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JULY 27, 1940
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
SEVEN
News Review of the Catholic W or Id
MEMORIAL FOR GEN. LONGSTREET
American Youth Congress
Ignores God and Country
U. S. Defense Plans Are Ridiculed as Speakers Laud
Soviet Union and Conventions Bars Anti-Communists
General James Longstreet,. the
South’s ‘‘forgotten hero” of the
Civil War, will be remembered
with an equestrian statue on the
battlefield of Gettysburg, accord
ing to plans of the Longstreet
Memorial Association which has
secure a site for this purpose
from the National Park Service.
Mrs. Helen Dortch Longstreet,
widow of the General, second in
command to Gen. Robert E. Lee,
is leading the campaign! for the
proposed memorial. Pictured are
a model of the statue by Paul
Manship and a painting of Gen^
eral Longstreet by Howard Chris
ty. After the Civil War, General
Longstreet became a Catholic.
(N.C.W.C.)
Convert’s Children
Enter Religious Life
Daughter of Former South
Carolina Journalist Is Nun,
Son a Seminarian
(By N. C. W. C. News Service)
BALTIMORE.— How a newspaper
man was converted to Catholicism by
the reading of “Faith of Our Fathers”
by Cardinal Gibbons, with the re
sult that two of his three children
entered religious life, was revealed
through the graduation of James
Bacon Cheatham, the third child,
from Mount Saint Joseph's College
High School here.
Col. Louis Wigfall Cheatham was
the grandson the Rev. Arthur Wig-
fall. a Protestant minister in Graham,
S. C.. at the time of the Civil War.
The Colonel himself intended to
study for the ministry, but the death
of his father obliged him to earn a
living for his mother, and his three
young sisters. He became associated
with the Edgefield, S. C., Chronicle,
and when he sold the paper came to
this city to join the staff of the
Sun.
Colonel Cheatham’s conversion took
place here 23 years ago, before his
marriage to Margaretta E. Wellmore
af this city. The Colonel died on
Jullv 23, 1915. His eldest son is Louis
Wigfall Cheatham, a student at "St.
Mary s Seminary here, and a daugh
ter, Josephine Cheatham, is a mem
ber of the Visitation Order stationed
at Mount de Sales Academy of the
Visitation.
UNPRECEDENTED HONORS were
paid by the New York Police Depart
ment to one of its former members,
the Rev. Daniel M. Gleason, C. S. C.,
who climaxed years of sacrifice and
study in his ordination to the priest
hood. More than 3,500 uniformed po-
licement, headed by scores of high-
ranking police officers, attended his
first Solemn High Mass at St. Pat
ricks Cathedral.
Afterward Father Gleason was
guest of honor at a breakfast at
tended by more than 6,000 persons.
Commissioner Valentine, on behaP
of the Police Department, presented
him with a chalice, upon the base of
which was inscribed a facsimile of
Father Gleason's police shield, bear
ing the number 1925. - —
PATRICK E. McKENNA. door
keeper of the President s office in the
White House since 1903, died July 1,
in his sixty-fifth year. He was a
prominent Catholic layman of the
Nation’s Capital.
FREDERICK OSBORN, Director of
the Population Association of Ameri
ca told the State Health Association
OHicers Association, in meeting in
New York, that there is a liklihood
that in 20 years the United States
will have a rate of reproduction 20
per cent below that needed for re
placement.
Mr. Osborn said that the present
death rate has been falling at a
greater degree than the birth rate,
but added that only the exceedingly
high birth rate in rural areas, par
ticularly in the South, has prevented
the birth rate from lagging behind
the death rate.
THE UNITED STATES must put
its “own house in order against those
who. through malice or ignorance,
would tear it down,” the Most Rev.
Francis J. Spellman. Archbishop of
New York said at the annual rally
of .the New York Archdiocesan Holy
Name Union.
Archbishop Spellman said freedom
of the press today apparently includ
ed the “right” to publish “porno
graphic” material in magazines; that
freedom of religion seems to include
activities of “paid members of a cer
tain religious sect calling from door
to door and playing insulting records
on the phonograph denouncing and
destroying all religion"; and that
freedom of speech is accorded to
those subversive elements who would
destroy this country if they could.
REV. HENRY I. STARK. C. S. P„
Rector of the Church of St. Paul
the Apostle, New York, was elected
Superior General of the Missionary
Society of St. Paul the Apostle at a
General Chapter of the Paulist Fa
thers.
TI1E NATIONAL COUNCIL OF
CATHOLIC MEN. as a part of its
plan to help Catholic organizations
take advantage of the oportunities
.for radio broadcasting available to-
dav. is circulating a “Memorandum
of Producing Catholic Radio Pio-
. grams.
AN EXHIBIT commemorating the
services of one of the South's great
soldiers in the Civil War — General
James Longstreet — who. after the
War, became a convert to Catholicism
is to be shown at the San Francisco
Exposition this summer.
GEORGE M. COHAN, veteran
theatrical producer, actor and writer,
has been re-elected president of the
Catholic Writers Guild of America
for the third time. Elected with Mr.
Cohan was Gene Buck, president of
the American Society of Composers.
Authors and Publishers, first vice-
president.
A CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN, Dom
Gervasse Hobson-Matthews, O. S. B.,
declining to go aboard the last ship
leaving Dunkirk, was left in the
stricken town and his fate is un
known.
CHURCH BELLS in England will
cease to ring to call peopie to church.
In future they w'ill be sounded to
give warning of the approach of
parachutists or air-borne troops. In
the present emergency the bells will
be under the control of the military.
WHEN BOMBS WERE falling on
Dunkirk Beach while thousands of
troons awaited ships to take them to
England, non-Catholic and Catholic
alike repeated the Act of Contrition,
led by atatholic chaplain.
DIOCESAN HISTORY was made
in Cleveland when Archbishop Jo
seph Schrembs. Bishop of Cleveland,
invested 18 diocesan priests as Do
mestic Prelates and seven as Papal
Chamberlains, four laymen as Knight
Commanders of St. Gregory, and five
women with the medal, “Pro Eccle-
sia et Pontifice.”
BEN TURPIN, film comedian, was
buried following Requiem Mass in
the Church of the Good Shepherd,
Beverly Hills.
SALARIES PAID by the City of
Vincennes to Catholic Brothers and
Sisters teaching in three parochial
schools taken over by the city in
1933 are entirely legal, the Supreme
Court of Indiana has ruled. The city
undertook the operation of the three
parochial schools after a Catholic
committee had advised the munici
pality that they would be closed.
IN COMMEMORATION of the ef
forts of the Benedictines to establish
a religious foundation in Clark Coun
ty, Kansas, in 1878, the Clark County
Council of Clubs has erected a mon
ument near Ashland, Kansas, on
“Monte Cassino,” the foundation site.
A corner-stone of the original build
ing, carefully dressed and engraved
with the dale "1876,” was incorporat
ed in the monument, with three
crosses commemorating the three re
ligious founders.
ITALY'S PARTICIPATION in the
European War caused the French
Ambassador and the Minister of
Great Britain to transfer their resi
dence to Vatican City. The situation
concerning the diplomats of powers
at war with Italy accredited to the
Vatican is not new for it arose in
1915 when Italy took part in the
world conflict.
“THE CHURCH AN1) THE SO
CIAL ORDER” statement of the
Archbishops and Bishops of the Ad
ministrative Board, National Cath
olic Welfare Conference, is termed a
“contribution to the social health of
the nation” that is ‘‘destined to exert
a historic influence in the course of
events in a period of change and cri
sis” in a letter which His Excellency
the Most Rev. Amleto Giovanni Ci-
cognani. Apostolic Delegate to the
United States, has received from His
Eminence Luigi Cardinal Maglione,
Papal Secretary of State. The Cardi
nal conveyed the wish af His Holi
ness Pope Pius XII that the State
ment receive the “widest possible dif
fusion."
A REORGANIZATION of the Na
tional Headquarters of the Holy
Name Society has been launched un
der the direction of the Rev. H. C.
Graham, O. P., National Director of
the Society.
A special department to service
diocesan unions and parish societies
has teen created. This will consist of
direct field service, advisory service
on special problems, plans and pro
gram material for diocesan unions,
lecture bureau material, and a
monthly bulletin containing organi
zation and program suggestions will
be available. •
A FEDERAL GRAND JURY found
George Frederick Gundelfinger, for
mer Yale University faculty member,
guilty on Jhe charge of sending ob
scene printed matter through the
mails. Gundelfinger has published a
considerable amount of broad aiiti-
Catholic propaganda. A booklet,
“Yale's New Fraternity vs Roman
Catholic Fascism" was cited in con
nection with the trial. Gundelfinger
boasted that he sent copies of his at
tacks upon the Catholic Church and
Catholic personages in public life to
members of the United States senate
and to .other public officials in Wash
ington.
AMERICAN YOUTH CONGRESS
DISCREDITED, OTHER GROUPS
OF YOUNG PEOPLE ASSERT
- (Bv N. C. W. C. News Service)
NEW YORK.—The American Youth
Congress was denounced as no longer
“an effective instrument in the monu
mental job which faces every one in
the youth movement" in a statement
issued here today by eleven leaders of
youth organizations which formerly
were associated with the Congress.
“At no time in its history has the
Congress been so completely dis
credited in the eyes of the very peo
ple it affects to serve,” the statement
charged.
Signers included the director of the
American Friends Service Commit
tee’s Student Peace Service; the sec
retary of the Pilgrim Fellowship, the
youth group of the Congregational
Church: the executive secretary of
tile Avukah Student Zionist Organiz
ation, and officials of a number of
Socialist groups.
Bv N. C. W. C. News Service)
COLLEGE CAMP, Wis.. — The
American Youth Congress at its con
vention here ran so true to form that
it wove an almost perfect pattern of
its previous “popular front record.
It seemed to do everything handsome
ly to uphold the contentions of those,
notably Catholics, who have insisted
all along that it was Communist-con
trolled.
Among other things it:
1. Ignored both God and country.
The “slight” to God was customary
and characteristic; the deliberations
were not opened with prayer. As for
the “country” of the American Youtn
Congress, the convention opened on
the Fourth of July, but not the slight
est attention was taken of the na
tion's greatest holiday.
2. It strong-armed all anti-Com-
munist youth groups in typical Com
munist style.
3. It demonstarted conclusively that,
while pretending to represent “all
youth groups,” insisting that these in
clude Communist sympathizers, it
intended definitely to disregard the
aims and aspirations of a large sec
tion of the youth of America.
4. It resorted to subterfuge and
technicality to throw out delegates of
youth ■organizations known to stand
for American principles and to be
opposed to Soviet dogma. It voted al
most unanimously against a pro
posal to condemn Communism.
An effort on the part of a group
calling itself a “pro-American bloc, ’
headed by Murray Plaviner, -of New
York, to present a series of resolu
tions condemning Communism and
calling for the suppression of Com
munist members of the A. Y. C. fail
ed when the group was not seated as
delegates to the convention, the con
tention being that tne “pro-Ameri
can” contingent had failed to comply
with the rules governing registration
of delegates.
TUNNF.Y AIDS
“FRO-AMERICAN BLOC”
Gene Tunney, former world's box
ing champion, who had supported
the Plaviner group, arrived at Lake
Geneva, Wis., yesterday by airplane.
He had been called to lend support
to the Plaviner group, which was
composed mostly of young Republi
cans and young Democrats, princi
pally from Michigan.
Mr. Tunney declined an invitation
to address the Congress, after the
Pro-American group which had re
quested his presence in College Camp
had been denied recognition as A. Y.
C. delegates.
“The American Youth Congress,”
he said, “is nothing but a paper or
ganization controlled by Commun
ists, and they will always find one
means or another of maintaining their
control of it.”
The resolutions which this group
sought to present would have record
ed the American Youth Congress as
demanding that'-
The Federal Government suppress
the Communist Party and Earl
Browder, just as it demanded the sup
pression of Nazi agents prior to the
Russo-German pact.
Condemn the Nazi-Soviet pact and
the invasion of Poland and Finland.
Indorse the resolution of the Inter
national Union of Ladies’ Garment
Workers denouncing the imprison
ment of Polish labor leaders by the
Soviet Union.
Place itself on record as condemn
ing Communism, Nazism and Fascism
alike and expel from membership
representatives of the Young Com
munist League and “Trojan Horse”
elements.
Expel from membership all known
“fellow travelers” and members of
“Communist-front” organizations.
Pledge itself to support a program
of adequate military preparedness for
the United States against the threat
of aggression and “fifth column” act
ivity in the Western Hemisphere.
TRUE SENTIMENTS
“The resolutions which these young
people wished to present,” Mr. Tun
ney said, “express the true sentiment
of the great body of American youth.
It is not surprising that these resolu
tions could not be put before the
Communist-controlled A. Y. C.”
It is rumored here that a new youth
movement based on American princi
ples may be formed. Mr. Tunney,
when asked if he were going to form
such a group, said that the decision
would have to come from the youth
leaders and if they sought his help
he would gladly give it.
Assembled in Lewis Auditorium
with 500 delegates were 113 observers
and 150 visitors to hear the report of
Jack McMichael, Congress chairman.
Delegates, ranging in age from 16 to
30, came from 31 States and the Dis
trict of Columbia. There were union
members, share-croppers, students,
office workers, seamen.
They included representatives of
nationalistic and racial groups such
as Ukrainians. Armenians, Jews, Ne
groes, Chinese. A number of religious
organizations participated in the con
gress.
The highlight of the chairman’s re
port was a clever, laugh-provoking
tirade against the Dies Committee and
its investigation of the Communist in
fluences in the A. Y. C. Lampooning
the “antics” of the members of the
Dies Committee during the testimony
of A. Y. C. officers before that group,-
the chairman pointed in contrast to
the maternal blessings showered upon
the congress by Mrs. Eleanor Roose
velt.
CRITICIZE PRESIDENT
Mr. McMichael spoke of the “wave
of war hysteria and political reaction
coldly epitomized in the President’s
budget message that threatened the
very lives of the youth of America,
their hope for the future.” This the
Youth Congress answered, he said,
by sponsoring the Citizenship Insti
tute in Washington last winter. He re
ported new affiliations to the A. Y. C.
as a result of the peace stand of the
institute, but regretted that two Jew
ish youth groups—the Junior Hadas-
sah and Young Judea, had severed
connections with the Congress.
Deploring the efforts of the Ameri
can Legion in Oklahoma to oust
voung Communists from youth groups
there, he said, “when we begin to
expel members because we do not
like their politics, we will by no
means stop with the expulsions of
young Communists. Nor will we stop
with politics. We will begin to oust
people because we do not like their
theology, the shape of their noses, or
tne pigment of their skins.”
No mention was made of the well-
known Communist participation be
hind false front organizations, which
has caused large numbers of Ameri
can youth, including all Catholic
Youth organizations, to shun the Con
gress.
Observers estimated that Catholics
representing labor and other organiz
ations number less than 20.
SONGS SHOCK VISITORS
On the entertainment side of the
program Wednesday evening, the
leftist and lewd songs shocked many
visitors.
The long popular Communist song
"Pie in the Sky” was not sung, but
the delegates did sing loudly another
equally irreligious lyric demanding
“I want my heaven here, right now.”
Speakers of the day advocated
broader democracy, read the pledge
of allegiance to the American Flag,
but the most vociferous cheering
came when the delegates were told
that veterans of the Abraham Lin
coln Brigade were present. The brig
ade was made up of Communists and
sympathizers who fought for the
“Loyalist” government in Spain.
In a session on health, the A. Y. C.
among others things, went on record
as favoring “practical guidance in
the communities of birth control and
prevention of venereal diseases.” The
entire health program was to be com
pletely dominated by government re
gulation.
In a peace session, while speaker
after speaker harangued against
Fascism and Hitler’s aggression, one
lone delegate asked why the resolu
tions did not likewise condemn the
Soviet Union’s invasion of Finland.
Visitors applauded this demand for
condemnation of Communism, while
the delegates showed displeasure and
A. Y. C. officers were openly perturb
ed.
The author of the resolution rose to
discuss the issue from the floor and
offered the argument that the A. Y.
C. was concerned only with certain
parts of Europe where countries were
actually at war, intimating that he
felt Russia's recent invasions were
not warlike acts.
During heated debate on the peace
resolution, two schools of thought on
defense of American were evident.
Some expressed willingness to defend
their country against invaders, even
to death. Typical of the sentiment of
the other group was a rabid speech
by a Colored delegate, who complain
ed of how little her face had received
from the United States and said: “The
oppressed Negroes won't defend
America.”
RIDICULE GOVERNMENT
The Cabinet (governing body of the
A. Y. C.) in a statement on peace to
the delegates ridiculed the American
government’s attempts to combat
Communist and “fifth column” activi
ties.
The sentiment of the Congress,
which had been evident in all pre
vious sessions, culminated at the
peace session when the delegates al
most unanimously demanded an end
to the American armament program.
With their position in the A. Y. C.
assured. Communists were bold this
year in defending the Soviet form of
government and strong enough to
prevent its condemnation. Last year
they wanted to assure their participa
tion in the A. Y. C. They did that.
This year they were strong enough to
prevent a condemnation of hte Com
munist program. Again Communists
got what they wanted in the Ameri
can Youth Congress.
MONSIGNOR JOHN M. DOYLE,
pastor of St. Benedict's Church, De
troit, died July 14, at the age of 56.
He was educated at the University of
Detroit and St. Mary's Seminary,
Baltimore, where he was ordained in
1908 .