Communications
June ii, 1930 THE COMMONWEAL 163 COMMUNICATIONS WHEN A BOOK IS NOT A BOOK New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—A marked copy of The Commonweal, with an editorial discussion of the recent textbook...
...Whether internationally minded or not, in accordance with your standards, I at least believe in the League of Nations, and am fully alive to the dangers of exaggerated nationalism...
...One of Them...
...I requested the people to take to prohibition and I think that my words told...
...2) that Dr...
...Campbell and his associates on the Board that these facts should be known...
...If we desire to bring about the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment we should be willing to use the means to gain our objective...
...The New York World, May 7: Dr...
...I thereupon wrote to Dr...
...The writer would appreciate an editorial opinion on this particular phase of the question...
...Possibly there will continue to be many Catholics who resent any suggestion as to a change in their private devotions at Mass...
...Just one thought suggests itself in connection with the above interesting letter...
...For to desire the attainment of an objective and at the same time resolutely refuse to make use of the means to achieve our end would seem to be the height of folly...
...Rev...
...In justice to the Board these facts should be known...
...It takes a while to find one's way about in the missal...
...Shiebler was only one of fifteen persons whom he had asked to read the book, and that although the fifteen had different opinions on different passages, they were unanimous in opposing the book as a whole...
...It would, at all events, be worth the public's while to know the real truth in the matter...
...Was not the use of the Layfolks...
...Theoretically, it would naturally seem that the general welfare would best be promoted if the general merits of a particular candidate were to be taken into consideration, when passing judgment on his or her fitness for public office...
...2) The Eighteenth Amendment and subsequent dry enforcement legislation, such as the pernicious Jones-Stalker law, is still the supreme law of the land because the drys have, with an admirable persistency, continued to make the prohibition issue a political issue...
...Indeed, they appear to lack the more exotic poetry of some Eastern rites...
...Also classes should be organized for those adults who are interested...
...Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Loyola University...
...Massachusetts is a wet state...
...Campbell said, and he was willing to communicate them to the authors or to their publisher, the Macmillan Company...
...But unfortunately, we are not confronted with theories...
...It will appear also, I think, that my own part in the affair has somewhat exaggerated...
...there is nothing tawdry or sensational about them...
...Mass-book widespread among our forefathers in mediaeval England...
...And yet the state of Massachusetts is represented in the Congress by an overwhelmingly dry delegation...
...Perhaps the writer is mistaken in holding to the opinion that prohibition must be made a political issue if we ever hope to get our government back to its old moorings...
...The New York Times, May 6: Dr...
...As it happens, however, I am, and have been for many years, a devout and admiring student of the middle-ages...
...Certain facts stand out very clearly from the foregoing: {1) that no undue pressure was brought to bear upon the Board...
...THE LITURGICAL MOVEMENT New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—The liturgical movement is growing and its effects are already manifest...
...The Herald-Tribune, May 6: "Dr...
...Hence to advise the wet forces to continue muddling along in the old way is sheer nonsense in the writer's judgment...
...I understand that in several of our large city parishes the meaning and appreciation of the missal are being expounded to children of Sunday-school age, while the priest is saying Mass...
...So highly do I esteem the culture and religious life of that period, that I do not feel there is any necessity for covering up the failures and mistakes...
...Personally I do not see how they could have decided otherwise in the face of such a report from the committee appointed to read the book...
...And it is precisely because The Commonweal so deeply deplores the havoc wrought to the cause of true temperance by constitutional prohibition that it is difficult to fathom its recent editorial statement to the effect that it (The Commonweal) would view with alarm any attempt to make the prohibition issue a political issue, or to make a political candidate's fitness for public office depend solely upon his stand on the wet and dry issue...
...Joseph Reiner, SJ...
...The procedure of the Board in reaching their decision is told by Dr...
...TO the Editor:—During the past few years, the editorial policy of The Commonweal on the prohibition question has been altogether commendable from the writer's viewpoint in as much as it has consistently held that the prohibition experiment, however noble in theory it may be, has proved to be an atrociously abominable thing in practice when viewed from its moral, social and constitutional aspects...
...They represent the fervent verses of praise and thanksgiving of many men and many generations...
...This Good Friday I was preaching to an audience of not less than twelve thousand Catholics and, expatiating on the words "I Thirst...
...David A. Elms...
...He replied on February 4, stating that the matter had been referred to Dr...
...Shiebler...
...Then I have the authority of both Fathers Fortescue and Martindale in saying that many prayers of the Roman Mass are severely austere...
...It can easily be seen how a dry minority concentrating its efforts and energies in a single channel can rule a wet majority whose superior strength is wasted and scattered between a number of candidates, some of whom are wet and some of whom are dry...
...James F. Desmond...
...Unquestionably, it would be for the best interests of the country if it were possible, or feasible, for the wets to give heed to this warning...
...When faced with facts, such as these, it is idle to wander or roam into the delightful realms of theory...
...A few of these facts are: (1) The Eighteenth Amendment is in the constitution because the prohibition issue was made a political issue by the drys when the average individual was making grimaces at prohibition leaders over his glass of beer...
...Finally, it is well to remember that the prayers of the Roman missal are in no wise the aspirations of one man alone...
...Practically every congressional district in the state, not excepting the so-called dry, rural districts voted wet...
...We judge from a recently issued statement by the Macmillan Company that the publishers have been left in the dark concerning it.—The Editors...
...3) that a proper investigation of the book was made by a competent committee, consisting of fifteen history teachers...
...I thank you for your courtesy...
...I am sure that The Commonweal has a generous share in responsibility for this happy revival—for a revival it certainly is...
...Harold G. Campbell for report...
...And since the drys will continue to make the prohibition issue a political issue it is absolutely essential that the wets do the same thing from now on...
...Simply because the drys have made the prohibition issue a political issue in past contests and have held the balance of power, while the wets have not made the prohibition issue a political issue and have been content to vote for party labels, for old friends and what have you...
...Yet I believe that there remains a large body of intelligent laymen who would use the missal, if only they knew more about it...
...On January 31, I wrote to President Ryan protesting against the book in general terms, stating the grounds of my objection, but without indicating specific passages...
...Lefferd M. Haughwout...
...4) that their recommendation advising that the book be removed from the list of approved texts was unanimous...
...Moreover, I would be among the first to announce that no sensible person expects a dead uniformity with regard to the use of the missal...
...But this is promptly acquired by one who sets out to appreciate and enjoy the very words used by the priest at Mass...
...To be perfectly frank about the matter, it would seem to be a rather tardy or belated warning to the electorate not to make the prohibition issue a political issue...
...The readers found such passages, Mr...
...Campbell, "Criticism of this book has been made to me by many others in regard to its attitude on economic and social problems...
...We are face to face with a group of cold, hard facts which we may just as well deal with today as tomorrow...
...4) The drys are completely in control of our state and national legislatures precisely because they have made the prohibition issue a political issue...
...Campbell himself, but his statement was reported in such fragmentary fashion that it is necessary to piece together the accounts of different papers in order to get the full story...
...A taste for the liturgy of our Church must be developed...
...Campbell also revealed that Mr...
...PROHIBITION IN INDIA Chicago, 111...
...What is it...
...I feel that it is simple justice to Dr...
...Of that there can be no reasonable doubt...
...You will be glad to know that in one of our parishes which was notorious for the number of its drunkards the insistent preaching of the vicar for a year on the same subject, coupled with moral persuasion, has turned that parish into an absolute prohibition centre and the place is the talk of all Malabar...
...With all these confessed, it remains an era of supreme achievement...
...He replied on March 27 with the announcement of the Board's action...
...And the final tabulation of that vote showed that a majority of 284,000 of the Massachusetts electorate favored the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment...
...3) The wets are a miserably impotent minority in the halls of our state and national legislatures precisely because they have refused to make the prohibition issue a political issue...
...One has only to compare the number of missals seen today in our larger churches with that observed but a few years ago...
...I purposely refrained from doing so in order that the judgment of the Board might not be prejudiced one way or the other...
...And what is true of Massachusetts is true to a greater or lesser extent of every other state in the union...
...June ii, 1930 THE COMMONWEAL 163 COMMUNICATIONS WHEN A BOOK IS NOT A BOOK New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—A marked copy of The Commonweal, with an editorial discussion of the recent textbook controversy, has just come to my desk...
...Campbell a similar outline of my objections...
...GANDHI'S INDIA New York, N. Y. TO the Editor:—Apropos of your editorial on Gandhi's India, if you will look at Punch's cartoon "Sitting Tight," (May 14) you will see the conclusion which is the hope and conviction of every loyal Briton...
...There may be another way of securing the repeal of our dry laws...
...Campbell said, "I wish that you would make it clear that the book was barred after a careful reading by a committee, and, instead of acting in response to the protest of a single individual we had other protests while the book was under consideration...
...How preposterous that would be in a Church which exists for people of every social stratum, nay even for people in every stage of civilization...
...TO the Editor:—I think your readers will be interested in a letter that I received this morning from the Reverend Joseph C. Panjikaran, Ph.D., D.D., D.C.L., president, Propagation of Faith, director, Malabar Catholic Hospital, correspondent, Fides News Service, who writes from the archbishop's house in Ernakulam, India: "I presided over perhaps the biggest prohibition meeting (the Malabar Catholic Congress attended by 6,000 people) ever held in this part of the world...
...Statements to the contrary notwithstanding, there is no evidence whatever—at least nothing more than a vague reference to evidence—that the "committee" in question ever included more people than Mr...
...There is one phase of the incident with regard to which, as it appears to me, there is some confusion ; and I venture to believe that your readers would be glad to know the facts...
...Rev...
...My personal beliefs, prejudices and viewpoints, which you also discuss, are of no great importance...
...A concrete case or example of how things work out may help me to drive my point home...
...And at least a modicum of formal instruction is a sine qua non...
...There should obviously be a great deal more of this sort of instruction...
...Campbell, the board of superintendents responsible for the textbooks used in the schools, immediately directed a committee of history teachers to reread Modern History in the light of his (Haughwout's) objection, in search of any passages which might have caused such a complaint...
...It will appear from this that my "persistence, in pressing the complaint" has been somewhat exaggerated by the press...
...Allowance must also be made for certain temperamental differences...
...In a referendum held at the 1928 elections the only question to be voted on was the outright repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment...
...Campbell did not act precipitately, as has been charged...
...I refer to the sequence of events leading up to the decision of the Board of Education to remove the textbook, Modern History, from the list of approved texts...
...On March 21 I wrote a brief note to President Ryan, asking if a decision had been reached...
...164 THE COMMONWEAL June ii, 1930 PROHIBITION—A POLITICAL ISSUE Reading, Mass...
...All the efforts of government to auction liquor shops in that place have been frustrated as not a single soul would come forward to aid them...
...Either that, or let us stop talking once and for all about the desirability of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment...
...It is as follows: The New York Times, May 3, 1930: "According to Dr...
Vol. 12 • June 1930 • No. 6
