Religion

Like a snarling, wounded panther, outraged Catholic France crouched ready to spring upon its enemies. Indeed, its attitude was so menacing that it was difficult to see how pipe-puffing, anticlerical Premier Herriot could survive its pounce; and if he does, it can certainly be predicted that his way will be short and beset with thorns.

The trouble, which last week led to the initial stages of a religious war, started last year, when the Premier promised suppression of the French Embassy to the Vatican and enforcement of the laws relative to religious orders (TIME, May 19, Sept. 8) which were allowed to reenter France during and after the War. The Premier also promised to apply all the religious laws to Alsace and Lorraine which were to be enforced in France, despite earlier promises that the two Provinces would be permitted to enjoy the full religious freedom that they enjoyed under the Germans.

Alsace. Archbishop Ruch of Alsace ordered all schools in the Province to incept a three days' strike as a protest against the Government instituting interdenominational schools at Colmar. His Eminence also gave his approval to the demand of the Committee of Action for the Defense of Religious Liberty and Traditions in Alsace that all "Christian" (i.e., Catholic) parents observe the strike.

Premier Herriot countered by ordering the Prefects to remind parents that, in obeying the Catholic Archbishop, they would render themselves liable to legal prosecution by transgressing the law of 1871 which provides for fines and imprisonment for parents keeping their children away from school.

Cardinals. The eight Cardinals of France published a manifesto against what was called the injustice of the nondenominational laws (religion laws forbidding the teaching of the Roman Catholic religion in Schools). They also advised Catholics to emulate the Radicals who "march in a body to the doors of city halls, prefectures and ministries, send protests, delegations and ultimatums to the authorities, resort to all sorts of proceedings, even to strikes, and besiege and harry the Government, which almost always ends by giving, in to their urgings."

At Castres, near Toulouse in the South, Premier Herriot responded to the Cardinals in an excellent imitation of "Papa" Poincare's famed Sunday speeches. Stating that he had been described as "the ogre of sectarianism," he continued:

"What are my crimes and that of my Government? We are laymen and we are fighting for laicism, which is not an aggressive doctrine. We stand for freedom of conscience and we protest when in this 20th Century an attempt is made in the name of dogma to constrain conscience and when we are told, as our ancestors were told in the Middle Ages, that Science and Liberty are idols."