OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 246, 17 October 1922, Page 3

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

TOPICS. OF THE MOMENT. (From Our Special Correspondent.) NEW YORK, September 14. A MAD INJUNCTION. Juet as the public expected a speedy termination of the railroad strike,, Attorney-General Daugherty issued a most sweeping injunction against the unions concerned. It was an unwise move at a critical time, and shows how some leaders lack that knowledge of psychology so necessary to make them a power in office. But the AttorneyGeneral has since been made wise, and would forego all his injunction rights if it were at all possible. A mob of sinister and desperate men cannot be coerced or pushed; it must be >d. gnided and reasoned with. This latest draetic move has stirred the powerful American Federation of Labour to action, and although its leaders are recognised as sane and pacific generals, they are determined to combat force with force—and even, if necessary, call a general strike. Such an ultimatum could lead to one thing only after the injunction — civil strife unparalleled even in thie country; for as the Government is. now constituted it would use lte power to the uttermost, despite the terrible consequences.

With the end of the coal strike now certain, all interest is centred on the outcome of the meeting of the Labour heads of the railroad unions and the A.F. of L.

U.S. CONSULS REBUKED. Second in public prominence comes the cancellation by Britain of the exequaturs of the U.S. Consul and ViceConsul at Newcastle as a virtual challenge to American shipping. They are accused when issuing passports of persiittV.ing passengers- to travel on American ships. Although the Shipping Board professes to have no information of this, they would not deny it* probability. But it became known that the entire consular service has been enlisted to advance the interests of Shipping Board vessels. Thus the cancellations are regarded as the British answer to this massed action. The Administration, it would seem, rather welcomes the British move, as it will strengthen their hands when the Ship Subsidy Bill comes up, probably about November, thus giving the Senate six weeks to consider U before the Appropriation Bills are sent up. Shall America supinely- submit to the" creation of a condition under which her fleet shall be driven from the high seas - She will not —anil especially by England. lv the la*l debute Representative Mondell' brought the. Republicans to their feet in an enthusiastic demonstration and a rebuke to the Democrats, at the conclusion of which be said: >; We shall sue tha< American shipping i« not driven from the --eas. We shall see that our flag float* from men-bant ships in all the seven seas am! wherever men curry cm commerce. And nut of the losses which i you have nlaced u'»on the American peop'e we hope to brine a fleet that eventually will be the fine-t in all the world."

POPE END.* HIS BAN". ! Koine !i»s jvconeidered its decision, j and will permit the National Catholic Welfare Council to continue in existence in the United States — for the presvnt at leaxi. Th«. council was organised in HUH by tiie late Cardinal Gibbone a* a war mensure whereby thy cardinals, archbishop* and hishope of the United .States wctc to meet once a year to discuss problem* of the day and maintain a national adminwtratiw committee for tho publication of pamphlets, hs weil as a ureiirral publicity bureau. Ijist February an al>ni| t order came from the CoiiMniorial Congregation in Home, which regulates th<' government of Human Catholic ilio-i-esps throughout the world, tv 6U«[iend ope re I ion*. The decree just promulgated cays: "Acting on new data the Sacred tunsiftorial Congregation has decided that the bishop* of the United Sfate-s of N'orili America may meet next September, as is their custom, in accordance, however, with thy instructions io be aiven." One of the instructions is that "The minute* of the meeting are to be communicated to the Holy See. so that if there lie nee.l tli>- Ilo'.y may. with its authority, intervene."

liy what the instructions ivc.ommend. define and suggest, they indicate what complaints were laid originally againist the National Catholic- Welfare Council.

BKITATS RULE? THE WAVES. Supported in his statements by two admirals as well as tlm general opinion of his listeners. ex-Aseaistant Secretary of the Treasury Oscar T. Crosby contradicted before the Institute of Politics at Wiliiatnstown. Mans., lately the rj-elieF that the Wanhington Conference had overthrown Great Britain's supremacy of the seas.

Mr. Crosby said it was America who made the great sacrifice in sea supremacy a< Washington, end that of all Powers involved only America had made a sacrifice in money. England scrapped ships that were either on paper or obsolete, while Japan succeeded in keeping the big dreadnought she was building. Admiral Rodgers, chairman of the Executive Committee of the United States Xavy, caused considerable commotion by stating it was not true the British had surrendered thvir command of the s«as. Although there were pnseibilities h« shown in the war of what America might do at short notice, it was wrong to think thu American navy was to-day equal in strength to Great Britain's, particularly because of Great Britain's great merchant marine.

While regretting the great sacrifices America had been called upon to make *t Washington, both in eea supremacy and in the building of fortifications, the admirals said these sacriScea had been made in the hope that within ten years the spirit of th« nations interested in the Pacific might definitely turn in the direction of a desire for peace. Mr. L,loyd George's ex-secretary. Philip Kerr, stated hie firm belief in the possibility of establishing international machinery for the abolishment of war. He 'likuned national slogans to the bloody idole of antiquity, and pictured ••Deutechland Über Altos/ "Rule Britannia." and "America First" representative* of Moloch, Astaroth. and other idol recipients of human sacrifices in the past. Great applause followed when he eaid that because America left the Council of the Allies the world viewpoint was loet in the settling of European affaire, and narrow nationalist feeling intervened.

ELECTROCUTED MURDERER REPOSES IN DRESS SUIT. Great men in passing this vale have laid in state while the mourners have bowed their heads in reverence, but it Bcldom happens that a murderer lias the same homage or curiosity bestowed on his remaint. ' The exception happened

last week in Now York when a negro, Luther Doddy, dead, in evening dress lay in state in the undertaking rooms. The doors were wide open to admit those, who wished to take a last look at the man who last January shot and killed two detectives, and as last Thursday , merged into Friday, himeclf paid the . penalty of death in the electric eliair at , Sing Sing. Up to six o'clock at least 30,000 had filed past the casket, according to the t police on guard. The throngs —Negroes, with a sprinkling of, whites —gathered early Friday afternoon and the procession passing the coffin was continuous. At times the queue extended over the entire block to the undertaking establishment. Most of it was in double file. The police on guard estimated the passing at about 2,000 an hour. i A collection plate was beside the coffin. j Fifteen policemen attached ti> the. I ■West 135 th Street Station were on hand to keep order. CHURCH AND DIVORCE. Following close on the declaration by the Rev. Percy Stickney tirant, rector of the Church of the Ascension. New York. I who has created quite a newspaper controversy, drawing in its wake expressions from other eminent divine*, that Jesue would not sanction the Protestant Episcopal Church's .stand against re- ■ marriage of divorced persons, the Angli- ! can bishops have adopted a resolution j reaffirming their stand on the "indissolubility of marriage." The bishops, in their resolution, met the divorce question as follows: "We. reaffirm the fmlissolubility of marriage and refuso to admit any relaxation of the principle contained in the table of kindred and affinity for church , people, even where civil law sanctions such relaxation." Bishop I'arry. of (iuiana. commenting upon the resolution, said that, while i there was some freedom ill matters of | divorce in the American church, the church of the West Indies, through its bishops, sanctioned divorce and separa- ' tioTi. but did not sanction ivmarriage of divorced persons. He said that there was perhaps a little too much license ill this direction in the I'nited States, but he did not feel he should I>p critical. Dr. Grant, in a carefully prepared statement, charged that the church i< invading tbe civil authority, and in one case, referring specifically tc« his own church. h<- declares, "li i<. the church of the rich." Dr. Grant has been engaged to marry Mrs. Rita l.ydijf, who lias divorced two husbands, for the last two years. The delay in the marriage i- believed to be] due to the reported message from Rishup Manning that mi li a marriage would be a violation of ihe church canons. Dr., Giant attacks the church canon against the remarriage of a divorced person on the ground that the IViblical injunction is of doubtful authenticity and expresses a Jewish racial custom rather than a | universal truth. i