PERIODICAL
G92
PERIODICAL
of two daily editions, and that the best non-Catholic
newspapers exceed the Catholic ones in copiousness
of matter, etc. It is also worthv nf notice (liat the
Catholic daily with tliclart;cst circulation, tlic " Vater-
land", has about 11,000 suliscrihcis aiiionf; Catholics,
while among the ()3,000 suliscrihcrs tn the politically
and ecclesiastically iiulilTcrciit ■'Zinclicr Tagesan-
zeigcr", there are about 20,000 Calliolics. Again, it
is not a Catholic weekly that has the largest circula-
tion among Catholics, but it is the rather Liberally
inclined "Schweiz. Wochenzeitung" of Zurich. Yet
the Catholic party is the second in strength in Switzer-
land.
But the Liberal and Protestant parties are socially and economically in a far better position, they control the larger part of the cities, while the majority of the Catholic jjopulation represent the country and moun- tain districts, which have less need of a daily paper. On the other hand, the daily Press of the Social Demo- cratic party and of the Democratic party of the Left have a total circulation of .54,000, although they draw their readers almost entirely from the lower classes of the population. However, the Swiss Catholic Press is earnest, courageous, and on the whole is able and efficient, and exerts a greater influence than is the case with the greater part of the Liberal Press. The principal Catholic newspapers of Switzerland are: the "Vaterland", founded at Lucerne in 1873; the " Neuen-Ziircher Nachrichten", established at Zurich in 1904; the "Ostschweiz", in 1874 at St. Gall; the "Easier Volksblatt", in 1873 at Basle; and the "Lib- ert6", in 1865 at Fribourg. Among the pioneers, now deceased, of the Catholic Press of Switzerland spe- cial mention should be made of: Bishop Augustinus Egger, Landamman Baumgartner, and Joseph Gmiir of St. Gall, Schultheiss von Segesser of Lucerne, Landamman Hanggi of Solothurn, the episcopal com- missary von Ah, and Landamman Th. Wirz of Ob- wald, iVIgr Jurt of Basle, and Canon Schorderet of Fribourg. Among Catholic periodicals the following should be mentioned: "Dieschweiz. Kirchenzeitung", of Lucerne, a theological review that has a high reputa- tion among the German clergy also: the "Schweiz. Rundschau", issued at Stans, a Catholic scientific and Uterary review; the "Schweiz. sozialpolit. Blatter", of Fribourg; the "Alte und Neue Welt", of Einsie- deln, an illustrated Catholic family paper, which has a large circulation also in Germany and Austria; the "Zukunft", of Einsiedeln, a Catholic review for the Swiss associations for young men; various religious Sunday papers for the people; an illustrated supple- ment for Catholic newspapers; a large number of Catholic calendars, as well as the organs of Catholic societies, etc. The five papers for Catholic workmen and working women have been included among the political newspapers.
Georo Baumberger.
The United States. — According to "The Official Catholic Directory" for 1911, there are 321 Catholic periodicals published in the ijnited States. Of these about two-thirds, or 201, are printed in English, 51 in German, 24 in French, 24 in PoUsh, 7 in Bohemian, 5 in Italian, 2 in Slavonic, 2 in Magyar, 2 in Dutch, 1 in Croatian, 1 in Spanish, 1 in an Indian dialect. These make up 13 dailies, 115 weekUes, 128 monthlies, 29 quarterlies, 2 bi-weeklies, 5 semi-weeklies, 4 semi- monthlies, 9 bi-monthlie.s, and 16 annuals. Of the dailies 7 are French, 4 Polish, 2 German, and 1 Bohe- mian; none is English. The French Canadians of Maine, Massachu.setts, and Rhode I.sland support seven dailies, eleven weeklies, one semi-weekly, one monthly, and a quarterly, all of which are printed in French. From 1809 to 1911 some .5.50 Catholic periodicals were started in the United States, but only five of those published during the first half of the nine- teenth century survive. Several attempts have been
made to establish a news association of Catholic
papers, not.ibly at Cincinnati, in May, 1890, but
nothing ])ractical came of these efTorts.
Aeeonling to localities the C'atholic publications are divided up as follows: Alabama, 2; Arizona, 1; Arkansas, 1; California, 9; Colorado, 2; Connecticut, 5; Delaware, 4; District of Columbia, 7 ; Illinois, 30; Indiana, 14; Iowa, 8; Kansas, 4; Kentucky, 5; Louisiana, 2; Maine, 2; Maryland, 10; Massachu- setts, 15; Michigan, 11; Minnesota, 7; Missouri, 15; Montana, 1; Nebraska, 2; New Hampshire, 1; New Jersey, 4; New Mexico, 1; New York, 61; North Carolina, 2; Ohio, 23; Oregon, 7; Pennsylvania, 29; Rhode Island, 1; South Carolina, 2; Tennessee, 2; Texas, 6; Utah, 1; Washington, 2; West Virginia, 1 ; Wisconsin, 21.
Many publications advocating Irish interests are, and have been, edited by Catholics and addressed to a Catholic constituency, but they are secular political enterprises, and are not to be properly enumerated under the head of religious publications (see Irish, The, in Covntries other than Ireland. — I. In the United States).
Neivspapers. — The first Catholic newspaper printed in the United States was due to the enterprise of Father Gabriel Richard, of Detroit, Michigan. In 1808 he visited Baltimore, and while there bought a printing press and a font of type which he sent over the mountains to Detroit (then a frontier town) and set up in the house of one Jacques Lasselle, in the suburb of Springwells. On this press, the lever of which is still preserved in the museum of the Michigan Historical Society, he printed, on 31 August, 1809, the first issue of "The Michigan Essay, or Impartial Ob- server", containing sixteen columns and a half in English, and one column and a half in P>ench, on mis- cellaneous topics. There is no local news included in its contents and only one advertisement, that of St. Anne's school, Detroit. The imprint says the paper was printed and published by James M. Miller, but under the direction of Father Richard. It was to ap- pear every Thursday; only one issue, however, was made, and of this but five copies are extant. The next journalistic effort was in New York, where Thomas O'Connor, father of the jurist Charles O'Conor (q. v.), began, 10 December, 1810, a weekly called the "Sham- rock, or Hibernian Chronicle", which ceased publica- tion 17 August, 1817. It was revived as a monthly called "The Globe" in 1819 and lasted a year. His pen, says his son, "was ever directed in vindicating the fame of Ireland, the honour of our United Ameri- can States, or the truth and purity of his cherished mother the Apostolic Church". Although these two papers were not distinctively religious journals, they were Catholic in tone and teaching, as might be ex- pected from their Catholic direction. ,
Bishop England of Charleston (see England, John) follows, in 1822, with his "United States CathoHc Miscellany". "The writer would add", says the bishop, in a history of his diocese which he published while on a visit to Dublin, in 1832, "that during up- wards of ten years he and his associates have, at a very serious pecuniary loss, not to mention immense labour, published a weekly paper, 'The United States Catho- lic Miscellany', in which the cause of Ireland at home and Irishmen abroad, and of the Catholic religion through the world, has been defended to the best of their ability. This paper is published every week on a large sheet of eight pages containing twenty-four pages of letter press, in the city of Charleston." Its publication ceased in 1861, as a result of the War of Secession. One of the bishop's most efficient as.sist- ants in this enterprise was his sister Johanna, a woman of fine culture and much mental vigour, who ha.s never received proper credit for all the variety of solid work she did on the paper. With the second quarter of the nineteenth century came the great
