Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 10, 6 March 1924, Page 18

Current Topics

A Lesson Prom U.S.A. One David J. Gordon has been convicted and punished for publishing in his paper, The Crusader, a criminal libel concerning members of the Fourth Degree of the Knights of Columbus. He published a bogus version of the Knights of Columbus' oath, and the said version is another form of the stock and trade oath published by the P.P.A. and Orangemen here as being a Sinn Fein oath, or a Fenian oath, or a priest's oath, or what not. It contains the same old jargon about deposing heretical princes, persecuting heretics, waging relentless war against Protestants and sparing neither ago nor sex. We have seen it often in New Zealand, circulated on dirty leaflets, emanating from P.P.A. or Orange quarters, and the lie is so old that only fools could be taken in by it. Gordon was tried in the Court of San Francisco, before Judge Woolley, and a conviction was secured. On appeal the conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeal. Thus, a salutary lesson was given to unscrupulous bigots who stop at no calumny in their desire to injure Catholics. It were well that American ideals of justice obtained in this benighted country, where pamphlets calling the Pope and his priests murderers and thieves are circulated while Sir Francis Bell refuses to take action. Instead of punishing people who calumniate us, our noble rulers in New Zealand send policemen to make it safe for them to calumniate us. The Catholic Press At the National Council of Catholic Men, held recently in the United States, Bishop Swint spoke eloquently in favor of Catholic newspapers, voicing again the motto which we ought all keep before us: "A Catholic paper in every Catholic home!" In the course of his address he said: We have the hostile press to contend with, and worse than a hostile press. We are not afraid of an avowedly hostile press. When our enemy comes out into the open, we can easily fight him, or perhaps we can afford to ignore him. We have the press that is not directly, or perhaps intentionally, hostile to us. It is the misleading, degrading, corrupting press.—the press which besmirches our minds and sullies our souls. We must meet this with a wholesome press of our own. Hence an entire department of the National Catholic Welfare Council is devoted to the press. It has established its own internatiinal press service, and it has done much indeed to improve the Catholic press and to extend its influence throughout the land. Just as the slogan is '(Every Catholic child in a Catholic school," so it has made its slogan, "A Catholic paper in every Catholic home." There we need the co-opera-tion of you, the laity. Fear of Germany The Versailles Conference made no effort to placate Germany. It made a vindictive peace, and the possible consequences of their crime are ever since haunting the Powers that could have made at least an honest effort at reconstruction on a basis of charity and justice. Hence bad consciences inspire fears that Germany will "come back" as an avenger, and that the various countries reprc< sented by the Entente statesmen will have to pay dearly for the bungling of the Peace Conference. One correspondent cables that 1500 war planes building in Holland are destined for Germany. Another says that more than two million rifles and twenty thousand machine guns, with

supplies of ammunition, are hidden away against the day of wrath, while the Reichswehr affords all the elements of ,an active army. Others fear that there is collaboration with Russia and that great agricultural machine factories may be quickly converted into munition factories. A. writer in the Baltimore Sun predicts that if given two years more without supervision, Germany will be ready for a war of revenge. Others tell of the constant preparation and storing of arms, and of the manufacture of lethal gases and explosives of a new type. In a dispatch from Paris to the Brooklyn Eagle, Wythe Williams reproduces General Mangin's announcement that—- " Many inventions are now being made in Germany and startling results already have been obtained. Precautionary measures have been taken against virtually every sort of poison gas. Special apparatus has been created to protect the whole body of the soldier like a monk's cloak and which also provides for the renewal of air—the mask of the apparatus providing not only for the creation but for the retention or* oxygon, thus permitting it to be worn for a long period. "Also a sensational type of airplane has been devised which, by casting a ray of light upon ammunition depots, will set them afire. To counteract this, we are now studying a new process to stop an airplane's engines in mid-air, thus enabling us to destroy it before it does any damage.'.' In an editorial headed "Starving and Arming?" the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer quotes "an authority," who speaks of "very extensive recruiting and arming by a country that expects to be fed by foreign charity through most of the present winter." Whereupon, the Raleigh editor remarks: "It is the way of the Junkers. They insist on carrying out their nationalistic schemes no matter if children starve and women weep. There is a degree of liberal opinion in Germany, but it i s likely that no one on the outside knows anything of the fearful discouragements against which it has to struggle." But cabling from Berlin to the Chicago Tribune, Raymond Fendrick gives his reasons for believing that the Germans are not by any means ready for an armed clash with their enemies: "Germany is really helpless to undertake a war of revenge against France' in the immediate future. "This statement was given me to-day by one of the most important American military experts in Berlin who outlines his reasons as follows: "1. Germany does not have one single first-class military airplane, while France has 10,000 and every airplane factory in France is working full time now to increase this vast aerial fleet. From their advance bases, every strategic point in Germany is within radius of this enormous fleet. "2. Germany's steel and chemical industries and its coal-mines are largely in French hands. "3. The French have an overwhelming superiority in light and heavy artillery, tanks, armored cars, motoriscd machine-guns and other war material. "4. The French can advance down to the Main River Valley from Frankfort, and cut off Bavaria without difficulty. "5. From their—advance bases in the Ruhr and Rhineland,. the French can overrun all western Germany and force fighting on German soil before Germany can mobilise. "6. The French have organised powerful armies in Poland and Czecho-Slovakia which can be thrown against Germany in a crisis. "7. Five classes of young men in Germany who have grown up since the war have not even had the slightest military training. •'■' "8. The German workingmen are more opposed to

war than ever before, and the control of the autocratic classes over these workmen has been largely broken. "9. Russia is now furious at Germany for crushing communism, and is negotiating an alliance with France. "The hope of the German ruling classes to start a war of revenge against the French is an openly admitted fact in Germany, but they do not have the slightest chance of so doing in the immediate future. No one feels the truth of this better than Field Marshal von Hindenburg and other German leaders, because they have said it repeatedly in council speeches." The Need of Catholic Doctrine Popes are after death associated in the mind of posterity with the most striking phase of their apostolic zeal during their reign. And it looks as if Pope Pius XI. will in after years be best remembered for his practical promotion of deep and thorough Christian education for the Catholic youth of his vast and far-flung Fold. The New Zealand Tablet has ever insisted on the importance of making progress in religious and doctrinal education keep pace with, and even keep ahead of, progress in more material subjects. As was the case with many another stand for right principles on the part of the Tablet, our advice was not always received with cordial welcome, which perhaps proved that it hurt at times. However, after the recent Papal pronouncement, there will be few who would care to say we are wrong when we urge that both as regards the time given to it, and the importance attached to it, instruction in the doctrines of the Faith ought to be first and before all in Catholic schools and colleges. The ignorance of certain youths who pass on to the University has often given food for furious thought to people who had occasion to interview them on religious topics; and the true • calamity of such ignorance can only be estimated when we remember that these youths will one day pose as leading Catholic ladies or gentlemen. Once we asked a student whose brilliant University career was only in keeping with his knowledge of his faith, why so many of his fellows were so ready to swallow wild and misleading statements made by professors concerning the origin of life, or man, of the soul, etc. "It is because they know nothing and have not brains enough to think for themselves," was the reply. Remembering also that the entire environment of University students is non-Catholic if not materialistic, we can see at a glance how important it is for them to have a sound and thorough training in Catholic doctrine before being launched into such an environment. The dangers that surround other young people are hardly less. The world around them is non-Catholic, pagan even, and there is not a week in their lives when they do not come in contact with error in some way or other. Hence the great need for a real scientific grounding in Catholic teaching, such as the Pope insists upon. In an audience lately given to the Organisation of Catholic Youth in Italy, the Holy Father again laid great stress on the importance of profound Catholic teaching as a preparation for life. In the course of his pronouncement he said: "What we desire is the formation and the preparation of youth, religious formation and preparation first, then moral, intellectual, cultural, social, a sum of spiritual good things, and material, too, in so far as they are aid and complement of the spiritual. But no more than that. If anyone asks: But are we not also citizens; have we not also public, political rights and duties? We reply: Certainly, and it is for that very reason that We desire spiritual formation and preparation, for the very reason that such formation and preparation must precede all other activity and in it must be found the programme of Catholic Youth. Yes, indeed, We Wish to find the solution of every problem of private and public life, of civil and political life, and it is for that very reason that souls must be prepared and formed in Catholic teaching, in the teaching of x the Church which Our Lord Jesus Christ came on earth

to found, His beloved spouse, and to which He will give all His Divine . strength and assistance to the end of the world. Now, you cannot but see that to reach this Catholic solution of all life's problems a preparation is needed in which must be included the whole programme of Catholio teaching, to illuminate with its" light every aspect of life, to make its strength felt on every side. When you are thus formed, then you will find the solution of any and every problem that life may present to you, and you will see with practice the enormous sphere of activity that the preparation and formation give you, all its magnificent results. But it is precisely on this account that your work must be exclusively work of formation. Largely the errors of life are the consequence of inexactitude, incomplete knowledge of God's law. There is summary knowledge, but it is not known in its particulars, and the result is that many do not . obey its precepts because they do not know them and, on the other hand, they cannot enjoy all that liberty which Catholic teaching gives them. Let, then, your action as young Catholics tend to this preparation and formation of your consciences: "Seek ye therefore the kingdom of God and, His justice and all these things shall be added unto you." Those are Our Lord's words. It may well be said to be a providential coincidence .that on this very day on which you are meeting round your Father, the Church puts before us that passage in the Gospel, so well known, so much used, and sometimes misused, by the world : ' Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.' Caesar is the personification of political authority in all times and in all forms; the name is always the same, but the forms change through succeeding vicissitudes of history. Yes, give Caesar that which is Caesar's and God that which is God's. By Almighty God Himself we have been placed fti .the great human family, and it is by His will that we have been destined to belong to a State, that is, to a particular part of that family; therefore it is Almighty God Himself who desires of us the obedience and due respect to the order which He has constituted. And you, therefore, giving obedience to the authority of men, will have the consciousness of carrying out the duty which lies on you not only as citizens but as Catholics who faithfully observe the law of God. And you will see that the better Catholics you are, the better contribution you can give in all political problems." The Rendition of Germany Mr. Hoover's agent reports that as many as 20,000,000 Germans are now suffering acute privation as a result of unemployment and financial exhaustion. The Philadelphia Record says that the city people have nothing with which to buy food except paper marks which the country people will not accept. C. E. Herring, U.S. Commercial Attache at Berlin, says: The purchasing power of millions of the industrial population has been so affected by unemployment that they can no longer provide a minimum ration for themselves and their families. It is estimated that on November 1 between two and three million were totally unemployed in unoccupied Germany, and seven million on part-time work, of whom three million were on halftime or less. This leaves about one and one-half to two million in unoccupied territory on full time. In the occupied area from 80 to 90 per cent, of organised labor is still totally or partly unemployed. The Government doles for total or partial unemployment are entirely inadequate, and the financial exhaustion of the German Government is so great that it is questionable how long even the present amounts can be continued. Normal food distribution has practically broken down because of the failure of the old currency. These difficulties are further complicated by food riots in the cities, the plundering of food-shops," and the seizure of food in shipment. : C l

Hiram K. Moderwell, an experienced foreign correspondent, also points out in a Berlin dispatch to the Washington Star that — - Germany, before the war, raised 85 per cent, of her own grain, 65 per cent, of her meats, and 50 per cent, of her fats and dairy products. Farm produce is now reduced to about 25 per cent., and the Government is financially unable to import supplementary food. . . The unemployed, who are now living on the last resources of the German Government, receive a dole . sufficient to purchase one loaf of bread daily. The results on the health of children are as might be anticipated. It was recently stated that one baby out of every ten now born in Berlin goes to an orphan asylum. If such conditions had come suddenly they would have caused a bloody revolution, but, coming gradually, they have weakened the people so that they literally have not sufficient energy to revolt. "There are towns in Germany where one child in four is tuberculous," a school-teacher told another writer, "and these must infect the others in time, because everybody is under-nourished." Continues this observer, S. L. Bensusan, in a London daily: "The town is overcrowded and rooms are rationed. The children, or a great number of them, have no underclothing. Many boys go about with just two garments, a coat and a pair of trousers. Where the coat does not fit tightly, you see bare skin. The girls have a jacket, skirt, stockings and boots or shoes; the little babies in their charge are in rags."