Week by Week
February 9, t9z7 THE COMMONWEAL m Hl THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1927, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, Grand Central Terminal,...
...Merrie England" passed with the substitution for a religion, which made work a delight and recreation a complete relaxation, of a gospel of "getting on in the world" which encouraged the exploitation of one's neighbor to this supreme aim, and which crushed all merriment as a menace to efficiency...
...The majority upheld the constitutionality of the anti-evolution law, but quashed the verdict on the technical point that a larger fine was inflicted than the constitution permitted...
...Such fear is not unfounded...
...NATURALLY, it cannot escape notice that the purpose of the Mexican dictatorship is not economic stability or improvement...
...Mumford's objections to so stark a challenge, and his insistence that there is a middle course might be applied to almost arty category of immigrants...
...Perhaps the United States government may succeed in arbitrating its difference with the rulers of Mexico...
...When the British residents there had made plans for a parade of the volunteer corps through the main streets, strong representations by the members of the American colony resulted in the substitution for this provocative display of a review of the volunteers at the race-club enclosur to which the Chinese public was not admitted...
...The stability of the Von Hindenburg government depended upon the ability of the Nationalists, who were committed to a conservative program and to a definite control of the military forces, to form a government...
...Finally, if we are to credit a recent despatch, every foreign critic of the government is to be deported...
...Marx is striving not so much to swing the Catholic strength to the defense of conservatism, as to unify it by showing its independence...
...These remarks opened a veritable stadium for contestants of every variety...
...It is not the easiest way, because the greatest danger of the present situation does not lie in what may be done by either of the forces in the field, but lurks latent in the unorganized hordes encouraged to revenge and rapine by the evil spirit of civil war...
...Examples of Beuron paintings and plastic creations were placed on view in the Anderson Galleries, New York City, throughout the week following February 5- The Archabbot also proposes to give a number of illustrated lectures, and later to visit several other cities...
...McAdoo, that law as law must be enforced...
...Yet in the province of Quebec, la, t year, where the sale of beer and wine is in direct cempetition with the sale of spirits, the most marked increase in sales was of wines...
...THE inevitable and exasperating plaster-casts, gaudy and offensively insincere, which emanate from the upper reaches of Third Avenue, New York, or South Chicago, lead many to believe that the nobility of ecclesiastical artwthat which the old Latin word "decor" so well described--has entirely disappeared from modern life...
...He averred that even the fragments of a genuine poet's work are suffused with a spiritual vitality which is immediately perceptible but which does not depend upon the ideas, facts, or even images outlined...
...So when one of the busiest of women announced her intention of upholding the thesis that the existence of the leisured woman constituted a grave menace to modern civilization, it became imperative that the apostle of the quiet and peaceful should appear to champion the cause of those for whom the strenuous life has no attractions...
...Even a verbal comment upon the way in which things are going is likely to shorten a foreign visitor's stay in the country by a considerable number of days...
...But their very eagerness may defeat a selfish purpose which has no real desire to bring stability and self-respect to China...
...During weeks the pages of the French literary papers and reviews bristled with discussion, and the most eminent critics, philosophers, and creative writers signed their names to published comment...
...February 9, t9z7 THE COMMONWEAL m Hl THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1927, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, Grand Central Terminal, New York, N. Y. MICHAEL WU-T.IA~S, Editor Assistant Editors Trro~,s Wm.srr Hmag~r WALKER HENaY LONGAN STUART GZOaGE N. SHraSX~a JOHN F. McCoR~Icx, Business Manager Editorial Council T. LAWaASON Rac~ JA~ES J. Wm.srr Cmo.ToN J. H. HAvv...
...The consumption of wi~e represented-after five years in which spirits were just as easily obtainableman increase in the twelve ~aonths of 168,369 gallons over the total for the prec.,ding year...
...But there is another feature of this report which should not escape attention...
...but over all, deadly dullness...
...and indeed, even the labor element is reported by well-informed observers to be restless and dissatisfied...
...Obviously this implies a departure from the attitude which prevailed during the last presidential campaign, when Chancellor Marx sought the support of the Left vote to defeat Von Hindenburg...
...It is interesting to note that these statements fall into line with those of the Catholic Church which, though of course absolutely condemning materialistic evolution (a wholly inconceivable thing, by the way) leaves her children free to accept either theistic evolution, or the creationary hypothesis of pre-Darwinian days...
...The state of commerce, influenced to a very considerable extent by the religious boycott, is chaotic and unstable...
...He slid pretty nearly what he was expected to say...
...One of these movements is now brought to the especial attention of Americans through the coming of the Archabbot of Beuron, the famous German Benedictine abbey...
...nunciation of special privileges acquired by force, does little to compose the existing complications...
...McAdoo has undergone a transformation...
...From now on, they are going to see more of him...
...In addition, letters poured in from every part of the world--letters from scientists, from poets, from simple villagers who wished to report what they had come to feel during quiet evenings spent in the company of masters...
...see him until he is recognized as an eyesore that has to be removed...
...Marx would prove its aloofness by associating it for the time being with the Right...
...In their anxiety to see that not a penny is lost to the till of the "nation of shopkeepers," they are willing to make an unilateral agreement--which is quite natural, since their sole concern is with the interests, solely material, of the party which is always the party of the first part to Great Britain...
...Although he hopes to induce people to purchase Beuron reproductions, he insists most earnestly that the object 04 his coming is not to instigate an "art quarrel" or to engage in commercial competition with any firms now interested in disbursing religious art products...
...and that its greatest accomplishments are to be seen in the frescoes of Monte Cassino, Beuron, and Prague...
...various expropriated ecclesiastical properties...
...AT PRESENT, it would seem that Dr...
...Of the conference which has just concluded under the auspices of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association in New York City, it is high enough praise to say that it was worthy in every respect of the spirit, at the same time ideal in aspiration and keenly actual in perception, that has animated the Menorah Journal from its first issue...
...He has declared, in unison with Mr...
...He is out there now, disclosed as the rue~-runner, the rum-seller, and the rum-distiller operating under the motto that the end justifies the means...
...in fact, in days when, as the chairman pointed out, the house and the housekeeper have been got rid of, and service-flats and residential hotels have taken their place, and when practising birth control has left no children to take the attention of the woman of means, if she cannot enjoy her leisure, she manifests a determination to see that that leisure becomes a burden to all...
...But perhaps he is out to organize something like a new Prohibition party--to which one may wish success, even while observing that if the nature of the opinions expressed in the wave of the McAdoo offensive is significant, it is not likely to be a very popular institution...
...Evidently the former Secretary, in selecting the Eighteenth Amendment for a theme and varying it with trumpet obligatos, acted upon the belief that conditions in 1927 are similar to those which prevailed at the ti, me of the last Democratic convention...
...None of the problems of agriculture, of building or road-making, has been solved...
...He is only one man venturing a guess, but it is likely that his guess is a fairly good one...
...Orders to confiscate ecclesiastical property have been followed by a still more drastic mandate summoning all priests to report at stated times...
...Wirth had too dosely identified it with the Left...
...But it is always so easy to theorize apart from the field of practical politics that one is inclined to believe that the best possible stand was taken, all circumstances considered, and that the present dit~culties are due to far-reaching political and social changes rather than to faults of leadership...
...Wirth became the outstanding champion, but there were many who could not follow him...
...In the opinion of Judge Chambliss, it was only the teaching of materialistic evolution which was forbidden by the law, the others holding that, broadly speaking, all evolutionary instruction was banned...
...If these conversions continue to increase, it may be that the deadly pall of dullness will be lifted, and that once more Saint George will be invoked as the patron of a land of happiness and true merriment...
...yet it is well that his fellow-citizens should see him as he is...
...That error could only be corrected by a retrial which the judges deprecated, suggesting to the Attorney-General that he enter a nolle prosequi...
...Especially interesting was the opening lecture, by Mr...
...CONDITIONS in China continue to be matter for grave concern and the exercise of patience...
...What is this vitality...
...It may suffice to say, therefore, that Beuron art (which, we believe, has been recommended to Americans only by the veteran editor, Father Hudson, of Notre Dame) is at once traditional and modern in character...
...WHETHER or not the German people uphold the new Marx cabinet, the events which led to its formation are in themselves most interesting...
...He declared that there would be less poverty and drastic dealing with the unfit...
...During recent months, the Centrists have been struggling with the extremely difficult task of trying to agree upon a party tendency...
...During the course of his formal address to the members of the Academy, the Abb6 Henri Bremond proposed the question: "What is pure poetry...
...He loves to work in secret, and it irks him when me~ like Senator Reed force him and his methods into the open...
...One is not prohibited from teaching that 'days,' as used in the Book of Genesis, means days of twenty-four hours, the literalist view...
...He is not a pleasant spectacle...
...Those who resist the slightest modification of the Volstead Act are strong in thzir assertion that it is nonsense to talk of permitting he sale of beer and light wines under proper regulatbn, because it is not beer, and above all not wine, that fie moderate drinker desires...
...Why look forward a full century to the passing of "Merrie England," when for more than a century past, the Englishman has been known to the rest of the world as the individual with a fixed determination to take his pleasures sadly...
...OF COURSE, these are facts v, hich the professional prohibitionist not only will not face, but which he does everything in his power to hide...
...It is an interesting and not altogether cheering consideration to look back over the history of immigration in the last sixty years, and to surmise what the benefit to the culture and dignity of American life might have been, had its new citizens come into it, not as isolated and bewildered units, stunned into conformity, but as ordered groups fully aware of the value of their contribution to the complex national genius...
...He stands convicted of applauding the use of government money, voted for the express purpose of eniordng a law, by government agents to break the law and to entice as many others as possible to do the same...
...It simply reveals a new aspect of English commercial policy which is largely responsible for the chaotic conditions which now baffle and menace...
...THE report of the Quebec Liquor Commission for the fifth year of its existence, is interesting in r, nany ways...
...In the face of notable and constant restatements of the Catholic position which is emphatically opposed to intervention, but firmly in favor of enlightenment--the efforts of certain publicists to cloud the situation with picturesque and shadowy inferences must gradually collapse...
...The martial r~gime which controls the country has, therefore, no recommendation of the sort which is so easily offered for Fascismo...
...so long as the teaching does not exdude God as the author of human life...
...he impressed those whom he was expected to impress...
...The value of what the Archabbot is representing, no less than the charm of his own personality, is sure to gain the attention of a wide audience...
...his demand, they assert, IS for ardent spirits...
...but the mere mention of the word "arbitration" ought to mislead no one into thinking that any grave problems have already been settled, or that the Calles government will unquestionably accept the verdict...
...In short, if Mr...
...Lewis Mum37 ~ THE COMMONWEAL vebruary 9, I9~ ford, whose name is no stranger to these columns...
...PURE POETRY" RANCE has been stirred by a peculiar and, in so far as most Americans are concerned, ethereal debate...
...While Governor Smith as a candidate for the White House has been viewed and considered by many people, the general attitude toward Mr...
...To February 9, 1927 THE COMMONWEAL 369 the majority of Democrats, and indeed to the body politic generally, he looks like an uncommonly satisfactory candidate for private citizenship...
...For example, at a time when in this country the cost of endeavoring to enforce prohibition mounts steadily as "under-cover men" and agents-pr~voca...
...Mexican currency and obligations have a lower value than at any time during the past seventy years...
...For a time certain anxious observers predicted the disruption of the Centrum...
...The belated conversion will not be convincing to the followers of Chiang, nor to the adherents of Chang Tso Lin...
...Also that in the same period, the Dominion government has benefited to the extent of $34%332 in customs, excise, and sales taxes...
...Mumford waxed pardonably indignant over the "false alternative" which exacts from the Jewish immigrant one of two things---"retrospective and isolated ghettoes," or a "IOO percent Americanism" which virtually means the casting of everything, save an inherited shrewdness, into the discard...
...Never has leisure had a more consistent and valiant champion than it has in the person of G. K. C. When the most prolific of writers has had an hour or two to spare from his labors as an essayist, a critic, a philosopher, a producer of detective stories, and a working editor, he has used them to scatter the glad tidings from the public platform of the loveliness of leisure by the home fire, or a good loaf at ease in his inn...
...In surveying The American Scene, so far as it affects Judaism, Mr...
...Within the ranks of the party, earnest efforts began to be made on behalf of an outspoken declaration of republicanism and social reform...
...McAdoo upon the prepresidential platform was not so terrifying as had been expected...
...And they simply are not...
...After considerable hesitation, the Centre party decided to lend its aid...
...The internal financial situation of the country has steadily grown worse, despite the fact that the government has fortified itself with...
...or days of 'a thousand years' or more, as held by liberalists...
...The Abb6 did not undertake to answer the question immediately, but suggested that it be termed "pure poetry" in contradistinction to all subsidiary elements which, in their turn, might well be called "impure poetry...
...The present parliamentary system in Germany had made it quite apparent that the older idea of a "balance of power"--as held by Windhorst and his followers--was no longer tenable...
...We neglect far too easily a consideration of various corLtemporary art movements which have dedicated to the subject of religious painting and sculpture a fine creative energy, genuine faith, and remarkable tact...
...One can only estimate its value by studying trends of the past and the present...
...Whether or not these tactics will succeed is a matter of the future...
...He expressed the fear that the woman of leisure who forswore pleasure for herself, might occupy her time wholly in interfering with the pleasures of other people...
...It exists as a corollary of social and revolutionary factors bent upon the private aggrandizement of a few, and upon establishing the supremacy of a definite doctrine...
...R. D^NA SmN~Ea Bmcv~ C. A. WIN~ United States : $5.00 Foreign : $6.00 Canada : 5.50 Single Copies : .10 WEEK BY WEEK HE case of Mexico versus American public opinion continues...
...He proposes to interest as many people as possible during the course of a brief stay, in the work that has been accomplished by monastm artists...
...But M. Souday's eloquent defense of "reason," fortified as it was by his general opaqueness of temperament, served only to make readers of the Times wonder once again why it must be our national fate to encourage the worst of European critics...
...Mutatis mutandis---Mr...
...Of these efforts, Dr...
...THAT recent debate in London, between Gilbert K. Chesterton and Lady Rhondda, on The Menace of the Leisured Woman, with Bernard Shaw as chairman contributing to the discussion, must have been worth attending...
...It was the lot of the Abb6 Bremond to receive visits from authorities in phonetics and physics, who carried their inventions with them and guaranteed results...
...It is curious to observe how steadily the Calles r~gime is becoming a kind of topsy-turvy version of Fascismo...
...Moreover, even if the prohibition issue will come to the fore with Governor Smith, he cannot be identified with that issue...
...When Sir Austen Chamberlain, the Foreign Minister, declares: "All we want is to keep our shops open and to be on good terms with our customers," and when David Lloyd George, the former Prime Minister, asserts that every concession must be made "because, if the Chinese got the idea that the other nations were their friends and Great Britain their enemy, the other nations would capture the Chinese trade," they contribute nothing to the solution of an intricate problem...
...Judge McKinley dissented from the judgment, believing that the statute was invalid "for uncertainty of meaning...
...We suggest to the editors of the New York World, whose columns have been burdened of late with accounts of Mussolini in action, that the Mexican version of dictatorship is at once more interesting and easier to know something about...
...teurs have to set up distilleries and conduct bootlr agencies to entice the unwary to the breaking of the law, it causes one to think furiously when it is announced that a single province has been enriched by $5,5oo,ooo in one year by the operation of a real temperance agency...
...CANON HOWSON, an Anglican rector, has caused considerable discussion in England by a sermon, in which he made the assertion that a hundred years hence there will be no "Merrie England...
...Meanwhile, it is with pride that Americans at home hear of the action of Americans in Shanghai in doing all in their power to remove every excuse for mob violence...
...THE judgment handed down by the Supreme Court of the state of Tennessee in the late Scopes case, has several points of interest for us...
...McAdoo's method of enforcement is the only possible one, then the Democrats simply cannot, as a matter of principle, enforce it...
...There is only one factor which the Anglican divine may have omitted from his calculations in making his prophecy, and which may alter the whole aspect of English life in the next century--every year, for several years past, some IO,OOO Englishmen have returned to the Church of their fathers...
...It was necessary to decide which of the two dominant tendencies, one to the Left, and the other to the Right, was to be favored...
...The most interesting feature, however, was the statement put in by Judge Chambliss, who, though agreeing with two of his brethren on the constitutionality of the law, differed from them in its interpretation--a fact which seems to lend aid to Judge McKinley's view...
...T HE policy of the United States in straining patience to the limit in giving the Chinese every, opportunity to establish a stable government, with which an agreement can be made which shall not be one-sided, while at the same time making provision for the protection of its nationals in case of extreme emergency, is likely to be more readily appreciated by each of the factions now at war...
...One echo of the debate reached this country, in the guise of a paper contributed to the New York Times Book Review by the inimitable Paul Souday...
...that its chief note is liturgical life and doctrine...
...But pos...
...JUDGECHAMBLISS, in his opinion, said: "It follows that to forbid the teaching of the biblical account of Divine creation does not expressly, or by fair implications, involve acceptance or approval of instantaneous creation held to by some literalists...
...He can stand on any one of several other attractive platform planks--popularity, effident government, sound industrial policies...
...ON MORE than one occasion, The Commonweal has referred to the Menorah movement in American Judaism, and to pay it what must (under the circumstances) be considered the compliment of seeing in its efforts to realize the Hebraic spiritual and cultural inheritance, something very like a parallel, in another field, to its own effort...
...We hope to be able to say more about it in a forthcoming issue of The Commonweal...
...But there is no doubt that the Centrists are face to face with a real crisis inside their own ranks--a crisis which weakens their influence in the government...
...The action of Great Britain in making (for the benefit of both factions of the Chinese) a spectacular gesture of re...
...THE appearance of Mr...
...Some believe that the trouble lies in the fact that no definite program was agreed upon after the war--that the Centrist leaders formulated a purely 368 THE COMMONWEAL February 9, I 9a7 opportunistic policy instead of drawing up a vigorous set of principles...
...But when the former Secretary was misguided by his moral and political enthusiasms into advocating the despatch of federal troops into local and state territories for th~ triumph of Volsteadism, he came out for a policy which directly antagonizes the "state-rights" party he was addressing, and must conflict especially with that party's "solid South...
Vol. 5 • February 1927 • No. 14
