The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-10

There are two coin1nitteeS m America today working to defend America. They differ only In method. One believes 1t can defend America by slaughtering American youth 5000 miles away, while the other thinks Washington's policy of no foreign entanglementS the prop or method. The one puts British interests first the other insigtS that American interests should be up- peTmost. The whole thing Savors of the Whigs and Tories Of Revolu. tionary War days.
 Tuesday evening your paper car. ried an article by Miss Curtiss. She is undoubtedly ( member of the Committee to Defend Britain. That is really what that committee stands for; If by some remote chance America gains nttle-well o. K, they won't complain. How ever, some of her statements bear correction. She said, among other things, England, the nation which gave us our language, our love of liberty, our representative govern ment". Well, she gave us our lal- guage, but, how we have improved itl However, there seems to Do some difference Of opinion about her giv- ing Us our love of liberty and our representative government. Why dc you imagine one of our great pa- triotG called out In public meeting T care not what others think but as for me, give me liberty or give me death". It certainly wasn't be- cause he was surrounded by liberty
 -that would not have made sense Now as to representative govern ment. Why was the Revolutionary War fought? The colonistS said Taxation without Representation Could they have been wrong and Miss CurtiSs right2 She said Eng land gave Us our representa- tive government. It seems to me that representative government was dear- ly bought by the colonists in Q seven years war against this same England.
 Miss Curtiss;s statement, "they gave us religious liberty unknown elsewhere, calls for proof. I'll say they dadl There Is . slight error, however--it should have read re- ligiouS persecution unknown else- where. It has been my idea that we owe our religious liberty to Thomas Jefferson who wrote 1t in. to the Constitution. Following are some samples of Miss Curtiss,s ideas of religious liberty. The treat ment of the Pilgrims drove them from the homes they loved in Eng land, first to Holland and finally to the wilderness in America. The first winter, terrible as 1t was, was still better than their treatment in England at that time, King James refused to 90 back in spring. An other example of religious liberty granted by England Is the story oi the Puritan Exodus. The king oi England at that time, Qing James told the story very eloquently in his own words, They will conform or will harry them out of the land. Well, he did, they came by hundreds to this country. Can anyone con. Strue that to be religious Mbertyi Yet Miss CurtiSS says we owe oul religious liberty to England. Ther there was another group, the Quak- CTS. Their. story is a sad one. Out of pure sympathy William Penn became a convert. joined their banc and finally secured a haven of peace for them in America, free from tho cruelty of the English. Last but by no means least, the history oi the persecution of the Catholics al the hands of the English. I'll guar antee you there will be plenty oi cruelties and tortures in that story They too. enticed a sympathetic leader to work for their cause. Lort Baltimore, a convert to the Catholic religion, settled Maryland as ( refuge for all persecuted people ir England. Certainly this isn't very convincing proof of the statement made by Miss Curtiss that we owl our religious liberty to England.
 There were other inaccuracies fl her article. She said Those frs settlers in America sailed witt no ideas Of conquest :" Some ol them dAd of course but not the Eng. fish. How about the seizure Of Man. hattan from the Dutch?--H0w ahou seizure Of Canada from the FTenehi There vera three countries hOldinl land in America in its early his' tory. England drove them out Oni by one until ct the tiEna Of Ehl Revolutionary War the thirteeT colonies belonged to England. eht had acquired them by CONQUEST The entire British Empire was bull by conquest, get Miss Curtis con, dcnes that on the part of Englanf and condemns tt when other Euro. psAn countries ag@ guilty.
 kt ie pFesumiptla0ils for MlaG Cur klGe e anyone else to expect Ire land k0 ela9aneeF her eafsty fol England. tho mnst freaeheT0lls en- eHF Nha hae eReF had. oenluFial MMM. &NMNmss# RAA an all 6tmnm haMSa M