Evening star., 1938-11-15

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his religious conscience refuses to
be assimilated. Haman hated the
Jew and prepared a gallows for his
hanging, and in the end the gibbet
was not for Mordecai. The final
result was recorded in the words.
so they hanged Haman on the gall
lows that he had prepared for
Mordecai" This story remains a
spiritual parable applicable to the
present debacle. We all wish to be-
lieve that the German people prefer
to accept the role of Esther rather
than the role of Haman, and in so
doing to save themselves and the
world from the dreadful reaction
that always follows after injustice
and cruelty. All good people may
pray that this may be the religious
outcome.
Mr.. HOover-Americans are and
should be indignant at the terrible
outbreak of Jewish persecution in
Germany and the attacks upon the
Catholic Church. That is an attack
upon free worship. 1t all represents
an outbreak of brutal intolerance
which has no parallel in modern
history except possibly the destruc-
ton of religious worship in Russia
by the Bolsheviks. And the shock
comes to us in America because of
the high appreciation of German
standards of civilization which the
American people have always held.
This outrage does not represent the
German peoples; it does not repre-
sent the kind of people who COM
prise millions of our fellow citizens
OF German origin whom we love and
respect; 1t does not represent a race
whose kindly fable of Santa Claus
we tell to our children: whose
magnificent music delights our
people; whose literature and poetry
our youngsters study; whose philoso-
ply engages our scholars. The peo-
pie who themselves gave birth to the
Reformation is not a cruel and in
tolerant people. They're not the
kind Of people who would instigate
or direct these horrors. That comes
squarely from the Nazi oppressor
under whom the German people are
living.
Americans have more than a usual
right amongst nations of this world
10 make this protest. It was the
intervention of America in the max
ing of the peace treaty which enor-
mously modified the injustice OF
those people. 1t was Americans
who at that time prevented the
dlsmemberment of Germany. II
was Americans who insisted that
Germany should have food after
the armistice. 1t was American
organizations that procured and
distributed that food '"..
This rise of intolerance today
the suffering being inflicted upon
the innocent and helpless people
grieve every decent American. 1t
raises our every sense of indigna-
ton and repentance. 1t makes us
fearful for the whole progress of
civilization, and it is our hope that
those springs of tolerance and
morals of human compassion which
lie deep in the German people may
yet rise to control of Germany. But
in the meantime our condemnation
of these leaders should be without
reserve. They're bringing to Ger
many moral isolation from the en-
tire world.
The Rev. Robert I. Cannon, S. ].
president of Fordham University
To most of us the degradation of
Germany today is perhaps too per-
sonal a thing. We have come in
contact with individual victims
We have been outraged by the ruth
lessness of individual officials =
Hearing these individual cries OF
pain day after day has brought the
situation so close to some of us that
we can very readny l)ae perspective
We may sometimes recall the OBJ
vious political significance of a
spectacle which shows the destruc-
tion for other people of all that we
cherish in this ever more dear
United States, but we nearly always
forget the eternal significance that
reaches back beyond our Constitu-
ton and the Bill of Rights. For
the situation in Germany today is
not merely political or economic
" But there is an influence at
work in the Third Reich mightie1
and more sinister than greed fol-
either place or gold. What Cardinal
Faulhaber and Cardinal Innitze,
can see through broken psnes OF
glass is the same influence that