"To the American People"

...This is his testimony, as given in his speech in the Senate: "If the Catholic Church had interfered with the authority of the state and browbeaten candidates, legislators and other public officials as the clerical leaders of the prohibition movement have done, the whole country would long ago have been aflame...

...and that the Baptists, constituting 7 percent of the nation, are stronger than Catholics in Congress by I4 members...

...It has done nothing of the sort and has, in many respects, set an example of dignity and wisdom in its relations to the state which might well be imitated by the sectarian extremists in our Protestant communions...

...TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE" T HE pastoral letter of the Catholic bishops of the United States on the subject of religious conditions in Mexico came as the only possible satisfactory response to a great demand...

...Perhaps he could have had his throne in two places at the same time, for nothing is impossible, you know...

...BRUCE OF MARYLAND N 'OT very long ago, Bishop John J. Dunn, speak- ing to his vast radio audience from Station WLWL, asked a very important, because very com-mon, question: "Does the Catholic Church accept the fundamental American principle of separation of church and state, in the sense that the church must not engage in politics...

...MR...

...If so, international opinion is to be killed before it is born...

...Because Catholics form at least I4 per- cent of the country's voting population, they could if they were really a political machine, elect 62 represen- tatives and t3 senators...

...More than that, the Cardinal possessed politi- cal influence, for he had all kinds of influence, and men of all creeds deferred to him...

...Well a good portion of it is contained in the recent important speech of Senator Bruce, attacking what is so frequently termed the Methodist "Vatican" maintained in Washington...

...On questions of general public policy, national and state, he expressed his opinions courageously whenever he had occasion to do so, but he conceded to every other man the right to do the same and acquiesced with com- plete loyalty in the final verdict when given...

...It is instructive to note, however, to what a meagre extent the offidal American press has dealt with the pastoral letter, and to see how cautious its comment has usually been...

...People who spun the matter of the Marlboroughs into lengthy conversations did so be-cause they thought that, for once, they had the Catho- lic Church in an ugly corner...

...Or is a new "declaration of independence" in process of being writ- ten...

...As a matter of fact, there are only 37 Catholics in Congress--32 in the House, and 5 in the Senate...

...Cardinal Gibbons did use his influence, his great influence, and used it con-stantly, but he did so as any citizen might do and he claimed no more right than any other citizen...

...It is not a tirade...

...Here, then, the stage was set for a "demonstration" that all the worst suspicions of certain parsons were true...

...But the case against Calles is as firm and complete as the case against any recent December 29, I926 THE COMMONWEAL 203 notorious criminal...

...He had every opportunity to see the reaction of his own community to the Cardinal's undoubted prei~minence...

...Senator Bruce is a Presbyterian, but in the Senate he spoke as a man...

...The parents not only so far forgot themselves as to applaud the immodest spectacle, but went to the length of criticizing the reformers and demanding that the classes be continued...

...Or is the Catholic Church in reality a gigantic political machine...

...And certainly what they have said will be listened to as a careful and convincing statement of as great a case as has ever been tried at the bar of public opinion...

...Catholics in this country, having listened to much talk concerning the bitter Calles persecution, needed information and counsel...

...But what really happened during that third of a century in Maryland, which is remembered as yester- day by a cloud of witnesses...

...Senator Bruce's life was contemporaneous with that of Cardinal Gibbons for many years...

...He answered by drawing attention to certain statistics of exceptional pertinence...

...That is--apparently it should make no difference to thought- ful people resident in the United States that in a coun- try immediately bordering upon their own land, a country to some extent intimately affiliated with the conduct of their government under an international code of long standing, the inalienable rights held sacred by all civilized law are long since abrogated...

...Some day, somewhere, men of good will from all parts of the country will gather to aid the cause of true Sunday observance, to minimize as much as possible the necessity for work on the first day of the week, and to demand the aboli- tion of asinine restrictions on a day of gladness...

...People who avoid talk- ing about Mexico do so simply because they know full well that the Catholic Church is Ioo percent right...

...zo2 THE COMMONWEAL December 29 , I926 York Times declares he has isolated, the chief char- acteristic of which is a settled belief that the victim is born to rule the moral world--and by force...

...Their object is rather to accomplish a duty which, in the words of the letter, "will be done when, by telling the story, defending the truth and em- phasizing the principles, we sound a warning to Chris- tian civilization that its foundations are again being attacked and undermined...

...In partisan politics and the machinery of the civic admin- istration he never once intervened...

...New Jersey is not the only state whose statutes are cluttered with hoary blue laws...

...and the thoughts we enter-tained during the Boer War, the struggle for Irish independence, and the great war were not only un-important, but actually had no right to exist...

...It was the domination of a great churchman who, in ecclesiastical things, performed his part without raising even a suspicion in the minds of those who dii~ered from him in faith that he was confusing church affairs with civic affairs...

...The attention given his remarks shows the nation's appredation of frank masculinity...

...Those upon whom the task is incumbent will realize again, as men have so often realized, that centuries of regenera- tive effort expended by Christendom upon the people of the Montezumas could not have been wiped out completely if those who might have averted the catas- trophe had not been so blandly satisfied with silence...

...They called a meeting of parents and let the children dance before them as a jury...

...These figures become more strik- ing when it is noted that though Methodists constitute only 8 percent of the population, they can lay claim proudly to II8 congressmen, of whom 28 are in the Senate...

...Those suffering from this disease, "a form of conceit rapidly developing into insanity, if not checked," are not all isolated within the confines of the city of Irvington...

...The New York World professed to believe that "Mexicans themselves" were the proper ones to decide what is right and wrong in the matter...

...There was domination in Maryland by Cardinal Gibbons in his long tenure as Archbishop of Baltimore, and it may be well to define it...

...We assume that the retroactive nationalism such words imply it not held by very many persons...

...For in-difference would not only seem to condone actions which are beyond the pale of civilized society, but would also encourage those forces which are every-where attempting to root out tolerance and to curtail liberty of conscience...

...We need not be misled or fooled regard- ing the matter...

...Is no citizen to consider and to pass judgment upon events that lie beyond the boundaries fixed by his government...

...And taking sides, in this instance, means affiliation with a point of view which is still widely unpopular...

...Their fellow.citizens, inhibited from knowing the real situation by a lack of information no less than by the fact that they are liberally deluged with propaganda supplied by indecorous Mexican officials in this country, obviously required an authoritative statement of the Catholic position on the matter...

...It is not an argument...

...It merely sets forth certain accepted principles of American governmental practice, going on then to show how the present Mexican r~gime has violated every one of these, with results to which the people of the United States cannot be indifferent...

...A poorly reported and badly mis- understood Rota decision inspired reams of print, af- fording even a leading dramatic critic opportunity for a caustic joke in the middle of his daily column...

...Some time ago, the school officials of the Michigan town, following a suggestion of Henry Ford, authorized the use of the school buildings for the teaching of old-fashioned dances, such as the quadrille and the polka...

...AN Associated Press despatch from Detroit conveys the distressing news that Dearborn, Michigan, re-fuses to declare itself on the side of the angels...

...It was the domination of a great citizen whose unselfish judgment was gladly accepted as a guide by thousands and whose candor was never questioned by those who knew him best...

...Or, when occasion arose, such occasion being the "interests of Rome," he would have moved it to the City Hall of Baltimore and bossed the mayor...

...Maryland is not only the one state of the original Union which traces its origin directly to a Catholic foundation, but the towering figure among its citizens for a third of a century was Cardinal Gib- bons...

...The pastoral letter is an admirable and dignified statement...

...They had the opinion of experts that they were sowing the seeds of immorality, and yet they had watched the children and had not discerned even a germ of the indecorous...

...For the rest, God will bring His will to pass in His own good time and in His own good way...

...If their inferences had been correct, the natural thing to expect is that Cardinal Gibbons would have moved his throne to the State House and bossed the governor...

...Meanwhile, the bishops' pastoral letter has ren-dered, at least, an important historical service...

...The school of- ficials were disturbed---and rightly so...

...Immediately a protest was filed by the Reverend Frederick C. Krumpling, an evangelical minister, and other leaders of light, that the teaching of these steps of an age which knew not the Bunny Hug and would have been impervious to the charms of the Charleston, tended toward immorality among the pupils and should be banned from the schools...

...But if we must express the real reason why the pastoral lettermand, indeed, the whole Mexican con-troversy--has been passed over in silence, here it is" the press of America has not been brave enough to take a stand...

...In Maryland, if in any state, it would be reasonable to expect a particularly flagrant case of Catholic "domination," if the fears and starts of supersensitive revivalists were to be taken at face value...

...If it were really of the opinion that Catholicism in Mexico had no right to live, it would easily have found occasion to say so in a hundred forms of innuendo...

...Later on, when a Mexico still more hopelessly ruined by the collapse of civil government and moral authority, is stretched out like a ghastly faubourg beside a United States that must go to the rescue in order to save its honor, it will not be easy to forget that during critical years it was fashionable to be non-committal...

...To talk about it at all means tak- ing sides...

...By comparison, the authoritative Catholic pronouncement on an issue of the gravest importance to every Ameri- can citizen, regardless of his religious affiliations, was handled with padded gloves where it was dealt with at all...

...He set a good example to some political laggards in Maryland and other states by exercising the privilege of voting regu- larly, but no one ever knew for whom he voted...

...But the bishops are careful to insist that the inevitable opposite of indifference is not armed force...

...What is the inference...