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6 THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIV JUNE 5, 1926, THE BULLETIN The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia. RICHARD REID, Editor. ublished Semi-Monthly by Ihc Publicity Department with tne Approbation of the Rt. Rev. Bishops, of Raleigh, Char-* lion’ Savannah, St. Augustine, Mobile and Natchez. 1109 Lamar Building. Augusta, Georgia. Subscription Price, $2.00 Per Year. FOREIGN ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE h- T. Mattingly, Walton Bldg Atlanta, Ga. TI ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1024-25. r - RICE, K. C. S. C., Augusta ..President P- IT. CALLAHAN, K.S.G., Louisville, Ky., and ADMI RAL WM. S. BENSON, K.C.S.G., Washington, D. C t 4 ‘' J •; Honorary Vice-Presidents t Allan ia First Vice-President ■«TT^\r t^P^LLUM, Atlanta Secretary S l£^ Y ’. Au gwsta Treasurer Augusta Publicity Director MISS CECILE C. FERRY, Augusta. .Asst, Publicity Director VOL. VII. JUNE 5. 1926. No. 10 Member of N. C. W. C. News Service and of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada. Entered as second class matter June 15, 1921, at the Post Office at Augusta, Ga., under Act of March, 1879. Accepted lor mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Sec tion 1103, Oct of October 3, 1917, authorized Sept 1, 1921. Religion and Politics Boston is perhaps the most Catholic of the metro politan cities of America. When anti-Catholics talk about “Catholic domination in politics” Boston is their favorite example. Recently the city, despits its overwhelming Catholic population, elected a Prot- ;stant mayor. There were several Catholics in the race. If Catholics as such be in politics, someone fell down badly. On Patriots Day, the anniversary of the ride sf Paul Revere. His Eminence, the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston, addressed the Knights of Columbus. Did the election of a Protestant mayor in a city over whelmingly Catholic rancor in the Cardinal’s heart? His words are the answer: “You know as well as I can tell you that in Ameri ca, where, thank God, religion is unfettered by govern ment shackles, merely because a man calls himself a Catholic or a Knight of Columbus or a Protestant or a Mason is no proof in itself that he has the ability, tho^intelligence, or even the honesty requisite for the making of a first class executive of Nation, State ol city. These requisites must he examined and approved on other grounds of actual fitness. No true Knight of Columbus will ever he guilty of appealing for public support on false grounds, and if he should, he de serves open repudiation because he puts his selfish ambition above his patriotic duty—and that is an insult to all of you.” And the Cardinal said further. “I have known many Presidents, Governors and Mayors of this city of Boston, and I have never at any time received anything hut the most courte ous consideration from them all. And, 1 will add, it has been told me by those who know, many a time the public officials not of our faitli gave a glowing example of genuine willingness to hear the real merits of any ease in which Catholic interests from a purely civic side were concerned, which some Catholic officials might well copy.” If these remarks are not grounded in pure Amer ican principles our civic education has been a total loss. Ecclesiastical Domination When Popq Pius XI in a recent encyclical restated the unchanging Catholic teaching on the relation of Church and Stale by pointing out that “in the exercise of tile charge that has been confined to her of teach ing, of guiding and leading to eternal happiness all those who belong to the Kingdom of Christ, she can not depend upon the will of another”, many of our Kood non-Catholic neighbors professed to see a new claim to universal temporal authority on the part of the Pope and were correspond I nglv ^excited. Now comes the noted Methodist Bishop McConnell of Pittsburgh who in a recent sermon asserted that “the American flag should never be nailed above the cross,” a statement the Cincinnati thinks “boldly in dicative of an ecclesiastical spirit that would set the Church above the State.” The Atlanta Constitution, whose loyalty and pat riotism no one may impugn, points out the fallacy of the Cincinnati Enquirer’s contention. “What he (Bishop McConnell) was suggesting was- the supreme loyalty of men and nations to God and His command ments.” The Constitution says editorially. “That is an obligation the statement of which cannot be made too often and which carries no implication of church dominion in the civil government.” The Bamberg, S. C., Herald of March 11 quoted James C. Hemphill, Greenwood, S. C., architect, then returned from Tampico, Mexico, ns saying that he was encouraged to believe from a Mexican whom he met on his return journey and who was going to Wash ington to confer with the Mexican ambassador, that Protestant denominations will not be affected by the enforcement of the provisions of the Mexican constitution. “He said this Mexican envoy told him that the government did not intend to include Pro testant churches in its ultimatum issued several weeks •go.” Georgia, The Dean of the Colonies Georgia was the first settled of the thirteen ori ginal colonies. Only one state in the Union was, in habited by Europeans before the Empire State of the South, and that one, Florida, outdistances her .« this , respect by only a scant few months. Georgia mis sionary settlements were over forty years old before the English established Jamestown, the first perman ent English settlement in America; they were nearly sixty years established when the English landed oil Plymouth Rock. Many Spaniards were here for more than a generation after Oglethorpe and his band came to Savannah. Georgia has therefore been con tinuously occupied by Europeans and their descen dants since 15G6, or for three hundred and sixty years The Bulletin has since its foundation endeavored to impress upon the people of Georgia Catholic and non-Catholic, a consciousness of the antiquity of the history of the state. It has devoted much space to articles demonstrating the fallacy of the impression that the history of Massachusetts, of Virginia, of New York and others of the thirteen colonies was already old when Europeans first settled Georgia. The state historical societies of this section have given its sub ject their effective attention. Scholars like Professor Bolton of the University of California, Miss Mary Ross of the same institution, the late Father Glodt or the Marists and others have done invaluable research worji, the results of which The Bulletin has been pleased to bring to the attention of its readers. Recently there has been renewed interest in the early Spanish history of Georgia and many Georgian* are beginning to realize its importa'Cie to the Ciate. One of the most significant developments is the ap pearance within a few weeks in the Macon Tele graph, the Jacksonville Times-Union and other news papers of the following story, which is self-explana tory and gratifying to all interested in the early his tory of our state; “Brunswick, Ga.—Restoration of the old Spanish Missions along the Georgia coast in Glynn, McIntosh and Camden "counties would draw tourist travel to that section to the same extent that has happened in Cali fornia after similar improvement. That is the opinion of Mrs. Washington E. Connor, of New York City, vice president of the Florida State Historical Society, and author of hooks on early Spanish history and translator of original Spanish documents in the arch ives of Havana and Madrid. Mrs. Connor owns the old Mission at New Smyrna which has been partly restored and which lias been visited by thousands of visitors this Winter. ‘The Spanish place of the history of this section was so completely forgotten that several generations lost sight of the fact that the old tabby structures were monasteries, and that this section had experienc ed the same development under the friars that made California traditions so colorful. The Georgia islands all had important missions and San Jose on Sapeloe is still in a fair state of preservation. Santa Maria, near St. Marys, can be easily restored while Tolomato near Darien is also susceptible of easy improvement. Santo Domingo de Talaje, near Brunswick, on the Elizafield plantation of Mr. William DuPont is more inaccessible at this time, hut the remains arc very im pressive. “The first of the Georgia missions was built in 1566 on St. Catherine’s Island, Santa Catalina, "San Jose on Sapeloe, Ospo on Jekyl, Asao on St. Simon’s and San Pedro on Cumberland were all built and maintained for many years before the mainland mis sions were established. It is known that some of the mainland missions were built in 1655. The impressive ruins of San Jose on Sapeloe date back to the six teenth century, but until recent times it was supposed that the structure was built for a sugar mill. Not until Spanish archives were closely studied lately was it definitely known that these structures were really old missions. “All the existing mission ruins lie within easy reach of the Costal Highway, and Mrs. Connor sug gests that local organizations should acquire them and proceed to restore at once. Many Brunswick peo ple are becoming much interested in the matter. Dr. Howard E. Coffin, of Detroit, who owns Sapelost will probably undertake the restoration of the Mis sion of San Jose personally, and Mr. William DuPont many restore Santo Domingo which stands on his winter estate. The tabby material of which the mis sions were originally built can be ulilized in restora tion very effectively.” In Ireland Catholics constitute seventy-five per cent of the South and thirty-five per cent of the North. The Catholic South of Ireland gives fifty per cent of its Senate seats to Protestants; in the North the Catholics have not a single seat in the Ulster Senate. A will was recently filed in Ireland dispos ing of an estate of $500,000; it directed that under no circumstances whatever should any Catholic take any benefit from the state. Such provisions directed against Catholics are common; provisions excluding nonlCatholics from benefiting by Catholic wills are unknown. These facts are well worth recalling when anti-Catholics acuse Catholics of bigotry. The Catholic Transcript of Hart ford, was in our opinion one of the best Catholic weeklies in the coun try until it changed its front page make-up. Now it is much better. The editorials are at least as grace fully written, entertaining and though provoking as those we read in any paper, religious or secular. Recently it referred editorially to Columbus, Georgia, as “a tolerant town. First of all, it tolerated its own name, which is a distinct achievement in religious liberality.” If that be a test of tolerance and liberality, Georgia’s rivals should look to their laurels. We have in Georgia the towns of St. Charles, St. Clair, St. Mary’s, St. Simon’s and St. Catherine’s Islands, and St. Catherine’s Sound. There are the towns of Rome, DeSoto, Car rollton, named after the Catholic signer of the Declaration of Inde pendence; Pulaski and DcKalb and Columbia counties, quite as Catho lic in their connections as Columbus. To many people an Irish name con notes a Catholic one; in the state we have the towns of Hogansville, Kelly, Griffin, Flint, Fitzpatrick, Leary, Doyle, Barney, Egan, Butler, Flem ing. McDonough and six other Macs, and McDuffie, Grady, Burke, Dooly, Murray, Dorsey, and Dougherty counties. We even have Pope’s Ferry, There are any number of towns with foreign and ipso facto Catholic names, like Devereux, Ca milla, Americus, Arcadia—the Arca dians settled here it is said—Lafay ette and Ludowici. Of course Sulli van county and Rome, N. Y., are not Catholic nor are they the most liberal places in the state. But we did not suggest the name of a place as a criterion; it was the Connecti cut editor’s idea. And we suspect that he is only “kidding,” something he does with a skill that approaches genius. The Macon Telegraph refers to Senator Arthur Robinson as “the Klan’s representative in the senate, admittedly so,” and to Senator James Watson as “Slippery Jim” who in mental equipment “possesses noth ing but the faculty of guessing which way to jump.” Our friend Joseph O’Mahony, of Indianapolis, in his editorial columns commends sena tors Robinson and Watson for de fying the Klan by voting for the settlement of the Italian debt and the confirmation of Thomas F. Woodlock, both of which the Klan opposed. But Brother O’Mahony gives no credit to the “Klan Sena tors” from the South who defied the Klan and voted for the world court. We are not able to fathom this line of reasoning. Editor Jim Williams, of the Greensboro Journal-Herald in con gratulating the Columbus Enquirer- Sun on winning the Pulitzer prize sounds a note of warning. “In hon oring the Enquirer-Sun we hope that some of our critics in other sections will not think that the work of that paper is so rare and conspicuous in Georgia as to require national at tention.” Catholic Comment THE PULITIZER i{RIZ». (From the Catholic Bulletin, St. Paul. We note with interest that the Pulitzer gold medal for the most disinterested and meritorious pub lic service by an American newspa per in 1925 has been awarded by the prize committee to the Colum bus (Georgia) Enquirer Sun for its “brave and energetic fight against the Ku Klux Klan, against the en actment of a law barring the teach ing of evolution, against dishonest and incompetent public officials, and for justice to the negro and against lynching.” Julian Harris, the pub lisher of this newspaper,.is, as many of our readers know, the son of a cultured Canadian Catholic mother and of Joel Chandler Harris, folk lorist, novelist, poet and journalist, author of the famous “Uncle Remus” stories which are now read in 27 languages, and who was himself re ceived into the Church on June 30, 1908, a few weeks before his death. A MERITED DISTINCTION. ( From the Catholic Herald, St. Louis. If the now almost defunct Ku Klux Klan had, as some believe, had its birth in Georgia, it has likewise re ceived in that state some of the most telling blows, that have helped to send it on its way out of busi ness. This we believe after nothing that the Pulitzer gold medal for the most disinterested and meri torious public service rendered by an American newspaper during 1925 has been awarded the Columbus En quirer Sun, a daily paper of Colum bus, Ga. In making the announce ment the judges declared the award was made because of the Enquirer Sun “brave and energetic fight against the Ku Klux Klan, against the enactment of a law barring the teaching of evolution, against dishonest and incompetent public officials, against lynching and for justice to the Negro”. Among the evil things enumerated the Klan is put first, it will he observed, and it was the one to attack which call ed for the most courage, perhaps, especially in Georgia. There are many daily papers that have need of more courage and energy in fighting such evils, so what the Co lumbus, Georgia, paper has done de serves the distinction awarded, as well as emulation. Speaking of Georgia editors, John F. Shannon of the Commerce News, who for some reason or other did not go to Cuba had Kohl Rabi last week, if his news columns are to be believed. We trust his Recovery will be rapid. On second thought we looked Kohl Rsbi up in the dictionary and find JjMt it is not an ailment at all, but ^^Bgetable. Mr. M. A. Russell, a Savannah member of the Laymen’s associa tion, in a letter to The Bulletin in reference to the persecution the Catholic church is undergoing in Mexico and-in France, says: “I agree with you that the Catholics have nothing to fear from their Protes tant neighbors in the South, but it seems that this cannot be said of our brethren in Catholic countries.” The fight in Mexico and France is not, of course, between Protestants and Catholics but between the forces of religion and atheism. The radi cals who persecute the Catholic church do fo because they see reli gion exemplified in her, and believe like Clemenceau that they can “blot out the lights of heaven” if they cause her downfall. The Catholics and Protestants of Georgia have in finitely more in common than Catholics and their persecutors in Mexico and France. Gilbert K. Chesterton lias a mind that enables him to reach the core of a subject while most of his con- Lempories are busy with its fringes. “There is a great deal to he said for Mencken,” he writes, “and it is all quite negative. He has nothing to defend and he defends it splen didly.” Mencken’s pet aversion is the extreme moralists, but he is an extremist in another direction. Says Chesterton: “We believe that Mr. Mencken, who makes himself a champion of Nietzsche and delights in shocking the Christian as well as the Puritan sensibility, is quite cap able of praising works which we would not touch with a pitchfork.” Extremes in any direction arc not desirable. “In medio stat virtus.” RIGHT ABOUT FACE. From the Echo, Buffalo, N. Y. Along with the information that the British have quietly evacuated the Cologne area, comes the news that 800 British soldiers have tak en to themselves as many wives. During the war no fraternizing be tween the British and the “Huns.” Certainly- in the course of seven years the German people did not undergo such a remarkable change as would make German girls fit wives for British soldiers. All of which "tends to discredit the malic ious propaganda which was resorted to during the war and which engen dered unnatural hatreds. What the British soldiers did other soldiers have done in other occupied zones. French, Americans and English all yielded to the charms of the Ger man women, and the latter, in turn, accepied the recent enemies of their country as satisfactory husbands. ROOSEVELT AND SOUTH AMERICA. (From the Catholic Record, London, Canada. After travelling extensively through the South American conti nent, and making a close study of conditions and peoples, Theodore Roosevelt summed up his conclu sions in the terse and pithy pro nouncement: “The Twentieth Cen tury belongs to Soulli America.” Anti-Catholic prejudice made the usual ignorant calumnies of our Southern co-religionists easy of ac ceptance. So that the considered judgment of the great ex-President aroused self-complacent North Americans from their apathy and begot an interest in the southern half of the herrfisphe.re that has been ever since steadily growing. Catholics have an especial interest in South America inasmuch as the people are practically all of the household of the Faith. The Catho lic colonizers of the South did not exterminate the natives, but Chris tianized and civilized them. So that a large proportion of the population is native Indian. The monstrous epigram, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian,” found no place in the philosophy of the white colonists of the southern continent. AN EFFECT OF PERSECUTION (From the True Voice, Omaha, Neb We are not surprised to learn th; persecution in Mexico is awakenin the people there and making thei take an interest in religion. Pei secution usually has a good effect ; well as the evil one intended by tli persecution. No doubt. Calles an his henchmen in Mexico intended t exterminate religion or reduce it t the condition in Bolshevik Russi. But Mexican Catholics can fight fc their religion if only they can i aroused. Persecution is rousin them. If only they had worked u to the danger long ago, they won) not have allowed a two per cent m nortiy to control Mexico for ti past dozen years.