Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1941-03-14

tlanS IN concentration camps Tor
every Jew. That brave soldier of
the cross, Martin Niemoller, is not
alone. His next neighbor is a
Catholic priest. If there is not
liberty for all there is not liberty
for anyone. This is the very es-
sence of democracy, my friends,
that it is true that everyone who
promotes racial discrimination or
religious prejudice is attacking
very directly your liberty and mine
and your right and mine to wor-
ship God as we please.
Again we may look across the
waters and see what is the terrible
consequence of fostering hatred
against any group. The Russian
communists started by hating and
distrusting everyone. Only yester-
day we read of how faithful and
lifetime members of the party
were read out of it's membership
because of the distrust of those in
control. Little did those men who
were purged in the first great blood
bath of Hitler suppose when they
started to follow him that they
were signing their own death war
rants in preaching hatred and pref
udice, but it always turns out that
way. 1t always has and it always
will. Those of us who love Ameri-
ca and who are willing really and
truly to give our lives for our coun-
try must stand like the rock of
ages against any effort to raise or
to continue any racial or religious
barriers.
l have taken the situation of the
Negroes as an illustration. But
there are other signs. There are
people who want to stir up feeling
against the Jews, as Hitler did.
They serve the same purpose as
Hitler by whatever name they go
or however they operate. l need
not go into detail for you know
what mean. But do want to say
some pretty direct things about
what is happening to you and me
in the meantime. Perhaps you still
think it is no concern of yours, that
this matter involves only the Ne
groes and the Jews; but it makes
far more difference to those who
allow persecution than to those who
prosecute. In the first place it is
a moral difference. / should rather
be Pastor Niemoller today than the
brutaGzed guard who watches over
his prison cell. I should rather be
the Negro discharged from the
navy for unftness than the officer
who signed the discharge, or the
chaplain who refused to delete the
word "nigger" from a show he pro-
duced for the entertainment of the
men. l should sooner be beside
Jesus Christ on the cross than sit
ting beside Plate in the seat of
judgment.
Jesus said something to the eff
feet that there would always be
trouble but it would go hard with
the person who made trouble for
people. That is a fundamental
truth of God. Trouble is caused by
fires and earthquakes and auto
mobile accidents and somehow we
are able to bear it. Believe me, my
friends, one can bear even the most
acute trouble, even bitter persecu-
ton, and still remain a child of God.
But you can't prosecute people or
allow people to be prosecuted or
Disseminated against and main
tain your relationship as child Of
God. It were better indeed for us
; that mill stone were tied around
our necks and we were drowned
in the uttermost depths of the sea
: than that we should stand by while
7 these things go on and we know il
and do nothing.
The corporate result destroys de,
t mocracy, too. Look upon the south
2 where through the years every eff
t fort has been made to keep the
Y Negro from voting. Who suffers
t most? You and / do. Only a tin!
= fraction of the people are alloweC
2 to vote, so that a political machin,
t can be held in the unprincipleC
e grip of a single individual and mel
: stay on and on in the Senate unit
all the important committees ar
n headed by men selected in most un
q democratic ways. Our foreigl
h policy is in the hands Of men NOR
" accustomed to relationships tha
to democracy because we have per
mitted the fourteenth and the fiji
teenth amendments to be flouted.
# Is there a principle that apple
in this matter? Of course there il
7 1t is the principle of the dignity @
|