Evening Star Newspaper, March 4, 1928, Page 33

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. ¢, MARCIT 4. 1928 PART 'i’lle Story of Civilization (Continued from Third Page.) vre and shudder at the world as if he were abwut to plunge into a sea of Tiood” For seven vears Romauld lived shut up in his cell, never speaking a word in all this time. The figure of St alone on a column | hes out ffom his age as an symbol. How rtidiculous se & ast might become appears in Peter Damian’s account of the life of Dominic Loricatus: Through a long course of gliding years, girt with fron mail, he has waged truceless war against the wicked spirits: with cuirassed body and heart always ready for battle. e marches s an eager Warrior sgainst the hostile 8 Likewise it is his regular and un- remitting habit with a rod in each day to beat time upon and fhus scourge even in his naked bo out two psalter the slacker season. when he has a penan, (and he often undertakes a pen of & hundred vears). cach dav. while he plies himself with his rods, he three psalters, re- y (meditando). hundred years Wi 000 has often 00 blows. five years of pe . with this dis- r you take § nfident formed a hundr Herel; ? the flesh. He has told that he easily accom- a penance of & hundred years .. The tradition of Stoicism thaps even Br a gddd)’ll\lsnh combined with the desirc life of peaceful scholarship and secure simplicity to develop the great monastic orders. Despite the vows of | obedience and poverty, which | cted of the monk. his life con- tained attractions appealing to those who did not care for the d dgery or the risks turmoil of war. There was quiet in the ¥, scholars could copy ancient | manuscrips and preserve hing_of Greek and Roman literature for the| modern mind: indeed, for many cen- | turies none but priests kept the knowl- edge of writing. and the clerical art| reflects by its name its association with clerics and the clergy. Perhaps, 0o, | there was a communistic satisfaction in the monastic life, a soothing regu-| larity of routine that fell like bintment upon sensitive souls who would have | suffered from the shafts of the world. The first monastic center was Egypt: there Anthony met his temptations and | struggled in his solitude. In 530 St.| Benedict founded the greatest of the| orders, on essentially democratic princi- | ples: the abbot was to be elected by the | monks, and every man was to share | equally in the simple goods of the mon- | astery. Later St. Bernard (born 1080) founded his order at Clairvaux. and in- ired it with his passionate piety. %m," savs Bernard, “is none else than a fetid sperm, a sack of dung. m'i food of worms; * ¢ * you have never| seen a viler dunghill than man” And he calls upon the Pope to punish a great heretic: “Arnold of Brescia, | whose speech is honey and whose touch poison, who has the heart of a dove and the tail of a scorpion, whom Rrescia vomited forth. Rome abhorred. France repelled. Germany abominates end Italy will not receive. is said to be with vou” Then he goes on to speak of Christian merey and love, The most powerful of the monastic erders was founded bv St. Pominic in 1214. “Wandering on foot over the face of Europe, under burning suns or chill thankfully whatever coarse | be set before the w: er in silent resign ht for the morrow. but in snatching souls from fting men up from the sor- es of daily life"—so we picture ! e who. more than any other order. helped among the v tiani'y rope. Gradual- the and Fridav) Mother and the k won Ireland the Great lish and was told that he sald that nity to be He was mistaken * x long and reve ho ad of S Srong i did not cle “r of B romence e trom ety of | ing Lent. | he accused himself of eating cakes dur- While very ill he rose, shak- ing with fever. and, strengthening him- self with a trifie more of food than he | had allotted himself by his_rule, he | went out to preach to the people. When the sermon was over he threw off his cloak. tied a rope around his waist, and commanded the monks to drag him naked before the people, and to cast ashes into his face. 'The weeping monks obeyed, and before all he confessed his violation of the rule. He had found certain kindred souls who loved him so much that they were wiiling to accept the hardships of his of life for the privilege of partici- pating with him in his mission. That mission was to restore Christ to the chureh, to ignore theology. to forget or- thodoxy and heresy. to put off the gar- ment of wealth and laxity which had clothed the now powerful church and to show by his hfe what Christ had been and wished His followers to be. | He did not eare for disputation, for any achievements of seience or any tri- umphs of knowledge. To be good was better. he thought, than to be learned My brothers who are led by the curi- osily of knowledge will find their hands empty in the day of tribulation. I would wish that they be strengthened by virtue.” velopment of worldliness, immorality and crime. among the clergy, but he would denounce nene; he would only live his life as purely as he could and trust in the power of example as the greatest reformation. « x cod himself against the im- ons of men with the beauty that greeted him as he wandered along the road. He held the sun brother and sang to it his lovely can- i High. Omnipotent, Good hine is the praise, the glory, e Thee. aised be Thou, my Lord, with hy creatures, especially, my Brother Sun, that dawns and praised, my Lord, for Sister Moon and the stars that Thou hast made bright and precious and beau- tiful Be praised, my Lord. for Brother Wind, and for sie air and cloud and the clear sky and for all weathers through which Thou giv- est substance to Thy creatures. Be praised, my Lord. for Sister Water, that is very useful and hum- ble and precious and chaste. Be praised. my Lord. for Brother Fire, through whom Thou dost {l- lumine the night. and comely is he and glad and bold and strong. Be praised, my Lord, for Sister our Mother Earth. that doth cher- ish and keep us, and produces vari- ous fruits with colored flowers and the grass. Be praised, my Lord, for those who forgive for love of Thee, and endure sickness and tribulation: blessed are they who endure in peace; for by Thee, Most High, shall they be crowned. Be praised, my Lord, for our bod- ily death, from which no living man can escape; woe unto those who die in mortal sin. Blessed are they that have found Thy most holy will, for the second death shall do them no hurt. Praise and bless my Lord, and render thanks, and serve Him with great humility He loved nature and every form of life so well that. like Father Mael in “Penguin Isle,” he did not disdain to preach to the birds. Story paints a pretty picture of how as he spoke to them the birds came down from the trees and stood on the ground together, and did not depart when he had fin- ished his preaching until he had given them his blessing. “My sisters the birds,” he said to them, “much are ye beholden unto God, your Creator, and always and in every place ought ye to praise Him. * * * Ye are beholden to Him for the element of the air which He hath appointed for vou: further- more, y yet God feedeth you and giveth you rivers and fountains wherefrom ~to drink. He giveth you mountains and valleys for your refuge, and high trees | wherein to build your nests; and in that ye know not how to sew or spin, God clotheth you and your little ones; wherefore, be ye ever mindful to give praise to God.” Liszt has put the scene to charming musie. S0 ends the poem of St. Francis finest flower of medieval life. We see in him again the endless power of the Jesus who was forgotten when Christ was made, Christianity in its original essence coming back to shock a world | that could not bear to remember it The sons of Paul had won against the sor to Gregs Augustine, Luther, Calvin, a. St Tolstol and Thoreau, the sons was to be only a volce crying in the wilderness, which the world could not understand. But when we are sick of churches and tired of creeds, when we hurger again for the spirit of reli- #ion, and not for its bones of dogma or raiment of ritual, let us go back to Little Flowers of St. Francis and re- fresh ourselves with the story of a man 0 dared to be a Christian even in the midst of Christendom. *r w & The People and the Popes. To give the monastic picture fts falrer side we must place beside the monks the nuns. Probably the world never seen an organization more wselfishly devoted to human kindness than the varions orders which gath- ered the h men of Christianity together during the middle ages. The ’ not only the natural like Hildegarde and they were an admirable ref- vomen bereaved or decelved, Je Mailed Fist N (Continued from First Page) cutting ench other's throsts. “That is a wnshle explanation on its face 1hing was developed 1o indicate that there wus any oVher aut. although union offictals teli” another But what 15 the result of such a thie us a whole has found that ing the purehasing power of the cmployes beips industry. There are more people b by the output of indus- Uy And df his s Arue, the reverse ) ought t say Lhat 2 In Pennsylvania is orthern West Virgina s are going hroke ) Resl estate values ome of this can be at- aecompaniments of open Jent confiict. But mich of it i drcrensed purchssing power Instend of Snereasing the markels for Vi Ve operstors hiave decteased aikets by cutbing down wages. 'The s v formerly bought & radio can- pob o L pow. The radio company b pationage wnd uses less coul e munutactire of radios This s 1ed slong all down the lne wide effect and Living Btandard Lowered. AL he same Ume, the ddentical con- At Which orighnsily brought shont St of Uik lnbor untons 1n e felds wre behng pestored. Lubio i Bt organize and fight for wages when I satisfied The soale of pay w0 by Ane untone i the conl fields ie betng cul down the stundard of hving [ overed, sud instead of hiying Uh & long-established unton i wround Pittebirgh of oo He was horrified at the de- as his | e SoW not, neither do ye reap, | of Jesus: the world was to belong | Francis, like Blake and | It hus | or left unmarried as a result of the numerical excess of women over men in the age afflicted with violence and a thousand petty wars. In the hands of the nuns and the secular (1. e. non- monastic clergy) the church placed the administration” of its charities, and many of the great hospitals that sur- | vive today were founded in an epoch.| ’m which charity was personal and | complete. IR | | Under the rule of the church the | [ people lived an_intellectually narrow | and emotionally happy life. Their ig- | norance, their relic worship, their mira- | cle mongering. their uncritical accept- ance of such plous legends as made the “Lives of the Saints,” their belief in | spirits that filled the air and dominated | human_lives and made pious women | strangely pregnant may scem fo our cotemporary taste abominable and un- redeemed, but when we consider how small_a part science and philosophy | play in our lives we may b> inclined to admit that the people of the middle ages could live as vigorously and com- [ pletely as we. At least, they ate as | heartily and drank as deeply and with fewer Puritan inhibitions. They were not subject to coffee, but they knew how to make good wine and beer, They asted on Fridays—fish was a delic to them. It is true that thelr manner were rude: not until the fourteenth | century were forks used, and Queen | lizaboth, Louis XIV and William | nakespeare, still jgnorant of this new | invention or disdaining it, ate comfort- ably with their fingers. Homes were | simple, but they were preity, and the tourist of today finds his best ts in leaving the hot stone walls vements of a modern thorough- | nd losing himself in the narrow, | culable alleys under the pictur- esque overhanging windows and bal- conies, the crowded peaks and gables of a surviving medieval street. In these homes there was not much liberty, but there was much consolation. At night the whole family knelt together at their chairs and_recited the rosary aloud. s on Sunday was a drama and a feast; there the village met, cx- changed gossip, compared hats and made’ assignations for the week, and the fine Gregorian chant of the high | mass thrilled their hearts with a me- From their cradles to the church surrounded lorful pageantry and rit- nitiated through baptism brotherhood of Christians; marched in magnificent fes- behind the Virgin or the cross: were relieved of a festering con- | selenee by confessing to their priests {and had no need of psycho-analysts: | they were nourished and renewed by | eating the God in holy communion | They ‘were married by a splendid cere- mony that burned the vow into their memory as not a mere legal arrange- ment, but an obligation of honor to be maintained through weal and woe. In | their suffering they were comforted by the church, and in their poverty they might appeal to her and be heard. And when they died the priest was at hand | to give them the last ointment, to shrive | them of their final sins and fo console them with the promise that their death | would be an awakening into everiast- | ing happiness. Men are more power- | ful today than they were then and they know now incomparably more. but in our restless age,shorn of belief and hope.and almost of charity, they have lost a certain simple happiness which uplifted and ennobled the povery of the middle ages. | o ox o | Over the people and thelr priests | over the monks and nuns, arose the py- | ramidal hierarchy of the church. First| the bishops, ie. the overseers. with | | their great cathedrals, f.e. churches con- | | taining the bishop's church: then the archbishops and the cardinals, and at | | last the Pope. The Pope was elected by | | the conclave of cardinals, who resembled | | the senate of the old Roman republic; in truth, except when the Pope was an {unusually dominant personality, it was these cardinals who ruled the church. and the continuity of their group, bridg- ing every chasm of death and change, is the secret of the power and perma- nence of the church. With this clement in the selection of the Pope democracy | ceased and aristocracy began, masking itself, as usual, with a monarchical face, | | The Pope chose the cardinals, the car- dinals chose the archbishops, the arch- | bishops chose the bishops and the bishops chose the priests. There at the bottom democracy had another chance; any man might aspire to rise from ghe lowest to the highest office in he church, and though aristocratic birth might help him, a lower birth was small impediment. Under this mode of election the Popes were for the most part men of great ability, far surpassing the average of any kingly dynasty known to history. Popes like Gregory I, Gregory VII and Innocent TII were not unusual; time and again the genius of the papacy | proved t00 much for the genius of kings; we have seen how Henry IV knelt in_penance at Canossa and how King John yielded all England in fief to In. nocent 111, i | they tivals | th IR As it grew in organization and power the church became the dominating state | over all the governments of Europe, It had its own law, called canon law, | through which it controlled not ont priests and monks and nuns, but mar- | Hage, interest, contracts and wills. It collected {ts own tithes and revenues from the people, 1t had Its own penal code and Jails. | But the church had forgotten Plato’s proviso that in his aristocratic repub- | |lle there should be no fixed laws and that life should be left free to grow as it had to, under the flexible intelligence of | wite men. Christlanity had congealed | ity dogma, into a faith which its for- | mulators thought would remain un- | changed forever; the ideal of power had come” down from ancient Rome with too great force to be merged properly with the necessities of freedom. Ry its wealth and rigid order Christianity Liad been converted to Rome as much a5 Rome had been converted to Chris- | | tianity. Always the dilemna seems to | face mankind that 1t shall have order without liberty or liberty without order \and peace. Perhaps some day we shall | be intelligent enough (o deserve nnd | bufld a” unity that can be friends with | freedom | 078 by Will Durant ) | eded in Coal Fields ymen whose fat) 4 and grandfathers hefore them ha | heen digging coal {the new element is drawn from all ts of the land. The committer de- cloped that some of the mines now are aperating with from 30 1o 90 per cent negro luhor, The conditions under which these men Jive will find them in ripe mood, sooner or Iuter, for some red-eved ngltator who comes along and | Hells them to bum the tpple and dyna- jmite the works Home of the Pennsylvania operators | seem o indlcate thist they want (o get an an even footing with the opeyntors | i the Bouther. fields, where the labor organizations have been kept out. What iare the condittons In the Bouthern {Nelds? According to reports which may be trusted the maximum dally wiges for mn elght-hour day 1 western e {tucky are 85 hut the m operate on | the “short-tme” work ek, nand the [ men wre being employed only one and often not more than two days a K o western Kentucky and enstern ‘T'e nessee the miners are pald In wdvance | with “fickers” and “serip,” subject 1o | discount Af eonverted o canh, and L which nre wecepted only at the “com- [y stares,” wheve prices are said to (e from 25 't 45 per cent higher than standard market piices ‘There are the | usual slories from Ahese fAelds of ex- | plodtation of the workers by the com- | [ pnien wnd of suffering and poverty High Wages Not Found, The story of mineis who make $10 and §12 n duy i the Pennsylvanta dis tck wae repented many Umes to the Henate committee bt the committee fatled to fnd, Uwough 0 questioned many miners, any one of them who re cetved (hnt pav. According to & table sted by e Burean of Labor Bta s of the Degartment of Labor, the estimated possible average yearly earn- ings of miners and loaders in' eleven States 15 $1,382. The possible yearly average Is arrived at by considering the average wage scale and the average number of days that miners worked. This table, which is for the year 1926, follows: Alabama .. Colorado . Tllinots Indiana Pennsylvania ‘Tennessee Virginia West Vir, Since 1926 conditions in the mining industry have grown worse, instead of showing improvement. One Leader or Another. There are many who profess to see in the long drawn out fight now in progress betwcen the open shop opera- tors and the United Mine Workers of America a knock-down-and-drag-out affair which can only end with one of them on top. In Pennsylvania, for ins- tance, the belief is gaining ground in some quarters that the large amount of favorable publicity received by the striking miners as a result of the Senate subcommittee's tour was a dylng gasp of the United Mine Workers. No one knows whether the United Mine Work- ers will win or Jose. It is not funda- mentally important. But if the United | the cost of production.” Mine Workers lose, if this organization is thoroughly licked in Pennsylvania and a demoralizing defeat extends else- where, its place will be taken by some other organization. Evidence already exists that the Independent Workers of the World, by their offers of food and other relief to the striking miners, are attempting to gain a foot- If one sct of leaders fails to another set will take its place. The operators may find themselves jumping from the frying pan into the fire as far as union labor is concerned. In this day and age It is unreasonable to believe that men will continue to work under the conditions found by the visit- ing Senators to exist in some of the open shop mines of Pennsylvania, and which are described as even worse in the Southern flelds of West Virginia, Ken- tucky and Tennessee. Man Power Largest Cost. The United States Coal Commission’s repoft declared that “Man power is still, and doubtless will be, the largest item In producing coal. Labor, Its management and cfficlent use, 1s a major problem in coal mining. ~Labor cost represents near! 70 per cent of The commis- slon_made the statement. that there are 200,000 more bituminous miners than are necessary and that in the next dec- ade there will be a 25 per cent reduc- tlon in man power required to produce a ton of bituminous coal because of the | continued development of better meth- ods of mining, more cxtended use of hi i} KAUFMANN'S of the industry. unfon will favor is not known. of its officials, who have been in Wash- | dust that Government Government action is taken, the coal Scrve its natural resources. commission said, should be as a guiding ! hand In getting, sifting and publishing | governmental control reached through facts, and not as a mailed fist, except in | legislative action is another suggestion times of acute emergency. as on occasion spent, Position of the Union. ‘The union fe. y? the least the machinery and by better management. It recommended that the union ‘“ex- tend its range of vision beyond the strike and the personal grievance against the operator to some of the funda- mental troubles of the industry. This strong unfon that has given such fre- quent evidence of its power and that considerable sums for research has apparently given no serious study to the problem of fr- regularity of employment.” has_been pretty busy, since the coal commisslon’s report, in attending to strikes and fighting for its But. there {5 reason to believe that, during the hearings before the Senate committee, which begin this week, it will have somethinz to say on what it believes to be the fundamental troubles | What legislation the Some | ington In preparation for the investi- | gation, say they are not ready to “put | their cards on the table yet.'” sald with the This 15 implication that they have some cards up their sleeves. What can the Senate Interstate com- merce committee do about the coal in- The coal commission decided | interference from better. the Whatever | more than it needs anything else, operators themselves are coming for- ward with all sorts of suggestions. tionalization of the coal mines seems out of the question. The coal commis- sion knocked that idea on the head and it has not recovered. Some of the op- erators helleve there Is no cure for the coal industry except the work of eco- nomle laws. as one suggestion; legalized pooling as another. 1If the coal industry were al- lowed to pool operations and fix prices, it is maintained, wages could be mal tained indefinitely because the con- sumer would have to pay the price to support labor on a fair basis and give capital a fair return. But present laws stand in the way of combinations and price-fixing There must be some method devised. |1t 1s argued. to bring capacity into r | latlon to demand, with production re- | stricted to mines which may operate at lowest cost consistent with fair wages. This can only be accomplished by volun- tary action within the industry itself, or | by governmental decree. The first seems highly Improbable and shows no possi- bility of "realization. The second fs hedged about with numerous legal diffi- culties. This country has done little to con- The con- servation of coal under some form of | to bring about the retirement from the But the opinlon is gaining force that ' field of some of the excess mines and 14 15 H the toal industry needs a mailed 1"‘!\‘: | to retain in the hands of the public L@e Consolidation is advanced | STREET developed coal lands for the future. The setting up of a commission, sim!+ lar in some respects to the Interstate Commerce Commission, which would have control of operations, the fixing of values for determining returns upon in- vestment, sale prices and other features of supervision embracing the entire in- dustry, is another proposal that is re- celving serious consideration. Yet another plan is to determine the amount of annual earings necessary to glve workers at the mines the American standard of llving (whatever that 1s). If this were determined, it is argued, production might start from such an earning basis for the workers, and ot! items of cost. plus a legitimate return, vould determine the tonnage cost of coal. The incentive to cut wages and undersell the other fellow would be re- moved. But while this plan sounds feasible, it is to be doubted whether it would work until the operators begin sprouting wings. and no such growth has heen visible to date. 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