\ HORTLY after the if
- had been convicted and sentence
to long prison terms and payment
* of heavy fines, a Catholic priest
: Spoke” out against’ the trial and
the verdict. Here is the text
of his speech as delivered io the
“In Defense of Dignity’ meeting

Sciences and Professions at St.

tobe 27:

American Communist leaders,

held by the Council of the Arts,
Nicholas Arena, New . York, on

bas

censure of any. kind. I am
written permission of my Bishop

While I am opposed to laissez ,
faire capitalism, 1 am not a Com-
munist. I do not believe in or
subscribe to the underlying _phil-
cosophy, the dialectic. materialism
and economic determination, of

materialistic Communism.

| recognize, however, that others
_ have a perfect right to believe in
or subscribe to materialistic Com-
munism, or to any other economic
or political system that. they
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 ‘0

them, or advocate or: use. coercion,
force or ae in ye propagation.

‘ ne am on ‘this platform onsen :
@ because I am sure that right was

violated last week in the persons
of 11

and sentenced to, prison, nomin-

ally because they ‘advocated force
or violence to secure their objec-

tive, but in reality because they
“were Communists.

were tried for advocating force
and violence. I am not satisfied |

either that this charge was proven

against them.

lieve that: they were tried and con-

Communists. They were _ tried
_and convicted not for criminal
acts, but for holding and express-
: ing ideas that are at oie un-
sj popular. ;

i . cupied itself mostly with establish-
ing ~the fact that they eld and

expressed Communistic:

AM x PRIEST of ‘fe Catholic Chivehs

‘good standing in the Catholic Church’ and 1 inte

men who were. convicted —

I am not satisfied that they

Like many Vothier people, T be
“ e ~< H

-. -victed precisely because they were

eas. -

“By FA THER

a U.S. citizen by birth.

to be absent from that diocese.

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

gin Genre oS

“As a priest . who believes in-

ee for everyone to think
and act as. he pleases, and to
hold and express, or propagate

any views he chooses, as long as
\

Pickets ‘at. Foley Square during the ‘nial of FU. S. Communist Toads

|

hy a priest
should defend the 2

- rights: of Communists

CLARENCE DUFFY™

ey am 1 neither A Rice nor under eal

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

nd to retain that good standing. ,

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 conviction and
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 Chrno charity

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

~ 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 he. If we are

Christians, we must love all men,

look upon them and treat them
‘as our brothers, and do unto
them as we would that they
wovld do unto us.

As, a Ohidiian priest I look

God-given rights.

upon these 11 convicted and sen-
tenced men as my brothers and
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
If I did not
try to help them in such straits
I would be false to thé teachings
of Christ and His Apostles which
I profess to follow and I would
richly deserve
myself at a later date.

Not only in their interests and
for the upholding and protection
of their mght, 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.

In conclusion I would like to
quote and make my own the fol-
lowing from The Time of the
Toad, by Dalton Trumbo, 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
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 ee

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,

similar treatment —

short of bloodshed, against fas-

cism’’—and may [add against
state tyranny and the intimidation
encouraged and promoted by
powerful private vested interests,
including the corrupt and corrupt-
ing commercial press.”

Chicago race riot compared to Peekskill

‘ aes Vancouver daily papers

were devoting columns to
syndicated articles relating the
supposed | “hardship” of life be-
hind the “Tron Curtain,” Chicago, ©
in the words of the National
Guardian, was suffering’ “q hor-
ror equalling and in some respects
exceeding the horror of Peeks-
kill.” - ‘But the same Vancouver
papers “which. never miss 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 Jargest city
‘worth. even a mention. Here, con-

densed from the National Guar- |

dian, is the story of what hap-

:
ef

ARON BINDMAN is sseeretary
ot of Local 208,

Longshoremen’s ae \Warehouse-

at CIO).
“The long: ae Bit hile ‘oc. men’s Union (

William Sen-
nett is a salesman of sports:

goods.
World War II.

International :

Both are veterans of
Both are Jews.

The two recently: bought a two-
apartment building on Chicago’s
south side, and on “November 8
-Bindman “held a small reception

LOvee Hawajian member | of his ~

union who was on his way home
from the CIO convention at
Cleveland. jHe
stewards from, Local 208, tes
ing eight UA EROSE, us

As if by signal, a crowd ae
‘ed in front of the building. Men

‘and boys ran through the neigh-

borhood. saying Negroes had
bought the house. Some said
Jews had bought it for Negroes.

shouted.
They thréat-

The mob
Negroes and Jews.

ened to burn the house, attack

the occupants. Bindman called

police,

The next .morning a group of
south side citizens went to. police
headquarters to demand protec-
tion. Chief Prendergast, his

‘take action.
invited 18 shop ,

arrived.

insults» at-

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.

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
During the night
stones were thrown at the build-
ing. ; ‘s "f

Thursday night the mob fever
rose rapidly. A crowd of 200

“rushed the house shouting, “Kill

the Jews.” Six carloads of police
Still the mob was not
dispersed, Later stones began to
fly, windows were broken. Two
rock throwers were arrested, but
the stoning continued late into
the night. |

Other friends of the two fami-
lies—trade unionists and Progres-
sive party members—moved into

“the crowd, quietly urging peoples
‘to go home.

Two of the Pro-
gressives were jailed for “dis-"
orderly conduct.” 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,

\

arrested 16 Progressives,

‘said:

several of his ribs broken. Police
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

hocdlums, and one was slugged
' Watching “police ©

unconscious.

‘did nothing.

Mounting pressure on city offi-
cials finally forced thgm 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
steps to end racism.

A week after the first mob~
action, the Chicago Daily News ©

published an editorial condemn-
ing apparent police collusion. It
“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
inquired. ‘Because they were
Jews,. the policeman explained.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 2, 1949 — PAGE 5

ignored demands for ;

iz