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By Bernard Faÿ

MONG the various forms of Christianity it is Catholicism which at present enjoys most prestige and popularity in the United States. Catholicism is given credit there for what it is

not.

Unbelievers laud it in comparison with Protestantism. Pious Protestants do homage to it and modernists are impressed by its lasting qualities, its success, and its solidity. A curious proof of the attraction which Catholicism has for the Protestant sects was shown in the sudden campaign begun by various denominations, including even the Baptists, for the adoption of the confessional, formerly so despised. Harry Emerson Fosdick himself recommended its adoption. People appreciate the fact that Catholicism has not involved itself in all kinds of undertakings unworthy of a religious body, as too many sects have done. Catholicism has not, for example, lent its support to prohibition, most of the bishops having, on the contrary, shown positive disapproval, while the mass of the faithful have been glad enough to follow their lead. Catholicism has not allowed itself to be dragged into politics like the Protestant churches, which, in order to retain prohibition, have been compelled to mingle in political struggles to their own great detriment, and which had previously made the mistake of allowing themselves to preach of America as the chosen land, and democracy as an invention come straight from God Himself. At the present time, when a good many American intellectuals hold such ideas puerile, the Protestant denominations are paying the penalty for their earlier zeal. They are, moreover, paying the penalty for their naïve haste to popularize- I might almost say to vulgarize themselves, and are reproached for their tendency to permit anything and to do anything in order to attract popular attention. People refer with irony to such sermons as these, whose titles they are authentic examples - flame on the walls of

From Le Correspondant (Paris Clerical Fortnightly)

the great cities: 'How to Wash Without Soap,' 'Two in a Bed.' With such antics they compare the dignity of Catholicism, which has always made itself respected and has known how to maintain a sense of mystery.

In modern America, where the taste for success is universal, Catholicism is venerated on the same ground that Mr.

Rockefeller is venerated. It is the biggest success in history. It has weathered the worst storms, stood firm against all revolutions, the worst internal crises, and it has always returned to the charge. The majesty of the Church makes a profound impression on the Protestants and the unbelievers in America, while the government respects it as a powerful and effective element in the maintenance of order.

Individuals admire the power of its hierarchy, the precision of its doctrines and its moral definitions, while all the Protestants are ceaselessly in conflict and give the most distressing example of anarchy.

To the United States, which is so inclined to approve anything that is well ordered and well organized, Catholicism seems like a splendid vision. Ceremonies such as those of the Eucharistic Congress in Chicago in 1926, where there were 1,200,000 communions, where immense throngs of Catholics marched in honor of

the Holy Eucharist, and where 100,000 men testified their devotion to Christ by passing the evening in listening to sermons in foreign languages, profoundly touch the emotions both of the hesitant and of the serious-minded.

Moreover, in a land which is now in the midst of a sensuous and sentimental crisis, where people are shouting about art everywhere, the Catholic liturgy awakens very great sympathy.

I shall never forget the offices of the Catholic church in Cambridge, close to Harvard, during Holy Week last year. Recently reconstructed in the Tuscan style, with a luxurious display of polychrome marbles in the interior, this church makes an effort to give the special offices, and in particular Tenebrae, without hurrying through them in a quarter of an hour, as happens in Europe. I observed that an hour before the offices began the church was full, and I could see the faces of all the intellectual, daring, or artistic' students

that I knew. Few of them were Catholic, and not all were Christians, but in a few moments the liturgy had taken hold of them, in spite of the fact that it was not perfectly carried out. Their expressions, eager, amazed, docile, told what the state of their minds was and told also their longing for spiritual beauty, a touching and convincing spectacle. That evening the students talked of nothing else.

The artistic prestige of Catholicism is also very great. Solesmes attracts more cultivated American pilgrims than Lourdes, and makes more conversions, or at least it turns a greater number of sincere souls toward Catholicism. Here is a special aspect of the moral crisis in the United States.

Many of the social and the intellectual élite are not at all concerned with religious discussion, and attach no importance whatever to arguments pro or con. Theology, and even philosophy, seem to have lost their influence. But on the other hand, the architecture of the

oughly has he established himself that in these years of Republican triumph he, though a Democrat, has always, except once, been reëlected by enormous majorities.

In March of 1927 a Protestant lawyer named Marshall published in the Atlantic Monthly an open letter to Smith asking whether he felt satisfied that the demands of Catholicism were compatible with the duties of the president of the United States. The same magazine published Smith's reply which was marked by precision, discretion, and vigor and which pleased everyone except a few inveterate enemies of Smith and of Catholicism. Its tenor was that he would render to Cæsar what was due to Cæsar.

The letter was an immense success, and the discretion of Rome in rendering approval by its silence made the best possible impression in the United States. In vain did Marshall try to continue the discussion by sending a new letter to Smith, asserting that the Governor's views might be all very well but were not those of his church. Smith did not reply, and it was easy for his partisans to say that since Rome knew what he had written and had not censured him, it Iwas evident that Marshall was either deceiving himself or wanted to deceive others. Thus Smith emerged victorious from the battle. To tell the truth, the eagerness of the American papers on all sides to applaud him and to close the discussion did not so much indicate unhesitating approval as a desire not to prolong a discussion which was dangerous to American unity. It is impossible at the present moment to say whether his Catholicism will harm Smith or not. In such matters the Americans can do nothing but proclaim their liberalism while admitting certain practical restrictions.

Is not this, after all, the meaning of the lively campaign against Smith on behalf of prohibition? He is conducting the campaign with prudence and energy and he may win. It would be to the glory of American Catholicism thus to give the United States, which has been hitherto so proud of its Protestantism and so fanatically attached to the AngloSaxon race, a great man who is both Catholic and Irish.

One must not, however, exaggerate Smith's prospects. The campaign against him is violent. The Ku Klux Klan, so it is said, has changed its methods, but not its objects. Moreover, when the Republicans are clever enough to nominate a liberal man like Hoover, Smith's candidacy loses a good deal of ground. His election, in fact, would be a great demonstration of 'liberalism,' but aside from

CATHOLIC AMERICA

SARAY

From Le Rire, Paris

SAVARI INTERPRETS AL SMITH

A NOTED French caricaturist is carried away by the famous smile of the Democratic candidate for the presidency

these strictly political considerations, Smith confronts religious difficulties. As early as July, 1927, the story was going round in certain circles that the American bishops and the Vatican would bring influence to bear on Smith to persuade him to withdraw his candidacy; for, they said, what is the use of electing a Catholic when the Protestant presidents give us all the liberty we need? Would this not mean a useless braving of popular sentiment which is satisfied to see the country faithful to Anglo-Saxon and Protestant traditions and under these conditions leaves the individual entirely free to choose his own religion? Finally, if Smith, a Catholic, is president, would he not have more trouble than a Protestant to get Catholic rights respected? Would not Catholic opinion have more difficulty in getting the American government to intervene in Mexico in favor of the Catholics, or rather in favor of freedom of conscience? All these arguments had weight and certain Catholics supported them. There was a persistent rumor last summer that such representations would be made by the Catholic

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prelates. Nevertheless, when the question was put to the Vatican, the news was given out that it would not intervene, that it had nothing to say, and that the Smith candidacy would continue. The story had almost been forgotten when on January 27, 1928, the New World, official organ of the archdiocese of Chicago, published an article (would it be better to say a communication?) which aroused the greatest stir. This article, after reviewing all the objections enumerated above, ended with a note of alarm. The candidacy of a Catholic for the presidency of the United States would disturb the hitherto cordial and easygoing relations with the Protestants. Mr. Smith was a danger. This article and Cardinal Mundelein's journey to Rome, which was both hasty and sudden, raised impassioned discussion in America. Many Catholics showed themselves uneasy and disturbed. The Commonweal of March 14, 1928, published a considered but fervent article in Smith's favor and in defense of the following theory: We hope for a franker and more active Catholic participation in American national life; and the election of a first class man who, like Smith, is at the same time a Catholic, would be a distinct contribution to this end.

The situation is complex. Catholicism in the United States owes its liberty not only to the liberalism of the Protestants, but to the political skill of the Irish who, with resources which in the beginning were slender enough, have been able to achieve an electoral position of the first rank, thanks to their organization and discipline, plus their skill and sometimes their strategy. But at the present time this subordinate rôle no longer satisfies them. They want a greater position and a better one. Al Smith's election involves not merely a religious question, but a racial question. It raises the question of political and ethnical orientation in the United States. If the ecclesiastical authority in its effort to avoid stirring up the ill humor of the Protestants should throw its weight against the Smith candidacy, it would risk a lively discontent among its most faithful disciples and defenders. Thus in an effort to maintain good relations with courteous enemies, they would disturb their own devoted partisans, to whom they owe much. Many an American Catholic would find it queer to see the Smith candidacy combatted and denounced by the Episcopate solely because Smith is a Catholic, whereas any Protestant or unbeliever would be accepted with good grace.

Considered as a whole, the problem is very delicate. The friendly disposition of the ruling masses and the Protestant

Anglo-Saxon masses has a great value for American Catholicism. Thanks to them it has been possible to retain the Catholic schools which have been threatened by the secularization laws in various states, especially in Oregon, where legislators wanted to compel Catholics to send their children to the public schools. The Supreme Court of the United States found the law unconstitutional, thus establishing a precedent which guarantees Catholics an enviable and precious liberty. That fact started certain Protestant objections. Various other symptoms about the same time revealed a kind of rivalry between Catholics and Protestants. Harvard University, the oldest and greatest in the United States, selected a very much respected Catholic lawyer, Mr. James Byrne, as one of the seven members of its Corporation, an important position open only to men of the first rank since this body, together with the president, governs the University. A few fanatical Protestants were annoyed and ventured to campaign against him. Nothing happened. But, nevertheless, at the end of a short time Mr. Byrne resigned.

In all fields, the Catholics can count on the loyal collaboration of the more enlightened among the Protestants and of the majority, but they must watch out. The Protestants are sensitive. A deeplying opposition does exist, or at least there are causes for opposition.

One felt this sensitiveness during the months which followed the Eucharistic Congress. The gaudy and ostentatious pomp, the purple painted train, the vast public ceremonials, the display of luxury, the ornamentation surprised both Protestants and unbelievers who had previously been rather favorable to Catholicism. Though the social and political prestige of Catholicism in America may have been increased by the Congress, it must be said that in certain circles its intellectual prestige suffered. Confronted by certain manifestations which were more grandiose than discreet, the European bishops were amazed. But they were told: "That is the way we do it in America.' They acceded, and many of them asserted that in tact, in taste, and in moderation the differences between America and Europe are not so great as that.

Anyone who has recently been in inti

mate contact with the American universities would have found it easy to discern this feeling of annoyance with Catholicism during the months that followed the Congress. It came, of course, from Protestants and unbelievers, but agnostics in the United States have no systematic hostility toward Catholicism such as they have in Europe. Often they are even favorable. They prefer it to Protestantism and try to use it against Protestantism. Eventually they will allow Catholicism to make use of them. As a matter of fact, Protestantism as an official religion (and that is what it almost is), a religion organized to watch over individual morals and to make its way into politics, annoys and wearies them.

Catholicism in the United States seems to attract a good many original and vigorous spirits, eager for absolute truth. While Protestantism is frittering away its strength, Catholicism seems to grow more solid and strong. Thanks to this respect, and to the sympathy and the curiosity which so many unbelievers, Jews, and Protestants feel toward Catholicism, it is winning the attention of youth, in whom one finds a kind of fervor mounting. Will this tendency achieve its goal, or shall we see it stopped short?

This is a stirring and critical moment for American Catholicism. If these select individuals come into the fold, that will be an enormous enlargement of its activity and its domain. If they remain aloof or drop away, all it can hope for is to retain its present position. As a matter of fact, looking at the situation from the human standpoint, one would hardly expect the conversion of the mass of the people if the educated, the intellectuals, the scholars, and the artists, do not lead the way.

At present, when the United States is undergoing the most serious moral crisis in its history and when Protestantism is showing itself powerless to inspire or to dominate, will Catholicism win the leaders to itself? Will the moral reorganization of the country centre around Catholicism?

One may hope so, but there is no use in minimizing the obstacles. In spite of the high regard it enjoys, American Catholicism is not without its enemies and critics. It is especially reproached for having too many material interests, for knowing

too well how to get hold of money wherever it is. In his recent sensational address on the relations between religion and the state, apropos of the Smith candidacy, Father Duffy with humorous frankness uttered this sentence, which made a good many of his hearers jump: 'All Catholics know that the Catholic pulpit is given over to the two great themes of religion and finance.' Father Duffy explained that he was simply referring to the financial support necessary for good works and missions. But the place held by 'drives,' which are a kind of organized collection by intense propaganda, and by offerings, picnics, dances, all for the purpose of maintenance and for meeting expenses of services and charity is so great in the religious life of American Catholicism that Catholics coming from Europe find it hard to accommodate themselves, while American agnostics are amused and often indignant.

Side by side with this criticism one finds another. Agnostics or Protestants say of American Catholicism: 'It is nothing but an Irish church. Most of the priests are born in Ireland and have kept the Irish spirit. Any Catholic who is not an Irishman feels himself out of place among them. It is all the more difficult, therefore, for us Protestants to get along with them.' These accusations, no matter whether they are unjust or much exaggerated, keep coming up in conversation and there are certain facts which give them an appearance of truth. American Catholicism has not yet succeeded in suppressing all the conflicts and difficulties among the faithful of different nationalities. In the cities where there are German, French-Canadian, Irish, or Polish Catholics, it is not unusual to see four churches, one German, one Canadian, one Polish, one Irish.

These racial and political problems are closely related. The words Catholic and Irish are synonymous in American domestic politics, and the reputation of Irish politicians is in general none too good, at least among Protestants and Republicans. Even if this is not justified, the profound disgust which politics inspires in the better elements of the American population and the frank disgust of the intellectuals toward democratic principles make it desirable that the churches should hold themselves above politics of every kind.

D

EPARTMENT stores owe their existence to the growth of great cities,

the development of urban traction, and the unprecedented modern rise in real estate values. The pioneer establishments of this kind in England were started some forty years ago by the Army and Navy and the Civil Servants Coöperatives. Soon private firms entered the field, however, and they speedily outstripped the Coöperative Stores with their more limited clientele.

In the United States, which gave the cue to England in this method of merchandising, conditions have favored concentrating all the business of a firm in a single vast establishment; but in Great Britain branch stores are the rule. The largest English firms at present are Selfridge and Company, founded by an American, with twenty-one great shops, including the two Whitely Stores which were absorbed early last year, and having an annual turnover of seventy-five million dollars; Harrod's Stores, capitalized at over thirty million dollars, with two affiliated establishments and doing an annual business of forty million dollars; the Barker Company, with annual sales of between thirty-two and thirty-three million dollars; the three Lewisson Stores in Liverpool with an annual business of twenty-five million dollars; Debernon's, slightly under this figure; and Gamage's with yearly sales of seven or eight millions. Altogether this group of shops take in from their customers annually the equivalent in sterling of a quarter of a billion dollars.

five to twenty-seven per cent. in Berlin. While the great department stores of the United States figure on about four per cent. net profit upon their turnover and some of the largest German shops upon still less, the big English houses expect to make six per cent. The proprietors make no secret of their huge earnings, which are employed largely in extending their business. Selfridge and Company mentioned in their report for 1926 twelve branches then in operation, and others soon to be established. At present they have nineteen branches actually doing business. Their head establishment in Oxford Street, which was founded only eighteen years ago, employs forty-three

recently prevailed. On the other hand, they are constantly extending their activities into new lines of trade, such as the sale of groceries and provisions, which Selfridge's took up as a special branch last year under the name of John Quality, Ltd.

W

ITHIN the past fifteen

years English department stores have gone heavily into instalment selling, a technique long well-known in the United States. Remarkably low interest is charged on unpaid balances. You can, for instance, get three years' credit in the big London shops for three and one-third per cent. per annum. Some articles, like pianos, are sold on deferred payments for only two and onehalf per cent. interest. Naturally this encourages instalment buying, which is steadily increasing. In the case of some shops it already constitutes from three to four per cent. of the total business; in one of them it is eight and one-half per cent.

Small shopkeepers in Great Britain are putting up a sturdy fight against their gigantic rivals. Chain stores are extending rapidly, especially in the men's furnishings and ladies' garment business. Last of all, the coöperatives command a great share of the working class trade; in fact they constitute in the aggregate by far the largest merchandising organization in the country, with some ten thousand shops scattered all over the Kingdom and an annual turnover of nearly a billion dollars. They likewise have gone extensively into instalment selling. Moreover, their larger city shops have grown into what are virtually

in department store development, but France excels both countries. About one-fourth of the sales of the great Paris shops, however, represent what would be called in America mail order business. On the other hand, the British stores carry a better quality of merchandise than those of either France or Germany. Their selling costs are also higher, or about thirty-three per cent. of their receipts, as compared with from twenty

number between two and three hundred thousand. Including its branches, this firm makes between forty and fifty firm makes between forty and fifty million sales a year, or about one for every inhabitant of the United Kingdom.

British department stores, like those of Germany, do not manufacture, finding it cheaper to buy their merchandise from others than to make it themselves. This is particularly true in periods of uncertainty and depression such as have

pool is imposing.

The Coöperative Wholesalers in Manchester have perhaps the biggest wholesale establishment in the world, occupying seven city blocks, several of which are covered by elaborate buildings. One six story building is devoted entirely to the display of samples and to the offices of the purchasing agents of the thirteen hundred retail societies which compose its membership.