Europe’s plight has taught America that intolerance is a “malignant disease which, if left unchecked, may develop and expand into a challenge of violence against the most cherished principles and institutions of mankind,” Postmaster General James A. Farley said in a message yesterday to the nationwide conference on religious liberty, attended by 600 clergymen and educators.
“Intolerance in the beginning,” Farley said, “may be directed against a single group, political, racial, or religious; but it never ends there. Those who direct these forces of evil soon find new victims for their savage purpose.”
Bishop James Freeman of Washington presided at the conference and speakers included Rabbi Louis Mann of Chicago. A statement on the principles of religious liberty was adopted which concluded with this paragraph:
“We believe that subtle and powerful forces are now at work within our own country, threatening our democratic institutions; that the surest and most effective method for maintaining security is to strengthen the hands of the people of America in the God who has granted to every man the right to religious liberty, and therefore we call upon all who serve God, all who appreciate democratic institutions, and all who desire to restrain authoritarian and totalitarian aggression wherever found to join in the defense of religious liberty.”
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