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PART I ^ ^ 

Communism in the United States 

THIS report on Communism in the United States, requested by the 1936 meeting of the Bishops, results from studies 
made in their dioceses by order of the Bishops and from a 

general study made by the N.C.W.C. Social Action Department. 
The following dioceses responded to a questionnaire: Boston, 
Detroit, Dubuque, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Port-
land (Oreg.), Santa Fe, St. Louis, San Francisco, Albany, 
Amarillo, Baker City, Belleville, Belmont Abbey, Bismarck, 
Boise, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Charleston, Corpus Christi, Dallas, 
Davenport, Duluth, Fargo, Fort Wayne, Galveston, Great Falls, 
Indianapolis, Monterey-Fresno, La Crosse, Lafayette, Leaven-
worth, Little Rock, Louisville, Nashville, Natchez, Ogdensburg, 
Pittsburgh, Portland (Me.), Raleigh, Richmond, St. Augustine, 
St. Cloud, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Seattle, Spokane, Spring-
field (111.), Toledo, Wheeling, Wichita, Wilmington. 

The Communist Party is the American section of the Mos-
cow Communist International Party. It is the strongest, ablest 
and most active organization seeking common ownership in the 
United States and seeking it through a revolution led by a co-
hesive party. There are other small groups of ex-party Trotsky-
ists and followers of Lovestone, and even a small number in the 
Socialist Party who hold the Communist idea; a few Anarchists; 
a remnant of the old I.W.W.'s, seeking a communist revolution 
through labor unions, but active in only one reporting diocese of 
an east central state; and the doctrinaire and moribund Socialist 
Labor Party, holding a mixed I.W.W. and Communist position. 
Besides these are the dwindling Socialists divided mainly be-
tween reformism accompanied by a strong public ownership bias 
and full common, ownership to be, however, voted into power; the 
more reformist League for Industrial Democracy; the Methodist 
Federation for Social Service and, a federation, the United Chris-
tian Council for Democracy, both of them non-revolutionary but 
collectivist; the less collectivist Church League for Industrial 
Democracy (Episcopalian); and perhaps more than a hundred 
thousand unattached people who vaguely hold that a very large 
amount of public ownership or even complete common ownership 
is a somewhat remote necessity, among whom some even con-
sider revolution the sole possible method of attaining it. These 

8 



4 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

are not to be disregarded. Yet the Communist Party almost pre-
empts the field of revolutionary Communism now. 

FIRST PERIOD OF THE PARTY 

The Party, having a paper following of some 50,000 East 
European immigrants when it was organized in 1919 by left-wing 
Socialists, soon dwindled and until the Depression stayed around 
7,500 members. During that time it was strongly revolutionary, 
rigid in its ideology and methods and against all other organiza-
tions and movements. Yet even then it created several mass-
organizations as tools of the party, e.g., the Young Communist 
League, International Labor Defense, the International Workers' 
Order and the Workers' International Relief. While the effect 
was slight, it was preparing a wider acceptance of its tenets, 
particularly among intellectuals. This situation obtained until 
the Depression began. 

SECOND PERIOD 

During the worst of the Depression and before 1935, idea 
and practice remained the same except that the Party empha-
sized agitational organization among the new unemployed and 
ex-soldiers and created temporary bodies to lead them. It con-
tinued to put revolution in the forefront, stay much by itself, 
and oppose all reforms proposed by others, e.g., the NRA. But 
it gained. It gained from 7,500 in 1930 to 9,000 in '31 to 14,000 
in '32 to 18,000 in '33 to 26,000 in '34. 

PRESENT PERIOD 

Late in '34 and definitely in '35, under orders from Moscow 
it changed its face. The rise of Hitler in a country where a 
strong Party flourished, the delay of the "revolution," fear of 
suppression, and Russian foreign policy dictated the change. 
Now it wanted friends for the Party and friends for Russia. Lit-
tle is said publicly of revolution. Reform is to the fore. The 
Party and the members seek to form or join all kinds of organi-
zation for agitation and reform and to do so wherever possible 
as Communists. The Party poses as American. 

It has passed from 26,000 in '34 to 30,000 in '35 to 41,000 in 
'36 (minus an unknown leakage) and to a little over 40,000 in 
June '37. 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 5 

BASIS OP MEMBERSHIP ESTIMATES 

The figures are the Party's figures. They mean members 
only and not non-party Communists or near-Communists, Social-
ists, or "sympathizers," or remotely or proximately potential 
Communists. Acceptance of the figures seems safe. Inner Party 
articles and speeches confirm public statements. Comparable 
figures given for local members by both Bishops' reports and 
Party agree. The small Communist vote in '36—some 80,000— 
did not mean, therefore, many hidden Communists, but the vote 
of another ticket by supposed or real "sympathizers." 

After claiming 40,000 members in June '37 in inner Party 
reports, Party spokesmen in August publicly claimed 55,000 and 
since then 50,000. The discrepancy seems due to a double-count 
of part of the members of the Young Communist League, which 
was being changed into a semi-United Front organization, since 
some Young Communist League members were already Party 
members. The Party is now campaigning to get 10,000 increase. 

Whether 50,000 or the far more probable 40,000 is the num-
ber, neither the Depression nor the new Reformist and cooper-
ating tactics has so far gained many actual members. The 
Party is temporarily static—but not as to activities. Indeed 
Party spokesmen ascribe the static total membership of the last 
year or so to such intense activity by the members that they 
overlooked recruitment. Apart from the effects of Russia's 
"purges," this seems to be true. If so, as in the past a growth 
in the future can be expected. There is evidence, however, both 
in inner Party reports and the Bishops' surveys that often un-
employed Party members leave when they get a job. This might 
mean, if employment becomes general, a return of the Party to 
the earlier membership. However both the delay of prosperity 
and the propaganda militate against that. 

LEAKAGE 

Great leakage from the Party is affirmed by certain of the 
Bishops' reports and by Party officials. In about a two-year period 
(before '36) three had to be recruited in New York for every 
two in growth. Party clamors indicate a similar condition now. 
This fact means, however, that many have been influenced in 
the last eighteen years and particularly since 1930. Often it has 



6 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

been Party discipline and the work it exacts and not a change of 
heart which has caused leakage. At any one time at least a fifth, 
it seems, are in arrears. 

The intensely active members are thus probably around 25 
or 30,000 or less. These are not only passing believers but fiery 
and sacrificing believers. 

NOT A WORKER'S PARTY 

The Party is not a working people's party but mostly one of 
intellectuals and white collar people. Manual labor is only one 
third, of whom by far the most are in small industries. Only 3 
in 8 were union members in '36. Farmers are 1 in 27 members. 
One third are women. One half in '36 were unemployed—largely, 
therefore, unemployed professional and white collar people. 

More than half in New York in '36 were foreign born. One 
industrial diocese in the Middle West reports three fourths for-
eign-born and one half non-citizens. However, the Party now 
claims that most of its members are native. 

CONCENTRATION OF THE PARTY 

Nearly one half of the members—some 19 or 20,000—are 
in one city, New York, and one state, California. Another 10,000 
are scattered throughout upstate New York, Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. One 
Middle Western industrial city of two million has in the Bishops' 
survey 1,200 members. Nearly all are in the East, the upper 
Middle West and on the Pacific Coast. Few are in the lower Mid-
dle West, or the Rockies, or the farming states, or the South, or 
the Southwestern border states, except in California and among 
a few Mexicans. The Party's statements and the Bishops' re-
ports join in this. Many dioceses report practically no Com-
munists. One Rocky Mountain State reports 100 members. A 
city of 600,000 in the lower Middle West reports in the Bishops' 
survey only from 60 to 100 members. Yet even in the South, as 
evidence of possible change, an all-Southern Conference of the 
Party was held in September, '37, which brought 133 delegates 
from every Southern state. 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 7 

WORK DONE 

The few active members do an amazing amount of work. 
Rigid training and stern discipline, a compact few acting under 
orders, a form of organization that lets the Party reach any type 
of member quickly, a policy of attacking evils boldly, the creation 
of closely dependent organizations and the cooperation with 
every organization possible, a continued advocacy of popular re-
forms at a time when so many are confused and reform and re-
construction so needed, a membership, sacrificing, fiery, unscru-
pulous and obedient, and a messianic theory, make of the Party a 
most dangerous weapon. 

The story of Party activities will be developed under these 
headings: Party Organization; Dependent Organizations; 
United Front Organizations; Particular Groups; Religion; 
Unions, Politics and the Peace Movement; Publications, etc.; 
Cultural Activities; Methods of Propaganda; the Present Drive; 
Devoted Members; "Sympathizers;" and a consideration of Com-
munist Reformism. 

PARTY ORGANIZATION : NATIONAL 

At the center, a general committee under a Chairman and 
Secretary, and an inside policy committee, dictate the Party's 
whole life in accord with orders from the Moscow central com-
mittee and offices. Moscow control is known by the fact that the 
Party policy has followed the Moscow changes in tactics (e.g., 
the new Reformist tactics) and by the expulsion once of even a 
majority of the Party Committee. 

In turn, the American central committee controls equally 
rigidly local policy and officials. It expels or transfers officials 
at will. 

At the center also are offices to care for different groups and 
different subjects: Propaganda, labor, women, foreign language 
groups, youth, Negroes, farmers, press, literature, war, imperial-
ism and research. 

The national organization is compact and dictatorial. It is 
also flexible and can reach each group in terms of its own in-
terests, e.g., labor groups, Negroes, etc. It supplies the whole 
with a policy as to what to believe and what to do. It furnishes 
them with information to use. 



8 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

National headquarters are in a building a short block below 
Union Square in New York, facing two streets with two ad-
dresses at 50 E. 13th and 35 E. 12th, just west of Broadway. 

Among the chief party officials and spokesmen are William 
Z. Foster, Chairman; Earl Browder, Secretary; Alex Bittleman, 
member of Central Committee and probably editor of The Com-
munist; Bob Minor, cartoonist and member of the Central Com-
mittee; Clarence Hathaway, editor of The Daily Worker; James 
W. Ford, Negro, former Vice-Presidential candidate and member 
of the Central Committee; Bill Dunne, feature writer on labor 
topics; Mike Gold, literary man, an editor of the New Masses and 
columnist; Charles Krumbein, expert on developing leaders; Alex-
ander Trachtenberg; William Weinstone of the Michigan Party; 
Max Bedacht, head of the I.W.O. and member of the Central 
Committee; William K. Gebert, active with the I.W.O.; Pat Too-
hey, Pennsylvania organizer; William Schneiderman of the Cali-
fornia Party; Louise Thompson, working among Negro women; 
Morris Childs of the Chicago Party and the Central Committee 
and an expert on agitation; Robert Dunn, statistician; Israel 
Amter, New York, organizer; Granville Hicks, literary critic; 
Joseph Freeman of The Masses; M. J. Olgin, editor of the Jewish 
Daily and pamphleteer in English; and Angelo Herndon, Negro 
leader. 

LOCAL ORGANIZATION 

State and local organization follow the national plan. An 
organizer, a director of agitation, and a literature agent appear 
the minimum number of officials. Other offices to direct educa-
tion and to guide work among Negroes, working people, women, 
foreign language groups, etc., are added as possibilities arise. 
A committee is in charge. 

Organized once by regions, it now tries to follow the voting 
lines, i.e., states, cities, assembly districts, wards, etc., although 
this organization is incomplete. 

Below these are the important neighborhood units and work-
place units, which comprise only a handful each. A new and per-
haps temporary unit is by the industries they work in, including 
WPA work. Another important unit, called fraction, is by the 
group they belong to, e.g., labor or foreign language or student 
group, or the organization they have joined. Another division, 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 9 

called concentration, is by type of extraordinary work ordered 
them to do. 

Thus they have: Organization for voting and political agi-
tation; organization by place of work and place of living to be 
reached easily with Party orders for either general or special 
work; organization by groups or by other organizations for the 
same purposes; secrecy; flexibility. At short notice the mem-
bership as a whole or any special group is reached with party 
orders for any general work or special work. 

The smaller units meet in the homes of the members. Com-
mittees meet often in homes or in the local workers' book-shop 
or perhaps at a cigar store, saloon, restaurant or second-hand 
store. In the larger places halls, perhaps of some dependent or-
ganization, are used. In schools they meet at homes of students 
or even of professors. 

The members act under orders—from selling newspapers to 
calling meetings, joining this or that organization, agitating in 
this or that group. Discipline is stern. Failure, individual or 
general, is met with criticism of an extreme sort. Expulsion even 
of officials is not infrequent. 

PRESENT TYPE OF MEETING 

Party meetings now, it is reported, consist chiefly of plans 
of work and discussion of tactics with the emphasis on showing 
the connection between working for reforms and revolution. This 
is done so as to get revolutionists to work for reforms and with 
reformers, once despised, to show them how, and to keep their 
revolutionary ardor strong and their theory consistent by re-
lating reform to revolution. Members report on work they are 
doing and receive orders for new work. Everything is directed 
towards the new policy of both making friends and hastening 
the revolution through attacking evils and working for reform 
movements. The purpose is to stimulate discontent in every 
form so as to create a revolutionary situation. 

RECRUITING 

Recruiting formerly was done by arguing that reform is 
hopeless and only revolution worthwhile. Now it is done by 
arguing that reform has hope but will be fought and therefore 



1 0 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

revolution is finally necessary in self-defense. Once new mem-
bers came through meetings, personal contacts, Party literature, 
the Party's own mass organizations and agitational fights for or 
against particular things. These methods are still followed. On 
some Party literature, blanks are found to expedite requests for 
further information or application for membership. The em-
phasis, however, is now on proving the Party a friend of every 
oppressed group and reform movement or measure—the groups 
and measures being selected to fit inner Party policies on revo-
lution or Russia. Revolution, however, is. slurred over until the 
person joins. 

SCHOOLS 
Party schools are a means both of recruiting and of training 

after recruitment. According to the Bishops' surveys, such 
schools are widespread wherever Communism is even moderately 
strong. One large city diocese where there are many Com-
munists reports 26. There are general "workers' schools" for 
all. Schools for Party members train them in theory and tactics. 
Schools for officials train them further and train them in leader-
ship. There are schools for children both in winter and in sum-
mer camps. Continuous education both formal and by practice 
of tactics is central in the Party's work. Study club outlines and 
visual charts are provided. 

T H E ENVIRONMENT 
The many evils furnish work for them to do. Some non-

Communists, working for or against this or that, so need co-
workers that they are welcoming, though watchfully, the new 
type of cooperating Communists. The old Liberalistic day is 
passing, many gladly think, and some, while accepting neither 
common ownership nor revolution, believe in a vaguely collec-
tivized society or a large measure of public ownership and do not 
yet sharply distinguish between legislation for some public own-
ership and the Communist aim. Being often called Communists 
and hearing their ideas called Communist makes some of them 
vaguely sympathetic towards the Communist thesis. A long 
period of irreligious education and a growing conviction that re-
ligion, including the Catholic Church, is openly or secretly the 
tool of reaction help them. Many fear Fascism in America. Op-
position to European Fascism is strong. The Fascist countries 
are now the aggressor countries. 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 1 1 

And in the American vagueness about final systems and 
methods, mixed with a conviction that far-reaching change must 
come, the Party has a happy hunting-ground so long as it does 
not talk much about the final program. Communist insistence 
now that Communism is old-time Americanism subtly plays up 
to this sentiment. In this environment Communists since 1935 
boldly go forth to make friends and defenders of the Party and 
of Russia among a large number of organizations and groups. 
One reporting diocese where there are relatively many Com-
munists reports ten times the activity of ten years ago. 

DEPENDENT ORGANIZATIONS 

One group of organizations it works with have come down 
from the first periods, although even some of these are being 
changed. These are chiefly under Communist officials, but al-
ways under Communists' complete control. 

Young Communist League. 15,000 members, two-fifths of 
whom are in New York. Formerly a youth duplicate of the 
Party. Branches in neighborhoods, shops, schools, etc. Changed 
in May 1937 to an organization welcoming all types of views. 
Forming general youth clubs in some places. It is still the chief 
guiding body for Communist work among youth, including stu-
dents and workers. The Communist "youth-fraction" will soon 
be relied on most to control both it and youth-work generally. 
Wider organization of the Young Communist League to be 
watched for. 

Young Pioneers. Boys and girls—8 to 15. Small. Conducts 
camps and training schools. 

Friends of the Soviet Union. (Also American-Russian Insti-
tute for Cultural Relations with the Soviet Union.) Propaganda 
about Russia. Small. 

International Labor Defense. (I.L.D.) Legal and agita-
tional defense of arrested Communists and selected other persons 
especially from minorities, e.g., Scottsboro boys. Creates also 
many special committees. Most who work with it locally are 
non-Communists. Even national offices are, it seems, now being 
entrusted to non-Communists, thus falling into the United Front 
group to a degree. Fluctuating membership. 



1 2 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

International Workers Order. Very important. By far the 
strongest. 100,000 members or more. A fraternal insurance so-
ciety chiefly among foreigners and some Negroes. Complete 
Communist control. Used for reformist tactics, to penetrate 
foreign groups and to control the insurance money and dues. 
Conducts Marxist schools from kindergarten age on. A youth 
section for training, athletics, drama, etc. 

Labor Research Associates. An economic research bureau 
in New York to prepare books, pamphlets and periodicals. 

These Dependent Organizations are direct agencies of the 
Party. The Bishops' surveys indicate that they do not exist 
everywhere but at the same time are quite widespread. 

UNITED FRONT ORGANIZATIONS 

United Front Organizations date from the present 1935 pe-
riod under the policy of working with all other organizations and 
individuals possible. They are usually officered by a majority of 
non-Communists and a minority of Communists. Their member-
ship is largely non-Communist. The programs consist of ele-
mentary agitation and direct answers to immediate issues. Lead-
ing Communists often appear on their platforms. 

The following are clearly United Front Organizations in that 
there is formal cooperation with Communists: 

American League Against War and Fascism. Chief United 
Front Organization. 8 to 9,000 active members, but reaching 
many persons. The officials are non-revolutionary or non-party 
believers in complete or almost complete common ownership to be 
obtained peacefully, along with a minority of known Communists. 
The chief non-Communist national officials, however, are busy 
people away from its New York headquarters who cannot guide 
it or are active in other organizations in New York. The Novem-
ber 1937 conference has as its program: For Loyalist Spain, 
China and "sanctions;" protection of unions and minorities; 
against war-preparations; against vigilantes and laws repressing 
labor. Nothing is said of common ownership or revolution. This 
year's convention has received support from many non-Com-
munists, including the head of a conservative railroad labor 
anion. Its work, the surveys indicate, is widespread. The mem-
bership is very largely non-Communist; one diocesan survey re-



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 13 

ports more than 95 per cent non-Communist locally and Com-
munists say 90 per cent are non-Communist nationally. In one 
place it is reported to be a paper organization calling meetings 
of protest when the Communist Party wishes to keep out. 

North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy. An 
offshoot of the American League but with different officers. An 
example of the common method of founding new temporary or-
ganizations for temporary purposes and getting new names on 
letterheads. Organized by Communist and non-Communist "radi-
cals" who keep in the background. Nationally non-Communist in 
control. Much local support from the Party and the Dependent 
Organizations. Its following is largely non-Communist. It is this 
organization which has headed much of the Spanish propaganda 
among non-Communists. Closely working with it are the 
Leagues for Technical Defense and Medical Defense of 
Democracy. 

Workers' Alliance. A close federation of the unemployed, 
particularly those on relief. Mixed Socialist and Communist na-
tional officials, but the Communist is reported as more able. 
Propagandizes for government care of the unemployed and rep-
resents them in difficulties. Memberships (on paper) 125,000. A 
recruiting ground for the Party. Unstable membership; the 
members are the unemployed, pay little, and when they get work 
leave. Widely organized but chiefly in the East and especially 
New York City. Local control varies but is usually Communist, 
Socialist or occasionally Trotskyist. 

American Student Union. A mixed federation of Com-
munist, Socialist and "liberal" student clubs. 20,000 members. 
Socialists now beginning to oppose it. A diocese where there are 
relatively many Communists reports an estimate that not one per 
cent of students are Communists. Promotes the student strike, 
or holiday, for peace, and student interest in social questions 
from a collectivist standpoint. Widely organized, the surveys 
indicate. Beginning in high schools. Young Communist League 
and Youth Fraction of the Party are its guide for the Communist 
element. Often very small, but active especially at annual stu-
dent peace strike. Threatened with a Communist-Socialist split. 

American Youth Congress. Started under anti-Communist 
auspices. Communists changed the policy. Mixed in control. 



14 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

Communists are in minority. Agitates on youth issues, particu-
larly a non-Communist but impossible reform bill for youth, the 
National Youth Act, which would care for unemployed young 
people. Used some to recruit. Holds annual and some regional 
meetings. Socialists now leaving it because of "reformist" lead-
ership of Communists. 

National Negro Congress. Agitates for Negro rights at pe-
riodical meetings. Non-Communist program. Convention in 
Philadelphia, October, 1937. Many churches and fraternal or-
ganizations are represented. Minority but strong Communist 
influence. Communist backing arouses sympathy among Ne-
groes for Communism. Father Devine in New York has encour-
aged his followers to join the Party itself. Stronger among 
"intellectuals." 

Writers' Congress and Artists' Congress. National and 
local loosely formed organizations emphasizing questions of tech-
nique, representation of the unemployed among them and the 
class-struggle idea in writing and art. Non-Communist in con-
trol but able Communist representation. 

Organizations of Foreign-Born. Besides the I.W.O. and the 
language-bureaus of the national office and national "fractions," 
there are a few Peoples' Front groups and a Committee of Fra-
ternal Organizations. Latter is headed by I. W. 0. Local and 
national fractions in the Party create organizations for different 
nationalities among non-Communists. One diocesan survey re-
ports that a city having 1,200 Communists has 10,000 members 
of these organizations. They have neutral names, e.g., Ru-
manian Educational Association, Polish Chamber of Labor, or 
simply Club, or Freiheit Society or Hungarian Workers Educa-
tion Association, etc. 

Besides these are the following: Among Farmers. Some re-
lationships with Farm Holiday groups. Seems rather that of 
moral support. Also through "Third Parties" and among some 
farm-labor unions in South and California. 

Among Teachers. The local of the Teachers' Union in New 
York is reportedly dominated by Communists and through it 
they influence the national body. A New York teachers' maga-
zine, "Social Frontier," takes essentially the Communist po-
sition editorially. 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 15 

The Bishops' surveys report a considerable scattering of 
university and college professors who work with the United 
Front Organizations and the International Labor Defense. They 
also report some true Communists among them. A scattering of 
professors write in the distinctly Communist organs and even 
edit one. 

Among social workers. National Coordinating Committee 
of Social Service Employe Groups. Publishes "Social Work 
Today." 

Civil Liberties Union. Non-Party radicals are in control but 
there is strong Communist representation. Opposition to bills, 
laws and arrests that violate an extreme conception of civil 
rights. 

The Bishops' reports name numerous other organizations, 
some of which apparently are only locally "united front" or are 
only local organizations. The situation is complex. For exam-
ple, the Socialist Party has refused a United Front but locally 
both it and the Young Peoples' Socialist League have entered into 
alliances with the Communist Party or its agencies. In fact, it 
is common talk that the Communist Party and Socialist Party 
"bore from within" each other. Many organizations are being 
"bored from within." 

Some organizations termed United Front organizations are 
rather those into which Communists have penetrated to a degree 
without any knowledge of it on the part of the officials or othei; 
members. One diocesan survey reports it as being said that fal-
len-away Catholic Communists are even being urged to join 
Catholic organizations. 

RELIGION 

The Party publicly conceals its atheism when it can and 
allows persons who belong to a church to enter the Party, plan-
ning to make them atheists thereafter. 

Its public policy is of two kinds. One, directed at all religion 
but particularly at the Catholic Church, tries to prove religion 
and the Churches are either reactionary or do nothing, and tries 
to split Church leaders from their followers. Evils and mistakes 
are magnified. The good is suppressed, misinterpreted or falsi-
fied. Every example of Bishops opposing any popular movement 



16 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

is used to try to split the laity from the Bishops. The Spanish 
issue is being used much now. Editorials along this line are fre-
quent recently in the Daily Worker and the New Masses, and in-
stance a consistent effort to attack the Church and win Catho-
lics. Three prominent personalities are fallen-away Catholics, 
but had fallen away before joining the Party—William Z. Foster, 
the chairman of the Party, and Bill Dunne and Louis F. Budenz, 
feature writers. 

Another policy, directed more towards Protestant ministers, 
tries to get them to work with United Front organizations, par-
ticularly the American League against War and Fascism and 
the Spanish organizations; and to break their confidence in the 
present system without allowing them to erect any but a vaguely 
collectivist scheme in its stead and certainly not accept the Papal 
program on a new order. It has had some success in both re-
spects. Communism and Fascism are held up as the sole possi-
bilities and since Fascism is bad, Communism is argued by ex-
clusion as good; for example, the Party's Secretary argued be-
fore a group at the Union Theological Seminary that Commu-
nism, while demanding atheism of revolutionaries themselves, 
forbids the State to oppress religion, while Nazi Germany op-
presses religion. 

One Bishop's survey reports a national Communist leader 
who lives in the diocese as placing most hope for the advance of 
the Party in breaking down Protestant confidence among minis-
ters, intellectuals and students in the present system and in en-
couraging for a time vague collectivism. Spain, Germany and 
Italy are being used in the propaganda a great deal. 

Fewer Rabbis are working with the United Front organiza-
tions partly because the Party wants to put on the guise of twen-
tieth century Americanism and also because the Rabbis fear 
anti-Semitism and many oppose Russia's policy towards Jews 
and Zionism. 

LABOR 

Before 1935 the Party organized (unsuccessfully) its own 
unions through the Trade Union Unity League, although then, 
too, there was much fluctuating effort to bore from within the 
A.F.L. Under the new policy it told its party members to 
join the A.F.L. and created Labor Unity Councils to tide over 
the period. It retained its labor "fractions" in the Party. In 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 1 7 

1936 it claimed 15,000 Communists in the A.F.L. The A.F.L. 
fought Communism but did not consistently fight Communists 
in the unions. Always backing industrial unionism and fighting 
the A.F.L. officials, the Party switched allegiance to the C.I.O. 
upon its formation, while still favoring C.I.O.-A.F.L. merger. 

The C.I.O. in turn accepted Communist aid. It was itself 
non-Communist in full national leadership; many of its officials 
are Catholics; when not Catholics, the original organizers were 
normal labor leaders with the addition that they wanted some 
social legislation, while three prominent ones believed in a meas-
ure of, but not complete, public ownership and were formerly 
moderate Socialists. 

The C.I.O., however, both knowingly and unknowingly, hired 
some Communists as organizers. Besides it at times found Com-
munists in possession by having already organized local unions. 

C.I.O. officials show as yet no inclination towards removing 
organizers who are under its direct control solely because of Com-
munism. It is doing so where it can when they are trouble-
makers and mere agitators. 

Neither, however, is the A.F.L. removing local Communist 
officials, although it does not seem to have knowingly hired Com-
munist organizers. 

To what extent the Party has local officials in either the 
C.I.O. or A.F.L. is not known. Communists themselves claim 
some. Anti-labor writings likewise name a great many, but 
falsely. The Bishops' reports indicate widespread Communist 
activity in behalf of the C.I.O. and considerable local leadership. 
The Party itself qualifies this only by saying that some leaders 
are Communists of the Lovestone and Trotsky groups whom it 
fights. These latter are temporarily more dangerous because 
they are irresponsible trouble-makers. The Communists of the 
Party are urged to take lesser, hard-working positions and subtly 
leave the chief leadership to others and, while using the union 
and strikes as recruiting grounds and demonstrations of Party 
friendship, to be "good union members" now. The combination 
of a vanguard of revolution and peaceful unionist is being found 
difficult. C.I.O. officials claim that with exceptions they are far 
better unionists, so far, than revolutionists. That is something 
that can change. 



1 8 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

Among local unions listed as under Communist control in 
the Bishops' reports are the waiters' union in a city which is 
otherwise relatively free of Communist influence and even a cen 
tral labor council in another. 

The C.I.O. has now grown from eight affiliated unions to 32. 
One of these, formerly an A.F.L. union, the Furriers, is domi-
nated by Communists. One new union, it appears, but it is not 
certain, has Communists as its chief national officers in control. 
Reports, however, are conflicting. The Automobile Workers' 
Union is removing Communist organizers. 

Through the system of shop units, labor fractions, language 
fractions and union and industrial fractions, the Party can solid-
ify its forces back of any plan. A few cohesive persons with a 
plan and with zeal can for a time get their way. So far, how-
ever, Communists have in the main limited their work to trying 
to help the present campaign to organize and prove that the 
Party .is the friend of labor. 

If Communists can keep their desire for revolution separate 
for a while from their reformist tactics, they can be expected to 
grow in influence in C.I.O. unions and also, but less so, in A.F.L; 
unions. 

POLITICS 

Formerly against any party but its own the Party now 
favors a "Farmer-Labor" party with retention also of its Party. 
The Washington, Minnesota, and Wisconsin third parties or fed-
erations, created for control of existing parties, allow Communist 
membership but only by way of representation from non-Com-
munist organizations. Some Communists are represented. In 
Washington ex-I.W.W.'s are represented. The New York State 
American Labor Party is more watchful and allows no members 
of other parties to hold office in it or be candidates. However, 
Communists are undoubtedly represented. The Communist 
Party now backs those candidates in any party who it thinks 
will favor labor the most and might favor a Third Party, in the 
hope of convincing working people that it and Russia are on 
their side and of helping a third party movement. 

Five organized groups look forward to a new party: 1. The 
Wisconsin Progressive group which can probably draw in the 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 19 

Minnesota, Washington, Iowa, etc., groups; 2. The ex-Socialists 
of the Social Democratic Federation who favor the New York 
Labor Party and are active in other states, particularly Pennsyl-
vania. 3. The Communist Party. 4. In some places Labor's 
Non-Partisan League. 5. The "Common Sense" group. 

In spite, for example, of the American Labor Party's veto 
on Communist officials and candidates, Communist influence can 
be expected to grow in the Third Party movement, if it sticks 
for a while to reformist tactics. A noteworthy sample of the 
tactics it advocates is that the Party proposes in inner Party lit-
erature a draft of purely reformist planks for such parties, such 
as a very small measure of public ownership, collective bargain-
ing, living wage, social insurance, anti-monopolies, housing, dem-
ocratic rights, Negro rights, a peace policy, etc. 

PEACE 

The Party conducts its propaganda on international affairs 
both directly and through the American League Against War 
and Fascism and the American Student Union. It is for inter-
national cooperation and sanctions and even for fighting Ger-
many and Italy and now Japan, if needed, in defense of Russia. 
Russian foreign politics dictates its peace program. Many other 
of the peace groups are isolationist now and against trading with 
any belligerent. While the Party seems to have some members 
on local peace councils, it is not represented in the two chief na-
tional peace federations among adults, the National Peace Con-
ference and the National Council for the Prevention of War. 
Through the American Student Union it is in the United Student 
Peace Committee which conducts the students' peace "strike." 
Anti-Fascism is the chief plank and the Party is not pacifist now. 

PERIODICALS 

To guide all this activity and propagandize the different 
groups, the Party publishes and inspires the publication of an 
unbelievably enormous number of books and pamphlets, original 
and translated, leaflets, study courses, magazines, newspapers 
(daily and weekly both in English and in foreign languages) and 
mimeographed bulletins and shop and neighborhood papers. Cir-
culation is far beyond Party membership. 



2 0 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

One reporting city near New York receives 3,000 Daily 
Workers and yet has few members. This paper on news-stands 
a considerable distance from New York sells for the New York 
price; local distribution is handled by Party officials and 
members. 

One diocesan survey reports on sale in greater New York: 
62 magazines and newspapers in 45 foreign languages and 178 
in English. 

The Daily and Sunday Worker, the New Masses, the Com-
munist (monthly magazine on the Party's life), Fight (the organ 
of the American League Against War and Fascism) are the most 
widely seen. There are numerous magazines—for youth (Cham-
pion of Youth); for students (The Student Advocate of the 
American Student Union); for social workers (Social Work 
Today of the "United Front" National Coordinating Committee 
of Social Service Employe Groups); for women (Woman Today)-
for Negroes (The Negro Worker); for rural workers (Rural 
Worker); for farmers (Farm Holiday News of the Farmers Na-
tional Holiday Association); on China (The Voice of China and 
China Today); on Russia (Soviet Russia Today, U.S.S.R. in Con-
struction, Sovietland); on literature and the arts (International 
Literature; Art Front; Theatre Workshop; Film Survey; Photo-
History; American Arts; Left Review, most of which are organs 
of special groups); on Marxian theory (Science and Society and 
the Marxian Review); on health and sex education (Health and 
Hygiene). Among other important publications are The Commu-
nist International; International Press Correspondence (Inpre-
corr); Economic Notes; The Southern Worker; Western Worker; 
The Moscow Daily News; Moscow News (weekly). The Party 
conducts 9 foreign language dailies and some 20 weekly and bi-
weekly papers. 

Besides these there is a host of small often mimeographed 
periodicals of local neighborhood, school, shop, sports and WPA 
units, and numerous foreign language periodicals. 

One diocesan survey reports that the first part of every 
meeting is given over to the sale of publications. 

The aim is to have general papers and magazines and special 
magazines for special groups and on special subjects so as to 
knit indeed the whole group together but leave hardly a group or 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 2 1 

interest untouched by Communist training in terms of their own 
special interest and ability. Some are for Party members, e.g., 
Party Organizer. Many are for the United Front groups. Others 
seem begun by volunteer groups, e.g., those interested in the 
theatre, and start apart from the Party as such or any formal 
organization in response to an individual or group zeal to apply 
the Lenin-Marxian theory to a particular phase of life. This is 
encouraged. The zeal and flexibility in fact are amazing. 

It should be added that in accord with the new policy, the 
Communist theory of revolution appears little in popular party 
literature. Instead, present evils and reformist remedies take 
the leading place. There is, however, much literature on the full 
theory. 

PUBLISHERS AND BOOK STORES 

Publishers—Bookniga Corporation (for Russian imports); 
International Publishers (for books and pamphlets); and the 
Workers' Library Publishers (for pamphlets), all in New York. 
The Workers' Library catalogue, which includes publications of 
other houses, lists 50 closely printed pages of books, pamphlets 
and periodicals under these headings: seven pages on the United 
States; one on historical struggles; four on Imperialism and 
colonies; two on Fascism; one on the United Front; one against 
Trotskyism; nine on Russia; four on the Party; eight on Marx-
ism-Leninism; two on political economy; one on religion; three 
on biography; one of current journalism; six on art and litera-
ture; one on science and psychology; two of children's books 
(twenty items); and a page of pamphlets in Italian and Spanish. 
Twenty-four periodicals are listed. 

Party pamphlets advertise these book stores: Three in New 
York, Chicago and San Francisco each; two in Los Angeles; and 
one each in Boston, Cambridge, Providence, and New Haven, in 
Paterson, Newark, Philadelphia, Camden, Reading, Baltimore, 
Washington and Richmond, in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, 
Akron, Youngstown, Cincinnati and Toledo, in Detroit, Grand 
Rapids, Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Des Moines, in Minneapolis, 
Duluth and Superior, in New Orleans and St. Louis, in Denver, 
Butte and Salt Lake and seventeen altogether in the Pacific Coast 
States. There are, however, still others. These are all centers 
of distribution for Communist books, pamphlets and periodicals. 



2 2 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

Many serve as local committee headquarters and for support of 
party officials. 

One diocesan report states that there was a distribution in 
1935 of close to two million and a half books and pamphlets; that 
150 new pamphlets were published in 1936, and 70 so far in '37, 
with others in press. 

Radio 
Election campaigns in the new reformist tactics are used to 

introduce the Party to radio listeners. In the recent New York 
mayoralty campaign some 50 radio talks were given, usually, 
however, at small stations. 

Forums 
Many of the Bishops' reports state that Communist speakers 

at Forums are increasing greatly. They show signs of greater 
increase this year. 

CULTURAL ACTIVITIES 

Writers and Artists. The Party has lost some of the fol-
lowing it had once among prominent writers and artists. There 
are, however, probably more now who follow its inner thesis of 
common ownership and revolution than before, some of whom 
do not work with the Party and are Trotskyists, or rebel at party 
discipline, or do not like the emphasis on reform. A number of 
new writers have enlisted with the Party. There are novelists, 
poets, playwrights, literary critics, painters, cartoonists and 
sculptors. A very large amount of what is called "proletarian" 
literature is issued not only by the two Communist publishers 
but by other publishing houses, even to the extent of attaining 
anthologies. The New Masses has conducted contests for prize 
"Proletarian Novels." Prizes for young writers are frequently 
given in Party units and the Young Communist League. 

The idea of an imminent social change and a rise of the 
working people appeals to many writers and artists and gives 
direction to their talents. It takes among them different forms 
ranging from the relatively correct to the Communist thesis that 
revolution and common ownership is the method to follow in 
social change and the redemption of the proletariat. Plays writ-
ten by this group appear frequently in the professional theatre 
and in some Federal Theatre projects. 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 2 3 

The following list of writers includes other than Communists 
and is rather indicative than conclusive: 

Eastman (critic), Farrell (novelist and critic), Dos Passos 
(novelist), Gold (critic and writer of sketches), Hicks (critic), 
Schneider (poet), Fielding Burke (novelist), Halper (novelist), 
Rukeyser (poet), Harrison (novelist), Odets (playwright), 
Caldwell (novelist), Cowley (critic), Frank (novelist), Hughes 
(poet), MacLeish (poet), McKay (poet), Sheehan (novelist), 
Mumford (critic and writer on architecture), Conroy (poet and 
novelist), Ralph Bates (novelist), Theodore Dreiser (novelist). 

Theatre. Propaganda through the theatre has advanced 
greatly. The National Theatre League heads up this work and 
acts through New Theatre Leagues locally. Attached to it are 
the (United Front) National Theatre Conference (advisory and 
service) and the Theatre Alliance, for production. It supplies 
plays, conducts contests, has a Service Bureau, conducts a 
Theatre School, publishes Theatre Workshop, has organized an 
anti-censorship body, conducts a National Theatre week, seeks 
to secure audiences for selected plays, provides dramatics for 
organizations and sends a troupe on the road. 

Movies. Propaganda through movies has been conducted 
all along by the Party. The Bishops' reports indicate consider-
able use of films in many places. Russian pictures long were fea-
tured. Now those on Spain and China take first place. Usually 
Little Theatres in the larger cities show them. The chief dis-
tributing house for Russian films is Amkino. The Garrison Film 
Distributors, Inc., 729 7th Avenue, New York City, distributes 
Communist films. Use of films is growing. 

One diocesan report went into this matter quite fully. In 
1936 Russian films were shown in 152 theatres to an audience of 
92,000. In 1937, twenty new pictures were released. 

Besides the Garrison distributing agency there are: Frontier 
Films, producers; Nykino to produce news reels and features; 
the Workers' Film and Photo League, which produces and is also 
an organization to get amateurs to take pictures for meetings, 
etc., and to guide work among other groups; New Film Alliance 
to represent audiences and propaganda regarding films and the 
movie industry; and the closely allied and seemingly dependent 



2 4 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

Associated Film Audiences, officered by non-Communists for the 
same purpose. The new 16 mm. film which permits easy private 
showing of uncensored films, produced cheaply, is used and pro-
moted for both private and public showings. 

Music. The New Singers in New York, affiliated with the 
Downtown Music School, and the American Music League (pub-
lishers) seem the chief agencies. 

The Dance. The New Dance League, a federation of seven 
dance groups chiefly in New York, held in 1936 a National Dance 
Congress, has an employment service, conducts recitals, and con-
ducts a school in the theory and technique of the dance as a 
means of propaganda for Communism. 

Athletics. For a time an earlier emphasis on sports was al-
lowed to subside. Now the Party is advocating trade union 
leagues and has active sports' "fractions" to encourage Commu-
nist leadership or influence through athletics. 

METHODS OF PROPAGANDA 

The chief methods of propaganda appear in the course of 
the presentation above. Noteworthy in addition are: Distribu-
tion of The Daily Worker, with even special local inserts, during 
strikes; help in picketing; sending free subscriptions of a paper 
to selected persons; dramatizing enemies of the Party or special 
issues by picketing embassies, consulates, etc.; May Day parades 
and celebrations; anti-War and Fascism parades (August 1st); 
pageants (e.g., the November 13th New York pageant in Madi-
son Square Garden to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the 
Russian revolution); dances; defense of Tom Mooney; celebra-
tion of Sacco-Vanzetti and Haymarket anniversaries; tours to 
Russia, etc. Ingenuity of a remarkable sort is shown. 

CURRENT CAMPAIGN FOR FUNDS AND MEMBERS 

The Party is now trying to collect $500,000, to extend the 
Party membership by 10,000 and to start new daily newspapers 
in Chicago and San Francisco. $240,000 is to be raised in New 
York State and of this, $227,500 in New York City and adjacent 
counties. The chief methods of collection are to get every mem-
ber and every "sympathizer" to give a dime a day by inserting it 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 2 5 

in flaps in a card and to buy "stamps." Tag days are held. The 
new papers are, in the plan, to be published January first. In the 
announcement, the Party claims a million sympathizers, half of 
whom it expects to contribute. Of the New York $240,000, the 
Party will get $65,000; the New York Daily and Sunday Worker, 
$90,000; training schools in New York, $45,000; for Negroes, 
$10,000; election campaign, $30,000. The Middle West is to raise 
$80,000 for the Chicago daily and the Pacific Coast is to raise 
$35,000 to change the semi-weekly Western Worker (San Fran-
cisco) into a daily. 

The money campaign at this date is lagging and has been 
extended till late January. It is lagging farthest in the Middle 
West. However, by November 1st, 8,000 new members were 
claimed. 

T H E DEVOTED MEMBERS 

The Party does not deny its revolutionary theory or its in-
tense discipline or its atheism but many now understand none 
of these until they are members. It is often said that persons go 
through a period of observation and trial before admittance. 
This is at times true. However, others enter quickly and easily. 
In the present drive, emphasis is laid upon mass membership. 
Upon admission the effort is made to train them in the theory 
and tactics of the Party both by intellectual preparation and 
actual practice. Many cannot stand up under the work. Many 
rebel at the theory. Those who remain are consecrated. It is 
these who do the Party work. 

Once they become this type of member they accept thor-
oughly the notion of a disciplined Party that commands its mem-
bers in their minds and their actions to think and do whatever 
they are commanded. They accept the idea of an irrepressible 
conflict between owners and non-owning workers that can end 
only when private ownership ends, of an irrepressible conflict 
between private ownership and mass production, of an inevitable 
collapse of economic life and the messianic role of the Commu-
nist Party to prepare people for the collapse and the revolution, 
to take dictatorship and direct the growth towards a new class-
less world of brothers. Not until then, do they necessarily be-
come atheists and even then often hide it. 



2 6 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

Regarding them the Party seeks to keep on file all kinds of 
relevant information so they can be harnessed to do whatever 
work they can best do. Their contacts, present or possible, with 
different groups and organizations, and their talents and special 
interests are the points most of interest to the Party. Their at-
titude towards Trotskyism is under continuous surveillance. The 
French Communist Party is reported to have on file information 
of all sorts on their members in relation to their use in actual 
revolution. Here it appears rather that their use in propaganda 
is the chief point. 

Application for membership, besides endorsement from two 
members who state how long they have known the applicant, 
must give information on: whether married, occupation, whether 
employed or not, place of employment, number employed there, 
union affiliations, fraternal or other affiliations and whether an 
officer, former political affiliations, whether formerly a Commu-
nist, sex, Negro or white, country of birth, whether citizen or 
not, and race or nationality. 

NUMBER OF SYMPATHIZERS 

How many sympathizers has the Party? The secretary of 
the Party has said that the top vote for a candidate in New York 
in the 1936 election was the "irreducible minimum" of the Party 
members and "sympathizers." If the same ratio of members to 
votes continues nationally, an "irreducible minimum" of around 
160 to 170,000 members and "sympathizers" exists. This would 
mean from 120 to 130,000 "sympathizers." However the per-
sonal following of the leading vote-getter in New York must be 
considered. Moreover there is the degree of sympathy and its 
permanence to consider. In the present campaign of the Party 
for funds, as was said, the Party claimed a million "sympa-
thizers" of whom half would contribute. This drive, however, 
is going slowly. In inner-Party reports, "tens of thousands" aré 
held to be waiting for recruitment now. 

To give accurate figures of those enrolled in the Dependent 
and United Front organizations is impossible because the num-
bers are estimates, membership fluctuates, and duplicate or 
treble membership is great. Many, especially in the United 
Front organizations, have no special sympathy for Communism 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 2 7 

itself. They are in these organizations for other reasons and 
often are in them only temporarily. Yet the number of persons 
who have fallen under its influence or help it in its plans is very 
large even if the influence is exerted only to get them to fight 
for or against particular evils or assumed evils. For example, 
a number of New York unions are helping in the present drive 
for money for the Daily Worker. One diocese reports that a cer-
tain United Front organization is created, gets a following, the 
following leaves, a handful are made members of the Party and 
then another is begun. Another diocesan report estimates a 
total enrollment in the Dependent and United Front organizations 
in that state of 16 times the Party's figures for its own mem-
bership. 

The anti-Fascism campaign is popular. So, too, is the feel-
ing against Japan. So is the drive to organize labor. So is 
social legislation. So, too, is the idea of some great change in 
economic and social life in which the working people will have a 
happier day and a higher status. So, too, is the idea of an or-
ganized society as distinct from the older individualist competi-
tion. The Party in its reformist vein appeals to all these strains 
in the popular mind. The danger and the Party's problem and 
opportunity are identical. It is the possible change of these per-
sons into definite believers that common ownership through revo-
lution led by a disciplined Party is the inevitable future and sole 
hope. 

Some have already become convinced of this but do not ac-
cept the Party either because of its discipline or its reformism. 
Among these are to be found some able writers. The New Re-
public, for example, holds this position. But convinced Commu-
nists outside the Party are very few. Where the greatest danger, 
therefore, lies is in the Communist aim to obtain leadership and 
influence enough so its compact membership can control every 
reform movement in the United States. That is the idea of the 
United Front. 

REVOLUTION THROUGH REFORMISM 

This Communist attitude towards the United Front and re-
forms needs analysis. While fighting for reforms is used to make 



2 8 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

friends for the Party and Russia and to train the members both 
in Communist theory and how to lead the masses, two other ele-
ments need consideration. 

One is that the Party looks forward to such opposition to 
the reforms as will convince the working people revolution is 
necessary. This is implied and dramatized in the anti-Fascist 
fight. The Party, sometimes even now in this period, delib-
erately, it seems, asks for the impossible so as to argue better 
that revolution is necessary. 

A second important fact is that the Party deliberately asks 
only for those reforms which will not do enough good and tries to 
limit them and fashion them so they cannot grow, as Pius XI's 
Encyclical contemplates their growing, into a new and just social 
order. It does so both to keep the Party the sole agency to look 
to for final cure and to prevent private ownership from being in-
corporated in a just system. This policy it follows particularly 
in the unions and the political parties. 

The policy as to unions is a touch-stone. Communists want 
unions that only fight even if they do so only periodically. It 
wants a battling collective-bargaining union. It does not want 
either the A.F.L. or C.I.O. type of cooperating union-leader and 
union. It does not want the unions to lift labor to a status of 
"partnership" with employers inside private ownership—the En-
cyclical program. Put in the words of Quadragesimo Anno, it 
does not want to see "class war . . . changing to an honest dis-
cussion of differences based upon the desire for social justice" 
which if "by no means the blessed social peace which we all long 
for can be and must be an approach towards the mutual cooper-
ation of vocational groups," i.e., the democratic self-governing 
organization of the industries and professions for social justice. 
This policy of the Party both prevents the full establishment of 
justice and keeps owners and non-owners apart fighting. The 
Party follows a corresponding policy on legislation. 

Even if the Party never gets many members in normal 
times or itself does much directly to foment revolution, this in-
direct and subtle prevention of peaceful growth into a new order 
will itself provoke unemployment, social crisis and threats of 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 2 9 

revolution. Then great numbers can be expected to look to revo-
lution and common ownership as the sole cure. 

That more than anything else makes the Party so dangerous 
in a period of an expanding union and legislative movement. It 
is cumulatively dangerous year by year as time goes on if the 
Communist type of "reformist" policy succeeds. It makes Party 
members dangerous to unions even as members and more so as 
officials, dangerous to third party movements, dangerous to the 
defense of civil rights and democracy, dangerous to the whole 
drive for economic and social change. Deliberately the Party is 
now trying to penetrate every such organization and group. 
Since Catholics are mostly working people, the Church on this 
ground, also, is interested. 

N. B.—For a study of Communism as a philosophy 
and economic system the reader if referred to the 
Encyclical of His Holiness, Pope Pius XI, on "Atheistic 
Communism." 



PART II 

Suggestions Towards a Program of Action 
This bare recital seems to call for the development by the 

Church in the United States of a far-reaching program, particu-
larly in every diocese where there is any considerable number of 
working people. The detrimental influence upon great numbers 
of people that the Communist Party exercises through organiza-
tions which are themselves simply reformist, gives the most im-
portant clue for our action. It is not that there should be any 
lessening of direct attacks on Communism or direct exposition of 
its evils. On the contrary. But the facts seem to show that the 
issue will be decided on whether or not an economic and legisla-
tive program can be put into effect which will be peaceful and 
which will progressively build the social order that the Encycli-
cals advocate. 

If the facts of economic life did not prove that the battle is 
to be waged in this field, Communist seizure of reform and re-
formist organizations so as to twist something good into an 
agency of revolution would of itself indicate the battle-lines. The 
experience of other countries confirms this central danger, e.g., 
the coming of the revolution in Russia and in Spain; the situa-
tion in France and in Italy and Germany. The tragedy into which 
the economic world long since fell may easily result in tragedy 
still graver. The problem is how to strengthen and guide the 
whole reform program towards a sound new social order and 
keep it from Communist hands and Communist plans. 

The guide is Pius XI's Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno. The 
chief aims can be stated briefly: 

1. Develop strong labor unions and employers' associations 
not only for collective bargaining but for their joint guidance of 
all industry so as to obtain the standards of the Encyclical on in-
come, prices, work, and ownership; and do the same for farming 
and the professions (that is, develop the vocational group sys-
tem of the Encyclicals). 

2. Pass laws for the regulation of unfair competition and 
monopoly; for the protection of labor and for some public owner-
ship ; but at every opportunity have the laws throw the power of 
self-government upon democratically organized industries and 
professions so they will grow and develop. 

80 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 3 1 

3. Cooperate in international economic life in the same man-
ner and spirit. 

The aim is a new cooperating society, at home and abroad, 
obtaining peace and plenty for all. 

Yet the Church is neither an economic organization nor a 
civil government. The Church is a moral teacher and channel of 
grace. Thus by its own nature its work is to train Catholics, and 
as many others as will listen, in the moral laws of economic gov-
ernmental life; inspire them to act; and give Catholics the 
spiritual helps they need. These then will create the new society. 

That does not at all mean that Bishops, priests and Catholic 
organizations should not go beyond the generalities of the moral 
laws—certainly not as to the veto of wrong doctrine, practices 
and policies. Prudently but boldly they will be able to advocate 
particular positive steps. The primacy of the moral laws that 
are involved has to be made clear and the distinction drawn be-
tween principle and application, between religion and morals on 
the one hand, and social science on the other. 

The problem therefore is how to put the Church in the 
United States in a position to exercise to the fullest its function 
of moral teacher and channel of grace for the construction of a 
social and governmental order which will be dedicated to justice 
and to the social justice of the common good and be animated by 
charity in God and Christ. The whole life of the Church is itself 
the climate of such reconstruction. 

Here something further is recommended. The guiding 
quotations are from the encyclical (pp. 7-11) where Pius XI gives 
praise to the work of priests in social education, legislation and 
organization; also this quotation: "Undoubtedly the first and im-
mediate apostles of the workingmen must themselves be work-
ingmen, while the apostles of the industrial and commercial world 
should themselves be employers and merchants. It is your chief 
duty, Venerable Brethren, and that of your clergy, to seek dili-
gently, to select prudently, and train fittingly these lay apostles, 
amongst workingmen and amongst employers." (p. 46.) 

The following suggestions are simple and concrete: Ap-
pointment by the Bishops in every diocese of a committee of 
priests, who by careful preparation can do these things: 



8 2 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

Be at hand to inform and advise with the Bishop on facts, 
movements, organizations and persons. 

Assist other priests, local Catholic papers, schools and re-
treats as authorized by the Bishop. 

Lead under his guidance a program of education in Catholic 
social teaching among the laity and in the community generally 
through study clubs, forums, personal contacts, etc. 

The reason for a committee is that the complexity of events 
and the field to be covered require the counsel of several. 

For preparation and further help the Schools of Social 
Action for the Clergy inaugurated in the summer of 1937 should 
be extended. Some priests, too, should be sent to the new School 
of Social Sciences at the Catholic University for prolonged study. 

For further help and closer relationships, it is recommended 
that these committees be called Social Action Committees and 
be affiliated in some fashion with the N. C. W. C. Social Action 
Department, the details of such affiliation and a general program 
of principles and procedure to be worked out by the Episcopal 
Chairman of that Department subject to approval of the N. C. 
W. C. Administrative Committee. 

These committees of priests will and should draw about them 
groups of laymen and laywomen consecrated to Catholic social 
teaching and action and especially equipped for the task. They 
are needed to help other laymen and women. It is recommended 
that these lay groups be formed into locals of the Catholic Con-
ference on Industrial Problems for coordinated and wiser action. 

It is recommended as a logical corrollary, that the priests' 
committee and the local lay group work closely with the Diocesan 
Councils of Catholic Men and Women, youth groups, etc., so as to 
penetrate the whole Catholic body. The chief aim in all the work 
with the laity is to train soldiers of Christ who in their work, 
their unions, employers' organizations, farmers' associations, 
professional bodies, as also in their life as citizens, will be 
"apostles," as Pius XI terms them. 

Pius XI in his Quadragesimo Anno solemnly says: "No stone 
must be left unturned.. . . Towards this one aim must tend all our 
effort and endeavor supported by assiduous and fervent prayers 
to God. For with the assistance of Divine Grace, the destiny of 
the human family lies in our hands." (p. 47). 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 
33 

STUDY OUTLINE 

(Page references are to the text as set forth in the preceding pages) 

PART I 

I. The Communist Party. Inception, Growth, Present Policy, Membership 
(3-7). 

1. American Section, Moscow Communist International. Strongest organi-
zation seeking common ownership in U. S. through revolution. 

2. First Period (1919—Depression). Organized by leftwing Socialists. 
Dwindled from 50,000 to 7,600. Revolutionary, rigid, isolationist; but 
several organizations created as tools. 
Second Period (Depression—1935). Same, plus agitational organiza-
tion among unemployed and ex-soldiers. Membership gain. 

3. Present Period. Change in policy on orders from Moscow. Reform and 
cooperation with other organizations, not revolution, stressed in "United 
Front." Growth to 40,000 in June '37. 

4. Membership. Figures mean members only. Present campaign for 
10,000 increase. Intensely active membership. Growth anticipated. 
Leakage. Always at least a fifth. Due often to discipline. A great 
many influenced. Intensely active members, 25,000. Not a Workers' 
Party. Largely intellectual and white-collar. One-half unemployed in 
'36. Largely foreign-born. Concentration. Nearly half in New York 
City and California. Mostly in East; upper Middle West and Pacific 
Coast. Evidence of possible geographical expansion. 

5. Work Done. Amazing activity. Training, discipline, obedience of mem-
bers, form of organization, dependent organizations and cooperation with 
others and advocacy of popular reforms make Party dangerous. 

II. Party Organization (7-11). 

1. National. A general central committee and inside policy committee 
dictate Party in accord with Moscow orders. Officers to care for differ-
ent groups and subjects. Compact, dictatorial, flexible. Names and 
addresses. 

2. Local. Follows national plan. Organized by voting lines; neighborhood 
and work-place units; industrial units; fractions; concentrations. 
Secrecy, flexibility. 

3. Present type of meeting. Work plans; tactics; report on present work; 
orders for new work. New policy: friend making, hastening revolution, 
working for reform movements. 

4. Recruiting. Done through trying to prove Party friend of oppressed and 
of selected reform movements; meetings, personal contacts, Party litera-
ture, mass organizations, etc. (Revolution stressed after joining.) 

5. Schools. Means of recruiting and training. Widespread. For "work-
ers"; for members; for officials; for children. Continuous education 
central point. 

6. Environment. Many evils promote growing. Also some non-Communist 
reformers welcome Communist cooperation; irreligious education; grow-
ing conviction religion is tool of reaction; Fascism; American conviction 
of necessary change. 

III. Other Organizations. 

1. Dependent Organizations (11-12). Chiefly under Communist officials, 
but always under Communist control. Widespread. 



34 NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

a. Young Communist League; b. Young Pioneers; c. Friends of the So-
viet Union; d. International Labor Defense; e. International Workers 
Order. 

2. United Front Organizations (12-15). Date from 1935 period. Largely 
non-Communist membership, with a minority of Communist officers. 
Elementary agitation; immediate issues. 
a. American League Against War and Fascism; b. North American Com-
mittee to Aid Spanish Democracy; c. Workers' Alliance; d. American 
Studet Union; e. American Youth Congress; f. National Negro Con-
gress; g. Writers Congress and Artists Congress; h. Organizations of 
Foreign-Born; i. Among Farmers; j. Among Teachers; k. Among Social 
Workers; 1. Civil Liberties Union. 
Other organizations locally "united front." Some U. F. organization, 
Communists have penetrated without knowledge of officials or other 
members. 

IV. Religion (15-16). 

1. Atheism publicly concealed where possible. Church members may now 
enter Party. Conversion to atheism envisaged afterwards. 

2. Public Policy; (a) Tries to prove Churches reactionary. Mistakes mag-
nified. Good suppressed; (b) Get Protestant ministers to work with 
U. F. groups; to break confidence in present system substituting vaguely 
collectivist scheme. 

V. Labor (16-18). 
New policy of joining. Attitude toward C. I. O. and A. F. of L. Atti-
tude of unions towards Communism. Communist tactics in labor unions. 
Expected growth in influence in C. I. 0 . unions under present tactics. 

VI. Politics and the Peace Movement (18-19). 

1. Favors "Farmer-Labor Party" with retention of Communist Party. 
Some state third parties have Communist membership as representation 
from non-Communist organization. Communists back any candidate 
they think will favor labor and a Third Party. Purpose to win the 
working people. Four other organized groups favoring third party. 
Communist influence expected to grow in this movement under present 
tactics. 

2. Peace. International propaganda through American League against 
War and Fascism and the American Student Union. Russian foreign 
politics dictates peace program. Anti-Fascism is chief plank; not now 
pacifist. 

VII. Periodicals, Publishers and Book Stores (19-22). 

1. Periodicals. To guide activity and propagandize different groups, Party 
publishes and inspires publication of enormous literature in English and 
foreign languages. 
The Daily and Sunday Worker, Neiv Masses, Communist, Fight nwst 
widely seen. Other magazines for different groups and on all conceiv-
able subjects. All interests touched; but general magazines to knit 
group together. Present evils, not revolution, emphasized in popular 
literature. 

2. Publishers and Book Stores. Bookniga Corporation; International Pub-
lishers; Workers' Library Publishers. Sixty-one book stores advertised. 
There are others. Tremendous yearly production and distribution of 
books and pamphlets. 

VIII. Cultural Activities and Other Methods of Propaganda (22-24). 

1. Radio; 2. Forums; 3. Writers and Artists; 4. Theatre; 5. Movies; 6. 



COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 35 

Music; 7. Dance; 8. Athletics; 9. Other methods: Distribution of litera-
ture during strike; dramatizing persons and issues; parades; pageants; 
dances; tours to Russia, etc., etc. 

IX. Current Campaign; Devoted Members; Sympathizers (24-27). 

1. Current campaign to get $500,000 to extend membership by 10,000 and 
start daily newspapers in Chicago and San Francisco. Money campaign 
lagging. Gain in membership. 

2. Members. Present emphasis upon mass membership. After admission, 
those who accept theory, tactics and work, stay and are consecrated for 
Party work. Must accept ideas of disciplined Party; irrepressible con-
flict between capital and labor; collapse and revolution toward classless-
ness led by Communist Party; atheist. Files on all members. 

3. Sympathizers. Very large number have been influenced through; United 
Front organizations; anti-Fascism drive; propaganda against Japan; 
drive to organize labor; social legislation; idea of rise of working people 
and an organized society. Greatest danger in Communism aim to con-
trol every reform movement. 

X. Revolution Through Reformism (27-29). 

1. Communist attitude toward United Front and reforms: Making of 
friends and training in Communist theory and leadership; expectation 
of opposition to reforms so workers will look to revolution; deliberately 
seeks only inadequate reforms for this reason. 

2. Prevention of peaceful growth into new order of Catholic social teach-
ing makes Party cumulatively dangerous to ^vhole drive for just economic 
and social change. 

PART II 

XI. Suggestions Towards a Program of Action (30-32). 

1. Problem: to strengthen and guide reform program toward sound new 
social order free from Communist hands. 

2. The Guides: The Encyclicals. The Aim: A new cooperating society, 
obtaining peace and plenty for all. 

3. Church's function: Moral teacher and channel of grace. Problem: To 
put Church into position to exercise to fullest its function for construc-
tion of social and governmental order of justice and charity. 

4. Formation under auspices of local diocesan newspaper or other author-
ized agency of Social Action committees of priests to lead, under the 
Rishop, program of education in Catholic social teaching. 

5. Formation of lay groups around these committees consecrated to and 
equipped in Catholic social teaching and action, to be affiliated with 
Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems. 

6. Working of committees and lay groups with diocesan councils of N. C. 
C. W. and N. C. C. M., youth groups, etc., so as to penetrate whole Cath-
olic body. The chief aim is to train laity to put into effect whole pro-
gram of the Encyclicals. 

Note: An extensive bibliography of writings on Communism other than 
those published by the N. C. W. C. is available at headquarters. Price, 5c. 



N . C. W . C. P A M P H L E T M A T E R I A L 

ON THE GENERAL SUBJECT OF 

COMMUNISM 

PRICE 

Communism in the United States; A Survey 10c 
(With Study Outline) 

Encyclical of Pope Pius XI 
"On Atheistic Communism" 10c 

Why Catholics Condemn Communism 10c 

A Cure for Communism 5c 

Study Outline on A Cure for Communism 5c 

Bibliography on Subject of Communism 5c 

Encyclical of Pope Pius XI 
"On Religious Situation in Mexico" 10c 

Encyclical of Pope Pius XI 
"On The Church in Germany" 10c 

The Spanish Situation, A Survey: 
Joint Letter of Spanish Bishops ^ 10c 

Insurrection in Spain 25c 
By Wm. F. Montavon. 

God and Governments .. 15c 
By Rev. Wilfrid Parsons, S.J. 

Freedom and Democracy 15c 
By Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen. 

Carrying charges extra; Quantity prices on request. 

Order from: 

NATIONAL CATHOL IC WELFARE CONFERENCE 

1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. 

Washington, D. C. 



THE STAR OF DAVID 
By David Goldstein 

SYMBOLS are things that speak to us in language we can never fully comprehend. The thought of the vitalizing 
influence of them has come to me like an illumination, especially 
while contemplating the Star and the Cross. It is good to "hitch 
your wagon to a star," though it should be the Star of Bethlehem, 
for it leads to the Cross that elevates man to a moral height that 
the transcendentalistic star of Emersonianism never could attain. 

The Star is the symbol of Judaism; the Cross, the symbol of 
Christianity. One represents the coming of the Messiah; the 
other, the price paid in atonement for the sins of the world by 
the Son of David. 

The star also typifies the astronomical sign of the place in 
which Christ was born, the sign that led the kings to the birth-
place of the King of Kings. It is therefore most fitting for Chris-
tians to use it during Christmas time to announce to the world 
that the "Bright Morning Star" has come, for Jesus Christ is 
the True Star who fills the world with His brightness. 

The star typifies the House of David from which the Messiah 
was to come. Jews call it the Magen Dovid (Shield of David). 
It is a six-pointed star. Some ancients held that it represents the 
signature of King David, as "the three letters—Daled, Waw, 
Daled—-by extension compose a double triangle." The New 
Merriam Dictionary calls it Solomon's seal and defines it as 
"a mystic symbol consisting of two interlaced triangles forming 
a star with six points, often one triangle dark and one light, 
symbolic of the union of soul and body. 

The six-pointed star is as certain to be found on synagogues 
as the cross is to be found on Catholic churches. Being of 
Hebraic stock, the symbolism of Judaism being part of my nature, 
though God has interwoven it in me with the Cross, I may be 
permitted to say that the use in our churches of any but the 
six-pointed star has offended me during my whole life as a 
Christian, especially during Christmas time. 

The five-pointed "star," generally used in our churches, is 
declared by heraldry not to be a star: it is called a mullet. The 
star of heraldry is a six-pointed star. Long before I was blest 
with an appreciation and love of the Cross, the Star made up 
of two triangles was to me like Jacob's ladder—one triangle 
representing ascending prayer to God, the other triangle the 
blessing coming down from the throne of God. 

The symbolic Star of Judaism is as rightly the religious prop-
erty of the Church-which the Son of David established, as is 
the Old Testament in which Balaam foretold the coming of the 
Star of Jacob at the time when the sceptre, the regal power and 
sovereignty of Judaism, shall be broken. It is the property of the 
Church, though not to the exclusion of Jews. By recognition of 
the fact that the sceptre of their nation has been broken, that 
the Star has already appeared in all its brightness and glory, 
the lost sheep of the House of Israel may once more be chosen 
children of God, members, shareholders, in the Spiritual King-
dom that the Son of David, born under the Star of David, 

brought into existence to take the place of their destroyed and 
never-to-be-rebuilded temple. 

The universal use of the six-pointed star by Catholics would 
be a symbolic appeal to Jews. It would say that we are one with 
them in honoring the House of David. When used with the cross 
it would be a reminder that the star is an historic star, that it 
cannot be rightly used to express the hope of the birth of the 
Messiah in the House of David, as He has already been born 
therein. Besides, there is no House of David in existence today 
in which a Messiah could be born. 

My hope is that the Star intertwined with the Cross will some 
day be used in our churches as a symbolic appeal to Jews. It 
would be an appeal to Jews to come into the Church of their 
Messiah and share in the inheritance of the Faith which their 
highly honored fathers foretold would be given unto them if 
they understood, accepted and lived up to the things foretold. 
They—the Star and Cross—are a reminder that the arms of the 
Son of David whom the sins of the Sanhédrin and its misled 
followers had nailed to the tree, are outstretched for His kith 
and kin. 

An added reason has lately been given for using the double 
triangle with its six points for our Jewish-Christian star. It is 
the use of the mullet, with its five points, as the "star" of the 
enemy of the Messiah whom the Star and Cross symbolize. 
Article 143 of the New Constitution of Soviet Russia declares 

(Turn to Page Thirty) 

17 



18 T H È C A T H O L I C M I R R O R December, 1938 

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Communism Versus the Church 

By HILAIRE BELLOC 
Condensed from The Voice 

T N its early stages, the strength of communism could-be repre-
J - sented as being five per cent, compared to ninety-five for 
Catholicism at that time. Af t e r the Russian Revolution, com-
munism advanced to fifteen per cent, while the Church lost ten. 
Today, communism can be represented with a strength of say 
thirty-five per cent, compared to our fifty per cent, with a 
balance in between. . . . 

The only real opponent communism faces is the Catholic 
Church. This is not because communism is dealing with a sect1** 
the Church is not that. Nor is the Church one among many 
religions. Rather it is the one and only true religion. It is the 
only spiritual force on earth which guarantees a reasonable 
amount of temporal happiness. Within her fold man finds him-
self ; without, chaos and anarchy. The struggle in Europe today 
is caused because Europe is not ready to accept either Catholicism 
or communism. The business of society there if it wishes to save 
itself is to prop up the Church, to restore it, to be on the side of 
Catholic tradition. 

Such is the struggle. Such are the opponents. What will be 
the final result? The battle is joined, the issue is in doubt. No 
one can prophesy the future. Drawing on analogies of the past, 
and taking all present elements into consideration, the contest 
will end in a draw. Some will go communist and stay so. Others 
will attach themselves to tradition and remain Catholic. The 
division will not be geographic but denominational. Such was 
the outcome of the Church's struggle with Mohammedanism 
and later with Protestantism. Catholicism was not killed, nor 
was it victorious. Analogies from the past indicate a draw. 

Christ Was Born To Set Us Free 

Condensed from San Francisco Monitor 

/ C H R I S T was born into a world of slaves. 
He was born not of a bondwoman, but of the free. Mary 

was free, from her conception, of all sin. "Whosover committeth 
sin is the servant of sin." 

All that Roman world was released from bondage into the 
liberty of the glory of the children of God, because Christ was 
born and taught the perfect law of liberty. 

r I X)DAY, slave masters rise again to power, expressing in 
-•- themselves the sins by which modern men have been en-

slaved, "promising them liberty, whereas they themselves are the 
slaves of corruption. For by whom a man is overcome, of the 
same also he is the slave." 



December, 1938 T H E C A T H O L I C MIRROR 19 

Old altars are rebuilt to false gods; the monstrous State is 
exalted again, like Moloch arrogantly usurping power over the 
souls of men; the worship of Mammon is reenthroned in the 
machine-god; vain men are lifted up into pride and a vision of 
desolation and horror frightens men to exchange even their souls 
for material security. 

No material security was theirs who in the stable of Bethlehem 
witnessed the birth of Liberty Incarnate. For Truth was born to 
men and there is no freedom in a lie. 

"Now the Lord is a Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord 
is, there is liberty." 

/ ^ H R I S T was born to die, that by His death He might break 
^ ^ the bars that closed the free heaven from the prison of 
this world. 

He was born, too, to teach men what man is, and to start men 
rebuilding according to that teaching, a City of God, wherein 
men might be free. 

Christ came to answer the deepest of human questions : "What 
is man that Thou art mindful of him ?" 

If men were only mortal robots, then the fit city for them 
might well be that city without God that is the prison house 
of all the Russians. 

If men were only savage, irresponsible beasts, then that city 
might be most fitly theirs that is the insane asylum which is 
the present German Reich. 

Christ came to reestablish the inner authority in men, which 
is the doctrine of the freedom of the human will. 

He came to give men supernatural aid to use their wills aright 
so that they might freely exercise all the faculties of their nature, 
their reasons in intellectual liberty, their judgements in free 
conscience. 

He came to assure them of a security not of the body only, 
but of the order and liberty which human nature requires for its 
fulfillment. 

They who, following Christ, won freedom for their souls from 
the bondage of sin, shook off the material chains of Roman 
slavery that had been the consequences of sin. 

Christ taught there can be no prosperity without liberty, be-
cause He urged men to seek first the Kingdom of God, promising 
all things else, even Peace to all men of good will. 

r I "*HE peril of our time is that we in America may be deceived 
into slavery, both of soul and body, in exchange for a poor 

security of the flesh. 
What has occurred in Russia, Mexico, Germany, Japan, 

Ethiopia, Italy, and to a large extent already in England and 
America, may completely overwhelm us here. For the end of 
the false liberalism by which we have been dominated is in the 
same subjection as communism effects. 

We should turn to Christ the Babe of Bethlehem and enshrine 
Him in our hearts as the only King or Leader worth our trust, 
as the true Guardian of our liberty. 

"If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free 
indeed." 

The Spirit of the World 

By REV. ROBERT I. GANNON, S.J. 
Condensed from Radio Address 

WH A T was it shattered Christianity in the sixteenth cen-tury and would have wiped out all traces of Christ's 
Church if that Church hadn't been divine? The spirit of the 

world. It wasn't primarily Luther or Calvin or Henry VI I I or 
Cranmer. It wasn't any of the forces on the Protestant side. 
It was certain popes and certain cardinals and certain bishops 
of the Renaissance who buffeted the face of Christ and tore 
His seamless garment to shreds. Any one of them could have 
doubled for Caiphas. 

As in the Church, so in international and domestic affairs. 
What chopped up Poland and ground it under the heels of 
three foreign tyrants? The spirit of the world that thinks only 
of revenue and nothing of Christ-^nothing of the natural rights 
of man. 

What guided the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the World 
War? What strangled poor Austria and Hungary, plundered 
their land and sold millions of their people to neighboring states ? 
The spirit of the world. Who presided at Versailles anyway? 
There was talk of having the Vicar of Christ, so that justice 
might be done and peace restored. But of course that was foolish. 
Caiphas was the obvious choice. He was elected unanimously 
—and when he took his place at the head of the council table, 
he found himself surrounded by his cronies. It must really have 
seemed like old times to Caiphas, for there before them, manacled 
like a thief, was the spirit of Christ. Once more they had come 
together not to try Him, but to condemn Him. 

But why go abroad for examples of worldliness? We have 
them all around us here at home. Caiphas is the busiest man 
in the United States of America. Who can count the corporations 
of Caiphas—the corporations, I mean, that are built solely on 
the spirit of the world? No thought of right or wrong, only of 
individuals. Who can count the law firms of which Caiphas is the 
senior partner, unmentioned, perhaps, but very influential ? And 
in politics—who is the strong silent man in every community who 
never has to be elected? Caiphas. Who rules the underworld— 
High Priest of the Racketeers? The same high priest who sent 
Christ to the Cross. 

Creative Conservatism 

By DAN W. GILBERT 
Condensed from National Republic 

T E T some radical orator use the word conservatism and his 
audience will shrink back in their seats as though a whip 

were being lashed in their faces. The word is usually enunciated 
with a sort of snarl, symbolizing the idea that it is supposed to 
stand for the law of tooth and claw, the law of the jungle, of 
"dismal reaction" and "dark barbarism." Conservatism is sup-
posed to imply the defense of all that is evil in the world, the 
protection and propagation of barbarism and savagery in human 
society. 

Radical propagandists continually din into the ears of youth 
the fallacious idea that conservatism is a synonym for reaction. 
Conservatism is supposed to mean the preservation of the status 
quo. The conservative is made to appear to be opposed to prog-
ress. More, he is represented as being in favor of conserving 
—that is, perpetuating—any injustices and inequalities which 
may afflict the most advanced nations of the world. Radical 
propagandists make it appear that the "conservative" is inevit-
ably a hard-hearted reactionary who is determined to defend 
under-privilege and poverty as the lot of the submerged element 
of the population. The "conservative" is represented as caring 
nothing about humanity and human rights; his sole concern is 
supposed to be with the preservation of "economic royalism, of 
privilege and unjust inequality." 



20 T H E C A T H O L I C M I R R O R December, 1938 

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