tute the unrepatriables, who cannot return to their former homes. without the prospect of facing a firing squad or a concentration camp, approximately three-quarters are Christians, many of them belonging to the Protestant and Eastern Orthodox bodies associated with the Federal Council of Churches. Beyond all the humanitarian considerations, therefore, our churches have an added reason for being active in behalf of the displaced persons, for a large percentage of them are of our own household of faith.

I pass on to the more important section on page 4 of my statement, in which I want to emphasize the fact not only of a deep concern about these people, but of a determination of the churches actually to take care of them if and when they are allowed to come to this country.

The churches of our constituency can be counted on to play an important role in the resettlement of the displaced persons that are admitted into the United States. Already they have demonstrated their practical interest in doing so. Through Church World Service, Inc., and the American Christian Committee for Refugees, 400 displaced persons from the camps in Europe have been successfully resettled. Homes have been found for them in 64 different communities in 19 different States. Not one of them is dependent on public charity. They are rapidly becoming useful self-supporting residents of our country.

Mr. CELLER. Are these rural sections as well as urban sections on which they have been settled?

Dr. CAVERT. Yes. There are 64 different communities. I have the break-down of them here. I am afraid that the break-down does not show the specific communities, but it does show by States.

The States, for example, are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsyslvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Washington.

There are 64 different communities in those 19 States.

The detailed case records show that they are widely diversified in professional and occupational status. Fifty-six of them, it may be pointed out, are in service occupations, such as household workers and nurses, in which there is a shortage of American personnel.

This is only a slight indication of what the churches are effectively organized to do in resettlement when larger numbers of displaced persons are permitted to enter our country. I cite, as illustrative, the following statements made by responsible executives of national church agencies:

Rev. Charles E. Krumbholz, executive secretary of the division of welfare, National Lutheran Council, says:

The Lutheran Church stands ready to assist in the resettlement program of displaced persons who may be able to come under H. R. 2910.

The National Lutheran Council is in regular and frequent contact with over 8,000 pastors throughout the country, of whom about 50 percent are serving rural and small-town churches. Through these churches in rural communities many hundreds of families can be resettled. It is roughly estimated that several thousand persons can be helped in resettlement and quick adjustment to American life through our Lutheran Church.

I might add parenthetically that of the Protestant displaced persons, considerably the largest percentage is Lutheran. So this statement of the Lutheran Church is significant in that connection.

Mr. GRAHAM. Might I interrupt just a moment?

Dr. CAVERT. Yes.

Mr. GRAHAM. Isn't it a fact that the Lutheran Church has a larger membership in this country than any other, aside from the Catholic denomination?

Dr. CAVERT. In these countries from which these displaced persons come, yes, sir, that is true; especailly in the Baltic States from which many of the DP's come.

Continuing from Dr. Krumbholz's statement,

The welcome that displaced persons will receive at the hands of the Lutheran Church is evidenced by the entirely unsolicited offers of resettlement opportunities that have already come to our national office. We have only to stimulate further offers in order to secure a large number of additional opportunities. We have withheld an appeal to our people because as yet we have not been able to use all the resources that we now have.

In addition to the churches themselves, the Lutheran group has a whole chain of welfare agencies stretched over the country which are alerted to start operations at once to find opportunities for employment and homes for new arrivals. Already 100 families have been placed and 50 adolescents from the ages of 14 to 18 are being cared for in foster homes through Lutheran childplacing agencies which are fully accredited by the United States Children's Bureau. These agencies can be quickly rallied for work through our national office when the time comes.

Rev. Stanley I. Stuber, executive secretary of the World Relief Committee of the Northern Baptist Convention, writes:

The American Baptist Home Mission Society is at the present time making a survey of homes which might consider taking displaced persons. Moreover, it is creating a Department which will care for the resettlement of DP's after they have been turned over to it from the Church World Service Committee. It also intends to follow through, with personal and spiritual aid, over a period of months and, if need be, years. Northern Baptist have already allocated $50,000 for this type of work and are ready to supply even more when it is possible to bring displaced persons to this country in terms stated in our resolution.

Rev. G. P. Warfield, associate secretary of the Methodist Committee for Overseas Relief, says:

Our committee is deeply interested in this project and can assure you that we will call upon the multiplied resources of the Methodist Church to assist us in doing everything possible to help displaced persons who come to the United States of America.

Metropolitan Theophilus, Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church of North America, has written a letter to all the parishes in his Nation-wide jurisdiction, in which he addresses them as follows:

Organize without delay in every parish a branch of the Russian Orthodox Committee * * * to assist in the resettlement of these Russian Orthodox refugees after their admission to this country. These committees should make themselves responsible for seeing that these newcomers do not become public charges or a burden to their communities.

Latvian Relief, Inc., through Mr. Robert H. Peterson, secretary, writes as follows:

We should like to say that 60,000 Latvian displaced persons could easily be settled in the United States within the period of 4 years, in collaboration with Church World Service and the respective United States agencies.

Latvian Relief, Inc., proposes to work in close contact with Latvian churches and civic and welfare organizations in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, and with Latvian farming colonies in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Maine, Michigan, Florida, and other States.

The great majority of Latvians are familiar with agriculture and with trades and professions. The Latvian people are sturdy, active, and thrifty. They will take root in America and acclimatize themselves in a minimum of time. They are self-reliant and they will require only some assistance in the very beginning. The loyalty of the Latvian refugees to the United States will be unqualified and unquestioned.

I sometimes hear it argued that obligations to our own people prevent our assisting the displaced persons overseas. I I agree that we certainly must take care of our own. But these convincing evidences of constructive help available through many churches and voluntary agencies make it completely clear that a country in as favored a position as ours can both care for its own and also do something significant for the helpless in Europe. Unless we do so I do not see how we are going to be at peace with our own consciences. Moreover, if we do not initiate a real solution for this relatively simple and compassable international problem, what ground have we for hoping for a world of order and peace? Here, in the case of the displaced persons, we can set an example of what it means to live in "one world." This is a good time to recall John Donne's haunting story of the vicar in the English village who was asked from whom the church bell was tolling. In words that have become a classic of spirtual insight he replied:

No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of continent, a part of the main. If a clod is washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. fore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

There

Mr. FELLOWS. Dr. Covert, I notice that you used the parable of the good Samaritan.

Dr. CAVERT. Yes; I did in a paragraph that I omitted.

Mr. FELLOWS. But in that case, he did not take him home. He took him to an inn, and left money.

I do not think that is a good illustration.

Dr. CAVERT. I would like to point out that the good Samaritan did what the situation required to save the man.

Mr. FELLOWS. That is right. He took him to an inn and left him funds.

Dr. CAVERT. That is right. And at the present time, that is what we are doing. We are taking them to the inns, which are the camps in Europe. But as we heard from the Assistant Secretary of State a moment ago, it can be only a temporary procedure.

Mr. FELLOWS. That is correct. Only I am wondering whether it is a good parable to us.

Mr. CELLER. Doctor, don't we want to take them in, also?

Dr. CAVERT. I am not particularly interested in arguing the parable. I am very much interested in arguing from what seemed to me to be basic Christian considerations, having to do with our whole attitude toward those who have suffered most through no fault of their own from the war.

Mr. FELLOWS. You have used the parable. I did not.

Dr. CAVERT. Thank you.

Mr. CHELF. Doctor, might I say to you, were it not for that attitude, I would have long since made up my mind. That is one thing that I am holding in my mind, that one point that you just brought up. Mr. CELLER. How many members does the Council of Churches of Christ in America represent?

Dr. CAVERT. There are 28,000,000 members and 25 national denominations that cooperate in the council.

Mr. FELLOWS. We thank you, sir, for your statement and your courtesy.

Dr. CAVERT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. FELLOWS. We will adjourn until next Friday at 10 o'clock. (Thereupon at 1:00 p. m., the subcommittee adjourned until 10 a. m., Friday, June 13, 1947.)

PERMITTING ADMISSION OF 400,000 DISPLACED
PERSONS INTO THE UNITED STATES

FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 1947

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION,

Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met at 10 a. m., in the caucus room of the Old House Office Building, Hon. Frank Fellows (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. FELLOWs. The committee will come to order.

Justice Owen J. Roberts is here this morning.

We are honored to have you before us, and we are ready when you are.

Mr. JUSTICE ROBERTS. I am ready now.

STATEMENT OF HON. OWEN J. ROBERTS, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT (RETIRED)

Mr. JUSTICE ROBERTS. I have felt it an obligation to come down here in person, Mr. Chairman, rather than to write to the committee, because of my tremendous interest in the question that is before you.

I do not know that I can add very much in the way of fact or argument to what you have already heard. But I do want to make a brief statement about the matter.

I am interested in many movements in this country intended to break down as far as possible racial and religious prejudices and feeling. I am glad to say that this project has no color of race or religion in it. You know the proportions and the percentages that are affected by it.

We face this problem, gentlemen, in the UNO and the IRO. The United States has recognized that this is one of the serious problems of the reconstitution of European society.

Recognizing, as we do, the seriousness of the problem, the country has to face and what it ought to do about it.

We have, I am glad to say, resisted the repatriation of these people in the countries from which they fled. We are now, of necessity, holding them in an almost imperialistic way, and it seems to me in quite an un-American way, because these people, as a result of necessities, are now practically interned in concentration camps.

We have to find some way to assert our leadership. I think we have to fulfill the obligations that are on us, arising from the plight of these people. And I fear that our failure to take an affirmative stand

65536-47-ser. 11-10

139