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FOim-A THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S SSSOCTATION OF GEORGIA august n,wm GEORGIA MINISTER LAYS FRENCH DEFEAT TO BIRTH CONTROL One of the outstanding Protes tant ministers of the South is the Rev. Doctor Bascom Anthony, vet eran preacher of the South Georgia Methodist Conference, who is a reg ular contributor to the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, the Macon Tel egraph, and numerous weekly papers of the state. The following is the greater part ot an article by Doctor Anthony which appeared in the Wesleyan Christian Advoeate in its issue dated August 9, 1944): FRANCE AND BIRTH CONTROL It is amazing how our private af fairs get to be public affairs and how things we thought concerned no body but us turned out to concern the very life and well-being of the world. Personal liberty in Europe is now at stake and may be lost because a lot of men and women in France thought their private affairs con cerned nobody but themselves. A hundred years ago, France was the dominant country in Europe. The Thirty Years' War had worn the Germanic tribes to a comparative feeble people. Today 80 million Ger mans threaten to wipe 42 million Frenchmen off the face of the earth. How did this upset of numbers come to pass and why is democracy in Eu rope threatened with death? Why is the whole earth filled with fear lest human freedom and self-government perish under the heel of a totalita rian state? Like the fool of the Bible, France had no sense of values. She thought money in the bank, knowledge in the head, and easy self-indulgence were of greater worth than sons and daughters to fill the house with laughter, the hands with toil and the heart with a sacrificial love. Today, she sees that obedience to God’s fun damental law of “multiply and re plenish the earth” is of more value than social pop calls and lazy ease. A mother who has sons to stand be tween her and destruction, even though they perish in the attempt, will die a better death than one whose defense is a poodle dog or a well-bred cat. I have small respect for either the intelligence or the character of a peo ple who seek to avoid the conse quences of their doings which - are grounded in natural laws. He is a common cheat and swindles himself most who eats undigestible food be cause he likes its taste and then seeks to escape indigestion by swallowing drugs. Self-control and abstinence is the law that rules characterful peo ple in all matters. I’d about as soon be a petty thief depending upon ray wits to keep me out of the chain- gang as to be a violator of any basic law of the universe and use my wits to avoid its consequences. All the thieves that ever pilfered France did her a thousand times less hurt than have the respectable, self-indulgent people who refuse to raise sons and daughters to strengthen and keep their mother land. If the theory of fewer and better children had any truth in it, how does it come to pass that Germany, with her large families, has been a sort -of finishing school for the schol ars of all lands for the past 50 years until Hitler took over all Germany. While tractors and flying machines are the peaceable products of our country the Germans have had the diabolical intelligence to turn them into the swiftest and most devastat ing instruments of death the world has ever seen. It looks as if this whole thing of smaller and better families is based on selfishness and fails to square with the facts of "life. Maybe, after all, people are more than IieSds and pocketbooks and that life’s real values are found in these you love and for whom you are willing to suffer and die. We have desired more stuff and fewer children until stuff has so mul tiplied and children so decreased that factories and farms find themselves overstocked with food and raiment for lack of folks to use them. The World War has set all Europe to fighting and destroying instead of producing. This probably will use up all of our surplus stuff and if not ended soon will put farms and fac tories in need of labor until there will be no unemployment among us. Then will come the fever of false pros perity to be followed by a long spell of economic anemia, where goods pile up, capital lies idle, and labor is not wanted. Then, once more, we will, have 17-year-old girls telling the farmers how to farm, old maids preaching birth control, and political quacks without brains enough to make a living telling us how to have a planned economy which fails to economize in anything except in babies I think I am done preaching Moth er's Day sermons unless there are at least two or three young women there with a promising brood of children My sense of reality will not allow me to get sentimental over a bunch of old maids ond married women with one or two children or a shaggy little *dog. I can’t feel pious over such pretense any more than I can in praying over a collection bas ket that doesn’t have enough change in it to pay for the gas in the cars parked at the church door. If you feel like saying “amen" to this, then say it, but please do not say “airmen" unless you are singing it. If you want to slap me for writ ing this, then think of how France got where she is today and her great need of sons and daughters to save her. In the dark days of reconstruc tion Ben Hill Said, “He who lets his country died lets all things die; and ull tilings dying, curse him.” INTERIOR OF CATHEDRAL AT CHARLESTON The Cathedral of- St. John the Baptist, Charlestpn, is one of the most imposing edifices in the South. A native of Charleston, the Right Rev. Monsignor James J. May, Vicar General of the Diocese of Charleston, is the rector of tlie Cathedral. Rector of Bishop England School Answers P.T.-A. Questionnaire The Right Rev. Joseph L. O’Brien, M. A.,'S. T. D., LL. D.. Rector of Bishop England High School, Char leston, S. C., in answer to the ques tion: “What definite, tangible and at tainable things can the Parent-Teach er Association and the forces of edu cation do, or what actions may they take to defend the ideals of demo cracy and push forward a positive advance in democracy?” submitted by Adeie J. Miuahan. state program chairman of the South Carolina Con gress of Parents and Teachers, made the following response: In the face of Professor Newlon’s startling confession (Time, July 22) to the thousand visiting teachers at the summer session of Columbia Uni versity’s Teachers’ College. “We have taught many fallacies,” it seems to me that there is much to do • on the part of P.-T. Associations in the cor rection of even a few of these fal lacies. Professor Newlon and his colleagues of the school of thought in education of which he is a leading disciple, rejecting in the freedom, of academic hodge-podge, have been poisoning the springs of education throughout the land a generation back in the name of academic free dom: Their march forward has bogged down and they confess their fallacies, confronted as they are with the realization of materialistic thought, now drenching the earth of Europe with the blood of youth. True, indeed, the P.-T. A. and the forces of education in these United States have a task before them to de fend the ideals of democracy and to push forward in positive advance. Education, properly defined, is a co-operation by human agencies, that is—the forces of Education; to-wit: the Home, the Church and the State, with the creator for the attainment of His purpose in regard to the indi vidual to be educated and in regard to the social order of which he is a member. In our public school educational system as it has been developed for the past two generations, God’s Creative Purpose has been progres sively disregarded and denied, with the result that earnest agencies, such as the P.-T. A., are concerned with the problem which, stated simply, is this—What can we do to save de mocracy as that system of political culture has developed in the United States? Our public school system under the leadership of men of the calibre of John Dewey have betrayed the birth right of democracy, as the principles of democracy were laid down by the founding fathers dn the Declaration of Independence. The principles of that political Credo have been ignored, rejected and forgotten in text book and in class room. That Credo teaches positively that (1) man was created by God. (2) Man was endowed by God with certain natur al rights . . . life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (3) Govern ments derive their just power from the consent of the governed. Now what does the whole system of education as now in practice in the public schools have to say of God, the Creator, and of man, the crea ture? Read the text books, consult the course of study, ask the teachers, question your children. God is ignored, revelation is passed over, even though in some places there be a lip service of Bible reading. Now the P. T. A. members can make a very definite, a very tangible and a very attainable contribution to de mocracy by bringing back into the home and into the class room the concepts of the Creator (God) and the creature (man) as they must be restored if the sentences of the Dec laration of Independence are to make sense. We have in practically every home a radio—where are our altars? We have newspapers, books, magazines; ‘where are our books of devotion? God as the supreme reality is a stranger in our class rooms. Is He any less a stranger in our homes? What value do we place on the first Commandment? Bring back God into our homes and His worship, and out goes divorce and birth-prevention and sterilization and kindred evils which violate the laws of the Creator and consequently violate the laws of democracy found ed on the laws of that Creator who endowed His creatures with certain unalienable rights. These evils de nounce Christ. Once the home is undermined and the family ideal shattered, demo cracy as understood in the Ameri can language approaches its end. In the face of present day conditions— the most grave that have threatened our hind and our ideals—unless dem ocracy aided by the forces of educa tion quickly puts its house in order, the forces lined- up against the ideas of life as exemplified by democracy in the United States to the present time will be riding rough shod over those who are looking for “definite, tangible and attainable things to push forward a positive advance in de mocracy.” I suggest that an objective study be made, under the auspices of the P.-T. A. of the training in religion the boys and girls of today are given. For five days a week they are ex posed to a system of mental training from which God’s Creative Purpose is excluded. They hear nothing of that purpose in school. They are taught the importance of tests in school subjects; they hear nothing of the importance of the tests upon which eternity depends. God is the author of all life, all liberty and all other unalienable natural rights. God has been ixished back into a shadowy land of uncertainty. Little wonder, then, that our unalienable rights , with which He, in His eternal wis dom endowed us, are fading out of the picture. • A democracy can stand only on the virtue (moral principles) of its peo ple. This democracy was set on the eternal principles of God’s Creative Purpose. If we don’t get back to that, then our efforts easily reduce themselves to windmill tilting. The P.-T. A. has done glorious work in many ways. But milk and sandwiches, text books, medical in spection, physical care of the under privileged, will not save democracy. There is only one NAME under heaven whereby men can be saved— and, after all, democracies are made up of men. Get that NAME back in to the hearts and minds of our youth and the first step toward something positive has been taken. How? By uniting all the forces .of education— the H O M E, the CHURCH, the SCHOOL and the STATE. The HOME fails without the CHURCH; the CHURCH fails without the HOME; the SCHOOL fails without the HOME and the CHURCH; the STATE fails without HOME, SCHOOL and CHURCH. We have put the school above and outside the Church. The result is now confess ed: “We have been teaching many fallacies.” And these fallacies are endangering our unalienable rights. Let us replace the fallacies by the BIRTH RATE DROP THREAT TO 0. S, Experts Sound Warning at '‘Tomorrow’s Child ren M Conference at Harvard Colorado Senator Favors Exempting Clergy, Religious WASHINGTON — Exemption from compulsory miiltar service not only of clergymen but also of divinity students is a necessity, Senator Ed win C. Johnson of Colorado told the Senate Wednesday. Participating in the debate on the Burke-Wadsworth comppulsory mili tary training bill, Senator Johnson directed attention to an amendment to this bill which he introduced in the Senate this week. This amendment provides that “regular or duly or dained ministers of religion and stu dents who are preparing for the ministry in theological or divinity schools resognized as such for. more than one year prior to the date of enactment of'this act shall,-be exempt from training and service (but not from registration) under ,this act.” . T contend that such an exemption is necessary’”, Senator Johnson de clared “Religion, of necessity, must have a place of importance in a de mocracy, and the function of a dem ocratic government is to encourage in every way possible the free exer cise of religion. It“is obvious and be yond argument that to subject min isters of religion to compulsory mili tary training is to seriously interfere with, if not completely to suspend, this right. “The maintenance of the ministry in a democratic society demands and has as a necessary corollary the edu cation of men who will continue the beneficial and necessary exercise of this function. Therefore I have made provision for the exemption of stu dents who are preparing for the ministry. “May I bring to the attention of the Senators the fact that the provisions of my amendment are similar to the provisions of the Draft of 1917”. “A duly ordained minister of reli gion as used in my amendment”, said Senator Johnson, “should mean a per son who has been ordained in ac cordance with the ceremonial, ritual, or discipline of a church, religious sect, or organization established on the basis of a community of faith and belief, doctrines, and practices of a religious character, to preach and to teach the doctrines and practices of such church, sect, or organization, and to administer the rites and cere monies thereof in public worship, and who as his regular and customary vocation preaches and teaches the principles of religion and administers the ordinances of public worship as embodied in the creed of principles of such church, sect, or organization- • “A regular minister of religion, as used in my amendment, should mean a person who as customary vocation preaches ar\d teaches the principles of a religion and a church, a reli gious sect, or organization of which he is a member, without having been formally ordained as a minister of religion, and who is recognized by such church, sect, or organization as a regular minister.” (By N. C. W. C. News Service) BOSTON-—Warnings that the Unit ed. States faces the fate of destroyed European nations unless she checks" her falling birth rate were sounded by experts at the New England Confer ence on “Tomorrow’s Children” at Harvard Summer School. Married women capable of mother hood must have four children each on the average merely to replace the population, Dr. Clyde V. Kiser, of the Milbank Memorial Fund of New York, declared. He said this is necessary* because they have to balance up the lack of births among the unmarried,- the childless married women and the deaths of children and mothers.: The 1940 census returns show that- one-fourth of the states were already failing to maintain their population by births as long as 10 years ago, Dr- Ki ser said. America he pointed out, has 2.000.000 fewer children under 20 than she had 10 years ago. He stated that in six states the total white, population as of 1930 would fail to reproduce itself by 10 to 2d per cent- These were New York, Oregon, California, New Jersey, Washington and Illinois. In six other states, he said, the deficit would be 10 per cent or less. He named these as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Florida, Missouri and Mary land. Certain areas in the southern Appa lachians give the highest rates of re production among whites found ir. the United States, he pointed out. If there were no migration to the cities the population of certain counties in West Virginia, southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, eastern Ken tucky and eastern Tennessee would double in one generation, he declared. But. he emphasized, the birth de cline is spreading from cities to coun try and is now more rapid in the country than in the cities. Prof- Carl C. Zimmerman, of Har vard, warned that reduced family size, for some time characteristic of higher and middle income groups, is now becoming serious among workers’ families in groups that are native- born and self-supporting. “T’-c birth rate in the United States is now undergoing the same trend which has brought many European countries to their present eclipse,” Professor Zimmerman said. Dr. Merrill Moore, psychiatrist of Harvard Medical School, declared that too small a number of children in a family had a direct relation to the prevalence of divorce. “And,” he add ed, “it may have an obscure relation’ to suicide.” Ralph Borsodi, ,eftonomist and au thor and director of the School of Living, Suffern. N. Y., urged a revival of “country life’” with people moved out of the cities. “The way to end the degeneracy of our population, to end the sheer weariness and fear of life which keeps the city population from reproducing -itself, is not to make the city better, nor even to make the city smaller, but to abolish the metropolitan city alto gether,” Mr- Borsodi maintained. . “Population, production, control and ownership must be decentralized,” he said. “Country estates or home steads must be built, not public hous ing projects.” In Mr. Borsodi’s view the “normal” family contains eight to 12 persons and at least three generations. On the basis of these specifications, he said, “the modem city family is not a normal family at all, but a path ological family.” PROVIDENCE HOSPITAL AUXILIARY IS FORMED Ten Commandments, for without a knowledge of God, a people perish. I suggest, then, most respectfully, to the members of the P.-T. A. that they frankly and fearlessly discuss the question: “How best bring it about that the children of parents who believe in God’s Creative Pur pose be given a .systematic training in religious and spiritual principles at least as adequate as that which they receive daily in the core sub ject of their course of study as now outlined? Anything that can be done to help bring about this training will be a positive contribtion to the ad vance of democracy, i COLUMBIA, S. C. — At a recent meeting held in the Nurses’ home at the Providence Hospital, a group of women formed an organization to be known as the Providence Hospital Auxiliary. The officers for the year will be: President, Mrs. Charles Han son; vice-president, Mrs. J. J. Ro berts; secretary, Mrs. Willis Dozier; and treasurer, Mrs. A. J. Craig. The committee chairmen are: Activities, Mrs. John Swygert; membership, Mrs. P. H. Morgan; card club hostess, Mrs. Leon Marslio, and publicity, Mrs. Charles Bultman. A business meeting will be held once a month at the Nurses’ Home. The object of the Auxiliary is to help the Sisters of Charity who are in charge of the hospital, not in nursing the sick but to aid in whatever way the Sisters might need assistance. Anyone interested in the work of the nuns may join irrespective of creed. For information phone Mrs. P. H. Morgan of Hagood Avenue. A card club was also organized at the first meeting—cards will be play ed once a month, the day, time and place to be published before each game. The first objective of the organiza tion is the purchase of a portable X-ray machine. - All friends of the Sisters are not only invited but urged to join the auxiliary as well as to assist at the card parties, it is announced. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT of the American people has been fostered and strengthened by the “Church of the Air” program of the Columbia Broadcasting System. His Eminence William Cardinal O’Connell, Arch bishop of Boston, has written in a let ter received by CBS officials in New York. . : . _..,_.