THE CATHOLIC WORKER Subacr1ption1 Vol. -xxxm No. 5 FEBRUARY, 1967 25c Per Ye•r Price le Clerical Witness OF.HOLY DISOBEDIENCE A./. Muste convince him that he 11 helpless BY TOM CORNELL In Colombia as an individual and that the only Abr;ham Johannes Muste, A.J., way to meet regimentation ls by is dead at 82. regimentation, there ls absolutely no hope saye in going back to the A minister, a labor leader, a beginning. The human being, the revolutionary, a pacifist died child of God, must assert his hu­ peacefully of heart failure at St. manity and his sonship again. He Luke's Hospital in New York early must exercise the choice which is Saturday evening, February 11. no longer accorded him by his He worked at his home until five society, which, "naked, weaponless, hours before his death, and re­ armourless, without shield or mained lucid till the last. He was spear, but only with naked hands very much a father to many of us. and open eyes," he must create A. J. was born in the Nether­ again. He must understand that lands and grew up in the Mid­ this naked human being is the west. He was graduated from only real thing in the face of the Hope College in Michigan in 1905, machines and the mechanized in­ valedictorian, captain of the bas­ stitutions of our age. He, by the ketball team and state oratorical grace of God, ls the seed of all the champion. He studied for the min­ human life there will be on earth, istry and served a Dutch Re­ though he may have to die to make formed church, a Presbyterian that harvest possible. As Life church, a Congregational church stated, in its unexpectedly pro­ and a Friends meeting. He studied found and stirring editorial •f Au­ at Union Theological Seminary, gust 20, 1945, its first issue after New York University and Colum­ the atom bombing of Hiroshima: bia. "Our sole safeguard against the Milton Mayer, in his essay "The very real danger of a reversion to Christer," quotes James P. Can­ non's History of Americ.an Trot­ skyism: "Trotsky was greatly interested in the personality of Muste, asked me questions about him and en­ tertained some hopes that he would develop into a real Bolshe­ vik later ... Muste's handicap was his background. He had started out life as a preacher. But de­ spite the handicap of lhi back­ Nonviolent Protest ground, he gave promise because By PAT RUSK of his exceptional personal quali­ ties, and because of the great in­ The charges read off to us as we to risk days, months or even years fluence he had over the people stood before Judge Grey in Crim­ behind bars? Why do we dot it? associated with him; his prestige inal Court on January 3rd were: The answer was given in the and his reputation. He was, you Prison Meditations of Father Al-­ might say, the last chance anlf the disorderly conduc~. resisting ar­ fred Delp, the German Jesl!it who best chance; even he, the best rest (for some), public nuisance, was executed by the Nazis: "For prospect of all, could not come and inciting to riot. The first two how shall we hear if there are through in the end because of charges had been pressed against none to cry out, none whose voice that terrible background of the us when w~ were arrested, on De­ can rise above the tumult of vio­ church .. ." cember 15th, for refusing to clear lence and destruction, the false "Terrible Background" the sidewalk in front of the Army clamor that deafens us to reality.'' A. J . left the Church, and pacl­ Induction Ceuter at Whitehall Somehow we managed to get up fism (he thought that Christianity Street, in New York City. The the steps and there were so many was inconceivable without paci­ third and fourth came as a shock, of us that we spilled over onto the fism) in 1921, after seeing children fot· wc had been expecting merely sidewalk, where 'we continued to barbarism ls the kind of morality spitting blood in the textile mills which compels the individual con­ to plead on the original c.'1arges. huddle together against the biting of North Carolina. He found his Inciting to riot is punishable by wind. We sang Christmas carols science, be the group right or way with the poor, the workers, wrong. The individual conscience uo to three years in prison. until we were irlterrupted by the and took Ill> their fight as his own. OPTING OUT against the atomic bomb? Yes. The protest had taken place on amplified voice of the police cap­ He found in the doctrine of the There is no other way.'' December 15th, when a large tain, who ordered us to move on class war a way of hope. But after (Of Holy Disobedience, 1952) NORTH group of us took to the streets to or face arrest. We hoped that our organizing and directing Brook­ protest the latest escalation in the voices would carry across the roar (This ~an excerpt from one of Increasing numbers of young the pieces included in "The Essays wood Labor College in Katonah, Americans of draft age, faced with Vietnam war. After a brief meet­ ot battle fire and reach the· small New York during the 1920's and ing at the F-ifth Avenue Peace children in the ricefields of Viet­ of A. J. Muste," edited by Nat the moral dilemma of forced servi­ Hentoff and Just published by coming by the early Thirties to Parade headquarters on Beekman nam. Sixty-three of us were placed tude in a war against the Vietnam~ Bobbs-Merrill). believe violent revplutiop neces­ ese people that they neither be­ Street, we all crossed City Hall under arrest. sary, after successfully leading lieve in nor approve of, are taking Park and walked down Broadway It took only a few minutes to strikes in the textile industry, the the alternative choice of immigra­ to the Induction Center. At the put us in the .paddy wagons and -to stay in jail voluntarily for trucking and · automotive indus­ tion north to Canada. head of the line were a number whisk us off to the First Precinct weeks or months or even years, as tries in too many cities and too Since Canada . has no Selective of clergymen, including eighty­ station house, where we were many conscientious objectors do, many plants to mention, after Service Act, offers no language two-year-old A. J . Muste, Fathers quickly processed; there was no is proof that one takes seriously founding an independent labor un­ barrier, and provides both jOb and David Kirk and Richard Mann, of fingerprinting or taking of pho­ Christ's words about suffering per­ ion and a political party with t he education opportunities to the man Emmaus House, and Father Thom­ tographs. To expedite matters, we secution for justice' sake. It seems Trotskyites, A. J. went to Norway, willing to immigrate, the wonder as Hayes, of the Episcopal Peace cooperated with the clerical work to me that if we are committing with his wife, on their first Vaca­ is only that more young Americans Fellowship. Many college students and reached Day Court in time to civil disobedience in order to pro­ tion, to confer with Leon Trotsky do not avail themselves of the op­ walked behind them. and some be arraigned. While waiting to ap­ test the war, we are defeating our himself. It was 1935, and the be­ portunity. Canada's position on parents ere accompanied by their pear we spent a few hours in cells. purpose if we pay fines or bail ginnings of World War II were the trend north to avoid the Selec­ teen-aged children. In my cell, Beverly Sterner, who and there'bY pay the State for the clear to him. He arrived back from tive Service Act was made plain At Whitehall Street, barricades is A. J . Muste's secretary, de­ privilege of demonstrating when Norway reconverted, a passionate­ by Tom Kent, Canadian Deputy had been carefully placed in the scribed a demonstration she once it is this "frozen monster" (as ly convinced Christian and a paci­ Minister of Citizenship and Immi­ gutter to contain us. The weather took part in at New London, Con­ Berdyaev called the State) that fist. He could not overcome "that gration, in a press statement last was bitterly cold and we walked necticut. She and a fellow-pacifist initiates, perpetuates and thrives terrible background." September when he said, "There round and round to keep from were paddling a canoe and holding on war. A. J. did not then cease to view is not any prohibition in the Im­ freezing. The other side of the up a sign that said Stop the War Stokely Carmichael said recent­ history with the clear insight that migration Act or Regulations street was jammed with specta­ when a naval launch bore down ly that Jesus Christ was the great­ Marxism, his own vision and ex­ against the admission of persons tors, also behind barricades. who on them. I was relieved to learn est revolutionary of all, because perience had given him. He was a who may be seeking to avoid in­ simply stared at us in silence. The that Beverly is an excellent .swim­ he had to choose whether he brilliant political analyst, perhaps duction into the armed services attempt to block the doorway was mer. With her ,,,oft, smooth skin would inflict suffering or accept unsurpassed in America, and cer­ and, therefore, provided they meet of course symbolic of our objec­ it is easier to imagine her behind suffering, and he made his choice.