Issue 17.6 of the Review for Religious, 1958. ; A. M. D. G. Review Religious NOVEMBER 15, 1958 Plus Xll: St:at:es ot: Pert:ecfion . John Carroll I~ut:rell .! Current Spiritual Writing . Thomas G. O'Callaghan Preliminary t:o Adapt:at:ion . Sister Maria The General Chapt:er . Joseph F:. G~llen Book Reviews Questions and Answers Index t:or 1958 Roman Documents about: Mary and World Needs Catholic. Workers Spiritual Assistanc~ [or Soldiers VOLUME 17 NUMBER 6 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS VOLUME 17 NOVEMBER, 1958 NUMBER 6 .CONTENTS PIUS XII (1939-1958) AND THE STATES OF PERFECTION-- John Carroll Futrell, S.J . 321 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 325 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING-- Thomas G. O'Callaghan, S.J . 326 SUMMER-SESSION ANNOUNCEMENTS . 338 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATION Sister Maria . 339 MEDICO-MORAL PROBLEMS . 350 SURVEY OF ROMAN DOCUMENTS~R. F. Smith, S.J . 351 THE GENERAL CHAPTER--Joseph F. Gallen, S.J . 358 BOOK REVIEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: Editor: Bernard A. Hausmann, S.J. West Baden College West Baden Springs, Indiana . 370 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: 35. The Right to Refuse an Elective Office . 380 36. Limits of Extension of Hands at Mass . 381 37. Manner of Receiving Communion . 381 INDEX FOR VOLUME 17 . 382 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, November, 1958. Vol. 17, No. 6. Published bi-monthly by The Queen's Work, 3115 South Grand Blvd., St. Louis 18, Mo. Edited by the Jesuit Fathers of St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approval. Second class mail privilege authorized at St. Louis, Mo. Editorial Board: Augustine G. Ellard, S.J.; Gerald Kelly, S.J.; R. F. Smith, S.J.; and Henry Willmering, S.J. Literary Editor: Robert F. Weiss, S.J. Copyright, 1958, by The Queen's Work. Subscription price in U.S.A. and Canada: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U.S.A. Please send all renewals and new subscriptions to: Review for Religious, 31|5 South Grand Boulevard. St. Louis 18o Missouri, Plus Xll (1939-1958) and t:he t:a!:es ot: Perl:ect:ion John Carroll Futrell, S,J. THE DEATH of Pope Pius XII was a great loss for the whole world and for men and women in every walk of life. Successor of St. Peter and hence divinely guided teacher of religious truths, he spoke out dearly on topical dog-matic and moral questior~s. "Pope of Peace," he appealed to people everywhere to practice the justice and self-control essential to the establishment of a harmonious world ordbr. To the faithful he was ever a father, the gentle Vicar of Christ who gave a radiant example of personal holiness and a true reflection of his divine Master. Nevertheless, perhaps it is the men and women dedicated to God in states of perfection who feel most indebted to this great pontiff and who most deeply mourn his passing. For he understood the special difficulties and problems of those endeavoring to carry out the duties oi: the states perfection in the modern world, and the acts of his pontificate are a lasting monument to this understanding. It is the purpose of this article to give a summary of the major contributions of this great pope to the welfare of the Church's states of perfection. Sacred Virginity To all the men and women who have embraced the evan-gelical counsels this Holy Father, who was called the Pastor /lngelicus, gave a new charter of praise and a ringing affirmation of their choice of vocation in his magnificent encyclical Sacra Virginitas, issued on March 25, 1954. Meeting current exag-gerated claims of the primacy of the married state, the Pope explained and lauded consecrated virginity freely elected for the love of Christ. Granting .that holiness can be attained without virginity, the Pontiff nevertheless showed the greater excellence of this state of exclusively divine love. He recalled to religious 321 JOHN CARROLL FUTRELL Review for Religious the necessary means and cautions to preserve chastity and recom-mended better presentation of the ideal of the celibate state to youth and greater support for it by Catholic parents so that vocations might flourish. Secular Institutes During the first decades of the twentieth century, fervent men and women in the world manifested a desire to lead lives of religious perfection while remaining in the world. Many of them took private vows to keep the evangelical counsels and dedicated themselves to apostolic activities within their secular environment. The canonical status of these men and women was obscure, and many tradition-minded ecclesiastics felt that they should be compelled to join approved associations of the faithful. In his apostolic constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia of February 2, 1947, Pope Pius XII gave these groups of men and women formal canonical recognition as secular insti-tutes and laid down laws to govern them. To facilitate the natural development of these institutes, the Holy Father left these laws in very 'broad outline. The members of secular institutes are not religious, as a general rule" have no com-munity life, take no public vows, and usually do not wear distinctive garb. But as the Pope made clear in a motu l~ro/~rio on March 12, 1948, and again in a talk to the International Congress on States of Religious Perfection on December 9, 1957, the secular institutes lack nothing of the elements con-stitutive of Christian perfection; they have their own nature and form, and their members need not join other associations of the faithful. The Training of Religious The late Holy Father, himself a man of extraordinary intellectual attainments and broad cultural and scientific inter-ests, was deeply convinced that religious priests and teaching sisters and brothers should receive an education which would fit them for the needs of the times. In his exhortation Menti nostrae of September 23, 1950, Pope Pius insisted upon the 322 November, 1958 Pius XII AND STATES OF PERFECTION importance of adequate seminary training and continual intel-lectual pursuits for the promotion of priestly sanctity. Six years later he fully developed this ideal of clerical training in the apostolic constitution Sedes Sapientiae, which laid down principles and statutes to govern the formation of religious candidates for the priesthood. The Pontiff insisted that the religious priest must be the perfect man in Christ Jesus, broadly cultured, intellectually the equal of men in ~he world, and equipped to refute modern errors and meet modern needs. Special note was taken of the necessity for a graduated train-ing in p.astoral technique which should culminate in a year's apprenticeship under experienced guides. In June of 1958 a Pontifical Institute of Pastoral Work was established in Rome to foster the pastoral development of priests, with courses aimed at practical work and at the preparation of seminary instructors. Nor was it only religious priests who were the object of Pius XII's concern. At the First International Conference of Teaching Sisters at Rome in. September, 1951, the Holy Father exhorted the sisters to prepare themselves well for the apostolate of education. The extent of the pontiff's solicitude for this preparation, especially for the teaching of Christian 'doctrine, was strikingly manifested on February 11, 1956, when he erected the pontifical institute Regina MunJi~ for the intellectual training of women in states of perfection. The Pope also recognized the importance of special training for mistresses of postulants, novices, and young religious; and by" a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious in March, 1957, he established the school Mater Dibi;~e G.i~ati~e at Rome to offer a three-year course in such training. Teaching brothers were greatly encouraged by an apos-tolic letter of March 31, 1954, wherein the Holy Father affirmed that the brothers are religious in. the full .sense of canon law, possessing a divine vocation approved and pro-tected by the Church to engage in the apostolate of education. 323 JOHN CARROLL FUTRELL Review for Religiot~s This includes a mandate to teach Christian doctrine within the limits prescribed by canon law. In July, 1957, a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious erected the pontifical institute JeSlCS ~Iagisler with a program of training to pro-mote the self-sanctification of the brothers and to better pre-pare them to lead their students to Christian truth and virtue. Contemplative Nuns Sponsa Christi, the apostolic constitution of November 21, 1950, on the vocation of contemplative nuns, marked a milestone in the understanding of the place of this high state of perfection in the modern world. The Pope laid down general statutes governing solemn vows, gave a preliminary clarification of major and minor papal cloister, and reaf~rmed the essentially monastic and autonomous character of the indi-vidual houses. Nonetheless, he strongly urged the organiza-tion of federations of monasteries for the fostering of religious spirit and the alleviation of economic problems and suggested limited apostolic activity even to strictly cloistered groups. Later, in March, 1956, the Pontiff promulgated definitive legislation regarding the cloister of nuns. One of the last acts of the life of Plus XII was a beautiful allocution to contemplative nuns delivered over the radio in July and August, 1958. The Pope urged the nuns to know and love their contemplative life. He exhorted superiors to plan carefully the formation of young religious in the contemplative life and warned that this formation must be adapted to modern girls. Finally he taught once again that certain types of apostolic activity such as the education of the young, retreats for women, and works of charity toward the sick and the poor are compatible with the essence of the contemplative life, provided the interior striving for union with God continues uninterrupted. New Things and Old Perhaps the most constant desire of Pope Plus XII for the states of perfection was that they would return to the fervent spirit of their founders and at the same time adapt 324" Novc~bcr, 1958 Pius XII AND STATES OF PERFECTION their customs and practices to contemporary ~circumstances. In allocutions and letters from 1939 to 1958 he stressed the need for this accommodation to modern needs and for the simultaneous deepening of the original spirit of each institute. Speaking to the First General Congress on States of Perfection, Decem-ber 8, 1950, he exhorted modern religious to imitate their founders in examining the beliefs, convictions, and conduct of their own contemporaries, adopting .those elements which are good and proper; and he warned that without this adaptation they would never be able to enlighten and guide the men of their own time. Speaking to the First International Congress of Teaching Sisters, September, 1951, and again to superiors general of institutes of religious women, September, 1952, Pope Pius specifically suggested accommodation of religious habits, manner of life, and asceticism to modern needs in order to stop the alarming decrease of vocations by removing the barriers set up by stubborn adherence to usages meaningful in another cultural situation but now empty formalism. Finally, in February of 1958 the Holy Father spoke to superiors gen-eral of religious orders and congregations of the ever-present necessity of drawing upon the spirit of the founders of each institute. Nov~? el ve/er~--this was his constant theme. Religi-ous must learn to live in their own world and in their own time with all the fervor of their founders. These, then, were the major contributions of Pope Pius XII to the states of perfection. He has left a rich legacy to the members of these states, and his memory will live on in their faithful following of his directives. OUR CONTRIBUTORS JOHN CARROLL FUTRELL is completing his theological studies at St. Mary's College, St. Marys,. Kansas. THOMAS G. O'CAL-LAGHAN is professor of ascetical and mystical theology at Weston College, Weston 93, Massachusetts. SISTER MARIA is a Sister of the Humility of Mary, whose teaching field is Spanish language and litera-ture. R. F. SMITH is a member of the faculty of St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. JOSEPH F. GALLEN is professor of canon law at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. 325 Current: Spiri!:ual Writing Thomas ~o. O'Callaghan, S.J. Charles de Foucauld CHARLES DE FOUCAULD (1858-1916) has certainly been one of the most impressive and striking figures the Church in the last half century. After a worldly life as a French army officer, he was converted to a sincere Christian life. Shortly i~fterwards he entered the Trappists. After seven years of a dedicated Trappist life, he felt himself called to a still more literal imitation of Jesus. Especially did he desire to live the. life of a poor workingman in imitation of our Lord's. hidder~ life at Nazareth. This led him ultimately to the desert, to the life of a poor priest, a wanderer, sharing the life of the poorest nomad tribes. But P~re de Foucauld was a wanderer burning with a love of Jesus whom he desired to bring to these people in a silent way, through his loving and kind friendship. Just as Christ Himself did during His hidden years .at Nazareth, P~re de Foucauld desired to preach the gospel in siler~ce, to reveal to others in a silent way something of Christ. Although he had hoped to found a religious congregation --he wrote two different Rules for one--before his plans could be fulfilled, he was murdered by Touaregs in the Hoggar desert. In fact, it was not until ten years after his death that his first disciples, attracted by the example of his totally evan-gelical life, began to gather. Since 1933 three different con-gregations have been founded--the Congregation of Little Brothers of Jesus and two congregations of sisters; and today these three count more than nine hundred religious. What is characteristic of the spirituality of P~re de Fou-cauld and his followers? This has been answered in a most 326 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING " interesting article by R. Voillaume, the Prior General ot~ the Little Brothers of Jesus.1 The Little Brothers of Jesus--the same is true of the Sisters--have three dominant characteristics. The first is their poverty. P~re de Foucauld could not, as he said, "conceive of loving Jesus without a constraining need of imitation or without, the sharing of each cross" (p.~ 29"2). He pictured Christ and the Holy Family as quite poor, working hard among the poor inhabitants of Nazareth. That was the life which he wanted, toil and poverty; he wanted to be socially a poor man and to be treated as such, and he did not want to .be given the social rank usually accorded to priests and religious. His love of Christ dictated "a need to imitate Jesus, to live as Jesus lived at Nazareth, sharing ~he life, the circumstances, the burden of the worker and the other poor" (p. 294). The second characteristic is adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. In each fraternity there is a chapel, and usually at the end of each day the Blessed Sacrament is ex16osed for adoration. The Little Brothers offer "their lives of work and poverty every day, in order to save their brothers in union with Jesus' own offering in the Eucharist" (p. 294). Because their .chapels are so frequently situated in the midst of the masses of the p~ople, the brothers are able~to combine their contemplation with their "presence to men" (one of their favorite expressions). Could they not live this life of poverty and adoration in a monastery, as so many other religious do? No; P~re de Foucauld felt forced to go to the poor, to bring Christ to them, more through hisway of living than by preaching. This is their third characteristic: "a silent apostolate through their mere presence in a very simple, unobtrusive and fraternal kind of friendship, an apostlolate meant more particularly for the more abandoned strata of society" (p. 292). It means z"P~re de Foucauld and His Fraternities," Blackfriars, XXXIX (1958), 290-99. 327 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN Review for Religious making oneself a little brother to others, loving men for their own sake, as God would, and thus helping others to discover something of the love which Christ has for them. In this way they prepare hearts to receive the Gospel, or to under-stand it better. This article is most enlightening. Those who might desire a fuller account of the spirituality of the Little Brothers of Jesus will find it in Father Voillaume's very interesting and excellent book, Seeds of the Desert. Lourdes Since this is the centennial of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes, there have appeared during the year a few books and numerous articles on the young girl who was favored with those apparitions, St. Bernadette. Of all the articles on this charming young saint, certainly one of the most delightful was written bp Father James Brodrick, s.J., undoubtedly one of the most polished of modern hagi-ographers, z Bernadette, who was canonized twenty-five years ago, is rather an extraordinary saint, precisely because in so many ways she was so ordinary. Yet perhaps it is her very ordi-nariness which is her great charm. Apart from the apparitions themselves, her life was quite simple. She neither said nor wrote anything profound or sublime; she was not known for remarkable penances; she had not followers or disciples, nor was she marked by an outstanding zeal for souls; she really did nothing very uncommon. Yet she was truly a saint, pos-sessing, as Father Brodrick claims along with Dr. Rend Lau-rentin, a "sanctity free of accessories and reduced to its essence, the sanctity without human grandeur or accidental charms, which was that of the Holy Family at Nazareth" (p. 271). If one gazes through the spontaneous simplicity and un-starched charm of this young girl, the clear signs of heroic z"St. Bernadette," T/~e Mont/s, XIX (1958), 271-82. 328 November, 1958 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING virtue are clearly discernible. One of these signs_ was the constancy of her witness, her quiet tenacity in holding to the simple and unadorned truth in the face oi~ the ~l~reats and menaces, the coaxing and flattery, of both ecclesiastical and civil authorities. Even when she was threatened With prison by the commissioner of police, she gave simply and bravely her now famous answer: "So much the better. I shall be less expense to my father, and while I am in prison you will come and teach me the catechism." (p. 278) Regardless as to how people tried to cajole and inveigle her into telling the three secrets which .the Virgin had asked her to keep, she never weakened. This calm and quiet constancy of her wit-ness reveals the great strength of grace in her soul. Another clear indication of her heroic virtue was her humble thirst to be forgotten. She shunned attention, found the veneration shown her a bore. Although invited and en-couraged to attend, she even stayed away from the solemn consecration of the basilica at Lourdes in July, 1876, lest she be recognized and attract attention. So humble was her con-tinual way of acting that Father Herbert Thurston, S.J., surmised that one of her three secrets was "a pact with the Blessed Virgin never under any circumstances to try to draw to herself the attention of the world . . ." (p. 281) . Bernadette is truly a charming saint, and this article is a delightful portrait of her unself-conscious sanctity. The celebration of the centenary of the apparitions of the immaculate Virgin to Bernadette at Lourdes is an occasion for asking what role these, as well as other apparitions of our Lady, play in the life of the Church, and what attitude Cath-olics should have toward them. These important questions are answere.d very satisfactorily by Father DeLetter, S.J.3 The first~ thing which strikes one about the attitude of the Church towards these apparitions is her prudent caution; she avoids the extremes of either unenlightened enthusiasm "The Meaning of Lourdes," The Clergy MonHHy, XXII (1958), 3-16. 329 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN Review for Religious or skeptical scorn. She does 'not distrust God, but she knows very well from experience that man can be mistaken and that the devil can deceive even saintly men. Before she gives her approval to apparitions, therefore, she prudently demands a thorough and painstaking examination of the evidence. If, upon examination, she finds sufficient historical evidence for the authenticity of the apparitions, then she gives, her approval. But what does this approval mean? "Everything con-sidered, an ecclesiastical approval of a divine communication implies the three following statements: First, that it comprises nothing contrary to the faith or to morality. Secondly, that it may be made known in publications. Thirdly, that ~he faith-ful are given explicit permission to believe it with caution." (pp. 5-6) (It is a question here of human belief, not ot~ divine faith.) What role do these apparitions and the private revela-tions connected with them play in the life Of the Church? Father DeLetter, in answer to this question, states and develops the theology of these apparitions under five headings: 1) These apparitions are signs of the divine presence and action of Christ in the Church today. 2) These divine interventions have an apologetic value in both strengthening the faith of believers and inviting non-believers to accept the faith. 3) While not changing or increasing the deposit of faith, these divine interventions do have doctrinal significance. They are signs, drawing attention to some element of the Catholic faith which is an answer to the particular needs of the times, e.g. a call to prayer and penance. 4) Many of these apparitions of our Lady, such as Lourdes and Fatima, help to make us more aware during this Marian age of the role which the Blessed Mother plays in ~he economy of the Redemption. 5) "Lourdes in particular came as a heavenly confirmation of the definition of the Immaculate Conception . . ." (p. 9). This article, if carefully read, will be very profitable for all, since the place of apparitions in the life "of the Church 330 November, 1958 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING and the attitude which Catholics should have towaid them is often not well understood. Especially, however, will it be helpful to the extremists who are either overenthusiastic about apparitions or superiorly scornful of all that "mystical and pietistic nonsense." Liturgy and Scripture Father Balthazar Fischer, a professor of liturgy at Trier, Germany, and a member of the commission which drew up the German Ritual, delivered at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland, a lecture on Christian psalm-praying. The lecture was printed in The Furrow.4 What he primarily discussed was: first, a fundamental presupposition for praying the psalms in a Christian way, that is, how to give the psalms a Christological meaning; second, the four basic attitudes of soul one should have in praying, the psalms. Concerning the first point, he wrote: Th'ey [the people of the early Church and of the Middle Ages] had two ways of finding this Christological meaning in the Psalter. Sometimes .they saw Christ as the one who prayed the psalms, the Just One /~ar excellence: and so they joined Him in praying to the Father: Psalmus vox Ecclesiae cu'm Christo ad Patrem. This was the way that St. Augustine loved so much. The other way was not to look upon Christ as the one who prays the psalms but as the God of the psalms, and so address them directly to Him: Psalmus vox Ecclesiae ad Christum. This was the way which St. Benedict seems to have pre-ferred, and a way which was also known to St. Augustine and his predecessors in the Christian interpretation of the psalms as ~ar back as the second century. (p. 68) . If we use this double principle in praying the psalms, either praying them with Christ to the. Father, or, perhaps what is the simpler way, directing them to Christ, we will have the consoling experience of having the Psalter, as Newman said, "breathe Christ." The greater part of the article, however, is a development oi~ the four fundamental dispositions which are necessary for a fruitful praying of the psalms. The psalms must be sung 4"Praying the Psalms," IX (1958), 67-78. 331 THOMAS G. O'CALLAGHAN Review for Religiot~s in a spirit of tranquillity, humility, childlikeness, and joyful-ness. "These four principles are valid for all praying; but they are valid in a special m~nner for him for whom the Psalter has become a Christian prayerbook" (p. 69). Those interested in the liturgy and Scripture will find some very interesting matter in an article by Paul Doncoeur, S.J., "Bible and Liturgy: Fruitful Tension.":' The liturgical and scriptural movements have both developed noticeably during the last few decades. Although in many ways they have developed independently, nevertheless, because each was correctly orientated from the beginning, they have converged. The liturgy has been most clearly enriched by scriptural studies; and it is becoming more and more evident that Scripture can receive new meaning from the liturgy. Each has helped and strengthened the other. Inversely, however, if the biblical movement should ever try to propose to the faithful subtle exegesis in place of the substantial word of God--which has happened to some degree in the past--then Scripture would never nourish the interior life as it should. But also, if the liturgy should ever be emptied of the substance of the Scriptures, then it would relapse into sentimental devotions. An important point for liturgists not to forget, says Father Doncoeur, quoting Louis Bouyer, is that " the first requirement for a liturgical movement that will lead to an authentic revival of the Church's true piety is never to bring liturgy back to the peopl~ with-out, at the same time, giving them greater access to the Bible" (p. 97). . . Father David M. Stanley, S.J., who teaches Sacred Scripture at Toronto and is one of the outstanding New Testament scholars in North America, has been, esp.ecially during the past year or two, a very frequent con'tributor to Worship. One of his recent ai'ticles was on the meaning of the wedding feast at Cana.~ :' Worshil~, XXXII (1958), 89-100. ~"Cana as Epiphany," XXXII {1958), 83-89. 332 November, 1958 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING The wedding feast ,at Cana was one of the three principal epiphanies of Christ. Our Lord's baptism was His epiphany as the Christ, the awaited Messias; the Magi story was His epiphany as universal King, even of the pagan nations; Cana was His epiphany as God's incarnate son on earth, and therefore as Mary's son. What role does Christ give to His Mother at Cana? Our Lord's reply ("What wouldst thou have me to do, woman? My hour has not yet come") to His Mother's request for help ("They have no wine") indicates something of the part which Mary is to play in the redemptive work of her son. The interpretation of our Lord's answer has always been difficult for those not familiar with the Semitic idiom. But, according to Father Stanley, what our Lord tells His Mother is that here and now ". He must act independently and without her help. However, when the 'hour' par excellence, the crisis upon Calvary, arrives, she will play her part . In that supreme moment, the Mother of Jesus will collaborate in the final struggle with Satan and share the victory over evil." {pp. 86-87) Our Lord, then, by His answer, predicted implicitly--as the article shows in greater detail--Mary's role as co-redemptrix and her future motherhood of all His disciples. ~ St. John of the Cross There appeared in a recent issue of Spiritual. Life an article outlining the spiritual teaching of St. John of the Cross.7 Among the points of St. John's doctrine which the author touched upon, there was one which usually is not sufficiently stressed: the Christocentric character of the saint's teachings. In the teaching of St. John of-the Cross, spiritual per-fection consists in the complete and perfect union of love between God and the soul, that is, in transforming union. It is to this perfect union that he is always directing a soul, and it is on .this union that his whole spiritual teaching con- 7 Paul of the Cross, OoC.D., "St. John of the Cross," IV (1958), 47-61. 333 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN Review for Religioz~s verges. He calls this union spiritual marriage. But in this union who is the bridegroom to whom the soul is ,united? It is Christ. In the doctrine of St. John it is the Incarnate Word who is the spouse of.the soul. St. John's notion of perfection, therefore, has a Christocentric character. John here is speaking of Christ as .God, it is true; but it is still Christ. Christ as man, or the humanity of Christ, also has a very dear and definite place in the doctrine of the Carmelite saint. Briefly, the way to transforming union is by the perfect imita-tion of the humanity of Christ ,out ;of love for Christ. The perfect imitation of Christ as man, espedidlly Christ crucified, leads to perfect union with Christ as God. Even when St. John is directing souls into a prayer of obscure contemplation, he does not teach them to abandon the humanity cote Christ as they put aside their discursive meditation. Although it is true that the soul's gaze may be centered more .directly on Christ's di¢inity, it is still going out to the whole Christ, to the Incarnate Word. So also, when the contemplative soul is loving Christ, it is not the divinity alone which it loves, but the God-man, the Incarnate Word, the whole Christ. For St. John of the Cross, Christ truly holds a central place. He is the way according to His humanity, and the end in His divinity. For St. John, as we just mentioned, spiritual perfection consists in union with God. This union of the soul with God comes to pass, he says, ". . when the two wills--namely that of the soul and that of God--are conformed together in one, and there is naught in the one that is repugnant to the other.' '~ Can a total consecration to the Blessed Mother be har-monized with such a concept of the spiritual life? It certainly s .'Isrg'Zll" of llloltt~! (:~lrttlrl, II, ch. V, 3 (translated by" E. Allison Peers: West-minster: Newman,~1945, I, 80). 334 November, 1958 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING can, says Father William G. Most.'~ In explaining how this may be done, he suggests a point which is ~)ell worth consideration and reflection. The will of Mary is always in perfect unisor~ with the will of 'God. To conform one's will to the will of GOd then is objectively to conform it also to the will of the Blessed Mother. If one stressed more consciously this latter aspect, the Blessed Mother couli:l easily be given the all-pervasive role in the spiritual life which she deserves. One would then be able to live a life not only of conformity to the will of God, but also at the same time of conformity with the will of the Blessed Mother. New Date for the Last Supper The date of the Last Supper has always proposed a serious problem for Scripture scholars. The problem consists mainly in reconciling St. John's Gospel with the Synoptic evangelists. In their attempted solutions scholars have usually placed the Last Supper on Thursday. But this leaves some serious difficulties still unsolved. The most recent and satisfying solution to the problem has been that proposedby Miss A. Jaubert' of Paris. Accord-ing to her the Last Supper took place, not on Thursday, but on Tuesday. If this theory is accepted, then obbiously the chronology of the events of o'ur Lord's Passion will have to be revised. Miss Jaubert's theory, together with her revised chronology of the Passion, has been neatly summarized in a recent article by George W. MacRae, S.J.1° Beginning with the Saturday before Good Friday, this would be the order of the events of the Passion. Saturday: In the even~ing Jesus is anointed during supper at Lazarus' home in Bethany. Sunday: Christ makes His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. During the day Judas first approaches the chief priests about betraying our Lord. Later that day Christ returns to ~)"Consecration to Mary," S/,iritual~Life, IV (1958); 108-17. New Date for the Last Supper," /Imerican Ecclesiastical Re*sie~, CXXXVIII (1958), 294-302. 335 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN Review for Religious Bethany to pass the night there. Monday: Jesus leaves Bethany and curses the fig tree. Tuesday: In the morning, after spending another night outside the city, ~he apostles notice the withered fig tree as they pass by. Later they ask Christ where He wants to celebrate the passover, and in the evening the Last Supper takes place. Later that night, after the Agony in the Garden, Christ is arrested and is brought to the house of Annas for interrogation. While this question-ing is going on, out in the courtyard .of Annas the denials of Peter are taking place. Annas then sends Christ bound to Caipha_s and Christ spends the rest of the night there. Wednesday: At daybreak the elders, chief priests, and scribes gather for the first legal trial. After the trial, since the Jewish law forbade rendering the verdict the same day as the trial, Christ passes another night as captive. Thursday: In the morning Christ is condemned by the Sanhedrin. Then He is immediately brought to Pilate who questions Him. It is on this occasion that the chief priests refuse to enter Pilate's court lest they be defiled. Pilate sends Him to Herod, and Herod in turn sends Him back again. Thursday night Christ spends as a prisoner in Pilate's fortress. It is .during this night that the incident of the dream of Pilate's wife occurs. Friday: In the morning Christ appears again before Pilate. Then He is ~courged, condemned, led through the streets, and crucified. ". this chronology of our Lord's Passion appears to do far more justice to the series of events in the Passion itself than does a shorter period of time . There are still difficulties in understanding the Gospel accounts that it does not resolve. But so long as we regard it as a possible explana-tion, while awaiting further confirmation we may find it an aid to a clearer picture of the Passion of our Lord." (p. 302) Priestly Virtues What are the key qualities which Christ demands of His apostle-priests? The basic ones, says Father Spicq, O.P., draw- 336 November, 2958 CURRENT SPIRITUAL WRITING ing his answer from three major scriptural passages, are those of the three theological virtues.11 The fundamental virtue required of an apostle-priest is faith. For it is through faith that he will posses the truths of the kingdom which he must preach to the world; it is faith which brings him into contact with the mysteries of the divine life and the "unfathomable riches of Christ" (Eph 3:8) of which he must be a witness. It is not that his faith is different from that of the faithful; but it must have the solidity of rock. It must give him those qualities of steadfastness and stability which are needed in a man who has been chosen to bear witness and to preach. His life must be rooted deeply in the solid truth of firm faith. In the mission given him by Christ, the priest knows that without Christ he can do nothing, but that with Christ he can do all things. In the Lord, then, he must hope.The Lord has spoken to him: ". take courage; I haveover-come the world" (John 16:33). So the priest must place his unshakable confidence and hope in the triumph won by Christ. To receive, however, from "Christ the strength and help which he needs, the priest must also pray. He is not exempted from prayer merely because he hopes in the Lord. Prayer is an integral part of his vocation. "A man of flesh and blood can do divine work only with this effective means [of prayer], by harnessing God's own power to the task" (p. 14). Prayer, therefore, must also be joined to firm hope, if the priest is to be a true apostole of Christ. In a priest's life, even more central than faith and hope, there must be love. The priest must surrender his whole heart to Christ, both to the person of Christ and the work I, "Priestly Virtues in the New Testament," Seril~t',*re, X (1958}, I0-16. The second installment of this article appears in the July issue, pp. 84-93; and in it Father Spicq treats of some of the other priestly vit:tues: compassion, fidelity, prudence, purity, etc. 337 THOMAS G. 0'CALLAGHAN ,9~ ~Chris.t, the ,salvation of souls. "The heart of the priest, l~cked in t, heo'embrace of Christ's love (2 Cor. 5:14), will therefore love souls as Christ loves them and because he loves them (John 15:12)" (p. 15). For a priest, however, this l~ve of souls will mean.the humble service of souls. Such was the life and love of Christi such must also be the life and love of the priest. SUMMER-SESSION ANNOUNCEMENTS For many years we have been publishing announcements of summer sessions. Our purpose in doing this is to help our readers to know where they may attend courses or institutes of special pertinence .to religious. Directors and deans of summer sessions who wish to avail themselves of this service should carefully observe the following points: 1} Only courses of special pertinence to religious should be listed. The 2le) nTghthe aonf nthoiusn pcaermagernatp shh oisu ilrdr eblee vliamnti,t epdr otov iad esdin igt lceo pnatraaingsra opnhl.y matters of special pertinence to religious. 3) The paragraph should be triple-spaced and prepared in such a manner that it can be sent to the printers without re-typing or editing. 4) There should be a reasonable minimum of capital letters, and no words should be typed entirely in capital letters. 5) The dates of the summer sessions or institutes should be clearly specified. 6} The best time for publishing these announcements is our March number. The deadline for this number is January 5. The next-best time is the May number. The deadline for this number is March 1. 7) The announcement should be addressed to our editorial office, g~vfEw FOR RI'HAGIOUS, St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas. By way of postscript we should like to call attention to a note that we found it necessary, to publish in March, 1957. There we stated that most deans who had sent in announcements had either completely or partially ignored our specifications. One reason for this may be that the deans themselves (especially if they are not priests or religious) do not read this REv1~\v. We therefore urge that some member of the community show the summer-school dean this announcement; 338 Preliminary t:o Adap!:a!:ion DURING THE PAST decade religious have been urged to consider how their mode of life might be adapted to meet the specific needs of our times. Here in the United States various groups ha(,e been working to effect the adapta-tion and renovation of religious life which the Church has rec-ommended. The I~EvlI~\~ FOR I,tELIGIOUS, one of those deeply inter-ested in fostering needed changes, has, in many issues, made available to its readers papal and ecclesiastical statements about adaptation and renovation. "Roman Congregations and the Religious Life," a collection of statements of Roman congrega. tions, dignitaries, and officials of the Holy See, made by Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. (November 15, 1956, pp. 309-27)~. points to the need for studying the spirit and mind of the founders as a first step toward reform and intensification of religious life. Articles and commentaries in the I~EVIE\V have also indi-cated that religious orders ought to study their constitutions, directories, and traditions to determine what directives ,might be eliminated, modified, or changed in order to accomplish more fruitfully during this century the purpose or end of religious life. This article, which diaws heavily from the Acta 'of the Congress of the States of Perfection (Rome, 1950), makes the point that the study of th.e spirit of one's order is a neces-sary preliminary to. adaptation and renovation and suggests some techniques which might be used to arrive at a more exact understanding of this spirit and of the ways by which it can be produced in the members of a given order. 3~9 SISTER MARIA Review for Religious The revision of constitutions ordered by the Sacred Con-gregation of Religious in 1922 did not put an end to consti-tutional modifications. As the most Reverend Arcadio Lar-raona, C.M.F., indicated to the mothers general at a congress in Rome (REVIE\V FOR RELIGIOUS, November 15, 1954, p. 297), "Rome is ready to consider the advisability of [consti-tutional] changes on certain points, provided the individual communities show good reasons for the modification they wish to introduce." In regard to changes of custom, he counsels superiors never to fear to request change because such change might be considered disloyal to community traditions. Modifications of dress and of horarium, elimination of class distinctions within an order, these and other changes of custom and constitutions have been directly urged by the Pope as ways in which religious life can be adapted to better accom-modate those who enter religious life and those among and with whom the religious labor. These needed changes in non-essential elements must be made with care in order not to destroy that which makes an order a distinct entity: its spirit. The number of distinct orders, institutes, congregations, and other religious groups in existence today gives evidence of the variety of ways in which the Holy Spirit expresses Himself in different places and at different times according to the needs of the Church. Each order does have a characteristic spirit, peculiar to its work and its specific virtues. I. Van Houtryve, O.S.B., gives an example of this variety among religious orders with the following illustration of the different approaches orders make to asceticism: St. Benedict sees asceticism from the angle of humility; and he is, in the Church, the legislator of filial obedience; daughter of humility. St. Francis sees it all from. the point of view of poverty . St. Dominic borrows from monastic life fasts and abstinences, the hard bed and silence--but all these practices are seen as reparation, sus-tenance, and food for the contemplative life; and they are ordered to the apostolic life . Most modern congregations devoted to 340 November, 1958 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATION action owe to St. Ignatius the spirit of their work--the interior strug-gle, sacrifice, and the need to give the apostolate its only possible solid base: abnegation and the carrying of the cross. (Acta. p. 463-64) Many similar contrasts of religious groups might be drawn in order to make evident the way in ~vhich one differs from another. Religious orders differ because their functions vary; their unique character stems in part from the particular work to which they are ordained: the divine liturgy, the spiritual works oi: mercy, or the corporal works of mercy. As St. Thomas explains (Summa, II,II, q. 188, a. 1), " . . . religious orders may be differentiated in two ways. l~irst, according to different things to which they may be directed . Secondly, there may be various religious orders according to t~e diversity of prac-tices. ." Even in religious groups dedicated to the same type of work, teaching, for example, one notes marked differences. One religious order may be distinguished from another not by its work but by the specific virtues which are characteristic of its approach to the religious ideal. This religious ideal is our Lord, but as there are hundreds of paintings of Christ--and each different because of the way in which the painter conceived his model--so there are countless ways of striving to imitate this ideal. In an article on the spiritual formation of the educators of religious, Graziano della Madre di Dio, O.C.D., stresses the dual nature of the individual order's approach to the religious ideal: In Jesus the great molders of souls who were the founders of religious orders and institutes found their ideal. How interesting it would be to point out in them, besides the generic element, the characteristics of the personal mode. St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Ignatius, St. John of the Cross, St. John Bosco, and many others had an educative-form of their own that was actualized in the highly differentiated formation of their first spiritual disciples. Consequently all educators of religious, studyirig the prototypes of their own religious family, besides the essential exemplary form of Jesus, ought to individuate and to bring out the specific char-acteristics with which every founder of an order or institute approved 341 SISTER MARIA Review for Religio,,s by the Church, and therefore willed by God, has made detailedly more refulgent, varied, and rich the archetype of the Master. (Rio vista de Vita Spirituale, January-March, 1954, p. 37) If there is variety in the work and in the virtues stressed by different orders, then there must also be variety of spirit or personality so that it can be asserted that each religious order has a distinctive spirit which is not the same as that of another order. This spirit--peculiar to a particular order--developed from the thought of the founder about the type of religious group needed to meet the demands of his place, time, and circum-stances. It is well to recall that he was inspired to provide for the needs of his own age, but not for the needs of all periods of history without some adaptation by his order as conditions changed. As Abbot Peter Bassett, O.S.B., explains, Every religious order worthy of this name is born of the coming together of a great religious genius and of a spiritual need of a given time . IThisl fundamental religious intention, valid, no doubt, for all time, found its spiritual efficacy only in incarnating itself in a religious form which responded perfectly to the spiritual needs of the age. And the secret of the continuance of these insti-tutions could not have been and will not be able to be in anything but a fidelity to the spirit which created them, joined to a constant care to remain in contact with the history of the Church among men. (Acta, pp. 128-29) It is fidelity to the spirit of one's order that one must strive to maintain when one attempts to follow papal and ecclesiastic directives to adapt rules and customs to twentieth-century life. One cannot be faithful to the spirit of one's order unless one knows with some degree of certainty what rules, what customs, what aspects of life in a particular order are essential to the development of that order's distinctive spirit. The purpose of this discussion is to focus a~tention on the need for seeking such knowledge about one's own constitutions and customs and to suggest some means of indicating a sturdy of the spirit of one's order. Thet:e is available in Spanish~ a worthwhile discussion of the fidelity which~ a religious superior owes to the founder, . to the 342 November, 1958 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATION spirit of the Institute, and to tradition .(Semana de Oracidn y Estudio para Superioras Religiosas, Editorial Oculsa, Madrid, 1950, pp. 76-92). One of the points which Gregorio Mar-tinez de Antonana, C.M.F., the author, makes in his discussion of "The Superior and the Institute" is that superiors in newly formed congregations or institutes ought to consider carefully what it is that constitute~ the spirit of their own order so as not to stifl~ the development of this essential quality by seeking to cultivate the spirit of older orders along with or rather than their own. He urges superiors of these recent foundations to take special care to be docile to inspiration and not to make changes based on their own personal whims in matters and problems of government. Before one can determine what the spirit of one's order is, one must have a clear notion of what. is meant by the term spirit when it is used in reference to a religious order. In a paper given at a French congress for religious sisters, Victor de la Vierge, O.C.D., states that "spirit' is what characterizes and gives" the order its reason fo~ existence." (R~ligi0us. Sisters, Newman Press, pp. 253-54). He points out two aspects, the objective, which is "the divine inspiration the founder crys-tallized into rules which provide for the attainment of the end in view," and the subjective, which is "the Characteristic and un-changing way of thinking, understanding, and willing which tradition allows us to observe in an order as an institution and in the life and teaching of the members who have gon( before." Th~ rules are the first definite statement of the spirit. Living ac,c.ording to the rule produces the spirit. The spirit itself, like any entity, defies definition. One can state what causes th~ spirit to develop and what it in turn effects, but to say what spirit is in itself is difficult. For all practical purposes, one can identify it with the rules. To equip Oneself for more judicious adaptation, one must: search for that in the rule which fosters the development, of the spirit. At times one can observe rather tangibly the effects of the uniqtie spirit 343 Review for Religio.s of an order in the characteristic acts and virtues of individuals in whom the same spirit has been developed through a specific program of formation based on the thought of the founder. In adapting rules, directories, and customs, one must be careful not to destroy that which develops the spirit. As an aid to superiors and councils, Ricardo Lombardi, s.J., indicates a norm of action for adaptation: Let superiors therefore keep two objectives in mind. They must carefully preserve unchanged the essence of their institute, without which it cannot endure--at least as long as some useful reason for its endurance remains. But at the same time they ought to promote a reasonable evolt~tion in those things which do not pertain to the substance of the institute, and which, if stubbornly kept un-changed, will themselves lead to its death. Let us consider now what ard the essential things which can be enumerated in brief summary: 1.) the end or fundamental rea-son for the Institute, 2.) its peculiar spirit which has been praised by" the Church, 3.) all those things which are necessary for attaining the end or preserving the spirit. These features are to be maintained unaltered. Those things which were selected for some peculiar reason or for a certain time and circumstances as more suitable then to attain the end and promote the spirit, are to be subjected to continuous examination, and whenever a real necessity occurs, they can be changed. Indeed they are a means, not an end, and means are to be fitted to an end--certainly the end should not bend to the service of the means. (Acta. p. 117) Our times demand that religious have the courage to make changes in their mode of life. The Pope and the hier-archy have gradually initiated and effected great changes in the liturgy in order to facilitate twentieth-century man's ap-proach to the sacraments. The call for adaptation in religious life aims to enable the religious to achieve greater success in bringing Christ's message to the modern world. To adapt effectively one must know what one is adapting and why and how one is to do it. Adaptation requires knowledge of the unique personality of one's order. To arrive at a greater degree of self-knowledge, one studies what man is, what he can become, and how one man differs from another; and then one judiciously compares this knowl- 344 November, ~58 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATIOI~ edge with one's knowledge of self to determine what manner of man one is. In similar fashion those who wish to study the spirit of their order should delve into the historical devel-opment of religious life. To attain a better understanding of the ~'al".~otl ~t'~lre of their own order, they might consider the foundation and growth of various religious orders, the regula-tions the Church has made in regard to religious orders, and the development of the religious ideal up to the present time. Thus they will be able to discern how contemplative, active, and mixed religious orders fit into that "variety which surrounds the Queen." One might begin a review of the foundation and devel-opment of religious orders by examining the four rules, Bene-dict's, Augustine's, Basil's, and Anthony's. Of particular interest would be the one from which one's own rule has evolved. After having considered themeaning ofthe term spirit in its application to a religious order and afthearving surveyed the historical development of religious ordeirns general, one would be ready to proceed to the ktudy of thefoundation and development of one's own order. A study of the growth of one's order implies examination not only of the history of its schools, monasteries, .hospitals, and other ins.titutions; but more important still it implies consideration of the historical devel-opment of the founder's thought as it has been applied, modi-fied, and define'~ through the centuries by superiors, chapters, bishops, and thd Holy See, or even by members of the order who have studied and written about the founder, rule, consti-tutions, patrons, works, virtues, and achievements of the order. Many orders have writings by their founders which are similar to the Interior Spirit of the Religious of the Visitation (Newman Press, 1943). Having such a book at hand, the religious should .e.xamine it to ascertain what is essential and what is not. For exa-Kaple, the Religious of the Visitation might make a profitable study"by determining how they have applied 345 SISTER MARIA Review for Religio~ts and defined the thought of St. Francis de Sales and of' St. Jane Frances de Chantal through the centuries up to the present time. Janet Erskine Stuart has done such an analysis in her pamphlet The Society'-of the Sacred Heart. Her work exempli-fies a step in the historical development of the thought of the founders of her society. Today, perhaps, still another analysis might be made by her society. In such consideration of the historical development of the order and of the thought about the purpose and spirit of the order, what one is striving to learn is what is essential in the rule, in the customs, and in the formation and life of the given religious society. One wishes to discover what must be preserved when making recommended adaptations. .Painstaking research and thought are only preliminary steps. More is required than writing carefully docurrlented histories of the order. Study of the spirit of one's order should mean group discussion, perhaps .by the general chapter, per-haps by the newly appointed superiors, or by all superiors periodically. Such a study might even lead to inter-congre-gational discussi'on on points of rule and implementation of rule, especially bn matters that might concern several orders of similar work or characteristic virtues. The congresses and conferences (Vbcation Institute, Sister Formation gro~lp in th~ NCEA, the Sisters' Institute of Spir-ituality) i~Iready being held annually or moi'e frequently all show the value of inter-congregation discussion on specific topics of common interest. It might prove profitable, for example, for several congregatibns having St. Vincent de Paul as a patron or a founder to analyze together points from his writings that are a common source of inspiration. Perhaps orders dedicated to the Blessed Mother might consider how they each honor her in a particular way. Through such con-ferences of several or of many orders of similar work or ideal, 'it would seem that all might become more aware of how thi~y differ from and are similar to their fellow-congregations. Such 346 Novembe~', !9.58 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATION conferences would be of ben.efit if nothing ,more were accom-plished than a renewal of the religious spirit, the renovation which is 'being urged. /,~l.GreaTr and more precise knowledge oi the distinct per-sona tty or one's order should enable the individual order to foster with greater skill, then, the growth of this characteristic spirit by careful adaptation, by renovation through the means peculiar to its own development, and by a program of :forma-tion which would have greater likelihood of achieving its goal because the educators of the young religious would be better informed as to the characteristics they were seeking to cultivate in their students. Over-preoccupation with the spirit of one's own order, however, or over-emphasis on the thought of one's founder can 'give rise to certain evils. Members of an order might de-velop the wrong kind of loyalty to the order and to the founder, They might adhere too closely to the letter of his thought, rather than to the spirit of it. They might even adhere to the thought of the founder when the Church clearly indicates another course of action. An order's growth can be stifled by the "party spirit" which develops by exclusive clinging to the ideal of one's order as if there were only that one approach to the religious ideal. Such procedure keeps the "spirit" locked up in an ivory tower and does not permit it to. profit from the energizing influences that honest contrast with the ideals of other religious orders might give. Such contrast would bring out ever more distinctly the personality peculiar ,to one's order rather than distort it. This undue clinging to one's specific way of life leads to the wrong type of loyalty to one's order. As A. Trape, O.E.A.A. points out: The common good to the love of which, we are dedicated by religious profession is not the good of a monastery or a given order . . but the good of the Body of Christ which is the Church . 347 SISTER MARIA Review for Religion,s Greater unity and cooperation is to be fostered among religious families . The love therefore of one's own religious house or province; since ik has as object a particular good, though one com-mon to many persons, can be immoderate and can stand in the way or retard the more universal affection which is owed to the order or congregation and in this way the strength and unity of an order or congregation can be weakened. In the same way, but indeed in a. stronger sense, love toward one's own order or con-gregation can foster a certain party spirit and detract from the charity by which we are ordered to love the universal Church. {Acta, pp. 248-49) Another aspect of this undue respect for one's own ideal is a narrow holding to the letter of the founder's thought. As Canon Leclerq remarks, "By this fidelity to the letter of the law religious end by doing the reverse of what their founders wish . The happy milan is to be found in great fidelity to the spirit in which the orders were founded, combined with considerable flexibility as regards material forms;, such flexibility will be the product of detachment." (Leclerq, The Religious Vo-cation, pp. 64-66) .~. By applying too rigidly every minor prescription of the constitutions, religious would run ashoal on those difficulties against which the Pope and theologians advise when they rec-ommend adaptation. Religious (particularly superiors, councils, and chapters) ought to develop a habit of standing back and determining the general' principle the founder was applying to his given time and circumstances and then launch bravely forth to apply the same principle to their own times and needs regard-less of whether such application means one more hour of sleep daily than the founder prescribed, an annual vacation, a rather complete change of h oraril~m, or the abandonment of the diet and clothing which the founder thought suited to his century and purpose. Archbishop T. D. Rbberts, S.J., states a truth that the religious of our times must master: " 'Reform' is not heresy even when it faces boldly up to the truth that Our Holy Mother Foundress was not given by God to speak the last word of wis- 348 November, lg58 PRELIMINARY TO ADAPTATION dom for all times. Nobody ever was~-not even Our Holy Founder." (Black Popes, p. 40) A third evil to be guarded against in seeking to develop the spirit of one's order would be adherence to the founder's thought when the Church herself commends or even commands modification. Undoubtedly the prescription {after the pro-mulgation of the new Code of Canon Law) that all rules were to be submitted to the Sacred Congregation of Religious for re-examination brought changes in the rules of orders that had been living by those rules for centuries. Some of these modi-fications might not have seemed in line with the thought of the founder of the order, but it is to be remembered that the life of an order flows first from the Church to whom the founder and his followers turned for approval and recognition of what they believed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. "Our subjection to the Church ought to be so great and of such a kind that we take away nothing from her, and cer-tainly not the owed reverence with which we observe all the holy rules," s,ays Father Lombardi, S.J. For these things, indeed, are rules for us riot because they were written by a certain holy man (because no one can impose rules on us in virtue of the fact that he is holy}; they" have the force of juridical norms and impose an obligation because they derive their force from the approbation of ecclesiastical authority. To this au-thority, then, which is a fountainhead of our obligations and which remains a living thing (whereas the holy founders are dead) we surely owe greater reverence than to any internal constitutions of our institutes. To this authority we should subject ourselves wholly in all things which concern the vow and we should do this according to the same contract by which we subject ourselves to Jesus, king of all saints. And finally, it is from this authority that we ought to look for a renewal, with courageous spirit, of all things which are necessary, when internal power is not strong enough to prev~.il. (Acta, p. 122) When one initiates a study of the spirit of one's order, one ought not fear these evils which spring from a wrong emphasis on the spirit of one's order, The purpose for deter-mining what this spirit is is to facilitate adaptation to the needs of our time and our world conditions. Such adaptation, judi- 349 SISTER MARIA [~iously ran.de according to the mind of the Church, would tend to free the order of the very errors to which the wrong kind of preoccupation about the spirit might lead. There is, indeed, reason today for the study, review, analysis, clarification, and understanding of what is meant by the spirit of one's orde.r: The changes of this century require adaptation and renovation. Out of loyalty to their founders, religious must heed the advice of Arcadius Larraona, C.M.F.: By doing today what they I the .foundersJ would do in our place, what they would do if they were living in our own times, we shall continue their work. They live; they have a right to live in us; and we have the'sacred obligation to carry on their work and to live in their spirit. (Larraona, C.M.F., Religious Community Life in the United States. Proceedings of the Men's Section of the First Na-tional Congress of Religious in the United States, pp. 232-35) By the spirit an" order lives. By careful adaptation and fervent renovation according to the spirit of the o~der, religious groups will meet the needs of oiar times. Such adaptation and renovation can be initiated by thorough study of the distinctive spirit of one's own order. MEDICO-MORAL PROBLEMS The Catholic Hospital Association announces that the series of booklets entitled Medico-Moral Problems, by Gerald Kelly~ s.J., have been revised and are now available in a single volume. The revision entailed dropping obsolete matter (e.g., on the Eucharistic fast), bringing all medical facts and opinions up to date, adding chapters on recently discussed topics (e.g., the use of hypnotism as an anesthetic}, supplying a list of pertinent papal documents, and com-posing a comprehensive index. The new volume--also entitled Medico-Moral Problems--in-cludes most of the moral principles and practical problems with which members of the medical profession, especially those associated with Catholic hospitals, should be familiar. The price is three dollars per copy, with discounts for quantity orders. The book, as well as information about it, can be obtained from: The Catholic Hospital Association, 1438 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis 4, Missouri. 350 Survey Roman Documents R. F. Smith, S.J. [The following pages will give a summary of the documents which appeared in Acta Apostoiicae Sedis (AAS} during the months of June and July, 1958. Throughout the article all page references will be to the 1958 AAS (v. 50).] The Encyclical Meminisse luvat ON JULY 14, 1958 (AAS, pp. 449-59), the Holy Father issued the first encyclical that he has published during the current calendar year. Recalling that. it has always been his custom, as well as that of his predecesso~rs, to implore the help of the Virgin Mother of God at times when special dangers threaten the Christian people, His Holiness then pointe.d out that such a time or danger exists in the world today. For, as he remarked, we are living at a time when latent discord among the peoples o~ the earth holds the entire world in the grip of anxiety; and the tension is only increased by the fact that men have now discovered terrible weapons of destruction whicl~ can bring ruin not only to the vanquished but also to the conquerors and even to all of humanity. If, the Vicar of Christ continued, one searches the reasons for this state of affairs, it will be seen that the present situation exists because men have forgotten the authority of God and love for one another. These in turn .have been forgotten because men have ignored the Christian religion which alone teaches the fullness of truth, authentic justice, and divine love. Indeed in large sections of the world the Church is suffering cruel persecution. Bishops have been driven out, Catholic publications have been silenced, schools have been closed, mis-sionaries have been ~xpelled, and above all every attempt has been made to rupture the union of the local churches with the H01y See,0the source of all Catholic uni~y. 351 R. F. SMITH Rcvicw for Religioz~s ~. Just at$hle Pope added, Christians of apostolic times would join together in prayer for their brethren who were being per-secuted, so too today's Christians in Europe and the Far East who have so long endured persec.ution should not be deprived ,~,°f. the help and the prayers of their fellow Christians. Conse-quently the Holy Father asked that prior to the feast of the Assumption a novena be held during which all Catholics of the entire world should plead to God through the Blessed Virgin for the persecuted Christians of ,those regions. To these prayers Christians must also add a reform of life without which their words will never be pleasingto God. In this way, the Holyo Father concluded, Christians of today ivill once more manifest the truth of the words of the Letter to Diognetus: "Christians are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh. They live on earth, but their true citizenship is in heaven. They obey the lairs which are promulgated, but by their way of life they surpass all such laws . " The Consistory of Cardinals In the issues of AAS considered in this survey may b~ found the proceedings (AAS, pp. 393-440) of tl~e first con-sistory of Cardinals held since May, 1954. The first session was a secret consistory held on June 9, 1958. At that session Cardi-nal Tisserant was made Camerario of the College of Cardinals, replacing Cardinal Ottaviani in that position. Two of the Car-dinals, Cardinal Mimmi and Cardinal Costantini, changed their eardinalatial churche~ in Rome. Afterwards the Holy Father published a list of all hierarchical appointments made since the last consistory; the appointments included 2 patriarchs, 123 arch-bishops, 635 bishops, 9 prelates nullius, and 1 abbot nullius. After the reading of these appointments and after His Holiness had confirmed the elections made by the synod of the Chaldean bishops as well as those made by the synod of the .Maronite bishops, the cardinals listened to a report from Cardinal Cicog-nani, Prefect of the Congregation of Rites, concerning the life and miracles of Blessed Charles of Setia and of Blessed ]uana 352 November, 1~58 ROMAN DOCUMENTS Joaquina de Vedruna de Mas. At the conclusion of the report each cardinal was asked to give his opinion on the possibility of canonizing the two blessed. The consistory closed after recently appointed archbishops had sul~mitted their petitions for the pallium. Immediately following the secret consistory, a public con-sistory was held on the same day; this session consisted in further consideration of the causes of the two blessed mentioned above. On June 16, 1958, a semipublic consistory was held. oHere the Holy Father asked the cardinals their considered opinion on the advisability of the canonization of the two blessed already men-tioned. Since all the cardinals favored the canonization of the two, the Pontiff closed the consistory by announcing his inten-tion of canonizing the two blessed on November 23, 1958. ¯ . Four Allocutions and a Message On April 28, 1958 (AAS, pp. 361-64), the Vicar of Christ delivered an allocution to the members of an Italian group interested in caring for orphaned children of the working class. After telling his listeners that the ideas of justice, of respect for each human, person, and of pity for the humble come from the gospel and not from the doctrines of materialism and individ-ualism, the Pope pointed out to his listeners that their work for orphans must be animated by an intense sentiment of charity, for orphans are in greater, need of the warmth of intimacy and goodness than they are of food and clothing; orphanages, he said, must be father, mother, brother, and sister to the orphan. The Pontiff concluded his talk by urging his listeners to continue their work, since already in the beginning of Christianity (James 1:27) it was noted that care for orphans is an important function of the Christian religion. On the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker,. May 1, 1958 (AAS, pp. 365-69), the Holy Father addressed an assembled group of 20,000 Italian workers. At the beginning of his allocution His Holiness thanked God for the happy changes 353 R. F, SMITH Review for Religion, s that have occurred in the world of labor during the last 100 years. A hundred years ago, he remarked, no one would have thought that there would exist in so many nations a working class equal in rights and dignity to the other classes of society. Similarly, too, a hundred years ago no one would have dreamed that one day troops of workers would be gatherdd around the Vicar of~ Christ to celebrate with him the day of labor in a Christian way. The Pope, went on to warn his listeners that whenever and wherever social reform has been attempted without Christ and against Christ, all the real rights and the true liberty of the worker have been lost; for solutions based on materialistic principles neglect that which is best and most important in the worker: his .soul and his eternal destiny. In the second part of his allocution Plus XII encouraged his listeners to continue their support of associations of Cath-o! jc workers, These associations in turn should provide the workers with everything that is necessary to perfect them as men, as workers, and as Christians. Moreover, such associa-tions of Catholic workers should assist their members in times of abnormal circumstances such as sickness. However, the Vicar of Christ concluded, the charity of such associations should not be restricted to their own members; rather it must extend to all men, especially to those other workers who, ~ssailed by a daily propaganda of hatred and violence, are exposed' ~to the danger of lo~sing their sense of human pity and their conception of the humlln race as one family. On May 16, 1958 (AAS, pp. 369-70), the Pope spoke tb the members of the NATO Defense College, expressing his regret ~it ~he stateof the world th~it forces them to teach alert-ness against attacks from other human beings and telling them to continues their work in the confident hope that the day will Come~ when protection and defense can be ensured with a m,mmum of force and~ when truth and justice are the guide p~bstg'-bf 'those who lead the peoples of the world. 35~4 November, 1958 ROMAN DOCUMENTS On May 21, I958 (AAS, pp. 370-73), the Holy Father addressed a group of Italian women engaged in giving spiritual assistance to the members of the armed forces of Italy. In the first part of his allocution, the Pontiff outlined the teaching of the Church with regard to war. The Church, he said, has never accepted the doctrine of those who maintain that power is the 0nly foundation of international relations. War, he said, is not the promoter of the highest masculine qualities nor is it the stimu-lator of fecund initiative, even if at times it is the occasion and catalyst for growth in science and technique. In short, war is not something that the Church regards as licit in every cir-cumstance. Nevertheless, the Church has never taught that war is always reprehensible, for under certain conditions a nation may justly take up arms to defend itself. The struggle between Cain and Abel, the Pontiff con-tinued, marked the beginning of the history of war. Since then the entire~history of mankind has been a history of wa'r, a history which culminates in the present time when war is a conflict between entire peoples and when every physical, mor~l, economic, and industrial force is utilized for the prosecution of war. It is for this reason, he added, that every nation today seeks an army proportioned to its needs, one that lacks nothing from the viewpoint of a strong, ready, and energetic defense of the country. The Pontiff Concluded this 'first'part of his allocution by telling his listeners that Italy too~has ~a right to such an army for defense, even though there is no doubt that Italy sincerely desires peace, In the second part of his .allocution the Pope gives his listeners warm encouragement.to continue their work of giving spiritual assistance to the members of the Italian armed forces, It is true, he admitted, that army life helps physical develop-ment and aids in self-assurance and mat~urity; nevertheless the life also presents many evils and moral dangers, which .may destroy in the soldier the divine life within him. ~Hence, he 355 R. F. SMITH Review for Religious added, one of the prime needs in the army is that of priests who have a profound knowledge of a soldier's life; accordingly chaplains for the armed forces should be chosen from among the best priests and then given every preparation that will train them for their work. In conclusion the Pontiff told his lis-teners that in their work they must take the place of mothers and sisters to the soldiers and pointed out to them the many opporunities they will have to save the faith of many of the soldiers as well as lead others of them into the Church. On June 10, 1958 (AAS, pp. 446-48), the Pontiff sent a written message to a Paris meeting of an international con-gress on family life. In the message he pointed out that a strong civic and social order must be based on a conception of marriage and of the family that is conformable to the order established by God. Consequently he urges the members of the congress to spare, no effort to achieve those conditions of a decent and happy family life in which the exigencies of morality are not sacrificed to the satisfaction of the individual. Other Documents By an Apostolic Constitution dated June 3, 1958 (AAS, pp. 460-64), the Holy Father announced the founding in Rome of a Pontifical Institute of Pastoral Work. The new institute, whose purpose it" is to foster the pastoral develop-ment of the diocesan and regular clergy, will be part of the Pontifical Lateran Institute and will provide two distinct courses of training. The first course, of one year duration, will be intended for the training of the ordinary priest in his future pastoral work; the second course will consist of a two-year program leading to a doctorate in sacred theology; this second course is intended for those who will be future teachers of pastoral theology. Statutes for the new institute are to be published later; the institute was placed by the Pontiff under the patronage of Our Lady, Queen of the .Apostles, and under 356 November, 1958 ROMAN DOCUMENTS that of two popes noted for their zeal tCor pastoral care: St. Gregory the Great and St. Pius X. In another apostolic constitution, this one dated June 10, 1957 (AAS, pp. 345-47), the Holy Father set up an Apostolic Exarchate in England and Wales for Ruthenians of the Byzantine rite living in England. Archbishop Godfrey of Westminster was made exarch of the group. On November 19, 1957 (AAS, pp. 386-88), the Sacred Congregation of Rites approved the introduction of the cause of the Servant of God, Mary Teresa Zonfrilli (1899-1934), professed member of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mount Calvary. On January 7, 1958 (AAS, pp. 388-90), the same congregation gave its approval to the two miracles necessary for the canonization of Blessed Charles of Setia (1613-1670), lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor. On March 28, 1958 (AAS, pp. 486-87), the congre-gation issued the decree that the'canonization of Blessed Charles could be safely proceeded with; under the. same date (AAS, pp. 488-89), it issued a similar decree with regard to the canon-ization of Blessed Juana Joaquina de Vedrur~a de Mas (1783- 1854), widow and foundress of' the Carmelite Sisters of Charity. On November 21, 1957 (AAS, pp. 375-83), the Sacred Congregation of the Consistory issued legisl'ation which hence-forth will govern the Apostolate of the Sea; the group, first approved by Pius XI, was founded in Glasgow to work for the spiritual, moral, and social welfare of maritime personnel. On January 23, 1958 (AAS, pp. 480-83), the same congregation issued a decree establishing a military vicariate in the Dominican Republic. A later decree of the congregation dated February 11, 1958 (AAS, p. 483), appointed Archbishop Pittini as the military vicar of the republic. 357 The ener l Ch p!:er ,Joseph I=. G~llen, ~.d. QUESTIONS AND CASES are frequently received on the general chapter. A complete article on this matter would be of prohibitive length. It would also be excessively de-tailed and technical. We believe that the practical purpose of such an article will be better attained by presenting the matter under the form of questions and cases. The following ques-tions are the third and last part of a series. VII. Counting Ballots 33. There were twenty-nine valid votes on the first balloting for the election of our mother general. Sister A received an absolute majority of fifteen votes and was therefore elected. However, if she voted for herself, her vote was invalid (c. 170), she did not receive an absolute majority, and consequently was not elected. Should we have done any-thing to make sure that she had not voted for herself? An invalid vote does not of itself invalidate an election or a balloting. The invalid votes are simply not counted in any way. An invalid vote does invalidate the election if it is certain that the person would not have attained the required number of votes without the invalid vote (c. 167, § 2). The only invalidating effect that can cause a practical difficulty is a vote for oneself. This difficulty occurs, as in the present case, when the election was decided by only one vote. Some institutes demand that each elector place an identifying symbol, chosen by himself, on his ballot, e. g., a cross, star, name of saint, etc. Another form of the same type obliges the elector to write his own name on~ the ballot or voting ticket, seal it within a fold, place his symbol within another sealed fold, and write his vote within the last sealed, fold. If the present case occurs, the one elected is obliged to identify his vote to the president and tellers to determine whether he voted for himself. In a few institutes, ~a,n added vqte is required when the one elected is a member 358 THEGENERAL CHAPTER of the chapter. Thus Sister A would not have been elected in the present case unless she obtained sixteen votes. Outside of a most fare exception, none of these forms is in use in lay institutes. The elector writes only the name of the person he votes for on the ballot and folds it. Therefore, Sister A cannot be obliged to identify her vote in the present case. The constitutions do not impose this obligation, and she is presumed to have acted rightly, not evilly. The election is to be held as valid, unless it is not merely probable but certain that she voted for herself, e. g,, from her own voluntary declaration. If she actually gave her secret vote to herself, all of her acts as mother general will be certainly valid, since canon 209 supplies also dominative power in com-mon error. However, she is obliged to refuse the election or to petition its sanation secretly from the Holy See. Cf. De Carlo, Jus Religiosorum, n, 137; Parsons, Canonical Elections, 163; Beste, Introductio in Codicem, 214. 34. What is the meaning of our constitutionsl which say of all elections that in a tie on the last balloting "the senior by first profession is elected, but in a parity of profession, the senior by age"? For example, I, Brother A, took my vows first in our profession band, but the one who took his vows immediately after me, Brothe~- B, is four yearsl older than I. If the two of us were tied on a last balloting, which would be elected? Brother B wo'uld be elected. The pertinent words of canon 101, § I, 1°, on this case are: "if the president does not wish to break the tie by his vote, that one is elected who is senior by first profession or by age." The constitutions of lay institutes practically never give the president the right of break-ing the tie in an election. Therefore, with the exception of this clause, your constitutions are the same. as the canonical norm of canon 101, § 1, 1°; but the sense of this canon is the day of profession and the day of birth, not the hour, minute, or second of profession or birth. The p~oof is as follows. 1'. From the usage in other canons. Canon 635 staCes that religious transferring from one monastery ~to~ another df the 359 JOSEPH F. GAI~LEN Review for Religion, s same institute lose all rights of theformer monastery and assume the rights and obligations of the latter from the day of the transfer. Canon 640, § 2, declares that a secularized religious who is readmitted into religion, assumes his seniority from the day of his new profession. The Code Commission replied that the precedence of a suffragan bishop in a pro-vincial council was to be determined from the day of his proclamation or election (Bouscaren, Canon Law Digest, I, 88). 2. From the nature of the matter. This canon gives a universal norm that is to settle ip.~o ]:ac/o and immediately a tie on the last balloting. Therefore, it is a norm that is uni-versally applicable, readily knowable, and applicable absolutely, not conditionally, e. g., seniority by age considered objectively is to break the tie, notif it is known who is the senior by age. From the nature of the matter, age is to be taken as the day', not the hour,, minute, or second, of birth. How many" know the hour or minute of their birth? How often is the hour or minute of birth noted even in ecclesiastical or civil records? If this is true of age, it is to be affirmed also of first: profession, since the two are expressed in a parallel manner in the canon. The same argument is verified for first profession considered ir~ itself. It is at least ordinarily possible to determine the order of professions of the same day in the province or institute that has only one novitiate, even though I, with many others, do not recall whether I was third or eighth in taking my first vows. However, the norm is universally applicable. If two religious who are tied made their first profession on the same day and in ceremonies that began at the same hour, but one in New York and the other in California, how could there be certainty of the minute ~at which each profession began? Did each Mass begin on time? What was the relative rapidity of the priests in saying Mass? What was the length of each sermon? How many institutes keep a record of the hour, minute, and second of each profession? 360 November, 1958 THE GENERAL CHAPTER 3. From the practice of the Holy See. In approving constitutions, the Sacred Congregation of Religious almost constantly words the canon: "if they made their first profession on the same day, the senior by age is elected." 4. From the. doctrine of authors. Practically no author has °adverted to the difficulty presented in this question, but the following at least implicitly affirm the solution given abovi~: Schaefer, De Religiosis, n. 258; Jone, Commentarium in Co-dicem Iuris Canonici, I, 114; Muzzarelli, De Congregationibus Iuris Dioecesani, 216, note 5 ; Parsons, Canonical Elections, 154; Bastien, Directoire Canonique, n. 48; Fanfani, De Religiosis, n. 366; Abbo-Hannan, The Sacred Canons, I, 156. The hour, minute, or second may be followed in other mat-ters for determining precedence; but in elections, except in the very few lay institutes that establish their own norm, the constitu-tions' are only stating canon 101, § 1, 1°, and must therefore be interpreted in the sense of this canonical norm. 35. What is the meaning Of this article of our ~constitutions on the elec. tion of the mother general: "If, when the ballots have been counted, it shall appear that-no-one of the sisters has received a majority of.the votes cast, they shall proceed to a second or third ballot; if then the required majority of votes should not yet have been obtained, a fourth ballot shall be taken in which only those two sisters have passive vote who on the third ballot had received the larger number of votes. If on the fourth ballot, an equal number of votes is given to both, the senior by profession or, if they are equal, the older in yeat~s shall be considered elected"? There is no doubt that the article is .obscure. An absolute majority is a number that in any way exceeds half the valid votes cast, even if by only a half vote, e. g., nine out of seventeen, ten out of eighteen. A relative majority is a number of votes for one person larger than for any of the others singly, although less than for all the others taken together, e. g., ii~ seventeen valid votes are cast and Sister' M. Agatha receives seven, Sister M. Bernice six, Sister M. Callista three, and Sister M. Damien one, Sister M. Agatha is elected on a balloting in 361 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious which a relative majority is decisive. Active voice is the right to vote in :a chapter; passive voice is the right to be elected ir~ a chapter. Passive "vote" in this article should be passive voice, and "senior by profession" should be "senior by first profes-sion." Therefore, the sense, of the article is that an absolute majority is required for an election on any of the .first. three ballotings. If an election has not resulted, a fourth and last balloting is to be held. 0nly the two sisters who had the highest number of votes in the third balloting can be voted for in this last balloting, i. e.,. they alone have passive voice. This article does not deprive these two sisters of active voice on the fourth balloting, as is now the universal p~actice of the Holy See in approving constitutions. Of the two, the sister who receives the larger number of votes on the fourth balloting is elected. If this balloting results in a tie, the sister who is senior by first professio~ is elected; if the two made their first profession on the same day, the senior by age is elected. 36. Our constitutions state of the elections of the general officials: if in neither the first ballot nor in the second ballot an absolute majority of votes is obtained, a relative majority will be di~cisive on the third ballot." Who is elected according to this norm when two or more are tied on the third ballot? The full canonical norm (c. 101, § !'~ l°)'is that the president of the election has the righ.t to decide the tie on the third balloting by his or her. vote; but, if he does not choose to do this, the tie is broken in a lay institute by seniority of first profession or by age. If your constitutions give the president this right in other elections, he has the same right here. If they do not, as is almost universally true in lay institutes, the president does not have this right; and the tie ig broken only by the day of first profession or the day of birth. 37. According to our constitutions, a tie on the fourth and last ballot-ing for the office of superior general is broken in this way: the older by first profession is elected superior general and in case the religious made their profession on the same day, the older in age is elected. The article for the elections of the general offcials states that a relative.majority is 362 November, 19~58 THE GENERAL CHAPTER sufficient on the third and last balloting but that, if there is a tie, the older in profession is elected. The latter article says nothing about age. Who is elected in the latter case when two or more religious are tied on the third balloting but all made their first profession on the same day? As in the preceding case, the second article has merely omitted part of the canonical norm. This is clear also from the fact that age is included in the first article. Therefore, the question of the tie is to be decided by the canonical norm of seniority by the day of birth. VIII. After the Election 38. The constitutions of our diocesan congregation of sisters say simply that the local ordinary has the right of confirming the election of the mother general. What is the meaning of this authority? In virtue of canon 506, § 4, the presiding local ordinary has the right of confirming the election of the mother general in diocesan congregations. Therefore, three things are required to complete the election in such a congregation, the required number of votes, acceptance, unless this is commanded by the constitutions, and the confirmation of the local ordinary. (a) Competent local ordinary. The right to confirm an election is the authority to ratify or rescind the election. Con-firmation appertains to the ordinary of the diocese in which the election is held, not to the ordinary of the motherhouse as such. The ordinary may delegate his power of confirming or rescinding the election, e. g., to the priest he has delegated to preside at the election. (b) Norm for giving ~:onfirmation. The general canon on elections, 177, § 2, enacts that the competent superior must give the confirmation if the election was legitimatdly performed and he judges the one elected qualified for the office, even if in his judgment this person is not the more or most qualified. However, canon 506, § 4, treats specifically of the right of the local ordinary to confirm or rescind the election of a mother general in diocesan congregations and describes this right as the 363 JOSEPH f. GALLEN Review for Religious authority to confirm or .rescind the. election according to his conscience," This last phrase has led many canonists to hold that the ordinary is given a wider power in this case than in the general canon, 177, § 2. In this opinion, the local ordinary may not licitly act on mere whim, human motives, or personal preferences, but only on reasons based on the common good of the congregation. This being"presupposed, he has the right of rescinding 'the election also if he judges that the more or most suitable person was not elected. Other canonists hold that the ordinary must conform to the general canon, 177, § 2, also in confirming the election of a mother general. The opinion grant-ing the ordinary the wider power is at least more probable, if not certain, from the clearly distinctive wording of canon 506, § 4. The right of confirmation and rescission is not a right of ap-pointing the mother general. If the ordinary refuses the con-firmation, the chapter proceeds to .a new election. (c) Confirmation of other elections. Canon law demands confirmation only for the election of the mother general of a diocesan congregation, not for that of any other religious superior or official. By the law of the constitutions, confirma-tion is required for the election of the superioress in some monasteries of nuns and usually the confirmation of the mother general wi~h the consent of her council is ne.cessary when the mother provincial and ihe provincial officials are elected in the provincial chapter. The competent superior for such a monas-tery is the local ordinary, if the monastery is subject to him, or the regular superior, if the monastery is subject to regulars. The confirmation in all such cases is to be given according to the general norm of canon 177, § 2. 39. The constitutions of our pontifical congregation give a form of words by which the local ordinary is said to confirm the election of the mother general. Is ~his in accord with canon law? The right of confirming an election is the authority to ratify or rescind it. In virtue of canon 506, § 4, the ordinary ot: the place of election has the right of confirming the election of 364 Novc~nbcr, 1958 THE GENERAL CHAPTER the mother general in diocesan congregations only. Canon law does not require confirmation for the election of any other religious superior or official. It is true that confirmation can be demanded by the law of th~ particular constitutions, e. g., in the case of the election of the superioress in some monasteries of nuns. However, the Holy See does not grant the local ordinary the right of confirmation in approving the constitutions of pontifical congregations. Furthermore, the constitutions in question contain no article granting this extraordinary right to the local ordinary. Therefore, ~the word "confirm" in these constitutions is to be interpreted as a wide use for the accurate word "proclaim," i. e., when an election has resulted, the president of the chapter announces this fact and the name of the one elected (c. 174). Cases of such a wide use of "confirm" are found in other documents of the Holy See and in authors. Cf. Battandier, Guide Canonique, n. 382. 40. The president at the election of our mother general was a priest. delegated by the local ordinary. At the end of the first balloting, the president proclaimed the election, i. e., announced that an election had resulted, with the name of the one elected (c. 174). He did not an-nounce how many votes this sister had received, whether other sisters had received any votes, nor obviously the number of votes received by such other sisters. 1. Was this omission of the president contrary to canon law and thus illicit? 2. Was the election thereby invalid? This question has been proposed several times and has already been answered in the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS. On this occasion, we shall strive to be more complete, even though this implies a cumbersome burden of citations. There is no doubt whatever that the omission of the president was contrary to canon 171, § 2, and therefore objectively illicit. This canon commands that the names of all voted for and the number of votes each received must be announced in every balloting ("palamque faciant quot quisque retulerit"). The canon per-mits that the announcing be done in either of two ways, i. e., the vote on each.ballot, or voting ticket or slip, is announced to the capitulars or the names of all voted for and the total 365 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review ]or Religious received by each are announced only at the end of the balloting. It is much better and is the usual custom to announce the votes in both ways. The further question can be and is now again asked whether an election is invalid (1) if the numbe~ of votes received by the elected candidate is not published to the capitu-lars or (2) the number of votes received by the other candidates is not so published. Most authors do not even mention in-validity with regard to either case in their explanation of the pertinent canon, 171, § 2. Most also implicitly deny invalidity, because they list the causes of the invalidity of elections without including either of these cases. (Schaefer, De Religiosis, n. 527; De Carlo, Jus Religiosorum, n. 150; Vermeersch-Creusen, Epitome Iuris Canonici, I, n- 288; Fanfani, De Religiosis, n. 116; .Pruemmer, Manuale Iuris Canonici, q. 79; Bouscaren-Ellis, Canon Law, 127; Claeys Bouuaert-Simenon, Manuale Juris Can-onici, I, n. 331; Brys, Juris Canonici Compendium, I, 263; Sipos, Enchiridion Iuris Canonici, 129; Geser, Canon Law Governing Communities of Sisters, n. 341) Some deny or doubt the in-validity in these two cases. (Vermeersch-Creusen, 0p. cir., n. 293, 2; Jone, Commentarium in Codicem Iuris Canonici, I, 177; Ellis, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 8-1949-159-60) Therefore, there exists no common opinion of authors that invalidity is verified in either case. Furthermore, several of the authors who maintain invalidity express themselves so obscurely that it is difficult to understand what they mean by the publication they require for validity. Goyeneche, Quaestiones Canonicae, I, 50-51; Coronata, Institutiones Iuris Canonici, I, 278-79; Creusen, Religious Men and Women in the Code, n. 76; Parsons, Canoni-cal Elections, 151-52, 200; and Lewis, Chapters in Religious Institutes, 127, affirm invalidity at least with regard to the first case. Their first argument is that publication of the votes is an essential element of a canonical election. This argument is not certain, since it is admittedly difficult to ascertain what are the essential elements of an election in the code. The second argu- 366 November, 1958 THE GENERAL CHAPTER ment is that the code is here merely reassuming the law before the ~code, which demanded publication for validity. This argument al~o is not certain. Canon 171, § 2, does not: state expressly that. publication of the votes is required for the validity of .a balloting. If the intention was to reassume the former law, i~ seems strange that an invalidating clause was not expressed in the canon, as it is in so many of tl~e other canons on elections, e. g.~ 162, §§ 3, 5; 165; 166; 167, § 2; 169; 170; 171, § 3; 172, §§ 2-3; 1.76, § 3; 181, § 2. There-fore, since there is a doubt of law about invalidity in both cases, all such elections are valid (c. 15). 41. The constitutions of our pontifical congregation contain the follow-ing ~rticle: "In the ordinary chapter, the mother general going out of office shall act as mother vicar until the elections have lawfully taken place." Isn't she out of office entirely as soon as the election of the new mother general is' completed and before the elections of the four councilors, the secretary general, and the bursar general? Yes. The wording of your constitutions follows the Normae of 1901, article 225. The sense, however, is that expressed in the question, i. e., the mother general loses all title to the office, also as mother vicar, on the completion of the election of the mother general. The election is completed in a pontifical congregation by the attaining of .the requisite number of votes and acceptance, or by the former alone if acceptance is imposed by the particular law of the institute, and in diocesan congregations ~ of women by the added ~equisite of the confirmation of the ordinary 'of the place of election (cc. 174-77; 506, § 4). This interpretation is otherwise evi-dent from your constitutions, since the newly elected mother general immediately assumes her office by presiding at the elections that follow and at the chapter of affairs. The retention and prolongation of the office under the title of vicar is to take care of the case of an election delayed beyond the expiration of the term of the present mother gen-eral and of a suspension of the chapter. This occurs when 367 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious the choice of the chapter is of one who cannot be elected but only postulated as mother general, i. e., because of a lack of the age, years of profession, or legitimacy required by canon 504, or an election beyond the number of terms permitted by the constitutions. The postulation for the last impediment in a diocesan institute is addressed to the ordinary of the place of election; but in all other cases, whether the institute is pon-tifical or diocesan, it must be made to the Holy See (c. 181, § 1). In a postulation for the office of mother general, the chapter is suspended until notification is received of the accep-tance or rejection of the postulation. A suspension can also occur in a diocesan institute of women when the confirmation of the local ordinary is delayed. It is better to word the con-stitutions that all elective officials retain their offices until the election to the same office is completed in the following chap-ter. Cf. Normae pro Constitutionibus Congregationum Iuris Dioe.cesani a S. C. de Propaganda Fide De.pendentium, aa. 142, 153. IX. Chapter of Affairs 42. The constitutions of our pontifical congregat.ion, of brothers state with regard to the chapter of affairs: "All these matters are decided by an absolute majority of secret votes." A secret vote takes more time, and I see no reason for secrecy in many of the matters that uniformly come before a chapter of affairs. The practice of the Holy See in approving constitutions demands secret voting in the chapter of affairs. This voting may be done by a method such as black ~ind white beans. It is admitted doctrine that the voting need not always be secret. If the matter is of little importance or the discussion has made it clear that there is little opposition, the voting may be public, e. g., by rising or raising the hand. A capitular may always request a secret vote on such a matter. If so, the superior general will put this question to a vote. If the absolute majority by a public vote, e. g., rising or raising the hand, favors a secret vote on the matter, this must be had; otherwise, the voting 368 Novcmber, 1958 THE GENERAL CHAPTER will be public. A few pontifical constitutions ordain that the voting is always to be public, with the exception of the request for secrecy described above. It is difficult to see why a secret vote should be generally prescribed for the chapter of affairs. There is no general reason for secrecy in the matters listed in the practice of the Holy See as the more important affairs of this chapter. 43. What is the duration of the ordinances of a chapter of.affairs in lay institutes? In constitutions, the acts of the chapter of affairs are variously termed ordinances, enactments, regulations, decrees, and decisions. According to the practice of the Holy See, the ordinances of a chapter in lay institutes are temporary. The Normae of 1901 stated that the ordinances of the general chapter remained in force until the next chapter (a. 250). In its present practice, the Sacred Congregation of Religious states that these ordinances remain in force until the next general chapter, in which they may be confirmed, modified, or abrogated. The temporary character of the ordinances has therefore beeia imposed by the Holy See in the approval of constitutions; it does not certainly follow from the nature of such ordinances nor from canon 24. To avoid any difficulty, the superior general should propose a declaration that all the acts of past chapters are confirmed by the present chapter except insofar as they will be or have been modified or abrogated by this chapter. The temporary character of the ordinances does not demand an explicit confirmation for their continuance; an implicit or tacit confirmation suffices. If a previous general chapter has approved so important a measure as a directory, the sum of the dowry, or the extraordinary expenses for which local superiors must recur to higher superiors and the subsequent chapter omits all action on the matter, it is the implicit or tacit will of this chapter that such a measure is confirmed. Van Hove states this principle as follows: "Many ordinances enacted from dominative power continue to exist on the cessation from office 369 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious of the superior who established them, because they are implicitly renewed by his successor, who is presumed to intend that the customary order in a community continue to be observed until he changes it" (De Legibus Ecclesiasticis, I, n. 359, note 4; cf. Jone, C0mmentarium in Codicem Iuris Canonici, I, 46). Furthermore, from the practice of religious institutes, it is the presumption that all existing acts of previous chapters are implicitly or tacitly confirmed by a later chapter except those that it changes or abrogates. 44. Do monasteries of nuns have a chapter of affairs after the elections? A chapter ~f affairs is held more frequently and separately from elections in monasteries of nuns, since the chapter in such an institute has a vote in several matters that appertain solely to a higher superior and her council in a centralized institute. These matters vary in different constitutions, e. g., the alienation of property and the contracting of debts, admission of an aspirant into the enclosure, admission of a religious from another institute or monastery, admission to the novicesl~ip and pro-fessions, the declaration of fact fo~ an ~/~so faclo dismissal, the erection or suppression of a school, and other important matters of the monastery. A chapter of affairs is consequently held after the elections only if any such matters are to be discussed at the time. 45. Are higher superiors obliged to obey the enactments of the general chapter? Evidently. The general chapter is the supreme authority within the institute. Book Reviews [Material for this department should be sent to Book Review Editor, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, West Baden College, West Baden Springs, Indiana.] MERCY UNTO THOUSANDS. By Sister M. Bertrand Degnan, R.S.M. Pp. 394. The Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland. 1957. $6.50. Sister M. Bertrand began collecting data fo~ Mercy unto Thou-sands in 1945. The years of study, labor, and research have pro- 370 November, 1958 BOOK REVIEWS duced a masterpiece. This book is at once very scholarly and very interesting. The life of Mother McAuley is so well told, in fact, that the vast amount of research into primary sources is almost forgotten till one begins to study the references. Such scholarship and appeal are two qualities often sought, but seldom so well achieved. As the author traces the life of Mother McAuley, the Divine Providence which guided her life b~comes more clearly delineated at each step of her career. At least in its major aspects, God's plan for Catherine McAuley was clear to her religious superiors, if not entirely clear to Catherine ~erself. That a religious order should be the logical consequence of the charitable work of Mercy House on Baggot. Street, Dublin, seemed to be clear to everyone but Cath-erine. And that the order, once founded, should spread so rapidly was hardly strange. In fact, given the time, place, and other cir-cumstances it would have been strange had the order not so developed. For Mother McAuley was dedicated above all to doing" God's work. Her surrender of all her time, wealth, and talents to God, made her a perfect instrument in His hands. So step by step He l.ed her to the accomplishment of a great work--the foundation and propagation of the Sisters of Mercy. The gifts and talents of Mother McAuley were rare. Sound-ness of practical judgment, ability in financial matters, intellectual acumen, grace of manner, and perseverance, to mention but a few of her qualities, marked Catherine McAuley as a woman destined for success. Many of these talents, of course, found their fulfillment and perfection in the supernatural order. For the charity, humility, and patience of this great woman were exercised to a degree seldom achieved in the life of a religious. But the outstanding natural gift of Mother McAuley was her exceptional charm. Her letters, poems, talks, and conversations portray an attractive person. Her ready wit must have supplied many pleasant hours for the sisters in the recreation room. For Mother McAuley's irrepressible optimism and humor always gave her a glimpse of the bright side of life even in her darkest moments. The tenderness and warmth with which she treated the other sisters manifested a woman with an extremely affectionate heart. But she could scold when the occasion demanded it. Her corrections, how-ever, were always temperate; and offense was never given. In sh, ort, this is the life of a very attractive and charming religious very attractively written. Mother McAuley could not be 371 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religio~cs better presented or represented than she has been in Mercy unto Thousands.--J. M. KUNTZ, S.J. PHILIPPINE DUCHESNE, Frontier Missionary of the Sacred Heart, 1769.1852. By Louise Callan, R.S.C.J. Pp. 805. The Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland. 1957. $8.00. This life is, as it should be, a monumental work; for it deals with an epic theme. Its story begins about the time of the fall of one nation and ends about the time of the rise of another with the life story of a heroine filling the interval. Mother Callan has laid Catholic readers under an undying obligation for her scholarly yet simple presentation of a heroic woman and dauntless religious facing the rigors of frontier life in the American midwest in the first half of the 19th century, with no other purpose than to make known the glory of the Heart of Jesus. The volume is largely made up of Philippine Duchesne's correspondence with her friend and religious superior, Mother Barat, with the members of her family, and with religious and ecclesiastics with whom her zeal brought her into contact. There is hardly a page in this large book without some extract from Philippine's correspondence. Mother Callan has woven this cor-respondence into her text to illustrate it and carry it forward, with the result that it is largely Philippine who tells her own story, and does so magnificently. The letters themselves are very interesting, but they are never introduced for themselves, and the reader is never aware that the story being told is arrested or delayed in its progress. Mother Duchesne was in fact no ordinary letter-writer, where she describes the angry moods of the Atlantic as she crosses it, the picturesque banks of the Mississippi as she ascends it, or the dirt and muck of a Missouri farmyard as she trudges through it. The pictures come alive and tell us as much of the writer as of the subject of her writing. One cannot help being deeply impressed by the dogged per-sistence in the face of difficulties, discouragement, and even of opposi-tion shown by Mother Duchesne in the pursuit of her purpose, the salvation of souls through devotion to Christ's own Heart. This she never lost sight of. Lack of means, lack of help, lack of interest on the part of others never deterred her. Poverty, frequently grinding, only opened up new resources of courage. Even failure could not stop her. In fact, her life seems to have been one succession of failures, from her first attempt at religious life which was cut short in her girl-hood by the French Revolution, down to her belated excursion to the 372 November, 1958 BOOK REVIEWS Potawatomi in her old age. She had come to teach the Indians the way to God, and the only Indians she met were converts of many years. She had come to a land where the language was other than her own, a language which baffled all her attempts to master it; and when she could not teach, she stitched and sewed and mended. One foundation after another was given up; and she moved from place to place, always beginning anew, until she came to spend her final and fail-ing years at St. Charles, on the banks of the Missouri, where she had begun her work--reluctantly, since she found no place awaiting her in St. Louis where she had hoped to be established. Behind this unalterable courage and determined will, there was a tender heart. One marvels at the strength of the affection she shows for those she loves, and she loved nearly all she met. Remark-ing on the lack of letters from France with news of her loved ones, she exclaims: "There is not a single religious from France in the community here. But we meet at the s~ime center--the Heart God . " She loves solitude, but there is a note of poignant loneli-ness in this cry from the heart. There was much she met in the pioneer society that repelled her. If we remember that she was of gentle birth, had known the refine-ment and culture of 18th century France, we can better understand the revulsions she must have felt for the coarseness she met with in the society of the frontier. In her letter to her cousin Josephine, she recalls: "Those happy evenings in Grandmother's house; the simple but charming dinners on Sunday--and those on Monday; the presents given out gradually to each of the younger children. All this comes to my mind. Those happy days in the big family were surely prefer-able to the prdud disdain, the indifference, the affected languor, by which people think they make themselves important and attractive. I continue to live in the same convent a peaceful retreat suited to my age and tastes. My thoughts are often with you and about you, for you are so dear to my heart." The proud disdain, the indifference, the affected languor--simple religious as she was, she was shrewd enough to penetrate the shallow shell of sophistication in the society about her and expose its essential pride. Philippine was no gloomy ascetic, although she was of a naturally seri6us disposition. "Yet she was," as Mother Jouve, a niece, testi-fied, "always joyous and animated at the community recreaSons or when religious came for little visits with her in her room." She had severe interior trials to undergo, but these she kept entirely to herself. She could spend long and happy hours before the Blessed Sacrament, 373 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Religious and she was never more pleased than when she was allowed to live in close proximity to the chapel. Her life had become completely and perfectly integrated in God, "because' she realized," as Mother Callan tells us, "with astonishing clarity that He is first, and also last~Alpha and Omega--and that between Him and all else in the universe, there is, there can be, no comparison." However else she failed, in this she succeeded supremely: she loved God with a consuhaing devotion and her neighbor with a tire-less affection.~WILLIAM J. YOUNG, S.J. THE TEMPTATIONS OF CHRIST. By Gerald Vann, O.P., and P. K. Meagher, O.P. Pp. 127. Sheed and Ward, New York 3. 1957. $2.75. The climate of modern opinion, abetted by the word of Freud and others, may well influence Christians to think that the devil's day is over. Fathers Vann and Meagher show conclusively that Satan's neatest trick is this widespread disbelief in him. Why was Christ tempted? The authors believe that Christ saw Satan for the shrewd opponent that he is and went forth eagerly to confront him, thus giving us an example of how to cope with tempta-tion and also exposing the devil's wiles at t~ieir roots. The book is a psychologico-ascetical study; reading it cannot fail to improve one's understanding of the un.derlying "predominant passions" which rise to the surface of everyday life in such myriad forms. The authors first point out that we should not expect to be free from temptations--such perfectionism is already unconscious pride. They then show how Satan waits his chance to attack us when we are weakest and where we are most vulnerable. It is a discerning person who does not allow himself to be so wasted away by fasts and penances that he falls easy prey to the schemes of the Prince of Darkness. Going through the three temptations individually, the authors show a deep knowledge of "what is in man" as they analyze the appeal of the °devil in each situation. Thus they take the temptation to turn stones into bread as an indication of the desire for that sense of security which an abundance of resources can provide, making it difficult even to wish to be poor in spirit. The "perils of the pinnacle" .is a temptation highlighting man's excess of trust in himself; it shows how many think they avoid "immorality" by skirting sexual sins only to be heedless of such things as calumny, cruelty, bitterness, and pride. 374 November, 1958 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS The third temptation brings into the open the thread underlying this entire episode in our Lord's life. Satan's implication is that God is a poor provider and that the devil himself will give us prosperity and glory. And that indeed is the case--unless one takes a long-range view' beyond the frontiers of the immediate here and now. The book is more than a description of a scene from the life of Christ; it is a profound introspective study of what lies behind much of man's action. As such it cannot fail to give better knowledge of oneself and of the ways of the devil.--R.~LeH J. IL~ST~A~, S.J. BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 400 North Broadway, Milwaukee 1, Wisconsin. Fathering-Forth. By John H. McGoey, S.F.M. A book by a priest for priests. In it Father McGoey evaluates what he has learned of the life of a priest both from personal experience and from observation. He has many a criticism to offer, but they are all of the constructive kind. Priests will find much matter for serious consideration in these pages. Pp. 188. $3.50. DAUGHTERS OF ST. PAUL, 50 St. Paul's Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Boston 30, Massachusetts. Glories and Virtues of Mary. By the Very Rev. J. Alberione, S.S.P., S.T.D. Translated by Hilda Calabro. The book is divided into three paits. The first deals with the glories of Mary; the second, with the virtues of Mary; and the third, with devotion to Mary. Each chapter concludes with some striking incident in the lives of great men and women illustrative of their deep devotion to the Mother of God. The book is well illustrated with full page reproductions of famous masterpieces. Pp. 251. Cloth $3.00. Paper $1.50. Mary, Mother and Model. Feasts of Mary. By the Very Rev. James Alberione, S.S.P., S.T.D. Translated by Hilda Calabro. The Roman Missal contains thirty-seven Masses in honor of our Lady. Not all of them are for the universal Church. Thirty of these feasts are considered in this volume and presented as meditations. At the end of each meditation there is a commentary on the cor-responding Mass of the Missal. The book is illustrated with full page reproductions of photographs of famous paintings or statues of our Lady. Pp. 237. Cloth $3.00. Paper $1.50. 375 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Review for Religious Religious Life. Life of Courageous Souls. Extracts from Medi-tations and Conferences of the Very Rev. James Alberione, S.S.P., S.T.D., to the Religious of his Five Congregations. Compiled and translated from the Italian hy the Daughters of St. Paul. This is an excellent introduction to the religious life and a notable con-tribution to vocation literature. Pp. 107. Cloth $2.00. Paper $1.00. MESSRS. M. H. GILL & SON, 50 Upper O'Connell Street, Dublin, Ireland. The Story of the Hospitallers of St. John of God. By Norbert McMahon, O.S.J.D. In the United States this order of brothers dedicated to serve the sick poor is little known. Yet they have a tradition and history of heroic achievements in many parts of the world which only God can reward. How many martyrs of charity have died in their ranks we shall know only on the last day. During the civil war in Spain, ninety-eight Hospitaller Brothers were brutally massacred by the Reds out of hatred for religion. Yet despite their heroic achievements, their history is one of great trials and much persecution. More than once the order was all but extinct, only to rise again more vigorous than before. Perhaps their greatest trial came from the Holy See itself. Four days after his election, Pope Clement VIII published a bull which took from the Hospitaller Brothers their status as a religious order. The brothers were de-prived of their three vows of religion. They were to serve the sick in the hospitals as lay nurses under obedience to the local bishop. But Divine Providence watched over them. Today, after four-hundred years of existence, they have 209 houses, almost all of them hospitals, and 2,464 religious. You will want to read all about these athletes of charity. Pp. 187. 16/-. Ideals to Live By. Some of the Principles Which Moulded St. Ignatius Loyola. By Robert Nash, S. J. This is the latest book from the prolific pen of Father Nash. He wrote it with lay Catholics chiefly in mind. It is about the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and makes suitable reading, either public or private, for times of retreat. Pp. 175. Paper 8/6. Cloth 12/6. B. HERDER BOOK COMPANY, 15-17 South Broadway, St. Louis 2, Missouri. The Three Degrees. A study of Christian Mysticism. By Conrad Pepler, O.P. A knowledge of mysticism can be very useful to all who lead an interior life. For the director of souls it is at times necessary. 376 November, 1958 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Father Pepler offers a brief but sound introduction to this most diffi-cult subject and does so in language which the modern reader can understand. Unless you are already an expert in mystical theology, you can learn much from this little book. Pp. 256. $3.50. Introduction to the Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Vol. II, Cosmology. By H. D. Gardeil, O.P. Translated by John A. Otto, Ph.D. This is the second volume of a four volume set. The purpose of this volume is "to give a true account of Aristotle's understanding.of the physical world, and mainly of its philosophical content, the abiding feature of his study." Pp. 218. $3.75. P. J. KENEDY & SONS, 12 Barclay Street,-New York 8, New York. Autobiography of St. Th~r~se of Lisieux. Translated by Ronald Knox. When L'Histoire d'une Ame first appeared, it had been edited to suit the canons of that day. The editing consisted in changing the chronological order, omitting about one fourth the whole, and making many changes in the text. All these edi-torial changes have now been eliminated, and we have the manu-script as it left the pen of the saint. It is this reconstructed manu-script that Father Knox has translated for English readers. In its light the heroic virtues of St. Th~rSse are more brightly illumined, and we get a better and a truer picture of the saint. Pp. 320. $4.50. THE MESSENGER PRESS, Carthagena, Ohio. Bought at a Great Price. Reflections on the Precious Blood. By Mother Mary Aloysi Kiener, S.N.D. If you are looking for a book of meditations to help you along the way of affective prayer, you would do well to examine Bought at a Great Price. There are thirty-two meditations, each divided into two parts. The average length of each meditation is eight pages. Pp. 271. $3.50. THE NEWMAN PRESS, Westminster, Maryland. A Manual for Novice Mistresses. Edited by Albert Pl~, O.P. Translated by Patrick Hepburne-Scott. This is volume nine in the "Religious Life Series." In content it is a selection of the more important papers read at a conference of French Dominican novice mistresses. The book dealg concisely with many of the major prob-lems which confront a mistress of noviceg in any order or congre-gati6n. Pp. 152. $3.25. The Christian Approach to the Bible. By Dom Celestine Char-lier. Translated from the French by Hubert J. Richardson and 377 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Review for Religious Brendan Peters. 'Through the Bible God speaks to men on matters concerning man's salvation. It is therefore the most important book. Yet it is not an easy book to read. Fruitful reading pre-supposes certain intellectual, moral, and religious dispositions. These the author would help his readers to acquire. He does not write for experts but for the average Christian, who, no less than his learned brother, is to draw from the. Bible power to transform his life. Pp. 298. $4.00. Valiant Heralds of Truth. Pius XII and the Arts of Communi-cation. Compiled with a Commentary by Rev. Vincent A. Yzer-mans. The most authoritative source for a Catholic philosophy of the communication arts is our Holy Father, Pius XII. He has written and spoken on this subject frequently, and the compiler has gathered all these utterances between the covers of one volume. Pp. 201. $3.75. Christian Perfection and Married Life. By J. M. Perrin, O.P. Translated by P~ D. Gilbert. To show how perfection can be achieved in the married state is the purpose of the author. Marriage counselors, directors of Cana conferences, and priests engaged in the ministry will find here much valuable material. Pp. 92. $1.95. A Father Faber Heritage. Selections from the Writings of Rev. Frederick William Faber. Edited with an Introduction by Sister Mary Mercedes, S.N.D., de Namur. Father Faber of the Oratory was one of the outstanding spiritual writers of the nine-teenth century, and one who achieved a notable measure of well-deserved popularity. T
Voices of Virginia pulls together stories from oral history collections from across decades and archives to create an all-audio source companion for Virginias high school and college students. The "album" is only two hours long, but contains dozens of short oral histories from eyewitnesses to key moments in American history, from the end of the Civil War to the 1980s. The excerpts are downloadable, accessible by smartphone, and accompanied by a transcript. Audio clips are also available on Soundcloud . Youll also find a brief introduction to each narrator, historical context adapted from experts at Encyclopedia Virginia , American Yawp , and Public Domain sources, and helpful classroom tools like discussion questions, activities, and lesson plans that fit into both the Virginia high school and college U.S. History curriculum. By following the larger national story with narratives from across the Commonwealth, Voices of Virginia grounds students in how history guides and is guided by everyday people and their experiences. Voices of Virginia is a winner of the 2020 Mason Multi-Media Award from the Oral History Association. Over twenty archives across Virginia and beyond have generously donated segments, and granted permission for their oral histories to be reproduced and publicly shared under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license, which ensures that the content remains free to use and re-purpose for all listeners. These archives include: African American Historical Society of Portsmouth Amherst Glebe Arts Response Archives of Appalachia (Eastern Tennessee State University) Cape Charles Rosenwald Initiative Center for Documentary Studies and the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Duke University) Charles City County Richard M. Bowman Center for Local History Chuck Mauro, private collection (Herndon, VA) Clarence Dunnaville (American Civil War Museum) Desegregation of Virginia Education Project (Old Dominion University) Digital Library of Appalachia (Appalachian College Association) Eastern Shore of Virginia Barrier Islands Center Friends of the Rappahannock George Mason University Grayson County Historical Society Greene County Historical Society Mountain Home Center (Bland County Public Schools) Old Dominion University Libraries Special Collections and University Archives Oral History Archives at Columbia (Columbia University) Roanoke Public Library (Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project) Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (University of Florida) Southern Foodways Alliance (University of Mississippi) This material is aligned to the History and Social Science Standards for Virginia Public Schools - March 2015 . The collection was curated by Jessica Taylor, Ph.D. with Emily Stewart. Feedback regarding this collection is welcome at https://bit.ly/VoicesOfVirginia This work was made possible in part by a grant from University Libraries at Virginia Techs Open Education Initiative . About the editors: Jessica Taylor is the Director of Public History and an Assistant Professor of Early American and Oral History in the History Department at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) where she has been a faculty member since 2018. Jessica completed her Ph.D. in History at the University of Florida and her undergraduate and master's studies at the College of William and Mary. Her research and work focuses on the history of social change in Virginia and the American South, from the colonial period to the present day. Dr. Taylor collaborates with preservation and historical groups across the South to collect and share oral histories, teaches Public History and Native History classes, and is the author of multiple journal articles about historical memory in the South. Her manuscript, Certaine Boundes: Borders and Movement in the Native Chesapeake , explores the lives of Indians and non-elites in seventeenth-century Virginia. Beyond writing, she works to provide opportunities for and be a better teacher to every kind of student. She is always looking for hands-on experiences and conversations about activism, history, archaeology, preservation, museums, and liberal arts education. Emily Stewart is a student in Virginia Tech's History MA program. She will earn her Master's degree in May, 2020. Emily completed her undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech where she majored in History. Her current research focuses on Virginia educational history in the twentieth century. Her master's thesis focuses on the relationship between standardization and segregation of Virginia public education in the early twentieth century. Throughout her studies at Virginia Tech, Emily has always been interested in oral histories. The Voices of Virginia project presented her with an ideal opportunity to further cultivate her interest in the field of oral and public history. ; Virginia Tech Open Education Initiative Faculty Grant https://guides.lib.vt.edu/oer/grants
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With President Milei's election in Argentina, dollarization is suddenly on the table. I'm for it. Here's why. Why not? A standard of valueStart with "why not?'' Dollarization, not a national currency, is actually a sensible default. The dollar is the US standard of value. We measure length in feet, weight in pounds, and the value of goods in dollars. Why should different countries use different measures of value? Wouldn't it make sense to use a common standard of value? Once upon a time every country, and often every city, had its own weights and measures. That made trade difficult, so we eventually converged on international weights and measures. (Feet and pounds are actually a US anachronism since everyone else uses meters and kilograms. Clearly if we had to start over we'd use SI units, as science and engineering already do.) Moreover, nobody thinks it's a good idea to periodically shorten the meter in order to stimulate the economy, say by making the sale of cloth more profitable. As soon as people figure out they need to buy more cloth to make the same jeans, the profit goes away. PrecommitmentPrecommitment is, I think, the most powerful argument for dollarization (as for euorization of, say, Greece): A country that dollarizes cannot print money to spend more than it receives in taxes. A country that dollarizes must also borrow entirely in dollars, and must endure costly default rather than relatively less costly inflation if it doesn't want to repay debts. Ex post inflation and devaluation is always tempting, to pay deficits, to avoid paying debt, to transfer money from savers to borrowers, to advantage exporters, or to goose the economy ahead of elections. If a government can precommit itself to eschew inflation and devaluation, then it can borrow a lot more money on better terms, and its economy will be far better off in the long run. An independent central bank is often advocated for precommitment value. Well, locating the central bank 5,000 miles away in a country that doesn't care about your economy is as independent as you can get!The Siren Vase. Greek 480-470 BC. Source: The Culture CriticPrecommitment is an old idea. See picture. It's hard. A country must set things up so that it cannot give in to temptation ex post, and it will regret and try to wriggle out of that commitment when the time comes. A lot of the structure of our laws and government amount to a set of precommitments. An independent central bank with a price-level mandate is a precommitment not to inflate. A constitution and property rights are precommitments not to expropriate electoral minorities. Especially in Argentina's case, precommitment is why full dollarization is better than an exchange rate peg or a currency board. A true exchange rate peg -- one dollar for one peso, as much as you like -- would seem to solve the temptation-to-inflate problem. But the country can always abrogate the peg, reinstitute currency controls, and inflate. An exchange rate peg is ultimately a fiscal promise; the country will raise enough taxes so that it can get the dollars necessary to back its currency. When that seems too hard, countries devalue the peg or abandon it altogether. A currency board is tougher. Under a currency board, every peso issued by the government is backed by a dollar. That seems to ensure adequate reserves to handle any conceivable run. But a strapped government eyes the great Uncle-Scrooge swimming pool full of dollars at the currency board, and is tempted to abrogate the board, grab the assets and spend them. That's exactly how Argentina's currency board ended. Dollarization is a burn the ships strategy. There is no return. Reserves are neither necessary nor sufficient for an exchange rate peg. The peg is a fiscal promise and stands and falls with fiscal policy. A currency board, to the governmentFull dollarization -- the country uses actual dollars, and abandons its currency -- cannot be so swiftly undone. The country would have to pass laws to reinstitute the peso, declare all dollar contracts to be Peso contracts, ban the use of dollars and try to confiscate them. Dollars pervading the country would make that hard. People who understand their wealth is being confiscated and replaced by monopoly money would make it harder -- harder than some technical change in the amount of backing at the central bank for the same peso notes and bank accounts underlying a devalued peg or even an abrogated currency board. The design of dollarization should make it harder to undo. The point is precommitment, to make it as costly as possible for a following government to de-dollarize, after all. It's hard to confiscate physical cash, but if domestic Argentine banks have dollar accounts and dollar assets, it is relatively easy to pronounce the accounts in pesos and grab the assets. It would be better if dollarization were accompanied by full financial, capital, and trade liberalization, including allowing foreign banks to operate freely and Argentinian banks to become subsidiaries of foreign banks. Absence of a central bank and domestic deposit insurance will make that even more desirable. Then Argentinian bank "accounts" could be claims to dollar assets held offshore, that remain intact no matter what a future Peronist government does. Governments in fiscal stress that print up money, like Argentina, also impose an array of economy-killing policies to try to prop up the value of their currency, so the money printing generates more revenue. They restrict imports with tariffs, quotas, and red tape; they can restrict exports to try to steer supply to home markets at lower prices; they restrict currency conversion and do so at manipulated rates; they restrict capital markets, stopping people from investing abroad or borrowing abroad; they force people to hold money in oligopolized bank accounts at artificially low interest rates. Dollarization is also a precommitment to avoid or at least reduce all these harmful policies, as generating a demand for a country's currency doesn't do any good to the government budget when there isn't a currency. Zimbabwe dollarized in 2009, giving up on its currency after the greatest hyperinflation ever seen. The argument for Argentina is similar. Ecuador dollarized successfully in much less trying circumstances. It's not a new idea, and unilateral dollarization is possible. In both cases there was a period in which both currencies circulated. (Sadly, Zimbabwe ended dollarization in 2019, with a re-introduction of the domestic currency and redenomination of dollar deposits at a very unfavorable exchange rate. It is possible to undo, and the security of dollar bank accounts in face of such appropriation is an important part of the dollarization precommitment.) The limits of precommitmentDollarization is no panacea. It will work if it is accompanied by fiscal and microeconomic reform. It will be of limited value otherwise. I'll declare a motto: All successful inflation stabilizations have come from a combination of fiscal, monetary and microeconomic reform. Dollarization does not magically solve intractable budget deficits. Under dollarization, if the government cannot repay debt or borrow, it must default. And Argentina has plenty of experience with sovereign default. Argentina already borrows abroad in dollars, because nobody abroad wants peso debt, and has repeatedly defaulted on dollar debt. The idea of dollar debt is that explicit default is more costly than inflation, so the country will work harder to repay debt. Bond purchasers, aware of the temptation to default, will put clauses in debt contracts that make default more costly still. For you to borrow, you have to give the bank the title to the house. Sovereign debt issued under foreign law, with rights to grab assets abroad works similarly. But sovereign default is not infinitely costly and countries like Argentina sometimes choose default anyway. Where inflation may represent simply hugging the mast and promising not to let go, default is a set of loose handcuffs that you can wriggle out of painfully. Countries are like corporations. Debt denominated in the country's own currency is like corporate equity (stock): If the government can't or won't pay it back the price can fall, via inflation and currency devaluation. Debt denominated in foreign currency is like debt: If the government can't or won't pay it back, it must default. (Most often, default is partial. You get back some of what is promised, or you are forced to convert maturing debt into new debt at a lower interest rate.) The standard ideas of corporate finance tell us who issues debt and who issues equity. Small businesses, new businesses, businesses that don't have easily valuable assets, businesses where it is too easy for the managers to hide cash, are forced to borrow, to issue debt. You have to borrow to start a restaurant. Businesses issue equity when they have good corporate governance, good accounting, and stockholders can be sure they're getting their share. These ideas apply to countries, and the choice between borrowing in their own currency and borrowing in foreign currency. Countries with poor governance, poor accounting, out of control fiscal policies, poor institutions for repayment, have to borrow in foreign currency if they are going to borrow at all, with intrusive conditions making default even more expensive. Issuing and borrowing in your own currency, with the option to inflate, is the privilege of countries with good institutions, and democracies where voters get really mad about inflation in particular. Of course, when things get really bad, the country can't borrow in either domestic or foreign currency. Then it prints money, forcing its citizens to take it. That's where Argentina is. In personal finance, you start with no credit at all; then you can borrow; finally you can issue equity. On the scale of healthier economies, dollarizing is the next step up for Argentina. Dollarization and foreign currency debt have another advantage. If a country inflates its way out of a fiscal mess, that benefits the government but also benefits all private borrowers at the expense of private savers. Private borrowing inherits the inflation premium of government borrowing, as the effective government default induces a widespread private default. Dollarization and sovereign default can allow the sovereign to default without messing up private contracts, and all prices and wages in the economy. It is possible for sovereigns to pay higher interest rates than good companies, and the sovereign to be more likely to default than those companies. It doesn't always happen, because sovereigns about to default usually grab all the wealth they can find on the way down, but the separation of sovereign default from inflationary chaos is also an advantage. Greece is a good example, and a bit Italy as well, both in the advantages and the cautionary tale about the limitations of dollarization. Greece and Italy used to have their own currencies. They also had borders, trade controls, and capital controls. They had regular inflation and devaluation. Every day seemed to be another "crisis" demanding another "just this once" splurge. As a result, they paid quite high interest rates to borrow, since savvy bondholders wanted insurance against another "just this once."They joined the EU and the eurozone. This step precommitted them to free trade, relatively free capital markets, and no national currency. Sovereign default was possible, but regarded as very costly. Having banks stuffed with sovereign debt made it more costly. Leaving the euro was possible, but even more costly. Deliberately having no plan to do so made it more costly still. The ropes tying hands to the mast were pretty strong. The result: borrowing costs plummeted. Governments, people and businesses were able to borrow at unheard of low rates. And they did so, with aplomb. The borrowing could have financed public and private investment to take advantage of the new business opportunities the EU allowed. Sadly it did not. Greece soon experienced the higher ex-post costs of default that the precommitment imposed. Dollarizaton -- euroization -- is a precommitment, not a panacea. Recommitments impose costs on yourself ex post. Those costs are real. A successful dollarization for Argentina has to be part of a joint monetary, fiscal, and microeconomic reform. (Did I say that already? :) ) If public finances aren't sorted out, a default will come eventually. And public finances don't need a sharp bout of "austerity" to please the IMF. They need decades of small primary surpluses, tax revenues slightly higher than spending, to credibly pay down any debt. To get decades of revenue, the best answer is growth. Tax revenue equals tax rate times income. More income is a lot easier than higher tax rate, which at least partially lowers income. Greece and Italy did not accomplish the microeconomic reform part. Fortunately, for Argentina, microeconomic reform is low-hanging fruit, especially for a Libertarian president. TransitionWell, so much for the Promised Land, they may have asked of Moses, how do we get there? And let's not spend 40 years wandering the Sinai on the way. Transition isn't necessarily hard. On 1 January 1999, Italy switched from Lira to Euro. Every price changed overnight, every bank account redenominated, every contract reinterpreted, all instantly and seamlessly. People turned in Lira banknotes for Euro banknotes. The biggest complaint is that stores might have rounded up converted prices. If only Argentina could have such problems. Why is Argentina not the same? Well, for a lot of reasons. Before getting to the euro, Italy had adopted the EU open market. Exchange rates had been successfully pegged at the conversion rate, and no funny business about multiple rates. The ECB (really the Italian central bank) could simply print up euros to hand out in exchange for lira. The assets of the Italian central bank and other national central banks were also redenominated in euro, so printing up euros to soak up national currencies was not inflationary -- assets still equal liabilities. Banks with lira deposits that convert to Euro also have lira assets that convert to euro. And there was no sovereign debt crisis, bank crisis, or big inflation going on. Italian government debt was trading freely on an open market. Italy would spend and receive taxes in euros, so if the debt was worth its current price in lira as the present value of surpluses, it was worth exactly the same price, at the conversion rate, in euro. None of this is true in Argentina. The central problem, of course, is that the government is broke. The government does not have dollars to exchange for Pesos. Normally, this would not be a problem. Reserves don't matter, the fiscal capacity to get reserves matters. The government could simply borrow dollars internationally, give the dollars out in exchange for pesos, and slowly pay off the resulting debt. If Argentina redenominated interest-bearing peso debt to dollars at a market exchange rate, that would have no effect on the value of the debt. Obviously, borrowing additional dollars would likely be difficult for Argentina right now. To the extent that its remaining debt is a claim to future inflationary seigniorage revenues, its debt is also worth less once converted to dollars, even at a free market rate, because without seigniorage or fiscal reforms, budget deficits will increase. And that leads to the primary argument against dollarization I hear these days. Yes it might be the promised land, but it's too hard to get there. I don't hear loudly enough, though, what is the alternative? One more muddle of currency boards, central bank rules, promises to the IMF and so forth? How do you suddenly create the kind of stable institutions that Argentina has lacked for a century to justify a respectable currency? One might say this is a problem of price, not of quantity. Pick the right exchange rate, and conversion is possible. But that is not even clearly true. If the state is truly broke, if pesos are only worth anything because of the legal restrictions forcing people to hold them, then pesos and peso debt are genuinely worthless. The only route to dollarization would be essentially a complete collapse of the currency and debt. They are worth nothing. We start over. You can use dollars, but you'll have to export something to the US -- either goods or capital, i.e. stock and bonds in private companies -- to get them. (Well, to get any more of them. Lots of dollars line Argentine mattresses already.) That is enough economic chaos to really put people off. In reality, I think the fear is not a completely worthless currency, but that a move to quick dollarization would make peso and peso claims worth very little, and people would rebel against seeing their money holdings and bank accounts even more suddenly worthless than they are now. Maybe, maybe not. Just who is left in Argentina counting on a robust value of pesos? But the state is not worth nothing. It may be worth little in mark to market, or current dollar borrowing capacity. But a reformed, growing Argentina, with tax, spending, and microeconomic reform, could be a great place for investment, and for tax revenue above costs. Once international lenders are convinced those reform efforts are locked in, and Argentina will grow to anything like its amazing potential, they'll be stumbling over themselves to lend. So a better dollarization plan redeems pesos at the new greater value of the post-reform Argentine state. The question is a bit of chicken and egg: Dollarization has to be part of the reform, but only reform allows dollarization with a decent value of peso exchange. So there is a genuine question of sequencing of reforms. This question reminds me of the totally fruitless discussion when the Soviet Union broke up. American economists amused themselves with clever optimal sequencing of liberalization schemes. But if competent benevolent dictators (sorry, "policy-makers") were running the show, the Soviet Union wouldn't have failed in the first place. The end of hyperinflation in Germany. Price level 1919-1924. Note left-axis scale. Source: Sargent (1982) "The ends of four big inflations." A better historical analogy is, I think, the ends of hyperinflation after WWI, so beautifully described by Tom Sargent in 1982. The inflations were stopped by a sudden, simultaneous, fiscal, monetary, and (to some extent) microeconomic reform. The fiscal problem was solved by renegotiating reparations under the Versailles treaty, along with severe cuts in domestic spending, for example firing a lot of government and (nationalized) railroad workers. There were monetary reforms, including an independent central bank forbidden to buy government debt. There were some microeconomic reforms as well. Stopping inflation took no monetary stringency or high interest rates: Interest rates fell, and the governments printed more money, as real money demand increased. There was no Phillips curve of high unemployment. Employment and the economies boomed. So I'm for almost-simultaneous and fast reforms. 1) Allow the use of dollars everywhere. Dollars and pesos can coexist. Yes, this will put downward pressure on the value of the peso, but that might be crucial to maintain interest in the other reforms, which will raise the value of the peso. 2) Instant unilateral free trade and capital opening. Argentina will have to export goods and capital to get dollars. Get out of the way. Freeing imports will lower their prices and make the economy more efficient. Capital will only come in, which it should do quickly, if it knows it can get out again. Float the peso. 3) Long list of growth - oriented microeconomic reforms. That's why you elected a Libertarian president. 4) Slash spending. Reform taxes. Low marginal rates, broad base. Subsidies in particular distort prices to transfer income. Eliminate. 5) Once reforms are in place, and Argentina has some borrowing capacity, redenominate debt to dollars, and borrow additional dollars to exchange pesos for dollars. All existing peso contracts including bank accounts change on the date. Basically, you want people to hold peso bills and peso debt in the interim as claims on the post-reform government. Peso holders have an incentive to push for reforms that will raise the eventual exchange value of the peso. 6) Find an interim lender. The central problem is who will lend to Argentina in mid stream in order to retire pesos. This is like debtor in possession financing but for a bankrupt country. This could be a job for the IMF. The IMF could lend Argentina dollars for the purpose of retiring pesos. One couldn't ask for much better "conditionality" than a robust Libertarian pro-growth program. Having the IMF along for the ride might also help to commit Argentina to the program. (The IMF can force conditionality better than private lenders.) When things have settled down, Argentina should be able to borrow dollars privately to pay back the IMF. The IMF might charge a decent interest rate to encourage that. How much borrowing is needed? Less than you think. Interest-paying debt can simply be redenominated in dollars once you pick a rate. That might be hard to pay off, but that's a problem for later. So Argentina really only needs to borrow enough dollars to retire cash pesos. I can't find numbers, but hyper inflationary countries typically don't have much real value of cash outstanding. The US has 8% of GDP in currency outstanding. If Argentina has half that, then it needs to borrow only 4% of GDP in dollars to buy back all its currency. That's not a lot. If the peso really collapses, borrowing a little bit more (against great future growth of the reform program) to give everyone $100, the sort of fresh start that Germany did after WWII and after unification, is worth considering. Most of the worry about Argentina's borrowing ability envisions continued primary deficits with slow fiscal adjustment. Make the fiscal adjustment tomorrow."You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," said Rahm Emanuel wisely. "Sequencing" reforms means that everything promised tomorrow is up for constant renegotiation. Especially when parts of the reform depend on other parts, I'm for doing it all as fast as possible, and then adding refinements later if need be. Roosevelt had his famous 100 days, not a 8 year sequenced program. The Argentine reform program is going to hurt a lot of people, or at least recognize losses that had long been papered over in the hope they would go away. Politically, one wants to make the case "We're all in this, we're all hurting. You give up your special deal, preferential exchange rate, special subsidy or whatever, but so will everyone else. Hang with me to make sure they don't get theirs, and in a year we'll all be better off." If reforms are in a long sequence, which means long renegotiation, it's much harder to get buy in from people who are hurt earlier on that the ones who come later will also do their part. The standard answersOne standard critique of dollarization is monetary policy and "optimal currency areas." By having a national currency, the country's wise central bankers can artfully inflate and devalue the currency on occasion to adapt to negative shocks, without the inconvenience and potential dislocation of everyone in the country lowering prices and wages. Suppose, say, the country produces beef, and exports it in order to import cars. If world demand for beef declines, the dollar price of beef declines. The country is going to have to import fewer cars. In a dollarized country, or with a pegged exchange rate, the internal price of beef and wages go down. With its own country and a floating rate, the value of the currency could go down, leaving beef and wages the same inside the country, but the price of imported cars goes up. If lowering prices and wages causes more recession and dislocation than raising import prices, then the artful devaluation is the better idea. (To think about this question more carefully you need traded and non-traded goods; beef, cars, and haircuts. The relative price of beef, cars, and haircuts along with demand for haircuts is also different under the two regimes). Similarly, suppose there is a "lack of demand'' recession and deflation. (90 years later, economists are still struggling to say exactly where that comes from.) With its own central bank and currency, the country can artfully inflate just enough to offset the recession. A country that dollarizes also has to import not-always-optimal US inflation. Switzerland did a lot better than the US and EU once again in the covid era. This line of thinking answers the question, "OK, if Argentina ($847 bn GDP, beef exports) should have its own currency in order to artfully offset shocks, why shouldn't Colorado ($484 bn GDP, beef exports)?'' Colorado is more dependent on trade with the rest of the US than is Argentina. But, the story goes, people can more easily move across states. A common federal government shoves "fiscal stimulus" to states in trouble. Most of all, "lack of demand" recessions seem to be national, in part because of the high integration of states, so recessions are fought by national policy and don't need state-specific monetary stimulus. This is the standard "optimal currency area" line of thinking, which recommends a common currency in an integrated free trade zone such as US, small Latin American countries that trade a lot with the US, and Europe. Standard thinking especially likes a common currency in a fiscal union. Some commenters felt Greece should keep or revert to the Drachma because the EU didn't have enough common countercyclical fiscal policy. It likes independent currencies elsewhere.I hope you're laughing out loud by now. A wise central bank, coupled with a thrifty national government, that artfully inflates and devalues just enough to technocratically exploit price stickiness and financial frictions, offsetting national "shocks" with minimum disruption, is a laughable description of Argentina's fiscal and monetary policies. Periodic inflation, hyperinflation and default, together with a wildly overregulated economy with far too much capital and trade controls is more like it. The lure of technocratic stabilization policy in the face of Argentina's fiscal and monetary chaos is like fantasizing whether you want the tan or black leather on your new Porsche while you're on the bus to Carmax to see if you can afford a 10-year old Toyota. Another reason people argue that even small countries should have their own currencies is to keep the seigniorage. Actual cash pays no interest. Thus, a government that issues cash earns the interest spread between government bonds and interest. Equivalently, if demand for cash is proportional to GDP, then as GDP grows, say 2% per year, then the government can let cash grow 2% per year as well, i.e. it can print up that much cash and spend it. But this sort of seigniorage is small for modern economies that don't have inflation. Without inflation, a well run economy might pay 2% for its debt, so save 2% by issuing currency. 2% interest times cash which is 10% of GDP is 0.2% of GDP. On the scale of Argentinian (or US) debt and deficits, that's couch change. When inflation is higher, interest rates are higher, and seigniorage or the "inflation tax" is higher. Argentina is living off that now. But the point is not to inflate forever and to forswear bigger inflation taxes. Keeping this small seigniorage is one reason for countries to keep their currency and peg to the dollar or run a currency board. The currency board holds interest-bearing dollar assets, and the government gets the interest. Nice. But as I judge above, the extra precommitment value of total dollarization is worth the small lost seigniorage. Facing Argentina's crisis, plus its catastrophic century of lost growth, lost seigniorage is a cost that I judge far below the benefit. Other countries dollarize, but agree with the US Fed to rebate them some money for the seigniorage. Indeed, if Argentina dollarizes and holds 10% of its GDP in non-interest-bearing US dollars, that's a nice little present to the US. A dollarization agreement with Argentina to give them back the seignorage would be the least we can do. But I don't think Argentina should hold off waiting for Jay Powell to answer the phone. The Fed has other fires to put out. If Argentina unilaterally dollarizes, they can work this sort of thing out later. Dollarization would obviously be a lot easier if it is worked out together with the US government and US banks. Getting cash sent to Argentina, getting banks to have easy payment systems in dollars and links to US banks would make it all easier. If Argentina gets rid of its central bank it still needs a payment system to settle claims in dollars. Accounts at, say, Chase could function as a central bank. But it would all be easier if the US cooperates. Updates:Some commenters point out that Argentina may be importing US monetary policy just as the US imports Argentine fiscal policy. That would lead to importing a big inflation. They suggest a Latin American Monetary Union, like the euro, or using a third country's currency. The Swiss franc is pretty good. Maybe the Swiss can set the world standard of value. Both are good theoretical ideas but a lot harder to achieve in the short run. Dollarization will be hard enough. Argentines have a lot of dollars already, most trade is invoiced in dollars so getting dollars via trade is relatively easy, the Swiss have not built out a banking infrastructure capable of being a global currency. The EMU lives on top of the EU, and has its own fiscal/monetary problems. Building a new currency before solving Argentina's problems sounds like a long road. The question asked was dollarization, so I stuck to that for now. I imagined here unilateral dollarization. But I didn't emphasize enough: The US should encourage dollarization! China has figured this out and desperately wants anyone to use its currency. Why should we not want more people to use our currency? Not just for the seigniorage revenue, but for the ease of trade and international linkages it promotes. The Treasury and Fed should have a "how to dollarize your economy" package ready to go for anyone who wants it. Full integration is not trivial, including access to currency, getting bank access to the Fed's clearing systems, instituting cyber and money laundering protocols, and so forth. Important update: Daniel Raisbeck and Gabriela Calderon de Burgos at CATO have a lovely essay on Argentinian dollarization, also debunking an earlier Economist article that proclaimed it impossible. They include facts and comparison with other dollarization experiences, not just theory as I did. (Thanks to the correspondent who pointed me to the essay.) Some quotes:At the end of 2022, Argentines held over $246 billion in foreign bank accounts, safe deposit boxes, and mostly undeclared cash, according to Argentina's National Institute of Statistics and Census. This amounts to over 50 percent of Argentina's GDP in current dollars for 2021 ($487 billion). Hence, the dollar scarcity pertains only to the Argentine state....The last two dollarization processes in Latin American countries prove that "purchasing" the entire monetary base with U.S. dollars from one moment to the next is not only impractical, but it is also unnecessary. In both Ecuador and El Salvador, which dollarized in 2000 and 2001 respectively, dollarization involved parallel processes. In both countries, the most straightforward process was the dollarization of all existing deposits, which can be converted into dollars at the determined exchange rate instantly.in both Ecuador and El Salvador, dollarization not only did not lead to bank runs; it led to a rapid and sharp increase in deposits, even amid economic and political turmoil in Ecuador's case....There is a general feature of ending hyperinflation: People hold more money. In this case, people hold more bank accounts once they know those accounts are safe. Short summary of the rest, all those dollar deposits (out of mattresses into the banking system) allowed the central bank to retire its local currency liabilities. Emilio Ocampo, the Argentine economist whom Milei has put in charge of plans for Argentina's dollarization should he win the presidency, summarizes Ecuador's experience thus:People exchanged their dollars through the banks and a large part of those dollars were deposited in the same banks. The central bank had virtually no need to disburse reserves. This was not by design but was a spontaneous result.In El Salvador also, Dollar deposits also increased spontaneously in El Salvador, a country that dollarized in 2001. By the end of 2022, the country's deposits amounted to 49.6 percent of GDP—in Panama, another dollarized peer, deposits stood at 117 percent of GDP.El Salvador's banking system was dollarized immediately, but the conversion of the circulating currency was voluntary, with citizens allowed to decide if and when to exchange their colones for dollars. Ocampo notes that, in both Ecuador and El Salvador, only 30 percent of the circulating currency had been exchanged for dollars four months after dollarization was announced so that both currencies circulated simultaneously. In the latter country, it took over two years for 90 percent of the monetary base to be dollar‐based.Cachanosky explains that, in an El Salvador‐type, voluntary dollarization scenario, the circulating national currency can be dollarized as it is deposited or used to pay taxes, in which case the sums are converted to dollars once they enter a state‐owned bank account. Hence, "there is no need for the central bank to buy the circulating currency" at a moment's notice.Dollarization starts with both currencies and a peg. As long as people trust that dollarization will happen at the peg, the conversion can take a while. You do not need dollars to soak up every peso on day 1. Dollarization is, above, a commitment that the peg will last for years, not a necessary commitment that the peg will last a day. I speculated about private borrowing at lower rates than the sovereign, once default rather than inflation is the only way out for the sovereign. This happened: ... as Manuel Hinds, a former finance minister in El Salvador, has explained, solvent Salvadorans in the private sector can borrow at rates of around 7 percent on their mortgages while international sovereign bond markets will only lend to the Salvadoran government at far higher rates. As Hinds writes, under dollarization, "the government cannot transfer its financial costs to the private sector by printing domestic money and devaluing it."A nice bottom line: Ask people in Ecuador, El Salvador, and Panama what they think:This is yet another lesson of dollarization's actual experience in Latin American countries. It is also a reason why the vast majority of the population in the dollarized nations has no desire for a return to a national currency. The monetary experiences of daily life have taught them that dollarization's palpable benefits far outweigh its theoretical drawbacks. Even more important update:From Nicolás Cachonosky How to Dollarize Argentina The central problem is non-money liabilities of the central bank. A detailed plan. Many other blog posts at the link. See his comment below. Tyler Cowen on dollarization in Bloomberg. Great quote: The question is not how to adopt a new currency, it is how to adopt a new currency and retain a reasonable value for the old one. Dollarization is easy. Hyperinflate the Peso to zero a la Zimbabwe. Repeat quote. Emilio Ocampo on dollarization as a commitment device. One of the main reasons to dollarize is to eliminate high, persistent, and volatile inflation. However, to be effective, dollarization must generate sufficient credibility, which in turn depends critically on whether its expected probability of reversal is low.... The evidence suggests that, in the long-run, the strongest insurance against reversal is the support of the electorate, but in the short-run, institutional design [dollarization] can play a critical role.Fifty years ago, in testimony to U.S. Congress, Milton Friedman argued that "the whole reason why it is an advantage for a developing country to tie to a major country is that, historically speaking, the internal policies of developing countries have been very bad. U.S. policy has been bad, but their policies have been far worse. ... (1973, p.127)."In this respect, not much has changed in Argentina since. Craig Richardson explains how dollarization failed in Zimbabwe, a wonderful cautionary tale. Deficits did not stop, the government issued "bonds" and forced banks to buy them, bank accounts became de linked from currency. Gresham's law prevailed, the government "bonds" circulating at half face value drove out cash dollars. With persistent government and trade deficits there was a "dollar shortage."
1. IntroducciónEn la ponencia se abordarán las relaciones entre instituciones y desarrollo económico focalizando en el problema de la autonomía administrativa de los entes autónomos en Uruguay. El llamado "dominio industrial y comercial" del Estado era la principal herramienta de intervención estatal en la economía en las tres primeras décadas del siglo (lo siguen siendo hoy en día, aunque de una manera diferente). El proceso de construcción de dicho dominio arranca con la fundación del BROU en 1896. La intención original por la cual se dio autonomía administrativa al instituto fue separar la administración de problemas complejos, de las angustias políticas o financieras de los gobiernos. Construir institutos de intervención en la economía que no estuvieran sujetos al juego de la "política menuda" (al decir de Carlos Real de Azúa) fue uno de los propósitos orientadores en la forja de los Entes Autónomos. Este principio fue imaginado como un mecanismo que permitiría una intervención racional del Estado en la economía privilegiando los criterios técnicos de actuación sobre los políticos. Sin embargo, la autonomía administrativa presentaba un problema crucial para el andamiaje institucional del Estado: no estaban previstos en la constitución de 1830. Al momento en que se reforma la constitución (hacia 1917) el problema aparece a los legisladores como un tema de difícil resolución. El artículo 100 de la constitución que entra en vigencia en 1919 pretende dar una solución a esta anomalía. Sin embargo, la solución propuesta deja en manos de la ley la reglamentación definitiva de la autonomía administrativa de cada ente Autónomo. Esta resolución no logra corregir los problemas previos y plantea otros que deberán ser resueltos por los gobiernos sucesivos. Un elemento clave de los intentos de los gobiernos por abordar la definición de la autonomía administrativa durante los años de 1920 es que se encontrarán con la oposición de los mismos Entes Autónomos, los cuales no querrán ceder en cuanto al grado de autonomía alcanzado previamente. En éstos, y especialmente en el más antiguo que era el BROU, se había forjado una fuerte cohesión entre los Directorios y los principales funcionarios de carrera que lideraban el instituto.Los gobiernos se enfrentan a un nuevo actor, el actor burocrático que pugna por mantener la situación de autonomía, consolidada en los años previos a 1920.En el trabajo original de investigación que sustenta esta ponencia, el objetivo central era describir el primer impulso racionalizador del Estado uruguayo. En esta ponencia abordaremos un aspecto crucial de ese primer impulso que fue el surgimiento dentro de las empresas públicas de un personal jerárquico con características particulares. Nuestra principal hipótesis es que al amparo de la autonomía administrativa surgió un estamento de burócratas con una clara conciencia de su rol en la política democrática. Intentaremos mostrar cómo este grupo de "high civil servants" se percibía a sí mismo como un grupo necesario y diferente del actor político. Creemos que esta hipótesis ilumina un aspecto poco estudiado de la construcción del Estado uruguayo y sus mecanismos de intervención en la economía y la sociedad. Tradicionalmente se ha estudiado el rol de los políticos, de los empresarios, de los trabajadores y las diferentes formas de articulación de estos actores en la conformación de las estructuras del Estado uruguayo. Nosotros quisiéramos agregar un actor más, el cual creemos tiene su propia historia para contar, y que es el actor burocrático.El foco de nuestra ponencia estará en el Banco República y en la figura de su primer gerente de carrera, don Octavio Morató.A continuación, delimitaremos las dimensiones analíticas que empleamos para abordar nuestro objeto de estudio. Nos limitaremos a enunciar las principales hipótesis con las cuales interrogaremos el material empírico recolectado. El lector que así lo quiera, puede profundizar el marco teórico en el libro de próxima aparición (BAUDEAN, 2011).De la reflexión de Max Weber sobre la burocracia tomamos el énfasis que éste hace en la importancia del marco legal en la construcción de los roles que llevarán a cabo políticos y burócratas y en la definición de las características organizacionales de la burocracia. Con esta idea como guía abordaremos el marco constitucional y legal que dio forma al sistema de empresas públicas en su origen y particularmente al Banco República. Del institucionalismo de corte estructuralista, tomamos la hipótesis según la cual en el momento en que el Estado conquista cierta autonomía en el manejo de problemas específicos se convierte en arena del conflicto social (EVANS, RUESCHEMEYER, 1985). Esta hipótesis nos conducirá a precisar cuáles eran los aspectos críticos de la autonomía administrativa que generaban conflicto entre burocracia y clase política. La reflexión de Rudolph y Hoeber Rudolph (1984) nos hará profundizar en laimportancia del manejo del poder hacia el interior de la organización. En este sentido, intentaremos mostrar cuáles eran los problemas que Directores y altos burócratas del BROU veían en la posibilidad de mayores controles por parte del poder político en el manejo interno de la organización.La reflexión de Morstein Marx (1963) sobre el high civil service nos llevará a darle especial importancia al pensamiento del actor burocrático. De aquí el foco en el pensamiento de Octavio Morató. Dicho pensamiento será interpretado como un indicador de la autopercepción que los altos burócratas tenían sobre su rol en la política democrática.Por último, de la corriente neo-institucionalista (MEYER, ROWAN, 1991) nos interesará explorar la hipótesis según la cual las organizaciones son construidas y modeladas en su estructura y funcionamiento por los valores y principios institucionalizados prevalecientes en las sociedades donde están insertas. Esta hipótesis permite prever que las organizaciones que se alejan de dicho entorno de valores y principios institucionalizados encontrarán problemas en su consolidación y legitimación. En consecuencia, el trabajo de reconstrucción histórica realizado enfatiza en los conceptos institucionalizados a lo largo del siglo XIX sobre la estructura del Estado, el valor político y social de la burocracia y la organización del sistema financiero. La idea de la autonomía administrativa obtenía legitimidad de ciertos principios institucionalizados sobre las finanzas así como entraba en conflicto con otros vinculados a la relación entre los partidos y sus bases sociales. 2. El problema de investigación en su contexto históricoEl período que va desde la década de 1870 hasta la segunda década del siglo XX es el momento histórico de la consolidación y centralización del poder estatal. En el mismo se pasa desde un Estado de cuño liberala un Estado interventor en la economía. El corolario de este proceso es la institucionalización de la democracia con la constitución de 1919. Con esta reforma se inician la depuración de los procesos electorales y los arreglos institucionales que conducirán a la coparticipación de los partidos tradicionales en la administración.En las primeras décadas del siglo XX, con Batlle y Ordoñez en la presidencia (1), se consolidan las principales instituciones que mediarán en la intervención en la economía por parte del Estado: las empresas públicas o entes autónomos(2). Dichos entes eran, precisamente, autónomos en un país cuyos cimientos constitucionales prefiguraban un estado "unitario y centralista" al decir de historiadores y constitucionalistas. Dicha autonomía, implicaba que los directorios de los entes tenían potestad de "libre, franca y general administración": capacidad de designar y destituir funcionarios y de elaborar su propio presupuesto. Los directorios, a su vez, eran designados por el Ejecutivo con previa venia del Senado(3). Sin embargo, según la constitución de 1830 -en curso al momento de la creación de los primeros entes- el poder Administrador recaía en el Ejecutivo. Es así que la descentralización administrativa y la creación de una burocracia estatal autónoma comienza en Uruguay con elementos emparentados con las reformas que por la misma época (1870-1920) se implementaban en Europa y Estados Unidos (RAMOS, 2004). El elemento en común es el problema de"resolver el cómo se deberá producir la politización y despolitización simultánea que se debe operar al interior del sistema Ejecutivo de gobierno" (RAMOS, 2004). Es decir, el problema de cómo construir una burocracia meritocrática relativamente autónoma de los vicios de la política, pero al mismo tiempo capaz de servir a los gobiernos democráticamente elegidos. Sin embargo, el origen del concepto de autonomía tiene una historia que se hunde en los problemas del Estado uruguayo en el siglo XIX. En particular, el problema de generar una estructura estatal con autonomía financiera de los sectores económicamente dominantes en el país. El Banco República fue pensado –entre otros fines- para resolver este problema. En la coyuntura marcada por la crisis de 1890, uno de los problemas centrales que proponía una institución bancaria vinculada al Estado radicaba en la desconfianza que este vínculo despertaba en los sectores que dominaban el crédito a nivel local. En un sistema de patrón oro, dicho grupo tenía múltiples mecanismos para desestabilizar el normal desarrollo de una nueva institución estatal. La autonomía de la que gozará por ley el BROU (desde 1896) fue una fórmula de compromiso, fruto de la debilidad del Estado frente al capital financiero local. Dicha autonomía aseguraba a éstos últimos que la nueva institución no iba a ser manipulada para sofocar las angustias financieras de los gobiernos.Ahora bien, hay dos elementos escasamente subrayados en toda su importancia en lo que respecta a esta creación institucional (la descentralización vía la creación de entidades autónomas).En primer lugar, que esta idea se constituyó en una verdadera tradición en nuestro país. Pero lo más importante es que esta tradición de autonomía (4) fue defendida y fundamentada en conceptos de eficiencia organizacional e interés público por las mismas empresas, sus directorios y altos jerarcas (especialmente en el caso del BROU que será el foco de interés de esta ponencia). Esto es de resaltar porque –en el lenguaje teórico que emplearemos- es un indicador del temprano desarrollo de un actor burocrático con conciencia de un rol diferenciado del actor político partidarios así como de otros actores sociales.En segundo lugar, el BROU fue a la postre el modelo sobre el cual se inspiraron el resto de las empresas públicas del período. Con la fundación del BROU el concepto de autonomía administrativa aparece por primera vez en su máximo grado de expresión (Sayagues Laso, 1991, 225-253). Batlle y Ordoñez vislumbró en la formula organizacional de la autonomía una forma eficiente de administrar organismos complejos y sujetos a la sospecha de "manejo político" y la respetó, difundió y alentó. El concepto de autonomía se volvió problemático cuando se le quiso dar estatuto constitucional. La primera solución es la del artículo 100 de la constitución de 1919. La misma fue una solución incompleta. Desde la entrada en vigencia de la constitución llevó a polémicas tanto a nivel jurídico como entre las nuevas empresas y el Poder Ejecutivo. Tras varios intentos frustrados de reglamentación del artículo 100 a lo largo de la década de 1920, el mismo quedó sin reglamentar. El Consejo Nacional de Administración (5) (CNA) era quien tenía a cargo la supervisión general de los entes. En sucesivas reformas constitucionales, la tradición autonómica persiste y se desarrolla a nivel constitucional (1934, 1942 y 1952). Pero persistirá manteniendo características diferentes a las originales. En 1983, Solari y Franco escribían que las autonomías de las empresas públicas fueron altas hasta 1930 (6) y que con la constitución de 1934 comienzan a verse limitadas, cerrándose un ciclo de re-centralización hacia la constitución de 1967. Asimismo sugieren que el estudio de las autonomías a posteriori de 1967 es más complejo de lo que parece si uno se guía exclusivamente por el marco legal (7).Ahora bien, poco se sabe de los debates y tensiones que se generaron en el período histórico que va de 1920 a 1933, momento en que la autonomía de las empresas públicas es fuertemente criticada. ¿Cuáles fueron las posiciones de políticos y burócratas en torno a la autonomía?, ¿cuáles eran los grandes temas que se discutieron?, ¿qué alternativas se planteaban para dar solución a los conflictos generados? En el resto de la ponencia abordaremos dos temas que permiten responder parcialmente las preguntas planteadas. Primero, la sanción constitucional de la autonomía administrativa de los entes autónomos (1917-1919). Este es el marco legal que da pie a los encuentros y desencuentros entre el BROU y el Poder Ejecutivo durante el período de duración de la segunda constitución que tuvo el país (1919-1933). Encuentros y desencuentros que estarán pautados por la discusión del alcance que la nueva constitución daba a la autonomía del instituto (particularmente en lo referente a la elaboración y sanción de su presupuesto) y la definición del estatuto de sus funcionarios (el debate acerca de si los mismos debían ser considerados funcionarios públicos o especiales). Segundo, profundizaremos en la perspectiva burocrática sobre estos problemas. Para ello abordaremos el pensamiento de Octavio Morató, gerente del BROU entre 1921 y 1937. (8)3. La autonomía administrativa del dominio industrial del Estado y la reforma de la constituciónEl marco en el que se debatió y se procesó la reforma que culminó en la constitución de 1919 fue una coyuntura donde se superpusieron nuevos y viejos problemas. Como lo expone Benjamín Nahum (NAHUM, 1998: 53-54), dicha coyuntura estuvo marcada por la resolución de al menos tres grandes problemas.En primer lugar, la experiencia de la guerra civil había puesto de manifiesto la necesidad de superar las limitaciones que la primera constitución oponía al sufragio. En segundo lugar, los nuevos entes autónomos creados no estaban "previstos ni regulados" por la vieja Constitución.En tercer lugar, y vinculado al problema anterior, la Constitución de 1830 era excesivamente centralista y ponía en manos del Presidente de la República una suma de poder que lo convertía en figura clave en la sociedad. Esta centralización era un problema para la democracia y la reforma constitucional debía dar una respuesta.En virtud de esta agenda, la discusión de dicha constitución fue uno de los momentos ideológicos más importantes del siglo XX en Uruguay (PANIZZA: 1990). Básicamente se discutió todo el andamiaje institucional que ordenaba la vida política del país. El problema jurídico que representaba la existencia de organismos y servicios tuvo un largo proceso de discusión que derivó en la redacción del artículo 100 de la Constitución de 1919. Veremos las diferentes posiciones sobre el problema a continuación.3.1. Posiciones sostenidas a nivel parlamentario sobre el problema de la descentralización (previo a la Constituyente de 1917) Veremos un resumen de las principales posiciones sostenidas en los debates parlamentarios tal como las resume Sayagués en el "Tratado de Derecho Administrativo" (1991: 144 y 145).Básicamente se sostuvieron tres criterios diferentes frente al problema de los nuevos organismos y servicios descentralizados: Posición 1. Las Cartas Orgánicas creadas mediante la ley eran inconstitucionales cuando consagraban una descentralización amplia.El principal argumento giraba en torno a la defensa del Poder Ejecutivo como "jefe superior de la administración" y al cual la ley no podía quitar las potestades que la Constitución le atribuía expresamente (dictar reglamentos, nombrar y destituir empleados públicos) para cederlas a las autoridades de los nuevos entes. Por otra parte, se cuestionaba fuertemente el hecho de que los presupuestos de gastos de algunas organizaciones (caso del BROU) pudiesen ser sancionados por sus propios directorios o con aprobación del Poder Ejecutivo, desconociendo de esta forma la competencia del Parlamento para autorizar los gastos públicos.Posición 2. Las Cartas Orgánicas creadas por la ley eran constitucionales. Esta posición fue mantenida por quienes defendieron la creación de los entes en el Parlamento (fuertemente por el sector batllista, pero también por blancos principistas como Martín C. Martínez). Resume Sayagués Laso (1991b: 145): "Se argumentaba diciendo que el Presidente era el jefe superior de la administración general de la República, pero no de las administracionesespeciales que el legislador crease; por tanto, concluíase que la ley podía dar amplios poderes de decisión a las autoridades de esos servicios. Un razonamiento análogo los llevaba a limitar la competencia del Poder Legislativo en materia presupuestal". (énfasis original).Posición 3. Las Cartas Orgánicas creadas por la ley no eran constitucionales ni inconstitucionales, sino EXTRACONSTITUCIONALES. Esta posición fue defendida por algunos legisladores que votaron favorablemente la creación de los nuevos entes. Se argumentaba que la Constitución de 1830 no preveía la descentralización administrativa por servicios, que comenzó a desarrollarse a posteriori por la vía de los hechos y por circunstancias especiales. En consecuencia, "el texto constitucional no la había permitido ni prohibido, sino simplemente ignorado"(SAYAGUÉS LASO, 1991: 145) .Los grandes temas que dividían las opiniones se centraban en:Los poderes de decisión de los directorios de los entes y su relación con la posición institucional del Poder Ejecutivo.La autoridad de la ley para crear dichos servicios frente a la autoridad de la Constitución misma.La competencia del Parlamento frente a los presupuestos de gastos de dichos servicios.Como puede observarse, se trata de una compleja mezcla de problemas jurídicos por una parte, y otros que van directamente a la relación entre política y administración. Estaba en juego la progresiva constitución de áreas de la administración que –de seguir las pautas de desarrollo que mantenían- podrían constituirse en arenas de decisión con alta independencia de los partidos en materias económicas, financieras y sociales. El problema radicaba en la precaria situación que tenía el Parlamento frente a estos nuevos segmentos de la administración.3.2. La Convención ConstituyenteHubo coincidencia entre los constituyentes en que la nueva Constitución consagrase el principio de la autonomía y en que el proyectado Consejo Nacional de Administración (CNA) tuviese a su cargo la superintendencia de dichos organismos. Las mayores divergencias surgieron en torno a la definición de la autonomía y a la conveniencia o no de extenderse sobre la misma en el texto constitucional. Existía diversidad de situaciones en los grados de autonomía que tenían los organismos y servicios descentralizados y también en la independencia económica que podían llegar a tener frente al Ejecutivo. Esto condujo a que no prosperara entre los constituyentes la idea de Martín C. Martínez de darle un contenido preciso al concepto mismo de autonomía. Predominó la idea de que sería la ley la que fijaría la extensión de la autonomía en cada caso. En consecuencia, el reconocimiento constitucional de la descentralización se redujo a un solo artículo (artículo 100) (8), no explicitándose el alcance de la autonomía. Esto generó la necesidad de definir con mayor precisión la relación entre el CNA y los diversos entes mediante la ley. Dado que preexistían diversas opiniones a nivel político sobre el tema y que los entes tenían posición tomada en defensa de la autonomía, se generaron debates y enfrentamientos mientras duró la Constitución de 1919 que nunca llegaron a resolverse en forma coherente y unificada.Pese a estos problemas, el artículo 100 fue un logro en varios sentidos. Constitucionalizó el proceso de descentralización administrativa que se había iniciado al margen de la Constitución de 1830. Con ello consagró un amplio traspaso de poderes de administración hacia los Consejos Directivos o Directorios de los entes.3.3. Las bases legales del conflicto entre gobierno y burocraciaTeniendo en cuenta estas disposiciones constitucionales, el problema estaba en resolver qué pasaba con las previas Leyes Orgánicas de los entes y servicios descentralizados: el artículo 100, ¿derogaba o no esas leyes? En caso afirmativo: ¿en qué medida se había operado dicha derogación? (SAYAGUÉS LASO, 1991:151).El BROU (9) se amparaba en la frase "serán administrados por Consejos Autónomos" para considerar derogadas de las previas Leyes Orgánicas todo lo referente a los controles administrativos que eventualmente el Ejecutivo pudiera imponer en el gobierno del instituto. Asimismo, en la postura institucional del BROU se consideraba como taxativos todos los casos de intervención del CNA enumerados en la segunda parte del artículo 100. En general, la postura de los entes fue acompañada por la doctrina jurídica de la época, siendo la mayor discrepancia el tema de las potestades presupuestales (donde juristas como Demichelli, Ramela de Castro y Martín C. Martínez mantenían posturas diferentes) (SAYAGUÉS LASO, 1991: 152). Por su parte, el Poder Ejecutivo (fundamentalmente el CNA) y el Parlamento sostuvieron la tesis de que el artículo 100 consagraba solamente el principio de la autonomía, dejando la precisión del alcance de la misma en manos del legislador. En consecuencia, mientras no se dictase la ley reglamentaria se deberían considerar vigentes todos los artículos de las previas Leyes Orgánicas que preveían intervenciones del Ejecutivo o el Parlamento en la administración de los entes. Esta divergencia dio lugar a enfrentamientos entre los poderes y las empresas. En nuestra opinión –pese a no tener evidencia contundente al respecto- las empresas se vieron en la obligación de exagerar sus fueros autonomistas debido a que la constitución de 1919 implicaba por primera vez la coparticipación de ambos partidos tradicionales en la conducción de temas administrativos de gobierno. Es plausible que las empresas -frente a un CNA que contenía en su interior a representantes de la oposición por primera vez- buscasen separar más radicalmente su administración de las injerencias de los poderes como forma de preservar el amplio margen de maniobra al que estaban acostumbradas.(1) Más precisamente, en su 2da presidencia: 1911 – 1916.(2) Luego de 1933 y en un contexto económico y político diferente, las empresas públicas también serán usadas con fines regulatorios junto a otros andamiajes institucionales destinados a tal fin.(3) Este modelo, que es el que corresponde a la 1era Carta Orgánica del Banco de la República (1896), se repitió –con variantes que delimitaban diversos grados de autonomía- para las empresas públicas creadas durante la 2da presidencia de Batlle.(4) Tradición que tuvo tiempo de madurar y permear la conciencia de los burócratas de carrera del Banco República por lo menos a lo largo de 3 décadas (desde la fundación del instituto hasta entrada la década de los '30).(5) Según la constitución de 1919 el Poder Ejecutivo se dividía en dos organismos: Presidente y Consejo Nacional de Administración con funciones específicas y diferenciadas.(6) Una prueba tangencial de ello son los debates con los gobiernos que se verán en el cuerpo central de esta tesis.(7) "Hasta esta última fecha [1967], sin embargo, la autonomía real frente al poder ejecutivo era elevada salvo en los casos, cada vez más frecuentes, de pérdida de la autonomía financiera . Sin embargo, la cuestión de la autonomía y su disminución no es tan simple. En forma paralela a la causa financiera se va produciendo también un proceso de pérdida de la autonomía real frente a los partidos políticos. Estos cada vez recurren con más fuerza al sector empresarial estatal, como recurso político. La paradoja es que dada la estructura de los partidos, la pérdida de autonomía frente a ellos puede traducirse muy a menudo en el surgimiento de la posibilidad de afirmar la autonomía frente al poder ejecutivo, inclusive en casos de imposibilidad de autofinanciamiento". Más adelante concluyen: ".surge la interrogante sobre si lo más característico del período actual es la disminución generalizada de las autonomías, lo que en algunos aspectos parece evidente, o una compleja transformación por la cual antiguas autonomías reales han sido sustituidas por otras diferentes, pero no menos reales" (SOLARI, FRANCO, 1983: 94-95).(8) Artículo 100: "Los diversos servicios que constituyen el dominio industrial del Estado, la instrucción superior, secundaria y primaria, la asistencia y la higiene públicas serán administrados por Consejos Autónomos. Salvo que sus leyes los declaren electivos, los miembros de estos consejos serán designados por el Consejo Nacional. A este incumbe destituir a los miembros de los consejos especiales con venia del Senado, ser juez de las protestas que originen las elecciones de los miembros electivos, apreciar las rendiciones de cuentas, disponer las acciones competentes en caso de responsabilidad y entender en los recursos administrativos según las leyes".(9) Junto con el BROU, también defendían dicha posición los entes autónomos que tenían en lo previo un grado similar de autonomía. *Profesor de Fundamentos de la Investigación Social, Métodos de investigación y Taller de Monografía.Depto de Estudios InternacionalesFACS – ORT Uruguay(ma.baudean@gmail.com). BIBLIOGRAFÍAABERBACH, J.; PUTNAM, R. ; ROCKMAN, B. 1981. Bureaucrats and politicians in western democracies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.ACEVEDO, Eduardo. 1934. Anales históricos del Uruguay. Tomo IV. Montevideo: Barreiro y Ramos.Banco de la República Oriental del Uruguay [Raúl Montero Bustamante]. (s.f.) El Banco República en su Cincuentenario. 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Part one of an interview with Mrs. Charles Laserte of Leominster, Massachusetts. Topics include: She was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. How her parents came to the U.S., met and were married. How she moved from Manchester, NH to Leominster, MA. How she met her husband. The work she did on the city council. The social clubs she belonged to. The Franco-American community in Leominster. Her husband's family history and his work as a doctor. Her work on the school committee. Women in politics. Mrs. Laserte was the first woman on the school board and the city council. ; 1 SPEAKER 1: Mrs. Laserte, where are you from? Where were you born? MRS. LASERTE: I was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. SPEAKER 1: Uh, is that where your parents are from also? MRS. LASERTE: And I lived -- yes. Well, my parents had lived in Manchester, New Hampshire. My father came to Manchester in the 1870s, and my mother came in the 1880s, about a year or so before I was born. And, uh, she was a bride shortly after she came here. She, um, came over not with the intention of getting married but with the intention of living here because her brother was living in Manchester. SPEAKER 1: I see. Why did she -- uh, besides the fact that her brother was living in Manchester, did she have any other reasons to come to Manchester? MRS. LASERTE: Yes, she did. Of course, she was born in, uh, 1863, before the war of 1870 in Alsace. And she did, did receive a German certificate and then went to Paris to a school where they trained them for specific careers. It was run by two cousins in Paris. Uh, she became a telegrapher for the railroads and did not like the job. Then she was a governess and didn't care too much for the job. So she thought she would come to this country, perhaps to do something she would prefer. SPEAKER 1: I see. And she ended up with her brother in Manchester. And what did she do in Manchester? MRS. LASERTE: Well, in Manchester, she did not do a great deal because, uh, soon after she came here, he proposed and they decided to get married. Uh, they came over, interestingly enough, in 1886, when the Statue of Liberty was, uh, uh, shall I say accepted? And they were there when the ceremonies were going on. So my mother came over… SPEAKER 1: With the statue. MRS. LASERTE: … with the statue, you might say. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] 2 MRS. LASERTE: [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] And your dad, was he always from Manchester, or…? MRS. LASERTE: No. He was born in Canada, at [la Baie-du-Febvre], which is a small town in Nicolet. And he went to Nicolet College and got a job as a grocer boy in Drummondville, where incidentally, he met my husband's father. And then he came to Manchester and worked as a grocery man and eventually had quite a large store in wholesale as well as retail. SPEAKER 1: And maybe at this point, I should ask you your maiden name so we know who your father is. MRS. LASERTE: Well, my maiden name used to be a problem for people of English speech. The name is Grenier. And of course, Grenier Field is named after Grenier, but that is a very distant cousin, very distant cousin who was killed when he was working for the government to deliver mail. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: He was in an airplane when he died. SPEAKER 1: So now, you have one parent that came from France and one that came from Canada, and they were married in Manchester. MRS. LASERTE: Right. SPEAKER 1: And apparently, they lived most of their lives in Manchester. MRS. LASERTE: That's right. SPEAKER 1: And you are the one that left the family home to come to Leominster. MRS. LASERTE: That's right. SPEAKER 1: Was that a direct move from Manchester to Leominster? MRS. LASERTE: Oh, no. I went to Wellesley College and graduated from there, and then I taught school in Wellesley High School and Newton High School before I was married. SPEAKER 1: Oh, I see. MRS. LASERTE: Then I came to Leominster. 3 SPEAKER 1: Then you came to Leominster. And at that… I'm sorry. MRS. LASERTE: And my husband was taking courses at Harvard and in the hospitals when I met him. SPEAKER 1: Oh, you met your husband at Harvard… or at a hospital, anyhow, while you were there. MRS. LASERTE: Well, through there, because he stopped on the way, so to speak. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] And then you came to Leominster after you were married? MRS. LASERTE: Right. SPEAKER 1: I see. Now, you had one child. Is that correct? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Right. And from there, I noticed some time back from an article in the paper that you were active in the city council. When did you first become an elected member of the city council? MRS. LASERTE: Well, before I was on the city council, I was on the school committee. SPEAKER 1: Oh, you were on the school committee first. MRS. LASERTE: First. SPEAKER 1: Right. MRS. LASERTE: I was on the school committee when my son was in the high chair, so to speak, because I thought the schools might possibly be improved because of my experience in Wellesley and Newton. And I have served on the school committee for about 23 years. When my son became interested in teaching here, I thought it was time to get out. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] MRS. LASERTE: So I got out. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: Oh, I see. You left the school committee about the time that your son came into the Leominster School District. MRS. LASERTE: Yes, I finished up my term, but I was not a candidate again, naturally. So then I became interested in the council. I had a grief 4 against the council because they were not in favor of building the Northwest School. I had had a struggle to get the Gallagher Junior High and was on the publicity for that, and also on the building committee so that I was very much interested in having Northwest School. So I was on that building committee. But I always found that the council was a little bit stingy for the schools. So I thought I might be interested in being on the council. SPEAKER 1: If I had more time, I'd be interested in getting contemporary opinion, but I won't at this point. [Laughter] MRS. LASERTE: Well, I ran in '49 when Mr. Crossman became mayor. I ran as councilor from Ward 5. And the very same year, we had elections, you see, in '49, and I thought, "Well, it would be more interesting to be councilor at large." So in one year, I was both councilor… SPEAKER 1: And councilor at large. MRS. LASERTE: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: I see. Now, as a member of the Franco-American community, did you have many contacts in the Franco-American community in Leominster? MRS. LASERTE: Not so many contacts, no. Of course, my husband had many contacts, and through him I did. But I didn't go out very much socially. I belonged to the Fortnightly Club and Musical Club in that. So of course, I didn't get to know the people very well. But I did belong to the Alliance Française, which is of course promoted by France, and I became a president of that organization and received a medal, shall I call it, from the government, because of my work initiating that group. SPEAKER 1: Oh, I see. Oh, you were one of the founders of the group? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Oh, I see. As a result… well, you joined these organizations in the what, '30s, '20s approximately? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. Mostly in the '30s. 5 SPEAKER 1: Mostly in the '30s. And you mentioned that your contacts with Franco Americans were probably slight. That would indicate then that there were many Franco Americans who were not involved in such groups as the Fortnightly and the…? MRS. LASERTE: Oh, yes, very few. When I first belonged to Fortnightly, that was in 1916. I'm an honorary member because I belonged so long. There was a sort of snobbish element there, I regret to say. SPEAKER 1: In the Fortnightly, or…? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: Well, then I became president in 1931. So in some way, I erased it. SPEAKER 1: I see. And were there… at that time, did it encourage Franco Americans to belong to the Fortnightly, or…? MRS. LASERTE: No. SPEAKER 1: No. Why? Do you think it's because of simply the Depression years and they were too involved in trying to make a living, or…? MRS. LASERTE: Well, I don't know just what the trouble was. I think the tendency was to be among themselves in one section of the city. I think the Fortnightly would have welcomed them in a way. I regret that I did say they were snobbish. It isn't quite snobbishness. It's because they didn't know them. SPEAKER 1: I see. I see. Now, when, to your recollection did, as you see it, did the Franco Americans become a little bit more involved with the community at large? MRS. LASERTE: Well, I think it helped when some of our men became interested in politics. I really think that did help. For instance, when Mayor Cormier went in. There was quite a change then. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: Mayor Lapierre of course had been in before. But there was probably some of it then, but I didn't notice it so much. 6 SPEAKER 1: Right. Right. So you think that the Franco Americans began to be more involved in the city then as a result of some of their members becoming active in politics then? MRS. LASERTE: I do, yes. SPEAKER 1: I see. Did you know any of these people, let's say those that are active in politics? Did you know any of these personally or only through your contacts in politics? MRS. LASERTE: No, just through contacts. SPEAKER 1: Through the contacts in politics. MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Do you think that they were truly representative of the Franco-American community or not? MRS. LASERTE: Well, I think some of them were. I think Henry [Boven] was. I think to a degree Mayor Lapierre was. I think Mayor Cormier was. But I think Mayor Cormier was a little different. He seemed to be a part of the whole city more than just his own section. SPEAKER 1: He was mayor in the what, '50s? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Would that indicate that possibly the Franco-American community had become a real member of the community at this point, or do you think that might be the reason? MRS. LASERTE: Well, I think the women had come in to the community quite a bit. SPEAKER 1: The women had. Before the men? MRS. LASERTE: Before the men. SPEAKER 1: Is that right? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. And I say that I… back there, I said that I helped to erase the snobbishness. Well, we had quite a number of women belonging to Fortnightly and being members of the whole city group or the city community. SPEAKER 1: I see. 7 MRS. LASERTE: And I do think the schools had quite a bit to do with it, more of the French group were going to high school as time went on, and I think that had a great deal to do with it. SPEAKER 1: And you think that was more responsible for the mingling of French Canadians into the entire community more than, say, World War II, or do you think that World War II might have contributed to this turnabout? MRS. LASERTE: I don't think World War II necessarily contributed very much. It did with a very few, but not so much with the whole. Perhaps it would be better if there was just one veteran group in the city, but that's my personal opinion. SPEAKER 1: Right. Well, that was my opinion, too, a few years back, and I don't think it's changed, but you know, isn't that way… MRS. LASERTE: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: Then as far as I can see, your feeling is that Mayor Cormier was different than Mayor Lapierre, that he didn't just represent the French community, or not as much as Mayor Lapierre, that he was truly a… although of French-Canadian descent, he represented more of the entire city. Is that what you're saying? MRS. LASERTE: That's exactly what I feel. Because I worked with him. I worked with every mayor, do you realize that, from the beginning of the city in 1915, except Mayor Allen. Now, Mayor Allen wasn't in very long, and he would have tended to be more like Mayor Cormier. SPEAKER 1: Is that right? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Oh, I see. MRS. LASERTE: But I didn't work with him. And of course, I haven't worked with Mayor McLaughlin, but I've worked with every other mayor because I was on the library board, you see, for quite a while. And I got to feel the difference between the various mayors and what 8 they contributed to the community. And I do feel too that a good mayor can contribute a great deal to the community as a whole. SPEAKER 1: Certainly. Just for a brief moment now, let's go back to the Alliance Française that you helped to establish. Was this joined by many of the French-Canadian group, or was it a group which had contacts with the French language, say, at college or at some other place? Which was it? Do you know? MRS. LASERTE: It started with people who were interested in French from college or teaching experience. SPEAKER 1: Oh, I see. MRS. LASERTE: But as time went on, the group did go the other way. Absolutely. SPEAKER 1: You mean it was joined by many of the French Canadians, or…? MRS. LASERTE: That's right. SPEAKER 1: Is that right? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. But, you know, some of those have dropped out, and it's come back to what it was in the first place. SPEAKER 1: Is that right? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Could you mention at this time—I know this is putting you on the spot in a sense—could you remember any of the French Canadians that belonged to the Alliance Française as they've heard about it, became aware of it, that is still around? [Laughter] MRS. LASERTE: That's still around? That is difficult, because I think most of them were older at the time they joined. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: Because Dr. [unintelligible - 00:16:42] was in just for two years, I believe, then he died, you see. And we've lost many in that way who were… were too old when they joined, and we lost them. SPEAKER 1: I see. Let's go back a little bit now to Dr. Laserte. His parents were from Canada? MRS. LASERTE: Right. Yes. 9 SPEAKER 1: His father was from, you mentioned, Drummondville? In that area? MRS. LASERTE: Yes, he stayed in Drummondville. He lived near there. Yes. SPEAKER 1: In that area? I see. What brought Dr. Laserte's father to this part of the country? Do you know? MRS. LASERTE: Well, he came in the early '70s. SPEAKER 1: 1870s. MRS. LASERTE: And he worked for a Mr. Patch. He was a blacksmith by trade, but he did very different things in other ways, in crafts. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: So that F.A. Whitney came into existence, and he worked for F.A. Whitney until he died. And he did some of the craftwork for them as well as the heavy blacksmith work. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: He was a craftsman. SPEAKER 1: Right. And did he come directly -- do you know if he came directly from Canada to Leominster here? MRS. LASERTE: Yes, he did. SPEAKER 1: What attracted him particularly to Leominster? MRS. LASERTE: Because of this job that he could get… SPEAKER 1: The F.A. Whitney job. MRS. LASERTE: Well, first with Mr. Patch, and then with the F.A. I don't know how we heard about it, but… SPEAKER 1: Probably through a relative, or…? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: … neighbors, probably, who were [unintelligible - 00:18:38]. MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: And how about Mrs. Laserte? MRS. LASERTE: Her maiden name was Lord, L-O-R-D. Now, that family goes way back to a time when the British government was given land for development, and the Lords got it. And I imagine that their name 10 might have been something else and it was changed to Lord, but I don't know. SPEAKER 1: Well, the name Lord then is English rather than French or Canadian? MRS. LASERTE: I think they may have had an Englishman in the family originally. SPEAKER 1: Right, right. And of course, she came down with Mr. Laserte to live in Leominster also. MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Right. And was your husband born in this area, or was he born in Canada? MRS. LASERTE: He was born in Leominster and went to the Leominster public schools. He went to Field School and then went on to the University of Ottawa and the University of Maryland. As a doctor, he kept on studying. He took courses with the Mayo brothers in Rochester, Minnesota; with Dr. Murphy, the well-known man in Illinois; and also with Dr. Joslin and Dr. -- I think his name was McLaughlin, the bone doctor; and with Dr. White, the heart doctor; and the other Dr. White who liked to reduce weight for people. SPEAKER 1: So I gather Dr. Laserte was continually studying while he was practicing his medicine. Is that correct? MRS. LASERTE: That's right. SPEAKER 1: Dr. Laserte practiced medicine in Leominster for quite a number of years. MRS. LASERTE: Yes, from 1906 to 1944. SPEAKER 1: 1906 to 1944. SPEAKER 1: Did Dr. Laserte retire shortly before he passed away, or was he active to the very end? MRS. LASERTE: He was active to the very end. In fact, he died at a patient's home, suddenly. And that very day, I had talked about retirement, and he said, "No, you can't imagine me sitting in a rocking chair, and you never will see me sitting in a rocking chair." 11 SPEAKER 1: Well, I don't remember Dr. Laserte that well because I was rather young, but he had a very good reputation in the Franco-American community. Do you know why that might be? Do you think it was because he himself was Franco American, or what? MRS. LASERTE: No, I don't think it was that. I think he had a way with them that they rather liked, because he had probably as many who were not Franco Americans as patients. SPEAKER 1: So he… I'm sorry. MRS. LASERTE: He must have had a way with them that they liked. I don't know any other reason. SPEAKER 1: I know there were people, Franco Americans, who did not go to Dr. Laserte. But I know that he had… from everything that I've heard, he enjoyed a good reputation with them. So apparently, Dr. Laserte served the entire community and did not confine his practice to any section of the city. MRS. LASERTE: That's right. SPEAKER 1: Mrs. Laserte, what… as a member of the school committee, what would you consider as some of your accomplishments? What are some of the things that you tried to do even though you may not have been successful? MRS. LASERTE: Well, I tried to get adequate buildings, for one thing, and we did the best we could under the circumstances. I also tried to make the expenses as low as possible but still have a good education for the children. One of the things that we did when I was a member was to raise the salaries because they were out of proportion with the state salaries. Another thing that was interesting was that during the Depression, the teachers were going to be cut 20 percent, and I conferred with some of the teachers and said what I thought was inevitable, and it was. It proved so. Well, if you offer to take off 10 percent, you will be considered very fine citizens and very fine teachers, and they won't dare take the other 10 percent away. That 12 came out as I wanted it to. I was auditor for 21 years and found that there are, in some cases, things that we needed that we were not getting and pushed for getting them through the council when the budget was regulated by the council, as it always has been. And we sometimes got what we needed. I was very much interested in vocational education and worked to get the Saxton Trade High. It was not a glamorous place by any description, but it really filled the bill. The Saxtons whom I knew were willing to give the building, the first building, providing we use their name. That seemed to be the answer. We had been going from pillar to post in the vocational buildings. So they had that. I was completely interested in having a part of the vocational education as a part of the high school because I thought that some of the subjects were necessary for vocational students. That has not happened yet because the state insisted on keeping the two schools separate in reference to finance, especially. And they do not, or have not, in other years, wanted to have a comprehensive high school. SPEAKER 1: You mentioned teacher salaries, that you helped to improve them. What was a beginner's teacher's salary in the '20s, say, in Leominster? MRS. LASERTE: Well, sometimes as low as $700 a year. Our superintendent, Perry, who was the first superintendent I worked with, left with a salary of $3,700 when he retired. SPEAKER 1: That's quite a difference between $32,000. MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] Do you think that one of the reasons then that we have not made a comprehensive high school is because of the financial support that we would probably not receive from the state if we did? 13 MRS. LASERTE: Yes, that has been the reason in other years. I don't know what the situation is now, but perhaps it has improved. In Newton, we have two separate schools in the same way when I left, but I have heard that more has been done in that direction in Newton. SPEAKER 1: Now, you said that you were interested in getting the proper kinds of buildings for the students in Leominster. Were you responsible in any way for any particular building? Did you work towards the building of any particular building? MRS. LASERTE: Oh, yes, I worked for the Gallagher Junior High School, and I was, as I said before, chairman of the furnishings there, and also worked of course on the whole program. I thought that architects sometimes could produce a high school that would be… or a building that could be found in another city at a cheaper cost than we find it is. So we went down to Malden, I believe, and found a school very much like ours. But the architect could not be convinced that he could use that, and his fee was about the same as if we had had an entirely different plan. There was a slight difference, but not enough to show. I feel sometimes that the architects' fees are tremendous. I also worked on the Northwest School. There again, I was on the furnishings committee. I found quite a difference there. The state took over some of the things we were supposed to be doing. For instance, in the cafeteria, the state said we were having [unintelligible - 00:29:35] where we might have preferred it our way. SPEAKER 1: Do you know why that was? MRS. LASERTE: Well, they claimed that the traffic would be easier, but we found that it wasn't afterwards. The traffic in the, you know, in the cafeteria. SPEAKER 1: In the billing and the handling of the students. MRS. LASERTE: There are cases where city people know more than the state people, and that was one of them. We had a free hand with the Gallagher 14 Junior High School, and I think that people have not made too many complaints about it. SPEAKER 1: No, that building will be up for a long time. Do you think that the demands made by the state in the case of the Northwest School was because the state was giving more money, more state aid at that time? MRS. LASERTE: I do, definitely. SPEAKER 1: So they figured if they're going to pay for it, they're going to tell you what's appropriate. MRS. LASERTE: Yes, and don't forget, we do have a certain bureaucracy that tends to think it knows the answers more than other people do. SPEAKER 1: Now, these two buildings you felt you were active in promoting and working towards getting built, was there any particular resistance in the community? And more specifically, do you feel that there was a particular resistance with, say, the Franco-American community because they already had their elementary school? MRS. LASERTE: Oh no, there was no resistance among the Franco Americans at all about either building, or any building, as far as I know. But there was a fire up there at Saint Cecilia's School. SPEAKER 1: Yes. MRS. LASERTE: I pleaded there with Mayor Burdett and the rest of them that we [furnish space] which we had at the time for them. Well, we could go just so far within the state laws. We did what we could, and I think that must have been appreciated, at the time anyhow. Now, the resistance for Northwest was the greatest, perhaps, of the two. People in the Lancaster Street District were very vocal about saying that they needed [unintelligible - 00:32:33] instead of those [affordables]. SPEAKER 1: Oh, I see. You had affordables up here. 15 MRS. LASERTE: And then our answer to that was -- of course, we had affordables at Northwest too, but that was a political thing, I think, perhaps with certain people that promoted the [unintelligible - 00:32:53] than with the people as a whole. Because the Italians have been very cooperative, too, as well as the French. And now, the Gallagher, well that came from city hall, and that came from the fact that we had a treasurer there, whose name we are not going to mention, who it was found defrauded us for a good sum of money, almost $200,000. Now, I had an argument with that fellow when I was working on a publicity, and I said, "Why is it that Framingham can build a junior high school and we can't?" At that time, Framingham was comparable to Leominster. Well, he pounded on the counter and said, "That situation is different." Well, I said, "You have to show me." And it was different, too. SPEAKER 1: Is this the time that the town hall burned down? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. Well, the town hall had burned down. SPEAKER 1: Oh, it had burned down. I see. You referred to the fire at Saint Cecilia's Parochial School. I had heard all sorts of rumors. For example, the Ku Klux Klan was responsible for the fire, might have been responsible. There was some fellow up there, I think, one of the French Canadian community, that had been apparently getting into a little bit of trouble, that he may have been the cause of the fire. What was the cause of the fire from your point of view? Do you recall? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. Well, we've talked about that, and it was thought that one of the young boys had left some rags in the wrong place, and perhaps another boy might have thought a match would be a good idea to put on the rags. Then it was not a plot or anything of that kind. That's the solution we had. I think one of the members of the school committee was very much interested, and he didn't want the 16 Klan to be blamed. So he worked on it, and we got the answers that way. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: He had to admit that. Well, even [unintelligible - 00:35:38] I say. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: Yeah. MRS. LASERTE: He had to admit it. SPEAKER 1: Right, mm-hmm. So from what I gather, you didn't find any necessary strong resistance in the French community to building schools even though they supported their school? MRS. LASERTE: No, no. I remember so well when we had our opening of the Gallagher Junior High School and the people were visiting around, and I was so happy because quite a number of the French people came up and told me what a fine building it was. So that showed their spirit, too. SPEAKER 1: Right, the community spirit, the fact that they would take time out to visit the public school, so to speak. MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Now, you mentioned Dr. Perry. Now, he was a superintendent of schools. Is that correct? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Wasn't he active in the French community, or was that his wife that was active? MRS. LASERTE: His wife was. She belonged to that French group, the Alliance. SPEAKER 1: The French Alliance? That's it? MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: Yes, she was quite interested in French. So of course, naturally, she was also interested in Italian. SPEAKER 1: I see. Did she have to do something with citizenship training in the French community? 17 MRS. LASERTE: Oh, yes, she did. And she did quite a good piece of work there, I think. SPEAKER 1: What did that consist of? What do you recall? I mean, this goes back a few years. MRS. LASERTE: Well, she would tell them how to become American citizens process-wise and help them with their papers. SPEAKER 1: Preparing the papers… MRS. LASERTE: Yes. SPEAKER 1: Yes. Was this a night school situation, or…? MRS. LASERTE: Yes, it was night school. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: Yes. That's when she saw them. SPEAKER 1: I see. And she taught them some English there and helped them to get organized. MRS. LASERTE: Yeah, we had what I was very proud of, a so-called steamboat class. SPEAKER 1: Steamboat. MRS. LASERTE: Yes. It was finally a relief for the Italian people that came and did not know English. And we had one teacher take care of that, and she was one of the finest teachers I ever knew. Well, quite a number of the French people from Canada were in her classes. Now, when they speak of bilingual classes in Boston, I think of that. And that was way back in the '20s when we had those classes, and I think we'd better be proud of it. And I was very much interested in those. In fact, I knew this teacher from Newton. She came from Newton, and I knew her possibilities when we accepted her. SPEAKER 1: This teacher then knew a couple of the foreign languages than Italian and French, or…? MRS. LASERTE: No, she did it through English. SPEAKER 1: Did it through English. 18 MRS. LASERTE: Her idea was, "You have to sink them right into English." SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: "Then they sink or swim," she used to say to me. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: I suppose that was steamboat, too. [Laughter] SPEAKER 1: [Laughter] MRS. LASERTE: But there's only the two languages, she thought. And I agree, because I went through the process myself. I'm proud of it. We always spoke French at home. And when I went to school, I didn't know any English at all. And I got to. So I can't understand these expenses that we have to have for Puerto Ricans or others. SPEAKER 1: I see. I see. So you have a feeling that bilingual is not something that we should have, that they should be exposed to the English immediately. MRS. LASERTE: That's correct, Neil. SPEAKER 1: I see. MRS. LASERTE: Yes. Another thing in which we were very strong was the domestic science and the tinkering. We call them the tinkering boys, those that did home repairs. We had that way back, and I was very much interested in that. And then the evening school started with very little and progressed to all kinds of subjects as we have them now. SPEAKER 1: Was the evening school instituted while you were a member of the school committee? MRS. LASERTE: Yes, I would say it was very soon after I came into the program. And I was very much in favor of a limited evening school. I wanted to have the essentials taught. My idea was more for helping people who are, well, illiterates—and we had them—and who had not finished even the grade schools—and we had them—as well as high school and so on. So they're a little different from 19 what we have now where we expand and give them other types of courses. SPEAKER 1: Mrs. Laserte, you mentioned that you served on the school committee 23 years. Are there any other women that served with you during that period of time? MRS. LASERTE: No, I was the only woman that served at that time. I will say I also was the only woman on the city council when I served. SPEAKER 1: So you have several firsts to your name then? MRS. LASERTE: Yes, first woman on the school committee, first woman on Ward 5 council, first woman councilor at large. And when there was a plan to give certificates for firsts, our [unintelligible - 00:42:04] president asked me if I was willing to go into the contest, and I said, "Well, I am, but I probably won't get it." So they sent my name in, and I got the certificate. SPEAKER 1: So the Franco-American community can take pride in your achievements as well as the Women's Liberation Movement. [Laughter] MRS. LASERTE: I don't believe in the Women's Liberation Movement. I always considered myself a person when I was serving, on the school committee or council. I never thought of myself as a woman. I'm a person. I'm a citizen. And I think some of that liberation business is not in my line at all. In fact, perhaps most of it isn't. SPEAKER 1: Let's go to the years on the city council. Now, how many years did you serve there? You mentioned it before. MRS. LASERTE: Well, I served just a few months as ward councilor and two years as councilor at large. SPEAKER 1: What prevented you from becoming the first mayor, lady mayor? MRS. LASERTE: I think there are certain places where a woman does not belong because of the feeling that people still have about women. And one of those places is mayor, being mayor. Also, I was asked to run as representative in our legislature, and I felt the same way 20 about that. I think I like my sex well enough so I don't want it to be criticized. And one reason for criticizing women is that they're trying to place themselves in the wrong place, politically. SPEAKER 1: Do you see as a possibility that later on maybe women themselves will be better prepared to accept some of these jobs as well as the community as a whole being more receptive? MRS. LASERTE: I think many women know more than men do. I am very much impressed by these secretaries that know more than the bosses do. SPEAKER 1: Okay. That's true. That's true. The secretary is a very valuable asset in an office. While you were a councilor, either as a ward councilor or a councilor at large, what were some of the activities you participated in? If you recall, what were some of the situations that required action? MRS. LASERTE: I voted for the Northwest School. SPEAKER 1: The program which you had begun as a member of the school committee? MRS. LASERTE: Way back then. When we were getting affordables, I knew it was time to have either an addition or a new building. I did not approve an addition because of the small area at George Street. I was very glad to vote for the Northwest School. SPEAKER 1: And time has shown that you were correct by adding another building. MRS. LASERTE: Yes, I think so. We weren't sure that that was where we should put it, but because George Street could be used for a good many years, we felt, it would be a good idea to have them near together./AT/mb/es
MARCH, J900 Qettysbur Mercury CONTENTS. The Power of Ignorance, 1 Remembrance, 8 The Death of King Solomon 8 The Uses of Dreams,. 13 Editor's Desk, 17 A Word Deserved, 18 Meeting of The Pennsylvania College Alumni Association of Harrisburg, 19 The Veil of Separation 20 The Dead on Expansion, 21 The Old Chief and The Black-smith, 22 Why We Broke Camp, 27 At The Breakfast Table 30 GETTYSBURG COLLEGE LIBRARY .GETTYSBU^!§bRG C DUPLiCfA'. i FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine. Printing go to CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and . Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. Have you an assured -&&& R. I. ELLIOTT Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGAR S. MARTIN, F^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES. %/& tgr? Mr* Chambersburg St., Gettysburg. Would you try for a government posi-tion, if you knew just how to am" and the kinds __ positions from which you can choose, and what to do to insure your getting on the list after you have applied 1 The Government of the United States is the best of employers. Fair compen-sation, regularity of payment, reason-ably sure tenure, tasks not too difficult, i ana hours not too long, offer strong at-tractions to young personsof both sexes whohavenosettledincome. Manyenter Government employ, spend their spare i hours in studying law or medicine, or finance, and save enough from their salaries to start In a professional or business career. We have just published a book from whlchemy candidate may learn just what is necessary and wliat tinnecessary in | brushing up his studies for an examina-tion: and what his chancesare, all things considered, for making his way into the I Civil Service, and staying there. The title of this book is "How to Prepare i'or a Civil Service Examination ; U Hh Recent Questions and An- , swers." It contains all Information which any candidate would require to firepare for any competitive office under he Government, and includes a "Ten weeks1 Course of Study,"ln the form of questions actually asked at recent ex-aminations, with the correct answers to , them. Besides the technical require- ' menta. It also covers all the elementary branches, like arithmetic, spelling, pen- | manship, geography, letter writing, civil government, etc., etc., so that one who masters this course of study would not only pass well an examination for o, yov- , ernment position, but would be cure of I preferment over other applicants for a clerkship in a business house. CLOTH—$2.00 Postpaid—560 PAGES Another booJciree(Quick atFigures)if you mention this paper when ordering. mros & NOBLE, Publishers ' 4-6-13-14 Cooper Institute, N. Y. City SchoolbooTcs ofall publishersat one store .THE. GETTYSBURG MERCURY. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., MARCH, 1900. No. 1 THE POWER OP IGINORAINCE. [ABSTRACT OF A LECTURE BEFORE THE TEACHERS' INSTITUTE, JANUARY 27TH, BY PROF. O. G. KLINGER.] I AM here to engage your attention for a little while in a sub-ject which is too seldom considered, but rich in educational value. It is the " Power of Ignorance." We often hear of the power of knowledge—it has been the pet theme of platform speakers for many generations ; but who has stopped to consider the power of the unformed intellect, or of the intellect developed but dominated by some blinding prejudice, or pride of opinion ? And yet Ignorance has played as mighty a part in the world's drama as Knowledge. All the domain which Knowledge calls her own has been wrested from Ignorance. Ignorance, dark, gloomy, superstitious, destructive, first; knowledge second—at the beginning a glimmer, a mere insight, a guess, and then a growing light—at the present a great luminary, an hour above the horizon. All that makes our nineteenth century habitable for men and women, such as you, is the product of advancing science. No other age has been so great as our age, because Knowledge has stricken off the shackles of superstition, shaken the obstinacy of bigotry, deepened the sympathies, augmented the value of human life, converted the forces of nature into servants, established the dignity of self-hood, brought freedom to light, conquered the ocean and annihilated space. Her advance has been in the face of Ignorance, which at each moment has con-tested with pen and fire and sword her progress. My object this evening will be to set forth as clearly as I may be able the power of this antagonist of knowledge, that in the light of it you may see more clearly the sanctity of freedom of research, freedom of thought, and freedom of speech. QETTYSBU*G COLLEGE LIBRARY GETTYSBURG, PA^ THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Remember, that knowledge is power only when it informs some human will, and directs some human choice. Knowledge concealed within the lids of books is not power—it is so much waste paper so far as the world's progress is concerned. It must possess the mind, illumine the intellect, impel the will in its choices, and become a human force. And by ignorance I mean the mind that is not informed, a will that makes its choices in the dark ; a htiman force without direction. But this is not the only kind of ignorance. It has happened in the world's history that men and nations of large culture have been so dominated by pre-judice, by pride of opinion, by love of party, by bigotry, as to avert from themselves the best blessings which the merciful Father had designed for them. There are wise fools in the world as well as dullones, and bigotry, which is but a form of ignorance, has been a great obstacle in the path of progress. Our thought must search for its illustrations in the cabinet of History, and they will not be difficult to find. Every page is re-plete with them. We take those that strike the eye first, because of their magnitude—conspicuous examples of the blighting effects of gross ignorance, and the more refined but less hopeful bigotry. I refer to the Barbarian invasion of Rome, the fall of Alexandria, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and England's loss of her American Colonies. The tidal wave of ancient civilization, which took its rise in Egypt and the Mesopotamia, never flowed farther north than the Black Sea, the Carpathian mountains, and the Rhine river. Be-yond these boundaries lay in dark obscurity the terra incognita. Of this whole, vast, indefinite stretch the ancients had only the most meagre information, and they peopled it with the most hor-rible, most fantastic creatures of the imagination, as children fill the dark with hobgoblins and spooks. And as though their fears had been prophetic, out of this very region were to come the forces which would overturn their government, raze their cities, crush their pride, and extinguish their culture. The old civilization reached its maximum development in Greece and Rome—the former leading and the latter following in the sequence of history. In Greece it was expressed in a litera-ture and art the most perfect the world has ever enjoyed ; in Rome it took the form of an architecture, " full of expression of gigantic power and strength of will." The former gave to the THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. world the Parthenon ; the latter the Coliseum. The former fur-nished ideals of the beautiful; the latter ideals of social order. Greece has since been the teacher of all that pertains to the aesthetic nature ; Rome of all that pertains to government and jurisprudence. ?j£ ?|s *f% yf* 5|* 'J^ *f* *"p While Greece was achieving her greatest triumph—while adorning her cities with the most exquisite art, perfecting her language, and evolving her beautiful philosophy ; while Rome was rearing triumphal arches, sending nation after nation under the yoke, and welding together the whole civilized world into one massive empire—up in this region of the north there was a strange restlessness, of which the southern nations never dreamed, but which forbode for them the most direful consequences. A dreary stretch of forest, reaching from the Rhine to the North Sea, unbroken save here and there by patches of cultivated land—a wilderness of mighty trees, which bowed their heads be-fore the Blusterer of the north, or sank beneath the weight of years, but at whose root the woodman's axe was seldom laid— whose deep recesses furnished safe retreats for bear and the wild-boar— such was Europe in the third century Anno Domini when the Goths first emerged from its retreats and stood upon the banks of the Danube. Great people they were, tall and massive of shoulder, with great swelling muscles—a giant each one, whose tawny hair, reaching to the shoulder, was his especial pride. From under shaggy eye-brows gleamed eyes which seemed cut out of blue Arctic ice, reflecting every flash of passion, and terrible when lit up with the rage of battle. Great animals, with the germ in them of great souls, true to their word, loathing nothing so much as shame and cowardice, with heart attuned to carnage, afraid to die elsewhere than on the battlefield—whose Heaven even was a Val-halla of eternal conflict—such were the Goths. Beyond them towards the east dwelt the Huns, a Tartar tribe. Let Gibbon describe them : '' These savages of Scythia were com-pared to the animals which walk very awkwardly on two legs. They were distinguished from the rest of the human species by their broad shoulders, flat noses, and small black eyes, deeply buried in the head ; and as they were almost destitute of beards, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. they never enjoyed either the manly grace of youth or the vener-able aspect of age." To render them more hideous still, while they were yet of tender age their parents gashed their cheeks with knives that their faces might look more ferocious with the ugly scars. They were so constantly on horseback that their legs received the curve of the horse's body. Their hideous appear-ance was a true index of their character—ruthless, lustful; they struck terror into the hearts of their enemies on the field of battle. Beyond them dwelt another tribe of people, of whose origin we know nothing, and of whose character we know little. The Sienpi were the natural enemies of the Huns, into whose terri-tory they made frequent incursions. Brave and savage, skilled in the use of such weapons as they had, they were able to chill with terror even the hearts of such creatures as the Huns. It is probable that under the pressure of these implacable foes the Huns migrated from their ancient seats, near the Chinese Empire, towards the west. Their coming in countless hordes was an astonishment to the valiant Goths, who trembled before their uncouth enemies and retreated before their onslaught. Thus it happened that in the fourth century of our era, the Goths suddenly appeared upon the banks of the Danube and besought a refuge within the bounds of the Roman Empire. Their petition was at length granted, and the fate of the South was sealed. At once, on the death of the great Theodosius, occurred the revolt of the Gothic tribes. Under the leadership of Alaric, after various vicissitudes, they traversed the country from the Danube southward and sought a rich harvest of fame and treasure in the fair land of Greece. Passing, without opposition, through the pass of Thermopylae, they ravaged the whole country to the plains of Sparta. *A* *A* *1* *±* *1^ *Jf* ^^ *^ *f* ^ *j* *r» *T* *T* *r* 'T* You have read of, even if you have never seen, the devas-tating power of the cyclone. The sun rises upon a stretch of prairie, beautiful with swaying grain, and dotted with towns and villages. The sky overhead is flecked with shredded clouds, which reflect and refract the sun's rays—distant prisms of hazy texture. Suddenly from out the sky, with scarcely a moment's warning, comes a mighty shadow. Your ear is startled by the deep bellowing of winds as they struggle in the upper air. Dower THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. and lower they force each other in their whirling conflict. The one from the west hurls back the one from the east, and, with in-conceivable rapidity, the storm-cloud, lightning-riven, skims the earth. You know the rest. The sun sets at evening upon a blighted land, filled with ruin and death. \1A *JJ «X* *.IA »L* *±? ^f *!_.* if* if* *f* ^f* *J* ^T* *J* 'I* The passing of Alaric and his Goths left Greece stripped of her beauty ; her temples lying in ruins; her sculpture broken and stripped of its golden plates ; her towns and villages a mass of burning embers. '' The whole territory of Attica, from the prom-ontory of Sunium to the town of Megara was blasted by his baleful presence ; and, if we may use the comparison of a contem-porary philosopher, Athens itself resembled the bleeding and empty skin of a slaughtered victim." The cyclone of ignorance has passed, and what the centuries had achieved of all that ap-peals to the aesthetic nature was in a day destroyed by the barba-rians, whose natures were insensible to the allurements of beauty, except as it was expressed in the grace and symmetry of the female form. Alexandria, founded at the mouth of the Nile by Alexander the Great, and coming under the sovereignty of Ptolemy Soter, and afterwards of his son, Philadelphus, became under their fostering care, and by reason of its location, the foremost city of its day, and the real center of the Hellenistic world. It was from her that the Romans received the Greek civilization, which wrought such a miracle among them ; from her that the literary and artistic in-fluences went forth to mold the taste of Europe ; it was in her that poets and critics wrote and labored in the Hellenistic period. For the Ptolemies were patrons of art and literature, and invited to their court the learned from all parts of the world. To facili-tate research, a great museum, similar in character to our modern university, and a great library were established. Here were gath-ered the manuscripts of all the Hellenic writers, great and small. These the scholars of Alexandria, from the third century B.C. downward, sifted, preserving what was of value and destroying what was worthless. The works of the great thinkers, from Homer to Demosthenes, were edited, and their scholia form the foundations of all modern critical study. This happy state of things continued until the time of Bishop THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Theophilus, " the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue ; a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and blood." This narrow-minded bigot, caring only for power, knowing little of the glory of Greek literature, and caring less, pillaged the library, destroyed the compositions of ancient genius, and forever impoverished the world of scholarship. " Nearly twenty years afterwards, the appearance of the empty shelves ex-cited the regret and indignation of every spectator whose mind was not totally darkened by religious prejudice." Nor did the exquisite art which adorned the streets, as well as temples and private homes, suffer a less bitter fate. Images of gold and silver were melted, and those of inferior material were broken to bits and cast into the streets. Thus could religious fanaticism, inflaming the heart of an unscrupulous, ecclesiastical politician, and blinding his eyes to the enormity of his crime, subvert and destroy in a few hours what scholarship had accumu-lated during six centuries of labor. *J* 5JC ftfi *jC *fs 3j£ ?JC 5JC The darkest page in the history of France is that which re-cords the power and influence of the Guises. Hand in hand with the Queen-mother, Catherine de Medici, they labored for the ex-termination of the Huguenots. To trace here the intricate schemes, the diabolical plottings, the attempts at assassination, the submission of truth and honor to accomplish their design, would require too great a space. After unwearying effort, con-tinued through several years, they at length succeeded in winning the King's reluctant consent to the massacre of St. Bartholomew. At a given signal, in the early morning, the work of destruction began with the murder of Coligni, and when it ceased three days later, fully thirty thousand Huguenots had miserably perished at the hands of the Catholics. The persecution of the Protestants of France continued with varying degrees of savage intensity until the time of Louis XIV. This monarch, when old, was tormented by the memory of his many evil deeds, and sought some way in which he might atone for them before Almighty God. That way was suggested by his Queen, Madame de Maintenon. In pursuance of her awful plan, L,ouis revoked the Edict of Nantes, and outlawed every Huguenot who refused to embrace the Catholic faith. By this act of religious bigotry '' fully three hundred thousand of the most THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. skillful and industrious of the subjects of Louis were driven out of the kingdom. Several of the most important and flourishing of the French industries were ruined, while the manufacturing interests of other countries were correspondingly benefited by the energy, skill and capital which the exiles carried with them." Many of them found their way to America, and their descendants have been among our most distinguished citizens. It is hardly too much to say that France has never recovered fully from the disastrous effects of Iyouis' infamous policy. *(£ 5jC 5|C ^|C 5J» *j£ *(> *1^ In the history of the world it has never been the privilege of any other nation to have such colonial possessions as had England in the New World. Her government of the colonies was one colossal blunder from the beginning, but it remained for the ob-stinacy of George the Third to alienate them wholly and convert them into "a government of the people, by the people and for the people." " He had," says Green, " a smaller mind than any English king before him, save James the Second. He was wretchedly educated, and his natural powers were of the meanest sort.'' He had but one idea—to embody in himself all the powers of the government. " Be a king, George," had been the contin-ually repeated exhortation of his mother from his early youth, and to be a king George thought he must be a tyrant. The story of his tyrannical acts which before twenty years had passed by had driven the American colonies into revolution and independence, and brought England to the verge of ruin, is known to every schoolboy, and would be a twice-told tale if repeated before this audience. L,et it suffice that we in America owe the government, of which we are so proud, to the conceit of one who was the most conspicuous failure that ever disgraced the English throne—to him we owe all, but for it all owe him no thanks. *«i* xL* *1* ^U -J-* *£* •& ^S ^^ *X* *T* *T* *T* *T* I am done. My effort has been to suggest to you the de-structive and pernicious power of ignorance in some of its most common forms. In spite of advancing science, superstition and bigotry and fanaticism still persist, though happily their power is limited in our day to the pen. Our eye is set on that day, no longer far removed, when freedom of thought and speech shall no longer be challenged; when the minds of scholars shall be free from prejudice; when the common man of our land, as in ancient 8 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Greece, shall be able to appreciate arid to enjoy the finest art and literature; when in the workshop and on the farm, at the anvil and before the mast, we shall have men who think. The dawn has already broken; the full day will come in its own good time. REMEMBRANCE, If, perchance, in days to come, A truant thought strays back to me, Pray, believe the kindest ones In turn, are entertained of thee. As the sands along- the shore, To-day are thrown upon the beach, And to-morrow waves return To hurl them far beyond our reach; So the friends of yesterday, The ones we always held so dear, Quietly vanish from our sight, And leave us waiting, lonely here. —B. THE DEATH OF KING SOLOMON. THE king paused in his walk and, leaning against one of the tall pillars of the porch of the palace, gazed long at the flashing glory of the temple which rested like a diadem upon the brow of Mount Moriah. The sun had set ablaze the towering pinnacles of the building, and the burnished gold burned and flashed in the red rays of the setting sun. Already the purple shadows were creeping between the columns, and as the king gazed his face was exceeding sad and the shadows on his brow were deep as those between the columns. His waving hair was whitened by the frosts of three score winters. His eyes had not lost their piercing gaze, but his forehead was furrowed by care and his face had much of the sadness which too much self-indul-gence and the too familiar knowledge of the heartless world en-gender. His cheekbones were high and his chin rather promi-nent. The very spirit of majestic command seemed expressed in all his features. Yet withal, there could be traced about the mouth and eyes those delicate markings which are the imprint of a kindly, generous nature, and which contradicted the cynical THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. expression which sometimes swept like the hand of a demon across his features. In his eyes and towering forehead there was a suggestion of that gigantic intellect which had grappled with all the problems of the universe. Kindly, just and God-fearing, yet self-indulgent, and led astray in his quest of happiness, the sadness which burdened his great soul was mirrored in his coun-tenance. Solomon, the mighty ruler, the matchless judge, the wisest scholar, the profouudcst philosopher and the learned psy-chologist— this Solomon, was old, and weary, and brokenhearted, troubled by the disasters to his great empire, which he foresaw, sad at the thought of many wasted years. As the sun sank below the horizon, he turned away from the temple and cast a momentary glance at the magnificence about him ; then with a gesture of contempt, he walked slowly into the cool, shadowy gardens of his palace. Long but slowly he paced among the shadowy paths, engaged in profound thought. It seemed as if his God, with whom he had once walked very inti-mately, granted him a knowledge of the close approach of death ; for suddenly he straightened his stooping shoulders and lifting his hand beneath a light where the gesture might be seen, he summoned the ever alert attendants. It was the king's will that the court be summoned. Swift runners sped from palace to palace in luxurious Jerusalem. Lords and courtiers rose from banqueting tables and hastened, wonder-ing, toward the palace. For had they not been summoned by the royal word ? And who in all the land might delay when King Solomon called? Surely, none. The great hall of justice was ablaze with light. Throngs of whispering nobles were the evidence of surprise at this night summons. Suddenly all were hushed. The heavy curtains at the royal entrance had been held aside and now the solitary figure of the king moved past the kneeling nobles to the great throne of ivory and gold. The king took his seat between the huge, crouching, golden lions and looked awhile in silence from one face to another. Some were old and tried friends and counsellors who had been with him when as a young man he had received the sceptre from the hand of Israel's God and his father, the royal David. Others were younger, and as his eye glanced from one to another, he thought of their fathers, some of whom were mighty warriors, others wise counsellors. IO THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. At length bespoke: "Oh Nobles, I have summoned you hither this night, at this unaccustomed hour, to bid you farewell. This evening, for the last time, I saw the red light of the depart-ing sun kiss the house of our God, resting upon it like a beuison from the Most High. "I go unto my fathers. To-night, ere the first rays of the morning sun laugh on the waters of Jordan and wake our queenly city from her slumbers, I go on the last, long journey. I am old and very weary of life, and I go to the grave, whither ye all are hastening. '' Oh Nobles—Counsellors and Warriors—ye whose heads are hoar, and who follow me soon, long have we labored together for beloved Israel. Some, perchance, even knew my father, David. Oh, grey-heads ! your king loves you. " And ye, whose raven locks the frosts of many winters may yet whiten, sons of mighty men, my young men, your king loves you not less. Be ye faithful as your fathers to the God of Israel and your king. " Ye have seen my race, which now is nearly run. To the dominions of my father I have added, and have made Israel ex-ceeding strong and mighty. Ye, too, saw me turn aside from following after Jehovah. Ye know the punishment—how I must have this fair kingdom rent and torn from me. But know that the God of Israel, in his measureless kindness and mercy, which are even as the fathomless space of the whirling orbs, has par-doned my transgression and forgiven my sin. " Now the hour is come and your king goes to the court of the Ruler of the universe. My nobles—counsellors, warriors and statesmen—remember your love for Solomon and stand faithful. Turn ye not aside after riches and honor. 'A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all. A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.' " 'Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.' " But the night flees and my strength fails. This night, ere the rosy morning descends from the hills and touches the purple vineyards, I will to be borne to my palace which is beyond Giloh. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. II For, oh Nobles, know that a weary old man wishes, in his weak-ness, to look once more upon his pleasant palace which gleams in its whiteness, amid the green gardens, and from there be gathered unto his fathers. ' Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.' " And now, fare ye well, my Lords ; may the mighty God of Israel be with you. Oh my children, a long farewell." The king stood for a moment with hands outstretched in bless-ing over the silent, awe-struck nobles, then moved with calm and composed step down from the throne at whose base the world had bowed. He gazed a moment longer at the assemblage of grey-headed men, who were separate ; then with a last majestic wave of the hand he passed from the judgment hall and the sight of his nobles forever. He hastened to his waiting chariot and was borne slowly along the road which leads to Hebron. His palace and gardens, with their pools which lay like three turquoise amid a sea of emerald, were his destination. Only once did the king rouse himself from the reverie into which he had fallen. As the white splendor of Jerusalem, bathed in the tropic full-moon, was disappearing behind him, he stood up in the rocking chariot, and with a gesture of matchless dignity, bade a last adieu to his queenly capital. Then he lapsed again into reverie. And of what did he dream? Who can say? Perchance it was of the future, per-chance of the past. Of that past when he ruled at Jerusalem, while the wealth of the world was poured in front of the lions of his ivory throne. The memories of a sacred and glorious past must have thronged upon him. Along this very road the mighty David passed and repassed. Here he had kept his father's flocks as a youth. Back and forth in this vicinity the jealous Saul had hunted him. Yonder, in the velvetry blackness, sleeps Rachel, the beloved of Jacob. There, alone, through the centuries, her ashes rest. A little farther on, at Giloh, the house of Ahithophel, the faithful counsellor of David, suggests its train of memories ; or perhaps some glorious vision of this plain, as it was destined tq appear, bathed in glittering light and echoing to the " Glory, in the Highest" of the angels, may have been vouchsafed to this son of David. And now, beyond Giloh, the chariot approaches the palace, 12 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. in the midst of its gardens. The weary old monarch steps from his chariot as he has done so often before at this spot. Hither, in the past, he has come in the dewey morning to find rest and quiet. And now, in the evening of his life, the king comes to his beautiful gardens to die. How the heart of that mighty ruler must have grieved as he looked back over the desolate years of which he had exclaimed "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" Slowly the king passes between the sculptured columns of his marble palace which rise, slender and graceful, to the distant roof swimming in dusky shadow; on between the two statuesque guards in their golden armor ; on, into the palace with its purple velvets and its tapestries. Fountains murmur and tinkle about him ; rare birds, strange beasts, gathered from the four corners of the world for the pleasure of this mighty potentate, are all around him. The mingled odors of many flowers float to his nostrils. But they are all unnoticed. In sad and solemn quiet the king paces slowly to his chamber. It has been whispered that the king wishes quiet and to be left alone, and the palace which in the years of the past has been filled with music and oftentimes with the sounds of revelry, seems to be without human inhabitant, and as silent as some great, white mausoleum. Only once, at the break of day, the attendants steal to the chamber of the king, and behold his form outstretched upon the couch, then as if terrified by the sight of the angel of death hovering over the king, they disappear. So, not surrounded by the nobles of the land or by sorrowing dear ones, but alone, the spirit of King Solomon stands on the •brink of the dark waters of the river of death and awaits the sum-mons of the most high God. Thus, while in communion with Jehovah, his spirit unterrified by the approach of death, is con-ducted into the council-chamber of the universe. And Israel's greatest king is dead. For "God's finger touched him," and even as the stars began to fade the mighty spirit of King Solomon had winged its flight into the unknown. Once more the lord of day ascends the dark mountains of Moab, and gleams upon the white palace which rests on the crest of a hill amid its green gardens like the white foam upon the crest of some dark-green wave of the ocean. In this palace, designed only for pleasure and joy, there is sadness and gloom. But the features of the king are tranquil and placid in death. Fven as at THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 13 evening the setting sun may break through the clouds and shine over the gray ocean, soothing the tired waters to rest, so now the morning sun lights up the countenance of the king and shows the perfect peace which has taken the place of the sadness and trouble. Amid the grief of a nation the king has gone to his last, long rest. —Max. THE USES OF DREAMS. C. L. '01. IT may be of interest to note at the outset some of the physical and the psychological phenomena of dreams. " A dream is a train of thought, images or phantasies, that passes through the mind in sleep.'' In dreams we lose all voluntary control over our thoughts, and our minds are, as it were, freed from all re-straints, turned out of the boundaries set by will, and left to roam at pleasure through almost infinite areas of thought and imagina-tion. Some claim that the activity of the soul does not cease for a single moment, and that dreams are one of the results of this constant activity. Others affirm, with equal certainty, that the soul has periods of inactivity and rest, when our sleep is entirely devoid of dreams. But does it not seem more reasonable that we forget our dreams, or rather fail to recollect them ? It is true, of course, that the action of the soul during the hours of slumber is much more feeble than during waking hours, but even this statement cannot be made without exception. Un-doubtedly the imagination is, at times, more lively in sleep than at any other time. A person, whose imagination is notably dull and lifeless, can, oftentimes, especially when just lapsing into un-consciousness, picture before his mind the most lovely, Edenic bowers, fairy landscapes, and scenic views that divest even Alpine glories of their rapturous charms. Occasionally the mind is very active also during periods of somnolence. This is proved by the fact that mathematicians, after having worked for days and weeks, perhaps, on a difficult problem, have finally solved it while wrapped in sleep. Again many persons of small originality and creative genius have composed poems of a merit that would have justly surprised them when awake, and have preached sermons and delivered lectures to enraptured audiences. Some persons of little or no musical ability have in their dreams outrivaled Mozart 14 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. and Beethooven in their musical productions, and their render-ing of them, and surpassed Jenny Lind and Patti in their vocal successes. The idea that the ancients had of dreams was vastly different from that which prevails at present. When superstition and witchcraft were fastened to everybody's creed, when ghosts stalked to and fro in every graveyard and haunted the scene of every murder, when enchanting sprites, bewitching elves, and diabolical imps jostled each other in the minds of nobleman and peasant, a dream was thought to be something of great import-ance and of good or evil omen. As each succeeding age has broken one or more of the super-stitious fetters with which it was bound and has approached nature and nature's God, and looked at nature not as a blind in-congruous force, but as an orderly and harmonious creation, evil has been traced to its source and found to consist not in the un-accountable and uncontrollable flights of a fanciful imagination, but in natural laws that have been violated or broken. This contrast may be explained by the difference between ancient and modern philosophy in accounting for the origin of evil. In Homer the thought is often emphasized that " Dreams come from Zeus," and a dream often meant as much as the flight of birds or the con-dition of the inspected vitals. The undertaking of an important expedition or of a desperate conflict often turned upon a dream of an officer during the preceding night, and many an unsuc-cessful exploit or disastrous defeat was traced to an ill-omened dream. Just after the expedition of " The Ten Thousand Im-mortals " had started on its perilous journey toward the capital of " The Great King," Xenophon, the leader of the expedition, had a dream in which, in the midst of a terrific thunder storm, he saw a ball of lightning fall upon his father's house, enveloping it in flames. The report following the bolt waked him. He considered the dream favorable because it seemed to be a token sent from Zeus, the author of dreams. On the other hand it seemed like an evil omen in that it might be interpreted that the " Immortals " were to be surrounded by the barbarian hordes as the house had been by the flames. No doubt the wretched failure of the expedition was largely accounted for by the commander's dream. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 15 Possibly no other book is so replete with stories of dreams as the Bible. It is reasonable to suppose that before the dawning of the " New Dispensation " divine communications were often sent to mortals through the media of dreams. Joseph's dreams seemed to his jealous brothers, and also to his devoted father, to be a mere idle, if not presumptuous, fancy of superiority over them. His brothers hated him because of their own interpreta-tion of his dreams. They were unable to free their minds of the unpleasant prophesies which they thought the dreams contained, so they cast him in a pit at Dothan, and then, as if to make more sure against the dreams' fulfillment they bartered him off to an Egypt-bound caravan of Ishmaelites. This " Dreamer " in-terpreted his own dream, and his brorhers were, afterwards, only too glad to make obeisance to his fruitful sheaf. Passing by many significant dreams, let us notice the dream which came to Joseph, husband of Man', the mother of Jesus. He was warned in a dream not to remain in Judea, but "to take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt." Upon the prompt obedience to this dream depended the life of the infant Jesus. Had Pilate heeded the warning of his wife's dream, he would not have delivered up Jesus to be crucified. In these in-stances dreams seemed to be angelic messengers from God with important dispatches. We recall the dream of the late, venerable Dr. A. J. Gordon, pastor of the Clarendon Street Baptist Church, Boston, which in-spired him to write that popular book, "How Christ Came to Church." In his preface the author states that he is not so sup-erstitious as to believe that every dream has a good or a bad meaning, but he believes, as in his own dream, we may learn val-uable lessons and receive wonderful inspiration even from dreams. Indeed, there are many cases on record where a dream has in-spired the mind to accomplish a skillful and even a masterful fete. Coleridge's " Kubla Khan" was suggested to him by a dream while he sat napping in his chair. Upon awaking, he seized his pen and wrote from memory that composition. The great musician, Tartani, composed his famous "Devil's Sonata" under the influence of a dream, in which his Satanic Majesty en-chanted Tartani by his wonderful exhibition of skill upon the violin, and challenged the dreamer to a match. As soon as Tar- i6 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. tani awoke he took up his violin and composed, in answer to the challenge, the above named composition. In the time of Shakespeare dreams were often misunderstood, and one of the most unpleasant aspects of death was the frightful dreams which were thought to accompany it. In Hamlet's So-liloquy on Death, when contemplating suicide, the " dread of something after death"—harrowing dreams, prevents him from becoming his own murderer. "To die,—to sleep ; To sleep ! perchance to dream /—ay, there's the rub ; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause." It is the thought of these fearful dreams that makes him decide to bear " Those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of." We owe a debt of gratitude to those promoters of civilization which have unveiled to us those harmless forces which were for centuries enshrouded in an awful mysticism. We recognize that dreams are simply the production of an unbridled fancy, of an imagination uncurbed by will, the "reflections of our waking thoughts." We no longer believe that to dream of gold is good luck, and to dream of silver, bad luck. We reply to such a thought the words of the proverb, " It is as idle as a dream.'' We sometimes gain some inspiration and profit from dreams, but we do not invest them with power to bring us either ill or harm. We see in them a proof of our immortality, and often associate them with our condition after death, but in no terrifying way, and as far as disturbing dreams are concerned, we may meet our death " Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." .THE. GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entered at the Postojice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. Voi,. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., MARCH, 1900. No. 1 Editor-in- Chief, . A. VAN ORMER, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HETRICK, W. A. KOHLER. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. F. D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY. Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M.D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg-) College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending the MERCURY to any address" must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORS DESK. WITH this issue the ninth volume of THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY begins. The retiring staff, continuing the work of their predecessors, have delivered into our hands a journal that occupies a high place among college publi-cations of the state. Their encouraging words and helpful sug-gestion, together with the kindly expressions of THE GETTYS-BURGIAN, and. the readiness with which contributors have re-sponded to our call for material, give us encouragement. We now fully realize the burden of work that it is ours to bear; neither are we insensible of the responsibilities that rest upon us; hence we solicit a continuation of the same co-opera-tion thus far extended to us, that we may present to the students, alumni, and friends of the institution a literary journal worthy of Pennsylvania College. i8 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. The recurrence of the twenty-second of February naturally causes one to look back through the not yet dim vists of Ameri-can history to the days of the Great Commander, whose life is a panorama of noble, self-sacrificing, patriotic deeds. We read with admiration of his boyhood and youth ; we see his growing worth as he delivers Gov. Dinwiddie's message to the French officer ; we gaze upon him with }oy as he tells the British general how to fight the Indians ; we laud his bravery as we see him in the front of many battles, and as he crosses the raging Delaware on that fateful Christmas night; we raise our hats in reverence while he fervently implores the interposition of the God of Bat-tles in behalf of the Continental armies ; but to know his true worth we must follow him further—we must see him cast aside the proffered crown and become a private citizen; we must note his magnanimous spirit at Yorktown, read the record of his suc-cessful administrations, stud}' his farewell to the American people and follow him once more into private life ere we can fully ap-preciate him whom '' Providence left childless that he might be called the Father of his Country." A WORD DESERVED. THE business manager and the assistant business manager of the late MERCURY staff have done so much for the journal that they should receive special mention in its columns. The chief difficulty in the way of the monthly nearly always has been lack of money. Occasionally, but not often, a manager has been found who, at the expiration of his term, could give a respectable report to the literary societies. Two years ago, on account of financial embarrassment, the monthly was changed from a news and literary journal to a journal entirely literary, and its name was changed to "THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY." In the first year, during which at least one issue was not published for want of money, THE MERCURY ran in debt, and serious thought was at times entertained by the staff of giving up the paper altogether. Such was the pecuniary condition of THE MERCURY when it fell into the hands of Mr. Hamacher and Mr. Moore. As regards what was done, it is sufficient to say that at present the paper is THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 19 on the best financial basis she .ever has known, and considering the chaotic state in which the late staff received it, we may say-without exaggeration that Mr. Hamacher has proved himself an exemplary business manager. —H., '00. MEETING OP THE PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OP HARRISBURG. THE annual business meeting and banquet of the Pennsyl-vania College Alumni Association of Harrisburg and vi-cinity was held at the "Harrisburg Club" on the evening of February 27th. At the business meeting the Committee on Or-ganization and By-laws submitted a Constitution which, with several minor alterations, was duly adopted. An election was }hen held for the selection of officers for the current year, the following being elected : President, M. H. Buehler, Harrisburg ; Vice-Presidents, Capt. F. M. Ott, Harrisburg; Rev. D. H. Gilbert, Harrisburg; Rev. F. D. Weigel, Mechanicsburg; Secretary and Treasurer, Chas. Hollinger, Harrisburg. At the termination of the business meeting the members ad-journed to the banquet hall of the Club, the walls of which were gracefully draped with flags and college colors, while numerous palms and other tropical plants were tastily scattered about the hall. In an alcove to one side was seated a full orchestra and mandolin club which rendered classical selections during the pro-gress of the banquet. Covers were laid for forty-two and an ex-tensive menu, served in the highest style of the culinary art, was thoroughly enjoyed. The Association had the honor of entertaining as its guests prominent Alumni of the various educational institutions; Yale being represented by Hon. Lyman Gilbert, Harrisburg; Prince-ton by Charles A. Bergner, Harrisburg; Dickinson by its Pres-ident, Dr. George E. Reed ; Irving by President Campbell; Penn-sylvania College by President H. W. McKnight, Prof. O. F. Klinger and Prof. Chas. Huber ; other guests being Mr. Charles A. Kunkel, Harrisburg, and Dr. Leslie Kauffman, of Kauffman, Pa. The office of Toastmaster was ably filled by Capt. F. M. Ott, '70, and toasts were responded to as follows : "Pennsylvania Col- 20 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. - lege," Prof. 0. F. Klinger; "Yale," Hon. Eyman D. Gilbert; "Colleges for Our Sisters," Dr. E. E- Campbell; "Princeton," Charles H. Bergner, Esq.; "Our Rival," Dr. George E. Reed; "Our Alumni," M. W. Jacobs, Esq. Addresses were also made by President McKnightand Rev. Dr. D. M. Gilbert. This initial banquet of the Association proved to be an unqualified success and was one of the most successful and complete functions of the kind ever held in Harrisburg. The members of the association present were : Rev. T. B. Birch, Prof. C. F. Kloss, Prof J. F. Kempfer, Rev. E. D. Weigel, all of Mechanicsburg; Rev. M. P. Hocker, Steelton ; Rev. Benj. R. Lantz, Millersburg ; Rev. G. M. K. Diffenderfer, Newport; Dr. J. F. Staley, Mr. F. W. Staley, Middletown; J. S. Alleman, Esq., Arthur D. Bacon, M. H. Buehler, Jno. F. Dapp, Meade D. Detweiler, Esq., Rev. Luther DeYoe, Dr. C. B. Fager, Dr. V. H. Fager, Prof. L,. O. Foose, Rev. D. M. Gilbert, Jno. W. Hay, M. D., C. H. Hollinger, John Hoffer, Jr., M. W. Jacobs, Esq., Croll Keller, Dr. Geo. B. Kunkel, Rev. Marion J. Kline, Dr. J. B. Mc- Alister, Capt. F. M. Ott, Dr. C. A. Rahter, Rev. M. H. Stine, Dr. H. B. Walter, E. H. Wert, Esq., H. M. Witman, all of Har-risburg, and Rev. J. Edw. Byers, Penbrook. ^ THE VEIL OE SEPARATION. " Ah sir, there are times in the history of men and nations when they stand so near the veil that separates mortals from im-mortals, time from eternity, and men from their God, that they can almost hear the breathings and feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through such a time has this Nation gone, and when two hundred and fifty thousand brave spirits passed from the field of honor through that thin veil to the presence of God, and when at last its parting folds admitted the martyred President to the dead heroes of the Republic, the Nation stood so near the veil that the whispers of God were heard by the children of men." —JAMBS A. GARFIBW. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 21 E THE DEAD ON EXPANSION. XPANSION is in future the policy of our country, and only cowards fear and oppose it."—Buchanan. " It is of very dangerous tendency and doubtful con-sequences to enlarge the boundaries of this country. There must be some limit to the extent of our territory, if we would make our institutions permanent. I have always wished that the country should exhibit to the nations of the earth this example of a great, rich, powerful republic which is not possessed of the spirit of aggrandizement. It is an example, I think, due from us to the world in favor of the character of republican government." —Webster. " We are not seeking annexation of territory, certainly we do not desire it unless it should come by the volition of a people who might ask the priceless boon of a place under the flag of the Union. I feel sure that for a long time to come the people of the United States will be wisely content with our present area, and not launch upon any scheme of annexation."—Blaine. The editor of the School Gazette, after quoting the above, ex-plains that the utterances of Buchanan and Webster were made when the South sought to increase the territory of the Union, and that Blaine's statement is only ten years old. Her Dewey lips Hobsoned his, while like a Shaft'er glance, Schley-ly thrown with a Sampson's strength, pierced through his heart, Weyl'er true love was Miles away, suffering Cervera heart-pangs than this false woman could believe. "O'tis beyond me," said he," why I should Merritt this ?'.'—From the Lesbion Herald. " When you see a stately temple, Fair and beautiful and bright, With its lofty towers and turrets Glistening- in the sun's clear light, Think how soon the noble structure Would to shapeless ruin fall, Were it not for sure foundations Firmly laid beneath it all." —DR. C. H. PAYNB. II 22 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. THE OLD CHIEF AND THE BLACKSMITH. THE final day had come and the east was already bright with day. In golden splendor the pure sun mounted the hori-zon of a calm, cloudless sky. Its yellow rays lit up the green patches of corn and pasture in the most delicate colors and tiuted the distant mountains, stretched in majestic line far into the north, in soft purple. All was calm and peaceful. Silence seemed to rule the universe, as if it had hushed it for a great oc-casion. What an occasion it was ! Among those mountains the poor Indian was busy long before sunrise preparing with sorrow-ful mood a journey of the deepest woe and gloom. Yes, this was the day. The red man must change his home. Those hills so rich in fruit and grain were not his. The barren mountains had no place for him. He lived on the white man's ground. He hunted the white man's game. One last, lingering look on a happy home, the abode of his ancestors, his rightful inheritance, where once he enjoyed his wild day unmolested and drove his game over unclaimed land. He must go and the white man gives no farewell, no sign of sorrow, no clasp of the hand, save one, a hard laborer, an honest blacksmith. The early morning found his roughly-made work-shop at the foot of the mountains in full operation. Now the noisy anvil broke the deep silence and now the groaning bellows breathed loud and heavily, sending the black smoke far into the clear sky. Within and without in scattered heaps lay almost everything that a smith could make use of, and much more that he couldn't use at all. The workman stood by the side of the forge, his one hand bounding up and down with the handle of the bellows, the other poking at intervals the roaring flame with an iron rod. He was a large, broad-shouldered man, with slightly bended back, a re-sult of his much stooping. A thick gray beard swept his broad breast, which was partly exposed by an open shirt. His face was large and stout, of hard masculine expression, full of force and intelligence. A well proportioned head, broad, high forehead and prominent chin, showed a man of no low, trivial thought, but one of judgment and decision ; a man, who, if he would have a chance to develope his powers, might have been a genius, but by force of circumstances remained uneducated, possessing, however, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 23 a great amount of good common sense, which he made use of when the occasion demanded it. As he stood by his work his brow was tightly contracted and his eyes firmly fixed on the flame. He was thinking. What were his thoughts ? Let us believe that he was thinking of the Indian. He ofteu thought of him. He pitied him. He believed that the Indian deserved a home and that he could love a home with as much tenderness and fidelity as any one else ; that he had feelings and that he had a soul as immortal as his own. Such were the thoughts of this poor workman as he stood in his shop on the last day for the Indian in his Eastern home. Suddenly a man appeared before the door. The smith, somewhat taken by surprise in the midst of his thought, quickly turned and beheld before him a neighbor; a farmer who was generally known in the community as being of a sour, selfish disposition ; a man with whom the smith could never become wholly reconciled. He was one of those many persons whose only care and thought is to en-large his borders, heap up his wealth, drive his wife and children at the first peep of day from their warm beds into the fields, and at evening reckon a profit of five cents a good day's work. He had no thought for the Indian. He hated him and could scarcely wait until he would leave the country forever. The reason for this was a selfish one. He found out that the Indians had dis-covered a silver mine iu the mountains and were working it with immense success. "They couldn't take this along," he argued, ' 'so the first man to find it would be its owner.'' He knew that the blacksmith was in close friendship with the redskins, and more than likely would know more about its locality and value than any other person in the neighborhood. He therefore came at an early hour to the shop. The smith began the conversation. " Good morning, Henry. A beautiful day?" "Splendid," replied the farmer. "They can't complain of bad weather.'' " No, they can't," answered the smith, " and I don't believe the weather bothers them much. They have other things to com-plain about; a lost home, for instance." "And lost produce and grain," quickly returned Henry. " I'll warrant they will have to raise their own now." " Henry," answered the smith with earnest expression, look-ing his visitor fair in the face, " I don't believe they ever stole a 24 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. cent's worth from you. You have not treated the Indian right and he knows it, and before he would steal your crops in revenge behind your back, he would meet you face to face like a man." " Well, what I see with my own eyes I guess I can believe," replied the farmer in great haste. " But whether they stole it or not, how about the mine? They can't take it along." " No, they surely can't," said the smith, sorrowfully, " but I would to God they could. Some of our greedy neighbors, ex-cuse the word, Henry, you know it's the truth, some of our greedy neighbors can hardly wait until the Indian leaves to lay hold on that mine, the only means the poor creatures have of making a livelihood. They are friendless, homeless, without pity or sympathy, and worse than all, an unknown west before them. It's shameful. But, Henry, one thing I wish with all my heart, and that is that these mountains might bury the treasure deep in their bosoms before the merciless white man pollutes it with his unworthy hand." "Come, come, come," began the other. "You're on your old subject again. That isn't the point. Some one will get it and so why not try for a share ?" No sooner had the last word slipped from the lips of the farmer than both were startled by the clatter of hoofs over the little road-bridge by the side of the shop. Henry walked briskly to the door, saw the Indian, immediately returned, somewhat paler, however, and whispered to the smith, " It's the chief." The Indian entered, dressed in all the gaudy decorations of his rank. His black silk hair fell gracefully about his muscular shoulders. His face was broad and brown, painted in circular stripes of various colors. A pair of black eyes, tightly pinched, glanced sharply over his high, prominent cheek-bones. Although old, as the wrinkles in his forehead would indicate, he seemed as agile and quick of motion as a young warrior on his first hunt. Bending himself slightly forward he made a becoming salute with his right arm, and, with eyes tenderly fixed on the old smith, ad-dressed him. '' What I have to say will not be long. You know all. The red man must leave his native hills for the barren west. The day has come when he must bid adieu to his mountain home. He comes to give good-bye to a friend. The Indian leaves many enemies, but he comes to give the blacksmith a kind farewell. He envies not his little home, his small fields, his blacksmith THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 25 shop. May he live in peace. May prosperity gladden his ad-vancing years. Ah, no more shall he bend his back beneath the horse. No more shall he swing the sledge. The red man's friend shall be rich in fields, proud in wealth, honored among men. The treasures of mines shall make happy his children's homes. His grand-children shall live well, they shall be truly fortunate. The Indian's silver shall be theirs and it shall prosper in their hands." " Come," continued the chief, drawing a silken scarf from his waist, " come, friend, let me bind your eyes and I will lead you to a treasure such as man never beheld before. Come, it is yours." The old smith was astonished at the chief's offer. He stood mute and silent. Recovering himself he approached nearer to the Indian and with broken speech humbly addressed him. "I thank you heartily, chief, for your ofier, but I cannot accept it. I live happy. I work hard all day long and am satis-fied with my little home and family. What do I want with all that wealth ? Why do I deserve it ? I could not rest night or day by living off of the Indian's silver. No, chief, I refuse it. I thank you for the offer, but give or sell the mine to one who could work it with untroubled conscience." The chief was greatly troubled by the smith's refusal and was on the point of pressing his offer further, when Henry broke in, his face beaming from ear to ear as though he was sure it was his already. " I'll let you bind my eyes, venerable chief. I'll take it." The Indian, with angry countenance, drew back in amaze-ment and with scorn answered him. "Youtakeit! Ah, no, no, no, white man ! Rather let it rot with the ages than have it en-rich the hand of an enemy." Approaching the smith again he kindly entreated him to accept. "It's yours, take it. Come, let me Show you your wealth ?" " No, I can't accept it," inter-rupted the smith humbly. " It would bring worriment upon my gray hairs and strife among my children. No, I can't manage so large a treasure." The chief, now aware that it would be useless to urge him further, quickly stepped forward and said : " Then, if you will not take my silver, take my hand. The mine will remain where it is. Man cannot find it. It is the Indian's treasure and ever shall be." Then bowing low before the old man he withdrew to his horse, mounted and departed for the mountains. The farmer, j| 26 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. not feeling very well, quietly walked to the door and was gone without a word. It was some time before the blacksmith returned to his work and resumed his place at the forge. He thought the matter over and over and finally concluded that he had done the right thing. He worked hard that whole day till evening, when he locked the shop, walked silently home and told his wife and children the whole story. They all in the old quaint way agreed that father had done the best and so went to bed and slept. The next morning the smith arose bright and early, as usual, greatly refreshed from the anxiety of the previous day. After breakfast he started for his shop, which was not far distant, thinking not so much of the fortune which he had refused as Of the wandering Indians, who must have been by that time far on their journey. Arriving at the shop he unlocked the shabby door, entered it and taking a small iron shovel from the wall stepped to the forge and began to clear away the ashes to start a fire. After thrusting his shovel several times into the heap, he became greatly astonished at the smallness of the hole. It seemed to have grown much smaller during the night. Bending over the forge he began to scrape away the ashes with his rough hand. To his surprise he found that at the bottom of the open-ing stood a bright, round kettle filled with silver blocks about an inch square. With trembling hands he lifted the treasure from its hiding place and stood it on the anvil, noticing at the same time a small piece of paper sticking out over the rim of the vessel. Drawing this gently from the blocks he unfolded it and saw drawn in rough outline the figure of an Indian, under which was written the words, " To the Indian's friend." —W. H. H., '01. " "When you see a mig-hty forest, With its tall and stately trees, Lifting' up their giant branches; Wrestling with the wintry breeze; Do not fail to learn the lesson Which the moaning winds resound, Every oak was once an acorn, All unnoticed on the ground." —DR. C. H. PAYNE. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 27 WHY WE BROKE CAMP. TEIYL you a story? Well, if you have patience enough I'll tell you of an experience I had last summer vacation, while on a camping trip. You see, every summer vacation when I come home I spring it on the " old gent," that, after having worked so hard for nine months, my poor brain needs rest. Well, he takes it all in, and gives me a vacation of several weeks. Then the old gang gets together, and we go on a few weeks' loaf. Fun ? Well, I should say so. I^ast Summer, following our usual custom, we visited "Straw-berry Island," a beautiful little Island in the middle of the broad Susquehanna. Here there is but one small village of a few hun-dred population. The rest of the square mile of the island is heavily wooded, and affords an excellent place for campers. Usually there are anywhere from three to six parties camping on the island. But at the time we were there none of the others had yet arrived. Soon we were settled down, and were enjoying ourselves very much in hunting and fishing. One evening after we had been there about a week, I went to the village for our mail. When I got back, and distributed the letters to their respective owners, I took my own letters and drew apart a little to read them. The first one I opened was from my father. (You know my father is postmaster in the town in which I live, and, as it is a pretty large town, usually has large quantities of stamps, besides a good deal of money, on hand.) Well, to continue where I left off, the first letter was from my father, and the very first line conveyed to me the startling news that the post-office had been robbed the previous week of a considerable sum of money and about $400 worth of stamps. There was no clue to the robbers, and at present the officers were at a stand-still in their investigations. It is needless to tell you that I was surprised at the news. My first thought was to leave for home next day, but further in the letter father said I needn't let this spoil my fun, and that I should stay as long as I wished. So I decided to stay. The next afternoon I was appointed to run over the island in search of some stray chickens for our evening meal. I started about four o'clock, and leisurely made my way across the island. About a quarter-mile beyond the village I came upon a thick 28 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. clump of trees and undergrowth, situated about three hundred yards from a farmhouse. Thinking this would be a good place for the chickens, I cautiously made my way into the thickest part of the copse. Suddenly I was startled by hearing a gruff voice directly in front of me. I stopped at once, and soon heard another voice, raised in an altercation with the first speaker. He was cursing him roundly for a cheat and a rascal, saying that after having done the dirty work (I couldn't quite catch what), he wasn't going to take a cent less than half of the haul. I be-came interested in what was going on, and crept closer to the speakers, and saw two as villainous and rough looking toughs as ever I beheld. Between them they had a large bag of money, and beside the larger of them lay a peculiar oblong tin box, which somehow or other seemed very familiar to me. All at once it struck me that that was the stamp box which I had seen so often in my father's safe at home. Then it flashed upon me that these were the robbers who had so neatly eluded the officers of the law. My first impulse was to get back to camp at once, tell the other fellows about the robbery and my discovery, and then come and capture these fellows. But, on second thought, I saw it would be wiser to watch them, and find out where they took the booty. Soon the rascals came to an agreement, and decided that they would hide the " swag " until a convenient time should offer for them to dispose of it. They then picked up the bag and stamp box and made their way toward the other side of the island. It was now nearly dark, and I thought I could safely follow them. So I waited till they had gone, and then cautiously picked my way after them. After a half-hour's walk they came to a small tent pitched in a wooded hollow near the shore. They entered here, and I crept up close to catch every word concerning the disposal of the money and stamps. After a good deal of discussion they decided to bury it in the ground under the tent, and in order to do this I knew they would have to move the tent; so I quietly slipped away and hurried off as quickly as possible to our camp, and told the boys about the whole matter. They were eager to go at once, and even more so when I told them that the postoffice authorities had offered a re-ward of $500 for the capture of the robbers. Now, this meant $100 apiece for us, and we could do a good many things on $100. So we decided to go that very night. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 29 We had with us several revolvers and hunting-guns. Each fellow armed himself with one of these, and was soon ready to set out. We started about eleven o'clock, and reached the village a half-hour later. Here I stepped into a store, telephoned to the police at home that I had caught the thieves, and then proceeded. About twelve o'clock we were nearly at the robbers' camp, and I told my chums to take it easy so that we might take the men by surprise. Every fellow cocked his revolver and made ready for business. We crept silently up to the tent, and, peering in, saw two dark forms lying within, sound asleep. Then we entered, and order-ing two of the boys to cover each man, I proceeded to awake the larger and tougher of them. I succeeded pretty quickly, and soon had him securely bound, and then proceeded to do the same for his partner. We found all the booty buried in the earth under the tent, and then loosening our prisoners' legs, ordered them to march on ahead. We soon reached our camp, and binding the men again so that they could not get away, we took turns at guarding them during the night. We held them till the next evening, when my father came with two officers. We all set out for home, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing the malefactors in prison. In due time we received the reward. I saved mine, and father added a substan-tial sum to it. That's the reason I am flush this term. Come up town and have some oysters on me, the whole gang. — " APFI,EBEB." '■ Oh, wad some power the g-iftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us ! It wad frae monil a blunder free us And foolish notion, What airs in dress and g'ait wad lea' us And e'en devotion." -BURNS. i\ 30 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE. GRACE had been said. The preacher of the village, whose gray hairs had never been endangered by conjugal wrath, in short, who was a bachelor, had performed that solemn office, as was his wont, at the Lyn boarding-house. Around the table sat six. The preacher, by right of his sober mien and broadcloth, of course, occupied the first place of honor, that is, he sat at the end of the table next the door leading into the pantry, from which issued the appetizing sound of the sizzling, sputtering and splashing of the cooking, or the rattle and clatter of pots and pans, and occasionally, to vary the program, the bang of falling dishes invariably followed by a lecture on culinary economy and general management by the matron of the establish-ment, who at divers times and in divers manners, delivered these emphatic and lengthy dissertations to the cook, a buxom, grin-ning lass of perhaps sixteen summers, who bore several red marks on her face, testifying to the violence of gesture with which the lecturer was accustomed to drive home her rather striking argu-ments. Next to the preacher sat Mr. Eyn, who boasted the empty title of " Eord of the House "—a little, pinched, henpecked piece of crusty mortality, who spoke with a very emphatic "I intend" or " I will," but, as I observed, only when his wife was in the pan-try and the door closed. In her presence, or within range of her eye through the open pantry door, he seemed to sink about six inches in stature, and peep slyly out of the corners of his e3'es, like a cat expecting a sudden and unannounced visitation of boot-jacks and stove-pokers. Beside the hard-fated Mr. Lyn was situated, geographically speaking, a volcano of sentimental effusion, or, perhaps better, sat the village poet. He looked like a poet, at least to a stranger, having all the visible qualifications—long hair, a sentimental air, a canary-like whimper that sometimes sounded like the sigh of a zephyr, and a box of dyspepsia tablets sticking out of his vest pocket, which would most strongly confirm the theory suggested by the unbarbered hair. At the end of the table, opposite the snowy-templed " shep-herd in Israel," sat the school-mistress, another very important functionary in the village, enthroned in dignity and starch. She THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 31 always dressed in a rusty shade of brown satin, evidently to match her complexion, and had it so thoroughly starched that she could sit down only in one way, there being only one hinge in the dress. She was always " precise" and plain, never bedecked herself with flowers, perhaps because she couldn't starch them. Slight in figure, in her rusty armor she looked not altogether unlike a mud-wasp— a dignified mud-wasp. Her features denoted character, but as Pat said, who sat around the corner from her, they looked a little smoke-dried. Pat was a red-nosed Irishman, with a broad, open, jolly Irish face, always lit up with an expression of bantering humor, and partly covered with a thin, scattered crop of stubble. He was the man of all work about the establishment, and bossed about by the lady of the house, curtly snapped at by the next highest power, Mr. Lyn, divinely stared at by the volcano, furiously glared at by the mud-wasp, and reproached every now and then by the preacher for profanity, he bad a very wretched time of it, and often gave that as a reason for the redness of his nose. "Be-jabbers," he would say, " Oi must droon moi troubles;" but how he drowned his troubles by reddening his nose I never could imagine. Grace had been said, as I stated before, and Jane began to serve roast chicken, starting with the preacher. " Thank you, my girl," said his reverence in his blandest tone as she turned from him to the poet, who took a wing with a smile—a very poetic smile—and, holding it up on a fork that all could see it, in his softest canary notes began : " Oh for the wings of an angel, To fly to that heavenly shore, I would leave this land of sorrow, There in joy to dwell evermore." " Oh, how delectable !" exclaimed the ecstatic teacher. "What spontaneity and brilliancy of genius ! Surely, Mr. Bilious, you have been endowed with those peculiar qualities of intellect which combine with a deep and susceptible emotional nature to consti-tute those favored and favorite mortals, whose function in life and society is to add to the general happiness of humanity ; one of those who drink of Olympian fountains and feast on the ambrosial —the ambrosial—feast on the ambrosial—in short, Mr. Bilious, you are a poet." She always rattled out her comments in a man- 32 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. \ ner something like a hysterical alarm-clock, and stopped for the same reason, too—because she was run down. The flattered rhymer, in his confusion and gratitude, blushed a sort of 3^ellow green, and fumbled about in his inspired cranium for a suitable answer, when Pat relieved him. " Ay, Midam, a pooet's boorn a pooet; ye can't make 'im." Though "Madam" rarely condescended to notice any of Pat's remarks, she replied: "Mr. O'Brien, I fully appreciate the force and significance of that sententious and universal truth to which you have just given utterance. I find it true, in my ramblings through the variegated fields of imaginative literature, that a skill-ful master of the poetic art must—must possess certain natural endowments of mind and feeling. He may avail himselfof the most efficient intellectual discipline in the most advanced institutions of learning, established in either hemisphere, the Eastern or the Western, fortne impartation of knowledge and mental develop-ment, and yet, sir, may never gain admission into the temple of the Muses." " Yis, a pooit's loike an iditor. Ye moight fade a goat tin years on newspaipers, but shtill ye couldn't make an iditor av 'im." Very much to Pat's annoyance—for he felt unusually honored in being patronized by such an able representative of scholarship and high English—the poet, who felt that they were both allud-ing to him, chimed in : " If Nature on you doth bestow it, To reveal her charms, to be a poet, In school or out you're bound to show it, And all the world will some time know it." "Och, bedad," supplemented Pat, with a dubious smile of malicious humor, intending to punish Mr. Bilious for this obtru-sive sally, "Ye remoindmeso much of Samson in the Scriptures." The poet shook out his tresses of black, hanging in Miltonic waves over his shoulder, proud to have them compared to Sam-son's immortal looks of strength, but Pat. continued : " Ye both use th' same wippin, only ye make pooetry with it and he slew the inimies of Israel." Of course, we laughed; the preacher till he was as red as Pat's nose, I till my sides ached, and even the school-mistress smiled as loud as the constitutional gravity of her deportment would permit, the poet, all the while, turning alter- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 33 nately red, white and blue, and looking as though he had swal-lowed a smoothing-iron. Mr. Lyn alone did not smile—the pan-try door was open. The cook was seized with a fit of tittering that went nigh end-ing with her dropping the coffeepot, with which she had now reached the school-mistress, filling the cups as she went round the table. " O Miss Jane, do exercise more vigilant care lest you occa-sion some disastrous calamity. Just cogitate how seriously I might have been scalded by that liquid, in that state of violent ebullition, as you undoubtedly apprehend. Such inexcusable carelessness cannot, must not be tolerated, young lady." Jane, somewhat abashed, colored and would have attempted an apology, but the preacher, ever ready to rescue one in embar-rassment, interposed : " Nothing hurt, Jane; accidents will hap-pen everybody. I don't wish them to you," he added, with an air of cheerful gallantry, " but I like to see you blush up ; your cheeks look like peaches." " Yis, yer Riverence," added Pat, "and Oi am so fand of paiches," looking at the preacher and then at the cook. The teacher had, by far, too positive notions of propriety not to rebuke the facetious Patrick. " Undoubtedly, Mr. O'Brien, you have not had the advantages which the cultured usually de-nominate the ' privileges of high society,' those elements of good-breeding enjoyed in homes of education and refinement, or un-doubtedly you would not be guilty of the audacity, so boldly and improperly to allude to the female employee of the establishment in which you occupy the humble position of a menial. Mr. O'Brien, I certainly am surprised." Pat looked at me and winked, evidently not much discon-certed by the bombardment. •'You exhibit," she continued, angry because Pat did not wilt, " directly under and within the range of my ocular vision, such indecency towards me, one so manifestly your superior"— another wink. "Well, did I ever!" she ejaculated, closing her mouth with a snap like a pocketbook, looking daggers all the while at the unabashed Mr. O'Brien. "Did ye iver," rejoined the impregnable Patrick. "It's moire than Oi can till ye what ye iver did; yer auld enough to 34 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. have done imiything, judgin', as the poet says, 'by the silver min-gled mang th' gauld.' " '' Sir,'' sharply retorted the now thoroughly enraged pre-ceptress, "I do not propose—" " Nay, Midim," interrupted Pat., " Oi didn't ask ye to pro-pose, and there's no danger of innybody havin' ye innyhow, un-less p'rhaps yed propose in the dairk av th' moon." During this passage between the scholarly tongue of the out-raged pedagogue and the native wit of the mischievous Irishman none of us dared to laugh out, though we suffered severely with suppressed mirth, which, in my case, played a little game of earth-quake in my abdominal regions, made me drink two glasses of water in quick succession and spill half a cup of coffee over the table. Determined to beat a retreat with at least the honors of war, she turned from the Irishman, as if perfectly disgusted with his conduct, and addressed Jane, who was about to give her a^second cup of coffee. " No, thank you. If I should indulge in the sec-ond cup of this beverage, although I consider it exquisitely pal-atable and invigorating, when administered, or rather taken, in moderate quantities, my digestive organ would be greatly exag-gerated— I mean aggravated, and probably develop in the course of time sub-acute gastritis or some other modification of irritant poisoning. Indeed, I have entertained the greatest apprehension of"—just then the door bell rang, and I was called out. —A. N. ONYMOUS. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. C. H. SOLT MERCHANT TAILOR Masonic Bldg., GETTYSBURG Our collection of Woolens for the coming Fall and Winter season cannot be surpassed for variety, attractive designs and general completeness. 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Transcript of an oral history interview with Robert F. Crecco, conducted by Jennifer Payne on 28 August 2013, at the Norwich University campus in Northfield, Vermont, as part of the Norwich Voices oral history project of the Sullivan Museum and History Center. Robert Crecco was a member of the Norwich University Class of 1947; his education was interrupted by his military service in World War II. His experiences during the war and as a student at Norwich University are discussed in his interview. ; WWII WW2 World War II World War Two World War 2 ; Robert F. Crecco Oral History Interview Interview Date: August 28, 2013 Interview Location: Sullivan Museum & History Center, Norwich University Interviewed by Jennifer K. Payne Transcribed by Thomas H. King III JENNIFER PAYNE: Today is August 28th 2013 and I'm with… ROBERT CRECCO: Robert Crecco and, what else would you like to know? JENNIFER PAYNE: What is your date of birth? ROBERT CRECCO: April 27th 1925. JENNIFER PAYNE: And where were you born? ROBERT CRECCO: Medford Massachusetts JENNIFER PAYNE: And where are we right now? ROBERT CRECCO: We're in Killington at the Woods Resort where we've been coming for the last eight years and we're up here for July and August. JENNIFER PAYNE: What is the address we are at? ROBERT CRECCO: This is 53 Woods Road, Killington Vermont. JENNIFER PAYNE: Thank You. JENNIFER PAYNE: Alright. So I've got some questions I'm going to ask you again from the survey if that's ok? ROBERT CRECCO: Yes. JENNIFER PAYNE: Okay. So how and why did you join the service? ROBERT CRECCO: Join the service? JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: I was drafted, and I was drafted while I was attending Norwich as a freshman, and I was inducted in Montpellier and then sent to Fort Devens for pulmonary activities and then sent to, I think it was Fort McClellan in Alabama for basic training. JENNIFER PAYNE: Where were you when you were drafted? ROBERT CRECCO: I was at Norwich and I think there was about a 179 freshmen at that time and the school was basically taken over by the Air Corps. There were 1200 Air Force Cadets and so the school revolved around them and it's surprisingly that Norwich had a freshmen class. All the classes had left, the junior and seniors were immediately inducted in to the service and the sophomores were being decimated by drafting and so forth. So the school basically, (coughs) was empty and I guess they had a contract with the Air Force to give the Air Force the basic training in education I guess and also calisthenics and everything else. So we merged within basic we didn't, all the dormitories were taken up by the Air Force and so we stayed in the fraternity houses. I stayed in the Theta Chi house and then SAE and Sig Up were also occupied then there was another one and I can't think of the name and then there was a four or fifth one called the Lanscers. So, we freshmen were in those places and we had Air Force non-coms as our instructors and, I think, the academic courses were all those set up for the, for the Air Force so we took the same courses. Which was basically a little different from the normal Norwich curriculum, like we took Chemistry, Physics, Geography, I think we took English, and Mathematics. There were five courses as I remember and we didn't sit in with the Air Force. Our classes were with ourselves so you know the, the freshmen. But we had the same curriculum as the Air Force, because I guess the faculty was geared to do that and so we participated. So I got drafted out of Norwich, (clears throat) I (un-audible) my throat here. JENNIFER PAYNE: Do you want a glass of water? ROBERT CRECCO: That would be good. JENNIFER PAYNE: Okay, alright. ROBERT CRECCO: And I was the first one to be drafted. Cause basic I was I think I was the about the oldest follow in the, the group. I was 18 in April in my senior year in high school and most of the, the fellows with me were under 18 and, that's the reason why I was the first one to get drafted, because I was the oldest one in the class. JENNIFER PAYNE: What year, what exact year and month was that, do you recall? ROBERT CRECCO: Well I graduated in 1943. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And, we started. I think we started in August and, I believe it was August, it was early, actually it was, it was, it was a little undecided whether Norwich is going to have a freshmen class and so, we didn't know until just before they asked us to come up that they were going to have a, a freshmen class. JENNIFER PAYNE: How did you decide to go to Norwich? ROBERT CRECCO: Well, a neighbor of mine, was at Norwich. Ya know he, I was talking with him before he even came up and he sort of convinced me it was the place to be and so I said ok and he was a freshmen, but then when I got up to Norwich there was actually no classes there and I found out later on that he had received an appointment to West Point. And so he would even if the, the whole discombobulation hadn't happened because of the war he probably would have left any way and, and even though he convinced me to come up, that he wouldn't have been there and, I lost track of, his name was Louie (Lacanti) and I lost track of him, and the strange, on our last cruise or a transatlantic in last past April one of the people with us at our table was a Colonel. Who had been at West Point when Louie was there and so I asked if he knew Louie and he said, not really, he says I know the name. And I said can you check later on to find out whatever happened to Louie but I never did hear from this person. But anyway I, I, I, as I say I get drafted and, inducted in Montpellier, and then they made me acting corporal to take the crew down to Fort Devens (Chuckles) on the train at that time there was a train travelling back and forth between Montreal and White River Junction. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm. ROBERT CRECCO: And it split in one part went to New York and one part went to Boston. So we get down to Fort Devens and, eventually get to my basic training at Fort McClellan. JENNIFER PAYNE: So did you have a choice in where you went or.? ROBERT CRECCO: No I didn't but they told me at Fort Devens that, I was to be put in Army Specialized Training. Called ASTP, Army, specializing training program. Yeah. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And that I was scheduled to go to Texas A&M for the specialized training, but three months later after basic, conditions changed and the war plans and so forth and they decided to cancel all ASTP programs and, since we were being trained as an infantrymen we were to go back to that and we shipped out for England about a month later. JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow. ROBERT CRECCO: And so we're on a troop ship that went to, went to England we came in at Bristol England. It was on an Australian, meat, refrigerator ship. I guess they used to bring mutton from Australia to England with it but that was our troop ship and it was pretty bad. It was run by, by Australians and we'd have some real, real bad food. But anyway it was, it was, it wasn't that bad. JENNIFER PAYNE: What, what was the food do you remember? ROBERT CRECCO: Oh things like, fish for breakfast, and then something like a porridge, ya know it was almost like gruel. Ya know and some bread. Things like that and I don't remember much about dinner. We didn't have lunch. We had breakfast and then we had dinner early and I can't remember much about the dinner. JENNIFER PAYNE: That's okay ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah JENNIFER PAYNE: But it was, it was not a fun ship it was ROBERT CRECCO: Oh no, no JENNIFER PAYNE: (Chuckles) ROBERT CRECCO: We were packed in there like sardines. And the smell below deck wasn't too great. JENNIFER PAYNE: What did it smell like? ROBERT CRECCO: Well sweat, and people, and ya know that sort of thing you get used to it after a while but we were always up on deck when we could be. JENNIFER PAYNE: What did you do to pass the time on the ship? ROBERT CRECCO: Well we used to have, formations, and calisthenics, and lectures. Ya know military indoctrinations so forth. But that was it. JENNIFER PAYNE: So what happened when you got to Bristol? ROBERT CRECCO: Well we went into, went into camp. Near a place called Leamington. And we're in tents and I think there were what four, four men to a tent, yeah, and all we did was march, and march, and march up and down all those, those winding roads in, in England and of course we got leave. But they told us, ya know, don't go to the restaurants because they don't have much food and you got all the food you need right in camp. But we did get fish and chips and you go into a place and ya get a, a newspaper full of a, of the fish and chips and they were delicious, they were delicious. At that time they were using Cod and we heard later that there was a Cod war between England and Iceland cause England was in Icelandic waters and there was a standoff there and they had destroyers and there Icelandic trawlers out there with guns on them and I guess they came to an agreement any way but… (Laughs) JENNIFER PAYNE: (Laughing) ROBERT CRECCO: Cod, Cod was a, is a very well-known food in Europe. All the, all those foreign countries sent trawlers way over near off Nova Scotia for Cod and so forth. But that goes on too long and there's not much Cod left there. JENNIFER PAYNE & ROBERT CRECCO: So JENNIFER PAYNE: Yep ROBERT CRECCO: I guess you'd want me to continue with this… JENNIFER PAYNE: Yeah ROBERT CRECCO: What we're doing over in England. Well after it seemed like a long time with this, this training over there. We finally get word to, pack up and, get on these trucks and low and behold we're in South Hampton and they loaded us on ships and the, the, the initial attack on the continent had, had begun. And we were on the ship I think overnight and then finally we sailed the next day and it was on the second day. I forget the, what it was June 6th, June 6th was the initial, yeah, so it would be June 7th, late in the, late in June, late on the June 7th, that we landed in Omaha beach. JENNIFER PAYNE: What was that like? ROBERT CRECCO: Well, it was still a mess, ya know the fighting had proceeded up off the cliff and they were going inland and the beach was littered with all kinds of equipment, there were some, still some, dead bodies on the beach, they had been lined up and so forth and I guess they were in the process of taking them off. And so after we get off from the beach we went up on the, on the, on the top of the cliffs. They had already pushed a couple of miles inland. The, the Rangers had cleared the cliffs the previous day even though they sustained quiet heavy casualties. And then the 20, I think it was the 24 th, 24th or 29th, I'm not sure, yeah we didn't know what was going on. All we knew was that we had to get off the, the landing craft but we didn't know it was, what was, we could hear the, the, the noise up ahead, ya know the shells and everything. They were still bombarding the area from the, the battleships and the cruisers and they were still shelling way inland but, then we got up of the area there and they kept us there for a while and then they told us to advance and evidently the, the advance, the lead troops had pushed way inland. And so we weren't in the front line at that time we were in the backup and, I think maybe ten days later I was with the second infantry division. And about ten days later, we were near Saint-Lô. And, cause the approaches of Saint-Lô was surrounded by small villages. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And the, we were near a village as I remember, it was called Sofria, Sofree, Sofra? I don't know how they pronounce it. And it was near that village where I was on a patrol and I got, I got wounded. By a, a mortar shell. JENNIFER PAYNE: What happened? ROBERT CRECCO: Well we were on patrol it was, it was at night, and ya know that whole country there is full of hedge rows. And these hedge rows would, would be, you'd have roads going, not roads even, these were dirt roads going between the hedge rows and then across the hedge, or on the near side of the hedge row would be a little pasture and then on the other side road would be another hedge row and then a pasture and the hedge rows all the way around that's how the country in, in Normandy was, was either made that way by the people or I, I don't know but anyway Normandy was full of hedge rows and it was very difficult fighting in those areas. But then we were on patrol at night. Patrol is you go over a hedge row and then you'd sit there and see what the opposition or the Germans were going to do. Whether they were putting out patrols either and this is known as feeling out what the enemy is doing and so they, they, they must have seen us because they sent over three mortar shells and there were three of us and the Sergeant got killed and I was wounded and the other g-, the other fellow he didn't get hit at all. So we dragged the Sergeant back to the, our lines and I got wounded in the arm and also my foot so I got evacuated. At that time they were evacuating everybody to England. They, they had, we had, we had controlled some air fields so we're able to get these ambulance plans there and, so they'd load them into one of those and I got evacuated to England. To a general hospital near Oxford. JENNIFER PAYNE: Yeah ROBERT CRECCO: Oxford and, what was the other town? I can't think of the name of the town now that, Shakespeare. JENNIFER PAYNE: Stratford-Avon ROBERT CRECCO: Stratford-Avon, right, ha, was near there, because for activities they took us to Stratford-Avon to and we went to see the Shakespearian plays. JENNIFER PAYNE: When you recuperated. ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah, yeah, so I was in the, I was in the general hospital for about two months JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow ROBERT CRECCO: Cause I couldn't walk. And then, then it got infected. So I was there for about two months and they reclassified me as limited service but then they sent me back to France. But ya know while we were in England, we, we had, it was pretty good. We got to visit a lot of places and see a lot of those Shakespearian plays. And anyway I got sent back, on reassignment, and they sent us back to Paris. And I was in a reassignment depot and we got some leaves to Paris and so, I went to Paris and it was all right but, ya know I was really not into it. And I was still pretty young and some of these guys were hept for getting drunk and then picking up women or and actually going to some of the whore houses and I was, I wasn't into that. I didn't enjoy Paris that much. But anyway, when I got, we got reassigned. Since I was on limited duty I wasn't going to go to a, a combat, well not combat, but I wouldn't be going to a front line outfit and so I ended up in, in 90th division of 5, 547th? What was that? It was 530, no, yeah 537th headquarters battery on an automatic weapon, it was an automatic weapons battery, they had multiple 50s mounted on halftracks, and they had anti-aircraft guns and I was in the headquarters duty, (Chuckles), and they were looking around to put me to do something all of a sudden it was, this Warrant Officer was in charge, he said, you went to, you went to college didn't you? And I said, (Chuckles), well we're going to have you do the morning report. And the morning report was a form and description as you put what happened of what happened in the battery and how many, how many, how many were killed, how many were wounded, how many were sick, how many had to go to the rear and then what the activity of the battery was that day. And it had to be signed by the commanding officer of, of our group which was a captain and, that was my job, which was a nothing job, ya know. Which was fine by me because it kept me out of the frontlines being on limited duty. So that's how I survived the war and when the war ended we were in occupation duty, which wasn't too much and all the fellows were fraternizing which was against the rules but either during, during the war or towards the end, the last few months some of the fellas who knew German, because we had a couple German guys, the original group was from Texas and I guess where they were from there was a lot of German people and they, they knew German. But they would go out at night and bring food with them and go to these houses where they knew there were women and, so they used to have a pretty good time and they'd used to bring the food there, and then, course the people didn't have much food at that time so they were very well welcomed. But anyway after we got, after the war was over we sat around for, I think a month or so. And then we got sent up to, Amsterdam, oh Brussels, Brussels and we stayed in tents up there for a few weeks and then we saw the star, the star, Stars and Strips newspaper on day and big headlines was Atomic Bomb dropped on Japan, and then a, next day another bomb had been dropped. Well we were sitting there waiting for transportation back to the states and we were to be retrained for, well I wouldn't be but I would be with some unit that was going over to the Pacific, ya know for Japan and so the dropping of the bomb, we didn't understand, ya know the implications of this until we saw a reading in, in the Stars and Strips that the war was coming to a close in the Pacific and instead of being retrained for that we would be sent home and then they had a points system. They decided that the order in which you would go home be decided in the number of points you have and points took everything from years of service, overseas service, combat service, if you were wounded or something like that, so it all add up to these points and low and be hold I had enough points so I knew that as soon as we got a ship I'd be sent home and then eventually discharged. So I got home and they, where was it, not Fort McClellan, is there another camp, let's see. JENNIFER PAYNE: Po New York? Nope that was… ROBERT CRECCO: Well let's see. We did come in New York. But then we get, sent to another camp I think in Alabama, I can't remember the name. JENNIFER PAYNE: Do you remember where you were when you, when you heard, when VJ-day occurred? ROBERT CRECCO: I think, I think we were on the ship coming back. And it was a little better ship, it was a transport, and an American transport so coming back was, I think, I think it was either, was either on our last couple of days in camp in Brussels or on the ship that we heard that VJ-day had occurred. But by that time they already set the point system because they knew the war was coming to an end, after they dropped these bombs and so forth. And we, I got, I got that 30 day furlough when we, when we, when we got to this camp fort, I didn't say over here, Fort Brag, Fort Brag. We were sent to Fort Brag and then they gave us a 30 day leave from Fort Brag, so I spent it home in Medford and then we had to report back. Reported back and then they told us we were going to be discharged. So all this time back and forth and they could have done it right in the beginning but I guess they weren't ready. And so I get discharged and I came back to Medford and then all my old friends we got together. They were all out of the service too. And we just paled around for a couple months and I got tired of that so that's when I, I got in touch with, well I didn't get in touch with Norwich right away. I was looking around for what I wanted to do. And a doctor friend of my father's talked me into being an optometrist. A, with a medical degree though, it was not, it was a ophthalmologist, ophthalmologist. So he says, I will recommend you to go Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania and so I applied there and they came back and said, we are deluged by veterans and we can't take you for a year and a half. They suggested I go back to Norwich and take prescribed courses and at the end of my sophomore year they would take me in. And so I get in touch with Norwich and they say yeah come on back, (Laughing), and I said well, ya know I'm not keen on, on this military and they said, well we're giving veterans the option of going into the military, I mean the corps or coming in as civilians. So I opted for the civilian and so I came back to Norwich and they gave me credit for the courses I took when I was with the, taking the Air Corps curriculum. And there were just as many veterans back as there were Cadets in the Corps. Ya know they had started the Corps again and they were getting young fellas to come into the Corps. And I came back as a civilian and I roomed with Bob Dorman. JENNIFER PAYNE: Ah ROBERT CRECCO: And (Hobie?) Smith. Bob Dorman had been a junior here. Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And (Hobie?) Smith would have been a junior too and we roomed together in Alumni Hall. Alumni Hall was pretty crowded with all the civilians there and. Bob Dorman was sort of a screw up. All the years he remained a, a, a senior private in the corps (Laughing) and (Hobie?) Smith had been a corporal or a sergeant, I'm not sure, but Bob I think almost got thrown out of Norwich when he was here, before the war and he got involved with a girl from Barre and, this is when he came back afterwards and so he, he had his ups and downs with her and Hobby Smith and I were not involved with anybody we were just trying to get the job done that we came back to do and Bob Dorman a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity guy and same with (Hobie?) Smith. So they both got me into Sigma Alpha Epsilon and after that first year in Alumni Hall I didn't live down in the SAE house and that was a good deal I didn't have to eat in the mess hall, we had our own cook who prepared all our meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and this was all for $25 a month. I mean but things were pretty, still pretty cheap there, there were people were making $18 dollars a week as clerks, ya know in stores. Salaries were pretty low it's no wonder we could live there for $25, so I, I, I was bunking in a room with Lenny (Fillam?). Lenny (Fillam?), the fish man we used to call him, cause his father owned a wholesale fish company in Boston and Bob Dorman's father was, was a correspondent for associated press, he's from New Jersey. And (Hobie?) Smith was Connecticut I think his father was a lawyer. So we, at that time I was getting support from the VA for college, I was, I was on the PL 16 because I was disabled and I was getting more money then you would've regularly get. And I had, in order to get the PL 16 I had to tell them what I was studying for and I was, I was taking, courses that Pennsylvania had said I should take. I was taking German, analytical geometry, calculus, physics, chemistry then I took an elective in history. And I was plowing through that but not doing too well. Ya know I did alright in chemistry but physics, the labs were killing me and mathematics, analytical geometry I was doing alright in that, German I was, the first year was ok, the second year I just couldn't hack it. So I wasn't doing too well in these courses they wanted me take in preparation for opthalamy, optho-, ophthalmology. In, in Pennsylvania and I was beginning to like history and English. So ya know I, I, I was getting B's and C's but a lot of C's in, in the courses they wanted me to take. So I decided this wasn't for me and I started taking more English and history courses and I decided to drop all this other stuff. And I had put down for the VA I was going to be a teacher. And then I remember my senior year I had courses in teaching and I have to practice teaching at Northfield High and after a fe-, couple of semesters of that I said this wasn't for me either. (Laughing) So I, I, these, these kids in, in Northfield High weren't interested in history at all. (Laughing) I don't know what they were interested in but I could tell I wasn't making the head way so I decided to drop that and I was on the newspaper in my senior year I became editor of the Guidon. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And I decided this was a thing I'd like to be in, public relations or writing, editing and so forth. And so I graduated in history and I was able to take summer courses and everything else so I get out. I got my degree in two and a half years. JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow ROBERT CRECCO: And cause I went summers and everything else and I took accelerated courses which they offered to veterans cause lot of them, a lot of these veterans were married. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And some had children and they had a veteran's village made up of surplus government trailers. JENNIFER PAYNE: Where was this, where'd the put them? ROBERT CRECCO: It, it, ya know on rt.12A? JENNIFER PAYNE: Uhuh ROBERT CRECCO: There was a pasture in there where they set these up and it was veteran's village and these married people were there and some of them had children. And I remember they'd get extra money, these married veterans selling sandwiches at night and so forth. JENNIFER PAYNE: They sold sandwiches, what kind of sandwiches? ROBERT CRECCO: Well they would make ham sandwiches and roast beef and stuff like that and they would come around at night and we would buy the sandwiches from them. And, that was one of the interesting, ya know they were doing all sorts of things to get extra money cause the, what the government was paying them wasn't, wasn't enough. And they had to pay rent in those trailers. But any way, I graduated in 1948 as the class of '47 and my roommate had, was getting married, Bob Dorman getting married (Laughing) he, he was a character. He, he got into an argument with his wife and they were downtown Montpelier and he jumped off the bridge into the Winooski River. He got so mad at her or something like that. JENNIFER PAYNE: On Stonecutter's Way? ROBERT CRECCO: What's that? JENNIFER PAYNE: On Stonecutter's Way, that bridge? The little bridge. ROBERT CRECCO: The Bridge entering Montpelier JENNIFER PAYNE: Oh, from Rt. 12, yeah. ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah, right JENNIFER PAYNE: He jumped into the… ROBERT CRECCO: He jumped off the bridge there. And another time he went into the what is now the, the hotel. Not, not the Pavilion, at the. What is it? The, the Hotel in Montpelier. JENNIFER PAYNE: Oh the Capital Plaza. ROBERT CRECCO: The Capital Plaza yeah, it was not the Capital Plaza it was some other name and he was so mad at something he, well he was drunk too he got in and just ripped the toilet off. (Laughing) He, he was, he was a big guy, he, he played on the football team and he get so incensed at something and then he was drunk, he pulled up, just pulled up the toilet off the. JENNIFER PAYNE: The whole thing, not the lid? ROBERT CRECCO: No he just pulled up the whole, the whole toilet and of course there's water all over the place. But any way he got into trouble all the time, but he eventually married this woman and they had, they had three or four children. In fact he still has a son that I think live in Castleton. Last time I talked to Bob, he was, he was at the University of Kansas, on the military staff there. He was a Major, and that was the last time I talked to him. He, he died of a heart attack soon after that. JENNIFER PAYNE: Oh. ROBERT CRECCO: And (Hobie?) Smith I lost track of all together. And (Vinny Vesch?) who was, a chem major and who was our, our house steward at the SAE house. I met him once in Tom's River. He was working for the national light company. He was a chemical engineer down there and actually one of my fraternity brothers, put me on to the job I eventually got when I, when I left Norwich. Working for General Electric. JENNIFER PAYNE: What did you do? ROBERT CRECCO: I was an editorial assistant. So he knew, he knew I was editor of the Guidon and he knew that I was interested in that kind of work. So when heard that this opportunity, he graduated a year before me. Or was it two years? I forget, but any way he was from Swampscott Massachusetts and he was working for GE too and he heard about this opening there and I applied for it and I got the job because I put together a portfolio of the two years I worked on the Guidon and I was able to bring that and show that. I even had some letters in there were I corresponded with President Dodge. JENNIFER PAYNE: Oh really? ROBERT CRECCO: On various things, one of them I remember our football team was losing by big scores and I said. I wrote an editorial and I said let's do something about this or stop football. University of Vermont, UVM had dropped football and we used to play them and we did pretty well with them but they dropped it because they couldn't, couldn't hack it either. So I said we should either drop football or let's go out and get some people to come to Norwich who can play football. Well he, he didn't like my editorial, he, he took issue with it so he and I had a conference with it and I had written, I wrote a letter in response to that meeting we had. So I had that sort of stuff in the portfolio (Laughing). So, and Dodge was a nice guy, I liked him. He was, he was quite an outdoorsman. He liked to kayak, and canoe, he, he was quite an expert in canoeing and kayaking and he had done a lot of trips into the wilderness, ya know I'd say. And he eventually, I think went back to Bowdoin. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm. In Maine? ROBERT CRECCO: I, I think yeah Maine, on the faculty there after he left Norwich. Well, but any way I got this job at General Electric as an editorial assistant and eventually I became an editor. And I was transferred to. I worked in Lyne, Lyne Massachusetts and then I got transferred to, get a newspaper going in Cincinnati at the jet engine, new, a new jet engine plant. So I got transferred out there. JENNIFER PAYNE: So you started a, you were working a newspaper or you were working at the plant? ROBERT CRECCO: Well the plant had a newspaper. JENNIFER PAYNE: Ah, gotcha ROBERT CRECCO: So it was a weekly newspaper. And so that's what I was putting out and then when I went to Lockland Ohio that's where the plant was, near Cincinnati. I started one there. JENNIFER PAYNE: You started a newspaper? ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah JENNIFER PAYNE: What was it called? ROBERT CRECCO: It was called the GE News at the jet engine plant and I stayed in that field I, I eventually left GE went to work for AT&T in Cincinnati also working on publications. Several publications that I started working on and report and then I started flip charts for instructions and so forth and I eventually left them and went to work for… (inaudible) I had a short stint, with an advertising agency. And then I went to work for… the greeting card company. JENNIFER PAYNE: Hallmark? ROBERT CRECCO: Hallmark. JENNIFER PAYNE: What was that like? ROBERT CRECCO: Well I was a director of sales promotion. JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow ROBERT CRECCO: And I was working with a sales force of about 400 people. Wow ROBERT CRECCO: All over, all over the country and they were in various regions and districts and so it was my job to put these fellas to sell. JENNIFER PAYNE: How did you do that? ROBERT CRECCO: Well, I used to. I put out a weekly publication. That had standings of salesmen and also hints in how to sell and so forth. Salesmen who did a, a, a good selling job and how they did it I'd, I'd translate into how you might do it too and course I was getting 2% of the sales. I was working for the Vice President of the sales and he must have been getting 10%. And I was getting 2%. And so I used to put out this publication and then I'd used to travel out to the salesmen and help them build up sales promotion, projects they could sell this to their customers. Our customers where in the whole gamut from banks, to feed companies, to the big companies, big national companies. Cause we, in addition to lot of printed material we sold we also sold executive gifts made of teak and so forth. And so these executive gifts were, were quite expensive. Could be desk sets, or could be, could be what would you call them? Ice buckets. JENNIFER PAYNE: Oh yeah ROBERT CRECCO: Made of teak and then inside would be a glass bowel and so forth all different kinds of boxes and so forth. They, these were all finely made in teak and they would sell those as well as sell Hallmark calendars and kinds of dodades, ya know like pens, and any kind of a trinket. And so these men would, would, would put together their sales pitches and have all these things on display. And they did very well some of these guys and we, we got the wives involved. We had a, at that time. Do you remember green stamps? JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm. I do. ROBERT CRECCO: HNS green stamps JENNIFER PAYNE: That's right ROBERT CRECCO: We used to give those away to the salesmen and we had a catalogue that they put out. And you could get anything from a grand piano down to a charcoal barbeque. So we gave those away as well as, as other things special and so forth and these were all incentive programs. And that was my job to get these guys incentive programs to get them to sell JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow ROBERT CRECCO: And then I eventually decided that I had enough of that and I came to Washington. And I went to work for a, a portion control meat company JENNIFER PAYNE: Hmmm ROBERT CRECCO: And when I got to there. I, I was sorry I got into that mess there. So I had made some friends in Washington and they told me about a job available with a lobby outfit. Highway lobby. JENNIFER PAYNE: Oh yeah ROBERT CRECCO: And it was known as the Highway Safety Federation and eventually became, merged with another one to become the Highway Users Federation and they had organizations in every city, every state. There is one in here, probably in Montpelier. I'm pretty sure there was one located there. JENNIFER PAYNE: Was it like AAA? Did it become AAA? ROBERT CRECCO: No it wasn't AAA it was still the Highway Users Federation. It was supported by the automobile companies, advertising companies, suppliers, all kinds of automobile suppliers, and it was the auto industry. The idea was to build roads. JENNIFER PAYNE: Right ROBERT CRECCO: To build more roads and… JENNIFER PAYNE: Did you like that? ROBERT CRECCO: It, it was alright. We put up publications that, that was in publications and we had conferences with the Highway User Federations. And the idea was to help the state federations work with the highway people to build roads. And course there were a lot of people didn't like the highway people because they felt they were building over the country. But anyway I worked with them naturally we, we had close, close working with the, the U.S. Department of Transportation. JENNIFER PAYNE: Sure ROBERT CRECCO: So I had a friend, who was in the, who was in the, the administration was Highway Safety, that was it, Highway Safety and he became the administrator of this division in the Department of Transportation. So, they needed somebody to work in sort of a lobby group. The government can't lobby but they can get other people to do it for them. So he asked me to come in to work as a coordinator for a program that he wanted to do with Highway Safety and one of the big things in safety that time was that there was a lot of drunk driving and the deaths on the highway had reached I think about 26,000. 26,000 highway deaths, many of them due to drunk driving. JENNIFER PAYNE: Annually ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah annually so he asked me to come in and coordinate a program and they had determined the best way to reach this drunk driving problem was through women. That wives, sweet hearts, and etc. etc. would have more influence on the men how were doing this drunk driving. So one of the things we were going to do was have a, a national conference in Washington and my job was to work with the, putting together this national conference. So that must have been, 19, 1940, somewhere around there. And so we did we, we, we got a lot of national organizations to put up the money cause the, the government couldn't put up the money this. It had to be through national organizations and companies so forth. And so we put together a three day conference in Washington. In the conference was to invite women leaders. These women leaders were from garden clubs, from political organizations, and other people who were leaders in their community, other women who were leaders in their community. And we invited I think about 2,000 women to come to this national conference in Washington. JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow ROBERT CRECCO: And, we had to put together a program to, in order to get women involved in drunk driving and so we had all garden clubs and there were all these women from women's clubs and we invited them. They, they had to pay their way, but we paid, they had to pay their way and also their hotel room and then we got the companies to put up the money for the conferences, the meals, all the printing material everything. They, they paid for that, they were (Coughs) there were companies in the automobile business, companies in highway building, advertising companies, anybody associated with, with highways. And we put together a three day conference and we had a lot of political people involved and we had vice president, vice president's wife involved. She was our chairman, our honorary chairman and so forth. And… JENNIFER PAYNE: Was that Eleanor, or who, who was the president, who was the VP at the time? Do you remember? ROBERT CRECCO: Volpe. JENNIFER PAYNE: Volpe? ROBERT CRECCO: Was the secretary of transportation. JENNIFER PAYNE: Uh huh ROBERT CRECCO: And, he had, oh I can't think of his name. He used to be governor, governor of, I can't think who he was governor of, but he was a governor and his wife, Mrs. Volpe. When I knew Volp… Volpe had been governor of Massachusetts and he was then appointed to be secretary of transportation and then his assistant secretary had also been governor of Massachusetts. And, his wife was the titular head of our conference. Course we had kinds of government people speaking and so forth and we had a lot of women speakers and we had a three day conference on drunk driving. JENNIFER PAYNE: Was it the first real big national one that you'd you had? ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah, the first big national, push to reduce drunk driving on the highways. Because the, the death and injuries from drunk driving had reached proportions that the government was concerned. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And out of that conference grew the, the government's program that reached all the way from upgrading the police forces with training and vehicles to apprehend drunk driving on the highways and then after you apprehended them you had to have a judicial system to deal with it and then you had to have a penal system to deal with it. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And then you had to have instruction in the various parts of the, the city system, the state system to teach people the dangers of drunk driving, over drinking and so forth. Then you had to have the medical people involved too because these people were habitual drinkers that were involved in this and you had to have a, a system set up to deal with it. So it went all the way down through all the strata's that you had to go through in order to deal with driving drunk on the highways JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow ROBERT CRECCO: And to reduce the casualties that happened from drunk driving and then the impact it had on homes and so forth. So it went into all facets and the Federal Highway Administration had to deal with this and they had to set up all the various facets of, of, of state and local government to deal with it. And over the years it proved to be workable at the reducing of drunk driving. And so I think now drunk driving is still a problem not, not the problem it would have been with all the facets that had been brought in to deal with it and… JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow ROBERT CRECCO: We had a three day conference and with all these women coming in. Mostly, mostly women cause it was set up for that. Because we felt that women had the greatest influence in through their families, in the men and so forth to reduce the drunk driving. JENNIFER PAYNE: How did, how did you, what did you tell the women? What was the message that you, or was it multipronged? ROBERT CRECCO: It was multipronged we, I, I, think that the clinical studies I mean clinical facilities that were set up to deal with this helped. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: Because a lot of these men were, were drunkards and, and needed medical as well as psychological training I guess. And you have that situation today. Where you, you have the courts set up, and you have the, the social, social welfare organizations set up to deal with it that we didn't have before and this was all the result of this early, early effort. JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow, that's terrific. ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah, and I stayed in the Department of Transportation after that, but I, I, I went to public influence type things. JENNIFER PAYNE: Lobbying at a different level? ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah, yeah lobbying but, it was, really I, I, I got away from most of that and got into more public relations. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: In the Department of Transportation and that's, I retired from the Department of Transportation. JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow ROBERT CRECCO: I was there for many years. I think I was there for 14 years. Yeah, that's, that's what I retired from. JENNIFER PAYNE: Wow. So it sounds like you stay in touch with your Norwich classmates? The ones you… ROBERT CRECCO: I became secretary of the class. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And that's how I stayed in contact, but actually I stayed in contact with… Let's see, what did I say in here? JENNIFER PAYNE: It didn't mention your Purple Heart. ROBERT CRECCO: Oh I didn't? JENNIFER PAYNE: No you didn't. You won a purple heart? ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah I, I was… JENNIFER PAYNE: As well as… ROBERT CRECCO: I was wounded, I was wounded on that pat-, that patrol on… JENNIFER PAYNE: Yep ROBERT CRECCO: We're, yeah we were on a patrol and we were hit by motor shells. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And I got wounded in the arm and the foot and I got evacuated to England. I think we talked about this. JENNIFER PAYNE: Yeah, yeah ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah JENNIFER PAYNE: But that's what you got the Purple Heart for. ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah I got the Purple Heart for that. JENNIFER PAYNE: And Emit campaign medal with four bronze service stars. ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah that was, that was well the invasion and then I was, I was in, I joined the, the automatic weapons battalion in France after they had taken Paris. JENNIFER PAYNE: Okay. ROBERT CRECCO: And then I went with them all the way through, through the campaigns in, in the Ardennes and the… JENNIFER PAYNE: Central Europe. ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah then and… JENNIFER PAYNE: Okay, I just wanted to make sure we got that in because we had… ROBERT CRECCO: Yeah, yeah, yeah ok JENNIFER PAYNE: Yeah, well… ROBERT CRECCO: And that was… Yeah I, I don't know is there… JENNIFER PAYNE: Is there anything else you want to say? You… ROBERT CRECCO: No I, I, I got, well after I decided I didn't want to go to the University of Pennsylvania I wanted to stay at Norwich. I became the editor of the Guidon. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And I enjoyed doing that also it was good training for what I got into later on. JENNIFER PAYNE: Right ROBERT CRECCO: I, I got into publication work and I became the director of publications at the telephone company in Cincinnati. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: And then from there I went to, went into sales promotion and I, I stayed in sales promotion and then I came into Washington with… JENNIFER PAYNE: Yeah ROBERT CRECCO: With the, with the government. Actually I was with the Highway Users Federation. JENNIFER PAYNE: Umhmm ROBERT CRECCO: Prior to that. Then from that I went into the Department of Transportation. But no that's, that's about it I guess. JENNIFER PAYNE: Well thank you so much for your time. You have done a wonderful interview. It's going to be great. I can see a lot of people using it, so thank you so much for your time. ROBERT CRECCO: Good, I'm glad you thought so. JENNIFER PAYNE: Alright.
The German Nazis planned to annihilate the Jewish nation. The Holocaust reached immense proportions on Polish lands, which had been the dwelling place for thousands of Jews for ages. Therefore, the Germans located several death camps on the territory of the occupied Poland. The Poles did not remain passive towards the persecution of the members of the Chosen People living next to them, with many priests and men and women religious committing themselves to rescuing Jews. This issue has not yet been fully explored. The article presents the attitudes of the Polish Catholic Bishops providing aid to Jews during the Second World War. They became involved in the following actions: they issued petitions in defence of Jews and informed pope Pius XII about the persecution of Jews, intervened with the occupation authorities and defended converts, they were personally involved in assisting and saving the lives of the members of the Jewish community, as well as supported clergymen and organizations helping Jews. ; Fonti d'archivio: Archiwum Akt Nowych (AAN) [Archivio degli Atti Nuovi], RGO (Kraków), 5, Lettera dell'arcivescovo mons. Adam Sapieha a Ronikier, 30.10.1940, f. 19-20. AAN, RGO (Kraków), 5, Andie Regierung des Generalgouvernements Abteilung Innere Verwaltung Bevölkerung swessen und Fursorge in Krakau, 4.11.1940, f. 5-6. AAN, RGO (Kraków), 5, Nota, f. 28. Archiwum Kurii Metropolitalnej w Krakowie (AKMKr) [Archivio della Curia Met (AKMKr) [Archivio della Curia Met(AKMKr) [Archivio della Curia Met [Archivio della Curia MetArchivio della Curia Metropolitana di Cracovia], Neofici, Zbiór podań za lata 1939-1942 [I neofiti, Raccolta delle richieste degli anni 1939-1942]. Fonti edite: Hlond August, O położeniu Kościoła katolickiego w Polsce po trzech latach okupacji hitlerowskiej [Sulla situazione della Chiesa cattolica in Polonia dopo i tre anni dell'occupazione hitleriana], in: Chrześcijanin w Świecie 10 (1978), 25-53. Jasiewicz Krzysztof (ed.), Bóg i Jego polska owczarnia w dokumentach 1939-1945 [Dio e il Suo ovile polacco nei documenti 1939-1945], Warszawa 2009. L'archevéque de Cracovie Sapieha au pape Pie XII, 28 février 1942, in: Pierre Blet, Robert A. Graham, Angelo Martini, Burkhart Schneider (ed.), Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, vol. 3 b: Le Saint Siège et la situation religieuse en Pologne et dans les Pays Baltes 1939-1945, parte 2: 1942-1945, Città del Vaticano 1967, 539-541. L'évêque de Katowice au cardinal Maglione, janvier 1943, in: Pierre Blet, Robert A. Graham, Angelo Martini, Burkhart Schneider (ed.), Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, vol. 9: Le Saint Siège et les victimes de la guerre, janvier - décembre 1943, Città del Vaticano 1975, 113. Lettera di Padre Pirro Scavizzi a Pio XII, 12 maggio 1942, in: Pierre Blet, Robert A. Graham, Angelo Martini, Burkhart Schneider (ed.), Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, vol. 8: Le Saint Siège et les victimes de la guerre, janvier 1941 - décembre 1942, Città del Vaticano 1974, 534. Przemówienie bp. Józefa Gawliny z 3 października 1943 r. [Discorso del vescovo mons. 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The articles that make up this issue cover a wide range of topics: the ecological impact of some productive practices, the constitution of the subjects of public policies by the policies themselves, the scope and limitations in the effectiveness of social participation according to the issues that motivate it, the levels in which it operates and the political system that frames it; the institutional organization of power and the negotiation and confrontation strategies to which the actors resort in certain contexts and moments.María Emilia Val's text on the process of restructuring Argentina's external debt in 2005 studies the sovereign debt negotiation strategy developed by the government of Néstor Kirchner, with an orientation that would continue until 2015, setting a novel precedent regarding the policy with which the states can promote debt restructuring processes in the current stage of financial globalization. It is particularly appropriate to return to that experience at a time when Argentina has been led to gigantic indebtedness for reckless and misguided government management - judging by the results, which are what counts in terms of political action - generating an economic, financial crisis. and social depth and dimensions unparalleled in the last seventy years. Val's article allows us to appreciate the subtlety of the Argentine strategy that, in a framework of explicit adversity with the creditor bloc, at the same time knew how to take advantage of internal or specific differences between different creditors, and between them and their political guarantors, to optimize the perspectives of success.One of the greatest liabilities of capitalism throughout its history is the environmental one. Two articles analyze two aspects of the issue. Soledad Nión Celio deals with the social construction of risk in the production of soybeans in Uruguay, based on the perception of different actors - an issue that fully touches Argentina. This item is taken as an example of the changes that agricultural production has experienced in recent decades. Martha Jhiannina Cárdenas Ruiz and María dos Dôres Saraiva de Loreto present the results of a qualitative study on informal mining in a region of Peru and its effects on the quality of life of the families involved in the activity.The text of Jimena Pesquero Bordón focuses on the role of the vice government in the politics of three Patagonian provinces in recent years. The work opens the way for the study of an issue that until now had been ignored by the "subnational" political analysis. The author emphasizes the strategic relevance that the figure of the Vice Governor usually plays in certain institutional situations and the counterpoint of political games that develop within the respective provinces around the Governor / Vice Governor relationship and the gravitation of that relationship in provincial policy and in its articulation with the federal political system. For its part, Catalina Luz Bressán's article is part of the contemporary theoretical reflection on the relationship between the scale of citizen participation and democracy. Criticisms of the effective modalities in which "transitions to democracy" developed in several countries of our region, in particular what these criticisms posed as a growing distance between formal political systems and the demands of broad sectors of citizenship, led to exalt the virtues of the local, the direct, possibly the immediate, to the detriment of representative democracy practices oriented in the best case towards issues and with approaches alien to the specific problems of citizens and to an effectively democratic participation, generating a vision of the local as an idealized area of participation and deepening of democracy. On the contrary, the author argues that democratic participation is not condemned to the limits of the small scale; maintains that democracy is strengthened the greater the scale of participation as it allows to achieve a citizen involvement of better quality and politicity. "Who nominates dominates" says the old apothegm; naming means identifying and also calling, questioning someone or something, constituting it as a subject or object. The state names through its policies and the tools it uses to achieve its objectives. María Florencia Marcos' article inquires about the production of rural development subjects based on the analysis of the Social Agricultural Program (PSA), a state policy that was developed in Argentina between 1993 and 2013.onstitutes the subject; more often the name, the word, does not change, but the identity mutation occurs as a result of substantive policies, particularly those aimed at empowering its recipients. This is the case of Conectar Igualdad, to which Victoria Matozo's article is dedicated. Conectar Igualdad was one of the best known and possibly successful programs designed and promoted by the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, later dismantled and concluded by the Cambiemos Alliance government. It was also a program surrounded by some controversies, referring to the role of ANSES in its implementation and financing, and how to classify the program within the rigidities of academic classifications: social policy? Educational policy? Technological democratization? - not to mention the deployment of denigrative adjectives and social prejudices that were directed against the program and its beneficiaries. Victoria Matozo's article gets into the discussion from a rights perspective, debating with some social questions, popularized by the media, about the recipients of the program and its scope in relation to the objectives of this policy. The massive student mobilizations that took place in Chile in the 1990s and in recent years highlighted, in the field of public education, the limitations of a firmly structured representative democratic system and the inevitability of the formulation of participation claims and greater democratization far beyond the local level. Braulio Carimán Linares focuses them using theoretical methodological approaches developed in the study of social movements and the analysis of public policies. The article also shows the challenges that student demands posed to successive Democratic Concertación government and the different responses with which they tried to agree with organizations, against the background of a power structure that, in the economic-financial field, maintained continuities with which he had supported the military regime that was installed in 1973. ; Los artículos que integran este número cubren un amplio arco de temas: el impacto ecológico de algunas prácticas productivas, la constitución de los sujetos de las políticas públicas por las propias políticas, los alcances y limitaciones en la eficacia de la participación social de acuerdo a los asuntos que la motivan, los niveles en los que se desenvuelve y el sistema político que la enmarca; la organización institucional del poder y las estrategias de negociación y confrontación a las que recurren los actores en determinados contextos y momentos. El texto de María Emilia Val sobre el proceso de reestructuración de la deuda externa argentina en 2005 estudia la estrategia de negociación de deuda soberana desarrollada por el gobierno de Néstor Kirchner, con una orientación que se continuaría hasta 2015 sentando un precedente novedoso respecto a la política con la que los estados pueden impulsar procesos de reestructuración de deuda en el actual estadio de la globalización financiera. Resulta particularmente oportuno regresar a esa experiencia en momentos en que Argentina ha sido conducida a un endeudamiento gigantesco por una gestión gubernamental imprudente y desacertada -a juzgar por los resultados, que son lo que cuenta en materia de acción política- generando una crisis económica, financiera y social de profundidad y dimensiones sin paralelo en los últimos setenta años. El artículo de Val permite apreciar la sutileza de la estrategia argentina que, en un marco de explícita adversariedad con el bloque acreedor, supo al mismo tiempo aprovechar diferencias internas o puntuales entre distintos acreedores, y entre estos y sus garantes políticos, para optimizar las perspectivas de éxito. Uno de los mayores pasivos del capitalismo a lo largo de su historia es el ambiental. Dos artículos analizan sendos aspectos de la cuestión. Soledad Nión Celio trata la construcción social del riesgo en la producción de soja en el Uruguay a partir de la percepción de diferentes actores -un asunto que toca de lleno a Argentina-. Este rubro es tomado como un ejemplo de los cambios que la producción agrícola ha experimentado en las últimas décadas. Martha Jhiannina Cárdenas Ruiz y María dos Dôres Saraiva de Loreto presentan los resultados de un estudio cualitativo sobre la minería informal en una región de Perú y sus efectos en la calidad de vida de las familias involucradas en la actividad. El texto de Jimena Pesquero Bordón enfoca el papel de la vicegobernatura en la política de tres provincias patagónicas en años recientes. El trabajo abre el camino para el estudio de un tema que hasta ahora había sido soslayado por el análisis político "subnacional". La autora destaca la relevancia estratégica que la figura del Vicegobernador suele desempeñar en determinadas coyunturas institucionales y el contrapunto de juegos políticos que se desenvuelven dentro de las respectivas provincias en torno a la relación Gobernador/Vicegobernador y a la gravitación de esa relación en la política provincial y en su articulación con el sistema político federal. Por su parte el artículo de Catalina Luz Bressán se inscribe en la reflexión teórica contemporánea sobre la relación entre escala de la participación ciudadana y democracia. Las críticas a las modalidades efectivas en que se desenvolvieron las "transiciones a la democracia" en varios países de nuestra región, en particular lo que esas críticas plantearon como un creciente distanciamiento entre los sistemas políticos formales y las demandas de sectores amplios de la ciudadanía, llevó a exaltar las virtudes de lo local, lo directo, eventualmente lo inmediato, en detrimento de las prácticas de la democracia representativa orientadas en el mejor caso hacia temas y con enfoques ajenos a las problemáticas concretas de los ciudadanos y a una participación efectivamente democrática, generando una visión de lo local como ámbito idealizado de participación y profundización de la democracia. Al contrario, la autora argumenta que la participación democrática no está condenada a los límites de la pequeña escala; sostiene que la democracia se fortalece cuanta mayor es la escala de participación en cuanto permite alcanzar un involucramiento ciudadano de mejor calidad y politicidad. "Quien nomina domina" reza el viejo apotegma; nombrar significa identificar y también llamar, interpelar a alguien o algo, constituirlo como sujeto u objeto. El estado nombra a través de sus políticas y de las herramientas de que se vale para alcanzar sus objeticos. El artículo de María Florencia Marcos indaga acerca de la producción de sujetos de desarrollo rural a partir del análisis del Programa Social Agropecuario (PSA), política estatal que se desarrolló en Argentina entre el 1993 y el 2013. El análisis del PSA explicita el modo en que el nombre constituye al sujeto; más a menudo el nombre, la palabra, no cambia, pero la mutación identitaria ocurre por efecto de políticas sustantivas, particularmente aquellas encaminadas al empoderamiento de sus destinatarios. Es el caso de Conectar Igualdad, a la que se dedica el artículo de Victoria Matozo. Conectar Igualdad fue uno de los programas más conocidos y posiblemente exitosos diseñados e impulsados por el gobierno de la presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, posteriormente desmantelado y concluido por el gobierno de la Alianza Cambiemos. Fue también un programa rodeado de algunas polémicas, referidas al papel de la ANSES en su implementación y financiamiento, y a cómo encasillar al programa dentro de las rigideces de las clasificaciones académicas: ¿política social? ¿política educativa? ¿democratización tecnológica? -para no mencionar el despliegue de adjetivaciones denigratorias y prejuicios sociales que se dirigieron contra el programa y sus beneficiarios-. El artículo de Victoria Matozo se mete en la discusión desde la perspectiva de derechos debatiendo con algunos cuestionamientos sociales, popularizados mediáticamente, sobre los destinatarios del programa y su alcance con relación a los objetivos de esta política. Las masivas movilizaciones estudiantiles que tuvieron lugar en Chile en la década de 1990 y en años recientes pusieron de relieve, en el terreno de la educación pública, las limitaciones de un sistema democrático representativo firmemente estructurado y la inevitabilidad de la formulación de reclamos de participación y mayor democratización mucho más allá del nivel local. Braulio Carimán Linares las enfoca recurriendo a abordajes teórico metodológicos desarrollados en el estudio de los movimientos sociales y el análisis de políticas públicas. El artículo permite ver asimismo los desafíos que las demandas estudiantiles plantearon a sucesivos gobierno de la Concertación Democrática y las diferentes respuestas con que estos intentaron acordar con las organizaciones, con el trasfondo de una estructura de poder que, en el terreno económico-financiero, mantenía continuidades con la que había servido de sustento al régimen militar que se instaló en 1973.
Der Beitrag untersucht die Auswirkungen der Justizreform des Jahres 2001 und der Politik der "womenomics" der Regierung Abe. Aus dieser Perspektive wurde die Ernennung dreier Richterinnen an den Obersten Gerichtshof als ein neuer Schritt auf dem Wege zur Gleichstellung in der Justiz angesehen, die traditionell eine Männerdomäne war. Der erste Teil des Beitrages setzt sich mit dem Umfeld der politischen Initiativen des Premierministers auseinander, Frauen in führende Positionen innerhalb der japanischen Gesellschaft zu bringen, und beleuchtet die verschiedenen Maßnahmen, welche der Obersten Gerichtshof, das Justizministerium und die Anwaltsvereinigungen in Japan ergriffen haben, um diese Initiativen umzusetzen und die zahlreichen kulturellen, psychologischen und finanziellen Hemmnisse abzubauen, die bis heute den Aufstieg von Frauen im Justizsystem behindern. Die anschließenden beiden Teile befassen sich mit den demografischen Daten zur Entwicklung der Justiz in den formativen Jahren zwischen 2005 und 2017, einer Periode der Erneuerung der Juristenausbildung in Japan auf der Grundlage der Reform der Aufnahmeprüfung für die nationale Referendariatsausbildung und der Einrichtung von Law Schools. Die allgemeinen Daten zeigen eine erhebliche Zunahme der im Bereich der Justiz tätigen Personen – Richter, Staats- und Rechtsanwälte –, wobei die männliche Dominanz in diesen Berufen zwar etwas zurückgegangen ist, aber nach wie vor ein wesentliches Charakteristikum ist . Aber eine genauere Analyse der jüngeren Zahlen der Abgänger von der zentralen juristischen Ausbildungsinstitution (LTRI) lassen als Trend erkennen, dass die Rekrutierung von Richterinnen und Staatsanwältinnen insgesamt bereits das von der Regierung vorgegebene Ziel eines 20-prozentigen Frauenanteils erreicht hat. Gleichwohl ist der Anteil von Frauen in Spitzenpositionen mit nur 12 Richterinnen am Obersten Gerichtshof und als in Führungspositionen an den Instanzgerichten nach wie vor gering, was an unterschiedlichen Karrierewegen und einer weniger "erfolgsorientieren" Einstellung liegen dürfte. Der vierte Teil des Berichts diskutiert einige allgemeine Gender-Fragen. Dabei geht es zum einen um den Kampf gegen sexuelle Belästigung am Arbeitsplatz, die in einigen Fällen durch die Berichterstattung in den Medien ins Licht der Öffentlichkeit kamen, und zum anderen um die Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie. Bezüglich letzterer werden einschlägige Initiativen aus den drei Zweigen der Justiz vorgestellt, wobei es insbesondere um die Elternzeit geht, die bislang von Männern zu wenig genutzt wird. Der letzte Teil wendet sich der neu aufgekommenen Problematik zu, wie die Justiz im Lichte jüngster Schwierigkeiten auf dem juristischen Arbeitsmarkt und auf der Ebene der Referendariatsausbildung und der Law Schools ausreichend attraktiv für die jüngere Generation gestaltet werden kann. Es werden verschiedene Initiativen der Rechtsanwaltskammern, des Justizministeriums und des Kabinetts vorgestellt, vermittels welcher das Bild einer vermeintlich von Stereotypen geprägten Justiz zurechtgerückt und junge Menschen, insbesondere Frauen für einen Eintritt in die Justiz gewonnen werden können. Der Beitrag schließt mit der Empfehlung, sich nicht lediglich quantitativ, sondern darüber hinaus auch qualitativ um die Einbindung von Frauen in die Justiz zu bemühen. Das Thema könne nicht von der Beseitigung der generellen Benachteiligung von Frauen im Recht, dem Engagement von Rechtsanwältinnen in neuen Rechtsgebieten, die noch immer von Rechtsanwälten dominiert würden, und einer neuen Rollenverteilung zwischen Männern und Frauen in der japanischen Gesellschaft getrennt werden. (Die Redaktion) Resumé Le but de cet article est d'examiner l'impact de la réforme de la justice mise en place à partir de 2001 en relation avec la politique dite de«womenomics» promue par les Cabinets Abe. La présence de trois femmes juges à la Cour suprême avait été considérée, à cet égard comme une nouvelle étape sur la voie de la féminisation de la justice, bastion traditionnel de la masculinité. La première partie de cette contribution traite du contexte général des politiques avancées par le Premier ministre pour stimuler l'emploi féminin à des postes de responsabilité au Japon, ainsi que des mesures et recommandations diverses adoptées par les principaux acteurs de la justice – la Cour suprême, le ministère des Affaires Juridiques et la Fédération japonaise des associations du barreau, prises à cet effet, dans le but de lever les nombreux obstacles culturels, psychologiques et financiers qui continuent à entraver la promotion des femmes dans l'appareil judiciaire. La seconde partie est centrée sur des données démographiques décrivant l'évolution de la composition des milieux de la justice entre 2005 et 2017, période qui coïncide avec la restructuration du système de formation des professions judiciaires, notamment du régime de leur recrutement national et l'introduction des écoles de droit. Ces données générales font apparaître une augmentation sensible de la population judiciaire, qui, bien qu'inégalement répartie entre ses différentes branches – juges, procureurs et avocats – confirme que la domination masculine, même si elle est entamée, demeure une caractéristique fondamentale de l'organisation de la justice au Japon. Mais une analyse plus détaillée des dernières cohortes de diplômés du Centre national d'études judiciaires (CNEJ) fait apparaître une nouvelle tendance : la proportion de femmes recrutées comme juges et procureurs atteint voire dépasse les 20%, seuil fixé par le gouvernement. Néanmoins, la promotion de femmes à des postes à responsabilité demeure encore faible: seules douze femmes sont présidentes de tribunaux ou juges à la Cour suprême, une situation qui tient sans doute au fait que les femmes ont des parcours différents au sein de la magistrature et qu'elles sont moins «performantes» que leurs homologues masculins. La quatrième partie s'attache à quelques problématiques de genre dans la carrière des femmes, axées autour de deux points: d'une part, la lutte contre le harcèlement sexuel au sein de la magistrature, dont certains cas ont été dénoncés dans les médias, d'autre part la conciliation entre vie de famille et vie professionnelle. L'article décrit ainsi les dispositifs posés par les trois branches du hōsō pour faire en sorte que les contraintes professionnelles soient compatibles avec la vie privée et les liens familiaux avec, en point d'orgue, la question du congé parental, sous utilisé par les hommes. La cinquième partie parle d'une nouvelle problématique qui s'est récemment imposée: comment faire pour que les carrières judiciaires soient attractives pour la jeunesse, dans un environnement marqué à la fois par la réduction du «marché judiciaire» et la crise de recrutement qui affecte à la fois les écoles de droit et le CNEJ. L'article fait ainsi le point sur les divers dispositifs institués par le ministère des Affaires Juridiques, le barreau japonais et l'Office du Cabinet en vue de déconstruire les stéréotypes de la justice et d'inciter les jeunes, en particulier les jeunes filles, à embrasser une carrière judiciaire. En conclusion, il est souligné que la promotion des femmes dans la justice n'est pas simplement qu'une affaire quantitative mais qualitative. Elle est indissociable de la levée des biais sexistes dans le droit positif, de la capacité des femmes à investir des champs juridiques nouveaux qui étaient jusque-là l'apanage des hommes et d'une meilleure répartition des rôles entre hommes et femmes dans la société japonaise. ; The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of the reform of the judicial system in Japan implemented in 2001, in accordance with the "womenomics" policy promoted by the Abe Cabinets. In this respect, the presence of three female judges at the Supreme Court was considered as a new step on the path of the feminization of the judiciary which was traditionally a bastion of masculinity. This first part of this contribution deals with the general context of the policies advocated by the Prime minister in order to foster female employment at leading positions in Japan's society, and the various measures and recommendations taken by the main actors of the judiciary – the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations – in order to cope with the situation created by the enactment and the implementation of these policies and to lift the numerous cultural, psychological and financial obstacles which still impede the promotion of women in the judiciary. The second part is centred on demographical data depicting the evolution of the judiciary between 2005 and 2017, a period which coincides with the restructuring of the legal education system hinged on the reform of the national bar examination and the creation of law schools. The general data show a huge increase in the population of the judiciary, but unequally distributed between the three components of the judiciary − judges, public prosecutors and lawyers − which confirm that male dominancy, even slightly affected, remains a fundamental characteristic of the judiciary in Japan. But a more detailed analysis of the last cohorts of graduates from the Legal Training and Research Institute (LTRI) reveals a new trend: the proportion of women recruited as judges and public prosecutors has already reached the objective of 20% fixed by the government. Hence, the proportion of women in management and direction posts is still low with, for example, only twelve women as Supreme Court judges and presidents of tribunals, mainly because women have different paths of career and are less "performant" than male judges. The fourth part addresses some main gender issues in the judicial careers from a twofold perspective: the first is the fight against sexual harassment within the judiciary, some cases of which have been highlighted by the media. The second relates to the problem of conciliation of professional and family life. The article describes the initiatives launched by the three branches of the hōsō for the accommodation of professional constrains with the protection of privacy and family links, with a focus on child care leave which is currently under-utilized by men. The last part evokes an issue which recently emerged: how to make the judiciary more attractive for young people in an environment plagued by the constriction of the legal market and the crisis of recruitment both at the LTRI and the law school level. The article discusses the various proposals made by the bar associations, the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet Office at the local level, aiming at deconstructing an image of the judiciary somewhat stuffed with stereotypes, with the objective of impelling young people, especially women, to join the judiciary. The article concludes that the promotion of women in the judiciary should be studied not only through a quantitative, but a qualitative approach as well: a topic which cannot be dissociated from the eradication of the gender bias in Japanese positive law, the commitment of female lawyers in new fields of law still dominated by their male counterparts, and a new distribution of roles between males and females in Japanese society. Resumé Le but de cet article est d'examiner l'impact de la réforme de la justice mise en place à partir de 2001 en relation avec la politique dite de«womenomics» promue par les Cabinets Abe. La présence de trois femmes juges à la Cour suprême avait été considérée, à cet égard comme une nouvelle étape sur la voie de la féminisation de la justice, bastion traditionnel de la masculinité. La première partie de cette contribution traite du contexte général des politiques avancées par le Premier ministre pour stimuler l'emploi féminin à des postes de responsabilité au Japon, ainsi que des mesures et recommandations diverses adoptées par les principaux acteurs de la justice – la Cour suprême, le ministère des Affaires Juridiques et la Fédération japonaise des associations du barreau, prises à cet effet, dans le but de lever les nombreux obstacles culturels, psychologiques et financiers qui continuent à entraver la promotion des femmes dans l'appareil judiciaire. La seconde partie est centrée sur des données démographiques décrivant l'évolution de la composition des milieux de la justice entre 2005 et 2017, période qui coïncide avec la restructuration du système de formation des professions judiciaires, notamment du régime de leur recrutement national et l'introduction des écoles de droit. Ces données générales font apparaître une augmentation sensible de la population judiciaire, qui, bien qu'inégalement répartie entre ses différentes branches – juges, procureurs et avocats – confirme que la domination masculine, même si elle est entamée, demeure une caractéristique fondamentale de l'organisation de la justice au Japon. Mais une analyse plus détaillée des dernières cohortes de diplômés du Centre national d'études judiciaires (CNEJ) fait apparaître une nouvelle tendance : la proportion de femmes recrutées comme juges et procureurs atteint voire dépasse les 20%, seuil fixé par le gouvernement. Néanmoins, la promotion de femmes à des postes à responsabilité demeure encore faible: seules douze femmes sont présidentes de tribunaux ou juges à la Cour suprême, une situation qui tient sans doute au fait que les femmes ont des parcours différents au sein de la magistrature et qu'elles sont moins «performantes» que leurs homologues masculins. La quatrième partie s'attache à quelques problématiques de genre dans la carrière des femmes, axées autour de deux points: d'une part, la lutte contre le harcèlement sexuel au sein de la magistrature, dont certains cas ont été dénoncés dans les médias, d'autre part la conciliation entre vie de famille et vie professionnelle. L'article décrit ainsi les dispositifs posés par les trois branches du hōsō pour faire en sorte que les contraintes professionnelles soient compatibles avec la vie privée et les liens familiaux avec, en point d'orgue, la question du congé parental, sous utilisé par les hommes. La cinquième partie parle d'une nouvelle problématique qui s'est récemment imposée: comment faire pour que les carrières judiciaires soient attractives pour la jeunesse, dans un environnement marqué à la fois par la réduction du «marché judiciaire» et la crise de recrutement qui affecte à la fois les écoles de droit et le CNEJ. L'article fait ainsi le point sur les divers dispositifs institués par le ministère des Affaires Juridiques, le barreau japonais et l'Office du Cabinet en vue de déconstruire les stéréotypes de la justice et d'inciter les jeunes, en particulier les jeunes filles, à embrasser une carrière judiciaire. En conclusion, il est souligné que la promotion des femmes dans la justice n'est pas simplement qu'une affaire quantitative mais qualitative. Elle est indissociable de la levée des biais sexistes dans le droit positif, de la capacité des femmes à investir des champs juridiques nouveaux qui étaient jusque-là l'apanage des hommes et d'une meilleure répartition des rôles entre hommes et femmes dans la société japonaise.