The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1952-09-06
Kelly Commended For Conducting
cIeon Contest For Reelection

Attorney General F-2ncis E.
Kelly has received a great many
endorsements in his campaign
for denomination and reelection
and because Of the clean honest
which he has conducted and is
going to continue to conduct, he
has won the admiration Of voters
of all political affiliations.
An editorial which has attract
ed wide attention and which APP
peared in the August 1852, edi-
ton Of the Catholic Mirror, the
newspaper for the Diocese of
Springfield, which includes all
the cities and towns in Western
Massachusetts,, follows, under the
heading, THE GOOD FIGHT
Attorney General Francis E.
Kelly is to be commended for his
vigorous and successful defense
of religious freedom in the State
of Massachusetts. After a long
Legislative battle by his no-sec-
tartan bylaw comrlitte, conpos-
ed Of Assistant Attorneys General
Lyman w. Radovsky, Lenehan
O'Connell and David H. Stuart,
he has rescinded a number Of an
ti-religious laws passed by GER
tain towns in the State.
In 1881 the town Of Weston de-
creed that religious teaching by
private or sectarian schools or
colleges was prohibited. Weston
passed the law a few years after
the establishment of Regis Col
1ege, a Jesuit institution, in that |
community. The same Weston by |
law was adopted, word for word, |
by the town of Dover in 1945, |
when the Dominican Order was
seeking to establish . chapel and |
priory there for the training of |
Dominican students.
After a two-year legal fight,
the Attorney General was sue
cessful in multiplying the Dover /
Law. His efforts were upheld by |
a Supreme Court decision. Since
that decision was handed down,
on July 3, 1851, the Attorney
Generals Office has been urg-
ing the authorities of Weston to
remove the 1881 bylaw. This has
now been done.
But bigotry never dies. Two
days after the Supreme Court
decision; in favor of Attorney
General Kelly's action against the
Dover law, the Rev. Ockenga of
the Park Street Congregational
Church in Boston, made public
communication to the Attorney
General in which he asked three
questions: u Has Massachusetts,
the right to let the Bradley W.
Palmer estate in Topsfield to the
House Of Good Shepherd; o
Will the property soon be sold or
given to the Archbishop; 81
What are the terms of this gift?
The Attorney Generals answer
was prompt and decisive. The
House Of the Good Shepherd is a
non-sectarian Institution and the
Sisters in charge of the girls sent
there by the Commonwealth only
wanted the Palmer mansion as a
vacation home for the girls.
Attorney General Kelly de-
serves the praise not only of
Catholics but of Americans of ali
faiths. The good fight he has
fought and won is for the benefit
Of US all. His selection of a non
sectarian legal bylaw commit
tee to be the vanguard of the
battle points up the motivation
of his action the defense and
extension Of the American prin-
ciple Of religious freedom moi
for any particular group but for
every American end Of
editorial.
Attorney General Kelly also
has the endorsements Of more
than 100 religious leaders of the
Catholic, Protestant and Jewish
faiths because Of his non-sectari-
an record of accomplishments.
Included among the many
other endorsements recently re-
ceived by Attorney General Kelly
is one from William M. Prend-
ible, Clerk Of the Superior Crini-
nal Court Of Suffolk County for
Al nnrt On r.-ar- rt.hicL nndnrse