USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 5 > Part 43
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Parochial schools provide instruction for the children of both American and foreign parents; and naturally the children learn to speak English much sooner than their parents. Hence with the younger generation the dissolving of the barriers of race and language is much more rapid than with those of mature years who are fixed in their habits.
Massachusetts is divided into three dioceses: the Arch- diocese of Boston, of which Archbishop Williams and Cardi- nal O'Connell have been the prelates; the Diocese of Spring- field, of which the bishops in this period have been Dr. P. T. O'Reilly, Dr. T. D. Beavan, and Dr. T. M. O'Leary; and the more recently founded Diocese of Fall River (1904), over which Bishop Stang and Bishop Feehan have presided. Monsignor Cassidy has been a great power for good in Fall River. Archbishop Williams is gratefully and lovingly re- membered by a multitude within and without his communion in Boston. His death in 1907 was sincerely mourned by all the people. Archbishop O'Connell, who succeeded him, be- came a cardinal in 1911, and his Protestant friends, rejoicing with him in his honour, helped him largely in the restoration of his titular church in Rome, San Clemente, perhaps the most interesting of all the Roman churches.
Cardinal O'Connell is an able administrator, and about one hundred new churches, schools, convents, monasteries, hospi- tals, asylums, colleges, and academies are the visible evidence of the progress which his Church has made under his adminis- tration.
The style of architecture of Catholic churches has markedly improved. Such churches as St. Paul's in Cambridge and St. Catherine's in Somerville are noble examples of the Byzantine architecture, with their bell towers and their mosaics. Most conspicuous of all this material growth is Boston College. Formerly in cramped quarters on Harrison Avenue in Boston, it now has a very beautiful group of Gothic buildings on the high ground overlooking the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. The last building to be completed is the library, a stately hall open to all people who care to use it. The lofty reading-room has windows telling the story of arts and letters, with figures of philosophers, scientists, and poets.
The large theological school, now at Weston, is ultimately
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THE JEWS
to be moved to Boston College and will be joined to the other institutions which are gradually surrounding this noble group : the Convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Passionist Mon- astery, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, and the Cardinal's own pala- tial home.
Boston College, a Catholic institution not to be confused with Boston University carried on by Methodists, is an in- stitution of general culture, and not exclusively for the prepa- ration of men looking forward to the priesthood. It numbers about twelve hundred students, with forty instructors, about half of them Jesuit priests, and the others laymen. The col- lege is the monument of the loyalty and devotion of an earnest people. A separate account of the Roman Catholic Church will appear in a later chapter.
THE JEWS
In 1899 about 20,000 Jews lived in the Commonwealth. In 1929 there are 225,000, 80,000 of whom are in Boston. Synagogues of beauty and dignity are rising here and there for the worship of Jehovah, and able rabbis minister to the people. The chief rabbi of Massachusetts is Dr. Harry Levi, of Temple Israel in Boston. Under his guidance a truly mag- nificent temple is rising on the Fenway, which will be one of the outstanding religious institutions of the city. He stands forth as one of the leaders of righteousness in Boston. His predecessors, Dr. Charles Fleischer and Dr. Solomon Schind- ler, were also figures in civic life as well as able rabbis.
There are thirty Jewish congregations in the State, and among the eminent leaders are Rabbis Rubenovitz, Abrams, Birnbaum, Epstein, and Wolk. The Federated Jewish Chari- ties, organized fifteen years ago, includes twenty organiza- tions. Efficient work is done by Jewish women in over thirty philanthropic associations. The Hebrew Teachers' College is authorized to give university degrees.
A large number of Jewish laymen have won the gratitude of Massachusetts, only a few of whom may be mentioned in this brief account: Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Hecht; Justice Bran- deis, of the Supreme Court; A. C. Ratshesky, president of the United States Trust Company; Dr. Rosenau, of the Har-
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vard Medical School; Professor Felix Frankfurter, of the Harvard Law School; Professor Paul Sachs, of the Depart- ment of Fine Arts at Harvard; Mary Antin, author of The Promised Land; Felix Vorenberg, Adolph Ehrlich, and the brothers Lincoln Filene and Edward Filene, distinguished business men. This ancient race has demonstrated in Massa- chusetts its deep interest in the things of the spirit.
THE RELIGIOUS TREND
In this survey of religious forces since 1889, a few general -. izations suggest themselves. A growing tendency is observ- able towards a centralized government in the various com- munions of the Church. Even those groups which hitherto have been purely congregational in their polity have now their general conventions and their permanent presiding officers, with direction over wide areas. A rapid increase of executive secretaries furnishes the machinery for organizing and direct- ing the numerous agencies within their communions on behalf of religious education, social service, and finance. Nearly every organization within the Church now has its careful annual budget; and each, spurred on by the example of the enormous sums raised during the World War, undertakes ambitious programmes for the future.
During the World War the religious forces of the Common- wealth aided the government in fortifying the courage and sacrifice of the soldiers and their families, and in doing the utmost possible to cleanse the minds of the people from hate and revenge. The government of the nation turned to the pastors of New England, as to the religious leaders through- out the country, inviting their aid in the raising of the huge Liberty Loans for the support of the Allied cause. This recognition of the influence of the Church was eloquent testi- mony that in a crisis the power of the Church is as great as at any time in the past.
Since the war the forces of religion have been more and more determined that there shall not be another war, if the teaching of reason and love can prevail. While others have spoken of the crime of destroying humanity and property, the leaders of the Church have spoken of the sin of impa-
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CHURCH UNITY
tience, of refusing to take counsel, and of allowing bitterness, unforgiveness, and hate to spring up in the human heart.
Though not altogether agreed, the forces of religion are evidently strongly on the side of the enforcement of the Prohibition Amendment. Having had experience with the tragedy coming to individuals and families through intemper- ance, the Church knows that any national plan which would minimize the danger of drunkenness, and wasted and ruined lives, ought to have not only respect but active support. The leaders of industrial efficiency know that prohibition has helped the prosperity and happiness of the country, so that the problem of the Eighteenth Amendment is largely passing from a religious phase into an economic phase. Meantime, the Church is reinforcing the consciences of loyal citizens in the conviction that it is a moral duty to obey the laws of the land whether they seem to the individual convenient or not. It is hard to see why the law-breaker should be punished in one case, and excused in another; with practical consistency the organized forces of religion have stood fast by law and order.
CHURCH UNITY
Church unity has been discussed earnestly in the last forty years in Massachusetts. In a number of small communities union churches have been established, which take into their membership various groups of Protestant Christians, though not all. Generally the head of these union churches is a Con- gregational minister-and this quite naturally, since Congre- gationalism was first in the field, with the coming of the Pilgrims and Puritans. The State Federation of Churches, and the federations in Boston and other large cities, have united Christian forces for charitable and civic service, to the great advantage of their neighbourhoods. In Boston, under the leadership of the Rev. G. L. Paine, daily services have been held during Lent in Keith's Theatre with addresses by preachers of all denominations. The radio has been used to spread wholesome and loving teaching; and earnest people have discovered how much truth there is in organizations quite different from their own.
All these efforts at unity are seen, sooner or later, to be
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only partial, subject to fluctuations, and bringing a desire for a more thorough unity. Many leaders of the Church in Massachusetts were present at the Conference on Faith and Order at Lausanne, Switzerland, in the summer of 1927; and these leaders are pressing upon the responsible bodies in their respective communions the duty of finding a way to a genuine unity. The timid are fearful lest their especial traditions be ignored : the more daring are willing to yield to the guid- ance of God's Spirit and to find in Him a way to be one in Him with one another.
MYSTICISM
Finally, the last generation in Massachusetts has witnessed a growth in mysticism. The mystic cults of Eastern nations have found in the Commonwealth, especially in Boston, rapt disciples. Quakerism, fading as a separate organization, has permeated, with its serenity and its consciousness of the Divine Presence, the lives of many people in all religious bodies. Books like those of Miss Evelyn Underhill, of Dr. Rufus Jones, and of the Rev. E. Stanley Jones have eager readers in Massachusetts. The deeper currents of religious life are always hard to define, but it is safe to say that, through devious turns and windings, through a vast variety of worship and of ceremonial, from elaboration to bare simplicity, the people of Massachusetts in the last forty years have been seeking a closer fellowship with God; and a multitude have found in Him the way to joy and peace.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
ADDISON, DANIEL DULANY .- The Episcopalians (N. Y., Baker & Taylor, 1904).
ALLEN, ALEXANDER VIETS GRISWOLD .- Life and Letters of Phillips Brooks (2 vols., N. Y., Dutton, 1900).
ANTIN, MARY .- The Promised Land (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1912). BACON, LEONARD WOOLSEY .- The Congregationalists (N. Y., Baker & Taylor, 1904).
Christian Leader (Boston, 1898 and later years)-Published weekly by the Universalist churches. Vols. I-XXVIII (1898-1925) appeared under the title The Universalist Leader.
Christian Register (Boston, 1821 and later)-Published weekly by the Universalist Churches.
CHRISTMAS, EARL .- The House of Goodwill; a Story of Morgan Memorial (Boston, Morgan Memorial Press, 1924).
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARK, FRANCIS EDWARD .- Christian Endeavor in all Lands; a Record of Twenty-five Years Progress (Philadelphia, 1900).
Congregationalist (Boston, 1816 and later years)-Published weekly by the Congregational churches. Vols. I-LII appeared under the name Boston Recorder.
COOK, GEORGE WILLIAM .- Unitarianism in America (Boston, Amer. Uni- tarian Association, 1902).
DOGGETT, LAWRENCE LOCKE .- History of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation (N. Y., Association Press, 1922).
Ecclesiastical Review (N. Y., 1889 and later years)-A monthly publica- tion for the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. Vols. I-XXXIV (1889-1906) appeared under the title American Ecclesiastical Review. EDDY, MARY BAKER .- Retrospection and Introspection (Boston, Stewart, 1915).
EDDY, MARY BAKER .- Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures (Boston, Stewart, many editions)-The Christian Science textbook and official exposition of the creed.
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- "The Religion of the Future" (CHARLES WIL- LIAM ELIOT, Charles W. Eliot, the Man and his Beliefs, 2 vols., N. Y., Harper, 1926)-See Vol. II, pp. 576-603.
ELIOT, CHARLES WILLIAM .- "Theological Education at Harvard between 1816 and 1916" (Addresses Delivered at the Observance of the 100th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Harvard Divinity School, October 5, 1916, Cambridge, Harvard Univ., 1917)-See pp. 32-68.
ELIOT, SAMUEL ATKINS .- Heralds of a Liberal Faith (3 vols., Boston, Am. Unitarian Association, 1910).
EMERTON, EPHRAIM .- Unitarian Thought (Boston, Beacon Press, 1925).
ERB, FRANK OTIS .- The Development of the Young People's Movement (Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1917).
FROTHINGHAM, PAUL REVERE .- All These (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Univ. Press, 1927).
GORDON, GEORGE ANGIER .- My Education and my Religion; an Autobiog- raphy (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1925).
GROSE, HOWARD BENJAMIN .- George Edwin Horr, a Biographical Memoir (Privately printed, N, Y., 1928).
Handbook of the Churches: a Survey of the Churches in Action (N. Y., Stohlmann, 1927 and later years)-This as a continuation of the Year Book of the Churches (1917-1926), cataloguing church organi- zations, officials, and activities.
HODGES, Mrs. JULIA (SHELLEY) .- Georges Hodges; a Biography (N. Y., Century, 1926).
LAWRENCE, WILLIAM .- Memories of a Happy Life (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1926).
MCINTYRE, WILLARD EZRA .- Baptist Authors; a Manual of Bibliography, 1500-1914 (Montreal, Industrial and Educational Press, 1914).
Methodist Review (N. Y., 1818 and later years)-Published bi-monthly by the Methodist-Episcopal Church. The early volumes appeared under the titles Methodist Magazine (1818-1840), Methodist Quarterly Review (1841-1884).
New-Church Review (Boston, 1894 and later years)-Published quarterly by the Massachusetts New Church Union. Supersedes The New Jerusalem Magazine (Vols. I-XLIV, 1827-1893).
PEABODY, FRANCIS GREENWOOD .- The Church of the Spirit, a Brief Survey of the Spiritual Tradition in Christianity (N. Y., Macmillan, 1925).
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PEABODY, FRANCIS GREENWOOD .- Reminiscences of Present-Day Saints (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1927).
Presbyterian Magazine (N. Y., 1899 and later years)-Published monthly by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Vols. I-XXIV appeared under the title The Assembly Herald; Vols. XXV- XXVII, (1919-1921), New Era Magazine.
The Religious History of New England (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Univ. Press, 1917)-King's Chapel lectures by J. W. Platner and others.
SILVER, EDNAH C .- Sketches of the New Church in America (Boston, New Church Union, 1928) .- See chap. vii concerning Thomas Worcester, who founded the Boston church in 1818.
SLATTERY, CHARLES LEWIS .- Alexander Viets Griswold Allen, 1843-1908 (N. Y., Longmans, Green, 1911).
STRICKLAND, FRANCIS LORETTE .- Psychology of Religious Experience; Studies in the Psychological Interpretation of Religious Faith (N. Y., Abingdon Press, 1924).
TUCKER, WILLIAM JEWETT .- My Generation; an Autobiographical Inter- pretation (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1919).
VEDDER, HENRY CLAY .- The Baptists (N. Y., Baker & Taylor, 1903) . Watchman-Examiner, a National Baptist Paper (N. Y., 1819 and later years)-The name has varied from time to time.
WENDTE, CHARLES WILLIAM .- The Wider Fellowship (2 vols., Beacon Press, 1927).
CHAPTER XVI
PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS (1889-1929)
BY WILLIS J. ABBOT Members of the Christian Science Monitor Editorial Board
TURN OF THE TIDE
The last decade of the nineteenth century marked the begin- ning of the decadence of Boston as the literary "hub of the universe." The genial poet who had first applied that phrase to the Massachusetts town was himself at the end of his creative years. In his poem, "The Iron Gate," Oliver Wen- dell Holmes had written in 1889:
"Time claims his tribute; silence now is golden, Let me not vex the too long-suffering lyre ; Though to your love untiring still beholden, The curfew tells me-cover up the fire."
Shadows were falling over the poets, essayists and philo- sophers of the New England school. Emerson was gone; Longfellow and Whittier as well, while Lowell, Norton, Al- drich and others were nearing the end of their creative years. And with the waning of the forces that had kept Massachu- setts in the very front of the intellectual life of the nation there began the gradual loss of that primacy. It was not perhaps that magazines perished or moved away; that pub- lishing houses grew fewer in number, or newspapers aban- doned their dignity and sank to the level of the gutter snipes. Indeed the twentieth century saw the old publishing houses still operating, and new ones of standing established. If some magazines had disappeared, others had taken on higher qualities of literary excellence and an enhanced prosperity. The newspapers of the State, it is true, had lost something of their earlier quality, but, after all, had only followed the tone of the press of the nation. The Springfield Republican per- haps no longer maintained the primacy among provincial journals of opinion, but at least no other paper of like charac-
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PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
ter had arisen elsewhere to challenge from a country town the dominating influence of the metropolitan press. Perhaps a certain light is thrown on the course of American intel- lectual development in the fact that while the third quarter of the nineteenth century saw Samuel Bowles, of the Springfield Republican, the most powerful journalistic influence outside of New York, the fourth quarter saw the rise to that eminence of a newspaper editor in Emporia, Kansas-one William Allen White.
When the North American Review was boxed up and taken to New York to busy a succession of editors, none of whom remotely resembled the Boston Brahmin type, the eclipse of the literary luminaries of Massachusetts seemed to be complete. And yet, if we examine carefully the field that remained, and evaluate justly the literary crops it has since raised, we shall conclude that lack of conservation can- not be charged against the state. Its one failure has been to progress as rapidly as the great literary and journalistic field of the metropolis itself. It has not failed to hold its own, although possibly, like the man in the Scriptures who buried his one talent, it has failed to add adequately to its possessions.
THE SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN
A survey of the press and publications of Massachusetts during the last forty years may well begin with some con- sideration of the principal newspapers. Consideration of the newspaper press of Massachusetts turns largely upon the daily newspapers of Boston. Outside that metropolis of the state only one newspaper has challenged attention in any national degree. The Springfield Republican in 1889 was perhaps at its zenith as a great and influential organ of public opinion. Published in what was still a small city, this newspaper by the sheer intellectual force of its successive owners, Samuel Bowles I, II, and III, challenged the attention of the nation. It was the first daily paper established in the State outside of Boston; and in the last quarter of the nineteenth century it enjoyed a reputation and an influence excelled by no paper in New England. Its office was a training school for journal- ists who went thence to the successful practice of their profes- sion in wider fields.
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THE BOSTON TRANSCRIPT
THE BOSTON TRANSCRIPT
Perhaps of all the Boston papers, that which has most suc- cessfully resisted the modern tendency to slovenliness in English and sensationalism in method is the Boston Tran- script. Perhaps, too, the journalist who finds in material profit, and above all in huge circulations, the evidence of pro- fessional success will think this record of dignity more than offset by the fact that the Transcript has the smallest circula- tion of any paper in Boston; 35,391 daily, and 55,885 Satur- day. Notwithstanding this fact, it enjoys great financial prosperity and an influence far in excess of what its circula- tion would seem to justify. Like the Springfield Republican, which it resembles in other particulars, the Transcript has always been owned by one family-its control at present being vested in the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who founded it in 1830. Such a record tends to conservatism in editorial tone and in business methods; and we find the Transcript, in an era when newspapers are erecting palatial buildings, still housed in the building opposite the Old South Church, which it put up immediately after the great fire in 1872. Since 1881 it has had but five editors-Edward H. Clement, who retired in 1906; Robert Lincoln O'Brien, who served briefly, going to the achievement of notable success as editor of the Boston Herald; Frank B. Tracy; James T. Wil- liams, succeeded by Henry T. Claus, the present incumbent.
It would be difficult to ascribe to the Transcript any very notable achievement in journalism other than the most ad- mirable one under existing conditions of maintaining a high standard of journalistic decency and literary excellence. It has not felt the need of leading forlorn hopes, but has fol- lowed with docility the political and social opinions of that comfortable, if limited, class of Boston Brahmins to which it makes especial appeal. In its treatment of books, art, educa- tion, music and society it leaves nothing to be desired. No space seems too great to devote to these topics, which in the ordinary daily newspapers are dismissed with grudging at- tention. If on the political and social problems of the day its policy seems conservative to the point of reaction, it is probably just the policy which suits its limited but prosper- ous clientele.
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PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
THE ADVERTISER, AMERICAN, AND POST
With the exception of the Christian Science Monitor, all the Boston newspapers have a long historic background. Some of them in these later days resemble their earlier qualities so little that it might seem fairer to class them as wholly new. The Advertiser, for example, in its palmy days the most schol- arly of Boston newspapers, enlisting the editorial labors of Edward Everett Hale and his colleagues, has become, under the ownership of William Randolph Hearst, a tabloid picture paper with all that the term implies during the week, and a typical "yellow" on Sunday. The American, an evening daily, is also a Hearst paper, presenting at times that curious con- trast between a progressive and even enlightened editorial policy on social and political questions, and a sensational and debased manner of dealing with the news, which seems to characterize papers under that ownership. Achieving a large circulation, it stands today the exact antithesis of its early character.
In the forty years with which we have to deal, three Boston papers have changed materially, winning great financial suc- cess but, in the eyes of idealists at least, sacrificing many ancient qualities of excellence. The Post, once a liberal and independent morning paper of somewhat elevated editorial tone and a tendency to contemplate public affairs from a pinnacle of virtue, passed into the hands of Edward A. Grozier, who proceeded to make it a paper of the type perfected by the late Joseph Pulitzer. Enormously successful financially, it has sacrificed, in common with many of its fellows, the quali- ties which once made Boston newspapers at once respectable and unprosperous.
THE GLOBE AND HERALD
The Globe, too, raised to prosperity and eminence by Gen- eral Charles H. Taylor, based its ascent upon similar policies. It was the first considerable Massachusetts paper to exploit crime and to utilize glaring headlines. From the first it was "racy of the soil," local before anything else. General Taylor frankly declared it his ideal in the early days that every reader of the Globe should find his name in the paper at least
THE BOSTON HERALD-TRAVELER BUTIDINGE
Drawing by Henry Bailey Alden, Architect
Courtesy of the Herald-Traveler
THE BOSTON HERALD-TRAVELER BUILDING
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THE NEWSPAPER REVOLUTION
once a year. That ideal is obviously impossible of attainment today with the Globe's circulation of 284,601 daily. But the policy is manifested in the printing of interminable lists of social affairs and news from suburban towns. "Main Street" is stamped all over the paper, and the denizens of that hypo- thetical highway read and applaud the Globe in droves. Per- haps the serious feature of the paper most worthy of note is the leading editorial which appears always in the form of a letter signed "Uncle Dudley." Many individuals have from time to time contributed this feature, which seems to have been devised to relieve the editor of some portion of the re- sponsibility attaching to the authorship of a leading editorial. The plan is not without value in giving a certain freedom of style to the writers.
The Boston Herald, after weathering a long series of vicis- situdes despite capable editorship, seems now fairly anchored in the haven of financial prosperity and editorial stability. It has back of it a history of more than eighty years of influence and good repute. Its editor during the latter years of the nineteenth century, John Holmes, was a man of intellectual attainments, courage and political integrity-qualities which at times were obscured by the devices employed by a com- mercial ownership to meet financial exigencies. Under the later editorship of Robert Lincoln O'Brien, the Herald had attained first place in intellectual quality among Boston's morning newspapers, although not first in point of circulation. Its editorial page challenges comparison with that of any news- paper in the United States in point of sanity, variety and interest of topics, and felicity of expression. In 1912 the Herald purchased the Traveller, an evening paper of historic standing in Boston. Conducted under the same management, the two papers offer an attractive proposition to advertisers and have been built into one of the strongest newspaper prop- erties in Massachusetts.
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