Newspaper Page Text
MARCH 23, 1935
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC L AYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
SEVEN
Georgia C.L.A. Presents the
Case Against Sterilization
In Newspaper Statement It Quotes Biologists and Other
Scientists to Show Ineffectiveness of Measures Con
demned as Violation of the Natural Rights of Man
(The following news story was
featured in a recent issue of the
Augusta, Ga., Daily Chronicle,
and it was occasioned by previous
editorial and news story com
mendation of laws being propos
ed by advocates of sterilization):
Taking issue with assertions that
proposed sterilization laws appeal to
the common sense of all reasonable
persons, the Catholic Laymen’s As
sociation of Georgia, in a statement
prepared for The Chronicle by Rich
ard Reid, editor of the Catholic
Bulletin, quotes leading authority on
eugenics against it, and asserts that
the reduction in the number of crim
inals, insane and indigent predicted
by those favoring the measure has
not been effected in California,
where the law has been in operation
for 25 years, nor in the 28 other
states which have adopted it.
The statement declares that per
sons sufficiently unfit to be steri
lized should be segregated instead,
segregation accomplishing all that
sterilization can do, without the
evil effects which many medical and
scientific authorities attribute to
sterilization.
Viewing sterilization, except as a
punishment for crime, as immoral in
the same sense that the taking of
life except for the punishment for
crime is immoral, and terming it
“a violation of man's natural
rights,” the Laymen’s Associatoin
does not discuss those aspects of the
question in the statement, but de
votes its attention to the opinion
of medical and scientific authority,
opinion which it asserts should tem
per the enthusiasm of those who
propose sterilization as a remedy
for current evils. The Laymen’s As
sociation says:
“Dr. H .S. Jennings of Johns Hop
kins University, in "The Biological
Basis of Human Nature’, writes: ‘It
has been computed that if the pro
portion of feeble-minded in the pop
ulation is one per thousand, to de
crease that proportion to one per
ten thousand will require 68 gener
ations, or two to three thousands
years, if it is done merely by stop
ping the propagation of feeble-mind
ed individuals.’
her brothers murdered his and her
sister. If the sterilization people were
active then and had their way, Eliza
beth Tuthill Edwards would have
been one of their first subjects.
“Yet, according to Harvey Wick
ham in ‘The Misbehaviorists’, who
quotes Dr- Horatio Haskett New
man of the University of Chicago
and Albert E. Wiggam, author of
‘The Fruit of the Family Tree’ as
his authorities, this woman was the
ancestor of Timothy Edwards, a
founder of Yale University; from
her descended also 12 college pres
idents, 265 college graduates, 65 col
lege professors, 60 physicians, 100
clergymen, 75 army officers, 60 prom
inent authors, 100 lawyers, 30 judges,
and 80 other prominent public offi
cials, including three congressmen,
two United States senators, a chief
justice and two presidents of the
United States.
“Sterilization as a punishment for
crime is conceivable although there
is difference of opinion about its ef
fectiveness. But sterilization as a
preventitive of crime, insanity and
poverty is but another of those pan
aceas which bob up in history, make
a brief stir, and then disappear to
make room for another, leaving a
trail of disillusionment and heart
break in their wake.”
“None doubts the sincerity of
purpose which actuates most of
those advocating sterilization as a
means of improving the lot of our
people. But we submit that in the
light of these opinions of eminent
leaders in the field of eugenics it is
hardly defensible to say that ‘the
sterilization law appeals to the com
mon sense of every individual.’
“A proper environment for our
under-privileged people will do more
to eliminate insanity, crime and
poverty than the most enthusiastic
advocate of sterilization erroneously
claims will flow from a steriliza
tion law.”
Legislature Passes
Sterilization Bill
-□
The Georgia Senate Tuesday
passed a bill providing for the
steriliation of persons in state
institutions and establishing a
board of eugenics to select sub
jects for the operation. The
bill had previously been passed
by the House of Representa
tives; the Senate amended it by
making provisions for an appeal
to the Superior Court in cases
where it is sought to have the
sterilization operation per-
| formed.
O
GORRA HARRIS LAUDS
NUNS IN HER WILL
Famed Georgia Author
Leaves Them Bequest for
Their Charity
“Dr. C. Leonard Huskins of Mc
Gill University states that ‘steriliz
ing the unfit themselves would not
produce notable results even after
many generations of effort’ and that
‘to wipe out the unfit it would be
necessary to sterilize not only the
brothers, sisters, parents, uncles,
aunts and cousins.’
'Dr. Franz Boaz of Columbia
University, writing in a recent is
sue of the American Mercury on
'The Dangers of Sterilization’, a sig
nificant title, says that ‘there is
great uncertainty in the factors
producing feeble-mindedness’, but,
granting for the sake of discussion
that ‘ten per cent of the children
of schizophrenes (mental defectives
of an aggravated type) are liable to
become schizophrenes, while only
one per cent of the general popu
lation is so affected, shall we sac
rifice the ninety per cent normals
for the ten per cent abnormals?’
"Dr- Boaz also declares that there
are many persons in our cities and
our schools who may be classed as
morons, but ‘who under better con
ditions would be able to hold their
own.’
Dr. J. H. Landman of the College
of the City of New York asserts
that ‘sterilization is not by any
means the solution of the problem
of the feeble-minded and the men
tally diseased. Instead it creates
new problems’, particularly the
spread of social diseases. If persons
are incapacitated enough to be
sterilized they ought to be segre
gated; segregation, to quote Dr.
Landman further, ‘would not only
do all that sterilization would do . . .
but in addition remove the many
dangers from society that would
arise from their freedom . . . The
fact of the matter is that many of
the mental incompetents that are
sterilized and paroled and dis-
chargesd are returned to the insti
tutions. They need institutional
care anyhow’.
BLESSING MAY 10F
ABBOT FREDERIC
Bishop Floersh to Officiate
at Kentucky Ceremony
LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Rt. Rev.
Frederic M. Dunne, O. C. S. O., Ab
bot-elect of Gethsemani, will be bless
ed as Abbot and formally installed
May 1, the Feast of St. Philip and St.
James, the Most Rev. John A. Floersh,
D. D., Bishop of Louisville, officiating.
A number of Bishops, numerous cler
gy and maily of the laity from sev
eral states have signified their inten
tion of being present.
Abbot Frederic, a native of Ironton,
O., and a boyhood resident of At
lanta, San Antonio, Fla., and Jackson
ville, is the brother of Mrs. Katherine
E. Miles, Savannah; Mrs. Mary H.
Wichers, St. Leo, Fla., and Jesse
Dunne, San Antonio, Fla.
An epidemic of influenza which
visited the Abbey in recent weeks has
spent its force, and the few still ill
are apparently on the road to rapid
recovery.
Charleston Catholic
Action Mass Meeting
(Special to The Bulletin)
ATLANTA. — Mrs. Corra Harris,
famed author, who died near Carters-
ville, Ga., recently, left $200 to St.
Thomas’ Hospital, Nashville, Tenn.,
conducted by the Daughters of Char,
ity of St. Vincent de Paul, explaining
that “many years ago when I was ill
and not financially able to pay for
even a bed in the public ward of St.
Thomas’ Hospital the Sisters there
gave me a room and such attention as
the very rich receive. In token of my
gratitude and sincere admiration for
Catholic charity to a Protestant, I
give this sum to provide a room for
some' Catholic patient who would
otherwise be obliged to take a bed
in the public ward.”
SOUTHERN JESUIT
POSTS ARE FILLED
U. S. CATHOLIC NEWS
Msgr. Sheen Continues Radio Series-
vested as Monsignor—Hilaire Belloc
United States
Dr. Guilday
Visits
In-
MSGR. FULTON SHEEN is contin
uing his series of addresses on the
Catholic Hour sponsored by the Na
tional Council of Catholic Men over
the National Broadcasting Company
network each Sunday evening at 6
o’clock, Eastern Standard Time.
270 BISHOPS of the United States
out of the 465 appointed since the con
secration of Bishop Carroll, the first
U. S. Bishop, have been Irish or of
Irish extraction, James Dominick
Hackett, of the Irish-American His
torical Society of New York asserts in
a study made for the society.
BROTHER LEOPOLD, C. S. C., the
oldest Brother at Notre Dame Univer
sity, died last week at the age of 98.
He was a member of the Notre Dame
community in various capacities for 80
fears.
LORD MAYOR ALFRED BYRNE,
of Dublin, is visiting the United
States, the first Lord Mayor of the city
to visit America since 1898. Lord May
or Byrne is a Grand Knight of the
Order of St. Sylvester, by appoint
ment of the Holy Father.
president of Georgetown University,
has been reapopinted a member of
the Board of Visitors of the United
States Naval Academy at Annapolis.
REV. AQUINAS KNOFF, editor of
the Fort Wayne edition of the Sun
day Visitor, has been appointed edi
tor of The Acolyte, national maga
zine for priests, succeeding the Rev.
Michael Chapman, a former Episco
pal minister, who becomes pastor of
St. Mary’s Church, Lafayette, Ind.
MSGR. JOHN A- RYAN of the
Catholic University of America pro
nounced the Benediction at the ded
ication of the new Department of
Labor Building at Washington.
Speakers were Secretary of Labor
Frances Perkins and William Green,
president of the American Fderetion
of Labor.
CONTROL OF MUNITIONS is vi
tal to peace Dr. Herbert Wright of
the Catholic University of America
told the Akron Deanery Council of
the National Council of Catholic
Women in a deanery council con
vention.
OHIO CATHOLICS are petitioning
the legislature for the return to them
for their schools of a part of the seven
million dollars in extraordinary taxes
they pay and which is distributed in
districts other than their point of or
igin.
Father J. D. Foulkes Suc
ceeds Father Biever at New
Orleans — Father Buckley
at Mobile
Third Annual Program Pre
sented There at Victory
Theatre Sunday
“The British Central Association
for Mental Welfare says that steri
lization ‘turns back the sterilized on
the community to become the vic
tims of the unscrupulous, and in
carriers of social diseases which are
causes of insanity and mental defi
ciency’.
“Elizabeth Tuthill Edwards, a no
torious of the colonial period came
of an evil family. Her own life was
a public scandal. One of her sisters
murdered her own son, and one of
The “moral estimate of
the motion pictures”
which has appeared in
each issue of The Bulletin
since the launching of the
Legion of Decency is
suspended during Lent
for obvious reasons.
CHARLESTON, S. C.—The New
man Club of the College of Charles
ton held its annual Catholic Action
mass meting Sunday at the Victory
Theatre, the meeting being featured
by an address. “Catholic Action,
Southern Style”, by Richard Reid,
editor of The Bulletin, and formerly
president of the Catholic Press Asso
ciation.
The arrangements for the meeting
were handled bv a committee headed
by Maxwell Willetts, president of the
Newman Club of the College of
Charleston. The Rt. Rev- Msgr. Jos
eph L. O’Brien, D. D., principal of
Bishop England High School, pre
sided and introduced Mr. Reid, who
cited Catholic Action in the South,
part’cularly that of the Catholic Lay
men's Association of Georgia and that
of the religious vacation schools of the
Diocese of Charleston as evidence
that great Catholic populations are
not essential to effective Catholic
Action.
This was the third annual Catholic
Action mass meeting sponsored by
the Newman Club of the College of
Charleston; previous meetings have
been addressed by Dr. Michael Wil
liams and the Ht. Rev. Msgr. Fulton
Sheen. Ph.D., S- T. D.
Sunday evening Mr Reid address
ed the members of the Newman Club
of the Citadel; among those present
were Major-General George P. Sum-
merall, U. S. A-, Retired, president
and commandant of The Citadel,
which is the technical school of the
Slouth Carolina state system of high
er education.
(Special to The Bulletin)
NEW ORLEANS, La.—The Rev.
John D. Foulkes, S. J.. regent of the
School of Law at Loyola University,
has been appointed pastor of the
Church of the Most Holy Name here
succeeding the late Rev. Albert Bie
ver, S. J. Father Foulkes is widely
known throughout the South where
he has given missions; he is a brother
of the Rev. David J. Foulkes. S- J.,
who is now on the Jesuit Mission
Band.
Rev. John Buckley, S. J., formerly
of Sacred Heart Church. Tampa, has
been named pastor of StT Joseph’s
Church, Mobile, Ala.
Rev. J. B. Schimpf, S. J., whom
Father Buckley succeeds at Mobile,
becomes president of St- Charles Col
lege, Grand Coteau, La.
Rev Francis C. Roy, S. J., goes
from Grand Coteau, where Father
Schimpf succeeds him, to the Church
of the Immaculate Conception. El
Paso, Texas, where the Rev. P. A.
Ryan, S. J., is pastor.
Rev. George Day, S. J-, formerly
assistant secretary of Jesuit High
School, New Orleans, is named sec
retary of Tampa College H gh School.
All those appointed have already as
sumed their new posts.
KNUTE ROCKNE’S memory and
that of the other passengers of the ill-
fated plane who died with him is hon
ored by a six-foot granite shaft in a
pasture near' Bazzar, Kansas, where
the plane crashed; the shaft was ded
icated on Rockne’s 47th birthday early
in March.
REV. DR. PETER GUILDAY, noted
historian, professor of Church History
at the Catholic University of America,
was invested as a Domestic Prelate
with the rank and title of Rt. Rev.
Monsignor at the National Shrine of
the Immaculate Conception at the
University, Bishop James H. Ryan,
rector of the University, officiating.
ARCHBISHOP GLENNON and
three Bishops participated in the
50th Catholic Conference on Indus
trial Problems held here early in
March. Forty-nine previous confer
ences have been sponsored by the or
ganization in various parts of the
United States.
HILAIRE BELLOC, distinguished
English Catholic author, is on a lec
ture tour of the United States.
REV. J. M. PRENDERGAST, S. J.,
pastor of the Church of the Nativity
in New York, for 13 years a mission
ary in the Philippines, died late in
February. Father Prendergast was a
nephew of Archbishop Ireland, and
the first secular priest to enter Ox
ford since the Reformation; he was
a secular priest before becoming a
Jesuit. .
LARENCE STEFFEN, 13, who pull
ed eight-year-old Rose Marie Boyle
from the path of an oncoming train
when both were on their way home
from Sacred Heart School, Des
Moines. Iowa, has been commended
by a resolution adopted by the Iowa
State Legislature. Die resolution re
quests a Carnegie Medal for the boy-
MOTHER MIRIAM REGINA, su
perior of Mt. St. Vincent College,
New York, is dead at 55. Over 6,000
persons attended her funeral at St.
Patrick’s Cathedral.
BISHOP BOYLE of Pittsburgh de
livered the sermon at the Mass at the
National Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception, Washington, on the thir
teenth anniversary of the coronation
of the Holy Father. The Apostolic
Delegate presided at the Mass; Msgr.
Francis E. Hyland of the Apostolic
Delegation was celebrant.
1,000 BOY SCOUTS attended Mass
at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York,
on the 25th anniversary of the estab
lishment of the organization. Mon
signor Iavelle, rector of the Cathe
dral and vicar-general of the Arch
diocese, was celebrant and delivered
the sermon.
MOTHER M. AGNES, head of the
music department of the College of
New Rochelle, died recently in New
York at the age of 72. Mother Agnes
was formerly directress of the Ursu-
line Seminary, now the Merici
School.
BROTHER THOMAS MURPHY. S.
J., 82, for 32 years attached to Mar
quette University, is dead in Mil
waukee. He was a brother of Bishop
Joseph A. Murphy, S. J.. of British
Honduras with whom he came to the
United States from Ireland 68 years
ago.
CARDINAL MacRQRY
IS VISITOR IN U. S.
Welcomed in New York and
Boston on Way to Europe
His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Mac-
Rory, primate of All Ireland, visited
the United States on his way to Rome
from Melbourne, Australia, where he
as Papal Legate at the National Eu-
charist'c Congress.
After stopping at San Francisco.
Cardinal MacRory proceeded to New
York via the Panama Canal. At New
York he was greeted by Monsignor
Lavelle, vicar-general, in the ab
sence from the country of Cardinal
Hayes; in Boston Bishop Spellman
greeted him in the absence of Cardi
nal O’Connell. His stay in Boston was
brief, his vis : t there being made pos
sible by the stopping of the S. S. Sa-
turnia there on its way to Europe.
In New York Cardinal MacRory
was escorted to St. Patrick’s Cathe
dral, which was filled to overflowing;
after Cardinal MacRory’s response to
the greeting, an informal reception
was held. A number of New York or.
ganizations honored His Eminence
during his stay there. He visited sev
eral New York Catholic institutions
and parishes.
MISS BERNADETTE FEY of Utica,
N. Y., has become a Sister of Char
ity, thus folowing the example of her
six sisters. Two of her brothers are
priests, and Miss Fey’s mother has
also entered religious life, joining4he
Sisters of Charity-
BISHOP SCHREMBS of Cleveland
has appealed for the cooperation of
the Knights of Columbus and other
’.ay groups in the plans for t he great
National Eucharistic Congress to be
held in Cleveland September 23-26.
NURSES, both religious and lay,
■vill meet in Rome in August, and the
National Catholic Federation of
Nurses, of which the Rev. Edward
F. Garesche, S. J., is spiritual direc
tor, is cooperating in the arranging
of the conference.
BIRTH CONTROL advocates were
handed an impressive set-back when
the House Committee on the Judi
ciary in Washington voted 15 to 8 to
table the Pierce Birth Control Bill,
which would relax existing laws and
permit the dissemination through the
mail of birth control information and
devices. The Hastings Bill, a similar
measure in the Senate, was voted
down by the Senate Committee on
the Judiciary 9 to 6.
GOVERNOR DAVEY of Ohio has
received the Rev. Mother M. Gerald,
O. P., mother-general of the Sisters
of St. Dominic, a protest on an at
tack on revealed religion by an em
ploy of the State of Ohio at a teach
ers’ conference at Adrian, Mich. The
speaker compared the number of
followers of Christ after 1900 years
with the number of those of Lenin,
after 20 years, to the attempted dis
paragement of Christianity; Purga
tory, he said, is a sham to enable
priests to collect fees. Twenty nuns
were among those present at the
conference.
MARCHMONT SCHWARTZ, fam
ed Notre Dame football star, and a
native pf Bay St. Louis, Miss., has
been named football coach of
Creighton University, Omaha, Neb.
REV. R. M. KELLEY, S. J.. for two
:erms president of Loyola Universi
ty, Chicago, has been named presi
dent of Regis College, Denver, which
he headed for two terms from 1921
-o 1927.
NEW YORK'S State Supreme
Court has ruled that a three-story
frame building owned by St. Bar
bara's Church in Brooklyn, and the
residence of Marist Brothers teaching
in the parish school, is not subject
to taxation, being exempt under the
provisions of the law as construed
by the court.
SISTER PAULINA FINN, 93, who
entered Georgetown Visitation Con
vent shortly after the War Between
the States, died at the convent in
Washington early in March| For fifty
years Sister Paulina headed the De
partment of English at the Convent.
WILLIAM H. SELLWOOD, one of
the organizers and a charter member
of San Salvador Council, the parent
council of the Knights of Columbus,
is dead in New Haven, at 80.
REV. W. COLEMAN NEVILS, S. J.,
BISHOP McAULIFFE of Hartford
has sent a letter to all pastors ask
ing for the fullest cooperation in the
Catholic Boy Scout movement.
Scout committees will be formed in
each parish.
FATHER JOHN O’HARA, presi
dent of Notre Dame University, and
Father James W. Donahue, superior-
general of the Congregation of the
Holy Cross, are in Europe on a visit
to the great educational institutions
of the continent.
THE NARBERTH Catholic infor
mation Society of Pennsylvania,
which sends leaflets of its own com
position to non-Catholics in its terri
tory. has been warmly commended
by the Apostolic Delegate in a letter
to the society, which now has 35
branch organizations in widely sep-
aarted parts of the country.
DANIEL SARGENT has been nam
ed president of the Catholic Poetry
Society, succeeding the late Father
Charles L. O’Donell, president of
Notre Dame University-
BISHOP LIKOLAUS BARES, in
stalled as Bishop of Berlin but a little
more than a year ago, is dead at the
age of 65. He succeeded the late Bish
op Christian Schreiber,