Cleaning the News-Stands
r Katherine Conway will be visioned dearly, as memo- rials and models. Well, just now her memory is dear to crowds of the young women she loved and among whom she spent her time. To them she was...
...Recent history shows that the Vatican, far from entertaining visions of what the League might conceivably be, is reckoning with it as a political reality...
...and Lord Balfour summed up the matter by saying that the original projects of his government 'had been very unfavorably received by those who represent Catholic opinion in the world.' "This result was an indication of what could be accomplished at Geneva by adriot use of diplomatic means...
...and the Swiss delegate, M. Motta, arose to 'announce, amid generous applause, that this was the first time that relationship had been established be- tween Rome and the League...
...Each received a jail sentence of two months and was fined $2oo...
...Of course, this action presupposes the authorization of Rome...
...If they will not, opportunity can be found to do to them what the mayor seeks to do to news-dealers who perpetuate a scandal--revoke their permits...
...This ought to silence voices which are constantly talking of a gulf between Rome and Geneva, and so attempting to hamper the activity of the Vatican...
...But it is nevertheless true that the nuncio's praise of the conciliatory policy sponsored by Briand in the name of France implies more than appears upon the im-mediate surface...
...In these remarks, it seems to us, there is food for much thought...
...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...
...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...
...The League was on the verge of accepting the mandatory statute presented by Great Britain and, of course, the article governing the disposition of the holy memorials...
...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...
...A recent writer has said that the progress of our knowledge of matter has killed materialism...
...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...
...Various agencies sponsoring musical education will conceivably enough render their pupils avid, even if they cannot make them competent...
...Can this scale be maintained...
...This resolve has been manifested particularly in various relations between the Papacy and the League of Nations--rela- tions so little known here and so well set forth in a paper by Doctor Carl Docka, of Zurich, that we think it helpful to quote a little : "The first contact between the Vatican and Geneva was brought about by Benedict XV during September, x92I, when he addressed the assembly of the League regarding the famine in Russia...
...Will private benefaction, which even now subsidizes the or- chestra, be willing to see the individual musician profit further...
...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...
...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 two identified with New York City are, in fact, unable to escape from under a large annual deficit...
...Ought not major organizations to consoli-date whenever possible...
...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...
...THE growth of symphony orchestras in the United States has maintained about the same ratio as the growth of cities...
...The reply was that everything possible would be done to ameliorate con-ditions...
...Behind it stands the Vatican's abid- ing resolve to encourage as much as it can every effort to promote the conciliation of Europe...
...These powers are not confronted with the delicate problem of altering the statutes gov- erning the constitution of the Council and the Assembly, and the opportunity to safeguard Catholic interests is always there...
...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...
...The Holy See therefore addressed a note to the Secretary of the League, in which a definite protest was voiced against the arrange- ment...
...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...
...The atoms of hydrogen gas are so small that it takes many millions of them to make one grain...
...Keep the news-stands dean or dose them up" is the general tenor of his instructions to his subordinates...
...But whether the profession can go on developing is another ques- tion which, it seems, cannot be viewed so optimistically...
...People have exaggerated the posi- tion of the nuncio in Berne, who was accredited, for the first time since fifty years, at precisely the same moment that the seat of the League was established at Geneva...
...It remains to be noted that in response to a request from the League the Holy See appointed Pro- fessor Gianfrancheschi, of the Gregorian University, as its representative in the commission to achieve a reform of the calendar...
...His Honor wastes no time talking about the neces- sity for censorship...
...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...
...To them she was generally "the nicest old lady in all the world...
...Though this may seem a mat- ter of minor importance, it does indicate that Geneva is genuinely anxious to afford Catholic opinion a hear- ing on matters in which it is directly interested...
...The impact of these minute bodies causes the protons and electrons to vibrate and send out energy...
...Catholic interests seemed adequately safeguarded, but the fact that the com-mission was to consist almost entirely of British rep- resentatives practically insulated the governor of Palestine from criticism...
...This papal action was, of course, a continuation of the charitable endeavor sponsored by the Holy See during the war rather than an attempt to take a stand on a political issue...
...Great Britain had been accorded a mandate over Palestine...
...and several million placed in a row would cover no more than one twenty-fifth of an inch...
...The action of Mayor Walker is an excellent point of departure for an intensive campaign of education in New York...
...Indeed, it seems that the passing of "secret diplomacy" has made peo- ple more anxious than ever to discover secrets...
...Thus it is also significant that among the delegates at the Opium Conference summoned by the League there were two missionary priests who had returned to Europe expressly for the purpose, and that Monsignor Constantini offered the assistance of the Catholic derg3r in the Far East...
...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...
...But it was natural that the growing importance of the League made it necessary that the Papacy, like all other powers, should observe what was done at Geneva with great care...
...What His Honor has done for decency in the city should be brought to the attention of every representative of the city at Albany with a very definite demand that they do their share in the legislature to voice the feelings of those who elected them...
...To them might be appended, of course, other recent and quite definite statements by the Holy See on the moral evils of an exaggerated nationalism...
...It testifies to the eagerness of a vast public to know excellent compositions...
...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...
...These questions are being asked widely just now, and are destined to loom large on the melodic horizon...
...The nuncio, in fact, played an important part in the negotiations which marked the second contact be- tween the League and the Vatican...
...Nowadays any pronounce-ment of a political sort is sure to kindle the "prophetic" imagination of Europe...
...Perhaps none of the symphony orchestras now in exist- ence is entirely self-sustaining...
...He has done his part and it is a good part...
...Nevertheless, it is quite true that the man chosen for the position is considered unusually qualified to act as an "observer" of the League, in the American fashion...
...Later, the jail sentences were suspended during good behavior...
...This provided for an international commission entrusted with the task of maintaining supervision and reporting difficulties to the League...
...THE VOICE OF THE VATICAN T HE effect of the New Year's address by Mon- signor Maglione, papal nuncio in Paris, was marred by curious attempts to read into it a lot of subterranean meanings...
...If they will, they shall receive plenty of support from upstate members and the leading state in the Union shall soon have anti- obscenity laws with teeth in them...
...One is safe in saying that general popular interest is more likely to increase than to re- cede...
...r Katherine Conway will be visioned dearly, as memo- rials and models...
...Finally, after various British manoeuvres and further papal notes, the matter was successfully dis- posed of...
...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...
...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...
...It seemed obvious that the status quo of the regulations govern- ing the sacred places was endangered...
...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...
...it demonstrates also the rapidity with which music has become an at- tractive profession...
...It seems that the existing arrangement is the best conceivable under existing drcumstances---much bet-ter, indeed, than direct affiliation of the Papal See with the League powers...
Vol. 5 • January 1927 • No. 11
