Consolation, January 12, 1938

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Contents

Jehovah's witnesses at the Paris Convention 3

Vatican City 6

South America 7

Spain 8

Africa 10

Kingdom Work in Indo-China 11

Kingdom Publishers in Borneo 12

Sleepless Nights in Peoria 13

Earthly Expectations 14

Pickpocketry and Picketeers 15

"Catholic Britain" Wants to Know 16

Your Questions Answered by Judge Rutherford 17

An Open Letter to Saul the New Prophet 18

New Jersey, New York, New England 20-23

South Atlantic States 24

Ohio and Indiana 25

Michigan 26

In Batavia, Illinois 27

Lagrange, Georgia, Is Learning, Slowly, 28

By Trail and Stream and Garden Path ("The Glory of God") 30

Winter Sunset—Cover Design for This Number 31

Published every other Wednesday by

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President Clayton J. Woodworth

Vice-President Nathan H. Knorr

Secretary and Treasurer Charles E. Wagner

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Appetizers

Temperamental Bees

◆ At Yuba City, California, a temperamental bee stung E. W. Cragos, a motorist, in the leg. Cragos reached for the bee, lost control of the car, and snapped off a power pole, mussing up his car. In the midst of the excitement the bee died.

American bees will not work in temperatures under 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but the Chinese have bees that continue to work down to 40.

Simplicity Itself

1 X 8 + 1 = 9

12 X 8 + 2 = 98

123 X 8 + 3 = 987

1234 X 8 + 4 = 9876

12345 X 8 + 5 = 98765

123456 X 8 + 6 = 987654

1234567 X 8 + 7 = 9876543

12345678 X 8 + 8 = 98765432

123456789 X 8 + 9 = 987654321

Executions in London, Ontario

◆ London, Ontario, authorities intended to put up a sign that all persons having colds would be excluded from City Hall meetings while the influenza was on. The printer made a mistake and changed the word "excluded" to "executed". Probably he was just coming down with a bad cold and felt it would be a kindness to be bumped off.

Jersey's Official Shield

◆ New Jersey's official shield has three plows supported by the goddesses of liberty and prosperity and crowned with a horse head. In view of the continued persecution of Jehovah's witnesses in the Garden State, would it be out of order to suggest that the goddess of liberty be crowned with a jackass head, just for New Jersey?

Plenty of Pluck but Poor Judgment

◆ During the night, on the run from Mombasa to Nairobi, East Africa, a white rhinoceros, peeved by the headlight of a locomotive, charged head on. He had plenty of pluck, but poor judgment. It took an hour and a half to get his huge body off the rails; then the passengers went back to bed and the train went on.

CONSOLATION

"And in His name shall the nations hope."—Matthew 12:21, A. R. V.

Volume XIX Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, January 12, 1938 Number 478

Jehovah’s witnesses at the Paris Convention

Contributed by a British Reader

IT IS over. The fact has been far, far more wonderful than the anticipation. Who of Jehovah’s witnesses who was privileged to attend that thrilling international convention will ever forget it? Surely none. It is an imperishable page in the tablets of memory.

One feels that he must tell everyone of Jehovah’s rich and abundant blessing thereon. Leaving official records to those whose duty and privilege it is to deal therewith, let me give a few impressions and tell of a few happenings. Like David, I feel “my heart is inditing a good matter”.

Through the night of Thursday-Friday, August 19 and 20, Jehovah’s witnesses are traveling from the towns and countryside of England and Scotland to London. We must arrive there in good time. Organization instructions are that we must be at Victoria station at 9:30 a.m. They come from the four corners of the land, a happy, smiling company, intent on honoring Jehovah’s name. They all wear the badge—“Congrès des Témoins de Jéhovah, Paris, 1937.”

By Jehovah’s grace we are going to give a mighty, smashing witness against the Devil and for Jehovah in the priest-ridden land of France. “Let us rise up against her in battle.” Forward, brethren, for Jehovah and His great Field Marshal, Christ Jesus.

Three full trains convey over twelve hundred of us to Newhaven. Exactly how many we are, we don’t know; but “c’est une grande armée”. Already we are going “à la française”. Some are busily polishing up the introductory sentences in French that we have been given to help us approach the public in the house-to-house work. Those with a slight knowledge of the language are in demand.

And now we reach Newhaven. I am in the third train. Our friends on board eagerly await us. Let us lose no time. We cast off, and head for the open sea. The sun smiles. The sea is tranquillity itself. Surely Heaven’s blessing is with us. Let us see how it strikes an outsider. Three Australian ladies are on board. The travel agents are allowing them to reach France by this ship. They are strangers to us. They look around them with amazement. One has to speak. She inquires the meaning of it all. She has, she says, never seen anything like it. A ship full of people, and not one of them smoking! “You do not all know one another, and yet you look at one another and smile.” She is put in touch with the literature. Certainly after this experience she will read those books.

Ah! here is Dieppe. We disembark slowly and orderly. We are on French soil. How good after all to have been compelled to learn French in scholastic days! Now we can use that knowledge to Jehovah’s honor and glory. A looker-on watches intently this badge-bedecked crowd of people from England going to an international convention at Paris. I will speak to him as I pass. I smile and say, “Il fait beau.” He smiles back, and replies, “Oui, Monsieur, il fait beau temps.” Good! We are intelligible.

Two trains rush us along through Rouen and on to Paris. It is evening before we arrive there. By God’s grace this week-end it will merit its title, “La Ville Lumière”—“The City of Light.” Off to our respective hotels by motor coaches we go. Some go to the mass accommodation center where, we learn later, over a thousand brethren of different nationalities are assembled.

The next morning to the convention hall, “La Maison de la Mutualité,” and so to the work. We go to Versailles by motor coach. Near me are a sister from Switzerland, a German sister, and a brother from California. An international convention indeed. We return from the work, tired but happy.

And what of the public lecture at night? Brother Rutherford is to speak on “Consolation”. Jehovah’s blessing is again manifested. I sit near a little party of French people, one evidently a widow. I cannot keep silent. I speak to her in her own language. What a joy! My French is not too bad. She understands me. She tells me she lost her husband in the war. Her friends join in. Soon we are in animated conversation. They have heard our records on the phonograph. Oh, good for the French brethren!

The hall fills up. Brother Rutherford speaks, and a brother interprets. During the address I look at my widow friend. She is following it closely. Afterwards she takes the special offer of literature from a French sister. We part with smiles. Oh, let me speak to that lady and gentleman! I approach and introduce myself. Yes, they have been impressed with the lecture. They believe it to be true. Monsieur says they are on a visit to Paris, but live in the Champagne country. He assures me with every evidence of sincerity and earnestness that they will take the lecture away with them as a treasured memory. Will they read the books? Madame assures me they will.

Another cameo. I am coming out of the hall the next afternoon—Sunday. English and German-speaking brethren have been together in Hall A. Two ladies, apparently mother and daughter, address me: “When will Judge Rutherford speak again?” I produce a program. Have they not got one? No; they are not of us. The elder of the two says that they are from Australia; they are traveling. She says:

Wherever I go I cannot get away from you people. I come across you in all parts of the world. I came to Paris, only to find that my sister’s dressmaker is in touch with you through a journal, L’Age d’Or [the French Golden Age]. I look at your faces. They are alight. I know you have got something I have not. Although I have education and wealth, I am not satisfied. Life is empty, and I want the Truth.

I remind her of the scripture, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” She declares she will investigate further.

Then on Monday morning into the service again. This time we walk straight from our hotel to the territory. Following the street map, carefully mounted on cardboard by our French brethren, we find ourselves in Montmartre, in the midst of old-world Paris. We climb the slopes to where above us rises the mammoth Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, dominating the surrounding district and visible for miles round Paris. This so-called “Church of the Sacred Heart” is one of the profligate woman Jezebel’s show places. Gleaming white in the sunshine it reminds us of our Lord’s words concerning whited sepulchers. This morning, as we ascend by the cliff railway, hundreds of visitors from all parts of France and from abroad are making their way up to see it.

Men in skirts (priests of Baal) are plentiful. When people get inside, I am informed, they are immediately asked for money by priests holding out collection boxes and saying, “S’il vous plaît.” But we have no time nor inclination to go inside. We are eager to commence operations.

With an inward prayer to Jehovah, the English friends quietly set to work in the quaint old streets, almost cheek by jowl with modern skyscraper mansions or flats. Artists are seated at easels as we call at the quaint old-fashioned houses of Montmartre (The Hill of the Martyrs), the site of martyrdoms of the past. Praise be to Jehovah, we immediately commence to leave literature with the people. The Lord’s blessing is with us. The sincerity, the smiles, the earnestness, of the brethren leap the barrier of language and carry conviction.

In an old-world court I knock at a door. An old lady puts her head out of an upstairs window. “Est-ce le commerce?” (“Are you trading?”) she inquires. “Non,” we reply, “c’est le Christianisme.” In a moment or so she is at the door. She reads the explanatory leaflet. She would have had the booklets, but she is too old and poor. An English sister comes up. They are about the same age. They cannot understand each other. But the two kind old faces smile at each other. “The booklets are yours,” we say to the French lady, “a gift.” She is touched, and comes out. She places her hands on our arms, and says with feeling, “Que Dieu vous bénit” (“May God bless you”).

One final incident: I am sitting on the steps, halfway up the hill, waiting for some of the friends to return. A French lady and gentleman and their grown-up son are on the same seat. They eye my badge. I speak to them and tell them of the convention. I speak of the world crisis. They agree. I produce the set of literature, and at once they take it, proffering the contribution. Paris is having its witness.

Evening comes. We must return to London. Outside the hall our French and Swiss brothers and sisters stand in the roadway as we file by to the motor coaches that await to take us to the railway station. They are joined hand to hand, forming a living chain. Their eyes are alight; their faces glowing. In a few hours we are on the moonlit waters of the English Channel, speeding back to our homes.

Jehovah has blessed the convention indeed. We are conscious that the Lord of Hosts has used His army to do a portion of His "strange work". Who can gauge the extent of the mighty witness given by those thousands of conventioners? Paris, we know, has had its greatest witness ever. Who can set a bound to its progress?

Deacon Answered the Third Prayer

◆ The great question before the house is as to just the point at which a deacon should answer the prayer of somebody who furnishes him with his bread ticket. The answer seems to be that, if it is all understood beforehand, he should get busy and open up on the third call. This all comes out in the doings at the consecration and reopening of the Rheims, France, cathedral.

Six hundred cardinals, bishops and priests started on the job shortly after sunrise and in order to get a good start followed one another (like any other dogs) around the walls three times, meantime sprinkling "holy" water on the walls. Whether the German shells that blew up the original walls were sprinkled with holy water before they started on their flight through the skies is unknown.

Well, finally they all got back to the front door, safe and sound—oh, maybe, for personal reasons, staggering a little, but nothing to speak of. Then the cardinal began to pray and rap on the door; and did he pray and rap? But after the third prayer and wallop the deacon that was on the inside opened up and let the priests in.

The floor was covered with little piles of ashes. That is important. In the ashes the cardinal wrote the Greek and Latin alphabets. It isn't everybody that can do that. Then the "relics" of five "saints" were toted out and sprinkled around among five altars, along with more holy water. The pillars of the cathedral were then blessed, and especial thanks were sent to John D. Rockefeller, Jr., for his substantial part in the circus. And that's all for now.

Did Not Find the Dame After All

◆ Determined to locate a certain Englishwoman, suspected of having morals offensive to Parisians (!), Paris police rounded up scores of British women, some titled, some wealthy, dragged them off to the Paris "Yard" where they were examined at great length, all in vain. The woman wanted was not found. The innocent ones were turned out of police headquarters at three o'clock in the morning, without apology or explanation, to find their way back to their hotels or apartments as best they could. It was a shabby way to treat visitors.

A Horror Story Made to Order

◆ Without a word of truth in the story the Daily Mail's correspondent in Paris was ordered to fix up and send to London what was published there in Lord Rothermere's Sunday Dispatch with a triple banner line across the front page to the effect that France was in chaos, tourists were afraid for their lives, France had gone Bolshevik, etc. The correspondent, when reproved by the French Government for sending out such manifest and complete falsehoods, admitted that he had been ordered by Lord Rothermere to send the story.

Rival Fascist Groups in France

◆ Fascism looms in France, but the Fascisti there are divided, though they may later be consolidated. It is estimated that the Croix de Feu has 300,000 members: they seek to make Col. De la Rocque a dictator, pure and simple. The "Jeunes Patriotes" also claim 300,000. There are two other Fascisti leagues of smaller memberships, blue shirt wearers.

France's Underground Cemeteries

◆ In France's underground forts, with capacity for one million soldiers, there are vast hospital and recreation chambers, kitchens, dining rooms and storerooms (already filled with meat and wine), and there are also huge tanks of sulphuric acid in which the bodies of the slain may be dissolved. Queer cemetery; queer world.

Vatican City

How Can Consolation Get One?

◆ The following is an extract from a papal bull. Mentioning as their backers the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the holy cross (long since broken up into carloads of fragments), Mary, Michael, all the apostles, all the prophets and patriarchs, the holy choir (which should not be confused with the papal castrata choir), all the saints, and a few other things, the bull went down the line with the following Christ-like tribute to somebody with whom the pope happened at the time to be in disagreement. Does anybody know how Consolation can get one of these curses? It would be fun to frame it.

May he be cursed wherever he be, whether in the house or the stables, the garden or the field, or the highway, or in the path or in the wood or in the water or in the church. May he be cursed in living, in dying, in eating and drinking, in being hungry, in being thirsty, in fasting, in sleeping, in slumbering, in waking, in walking, in standing, in sitting, in lying, in working, in resting, and in blood-letting. May he be cursed in all the faculties of his body. May he be cursed inwardly and outwardly, may he be cursed in the hair of his head, may he be cursed in his brains, and in his vertex, in his temples, in his forehead, in his ears, in his eyebrows, in his cheeks, in his jaw-bone, in his nostrils, in his foreteeth and grinders, in his lips, in his throat, in his shoulders, in his wrists, in his arms, in his hands, in his fingers, in his mouth, in his breast, in his heart and purtenance, and in his bottomest stomach, in his veins and in his groin, in his thighs, in his hips, and in his knees, his legs, and feet, and toe nails. May he be cursed in all the joints and articulations of his members from the top of his head to the sole of his foot. May there be no soundness in him.

Costigan on Advertising

◆ At the annual communion breakfast of the Catholic League of the Bureau of Attendance of the Board of Education of New York City, Brigadier General Wm. J. Costigan, of the New York National Guard, said:

There was a time many years ago in this city when people were a little afraid to advertise that they were Catholics. Nowadays we hold communion breakfasts and parades on the 17th of March with more of a display of Catholicism than of the Irish. This public demonstration, which must continue to become even greater in the future, is the only way we will ever down this oncoming scare of Communism.

Painful Impressions of a Spanish Catholic

◆ May I express the painful impression produced on many Spanish Catholics by the words with which the pope has recently blessed the rebels? We Spanish Catholics who have been scandalized by seeing the greater part of Spanish clergy joining the initiators of a rebellion against the legitimate government of the nation; we who have witnessed how the soldiers of the republic were fired on by priests from church towers; and, above all, we, who have been foreseeing for many years the disastrous end of a policy of constant identification of the spiritual interests of the church with the economic ones of the rich, cannot but lament that the knowledge of certain facts apparently has not reached the Vatican.

One must also not forget the attitude of the Basque priests, fighting against the rebels in complete unity of the people; nor the adhesion to the government of the republic of a minority of Catholics, poets and thinkers, who are trying to save by means of the spirit that which cannot be saved by the sword, namely, the spiritual prestige of Catholicism.

Even in the event of a rebel victory, what influence on the masses will the priests have whose hands might appear stained with blood? The memories of the peasants murdered by the legionnaires, and of the women violated by the Moors, would always be an insurmountable barrier between religion and the people.—Don Enrique Moreno, Catholic lecturer at Oxford University.

Bruce Bliven's Letter

◆ In Bruce Bliven's letter to the pope, published in The New Republic, he chides the old gentleman for having planted the Roman Hierarchy squarely on the side of Fascism, and then says of the "Church" they control:

It stands today with the forces of cruelty and terror. It stands with those who deny the power of reason, the effectiveness of abstract truth. It supports policies that can only be made to work by the enslavement of whole populations, by the destruction of freedom of every type, by a return to conditions paralleling those of the Dark Ages, but even worse because men today have an alternative of which the Dark Ages knew nothing. If I am right this is the most tragic blunder in the history of your Church.

South America

Joshing the Innocent*

◆ Morituri te salutamus. It's a sad, sad story that after all these years of carefully avoiding white rice, white flour, white sugar, black clothes; swearing off coffee for life or good behavior (which good behavior lasted for a few months at least six times until I came to Brazil, where it is Communism pure and simple to refuse to drink the national drink); always sleeping with my head to the north—in spite of the fact that a good friend of yours and mine said that it is rank superstition; refusing to let the surgeons "cut it out", choosing rather the gentler assistance of a chiropractor; discarding aluminum and advising everybody else to do the same thing and read The Golden Age; taking my exercise by calling from door to door with the Kingdom message—after all this, the jig is all up with me because I drank radio-active water. Well, thank you for the tip; I'll try to make the best of the next few years. You can realize that I need CONSOLATION.

To put a few flowers on the casket of our friend: Eighteen years ago, The Golden Age and I entered the full-time service together; and happy years they have been. Not only did each number of the magazine refresh my own heart, but the generous supply of each issue coming regularly to me from Brooklyn enabled me to pass on its good things to others. Many times I have had the impulse to write a word of appreciation, but not until now did I have the CONSOLATION that "The Golden Age has been a consolation to many: their letters, though appreciated, are not published". (Consolation, No. 471, page 3).

It surely must be the case that 'twere easier to tell twenty what were good to do than to be one of the twenty to follow mine own instruction'; for The Golden Age in a masterly article entitled "That Delusion Called Love" advised the girls not to change their names at eighteen years, and then went right straight on and did that very thing itself. It is absolutely certain, however, that this change is for the better, not for the worse. I like the change of name, and I like the first issue, and I understand that to be O.K. My felicitations and best wishes that Consolation will serve the cause of vindicating Jehovah's name faithfully as did the same magazine for eighteen years with another name, and that it will prove a real CONSOLATION to those who 'sigh and cry for the abominations done in Jerusalem', while the other crybabies keep on crying.—M. R. Y., Brazil.

* Innocent custodian of these South American premises hears loud but friendly barking. Investigation shows clever San Francisco terrier (thoroughbred—Matthew 15: 27) crawled under fence, making dirt fly, planting bone of contention in midst of flower garden, but with one eye on house and one ear cocked jauntily and inquiringly forward. No real damage done—no meat now left on bone; no use shouting or calling printer's devil to eject picturesque intruder; perfect wag.

Bishop Boosts Price of Chickens

◆ While witnessing we hear many interesting things. Among them the following may deserve notice. During her confinement, it is the custom among Brazilians to feed the mother on chicken, but the Catholic church prohibits all meats or fowls on Friday, especially on "Good Friday", pretending it is a great sin. It so happened that on last "Good Friday" a lady in this city gave birth; so they were in a quandary how to avoid violating the church decrees.

The husband went to consult the priest, who said: "I will give you a note to the bishop, for which you will pay me 5$000, and I don't think you will have much more expense." He took the note to the bishop, who pronounced the case very serious, but there is a solution: "You give me 100$000 for a bula (permit) to kill a chicken, without sin."

So the husband paid the amount, purchased the chicken, and went home happy, but minus the 105$000 (about $6.30 U.S. currency) the church stole from him, plus the price of the fowl. So the bishop raised the price of that chicken to about 108$000 ($6.48), which is more than many are able or willing to pay.—V. Ferguson, Brazil.

Clever Japanese Trick in Colombia

◆ The United States of Colombia has a law limiting Japanese imports to the amount of Colombian goods exported to Japan. The Japanese got around this by marking their goods "Made in U. S. A." and getting Germans to handle them. These German agents used fictitious letterheads and bills giving American firm names and addresses, but finally got caught at it.

Spain

Pelletier in Ondaretta Prison, Spain

◆ M. Pelletier, French airman, captured by Franco, and afterwards exchanged for a German airman held by the Republicans, tells of Ondaretta prison life:

Our arms were lashed behind our backs. I saw men receiving smashing blows on the head with the butt-end of the guards' rifles and then being dragged half senseless along the floor to be kicked savagely as they lay. I myself was kicked in the stomach and flung across the room by the officer who questioned me. For the first fortnight I was confined in a solitary confinement cell. In many cells, six feet by nine feet, four people were imprisoned together without chairs or tables in indescribably filthy conditions. After that we heard the execution squad at work. One, two, three, four volleys rang out monotonously each night, the officers giving the coup de grace to each prisoner. The victims died gallantly, shouting "Long live the Republic". Each day we walked in the execution yard slippery with the blood of our fellow prisoners.

Had to Turn Traitor or Die

◆ Queipo de Llano, one of Franco's generals, referring to the slaughter of civilians in Seville and in Badajoz, is reported as saying:

Yes? I had to shoot over 3,000 persons purely in the town. In Badajoz, town and province, in a few weeks we gained a complete victory. The cleaning up (of 140,000 Republicans) was complete and I am positive that at the present moment there is not a single Marxist alive there. Those who did not join our ranks to fight their old allies were shot immediately.

Seventy Percent Difference in Figures

◆ Readers of New York newspapers saw a very intelligent editorial in the New York Daily News of July 19 mentioning the 1,000,000 persons slain in the first year of the Spanish War and asserting that 90 percent of Spain's army officers were in the revolt. And then, three days later, if readers of the New York Times, they saw the statement of "Reverend Father" Sylvester Sancho in an address to Fordham University students that "not twenty percent of the army went with Franco". Somebody lied; who do you suppose it was?

Waited a Year

◆ On August 4, 1937, the pope gave de facto recognition to the Franco government. But why wait a year to recognize the child of his own creation? It is an open secret that Franco never would have violated his oath and betrayed his countrymen but for the political and financial backing of the pope and his henchmen.

Franco Approved

◆ A Spanish sergeant, serving in Franco's army, decided to return to the side of Spain and deserted. A few days later he was captured, and Franco allowed the men of his former regiment to kick him to death while they were on parade. Franco approved the dispatch which contained these facts.

Natural result of the Roman heresies

A Good Word for the Pope

◆ It is a pleasure to be able to say a good word for the pope, in this, that the dispatches from Spain show his Moorish soldiers have sharpened their swords until they have razor edges, and when they hit one of the Spanish Republic's soldiers fairly they decapitate him at a blow. This saves needless suffering, and the pope should have credit for it until he gets time to correct matters and get them more in line with usual Hierarchy practices.

.The Italian Film “The Taking of Malaga”

◆ The Italian film “The Taking of Malaga” was suppressed by the Italian government because it told too much. One of the captions was, “Justice accomplishes her work in the suburbs.” It showed a number of prisoners with hands tied behind their backs. Catholic priests appeared; then a firing squad. At a distance of a few steps the soldiers fired, shooting the captives in the back. As the bodies fell in the agonies of death the voice of the commentator was heard saying, “Justice is done.” Then an Italian officer rode over the bodies on horseback, finishing off with a revolver those that showed any signs of life. Malaga was taken by the Italians by an act of strategy, not by an act of war. The pope was greatly comforted in his sick legs when the city fell, deriving nearly as great joy from it as he did from the butcheries at Addis Ababa.

Michael O’Flanagan, Honest Priest

◆ In an address at Cincinnati, Reverend Michael O’Flanagan, an evidently honest Catholic priest, and said by the Catholic press to have been suspended from the priesthood (probably for the very reason that he is honest), said:

I am here as an individual, not as a representative of the profession which my raiment indicates. The church in Spain was divided when the crisis came. It was natural that the church would throw its support one way or another when hostilities opened, but it was unfortunate she threw it the wrong way. The pope, a very old man, sits on top of the world in his little kingdom, surrounded by bayonets of Mussolini. I have the greatest reverence for the pope, but I believe he should comment on the Spanish strife or any other political unrest only as a citizen, not as an ecclesiastic.

Basques Protest to the Pope

◆ The Basques of northern Spain, all devoted Catholics and all on the side of the Spanish Republic, inquired of the pope why their priests were murdered by Franco’s men when they fell into his hands, and asked him to break his silence. In their appeal to the pope they addressed him as the ‘father of Christianity’. Poor things! How little they know what Christianity really is!

The Pope’s Answer to the Basques

◆ The Basques wanted the pope to speak up and say whether or not he approved the destruction of their self-government and of their churches by Franco and his hordes. They are accounted the most Catholic people in Spain. The pope gave them his answer. They got it on a Monday, which is market day in their little city of Guernica. Franco’s men bombed the entire city, section by section, leaving great holes where buildings had stood. The people ran, of course, and then the pope’s airplane “heroes” came down and machine-gunned the fleeing men, women and children. Next came incendiary bombs, setting the city afire, and last of all those fleeing along the roads leading out of the city, the women and the children, were machine-gunned. This is Fascism, Catholic Action, which intends to rule the world, no matter what the price.

103 Jesuits Killed in Spain

◆ In 1932 the Spanish Republic suppressed the Jesuits once more as trouble-breeders, the same as almost every other country has had to do at one time or another, and ordered them out of the country. In the summer of 1937 the pope announced that 103 of them had been killed by “Spanish radicals”. In other words, that many Jesuits, fighting against the government that ordered them out of the country, and fighting against their own countrymen, were slain. What is wrong about that? A good share of all the priests in Spain are now fighting in Franco’s army as common soldiers, and if they get killed they have only themselves to blame.

Red Cross Insignia Means Nothing

◆ The Hierarchy’s aviators in Spain, following up their practice in the Ethiopian war, now make it a special point to bomb everything that has the red cross upon it, because in that way they can kill more people. Ralph Bates, English novelist, just back from Spain, declares that the Spanish Government has had to take in all Red Cross signs, even from ambulances. These deeds of the Hierarchy are showing it up in its true light. It is not Moorish troops that are attacking the Red Cross, but Italians, Catholics.

Africa

Free Speech on the Gold Coast

◆ At Toasi, on the Gold Coast, West Africa, a half dozen of Jehovah's witnesses preached the gospel to the people. The Roman Catholic priest of the community could not "take it" and lodged a complaint with the police, causing the arrest of the witnesses, charged with breach of the peace.

When the matter came into court the able magistrate on the bench reversed the charges, explained to the misled Catholic population, who had caused a certain amount of disorder, that religious tolerance exists throughout the British Empire and that everybody has a right to teach his own religious views. He cited the preaching at Hyde Park, London, where about seventeen religious bodies preach against one another, but where immunity from an opposing sect's assault is assured.

He then told the people that Jehovah's witnesses have perfect liberty of action and speech. Those who had caused the disorder then pleaded guilty and were fined five shillings each. The report says: "The Catholics were very much ashamed, and it did not add to their peace of mind to learn that we intend to sue them for damages."

Illicit Opium Growing in Egypt

◆ The cultivation of the 'poppy' is forbidden in Egypt, but is on the increase because each acre, at the present price of opium, brings in about £550, and as long as men are what they are they will not allow such opportunities for wealth to slip from their grasp without an effort. Poppy fields are hidden behind high walls, and in the middle of fields of sugar cane and corn, but a way has been discovered to locate them. Airplanes go back and forth, taking pictures of the fields below, with the result that poppy fields are located with certainty: the analyses of the photographs never fail to find them.

Leopard Men of Liberia

◆ It turns out that the 'leopard men' of Liberia were a group of coffee planters that sought and obtained free labor by controlling the natives through terror and mystery. The society members dressed in leopard skins killed many natives. The impression was spread about that they were supernatural.

Decimation of Ethiopian Populace

◆ The decimation of the Ethiopian populace proceeds apace. According to the Berbera, Somaliland, correspondent of the New Times and Ethiopian News, it seems to be the settled policy of the Italians to wipe from the face of the earth all Ethiopians above ten years of age. Some are burnt alive, and some are shot to death for gun practice with the various forms of guns now manufactured by International Murderers.

Innocent Negroes from British Somaliland who were in business in Ethiopia were run out of the country and deprived of their businesses, homes and interests, without any redress. The Italians seized all they possessed. In six months Italian military ventures increased the circulation of Italian notes by 15,000,000,000 lire, and it is well known that Mussolini must inevitably wage war to save himself.

Building Roads in Abyssinia

◆ Nobody can accuse the Italian people of being lazy. There is hardly to be found on earth a more industrious people. In the short time that Italian troops have been in Abyssinia they have built two motor roads between Addis Ababa and Red Sea ports 400 miles distant, and there are now 1,000 miles of decent highways radiating from the capital, where Haile Selassie will reign nevermore. Mussolini's offer to replace that gentleman in Addis Ababa as governor, under his direction, are said to be largely due to the fact that the pope is disappointed with the expense of his Spanish adventure, and wants something back on what he put into the Ethiopian war.

Italian Troops in Libya

◆ The Italian army in Libya, amounting to about 50,000 men, is far stronger than the Anglo-Egyptian forces to the east of it or the French forces in Tunisia on the west. The presence of these troops is not needed to protect anybody in Libya, and the only explanation that is reasonable is that Mussolini still has it in his mind to reconstruct the old Roman Empire by making the Mediterranean an Italian lake. The Italian forces in Libya are equipped with 200 planes. What are these for?

Kingdom Work in Indo-China By Lawrence H. Allen

APPRECIATING as one of Jehovah's witnesses the grand fight you are putting up in the interest of the Truth, I would like to encroach a little on your valuable time to state that your "let them have both barrels" policy seems to be the "right medicine" just now. Although realizing that "the truth is not of use for punishing anybody", what a joy in this outpost of the Hierarchy to receive the solid truth it [The G.A.] contains! And those cartoons!! Why, they're just too appropriate to describe adequately.

In this work we don't go handing one another compliments indiscriminately; but I want to say, brethren, that this is the paper that's got the enemy on the run. This place being French, I am able only to handle subscriptions and bulk for L'Age d'Or (French Golden Age). We're out to locate the people of good will who we know are here; and if they could read the latest stuff in the English G.A., it would line them up all right. (The French G.A. is all right, also.)

There are two of us out here, with 25 million people in the country. Notwithstanding the seeming hopelessness of doing much with this crowd, what a joy to go to the Post Box and get hold of the latest G.A. and W.T.! A fellow can be feeling a bit like something "the cat brought home", and with the G.A. for company be ready for the next round tomorrow. And we need this kind of food out here to "fan" us up, since we're in a real fight. It helps us fight the depressing influence and squalor of the place.

I think I can well express the sentiments of all the brethren out here in the East: I don't know what we'd do without the G.A.! And we are not forgetting the W.T., either!

So sting 'em plenty, brethren. Reminds me of the Italian chap in Australia. My cobbler showed him an Intolerance booklet in Italian. He knew only one word in English, and pointed to the priest on the cover and said, "Bastard!" Well, isn't he!

Strange Ideas of the Lord's Glory

◆ One of the oddest bits of distortion of Scripture ever put on the cables is that one from the so-called "Eucharistic Congress" at Manila, Philippine Islands (which was nothing more nor less than idolatry on a huge scale), in which Archbishop Mitty was represented as saying that the big show there staged was a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, recorded in Isaiah 66:18 (Douay Version): "I come that I may gather them together with all nations and tongues: and they shall come and shall see my glory." Some glory! A lot of potbellied priests strutting around, practicing idolatry with little pieces of bread, bizarre and foolish processions, worship of images, and declarations of doctrines that dishonor God's name from start to finish and are wholly unscriptural and wholly unreasonable. The glory consists of a few columns of space and some pictures in a lot of cheap newspapers and that is all. It perishes in a day.

The Monk Business

◆ The monk business is one of the best rackets going. A chink took a yellow robe off a clothes tree at Wat Sra Kes, Siam, and found he had become a monk and that the business was an easy business to learn and to practice, and paid much better than his previous line. Unfortunately, he liked to spend his evenings, after his days of toil, smoking opium, and, to save his face, was wont to not put off his monk robe and put on ordinary clothing. Caught changing garments he was pinched and taken in tow to the police station. Now, like many other monks, he may have to work for a living henceforth.

Tempers and Temperatures at Basra

◆ At Basra, date center of the world, a European sweats two gallons a day. Temperatures are high, and so are tempers, and all are glad when the two months of date packing (September and October) are over and the ships are speeding away to their destinations in San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, New York, London, Hamburg and Marseilles.

Earth Uneasy Under Manila

◆ The earth is uneasy under Manila. In a recent quake the pavements stood at their old level, but the foundations of the Great Eastern Hotel sank four inches below the pavement level. Guests fled to the streets in their nighties. One small boy, barely able to walk, came to the street clutching tightly a red tin play bucket.

Kingdom Publishers in Borneo By N. H. Senior

THE Hierarchy makes itself felt here too, but, instead of doing the work harm, their white-frocked "women" have been the means of advertising greatly the Kingdom gospel. They ride around their flocks on their female cycles telling the people to look out for the ship, and to have nothing to do with the books, sometimes wiring the next town ahead of us, and thus filling the people with curiosity to see and speak to these "fanatics" that have come so far in such a small ship; and to read the books that have made the priests so very angry. Thus we often find the people ready to take the literature at once or ready to turn us away as the case may be.

Another scheme seems to be to work the Merchant-Shipping Act to try to prevent our books' coming into a port that is closed to trading. At the above port we were forbidden to land the first day and were told that as it was a closed port there was nothing to hold us. We pointed out that if we were not allowed to work the port we would not have enough money to buy the stores with which to go to sea; so the harbor master wired his head office, and after a few days we were told that in order to cope with our troubles, as a foreign ship, it was easier to make the port open to shipping. The speculation in the town as to whether we would be allowed to land had advertised us very well; so the people were ready to help at once.

The captain of the Dutch ship Taradja has expressed a desire to have a complete set of the literature in English, because, as he says, "if the power behind your work is strong enough to move the Dutch government to make open a closed port, then there must be something in it." After the lectures in the Landraads Hall, the resident and the controlleure both expressed the view that the minister had done wrong, and he becoming somewhat worried asked me to go and see the above gentlemen. On so doing and explaining the work of Jesus while on earth, they both agreed that the Hierarchy teaches many things that are false and our work is a good one. There will be nothing more said about the matter, but both of them think that we will get into trouble yet, if we make such strong talks again.

The independent minister here offered us his church to give our lectures to the people, and, instead of the usual service on the Sunday of 25th inst., they had the pleasure of listening to the lectures "Rebellion", "Truth," "Keys," "Holy," and "Sanctification". At the end of the lectures the minister said, "That is just what I believe." He has read Riches, and took the whole set saying, "Fine! Fine! These books are very good and I must take a few of the Uncovered for my friends."

We have many such experiences, and all give thanks to the great Jehovah God for this privilege of even a small share in this glorious service. We also thank Him for the care and protection that is so very manifest while we are at sea.

Australia's Expert Tree-Cutter

◆ According to a story in the New York Times, at an exhibition in Sydney, Australia, Marshall Winkle, expert tree-cutter, climbed a tree to a height of 10 feet 6 inches from the ground, erected a platform on which to stand, and chopped down a tree two feet in diameter, all in 2 minutes 29 1/2 seconds from the crack of a pistol; and the tree was a hardwood tree, at that. It seems like a tall story, but details are given. Climbing the tree is made possible by cutting slits, into which planks are forced. The platform on which the cutter stands is the top edge of a vertical plank. Twelve competitors finished a like task, all under three minutes. The "trees" are hardwood logs set up to a height of 15 feet and they are cut off about one foot from the top. Tree-chopping carnivals are popular in Australia.

308 Cures of Leprosy

◆ From the leper colony at Makogai island (one of the Fiji group), where lepers are taken from India and all of Australasia, there have been in recent years 308 conditional discharges, the result of injections or doses of Chaulmoogra oil. The conditions require that the patients must be examined every three months and for a period of two years must be free from all signs of active leprosy and be bacteriologically negative. The colony has 580 lepers at the present time. It has been active since 1911.

Sleepless Nights in Peoria

FRED W. NUSSBAUM, superintendent of police of Peoria, Illinois, is troubled with much agony of spirit in the night watches these days. Fred made a bad mistake about a year ago; several of them, in fact. In order to be kind and obliging to some of his religious friends he caused to be incarcerated in prison on five different occasions one Sarah Morris. Sarah Morris is one of Jehovah's witnesses, and that is the reason why she was thrown into jail so frequently. No warrant was ever issued for her arrest, and no charges were preferred against her. Some priests in Peoria were shocked in their susceptibilities because she preached Bible truths to the people; so this method of getting rid of her was adopted.

It didn't work. She brought an action for $20,000 damages for false arrest and imprisonment against the police official. That didn't trouble him much; for he believed the judges of Peoria county would be kind to him. But Landon L. Chapman, attorney for Mrs. Morris, was prepared for that, and filed an affidavit for a change of venue. The judge of the Circuit Court, Joseph E. Daily, allowed the motion, but then proceeded to make it harmless by declining to call in any other judge, or to send the case to any other county. That is reported to be an old trick in Peoria. But it didn't work. A petition was filed with the Supreme Court of Illinois informing the court of that skullduggery, and that high judicial body promptly issued an order and decree directing and requiring Judge Daily to change the venue of the case to some other county, and intimating gently to him to do it promptly in order that penalty thereon may not fall upon him.

And so amidst troubled dreams this high police official now hath visions of a judgment of many thousands against him, with officers surrounding him with body executions, property executions, orders, writs, and capias ad infinitum. Truly the transgressor sometimes falleth into his own cesspool.

What Is This Pioneer Driving At?

WONDER what this British pioneer means? He speaks of a bath in the river by his chum, and then goes for him this way:

When you were Choosing that quiet spot up the river, I think you knew you would be Uncovered and would need the quiet Protection of the surrounding trees and bushes. What You Need for Health and Life surely includes an occasional bath, else you would soon be Beyond the Grave and our friends would be inquiring what, in your case, was The Cause of Death. There is no doubt that the pioneers are a Favored People, especially in England, as they continue to disclose His Works and His Vengeance to the people. The Angels guide, guard and protect them; therefore they display their Loyalty while they still have Liberty to do so. Probably one does meet with some Intolerance, but others are prompt to share their Home and Happiness. The message is Dividing the People. Those that hear it will Escape to the Kingdom, because they realize that they have been shown What is Truth? and they will bless the pioneers Hereafter for bringing them the Good News of Who is God? and The Kingdom the Hope of the World. Such will go through the great Crisis of Armageddon, live under God's Righteous Ruler and share and enjoy His perfect Government.

Somehow the matter has a familiar ring to it,

Love Me or I'll Beat You

◆ The American Legion in Georgia has progressed so far toward intelligence that it will compel every youngster in the state to worship the flag or it will know the reason why. The Legion will provide every school in the state with an American flag (probably made in Japan), and the state board of education will compel every youngster to repeat daily their pledge of allegiance to it. As a device for stifling patriotism, it would be hard to beat.

3,000 Protests in One Day

◆ A double-header in the Atlanta Georgian announces that on Tuesday, September 28, Governor Rivers received three thousand letters protesting against the prosecution of Jehovah's witnesses in Atlanta by civil authorities who are members of various religious sects operating there. The heat feels good.

Earthly Expectations

Uncle Sam's Pile of Gold

◆ At one time it looked like quite a clever idea to some people for Uncle Sam to buy all the gold he could get at double what it costs to produce it. The ones to whom it looked the best were those who produced the gold. Anyway, your dumb uncle now has half the gold in the world, some $12,000,000,000, produced at half that price, and, if he were to part with it, would probably get about 50 cents on the dollar. Moreover, he dare not now either stop buying or reduce the price, for all the International Murderers' prosperity is built upon this artificial foundation. In other words, Britain and Russia can afford their huge armaments, because they can sell their gold output to the world's dumbbell, your uncle Sam. If Sam stops buying, or cuts the price, along comes not only the end of prosperity, but the biggest lantern-jawed panic yet. And probably that is on the scroll.

How to Rise in the Community

By Bertrand Russell

(Reprinted from the New York American)

◆ During the French Revolution, when the Reign of Terror came to an end it was found that no one was left alive among the politicians except prudent cowards who had changed their opinions quickly enough to keep their heads on their shoulders. The result was twenty years of military glory, because there was no one left among the politicians with sufficient courage to keep the generals in order.

The French Revolution was an exceptional time, but wherever organization exists, cowardice will be found more advantageous than courage. Of the men at the head of businesses, schools, lunatic asylums, and the like, nine out of ten will prefer the supple lick-spittle to the outspoken man of independent judgment.

In politics it is necessary to profess the party program and flatter the leaders; in the navy it is necessary to profess antiquated views on naval strategy; in the army it is necessary to maintain a medieval outlook on everything; in journalism wage slaves have to use their brains to give expression to the opinions of millionaires; in education professors lose their jobs if they do not respect the prejudices of the illiterate.

The result of this state of affairs is that in practically every walk of life the men who come to the top have served a long apprenticeship in cowardice, while the honest and courageous have to be sought for in workhouses and in prisons. Now, as in the past, if you wish for success, you should be insinuating and pusillanimous rather than bold and self-reliant.

To those, therefore, whose ambition is to die in the odor of sanctity, respected by bank managers, admired by friends and neighbors, and universally regretted as models of what a citizen should be, my advice is: Don't express your own opinion, but those of your boss; don't endeavor to realize ends which you yourself think good, but pursue rather those aimed at by some organization supported by millionaires; in your private friendships select influential men if you can, or, failing that, men whom you judge likely to become influential.

Do this, and you will win the good opinion of all the 'best elements' in the community.

This is sound advice, but, for my part, I would sooner die than follow it.

The Sorrows of Cotton Picking

◆ Those who never tried it have no idea of the sorrows of cotton picking. The hands swell, the fingers crack, and the back aches beyond description. The men travel on their knees to save their backs, and the earnings of the most expert are not over $1.20 per day; it takes a good man to earn 75c. Once the fingers start to crack they stay cracked all the season.

What Technocrats Expect

◆ The speakers for technocracy claim that within four years there will be in the United States 35,000,000 unemployed persons, and a complete collapse of the present banking and financial systems by 1942. And they may be right in their unemployment and financial prognostications at that.

San Jose Has the Jitters

◆ San Jose, Calif., has the jitters so badly that it will build at once a radio emergency station to enable it to communicate with the outside world in case a disastrous flood, fire or earthquake should isolate it. Seems like the oddest bit of news in an odd year.

Pickpocketry, and Picketeers

Pickpockets Work in Groups

◆ Officers of the law are familiar with the fact that pickpockets work in groups of four, each one of the four having a definite part to play. One does the picking, one carries the swag, one is the apparently disinterested witness, and one does the knockout, if that is necessary. One of Jehovah's witnesses near Albany was relieved of $9 in bills, nestling in his left front pantaloon pocket, by a group of alleged gypsies who insisted on crowding close to him, to "tell his fortune". The same group got caught later, because too many missed their wallets. Avoid all such groups of ostensible fortune tellers or other voluble and fresh friends who want to come close to you. One innocent handshake may cost you your roll.

Devilish Lies in a Communion Book

◆ The following are a few of the devilish lies which appear in a booklet entitled How Often Should I Receive Holy Communion? published in Dublin by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland; written by "Most Reverend Thomas Gilmartin, D.D., Archbishop of Tuam".

In the Eucharist the Body of Christ is 'really, truly and substantially present' not in a natural state, but in a Sacramental state which is not a subject for imagination at all. One of the properties in a glorified Body is spirituality, but in the Eucharist the glorified Spiritual Body of Christ is whole and entire under the smallest visible species either of bread or wine. [Page 26]

It comes to this then: that daily Communion is open to all who wish to lead a good Christian life even though they are engrossed all day with the cares of the world, tell numerous officious lies, yielded to bad temper, neglect their regular prayers, indulged in uncharitable gossip, etc., provided always that whenever they fall into a definite mortal sin they make a good confession before approaching the altar. [Page 17]

Communists Taunt the Nazis

◆ Communists have been taunting the Nazis in Germany by broadcasting the truth about what is happening in Spain. The broadcasts are claimed by the broadcasters themselves to come from Hamburg, Germany. They taunt the Gestapo, and have amused the German people mightily, for all sensible people in the Reich now loathe the whole Nazi outfit.

Jardine Thinks Canterbury a Cad

◆ The Reverend R. Anderson Jardine, who helped marry the duke of Windsor some more, after the duke had already been legally married, stated that he thought the archbishop of Canterbury a cad for being persnickety about marriage of a king now. Don't know if he mentioned the much-married Henry VIII, but he might have done so to good advantage. Then the Vatican house organ, Osservatore Romano, backed up the archbishop and derided Jardine, and Jardine came back by saying:

I am not surprised at the Vatican's championship of Canterbury. I welcome it because it proves to the world what we in England have known many years, that the archbishop was and is too friendly with the Vatican, and is doing more to destroy the work of the Reformation through his high position than any one else in the Church of England.

Gives One the Shivers

◆ It gives one the shivers to learn that in the United States last year more than a million school children had tuberculin pumped into their blood, and then to find the doctors arguing afterwards whether any good results were thereby obtained. The men that did the pumping seem never to have considered the awful responsibility they assumed in thus invading the blood streams of these little folks with mixtures that ought not even to be put into cattle.

Vaccination for Whooping Cough

◆ A group of doctors from the Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, gives the following summary of the net results accomplished by injecting pus into school children for the prevention of whooping cough:

Five hundred Cleveland school children vaccinated against whooping cough were compared with five hundred unvaccinated. About as many vaccinated children caught whooping cough as unvaccinated.

The Victory at Lerida, Spain

◆ Franco's troops gained another "victory", or at least his aviators did. They flew 75 miles into the territory held by the Loyalists and succeeded in killing 50 school children at Lerida.

"Catholic Britain" Wants to Know

◆ "CATHOLIC BRITAIN" WANTS TO KNOW: [1] Your Name and Address (not necessarily for publication)? [2] Your Parish? [3] Your Family, how many children, what ages, are you satisfied with the education you can give them? [4] Your Work? [5] Your Previous Work? [6] Your Employer? [7] Your Wages. How long have they been earned, your previous wages? [8] Your Weekly Budget? [9] Your prospects, insurance, expectation of work if given notice? [10] What means you have for protecting yourself against underpayment or any form of exploitation? [11] What is the attitude of the branch of your Union to the Church Catholic Social claims? [12] Your problems and difficulties, from the social point of view? [13] What kind of people you are thrown with? [14] What difference your religion makes to you in your work, in your contacts with others? [15] Do you belong to any Catholic Society, and what use is it to you? [16] Your serious and legitimate grievances? [17] What you know of what's going on behind the scenes around you? [18] Significant facts about men and women around you, about the activities of a social nature, whether Catholic or otherwise, in your district or parish? [19] Any further information you care to give us?

Every answer is carefully kept and its information tabulated. The results will be submitted to the ecclesiastical authorities, together with recommendations based upon the knowledge of the facts.—London Catholic Herald.

Odd Bits About Creatures

Sextuplets Now

◆ Twins, triplets, quadruplets, the Dionne quintuplets, and now sextuplets. Reported mother is a woman in far-off India. But hold on; here is a kindred item closer by! A Holstein cow on the farm of Peter Poth, dairy farmer, near Clarksburg, W. Va., has given birth to six healthy calves at one time. It is the first time in bovine history, so far as known.

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