Thirteen persons wounded, two fatally, and worse trouble averted only by martial law—not in a Russian pogrom, not in a Mexican revolution, not in a Chinese tong war, but in Niles, Ohio, in a battle between the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the Flaming Circle! The Ku Klux Klan we know as the most outrageous, sinister and ridiculous manifestation of ignorant bigotry, and of shameless violation of American principles, ever revealed—but who are the Knights of the Flaming Circle? The creation of a profiteer in prejudice? Or the spontaneous work of ignorant and violent men enraged by the arrogant cltmor of the Klan—violence clinching with violence, lawlessness opposing lawlessness, the depths upsurging against the depths of anarchy? We know not, but we do know that unless politicians, high and low, cease once and for all pandering and truciding to the Klan, or any other group of anarchic men, and as their first duty stand for and support loyally the fundamental law and authority of the government, and the right of free men to live in this republic peacefully no matter what their religious beliefs or their racial origin may be—Niles, Ohio, will be only one of many places to be stained with a disgrace that threatens the fair fame of the nation.
But encouraging signs indicate that the Klan wave is receding. By a vote of two to one (according to the early returns) the voters of Michigan have defeated the stupid effort of the Ku Klux Klan to outlaw private and parochial schools. The bigots tried to ef fect their purpose by tampering with the State Constitution—the favorite method of fanatics in both national and local affairs. Mrs. FERGUSON won against the bedsheet patrioteers in Texas. WILLIAM ALLEN Wnrrt lost in Kansas, but the courageous highspirited campaign of the Emporia editor, thoroughly American, in the best tradition of true politics (which is for the common weal rather than for individual or party profits) was worth a score of merely partisan victories. All the bigots of the country would have rejoiced (burning thousands of crosses, double ones among them) had Governor Smith has been defeated— his victory is a blow to bigotry, quite apart from other considerations. All in all, the K. K. K. doesn't seem to have amounted to much, in really vital matters, in this election. The selection of a few politicians to office does not really matter, practically, though it is a sad thing to see Americans voting for the creatures of a sinister secret society.
AGREEING whole-heartedly with certain New York newspapers in their opinion that the dolorous Mr. EARL CARROLL, who chose to go to jail instead of accepting bail when a judge held him for trial on the charge of exhibiting indecent pictures at his theatre door, was only seeking free publicity instead of "martyrdom" for Art (O, poor Art!), we wonder why some of these very papers exploit pictorial and textual sexuality so persistently. So many daily news. papers pursue a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde policy—— preaching righteousness in editorial columns, and aploiting salaciousness in news columns and Sunday supplements and advertising sections—that perhaps it is invidious to name the particular offenders we have in mind.
Let us turn to The New York HERALD-TRIBUNE, on a different matter. (The curiosities of journalism are endless.) Sunday, November 2, The HERALD-TRIBUNE published a despatch (apparently a despatch) under a two-column heading, no date, place given as Quito, Ecuador, correspondent's name not given, nor any trace of the source of the article. It begins dogmatically—"Religious conditions in South America are similar to those of the Middle Ages. [Glorious news, if true, though we suspect the writer implies something entirely different.) One can find in all parts an unbelief and absolute indifference to spiritual things among both men and women that is hard to believe or realize until one has traveled through these countries and has seen the conditions. The rest of the article is more specific; but after the sweeping generalizations of the prelude, we wonder how far the reporting of the details are to be trusted, or even respected. "Religious conditions in South America"—not Chili, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, or any particular country or city, but all of that huge contInent, disposed of in one statcmcnt. "In all parts"—unbelief and absolute indifference. Why should not The HERALD-TRIBUNE give authority for this summary treatment of a whole continent's religion, of which really competent obscrvers have given such a different view? Where did the article come from? Its own correspondent? A news agency? A missionary socIety? It's all very curious.
IN another page of the same issue of The HERALDTUBUNE that contained this singular treatment of South American religion is to be found a book rcvicw taking Don MANUEL UGARTE severely to task because this gentleman in a book entitled El Destino de Continente (Madrid: Editorial Mundo Latina) accuses the United States of imperialistic designs on its southern neighbors and of a general unfriendliness, calling, in Don MANUEL UGARTE'S opinion, "or unified resIstance on the part of the Latin American countries. Don MANuEl. UGARTE'S propaganda against the United States, it may be remarked, while having much to justify it in our ominous behavior in Haiti, Santo Domingo, Nicaragua and clsewhcrc, in the maladroit conduct of all too many American business houses, of sinailtown official representatives of our crude Jingoes, and of superficial travclcrs and sensation mongering authors, is really unfounded in fact. If our South American friends came more often to visit the United States, to travel and study here, instead of making our land the mere steppine stone for a trip to Paris, they would soon learn that we have too large and difficult a problem in Americanizing the foreigners already within our frontiers, to make anything like an imperialIstic program involving South America not only a scheme undesirable but actually intolerable to the truly North American mind. Because of this fact, Don MANUEL UGARTE'S fears arc baseless.
JUST the same, when South Americans find that their noble cities—Quito, the most Catholic of them all, Bogori, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chilc, and so forth, arc lumped with primitive jungle villages, and that millions of people ranging from the most cultured of individuals to the savages of the upper Amazon, arc described as being devoid of all religion—who can wonder that there is a Don MANUEL UGARTE to voice their just resentment?
If there is need for South Americans to visit us, study, observe, learn our national character by direct contact, far more need is there for our writers (and editors!) travelers, and sensible business men, to visit the nations of the South and learn. something of the high culture, thc rich heritage and the present vigorous condition of art, and the great natural wealth and opportunities of our neighbors, which should invite not to covetous exploitation but to fair and friendly commercial cooperation. In these matters we should set an example.
MR. STUART P. SHERMAN, reviewing ANATOLE FRANCE, writes as follows: "Sometimes I am convinced—almost convinced— that nothing can 'finally resist the full seduction of the rising tde of pagan hedonism but the Petrine Rock. The Church of Rome and its champions still stand fast in their ancient faith. And they arc pretty nearly the only powers which oppose to the point of view of ANATOLE FRANCE a definite point of view of their own. In France, Christian idealism has long been accustomed to formidable adversaries; its apologies are not, as generally with us, defenseless babes, going down helpless and specchlcss before the spears and banners of an overwhelmingly superior enemy. They study the invader: see him as Achilles, and find his heel; see him as Goliath, and plant their white pebbles between his eyes. The most searching criticism of ANATOLE FRANCE which has yet appeared, the best informed, the most appreciative and at the same time the most destructive, comes from French Catholic writers, whom English popularizers plunder without acknowledgment, bearing to the English public the honcy of their appreciation and leaving the sting of their criticism behind." American, English, Italian, French, Irish, Canadian, South American, German, Austrian, Spanish, Dutch, Belgian, Polish, Scandinavian, Hungarian and Bohemian writers who have the Faith in common will write for THE COMMONWEAL. They will "oppose to the point of view of ANATOLE FRANCE, a definite point of view of their own." The Petrine Rock is that force which will "resist the full seduction of pagan Hedonism." Upon that Rock Tim COMMONWEAL stands.
FROM dawn until noon, from the hundred thousand cburches and chapels of Christendom, the Mass bells rang on the Feast of All Souls. On this day and on Christmas only, may the priest ccicbrat~ the Holy Sacrifice three times. Three times, for the birth of God. Three times, for the souls of dead men and women. YcIlow and black and white are the hues of the altar, the vestments, the candle flames. The millions of worshippers offer up their prayers, their Communions, their love and sorrow, their tears also, as the incense smoke arises, as the blessed water is sprinkled. Their hearts remember and their souls go forth in service to those others, the "poor souls"— to use the bcaudful Catholic colloquia!hm. They remember the dead. But more, they know that the dead still live. No hopeless sorrow theirs, still less, no grotesque commerce with necromancers in the sordid purlicus of Spiritualism. Noble music eriwraps their prayers with majesty. Rcquicm aeternam doria cis, Domine. Et lux pcrpetua luceat cis.
