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| 64. COMMUNISM .AND CAOEOUCISM contacts are not easily made. Thus, a priest director would need to be friendly with top labor officials to get 'the needed data. Even then he would need to be well trained to ask the right questions and to elicit information not readily volunteered. Groups which deal with informants must of necessity protect their sources of information. They too will only talk to a person ' who has proved his ability to interpret facts and protect confidences. Thus, there would be a serious problem of getting the right individuals to head this work. Any sucfr individual known to this writer would be needed elsewhere in the positive phase of the program. .Furthermore, the development of the positive program will afford a large staff of trained personnel who learn a great deal about Communism in the course of their work. Thus the priests and laymen associated with the A.C.T.U. in Detroit, New York, and elsewhere; priests who work in labor schools in New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, Detroit, and the like; priests who direct social action in Hartford, Burlington, San Francisco, New Orleans, and similar dioceses; all these find out a great deal about local Communism and, what is noro important, are in a position to do something about it. If the further developments projected subsequently mature, there will be regional and national meetings of these individuals and, in the course of their discussion of other problems, a fair appraisal of the Communist situation could be had. In the light of these considerations, the recommendation is against the continuance of organized and exclusive investigation of Communism by a Catholic body. If such a grtudyt could be financed by a disinterested person or group apart from the Church, and if investigators of the finest caliber now in public service could be used, the results would be highly useful. It is known that such a group would be available if financial backing could be had* But for ourselves, the recommendation would be for a semiannual report on trends and developments. If the Bishops are satisfied with the competence of the present study, this investigator could present such reports by keeping subscriptions to important Communist literature and anti-Communist publica- tions and by keeping personal contacts which have proved so fruitful. The time demanded would be less than an hour a day fop the literature and possibly a week each quarter to keep in touch with contacts. Thus the investigator fiould ua e the bulk of his time towards furthering such of the positive pro- grams, such as writing and training priests, as are within his competence. The results would be inferior to those obtained by full-time*study, but should be adequate in view of the over-all picture. Programs Directed Against Communism. Since so many of the Communist activities center about propaganda, it seems logical that there be direct attempts to counter such propaganda and to spread the truth. Unfortunately, our present efforts along these lines are not successful in achieving their aims. There is too much of a tendency to substitute emotion and general statements for facts and to convince the convinced. It is quite possible that we would be more successful in getting over the facts about Communism if we did not preach and editorialize so much on the matter. The first step is to get the facts in a continuous and regular manner. If the Bishops think it wise, this Report might be placed temporarily in the hands of diocesan editors, with a warning that direct quotation would invite libel suits. After they have taken notes and returned the document, they |