Judge — August 21, 1926 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JUD GE Editor, Norman Anthony. South of the Rio Grande E ARE inclined to sympathize with both sides to the religious controversy in Mexico. The Government there is treating the Church with a harshness and tyranny which seem wholly uncalled for under the provisions of the Mexican Constitution. On the other hand it is only fair to consider the provocation. The Church in Mexico has occupied from the beginning an entrenched position from which in the past it has acquired vast property, dicated to rulers and even helped to foment revolutions. A wholly benevolent institution to begin with, it traveled the well-worn road from benevo- lence to power to abuse, so familiar to every student of human history. So now, if the measures against it seem confiscatory and excessive—well, one should remember our own Volstead law. s~ ee we ut, above all, one should remember that the row is Mexico’s, not ours. Co-religionists in this country™ are at liberty to sympathize with their unhappy brethren across the border. We would even suggest that they bootleg to them, if possible, the consolations of which they may be deprived. There is ample international prec- edent for such a course. But we decidedly deprecate the announced efforts of Catholics to force the United States Government to take a hand. Already one or more denominations have succeeded in dictating what we shall drink, and, in spots, what we shall teach in our public schools. They are attempting to dictate how we shall occupy our leisure on Sundays and what we shall read and see on week days. We sincerely doubt, therefore; if the American people are in a mood to see still an- other horn in and dictate our foreign policy. If Judge Talley and the other men behind this movement wish to retain and cement the good will of Americans in general toward their Church they will desist from this course. And if Al Smith has any desire to run for President in 1928, he will use his influence to call them off. We speak as sympathetic friends. Ci od od EANWHILE we have received a communication from Hap Haller, of Big Creek, Cal., our favorite Klans- man. Hap writes as follows: “Editor Jupce: I have just received a letter from a friend in New York City. He tells about a bunch of foreigners in red automobiles, wearing red hats, red robes, parading down the main thoroughfare of New York City. He saw the Papal Legate in this procession, riding in a red car, said car displaying a flag—not the Stars and Associate Editors, William Morris Houghton, William Edgar Fisher, Phil Kosa. Dramatic Editor, George Jean Nathan Stripes—but the yellow colors of the Pope of Rome. How can such an insult to my country be tolerated, and why wasn't the Stars and Stripes shown in this parade? There is only one answer, take our next door neighbor, Mexico. She has stood their rotten, underhanded methods too long, and now she has enough, and is sending them home. I do hope we can do the same, and save this country of ours from these wafer goofs. We hope we have set down the final epithet correctly —Hap’s handwriting at this point seemed a little obscure. What a “wafer goof” is you are at liberty to guess, but we welcome it as a specimen of the sacred language bandied among kleagles and kligraphs at klaverns and klonventions. eF AA HAS E are afraid, however, that our valued correspondent and his friends have missed the lesson for them of the situation in Mexico. That lesson is this: No ecclesias- tical establishment or agency can permanently dictate to a people of spirit through political channels. Sooner or later the resentment aroused by the exercise of political power, whether on the part of priests or of evangelists, culminates in a revolt that is not concerned with modera- tion. The Anti-Saloon League, the Ku Klux Klan, the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals, the Lord’s Day Alliance and affiliated bodies could learn a great deal for their own good simply by look- ing across our Southern border. They could, that is if they were properly equipped. Not a Love Game ow that Mary Pickford is in comparative eclipse, + Suzanne Lenglen is probably the best known woman in the world. The fact that for the present, at least, no cinema actress can compete with her for the limelight is an indication of the enormous popular interest in tennis, developed in the last few years, and also of the lady’s value as measured in gate receipts. It is not at all sur- prising therefore, that she should have decided to turn professional and share in these gate receipts. Bill Tilden, on the other hand, has taken this occasion to reiterate his intention to retain his amateur standing. Logic, it seems to us, is with Suzanne rather than with Bill. Amateur standing in such cases is largely a fiction. Both have made a business of tennis. Both have capital- ized their skill at the game and the popularity it has brought them. The one now proposes to do this directly; the other still prefers the indirect method. But some one should warn Suzanne that in the hard boiled professional world convenient illnesses and attacks of temperament are often costly. W.M. H. comicbooks.com