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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA 5 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