Readers have undoubtedly noticed that the Lietuva has published many articles about the dangers of clericalism (the mixing of religion with public and national affairs) to Lithuanian-Americans. Those articles always stressed the point that certain Lithuanian-American leaders are striving to shackle Lithuanian-Americans with clericalism by placing the cloak of Catholicism upon all Lithuanian-American activities. We have repeatedly pointed out how harmful it would be to all Lithuanian-Americans, including the Catholics, if the Clericals (priests and their followers) succeed in attaining their aims.

We have been patiently waiting for the Draugas (The Friend), official organ of the Clericals, to answer our charges. For a long time the editors of the Draugas contented themselves merely with making sarcastic, devious, and 2dishonest remarks in the comic section about the charges that were being made by the Lietuva. In these remarks, the editors of the Draugas merely denied the existence of Clericals or clericalism among Lithuanian-Americans and stated that the Draugas is not a Clerical newspaper and that all talk about clericalism is sheer nonsense; no comment whatsoever was made about the arguments of the Lietuva.

However, in last week's issue of the Draugas an effort was finally made to answer the charges of the Lietuva. In a very long article, the editors of the Draugas criticized the editorial "Catholic Press League," which appeared in the October 8 issue of the Lietuva.

Frankly speaking, we are unable to find anything in the article in the Draugas that would prove that we misinterpreted or misrepresented the activities of our Clericals. In answering our charges the Draugas uses much space and many words, but the article contains very little critical discussion; it 3is just another one of those meaningless and empty apologies of the Clericals.

The substance of the article in the Draugas is that all nationalities have a Catholic press, that Catholics cannot get along without a press, and that the press of the Lithuanian-American Catholics is not Clerical but Catholic; these are the only arguments in the article. Everyone who thinks logically and has some common sense can readily see that these arguments are not sound. The method of argumentation employed by the editors of the Draugas is similar to that used in the following reasoning: John has a gold watch; John cannot get along without a watch; therefore, the potato which Bartholomew has in his hand is a gold watch.

We have never said that the Catholics do not need a press. We agree and always have agreed that the Catholics need a press the same as all other factions. We even pointed out in a previous article that The New World is 4a true and ideal Catholic newspaper. We also had pointed out that the Katalikas (The Catholic) has a greater right to call itself a true Catholic newspaper than the Draugas or any other similar publication....Therefore, we are not associating all Catholic newspapers with clericalism, as the editors of the Draugas believe and try to make others believe. Among the English-speaking public in the United States, as the Lietuva has previously pointed out, the Catholics are bitterly opposed to clericalism. The (non-Lithuanians) Clericals who have been condemned by the Catholics for promoting clericalism are engaged in identically the same kind of activities as the Lithuanian-American Clericals.

The Draugas claims that only the most gullible fools can believe the charge of the Lietuva that there is such a thing as clericalism among Lithuanian-Americans, and states that all such claims are sheer humbug. The Draugas further states that the Lietuva did not prove in any way the charge that clericalism exists among our people. However, all these charges had been 5proven by the Lietuva a long time ago. A long series of articles on this subject were published in the Lietuva. Neither the Draugas nor any other apostle of clericalism ever challenged or attempted to challenge these articles with sound arguments. This fact alone serves to prove the truth of the charges advanced by the Lietuva.

It would be a waste of time to repeat here all the arguments with which the Lietuva supported its charge of clericalism. We challenge the editors of the Draugas to refer to the back issues of the Lietuva and prove, if possible, that the charges of clericalism which the Lietuva had made are untrue!