Week by Week
THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1927, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, Grand Central Terminal, New York, N. Y. MICRAI~ WIt/dAMS, Editor Assistant...
...We shall quote without further com- ment two passages from My Life and Work: "Wherever it is possible, a policy of decentralization ought to be adopted...
...and that the organizers of the con- ference agree that "the questions which concern the necessity of a central authority for the whole of Christ- endom, are of the utmost importance...
...Ida Bailey Allen, a recognized author- ity on diet and cooking, must be awarded the palm for a revelation of causes which is both definite and succinct...
...For example, when Allen Lane, the head of an old and justly famous publishing concern, was under cross-examination in the Pearson case, he testified that he considered he had only told "a harmless little lie" in order to push the circulation of The Whispering Gallery when he wrote in a newspaper advertisement that he could vouch for the authenticity of the book...
...Speaking recently at a dinner of the League of American Pen Women, she declared it was the mis- take of the ministers of religion if they did not realize that morality depended on the right use being made of the right foods...
...The problem is oil on troubled watersm not the troubled waters of oil...
...Henry Ford's billions, which have once again engrossed public opinion, are a reward for aid in solving the transporta- tion problem...
...American directors," he re- marks, "have always mistaken cruelty on the one hand, and sentimental realism on the other, for irony...
...When we all realize, we the people of the United States, what is really going on south of the Rio Grande, we shall no more refrain from finding a humane, chari- table redress of those ills than we desisted from aiding the victims of Armenian massacre or the starving poor of Russia...
...Perhaps some historian may yet decide that the fundamental reason why the later Christian empire was always a makeshift that cauld not maintain itself in the face of nationalistic aspirations, was indifference to transportation...
...Of course, good people did predict that the swiftly moving car would open various avenues to loose morals, and may fairly lay claim to a certain prophetic sense...
...We observe that the New York World has at length admitted editorially that the case for the Church is clear and pacific...
...It would, so people affirmed, broaden the life and vision of the countryside...
...First, when the edi- tors of the Christian Century carefully scan the hori- zon for Catholic opinion, they take a strange and rather significant short-cut to The Nation...
...Motion-picture art is, therefore, surprisingly modern in the sense that it may try to be other things, but must be commercial...
...Further comment on both conclusions would waste time and ruin the effect...
...This is not a revolutionary plea...
...Ford himself...
...Here, for instance, is Dora Martin, sixteen years old, who came with her mother from Costa Rica two years ago, unable to speak a word of English, forc- ing her way into the position of honor as valedictorian of her class at Public School Number 54, at Amster- dam Avenue and xo4 Street, New York...
...that the Christian program sees "in the centre of the Gospel, Jesus Christ Himself, Son of God and Son of man, who through His life, His death, and His resurrection, has re-deemed mankind...
...The cinema industry seems to suffer from too direct an application of democratic standards...
...the Vatican formally com-mended this letter...
...Meanwhile, it is important that the abiding situation should not be lost sight of...
...Secondly, all of those concerned appear genu- inely anxious, not merely to abate a nuisance, but to abolish it by establishing new standards and providing for their perpetuation...
...Because he received the Duke of Marl-borough into the Church and had for some time previ- ous been familiar with the entire situation, the Rev- erend C. C. Martindale is eminently well qualified to discuss the affair, as he does in this issue of The Com- monweal...
...all parties to the controversy--producers, managers, actors, legisla- tors, law officers, police officials, and the general public mare agreed that a situation exists which calls for cor- rection...
...IT WILL, in all probability, take a long time for American "liberals" to get the drift of affairs...
...This is the way we did things before we fell into the habit of carting everything around a few thousand miles, and adding the cartage to the consumer's bill...
...Ford, is it not already evident that the social effects of the automotive industry are far different from those which had been prophesied...
...The movie director, however, cannot afford to experiment without b~aring some limitations in mind...
...We had said there would be no further comment but the last sentence comes back, doesn't it, to the same old prob- lem of transportation...
...Taking into consideration all of these conditions, there is every reason to hope for an early solution of the problem and one which, being based on a real desire by the parties concerned for what is practical as well as what is decent, shall hold promise of permanency...
...Before retiring into that si- lence which he had said would characterize his stay among us, the Bishop reiterated those statements which have been the slogans of Catholic opinion from the be- ginning of the crisis--that nobody wants the United States to intervene on behalf of religious liberty...
...Great sums of money, invested by people who want to be sure of its return, must be safeguarded by conformity with popular demand...
...In view of the fact that the Holy See has warmly praised this modern effort to stimulate the vitality of Christendom, Catholics everywhere will join in wishing it well and in praying for its success...
...While realizing the justice and necessity of the Church's action, one is free to sympa- thize with many whose long years of effort on behalf of a program which seemed right to them, have now proved wasted...
...The settlement by which 3I,ooo firemen and enginemen, on fifty-nine eastern roads, received a flat increase of 7 and one-half percent, is the second reached under the provisions of the Watson-Parker Railway Labor Act of last May...
...paid at Lausanne are essentially dogmatic and religious in character, the whole field of applied morals (of which such matters as world peace are a part) being relegated to a position of secondary impor- tance...
...Gradually but inevitably, reasonable men are learning that the immortal document of Leo XIII was an eminently practical pro-nouncement, as well as a counsel of perfection in the form of a great moral message to mankind...
...Second, the ques-tion asked in these columns, "Is the Mexican program of tyranny, its suppression of the privileges of con-science, right or wrong...
...The Empire coincided with nothing of the sort...
...It was opened in the late 'eighties, as a home for ballet of an intricate and often very beau- tiful order, and sensational gymnastic "turns...
...PUBLISHERS AND PELF T HAT Lytton Strachey as an intimate historian should be followed by an army of imitators of a distinctly lower order of talent, was perhaps inevitable...
...Persecution and unjust dictatorship exist in Mexico...
...We need, instead of mammoth flour mills, a multitude of smaller mills distributed through all the sections where grain is grown...
...The vastness of the traffic system established in the United States, as well as the rapidity with which it has been solved, suggest a parallel with imperial Rome...
...Instead, the farmer boy has migrated to town in order to help make automobiles, and his sister has been moved to covet the dainty clothes and powder-puff of the city stenogra- pher...
...Compton Mackenzie's Carnival for an adequate description of the Empire promenade...
...More-over, these letters are all of one tenor...
...and that Mexican social and moral problems must be settled by Mexicans themselves...
...He is a profound admirer of the film as an artistic instrument, but feels that nobody to date has realized its possibilities...
...One reads with pleasure that "this conference desires to call all Christian people to deeper penitence with regard to the disunion of the churches, and to greater and more definite efforts to- ward the unity of Christendom...
...One always senses, when tramping down some firm European highway first paved by the Caesars, that the basic recipe for Roman greatness was a practical reali- zation of how necessary it is to get somewhere easily and quickly...
...To some- one busy making the near past seem venerable, or decrepit anyway, we offer the suggestion...
...Verily, the only exodus countryward which has been fostered by the automobile takes place regularly on Sundays, in which the "four million" proceed through clouds of dust and smoke to varied picnic grounds...
...Such a situation in this land of golden opportunity--for selected immigrants only--is little short of a scandal...
...That the producers and play...
...THE program announced for the World Conference on Faith and Order, to meet at Lausanne, Switzerland, during eighteen days following August 3, is commend- able in every respect...
...A great musician like Bruck- ner could go on writing magnificent symphonies in spite of the indifference of everybody else, because time and the necessary instruments were at his disposal...
...But if one bears in mind the genesis of the movies---the development of the response they made to the people who were interested in themmone is relatively aston- ished to see how willing directors have been to attempt rising above "what the crowd wants...
...it would bring the city to the husband- man's very door...
...Even so, there is value in the theory, and it is, after all, only part of the evi- dence which proves Mr...
...they demand that the fight against lewdness which has been started shall be carried to a finish...
...ion right along--clouds created by fear, by imagina- tion, by inability to grasp the nature of Catholic standards--are being dissipated...
...Hangar was able to report that both sides had been reasonable and business-like and had discussed matters without heat, is encouraging to all who believe that there are ways of settling labor disputes other than by resort to the bitterness and the economic waste of the strike...
...and finally, the official organ of the movement printed an article entitled Non Possumus in response to the papal opinion discountenancing the sale of the paper at church doors or to the clergy...
...THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1927, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, Grand Central Terminal, New York, N. Y. MICRAI~ WIt/dAMS, Editor Assistant Editors THOMAS WALSrr HEt.E~r W.,ut.gmt Hgh'ltY LONGAN STUART GEORGE N. SHUS'I~R JOaN F. McCoa~rcg, Business Manager Editorial Council T. LAWaASO~r Rxcms JAMES J. WALSa CAI~L'rON J. H. HAYES R. DANA SKIYls/m Bga~aAv C. A. WINm.z United States : $5.00 Foreign : $6.00 Canada : 5.50 Single Copies : .10 WEEK BY WEEK T HE Mexican problem was once more empha-sized by the sudden, simple entry of Bishop Diaz into the United States...
...Even the action of State Senator Abraham Greenberg, in intro- during a censorship bill in the legislature, is a contribu- tion to the common cause, in that it makes more imperative and more immediate the necessity for agree- ment on a plan which shall render state supervision inexpedient if not superfluous...
...We believe that other organs will follow suit...
...This "harmless little lie" gave authority to the rumor that a distinguished diplomat, Sir Rennell Rodd, was the author...
...Wherever it is possible, the section that produces the raw material ought to produce also the finished prod- uct...
...It is also quite necessary to see that the Vatican, in pointing out the errors of Maurras, did not identify itself with carping critics of a great man-- critics who have looked for a heresy under every stone, and have manifested that curious lack of charity which, to an outsider at least, seems the dominant fault of Catholic opinion in contemporary France...
...The bishops of the nation, at first inclined to attempt steering a middle course and promoting conciliation, have now all sharply rebuked the belligerence of Maur- ras and his followers...
...but the first, by which 9o,ooo conductors and trainmen of the same lines obtained a similar increase, was ar-rived at by arbitration, after mediation had failed...
...Though all of this may not be evil, it is nevertheless a problematic good...
...That both representatives of the firemen's union and of the railroads, which are called upon to add $5,ooo,- ooo annually to their payrolls, should have praised the work of G. Wallace W. Hangar, of the Federal Board of Mediation, and that Mr...
...It is hard to believe that the advance would not have been more significant and illustrious had art, rather than excite- ment or sentimentality, been in demand...
...FRANKER criticism than one usually gets is con-veyed by a paper on the movies contributed to The Dial, by Ralph Block, who as editor-in-chief of the Paramount Studio, ought to know something about the subject...
...IT IS enough to make the blood of every IOO percent Nordic patriot boil to consider what some of the utterly unassimilable from countries with strange names, are doing to steal a portion of that American heritage which belongs to him, and is his exclusively by divine right...
...that the struggle will be decided by right and not by force...
...The temptation to "easy money" for writers whose equipment and sense of discrimination were about equal to their sense of decency, was obvious...
...Those who care to know what thoughts a man who is at once a literary artist, a philosopher, and a believer, can carry away from such a place, are referred to certain pages in Mr...
...Cardinal Andrieux of Bordeaux wrote a letter drawing attention to the pagan princi- ples of Charles Maurras, and counseling the faithful to seek another leader...
...Even the children have got into it now...
...To RETURN to Mr...
...WHATEVER may be the outcome of the various efforts being made to purify the stage, there are cer-tain aspects of the present agitation in New York that are distinctly encouraging to all who seek improvement of conditions by sane and unsensational methods...
...As a consequence, the prohibitory mandate of the Congregation of the Index must be laid to the same dogged resolve to hew a straight line and avoid every compromise which has, unfortunately enough, characterized a great share of French Royalist activity...
...But no doubt many persons then felt a kin- ship of mind with the later Pascal, who advised sitting quietly in a room as an antidote for human ills...
...The judgment is uncompromising, but cannot well be dissente~t" from...
...What evidence exists that Judge Ben Lindsey supped every night on Welsh rarebit, fried oysters, and mince pie while preparing The Revolt of Modern Youth...
...Ford and his peers have steadily been modifying and deter- mining the American relation to nature...
...wrights should have sought the leadership of one who typifies and embodies culture, discrimination, and high ideals as does Winthrop Ames, is evidence of good faith and happy augury of co6peration that should re- sult in a real "clean-up...
...A phrase from the liturgy, which asks the faithful to pray for "peregri- nantibus redditum" (which means the return of those who have crossed the fields) seems to suggest the limi- tations and difficulties of voyaging in the early Chris- tian ages...
...It is difficult to see how the movement, which was supported largely by funds donated by wealthy and poor Catholics, can survive...
...None of these things has come true...
...THE papal condemnation of l'Action Franqaise came as the logical conclusion to a number of rapidly suc- cessive incidents...
...It is particu- larly worthy of note that the problems to which atten- tion is to be...
...What dishes are served at the luncheons of a certain board dedicated to moral reform and staunch sup-porter of poisoned liquor and government speakeasies ? It looks like the only way the ministers are going to be helped out of a hole is by the adoption of another con- stitutional amendment, with a food schedule attached...
...several Royalist sympathizers, notably the prominent philosopher, Jacques Maritain, sought to indicate ways in which Catholics might estab- lish their own organizations, to be supervised by chap- lains, inside the realm of l'Action Fran~aise...
...Father Martindale is himself a convert and --for this reason, perhaps---has more than the usual Englishman's flare for logic...
...When the first little red phaeton went chugging down the road, it was heralded as a boon to rural America...
...In the first place, the issue is not confused...
...THE news of the reception into the Catholic Church of the Duke of Marlborough may be said to close a controversial episode of unusual prominence and im-port...
...and incidentally it would solve the economic problems of harvesting and milk-delivery...
...A jury decided that Pearson was not guilty of obtaining money under false pretenses in selling his screed and he goes free...
...This opens up many new fields for investigation and for speculation...
...On the other hand, the Christian Century went out of its way to endorse The Nation's point of view by saying, "the Protestant expression in favor of peace has not been balanced by any similar expression emanating from Catholic sources...
...Sat-isfaction for the sadistic hunger of the crowd is present in almost all popular entertainment...
...Obviously, it is one thing to walk through the plant in which this master of organ- ized mankind has expressed the world's most tremen- dous notion of monotony, and another to listen tran- quilly to his fireside theories...
...In an earlier day, great American for- tunes came largely from similar sources--either the de- velopment of shipping or the building of railroads...
...But the alarm- ingly sinister feature of the court disclosures in connec- tion with The Whispering Gallery, and Portraits and Criticisms is that publishers of standing should have been found not only to accept these volumes of malicious libels and unsupported suggestion of scandal, but to assist in the perpetration of fraud...
...It is consoling to note that the clouds which have befogged public opin...
...Letters to the editors show that, in giving an unusual amount of space to the movement for a cleaner stage, they have correctly gauged news values...
...and barrels of propaganda will not succeed in hiding this fact, any more than they have proved able to veil the sublime picture of martyrdom with grotesque shadows of revolution or economic ambition...
...A far more important point lies in the fact that Mr...
...BUT most encouraging of all, is the interest mani- fested by the general public...
...Where else, indeed, would they be likely to find the convic- tions of their zo,ooo,ooo Catholic fellow-citizens so clearly and ably summarized...
...For instance, what relationship can be established between the coun- try church supper, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan...
...From all of these varied facts, two conclusions may be drawn...
...By comparison, the Catholic hierarchy is of no importance, and Catholic spokesmen are without standing...
...The New York Nation editorial on Catholic opinion about Mexico, commented upon recently in these columns, attracted considerable attention...
...But really, flirtations have always upset the balance of mankind...
...The barometers of this interest are the daily newspapers...
...IT IS interesting to observe that Mr...
...MANYimplications of the matter have been realized by Mr...
...Ford sincerely interested in the welfare of his fellows as well as in abstract prob- lems of culture...
...meanwhile, Sir Rennell, as he complains in a let...
...That both the District-Attor- ney and the Police Commissioner waste little time dis- cussing experiments of the past which failed to stop the flood of indecency, but set themselves resolutely to find new means of punishing those responsible, strengthens the belief that this combined effort will bring results of more than transient value...
...The amount of space given to this subject by every one of the great New York dailies indicates that it is "the story of the day...
...MANY and marvelous are the explanations given for the general lowering of moral standards in Amer- ica, but to Mrs...
...Her case was similar to that of Jasper K. Elmer, who came from Yugoslavia two years ago entirely ignorant of the English language and who, ten days before Dora was graduated, appeared as valedictorian of his class in a public school at Reading, Pennsylvania...
...Villard's paper, for its part, returns to the fray in the issue of February 9, with an account of protests received, a cursory mention of the pastoral letter, and a carefully sustained aroma of doubting suspicion...
...and, if the criminal can get away faster in an automobile, he can also be more swiftly pursued...
...Sometimes it seems that the house's name was no accident, and that its existence at the heart of the imperial city, with its promenade, sleek, secret, and horrible, during the hey- day of imperialism which lasted roughly from the first jubilee until the great war let light and air in upon it, was no unfit by-product of imperialism itself...
...Many diocesan or-gans took occasion to point out the blunder basic to the editorial--which was the writer's ignorance of the expression of Catholic thought on the subject, in par- ticular of the bishops' pastoral letter...
...That public opinion about the action of the Rota has changed, may be due in some measure to the reso- lute defense offered by skilled Catholic spokesmen, but must be attributed in the first instance to the circum- stance that the facts in the case really precluded con- troversy...
...It is helpful to review a matter when the stage of public calm has been attained, for the reason that one sees again, and very clearly, how easy it is to arouse clamor and how little good can be accomplished by raising it...
...It may indeed be true that an adequate solution of the difficulties surrounding social centralization will not remove all the troubles, or satisfy all the desires, ot that other very important centre of human activity which is the individual human person...
...FOR the first time in twenty years, a railway wage dispute has been settled by mediation...
...THE passing of the Empire Theatre in London, which visiting Americans will remember as a landmark of lighter entertainment, and at which few American vaudeville artists of the higher-paid class have not per- formed, need not cause much regret, though a New York Times correspondent tries to steep it in the glamour of the past by informing us that the theatre "coincides with Dundreary whiskers, horsehair sofas, and peg-top trousers...
...has been left unanswered in so far as The Nation and numerous subsidiary groups are concerned...
...Its legitimate attractions, however, paled before the re-nown of its famous "promenade," whose reputation, carried to the ends of the earth, made it a household word in African jungles, Chinese treaty-ports, Indian cantonments, the Australian bushmin a word, wherever the British flag flew or English was spoken...
Vol. 5 • February 1927 • No. 15
