The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-09
Catholic Thought And Opinion
By REV. JOSEPH F. DoNNELLY

peoples today" the editor of AMER ICA lines up for inspection Ehls week specimens of the tributaries of
 that great current of anti-religlous and anti-Catholic thought and prac-
 tlce which Plus XII deplored. The editor takes the specimens from a few of the "better-class magazines" !" They are the poisonous drops which week by week, and month by month, fall many hundred-fold Into the current that sweeps through the world doing inestlmable harm to the cause of religion and the church.
 Tn the July September issues / of COSMOPOLITAN, the circulation of which is well over S,S0o,000, there is described in Rex Beach's "Sum- mer Madness, Q widow marrying Q boy twenty years her junior. She knows that the marriage won't last land when her boy hubby falls in love she is Q good sport and gener- ously gives him 6 divorce" Louis Bromfield in the same maga2ine writes of a woman who runs a house of ill-fame going to early Mass to pray" Again, Faith Baldwin glor- files the suicide of woman whose husband has asked her for c di- vorce.
 GOLFERS with almost 100000 circulation, on July 26th carried "the glorification of a strip-tease girl and her disrobing act" She Is described as leaving the third year ot 0 - parochial high school and overcoming her innate modesty' In order to help her family"
 MORE SAMPLES
 In HARPERS BAZAAR "A Bor. der Incident" by John Cheever- (July) with 207o00 readers, the au- thor goes out of his way to make the evil character of his story" c woman given the name Slattery, and out to be Q practicing Catholic who goes to Mass on Sunday" The story has her shining with a man merely to find out If he Is a Ger. man spy aS suspected by other boarders at a summer hotel.
 The READER'E DIGEST, the cir- culation of which Is over 4,000, ,000, In August carried the article Don't Have an Abortion" by Jane Ward. The article points out the dangers of quack aboTtionists but suggests aS the proper remedies better birth control and the legalization of abor- ton that the crime might be per- formed by trained surgeons.
 Drops In the stream indeesl And evil seeds that are bearing evil fruit, As the editor concludes: The ex- amples In the above report i've have quoted only . few) arc taken from the better.claSs magazines, and from but . few of these. The cumulative effect of such instances Is powerful One little drop of pa ganism or anti-ICatholicisFn may not do much harm. Many little drops united to form Q constant and rush. ing wreck dreadful havoc"
 SENATOR BURTON K. WHEELER
 The reviling of those leaders who oppose the foreign policy of the Ad- ministratlon, which they with rea- son claim is leading the nation to war, Is taking this tremendous is- sue out of the noble field of public discussion and placing It In the back yard of personalities. "Trea- son." "appeaser", and "copperhead" are the refuges of those whose argu- mentS have not strength to stand. Lamentable and too frequent the practice only adds to the confusion of American thought.
 Perhaps the biggest thorn in :he side of the Administration Is Sen. Ator Wheeler. Though labelled at first only with the scornful lap. peaser" by the pro-war members Of the Presidential Cabinet, during tho last two years he has been hit from every conceivable angle in Q con- certed effort to diScredit him. But the smear of the war cabinet has failed and when Secretary StiTnSon stopped very low for the word "trea- son" public opinion demanded tho grudging apology.
 Though all of Senator Wheeler's followers do not entirely agree with him, they do see him and follow him as one sincerely devoted to the American people out of war. To many millions of Americans his arguments make sense. With niIn many millions of Americans see no advantage to America in giving away millions of men and billions in wealth to establish a short peace or the ancient hatreds of Europe.
 During his many years in public life Senator Wheeler has never pull- ed his punches. He insists on keep ing no secrets from the American people and he had proved his worth long before the confusion of war and the birth of the new-day pa IA Anl.