Church Leaders Warn Americans Against Propagandas of Hatred

Warning against “hatreds deliberately fomented against cultural groups by unscrupulous or misled individuals,” more than 550 Protestant, Catholic and Jewish lay and clerical leaders joined today in a plea to Americans to repudiate doctrines which “pit class against class,” promote racial and religious hatred and aim to destroy liberty. The churchmen, asserting that “there is no place in the American democracy for prejudice or bitterness, whether racial or religious,” called upon “the different races, religions and creeds in our American democracy” to “emphasize anew a mutual respect and hold fast to the ties of goodwill which bind us together.”

“We summon every American,” the pronouncement said, “to rededicate himself to America’s ideals of political liberty, religious freedom and equality under God. We call on every American to seek out his brother and join with him in common tasks of building a society based on goodwill, justice and peace, so that we stand united as a bulwark of defense against doctrines which deny the validity of these ideals.” The pronouncement, circulated under the auspices of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and made public by Everett R. Clinchy, director, was jointly drafted by the organization’s three co-chairmen: Prof. Arthur H. Compton of the University of Chicago, Prof. Carlton J.H. Hayes of Columbia University, and Roger W. Straus.

As part of a five-point program to combat anti-Semitism, in particular the propaganda of Father Coughlin, the Jewish Peoples Committee will inaugurate a radio campaign this Fall on a nation-wide scale which will feature a series of addresses by prominent Americans, it was announced by William Weiner, president of the Committee, after a meeting of the executive committee. The programs will be inaugurated from Detroit in the early part of the Fall. “They will be designed to expose fully the distorted and inflammatory addresses of Father Coughlin,” it was stated. “A special effort will be made at the same time to reach rural American communities, which are more susceptible to anti-Semitic propaganda since, unlike urban communities, there is a lack of counter-statement. Programs will end with a pledge requesting listeners ‘to support and work for racial and religious tolerance in the spirit of the Bill of Rights.'”

“Every Catholic with a brain in his head realizes full well that if there is ever a trend towards authoritarian oppression in this country, his head will be on the block along with the Jew’s,” George N. Shuster, Catholic publicist, declares in an article in the June issue of The National Jewish Monthly, published by B’nai B’rith. Assailing Father Coughlin for his anti-Semitism, Mr. Shuster asserts in his article, “A Catholic Discusses Jews,” that the radio priest’s “historical information is deplorably inaccurate, that he descends frequently to the level of sheer calumny, and that he preaches a gospel of hate rather than the Gospel of Love.”

For a distinguished Catholic contribution to the fight against racism and anti-Semitism, Equality, journal to defend democratic rights and combat anti-Semitism and racism, nominates for its monthly “Hall of Fame” Father John M. Cooper, head of the Anthropology Department of Catholic University, for heading the committee which introduced the resolution against racism and anti-Semitism at the last conference of the American Anthropological Association. To the “Hall of Shame” Equality nominates William Guggenheim for his cablegram of praise to Hitler and Mussolini. The monthly also publishes an affidavit by a young Jew, stabbed and seriously wounded by anti-Semites in a New York subway station.