Communications

...When the faculty needs to be augmented, the Catholic college rarely has the funds to pay the salary of a really good man...

...As a graduate of a Catholic college, I feel that the reason is primarily a financial one, made more acute by the unwise policy of the founders of many of the Catholic colleges...

...There are some who look to fit themselves for posts in the high schools, but these are few...

...When such waves do break, they break in action...

...And I think their failure to do this is not solely due to their lack of resources, but to their complacency in the production of medl'0Cnty- C. MOLANPHY...

...It should be considered whether it was not from these darkened lower orders of the United Kingdom that, in the main, our earlier settlers sprang...

...The problem of the inferior student in women's Catholic colleges is acute...

...These colleges have been yearly turning out young women whose highest objective has been the securing of a license to teach in the grade schools of the city...

...Both irritation and counter-irritation are growing in the United States, perhaps still imperceptibly to many people, as waves of popular feeling often do go unperceived by many people until they break and everybody is involved...

...The justice of the claim may be questioned...

...The investigation is, in itself, a healthy sign...

...and whether he also came from people darkened in all the September 23, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 481 outward things...

...Let the analyist consider whether he did not bring with him the notion of all Protestants as heretics, deserters from the true faith...

...Going outside of this boundary just a few miles, there is the college at Marymount, Tarrytown...

...and action in the field of religious conviction, when arising out of irritation, is only too likely to be more serious than action in any other field...

...a state of mind which often leads to a certain truculence of statement and descent from higher planes to that on which the average man is more at his ease—sarcasm, vituperation, personalities—the argumentum ad hominem...

...If this growing irritation, of which there is sufficient evidence to put men on their guard, is to be curbed and eventually overcome, it behooves both sides to analyze it in cold blood, as one would analyze a vital business situation, without sentiment or prejudice, and to lay out their conduct in the matter upon the results attained...

...Their athletes make few records...

...Why should there be more than one...

...William Franklin Sands...

...as a step only, though a vitally important one in the process of building a great nation...

...And there are others...

...Some will at once bring forward the many advantages accruing to a student from attendance at a small college...

...To judge from the writings of bishops of the Established Church of England, and Scottish divines...

...Edward F. Lyons, Jr...

...In the case of alleged hostility to the Catholic Church in the United States, it would be sufficient for the purpose of a preliminary study of the situation to take only the last seventy or eighty years, for our country of today is formed outwardly of the human material evolved during that period...

...In other matters was he as dark as his predecessors and future fellow-citizens...

...I shan't speak of Catholic women's colleges, because that question brings up absurdities...

...Others, with a mistaken sense of loyalty, have loudly extolled its excellence, although supporting facts were lacking...

...Within the limits of New York City, there are three colleges for Catholic women—Manhattanville, the College of Mount Saint Vincent, and Saint Joseph's College...

...It is the writer's opinion that these things are true and that for many decades these two firm religious beliefs and equally firm prejudices (in spite of sporadic clashes and a certain amount of partisan skirmishing) did not meet except in theory...

...CATHOLIC COLLEGES New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—Graduates of Catholic colleges, and Catholics interested in higher education are glad to learn of the investigation which has been started concerning the state of health of our Catholic colleges and the reason for their failure to function as the producers of leaders in the fields of intellectual activity...

...The writer is quite convinced that it does not lie in "the Church...

...the degree of education of the two types...

...In Massachusetts, there are two well-known Catholic colleges —Boston College and Holy Cross...

...Recently training in commercial subjects has been added to the curricula of some of these colleges, with the new goal of a secretaryship at $40.00 a week...

...the raising of a great mass of humanity to a uniform higher level of comfort through education...

...One may consider whether there is among us, as alleged, in places which emphatically should be the last in which to expect it, an exuberance of bad manners and rough-shod tactlessness which, if it truly exists, must be appallingly disquieting to the outsider...

...It is not necessary to assume complacently that any accusation leveled against Catholics individually, or as a group or class, must be a diabolical manifestation—an attack upon the Church...

...It would be lamentable indeed were we to have learned nothing from the lesson of Europe...

...These institutions are suffering from the worn-out inferiority complex...

...It is a generally known fact that the number of Catholics who have become wealthy, and are therefore in a position to make endowments, is comparatively small...

...It would seem unnecessary for America to repeat that hard experience, since in our origins it was to escape from, or in consequence of, such conditions prevailing in Europe that many of us came here—no matter what the motives of those who came later...

...Since the Church is only known to our neighbors through its American aspects, through ourselves, it might be well to study that impression...

...There is usually a cause for irritation, and counter-irritation should not lightly be mistaken in one's own mind for the joyous readiness of the martyr in the face of persecution...

...A CALL TO YOUTH Boston, Mass...

...Where tolerance is claimed, it is quite likely to be an attitude assumed to cloak urgent desire to avoid all argument lest one hear, perchance, something from the other side which one fears to admit, and which might be difficult to answer or deny...

...As a recent issue of The Commonweal stated, Catholic colleges, which should be the repositories and producers of the best, can point to only rare instances of men and women students who have achieved distinction in literature, music or other fields of creative activity...

...No movement, no cause, having for its ultimate object an end, not in itself directly beneficial to the individual in a material way, can, in my opinion, be successful unless buoyed up with an over-abundance of that earnest enthusiasm, devotion, and self-sacrifice found only in youth...

...The point of the suggestion is the writer's conviction that irritation and ill-will, focusing on the Church, has in fact nothing to do with the Church, no matter how intensely people on both sides of the question may feel that it has, and that most of its sources must be sought elsewhere...

...The large number of such students makes necessary modification of courses, and the retarding of students who are of university grade...

...but the small college must be adequately equipped, with a modern plant, efficient faculty, and a wise board of admissions...

...as men given to pernicious practices—possibly even to idolatry—whether these were not ideas arising naturally out of the long period of ignorance succeeding, in England and Scotland, the break from the Church, coupled with active propaganda by government adverse to the Church...

...Of these men, there are two classes —one which is unable to appreciate the cultural values and is opposed to higher education...

...No doubt it would be so interpreted in many quarters were it not for the curious impression which overshadows the situation to the detriment of dispassionate analysis: that the average Catholic is ignorant of his faith and of the physical organization and objectives of his church, and that his manners—even in places higher than the average—are sometimes lacking in distinction...

...In such a study we must not emphasize, for the moment, the all-importance of the light of faith...

...Being, in his turn, no more intelligent than his Catholic neighbor, the non-Catholic may not recognize that all this "arrogance" that he says he sees might be in reality merely the exuberant self-expression of men flushed with the strong wine of full liberty and equality, for the first time free and equal with their fellows after centuries of civil and economic oppression and ignorance sternly enforced...

...Even when these young men are competent, the division of interest works to the detriment of the student...

...In the writer's opinion that also is true, the educational process resulting in an average mediocrity of thought concurrent with an alert precocious aptitude in material things, out of which mediocrity those only rise who cannot be kept down by any hard and fast system...

...the product, uniformity of material comfort...

...and the other which sees greater financial and social prestige to be obtained from giving support to prominent non-sectarian institutions...

...We Americans loudly claim for ourselves great tolerance...

...It seems to be inconceivable to their faculties that any of their students should achieve distinction in cultural activities, and subjects are taught with the implication that the students are viewing them for a time only, unless courses for an M. A. require further pursuit of them...

...the preconceived notions of each type of the other's national characteristics and religious beliefs...

...These suggestions are offered briefly for the purpose of provoking analysis and intelligent discussion by students of history and religion...

...One of the simplest and most effective methods of attack by such an evil intelligence would seem to be a boring from within: a playing upon human stupidity, prejudice, ambitions and passion...

...The intellectual contacts to be made in Catholic colleges at present are rare...

...With the average man conviction may be firm, but the reasons for the conviction nebulous, resulting in a highly nervous defense reaction when pressed for reasons...

...Did not the Catholic "immigrant," too, bring with him to America, in at least one racial bloc, a firm religious belief rescued from the embers of Europe—a simple faith, quite sufficient for him without learned reasoning and proof, even if the general state of Europe at the time and his own economic condition had permitted him to acquire learning...

...the College of New Rochelle, and Saint Elizabeth's at Convent Station, New Jersey...

...Scholarship and intelligent understanding of the current movements in the fields of art, letters, or music are practically unknown...

...TO the Editor:—One of the points about the Catholic Church which seems to annoy and irritate non-Catholic Americans most, is its alleged "arrogance...

...Why not centralize resources and furnish this district with one perfectly equipped Catholic university, whose reputation for scholarship and public achievement shall be unquestioned...

...It might be interpreted as the first dawning strength...

...or, more often than not, it is only another name for complete indifference...

...A few of these young women have studied law, but that a graduate should pursue the liberal arts, or look toward a career in social service, would be a strange thought to the faculty...

...It should be considered whether Protestant "colonists" did not bring with them, in addition to positive religious belief, the notion of Catholics as proscribed men, properly proscribed as disloyal and unpatriotic...

...If the existing Catholic colleges are not willing to submerge their identity for the general good, there will be left only the question of strengthening of the Newman Clubs at the non-sectarian colleges, and extending their activities to include courses in Catholic philosophy and moral theology...

...It is offered for consideration, however, that this achievement may be properly considered as only the foundation, well and solidly laid...

...One might ask, if this does exist, even in isolated cases and by no means as a general condition, if the non-Catholic, quite convinced that the average Catholic is not more intelligent than himself, may not with some show of justification set down such phenomena as an expression of the "ruthlessness" and "arrogance" of the Catholic Church...

...One should take into consideration also in such a preliminary study, the type which may have been evolved by those already here, and the new immigrant types...

...Catholic colleges at the present time are not providing opportunities for scholarship, culture, and self-development...

...One might dwell thereon at length and with enthusiasm...

...Because bills must be met, Catholic men's colleges are forced to open their registers to incompetents and dead-weights...

...And you point out the reasons for this awakening...

...Up to the present time, the education furnished in our Catholic colleges has been subjected to a conspiracy of silence on the part of the majority of cultured Catholics...

...There are enough Catholics in this section of the country to support eight colleges...

...This holds particularly true in matters of religion...

...disheartening if we had merely succeeded in transplanting Europe's dissensions to a new soil on which their seed might revive and flourish even more vigorously...

...It seems to be the aim of every religious community of women to establish a college without considering resources, equipment, or its own ability to understand the problem...

...The only solution of the problem of the Catholic college seems to lie in restriction and consolidation...

...Vide the publications of Catholic women's colleges...

...You and your associates speak of it as a new movement— as one which must arouse the American Catholics from their past slumber...

...Both may be merely stupid and have nothing of the heroic about them...

...education, and the affairs of the family—all of which has been borne by the clergy...

...Of men's colleges alone, Catholics are called upon to support eight within a radius of 150 miles...

...In this section, there are other Catholic colleges which do not come into the public notice as often as the ones mentioned...

...It should be considered whether it is true that with that period began a mass invasion of a country already predominantly Protestant, and fairly homogeneous in population, by diverse racial strains, possessing nothing in common but the tie of a common faith, the Catholic faith, having no common ground of any sort with the people already inhabiting the country...

...The tendency of education has been to achieve the greatest good of the greatest number...

...Our political tolerance, for instance, to go no further, is not notable...

...It is, however, proper to assume for the purpose of such a study as is proposed, a general average of intelligence (rather than of stupidity) and if in a large number of people of general average intelligence, even though the grade of intelligence be not high, there is to be found a consensus of opinion that Catholics (let us discard the phrase "the Catholic Church") in America are distinctly disagreeable people, and may be dangerous—and that opinion has every appearance of growing into active hostility—let Catholics go into themselves seriously and dispassionately and find out where the trouble lies...

...the degree of intelligent understanding possessed by each, of the fundamentals of religion professed...

...No thoughtful observer would deny the greatness of the achievement...

...Only after almost complete absorption of the new elements into the body of the nation did they begin to assume the aspect of two camps, apparently hostile—our situation today...

...If American Catholic colleges cannot hold the place in intellectual life held by the European Catholic universities for so many centuries, they had better cease to exist...

...We have had a great many centuries of time in which to observe the effects of mutual intolerance in Europe, spreading to religion...

...Tolerance upon a matter of supreme conviction is a most unusual state of mind, and requires a certainty of knowledge and of judgment, and a broad experience of men and things which very few possess...

...In this general condition in the United States and at this time, for the purpose of our study, one may consider whether it is not true (and to what extent, if a fact, the Catholic Church may be affected or even damaged thereby) that the Catholic offers, as is often alleged, not infrequently the appearance of "church" solidarity in matters which pertain purely to Caesar...

...TO the Editor:—Various editorials in The Commonweal for the past few issues have stressed the necessity of arousing the Catholics of this country to a sense of the position they should assume in the intellectual and cultural affairs of the community...

...of enterprising manhood among masses of people kept through centuries in a state of degradation...

...A Catholic college has no reason for existence if it be not in a position to afford ideal opportunities for the pursuit of culture...

...in New Jersey, there is Saint Peter's College...

...Annoyance and irritation evoke counter-irritation...

...Presupposing an intelligent power of evil, a church divinely founded (and of necessity also guaranteed against loss of the Divine truth entrusted to its care by any stupidity of which its human members may be capable) must always be exposed to assaults from that evil power...

...the by-product, uniformity of method of thought on other than material things, upon a low average level...

...in New York, there are Fordham University, Manhattan College, and Saint John's...

...Those of us who have been through it all are extremely unwilling to go through it again, unless matters of principle be involved...

...Of course the M. A. is taken simply because one wishes to advance in the New York City school system...

...Our colonial civilization, the evolution of national character between the Revolution and the Civil War do affect us vitally, but our present purpose would be to analyze a specific situation which, it is submitted for consideration, has developed in the period beginning about the middle of the nineteenth century...

...There are, of course, some wealthy and generous Catholics who appreciate the importance of the part which Catholic colleges must take in pub482 THE COMMONWEAL September 23, 1925 He life—but these men cannot support all the institutions needing their help...

...the dangers threatening the commonweal, the growing indifference to the things of the soul, the effects of this indifference upon the individual and his relations to the community, and the decay of the marriage structure with its consequent effects upon family life and the home...

...There are too many Catholic colleges...

...in Washington, Georgetown University and the Catholic University...

...These advantages are acknowledged...

...It is compelled to employ middle-aged mediocrities, or recent graduates who seek teaching posts to help to finance a law course...

...In fact, there is grave reason to study it...

...of the great English Methodist preachers and the fiery, zealous founders of the Society of Friends, there was a darkness of Egypt over all their land not attributable nor by them attributed solely to the "Church of Rome" (they had enough to say about "Rome" aside from that), but also and principally to the neglect of the lower orders of the people by the Established Church...

...I will go even further and say that a movement such as this will not gather sufficient momentum to cause a ripple in that vast sea of indifference, in which a majority of our Catholics are submerged, unless its ranks overflow with young men and women...

...Why should there be eight Catholic men's colleges in this district...

...If these things do exist among us( as our neighbors claim, with maledictions, that they do) their manifestation should afford (rightly interpreted) a spectacle supremely satisfactory to the enthusiasts who believe in the perfectibility of humanity, and who look on our America as a new Garden of Eden, set aside from the world in which to work out the great transmutation...

...Cultured Catholics wish their sons and daughters to have the intellectual advantages afforded by the large non-sectarian universities...

...While, as is very often the case in this department, The Commonweal does not subscribe to the ideas expressed by the writer of the above letter, we feel that the subject is of such interest and importance as to warrant the publication of views which we have reason to believe are shared by many Catholics, in the hope that a general discussion of the subject will follow in the correspondence columns of this review.—The Editors...

...One might go further than the mere suggestion of possible Protestant ignorance of Catholics and of their belief and practices...

...Let it be considered also whether education in America during the period to be studied has not of necessity assumed the form of mass training for the demands of a new economic life and the sharing by each individual in all the advantages that new life had to offer...

...You have, on various occasions, written and spoken of the necessity of this awakening, not only from the standpoint above mentioned, but from one more important— that of taking upon our own shoulders, to some extent at least, the expression of the Catholic viewpoint, upon subjects chiefly of a material nature—of the every-day world in which we work and live—government, business...