Page:The New Yorker 0002, 1925-02-28.pdf/6

4 Boomerang A Slogan Haunts the Bishop necessary to speak somewhat sharply at times to certain brethren of the cloth—for their own good, of course.

{{di}B}}ISHOP MANNING issued a nice, vague invi. Meantime, Messrs. Tamblyn & Brown go about tation, such as heads of households must for- their business with a fine efficiency. Daily they issue news stories with a punch-tales of the widow's mite in on us any time; we shall always be glad" invita- and of the orphan's dime—all the sweet sob stuff. tions. He said, in appealing for funds for the building This may not be dignified, but there is no denying of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, that the edi- that the seven millions it has produced are imposing, fice would be "A House of Prayer for All Peoples." especially when they do not include the Rev. Dr. And now the phrase is being taken literally. Peo- Guthrie's five pre-dated checks. ple are prepared to accept the invitation in droves. Drive committees are functioning-committees for This is very disturbing to a quiet and conservative Protestants, committees for Catholics, trades commit- household, long accustomed to more formal social tees, and committees for the professions. usages. But the Tamblyn & Brown slogan stands, to the dis- John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was the first to indicate comfiture of the Right Reverend Bishop: that he deemed the Bishop's invitation a definite re- "A House of Prayer for All People." quest. He gave $500,000 to the building fund and The old dispute between Fundamentalists and Mod- suggested that the Board of Trustees for St. John's, ernists has forsaken the theological battleground for exclusively Episcopal, should include a few laymen the time and wages about hospitality. The conserva- of other Protestant denominations. tives arch eyebrows at the thought that such a vague The Bishop took the money and murmured, in some sentence should be construed so definitely. The lib. embarrassment, that the time was not yet ripe. erals comment acidly that either one speaks in good It was as though, having had the chance friend un- faith, or one does not. expectedly telephone you that he accepted your polite but extremely indefinite invitation, you were forced of the press with unperturbed kindness. Messrs. Tamblyn & Brown entertain the gentlemen by circumstance and the frowns of your severest critic Will Rogers said lately this nation couldn't go to to mumble an apologetic something about the painters war because it didn't have a slogan. The Protestant being in, or the servants having gone, or sorry, but- Episcopal diocese of New York is better equipped. Worst of all, what you hoped was a purely private It has had a slogan thrust upon it.-J. M. conversation became public gossip, because the re- jected guest told everyone you knew about it. The story of the Bishop's embarrassed evasion was not given to the press by Messrs. Tamblyn & Brown, The “World” Is With Us publicity directors for the Cathedral Fund, but by the efficient Ivy Lee, whose deft hand controls the public As these lines are written, District Attorney Banton relations of the Rockefeller family, the Standard Oil is involved in the study of thirteen plays that have Company of New York, the Interborough Rapid been pointed out to him by police officials as dirty and Transit Company and Mr. Vincent Astor, calculated to ruin the morals of the community. The The above-mentioned Tamblyn & Brown may be glass is low and there are all the signs of an approach- blamed for issuing the original invitation, since one of ing censorship. And so, before it is too late, it would their bright young men devised the trouble-making be well to hang the grand cord of the order of Sucker phrase, "A House of Prayer for All People.” It has Grandissimus about the neck of the World, which proved an effective slogan, so effective that thus far will be entitled forevermore to point to the Democratic it has lured into the Cathedral coffers seven of the Convention of 1924 and to the Censorship Agitation fifteen millions needed. of 1925 as its two great contributions to the civic Since they were retained for the explicit purpose of life of New York during the second decade of the raising the money, Messrs. Tamblyn & Brown could Twentieth Century. not be expected to busy themselves with matters of About two weeks ago, a dirty little play called "A theology, or the problems of episcopal discipline. Good Bad Woman" was produced by William A. It is no great concern of theirs that the Right Rev- Brady at the Comedy Theatre, Its opening night erend Doctor may be worried by such organs as the audience in part laughed and in part slept at its labori- Churchman, which inquires plaintively just what "A ous obscenities. The play was well on its way to an House of Prayer for All People" might mean, and early grave. Whereupon the next day Miss Helen adds that if it means only that the doors of the Cathed- MacKellar, star of the play, let it be known that she ral are to be open to all for meditation, it marks no intended to give up her role because of its impure advance from existing conditions. Indeed, this re- nature. ligious journal throws off weekly hints of implied bad But too many people remembered in time that she faith. must have found out something of its nature during Even the clergy of the diocese are not above saying, the period of rehearsals for her protest to be quite both privately and publicly, that an invitation is an effective in a publicity way. (The final perfect com- invitation. Their natural reticences, if any, are over- ment on Miss MacKellar's statement is to be found in come by the remembrance that the Bishop has found it a news story in the Times, which reads: "Miss Mac- Digitized by Google