Communications
COMMUNICATIONS THE LAST OF THE GAELS Richmond Hill, L. I. TO the Editor:—Congratulations from an Irish exile on the editorial, The Last of the Gaels, which appeared in your issue of September...
...On another occasion, an Italian ex-minister of state, in his eagerness to discredit the Roman settlement, insulted the Holy Father, even questioning his good faith...
...Well and good...
...but, may we ask, are these conclusions Christian...
...I maintain that since employers ignorantly retire men before the end of their period of usefulness they are bound morally and in equity to care for such by employment insurance...
...The Commonweal of August 27 discovers a sinister purpose in the program and policy of big business in the discussion on trade with Russia, yet it thinks that normally the debates at Williamstown are not staged and conducted for a purpose...
...They were together all the time...
...Then too, we must recall that we cannot usually follow them into the wood, to see the climax of the story...
...Now, when did the Free State junta cease to be a "British authority," and how is it favorable to the development of Gaelic...
...Somehow Saint Francis met him in port somewhere in India and just gave him the "rush...
...He waited until he was tired and then started to look for his friend, but could not find him...
...These things can be done, and, please God, will be done if the Gael survives the Free State...
...The decay of the language is a national crisis and should be dealt with as such...
...INTERRACIAL PROBLEMS New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—I hope you may be able to make use of the enclosed announcement in regard to the first session of the American Interracial Seminar to be held at various points in the South, November 11-21...
...There was no argument about his doing his work well...
...An Institute of Foreign Policy destitute of purpose would be an extremely dangerous thing, apt to become irresponsible to the point of criminality...
...Hoffman Nickerson...
...At any rate, even though many of our priests may not be such bright stars in heaven's eyes and also, for fear they may be, it is probably better for us to remember that they are about their Master's business— whether they are laying their clean hands in the soiled ones of a weakling of the Faith whom we may have helped into a position of prominence that makes his weakness more manifest, or of some obscure derelict—when we are "watching him...
...Some might suspect its purpose to be first to gain recognition as the unofficial spokesman of American public opinion, after which it could be used to deliver whatever big finance might determine to be for our good...
...The man said his penance and then sat down to wait...
...Meetings will be held in Washington, D. C...
...Finally, like most voyages, this one too came to an end and the strangely assorted pair went on shore...
...Is it purpose that is lacking at Williamstown, or is it good manners and settled principles...
...and other points...
...The purpose of the American Interracial Seminar, which is described as a very informal organization, is to consider interracial situations in the United States and the means of their improvement...
...Due to the fact that the time is short, anything that you can do will help greatly...
...Let no man blind himself and say that Ireland is subdued, for it is beyond doubt that Ireland will try again...
...It appears that all her arguments are positive for the employer's side, and negative for the employee's side...
...Why take his death for granted...
...it might even be an altruistic one...
...They walked through the town and out into the country beyond and there with Saint Francis seated on a roadside rock, the old sailor knelt on the ground and made his confession of the long sin-filled years...
...The only alternative to starvation on the west coast is emigration...
...When the British connection is broken, the rebuilding of a Gaelic civilization will be possible, and when a Gaelic Ireland is established, freedom will be secure...
...J., aged fifty, was a janitor for a large concern which prides itself upon its handsome building, and which is now run open shop as compared to union shop in the lifetime of its founder...
...All through the voyage, which was from one port of India to another quite a distance away, Saint Francis was right at the old tar's elbow...
...Let him be given preference in every academic position and in all the professions, so that his intellect shall dominate the national outlook...
...Here lies the remedy: Let the Gael be dug out of the bogs and planted on the fertile lands now prostituted to Britain's need of beef...
...At the outset, the writer of the article falls into grievous error in the statement—"the latest census was taken under the auspices of a government favorable to the development of Gaelic, whereas the earlier count of Gaelic-speaking residents has been made by the British authorities...
...TO the Editor:—Why Williamstown...
...Birmingham, Alabama...
...The first session of the Seminar will be held at various points in the South, November 11-21, upon the topic of Negro Progress in the South...
...such atrocities as the Grundlach case, the Virkula case and the peculiarly vile De King case deserve to be long remembered...
...At the same time I would not be understood to say that these crimes excuse the tortures of the Inquisition...
...You say that in that book I contend "that prohibition enforcement is a more grievous and less justified infraction of human liberties than the medieval Inquisition," which statement in itself might persuade your readers that I made light of the systematic cruelty characteristic of that institution...
...There may not be innumerable Francis Xaviers abroad in the United States, but we do not need the miracles in our time that were needed in the days of bringing the Faith to pagan India, China or Japan...
...Nashville, Tennessee...
...Anastasia M. Lawler...
...I do not forget the legalized murders with which prohibition has disgraced our government...
...We believe that this undertaking has sufficient news value to justify our asking you to give publicity to it...
...Professor Herbert A. Miller of Ohio State University is the chairman of the Seminar...
...On one occasion a lecturer there insulted Italy and especially Italian fathers and mothers, by advising them to have fewer babies...
...But why write a lament for the Gael before he is dead...
...TO the Editor:—Helen M. McCadden's conclusions against employment insurance may be economically and sociologically sound...
...What I did say in my book, which I am thinking of reissuing in a second edition as although out of print it is still called for, was that under the social conditions of thirteenth-century western Europe it was much more important to preserve religious unity than it was in 1919 to try to force total abstinence on the American people...
...Like a flash it came to him that the priest was doing his penance for him and from that day he was a changed man...
...It aims to provide a meeting-place for persons of a variety of experience who have widely differing ideas as to what methods should be used...
...We may, however, be assured that anything sponsored by big finance has a purpose...
...Finally he head a noise in the distance, and following the sound he came to the edge of an open space in the midst of which he saw his confessor of a few minutes before, flogging his bare back with an iron chain...
...It is planned, if there is a demand for this type of Seminar, to hold sessions in the future upon such topics as the Oriental on the Pacific coast, the Mexican in the Southwest, the status of the American Indian, etc...
...he did, and excellently, too...
...But there is a remedy, had Ireland a nationally conscious government...
...Announcement has been made of the formation of the American Interracial Seminar by a representative group interested in the improvement of race relations in the United States...
...SOMETHING IN THE AIR Dorchester, Mass...
...Raleigh, North Carolina...
...The lackeys who comprise this junta are bound hand and foot to their imperial taskmasters, despite all outward show...
...A factory owner expects his machines and his men to be in working order whenever it pleases him to resume operations...
...J., perhaps due to the business depression, had his wages reduced three times since the first of the year...
...it would soothe the outraged feelings of neighbor nations and might even shame into silence some of the incantators of public opinion who now exalt their own "freedom" above the decencies of life...
...A habit of national self-humiliation, if sincere, would be good for the soul...
...I yield to no man living in hatred for the tyranny of the Methodists and their allies...
...Hubert C. Herring...
...Richmond and Hampton, Virginia...
...Finally, one day, the sailor announced his departure on a certain vessel the next day, to which the saint replied "Well, that is quite a coincidence, I am sailing on that same vessel myself" (but his resolution to sail was just then made...
...Perhaps an experience close at home may lend point to my objection...
...An Piobaire...
...INSURANCE OR WORK Chicago, 111...
...Let the writer examine more closely the causes of decay and the possibility of a remedy...
...TO the Editor:—Several articles in The Commonweal recently, concerning priests and their recreations, in particular in reference to playing golf and the quotation about Our Lord's entertainment in the house of Simon the Pharisee and that "they watched Him," bring to mind a story I read in a long life of Saint Francis Xavier some years ago...
...The Seminar is non-partisan and non-propagandist and will pass no resolutions favoring any particular proposal for the improvement of race relations...
...PRIESTS AND GOLF Louisville, Ky...
...Without the evidence of miracles we cannot know how many there are...
...It refers to the saint and a wicked old sailor who had been guilty of about everything in the calendar...
...The 1930 session is being held as an experiment...
...COMMUNICATIONS THE LAST OF THE GAELS Richmond Hill, L. I. TO the Editor:—Congratulations from an Irish exile on the editorial, The Last of the Gaels, which appeared in your issue of September 10...
...They hold Ireland for the empire, and, as a Gaelic Ireland would inevitably lead to a Free Ireland, it is their business to ensure that there shall not be a Gaelic Ireland...
...Membership in the Seminar will be open to those interested in the question of race relations and applications for membership in the 1930 session should be addressed to Hubert C. Herring, Executive Director, 112 East 19th Street, New York City...
...T. O'DONNELL...
...In case he should wish to pursue his livelihood in fishing, let him be given adequate equipment and adequate protection...
...They merely hired a younger man...
...Isolated theories anent whether federal or state employment insurance is the thing, and recapitulations as to how Great Britain or any other country survives the dole, are all beside the point...
...When the sailor played cards, he was beside him, rejoicing when he won and lamenting when he lost...
...They deliberately keep the Gael on the barren west coast by subsidizing the purchase of practically useless fishing gear, meanwhile allowing foreign travelers, with superior equipment, to come in and rob him of any possibility of a livelihood...
...The first rule of international intercourse is courtesy, and any government unable to control its "bad boys" ought to feel under obligation to apologize for them...
...The remainder of his life was spent in penance for the many sins of the past...
...The other day he was fired, and in the evening he shot himself...
...Coercion, if necessary, should be applied, even as it was applied in establishing the tongue of the foreigner, for if the language dies—and a language cannot live in the dead pages of a book—then will death have come to the ancient Irish nation...
...Then, too, it is a violation of the known American spirit of independence to assume that because he receives employment insurance the potential worker will refuse to work...
...When he had finished, Saint Francis told him to say a few Our Fathers and Hail Marys or something of the kind and added that while he was doing that, he himself would walk a little farther into the wood...
...Atlanta, Georgia...
...Christopher I. FitzGerald...
...While it is true that judicial torture (known to our police as the third degree and to the French as the "passage a tabac") seems difficult to eradicate from police procedure, still these things should not be used in seeming apology for the cruelties of former times...
...I am proud of being a director of the national association opposed to the Eighteenth Amendment...
...Over fifty persons have accepted membership in the committee of sponsors...
...INQUISITORS: OLD AND NEW Oyster Bay, L. I. TO the Editor:—I bespeak the hospitality of your correspondence column in order to correct misunderstandings which might arise from the kindly reference in your number of September 17 to my book on the origin of the Inquisition...
...The executive director is Hubert C. Herring...
...whether it be under federal, state or corporation auspices, employment insurance is the worker's only insurance against the current industrial millstones...
...Incidentally, the habit would serve as a continual warning to the people against the mischief which is wrought by bad manners...
Vol. 12 • October 1930 • No. 22
