The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-08-07
PEGLER WRONG
AGAIN.!

Our Sunuay NlSlCOr, weekly pa
per published at Huntington, Ind, has
a column called Fright or Wrong"
which takes the vitriolic columnist,
WestbroolS Pegler, to task for his
false statements concerning Commun-
| ism in its connection with Jews and
Catholics.
The column in part follows:
Westbrook Pegler confesses that he
has run into something that puzzles
him. Imagine that! A columnist
who isn't ready and willing to offer
an infallible decision on any and
every subject discussed. Sounds like
heresy to the trade. But Pegler's
dilemma isn't as inexplainable as one
would be led to believe.
In recent column he leads off
with a partly false word picture OF
the evil propaganda which associates
all Jews with Communism, and ac-
cuses some Catholics of being parties
to that campaign of libel. The accu-
sation, as far as we know, is false
We know of no responsible Catholic
, priest or layman, who has ever
charged that all Jews are Commun
;sts, or that Communism is merely {
; Jewish plot. There are those wht
| have been intemperate on this sub
iect, but even they have not failed tt
distinguish between Jews who arr
faithful to their religious beliefs ant
Communistic or atheistic Jews. NJ
Jew who is faithful to his religion
md we know many such-can be ;
= Communist. The same of course i
, true of a Catholic. And therein lie
r the answer to Pegler's question.
= Pegler notes that "such name
as Hogan, Curran, Ryan, Cannon
Connolly, Dunn, Bridges O'Conno
t Madden, Foster and Quill (are) o.
o he roster of those who are eithe
6 avowed Communists Of one stripe o
another or so closely associated wit
n Communists and so faithful to tn
party line as to be indistinguishabl
- from the veriest bolo in the Kren
lin"
y He further notes that "men VIII
o )ear these Irish names are among tn
n most active and militant advocate
md fighters on behalf of the Con
i nunist program, and the fact ths
4 iome of them are said to be practit
I ng Catholics only confuses the cor
'usion." We're glad Pegler inserte
: hat phrase "said to be- for it al
:, iwers his question too. They al
g said to be" perhaps, but they aren'
= They can't be. The late Pope Piu
+ XI said that no Catholic could be
d Socialist. And that goes for Con
nunism too.
D In listing the Irish names of know
II Communists, Pegler says that
j. Should like to know whether this il
licates an identity Of Communism al
frishness." Pegler, of course, know
he answer. 1t doesn't. But one {
he reasons why Communism hs
}pread so rapidly in the Unite
'tates is that our people have the ide
y hat all Reds are foreigners, wit
Z ong boards, shaggy appearances, al
:, lnkempt clothes. The opposite
~ rue. Communists here are in al
= ,earance the same as other citizen
They even lay claim to "twentie'
~ century Americanism." They a
descendants of Jews, Irishmen, En-
/ ishmen, Frenchmen, Poles, German
y, tic. white on the outside but Red
e and ycllow-on the in.
,e The Church lays no claim to Il
10 anctity Of all its members. The
o- have been thousands Of apostates al
A. "allen-aways. There are other tho
ands who are careless and indiffe
Id mt in the practice of their religio
VI pegler should know that. He shou
to be Catholic but, we've frequent
y been told, he doesn't "work at it." l.
If him and others judge the Church
l. ler teachings and her loyal member
" and not by the way some so-call
nf Catholics DON'T follow those teac
-, 'ngS.