Naked sectarianism, bigotry and misogyny

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 00:00

August 30, 1924. Early 20th-century naked bigotry, sectarianism and misogyny are on prominent display in this day's issue of the Toronto Star, with the reported teaching and preaching of a U.S. evangelist and self-styled "Texas Tornado."

"SAYS KLU KLUX KLAN KEPT OUT MANY CATHOLIC IMMIGRANTS Rev. J. Frank Norris Praises the Hooded Order," proclaims the Star's headline atop its 1,200-word, top-of the page report of a speech by Norris to the Catholic-bashing Orange Luncheon Club at Toronto's posh King Edward hotel.

Among other things, Dr. Norris told the Toronto Oranges that:

• In the Roman Catholic Church "we are facing a powerful enemy."
• The Klu Klux Klan had "shut the gates" of American immigration "against the dregs of southern Europe" and stopped the "floods of Italians who were coming in, taking our institutions and making America the vassal of the Pope."
• The influence of the Catholic Church had delayed for two years United States participation in the First World War on the side of Canada, Britain and their allies.
• The Roman Catholics had taken "millions out of the public treasury and put it into the treasury of the parochial schools."
• Candidates in the up-coming U.S. presidential election "had made cheap bids for the Catholic vote."
• The KKK "have accomplished a great educational result" in their anti-Catholic crusade, while "a lot of things said about the clans are absolutely malicious falsehoods."

On the Star's editorial page, an unsigned column ("The Spotlight") regurgitates an earlier misogyny blast from the past from the Texas Tornado. "The modern woman," Dr. Norris predicted in 1922, "will bring on the next war… The flapper will bring about this country's (the U.S.'s) downfall, just as surely as Delilah caused Samson's. Every great war has been traced to the depravity of women; and they were never as bad as today… The modern girl is 100 times worse than the girl of the last century."