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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.