Newspaper Page Text
FOUR
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
JULY 22. 1933
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s Associa-
tion of Georgia
RICHARD REID. Editor
U00 Lamar Building Augusta, Georgia
Subscription Price, 82.00 Per Year.
Published semi-monthly by the Publicity Department
with the Approbation of the Most Rev. Bishops of Re-
leigh, Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, Mobile,
Natchez, and Nashville and of the Rt. Rev. Abbot,
Ordinary of Belmont,
Member of N. C. W. C. News Service, the Catholic
Press Association of the United States, the Georgia
Press Association and the National Editorial Association
FOREIGN ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE
George J Callahan. 240 Broadway, New York.
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1931-1932
P. H. RICE, K. C. S. G„ Augusta president
HONORARY VICE-PRESIDENTS
COL. V. H. CALLAHAN, K. S. G Louisville, Ay.
BARTLEY J. DOYLE Philadelphia
J. J. HAVERTY, Atlanta First Vice-President
J. R. McCALLUM, Atlanta Secretary
THOMAS S. GRAY, Augusta Treasurer
RICHARD REID, Augusta Publicity Director
MISS CECILE FERRY. Augusta. Asst. Publicity Director
Vol. XIV.July 22 No. 14
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 Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized
September 1. 1921.
The Future of Our Schools
’“T^'HE Most Rev. John B. Peterson, D. D., Bishop of
; 1 Manchester and vice-president general of the Na
tional Catholic Educational Association, is far from dis
heartened by the effect of the economic situation on our
Catholic schools. In an address at the convention of the
Association at St. Paul he recorded a number of positive
<eascns for encouragement.
Catholic schools, Bishop Peterson said, educate for
eternity and must not be dismayed by the inevitable
vicissitudes of time.
They have 65,601 Sisters and Brothers teaching 2,464,457
chillren, with a devotion that can not be valued in bil
lions of dollars.
Catholic elementary and secondary parish schools
represent not only an investment of one and a third bil
lion dollars “but a spirit of sincere devotion to the cause
of religion which depression cannot dismay. If our fathers
could spare from their pittance or earnings these millions
for buildings, their sons and daughters will pay from
fuller purses for their unending upkeep and use.”
The courageous parish school pioneers “overcame
greater difficulties than ours” and “their spirit is ever
there to sustain us and spur us on. We shall not fail
them.
On God’s List
N OT that it matters much, but the National Council
of Women and the Ladies’ Home Journal recently
conducted a poll to discover the twelve greatest Ameri
can women of the country. Over one hundred and
twenty thousand women voted, and their choices
in the order named were Mary Baker Eddie, who re
ceived over one hundred and two thousand votes, Jane
Adams, Clara Barton, Frances T. Willard, Susan B.
Anthony. Helen Keller, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Julia
Ward Howe, Carrie Chapman Catt, Amelia Earhart Put
nam, Mary Lyon and Dr. Mary E. Woolley.
Mary Barker Eddie’s amazing vote appears to be a
very graceful tribute to the very effective organization
of the Christian Scientists, for it is hardly conceivable
that ten out of every twelve women taken at random
would vote for first *boice for the founder of a sect to
which so few belong and with which so few are familiar.
We commend to our readers, as a worthy example, the
energy of the Christian Scientists on behalf of their re
ligion whenever an opportunity arises.
There is reason for gratification in the fact that the
ladies did not pick twelve moving picture actresses as the
ewelve greatest women of the century.
Prescinding fronT’other criticism of the list, we should
like to remark that women have founded most of the
private hospitals in the United States. Women have
founded thousands of schools orphanages, houses
of refuge. The women who founded most of the private
hospitals, most of the colleges for girls, and these thous
ands of schools, orphanages, and houses of refuge were
Catholic women, nuns. The founder of Mount Holyoke
College and the president of Mount Holyoke are on the
list. The founders of these other scores of colleges,
hundreds of hospitals and thousands of schools are not.
They work quietly, effectively, unostentatiously. The
world passes them by, and they are happy to have it so.
For they are on God’s list.
Dollars Without Sense
' | "HERE never was any sense in the propaganda that
A Catholics dominate the political offices of the
United States, but there was dollars in it, and now the
professional anti-Catholies are at it again trying to see
if there are any dollars left they can entice to themselves
by stirring up intolerance and bigotry.
During the Wilson administration a Catholic was sec
retary to the President, and as Catholics in some states
constitute perhaps eighty per cent of the Democratic
“And finally, in following our own ideals we know
we have been right, and true friends of education are
beginning to believe it.”
The philosophy of pessimism has no place . in any
Catholic movement, and least of all in the glorious work
of Catholic education, as Bishop Petersen so emphatically
proves.
The Center Party
r T“*HE news dispatches about the dissolution, of the
| l Centre or Catholic Party in Germany by agreement
between the Vatican and the German Government are
very confusing to those to whom the world is just a big
United States.
The first Centre or Catholic party was formed in 1852
in the Prussian Chamber of Deputies to defend the free
dom and independence of the Church guaranteed by the
Constitution. The party dissolved in 1867.
party and Mr. Wilson was accustomed to appoint Demo
crats, Catholics naturally received some appointments,
not as Catholics but as Democrats.
No Democrat who was a Catholic was appointed to the
cabinet. One or two received diplomatic posts of im
portance. The sprinkling of Catholics in other govern
ment fields was correspondingly light. Yet anti-Catho-
lic organizations pretested to high heaven that the
“Romanists” were running away with the government
and the patriots of the nation ought to send in a con
tribution so that something could be done about it.
A denominational weekly of the Southeast then credit
ed the treasury department with a staff seventy per
cent Catholic. "In the war department fifty-three per
cent of the civilians and seventy per cent of the army
employes are Catholics.” And so on, with the Indian
affairs bureau of the department of the interior reach
ing the highwater mark of a staff allegelly ninety-five
per cent Catholic.
In 1869, however, the “Liberals” in the Prussian Cham
ber of Deputies launched a movement for the adoption
of anti-Catholic legislation, and the Centre or Catholic
party was revived. Now, with all parties merged in the
Nazi government, the Centre party is again dissolved.
Several things are to be noted about the Centre party.
In the first place, it was born of necessity, when the
anti-Catholics forced Catholics to organize politically in
order to protect their rights. In the second place its
primary object was the defeat of anti-Catholic measures.
Thirdly, the organization of the Centre or Catholic party
came spontaneously from the Catholics of Germany,
without suggestion or influence from the Vatican. Finally,
in matters not involving the freedom and existence of
the Church the members of the Centre party considered
themselves no more obligated to any one course of ac
tion than members of any other party.
We have no Catholic party in the United States, and
we pray that there will never be any necessity for one.
But if anti-Catholic legislation should ever threaten the
freedom and existence of the Church in this country,
Catholics would be less than human and less than intelli
gent if they did not unite to meet and defeat the legisla
tion directed against the Church. Catholics agree that the
political forum is a most unworthy platform for re
ligion, wherein they reflect the mind of the Church it
self, but this does net mean that Catholics will not when
necessary exercise their rights as citizens, or that they
will allow anti-Catholics to unite politically against them
without using all legitimate and moral means to defend
their religion. Nor decs it mean that a Catholic or a
Christian or a Jew must on entering the halls of legisla
tion divest himself of his conscience and his obligation
to obey the commands of God.
The Macon Telegraph, The Dalton Citizen and other
Georgia newspapers reproduced with approving editorial
comment the results of an investigation of the late T. J.
Donovon, a Washington attorney, showing that the names
of 1,507 executives listed in the Congressional Directory
indicated only sixty-seven Catholics and ten rhore doubt
ful, or about five per cent instead of fifty-three, seventy
and ninety-five per cent. With five per cent of the
executives of government departments at Washington
Catholics, the absurdity of the anti-Catholic figures is
evident.
But their absurdity did not prevent them from being
effective with a large segment of the population during
the Wilson administration, during the days when cotton
sheets were selling for ten dollars per, and in the hectic
days of 1928. The defeat of Governor Smith for the
presidency in 1928 and his failure to be nominated and
elected in 1932 hurt on one as much as the anti-Catholic
propagandists, who could have seduced millions of dol
lars out of the pockets of people having the anti-Catholic
complex with the lever of a Catholic in the White House.
With a Protestant President, they are handicapped but
they are not out of the running; there is a Catholic in
the cabinet, and a couple of Catholics in diplomatic posts,
and a Catholic on the Supreme Court, and with this
much to start on, to say that most other government posts
are filled with Catholics requires only the kind of con
science possessed by anti-Catholic agitators who flourish
on the dishonorable profits of hate. Unless all signs fail,
we are in for a revival of such professional bigotry, and
while we regret it we are not dismayed by it, for we feel
that the leaders of Georgia, armed with the facts which
have been and are being presented to them, will render
the bigoted efforts ineffective.
Dixie Musings
Down here in the South Irish names
do not indicate Catholicity. In the
East it is supposed to be different.
But in a recent issue of the New York
Herald-Tribune we read of the death
of the Rev. Dr. A. B. Kavanagh, a
native of Tipperary, who for many
years was superintendent of the
Brooklyn South District of the Meth
odist Episcopal Church.
Again, the Boston Herald informs
us that the‘Rev. Dr. Edward Sullivan
of Newton Center, Mass., pastor of a
Unitarian Church there, exchanged
pulpits with a Boston Unitarian pas
tor.
On the other hand, there is Count
Clary, one of the most distinguished
citizens of Paris, and president of the
French Olympic Committee, who died
recently. And Abbe Patrick Flynn,
French-bom and bred, not long ago
was consecrated a Bishop in France.
The University of the South, an
Episcopalian institution at Suwanee,
Tenn., awarded Postmaster General
James A. Farley an honorary degree
of Doctor of Civil Daw “for conspic
uous service to his country as' a
statesman and , for his honesty in the
administration of political affairs”.
Here is one Protestant institution
which does not seem to fear Cath
olics in high office.
Newspaper stories report that Pres
ident Roosevelt has gained weight
since his inauguration, thereby con
firming the widespread impression
that he is a bigger man now than
when he took the oath of office.
Former Governor Smith was
awarded an honorary doctorate by
Harvard University recently, and Miss
Louise K. Smith, columnist in The
Augusta Herald, was asked by some
of her friends why she did not note
the fact. She replied in her column
to the effect that the matter was not
important to Governor Smith;
merely an incident in his crowded
life.
Harvard honored itself, however,
when it thus honored Former Gov
ernor Smith, for it showed itself ca
pable of rising above the snobbish
ness which was one of the unpleas
ant features of the 1928 campaign.
But, now that we think of it, Har
vard did not have to rise above it,
for it never got that low. We seem
to recall that a poll of the faculty
of Harvard as well as student polls
put the Democratic nominee well out
in front. And Harvard is normally
Republican.
Many “highbrows” will not be able
to understand Harvard’s award to
Governor Smith. Which reminds us
of the best definition we have read
of a “highbrow”, “one educated be
yond his intelligence”.
Columbia University showed the
way to Harvard; it has; already Doc
tored Mr. Smith.
There is a great deal of criticism
of these honorary doctorates. We
only know of one case where a man
refused one on the ground of prin
ciple. The best way to convert an
objector to the reasonableness of the
practice of conferring honorary de
grees is to award him one.
That was not the thought of the
Catholic University of America in so
honoring President Roosevelt, how
ever. The president entertains the
notion, often apparently missing in
the minds of the mighty in the Uni
ted States, that the Catholics of the
nation, one-sixth of the population,
and including perhaps one-third of
those who attend church services at
any time, are an important factor in
the country’s life and deserve not
merely supercilious tolerance, but
even-handed justice.
The Coffee County, Georgia, Prog
ress, finds some encouragement to
college graduates in the fact that one
college graduate, who happened to
be John D. Rockefeller's grandson,
has just succeeded in finding a job
with the Standard Oil Company, of
New Jersey.
And the Atkinson County Times re
marks that now that Georgia finds
it impossible to get beer, it will have
to make out with “mountain dew”
and “swamp liquor”. If you know
what that means.
A census of Mexico City reveals,
according to the Boston Herald, that
one out of every 15 persons there
speaks two or more languages. Mex
ico City, with 1,076,276 inhabitants, is
more than a mere wide place in the
road. Only three or four American
cities are as large or larger than it.
To return to Governor Smith for a
moment, we should like to record this
tribute to him paid not long ago by
President Nicholas Murray Butler in
appearing before a New York State
Legislative Committee:
“I should like briefly to associate
myself with everything that was said
before this committee by Former
Governor Alfred E. Smith. I look upon
Governor Smith as our most experi
enced and our wisest student of pub
lic administration, and when I dif
fer from him 1 should want to ex
amine very carefully the ground of
my own difference, so great is my
confidence as to his disinterested
judgment.”
No, the subject was not the Eigh
teenth Amendment, hut a comprehen
sive plan for the reorganization of
the city of New York.
The Winder, Ga., News, which now
and then spars a bit with The Bul
letin, in a recent issue stated that
“the mounting costs of education are
startling. In 1914 the cost of pub
licly supported elementary and sec
ondary schools was $555,077,000. By
1930 the figure had increased to $2,-
320,776,000, an increase ol 318 per cent
in 16 years. This county has gone
wild on education.”
A considerable portion of the 318
per cent increase has gone (or ex
travagances which would bring fi
nancial ruin to an uppper class coun
try club.
There was a tendency at one time
among some of our Catholic school
officials in some parts of the coun
try to yield to the trend and go along
with the tide, but they have recov
ered their power of resistance to the
current which would have swept
their schools on to disaster.
When the Church took the posi
tion that a school is an institution
for the training of the mind'and the
dvelopment of character, and not a
miniature country club, “progress
ive”, “forward - looking” educators
were amused at such “recurrent me
dievalism”. But if the Church’s ed
ucational program had been taken
as an example and not a source of
amusement, we should have today
fewer unpaid teachers and defaulted
municipal bonds, and graduates bet
ter grounded in fundamentals.
One of the esteemed readers of the'
Brooklyn Tablet complains—and seri
ously, we are assured—that The Tab
let is not abreast of the times, for
“Saturday, the day after the Shar-
key-Camera fight, I got The Tablet
and there wasnt.’ a word in it about
the fight. All the other papers were
full of it.”
A minister consented to preach in
an Episcopalian Church in the town
where he was spending his vacation,
and the sexton inquired if he wished
to wear a surplice. “I’m a Metho
dist,” said the minister, "what do I
know about surplices? All 1 know
about is deficits.”
He would in this respect at least
feel very much at home in some
Catholic newspaper offices, where
surpluses are as rare as in Methodist
vestries. Have you sent in your check
to cut down the current deficit of
The Bulletin?
The Holy Father recently sent, his
blessing not to readers of Catholic
publications, but to subscribers, Read
ing the Catholic press is not support
ing it.
The way Catholic newspapers have
to plead for support and the response
they get remind us of the complaint
of a man who told a friend that every
morning when he got ready to leave
for the office his wife would ask him
for ten dollars. “Imagine that!” he
exclaimed indignantly, “every morn
ing?”
"Gracious,” said his friend sympa
thetically, “what, does she want with
all that money?’
“I dont know,” answered the har-
rassed husband. “I never -give’ it to
her.’
In nearly every issue we ask delin
quent subscribers to remit; many
who have not responded are no doubt
wondering what The Bulletin does
with all the money it asks lor—and
doesn’t get.
In a magazine some time ago we
made some such supposedly facetious
remark about something English, and
two maiden ladies in England wrote
a joint letter to the editor cancelling
their subscription.
We do things so much better over
here. In our secular newspaper days
we wrote an article to which some
of the young bloods of the town took
exception. Did they cancel their sub
scription? Not so you would notice
it. They very courteously visited the
editorial offices to meet the young
man who wrote the article, a meeting
very fortufiately circumvented by
the editor, a journalist of the old
school, who profanely drove them
from the office and promised that If
they came around there again with
any more of their so and so threats
they had better bring along baskets
in which to carry themselves home.
We note that Hon Josephus Dan
iels, United States Ambasador to
Mexico, in a July 4 address, included
fredom of worship in the “five salient
points which must constitute the
backbone of the new Declaration of
Independence,” and we record the
fact with as much pleasure as we re
ported his initial address in Mexico
with regret.
On this latest occasion Mr. Daniels
was speaking at a meeting sponsored
by his fellow-citizens; his previous
remarks were addressed to Mexicans.
We believe that his recent address
more accurately reflects his convic
tions than the diplomatic language of
his former speech, which created
such a furore, a reaction we believe
was educational and helpful to Mr,
Daniels.
The Atlanta Constitution has an ed
itorial entitled: “Bishop Cannon's Lost
Punch”. We assume he didn’t drink
it. —R. R. .