The Alaska daily empire., 1914-02-12
CATHOLIC CHURCH
 AND THE TANGO

ing that Pope Plus X, the head of the Catholic church, afterviewing the tan 70, pronounced it a very uninteresting and dull performanceb and said it would be severe punishment to con demn sinners to dance 1t and forthwith cancelled his edict against 1t.
 Permit me to say for the cause of truth and also to show that the Pope does not stultify himself and the Cath ollie church by one day pronouncing m edict against the tango and the next cancelling 1t that this telegraphic dis patch referred to was issued to the world by the Associated Press and or iginated in Paris. This story was published to the world on January 2S and on account of it's publicity, the Vat ican authorities have denied it indig' nantly and asked that tho same pub licity be given the denial.
 Sins of Society.
 For the sake of cleanliness it may be stated that this condemnation of the tango was promulgated by a letter written by Cardinal Basil Pompili, Vi- car.General of Rome, to which letter Pope Plus x gave his full approval The letter denounced also, the new organism that is threatening to over whelm us and reproved the sins that are creeping into our civilization. The Cardinal urges the clergy to warn people of the grave offense of partic- ipating in amusements that tend to corrupt our standards of morals and gravely outrage modesy. The Cardi' nal Archbishop of Paris condemns the tango as indecent and offensive to nor a,s and in which Catholics may not in conscience take part. Cardinal O. Cornell of Boston states that in the play. the magazine, the ball room there is evidence of an ever.increasing dis regard of even the rudiments of com mon decency of dress, of department of conversation, and of conduct. HeI said in one of his late sermoins; Lit tie by little the bars have been low cred, letting out the few influences which held society in restraint and letting in a very flood of folly, of in- satiate greed for amusement of any and every kind, until what few years ago would make a decent woman blush to see in others has become so com mon that even decent women now ac- cept as a matter of fact for themselves and their daughters. We need be neither prude nor Puritan to see and to realize that something is passing in the heart and the mind of the wo- men today which is leaving them hard and unwomanly, and that year by year this transformation goes on until, if it continues, there will be neither home nor family, nor normal womanly nature left"
 Bishop schrembs, of Toledo, says in answer to an inquiry from the New York Times: 'Tn answer to your re- cent communication permit me to say that the amusements of people are' in a measure, a reflex of its morality There is a wave of sensualism sweep ing over the land today, and on its crest it has carried with it the sug- gestive fashions of dress and the nau- seating revels and dances of the brothel dress and dance under such conditions are destroying the very sense of womanly reserve and decency. They were born of the sensualism of the brothel, and they quite naturally beget sensualism in return"
 Other Religions Demand Purity.
 It may not be out of place to show that 1t is the earnest effort of those who have the good of our people at heart and who desire to see the purity and modesty of our women preserved, that others have endorsed the stand the Catholic church has taken. Rabbi Wise in Carnegie hall launched phil ippic against this kind of dances and published in the New York Tribune: "My objection to so.called modern dancing arises out of the belief shared by many that it is only phase of the widespread social deteriora- ton which we see about us. Nothing could be more serious to Q democracy than that general lowering of stand ards. that widespread debasement of tone. the evidence of which are many and multiplying. One is nauseated. by the spectacle of women walking in sug- gestive and vulgar fashion. There is much about the manner and the mfat- ter of woman.hood today that suggests a lowered attitude toward life. Some women look as if they would copy the fashion of the creatures of the harem, save the lack the modesty of the wo- men of the harem to be seen in East ern lands. The theatre but reflects the atmosphere of our day, some of it fine and of high purpose, but more of it pandering to tastes diseased and de- cadent. No sane man would belittle the joys of life nor cloud the bright ness of llfe's sweet and wholesome pleasures. But that is not joy nor gladness which, in the guise of mod. ern dancing, can be had only at the cost of life's finest and tenderest sane titles. Nearly all men and women were shocked when these wretched dances were perpetrated for the first