Golden Age, July 14, 1937
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The Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
in this issue
"COMMUNISM"
THE ROUTE TO FASCISM
A RUSSIAN EXPERIMENT
SUGGESTIONS ON SCIENCE
DEMONISM RAMPANT
EXPOSED
(I)
AROUND THE WORLD
DISOBEDIENCE
DISHONORS GOD AND CHRIST
every other
WEDNESDAY
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one dollar a year
Canada & Foreign 1.25
Vol. XVIII - No. 465
July 14, 1937 CONTENTS
LABOR AND ECONOMICS
Embarrassing Mr. Sloan 660
Diamond Match Co. Does Fine Thing 660
A Missionary's Experience in Korea 662
Widow's Allowances in Newfoundland 662
Where Will They Go in Gas Attack? 664
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
TRIALS IN RUDOLSTADT, GERMANY 651
EXPOSED (I) 657
Just to Have It in the Record 658
AFRAID TO COME OUT OF THEIR HOLES 659
NOW, ISN'T THAT JUST TOO BAD? 659
Alms for Flood Sufferers 660
Where Was the Good Samaritan? 660
The "Charity" Business in London 660
A Question About Flowers 670
WITNESSING ABOVE THE CLOUDS 671
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
Is Anyone So Foolish? 660
Big Business Short-Changes Indians 660
Pan American Airways to South America 663
Vacation Trips to Rio de Janeiro 663
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
"COMMUNISM"—THE DEVIL'S ROUTE TO FASCISM 643
A RUSSIAN EXPERIMENT 649
FASCISM HATED AND DISCREDITED 651
A DANGER TO THE STATE 658
Why the Archbishop Was Included 662
Police Tortures in Brazil 663
Estonia's Form of Fascism 664
Churning for Fascism in Belgium 665
Fascist Spill in Brussels 665
The Iron Guards of Rumania 665
General Koerner's Joke 665
Growing Accord Between Fascists 665
China Becoming More Nationalized 666
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
Tomato Vines Twenty Feet Tall 661
U.S. Agricultural Imports 661
Thermostatically Controlled Farms 661
Argentine Corn Pours into America 663
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
SUGGESTIONS ON SCIENCE 652
TIME OF EARTH'S CREATION 653
Autogiro an Aid to Agriculture 661
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
Largest Movement of Great Trees 661
Tallest Tree in Washington 661
Shanghai the Banner Radio City 666
Truth in the Far-off Tongas 666
BEASTS, BIRDS AND BEES 667
Remarkable Deliverance from Death 663
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
DEMONISM RAMPANT 654
Poltergeist in Magistrate's Home 656
The Bleating of the Goats 662
Canadian Protestants Restive 662
The Fate of This Civilization 664
Chinese Nearly as Savage as Italians 666
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The Golden Age
Volume XVIII Brooklyn, N.Y., Wednesday, July 14, 1937 Number 465
"Communism" — the Devil's Route to Fascism
(Part 1)
THE objective of the Devil is world-wide Fascism, under the direction, preferably, of tools like Mussolini, but pleased to take Franco, Hitler, or any like Catholic that will do his bidding. A Protestant would do just as well, only if he will do what he is told. America is headed for Fascism, and the United States Government is doing what it can, and all it dares, to aid the Hierarchy (chief instrument of the Devil) put his plans across. Here is an example:
Fordham University is a Roman Catholic institution. Its professor of law is Edmond Borgia Butler. Mr. Butler is secretary of the governing board of the Emergency Relief Bureau. It now appears that the Workers Alliance (alleged to be Communist) has 406 hours of contacts with the branches under Mr. Butler's control, while all other organizations (596 of them all together) have a grand total of 1,130 hours; that figures out at about two hours apiece, as against the "Roman Catholic Communist" (?) layout of 406 hours, so skillfully framed up by Mr. Butler.
The Hierarchy is working tooth and nail to make Communism look like the big issue in America, and doing everything possible to make the balloon as big as possible. What a farce! When the Hierarchy-made Communism is big enough, there will be a grand rush of the Hierarchy-controlled newspapers and the Hierarchy-controlled American (?) Legion to make it clear to America that her only salvation from Communism is to turn everything over to the Hierarchy.
Just another bastard, just another doorstep job; in fact, just one more lie
Others besides The Golden Age have caught on to the methods by which the Hierarchy is out to capture America. The following is to the point:
FOOTBALL. The discrepancy between actual evidence of Communism in the United States and the publicity which Communism gets puzzles many keen observers.
A great religious group is making all possible capital out of the "Red menace". No opportunity is lost to publicize an arrest of a Communist or to play up a meeting of a handful of would-be Reds. The Communists always put on a good May Day show in New York city, but a careful checkup reveals that they have neither bulk nor weight in the nation at large.
Some responsible New York leaders deplore the disproportionate fanfare stirred up by the doings of a small and essentially insignificant movement. The religious group is not averse to publicity, and, of course, the Communists revel in it. So everybody is happy except those who feel that public interest is being used as a football to serve group purposes. (Reprinted from The National Whirligig. Copyright McClure Newspaper Syndicate, 1937.) Michigan’s Whirling Dervish Says So
Who says America is ready to rush into the arms of Communism? Who but the great (?) “Reverend” “Father” Coughlin? He ought to know. You heard all about his following of 8,000,000 people and how they melted away to Roosevelt like snowflakes in July. Did that faze Charles E.? Not at all. The Hierarchy figures that the common people have no sense and will always believe everything every priest tells them, regardless of how silly it is.
And so Coughlin, in his periodical Social Justice, in a scare headline five columns wide and four inches deep, issue of May 24, 1937, quotes with joy the following: (From Governor Murphy of Michigan) “Communism . . . is here.” (From President Roosevelt) “[When] Communism breaks in America, it will be in the Detroit area.” Do you believe any of them really mean it? Not in the slightest. All are working to one common end: the turning of everything in America over to the Hierarchy.
The state secretary of the Communist party in Michigan personally visited the Chrysler plant at Flint, Michigan, to see the facts for himself and found not one Communist involved in the sit-down strike there. He was of the opinion that those endeavoring to fasten the blame upon Communists were acting as stool pigeons for others; and his suspicions are undoubtedly correct.
At Windsor, Ontario, Roman Catholic priest “Reverend Father” Gregory L. Blonde publicly alleged that seventeen members of the Windsor police department are Reds. Immediately brought to task by the Board of Police Commissioners, he had to confess that he could not name a single police official who is a Red, and that he had merely repeated what others had told him. The mayor and others thereupon gave him a good tongue-lashing; which served him right.
California had another “red” scare. Red flags were noted along certain highways, bearing cryptic numerical symbols. The constabulary gathered them up, and then the State Highway Department got mad because the work they had done showing where certain roads were to be widened had to be done all over again.
John the Revelator a Communist?
Readers of The Golden Age will be amused to learn (?) that John the revelator was a Communist. At least that is what the “Right Reverend” Monsignor J. A. Pompeney, Roman Catholic theologian, thinks. In an address, eight full columns of which are printed in The Kansas Workman (R.C.), he said:
Men who do not see ‘red’ and who do not think ‘red’ with the communists, know that the millennium is only a dream that ends ultimately in a nightmare of confusion and of political death.
Professor Harry F. Ward, of Union Theological Seminary, has been telling the Methodists that anti-Communism is a smoke screen behind which the pope, Mussolini and Hitler are lined up to destroy democratic government. He says, truthfully, “The issue is not Fascism or communism; it is Fascism or democratic government.”
It is most interesting that within a period of about five days, around September 15, 1936, all the principal dictators of Europe, Hitler, Mussolini, Metaxas, Schuschnigg, and Pope Pius XI, launched into violent attacks upon Communism.
Manifestly these attacks radiated from a common center and that center is Vatican City, with the object of stirring antipathy against the Spanish Republic and in favor of the discredited and vicious Roman Catholic rebels that are finding Madrid a harder nut to crack than they had anticipated.
Dictators always have to have an excuse for robbing the people of their liberties; which is why General Metaxas, dictator of Greece, was loud in his outcries against Communism when he threw the Greek constitution into the scrap heap and announced Greece would have no more parliaments.
Big Excitement!
Big Drive on Reds!
It is time for everybody to get excited. Here is a statement from Chicago that “a group of grim-faced men today were mapping in Chicago a nation-wide campaign against Communism’s assault on American religious institutions”. Reading on it seems that they were Catholic, Protestant and Jewish clergy.
And then here is another statement that 200,000 Catholic Daughters of America will try to enroll another 100,000 women so that they can all go after the same birds. And so on, and so on, ad infinitum.
And these pesky Communists: how many of them are there? Well, to get down to facts, there were in the national election a grand total of 80,096 Communist votes out of the 45,818,198 votes cast. And, ladies and gentlemen, you can see yourself that, if in every village in the United States there is one Communist voter out of every 1,772 voters in the town, what a terrible crisis this is.
Why, you poor sap, right here in free America the Communists have got such a hold that there is almost one of them to every 4,000 persons in the land; and if that wouldn’t scare the pajamas off your Aunt Mehitabel, what would?
Woeful tale of the fair (?) wanton
Some idea of the terrible danger of Communism’s grabbing the Empire State may be gathered from the columns and columns and columns against Communism in every Rome-controlled paper in the country. Also, there is the actual fact that, in the last election, out of 3,293,222 voting in New York state there was a terrifying total of 40,406 Communists. Why, man (Stop your laughing! haven’t you got any sense?), that is one out of every 81 voters in the most populous state in the Union, and you can see yourself that as soon as 3,252,816 of the voters come over on their side they will have all the voters in the state. This is a warning to all Roman Catholics to hurry up and rush into the arms of the Hierarchy while yet there is time, and bring along as many suckers with you as you can find. Rome needs them.
Smith Admitted He Did Not Know
Big excitement in New York city! Mass meeting against Communism! One of the big auditoriums was said to be two-thirds filled! Al Smith was one of ye great speakers and should have elicited great applause with his admission:
I never read any intelligent explanation of the Communist government other than that it was a wild theory.
Mr. Smith should have gone on to say that, though he knew nothing about what he was fighting, he was fighting it anyway, because he is a Catholic and the Hierarchy wants him to fight it; and the reason why they want him to fight it is that the American people will look to the Hierarchy as the “saviors of civilization” and cheerfully turn everything over to them to run as they see fit.
“Reverend” Edward Lodge Curran, of Brooklyn, was also there in the same capacity and for the same reason as ex-Governor Smith, and had the same mental grasp of the situation, but he said one thing that Al did not say, and that shows what was in his mind, and his real motive, i.e., civil war:
We hope we haven’t waited too long, as they did in Spain, where tonight they are fighting it out. If the Communists want it that way, we will give it to them.
There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, a distinct threat of civil war if the Roman Catholic Hierarchy cannot have its way with the duly elected government of the United States, as it is trying to have its way with the duly elected government of Spain. In the one case it encouraged the military officials to break their oaths of allegiance, and turned its churches and convents into arsenals. What will it do in the other case? "Father" Curran went on to say:
We cannot fail.
That is what Franco thought; but he may be wrong. Madrid still stands.
Borough President Harvey, of Brooklyn, one of the speakers, was reported as saying that "Father" Curran was raising an army to drive the Communists OUT. What he should have said is that Curran, if he is really raising an army, is raising it to get the Hierarchy IN.
Rev. Isa Sneak, S.J., D.D.
The world's premier Communist propagandist
The Vatican Communist Menace
In Berlin the "Reverend Father" Joseph Rossaint, "Reverend Father" Kremer of Remscheid, "Reverend Father" Steber, "Reverend Father" Clemens and two other Catholics were tried for reading and circulating Communist literature regularly during 1933 and the early part of 1934. The New York Times had a 16-inch story on this, grieving over the fact that the trial was in its second week. Here was a case where the Roman Hierarchy was caught red-handed in the manufacture and circulation of real Communist propaganda.
"Reverend Father" Rossaint was sentenced to eleven years' penal servitude, "Reverend Father" Steber to five years, "Reverend Father" Julitch to two years, and "Reverend Father" Kremer to one and one-half years. The "Reverend Fathers" Clemens, Himmes and Schaefer were acquitted, for lack of evidence. Following precedent, quite possibly all were let out the back door the same day they went in the front door.
But now here is the devilish part of it, and the New York Times cannot well be innocent of what it published. Immediately following the 16-inch story of what happened to these guilty Catholics was a two-inch item from Frankfort-on-the-Main referring to the trial of Jehovah's witnesses and making the malicious and false statement: Thirty-six were accused of having received Communist propaganda from Lucerne, Switzerland, "clad in the guise of religion."
The great Jehovah God will not hold the New York Times guiltless for its act of perfidy in letting this piece of Roman Catholic propaganda go through its hands, and attempting thus to shift to the shoulders of absolutely innocent Christian men and women the guilt for Communist propaganda which it should know, and must know, and does know lies squarely on the Hierarchy.
"Father" Rossaint, "Father" Kremer, "Father" Steber and "Father" Clemens introduced Communism into Catholic Youth groups and Rossaint allowed Communists wanted by the police to sleep at his house; he also distributed Communist literature. Jehovah's witnesses did none of these things, but the New York Times lets itself be used as a cat's-paw to divert the blame to them. The indictment against the four priests and their coconspirators covered 154 typewritten pages and 27 witnesses appeared to prove the charges of the Catholic-Communist conspiracy.
Progress of Sovietism Towards Fascism
Arnaldo Cortesi, Rome correspondent of the New York Times, makes the significant admission that Communism and Fascism are definitely moving towards each other. This admission supports the view that both are of the Devil, through Gog, his prime minister, and both aim at the complete subjugation of the people to the state. That both are dictatorships needs no argument.
The fact that Stalin was educated for the priesthood is borne out by the fact that when he gets ready to kill off a bunch of influential men they are all brought into court and condemn themselves to death and admit the most impossible and foolish things imaginable.
In the Soviet trials there is the same abandonment of all the elementary principles of justice, the absence of authentic documents, the absence of independent witnesses, and the absence of legal defenders, that characterized the Inquisition.
The pope and Stalin should get married: they are as alike as two peas in a pod. Nobody with any sense could have any sympathy for either one of them. Radek testified he was tortured for ten weeks to make him tell the story the O.G.P.U. wanted him to tell.
Jehovah's witnesses and Communism
Are Jehovah's witnesses communists? Most of our readers will smile at the question, but many are aware that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is trying to put across the idea that they are communists. It will not be difficult to disprove this foolish charge, born of a desire to hinder people from learning the truth of God's Word.
As far back as 1895 The Watchtower (official organ of Jehovah's witnesses, then known as Bible Students) stated, "The Bible does not teach communism." This statement appeared in an article entitled, "They Had All Things Common." The article was a discussion of the scriptures concerning the temporary communal arrangement in the early church, and showed that while the apostle Peter and other apostles co-operated in that arrangement, neither he nor any of the others ever taught it.
Soon be big enough to scare the cowardly papal matadors of the public press into 17 assorted and categorical fits
It mentions the fact that the apostle Paul instructed the church to do things which it would be impossible to do as members of a communistic society—each to "provide for his own"; to "lay by on the first day of the week" something for the Lord's service, according as the Lord had prospered them; that servants should obey their masters, rendering the service with a double good will if the master were also a brother in Christ.
Early Church Not Communistic
In The Watchtower of January 1, 1902, appears another article dealing with the same subject, the general trend of which is indicated by the following quotation:
It has been assumed by some that communism as that term is applied today was practiced in the early church; and it is the claim of some that it should never have been discontinued, but should always obtain amongst the Lord's people. We answer, first, that the early church did not practice what is now known as communism; second, that something akin to what the early church did practice (but modified) still is the rule amongst the Lord's saints; third, the extreme view (and practice) of the early church was apparently not intended to remain, was never enjoined by the Lord nor the apostles, and serves rather as an evidence against the feasibility of the doctrines of communism under present conditions.
So far as the record shows, there was no compulsory division of wealth, such as communism purposes. On the contrary, everything was voluntary; and everything of the same kind is just as free, just as voluntary, and just as proper, now as then—no more so, no less so. Some of those who owned farms and personal property sold them and brought the money and placed it at the apostles' feet—gave it into their charge. Some may have given all that they had in this manner, but it is not so stated.
On the contrary, various things give the inference that Barnabas, who sold the field and gave the money, may still have retained other properties, which no doubt he would have been willing to have disposed of later, and to have made similar use of the money as it might be needed.
The sin of Ananias and Sapphira did not consist in their not putting all of their property into the common treasury, but in their deceitfulness in the matter; —in their pretending to give the entire proceeds of one property when they did not do so. Some Scriptures clearly intimate that some of the Lord's people at that time had private possessions aside from those which were put into the common fund. (See Acts 12:12; 21:16) . . .
It is noteworthy that the apostles neither commanded nor advised communism; nor do their writings intimate that it prevailed in the early church. As showing that there were both rich and poor in the assemblies of the primitive church, note the apostle Paul’s words to Timothy,
“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy: that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.” (1 Timothy 6:17)...
The apostle James says, “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?”—James 2:15, 16.
BULLETIN
RATTI BREAKS OUT IN RASH OF ENCYCLICALS
DOCTORS FEAR WORST
P.S. THEY INTERFERE WITH THE STREAMLINING OF HIS GORGEOUS ENSEMBLE
ENCYCLICAL ON COMMUNISM
ENCYCLICAL TO GERMANY
ENCYCLICAL ON THE MOVIES
ENCYCLICAL TO MEXICO
Latest development of a famous pox
Controlled by Selfishness
More recent publications of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society give evidence that Jehovah’s witnesses do not look to communism for deliverance from oppression any more than to other human governments. In the booklet What You Need, under the title “Earth’s New Rulers”, appears the following:
Imperfect men are all more or less selfish, and where selfishness exists a perfect and righteous government cannot exist. The radical movements, such as Communism and Bolshevism, could never establish a desirable government, because these, like other organizations, are controlled by selfishness.
The greater the ignorance and the greater the selfishness, the more unsatisfactory the rule or government. It must be apparent, to all who think, that no men now on earth could establish and carry on a righteous government. With keenest interest, therefore, every thoughtful person should give heed to the manner in which Jehovah will establish a righteous government amongst men.
In the book Government the following paragraphs well set forth the views held by Jehovah’s witnesses with respect to communism:
Looking over the history of the nations whose governments have been either that of a monarchy, an aristocracy or a democracy, not one has been found to be entirely satisfactory to the people. The history of every nation shows that it has been a struggle between the classes. It has been a few against the many. It has been a contest between the exploiting and the exploited.
As a general rule, the class smaller in number has ruled and oppressed the class greater in number. These struggles have resulted in many revolutions, great suffering, and much bloodshed. Out of these struggles have developed the various theories or forms of government called radical, including communism, socialism, the soviet and bolshevism. The birth of these has been due to the struggles of the oppressed.
Communism advocates a sharing of all things in common, aiming at the abolition of private ownership of property and at holding of all property for the benefit of the community.
Socialism holds that the means of production and distribution of the wealth of the nations are the collective properties of the workers, who by their efforts produce that property, while the goods which are to be consumed become the private property of the individual workers. Such government would do away with the aristocratic class.
Out of the World War was born the soviet government of Russia. Peoples of that nation had long suffered under a monarchy that bordered closely upon a tyranny. The war furnished the opportunity to overthrow the monarchy. “Soviet” really means council or harmony. The soviet government, however, has been anything but harmonious.
The government is made up of councils of working men and soldiers called deputies. There are various councils and one supreme council. The Soviet rule is called an organized form of dictatorship of the proletariat, but this government denies the right of suffrage to certain classes. The soviet government has not been a success and never can be, and is far from being satisfactory to the people who have tried it.
As in all other forms of government where the people are supposed to have a voice, the demagogues and party men dominate the various councils; and therefore the government has presented no advantages over any other government. In fact, bolshevism has resulted in great suffering of the people, and it is feared by many of the other nations and governments of the earth.—Pages 244, 245.
Bolshevism is doomed to certain and complete failure. The same must be said of communism. Such radical movements for the establishment of a government of the people can never bring peace, prosperity and happiness to the peoples of the nations. Many other nations of the world greatly fear bolshevism, and properly so.
Any form of government that denies the rights and privileges of some and shows special favors to others is certain to end in disaster. Monarchies have been harsh, cruel and oppressive of the people, but bolshevism and communism are even worse. No government can bring happiness to the people unless it is founded upon honesty and administered in righteousness.—Page 13.
Jehovah's Government the Only Hope
The government which Jehovah God will establish with Christ as its King is the only real hope for the world. It will bring that which all honest men instinctively desire, though they know not how to express it and are not aware as yet that this grand panacea for man’s ills has been provided by a gracious Creator.
The Roman Catholic Hierarchy is seeking to brand “Communist” everyone who does not bow to its whims. Thus it hopes to clear the earth of those who for one reason or another are not in favor of being exploited by selfish religionists, or who from devotion to principle and obedience to Jehovah God would rather die than imply by word or gesture that the same Roman Catholic Hierarchy is the acme of goodness and truth, when it is in fact the most insidious and wicked foe of Christ and Christianity that ever disgraced God’s footstool.
The Hierarchy is a sorry refuge from the errors of communism, and subserviency to its dictates is a most undesirable alternative to the dictatorship of the proletariat. Of two evils, choose neither. Jehovah’s witnesses will continue to look for the government that is founded in righteousness, and which even now is making itself evident through the resistless testimony of events in fulfillment of divine prophecy.
‘They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree’ (1 Kings 4: 25), subject to neither landlords nor communal ownership, but only to the true God, Jehovah, and His King, Christ Jesus. (1 Corinthians 15: 28) In the golden age, now at hand, this will be the arrangement in all the earth.—The Golden Age No. 369. (To be continued)
A Russian Experiment By James A. Williams
THE aftermath of the revolution in Russia brought with it many problems demanding the immediate attention of the new rulers, not the least of which was that of dealing with the “homeless children” who were becoming a menace in Moscow and other large towns. These young people had formed themselves into gangs and were living by theft and other crimes. In order to assist in coping with this problem a colony, known as “Bolshevo”, was formed. In course of time, as the children grew older and conditions improved, a new use had to be found for the colony. It was therefore decided to turn Bolshevo into a center for dealing with hardened criminals, having as its object the turning of them into useful members of society, and today results prove that this object has been attained.
As a rule, only criminals with a record of three terms of imprisonment are admitted to the colony, where they lead a life as nearly as possible similar to that of the ordinary Russian citizen. No special uniform is worn and, although the unmarried members sleep in a dormitory, the married ones live in flats. Work is provided in the factory, where sports goods, such as tennis rackets, skis, footballs, etc., are made, or in the grounds of the colony, where fruit and vegetables are grown. The colonist receives the ordinary wage of the Russian worker, subject to a substantial reduction during the first few months, when money might constitute a strong temptation. Wages are paid at all times in a special currency making impossible the purchase of playing cards or vodka and other intoxicants. Gambling, drugs and drink have been the chief failings of those who enter the colony.
For shopping purposes a co-operative store is run. Recreation is provided in the same way as for other workers in Russia. In fact, the only difference between colonists and ordinary Russian citizens is that the former have lost their citizenship and have no right to become members of a trade union or of the Communist party until citizenship is regained. Also, they are not free to marry, either a girl in the colony or one from outside, nor, if married, can they bring their wives into the colony, unless the permission of the executive is obtained. Such permission is not usually granted until after the first eighteen months of life in the colony.
Another difference between life in Bolshevo and that outside is that colonists must be indoors by 11 p.m. After that time, however, they are permitted to talk or read if they wish, and those who know something of the average Russian need not be told that plenty of talking goes on until well after midnight.
Three kinds of punishment are inflicted: deduction from wages, loss of the weekly rest-day, and, worst of all, expulsion from the colony. The latter is applied only in cases of theft.
One of the most striking features of Bolshevo is that there are no warders, no police and no officers except the director of the factory, the doctor and one or two other officials. Any member of the colony is free to leave at any time, but if he does so he is seldom, if ever, able to return, and that means that his hope of regaining citizenship has gone.
A polyclinic and a hospital care for the health of the community and, while the percentage of sickness is above the normal during the first few months after a colonist's entrance, thereafter health conditions are normal. Improvements in this as well as in other matters are paid for out of the profits on the goods made by the factory, and, as marketing troubles are unknown in Russia, there is never any difficulty in disposing of stock.
As in other parts of Russia, not more than 10 percent of wages goes in rent. Meals, which are not expensive, are usually taken in one of the factory canteens, managed by a colonist who has chosen to remain in Bolshevo after the expiration of his time. Some of the married colonists prefer having their meals at home. On free days members of the colony are at liberty to go where they will and, following the usual practice in the Soviet, they receive full pay when on their yearly vacation. General and technical education is afforded, while children, of course, go to school in the ordinary way.
The usual amenities of a Russian factory life are provided: radio, a club, cinema, sports, and so on. Lectures are given from time to time, while a specially equipped theater, a fine studio for the art class, an orchestra, athletics and lawn tennis help to make conditions such that many workers in other lands might envy.
An example of what can be accomplished is seen in the case of Avdeyenko, a former thief and murderer, found, after a drunken brawl, unconscious in the snow by some members of the colony. He was taken to the commune, but the freedom of the place soon began to pall. He would stay away from time to time, and was disappointed to find that nobody interfered with him. No locks, no bars, no roll call! For one who had always looked upon society as his enemy, this was too bad!
In course of time, however, he began to fit in with the scheme of things, although there were occasional lapses. Things seemed to reach a crisis when he violently assaulted another member of the colony and was tried, not by a judge, but by the colonists themselves. From that time forward he became a useful member of the community, learning to read and write, and ultimately—proudest day of all—being recommended for membership in the Young Communist League. Citizenship regained, married and happy, Avdeyenko is now a Russian novelist of distinction, and society has a friend where it once had an enemy.
Bolshevo has been a bold experiment, the success of which cannot be gainsaid. An English critic of Russia, and one of the strongest critics at that, wrote on returning to England, after a visit to the colony, that what he had seen there made him feel that the spirit of Christ still existed on earth.
What are some of the reasons for this success? First of all, Soviet Russia is a land unhampered by traditions and is therefore free to experiment in a manner feared in other countries. Public opinion, which hinders prison reform in a country like England, a country in the van of such reform, counts for little or nothing in Russia. Then the psychological attitude toward criminals in Russia is fundamentally different from that in other countries. In Russia.
sia a criminal is looked upon as an individual whose work is needed by the state, while in practically every other country a criminal is looked upon as a menace to society and one to whom to give employment would in itself be almost a crime, as it would increase the already large army of unemployed. One of the greatest difficulties in starting such a colony in practically every country apart from Russia would be the finding of suitable work for the colonists which would not compete with the existing overproduction outside.
The aftercare of prisoners is another problem existing in countries outside the Soviet, where, after his discharge from Bolshevo, a prisoner finds no difficulty in obtaining employment. The democratic idea of self-government and equality existing in Russia makes practicable and natural the management of the whole colony by its members and also does away with the “prison stigma” which is an obstacle reformers in other lands find difficult to surmount.
The success of this experiment proves that liberal reformers elsewhere have the right idea. There is, however, only one way to deal with the problem of criminals, and that is to prevent crime; and crime will never be prevented until Jehovah’s King holds sway from one end of the earth to the other. Until that time all efforts of men, however good, must fail.
Fascism Hated and Discredited
A TWO-COLUMN article in the New York Times, by a Roman Catholic correspondent on the spot, devoted exclusively to the matter of terroristic methods on both sides, after admitting that on the anti-Fascist side there have been executions of marked persons “interlarded with cases of personal vengeance”, declares the definite opinion that:
On the Insurgent side the executions have been in masses, often marked by torture, and on a far larger scale in proportion to the population. Treachery has also been a frequent feature of the executions on this side.
This staff writer of the Times, Lawrence A. Fernsworth, basing his opinion upon cases of political bossism, exploiting of the poor, and immorality which were brought to his attention made the general observation “that the priests all too frequently failed to win the most elemental respect of the people”.
Don Ferdinand de los Rios, in an address to the New York Press Club, said of the Fascist rebels now trying to overthrow the Spanish government:
The social forces which support the rebel movement have been the very ones which, during the years when they were last in power, refused to found schools for the education of the people, refused to take measures toward public sanitation, failed to open libraries in towns and villages, and kept farm wages at the low level of 12 to 20 cents a day.
Trials in Rudolstadt, Germany
AT Rudolstadt, Germany, twenty-five of Jehovah’s witnesses were placed on trial charged with not forsaking the assembling of themselves together; also with practicing Christian baptism; also with refusal to kill their fellow men; also with preaching the gospel to others. For these terrible ‘crimes’ one man was sentenced to five years in prison, another to three years, and others to lesser terms.
One man, Paul Schlegel, formerly a leader in the witness work, but latterly turned away from it, and who having taken part in the plebiscite was no longer in harmony with the witnesses, was given one year and three months in prison.
Talkies in Lhasa, Tibet
A SINGULAR indication of the progress of the times is that a motion-picture show is being established in Lhasa, Tibet, the forbidden city. It will be the latest and best films that will be shown, and these will unquestionably have a great effect upon the Tibetans.
Suggestions on Science
DESPITE his efforts to the contrary, man does occasionally learn something, or thinks he does, and what he thus learns he calls "science". He often has to revise and modify his findings, but makes progress, nevertheless. Following are some things he recently learned:
Science corroborates the statement of the Scriptures that the earth 'hangeth upon nothing' and is therefore a globe. The highest camera shot ever made, taken from an elevation of 13 3/4 miles, and with the horizon 350 miles away, plainly shows the horizon like a great arch across the photograph. Particulars are in the May (1936) issue of The National Geographic Magazine.
Details of the continents buried by the Flood are now being brought to the surface by a punch which, dropped on a line a mile and a half deep bites off a bit of the bottom. The true and ancient shores of the oceans seem to average a mile below present sea level; so says Prof. Reginald A. Daly, of Harvard University.
It is believed that the oldest living creatures on earth are some insects and a few lobsters found recently in central Siberia, dug out of the solid frozen earth, where they have been since the days of the Flood. The method of revival was not stated.
Under 400 feet of gravel, in a mine near Fairbanks, Alaska, there have been found skeletons of mastodons and other creatures that perished at the time of the Flood. Here is a poser for unbelievers in God's Word. How did that deposit of 400 feet of gravel come to be over the bodies of those mastodons?
Wonders of the deep in the year 1936 were an absence of the heavy belt of ice usually present along the east coast of Greenland, the presence in the North Atlantic of the largest schools of sharks ever seen in those waters, and the discovery off Aberdeen, Washington, of the carcass of a 1,300-pound sea serpent unlike any ever before identified by scientists.
One would think that the most unlikely of human occupations would be that of melting glaciers; but the Russians are making use of the fact that by blackening the tops they get from two to five times the usual meltage, and this helps irrigation in certain places in Asia where more water is badly needed.
At Devil's Lake, N. Dak., in January and February, 1936, the average temperature was 13 degrees below zero. The first week in July, 1936, at the same place, the temperature was 112 in the shade. Like extremes, though not as great, characterized many parts of the United States in the most trying year in American weather history. In between, there were the worst floods ever known in the Ohio Valley and on the Atlantic seaboard, with bad dust storms in the West and hurricanes in the South.
On September 28, at Denver, Colorado, there was a fall of 17 inches of snow, but for two full weeks thereafter it was a pleasure to sit by an open window almost anywhere along the Atlantic seaboard enjoying an autumn that up to the middle of October was entirely devoid of frost.
In the Field of Light
Astronomers and all other intelligent men are interested in the progress being made on the 200-inch glass eye, made at Corning, N.Y., of the greatest telescope ever constructed. This lens, now in its seventh year of construction, will be completed and mounted in about five years more. The lens was poured December 2, 1934, and was cool enough to inspect November 26, 1935. No flaws were discovered.
The new polaroid glass, made of three layers, changes the glare of oncoming headlights into a soft purple light enabling the driver to clearly see the road, approaching car and pedestrians; it also makes possible three-dimension movies in natural colors, and is expected to have many other important uses.
Dr. Elmer E. Hotaling, of New York, claims to have helped cataract patients delay the development of cataracts over a period of seven years by fitting them with cool green lenses which allow very little of the unwanted rays to seep through.
The windows in the Chrysler show room of Marcus & Company, Fifth avenue, New York city, are so designed as to be invisible. The glass curves inward and downward toward black velvet, and the only way the glass can be seen is to get down on hands and knees and look up.
A young man of 21 years of age, resident in London, has perfected a system of colored lighting which blends with organ tones. Thus the organist is able to produce stage effects without turning his eyes from the console of the organ.
The suggestion has been made that the blind in the United States should use white canes, as is done in Paris with good results. By the way, every person in New York state who goes blind as a result of injuries to his eyes received while at his work averages to cost his employers $20,000.
In the Field of Sound
The electroencephalograph is a picture of what you are doing with your mind. It is not exactly a mind reader, but when it is attached to the scalp and the lobe of the ear, and the ensuing waves are amplified, if nothing special is going on in the mind the waves are regular and small, but if the mind is concentrated on a mathematical or other problem the waves are much larger and irregular.
William A. Winterbottom, vice president of RCA and general manager of RCA communications, observes that radio engineers are baffled by certain radio signals between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. that are unlike any known earthly radio signals, and he has admitted the possibility that they come from outside this planet. They are usually observed on definite frequencies.
A radio check-up on a talking teakettle in Portland, Oregon, showed that the talk came from an amateur radio operator next door, only when the operator was broadcasting on 80 meters.
Manhattan’s noises have been analyzed. Of 15,000 noises measured 30 percent were caused by elevated railways, 25 percent by trucks, 20 percent by street cars, 10 percent by automobile horns, 5 percent by buses, 5 percent by other autos, and 5 percent by hucksters and miscellaneous.
The way the deaf are made to hear music is through a rod placed on the head or face bones, the funny bone of the elbow, or the kneecap. The rod is attached to a special gramophone. The vibrations of music or speech are carried to the nerves of hearing along the bones of the body.
Antoine Sax, instrument maker, who in 1848 invented the saxophone, died in poverty, in Paris, in 1894. A saxophone has 548 separate parts and is one of the simplest of wind instruments. Some French horns contain as much as seventeen feet of tubing.
In the Field of Clothing
A Jew who wears shoes says:
When shoes need repairs, go to a ten-cent store and get rubber soles instead of paying a dollar or so for leather ones. Buy an extra pair (men’s size) and cut heels to fit your shoe, and glue on as for soles. Then cut another piece to fit half your heel and glue on the side inclined to run over. Renew these when necessary and you can save dollars. You will seldom need to wear overshoes, either.
Ten gallons of skimmed milk will produce 3 1/2 pounds of Lanital, the new Italian fabric. Recently, the Italian ambassador at London appeared on the street in garments made exclusively of Lanital.
The umbrella makers say that nobody buys their wares any more. They made 27 million umbrellas in 1927, and seven years later only 5 million. The automobile is held largely responsible.
Cotton is now used to produce more than 900 different products used in everyday life. Textiles, foods, lacquers, explosives, cordage, fertilizers, oils, medicines, insulating materials, safety glass, plastics, etc., are but a few of the bewildering variety of useful things now made from the staple crop of the South.
A sheet of thin paper, standard letter size, 8 1/2 by 11 inches, can be folded six times, resulting in 64 little squares each a trifle over one inch square. To fold a piece of paper nine times as often, i.e., 54 times, it is claimed, would require a sheet 185,000,000 miles long. If you doubt it, try it.
Time of Earth’s Creation
NATURE bears abundant proof of the gradual development of the things of earth. It is not necessary, however, to speculate wildly about millions of years, as many “scientists” are fond of doing. Such gain “fame” by the number of ciphers they add to figures supposedly setting the date of the existence of certain creatures upon the earth in times past. The period of time devoted to the creation of things on earth can be Scripturally shown to be six “days” of seven thousand years each, or a total of 42,000 years. This period of time is doubtless sufficient for the work which Jehovah accomplished. This conclusion is supported by present changes in the earth’s crust, which often proceed rapidly. See The Golden Age No. 464 and Creation.
Demonism Rampant
IN Newark three Negroes, trapped in a burning building, could have escaped by jumping five feet to the uptilted end of a coal truck, raised for them. Carried away with the nonsense that the Harlem Negro is God, they refused to jump, claiming that "Father Divine" would save them. All perished.
"Father Divine" has such a poor memory, or such beautiful and sublime ability to lie like a horse-thief, or both, that he has no recollection of Mrs. Verinda Brown's handing him in cash $4,016 in return for a place in heaven, nor of himself as paying $8,000 in cash for one of the "Promised Lands". When faced in court with a $6,152 civil judgment suit obtained against him in a Maryland court, "Father Divine" said "I do not recall" or "I don't know definitely" or "I could not know", or words to that effect, in answer to every question touching on the financial arrangements of his so-called "Peace Mission Movement". He could not remember whether or not he was present when large real estate deals were made which he had advised, and, in short, could not remember anything that it was his plain duty as head of his movement to remember.
Heathenism and Demonism United
Demons grossly deceived an eight-year-old girl at New Delhi, India, representing to her that she was formerly the wife of a merchant at Muttra, and had died in giving birth to a son. Investigation disclosed such a birth and death and "recognitions" all round. Thousands are being deceived by this clever stunt of the devils.
At Allahabad, India, a Yogi remained forty-five days in a tomb 16 feet square and 4 feet high, cemented in, and thus without air, water or food. Reports said he showed little traces of suffering except a white pallor. His hand had been partly eaten by ants. The Devil takes care of his own.
The Yezidis, worshipers of Satan, scattered all over the Orient, have erected seven towers on mountaintops from north of Bagdad to the borders of Tibet. The towers are white, fluted, and shaped like a sharpened pencil point. At the base of each tower is a priest, dressed all in black, supposedly engaged in broadcasting and receiving incantations from these towers. The Yezidis claim to have known beforehand the World War and the Russian revolution.
The Hopi snake-dancers of Hotevilla, Ariz., claim that in 1,000 years in which they have made their prayers to the Devil with snakes wriggling in their mouths the Devil has never disappointed them. Rain has always come on the completion of the dances. The explanation is simple. The prayers are frankly prayers to the Devil, and he answers them to thus further dishonor God's holy name.
Paul Brunton, English author, who spent a night in the Great Pyramid, declares that never again will he repeat the experience. His own statement is: "Special figures had begun to creep in and around the dark room wherein I sat. A circle of antagonistic beings surrounded me. Monstrous elemental creations, evil horrors of the underworld, forms of grotesque, insane, uncouth and fiendish aspect gathered around me and afflicted me with unimaginable repulsion."
A correspondent sends a page of the Cleveland Press and says, significantly and truthfully, "Forty percent of this page devoted to demonism." It is a story of a shepherd in Maglavit, Rumania, who saw what claimed to be God, but was a demon.
"Science" and Demonism United
When shallow minds find that there are invisible powers that may be drawn upon, they think they have found something new and valuable. Nothing of the kind. They have found only the same old evil powers that were in existence in the earth before the Flood and that were the cause of Jehovah God's blotting out the Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, Hittites, Amorites and Girgashites from the land of Canaan.
A Western man is flooding the mails with offers to teach anybody for $20 how to know God and obtain health, wealth and happiness. The Golden Age has purposely avoided mentioning this man and his alleged "staggering truths"; his demands that the minds of others be submitted to his mind and that in the presence of his lessons they "be quiet; try to dismiss all other thoughts from your mind" and thus get the "dynamic unseen power" to "heal the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead", etc.
This man, demonized, purely selfish, and teaching pure selfishness to others, claims to teach others about God, but does not cite a text of Scripture and is merely a tool of the Devil. He claims to have had all this knowledge revealed to him when he was "quiet".
This is a request to readers of The Golden Age not to send in any more "Psychiana" literature; for such is demonism, pure and simple; nobody who loves either the God of the Bible or Jesus the Ransomer and Savior of men would have anything to do with it if he knew its origin.
Seem Never Able to Learn
Hundreds of dispatches are published in the daily press that plainly show the existence of the fallen spirits, and their influence on men, women and children, and yet the newspapers are never able to find anybody who knows the truth on the subject. For instance, here is a London Daily Express dispatch from Riga, Latvia, telling of a child of ten years of age, unable herself to read or write, who can tell and relate the inmost thoughts of those who are in her presence. Thus the director of the Latvian Medico-Legal Institute tested these powers and found the child could transmit perfectly French, German and English texts read by Dr. Neureither (the director) silently, though she does not understand one word of any of these languages. In the face of evidence like this, what folly to close the eyes and ears and mind to the facts that prove the existence of these demons cast out by the Lord and the apostles, and everywhere manifest in clairvoyant and telepathic phenomena.
A dispatch from Hollywood contains the following description of a clear case of demonism caused by a ouija board:
An apparently normal twelve-year-old boy who goes into a trance and talks Persian, who lets eye specialists blindfold him carefully and then reads what is placed before him, baffled 150 medical men Sunday. The boy, Pat Marquis, outside of his trances, is normal. He discovered his apparent powers by accident, while he was playing with a ouija board.
While hypnotized by the demons Marquis repeated medical terms he had never heard, and answered questions on every kind of subject. If Marquis continues to yield his mind to the control of the invisible powers with whom he has been in contact through the ouija board, he will go insane in the end, as millions have done before him. The physicians who examined him did not in any way indicate that they knew the lad is under control of demons, though if they had even a superficial knowledge of God's Word that would be immediately apparent to them.
British people are stirred because Abdul Latif, a Persian physician who died in A.D. 1231, is alleged to perform cures through a medium, and to have cured some 2,000 people of their bodily ills. The explanation is simple. Abdul Latif is stone dead. The medical advice and assistance comes from demons that seek thus to entrap the human family and find this an excellent means of entrance into the mind and will of the weak and suffering.
Politicians and Demonism United
In The American Magazine a staff writer, Courtney Ryley Cooper, declares that spiritism is now so rampant in Washington that one medium was visited by nineteen governors. The whole article, extremely interesting, shows that official Washington, in great numbers, is inquiring at the door of "the witch of Endor".
In some cities clairvoyance is illegal, but in Budapest one of the police is under control of the demons (as are all clairvoyants) and has helped to reduce the number of suicides. He has helped to solve murders and to locate missing persons and missing jewels. Stockholm may employ a clairvoyant similarly. The general employment of spiritists in police work would be a matter of grave interest to the people.
A New Zealand seafaring man caught a demon in a lie. The demon, operating as usual through a spirit medium, gave with great exactitude what purported to be the exact moment and place where Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Mr. Pethybridge sank, 75 miles off shore, when their plane struck the water. The demon made the mistake of specifying the exact latitude and longitude, to the thousandth of a degree, and the New Zealand man discovered that the point named is on land. The demons are called in the Scriptures "lying spirits".
At Bellevue Hospital, New York, an elderly man suffering from amnesia was hypnotized and gave his name as Edward Gordon Thomas. This tallied with initials on his tie clasp, but it did not tally with the facts, for his name was E. G. Trenholm; and this pretty well shows how much confidence may be properly placed in any information gained by hypnotic means.
College students at Baton Rouge, La., undertook to hypnotize one another. One boy of nervous type succumbed to the work of a fellow amateur and while hypnotized shot himself in the chest. When awakened at the hospital he had no recollection of what had happened. Hypnotism, like "religion", is demonism, and should be shunned as a plague by all who love God and His Word.
Breaking down the human will by hypnotism, which is demonism, much is now heard of painless dentistry and painless childbirth by hypnotic means. No one who loves God will permit another to thus control his person.
Protestantism and Demonism United
The ceiling of the Philippus Evangelical and Reformed church building at Cincinnati, Ohio, caved in and set the congregation back $30,000. This is quite a hunk in these hard times; so the grown-up boys of the church hired a regular circus to act for them, including as a side-show feature a real Hindu magician and snake charmer, with the hope of getting enough coin together to pay the bill. Not sure just how they made out. The magicians and sorcerers had a hard time back there in the early church. On one occasion Paul said to Elymas:
O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind . . . for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.—Acts 13: 10, 11.
But if the clergy of today be reproached for taking sorcerers into partnership, they can set up as a defense that Paul had no church with a $30,000 ceiling to come crashing in on him, and, besides, it is said that when he did this he was filled with the holy spirit; and on this point they are entirely innocent and ignorant and their plea is 100-percent perfect.
Not All Clergymen Entirely Blind
While it is generally true that the clergymen are blind to the truth, yet here and there is one who is not entirely sightless. In an address at New Haven, Connecticut, Professor Charles A. Dinsmore, of the Yale Divinity School, made the truthful and inspiring statement, “No book compares with the Bible in the number of sentences in which thought is expressed in a form which cannot be improved.”
Somebody must have put some truth literature into the hands of Reverend Dr. William H. Rogers, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Broadway and 79th street, New York city. In a recent sermon he is quoted as saying: Organized religion is a failure and doomed to destruction. It does not represent the New Testament faith or the Christianity of Jesus Christ. Rather it represents ritualism, ceremonialism, hierarchies, politics, modernism and worldliness. God hates religion. Religion is one thing. Salvation is another. The first is of man’s invention and thinking. The second is God’s gift in Christ. If the apostles came back in the flesh, they would not recognize very much in the organized church as truly representative of the true church of Christ.
The Philadelphia Methodist conference adopted a resolution stating:
Fifty-seven generations of Christians have come and gone, and yet the masses are still shackled by social bondage; the children of the world are deformed by child labor; the laboring folk of the world are still hired and fired and junked in the name of Mammon. More than half of the human race still goes to bed hungry and undernourished. Millions of men, anxious for work, are out of employment, with no chance except to rust and rot in idleness.
Is it not strange that men who can speak like that oppose the message of God’s kingdom as the one and only hope of the world?
Probably unaware of how clearly he discerned the meaning of present-day events the bishop of Leicester, England, recently said:
In Europe and Asia alike, young men and women are growing up in countries where the leaders are obsessed by the domination of economic forces, leaders who are wholly materialistic in their outlook, and in whose policies and actions there is no place for God. In other words, this is a day of crisis and that too-hard-worked word must be used—it is a day of judgment on the earth.
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