Newspaper Page Text
Published by the
Catholic Lay
men's Association
of Georgia
tdhlin
"To Bring About
a Friendlier
Feeling Among
Neighbors Irre
spective of Creed"
Vol. XXX. No. 7.
FORTY PAGES*
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, JULY 30, 1949
- —■ ,
ISSUED MONTHLY—$3.00 A YEAR
ST. MARY’S HOME, SAVANNAH—Erected in 1938, as a home for orphan girls of the Diocese of
Savannah-Atlanta, St. Mary's Home is attractively located on Victory Drive, one of Savannah’s
most beautiful thoroughfares. Under the auspices of the Female Orphan Benevolent Society, St.
Mary’s Home is operated by the Sisters of Mercy, with Sister M. Amabilis, R. S. M., as Superior.
Spotlight Shifts From Barden Bill
To Senate-Approved Thomas Bill in
Federal Aid to Schools Controversy
WASHINGTON.— (NC) —The
Federal school aid spotlight has
shifted here from the Barden Bill
to the Senate-approved Thomas
Bill, as Representative Hugo S.
Sims, Jr., of South Carolina ini
tiated a discharge peition to get
the latter measure out of the
House Education and Labor Com
mittee onto the House floor.
The House committee, headed by
Representative John Lesinski of
Michigan, has not yet reported any
Federal aid bill. The Thomas Bill
was sent to it from the upper
house the first week in May. A
House subcommittee studied this
measure and others reported back
to the full committee with an ap
proval of the Barden Bill early in
June. This bill aroused a storm
of opposition from Catholics be
cause of its rigid restriction of aid
to public school children, and since
then little progress has been made
toward enactment of an aid law.
A total of 218 signatures are
needed on the discharge petition
to get the Thomas Bill out of the
committee. Asked what progress
his petition has made, Mr. Sims
refused to comment this week.
Catholic school authorities have
been vehement in opposition to the
Thomas Bill, though this opposi
tion was overshadowed somewhat
by the dramatic protest of Catho
lics against the more obviously re
strictive Barden Bill. The Thomas
Bill attempts to dodge the public-
parochial school controversy by
leaving the question to the States.
This, in effect, rules out aid to
nonpublic school children, since
most State constitutions forbid
such aid.
Of all the school aid bills sub
mitted in Congress this session,
Catholic leaders have expressed
most preference for the Fogarty
Bill, which would earmark ten
per cent of Its total grant for ser
vices to all children, and insure
the distribution of this aid in all
States through the “withholding”
formula of the National School
Lunch Act.
The Organization known as
Protestants and Other Americans
United for Separation of Church
and Stale entered the Federal Aid
picture with a denunciation of
Representative Sims’ offers to get
the Thomas Bill out of committee.
This group, which it is said will
accept nothing but the Barden
Bill, regards the Thomas Bill as
only “a less flagrant violation of
principle than that which is con
tained -in the Fogarty Bill.”
POAU director Glenn L. Archer
said that Mr. Sims had left a
“false impression” that the Senate
measure is a compromise. Thus,
paradoxically, the unit which
fights hardest to keep parochial
school children out of Federal aid
and those who insist that they
should be included have rejected
so-called the “compromise” as
pect of the Thomas Bill.
Meanwhile, according to press,
dispatches, house leaders have
suggested that Catholic opposi
tion to such measures as the Bar
den or Thomas bills would be less
ened through the passage, of a
school nealth bill. Catholic spokes
men denied this, and pointed out
that similar rumors of compro
mise were widely circulated when
the health and education bills
were passed by the Senate. They
also asserted that it was “incon
ceivable that the Congress would
ever approve a school health bill
which failed to provide for the ex
amination and treatment of all
school children.”
Members of Congress
Impressed by Letters
On Federal Aid Bills
WASHINGTON. —(NC)— Rep
resentative Barrett O’Hara of Illi
nois told the House of Represen
tatives that he has 'been deeply
moved” by many of the letters he
has received in opposition to pro
visions in the Barden aid-to-educa-
tion bill.
“During the last two weeks I
have received in opposition
to certain provisions in the Barden
aid-to-education bill the largest
mail that has come to my office
during my brief service as a mem
ber of the 81st Congress,’ he de
clared. “I have been deeply moved
by many of these letters.
“What reply can I make to a
mother in the 2d District of Illi
nois whose three sons, educated
in the parochial schools in my own
home area, were accepted as good
soldiers by the country that they
loved and did not live to return to
her?
“What reply, Mr. Speaker, can I
make other than to assure her that
when transportation, recreation,
health protection, and other things,
distinctly separated from the
domain of religion, are distributed
for the benefit and the welfare of
the school children of America, the
distribution for which I would vote
must be alike to all the school chil
dren of America.
Representative O’Hara intro
duced in the Congressional Record
a resolution passed by the Illinois
State Senate urging amendment of
pending Federal school aid legis
lation “to guarantee that at least
non-religious textbooks, bus trans
portation and health service will
be provided to all school children,
whether they attend public or non
public schools.”
Displaced Family
Finds New Home in
Washington, Georgia
(Special to The Bulletin)
WASHINGTON, Ga. — Among
the displaced persons from Europe
who have recently found new
homes in Georgia are Walter Ko-
nieezny, from Poland, his wife,
Mrs. Margaret Konieczny, a Ger
man, and their two-year-old son,
Seigurt Konieczny, who are at St.
Joseph’s Home here.
Mr. Konieczny, a farmer and
gardener, is making himself useful
in many ways at St. Joseph's, de
spite the fact that although he
speaks German and Polish, he
knows very little English. Mrs. Ko-
niOczny, who served as an inter
preter for the U. S. Army occupa
tion forces in Germany, is well
able to converse in English, and
assists the Sisters of St. Joseph in
attending to the domestic affairs
at the Home.
Part of the two-story frame
building on the grounds of St. Jos
eph’s Home has been converted
into an apartment for the Koniec
zny family.
Father John Crean, director of
St. Joseph’s, is expecting that an
other family of displaced persons
from Europe will come to Wash
ington in the near future.
K. of C. Council in Indianapolis
Contradicts Recent Statements
Made by Columnist Drew Pearson
INDIANAPOLIS. — (NC) — A
statement has been issued on be
half of Indianapolis Council 437 of
the Knights of Columbus by its of
ficers, refuting, point by point, the
representation of what transpired
in a meeting of the council, as giv
en in a recent syndicated column
of Drew Pearson.
The Pearson column purported
to give reaction within the K. of
C. group after Representative An
drew Jacobs of Indiana had spok
en to the membership on Federal
aid to education legislation. s
The K. of C. council statement,
prepared in answer to the Pear
son column, is as follows:
“On July 16, in the syndicated
column of Drew Pearson, the fol
lowing appeared: ‘Going back to
his home town, Indianapolis, some
time ago, Jacobs attended a
Knights of Columbus meeting
where he put the issue of Federal
education up to a large group of
Catholics. After lengthy debate
the consensus of opinion was that
Federal money should not go to pa
rochial schools. “The only one who
disagreed,”’ says Congressman Ja
cobs, “was the priest.” The non
clergy Catholics all felt there was
a great danger to the church if
Federal money was used. for
church schools. Eventually, the
government might dominate the
thinking of these schools’.”
“Because of mail and telephone
calls, in a Council resolution,
adopted at our regular meeting of
July 18, 1949, we enjoin the Grand
Knight to submit the following:
“If Congressman Jacobs is quot
ed correctly, this may be said:
“First, Indianapolis Council No.
437, with its membership of 2,000
men, is not accurately represented
by the statements attributed to
Congressman Jacobs by columnist
Pearson.
“Second, since no poll was tak
en, no ‘consensus of opinion' was
possible.
“Third, of the five or six men
who participated in the discussion
following Representative Jacobs’
remarks, two men expressed
themselves as being in opposition
to the Representative’s stand;
hence, the priest was not the only-
one who disagreed.
“Four, ‘that the non-clergy
Catholics all felt it was a great
danger to the Church if Federal
money was used for church
schools’ is not true.
“Five, previous to the Pearson
article, Council 437 had unani
mously adopted a resolution oppos
ing the Barden Bill. This is th®
only fact on Council records rela
tive to Federal aid to schools.
“The undersigned officers and
members, having been present at
the meeting referred to in the
above paragraphs, in answer to the
Pearson articles, and nothing
more, present these statements for
the record.
“Signed: William J. Glennon,
Grand Knight; Francis K. Tracy,
Deputy Grand Knight; John G,
O’Connor, State Catholic Activity
Chairman; Earl Owens, member*
and John McQuaid, member.”
A prominent member of the In
dianapolis Council told the N. C.
W. C. News Service that Repre
sentative Jacobs had requested the
opportunity to appear before his
brother Knights in regular meet
ing, to explain his position re
garding Federal aid to education.
The request was made alter the
appearance of a newspaper story
which the Congressman claimed
made him appear to be opposed to
parochial schools.
The Council member added that
Representative Jacobs said in his
talk at the meeting that he was
completely misquoted in the arti
cle; that he was not opposed to
parochial schools, for fear these
institutions would cease to be pa
rochial schools.
The member further pointed out
that what those present at the
meeting congratulated Represen
tative Jacobs on was his demon
stration that he is not opposed to
parochial schools as such. If th®
Congressman took this to be ap
proval of his opposition to Fed
eral aid for parochial schools, he
misunderstood the congratulations*
the member said.
FIFTEEN CISTERCIAN NUNS,
seven American and the rest, Irish,
will leave St. Mary’s Abbey, Glen-
calm, County Waterford, Ireland,
next fall to found the first Abbey
of Cistercian Nuns in the United
States at Mount St. Mary’s, Wren-
tham, Massachusetts.
In Rome Post
MEMBERSHIP in the French
Legion of Honor has been confer
red upon Bishop Jules B. Jean-
mard of Lafayette by the govern
ment of France. The award came
in recognition of his many years of
promoting cordial Franco-Ameri-
can relations.
Rev. Daniel Harrington, pastor
of Sacred Heart parish, Ronan,
Mont., who has been named
Spiritual Director of the North
American College, Rome. He
succeeds Msgr Charles E. Fitz
gerald, of New Rochelle, N. Y.,
who has held that post since
1934, except for the eight-year
closed period caused by the war.
INC Photos) .
Representative McCormack Denies
Being Party to "Compromise" on
Federal Aid to Education Bills
<N. C. W. C. News Service)
WASHINGTON— Representative
John W. McCormack of Massa
chusetts, House Majority Leader,
disavowed reports that he was a
party to a legislative “compromise”
designed to clear the way for
action in the controversial Federal-
aid-to-education situation.
The reports originated while a
House Interstate Commerce sub
committee was considering a bill
which would allot $35,000,000 year
ly to furnish health services to all
school children, whether public or
non-public school students. The
reports were to the effect that the
health bill approval was worked
out as a “compromise” by Repre
sentatives McCormack and Percy
Priest of Tennessee, who heads the
House Interstate Commerce sub
committee, with assurance of full
committee approval.
The subcommittee later report
ed the bill favorably to the full
committee.
Questioned about these reports,
Mr. McCormack said: “There has
been some misunderstanding about
the reports. Some newspapermen
in good faith confused the rela
tionship between the health and
education measures.
“Actually, the health and edu
cation bills are separate and dis
tinct measures. As I have said
repeatedly, I am in favor of an
education bill which provides
school services for both public and
non-public school children. Th«
subcommittee approval of th*
health measure in no way changes:
my position. I do favor the gen
eral principles of the health bill
because it will provide health
examinations and necessary treat
ment for all children.”
Meanwhile the Department of
Education, Ntaional Catholic Wel
fare Conference, asserted it will
continue its opposition to any “un
fair” Federal-aid-to-education bill.
The department withheld comment
on the ' subcommittee-approved
health bill, pending the printing
of technical amendments adopted
by the subcommittee. But in a
statement regarding the “compro
mise” reports, the N. C. W. C. De
partment stated: '
“Regardless of what action the
House takes on the school health
measure, the Department will con
tinue its opposition to any Fed
eral-aid-to-education bill which
fails to provide a fair share of
Federal funds for services for chil
dren in both public and non-public
schools. Passage of the health bill
will in no way lessen opposition to
unfair Federal-aid-to-education.
The House subcommittee-ap
proved health bill provides that in
states whose laws prohibit use of
public funds for non-public
schools, the Federal Security Ad
ministrator would be authorized ttf
withhold the allotment and pro
vide for health services tut
public school*