Marquette & Pickets

Last month the student body of Marquette University in Milwaukee dispatched to Laon, France a keg of Mississippi River water. In Laon, 300 years ago next June 1, was born Jacques Marquette, famed Jesuit who died at 38 near what is now Ludington, Mich., after evangelizing the Indians and exploring the Mississippi. In Laon, on Marquette's birthday, the Mississippi water will figure in the dedication of a statue of the Jesuit pioneer, cast from coppers given by French school children. In the U. S., President Roosevelt is expected to proclaim June 1 Marquette Day, and in the Senate an oration is to be delivered by Wisconsin's Senator Francis Ryan Duffy. At Marquette University in a special convocation this week, honorary degrees were conferred. Twenty-five miles away there were doings of a different sort on a high Wisconsin hill, called Holy because Father Marquette is supposed to have consecrated it during his journeyings.

For the past 30 years the Catholic shrine of Holy Hill has been cared for by Carmelite friars. Many an ailing Catholic who is helped to the $500,000 church at its top, passing 14 grottoed Stations of the Cross on the way, claims miraculous relief from his ills. Last Sunday and the Sunday before, pilgrims to Holy Hill beheld, at the gates, men bearing placards: THE HUTTER CONSTRUCTION CO. ON THIS JOB IS UNFAIR TO ORGANIZED LABOR. The pickets--union carpenters, hod carriers and common laborers from Milwaukee--wore their Sunday best, molested no one, explained they were protesting because George Hutter, Fond du Lac contractor who is building a $163,000 seminary for the Carmelites, maintains an open shop, pays low wages.

Father Bernardine, Superior of the monastery on Holy Hill, disclaimed any connection with the row, asked mildly: ''What will those unions think of next?"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.