Week by Week
WEEK BY WEEK HOUGH details of a practical character still hang A fire, it is clear that the government has decided to attend the preliminary Armament Conference at Geneva. Obviously a...
...Perhaps no Protestant clergyman during recent years has so frequently said the right thing in the right fashion...
...To the poaching peasant who found his legs caught in the jaws of the one, or his body peppered with the shot of the other, the answer might have been, and indeed, was made, that he was infringing a regulation that had the force of the law behind it, and that, by his action in entering upon the forbidden ground and Ignoring the warning posted for his benefit, he had put himself beyond the law's protection...
...Small wonder that Mr...
...Those who study the columns of the French Catholic press are becoming used to seeing article after article appear which all tell of a veritable crisis in the recruitment of the parochial clergy...
...but there is mighty little in it for the farmer excepting tariff...
...And that is what interests the farmer...
...Indeed, the Indianapolis conference on "Good Will" was almost a forced march into war-infested territory...
...and among these are such as harness a sovereign people to that kind of enterprise which breeds hostility and holds the menace of future wars...
...Not even Wagner was so exuberantly kissed...
...and if so, the only way to settle it is with the usual methods of competition and bargaining...
...The recent congress held in France "Sur le Recrutement Sacerdotal," shows that patriotic and devout men and women there are alive to the situation, and that the new demands which it will entail upon the courage and self-sacrifice of the coming generation will not be made in vain...
...and therefore he tossed them aside, building strange rhythms in the new Volgare, and framing insurgent canticles...
...The impressive totals do more than reflect credit upon the open-handedness of a community which, from the very start, and from the circumstances under which the material fabric of its faith was reared, has been forced to take to heart the lesson of the widow's mite...
...The protective tariff is the guarantee of industry...
...And if we do discuss this problem under circumstances different from those which prevailed in Washington, no loss of prestige will be involved...
...is fl ISTORY—particularly the history of Americaan overwhelmingly effective argument against lowering one's head and rushing unreflectingly at one's neighbors...
...But one may question whether beauty that must die ought not to be decently interred rather than hideously embalmed— whether the debris of Gothic now scattered over Gotham and other cities of the plain should not have gone with the cloisters it once adorned and the radiance it once expressed...
...The address at Chicago was Mr...
...His safety seems to lie in stimulating foreign commerce in raw produce...
...New work in Italy, and particularly the recent German biography by Hermann Preindl, show us the man as he was—ecstatic, penitential, an extremist...
...Buckner was misquoted, or at least, over-quoted...
...Cadman's address gave form and impressiveness to ideas which have waited a long while for expression...
...Jacopone da Todi, associated peculiarly enough with one hymn, the Stabat Mater, which he probably did not write, was Dante's contemporary and fellow immortal...
...In addition to the funds that have passed through Rome, close upon 26,000,000 of lire was contributed directly by the people of this country to the support of the foreign mission field...
...More tumultuous and mystical, he was forgotten in the renaissance and the culture which followed it...
...The language and form of scholarly poetry as he learned to practise it when a young man cramped his flaming religious energy...
...Had widespread notice of their intention, posted in every post-office and public building throughout the United States, appeared for, say a year, before the denaturing of alcohol was put into effect, the onus that rests upon the government for the 5,000 or 6,000 deaths which report totals, might be lightened...
...Otto H. Kahn's warning has been—"Why spoil the show by telling it in plain English...
...While the scope of the conference will probably widen to include matters of no immediate concern to this country, there will undoubtedly be some new and serious consideration of naval disarmament...
...But the losses in personnel, due to the late war, have been appalling...
...It is on a par with the practice, now universally condemned if not positively forbidden, of game-preserving landlords in Europe who set steel-toothed traps and spring-guns across the paths through their pheasant coverts...
...Perhaps it was not unnatural that the first Holy Year, 1300, should have found him jailed for advocating stern reforms that might have wrecked the great order to which he belonged...
...For our time, Jacopone da Todi is not merely a poet but a preacher as well, whose understanding of psychical darkness and experience of the coveted Divine peace stirs, refreshes and soothes...
...Where is the sting of death if the moments immediately preceding can be spent in proclaiming the sad event during five minutes of ecstatic tremolo...
...The material difficulties which have followed upon the separation of Church and state press terribly hard upon an ecclesiastical organization which has yet to adjust itself to the new conditions...
...In the nature of things, such a plan cannot be permanent...
...The problem of how to coordinate the production and distribution of farm products cannot be solved with such machinery...
...He is, of course, right as far as he goes...
...Cadman's leadership the Federal Council will attempt to end the bootless offensive that has latterly made so much of American Protestantism look like an angry and primitive mob...
...Very likely this gap cannot be entirely closed...
...What ambitious young musician would not enjoy the experience which came to W. Franke Harling...
...It is not that the ardor for God's service is ebbing in the country which has done more to spread the faith abroad than any single nation...
...This simple deduction does hit the nail on the head...
...IT may be said without fear of exaggeration that opera in English has come to stay—at least in Chicago...
...UITE as significant as the material help for which the Vicar of Christ now looks confidently westward, is a new mission which the American priesthood sees devolving upon it, gradually, but inevitably from the very nature of the changes that history brings in its train...
...and if so, our ambassador is the proper person to examine the situation...
...January 6, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 229 AFTER all reservations as to the "dollar standard" have been made, it is eminently satisfactory to learn, from the figures just made public by the Propaganda at Rome, how generously the Catholic people of America have contributed from their abundance to the Church's mission in lands afar...
...1 HE letter from which we have quoted rather understates the case when it calls the issue of denatured, i. e., poisoned, alcohol, "the most damning indictment of the prohibition law and the methods of its enforcement" we have had yet, and declares that "only a law of vital necessity" would justify such methods...
...One cannot doubt that under Dr...
...1 HE inveterately sensible have found consolation in the fact that the subject matter of opera was a mystery, the execution of which was glorious...
...But a letter to the New York HeraldTribune suggests one that is pretty close, when it calls the procedure, as alleged, a "murderous man-trap...
...But it has never altered its character of conscientious, regular support...
...What can be done remains to be seen...
...For, on the face of facts as reported, what stands out is that a flagrant moral injustice is being perpetrated in the name of law...
...We may still view the more rigid media of affiliation with the League as dispassionately—or as passionately—as we please...
...But the moral aspect of the case would remain unchanged...
...Put quite simply, blindness and death are too heavy a punishment to inflict for non-observance of the Volstead Act...
...Coolidge's way of stressing the valuable principle which is the gospel of his secretary of agriculture—cooperative marketing...
...The difficult task of creating and preserving the American tradition of government could not have been carried on without the firm cooperation of diverse racial and social elements...
...M. Demotte, who is a very successful art dealer, argues that "commercialization has caused the discovery of things that would otherwise be lost," and offers instances of the rescue of cloistral columns embedded in barns, and of sarcophagi that had been used as cattle troughs...
...Perhaps rubber production is a matter of business...
...And therefore the triumph of A Light from Saint Agnes was so notable and outstanding...
...Should beautiful —or quaint—old sculptures be uprooted from their surroundings and sold abroad at a handsome profit...
...1 T is to be hoped that the statements attributed to United States Attorney Emory R. Buckner regarding the poisoning of alcohol by the government before its release for commercial purposes, and the terrible dangers to which the thoughtless of the community are subjecting themselves in consequence, are exaggerated...
...But the motive is probably a trifle more profound...
...It becomes no longer a question of the Volstead Act nor of the duty of obedience...
...It lies in the operatic triumph of the illusion of unreality...
...But it is unfortunate, to say the least, that no spokesman for the farmer has made a reliable survey of foreign markets or a plan which outlines in detail what can reasonably be expected of the government...
...His pulpit in Brooklyn, became, with the help of radio, a platform toward which a very great many Americans turned for counsel and inspiration...
...The report shows that, out of a total of over 44,000,000 Italian lire received, 16,500,000 came from the United States...
...Opportunities to cooperate lessen the need for copartnership...
...HOOVER, having done everything within the power of his department, has summoned Congress to deal with the British grip on rubber...
...It is difficult to see for what earthly reason this problem should have been carried into the House...
...S. Parks Cadman has made the office of president of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ equal to the opportunity...
...Such an answer would not stand for a moment today, for the simple reason that the public conscience has outgrown such a savage code of ethics, just as it outgrew the infliction of death by hanging or transportation beyond the seas for petty theft...
...Written in obvious American, buoyed up by native tempos and the captivating saxophone, its story of the vicious Toinette, her crucifix and her bloody murder gave all the Chicagoans who could get into the lobby the thrill of their lives...
...To be kissed and hugged by emotional hundreds in the great lobby of the Auditorium Theatre is not everybody's good fortune...
...JVlR...
...Perhaps the circumstance that rubber growing was saved from collapse by the Stephenson Act renders its present status worthy of diplomatic attention...
...Harling, who is a sober citizen, "retired to his hotel room...
...Hoover professes to believe that one of the disastrous fruits of the war has been the creation of a number of monopolies protected by various governments and dangerous both to trade and to economic peace...
...To believe anything else is to admit that panic and propaganda have power to pervert the official conscience...
...If this be true, he seems to argue, why not see what can be done about it ? Let the world arrange, for the benefit of all, unhampered trade in commodities of which the supply is limited...
...Carefully chosen representatives would probably find themselves advantageously placed at Geneva, where the desire to interest us in the League—and in European affairs generally—will surely be strong...
...1 T is always hard to draw a parallel that it is exact in every respect...
...To take its punishment out of the hands of judge and jury, and to provide the capital penalty in advance, is a proceeding so unbelievable that we rather look for a reassuring statement that Mr...
...Whatever influence America can employ to reduce the military burden of less fortunately situated peoples should be placed at the disposal of the powers associated in the League...
...Meantime, however, the effect upon the foreign mission field so generously supplied until now from France, Belgium and Holland, is bound to be a sensible one...
...And the enemies of God are active and know how to take advantage of the situation...
...And the hammer was in the right hands...
...Perhaps the resolve to send delegates to the Armament Conference weakens rather than strengthens the case for adherence to the World Court...
...He may well wonder why he is expected to find complete relief in cooperation, which has never sufficed for more powerful financial interests...
...Nothing can deprive the Church in America of the character impressed upon it from its beginnings of being in a very real sense the church of the poor...
...However vital and beneficial the prohibition law may be, it is only one law among many...
...and not even Keats would have denied that money is a powerful probe and preservative...
...But the star of America is not imperial—not even imperial business...
...But we trust he will issue forth again with new operas—and a coat of mail...
...Wealth has swollen the volume of contribution...
...and Dr...
...All of us will hope, of course, that the masters of the tire manufactories will enter the field resolutely and beat the British at their own game...
...Nor do these figures tell more than a part of the story...
...and that, in the interests of creating an inhibition in the popular mind that shall succeed where law has failed, the case against officials concerned with the administration of the dry law is made out blacker than it really is...
...OBVIOUSLY the middle-western farmer has made a gesture...
...We know that he lay in his gloomy dungeon, suffering in the body, but more deeply sick at heart because from his silent cell he could hear the praying pilgrims on their march to the city of the Popes...
...IT is a pleasure to note that Dr...
...but his action is clearly one to which no strings are attached...
...As a result, the administration concession that some emergency measure will be recommended to Congress, "provided the farm groups can agree upon it," is a very natural change of front...
...Just now the favored plan seems to be some form of Senator Capper's plea for legislation to dispose of the surplus crop through exporting subsidized by the government...
...His demand is for federal aid towards attaining this safety...
...We trust that the idea underlying the present flurry in Washington is not some grandiose attempt to obtain federal subsidies for imperialized American industries...
...None of us," he said, "could be bigots if we read enough...
...It is hard to see whence the urgent demands for soldiers of the Faith in the future shall be met if not from the country which already bears the banner for material contributions...
...The stellar stage is the only place where one can be ridiculous seriously...
...Obviously a resolution of absence would have been without foundation in reason...
...There is some of this same contrast between poetry and business in the debate about Gothic which the Due de Trevise and M. Demotte have recently staged for our benefit...
...1 T is fitting that the Franciscan centenary should find the literary world more than ever aware of the genius of the greatest poet ever to have been numbered among the friars...
...But very likely it will occur to the average American that a monopoly in money is the most stringent of all corners, and that Britain's successful conquest of 228 THE COMMONWEAL January 6, 1926 rubber may be only one responsive step towards steadying exchange...
...It is a tradition, in New York at least, that its great metropolitan cathedral and very many of its older churches were literally built with the dimes and nickels of working people...
...WEEK BY WEEK HOUGH details of a practical character still hang A fire, it is clear that the government has decided to attend the preliminary Armament Conference at Geneva...
...But the World Court, as congressional speeches indicate, is assuredly a flaming question—and the turmoil of debate will at least have convinced us of the proverbial relationship between smoke and fire...
...There are those who believe that the chief reason why opera singers exist is because they can swallow the whole scale, magnificently, at one gulp, despite the thundering orchestra...
...Letters that are reaching the press show that the public conscience is stirred over the incident...
...It was the only possible thing to do under the circumstances...
...A new era of apostolate seems to lie before the priests and religious of America, and the wonderful manifestations at Maryknoll and elsewhere show that they stand ready to meet it...
...Curiously enough, the twentieth century has found him again, in the tangled weave of his own time...
...There are some victories the price of which is too high...
...This, in turn, is just another indication that cooperative methods have not been developed to a stature adequate to complex agricultural needs...
...In the end, however, he was free in a remarkably unworldly way—free to make songs in which the eagle that he was, struck the bars of no cage, but rose in the mighty day of God...
...It was a spirited address but it did not stabilize the price of corn...
...Above all, it has never influenced or saved souls...
...JtiAZLITT once discoursed on the "silver moon" to a practical person, "to which his ear he seriously inclined, the more as it gave promise of a fine day for the morrow...
...The method has been hard only on the heads...
...But really, such an opera as A Light from Saint Agnes calls for a modest demonstration...
...Cadman summed up this truth, and outlined a moral for the future, when he said— "If Jews and Roman Catholics and Negroes were good enough to spill their blood in behalf of this nation in the Revolution, in the Civil War, in the Spanish American War, and in the recent world war, and to suffer and die for this country in its various times of peril, they are certainly good enough to share every right and privilege of citizenship in the American republic...
...It ought, perhaps, to be discarded as soon as possible...
...Coolidge has, to some extent, broken with a precedent in this decision to cooperate with organized Europe...
...but the weakness of the standard Republican attitude toward it is clear...
...The case is carried at a bound from the legal into the moral realm, where the precept of charity rears itself sheer against the government's procedure...
Vol. 3 • January 1926 • No. 9
