Week by Week
THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1925, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, 2.5 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City, N. Y. ~MICItAI:L WILLIAMS, Editor...
...At present, the average member of this large, unassimilated group of laborers, makes forty- three and one-half cents an hour--which is about the equivalent of twenty-five cents an hour, for an eight- hour day, before the war...
...National custom makes light of these grievances...
...Can this scale be maintained...
...A BULLETIN of the social action department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference discloses con- ditions of labor under the so-called "American plan," which are as astounding as they are archaic...
...Keep the news-stands dean or dose them up" is the general tenor of his instructions to his subordinates...
...The attempt made by the Calles government to establish as law a social concept derived from chaotic revolutionary thinking, must inevitably fail and there are plenty of signs to indicate that it is failing rapidly...
...but there can be no question that a league such as Mr...
...THE growth of symphony orchestras in the United States has maintained about the same ratio as the growth of cities...
...It testifies to the eagerness of a vast public to know excellent compositions...
...So long as the policy governing this stand remained nebulous and secret, it was possible to suspect that Washington was playing the r61e of a rather dic- tatorial schoolmaster--or even the r61e of an anxious protector of private investments...
...Possibly the day will come when men see clearly the tremendous need for a journalism positive rather than negative in character...
...and entirely incredible that workers of any competence should be found to accept the agreements...
...His action should spur every one of them to renewed effort in support of the Clean Books League in its campaign to strengthen the anti-obscenity statutes of the' state...
...Thus, when Mr...
...By no means...
...IT would almost be a sufficient characterization of Miss Katherine Conway, who died in Boston recently, to say that she took up the pen because she saw in it an instrument for doing good, and did not lay it down while she was able to do good...
...And this is the plan that is labeled American...
...Instead of crying out against the abuses of daily comment, she realized that the task waiting to be done was to substitute for cheapness and sentimental vulgarity a nobler current prose founded on a brave belief that faith and charm can be creative...
...Each received a jail sentence of two months and was fined $2oo...
...As one of the group assembled by O'Reilly, Miss Con- way labored as a columnist and a woman who dis- coursed pleasantly upon the problems and opportunities of young womanhood...
...When those who still care for the moral and physical safety of young children realize the extent to which "the pictures," quite apart from the specific character of each entertainment, have become a habit, control will not stop short at safety exits, but will take some real and sincere account of the inlets by which now, just as much as in less scientific ages, death can enter the soul...
...ANOTHER consideration which perhaps is more serious still, for its implications are in the moral field, is the apparent immunity from supervision of young children in large cities, at all events during the day, and the abundant opportunities for mischief that the newest of the arts is throwing in their path...
...The atoms of hydrogen gas are so small that it takes many millions of them to make one grain...
...But just as soon as it be- came known that the Spaniards were merely human beings, their star began to wane...
...because Mr...
...But stipulations such as some of those quoted in the bulletin have no relation to any- thing that is open--they rather suggest prisons...
...President Coolidge's message to Congress completely removes this suspi- cion...
...He has no time, in a busy day, to listen to lectures on "the human form divine" from long- haired gentlemen and short-haired ladies who are striving for self-expression and the abolition of soap in Greenwich Village...
...In Nicaragua...
...From the lack of any provision, either inside or outside the theatre, to see that this was respected, one can only conclude that salutary by-laws, when they conflict with profitable enterprises, have a particularly slim chance of enforcement, and that it is only when some catas- trophe bears witness to attract attention to their wis- dom, that they secure a belated and transitory respect...
...If it is a source of satisfaction to know that the mayor of New York is only too willing to use every means in his power to hamper those who disseminate the depraved and disgusting publications that disgrace the metropolis, it is a source of shame to think that the great Empire State has not full power to deal with such panderers as does the contiguous small commonwealth of Connecticut...
...Yet each of these atoms is said to contain at least eight hundred corpuscles, electrons, and protons, making a kind of solar system in its ambit, and as Sir Oliver Lodge says, flitting about inside it "like flies in a great cathedral...
...His Honor wastes no time talking about the neces- sity for censorship...
...The two identified with New York City are, in fact, unable to escape from under a large annual deficit...
...Mayor Walker, after making an effort to bring the theatre managers to a realization of their moral responsibility, has inaugurated a move- ment, with the warm support of the New York World and the endorsement of Cardinal Hayes and Bishop Manning, to sweep from the news-stands of the dry that "foulest collection of smut, dirt and plain porno- graphy ever offered to the public in the name of liter- ature," which aroused the ire of the distinguished author and critic...
...As the social action department of the conference re- marks, the government, either state or national, often regulates terms and conditions of work, and gives what the employer may consider altogether unpleasant attention to these matters...
...It is no reflection on the nature of the entertainment offered at the the- atre where death was usher, to surmise that if the offering had been one of those tawdry dramas whose end is to exploit the sensory side of love, and which, whatever our whitewashing publicists may pretend, are the backbone of the cinema industry, neither the character of the audience nor its numbers would have been very different...
...Not a little of the credit for the success of the first campaign for justice belongs to Mr...
...THATnation is now visibly in the throes of a disease that is also a theory...
...The many animadversions leveled at him have never included the accusation that he is a prude, but as the representative of the average dtizen of New York he does not consider he has a mandate to become a partner in filth by taking money on behalf of the dry from those who purvey it...
...J. L. Garvin, in extending him a greeting, deserve more analytical attention than they seem to be getting, and examination of them should by no means exclude a little intelligent reading between lines...
...The comments in his Sunday Observer, of that apostle of Anglo-Saxon world condominium, Mr...
...Will private benefaction, which even now subsidizes the or- chestra, be willing to see the individual musician profit further...
...and as soon as you begin to protect that something by force of arms, you are sure to sponsor imperialistic methods and purposes...
...Perhaps none of the symphony orchestras now in exist- ence is entirely self-sustaining...
...One, which is quite sure of being dealt with by the competent authorities, is the scandalous ignoring of the ordinance which forbids children of school age from attending moving-picture performances unaccom- panied by a parent or guardian of adult age...
...Meanwhile the forces of disorder dormant in the country--forces encouraged by the official disregard for law and reasonmwill stir once again...
...WHEN royal assent was given to the Roman Catholic Relief Act in the House of Lords, with the clerk of Parliament announcing to the assembled peers and commoners, "le roy le veult," British Catholics had the satisfaction of knowing not only that the king willed it--of which there had never been questionh but that the measure met with the warm approval of the great majority of their fellow-subjects...
...but it also stipulates that 'when another wage is posted in the plant or otherwise brought to the atten- tion of the employee,' this is the contract wage-rate, 'if said employee continues to work.' " In return for opportunity to earn a living--if it be a living--under these conditions, the worker agrees not only that neither labor-unions nor company-unions shall have anything to say about the conditions under which he works, but that there shall be no "interference, coer- cion, intimidation, or unpleasant attention from any source whatever" outside of the employer and the in- dividual employee in the terms and conditions of work...
...Sir Joseph Thomson, one of the greatest living authorities on the atom, has been telling the Institu- tion of Electrical Engineers that we must recognize much smaller bodies than these surrounding the pro- ton and its satellite electrons like a kind of atmos-phere...
...When Cortez came to Mexico, he was considered a god, and he conquered the country...
...WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST is a man of many surprises...
...The simplest definition of imperialism is government of weakness by might...
...That there is a reason, those who know or have studied the editor- politician will not doubt...
...while the things against which she had lived so stoutly were triumphant everywhere --even as topics of conversation among those whose entire constructive power for good had been side-tracked into ineffective tirades...
...One is safe in saying that general popular interest is more likely to increase than to re- cede...
...but there will be equal recog- nition of the fact that the proposal to substitute such a figure for the League of Nations, or to oppose it to the League, is not reasonable...
...That both forms of uprising are now actual in Mexico is a fact which every new report emphasizes more dearly...
...Coolidge and his aids are con- vinced that Sefior Diaz is the ruler constitutionally elected in accordance with the principles sponsored by the Central American Union...
...To them she was generally "the nicest old lady in all the world...
...The action of Mayor Walker is an excellent point...
...The last mentioned cause of virtual intervention is by aft odds the most important, because it is stressed as the end of a long series of grievances entertained in Washington against the Calles government...
...THE rights and wrongs of the matter, as Amer-icans see them, are not greatly affected by the fact that there is, in England, a party, and a very powerful one, which stands quite ready to welcome the distinguished convert and, for the sake of his tardy support, to pass the largest and wettest of sponges over misdemeanors in the past...
...SHOULD we intervene in Mexico...
...Europe is in danger all along the thin frontier of China...
...That sort of thing cannot be profitable indefinitely...
...We have hinted above what we think of the dangers to world peace of any "understanding" that would split the nations of the earth into two halves, and it will take more than Mr...
...The impact of these minute bodies causes the protons and electrons to vibrate and send out energy...
...Garvin asks for an understanding by which "English-speaking n, tions would stand together, if any of them were threatened by an external combination," Americans have a right to inquire by whose acts the "external combination" is in most danger now of being challenged...
...Under existing conditions the dispatch of United States military forces to a scene of trouble is recurrently necessary...
...On January 8, five news-dealers in New Haven were arraigned on charges of selling so-called art publications such as are offered on a thousand news-stands in New York...
...What are the decent men and women for whom he has spoken going to do to uphold his hands and extend the work he has begun...
...Because of the decline of immigration and an increased willingness to organize among Negroes and Mexicans," declares the Washington social action bureau, "certain labor leaders have decided that now (with the exception of war time) is the best occasion for organizing common labor into unions that has been known in the United States...
...And when the editor of the Observer (and the Encyclopaedia Britannica) takes the opportu- nity of the Nicaraguan imbroglio to note complacently that the trading world's two bottle-necks, at Panama as at Cairo, are in Anglo-Saxon hands, and world peace the safer for it, Americans whose traditions are other than English may find that he has the air of assuming a common interestMfor the sake of forcing common action where it suits one and only one interest...
...In so far as Nicaragua is concerned, we know where we are...
...In the House of Lords, the Archbishop of Canterbury supported the measure, and in doing so made use of a phrase which might well be pondered by the sponsors of certain restrictive laws in the United States...
...Well, just now her memory is dear to crowds of the young women she loved and among whom she spent her time...
...Hearst proposes would be the one thing at this time which would retard any permanent peace among Euro- pean states for at least a century...
...yet the employee who votes for state legislator or member of Congress who is seeking to obtain such protective legislation, at once breaks his contract...
...But whether the profession can go on developing is another ques- tion which, it seems, cannot be viewed so optimistically...
...The special facilities given by the govern- ment in the final stages accentuated the general desire to do justice ungrudgingly...
...It seems almost incredible in this day and generation that em-ployers should submit contracts to individual employees which, as the social action department points out, "are so broad as to invade the whole dvic and social free- dom of the worker in relation to conditions of work, and not alone his use of a union to influence such con- ditions...
...He sends for the commissioners who are responsible for the issuance of news-stand permits and calls their attention to the fact that the city is indirectly responsible for the scandalous condi- tion existing...
...THE pbysidst is now leading us to the contempla- tion of even smaller objects than those with which we were beginning to be more or less familiar...
...But the rights and ques- tions involved, the aims and methods of the Mexican government, do directly characterize the life of a great nation near whom it is our destiny to live...
...Her whole life was a realization of the possibilities of journalism --journalism, that is, as separate from literature in the strict sense...
...The sheer audacity of such a pro- posal, emanating from one whose attitude toward the English has for years been notoriously antagonistic, is equaled only by its apparent puerility...
...He has done his part and it is a good part...
...CLEANING THE NEWS-STANDS C OMMON sense appears to have found a way to deal with that "putrid stream of the most despicable, the most iniquitous and, on the whole, the most dangerous form of a degraded form of litera- ture" against which Hendrik W. Van Loon, having found it impossible to arouse the most influential news2 papers in New York, hammered his theses "on the hospitable wall of The Commonweal" a little more than two years ago...
...A recent writer has said that the progress of our knowledge of matter has killed materialism...
...Ought not major organizations to consoli-date whenever possible...
...But if the public is not yet ready to concede the point, it looks as if excessive demands by musicians can lead only to chaos in the art...
...Dennis Herbert, the non-Catholic member of the House of Commons, who, in March, i925, introduced the bill and guided it through its three readings...
...The titles of the lecfures--the first of which will be given by Professor Moon on March 4--show that every principal feature of the subject of international relations will be ade- quately disclosed and discussed...
...It seems to us intimately associated with a condition now widely noticed by students of labor conditions: the stability of the wage paid to unskilled workers...
...The moral is dear...
...THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1925, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, 2.5 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City, N. Y. ~MICItAI:L WILLIAMS, Editor Assistant Editors Trro~As WALSrr H~.r~t W~rn HENRY LO~AN S~T GEORCS N. S~usr~ JOrtN F. MCCORMICK, Business Manager Editorial Council T. L.J, WRASON Ric~s JAMES J. WALSr~ C,~LTOtV J. H, HAYES R. DANA SKINNER Bnr~t C. A. Wt~ Subscription Rates Yearly: $10.00 Single Copies: $02,0 WEEK BY WEEK T HE new year has opened with so many prognosti...
...John A. Ryan, Professor Parker T. Moon, Judge Martin T. Manton, Michael Francis Doyle, chairman of the Geneva Institute of Interna- tional Relations, and others, to address audiences on each of the Friday afternoons of the season of recol- lection, the council promises to do much to stimulate closer study of the encyclical of the Holy Father on international amity, and to educate men and women of good will who desire to be more fully informed on problems which every day grow more pressing on a people too long inured to isolation, and almost ready to ask: "Who is my neighbor...
...and several million placed in a row would cover no more than one twenty-fifth of an inch...
...and it is essential that they should also be prepared to see that the results of what is to happen will be more satisfactory than those which foflowed from the movement that led, in a steadily more evident progression, to the chaos of Calles...
...Various agencies sponsoring musical education will conceivably enough render their pupils avid, even if they cannot make them competent...
...ANNOUNCEMENT by the New York Arch-diocesan Council of the Federal Council of Catholic Women, of a course of Lenten lectures at the Catholic Club of New York on International Relations, is another evidence of the excellent work being done by this organization...
...Of course there are "open shops...
...On general principles," he said, "it is a harmful thing that laws should exist which by common consent are disobeyed...
...Certainly they do not affect the average stay-at-home citizen...
...cations of continued domestic prosperity, that it is difficult to visualize the distress and continued un-easiness of many foreign peoples.- A sharp reminder is contained, however, in the recent stand taken by the State Department in dealing with the Nicaraguan problem...
...Military force used in the name of the United States is not the saving solution for Latin-American difficul- ties...
...The time in which she lived is stamped and labeled sufficiently by the fact that she died poor and obscure...
...There may be question whether the League, with or without the membership of the United States, can ensure the peace of Europe...
...Garvin's ratiocination, or the sight of a great (though somewhat depressed) empire busy at her historical task of looking for a new and complacent ally, to change our mind~ OWING to the age of its victims, the Montreal hecatomb suggests some considerations of a special nature, and it is comforting to see that they are not being neglected in major press comment upon the dis- aster...
...These questions are being asked widely just now, and are destined to loom large on the melodic horizon...
...We have something at stake in these countries...
...One may grant that a really excellent vocalist or instrumentalist is worthy of a salary equal to that which lures youth into professional baseball uniforms...
...and obviously they do not imperil the security of the people of the United States...
...The navy is intervening against a liberal revolution because various American rights, notably those guaranteeing a famous canal route, are in danger...
...Later, the jail sentences were suspended during good behavior...
...The proper masters of those difficulties are the Latin Americans themselves, working through agencies of conciliation which we can help to establish, and which will be commensurate with the new American and world-wide public consciousness...
...When one remembers that very few unskilled workers can find steady employment, the margin upon which they fight disease and poverty shrinks to almost nothing...
...Can that be done ? Well, it could not be accomplished in any country which respects liberty of conscience or desires it as a privilege...
...To what such a policy will ulti- mately lead, is indicated to some extent in the mirror of Latin-American public opinion, but is demon-strated fulsomely in the present Chinese d~b~de...
...Obviously this is not a living wage...
...FOR example, it is declared that "the contract stipu- lates the wage-rate the man accepts when he takes the work...
...and because there is rea- son to believe that Mexico is officially aiding the revo- lutionists for social and political reasons of its own...
...In exiling Bishop Diaz, secretary of the Catholic hierarchy, the Mexican officials have made the desperate attempt to exile the principles he has defended...
...The people of the United States must again be prepared to see Mexico in revolution...
...In obtaining speakers such as the Reverend Dr...
...it demonstrates also the rapidity with which music has become an at- tractive profession...
...That danger comes, not from the services western civilization could render the Orient--the services of the missionary and the engineer, of the doctor and the builder but from the constant eco-nomic aggression carried on under the support of can- non belonging to major foreign powers...
...His speeches on the subject re-flected the spirit of fairness which caused many Protestants to regard the conditions existing as an insult to them, as well as a hardship to their Catholic neighbors...
...of course there are employers who will fight collective bargaining as long as they live...
...Meanwhile, the wage- scale upon which musicians operate has advanced sharply, and the sums commanded by very able players compare favorably with the salaries of average busi- ness executives...
...Sooner or later, men who see that patience and long-suffering have merely added burdens to those already overpowering them, will rise and stake their all upon a decision...
...and then it is quite likely that souls like that of r Katherine Conway will be visioned dearly, as memo- rials and models...
...Those who seek a better understanding among English-speaking peoples may well pray to be delivered from this new friend...
...but never, perhaps, has the editor noted for sudden shifts and disregard for the consis- tency of little minds, caused such universal astonish- ment as by his latest proposal of a league of English- speaking nations...
Vol. 5 • January 1927 • No. 11
