Freedom of Faith

Jehovah's Witnesses are a Bible-dizzy cult whose zealous members push doorbells, hand out pamphlets, play phonograph records, to anyone who will listen, denouncing the Roman Catholic Church. In New Haven, Conn., two years ago, Witness Newton Cantwell and his sons Jesse, 16, and Russell, 18, toured Cassius Street--a lean & hungry district whose population is 90% Catholic. Jesse Cantwell played his record to John Ganley and John Cafferty, Catholics. Squeaked the record, describing a book called Enemies: "This book submits the conclusive proof that for more than 1,500 years a great religious system, operating out of Rome, has by means of fraud and deception brought untold sorrow and suffering on the people. It operates the greatest racket ever employed amongst men and robs the people of their money and destroys their peace of mind and freedom of action. . . ."

The Cantwells were all arrested for soliciting money without a permit and for breaking the peace. Jehovah's Witnesses are used to that, and to fighting their cases through the courts, with counsel supplied by their organization in Brooklyn, N. Y. The Connecticut Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Jesse Cantwell. By last week his case had reached the U. S. Supreme Court.* His lawyer, Hayden C. Covington of Brooklyn, argued that the conviction violated Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes interrupted sternly:

"I suppose these Catholics had some right of religious freedom themselves, did they not? I suppose they have the right to be left alone and not to be attacked with these scurrilous denunciations of their most cherished faith. What have you to say to that?"

"I say we are right," cried Lawyer Covington.

"You can hire a hall. You can hold meetings and distribute literature. Is that the same thing as going into a Catholic home and delivering these attacks on their faith? . . . Is there no limit at all to what you can do when you think you are worshiping your God?"

Justice Frank Murphy, only Catholic on the bench, kept mum. But when Edwin Pickett, arguing for the State of Connecticut, declared that it was unlawful to "stir up strife and discontent," Justice James Clark McReynolds interjected that Jesus stirred up "a good deal of trouble in Jerusalem." Mr. Pickett replied: "As I remember my Bible, something was done about that." The Court took the case under advisement.

* The Supreme Court decision of 1938, that anti-pamphlet and handbill ordinances are unconstitutional, resulted from a Jehovah's Witnesses appeal.

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