Fr. John A. Ryan found himself fighting an uphill battle as he tried to put into action his ideas regarding the Catholic Church and social reform. Many Catholics at that time were suspicious of government intervention. This was due, in part, to Rerum Novarum, the same encyclical that had inspired Fr. Ryan to take action. Contrary to Ryan's hopes, most American bishops interpreted the encyclical simply as an anti-Socialism document that warned of too much government power.

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Consequently, many Catholics voted against and criticized the social reform legislation that Ryan supported. Fr. Ryan delivered this speech in Boston, MA, likely to a group of Catholics. At this time, Catholics in the Archdiocese of Boston, like their Archbishop William Cardinal O'Connell, tended to be extremely conservative. In his talk, Ryan appears to have been trying to temper their distrust of government-sponsored social reform.