Communications
578 THE COMMONWEAL March 31, 1926 COMMUNICATIONS A GUILD PLAN FOR INDUSTRY Buffalo, N. Y. TO the Editor:—I have just read the article recently published in The Commonweal, by Henry...
...Those of us who knew Paul Fuller for the clear-sighted, high-principled, thoroughly experienced man that he was, found double cause for wonder in the matter...
...Is "historic democracy" dead...
...And we know what we do not want: recreancy to the ideal, or the relegation of it from the realm of actual, present, and paramount objectives...
...They do not prove that our universities are all we want them to be...
...Thus we may truly say that the king presides and the president reigns...
...One spontaneously adverts to the current project of medico-chemical research at Georgetown, and to the established school of diplomacy there...
...Lincoln Steffens, of Dr...
...If I am not mistaken, it can be cast into this form: Do we seriously intend to maintain Catholic universities in this country ? Universities aim at nothing if not at intellectual leadership...
...state rights were assassinated in the very citadel of state right...
...We could hardly find a more exact description of him than to call him a president...
...TO the Editor:—I wonder if Mr...
...These are instances cited at random...
...Matthew Page Andrews...
...Sure enough, I found in Dorlodot this quotation from Saint Augustine: "But, just as in the seed there were in an invisible manner all those things which were to arise in the course of time, so, also, we must conclude that the world, at the time when God created all things simultaneously, contained simultaneously all those things which were made in it and with it when the day was made: not only the heavens with the sun, moon, and stars, whose natures persist throughout their movements of rotation, together with the earth and the seas, which are subject to irregular movements . . . but, also, those things which the water and the earth produced in power and causally before they could develop in the course of time, as we now know them...
...True, this is speculation, but it seems to accord with some of the conclusions of the scientists of the day...
...At the very time correspondents were holding high dispute in your columns on the subject of coordination, St...
...The argument contained in this article seems to ignore the basic economic fact that every industrial enterprise, in order to be successful, must have three distinct factors—capital, management, and workers—and each must have fair wages and fair treatment or there will be no profits for anybody...
...T « ~ James F. Desmond...
...Everyone who is at all informed, knows that American workingmen are, for the most part, organized and able fully to protect themselves, and are not at all backward about asserting and enforcing their rights...
...The kind of government for which Jeffersonian democracy successfully battled for more than a century was thus repudiated...
...Thomas F. Woodlock...
...Edgar R. Smothers, S.J...
...I have, however, succeeded in isolating one thought...
...Louis University was actualizing the educational merger described by Father Schwitalla in The Commonweal of January 6. One could write a heavy feature article—a fact story neat—on the contributions Catholic universities are making to the progress of physical sciences now in this country—in seismology, in meteorology, in experimental psychology...
...Furthermore, there is no present justification for the doctrine that American workingmen, generally speaking, are oppressed or unfairly treated by corporations or employers generally...
...To transfer our allegiance to any substitute ideal, to any alluring composition with mere secular institutions, however multiple the millions of their endowment, is definitively to drop the Catholic ideal...
...But, to his eternal credit be it remembered, he did not trouble himself to lie, and he made no phrases...
...Rev...
...Sands has cast his keen inquisition into various forms...
...TO the Editor:—There is so vibrant a ring in the challenge of your correspondent who renews the educational issue (The Commonweal, March 3) that the duly emblazoned respondent will presently appear, I trust, to give him knightly satisfaction...
...Colum's verses will be glad to know that a booklet to be issued by Ralph Seymour, Chicago, contains reproductions of the stations and the complete sequence of poems...
...are telling us that life first came up from the Great Deep, that is, from the sea...
...Faggi's sculptures or Mr...
...Paul Fuller was sent to Mexico by President Wilson in those famous days just preceding the great war, and he returned with a report which at that time surprised a good many of us...
...I think he was right...
...Very many of our largest corporations, like the United States Steel corporation, Standard Oil of New Jersey, the American Radiator Company, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the EndicottJohnson Company, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, and numberless others in all fields have adopted, in some cases profit-sharing plans, and in other cases easy-payment plans by which their employees are enabled to become stockholders and part owners of the enterprises in which they are employed...
...578 THE COMMONWEAL March 31, 1926 COMMUNICATIONS A GUILD PLAN FOR INDUSTRY Buffalo, N. Y. TO the Editor:—I have just read the article recently published in The Commonweal, by Henry Somerville, suggesting union-control, or as he phrases it, guild-control of industry in place of the so-called capitalistic control...
...Another economic fact which this article seems to ignore, is that capital is timid and will not venture into business enterprise unless the management is competent, and unless, also, the opportunity for generous return is reasonably assured...
...Thus, if it should some day be proven to be true, it would accord with biblical teaching...
...Having now in mind, however, the progress of events in Mexico during the last twelve years, it is apparent that Mr...
...Justice and fairness are what I asked for and still desire in all criticisms as those mentioned...
...Capital is the fruit of labor, self-denial, and saving, and it will not take, nor can it be expected to take, the risks of business without the prospect of reward adequate to the risks involved...
...Sands's article, viz., the impression that President Coolidge is in favor of state rights or, at least, resistance to further encroachments of federal power...
...So much is obvious...
...The poems by Mr...
...FAITH AND THE UNIVERSITY St...
...de Bekker, of Dr...
...It is along these sensible and rational lines that the labor-capital problem in our country is being solved, and should be solved...
...Shuster on Whitman, not so much to Mr...
...Theirs, reductively, is a counsel of despair incompatible with the right Catholic temper, the temper of Catholic America...
...David Lawrence, of Mr...
...Coolidge's speech on that occasion reminds one of the alleged saying of a manufacturer of a popular automobile, who stated that his car might be purchased in any color desired provided it was black...
...the way is open for the obliteration of the states in all their essential functions and the erection of a federal government more powerful than anything of which Alexander Hamilton dared to think...
...Bates's series on state universities, and not so much even to Mr...
...and to a considerable extent are stockholders in our great industrial, railroad and public-utility corporations, and in the corporations by which they are employed...
...G. K. Chesterton, recognizing the parlous tendency of our state governments to shirk their responsibilities and duties, with the consequent and inevitable concentration of power in Washington, was moved to write: "It is not only true the president could be correctly called a king...
...March 31, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 579 We are not going to drop the Catholic ideal...
...He was an assassin by wholesale, and a robber by wholesale...
...How will the larger accomplishment now so increasingly urgent be secured...
...American workingmen generally enjoy very high wages, four or five times the average paid in Europe, and are able to have not only the comforts but even the luxuries of life...
...The line of demarcation formerly extant between our state and national governments is fast disappearing before the constant, insidious inroads of the latter into the domain of our local affairs...
...The financial resources, we are reminded, of the wealthiest of our Catholic universities dwindle to poverty compared with the means of any one of the more prosperous non-Catholic institutions...
...of Mr...
...Ernest Gruening, and the rest of the intrepid band, who, at one time or another have undertaken to "interpret" Mexico to us, and the only words that seem to fit the thoughts are: "Oh, what's the use...
...Either we elect to maintain our own universities, or we consent to institutionalize an inferiority complex...
...If, as is suggested in this article, the capital required in industry were compelled to accept a fixed moderate return, and all beyond this would go to the workers, this capital would go into high-grade bonds, mortgages, and other types of conservative investment where the return would be almost as great, and where the risk would be much less...
...Often these changes for the better are made without noise, possibly unconsciously...
...The charter of local self-government became a scrap of paper...
...A mountain range of impossibilities may be alleged against us...
...It looked oddly familiar...
...Whitman, therefore, was a bacchanalian threnody...
...and labor organizations like the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers have become owners of large banks and coal mines...
...he hoped the states would exercise their prerogatives, in conformity with the wishes of the federal government...
...Again, I, too, have a sincere regard for "Mr...
...whereas we are building up a federal frankenstein that is assuming powers once denied to king and parliament...
...In other words, under his formula, the federal government would say to the states: "Do as we tell you and you can do just as you wish...
...One of the leading planks adopted at this meeting declares against any form of cooperation between social classes, especially the new American form...
...We know, however, what it is we want: Catholic universities in the United States that shall take in every main department of university activity as distinguished a lead as they are already taking at selected points...
...Fortunately, the workingmen of this country, generally speaking, have sufficient intelligence to appreciate their fortunate situation, and realize that their interests will be best promoted by turning a deaf ear to the preachers of discontent in Moscow, and in their own country, by continuing to work along the constructive lines which are bringing them satisfactory results...
...I think of the Evening Post and Mr...
...That editor had better watch his step, or he'll find himself wandering into a camp that he surely has no conscious intention of joining...
...I think of Mr...
...BEAUTY IN CHURCH ART Brooklyn, N. Y. TO the Editor:—Those who feel that the liturgy and architecture of the Church have been formed by a long and sacred tradition, in which there is possibly something of direct inspiration, ought never to be disheartened by the seeming neglect of these things in our time...
...in which I endeavored to point to the fact that we are forgetting the lessons which we taught the British in 1776...
...THE CRUSADERS' CHAMPION Washington, D. C. TO the Editor:—A recent copy of the Fundamentalist journal, The Crusaders' Champion, wandered into my possession, and in it I found the following: "Some scientists...
...The soundness of his judgment, however, appeals to me today...
...It seems to me that this article is full of error that should not be preached to American workingmen...
...True, Villa was a thorough-paced blackguard who respected nothing and nobody...
...Fuller was right...
...I think of those days thirteen years ago when our own Mr...
...Henry Watterson, in his autobiography, Marse Henry, with the same, identical theme as his subject, says: "The deathblow to Jeffersonian democracy was delivered by the Democratic Senators and Representatives from the South and West who carried through the Prohibition Amendment...
...Villard and his often-expressed hatred of law, as law—I seem to remember an editorial paragraph in The Nation shrieking that law was an evil thing!—and symptoms of "mal de mer" make themselves felt within me...
...How, in the past, has so much been accomplished in the face of odds...
...Harry McGuire has not misread my recent letter to The Commonweal, or if, perhaps, he has in his "pointless point" attempted to be facetious or playfully satirical...
...Only today, according to press despatches, the executive committee of the Russian Communist party, known as the Third Internationale, meeting in Moscow, is reported to view with alarm the growing tendency of American labor unions to organize banks and permit their members to own stock in the corporations by which they are employed, such action being viewed as having a tendency to make workmen contented and reluctant to take part in strikes...
...Competent management is the product of an exceptionally high order of natural ability, combined with long training, and is in reality a type of genius, and never is found and never can be expected to be found in men who are trained to work only with their hands...
...On that occasion we taught them the value of local self-government, which they are today practising in regard to their political entities or dominions...
...The "demon of ugliness," as Huysmans said, will not prevail in the end over the angels in whose custody the decorum of the House of God has been placed...
...As he would scarcely wish to display such "meaningless" invective in your really excellent magazine, I assume that he was "oratorically" serious...
...a barbarian...
...the total absence of realism from his work is astonishing...
...An example is our American railroads, many of which have gone into bankruptcy during the past ten years, and all of which, as a result of inadequate rates and the vices of government control, have greatly suffered through inability to tempt American investors to risk their money in railroad securities...
...Nevertheless, no really well-informed observer of university activities could countenance for a moment the suggestion that our universities are not going forward...
...No one of sense believes that can be proved, or wants anyone to try to prove it...
...The point can be proved from the Ius Canonicum if it be necessary, and from the whole philosophy of Catholic culture...
...Worker-management was tried in Russia in the early days of Bolshevik rule, and in Italy immediately preceding the advent of Mussolini, and in both cases it resulted disastrously, and so it has always resulted wherever tried, and so it must in the natural order of things always result...
...In the meantime, between heavier thunderclaps, may I be permitted cautiously to address the elements...
...I noted those as typical...
...A o Andrew Smithberger...
...r_ J & Frank Thone...
...Lind, went down to see for himself—and for us—what was "the truth about Mexico," and I find myself uncertain whether I should laugh or curse...
...Shuster's standing in American Catholic letters," but I still wonder what is "the poet's [Whitman's] leadership in 'the true American renaissance.'" Furthermore, I can scarcely come to the conclusion that Whitman is "generously evaluated" when such references are made to him: "Whitman was the true revolution against America...
...And so I cannot help feeling that it is just as "logical if Whitman is called 'the true revolution against America,' to call many other men whose lives are as bad but not so frankly exposed as that of the 'good grey poet,' and many of his followers and later 'free versifiers' true revolutionists against America...
...Then, Mr...
...O'Connor's letter gives us an opportunity to call attention to the beautiful series of Stations of the Cross, by Alfeo Faggi, in Saint Thomas's Church, Chicago...
...centralization was invited...
...To a very large extent they own their own homes, ride in automobiles, and have victrolas and radios...
...Why, indeed, "all the fanfaronade...
...MEXICO: THE LAW OF THE LAND Washington, D. C. TO the Editor:—Major Phillips's article on Mexico and your own reference to The Nation's comments on the Mexican situation fill me with emotions hard to analyze...
...Those interested in either Mr...
...The answer ultimately is, of course, our faith...
...One has heard of Catholics to whom a Catholic university system in the United States would seem to have taken the hue of an ideal foregone...
...And they are all the better for appearing so humbly and unadvertised...
...It is also true that the king (English) might correctly be called president...
...Padraic Colum in this issue of The Commonweal are part of a sequence written about these stations...
...President Coolidge said something similar about state rights...
...but it might be that the divine Spirit during that time brought into existence the various germs of life, so that when afterward the biblical narrator depicts God as saying: 'Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seeds,' etc., and, 'let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures,' those originally created and implanted germs grew into living organisms...
...He probably came as near to being a wild animal as a human being can come...
...Stuart's criticism of Page as ambassador, but, on the other hand, to all such articles that may be published...
...J. S. O'Connor...
...First of all, therefore, the caption of my letter was not quite true because no attempt was made to defend either Page or Whitman...
...I thought in those days that Paul Fuller was wrong...
...They are steadily and increasingly becoming capitalists...
...Bryan exchanged despatches with Senor Gamboa, when the country rang with the slogan, "Huerta must go," when that subtle and experienced diplomat, Mr...
...LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT Reading, Mass...
...It is well known, although not, I believe, a matter of record, that he reported to President Wilson that of all the men then active in Mexican affairs on the revolutionary side, the late lamented Francesco Villa seemed to him the best for us to deal with...
...Louis, Mo...
...There is one thing with which I beg to differ in Mr...
...Apparently, this impression is based upon certain references to state rights in President Coolidge's Memorial Day speech at Arlington last May...
...We do not know whether there is sufficient scientific proof to establish this doctrine or not, but if it is true, we might refer the scientists to a certain ancient Book which says: 'And the Spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters.' Just how much is involved in that statement, we may not know...
...580 THE COMMONWEAL March 31, 1926 "THE GOOD GREY POET" Notre Dame, Ind...
...Preaching the gospel of discontent to American workingmen will not advance their best interests, but will very effectively aid the cause of the Russian Communists who aim, through fomenting discord, to overthrow the governments and existing economic systems of all of the so-called capitalistic nations of the world, including our own...
...It was surprising to us that he had been chosen for a mission of this sort, and it was surprising to us that he had reported as he did...
...TO the Editor:—The writer appreciated the comments of William Franklin Sands in regard to my article under the title, Who Profited by the American Revolution...
...Editor's Note:—Mr...
...to the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium in process of production by the Catholic University of America in collaboration with the University of Loiivain...
...Samuel Guy Inman (still with us, still talking the same talk...
...The coup de grace was administered by a president of the United States elected as a Democrat when he approved the federal suffrage amendment to the Constitution...
...Never without faith—faith and a better instructed appreciation on the part of Catholics who control material means of the investment value, moral, spiritual, cultural, national, of the Catholic university...
...To tolerate the title and resign the aim would be to play at make-believe with ourselves and, perhaps, to hoodwink the simple...
...TO the Editor:—William Franklin Sands, in a communication to The Commonweal under the caption, Local Self-Government, focuses attention on an evil that is rapidly becoming a distinct menace to our fundamental concept of democratic government...
...THE PRESIDENT ON STATE RIGHTS Baltimore, Md...
...McGuire apparently does not realize that the first paragraph of my letter referred not so much to the one article by Mr...
...tt i-i Frank H. Callan...
...In this connection, may I say that I notice many a small but worthy improvement, here and there, in ecclesiastical furnishings...
Vol. 3 • March 1926 • No. 21
