Peace at Home

...Harry McGuire, Thomas Walsh, Musing on the Marlboroughs...

...One may concur with this view with reservations...

...He believes that his group convic- tions and emotions have never interfeced with the salu- tary progress or defense of his country...

...The Play...

...Nevertheless, one cannot but see that the whole trouble does not lle there...

...Roderick Gill 409 Publishers and Pelf...

...It is the church which stands apart from all ecclesiastical organization, which avowedly makes war on ecclesiastical organiza- tion...

...Its roots are bound up with other memories and other inherited prejudices---sometimes even with strange beliefs akin to dread of witchcraft and spells, which reappear con- stantly...

...Bertram C. A. Windle, Ernest "Two Religions" of Anglicanism...

...He knows that the reason for this illogical and, to his mind, extremely ridiculous feeling is based upon a lin- gering historical memory of intrigue centering round the fight to disestablish Puritanism in England...

...it listened also, of course, to prominent Protestants and Jews...

...This congress grouped repre- sentatives of all faiths during three days given over to a consideration of the ways in which educated public opinion might root out the sources of ruinous dissen- sion and ultimately prevent the outbreak of war...

...These move into the less fashionable houses, soon swamp the entire residential district, and leave the dignified "American" church stranded and lame...

...America has been established long enough to make us see the ease with which newcomers are assim- ilated, but not long enough to make any "old stock" really very old or dominant...

...This sam- ple of widely used devices for arousing emotion through an appeal to fear is comic but dangerous...

...William Everett Cram 4o9 Week by Week...

...398 Communications...

...The speaker outlined an apocalyptic vision of Divine wrath, "illustrated by a series of detached, forceful scriptures beginning with Lot in Sodom...

...That agencies prepared to seize such opportunities should be supported, goes without saying...

...4x9 PEACE AT HOME I T IS worth while isolating from current news details which cohere so admirably as do the follow~ng: Senator Heflin, continuing to read into the Congress- ional Record letters commending him for his attitude toward Mexico was opposed by Senator Bruce of Maryland, who averred that he could read many "highly abusive and scurrilous letters" written to him as a result of his frank condemnation of bigotry...

...In it one finds, we believe, many a pertinent hint toward an understanding of the sectarian problem in the United States and many a reference to enormous difficulties of a financial or social character...

...And though one should not like to go on record as ap- proving everything that was said at the congress, it is pleasant to repeat the words of its president: "We know that friendship between nations, a drawing to- gether for a friendly world, in which war shall ulti- mately be unthinkable, is straight in line with the will of God...

...On the opposite side of the balance sheet might be placed the recent activities of the International Good Will Congress, the report of whose convention pro- ceedings in Pittsburgh during November of last year is only now available...

...That is certainly true...

...Douglass' x,ooo City Churches, a book written to chronicle "phases of Protestant church adaptation to urban environment," and reviewed briefly elsewhere in this issue...

...But that there are disturbing influences and individuals willing to capitalize upon these is a fact which cannot be dis- regarded, and upon the permanence or passing of which depends that beneficent condition which is "peace at home...

...For precisely this reason it is im- portant to let no opportunity pass which will promote fairness, understanding, and community interest...

...But one might come back to the old thought of charity as a fireside institu- tion and wonder when various sporadic ef[orts to de- stroy intolerance within the nation will become unitled and successful...

...And perhaps the recrudescence is fostered by social conditions which are part of the American scene, and which really cannot easily be avoided, at least within our time...

...What is called religious an- tagonism in the United States is largely political antag- onism, based solidly and securely upon the affiliation of religious groups with governmental measures...

...In Indiana, the uniformed sages of bigotry have again proposed legislation aimed to promote the extinction of teaching nuns...

...The Catholic realizes, for instance, that if he could once convince his fellow-citizens that the Papacy does not seek to control the government of the United States, and that no subterranean diplomacy is being conducted to place Mr...

...Within its grasp are all the essentials of Mo- hammed's fierce campaign...

...Brennecke, Jr., Thomas Walsh, Morton Henry S. Whitehead 4o4 Zabel, George Carver, Theodore Maynard 414 Ladislas Reyrnont...

...Martha Banning Thomas, Padraic Colum, C. C. Martindale 4oo Faith Van Valkenburgh Vilas 4II The First Church in Maryland...

...395 Reconciliation (verse...

...At the end there was this uncompromising declaration: "All preachers are liars...

...399 Poems...

...393 Only Yesterday...

...and he is now, as ever, ready to believe that the majority of his fellow- citizens view him with amity and value his co6peration in the effort to realize the common good...

...The Rabbi Stephen Wise, addressing a New York audience, remarked that "America is the most illiberal and intol- erant of the great countries of the world," not merely because of its indi~erence to problems of a social or economic character, but also because here "there exists a passion for uniformity" which makes community ex- istence between members of varying creeds impossible...

...Apart from all matters of spiritual or religious culture, the duty incumbent upon organized Christianity to dispel intolerance in so far as is possible remains a most necessary national task...

...Then the point was really an identification of the Catholic cause and the government in the person of King James...

...A rented building, a row of chairs, a more or less frenziod "miracle worker" on the platformmthis is about all the equipment necessary...

...The three things we have mentioned--political practice, social ad- justment, the curbing of sporadic outbursts of warlike feelingmwill be regulated when all who are able to do so, set their energies to the creation of a liberal civilization in the United States...

...41 o Old Young America...

...Her conclusion, then, appears to be that talk of eliminating "intolerance" ought to be talk of eliminating its actual sources, rather than a series of vague appeals for "uni- formity of creed" and "abolition of dogma...

...One thing becomes quite clear as we confront these phenomena...

...It is so nearly on a level with a great group of uneducated minds, which for the most part unconsciously seek to be jolted into religion through a kind of thrill, that it normally can and does inspire deep resentment of other beliefs...

...It is queer but true that people who know nothing of that historical episode, and who could not be induced by any reward to go into it again, cling to the flavor of the thing with that tenacity which distinguishes only popular tradition...

...The first is the plight of the old, socially elect church established in a town that is suddenly inundated with factory workers...

...Coolidge at the mercy of the Sacred Congregation, an important source of misunder- standing and suspicion would have been removed...

...It was addressed by a member of the Catholic hierarchy and by a representative Catholic layman...

...On behalf of the Catholic it may be said that one of the greatest treas- ures of his tradition is the fact that representatives of his faith, settling in Maryland, were the first to pro- claim the virtue of charity--which they called "tolera- tion"--a civic rule...

...There is another source which seems far more dangerous because it is derived from the very nature of unrestrained religious feeling and because it seems to be increasing...

...Now in a recent contribution to the Atlantic Monthly, Miss Agnes Repplier makes a nice distinc- tion...

...Douglass' book and discover how many such churches there are, it is easy to conclude that one genuine source of intolerance is visualized fight there...

...Douglass offers a graphic description of one such establishment...

...Charles Phillips 4o7 The Quiet Corner...

...This situation has the great advantage of being tem- porary...

...The last supposition is brought to one's attention, incidentally, by Mr...

...Noah was called a calamity howler and scorned, as are the prophets of today...

...A great deal that passes for intolerance today has little to do with religion," she says...

...THE COMMONWEAL A W~kly Rm~imo d Literature, The Arts, and Public AHairs...

...Who can believe that distaste for Judaism as a creed is, or has ever been, the motive power of anti-Semitic agitation ? This irrational conceit has survived because both 394 THE COMMONWEAL February x6, I927 Christians and Jews have preferred, for reasons of their own, to cherish it...

...Small wonder that the official consciousness of this church should now revive all the spectres of the past l The Catholic immigrant--or under other circumstances, the Jewish or Russian immigrant--is cursed roundly for reasons which have nothing to do with religion, but which are inevitably summarized by the convenient symbol of religion...

...Two matters which seem of exceptional importance will be isolated here...

...R. Dana Skinner 4x2 Margaret B. Downing 4o2 Books...

...Volume V New York, Wednesday, February 16, 1927 Number x5 CONTENTS Peace at Home...

...Other matters of the same sort might be mentioned, almost endlessly, but enough has been said to stress a very obvious point...

...If you look through Mr...