Like The Times magazine that week, American Weekly addressed the educational crisis, positioning it as a scandal. “The Broken Promise,” focused on the million or so returning veterans who, the article claimed, wanted to exercise their benefits under the GI Bill but were unable to find space at the nation’s overcrowded campuses. The author noted that the problem of accommodating everyone was a real challenge. Schools already were running on double sessions from 9 AM until 10 PM, six days a week. Students were being housed in Quonset huts, portable houses, government trailers and clapboard dormitories. Classrooms were standing room only. A spokesman for NYU with 11,245 veterans on campus reported “We’re running the old plant so she rattles day and night.” At Ohio State faculty members’ wives were teaching classes. Columbia had a trailer campus. The problem was not only classroom space and student housing but also a shortage of instructors. The article espoused converting Army and Navy training bases to campuses provide opportunity for all even if it meant lowering educational standards.
An article by Francis Le Buffe S.J. on a new translation of the Psalms into modern day English on which he was collaborating struck an inspirational tone. Le Buffe was moderator of the New York Catholic Evidence Guild, the New York chapter of an organization of seminarians and lay people started in England. The group’s members would preach Catholic doctrine from street corners and then take questions or refute objections from the audience. Street corner orators were a common sight in New York City in the first half of the century and included Communists, Socialists, evangelicals and atheists, and anyone with a strong point of view or cause, no matter how crackpot. The Evidence Guild sought to add a Catholic voice to the din. The American Weekly announced that the following Sunday, Father Le Buffe would explain “The Road to Sainthood.” The church soon would be elevating four new saints, including America’s own Mother Cabrini, and it was time once again for the periodic explication of the criteria and the procedures. The announcement also promised a piece by noted professor John Erskine on Enkidu and Gilgamesh, billed as the world’s first love story, as well as Audubon prints in next week’s issue.