Nieman Fellow Bares Axis Designs On Irish Minority

"It is an indubitable fact that the propagandists of the Axis are attempting to divide us by exploiting the Irish Catholic minority in America, half a million of which is in the Boston area," said Donald Grant, Nieman Fellow from the Des Moines "Register," in the feature article of the "Nation" this week.

"Before Pearl Harbor the Christian Front flourished among the Irish in South Boston and America First found a blessing in the Back Bay," continued Grant. "Since Pearl Harbor, Front leader Francis P. Moran has limited his activities to increasing the 10,000 copies a week circulation of Father Coughlin's 'Social Justice,' which is sold outside every Catholic church in the city."

Fight Against Freedom

But a spokesman for Coughlin, Father Curran of Brooklyn, has taken up "the fight against the fight for freedom," continuing the "old Christian Front line."

Curiously enough, Curran's demand was taken up by the otherwise pro-war effort Boston "Herald" in the featured articles of erstwhile sports writer Bill Cunningham, which are quoted and commended in this week's "Social Justice," according to Grant. He also pointed out the inconsistency in the "Herald's" policy of running a "rumor clinic" alongside Cunningham's columns, which are flagrantly just the kind of patients the clinic is seeking.

Boston Logical Choice

The reason for the choice of Boston and the Irish for this dubious honor is "easy to see," according to Grant, because of the large population in Boston of Irish whose descendants were not always "treated with consideration by the British."

But he maintained that the vast majority of Irish-Americans are solidly behind the war effort and that only a minority are going along with these ideas of Coughlin and Moran because of their loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church.

Grant warned that, regrettable though it may be, the whole Catholic Church in America would be held accountable for the actions of these individuals, and he advised that responsible Catholic authorities act soon for the good of future relations between their church and the country.