Consolation, December 29, 1937
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Contents
Real Patriots in Philadelphia and Jacksonville 3
It’s Happening Here Every Day 6
Federal Court (Judge Maris on the Bench) Upholds Right to Refuse to Salute 8
California 11
“Away Down South in Dixie” 12
“A Modern Voltaire” in Mobile, Ala. 14
Flirting with Fascism (Catholic Action) in Hillsborough County, Fla. 15
Your Questions Answered by Judge Rutherford 17
A Communication from Rumania 22
Why the Bishops Back Franco 23
Canadian Press Putrescence 29
By Trail and Stream and Garden Path (‘The Mighty Nimrod’) 30
Winter Chores (Cover Design) 31
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Appetizers
Examination of Would-be Citizen
◆ “Where is Washington?”
“He is dead.”
“I mean the capital of the United States.”
“Oh, they loaned it all to Europe.”
“Do you promise to support the constitution?”
“Me? How can I? I have a wife and six children to support.”—Exchange.
Spirits of Silkworms
◆ Every year thousands of Japanese Buddhists offer prayers to the spirits of silkworms, cotton plants, cherry trees, sewing needles, and millions of other deities; which makes one glad one is not a Japanese Buddhist. Japan worships the spirits of all soldiers that have died in foreign wars, and now has 130,967 of that kind of gods on the list of deities.
“Probably”
◆ The Chico Record, Chico, California, referring to the arrest of “Reverend Father” J. B. Dermody, of St. John the Baptist Catholic church in Chico, for drunk driving in Yuba City, involving a series of auto crashes, mentions that he was released on $300 bail “and that he probably would be ordered to appear later”. Probably? Probably? Probably!
How Come, O Bachelor? How Come?
◆ Those were strange words which the bachelor Hitler addressed to the women of Germany at the Nuremberg Nazi Congress:
Babies are the best way to show your gratitude to me and to all who are working to build up the new Reich. We have made the men of Germany more manly and the women more womanly.
The American Mercury
◆ The American Mercury, of American Airlines, Inc., leaves Boston 3:20 p.m., New York 5:10 p.m., Nashville 9:15 p.m., Dallas 1:30 a.m., Tucson 5:33 a.m., and arrives at Los Angeles at 7:30 a.m. There is corresponding service returning.
Artist’s History of Nazi Party
◆ Sired by Satan, damned by a harlot, suckled by sodomy, taught by the Inquisition, honored by Catholic Action, crowned by the Jesuits, hailed by the pope, deified by Hitler, and cursed by all honest men.
CONSOLATION
"And in His name shall the nations hope."—Matthew 12:21, A. R. V.
Volume XIX Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, December 29, 1937 Number 477
Real Patriots in Philadelphia and Jacksonville
BREAST-BEATERS, Hearst-Americans, goose-steppers, Stalinites, flag-wavers, child-maulers and Jesuit-religion-mongers that would—make America like Russia, Germany and Italy, turn the stars and stripes into a matador's scarf, deny education to honest and true little Americans, learn a great lesson. That is, they do if they are not solid concrete above the neck.
Federal Judge Maris, Philadelphia, Attorney Edgar W. Waybright, of Jacksonville, Florida, and Gold V. Sanders, editor of the Jacksonville Journal, do all America a great service; not forgetting the backing of the Baltimore Sun, America's best-edited paper.
By now almost every newspaper in the United States knows what the Baltimore Sun announced editorially, that is:
Federal Judge Albert B. Maris, in Philadelphia yesterday (December 1) ruled that school children cannot be compelled to salute the American flag if they consider this a violation of their religious beliefs. At last we have found a judge who takes the First Amendment of the Constitution seriously! It is to be hoped that the case will be promptly appealed and finally taken to the Supreme Court, for we need the word of the highest tribunal on this point. For while it may seem to be frivolous, it isn't. True, it hurts nobody to salute the flag; but it hurts plenty to have any set of job-holders, even a school board, vested with the power to compel the citizens of a free country to do anything they conscientiously object to doing. The only thing that can justify such compulsion is the threat of great and immediate danger to the country. Judge Maris has done what he could to vindicate the old American belief in freedom of conscience. May he have plenty of imitators.
Essential portions of Judge Maris' decision appear on page 8 of this publication. Attention is for the moment centered on Jacksonville, Florida, which was in the limelight when the Maris decision was given.
A Manufactured Scare in Florida
To anybody with a sense of humor it is perfectly comical that anybody in the 'Key City'
of Florida would fall for the pope's manufactured scare that the whole world is going Communist. Some gentlemen did; but they are sorry, and should be. Mr. Sanders and Mr. Waybright helped them to be sorry, and had a good time doing it. It is all history now. So this is a lesson in history; but it is history still in the making, and ought to be good reading.
In the first place, any person with a little more brains than the average ape can see that there is no choice between Stalin and Hitler; both practiced the murder of those that put them in power; both have a devilish Gestapo spying upon every liberty, even of thought; both maintain hell-holes in the guise of prisons where those who have any god except Stalin or Hitler may be tortured or destroyed; both believe themselves monarchs, in the same class with Mussolini and Franco; neither one believes in democracy; both hate the principles for which the United States government stands; both believe that the state is the whole thing; both regard the common people as merely breeders of cannon fodder or subjects whose chief aim in life must be to keep Stalin and Hitler in their jobs.
Why should Jacksonville wish to ape either Stalin or Hitler? It does not. Sanders and Waybright helped them to see the light. Here is the story:
Hitlerism Menaces Jacksonville
Salute to the ruler or to the symbol of his government is the outward manifestation of loyalty to the Fascist state. In addition to much saluting, other earmarks are the stifling of religious liberty and of freedom of speech and press, and subjection of all persons to the demands of the state. No genuine American has any use for Fascism; for it means the loss of dearly bought liberties. Every real Christian abhors Fascism, for its father is the Devil. Religious racketeers, commercial plutocrats and political grafters are the ones who profit through oppression of their fellow men and who welcome the swastika.
Often those who talk loudest and longest in favor of patriotism commit the worst acts of enmity against it. Early in January of this year the American Legion Auxiliary of South Jacksonville, not having anything particularly useful to do, decided to promote the cause of patriotism in the city. It adopted a resolution disclosing to the unsuspecting world that there is "an amazing lack of respect and veneration for the flag". It proposed that every school kid have veneration instilled into him by means of compulsory saluting of the banner. The decree, therefore, went forth, and the process of venerating the flag by means of enforced obeisance began.
Julian Greer was a pupil in the Lackawanna school. He declined to participate in the flag salute because of the command of Jehovah God to abstain from bowing down or rendering obeisance to an image or symbol of anything. If Julian had smothered his convictions, and hypocritically obeyed the teacher's command, he would have won the applause and commendation of the educational bigwigs of the town. For remaining true to his convictions this lad was prohibited from attendance at the public schools. But even that was not sufficient. His father was a city employee. Apparently the father did not have enough veneration for the flag and needed to be purged. The city commissioners obligingly adopted a ruling requiring city employees to salute the flag, and J. P. Greer was then thrown out of employment. Both these errors have since been corrected; thanks to Jehovah God primarily, and incidentally to Attorney Edgar W. Waybright and the Jacksonville Journal's editor, Gold V. Sanders. Waybright rendered essential legal aid gratis and Sanders gave publicity to the unholy inquisition. These men did not propose that their city should be Hitlerized if they could help it. They could help it, and they did.
"Heil der Fuehrer"
In Germany all persons "Heil Hitler", from early morn until dewy eve. Anywhere and everywhere the national salutation must be given. And Germany has abandoned the code of freedom in entirety. Jacksonville was on the way, but Greer is back in his job and his son is back in school. Both are better Americans than ever, because they learned that good lawyers and good newspapers still fight for justice and the rights of man.
"Save the country from Communism" was the alibi presented by these super-patriots for their actions. No one ever heard of a Communist refusing to salute the flag; but it makes a good program, and runs true to the Fascist model. Hitler enslaved the German people to "save them from Communism". Mussolini stole the liberties of the Italians to "save them from Communism". Franco murders women and children to "save Spain from Communism". Japan burglarizes the Chinese to "save China from Communism". And the Hitler worshipers of Jacksonville would have been willing, it seems, to destroy freedom of worship, freedom of speech, and the right to maintain a livelihood, in order to "save Jacksonville from Communism".
And who are the Jacksonville super-patriots that would deify the flag and regiment the people?
Number One, R. C. Marshall, superintendent of schools, and dictator of the board of education. It is not known whether the members of the board and Boss Marshall salute the flag at the regular sessions, but, seeing it is so beneficial in inculcating veneration, it is suggested that they follow along with the rest of the city.
Next in line is Commissioner T. C. Imeson, papa of the rule swastika-izing the city employees, who saw a "Communist" under every shrub and around every corner. He seems to have been Fascist at heart and as such would be in duty bound to believe that Japan is doing a Christian act in slaughtering Chinese men, women and children.
Because some members of the American Legion fought in battle, that organization and its feminine auxiliary consider themselves divinely ordained to promote veneration of the flag by any kind of bulldozing tactics.
Back of the front line offensive is the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. This is not only a religious, but a political organization. It backed Hitler and hoisted him into power. It is in partnership with Mussolini. It supports Franco in the rape of Spain. It is a prime mover in the overthrow of republican government in Brazil. And undoubtedly it is supporting heathen Japan in its brutal attack upon China. In America "Catholic Action" works with the reactionary elements in the campaign to rob Americans of their fundamental liberties. Compulsory flag-saluting and enforced oaths of allegiance are important steps in that campaign.
Cowardly and Un-American
The night-shirted Ku Klux Klan, through its grand dragon, hastened to manifest its approval of the Jacksonville campaign to inject veneration of the flag by force. So we see the hooded order and the papal machine [to which it recently sold its Imperial Palace in Atlanta] joining together in a modern inquisition against Christianity. They would render everything to Caesar, and nothing to God. Thus you have the papal banner flying side by side with the Ku Klux pennant in this campaign to slur and insult the "stars and stripes" by making it a symbol of fear, oppression and intolerance.
That is the motley array 'which frame mischief by law' and "gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood". (Psalm 94: 20, 21) The conspiracy was directly framed against Jehovah's witnesses. It was designed to bring them into disrepute by plastering them as Communists guilty of sedition and disloyalty. It was also aimed at all persons who believe in and support the American principles of freedom and liberty. But Attorney Waybright and Editor Sanders smoked them out and they backed down and gave up Fascism in Jacksonville.
Jehovah's witnesses are not disloyal. They take the position that Jesus took. He would not salute a flag, nor bow down to an image of any kind. They stand by His proposition to 'render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God'. Courts and lawmakers in free countries have recognized that the law of God is supreme and should be obeyed even though the law of man is in conflict therewith. It is unfortunate that the city of Jacksonville would permit a few misguided Fascist admirers to even try to veto that principle.
SYMBOLS AND SENSE
[Jacksonville (Fla.) Journal editorial under date of November 8, 1937]
Suspended from school because he would not salute the flag, Julian Greer, 10, is learning an important lesson.
The lesson is that grown-ups never grow up, some of them.
We speak of the zealots whose idea of honoring the flag is not to honor what it stands for but to flex one's elbow towards it.
We speak of the "authorities" who see in 10-year-old Julian's religious scruple an affront to the sovereign dignity of the United States.
The youngster has an excuse, while the disciplinarians do not. With them, no religious principle is at stake.
(Continued on page 7) It’s Happening Here Every Day
WHENEVER you read of Hitler’s Brown-Shirted Nazis throwing political dissenters into filthy concentration camps for long sentences—
And whenever you read of Mussolini’s Black-Shirted Fascists cracking the skulls of those suspected of disagreeing with any of his policies of state—
And when you read of political dissenters in Russia being lined up before a firing squad—
You reflect that “patriotism” in these unhappy lands consists of enforced adulation for the despot in power, and you hitch yourself more comfortably in your arm chair and sigh thankfully, “I’m glad it can’t happen here!”
But it is happening here nearly every day in some part of the country.
In various parts of America there are mayors, policemen, school boards and other small fry officials imitating Hitler and Mussolini. Their process of thinking and their means of attaining an end are identical with those of the European dictators.
1. The subject of this case history, member of small town school-board, first manifested signs of mental decay at a not unusual event in the life of any school board. Leading the flag salute exercises, the subject’s delicate gray matter suddenly underwent a chemical change and turned green. This is the first stage of the disease, and is called “Beano Emeraldis”.
2. This chemical change caused the subject to confuse himself with the flag, or rather, to enjoy vicarious pleasure at being so near an object of reverence.
3. This nearness eventually confounded him, and, having a repressed desire for respect (which he couldn’t get from the Mrs. at home), a delusion that he was being saluted, instead of the flag, resulted. This stage is called “Sick transit gloria ratio”.
4. His total mental decomposition inevitable, the subject, now erratic and greedy for increased glory, is profoundly disturbed at seeing a pupil who fails to salute.
5. His mental structure nearly gone, his inflated ego is sorely wounded and he commits an act of cruelty which in his normal state he would not have thought of doing. He chastises and eventually expels the child. This state is called “Hitleromubus”.
6. For a time the subject, as a number of cases have shown, continues to grow in his own estimation, and as the last fiber of his decomposed brain tissue gives way, he will suddenly burst and litter up seven counties with his physical remnants. This final stage is known as “Sick simpletycanous blotto”.
BRAIN DISEASE INCREASING
For the first time in medical history, actual photographs of the gradual disintegration of cerebral tissue, now so world-wide, have been obtained.
In some cities they will slam you in jail for even announcing that you intend to speak against the established political parties. It happened to Earl Browder in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In other cities they will put you on a chain gang for the mere possession of literature unfavorable to the established governmental order. It happened to Jack Barton in Bessemer, Ala.
In many cities they will deny your child an education if it refuses to salute the American flag. It has happened often, and only this week it happened to a 12-year-old girl in Atlanta, Ga.
Dorothy Lcoles, sixth grade pupil, was expelled from school by the Atlanta school board because she declined to salute the flag. She is the daughter of George Leoles, an Americanized Greek who has lived in this country 30 years, and who is a member of a religious order called Jehovah's witnesses. Leoles appeared before the school authorities and gave three reasons why his daughter could not salute the flag and swear allegiance to it:
1. To salute the flag is a violation of the divine commandment, "Thou shalt have no other God before Me."
2. To salute the flag means in effect that the person saluting ascribes salvation to it, whereas salvation is of Jehovah God.
3. Saluting is a part of the creed of a secret order of so-called patriots, teaching a ritual of patriotism, and from such all true Christians are commanded to turn aside.
The school board was unimpressed, and expelled the child, adding that "all students must salute the flag and pledge their allegiance or they will face the same fate."
Thus we have the spectacle of grown chauvinists on a big city's school board making themselves ridiculous by attempting to force patriotism upon a child!
It is the spirit and intent of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin imported to this so-called free country. It is the rule of the mailed fist, utterly foreign to the original ideals of America. It is the despot's command of "Think as I think, or else—!"
Such idiocy is blooming throughout America with increasing frequency. But the fact that it happened in Atlanta should cause no surprise. For Atlanta cops only a few weeks ago met the Communist candidate for president at the railroad station and guarded him between trains to see that he didn't make a speech!
How can love for America be instilled into school children when one moment they are taught that its flag is the emblem of freedom, and the next are ordered to salute the flag or be kicked out of school?
How can grown citizens be permeated with greater patriotism when they hear Roosevelt and Landon talk about our Priceless Heritage of Liberty, only to read where one of their opponents for the presidency has been locked in jail and denied his right to speak in behalf of his candidacy?
It is quite possible that readers of these columns are bored with repeated editorials on the freedom of conscience. But our answer is, no subject is of equal importance in this great country for the reason that freedom of conscience is being punished with alarming frequency from one end of the land to the other.
Responsible citizens should protest against every evidence of tyranny of public officials—and, if necessary, fight them.—Dothan Eagle.
Real Patriots in Philadelphia and Jacksonville
(Continued from page 5)
For Greer's particular convictions we hold no brief, though we do admire the lad and think convictions, by and large, good things to have.
In connection with the incident, one of the high-ups in the school system here is reported to have said:
"The American flag is the symbol of the country that has given everyone the right to worship as they please."
Except in point of grammar, we agree; everyone should have the right to worship as he pleases, and that is just the point.
The educator goes on to say:
"The least we can expect is that it (the flag) be saluted."
How this follows we cannot quite see. Compulsory saluting the flag is in Julian's case a violation of the very freedom the flag is supposed to stand for.
WHICH IS THE MENACE?
[Jacksonville (Fla.) Journal editorial under date of November 19, 1937]
America is more menaced by the menace of communism, than by communism itself.
In other words, the real danger is that, while running from communism, we may fall into fascism.
It is our belief that the latter drift is noticeable.
And we have yet to find that communist under our bed!
Dispatches from Paris revive the argument. Over there, authorities have just discovered large quantities of high explosives, cached away with machine guns. The revolutionary plot was laid to the "hooded men" of France. And generally viewed as ringleader of the abortive revolution is one La Roque, who heads the outlawed Croix de Feu. In translation, the French means "Cross of Fire." A penny for your thoughts! Yes, the Ku Klux Klan crossed our mind, too, with its hoods and its crosses of fire! We need not labor the un-American methods of this allegedly super-American order. To get on with our parallel, we point to reactionary discontent with the present liberal government, discontent in high places. We've all heard it said that what this country really needs is a strong man, a dictator. Dictators have been the answer to liberalism and labor in more than one country of Europe! And in each case, the fascists resorted to red-baiting hysteria, to get into power. Solicitors for KKK memberships have lately been using the "menace of communism" as a sales talk. We are not alarmists. But it is the part of good sense to treat early symptoms. Mobs in Miami, wearing Klan regalia, raid night clubs and steal cash in moral indignation. Soon Jacksonville is to be the scene of an open-air "naturalization," or KKK initiation. How do current practices square with founding principles? What's to keep the Liberty League from putting on a bedsheet, too?
Federal Court (Judge Maris on the Bench) Upholds Right to Refuse to Salute the Flag
(From The Legal Intelligencer of December 2, 1937)
The plaintiffs, Walter Gobitis and his two minor children, Lillian and William, have filed their bill in equity against the School District of the Borough of Minersville, Schuylkill County, Pa., and against eight individuals, seven of them comprising the board of school directors of the school district, and one of them being the superintendent of schools of the district. The bill avers that the minor plaintiffs, who reside in the Borough of Minersville, attended the public schools conducted by the defendants prior to November 6, 1935. On that day the defendant school directors adopted a school regulation requiring all teachers and pupils of the schools to salute the American flag as a part of the daily exercises and providing that refusal to salute the flag should be regarded as an act of insubordination and should be dealt with accordingly. Plaintiffs, who are members of a body of Christians known as Jehovah's witnesses, are conscientiously opposed upon religious grounds to saluting the flag, since they consider such action to be a direct violation of divine commandments laid down in the Bible. The minor plaintiffs having been conscientiously unable, because of their religious beliefs and manner of worship, to salute the flag as required by the regulation of the defendant school directors, above referred to, they were on November 6, 1935, expelled by the defendant superintendent of schools from the public schools conducted by the defendants, and by reason thereof have since been unable to attend those schools. The bill further avers that plaintiff, Walter Gobitis, is financially unable to provide an education for the minor plaintiffs at a private school and that the refusal of the defendants to permit them to remain in the public schools has damaged him in excess of $3,000. Alleging that the defendants' regulation violates the fourteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution, in that it unreasonably restricts the freedom of religious belief and worship and the free exercise thereof of the plaintiffs, the bill seeks an injunction restraining the defendants from enforcing the regulation against the plaintiffs. The defendants have moved to dismiss the bill upon the grounds that a good cause of action is not set forth and that, even if it is, this court has no jurisdiction to entertain it. In disposing of defendants' motion the facts set forth in the bill and the inferences properly to be drawn therefrom must be taken to be true. Considering them in this light we will first examine the cause of action averred by the bill. It is claimed on behalf of the minor plaintiffs that they have the right to attend the defendants' public schools; indeed that they are required by law to attend them unless they can secure equivalent education privately. This, however, Walter Gobitis avers he is financially unable to provide. They further contend that the enforcement of defendants' regulation conditions their right upon their participation in what is to them a religious ceremony to which they are conscientiously opposed, thus depriving them of their liberty of conscience without due process of law. They also say that, since they are required by law to attend defendants' public schools being financially unable to secure an equivalent education privately, they are by reason of the regulation in question placed under legal compulsion to participate in an act of worship contrary to the dictates of their consciences.
Under section 1414 of the School Code, as recently amended (24 P. S. sec. 1421), the minor plaintiffs are required to attend a day school continuously throughout the entire term during which the public elementary school in their district shall be in session, until they respectively reach 18 years of age. Section 1423 of the School Code (24 P. S. sec. 1430) provides that every parent of any child of school age who fails to comply with the provisions of the act regarding compulsory attendance is guilty of a misdemeanor. In the light of these statutory provisions and of section 1 of Art. X of the State Constitution which directs the General Assembly to "provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public schools, wherein all the children of this Commonwealth above the age of six years may be educated", we concluded that the minor plaintiffs have a right to attend the public schools and indeed a duty to do so if they are unable to secure an equivalent education privately.
Section 3 of Art. I of the Constitution of Pennsylvania provides that "All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; . . . no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience . . ." This is but the expression of the full and free right which, as Mr. Justice Miller said in Watson v. Jones, 80 U. S. 679, in this country is conceded to all "to entertain any religious belief, to practice any religious principle, and to teach any religious doctrine which does not violate the laws of morality and property, and which does not infringe personal rights".
The right of conscience referred to in the Pennsylvania Constitution was defined by Chief Justice Gibson in Commonwealth v. Lesher, 17 S. & R. 155, to be "a right to worship the Supreme Being according to the dictates of the heart; to adopt any creed or hold any opinion whatever on the subject of religion; and to do, or forbear to do, any act for conscience' sake, the doing or forbearing of which, is not prejudicial to public weal". In these words that eminent jurist clearly stated the principle which underlies the constitutional provisions of all the States and which is one of the fundamental bases upon which our Nation was founded, namely, that individuals have the right not only to entertain any religious belief but also to do or refrain from doing any act on conscientious grounds, which does not prejudice safety, morals, property or personal rights of the people.
In applying this principle it is obvious that the individual concerned must be the judge of the validity of his own religious beliefs. Liberty of conscience means liberty for each individual to decide for himself what is to him religious. If an individual sincerely bases his acts or refusals to act on religious grounds they must be accepted as such and may only be interfered with if it becomes necessary to do so in connection with the exercise of the police power, that is, if it appears that the public safety, health or morals or property or personal rights will be prejudiced by them. To permit public officers to determine whether the views of individuals sincerely held and their acts sincerely undertaken on religious grounds are in fact based on convictions religious in character would be to sound the death knell of religious liberty. To such a pernicious and alien doctrine this court cannot subscribe.
In the present case the bill avers that the refusal of the minor plaintiffs to salute the flag is based on conscientious religious grounds. It seems obvious that their refusal to salute the flag in school exercises could not in any way prejudice or imperil the public safety, health or morals or the property or personal rights of their fellow-citizens. Certainly no such suggestion was made by the defendants at the argument. However, in the view we have taken, such prejudice or peril, if it exists, is a matter of defense. Consequently we must hold on this motion that the action of the minor defendants in refusing for conscience' sake to salute the flag, a ceremony which they deem an act of worship to be rendered to God alone, was within the rights of conscience guaranteed to them by the Pennsylvania Constitution. The conclusion is inescapable that the requirement of that ceremony as a condition of the exercising of their right or the performance of their duty to attend the public schools violated the Pennsylvania Constitution and infringed the liberty guaranteed them by the fourteenth amendment.
We are aware that a number of courts have reached a contrary conclusion: Hering v. State Board of Education, 117 N. J. L. 455, 189 A. 629, affirmed N. J. L.; 194 A. 177; Leoles v. Landers, Ga., 192 S. E. 218; Nichols v. Mayor and School Committee of Lynn, Mass., 7 N. E. (2d) 577. In each of these cases it was held that the salute to the flag could have no religious significance. In so holding, however, it appears to us that the courts which decided these cases overlooked the fundamental principle of religious liberty to which we have referred; namely, that no man, even though he be a school director or a judge, is empowered to censor another's religious convictions or set bounds to the areas of human conduct in which those convictions should be permitted to control his actions, unless compelled to do so by an overriding public necessity which properly requires the exercise of the public power. Furthermore it appears that the courts in these cases largely relied on Hamilton v. Regents, 293 U. S. 245, in which the Supreme Court held that a regulation of the University of California making military training compulsory for all students did not unduly infringe the liberty of students who are opposed to war and military training on religious grounds. That decision, however, was placed upon the ground that although the right to entertain the beliefs, to adhere to the principles and to teach the doctrines on which these students based their objections to military training is included in the religious liberty of the individual, that liberty had not been infringed by the regulation in question since the objecting students were not required by law to attend the university, and in any event the right of the State in the interest of public safety to require its citizens to prepare for its defense by force of arms was paramount to their right to religious liberty. In that case Mr. Justice Butler said:
There need be no attempt to enumerate or comprehensively to define what is included in the "liberty" protected by the due process clause. Undoubtedly it does include the right to entertain the beliefs, to adhere to the principles, and to teach the doctrines on which these students base their objections to the order prescribing military training: Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U. S. 390, 399; Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U. S. 510; Stromberg v. California, 283 U. S. 359, 368-369; Near v. Minnesota, 283 U. S. 697, 707. The fact that they are able to pay their way in this university but not in any other institution in California is without significance upon any constitutional or other question here involved. California has not drafted or called them to attend the university. They are seeking education offered by the State and at the same time insisting that they be excluded from the prescribed course solely upon grounds of their religious beliefs and conscientious objections to war, preparation for war, and military education. Taken on the basis of the facts alleged in the petition, appellants' contentions amount to no more than an assertion that the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment as a safeguard of "liberty" confers the right to be students in the State university free from obligation to take military training as one of the conditions of attendance.
Viewed in the light of our decisions that proposition must at once be put aside as untenable.
The authority conferred by the Pennsylvania School Code upon the defendant school district is to adopt "and enforce such reasonable rules and regulations as it may deem necessary and proper . . . regarding the conduct and deportment of all pupils attending the public schools in the district". (24 P. S. sec. 338) It will thus be seen that the power conferred upon the defendant school directors was to adopt such regulations as are reasonable. There is in the present bill, however, no averment that the regulation in question is unreasonable. Relief is not sought upon the ground that the defendants are without power under the School Code to adopt and enforce the regulation or that they are prohibited by it from doing so. Obviously it cannot be said that the regulation is unreasonable per se or that considered generally it is repugnant to the Constitution or laws of the State. It is only in its application to the minor plaintiffs that it violates the constitutional guarantees. What we have here is an action by public officers, agents of the State, within the scope of the power conferred upon them by statute which when applied to these plaintiffs deprives them of their liberty of conscience in violation of the fourteenth amendment. Such an abuse of power presents a case arising under the Constitution, and this court accordingly has jurisdiction. . . .
California
Child Persecution
THE San Leandro board of education joins the ranks of school directors who would sentence children to illiteracy as a punishment for the religious beliefs of their parents.
The six-year-old girl in this case, it is no surprise to find, is the child of members of the sect called Jehovah’s witnesses. They interpret the Bible to command them to pay homage to no inanimate object. Therefore they do not salute flags, not because they have any grudge against flags, but because they think God has forbidden such homage. No question of patriotism or lack of it is involved. This child, following her parents’ teachings, refused to join in the flag salute in a San Leandro school.
And so the high and mighty San Leandro board of education says this child shall suffer for obedience to her parents. She shall be deprived of an education. The board’s agent, School Superintendent Cartwright, put it in words like these: “If the mother won’t let her child salute the flag, she’ll have to keep her home.”
Evidently the San Leandro board holds it is good for citizenship to bar children from schooling. Evidently it believes that patriotism can be clubbed into citizens. Evidently, too, it has not heard about the Sacramento case in which Judge Shields held that a board of education has no authority under the law for excluding a child from school because of refusal to salute the flag.
Fortunately, however, this child will not be deprived of her schooling and will not have to go to law to get it. Just across the line in Oakland is a more enlightened board of education which does not believe in punishing children for the religious beliefs of their parents. Superintendent E. W. Jacobsen of Oakland says she can attend one of his schools where she need not join, if her religion so dictates, in the custom of saluting the flag.
There are such boards and happily they seem to be in the majority. Jehovah’s witnesses appear to be fairly well scattered over the country. Yet it is only an occasional board of education that suffers from the inferiority complexes that inspire persecution of children because their parents happen to have queer religious notions.—San Francisco Chronicle.
Common Sense in Oakland
◆ H. R. Hewitt, Oakland, California, thinks that when men in public life show good old American common sense they should be commended for it. Hence a letter to the Oakland Tribune in which he said:
“Salute, bow down, worship—or else—!” The issue of supremacy, old and new—an object to bow to, patriotic music, pay homage to, salute, venerate—or else! (Daniel, chapter 3)
Free America! Thank God the Oakland superintendent of schools is man enough and American enough to stand by the democracy our forefathers suffered to establish. We want none of this Nazi, Fascist, “Heil,” “Saluta”—or else tyranny in America.
Jehovah’s witnesses are law-abiding citizens—not Fascists or Communists—respecting though not saluting any man-made symbol—a Christian organization, not in any sense religious. Believers in divine prophecy and the Bible and not in custom or tradition (Jeremiah 10:3), hence not a cult. Followers of the Prince of Peace “doing violence to no man,” so of no danger to the welfare of the nation. Stable citizens in a time of national and world unrest.
So it is to be “unhealthy” for Christians to “obey God” in a “Christian” nation (Acts 4:19 and 5:29-42). Remember the Almighty God is still supreme, and there are still many real Americans left. Shall we be ruled by the whims of men who crack the whip and threaten and coerce us, or by the Christian standards of liberty? When God says no, shall we add yes? (Deuteronomy 4:2; 5:8, 9)
Let us keep America—“the land of the free and the home of the brave.” “Away Down South in Dixie”
THE substitution of foolishness for patriotism still goes on. Down in Atlanta the father of a sixth grade girl is contemplating legal action to force the reinstatement of his daughter who was expelled from the public schools because, as a member of the sect of Jehovah’s witnesses, she refused to salute the American flag.
Jehovah’s witnesses may be a people who are mistaken in their faith that they should pledge allegiance to nothing less than God. But certainly they are no more mistaken than those patrioteers who would expel from the public schools children who refuse to be legally compelled to make a patriotic gesture. Patriotism is not to be secured by legal compulsion. Patriotism springs spontaneously from love of country. It is a matter of the heart, not of compulsory, public display. If sixth graders were foreign spies or other enemies of this country, they would promptly salute the flag to cover their wicked machinations. Those who refuse to salute and subject themselves to expulsion by so doing may better display the stuff of which loyalty is made than the docile who submit to a ridiculous law.
These flag saluting statutes which require the expulsion of children who refuse to salute serve no purpose save that of making the law ridiculous. And if making the law of the land ridiculous is the way to make patriots, it is, to say the least, a brand-new way to make them.—Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer.
Powell Gets Sarcastic
◆ Ordinarily, Grover Powell is not sarcastic, but he recently sent in a clipping showing that Clifford Jackson, Negro laborer, had been offered 75c a day wages, and, having declined it, was then sent to the chain gang for a year. Powell says, and it really seems sarcastic:
He was offered the magnificent sum of 75c per day for hard labor. He worked one day. It seems that he was given two meals, which were charged to him at the rate of 25c each, which left Clifford with 25c with which to get the third meal, pay his house rent, buy his clothes, and purchase the other things necessary to run his house, if he lives in a house. By careful planning with this goodly sum he may be able to save enough to see the circus once in a lifetime. The offer was so attractive you would wonder why the sheriff had not resigned and applied for the job.
Reid Gets Sarcastic, Also
◆ Charles S. Reid, Woodbury, Ga., wrote a note to the Atlanta Journal that is enough to make all the fish-eating patriots get together and oil up the machinery of the Inquisition. With biting sarcasm he said:
It is gratifying to know that at last unpatriotic Americans are to be made patriotic in spite of themselves, thanks to the action of the Georgia board of education. No movement in the history of this nation is so important as the late ruling of the board, requiring the United States flag to wave over each schoolhouse throughout the state, and the teachers and pupils be required to do proper obeisance.
No nation can continue to hold its own among other nations without militaristic principles. We learned this from Germany, Italy and Russia. Unlike religion, patriotism can no longer be considered a matter of the heart, but a thing for coercion. We come to realize that no American naturally is patriotic. Patriotism is just not born in him. Hence, use force. This instills the most perfect quality. It is made indelible by the branding iron, as it were. And there is no more spectacular expression of this militaristic loyalty than flag saluting. The flag should be raised over every christening font, and the infant candidate be made to raise its tiny hands in salutation as part of the baptismal ceremony. Thus it would early accustom itself to the form of lip and gesture service.
Want a Job on the Decker Place?
◆ Maybe you want a job on the Decker place, Clarksdale, Miss. There are some drawbacks, if you get in debt to Mr. Decker. J. W. Wiggins, colored man, got in debt to the tune of $175, and (so it seems) in order to prevent his running away without paying it, it was necessary to have his good wife chained to her bed with a trace chain. The chain was locked around her neck. This seems a little irregular, even in the state of the blowtorch murders.
The Great Norris Dam
◆ The great Norris dam, in the Tennessee valley, cost $36,000,000. The structure is 253 feet in height, and will make a narrow lake with a shore line of 800 miles. One village site will be buried 200 feet under the waters, but the village, with all bridges and roads and railroads, has been moved, including 3,500 families and their homes. Trees also have been removed.
A “Reverend” Burglar and His Accessory
◆ At Clarksville, Tenn., the “Reverend” J. C. Kates broke into the house of his son, Anthony Kates, and took two Riches books, one Enemies book and some booklets, amounting, in all, to $1.15 value, and took the books to the Roman Catholic chief of police, one J. E. Robinson, and that gentleman, when inquiry was made for the books, and their return was requested, showed himself an accessory to the crime of the “Reverend” by making the following statement, showing utter contempt for the laws he swore to uphold:
I put them in the furnace, and if you want more, tell the Lord to send you more.
Head No Part of the Body
◆ In the murder trial in Florida where the Tampa chief of police and seven uniformed policemen were being tried on charges of murdering Joseph Shoemaker because they did not like his politics, the judge on the bench refused to admit evidence that Shoemaker was struck a severe blow on the head with a blunt instrument, on the ground that for legal purposes the head is not a part of the body. In this case it must be admitted that, though the judge is a Yale graduate, he afforded convincing evidence that it is no part of his.
Not Supposed to Tell What He Knew
◆ M. L. Williams, patrol-wagon driver, Tampa police, cross-examined into admitting that he knew two of the police involved in the Shoemaker murder, explained why he had not told the truth in the first place. The explanation is of interest as showing the kind of chief of police with which Tampa was blessed:
I was under the impression I was not supposed to tell what I knew. Chief Tittsworth gave me the impression I was not supposed to tell. I was just afraid to tell. I didn’t care to lose my job.
Four Years’ Imprisonment for Murder
◆ The five Florida policemen who conspired to murder and did murder Joseph Shoemaker finally got four years in prison. That is something, anyway, and shows that it is still possible in the United States for gangsters in uniform to at least get a portion of the punishment which is their due. This punishment of the Tampa police ought to at least create an impression at West Palm Beach, across the state, where there are other gangsters of the same general characteristics.
This Pig Was in Hard Luck
◆ At Fargo, Ga., this last year a little pig was born that was morally sure to be killed some day and be eaten by two-legged custodians of things of the earth. When he got to weigh 40 pounds he was grabbed by an eagle and carried away into the skies, eventually, perchance, to be killed some more, this time for the benefit of young eagles. Things were going along fine, when a railway agent took a bead on the eagle and killed him. Now, if you were a 40-pound pig and being carried squealing through the air several hundred feet off the ground, how would you feel if your airplane were suddenly punctured? Well, that is how the pig felt. He couldn’t fly, and the result was that he fell and busted. Who got the pig after that is not stated, but who can deny that here was a pig that played in hard luck? Landon and Hearst and Coughlin should look him up.
Blow-Torch Civilization Since 1882
◆ The lynchings since 1882 are: Alabama, 342; Arkansas, 294; Florida, 266; Georgia, 508; Kentucky, 213; Louisiana, 388; Mississippi, 545; Missouri, 116; Oklahoma, 160; South Carolina, 159; Tennessee, 240; Texas, 492; Virginia, 104; total 3,827. Of the number thus murdered by mobs, 513 were whites. Organizations of white women in all of the above states (except Florida) have declared against mob violence and in favor of the passage of an anti-lynching law. Virginia has a law making counties financially liable for mob murders, and there has not been a single lynching in the state since that law was passed.
A Dollar a Day in Warren County
◆ A dollar a day in Warren county, Georgia, is all that an A-1 cotton picker can make at the going rate of 40 cents a hundred pounds. When farmers of Glasscock county came into the county and offered 75 cents a hundred the Warren county farmers stood guard over the workers and fired in the air to make it clear that 40 cents would be all that would be paid.
Homicide in Mississippi
◆ The homicide rate in Mississippi is sixty-four times that of England, Scotland and Wales. With 10,000 homicides in the United States annually, the total number of legal executions is but 170. The other 9,830 murderers go free.
“A Modern Voltaire” in Mobile, Alabama
A GENTLEMAN in Mobile, Alabama, signing himself “A Modern Voltaire,” wrote two letters to the Mobile Post, one under date of May 17, 1937, and one under date of June 4, 1937, which were so good that the Post published both of them. They appear below, one following the other. Both have since been used as handbills or dodgers in Mobile, and must have made many people think.
Glancing over the afternoon’s Press every Saturday, you may find advertised, under the caption “Services in Mobile Houses of Worship”, thirty-nine or more different denominations. All of these sects claim they are the TRUE exponents of the Christian Gospels.
On April 17 two of the agents of “Jehovah’s witnesses”, a religious organization, were arrested. These men claim they were assaulted and their property destroyed, without due process of law.
This case should be investigated by the county solicitor and grand jury, and if the allegations be true, the police officials responsible for the illegal act should be indicted.
If the public can stand thirty-nine different denominations all haranguing every Sunday and disagreeing with each other, where is the harm of another cult joining the procession of the Sentient Saviours of Sinners?
Bishop Brent of the Episcopal Church has pertinently asked: “Why is it necessary to have eighty-seven denominations to impress the very simple and veritable teachings of Jesus?” This question is not for the writer to decide. But he asks in the name of common sense, justice and tolerance: Why give the right of free speech to thirty-nine or more and deny it to one?
Every Sunday the methods and aims of Jehovah’s witnesses are broadcast by Judge Rutherford, over the radio. Are the ears of Mobile’s theological public so very much more sensitive than the Radio Broadcast’s auditors?
Must illiterate policemen and a biased police court be arbiters in a so universally discussed question? The solicitor is paid by the taxpayers to enforce the law which protects life, liberty and property. Is he going to be deaf, dumb and blind on this occasion, as he has on many others?
The “witnesses of Jehovah” were given a permit to operate a radio truck. Afterwards, Commissioner Bates canceled the permit because the radio “denounced” another religion. Does Commissioner Bates send his police department every Sunday to see that the other thirty-nine denominations do not “denounce” each other? No. Then why should he indict the “witnesses of Jehovah”?
The writer is fully competent to judge in this case—because he is not a member of any of the “thirty and nine jarring sects”. He believes in the much quoted epigram attributed to Voltaire:
“I may not agree with all you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”
This embraces all there is, in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
On May 21, in “Letters to The Editor,” your readers’ attention was called to an account, in the daily papers, of an assault on two members of “the witnesses of Jehovah,” a religious cult, and their arrest by the city police department. The arrest was made for the alleged distribution of literature containing “an attack on another ‘religion’,” as stated by Commissioner Bates. These people violated no state, national, county or city law.
The writer has read carefully their circulars and pamphlets distributed here, which violate none of the articles in the Federal and State constitutions. But the police department violated, in making the arrest and assault, all the laws of fair play, decency and freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and entirely the spirit of democracy and of the Constitution.
Their literature discussed a doctrinal teaching of a religious organization, claiming it had no authority in any of the editions of the Bible. The unique claim of the “witnesses of Jehovah” was:
No blame was attached to the sect discussed and its members who taught the dogma—but “the Devil, Satan”, who tempted them. This contention was sustained by numerous quotations from the Scriptures. Cardinal Gibbons and other high Church dignitaries were quoted and replied to.
Since so many billions of dollars are annually spent, the world over, educating preachers and teachers to combat this wicked, despicable, diabolical diplomacy of Satan—and with such poor success, one wonders then why the valiant defenders of the Faith should desire the arrest and assault of other kindred knights of the cross who wish to cross swords with so powerful an enemy of mankind: “His Satanic Majesty.”
The writer advises the over-zealous, religiously inclined, pious police prowlers to make a careful study of Dante and Milton that they may become familiar with the devious deceitful dealings of this “Satan-Devil” and direct all their energy against him, and desist in their assaults and arrests of Jehovah’s brave knights, who desire nothing but to be good and do good, who even pray for and forgive their enemies—a quality so very rare in the present-day philosophy of Politics, Theology, Dollars and Sex, which makes hypocrites of us all. The writer trusts the Shades of Shakespeare will pardon him for the liberty taken.
Flirting with Fascism (Catholic Action) in Hillsborough County, Fla.
NO AMERICAN is a true American unless he is liberty-loving and just, especially to minorities, and particularly if those minorities are little folks. The attention of true Americans in Hillsborough county, Florida, is now directed to conditions in the school district of Lutz, a suburb of Tampa, by a letter which speaks for itself. Following this letter from law-abiding taxpayers of Florida there follows a memorial addressed to the educational officials (public servants) of the county, some of whom are arrogating to themselves authority that is characteristic of ecclesiastically approved dictators, while the people who pay their salaries are denied the rights to which they and their children are justly entitled.
Tampa, Florida
December 1, 1937
Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society
117 Adams Street
Brooklyn, N. Y.
DEAR BRETHREN:
Yesterday morning the children of Bro. and Sr. Bliech (six in all) who reside at Lutz, Florida, a suburb of Tampa, were expelled by the principal of the Lutz Junior High School for not saluting the flag. Also, at the same time the two children of Bro. and Sr. Frizzell, Jonadabs who have recently become interested, were expelled from the same school for the same reason.
The principal sent a note to Bro. Bliech as enclosed, but no note was sent to the parents of the Frizzell children. The principal only stated to them that they were expelled for not saluting by order of the county superintendent. When the little girl told him that she lived four miles from the school and had no way of getting home and her mother did not want them to walk on the highway alone, he said: "I don't care what you do, but you can't stay on these grounds. You will have to get out and stay out until you salute the flag. We will not allow anyone to be on the school grounds who does not respect the flag by saluting." They told him again that their parents would not allow them on the public highway alone with so many cars upon the main U. S. highway. He replied again: "I don't care; get off these school grounds now."
Since no note was sent to the parents, we decided to send these children back to school this morning with a note to the principal as follows:
"DEAR SIR:
Will you kindly explain to me why my children were sent home yesterday?"
When the children entered the schoolroom he said to them: "What are you doing here? You get out of this room and off these grounds immediately." They replied that they had a note for him. He took the note, read it, and replied as per the enclosed note and then said to them as if they were dogs, "Now get out and stay out!"
The names of the children are as follows:
David Bliech 14
Les Bur B. Bliech 11
Betty A. Bliech 10
Jimmie J. Bliech 9
George L. Bliech 7
Tommie W. Bliech 6
Harvey M. Frizzell 13
June Frizzell 9
The name of the principal of the school is: H. P. Chambers, Lutz, Florida, c/o Junior High School.
The name of the county superintendent of Hillsborough county, who ordered them suspended is: E. L. Robinson, Co. Supt. of Schools, c/o Madison St. High School, Tampa, Florida.
Will keep you informed and shall await your instructions.
In Jehovah's service,
E. D. ORRELL,
Company Servant.
A MEMORIAL
proposing
Safeguarding of the Right to Worship Almighty God in the State of Florida
To the Board of Public Instruction for the County of Hillsborough, State of Florida; and E. L. Robinson, County Superintendent of Schools; and H. P. Chambers, Principal of Junior High School, Lutz, Florida:
On November 30, 1937, the following pupils were barred from attendance at the Lutz public schools:
Age
David Bliech 14
Les Bur B. Bliech 11
Betty A. Bliech 10
Jimmie J. Bliech 9
George L. Bliech 7
Tommie W. Bliech 6
Harvey M. Frizzell 13
June Frizzell 9
The reason given for their suspension is that they declined to salute the United States flag.
It is true that they have refused to salute the flag.
These pupils are children of Jehovah's witnesses.
Jehovah's witnesses are earnest and sincere Christians who do the will of Almighty God as that is written in the Bible. They have entered into a covenant or agreement with Jehovah God, wherein they have consecrated them-selves to do His will. They are therefore bound by the law of God. They must be obedient to His law first of all. They are law-abiding citizens of the state and of the United States, and they obey every law of the land that is not in conflict with the law of God. They are not law-breakers. They are not disloyal to the government. They are not disrespectful to the flag of the nation. They do not salute the flag, however, because to do so would be a violation of their covenant with Jehovah God.
selves to do His will and to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. By virtue of this covenant it is obligatory upon them to obey the law of God, which is found in His Word, the Bible.
It is taught and sincerely believed by Jehovah’s witnesses that no true follower of Jesus Christ can salute any flag, for the following reasons, to wit:
1. To salute a flag would be a violation of the God-given commandment written in Exodus 20:3-5, to wit:
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them . . .
The United States flag is the image, or emblem, of the American nation.
Every true follower of Jesus Christ must obey the commandment above stated. He cannot, and will not bow down, render obeisance, or commit any act of worship, reverence, or honor, to the image of the government. To do so would in due time mean his eternal destruction.—Acts 3:22, 23.
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