Letter from Allan Nern to President Harry S. Truman

Dear Mr. Trumen: I As a friend of Mrs. Roosevelt, I thought you should see the letter below. 101 provel. 22 Dolphin Green allan nern Port Wa hington, N. Y. July 23, 1949 To the Editor Roosercit-Spellum of the New York Times: The letter written by Cardinal Spellman to Mrs. Roosevelt and published in the July 23 issue of THE TIMES is full of verbiage that has nothing to do with the matter. Clear think- ing by all of our citizens is necessary to preserve the free- doms of our form of government; the irrelevant statements of the Cardinal appear to be attempts to confuse the thoughts of the many people who will read his letter. Beclouding the issue by references to events that merely provoke emotional response, is certainly no way to arrive at a clear understanding of the merits of the Barden bill. Dragging in the case of Cardinal Mindzenty and the sacrifices of the Catholic boys during the war is no more pertinent than it would be for me to refer to the aid given Nazi Germany by Spain during the last war, or the controversy between the church and the state in Mexico. None of these things have any bearing on whether the Barden bill should limit the use of Federal tax money to public schools. To those of your readers who think clearly the Cardinal's words that read, "misinformation, ignorance or prejudice, not from knowledge and understanding" seem to apply directly to his statements rather than to Mrs. Roosevelt's column. The Cardinal has placed himself in a ridiculous position by attacking Mrs. Roosevelt for intolerance. Her record of many years of active effort in promoting racial and religious understanding is too well known to be tarnished by such evident propaganda by a high representative of well-organized pressure group. No one denies the right of the Catholics to maintain their own schools any more than the right is denied to the Baptists, Jews, Episcopalians, Ethical Culturists, Agnostics, Atheists, Quakers etc., but if they wish to operate outside the public school system, it is their responsibility to provide the necess- ary funds. At the present time (in my opinion, wrongly so) re- ligious institutions receive exemption from most of the taxes on income-producing properties not directly used for religious pur- poses; yet the Catholics would seek to secure more funds from the public treasury. The real facts are that, if the people of any faith wish to secure the benefit from any educational appropiations for the common good, they are at liberty to send their children to the public schools. Under the present system, our country has been able to maintain a high level of intelligent citizenry. Any attempt to undermine that system should be resisted by all who wish to maintain our precious freedoms. "LET'S BE FAIR." Copies to Mrs. Roosevelt, President Truman, Senators Ives and Dulles