Communications
bold and often poignant drawings of Mr. Jones, so exquisitely and faithfully reproduced in this new book. They breathe the spirit of pilgrimage. Taken by themselves, they unfold a poem of...
...OUR DUTY TOWARD EDUCATION T New York, N. Y. O the Editor:--I cannot claim a very long acquaintance with American Catholic colleges, for I have been in this country only five and a half years...
...Paul, Minn., and Saint Teresa's at Winona, Minn., while many of the others are given high ratings by sectional collegiate associations and educational bod- ies, the proportion probably being about equal to the recog-nition given non-sectarian colleges by the same bodies...
...endure any hardship that will aid them in obtaining the best possible equipment...
...Mol-anphy so evidently desires...
...Of those who have become teachers, many are engaged in high schools, some in colleges...
...Or again in the irony of the mirrored room for Congreve's Love for Love, achievement was almost equal to the original con-ception...
...Understanding the word eminent in this sense, it seems to me that the present inquiry is premature in one respect and yet very timely in another...
...Prerident, 8eton Hall College...
...Molanphy's implied attitude toward his own college, I prefer not to discuss...
...It might still be questioned, however, whether this reason has been "made more acute by the unwise policy of the founders of many Catholic colleges," or by the lack of interest many Catholics manifest in the upkeep of their institutions of learning...
...Any fault that may be found should be charged to our wealthy Catholics who have not yet learned the duty that rests upon them of adequately supporting higher education...
...Molanphy's M O N W E A L October 28, I925 accusations must, I think, be admitted...
...The revolt against photographic realism has been well started and we have the measureless satisfaction of knowing that it is not a negative revolt...
...His song will live on living lips When she is dead...
...ALUMNA...
...T. H. McLAUOHLIZ,r...
...Molanphy's own statements...
...KATHERINE DELMONICO BYLES...
...But I am sure they welcome constructive suggestion...
...We have not yet come to estimate the appliances of culture as being of more importance than culture itself...
...But of her eyes he made a stave...
...To talk of "restriction" is not the way, so its seems to me, to achieve the high ideal which Mr...
...He has shed a new glow upon the ceaseless movement of the theatre toward its unattainable goal --the interpretation of man and the mystery encircling him...
...In its intentional abandonment of the unessential, irt its striving toward a visual fulfilment of the dramatist's own dreams, and in its bold quest for "those rich, far places" where, as Mr...
...And so they merit no destructive criticism...
...those who have enlarged the field of knowledge by some important contribution...
...My own experience with religious teaching communities has brought me to the conviction that they, of all people, can achieve that greatly-to-be-desired balance between con-servatism and open-mindedness, which is the qualification of the leader...
...I might hesitate to speak of Catholic women's colleges, since "that question brings up absurdities," were I not quite certain that anything I may say about them can hardly be more absurd than some of Mr...
...Let investigation be made by all means, even such investigation as Mr...
...THEODORE MAYNARD...
...It would be a Christian and a Christ-like community of in- terest and purpose, and would tend to maintain a high standard in all the contributing colleges...
...First of all, may I say, in order to forestall any unfriendly attitude, that I am not only a Barnard alumna, but that I number among my most intimate and cherished friends nuns and priests in many orders and in many lands...
...And the theatres can only respond with a bowed head and an unyielding purpose to struggle higher the next time...
...We who have lived with nuns and have known them, who have been guided, directed and inspired by them during our school life and afterwards, who honestly feel that we can attribute any good there is in us to their influence and example during the formative years of high school and college, know that they will succeed in this new work, as they have succeeded in their every undertaking in the past...
...The distinguished writer says, speaking about Mendel--"Most people will tell you that he was an abbot...
...Clarified a lil{tle, it will pass muster as follows---A Catholic college has no reason for existence if it be not in a position to afford adequate instruction in the required subjects...
...I should say that they all seem rather to be working feverishly to raise their standards and to train their faculties...
...The present head of the abbey is a mitred abbot, and it is situated in Moravia...
...But it hap- pened, unfortunately, that along with the honest powder re-quired to make the proper noise, he mixed in some other in- gredients of a less innocuous nature...
...This is proved by the rating given them by the various boards to whom the duty of grading colleges and universities is committed...
...Molanphy singles out for the invidious honor of being named by him--I have at least some right to be heard...
...Molanphy, I would say--"Measure your cloth !" The Catholic colleges exist...
...If this be true, there must be a large number of "really good men"---and women--who are not paid for their services...
...Present conditions would seem to make such a thought familiar...
...Present systems of education are far from perfect, both Catholic and non-Catholic...
...Scholarship and intelligent understanding of the current movements in the fields of art, letters, or music are practically unknown...
...A notable example of this was the production of Hasenclever's Beyond in the small confines of the Province-town Playhouse...
...Of course, scholastic people would llke to observe a controversy conducted in a more restrained and academic way...
...When everybody has spoken up, and all our emotions are relieved, we may begin to realize the value of Thomistic delicacy and finesse in argument...
...but the defects of our Catholic colleges are, except in one particular, the defects of the whole scholastic system of America...
...Taken by themselves, they unfold a poem of attainment...
...Molanphy's sweeping assertion that there are no opportunities for "scholarship, culture and self-develop- ment" in these institutions, with the thought that, perhaps, these specific charges will be refuted by the faculty of some of the colleges in question, who are qualified to answer them in detail, I wish to state merely that it appeals to an interested Catholic that the whole spirit of his criticism is unfair and indicates a lack of understanding of the facts...
...They clarify by their richness, their courageous symbolism, their stark economy of detail, the ideal which the experimental theatre has set in its firmament...
...Mount Saint Vincent is still young, yet already are its students found in the fields of law, medicine, art, literature, and social service...
...Is there any one of them which would declare that it has reached a state of perfection as a college...
...for many are only too willing to make mountains out of molehills...
...The heads of our houses are always priors, but there is one Augustinian abbot in the world, and of that abbey Mendel died the head...
...When the faculty needs to be augmented, the Catholic college rarely has the funds to pay the salary of a really good man...
...A similar situation exists quite generally throughout the country...
...that all our medical schools are in class A, and one of them has a higher record during the past twelve years than either Harvard or Johns Hopkins...
...T MOUNT SAINT VINCENT AND FORDHAM New York, N. Y. O the Editor:mMr...
...To be very definite--could not all the colleges, for men and for women, offer their usual academic course of four years and, besides, a three-year course leading to university work at a great co6perative university in Man- hattan...
...Mol-anphy has no doubt heard of Mark Hopkins...
...of Columbia are fully approved as four-year colleges...
...Yet it seems fitting that, when all Catholic col- leges are attacked, each should say a word in their defense...
...Molanphy calls "inferior students" have an opportunity to come under the influence of the sisters...
...these latter, as Mr...
...but the attainment of a great ideal presupposes labor--even unto death...
...O the Editor :--When the author of the communication headed "Catholic Colleges" exploded his bomb in your issue of September 23, it was his intention, no doubt, merely to startle Catholic educators sufficiently to make them sit up and take notice and prepare to explain how it was that their institutions had produced so few eminent men...
...In this work, as in all others, however, the sisters must have the support, co6peration and, perhaps, the construc- tive criticism of all Catholics throughout the country...
...And so I want to propose---"All honor to Mr...
...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...
...It is also claimed that the British empire is based on the same policy, and that the colossal failure of England and Ireland was due to her violation of that policy...
...Along which line does Mr...
...They called to mind how year after year the graduates of their girls' high schools were so successful, both in number and high grades, in competition with the graduates of the public high schools for the position of teachers, that the school board brought for- ward a measure to allow only a fixed number to be chosen from any one school...
...That there is a certain element of truth in Mr...
...JOHN A. WrIrLAN, O. S. A. T SETON HALL COLLEGE South Orange, N. J. O the Editor:--I noticed in your issue of September 23, a letter on Catholic colleges, by Mr...
...but there is a great difference between prominence and eminence...
...Some laughing gas was also released in connection with the remarks about girls' colleges...
...Vide the publications of Catholic women's col-leges...
...It may be "a strange thought to the faculty [of a Catholic college] that a graduate should pursue the liberal arts, or look toward a career in social service...
...If all Catholic college faculties are open-minded and ready to sense the new needs of new times, then the achievements that lie ahead of Catholic educators are to be measured only in terms of eternity...
...Molanphy knows that the records in New York City show that, year in and year out, the pupils of the parochial schools excel those of the public schools in the same Regents' tests...
...Jones's creative designs...
...Finally, something of a smoke screen enveloped the following statement and doubtless was accountable for its vagueness--- "A Catholic college has no reason for existence if it be not in a position to afford ideal opportunities for the pursuit of culture...
...And coming from Europe, with its Catholic universities so justly admired by Mr...
...The athletes of Catholic colleges, Mr...
...In New York we see Columbia University, made up of many colleges, academic and professional...
...They are, by no means, "complacent in the production of mediocrity...
...I refer of course to professors other than members of the reli- gious order by which the college is maintained...
...If material benefits and a materialistic culture were the sole ends of education there might possibly be some justifica- tion for some of Mr...
...Yet perhaps the loss is not quite irreparable...
...I do not know why this is so, but suppdse it is a relic of the time when perhaps the heads of our large houses were abbots...
...Molanphy must know, neither receive nor desire re-muneration...
...T PROMINENCE AND EMINENCE Chicago, Ill...
...On reading this, one felt inclined to exclaim with King Learm"Pah, give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination...
...The best professors of all these colleges could give of their invaluable scholarship to thousands, instead of to hun- dreds...
...It may be that there are too many Catholic colleges...
...the Editor :--In the issue of The Commonweal forO September 9 there is a paper, The Man of Research, written by Sir Bertram Windle...
...But most of the drawings fill one with a sense of sadness and irreparable loss in the knowledge that no theatre has yet conveyed to its audience the full richness and mastery of Mr...
...Can we not aim at such a Catholic university in New Yorkuhere, where the men and the money are plentiful...
...MAltY CAROLYN" DAVIES...
...of Her Lips But of her lips he made a song...
...Jones himself tells us, one finds "a glowing air, a region of fire wherein the soul of the artist must move forever and have its being"--in these high purposes the revolt has risen to a splendid creative impulse...
...Could not all the small Catholic colleges in the vicinity of New York maintain their separate existences, with all the advantages inhering in the small college...
...Cut your garment according to your cloth !" The Roman empire, it is said, succeeded because of the Roman's ability to acknowledge facts, and to give people a free rein...
...The question if vital to me, as I have eventually to make the choice for my children between my own alma mater and, among others, Saint Elizabeth's or Manhattanville, or New Rochelle...
...Of course the theatrical compromise has not always been fatal...
...JOSEPHINE McGowAN...
...Its aptness not being apparent, I shall ignore Mr...
...Let me quote a few...
...His poetry has been turned into halting prose, his mobile fancy into rigid forms, his flaming lights and moving contrasts, fraught with the mystery of dreams, into the sharp definitions of electricity and floor space...
...If one agreed with Mr...
...In another respect, this discussion is very opportune, for now is the time to seek out and give special help and encouragement to those whose talents and abilities give promise of achieving eminence in the future...
...Molanphy's communication relative to Catholic colleges, published in your issue of September 23, has been so ably answered that the subject might appear exhausted...
...In America, was not the Catholic University a high-hearted attempt at something of the kind...
...We now have the permanent record of the drawings themselves...
...Moreover, the variety of my experience as a pro-fessor of English literature has been amplified by the circum- stance that I have visited or lectured at the majority of the Catholic colleges in the country...
...Many at least of these publications show no slight degree of scholarship and intelligent understanding along the lines that he indicates...
...Disregarding Mr...
...But in doing this, they also lay bare the tragedy of many sad failures...
...The Catholic college movement is one of the strongest tendencies of the time...
...The sight of her, the light of her Were all she ever gave...
...Molanphy's counsel is surely unwise...
...T. J. LIVINGSTONE, S.J...
...per- haps, as yet, they do not all meet the highest educational stan- dards but we, as Catholics, should be very grateful that there are fifty or sixty such colleges in the United States, where thousands of our girls who may be what Mr...
...that of the many hundred law schools in the country, only fifty-nine are in class A, and of these, eight are Catholic schools...
...COMMUNICATIONS T CAN THE COLLEGES CO()PERATE...
...He should know that, in spite of their youth, the degrees of four of these colleges are nationally recognized by the Ameri- can University Association, namely Saint Elizabeth's, Trinity, Saint Catherine's at St...
...Molanphy wish Catholic colleges to progress---that of culture or that of athletics...
...this was very effective, but the laugh took a different turn from that intended, at least so far as the Catholics of Chicago were concerned...
...Today, when educators everywhere, at every meeting and convention, are endeavoring to find a way to put religion into the curricula of non-sectarian institutions in order to counteract the evils, which, it is pretty generally acknowledged, have overtaken the youth of our day, it little behooves any one to cry down Catholic education which, of its very essence, tends to build and develop character...
...but let it ex- tend, not only to conditions actually existing in Catholic col- leges, but to the truth or the falsity of statements made by disloyal, or misguided, students...
...Among certain people there has always been a tendency to criticize the work of the sisters...
...New York, N. Y. O the Editor:--As a Barnard graduate whose own daughters are now in a Catholic convent school, I beg to offer a few thoughts on the subject of Catholic colleges...
...THE MAN OF RESEARCH T Villanova, Pa...
...A man's enemies are they of his own household...
...Molanphy, and to Sister Mary Vincent, and to the graduate of the College of New Rochellel" It is refreshing to see such energy in the expression of opinion...
...By eminent men is meant, for instance, those who have acquired such a mastery of some branch of learning as to be universally acknowledged as an authority in it...
...The growth of their colleges may be slow, but it will be permanent be- cause based on the sound foundation of the true meaning of education...
...But we can surpass them...
...Shall we not try ? Having in twenty- two years made such magnificent strides forward, can we not now take one more big jump...
...Molanphy's criticism...
...Just to keep the records straight, I wish to advise him that he has omitted the oldest Catholic College for men in New Jersey, that of Seton Hall at South Orange, which has an honorable record of almost seventy years' endeavor in the field of higher Catholic education...
...He has judged it entirely from a worldly standpoint, but, even so, has failed to recognize that the Catholic women's colleges of which he speaks are--compared to the great Euro- pean universities---in an embryonic stage, the oldest of them, Saint Elizabeth's, being but twenty-seven years in existence...
...Molanphy's assertion, as I do not, that Catholic colleges have not produced a large number of students "who have achieved distinction," one might readily admit it to be probable "that the reason is primarily a financial one...
...Molanphy that "the large number of such students" does not make necessary "modification of courses, and the retarding of students who are of university grade...
...Supposing now, for the sake of argument, that Catholic colleges have not to their credit their proper quota of eminent men, it can be clearly shown that this could not result from any deficiency in these institutions for, as a matter of fact, they are fully up to the required standard...
...and, at the same time, coSperate to maintain a great university...
...For years it was said that the parochial schools were not on a par with the public schools...
...Mol-anphy, I must confess to feeling astounded at what has been accomplished in so short a time in America...
...it does prove, however, that when such a community is requested by eccle- siastical superiors to establish a college, its members consider their resources most carefully...
...From their reports we learn that forty-two Catholic colleges situated in eighteen different states and the District...
...So, to Mr...
...but I, for one, am delighted to see a good hot fight...
...These same Catholic girls would, otherwise, drift--still as "inferior students"--into non-sec-tarian colleges where the influence of materialistic philosophy, the careless moral attitude of many of their fellow-students and the superficial culture which is, after all, common to many so-called higher institutions of learning would result in a complete loss of their most precious possession--their faith...
...Premature, because the majority of our Catholic higher institutions of learning have not been in existence long enough for their graduates to become eminent --give them time...
...REv...
...It is monstrously unfair to accuse the religious orders which, for lack of other endowment, have been obliged to rely upon nothing except the heroic self-sacrifice of their members...
...Were I to cite the avocations followed, the distinction achieved, by the stud- ents of Fordham University, my open letter would become a book...
...and his dark hint about sacrificing our colleges in favor of stronger Newman Clubs at the non-sectarian uni- versities would be--if there were any serious likelihood of its being acted upon--nothing short of disastrous...
...Might not a solution be found in the more vigorous support given by Catholics to the colleges that have been established primarily to preserve for them and for their children the heritage of falth...
...With regard to incompetents and dead-weights, I think that a brief conversation with the registrar of any one of the col- leges that he mentioned would convince Mr...
...Another point missed in this controversy is that, since it is true, as Father Cox points out, there is something "wrong with the American college," then we Catholics have a God-given opportunity to produce the university which can, in itself, be an answer to all the questions being propounded by educators the world over...
...The sole advantage that the secular institutions have over the ecclesiastical is that the secular institutions have more money and the social prestige that accompanies it...
...Mol-anphy's reference to the "inferiority complex," but I would like to suggest that "the only solution of the problem of the Catholic college" may not lie "in restriction and consolida-tion...
...Would not the by-products of such an institution bring great good to the Church ? All the youths and maidens, observing all religious orders with energies bent to one great purpose, would perhaps be fired with similar zeal, and novitiates would fill up...
...But, with success, we must avoid that spirit of complacency which bars the road to further advancement and closes our eyes to the ever fresh fields all about us...
...If Mr...
...Surely all the religious conducting Catholic colleges would look forward to a day when we, in the twentieth cen- tury, might have great Catholic universities like Bologna, Paris, Padua, where Dominicans and Franciscans taught side by side...
...In consequence, it was easy to perceive a very disagreeable odor arising from the un-worthy insinuation that the need of the paltry tuition fees of a few backward pupils influenced the college authorities to the detriment of the school's efficiency...
...It has a hard struggle...
...Molanphy would make the rounds of the larger uni- versities, both Catholic and non-sectarian--particularly dur-ing the summer session he would see many hundreds of nuns who are, every year, seeking diligently, intelligently and con-scientiously to find the best practices of the older colleges...
...To sum up, the Catholic college movement is magnificent...
...Molanphy's main contention for the centralization of learning is, it seems to me, impracticable, even if not actually undesirable...
...I have met many members of the faculty of these various Catholic colleges at conventions of the American Association of University Women and of the International Federation of Catholic Alumnae...
...I do not write captiously, but simply that Sir Bertram may be set right in this minor matter...
...The whole question arose, I think, out of The Commonweal's discussion of Catholic lethargy, and everybody ought to be glad to witness such signs of vitality, not to say pugnacity...
...Jones in his pictures...
...The fusion of mood which Mr...
...And we have, beside, the evidence that even their imperfect translation to the stage has brought a new completeness and a fresh ideal of poetic unity to the theatre of today...
...It gave something of the immeasurable space indicated in the fireside drawing in the present book...
...But of her cruelty he wrought A song, and of her scornful head...
...but in that time as I have taught in two colleges on the Pacific coast, and am at present teaching in three local colleges--three that are among the half dozen or so that Mr...
...Then no young Catholic will be tempted to go to Yale for dramatic art, or to Johns Hopkins for medicine or applied psychology...
...It is not in our power to reform Columbia or Harvard or Yale...
...The proportions had to be altered, but the mood remained...
...Often it has been able to retain the essential mood of the artist...
...This is what I have given you," says Mr...
...Jones has created in his drawings has often been lost in translating the artist's vision to the stage itself...
...Molanphy states, "make few records...
...C. Molanphy...
...those who have made some new and valuable application of existing knowledge...
...The aim of the sisters, in their colleges as in their secondary schools, is primarily, of course, spiritual culture--the implanting in the minds and hearts of the young those fundamental prin- ciples which will make them staunch and sturdy Catholic women...
...Why not rather look ahead and try to perceive what great thing for the future can be fashioned out of this vast amount of material...
...In this connection, Mr...
...And we should see a truly Catholic faculty made up of Dominicans and Sisters of Charity, Jesuits and Paulists, Franciscans and Madames of the Sacred Heart, Christian Brothers and Ursulines, Holy Child Nuns, Sisters of Saint Joseph and Salesians...
...Of course he was not, for his order knows no such name...
...What constructive sug- gestion ? I take my point from the letter of the Catholic Graduate of the College of New Rochelle---the glory of the mediaeval university...
...It happens, though, that he was an abbot...
...If only as much pains be taken to secure, assist and train youths of intellectual promise as are being taken to secure prospective foot-ball stars, there will be no need of asking, fifty years from now, where are the eminent graduates of Catholic universities, for there will be so many in evidence as will render such a question entirely superfluous...
...Jones is doing for the plastic and pictorial art of the drama what Wagner did for its musical expression...
...Somewhere in the maze of car-pentry, painting, lighting and the challenge of a third dimension viewed from many seating angles, the primitive beauty and truth of the sketches have either disappeared or been sorrow- fully compromised...
...Is any one of them resting on its laurels...
...The Catholic colleges are here...
...Yet perhaps it is, in many ways, better so...
...It would be' easy to show that our colleges have produced any number of prominent men...
...Otherwise there would be the grave danger of our accepting the current mechanistic illusions with regard to education...
...and those, finally, who have done both--discovered new truths and ap- plied them to beneficent purposes, as did Pasteur...
...THE SPIRITUAL IN EDUCATION T Canton, O. the Editor:--As a graduate of Saint Elizabeth's Col- O lege, Convent Station, New Jersey, I am, naturally, interested in the letter of C. Molanphy in The Commonweal for September 23, particularly his references to Catholic women's colleges...
...I have been especially impressed with their earnestness, their eagerness to learn from the experience of others and their apparent desire to embody in their schools only the finest and best educational policies available...
...The most im-portant phase of Catholic education--the spiritual--he has ignored...
...This statement is rather confusing...
...I could prove the exist- ence of these conditions in connection with many Catholic col- leges, but I shall confine myself to the two institutions of learning of which I have the honor to be an alumna--the Col- lege of Mount Saint Vincent and Fordham University...
...Ex-perience does not prove that it is "the aim of every religious community of women to establish a college...
...and make every effort, both by personal study and by consultation with the faculties of colleges already established, to gain a clear understanding of the educational problem...
...Molanphy may desire...
...In no self-respecting college are such students allowed to remain after the completion of the fresh- man year...
...Why restrict it...
...They are the cloth out of which is to be cut the garment of future Catholic education...
Vol. 2 • October 1925 • No. 25
