Recognizing all this-there is still much that the religious heritage can teach us. Religion may have no easy panaceas to offer, but its eternal truths and ideals can-indeed must-inform all of our actions.

In the area of social action, an important aspect of which is our present concern, religion must serve as the source of those values which are the foundation of civilization: The superiority of freedom over tyranny; the compelling demand to correct injustice; the sanctity of the individual person in the face of the dehumanizing forces of totalitarianism; and the rights of all men to equal opportunity.

Sometimes I feel that people in this country and other countries talk of religion as something preached from the pulpit and something very lofty to be practiced on Sunday morning and the Sabbath. They very rarely realize that religion has a very realistic message and that unless religion has that kind of message that can be applied to daily living, it has no meaning, no sense, no purpose and no real function in a democratic society.

I think I want to emphasize that, the reality of religious beliefs as translated into the terms of the 20th century living, religion cannot escape into good sermons. A good sermon is always a bad sermon if it cannot be applied to reality; and if it cannot be lived, it becomes selfserving to the clergyman, to me or the priest, a self-serving instrument rather than an attempt to address ourselves to the urgent needs of our society.

Nothing more gravely threatens American democracy today than the fact of its incompleteness. Democracy to be secure must be complete. An incomplete democracy is an insecure democracy.

Despite all the progress we have made, American democracy remains alarmingly incomplete because millions of our fellow citizens are still being denied their legitimate democratic rights and full equality of treatment on account of their race, religion, or national origin.

Discrimination in employment severely affects not only the particular groups against which it is directed but the entire Nation. 'When members of these groups are denied jobs for which they are qualified, they are forced to accept less remunerative employment or none at all.

I am not talking for the Jews or about the Jews. I think equalities are indivisible. I think it would be immoral for me to talk about discrimination against my people in employment or any other field unless I also talk about discrimination about anybody else.

I think that here we are one nation and indivisible as a nation. We are also indivisible in our demand for equality. There are no favored groups. There are no favorites within a democracy. It is all embracing. It is universal, it is one, or it is, indeed, nothing.

The living standards of these groups are thus lowered and their members discouraged from developing their skills and special abilities. The Nation loses an important source of skill and manpower. Lowering the living standards of any group in the country adversely affects the economy as a whole.

I have little patience or sympathy with the view which argues that such legislation is doomed to ineffectiveness until there has been a change in the minds and hearts of men and the prejudices which many people entertain are dissolved by education and exhortation.

I want to say that legislation itself must be education. Law itself is an educational process. The Government, through laws, embarks

upon the great venture of education by demonstrating through legislation its beliefs.

I believe that it is wrong to differentiate between education that takes place in classrooms or that great public and national education, the education of a nation, and the attempt to mold the souls and convictions of a nation through legislation.

Law is indeed not to be separated from the process of national education.

The actual practice of discrimination is one of the major sources on which racial and religious prejudice feeds. Children are not born with these prejudices. Protestant, Catholic, and Jew, Negro and white, live and play and go to school together without self-consciousness until they are corrupted by the facts of the society in which they live. No education for brotherhood or equality can be successful where the principles which education sets forth are constantly contradicted by the stark facts of segregation, discrimination, and inequality. Education against prejudice can make progress only where there has been prior action against discrimination.

That is why I support fair employment legislation. This legislation is not directed against a state of mind. It does not bid anyone to change his views, or to abandon his prejudices. As a matter of fact, we have learned that prejudice as such is not attackable. Prejudice lives in the hearts of people, they are entitled to their own prejudices.

What we are talking about is discrimination. Prejudice is a property of the person, who may or may not be prejudiced.

I pity those who are but nevertheless I have no mind, nor do I have any power, to attack or to convince a person that he or she ought not to be prejudiced but, when prejudice is translated in terms of discrimination, it becomes a public concern and it becomes attackable, it becomes accessible, approachable through legislation.

They are no longer a matter merely of private conviction. They are a subject of vital public concern. By outlawing such action, we shall not only be eliminating one of the most flagrant violations of democratic practice, we shall be taking a major step in the dissolution of prejudice.

The high standards which our religious tradition extends to the world are ideal standards. And though the ideal is often in conflict with the real, this fact should not deter us from our efforts. The function of the teacher of religion, the function, too, of the legislation under consideration by this subcommittee, is to narrow the gap between the ideal and the real, and to annihilate the distance between the world as it is and as it ought to be. When we see inequity, our moral fiber must be firm and we must understand how to act.

For these reasons I hope this subcommittee will recommend approval of an effective Federal fair employment bill and that the bill will be approved at this session of Congress by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Nation has already waited too long for this measure which is so greatly needed for realization of the democratic ideal for full equality.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Dr. Prinz, may I just say for myself, and I am sure for all the members of the committee, that you have most eloquently and yet most practically presented the fundamentals of the

proposal itself and you have given us the kind of inspiration which I think we always need in going ahead and effectuating its enactment. I was particularly impressed, Dr. Prinz, by your reference to the fact that laws can also be educational and that it is not necessary always—if I seem to harp on it I feel pretty strongly about it- it is not always necessary for other forms of education to have completely succeeded before the law can be passed and can be expected to be effective.

I think our history is full of examples of the truth of the statements which you have so well put forth.

I want to thank you very much for your appearance.

I would ask you if you will wait just a minute while my good friend. Mr. Goodell, a member of the subcommittee, makes such comment as he would like.

Mr. GOODELL. I certainly want to join my colleague, Mr. Roosevelt, in his comments. You have put great emphasis on the question of moral leadership that can be provided by a law and I believe, as I believe you do, that this is a matter of great urgency and we should be about this matter in this country at a national level now.

I am interested in your distinction between prejudice and discrimination. Perhaps I got the wrong impression. You seem to be saying that we cannot change prejudice that is in the heart. I would hope that you are not so defeatist as that.

I think from my own viewpoint that it is harder to change and we cannot do it by Government fiat, but it seems to me that the churches and leaders such as you are doing a great deal to change prejudices in the heart and in the world.

Rabbi PRINZ. We try. The point that I wanted to make is that you cannot embark upon any legislative program to outlaw prejudices. You can outlaw discrimination, you can attack that, you can approach that, but prejudices sometimes are in favor of something, and are sometimes good things.

I am prejudiced in favor of good food, for instance. prejudiced against some of the food which we get.

I am

So I believe that prejudices, after all, live in a realm that is not attackable through legislative or public instruments.

The point I made when I digressed from the text which we prepared here is that there can be cooperation between law as education and organized religion if it is properly understood, not as a magic wand or any kind of magic trick, but often an attempt to address ourselves to the social problems of our time.

This, after all, is the prophetic concern. This is what you read in the Fifth Book of Isaiah. This is what you read in the Fifth Chapter of Matthew, social concern.

What I want to say is prejudice, as such, cannot be attacked by legislation and outlawed but discrimination can and discrimination has been and we have made headway in this field.

I believe that there is some process, if we are successful in outlawing or attacking discrimination, we might then by virtue of that fact also change the prejudices of people, and then suddenly for the first time they work together and there in an atmosphere of doing a job together, whites and Negroes, Jews and Christians, all kinds of people begin to understand each other in the process of work.

There is, after all, a discovery of human oneness and of humanity in working together. People who work together stay together.

Mr. GOODELL. I appreciate your expansion on that particular point. You have made, I think, very clear in your latter remarks that you feel that there is a role that law can perform in eliminating discrimination and that this in turn will be helpful in eliminating what we might call negative prejudices in this respect.

Rabbi PRINZ. Yes.

Mr. GOODELL. Thank you.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Thank you very much.

The next witness before the committee is the Reverend John F. Cronin, assistant director of the department of social action of the National Catholic Welfare Conference.

Father Cronin, we want to thank you very much for your kindness and patience. We are a little bit behind schedule. We hope we have not disrupted your plans for the morning.

STATEMENT OF REV. JOHN F. CRONIN, S.S., ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, SOCIAL ACTION DEPARTMENT, NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE

Father CRONIN. Not the slightest.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. We are most happy to have you and we are grateful to you for your willingness to come before the committee both in your individual capacity as well as in your official capacity.

Father CRONIN. Thank you.

I will read my testimony.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Rev. John F. Cronin, S.S. I am here in my capacity as assistant director of the social action department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, and also as a consultant to the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice. I thank you for the opportunity to present my views briefly on this important topic.

The subject of equal employment opportunity has moral, social, economic, and legislative aspects. Each of these deserves careful attention.

In 1958, the Catholic bishops of the United States issued a historic statement on discrimination and the Christian conscience. May I quote from this statement:

It is a matter of historical fact that segregation in our country has led to oppressive conditions and the denial of basic human rights for the Negro. This is evident in the fundamental fields of education, job opportunity, and housing. Flowing from these areas of neglect and discrimination are problems of health and the sordid train of evils so often associated with the consequent slum conditions.

Later the bishops list the opportunities that must be given to our Negro citizens:

They wish an education that does not carry with it a stigma of inferiority. They wish economic advancement based on merit and skill. They wish their civil rights as American citizens. They wish acceptance based upon proved ability and achievement. No one who truly loves God's children will deny them this opportunity.

The moral principles enunciated in these quotations do not need elaboration. From a religious viewpoint, they express the God-given dignity and rights of all men. From a political standpoint, they express the rights guaranteed by our Constitution.

As implied in the bishops' statement, denial of these rights leads to social evils of the utmost gravity. When job opportunity is lacking, there is little incentive to seek proper education. Unskilled workers fill the ranks of the unemployed and the unemployable. They often add to our problems of crime, delinquency, and vice.

Economic evils also ensue. Failure to utilize available manpower is a social waste at any time. Under present world tensions, it creates a loss of output and skill that we cannot tolerate. Much of the chronic unemployment of our day has its roots in job discrimination. Workers who never had the opportunity to obtain skills now find themselves completely unwanted in most labor markets.

Finally, we may advert to the legislative aspects of the problem. Fair employment legislation has been given adequate trial in many States and cities. Even without legislation, the Federal Government has used its prestige to prevent discrimination in its own hiring practices and in those of contractors to the Government. Accordingly, we know that this is a feasible type of legislation, proved by years of experience.

It is also badly needed. While it is difficult to state which areas of racial justice should have highest priority, any one familiar with the field would place job opportunity close to the top. Without it, there is no incentive for education and insufficient income for adequate housing and medical care. By contrast, the cultural and social advancement that follow from challenging work at good pay can be a powerful factor in uplifting those ground down by decades of discrimination.

I hope that this subcommittee will report favorably on this vital legislation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. Father Cronin, we are grateful to you for your very eloquent and fine expression. I think it is worthy to note that one reason that the committee particularly asked you, the previous witness, and the witness who will follow you, to come before the committee was to emphasize that while one aspect of the bill deals with discrimination on religious grounds, the whole matter of discrimination has a far higher meaning than would appear on the surface.

I think it essential to emphasize what you have brought out here so clearly, that the Catholic bishops of the United States have not just wanted a bill because of discrimination where it may exist against the employment of Catholics. They have placed it upon a ground which, it seems to me, is unassailable, which is that discrimination, whether it be because of religion or race or the other facets of discrimination, basically raises issues of such broad national import as well as moral import that it is a vital concern to church leaders of all faiths.

I think the leadership which you and your fine organization and the bishops have given in this effort has meant a tremendous amount and is largely responsible for the advances made so far not only in the States but, as you pointed out, in the Federal Government.