The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-04-04
Catholic Thought And Opinion
By REV. JOSEPH F. DONNELLY
QUADRUPLETS

QUADRUPLETS
It was a disgusting thing in al
most every detail. While with APP
parently great concern we emblazon
the problem of juvenile delinquency
in the press and mourn the loSsen-
ing of home ties, the same press
practically honize the characters of
this sordid story Of unfaithfulneSS
and illegitimacy.
And the faithful but unfortunate
wife at home seems to have become
the william in the piece because she
has that much respect for the mar
rage bond that she is opposed to
divorce.
RACE FEELING
Writing in his column, The Sun
Dial in the New York Sun, H. /.
Phillips has some good sense for
those warped minds who have begun
to find racial feeling lurking behind
every neighborhood tree. He says:
I'VE think Bishop Mcintyre is
right when he deploreS the play
ing up of minor incidents as proof
of growing racial hatred. Today a
few Irish, American or Italian boys
chase a Jewish boy a couple of
blocks, or vice versa, and it is played
up as a national menace. Some nit
wit Smears synagogue or a church
and you would think that one race
was rising against another
why, when we were kid back
home no serious attention was paid
to such things. We used to chase
Jake Shonbaun1 up trees weekly
and then, when we were off guard,
he would chase us up. But we grew
up to be lifelong pals And that's
the way it was over the land. The
racial feeling never mounted to
much anyway and it was the real
ization that it didn't that made this
country the tolerant good-natured
country that it is"
PRICED TOO HIGH
Conscientious citizens heartily en-
dorse Labor Commissioner Dana
hers fortnight objection to the
establishment of work camps for
youngsters who would work In the
tobacco fields Of Connecticut to re-
lieve the manpower shortage in that
industry. These conscientious citi-
zens have long been wondering, too,
If the children workers in America
today will not pay the greatest cost
of the war in loss Of education,
health and morals.
The emergency Spokes in the
wheel of industry are very fragile.
They have been taken from the
home, the classroom and the play
ground and they, the hope of the
nation, have been transplanted in
their tender years to the factory,
the restaurant, the bowling alley,
etc. In some places the transfer had
some semblance Of necessity, but
more often the finger of guilt can
be pointed at avaricious and neg
lectful parents who are denying their
children an unhampered educa-
ton and a normal childhood and
adolecence.
According to the U. s. Children's
Bureau 100000 children worked
last summer in factories, stores and
farms. The latest count for the
school year shows the enrolment Of
the high schools down 10 per cent
and 2,7O0,000 children between four
teen and seventeen years Of age
working. many Of them illegally.
Some have tried to carry the double
load of job and school but finally
dropped out Of school.
These conditions are to be de-
plored because it is the children of
today who will in great measure care
for the victory being bought so
dearly. But how poorly equipped
many will be. And how often stunted
In body, mind and soul. Our chill
dren are our most sacred trust. In
peacetime and in wartime no con-
siderations can morally crowd their
welfare out OF our hearts.