Truce

The telephone rang in Eleanor Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park. It was Cardinal Spellman on the line. Two weeks before, angry at Mrs. Roosevelt's opposition to federal aid to parochial schools, he had accused her of "discrimination unworthy of an American mother," and announced flatly that no matter what Mrs. Roosevelt had further to say, "I shall not again publicly acknowledge you."

Now he had written another statement, he told Mrs. Roosevelt, and he would like her to read it before it was released. "In the midst of the great confusion and the many regrettable misunderstandings and misinterpretations," he wanted to make the Roman Catholic position clear. This time the sting and heat of his early manner was gone.

It was important for everyone to know, the Cardinal's statement said, just what the Catholics were and were not asking for. "We are not asking for general public support of religious schools . . . Under the Constitution we do not ask nor can we expect public funds to pay for the construction or repair of parochial school buildings, or for the support of teachers . ..

"There are, however, other incidental expenses involved in education, expenses for such purposes as the transportation of children to & from school, the purchase of non-religious textbooks and the provision of health aids." The Cardinal thought that Catholic pupils were entitled to such "auxiliary services," just as they were already entitled to free lunches under the School Lunch Act. Said the Cardinal:

"This in no way undermines the 'traditional American principle of separation of Church and State.' We are asking only for what is constitutional . . ."

Eleanor Roosevelt found that "a clarifying and fair statement." In an accompanying statement of her own, which the Cardinal's office in Manhattan also released, she said she found it reassuring to be told that the Cardinal was asking only for "auxiliary services," a position he had not made clear in his earlier, broadside attacks on the Barden Bill. "I again wish to reiterate," she concluded, "that I have no anti-Roman Catholic bias. I am firm in my belief that there shall be no pressure brought to bear by any church against the proper operations of the government and that there shall be recognition of the fact that all citizens may express their views freely on questions of public interest."

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