Week by Week
WEEK BY WEEK WHILE Senator Grundy, his good work done, prepares for the elections in Pennsylvania, the tariff bill which is his great contribution to American life, is again with the House of...
...telegram to Mother Jones on her hundredth birthday "a mere gesture...
...The priest, too, needs to recognize the absurdity of many things...
...Obviously everything possible must be done to halt the trek toward prison...
...lawed on behalf of the school board, acting upon complaints lodged by the Reverend Lefferd M. A. Haughwout, rector of a Staten Island Episcopal church...
...Whether it will or not is an open question...
...There Hopeless is something to be said for rigorous conGates trol, something for the development of prisoner initiative...
...And what better antidote to this perilous possibility could we suggest than the exhortations to subscribe which are so constant in our own advertising columns...
...If such a change could be effected without materially disturbing the industrial equilibrium, it might work out to every one's advantage...
...Of course it would be too bad if—as is not the case—priestly reading stopped there...
...Meanwhile, however, the status of the prison itself is likely to remain the major issue for a longer time than we imagine...
...His was a powerful argument _J THE COMMONWEAL May 14, 1930 against donations without strings attached, and regarding it much might be said...
...But even if it came from some spot nearer the surface, or at worst, indicated only that he did not want the moral disadvantage of that ancient quarrel chalked against him, the argument would hold...
...The charges preferred against the book are several: that it is unfair to Protestantism and pro-Catholic...
...Though <-, the early addresses and resolutions are Convene • u • • ^ ^ • 1 1 rich in interesting material, they were not as a rule—nor, indeed, could they have been—devoted to immediate practical enterprises...
...Finally when a third and still more deeply engrossed clerical peruser of the identical journal to our wondering eyes did appear, the cumulative effect of the evidence was irresistible...
...Nor is this by any means confined to Ohio...
...This is a little like Margaret Fuller's famous "I accept the universe...
...If the coalition which made wreck of the Old Guard last fall still coalesced, things might be otherwise...
...W HEN M. Patou, the famous dressmaker, returned to Parish recently, he called together American newspapermen to rectify, as he said, the misPark and conceptions that had got around regardSecond and ing his pronouncements on our working M. Patou girls...
...But this is in passing...
...and that, above all, it is not a patriotic volume...
...The document comes from the American Sentinel of Religous Liberty, published in the national capital, and contains all the old half-witted allegations about the Roman menace to the land of the free, reworded with an expressed political purpose—a combination with which, as the Atlantic notes, we all became familiar at the last election...
...GRATITUDE is due the Atlantic Monthly for the tone of its current editorial on what it terms "a recrudescence of poisonous propaganda...
...Decreases in corporation earnings, reflected rather frequently in lower dividend rates, have been accepted as unavoidable and so normal incidents...
...She wears out each mode so quickly that she must double and treble his orders for new modes from those who have the money to be exclusive...
...Hoover to veto the measure, on the ground that it would cause suffering by raising prices, that it would embarass the farmer still more than he is now embarrassed, and that the risk of "reprisals" and ruffled international contacts is too great to be run...
...It has taught our laity the worth of active participation in the work of the Church and has provided an agency through which all can share in its spiritual deeds of mercy...
...The first underlying cause is public unwillingness to build new and adequate prisons...
...Individual interests are aided only as the common interest is safeguarded...
...The answer is doubtful, it never having been harder to discern the nation's mind than now...
...It seems relatively unlikely that quotations for grains, live stock and basic metals will remain at even current levels...
...whatever the merits of his labor disputes, Mr...
...Speaking on behalf of The Calvert Associates, Michael Williams advocated the establishment of an "information service" equipped to answer the manifold inquiries which have been reaching the Associates during recent years...
...at the same time it would be quite utterly impossible for a Republican President to veto a tariff bill...
...Work for Recalling its protests against "the sys, P tematic use of the forces of religious the Lensor bigotry" in the last national campaign, it indignantly cites in full one of the documents from the new crop of "lies known to be lies, and used only for their destructive power...
...This looks forward to the next election, and after describing the papist plot against President Hoover's life and the Roman campaign against prohibition, it warns the citizen reader to be active with his vote in 1932, and smash "the Romanized, Tammanyized Democratic party" lest "the cohorts of Rome get a strangle-hold on the U. S. A." We have quoted thus far to get to the Atlantic's concluding comment: "This and more like it are distributed in huge volume through the United States Post Office...
...markets, which beheld many invest¦r , -> ment stocks falling to levels not measur" ably above those found during the decline of last fall...
...As a matter of fact, they call their publication the New Yorker...
...He may think the working girl ridiculous...
...He is, in fact, so democratic in his off moments that he approves completely "Second Avenue's desire to dress like Park Avenue...
...Instead we have been treated to Borah and more Borah, while the name of the nominee has been bandied about with as much respect as the back-lot boys give to an old baseball glove...
...And there is much to be said for American humor when it can produce a periodical which appeals so wholesomely (barring sundry defections) to the father confessor as well as to his penitent...
...It is foolish to try placing responsibility for such an accident upon a warden or a few guards...
...We respectfully suggest that this is a mere polite amende, and that M. Patou said what he really meant the first time...
...Secondly, what precisely are the rights of the public over the content of education...
...The case has attracted so much attention that we shall reserve final comment for a later date...
...M. Patou went on to assert that it is "from the strictly business viewpoint" that he deplores mass imitation of exclusive designs, since "it is more profitable for fashionable Parisian dressmakers to appeal to the snobbery of wealthy women...
...Grant that the History is really objectionable and you reach the conclusion that the board's critical powers are wofully undeveloped...
...Its interest is education, broadly...
...Hitherto it has been argued that such a law could not possibly be upheld, owing to the circumstance that public money was being diverted to private ends...
...WHEN the National Catholic Alumni Federation was organized five years ago, little held its members together excepting a desire to be assoCollege Men ciated for the common good...
...They have contented themselves with a rebuttal of specific charges—prejudice against the labor point of view, hostility to the Negroes, All things considered, both allegations were pretty weak, nor could a certain amount of race feeling on the part of an upright southerner ever be termed a reason for doubting his juridical fairness or ability...
...Rockefeller is not a small man...
...Clothes are a covering and a decoration, but chiefly and above all a social symbol, and rivers will stop running to the sea before that symbol loses its power...
...And may not this in turn have been definitely affected by liquor-law decisions...
...We had not, as a matter of fact, suspected the magazine in question of having this special variety of "it...
...One feels nevertheless that the ruling has implications which might not be so desirable...
...May 14, 1930 THE COMMONWEAL 35 RETROSPECTIVELY considered, the fire at the Ohio State Penitentiary is one of the most significant catastrophes in recent history...
...Rockefeller should now tell her: "Your loyalty to your ideals, your fearless adherence to your duty as you have seen it, is an inspiration to all who have known you...
...Until such conditions improve it is certain that general financial health must be reported still in danger...
...that it contains a quantity of "political dynamite," disguised as criticism of the existing social order...
...The press has emphasized the truth that conditions are the same throughout the country...
...It seems to us admirable, so far as it goes, that Mr...
...It helps social relations more, does more to allay the bitterness of these divisions, for one of the world's most powerful men to acknowledge the idealism of one of labor's most immovable champions, even out of self-interest, than for him not to...
...Are the voters and taxpayers entitled to control the academic platform, or is it enough that somebody should oppose one finding of scholarship to alter the teaching method and doctrine...
...It may have...
...While we are not sure that this journal of humor and sophistication will designate our remarks as good advertising copy, they will no doubt agree that here is one kind of index to the point of view of the clergy and of America...
...In a measure this indifference has been justified by our general willingness to believe that the "crime wave," which has lately sent so many to jail, is bound to subside...
...And the heavy majority which it cast against the debenture has made it unlikely that this embarrassing clause will again find its way into the tariff bill...
...Their later parleys ended in her calling his reform plan "lip service to democracy in industry," "hypocritical and dishonest...
...A surprising number of bank failures are reported from farming districts which until the present have resisted the influence of precarious mortgage holdings rather well...
...All these and similar suggestions are excellent...
...A real need for this kind of thing has existed for a long while, but one feels that in such matters the individual colleges will have to act as units...
...The Court, however, declared: "The legislation does not segregate private schools or their pupils as beneficiaries or attempt to interfere with any matters of a purely private concern...
...John D. Rockefeller, jr's...
...Overcrowded and unsanitary cells are ear-marks of the nation's prison system...
...Mother Jones called him "a good sport," and we have no reason to gainsay her...
...One advocated the establishment of placement bureaus designed to serve the graduate in search of a job...
...May it not be deduced from this as a corollary that state educational authorities might justifiably claim other forms of control in the interest of "education, broadly...
...1 EN years have elapsed since the foundation of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, ten years crammed with double blessA Decade of jngS to those who give and those who Catholic receive...
...But a political bout cannot be won by simply covering up...
...For While going to a train the other eveClerical ning, we came upon a priest industriReaders ously reading a copy...
...A little farther on we encountered the same situation...
...Thus the nation may be facing an era of "cheaper dollars," with attendant decreases in the wage scale...
...There must be a good deal more to say for Judge Parker, but neither Mr...
...What one has been eagerly awaiting these days is a clear statement from the President to the following effect: "Judge Parker is the best man for the place for such and such reasons...
...The President is out of a most embarrassing position: he has declared that he would not sign a bill embodying the debenture principle...
...He is possibly more avid of the saving tonic of laughter than the average other mortal...
...W HAT can be said for the nation's prosperity varies with individual observers...
...It is interesting, of course, to see that public sentiment toward the Court is definitely coloring the background...
...Rockefeller was on one side and Mother Jones was on the other— and went to jail for it...
...Now is the time to think the matter over...
...But nobody on earth can defend a holocaust like this—as grewsome as the aftermath of a fierce battle—brought about by jamming prisoners into antiquated fire-traps designed to house a small number of men...
...Virtually everybody who spoke at all came forward with a plan, or at least a suggestion, of action...
...But in the record, a panorama of accomplishment, which ranges over the entire field of Christian charity and social betterment, is revealed the purpose not only of relieving but of preventing misfortune...
...grant that it is worthy of approval arid you must deduce the belief that the timidity of the forces supervised by Acting Superintendent Harold G. Campbell (who issued the ban) is unparalleled...
...The House has acted and the speedily to further agreement with the Tariff Senate, and remove the danger of veto...
...We may Inside the differ regarding prison methods...
...A comforting factor is the almost complete absence of panicky moods...
...Thirdly, history is a record of the human race and so also of religion...
...WEEK BY WEEK WHILE Senator Grundy, his good work done, prepares for the elections in Pennsylvania, the tariff bill which is his great contribution to American life, is again with the House of RepreThe House sentatives...
...Or by valuations in rate cases...
...1 HERE are those who consider Mr...
...Shall the history we teach be as correct as possible or as silent and innocuous as we can make it ? An event which can raise such queries is not a trifling occurence...
...Hand in hand with this temporary deflation there has gone a tendency toward lower commodity prices...
...During past weeks optimism has been heavily discounted in the securHas Business...
...Traditionally speaking, it is often difficult to maintain distinctions once they assume, legally speaking, the dimensions of hairs...
...It is one of the more precious projects of the Senate, but in its present temper the Senate will not undo the work of a year by insisting upon the debenture, or, for that matter, insisting upon anything else...
...Rockefeller did it from self-interest...
...It is evident that if Congress were made up of selected representatives from the 1,028, Congress would be a different body...
...It is reported that in many small communities it is now impossible to get a loan or even to cash a check...
...All the forces of preventive medicine, of character-building agencies, of scientific study and research, have been assimilated into and adapted for the family...
...Certainly none of the panaceas advanced for the cure and control of lawlessness (prohibition, for instance) has been in the slightest degree effective...
...The annual appeal again comes to stress this excellent opportunity...
...At present it will suffice to note that the situation presents a number of very interesting facts...
...If you can suggest a better candidate bring him on...
...UNTIL recently, Modern History, a text written by Professors Hayes and Moon, was approved for use in the public schools of New York City— What Shall was, indeed, adopted by many departthe Pupils ments of history...
...First, if the book contains such a cargo of evil that one protest from a clergyman was sufficient to indict it, how does it happens that the school board approved the work in the first place...
...It has recognized that the fostering of these activities is most helpful when conducted under religious auspices...
...Examination fails to reveal that the editors furnish material for so much as a single sermon—although they do offer considerable food for thought...
...It may be an old story to the parishioners of New York but so is the story of poverty old, and equally old the unremitting and rewarding spirit of those who believe that "God is charity...
...Suppose Mother it were ? Gestures may be empty or, as Jones's these critics say "mere," but they are Telegram a concession...
...There is thus established a precedent, conformity with which may be argued in other states...
...At the recent Washington convention a marked change was manifest...
...One feels, however, that Mr...
...lHE debate regarding Judge John J. Parker, which has not yet been decided, is an illuminating instance of how bad a debate can be when only one Nominating s^e °^ t^ie case ^as ")een argued- To j , a Senate interested for political reasons ^ in wresting control from the President there is offered the name of a candidate for the Supreme Court whose chief-known distinction is that he hails from a district which has previously been overlooked when appointments were being made...
...H/VIDENCE which has come into our possession tends to show that at least one American magazine is steadily growing in popularity among the clergy...
...He does not think them "ridiculous," it seems, for wearing to their jobs cheap copies of clothes designed for teas and receptions of their social superiors...
...its method, comprehensive...
...Normal home life—a family group in which it is good to live—has been the aim of Catholic Charities from the beginning...
...Outside Washington, however, the weather is not so fair and cloudless...
...Hoover nor his friends have said it...
...In the matter of a flexible tariff, too, the House has strung along with the President...
...A DECISION of far-reaching importance was handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States when it ruled that the Louisiana Free Text- statute providing free textbooks for books Consti- children in private schools was declared tutional constitutional...
...The most disquieting circumstance is that the rural areas seem to have fallen still farther behind in the business race...
...It has now been outStudy...
...The attorney-general of Louisiana argued, for instance, "quo ad their use as textbooks, the public authorities of the state have control, whether the books are used by pupils of the public or private schools...
...No resume of the astonishing Charity progress of the organization can give even a relative impression of how much good has been done...
...It begins to look as if the time for a showdown on such matters had arrived...
...Not that we believe Mr...
...formal generosity is better than none...
...It has accepted the Senate's higher duties on agricultural products as well as its lower duty on sugar...
...The censor's attention is elsewhere...
...During the trouble at the Rockefeller mines sixteen years ago, Mr...
...There, at the keystone of our civilization, their sturdy power has been brought to play that this unit, on which society is based, may maintain its integrity...
...The mere fact that the Federation can entertain them hopefully is a tribute to those who have worked to organize it and endow it with vision and purpose...
...We do not pretend to look into his heart and say whether the sentiment originated at its deepest level of emotional intensity...
...Sundry economists—1,028 to be precise —have asked Mr...
...To this purpose the organization has unswervingly adhered...
...Nothing of the sort has been forthcoming...
...The only thing surer than Second Avenue's desire to dress like Park is Park's firm resolution not to dress like Second...
...Dean Edward A. Fitzpatrick presented a code which, he felt, should guide those making gifts or bequests to educational institutions...
...Hoover is likely to accept the political world now constituted by the sovereign people...
...how can he possibly think her unprofitable ? She and the wealthy snobbish lady are the systole and diastole that pump his profits...
Vol. 12 • May 1930 • No. 2
