The Cross

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Part of The Cross

Title: The Cross
Description: CROSS National Catholic Magazine
Official bi-monthly organ of the KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS in the Philippines, K of C, Gen. Luna cor. Sta. Potenciana St. Intramuros, Manila
Issue Date: Volume III (Issue No.1) November 1947
Year: 1947
Language: English
Rights
extracted text: NOVEMBER, 1947 The Truth About "SANTA FILOMENA" SHALL WE HAVE BIRTH CONTROL? Antonio R. de Joya RUFINO SANTOS: BISHOP E. P. Romualdez A PLUG FOR THE BACHELOR GIRL Delight Cronin SCOUTING WITH GOD Francis Cardinal Spellman WEEK-END SUICIDE (For Complete Table of Contents see page 2) INTERESTING INFORMATIVE CONCISE OUR FIRST ORDER SOLD OUT FAST NOW VVE HAVE SOME MORE COPIES: Van Woodward—THE BATTLE FOR LEYTE Gl I.F .................... 1-8.00 Kravchenko— I CHOSE FREEDOM ............ 3.00 Torson— THE ART OF BEING A Sl’CCESSFl’L Bl SINESS GIRL 2.00 PROFISELY ILLUSTRATED—THE IDEAL BOOK FOR Tlfc LOVELY BRIDE: WOMANS HOME COMPANION ( OOK BOOK .......... 1-6.00 AND FOR THOSE WOi LI) READ DEEPLY INTO THEIR CATHOLIC FAITH: Sterck— FOR ALL TO LIVE BY ........................ 1-5.50 Delaney— IN HIM WAS LIFE ........................................ 5.50 Weismanlel—THE MANTLE OF MERCY ...................... 5.50 Lord— MY ElROPEAN DAIRY ........................ 1.00 Kuhn— A (jl EENS COMMAND ........................ 3.50 Brennan— THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED .................. 3.00 Scott— ALL YOl WHO ARE BIRDENED .......... 1.00 Ilusslein— THE GOLDEN YEARS ................................ 1.00 Rech— Al TOBIOGRAPHY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN .................... 5.00 Blunt— THE HEART AFLAME ......................................5.00 Filas— THE MAN NEAREST TO CHRIST................... 5.00 Mail Orders Accepted: Add 1*0.20 per book for postage ookvwcw Regina Building, Escolta-Banquero Streets Manila, Philippines ON TIME FOR THE SECOND SEMESTERTWO NEW TEXTBOOKS FOR THE GRADES —AVAILABLE NOW! FOR FIRST GRADE— TAGALOG READER “SI BELEN AT SI RUBEN" Prepared by. TRINIDAD C. SION JOSEFINA L. SANTOS Teachers on Special Detail Curriculum Division, Bureau of Education ANTONIO G. MARIANO Chairman, Committee an National Language Text books C.E.A.P. 116 pages; illustrations on every page; four pages of Tagalog-to-English vocabulary Price Per Copy......... P2.30 FOR SIXTH7GRADE— GOVERNMENT OF OUR REPUBLIC By GREGORIO F. ZAIDE Comprehensive and up-todate, including the latest changes in the Government of the Republic of the Phi lippines. Written in simple language and style, appro priate for elementary school children. 240 pages, 50 illustrations Price Per Copy Cloth-bound ........... P6.50 Paper-bound.......... P5.00 BOOKS MAGAZINES RELIGIOUS ARTICLES EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTORS '"'goolwoA REGINA BLDG., ESCOLTA—BANOUERO STS. MANILA PAMPHLETS GREETING CARDS CATHOLIC SUPPLIES TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE: The Truth About “Santa Filomena” Alberto CruzShall We Have Birth Control: Mario Gatbonton .............. .... Antonio R. de Joy; 3 GENERAL: Scouting With God ............................. Francis Cardinal Spellman 12 The Philippine Republic: 1946-1947 .... Rev. Horacio de Costa, S.J. 11 Comparison Between a Democratic and a Red Philippines ... 20 MacArthur and Japan ....................... Rev. Patrick O’Connor 22 Week-End Suicide ...................................................... Wilfrido Borja 25 Rufino Santos: Bishop ............................ E. P. Romualdez 37 A Plug for the Bachelor Girls ....... Delight Cronin 35 Rice for Philippine Pot .................................................... Jesus Ruiz 40 Now It’s Parents We Spank ...................... Helen M. McCadden 44 POETRY: De Contemnenda Morte ........................................ Jose M. Icasiano 28 A Wish Martha Greta Martinez 34 COLUMNS: What’s On Your Mind? Brother Edward 52 DEPARTMENTS: 61 From the Managing Editor’s Desk .................................................... 61 Quiz Section: What’s your moral I.Q.? ............................................................... 29 What Kind of a Theologian are you? ....................................... 30 Cross Sections of Filipiniana .............................................................. 32 Newsmonth .................................. by Catholic Information Service 54 From the Bookshelves: XIII ................................................................ 59 Cross Currents of Readers’ Views ..................................................... 63 permission of the ecclesiastical authorities. Contributions to The CROSS are welcome, provided they are in line with the policy and standards adopted by this magazine. All submitted manuscripts must be typewritten in duplicate and accompanied by return postage; otherwise, no return will be made in case of rejection. Subteriptim Ratu: One year—local: P4:00; foreign: $3.00. Printed at Caeho Hermanot, Inc., 072 Legarde, Manila. Begistered as second class mall matter at the Post Office of Manila. NOVEMBER. 1947 VOL. Ill No. 1 Published by THE CROSS MAGAZINE Regina Bldg., 15—17 Banquero and Escolta, Manila Philippines The Truth About "SANTA FILOMENA" Alberto Cruz - Mario Gatbonton A FEW MONTHS ago the local press startled the Philippine world with the report that “mira cles” had occured in Binan, Lagu na. These stories of supernatural cures centered around one Filomena Almarines, whose corpse had been exhumed on the 16th of Feb ruary, 1947, allegedly in an in corrupt condition. Since that time the “Santa Filomena” myth has apparently grown until today she is accorded by simple people, all the honors due only to a duly canonized Saint. Novenas in her honor, statuettes, photographs and postcards bear ing her .likeness or carrying the somewhat gruesome picture of her mummied remains, are sold in the market-place; gullible country foik are further enticed by a free gift of “holy water”, bottled from the “miraculous spring” near her grave. Men and women, too, from the surrounding provinces have flocked and continue to flock to the Bi nan cemetery, lured by mere cu riosity or an unreasoning belief that a first Filipino saint had in deed come into recognition. Many have even gone there to seek hea venly intercession from this wo man who, according to reports, even in death had remained in corrupt. One Friday we motored to the Binan cemetery to conduct a first hand investigation of the “Santa Filomena” affair. In the course of our search for unvarnished THE CROSS facts, we interviewed prominent and responsible persons, among the clergy and the laity. What ever we learned we checked and counterchecked. These are our findings. No Saint FILOMENA ALMARINES was bom on July 6, 1913 and was sub sequently baptized in the Aglipayan Church, NOT in the Catholic Church as has been so often and so erroneously reported. She was neither a practical Aglipayan nor a consistent church-goer. In life she had been a roadside vendor, eking out an existence by selling fruits and eggs to pas sengers on the trucks that stop ped at Bihan. Her life story, writ ten by one Pedro V. Garcia at tests to the fact that she often and wholeheartedly indulged in the vulgar speech of the market place. In her younger days she had two sweethearts in rapid succes sion; then, of course, there was the usual flock of gallant ad mirers. One of her two beaux, still alive, maintains stoutly that “Fi lomena was no saint”, and goes stark, staring mad whenever peo ple point him out as the “sweet heart of the saint.” After an eventful lifetime Filo mena died a natural death on August 13, 1938 and was buried in the municipal cemetery, not in the Catholic burial ground. Ac cording to the testimony of her physician, she was embalmed and put in lime before interment. Decaying Flesh LAST FEBRUARY 16 her re mains were exhumed so that her father, who had died on the pre vious day, might be buried "In hertomb. The claim has been made that when her corpse was laid bare, it was incorrupt, preserving the natural color of live flesh. But when we saw her remains, they were already in the last stages of decomposition. From the door that opened upon her -glass coffin, we could already sample the smell of rottennes vying with the scent of sweet sampaguitas. The pamphlet written by Pedro V. Garcia claims that Filomena, on her deathbed, had made a last request that she be buried in the habit of Saint Anthony. The truth of the matter is that, according to a responsible eyewit ness, the corpse had been dressed in Filipina costume on February 20, but that on September 17 this had been changed in favor of a San Antonio habit. The same pamphlet, which pur ports to relate the life of a “saint”, relates nothing but the romances of Filomena. It says no thing about love of God, simplici ty, humility and the other Christ ian virtues which one would ex pect to find in a remarkable deNOVEMBER, 1947 gree in a Saint of God. Inspite of this, however, the “Santa Filome na” cult, as evidenced in its pray ers and novenas, places her on an equal footing with the Mother of God. Racket? MONSIGNOR JAMIAS, Aglipayan bishop, once declared in a press release that voiced the stand of the Philippine Independent Church: “We have no saints but Rizal, Gomez, Burgos and Zamo ra.” If this is true, we wonder why it has not prevented three Aglipayan priests from minister ing the “saint’s chapel” and mak ing thier living from it. When we visited Binan, we saw about 150 stores inside the Binan cemetery, standing in two rows that lined the way to the semi concrete chapel. (This, of course, is against municipal ordinances on public health and sanitation.) We bared the extremely interesting fact that the largest store in the burial grounds belongs to Filomena’s uncle; likewise, other stores Standing close to the chapel be long to men and women related by blood to the “saint.” Dr. Eusebio Garcia of the Medi cal Research Center has given orders that the remains of the Aglipayana must be re-interred. But so far nothing had been done to carry out. this order; some municipal officials and store-own ers, you see, have raised objec tions of the most vigorous kind. Moreover, it must not be forgot ten that since all these commercial establishments pay taxes amount ing to twenty centavos a day, the municipal coffers are richer by some 1*900.00 every month. The chapel itself has been bene fited by a generator and radio donated by the Binan Transit. We were told that the drivers and conductors of this, as well as other southern transportation com panies, have been largely respon sible for the widespread fame of “Santa Filomena." And from what we saw, transportation is good business in Binan; all roads, of course, lead to the cemetery. Disgraceful BINAN CATHOLICS, including prominent doctors, are unanimous in describing the whole affair as “disgraceful”; 'to us they made the declaration that “the whole thing is a racket of the trans portation companies, -stores and municipal government.” We bared one fact which, above all, should illustrate the mentality of those behind the “Santa Filo mena” movement. Father Calixto Guevara, the parish priest of Bi han, was offered a handsome sum on condition that he offer one Mass in the chapel erected to Fi lomena. He refused. We also made a thorough in vestigation of the rumours that a "miraculous spring” had appeared THE CROSS in the cemetery. All we saw was a small hole about a foot deep and eight inches in diameter. The brother of Filomena made the de claration that the well began to bubble when people, Bernadettelike, scratched at the soil. He says, however, that there are times when the well runs dry. Our personal examination showed us that near and about the “spring” are a number of ditches which, like the former, contain water. And like these ditches, when the rain does not fall, the “spring”, too, runs dry. We made a thorough examina tion of the well itself, and sus pected something “fishy” about it. Three sides of the spring can be seen and felt. On the fourth side which is in the direction of the ditches, we felt a cavity. Water does not bubble from the bottom, as would be expected of any na tural spring, but flows from this cavity as from a small pipe! It was late afternoon when we left Binan and "Santa Filomena” behind us. For us the myth about the exhumed Aglipayana was no more. AN HONEST THIEF He came into the small loan company’s office, seeking a loan. “What’s your business?” asked the clerk, in routine fashion. “I’m a thief,” he answered. “A thief. I steal tires, accessories, and occasionally a car," he ex plained calmly. “Well,” gulped the clerk, “wc couldn’t give you a loan.” “Why not? I’ve never welched on a debt yetr If I have to. I’ll steal just a few more tires and pay you back.” The dumfounded clerk checked on the references the man of fered, learning that he paid his debt promptly, made him the loan... and in time was repaid. But the clerk is still a little dazed. So am I. —Daniel Lord, S.J. Before you criticize the people next door, you should remember that you, also, are the people next door. —Ohio Motorist. INELIGIBLE “I wouldn't vote for you if you were Saint Peter himself." “If I were Saint Peter, you couldn’t vote for me. You wouldn’t be in my district.”—Our Day Shall We Have BIRTH CONTROL? Antonio R. de Jova IN the latter part of 1944 Mani la was in the grip of hunger. In the streets people were begin ning to die like flies; everywhere was the sickening odor of tropi cal ulcers, infallible token of the mass starvation that was to fol low. I was no longer in Manila at that time. I was in a little town on the Batangas coast, where food was a little more pleptiful and death at the hands of the Japa nese was a more remote—if still horrible—nightmare. One would have thought that in the relative unsophistication of the encircling barrios, life would have been almost idyllic, utterly bereft of the sordid idiosyncrasies and vices redolent only of big cities, steeped in crime and vice. One day, however, I happened to overhear a conversation be tween two women in the market place. Surprisingly enough they were talking about — of al) sub jects! — birth control. “It is a funny thing, comadre,” the taller one said, “I had been thinking all along that you were pregnant. Now I find I am wrong.” “You were right,” from the other one, “I was pregnant.”' “But had a miscarriage?” “Well, not exactly,” this after a long pause. “What happened then?” “I took quinine.” This conversation, which I have recorded here, is no figment of the imagination. It reveals a fact which perhaps is not thoroughly appreciated in the Philippines: Control is on the march, and con traceptive methods are perhaps as widely known as the Liberal senatorial line-up for the Novem ber elections. WE have no waj^ of checking uji the actual extent to which Birth Control is practiced in the Phil ippines; nor are there any records to show how many abortions are performed annually by qualified 7 THE CROSS surgeons and quacks in overt vio lation of the penal laws of this country. But whether we like it or not, we have to admit that Birth Control is being practiced, and that even qualified surgeons —men who have taken the Hip pocratic Oath — have stooped to the level of murder. For murder is what Birth Control really amounts to. Luckily, however, we have other figures upon which we may base cur conclusions as to whether or not Birth Control should be crush ed, effectively and immediately, with all the methods available both to the administration and to pri vate citizens as well. A recent and complete study of population trends in European countries reveals the following facts: (1) Seven European countries are experiencing a-definite down ward population trend; they are Austria, Belgium, England and Wales, Estonia, France, Sweden and Switzerland. (2) Eleven countries show a population that, for all practical purposes, is stationary; they are Albania, Denmark, Finland, Ger many, Hungary, Ireland, North Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Nor way and Scotland. In many of these countries, already there are the signs of beginning decrease that will make itself more and more felt as the years pass by. (3) The remaining ten coun tries of Europe are, in the main, increasing in population, although in many of them the increase is negligible. They are Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Spain, Russia and Yugoslavia (See Table A at end of article.) Calculations based on avaifable figures have determined that the population of the entire European continent will increase from a total of 399 million in 1940 to 421 million in 1960. Upon attaining this peak, it will begin declining, so that by 1970 the over-all pop ulation will have decreased by 4 million. The calculations also re veal the tragic fact that the de cline will be progressive from then on. In the face of this, it would seem that Margaret Sang er’s "Planned Parenthood” and “Moratorium on Babies” will have won after all. STATISTICIANS have arrived at this figure without taking into ac count any increase in the use of Birth Control methods. Surely, after considering this, it will be hard to understand why plannedparenthood advocates should want more. Harold C. Gardiner, writing in America magazine (Aug. 30, 194V) states: "Speaking from a purely naturalistic motive, one would ad mit some practical sense to their NOVEMBER, 1947 proposals if they were advocating birth control, say, for only Orient al countries (though there are statistics even for those countries which would give us pause, as we shall see). But when the plannedparenthooders preach their doc trines to a West which is already suffering desperately from a shortage of children, we are en titled to wonder if the birth-con trollers are not, in fact, Western civilization’s greatest current ene mies.” The fact that children, today, comprise one of Europe’s scarcest commodities can be proved by quoting another source. Last April, the International Children’s Emergency Fund issued a book let, one section of which was de voted exclusively to Europe’s pop ulation crisis. Among other things, this parti cular section states: (1) The World War babies Came of age from 1935 onwards. World War II caught up with this ill-starred generation, killed mil lions, maimed other millions, and prevented or broke up the mar riages that might have restored some balance to Europe’s popula tion. As a consequence, Europe now has an abnormally small proSortion of women between 20 and 4, the age group most likely to bear children. Men of this age Igroup, too, have largely disap peared in many countries. Hence there will be relatively few babies for years to come, and the popu lation will increasingly be weight ed with unproductive old people. (2) The productive adult popu lation of the war-ravaged coun tries, low in numbers and to a large extent incapacitated for work,.will have no other replace ments for the next eighteen years than the children already born. (3) For a continent of 450,000,000 inhabitants (not including the USSR, which can no longer be divided between Europe and Asia, but including the Ukraine and Byelorussia), the present reserve of children is dangerously low. It is strange indeed that, even in the face of this, there are birth-controllers, especially Amer ican ones, who have lectured in European countries that there should be a “complete shutdown on baby production.” Mrs. Margaret Sanger, for ex ample, proposed to the British people last July that Britain’s cradles should be allowed to re main empty for the next ten years. More than this, she made an outright declaration that the European continent should follow suit. It is to be granted that certain sections of Britain are at present already overcrowded. But the fact remains that the British govern ment is so worried about under population that it is encouraging 10 THE CROSS bigger families by paying parents five shillings a week for each child except the first, and is tak ing steps to swell the ranks of labor by the importation of con siderable numbers of displaced persons. WITH particular reference to the Philippine situation, we would do well to note the following facts: (1) During the Japanese Occu pation, there was an increase in deaths in the Philippines, due to the starvation, widespread disease, and violent death that accompa nied war. Estimates run from 500,000 to as high as 1,500,000. A large percentage of those killed were between the ages of 18 and 40, the most productive age from the point of view of population. (2) During thfe same period there was a corollary decrease in the birth rate, due to the fact that families were broken up or marriages prevented. (3) By 1962 a greater part of the population of the Philippines will'be composed’ of old, sterile men and women at their produc ing population increase, than at present; there will likewise be a decreased percentage of young men and women at their produc tive best. To compensate for this, all efforts should be exerted at present to increase the birth rate, and to do away with all methods of birth control. In this connection, if would be well to take into consideration the fact that the Philippines can sup port a population of at least 90,000,000 people. There is no fear of overcrowding in this country; a large part of Mindanao is still virgin, untouched by the hands of man. In addition to this, the gov ernment has drawn up a master.plan for Philippine industrializa tion, a plan which will take, a gen eration before it even carries out the promise of fulfillment. Undoubtedly there is an alter native by which the Philippines may secure the necessary man power to carry out this program; the admission of displaced per sons from the European mainland and other parts of the globe. But why should this be done when we ourselves can supply the neces sary men and women to carry out the program of Philippine deve lopment? Let the Philippines take warn ing from the example of France, a country where planned-parenthooders and birth-controllers took hold so strongly that they almost smothered France’s national exist ence. As the population waned, so did the spirit of France. Contra ceptive propaganda worked neat ly to speed up the increase in, im morality, with a resultant weak ening of France’s moral fibre. It is obvious to state that when the blitzkrieg hit her, she sueNOVEMBER, 1947 cumbed after an inffectual strug gle. We believe ro sane person can advocate birth control in the Phil ippines. We believe there never will be a time to advocate plan ned parenthood in this country. We believe that the Filipino peo ple should follow the mandate of God to “increase and multiply.” TABLE A Population decreasing: 1940 1950 1960 1970 Austria................. 6,660,000 6,720,000 6,580,000 6,280,000 Belgium .... 8,310,000 8,340,000 * 8,160,000 7,760,000 England & Wales 40,900,000, 40,900,000 39,600,000 37,100,000 Estonia .... 1,130,000' 1,120,000 1,070,000 1,000,000 France .... 41,200,000 40,300,000 39,000,000 36,900,000 Sweden .... 6,330,000 6,370,000 6.210,000 5.840,000 Switzerland . . . 4,220,000 4.260,000 4,150,000 3.920,000 Population about stationary: Albania . . . . . 1,100,000 1,200,000 1,200,000 1,300,000 Denmark . . . . 3,820,000 4,010,000 4,060,000 3,990,000 Finland . . . . 3,850,000 4,000,000 4,010,000 3,920,000 Germany . . . . 69,500,000 72,000,000 71,800,000 69,800,000 Hungary . . . . 9,160,000 9,440,000 9,530,000 9,330,000 Ireland . . . . . . 3,020,000 3,140,000 3,230,000 3,240,000 No. Ireland . . . 1,300,000 1,360,000 1,380,000 1,380,000 Latvia . . . . . . 1,990,000 2,010,000 1,980,000 1,910,000 Lithuania . . . . 2,460,000 2,580,000 2,660,000 ' 2,660,000 Norway . . . . 2,930,000 3,010,000 3,000,000 2,870,000 Scotland . . . . . 5,050,000 5,210,000 5,220,000 5,090,000 Population increasing: Bulgaria . . . . 6,320,000 6,790,000 7,170,000 7,320,000 Greece .... 7,180,000 7,830,000 8,350,000 8,640,000 Italy.................. . 44,200,000 47,000,000 48,900,000 49,500,000 Netherlands . . 8,840,000 9,550,000 9,950,000 10,000,000 Poland .... . 35,200,000 38,100,000 40,400,000 41,400,000 Portugal . 7,620,000 8,290,000 8,780,000 9,090,000 Rumania . . . . 20,300,000 22,200,000 24,000,000 25,300,000 Spain .... . 25,600,000 27,000,000 27,800,000 27,800,000 USSR .... . 174,000,000 203,000,000 228,000,000 251,000,000 Yugoslavia . . 15,200,000 16,400,000 17,700,000 18,500,000 Only a happy boy is a full healthy boy... SCOUTING WITH GOD His Eminence Francis Cardinal Spellman THE human heart has an in born desire for happiness. This yearning for joy and peace —and there is no joy except in peace — is specially evident in youth. The whole world, sadden ed and depressed by two world wars within one generation, scout ing for happiness and peace, seek ing in some way lasting peace, would do well to take heed of . the program set forth by the Boy Scout Movement. For the Boy Scouts is an educational agency to instruct, to invigorate and to in spire the boy with sound and healthy ideas and ideals for his happiness and peace as a child of God and as a patriotic citizen of his country. The Importance, of Recreation Founders of this organization wisely realized that only a happy boy is a fully healthy boy—a ,boy who will develop into a good man and a patriotic citizen—and they made the aim of the Boy Scout program that Scouts be educated to use their leisure time pleasant ly and profitably. Recreation takes its place in the life of a Boy Scout on a level of importance equal to the other three R’s in his educa tion. But the Scout program is not based on recreation for play’s sake alone. Its purpose is to en courage and strengthen the na tural characteristics of the real American boy, who is fundamen ta 11 y sturdy-bodied,, stalwartminded and stout-hearted. He is a lover of a square- deal for all. He likes to win but knows how to lose. In his games he fights hard for victory but is ever ready, firmly and sincerely, to clasp the hand of a victorious opponent. Religion Gives Life To Scout Program The Boy Scout, true to his oath, should be vigorous, virile, and virtuous, keen of mind, clean of heart, courageous in spirit, court eous in manner, and above all, possess an everlasting love of God and country. ‘On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God 12 NOVEMBER, 1947 13 and to my country.’ These words are the most beautiful, the most glorious and important part of the Scout Oath. For what mean ing is there to an oath that does not recognized God and acknow ledge duties to Him? Yes, even within our own United States, many millions of our youth know neither God nor His law. But the individual Boy Scout not only re cognizes the existence of God but also his duties to God. And in this age, when in certain countries and in some groups within our own borders, the Name of God is publicly blasphemed and His law flouted, any agency that encourages men, particularly the young, to adore God and to obey His Will should be supported and encouraged. The failure to recognize God and to acknowledge our duties to Him is the root-cause of the world’s unhappy state at this try ing and tragic hour. But he who loves God will love his neighbor with a charity that cherishes and cultivates peace. The religious re ferences in Scouting, therefore,' gives life to our program and ef fectiveness to our endeavours. The Godliness of our works and words will make.us a power for peace at a time when doubt, despair and distrust cause nations to tremble on the abyss of fear and desola tion. May God bless and prosper our Scouting for happiness and may the nations of the world learn to. know God and realize that happi ness and peace can be found in. God alone and in obedience to His Commandments. CITATION: His Eminence Francis Cardi nal Spellman, Archbishop of New York — World-wide in his vision and his influences. 4 friend and benefactor of child ren. Leader in civic life. Tra veled over most of the War Theaters in his interest in young men. Great friend of youth in general and of Scouting in par ticular. When a priest in the Boston Archdiocese he was one of the first to Tecognize the value of Scouting in the training of youth. Indentified actively with many movements in behalf of youth spiritually, physically and educationally. Had always . stressed the need of programs, that combat delinquency by pre vention. A true American de voted to the fields of his coun try, and to training youth to. follow the highest traditions of' American manhood. From—CATHOLIC COM MITTEE ON SCOUTING 2 Park Avenue, New York 16, N.Y. THE PHILIPPINE REPUBLIC: 1946-1947 Rev. Horaeio de la Costa. S. J. At a time when consistmtly somber and even alarming reports were being sent from almost every country in which the battles of the Second World War had been fought, the first anniversary of the establishment of the Philip pine Republic received barely a passing mention in the newspa pers of this country. This in it self is a heartening,, if purely ne gative, indication that the new nation, in spite of the adverse conditions under which it chose to reclaim its political indepen dence from the United States, has suffered no major disaster, nor —for the present at any rate — is it in danger of doing so. When on July 4 of last year the Philippines became a sovereign state, it was faced not merely with the problem of self-govern ment, but with the more elemen tal problem of survival. As a re sult of the war of the three year? of Japanese occupation, it had lost 61 per cent of its total destructi ble assets. Sixty-two per cent of all private buildings and perso nal property had been destroyed; 55 per cent cf all public property; 96 per cent of all shipping facili ties. Its two largest cities, Mani la and Cebu, had been practical ly obliterated; both Cardinal Spellman and General Eisenho wer declared of Manila that they had seen only one city more hor ribly devasted, and that was WarA country whose chief source of income is the land, it had lost 44 per cent of its work animals and from 25 per cent to 30 per cent of its farm implements. Of the pre-war herds and flocks, only 40 per cent to 30 per cent remained to supply eggs and meat. Farm ers had deliberately abandoned the cultivation of large areas of sugar and rice land because the Japanese Military Administration depended on them for food and fuel alcohol. The scarcity of food and lack of medicines during the occupa14 NOVEMBER. 1947 15 tion resulted in universal malnu trition and consequent susceptibi lity to disease. On the Christmas Eve before the liberation, the present writer saw little children dying of hunger or dysentery on the streets of Manila — a practi cally certain sign, where—Christ ian people is concerned, that they had been preceded in death by their parents and relatives. The death rate, moreover, did not fall but actually rose after liberation Cases of tuberculosis increased three times lover the pre-war re cord; cases of malaria, ten times; of dysentery, three times. The large amount of currency brought into the country by the forces of liberation combined with the universal scarcity of commodities to send prices soar ing and to depreciate the peso. Thus, if the over-all cost of living index is set at 100 points for 1941 f it,had by the end of 1945 risen to ■637.3, or over six times the pre war cost. Such was the economic situa tion of the Republic at the begin ning of its existence. The politi cal and social conditions were no less critical. In the first place, the very existence of government by Jaw was being threatened by the Hukbalahap (Anti-Japanese Peo ple’s Army,” whose members are called Huks for short), crganized during the occupation among the tenants and share-croppers of the big rice and sugar estates of Cen tral Luzon. Guerrilla and under ground activity had forged this organization into a sternly dis ciplined, highly mobile force and having offered itself to -serve as auxiliary troops in the campaign of liberation, it was supplied with arms and ammunition by the Uni ted States Army. This equipment it refused to surrender at the end of the campaign. Well armed and well organized, it now attempt ed to impose by force uppn the Government its own solution to the aged-old agrarian problems. The problem is that of a more equitable redistribution of the land and the produce of the land; and the solution proposed by the Hukbalahap was in its main lines communistic, although it is not certain whether official commun ism had anything to do with the movement directly. A tie-up be tween the Hukbalahap and the Wha-hi. a Chinese guerrilla unit which is presumed to have been under qommunist direction, has been suggested by Chapman in Pacific Affairs for June, 1946 (p. 195). Be that as it may, the structure and the methods of the organization present very obvious similarities with communist-ins pired groups in other countries. Since no government can af ford to permit refloTms, however, just and necessary, to be imposed upon it by force, the Republic was faced at the very outset with the delicate and dangerous task of li 16 THE CROSS quidating the Hukbalahap as sub versive organization, while at the same time ensuring that the prob lem which gave rise to it received a prompt and permanent solution. Another pressing problem was that of unemployment. The des truction of farms, factories and transportation facilities, the dis banding of guerrilla units, and the terrorist tactics of the Huks deprived a large number of the laboring population in Manila and the Central Luzon Provinces of their ordinary means of livelihood. How large a number may be cal culated from the fact that a total 60,000 job-seekers registered with the Department of Labor from August to October, 1946, and that the Bureau of Statistics estimates the number of unemployed in the Greater Manila area alone in the beginning of the present year at 145,000. The United States Army saved the situation from being com pletely hopeless by the immediate if temporary employment in 1945 of almost a quarter Df a million laborers; but as the Army gradually ceased to require the services of so large a number the gravity of the unemployment situation began to show itself in the appearance of organized gangs of pilferers at the docks and mili tary depots, the increasing mem bership of the Hukbalahap, and general insecurity to life and pro perty. Even for those who had em ployment, inflation and the scar city of the most essential commodities made survival a very real problem. This was es pecially true lof government em ployes, whose salaries, fixed at the pre-war level, fell ridiculously short of the postwar cost of liv ing. Uncomfortably frequent cases of bribery and graft were the un derstandable if inexcusable re sult. Finally, the alarming increase of juvenile delinquency in the ur ban centers emphasized the ur, gent need for somehow restoring as quickly as possible the ruined schools. This, then, was the situation a year ago, when the date set by the Tydings-McDuffie Act for granting of political independence to the Philipines fell due, and the Filipino people, starved, decima ted and economically ruined by the war, confronted with the threat of famine and civil strife, set out to make their own way in the world. How have they fared since? The threat of famine was avert ed. A large measure of peace and order was restored. Several agrarian reforms were introduced and the first'steps taken towards the rehabilitation of agriculture, commerce and industry. The pub lic-school system was rebuilt and expanded. NOVEMBER. 1947 17 A number of very serious prob lems still await solution. Mistakes have been made. But something has been accomplished. At a time when so many nations are on the brink of collapse, the Republic has kept its looting; it has sur vived. The shortage in rice, the basic commodity (35 per cent below pre-war production), was made up for by government importations from Siam, Ecuador and the United States, by rationing in cer tain areas and by the use of rice substitutes. Strict price control halved its 1945 cost to consumers. Corn shortage (40 per cent) was met in the same way. Livestock, however, and as a consequence meat and eggs, remained extreme ly scarce. At any rate, the per capita daily consumption of all cereals was estimated at 9.55 ounces. This was 68 per cent of pre-war consumption; but it was enough to live on and with that much assured, the tremendous task of reconstruction could be faced. The problem, of course, was how to finance the undertaking and where to get the fljols for the job. In this the assistance of the United States proved invalu able. On April 30, 1946 the United States Congress had approved a Philippine Rehabilitation Act, which authorized the payment to individuals and private corpora tions in the Philippines of $400 million in war damages, the trans fer to the Philippine Government without reimbursement of $100 million worth of surplus property, and the appropriation of $120 mil lion to be allocated by the Pres ident of the United States from time tio time in aid of public works, public health and inter island commerce in the Philip pines. The surplus property actually transferred included forty-four FS-type vessels for inter-island service and over a thousand trac tors suitable for farm works. The items not required by governmen tal agencies were sold to the gen eral public, and the proceeds were assigned to serve as capital assets for the Rehabilitation Finance Corporation (RFC). This corporation is intended to be, in the words «f President Roxas, “a primary source of credit for government economic enter prises and for private enterpri ses . . That will start the wheels moving on rehabilitation and re pair of war-damaged property and permit us to plan and begin the larger and longer-term under takings fior the expansion of the national economy" (Message to Congress,. November 25, 1946). The Philippine Congress author ized its capitalization from the sale of surplus property and from other sources at $150 millkn. THE CROSS 18 The availability of credit made possible by these measures had almost immediate effect, the most obvious of which was the phy sical reconstrutcion of Manila. A friend who wrote me last month thus describes the resurgent ci ty: Today you will find Manila rising from her ruins. New business enterprises have opened everywhere. Individ uals and corporations seem to have but one sole deter mination: to overcome all existing difficulties and to keep up with the keen com petition going. The Heacock Building, over a million pe sos’ worth, is nearing com pletion ... New homes, va ried and beautiful surprises, are sprouting like mushroom after a thunderstorm. La Salle (College) is an inspir ing pictures, all prettied up, repainted and repatched . . . Sta. Mesa Boulevard is now a six-lane concrete highway, and so will be the Espana Road Extension leading to Santo Tomas. The total value of foreign trade in 1946 turned out to be actually greater than in the year imme diately preceding the war, and local investments heavier. Na turally the balance of trade was “unfavorable," imports -far ex ceeding exports. A good propor tion of the invested capital, how ever, was in small constructive enterprises, such as lumber mills and transportation companies. Moreover, three-fourths of the stock corporations registered are controlled by Filipinos, with Chinese and Americans a poor se cond and third. The inflow of foreign goods and the resumption of something like normal agricultural produc tion succeeded in lowering the cost of living from over six times the pre-war level at the end of 1945 to four times that level at the end of 1946. A partial reduction of currency inflation was also no ted, monetary circulation decreas ing by about twenty-five per cent. The fact that these improve ments are only partial and the re sult of heavy importation of con sumable commodities shbuld be a warning not to make too much of this intense commercial activity or to consider it the beginning of a steady upward trend in the eco nomic condition of the country. A much greater investment of capi tal in productive enterprises would be required for this; and it was mainly in order to attract American capital to the Philip pines for this purpose that the United States Congress passed the Philippine Trade Act of 1946. This authorized the President of the United States to enter into a trade agreement with the Pres ident of the Philippines, the modt important provision of which, as far as the Philippines is concern ed, is what is known as the NOVEMBER, 1947 19 “parity clause.” “The disposition, exploitation, development and utilization of all agricultural, timber and mineral lands of the public domain, wa ters, minerals, coal, petroleum and other mineral oils, all forces and sources of potential energy, and other natural resources of the Philippines, and the operation of public utilities, shall, if open to any person, be open to citizens of the United States and to all forms of business enterprise owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by United States citizens.” The import of the provision is obvious. In order to protect Amer ican investors who would be at tracted by it, it was further prov ided: “That the value of Philippine currency in relation to the Unit ed States dollar shall not be changed, the convertibility of pe sos into dollars shall not be sus pended, and no restrictions shall be imposed on the transfer of funds from the Philippines to the United States, except by agree ment with the President of the United States.” The adoption of this Agreement, trgether with the amendment to the Philippine Constitution re quired by the parity clause, be came the major political issue of 1946. The opponents of the Agree ment alleged that it was unfair, useless and dangerous. Unfair, be cause the “parity” proposed was definitely a one-way parity; it did not give reciprocal rights to Fili pinos and Americans alike, but as the American Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Clayton, put it “would permit Americans to en gage in many activities in the Philippine Islands from which Fi lipinos, as aliens, would be barred in the United States." Useless, be cause its effect would be the pre cise opposite of what it aimed to accomplish. Since the Agreement also provides for the duty-free admission into the Philippines of American exports in unlimited quantities the reaction of Amer ican capital would be not so much to start new industries in the Philippines as to flood the Philip pine market with American man ufactured goods, thus stifling local industries at birth. Dangerous finally, because it opened the door to imperialistic exploitation, since it would be next to impossible to ease out any vested interests which should have established them selves in th Philippines during the twenty-eight years of the Agree ment. The advocates of the Agree ment replied: (1) that the pur pose of the agreement was to draw American businessmen and technicians to the Philippines, not Filipinos to America; (2) that the goods exprrted by the United States to the Philippines cannot, in any event, be profitably manu factured locally; and (9) that im 20 THE CROSS perialistic exploitation is foreign to the policy of the United States and can be prevented by the vigi lance of both Governments. It is probable, however, that the argument which finally persuaded the Philippine Congress to autho rized the Agreement, and the Fi lipino people to approve the re quired constitutional amendment, was the fact that the operation of the Philippine Rehabilitation Act was . made dependent tn the acceptance of the Philippine Trade Agreement. The former was absolutely essential to their economic recovery; and since they had to take both or nothing, they took both. There is less doubt concerning the advantage to both nations of another agreement — that which provided for the establish ment of American naval and air bases in the Philippines. The re cent war has proved the strategic value of the Philippines to' the United States, and the Philippines, naturally, look uppn these bases as a guarantee against external aggression. —From AMERICA (Continued next month) COMPARISON Between the Rights of the Working Man under a Democratic Philippines and a Red Philippines 1. In the Philippines the workingman can undertake collective bargaining. Communism forbids collective bar gaining. Wages are set by the Red bosses and the workers and their unions have nothing to say about it. In Pravda, issue of December 29, 1945, Andreev—in behalf of the Politbureau—announced: “The wage scale must be left en tirely in the hands of the heads of industry.” 2. In the Philippines wages are relatively uniform (or the same category of work in a factory. In Russia wages are on a sweated labor basis, with some men making thirty times as much money as others on the same job. Relentless NOVEMBER, 1947 21 pressure for output prevails. 3. In the Philippines the union, under certain condi tions, may strike. In Russia strikers would be shot. 4. In the Philippines there is no official penalty for lateness. In Soviet Russia lateness of twenty minutes with out a certificate from the plant doctor makes one liable to such penalties as forced labor in Siberia, (cf. Izvetia, Jan. 3, 1939) 5. In the Philippines the workers are free to change their jobs. In Communist Russia they are “frozen” to their jobs. (Decrees in September. 1930 and January, 1939.) 6. In the Philippines, the worker can own his own home; as a tenant, he is protected by contracts, and during emergency years can be helped by a lowering of rents and a temporary guarantee of continued occupation. In a Sovietcontrolled country, there is one vast “cimpany town” with all lodgings owned by the government. There the factory boss can eject the worker from his home for breaches of labor discipline (grousing, lateness, etc.) and he can get no other home. (Edict of December 4, 1932) 7. In Canada there is a progressive adoption of the principle of holidays without pay. Furthermore, employees and laborers can plan their holidays personally. In a Com munist state every worker is supposed to get holidays with pay and free accomodations in glorified holiday resorts, but by an edict of April, 1934, these priveleges were reserved for a small minority of shock brigadiers. A FAIRY TALE The bride tottered up the aisle on the arm of her father, who was wheeled in hi6 armchair by three of his great-grand-children. She was arrayed in white and carried a big bouquet of white rosebuds; her hair, though gray, was bobbed, and she smiled and nodded to acquaintances. The groom was able to walk unaided with the assistance of two handsome mahogany crutches. His head was bald and his false teeth chattered a little nervously. They were the couple who waited until they could afford to get married. For Japan, a Christian Democracy? MACARTHUR AND JAPAN Rev. Patrick O’Connor IT was ten months since I had last entered the spacious, dark-paneled study on the sixth floor of the Dai Ichi building in Tokyo, from which General Douglas MacArthur has been steering the Occupation for over two his toric years. I found the fivestar helmsman as vigorous and earnest, as friendly and informal, as I had seen him when I was leaving Japan last fall, just as I found the Occupation a continuing suc cess. The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers meets you at the door of his study with a smile and a hand shake and leads you across the room to a couch up holstered in worn leather. At his wide uncluttered desk, he fills his pipe—no longer the corncob of'war days—then seats himself in an armchair beside you, talks and listens. As he crosses his legs, sits back and looks at you with a friendly crinkle around his alert eyes, you realize that this fivestar general is easier to talk to than many a col onel. Dressed in summer khaki, his decorationless shirt open at the neck, he gives an im pression of easy vitality, while his thoughtful features betoken the constantly active mind that has planned mas terpieces of strategy in peace as in war. SCAP ON CHRISTIANITY Qe NERAL MACAR THUR’S private conver22 NOVEMBER, 1947 23 sation reveals that the fre quent references to Chris tianity in his public state ments are no mere windowdressing. He is intensely sincere in viewing the Occu pation primarily as a tre mendous opportunity to give “a practical demonstration of Christian ideals.” “The Christian tenets of justice, tolerance and under standing, which have guided the conduct of the Occupa tion, appear to have contri buted materially to the popu larizing of Christian prin ciples,” he feels. He makes no secret of his cherished objective to im plant a Christian democracy 'in Japan. He feels that al ready a mental and moral climate that is essentially Christian has been created here. He is convinced that only a democracy based on Christian principles will last in Japan, or anywhere else. He cannot see how such Christian fruits as justice, charity and respect for hu man dignity on every level can come without the growth of Christianity it self. It is known that some of the men and women working under General MacArthur are upset by his frank state ments that democracy has its best safeguard in Christian ity. They ask if this will not offend Buddhists, Shintoists and atheists. The MacArthur view is that the fundamental human rights of Buddhists and others have their surest protection where Christian principles prevail. In a Christianized Japan a non Christian would have more security than he has ever had in the past. MacArthur can understand criticism of himself and of his policies. What he can not understand is the cyni cism of Americans, fellow citizens of a nation founded on Christian principles, who scoff at his emphasis on these principles as the best basis for the new Japan. He is alarmed at what this cyni cism may betoken for the future of America. He realizes that the im 24 THE CROSS planting of Christianity in the soul of Japan calls first of all for spiritual means and he counts on the Church to supply what he, in his sphere, cannot give. In conversation he fre quently returns to a favorite theme: what the Church has meant to the Philippines, not only in past centuries but also during the war years. ADIOS IT WAS eight o’clock in the evening when I left his study. Only then his working day was ending. A few minutes later I watched him leaving the building, walking with his easy swing ing stride, his head bent slightly forward in the thoughtful mien that is now familiar to Tokyo. Three or four of his honor guard stood at attention as, unarmed, he crossed the sidewalk, re turned their salute and en tered his car. The Occupation of Japan has not been a marvel. Its personnel has included mis fits. But, thanks to General MacArthur, the paralyzed, burned-out Japan of August, 1945, is today an oasis of order, peace and industrious effort instead of the mess of disorder and hopeless misery that it might have been. In all the history of conquest, there has never been an oc cupation to parallel this in humane, constructive states manship. One hears talk sometimes of the welcome that General MacArthur will get when at length he returns to the United States. Still more im pressive will be the “sayonara,” the grateful, sorrow ful farewell that the plain people of Japan will give to their conqueror who has proved himself .their best friend. “Marriage is like a wedding dress — it’s what you put into it, how you make it. You choose a pattern and cut your cloth accordingly—and don’t let anyone look over your shoulder and direct you how to sew it” —The Guiding Light Papa topples over with a grunt... another WEEK-END SUICIDE Wilfrido Borja TEODORO CRUZ was a comparatively strong and healthy specimen at 35. He was well-built, a little flabby perhaps, but quietly and surprisingly normal. The other week his friends were amazed to hear that he was dead. One mo ment he had been gay, laughing as he soundly beat an. office-mate at tennis. The next moment he was down on the court, his eyes bulging while his entire body shook with the intensity of some internal pain. With a last gasp, he softened all over; he was dead. And as certain as the sequence of night and day, it was a case of suicide. No, he had not shot himself with a gun; no bullet had entered his heart and released the vitality that had made him such a 'jolly friend. Neither had he gone to the locker-room between the se cond and third sets to take a quiet nip of poison. None of these were for him. He had been young brim ming over with vitality, he had wanted life for all the things it could give him. Yet he had killed himself. How? Why? The club doctor, who had been hurriedly called by his tennis op ponent, looked at him, shook his head and clucked his tongue gravely. “Heart attack,” he said. Instances like this take place every week-end. You hear of some friend of yours who to all appearances had been as healthy as sin; dying quickly in a swim ming pool or a badminton court, or in a cocktail lounge. And every time, as the doctor examines him with experienced eyes, the verdict ie£ “Heart attack.” The disease is not as wides pread as tuberculosis in the Phi lippines. But as the post-libera tion tempo increases, the rate of deaths through heart failure rises. And the chances are about even that had its victims been a little more careful, they would have lived to see many more years flit by. The tragedy lies in the 25 26 THE CROSS fact that because of carelessness, they killed themselves as surely as if they had placed a revolver against their brains and pulled the trigger. WHY? Now, why has there been an in crease in the number of deaths by heart failure? In answering this we should carefully examine the facts before us. First of all, it is a fact that more deaths of this kind occur among the upper middle class and the social elite. In the second place, deaths occur either during or immediately after weekends, usually characterized by top much exercise, too much dissipation, too strenuous exer tion. And lastly consider the fact that death by heart failure in the majority of cases overtakes those doing sedentary work: men and women who, by the nature cf their work, are confined to long hours at the desk, exercising their brain-cells and little else besides. Even a casual consideration of these facts should immediately make clear the Teason for the in creased number of deaths caused by heart failure. People loccupying sedentary po sitions cannot be blamed if their muscles get flabby, the blood a little sluggish, the heart accus tomed to the unhurried physical pace of office work. But they can be blamed for forgetting this. The trouble is that a week-end is usually wasted on ill-termed “relaxation.” The sedentary work er, unlike the laborer, looks upon his one-day or two-day vacation as the only time he has for exer cise. He tries to put into that brief period all the tennis and swimming and cocktails and danc ing that should have filled a week. His holiday starts in earnest right after Sunday Mass. He begins by packing the wife and children into the family car or a public bus and heading for the beach. One man taking a swim by himself has enough to keep him busy; a father with a wife and three or four children to en tertain has more tha'h his hands full. Junior wants to go into the deeper part; mama hollers to him to stay where he belongs; Junior chooses to Suit himself, falls into a sand-pit under the water and almost drowns. Then the fun be gins. By the time the family is back in the car and headed for heme, papa is so tired he can bare ly keep his hands on the wheel. You would think that after such an experience he would prefer to rest qurtely till time to punch the time-clock Monday morning. Un fortunately he is not as sensible as all that. He insists that the swim has done him good then, after a heavy lunch, instead of taking a quiet nap and letting his NOVEMBER, 1947 27 digestive juices get tc work, he wanders over to the neighbors for a little badminton game. The “little” games goes on for two hours with beer or cokes or even highballs in between sets. Even his evening is not sacred to Mfcrphcus. It is dedicated to Bacchus and the night-clubs, for as soon as the kids have gone io l-ed, their parents move out with the neighbors for a little danging in “some quiet night spot where we can really rest* But again the quiet night spot turns out to be a rkt of minor proportions; the tom-toms and kettle-drums beat the seductive rythm of the zumba, and before they know it, papa and mama are doing their own version of what-not and enjoying themselves enormously. Perhaps one i r both of them are a little high by now (the trouble with whiskey-cokes is that you never know when to stop). The night wears on. and they wear them selves out. Then, like the Apccalypsc, just as they are really swinging it high, and swinging it low, papa topples over with a grunt; mama silences the music with an eerie shriek; a doctor bends over the inert form and grunts: "Heart failure.” Sui cide. ANY REMEDY? What then is the remedy to this? This: Care. There are no microbes to run away from or to wash away with lysol i. r alcohol. All you have to do to keep your heart whole is to do everything moderately. Don’t let the morning wane without taking jvur daily dozen; do it before you take your morning shower; the exertion may not be much, but it will help keep your heart conditioned, your si news a little less flabby than they wtould be. Then, don’t try to put into a sina-le day all the exercise that should last you a week. And. above all, be easy on the drinks. There never was anything like alcohol to exert extra pressure on veins and arteries, and a little drink too much may mean death a little too seen. If you do this, there rsally i3n’t any reason why you should be another week-end suicide. MONTH OF THE FOOR SOULS Eternal rest grart unto them. O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. (An indulgence of 300 days, applicable to the holy souls.) May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. DE CONTEMNENDA MORTE Jose M. Icasiano “0 child, my child, please listen: do not cry!” The father sobbed while he stretched his brawny arm To wipe his daughter’s ashen cheeks, and dry Her eyes, haggard now: once, spinning charm; Once, sapphire blue... like luring nights that warm The Arab’s fancy to web Arabian dreams; Till June, her dark and high mind nursing harm, Came to unlock the stormy, rushing streams: Came to wreck the waking bud, and drown its beams. “O child, dear child, hearken to the words of age!” The father propped the young girl’s sinking soul: He told her life is stretched on a battle stage Where flying shafts the knell of young lives toll, And fair forms bloody in the dust may roll; Where hopes of youth are quenched as a candle flame Before the gust; but, where the brave can stroll Forward, though budding young, to win the fame Which for age kind living, for youth cruel death can claim. “Dear child, do not leave me, do not depart!” Often the father cried to his vanishing child, And told himself that cruel death could not thwart The hopes and dreams that in her heart raged wild Of love, of wedding bells, of a strong but mild Arm, of a life, long and resounding with applause... Suddenly, he saw his own life that must be while Away without his child... he prest the cross: “Make her die brave; Lord, help me face life with this loss!” 28 What's Your Moral I.Q.? ON IGNORANCE AND PASSION EFFECTING MORAL MATTERS 1. What is ignorance in moral matters? 2. Alfredo being firmly convinced that it is Holy Thursday eats meat on Good Friday. Does Alfredo commit a sin because of his ig norance? 3. Should one be anxious about sinful acts committed years ago which at the time he did not recognize as sinful? 4. Jose alone on a desert isle and not knowing that a certain, avail able medicine will cure his mortal illness does not take it. Is he guilty of his own death? 5. I doubt whether today, the Vigil of All Saints, is1 a day of abstin ence. I am ignorant; therefore, I may eat meat. Do I commit a sin? 5. I wonder if it is an occasion of sin for me to go out with a certain girl, but in order not to discover whether it is or not I deliberately do not ask my confessor about this. Do I do wrong? 7. Felipe wonders if he has an obligation to make restitution for the number of times he has gone to the show free. He claims that ignorance excuses him. Is this claim correct? 9. Easygoing Dencio, suddenly knocked down by careless Carlos, in a fit of anger curses Carlos. Is Dencio guilty of serious sin? 8. Does passion in a man committing sin have any influence on his guilt? 10. Goring deliberately fosters his rising anger because he wants to tell Waldo what he thinks of him. Does the passion of anger lessen Goring’s guilt? 29 30 THE CROSS What Kind of a Theologian Are You? OUR LADY AND THE POOR SOULS 1. In the Bible is Mary culled explicitly (u) mother of Jesus; (b) woman of God; (c) mother of my Lord? 2. Was the "Hail Mary” as we say today, in common use in the time of (a) St. Augustine (b) Benedict (c) Venerable Bede; (d) St. Dominic? 3. Which Pope decreed that the Rosary be recited in our churches every day during the month of October? 4/ The apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima (a) are of divine and Catho lic faith; (b) have received official ecclestical recognition? 5. By what title did Our Lady identify herself at Fatima? 6. Is it of divine and Catholic faith that (a) there is a purgatory (b) the poor souls there can be helped by the suffrages of the faithful? 7. The poor souls (a) are in agony of despair; (b) suffer intensely; (c) are sure of their salvation? 8. Can the poor souls be helped by (a) our prayers; (b) their own prayers; (c) the prayers of the angels and saints? 9. Is it of divine and Catholic faith that the poor souls (a) suffer from material fire; (b) can help us by their intercession; (c) are principally aided by the Sacrifice of the Mass? 10. Is it certain that (a) the poor souls cannot merit; (b) the poor souls cannot sin; (c) the least pain in purgatory is greater than the greatest on earth? NOVEMBER. 1947 31 MORAL I.Q. ANSWERS 1. It is a lack of necessary knowledge. It is a condition of mind which may or may not lessen a man’s guilt. 2. No. Alfredo does what he thinks is right. 3. No, because it is practically impossible for a man to determine his guilt in regard to such past actions. 4. No. 5. Yes. I could easily have found out whether today was a day of abstinence or not. 6. Yes, because I do not want to be restricted by what is right. 7. No. He is obliged to ask his confessor what his duty is. 8. Yes. It may sometimes lessen his guilt. 9. No, because he did not have time for deliberation. 10. No. DOGMA QUIZ ANSWERS 1. (a) Yes. (b) No. (c) Yes. 2. (b) No. (b) No. (c) No. i 3. Leo XIII. 4. (a) No. (b) Yes. 5. Lady of t;he Rosary &. (a) Yes. (b) Yes. 7. (a) No. (b) Yes. (c) Yes. 8. (a) Yes. (b) No. (c> Yes. 9. (a) No. (b) No. (c) Yes. 10. (a) Yes. (b) Yes. (c) No. CROSS SECTIONS of FILIPINIANA STAR OF OCEAN LOVE LETTERS It happened during the Japanese occupation. A group of stranded students from the south sailed off the coast of Batangas in a small "parao”. Coming to the San Ber nardino strait a storm arose and beating the fragile craft, tore it from its riggers. Five of the pas sengers were able to cling to the outriggers. Suddenly amid the fury of the tempest one of the students, a girl from St. Scholastica, broke into the “Ave Maria of Lourdes". The rest took it up and carried the song to a triumphant finis. As the last note of the song died away, the five students saw a lone star above the enveloping clouds. It was their hope. A few hours later the students touched the shores of Batangas. S. Hamoy 859 M. H. del Pilar Ermita, Malate The son of a rich sugar baron from Negros studying in Manila failed in all his subjects. He wired his mother: "Failed everything. Prepare Pa.” The next day he re ceived the following telegram from his mother: "Pa prepared. Prepare yourself.” Carmen Hernandez Bais, Negros Or. A MASTER TALE The Commonweal pressmen were worried. Last proofs for the posters of a prominent politician were demanded, but the cut was still in the- making. Undaunted they got a cut of equal size and made a number of proofs. A copy of the proof reached the desk of the Rector of the Ateneo de Manila with an attached not: “Why, Father, I didn’t know you were running for Senator.” No answer. The cut was that of Rev. Fr. William Masterson, Ateneo rertor. A.RJ. 32 NOVEMBER, 1947 33 MURDER!!! In a Nueva Ecija Theatre, the man hanging up the letters on the cine’s marquee could not find the letter “G”. That didn’t daunt him. After he was through, the adver tized film was “The Son of Ber nadette.” Armando J. Malay With a Grain of Salt Manila Chronicle A VERY MAD DOG My friend Dioni was recently bitten by the bulldog of our neighbour. The delinquent dog was caught and taken to the local Health authorities for examina tion. Dioni was brought to the hospital for injections. After a day of teste the victim was in formed that they caught the dog and that it was mad. Dioni couldn’t contain himself. “He bites me and he's mad yet!" Luis Marcelo San Fernando, Pampanga’ THE HEN C DOUBLE HAY The Ateneo-La Salle game has reached fever pitch. All around the Ateneo boys were shouting themselves hoarse with: "Get that ball!! Get that ball!! GET THAT BALL!!!’’ During a slit of silence that followed one practical - Atenean shouted: “GET ANOTHER BALL!!!!” Rosie Baltazar St. Theresa’s College FOILED It happened during the Japa nese occupation in Goa, Camarines Sur. The parish priest was one day conducting a funeral proces sion. Passing thru one street, he saw a pack of Japanese soldiers busy arresting the men and bind ing their hands. As he turned the corner, he sang the following vers es in the tone of the "Miserere”, but in a voice louder and more nervous than usual: Escapaos todos: que vienen los Japoneses; A todos los lalakes: les amarran las manos. Before the Japs could reached that street, all the men had al ready escaped. The arrest had been foiled. The Japs kept won dering, but the whole town ad mired the unusual courage and wit shown by their parish priest. T. C. de la Paz • Naga, Camarines Sur The animal kingdom is backward. Its members neither smoke, drink, nor engage in global war. —Worcester Telegram ***** A free-thinker is one who gives more freedom to his thought than to his freedom. A WISH MARTHA GRETA MARTINEZ A beautiful night I never did see With stars so bright and clear, That shine with brilliance and with light And inspire a wish sincere: 'Twinkle, twinkle, lovely stars. What a galaxy of lights you are! Glimmer, glimmer, O Lady Moon. Hear my wish and grant my boon; I shall whisper it to you T’is a secret for just we two T*is a secret we will keep Till fame no longer I do seek: Inspiration I desire To find in you and the stars; Make a Poet out of me For that is all I want to be; And if a poet I’d be in life I’d sing your praises far and wide, I’d sing your splendor and your charms Till men your beauty and graces chant. MARCONI AND THE ROSARY When the great inventor Marconi was married, Pius XI gave his wife and himself a Ilosary. “Say them together,” he told them, “every day of your maried life, and, if separated, say them wherever you are, and think of one another.” Marconi’s wife was unable to be present at his deathbed and the dying man was asked if he wished to leave any last message for her. “Tell her,” he replied, “that I had my beads in hand and that my last act was to kiss the cross. That’s all; she w^ll understand.” —Boston Pilot 34 B.G.’s are O.K. A Plug for the Bachelor Girl DELIGHT CRONIN WHAT IS a Bachelor Girl? The dictionary cautiously offers, "an unmarried woman.” Not long ago, the only known name for her was Old Maid; or to use a more dignified version, feme sole. The rapid progress of science has brought forth, at last, the term “Bachelor Girl.” Some learned minds hold that she is a myth. But we of this fast moving age know better. Year after year we see the Bachelor Girl at Sunday Mass, listening with resignation to ser mons on love, courtship, marriage, conjugal fidelity, upbringing of children; but no word of instructon on how-to-be-a-good-Bachelor Girl. Certanly she is human, too, this B. G. She has her pro blems, temptation, moments when she needs fatherly advice. But does he get it? No, she is just ig nored, on Sunday. But on week days—heaven help the Bachelor Girl! Father Paul reaches wildly for the telephone. “Kathie,” he pleads to one of the parish’s unmarried ladies, “we’ve been assessed an extra $100 to ward the new community hall. Help!” Out comes Kathie’s pad and pencil. She calls everybody in town, starts the rummage sale or the bazaar, lines up all eligibfe spinsters—and bingo!—the money is in on the nose. When Father Basil wished to start the Legion of Mary in his parish, he crooked his finger at Josie. She and her cohorts prompt ly dived into every home in the parish and came up with an 80% membership. Father Martin wanted to get the Third Order of St. Francis established in his jurisdiction. He told his trigger-girl Della. She in stantly rounded up her favorite gang of B.G.’s. They set to work with the proper dignitaries, and before many weeks the Third Or der was flourshing with a satis factory roster. Della still handles its increasing bulk of secretarial duties, without pay. Every priest knows that in any emergency he can rely on his Bachelor Girls. They are always eager, willing, genial, capable, on the alert. “Why shouldn’t they help?” scoffs the married woman. “They are not tied down, as we wives and mothers are. They’re selfish free.” Free? Selfish? Those are hard 35 36 words! Was Marge selfish be cause she gave up marriage to put five little orphaned brothers and sisters through school? Was it wrong for Kitty to deny her self that she might support her aging parents? Remember Ger ry? She was reasonably certain that a certain hereditary trait would imperil unborn children; so she lived unwed, but satisfied her debt to childhood by generous contributions to an orphanage. We are proud, too, of Belle, who real ized that God had not called her to the married state. She quitely accepted her substitute of artistic talent, and has given beautiful Madonna-and-Child paintings to the world. Where do we find those Bach elor Girls? They sit at desks in public schools, patiently control ling fretful young America. They stand with cheerful faces but tired feet behind counters in de partment stores. They walk soft ly and white-clad along hospital corridors. They work with test tubes in laboratories. They are "Hello" girls, waitresses, beauti cians, librarians, florists, station ers. We find them in government offices, clinics, gift shops. Let us not neglect the "Office Wife.” To the vast majority of Bachelor Girl stenographers and clerical workers the term brings a chuckle, although usually they are too busy to enjoy the joke. That romantic-fiction character, the big boss, appreciates the fact that his secretary Miss What’s-HerName is a well-oiled, highly polish ed piece,of machinery he couldn’t possibly do without. When he must get that important docu ment into the mail by deadline, the B.G. is just the girl who can do it. We have thousands of bright eyed, sober-garbed nuns, whose prayerful, diligent, and selfless lives are literally changing the course of a runaway world. No one would dare call them B.G.’s; but they come under the category of “unmarried women”! And think of our own Catholic collection of Bachelor Girls who rang heaven's doorbell. Let’s call the roll, briefly: St. Agatha, St. Margaret, St. Thecla/'St. Seraphia, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Ursula. We mustn’t forget St. Zita, definitely past 40; Joan of Arc, St. Bibiana, St. Leocadia, St. Victoria, St. Irmina, St. Gertrude —every one an unmarried woman. Don’t look at a Bachelor Girl and murmur (behind her back): “I cap’t understand why she never married.” Maybe she was too great a treasure for one man’s possession, as Goldsmith put it. Or perhaps, as Barrie tells us, the secret of happiness is not in do ing what one likes but in liking what one has to do. It may be true that marriages are made in heaven. But God (Continued on page 39) Rufino Santos:Bishop E. P. Romualdez THE consecration .of Bishop-elect Rufino Santos, \Vhich took place at the UST Church last Oc tober 24, came as a dramatic step in his brief but dynamic priestly career. Only a priest 16 years, Msgr. Santos has had enough experiences to fill a book — if he ever gets around to writing it. The new prelate is onlv 39 years old. but already high ecclesiastical authorities con sider him “brilliant.” And he takes his new post as auxil iary bishop of Manila and titular prelate for Barca with the great teacher, Experience, behind him. Perhaps it was in the stars that he should be a priest. Born in Guagua. Pampanga on August 26, 1908, he was whisked off at an early age to the Cathedral parochial school in Intramuros. There he found a sympathetic men tor in the person of Fr. Jose Tabon, a Belgian priest who taught him his first letters. Contact with the priest in fluenced his young and reli gious mind, and it came as no surprise to his parents when he informed them that he was going to take up life’s noblest and poorest-recompensed work: the priesthood. If there were any doubts of the young seminarian’s intel lectual capacity, they were dispelled soon after he en tered the San Carlos Semina ry in 1921. There was pro mise in this young boy, pro mise that was to become reality in the task of'winning souls to the fold of the Good Shenherd. The seminary was good to him; his talents were appreciated. And in a little while he was sent off to the Pio Latino Americano College in the Vatican Citv. heart of tlie Catholic Church. Here, too, his talents were appreciated. H i s superiors and professors regarded his brilliant record with search ing eyes, and decided that he must be developed to the fullest possible extent. He was sent to pursue post-gra duate studies at the famous Gregorian University. In 1930 he secured his doctorate in theology: nine years had passed since the day he had first entered the Seminary of 37 38 THE CROSS San Carlos. He had travelled far indeed, from Guagua to the Vatican City. But then the young Padre Pinong was becoming used to taking long strides. He was ordained on Octo ber 25, 1931, in the home city of Christianity. Three months later he began his long trek homewards. His. head was filled with dreams of con verting lost souls, leading them back to the folds of Christianity, and his heart— that was filled with humility. It was a humble position that greeted him upon his ar rival. He was assigned to Imus, Cavite as assistant parish priest. He liked it here, where he could keep a finger on the pulse of the people whom he loved so much. The town was not known for any degree of saintliness, but when Padre Pinong set to work, the peo ple became more aware of the word of God. From Imus he went to Marilao in Bulacan; here he continued his priestly career, also as as sistant parish priest. But he was not destined to occupy that humble position for long. He had a keen, ana lytical mind; figures that would have confounded others were clear to him. In 1938 he was made private secretary to Archbishop O’ Doherty. He likewise became secretary-treasurer of the Ma nila archdiocese. The govern ment wanted to purchase church lands at that time. Well and good. But there were figures, statistics., re cords to pore over, surveys to be made. Here he made himself indispensable. The rest is now history. Then came the war. Padre Pinong was a priest of God. but his heart was Filipino.too. He knew that there was not much he could do, but however little that was. he did it. Then, one night in May. 1944. he u*as rudely awakened by the Japanese kenwei-tai and taken to Fort Santiago. For eight months he staved in this hell-hole, enduring every torture they could deaLout to him. Then h« was sent to Mnntinluna "■here, on February 4 of 1945. he was among those rescued by ruerrillas. Almost sixteen years to the day when he received his Holv Orders. Msot. Pinong is now Anviliarv Bishon of Ma nila and titular Bishop of Barca. There was no little rejoic ing when the news of his ap pointment came. He was at his father’s home, quietly cel NOVEMBER. 1947 39 ebrating his 39th birthday when the news reached him. And the humble priest of God could only say: “I accept the appointment, resigned to the wishes of the Holy Fa ther ... I will do my best to bring the souls entrusted to our pastoral care nearer to God and His Church.” What is unusual about the statement is that for the past sixteen years, he has been do ing just that. A PLUG FOR THE. . . . (Continued from paf/c 36) created the Bachelor Girl, too, for His own mysterious purposes. She may be an enigma to the world, but not to God. You still can’t understand why she never mar ried? Let’s drop the subject, and say with the poets: “In His hand lay whatever things thou canst not understand.” THE DEVIL TO BEWARE The devil, so the story goes, was having a council of war with some of his leading fellow citizens of hell. The question was being discussed as to who should be sent on a special mission to earth to increase, if possible, the quota of human souls for hell. After considerable discus sion, one of the devils spoke up: “Send me,” he said. “I will tell them there is no God, and if I can convince them, maby souls will be lost.” Satan shook his head. “They will never believe you," he said. “Send me,” spoke up another. “I will tell them there is no hell.” “No,” said Satan. “Even if they believed you, they would still hope for heaven.” Then a third devil volunteered. “Send me,” he said. “I will tell them there is no hurry.” Satan shook, his head. ‘"They will never believe you,” he said, according to reports, enjoyed and is still enjoying great success. —The Ligourian. FEMININE LOGIC Husband: Who was that you were talking outside for a whole hour? Wife : Oh, that was Mrs. del Prado. She didn’t have time to come in. Do we have enough RICE FOR PHILIPPINE POT Jesus Ruiz LAST September 28 Manila newsmen were taken on a touT of the rice bodegas of the National Rice and Corn Cor poration (Naric). Pointing to the immense stacks of cereal rising to the ceiling of warehouses, Naric President Servillano de la Cruz told the Fourth Estate that there was no danger of a rice shortage in the Philippines. Seemingly casual, the state ment, in truth, was a deliberate at tempt on the part of the corpora tion head to rebut official figures of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce, later made use of by the Philippine Embassy in the United States, that the Philippines was facing an acute rice shortage amounting to 17,900,000 cavanes. More important, the statement was made to prepare the public mind for the announcement that 10,000 tons of Philippine rice were to be exported to the Netherlands East Indies. In addition to this the Philippines had already waived the right to an additional 10,000 tons of cereal, granted her by the International Emergency Food Council, in favor of the same country. Once again the rice situation flared up before the public eye, caught it and held it, because the public is always acutely conscious of its-'Stomach. ASTONISHMENT The question asked in the news papers, in the streets, in the huts of the farmers was: Why is the rice to be exported? Why must we send the cereal to a foreign na tion when we. do not even have enough for ourselves For, truly, even in the comparative prosperity of pre-war years, the Philippines had annually imported millions of cavanes in order to compensate for the inadequacy of domestic pro duction. And then, while interest was still mounting on the rice question, Mother Nature entered the discus sion with the elemental power at 40 NOVEMBER, 1947 41 her disposal. Typhoon “Pauline” swooped down upon the Philip pines and lashed fiercely at the “rice granaTy” of the Philippines. The provinces of Central Luzon, the Cagayan Valley, the Agno Val ley were swamped with torrential rains that flooded the streams and overnight transformed rice-fields into shallow lakes. Under the waters was drowned fifty per cent of the season’s prospective har vest. Public indignation at the pro posed rice exportation mounted to fever pitch. The government was criticized in advance for the grave error it might commit. Suddenly the government lapsed silent on the matter. How would President Roxas and his cabinet act on the matter? That was a national question-mark. How the question of whether or not to export the cereal is to be answered, is still subject matter for conjecture, but a clear exami nation of the Philippine pot may help everyone get a clear picture of the present rice situation. PLENTY OR WANT? In prewar years fanners all Over the Philippines were tilling 1,900,000 hectares to give their countrymen and themselves three square meals a day. By working on the land the hard way, they were able to harvest an average of a little over 64,000,000 cavanes of rice every year, almost 10,000,000 cavanes below par. The average yield per hectare was a rough 26 cavanes. Because of the substantial defi cit the rice import trade went on at a brisk Tate. Cereal poured in to the country from foreign coun tries, notably Siam, Indo-China and the United States, and Juan de la Cruz — after a fashion — did not really go hungry for want of his staple food. The war . years—pregnant with hunger and misery—served to bring out one point: the Philip pines must be made self-sufficient as far as rice was concerned. In 1946 statisticians pored over their figures and computed that a total of a little over 41 million cavanes of rice had been harvested, 13 mil lion cavanes short of the pre-war years. Perhaps even this harvest should have met the needs of the Filipi nos; that is, if a greater number had died under the bloody flames of war. This, however, was not the case. War and Philippine fecun dity had come to grips; fecundity won the struggle. Elaborate com pilations made by the Bureau of Census and Statistics showed that the population had increased to some 18 million Filipinos, most of them rice-addicts. Once again these patient statis ticians pored over their figures; 42 THE CROSS then they frowned. They had found out that the Philippine pot needed no less than 62,300,000 ca vanes of rice. Of course, the In ternational Emergency Food Coun cil allocated rice to the Philippines from other countries, fortunate enough to have a surplus of the cereal. But when the last compu tations were done, the Philippines still lacked 17,000,000 cavanes. She would have to tighten her belt. It was at this stage that the Philippine government made its now-infamous pronunciaimento to the effect that rice was to be sent to the Netherlands East Indies. It was also at this stage that typhoon “Pauline” came into the picture and cast her vote in favor of the “Charity-Begins-At-Home” party. KEY TO THE KINGDOM The question which we should discuss now, however, is not so much “Should we export?" as “How can we produce more rice, enough rice, more-than-enough The answer to this has been given by economic experts. Mas ter-plans for economic recovery and progress have been drafted at the instance of the government. But as far as the practical aspect of the question is concerned, the following solutions seem to have been agreed upon by economic ex perts, ranging from government dollar-a-year men to simple Mang Ambo with his two acres of bar ren land. They are listed as follows: (1) Increase the area devoted to the cultivation of rice. (2) Mechanize agricultural pro cesses; do away with the tediously slow old-fashioned methqds of farming. (3) Build a system of irrigation dams to prevent drought from causing crop-failure. (4) Use scientifically compound ed fertilizer to increase the ave rage yield per unit area of land. MORE LAND Computations show that even if the average yield '-per hectare could not be increased immediate ly, the Philippines need not fear a rice shortage if an additional 689,000 hectares of land were de voted to rice cultivation. It is in connection with this that the second proposal comes in. The carabao system of plowing is in vogue. Considering the shortage of animals brought about by the war, this is stark tragedy in deed. Of course the Agricultural; Machinery and Equipment Corpo ration (AMEC) has sold over 2,000 tractors to farmers, but this is far from enough. These 2,000 tractors are a mere drop of water on a barren desert. The AMEC should not rest on its laurels. It should adopt as its slogan: “A NOVEMBER, 1947 43 tractor for every Filipino farmer.” Then we need not be afraid to. ex port cereal to countries even more unfortunate than ours. There is another phase of agri cultural mechanization which we would like to stress here, without prejudice, of course, to the fact that mechanization should be car ried throughout. It concerns the planting process. The American states just north of “south of the border” have evolved a system which should solve any planting problems posed by man-shortage. They use planes. These planes are equipped with a sprinkler machines by means of which nee seedlings can be scat tered over 120 hectares in a tenhour day: a far cry indeed from the fraction of land planted by a Filipino farmer in one back breaking day. Of course, planting season would lose much of its vaunted glamour; but to heck with glamour where national existence is concerned! WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE Then there is the question of damming up Philippine rivers in order to form a “railroad system” than can "transport” the precious fluid to parched lands whenever and wherever needed. The United States did this in its inimitable manner in the now-famous case of the Tennessee Valley. The TVA, now a byword in agricultural me chanization, harnessed the waters of America, taught contour plow ing to prevent erosion, introduced new and effective fertilizers, and thereby saved a slowly dying land. The same land overnight became a granary from which the whole world drew for its needs during the Second World War. Intermittently, voices have been raised, sometimes within the admi nistration itself, that a Philippine project modelled after the TVA be carried out. The voices, however, have been weak and unavailing. No answering cry has been made to it by those in power, despite the unhealthy rice situation pre vailing in this country. The objection most often given against such a project is that “it costs too much." We believe, how ever, that the money for such a project should be raised, even if it means increasing the alreadyheightened rates of taxation. So vital is a project of such a na ture, that the Philippines must carry it out, or continue importing rice when it can, and tighten its belt when it cannot. But every year of inactivity means just another year of with holding rice from the Philippine pot. Children are often served a mess of pedagogical stew,.. NOW IT'S THE PARENTS WE SPANK Helen M. McCadden A JUDGE in New York City recently sentenced a mo ther whose minor son in dulged in the pastime of shooting at people. There are towns where the parents of young offenders are haled into court, places where pa rents are fined if their adolescent offspring get into trouble on the streets after 8:00 P.M. We are told that police everywhere blame, and favor punishing, the parents for the sins of their children. This is, in a way, a healthy sign. At least, where the placing of cen sure is involved, public opinion is coming to realize that parents are potentially positive social factors. Yet, viewed in another light, this attitude is a manifestation of the common impulse to step on a worm. Let anyone deny that in the past forty years American parents have been made to resemble the crawl ing invertebrate 1 Parental delinquency? Yes. Am erican parents have in many cases failed to train and guide wisely their sons and daughters. Why? Sometimes through negligence. But in many cases — pathetically many—through grossly misguided good intentions. In these cases we should point the accusing finger first at those who have denied authority to parents and have tried to usurp the function of the home in the training of the young. This would bring us directly to the door of the secular philosophers of our time — particularly the education al philosophers. Of course it is simpler to assail the parents, who, in spite of Parents-Teacher organizations, are generally fumbling and inarticu late. But it is not cricket. Pa rents did not make the pagan.phi losophies on which children have been encouraged to expand at ran dom. They have been bewildered or awed or crowed by the new theories, so different from those by which their own childhood was shaped; but, because parentsidesire the moon in a silver box for their offspring, they have meekly 44 NOVEMBER, 1947 45 surrendered their responsibilities at the drop of a theory. Early in this progressive centu ry, there was expounded the prin ciple that the public educational system should assume full respon sibility for the development of the child as a social being. No longer would the schools pull patiently in harness with parents, community, and church in training the young. The secular educational philoso phers, moving out ahead, wanted to drag not only the child but the parents and the entire citizenry as well. The impulse for this dislo cation came not so much from pub lic pressure as from a swelling consciousness of a mighty mission in public education’s big minds and a simultaneous lessening of res pect for individual integrity through several misleading, but widely accepted, trends of thought. The first acts in this new move ment were sufficiently in the open for those opposed to fight them. Floyd Dell, some forty years back, advocated the removing of young children from the corrupting in fluence of their parents. Efforts -were made to force all children to attend public schools. The Sup reme Court put an end to those at tempts. B<ut the work of the educational brain trusters, which was more difficult to understanl and, there fore, to evaluate, went on unim peded. In 1903 John Dewey, after enunciating the truism that “the child is an organic whole,” went on to say: “The ethical alm which determines the work of the school must accordingly be interpreted in the most comprehensive and or ganic spirit. We must take the child as a member of society in the broadest sense and demand whatever is necessary to enable the child to recognize all his social re lations and to carry them out.” The moral responsibility of the public school, under this principle, was not to the parents or the teacher-employing community, but to “society”; and since the society which the educators envisioned was a seoular one whose integrat ing principles were yet to be sup? plied, it came about that many top schoolmen, casting aside accepted standards, tried to draw the na tion toward their own concept of a better life. This messianic view of educa tion, capturing the emotion behind Dewey’s philosophy without its ba lancing features, became a fashion in thought. It formed the theme of home magazine articles and of child-Tearing columns in newspa pers. It captured the minds of teachers. It revolutionized class room procedures, subject syllabi, and public school curricula. It transformed prosaic school build ings into palaces geared to gra cious mass-student living. A great teachers’ college boasted that it alone had, within a generation, 16 THE CROSS carried the new philosophy to half the public school supervisors of the country. And the parents? “School isn’t what it was in our day!” they cried, and tried to adapt their ways to the new order. Meanwhile, the more public edu cation has thrown its weight about the further the parents have been driven from the field. “Do not try to help Johnny with his school work,” the mothers and fathers have been told at parents’ meet ings, “for we have new methods and you would only create confu sion.” Then: “Do not impose your old-fashioned standards and ideals on your child in this brave new era.” And, finally: “Come to school to us, you parents, and we will tell you how you can help bring up Johnny our way. The inflation of the role of edu cation has been accompanied by a growth in importance of the Ame rican child. While regarding the parents more and more as children, philosophers have treated the chil dren more and more with the es teem once proper to adults. The citizens of tomorrow must practice airing their opinions and acting without let or hindrance; the ci tizens of today, meanwhile, must hold their own thoughts and im pulses in check and create a Uto pian environment in which the young may express themselves without fear of penalty or risk of failure. This, in the name of pre paring the child for life! Many teachers’ resignations have been caused not so much by low salaries as by the need to escape from the false position in which such a philosophy places a man or woman who really has wisdom to impart to the young. But pa rents could not escape by resigning. There have been parents, in deed, who have guided their child r e n wisely, but it is not they who have been cited for com mendation by the advanced edu cational thinkers of our time. In the parents’ magazines, edited un der high educational, auspices, those fathers have been praised who have come down to the level of their sons, playing games with them, being not parents but pals, straining themselves to be boys again when what the lads really needed was a man to look up to. This cult of pretended immaturity on the part of grownups has de prived many a lad of the model of a dignified parent on whom to pattern his life. The emphasis on self-expression among children has filtered from the big minds of the twentieth cen tury into classroom and printed page, and from school, radio, and periodical into the American home. Many American communNOVEMBER. 1947 47 ities are almost exclusively child centered. Not only do children monopolize bus seats and have free run of lawns and living rooms as they never did in Grandmother’s day, but in many towns the one fine building is the school and adults exist socially only as mem bers of the PTA, as grade mo thers, or as boy scout fathers. The family comedies on the air and the teen-age comics in the Sunday supplements do their bit toward giving adult misery com pany. In one beautiful suburban vil lage, which boasts three up-to-theminute elementary schools and a junior and senior high school, each with its acres of playground the parents were told by a visiting child authority: “The reason why your children have been smashing school windows may be found in the hedges around your gardens.” Philosophically the don’t-pervert-the-child - with -civilized-con trols idea is not new. Eighteenth century Rousseau built his beau tiful educational schemes large ly upon the notion that in the state of nature the young human was perfect and that the child should be reared in a social vacu um. In our generation this theory reappears in an ideology which would make of both school and and home “happy” places for the child—that is, places where teach er and parent hop about remov ing obstacles from the path of youth. If the child goes wrong, it means that some erring oldster has left an obstruction in the way of his spontaneously noble course. WHEN Wordsworth, a cen tury ago, wrote, “The child is father of the man,” he could not foresee what a wry joke his line would become in the child-dominated homes of our America. For Wordsworth’s poe tic concept of the child trailing clouds of glory which are dimmed by contact with a soiled world has been picked up and painted in a thousand colors by Whitman and , the followers of Whitman, whose democracy involved a universal youngness, an avoidance of the restraints imposed by lessons, li braries, codes of morality, and other devices for perpetuating the achievements of civilized man. To the Whitmanite, man it at his best when he is his uncivilized self, communing with the moving spirit and no barriers between. Where, then, is the consistency of calling a youth a juvenile delin quent when he i6 simply express ing a natural impulse? The ironic aspect of the accent on child expression in public edu cation is that, if carried to its lo gical conclusions, it defeats the very purpose which its exponents have acclaimed most loudly — pre paring the future citizen for de48 THE CROSS mocratic living. Many a child of solicitous, devoted parents becomes as difficult to live with as 0. Hen ry’s Red Chief, and has to be sent off to camp or boarding school that his parents may survive. Maturity involves an adjustment of self to law, to the rights of others, to the conventions which man through the ages has found essential to a decent living to gether. Good citizenship requires a sense of responsibility — a weighing of actions and decisions in the light of standards, a seeing of one’s self in proper focus in re gard to the rest of the commu nity, the country, and the world. A child about whom parents and teachers have revolved for eighteen years has a bitter job of readjust ment to find his proper place in the solar system when he gra duates from high school. There was a time when the age of reason in an individual was sup posed to begin at six or seven years. From that age on he was taught the difference between right and wrong and expected to act accordingly. But our newfashioned theorists make little of right and wrong, which are, they say, merely relative anyway. More over, in their eagerness to protect the child from all sense of error, of failure, of sin, they strain themselves to find external causes for his socially undesirable con duct. “There must be something at fault in the home,” they say. “Perhaps the boy’s father is jea lous of him. Or the lad has an insufficient allowance. Or his mo ther expects too much of him." But rarely: “The boy has done wrong. He must realize that socie ty later on would make him suffer for such a misdeed. He must de termine to avoid such error here after.” Repentance, as an instru ment of reformation, is regarded by many advanced educators as psychiatrically harmful. A nationally noted guidance ex pert recently declared at a confer ence of teachers: “We guidance peo ple always try to find a way out foT the poor little devils.” This was not a sentimental boast; it was a statement of principle. In the school at which this expert is an administrator, a boy guilty of starting a fire in a waste-basket was being cajoled into visiting a psychiatrist by the promise of membership in the school band. Unfortunatly for himself, this boy, whose perverse path was be ing strewn with artificial roses by high-souled theorists, would in an other three years be living in a world in which there are positive penalties for destroying property and endangering lives. After eighteen yeaTs of being excused and pampered, he would suddenly be expected to grow a moral sense and be held criminally liable un der the law. Such is the magic of the birth day that is the threshold between NOVEMBER, 1947 adolescence and the age for mili tary service! A brilliant young woman of twenty-one, now alternating be tween employment offices and mental institutions, asked one of her former teachers: “Why, when I was in high school, didn’t any of you get me to toe the mark? Why didn’t you make me do my assignments?” “I guess we all believed you were something of a genius, and we didn’t want to thwart the in spiration.” “And why, when my mother came to complain that I was stay ing out late nights, didn’t you back her up? Why was she told not to worry, to let me find my own way?” “Your mother seemed too oldfashioned for a girl like you." “You know what she did after she left the dean’s office? My poor frustrated mother went to a tavern and got drunk.” “You unfortunate girl.” "As far as I’m concerned,” remarked the young woman, “I guess I'm done for. But for the sake of other kids and their pa rents, I wish you school folk would give your pupils the security of a few good rules to live by, and the habit of holding to them.” Modern adolescent education is in many ways like a bunt in which all the streams have been artificial ly dried up, the jumps have been leveled, and the fox has been shot, stuffed, and left standing at the goal before the chase begins. The energetic child, finding education has left no hazards to challenge him, wanders from the pastime and gets into unstaked fields — and trouble. His parents mean while wonder why, having so many advantages and freedom they themselves did not enjoy, the child cannot go straight. The swelling of the sphere of education and the focusing on the child per se instead of on the child in relation to society and civiliza tion tell only part of the story in the submerging of the American parent. Other related forces have tended also to the same result. Take, for example, the idea of economic determinism. If those philosophers are accepted — and they have been much the vogue— who hold that the underlying mo tive of all human endeavor is eco nomic security and advancement, and that all other aims are just so much camouflage, then justice and high purpose are mere tricks or blinds in the warfare to mis lead the other fellow. The current situation in human endeavor, where achievement is measured al most exclusively in dollars per week and not in satisfactions or in social usefulness, makes the ca 50 THE CROSS sual observer a ready disciple of the economic determinist. “Why,” says many a devoted parent, “should I make my son law-abiding when it is more im portant for his future welhbeing that he be tough?" In his question, the parent echoes the guidance counselor, who would put it something like this: "The boys who obey all the rules and get the good marks often become repressed neurotics. To day’s cream is tomorrow’s cheese. Therefore I will give attention and privileges to the rebel, the trouble some child, who has the spirit to lie a leader of tomorrow.” The doctrines of Freud have also had a marked influence on educational thinking. The average layman knows just enough about Freudianism — about inhibitions, neuroses, repressions, and com plexes — to be afraid that posi tive influence by parent or teach er might contaminate the child and distort his personality. The legends about mental crack-ups in maturity, that were traced to some small but effective unplea santness in childhood, have caused parents with the traditionally dan gerous “little knowledge” to re frain conscientiously from inter fering with the character deve lopment of their children.' Their consequently uninhibited offspring have often become such a problem that the well-meaning mothers have sought refuge in entertain ing or careering, sending the young fry off to schools or leaving them to company of their own choosing. Result: parental delinquency! The pseudo-Freudian horror of making a child uncomfortable, even in his error, has also afflicted the schoolmen. Witness the guid ance leader who, in a school no torious for pupil absence and late ness, complained that the attend ance supervisors who began a cam paign for greater punctuality were making the pupils "emotionally disturbed.” Another unsettling force in the twentieth century has been the pursuit of masculine achievement for females. Coeducation has too often meant giving the girls the same education that '-has been found desirable for boys. That wife and motherhood will, and should be, a career for the major ity of women, and sliould, if un dertaken at all, outclass any other career, has not entered generally into the secular educational pic ture. Women in industry and the professions have been handed an extra curtsey by the intelligentsia, especially since the demands of two world wars have touched them with a little halo. Many mothers have felt, in this materialistic, deterministic age, that they were serving their off spring best by earning extra com forts for them and letting nature take its course with their charac ters. And weren’t the schools, anyNOVEMBER, 194way, acting as father and mother? Both teachers and parents, in subscribing honestly if short sightedly to mental fads of the day, have cast off the courage to guide those younger and less ex perienced and (presumably) less wise than they. Children, as a re sult, have often grown without training in, or Tespect for, the ha bits and laws to which society will expect them, as adults in the com munity, to conform. Fortunately for the sanity of America, the fashionable modes of secular thought have not been fol lowed by all. Teachers who love their profession and understand their pupils have adapted what is practicable in the new theories and left the pedagogical flimflam to occupants of swivel chairs and writers of books. Many fathers and mothers, with sound common sense and a steady vision, have br.ushed aside the pressures of PTA lecturers and home magazine editors and have given to their sons and daughters the same sort of training for life, the same mo ral codes, which their own parents had successfully imparted to them. Churches with long traditions and deep roots, and the basic law of the land and its defenders, have also conserved essential standards. There is evidence too that ex-ser vicemen who have learned from ex perience that impulsive self-ex pression is not a workable rule of life will (if their wives let them) do something about the situation. The main fault of American pa rents — and it is a serious one — has been their gullibility. Before we indulge further, however, in the spanking of parents, let us take the stick, ideologically, to those whose well-intentionaed, popular theories have left the doors wide open for children to wander into ways which the law calls delin quent. — From The SIGN Mag azine. PERFICK LADY “Mother, that horrid Jones boy called me a tomboy," cried nine-yearold Pacita with righteous indignation. “And what did you do?” I asked, noting her torn dress and tearstreaked face, and remembering the Jones boy was twice her size. “I made him take it back," she said. “I kicked him in the shins and tripped him and sat on his chest and pounded his head in the dirt until he yelled 'You’re a perfick lady’.” —Family Digest. The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who nevers does anything. — Theodore Roosevelt. WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? — By Brother Edward -.iias==a. 11. How much do the souls in purgatory know about their friends on earth? Teresita Papa. A. We do mot know how much God allows them to know. It is commonly taught that they pray for the living and are allowed to know by whom they are helped. 12. If a man knows that the Ca tholic Church is the true Church of Christ, is he bound to join it? An Aglipayan A. Yes. 13. Is it necessary to say the penance received in Confes sion before going to, Holy Communion ? Diego Romero. A. No. But it is advisable to say the penance as soon as con venient. 14. What is the usual form of address when writing to a priest? A. Talag. A. At the beginning of the let ter: "Reverend dear Father"; at the end of the letter: "Yours respectfully”. 15. How do the Popes get their names as Pius XII, Leo XIII ? P. Rodriguez. A. When a Cardinal is elected Pope and accepts the election he announces the name by which he wishes to be known. 16. What prayers should be said in the morning? Corazon de Leon. A. You may choose for yourself. Any prayerbook will give a good selection. 17. If a person misses saying the prayers on. one day of a Novena, what should be done? A. Gulapa. A. By a Novena is understood the saying of certain pray ers for nine days in succes sion. It is a purely voluntary practice of devotion.. Those who miss any day must be gin again, if they wish to. make the Novena. 18. Is it necessary to kneel when saying one’s morning pray ers? Corazon, de Leon. A. It is customary for Catholics', to kneel- when saying their prayers. If there is any good! reason for not kneeling; anybecoming posture may be as sumed'. For example, those who have forgotten to say their morning prayers before leaving the house, might say them on the way to work when walking, or riding in the buses. 19. Why are some priests called 52 NOVEMBER, 1947 53 “Doctors”? Wilfrido Gomez. A. Priests who attend universi ties and pass special exam inations at the end of their course of theology, receive the degree of Doctor of Sa cred Theology and have a right to the title “Doctor”. 20. May Mass for a dead person be said in any other than black vestments? Mrs. Pilar V. Rocha. A. Yes. The priest may offer Holy Mass for a dead person on any day that he says Mass. He is allowed to use black vestments only on cer tain days. 21. What is meant by the “Fish erman’s ring”? 0. Alvarez. A, The “Fisherman’s ring” is a ring worn by the Pope. It is to seal the Papal briefs. It is made of gold, with a repre sentation of St. Peter in a boat, fishing, and the name of the reigning Pope around it. When the Pope dies, the Cardinal Camerlengo sees that the ring is broken and a new one is placed on the finger of the newly elected Pope. 22. Why are priests required to lead a single life? L. Acos ta. A. In order that they be entire ly devoted to the service of God and to the work of sav ing souls. 23. If a man dies immediately after gaining a Plenary In dulgence will he go straight to Heaven? M. Coronel. A. Yes. 24. Is any response necessary when the priest says “God bless you!” at the end of Confession ? C. Bautista. A. No. It is a signal that he has finished giving absolution. However, it is a laudable practice to say “Thank you, father.” If it’s anything Catholic, ask Brother Edward The Cross Magazine Regina Building Escolta-Banquero Manila MANNERS — MODERN STYLE As I balanced myself in the crowded subway my arms were full of bundles and my soul full of bitterness at all the comfortable seated males. But chivalry was not quite dead in the man seated in front of me. He Towered his paper and surveyed me with some solicitude. “Be alert at 42nd Street, girlie,” he admonished. “That’s where I get off.” —Ligourian INTERNATIONAL FRONT TOP EXPORTER Philippine copra production in creases in 1947 have placed the new republic at the forefront of world fats and oils exporting na tions. The Philippines was the only country which was able to boost its 1947 production over 1946. EXPELLED The Iranian government is con tinually deporting thousands of communists to prevent the forma tion of a fifth column. Fearful of a Soviet-inspired revolt, scores are arrested daily and deported to Northern Iran. Since the search began early last September, 4,000 suspects have already been de ported. WARNED Winston Churchill recently warned Russia that Britain will join- the United States “in any great issue affecting human free dom,” should alarming East-West rift lead to another world war. Churchill excluded “imminent danger” of was but not danger of eventual conflict. REDUCED STATUS Eleven imperial families in Tok yo comprising 51 members became commoners recently in one-of the steps marking the democratization of Japan. The action which re duced the families to commoner ’ status was taken by the Imperial Families Council. Aside from Em peror Hirohito himself, there arc now only three imperial families.: TO ROME? Pope Pius XII is expected soon to name Francis Cardinal Spell man as Vatican Secretary of State. The Momento S^ra, a Rome newspaper, said Cardinal Spell man is expected to come to the Vatican and assume the post left vacant with the death of Luigi Cardinal Maglione in 1944. TO HEAL RIFT “It is the duty of the small na tions to assist in smoothing out the rivalries between the great powers,” declared Sen. Tomas Cabili as he spoke over the United Nations radio. "There is no pro blem ... that nations of integrity cannot resolve,” he added. (‘The P.I. is qualified to lead the drive for peace and security.” 54 NOVEMBER. 1947 REJECTED PLAN The United Nations general as sembly overwhelmingly rejected last Oct. 14 Russia’s proposal for ousting American and British troops from Greece. At the turbu lent -session, Soviet Minister Vishinsky took occasion to deny that the Comintern had been revived. He termed the reports of the re vival “nightmare inspired by inor dinate fears.” Ho... hum! DESERTIONS Desertions in the Soviet Army are on the increase especially among those who do not like the idea of returning to Russia. Since the end of the war about 75 thou sand Russian soldiers have de serted and the total is growing because of dissentions and discon tent among all ranks. Death pe nalties have been declared for any one in the Soviet Zone found of fering shelter to deserters.“LITTLE ASSEMBLY” Ambassador C. P. Romulo ral lied, Oct. 18, the small nations to support the American “Little As sembly” (interim committee) pro posal. The proposal which estab lishes a permanent committee to take up issues between regular or special assembly sessions is bit terly opposed by the Soviet bloc. Romulo demolished Soviet conten tions on the illegality of the pro posal. IlLKS BEFORE UNO How Communists operate in the Philippines was revealed to the world by Sen. Vicente Sotto in an address over the UN radio. Sen. Sotto described the Huks as “un lettered peasants and misguided elements led by Communist agita tors in the payroll of Moscow.” He said that the next Philippine Congress would probably intro duce a bill penalizing Communists. MEATLESS TUESDAYS As President Truman’s “waste less” food program moved out of the planning stage and into opera tion, these were some develop ments: The National Restaurant Association pledged its members to serve no meat on Tuesdays and r.o poultry or eggs on Thursdays. Distillery industry representatives will soon discuss Truman’s request for a 60-day shutdown. A 85,000 PENCIL Bill Hausman recently exhibited a pencil which cost 5 cents but which he would not part with for less than $5,000. The pencil—a stub now—is one of the many writing implements Gen. MacArthur and many other biggies used on the vital papers that ended World War II. Hausman, most prolific pencil collector, has 27,000 pencils valued at $23,500. THE CROSS 56 BREAD RIOTS Bread and oil were recently the pre-occupations of Mexico’s people. The government sided with the monopolists who wanted to double the price of bread, which sold at five centavos for a 45 gram piece. Infuriated mobs broke into shops of profiteers and flung the bread into the streets. The Police arrested no one. HEAVY TOLL Floodwaters and an epidemic of cholera in northwestern India Oct 3 added many casualties to the hundreds slain in religious rioting. Hordes of Hindus and Moslem were marooned, their cat tle drowned and their food sup plies destroyed. Hundreds of dwel lings in villages have been washed away. LATEST CRAZE Barefoot dancing may be Amer ica’s newest night club craze, but the U. S. public health service doesn’t intend to cut in. However the national foot health council is distressed about the situation. Council Chairman Joseph Lelyveld urged the banning of this craze "to prevent the further spread of athlete’s foot.” OUST ALL Rep. Edith Rogers sought Oct. 14 the deportation of all Russian agents in the United States, the confinement of the Soviet embas sy and the prohibition of exporta tion of war material to Russia. Said Rep. Rogers: "The security of the United States demands that safety measures be taken. This is the time to be realistic ... the time to save future American lives.” STILL FRESH Ten thousand people queued Oct. 14 in a quarter mile long line to see a crown of tea roses on'an image of the Virgin Mary in Stockport, England. The chaplet of tea roses was placed on the image last May 5 and remained fresh although other flowers placed in the church withered within a week. The parish priest declared, “It’s beyond nature, but I can’t say it’s a miracle.” NATIONAL FRONT IT’S A DEAL! The Republic has entered into an agreement with Westinghouse International for the establish ment of a 4-million-peso electrical manufacturing plant in the Phil ippines. Machineries will cost 1 million pesos and will be supplied by Westinghouse on a rental and royalty basis. .One million and one half pesos will be subscribed by local capital, one half million by NDC, while the rest will be supplied thru a bond issue. TRANSFER OF ROCK The Philippine flag for the firs| time flew alone over Corregidor after the transfer of the Rock to the Philippine Republic by the United States last October 12. NOVEMBER, 1947 57 During the ceremonies witnessed by U. S. army and P. A. officials and veterans, Maj. Gen. George Moore, stated: “With it go the warmest wishes of all Americans ... that no other than the flag of the Philippine Republic shall ever fly over the hallowed ground.” 2 MILLIONS TO SPEND The amount of P2,071,000 is available for appropriation and for expenditures of the city gov ernment, the city treasurer of Manila revealed October 14. The amount will be used for the main tenance of schools, payment of salaries of school teachers, bonus for government employees, repair of streets in Manila and other purposes. JAP TOOLS FOR P.I. SCAP has allocated 3,270 units of machine tools of various types to the Philippines as part of the reparation materials authorized by. the Far Eastern Commission. Government requirements will be determined and will be given pri ority in the acquisition of the tools. The remainder will be offered to the public “to promote industrial ization.” HUKS ALERTED As election day approaches, Central Luzon is fast becoming “a seething cauldron of unrest.” The Huks, it was learned, have been given orders to create dis turbances wherever they may be. Some of the Huk bands which have been previously disbanded by MPs have again succeeded in re organizing themselves. Meanwhile Secretary of Interior Jose Zulueta have alerted the MPs and warned them not to use their weapons unless called $or. RIGHT TO PICKET The right to picket is part of the freedom of speech, the Su preme court recently declared in deciding on the petition of the Canlubang Workers Union (CLO) against the court of industrial re lations. The only prohibition to it should be understood to cover il legal picketing, it further stated. The high court’s decision construed the order of the industrial court prohibiting picketing to refer only to illegal picketting. REVAMP TO SAVE The reorganization of the gov ernment as tentatively approved by the cabinet will save money amounting to P6,009,994. While the current authorized outlay amounts to P226,356,306 for the fiscal year 1948, only P220,346,312 will actually be spent next year under the reorganized government. Of the itemized positions number ing 28,127, the plan calls for the elimination of 1,078 positions. MODEL EMPLOYES A program for 113 government employes who have been selected as model employes of every bu reau was held in Malacanan last Oct. 4r The employes received di plomas and gifts. They were se lected on basis of efficiency and 58 THE CROSS loyalty from among regular and permanent employees receiving rot more than P200 a month. SMALLEST CLAIM The UJS. Army Claims Service, Philrycom, recently paid $65,560 for two claims presented for feed ing part of the pre-Corregidor fighting forces in the Philippines. For 110,000 pounds of requisi tioned live chickens, vegetables and fruits, a Quiapo vendor was paid $27,390. For requisitoned 179,800 milk fishes, three fisher men of Pilar, Bataan netted $36,070. For two bowls of salad she prepared for a band of guerrillas, Emilia Vilbar of Cebu received P2.00. For one-half ganta of corn she leased to a guerrilla, Marta Alloso was paid P.50. QUIT EN MASSE The 49 disgruntled high school teachers of Davao City carried their threat and resigned en masse Oct. 16. The city council had pre viously approved a 50 per cent bonus for the teachers. But they insisted on the original claim of a hundred percent bonus. COURT OBJECTS The Supreme court outlawed the plan of the commission on elections and 12 municipal coun cils in Pampanga to transfer poll ing places in the barrios to the townsites. The tribunal ruled that there is nothing in the electoral code to justify the move. The transfers were proposed in view of the allegedly abnormal peace and order conditions in the barrios affected. SEEKS AH) American financial aid for the maintenance of former U. S. in stallations and bases in the P. I. to keep them in good condition was urged by President Rox&s on the visiting U. S. solons. The six solons are members of the U. S. Armed Services Committee and are on tour of the U. S. Military bases in the Pacific. JUSTIFIES EXPORT President Roxas sought to justi fy the proposed exportation of 30,000 tons of rice from the NARIC stock before newsmen. The proposal to expo*rt rice was severely criticized in .many quarters on the ground that there may be a shortage in this cereal. The President claimed that re-exporta tion of rice is due to over-supply of the cereaL OKs PURCHASE Expropriation of several landed estates in Manila was decided upon recently by President Roxas in order to help tenants acquire lands. Money for the purchase of these estates will be advanced by the RFC. The cabinet approved the institution of expropriation proceedings against 3 landed es tates which will affect some 250,inhabitants in Manila. These are the Hacienda Nagtahan, Galas and Sta. Mesa. THE DIVINE CRUCIBLE OF PURGATORY by Mother St. Austin. There has not been, since the classical treaties of St. Ca therine of Genoa, so fine a treatment of the exact nature of Purgatory. Mother St. Aus tin’s own personal mystical ex periences are a factor which makes the book an entirely new addition to the subject. This book should greatly aid anyone in meditating on the day of all souls. 185 pages—P4.90. THE PRINCE OF PEACE FOR ' ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS by Archbishop Alban Goodier. S.J. An ideal book for the laity who wish to participate in the Liturgy and spirit of Advent and Christmas. Priests and Re ligious will find that it makes a splendid meditation book. 152 pages—P2.50. THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS by Rev. Valentin Breton, O.F.M. A simple explanation of the secret, profound and immense reality hidden beneath, and re vealed by, the humble dogma tic formula: “I believe in the Communion of Saints.” 212 pages—P3.30. THE LIGHT OF THE STARS, a novel by Evelyn Voss Wise. 221 pages. Price — five pesos. The Bruce Publishing Co. Gregory Lane never forgot the ugly neighborhood in Baltimore in which he spent his boyhood. Son of a wandering father and a mother who died from over work, Gregory struggled as a youth and as a seminarian to get away from the filth and po verty he hated so bitterly. As an eager young priest who wanted to be a teacher and scholar, Father Lane was bit ter when orders from his bishop sent him back to the same slums, the same parish from which he had fled. He was to undertake the job of bringing the spirit of God back into the joyless, shabby hearts of the parishioners in Saint Christo 60 THE CROSS phers’s. Here is a story which simply reveals that heart and soul of a man—a priest who steps out of the pages and gives enough to light and warm the hearts of all. PERE ANTOINE by Edward F. Murphy. Double day & Co., Inc. 304 pages. Price—five pesos. Pere Antoine came to New Orleans at the turn of the eighteenth century a stern man, a young priest who believed in the supreme authority of the Church. He challenged the au thority of every governor in the territory. He even planned to bring the Inquisition to Lou isiana. Finally he was sent back to Spain. Later he returned, but a dif ferent man. Where he had been harsh, he became kindly. Where he had been an unfeeling authoritar ian, he became a democrat. Where he had fought against the people, he became fheir champion. In answering the puzzle of Pere Antoine’s reawakening, Father Edward F. Murphy has created a rich and rewarding novel of spiritual and human values — and of how a great man found the fulfillment that is life’s only answer to itself. THE MOTHER OF JESUS by Chanoine Henri Morice. P. J. Kenedy & Sons. 250 pages. — Price—four pesos. Henri Morice emphasizes the striking resemblance between Jesus and His Mother. They have the same thoughts, the same feelings and the same character. Throughout the work he stresses the common everyday things in which they were alike rather than any theological similarities. The translation by Madame Clara Meighs Sands, R.S.C.J., has captured entirely the spirit of the original work, and is worthy of the highest praise. A WOMAN WRAPPED IN SI LENCE by John W. Lynch. MacMillan Co. 277 pages. Price —four pesos. This is the story of a woman of great heart, and the consum ing devotion that burned in her life. It is the touching and hu man portrait of the woman who was the Molher of Christ, drawn with reverence and dignity—a narrative poem of special dis tinctiveness, universal in its ap peal, and written in fluent verse of exceptionally high qua lity. JOURNEY CAKE by Isabel Mc Lennan McMeekin. Julian Mess ner, Inc. 231 pages. Price—four pesos. A new kind of pioneer story —with a very individual and un usual heroine. From the Managing Editor’s g Desk— ARCHBISHOP O’DOHERTY: A FILIPINO A FEW WEEKS AGO, the metropolitan press published a report that Archbishop Michael J. O’Doherty had declared his intention of becoming a Filipino citizen. We have noticed that a few assorted bigots and anti-Catholics consider this merely as the act of a propa gandist who wishes to entrench himself more firmly in Philippines. The majority of Filipinos, however, have seen it in a clearer light. They see in the prelate’s declaration a supreme act by which a great man seek with the people to whom he has absolutely correct. wealth, bright with the promise of absolute liberty. He saw it rise from the ruins of war to take its place in the concert of free nations. And not for him was the posi tion, of an innocent bystander. For as the Philippines underwent the process of political maturation, to him fell the task to see that it re tained the innate flavour of Catho licism that has always set this country apart from the rest of the Far East. How successful he has been in this only God really knows. But posterity will no doubt regard him with kindly eyes with the sim ple statement: He was a Filipino. to unite himself even more closely given so much. And in this they are During the 36 years that Achbishop O’Doherty has spent among us, he has given this country more than most Filipinos can ever h?pe to. First as a bishop in Zam boanga, and then as spiritual head of the archdiocese of Manila, he has worked continually for the best interests of this country. So long has he labored and suffered among us that his name will always be linked with the history of the Ca tholic Church in the Philippines. He first came to this country when it was a mere territory of the United States, learning its first lessons in democratic government. He saw it develop into a Common61 62 THE CROSSThe sincerity of Archbishop O’ Doherty in seeking Filipino citizen ship cannot be denied. It was a dream that began twenty years ago, when the Philippines and him self were both younger. At that time, he had sought the advice of Sergio Osmena, then head of the National Assembly, on the possi bility of his taking out citizenship papers. At that time. President Osmena had told him it might be better to wait until the Philip pines gained her freedom. Through the long years that followed, the prelate nursed this ambition. It was no concidence that barely a year after the proclamation of the Philippine Republic, the Archbi shop made public his intention to become a Filipino national. We have learned from very re liable sources, however, that his application may hot prosper. It seems that unless the Irish consti tution, either expressly or implied ly, permits Filipinos to become Irish citizens, a Philippine court can do nothing but reject his ap plication. This probability, if it comes true, will be a tragedy, in deed. We believe it should not even be entertained by the Philippine gov ernment. We believe that the pre late’s long record of service more than justifies an exception in his favor. More than this, we believe that the Philippines should consid er as an honor the fact that a truly great man should wish to become one with its people. Furthermore, we believe that if, for the very reason we Inve mentioned, his ap plication should be rejected, the Catholics of this country should rise up and with one voice petition the government to make this 'ex ception. No more fitting gift could be given him on the occasion of his Golden Sacerdotal Jubilee. HELP WANTED The First National Congress of the Legion of Mary in the Philip pines has been scheduled from November 29 to December 1 of this year. At this time, thousands of Legionaries will be comifrg to Ma nila to participate in the rites. But they will need accommodations. Their needs are simple: a bed to sleep on and a table to eat from. They will need the help of all gen erous Catholics." Whether or not you are a Leg ionary does not matter. If you have room to spare in your house, give visiting Legionaries a break. All those, who are willing to make this sacrifice, are invited to write to, or visit, the offices of The Cross Magazine and indicate how many Legionaries they will be wil ling to accommodate. Help make the Legion Congress a big success! or views .•< $■ BEAUTIFULLY UNINTELLIGIBLE 21, K-2 Kamuning, Quezon City Dear Editor, In your September issue, you published the valuable and inter esting document of President Que zon’s retraction. But your darn proofreader made the paragraph which begins “Came the day when I began... etc." on page 45 beau tifully. unintelligible. Will you please supply the mis sing lines? Yours for accuracy, Carlos Guingona Ed.: "Came the day when I be gan to feel a complete desolation in spite of the material goods which I enjoyed, and I looked for the cause thereof and found it in my lack of faith in the superna tural life, that is, in my lack of religion.” Missing lines are ita licized. Delete “theory that all re ligious are the". Thanks, Mr. Guingona. We shall try to be more accurate. BOYCOTT “CAPITOL” 1346 P. Guevara Sta. Cruz, Manila Dear Editor, Now that the Capitol manage ment has disregarded our demand to outlaw “The Outlaw”, how about making money talk to them. After all it’s money these people want. I mean, why dont we boycott the Capitol theatre for some months until it learns to obey the dictates of right reason and decent so ciety? Sincerely yours, Alfredo Polintan Ed.: Why dont we? The rub is so many Sunday Catholics lack the stamina to put their Catholicism into practice. QUIAPO RACKETEERS Dear Editor: I wonder if you ever had the chance to visit Quiapo church dur ing one of these days. If you did, I wonder if you ever noticed the people selling candles and what nots right inside the church. And too, the people who would say a rosary for you provided of course 63 64 THE CROSS you hand them a nickel or two. Now, why does the parish priest of Quiapo not do something about this sad situation? Our Lord once drove the sellers and buyers at the temple. Buying prayers is su perstition pure and simple. Is the priest powerless to drive these racketeers out of God’s house? Yours in Christ Rodrigo Gomez Ed. We are sure the Quiapo par ish priest has done something about this. But we would rather refer your questions to his rev erence. WHO’S THAT UNCOMMON HERD? Dear Editor: I would like to ask you a favor. I read in your last issue about a young man “burning his fingers and getting printer’s ink... all over his face for... Catholic Ac tion.” Cf. The Uncommon Herd by Antonio R. de Joya on page 32. Could you tell me the name of this unknown hero? I have an up right fellow in mind, but I would like to confirm my suspicions. Sincerely yours, Edilberto Pernia Ed. I am sorry, Mr. Pernia, for reasons of prudence, the columnist would rather not publish the name of that "Uncommon Herd.” How ever, you will get your answer in a personal letter. PROOFS APLENTY Dear Editor: Permit me to congratulate you on the high quality of your maga zine. When I mean high quality, I mean it. I noticed anybody could take it up and get something worthwhile out of it. For writers, "Think a Minute” is timely, so is “Rags and Riches”; for parents, “Prayer for a Son”; for husbands and wives, “Women Puzzle Me”; for states men and politicians, “Backdrop for the Marshall Plan”; for edu cators and teachers, “The Busi ness of Education”; for doctors and philanthropists, “Light for the Blind”; for businessmen, “The Little Businessman comes into his own; for soldiers and guerrillas, “The Story of ‘Cavite’ ”; for Ca tholic actionists and Legionaries, “The Uncommon Herd”; for his torians and teachers of current events, “The Newsmonth”; for bookworms, “From the Book shelves; for the curious, “What’s on your mind?"; for Secretaries of Interior, "From the Managing Editor’s Desk”; for lovers of free dom; "Cross-currents of Readers* views”; for priests, “Parish priests of the Great White Way”; for children, big and small, the anec dotes and “Filipiniana." And sp on. Now don’t say I didn’t prove my statements. Sincerely for the Catholid •press, Lorenzo Siopongco Ed. No comment. TUASON and SAMPEDRO Inc. Globo de Oro 801-178 Quiapo, Manila Lumber, Construction and Furnitures (Wooden and Rattan) Melquiades Virata, Jr. Attorney-at-Law 2126 Azcarrafta Manila, I’. I. r Regina Bldg., Escolta—Banquero Manila, Philippines “ON THIS OUR SECOND ANNIVERSARY ... WE ARE INDEED BLESSED . .. THAT WE CAN LOOK BACK TO THE TWO YEARS WHEREIN WE HAVE LABOURED . . . AND GROWN. WE LABOURED WE SAY ... BUT WE HAVE NOT BEE-fc ALONE. FROM THE FAR NORTH, APARRI, TO THE SOUTHERN MOST TIP OF THESE ISLANDS, JOLO, WE HAVE FRIENDS.^ AND TO THESE. FIENDS, THESE SCHOOK-S, TH,ESB ACADEMIES WHOM WE HAVE SERVED OUR DETEST GRATI“WE CAN ONLY HOPE THAT WE MAY CONTINUE IN OUR JOINT LABOURS, PEJk SIST IN OUR MUTUAL SERVICE, T^SEVERE IN OUR ONE ^AImQt Jf^O HE SPREAD THE LIGHT OF GOOD LITERATU IN PARTICULAR, CATHOLIC LITE TURE, THROUGHOUT THE LAND.”