Communications

...Of course I know (and stated) that the first clergymen in Maryland declined to take part in legislative enactments...

...For answer, let us look at Europe, i.e., continental Europe...

...And so, perhaps instead of the formula "Europe" which Count Sforza offers for M. Briand, we may substitute a universal formula--"Good Economics, Good Manners, Good Morals"--the latter being the indispensable factor without which all other efforts for peace will prove futile...

...Henry Ford: "The female mind has no real place in the world of industry or mechanics...

...He warned the reader to look, not for a coherent system of thought but only for a series of dramatizations of diverse, possibly inconsistent, moods--the moods of various characters in varying situations...

...THE JESTER ERRS Brooklyn, N. Y. O the Editor :--You take Will Rogers to task for a statement expressing his faith in the future of aviation despite a number of recent air tragedies...

...Is not the second quotation a simple statement of fact like the first...

...CHRISTOPHER I. FITZGERALD...

...I do not understand the unsupported charge that some of the treatment would tend to "disturb the Catholic reader who knows his Maryland history"--if for no other reason than that all these conclusions were submitted to historians and priests of the Catholic communion, several of whom have specialized upon phases of Maryland history...

...What could be more humane or Christian than for each new labor-saving device to mean not a curtailment of personnel, but a curtailment of working hours, so that the same productivity at the same cost at the same price to the purchaser is achieved in fewer working hours--in other words, giving the laboring masses the benefit of the time saved through inventive changes...

...She says a man calling himself a Catholic was the one who underwrote her speeches and used, in the National Republican Committee, the only weapon that could have been so successfully used to defeat the greatest leader that Democracy ever knew, Alfred E. Smith...

...The pieces are in a large degree dramatic or personative in conception...

...O the Editor :--I am writing a biography of Kate Chopin (I85I-I9O4) the American authoress, whose short stories were popular in the nineties and whose novel, The Awakening, aroused much criticism in 1899...

...If that grim attitude had prevailed in New York, for example," you go on, referring to the remark about accidents at grade crossings, "we should never have had the movement for the total abolition of grade crossings that is now the settled policy of the state...

...M. UNIONIZING THE FAITHFUL Maryknoll, N. Y. O the Editor:--I wish to remind the writer of Unionizing the Faithful, which appeared in The Commonweal some time ago, that the maxim attributed to Saint Paul was not formulated by the great Apostle, but by Saint Augustine, and reads as follows: "In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, et in omnibus charitas...

...We have a family of nine...

...We believe all faiths, all creeds, all sects and even atheists have the right of assembly and selfexpression, and while we do not commend their opinions, we pray for them and hope for their enlightenment...

...JoHlq ADAMS...

...If his emotion appears to him as an intensification of a good judgment, he values it as a healthy bodily resonance...

...and when any law deserves respect, its enforcement offers slight difficulty...

...S. RANKII~,S...

...She has organized a Democratic Club to work definitely for democracy in the next four years, securing in the meantime knowledge of many subjects, like the Root Protocol tariff, Senate investigations and the alliance between Britain and America for world peace...

...In the course of time the Assembly of itself undertook to defend this principle in Lord Baltimore's best fashion, as when that body rebuked a newcomer of the Presbyterian Church, Reverend Charles Nicholet, who essayed a political sermon before the colonial legislature...

...If M. Briand can make every European frontier a market-place instead of a line of battle, more power to him] But economic give and take is not a complete solution of the peace problem...

...ANDREWS REPLIES TO HIS CRITICS Baltimore, Md...

...Hardy always addressed his poems to the intelligent reader, and he knew that the reader who values and exercises his intelligence tends to distinguish clearly between the values of various emotions...

...For example, it does not seem to me that I have belittled the idealism of Lord Baltimore...

...Now the mother feels that her time is her own and devotes that time to Catholic organizations, like the National Catholic Welfare Council, Catholic Evidence Guild, etc., as well as to politics...

...MATTHEW PAGE ANDREWS...

...REv...

...Had she been a man and washed and aired the dirty linen of the Republican party, she would have secured for herself a seat in the Cabinet...

...Upon what theory are we as a people less polite than our State Department is...

...The more intelligent he is, the surer he wants to be that his emotion follows, and does not precede, an act of intellectual or moral judgment on the experience which has induced it...

...it is not enterprising or precise enough, and not fond enough of responsibility...

...This remark he repeated ahnost verbatim in the preface to his second volume of lyrics...

...and then either retracted his arraignment of the Jews or said he was irresponsible...

...It is unfortunately true that, notwithstanding the use of all safety devices known today, and the abolition of grade crossings, the railroads are still killing people by the wholesale...

...But in so far as his emotions follow automatically in the wake of unexamined stimuli, he regards himself as an ignorant victim of his purely physical impulses...

...New York: The Macmillan Gompany...

...Isn't it almost invariably suspicious or hostile...

...One thing more that Mrs...

...All letters submitted will be copied and faithfully returned...

...o the Editor :--In The Commonweal of September 25, I929, referring to some recent airplane accidents, you remark, "It is time for Will Rogers, and all other writers, to lead in the demand for a very strict and effective regulation of aviation...

...The next forward step might well be a more widespread cultivation of good manners among the people everywhere-first of all, right here at home...

...Hence Hardy's careful and iterated warning, and his stated aim to record diverse human phenomena as data which should be felt as well as known by those who seek a sound attitude toward life...

...It was for this reason that Matthew Arnold was dissatisfied with many of the English Romantic poets--even with Wordsworth--since he declared that they simply "did not know enough...

...It is almost pathetic to discover it upon opening every one of the eight several books of verse which he produced before his death...

...The tendency of reuniting the church and state was always present...

...It appears that George and Cecil Calvert held, in progressive ratio, perhaps, the ideas advanced by Sir Edwin Sandys, who invited the so-called "Pilgrim Fathers" to repatriate themselves under the British flag in Virginia...

...Not only do inventors, designers and others connected with the industry labor ceaselessly for the purpose of minimizing the dangers of traveling in airships, but municipalities are now taking a part in the movement by appointing competent "air policemen" who are of much value in bringing about a thorough regulation of aviation...

...Moline, Ill...

...Permit me to take this opportunity to register my opinion that The Commonweal represents the best of contemporary journalistic endeavor, Catholic or otherwise...

...What is there about democracy which develops a superiority complex, that we should treat with levity, and sometimes with derision, forms of government other than our own, and speak disrespectfully of rulers who are respected by their own people...

...SPEAKING OF WOMEN Pittsburgh, Pa...

...Just how many years is it since Mr...

...FROM MR...

...Obviously, however, they cannot thus condemn a poem (assuming that it succeeds in evoking the intended emotion) if the poet explicitly disclaims such an intention-if he asks them to appreciate it merely as drama, as an educational document, a photograph of a human mind in an interesting state or situation, as a "slice of life...

...Official diplomatic intercourse is polite, elaborately so, and that very formalism is a safeguard against lapsing into careless utterance...

...THE EXPERTS LOOK AT UNEMPLOYMENT New York, N. Y. O the Editor :--It is my opinion that the solution for unemployment arising from technological sources is apparent and, in fact, is being forced to some extent by the unions...

...The weapon was his religion...

...and this even where they are not obviously so...

...MATERIAL ON KATE CHOPIN REQUESTED South Langhorne, Pa...

...At any rate, the Calverts put into actual practice that which Sandys proposed--that and much more...

...But even while aviation is in its infancy, the proportion of fatal accidents, statisticians will tell you, is far less than that of railroads when they first began to lay claim to public approval...

...Had a nominal Catholic advised me in politics and had I not made more of a study of both parties, I might have sailed under the banner of the G. O. P., as did many of my sisters not so well informed...

...But what is there about democracy which would seem to give to non-official utterance in international affairs a license to disregard the ordinary rules of courtesy...

...Such a reader rightly distrusts an emotion which follows a stimulus without the intervention of his critical faculties...

...MR...

...LUCIEN ZACHAROFF...

...to make pause at that point is a surrender to the absurd philosophy of economic determinism which would derive all religious and social standards from the dinner pail, and cure all ills by the same token...

...J. B. CULEMANS...

...I did, however, attempt to show that in every case of colonization pure idealism did not exist, even though this absolute purity is apparently claimed by some of the historians of the second English colony, the members of which, it is said, also set out to worship God according to their conscience...

...I should like to take exception to this...

...It is with surprise that I note The Commonweal declaring for Bertrand Russell when he tells us that America is overfeminized...

...It is a fair assumption that buildings will be constructed more rapidly in a five-day week now enjoyed by the building trades with the aid of time-saving devices than formerly in a six-day week...

...We can have no other sentiment than that of approval for such a policy, but you will admit that while efforts are in progress for its realization, not a day passes without a number of fatal accidents at those crossings not yet eliminated...

...Let that body of law be rewritten, so that the righteous weak may hope for judgment against the injustice of the strong, and international law will deserve respect...

...DANIEl...

...I don't mean, of course, sympathy of a maudlin or extreme character ;, but a sensible sympathy...

...While Mrs...

...Then again, in his suit with a very able Jew he was put to rout in his own case and sued for about $I,OOO,OOO (am I right...

...it belongs in the home, where inventiveness and accuracy are not called for, and where the making of decisions is not often necessary...

...Those who thus demand for their cherished aesthetic experiences a sound foundation in logic or ethics, may reasonably justify their condemnation of many an ecstatic poem on the assumption that the poet is implicitly calling for their approval of what he presents as a sincere outpouring of a worth-while gust of emotion...

...When railroads made their d~but, or rather when the first deaths resulted from the deficiencies of grade crossings, there was an outcry against the unreliability of that method of transportation...

...Furthermore, it is my belief that Sir George Calvert, as Principal Secretary of State, backed up this invitation with the authority of a patent --a matter which I still have under investigation...

...BLACKSHEAR Brooklyn, N. Y. Oethe Editor :--Thank you for the courtesy of sending a marked copy of your issue of October 9May I add to my word of thanks in regard to this matter, that you have evidently overlooked the utterances of Monsignor John L. Belford in his October issue of the Nativity Mentor...

...He repeated this statement insistently, almost as a supplication, at apparently every opportunity...

...No Protestant could possibly have been such a Judas...

...But why must our own prosperity force us to deny prosperity to Europe...

...O the Editor :--In your Week by Week column for October 9 there appears this indictment of women's mental limitations paraphrased from Mr...

...The third step forward must be an infusion of the principles of justice and charity into the code of international law, much of which is now nothing more than the will of the strong...

...all are grown to manhood and womanhood, have married and are now raising Catholic men and women for the Church of God, making citizens in all sense of the word...

...REv...

...It is really intense in its interest, splendidly written, and full of sympathy...

...Willebrandt has shown courage and has fearlessly turned upon those who would connive at subterfuge and expediency, she has done more to turn both honest and clearthinking men and women of all creeds from the ranks of the Republican party than she has ever done to aid it...

...O the Editor :--To one who believes in much smaller navies than those planned by the "smaller-navy-for-us" men, the parity parley at Washington looks llke the prologue to a play called Balance of Sea-Power Alliance, opening with a smoke-screen cleverly timed to beguile the audience (consisting of a formless mob called "public opinion") into the belief that when the smoke blows away a tableau of perpetual peace will stand revealed...

...both Anglican and Puritan succeeded, at one period or another...

...Lord Baltimore had true ideals, for which he was prepared to sacrifice all...

...but it was thereafter that the founders of Maryland established the rule excluding ecclesiastics from the deliberations of the Provincial Assembly...

...It does.not seem reasonable to suppose that Hardy insisted on this point merely in order to prevent hasty persons from reading all his poems as circumstantial autobiography and from attempting thereby to reconstruct the external events of his life, which was actually an unmelodramatic one...

...Leaving aside criminal negligence, which no law seems ever able to reach altogether until the harm is done, if anyone could make rules against storms and fogs and cloudbursts, there would be no collisions on land or water, and no airplane accidents...

...When he sent forth his third collection, he again insisted that the poems "are to be regarded in the main as dramatic monologues by different characters...

...I should like here and now to congratulate Mrs...

...Sandys was "out of sorts" with the king, while Calvert was high in royal favor...

...A. COTTA...

...I cannot forbear quoting one of these, a physical and spiritual hero if there ever was one, because his devotion to duty after a body-wrecklng accident shows a truly consecrated soul...

...Your attitude is unjustified...

...And so do automobiles and water-going craft of all kinds...

...Ford, who comments so unfavorably upon the abilities of women and in his summary of their attributes and prerogatives designates their status, with his great inventive genius decided upon a "peace ship...

...Allow me to say by way of comment that you might profitably look up the very strict and effective Air Commerce Regulations, published and enforced, as far as any human agency can do so, by the Department of Commerce Aeronautics Branch...

...You brand as "that safe generality" his remark that "travel by air is here to stay...

...Willebrandt's opinion, however, of woman's mind, considering her many handicaps I am fully in sympathy, and feel that, given the same opportunity as men, the same physique and stature, her valuation would not only be on a parity but would excel because of application and honesty...

...It was her speeches that secured the Solid South only to break it and place upon a President's cha/r a man who has avowed openly that he owes nothing to Catholics...

...the mother has raised and put through college their four boys 674 T H E C O M and three girls...

...Count Carlo Sforza, in his recent article in The Commonweal, Can Europe Be United?, draws attention to that forward-looking statesman, Aristide Briand, who is seeking to find a basis for economic unity among the various States, which our press generally refers to as the United States of Europe...

...I will be grateful to readers of The Commonweal who may possess original letters to or by Kate Chopin, or who may have first-hand reminiscences of her llfe and literary activities...

...And though I cannot admire the course she pursued, I do admire her courage...

...October 30, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 673 COMMUNICATIONS CAN EUROPE BE UNITED...

...Willebrandt that there are Catholic women who admire the stand she took, even if her speeches were concocted "up in Mabel's room," as Heywood Broun says...

...and in pursuing the ideal of the separation of church and state, he encountered more or less opposition on the part of all churches of that day, regardless of sect or creed...

...After reading the manuscript of The History of Maryland, Province and State, he wrote to me as follows: M O N W E A L October 3o, I929 "The story of Maryland, as you give it, continues in the same lofty strain as that in which the other manuscripts you sent me was written...

...Why do we as indlvlduals--why does our press--refer to "dictators" in Lithuania, Poland, Spain or Italy...

...WILLIAM S. BLACKSHEAR...

...L40 HEN Hardy definitely abandoned his career as a novelist and published his first collection of short poems, back in 1898, he remarked in his preface...

...BOOKS The Moods of Hardy 8elected Poems of Thomas Hardy...

...A similar reaction prevails at present in some misinformed quarters regarding flying...

...But leaving that all aside, I want to assure Mrs...

...In parts, however, it seems to me that the review shows misapprehensions, for which I am doubtless at fault in not having made my position clear...

...What is America's reaction to this proposition ?--using the word reaction to describe a mind working without thinking...

...Must we, because we are united and secure, deny like blessings to war-ravaged Europe...

...O the Editor:--I appreciate the kind words of Grace H. Sherwood with regard to The History of Maryland, Province and State...

...And sympathy, as I believe I remarked to you, is, in my opinion, positively necessary in order that one may do justice to a subject...

...And Wordsworth himself, in his saner moments, held that every good poem, no matter how impassioned, must make "good sense...

...In aviation attempts are now made to increase the safety of aerial transit, in spite of the fact that in subsequent sentences you imply the absence of such attempts...

...Willebrandt should know-Catholics are not bigots...

...Of course, some weasel-word substitute for "alliance" must be found l The ever-recurring question arises--do they want peace...

...Willebrandt for setting our minds aright on the issue of the last campaign...

...for the evidence seems to indicate that Cecil Calvert was one of the greatest figures in world history...

...It is far more likely that he was acutely sensible of the important fact that when a lyric poet gives impassioned utterance to an emotion, without commenting on it explicitly, he is generally understood to approve that emotion, to propagate it as an experience worth having for its own sake...

...The pamphlet is to be obtained for the asking...

...With Mrs...

...I venture to say that few critics of aviation are familiar with it~ Hence by way of further suggestion, you might get some competent writer to explain those regulations in The Commonweal for the benefit of your readers who are laboring under October 3 ~, I929 THE COMMONWEAL 675 a false impression that nothing is being done...

...You severely condemn, however, the assertion that airplane accidents "will be taken the same as we take the news that a train at a grade crossing has killed a truckload of people, just a matter of fact...

...A CATHoIac WOMA~r...

...Would or could any woman have been so foolish...

...the father is an outstanding business man...

...Well, I fail t~ see wherein lles the sin of Will Rogers...