TH• CATHOL·IC WORKER
Subscrlptionr Pn"ce I• Vol. XXXVI No. 7 SEPTEMBER, 1970 250 Per Year " -·------~~------~;;..;.~...;.;~----..:..------....;. The Farm Workers And The Church By PHILIP VERA CRUZ Before the grape strike started In back workers. They like drinking, card September, 1965, about 95 per cent of games, and cock!ights. All are broke. the Filipinos and Mexicans in the Once In a great while one might com Del an o area were Catholics. They plain. I tell him to like It or leave. would go, and still do, to St. Mary's But he has no money nor any other and Guadalupe Churches: each church place to stay. Nobody dares to open conveniently located for the growers his big mouth again." and the farm workers. "But it's against the law," objected a , The Slavonian, Italian, Irish, and more decent grower. "I don't want my other Catholic growers attend St. Mary's labor camp raided. Those boys worked Church to pray for more bountiful har hard- for their money. When caught vests and profits, for the expansion of they are jailed and fined. That's not their ranches. They believed God fa right." vored their prayers because In a few Irritated, a big rancher answered, short years many of these farmers be "The hell with the law! Those stupid came millionaires. Filipinos and Mexl fools don't know any better. But they cal}S also go to Mass at St. Mary's. have the right to use their money the Like other good Catholics, they go to way they want. Because they have no Church for moral and spiritual in thing, they work harder and stay long spiration. er on the job. They have no choice left. But it you make money in business, you Sr. Melnrad However, several foremen, contract ors, bar and cardroom operators dis are right; on the contrary, wrong. covered It was profitable to rub Worry about your business but not the shoulders with the power!ul people in workers. Justice ls the eternal hope of town. In fair weather, the growers · the wretched souls. It's just a beautl!ul sometimes discuss their labor problems dream that will never be realized." Bread Not Bombs outside the Church door. When a con Most of the farm workers went to Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of tractor stops by, the growers ask for Guadalupe Church. They were poor, hls expert advice on the quality of the but more sincere and honest in thelr the Bombing of Hiroshima labor supply. By instinct and experi religious belief. There was no thought ence he knows that some groups of of gaining any material advantage over By ARI SALANT workers yield more profit than other their fellowmen. The priest liked to see It ls easy for us as victors in the Sec gled into the bullding, whlcb was "pro workers when given board. them all in the Mass, but he was scared onAmericans those who did not take it seemed to be (wetbacks and green-carders) work The old man was retired not because in detenti9n camps, the refusal of the reflecting upon the offer. We were harder because they are afraid to be of his mistaken judgment but of hls United States and Britain to accept the quiet and serious and were taken ser ftred. They have no place to go and age. His successor, Bishop Manning, refugees fleeing from Nazi Germany iously even by those who did not agree nothing to eat." visited Delano with expressed "con are too easily forgotten by the Ameri with us. "That ls very true," a grower re cern" and therefore, "to listen to your can people and, In our forgetfulness, Our relations with the police who marked. "My boys are kind of mixed problems with the growers." Blshop we are only too ready to repeat such were guarding the entrance were at all up-I mean local, green-card, and wet- (Continued on page 7) actions. The present slaughter in times extremely friendly; we talked Southeast Asia is but small proof of with them about everything from base this. But the greatest horror intlicted ball to the Vietnamese War. One oftl by man upon man is stlll the atomic cer was standing against the wall on bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Monday, trying very hard to keep a The Children Come not merely because of the extent of the stony face, but Sanna, my wlte, kept destruction but betause the develop looking at him and smiling and tlnally The children have come from Phuong Boi ment and use of the atomic bomb re he too was smiling. We wanted to make The stone house is ready the Delaware presents the perversion of Western it clear that the police and the em River ftows by speckled with coins of ice civilization and knowledge in exactly ployers of the Selective Service and the the pumpkins have turned and been the same way as do the death camps A.E.C. were our brothers and not our cut Candles within show their mouth and their eyes of the Nazis. enemies, that our only enemy was war apples are russet for bobbing The tow-heads As an "act of repentance and rededi and the institutions that create war, are noisy at play The two darker ones sllent cation," as a nonviolent confrontation even on the two occasions when we and still Their more delicate hands are folded with the forces of violence, Tom Cor committed civil disobedience. nell o! the Catholic Peace Fellowship The tlrst action was on Monday The children have come from Phuong Bol called for a four-day "Live-out!" at after Monica Cornell and her children 201 Varick Street, the building which came down with macaroni salad and When they came from Suchow and Amoy houses the New York offices of the kool-aid for lunch. (It was beautiful it was summer Grain was tucked into Atomic Energy Commission and Local to see the small Cornell children carry sheaves We danced in the barn Fiddles squeaked Boards 1-4 of the Selective Service ing our signs: End the War, End the lanterns blackened their chimneys Hunt the sllp.per System. On Monday. August 3rd, Draft, Would Christ Carry a Draft came at the end and that ended with prizes shortly before 8 A.M., members of the Card?, Bread Not Bombs, and Nonvio Theirs had been stamped: Made Jn Japan They Catholic and Jewish Peace Fellowships, lence Works.) First, Bill Dorfer and stamped them into the ftoor then sat In silence the Catholic Worker, the War Resisters Steve Kurzyna from Merton-Buber The children have come from Phuong Boi League, and the Merton-Buber House House went up and asked to see their gathered at the corner of Varick Street representatives from Local Boards 1-4. Once they came to the house by the Wye to begin our silent vigil. From behind They were denied admittance and ar There was snow and their clothes were too the barricades we passed out leaflets rested, standing quietly in the doorway thin The bonfire lit up their thin cockney explaining our presence and offered while they waited for a police van to faces They shouted at sight of the Guy bread to everyone around: members of arrive. Five minutes later I went up to burning bright as a city Their country cousins the draft boards and the A.E.C., pas-· the entrance with Steve Pfeiffer from· made fun of their voices till the Guy sersby and messengers to the building, the C.W. and Jack Kershaw, a student went up in the sky in a tall flat-topped cloud the police who were, in reality, viglling at Cooper Union who was committing with us, and even F .B.I. agents. civil disoedience for the first time. The children have come from Phuong Bot The response we received was mixed Steve was our spokesman and kept re When they came from the towns in Japan but generally favorable. A few people peating, "I am not violating any laws; some gave money at sight of their skin called us "Commies" or traitors or I have a Ieral and a moral right to Never more ~ever more but now they've come draft-dodgers, but most people ac speak to my draft-board representa once again and two women for making a cepted our leaflets and read them. One tives." Nonetheless they read us the protest are locked in a cell They spend three woman who worked in the bulldlng riot act and called an officer to arrest nights with four other women all of them black took a leaflet from me, read It care us who took us to the van to join our who say they've got children themselves at home fully, walked down to the other end of brothers. the barricades and took a stack of leaf At the 4th Precinct they phote- let.I from Bob Olley .which she smug- -Vol. XXXVI No. 7 September, 1970 CATHOUC6!b RKER j__ 3_6_~,l!~!n!_ir_s_t, _ ___,, The summer- ls finally over, and I'm posterous. He said it would neve]) be, Published Monthly (Bi-monthly March-April, July-August, glad. The bot days of long August can and He said lt of on,r souls. October-November) now descend 1n the shorter, trfendlier We a.re protected by structure. It takes ORGAN OF THE CATHOLIC WORKER MOVEMENT spaces of autumn. The end of seasons so llttle. But the poor are ever vulner PETER MAURIN, l>'ounder cause me to muse. It's the inher.ent dy able. The endured, life-long hardship DOROTHY DAY, Editor and Publisher ings, the transitions I sµppose. For when of a woman and her invalid son, now MARTIN J. CORBIN, Managing Editor Associate Editc.rs: men. and seasons are in transvergence in middle age, is beyond our kiln. The CHARLES BUTIERWORTH, JACK COOK, RITA CORBIN !Art), NICOLE on First Street (that fS, always), mus nights of cold in an abandoneq house, d'ENTREMONT, EDGAR FORAND, ROBERT GILLIAM, JUDITH GREGORY, ings subtly and persistantly rush at us. the leaky plumbing of a dungeoned WILLIAM HORVATH, MARJORIE C. HUGHES, DAN KELLY, WALTER I do not pretend to really understand cellar are not the light we are used to. KERELL, PHIL MALONEY, KARL MEYER, DEANE MOWRER, HELEN C. all these movements, the solitary drift And neither ls our poverty the sus RILEY, PAT RUSK, ARTHUR SHEEHAN. ANNE TAILLEFER, EDWARD of leaves, feet, and souls. Su.ch under tained vigilance of the woman with TURNER, STANLEY YISHNEWSKI, JAMES E. WILSON, PAT JORDAN, EILEEN EGAN, MICHAEL- KRAFT, JOSEPH GERACI. standing is left to heaven alone. But only the park bench. Our poverty, so New subscri11tions and change of address: that they fall and dse must be recalled symbolic, is all the more ultimate be 36 East First St., New York, N. Y. 10003 and said again and again. This is life, cause unreallz-ed. It is our humiliation, Telephone 254 • 1640 the simplicity of stealing return. We our misunderstanding ot others, our Editorial communications to: Box 33, Tivoli, N. Y. 12583 must never forget lt. judgment because we took it to our Subscription United States. 2lic Yearly_ Canada and Foreign 30c Yearly_ Islands selves to judge them. Subscr ptlon rate of one cent per copy plus postage applies to bundles of one We live on an island-Manhattan, tb.e - ~ die~ llundred or more copies each month for one year to be directed to one address. Lower East Side, First St., the house, Life has given us a bedy: First st. h?s Reentered as second class matter August 10. 193g, at tbe Post Office ourselves. We are shadowed by heavy made us aware of flesh. Mike KovalJ:tk ot New York. N. Y., Under the A:ct ot March 3. 1879 clouds increasingly of man's creation. put lt tb.is W?.y: ma'l ml'"t, ~eep boc;lv Around us stand weak, spineless old and soul withi_n shouti.ng di<:tiance. Firf't buildings. One drowsy Saturday morn St,. ls on the ro:1d clo<:ei>t to the Hme pi . ing a speeding car on the neigb,borm_g HerQie SUI;ld this day to ses il'l. h's ho - boulevard tore l.nto a co:i:uer flat and pital beet Little L :rry sti1m'!>l s alo.,..~ ~ent the entire building (five floors 3."ld. criver~ with h'o"-4., r.rrr- ..,,.~d iJJ l\ PILGRIMAGE occupants) screaming to tl;le street. Tb-e daze- of wine. E'l.ch fcot ovi>r the other ON li; the uo11ud of .~n~...,t nai's to a bC''r. By DORO'fB"}I: DAY piercing cry of a woman's h.vsteria <"My God, call an ambuJ,ance, the builcting The street is t1111 of blood rrl flei>11. Australia The great. difference is in the empha collapsed!") tears into me still. Mai;y, has to tJp·n a m~'l :>,wa"· from the Dearest Deane, sis on the spiritual lite, the primacy ot A subway rumbles below this whole door because h!s r::-.ncid legs fill the p;r You would love it here, where I am the spiritual, Peter Maurin would call island. There is no place intended for w_ttb PTibe1i<>V!?0!0 r~Q"Jl>b, u,, ~T01l'd stay,1.ng up in "the bush," as they call it. The priest here is an old hand at roots. Noise becomes co11versatlo:o, and make tb.e wholP souuIJ:oe s'clr. 0 11r is- lt, though on every si.de there are tall this work. His two years (or more.) conversation sh£luting. On the Bowecy, 1~nds move wLtb, an um:emittlng carn trees o! every variety of eucalyptus, of being a hermit tan,ght him much. bodies line the filf;b_v pavement gs di - vaY;J,, aud when we J:>e:>r It:µi:>'l MikP·s and the hills are very steep indeed, He reminds me in a way of Fr. Roy. carded cartons of a littered society. breatJ;t no more, WP- ftn2lly have the with garden,s in every level place which He leads in all the manual Jaboi: and. Only the flowers of a neigh_b_prlng sUflhtest h1kllne; l'f what P~ m?ant, has had to be cleared. Doesn't that re· teaches others. He reminds me too of churchyard tell us there are other is "This L'! ~Y body for you." mind you ot our. little gardens at Tivoli, Peter Maurin and the way: he made lands. an old man in ragru!d clothes We need firP. aTJd resistance. \7e nerd those close to the hQuses? schedules for- himself, though he was approaches the church fence lined with them not to destroy but to purify, be It ls truly a farm.ing commune, St. always fl.exible. flowers. If one looks closely hP. wm see gi$iUg with ourselves. Generatiors m ~y Benedict's, where the initial group, but The day begins at six. As many as the man wiping eacb leaf cleQ.n. The wen say of tl;l.is peonle that if) d!<'d from not all the families, are Benedictine can, get to the cha1;1el to pai;ticipate in gift is oxygen-and life. auathy, from a lack cf fllJ;Y. It chunnf'd oblates, and I will give you the rule the Mass but first tbey say Matins and Our island is poor. It is punctured p) ssion as water does oil, they vr!ll s~l''. of life they follow. There is a priest Lauds. Breakfast later and this m.orn with unsurity and fear, mostly ou.r OWJ;l, it could Pot open its lungs enough to who was a hermit for two or more ing it was oatmeal with brown. sugar It begins in the dise::ise for power and the breath. We- must not oo"lfuse vir years, then was joined by two women and heavy cream, bread and cheese, ends in comuromise. And ln our soqls tue with bloodlessness as so many aPd who had received their training at the both made here, and fruit. The- oranges 1t can be laden with hypocrisy. After even we have done. Our lndignation at Grall al;ld know how to live anywhere, and apples of A_ustralia are delicious. all, what ls a soupline but a token, a peor housing, criminal mistreatment of in cellars or huts, in plenty, or in want. Then work building, 4.rming, garden m 0 re gestu~P. }f'. V,., miUW-P.S Of Warmth prisoners, cindery skies, maltreatment Literally they lived in.a hut here when ing, care of the animals. There is a may be timeless m the ti1ast, but the or the insane, war, ooverty, and death they began, not as big as my room at print shop and the posters which were blast remai,ns. To feed the yoor and must scorch our souls again and again the farm, room enough for -two beds made to advertise the talks ot Eileen wi,sh to forget that th.e poor will never if it is to re-::ich the heavens. And we at either side ot the room. A kitchen Egan and me were both beautifully be fl)led, will always be naked, ls pre- (Cpntinued on g~ge 4) s~ove warmed it. Fr. J'ohn Hefl'ey, the done. They looked like Eric Gill's work. priest-founder, ate With them and he Father .Tohn q_uoted to me the early had already started gardens, chickens title of Fr. Vincent. McNabb which. and a cow, and so could provide. the Peter Maurin had brought to m.e, Tivoli: a Farm With a View food. There is a chap~. just as big as Nazareth or Social Chaos. I tQld hinl ours, and a community house was built, that tbe hi{>pies who we.re taking to By D&ANE MAR¥ BD which now houses three women and a the communes in the. United st~tes. O.n. a cool afternoon !n e:u{y Septem here at the farm. Clarice Danielson, child, and guests, and there ls a proper seemed to recognize_ that even. if tbey be11, a light rain falls. ou.t of the w.ood.s treasurer o! Pax, who has been helping bath and showen and toilet inside. I had not heard of Fr. ViD" 0 nt McNabb, a jay shrieks, In t.riu.mQh, protest, or here at_ tbe farm durlng the past year, am on the upper fioor where there ls the Engllsh Dominican. I meant the sheer bi;av:i.d.o-who, ..knows? A wooq. did. most. of the pre-conference organ· a kltchen, community room, ·and ore farming communes or settlements, not pecker, UJJ_d._a_unted by rain. keeps to his bedroom, uninsulated, witl;I. two win izi,ng and acte.rrn under As foll the primacy et the spiritual Th.en- tb.e angry whine of an. elect.tic four blankets of Australian wool, and sett.,tn_g__ ut> beds, t:tc., C1arlce was ably (which Peter used to emphasize) saw pollutes th.e gentle music of the assisted by; a number of the young peo wearing a heavy bathrobe and bed al'JlDng those communes in the United rain., i:em,in.ctin_g_ me, that for some of socks to bed. After our heat wave in ple hei;e, with Dominick Falso pl8.ying States, there is an emphasis on study our cornmu.ni.ty,, winter warmth wlll not_ the leading role in Peter- Maurin House, the States, doesn't this sound refresh and meditation and there my be some be had without the work of ax and saw. ing? And does it not remind. you of wb.ere he- has established a new orax conference, was OJl hand again_, famllies living here-, study by corre Deserv Fathers closer, M;artin Buber spondence courses. Two other families others began the building of a chicken and was very helpful in chauffeuring the tales of the Hasidim, and was it house- and fencing tbe-- lot tor the chick guests fi:om. al;ld to- busses and trains. are preparing to come. There are three Suzuki the sa:v.1ngs of the Zen Masters? ens to ru_n in. The day of the- arrival As ~ways, good fresh vegetables from hundred acres and each family can -they have all done us a service. stake out five acres and come- weekends of the chickens was a happy one, and John Fillinger's garden were a great to build up their homes. Thei:e are Yes, there is great emphasis on the as some of us predicted, our own pul help- in prepa-ring food for the occasion. single men and women, willing or spiritual lrereabouts-Mass, the entire lets did begin laying shortly before th,e The- general topic for discussion. for unwilling celibates, I do not knnw. One oJUce, lives of tbe saints, a chapter Pax Conference- Now Ln early Septem the Pax weekend was THE NEW MAN. might say "intentional celibates." Each · from. tbe rules of ~t. Benedict, yes, and ber, thanks- to the good care of D:miel Friday nigb.t, Professor Wlliiam Evan, family supports itself by labnr in the the rosary. There is also a Gregorian and Sean, 01_1r young b.en,s are lay,il;J:g sociologist of the University of Penn community or outside, teaching-,_. car Mass in Latin once a week which will very satisfactorily. Although we are sylvania, spoke on IDE_NTLTY CRISIS pentry work, odd jobs. They each have certainly add a festive element to the not engaged in a commercLal venture, IN 1'l'HE MIDDLE EAST: Saturday cows, pigs, and when they kill a pig feast of the Assumption tomorrow. we are able to sav.e money on the eggs morning, Hbwatd Everngam ot the staff or a sheep they share with each other. One ot the girls here has a horse we u.se. As for taste, au of us_here a! of Pax, read the paper which had been The only electricity on the farm is here and a gig. The families have cars. the farm are agreed. I tbink, th.at our wcitterr for Pax by Erik Erikson, Prof"es in the community house; the others (Little Mark just brought us a lizard eggs taste betten than any we hav_.e sor of Human Development and lectur have Tilley lamps strong and bright, to admire wblcb, was running across bought. As for the hen~ they are er on._ P.SY.Chiatry at Hai:vard. Protessor which are carried to chapel or to the th living room. fi.oor.) Adele tells us of charm.ing-- creatures, gentle and soft to Erikson examined-- the American, scene barns. . They have made their own the brave- Spanish Benedictine who the tou.ch, maintaining through the and em.pbasized the need tor the Amer roads. There are about fifty living came to live with the aborigines and day a kind or clucking song, which; ican ma.n-tbat ls, all ot us--,..to under here. This is an inaccessible place, up ate their food which included snakes, though not thrush melody, Is pleastng go a transformation, a change not un ln the hills, and yet there a.re many lizatds and grubs. He, too, for love of to the ear, a plain, home-keeping; al shnllar to that inv.olved in the true visitors on weekends. Th~y have the them. ha_d tQ live o:(f, the ~nd. most music. Christian conversion. Saturday atter eame problems we do and we are very l have visited the Matt Taibot Hos The Pax Study Weekend, this summe11 noon Dr. John Egan, professor ot psy much at home with each other dis tels in Sidney, which are clean and es in. previous years, represented the chology at Iona.. College in New York, cussing the ' ntinued on page ·:>) high point of conference actlvlty held (Continued on.. page 8) TRE C:ATROL'IC W6BKE R POEM Italian Mike,, Goodbye By D: E. JIENDERSON The largest Chall" in the se-comi .floor ly percepUve, and t doubt if anyone paprer room Js con~icuously ·empty who ever borrowed money from him The wherewtthall of anniversaries when saint.s set up the keen these days. Many have, -settled into it was ever ·forgotten or was let to forget. bu.t hide their faces beneath a banshee shriek while hope -reluctantly but none has .filled it (nor The golden age of the Cathollc fetal.-curled dries up -and blows 1lway ever wlll) quite the wa:y Mike Sollitto Worker was; for 'Mike, the era ef did. 'McCormick and O'Neill. In these two I "Italian Mike" died ln the morning men he found his ideal Of what the In winter the stonn fence hours of August H . ·Next to Smokey Catholic Worker should be . . Wi'th them, 'Btraddles the beach, to contain it, Je>e he was the longest-i;tanding tim he wou1d say -again and again, no one the wind tlows and the sand ls swept clean, ber ln the paper's .Tank arid file work eter went' hungry or ate liver (Mike the water thr.ashes, ers. And so when Mike's shambled detested liver, would chant "Liver stay withdraws -to-show how scathed the pebbles .gllilten, -lungs -rose and fell for the last "'i;ime, away ftom my door" :whenever the _the sky Is. when he was seventy-·nve and there subject was .aired), and his wardrebe was no more going on, it was only pre .was fit for a dandy. Right. to the end catalogue each grain of sand dictable that , a vacnutn would sweep the 'O"Neill wedding was symbolic of file it in the sea - the room and the .chair where a wave what the good life must &e, .a se-a or look into the oyster shell of wit and the-wink of doings had18ill everything tasty . .But even -at that ·I then hold it up for me mated Mike Sollitto for so many long must confess I never -saw him hungry and faithful years. or threadbare: In fact, it was the rich In 'timely seasons when stones are scattered Mike was born in '95, the youngest cake donated to us during his last year or plants plucked from the earth, child of an immigrant -family. As the which probably "Sealed his fate. embracing the silence of vanity's J!Ubjection baby in an Italian clan, he was eared Mike had a ?ascinating way with we mournfully· dance; · - ·for with a special love accrued to the words. He could twist their meaning a.s with laughter, we dance, smeared with weeping youngest. Dul'ing his early years he easily as he could roll his large pro and hatred stained with love. transported coal and ice for his father's truding eyeballs. Once he responded to business. The long :flights of stairs, the talk of a rest home by remarking that Are the dunes then forever? heavy loads, -and the everlasing hours he didn't need to go to the rest T&olll. And what bf gulls? 'Jletted him 25c a weekend (or a In the slight of the phrase Mike!& "quatter" as he would say). More im earthiness could become almost Chau . II portantly and noticeably, they· armed_ cerlan, a fact which :made it uneasy I remember: him with broad shoulders and the little for some to be arouml. him but en that month, sirocco blown, we longed for misty cool deared him to most. but chose the beach! When Mike couldn't move he died. It was the long-flight of stairs to his Oh sweet water mountain streams that .rush bed on the fo.urth floor that came to for ultimately symbolize for him the strug I will behold thy heavens, 'the works of thy 1lngers: gle ·of existence. As his legs thickened the moon and the stars which thou hast founded. and his lungs bec,ame more clogged, it was the vision o! the stairway that that day, the swollen sea laboring under churlish skles, gradually dissipated all his remaining was falsely pained. · · strength. So when he went to the hos pital for the last time there was a Without a show the morning went sense of capitulation In his manner. He , but never again rallled with the stubborn what ls man that thou art mindful of hlm? ness that had seen him through so or the son of man that thou visitest him? many battles. It was time to •Test from the work of the stairs. that hour, the burning rain, induced from heaving clouds A big part of our lives ls gone, his had prematur-ely moaned. calclfled bumps that peaked at the end torically a Catholic Worker era. The of those shoulders to the last. simple but beautiful funeral Mass did (Swithin, is it forty days or forty years?) Mike was ever a worker, right up to not take away the final poverty of yet hJa final illness. HIB supper was always time. Mike died poor because he died thou hast made him a little less than angels well-earned. Records at the MUNI without family, a given and untouch thou hast crowned him with honor and glory ahow he was a gardener and farmer able locus of richness for an Italian. who seldom sought public assistance. Even to the end he never referred to and hast set him over the works of thy 'hand.I. He never married, and when his moth the Catholic Worker as his -people. It er died, a priest sent him to the Cath was indeed the "Catholic Workers" _who III ellc Worker. It was natural for him to .had been so good to him, but they were Each convoluted spiraling thing t-ake up work at Peter Maurin Farm, still somewhere out there. No one but the whelk and scallop too and Mike often recalled the labor he blood kin could fill that separation he I knew a chlld and once did there for Fr. Duffy. Later he came felt, so he died very much alone. That there were sea breezes. io the city. His trips with the baby was the ultimate helplessness of us carriage to fish market and baker be here, the realization of our isolation. Wild child~ mild, came somewhat legendary. It ls in this aloneness that Mike ls where do the sand palls grow? Mike was irresistible, even if his alone no longer. pugnacious stubborness could be over It is paradoxical that this wonderful In convent lofts and spires ring ). bearing at times. The neighbors loved man we loved and laughed with and the angelus, near true hlm. When he would sweep the walks considered "family," who knew nothing I saw a shell, first, and in front or the Worker house he would of the way of kings .and power, kllew there is pink coral! sweep theirs also. This roundness early nothing of notoriety and applause and -endeared him to the ,habitants, and died In seeming obscurity, Should be Snell -shell, well, they used to recruit hlm to do their known by the readers of the --Catbolie where do the sand crabs go? babysitting. Worker all over the world. He has There ls a story that Mike once touched you all probably more than (On. Monday, July 15, Eugene Richard Scott, age three, ttrowned? weeded right Into the vegetable plot you .had known. What else can be said at Peter Maurin Farm with no recog but that we were all blessed with the IV nition of his misplaced zeal. This would - broadness of his shoulders and the dig indicate some obtuseness, and In his nity of his person. We are saddenea In April the lulled sea later years he had dlf!lculty wtth al at his departure. nuzzles the shore, then covers it, -most everyone's name. But when it , Arrivederci, Mike! And peace. the wood drifts and th-e reed ls hushed llcy, came to other matters he was extreme- ?at Jordan the water cradles ' blue green beneath the boards, creosote smelling and t?-e sky Is always. Hope's Enterprise cultivate or le~ve alone put your hand in mine A letter from George Dennison poverlshed homes. A fourteen year old absalom nor absolute I'm sending this letter to friends and boy, and several ten-year-olds are un . temporal nor divine acquaintances, and to people I think able to read, though they are actually might take a special 1nterest in the of good intelligence. tn one short But many reasons that once had mattered activities it deseribes, which are those month, all of the children are respond no longer seem of so much worth of an unusual and wholly admirable ing (some few spectacularly) to their caressing the rhythm of sanity's projection 'neighborhood ass o c i a ti o n called sudden medication or common decency we scornfully glance; Cuando. and close relations with concerned with crooning advance, taut in keeping The members of this group-young adults. the cry today-mute madness. Puerto Itican men and women living in Since I seem to be talking about eight the East First Street area of Mafihat children, let me describe my own larger Is sleep then never? tan-have been working for two years interest in Cuando. I think others may And what of dreams? to improve the horrendous condition of share it. It's simply this: that in the the neighborhood, especially as it af context of Federal, State, and City v f-ects the young. They began modestly, administrations, this local, almost Now I never see the place in summer but now the logic of the mess has powerless organization is blazingly ra and masses of angels brought them to a number of projects tional and correct. J:t is correct to move lead him into paradise they can neither abandon nor-without humanly against dehumanization. It while kicking away castles help-fulfill. is correct to create havens of safety in The most important of these ls a an environment that is appalllngly would to God I might have full-fledged, non-tuition, libertarian unsafe. It is correct to band together as would to God that David could school (or tutorial cooperative), staffed and try to fill, directly, the ·. funda at present by two fuil-time teachers mental needs of communal life. ~d it ls forty years. and one assistant. Eight children at These act!ons, obviously, are re tend the school. . (There will soon be sponses to crisis. But they ·are'.more: c'aotnim. · - - · · more.) All are ,from broken and im- (Continued on page 8) THE CATHOLIC YOB.KE B. September, 1970 Starting A Farm Commitne By CHUCK SMim technological science which the agri we are in a county which has no Cath cultural industry has created. We are olic Church. This means a seventy-mlle At the time I became a serious read making It our way of life. Growing the round trip each Sunday. The main er of THE CATHOLIC WORKER, I was crops and keeping the livestock neces hardship all of this travel imposes ls attempting to make a contribution in sary to support ourselves demands in a very high gasoline expense. Our farm anBwering the problems of poverty in terest and constant work more than is- about one-half mile off a paved road, I west Virginia. Seeing how the coal and technical knowledge. If you are willing up a hollow so that we have privacy, chemical interests had made West Vir to spend the time and work on your peace and quiet. ginia a domestic colony for exploita garden and with your animals, you will The characteristics of the farm are tion, I rejected capitalism. Having receive a good return. Even building a more Important than its location. The worked for OEO for several years, I house and barn requires no more than most important considerations are land felt that big government, no matter an ax, a file, sufficient timber ~nd the and water. In a mountainous area a how good its intentions, cannot con will to do it. When North America was seventy-ac'e farm such as ours may cern itself with each individual's well settled by Europeans, they cleared the have less than ten acres of tillable being, so .I had no faith· in socialism. land, built their houses and grew their land. The rest of the land may be use Peter M'aurin's analysis of economics food using common sense. If these ful as pasture, or for the timber it _pro is an expression of the position I had th I n g s had required great technical duces. How much land you need de reached. He wrote tl).at, "The basis of knowledge this country would have pends on the size, or projected size, a Christian economy is genuine charity never been settled. If you accept the of your community. Remember, a well and voluntary poverty." These few voluntary poverty of the Gospel as a planned garden covering an acre can words summarized my thinking during way of life, then you will not find the grow a year's supply of vegetables for the years I had been working with poor demands of subsistance farming Insur more than six adults. •You will need people. But I still lacked a practical mountable. sufficient land for gardens, orchards program to put these thoughts into We are still looking for additional and berries, pastures and growing feed. effective action. Peter's three-point people to b~ome part of our commune plan of roundtable discussions, houses Water is just as important as land. and work with us to fulfill the ideals of Our farm has two deep wells and an of hospitality, and farming communes Peter Maurin. If you are interested, other nearby which we may use. There gave me the program I needed. and are willing to share in our poverty, is also a clear, unpolluted stream which The part of Peter's plan that seemed please write us. We also publish a runs through the farm except for a few most appropriate for me to take up newspaper, THE GREEN REVOLUTION, of the driest weeks of the summer. was establishing a farming commune. and would welcome many new sub Some of our friends have to haul water A large number of people who live in scriptions. It is published six times a during the summer when their well 11 Southern West Virginia have been year · and costs 50c. Our· address Is dry. This is a lot of trouble and can be passed by or disabled by the economic Catholic Worker Farm, Rt. 1 Box 308, come a big problem if you need large ~stem and are "maintained" by the west Hamlin, W.V., 25571. amounts of water· for livestock. welfare state. It seems to me that Starting Out farming communes are the answer to The fall Is the best time to start your The farm will need adequate housing the economic needs of some of these farm. This gives you t.Ime to get things for your community and, according to people. Communes offer an economi:: ready for spring. We started In late your farming needs; some other build _ solution which respects the dignity of winter and every day until we planted . ings. You can do your own building and the individual. our first seeds was used in getting if you have timber on your place this After reading the Easy Essays of ready. Our farm had been neglected won't be extremely expensive. Our farm Peter Maurin I planned to start a com for several years and it took weeks to had no house when we bought It and mune. Ten months later I bought a clear fields and build a place to keep the barn needed to be rebuilt. The farm and started farming, even though our tools. I spent three full days prun barn has been repaired and a tractor I had never spent a full day on a farm. ning apple trees. Reclaiming a field and tool shed built. We have been liv We made many mistakes and did some from several years growth of weeds and ing in a small log cabin at the edge of centrated on farming. The farm will things the hard way, but we started blackberries demands removing a per the farm. demand much of your time, and mis and now we have a productive farm sistant mat of roots and usually a num To start farming you will need tools, takes you make will require even more which is improving as we go along. If ber of large stones. Putting up new equipment and supplies. We did not time and work to correct. you are seriously interested in Peter buildings, and repairs on fences, wells realize the number of tools which it · We emphasize the farming aspect of Maurin'S green revolutl0n, don't be and buildings all take time, time you takes to keep a farm in order. We spent our community and try to make this overwhelmed with the problems of will have during the fall and winter a major part of our initial investment clear to those interested in joining us. starting a farming commune. We did but which must be spent in plowing in a new Gravely 7.5 horsepower gar Someday we may be able to start a 1t, and with determination and a will and planting in the spring. den tractor with rotary plow, cultivator house of hospitality or become deeply _ ingness to wqrk you can do It. When-choosing a farm it ls import .and trailer. A friend gave us a sickle involved in some other activity in one Visitors often ask us If we had any ant to avoid getting one which is Iso bar mower which attaches to the trac of the two nearby cities. · background in farmfng. They are usu lated. We chose a farm which Is thirty tor. This small tractor, which you walk Day to Day Farminc ally surprised to hear we started with to forty miles from our close friends, behind to operate, has proven to be Our neighbors have been one of our none at all. Farming for us is not the and this causes a lot of traveling. Also satisfactory. At present we are growing biggest assets. Most import an tJ y, on about. three acres and all of our neighbors offer you friendship and also ground preparation and cultivation has are your best source of information and been done with the tractor. Avoid buy advice. If the larger community is ing an inexpensive garden tractor or suspicioUB of you, good relationships 36 East First 'tiller which may not stand up under . with your neighbors can help overcome years of use. In order to change at (Continued from page 2) this feeling. tachments and maintain the tractor, The most important concern on a must overcome our fear, move our weak Ing was more keenly felt than ls usual you will need two or three wrenches subslstance farm is your gardens. flesh to finally stand on the line. Ca- ly perceived ; Janis Kuhry, Nicole, and and a grease gun. Even your first year you can grow a mus said It: "The grouping we need Janelle; always enlightening Mona Me You will also need gardening tools, major part of your food. You should is a grouping of men resolved to speak Cormick, now liv)ng at an Indian such as rakes, hoes, forks, spades and concentrate on basic foods which can out clearly and pay up personally." school; Luciano, the burly . Brazillian shovels. For clearing land you will need be preserved. We planted beans, po Smokey teaches that. He will go ahead - cook; steady Frank Donovan; Jo Ellen an ax, brushhook, sickle, and a tile to tatoes, corn, tomatoes, cucumber&. and to death at his own pace because a Holmes and all the others not recorded. keep them sharp. Dull tools can make onions in large quantities. Your neigh third beer to him is worth more inde- Speakers who carried us to many a job take much more time and effort bors can advise you on the best vari pendence than the fear of treading wor~ds this summer were Arthur Shaw, than necessary, and are dangerous. eties to plant, when to plant and how hearses. We must not be satisfied. We David Truong, Tom Cornell, Deni Co Some tools you will need only occasion to care for 11he crops. One of the great must make demands of ourselves again v~llo and the - S our "This is part of their lives and not an him: "My country is the world, to do own Twentieth Century, "the one man accidental end, but a fulfillment." good is my religion." revolution" gathers momentum and Ammon Hennacy's widow, Joan In spite of his hostility to the estab acquires a tone familiar to the older Thomas, who edited his book after his lished Church, Paine's definition· of re generation. But for the younger gen death, had asked him when he was ligious tradition is appealing to those eration the events and people of the writing it to include in it his own who seek its meaning today: "All re early nineteen hundreds, however "one-man" story. Ammon refused to ligions are in their nature mild and heroic, still belong to a saga which do so, but he is constantly present in benign and united with principles of has to be brought back to reality. the eighteen chapters of this work, morality. They could not have made Alexander Berkman is one of t he ·commenting on each pe.rson he is de proselytes at first by professing any "o n e - m an revolutionaries" about scribing. thing that was cruel, persecuting or ·whom the author can reminisce; they Some of his heroes lived in the immoral." Religions.. become "morose met in Atlanta prison, where they were Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, and intolerant" by their subservience both jailed as war protestors in 1917. while others were the author's con to the state, "a sort of mule animal, They worked In different shops, but temporaries. Some of them he knew capable only of destroying." when Ammon was in solitary confine personally as friend, co-protestor, fel Ammon notes that Paine's "Age of ment, his fellow-prisoner sent him low prisoner. But even when speaking Reason" is less attractive than his notes and candy bars. of the radicals of long ago, his stories other writings: "The dragons he is out Berkman, it will be recalled, was a have a distinctive tone. Though based to kill have been demolished long ago Russian anarchist who had been pre on a great deal of research and study, . . . today the tendency even among viously sentenced for an attempt to his portraits are not "stills," as some nominal Christians is to take some kill Henry Clay Frick, the Pittsburgh . more erudite and well-documented thing of the spirit and forget about the millionaire. He had spent fourteen writings are. Most official historians letter." And so he concludes "Paine was years in jail, and continued to agitate and biographers are bystanders, im not a religious man per se, yet he for anarchism after his release. partial or would-be impartial observ attacked the lrreligion of others." He When once more impris'lned In At ers, not Involved in any of their char was not an economist, nor was he a lanta, he rejoiced at the news of the acters' ideas or actions. politician, yet he foresaw what would Russian revolution. However, after be In the introduction Ammon shows us happen today in the United Nations ing deported to Russia in 1919, he his own involvement with his usual and the Common Market. And last, was disappointed to discover that un directness: he· is a pacifist, 11.n anar but not least: "He was able to say the der the Bolshevik regime anarchists chist, .a vegetarian, a non-church thing which aroused the people, and he were banned and their leader, Kropot Christian. As he points out, none of could not be silenced." kin, in disfavor, was living on the the people he describes held or still William Lloyd Garrison is another fringe of the new society. Berkman apples can be dried. It Ls much easier hold all these convictions, but only historic figure which Amman's book "argued with Lenin," but to no avail. to grow a year's su,pply or food than to some of them. brings closer to us, showing his link He left Russia with Emma Goldman, preserve it. Preserving food requires Looking at the first chapters of the with modern times, through Tolstoy to the anarchist, who had accomp.wied planning from the time you bury the book, relating to American history and Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Tol him on his journey to Russia. He may seeds and will keep you busy full time literature, the reader encounters con stoy said to his disciple, V. Tchertkov, be considered as one of the first pro when the vegetables are ready for siderable material familiar to him; but who wrote a biography of Garrison: testors from the radical left against harvest. he may ask himself: how often does "While ~reading Garrison's speeches the police-state against which young If you keep livestock you will want he associate the early American radi and articles . . . I found out that Soviet Intellectuals are struggling to to grow as much of their feed as pos cals with those who are struggling to the law of non-resistance - to day. sible. We grew an acre of corn for day for freedom and justice in our which I bad been inevitably The chapter devoted to Mother Dur animals. Next year we will grow modem society? To many rebels of brourht by the recognition of the Jones is warm and moving. Deeply in corn, oats and soybeans for feed. today in their quiet or unquiet protest, Christian teaching in its full volved in the early labor movement, at Animals make many demands on the as well as to their opponents in their meaning . . . was even as far back the age of fifty, · this extraordinary community. They keep somebody a.t repression and rhetoric, it seems that as the forties not .only recognized woman devoted all the rest of her Ufe, the farm every day. If your communi these dramatic conflicts have only just and proclaimed by Garrison . . • i.e. another fifty years, to the strug ty is small this can be very burden begun, whereas they are as old as but also placed by him at the gle, and died at the age of one hun some. We got three dairy goats about America. In reviving this historic past, foundation of his practical activity dred in 1930. "There is none you can a month after we started our farm. we bring back to llfe the prophets who in the emancipation of slaves." compare with Mother Jol\es," writes They require that someone be here foretold our present and sowed the And how "Tolstoyan," indeed, Is 'Gar the author, and elsewhere he says that twice a day to milk and feed them. seeds of our own renewal. rison's protest against all wars, offen her autobiography is "like a tonic If you decide to take on the respon It Is good therefore to see what Am sive or defensive, against appropria for a tired radical." Her obituary in I slblllty of animals, goats are ideal. They mon, himself "a prophet without hon tions by a legislative body for national the New York Times said that "this cost less than cows and require less or" (as Dorothy Day once said of him, defense, against military service, fiery agitator won the respect of Pres space, pasture and feed. Here in West Third Hour, issue VII), who lived against the holding of any position of idents." Virginia you can buy four or five ex among us and whom many of us knew, authority, against elections, lawsuits Albert Parsons ls next on Ammon's cellent dairy goats for the p:::ice of one has to say about these men so near and punishment by law. For, as Gar list. He was executed, with four other grade dairy cow. These goats will re to him' in spirit, If not In time. rison writes, "the penal law of the old inen in Chicago in 1887, having been quire about the same amount of feed Of John Woolman, who opens the covenant, an eye for an eye, and a unjustly sentenced for their alleged as one cow and just a little more hous One Man Revolution in America, Am tooth for a tooth, has been abrogated and never proven participation in the ing space and pasture. While each mon Hennacy writes that he "blazed by Jesus Christ." Haymarket bombing, which occurred goat gives less than a cow, you will the way for himself and for us in the Tolstoy expressed surprise at not at the meeting of the Centril Labor be able to afford more of them and will deep forest of tear, compromise and having known Garrison when, fifty Council aimed at the police that had !'et the same amount or more milk. greed, and above all, In that desire of 1ears after the latter's golden rule, he been called to disperse the crowd as If you need only a smalJ. ;:,mount of wanting to be with the winner which himself discovered it anew. But he sembled on behalf or the eight-hour milk, then one or two goats can supply is the modem curse . . . He shamed recognized his influence, as well as day. On the eve or the execution he you with over a gallon each day. If the wealthy Quakers Into freeing their hat of Thoreau and other representa refused a pardon, unless the other men there are children on the farm, goats slaves. He tired himself out walking .ives of American radicailsm. (Continued on page 7) can be an ideal responsibility for them. and riding in the wilderness." A friend The next one on Amman's list of ( Chickens and hogs require less at of the Negroes and the Indians, refus "one man revolutionaries" is precisely tention than dairy animals and can be ing to pay taxes tor war, advocating Henry Thoreau, whom he quotes as fed almost entirely with feed you grow. a simpler life, John Woolman was in .> aying: " If a man does not keep pace Both can usually be bought from your deed a precursor, and his words: "Is with his companions, perhaps it is be On Pilgrimage neighbors for less than market price. there any Christian way to treat a :::ause he hears a different drummer." (Continued from page 2) Your neighbors will also be able to slave execpt to set him !ree?" are a Though not appreciated for some furnish you with whatever Information key to his personality. Ammon read time by the public at large, Walden smell good. They are homelike even you may need on their care and butch Woolman's life by Janet Whitney while has become for many sensitive minds though they house six hundred men a ering. picketing the Atomic Energy Office in the symboi of spiritual freedom, of night and serve a thousand meals a All or your animals will need ade Washington in 1958. "I was pleased," civil disobedience and "the green revo day. How Orwell, who wrote Down and Quate shelter. Simple buildings will do 1e writes, "to learn of this early radi lution"; this awareness has grown, as Out in Paris and London, would have for chickens and hogs and can be built cal." Ammon -points out, all the world over. rejoiced at such hostels. He stressed - In one or two days. Dairy animals In portraying Jefferson, ,Ammon Here again, the author shows how them as Peter Maurin did. need relatively draft-free barns with a shows once more this early American a great man of another century can There is something which ls more concrete or packed dirt floor which oon radical's relevance to our time's main be directly relevant to our lives: like a commune In Melbourne, made up be kept clean. You will also need space political problems, and to the author's "It took many years for the chain of a few families and others they take to store hay and feed. We use an old own ideas concerning them. He writes reaction to begin. He did wake up a in, and which ls also termert a house log barn to house our goats. I re that when Jefferson said that "experi few people in New England, but it was of hospitality. Certainly St. Benedict's · olaced the wooden shingle roof with -ence hath shown that even under the the adoption by Gandhi of his ideas in farm is more like the Moshavim than tin, and we were able to buy used 2 Xi.8 best forms, those entrusted with power South Africa in the 1890's that began the Kibbutzim as described by Martin foot· sheets of tin siding at only 15c a have, in time, and by slow operations, this world-wide acclaim, that was te Buber in Paths in Utopia. But it is tar sheet, which we used ar.ound the out perverted it into tyranny," the criticism upset India, and bounce back te this more of a model than any of our farms side of the building. - Cattle and espe he made of government would be even country at the time when Martin Lu are, thanks to the leadership of Fr. cially goats require good fence. We truer a hundred years hence. No less tJaer King, Jr. was berinninr the -revelt John Heffey, who as a seminarian spent over a week cutting posts, dig prophetic are Jefferson's remarks con arainst white supremacy in the Soatll. visited us at the :Easton farming com ging post holes, -cleai:ing the fence line cerning our urban civilization: "When He had first read Civil Disobedience mune in 1940. I'll continue this as . I and st!etching a four-foot. woven wire we get piled upon one another in large when a sophomore at· Moreho.use Col- have time. We leave Australia Aug. 28.· '·' (Continued' on page I) · cities, as · In Europe, • we' 1hall become . Jere In Atlanta, Georria." . Calcutta next. · ' . TBE C'ATROLtC WORKER + + + LETTERS + +
nuclear physicist because he refused to ;Sorry to be writing so late and .delayed. lighted with that, except that *>ID.e Searching Questions work on the bomb. We are trying 'to Dorothy had asked me to write ·to NOU times you ha~e to go back for further ~ecUie whether to move to Oanada to concerning Phil Berl'igan and what wa.s Jab work when they're not properly Te I am trylnr to help professional avoid paying U.S. taxes or to get in going on in h is situation. verent of persollS and condltlona." people - professol'S, writers, clergy - volved in the movement here. We have avoid a trahison des clercs. They are So much has happened the last few Quote from July 13 (regarding sou 'four children so the decision isn't easy. day~Dan captured; then the new-s tary confinem~mt) : "You know, -one or responSible for flndinr new ways to put I would appreciate any information .themselves in political jeopardy. I am that Phil will be transferred to Dan · the things really hanging heavy -Was you can give me, a1so the names of bury and be assigned tne -same dormi missing annual retreat. We were trying to help them understand moral anyone near here I could talk to. (We change and moral events, which will tory as Dan. So, this (they hope) will hustled off the street before the ttme are near San Francisco). take the heat off Lewisburg officials, came. Anyway, providenc·e always cares require severe losses and immense Sincerely yours, sacrifices. .etc., etc., etc. ~ for the improvident. A policy hassle Daniel Berrigan Mrs. Alfred Lauzon Ever since we begaq. corresponding with the administration unexpectedly with Phil there have been delays in the provides retreat time for me, replete 1713 West · St. Come! malls, some letters taking 10-14 days. with exclusive quarters and ample time Montgomery, Ala. 36106 We always kept Phil Informed with ·for sacred reading, medltatlon and 28 May 1970 Box ·275 regard to what was happening to his fasting. My gratitude knows no bounds! DvaT Dorothy, Barry's Bay, Ont., Canad{L 'friends (the Chicago 15 sentencing anti At the end of this rich period-all dif I am presently employed by the Dear Friends: Dow Chemical 9 particularly). We ferences will be healed, I will be a more USAF at Maxwell AFB, Alabama with We have recently -secured (through wrote lengthy letters about the trials acquiescent inmate, and another blow the Academic publication support loans) the purchase of SOO beautiful and, of course, added our own com for reconciliation will be struck." group. I visualize, illustrate, and make wooded a c r e s here in northeastern ments. At any rate, we learned that All of his letters always send their layouts from prepared manuscripts for Ontario, not far from the Madonna best to Dorothy and all of you and al Air .Force textbooks and other related House project. There are also a num ways give much optimism amidst the .publications. ber of youth commlll)es In the area, terrible walls . Dorothy, I am seeking employment nedgling &nd functioning, a few of Our Viva House ts nourishing. We outside the military, and f am hoping them doing some amazing things. hope to get a letter written soon ex you can help me. l would like to put We believe that the future "°f In plaining all we're doing and perha_ps whatever talents I have to work for the ternational develoi>ment and perhaps you would publish It. Many thanks. A~' Church. Could you please furnish me the surviv.al of mankind and the earth love and peace to you. with a list of organizations Who may depend on the cooperative me-style VIVA be in. need of my type of service. I am 1md organic technology that ls being mM"ried with 5 beautiful children. Willa, Kathleen, develo:Ped in the area. Brendan Walsh We have some mutual friends in the We are particularly interested in monks at Conyers, Georgia. The At cooresponding with Catholic Worker lanta Cursillo Movement has had the families who might be ln~rested In last two Cursillos there and six of the joining us In a cooperative effort on Coming! monks are n ow cursillistas. God bless the 300 acres, or who would be interest General Delivery you. Yours in the Love ed In p u r ch as 1 n g other available Honolulu, Hawaii oT Christ acreages in this locality. July 26, 1970 And if any old friends with whom much of Phil's mall was Xeroxed and· Harley Samford sent to super cop Hoover. The result Dear Friends, we have lost contact would like re You were kind enough to publish a ports on our first year of work up was we had to be more imaginative in 2011 Locust St. reporting the present Beilsgeschikte of letter from me last summer, when I here, or the termination of our work was arranging a cross-country tour of Livermore, Calif. 94550 In Peru last year, please contact us. thls country. We only have received 2 June 2, 1970 letters from Phil since July 10-unusual my puppet theater. Several peop1e an Sincerely in Christ, swered, and I made some good friends. Dear Friends, Barney and Pat Mccaffrey - in that we were getting and sending I've been reading The Catholic Work at least 1 letter each week. Thus, Phil's Now, I have been very lucky, and will er for the past year and have been letters were· ,being checked very care be travelling in the Pacific for some tremendously influenced by your ldeas. fully. Phil's brother Jerry had written months-puppets, 11-year-old daughter However, now I need more in!ormation Phil 1Jerrigan to me after a visit with Phil and told and all. I would like to meet CW read on the practical slde of your movement. VIVA HOUSE me that our letters were receiving ers in any country or islands in the You say you have farms and houses of 26 s. Mount St. special attention. Paclflc; all letters will be· forwarded hospitality all over the country but I've Baltimore, Md. 21223 Quote from July 13 letter of .Phil's, from the above address and answered. never run across -any. How does one be August 13, 1970 after solitary confinement: "The heat Thank you for helping me agai11. come a Catholic Worker? Dear Pat: in the kitchen goes up decldely when Peace, My husband just quit his job as a Peace and VIVA from down South. one of your editorials appears. I'm de- Joanne Forman Starting A_Farm Commune (Continued from page 5) to make products which meet a need. unable to find jobs or must take jobs both their hands fence around an acre of wooded moun An id~al craft to develop would be which are open to high school gradu and their heads. tain side. something o! the nature of pottery, ates. Many of the college gtudents I But the farming commune is not Building has been our biggest job. Be which allows for artistic eJ{pression in have talked with say they are going only a place for cellege graduate.I but cause we didn't have a large -amount of making functiona~ items. The back to college to insure themselves a good for all who seek to "create order out of money to pay for the_ fa.rm, we chose ground and talents or your community job. But today there is no demand on chaos." Peter saw them as places where one on which the house had been will determine what direction-ls taken the job market in many of the areas scholars and workers could learn from burned down. --rhere were two build in this area.- being studied in college. Colleges for each other. "The scholars must colla ings on the place-the barn and an old One ne-ed which we hope to meet for the most part are turning out gradu borate with the worker," wrote Peter, log house which had been used as a ourselves next year is producing our ates who can only think in terms of "ln making a path from the things as tobacco shed. Friends gave us ~ large own fertilizer. This first year we used jobs, Who are not taught to create a they are to the things as they should barn to tear down. We -are using the organic fertlliZers ·w h 1 ch we ordered meaningful role in society for them be." lumber and timbers from this barn to through the mail and had shipped to selves. us. The "fertilizer itself is expensive In the few months of its e.xlstence, ' rebuild the log house. We 11.lso built One of the avenues open to these our farm has become the foc:al point . a -shed from logs and lumber for our and shipping costs add over one-half the cost to the price. Using itlaterials graduates is the farming commune. for the discussion of many problems. tractor and tools. Peter deals with this subject in one of Local people and high school students, I have 1omid that building always readily available to us-goat and chic ken manure, shredded plant compost, his essays: as well as college students from west takes longer than you expect. It can Virginia, and adjoining states, have . sawdust, egg shells and fish-we have Unemployed college gI'aliuat~ be very expensive and It ts good to visited with us and taken part 1n in get adv-i ce when building complicated started making our ·own fertilizer and must be told mulch. ""By next year we hope to be why the things are formal roundtable discussions. During buildings. Be on the lookout for build July, 40 freshmen students from ,West i ings being torn down. This is often making enough for our .farm and extra what they are, to sell to those in our area who are in-. how the things would be Virginia state College at Institute, a source of free or low cost doors, win visited our farm on two days for dis dows and lumber. Often people who terested In using natural !ertilizer. We if they were are planning to get a compost shredder as they should be cussions. Our farm has become a place · wish to have a building razed will give where people can come for the free~ you the building if you tear it down. although this is not absolutely essen and how a path tial. can be made discussion of ideas. Others come just to We are concentrating on building be here. log structures. They are inexpensive, Agronomic Universities f'rom the things relatively simple to construct and last Peter Maurin planned that Catholic as 'they are _ Farming ls one of the most creative for years. The small cabin I am build Worker F'arming Communes would be to the things of all the tasks man can take up. The ing for myself to live in for the next more than f arm s. They are to be as th-ey should be. Scriptures "(Sirach 7:15) say that farm few years can later have the floor centers of learning where "cult, culture, When unemployed college &"radaates ing was created by the Lord himself. taken out and be used as a goat shel and cultivation" are combined. They will have been indoctrinated I have found it very fulfilling to build ter. Books are av.ailable in most li are to be places where people work to they will be moved my own house, grow my own food and· braries on building both log and con create order out of chaos. to Farming Communes. have a surplus to share. My favorite ventional structures. - Peter wrote most of his essays in On Farming Communes thought from Peter Maurln's writings Your community may want to de me 1930's, during the depression and unemployed college graauates ls: velop some sort of craft or product its aftermath. His frequent references will be taught Labor is not a commodity which will provide a supplemental in to unemployed college graduates may how te build their houses, to be bought or sold- come. Many of the products which I seem dated but our experience has how te raise their food, Labor is a means of self-expression, have seen turned out by communities proved differen t. Several students who how te make their furniture: the workers gift to the common good. niay be "handmade" but have no more graduate this year have visited us. that is to ~ay - Our farm has given me the means of value or usefulness than junk manu They have been unable to find jobs how te empl~y themselves. making this ideal a reality. I hope that factured for mall order gift houses. In and have no prospects. I know of other On Farming Communes Peters' vision wlll challenge you as it keeping with the ideals -Of Peter Mau young college graduates ih the Charles unemployed colleg-e graduates has me, and that . many others wlll . rin'• green revolution,. we· should seelr! ton, West Vlrginii area wl:1o have been· will learn to use work 'to proniofe tl:ie green revolu£ion: ...... -.: ll'%O Tllll" CA.1TROL.JC: Y O'llltK B The Farm WOrkers Solitary; ProEhets (COnUnued from s>&i• 1) (Continued from J!8i8 !) Ru&h A. Donohoe aucceeded him. Hit Blaine Bllnson repre,,ented the;. tentenced to death obta.lned cJemen- gives so.me highlights· of Interest. He had been helping to res.olve farm work· farm workers in the international ey. They all met their death courage- met Darrow in 192Q in New York. ers' problems even before the atrike grape boycott 1n Europe· and was suc ously. Ammon writes: "Their spirit In the chapter devoted to Yukeoma began. we werec and. ~tm are lucky be· ceeded by Donna Haber, who stlll leads lives wherever there are young peo- the . Hopi, he treads familiar ground, cause he left Fathers Mark Day and the European boycott. Freddy- Silber ple wha choose-, as Camus tells us we his interest in tb.e Hopi Indians hav David Duran to work full tim~ with the man, Mike Cushman and Jennifer must choose, to be on the side of ing been one of the dominant in union. The former is EL MALCRIADO helped me in London, England and the executed rather t han on the side terests in his action ~- a defender of editor and the latter is finance coorsI Victor Pestoff and Britt Marie, Ester of the executioners, if we are not to the underprivileged. Of the couraga inator in tlle Accounting Department. and Christine, in Stockholm, Sweden. be executors ourselves." ous leader of the- Indian people, he Migrant Ministry Representatives of the American The next chapter is a sequel to the &ays : "The grand old man of the _, The Migrant Ministry and its director Jewish Congress and Rabbis came to · it a l "th Hopi personifies man as a part of preceding one, smce ea s wi nature . . . he fought against ·the Way~ Chris Hartmire, were deeply in Delano giving us the idea of a kibbutz John Peter Altgeld, governor of Illi- volved in the initial movement for the (community). In our jurisdictional nois; he did pardon three other men . opinion of the mass of Americans, as farm workers in the National Farm quarrel with the Teamsters Union, the who had been sentenced for the Hay- did Thoreau and Garrison." And fur Workers Association. In the joint strike committee that brought us together market bombing besides the five who tber: "'Let my people go !' has been of the Agricultural Workers Organizing consisted of a Protestant minister, a were hanged. He was accused by his the cry from the time of Moses and Com:roittee, AFL-CIO, and NFWA, I priest, and a rabbi, who was chairman. political enemies of being an "anar- the Pharaohs to the time of Marti_n learned that Reverend James Drake There were many more helping in dif · chist,'' a "demagogue," "Un-American," Luther King." was (and still is) the ~dministrative ferent ways, from boycott to -finance. "apologist for murder," etc. He had Speakin~ of John Taylor, third l'res assistant to Cesar Chavez. Jim was one Catholics never . been a clear thinking radical, !dent ot the Mormon Church, who died of. the very few individuals who assist In the Catholic side, Bill Esher was Ammon wrLtes, but be had consclously in 1897, Ammon deals once more ot a ed Cesar in his administrative func the first; . editor of EL MALCRIADO. placed hlmself in power where he was land and a community which he knows t:ons for the last five year s. His wife, A.t that time he was working with able to do something for those weaker well, having lived in Utah since 1961 Susan, helped in different office de Mary Smith, Marcia Sanchez, Donna than himself. He died a poor man, be- and . studied Mormon history, while p.irtments. Phil Farnham was in Haber and some other students. Le Roy cause he refused "to have anything working at Joe Hill House, up to his 'large of printing materials for the Chatfield, with nurse Marion Moses, to do with shady deals," and had made death. If he brings Taylor close to . pickets. Many more from this group researched for the Robert Kennedy the necessary sacrifices. , us, he does so even more in his por- 1 me to reinforce the effort. They Medical- Plan and later became the There is a connection between Alt- trait of Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who is \. Jrked in the offices as organizers and pla,n's director. He was also instrumen geld, J?rotesting against the bre~g truly a man of our time anq 'Of" all 1 JW are scattered all over the boycott tal in the purchase of "Forty Acres," of the Pullman strike by President times. Ammon, like most people ot l. _nters in the U.S. and Canada. To the homesite of the farm workers' un Cleveland, and the hero o! the fol- his age, remembered well the tragic n .m tion a few, I recall Nick Jones anti ion. His wife, Bonnie, helped mostly in lowing chapter, Eugene v. J;>ebs, who day of the execution of Sacco and 'V irginia, Jan Van Pelt and his wife, the Service Center. Andy Imutan with was jailed for his participation in the Vanzetti, which sheok- net only Amer Fred Dres::er, Lupe ·and Kathy Murguia, Luming proved himself as one of the strike. lie was later imprisoned be- lea, but the entire world. a::- d Gary and Kathy Olson. top boycott organizers in Boston, Mary cause of his OJ?position to World War Malcolm X, whom Ammon next The IVIi ~rant Ministry y;as the first land, and.New York City. O.o.& an.d exchiuiged notes with Am- describes, was his and our contempo- . - rary and his memory is fresh among- r:mrch organization that donated Wi.th medicine in carton boxes· on an mon, who was serving a smu1 ar sen- us. Ammon says of him:· "He had the i .Jney backing the NFWA member impoverished. grapebox table-:- in Do tenc&. B.i.s words in court in 1918 were: logic ot Darrow and the charisma ot f 1:p•s decision to join the .AWOC in the lores· Huerta's garage, Peggy McGivero, ''While there is a lower class, I am In. le t, D.ebs. He had the courage of Mother 1,.:ape ..s.trike. This merger helped C:esar t r ea~d siclt strilrers. Hel' sympathetiq it; while- tbertt is a criJni.nal e men Jones and Vanzetti." In spite of' Mal- < ·1avez establish i:.n effective- Farm u,nd.erstan.ding and care in her we, driving growers to !·heir knees and to because she was tbe champion ot t:1e negotiating table. It was know.n, on• cawie, the Doukhobors' ideal however, the harvest of union victories of peace and community, within one resulted from_the unprecedt!nted coop Bread ·Not Bombs soeiety. Their history started' in Rus eration of -the consumers. To achieve sia With. their retusal to carry arms p e ~ce in the industey and in. the mar (Continued from page 1) and obey the State, but Helen's cow: ketplace, every effott, dollar, talent, graphed us, and decided to charge us ment machines, which read, "1970. ageoU& struggle took _place in Canada; "knowledge and skill was. successfully it was. against the. laws of. that coun .~ (a Years: How Long , Must I Weep?" coordinated and directed to justify and with nonviolence. man radi~a,l f1ghter bi.mfelf comeri very of the. UFWOO in San ' Juan, Texas. · expense antr'inYtfib'~Ua J:\loin govern- ~orks. Slowly bu; ef fectively; : . , . ~µc;h . al.ive ~gain. , THE CATHOLIC WORKER September, 1970 · this, except here's another. I needn't hind whatever aound-prooftn1 we taa stress that It's urgent. I do want to 1lnd. But the youn1 people t&lk on. ·The Farm ·workers stress, however, that Cuando ls untque. .For that 11 the way\ or the 7oun1. Its concerns are the basic functions of Even so, sometimes they ma7 attain (Continued from pa~e 7) social life., It ls a life-support organ ·clarltloation of thought...... ,,_ sing the dire need of a farm workers' asked for a just share ln the multl ization-for which reason its claims on Now that summer ls ending, we do clinlc. She also spoke on the danger of billion dollar harvest in U.S. agricul our assistance are of the clearest and not intend to give up all discussion. most legitimate kind. pesticides to health and welfare in ture for all farm workers. This is the ~elene Iswplsky and Kay Lynch have , agriculture. goal of the struggle. It's moral because Cuando is tax exempt. Cuando, Inc., been planning third-Sunday-of-the Robert McMillen, one of our lawyers, it's right. But the essence of the Move 39 E. First St., N.Y.C., 10003. month discussions for the com l h g has been our legislative watchdog in ment goes far beyonq the horizon. It months. The first of such third Sun Sacramento. Father Joe Melton assisted proposes to liberate the human spirit day afternoons will begin In October. us in Delano and in Coachella Valley for the enj~ment of life to the fullest A Farni With On this occasion Walter and Miriam for several months. Doug Adair, former extent. Jarsky, who live in our community but EL MALCRIADO editor, ls on the Phil- who spent the summer 'Visiting Mir adelphia boycott; and Father Victor · A View iam's par·ents in Europe, will speak on Saiadini, who was arrested for tres (Conti nued from page 2) certain European communities where passing in Borrego Springs while pic Hope's Enterprise keting, now is working in the New York spoke about Eri/:CSon, presenting a schol- they also visited. boycott after assignments in Montreal. (Continued from Page 3) arly but interesting account of Erik- What with visiting children and than that, for they form a pattern of son's psychological development and visiting dogs, discussions are not the Putting It Together a particular kind. I mean that they back~round. Workshops held during the only hubbub about the place, a fact I might have erred in aligning names are tht! type of with certain groups, thus dubbing one truly functional decen- mo~nmg and afternoon hours analyzed which some of our numerous cats have for the other. But the general effect tralized responsibility. They are Uber- various aspects of the new man. Satur- remarked with' catty acerbity. Visiting still remains the same. It's just like tarian and sensitive. They are political day night a· Mass was concelebrated by dogs aside, however, our dog popula pulling out a dollar from one pocket in the fundamental (to me, mos;; valld) several priests, with the Gospel read tion ls growing, and if they can and slipping it into the other. My point sense that the organized activity exists by a Lutheran minister. Later that not overtake, will at least annoy exclusively, and visibly, for the purpose night a witnessing session was held in the cats. Now that the Jarskys are is that those people mentioned above of meeting common needs. All this which those -participating shared 'ex- back with their Blondie, we have three ~ave made significant contributions in building the union even though they certainly, is writ sm~ll , yet it can b~ periences and insights. dogs living with us. The latest canine weren't farm work'.ers. classed among the impulses that keep The last talk of the Pax conference a~dltion is a leggy coon hound pup alive the idea of non-violent social was that of Dorothy Day, who spoke on which was given Johnny Hughes early The farm workers' right to organize revolution. THE NEW MAN AND THE CHRISTIAN in the summer. Named Grapes be- and bargain collectively is a dead issue. It was replaced by the "boycott" split That's my long-range interest, and TRADITION. This new man, of whom cause her markings supposedly re ting most intimate friends, families, I do certainly urge it on others. It St. Paul speaks, who ls truly reborn in semble grapes, she is a charming, af communities, churches, the country may be, however, that the short, that Christ, is characterized by love of holy fectionate pup, though some nights and the world. The Catholic Church ls immediate, view is far more com- poverty, love of God, love of neighbor, she may be heard baying at the moon. wasn't immune to the contagious and pelling. The neighborhood is a meat- and dedicated service of others for the But who knows, perhaps she has really dramatic discussions of the new issue. grinder. we know that heroin is be- love of God, ls truly peaceful, truly treed a raccoon, which would please Out of painful deliberations was fired ing pushed in the public school. we humble. It ls this new man whom John Fllllger, since raccoons are too a correction shot re-directing the Faith know-and this is the newest develop- we are enjoined to become. Most of fond of his corn. to its original course of Intent and ment-that neighborhood addicts are us a.re very imperfect instruments and As always, there are many persons commitment to the helpless poor. ·The recruiting twelve and thirteen year old have gone such a little way on the doing many tasks to keep things going results were gratifying and radiate kids into robbery gangs. The police path of becoming Christian that only hereabouts. Shnley Vishnewskl began brilliant lights of hope for more vie- - know too, a.nd are nearly: useless. Nor God Himself could measure our minus- the day by going for the mall, then tortes for mankind. has anyone failed to observe that the cule progress. But there are others tackled some correspondence. Elaine In the Bay Area, around 800 priests chief products of the public school are who can serve as exemplars. Among La Pointe and Larry Evers cleaned the were asked to support and be involved ignorance, apathy, and collapse of self. those Dorothy cited are: Peter Maurin, living room this morning. Mike Sulll in the grape boycott. U.S. priests and All this is what Cuando ls contending founder of the catholfc worker, a truly van spent part of the day repairing laymen, numbering 35,000, passed a with. On the one hand, they're snowed dedicated man of great humlllty and the windows In Father Jack English's resolution endorsing the boycott. Many under. On the other hand, their love of p 0 v er t y; Ammon Hennacy, room. But Dominick Falso, who on priests and nuns visited Delano in achievments are impressive. (Which Is Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, and another occasion prepared a most de- cognito. II they didn't completely hide how things are those days.) Ralph Abernathy. Dorothy also reaf- lecba.ble Italian meal for us, cooked for their true Identity in slacks, plain I find It impressive: firmed her faith in non-violence, and our supper a superb minestrone. Young shirts, blouses, and sweaters, then they 1) that Cuando exists; used Cesar Chavez' recent vi ct 0 r y people come and go, sometimes work- would tell me who they were. All were 2) that for more than a year they against the powerful growers of Call- ing, sometimes talking, sometimes enthuslatically for the "Huelga" and have conducted an after-school store- fornia as evidence that non-violence strumming guitars and singing. But the "Cause." frortt Children's Center, staffed by does work. In this age of frequent Susan Pollock appears ever and anon, From the National Conference of volunteers and paid for out of their bomb scares and terrorist attacks, it and always thereafter there is yogurt Catholic Bishops was the "Committee of own pocketS; ls terribly important to hold on to this for our health and enjoyment. To all Bishops." Auxlllary Bishop Joseph F. 3) that for more than two years they ~alth, this hope in the Christian non- who do the major tasks and all who do ... Donnelly was chairman; Archbishop have conducted athletic programs and violent way. · the minor, we say a major "thank you." Timothy Manning, Bishop Hugh A. weekend outings (Frank Baez, Melvin On August twenty-second a confer- The arts continue to thrive among Donohoe, . Bishop Walter J. Curtis and Cadiz, Daniel Torres); ence on ecology was held here at the us. Joe Geraci writes every morning. Bishop Humberto S. Medeiros, mem 4) that they have conducted a sue- farm. Lauren Surget, who does ex- Rita Corbin continues to design her bers. Monsignors Roger Mahony, Direc cessful voter registration drive (David perlmental and research work for the beautiful cards. Emily Colemau has tor of Catholic Charities, and George Munoz); Bell Telephone Laboratories, spoke on suspended painting for the moment G. Higgins, Director of the Department 5> that they have initiated clean-up the grave and almost immediate haz- but will, I think, resume soon. Marge ot Urban Life, were with the mediating 1 campaigns; have cleared a vacant lot ards of environmental pollution, and Hughes has learned to play the auto Bishops Committee. Working with for play; have collaborated with an spoke of his own hope that man- harp beautifully. Audrey Monroe-Joe them was the Reverend Lloyd Saatjlan, architect on the design of a mini-park, again, the new man, the truly trans- and Audrey are visiting us this week a Protestant minister from Palm and are trying to bring it into existence formed man-might survive solely by is taking up the same instrument, and (John Corsale); have agitated (and f hi t f ti t she and Marge will soon be playing Springs. He was soft-spoken with a are) for playground lights, for land- reason o s rans orma on, a rans- duets. pleasant, understanding personality. 1 d formation which Lauren felt had al- With this combination of mediators or and NYC responsibility, and for ready begun. Following a . discussion To all curious readers and all critics: some form of official and community the first table grape contract wa~ response to the drug problem; period, Clarice Danielson gave a we are no utopia, but Imperfect tn- signed between the Lionel Steinburg 6) that they have held one very sue- good report on Robert Ardrey's struments who fall many times over. and David Freedman Company and 'n a night the Protestant denominations, gave its purchased, trips must be paid for, more been times when discussions in our lh early September. The rain has true spirit and love for a new life chlldren must be reached. living room or dining room became so stopped, but the moist pungence be- that were dormant for centuries. Under I know that everyone who reads this perfervld and vociferous that those of gins to smell of fall. We move toward the farm workers' movement (following letter receives, every week, dozens of us who are o 1 de r and have October, "toward the great Feast of st. the courageous leadership of Cesar urgent and ,truly iTportant pleas tor reached a preference for quiet, nee to Francis. st. Francis of Asslssl, pray r,havez), the Delano grape pickers help. I don t know what to say a~out , ou_r _r~9ms andt b rrtcad o selves be- for us and for all our Brother Creatures ' ' . ·- • ·'' .. i... cru. o J tilJ'r • Tr'.im \ il .r.1 ~, -.· ·~·- ·