When the National Conference of Social Workers at Cleveland (TIME June 7) in final session chose heavybrowed, swift-talking, intellectual Dr. John Augustus Lapp of Chicago as president, there was some surprise in non-professional circles, for Dr. Lapp is a Roman Catholic.*
He is the foremost Catholic layman engaged in social service work, is co-director with Father John A. Ryan of Washington in the social action department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. His attitude toward society is sincerely catholic; that is, he believes: "The one fundamental base upon which Catholic charities are built...