Week by Week

...1 HE fact that Frank Caruso, of Brooklyn, killed the doctor whom he believed guilty of having poisoned his child, is a tragedy with more than usually startling social aspects...

...This did not bring about the strike, however...

...and so the grave historians who opposed the tale for any one of a number of academic reasons may be suspected of an attempt to set up their own boyish morals as a standard...

...v^IX months of careful study by representatives of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish social action bodies, of conditions on the Western Maryland Railroad, where locomotive engineers, firemen, and hostlers have been on strike since the fall of 1925, has culminated in a report by the joint body which is an indictment of the management and a disclosure of methods of dealing with labor which are those of half a century ago...

...It is pleasant to think of him as an author and book-agent all in one, jotting down notes cheerfully after having managed to get his foot inside the door...

...Catholics, Mr...

...His death, the child's surrender to the fatal disease, the plight of Caruso and his family—all these things are probably the result of ignorance and inattentiveness which could have been remedied in an hour by a person adequately outfitted for the task...

...The result was a strike which has had many distressing features—a strike which, as the joint investigating board points out, might more properly be described as a lockout, since the men only went out when this action forced them out...

...Kellogg's action is dictated by a policy of aggrandizement and conservatism...

...Young women who become teachers are often amazed at the lavish display of deep attachment made by their pupils...

...The men were anxious to negotiate and at first the company appeared willing to consider a compromise...

...On the other hand, a view expressed by the bulletin issued by the National City Bank, of New York City, is obviously little more than alert camouflage...

...As a member of the clan, he shall be entitled to wear a black necktie and sport a flaming red handkerchief...

...It is true that strong unions are not always careful of the rights of the public, and of their poorer paid brothers in industry...

...As such, it naturally attracted the attention of the students of economic ethics...

...453 IT WAS never more evident than now that teachers are constantly tugged at by little hearts to supply what parental custody refuses to give...

...We quote: "It is said in certain foreign quarters that the action taken in Nicaragua furnishes additional evidence of the imperialistic designs of the United States...

...WILLIAM E. BARTON makes out a very strong case for Parson Weems, in the Boston Herald for February 13...

...FATHER HUDSON'S Ave Maria tells of the leper colony at Makogai in the Fiji Islands, where 400 men, women, and children are cared for by twelve Sisters...

...It is singular that some people will regard the social worker—even the Catholic social worker, who is especially well prepared to deal with Italian families—as too expensive or otherwise undesirable...

...Although a considerable portion of the contents, properly enough be it said in passing, can appeal only to specialists, the bulk of each issue is so good that it ought to be assigned as reading matter to all relatively advanced students of mediaeval history and letters...

...Such an article as Dr...

...Although he feels his cross heavy, he says it is deserved...

...It could come to pass in a city dotted with philanthropic agencies and guarded by all kinds of watchful patrols, that a child quarantined for weeks on account of diphtheria was left without any medical attention...

...Fundamentally there is obviously no reason why a boy shouldn't tell the truth, at no matter what cost...

...Monsignor Doubleday, bishop of Brentwood, England, recently commented humorously upon an extraordinary state of affairs by saying: "A theologian is the last thing that a bishop is expected to be nowadays...

...others diligently scrutinize the observance of the rules of grammar...

...This comparatively small road was the only one of the Class I systems, which refused to grant tne "standard wage increases" put into effect by the New York Central lines in 1921...

...Bishop Graham imparted his blessing to those projecting this good work, and promised it his heartiest support...

...Irvine informs him, are barred from joining the clan ("spell it with a 'c,' M' Lud") unless they are willing to renounce fundamentalist Catholicism or else agitate among their church congregations for an independent American Catholic Church, free from the Pope of Rome, like the radical Catholic Church of Mexico under Perez...

...and who expanded the later editions of his immortal work with suggestions and anecdotes furnished by his readers...

...One wonders how the world could ever be indifferent to them, as it unfortunately is in so many places...

...Another very real trial of the modern bishop is hinted at by Cardinal Bourne in a recently related incident...

...It is not quite honest to say that Mr...

...In a similar vein, a great American bishop once confided to a friend that he had congratulated so many societies upon the splendid work they were doing, that he sincerely dreaded hearing a great sinner's confession lest he should, by force of habit, be led to make the same comment...

...Significantly enough, the remembrance of Pestalozzi coincides with the publication of a brilliant summary of the achievements of Saint Angela Merici, prepared by one of her modern disciples...

...Since the narrative of the unfortunate cherry-tree and the heroic truth was supplied by an elderly, distant female relative of the Father of His Country—a relative who had profited by much access to the Washington home—Parson Weems was apparently justified in accepting it at face value and stressing its moral significance...

...This vignette out of the Far East testifies to that rare, Christian attitude of soul under the pressure of suffering which Sister-nurses seem to be able to encourage wherever they establish themselves...

...By accentuating and expanding friendly relations already existing between employers and employed in certain of the trades, and by a campaign of education, it is hoped to create a powerful moral influence which will result, not only in better conditions for both labor and the employers of labor, but for the whole community which shall benefit by the cessation of bitter struggles such as have disrupted the whole of England in recent years...

...Anyhow, the Weems method of biography appears to have been singularly homely and cooperative...

...from churchbuilding revivals to crusading outbursts...

...Although the system of elementary education he outlined has its immediate sources in Rousseau and its finest elaborator in Madame Montessori, it hearkened back to so many principles which the time of the renaissance had striven to bury, that it almost seems mediaeval in character...

...The most advanced members of the Communist Clan will be eligible to become Red (or reformed) Bahais—vegetarian, anti-papist left-wingers of the Bahai movement...

...The number of such eccentric rigorists is legion...

...Certainly, nothing could be more disastrous for Latin America, in so far as economic development is concerned, than doors closed to the ingress oi operative capital...

...Therefore, incidentally, the influence wielded by the teaching nun is made greater than it used to be...

...Whatever may be the situation, everybody realizes that the people of the United States firmly oppose any belligerent defense of property holdings in Mexico...

...She becomes the representative, not only of the physical mother who far too frequently is distracted by uncontrollable circumstances from the care which goes with her position, but also of the Divine Maternity which has always inspired religious teaching and is really the motive force in such great endeavors as that of Saint Angela Merici...

...Barton...

...He cannot walk any distance by himself...

...We are asked to conceive of Parson Weems as a writer who peddled his wares...

...the best of all, I think, is a convert, an old man from Australia, who, besides being afflicted with leprosy for twenty years, is blind...

...he spends his time saying the rosary, and thanks God every day because through the terrible disease he has found the true faith...

...It is fitting that an undertaking along lines so closely following the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, should be presided over by a Catholic— Lord Denbigh—at a time when the jubilee of the encyclical is about to be observed...

...from kings to rural parishioners...

...The prevailing point of view seems to be that property rights in Latin America are not sacred enough to justify the use of force in their defense...

...This, of course, meant virtual severance from the unions by all who should comply, and repudiation of the principle of collective bargaining...

...Is the inducement insufficient...

...One comment of the group that reports on the situation is worthy of repetition: "There is a common fallacy in the frequently expressed concern for the 'public' and for the non-industrial groups...

...I knew an excellent layman," His Eminence remarked, "who used to attend the confirmations and sometimes the consecration of churches with a volume of liturgy, to see that the bishop did what he ought to...

...The superior of the little community writes: "Some of our people are real saints...

...She was among those who believe that children are never safely trammeled by anything excepting affection, even though that affection imposes tasks and responsibilities...

...But here again he may take refuge in the plight of others...

...If this is to become a principle, it will inevitably mean either the gradually increasing refusal of investors to brave the hazards of speculation in Mexico and similar countries, or the steadying of effort to create some general political status quo that will regard property rights important enough to guarantee...

...Then, too, the observance of Washington's Birthday is made happier by reason of the support lent to a favorite old anecdote by a man as well qualified to discuss it as Mr...

...The child who would "rather die than go home," is unfortunately not so rare as, possibly, he used to be...

...go to interminable meetings...

...The explanation given by those who gave months of time to the study of the situation, is that this was a conflict, not between the men and the management proper, but between labor and a group of preferred stockholders having a first claim on the net income of the road...

...Between getting money and spending it, shaking hands with people and commenting upon public affairs, the average president is far removed from that erudite and usually severe mortal who presided over academic destinies a generation or so ago...

...Some reports that the Calles government is changing its mind concerning the oil laws and American operators, suggest the hope that a more satisfactory disposition of the problem may be made...

...It is an exceptional kind of imperialism, which goes in and then comes out when its immediate purpose is accomplished—as the United States has done in Nicaragua and Mexico several times, and as it has done in Santo Domingo, and in Cuba, and in the Isle of Pines...

...It already has the warm endorsement of Cardinal Bourne...

...After all the irony that has been expended upon the first and most edifying life of Washington, it is a little startling to learn that the story of the cherry-tree is perfectly legitimate history and may be true...

...454...

...An endeavor to have the directors agree to an offer of arbitration made by the men, was a failure...

...A further attempt by the men to reach an agreement with the management was rudely ended by a demand in the form of posted notices that all men who desired to remain in the service must sign individual contracts with the road...

...When the young physician finally came round to look at the case, he discerned the crisis, but revealed how utterly unprepared he was to deal with a matter that required a skilled social worker...

...452 1 HAT such a policy should have been pursued by the management of the road at a time when the tendency on all other systems was toward the exact opposite, calls loudly for explanation...

...J. H. Seddon, former president of the Trades Union Congress, an organization embracing virtually all the organized manual workers of the country, recently called on Bishop Graham, the head of the Catholic diocese of Edinburgh, accompanied by David Crichton, another well-known labor official, to ask the support of the Bishop for an organization known as the Industrial Peace Union...

...The conclusion is really a stirring invitation to research: "In every phase of eleventh-century religious life, one may look, and not in vain, for traces of the instinct of cooperative community effort as it worked toward the leveling of class barriers and the fusing of men into a broader Christian brotherhood and a more workable social organism...

...The prospect of being a reformed Bahai in a red shirt may be alluring, but the insistence on vegetarianism is, as Artemus Ward would have wisely remarked, "2 mutch...

...Even modern bishops have been compelled to acquiesce so completely to modern social circumstance that their lives have almost been robbed of traditional episcopal purpose...

...1 HE situation in Nicaragua seems to have been rendered more complex by a series of Sacasa victories, which endanger the definite position assumed by Secretary Kellogg in supporting the existing government...

...On the other hand, the claim is made that many companies have accepted the conditions laid down by the Calles government, and have abandoned all hope of operating on the old basis...

...On the other hand, if the editor will renounce fundamental Catholicism and the Pope, great shall be his reward...

...lN SOME ways it seems strange that Henry Pestalozzi, the centenary of whose death was observed on February 17, should have lived so recently as a hundred years ago...

...It is pointed out that Mexico is neither able to develop the petroleum fields without the aid of foreign management, nor able to exist financially under the stringent credit conditions imposed by lack of confidence on the part of non-Mexican bankers...

...for, as the investigators remark, it was bad even from a business standpoint, for while low wages and longer hours might be considered a paying proposition over a short period of time, it is sure to fail in the long run, either through the "soldiering" of employees, or from the expense of frequent wrecks and probable strikes...

...SYMPATHY may be extended to the college president who recently declared that the only thing not expected of him was "a realization of the academic ideals which my institution professedly stands for...

...But it is also true that the public rarely shows enough interest in a labor struggle to warrant the workers in foregoing economic action on the theory that the public will safeguard their interests...

...MacKinney contributes on Pre-Gothic Architecture, for instance, interweaves information and human interest so well that it ought to accomplish a great deal of good...

...From Fulk the Black's thinly veiled selfishness to Saint Bernard's other-worldliness...

...Well, it is satisfactorily clear that if no such "inclination" was "shown," the reason is simply the fact that after politicians and the military had pretty well found a foothold in these places and caused considerable damage, public opinion insisted they must come out...

...Even if (as a review of the book, published elsewhere in this issue, concludes) it is impossible to prove absolutely that Saint Angela anticipated many favorite contemporary educational doctrines, we are now invited to see how fully she grasped the heart of the matter—the maternal spirit...

...SPECULUM, the journal of the Mediaeval Academy of America, continues to grow more interesting and important with every number...

...There are no people quite like these Sisters...

...One might well, therefore, take the whole case as an instance of what stupendous and valuable services are to be rendered by men and women devoted to carrying on remedial agencies among the poor...

...We may suppose that the sight of spiritual beauty is one way in which they are compensated for their heroic readiness to live close to physical suffering and decay —to the horrors of leprosy and cancer...

...who called upon a number of especially promising prospects in the neighborhood of Washington's old home...

...A few tragedies such as this ought to convince even the most recalcitrant that somebody is responsible—a somebody who, regardless of the convenient term, "society," generally simmers down to a person very near one's own shadow...

...He is called upon to make speech after speech...

...I will ask his prayers for all benefactors...

...There are rights at stake in Nicaragua which the United States cannot afford to jeopardize, and these have been safeguarded with dignity and skill...

...On the other hand, nothing could be more undesirable ethically than aggressive exploitation under the mask of rights...

...Quite reasonable, the editor admits, but he has lost interest...

...W HILE industrial war of the most savage nature, precipitated by obviously selfish motives, is reported from western Maryland, a despatch to the National Catholic Welfare Conference news service, from London, tells of a movement sponsored by one of the foremost leaders in labor circles for the spread of industrial peace...

...Some carefully note the pronunciation of Latin...

...Ever so many factors—divorce, industrialized mothers, street life, absence of other children—concur to create domestic environments in which growing boys and girls find it almost impossible to live...

...he is invited out to dinner, and is expected to possess an excellent appetite...

...Negotiations did not get very far before there was a deadlock...

...He must learn to drive a motor-car...

...There is a quaint homeliness and concreteness about it which most of us older people, brought up as we were by the rule of thumb, like to see being applied to youngsters in our time...

...But perhaps the outstanding example among them all is the lady statistician of a western city who proved, to her own dismayed satisfaction, that not one of fourteen bishops who had come under her observation practised the Del Sarte system of gesticulation...

...one finds the same spirit—and over it all there hovers like incense the mystical sacramentalism and intense devotion of the mediaeval religious mind...

...and as soon as the membership reaches 100,000, he may obtain a red shirt—"the red, a boast of Bolshevism, the ebony of philosophical anarchism, highest form of beauty and freedom, and natural product of evolution from Marxist-Lenin communism...

...In many cases this proves the thing which emancipates little ones from vengefulness and the disposition to break all rules...

...Further information is promised in return for ten cents...

...When one bears in mind how excellently her idealistic fervor has borne fruit since her death in the sixteenth century, one cannot help feeling that she must have been singularly right of heart and decidedly sound of mind...

...The United States has shown no inclination to encroach upon the liberty of any people...

...This opinion will wisely continue to be on the alert...

...CjOMES to the editor of The Commonweal an invitation to join the Communist Clan, an organization founded by E. J. Irvine, 1510 Thirtieth Street, NorthWest, "Voteless Washington...

...Verily there never was a time when the episcopate so badly needed the subsidy of prayer...