Week by Week
WEEK BY WEEK HE festal board at which Mr. Charles Evans •*- 'Hughes was extolled recently by friendly New Yorkers was not without its suggestions of lively devotion to certain forms of...
...Can Governor Smith become a candidate for the Presidency...
...He is the only man who need not be hoisted up on stilts...
...The mechanics of its devotion took their place, it is not uncharitable to recall, very much in the category of the prayer-wheel and joss-stick...
...But in his own address of appreciation Mr...
...Though this is far from being all that the Holy See might ideally have desired, it is a practical working agreement which cannot fail to result in mutual good will and security...
...A REMARKABLE picture of the progress made by the Church in Brazil since the establishment of the republic in 1890, is given in a recent number of Le Vingtieme Siecle, a review published in Belgium...
...The apostolate of the soldier-priest, obscure and unchronicled as it must necessarily be, will never be known until the Day of Judgment...
...The Governor has met the constitutional requirement by ordering an election...
...while others made their way further south to form the tribes mentioned above...
...It stalks abroad, angering and disturbing the righteous—and possibly suggesting that perhaps, after all, something ought to be done about the matter...
...Is there a constitutional dictum which declares that senators shall be chosen by popular vote ? There is...
...In very many ways, Americans of diverse sorts are vitally concerned with the attitude taken towards them abroad, and it seemed for a while that the wrangling over indebtedness might be followed by unpleasantness which some citizens, at least, would find disastrous...
...What am I? I am a Catholic, apostolic and Roman, and that is all I have to say about myself...
...Mrs...
...His faculty for shouldering tacklers to left and right as he makes his runs down the field might stand him in good stead in corridors that are packed with button-holers and lobbyists...
...1 HERE are people in the Senate and elsewhere for whom the delicacies of international conduct are of no moment...
...To convert the enthusiasm with which feats of strength and bodily agility inspire any red-blooded man (or woman) into the sober judgment that makes a mark on a ballot paper, is only one symptom the more of the confusion that has overtaken thought...
...A very good case could be made out for "Red's" qualifications for congressman-at-large from the state of Illinois...
...If the government is appropriately to deal with the delicate situations which arise in foreign affairs, where the object is not humiliation and controversy but the making of agreements which will assure the benefits of peaceful intercourse, the President and his representatives must have the margin of freedom which is essential to negotiation, and there should be very grave reasons for not accepting the result," said Mr...
...W E have no time to investigate or explore the geographical situation of the "altars of eternal truth" or to defend Voltaire from aggression...
...It seems to involve all the ruses of logic, veritable mountains of bibliographical material, and a certain leavening quantity of dynamite...
...Will it simply ignore the gentleman from Cooperstown...
...The future will see a vast improvement if the general body of those who ought to be supporters can be roused to see the capital importance of scholarship and intellectual leadership...
...and the habit of comparing the United States to Shylock has gone out of fashion on the rialtos where Mussolini is the master...
...Wisely, perhaps, they took no note of the injustice that the laicizing policy of the French government perpetrated in exacting the full duties of citizenship from priests, while refusing, alone among the combatant nations, to take into account the special functions which the possession of sacred orders confers...
...An excellent clergy has restored all its old prestige to the practice of the sacraments...
...Ostensibly the very successful Tammany spokesman has lofty ambitions for the future of his party...
...not for the sake of democracy, but for the sake of the country itself...
...but the government is not wholly in the hands of such people...
...Despite the fact that there is no lack of available talent, the vacancy has been given to a Protestant lawyer, with the result that the immense Catholic population of Ulster is now represented by not a single high official of its own communion...
...The worshiper through whose fingers the "beads" fall is, in a very real sense, a pilgrim, released for the moment of his prayer from circumscriptions of time and space and following "from stall to rood" and through tragedy to triumph the Life that matters most to him...
...and which must not do anything in the air which is not prescribed for them in the drill regulations...
...Public support of a policy is likely to bear a direct relation to the public confidence in those who shape the policy...
...The sixteen dioceses of 1893 have now become seventy," says Monsignor van Caloen...
...Professor Sapir thinks that all these peoples entered as a wedge from Asia...
...In so far as Catholic young people are concerned, the instruction shall be given by persons appointed by the school authorities and chosen from those empowered by the Church to teach religious subjects...
...but what is a poor agnostic like Colonel Ingersoll to do if, nearly thirty years after his death, Mr...
...Those who, in this country, are given to fantastic fears of "Roman aggression" and so forth might do themselves a priceless favor if they took the trouble to observe what the Holy See is accomplishing for the peace and enlightenment of the world...
...One might have supposed that the visit of Senator Moses to the Governor of North Dakota, armed as the Senator was with a copy of the Constitution, would have restored normalcy to the state of wheat and struggling farmers...
...Its repetitions, especially in communions where extempore prayer is the rule of worship, were the target of criticism that rarely took the trouble to be urbane...
...The position of Sir Denis Henry, once attorney-general for Ireland in the Lloyd George administration, was always something of an anomaly...
...In short, what has been done is a pledge...
...Another is the staunch confession of faith made by President Fernandez, at the time of his election to the head of the federacy...
...From the university came the incentive for the organization of social action, now so brilliantly identified with the Welfare Conference and the Association of Charities...
...And his skill in converting touch-downs into goals is of good augury where the conversion of good intentions into law is none too common...
...A host of able men have devoted themselves to the strenuous business of teaching, to research, and to the attempt at bringing Catholic points of view to bear upon the general life...
...Blatch's attention to the matter) was really quite like that of Voltaire...
...Upon such good will there is no immediate price, but the isolation of Russia from the business of the world teaches with effective eloquence the value of international friendships...
...he has also exercised a privilege by making an appointment to fill the interim before this election can have been held...
...Simple civilians, of course, never grasp this point of view...
...SWIFT was fond of saying that men could see what God thought of money by noticing the kind of people He gave it to...
...Ecclesiastical authorities shall have the right to determine the program of study and the moral fitness of the instructor...
...Bainbridge Colby announces that "his soul goes marching on...
...But in an injustice and discrepancy the most dramatic and complete conversion of which history keeps record had its source...
...It filled the ranks with devoted men who shared to the full the dangers and drudgery of their fellows in misfortune...
...1 HE blindness of the French anti-clericals, in their laicizing, pre-war policy, worked its own remedy...
...A NY evidence that registers a change of attitude toward traditional practices of the Faith deserves to be noticed...
...November 25, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 61 I HE trial of General Mitchell is an exhaustive affair...
...and they go a narrow, rugged road when established plans for financial support do not materialize...
...It is multiplex, because to be profuse with its offerings is the only way the humble soul dares hope to have its poverty forgiven...
...Why, dirigibles and such contrivances are things which must be shined for inspection day...
...His books are practically forgotten, of course, but he is sure of one inalienable privilege...
...Testimony would seem to indicate that neither branch of the service was ready to allow even so massive a ship as the Shenandoah to break its cordon of conservatisms...
...which must repose with a decent regard for exact longitude and latitude in reference to the commanding general...
...He is young—"a few months under the age qualification," indeed: but this is the age of youth and the "fresh mind...
...the public should amplify its confidence with the tribute of a little patience...
...1 HE words of Marshal Foch in dedicating a memorial to the seminarians of Polignan, in the Haute Garonne, "who died as brave men before God," are the words of a soldier uttered to soldiers in whom the heart of the great captain recognizes the qualities of devotion and self-sacrifice which reconcile the Christian to war...
...From the gridiron to the ring-side is not a very far step...
...To the soldier, who perhaps all his life had been taught to look upon the wearer of "la calotte" as a man who shirked the rough and tumble of life, it gave a comrade at every moment of the day and night, from whose hands covered with the mud of the trenches and grey with cellulose fumes, absolution and comfort might be his any time he turned to them...
...A fervent Catholic, the chances of politics aligned him all his life against the majority of his co-religionists, though his honesty and single-mindedness earned him respect even among political opponents...
...Cultural pursuits are much less easy to foster than to talk about...
...Great Britain is professedly satisfied with the situation...
...Hughes paid less attention to the World Court than to a broader and more abiding topic—the spirit in which our relations with other peoples ought to be conducted, and the tasks of those to whom our diplomacy is entrusted...
...Greater achievement must depend upon greater general alertness...
...But should prejudice prevail, it will be obvious that neither democracy, nor "the country itself" has been purged of a maiming and ridiculous separatism which good citizens everywhere stoutly condemn...
...Colonel Ingersoll, who once stumped the country in behalf of a rather elementary agnosticism, has been remembered with a bronze tablet and quite a few complimentary orations...
...But the undertow of these words, whether designedly or not, carries a meaning of great concern to average citizens...
...Simple civilians are invariably on the side of men like Colonel Mitchell...
...Charles Evans •*- 'Hughes was extolled recently by friendly New Yorkers was not without its suggestions of lively devotion to certain forms of international action sponsored by the former Secretary of State...
...But in a pamphlet which lists with just pride its varied achievements, the university proves that it has not been indifferent to the trust placed in it by clergy, religious orders and the laity...
...The answer to this question will depend to a large extent upon what attitude will prevail at the next Democratic convention towards the religious convictions of the proposed candidate...
...It is no reflection on the character or capacity of Harold E. Grange, to see, in the determination of his admirers to send him to Congress, a pretty sharp reversal in what used to be looked upon as qualifications for political life...
...Apparently they forgot the lesson...
...The rate at which payment is to be made has all the virtues of an easy instalment plan...
...It is time for sincere and serious meditation upon these words of Father James Ryan—"If science has warred on religion, if literature has become the ally of evil and error, are we not in a large measure responsible for such conditions because of our intellectual apathy...
...Regulations governing education have been made very explicit and show the importance which is attached to this department of civic control...
...pRAMERCY PARK, the "Utopia of New York," is now outfitted with another reason why the distinguished should hover there...
...If there was one Catholic tradition on which even the most enlightened minds in Protestant churches seemed to be made up, once and for all, and which their comment might be calculated on in advance it was the Catholic Rosary...
...We ourselves feel that antagonism to Catholics in public life is something which many in the South are generous enough to deplore, but which is a deeply rooted, ugly tradition having a firm grip on the nation's subconscious mind...
...In justice to the sectaries at Belfast, it must be owned that they make no secret of their determination to run their government on a basis of religious and racial exclusiveness...
...Prepare them for service in possible war...
...Baptism, marriage, and the last sacraments had remained a tradition, but the rest was gravely compromised...
...Will the Senate debate the matter...
...The fact that the army dearly loves red tape, though it will hardly startle anybody who has ever draped himself with the symbolic puttees, is really the point at issue...
...As reported by a Warsaw journal, the regulations are as follows: religious instruction is obligatory in all public schools excepting those devoted to higher learning...
...Brazil today is hardly recognizable...
...One was the conversation of Senhor Ruy Barbosa, the statesman who had much to do with bringing Brazil in upon the Allied side in the late war...
...The Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals of the Methodist Episcopal Church, representing a very powerful political influence, has already declared against Governor Smith...
...1T is significant and hopeful that Dr...
...Gerald Nye, editor of the journal upon which Cooperstown relies for its gossip and its political faith, to the Senate, Governor Sorlie hurled a defiance at the established order...
...It is monotonous, because only in repetition does the loving soul find a release for its love...
...However these things may be, the spectre of the embattled farmers has not vanished from Washington...
...Like the confessor of old, whose only crime was his faith, herded into prisons and transports among the outcasts of society, he brought hope where perhaps hope would never have reached but for him...
...The work of mercy accomplished by army chaplains is more or less on record...
...But it happened that a priest rose out of obscurity for the confounding of Colonel Ingersoll's mind—a priest whose name was Father Lambert and whose style (we wish to draw Mrs...
...Then he reads his g. o.'s carefully and does his duty...
...His presence at all as a combatant in the firing line was a discrepancy and injustice...
...Catholic life has had the most consoling revival . . . The Church, separated from 6o THE COMMONWEAL November 25, 1925 the state (but to which, in 1893, all its property was left) lives, and lives well, solely on the contributions of the faithful...
...All the same, the process that would make legislators out of athletes has some of the drawbacks of a lottery...
...None of his friends will ever declare that his spirit has been snuffed out...
...They entirely misunderstand the functionings of the fundamental fundamentalism of the military mind...
...Now, with the hope that negotiations with the French may be reopened with better results, the belief is strengthened that once more we have decided not to throw away the good will earned during years of warfare...
...And now here is no less an authority than Dr...
...Monsignor van Caloen cites two recent occurrences as especially significant...
...His purpose was, he declared, "not to make a presidential candidate, but to invite you to cooperate with us in making the nation safe for democracy...
...As a nation we can put up with financial loss much better than with indignant neighbors...
...1 HE ravages of heresy continue to sour the leisure of orthodox Republicanism...
...Facing that tradition will not be an easy task for Governor Smith...
...the pioneer year when dignitaries of the Church established an ideal for the Catholic University of America, a difficult battle with bleak realities has been the fate of the institution...
...While the insinuation of French observers who say that the strength of the Italian vote in this country was not without its weight in official circles cannot entirely be whisked into space, it seems certain that previous experience in debt-funding has brought its obvious lesson...
...and the great sin of the Colonel is to have expected angrily that airships ought to fly...
...We indeed suffer justly—but what has this Man done...
...Senator Thomas decided that "excommunication cannot extinguish the torch which genius has lifted from the altars of eternal truth...
...Naturally one may wish that words enshrining so much experience and authority might come to serve as a rule of conduct when there is question of choosing a head of the State department, assistants and diplomatic representatives...
...It seems to have been pretty well taken for granted by the speakers that the Colonel himself would not be aware of what was being said, but all the same they made a gallant effort to ingratiate themselves with his "afterglow...
...Excellent things have been done in Washington for the betterment of the Catholic educational system, for the higher theological 62 THE COMMONWEAL November 25, 1925 training of studious priests, and for the development of general scholarship...
...Beebe's change of heart has its source in nothing more than an impartial study of what the Rosary stands for among those who use it...
...If you elect me, I promise to be everyone's President, respecting the letter and spirit of the constitution...
...What true and sturdy officer of the line ever conceived such an idea...
...What people at large are thinking of representative government might be gathered by observing the type of man whom they suggest as delegate of the national will...
...A good soldier waits until war arrives...
...But the peace that seemed assured was only an illusion...
...But one that has accrued quite recently in no less unexpected a quarter than the columns of the Methodist Christian Advocate and which has been rescued by that very alert body, the National Catholic Welfare Conference, has a staggering and breathdepriving quality all its own...
...1 HE religious bigotry that lies at the root of Ulster rule and the rough disregard for their rights with which Catholics who find themselves within its boundaries are being treated, is illustrated afresh by a recent incident...
...The public can know only a very little about what is going on...
...1 HE text of the concordat arrived at between the Holy See and Poland is interesting, especially because it reveals the readiness of the Church to cooperate with those whose task it is to rebuild the nation...
...And if all the debts are settled at a reasonable discount, a great spectre will have been laid...
...1 HE address which Mayor-elect Walker delivered to Georgia Democrats is a highly interesting document...
...PROFESSOR SAPIR, formerly of the Canadian National Museum at Ottawa, but now professor of anthropology in the University of Chicago, has recently published the result of his investigations into the languages of a number of Amerindian tribes, especially those of the Nadine group, scattered over different parts of the continent from the Tlinkit, only just south of the Eskimo, through the Sarcees of Alberta and the Hupa of California, to the Navajos of New Mexico...
...some stopped in the northern parts like the Tlinkits and the Haida of Queen Charlotte's Islands...
...For some reasons, inevitably annoying to the veteran of Butt's Manual, they feel that target practices should be exacting, air races not pre-arranged, and motors up to date...
...It comes from Monsignor van Caloen, a Belgian Benedictine, who has been for years conducting an apostolate among the Indian population of that country, and who is at present at Antibes, recruiting his strength and, incidentally, busy with schemes for a mission in Russia...
...Blatch struck the emotional treble with a bang when she bowed to "the Luther and the Voltaire of the nineteenth century...
...To equip the negotiating authority with^ the best talent, to avoid embarrassing it during the period of negotiations, to sustain as far as possible its prestige—that in the long run is the line of security and international influence...
...But as a nominee and a candidate, he can do much toward breaking the spell that people will be astonished to discover, later on, ever existed...
...Not for a long time," he confesses, "did I know that beads stood for something to think about rather than for something to say . . . The repetitions are only a kind of musical accompaniment to the thoughts of the worshiper as his imagination plays around certain great religious themes...
...But the contrasts that one incident after another is offering of the very different spirit reigning North and South of the disputed boundary line, will not be without their effect on the opinion of the world, when the matter comes up for final settlement...
...Why is it that nonpartisanism, the abiding nucleus of party revolution, insists upon acting at moments which are wholly inopportune...
...The only criticism that so generous and graceful a tribute deserves is that, like most tributes based on an aesthetic motive, it tells but a part of the truth...
...All these dialects he finds to be closely associated with the Chinese and especially with archaic Chinese for, while the tonal peculiarities today are very similar, the Indian tongues still possess prefixes and suffixes which have long ceased to be used in Chinese though they were at one time in employment in that language...
...He was a magnificent old spell-binder...
...By appointing Mr...
...But it is interesting to reflect upon what happened to Colonel Ingersoll in those now distant years when he got on splendidly without a bronze tablet...
...1 HE settlement of the Italian war debt on a strikingly generous basis seems to indicate that the government has bowed to a public opinion which favored leniency in the dictation of terms...
...but the Governor and his party feel that to leave North Dakota without representation during an interim when there is going to be considerable discussion of taxation measures and rural relief, would be nothing short of failure to rise to the occasion...
...The idea...
...James A. Beebe, dean of the school of theology of Boston University, writing to the Christian Advocate to urge the use of some "Protestant substitute for the Rosary...
...The recent death of Sir Henry, who was the only Catholic in the judicial service of the Ulster government, offered the North an opportunity to respond to the statesmanlike attitude of the Free State government, where no less than five out of the nine chief judges are of the minority faith...
...lJ ESPITE this blast, it is as certain as any political prophecy well can be, that if a Catholic is not automatically ruled out, the name of the next Jeffersonian standard-bearer will be Smith...
...A distinction between the sort of tribute due to brawn and to brain has always been clear in any civilization that was not running to seed...
...Count Volpi, who must have thought long and arduously on his way here, returns to his native land adorned with a concession which, taking interest into account, means that over two-thirds of the Italian obligation has been canceled...
...A neat point of law is involved...
...There is nothing like "circumspection in the drawing up of an opinion," as the Chinese scholar remarked to those of his students who were of a serious frame of mind...
...When he began one of his best flights, "a little while ago I stood at the grave of the old Napoleon," people drank in that mellifluent concoction of i's and o's with a relish that really should have taught the pulpit orators of this country something of value...
...WEEK BY WEEK HE festal board at which Mr...
...In fact, the concordat as a whole, shows how earnestly and conciliatingly the Papacy has labored to reduce the friction in contemporary Europe without sacrificing a jot of the principle which must be defended resolutely if Christendom is to be advanced...
Vol. 3 • November 1925 • No. 3
