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PAGE 4 GEORGIA BULLETIN THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1964
.. Archdiocese of Atlanta
the
GEORGIA BULLETIN
SMVINO GfORGIA'S 71 NOtTHM* COUNTIiS
Official Organ of -the Archidocese of Atlanta
Published Every Week at the Decatur DeKalb News
PUBLISHER- Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan
MANAGING EDITOR Gerard E. Sherry
CONSULTING EDITOR Rev. R. Donald Kieman
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rev. Leonard F. X. Mayhew
Member of the Catholic Press Association
2699 Peachtree N. E. and Subscriber to N. C. WT C. News Service
P. O. Box 11667 Telephone 231-1281
Northside Station
Atlanta 5, Ga. Second Class Permit at Altanta, Ga.
U. S. A. $5.00
Canada $5.00
Foriegn $6.50
Performing Wonders
We have said before that it has
been estimated that the life of the
average student can be broken
down into nine hundred hours a
year in the classroom; 3,285
hours a year in sleep, and 4,575
hours a year “left over”.
In other words, the teacher has
the child for about ten per cent
of his life each year, or at least
should have, and during that 900
hours the same teacher is expect
ed to produce a well-rounded,
fully adjusted individual who will
be able to read, write, subtract,
divide, behave, and in all things
be a credit to his family, Church
and community. In spite of ever
increasing demands and constant
interruptions our teachers per
form wonders.
Teachers must be qualified,
credentialized, approved,
screened, immunized, loyalty
tested, investigated. Schools
must be accredited, evaluated,
affiliated, coordinated centra
lized, decentralized, superinten
ded, supervised, inspected. Pu
pils must be tested for ability,
reading readiness, for sight,
hearing, TB, bad teeth. They must
be imjnqjnized, indoctrinated
against" Communism,* warned of
the dangers of narcotics, taught
the art of safe driving, and every
thing else which the parents can
not or will not do. The teacher
must attend institutes, seminars,
demonstrations, faculty meet
ings, night classes, lectures, en
richment courses. During class
hours they will be requested
to collect lunch monies, dona
tions to worthy causes. In our
Catholic schools they must pro
mote the sale of Christmas Seals
and “pagan babies.” Which re
minds us of the puzzled neo
pagan father who asked his pas
tor to please explain what was a
“pagan baby.”
“Leave Us Alone” is the jus
tifiable plaint of our muchly bad
gered teachers but they are re
signed to the fact that things are
going to get worse before they get
better, and all of the time they
are going to be blamed not only
for Johnnie's illiteracy but also
for his criminal way s and alarm
ing delinquency.
So to the growing army of
educationalists who profess to
know so muchabout education and
so little about the problems of
educators we say, leave them
alone. This does not mean being
apathetic towards the school of
the child, but we should let the
teacher teach and show our in
terest in the P.T.A. and other
worthwhile organizations.
Traffic Safety?
The Eowden Commission re
port to Governor Sanders on the
state highways confirms much of
the criticism that has been leve
led by responsible citizens of ail
political persuasions.
There is no doubt that apart
from administrative procedures,
there is a lot wrong with Geor
gia roads and highways. Com
parison with some of our imme
diate neighbors shows that our
roads leave a lot to be desired.
Indeed we lack roads and high
ways, and we lose business be
cause of it. There is one other
point to be made:
The state accident rate is much
too high. Many, including the At
lanta Traffic and Safety Council,
put most of the emphasis on al
leged neglect by many drivers
of automobiles. The Atlanta group
is in the forefront of calls for
stricter application of the law
and the more frequent punish
ment of traffic offenders. We can
go along with this to a degree
as compliance with traffic laws
k> . *4' ‘* " • '
can reduce accidents.
Alas, we feel the Safety Coun
cil, and others, neglect to pin
point another major cause of
traffic accidents-- bad roads.
Many of the rear-end collis
ions occuring on our express
ways and main highways are of
ten not the driver’s fault. They
are caused many times by ina
dequate entrances and exits from
and to expressways and the like.
Fines and other punitive mea
sures cannot solve the problem.
We think the Safety Council could
make a greatercontributionbyput-
tingless stress on punitive mea
sures against the harrassed
motorist, adopting a.more
understanding approach in rela
tion t o inedequate roads. The
reckless driver should be pun
ished , and he will always be
with us, even when we eventually
get proper roads. However, many
drivers are good, responsible
citizens, who perform miracles
every day in avoiding accidents.
The state and city highway sys
tems help him little to remain
alive or ticketless.
•‘(’IiAHSM AL EXAMPLE”—This i» a sketch of the $500,000 church proposed for St. Pius
X parish in New Orleans, La. It has been called a "classical example of a church in the
round." In addition to its shape, a special feature of the roof is that it will be made cf
lead-covered copper, to reduce the amount of outside noise filtering into the structure
The spire will extend 84 feet into the air.
As Others See Him
GEORGIA PINES
‘Unto These Hills’ Pageant
BY REV. R. DONALD KIERNAN
Some years ago while attending Catholic Uni
versity in Washington, D.C., I recall ever so well
a priest who lived on the same corridor in the
dormitory as I did. He was a young man but even
a cursory glance left the distinct impression that
he had been sickly most of his life. His “skin and
bone'* figure was hidden by the cassock which he
continuously wore, but his eyes and face revealed
a figure haunted by torture. It was obvious that, in
spite of his genial disposition, that the poor man
was in constant pain.
I asked one of the seminar
ians about the priest. It seemed
that the priest had been one of
the few survivors of the infam
ous Bataan Death March back
in the early days of World War
IL
All of the civilized world was
shocked at the cannabal attitude
of the Japanese soldiers engaged in this particu
lar campaign. It was most difficult to realize that
human beings could be so ruthless to other humans.
However, the horrors of the Bataan Death March
are not foreign to the American way of life. In
deed, a similar situation existed in our own coun
try in the early Eighty's. At that time it was not
the Americans who were tortured, but rather the
Americans were displaying that same cannabal at
titude of World War II on our first settlers, the
Indians.
North of Cleveland, Georgia, on the road lead
ing to Helen, there is located there what looks
like a pegoda set up on a mound of earth out in a
large field. The Georgia Historical Commission's
marker states that on this spot was located a town
hall for the city of Gauxale. The explorer De
Soto is reputed to have stopped at this spot on his
way to the Mississippi.
This same area was used as a sort of “con
centration camp'* for the Indians while they were
being gathered together to take them to their new
home. The white man, in his generosity, had de
cided that the Indians would be happier out west,
so he “purchased’* the Indian's property and
promptly moved them out. Moreover, gold had been
discovered on the property which the Indian owned.
Historians say that 35,000 Indians began this
trip to the new home but only 5,000 survived. It
is no wonder then that the march is known as the
“Trail of Tears’*. An infamous blotch on the his
tory of Americans who like to pride themselves
as defenders of the weak, champions of the under
dog, and always having a sense of fair play.
Legend now are the stories of the financial deal
ings of the white man with the Indian. Some of these
stories make the purchase of Manhattan island
look like the Indians really got a bargain. Com
pensated for their property by the government at
one end of the line, the Indian was deprived of
the money at the other end of the line by “city-
slickers.''
Of course, not all of the Indians left. Some hid
out in the mountains and some returned home. Af
ter they arrived in Oklahoma, oil was discovered
under the happy hunting grounds and once again
the white man, in his generosity, decided that the
Indians would be happier further west.
The Whole tragic affair is beautifully presented
in a pageant presented nightly during the summer
months at Cherokee, North Carolina. It is called:
“Unto these Hills.’*
THE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
Your World And Mine
BY GARY MacEOIN
It is not only in the United States that the great
lebate on the future of education under Catholic
luspices is taking place. In many parts of the
vorld, Catholics are asking if it is necessary and
>roper to continue today to give general education
as high a priority among Catho
lic institutional activities as has
been customary in recent cen
turies.
The issue was keenly debated,
for example, at a recent nation
al meeting of the association of
Catholic colleges of Columbia.
The meeting agreed that a pro
gram to streamline Catholic
ucational activities in the country, with a view
their gradual reduction, should be prepared for
hmission to a later meeting.
THE PRACTICAL reason advanced for this re-
evaluation is substantially the same as those
which underlay the decision of the Archdiocese of
Cincinnati to suppress the five lowest grades in
its schools and transfer the children to public
schools. It is that education is threatening to ab
sorb too high a proportion of the resources avail
able for the apostolate. Allied to this is the fear,
more valid in Colombia than in the United States,
that the Catholic schools tend to become the pre
serve of the children of the well-to-do, thus con
stituting a scandal and a stumbling block rather
than a pastoral aid.
Even more noteworthy was a theoretical argu
ment put forward in a Bogota' Catholic newspaper
on the eve of the meeting and taken up by various
speakers. In a striking departure from the tradi
tional Catholic position, it was argued that society
today Is more conscious of its obligation to edu
cate all its members, that it is more adequately
equipped through the facilities provided by the
state to give them a human formation, and that
consequently the Church is free to withdraw pro
gressively from this area of service and concen
trate on its primary mission of preaching the
gospel.
IN MANY OF the newly Independent states of
Africa the same debate is going on in a very dif
ferent context. Education has developed only very
recently, mostly during the present century, in
that part of the world. The first schools for Afri
cans were built and staffed by missionaries from
Europe, with the Catholics generally playing a
preponderant part.
Gradually a system of subsidization by the
colonial governments was developed to encour
age the expansion of education. The schools contin
ued to be built, owned, staffed and administered
by the mission authorities, but the major parts
of their revenue came from government grants.
FOR A variety of reasons the new independent
governments are reluctant to continue this sys
tem. Some of them feel that the mentality of the
missionaries reflected too closely that of the
colonial powers, tending to exalt European cul
tural values and attitudes to the neglect of those
of Africa. Such an allegation is far from univer
sally founded, but it contains enough truth in cer
tain cases to make it embarrassing. Beside, many
point out that in practice the mission schools
have served primarily the children of Christians
and catechumens. In an area lnwhichonlya small
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
RE-DEDICATION
Labor Day
Meditation
BY GERARD E. SHERRY
Next Monday is Labor Day. And all the pious
platitudes about the dignity of labor will be
churned out by the speech makers and the writ
ers. For some it is a time of great joy, for
others an unhappy time — it depends on whether
you’re for labor or against it.
It is a time, however, which could be profit
ably used by both leaders and rank andfile mem
bers of our great la
bor movement, to re
flect on where they
are going; indeed, to
meditate on how far
they can go in jus
tice, in their de
mands on the rest of
society.
Whatever gains the
working man has made in the past 50 years he
has accomplished through the trade union move
ment. In the majority of cases, management has
been kind (or just) to working men only because
labor has been organized. The great exploitation,
so prevalent in the past, has gone forever. Of
course, there are some areas which still need im
provement — especially in relation to farm work
ers — generally, however, the dark conditions of
die past don’t exist anymore.
But the labor movement cannot continue to cru
sade merely for material betterment. Some new
impetus has to be Introduced to elevate the worker
above the stagnant condition of material comforts
for himself and his family. Furthermore, there
must be greater progress towards genuine coope
ration and understanding with management in our
industries.
Pope Pius XI in his encyclical on The Recon
struction of the Social Order expounded the prin
ciple that the process of production in industry
should be one of cooperation not antagonism. The
Pope said:
REAPINGS
AT
RANDOM
“As things are now, the wage-system divides
men on what is called the labor market into an
arena where the two armies are engaged in fierce
combat. To this grave disorder which is leading
society to ruin, a remedy must evidently be ap
plied as speedily as possible. But there cannot be
a question of any perfect cure unless this posi
tion is done away with, and well-organized mem
bers of the social body be constituted: vocational
groups namely, claiming the allegiance of men,
not according to the position they occupy in the
labor market, but according to the diverse func
tions which they exercise in society. For it is
natural that just as those who dwell in close proxi
mity constitute townships, so those who practice
the same trade or profession, in the economic or
any other field, form corporate groups. These
groups, with powers of self government are con
sidered by many to be, if not essential to civil
society, at least natural to it."
Arising out of these words of Pius XI it will be
seen that self governing industries with govern
ment in the hands of a body representing capital,
labor, the management and the consumer, is the
Catholic conception of Industrial democracy. It is
one of the tragedies of our industrial history that
force of circumstances obliged the trade union
movement in this country, and most others, to
function in the defense of the workingman’s inte
rest, rather than of industry as a whole.
The great need of the nineteenth century was the
protection of the workingman from exploitation and
the fight for a living wage - and by that I mean a
family living wage. This was achieved by the
principle of collective bargaining and the weapon
of the strike. The right to form unions for this
purpose, and the right to strike - subject to cer
tain conditions - were defended by Catholic socio
logy and especially by Pope Leo XIII. But Pope
Pius XI went further than his predecessor. From
defending rights he went on to propose ideals.
One of the troubles is that there are few men in
the labor movement who have ideals. Some worship
only the cult of power, forgetting their heritage
and rank and file members. The moral fibre of
some labor leaders leaves a lot to be desired.
Of course, it must be admitted that manage
ment also has a responsibility for the deteriora
tion of moral standards within the labor move
ment. Anyone with a knowledge of the workings of
unions and industry can see that managerial apathy
towards the welfare of the individual worker has
contributed to the growth of selfish, unethical ap
proaches made by some labor leaders —men who
repudiate their mission as representatives of the
workers and Instead represent only themselves.
It should also be said that the principle of col
lective bargaining, with the weapon of the strike
to give it strength, does not represent the whole
of the Catholic ideal. It grew up, however, as the
only effective means of defending the rights of
workers to a family wage and, therefore, must
always be looked on with gratitude by all men of
good wilL
What is needed today, is for the labor move
ment to grow up, not in isolation, but in coopera
tion with the rest of society. Labor’s immaturity
lies in the fact that it appears to assume little
responsibility for or possess little interest in the
welfare of the rest of our society. This is where I
believe the labor movement needs to become a
movement of ideals, instead of an organization of
group gripes. Some leaders, such as George
Meany and Walter Reuther are working through
a concern for others. Alas, too many others pre
fer to recline on their negotiating tables.