Communications
June I2, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 159 COMMUNICATIONS T LET THE QUESTION BE DISCUSSED Reading, Mass. o the Editor :--Your dry correspondent from a rather moist state chides The Commonweal for not...
...We know that moral conditions among the clergy were by no means bad...
...T AGAINST AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE Los Angeles, Cal...
...I have no re-grets that I did not succumb to this false glamour of alien empire, though, unhappily, thousands of my countrymen took my place...
...What system did it follow...
...FATHER MONROE, S.J...
...They were well known in Alaska...
...In the course of a year do the pages of articles, etc., by the whole army total I,ooo...
...3. That the League and sponsors of the dry movement have absolutely no faith in their paper prohibition majorities --but on the contrary have an unhealthy fear of the voice of the people...
...Furthermore, you forget that minorities never can argue or debate in the manner of majorities...
...For instance, Dr...
...More evidence on this point I might cite, but why haul coals to Newcastle...
...Hudson certainly thought of them, but as he had room for one name only in his story he took mine, and made me an Irishman...
...When Sena- tor Sheppard introduced a prohibition bill for the District of Columbia, Senator Underwood asked that the people of the District be allowed to pass on the question by means of a referendum...
...Re Mexico: one can study Mexico fairly well here...
...The League was successful in accomplishing this result recently in Missouri...
...very few I knew by their real name...
...W. A. BIxE...
...THOMAS HEAL'Z...
...In 1893, Dr...
...Gouverneur Paulding's article, The Funeral of Foch...
...So much so, that Khayyam may soon become a "best seller...
...And "apostles of Christ" appeals to some of us more than does "soldiers of Christ...
...Well, the official organ of the League--the American Issue--frankly stated that "the spirit of service and self-sacrifice exemplified in an efficient and loyal staff made it possible to take advantage of the war situation and of the confusion which He Whom we serve has wrought among our enemies...
...These random thoughts on this much discussed question lead one to the following conclusions: I. That the dry movement in its origin and growth and old age is essentially and basically rooted in the quicksands of hysteria and fanaticism...
...o the Editor :--Your dry correspondent from a rather moist state chides The Commonweal for not devoting more space to the question of the hour...
...We should also have schools for natives here---we have none on the coast...
...CoNeD REIn...
...And I gather from discussions with Mexicans of the better class that the absence of clergy does not affect the people's emotions to any appreciable degree --that is, the people of Mexico...
...Russell made the following humble comment: "In the awed silence of my heart, I was compelled to believe the statement true...
...Mr...
...Russell was introduced to a church audience in the following manner: "There was a man sent from God whose name was John...
...In a more literal connotation, not only is a soldier selfless but he is less every faculty that marks a rational being, save that it be the primitive, and not solely rational, one of self-preservation, where he certainly spoils everything by his supreme selfishness...
...Modest and un-assuming as he was, Dr...
...The League opposed and defeated this proposal...
...First: The Mexicans are all Catholics, but here there are not enough of them who go to church to make a good congre- gation...
...It is a pity...
...May I be permitted a little space for a few random thoughts on the subject...
...Are we never to grow up about this...
...There is plenty of work to do here, and the friends of our missions do not need to come here to help to do it...
...Noble Peter...
...In my own sense, I agree with Mr...
...Simply this, they plainly show that present-day dry fanaticism is nothing new--it being a congenital characteristic of the movement...
...But perhaps (to the scorners and sceptics) I argue for the ideal world, where men will trust and love one another...
...I could not conceal it if I wanted to...
...O the Editor:--I wish respectfully to lodge my protest at your publication of W. M. F. Connelly's letter in your issue of May I. It is distinctly out of p!ace in your usually courteous and thoughtful columns...
...but, frankly, I could not recognize myself at all...
...Hudson made me die on the field of my labors...
...Mar-shal Foch's is merely a soldier's message...
...Could I ask you to correct the impression that some of your readers who may have known me in Alaska may have formed from the reading of your number of April Io, and let them know that Father Monroe of Alaska is yet alive...
...Perhaps some more of your readers will feel interested in hearing of our labors in Alaska...
...Attempts have been made to secure a national referendum on the question since the adoption of the Eighteenth Amend- ment but the League has frustrated every such attempt...
...I must have been past forty when he met me...
...By all means let us keep up with the Moslems--our Janissary Joneses...
...In Massachusetts last fall the League even resorted to court action in an attempt to prevent the citizens of this state from voting on the question of repeal...
...JAMES J. DESMOND...
...The Anti-saloon League in pre-prohibition days continually stressed the fact that with the passing of the saloon, crime would go the way of all flesh...
...We are too poor...
...The fact remains, however, that the League never once willingly allowed the people to pass on the question directly...
...What did the Allies prove to Germany or she to the Allies, other than the fact that misguided mortals can still maim and destroy one another...
...Prohibitionists generally link up the Anti-saloon League with Almighty God...
...it is equally true there was a man sent from God whose name was Russell...
...T FATHER MONROE Wrangell, Alaska...
...Today those who are left know in bitterness what the honor of arms means...
...What methods did it use...
...However, the news of my demise is premature...
...Paulding when he says that "war is one thing and the selfless soldier is another," and indeed so much another that under the hysteria of war I doubt if there is such a phenomenon as a selfless soldier, whether he be dragged in by the draft or lured in by lies about the enemy...
...so he could well suppose that I was dead...
...We have Mexican dailies, and we are the largest Mexican city save for Mexico City...
...I camped many nights with fortune companions had never seen before, and did not expect to see again...
...Prohibitionists flatly deny that they took advantage of the war "to put over" the Eighteenth Amendment...
...I beg of you...
...The League at present is attempting to prevent the people of the state of Illinois from having an opportunity to express their opinion on the merits of prohibition...
...He mentions Father JettY...
...Hoover...
...But could not Father Duffy or someone be secured to write gently a few intimations that, though Calles is a murderer, etc...
...Born in confu- sion it seems destined to die in confusion...
...of course he is) nevertheless the tragedy might teach some good and perhaps needed lessons...
...De la Huerta, Popete, Valenzuela, etc., etc., live here...
...As one who comes from a race which bows to no nation in the "honor of arms" and which received the last public message given out by Marshal Foch, praising it for this very thing, I have not much faith in that phrase as an ideal to be observed...
...I trust some psychologist or some sort of logist will soon try to get to the bottom of those strange and empty euphemisms we mortals give to wars and the rumors of wars...
...Fourthly: What do the 20,000 priests of this country do intellectually...
...well, I have been thirty-six years in Alaska...
...Secondly: Is not the Church somehow to blame...
...Ten days more passed before I could procure this number of The Commonweal...
...Governor Smith asked that the people of his state be allowed to pass on the question of ratification through a refer- endum...
...The Commonweal is doing good work...
...and of the name of Mr...
...and one wonders what it proves...
...2. That its fantastic claim that prohibition would bring about a moral regeneration in American life is refuted by the greatest exponent of the "noble experiment"--Mr...
...Of course I mushed in winter, I tramped in summer, hundreds of miles along Alaska trails...
...The Boston Bar Association recently had a poll on the question and the League did every- thing possible to discredit the Boston Bar for taking this action...
...O the Editor :--Please : je vous en prie...
...They know that from such a pompous premise the world every now and then sets forth to prove something or other...
...Thanks to God I enjoy very good health yet, and would feel able for a good run after huskies were I back to upper Alaska...
...They were Tom, Harry, Walter, Big Alec, Windy Jim...
...The League defeated this proposal, ostensibly because if it was to be ratified by conventions, this would necessarily bring the question directly before the people in the election of delegates to these conventions...
...The tide is running against the "noble experiment...
...and I would not dare to compare myself to these heroes of charity and self-sacrifice...
...Why publish such a piece of ill-considered, fanatical eye-wash, as inexpensive as it is idiotic and an affront to your intelligent readers...
...The man thinks as a militarist...
...I am a Frenchman...
...certainly he knew Father Judge, and perhaps also Father Treca, Father Rossi and others whom God has called to their reward...
...For instance, Representative Mann of Illinois pro- posed that ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment be by conventions in the states...
...It has faith enough in its cause to be willing to submit it to the arbitrament of the majority...
...T Port Deposit, Md...
...O the Editor :--I have not the pleasure of receiving The Commonweal, and in the little town of southeastern Alaska where I am now, very few would be expected to read your highly literary review...
...Deciding to yield to neither, he goes to prison-- the patriotic cul de sac...
...The American Issue, prior to the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment, went on record as follows: "The Anti-saloon League believes in self-government...
...Its official organ--the Ameri- can Issue--is authority for the statement that "the saloon produces 80 percent of the criminals in the country...
...Russell, the reputed founder of the League, publicly stated that "The Anti-saloon League was begun by Almighty God...
...I was informed of it from several points between Lower California and northern Alaska...
...If only they could supply us with the means we need and have not, they would muhiply our efforts, and reap a great part of the merits due to the good we would be able to achieve...
...Wrangell is much admired by the tourists that crowd in Alaska every summer...
...I do not doubt that the gentleman met many of our fathers in northern Alaska...
...What have these facts to do with the present-day controversy...
...And then I wondered at the beautiful things Mr...
...The Anti-saloon League defeated this pro-posal...
...but as long as we rejoice in the honor of arms, so long perhaps shall we suffer from the dishonor of wars...
...without them we cannot do half the work we should otherwise be able to do...
...We know that on the whole the clergy were not greedy...
...And Christ, his Master, chided him and told him to put back the sword...
...If this be true may I respectfully and reverently ask what Almighty God was doing between the time of the creation of the world and the year I832 when He founded the League...
...T THE FUNERAL OF FOCH New York, N. Y. the Editor:--I read with interest in your issue ofO May 15 Mr...
...do not publish letters such as that from Atlantic City in your issue of May I. That "direct action" is nonsense...
...June I2, 1929 THE COMMONWEAL 159 COMMUNICATIONS T LET THE QUESTION BE DISCUSSED Reading, Mass...
...I remember how thrilled I was as a boy to see the Enni- skillen Dragoons and Munster Fusiliers swinging by on parade, carbines gleaming and dressed deliberately in garb that would appeal to the youth of my race...
...It seems (I do not wish to be dogmatic) that religion means very little to them...
...The idea is repugnant to religion...
...Waker R. Hudson had to say about this Father Monroe...
...Somehow I think of Peter the Apostle, that kind and humble fisherman with the heart of fire, who trembled with a burning anger when he struck the servant of the high priest with his drawn sword...
...Walter Hudson I regret to have no remembrance...
...Keep it up...
...but I wonder what he fully means by say- ing that "Catholics must not leave the honor of arms to be defended by the Japanese and the Moslems...
...Unhappily mine is not the Irish I6o THE COMMONWEAL June I2, I9z 9 brogue...
...our old Alaskans are today scattered all over the Pacific coast...
...And yet, crime is increasing at such an alarm- ing rate that one might almost be led to the grotesque conclu- sion that the saloon placed a salutary restraint on the criminal...
...The saloon is gone and with it should have gone 80 percent of the criminals...
...The town is pretty, and the scenery is beautiful, but my church is poor, and badly needs renovating if not rebuilding...
...So April was coming to its end before I heard that in your number of April lO you had consecrated three pages of your review to eulogize an old missionary of Alaska, dead today, Father Monroe...
...Tis time for humanity to rid itself of such benighted bugaboos...
...Thirdly: I know that we laymen are handicapped in this matter...
...Yet they were out of contact at many points with their people...
...We cannot publicly criticize the insane actions of the Knights of Columbus that would have us intervene...
...Does he imply the omen of a coming oriental terror...
...In writing Mr...
Vol. 10 • June 1929 • No. 6
