Commonweal Archive - Week by Week

THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1925, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, 25 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City, N. Y. lCIIC~AEL WILLIAMS, Editor...

...That is why the laws adapted themselves to the situation in a good-natured manner, and that is also surely why so many people, who still theorize about divorce, insist that it is the fight of true love to find the inevitable mate...

...he never did a day's work out of jail, he never will do a day's work out of jail...

...Wells makes it clear that this benefit is not to remain, as heretofore, the privilege of a small class...

...they may have made miles of sea-sand where none was before, but they had to leave them behind as they had to leave the enormous acreage of the citrus belt, the great mineral deposits, and the vast oppor- tunities for the truck-farmer which the state has yet to develop...

...Mercy is not for those who kill and steal...

...on which he based his belief in local self-government and his love for religious tol...

...but on the way to that port, the Bishop was taken from the train at Cordoba by order of the Mexico City authori- ties...

...NOW The World of William Clissold was written more than a year ago...

...The general tenor of these later communications was that facts are facts, whether they are agreeable or whether they are not, and that if outsiders have ex- ploited Florida in the past and,brought about a crisis in her affairs, the underlying reasons for the future development of the state have been unimpaired...

...The state that surrenders any of its rights does not strengthen the Union--it weakens it...

...The new law, under which offending newspaper proprietors are made liable to four months' imprisonment or a fine of $2,5oo, or both, limits reports of divorce proceedings in the press to names and addresses of principals GETTING EDUCATED and witnesses, concise statements of charges and coun- ter-charges, arguments on points of law, the summing- up by the judge, and any observations he may make in giving judgment...

...The public school imparts a certain elementary instruction--in eight or ten years about as much as a normally intelligent youth could master in two years if he set his mind to it...

...THE quenchless optimism of Mr...

...They do not want to know how to think, they never will want to know how to think...

...H. G. Wells is only equaled by the fertility and resource with which, to borrow a phrase once used of the historian Michelet, he goes on, from year to year, "improvising certain- ties...

...There is nothing in the masses as masses but an un- realizable explosive force...

...THIRTYyears, did he say...

...It has been estimated by the Boston Transcript that 750,000 American youths and lassies are trying to collect credits...

...and it is rightly felt that proofs of earnest charity will be more elective in removing ditierences than any cargoes of controversy, no matter how vast...

...The task of giving instruction to the youth of an entire com-munity is so great that thoroughness is almost impos- sible...

...The one thing needed is to get the whole matter of the Eighteenth Amendment and the operation of the Vol- stead Act into the open--to substitute calm considera- tion for coercion, and the dictates of justice for the fulminations of fanatics and the outpourings of the righteous for revenue only...

...When he comes out, he is surely as notorious a thief as when he went in...

...No other charity has been more warmly recommended by the Holy Father, and perhaps none is more directly associated with his per- sonal experience...

...Apparently all more idealistic considerations affiliated with matrimony have been tossed overboard, and the business has at last been placed squarely on a business basis...

...Letters poured into the editor of the Times by the bushel-basket...

...Yet, in the very language in which State Senator Caleb Baumes defended the measures recently before the National Republican Club, there was some- thing distinctly reminiscent...

...The three most prominent suits now before the public are phrased in terms of millions...

...They are banded together in an endeavor of genuine importance, and are gradu- ally undertaking subsidiary works which demonstrate how valuable was the suggestion which first brought the Newman Clubs into existence...

...A great variety--we came near saying almost any--hard-worked instructors or teach- ers are ready to tell you that about the only thing school life succeeds in doing for the modern American community is to enable it to read the news about "Charlie" Chaplin and "Peaches" Browning, or to get the point of those very subtle jokes that make musical comedy an excellent box-office proposition...

...There can be no real union between states, half of whom are sovereign, and half slave to bureaucratic tyranny...

...In their hands is the administration of sacra-ments which alone can modify the passions in the indi- vidual human breast, and so gradually arrive at the establishment of order in prevalent social chaos...

...Because these apostles of friendship desired to get at the bottom of the dispute between the civil and ecclesi- astical authorities in the neighboring republic, they determined to submit to the Mexican episcopate a series of clear-cut questions which would demand defi- nite and specific answers...

...For how can true love be true love without a castle and a lady in waiting...

...William D. Guthrie, the distinguished attorney...

...Nor is it presumptive to hope that eastern and western Catholics will some day be reunited...

...and the exact calculation of alimony possibilities now de- mands the service of efficient receivers and accountants...

...This is the result of the operation of the Judicial Proceedings (Regulation of Reports) Act which went into force on the first of the year...

...ONE thing stands out prominently in all the discus- sion which has been aroused by the enforcement of the Baumes laws--the general notion that the chairman of the Legislative Crime Commission proposed and had passed laws for the treatment of habitual criminals which were as novel in suggestion as they were drastic in detail...

...It was the immediate arrest 'of Bishop Diaz by order of President Calles...

...They have grown up in a coarse and ugly way of living...

...The vast crowd assembled (the Newman Club crowd grows with every year) had every reason to feel that their festival was dis-tinguished and profitable...

...Does it not mean a great common advance of the mind--the passing of ignorance, prejudice, and inefficiency...

...At the condusiori of the conference, a Jewish rabbi, speaking on behalf of the visiting dele- gation, paid tribute to the complete frankness with which every question had been answered, and to the value of the answers as a contribution to the solution of the problems which were being studied...

...T HE business of divorce was never so prosperous as now...

...A rather good instance of this protean quality, is the first instalment of hetero- geneous mass of prophecy, entitled The Way the World Is Going, published not long ago by the New York Times...

...the Bill of Rights becomes a scrap of paper...

...When tMs bill was under discussion in Parliament, Lord Burnham, owner of the Daily Telegraph, made the assertion that while sensational reports of notorious divorce eases would be banned by it in Great Britain, every detail of the unsavory cases would appear in American newspapers...

...Of the feat itself, which won for George the wherewithal to purchase half a million packages of William Wrigley's famous confec- tion, we have few details except that the swimmer bat- tled bravely with great masses of kelp which retarded him more than the tides...

...For thirty years, we have been building a Chinese wall to protect criminals, and have been neglecting the good people...

...Just heaven I' cries the Society for the Protec- tion of Remonstrant Ruffians, 'this is equivalent to a sentence of perpetual imprisonment.' Predsely for that reason, it has my advocacy...

...It undoubtedly became true about the beginning of the twentieth century that matrimony ought to be considered a very satisfactory way of get- ring hold of somebody else's cash...

...Presently, how- ever, residents of the state who were not connected with booster organizations or real-estate combinations, began to be heard from, and commendation of the article made itself heard above the din of condemna- tion...

...Ad-dresses were delivered by Mr...

...Those who ever made the excursion from Catalina Island to the mainland by steamer, will be ready to believe that decaying seaweed was not the only savor of the passage...

...The point at issue can, after all, be adjusted under an alimony arrangement...

...Ideas, views of life, points of view expressed inside the academic boundaries do have an effect far more lasting than any accumulation of facts...

...The only comforting aspect of the matter is that the castles about which most wrangling is now done are far too substantial to remain in the air...

...IT is well to call attention once more to the efort now being made to find and unify i,ooo,ooo sup-porters of the Catholic Near East Welfare Associa- tion...

...Of course, the filing of the requisite number of peti- tions from the states will not ensure the relief sought, but at least it will bring the whole matter before the Supreme Court of the United States on the question whether such a call for a constitutional convention is not mandatory as far as Congress is concerned...

...Or think of a group of religious directors conscious of a million followers bent not merely upon conforming with the elementary spiritual routine, but upon deepening and developing the life of the soul I Precisely such a tremendous array of men and women is what the American endeavor of intellectual drill has been able to bring into being...

...A feeling that the organization of students under the patronage of New- man is slightly irregular, that it is to be tolerated rather than encouraged, has tended to dampen enthu- siasm and halt advance...

...If it were possible to compute the num- ber of those taking courses in the short-story by mail, or going to lectures at any one of a number of insti- tutes established for the purpose of lecturing, the grand total of those bent upon improving their minds woul~ probably reach a million...

...I demand to have the ruffian em-ployed, perforce, in hewing wood and drawing water somewhere for the general service, instead of hewing at Her Majesty's subjects and drawing their watches out of their pockets...

...He never turns his liberty to any account but violence and plunder...

...In the elaboration of his creed, the popular governor con-veyed in one sentence a message not only to the people of his own state, but to the citizens of all the states, which is particularly timely...

...Lady Margaret Arm-strong, and others...

...The Baumes laws may not be models of perfect legislation, but that they are the logical reaction, not only to an extraordinary crime wave but to the system of coddling criminals, cannot be denied...

...Rightly or wrongly, that de-mand has been growing steadily during the years...

...They [the workers] do not want a change...

...AN Associated Press despatch from London an-nounces that the British divorce courts are now be-coming "dry-as-dust" places, with barristers no longer making impassioned appeals with eyes on the gallery, and few auditors for appeals of any kind...

...George may or may not be able to hang on to the $25,ooo he earned by his exploit, but whatever he may do with Mr...

...Herring and his asso- ciates can be awaited without impatience--already they have disclosed the Mexico of Calles to the world...

...The whole concept of the fathers is destroyed under such circumstances...

...Though the schismatic churches of the Orient are now quite as firmly distinct from Rome as they ever were, they do practise religious faith in a truly Catholic sense...

...The work to be done is vast, involving as it does almost every aspect of modern sociological en- deavor-famine relief, hospital organization, schools, and social adjustment...

...We do not accomplish any more because our definition of educa- tion is so primitive, so much a matter of utilities and conventions, that it does not include more...

...And with four needed, Senators Edwards of New Jersey, Bruce of Maryland, Walsh of Massachusetts, and Gerry of Rhode Island have announced their willing-ness to do all in their power to have the legislatures of these four "wet" states join hands with New York...

...They are out to be...

...Secretaries of boards of trade and chambers of commerce arose to call the corre-spondent anything but blessed...

...The time has come when society must meet the challenge of the gunman...

...Many reasons are given for the general willingness to let George do it, including vivid descriptions of attacks by "a big fish," and ex-pressed disgust with axle grease as a sustaining lubri- cant for human box-cars...

...I demand to have the ruffian kept out of my way, and out of the way of all decent people...

...THIS year's convention of Newman Clubs in New York City was honored by the presence of Cardinal Hayes, whose appearance showed that commendation of the work accomplished by the clubs which those in charge are most eager to receive...

...If marriage vows cannot survive the collapse of pro 2 phetic wooing, there is none of us who may feel safe...

...and who, even though the law may sometimes be made to appear what Bumble thought it under certain con-tingencies, control by fear sufficient of those who vote dry and drink wet to see that it is not changed...

...That is a word that rings true...

...This sensible and far-seeing outlook is justified by the facts...

...Even though, as Catholic young men and women, they miss some of the benefits conferred by a religious educational o.tmo- sphere, they show a readiness to practise the nobler arts of life which is one of the most encouraging signs of spiritual vitality now discernible...

...An army of I,OOO,OOO men out drilling for a year, and then making room for another million the next year, would mean a militaristic power almost beyond the reach of imaginative perception...

...Wells that in appealing to anything written more than a few weeks ago, the critic and carper may find himself barred bysome statute of limitations...

...But perhaps more wonderful is his habit of making up and changing his mind on first and last things as he goes along...

...Address-ing Bishop Diaz, he said he hoped, after having listened to the explanations given by the bishops, that there would be a fuller understanding both in Mexico and in the United States of a difficult situation, and that men of good will everywhere would be heartened by the outcome...

...eration such as was provided in the first provincial charter framed by the freemen of Maryland...

...What was the outcome...

...WHEN an east-coast correspondent of the New York Times wrote an artide in which he gave reasons for believing that Florida was facing a serious reac- tion, he speedily discovered that reactions were among the things to which Floridians are particularly respon- sive...

...and we are told that more than a dozen col- leges and universities have enrollments in excess of ten thousand...

...The scandalous publicity given to the charges made by Mrs...

...Wrigley's money, it is fairly safe to assume that he will always be a firm believer in the Wrigley slogan, "the flavor lasts...

...Wells's last novel is already superseded...

...Accord-ingly, The Commonweal is printing this week, the second of two articles reviewing the general religious situation in Russia, and outlining the status of the problem of unity...

...IN his address on the occasion of his third inaugura- tion as governor of Maryland, Albert C. Ritchie em- phasized once more his adherence to the Bill of Rights, as "the living, working, governmental creed for the people of all the states...

...It is the man of the people, it is "homo sapiens" in all his anonymity, who is to become " a more com- pletely developed, longer-living, vital animal...

...Well, one answer is supplied in The Meaning of a Liberal Education, a book by Everett Dean Martin which is noticed elsewhere in this issue...

...Food for thought...

...He was labeled as "unfair" and a "false propagandist," and it was inti- mated that the truth was not in him...

...It is these things which, in the depths of their souls, the i,ooo,ooo hopeful Americans are after...

...At first it was reported that the prelate was to be deported to Cuba from Vera Cruz...

...Then send him back again...

...Even if these laws should fill the prisons," he said, "that would not be an argument for turning habitual criminals loose to prey upon society...

...The full report of Mr...

...There is always the danger with Mr...

...After pointing out that the problem which confronted the fathers when they came to form an indivisible union of indivisible states, was how to reconcile individual liberty with strong and effective government, and that they had found a solu- tion by establishing limitations on official powers by defining the rights of the state and the rights of the Union, he declared: "Maryland stands by these rights, and it seems to me incontrovertible that the strength of the Union and the effectiveness of free government lies in having all the states do so...

...Real-estate robbers may have "gotten away with murder," but they did not take the Florida dimate with them...

...Even more curious is the case of a pathetic but wealthy wife who pleads disillusionment on the ground that her husband failed to provide the castle which he had promised in a rash moment antecedent to connubial bliss...

...If not, it makes strange commentary upon the rosy prophecies of today...

...Toward this end both events and the Church itself are working...

...ALTHOUGH lO2 contestants took the water for the Catalina Channel swim, only one--George Young, a seventeen-year-old entrant from Toronto, Canada-- completed the course...

...The modern attempt to educate everyone really educates hardly anyone," says our author...

...No one could dispel this so successfully as the kindly and watchful Prince of the Church, whose interest in the intellectual life of New York City has long since been dearly evident...

...This is, to say the least, a dangerous precedent...

...But there are signs that the London newspaper proprietor may be agreeably disappointed--"agreeably," since Lord Burnham conducts one of the cleanest newspapers pub- lished in English--and that the reproach which rests on many American newspapers will be removed...

...After returning to a theme that is, if one remembers, also a prepossession with his William Clissold--namely, the prolongation of human life and vitality--Mr...

...Every resistance to invasion by the federal government of the domain dearly reserved for the state, is an act to solidify the true union contemplated from the beginning...

...This complacency may be disturbed, not to say jarred, how- ever, by the announcement that plans are being made to compel the attention of Congress to that public opin- ion which certain fanatics who imagine they control Congress desire to ignore...

...This answer is worth quoting because so many people agree with it...

...As a proved notorious thief, he is always consignable to prison for three months...

...The bishops expressed their willingness to answer all inquiries submitted and a meeting was arranged, with Bishop Pascual Diaz, sec-retary of the episcopate, acting as spokesman for the hierarchy...

...But, it seems to us, this pessimismuthe natural fruit of daily contact with immature minds and the rigmarole of standardization--leaves out of consideration a most important circumstance...

...Wells promises (by way, one presumes, of municipal glanding and grafting centres) the prospect of an indefinite extension of their undisciplined ener- gies...

...THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1925, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, 25 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City, N. Y. lCIIC~AEL WILLIAMS, Editor Assistant Editors Trro~As WALSn HELEN WALX~ HENRY LONGAN STUART GEORGE N. SnUSTE~ JOHN F. McCoRMICK, Business Manager Editorial Council T. LXWitASON Rw~s J~Es J. W~a~sH CARLTON J. H. HAYES R. DANA SKINNER BERTRAm' C. A. WImmE Subscription Rates Yearly: $10.00 Single Copies: $020 WEEK BY WEEK W 'HATEVER may be the findings of the latest group of Americans now in Mexico studying the relations of that country with the United States, the body headed by Herbert C. Herring of Boston, chief of the social relations department of the Congrega-tional Churches of America, has accomplished more in clarifying for the whole world the attitude of the Calles government toward the Catholic Church than all the statements and counter-statements hitherto published...

...SINCE petitions from the legislative bodies of two- thirds of the states would be necessary to force action by Congress, the self-constituted conservers of the morals of the United States might try to laugh this off as they laughed off the recent popular vote in New York, were it not for the fact that petitions on various subjects already are pending "from twenty-eight states, so that only four more would have to petition to force the issue...

...Further-more, newspapers which once gave unlimited space to the reporting of such cases, now dismiss them with the barest mention...

...The anti-prohibitionists in the New York legislature, led by Assemblyman Louis A. Cuvillier, declare their intention of seeking the assistance of other states in a joint demand on Con-gress for a national constitutional convention to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment...

...Charlie" Chaplin in her recent suit, has aroused the better class of newspapers throughout the country...

...they want an inversion without a change...

...They went, taking with them the shearings of many sheep not raised in Florida, and leaving be- hind them all that is Florida--a land of plenty for all who believe that an hour of work is worth more than a month of boosting...

...But somehow, in estimating him as a social prophet, a misgiving falls across our admiration...

...EXPRESSIONS of public opinion in regard to the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, such as that given recently by the voters of New York State, mean nothing to prohibition leaders who rest in fancied security on the fact that "the law is the law...