Putnam patriot., 1924-11-14
TO
 THE EDITOR
As 10 An~tole France

Pomfret. Conn, Nov. i2, 1924. Editor of Putnam Patriot:
 Dear Sir..-M. Anatole France. who recently went into eternity whin- ing "to his ma" as piteously as Cae- sar bleated for help In mid Fiber. has been acclaimed both great and divine by almost every pen-pusher in Ameri- ca. When ! went to school and eol- lege. professors both believed and taught that time alone discovered lit- erary genius. and that q classic is a result of the witnessing and mellow ing Of centuries Tn this age of novel readers, every popular scribbler, es- peeially if he spears his per against Christ and Rome, has newspaper im- mortality immediately thrust upon him.
 Like all atheists. Anatole France lived and moved and had his being in negatives He razed all things patri- Otic and holy tO the ground. instead of building them to the stars. He had vicious pen. pointed against the heart ef his country and bitterly assailed the army of France. He eheaply sneered at Christ, and tried to laugh at Catholicism. 4 As someone has truly l pithilg put it he was "a great master of disintegration If these are indi- cations of literary genius and signs of personal immortality, then Homer and Virgil, as well as Dante and Shakes peare. have written in vain. and the authors Of the best sellers are assured of a place in the Pantheon.
 The truth about Anatoie France has -upeared, however and not only looks like an oasis, but feels like cool breath breezing in summer. lt comes. too. from the pen CT Mr Sherman of the New York Herald-Tribune, who. as far as know, is not q Catholic. Mayhap MT sherman has been asso- ciated for years with the Paris office of the Herald: incidentally knows a little French; has perhaps read Ana tole France in the veruacular; and in- cideutally has reflected saRely and saDely on French history. The fol- lowing excerpt looks like the cool re- i fiection of a real statesman, rather than the literary masinR Of mere i journalist, and shows too. that he has read history quite as intelligently as 1 Mr. Gladstone who also incidentally i believed neither nation noY individual can slap the Catholic Church, in Rome tor Paris, with impunity. The last sentence. which daringly exposes the unjust methods of English popularlz- CTS, may be news to some, but holds no surprise for Catholics who have grown more or less accustomed to even liter ary intolerance. prejudice, and injus- tiee:
 Sometimes l am convinced almost convinced that nothing can finally re- HaaE hss FHHll sHs..a g tide of pagan hedonism but the Pet
 rine Rock The Church of Rome and it's champions still stand fast in their
 ancient faith; and they are pretty
 nearly the only powers which oppose
 Co the point of view of Anatole France n definite point of view of their own.
 In France, Christian idealism has long been accustomed to formidable adver-
 saries; it's apologists are not. as gen orally with US, defenseless babes, go- ing down helpless and speeches. be fore the spears and banners of an overwhelmingly superior enemy. They study the invader: see him as Achil- les, and find his heel; see him as Go- Hath, and plant their white pebbles be- tween his eyes. The most searching criticism of Anatole France which has yet appeared, the best informed the most appreeiative. and al the same time the most destructive. comes from
 French Catholic writers. whom Eng fish nopularizers plunder without ac- l knowledement. bearing to the English i public the honey of their appreciation. and leaving the sting of their criticism behind
 REV. GEORGE J. DONAHUE.