Newspaper Page Text
6
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
MAY 9, 1928
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s Association
of Georgia.
RICHARD REID, Editor.
Published Semi-Monthly by the Publicity Department with
the Approbation of the Kt. Rev. Bishops, of Raleigh, Char
leston, Sa'vanhah, St Augustine, Mobile and Natchez.
1109 Lamar Building. Augusta, Georgia.
Subscription Price, $2.00 Per Year.
FOREIGN ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE,
S. T. Mattingly, Walton Bldg Atlanta, Gs.
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1924-25.
p. II. RICE, If. C. S. C„ Augusta President
COL. P. H. CALLAHAN, K.S.G., Louisville, Ky., and ADMI
RAL WM. S. BENSON. K.C.S.G., Washington. D. C. .....
... .Honorary Vice-Presidents
I. .T. I-IAVERTY, Atlanta First 'Vice-President
J. B. McCALLUM. Atlanta Secretary
THOMAS S. GRAY, Augusta Treasurer
RICHARD REID, Augusta Publicity Director
MISS CECILE C. FERRY, Augusta. .Asst, Publicity Director
VOL. VII.
MAY 9, 1926
No. 9
Member of N. C. W. C. News Service and of the Catholic
Press Association of the Untied States and Canada.
rd to direct every effort toward making the stay of
the Georgians a pleasant one. Their visit was one
round of receptions, all arranged by the Cubans
themselves without the knowledge of the editors.
There is not-n-Georgia editor who made the trip
to Cuba who did not return impressed with the
beauty of Havana and the wonderful country of
which it is the capital, amazed at its resources, fill
ed with admiration for the cultured, highly intelli
gent, chivalrous and enterprising Cuban people, and
lastingly grateful to them' for the wholehearted
hospitality shown the party. Havana and Cuba mean
something to the editors they never meant before and
we are certain that Cuba now has in Georgia many
scores of newly-made and influential friends whose
friendship will last as long as the sweet memories
of the Georgia Press Association’s visit to “the Paerl
of the Antilles.'
Entered as second class matter June 15, 1921, at the Post
Office at Augusta, Ga., under Act of March, 1879. Accepted
for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Sec
tion 1103, Oct of October 3, 1917, authorized Sept 1, 1921.
h
"Thg Pearl of the Antillies”
Three hundred and eighty-eight years ago aii
expedition led by Hernando de Soto left Havana in
Cuba on a journey of exploration which revealed to
the Spanish leader and his intrepid band the physi
cal greatness and wealth of that territory we now
call, Georgia and the Southeast. Last month over
one hundred and fifty newspaper folk from Georgia,
headed by the president of the Georgia Press As
sociation,, journeyed to Cuba annd discovered for
them'selyes the wonders of the young repulic which
but a few years ago fired the imagination of not
only all America but the world, and experienced the
overwhelming hospitality of the warm-hearted, lib
erty-loving sons and daughters of “the Pearl of the
Antilles!”
'Hie editors spent most of their time in Havana,
the capital of a country with a population and terri
tory resembling in extent that of Georgia, and with
only a few thousand Americans on the whole is
land. In customs, in language, in religion, in ap
pearance, in climate and in dozens of other ways
Havana differs from our Georgia cities as much as
our cities might be expected to differ front Paris,
Madrid, Vienna or Brussels. Rut the Georgians were
not there many hours Before they felt almost as
much at home as the*/ would in any part of our
own United States.
And why not? There are few states in the Union
which have more in common with Georgia than
Cuba. The relationship of Georgia and Cuba goes
hack over four hundred years, when the first Span
ish explorers set out from that fair isle to penetrate
the great continent to the west. One of these, de
Soto, anticipated the political oraators of our day
by traversing the state “from the Savannah to the
Chattajjpochee” and possibly “from Tybee Light to
Rabun Gap’ before finding his grave in the run
ning waters of the Mississippi. It was from Cuba that
consecrated men first set out to preach the gospel
of Christ upon Georgia soil, a work in which m'any
of them gladly gave up their lives before, the rage
of the savage just . as their predecessors had
done centuries ago in the pagan countries of Africa
and Asia, amoijg -l_he Barbarian tribes of Northern
Europe and the cultured peoples of the South, long
before Constantine ascended the throne of the
Caesars.
The first souls won to Christ in Georgia were
won by Spahish missionaries from Cuba, 1 070 of
them being confirmed on St. Catherines Island in
1606 by 4he: Bishop of Santiago as revealed in a book
recently published by the University of California.
The first buildings erected in our state were the
result of the labors of Catholic missionaries, Span
ish, if you will, but relayed to us by Cuba, and the
remains of these structures dot the Georgia coast
even to this day. In the last half of the eighteenth
century the contact of Georgia and Cuba ceased, not
so much because of the famous Battle of Bloody
Marsh as because of disturbances in Europe in
which Georgia and Cuba had no part, and which in
sured what History indicates was inevitable and logi
cal, that Georgia should be one of the states of the
American union. In the story of Cuba’s long fight
for independence, Georgia’s name continually appears,
and when finally the intervention of the United
States forecast the dawn of a new day for our trou
bled neighbor, no state in the Union gave a greater
proportion of her population to fight for Cuban in
dependence than our own.
There was every reason, therefore, why Geor
gians should feel at home in our neighboring re
public, and the logic of the situation was accentu
ated by tlie reception accorded them. To call it
wholehearted hospitality is to express only a frac
tion of it. From the president of the Republic, who
received the party in the Presidential Palace, rising
from a sickbed to do so, down to the humblest
Sunday is Mother’s Day and this is the month of
the Blessed Mother, Catholics should see to it that
their observance of Mother’s Day does not neglect the
religious significance. The reception of Holy Com
munion for her is a commendable Mother’s' Day cus
tom.
A Quincy, 111., woman a candidate
for the state legislature there, has
wired Governor Walker suggesting
that the star in the American flag
representing Georgia he removed
because of the “judicial murder” she
says was perpetrated late in March
when two boys from that section of
the country were electrocuted here
for murder. The murder was a par
ticularly cowardly one, its victim be
ing an old man who gave his mur
derers a ride along a country road.
The boys confessed, according to
stories in the daily press, and the
mother oL^me of them says she ac
cepts the confession. If capital pun
ishment is ever justified it appar
ently was in this case. The good
lady went far afield to pick flaws,
and then found only an imaginary
one. She could have done much bet
ter had she east her eyes no further
than Herrin in her own state.
Catholic Comment
A MELANCHOLY FIGURE
(From The Boston Pilot)
What a melancholy figure is the
Catholic who docs not read Catholic
literature. - He is the heir to all
ages in the domain of ti'uth. He
has only to reach out, and the wealth
of the intellectual world, in the
shape of uplifting thoughts, noble
ideals, and brave resolves will come
tumbling into llis lap. But he pre
fers to exchange this priceless in
heritance of Catholic truth, for the
mess of pottage that goes by the
name of light modern literature.
A Conspicious Example
Honor thy father and thy mother.” In this day
and time when the commandments of God often seem
to be honored more in their breach than in their observ
ance, this precept has not been exempt from dishonor.
Indeed the rapid development of our country, making
shallow people, who are ashamed of their former
humble surroundings, wealthy overnight has been an
unwitting cause of the disregard that it so often ex
periences.
It is indeed gratifying under the circumstances
to find in the most conspicious and exalted position
in the nation a man to whom one may point as a per
sonification of filial love and devotion. Colonel Cool-
idge was a man of influence in his community and even
beyond it; he had served in the state legislature and
senate and held other offices of public trust. In his
young manhood he had worked as a millwright. Later
he conducted a general store and an insurance busi
ness. He was a man of high order of intelligence, but
without a college education; he was thrifty, hard-work
ing, liqnest, just. But these are not qualifications
that count for a great deal in what is known as so
ciety, and Colonel Coolidge, although highly respected
by his neighbors, could not by any stretch of the
imagination be considered a man of high social stand
ing.
When the Colonel’s son was elected from Massa
chusetts to the White House, it was tins unassuming
New Englander whom the President chose to give him
the oath of office, and this in a little farmhouse in
the rugged hills of Vermont, although he might have
taken it from the Chief Justice of the United States^
a former president, in all the pomp and glory that
democratic Washington can affect.
On the rare occasions when the Colonel was per
suaded to accept the hospitality of the White House,
he was treated with all the respect and devotion that
a prince could display toward his royal father. When
the President left Washington for the summer he
thought he was doing no more than a pleasant duty
in exchanging the comfortable North Shore for the
humble Coolidge home in the Green Mountains. Colonel
Coolidge, who never became reconciled to the advent
of the automobile or the telephone and would have
little or nothing to do with them, welcomed the radio.
One memorable evening the President delivered a
radio address to an invisible audience numbering mil
lions. At the end of the address he gave public evid
ence of liis affectionate reverence for his father, who’
was listening in, by bidding him a fond good-night.
Whether we consider President Coolidge a success
as the chief executive of our nation this is not the
place to say. Nor would we shower him with fulsome
praise because of his veneration for his father,. Now
that the mortal remains of his sire are laid away in
his native hills, the peace of mind of Calvin Coolidge
and his consciousness of his dutiful conduct toward
his departed parent are more powerful remedies in
soothing the heartaches occasioned by the separation
than an eternity of regrets.
We think it appropriate, however, to direct to the
attention of our young people and of the older ones as
well the wholesome example the President set in this
respect. Our parents have a generation more of ex
perience than we. The vanity, the futility of wealth,
power and social position are more apparent to them
than to us. The Lord of course knew this when on
Mount Sinai He handed down the commandment:
“Honor thy father and thy mother.” A dutiful obser
vance of this commandment will spare us years, of
vain regret, and gain us rich treasures in heaven
Enterprising newspapers, realiz
mg that prohibition is perhaps the
chief topic of interest these days, in
terview many leading figures on the
subject. Some of those interviewed
are Catholic prelates, and their
views, while not identical, are not
inharmonious. Then editorial writ
ers in the same newspapers conclude
that Catholics have launched a
movement against prohibition!
“Many Catholics quit Church in
Loyalty to Spiritism: Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle Deserts Catholicism
Se we read in a leading story on
the front page of one of the iarg
est newspapers in the South. Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle has been out of
the Catholic Church so long that we
have all hut forgotten he ever was
in.
Bishop Floresh has appointed Col
onel Callahan secretary of the Eu
charistic Congress pilgrimage body
of the Diocese of Louisville. Some of
our Catholic writers, mainly laymen
have been worried about the Colo
nel’s orthodoxy, but since Bishop
Floresch, who is his Bishop apd
his spiritual leader and superior, ap
parently is satisfied with his Catho
licity, the rest of us should be dis
turbed about it no longer.
We often hear about the numer
ous calls made on Catholics for con
tributions for religious purposes,
but those who respond oft enest and
most liberally seldom are the com
plainants. People fortunate enough
to be required to pay income tax in
most cases have a very difficult time
trying to make their contributions
to religion total even a fraction of
the amount exempted for that pur
pose. Joseph Quinn of the Propa
gation of the Faith magazine packed
a volume in a few words recently
when he commented on church con
tributions in this fashion: “Some
times a man will pay <J>8j80 for two
theatre tickets and put the twenty
cents change in his vest pocket for
Sunday’s collection.” It is our con
viction, however, that the Catholics
of Georgia and neighboring states
contribute more per capita for
church purposes than their brethren
in most states with large Catholic
populations.
An evangelist addressing a Ku
Klux meeting at Waycross declared
that “nearly ninety per cent of the
men who are violating the Eight
eenth amendment are foreigners.”
That will he news to Judge Barrett
and Judge Sibley of the Georgia
Federal District Courts. It will be
news to superior, court, judges in
Georgia whose courts are clogged
with liquor ■ cases, some of which
rarely or never have foreigners be
fore them for this or any other rea
son. Statistics from cities with
large populations reveal that the
vast majority of “foreigners” who
run afoul of the law are native
born children of immigrants, indi
cating that the trouble lies not so
much with the foreigners as with
our handing of their children. New
York did not resemble a Sunday
A PIONEER MOVEMENT
(From The Catholic Herald St.
Louis)
The vast majority of Americans
not only need to be taught what
Catholicity means and teaches, but
they are willing to leant; but only
through publicity can they be
reached. Catholic publicity is there
fore more or less of a necessity. The
Paulist Fathers arc making a break
in the right direction with their
broadcasting of serinc.tis and re
ligious services, but the movement
they are pioneering sbpuld be ex
tensively exploited.
THE REMEDY
(From The Standard and Times,
Philadelphia)
Having discovered the real cause
of bigotry, we are in a condition to
suggest a remedy for this ugly phe
nomenon, which is ill reality noth
ing but a malady of the mind. The
antidote is the dissemination of
knowledge that will undo the work
of the imagination and substitute
for the warped pictures, w'hich the
mischievous activity of the fancy
has woven, pictures that correspond
to the actual truth.
ON THE OTHER HAND
(From The Catholic Observer,
Pittsburgh)
It is veTy wrong for Catholics to
interfere in the government of Mex
ico. They should be allowed to
make laws to suit themselves,
whether these laws he against hu
man and divine conception or not-
But it is quite all right for the Jews
of America to compel President Taft
to break off diplomatic relations
with Russia for the Czai-jst persecu
tions. And it is au fait for 110
Episcopalian bishops to petition
President .Coolidge for a Sharp note
to Turkey owing to the persecution
of Christians there.
The date of the Eucharistic Congress in Chicago
is drawing near and all who can should plan to at
tend. The Knights of Columbus pilgrimage from
Georgia, which has the endorsement of our Rt. Rev.
Bishop, should have representation from every city
Cuban with whom they came in contact, all seem- in the Diocese.
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
(From The Louisville Record)
1492: Columbus and his crew
assisted at Holy Mass in Palos be
fore starting on his voyage to the
New World. 1926: Commander
Franco and his crew assisted at Holy
Mass in the same spot, befbre start
ing his non-stop flight across the
Atlantic. Four hundred thirty-four
years, and the same Catholic Mass,
the same Catholic Faith, the same
sweet (submission of courageous
hearts to the guidance and protec
tion of Christ our King.
‘THE EVERLASTING MAN”
(From The Ave Maria, Notre Dame,
Ind;)
Prof. Phelps, of Yale University,
says that after reading a book by
G. K. Chesterton he “feels like
cheering.” _ Reviewing, for Scrib
ners Magazine, the latest hook by
‘the Catholic Dr. Johnson,’ as we
call Mr. Chesterton, the Professor
writes:
G. Iv Chesterton has produced a
book that seems to hear in every
chapterthe impress of genius—“'Hie
Everlasting Man.” In reading it
amid the pullulation of contempor
ary flapperisms and adolescent
pruriences and jazz scientific works,
I can think only of the old-fashion
ed phrase that God has raised up G.
K. C. for this especial purpose, to
stand as a witness to the eternal
truth of religion. When I began
to read this book, I had my pencil
ready to mark the. passages that
seemed most memorable. I put up
my pencil, for I found I had to mark
school before the foreigners started . .
to come over in such numbers, nor nearly every sentence. The style is
is Atlanta, with perhaps the larg- brilliant, without becoming mo-
est percentage of native born inhab-' notonously so. It is a great hook, a
Rants of any city of its size in
America, ready for judgment day.
In Lithuania Jews are suspected
by fanatics of killing Christian chil
dren for ritual purposes, and we are
about to point a linger of scorn at
them until we recall I hat there are
many apparently intelligent people
in the United States who believe
that their Catholic neighbors and
associates imprison women in con
vents and condone and encourage
other immoral acts.
Tlie papal ai’my is drilling, Pierre
Van Paassen writes from his van
tage point in New York to the At
lanta Constitution, and .“one won
ders who the prospective foe can
be.” Since the papal army, accord
ing to The Constitution columnist,
numbers 1,000, our guess is that if it
decides to fight any army it logi
cally will select the Salvation Army.
An Augusta non-Catliolic was sol
emnly informed recently that the
Catholic Church had bought out the
Salvation Army,
spur to the intelligence, a solace to
the heart.
SCIENCE AND LIFE.
Cardinal O’Connell in the Boston
Pilot.
Science has made many wbnder-
ful discoveries in the past, fresh dis
covers are being made almost ev
ery day, some of them of great ben
efit to mankind; hut science has its
limitations, and these limitations
can be easily and clearly defined.
Science has never created anything,
Man’s desire to probe into the. un
known, between life and nondife,
which science is not able to bridge
over is insatiable. Everything in
nature, and in the universe points
to a personality, a Supreme Intelli
gence, an infinitely wise God, as the
creator of all things, and the source
of all life. All tilings were made by
Him, according to a definite plan,
a perfect design, carried out with
infinite wisdom and skill, without
any confusion, and without any mis
sing links.