Communications
COMMUNICATIONS THE CLEAN BOOKS BILL New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—Possibly your recent editorial favoring the Clean Books bill, now before a committee of the legislature of the state of New...
...I am aware that Anglicans and the Orthodox are out of communion with the Holy Father...
...He answers this question by suggesting three possible lines of development, any one of which would, he thinks, have led to better results...
...Most Catholics are ignorant of Catholic teachings, but are we Catholics not to blame...
...Of her, and the others of that class, he remarks that whatever they are, they certainly are not republics ; and he goes on to say: "But it is one of the oddest instances of the power of a word that the less educated and even many of the more educated persons among free nations, especially in the United States, have continued to believe them to be, because called 'republics,' entitled to a confidence and sympathy which would not be given to a military tyranny under any other name...
...but, assuming that the maiden does delight in swimming in sewage, whose duty is it to supervise her reading: her parents' or the state's...
...But about the moral of the whole story there is no question...
...TWO RELIGIONS" OF ANGLICANISM Minneapolis, Minn...
...If it be held that this gentleman's constant contact with pornographia renders him impervious to any ill effect, why not let us all gloat over more and smuttier stuff...
...THE MERCURY SCHOOL AND METHODISTS Denton, Texas...
...In a community whose laws are sufficiently stringent to bar Mr...
...I do not suggest that the Reverend Mr...
...549 Anglo-Catholics may believe today much as Henry did after his lapse from Catholicism, but it is beyond dispute that Elizabeth was crowned by the Roman Catholic Bishop Oglethorpe of Carlisle on January 15, 1559, according to the customary Roman Catholic coronation rite and ceremonial...
...In the lowest class, comprising those that have, so far, made no advance whatever toward the adoption of real democratic government, he places Mexico...
...The Commonweal invites its readers to send in communications expressing individual views on all topics that are of public interest, regardless of whether or not such topics have been previously discussed in its columns.—The Editors...
...I am equally persuaded that neither Anglicans (my own communion) nor the Orthodox can be reasonably classed with sectarian Protestants...
...but I doubt that it corresponds with the judgment of the laity, for whom your review will be widely quoted as speaking...
...The Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trade or similar civic body locally and nationally could investigate, and if differences existed between employer and employee they could be submitted to a state or national board of arbitration, and, if a question of legislation, a report could be submitted to our honorable state or national legislature...
...Industries should be discouraged from changing to other localities, in order to keep its personnel from removing to other districts, affecting local trade conditions, etc., while the uniformity of an established town or city is disturbed...
...Is blasphemy any less frequent in Connecticut, where a statute makes it punishable...
...When two religious bodies like "Rome" and Anglicanism are in formal controversy, it is, obviously, not the immediate fault of either the editors of The Commonweal or an Anglican priest to whom they offer the honor of writing in their esteemed columns, and the difficulties involved should be met (as you have met them) with both understanding of the underlying facts and with that courtesy which commonly prevails among gentlefolk...
...Moreover, you have permitted to appear in this article unchallenged, without even the saving grace of inverted commas, such words as "Anglo-Catholic" and "Anglo-Catholicism...
...TO the Editor:—Mr...
...William H. Bastion...
...548 "Those who look back with the experience of a century can see that the form which was adopted, suggested by the example of the United States Constitution, was unsuitable...
...You write: "In the very early history of his own communion Bishop Manning may find conclusive evidence of how impervious to expediency Rome can show itself when not satisfied by the evidence that even a king could procure and present...
...Now it happens to be my belief that an innocent young girl reacts to obscenity as did young Jacqueline in M. Rolland's Jean Christophe...
...Do not give to a people institutions for which it is unripe in the simple faith that the tool will give skill to the workman's hand...
...Chesterton or the Abbot of Downside...
...if business is inactive, the reasons attributable for its inactivity by officials interested...
...What constitutes obscenity, anyhow, and whose definition do you prefer: a Puritan's or a gentleman's...
...Otherwise—how can rapprochement be consummated ? How is it even possible to hear a variant viewpoint ? Rev...
...CZECHO-SLOVAKIAN AFFAIRS Washington, D. C. TO the Editor:—By my first letter addressed to you on behalf of the present state of Czecho-Slovakian affairs, I did not intend to begin a polemic in your columns, but simply felt obliged to put in the right light some obviously erroneous statements misrepresenting the evolution of Czecho-Slovakian affairs in which the Czecho-Slovakian Catholic Popular party has been sharing the responsibility during the last three parliamentary governments...
...THE MODERN ANGLICAN CHURCH Peekskill, N. Y. TO the Editor:—Does not the final sentence of your Marl-borough-Vanderbilt editorial of November 24, 1926, rest on an historical confusion of heresy with schism...
...Catholics [all kinds, his fellow-Anglican included, of course] . . ." "The theology of historic Christendom, i.e., Catholic theology, as distinct from that which is essentially 'Roman.' " "Whole sections of Anglicans are now definitely Catholic...
...Bishop Manning's church had no organic existence previous to that date...
...when Henry's cousin, Cardinal Pole, restored England to the Catholic obedience and communion...
...TO the Editor:—I am of the opinion that in addition to plans already advanced to increase export trade and investigations proposed to promote inactive industries (more or less perfunctory, the result of which is simply a report) if, at stated intervals, letters or a printed form of inquiry could be mailed to every commercial activity that affects the employment situation, by a Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trade or similar civic organization, with the following questions for consideration, submitted in whatever form may be determined most efficacious, it would prove advantageous: The number of days per week industry is actively engaged...
...Henry S. Whitehead...
...If obscenity be harmful to the spiritual welfare of an adult, what is the present moral state of Mr...
...Other commercial activities could be proposed for various communities, consistent with environment and labor conditions...
...Even Judas was greeted as a friend...
...Absolutely every one of Parker's four so-called consecrators (Barlow, Scory, Hodgkins, Coverdale) was a non-diocesan, wandering bishop at the time of his participation in the historic Lambeth Palace ceremony...
...If, on the liquor question, you hold to the sound Christian doctrine that man's morals are to be bettered by moral suasion rather than by the force incident to legislation, why do you not apply the same tradition to pornographic literature...
...You seem to say that the modern Anglican Church was founded by Henry VIII...
...Tisso and Dr...
...No wonder it failed...
...TO the Editor:—An astonishing article appeared in your issue of February 16 ("Two Religions" of Anglicanism, by Henry S. Whitehead) and I have waited to see if any statement by the editor of The Commonweal would be forthcoming, giving his reason for including this article in a periodical designed to represent the Catholic point of view...
...For instance, Governor Smith, a whole man (ergo, an adequate parent) has not evinced any keen desire for the bill's passage...
...Yes, you might be in better company...
...Respect facts...
...the length of time advance orders will keep industry active...
...When the Mercury has finished mauling these two sects, will it not find pleasure in mauling the Catholic Church ? May Catholic editors take the good advice of Mr...
...If so, I should like to protest that such a hint is altogether mistaken...
...In such circumstances, power inevitably fell to the executive head, the person whom the people could see and know and to whom belonged the command of the army...
...and if domestic competition is an important factor, or unreasonable taxation an issue, it could be a matter of subject for discussion and adjustment...
...Because of the reconciliation thus effected by the last legitimate primate of Canterbury, it is historically impossible for Bishop Manning's hierarchy to have any organic continuity whatsoever with the schism originated by Henry VIII...
...Some of the Spanish American countries, notably Chile, Argentine, Brazil, and Uruguay are now, he admits, true republics and have become, or are on the way to becoming, genuine democracies...
...I bewail what Anglicans call "our unhappy divisions...
...COMMUNICATIONS THE CLEAN BOOKS BILL New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—Possibly your recent editorial favoring the Clean Books bill, now before a committee of the legislature of the state of New York, represents clerical sentiment...
...Why spill ink in the use of words which do more harm than good...
...an enabling Act of Parliament was passed...
...The English law unquestionably required the metropolitan and three provincial bishops, or at least four bishops holding sees, to confirm the election of a new primate...
...Whitehead is engaging in controversy with Catholics, but I suggest that his article contains controversial matter in statements which have been solemnly condemned by the Pope speaking in the name of the Church Universal...
...Christ was surrounded by enemies, but He never stooped to use abusive terms...
...Perhaps on reflection your correspondent will come to the realization that an Anglican cannot write otherwise than from the Anglican viewpoint, at least without stultifying himself and, incidentally, destroying any interest or value his contribution might have...
...Gazik, mentioned in my first letter to you, were appointed Ministers of Public Health and of Unification respectively, increasing thereby the number of Catholic members in the cabinet to five...
...My allusion to the validity of Anglicanism was, also (while, of course, a matter of conviction) less related to any admiration I may be supposed to have for the branch theory than a mere matter of phraseology...
...Denis A. McCarthy of Boston, Massachusetts, in a communication to The Commonweal headed The Mercury School and Methodists, advises Catholic editors not to imitate the abusive style which is used by the Mercury in mauling the Methodists and Baptists...
...D. Barclay...
...The very notion of establishing a government by the votes of citizens and controlling the action of a legislature and an executive by holding the representatives responsible for the use they might make of their power, was not within the horizon of the vast bulk of the colonial subjects of Spain, much less could they work the elaborate machinery of two legislative Houses with an elected President and his ministers...
...Man is in each country, not what we may wish him to be, but what nature and history have made him...
...I do not believe that Our Dear Lord founded three churches...
...Anglo-Catholicism derives its power from the two facts that is it, definitely and intentionally, within the main stream of the Christian tradition...
...Donald Powell...
...W. L. Scott...
...McCarthy, and cease using terms against non-Catholics which will alienate them from us...
...A maximum of employment would prevail if the interests concerned would act concertedly rather than reduce the personnel for reasons of economy and efficiency, with no provision for their employment in other industries being advanced, often resulting in the displacement of persons already employed and equally dependent on its continuance for support...
...It is evident, therefore, that any ecclesiastical jurisdiction held today by the Anglican hierarchy comes from the two Acts of Parliament of May 8, 1559...
...Whitehead, once an Episcopal minister, were now a Catholic and that, therefore, his article contains presumably sound Catholic teaching...
...Nor have the members of the writing- trade, who seem to have deserted you—or is it possible that you have deserted them...
...The maximum of employment will also discourage the teaching of Bolshevism, communism, and anarchism...
...Thus a nominally elective Presidency became a dictatorship...
...May all our Catholic editors be dignified and sweet in their productions...
...It is obvious that a government of this composition would not and could not settle the outstanding religious and political problems of Czecho-Slovakia in a sense adverse to the feelings of her Catholic citizens, but the settlements reached on these intricate problems will be the more durable and acceptable if they are dealt with by all interested parties in a spirit of mutual tolerance, understanding, and loyalty without which modern political life in its complicated intercourse would be unmanageable and even impossible...
...What would have happened if things had been left to take their natural course and no attempt made to imitate the United States Constitution...
...It causes me a real satisfaction, therefore, that in ending my correspondence with you, I can inform you that on January 16, 1927, both representatives of the Slovak Catholic Popular party, Dr...
...It is the better way...
...So much for your doubtful bed-fellows...
...Will obscenity in letters be eliminated any sooner than it is eradicated from human nature...
...Whitehead's present church affiliation, but it would be unfortunate if the reader should infer that Mr...
...Shall we, without protest, suffer, on the pages of a Catholic journal, Anglicans to apply to themselves that name which can rightly be applied only to such Catholics as happen to be English, like Mr...
...CORTLANDT VAN WlNKLE...
...Raymond Vernimont...
...Why confer free self-governing institutions on a people unfit to comprehend or use them...
...Not finding any such explanations in these two issues, I write this letter to protest against an editorial policy of a supposedly Catholic periodical which permits without comment such passages as the following: "The importance [of the Protestant Episcopal Church] rests upon solid foundations...
...MODERN DEMOCRACIES Ottawa, Canada...
...Rev...
...MEETING UNEMPLOYMENT Somerville, Mass...
...In religious controversy, good manners and charity should, of course, prevail so long as good manners and charity do not blur or obscure the truth, or make one side appear to give countenance and tacit approval to statements which it regards not only as false, but distinctly heretical and damnable (anathema...
...Anent the bill itself, surely your viewpoint deserves questioning...
...and a clergyman, whose notion as to what constitutes obscenity is hardly likely to be that of the average citizen...
...And if it is fundamental that a parent has not only the responsibility, but the right of determining the manner of his child's intellectual education, why do not the same right and responsibility apply to the child's moral education...
...John S. Sumner, who reads monthly more filth than the man on the street comes across in a lifetime...
...differences, if any, between employer and employee, and the nature of them...
...Of these the chief is the fact that the Protestant Episcopal Church is an integral portion of the great Anglican communion, one of the three historic branches of the original Church founded by Christ, as distinct from any sect...
...Whatever the plans of theorists and the exhortations of the wise, every people comes sooner or later to that kind of government which the facts prescribe...
...Within a few feet of the relics of Saint Edward the Confessor and in a crowded abbey—Benedictine monks looking down upon the gay scene from the southern triforium of the choir—Elizabeth gave her solemn oath to maintain the Roman Catholic religion as under Mary Tudor...
...In the opinion of the late Lord Bryce, expressed in Modern Democracies, the last and best of his books, the most fatal gift of the United States to Spanish America was its form of government...
...It is needless, I trust, to touch upon all the implications arising from the use of these words...
...TO the Editor:—In an editorial note in a recent issue of The Commonweal, doubt is expressed as to the wisdom of the past efforts of the United States to "Americanize two vast continents," the final result in Mexico being, as the writer says, "legal, economic, and political chaos...
...This result has been due to causes which he discusses and has been attained in spite of the inappropriate-ness of their form of government when originally adopted...
...Why have certain words persisted in the vulgar speech for hundreds of years, despite being barred from print...
...It means that some Anglicans are practising the Catholic religion while the rest use another...
...If all literature must be suppressed, except that suitable for a twelve-year old damsel, what will happen to Leviticus...
...This, needless to say, throws no light on Mr...
...They are, as employed by the Reverend Henry S. Whitehead, an offense and a heresy...
...But it is said that our main concern is with the child, and not with the adult...
...The editor of The Commonweal, then, should have made some definite explanations, exposing those errors, either in the very issue he permitted the article to appear, or in the following issue...
...if business conditions are irregular, because of changing styles, tariff conditions, competition, labor conditions, inadequate transportation facilities, supply and demand not equitably adjusted, etc...
...550...
...I endeavored to present a really delicate matter in such wise that Anglicans could not be given offense by what I said, and "Romans" should not...
...To cure this defect of jurisdiction Elizabeth had to step in...
...Why do we not let our light shine...
...Barlow, Scory, Hodgkins, and Coverdale had no more right to consecrate an archbishop of Canterbury than an archbishop of Paris or Moscow...
...And, if it be argued that there is no intent to estop established classics, why is obscenity not as harmful in the old tomes as in the new...
...Political conditions in the other states vary greatly...
...You are in strange company, indeed, when you consort with some of its proponents: a confessedly inadequate parent, whose main desideratum apparently is to force the state to wield a salutary slipper...
...or if foreign markets are necessary for the promotion of any commodity, our foreign commerce or diplomatic service could propose matter for consideration...
...Under the caption, Contributors, in this same number, we read, "Reverend Henry S. Whitehead was formerly pastor of several prominent parishes of the Episcopal Church...
...a paid reformer, who acts as a caretaker for a cellar full of smut...
...Frank Harris's My Life and My Loves, why must you have a stricter standard, which might bar, let us say, The Cenci, Oedipus Rex, the Satyricon, or The Country Wife...
...Owego, N. Y. TO the Editor:—I do seriously regret that my informative article on "Two Religions" of Anglicanism should have distressed your correspondent of March 9; or anyone, indeed...
...and he concludes: "These are speculations...
...The people did not rule because they could not rule...
...Peregrin Fisa...
...Henry's schismatic church came to an end on Nevember 30, 1554...
Vol. 5 • March 1927 • No. 20
