Evening star., 1934-10-18
FEAR SINCLAIR
MAY Be LIABILITY
CaIifornians Believed Seek
ing DisavoWaI by Demo-
cratic Administration.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Californians, worried by what they
conceive to be an approaching dis
aster for their State through the pos
sible election as governor Of Upton
Sinclair. are beginning to tell their
friends in other parts of the coun-
try about 1t.
This may mean the beginning Of
movement urging upon President
Roosevelt and the national Democratic
administration that between now and
election there be q formal diSavowal
by Washington and the New Deal gen.
orally of any responsibility for the
policies Of the E. p. I. c. plan and
other Socialistic proposals.
Out in California apparently Mr..
Sinclair has won his nomination by
appealing to friends of Mr.. Roose-
welt. The New Deal vote, plus the
vote which thinks Mr.. Sinclair has a
panacea for all economic ills, has pro-
duced a fear that the Democratic
nominee will win out unless the ma
tional administration backs out.
May Prove Liability.
Why should the President and the
Democratic party nationally disasso-
ciate itself from Mr.. Sinclair? The
reason given is that as the flood of
pamphlets and reprints from Cali
fornia would indicate the Democratic
nominee may prove a national liability.
For it is apparent from the writings
of Upton Sinclair that at one time
or another in his life he has de-
po,,pood tho Catholic Ch,,rch and tho
Protestant Church and the institution
Of marriage in unmistakable terms.
ANY public man who holds views
about religion and marriage such as
Mr.. Sinclair is quoted on the reprints
from his voluminous writings could
not last long in national politics and
1t may be that the national leaders
will not wish to attach themselves to
such a candidate when they find out
what are his innermost views on some
of the questions that are simply su-
icidal for a candidate to discuss at all
It is true Mr.. Sinclair didn't say
any Of these things since he started
out to be the Democratic nominee for
Governor of California, but, on the
other hand, in political campaigns the
things a man wrote or said earlier
are brought out to prove what his real
attitude is when he isn't seeking votes
or what it might be when he no longer
has to seek them.
Print Excerpts From Writings.
The league which is opposing Mr..
Sinclair's election has recently re-
printed excerpts from his writings
giving the exact page from his books
Among the excerpts attributed to Mr..
Sinclair are the following:
Christianity has been what I have
shown in this book, the chief of the
enemies Of social progress
"And If the reader objects to my
having fooled him for a minute or
two, what will he say to the Christian
church which has been fooling him
for I,600 years?" ....
Speaking Of the Catholic Church,
Mr. Sinclair is quoted as calling it
the church of the servant girls" He
refers to Catholic hospital nurses as
slave sisters" He attacks the Cath
olic prayers as "incantations with
Lner Iranuc and ceaSeleSS mpOr-
tunity' and attacks the Popes and
the prelates Of the church on moral
grounds. 5a
As for the Protestant churches. he
says there are more than 100000 of
them and he calls them narrow,
ignorant, dogmatic and jealous" and
denounces great religions, saying
leach is a fortress of graft" Specific
attacks on the Christian Scientists as
a church Of the quacks" and upon
the Seventh-day Adventists have also
been published by Mr.. Sinclair.
The reprint which probably will
attract most attention Is that in
which Mr.. Sinclair attacks the insti-
tuition of marriage. He says:
"Of course, I know 1t is said that
marriages are made in heaven, and
that what God hath joined together
no man may put asunder. But it is
difficult for me to imagine that any
intelligent man may take this atti-
tude at the present day"
(Copyright. 1934J