criticism. Meantime,
the social problems which had perplexed Father Hecker himself in his
early life, have caught the attention of the slower minds of average
men, or rather have been thrust upon them; and their consideration,
ever in his own sympathetic spirit, now forms a prominent feature of
_The Catholic World._

_The Young Catholic_ was an enterprise dear to his heart. His
interest in it was constant and minute, and some of the articles most
popular with its young constituency were from his own pen. It has
always been edited by Mrs. George V. Hecker, assisted by a small
circle of zealous and enlightened writers. It has held its way, but
has had to encounter the not unusual fate of bold pioneers. It
created its own rivals by demonstrating the possibilities of juvenile
Catholic journalism, calling into existence more than a score of
claimants for the support which it alone at first solicited. The
lowest estimate of juvenile publications of a purely secular tone
yearly sold in America carries the figure far into the millions. Some
of these, and it is well to know that they are the most widely sold,
are first-rate in a literary point of view and employ the best
artists for the pictures. To say that they are secular but feebly
expresses the totally unmoral influence they for the most part exert.
They are the extension of the unreligious school into the homes of
the people. When Father Hecker and Mrs. George V. Hecker and their
associates began _The Young Catholic,_ this vast mirage of the desert
of life had but glimmered upon the distant horizon; they saw it
coming and they did their best to point Catholic youth away from it
and lead it to the real oasis of God, with its grateful shade, its
delicious fruits, and its ever-flowing springs of the waters of life.

As already said, The Catholic Publication Society was begun a year
after _The Catholic World_ was started, its aim being to turn to the
good of religion, and especially to the conversion of non-Catholics,
all the uses the press is capable of. It was a missionary work in the
broadest sense seeking to enlist not only the clergy but especially
the laity in an organized Apostolate of the Press, to enlighten the
faith of Catholics and to spread it among their Protestant
fellow-citizens. Its first work was to be the issuing of tracts and
pamphlets telling the plain truth about the Catholic religion. Local
societies, to be established throughout the country, were to b