Most of this week was spent “cleaning up” from prior
meetings, or arranging or preparing for future meetings. Nevertheless, we did commit a few newsworthy
acts:
 |
| The Great Commoner, W. J. Bryan |
• We located four “new” articles by Judge Peter S. Grosscup,
who served as presiding justice of the United States Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals in Chicago from 1899 to 1911, when he retired from the bench. The first was “Prosperity with Justice — Working
Toward a Solution” from 1910. The second
was “The Judgment,” Grosscup’s analysis for “laymen” of the decision that broke
up Standard Oil in 1911. The third was “Can
Republicans and Progressives Unite?” from 1914, and the fourth was “Our Old
American Freedoms” from 1919. An
unexpected bonus was finding an article by William Jennings Bryan about the
breakup of Standard Oil, and a short memorial by Elihu Root on the birthday of
Theodore Roosevelt, soon after Roosevelt died.
 |
| J. D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil |
• “Prosperity with Justice” was an analysis of the problem
of restraining and regulating large businesses without either violating private
property or justice, or imposing State control.
“The Judgment” explained how, in Grosscup’s opinion, the breakup of
Standard Oil, while a much-desired end, violated principles of justice,
particularly by using the courts to legislate.
It has an advanced understanding of the concept of social justice. “Can Republicans and Progressives Unite?” is
a remarkably harsh assessment of the administration of President Woodrow
Wilson. “Our Old American Freedoms”
analyzes the social and legal changes that resulted from World War I. One day we hope to compile Grosscup’s major
articles in a single book.
• Amazon is still using CESJ Director of Research Michael D.
Greaney’s book, So Much Generosity, a
survey of the fiction of Cardinals Wiseman and Newman, and Monsignor Robert
Hugh Benson, as a “loss leader” at substantial savings: $3.45!! That’s the price, not the savings. It’s a $20 book. The book is published by Universal Values
Media, Inc., which has a co-marketing arrangement with CESJ.
• As of this morning, we have had
visitors from 66 different countries and 55 states and provinces in the United
States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from
the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and India. The most
popular postings this past week were “Thomas Hobbes on Private Property,” “‘Inequality
Is the Root of All Social Evil’,” “Aristotle on Private Property,” “Why Did
Nixon take the Dollar off the Gold Standard?” and “Statism v. Catholic Social
Teaching, II: Rerum Novarum.”
Those are the happenings for this week, at least that we
know about. If you have an accomplishment
that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at mgreaney [at] cesj
[dot] org, and we’ll see that it gets into the next “issue.” If you have a short (250-400 word) comment on
a specific posting, please enter your comments in the blog — do not send them
to us to post for you. All comments are
moderated anyway, so we’ll see it before it goes up.
#30#