Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 13 June 1912, Page 21

Current Topics

The Crusade Against the Fly

The facts given by Dr. Champtaloup in his recent lecture in Dunedin regarding the disease-bearing capacity of the common house fly were sufficiently interesting and sufficiently uncomfortable. ' With legs, bodies, and intestines,' said the lecturer, 'quoting Dr. Nash, ' laden with putrefactive germs, these flies in the fly season swarm all over all exposed food, drown themselves in every uncovered jug or cup of milk, range over every tin of condensed milk or piece of sugar on which they can alight, each fly contributing its quota of generally unknown and often unmentionable filth, including its own intestinal evacuations, polluting human food to such an extent as in a short time to convert, for instance, milk from a wholesome food to a virulent dangerous poison.' It had been estimated,' he continued, ' that 1200 flies would issue from a pound of horse manure, and that a pair of flies mating in spring might be progenitors of 191 thousand billion flies by late summer.' The average housewife has an instinctive horror of the creature, but her perpetual puzzle is, how to get rid of the pesta point on which the popular lecturer is not always very explicit. In this connection we recall, for the benefit of the scared mothers of households a suggestion on the subject made some time ago by no less an authority than the Lancet. Fly-papers, it pointed out, are unsightly, even offensive, and often ineffective. It continued: 'ln our own experience the best exterminating agent is a weak solution of formaldehyde in watersay, two teaspoonfuls to the pint —and this experience has been confirmed by others. Flies are attracted by the solution, which they drink. Some die in the water, others .get as far only as the vicinity of the plate, but all ultimately succumb, and, where they occur in large numbers, thousands may be swept up from the floor. It is consoling to know that by this method the flies have died under a dose of a fluid which is fatal to disease organisms, a fluid also which is inoffensive, and for practical purposes non-poisonous.

Priests in the Titanic

No names of priests were given in the list of passengers saved in the Titanic disaster ; and there was some speculation in clerical circles at this end of the world as to whether any priests had actually made the journey. The- view generally taken was that it was practically certain that there would be some priests on board, and that it was equally certain that, they would stand by the ship so long as there were souls to absolve and bless, and would if necessary go down in the discharge of their duty. It turns out that this conjecture was entirely correct. Two priests at least (latest exchanges say three) are now known to have been aboard, and to have perished in' the final catastrophe. Father Thomas Byles, of Ongar, in the Archdiocese of Westminster, who entered the priesthood after his conversion some years ago at Oxford, was going to America to officiate at his brother's marriage. The other priest certainly known to have been amongst the passengers was Father Peruschoetz, a German priest. Their'place, as priests, was with the dying ; and with the dying they remained until the ship took her 'final plunge. As the result of personal interviews with a large number of the survivors, our contemporary, America, is able to give the following authentic description .of the final scenes, in which our Catholic priests played so worthy and heroic a part. ' All the Titanic's survivors,' says our contemporary, with whom we have spoken, some forty in number, referred to one very striking and consoling incident connected with the tragedy. Father *Byles, of England, and Father Peruschoetz, a German ' priest, had held Sunday services that morning and evening for the Catholics of various nationalities, addressing them in English and German. The Rosary and the Litanies were recited by all. When the disaster came and the women were being put into the boats the two priests were quickly on the scene, attending to their people and to

all.others whom they could help and comfort. Some were unaware of their peril, but as the sense of danger grew into alarm they sought the priests' services more eagerly, and Father Byles was soon busy consoling the English-speaking passengers and giving absolution to the many Catholics, who either knelt at his feet or cried out to him from a distance. Tall, thin, pale and ascetic, he seemed the picture of hope and faith, and his calm self-possession assured and quieted as he went about blessing and absolving, and urging all to prayer. When the last life-boats were launched and stood out from the vessels their occupants saw distinctly the two priests reciting the Rosary and heard a large number of the kneeling passengers, many of them just come up from the steerage, responding fervently. Some would interrupt to ask for absolution, and again the priests would resume the Rosary or Litany, the kneeling crowd growing larger as the end drew near* Some had been moving excitedly on deck, but as the ship was sinking all appeared k> be on their knees. Then the lights went out, so that in the last moments nothing could be seen but no shrieks were heard nor cries of terror, only the sound of prayer as she sank into the waters.' America's account is corroborated by the following brief but expressive press cable which was despatched from New York to the English papers: ' Survivors enthusiastic over Father Byles's final zeal.'

Other Incidents

Particulars regarding other interesting incidents connected with Catholic passengers in the ship are also coming to light. Our readers will remember a brief reference in the cables of the time to the action of two sistersname given as Murphy—in saving a passenger named McCormick. ' Mr. Thomas McCormick,' said the cable, ' got his hands on the gunwale of a lifeboat, but the members of the crew struck him on the head and tore his hands loose. After making repeated efforts to get aboard he swam to another boat, but met with the same reception. Finally two sisters, named Mary and Kate Murphy, pulled him aboard, despite the crew's efforts to keep him out of the boat.' The full details of the incident are even more interesting and remarkable than the bare facts given in the cable version. The girls' names were Alice and Agnes McCoy. While they were sorrowing for the loss of their brother two swimmers laid hold of the stern of the boat. Twice they were beaten off by the sailors, but a third time they seized the boat, and with the help of the young women succeeded in climbing aboard. It was only then that the two girls recognised in one of the swimmers, their brother, and in the other their friend and neighbor from their home in Ireland. They had lost,' says America, 'their united fortune of £IBO and all else they had, but now they were rich.' We learn now also that Major Butt, who displayed such heroism and gallantry, was the bearer of an autograph letter from the Pope to President Taft. When his Holiness learned of the disaster, and heard that Major Butt was a passenger on the Titanic, he telegraphed to the American President asking whether the Major had been saved from the wreck. Unfortunately the reply was in the negative.

The Education Commission

It has been satirically remarked regarding the ' Stop-Gap ' Government that if it has done nothing else it has at least set up three Royal Commissions. We cannot help thinking that if members of Cabinet had a thorough detailed knowledge of their departments—such .a knowledge, for example, as was possessed by the late Mr. Seddon and by Sir Joseph Ward— at least of these. Commissionsthose on the Civil Service and on Education—would be unnecessary; and the thirdthat on the Cost of Livingis of "such a largely academic character that it is hardly likely to issue in any immediate or tangible benefit. But whether necessary or unnecessary, the Commissions have been duly set up ; and if they are to do work which could and should be done directly by the Government, we may at least hope that they will do it well. In the case of the Education Commission there is special

ground for anticipating some valuable and practical result from their labors. The chairman, Mr. Mark Cohen, is an enthusiast on educationone who knows our system, primary, secondary, university and technical, from Ato Z. The education leaders in the Dunedin Evening Star —of which Mr. Cohen is editor—always been characterised by a rare and happy combinations of common sense and the progressive spirit, and, except for their implacable attitude in regard to the place of religion in our education system, have been such as we have almost always found ourselves in agreement with. Mr. Cohen has already indicated that it will not be his fault if the investigations of the Commission are not thorough and comprehensive; and he has refused to allow the Commission to be hurried or ' hustled,' even by the Government which appointed it.

So far as Catholics are concerned, there are two matters, at least, which come within the purview of the Commission, in which we are specially and directly interested. The first is the need for amending legislation in regard to State scholarships and 'free places.' By the Education Amendment Act of 1910, State scholarships— which, prior to that date, the pupils of Catholic schools were not permitted even to compete were thrown open for competition among the pupils of private as well as of public schools; but, through an oversight, no provision was inserted making such scholarships tenable" at approved Catholic secondary schools. That should now be rectified. The considerations in support of our claim to this small modicum of justice have been already stated in" detail in the N.Z. Tablet; and since the Act of 1910 was passed our case has been further strengthened by the example of the New South Wales Parliament, which recently, by a substantial majority, passed a measure making State bursaries and scholarships tenable at approved' private as well as public secondary schools. The other matter of interest to Catholics in connection with the investigations of the Commission is the larger question of the restoration of our Catholic schools to their former and rightful place in the State system, and the payment—by the State—of the teachers of those schools for the secular instruction imparted. . On both the smaller and the greater question* the Catholic view-point has been placed before the Commission, with his usual clearness and cogency, by his Lordship the Bishop of Auckland, a full report of whose evidence appears elsewhere in this issue. In a telling and weighty presentment of our case, Dr. deary impressed upon' the Commission the indisputable fact that objective neutrality m respect to religion was impossible in any education system, that our so-called ' national ' system was in a very real sense sectarian, and that the only way to make our system truly national was to build it on the broad basic principle of equal treatment of the consciences of all. Doubtless an opportunity will be given in other centres for representatives of the Catholic body LSTTt e l C 6; and in that event ft ma > r be anticipated that figures will be submitted showing the amount in hard cash, which has been saved to the state through the enormous sacrifices of the Catholics of this country.

A Mighty Growth

There are some things in the Church which even her enemies are constrained to admire and to envy One of these as the unique hold which" the Church has upon her people— intangible but indestructible bond of affection between priest and people, and the spirit of filial obedience shown alike by peer and peasant, by learned and simple, to the voice of Peter. Another is her God-given and divinely-preserved unity. From time to time earnest efforts are made by our separated brethren to copy this out-standing note of the Church but always and ever with indifferent success The Pro' testant religious bodies can only make even an approach to unity i by discarding or subordinating their distinctive doctrinal features, so that what they gain in organisation they lose in driving power. A movement is at present on foot between the two branches of Presby

terianism in Scotland, and between various other Protestant bodies in .America, to compass this much-needed and long-desired unity; and in the latter country the Catholic Church is being frankly held up as presenting, in this respect, ' one of the most remarkable objectlessons ever set for the study of the world.'

The phrase is used by an American Protestant paper, the Continent; and the article on the subject contains an unwilling but all the more striking and genuine tribute to the mighty growth of Catholicism in the land of the Stars and Stripes. It speaks more eloquently than any Catholic dissertation on the subject could do; and puts an effectual extinguisher on the futile twaddle talked by writers of the McCabe school about the 'decay of the Church of Rome.' Here is what the Continent an American paper, writing on the spot—has to say about the phenomenal progress of the Church in the United States: The growth of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States in the century since the war of 1812 presents one of the most remarkable object lessons ever set for the study of the world. In the early years of the nineteenth century, when the memory of the persecutional atrocities of the papal church in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had not been worn threadbare, to have prophesied that Boston, the home of the Puritan, would in a century be a Roman Catholic city would have been regarded as midsummer madness. . Had one said then, ' New York City and Baltimore will be throne cities of the papacy, with cardinals as vicegerents of Rome,' he would have been called crazy. But the time has passed for calling by hard names those who prophesy papal supremacy in the United States. Walk the streets of our great cities. Count the magnificent edifices reared by this intensest of all churches. Compute the value of the real estate owned by this single Church. Watch the throngs that go in and out from Roman Catholic churches at early morning hours. Pour or five resident cardinals, archbishops and bishops by the score, a Roman Catholic in the chair of chief justice of the republic, Roman Catholics in the United States Senate and as leaders in politics everywhere are proofs positive of the value of solidarity in the matter of religion. ... If denominational divisions continue, if denominational extravagance is to waste money m competitive effort in towns already too much churched, the hour will come when the Roman Catholic Church will outnumber all other churches, and when that hour comes the political destinies of the nation will be determined by the powers of an alien church and not by the descendants of those who founded the republic.' Though not very kindly or cordially expressed, that is, we believe, a true prophecy. '

A Socialist « Priest'

The following somewhat surprising paragraph appeared a few weeks ago in the columns of the Maoriland Worker: 'Rev. Father Bowden, formerly editor of the Catholic Leader, at Kansas City, is another clergyman who investigated a bit and gained some new light For years and years, he says, he "raved and tore" and preached and wrote against that dreaded revolutionary and agitating party, the Socialists." Father Bowden continues: "I wrote and preached Socialism and common love; I wrote and preached Socialism and atheism; I wrote and preached Socialism and the destruction of the home. Finally, in order to more clearly and thoroughly show up the weakness of Socialism I started to read Socialist literature. There I discovered my miserable mistake. There I found them dealing with the causes of the conditions I was so anxious to change by silly re orm. They tell me I cannot be a Socialist and a Catholic at the same time. When did Jesus of Nazareth ever say, "Thou shalt vote the Republican or the Democrat ticket?" I contend I could not be a Catholic unless I was a Socialist " '

This paragraph had been going the rounds of the American Socialist papers, and the Wellington paper probably took it in all good faith from its American exchanges, but all the same there is not a particle of

truth in the story. 'Father' Bow den has no right whatever to that title. He is not even an ex-priest, for he never was a priest. 'At one time,' says the Catholic Bulletin of April 13, he was advertising solicitor (i.e., canvasser) for the Catholic Register of Kansas City, but he was discharged because of discrepancies in his accounts. He then started a paper called the Leader, not the Catholic Leader, but it was short-lived. He afterwards became the promoter of a questionable advertising scheme called " Catholic Institutions in Kansas," which also proved of short duration. After these attempts to make a living as a Catholic he joined the Socialists and styled himself, or was styled, "Father Bowden, ex-priest of the Catholic Church." He knew that the title "ex-priest" would insure his exploitation by Socialists and anti-Catholics and in this he was not mistaken. He seems to have been fairly successful in duping those who are always ready to give financial aid to "ex-priests," especially if they can tell a well-con-cocted story about the terrible things which the Catholic Church is supposed to countenance. The Catholic Register of Kansas City from which he was discharged has this to say of him: "He is too lazy to breathe and without a semblance of self-respect or pride. We afterwards discovered that his wife and sister did the work that he was being paid for. There is no limit to what he will do to keep from working. He was never a priest, did not study for the priesthood, and as an 'editor' could not compose a two-line society local." This is the ' Father' Bowden concerning whom the Worker prints this absurd story. The matter is not, of course, one of any great importance, one way or the other; but since the story has reached New Zealand, it is.just as well that the true version of things should be made known.