4 merican | ommunist

heavy nak. a Catholic priest

“Spoke out aeaing! the trial and

the verdict. . Here is.the text
f his speech as delivered to the
“In Defense of Dignity’ meetifig
“held. by the Council of the Aft,
Sciences and Professions at Si.
Nicholas Arena, New York, on

~ October 27. ‘

eaders —

Pickets at Foley Square during the trial of U.S. Communist leaders,

y a priest
should defend the

rights of Communists

“
ees.

AM A PRIEST of the ealic Church.
I am a U.S. citizen by birth,
Bishop to be absent from that diocese.

censure of any kind.
Written permission of my

By FATHER

CLARENCE DUFFY

I am ureter exeauninicated nor under ecclesiastical

I belong to an Irish diocese and have the
I am, therefore, in what is termed

good standing in the Catholic Church and I intend to retain that good standing.

i While T ain opposed to laissez
faire capitalism, I am not a €om-
-munist. I do not: believe in or
subscribe to the underlying phil-
osophy, the dialectic materialism
and economic determination, of |

materialistic Communism.

I recognize, however, that others
ave a perfect right to believe in
or subscribe: to materialistic Com-
munism, or to any other economic
or political system that
choose, to think and act as they
like, and to propagate their views
freely as long as they do not
Violate the rights of others in so
doing, incite to the violation of
them, or advocate or use coercion,
force or violence in the propagation
of these views.

I am on chee platform tonight
because I. am sure that right was
violated last week in the persons
of 11 men who were convicted

or violence to secure their objec-
tive, but in ‘reality because. they
were Communists.

I am not satisfied that they — :

were tried for advocating force
and violence, Iam niot satisfied —
either that this charge was proven
against them.

Like many other people, I be-

lieve that they were tried and con-
victed precisely because they were _
Communists. They were tried ,
and convicted not,
acts, but for holding and express-_
ing ideas that are at eer un-
popular.

The long, | ‘drawn-out. trial Peon

cupied itself mostly with establish-_
ing the fact that they held a nd

expressed Communistic — i deas.
pan at

they }

for criminal

5

Very little time or attention was
given to proving or establishing
the fact that these men advocated
the use of force of violence to
promote the ae of their
views.

|
A.

ig : |
As a uae ‘be believes. in

freedom for everyone to think
and act as he pleases, and to

hold and express,
any. views he ehogsey as long as

or propagate |

he does not violate the rights of
others or does not advocate or

use coercion or violence to pro-
mote his views, I want to take
this opportunity to protest not
only against the
sentence of these men, but against
the trial and the manner in which

“it “was conducted.

I do so not only in the name
of justice and freedom, but in
the name of Christian charity

conviction and-

‘them as

which obliges men and all other
professing Christians to love our
fellowmen and particularly to loye
our enemies or those with whom
we may disagree economically,
religiously or politically. |

While we may dislike material-
istic Communism, we may not ever
dislike or hate ‘the Communist or
any other person no matter what
his views may be. If we are
Christians, we must love all men,
look upon them and treat them
as our brothers, and ~do unto
: we would that they
would do unto us.

As. a_ Christian priest I look

Chicago race riot compared to

wet Vancouver daily papers

were ‘devoting columns to —

syndicated articles relating — the
supposed “hardship” of life be-
hind the “Iron Curtain,” Chicago,

in the words of the National —

Guardian, was suffering “a hor-

: alling and. in some respects
andsentenced “to, prison. Nomiu-a sae 3

ally because they advocated force .

exceeding the horror of Peeks-
kill.” But the same Vancouver

_papers which never pulse an op
_ portunity ‘to. extol . ‘the virtues

of “our way of life,” did not con-

sider the anti-Jewish, anti- Negro

riots sweeping the south side of
America’s second largest city

: worth even a mention. Here, con-

densed from the National Guar-
iat, is the story of what . hap-

of Local 208, International
Longshoremen’s and Warehouse-
men’s Union (CIO). William Sen-
a salesman of sports

Both are veterans of
Both are Jews.

(Aan BINDMAN vis secretary

nett is

goods.
- World ‘War TL

-borhood

police,

The two ‘recently bought a two--
apartment building on Chicago’s
south side, and on November 8

Bindman held a small reception

for a Hawaiian member of his
union who was on his way home
the
Cleveland.

from
He invited 18 shop
stewards from Local 208, includ-
ing eight Negroes.

As if by signal, a crowd gather-
ed in front of the building. Men
and’ boys ran through the neigh-
saying Negroes”
bought the house. Some said
Jews had bought it for Negroes.

The’ mob shouted
Negroes and Jews. They threat-
ened to burn the house, attack
the occupants. Bindman called

but the crowd gathered
again as soon as they had gone.
Again the police were summoned,

did nothing to disperse the crowd..

Negro guests were escorted home.
The next morning a group of

. south side citizens went to police

headquarters to demand protec-
tion, © Chief . Prendergast,

CIO convention at

had ~

insults at.

- orderly conduct.”

his =

deputy, and Captain Crane, ‘chief
of uniformed police,
available.”

were “un-

. That night a. mob Of about
200 gathered outside the house.
Policeman on hand refused to
take action. ‘During the night
stones were thrown at the build--
ing.

Thursday night the mob fever
rose rapidly. A crowd of 200
rushed the house, shouting, “Kill
the Jews.”
arrived. Still the mob was not
dispersed. Later stones began to
fly, windows were broken. Two
rock throwers were arrested, but
the stoning continued late ate
the night.

Other friends of the two fami-
lies—trade unionists and Progres-
sive party members—moved into
the crowd, quietly urging people
to go home. Two of the Pro-
gressives were jailed for “dis-
Others were
beaten by hoodlums in plain
sight of police. ;

At one point Friday night the
mob was estimated at 4,000. One
Progressive, a Jew, was beaten,

PACIFIC TRIBUNE —

Six carloads of police —

vencec! men as my ibroriners andl
as such I must help them in any
way I can when they are, in my
opinion, unjustly deprived of their
God-given freedom or denied their
God-given rights. If I did not
try to help them in such straits
I would be false to the teachings
of Christ and His Apostles which
I profess to follow and I would
richly deserve similar treatment
myself at a later date.

Not only in their interests and
for the upholding and protection
of their right, but in my own in-
terests and for the continued free
exercise. of my own God-given
rights I solemnly protest the in-
justice done to my 11 Communist
brothers and call for the immedi-
ate righting of that injustice. —

4 |

In conclusion I, would like to
quote and make my own the fol- —
lowing from The Time of the
Toad, by Dalton Trambo, which
appeared in the current issue of ~
the National Guardian.

“In the campaign ahead, we
shall have to depend - upon our
ability. to summon from its slum-
ber the immense devotion to con-
stitutional government which still
abides with the American people.
We «shall have to reassert the

~ dignity of the intellect’”—and I iy

might add the dignity of man.

“The legal principles which pro-.
tects against the force of the state
protects all. If a Communist
comes first under attack and is .
overwhelmed, the breach opened
by his fall becomes an avenue
for the advance of the enemy with
all his increased prestige upon
you. You need not agree with
the Communists while you engage
in his and your common defense.
You may indeed oppose him
with every honorable weapon in
your arsenal, dissociate yourself
from his theories and repudiate
his final objectives.

“But defend him you must.
for his defeat in the constitutional
battle involves the overturn of
principles which thus far have
stood as our principal barrier,
short of bloodshed, against fas-
cism’’—and may I add against
state tyranny and-the intimidation
encouraged. and promoted by,
powerful private vested interests,
including the corrupt and corrupt-
ing commercial press.’

Peekskill

several of his ribs broken. Police .
arrested 16 Progressives, three
hoodlums. The hoodlums were —

“accidentally” tossed into the cell
with one of the Progressives, a
student. They beat him up. Out-
Side the police station, after they —

had been bailed out, the arrested —

Progressives were attacked by
hoodlums, and one was slugged —
unconscious. Watching police .
did nothing. :

Mounting pressure on city offi-

_cials finally forced them to pre-

vent the. mob from gathering ~
again outside the Bindman-Sen-
nett apartment house, but thus
far Mayor Kennelly and his coun- —
cil have ignored demands for ~
steps to end racism. :

A week after the first we

“action, the Chicago Daily News

published an editorial condemn-
ing apparent police collusion. It
said: “A policeman explained to
one of our reporters that one
batch (of victims) were properly —
beaten because they were Com-
munists. “How do you know they

were Communists?’ the reporter __

‘Because they were
the policeman explained.”

inquired.
Jews,’

DECEMBER 2, 1919 — PAGE 5