The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-11-30

cies. On numerous occasions, other than the last two, he has directly and by insinuation conducted a campaign of vicious islander against Jews and Communists as also Roosevelt, the New Deal, trade unions and everything else possibly connected with progress. And in this respect he has used methods much like those of Adolf Hitler of whom he is a studiouS follower. @
 Therefore it was no surprise what ever that when the brute Hitler was arousing the deepest scorn of the people of. our country Rev. Charles Coughlin should have come to his defense.
 With unmistakable intentions and with falsified figures, borrowed from Nazi sources, the radio priest pro- ceeded with scurrilous attack on the Jewish people. He offered the anti-Semitic theory by which he hopes to sell: Hitlerism to Ameri- cans-the theory that Nazi brutality is merely a s"defense mechanism against Communism.
 Would Father Coughlin dare to pretend that the recent gangster outrages against Cardinal Faulhaber and Cardinal Innitzer are merely the defense mechanism" of Nazism to the teachings of Catholicism?
 Coughlin, like Hitler, urges pro- gram of anti-C Communism. Hitler also started his attack on democ- racy by attacking the Communists. That is the essence of Hitler's anti Communism. The destruction of all possible avenues of opposition, of liberals, pacifists, trade unionists, Jews and Catholics.
 In our own country there are many people of the same ilk as Father Coughlin. They would well come such anti-C Communism. MT. Dies and his Tory supporters are of that group. Such a program of persecution would make it pos sible for them to dispose of trade union organizations, the wages and hours bill, the Wagner act, John L. Lewis, the New Deal and even Pres ident Roosevelt by way of the anti Communist route.
 Such program is only the pre- Jude to the end of democracy. It is only part of larger campaign against everything and everybody progressive. It is unAmerican. The people who sponsor it are the real enemies of democracy.
 The Communist party is neither dangerous nor subversive. It is small party engaged with all its energy to build a united front of progressive forces and institutions in America, sworn to the defense and extension of democracy and the safeguarding of the gains made by the people under the New Deal. It is against faSciSm and for peace.
 There is nothing subverSive about this. It is program already be- ing supported by millions of Amer ican non- Communists, including our Catholic population. With such a program we are confident we can stand and pass with honor the most rigid test of Americanism.
 For Catholic Americans there can be no blinking of this sinister fact, that Coughlin and forces similar to him are busily betraytng democracy and the Catholic people to the trap of Hitlerism.
 Father Coughlin by his speeches of the last week has made himself a hero in Hitler's eyes. "The Ger man hero in America for the mo- ment is Rev. Charles E. Coughlin because of his radio speech repre- senting Naziism as a defensive front against Communists" reports the New York Times of Nov. 2.
 The man who is "hero" to Hit- Ter can only be a dangerous enemy to the Catholic people and to all democracy-loving Americans.
 COMMUNIST PARTY OF WATER
 BURY,
 PAT South Main street.