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Show A HUMAN POROUS PLASTER. At a meeting of the Episcopalian Clerical association as-sociation of the diocese of Maryland recently, one W. Morse Keener appeared by invitation as a representative rep-resentative of the Baltimore Typographical union to address the clerics on "The Church and Organized Organ-ized Labor." Mr. Keener appeared to have a curious curi-ous conception of his duty as an invited speaker and his obligations as a guest, judging by his remarks re-marks as reproduced in the Typographical Journal. Jour-nal. Eulogizing his own art of printing, he went back into history for commentary that was amazing amaz-ing to his hearers quite as much for its ignorance as for its lack of courtesy. When he got into full swing, Mr. Keener became rhetorical, not to say eloquent. He said: "From the darkness of medieval superstition, moral degradation and churchly indifference, western west-ern Europe passed into that wonderful period of the revival of learning which we call the renaissance, renais-sance, and that revival of religion which we call the reformation. Toward this new birth two forces were pre-eminent in their contributions the trans- 1 j I hit ion of the Bible into the vernacular and the iu- 1 . ! vent ion of the art of printing. It was the inven- 1 1 tiuii of printing by Gutenberg, in 1450, and its m- I troduction into England by William Caxton, in I t 1476. that paved the way for the publication of the i first printed English Bible by William Tyrdale, m ' 15.,5. Tn the dissemination of the go-pel the 'Art Preservative of All Arts' has always been the '! handmaiden of the church." ,j Mr. Keener evidently did not know that the "darkness of medieval superstition" which weighed ' J on his mind, "the moral degradation and churchly j indifference" which disturbed him so much are worn-out phrases of the ignoramuses who take for J jj granted the truth of assertions that pass current ilf ,1 only with the unlearned. Certainly he did not Jjr know that the invention of printing, which he lauds I i j j so highly, was the outgrowth of that "churchly in- I , jj. difference" which stimulated Gutenberg, a Carh- j ' H olio, to devise some moans of preserving and di-- j .,. tributing knowledge. He could not have known that .' Caxton, the Englishman, whom he praies so high- ly, and who introduced printing into England, " was another Catholic. Surely he does not know that most of the literature that has been preserved through all the ages has been saved to mankind by the same "churchly indifference" which he cites so glibly and so ignorantly. Some of the Catholic journals have taken Keener Kee-ner seriously enough to bbime the publishers of the Typographical Journal for admitting his lueubra- f tions to their columns. We think that is an error; i ! men of Keener's type afford an excellent opportun- j ity to dispel illusions; like the porous plaster of commerce they may not be particularly pleasant in I j the application but they manage to achieve unex- ll pectedly good results. Keener may be and prob- I J ably is, an ignorant ass, but discussion of his thesis is bound to elucidate questions and produce information infor-mation in a way to profit the Catholic layman, clergyman and organization. Instead of assailing him, the editorial f raternity of the church ought to be thankful for the Keeners and all their kind. |