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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
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own State. While this attack was state-wide it had
several foci to which our efforts were especially
directed. Of these, perhaps the most virulent was
Atlanta, where we sent 17,000. Nine thousand went
to Bibb County, while Wilkes and Cobb got most of
the remainder.
The School Question.
Another live issue was the attitude of Catholics
toward the public school and education. 1 he Smith-
Towner bill and discussion of it, the desire of many
for federal aid for the State schools, and the deep-
rooted belief that the Catholic Church wants to keep
its children in ignorance, were responsible for many
misstatements about our position. We met this by
advertising, by thousands of letters to individuals and
to the editors and school teachers and the mailing of
25,000 leaflets, “Catholics and the Public Schools.
During the past few days the attack in The Index has
been answered, and this matter will be soon issued
in pamphlet form as an additional contribution to this
subject. It is a live topic.
Two Important Leaflets.
Our Right Reverend Bishop wrote to The Atlanta
Constitution a vigorous invective against lynching.
The paper indorsed it editorially. We embodied let
ter and editorial in a leaflet under the title “Stop
Lynching.” Ten thousand were distributed, and only
ten thousand because it was not advisable to send
it broadcast. The reception was unexpectedly fa
vorable, and brought many commendatory letters,
though, as was feared, it was seized upon by the
chief anti-Catholic of the State and several of his
satellites for an attack on the Bishop, and to link
the Catholics with the negroes. The second publi
cation of this kind was the “Open Letter to Our
Protestant Friends,” an attack on the divorce evil. It
was a contrasting of the Biblical and the legal posi
tions on marriage and its permanency, or lack of it.
The committee was divided on advisability of pub
lication, but a majority carried, and it was sent out
in fear and trembling. It was everywhere indorsed.
Of the 25,000 mailed, only two were sent back with
caustic or hostile comment, while scores approved its
implication that the marriage tie is too lightly held
in Georgia.
Catholics and the Pope.
Quite the most pretentious booklet issued since the
Association began is, “Catholics dnd the Pope,”
50.000 of which were printed within the past two
months. It has been put together within six months,
but its compilation has consumed nearly four years.
It differs from any book on this subject we have seen
in that it covers delicate points most writers avoid.
Its reception has amounted to an ovation.
We also repritned editions of 12,000 of the “Cath
olic Belief” and 25,000 of the “Plea for Peace,”
booklets.
Our total mailing for the year approximates
500.000 pieces, including such books as Father Noll’s
Fairest Argument, the Faith of Our Fathers, copies of
the Bible, Pontificale Romanum and Cobbett’s Refor
mation. The cost of printing is $3,640.50, and for
mailing $2,568, a total of $6,209.00. This does not
include cost of preparation or editorial work, which
is charged to overhead or office account, but does
include envelopes and wrappers, as well as postage.
Organizing at Home and Abroad.
When, at the last Convention, you made Mr. Rice
president, your Publicity Committee knew it was in
for a strenuous time, but we had no idea just what
strenuosity could mean until he got into action. The
second Sunday after we'met he had announced that
he intended to raise $50,000 to carry on the work
for two years, and the first meeting was held in At- #
lanta. There we ran into the Haverty plan which
has proved such a wonder-worker for us. Of course,
we did what we could to help him. The publicity
chairman and Miss Mary Helen Hynes attended this
meeting and worked as well as we knew how in co
operation. The following Sunday he had us in Sa
vannah. The next we were in Macon where Mr.
McCallum, Mr. Haverty and Mr. Peter Clarke, of
Atlanta, joined in the good work. The next Sunday
he had us in Brunswick in the morning, in Waycross
at night, and on Monday he had Mr. McCallum and
the chairman in Albany. Columbus came next, and
we then went to Charleston at the invitation of Bishop
Russell and there started the Catholic Laymen’s Asso
ciation of South Carolina. It gives us pleasure to re
port that the same kind of work we are doing in
Georgia is under way in South Carolina. Just as we
had to do, they have begun modestly, but they have
just the same spirit, the same zeal, the same faith and
the same good Catholics. It is just a matter of ex
pansion, until they, too, shall be a great state-wide
laymen’s organization.
Since January your representative has travelled
into the Dioceses of St. Augustine, Mobile, Natchez,
Lafayette, Alexandris, Richmond, Wheeling, Brooklyn,
Toledo, Newark, Louisville, Detroit, Grand Rapids,
Marquette and the Archdioceses of Philadelphia, New
Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, seeing the
ordinaries or their representatives, and addressing
bodies of laymen, everywhere explaining the Georgia
work apd laying plans that bid fair to start similar
Associations in various parts of the country. The
Catholic Laymen’s Association of St. Louis is already
working and is being assisted by us in an advisory
way. Bishop Curley wrote the other day that he
will start his Florida Association in November; a meet
ing of the laymen of Mississippi has been called for
October 23d. Next month also your chairman is to
speak in Brooklyn and Pittsburg, filling engagements
deferred by the vacation interval.
The out-of-state correspondence has grown tre
mendously. People from many places write for in
formation regarding our own work and about the
status of Catholicity in the South generally. Only
the other day we were asked to furnish material for
a sketch of the senator-elect. We are proud of the
fact that not so long ago a bishop asked us to answer
for an inquirer of his some questions about Joan of