Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 51, 23 December 1925, Page 22

Current Topics

The Eucharistic Congress of 1928 A cable from the Archbishop of Sydney to the Bishop of Dunedin .'nhounees the important news that the Eueharistis Congress will be held in Sydney in 1928. This singular honor to Australiasia will be appreciated by all our readers, and it cannot but promote the cause of Catholicity uncer the Southern Cross. We all remember what an inspiring effect the lubilee celebrations in Wellington had, and how impressed non-Catholics were with the magnificent procession and other displays of leligious devotion. The Eucharistic Corcie&ses have all been events of world-wide importance, and they are the most splendid manifestations of Faith known in our day. The last Congress was held at Amsterdam; the next will be held in Chicago in June; and then in due course will come the celebration in Sydney, at the beginning of the year 1928. The New Card'nrls Four new Cardinals have been created. One is the Archbishop of Armagh, now Patrick Cardinal O'Donnell; a second is the Nuncio to Paris, now Cardinal Cerretti, who is well-known in Australasia, where he was Apostolic Delegate for three years. The daily papers announce that the third was the Secretary of State, which is of co-.rse absurd, considering that that office is always held by a Cardinal, and the present occupant lias worn the rod hat for many year--. The Henri Gasparre in question is not the Secretary of State, whose name is not Henri (or Enrico) but Peter. The new Cirdirul was Nuncio to Brazil and titular archbishop of Scbaste. He resided in Rio Janeiro. The fourth name is that of Cardinal Alexander Verde, Secretary to the Congregation of Rites. Prntonotary Apostolic, and a distinguished official of the Curia. His learning and zeal have now been rewarded by the highest distinction the Pope can confer on any ecclesiastic. The Terrible Turk The recent deportation of 8000 AssyroChaldaeans into the interior of Turkey was carried out with the usual atrocities for which the Turk is notorious. Villages were sacked, men, women and children were murdered, and the whole proceedings were attended with sickening bloodshed. Old men who could not march fast enough were slain ; women were stoned to death; girls were violated : children were flung down ravines; more than two hundred Christian girls were either ravished or sold for harems. The Patriarch of the Syro-Chaklaean Christians protested against this inhuman conduct. These poor people helped the Allies during the Avar but now, with their usual gratitude, the Allies are leaving them at the mercy of the cruel savages who but for the Versailles statesmen would have been driven out of Europe. The kindness shown by these gentlemen to their former enemies, the Turks, is one; of the mysteries which still remain unsolved. .""."■*':"

Orange Police The cables announce that 2500 policemen in the North East of Ireland have refused to disband as a whole-time armed force. They have taken possession of five barracks in Belfast, and at other stations they have locked out their superior officers. An ultimatum has been sent to Sir James Craig to the effect that the rebels want £2OO a man, cash down, duty free, and no parley about it. They refuse to surrender the barracks and arms until the Government pays them. The cable continues to inform us that nobody takes the strike seriously, and, in the next breath, goes on to say that the Government is offering terms, which are, two months leave on full pay, amounting to £3O a man. It is too bad that this little incident should occur to disturb Sir James Craig in his career of persecution and penalisation of Catholics. But it is a long lane that has no turning. Even the Protestant papers are joining Mr. Devlin in protesting against the nefarious boycott of Catholics in the Wee State. France in Danger A. cable announce* that the Matin gives prominence to an article calling for the formation of a committee of public safety to steer France through her present crisis. It declares that the moment has arrived for a sacred union to save the country. Evidently the lessons of the war have been lost on the Frenchmen. No sooner was victory secure than the public allowed the very people who were found incapable of carrying on the war to come again into power. Persecutions of Catholics began in the same old way and the climax of absurdity was reached when a man denounced as a traitor was recalled to govern. It is all on a par with the brutal policy which sowed lasting seeds of enmity in Germany by quartering the black troops in Rheinland. A Mussolini is badly needed in France. Ancient Remains Scientists are puzzled by the discovery of ancient remains in Arizona. Swords, a cross, Hebrew inscriptions, and other objects have been unearthed during the course of excavations near Tuscon. It is said that, at their tare value, they mean that Romans and Jews must have been in America in the period •from about 760 to 900 B.C. Many experts regard the relics as genuine but others hesitate. Among the discoveries are a sevenbranch candlestick and what look like Masonic emblems. Skilled archaeologists are mystified all the more because some. of the objects were embedded in stone through apparently natural processes. An Old Tradition Dr. Howley, Bishop of St. John's, Newfoundland, spent much time in the study of ancient Norwegian sagas, in hopes of finding some liorht on the past history of America. He discovered that there was a tradition concerning the arrival of travellers, many

centuries before the time of Columbus, and from the evidence he believed that the voy- " agers were Christians, and not unlikely "f* monks. The sagas tell that they landed, > ■■, carrying a strange ensign, singing a strange i#: chant, and dressed in a strange manner/ On ip the other side of the Atlantic, in Ireland, there is also an old tradition that in one of his voyages St. Brendan reached America, or the western land afterwards named America. Fitting the two traditions together, the strange ensign would be the standard of the Cross, the chant the Latin hymns, and ■ V the attire the habits of the monks. Whatever about the truth of these accounts, they would*. certainly provide a useful theory for the explanation of the mystery now baffling the discoverers of the Roman relics at Tuscon in Arizona. ',■'£-; Ulster Alarmed Belfast has found out that her trade with the United States is suffering seriously. The slump has affected the export of mineral waters, tobacco, and linen. And the figure* are down to the extent of about £1,000,000 for the past year. The decay of business it felt all over the North-East. Derry has lost much business and its port is almost deserted. Newry is also suffering. Dublin opinion blames partition for a good deal of the . trouble, and there are many Protestant business, men in Ulster who agree. For one thing, the boycott of the linen trade by the Irish in the United States still continues, or has never been counteracted. Cutting off Derry from Donegal has driven her best customer elsewhere to market, and the Cath-y olics are leaving Newry. The argument dr pounds, shillings; and pence is appealing to the Orangemen whom neither justice nor charity could move what time they indulged in pogroms which even the Turks could not surpass in bloodthirsty cruelty. Eloquent Figures The Council of Federal Churches admits that the statements of Prohibitionists must he taken with a grain of salt. Even some of • their tales have not the merit of being ben trovati. It was amusing to hear several visitors to America assure their hearers that Prohibition was a wonderful success and that all the stories about the increase of crime and intoxication were all nonsense. The Irish Netos, September 12, quotes some startling statistics compiled by Senator Bruce, of Maryland, an independent American statesman, who has been examining the records of the Courts in Post-Prohibition days. The figures are. indisputably authentic—from the records of the Department of Justice, the proceedings of the Courts, and the official Police Returns of cities. From the Senator's compilation it appears that The Arrests for Violation of the National Prohibition Act Made by Federal Prohibition Offi- x cers Since the Effective Date of that Act" 1 (1920) were:— : 7 \ 1920 (5 months) ;...•'..;'....;.■. 10 548^^ 1921 "34,175 " 1922 .;.....„.. .......;.....;...;: 42,223 1923 -. 66,936 1924 ................................ 68,161

j^-IDefiance * of the Law is proceeding ,' on a steadily progressive lines. Prohibition was |p|nforced during only five months of iy2o. senator Bruce presents a Table of "Arrests for Drunkenness in the National Capital and -Jkf. Leading City in each State" during the { :■•; five years, 1920-24 inclusive. It is enough to U reproduce the figures for representative cities , for the years 1920 and 1924:

Dress and Crime I* Non-Catholics sometimes sneer at the strict regulations made by Catholic authorities to safeguard modesty and to secure proper reverence for the Blessed Eucharist in those who approach the Altar. Now comes an endorsement from Dr. Lichtenstein, prison doctor at the Tombs. In an interview published in the Philadelphia Public Ledger he frankly says that the immodest dresses of girls and women of the present day have brought many a man to gaol. Having spoken of the victims of the drug-habit, he continued: .. "Women, too, have a good deal to do with dnme, some of them unconsciously. In forty per cent, of the cases in which Tombs prisoners are involved there is a woman in the case. They, to a large extent, are responsible for the prevailing crime among the younger element, and it is on the increase. \ "The so-called crimes of passion are increasing alarmingly and will continue to be so, in my opinion, until the principal cause is eliminated. This, it seems to me, is the present style of dress, which, to say the least, is immodest. Rolled stockings and similar styles have a direct bearing upon crime incitation, no matter how innocent the wearer may be. |l "Mere boys fall in love with girls these days. They go out together, to cabarets and dances. The boys must have money. Man would commit crime for love before anything else. When his emotions are aroused he can't control himself. He goes out to get money to buy presents for his girl in much the same spirit that primitive man, or even the lower animals, did. "If you want to see the extent in which ..women are involved, take a look at the visitors who call at the Tombs on visiting day. Most I of them are feminine —young girls, beautiful girls. And they're not relatives." /Class Hatred Growing in England A message published recently in an American exchange informs us that during the first weeks of autumn there was a notable revival of the old class hatred, which peoole began to think was dying a slow death. The bung-

ling and incompetence of the Tory Government is blamed,, and there are fears that there will be serious trouble before the winter is over. It is anticipated that the most engrossing task of the Cabinet will be the undoing of the mischief done by stupid antiSocialists and bellicose Tories whose preparations for strike-breaking threw down the gauntlet to Labor. When coal miners recently forced their demands for better wages and working conditions to the point of crisis, steps were taken to form local organisations to prevent complete stoppage of public utilities. From a small beginning, this movement has grown into something resembling Fascism in Italy. It has received Government support, or at least the blessing of Home Secretary Sir W. Joynson Hicks, and, with amazing speed, has swept across the country, changing from a mere protective measure into a vast organisation with the character of a national constabulary. The Socialists have joined hands with the Communists in condemning the movement, which has given Communism a new lease on life. To Ramsay MacDonald's polite warning against stirring class antipathies, leaders of the Fascist movement declare they have just as much right to organise against strikes as laboring elements have to cause stoppage of public services. The Church in Lithuania Of the new Catholic country, Lithuania, one does not hear a great deal. Hence the remarks made by Father A. Smulkstys, a member of the Parliament and Chairman of the Christian Democratic Party, who recently spoke at the Lithuanian Catholic Convention in America, ought to be of general interest to our readers. In the Bombay Examiner October 3, he is reported as saying: "It was on February 15, 1918, that Lithuania won her independence. The president is Alexander Hulginski, a fervent Catholic and a highly intelligent and progressive statesman. We believe too, in the rights of the minority, for, although the Catholics form 90 per cent, of the population, we allow the remaining 10 per cent. non-Catholic citizens to retain 49 per cent, of the seats in the Seimas, or parliament. "The proximity of Lithuania to Russia and its danger of indoctrination from the Bolshevist propaganda was discounted by Father Smulkstys, who declared that, practically every citizen is a small property holder, that the distrbiution of wealth is fairly even, and that the average citizen could only lose by changing his lot. ' Most of our people own little farms and houses,' he said, * Economically, peasant proprietorship has proved one of the greatest assets to stable government.' "Religious teaching in the schools -is compulsory in Lithuania. Most of the classes are taught by priests, although a number 1 of intelligent laymen are being trained for this work. Father Smulkstys declared that as soon as adequate higher education institutions are provided, he intends to lead the fight in the Seimas for compulsory education. So far lack.of facilities for training tethers has been an obstacle.. "Similarly, few laymen were available for

political life, but there are now several hundred Catholic laymen being trained for political leadership, and ' as soon as these are properly fitted, the clergy will retire from public life.' " The Failure of Malthus Few things better illustrate the general gullability and stupidity of the public than the falsification of the theory of Malthus, which for a long time in England was almost regarded as beyond question. Professor Jefferson, in the Geographical Review, discusses the so-called "law" of Malthus, concerning the geometrical progression of the increase of population, and the arithmetical progression of increase of food. He denies both the geometry and the arithmetic. . Next to the universality of the growth of population he finds the most striking tendency to be a slowing down of the rate of growth in the larger countries. In the United States between 1800 and 1820 the annual increase in population was 4.08 per cent. Between 1900 and 1910 it was 2.10 per cent., and that included immigration. In the United Kingdom the annual rate during this same period has fallen from 1.56 to .91. In Germany the rate rose from 1.15 in 1820 to 1.56 in 1895-1900, but had declined to 1.41 per cent, in 1906-10. Malthus predicted a doubling of the population of the United States every 25 years. This held true up to 1890. But we are now 34 years away from 1890 and still 13,000,000 short of another doubling. The United States census for 1860 estimated our 1900 population at 100,000,000. Actually it was 77,000,000. Finland has doubled her population successively in 49, 58, and 62 years; England in 45 and 55 years; Argentina in 21 and 21; but the present growth indicates a doubling in 50 years. Malthus predicted for England of 1898 a population of 412,000,000. Actually England and Wales in that year had 32.000.000 people. "Over-estimating the growth of population," says the Bombay Examiner, "Malthus greatly under-estimated the growth of food, according to Professor Jefferson. The Englishman of 1798 could not foresee the conquest of the world by steam and the opening up of vast new food areas. Ironically enough, the check to population which he foresaw as supplied by hunger is really being supplied by abundance, by an increased standard of living. Those classes to whom the day's food is a standing problem are increasing much more rapidly than those which take no concern for to-morrow's bread. ' The falling off comes almost exclusively from those to whom hunger is unknown. It is a complete reversal of Malthus's doctrine.' "

, •. 1920. 1920. 1924. 1924. Washington (D.C.) o,41o 10,354 Baltimore ... 1,785 6,029 New Orleans 2,399 12,788 Louisville 1,016 4,748 Boston (Mass.) 21,800 39,536 New York 5,936 13,980 Buffalo ... 7,421 11,135 Philadelphia 14,313 55,766 Chicago ... 32,352 86,072 Omaha 2,640 4,480 Los Angeles 3,357 10,660 San Francisco 1,814 7,953