The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-02-09

REV. JOSEPH M. DONNELLY turning jumped on the payroll of the Spanish Reds.
 AS for journalists, I will state that some of them have been mere vendors of lies and propaganda who did not bring to their office the high regard for truth and ob- jective reporting that should be characteristic of journalism. That is a strong indictment but 1t is not too strong.
 Herbert Matthews
 You mention Herbert Matthews, the Madrid correspondent of the New York Times, who from his accounts seems to be so busy, dodging shells which just miss him, that he seems to miss most of what has been going on. However he gets his story-which usually gets the front page of the New York Times. The stories of William A. Carney, who follows the forces of General Franco and whose re- ports, if you are interested enough to check them, have been proven by the facts, now history, to have been more accurate, must follow MT. Matthews or be satisfied with. an inside page. May say that think MT. Matthews reached low in unfair and indecent offense when he supplied blanks for the suggested profanity of a Red mili- tiaman whose slurs were directed to General Franco. He has unlim- tied confidence in the troops he follows. Theirs is always the vic- tory, physical or moral. But unfor- tunately for MT. Matthews the vic- tories are like the man who mounts his ass backwards-as often as the beast retreats, he goes forward.
 As for Jay Allen, he could, with as much truth, have sent back re- ports of the battle of Bunker Hill. He "quit" the Chicago Tribune af- ter his scoop of the massacre Of Badajoz" which he saw with his own eyes and which was sent to this country over the forged sig nature of F. Reynolds Packard (Mr. Packard's testimony and which massacre" was published according to Douglas Jerrold, in the French Leftist Press two days before Badajoz fell. And Jay AL len who made the scoop" ad- mitted that he did not arrive in Badajoz until eight days after the massacre by the Nationalists is supposed to have taken place. Now Jay has a new employer but he is still working for the Spanish Reds. He defeated Franco Con pa perl many times in Spain-now he is defeating him in America. He goes about giving lectures, as he did in the Open Forum of the Sec ond Methodist Church in New Haven, attacking the Catholic Church and everything connected with it, using statements such as, 'The Pastoral Letter of the Span ish Bishops is lying document"
 Our Ambassadors
 May we conclude this indict- ment of a large part of our Amer ican press with the thoughtful words of our American ambassa- dor to Spain, Irwin Laughlin. And in passing it is remarkable that both MT. Irwin Laughlin and MT. Ogden Hammond, our American ambassadors to Spain, 1925-1933 and whom we may presume know what is going on in Spain, are solidly behind General Franco in his fight to drive out the Reds. But MT. Laughlin states: Since the beginning of the civil war in Spain public opinion in the Unit ed States has been strongly con- fused as to the facts of the situa- ton which have been artfully mis- represented by anti-democratic forces masquerading as democ- racy."
 Lies! Propaganda! AS Paul Mall lon (N. Y. American, May 3, 1938 "The Loyalists may be losing the war in Spain but they are not los ing it in America!" He says they have "the best propaganda ma- chine exhibited hereabouts since the World war"
 MT. Smith states that Franco has stated that only Catholicism will be tolerated in new Spain and already a law has been passed prohibiting any but Catholics from teaching in the schools" MT. Smith, it is the propagation of such lies that has betrayed the opinion of the American people. You may be quoting Dorothy Thompson in the Herald Tribune four days before you wrote your letter-but 1t was lie when Dor othy Thompson stated it.
 United Christian Front
 The truth $ that the National minister of education has pulp lished a decree at Burgis stating that Protestant parents are free to send their children to teachers and schools of their own choice. But to refute your lie I shall cali upon non- Catholics, in fact Prot estant clergymen. Unfortunately they must be drafted from Eng land where there has been more honesty given to the Civil war. There is in England what is called the United Christian Front Com mittee, the executives of which are for the most part prominent cler- gymen and all members of Brit ish churches. The committee was formed with "a view to present a United Front against the Reds and to deal with certain fallacies