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Catholic Welfnre Coun- t
cil News
Service. 5
Official Organ of the Catholic Laymens Association^Geoigia
TO BRING ABOUT A FRIENDLIER FEELING AMONG GEORGIANS, IRRESPECTIVE OF CREED**
The Only Catholic
Newspaper Between Bal
timore and New Orleans
TEN CENTS A COPY.
VOL. IV. NO. 4.
AUGUSTA, GA., FEBRUARY 25, 1923.
$2.00 A YEAH
ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY
AM TIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
OPfdSES PROPOSED DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION BY THREE TO ONE VOTE
—— i
Past Catholic Woman Elected To
Congress Outlines Her Plans
Mrs. Mae Ella Nolan of San Francisco Sayk She Will Pay
Particular Attention to Legislature Dealing With Child
Labor and Women In Industry.
ANTI-PAROCHIAL SCHOOL
BILL IS VOTED DOWN BY
LEGISLATURE OF TEXAS
Other Measures Directed
Against Catholics In Lone-
star State Are Threatened
With Similar Treatment.
Austin, Tex.—By a vote of 72 to
54 the lower house of the legisla
ture has killed the Baker anti-
Parocliial school bill, which would
have given to county superintend
ents the authority to make quarter
ly inspections of private and
parochial schools. The vote struck
the enacting clause from the bill and
the measure is now disposd of, so
far as th present legislature is con
cerned.
The state senate for its part has
. ejected the bills introduced by
Senator Clark and others requiring
the teaching of the Bible in publis,
private and parochial schools of
Texas. The Clark hill had been pend
ing for some time on the calendar
and when it was finally called up,
a motion prevailed to postpone the
measure indifinitely.
There is a similar hill pending iir
the house, introduced by Representa
tive McDonald, former chaplain ot
the Huntsville state penitentiary, hut
so far he has been unable to obtain
consideration of the measure. There
is little chance of- the bill passing
the house, but should be defeated in
the upper branch, as the senate has
already indicated its attitude on the
proposal.
That t!»e legislature will not at
the present regular session pass any
of the so-called regulatory measures
dealing with matters of this kind
is indicated in announcements made
jby a number of legislators. Members
of the legislature who have been
asked for their opinions in regard
to such measures have uniformly
condemned this form of legislation.
Among these is Representative Lc-
Slurgeon, of San Antonio, who
characterizes such legislation as
“vicious and in conflict with Ameri
can ideals of religious freedom.”
“Such bills as the Bible reading
bill, the anti-parochial school hill,
and other legislation designed to
limit or curtail the frecdoy of reli
gious thought or expression,” says
Representative LeSturgeon, “are un
wise and contrary to American
ideals. I shall oppose them.
“In America we are taught to be
lieve that religion and politics do
not mix. The best elements of our
people have always felt that liberty
of conscience is too sacred a right
to be jeopardized by confusing it
with political questions.”
While it is generally conceded that
a majority of the 150 members of
the lower house of the Texas legisla
ture are cither members of the Ku
Klux Klan or sympathizers of that
secret • organization, the senate is
of different cbmplcxion. On more
than one occasion that body has
demonstrated that a majority of its
31 members are not Klansmen and
not in harmony with the principles
of the Klan. For this reason there is
little or no chance that any so-
called regulatory bills will be pass
ed at the present session.
A few days ago an effort was
made in the senate by the Klan sym
pathizers to recommit a bill by
Senator Burkett of Eastland, during
the absence of the latter, and in
fact the hill was recommitted, hut
the anti-Klan clement when it dis
covered what had occurred, had the
hill rcplacel on the calendar and
subject to call. This is the hill
which would require all secret
organizations to file a list of their
membership villi the county clerk
for public inspection.
BISHOP RUSSELL
Recovering From Operation
In Baltimore.
Baltimore.—The Right Rev.
William T. Russell, bishop
of Charleston, and former chan
cellor of the archdiocese of
Baltimore, who was operated on
last week in St. Agnes’ Hospital,
Is rapidly regaining his health
and physicians declare the oper
ation to have been thoroughly
successful.
Apostolic Delegate
Leaves Rome For America to
Assume Duties.
Rome.—Archbishop Fumasoni-
Biondi, the newly-appointed
Apostolic Qelegate to the United
States has sailed for America
aboard the Taormina. The dele
gate was received in private
audience by Pope Pius this
week.
“My blessings accompany you
to America, which is so dear to
my heart,” said His Holiness, in
speeding the delegate on his
way.
Archbishop Biondi’s departure
was originally set for last month
but was postponed due to the
illness of his father, who has
since died.
Sister Escapes After
Being Sandbagged and
Kidnapped From School
Maryland State’s Attorney
Believes Sister Cecelia Was
Captured and Held For Pur
pose Of Ransom.
Baltimore.—Sister Cecilia of the
Notre Dame Convent, Frederick, is
confined in the infirmary at the con
cent in an hysterical and highly
nervous condition from injuries
which she says she received when
she was sandbagged and drugged
while in the music room of the con
vent. She was brought to Balti
more by her captors. When she
regained consciousness, she says, she
found herself in a room near Cam
den station, this city.
Her religious garb had been re
moved and according to the story
which she told the Bev. William J.
Kane, pastor of St- John’s Catholic
Church, Frederick, and chaplain of
the convent there, she heard two
men in an adjoining room discuss
ing the amount of ransom they
might demand. According to the
Sister, the men had been drinking.
Escapes Through Alley
Half dazed, she dragged herself
from a bed on which she was lying
and looking about the room, found
clothing. Quickly donning these
garments, she slipped out of the
room, down a dark hallway to an
alley, and then into Camden street.
She approached a policeman and
asked him to assist her to return to
Frederick. Sister Cecelia did not
reveal her identity, but told the po
liceman it was compulsory for her
to return to Frederick at once. In
the pocket of the coat the Sister
found eleven dollars and offering
this to a taxi-cab driver witli assur
ance that the remainder of the fare
would be paid to Frederick, he
agreed to take her to the Western
Maryland city.
When the Frederick convent was
reached, the Sister told of her har
rowing experience. The taxi driver
was taken into custody by the police
who believed lie might throw some
additional light on the identity of
the abductors, but was later re
leased. Tlie Sister was put to bed
under the care of a physician.
Police Start Investigation
The police of Baltimore were com
municated with immediately and a
dragnet was thrown out by them
which included a search of all houses
within a wide radius of Camden Sta
tion. Police investigations have
continued all week without result.
The Sister, still hysterical, has prom
ised, when her conditions permits,
to come to Baltimore to assist the
police in their search for her abduc
tors. She says she will take the
officers to the room in which she
was held prisoner and from which
she escaped. Aaron Anders, state’s
attorney of Frederick County, be
lieves the Sister was kidnapped by
persons who hoped to obtain a ran
som for her release. With Sheriff
James A. Jones, he went before the
county commissioners of Frederick
County and induced them to offer
a reward of $500 for the capture of
the abductors. Father Kane is co
operating in the fullest degree with
the authorities, and will urge Sister
Cecilia to come to Baltimore to as
sist the police when her condition
permits.
(Continued on Page 11)
Washington, D. C-—Basic princi
ples incorporated in the social re
construction program of the Na
tional Catholic War Council will
have a vital bearing on much of the
legislation that will be advocated by
Mrs. Mac Ella Nolan, the first Cath
olic woman elected to the congress
of the United States.
Mrs. Nolan declared that she will
pay particular attention to legisla
tion having to do with child labor
and that affecting the interests of
women in industry. She says she
is particularly interested in the
problem of the working woman who
has children. There is an unfortu
nate tendency, she points out in
our modern life, for many wives who
are naturally called upon to be
mothers, to shirk their home respon
sibilities and seek positions in the
business world while at the same
time they have bread-winning hus
bands who are able to support them.
This tendency increased in Ameri
ca during the war, when many mar
ried women considered it a matter
of patrioic duty to take up some
DR. TIGERT PLEADS FOR
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
Teaching Without Religion
Minus Quantity Says United
States Commissioner of
Education.
Washington, D. C.—Declaring that
education that confined itself en
tirely to the accumulation of know
ledge without regard to the will or
intention of man was a menace to
society, Dr. John J. Tigcrt, United
States commissioner of Education,
made a strong plea for the moral and
religious training of youth at the
annual convocation of the School of
Religion at Howard University.
'“In its widest connation,” said
Commissioner Tigcrt, “education is
the result of all the forces which af
fect the life of man. Taken in this
sense, religion is the most universal
element in education as well as a
very powerful stimulus to human ac
tion.”
“It is not only true that the no
tion of God exists, and has existed
in ail species of mankind to us, but
is likewise true that the notion has
everywhere been a powerful force,
it not actually the most powerfore,
operating in the lives of men. In
every form of communion witli the
supernatural, the notion of the Deity
has been sufficiently powerful in
its influence upon man to move him
to make the supreme sacrifices of
his own life or the lives of those
dearest to him. There certainly has
been no more impelling motive in
the life of man than his belief in the
Deity.
Recognition of Deity Essential
“Again, we think that sufficient
significance has not been attached
to the fact that among the great
thinkers who have interpreted real
ity and who have explained the ori
gin and the meaning of the cosmos,
almost without exception these
philosophers have required the no
tion of the Deity to make the uni
verse possible, intelligible, or think
able. Those few who have not re
quired the Deity for an explanation
of tlie universe do not loom up
among the great figures in the his
tory of philosophy. Wc have atheists
among the Greek philosophers in
(Continued on page 10)
work outside their home sphere. It
would be far greater patriotism to
day, Mrs. Nalon asserts, if every
married working woman who is sup
ported by her husband, would return
to her home and accept ther the
responsibilities of family life, leav
ing the field of employment open to
deserving women who have no one
to support them.
There is a deep lesson, according
to Mrs. Nolan, to be learned in the
recent report of the.Women’s Bu
reau of the Department of Labor,
which showed the results of inter
views with 522 mothers who were
engaged in industry. In 188 cases,
children were left to look after
themselves, or after one another and
in none of these cases were there
any children over the age of four
teen. In two cases, all were under
five years. In 107 cases, the mother
worked on night shifts and was thus
free to care for her children during
the day. In 25 cases, some one was
hired to care for the child.
PROTESTANT EDUCATOR
CONDEMNS OREGON BILL
As Unworthy of America as
Bolshevism, Dr. Johnson
Says In North American Re
view.
New York.—A Protestant critic
writing in the foremost non-Catholic
review of the country must be given
credit for what is perhaps the most
caustic condemnation of the Oregon
campaign of bigotry that has ap
peared in print. Discussing “Affairs
of the World,” in the February issue
of “The North American Review”,
Dr. Willis Fletcher Johnson says:
“Another equally flagrant example
of un-American extremes has been
displayed in the supremely import
ant field of our educational activi
ties. At one side of the continent, in
New York, wc have seen impassioned
campaigns for sacrosanct “freedom
of teaching’ which would permit
officially charted schools and even
instructors in public schools to
teach ail sorts of Communistic, Bol-
shcvlstis and other anti-American
doctrines, inspiring American chil
dren to enmity toward the American
rcpublica and its government.
“At the other side, in Oregon,
wc have just seen an attempt, ac
tually embodied in enacted legisla
tion, to compel the attendance of all
children at public schools, and thus
the abolition of all private schools
and home instruction. It is difficult
to choose between the two, in their
Sheer unworthiness of a place in
the American system. Rut though
such a thing was perhaps of all
things furthest from the thought
and intents of the Oregon legisla
tors, there is a significant correla
tion between the Iwo. The Oregon
law would practically remove chil
dren from parental control and make
them the wards of the state, to be
intellectually manhandled as might
suit the interests of the political
party in power; and that is precisely
what Communists and Bolshevists
demand to be done.
“That such a law will be held
constitutional is simply incon-
vcivablc. If by miraculous chance, it
should be, there would be more ur
gent need of prompt amendment of
the contitution than we have often
hitherto known.”
Two-thirds Majority Also
Opposes Grant of Federal
Aid For Education To the
Various States.
Washington.—Overwhelming op
position on the part of the business
men and commercial interests of
the nation to the principles embod
ied in the Stcrling-Towner hill, is
revealed in the result of a refer
endum vote on that measure taken
by the Chamber of Commerce of
the United States. A preliminary
canvass of the ballot as announced
by the office of the National Cham
ber shows that the proposal for the
creation of a federal department of
education with a secretary in the
president’s cabinet is opposed by a
three to one vote. A two-thirds
majority vote was cast against the
more fundamental issue contained
in the proposal for federal aid to
education in tlie states on the basis
of equal state and federal appro
priations. On the question of en
larging the existing federal bureau
of education the majority vote was
in the negative but fell 111 votes
short of the two-thirds required to
commit the chamber on questions of
policy.
The vote is regarded as a most
significant set-back for those who
have been fostering the plan for fed
eral intervention in educational mat
ters. It is the first time this is
sue has been put to a referendum
vote by an organization of the size
and influence of the United States
Chamber of Commerce and the fact
that both of the animating principles
of the Sterling-Towncr bill; crea
tion of a federal department of ed
ucation and federal financial aid to
the states for educational purposes,
it is felt, fail to be reflected in
the attitude which legislative bodies
and the public generally will take.
Three Questions Submitted
There were three specific ques
tions submitted to the membership
of the national chamber by its com
mittee on education. The first was:
“Do you favor the creation of a
federal department of education
with a secretary in the president’s
cabint?” The vote against this prop
osition was 1,291% to 447%, which
placed the chamber on record as
opposed- On the second question:
“Do you favor enlarging the pres
ent federal bureau of education?”
there was no decision because of
the two-thirds vote requirement. The
actual votes on the second question
were 590 in favor of enlargement
and 1,069 against the proposal.
The third question, involving a
fundamental question as to the re
lation of federal to state govern
ments read as follows: “Do you
favor the principle of federal aid
to education in the states on the
basis of the states appropriating
sums equal to those given by the-
federal government?” The ' vote
was 1,173% to 576% against the
principle of federal aid outlined.
A two years campaign of propa
ganda and agitation to place the na
tional chamber on record as favoring
the Stcrling-Towner hill is brought
to an unsuccessful end by announce
ment of the results of the referen
dum. The movement which led di
rectly to the taking of the vote was
initiated at a group meeting held
during the annual convention of the
national chamber in April, 1921. One
of the groups adopted resolutions
asking that proposals for a separ
ate department of education under
a separate cabinet officer in the fed
eral government should receive
study by the chamber. These reso
lutions as well as subsequent com
munications on the same subject
from the Merchants’ Association of
New York, the San Antonio Chamber
of Commerce and the Massachusetts
Board of Trade were referred to the
advisory committee of the cham
ber’s department of civic develop
ment.
Studied By Committee
In November, 1921, this commit
tee recommended that the board of
(Continued on page 10)
(Continued on Page 2.)