Consolation, May 18, 1938
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Contents
Up Toward the Top of the World 3
Making Connecticut Safe for Religion 7
Poverty and Wealth in Brazil 9
The Tragedy of Germany (Part 2) 10
Sound Car and Printery at Berne 13
Counsel by J. F. Rutherford 17
Australia 18
New Subscribers Should Visit Seattle 19
Italy 20
Why All the Spaghetti Pressure in America? 21
Michigan 22
"Away Down South in Dixie" 23
California 24
By Trail and Stream and Garden Path (At the Lake) 25
Britain 26
British Comment 28
Palisades—Cover Design for This Number 31
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Appetizers
Want a Laugh?
DO YOU want a laugh? Take this one. At the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Savannah, Ga., the "Reverend Father" Joseph W. Kavanaugh, speaking on "The Catholic Church and the Bible", said:
It was members of the Catholic Church that wrote the books of the New Testament.
After a little bit (trying it out on the bead counters and "Purgatory" purchasers) the Racketeers will cautiously include Daniel, Isaiah, David, Job, Moses and Noah among the Roman Catholics, and a little later it will be explained that Adam was really a Roman Catholic, and that where he actually made his slip, if any, was that he had not been to mass the morning he ate the forbidden fruit. Anyway, the Roman Catholic theologians have Adam landed in heaven all O.K., and how could he have possibly been welcomed there if he were not of the august institution which conquers babies in Ethiopia and Spain?
"Will You Walk into My Parlor?"
◆ "'Will you walk into my parlor?' said the spider to the fly." Bishop John A. Duffy, of Buffalo, N. Y., spokesman for the great heresy that provides most of the criminals in the United States, and practically all its gangsters, is much concerned about America's lack of religious education. He says, and one can see the crocodile tears flowing down inside his upside-back-action-foremost collar, when he says it:
No one regrets the absence of religious instruction among Protestants more than the Catholics.
The bishop seems to think some changes would be necessary in the textbooks. Har! har! And, it may be added, after the changes were in use long enough the people wouldn't need any textbooks at all; for nobody would be able to read. The Protestants fell for the bishop's hook in fine shape. They might as well. They won't listen, but it's fun to tell 'em.
Liked the Music
◆ Dorrie went to dinner with Carlo, the wrestler, and afterwards explained that she never was so embarrassed in her life; when he started to eat his soup five couples got up and danced.
CONSOLATION
"And in His name shall the nations hope."—Matthew 12:21, A. R. V.
Volume XIX Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, May 18, 1938 Number 487
Up Toward the Top of the World
THE Northwest Territories are that portion of Canada north of the province of Alberta and between Yukon Territory and Hudson Bay. My partner and I left Peace River town on May 13, 1937, with a 26-foot boat and about 3,000 pounds of equipment and literature to cover this territory. We covered the front part of the boat with a waterproof deck and had the rest of the boat covered with a roof also waterproofed, and the sides were provided with curtains for use in case of rain. We towed a canoe to be used for side trips, and we used a three-horse-power Johnson motor, which we could use with either the canoe or the boat. We had to carry two barrels of gas, over 1,200 pounds of foodstuffs, sleeping bags, camp stove and other equipment, and, last, but not least, 34 cartons of Kingdom literature.
The population of the Northwest Territories is 1,000 whites and 8,000 Indians and Eskimos. The settlements are usually from 75 to 200 miles apart and would vary from 100 or less up to about 200 or 300 in population. There are usually three or four priests in the larger settlements, and two or three times as many nuns. (See map on page 5.)
Peace River town is about 350 miles northwest of Edmonton, Alberta. The route from Peace River town follows the Peace river to Fort Vermilion settlement and the chutes and rapids near Red River Post, and the Peace river runs into the Slave river, which we followed to Fort Fitzgerald. A 16-mile portage around the rapids took us to Fort Smith, and we continued our journey on the Slave river to Great Slave lake and Fort Resolution, almost 1,000 miles from our starting point.
We made a number of calls on trappers all the way up to Fort Smith. They lived along the banks of the river and were certainly glad to see and talk with someone. Their neighbors may live 25 or 50 miles away, and so visits are not very frequent. We placed a lot of books with the trappers, as they had plenty of time to read.
We had witnessed in the settlement of Fort Vermilion before in the wintertime with a team and sleigh. It is a return trip of about 500 miles, and we slept out in forty below zero to do it. We now found quite a few Jonadabs, who were anxious to talk to their neighbors and to help us to spread the message. We put on some lectures, but some of the people were in fear of their preacher or priest and did not show up.
"Father D" (De Mann), at Fort Vermilion, said we should be shot because we were against war. My partner, who witnessed to him, said, "Do we do any wrong?" "No!" he said, "but the government will likely shoot you if you are against war when it breaks out."
"Well, we would rather be shot than to murder anyone else," was the reply.
The four miles' portage at Fort Vermilion chutes and rapids cost us $25. We had only about $5 change each when we left Peace River, but we placed enough literature to get by. We lost our canoe during a bad blow on the river, but recovered it when it drifted with the wind in to shore. At Fitzgerald we had a couple of meetings with a small audience. The mother superior at Fort Smith ordered me out of the convent, where I had offered one of the nuns a French booklet, if she would read it, but she tore it to pieces. We played some lectures in the sleeping quarters of some of the workmen, and in the cafes. The 16-mile portage by truck cost us $19, and we had expected it to be two or three times that much.
There was only one sawmill and a few workmen between Fort Smith and Resolution, a distance of 200 miles. The Slave river is wide at places, and the wind gets a sweep at it, causing three- or four-foot waves, and once a sudden wind caught us on the wrong side of the river and we had to cross to get shelter. Our hearts were in our mouths when our motor sputtered, because of dirt in the gas, and we had visions of being swamped or drowned or stranded. We made it to the shelter of an island and had to wait two days for the wind to abate.
We towed two prospectors, who had motor trouble, into Resolution, and got there at twelve o'clock at night. We were met on the wharf by about thirty Indians or half-breeds. They inquired if we had seen a boat with two persons in it. Some of the Indians looked at us so strangely, and were in awe, as though we were the first whites they had seen. We asked them if they were looking for somebody they knew. They looked at one another, smiled, and said nothing. We heard through various sources that the priests had told the Indians that we were the agents of the Devil; as usual, trying to blame us for their own crimes.
The following day we found that the Indians had been on strike for two weeks, that is, they refused to accept the treaty money of $5 per person, which is paid in spring to every family to keep the Indians from causing trouble, as they did in the Riel Rebellion, so they will be on good terms with their white exploiters.
The Indians objected to the Catholic doctor, who was also the Indian Agent and was brought in through the influence of the Roman Catholic bishop. A number of people were given the wrong medicine or told by this doctor they were not sick, and some of them died before they could get to the hospital for treatment. He was said to be haughty and thought himself so much better than the Indians and would not properly consider their complaints.
Bill, my partner, said he was glad the Indians had gone on strike before we got there, rather than after we were there, as otherwise they would try to throw on us the blame for stirring up this trouble. I said, "They will be doing that anyway"; and subsequent events proved that to be the case. We covered the settlement, and we were selling our extra grub and boat and motor in order to get out and go to the Columbus convention of Jehovah's witnesses, which we heard about at this post, which was the far end of our trip.
We had only a flat-bottomed river boat, and it would never have been able to stand the rough weather on Great Slave lake. It would have been suicide to cross, and the Society had advised us to avoid unnecessary risks. So we made arrangements with the captains and pursers of different boats to take some literature in to all the posts we could not call on farther north, and this they were instructed to leave with some open-minded trader to distribute to those who would read. They promised to do this favor for us.
We witnessed to one priest at Resolution, "Father" Mowka, and he charged us with being Communist and Judge Rutherford with being a Jew. I asked him why he made such false charges, and if he would not like to discuss Catholicism versus the Bible truths on the public platform, but he refused to do so.
A few days later one of the Mounted Police showed up and asked who was in charge of our work. We witnessed to him and explained the nature of our work. He said he had received a complaint and that the Indian Agent, Dr. Amyot, claimed the Indians did not like to have another religion around, and they wanted us put out of the settlement.
The mountie told him we had as much right there as the Catholic Church; but he promised to talk to us. He was very friendly and said that at one time the Roman Catholic church had such a monopoly within the Northwest Territories that no other church could be established for a number of years after they built a church in a settlement. It was evident that it was the Roman Catholic church that objected to our presence and was using the Indian Agent as a willing tool.
Some of the priests were under the impression that our work was stopped in Alberta. Aberhardt's law to gag the press and license everything was, no doubt, aimed at Jehovah's witnesses, as he is strongly opposed to our work and favors the Catholics. The priests boasted that we (Jehovah's witnesses) would soon all be in jail. The strike was settled when the Mounted Police sergeant had been wired by Ottawa to take over the papers and funds from Dr. Amyot, and after a delay Dr. Amyot was fired and did turn this over.
At Chipewyan a dozen people showed up for the meeting. I handed the testimony card to the priest and started a discussion, and we had an audience of 65 for the records which we played. The priest admitted that he believed war was justifiable, that he did not accept the Bible alone, but the Bible and tradition must be taken together. He tried to disperse the meeting, but only half a dozen left, and I played a few more records, answered questions, and placed some literature.
We expected to leave on the following day for the other settlement; but we stayed there until the next evening, because of windy weather. People came to our tent and asked us to their homes. We said we wished we had advertised a meeting, and three or four volunteers said they would tell their neighbors, and in about twenty minutes or so we had about 25 people in a friendly man's home.
At Goldfields the priest charged us with responsibility for the trouble at Resolution. I showed him a newspaper clipping in which the trouble was blamed on "the alleged harshness of the Indian Agent, etc.", and that made him admit he didn't know what he was talking about. He also said that we had been reported to the minister of justice at Ottawa because Jehovah's witnesses always called around when the husbands were not at home. I remember only one case in that vicinity, where a trader's wife took some French books when her husband was away.
The priest made these insinuations although he did not dare say we had done any wrong, as he knew it was false. I mentioned a case where a priest at Fort Vermilion, Alberta, had gotten a married woman into trouble and it was said he was mentally unbalanced and he was not allowed to say masses for about a year. I told him that priests had incited mobs against us. He denied this and said the church taught charity and would punish a priest who did wrong. I mentioned the place, Donnelly, Alberta, where it had happened and nothing was done to punish this priest.
These are the earmarks of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, to blame someone else for trouble for which they are responsible. Why do the priests not lay aside their weapons of slander and false reports and face the sword of truth? They cannot face so sharp a weapon when hiding behind a refuge of lies and their whole structure is built on fraud and deceit.
We are exceedingly thankful for the privilege we had of giving a little witness to the honor of the supreme Creator, and we would gladly attempt to go beyond Great Slave lake if we can manage to get a lake boat and it is considered advisable to do so. We placed over 4,000 pieces of literature, including 200 of The Golden Age [now Consolation]. We hope to take a larger supply of Consolation on the next trip.
The last place we witnessed to on our way out was McMurray, Alberta, on August 10. This point and Waterways were the towns farthest south on the water route we followed out. Instead of returning via the Peace river we went to Chipewyan via the Rocher river to Lake Athabaska. The Goldfields settlement is on the north side of Lake Athabaska. Then we went up the Athabaska river to McMurray and Waterways, which are at the end of the steel, 300 miles northeast of Edmonton. We traveled 1,000 miles by water, 150 by rail, hitchhiked 1,000 miles, and went 1,850 miles by car, to get to the Columbus convention.
And here is an interesting item in closing. Mrs. Mary O'Coffey obtained literature, which I told her was against war and that the time was near when war would be no more. She was not hostile. I then met "Father" Chouinard, the Roman Catholic priest of this settlement of McMurray. He claimed that the priests never urged violence, but admitted that he didn't blame Catholics if they hurt us, as that showed their zeal for their religion. A girl called my partner into Hotel Franklin and said Mrs. O'Coffey wanted more books. My partner found "Father" Chouinard present. Mrs. O'Coffey claimed I had told her the books would stop war, and proceeded to bawl my partner out, using abusive language. "Father" Chouinard laughed as she took a stick and hit my partner across the back as she ordered him out. The priest no doubt enjoys such a manifestation of religious zeal—Catholic Action; but the Lord shall have them in derision.—A Canadian Pioneer.
Legislation by Odor
◆ The Quebec padlock law enables the attorney general, without a trial of any sort, to padlock any man's house or place of business. The pretense is that the law was necessary to blot out Communism. When some of the legislators of Quebec wanted a definition of "Communism", Premier Duplessis, who is also attorney general of Quebec, remarked that no definition is necessary, as he can smell either Communism or Bolshevism. That is it; that is it. Quebec now has legislation by odor, or smell, or stench, and the stench comes all the way from Vatican City to the nostrils of the poor tool and poor fool that will do the legal smelling. Fascism (Catholic Action) stinks.
Making Connecticut Safe for Religion
NOW the battle line shifts to the State of Connecticut. In this Lilliputian state, where, many years ago, valiant battles in the interests of freedom of conscience were waged, the Hierarchy and its allies are making new efforts to censor and interdict the truth. Stung by the sharp, cutting truths in the books Enemies and Cure, they have swung into action with new and improved methods of attack, designed to keep the racket safe. And in so doing the priestly crew has opened the door for an investigation of its dogmas and creeds which will bring much joy and glee to Jehovah's witnesses and all people of good will.
The Catholic Hierarchy has been challenged to debate the merits of its position, with Judge Rutherford. Two million six hundred thirty thousand people strongly urged the organization to select its ablest and fight the matter out on the public platform. But the priests refused to face the music. They were afraid and resorted to vilification, abuse, boycott, and strong-arm methods in place thereof. Now, while desperately fighting to clamp a gag on the State of Connecticut they have unwittingly placed themselves on the front line of attack and must face the charges which they feared and hitherto avoided.
Gag Laws in Connecticut
Connecticut has a number of legislative enactments which are being used in this new method of preserving religion from attack. Section 6194 of Connecticut Statutes provides as follows:
Any person who shall . . . publicly exhibit, post up or advertise any offensive, indecent or abusive matter concerning any person shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned in jail not more than one year or both.
Section 6066 of the same law book provides that any person who provides by his advertisement to "ridicule or hold up to contempt any person, or class of persons, on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality or race . . . shall be fined not more than fifty dollars or be imprisoned not more than thirty days or both". Another section provides that any person who shall have in his possession with intent to sell, lend, give, or show any book or printed matter containing "obscene, indecent or impure language" may be jailed for not more than two years and fined not more than one thousand dollars. Additionally, it has a law requiring a license to solicit any money or donations for any philanthropic, religious or charitable cause, and also has the usual laws licensing peddlers and canvassers. All of these types of legislation have been used in the present campaign against Jehovah's witnesses. The one employed most by the inquisitors is Section 6194 above quoted.
The city of Bristol began the ceremonies. James P. Jennings, member of the City Council, and ardent Catholic, in collaboration with Esmonde J. Phelan, Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus, raised a big howl over the book Enemies. Jennings described it as a scurrilous attack on the Catholic church, and demanded its suppression. Mayor Joseph W. Harding promptly decreed that "an attack on religion shall not be tolerated in Bristol". Immediately thereafter the officials began a vicious attack on Christians and Christianity in Bristol. Sixty-seven of Jehovah's witnesses were jailed at one session and charged with distributing "abusive and offensive literature". Sixty-six were convicted in spite of an amazing absence of evidence concerning the charge.
New Britain followed suit with a raid which netted 47 arrests and 47 convictions. It went over in good Hoboken style. To be one of Jehovah's witnesses and have in possession printed matter was sufficient to bring a $25 fine. Thomas F. Lawler, pastor of St. Mary's Catholic church of New Britain, joined in the attack on Christianity by condemning the Enemies book as obscene, and recommending the imprisonment of those who would circulate it. Lawler says he believes in religious freedom, but it doesn't include any right to expose the Hierarchy doings. This outburst by Lawler was answered by Jehovah's witnesses in a pamphlet entitled "SHALL THE PRIESTS RULE CONNECTICUT?" Ten thousand copies were distributed in Bristol and New Britain, and it was the contents of the pamphlet that caused Judge O'Connell, of Bristol, and Judge Hagerty, of New Britain, to impose heavy fines on 113 defendants.
Priest McCarthy Joins the "Force"
At Bridgeport, John J. McCarthy, who is chief exponent of the "purgatory" layout in the so-called "Church of the Blessed Sacrament", personally took charge of the arrest of Robert L. Dawson, pioneer. Dawson had “offended” him by offering him a chance to learn something about the Bible. The charge was, ‘Distributing abusive and offensive literature,’ the offensiveness consisting of the following statement from page 193 of Enemies:
It must now be apparent, to all honest people of earth who have any knowledge, that the Roman Catholic organization is a religious political organization, indulging in a selfish work, which blasphemes the name of Almighty God, falsely and fraudulently represents him, carries on a racket in the name of Christ, and is the great enemy of God and of the people.
Twenty-five dollars’ fine plus ten days in jail was the reward meted out by the Bridgeport police court for thus telling the truth about the Catholic organization.
Plainville, Connecticut, it would seem, exceedeth even the iniquity of Hudson County in its portion of the onslaught. Five Christians were arrested and charged with distribution of obscene and immoral literature. One case was tried. No evidence was produced of anything remotely resembling that which is immoral or obscene. Nevertheless the defendant was ‘found guilty’. The other cases were not tried. No evidence was produced as to them; nevertheless the court found each of them “guilty” and assessed penalties against them.
Hartford Goes over the Top
In Connecticut and a number of other states Jehovah’s witnesses recently mailed copies of the Supreme Court decision in Lovell v. Griffin to public officials. Louis Garloni, Divisional servant in Connecticut, mailed copies of the decision to the police, magistrates and mayor of Hartford. The accompanying letter, among other things, referred to the widespread persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses during the past ten years, and said:
Most of such persecution has been instigated and promoted by religionists, largely Catholic priests and the principal of their flocks. The persecutors have used the police and the courts as their cat’s-paws, in a vain attempt to censor and prohibit and hinder dissemination of Bible truths which shock their religious susceptibilities.
Consolation readers can all testify this statement to be absolutely true. Nevertheless it offended the majesty of the police of Hartford. Garloni was arrested, and on trial was ‘found guilty’ and fined $25 and costs. Thus doth freedom go with the wind in Hartford.
New Haven authorities watched the procession for some time and then joined with a new charge, that of holding up to ridicule certain persons on account of their religion. Four were arrested and received the customary punishment.
Many of the readers of Consolation have read Enemies. They know it to be a book of Biblical explanation containing a message of comfort and hope to man. Yes, it is offensive to Catholic prelates who fatten on the credulity of the people. It is offensive to them in the same sense that the remarks of Jesus concerning hypocrites were offensive to the scribes and Pharisees of His day. Many are amazed to think that in New England, where the battle of religious freedom was fought so strenuously years ago, Christian people can be jailed for bringing to people the message of the Bible.
Here is another point of interest to the man who believes in liberty and equality under the law. While Jehovah’s witnesses were being jailed in mass allotments The Catholic Transcript, a periodical published by the Diocese of Hartford, came to bat with the following editorial:
RUTHERFORD JEHOVAH
Father Felix, director of “Defenders of the Faith”, has done some splendid work against America’s ace bigot, “Judge” Rutherford, says the New World. Everyone knows the infamous practices of Rutherford and his marauding band of Jehovah’s witnesses. All through the United States, we can see and hear these apostles of hate hawking their anti-Catholic literature. All in all the movement has an army of 35,000 people, some paid, others just the familiar garden variety of bigot, who think everything Catholic is diabolic. There are about 5000 so-called pioneers who man the mechanical end of the program, such as public address systems on motor cars and various phonograph records which blast forth foul vilifications against the Church. The number of these men and women compose a real petty persecution of our Faith in the campaign they so viciously conduct. The type of propaganda they hand out reeks with foul denunciations and falsehoods. For instance one cartoon shows a Bishop standing beside a placard advertising indulgences. It reads: “Bargains Today. Murder $10.00. Arson $100.00. Masses: Flat Rate $25.00, Special $50.00.” Another outrage from the Golden Age is a hideous looking figure dressed as a prelate supervising an inquisition machine which pulls human beings in one funnel and has money tumbling out of a spout beneath. Across it is written: “Crank is Turned Around the World”. Other cartoons are too obnoxious to describe. In fact the MENACE in its worst days is Alice in Wonderland compared to the filthy ramifications of Rutherford’s literature. Glancing over the slanders in his propaganda, one would say that no sane man could believe such libel in these enlightened days. Still the Witnesses disposed of 24,000,000 of Rutherford's books and booklets last year. Evidently thousands of them were read and in many cases believed. Not only that, at least a hundred radio stations have carried the "Judge" defamations over the air, demonstrating that there is real financial backing in his business of malice and hate.
The Catholic Transcript is widely circulated in this state where offensive and abusive language is prohibited by law. But no one appears to have been jailed because of its distribution. The editorial staff of Consolation does not claim to have deep and profound knowledge of what constitutes that which is offensive and abusive, but feels that the describing of Jehovah's witnesses as "apostles of hate" and a "marauding band" might have a slight tendency in that direction. It would seem that the phrase "the filthy ramifications of Rutherford's literature" would lean somewhat toward that which is offensive. Consolation comments cautiously so as to avoid offending or abusing the Diocese of Hartford, which publishes the putrid and pusillanimous diatribe.
Two hundred arrests within a period of two months is quite a record for a beginner in the gentle art of restricting the activities of Jehovah's witnesses. It bespeaks pretty good cooperation among the members of the religious aid society. Convictions are almost unanimous, but at this writing not one of Jehovah's witnesses is behind the bars in Connecticut. Appeals have been taken in all cases. Whether the State of Connecticut will remain true to the traditions of its early fathers will depend largely on the attitude of the upper courts in these cases.
Jehovah's Kingdom publishers' Brazilian branch, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Poverty and Wealth in Brazil
◆ In the new Fascist state, Brazil, are extremes of poverty and wealth. In the interior are whole tribes that have nothing. In the big cities the professional men are rolling in wealth, and so addicted to jewelry that doctors uniformly wear emeralds, lawyers wear rubies, engineers wear sapphires, teachers wear tourmaline, dentists wear topaz, and commercial travelers wear pink tourmaline. Brazil is nearly as large as the whole of Europe.
The Tragedy of Germany (In Two Parts — Part 2)
VARIOUS American concerns that recently bought or made guns, bombs or shillalahs of various kinds for beating up employees and labor organizers, will be interested to know that the great Leuna chemical works, in Germany, now has its own work prison. This idea is bound to take. It is much more dignified to arrest a man in a lawful manner and then lock him up and beat him to a pulp than it is to first unlawfully beat him to a pulp and then have him locked up. It looks better in the newspapers and sounds better over the radio.
The German General Staff is said to have warned Hitler that Germany has fewer war materials now than it had in 1918 and that all stores are insufficient to fight more than four months in a major war. Moreover, that the barracks are full of puppy politicians, not soldiers, but spies, snoopers, and would-be leaders that it would take many months of hard work to transform into militarily disciplined men. Yet all this may be only a ruse.
Children, Youth and Education
THE chief end of German children is to glorify Hitler (and Germany). This means that they must be ready to serve as cannon fodder whenever their "beloved Fuehrer" shall decide they must do so, whether it be fighting for Germany or for the Spanish rebels or for the pope himself. Government employees in Pomerania last year were ordered to get married by a set date or lose their jobs. Some German papers deplored the fact that 30,000 priests were living unproductive and more or less celibate lives, as well as twice that many regular nuns. It was thought they could help a little more. German mothers were warned not to smoke until past fifty; otherwise they could not hope to bear suitable cannon fodder. Those were not the exact words, but that was the idea.
The Nazi government has ordered doctors that deformed or abnormal babies are not to be allowed to live. The German Health Ministry is reported to have issued a confidential memorandum to practicing doctors stating, "As a medical man, you will know how to prevent the child's having life, and what to explain to the mother." A Steinmetz would now have little show of being born in Germany.
Every German couple is given a copy of Mein Kampf, Hitler's book, and is expected to produce new soldiers according to the plans and purposes therein revealed. In the German edition of that book occur the following statements, carefully eliminated from the English edition:
The war of 1914 was desired by the whole German nation. I am not ashamed to say that, carried away by violent enthusiasm, I fell on my knees and thanked heaven with all my heart that it had given me the happiness of living at such a time. Let him who wants to live, fight. The man who refuses to fight in this world, where it is ordained that there must be ceaseless struggle, does not deserve to live.
Ah, but "in HIS days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of PEACE so long as the moon endureth". (Psalm 72: 7) "Neither shall they learn war ANY MORE."—Isaiah 2: 4.
A B C D E F G Heil Hitler!
Every lesson in the schools begins and ends with a "Heil Hitler", the pupils standing at attention while giving the salute. This is nothing less than creature-worship, and would be unwarranted even if Hitler were a model.
Meanwhile children are being taught to hate the one true God, Jehovah. In a new handbook by Fritz Fink, Nuremberg school counselor, placed in the hands of Berlin teachers at the beginning of the 1937 school year, the pupils are told that Jehovah is unjust and ferocious and shows affection only for the worst and most degraded of all races, the Jews.
The morals of the Nazi youth are indicated by the fact that at the lying-in home in Urban Place, Berlin, from January to April, 1937, 128 mothers, not yet 18 years of age, were delivered. Sixteen of these were orphans in servants' position. In many instances the fathers were Hitler youths under 17 years of age. These youths, as soon as they get into Nazi uniforms, feel that they are henceforth not responsible to any except Hitler, who appears to be indulgent in matters of that kind.
The discipline of Nazi youth is one of the most formidable things of that formidable land. On the Czech border, once a year, there are two terrible weeks for youth in which they are called "The Living Fortification" and day and night live with their watches in their hands. Children come back in a state of complete collapse. Saturdays and Sundays are awful days all over Germany. Saturday night is always spent in camp, and the Sunday marches of fifteen miles must be completed in 3 hours 10 minutes. This at the rate of a mile in 12 minutes 40 seconds. A grown man, using his full strength, needs 15 minutes to walk one mile. These poor German children are raced a distance of fifteen miles. At the end many drop from exhaustion, and all are completely useless at school the following Monday.
All German girls between 18 and 21 are compelled to join an organization known as "Work, Beauty and Faith", where they will participate in rhythmic and other exercises calculated to improve their bearing and looks.
Decline of Universities
Five years ago there were 3,000 students in Hamburg university; now there are 1,200. Similar declensions have taken place all over Germany. The liberal professors were pensioned as not fit to teach Nazi youth; the remaining ones lecture to empty classrooms. In every German university there is a real shortage of university professors, even in such subjects as mathematics and foreign languages. The standards of students have fallen so low that real scholarship is at a discount. Not infrequently students call on their professors just before examinations and tell them what marks they desire, and if the students are Nazis the professors dare not refuse their requests.
Before any male student may be admitted to a university he must serve at least six months in the labor service, and before any girl may enter she must have been employed twenty-six weeks in the Women’s Labor Service or some similar organization. German girls who do not attend university or work in offices or textile or tobacco industries must learn housekeeping by actual experience, usually by a year’s service in private households to which they may be assigned, and most often in large households where the overburdened housewife is unable to hire help. The work may be done in the homes of relatives. The State helps pay the wages.
In 1933 there were 6,641 students of theology in Germany; the number is now reduced to 4,112, or 62 percent of what it was only four years ago. Interesting comment on this is found in the 13th chapter of Zechariah's prophecy; also in the book Preparation, published by the Watch Tower.
One after another all traces of opposition to the Nazi rule of Germany disappear. Students of history will be interested to know that among the Protestant institutions closed is the seminary at Wittenberg where Luther and Melanchthon were professors at the time of the Reformation.
Future Nazi rulers will be selected, like Catholic priests, from all classes of German boys, and will be trained for seventeen years: six years in Adolf Hitler schools until the boys are 18 years of age, then seven years learning a trade or profession, and, finally, four years in a Nazi castle, learning Nazi cussedness. At first, 4,000 will be chosen, their sifting to continue for the seventeen years.
At fifteen of the German leader schools, the "grace" said before meals by these future scourges of society is as follows:
He who wishes to live must fight. He who does not want to fight does not deserve to live. Heil Hitler!
Students from abroad are complaining that there is a steady degeneration of university faculties in Germany. The number of students has been reduced by fifty percent in the last four years. No teaching candidates are available. Even the Nazis themselves state that at least one-third of the universities must be closed. Thus the absolute destruction of the German Reformation is under way, and the complete triumph of the Hierarchy’s ideas is in sight.
The following story is an example of anti-Nazi wit circulated in Germany at the risk of the tellers:
God, in creating Germans, endowed them with three qualities: intelligence, honesty, and Nazism. But God in His wisdom imposed one restriction: A German could possess only two of these three qualities. In other words, if a German is a Nazi and honest, he cannot be intelligent; if he is a Nazi and intelligent, he cannot be honest; and if he is honest and intelligent, he cannot be a Nazi. — Magazine Digest.
The attitude of Americans toward Nazism is well expressed in the following letter to the Baltimore Evening Sun:
Hitler doesn't like the newsreel "Inside Nazi Germany". I wonder why. Surely he has nothing to hide from the camera lens. Why, land of Goshen, he should be a mighty heap proud of his little kingdom! Just look at what he's done.
He purged the schools, he purged the churches, he purged the men, he purged the women, he purged the children, he purged the servants, he purged the cattle, he purged the industries, he purged the farmers, he purged the army, he purged the navy, he purged the press, he purged the books, he purged the music, he purged the nursery rhymes, he purged the Bible, he purged the weather, and he even purged the pretty little flowers that grow in the springtime. Now, that ain't doin' so bad, is it?
Incidentally, butter today in Germany is so scarce it has to be smuggled to the supper table, otherwise another head rolls off the block.—George LeBoff.
German Travelers Abroad
German travelers abroad must furnish the German government with names of relatives they will visit, degree of relation, when and where such relatives have visited Germany, their political attitude, whether such relatives extended a written invitation [which invitation must be submitted], the exact time and train on which the traveler will leave Germany, the station at which he will leave there, the stations he will pass, when he will reach his destination, and the exact date and time of his return. He is instructed that while abroad he must not wear any uniform or foreign badge; on his arrival at his destination he must at once report to the Nazi representative or the German consulate, and when he returns to Germany he must submit a complete account of his impressions, must say whether he was molested, and tell what he saw and heard. It will thus be seen that the German traveler has no real liberty at all, but is automatically made into a cheap tattler and spy.
Few Germans may travel. Budapest, Hungary, is but a short distance away, and the Catholic organization had expected 25,000 Germans to attend the Eucharistic Congress to be held there, but Hitler has decided that they must stay at home, because the necessary foreign exchange is not available.
A government dictated by men such as Hitler and his accomplices is not to be trusted by other governments. This point is illustrated in the fact that the Nazi government sent seventy spies into Britain under the guise of newspapermen. But it didn't work as well as expected. The work done was too well done. The lines connecting every German servant girl with the Nazi government were made too plain. The Devil's tricks, so marvelously perfected in the Papal scheme of things, and so feebly copied by would-be dictator-gods, do not work quite as effectively as formerly. The time for the complete collapse and destruction of all forms of oppression is at hand. The higher men have exalted themselves, the more ignominious will be their undoing.
How the Nazis do love to "boss"! They are now instructing Germans all over the world what storekeepers they may patronize; they forbid them to retain Jewish lawyers or physicians; they compel them to register at consulates and report any changes in their addresses or status; they establish clubs at which Germans meet, and provide these clubs with films, newspapers and books of Nazi stripe; they encourage club members to give the Nazi salute and observe Nazi holidays; and they discourage Germans from marrying Jews or even mingling with them. Germans living in New York city were given a list of physicians and lawyers whom the Nazis consider eligible for employment.
A Perfect System of Inquisition
A perfect system of inquisition has been inaugurated. The country is divided into blocks, the exact number being 397,040. It may be said that this is nothing new; but it is new. It is a new political subdivision, each block consisting of 40 to 60 households, and every block warden of the Nazi party must know all about every inhabitant within his block, who in turn must answer all questions put to him by the Nazi representative. No one, now, is safe from small-minded Nazi busybodies and snoopers.
As in the French Revolution, the guillotines are busy. Desertions from the army are increasing. Everybody who can get out of the nation-wide Nazi prison is glad to go. Universities are drying up; writers are going or gone, or are in concentration camps; Germany is on the toboggan intellectually as well as morally.
An Alsatian, Alphonse Bientz, excused from military service by the French in 1914, because of an injured leg, was shortly afterwards seized by the Germans and made a soldier on the Russian front. There he was almost killed. On recovering he was put to work in a munition factory; was there accused of insubordination, and spent twenty years in German prisons. He just returned to his home town to learn that his mother had recently died, unaware of the fact that he was still alive.
Jehovah's Kingdom publishers — One of the sound cars in operation in Schwarzenburg, Canton of Berne, Switzerland; and a corner of the printing plant in the factory at Berne.
--For bringing Hitler into court in 1931, and proving that the Nazi organization was then an illegal organization with terrorism as a part of its policy, Hans Litten, a German lawyer, was in prison ever after the Reichstag fire. No charge was made against him, yet he was brutally tortured, even having his leg broken. He died a prisoner, virtually murdered by his Nazi jailers. It shows what may happen in any land ruled by a dictator.
At the Dachau concentration camp the new asphyxiating gases are tried out upon prisoners provided with the latest type of masks. Many have thus been killed, and others seriously poisoned.
The Fate of Minorities
Political minorities, 2,600 of them, are in the concentration camp at Dachau, ten miles from Munich. For daring to think differently from the Hitler gang they are beaten, kicked, knocked down in the mud and nettles, lashed to posts, and their faces burned with cigarette stubs. The reason why they gave up tying men with their arms around trees is that after half an hour the men shrieked like tortured animals. This treatment of minorities is the Roman Catholic ideal; their literature is filled with claims that it is just and right; and the gangsters that are doing the torturing at Dachau may confidently call for the "blessing" of the "church" upon their work, if only they will permit the "church" to do all the other things that are upon its program.
A report from Berlin runs:
I have spoken with an executioner. He told me that he and his colleagues had now permanent posts under the Government. Executions took place daily, and for some short time past not only the ax but the guillotine has come into requisition. On a single day in the third week of June last there were four executions in Cologne alone. At the same time heavy sentences of imprisonment are passed on persons belonging to the Opposition. Political prisoners, especially those confined in the concentration camps, whom no sentence of a court, but pure arbitrariness, has condemned to that lot, are much more harshly treated than actual criminals. The aim is to destroy them body and soul.
Professor William E. Dodd, former ambassador to Germany, made the following statement with regard to conditions in that unhappy country:
In a vast region where religious freedoms are denied and where individual initiative and discovery is not allowed, where race hatreds are cultivated daily, what can a representative of the United States do? The logical outcome of the present vast war preparations is another war; and what would another war leave of modern civilization? The great business and industrial groups defeated world peace efforts at Geneva more than once because they thought the sale of arms and war materials more important than world peace.
Truth, Honesty, Beauty, Prohibited
The German Gestapo (secret state police) claims the right of protective arrest, prohibition of residence, prohibition of societies, confiscation of property, prohibition of publications, and all means necessary to attain its ends, without interference of German courts or the courts of other countries, and without review except by its own upper authorities.
That by no means all Germans desire this condition of things is made evident by the following extract from Deutschland Berichte:
The fifth year of dictatorship in Germany is drawing to its close. Terrorism continues to rage there. It was no infantile complaint of the new system as the shocked world tried to persuade itself at the outset. It is the very system itself—the skeleton, the framework without which it must inevitably collapse. The wild haphazard terrorism of the early stages has become an organized terrorism, or to put it better, savagery has been organized. It has, however, lost nothing of its terrible character thereby; it has only become more inescapable.
Five years are a long time, and many persons abroad have turned away in resigned fashion from the horrible sight with the excuse: "But we cannot do anything to help." They make a mistake. Not to turn away, to take the inconvenient course, to put up with the truth, and to seek to learn—this in itself is to help. The German Government is threatening today to revenge itself upon the prisoners in the concentration camps for the disclosures which appear in the foreign press. But it is quite unthinkable what would happen to the prisoners if the Government's threat attained its aim, if the voice of truth which has been silenced in Germany were to be silent in all the rest of the world, if the wielders of violence in Germany had no need to fear the abhorrence and indignation of civilized humanity.
All the leading American book publishers explained in a joint statement why they could not consistently attend the book publishers' congress at Leipzig, Germany, in 1937. They could not consistently visit any country where the mere possession of certain books constitutes a criminal offense; where no book may be published unless submitted in manuscript to a government official and approved by him; where the works of enlightened modern writers are forbidden; where censorship is not limited.
ited to political utterances, but extends to the sciences, the arts and culture in general, and where booksellers and publishers who pursue their avocations as in other countries may be held guilty of treason.
A collection of speeches of President Roosevelt which had been sent from Basle, Switzerland, to Leipzig, the one-time book center of the world, to be placed on sale, were returned to the Swiss border as falling under the head of "undesirable literature".
As an instance of its lack of regard for simple truth is the Nazi ruling that no mention should be made in any German "newspaper" of the successful flights from Moscow over the North Pole to California, U. S. A.
The effects of a dictatorship upon the general culture are revealed in the following statement by the Deutschland Berichte of December, 1937:
Not a single poem marked by fine feeling and capable of making profound appeal has issued from the Brown camp. What the National Socialists claim for themselves of this nature is the work of authors whose lives are rooted in the liberalist epoch that is taboo to the Nazis. "The poets and singers of present-day Germany are as yet lacking," confessed Hitler at the Nuremberg Kulturtag 1937. Even he could not evade this confession, since Goebbels himself had several times had to take refuge behind the slogan of "look to the future". Prose has dried up, since a really clear and realistic description of actual life is sure to come into conflict with the various censorships. A big section of the German readers therefore prefer translations of foreign books, books from former times or memoirs that tell of life as it used to be, and which still carry with them the breath of freedom, of truth and of the atmosphere of a liberal age.
Most Tragic Effect
The most tragic effect of dictatorships, particularly of the type instigated by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, is the coercion of conscience, or the effort to coerce the conscience. The New York Times, November 30, 1937, contains a pathetic account of the breaking-up of a family of Jehovah's witnesses at Waldenberg, Germany, because they put Jehovah God in the highest place, and not Hitler. In taking the children away from their parents and turning them over to the Nazis to be trained and educated the presiding "judge" ruled that:
The law as a racial and national instrument entrusts German parents with the education of the children only under certain conditions, namely, that they educate them in the fashion that the nation and State expect.
Here is positive proof, thousands of times repeated in Germany, that the judges in that dreadful land have not the slightest knowledge of God, nor the slightest fear of Him. The Scriptures show the responsibility and right of parents to do for their children just what these faithful Christians in Waldenberg did for their children:
And ye shall teach them [God's commandments, to] your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.—Deuteronomy 11:19.
Not only do such incidents and the general trend of affairs in Germany show the essential harmony between Hitler and the pope, but palpable evidence of a mutual understanding is furnished in the fact that on his recent visit to Hitler Mussolini acted as the pope's messenger. He bore a message from the one who is furnishing much of the money and all of the brains to make Fascism (Catholic Action), which is the same as Nazism, look like the inevitable scheme for the control of all the world.
In a column report from Germany sent by wireless to the New York Times there are eight lines that will cause all of Jehovah's witnesses to draw deep breaths and gird up their loins for what is ahead in Britain and America:
Former Locksmith Adolf Wandres and Commercial Traveler Schloemer were sentenced to five-year imprisonment by a special court in Frankfort for continuing to propagate the doctrine of the Bible Research sect, which is prohibited. The sect is pacifist.
German Martyrs
German newspapers contain details of the martyrs of Stettin. "Martyrs" is a Greek word meaning "witnesses". Helen Kersten, 64 years of age, one year in prison for activity as one of Jehovah's witnesses; Hans Kersten, 30 years old, a year and nine months in prison; Luise Gottschalk, 52 years, 1 year; her husband, 4 months; her daughter, Ursula, 1 year; two sisters, 58 and 56 years old, 4 months each; one 68 years old, 2 1/2 months; one 50 years old, 6 months. In the same column various other persons are reported as receiving terms of 4 to 15 months for cursing Hitler and other tyrants. In various parts of Berlin 42 of Jehovah's witnesses were arrested and given prison terms of 4 to 18 months.
All evidence from Germany indicates wholesale arrests and prosecutions of Jehovah's witnesses, with sentences running up to five years in prison for believing and practicing the teachings of the Scriptures. Betrayals have occurred, and in at least one instance after a supposed brother had betrayed the rest of the company, and had been given his liberty for so doing, he committed suicide by hanging, as did Judas.
The Berlin correspondent of the Manchester Guardian mentions in the most matter-of-fact manner that Jehovah's witnesses are habitually sent to prison in Germany whenever they are discovered. It is apparent, therefore, that conditions are similar in Germany now to what they were in Rome in the days of Nero, when Christians were immediately incarcerated as soon as they were known to be such. As in Rome, so in Germany, Christ's real followers are hated of all men. It is just as the Master foretold.
The emergency court at Dessau, Germany (Can any just person explain why it is necessary to try Jehovah's witnesses in an emergency court?), having some of Jehovah's witnesses before them, explained that at first the emergency court had used rather mild methods, fines, prison terms of days, weeks or months, but that now, in order to make the punishments more effective, it had become necessary to impose sentences of several years. The witnesses for Jehovah had continued to publicly offer literature, and to deliver it, and they had refused the German salute, with the argument that Heil (salvation) comes only through Christ. A sentence of two years was then imposed on persons before the court.
The emergency court at Koenigsberg, Germany, sentenced one of Jehovah's witnesses to four years in the penitentiary, and his wife to two years. From the record which filters through to America the presiding judge on the bench is alleged to have been infuriated because the Third Reich is represented in "Judge Rutherford's literature" as a beast of prey. What else is it? The literature also seems not to have proper respect for Hitler. Why should it? The New York Times says of Jehovah's witnesses that they emphasize in their doctrines "strict adherence to the prophetic sections of the Bible". It could also have said that they emphasize strict adherence to every part of the Bible, but the Times would not wish to say that. It would be the truth, and the truth hurts.
Two of Jehovah's witnesses at Frankfort were sentenced to five years each for being faithful to their covenant with the Most High God. When one of these was asked by the judge what he would do when he left the prison after five years, he replied:
Precisely the same as what I have been doing.
There is nothing new, nothing original, in the demands of the German "Black Corps" that Jehovah's people be put to death. That has been the demand of the Devil's crowd ever since Abel was slain outside of Eden. The Lord said, "If they have hated me, they will hate you," and it is even so. The way the Black Corps put it is that death is necessary because:
The German people must use brutal force in wresting from their enemies any and every desire to misuse the cloak of religion for the purpose of undermining their existence. The insane belong in an insane asylum. For criminals of such a character the penitentiary and mere custody are wholly inadequate means of punishment.
Meanwhile the Nazis continue to sing, "Tomorrow the world will be ours." What the world would be like if ever it became theirs is shown in the foregoing samples of Nazi rule and method. The picture is not a pleasant one. That they mean that the world shall be theirs, and the manner in which they will get it, is shown in Austria. What, after all, does it matter (to the Nazis) whether the people desire Nazi rule or not. The world shall be theirs! That is what they think; but while man proposes, God disposes, and He will shortly dispose of His enemies, and the enemies of peace, righteousness and justice. Armageddon will witness the utter defeat of the whole infamous combine, religious, political and commercial, in all lands, including Germany.
"If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in the state, marvel not at the matter: for one higher than the high regardeth."—Ecclesiastes 5:8, A.R.V., margin.
"Jehovah trieth the righteous; but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he will rain snares; fire and brimstone and burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For Jehovah is righteous; he loveth righteousness: the upright shall behold his face."—Psalm 11:5-7, A.R.V.
COUNSEL by J. F. Rutherford
QUESTION: In this day of rackets, which is the worst? and how can it be counteracted or avoided?
ANSWER: A modern definition of the word "racket" is this: A scheme carried into operation for oppression and selfish gain, whether of money, power, or influence, and which scheme results injuriously to others. If the scheme has an appearance of being for good but is in fact injurious, it is even more wicked than otherwise, because many good people are thereby deceived. Man has the inherent disposition to reverence and worship that which is higher than himself. Jehovah God is the Creator, and Christ Jesus is the Savior of mankind, and God and Christ are entitled to be worshiped by creatures, and none other should be worshiped. The Devil is God's adversary and is man's worst enemy. The Devil has brought into operation formalism that is called "religion", and the leaders thereof induce the people to observe forms and ceremonies, and the people are made to believe that they are thereby worshiping God and Christ Jesus, when in truth and in fact they are doing that which brings reproach to the name of God and Christ. Such practice is called "the Christian religion", when in truth and in fact there is no such thing as "Christian religion". There are many religions that induce the people to worship objects and things and creatures, all of which religions are instituted by the wily adversary Satan. When men employ religion, therefore, to mislead the people and to obtain from the people their money and their support, such is the worst racket that could possibly be operated, because it causes injuries to the people and is a defamation of God's name. As an illustration: The leading religious organization in the world, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy system, induces the people to believe that their friends who have died are in "purgatory" and that men who act as priests in the religious organization can utter prayers in behalf of those dead ones and shorten their duration of 'punishment'. Such a practice is called "relieving men from suffering the pains of purgatory". This doctrine thus taught works great injury to the people. First, the man who has died is wholly dead and is not conscious anywhere, and is not suffering in "purgatory" or anywhere else (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10); and to induce the friends of such a one to believe that he is alive and to give up their money to utter prayers in his behalf is a racket of the grossest kind, deceptive, fraudulent, and wicked. Credulous people are readily induced to yield to such practices because they have no means at hand of informing themselves that the racketeers are defrauding them.
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