Consolation, February 22, 1939

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Contents

The Sandstrom Case Publicity 3

Flapdoodle Trumpetings 5

The World's Four Million Wanderers 5

In the Land of the Magyars 7

Peonage in Georgia 8

Signs of Bondage in the U. S. A. 9

Does the Government Encourage Illness? 10

Under Present Conditions 12

The New Government 13

Rely on Whose Arm? 13

Among the Vagrants 14

The Anaheim Orange Dump 16

Counsel by J. F. Rutherford 17

Education 17

China and Japan 18

Rocky Mountain States 19

Under the Totalitarian Flag 20

Wanted—A Gagged Press 20

The Trouble with Quebec 20

Reserved unto Fire 23

Hungary—Netherlands—Rumania 27

How Precious Is a Man Now? 27

Planters of Trees 27

British Comment 28

Restricting Freedom 28

"Drink More Milk" 29

Adventists 30

Fishes and Birds 31

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Appetizers

How Horrible!

Slowly the hands of the clock crept around to the hour, and at the first chime the procession commenced to wend its way to the scaffold.

William Smith had just eaten a hearty meal, and his face showed no trace of fear. Upon arrival at the scaffold, everything was placed in position, and the rope was adjusted.

With a last look at his watch to see that the time had really arrived, the man in authority gave the signal, and William Smith and his fellow bricklayers recommenced work after the dinner hour.

The Expectant Young Lady

The young woman from the country who visited the dentist's office was evidently new at this sort of thing.

She eyed the equipment with widespread apprehensive eyes.

Her nervousness perceptibly increased as he jabbed with a sharp little steel instrument at the bad molar.

"I guess we can do something for it," he said, in a tone meant to be soothing. But the young woman was not to be soothed by mere words. Her rigid fingers gripped the arm rests of the chair until the knuckles showed white through the skin.

He filled an atomizer with an antiseptic fluid and treated the gum. As he withdrew the spray, she clamped her mouth tightly.

"You may expectorate now," said the operator.

From between her clenched jaws she asked a question:

"Expect what?"—Labor.

Not Borrowing Trouble

"I say, Jane, isn't it time baby said 'Daddy'?"

"No, John; I've decided not to tell him who you are until he gets stronger." —Cornell Widow.

Protecting the Weak

Mother—Buddie, where did you get that black eye?

Buddie—I was protecting a little boy.

Mother—That's grand, who was he?

Buddie—Me.

CONSOLATION

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

Volume XX Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, February 22, 1939 Number 507

The Sandstrom Case Publicity

WHEN newspapers and radio commentators report events in such manner that one hundred percent of their listeners are incorrectly informed and receive erroneous impressions concerning the facts, then there is something decidedly wrong. Such publicists either do not know what they are talking about or are willfully misleading the public. An outstanding example of such wrongful acts by radio commentators and the newspapers is their reporting of the decision handed down on January seventeenth by the New York Court of Appeals in the case of the People against Charles and Hilda Sandstrom. This is popularly known as the 'flag-salute case' in the State of New York.

At a public meeting in Columbus, Ohio, a speaker asked his audience how many had read newspaper reports or heard radio commentators describing the decision in this flag-salute case. Approximately one hundred persons in the audience raised their hands. The question was then put: How many of you, from reading these reports or hearing the commentators, received the impression that the Sandstroms had lost the case? All raised their hands. Then the question was put: How many of you, from reading such reports or listening to such comments, received the impression that the Sandstroms had won the case? Not one person raised his hand. This is a specific instance where all listeners and readers received an incorrect impression.

The truth is that the Sandstroms did receive a favorable decision, but the newspapers and the radio commentators so perverted their reports that no one knew the facts. Therefore there is here presented a correct statement of facts concerning this decision by the highest tribunal of the State of New York.

Charles and Hilda Sandstrom are the parents of Grace Sandstrom. Grace was an attendant at the Lake Ronkonkoma (New York) public school until the twenty-fifth day of October, 1937. She refused to participate in the flag-salute ceremony at the school because she had been taught by her parents to obey the law of Almighty God, and therefore Grace refused to bow down or render obeisance to a symbolic image of the government. She preferred to obey the law of God, even though that meant violating the school regulation. For this so-called "offense" she was expelled from the public school. Immediately upon her expulsion her parents were arrested and charged with wrongfully and unlawfully keeping her from attendance at the public school. This was done in spite of the fact that the parents desired her to attend school and sent her regularly to school until the school officials barred her entrance to the building. The parents did not keep her out of school for a single day. Nevertheless, on trial before the local justice court, the parents were convicted and fined ten dollars each on the charge of keeping their daughter from attendance at the public school. The cases were then appealed to the County Court of Suffolk County and the sentence was there confirmed. An appeal was then taken to the Court of Appeals of the State of New York. Bear in mind that the only question for the Court of Appeals to pass upon was: Did Charles and Hilda Sandstrom keep their daughter Grace from attendance at the public school in violation of law?

The two lower courts said that the parents did keep her from attendance at the public school. The State's highest court reversed this judgment, holding that there was no justification for such charge. The high court set the conviction aside. On this point we quote from the decision, as follows:

“This proceeding was then taken before the justice of the peace to punish the parents under section 627, subdivision 2, of the Education Law, the information stating that they wrongfully and unlawfully and maliciously did keep one Grace Sandstrom from attending upon full time instruction in the public school, she being a minor between seven and sixteen years of age. The fact is, as is evidenced throughout the entire record, that the parents did nothing of the kind. They repeatedly sent the child back and the child always came back to school after being sent home. I can see no justification for this proceeding against the parents. . .

"The conviction of the defendant parents should be reversed, and the information dismissed, for the reasons which we have stated at the beginning of this opinion, and if it is thought necessary to carry the matter further, the action must be against the scholar, not the parents."

This high court ruling constituted a decided victory for the Sandstroms. It is a decision of importance, not only for them, but for many other parents whose children are loyal to the commands of Almighty God and whose actions therefore come into conflict with the regulations of "patriotic" school boards. The decision will put a crimp in the business of jailing parents on the charge of keeping their children out of school when the children who refuse to salute the flag have been barred from school by the action of school officials.

After entering this worthy and righteous decision the court thereupon proceeded to expound its views on the flag salute. It followed the beaten path used by some other state courts, and held that the flag salute is not a religious rite. The court held that it could determine for pupils and others the validity of their belief concerning such salute. It stated that the flag-salute regulation is reasonable and that a school board has authority to expel a pupil for refusal to salute the flag.

This non-essential portion of the decision in the Sandstrom case was seized and greatly magnified by the newspapers and the radio commentators, who completely ignored the real decision in the case. That is why only those few who read the entire decision could know what it was all about.

The dictum of the court in this non-essential portion of the decision is a bold emasculation of religious freedom. If the courts can decide the validity of religious convictions for other persons, then freedom of worship is relegated to the limbo of lost things. Yielding to such practice leads to totalitarianism.

In Nazi Germany the rulers decide the validity of the religious convictions of all persons. The name of the Almighty God, JEHOVAH, is barred from the churches in Germany. In other words, no person in Germany can believe in Jehovah God and act in accordance with such belief. In Germany the religion of Jewish people is subjected to the autocratic rule of the state. The reasoning of the New York Court of Appeals can be used by wicked religionists to impose their views upon all the people. It gives the Legislature judicial sanction to go ahead and choke off all religious freedom whenever it so desires.

New York’s highest court, however, was not unanimous in this view. Judge Lehman, brother of New York’s governor, concurred in the reversal of the sentence against the Sandstroms. But he gave an opinion which sharply dissents from the dictum of the majority that favored jamming flag salutes down the throats of innocent children. He held that the people have a right to believe as they see fit and to act in accordance with such belief, provided they do not interfere with the peace and good order of society. In clear and unmistakable terms he declared that no court has the right to pass upon the religious convictions of others. From his dissenting opinion note the following:

I can find in the statute no fair implication that every child must take part in such exercises, even though some children might be taught by their parents or religious instructors that a salute to the flag would be disobedience to the command of God. A command of the State to such a child, whether given by the Legislature or by a school principal deriving authority from the statute would, I think, transcend the limitations imposed by the Constitution upon the powers of government.

Episcopalians and Methodists and Presbyterians and Baptists, Catholics and Jews, may all agree that a salute to the flag cannot be disobedience to the will of the Creator; all the judges of the State may agree that no well-intentioned person could reasonably object to such a salute; but this little child has been taught to believe otherwise. She must choose between obedience to the command of the principal of the school, and obedience to what she has been taught and believes is the command of God. She has chosen to obey what she believes to be the command of God. I cannot assent to the dictum of the prevailing opinion that she must obey the command of the principal, though trembling lest she incur the righteous wrath of her Maker and be slain "when the battle of Armageddon comes".

This logical and well-defined statement by Judge Lehman was not quoted by the newspapers. Radio commentators said nothing about it. Why they omitted reference to it is something for them to answer.

As a closing thought please consider this ringing declaration from that unmentioned dissenting opinion:

The salute of the flag is a gesture of love and respect—fine when there is real love and respect back of the gesture. The flag is dishonored by a salute by a child in reluctant and terrified obedience to a command of secular authority which clashes with the dictates of conscience. The flag ‘cherished by all our hearts’ should not be soiled by the tears of a little child. The Constitution does not permit, and the Legislature never intended, that the flag should be so soiled and dishonored.

—O. R. MOYLE.

Flapdoodle Trumpetings

Rising to the Heights

◆ On the day that Hankow was ravaged, Czechoslovakia was threatened by Hungary, Spain crumbled, and the United States tussled with spies, the New York Sun printed a fearless, timely editorial on the history of the tomato.—Walter Winchell, in the New York Daily Mirror.

“Religion as a Leaven”

◆ In an editorial glorifying William Randolph Hearst the Los Angeles Examiner, forgetting that leaven is a symbol of corruption which the true church of God is urged to put away, made the following observation:

We should unite for the benefit of the cause of religion and for the benefit of a world which needs religion as a leaven.

That is the very thing that is the trouble. The people in the churches need to dump their religion, along with the leaven, and come over to Christianity.

The World’s Four Million Wanderers

BEHIND the polished speeches of the statesmen at the Evian Refugee Conference there looms a specter—the specter of the Homesick Millions. You will not find the land where the Homesick Millions live in any atlas, nor will you find their numbers in any year book. For they are scattered all over the globe.

They are the victims of an extraordinary craze, never known before in history, which has swept the world in the last twenty years. A craze which impels nations to solve the problem of people they do not happen to like by casting them out of their homes and sending them to wander over the earth.

Few realize how great the movement is. Since the end of the war four million men, women and children have had to leave the lands they called home, pack up and flee. They include:

1,500,000 Russians from Russia;

1,500,000 Greeks from Turkey;

350,000 Armenians from Asia Minor;

120,000 Bulgarians from Greece;

25,000 Assyrians from Iraq;

135,000 Jews from Germany; besides thousands more Italians, Spaniards, and Hungarians.

Nothing Like It for 1,500 Years

Now these movements will be a unique and sorrowful page in the world’s history.

The French aristocracy which had to leave France after the Revolution numbered only a few thousands.

The Huguenots who fled from France numbered only 200,000.

The Jews banished from Britain in 1290 numbered only 16,000.

There has been no forced displacement of peoples such as we have had in the last twenty years since the Huns and the Tartars swept into Europe one and a half thousand years ago.

And the shadow of the four millions and their varied fates is the background of the Evian conference.

No one as yet has adequately told the story of these 4,000,000 people.

I will try to tell you in a few short paragraphs a little of the tragedy he will have to portray.

Epic March of 14,000 Men

Let us begin with the one and a half million fleeing Russians.

When the Soviets rose to power in 1918 hordes of soldiers and peasants and their families fled north, south, east and west. Amazing things happened.

There was the epic march of General Tolstov's 14,000 men along the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Disease-ridden, hunger-tortured, ragged, they retreated hundreds of miles across the bare steppes to Fort Alexandrovsk.

Four-fifths of them died on the way. Somehow those who were left reached Basra, on the Persian Gulf, and put themselves under the protection of Britain.

Britain, not knowing what to do with them, shipped them all round Arabia, India, Malaya and China, up to far-off Vladivostok, where there was still a non-Bolshevist Russia in existence.

When Vladivostok fell they had to go a-wandering again. I cannot tell you what the end of them was, any more than I can tell you the end of many another wandering band out of the millions.

Then there were the Siberian death trains. Thousands died of disease and hunger on these trains as they crawled across the steppes, bearing their packed loads of refugees to China.

Those Russians who did reach China—they numbered more than 100,000—were, and are, among the most wretched of all who quitted their homelands.

Toiling beside coolies, and living like them, many of the women fallen to almost inconceivable degradations, they just eke out enough to keep alive from the border provinces to which Soviet wrath drove them.

There were 135,000 Russians who fled by the south, across the Black Sea from the Crimea.

Died on the Pavements

They crowded into Constantinople in 1920, sleeping in barracks, in cellars, in the streets. They died of hunger on the pavements.

They were dumped in ports and on islands all over the Near East while the Allies tried to think what to do with them, as the statesmen at Evian are trying to do today.

Strange fates awaited them. Three thousand arrived at Bizerta, in French Tunisia. Exchanging steppes for the desert they enlisted in the foreign legion.

Some settled in Corsica, some in South America. Some, as might have been expected from the crazy crowded tubs in which they sailed, were shipwrecked.

For years many of them drifted hither and thither in the world looking for a billet. A striking and typical case came under the notice of an acquaintance of mine who was on a visit to Constantinople in 1925, five years after the Russian torrent was supposed to have subsided.

She heard a commotion on a beach near the city.

A little fishing smack, almost sinking under the weight of the 165 hungry Russians who were crowded into her, had arrived at the beach.

The refugees were put in a kind of pen on the beach while the Turks decided what to do with them.

It appeared that the voyagers had tried to make a home in Bulgaria, where they were not wanted.

The Little Ship That Leaked

To get rid of them the authorities had given them valueless papers which they were told would get them into Turkey. They had set out with three days' provisions. They had been at sea six weeks.

Their little ship was leaking badly. The Turks wanted to pump it out and send them to sea again, but the only pump belonged to the captain of a British ship, and he was too kind-hearted to let them borrow it.

What happened to the 165 Russians in the end? No one knows.

Then there was the voyage of 1,700 refugees from Vladivostok.

After this port fell to the Soviets their opponents, knowing they would get no mercy, fled far and wide.

The 1,700 left by sea in fifteen small craft, bound they knew not where.

They landed in Korea, but the authorities would not have them. They tried a second port with the same result. They tried Shanghai, but the Chinese would not have them either.

They sailed on and on to the East Indies, these Russians. A typhoon struck them near Sumatra and some of the ships were wrecked or disabled.

After repairs they put into Manila, in the Philippines. There, at last, the American auauthorities took pity on them.

They were embarked in an army transport. After eight months of wanderings they finished up in San Francisco. There they found work and settled.

The Russians who wandered to France are a story in themselves. Four hundred thousand of them live there.

There are Russians farming in Gascony. There are a Russian peasant and a Russian general who never handled a plough in his life before who are partners in a farm.

Whole Streets of Russians

There are, or were, French small holders who are primitive Kalmucks from wild Mongolia, who worship Buddha and are efficient milkers.

The landlords supply these strange refugees with everything they need, but they speak little French and they have to wait months for the periodical visit of the Government inspectors to make a request for such a simple thing as some extra saucepans.

In three districts of Paris there are whole streets where none but Russians live. They are poor, and their average earnings might be only £6 [$29] a month.

Round the gates of the great Citroen and Renault motor factories you will often hear little but Russian spoken, so many are the Russian workers there.

Near the goods depot of the Eastern Railway there was, a few years ago, a strange colony of soldier refugees.

All day long officers and men worked side by side as equals, loading and unloading the trucks.

In the evening they went back to old Russia. They had rented a building which they used as a barracks. Military discipline and differences of rank were observed again. Heels clicked and salutes were exchanged.

And all that is only the story of the Russians.

Driven into the Desert

There were the Armenians in Asia Minor. The Turkish soldiery rounded up armies of them in their villages and drove them like cattle into the desert. Anything from 50 percent to 90 percent of the long stumbling columns died on the way.

There were the Greeks who poured out of Asia Minor when the Turks took Smyrna. They were shot and bayoneted as they waited in wailing masses on the quays.

Twelve thousand people were burned to death when the city was set on fire.

All the world hoped that when the first rush of post-war refugees had subsided the cruel custom of turning people out of their homes would never be practiced again.

But it was not to be. Rather did the custom spread from country to country, each decade bringing its new installment of miseries.

After a little pause Spaniards began to troop out of Spain before the wrath of Primo de Rivera.

And then Italians were trooping out of Italy before the wrath of Mussolini.

And in 1933 Hitler began to persecute the Jews.

Perhaps the most tragic fact of all is that even while the Evian conference is trying to help the latest bands of homeless, many of the first bands have not found homes even after twenty years.

—C. A. Lyon, in the London Sunday Express.

In the Land of the Magyars

Awake for 22 Years

◆ Wounded in the head with a shell in June, 1915, Paul Kern, living near Budapest, Hungary, has not slept for 22 years. From 1:00 to 3:00 a.m., he lies down, closing his eyes to rest them, but never loses consciousness. He says that reading the Bible gives him the greatest rest for his mind and body, but he is an omnivorous reader of publications printed in Hungarian, French, German and English, and spends many hours a day listening to the radio.

Jews in Hungary

◆ Jews in Hungary (850,000 of them) are now limited to 20 percent of those in any occupation, thus leaving tens of thousands of doctors, lawyers, bankers, journalists, actors and heads of industrial enterprises with nothing to do and no chance whatever of ever getting employment in their proper avocations.

Peonage in Georgia

The papers of the nation carried what was to many the shocking and revolting news that in Warren County, Georgia, Negroes were being forced into the fields to pick cotton at the miserably low figure of 40 cents per hundred pounds. Furthermore, the papers stated that an unruly and savage mob had invaded Warrenton, the county seat, and had terrorized the community by seeking out Negroes employed in various services and domestic servants, who sought protection in the homes of their employers, and by driving the larger part of the Negro community into the cotton fields.

While the practice is illegal and is shocking to the average American citizen, it is so universally practiced in the cotton-planting South as to cause little or no comment. By the planting interests it is looked upon as a very practical way of getting the cotton crop picked. The merchants and businessmen generally, in most southern cities and small towns, look upon the practice as an expedient and practical manner of relieving the city of "vagrants, loafers and relief hounds".

Each year as the cotton ripens, men, women and children are lured, coerced, forced or driven into the cotton fields to pick cotton at the price set by the planting interests. If the yield is heavy and labor scarce the police may be called upon by the business interests in the near-by cities or towns to furnish the necessary labor to pick the cotton. Thus in the cities and towns in or near the Cotton Belt, as in Macon or Memphis, hordes of men and women are sometimes arrested on the faked charge of "vagrancy" and hustled off into the cotton fields. Hence it may be said that in the South the police stage a sort of "round-up" during the cotton picking season. Sometimes the victims of the "round-up" are given the choice of picking cotton at the prevailing wages, which are generally bottom prices, or of going to the county farm. Frequently the victim prefers "three hots"—meaning three hot meals a day and a sentence at the county farm—to working in the cotton fields under the lash of a hard taskmaster "for nothin'".

As is often the case in such feudal domains, there are two or three families, or perhaps only one, which dominate the economic scene and wield political power. From the most reliable sources we were informed that two families, namely, the English and Johnson families—who have intermarried—dominate the entire county from an economic and political perspective. From what we were able to gather, the center of power seems to be lodged in the English family and mainly in the person of Ed English.

Warren County in general and the English family in particular have a notorious reputation throughout the surrounding territory for exceptional cruelty and brutality to Negroes. It is stated quite openly that the horsewhipping of tenants, particularly Negro tenants (I heard no reference to white men as being whipped) is a common and accepted practice throughout the county on the large plantations. I talked with one man who had had such an experience. The man who applied the lash was an ardent church member, a highly educated man and greatly respected throughout the community. It is generally held that the conditions under which Negro tenants and sharecroppers live are so terrible that it is with difficulty that planters now secure families to work their farms. It is reported that families have been imported from great distances because of the universal fear in which the planters are held by the Negroes. Several citizens, with some caution and apparent fear, spoke with considerable indignation at the way Negroes were persecuted in the county.

It is a common practice for Warren County planters—and Warren County planters are not the only ones—to pay a tenant, always a Negro, out of debt, or as they say "to buy the debt" and place him on the buyer's plantation to work out the debt, which the unfortunate tenant rarely ever succeeds in doing. The action is tantamount to "buying the nigger", as I heard one farmer remark. If the tenant tires of his enforced bondage and tries to run away, the law steps in and returns the "runaway" to his master. While slavery has been legally abolished in these United States, there are areas in which, for all practical purposes, it is still in existence.

After some pickers from Warrenton had shown their reluctance to pick cotton in Warren County for 30c and shown a marked preference for the 75c being offered in Glascock, the planters decided that it was time to call a halt to the matter and "teach our niggers a little respect and loyalty".

So on the morning of September 13, 1937, the citizens were aroused by the angry shouting of violent men and the roaring of pistols and shotguns. A truck driver from Glascock who had come to get a load of pickers was pulled from his seat, roughly handled, threatened menacingly with an ax-handle and told to "git the hell out of town" and to stay out. It is evident from what transpired that the plans of the vigilantes had been carefully worked out and that it was not just a "popping off", as some sought to suggest. Following the assault upon the truck driver, the mob set upon the Negroes in the public square and began their lessons in 'patriotism' to Warren County Negroes.

The members of the mob made a systematic visit to each and every store. Wherever they found a Negro they told him to go to the fields and pick cotton. The bootblack in a barber shop showed some hesitancy about following the command and was given a clout over the head. The mob went to the local Chevrolet shop, where the manager promptly refused to allow them to approach his Negro helper. They went to the blacksmith's shop, and the blacksmith laid two powerful hands on a sledge-hammer and dared them to come in.

Being rebuffed here the mob descended upon the Negro district, now thoroughly terrified. They forced open the doors of private homes and delivered their ultimatum, "We want you to pick cotton," and departed. Shots were fired into the air and into some of the homes—at least one received several shots—completely terrorizing the people.

Many of the Negro women who were employed as maids, nurses, and cooks in the homes of the white people rushed frantically to them for protection. Some were locked in closets, and shut in garages to protect them from the fury of the mob. It is reliably reported that so terrorized were the Negro children that they sought sanctuary in the local cemetery, where they thought they would be safe from the mob.—American Civil Liberties Union, New York.

Signs of Bondage in the U. S. A.

Still Wearing the Yoke of Bondage

The men of Europe and America are today still wearing the necktie imposed upon their ancestors by Ghenghis Khan, whose Mongolian hordes overran Europe seven centuries ago. He made them wear the necktie as a badge of servitude, which it is indeed. The women have open necks and are proud of it, but the minute a man shows up without a necktie there is always some male or female Ghenghis Khan that wants to get him back into confession of impotence.

Uncle Sam's Worst Spots

◆ According to the American Civil Liberties Union the worst spots in Uncle Sam's domain, for violation of the rights of citizens by sundry and divers lawless city officials, police and others, are Jersey City, Memphis, San Antonio, Chicago, Boston, Gallup, N. M., Puerto Rico, and Harlan County, Ky.

500 Christmas Killings

◆ In the best Christmas the United States enjoyed in many years there were 14 suicides, 30 murders and more than 450 other violent deaths; all "in honor of Christ's birth", three months off the correct date. Hypocrisy in the United States is now running an all-time high.

Jobs as Charwomen

◆ Being a charwoman, i. e., cleaning offices, is not work that pays in the higher brackets, but Uncle Sam got a surprise when he wanted some charwomen in Washington and a mob of 25,000 women tried to get the $22 a week jobs.

"Sandwich Parader" Gets a Job

◆ Robert D. Stevens walked the streets of downtown Baltimore carrying a sign which read, "A white man slave—I am for sale to the highest bidder—I must work or starve." It got him a job at $63 a month working for the WPA.

Does the Government Encourage Illness?

Director of Procurement, Department of Bake Shops and Kitchens,

Washington, D. C.

My dear Director:

We note that on January 29 this year a Federal Standard Stock Catalog, Section 4, was issued showing that aluminum ware was selected to be used by all departments and establishments of the Government.

We have wondered whether or not you have made any investigation relative to the value of or the inimical effects of aluminum ware in connection with human food. It is difficult for us to believe that you have not been apprised of the danger in the use of any luminous metal used either as radium in luminous watch and clock dials, mercury or arsenic as used in treatment of syphilis, or as aluminum ware when used in the kitchen, or its salts as used in baking powders.

First, we wish to advise that the Federal Trade Commission made a thorough examination as to the physiological effects of aluminum in 1925, took 5,000 typewritten pages of testimony from 158 witnesses, reviewed more than 1,000 exhibits, after which Averill’s report was issued. We believe that this is available to you even though every effort has been made by the F.T.C. to suppress the report so that it would not reach the public.

Aluminum is used extensively to produce the crystals known as white sugar. Its catalytic effect has been recognized for a number of years, and when taken into the body as dissolved from cooking utensils it enters the various digestive organs. When in the gall bladder, without question, it produces the little crystal bodies known as gall stones. The peptic ferments are thus changed so that digestion is interfered with. Just to the extent of this interference body metabolism fails.

The metal is used as a mordant in all dyes. It is used for "tanning" hides, and aluminum in the muriate form is an excellent embalming fluid. When it floats around in the blood, this embalming effect soon produces a lowering of vitality resulting in illness.

We find that those using radium paint to make luminous watch and clock dials have become ill, 32 have already died, who were workers in the U. S. radium plant at Newark, New Jersey, and the Ottawa, Illinois, plant. About 100 others are in a semi or complete paralytic condition, with no antidote known.

Those who are treated for syphilis by the use of arsenic or mercury soon become affected with locomotor ataxia, a result of metallic poisoning. The periosteum of the leg joints dissolves, leaving the patient in the most pitiful condition from this metallic effect. One dose of mercury in the calomel form taken with something sour, like acetic acid, will cause the peridental membrane to dissolve, and the teeth become loose, salivation takes place, pyorrhea—focal infection, illness, death.

E. M. Holder, 200 Jarvis street, Toronto, "Fellow" of the International Scientists, issued an address in August claiming that infantile paralysis is the result of the ingestion of metal in its many forms, principally from aluminum cooking ware. There are some who wish to defend aluminum and claim that it is non-poisonous. How this can be done in the face of the fact that it is twice as potent as mercury, is difficult to understand. When the scientists sought the best substance known to be used as the reflector on the new Mount Palomar Observatory, aluminum was chosen above all others, they finding that it would sift out many of the atmospheric rays which mercury would not even affect.

Aluminum has the distinction of belonging to both metal groups: the luminous and the heavy metal series; it therefore is affected or dissolved by both acids and alkalis. No one questions the lethal effects that would result from the use of lead, arsenic, copper, or other soft metals when used in connection with food or conductors of faucet water. Small amounts of lead which are unmeasurable have frequently caused death. It takes a small amount of verdigris from copper to produce a lethal dose. Zinc used in galvanized utensils was found to be exceptionally poisonous when meat was stored in such pails or tubs. Government warnings have been issued from time to time that cow's milk should not be placed in such pails, because the milk becomes poisonous.

It does not take long to note results from the use of aluminum ware. Some months ago there were several food-poisoning cases in the Navy located at Los Angeles; no deaths occurring. Now we have the report before us that 350 sailors were poisoned at San Diego, reported in the Los Angeles Examiner of July 24, 1938, as follows: Food poisoning struck down 350 Naval Training Station sailors in the city and at the beaches today in the greatest mass poisoning case in the city's history.

Training station officials said that apparently none of the men affected were in a serious condition, although all were under doctor's care at the station.

They said the poisoning apparently resulted from ham and cabbage which was served to the 1200 station sailors at noon.

Calls began to flood police headquarters and naval patrol offices as men along the streets, in the Army & Navy Y.M.C.A. and downtown theaters suddenly became violently ill.

It is evident from the above report that the Naval Training Station is already equipped with aluminum ware, as your catalog states that the equipment becomes effective immediately and "may be put into effect before October 15, 1938, or any date earlier after promulgation".

Approximately 70 percent of the American citizens use aluminum ware. We find that about this number are constantly ailing and need medical attention. It is indeed interesting to know that those who use aluminum ware are the ones who are usually ill. Medics have been at a loss to know what to do to keep the American citizens upon their feet. Government reports now show that approximately 3 percent of our people are totally incapacitated. We have approximately 80 percent of our school children undernourished and in need of medical or dental care. It has been determined that the health status now has become alarming. In fact, the Government has instituted a health program costing $850,000,000 a year, this to be only a start.

We thought some years ago that $400,000,000 was a staggering sum for our Government to spend to build the Panama Canal; our health bill now reaches eight times that per year and will be ten before another passes. It is proposed to have a hospital expansion of 360,000 beds and the construction of 500 health and diagnostic centers, in spite of the fact that we now have more than five billion dollars' worth of hospitals. It figures now that every child will need a minimum cost of $10, and every adult will need $25, with allocation of $7.50 for each person for dental care per annum.

The National Health Survey committee has found that there are every year 70,000,000 sick persons, who lose a billion days of work from their customary activities, and that we have 4,000,000 persons every day who are unable to do any work.

Now, Mr. Director of Purchases, has it occurred to you or your department that there is a cause for so much illness in America? This is the only nation that uses the exceptional amount of aluminum per capita, yet, in countries where aluminum is used, the same proportion of sickness is in evidence.

It is beyond our comprehension why you would purchase such a metal as aluminum for use in any connection with food, unless it is to give money to those who already have too much of it but want more.

The president's son, Jimmy, has just passed through a dangerous operation. If you will take one look into the kitchens from where his food has been prepared, you can easily find what caused the disease.

Most sincerely yours,

[Signed] [Dr.] C. T. Betts.

Aluminum Trust Badly Frightened

◆ Through a slip-up, an honest man, Dr. James R. Smith, became health director of the city of Erie, Pa., and had the courage to state that the entire Ahenger family had been made ill by food cooked in an aluminum cooking utensil, and, strangest of all, the truth was actually published in the Erie Daily Times. The aluminum trust is badly frightened. How this thing ever got by is hard to understand. Of course, similar poisonings have occurred in a thousand different cities, with the uniform result heretofore that the meat was said to be tainted and specimens had been turned over to the bacteriological department to be buried. But in this case the astonishing Dr. Smith traced the thing down, actually found that the beef was fresh beef, and then discovered that the family was made ill every time it cooked anything in the aluminum utensil. Brave man.

Aluminum Shoes for Horses

◆ In the United States in the past five years race horses wearing aluminum shoes established 300 track records, and it is stated that 80 percent of all horses now in training wear aluminum shoes.

Murdered

◆ One woman thinking to make some use of her suspected aluminum kettle put a plant in it. The plant died. — E. G. Lovejoy, Maine.

Big Business

Under Present Conditions

Epidemics are good for doctors, undertakers and tombstone makers.

Conflagrations are good for architects, bricklayers and carpenters.

Shipwrecks are good for shipbuilders and jobless sailors.

Boll weevils are good for cotton raisers, chinch bugs for wheat raisers, and hog cholera for hog raisers.

Floods are good for farmers, and drouths are more profitable than just enough rain.

Troubles are good for lawyers.

Scandals are good for newspapers, and murders are better still.

Debts are good for bankers, horse droppings for street sweepers, and dust storms for carpet cleaners.

Bankruptcies are good for receivers, boils for surgeons, and boiler explosions for boiler makers.

Toothache is good for dentists, blowouts for tire-fixers, and empty splash-pans for garagemen.

When a fellow falls off a skyscraper and breaks his neck, business looks up for the guy looking for a job.

One man's death is the other one's bread.

Killing people by the retail is good for cops, jailers, judges, jurymen, ropemakers and manufacturers of electric chairs.

Killing people by the wholesale is good for everybody. The dead are out of their troubles and the living have no trouble making a living.—American Guardian.

$60,000 Worth of Fun

◆ To a big corporation $60,000, seems like a small amount to expend in damages for shooting and beating up the wrong people. That is the amount the Republic Steel Company, Canton, Ohio, paid to innocent people into whom they mistakenly poured their buckshot. In instances the shooting was done two miles away from the plant, and even the police of the city were not safe. Women were shot as well as men. Shooting at innocent people is a lot of fun for those who like that kind of fun. Mrs. Mary Reed, pregnant at the time she was riddled with buckshot, had no connection with the strike and was two miles from any strike area when Republic Steel Company thugs shot her. She was given $7,500 damages, but is still crippled, after four years.

Disulfide Insanity

◆ A new disease is now recognized, as caused by carbon disulfide, a vile-smelling chemical used to dissolve cellulose, and employed in every rayon factory. Workers who handle this chemical, unless carefully protected by adequate ventilation arrangements, are liable to hysteria, temporary blindness, stupor, wild excitement or even insanity.

Confused in Their Geography

◆ Armour and Company, meat packers, got confused in geography. They bought 1,400 boxes of butter in Siberia and sold them in Boston labeled, "Made in the U. S. A." When they admitted it in court they were fined $300; and now they will be good until they get caught again.

$5 Worth of Bar Iron

◆ Five dollars' worth of bar iron, if made into horseshoes, is worth $10.50; if made into needles, is worth $355; if made into penknife blades, $3,285; if made into balance springs for watches, $250,000. So says an exchange.

RIGHTEOUS RULER

THE NEW GOVERNMENT

Rely on Whose Arm?

The question comes in different form in two letters from the British Isles, twelve days apart, as to what Jehovah’s people are to do now, in view of the new and terrible conditions threatening. The answer is, Do the same as they have been doing right along. Jehoshaphat’s army struck no blow, but it never let up on its singing and praying. It was desirous to know the will of God and to do it. What is there beyond that? Nothing, except to wait on the Lord for the victory which will come in His own due time and way.—2 Chronicles 20.

The first of the letters is from London, and says:

There seems to be some divergence of opinion among the consecrated here as to what attitude to adopt in such times as the present European crisis, in view of the Government Air Raid Precaution activities. It is my belief that one who has been brought into Jehovah’s organization, by His grace, should steer entirely clear of this, another subtle scheme of the Devil to undermine their faith and to turn the minds of the people away from the Lord’s provision for them:

“Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired: before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of [Jehovah] come upon you, before the day of [Jehovah’s] anger come upon you. Seek ye [Jehovah], all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of [Jehovah’s] anger.”—Zephaniah 2:1-3.

One who is a faithful witness of Jehovah does not need any man-made means of protection, such as respirators, dugouts, etc., but trusts entirely to Divine providence, whatever may happen.

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of [Jehovah], He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. Because thou hast made [Jehovah], which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”—Psalm 91:1, 2, 5, 6, 9-11.

“For [Jehovah] spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify [Jehovah] of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”—Isaiah 8:11-13.

Jehovah’s Kingdom publishers’ headquarters at Birmingham, England

Surely the many instances of Jehovah’s protection in the past of His faithful servants recorded in His Word are for the benefit and encouragement of His witnesses in this day of battle:

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”—1 Corinthians 10:11.

We know that not one of Jehovah’s witnesses could stand for one moment were it not for the Lord’s protection and power exercised now:

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”—Revelation 12:17.

"The angel of [Jehovah] encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." — Psalm 34: 7.

Therefore the faithful witness of the Most High can go forward in His glad service, casting aside every weight, knowing that if it be His will, the King of Eternity will carry His witness even through the maelstrom of Armageddon to His everlasting praise and glory:

"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."—Isaiah 43: 2.

That really seems to cover the ground, Scripturally and properly.

An inquiry from Edinburgh approaches the same problem from another direction, saying:

I recall that in The Golden Age quite a number of years ago there was in some article a really good answer to the argument, "If the enemy came and attacked your wife, would you not fight to protect her?" I think we in Britain will soon need to be answering these arguments all over again, only this time it will include women too, as, so far as I can see, we are all to be registered, but are to be given the choice of the work we shall do, so long as we agree to do something, and I can imagine the subtle arguments that will be used:

Surely there can be nothing wrong in learning how to help your friends and neighbors in case of air raids; or,

You will not be required to do any other work than you are in the habit of doing every day, only you will be doing it to help your country in time of need.

One nice thing about bridges is that they do not have to be crossed until you come to them; meantime, better not cross them, but stay where the Lord put you, do the work He bids you do, and leave the results to Him. On a bet, anybody that neglected the witness work to pay attention to all these bridges would be one of the first ones picked off in an air raid. On the other hand, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, when they were in the fiery furnace, were a great deal cooler than the men who tried to make it hot for them, including old man Nebuchadnezzar himself.

Jehovah's Kingdom publishers, Stanford-le-Hope, England

Among the Vagrants

The other Sunday evening, when on a visit to the Casual Ward of the Poor Law Institution of my home city, the thought suddenly struck me that an account of the matter might be of interest to readers of Consolation.

A little later, when passing through the grim and prison-like exercise yard reserved for the regular inmates of the Institution, a little incident occurred that converted that first impulse to write into an urge. Hence this article.

Let me first explain that my visit to the Casual Ward was not caused by adversity; nor was I, like a local clergyman, seeking sensation and "copy" for a book. No! Kingdom work takes two of the local company of Jehovah's witnesses to the Casual Ward every Sunday evening.

In brief explanation it should be said that there are in this country a number (how many, who can say?) of men and youths who are continually tramping the roads from place to place in the hopeless search for employment. These men, the unfortunate victims of the present economic situation, are, in the main, decent, honest fellows of the working class, with here and there one or two who have evidently seen far better days.

For the most part these poor itinerants spend their nights in the Casual Wards of the Poor Law Institutions of the towns and cities they visit. It is only fair to the authorities to state that the men are given good, wholesome food and a decent bed. Baths are also provided, while in the winter the rooms are well heated. Before leaving, the men do a little casual labor in part return for their shelter and keep.

At the week-ends they are allowed to spend Saturday and Sunday nights at the Institution, but while there they are virtually prisoners, in that they are not allowed outside the Ward or its surrounding enclosure.

In the early days of the Electrical Transcription work (presenting Judge Rutherford's recorded speeches) over here our local company sought permission from the Poor Law authorities to arrange programs on Sunday evenings in the Casual Ward. These programs were to comprise Judge Rutherford's lectures, interspersed with suitable musical records. Rather to our surprise this permission was granted, and now for well over two years the recorded voice of Judge Rutherford has brought comfort to these poor fellows every week. After the meeting, each is presented with either a copy of Consolation or one of the Society's booklets.

Today Judge Rutherford is well known as a "friend of the people" by these rough and friendless men, who would be scorned by the haughty as mere 'tramps'. We have occasionally met men who have heard the judge speak personally in the States or in Canada. One old chap had actually heard Pastor Russell speak, years ago, in Chicago.

Jehovah's Kingdom publishers, Belfast, Ireland

The genuine appreciation shown is at times rather touching. No matter which of the local friends attend, they all bear testimony to this.

The numbers present vary according to the season of the year. In the harvest and pea-picking seasons the numbers are smaller, as some of our friends then obtain a short spell of work on farms, etc. From 30 to 50 would be the average attendance. Since we started the work over four thousand men have heard the Kingdom message. One of the signs of the times in our Lord's day was stated to be, "The poor have the gospel preached to them." And surely, by the foregoing and other means, history is being repeated in these parallel days, just prior to the downfall of the Devil's organization.

Now for the little incident that caused me to tell this story. For some reason or other we are not allowed to put the message on for the benefit of the regular inmates, who are kept quite apart from the Casuals. We have managed it on two occasions only. So well known have we become, however, that last Sunday, as we passed them, some of these old men asked us to arrange a program on their behalf. We expressed our willingness, provided permission could be obtained. But after we had finished with the Casuals, and had come out again, there, to our surprise, stood one of the old 'Regulars', debarred from entering the Ward, listening outside the open window. He expressed his appreciation, saying that his only regret was that the program was "too short"; this after standing up outside, the latter part in a drizzle of rain. The old fellow eagerly accepted a piece of literature. Surely such cannot be far from the kingdom of God.—F. W. Freer, England.

Lying in Hungary

◆ Jehovah's witnesses are well accustomed to reading lies against them and their work of bearing testimony to the name and purposes of the Most High God. Most of these lies emanate from newspapermen that are directly under Roman Hierarchy influence.

Those who have read the nearly 300,000,000 books, booklets and magazines of Jehovah's witnesses know that not a line favoring Communism has been printed in one of them, yet Die Vaderland of South Africa contained a dispatch from Budapest, Hungary, that a group of the witnesses were taken into custody charged with trying to undermine the state and "detectives took possession of a truckload of Communist pamphlets". What they seized was literature of the kingdom for which Christ taught His followers to pray; nothing else.

Five days later the lie was edited in London, and was printed in the Brisbane, Australia, Courier-Mail, that Jehovah's witnesses in Hungary constituted "a so-called religious society, which, under cover of Biblical studies, engaged in spreading Communist literature and anti-Christian propaganda".

How ashamed all these liars will be, just before their destruction!

(To be continued) California

The Anaheim Orange Dump

The orange dump at Anaheim, California, is a mile and a quarter long, 20 feet wide, and 10 feet high, and contains about 10 million dozen oranges, left there to rot, so as to keep up the prices of oranges. Each day during the season about 20 six-ton trucks dump additional thousands of dozens. They are then sprayed with oil, so that nobody will want them; but before they are sprayed they are as good oranges as those you find in the markets at the standard prices usually charged. It seems like an insult to the Creator to treat His gifts that way, but if these oranges were marketed prices and profits would go to smash; and the world today lives for prices and profits, not to serve.

Cliff House and Seal Rocks, San Francisco, California

Putting the Colorado to Use

◆ More and more use is being made of the Colorado river. Everybody knows about the great Boulder dam, one of the greatest works of man, which makes possible the watering of a great part of southern California. Farther down the river is the Parker dam, which carries drinking water to Los Angeles; and now, still farther down stream, and only some twenty miles from the national boundary, is the new Imperial dam, which carries a stream 25 feet deep, and 260 feet wide at the top, into some of the richest farming land on earth. It is calculated that these waters will open 2,750,000 barren acres to cultivation and provide at least 100,000 persons with occupations. The celery, lettuce, canteloupes, cotton and alfalfa which these waters will be used to produce is almost unthinkable. The growing season is 365 days a year.

Turning Midway into a Naval Base

◆ The island of Midway, 1,400 miles west of Honolulu, now one of the stops on the American Airway line to the Philippines, is being turned into a naval base. The surveyors and carpenters are already on the job, and a million dollars will be spent in dredging or blasting a channel from the south into the lagoon, 3 miles long and 60 feet deep, in the center of the atoll. Concrete ramps will be built at Midway so that navy airboats can be hauled ashore for inspection and repairs.

COUNSEL by J. F. Rutherford

Education

MRS. ROOSEVELT was interviewed in respect to a question concerning peace. She replied, and the press gave wide publication to her reply, to wit: “To establish and insure peace man’s nature must be changed by the teachings of Christ, and this is to be accomplished by education.” The question naturally arises, To whom should the work of such education be entrusted? Certainly not to the denominational systems called “churches”. The majority of the Protestant ministers are higher critics and do not believe the teachings of Jesus Christ. The Catholic Hierarchy keeps the Bible away from the people and instructs the youth in the catechism, prayer book and other publications of that religious organization. Both the Protestants and the Catholics, when the World War was on, preached from their pulpits, urging the young men to go to war, thus ignoring the teachings of Christ Jesus. The education of the people in the teachings of Jesus Christ could not properly be committed to men who deny the Lord. The advice of Mrs. Roosevelt sounds good, but the religionists would not give heed to that advice and, therefore, would not follow it consistently. It is true that if the nations would give heed to the teachings of Jesus Christ strife would cease, but the religionists fail and refuse to do so.

The teaching of Jesus Christ emphasizes one thing above all others, and that one thing is the kingdom of Jehovah God. There is no religious organization on the earth that follows the lead of Jesus Christ in teaching the people of and concerning the kingdom of Jehovah God. In the Scriptures the following word of God is written concerning Christ Jesus as the only hope of the world, to wit: “Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the [nations]. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. And in his name shall the [nations] trust.” (Matthew 12: 18, 19, 21) Thus Jehovah speaks of Christ Jesus His beloved Servant, who always teaches the truth to the people and always emphasizes the importance of the Kingdom and tells them that the hope of the nations is in the kingdom of God under Christ. The above prophetic utterance contains these words: ‘No man shall hear His voice in the street’; and these words clearly mean that Jesus Christ would not advertise himself by magnifying His own greatness and importance, but always magnifies His Father’s name and His Father’s kingdom. Jesus repeatedly said that He came not to do His own will, but to do what His Father Jehovah God directed Him to do. Contrary to the policy and course that Jesus followed, the big clergymen of this present time magnify themselves and exalt themselves and exalt other men, and thus they figuratively are ‘crying in the street’, that is to say, inviting adulation and praise from men. Jehovah adds concerning Jesus: ‘In Him shall the nations hope.’ On the contrary, the religious church organization, particularly the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, says, ‘In the Catholic organization the nations must hope,’ and hence the Hierarchy attempts to grab control of and rule the whole world.

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