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"TO BRING ABOUT A FSIENDLISR FEELING AMONG GEORGIANS, IRRESPEC
T h e tiWy Catholic
Newspaper Between Bal
timore and New Orleans
TEN CENTS A COPY.
VOI,. IV. NO. 6.
AUGUSTA, GA., MARCH 30, 1923.
$2.00 A YEA a
ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY
SHUN ALIEN INFLUENCE
URGES ADMIRAL BENSON
Noted Georgian Demands
Adherence to American
Principles in Boston Speech
Boston.—A stirring plea for loyal
adherence to the basic principles of
Americanism, and for the resistance,
of foreign influences which might
serve to undermine the republic,
was made by Rear Admiral Wil
liam S. Benson, U. S. N., retired,
who as tlie official guest of the
city of Boston aid members of the’
United Spanish War Veterans, was
chief speaker at “Remember the
Maine" observances in this city.
“Wc want no Loyal Coalition here,'
lie declared, “and we should not lc^
any foreign influence come into
our midst. We don’t want our text
books corrupted and our - books of
education filled with the foulest
kind of lies. We want to have our
children taught American princi
ples; that this is a land founded
for the opportunity to enjoy true
liberty, in the best sense of what
the word means, and to enjoy the
pursuit of happiness.
“We want the right to worship
God as we see fit; and unless we
maintain these rights the 267 men
who lost their lives in the blowing
tip of the Maine have died in vain, as
have the thousands who sleep in for
eign graves.”
Mayor Curley, another speaker at
the exercises, which were held in
Faneuil Hall hailed Admiral Benson
as tlic “real American.”
“I rejoice,” he said, “in these
days of un-Americanisms, that we
have one real American, who, after
47 years of faithful service in the
American navy, dares to send forth
a real message.”
The crowd jumped to its feet and
shouted its approval.
“It was under his guidance,” con
tinued Hie Major, “that our trans
port system was maintained during
the war and it must not be. for
gotten that not one transport went
down.
“What are we to say to this man
who admonished one. who dared to
criticize his Americanism, who
admonished him as a parent would
have admonished a wayward child,
who simply said “Don’t let the Eng
lish puli the wool over your eyes,
Sims?”
“His message to us is that of a
lifetime of faithful service to the
nation that recognizes above all
the character of the individual, and
of service to Almighty God and to
the best flag that the world has
ever known.”
Earlier in the day Admiral Ben
son was guest of the city at a
luncheon at the Bellevue, at which
lit. Rev. Msgr. .1. Halierlin, D. I)„
represented Cardinal O’Connell.
Georgia Vigorously Defended
In St. Louis Catholic Paper
By Col Callahan of Kentucky
Former Chairman of K. of 0. Commission on Religious Pre
judice Dispels Numerous Illusions About Attitude of
State’s Non-Catholics Toward Their Catholic Neighbors.
Laymen’s Association Landed for Its Efforts to Promote
Friendlier Feeling Among Citizens Irrespective of Creed.
COL. P. H. CALLAHAN IN T HE'FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW
ST. LOUIS
Our Catholic papers from tfme to
time carry articles describing condi
tions in Georgia, as the various writ
ers, with a particular eye to the
status of Catholics aud the extent
of religious prejudice imagine them
to be. The general impression pro
duced, and apparently desired by
Ihe writers of these articles, is that
Georgia is the last word in bigotry,
a backwoods benighted state, whose
chief industry is the organization
of new forms of Catholic persecu
tion.
Georgia passed a convent inspec
tion law; Georgia published an anti-
Catholic paper; Georgia sent an
arch-bigot to tlie United Stales sen-
aie; Georgia organized the Ku Klux
Klan; Georgia tried lo exclude Cath
olic teachers from the public
schools. Thus, the indictment runs
on through an endless list of com
plaints.
But Georgia was not the first
state to pass a convent inspection
law, and it is not the only' state
where such a law is in force to
day. Georgia is not tlie only’ slate
where an auti-Catholie paper is
published, and Ihe anti-Catholic pa
per published in Georgia never in its
most flourishing days had a tenth
part of Ihe circulation of some anti-
Catholic papers in other states.
While it is true that one of Geor
gia’s late United States senators
was a bigot, the only open attack
made on the Catholic church in the
United States within a decade was
made by a senator from another
state; and we should not forget that
at one time Georgia sent a Cath
olic to the United States senate.
While true, too, that the Ku Klux
Klan had its origin in Georgia, it is
not in that state that wc witness
priests being flogged or other vio
lent action taken against Catholics
in the name of the Ku Klux Klan.
And if a part of Georgia tried to
exclude Catholic teachers from
teaching in the public schools, the
better part prevented that from be
ing done. One writing for Cath
olic papers on conditions in Geor
gia should he careful not to create
Episcopalian Bishop Of New York
Urges United Divorce Opposition
New York.—Declaring it is time
for el lurches of every denomination
—Catholic, Protestant and Jewish—
to agree upon common action for
the preservation of the home in
the United States, Bishop William
T. Manning of the Episcopal Church,
said in a Lenten sermon that the
system of monogamous marriage is
rapidly being abandoned and that
the nation has almost readied a
condition of “legalized free love.”
In speaking on “The Present Crisis
With Regard to Marriage in the
Home,” Bishop Manning said that
“to allow men and women to live
together for a time and then with
legal sanction on trivial and frivol
ous grounds to separate and form
new alliances as they’ please, is in
principle to abolish marriage and to
adopt a system of legalized free love.
And this is the system which we
have now almost reached.
“It is a simple fact that as a na
tion We are rapidly abandoning the
principle of monogamous marriage,”
he said. “The proportion of divorces
to marriages in our country has
reached figures that are appalling.
In our country as a whole there is
now one divorce for every eight
marriages, aud in some of our stales
there is one divorce for every Iwo
or three marriages.”
The bishop then spoke on the
methods used by some wealthy per
sons in obtaining quick legal separ
ations.
“The ease with which divorce is
secured by flic rich is increased by
the facilities now offered in Paris
and in other places. No matter how
scandalous the circumstances of the
divorce, some minister of religion,
it seems, can be found willing to
perform the ceremony of remar
riage.”
The bishop stated that at present
the influence of religion against di
vorce and remarriage is weakened
immeasurably by the varying stand
ards of different churches and even
of different ministers of the same
church. '*■'
“Those whom one church refuses
to marry go immediately to anoth
er and are married without ques
tion,” lie stated. “All religious or
ganizations—Catholic, Protestant and
Jewish—might well agree upon com
mon action for the preservation of
the home. Think what the efefct
would be if the whole united influ
ence rf religion should be exerted
in this great common cause.’’
) the impression thal Catholics out
side the stale arc Georgia-haitCrs.
Moreover, the writers of those ar
ticles which throw upon the canvas
such a dark and hateful picture of
Georgia, manifestly are no't famil
iar with conditions of that Empire
State of the South as they obtain
in recent years, beginning with 1916,
when the Catholic Laymen’s Asso
ciation of Georgia was formed and
a work was started which has
brought a complete change in the
Catholic status in Georgia, where
Catholics are now holding their
own in a way lhat compares favor
ably. with their progress in any
state in the Union.
A friend of mine recently, on bis
way to Palm Beach, stopped in At
lanta, and there lie found that the
leading attorney of the city, perhaps
the leading attorney of the whole
South, is a Catholic; not the “oucc-
a-year” kind either, hut zealous,
active, and so thoroughly Identified
as a Catholic that President Wil
son tendered him a place on an
important European commission on
which a Catholic was particularly
desired. And, besides Jack ,1.
Spaulding, there are other attorneys
in Atlanta who have attained to
distinction in their profession. In
business, too, Catholics in Atlanta
have won a prominent place. J. J.
Haverty is perhaps foremost among
the business men of that city, and
the “Haverty Stores” are distrib
uted all over Georgia and through
the South, from Florida to Texas.
Mr. Haverty is the vice-president
of the Catholic Laymen’s Associ
ation of Georgia.
What is true of Atlanta in this
regard is equally true of the other
cities in Georgia—Augusta, Colum
bia, Macon, Savannah, in each of
which the Catholics in business and
profession!!? life have attained to
success in numbers more than com
mensurate with their proportion of
the population. Furthermore, ex
cept for a few professional bigots
of the kind found in almost every
community in oiir country, the gen
eral attitude of the people of Geor
gia is not hostile to Catholics. A
Catholic lecturer going into Augus
ta last winter on his way to a Flor
ida Chautauqua, delivered an address
in the leading theatre, where lie
had an audience that was more than
fifty per cent. non-Catholic, and
which gave him the most earnest
attention, many of those present re
maining after the lecture to greet
the speaker, somewhat after the
custom in non-Catholic churches.
The whole atmosphere was cordial
and friendly; much more so, he
told me, than lie found it in suburbs
around Boston, where Catholics are
not in ihe minority.
The following excerpt from a re
cent letter from tlie Publicity Di
rector fully “confirms that impres
sion:
“No one ever bothers us,' al
though there is not a pari of Geor
gia we do not visit each year. Many
Catholics travel this territory, and
have never had any trouble, although
some of them are the kind who do
not hesitate to take part in discus
sion when the better part of valor
would suggest thal they lie silent.
Priests in this territory tell me that
they are always treated with re
spect.”
? And look at the anti-parochial
school agitation! While our schools
are being outlawed in Oregon, and
threatened in other states of the
West, in spite of the boasted free
dom of that section and Hie Cuth-
President Names Catholic
On Farm Loan Board
(Continued on P;u*e Two)
Merton L. Corey.
Washington.—Merton L. Cor
ey, professor of the College of
Law of Creighton University at
Omaha, Nebraska, has been nam
ed by President Harding to he
a member of the Federal Farm
Loan Board. He will be one of
the three democratic members
of the board, the appointment
being made under the new pro
vision of the law governing the
Farm Loan Board which en
larges the membership of that
body from fonr to six.
Mr. Corey has been known as
an advocate of increasing the
loan limit of the twelve federal
land hanks and during the past
year has delivered lectures in
many states on this and other
phases of the Farm Loan Bunk
system.
PROSPECTS OF MISSING
PRIEST’S RETURN DIM
Man Sought In Murder of
Dakota Priest Now Wanted
In Illinois Priest’s Case.
Virden, III.—Despairing that the
Rev. John A. Vraniak. pastor of
Sacred Heart Church, who lias been
missing for more than Iwo weeks,
will be found alive, the friends and
parishioners of the priest are seek
ing to connect his mysterious dis
appearance with the slaying of the
Rev. A. B. Belknap, of the diocese
of Lead, who was killed on October
26, 1921.
II has become known thal in llie
papers of Andrew ltolandu, who is
sought in connection with the kill
ing of Father Belknap, there were
letters from a girl in Virden, and
entries which indicated that Relan-
do had visited Virden a number of
times. This information was dis
closed in a letter received by Mrs.
Johanna Vraniak, the mother "of the
missing rector, from Mrs. John E.
Wagner, of Dubuque, a sister of
Father Belknap. A description of the
murderer of Father Belknap has
been suppleid and Deputy Sheriff
Miller declares thal it tallies close
ly with that of a man umjcr sur
veillance in a small town near here.
Efforts are being made to ascertain
whether this man was away from
home since the disappearance of
Father Vraniak.
Father Belknap was enticed from
the cathedral rectory at Lead by an
appeal to attend a sick call in an
isolated part of town and was later
found dead with several bullet
wounds in his bodyv Rolando, who
was known to he antagonistic to the
point of mania against priests, has
been sought since.
Adolph Vraniak, of.Chicago, broth
er of the missing priest, has re
ceived a telephone call from some
unknown person declaring that Fath
er Vraniak was seen in company
with two men “who appeared to be
leading him” in Collinsville, 111., near
St- Louis. The men were reported to
have hoarded a trolley car for St.
Louis.
CENSOR OF CRIME NEWS
URGED BY DR. WALSH.
Publicity Makes Wrongdoing
Alluring Instead of Abhorr
ing Says Fordham rofessor.
New York.—A suggestion that a
“Board of Psychology” he establish
ed to regulate publication of news
of crime and sex matters, was made
last Monday evening by Dr. James
J. Walsh, extension professor a I
Fordham University and professor
of physiology psychology at Cathe
dral College, in an address before
the Society of Medical Jurisprudence
at the New York Academy of Medi
cine. Dr. Walsh stated the publicity
for crime gave ii an allurement and
did not act as a deterrent.
“People crave to have something
happen to them—it may he some
thing alluring,” he said. “I remem
ber having had a man say to me:
‘Do you know, I have never had any
thing happen to me? I have never
even been on a trolley car that killed
somebody?’ This is a question of
craving to be in the limelight.
“In England they do not permit
the showing of a motion picture of
a robbery because they find that
hoys will be practising it. I believe
that here they say that if a crime
is shown punishment must be sluiwn
on the same screen.
“You can understand how the
printing of all the sex details affects
us.. Tire more prominent the peo
ple arc the more interest is at
tached to them. The idea, appar
ently, is to show, after all, nobody
is good. Some editors boast of
how long they keep a story like the
New Brunswick murder o.i the front
page. Not only are the newspapers
telling the stories, real or supposed,
of the sexual incidents of the day
before, but magazines are making
it a point to print sex stories. .
“It is said that tlie news of crime
is printed completely, so that in
the future it will not he committed.
Were there any more murders com
mitted in the old days before ihe
news of all the crimes was printed
in detail? The deterrence of crime
is different from giving it the al
lurement that present publicity gives
to it.”
Speaking of the regulation of cau-
itary conditions by Boards of Health
Dr. Walsh said in part:
“1 am wondering whether under
the circumstances we do not need a
Board of Health for the mind as well
as for the body? Is there any rea
son why we should have the de
tails of suicides? Don’t you think,
when you read that the last hold
up was committed by a hoy of 19,
that a similar thing led him to do
it as led the boy who read the dime
novel a few years ago to steal his
father's revolver and run away lo
Hoboken? Could it hurt anybody
to prevent the publication of these
details? Of course, such a Board
of Psychology would he liable to
abuses, hut every good thing is lia
ble to abuses—even marriage.”
Southern Methodist Bishop
Forbids Ku Klux Sermons
Louisville.—Sermons on the
Ku Klux Klan in churches under
his jurisdiction have been
banned by Bishop W. F. McMur-
ry of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.
Enforcing his position. Bishop
McMurry wired the Rev. Charles
D, McGehee, of the Haven
St reet M;E. Church of St. Lou is.
forbidding him to preach a ser
mon on “The Principles of the
Ku Klux Klan”, which he had
advertised in the St. Louis
newspapers. McGehee is a
Ktalisman, and he explained to
his congregation, which was a
capacity one, that he would be
unable to preach as advertised,
as the first duty of the Klans-
nian was to render obedience to
the laws to which he is subject,
whether they be ecclesiastical
or civil.
His mother substituted in the
pulpit for him; giving a lecture
on an excerpt of the Bible.