Week by Week
2 THE COMMONWEAL May 8, 1929 WEEK BY WEEK IN ALL likelihood nothing more substantial than a report will emanate from the reparations conference. Three difficulties have barred progress...
...It follows that, despite what has often been said, the Mass is not a drama, for the reason that it does not contain the element of impersonation...
...Heflin, whose notoriety is at once his joy and his bread and butter...
...Charles E. St...
...O'Malley is conquered by his subject before he gets very far under way, and we remember his article by the flavor of its finale: "I herewith lay a small bet . . . that when I go to heaven I'll find the Roach Stratons and Billy Sundays, if any, gladly holding down the regular and honorable job of shining the solid gold brogans of Father Dennis Mulhearn...
...it begins, seemingly, in the curiosity of Mr...
...The spectacle is humbling to human pride, and instructive to modern education...
...Mencken's remarks on religious and near-religious matters (hereafter noted) though unimpugnably sound, are still full of hints as to that private naturalistic revelation which was evidently once vouchsafed their author...
...The only possible compromise appears to be retention of the protection and fixation of the round total of what the Reich owes...
...Jan Schilt of Yale has shown the reality of star streams...
...Even so, the satisfaction of this prophecy is something for which all true friends of industry most earnestly hope...
...Since the savants Science ^dd their last annual meeting, they rr, , c , have learned much of conditions both in x aices otocR 1 . , , * ,< our home atmosphere and in the outer cosmos...
...This involves such diverse sacrifices, however, that one conference could never suffice for its adoption...
...All this was duly reported, at somewhat greater length than is here indicated, and left no room for doubt that science has not been wasting time this last year...
...Let us say, too, that Mr...
...May 8, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 3 BELIEVING as we do that the work of the Mediaeval Academy of America, which met in Boston on April 27, is of notable cultural imThe Church portance, we hope to review the pro, ^ ceedings as adequately as possible later on...
...Mencken: "If a man actually believes in an omnipotent God, and has deliberately consecrated his life to serving Him, then the impulse to be diligent in that service must necessarily be far more powerful than the impulse of another man to take care of his wife and children...
...It is wrong in principle, and of the most ominous practical import since, in the words of the report, "it furnishes the fetters whereby corruption in office may completely enslave and debase our free institutions without fear of public exposure...
...This is fair enough...
...4 THE COMMONWEAL May 8, 1925 STATISTICS published by the Department of Labor indicate that religious denominations are financing 475 homes for the aged in the United Carimr for States...
...Freedom, like virtue, is one...
...Founder of Saint Philip's Home for Industrial Boys, founder and director of the Lincoln Agricultural School at Lincolndale, New York, secretary of the Boys' Life Bureau of the Knights of Columbus, director of the Catholic Mission on Scouting, he was also an active member of dozens of social, charitable and industrial societies, conferences and commissions, and among all these his influence was felt...
...But Professor Lansburgh also declared that "the only condition which now seems an inducement for textile manufacturers is that of the cheap labor supply...
...A different rule, happily, is sometimes applied in the United States courts, upon the theory that full effect can be given to the constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures and self-incrimination only by forbidding the use of evidence obtained by [such] methods...
...Of these 127 are Catholic in.t * , stitutions, in which more than thirteen * thousand persons (more than half of the total number) reside...
...Barrett's latest book...
...1 HE recent meeting of the American Newspaper Publishers' Association in New York was made especially interesting by its discussion of the Reactionary Minnesota newspaper suppression law...
...Back through the Congresses we have seen Mr...
...Whatever the local extenuations for such a measure, it is a reversal of achievement in one of humanity's hardest-fought fields...
...vJNE of the most baffling of human phenomena is the willingness of large majorities to accept an individual's evaluation of himself...
...We are happy to see that the intelligent press of the country is becoming awake to Mr...
...On the other hand, relatively little has been added to our knowledge of the Christmas season plays, although four Magi plays for Epiphany have recently been published...
...Barrett's plea for a non-celibate clergy—"poppycock...
...It will be regretted, too, by the Brother thousands who did not know him, but ¦n , who were influenced and inspired by his Barnabas WQrk< For if ^cre ig nQw a heaithy> growing interest in boy guidance among Catholic men of this country, it is at least partly traceable to Brother Barnabas, to the thirty-four years in which he studied and preached, with an enthusiasm that never dulled, the gospel of ministry to boyhood...
...O'Malley as to what will happen if the usual debunking cliches are applied to one of the most heroic and saintly types to be found even in the rich history of his own Communion...
...Three difficulties have barred progress all along: lack of agreement as to the vital Reparations international aspects of the war-finance Unsolved problem, so that each country in turn has simply tried to advance its own interests...
...Mencken's public request for prayers by saluting him as one who, in his devotion to freeDefender of dom, honesty and courage, had often *u t...
...some is necessary to keep them in food but the rest has no value whatever...
...To the suggestion that American Catholics (whose spiritual state continues to give Dr...
...George Squier has endeared himself to radio devotees by a system of "wired wireless" which will eliminate static and fading...
...On the one hand, , - u Professor Lansburgh of the University theboutn of pennsylvan;a predicted that the present low-wage condition in the South is "as transitory as the Gold Rush...
...His metaphor, of course, is launched from the point of view of the northern investor...
...Incidentally, the detailed descriptions of the experiments and discoveries make very satisfactory reading...
...What is the quality of the mediaeval dramatic output...
...Meanwhile special interest attaches to the address given by Dr...
...Mencken does not know the scientific definition, read "variation," which is what he really means, and the remark shows once more his instinct for feeling his way to a shrewd conclusion...
...Thus, albeit unwittingly, does Mr...
...JN O ONE doubts that the financial problems accruing from the war are destined to play an increasingly prominent part in the world's politics...
...How unfortunate is the Eskimo, who was once pitied as poor, and is an object of equal compassion now that he is rich...
...HOWEVER, Mr...
...Among non-Catholics, too, he left the imprint of his desire...
...The apthe Faith . , . . , . . . ., r praisal receives special point in the current American Mercury, upon which Mr...
...Meanwhile all may rightly be grateful for what has been accomplished and for the testimonial erected to Catholic kindliness...
...Similarly with Dr...
...ACCORDING to Professor Young, whose authority no one will question, investigators now believe that the earliest plays arose from additions to the liturgical text of Easter Day...
...and an amusingly complete reply to Dr...
...These men see no sense in saving money...
...In him the Christian Brothers have lost one of their most distinguished members...
...By aligning public opinion behind it in such matters, the Association will be able to move with considerable strength against any procedure which threatens the course of justice...
...Meanwhile the British Labor party is making campaign capital out of the prevailing dissatisfaction with the Balfour version of war debts...
...They include an apologia for permanent marriage which, except that it stops short of the supernatural principle, is indistinguishable from what a mellow old priest might say to a marrying world...
...It is refreshing to turn to these commentaries with the assurance that every statement is made with authority, and to encounter in them that spirit of impartiality which should distinguish the administration of law...
...But does our kindness extend much farther than our alms...
...As a case in point, the Current Events Committee states that, under New York law, "evidence, however questionable the methods by which it had been obtained, would be admissible in courts if pertinent to the issue involved...
...The number of published Easter plays has increased from about two hundred to more than four hundred during recent years...
...Let us not overstate the case...
...Let us admit that Mr...
...This has recently dwindled, and it is even predicted that borrowing will prove so difficult that reparations payments under the Dawes plan will cease altogether...
...The best of them is the plain fact that it has worked...
...Professor Young holds that it was characterized by pathos, naivete and splendor rather than by virile utterance or majestic structure...
...In that case the oil which Balfour tried to pour on the waters will probably look like a futile top-dressing for a series of highly agitated waves...
...Yes, the world is sure to stage another conference...
...says Mr...
...It is predicted that Mr...
...W ITH very little fanfare the American Association of Legal Authors has inaugurated that phase of its purpose which seeks to interpret curAuspiciously ren.t events in tneir le8al aspects, in a n series of articles in the general press...
...Yet during the last campaign the same fire-eater was as sheep-like as the most partybroken and dyed-in-the-wool Republican...
...Frank Ward O'Malley's paper on the Irish priest, old style (His Rev'rince—Rest His Soul...
...Probably no charity has appealed more widely to the generous...
...The political effect everywhere in Europe may be left to the imagination...
...The Root Their income is derived from several f All F "1 sources: trapping, which brings rewards twenty times as great as a generation ago, and work around construction camps, which is paid for at the rate of $7.00 a day and board...
...And an impressive stock it is...
...Others await publication, and some of these appear to throw new light on the whole subject...
...For "heresy," of which Mr...
...It is ridiculous that he should be allowed to make his windy flights especially in a session which is met to consider farm relief and the tariff...
...His point that Britain, by promising to collect from Germany no more than the amount of its indebtedness to the United States had manoeuvered itself into a distinct disadvantage, meets with general approval in a country trying hard to offset hard times with a project of unemployment relief...
...Barrett May 8, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 3 concern) are really a separate church, Mr...
...He was, as the New York Times has described him, "a saint walking amid the crowded, busy, modern ways of men...
...It would seem to be a harmless situation, but Mr...
...All of these are, if we like, 'dramatic,' but in themselves they are not 'drama.' We have now come to see that the essential element in genuine drama is not bodily movement or particular forms of speech, but impersonation...
...One missed from the various newspaper accounts only the honored clincher that "a good time was had by all...
...German banking is in a far less favorable state than was the case a year ago, when borrowing in the American market had resulted in a substantial gold reserve...
...the freedom of the press cannot thus be menaced and other forms of freedom remain secure...
...Philip Snowden recently treated himself to a sensational denunciation of that version...
...Christendom had broken with the mighty dramatic tradition of antiquity, and had solemnly undertaken to fashion a new drama of its own...
...A. H. Twichell, Alaskan correspondent of the Museum of the American Indian, assures us that it is not...
...1 HE death of Brother Barnabas has saddened all who ever came in contact with that brave and joyous spirit...
...Under the system proposed by the existing conference, this protection is to be auctioned off for a discount on the entire amount due from Germany...
...And he was himself as busy as any of them—busier than most...
...Abbot of the Smithsonian has taken vanes from the wings of house-flies, and measured the kinetic energy of the stars...
...How large shall this discount be...
...Therefore, the northern textile manufacturer need not worry about moving south in order to meet competition...
...But the conclusion we reach is that the sooner Professor Lansburgh's "transitory" stage is passed, and labor in the South has won its fair rewards, the sooner that section will see the necessity of developing facilities to compare with those of the North...
...actually served the Church...
...Though we are indebted to certain religious organizations, notably the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Sisters of Saint Francis, for a large part of the efficiency and economy with which this work is done, the enterprise is genuinely a matter in which all of us are concerned...
...Mencken has sprinkled something tasting like the veritable "sal catholicum" with a liberal hand...
...And Dr...
...The transfer protection accorded Germany under the Dawes plan has meant stable currency and limitation of the sums payable to the amount which the creditor nations could absorb in terms of their own exchange...
...Its falterings and limitations touch our hearts, and warn us once again that it is dangerous to ignore one's ancestors...
...But it is considered a great bother to lug gold and silver around on your person...
...Snowden will surely be the next Chancelor of the Exchequer...
...it is more ridiculous that his alarums and excursions into the direst prophecy should provoke anything but silence and ignoring...
...It has made the men lazy—it has done worse: with so much money to spend, and so little to spend it on, they are drinking very heavily...
...John of Mount Wilson has identified twenty-three elements in the sun which had not been previously recognized...
...Mencken enlarge his claim to the title, Defender of the Faith...
...Schacht has demanded more than the former Allies have been willing to offer...
...Of modern drama we have before us here the veritable first syllables, first sentences and first gestures...
...Mencken gives important space, though it ends as a brief, does not begin as one...
...The contrast between the two procedures is naturally productive of the conclusion that the better should prevail...
...In adopting a report on this law which stigmatized it as "tyrannical, despotic, un-American and oppressive," the Association was not expressing itself with undue vehemence...
...ITS annual inventory of new knowledge has been made by the National Academy of Science...
...Nor did it give rise to drama...
...and such mediaeval ceremonies as the singing of the Passion during Holy Week were less theatrical than scholars of twenty years ago generally supposed...
...Borah being fearless and independent...
...they are suffering in consequence a deplorable spiritual and physical decay...
...There are numerous ways in which the lives of these aged folk could be brightened and benefited at a very slight expenditure of time and energy...
...PROCEEDINGS at the two-day conference of the Labor College of Philadelphia will be read with both hope and confusion in the textile cenLabor in tres °^ t^ie South...
...I HE editor of The Commonweal once responded to Mr...
...The arguments in favor of celibacy are numerous and overwhelming...
...and unwillingness to talk money without recourse to diplomatic and political conversation...
...lack of knowledge based on cold analysis of what the Germans actually can pay...
...Returned to the Senate chamber, he can afford to resume his leonine aspect, and turn his recovered roar upon his erstwhile Hoover-supporting colleague, the sad senior Senator from Alabama...
...Indeed the Senate has taken up too much time with Mr...
...It discloses," he declares, "not so much assured achievement as pious groping for a new form of expression...
...There is much sound sense in this...
...IT IS now on record that there exists a community in Alaska where unskilled laboring men have more money than they know what to do with...
...Karl Young, of Yale University, outlining the status of contemporary research in mediaeval drama...
...There should be general approval of the Association's determination to work actively for the repeal of what is, in effect, a piece of reactionary insolence...
...to which Mr...
...Consequently, "the South has no permanent advantage over the North...
...Mencken's own observations, in his book column, invite even closer attention...
...Borah and that it hastened to tell him that he was too late...
...Ales Hrdlicka has amply demonstrated that natural scientists in this country are above the average in physique and in size of head...
...Again, it is becoming increasingly evident that little attention was given to Old Testament subjects, while the discovery of little dramas written for feasts of the Blessed Virgin has brought to light a body of hitherto unnoticed facts...
...r , This statute, which was passed in 1925, puts it into the power of a judge of that state to suspend, without benefit of jury or indeed any sort of preliminary hearing, any publication which he may think guilty of printing "malicious, scandalous or defamatory articles...
...Modern scholarship challenges not a few opinions commonly held regarding the character of the ecclesiastical plays, and the liturgy itself is found to be less dramatic than was formerly supposed...
...Mencken hazards the guess that the existing differences are not important: "the Church will go on winking at heresy hereafter as it has in the past...
...On the whole, however, he appears to have been supported by stubborn facts...
...Experts from the Naval Research Laboratory have secured additional evidence to support a contention that flares of ultra-violet in the sun spots are related to magnetic storms in the earth's atmosphere...
...In Paralleling America the process is always tremenc , dously facilitated by the assumption of a crusading and eloquent foray against some force, real or imaginary, which threatens the country's institutions...
...Schacht has partaken as heartily of the conferential chaos as anybody else, so that suspicions to the effect that he has kept one eye upon future campaigns in the Reich are not wholly unjustified...
...One reason why so much drama has been discerned in the liturgy is that almost anything there suggestive of the theatre has been mistaken for a play—a bit of dialogue, verses and responses, a gesture of reverence, antiphonal utterance, or movements about the choir," says Professor Young...
...In no other domain are we permitted to observe so closely the origin of a literary type...
...It is natural to feel that the old, left alone and infirm after their years of service, ought to be decently housed and cared for...
...Nor has the Publication Committee hesitated to characterize certain legal practices as questionable...
Vol. 10 • May 1929 • No. 1
