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SIX
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC E AYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
MARCH 27, 1
THE BULLETIN
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia
RICHARD REID. Editor
815-816 Lamar Building Augusta, Georgia
Subscription Price 52.00 Per Year
Published monthly by the Publicity Department
with the Approbation of the Most Rev. Bishops of
Raleigh. Charleston. Savannah. St Augustine and Nash-
ville and of the Rt Rev Abbot. Ordinary of Belmont.
ASSOCIATION OFFICERS FOR 1936-1937
ALFRED M BATTEY Augusta President
J. J. HAVERTY, K. S. G.. Atlanta ...First Vice-President
J. B. McCALLUM. Atlanta Secretary
THOMAS F. WALSH, Savannah Treasurer
RICHARD REID. Augusta Publicity Director
MISS CECILE- FERRY Augusta. Asst. Publicity Director
Vol. XVIII March 27. 1937 No. 3
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.
The Hope of Easter
T HE glorious feast of the Resurrection, following the
mournful observance of the Crucifixion and En
tombment of Christ, has a particular lesson at this time,
when the Church is undergoing a Calvary in so many
places in the world.
In Russia the Church is outlawed, in Germany it is
persecuted, in Mexico a hostile government strives with
diabolical cunning to crush it to the earth, and in Spain
the blood of martyrs crimsons the earth as copiously as
in the days of the Roman arena.
On that sorrowful Good Friday when desolation over
whelmed the hearts of the Apostles and Disciples, it re
quired superhuman faith to penetrate the gloom around
the Cross and to foresee the glory of Easter morning.
It requires faith today to envision amid the devasta
tion of Russia, Spain and Mexico, and the morbid at
mosphere of anti-Catholic, anti-Christian government
circles in Germany, the dawn of a new day when the
Church of Christ will arise anew as its Divine Founder
arose from the tomb.
That the Church will emerge again, radiant with the
glory of her Divin'e Spouse is as certain as the dawn of
the Easter morning. It will emerge because her brave
sons and daughters in whose hearts there burns an un
quenchable love for Christ the King, and a desire to
extend that kingdom to embrace all minds and hearts,
will, with the aid of His Grace, overcome the adver
saries of the Church by the strength of their zeal and
love.
May the vision of that day give us joy on.this blessed
Easter. And on the Easter morning which will follow
the Church’s Calvary in this year and day of Our Lord,
may we have reason to rejoice as members of those
blessed forces whose zeal and love dissipated the clouds
of Good Friday.
The Lynching Spirit
E VIDENCES of attempts to betray the Negro by en
rolling him in the ranks of the Communists have
cropped out from time to time, but none has been so
patent as a recent story from Spain, sent out by the As
sociated Negro Press, and written by Roy Arlan Wood-
son, who paints a gloomy picture of conditions in Spain
under the monarchy and the succeeding democratic re
public, and who depicts the current Red regime in
roseate hues.
The particular venom of the Woodson article is in
dicated by its defense of the killing of thousands of
priests and many nuns and the burning and desecrating
of churches, and by the bold assertion of its author that
the churches in Spain ought to have been burned many
years ago.
This advocacy of the lynching spirit by a Negro
against the institution which has done more to oppose
the exercising of it against Negroes than any other in
stitution in the world would be most disheartening if
wc did not realize that this alleged leader among the
Negroes and those who circulated his attack are actuated
by a spirit winch is utterly foreign to the representative
members of the race.
Vincent dePrul Fitzpatrick, president of the Catholic
Press Association of the United States, in a letter of
protest to the Associated Negro Press, recalls the ser
vices of Mother Drexel, the Oblate Sisters of Providence,
the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy and numer
ous other orders, and members of many religious orders
of men to the colored people of the United States, with
out compensation or hope of any earthly return or re
ward, and often sacrificing even the necessities of life
for the welfare of the Negro race.
“Do you think the members of the Negro race in the
United States want to have their Negro papers endors
ing the destruction of churches?” Mr. Fitzpatrick asks
the director of the Associated Negro Press. “Is it not
your wish, your province, your duty to encourage your
readers to be law-abiding citizens?”
We feel that there is no need to be unduly excited by
this evidence of sympathy with Communism on the
part of seme Negro l»aders. It only demonstrates that
they are no smarter than the white leaders who, either
through bad judgment or ulterior motives, have become
tools for the Communists. Unfortunately there are
short-sighted people who have aided the Communists
among the Negroes by their un-Christian attitude. While
opposing Communistic efforts among the colored people
as well as among the white, the Catholic Church will
continue to strive to eliminate those conditions in which
the seeds of Communism thrive.
May the Effort Succeed
' | 'HE Church, with her eyes centered on the things
of eternity, dees not neglect the affairs of time;
directing her efforts to the mitigation and elimination
of sin, the cancer of the soul, she is ever mindful of
the maladies of the body, as demonstrated by the
thousands of hospitals built through her efforts, and
served by tens of thousands of her consecrated sons
and daughters.
Therefore, when the American Society for the Con
trol of Cancer appeals to the Church in the United
States for her aid in its campaign against cancer, an
effort which is being emphasized this week, it finds in
the Church a sympathetic ally.
A generation ago tuberculosis headed the list of
diseases recorded as the causes of deaths. Education
of the people on its evils and methods of prevention
has relegated it to seventh place. The American So
ciety for the Control of Cancer hopes through its ef
forts to make comparable * improvement in the field
of cancer.
The people of Georgia in common with those of other
states will be approached for cooperation with this
movement. It has been given the warm approval of
our Most Rev. Bishop. If sentiments of Christian
charity would not recommend the movement, the mo
tive of self-preservation should. We are confident that
the higher motive will enlist the interest and support
of readers of The Bulletin.
A Bishop and the Amendment
W HY are Catholics so disturbed about the so-called
“Child Labor” Amendment? This answer may be
found in this objection to the measure, voiced by a
Bishop, and read into the record in a Legislative hear
ing at Albany, N. Y., several days ago:
“This ‘Child Labor’ amendment tends to discredit and
dethrone parents and subvert family government, sub
stituting for parenthood a paternalistic government at
Washington and empowering the Federal Government
to stand in loco parentis to all the children of the coun
try under eighteen years of age. This is nothing less
than a monstrous proposal. It proceeds on the absurd
assumption that Congress will be more tenderly con
cerned for children than their own parents, and that
from the distant capital congressional tenderness and
wisdom will do more for them than their affectionate
fathers and mothers, watching over them in their
homes. This assumption praises congressional govern
ment far above its worth, and puts home government
far below its value.”
This opinion, coinciding with that of all but a small
minority of Catholics in the nation, was written not by
a Catholic Bishop, but by the Rt. Rev. Warren Candler,
D.D., of Atlanta, Bishop of the Protestant Methodist
Episcopal Church, South.
Wholesome Skepticism
O NE of our leading magazines, in the midst of the
agitation for the “Child Labor Amendment”, pub
lished an article, “Suffer, Little Children, Suffer,” illus
trated by a picture of little children working in their
home in Massachusetts at 11:05 at night on piecework
from a leather factory.
The Boston Daily Post in its March 8 issue quotes the
mother and/ father of the children, Mr. and Mrs. Leroy
Case of Haverhill, Mass., as asserting that the photog
rapher who took the picture said he wanted the picture
for flood relief work, paid two dollars for the privilege
of taking it, took the picture in the daytime, changed
the clock to conform to the story he had in mind, and
had old scraps of leather put on the table to complete
the picture. The Cases said that the children are not
engaged in any such labor and are always in bed by
9 o'clock at night. Massachusetts has laws against child
labor as strict as any in the Union, and enforces them.
Recently photographs of children alleged to have been
killed by General Franco’s bombs in Madrid have been
published in newspapers throughout the world. The
Universe of London believed from the appearance of
the pictures that some of them at least did not come
from Spain, and started an investigation. Its Paris cor
respondent learned that one of the pictures was first
published there, and exhibited at Communistic meet
ings raising funds for the Reds in Spain. A reporter on
the Bien Public at Dijon, France, discovered that the
same picture was, published in May, 1933, three years
before the Spanish uprising, in a volume entitled: “Se
cret Evidence and Pictures of the War,” the picture in
question being labeled: “In March, 1918, shells from
Big Bertha fell on the Maternity Hospital.”
A number of Protestant publications in this country
and Europe, reported that an evangelical minister in
Valladolid was thrown Into prison with his family, after
which the prison was deliberately burned down by the
Rightist forces and its inmates burned to death. The
gloomy Dean Inge in England included this accusa
tion in a letter he wrote to The Spectator.
The London Universe after an investigation finds that
there is only one evangelical minister in Valladolid,
his name is Frederic Gray, he has been there thirty
years, is a widower and childless, he was not molested,
was not cast into prison, no prison was fired in Valla
dolid, and the Rev. Mr. Gray’s chapel is still open and
he is carrying on his ministerial w;ork.
Our experience with propaganda during the World
War should be enough to make us cautious for the rest
of our lives in accepting reports which obviously are
intended to influence public opinion. But the manner
in which perpetrators of false reports succeed indicates
that experience can sometimes be a poor teeacher.
Dixie Musings
Something of the terror of the Ohio
Valley flood is indicated by the ex
perience of the family of Mr. and
Mrs. Benedict Elder in Louisville. The
first Sunday morning of the flood an
emergency call came from the City
Hospital for men with cars. Mr. Elder
was down with the ’flu; two of his
sons responded. Day after day passed,
and nothing was heard from or about
them. Even the morgue was visited
because of the fear that they might
have been among the flood’s fatalities.
They were able to establish commun
ication with- the family again only
after a week had elapsed. It was in
deed a joyful reunion. Mr. Elder was
out of touch with one member of his
staff for fifteen days. Another had
her house under water up to the
eaves. It is amazing to record that
only four persons were drowned in
that section, and this Mr. Elder at
tributes, after the mercy of God, to
the cooperation, coordination and good
will of the people.
Father Leonard Feeney, S. J.,
famed poet and member of the staff
of “America” in New York, tells in
that publication of the last moments
of Father Michael Earls, S. J.. vice
president of Holy Cross College,
noted author, and a guest of the 1936
C. L. A. Convention. Father Earls
was stricken in the Grand Central
Station in New York, when about to
leave for Ohio, and was taken to St.
Vincent’s Hospital in the metropo
lis.
“His great friend, Dr. Raymond
Sullivan, chief surgeon at the hos
pital, was called,” Father Feeney
writes. “ ‘You know, Ray’, Father
Earles said to him, ‘I’m not a bit afraid
t' die’. ‘I know you’re not Father,’
the doctor replied; but of course he
was obliged to tell him of the grav
ity of his condition. Soon he fell
into a slight coma and oxygen was
administered. Upon being revived
he turned to the Sister of Charity
standing at his bedside and said: ’I
just had a lovely talk with Our Lord
and Our Lady.’ He assured her he
was in no pain. A short time later—
he had been in the hospital less than
two hours—he took a long breath,
and died, or, as he probably would
have put it, ‘came to the end of The
Road Beyond the Town'.”
Bishop Floersh, of Louisville has,
because of the conditions following
the flood, suspended the law of Lent
en fast and abstinence on all days,
including Fridays, until further not
ice, an action which will scandalize
some of the brethren who “just can’t
understand it”, but which will be
accepted by all reasonable persons as
another evidence of the loving solici
tude of the Church for her children.
While the Supreme Court of the
United States has outlawed the AAA.
its influence is still abroad in the
world. The Kansas City Star dis
covers that England is about to pay
the Duke of Windsor S125.000 a year
for riot being King. And it's a bar
gain.
A Berlin newspaper, according to
The Echo of Buffalo, carried an ad
vertisement offering a reward for the
return of a parrot which escaped
from its cage. Tire advertisement
ended: “I hereby declare that I do
not share the political convictions of
my parrot.”
One George S. Schuller, Negro
journalist and labor leader, in an
address before the People’s Forum
in Worcester. Mass., is quoted in The
Worcester Telegram of January 26
as saying that “Southern white men
lose caste if they greet a Negro on
the street, yet a few minutes later
they may be eating and drinking corn
liquor together in private.” We sus
pect that George is from Harlem, and
that he got his information about the
South from “Tobacco Road.”
Heywood Broun, columnist, who
seems to us to have a perfect genius
for erroneous opinions, chalks up
one on the credit side when he re
fers to the Gridiron Club's burlesque
of the New Deal and of the Presi
dent’s speeches to the apparent
amusement of the President. As long
as it is possible for newspapermen to
“kid” the president, says Broun, “I’m
not going to pay much attention to
any doleful clamor that we have a
Hitler in the White House.”
The people of the United States
want no Fascist or Nazi or Commun
ist government. But to those who
are more excited over Fascism and
Nazism, which recognize the right of
private property and the value of
individual initiative. than about
Communism, which denies the right
of private property, and which is
avowedly atheistic, we should like
to observe that the Fascists and Naz-
ists are not seeking to impose their
form of government on the United
States. They have no “cells” to pro
mote revolution in every city of even
minor importance as the Reds have,
despite a solemn promise to the Unit
ed States that such propaganda would
be discontinued when the United
States in a moment of aberration
recognized the Soviet Republic.
Columnist Clarence J. Enzler, of
The Catholic Daily Tribune voices
a common complaint when he de
plores the lack of solidarity in Cath
olic opinion on some matters now
before the country. Referring to the
difference of opinion on the “Child
Labor Amendment,” which most
Catholics oppose but some favor, in
cluding Monsignor John A. Ryan and
at least one Bishop, Mr. Enzler says:
"What hurts and hurts and hurts’ is
the thought that perhaps this entire
affair could have been settled satis
factorily if only our Bishops had
appointed a committee of our best
minds to study the child labor ques
tion from every angle.”
We think that it should not “hurt
and hurt and hurt” when Catholics
disagree on matters of policy. To ex
pect unanimity of opinion on them
is to hope for the millennium. Some
Catholic leaders no doubt believe that
the “Child Labor Amendment” in
volves a matter of principle, but
others, including many who are op
posed to the amendment, are just as
conscientious in the view that it is
only a matter of policy.
Editor Kirk Sutlive, of The Black-
shear Times, president of the Georgia
Press Association, says th§t Col. G.
W. Houston of Eli jay dropped into
the office to renew his subscription
and reported that his tobacco plant
beds had escaped the blue mold.
Editor Sutlive attributes this to the
fact that Colonel Houston always
pays his subscription promptly, and
cites it as a warning to the laggards.
Not many of our members and sub
scribers raise tobacco, but the blue
mold has cousins in nearly every
field.
After wishing the distinguished
managing editor of The Brooklyn
Tablet, Dr. Patrick F. Scanlon, and
recipient of the Catholic Action Med
al many additional “horrors” in
stead of honors, our embarrassment
at the typographical error is some
what relieved as we note in The
Nativity Mentor, edited by the noted
Monsignor John L. Belford of Brook
lyn. that the annual parish mission
in March was to be given “by the
priests of the New York Apostate.”
The Columbus, Ga., News-Record
reports that the commissioners of
Muscogee County, of which Colum
bus is the sedate county seat, have
ruled that dice games between pris
oners and guards in the county prison
camp must cease.
The new automatic cotton picker
recently publicized is a wonder, says
The Brooklyn Tablet. “It does every
thing apparently but play a banjo and
shoot crap.”
When a committee of six republi
cans from the Maine Legislature ar
rived in Washington to present to
Congress a protest against President
Roosevelt’s plan to revise the Su
preme Court, Speaker Bankhead of
the House of Representatives said he
would be delighted to receive the
delegation. “I’ll be glad to see them,
and to see how they act and look
and talk.” he said. One Maine leg
islator, Hon. Cleveland Sleeper of
Rockland, was dubious about the ad
visability of letting the committee go
to Washington; he warned its mem
bers as they left that they might be
detained at the National Capital as
undesirable aliens.
Rosita Diaz, Spanish and Hollywood
motion picture actress, reported ex
ecuted by the Rightists as a spy,
cabled a friend in Hollywood, Rosita
Moreno, who had queried the family
of Miss Diaz for news: “I am well.
Cordial greetings.” But for propa
ganda purposes. Miss Diaz is still
dead.
Tile Catholic Press, which was as
a whole not only friendly to but en
thusiastic about most phases of the
President's economic program, ap
pears to be overwhelmingly of the
opinion that the interests of the na
tion will be served best by the defeat
of the President’s present bill to re
vise the Supreme Court. Again, this
is a matter of policy and not of prin
ciple, and there is a strong and com
petent minority opinion. We deplore
the efforts of some Catholics to cast
doubt on the orthodoxy of those who
disagree with them on such matters
of policy, even though in the current
matters, as in most of their prede
cessors for the past two decades, we
have found our views in accord with
those of the majority.
The Atlanta Journal reports that an
astronomer says that the moon will
soon begin to break up and fall to
earth,, and adds: ‘We regret to learn
this.”
Up in Brooklyn recently General
Smedley Butler attended a meeting cf
the “League Against War and Fas
cism.” A collection was taken up
at the meeting for arms for the left
ists in Spain. When the General's
place on the program came around,
after the collection, he exploded:
“I’ve been sitting here all night hear
ing you people get us into another
war,” The Rev Dr. Thomas I. Con
erty pointed out in a recent radio
address that Soviet Russia, the influ
ence behind many of the peace activi
ties in this country, has the largest
standing army in the world.
Three 'thousand years ago, accord
ing to Harvard astronomers, a star
exploded in the northern constella
tion of Lacerta. A few months ago,
light from this explosion reached the
earth. Which encourages the hope
that light may yet reach some minds.
Commenting on Dr. Townsend's as
sertion that he is a pauper, Father
Jerome DePencier in “Mother of
Sorrows” magazine says that the Doc
tor is old enough to be a grand-pau
per.