More Light for Labor
461 WHAT SHALL THE LAYMAN DO? ONE of the most satisfactory things in connection with the establishment of this journal, has been the number, variety, interest and importance of the letters of...
...and also to inspire and bring about the expression of this nationally united Catholic unity in ways hitherto not attempted, although thoroughly consonant with Catholic traditions and philosophy...
...McCabe was once, as Father Anthony, O.S.F., a friar in Killarney...
...As a contrast, the Orange drum was thumped with all its old vigor at Derry, where a certain "Mr...
...All social and intellectual activities necessarily stem from, and are only to be safely guided by, the spiritual and moral principles held and guarded by the ecclesiastical authority of the Church...
...Non-Catholic mission societies look upon their medical work as their most valuable adjunct in spreading their principles among non-Christian peoples...
...To the medical profession, moreover, it makes its appeal (again regardless of religious convictions) in its efforts to fight such things as typhus, bubonic plague, leprosy, and a host of less known, but equally pestilential, scourges...
...He was, until recently, professor of geology in Union College, Nebraska, and is known also as a writer on the subject which he taught...
...That this work, at least so far as the Catholic laymen are concerned, seems to have reached something like an impasse, must make all sincere Catholics gravely anxious that some practical means be discovered to solve this problem...
...Grant, his fellow member in the ill-mannered parish council at Belfast that has been dignified with the name of parliament, challenged the South to "come and take it if you can...
...LJ R. FISH mentions as one of the main reasons for dissatisfaction among the High Church party in England, "the spectacle of Protestants and non-Christians dealing with ecclesiastical matters, and a non-Christian Prime Minister appointing bishops...
...Caradoc Evans, is blood of their blood and bone of their bone...
...THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted...
...WHATEVER may be thought of the rights of small nations (we are not hearing so much about them just now as in the roseate year that followed the Armistice) there is no doubt their sensibilities are acute...
...But when it is considered from higher points of view, it becomes not only desirable but imperative...
...It is informing to note that each of some twenty-five organizations paid the government over two million dollars in gratitude for favors received during the past year...
...But we doubt very much if a United States delegation—probably composed of prosperous and static thinkers of the September 23, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 465 old school, little trained in European problems—could use its time more profitably in Switzerland than by visiting Lake Lucerne and patronizing the best chalets...
...There is no great need to comment on the statement...
...O'Toole, who evidently thinks well of his ideas, quotes him freely, yet admits that "all orthodox geologists have long since anathematized him, and outlawed him from respectable geological society...
...His statement that "we are no worse off under the new regime than we were under the old," may seem faint and ungracious praise, but coming from a quarter where religious and racial tolerance has hitherto been about on the level of the Ku Kjlux Klan, it is not devoid of significance...
...1 HE letter of the rector of Christ Church, Elizabeth, New Jersey, to the New York Times on the subject of the Anglican church generally, and of Mr...
...and also in the fact that he proposes the undertaking of a far-reaching and thorough survey of the factors of that problem...
...Patriotic Welshmen," we are told, "grouped themselves together and sang Welsh anthems...
...An America which crowns so regally those who furnish its cookies and its outings has no excuse to offer for the destitution of professional servants...
...In spiritual and moral matters, of course, the clergy are the sole responsible leaders of the Catholic body...
...We in this country have small conception of the squalor and misery which are the common lot of the multitudes in, for example, many parts of Asia and Africa...
...W HAT must add considerable bitterness to the feeling among loyal Welshmen at this satire on their race, is the fact that the offending author, Mr...
...His plea for political peace and "better mutual respect among those who differ politically," was all the stronger for this, and the enthusiasm which greeted it is a good augury for the future...
...but we do not feel that this good news necessarily strengthens the case of those who bewail the absence of the United States from official Geneva...
...William Franklin Sands...
...Even if at this time only a faulty or imperfect answer is possible to the question of what is the proper field for Catholic lay activity, it is surely desirable that the laymen should set actively to work and at least clean the windows, so that more light may be let in upon the subject...
...Charles Evans Hughes and Attorney-General Sargent, concerning the reform of our present deplorable situation in the field of law enforcement, makes remarks which are highly pertinent if applied to the subject under discussion now...
...We hail the success of the League...
...but it does indicate that the difficulties which the council has encountered in its effort to organize and direct the activities of Catholic laymen, are of the most serious nature...
...The patriotic prelate made it quite clear that his feelings on the complete independence of his country had not altered...
...1 HE publication of income-tax returns may be indiscreet but, as the disillusioned say about fishing, it has its good qualities...
...This week there will be held in Washington several important conferences where this problem will, we feel sure, receive that sort of consideration which will tend towards its solution...
...It differs from many others, not in the zeal of the writer for the advancement of the true interests of the Faith (for that zeal is shared by all the writers we have in mind) but it differs by reason of the fact that Mr...
...This the League alone is capable of assuring, and therefore all Americans will endorse the League...
...For believing as we do that hardly any spiritual or mental condition is more deplorable than indifference, every such letter has been a fresh and welcome proof of stimulating and creative concern with, and interest in, our work on the part of our readers...
...something might also be whispered about the danger of immersion in European political and economic differences...
...If this be true, the fact nevertheless reflects no discredit upon those who have been entrusted with the guidance of the National Council of Catholic Men...
...Boys and men with any meat on their bones would give shirt and socks for a strong adventure like that, and for the rugged grit which brought the happy ending...
...So it is, it seems to us, in the matter of more effective Catholic social action, and the obtaining of what so maay of the letter-writers to whom we refer have in mind, namely—the encouragement of effective Catb jlic lay leadership in those fields of Catholic action where the layman may properly be active, and the bringing about of a harmonious cooperation between Catholic lay activities and ecclesiastical authority, supervision, and inspiration...
...Those who regret the concentration of wealth to the extent indicated by the tax returns are, perhaps, engaged either in labor or in one of the cultural pursuits which never feed the federal budget anything very substantial...
...Commander Rodgers is a person all of us are interested in because he affords a healthy and unmistakable sample of that manhood which, when everything has been said, guarantees the nation's integrity much better than money or words...
...Failure to reach Hawaii implies that aviation is dependent upon weather and fuel to a far more hazardous extent than any other form of transportation...
...But even these can hardly avoid admitting that such gigantic figures are a significant testimonial to the general national prosperity...
...Looked upon therefore, in the cold light of an investment, medical equipment on the missions pays...
...Chamberlain...
...Fish is not the only loyal member of the Episcopal communion to feel a humiliation in the very disreputable origins of the Reformation in England, and naturally strives to belittle the part played by Henry VIII's wandering marital eye in the great change...
...Americans whom prejudice does not blind, will see in the contrast between the tantrums and wardance in the Ulster plantation, and the statesmanlike language at Waterford, a pretty fair indication of where the merits of the case lie...
...1 HE county of Waterford, a place where so many names recall the leaven of Norman blood which reached Ireland in the thirteenth century by trade and settlement, has always stood for a certain solidity and common sense, and its chief city was a fitting stage for the striking speech by Archbishop Mannix on the occasion of his receiving the civic freedom of the old seaport...
...Letters of that kind do reach us, of course, but not from Catholics —only from critical or hostile non-Catholics—usually cranks or fanatics...
...1 HE recent convention of the medical mission section of the Catholic Hospital Association, held at Mount Saint Vincent, New York, was a notable instance of the advancing interest on the part of Catholics in all good works...
...As in Zola's La Terre, there is every indication that the sombre colors are overloaded...
...iL CHOES that come from the North are of varying quality...
...Many Catholics think they perceive in the course of events, a providence at work that is drawing the Church of the Catacombs and the Church of the Cavaliers more and more into one another's orbit, and they hope and pray wholeheartedly for some clear issue that will save their separated brethren from the humiliation and confusion that have descended upon them...
...Readers of Nicholas Nickleby may remember that when Mr...
...It hoped Catholic laymen would take a more active part in the study and solution of the great social problems of our times—such problems as the unnecessary yet increasingly bitter struggle between capitalistic wealth and class-conscious labor...
...and Maguire go for Pope, on behalf of their respective beliefs...
...Born at Llandyssul, in Carmatthenshore, of humble parents, his talent as a forceful writer was first recognized by the London New Age fifteen or twenty years ago...
...A foretaste of the criticism that has now descended upon him was seen when his studies of peasant life in remote districts in Wales were published in two books, Capel Zion and My Own People...
...We beg our readers to continue to cooperate with us in this most practical fashion...
...Unfortunate though this may be for the rising generation, the difficulty will hardly be settled by urging federal legislation...
...or the ever deepening menace of pagan principles and customs as they affect family life, art, literature, and legislation...
...ONE of the most satisfactory things in connection with the establishment of this journal, has been the number, variety, interest and importance of the letters of dissatisfaction which we have received...
...The preliminaries to the conference on the Security Pact, the addresses at Geneva, and various other circumstances indicate that the aftermath of war has proved the necessity for using whatever machinery of cooperation is available...
...O BVIOUSLY, the problem is a thorny one...
...Moles, M.P...
...or the great international problems involving the destinies of all mankind...
...He calls attention to the fact that the speeches of Mr...
...Some are sent to us, not for publication, but for our guidance, instruction, or to throw light upon some condition to which the writers desire this journal to turn its attention...
...In the second place, the average farmer has not yet come to see the relation between his own welfare and general civic progress...
...What we do mean is that many letters reach us, calling attention to what the writers deem to be deficiencies or omissions in the methods or instrumentalities by means of which the influence of the Church is spread abroad among its members and throughout society in general...
...but to date, Catholic missions have, for the most part, been very poorly equipped in this regard...
...o IGNS are not wanting to show that Europe is at least on the verge of dispensing with America's "moral leadership" of the world...
...We refer in a special way to the annual meeting of the Archbishops and Bishops of the United States in connection with the affairs of the National Catholic Welfare Conference...
...and should President Coolidge issue his proposed invitations to a similar conference in Washington, he may discover an indifferently attentive world...
...The aims and purposes of the National Council of Catholic Men differ from those of other organizations among the Catholic laity—such as the Knights of Columbus, for example —in that these aims and purposes are directly supervised and guided by the bishops themselves, through delegated authority, and were meant to secure a more thoroughly unified action among Catholic organizations than seemed feasible through any other means...
...M. PAUL BONCOUR'S celebrated speech about the protocol and the "rule of justice on earth" is, when calmly analyzed, demagogic hot air by a person with a gift for shaking his head...
...fluttered to the waves and drifted to an island...
...loudly asserted the determination of his fellow Ulstermen not to yield an inch on the boundary question, regardless of the decision to which British faith is pledged...
...We should hesitate to voice a desire that American delegates be confronted with the task of choosing between M. Boncour and Mr...
...Sands passes by the details and particular things dealt with by them in favor of fundamental aspects of the great problem, inseparable from the existence of the Catholic Church in a country like the United States...
...It is because these writers are true Catholics, loyal, and zealous, and desire nothing more ardently than the extension and strengthening of the socially beneficial forces of Catholicity, that they write the kind of letters to which we refer...
...This is an age of peace parleys and addresses by Professor Beard...
...He has been a most prolific author as well as a translator of many books...
...In this case, the very concentration of wealth indicates the wide distribution of wealth...
...The picture they paint is that of a primitive folk, immersed in the sordid details of life, their existence darkened and haunted by a sombre Calvinism, cunning and hard-hearted in their dealings with one another, and prone to violence and moral lapses...
...His plane is also of some importance...
...Much has been said about the possibility of our being drawn into European armed conflicts...
...a law interfering with milk pails and chores might be quite unfortunate...
...Squeers, the master of Dotheboys Hall, asked his class to spell window, and got the answer "w-i-n-d-e-r," he accepted the answer as being good enough for practical purposes, and said— "All right—now go and clean it...
...Press reports from London, where a play named Taffy is satirizing peasant life in "Welsh Wales," tell of an outbreak of indignation among the audience, largely composed of compatriots of Mr...
...The attempted flight does not prove much about anything excepting that the vessel was ship-shape, dependable and well-manned—details which restore confidence to the public mind and do the service no harm...
...As Mr...
...Hughes and the Attorney-General are only two of the most notable of many utterances, repeatedly given forth, year by year, in season and out of season, and that for the most part they deal with general principles upon which all lawabiding and patriotic men and women are in agreement...
...seems 1 HE day of set discussions on religious topics to have passed, and we may feel thankful for it since it is doubtful whether such things ever effected anything but the stirring up of rancor...
...Like an albatross weak with hunger, the PN-9 No...
...From the indignation which he and those who think with him feel today, he may deduce the feelings of men of the ancient faith 400 years ago, who saw the historic fabric delivered over without hope of appeal to the headship of a man whom Charles Dickens has described as "a spot of blood and grease on the pages of English history," and its monuments demolished to make manor houses for his favorites...
...It was, in fact, as the champion of this organization that he appeared in defense of evolution...
...Farmers simply could not stomach legislation which threatened to interpose the hand of the state between them and the work which little William or Susan might do about the place...
...At Cavan, which is in Free State territory, Grand Master McGarvey, of the "Royal Black Preceptory," roared as gently as any sucking-dove...
...We are of the opinion that both the clergy and intelligent laymen concur in giving an affirmative answer to this question...
...As The Commonweal approaches the end of its first year, the increase of such letters both in number and in value, is a highly gratifying fact...
...But upon the means by which such an end is to be attained, and on the way that escape lies, their conviction is as clear today as it was in the second spring of the Oxford Movement...
...In consequence, the health of very many zealous heralds of the Cross has broken down, and not a few have succumbed to easily cured ailments simply because no competent medical help was available...
...We call the attention of our readers particularly to the 462 THE COMMONWEAL September 23, 1925 letter of Mr...
...His schools are primitive places which give a few months to the three R's...
...This is interesting, because it recalls the strong sources of opposition to that amendment when it came before the states...
...The far West had in Senator Borah a vigorous opponent of the amendment...
...For the most part these gigantic fortunes were made in catering to the progress of modern civilization—in motors and the oil they consume, telephones, cigarettes, cookies, cans and ten-cent store bargains...
...Many of these communications we have published —and we propose to publish others from time to time...
...In the first place, country families are normally larger than city families ; work in the open air is not only healthful on the whole, but is an excellent preparation for the profession of agriculture...
...The reception tendered to the patriotic Irish archbishop from far Australia, and which was at466 THE COMMONWEAL September 23, 1925 tended by "persons of every shade of political feeling," amounted to a positive "amende honorable" for the unfortunate incidents associated with his name during the war...
...But such utterances rarely propose practicable measures by means of which the desired reforms may be effected...
...Yet there was a time, not a hundred years ago, when people flocked in thousands to hear Pope, the Protestant champion, go for Maguire, the supporter of the Catholic faith...
...We hasten to add that of course we do not mean letters expressing dissatisfaction or discontent with the religion of the Catholic Church, or with its moral and spiritual discipline...
...And the matter was put still more tersely when Mr...
...Lloyd George living in the metropolis, that makes the scenes witnessed in Boston and New York during the performance of Synge's famous Playboy of the Western World seem gentle and urbane criticism...
...The remedy, when it comes, will be one of the fruits of active, intelligent agricultural leadership which can promote cooperative and civic ideals...
...Perhaps the only time that Wisconsin really doubted the wisdom of Senator La Follette was when he challenged so fiercely the "interests" which wished to exploit the young and helpless...
...Hisses and cat-calls were not the only or most potent weapons employed...
...They were laid before the various Catholic organizations, whether grouped within the National Welfare Conference or pursuing their own work in their own way, as the compass, and also the chart, of their multitudinous activities...
...The call to this meeting, from which we have quoted, goes on to say that "a decision in this matter is of such grave importance that it is felt the Catholic lay leaders of the United States ought to be consulted, and if possible, offered an opportunity to express their views in the premises...
...1 (what a name, gentlemen...
...A public which rewards most highly those who supply it with products that are additional to the staple necessities, is not a public in need...
...Max Steuer, one of the leading lawyers of New York, when asked by the New York World to express his opinion of the speeches made by Mr...
...The Commonweal is not alone in its hope that the bishops, meeting in council in Washington this week, and the representative laymen also meeting there, can go a long step further than mere agreement on this matter, and that they will begin to clear up the confusion that now exists and to define those ways in which Catholic lay action can become a reality, instead of a vague or merely oratorical phrase...
...But the uses of flight are so great and manifold that, even if the risks cannot be much reduced, aeronautics will increasingly control the sea and the land...
...But even more important than the letters criticizing The Commonweal, have been the many letters from correspondents throughout the country expressing dissatisfaction, not with The Commonweal, but with conditions and circumstances connected with the Catholic Church itself...
...These higher points of view are two—first, there is the betterment of conditions under which human beings are compelled to live...
...McCabe and Price, with Earl Russell as chairman, whose career is well known to most people on both sides of the Atlantic...
...The Scopes incident seems to have brought about such a contest on the topic of evolution in the Queen's Hall, London, between Messrs...
...And what all these journals publish is only a fragment of what is being said by men and women who do not write letters to the papers, but who are greatly concerned that the Faith, which to them is the guiding light of their individual lives, shall be enabled, through effective organized means, to shine forth for the benefit of the whole community—for non-Catholics as well as for Catholics...
...and that her revival will depend, not upon the alliance of some peoples with us, but on European solidarity...
...Upon his motives, character, and the probable causes of his childlessness, the late Dr...
...All the leading Catholic periodicals are dealing with this matter, and were doing so long before The Commonweal came into the field...
...There is, however, another aspect of the situation in which many can find refuge...
...Naturally he never had any serious scientific training, and anything that he knows about the subject must have been picked up in the course of his reading and writing...
...Wherefore all of us are vitally interested in seeing that it is put into the right hands...
...McLaurin, of Sydney University, has written an illuminating chapter...
...Only those who have been privileged to hear Land of My Fathers intoned in chorus during an international football game at Cardiff or Newport, will realize how complete a barrage song can be made by the sons of the Cymri when they are in deadly earnest...
...One hundred representative Catholic laymen have been invited to attend this meeting, the direct purpose of which "is to discuss the advisability and feasibility of continuing the effort to effect the organization of the Catholic laity of this country...
...In all likelihood, the French government will hold out for a disarmament conference under the auspices of the League...
...That "Henry was right in law," Catholics have never admitted...
...For what else is his narrative of peril at sea but a story of modern marvels in an old, wide world...
...But what makes the studies particularly painful reading to those who know the Irish and Breton peasant, is a sense throughout them that something is missing which tempers the harsh impact of materialism for the other two great branches of the Celtic stock, and that the faith that illumines toil and casts the rainbow veil of hope over the harsh outlines of destiny, should have been filched from this gallant and tenacious people by a monarch of their own race 400 years ago...
...What seems to be necessary before such measures can be devised is to determine just what types of work, in the general field of expressing Catholic principles in social and intellectual channels, may be left safely in the hands of laymen, and which types require the active superintendence of the clergy...
...A law prohibiting the use of child labor in factories would be wholly wise...
...J\ MISSION which has for its purpose the amelioration of these conditions, must appeal to all (even those who do not profess a religious motive) on the sheer ground of its humanitarianism...
...While to describe a revolution in beliefs and practice which entailed the scrapping of five sacraments out of seven, and the parody in common parlance of "hocus pocus" for the most sacred words of Catholic ritual as "a detail of change of detailed administration, and non-essential teaching and practice," certainly strikes one as very special pleading indeed...
...but he abandoned that order and his religion, and became an active member of the Rationalistic Press Association—an energetic and well-financed organization which earns a considerable income, it is believed, by the issue of works like Haeckel's Riddle of the Universe...
...COMMANDER RODGERS has come safely ashore with a cheerful crew and a fairy tale...
...The result might do us little honor and no good...
...Doubtless there are manufacturing districts where children work in factories, but the outspoken hostility towards the law came from the farms...
...and to the meeting of Catholic laymen, including members of the executive committee of the National Council of Catholic Men—one of the departments of the National Catholic Welfare Conference...
...In the joint pastoral letter of the American bishops, issued when the Catholic War Council became the National Catholic Welfare Conference, these high hopes and great aims were fully and authoritatively exSeptember 23, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 463 pressed...
...It would perhaps seem to follow from this that all forms of Catholic social and intellectual organized effort should, therefore, be directed and governed by the clergy...
...But through it there comes—• and necessarily so—the sound of Roland's horn, speaking of danger and high bravery...
...Several letters of the type to which we are referring are printed in this issue of The Commonweal...
...Under the prevailing arrangements, Europe will probably arrive at the conclusion that, far from being a community of archangels, we are a large nation with multitudinous problems all our own...
...The terrific rate of infant mortality, the sad lot of women, especially as concerns their bearing and raising of children, the frightful suffering caused by unskilled and superstitious treatment of diseases, are things that we, who are happily spared, understand only a little...
...But are there not many forms of social and intellectual work in which laymen, fully accepting spiritual and moral guidance, are (simply because they are laymen, and hence have forms of experience only partially, if at all, open to the clergy) much better fitted to devise and direct the practical means and ways by which these principles may be fruitfully expressed...
...The whole thing is just as convincing as the three words so familiar to users of French coins...
...One of the weaknesses of the Episcopal Church in America is that it is forced, willy-nilly, to follow the fortunes of the parent church in Britain, which is, quite, simply, reaping the fruits of the Erastianism that presided over its beginnings...
...If librarians and investigators, teachers and custodians of the public safety, are those who perform the most essential services to the democracy, then only a malevolent cynic could gaze at the gilded lists supplied by the revenue office without a qualm of conscience or the first symptom of a good resolve to do all possible to better their condition...
...and the profits of farming are small enough as it is, without the possible burden of 464 THE COMMONWEAL September 23, 1925 youthful members of the family group restrained from lifting a hand...
...P. W. Wilson's article on the crisis in the ranks, published two weeks ago in the same journal, is a surprising document, both for what it admits and what it denies...
...Charles Schuchert, of Yale, refers to him as 'a fundamentalist harboring a geological nightmare.' " A discussion on such a subject (with lantern slides) by such men and with such a chairman, must have been indeed something worth listening to...
...The Commonweal is not the only journal in which these problems are discussed...
...GEORGE McCREADY PRICE, M. A., the opponent of evolution, hails from this side of the Atlantic...
...And indeed, the figures now published by the National Industrial Conference Board show that 80 percent of children under fourteen who are gainfully employed, live on the home farms...
...1925, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, 25 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City, N. Y. Michael Williams, Editor Assistant Editors Thomas Walsh Helen Walker John F. McCormick, Business Manager Editorial Council Carlton J. H. Hayes James J. Walsh Bertram C. A. Windle Henry Longan Stuart R. Dana Skinner T. Lawrason Riggs Subscription Rates: Yearly: $10.00 Single Copies: $0.20 WEEK BY WEEK T N addressing an appeal to former La Follette sup¦¦¦ porters, the Socialist party of New York City stresses the fact that it is the only political organization covenanted to support the federal child-labor amendment...
...Heywood Broun remarked in another connection the other day, it is only by the letters an editor or a writer receives, that the effect of the written word can be measured...
...It is, we think it safe to say, a matter of general knowledge that of all departments of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the National Council of Catholic Men has been the least satisfactory in bringing about results commensurate with the high hopes with which the council was founded and the lofty ideals set before it...
Vol. 2 • September 1925 • No. 20
