The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1921-04-01
ASSERT ULSTER
D|SCORD IS DUE
T0PROPOGANDA
According to Findings of Com
mittee of One Hundred
POGROMS RESPONSIBLE
Promoted by Individuals Who
Sought Material Profits
From Results
POGROMS RESPONSIBLE

Washington, April 1.-Religious as
poets OF the troubles in ireland are
discussed in a report made public
here today which supplements the 30,-
000word findings of the Commission
Of the Comm ttee of One Hundred in
vestigating the Irish question. The
supplementary report made by the
Protestant members Of the Commits,
sion, summarizes the evidence present
ed at the hearings held here in No
vember, December and January, as
follows:
!. "Out side of a part of Ulster
Catholics and Protestants live in
peace and harmony and their politi
cal opinions are not primarily mat
ter OF religion.
2. Even in Ulster rel gious bigo
try is not by any means wholly spon
taneous, but is artihc'ally stirred UP
by those whose economic and polit cal
interests are served by dividing the
people.
3. while ii obviously lies beyond
our province to pass final Judgment
upon the various aspects of the Ulster
Issue, we have not only right but a
duty as American Protestants to de-
nounce the degradation of religion by
such programs as occurred last sum
mer. Upon this subject we owe it to
our fellow religion SITS both in Ameri-
ca and In Ulster, to speak plainly"
All the members of the commission,
excepting United States Senator
David |. Walsh Of Massachusetts,, who
were chosen by the committee to con
duct the inquiry are Protestants
These members are Jane Addams,
Hull House. Oh cago; Frederick c
Howe, former United States Commits
sioner OF immigration. New York;
James H. Maurer, president of Ameri-
can Federation of Labor of Pennsyl
vania; Major Oliver p. Newman, for
merly commissioner OF the District of
Columbia, United States Senator
George w Norris Of Nebraska. and
Rev. Norman Thomas Of New York.
mo examination Of the Irish stu
at on can ignore the relig Gus issue,
SAYS the report. 1T seemd peculiar
Nv appropriate that the Protestant
members should deal with the subject
in view OF the Overwhelming predomi-
nance of Roman Catholics in ireland
and the charge sonnet mes heard inI
Protestant circles that Republican
sentiment has its chief origin in
ecclesiastical agitation"
The only evidence before the COM
m 'ssion concerning serious religious
controversy resu ting in the destruc-
ton of life and property dealt with
the Ulster riots of the summer Of 1870
the report says. Unable to obtain
testimony from eye-w tnesses or any
member of societies devoted to the
cause of Protestant ascendency in
Ulster" the commission says 1t heard
the testimony of three ind yidual non
Catholics, two of whom were Ameri-
can citizens and the third "a British
citizen of Scotch Presbyterian stock
AS in the case of the major report the
test mony Of Witnesses taken before
this committee was made public at
the time 1t was given.
Referring to the Belfast disorders
beginning July 81, 1920 in which by
the end of August, Sc persons we're
killed, the comm ssion observed that
these riots between Professionals aud
Catholics in which Protestants were
the aggressors partook of the char
acter of Russian pogrom against the
Jews e@aot
One of the witnesses. Mrs. Annot
Robinson. the report said, declared
that in Ocotber 1920 she visited Ulster
and found that more than 10000 eX-
peled workers and Their families were
existing on relief" Some OF them,
the report sa d, we're expelled not on
ly from their jobs but from their
homes. The ylct ms, it continued
we're predominantly Catholic, though
among them we're Protestants suspect
ed Of labor, socialist or Sim Fein
sympathies.
The killing of District Commission
er Smyth in Cork, the election of 25
men who were not Orangemen' to
the Belfast City Council, whose total
membership is so; the alleged eXpul-
sion of 1000 nationalist workers from
the Belfast shipyards and tie de-
struct'o on Of the town Of Lisburn, just
outside Of Belfast were designated as
an appalling record Of a revival of re;
ligious strife"
"The Ulster pogrom,' the report
continued, were not primarily due to
spontaneous fiare-up of smoldering
bigctry but we're rather promoted by
those whose economic and pol tical in
terests we're opposed both to strong
labor union'sm and to Irish Republi-
canism. Certain manufacturers and
unionist politicians it was alleged,
had taken alarm at the solidarity of
labor. Protestant and atholc, shown
in the great sh pyard strike Of 1919.
A large Belfast manufacturer was
quoted as having said. Il know and
all the manufacturers in this city
know. that the trouble is not a relig-
ious trouble except as ii has been
fostered by them to serve Their poll.
tical and Their economic interests
I warned them a long time ago
that they were rousing up monster