THE MAIL

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Any great document may be interpreted to mean something favorable to some special interest or to the general interest. With our new semantic awareness, we have become conscious that a man who says he's "a liberal" is not necessarily one in his actions. We are becoming conscious of the notion that "freedom" is not a thing abstract and absolute, but a word that has many actual uses.

I'm not a Catholic, but I feel that one of the most hopeful events in recent history is the release of the 50-point declaration of rights last Saturday by the American hierarchy of the Catholic church.

I'm not a Communist, but I feel that this broad philosophy of human, domestic, and state rights is in no way exclusive of the Communist definition of freedom as economic freedom, the right to work, the right to be free of the harrowing battle of merely staying alive. In fact, the keynote of the declaration, as reported in the NY Herald Tribune, is this new emphasis on the "freedom of security."

We are all aware, of course, of the rumors of Clerico-Fascism. We are all aware of the historical animosity of Moscow and the Vatican. Is the issuance then, of this declaration by American Bishops and Archbishops in any way significant? Does it represent opinion independent of the Vatican? Does it represent a change of heart on the part of the Vatican, with the news being broken gently?

All this hate-Russia, hate-Communism talk is not only dangerous but is futile. Those who breed such hate are the reactionary forces of this, the most powerful country in the world. The only fruition of such a hate would be the overthrow of Communism in Russia. This could only be accomplished by an internal revolution, which I feel is impossible, or by an external, atomic war, which I fear is not only possible, but probable unless the inspirers of hate-Russia, hate-Communism have a change of heart.

Russia, as long as such hatred for it exists in the world, is living on a wartime psychology. It must build as any wartime nation must build, brooking no internal opposition. Thus, the very inspirers of hate-Russia--those who force it to a wartime psychology--are those whose chief denunciation of Russia is its lack of "political freedom." This is either shortsighted or viciously willful and calculated. Durham M. Miller '47.