Week by Week
WEEK BY WEEK MBRIAND, having the naval conference off his • mind for the time being, and well satisfied that he has made the most of his opportunity to put both America and England in place, ...
...We have already joined our enthusiasm to that of many others who have hailed the advent of this publication...
...This contained the phrase: "Such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infidels, papists and other idolators...
...Excelsior recently devoted a full* page to a bishop's pastoral outlining the character of civil authority and the nature of the obligations it can exact...
...If all this is vintage news, we have missed our guess...
...There is no such alleviation in Mr...
...To our great regret we feel compelled to state that this document does not seem to alter the situation in the least...
...1 WO important pamphlets now in press have been designed by the Universal Knowledge Foundation to augment the use of the New Catholic Augmenting a Dictionary in classrooms...
...IN A recent issue we published a resume of the controversy between Father Walsh and Time regarding the status of religious persecution in Time and Russia...
...an American family and several other English families also read and believed his story, with this difference, that each claimed him for their son...
...it must follow naturally that anything which would insure a practical acquaintance, and a knowledge of, its contents takes on high desirability...
...and Mr...
...The number of inabout stitutions caring for the sick is increasHospitals ing, and an endless amount of hard work is being expended to improve the agencies of remedial care...
...WEEK BY WEEK MBRIAND, having the naval conference off his • mind for the time being, and well satisfied that he has made the most of his opportunity to put both America and England in place, turns Briand again to the Economic Federation of j . Europe which he launched at Geneva nquires jagt vear jje ^as prepare(j a questionnaire to sound out the governments of the twenty-six nations which figure in his plan...
...The president has apparently recovered to some extent from his wounds, bandits are not more Mexican active than usual, and talk of industrial p development is in the air...
...He said"—thus and so...
...W E MUST confess that our chief disappointment at the recently incarcerated Jason M. Roberts, now out on bail, is not that he got funny We Are with the census man, but that he really Not didn't get funny...
...Publication of the offensive cartoon is defended on the ground that Father Walsh had sent copies of it to priests, who had shown it to others...
...When MusWhv We solini recently announced that the T tt Eternal City was to be built to a 2,000,eave ome oqo capac;tv—more than twice its present population—he added the stern proviso that the new plans were to be regulated, in speed and scope, by the necessity of preserving the old beauties...
...that the record of torture and imprisonment since 1927, as given, is at least as harrowing as the story of the Ohio penitentiary debacle...
...Only, we say, if a citizen here and there is impelled to risk the prescribed penalty —six months' imprisonment and $500 fine—for the sake of inditing replies that are witty instead of informative let them at least be witty...
...ONE bill regarding which there could be no difference of opinion was introduced some time ago by Representative Ross A. Collins, of MissisCongress and siPPL Indeed, if it were not for the dicT 11 tates of economy the matter would have incunabula been taken care of in a jiffy...
...On the Mayflower "he invariably appeared in a yachting cap...
...r OR the second time within a few weeks, Rome proves how unprogressive she is, measured by our standards of civilization...
...This document was so lucid and amenable that all who read it must have been impressed with the reasonableness of the Catholic claims...
...The image of Coolidge, "the ° silent man who believes in economy and work," he says, was carefully built up by the real Coolidge long before his presidential days...
...It is all an achievement regarding which "circumstances" do not have to be borne in mind...
...The fact remains that its appearance in Time, adorned with cynical comment, necessarily seemed to any Christian that something more than bad taste which is malice...
...A guy went to jail for making cracks about the census questions...
...it is anything but that...
...Roberts...
...For years he was so j . entirely a poets' poet that his appointment to the Laureateship was followed by an almost universal interrogation...
...What becomes of the qualifying assertion that Rykov is probably right because the Soviet state has publicly proclaimed God its arch-enemy, wherefore religious belief has become treason...
...Whereas so many even of the best poets never surmounted one manner—the etching of Hardy, the laconic imagism of Housman— Robert Bridges had an astounding insight into the suppleness of forms...
...Collins, and we shall be on hand with a bouquet if the Gutenberg is welcomed to Washington...
...The magazine has since circu...
...Yeats is his only modern rival...
...A declaration of this kind, declared the commission, is hardly "consonant with the religious temper of our day" and ought to be deleted...
...Well, he ought to go to jail...
...One has only words of approval for such language, the converse of which is approximately what Catholics would use respecting Presbyterians...
...He gave recipes to the White House chef, and played pranks on the secret service men...
...It strikes us again that the Federation is an idea with which M. Briand cannot fail to triumph...
...Not all of these are as definite and clear-cut as desirable, but when we are told that "the home and the haetera are cleverly jockeying for position" our assent is likely to be given sadly but sincerely...
...Pell redresses some of the values of the conventional Coolidge portrait, but we don't believe he will surprise the public much...
...This treatment is in keeping with the assertion that Father Walsh's pamphlet was "put forth in such a way as to persuade" Catholics into believing that the old era of atrocities in Russia is still continuing...
...That such a man should have left his mark was as inevitable as that carving it should have taken him a long time...
...Two objections were advanced: that the Library needed funds for other purposes and that the purchase of such a collection would deter citizens from making bequests...
...Apart from all this is the indisputable value of such a fund of incunabula for the student of printing, book-making and culture...
...Intellectually blind in several astonishing ways, he attained nevertheless to an exceptionally comprehensive culture which seldom left him the victim of a theory...
...The most curious aspect of the explanation, however, is the phrase that Father Walsh admitted that Rykov is "probably technically correct" in ascribing Soviet antireligious activity to fighting the "counter-revolution...
...Undoubtedly the Bible has been the great book of American civilization, and quite as undeniably possession of the Gutenberg copy would make the Library a place which countless throngs would visit...
...Let us note that all the "atrocities" listed have occurred during the past ten years...
...Social critics are always pointing out that comfort should be considered before a mere craze for mechanical devices...
...JL/IKE almost every other moral agency in the United States, the Presbyterian Church has observed with alarm the spread of divorce and sexual The Presby- laxity...
...One item is a unique three-volume Gutenberg Bible—absolutely the only one of its kind in existence, and held to be worth a round million dollars...
...The purposes of the pamphlet are clearly set forth on the first page...
...as President, emitting smileless and unique drolleries...
...and that more than thirteen hundred churches are reported to have been closed during the past year...
...as governor during the Boston police strike, when "a brilliant little proclamation" gave him the Vice-Presidency...
...From this point of view, Mr...
...The flexibility of Bridges's instrumentation is likewise a tribute to his carefully achieved integrity...
...And now it appears that a good many Roman landlords are making trouble for tenants who want to own radios...
...The news that Senor Rubio and the apostolic delegate enjoyed a "most cordial meeting" may (though it was not mentioned by correspondents to the daily press resident in Mexico) be accepted as a kindly omen...
...It was to fill such a need that the Dictionary was published...
...The old denunciatory verdicts, born of a different psychosis in a long-past age, should disappear from the modern religious vocabulary without making room for flabbiness or the variety of "good-will" which would, THE COMMONWEAL May 7, 1930 apparently, induce some exponents to the Gospel to welcome even Anti-Christ into their pulpits...
...Civic reformers are always telling us that other things are important to a city besides rapidity of growth...
...To summarize what is being done by the Catholic body in this vast field, a special number of Hospital Progress (March, 1930) has been devoted to a statistical survey...
...He cannot plead the quality of the born entertainer whose quips and cranks and wanton Will Rogerisms are their own excuse for being—"Can you speak English ?" "No...
...This almost incredible story illustrates what we have all helplessly felt time and again: that there is a grotesque element which tragedy shares with farce...
...That's what I said...
...For lack of a work like this," the editors declare, "it has been impossible hitherto to give students the broad and inspiring outlook they should have on Catholic life...
...Some few findings may be listed here...
...JL/IFE would seem to have grown calmer in Mexico...
...Many Roman Catholics," the commissioners went on to say, "are sincere and intelligent believers in Our Lord Jesus Christ, and marriages with them may be 'in the Lord,' even though such marriages may be beset with dangers...
...Secondly, the conclusion that Father Walsh had published only "out-of-date" stories is held justifiable on the ground that only one ecclesiastic was reported to have been shot after 1923, though there were "some cases of exile and imprisonment...
...But even those who either did not read or failed to be impressed have apparently tired of the kind of progress which General Calles adapted from the Moscow original...
...He not only convinced the soldier's father...
...A famous German collector of books, Dr...
...1 HOUGH the large results of war are still with us, the sense of its separate personal tragedies has so far receded that an item like the one just Fl i,k t reported from Budapest brings re, yjy minder with something of a shock...
...According to the figures given 23 percent of all the children born in hospitals see the light of day under Catholic supervision...
...And what is the real identity that Mr...
...to interest them in learning the many things they should know over and above what they get in the textbook or classroom...
...one can but hope that it will be utilized with all thoroughness...
...Our vote is cast for Mr...
...ROBERT BRIDGES, whose death at an advanced age was reported on April 21, might fairly claim to have assumed with courage all the risks The Poet °^ individuality...
...It is our fate, that is, our rooted character, to be a progressive which may explain, in every sense, why we travel so much...
...When the number of available beds is taken into consideration, the proportion is still more favorable to the Catholic institutions...
...Otto Vollbehr, presents for sale to the United States government for the Library of Congress his accumulation of incunabula, as books printed during the early days of the art's history are termed...
...and M. Briand fits not at all the role of the slightly cracked angel which, particularly among Americans, he is popularly supposed to play...
...Nobody can say of The Testament of Beauty that it is "life in the raw...
...Quite as interesting is the evident eager- . ness of the Mexico City journalists to fill columns with ecclesiastical news...
...National prejudices may prove too strong for his avowed aim, which is a union of economic interests to break down tariff barriers between the nations, and to segregate industries according to national resources, but mere dalliance with it serves a purpose which for some years has been discernible in the least of M. Briand's so complex activities...
...Though it be unfair to impute a motive to any editor, there was certainly no evidence of any other sentiment on the part of Time than amused satisfaction...
...The realization that so many heart-sick hopes are still alive to concentrate themselves on this or that promise, that so many people can be fooled because they still endure the agony of uncertain loss, will rather quicken the memory of the time when most of us bore the griefs that these have kept on learning...
...The work is tremendous, excellent and successful in every way...
...To our mind they were successfully achieved, even if the author stressed information he had personally gathered during his stay in Russia...
...It is instructive and encouraging to read these data carefully, and we hope the number will be circulated widely...
...We prophesy that more than one vaudeville skit will get a hand in the near future from a dialogue that runs about like this: "I see where a guy went to jail for making cracks about the census questions...
...And that is to give notice to England, for one, that her interests lie in cooperation with the continent, rather than in dictation of European affairs, and to America that her economic policies do not go unresented...
...Let our civic pain at his flippancy at least be alleviated by amusement at his words...
...Thus the White House housekeeper testifies that Mr...
...Items like this give one a feeling both weird and wistful, as if they dealt with something recognizably unreal...
...We have grown sceptical of optimism but, after all, there seems to be something in it...
...One important modification of the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, as suggested by the commission, has been given considerable attention...
...Nowhere can the Dictionary be employed to greater advantage than in the school or college classroom...
...There is a gallery of national showmen, of which the mob are the custodians and "color" is the only password...
...Above all, he has always had power with words—as class humorist at Amherst...
...He was later exposed by the Hungarian minister to Holland, though his supposed father at first refused to accept the truth, and continued sending him letters and gifts across the Hungarian border...
...x\.T A moment when the deplorable condition of American prisons is in the limelight, one turns with real pleasure to the gratifying developGood News ment of hospitals...
...Most of these are general hospitals, in almost all of which special attention is given to the maternity wards...
...They knew it all along...
...The fruits of a lifetime devoted to science, art and meditation were eventually garnered into a poem that bears all the earmarks of longevity and importance...
...Pell finds behind this dramatic projection...
...It was, in actuality, "the attitude of a small-town lawyer toward his clients...
...Concerned with no adventure beyond the essential records of human experience, its vitality is almost that of a mediaeval Summa or a new book of psalms...
...lated an explanation of its conduct, with g the request that this be given notice...
...Later it came in very handy politically when the after-the-war discounting of enthusiasms made it "the ideal of the American people...
...Only we never see these things acted on...
...Are you naturalized or an alien V* "Yes"—this sort of smartness without sparkle merely makes us repeat Queen Victoria's famous denial...
...In the West he took to chaps and Indian feathers...
...We should probably all be secretly shocked if it did...
...Still more ° evidence of amity is afforded in the realm of church-state relationships...
...Quite as interesting are the statistics concerning the efficiency of the hospitals and their staffs...
...A funny man with red hair," articulate, color-loving, even gay...
...Well, we admit that Mr...
...He kept England itself wondering by a definite independence of mind even after he had attained a quasiofficial rank...
...Roman houses have balconies or "terraces" on their roofs which permit the snatching of a breath of air during nights otherwise unbearably hot, and the house owners object to having them filled up with aerials...
...This meeting is commonly regarded as a first step toward a long-hoped-for sensibleness on the matter of religious activities...
...Vollbehr offers his entire library, 3,000 volumes, at $500 apiece, which figure is "absurdly reasonable" according to testimony offered during the course of a committee hearing by assembled connoisseurs...
...For besides being a source of knowledge, it is an incentive to further inquiry into those realms of religious learning which are not contained in textbooks or, being contained, are largly unassimilated because of the onerousness frequently attached to textbooks...
...to start them finding out facts and truths for themselves...
...A o war Hungarian, ill in Rotterdam of an old war wound, pretended aphasia, deafness and dumbness in order to claim the identity of a missing English soldier whose photograph he resembled...
...Catholic hospitals total 12.7 percent of all non-government hospitals in the country, and more than 60 percent of the sectarian hospitals...
...INVESTIGATING The Enigma of Calvin Coolidge, in the North American Review, Mr...
...It therefore appointed a comterians and mission to study what is known as the Matrimony marriage problem, and has now received an official report embodying not a few interesting observations...
...No power known to us ever actually and concretely steps in to check the expansion of a city on the sale of a radio...
...Only in this case, we are not likely, perhaps, to pause in academic contemplation of the fact...
...Coolidge was more interested in presidential etiquette, and had more clothes, than any of his four predecessors...
...John Pell concludes that the ex-President is, above The People's a^' an artist m sensing the public's ^ ,., wishes...
...These are a Dictionary's classified contents of the Dictionary and Use a list °f the questions that are answered in its pages, with suggestions for compositions and courses of reading and study...
...Relatively speaking the percentage of cancer hospitals is high, while the number of Catholic institutions caring for nervous or mentally diseased patients is low...
...It is not that the principles behind them are unfamiliar...
...Coolidge's place in it at this moment is as secure as Jack Dempsey's or Babe Ruth's...
...What cracks did he make about the census questions...
...The plan has been described as being a wild fantastic dream...
...The first is valid but ought not to stand in the way of a special purchase, and the second is pointless...
...We hasten to reiterAmused ate tnat we regard the census as an important survey, meriting the serious cooperation of all citizens...
...The editors secured an almost unanimous response to the questionnaire sent out, and were thus able to compile figures that may be accepted without question...
Vol. 12 • May 1930 • No. 1
