Communications
COMMUNICATIONS AMERICA AND THE AGED New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:-Please permit me to present a few criticisms of an article in The Commonweal for December 18, by Professor Carlton J. H. Hayes...
...29.1 Is it possible that prohibition is responsible for the high rates in these dry states as compared with those in the wet states...
...Scheve 65 Nebraska Reports at page 876...
...Is the revolt against the established standards of behavior more common in the country or in the cities...
...He derives much more from my article in The Commonweal of December 18 on America and the Aged than I put into it, and he attributes to me ideas which I have never entertained...
...TO the Editor:-I was struck with the cherry-pie anecdote with which the Reverend J. Elliot Ross closes his paper, Evolution of a Moderate Drinker...
...COMMUNICATIONS AMERICA AND THE AGED New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:-Please permit me to present a few criticisms of an article in The Commonweal for December 18, by Professor Carlton J. H. Hayes which was entitled America and the Aged...
...71.7 Wet States Pennsylvania...
...One is almost tempted to believe that like many other writers on this subject, the Reverend Father is not even aware of the existence of that excellent Catholic daily paper...
...He may be right but I quoted the Chief Justice of the South Dakota Supreme Court who referred to Freeman vs...
...Yet it is specifically this-latter type of a state system of providing for old age, discredited by foreign experience, that is being urged for adoption-in this country and in support of which the writer of this article: cites foreign experience...
...Comparatively few person may be discovered who would care to pay for two daily papers...
...New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:-Mr...
...The first Catholic Truth Society of America organized under the auspices of Archbishop Ireland adopted as its first article, "The publication of short timely articles in the secular press (to be paid for if necessary) on the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic Church...
...Civilization is defined by Webster as...
...Hence the number of readers of the Catholic Daily Tribune is almost negligible...
...Here is a list showing the number per 100,000 of population admitted to state prisons and reformatories in the following states during 1926: Dry States Texas...
...Incidentally, I wish Mr...
...What is to prevent us from smashing right into the millennium-the thousand years in which Satan is to be chained-perhaps the filling of our jails and penitentiaries with wet criminals is just the morning red of this period...
...Has industrialism or city life advanced to a higher degree the physical status and the moral habits of human beings...
...The thesis of that article is that it would be well for the state to assume "responsibility for old age," by granting to its people a right to fixed pensions out of public funds upon condition that they have reached a given old age in a specified state of poverty...
...The facts, however, are very much to the contrary...
...Rev...
...There are many reasons which the writer has discussed before, but here are several of them...
...those in the third zone two days late, and so on...
...I quote Cicero to them: "Of all the occupations by which competence is acquired, none is better than farming, none more profitable, none more pleasant, none more worthy the dignity of a free man...
...BIBLE READING IN THE SCHOOLS Baltimore, Md...
...We might have a commission on their enforcement with committees on each one separately, and the whole under the United States Treasury Department...
...The answer, I presume, is physical health and development-moral habits of behavior according to established standards...
...Sherman has a vivid imagination...
...44.3 Ohio...
...Then the article mentions as significant that "Catholic groups...
...and even among such remainder, generally, there is relatively more distress and destitution among the aged than in the United States...
...but it is material for the purpose of disposing of the myth that approximately all other civilized countries have well-established state systems of old-age security, uniformly operating so satisfactorily and beneficially as to reflect upon us for not adopting some one of such systems for ourselves...
...There are other statements and many implications and contentions in that article to which serious exception should be taken...
...Much may reasonably be contended in favor of compulsory social insurance, though some systems of that type have certainly proved to be unworkable and others are producing alarming results, while a majority are yet in an early stage of experimentation...
...SCIENCE AND RELIGION Rochester, N. Y. TO the Editor:-What is meant in the review signed William F. McGinnis by the following sentence, page 319 in The Commonweal of January 15: "The careful reading of this book of Father Ross's will satisfy many a perplexed mind, will actually convince that the ablest exponents of physics, chemistry, etc., are men without faith, without religion...
...Says Dean Stewart: "If civilization is to progress, there must still be a continued movement away from the farm and toward the city...
...But if he does not like old-age pensions as a remedy, what, precisely, is the "radical reformation of our existing methods of public relief for the needy" which he says he advocates but does not specify...
...Howard W. Toner...
...A high degree of material and social well-being...
...In line with such myth is the further allegation in the article under criticism that the foreign state systems of providing for old age "have been found workable and of benefit wherever they have been tried...
...What is to prevent us from legislating against all the vices...
...There is not a question about the feasibility of the plan, when you consider how much more interesting it is to defend virtue on a good salary and transportation and side-arms and all that, than to practise it privately...
...If poverty-stricken Europe can so labor with partial success, why should not prosperous America labor similarly and with complete success...
...Another trouble is that every reader of a daily paoer wants local news and local advertisements which a national daily cannot possibly give for five hundred or more cities...
...It may seem a little complicated at first, but come to look at it the Ten Commandments would be a good starting-point...
...Now under present conditions only readers within a certain radius, or zone, can obtain the news the day it is printed...
...If he were, would it not have been much more to the purpose if he had explained why it has not achieved the success it so richly deserves...
...I must say that I am tired of attempts to prejudice American Catholics against any and every social reform which happens to be supported by "pink Socialist" or "red Communist" groups...
...I did not say-and I do not think-that economic conditions are worse in the United States than in Europe...
...Has it increased the birth rate, or does the farm still furnish the population for the sterile cities ? Has employment in the industries lengthened or shortened the span of life for men, women and children ? Has the rush to the cities enabled men and women to provide better for their old age...
...The letter was dated at Cork, May 8, 1843, and part of it reads as follows: "As the united bishops of Ireland have especially recommended the faithful, under their jurisdiction to 'read with due reverence and proper disposition' the Holy Bible published by R. Coyne, and as he now proposes to issue the divine volume under the same authority, in twelve parts at sixpence each, so as to meet the means and circumstances of all classes-in order to assist the carrying into effect the recommendation of the venerable prelates, I humbly but most sincerely entreat all the members of the various Total Abstinence Societies-who, I trust, being members of societies, which have produced order, peace, and tranquillity, are prepared to read the Scriptures with 'due reverence and proper disposition'-to avail themselves of such a treasure on such acceptable terms, and thus to join wisdom to temperance or as the Apostle Peter says (2 epistle, i, v. 5-7) 'That employing all care you minister to your faith, virtue: and in virtue, knowledge: and in knowledge, abstinence: and in abstinence, patience: and in patience godliness: and in godliness, love of brotherhood: and in love of brotherhood, charity.' " It would appear that Father Mathew looked on temperance or abstinence, as he likes to call it, as one of the virtues, and he may even have been imbued with the quaint idea that to have virtue an act requires free will on the part of the actor...
...24.0 Rhode Island...
...15.9 Massachusetts...
...Besides this it has split the country into factions called "wet" and "dry" which term is about as descriptive as the War of the Roses was, for the bloody struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster...
...If the Chief Justice was in error I was too...
...What constitutes social and material well-being...
...A national daily paper cannot possibly reach all its readers the day it is published...
...TO the Editor:-As a pastor of a rural parish, interested in the spiritual and material welfare of its members, conscious of the advantages of farm life, of its contribution to our civilization, I desire to question the soundness of Dean Stewart's thesis found in a recent issue of The Commonweal...
...Nobody wants yesterday's paper because it is full of stale news...
...Personally, I would prefer a system of "old-age insurance" to one of "old-age pensions," but I prefer the latter to our existing system (or lack of system...
...It seems to me that Father Mathew does not give much aid or comfort to the prohibitionist...
...First, a daily must be a real newspaper and news is news only while it is fresh...
...Instead of trying to build up a chain of Catholic dailies at an enormous cost, would it not be far cheaper to purchase space in secular papers already established, as two young men did in Pittsburgh some years ago...
...However, if this "experiment" is a success, and Mr...
...Sherman would name the countries in which "the state systems of protection have broken down...
...P. Tecumseh Sherman...
...In order to make up the 650,000,000 people implied to be in a condition of comparative beatitude, it is necessary to include the entire population of Russia, where some 120,000,000 peasants are being harried by the state, with hardly a pretense of any protection for their aged, and the entire population of many other countries in which, variously, the state systems of protection have broken down, are not yet in effect, are not yet developed to cover more than small proportions of the aged, merely mitigate old-age destitution by doles of from $2.00 to $3.00 per month, etc...
...There is a possibility that he may have been intrigued with that curious notion attributed to Saint Augustine, that "through the grace of God we may turn our vices into stepping-stones toward heaven"-a ladder was the simile he used, I believe, or as Tennyson neatly puts it, "That we may rise to higher things On stepping-stones of our dead selves...
...Its-crucial fault is failure to distinguish...
...European Catholics are not so easily diverted from their own course...
...Luigi G. Ligutti...
...Am I wrong...
...I do not admire the Bolshevist experiments in Russia...
...TO the Editor:-Readers of The Commonweal are surprised to see with what frequency the name of the venerable Father Mathew is drawn into the discussion on prohibition...
...28.4 New York...
...This refutation of an invidious comparison between conditions here and abroad is not meant to imply that we are doing enough for the prevention and relief of old-age poverty...
...I am sorry if Canadian Catholics are, and I hope American Catholics will not be...
...But almost nothing can rightly be contended in favor of "old-age pensions" as a definite solution of the problem of old-age security...
...progress as "An advance to a higher degree...
...Rev...
...OUR NEED OF A DAILY PRESS Collegeville, Minn...
...Mark O. Shriver...
...TO the Editor:-The Reverend George W. O'Toole, in The Commonweal for January 1, draws an excellent sketch of what a Catholic daily paper ought to be, but never so much as mentions "our only Catholic daily" having finished its tenth year of useful and precarious existence...
...He says a decision I cite is "a commissioner's decision" since reversed...
...This "noble experiment" is at least a notable experiment, for enough blood has been shed in its enforcement to stage a little civil war, if we include the losses among innocent bystanders, rum-runners, bootleggers, moonshiners and dry agents, nor is the cost unlike wartime bills...
...To support that thesis, the writer pictures faults and deficiencies in our provisions for public relief of the needy aged, and then alleges that, in other countries, at least 650,000,000 people are now "protected" through state systems of providing for old age, the implication being that comparative conditions are greatly to our discredit...
...This is like hiring a taxi instead of purchasing a costly limousine to do our shopping...
...My article was directed against the Elizabethan Poor Law and its sorry progeny in the United States, and in favor of any reasonable and up-to-date state-guaranteed security for old age...
...FATHER MATHEW ON PROHIBITION Mankato, Minn...
...68.8 Oklahoma...
...Is it possible that there has grown up a generation to whom the adorable fatuities of Lord Dundreary are unknown...
...I was not concerned with details...
...This statement of fact is not questioned...
...But it is misleading to present it alone to American Catholic readers without reference to the further facts that un-Catholic, anti-Christian, "pink socialist" and "red communist" groups have been more conspicuous and efficient in advocating framing and putting over a majority of the measures referred to, and that in one country near at hand (Canada) the largest Catholic group has been "foremost" in opposing the measure adopted...
...19.7 Illinois...
...State systems of that specific type certainly have a bad reputation...
...And every government that has long experimented with a measure of the kind has now replaced it, is replacing it or is seeking or hoping to replace it with some form of contributory social insurance...
...have been among the foremost advocates of such measures in Europe...
...William F. Markoe...
...If Marx agrees in any particular with the Pope, it won't be bad for the Pope and it may be good for Marx...
...Volstead himself says it is, surely it opens up a wonderful field for the social reformer...
...The Editors...
...We regret deeply that a typographical omission from Mon-signor McGinnis's manuscript gave his sentence a meaning opposed to what he intended...
...PROHIBITION AND PRISON PERCENTAGES Brooklyn, N. Y. TO the Editor:-The Bureau of the Census of the Department of Commerce has published a report on prison statistics that is interesting reading...
...Enough, however, has been said to indicate that the case for old-age pensions rests upon dubious premises...
...I am not wedded to "old-age pensions" as opposed to "old-age insurance...
...Under our present administration which practically committed itself to the task of "leading in the golden year," the dove of peace can soon be forced to hover over the nation...
...But in order to forestall erroneous inferences, it needs to be explained, before concluding, that the opponents of old-age pensions, while primarily seeking to prevent dependence upon the state for support in old age, instead of propagating it, nevertheless advocate a radical reformation of our existing methods, of public relief for the needy, whether aged or otherwise, and' are no more responsible for the perpetuation of present unsatisfactory conditions among the aged poor than are the proponents of old-age pensions, who are insisting upon their particular program or no reform at all...
...I encourage my parishioners to remain on the farm...
...It is a safe bet that if Father Mathew returned to this mundane sphere, he would not join either camp, but betake himself to a season of prayer...
...P. Prosper Libert, Librarian, Saint Bernard's Seminary...
...EVOLUTION OF A MODERATE DRINKER Philadelphia, Pa...
...Reducing the 650,000,000 fiction approximately to fact by deducting the populations of the countries just referred to, there remain barely 200,000,000 people living under effective state systems of providing for old age that are worthy of the name...
...It is "carrying the war into Africa" instead of waiting for the lost sheep to return to the fold of their own accord...
...TO the Editor:-In The Commonweal of January 1, the Reverend A. Wagner questions a statement made by me in my recent article, Bible Reading in the Schools, regarding Bible reading in Nebraska schools...
...Father Mathew was a strong advocate of temperance in his time and it is interesting to read at this late date that Richard Coyne, a Dublin publisher, requested him to write an open letter to his following, to encourage the sale of a twelve-part Bible that he proposed to issue...
...And I hope he won't confuse the issue by coupling old-age pensions or insurance with the "unemployment doles" of England...
...Such a sweeping proposition exceeds the limits of reasonable contention in every direction...
...Agnes Repplier...
...We would do well to follow Leo XIII in social questions, rather than to flee Karl Marx...
...they are widely deemed to be pauperizing, demoralizing and excessively burdensome ta the tax-payers...
...FARMING AS A BUSINESS Granger, la...
...The foreign state systems of old-age protection are of two essentially different types -"compulsory social insurance" and "old-age pensions...
...Helen Hughes Hielscher...
...Those in the second zone will receive it one day late...
...The sentence should have readr "The careful reading of this book of Father Ross's will satisfy many a perplexed mind, will actually convince that the ablest exponents of physics, chemistry, biology, anthropology, astronomy, are by no means men without faith, without religion...
...The Freeman case may have been overruled but it is certainly not a commissioner's report...
...This would insure that prosperity which we know is coming, for we have seen the posters -at least it would give lots of employment...
...48.2 Kansas...
...A million persons were eagerly reading them at the end of one month...
...Now if there is a single fact featured in his letter that is not exemplified in all its fulness in the Catholic Daily Tribune of Dubuque, Iowa, the writer would be pleased to have his attention called to it...
...37.2 Indiana...
...It is a fact that most European countries (benighted Russia included) have for some time been laboring to assure a measure of old-age security to their citizens...
...Sherman seems to agree with me on the basic point which I tried to make-that we Americans are not doing enough for the prevention and relief of old-age poverty...
Vol. 11 • January 1930 • No. 13
