and aspirations.

It must be confessed that the achievement of M. Rivière would probably not make a strong appeal to the average American. In the first place, the plan seems to be quite inapplicable to businesses of great size, especially those conducted by corporations. That a large proportion of modern employers do treat their employees as so many machines, so many units of labor force, is practically if not literally true. It is true of many industries whose directors have humane instincts and wish to treat their "hands" humanely; nay, who do accord such treatment to those employees with whom they come into frequent personal contact, such as their domestic servants. But the very magnitude of the business, we are told, renders any other course impossible. Now this view contains much exaggeration. Be the industry never so large, say, a trans-continental railroad or a steel trust, its subordinate managers, such as heads of departments, superintendents, foremen, and overseers, who have continuous personal association with those employees over whom they exercise immediate control, could manifest a sympathetic personal interest in the lives of these men, and could exhibit those proofs of human feeling and kindness which would at once benefit, please, and conciliate them. Such a policy could