Evening star., 1953-09-15
CIericsAided Red Cry
To DemobiIize After
War, Matthews Says
By the Assoeiated Press


J. B. Matthews says that
thousands of clergymen
adopted the Communist slogan.
Bring the Boys Home" and so
helped speed United States de-
mobilization after World War II.
Mr.. Matthews contended. in a
Dumont televiSion program last
night, that the rapid dissipation
of military strength came about
largely "aS a result of one of the
most comprehensive, intensive
and extensive campaigns the
Communist Party ever put on in
the United States"
Mr.. Matthews was named ex-
ecutive director of the Senate
Investigating subcommittee sew
eral months ago, but Chairman
Mccarthy accepted his resigna-
tion after a furore over maga-
zine article Mr.. Matthews wrote.
In it Mr.. Matthews said. "the
largest single group supporting
the Communist apparatus in the
United States today is composed
of Protestant clergymen." He
also wrote that the great major
ity of Protestant clergymen are
loyal.
Davies Disputes Testimony.
His remark last night came
after the Rev. A. Powell Davies,
Washington Unitarian minister,
said that Congress had acted
"recklessly and precipitously" in
the postwar demobilization and
that this showed "a lot of people
were wrong about the Commu-
nistS in 1945-including the
Government"
DR.. Davies contested teSti-
mony given the House Un-Amer-
ican Activities Committee by
former Communist Joseph Zach
Kornfeder of New York that
about 600 United States clergy
men are Communist Party mem
bers and several thousand more
are fellow travellers.
The Reds and fellow travellers
among the clergy, DR.. Davies
said, are so few that you could
count them on the fingers of
both hands" He said churches
and educational institutions
would clean house themselves, if
given valid evidence.
Meanwhile there were more
protests against accusations made
to the Un-American Activities
Committee.
Bishop Denies Charge.
In Boston, Methodist Bishop
John Wesley Lord said that
without any mental reservation
or equivocation, I deny the
charge that there are Commu-
nists within the ministry of the
Methodist church."
He said the charges were made
by men who might be sincere
but who are ignorant of the
claims of the Christian gospel
and of what it means to take
that gospel seriously"
His statement said three
Methodist ministers had been
mentioned in testimony, the Rev.
Harry F. Ward, the Rev. Jack
R. McMichael and the Rev. Lee
H. Ball. The bishop continued: +:
The first two have made public
denial that they are now or
ever have been Communists.
The third is known to me as a
Christian minister with a pas
sion for social justice"
Cites Anti-Red Record.
The Rev. Charles Webber, who
has a community relations as
signment in Detroit with the
CIO, said he has a record of
anti-Communist activities dat
ing back to 1884. He said:
Il have never been a Com
munist Sympathizer or a Com
munist party member. Any
testimony charging me with &C
tivities under Communist party
direction is false, lying testi-
mony."
In New York, Miss Margaret
Forsyth, former Columbia pro-
feSSor of religious education, said
that naming her in connection
with a plan to get Communism
into the Methodist Church was
lust ridiculous"
Il have never had any con-
nection whatever with Com
munism," she said. II am alb
solutely violently opposed to
Communism in every form"
The Rev. Alison j. Smith said
at Stamford, Conn:
Il am not now and never
have been or ever expect to be
in any way connected with the
Communist Party. I am an
anti-Communist and always
have been"