Week by Week

...THE COMMONWEAL Published weekly and copyrighted 1925, in the United States by the Calvert Publishing Corporation, 25 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York City, N. Y. MICHA~-T- WI~A~S, Editor Assistant Editors HF2CRY LO~GA~ STUART GEORGE N. SHUS~It JOHN F, McCoRMICX, Business Manager Editorial Council T. Law.soN Ric~s JAum J. W,,a.s~ CAm=ON J. H. HAYES R. DANA SKINNER Br.m'~A,~tC.A...

...their control from the interior of four treaty-ports, including the capital one of Hankow...

...the denunciation of the treaty with Belgium, which was a rather skilful "ballon d' essai," and which leaves upon the greater powers the onus of admitting that similar treatment is only spared them owing to the force of which they dispose, are all so many signs that a final solution cannot be long delayed...

...They prove that commercial rela- tions of the most ample sort are compatible with a decent respect for the rights of a weaker brother...

...It is a most serious and delicate situa- tion, in the face of which Mr...

...Its maintenance is really the secret of the American worker's tepid attitude toward the Marxian solution...

...Its whole purpose has been the reconstruction of Italy on a firm economic and nationalistic basis...

...The "impertinence" was largely due to the fact that the tribunal was "foreign"--i.e., foreign to the United States and foreign to the Protestant Episcopal body...

...In the face of these circumstances, it was "imper-tinent" of a Roman Catholic tribunal to rule upon the matter at all, and more "impertinent" to declare there had been no marriage...

...Rice is hurled in showers which sometimes cause stinging pain to bride and bridegroom...

...The exercise of authority is needed in order to m cope with an abuse so widespread, and religiousauthority is the best of all for the purpose...

...How unfitting and undignified," he adds, "to pass through the door of the church after the ceremony to face an ordeal of levity that is unbecoming and little less than disgrace- ful...

...Here he displayed something of the same poetic sense which made his work as a writer of original verse so illuminating and attractive...

...THE couple are defenseless...

...A recent article in the London Daily Mail, demanding speedy action from the British government, if only for the sake of pre- serving a respect for its authority throughout the East, may be taken as a pretty fair sample of how the re-sponsibility is regarded by the European powers...

...Apart from the fact that such an action would mean a serious inconvenience to all who care for .modern literature, it must be con-sidered unethical by anybody who has seen a little of i the relations between authors and their publishers...

...Those who read the greatest address of his academic career--it was reprinted not long ago by the London Mercury--will remember with what remarkable power and conviction he de-veloped the idea that mankind cannot afford to lose contact with the "sources" of its inspiration and forti- tude...

...We think the trouble is, rather, that the woman who brings her daughter finds the convent gloomy and sad...

...We answer that the tribunal, like hundreds of similar courts through the world, was rightfully estab-lished to administer canon law...

...THE formation of a huge trust by joint financiers of Germany and England, whose object, as reported by the London correspondent of the New York Times, is to "fight America" and American industrial com-binations in the struggle for world trade, is an inter- esting development of post-war conditions all the more so as it neighbors a Washington despatch re-porting, on the authority of Secretary Hoover, that living conditions in the United States have now reached a pitch unexampled in the nation's history, as regards wages paid, ratio of unemployment to employ- ment, and volume of trade...

...trial system they are scheduled to fight before adopt- ing one--and only one---of its weapons...

...It is, however, salutary to observe that religious issues are absolutely not in the foreground at present...

...Many people are exemplifying the first without taking any heed of the second...

...RELATIONS between the United States govern-ment and Mexico have arrived at such a point of danger that it is difficult to comment upon them...

...A bishop, or a priest, is the proper one to take the lead in making one more effort to curb this amazingly persistent prac- tice...

...THE news that addresses on aspects of Catholic doctrine have been delivered by priests on rostrums usually reserved for clergymen of other denomina-tions, leaves most of us with some feelings of sur-prise...

...The whole mat- ter is so perfectly obvious that we cannot but deplore the steps which some otherwise excellent and well-meaning women's organizations have taken to voice their indignation...

...As Monsignor Hickey says in his pastoral, any- one who witnesses a marriage ceremony performed in a Catholic church, and particularly when the Nuptial Mass is celebrated, is impressed with the seriousness and reverence shown in the act...

...Public opinion can scarcely be appealed to hopefully to abate this form of outrage...

...In the first place, Mussolini has undoubtedly succeeded in fulfill- ing one aim of the modern Italian foreign policy-- an aim which, one may safely say, is not belligerent or even imperialistic in the strict sense, but political in so far as it means the firm establishment of Italy as one of the greatest European powers...

...The danger of complicating the matter with appeals for the aid of religion should now be obvious to all...

...But all this hardly makes Edna...

...WIm~ Subscription Rates Yearly: $10.00 S'mgle Copies: :$0.20 WEEK BY WEEK R UMORS of a new Locarno conference, as re-ported chiefly by the New York Herald Tribune, are hopeful and may be credited...

...At present, Mussolini being courted by France and commanding the destinies of south-eastern Europe, is precisely the kind of figure Fas- cism desires...

...Bishop Manning, however, replies in the affirmative...

...The bride is overwhelmed--confused...

...What could Fascism gain by war...

...Traditions of too many generations unconsciously find expression in the acts of the rioters, or near rioters...

...No words could be better calculated to dis- pel the impression--how it arose would be an inter-esting questionwthat Catholics are blind sheep, hud- dled together by a morbid fear...

...The same central idea was valuably contributed to by outstanding published investigations...

...Nothing is so remarkable, as The Commonweal had occasion to re- mark some weeks ago, as the dismay and distrust with which thoughtful American travelers of a hundred years ago regarded industrialism in Europe and the gloomy prophecies they emitted as to what might hap- pen once it took root in their own country...

...The parties were united for years and children were born to them...

...A series of such addresses would certainly go a long way toward clearing up and banishing number- less misunderstandings...

...Moreover, after a careful reading of the chapter in question, we confess a total inability to see or under- stand what the fuss is all about...

...and this action, there is every reason for be- lieving, can only be secured by evidence that whatever is intended shall not lose sight of the fact that China is a large and homogeneous people with the right of all peoples to work out its own destiny unhampered by any extension of the extra-territorial rights that her weakness in the past forced her to accept...

...Few men brought to the study of antiquity so much vitality or robust curiosity...

...Should Bishop Manning care to get an opinion from a canonical court regard- ing some detail of parish organization, nobody would...

...The question at issue is simply this: "Were the Marlboroughs married...

...This is a code of moral legislation which is one and the same for the universal Church and which has been appealed to and applied since the days of the Fathers...

...If we had our way, we should affirm rather that the real reflection on the convents is that so many of their graduates should take Edna Ferber seriously--or, indeed, take her at all...

...AMERICAN prosperity, by and 1.arge, and taking due note of exceptions which have not escaped the reformer, is built on a theory of diffusion which is really the democratic instinct breaking through the overlay that threatened to submerge it during the early days of industrial development...

...Who else--the point is implied by Miss Ferber herself-- would take such girls in...

...Perhaps one of the most remarkable things about Persh is the hold that the doctrine of atonement by blood has always had upon the imagination of its people...

...That America's pros-perity is an object of mingled bewilderment and envy in Europe, has long been evident...

...The evidence submitted was insufficient...

...Sec-retary Kellogg merely faces the stern problem be-queathed him by the almost unanimous decision of foreign governments to use the Monroe Doctrine as an excuse for letting us go it alone in the settlement of issues created by the Mexican attitude toward for- eign property rights...

...How a character like her could -do anything else, is to us incomprehensible...

...and where the expedients that have met each phase of the disturbance till now, will have either to yield to some drastic action, or to be abandoned as violating the law of self-determination laid down eight years ago as the leading principle of post-war settlement...

...Are the critics unable themselves to realize the situation, or to appreciate the Sisters' work...

...We insist that they be allowed to leave the church with the respect due to the place and the occasion...

...No doubt the subject assigned in this instance, The Relation of the Religious Ex- perience of the Individual to the Religious Authority of the Institution, was precisely one of those in which the modern mind outside the Church is most pro-foundly interested...

...Old shoes are catapulted through the air with little thought of the hurt they may do if they strike a fair mark...

...Did it have the right to weigh this question...

...That they were said to an audience outside the Church is a good omen, in so far as experience demonstrates the comparative innocuousness of "missions" given under circumstances which practically preclude the possibility of an audi-ence...

...They bow to the pun- ishment as if they were college freshmen being hazed...

...It has preserved elasticity and equilibrlum...

...He be- lieved that education might be defined as a develop-ment of ability to feel at home in any century--among any cultivated people...

...It is another to know what the difference is about...

...Through good times and bad, a wage that spells sheer subsistence has too generally been the rule in Europe...

...its style is precisely what one can get from the New York Daily Graphic at a considerably lower price...

...and the evidence that national feeling is with them...

...Certain episodes in the Hussein legend," says Professor Edward G. Brown, of Cambridge, England, one of the leading authorities on Persian literature and history, "would almost seem to indicate an unconscious sense of soli- darity with the Christians . . arising from their participation in the doctrine of atonement...

...The relations of America with China throughout the past century when her trading flag flew in every Chinese port, form a particularly happy contrast to the force and guile that darken the record of Europe during the same period...

...Meanwhile nothing was said about the possible invalidity of their contract...

...Manning, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York, for his rather headstrong pronouncement on the subject of the Marlborough marriage...

...That is why the present Calles government resents so furiously what it terms "Yan- kee interference...

...His case may he outlined briefly: The marriage was solemnized in his diocese and was upheld by the Anglican Church, speaking through the Bishop of Oxford, as valid after the Duke had ob-tained a civil divorce decree...

...That such convents exist, is obviously a fact...

...A CURIOUS outgrowth of popular literary criti...

...Ferber guilty of the philosophic sins that have been attributed to her...

...ALTHOUGH the world of classical scholarship will regret in a particular way the passing of Pro-fessor John Swinnerton Phillimore, whose death was announced recently, it is a distinct loss to all modern English culture...

...Her corperation is an essential to any concerted action that is not to produce further chaos...

...But before making reference to this undoubtedly widespread sentiment, it is best to repeat that the question upon which the tribunal passed was merely this: "Were the Marlboroughs married...

...Surely any- body who wishes to see how it affects him or her has a perfect right to find out...

...but followed it with the explanation that, on the other hand, the Church is appreciative of the supremacy of the individual con- science...

...Inscriptions luridly smeared on placards for the vehicle which bears away the couple offend the sense of refinement...

...The settlement of difficulties attendant upon this position ought not to be difficult...

...All the strikes, lockouts, and labor warfare of the past twenty years will not disprove a tendency whose results we are watching today...

...A base im- pulse, which is one of the oldest known to humanity, is at the bottom of the slapstick humor with which friends, supposed to be well-meaning, afflict the in-tense sensitiveness of a woman and a man at a mo-ment when the solemnity of life is--or ought to bew most poignantly impressed upon them...

...WERE it not that a new factor exists in the pres- ence of America among the powers concerned, there can be but little doubt as to the manner in which this solution would be applied...

...Will the United States now venture to spoil everything...

...In America, a certain sensitiveness between the rewards at both ends of the scale has never been lost...

...cism is displayed in various castigations of Edna Fer- her's Show Boat...

...BISHOP HICKEY, of Rochester, has performed a service of great value in issuing a pastoral condemn- ing the excess of levity that takes place outside churches at many weddings...

...The whole point is that the little girl in the case sees nothing as her mother does, but takes to the Sisters at once...

...The book itself--despite the im-pressive "I Ioth Thousand" on the dust-cover--would hardly seem to merit much serious attention...

...Our familiarity with disquieting news from China, however, cannot blind us much longer to the fact that events in the Celestial empire have now approached a point where the entire position of European treaty powers in regard to the Far East is being challenged...

...It tends to make Catholic criti- cism ridiculous...

...Kellogg's compatriots can merely hold their breath and wish him success...

...One of the pagan customs which has yielded most slowly to centuries of pressure from the Church, is that of seizing upon the occasion of a wedding for an outbreak of coarseness and brutality...

...and that the famous dictum anent trade following the flag is one coined by the imperialist mind to justify its own disregard for international justice...

...Precisely because one cannot help thinking that Bishop Man-ning is among the "many," it is interesting to consider his words...

...A critic has even ventured to demand that all Catholics refrain from buying or reading any of the books issued by Miss Ferber's publishers...

...Father Riggs, we gather from a newspaper account, "emphasized the importance which the Church attaches to objective moral laws as independent of the individual...

...and that they func- tion is about as splendid a tribute to the sacrificial charity of the Sisterhoods as we can think of...

...THE statement of the Reverend Samuel M. Zwemer, a' Protestant missionary for many years in the East, that Persia is "ripe for the benefits of Christian civili- zation," may be a little exaggerated, but it will not surprise those who know anything of the religious should not be forgotten, are an Aryan race, akin to most European stocks, have never accepted Moham- medism "en bloc," and their history is a long record of invasion and martyrdom at the hands of the Turks, those Calvinists of Islam...

...Nobody else was able to resist the expropriations and reckless graft of their poli-ticians...

...and on the other, by a disinclination on the part of the more enlightened employer to consider wages as the element by which price might be reduced when reduction became necessary...

...She likes all that the older woman cannot understand...

...The reader of recent French jeremiads on the theme of Islam will have no doubt about what will weigh heavily on M. Briand's mind when he goes to Locarno again-- if he does...

...But the habit of "public meetings" has become so rooted in many non-Catholic congregations, that such an exposition of the Church's doctrine as was made by the Reverend T. Lawrason Riggs in the parish hall of the Mount Vernon Congregational Church, met a genuine opportunity and--we venture to say--a real need...

...The situation in colonial Africa, for in- stance, is nothing short of ominous...

...That the combina- tions, which are credited with having produced it, would sooner or later be imitated was a foregone conclusion...

...Not only was it the original home of the Mithraic cult, whose work in creating a Christian ambient in ancient Rome is only beginning to be studied as it deserves, but in the annual "Passion Play," which commemorates the death of Hussein, still celebrated annually at the feast of Mohurrum, there is a likeness to the Christian Holy Week that is startling--the more so as the name of Our Saviour occurs again and again...

...A WOMAN and her daughter visit a convent in down-town Chicago where girls from relatively shad- owy families are cared for and educated...

...While the comparative failure of all attempts to settle the armament problem may prove a subject for discussion, the chief concern of the con- ference would probably lie elsewhere...

...THERE are those who regard a crisis very much as they regard a crater, and who believe, with seis- mologists, that a regular and not too severe eruption is preferable to a period of quiescence during which suppressed forces are preparing for a major upheaval...

...We shall go over the ground a little carefully here because we feel that acrimonious references to the matter have done nobody any good...

...This case--which we believe is stated fairly-=-is re- inforced by a certain amount of popular feeling that "money" and "social prestige" had something to do with the solution...

...and on the sheer ground of what human nature will consent to, European financiers will be well-advised to study the true nature of the indus...

...The veteran Briand will certainly do everything in his power to make it a reality, and there is little doubt that Britain will second his efforts...

...An English Catholic di-ocesan court answered in the negative, and Rome up- held their verdict...

...This purpose would be greatly endangered, if not entirely crushed, by any attempt at military action...

...Its an-alysis is flimsy and superficial...

...In the background, of course, hover larger and more om-inous problems bound up with the Orient...

...Phillimore was, as is well known, a convert to the Catholic Church...

...This stated rather concisely a great deal of opinion held by Americans who have no intimate acquaintance with the processes of canon law, and it afforded Catholic authorities an opportunity to discuss a subject which ordinarily would almost certainly put a congregation to sleep...

...THE MARLBOROUGH MUDDLE S URELY all of us are obliged to Dr...

...Whether the new scale on which Euro- pean industrialism seems to have decided to work spells prosperity or a deeper degree of servitude for the worker, depends on how far those who are be-hind it share the ideology which reconciles many of us to the operations of big business in this country...

...These evil vaticinations have been largely brought to naught --on the one hand, by a steady determination on the part of the employed to make his work a means of social uplift...

...If the bride- groom is ~empted to resist the affront, a sense of his pitiful inadequacy to do so effectively restrains him...

...With all earnestness we protest," he says in words that ought to be heeded beyond his diocese as well as within it, "against the practice of attaching objects of any kind to the car or carriage awaiting the bridal party...

...Un-fortunately for those who favor harsh, brief, and tra- ditional methods, America is by now one of the great Pacific powers...

...The author clearly and unmistakably looks through her creature's eyes...

...The advance of the Cantonese army from one victory to another...

...It is one thing to differ...

...Nor should this practice take place away from the church...

...One chapter, dealing rather incidentally with convent life, seems in particu- lar to have aroused a great deal of ire...

...Many a Mexican now living in exile or poverty has been stripped of his pos- sessions on the pretext that "reform" demanded con- fiscation, and with the palliative of reimbursement through "bonds...

...She voices no opinion of her own any more than Shakespeare expresses his views of honor through Richard...

...The tend- ency to regard the worker's earnings as the lowest charge on goods produced, is largely responsible for the attitude of mistrust and antagonism notoriously prevailing there between employers and employed...

...It is satis- factory to know that the Persian government, since the consecration of Monsignor Cluzel as first apostolic delegate to Persia fifty years ago, has been friendly to Catholic missionary effort, and that a native priest- hood of the old Chaldean church still survives, in union with the Holy See...

...but it should be totally stopped at all places and times...

...No country is so designed by its clean record and moral authority as ours to be the spokesman of the western powers now the time seems come to offer a concerted warning against the disorder that is unfortunately accompanying the march of General Chiang-kai-shek's army, and upon the ugly rumors of Bolshevist affiliations that, how-ever founded in fact they may be, are casting discredit upon China's effort to attain nationality...

...Fundamentally, this attitude is the same toward all property: that is, the Carranza- Obregon-Calles party has acted just as arbitrarily toward titles held by their fellow-citizens and subjects as toward titles held by aliens...