Communications
102 THE COMMONWEAL December 2, 1925 COMMUNICATIONS A CATHOLIC ECONOMIC PROGRAM Washington, D. C. TO the Editor:—I find Dr. McGowan *s suggestions for a Catholic economic program very...
...The competitive principle in economics has also one great material advantage to its credit in that it has greatly increased the total production of goods...
...The former are not debatable...
...McGowan and his colleague, Dr...
...and, therefore, to Catholics, economics is a branch of ethics...
...We know the principle of minima in moral theology, and why it is is governing in the science of casuistry...
...Surely liturgy is as important as logarithms, and the parts of the Mass as necessary a study as the bones of the body...
...The world gets its living today by a system which, roughly, corresponds to the existing "hierarchies of competence...
...Another important distinction should be observed...
...Special Devotions," "Favorite Novenas"— antiquated manuals in seal or pig-skin, and at exorbitant prices...
...But that which Dr...
...All degrees of competence will be represented, whether it be auction bridge, golf, or business, or politics, or metaphysics, that must be in question...
...Long ago I heard Archbishop Ireland say—"What America needs is prayer books...
...Man, as we Catholics know, is a rational animal, but, as we also know, original sin deprived his reason of that complete control which it had previously exercised over his passions, and left him with a perpetual civil war raging within himself...
...Under this system a man competes with every one else for his modicum of food, shelter, and power, these things giving him the opportunity to reproduce his kind...
...To some people man is a machine, and economics is no more than a branch of physics...
...The prayer books crowding mission stands should bring tears to liturgical eyes...
...Much may even be desired by us Catholics, as Catholics, which we cannot, in justice, require from others, by any process of compulsion...
...Where is the graduate who ever heard of the gradual ? When the celebrant says—"Orate, fratres," he does not mean "use your beads," or "make fervent ejaculations," or browse around amid the "pious reflections" of Barclay Street almanacs...
...Suppose, however, this condition to be satisfied—how much farther will Catholic doctrine require us to go...
...This is a liturgical prayer book in the real sense and its rare beauty, color and interest are a welcome contrast to the usual prayer book...
...This is indisputably a fact, and, seemingly, always will be a fact, as is, and will be, the "hierarchy of competence" above described...
...The only complete equality that will exist is that which Chesterton describes as a "democracy of eternal danger...
...Most of it, at least, seems to lack either rhythm, rhyme, or reason...
...Men are and, seemingly, always will be classified in a species of hierarchy with respect to all such things...
...the latter are...
...After that we can debate freely, vigorously, and, I hope, goodnaturedly, about the rest...
...I suggest that an excellent method of answering the questions I have asked would be to take each item of the program sketched by Dr...
...A glance at the catalogue of "devotional manuals" is proof that there are too many "Nihil obstats" and that in the publishers' race the laity are the losers...
...One wonders why our high schools and colleges do not teach our youth to use a Sunday missal...
...No matter how perfect the rhyme or lucid the motif, if the rhythm of syllables be inconsistent or inharmonious the unity of effect is destroyed...
...It is the inexpressible value—and, therefore, dignity—of human personality which makes economics a Catholic matter, and it is the essence of Catholic economics that it makes human personality the touchstone of all economic questions...
...Even in blank verse which sacrifices rhyme, and is consequently a hybrid between prose and poetry, rhythm of measure and swing of syllables is supposed to support the sequences in expression...
...What are those things...
...Somehow means must be found to get this principle, or its equivalent into the system, or at least to get such results from the system as would follow from application of the principle...
...Can we require universal membership of workers in unions...
...Under its operations a rather large proportion of human society has been driven to living conditions which are incompatible with the dignity of human personality...
...POETRY AS CAPITALIZED PROSE Garrison, N. Y. TO the Editor:—Perhaps it is not too much to say that modern poetry, if there is such a thing, is mostly jazzverse—prose with the first letter of each line capitalized...
...This is the main cause of quarrel between the Catholic Church and the competitive system of production and distribution...
...Ryan as Catholics are compelled to hold, and that which they are impelled (by their observations and their studies, in the light of their judgment) to hold, are two very different things...
...The sense of liturgy will not be developed by putting on the proper antependium or droning the Proper of the Mass in the dullness of monotone...
...deteriora sequor, says passion...
...Thomas F. Woodlock...
...A man deciding for himself must take the virtue of charity into his calculation...
...ORATE FRATRES New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—The very excellent letter of Father Busch in your issue of November 4, should provoke an examination of conscience in the souls of prayer-book compilers...
...Binding the conscience of another is a serious matter...
...The Manchester School in all its squalid, shameless nakedness was severely logical in the conclusions it drew from its premises...
...And it seems to me the duty of all good citizens to give open expression to the indignities they must feel at being restrained in the free use of the public streets of the city in the interest of men who are ashamed to let their faces be seen...
...Voluntary cooperation is redolent of the Catholic spirit...
...It is competition which fixes his place in the social structure, and determines his share of the good things of life...
...Biologists tell us—and our own experience and observation confirm what they say—that human society is, and probably always will be, highly polymorphic...
...Peter Moran...
...So much is certain...
...The former binds us all as Catholics...
...To a perfect poem I think all three of these characteristics are essential...
...BISHOP DENOUNCES KLAN New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—I think your readers will be interested in the action taken by Bishop Cheshire, Episcopalian, of North Carolina, who received a threatening letter recently signed "K.K.K.," and who replied in the Raleigh, North Carolina, newspapers as follows— "I wish to take this opportunity of saying to my unknown correspondent and to his fellow K.K.K...
...a menace to good government and a disgrace to our civilization...
...that is, that there is and probably always will be a high degree of variety in the individual human components when they are regarded from any point of view which concerns itself with human activities, mental or physical...
...It is most desirable that Catholics should concern themselves with the economic problem, and that the utmost freedom of thought and discussion should flourish amongst us, subject always to preservation of unity upon these things which are part of Catholic truth to which we must hold fast, no matter whither it may lead us...
...in deciding for another he must be content to exact mere justice...
...And these are facts which we Catholics have to face when we face the problems of economics...
...J. A. Morrow...
...His reason is in irreconcilable conflict with the three primal concupiscences, i. e., of food and shelter, of reproduction, and of power...
...As Catholics (who have long and deeply studied economics) they are perfectly free to hold and to advocate the views that they do, even if some of them—Dr...
...McGowan and classify it as either debatable or not debatable by Catholics...
...How far will our duty as Catholics require us to go in the legal enforcement of the suggested economic program...
...Suppose that the least competent of the community do get a minimum human wage for their effort—is that all that we as Catholics may require of society...
...John A. Ryan, very ably represent what I may term—I hope without offense—the radical wing of Catholic thought upon these things...
...its results are their own justification...
...Barry Byune...
...and disregard of this is the more culpable because it generally denotes carelessness on the part of the writer whose ear should catch the defect and whose vocabulary should be able to correct it...
...Video meliora, proboque, says reason...
...In one respect only all men are, and will be, equal, and that is in the possession of an immortal soul...
...All Catholics, as Catholics, are, or should be agreed that there must be such a limitation upon the operations of competition as will prevent the imposition upon any social class of living conditions incompatible, as a minimum, with the dignity of human personality...
...Temperance is a Catholic virtue...
...the socialist cooperative commonwealth is unCatholic in spirit because it bases upon compulsion...
...It is this civil war which is the source of all human evils, arising from human acts...
...Laws and constitutions concern themselves with strict justice and, furthermore, with minima in its performance...
...on the police force and off, that I consider the Ku Klux Klan, in its principles, methods and organization, absolutely inconsistent with the Christian religion, which many of them profess...
...Upon what must we be agreed because it is our moral duty so to agree...
...A missal is as much a necessity for the people as it is for the priest...
...T. C. A LITURGICAL PRAYER BOOK Chicago, 111...
...TO the Editor:—Father Busch's reference to the type of prayer books in current use, in his letter which appeared in a recent issue of The Commonweal, and the general neglect of the liturgy, which he deplores, should find understanding and approval among those devoted to Catholic spiritual revivaL In this connection it occurs to me to commend to persons interested, the prayer book entitled Ancient Devotions for Holy Communion, published by Burns Oates of London, with an introduction by Cardinal Gasquet...
...Can we require governmental ownership of industries which have managed to resist the cooperative principle of ownership and operation...
...the latter is before us for our judgment in the light of our observations and studies, such as they may be...
...Who will deliver us from jobbers...
...And without unity of effect upon the ear and mental reception the concept of poetry is lost...
...To other people man is an animal —merely—and economics, like psychology, is no more than a branch of biology...
...Can we require taxation to be laid mainly on large incomes, large inheritances, excess profits of corporations, and increased land values...
...Competition, as a process for accomplishing this function, has the great practical advantage of leaving no room for argument on the score of justice...
...The principle of a minimum wage is securely based on the moral law...
...Perhaps Dr...
...every man will be more or less competent than every other man with respect to something...
...McGowan *s suggestions for a Catholic economic program very interesting—so much so, in fact, that they stimulate me to comment and to question...
...McGowan will do this for us, and thus open the field for debate...
...It is a useful and a healthy thing in Catholic life that we should have among us widely differing opinions as to what is and what is not expedient in economics...
...To Catholics man is a rational animal endowed with free will, and an immortal soul...
...Rev...
...Can we require profit-sharing...
...Can we require the abolition of profit in business and industry...
...On the other hand it has the fatal moral defect that it has in its calculations completely neglected human personality and has recognized only the hierarchy of competence...
...He had just written the introduction to Father Wynne's Sunday Mass Book—a manual ignored by the middlemen...
...We are to face the legal and constitutional changes required to carry out the program sketched by Dr...
...McGowan's economic parliament or congress, for example—remind us vividly of the cooperative commonwealth as described from soapboxes in the days before the war...
...Are we as Catholics compelled to require these things...
...Can we require a share in the management so far as matters other than wages and conditions of work are concerned...
...prohibition is rather a characterDecember 2, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 103 istically Protestant thing...
...McGowan and Dr...
...Poetry not only demands that words shall be the expression of ideas, but that the expression shall convey an auricular rhythm and that the ideas shall make some measure of appeal to the aesthetic sense of the soul...
...There is no intention to invade the sanctum of your page of poems for analytical purposes in the above connection, for they are above the average, but glancing over the field in a general way one is constrained to remark that poetry requires something more than that the first letter of each line shall be capitalized...
...When we know that we shall know, not a Catholic economic program, but the Catholic economic program and we shall govern our thoughts, our speech and our acts accordingly...
...I imagine that this is clear Catholic doctrine...
...That is one great difference between Catholics and other people...
...It seems to me important that in discussing a Catholic economic program we should be careful to delimit the frontiers in this respect...
...Now, measure can be mathematically exact and yet rhythm be wholly lacking, due to the various accents required by different words...
Vol. 3 • December 1925 • No. 4
