GOOD LUCK!
New York, N. Y.
TO the Editors: Here's all good luck for the new COMMONWEAL, and you may be assured of the continuance of my interest in it.
I should be glad to continue my advisory activity by being one of your contributing editors. Owing to prior commitments I shall not be able to give much time to THE COMMONWEAL, but you may be assured that I shall be glad to do anything that I can. With all good wishes,
JAMES J. WALSH.
New York, N. Y.
TO the Editors: In this morning's paper, I have just read with the keenest pleasure your statement amplifying the news contained in the "Week by Week" note of your issue of April 1.
I am inexpressibly glad to know that Michael Williams will continue active work with you and contribute a weekly column of his own. No matter how much other work he may be planning, in writing and lecturing, it would have been a calamity to have lost the contagion of his zeal in your pages. I worked by his side for two years while THE COMMONWEAL was first being planned—from 1922 to 1924—and I know, as perhaps few others could know, the measure of his courage, tenacity and crusading energy. In the fourteen years since the first issue went to press, no one else could have done quite what he did in matching zeal with sanity and in bringing passionate conviction within serene perspective.
But this continuity of Michael Williams's work is not my only reason for being pleased. There is also the continuity of the work of the two new editors-in-chief, Mr. Burnham and Mr. Skillin. Neither of them, of course, knew personally all of that first exuberant staff of 1924—Thomas Walsh, Harry Stuart, Helen Walker and the others, whose editorial gatherings were memorable sessions of wit and words and unending good fun. But they are so able, personally, and have been active in THE COMMONWEAL'S affairs for so many years that they know intimately its strong points and its weaknesses, its unavoidable limitations and its full opportunities. Mr. Williams must be quite as happy as I am to know that this new financial and editorial direction will bring with it all this important tradition and background. My sincerest congratulations and good wishes!
R. DANA SKINNER.
New York, N. Y.
TO the Editors: As a member of the former Editorial Council of THE COMMONWEAL I have followed with great interest the news of the changes in its owner-ship and management. It is only natural in view of our former association that I should have a deep appreciation of the work which Mr. Williams has done in building up THE COMMON-WEAL as an intelligent organ of Catholic opinion. I am delighted that he is to continue his interest and his contributions under the new management. I sincerely hope that the new and more ambitious COMMONWEAL will have every success, and that it will continue the best in Catholic thought in everything that affects present-day affairs.
JOHN J. BURNS.
St. Meinrad, Ind.
TO the Editors: I have read just recently of the reorganization of THE COMMONWEAL. . . . Of course, to COMMONWEAL readers, Michael Williams has been the pervading and guiding spirit always of this magazine. In fact, his association with this magazine has not only gained for him the very highest esteem of both Catholics and non-Catholics, but has also won for the publication itself the greatest respect. I sincerely hope that he will continue to have much to do with it—I can hardly conceive of it without his guidance, at least in large measure. Yours for great success,
VINCENT D. OSBORNE.
Minerva, N. Y.
TO the Editors: If THE COMMONWEAL maintains its fifteen-year record for another fifteen years it will deserve handsomely of its country.
ELLA FRANCES LYNCH.
THOMISM CONTRA COMMUNISM
Havre Boucher, Nova Scotia.
TO the Editors: The intellectuals who tend toward Communism have begun to think. This is one of the conditions of a Christian resurgence. For the study of man in relation to social forms and formulae should lead to the study of man himself, to a knowledge of integral man, to the man that has been unacknowledged in the forms of materialistic capitalism. The great exponent of integral man is Saint Thomas. To meet the modern hunger to know man, there ought to be, on the street, 35-cent editions of the "Summa Theologica" in English.
GEORGE BOYLE,
Editor, The Extension Bulletin.
