Communications

...You assume, quite wilfully, apparently, that I am a Protestant zealot intent, through ignorance and misstatement, on stirring up bad feeling between Protestants and Catholics...

...In religious affiliation I am a Unitarian, and if you know anything about Unitarians you know that one of their cardinal principles is tolerance toward all other churches and creeds...

...I noted that these boys appeared lonesome, much as Bishop Walsh mentioned...

...All that the biography made plain to me was that Hazard had a comic character in hand whose antics possessed amusing, and marketable, quality...

...The contributions range all the way from avowed atheists to orthodox Christians...

...Rarely does one find a stand for justice at any risk on the part of the clergy in circumstances where human beings have been practically enslaved by the power of greed...

...Perhaps Mr...

...What labor thinks of the church is the central theme contributed to by such American labor leaders as William Green, Daniel Tobin, James Maurer, Andrew Furuseth, James Noonan, Thomas McMahon, and by Arthur Henderson and others of England...

...Catholic Americans, I fear, do not appreciate just what service they can be to God and the Chinese...

...The church has been silent at times when justice hung in the balance...

...Built of crown impressed 386 THE COMMONWEAL August I4, I9z9 brick, it is known as Sophia's Dairy after the wife of Aquila Hall, one of the signers of that First Declaration...

...by James Woodsworth and James Simpson of Canada...

...You are not justified in saying that the "doubts and fears" which I attribute to the rank and file of Protestants, are the "doubts and fears of Mr...

...W. V. DELANEY...

...I do think the Hazard biography of Stendhal was "easy," and in that I am not alone...

...In the Third Unitarian Church of Chicago, of whose board of trustees I am president, we have heretofore procured prominent Catholic laymen to address us on subjects of mutual interest...

...I should be very glad to have a copy of its forthcoming report on the Roman question...

...I am intrigued by your remarks on "frankness...

...It makes all the difference between a Tolstoy and a Stendhal--which is all the difference between greatness, in my estimation, and mere technical resource...

...Some day a fitting monument may replace the modest granite stone, topped with its plain bronze tablet, that fixes the site of the Old Court House where Marylanders first of all Americans formally cast off allegiance to a tyrant British king...

...These declarations are applauded by writers in this symposium, but it is held that the churches stop with declarations and do nothing to give them effect...

...A reprint of an address by Lenin just before his death, and statements by Trotzky and other Russian Communist leaders are included...

...it is an integral part of society, partly of church members and partly not...

...It is "deft"-that is no particular damnation until explanation is offered as to how the deftness is employed...

...Again there is truth, but the general influence of the many activities of the Federal Council of Churches, the...

...If your conception of frankness is to select from an article, for purposes of criticism, a single minor statement made en passant, while ignoring the really important allegations, then your standards of criticism are not mine...

...At this college there was a Catholic Club, similar to the Newman Clubs...

...A good biographical study of Stendhal would relate this lack to the life of :he subject...

...Hazard condescends to his subject on virtually every page--all of which comes within the scope of a dlscriminating definition of flippancy...

...No one can know...

...Probably laboring men hold the same sentiments toward the church and religion as any other group, ranging all the way from skepticism to full faith...

...o the Editor:--I was glad to get your editorial reaction to my article in the July Forum...

...The suspicion is put forth that the pulpit listens to the larger financial supporters and keeps silent or actively helps to form public opinion against the strikers...

...REv...

...JOHN CHAMBERLAIN...

...Can this be success, even when it is done by a man who is, no doubt indisputably, a scholar...

...In this case, a solution like Bishop Walsh's would likely help in a social difficulty...

...I fear that I am not on the mailing list of the Foreign Policy Association which you mention in the closing paragraph of your editorial...

...The Declaration and the marker along the old Philadelphia road between Bush and Abingdon have long been known to me, and the recollection of the dedication on a scorching Fourth of July some thirty or more years ago is still keen...

...I tried to make New York, N. Y. my attitude of personal detachment and impartiality so clear O the Editor :--In reply to E. K. Brown on Paul Hazard's Stendhal...

...and there are supporters of the church as a friend of labor...

...FRANKNESS IN THE FORUM Chicago, Ill...

...However, I have since considered this action of the club as not only defeating the purpose of the college but of the Faith as well...

...When we remember that Ullathorne was a Benedictine monk, who always remained a monk in spite of his mitre, his words are a real appraisal of the diocesan prlesthood--"Our Lord's own order," as he called it...

...Near by were the old taverns at Bush and Abingdon that sheltered travelers en route to Philadelphia, and once a cousin found under a huge sycamore at Bush almost a handful of corroded French pennies, down under the surface of the soil...

...Many times, it is pointed out, the influence of the church is thrown against strikers even though they may be struggling for elemental justice...

...Much of this Harford County country is well described in The Chesapeake Country, by Swepson Earle...

...Everyone to whom I have spoken, the archbishop (Manning of Westminster) and Reisach (Cardinal of the Propaganda) included, all think this of the utmost importance for the future well-being of them who have the real responsibility of souls...

...BOOKS The Worker's Soliloquy Labor Speaks for Itself, by Jerome Davis...

...THE FIRST DECLARATION Baltimore, Md...

...Joseph Wood Krutch, who is, I presume, far more of a scholar than I shall ever be, was so impressed with the facile aspect of the work that he found it good subway reading...

...PETER MORAN...

...If Mr...

...CHINA'S STUDENTS RETURN Watertown, N. Y. O the Editor:--I am here writing to commend Bishop James E. Walsh on his article in The Commonweal for June 19, China's Students Return...

...I have yet to see an instance of a Protestant being permitted to address a Catholic congregation...

...the Editor :--Mr...

...Again I have since regretted that I never got on my feet at that meeting to tell the members that I thought it should fill us with pride to be able to help our missionaries in China by showing brotherly love to Chinese laymen in this country, and possibly ones who will be great future leaders of China...

...I was aware of Hazard's respected position, largely through his lecturing activities...

...For years neglected and ignored, it was inside a fence llne, hidden from the passersby by hedge-rows and brush, but it has recently, I believe, been brought to view...

...However, with all respect for scholarship, I think Mr...

...There are outright condemnations of the church as the foe of labor...

...and by leaders of nine other countries...

...I, however, was of the opinion that the better element of this Catholic Club favored admitting the Chinese students --a very refined few...

...Orebaugh...

...Those who care to follow out Mr...

...Labor is not a group apart looking at the church...

...I agree with Mr...

...IN SAECULA SAECULORUM New York, N. Y. O the Editor:wNearly sixty years ago, almost on the threshold of the Vatican Council, Bishop Ullathorne of Birmingham wrote to Bishop Brown of Newport: "I want to see a good chapter drawn up in the Council on the status, sanctity, and obligations of the pastoral clergy, and some such word as 'pastoral' consecrated to their designation, that we may not always be tied to that detestable word 'secular' to mark them off...

...there are attempts to differentiate between the church and religion, and to condemn what are called aberrations from true religion...

...The most oft-repeated criticism in the book of the attitude of the church toward labor is that the struggle for industrial rights does not receive the active aid from the clergy that any struggle for human rights ought to receive...

...DAVID A. OREBAUGH...

...2.00...

...At Belcamp, a station of the Baltimore and Ohio along Bush River, is a fine old colonial mansion with secret stairways through the massive walls...

...Jerome Davis of Yale University, on the subject of labor and religion...

...And in a work on Stendhal-who, after all, is only remembered for his novels--I think that this central lack should be given more than cursory treatment...

...As a small boy I spent that sizzling day back of a woodshed at Harford Furnace some two and a half miles off, making the hours hideous with toy cannon and a host of firecrackers...

...There is a great deal of history still to be dug out in Maryland, and in no place more than in old Harford which provided, one might say, inspiration for the state and the nation...

...It will be observed upon analysis that those who are members of some church are defenders of the church in its attitude on labor, while those who have no church and scout the value of religion see all kinds of machinations on the part of the church toward the weaker classes...

...The bricks were brought on sailing ships to the public landing, three miles above Old Baltimore, which is now part of the Aberdeen proving grotmds, an army post in the Third Corps Area...

...but a man can be so supple as to dodge issues...

...I must confess, however, that I am disappointed at your evident misapprehension of my attitude and purpose...

...And it is undeniably "flippant...

...there are friendly critics of the attitude of the church on labor problems...

...As I indicated in the review, I ~ot less of Stendhal from the biography than I get from a reading of Lytton Strachey on the man plus a reading of Stendhal's own works...

...August I4, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 385 COMMUNICATIONS REVAMPING STENDHAL Protestants in general justify their attitude...

...Brown that Hazard is supple...

...Malone's article, The First Dec-o laration, is interesting reading and presents facts that should be far more widely known...

...That these charges are sometimes true cannot be doubted...

...I am sure I should underestimate the intelligence of my readers if I thought they would understand me to say from the statement you criticize, that individual Catholics must actually take an oath of fealty to the Vatican State...

...Malone's paper will find a great deal of interest in those pages...

...There is an undeniable lack of "spiritual dynamism" or "vitality"----call it what you will--in Stendhal's fiction, but Hazard hardly posed that paramount consideration...

...MARK O. SHRIVEa...

...Indeed, I consider his suggestion quite a remarkable solution toward such a phase of Chinese uplift...

...Nevertheless, I do not want to pretend to any great knowledge of the man...

...As for the title, Revamping Stendhal, it was germane to the review--which was intended to bring out the need for a biography of Stendhal which would not abdicate be.~ore the problem...

...Why do we say "secular priest" today...

...As a matter of fact I tried to assume a detached position and to portray therefrom the attitude of Protestants at large--the common or garden variety of Protestants, so to speak--and to give the reasons which to that it could not be misunderstood, and I should be willing to leave it to a jury of fair-minded Catholics to say whether I succeeded in my purpose...

...Brown's criticisms are quite beside the point, and prove nothing beyond a difference in taste...

...Naturally, from such diversified sources, a wide diversity of opinion is assembled...

...And it is to be regretted, that after all those years, the "detestable word" remains, and holds its odium...

...In a college that I attended there were several Chinese students who resided at the college Y. M. C. A., where I myself lived...

...Brown thinks Hazard has adumbrated this in his treatment of Stendhal, the man...

...How far the writers speak for labor is a question unanswered...

...At a meeting one Sunday afternoon, after much discussion, it was voted to exclude from this Catholic Club those of the Chinese boys who were Catholics, chiefly because the members' womenfolk would not be likely to care to rub elbows with the Chinese at the Club dances...

...Apparently the richer the congregation, the less free the pastor to stand for the rights of man...

...HIS is a symposium of labor leaders, throughout the world, collected and edited by Dr...

...If so, I disagree...

...Yet one cannot view the brave pronouncements of the great church bodies, the National Catholic Welfare Conference, the Federal Council of Churches, the Central Conference of Jewish Rabbis, or the declarations of social faith made by the Congregationalists and Methodists, without a feeling that whatever be the faults of individual clergymen, the real voice of religion is on the side of human rights...

...New York: The Macmillan Company...

...Brown will read the Hazard Stendhal in parallel with the Pierre-Quint biography of Proust, in which a man of letters is treated full-cycle, he will get an inkling of what I meant by calling the book in question "easy, deft and fllppant...