r Hecker's plan
would have given them, and that at no great expense. What substitute
for a priest is equal to a good book? What vocation to the priesthood
has not found its origin in the pages of a good book, or at any rate
been fostered by its devout lessons? And all history as well as
experience proves that the best guarantee of the faith of a Catholic,
moving amidst kindly-disposed non-Catholic neighbors, is the
aggressive force of missionary zeal. The Publication Society, if
brought into active play, would have done much to create this zeal,
and would have supplied its best arms of attack and defence by an
abundance of free Catholic reading. It would have helped on every
good work by auxiliary forces drawn from intelligent faith and
instructed zeal.

A closer view of the case shows that antecedents of a racial and
social character among the people had something to do with the apathy
we have been considering. To a great degree it still rests upon us,
though such organized efforts as the Catholic Truth Society of St.
Paul, Minnesota, and the Holy Ghost Society of New Orleans indicate a
change for the better.

Had Father Hecker continued in good health there is a chance, though
a desperate one, that he might have overcome all obstacles. Many
zealous souls would have followed his lead. As a specimen we may name
the Vicar-General of San Francisco, Father Prendergast, who, with the
help of a few earnest friends, raised several thousand dollars in
gold in that diocese alone. But in 1871 Father Hecker's strength
began to fail, and in the following year his active life was done. As
already shown, it had been the intention to establish branch
societies everywhere, whose delegates would regularly meet and
control the entire work, giving the Church in America an approved,
powerful auxiliary dominantly made up of laymen. In that sense the
Society never was so much as organized, the number of branch
societies not at any time warranting such a step as a general meeting
of their representatives. The money actually collected was all spent
in printing and circulating the tracts and other publications given
away or sold below cost, Father Hecker and the Paulists managing the
entire work. When the collections gave out, Mr. George V. Hecker
contributed a large sum for continuing the undertaking. The result
was his finding himself in the publishing business, which he was
compelled to place as far as possible on a basis to meet the cur