Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 35, 16 September 1925, Page 22

Current Topics

| Commercial Christianity I~ There is one man at least who is optomistic enough to believe that a great spiritual revival is about to take place in the world of commerce. This is M. Maurice Guerin, a French writer, who. tells us "the capitalist rule is bound to end; it contradicts Christian morality and the social change that is taking place before our very eyes. There can be no 1 question of our maintaining a rule that is cursed and condemned without possible pardon. It is a regime of money above everything, master of our thoughts, our "-.souls, and our consciences, master of private _:..; .'life and public life, of politics no less than ?'0 of business. It is our task to see to it that "._•„.'_ the Avorld returns to the social teachings of the Catholic Church, which are based upon justice and charity and the union and coI everything, master of our thoughts, our souls, and our consciences, master of private life and public life, of polities no less than of business. It is our task to see to it that the world returns to the social teachings of the Catholic Church, which are based upon justice and charity and the union and cooperation of all classes of the people." No sane person doubts the virulent nature of the disease from which the commercial world .•suffers; and no sane person can doubt the ».--. efficacy of the remedy proposed.' The only . possible point of difference is whether the ;i" remedy is as popular as M. Guerin believes pit to be. Some would say in the words of a popular song, there's a long, long trail a-winding to the land of our dreams. High Wages and Communism ■ Henry Ford is not a Communist: he is one of. the big forces in the industrial world. A consistent capitalist, he believes in fighting : Communism with the most powerful weapon I. at handnamely, high wages. His first ; ; Atlantic freighter, the Oneida, sails with ' a crew whose wages scale is higher than that fixed by the La Follette Seaman's Act. American shipping companies have been com- , plaining bitterly of the disadvantage at '// which they are placed by this Seaman's Act, "under which they are compelled to pay their :•;.-.' seamen at a higher rate than that paid by :•.-■■: ■--British companies. Shipping Board vessels ■pay only $47. per month to ordinary seamen; but Ford fixes SIOO per month as the minimum on his ship. His policy stands out ■:V in sharp contrast with that usually followed v:-. by industrial kings. It is one of the blind L j follies of Big Business heads to begin and end .. every attempt at economising by trimming rj;._ the worker's pittance, by reducing his stani - dard of living. Often they permit large sums" '.to be wasted by blundering inefficiency and |. : - extravagance in high places, but when it comes to making good the deficit, they com- |; mence upon the bread and butter of the t; lowest-paid man. This madness is more than C a policy with them —it is almost a religion. -V "Yet they are astonished when their workers ', burn with the spirit of rebellion against the . Capitalist system, of which they are the head and front. Ford is wiser than they. He I knows that the class-conscious are born below the bread-and-butter line, and that when they are treated as human beings they will not waste time studying the Materialistic Conception of. History. ; When the worker and his family have, to crowd into an attic, , at which the rent collector calls more frequently than the baker; he is apt to appeal to

Karl Marx for succor. Henry Ford has a more simple plan lor setting things right. He pays his ? workmen; sufficient to enable them to acquire homes of their own, and the possession J, of J that little bit of real estate will close their minds and hearts against the slogans of Karl. A Pope, a Comet, and Clarence Darrow Mr. Clarence Darrow, counsel for Scopes in the monkey trial at Dayton, proved to a. Sew York World reporter that eminent lawyers are not above accepting confused fables for authentic history. He told the reporter that "once upon a time the Pope issued a Bull against a comet/' and then with a, superior smile he remarked: "Apparently the comet heard nothing of the Bull, for it kept coming just the same." Learned counsel, however, did not know, or at any rate did not say, that the comet's ignorance was well founded, for no such Bull ever had been issued. It was left to a writer in Commonweal to tell Mr. Darrow the truth about this Bull. Callistus 111 was the Pope, 1456 the year. The Turks were afflicting the Christians in Constantinople, and the Pope called in vain for crusaders. He then promulgated a Bull, in which he enjoined certain religious exercises upon the faithful, and lie urged the clergy to preach on faith, patience, and penitence; to expose the cruelty of the Turks and urge all the faithful to pray for the deliverance of the populations they were then attacking. Halley's comet happened to be on a visit at this time, but its appearance was not alluded to either directly or indirectly in the Bull. The appearance of this comet caused much alarm in Europe, for Science at that time had not ascertained any of the definite data which it now possesses concerning comets. The Church teaches . that men may be delivered from dangers by prayer to Almighty God, and therefore, it would not have been surprising it' the Pope had appointed a season of prayer to allay the tears of the faithful and turn men's minds more vividly towards their Creator. The fact remains, however, that he did not do this. Neither the Bull in question, commonly known as the Angelas Bull because that devotion is thought to have originated with it, nor any other of the numerous papers of his Pontificate, all of which are still preserved in the Vatican archives, contains the faintest allusion to the comet. How the Legend Arose The legend has been fathered on the following paragraph which occurs in the Vitae Pontifitum of one Bartholomeo Platina or Saeehi —a writer, of the day whose distinction it is to have compiled the first handbook of Papal history. He was associated with the, Vatican in various capacities, but not at the time of the Bull's promulgation. The paragraph, which contains nothing to substantiate the fable, runs as follows: "A maned and. fiery comet appearing for several days, while scientists were predicting a great plague, dearness of food, or some great disaster, Callistus decreed that processions be held,for some days to avert the anger of God, so that if any calamity threatened man-

kind it might be entirely diverted against the Turks, the foes of the Christian name. He V likewise ordered that the bells be rung at' ,: midday, as a signal to all the faithful to move God with assiduous petitions, and to assist with their prayers those engaged with : - the Turks." The assumption contained in the opening clauses that the comet played a ' causative part in the Bull's promulgation is ' ' < not borne out by the Bull, which, as previously stated, contains no mention of the . comet. Moreover, that the two were not : even so associated in the popular mind at .VO the time is indicated by the failure of any , : other writer to connect themthough references both to the Bull and the comet are frequent in contemporaneous writings. Fool- -, ish fables exist by the score, and while we \ \$ are prepared to hear them repeated as truths solid and incontrovertible, both by rogues* and fools, we hardly expect them to fall from the lips of an able lawyer whose chief, business is concerned with sifting and estimating the value of evidence. ; T Catholicity and Celebrities The Brooklyn Tablet remonstrates with those Catholics who are proud to claim as :■! co-religionists celebrities and wealthy people who, though nominally Catholic, never dar- / ken a church door. According to our name- .-' /• sake "a large number of people have asked for some views on the former Miss Vanderbilt who wedded Mr. Church last Saturday. The bride was a Catholic, as was her mother ~* and sister. Mother, sister, and bride, and even father, wanted .Mr. 'Church to be mar- 'ji ried by a priest and in a Catholic church. Mr. Church, it appears, was willing to have such a ceremony, but he was not willing to 7 ''" sign the agreement required by the bride's faith. Miss Vanderbilt graciously cast aside her religion and gave up the eternal Catholic Church for a new, passing, and temporary Church. She went, as it were, from one Church to another. Now, what would be ' the use in getting all wrought up over this occurrence? As a matter of fact we Catholics put entirely too high a premium upon wealthy and professional people. We proudly look up to the Allan Ryans and Jack Dempseys, neither of whom was virtually identified with "practical Catholicity, even before he forsook the Church of his fathers, and then when they make asses of themselves we are stunned and shocked. If we refused to take much stock in these types of Cath—lor they are not worth it—we would not be in anguish when the inevitable col-., lapse comes. Practical Catholicity, not \ wealth, prominence, or stardom, is the real test by which to measure any Catholic indi- , vidual. Miss Vanderbilt gave up her faith" 1 for Mr. Church. She has given scandal and is worthy of condemnation. She does.not I - deserve it here, because by giving her the same we will be magnifying her and making •■! some think she will be missed. After all, she is only one of three hundred million members of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church, moreover, will survive hejifc-' absence. She, not religion, loses by herl lapse. We should pray for her return to * , the faith, to the only Church that matters X...' j a great deal here or hereafter."

■ ("Wakings the Klan ' ;. ] The Ku Klux Klan now is busy drawing ■H - its:' last breath, ) and sorrowing' friends pre- * ,i<< pare for its wake. It was a; disappointment - iii many ways, especially to the politicians.; . ;,<. The,latter, who saw in it a prolific v/jte-mill, are disgusted with its poor output; hence, •;' -they love it no more. .Collier's Weekly fore- . < casted its doom many moons since; and now it gloats over the fulfilment of its prophecy: V / "As forecast, the fiery cross is glimmering. W Over large tracts of this Nordic land sheets | and pillow cases are being returned to their |; proper uses. Like other, militant movements, ii the Ku Klux Klan, having spent the original $lO fees of its initiates, has now spent its fervor. Reliable reports are that only eight of the twenty-six Klan papers that stemmed from Atlanta will survive. At least four ;';{ rival organisations are grabbing off the • Knights. Democratic politicians, noting sadly the loss of senatorships because of squabbles over the Klan, turn their backs V upon it for ever. The real crisis was the decree of turncoat Texas that masks would no longer be worn by the well-dressed man. In Northern States, and in remote districts J in the South, the faithful still cluck the passwords and make wild antics. Just the other day, Berlin, Mass., had a Klan meeting featured by stone throwing, whether at or by the Klan doesn't matter. For some |: years yet there will be those who can't resist the lure of secret affiliation and mumbojumbo, and there will still be organisers ; willing to take em at $lO per hooded head. But the Invisible Empire, lately so highly visible, is declining toward the vanishing point. Then it will be time to start the next ; hullabaloo." - Freedom of the Press Two Bills designed to prevent newspapers from publishing the unsavory details of domestic tragedies disclosed in many divorce cases have been introduced in the House of \ Lords. They have occasioned muHi vehement protesting by papers that specialise in obscenity, 'it is urged that the proposal constitutes an attack upon the "freedom of the press." The journalists must no bard hit when, they have to fall back upon sentimental eye-wash of that kind. It does not violate the principle of freedom to prevent newspapers from corrupting the minds of their readers with filthy stories of human frailty, especially when no public service is rendered by the publication of such news. In any case, the freedom of the press has long been a dead letter in commercial journalism. It has no more existence in fact •~V than the historic "Mrs. Harris" had outside iv. the imagination of Sairey Gamp. Commercial journalism is not free and cannot be . - free. Now and again journalists are candid ,; enough to admit the fact. For example, Mr. George French, at one time managing editor of a Boston paper, 'tells how his paper lost ■ .'■;; four hundred dollars on account of one item ■ which the "interests" had forbidden. He went on to say: "You cannot get anything *— v into the newspapers that in any way rubs tf* up against the business policy of the banks &§/: and departmental stores, or of the public , -. service corporations. Those three great de- ; ( : ' •" : '- ' ...... ■■■.■-... ,

■ pa r t ments of ..-! business ,: are welded together .> . s with bands ever much stronger than steel, *; r ,arid you cannot _ make any impression on . them. News X of department stores that is dirforeditable, orijn ".any way attracts unfavorable attention, is all squelched, all kept out * of the papers." Professor Ross, of the Uni- . versity of Wisconsin, in t the Atlantic Monthly that, "thirty years ago advertising yielded less than half of the earnings of the daily newspapers. To-day it yields at least two-thirds. In the larger dailies the receipts from advertisers are several times the receipts from the readers, in some cases constituting ninety per cent, of the total revenues. As the newspaper expands to eight, twelve, and sixteen pages, while the price sinks to three cents, two cents, and one cent, the time comes when the advertisers support the paper." This same professor wrote to James H. Barry, editor of the weekly San Francisco, Star, asking for his confidential opinion of the daily press of America. Barry replied as follows: "You wish to. know my ' confidential ' opinion as to the honesty of the Associated Press. My opinion, not confidential, is that it is the damndest, meanest monopoly on the face of the earth—tlie wet .nurse of all other monopolies. It lies by day, it lies by night, and it lies for the very lust of lying. Its newsgatherers, I sincerely believe, only obey orders." From the Bombay Examiner we take, the following, which is much to the point and self-explanatory: '"Many like ourselves must have been amazed on Wednesday evening when the Indian Daily Mail suddenly came out with a ferocious attack on the mill-hands, a leading article inspired by pure Capitalism in the bad sense, full of fallacies and painfully harsh in tone. The explanation appeared in the Bombay Chronicle on Thursday: Mr. Chintamani had returned to Allahabad on the Tuesday owing to a difference of opinion with the proprietor of the Mail over the attitude of the paper on the labor crisis in the mill industry. This is a local example worth noting of what a 'Capitalist press means." We understand that the British Sunday papers feel sore at the suggestion of interference with their practice of feeding a hungry public with shocks and lewdness. Such interference would affect the receipts adversely no doubt, but to bleat about?the' "freedom of the press" in such a connection is Gilbertian, to say the least of it. Civilising the East The Catholic missionaries in China, and indeed everywhere in the East, are handicapped in their mission by an impediment that did not stand in the way of the Apostles when they set out to conquer Rome. The harsh industrialism of the West has penetrated wherever there is wealth to be won by fair means or foul, and the Captains of Industry \ claim to be Christians. The Catholic missionary is Christian also; hence the Orientals associate the faith of Christ with the hardships they suffer at .the hands of the whitewashed slaves of Mammon. "Christianity," they say, "comes- from the West. A great part of the misery that afflicts us comes from the West. The men who oppress and corrupt us are Christians, and they come

from the West. You have a saying which ;: I runs:;'.' By their fruits ye shall know them.' I See. t then, what your Christianity has done 3" I for your own people who burst through our doors." They do hot know that Christianity™* apart from the Catholic _ Church is at best but an emasculated form; that many t!ofj|| those who profess it do not believe in it; and-* that their unscrupulous, tyrannical . with the Orientals is an outrage against the law of God, of which the Catholic Church is - ■ the divinely-appointed guardian. Indeed, their difficulty is the difficulty of many Wes- .*' terners themselves, the term "The-. Church"- '•' often being understood to cover the entire 'j collection of religious sects. It was only i\f the other day that "The Church," in the n person of the Anglican Dean,, of Durham, ;V " narrowly escaped being thrown into the river by a crowd of infuriated miners, who coil- , founded the Dean's protest against their' fdemand for an increase in -wages with the . ? authoritative voice of Christianity. The East, having examined some bright speci- .;•• mens of Western commercial Christianity (?), : 1 : ;l has come to the conclusion that it is; the ;;! West that needs to be evangelised. Hence, ; ; the Young Men's Buddhist Association of : Tokyo seriously propose a campaign to con- .v.i vert these European materialists to the mys- ►- tieism of Buddha. Following is their mani- .) festo: "What is our mission for the West? - It needs scarcely be said that the civilisation -'■<(• of the West, laying, as it does, too. much ;j importance on the material side, is a lame <; civilisation. In fact it finds itself at a deadlock to-day. If civilisation is really what the present civilisation of the West repre- '-'?■ sents, it is a curse, instead of a blessing. ••)! The shortest cut to remedy its shortcomings -, and make it complete is, in our opinion, to ;:g spread to the West the culture, philosophy, \ and faith of Buddhism. We'feel that it is . our duty to implant in their minds the ■;■'"■;. spirit of Buddha, whose love extends not- • j alone to men, hut to all living creatures oil 1-1 earth." ' i •■' Demoralising Nursery Rhymes * A Whilst British and American leaders of public opinion start an offensive against indecency, Mrs. Winifred Saekville Stonor, jun., an American lady, declaims against the ! demoralising effect which nursery rhymes .Hi have upon the minds of infants. > She is ''A accused of having told an interviewer that j the story of Simple Simon meeting a pieman '; i; and making a request, the economic premise of which was visibly fallacious, "glorifies stu- I pidity.' 1 Little Jack Horner, J sitting;'in a ;.1 corner and eating with his fingers inculcates |] bad manners. The spider in Little ;' Miss Muffitt and the wolf in Little Red Riding ;.V; Hood breed fear-complexes, while the story of Tom, Tom, the Piper's son, abounds /in H bad grammar and bad morals. The lady, however, does not propose to remove from the nursery the historic fictional characters J that have haunted it so long without filling ; their places with something healthier and ;;|J more instructive. For example, instead of Q| the rhyme "Dickery Dickery Dock, the Mouse ~' ran up the Clock" she would have the chil- % dren repeat the following : 'l'' "Every perfect person owns s } -i | 'Just two hundred and six bones.") j