A Declaration of Tolerance designed as a “supplement to the Declaration of Independence” was written today into the history of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth. The declaration was drafted by Richard J. Beamish, Secretary of the Commonwealth, and bore the signatures of more than a hundred religious, civic, political and economic organizations.
The document is “a perpetual memorial against the organization known as the Silver Shirt Legion of America” and against all organizations of similar un-American objectives.
No spokesmen for the Silver Shirts were present to protest. Instead the organization sent to the Secretary of the Commonwealth a telegram notifying him that William Dudley Pelley and H. F. Sieber, leaders of the outfit, were at Nashville and were unable to be present.
Refusing to recognize the telegram, Beamish remarked that they “had beaten the boot by an inch, if they thought they could slink away without notice they are mistaken.”
Beamish explained he will go on with the hearing so that “Silver Shirts and others of their ilk shall know there is no place for them in Pennsylvania now and forevermore.”
THE PROTESTANTS
Speaking in behalf of their organizations, delegates from the following groups, among others, filed and voiced their protest against intolerance: the American Legion, American Federation of Labor, Brotherhood Locomotive Engineers, Elks, Kiwanis, Rotary, Civil Liberties Union, Odd Fellows, Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, Bishop Brown, Zion Lutheran Church, League for Social Democracy, American Jewish Congress, Pittsburgh branch, and others.
Abraham Berkowitz, Philadelphia spokesman for B’nai B’rith, pointing to the record of the Jews in America as citizens and soldiers, thanked the Secretary of the Commonwealth for his “splendid attitude,” adding that this will be an example for other States in the Union.
Beamish then called on Samuel L. Einhorn, spokesman for Brith Sholom, who spoke on the activities of the Silver Shirt Legion in America. he characterized the Declaration of Tolerance as the “new Magna Carta,” and assailed the vicious propaganda of the Silver Shirt organization. He said that the organization had operated in the State before it had made an application for a certificate of incorporation and spoke briefly of the “racketeering” character of the organization’s leaders.
“It is an organization,” he said, “fomenting race hatred and religious bigotry in this country.”
THE “DECLARATION OF TOLERANCE”
The text of the Declaration of Tolerance follows:
“To the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Honorable Richard J. Beamish:
“This protest has been signed as a perpetual memorial against the organization known as the Silver Shirt Legion of America, Inc., and against all organizations of similar un-American objectives.
“We protest against the issuance of a charter for either a business corporation or a non-profit corporation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to any organization whose purpose either directly or indirectly makes for religious or racial intolerance or hatred.
“We also protest against the issuance of a certificate of authority to any foreign corporation seeking to do business in Pennsylvania, whose objectives either directly or indirectly make for intolerance or bigotry.
“We, as individuals and as representatives of organizations whose mandates we are commissioned to express, believe that this Commonwealth founded by William Penn should always remain an example before the world of the true brotherhood of man.
“We hereby request the Secretary of the Commonwealth to notify us and the organizations represented by us after death has come to us whenever any application shall be made for the right of any organization of the type of the Silver Shirt Legion of America to do business in this Commonwealth. This we ask as a perpetual protest and a memorial to the spirit of William Penn.”
The correspondent has learned on good authority that the Silver Shirts made last-minute efforts to persuade the local attorneys to institute mandamus proceedings against the Secretary of the Commonwealth to compel him to issue protests, but could get no attorneys to plead their cause.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
