[EXHIBIT No. 40] CATHOLIC LEAGUE FOR RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL RIGHTS, Milwaukee, Wis., March 17, 1978. Re instances of discrimination against Catholics and other religious and ethnic minorities-letter of transmittal (for inclusion in the record). Senator BIRCH BAYH, U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR BAYH: Enclosed are clippings from the Newsletter of the Catholic League describing instances of discrimination against Catholics and other religious and ethnic minorities. Although the list is not nearly exhaustive of the materials which could have been supplied, I believe that the materials enclosed should more than suffice to alert the Committee that a problem clearly exists. For purposes of the record, I would like to reiterate that it is our belief that the United States Commission on Civil Rights is well aware of discriminatory practices such as the ones described in the enclosures, but is either unable or unwilling to investigate them. Clearly it is the job of the Civil Rights Commission to report matters such as these to Congress, and we hope that, in the future, they will do so. If not, we urge that their existence and funding be terminated. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share our views with the Committee, for I trust that action on the recommendations made will do much to better the lot of the religious and ethnic minorities we are privileged to represent. Very truly yours, ROBERT A. DESTRO, General Counsel. ALL EXCERPTS ARE FROM THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE NEWSLETTER Bias in Academia Professor Claire Humphreys of the University of Hartford (Conn.), charged in a recent article in the American Journal of Sociology that the intellectual freedom necessary for competent scholarship is not compatible with a commitment to the Catholic religion. Humphreys attacked a study by Andrew Greeley which established that Catholics, merely because of their faith, are no less scholarly or less able to make independent judgments than anyone else. She cited Charles Davis, a theologian late of the Catholic Church, as an example of someone whose commitment to the Church inhibited the "intellectual autonomy that characterizes scientific inquiry." Humphreys concluded that "the debate about intellectual autonomy [and the Catholic Church] cannot be resolved until the problem posed by Davis has been investigated." Greeley Response Greeley, in a stinging response to the Humphreys' position, put the issue of anti-Catholic bigotry squarely on the line. The text of his remarks is as follows: "As I understand the canons of rational discourse, someone who makes an assertion is bound to prove it. Humphreys is operating according to different canons. She asserts the conflict between Catholic religious commitment and intellectual inquiry and defies me to disprove it all the time making clear that no evidence will be satisfactory. On any other subject save Catholic intellectuals, her comment would be thrown in the waste basket. "Humphreys' 'evidence' is a quota. tion from former Catholic priest Charles Davis. Never mind that a very considerable number of those of us who are still Catholics experience no conflict between our religious commitment and our intellectual inquiry. Pure Bigotry "Nor does Humphreys bother to tell us why the commitment to a Catholic world view precludes intellectual inquiry, while commitment to a Marxist, liberal humanist, agnostic or Buddhist world view does not impede rational thought. All world views are ultimately accepted on faith, and all shape the intellectual context in which one works. But there is something about the Catholic Christian commitment alone that gets in the way of being a scholar. "This is bigotry pure and simple. I hinted in my article that one of the reasons for... under-representation of Catholics in the academies was bigotry. Now I will say it explicitly: the univer sity world (especially the social sciences) is pervaded by a subtle and, to a considerable extent, unconscious anti Catholic nativism. "It will be argued that Humphreys is (or at least was) a Catholic. But what if a Jew wrote a letter suggesting that Jews were greedy because of their family experience and quoted an apostate Jew as evidence? Or a black wrote a letter arguing that blacks are lazy because of their family experience and quoted a renegade black? What if a woman wrote a letter saying that women are intellectually inferior and quoted an antifeminist woman? "But Catholics seem to be different." March, 1976, Page 2 Few Catholics in Mass. Banks Religious and ethnic discrimination is a way of life in the Massachusetts banking industry, so says Carol S. Greenwald, Commissioner of Banks for Massachusetts. At a recent convention of the Massachusetts Savings Bank Association, Commissioner Greenwald remarked that "considering the ethnic richness of Massachusetts, it is amazing that I rarely meet any Catholics or Jews, or for that matter, anyone of Irish, Polish or Italian descent among bank executives." She urged the assembled bankers to "take a hard look at your employment practices to discern how your executive structure came to look like a prep-school fraternity." Data Proves Point Commissioner Greenwald's remarks were prompted by the results of a survey of state-chartered banks in Massachusetts. In the 289 institutions surveyed: - Racial minorities (black, Spanishsurnamed and Asian) hold only one percent of the executive posts, representing a mere 22 persons employed at only 17 of the 289 banks surveyed. - Catholics comprise more than half the population of Massachusetts and three-quarters of the population of Boston. Yet, in Boston, only six percent of the senior executives at commerical banks with more than 50 employees were Catholic. -Jews are nearly nonexistent in the Massachusetts banking world. In the sav ings bank industry, less than one percent of the executives are Jewish. Only four Jews are savings bank officers and two of them work in the same small savings bank. To avoid detection of discriminatory policies, banks play the elaborate game of title-inflation. Commissioner Greenwald reports to the US Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs that "women are given managerial titles with no change in job responsibilities or salary, but the change in title form-for example, from chief teller to supervisor of tellers allows a bank to reclassify that employee into the Officer and Manager Category." Treasury Abets Cover-Up No bank could get away with titleinflation and overt discrimination without help from the U.S. Treasury. Under federal law, Treasury has the responsibility for enforcing guidelines prohibiting religious and ethnic discrimination; yet, the regional director of Treasury in New York told Commissioner Greenwald that he would not check for religious or ethnic discri mination because Treasury is not enforc ing that guideline! If any other agency attempts to get needed data for the detection of discri mination, the banks simply "stonewall" these efforts by citing Treasury's own lack of concern. Thus, since Treasury could care less about its responsibilities under the law, the banks use this gross malfeasance of responsibility to prevent any other agency from examining the situation! The Catholic League believes that the selective enforcement (or nonenforcement, if you will) of the law by government agencies like the Treasury Department constitutes a chronic, Watergate-like cover-up to protect powerful, establish interests in our society. The banking industry ought not to be a private club for socially mobile WASPs. Yet, until the Catholic community demands that the President and Congress assert control over agencies like Treasury, no real hope for the future is possible. October, 1976, Pages 3 and 4 ALL EXCERPTS ARE FROM THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE NEWSLETTER Executive Profile: 1900-1976 A study in the Harvard Business Review (Oct., 1976) shows that today's top executives are even more homogeneous in background than they were at the turn of the century. Profiles of 444 top executives were matched against earlier surveys from as far back as 1900. Personal Profile In addition to being exclusively male and Caucasian, predominantly Protestant, Pro-Life Applicant Rejected The Catholic League is now investigating the complaint of an apparently highly qualified student who reported that he was questioned at great lengh on his position regarding abortion during an interview with the admissions committee of a medical school. Even though he ranked in the upper 90th percentile of his graduating class, his application for admission was rejected after the interview. The Catholic League has found that a number of medical schools now question applicants about abortion, even though professors of medical education admit that there is no purpose to such questioning except to discriminate against pro-life applicants. To question a medical school applicant about his or her position on abortion - especially in view of the fact that such questioning may have a seriously adverse effect on the applicant's career is clearly a violation of civil rights. League May Litigate The Catholic League invites pro-life medical school applicants who have been questioned about their views on abortion by admissions committees, and then rejected, to send the League the precise facts of their cases, and also to let the League know whether they are willing to participate in litigation against the offending medical schools. The League hopes to be able to assist them in redressing their grievances, as well as to establish the right of future medical school applicants not to be excluded from the medical profession because of their moral prolife commitment. Republican, and of eastern U.S. origin, from relatively affluent families and educated at a handful of select universities, as had been the case in the past, the executives share some new characteristics," the study said. "More significantly, the executives are closer together in age, and more of them have little or no work experience outside their companies. The overall picture that emerges is that of business leaders... becoming increasingly alike." Education - Religion Those who attended private universities made up 58 per cent of the sample; 41 per cent attended state-operated universities. In 1975, as at the turn of the century, the top four universities graduating business leaders were Harvard, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia. In the area of religion, the executive profile has not changed either. More than 80 per cent of those who responded listed themselves as Protestants. On the basis of the data, the study concluded that "a concentration of decision-making in a small, unrepresentative group of persons with common backgrounds, values and experiences may not be compatible with meeting broad social expectations in a free democratic society." May, 1977 Page 3 May, 1977 ALL EXCERPTS ARE FROM THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE NEWSLETTER Suit Helps Stop Hiring Discrimination Merely filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against discriminatory hiring practices helps to minimize discrimination. At least, this is what the experience of James D'Amico, General Counsel for the Catholic League, shows. Early in 1973, Mr. D'Amico applied to the Department of Human Resources of California for a position as a hearings referee in the Department's Unemployment Compensation Division. Having done similar work in his home state of Illinois, he was well qualified for the job, and he finished third in nationally-based competitive written and oral examinations. In October of that year he was offered a position as a hearings referee with the agency. Before assuming his duties in Califor nia, D'Amico had to fill out a questionnaire detailing his private life, club memberships and affiliations, and activities totally unrelated to the job, and had to have a complete physical examination. His family doctor pronounced him in excellent health, but a medical officer from the agency disqualified him on the grounds of excessive weight and an old back injury. Italians Excluded D'Amico objected to this evaluation and filed a complaint with the San Francisco office of the EEOC, alleging that he had been discriminated against because of July, 1977 Page 2 his national origin. Investigation showed that during the period from 1960 to 1973, not a single Italian-American had been certified to fill the 140 hearings referee positions in the California agency. In filing his complaint, D'Amico immediately requested the EEOC to send him a "right to sue" letter, which would permit him to take his case to court. This was a routine procedure in cases of this nature, yet he did not receive the letter until three years later, after repeated requests to the EEOC offices in San Francisco and Washington. During this entire period, the EEOC did nothing on his behalf, and administratively prevented him from taking action on his own. His suit was finally filed in November, 1976 and is still pending. But even though D'Amico has so far been unable to obtain any relief for himself, his experience has been of benefit to Italian-American applicants who have come after him. Four Italian-Americans have been appointed to hearings referee posts between January, 1974 and June, 1975, undoubtedly as a result of pressure within the agency as a result of D'Amico's complaint and lawsuit. While this represents only 2.8% of the positions within the agency, as opposed to the 8% of the total population represented by Italian-Americans, it does show that some discriminatory practices can be modified merely by challenging them. May, 1977 Page 3 Banks a Stronghold of Discrimination A December, 1976 report from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs reveals that this nation's financial institutions make a common practice of discriminating in their employment policies against religious and ethnic minorities. What is more, the Treasury Department apparently "does little or nothing to enforce Federal regulations prohibiting discrimination in bank employment on the grounds of religion or national origin." Ira Gissen of the Anti-Defamation League related to the Committee the following anecdote about one of the largest commercial banks in New York: They employed no Catholics or Jews in senior executive positions. When told that they must change, they agreed to recruit at St. John's, but they refused to recruit at Fordham. When asked: "Why not Fordham?" they replied: "If we have to hire Catholics, we'd rather that they were not Latins!" Carol S. Greenwald, Commissioner of Banks for Massachusetts, reported that even though the population of Boston is 75% Catholic, Catholics represent only 6% of the senior executives at commercial banks in that city with more than 50 employees. Commissioner Greenwald also charged that the Treasury Department not only failed to check for compliance with anti-discrimination regulations, but actually encouraged Massachusetts banks not to supply information on the religious affiliations of senior management in response to the Banking Department's survey. Committee Conclusions The Senate Committee noted that discrimination against Jews, Catholics, Italians, Greeks and Slavic groups is a continuing situation in the banking industry, even though it is against Federal contract compliance regulations. The Committee reached the conclusion that, "In view of the strong evidence of discrimination against religious and ethnic groups in bank employment, especially at the management level.... Treasury should make a positive effort to enforce compliance with the guidelines on discrimination because of religion or national origin." ALL EXCERPTS ARE FROM THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE NEWSLETTER Bias Charged in Engineer's Layoff The Catholic League has entered a suit charging Motorola Automotive Division with discrimination in the layoff of a Polish-American electrical engineer. Carl Kubaszewski had been an electrical engineer for Motorola for three years when he was laid off in January, 1975, in spite of the fact that other engineers with less seniority in grade and in the company were able to keep their jobs. Kubaszewski was told that the lay-off was based on a rating system. During his service with the company, Kubaszewski had received consistently high ratings from his superiors, ranking in the upper 20% according to his own department leader. But a June, 1974, "Engineering Manpower Audit," in which he was rated by supervisors who had had no professional contact with him and who rated him in areas in which they had no direct knowledge of the level of his performance, resulted in a bad rating and his subsequent lay-off. Poles Inferior? Kubaszewski later discovered that all of the Slavic American and Baltic-American employees who had been rated were apparently assigned to the lower 25% of the rating curve. It later developed that this "Manpower Audit" was adopted as a guide for promotions and layoffs. This would seem to indicate that engineers from these ethnic groups are uniformly inferior in their performance, or that those who compiled the ratings had a prejudice against people from these groups. The Catholic League and the PolishAmerican Congress of Illinois are seeking to have Kubaszewski reinstated with full back pay, and also to have the policies of Motorola with regard to the hiring, promotion and equal treatment of persons of Eastern European origin reassessed and, if necessary, changed. Catholics Not A Minority? The Office of Highway Planning, Department of Transportation, has issued a set of far-reaching guidelines to assure minority access to employment opportunity on projects supported by federal funds. According to OHP, the term 'minority' only applies to individuals who have been or are being discriminated against on the basis of "race, color, or national origin." Nowhere in the 19 pages of complex guidelines is discrimination on the basis of religion even mentioned. Among other requirements, OHP guidelines demand that universities which are commissioned by state agencies to do research for highway projects must provide statistics on "minority representation in the student body and on the faculty." The 1975 Ladd-Lipset studey reveals that Catholics, who are 24 per cent of the population, are only 10 per cent of the faculty at prestigious research universities. Presbyterians, Episcopalians, New England Congregationalists, and Jews, who are 10 per cent of the population, comprise 50 per cent of the faculty in these institutions. OHP, however, refuses to acknowledge religious discrimination against Catholics. August, 1977 Page 3 February, 1976 |