Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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,