Week by Week

...x\RE the Vigilantes staging ghostly promenades on Telegraph Hill...

...1 HOSE who believe it desirable that a larger number of Americans should be tillers and owners of farms, will note with satisfaction that the state of Texas reports a gain of 30,387 farms during the five years antecedent to the census of 1925...

...Three of the four powers which legislated themselves into permanence were those upon whose good will the nations freshly formed by the treaties of peace were absolutely dependent...

...As the Supreme Court is hearing the evidence bearing upon water diversion, comment must be reserved until the decision is handed down...

...1 HE existing fierce discussion of United States waterways should, at least, result in definite action...

...The League was conceived in a chastened spirit, and while the countries of the entente were still under the spell of the common danger which had drawn them together...

...It can be accused of trying to dump a venture which has never been a financial success...

...Considering the risks assumed by March 24, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 537 the farmer, it is extremely hazardous for him to gamble for advances in the price of land equivalent to those which were realized a generation ago...

...In principle, it is exactly the same...

...Among the thirty-five names of bishops and cardinals who signed the petition was that of Cardinal Sarto, patriarch of Venice, and afterward Pius X. During his own Pontificate, which began four years later, it was the lot of Pope Pius to receive many petitions to the same end, made by bishops and Eucharistic Congresses all over the world...

...and her refusal has had an effect which it is not exaggeration to describe as disruptive...

...Let us draw this slimy monster out into the open and slay it before it becomes full-grown...

...and the outcome may very well depend upon what we care to announce is our collective attitude...

...This is a mere prostitution of religion...

...It may not be out of place to add here that a great deal of the confusion now visible in Geneva is the result of the abstention of the United States...

...The fourth was exacting a price for its forbearance during the critical period when the entry of America was still a doubtful factor—a price that had to be paid...

...The manoeuver—if there actually was one—developed in the dark, though Germany must to some extent have been aware of it...

...In 1899, Cardinal Richelmy proposed to Pope Leo XIII, who had just placed the world under the patronage of the Sacred Heart, that he should commemorate this consecration by a special feast-day in honor of the Kingdom of Christ...

...JD'Y 1885 the society had spread into Italy, where Cardinal Richelmy, archbishop of Turin, was made its president-general...

...In short, the pos538 THE COMMONWEAL Match 24, 1926 sibilities are infinite...

...It is a challenge because the change of a purely amateur sport like football into a business venture is unusually difficult and complex...

...It is obviously another step forward—professors should soon be able to diagnose persistently the developing changes between American and British speech, with a view toward proposing correctives where necessary...

...It is victimized by combines which act as middlemen between the fields and the public...

...In audiences granted by the Pope during the sacred year, the matter was more than once referred to, and the Pontiff made no secret of the fact that he was awaiting still further requests, not only from the "teaching Church" but from its lay members, before acting...

...The better instructed profess to see here the sinister outlines of policies already pigeon-holed in the chancelleries, whose authors are far less concerned with the justice of their cause than with fixing the jury that will some day be called upon to try them...

...Our railways and their terminals would need to be enormously expanded to care for these future Americans, and we can obtain much of these added facilities at much less capital outlay and operate at less cost...

...Lawrence waterway seemed to meet with considerable success...

...William H. Edwards as the regent for organized professional football is both a solution and a challenge...

...As long as fifty years ago, a delegation of French deputies present in a body at Paray-le-monial, dedicated their country in a special manner to the "Sovereignty of Christ...

...It has been said that this order in Canada has nothing in common with the order in the United States...

...Neither he nor his successor, Benedict XV, judged himself in a position to do more than extend his benediction to the petitioners...

...That he parted company with it is entirely to his credit...

...Between going to school on a meagre allowance and joining a highly paid troupe under the leadership of some electric person like Red Grange, a hopeful youngster interested in money has only one choice to make...

...The Wesleyan, which is the official organ of the new union of "Free Churches" in Canada, does not even take the trouble to be polite...

...1 HE reference by Pope Pius XI, made in his encyclical instituting a Feast of Christ the King, to "the numerous prayers of cardinals, bishops, and the faithful, made separately and in common" for its inclusion in the liturgy of the Church, covers an interesting history, according to a recent article in La Vie Catholique of Paris...

...Therefore, not even the present battle for prestige can be decided with finality without a careful reference to what is thought of the protagonists in the United States...

...They are right, if public agreements such as those signed at Locarno amount to anything...

...The suggestion that what they are breathing is less fire than slime, is timely, and none the less wholesome because it comesi from brothers in religion across the border...

...But we think the progress is a little too rapid when the San Francisco customs officer decides to refuse admission to a copy of Ovid's Amores...

...1 T would seem more reasonable, however, to see in the present Geneva turmoil another phase of the battle to preserve or alter the status quo guaranteed by the Treaty of Versailles...

...Time was when the old river was black with vessels and rich with varied cargoes...

...Time was when the hills surrounding the Barbary Coast were notorious for spiritual levity...

...This year the medals for distinguished service were awarded to three well-known officials—Mr...

...The other day the first radio message was transmitted to the United States from San Salvador, which is the island by which Columbus first verified his dream of a western world...

...It is a solution because a large-sized job has found a larged-sized man, whose knowledge of the work to be done, of the public which is the patron, and also of the ethical aspects of sport, is beyond question...

...and its decay must be attributed in large measure to the inadequate channel, to indifference toward the South American markets, and to the stress laid upon railway expansion...

...Weeks of careful preparation, years of scientific analysis, had forestalled her efforts to vote down the inconsequential twitter of the mere human race...

...This is all the more so as it is evident that, present or absent in the person of its representative, the opinion of the great American republic will have to be taken into account in every decision arrived at...

...It falls an easy prey to disastrous collective experiments, such as the ustate cooperative" so appallingly mismanaged by the officials of North Dakota...

...iiiNGINEERS agree that the cost of construction is likely to be about the same in both cases, but they have relied upon obtaining Canadian aid in the completion of the St...

...and as for the conduct of business, it cannot but be expedited by this medium of personal contact—the charm of fresh, challenging voices capturing a new tang from the sea...

...Speaking in Chicago, Secretary Hoover professed to see a solution for mid-western transportation ills in the steady development first of the Mississippi waterway, and secondly in the finding of a seaward route for Great Lakes vessels...

...The Abbot of Sous-Coucy, in his humble mediaeval way, declares that one of the great aberrations of his life was a fondness for this work...

...Unfortunately enough, the rural mind is abidingly individualistic...

...It was a happy selection and drew attention incidentally to the diversity of the modern social worker's enterprise...

...He has also been deeply interested in the achievement of the probation bureau maintained in New York by the Church, and recently favored The Commonweal with an authoritative paper concerning it...

...But the proposal is of such importance that it must not be shrouded in facile suspicions before being carefully investigated...

...Father Keegan, who was cited as having "brought a new element of strength to the advancement of the social well-being of the entire city," is renowned for having made the exhaustive survey of Catholic charities upon which the present archdiocesan administration is based...

...It is difficult to estimate at present if the Illinois canal project would benefit a larger area than it would bring disadvantage to...

...But it is clear that British calculations were all based upon America's participation in the work of post-war settlement...

...Some months, however, were to pass before it became an accomplished fact...

...At all events, discussion will stir the public to a larger recognition of traffic problems...

...Soon after the French pilgrimage, a Society of the Social Reign of Jesus Christ, was founded at Paray...

...All in all, statistics seem to favor the agricultural expansion of the Southwest on a grand scale...

...W E have commented previously upon the possible motives which induced Sir Austen Chamberlain to support the policy of France...

...The reception the Klan proffer of services has met on the part of those bodies who might have been expected to lend a compliant ear, is discouraging and rather final...

...But now a vbice has spoken out of the sea and the night, using a new and mysterious discovery to recall the old adventurous voyage through which we came into being...

...The New York canal is "all American": its construction would involve no other discussion than that which could be settled more or less easily in Congress...

...Many will believe that, far from injuring the rugged sport as an outlet for collegiate energies, the rise of a professional game may weed out certain well-curtained departures from amateur ethics which undoubtedly have helped to make touchdowns for alma mater...

...Lawrence project...

...And we are asked to believe that the existing alignment against Germany is the result of a secret Locarno agreement in which Sir Austen Chamberlain agreed to support, together with France, the aspirations of Poland to obtain a permanent seat in the League Council...

...By the time the Holy Year celebrations opened, petitions from 400 bishops and from many hundreds of Catholic congresses and organizations had been registered, and long before its close it was an open secret that the Pontiff was only awaiting the end of the Jubilee to crown it with the proclamation of Christ the King and the assignment of His feast...

...And even those who prefer to see a Franco-Polish entente powerful in Europe, must concede that its present international conduct is hostile to the spirit for which the League has stood...

...and though they are merely statistics, they have a very real human interest for many who yearn to get away from the grind of industry and to find both independence and fresh air, 15UT is there an illusion in the sales talk—a something which the average American calls a "nigger in the woodpile...

...But there are many who feel that the quarrels and gestures of the past few weeks are of such bad augury that it is a question whether all the evil its enemies could wish the League is not already accomplished...

...And in order to guarantee a solution of this amenable to her own prestige, it is likely enough that France took steps to stack the League cards when Germany should sit down to play...

...One must suppose that the sight of General Butler, rousing sleepy San Diego into a frenzy of astonishment by his violation of hospitality in the interests of prohibition, would be too much for even them...

...In proposing to turn over its OntarioHudson River canal to the federal government for use as a waterway reconstructed to carry ocean-going vessels, the state of New York is open to two charges...

...Perhaps the ghostly Vigilantes would try to explain it on the assumption that it is a hang-over from the General's venture into civil life...

...That the federal government is ready to expend $20,000,000 next year upon the Mississippi system is proof at least that the seri536 THE COMMONWEAL March 24, 1926 ousness of the existing traffic jam is realized...

...and it is hopeful to note that the faults of the fathers have spurred the children unto heated regeneration...

...The effort expended during recent years to interest the public in financing a Great LakesSt...

...Homer Folks, Miss Lillian D. Wald, and Reverend Robert F. Keegan...

...1 HAT unassuming instrument, the telephone, celebrated its birthday with a dapper triumph which proves how much of youth it has preserved...

...1 HE National City Bank is, nevertheless, inclined to view the situation optimistically...

...There is something to be said for a city which takes the problem of dramatic morality seriously...

...Perhaps the customs officer, awed by the promenading Vigilantes, forgot that there are bards among their number, and other queer folk who love the flavor of Latinity...

...But even the Abbot hardly insisted that the book should be denied citizenship, knowing, as he did, that it had been of some usefulness to poets and other persons of a similar secondary importance...

...But by refusing to take cognizance of it, by coming to the League with her intentions uninvolved in stealthy dickering, the German representatives gain a moral advantage which is both immense and very important...

...Locarno was to some extent a new settlement, but the profits which Germany expected to derive from it were dependent entirely upon what should be done with reference to a problem still left open—the problem of Poland and the Little Entente in general...

...and it learned to know better the effort toward human reclamation being made in the world's greatest city, and to make the acquaintance of some of those who are, as one might say, on the firing lines...

...For the first time voices chatted on familiarly across the sea, without more than a fraction of the hectic disturbance which heretofore mother earth had injected into the conversation...

...And its whispering campaign against the French Canadian and the Roman Catholic is just as miserable as any campaign waged in the United States...

...The dragons and cyclops of the hooded order take a frank pride in their horrific titles...

...Any banker or business man who tries to encourage new people to get into farming (or those who are in, to increase their operations) is doing more harm than good to agriculture...

...It is true that the cost of the enterprise could not be estimated accurately, nor has it been possible to pin the Canadian government to definite commitments...

...and if neither Ontario nor Quebec proves eager to cooperate, events will impose the building of a canal alternative to the one in which they were to have a share...

...This campaign can derive excellent advertising copy from the records of the Santa Fe railroad, which indicate that the gain in number of carloads of grain shipped from the "Panhandle" during the past few years, has been about 3,000 annually...

...Nor is this strange, seductive enterprise of telephony without its symbolic beauties...

...But in spite of all these financial and juridical snags, Chicago was really looking forward hopefully to the inevitable coming of a waterway which would have made her, beyond any question, the most gigantic port in the world...

...We think that the decision rests to a large extent upon what stand is taken by the Canadian government in the near future...

...Undoubtedly there is much of sense in this declaration...

...A further vast increase is predicted by the announcement that ua dozen of the biggest ranches in southwest Texas, comprising about 5,000,000 acres, will be cut up into farms, and one of the greatest colonization campaigns ever put on will be waged to bring in farmers and settlers...

...His fine record leaves us helpless to account for an inquisitorial venture so useless and so unmanly as his two-footed pouncing upon his military host...

...When the first idea of Eucharistic Congresses was mooted by Mile...

...and it may be suspected of an attempt to steal some of what promised to be mid-western easy pickings...

...the State Department may ring up the capitals of Europe and issue advice in tune with the passing hour...

...Owing to the pressure of affairs, we have sometimes forgotten our origins...

...Obviously, however, a problem so important must be settled with a view to what will be national rather than sectional advantage...

...In the first place, the success of gridiron leagues will inevitably react upon the annual pageants staged by all the colleges...

...Doubtless the compromise of delay, arranged by men trained by five years of practice in political juggling, will avert the scandal of an open break...

...Ancient controversies about how this should be done have waxed hot and heavy, but they probably never reached the intensity of the quarrel now going on between the Lake states which believe that diversion of water into a canal would mean the drying up of their harbors, and the states farther south which look forward to the digging of such a canal as to a kind of economic millennium...

...In other words, our country is ripe for the same kind of development as that which has made the Rhine one of the busiest and most coveted traffic routes on earth...

...The final result is a migratory farm population, which drifts back and forth, not infrequently ending in pauperism...

...The General is unintelligible...

...As Secretary Hoover said to his Chicago audience, "a quarter of a century hence we shall have 40,000,000 more people in the United States...

...But they might well be thrilled at the casting into prison of all those who came to initiate San Franciscoans into the scabrous views of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms...

...1 HAT overtures on the part of the Klan to "come over and help their Protestant brethren in benighted Canada" have been in progress for some time, is no great secret...

...The recognition accorded him will be gratefully applauded by all who know his work, and by the many to whom his charity has brought new courage and the will to live...

...It is justified in believing that state and federal aid in the development of agriculture is a support which no other industrial enterprise receives...

...Meanwhile, the civic upbuilding of a new territory brings with it inevitable taxation burdens for schools, roads, governments, and churches...

...When the mere problem of seating the body is straining its existence to the breaking point, is there more than a scant, beggarly assurance that national jealousies will not speak the final word about international decisions...

...It would have been something outside the order of nature if the sight of a community of over three million souls, of un-Nordic race, un-Protestant faith, and favoring beverages other than coffee and coca-cola as an accompaniment to their meals, had acted as anything less than a challenge to the bigotry that has been allowed to attain such a rank and luxuriant growth south of the Great Lakes and the forests...

...And so, if one is to venture a conclusion from evidence as fragmentary as that here considered, it would seem that American agriculture will develop normally and not dwindle in proportion with industry, if those who serve the farmer can succeed in demonstrating the common character and needs of life in the country...

...JVlUCH less open to question is the proposed eastward sea-route...

...One of these, writing from Colorado, declares that uwe have reached a point where the abandonment of old ground each year offsets the new...

...The crowd which gathered to honor the occasion was a large, spirited crowd...

...OOCIAL workers are generally very busy people who do not look abroad for compliments...

...1 O those who were anxiously waiting for an answer from Rome to their oft-repeated prayer, the proclamation of the new feast was foreshadowed when the present Pontiff, in his first encyclical, assigned as the special motive of his Pontificate, "the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ...

...The current news letter of the National City Bank of New York reprints, together with comment and refutation, certain pessimistic statements from men engaged in western farming...

...We believe that there will be room for both kinds, because the public interest in punts and passes is a comparatively recent thing...

...The farmer, if he is at all inured to the methods of his task and willing to learn more, can find much that is really valuable in the service offered by agricultural colleges, government bureaus, and federal banks...

...It has been endorsed for military reasons by the Secretaries of War and the Navy, who observe that an international water-route is governed by the provisions of neutrality in the case of war...

...Therefore, there is a great deal of genuine cheer in such a festival as that organized by the "Better Times" welfare organization in New York City...

...1 HE selection of Mr...

...There is always someone coming into the country thinking he knows more about farming than the fellow who just left...

...The Mississippi will never be a complete system, however, until it has been linked with the Great Lakes...

...Now, suddenly, there appears a challenging alternative to the system thus far sponsored...

...Tamisier, the feast which has just been authorized was one of the objects which its promoters kept in view...

...Apparently this is the strongest argument yet urged by those who oppose the venture upon which Chicago has staked its hopes...