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SIX THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA THE BULLETIN The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s -Association of Georgia RICHARD REID. Editor 815-816 Lamar Building Augusta, Georgia Subscription Price $2,00 Per Year Published monthly by the Publicity Department with the Approbation of the Most. Rev. Bishops of Raleigh, Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, Mobile, Natchez and Nashville and of the Rt. Rev. Abbot, Ordinary of Belmont. FOREIGN ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE George J. Callahan. 240 Broadway. New York ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1933-1934 ALFRED M. BATTEY. Augusta President J. J. HAVERTY. K. S. G., Atlanta ...First Vice-President J B. McCALLUM, Atlanta Secretary THOMAS S. GRAY, Augusta Treasurer RICHARD REID, Augusta Publicity Director MISS CECILE. FERRY. Augusta. Asst. Publicity Director Vol. XV, May 19, 1934 No 5 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. Entered as second class matter June 15, 1921, at the Post Office at Augusta, Ga., under act of March, 1879. Ac cepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act. of October 3, 1917, authorized September 1. 1921. Discrimination on the- Air N INE years ago, when the utility and the future of radio were topics for debate, the Paulist Fathers established Station WLWL in New York, expending one hundred thousand dollars in the experiment. It was one of the first twelve high-powered stations, and was given a wave length and unlimited time. One of the pioneer « Sterilization 1 | VIE latest fad to sweep popular fancy from its j moorings is sterilization. The Macon Rotary Club a few weeks ago heard state officials urge it for the insane and feeble-minded, “properly administered.” The president of the Georgia Medical Society has been advocating sterilization legislature in addresses be fore civic clubs in the state. The Sixth District Federation of Women’s Clubs, meeting at Tennille, “adopted a resolution endorsing proposed laws for birth control and sterilization of the unfit.” The Georgia Federation of Professional and Business Women’s Clubs in a meeting at Macon, May 5, went on record as favoring and supporting such legislation. Newspaper stories predict that a measure providing for sterilization for the unfit will be before the next legislature for consideration. An Associated Press story from Tallahasee, Fla., a few weeks ago indicates that a bill to be considered by the Florida legislature outdistances the one predicted for Georgia and other states. The Florida measure, the A.P. story reports, will "pro vide for sterilization of feeble-minded persons, chronic alcoholics and chronic drug addicts.” v The Catholic position on the question, stated by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical on marriage, is clear and un equivocal. The Holy Father says: "Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects. Therefore, where nd crime has been committed and there is no cause for grave punish ment, they can never directly harm or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for reasons of eugenics or any other reason.” THE CHURCH AND EUGENICS addresses over WLWL was on the work of the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia. In October, 1926, the Department of Commerce arbl- trarily assigned WLWL’s wave length to another station, for no reason other than to favor the other station, and substituted for WLWL another less desirable. Then the Federal Radio Commission took charge, and in the in tervening years WLWL has been so continually harrass- ed by the changing and cutting down of its time that only two hours a day are now allotted it. The programs of WLWL are entirely cultural, educa tional and religious. WLWL has no commercial pro grams. At one time there were one hundred and five non-commercial, non-profit radio stations in the United States. Now there are but thirty. There is no suspicion that religious prejudice is respon- sibjp for the attitude of the Federal Radio Commission. There is a very real conviction that a predilection to ward commercialism on the air is, and this at a time when the character of programs sponsored by commer cial enterprises is occasioning widespread discontent. Congress is being asked to devote one-fourth of the broadcasting affiliations of the nation to educational, re. ligious, cultural, agricultural, labor and other non-profit organizations. We join in the protests against the discrim ination to which WLWL has been and is being subjected, and earnestly endorse the movement to give non-profit stations the benefits provided in the pending bill. The Church and Germany P IERRE VAN PAASSEN’S “World’s Window” in The Atlanta Constitution and other leading newspapers is a readable feature. Recently he expressed the view that the people of the world do not want war. An anonymous postcard writer answered that there was one person who did; "he is your Pope.” The writer of that card, says Mr. Van Paassen, is "of the type who swallow ed hook, line and sinker, that yam about the Pope sitting on a ship just outside New York waiting for the election of Alfred E. Smith to the presidency.” The Constitution columnist is critical of the policy of the Pope, however—this is another article. Catholics have been mistreated in Germany; but the Pope has forbidden all forms of political action by Catholics as such, thus undermining the Catholic party, “the only one which would have fought Hitler successfully." “What the Vatican hopes to accomplish with its ex tremely conciliatory attitude toward Hitler is the Strengthening of Germany and the destruction of the political hegemony of France in Europe,” Mr. Van Paassen asserts. “The Catholics in Germany were sac rificed to the Pope’s political ambitions. Yet the Pope will in the end succeed only in destroying the faith in Germany, as has happened in Italy.” It seems, therefore, that the Pope owes it to himself and to the Church to change his policy of getting in formation about conditions in Germany from the Cardi nals, Bishops, priests and Catholics of Germany and from German non-Catholic sources, and get it from American journalists, who will throw in advice for good measure. Perhaps then His Holiness would not be “sacrificing the Catholics of Germany.” The unfortunate part of the whole situation is the fact that the Catholics do not know they are being sacrificed, the Holy Father does not know he is sacrificing them, and the Catholics of the United States and the world are too slow-witted to see that such publicists as Mr. Van Paassen are more concerned about the welfare of the Church than they, and even the Holy Father himself. Stephen Leacock has just written a book teaching people how to come in out of the rain. Mr. Van Paassen ought to send us all copies. He seems to think we need them. The Church was preaching and practicing eugenics when immorality was crumbling the fabric of Roman civilization. The laws of the Church, which every Cath olic child knows, prohibit lharrying within the fourth degree of kindred, a eugenic measure. The Church re quires public notice of intention to marry, thus afford ing opportunity to prevent improper marriages. That sterilization will reduce the number of feeble minded or insane is merely a theory with eminent au thority against it. Constitute yourself a committee of one to investigate. Make a list of all those you know who are feeble-minded or insane. Are their brothers and sisters feeble-minded or insane? How many of them are offspring of similarly feeble-minded or insane par ents? A survey in an English hospital for insane recently indicated that only five per cent were the offspring of parents similarly afflicted. The Church does not oppose sterilization without hav ing a remedy in reserve. A person dangerous enough to the community to be sterilized is dangerous enough to be segregated. Segregation will accomplish all that is claimed for sterilization, and is no violation of the nat ural law. There is no greater joy under heaven than the love of one’s children. “Liberals” would casually and per manently deprive men and women of the hope of this unparalleled happiness, and this for reasons ranging from feeble-mindedness, the degree varying with the personal opinions of the “liberals”, to alcoholic and drug indul gence. Tobacco and coffee addicts seem to be safe for the present Several states already have sterilization laws. Others probably will have them. But if they all adopt them, and this is response to majority opinion, the “reactionary” Catholic Church will still oppose them as a violation of the natural rights of man and of true liberalism, and patiently wait for the people to regain their good judg ment and come around to her way of thinking again, even as she did in the less serious question of making men moral by statute. Reason and Rules I N the Catholic Church, “there is a reason behind every rule”. Behind the rule on marriages of Catholics with those who are not Catholics, for instance. The faith is the most precious of possessions. Millions from the days of the Roman Empire to those of the Rus sian and Mexican Republics have sacrificed their lives rather than deny or desert it. While the Church does under some circumstances grant a dispensation for the marriage of a Catholic to one not of the faith, she does it reluctantly because her experi ence proves to her that such marriages, despite the promises she requires that the offspring be brought up as Catholics, are a positive danger to the faith. The Brooklyn Tablet publishes the results of a census in a well-organized parish in that Diocese, one with a splendid parish school in a Catholic neighborhood, and with a pastor and assistants who are exemplars of priest ly character. There are one hundred and twenty-five “mixed mar riages” in the parish, ninety-seven in which the hus bands and twenty-eight in which the wives are not Cath olics. In seventeen of these marriages, there are twenty-two children, all good Catholics. In seventy-eight others, there are two hundred and fifteen children, careless and neglectful of religion. In the other thirty marriages, there are sixty-seven children who are lost entirely to the faith. Since the faith is so precious that Catholics will die if necessary to preserve it, surely these statistics, which may be duplicated nearly anywhere in the country, are reason enough for the rule of the Church on marriages of Catholics with those outside the Catholic Church, MAY 19, 1934 Dixie Musings Father Charles L. Kimball, S. J., librarian of Holy Cross College and the oldest member of its faculty in point of service, died May 10. Nine teen years ago Father Kimball in vited and encouraged us to write for the Holy Cross Purple. We had never been out of touch with him since. In failing health for a num ber of years, he was nevertheless ever the soul of genial friendliness. Everything of interest to The Bulle tin and the Catholic Laymen’s Asso ciation of Georgia he made his in terest. May he rest in eternal peace. Arnold Lunn, English author, who entered the Church not long ago, told the Catholic Truth Society that he first bought its pamphlets to see how intelligent men defended the “fantastic” beliefs of Catholics. He discovered that their beliefs were anything but fantastic; their logic led him into the fold. Brother Leo, without doubt the most eminent literary critic on the Pacific Coast, is unequivocal in his adverse criticism of Eugene O’Neill’s “Days Without End” which Mid- Western and Eastern critics like Father Daniel A. Lord, S. J., and R. Dana Skinner of The Commonweal have commended. When critics as eminent as these disagree on wheth er a play is good or bad, it is not unreasonable for the rest of us to take a chance on it. Brother Leo is not given to find ing fault; he is not of that class which thinks that literary and dramatic criticism means denunciation. Fifteen colored residents of De troit, brought before the court on charges of disorderly conduct after a riot among followers of the “Cult of Islam”, gave Mohammedan names and said they were born in Mecca in 1555. On closer questioning they recalled other names and birthplaces such as Georgia, Alabama and Mis sissippi since the Emancipation Proc lamation. The colored people are naturally religious; Catholic missionary effort among them has borne great fruit. Lack of means to support the work has handicapped it severely, a handi cap which the self-sacrificing work of the priests and Sisters working among them has mitigated mar velously. None should be more in terested in the work than the Catho lics of the South, and the support given the work, directly and indirect! ly, by the Catholics of the South is, without doubt proportionately much larger than by those elsewhere. But the surface has hardly been scratch ed. The newspapers of Hartford ex citedly announced that a Philadel phia priest had been named Bishop of Hartford in succession to the late Bishop Nilan, although the Apostolic Delegation at Washington had ad vised Bishop Maurice McAuliffe, Bishop Nilan’s auxiliary and his co adjutor-elect that he was the Holy See’s choice. The newspapers, first to announce that the Philadelphia priest had been appointed, were like wise the first to deny it publicly. The newspapers are always ahead. However, we should not be too harsh on the newspapers. A little experience in newspaper work would make the average person more tol erant of their errors, even if it would not incline him to give the Hartford newspapers absolution in this case, without adding a rather severe pen ance. In a city in the South recently the death of a prominent political leader was generally reported. Newspaper men called up his home, and he de nied the report in person. The news papermen still were dubious, on the ground that you can't always believe what a politician tells you. The Catholic Travel League is ar ranging a pilgrimage. Not to Rome, or Lourdes, or Lisieux, or Croagh Patrick, but to Sweden once as Ca tholic as the England of Henry the Seventh. At New Castle, Del., the superin tendent of public schools proposed solving the patent immorality of some of the students in the high school by teaching birth control methods. The Board of Education dismissed him. Some citizens of the city then de manded that the Governor remove the members of the Moard of Educa tion, who were “reactionary” and Christian and religious-m i n d e d enough to believe that preventing evil is the proper aim, and not mitigating its effects by compounding it. "These sly little subscription digs in ‘Dixie Musings’ really do not bring any startling results,” we wrote in the previous issue of The Bulletin. One of our loyal supporters among the clergy sent in a substantial check as “factual proof that in this item the editor is wrong.” Which goes to show how poor our aim is at times; this particular pastor is a creditor of ours rather than a debtor, since we owe him a debt of gratitude we can never repay. We magnanimously forgive him of con vincing us of error, and hope that many another one, particularly among the laity, will join him in proving our item wrong. There has been considerable dis cussion about the alleged threat against the freedom of the press under the NRA, reflecting what we believe are baseless alarms. But we should like to take this occasion to step into the role of an interpreter of the Constitution and to say that the Constitutional provision guaran teeing a free press does not mean free subscriptions. There is a St. Mary’s Railroad in Georgia, a report of the railroad’s business for the past year shows. A certain anti-Catholic agitator was accustomed to denounce Catholics for their insidious influence as illustrated by the manner in which they had countries, cities, rivers, etc., named for Catholics. And all the time his own publication was named after Christopher Columbus. We do not know the circumstances in the marriage of Emperor Bao Dia of Annam, Indo-China, and N’Guyen Huu, Cochin-China convent-bred Catholic girl, but of this we may be certain: If a dispensation was grant ed by the Church, it was on the promise that the children of the mar riage would be reared Catholics. Edith Gittings Reid has written a very readable life of Woodrow Wil son emphasizing Wilson’s "love of democracy” which she illustrates particularly by his efforts to rid Princeton of its exclusive and snob bish clubs. In his "New Freeman”, Wilson rec ognized the influence of the Church in the development of democracy in the Middle Ages. "There was no peasant so humble,” he wrote, "that he might not have become a priest, and no priest so obscure that he might not become Pope of Christen dom. Commenting on Wilson’s appoint ment of Joseph Tumulty as his sec retary despite the groans of disap proval because Tumulty was a Cath olic, the author recalls that when a student at the University of Virginia he upheld in a debate the position that the Catholic Church was not a danger to America. And lost the de bate. The Michigan Catholic, edited by Anthony Beck, quotes Bishop Hafey, of Raleigh, as saying that the exist ence of anti-Catholic bigotry in the South is overestimated in the nation. Says our Michigan contemporary: “He ought to know. In our opinion there are as many bigots per square mile in many Northern States as in any Southern commonwealth.” Mr. Beck was - president of the Catholic Press Association when it met in Asheville in 1929. The C. P. A. never received a warmer welcome anywhere than there and in Savan nah two years ago. Rasputin, “the Russian monk”, was not a monk at all, the St. Joseph Tribune reports, “but a peasant who posed as a holy man and who, by use of strange hypnotic powers gained an ascendency. He was notoriously im moral and taught the horrible here sy that it is well to sin violently in order that one may have an humble conversion.” J. J. Brown, former commissioner of agriculture of Georgia, who was indicted by a McIntosh County jury for killing a bear, has had the in dictment invalidated on the ground that the indictment did not state in which county'the killing took place, and that the bear was ferocious any way. Big black bears give the little pigs plenty of worry in some parts of Georgia. Catholic Truth From the Georgia Bench (From >he Catholic Universe-Bulle tin, Official Organ of the Diocese of Cleveland) Judge Louis L. Brown of the Geor gia Superior Court is alarmed at the growing tendency in America t o- ward divorce. As well he may be. The easy shifting of what should be life mates in some divorce courts has moved one conservative member of our heirarchy to refer to the code of morals of some people as of the barn yard variety. What would he say if he weren’t conservative? The experence of the learned judge on the tench has forced him to the solemn judgment that divorced peo ple should not be alowed to remarry. He maintains that if a man or wom an had only one chance that mar riage would be approached with more serious thought. That is the crux of the whole ques tion. As long as America runs a di vorce and marriage bargain counter where a slightly used partner can be picked up very cheap or where an entirely new one may be exchanged the same as a dress that doesn’t fit, just so long will divorce business thrive. The Georgia justice may think he is preaching novel doctrine. He is wrong in that opinion. It is nineteen centuries old or just as old as the Catholic Church. The Church taught it in the age of catacombs and con tinues to teach it in the age of sky scrapers. Truth is immutable.