Golden Age, February 14, 1934
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Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
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in this issue
RADIO CENSORSHIP
PROTEST AND PETITION
JUDGE RUTHERFORD
TO THE CATHOLIC PRESS
FROST IN THE AIR
HOME AND HEALTH
PROCLAIMING ON THE HOUSETOPS
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every other WEDNESDAY
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Vol. XV - No. 376 February 14, 1934
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CONTENTS
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LABOR AND ECONOMICS
Illegal Formation of Unions . . 307
England Has Its Jungles, Too . 307
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
Protest and Petition 50 Feet High 291 Tax Exemption in New York City 303 Parochial Schools and Nat’l Treas’y 303 1 ‘House of Good Shepherd” . . 303 Truth versus Error.....304
The Golden Age
Success of the Antioch Plan . . 305
Schools Gradually Closing . . .
“America Swings to Left” . . .
Thought for Snow-Removal Men . 307 Child Labor Amendment . . .
$50,000,000 Worth of Coal . . .
Congestion of New York Courts . 307
MANUFACTURING AND MINING
Reduced Anthracite Output . . 304
Baudette Plant Pays for Itself . 305
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
Deflating the American Banker . 304 Cry from Number One Wall Street 304 The Depression at South Bend . 305 History of a “Christmas” Tree . 305
Eleven Billions of Gold .... 307
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
Too Many Inspectors .... 306
Why Bascom Resigned .... 306
California Old Age Pensions . . 306
Hearst Goes After NRA . . . 307 The Way a Government Does . . 307
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
Good Fertilizer for House Flowers 312
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
Trifocals and Quadrifocals Soon . 311 Watching Flight of a Fly . . . 311 Windmill Half Mile in Diameter . 312 Searchlight with 100-Mile Radius 312
HOME AND HEALTH
Condensed Dietary Suggestions . 303 “Sure Cure” for Poison Ivy . . 308 Recipe for Whole-Wheat Bread . 308 Bread for Pioneers.....308
Red-Raspberry Leaves, Childbirth 309 Bulgarian Milk, German Chemicals 309 What Raw Foods Did for Me . . 309 Benefits of a Change of Diet . . 309 Our Diet Memorandum .... 310 Health Notes from Soviet Russia . 310
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
Wind Nearly Dried Niagara Falls 311 Siberian Refrigerator Thawing Out 312
Interest (Usury)......313
We’re Off (Verse).....319
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Judge Rutherford’s Open Letter to the Catholic Press . . . 296
Proclaiming on the Housetops . 314
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The Golden Age
Volume XV Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, February 14, 1934 Number 376
A Protest and Petition Fifty Feet High
To THE CONGRESS of the United States of America!
Greetings!
We, undersigned people of the United States of America, capable of determining for ourselves what we wish to hear broadcast by radio, without censorship by the clergy or anyone else, hereby PROTEST to the Congress against certain wrongful Interference with our rights.
The radio act provides, as we understand, for the broadcasting of that which Is In the public Interest.
The message of the true God, JEHOVAH, as expressed by Him In the prophecies of His Word (the Bible) and as now being given to the people of this nation by Judge Rutherford and others of JEHOVAH’S witnesses, Is of Interest to us. When broadcast, It la convenient for us to hear It In our homes and Is necessary
for our welfare. We are entitled to hear and desire to hear that message. We disapprove of every attempt to prevent our hearing It broadcast.
The National Broadcasting Company, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and others, have wrongfully by threats, coercion and other Improper Influence prevented many stations from broadcasting this message of truth, thus depriving stations of legitimate Income and depriving millions of American citizens of the privilege of hearing what they wish to hear; and against this wrongful action we vigorously PROTEST.
Exercising the right guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the United States, we therefore respectfully petition the Congress to act at once to safeguard the Inherent rights of the American people relative to the radio.
“But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue.’’—Esther 7: 4. (Imprisonment is Preferable to Censorship—Strangulation)
rPHE morning of Wednesday, January 24, J- 1934, there was placed in the hands of Congress the foregoing protest and petition bearing 2,416,141 signatures of fellow Americans. Before being tightly wrapped for transmission from Brooklyn to Washington the sheets of signatures (25 signatures to a sheet) comprised a pile fifty feet high. After being tightly wrapped the pile, by actual measurement, was over 41% feet high. To transmit this protest
and petition to Washington required thirty-five closely-packed cartons, each measuring on the inside 15 x 12% x 11% inches. The shipment weighed 1,247 pounds.
Nothing Like This in History
A careful search of records of the Brooklyn Public Library fails to reveal that any petition remotely approaching this in magnitude was ever before presented to the American Congress.
In 1910 the National (Woman Suffrage) Association presented to Congress a petition of about half a million names for a federal amendment granting woman suffrage. This seems to have been the largest previous petition on record.
Petition Signers According to States Summary
Alabama
28,770
New Hampshire
5,863
Arizona
7,989
New Jersey
84,781
Arkansas
22,912
New Mexico
5,656
California
226,964
New York
144,916
Colorado
36,039
North Carolina
40,064
Connecticut
22,651
North Dakota
8,011
Delaware
4,058
Ohio
259,579
Florida
38,702
Oklahoma
54,245
Georgia
40,957
Oregon
23,072
Idaho
11,502
Pennsylvania
238,774
Illinois
132,091
Rhode Island
8,348
Indiana
81,604
South Carolina
14,409
Iowa
33,908
South Dakota
9,139
Kansas
44,952
Tennessee
37,867
Kentucky
20,256
Texas
106,568
Louisiana
13,735
Utah
5,947
Maine
8,602
Vermont
1,167
Maryland
27,533
Virginia
45,905
Massachusetts
74,108
Washington
66,703
Michigan
112,704
West Virginia
32,248
Minnesota
43,303
Wisconsin
34,256
Mississippi
18,835
Wyoming
4,753
Missouri
74,504
Hawaii
Montana
12,766
Dist. of Columbia
, 22,320
Nebraska
20,039
Nevada
1,170
Grand Total. 2,416,141
The Lord’s Organization in Action
The details of the signatures in each Congressional District have been made available and would be interesting to many, but perhaps it will suit the majority to merely mention that the two highest records were in Cleveland, where four districts yielded 108,862 signatures, and in Los Angeles, where eight districts yielded 143,088 signatures. This was all done in six weeks; had the time been doubled, the record also would have been doubled.
Care was taken that the signers for each Congressional District were provided with petition blanks suitable for their own district. Each Congressman, on January 24, was personally handed the petitions from his own district This work was entrusted to Jehovah’s witnesses.
The letters of transmittal which accompanied the petitions were, wherever possible, from “Jonadabs,” well known men in their own districts. For example, the letter of transmittal to J. Howard Swick (Rep.), Representative of Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania District, was signed by Hon. George T. Weingartner. His letter to Mr. Swick was as follows:
A Sample Letter of Transmittal
Dear Congressman Swick :
In behalf of myself and many others of your constituents of the Fifteenth Congressional District of Pennsylvania I beg to call your attention to the attached petition signed by a number of them which demands that Congress take immediate action to safeguard the interest of the people against the unwarranted action of certain entrenched selfish interests. The two big radio corporations, acting together with certain other selfish interests, including religious organizations, are employing threats, coercion and boycott methods to compel many radio stations to broadcast programs only that are approved by these selfish interests. Attempts are made also to influence the Radio Commission along the same line.
Radio stations should be given the same privileges that are now enjoyed by the public press, and every radio station should be permitted without interference to broadcast any lawful programs that they may choose to broadcast.
A heavy penalty should be laid against all persons or corporations that attempt by coercion or other wrongful methods to prevent the broadcasting of programs that are of public interest, convenience and necessity.
Your constituency will confidently expect you to present to Congress at the proper time and earnestly support this petition.
Very sincerely yours,
George T. Weingartner
Congressman Swick Takes the Floor
On Wednesday, January 24, Mr. Swiek addressed the House of Representatives on the subject as follows:
Hr, Chairman, I have today filed the following petition, bearing the names of 10,264 residents of my district, divided as follows: Beaver County, 4,769; Lawrence County, 3,242; and Butler County, 2,253. The Petition was accompanied by a letter of transmittal from the Honorable George T. Weingartner, 504 L. S. & T. Building, New Castle, Pa., a man who has served his county and State as a commissioner and State senator for many years.
(The Petition was then read to the House)
Mr. Chairman, I understand that similar petitions have been received by several members of this House, all of them bearing the signatures of thousands of American citizens. It is certainly evident that something is wrong; we cannot ignore such charges. Each of these petitions has been referred to the House Committee on Merchant Marine, Radio, and Fisheries. I hope the chairman of that committee will recognize the rights of these petitioners and conduct an investigation of the charges, and if these conditions prevail, that legislation is forthcoming that will correct them.
I would be derelict indeed if I failed to present a matter of sufficient importance to have received the signatures of more than 10,000 residents of my district to this Congress. It is of importance to all concerned that this matter be thoroughly investigated at a very early date.
On the following day twenty-five more Representatives presented the petitions that had been handed to them:
William A. Ayres, (Dem.), Fifth District, Kansas Frank H. Buck (Dem.), Third District, California Peter A. Cavicchla (Rep.), Eleventh District, New Jersey Charles J. Colden (Dem.), Seventeenth District, California William P. Connery, Jr. (Dem.), Seventh District, Massachusetts George A. Dondero (Rep.), Seventeenth District, Michigan Hamilton Fish, Jr. (Rep.), Twenty-sixth District, New York Philip A. Goodwin (Rep.), Twenty-seventh District, New York William E. Hess (Rep,), Second District, Ohio John B. Hollister (Rep.), First District, Ohio Joseph L. Hooper (Rep.), Third District, Michigan Magnus Johnson (F.L.), Minnesota at Large J. Roland Klnzer (Rep.), Tenth District, Pennsylvania Leo Koclalkowski (Dem.), Eighth District, Illinois Carl E. Mapes (Rep.), Fifth District, Michigan Schuyler Merritt (Rep.), Fourth District, Connecticut Theodore A. Peyser (Dem.), Seventeenth District, New York Frank R. Reid (Rep.), Eleventh District, Illinois George N. Seger (Rep.), Eighth District, New Jersey Joe L. Smith (Dem.), Sixth District, West Virginia Malcolm C. Tarver (Dem.), Seventh District, Georgia George B. Terrell (Dem.), Texas at Large Chester Thompson (Dem.), Fourteenth District, Illinois Zebulon Weaver (Dem.), Eleventh District, North Carolina John Davenport Clarke (Rep.), Thirty-fourth District, New York
Mr. Dondero cited the protest “against wrongful threats, coercion, and other improper influence preventing many radio stations from broadcasting the message of truth and depriving millions of American citizens of the privilege of hearing what they wish to hear, and particularly the message of Judge Rutherford”. Similar expressions appear in the presentations of Mr. Smith, Mr. Tarver and others.
Letter from Washington Representative
Letters of transfnittal from their own districts were not in all instances provided, and so, to make sure that every Senator and Representative would see and grasp the full import of the protest and petition placed in his hands, Anton Koerber, Washington representative of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, under date of January 25, 1934, sent each of them the following letter:
Dear Sir:
Certain entrenched selfish interests, including the National Broadcasting Company, the Columbia Broadcasting Company, and the Catholic church organization, are attempting to control radio broadcasting in America and to cause to be broadcast only such radio programs as such selfish interests may approve. If this can be properly done, then one political power may silence all persons who desire to express by radio their views on matters in which the people are vitally concerned. Congress should take appropriate action to prevent just such a thing coming to pass.
The American people have the Constitutional and inherent right to worship God as they may choose and to hear whatsoever may aid them in the understanding of the Holy Scriptures, as well as other matters of public necessity and convenience. That the matter might be called to your attention a petition, a copy of which is attached hereto, has been signed by American citizens of the various states to the number of 2,416,141 persons. The numerous sheets containing signatures to this petition have been separated according to districts and states and are now in the hands of the various members of Congress. In accord with the spirit of this petition we demand that all interference with the freedom of worship of Jehovah God and of the study of God’s Word, the Bible, and all interference with radio stations broadcasting programs pertaining to the same, cease; and that this Congress by legal enactment make it unlawful for any person or corporation to use threats, boycott or other coercive methods to interfere with, interrupt or prevent any radio station from broadcasting any and all programs that may be deemed for the good of the people.
At any time when we are requested so to do we will furnish the proof before Congress that the above organizations have prevented radio stations broadcasting proper programs and that they have used threats, boycott and other coercive methods to accomplish that wrongful purpose.
Respectfully submitted, Anton Koerber
Washington Representative Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society
“All Things Are Now Ready”
When a Congressional hearing is provided, adequate reasons will be presented as to why the protest and petition mentioned the National Broadcasting Company and the Columbia Broadcasting System. This is limited to a brief statement respecting the press of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, which has ‘'wrongfully by threats, coercion and other improper influence prevented many stations from broadcasting this message of truth, thus depriving stations of legitimate income and depriving millions of American citizens of the privilege of hearing what they wish to hear”.
“The Catholic Register”
June 15,1933, The Catholic Register, Kansas City, Mo., diocesan weekly, said, “Every radio station that broadcasts these Rutherford talks is running a serious risk of losing its license to broadcast.” The issue of July 6 said, regarding the issue of June 15, “A marked copy of that issue was sent to each station in western Missouri and Kansas.”
Accompanied by heavy collateral pressure the frightened radio managers began to yield, hence The Register, in its issue of June 22, said, “Immediately upon seeing a marked copy of last week’s issue of The Catholic Register, the [WHB] contract was cancelled.”
In the same issue, after having explained to their readers how to go about it to secure the breaking of contracts, The Register said, “Where the station owners object to the financial loss incurred by breaking the contract, they should be made to understand that they stand to lose a great deal more by putting this speech on the air.”
Though resorting to the use of politicians and officials of the Knights of Columbus in personal calls upon radio-station owners to induce them to cancel their contracts to broadcast the Watchtower program, The Register speaks, in its issue of July 13, of “a broad spirit of tolerance”.
In the same issue, where one radio station manager said, in an effort to avert the wrath which he saw was impending, “We will consider it a pleasure to broadcast addresses or services from the Catholic church here at no cost,” his statement was published and immediately followed by the statement of a member of the Register staff that his “letter is just one mass of lies”.
The same issue of July 13 contained the following editorial statement: “Wherever a vigorous fight by a well established Catholic paper has been made, the radio stations have thrown out the Watchtower programs. In fact, every such cancellation thus far can be directly traced to the initiative of the Catholic press. This is Catholic Action in reality as it affects every Catholic man, woman and child, and no more forcible argument for the support of the Catholic Press could be offered.”
“The Catholic Union and Times”
and “The Evangelist”
The Catholic Union and Times, Rev. Luke F. Sharkey, editor, is the diocesan publication of the Buffalo (N.Y.) diocese. It is published on Thursday. On the following day, Friday, July 14, 1933, a dispatch from the Buffalo paper is quoted in the editor’s forum of The Evangelist, Albany, N. Y. Just a word about The Evangelist. Its editor in chief is Rev. John J. A. O’Connor, its assistant editor, Rev. Wm. H. Taaffe, its question box editor, Rev. John J. Collins. The board of directors includes the Most Rev. Edmund F. Gibbons, D.D. (president), Rt. Rev. Msgr. Jos. A. Delaney, V.G. (vice-president), Rt. Rev. Msgr. John F. Glavin (treasurer), and Rt. Rev. Msgr. Wm. P. Fitzgerald, V.F.
Two sentences from the matter are quoted from the Buffalo Catholic Union and Times: “The reputation of Rutherford smells to the high Heavens—a stench in the nostrils of millions who own the air waves by prior right. . . . Rutherford is just another mental pigmy with the mind of a maggot and the heart of a buzzard, who tried to coin boodles out of bigotry.”
The following week, in its issue of July 21, 1933, The Evangelist was able to announce, in a front-page, glaring headline, that “Station WOKO Drops Rutherford Programs”, and that the station’s letter containing the decision “was in answer to a protest voiced by The Evangelist”.
“The Catholic Universe Bulletin”
The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Cleveland, Ohio, is another diocesan organ. In the year 1933 it took occasion to refer to Judge Rutherford, the president of the International Bible Students Association, by the use of the following appellations: “advocate of civil and religious anarchy,” “antichrist,” “blind leader of the blind,” “child of Balaam,” “deceiver,” “de-famer,” “deliberate falsifier,” “disturber,” “human canine,” “intellectual pervert,” “intolerable bore,” “liar,” “loud-talker,” “slanderer,” “unsent messenger,” “ventriloquist.”
Desiring to set before their readers Judge Rutherford’s qualifications, The Universe Bulletin, in the year 1933, described him as “ambitious”, “audacious,” “bigoted,” “bold,” “calculating,” “careless,” “cheeky,” “cool,” “cunning,” “egotistic,” “extolling himself,” “fanatical,” “hypocritical,” “ignorant,” “insufferable,” “notorious,” “obnoxious,” “of doubtful sanity and coherence,” “querulous,” “raving,” “self-appointed,” “self-assertive,” “self-centered,” “self-sent,” “wise in his own conceits.”
Wishing to express their opinion of his addresses and of his books, The Catholic Universe Bulletin, in the year 1933, referred to them as “blasphemous”, “cheap,” “contradictory,” “dirty,” “distasteful,” “higgledy-piggledy,” “insulting,” “most vile,” “obnoxious,” “offensive,” “scurrilous,” “seditious,” “sickening,” “silly,” “slipshod,” “vicious,” “untruthful.”
Not being just satisfied that the matter should rest merely on an adjectival or adverbial basis, The Catholic Universe Bulletin, in the year 1933, referred to Judge Rutherford’s efforts to honor the name of Jehovah God and bless his fellow men as “affront”, “assumed innocence,” “bigotry,” “deceitfulness,” “diatribes,” “discord,” “disunion,” “false vision,” “hot air,” “intentional misapplications,” “lying divination,” “malice,” “nothing but assurance,” “nuisance,” “pretense,” “twaddle,” “untruth,” “virus.”
Besides the foregoing in the year 1933 The Catholic Universe Bulletin also contrived to convey to their readers the thought that Judge Rutherford has a devil, that he bewilders, misleads and unsettles, that he glories in his shame, that he insults directly, that he harangues his fellow bigots and nails his fellow citizens to the cross of intolerance.
"Bulletin” Believes in "Freedom of Speech”
Perhaps it is not necessary for us to say that The Catholic Universe Bulletin, while most insistent that Judge Rutherford should be removed from the air, nevertheless believes in full freedom of speech for priests. We append a few of its expressions, mingled in with the foregoing:
“Tfte Catholic Universe Bulletin never for a moment contends that in the United States, where Church and State are divorced, the ether waves should be denied any religious groups for the direct presentation of their views.”
‘‘It is not the policy of The Catholic Universe Bulletin to object to other creeds making use of the air to propagate their beliefs. Such procedure would get nowhere in a country dedicated to the principles of religious freedom.”
‘‘We yield to none in our desire for liberty of speech.”
“Our point is not to keep Judge Rutherford as such off the air but to keep Judge Rutherford off the air when he insults our religious feelings.”
“We preach, and we think we practice, tolerance.”
At the opportune time there will be shown the full record of the conduct of The Catholic Universe Bulletin, and of the Catholic press in general, and it -will be disclosed how their conspiracy formed at Chicago in the latter part of June is working out to the vast injury of the American people as a whole.
Take Notice I The petition as sent contains the signatures of many thousands of good Catholics who are true Americans and who do not at all approve the steps which these priests are taking to rob them of the privilege of listening on the radio to Judge Rutherford or to whomsoever else they please.
We urge that at this point you read and consider Judge Rutherford’s manly letter to the Catholic press of America, which appeared in Golden Age No. 363, and reappears in this issue.
Haman Built His Own Gallows
Until the Roman hierarchy took a hand in it, the right of free speech over the radio was not questioned in the United States. On Saturday night, June 24, 1933, there met in the Stevens Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, twenty-eight persons dressed in clerical garb and twenty persons dressed otherwise. They form the Catholic Press Association, summoned by the hierarchy with the definite intent of finding a way to choke Judge Rutherford, cut him off the air, put an end to him, as a witness of Jehovah God.
The result of their deliberations was a plot to coerce every radio station that could be coerced to cancel its contract, and at the same time to flood the Federal Radio Commission with protests and petitions to have Judge Rutherford’s talks banned in the United States as in Canada.
They asserted, and circumstances bear out their assertions, that the Protestant clergy were with them in the conspiracy to prevent this man of God from saying to the people what Jehovah God has bid him say. For a time they seemed to succeed. At present it looks as if they bid fair, in the final analysis, to be at the wrong end of the rope.
It will be remembered that Haman built his own gallows.
Brooklyn, N. Y., July 26, 1933
To the Catholic Press and Specifically to the Editors of the
Following Named Newspapers
CATHOLIC UNIVERSE BULLETIN
Cleveland, Ohio
THE CATHOLIC BULLETIN
St. Paul, Minn.
THE CATHOLIC REGISTER
Kansas City, Mo.
CATHOLIC DAILY TRIBUNE
Dubuque, Iowa
THE PROVIDENCE VISITOR
Providence, R. 1.
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR
Huntington, Indiana
THE INDIANA CATHOLIC AND RECORD
Indianapolis, Indiana
THE CATHOLIC NEWS
New York, N.Y.
TIDINGS
Cleveland, Ohio
COURIER NEWS
THE WITNESS Dubuque, Iowa THE NEW WORLD Chicago, III.
PAWTUXET VALLEY DAILY TIMES West Warwick, R. I.
BALTIMORE CATHOLIC REVIEW Baltimore, Md.
WESTERN WATCHMAN
St. Louis, Mo.
THE CATHOLIC COLUMBIAN
Columbus, Ohio
THE CATHOLIC OBSERVER Pittsburgh, Pa.
CATHOLIC UNION AND TIMES
Buffalo, N. Y.
THE CATHOLIC CITIZEN.
Milwaukee, Wis.
THE REGISTER
Plainfield, N. J. Fresno, Calif.
THE SUNDAY WATCHMAN
St. Louis, Mo.
Sirs:
Just now on my return from Europe I find that in my absence your papers have inaugurated a campaign to prevent the American people from hearing the truth of Jehovah God’s Word which it has been my privilege to tell them for some time. You make me the scapegoat in order to thus deprive the people of the opportunity of learning at this time the very things that they should know, to wit: That Jehovah is the Almighty God; that Christ Jesus is His anointed King; and that the worship of man is an abomination in the sight of God; and that the kingdom of God under Christ is the only remedy for suffering humanity.
This letter I am addressing to you jointly and severally because the charges in your papers are similar and show that you are acting in concert. I have hopes that there may be at least one fair-minded editor among you who will publish this letter that your numerous readers may hear both .sides of the case. Your failure to publish this letter will be unfair to the public and may compel me to get this information to the people in another way. Newspapers should publish the truth, if for no other reason than the fact that they accept money from the people for subscriptions upon the implied contract at least that they will publish the truth. The publication of only a small part of the truth is much more unfair than to make no publication at all.
EX-CONVICT STORY: You have attempted to belittle me in the eyes of your readers and thus to do injury to the message I have spoken by charging that I am an “ex-convict”, which charge is untrue. A convict is one who is guilty and is convicted of a crime. When the judgment of a law court is reversed and the case is then dismissed the man against whom the judgment was rendered is exonerated and he is therefore not a convict.
Briefly I refer to the facts that you may recall what you should already know: The clergy have hated me for years because I have followed the lead of the Lord Jesus Christ and told the people the truth only as He taught it. A number of those men wanted to kill me, and they attempted to find some legal means by which they could accomplish their wicked purpose. The World War seemed to furnish them an opportunity. Shortly after the United States entered the war a convention of clergymen assembled in Philadelphia, laid out a plan of action, and then selected and sent a committee to Washington to carry out their wrongful purpose. They presented a petition to a committee of the United States Senate demanding that the Espionage law be so amended that the trial of alleged offenders must be held before a military court and that the penalty to be inflicted must be death. President Wilson disapproved of their course and the Senate did not amend the law as the clergy desired. A general of the United States army, in the presence of two witnesses besides myself, told me the above facts and then added: “But they are going to get you at any rate.”
In the spring of 1918 the clergy and their allies “framed” a case against all the officers of our Society, including myself. I was charged with the publication of an objectionable paragraph in a book which I did not write and which was written and published before the United States entered the war and before the enactment of the Espionage law. Upon this and other illegal testimony, and at the direction of a prejudiced judge, and during the excitement of the war, a jury returned a verdict of guilty and we were sentenced each to eighty years in prison. A Catholic judge denied us the privilege of bail, which the Constitution guarantees we should have, and we were immediately landed in prison. My attorneys prepared a brief setting forth 125 errors in the record of that trial. When the case was presented to a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States upon an application for bail Justice Holmes immediately admitted us to bail. The case was then heard by the appellate court, and the judgment reversed and remanded. Because of the gross outrage practiced upon me and my brethren three United States senators and two other prominent American lawyers volunteered to defend me at the next trial. Shortly thereafter the Government dismissed the case and we were thereby exonerated.
But for the sake of the argument, suppose I were a convict according to your definition. Would that be cause to reject the truth of God’s Word which I am proclaiming? Jesus Christ, Jehovah’s greatest witness, was a “convict”, wrongfully charged and convicted of the crime of sedition, and His conviction and death were procured by the clergy of His time; and which wrongdoers find their counterpart in the clergy of the present time. I am delighted to be permitted to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and to be in the same class where the clergy placed Him.
Your papers try to convey to the public the thought that I attempted to hide the fact of this unlawful trial and that you had kept it alive by pigeonholing the facts at the time and now brought it forth. You ought to know better than to try to put over such a falsehood on the people. The clergy thought that court experience above related would finish me for ever. But they were doomed to disappointment. Immediately following my release I visited every large city in America and by full-page advertisements in the largest daily papers invited the public to come and hear. The advertisements amongst other things said: “SENT TO PRISON FOR EIGHTY YEARS BY THE CONSPIRACY OF THE CLERGY —COME AND HEAR THE REASON WHY.” The people crowded out every great hall and theater where I spoke, thousands being turned away. That persecution by the clergy had much to do with advertising our work and enabled me, no doubt, to write and cause to be placed in the hands of the people more than 140 million books since that time, which books contain the message of God’s kingdom and which are published in 58 different languages. You are welcome to all the satisfaction you can get out of that “ex-convict” story.
RADIO: Because in a recent radio address I stated the plain truth for the benefit of the people, your papers, at the instance of Catholic clergymen, began a vicious campaign to “silence” me. Vigorously you say, “Rutherford must be muzzled; he must be silenced; put him off the air.” With the hope of accomplishing that end you and your associates inaugurated a campaign of coercion against radio stations. You threatened to boycott these stations, to cause building contracts and paint contracts, and many other contracts, to be cancelled, and to use every means within your power to injure the stations and their clients financially. All fair-minded men and women must and do condemn your course of action and your mode of procedure which is entirely un-American and unfair. The people are entitled to know the truth. If I have stated falsehoods against your organization, then it is your duty to show the people wherein the statements made by me are untrue.
It appears that the Catholic clergymen have no weapon of defense except a gag and a bludgeon. Every man who speaks the truth, which truth does not tingle the ears of the clergy, the Catholic clergy say should be gagged. Every one who publishes the truth contrary to their ideas of what is right the Catholic clergy say should be browbeaten, coerced and clubbed into submission. God and Christ Jesus never employed any such methods, and that of itself is most conclusive proof that men who resort to the gag and bludgeon method do not represent God and Christ. Such methods used to keep the people in ignorance and to blind them to the truth are the ones employed by Satan the Devil. (2 Corinthians 4: 4) When a man, whether a clergyman or the editor of a newspaper, resorts to the gag and bludgeon method, whom then does he represent, God or the Devil? Judge ye!
The gag and bludgeon method employed by you and the clergymen of your organization frightened a few radio stations into submission and caused them to cancel their contracts. Out of the numerous radio stations in the United States used by me to broadcast the truth you succeeded in inducing ten stations to cancel their contracts. That is a rather good record in America for your method of procedure. If you had a Roman Catholic in the office of president of the United States now you would browbeat every radio station in the land into submission. Thank God your intolerant organization has never been able to place one of your organization in the office of President of the United States. The more the American people learn about you and your unjust methods, the more they shun you; and you know that to be true, and that is why you employ the gag and bludgeon. There are millions of good Catholic people who heartily disapprove of your unrighteous methods of suppressing the truth, and of this 1 have positive knowledge.
SLANDER: You charge me with attacking men with slanderous speech. That charge is wholly untrue. Never have I delivered a radio speech or other public address in which I have attacked any man. I have called in question the doctrines men teach to the people; and if that is not permissible, then the people would be compelled to hear only what your side has to say, regardless of how untrue your statements are. That is another proof of your coercive and bludgeon methods. I have no quarrel with any individual and no occasion to attack personally any man.
You claim to believe the Bible and to teach it, and therefore you are bound by what the Bible says. The Bible says that Jehovah is the only true God, and that Christ Jesus His beloved Son is King; that Satan the Devil is the opponent of God, and that the Devil resorts to fraud, deceit, coercion and bludgeon methods to blind the people to the truth. Men are either servants of God or servants of Satan the Devil, and by the fruits or doctrines which they carry to the people it is to be determined whom they represent. It is written in the Scriptures: “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16) In harmony with this Jesus states: “He that is not with me is against me”; and that is true whether the one be a priest or a layman. (Luke 11: 23) Again: “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Romans 8:9) Christ never employed coercive, gag or bludgeon methods to accomplish His purposes. When men employ such wrongful methods, contrary to Christ, then they prove that they have not the spirit of Christ, and that they are not His servants but that they are servants of the enemy of God and Christ.
It is true that the “spirit of Christ is love”, but that does not mean that He loved wickedness and that He stood by and saw pious-faced hypocrites proceed to deceive the people, and remained silent because He might “offend the sensibilities” of the clergy or some of their allies. Read the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, wherein Jesus denounced the clergy of His day in the most scathing language that has ever been applied to any creatures. He was speaking to men then who posed before the people as the representatives of God, and He plainly told them that they were hypocrites. Love, which is the spirit of Christ, means an unselfish effort put forth to do good to others and to honor Jehovah God. It does not mean to consent to the name of Jehovah God’s being defamed. The mere fact that a man bears the title of clergyman or priest is no evidence that such a man represents God or Christ or that he speaks the truth. In proof of this, note the words of Jesus addressed to the clergymen and priests of His day who denounced Him for telling the truth. He said to them: “Ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God. . . . Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speak-eth a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:40-44) The Scriptures then show that exactly a similar condition would exist at the end of the world, where we now are, and that clergymen would boast of their own goodness and greatness and defame God’s name and persecute humble men and women who attempt to tell the truth.—See John 15:19,20; Mark 13:9; 2 Timothy 3:1-6.
Why should the people be denied the opportunity of learning what God’s Word teaches, merely because those divine truths when uttered “offend the sensibilities” of certain men who are not in harmony with God? I agree that one man has no right to attack another man personally; but when any man brings forth a doctrine relating to God’s dealing with the human race and asks the people to believe that doctrine, then it is the right and duty of others who do not agree to call attention to the fact that such doctrines promulgated do not proceed from God but proceed from God’s enemy the Devil.
I have nothing against Catholics as men or women. I only take issue with the doctrines which that organization teaches. If the Catholic clergy want to be fair, why don’t they accept my proposition to publicly discuss these questions or doctrines and then let the people determine for themselves which is truth? The gag and bludgeon method can never make any of the people free, but, in the language of Jesus, “the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) You claim to speak for millions of Catholics; but I tell you that you do not speak for them. There are millions of good people in the Catholic organization who do not believe what you say. Why not let them all have an opportunity to hear both sides of the question discussed and then let them speak for themselves? You are not their guardians except by self-appointment.
THE POPE: Your papers say that I “slandered the Pope whose integrity is unquestioned by any reputable character”. You cannot cite a single word that I have ever uttered that is a slander of the man who occupies the office of pope of the Catholic organization. I have said nothing whatsoever against him as a man. What I did say is that no man, pope or otherwise, has any authority from God and Christ to declare any year a holy year. Neither Jehovah God nor Christ Jesus ever created the office of pope, and nowhere in the Bible does any such title appear. Neither God nor Christ Jesus ever appointed any man to the position of pope of the Catholic organization, and I call upon you to publish one word from the Holy Scriptures that even tends to prove to the contrary. The title of pope was never applied to any man until more than 300 years after the crucifixion of Christ. (See Volumes 6 and 22, Encyclopedia Britannica; McClintock & Strong’s Encyclopedia, Volume 8, page 403.) If God and Christ wanted the pope on earth to tell the people what they shall believe or not believe, then why does not the Bible, which is the Word of God, give some evidence of that fact?
I have no personal antipathy to the man who at the present time holds the office of pope of the Catholic church. So far as I know, he may be a good man of the highest integrity, as that term is generally applied. I know nothing about him except that recently when I used a number of radio stations in Europe to broadcast the message of God’s kingdom I was informed that the pope had instructed all Catholics to refuse to listen to what I had to say. They did not obey him, however, because I had many letters of approval and commendation and best wishes from Catholics, which letters came from Holland, France, Austria, Spain, Italy and other places in Europe.
The fact that a man occupies the office of pope of the Catholic organization is no evidence that he speaks with divine authority or that he has the approval of God and of Christ. In proof of this I refer you to the historical facts concerning men of the past who have occupied that office. The records of many of these men are too bad to publish here. Some of them were exceedingly immoral and bad men, which proves that they were not servants of God and of Christ.
You speak of the pope as “the holy father”, and your sensibilities are shocked when others do not publicly agree with you. You do this in the face of the plain statement by Jesus, to wit: “Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9) Surely I should be permitted to quote the words of the Lord Jesus without offending honest men.
Since neither Jehovah God nor Christ created the office of pope and no mention is made thereof in the Word of God, and since God’s Word does not authorize any man or the officer of any organization to declare this a ‘‘holy year”, then I ask by what authority any official in any organization can declare this a “holy year”. Is it your desire to mislead the people and to induce them to believe that a man has the authority and power to make any year holy? When this year is past and the people look back upon the great amount of suffering they have endured, and upon the great amount of wickedness and injustice practiced both inside and outside of the Catholic organization, they will well know that this is not a holy year, regardless of all proclamations concerning the same. There are millions of people on earth who do not believe that the pope has the authority or power to declare this or any other year a holy year, and other millions of people have the right to hear the evidence, that they too may determine for themselves what they want to believe.
I suggest to you that no court or tribunal in America has ever yet decided (and I hope never will) that a man can be prevented from calling in question the doctrines or teachings of other men or organizations. If such a coercive rule as you advocate were adopted and enforced, then it would mean that the political party in power could successfully prevent the other parties out of power from calling attention to actions and policies falsely advocated and practiced upon the people. If you could have your way you would compel the people of America to acknowledge without question the doctrines of the Catholic organization, which doctrines the masses of the people do not believe to be true. Whenever the courts exercise the power to prohibit the criticism of doctrines or teachings of any organization, then the liberties of the American people are gone and the purpose for which the nation was organized has ceased to exist. You, the editors of newspapers, who claim that you are publishing your papers in the interest of the people, by calling upon the radio commission to bar any man from the air because he calls in question the doctrines of your organization, are thereby demanding that the courts or tribunals take away the liberties of the people and keep the people in ignorance of what God’s Word plainly teaches. Whom do you then represent in thus trying to blind the people to the truth of Jehovah God’s Word? (2 Corinthians 4:4) Surely you do not represent Jehovah God; and that being true, you must be the servants of the god of this world whether you know it or not.—Romans 6:16.
OTHER FALSEHOODS: Almost everything you have published about my radio speeches is false. You charge me with indulging in “vituperation”, which is entirely foreign to the facts. Your statement concerning the radio and its use in Canada is also untrue. There some clergymen, who did not want to hear the truth, protested to the Commission and the Commission stopped the broadcast. You did not publish the further fact, however, that immediately thereafter 406,000 citizens of Canada filed with the Canadian House of Commons a petition asking that my lectures be continued on the air.
The message which I and my brethren are proclaiming is not the message of any man, but it is Jehovah God’s message concerning His kingdom. You may be able to prevent radio stations from broadcasting the truth and the Lord may not interfere with you for a time, but His arm is not shortened and you will not at all retard the proclamation of His Word. Your opposition has only increased the desire of the people to hear more about God’s kingdom, and Jehovah has provided the ways and means. Already hundreds of transcription machines have been manufactured and placed in the hands of the people, with numerous records of speech, which are daily being delivered to the people and informing them concerning God’s kingdom. Every day the people are learning more and more that opposition such as you offer does not proceed from Jehovah, but that it proceeds from the god of this world, the Devil.
You say that these lectures are attacks on Catholics and insulting to Catholics. The people know that such statement by you is untrue. Every statement yet made in any of my lectures is fully supported by the Word of God, which is the truth. (John 17:17) No honest person could be insulted by God’s Word of truth. There are many honest persons in the ranks of the Catholic organization who have been held there because they had no opportunity to hear and to learn the truth. But they are learning it now. For keeping the people in ignorance in this manner the pastors and clergymen and priests and their allies are held liable, and God gives His Word that He will punish them for their wrong-doing.-See Ezekiel 34:1-20; Jeremiah 25:33-36.
You charge that my words are seditious; and that is wholly false. Never have I uttered a seditious word against the Government. It was the clergymen and priests and their allies that falsely charged Jesus with the crime of sedition; and hiding behind the judgment of a false and wicked court, they caused His precious blood to be wrongfully shed. You may get my lifeblood and thereby hope to stop the proclamation of the truth; but be assured that the message of God’s kingdom will continue to be proclaimed just the same. I am but one of those of Jehovah’s witnesses who as a “voice in the wilderness” is crying out to the people that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and that this kingdom under Christ is the only hope of mankind. Your gag and bludgeon methods will not in any manner retard the proclamation of the message of God’s kingdom, which He is now sending to the peoples of earth.
JUDGMENT: Jehovah God has written His judgment against Satan and every part of his organization, both visible and invisible, and at the battle of the great day of God Almighty, led by Jesus Christ, that judgment will be executed and every part of the wicked organization shall go down to destruction. Then the Catholic organization as such will be no more; and only those honest Catholics who turn their hearts away from “man worship”, and who turn them wholly to the worship and service of Jehovah God and Christ, will survive. For this reason Jehovah now says to His people through His prophet: “Before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you . . . seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.”—Zephaniah 2:2,3.
God’s judgment is written against the pastors and the shepherds and clergymen who have taught and misled the people and who together with the principal of their flocks have coerced radio stations and others to refrain from proclaiming the truth of God’s kingdom. His judgment written shows that such opposers will find no way of escape at the execution of His judgment at Armageddon. Note Jeremiah 25: 34-36: “Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the Lord hath spoiled their pasture.”
You complain because I speak the truth concerning “purgatory”. For many years the Catholic organization has taught the people that their dead friends are conscious in a place called “purgatory” and that Catholic priests, who are merely imperfect men, can pray for the dead and benefit them and thereby shorten the duration of their punishment and in time secure their release from “purgatory”. You will not attempt to deny this as one of the doctrines preached by your organization, and this you have done and continue to do in the face of the scriptures which read that ‘all the dead are in the grave’ (John 5: 28); and, “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” (Psalm 115:17) “The dead know not any thing"; “there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5,10) You would have the people believe you rather than to believe God’s Word of truth. By your teaching of this false doctrine of “purgatory” you have induced many a poor person to give up his or her money to have prayers said for their dead ones who are supposed to be in “purgatory”. That is obtaining money by taking advantage of the ignorance of the people.
COMPARISON: In this letter I would have made no reference to personal deeds committed by men or organizations except for the fact that you have made it necessary. You could have opposed my speech without attacking me personally. In keeping with your fixed policy you have preferred the latter; therefore the comparison.
The best part of my life on earth and all my material substance has been spent in an honest endeavor to teach the people the plain Word of God’s truth and to turn the minds of men away from creature worship and turn them to the faithful worship and service of Jehovah God that they might gain eternal life in endless happiness. In that time you have been able to find but one so-called ‘black spot on my record, namely, the fact that I was imprisoned during the World War, and which imprisonment was procured by a cruel conspiracy formed and carried into effect by your organization.
The Catholic hierarchy has spent more than 1500 years in hiding the truth of God’s Word from the people and in turning the minds of men to the service and worship of creatures instead of the worship and service of Jehovah God. The work of that hierarchy has been and is done by selfish men concerning which the Scriptures say: “Men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain [in numbers of followers and material wealth] is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.” (1 Timothy 6: 5) Every page of the history of the Catholic hierarchy is marked with black crime. It has employed the cruel Inquisition to compel the people to follow its doctrines and practices. It has in all those fifteen centuries resorted to coercion to silence everyone who has dared to call in question its doctrines. If your organization held and taught the truth you would welcome criticism and would gladly come forward and discuss the matter in the presence of the people, that they might exercise their own free will and determine for themselves what they wished to believe. Since you have no truth, and since your organization was ‘born in sin and shapen in iniquity’, you resort to cruel and oppressive methods to hide your sins and to deceive the people. Why don’t you hear and teach the truth and encourage others to do likewise? In the language of Jesus the answer is, Because “ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do”.—John 8: 43,44.
Although you know that up to this time there is no law in America to prevent the free expression of opinion concerning the doctrines or teachings of others, yet you continue to browbeat, threaten to boycott and otherwise to coerce radio stations to prevent the broadcasting of the truth. You claim that you do this in the interest of common decency and for the good of the people; which claim is hypocritical in the extreme. You cry “intolerance” and “bigotry”, when in fact your organization is the most intolerant and bigoted one in existence.
Because I say to the public that no man, whether he be a pope or otherwise, can make a year holy, for the reason that only God can make things holy, you begin an intolerant campaign against me and my brethren, which campaign you carry on maliciously and without regard for the rights of the people. Simultaneously the persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses starts in the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. Did this happen? or is it the carrying out of an order from the headquarters of your hierarchy? You were the first ones in America to report the persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses in Bavaria ; and this for the very reason that it was incited and carried out by members of your intolerant organization.
It was at the instance of your organization that in June last twenty-nine innocent and faithful women citizens of New7 Jersey were arrested in Plainfield and thrown into prison, crowded into small and filthy cells, and required to Stand up all night, and this because as Jehovah’s witnesses they were calling at the homes of the people in this time of distress, and seeking to comfort them by directing them to the study of God’s Word of truth. The arrest and imprisonment of those good and faithful women was not only intolerant, but was barbaric cruelty, wholly uncalled for in a civilized land. There was a time when the Protestant church organizations resented your oppressive methods; but in this evil day they have ceased to protest, and this makes you ever more bold in your persecution of the true followers of Christ Jesus.
APPROACHING STORM: From every quarter of the earth I see gathering together the hordes of Satan under the leadership of Gog, of which the Catholic hierarchy is the greatest visible part, and all of these marching on with the malicious purpose and intent to accomplish the destruction of Jehovah’s witnesses. I know that already your hierarchy is seeking some apparent legal excuse to kill all of Jehovah’s witnesses. I would be appalled and faint with sickness because of what I see is shortly coming upon the earth were it not for the fact that Jehovah has given His Word that He will smite the wicked oppressive organization and deliver His faithful people. Jehovah’s witnesses must and will finish the work God has assigned to them. That witness work may be about done for the present; and when completed, then there shall come upon the world, as the Lord Jesus declares, “great tribulation, such as was not [known] since the beginning of the world.”—■ Matthew 24:14-22.
The clergy of the Catholic hierarchy have assumed to be shepherds of the people and call themselves such, but they are not true shepherds; hence Jehovah now says to them: “Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.” (Ezekiel 34:10) Jehovah then says that this shall be the plague wherewith He will smite those that have fought against His organization: “Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” (Zechariah 14:12) Jehovah God will exercise His power in the interest of the poor and oppressed people: “He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.” —Psalm 72:4.
Now, gentlemen, I have said nothing here in malice, but have written these lines wholly in the interest of truth and righteousness. I have called your attention to the Scriptures as well as to the facts, and every one who honestly serves God wants to be judged according to the Scriptures and the facts. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10) You have received notice, and when standing before that judgment seat of Christ, who is the great Judge, you can never be heard to say that you ignorantly opposed the proclamation of the message of God’s kingdom which is now being carried to the people by Jehovah’s witnesses. I think you have heretofore received a copy of the Kingdom booklet; but, that there may be no mistake, I am sending each of you a copy, under separate cover, with my compliments.
You and other clergymen whom you represent have declined my kind invitation to come forth in the open and discuss the truth, that the people might hear and judge. You have thus prevented them from hearing the truth. You prefer to resort to coercion, gag and bludgeon methods to thus keep them in ignorance. You have received fair notice. Now you must take the responsibility.
Respectfully,
Frost in the Air
Tax Exemption in New York City
THE City Affairs Committee of New York made public a study showing profiteering in land by churches which sell real estate at a huge profit after it has risen in value. The report mentions St. Michael’s Home, the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, the Lutheran Home, and Mount Manresa as four Staten Island institutions that occupy great stretches of land only partly used, and says: “In Staten Island hundreds of acres of the most desirable land on the island are being held out of use by churches, missions and schools while the ordinary taxpayers suffer. These institutions should be granted tax exemption only on the land which they actually use for religious or educational purposes.”
Parochial Schools and the National Treasury
IN AN article entitled “NRA’s Ruling on Private Schools” The Catholic Bulletin, St. Paul, Minnesota, first quotes a decision of the American Council of Education that such institutions need not come under the Act, and then says significantly that the same Council (of which the director of education of the National Catholic Welfare Conference is a member) said:
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