Consolation, March 8, 1939
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Contents
Death of the Spanish Republic 3
Earth’s Most Gifted Liars 4
Pope Rejoiced to See Ruin 7
Double-crossing America and Spain 8
United States Air Pilot Requirements 10
Other Flying Creatures 11
The New Government 12
The Magistrate of Umtali 12
“Most Reverend” Simonds Fibbed 13
Pioneering in Nigeria 13
Foods 15
Scotch Scones 15
Natural Phenomena 16
Counsel by J. F. Rutherford 17
Petition 17
Mexico, Britain, Ethiopia and Japan 18
U. S. Government vs. A. M. A. 19
Under Totalitarian Flag 20
Shaughnessy’s Gun Kicked 20
Hierarchical Courtesy 22
The Terror in France 23
Canada 24
Wild Geese at James Bay 24
Fascism in America 25
The Germ Theory of Disease 26
Chemical Causes of Disease 27
British Comment 28
Steamships 31
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Appetizers
Did Not Get Away with It
“Hawkins, the cook advises me that you were badly intoxicated last night and that you were trying to roll a barrel out of the basement. Can this be true?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“And where was I during all that time?”
“In the barrel, my lord.”
The Next Back Call
Collector—Hello there, young man. Is your mother or father home?
Little Jackie—They are both out and said for you to call again Friday.
Collector—H’m! And why on Friday, my little man?
Little Jackie—That’s what I don’t know, sir. We’re moving Thursday.
Aviation Problems
It was in the spring. Their hearts beat as one. He took down the stove pipe and, behold, the chimney flue. Hardly had this happened before his wife saw the house fly. After that, the house was in an uproar for days at a time, until things settled down and the clothes were back on their hangars.
Hall but Halice
“What a big family you have, Mrs. Jones!” said the visitor in an English home.
“Yes’m. And the funny thing is that all the names begin with a haitch. There’s ’Orace, ’Erbert, ’Enry, ’Ugh, ’Ubert, ’Arold, ’Arriet, and ’Etty—hall except the last one, and we ’ad ’er named Halice.”
Keeps One Busy
“A fellow has to be a contortionist to get on these days,” says a philosopher. “First he has to keep his back to the wall and his ear to the ground. Then he must put his shoulder to the wheel, his nose to the grindstone, keep a level head, and have both feet on the ground.”
Same as in America
Answering a question put by his teacher, a British urchin replied, “The prevailing religion in England is hypocrisy.” CONSOLATION
“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A.R.V.
Volume XX Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, March 8, 1939 Number 508
Death of the Spanish Republic
AMBROSE RATTI, generally known as Pope Pius XI, head of the Italian Camorra operating out of Vatican City, succeeded before his death in destroying the Spanish Republic, after accomplishing similar work as respects the republics of Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Danzig. To his achievements may also be added the destruction of Ethiopia and the imminent destruction of China.
Make no mistake, the war in Spain originated with the pope. It was his war. The men he used to accomplish the ruin of Spain were all professed Catholics, as Juan March, Hitler, Mussolini, Daladier, and Franco, or were sympathetic with and in subservience to the Hierarchy, as is the case with Chamberlain and Roosevelt.
Franco used the Moors, traditional enemies of Spain, in accomplishing the ruin of the republic, and Franco had the pope’s “blessing”.
The pope made it plain on July 29, 1938, that there are no serious differences between himself and the Fascist dictators when he said:
Now there is someone who has affirmed that between Catholic Action and the Fascist party there is an unbridgeable doctrinal divergence. Big words are these, but crazy words.
A dispatch from Rome, published in the London Catholic Herald of July 22, 1938, stated:
The Press in the democratic countries is inclined to jump to somewhat exaggerated conclusions when the pope speaks out with force against certain tendencies in Italian Fascism. “The pope condemns Fascism” headline of many English newspapers this week has caused much annoyance here [in Rome]. It is an entirely misleading interpretation of the Holy Father’s words on “the curse of extreme nationalism”.
According to Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, of Malaga, Spain:
The war in Spain is an attempt on the part of the people of Spain to defend the decencies of life, the possibilities of education and their hope for the future, which they have won at an election, from a violent and greedy set of Spanish oppressors who want to get all their old privileges back again. And these oppressors are backed by the might of German and Italian armies. To my mind, the Spanish people are fighting your battle and my battle for the freedom of humanity, and in their fight their greatest enemy has been the policy of Great Britain.
Testimony of Catholic Priests
Ramon Ugarte, Catholic priest, pastor of the parochial church of Santa Maria de San Sebastian, Spain, stated:
Our war [of the Spanish Republic to put down the Franco rebellion] is not a religious war nor an ideological war; it is a monstrous war imposed upon the Spanish worker by a bunch of traitors to their country, which they have sold shamefully to preserve their iniquitous privileges to exploit the people. Traitors and perjurers, vile assassins, Pharisees whom, if Jesus were to come again to the world, He would drive away from the Temple, not at the crack of the whip, but kicking them out!
•Judge Rutherford did not name Pope Pius XI personally in his address at London, September 11, 1938, and hence to his successor now applies the warning then given:
Today you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, the great Judge of the world. According to the undisputed facts you are convicted out of your own mouth, and the Lord’s final judgment has been entered against you and you are going to die. (See the booklet Face the Facts, page 23.)
“The Pope of Peace” was without compassion for Basques, Catalonians, Ethiopians, Chinese or the common people of any land, but was interested only in the maintenance of the most ungodly racket beneath the sun. There has been much palaver about his “saintliness”, and his prospects of a place in heaven or “purgatory”. He has none, and the world, though well rid of him, is no better off with his successor in office.
--Another priest, Michael O’Flanagan, of Dublin, Ireland, upon his return from that war-racked land, said:
If a totalitarian state is one of the most hateful things in the world, a totalitarian church is more hateful still. The Church has often proved itself to be a very unreliable leader in political affairs.
Don José Bergamin, director of the Catholic review Cruz y Raya, summed up the Spanish situation as follows:
Cast your eyes for one moment on that tragic pyramid of grotesques: generals, bishops, Moors, Carlists in red berets—they are like some fantastic mummery-show of Death. They entrust the defense of their Spain to Moors and soldiers of the Foreign Legion, for they have no Spanish hands and bodies to defend themselves. This is the truth of Spain in these bloody hours. We are the Spaniards: they are a handful of traitors with some thousands of barbarian mercenaries at their command, with some weapons of war bought on credit out of the spoils to which they would reduce our land. And in these they put their trust, or rather their desperation.
By such barbarians some of the dignitaries of our church seek to defend their impostures—dignitaries of the Church which they have taken from the people, which they have corrupted, prostituted, shamed with avarice and spotted with our blood, the blood of the Spanish people. Listen to this, if you are listening to me, unfaithful shepherds, traitors to Christ! You have placed in the barbarous hands of Legionaries and Moors the sacred vessels, the riches and treasure which you never offered to your people, the poor, the disinherited, the hungry. And you either give these things as sacrilegious booty, or to convert them into weapons dealing death to your people and your flock. I know you well, bishops who dabble in politics, who chatter of politics. Listen well; for this is an accusation which I make. You, the dignitaries of the Spanish church, have betrayed that church, and have robbed the people!
In the year 1928 there were 32,004 priests in Spain. In 1936 the “Rebels” asserted that 17,500 of them had been slain. Later Cardinal Goma said the number slain was more than 10,000. In the last pastoral letter of the Spanish bishops they stated that the number slain was 6,000, and the facts show that most of these (possibly an actual 3,000) were slain while fighting as common soldiers against the government, the object of their conspiracy.
Earth’s Most Gifted Liars
The Osservatore Romano, organ of the Vatican, cheerfully said,
In Teruel, twenty-seven of the sixty-five priests on January sixth [1938] were murdered by Communists.
And then the Spanish Republic supplied the information that four of the number were being held in officers’ quarters in Barcelona, twenty-two were held in the military barracks in Valencia, and the twenty-seventh had died in a military hospital. The only reason that any of the priests were confined was their illegal activities against the state.
Giving the lie to the oft-repeated stories of persecutions of priests in the Spanish Republic, the New York Herald-Tribune carried a dispatch from Barcelona, the then capital, that on October 17 priests walked the streets in robes and the other funny-looking things they like to wear, while the people in general tipped their hats and soldiers gave the military salute. But so long as there was any chance of a victory for Franco, the Hierarchy continued to send out stories of persecution, so as to get the public sympathy necessary to the continuation of their racket.
On July 22, 1938, 28 Spanish nuns landed in England after being in Madrid and Barcelona for over two years of the civil war. They denied that they had suffered any special hardships or ill treatment on account of being nuns.
It was the intention of the Spanish Republic that, in the event of final success for the loyalists, Spain should become a refuge for the oppressed of German lands, whether Catholic, Protestant or Jewish, and a proclamation to that effect was issued. What a rebuke this was to the murderers, liars and traitors that brought about the defeat and destruction of the republic and dashed the hopes of the Spanish people for better conditions to the ground!
The Loyalist government of Spain carefully protected Spanish art treasures, many of them of ecclesiastical significance. Arrangements were made with the League to hold these in safekeeping until the conclusion of the war.
Lawrence Fernsworth, American newspaper correspondent in Spain, showed further the good intentions of the government:
This brings us to the religious phase of the situation here. A great deal of poison has been spread abroad in an effort to make people believe that this is an anti-God government having as one of its main purposes the crushing of religion. Sectarian periodicals have published and repeated that “the government has liquidated the priests”. I have gone deeply into the facts—they would affect me profoundly if they were true. But I find no evidence to support the charges.
In Barcelona today there are living some 2,000 priests, in Madrid some 900, in other cities and towns others in proportion. I know of anarchists who saved the lives of priests, and I know of atheists who sheltered priests in their homes to guard them from harm. All this contrasts oddly with the statements that "not one priest remains in Madrid", or in Barcelona or some other city, as the case may be.
I am told by an investigator, himself a Catholic priest, that not more than 80 priests were killed in Madrid. That is bad enough, but they are only a fraction of many others who suffered in those days of turbulence and chaos. Those sworn to uphold the government and law and order abandoned it, turned traitors, and for some months anarchic disorder reigned until the government, fighting for its life at Madrid, could establish law and order again, as now it has done. That is the long and short of it.
The government has offered every facility for the re-establishment of religious worship. Protestant churches have been open for months; Catholic churches have not opened except for some chapels, particularly one in Barcelona, which is freely open to the public.
The government has gone strictly upon the theory that since there exists a constitutional separation of Church and State, it is not for the government to open churches. Catholics, if they wish their services, must open their own churches and the government will protect them. But the sad fact must be recorded that Catholics have not yet opened churches because of systematic obstruction on the part of the clergy.
Few, if any, are sympathetic to the government even though receiving its protection. Most of them are waiting for the arrival of Franco. "They are more interested in having a pretext for murmuring against the government than in accepting its protection and good will," one of the priests loyal to the government told me.
These priests still take the view, as manifested by the bishop of Teruel at the time of his capture, that this is a "holy war", in which the main issue is the church. It has been one of the great misfortunes of Spain that the church has insisted upon making itself the main issue.
And Pedro Lecuona, minister counselor, Spanish embassy, Washington, D. C., stated:
It would be interesting to know whether Mgr. Antoniutti knows that Franco has shot 13 priests, imprisoned 117, and exiled 135 in the Basque country; that the bishops in the Rebel zone do not raise their arms to bestow benedictions but to make the Fascist salute; that they celebrate mass on altars in which instead of having a holy image, they have the arrows of the Spanish Fascist emblem (the veracity of this can be proved with photographs); that on the altars of certain churches of San Sebastian and Bilbao there are to be found large portraits of Franco; that the parish priests of the Basque country have informed the Vatican that the people remain absent from church as a protest against the attitude adopted by the greater part of the Hierarchy toward the Spanish civil war; that there are many, many Mohammedans who Franco claims are fighting for the Catholic religion.
The New Orleans Tribune of January 21, 1939, carried an article by Roy Mouton, who served in Spain as a volunteer, in which he says:
The most lying kind of propaganda has been launched against the Spanish people. I am a Catholic; I went to mass over and over again. There is no interference with the church. And all of that cry about "Communism" is a smoke-screen.
No attempt will be made here to review all the events of the Spanish Civil War. Mention is made only of some of the more recent engagements.
During the siege of Madrid not only were the 1,300,000 inhabitants supplied with sufficient food, but 3,000 babies were born. The road to Valencia was kept open and supplies continued to arrive.
Many wonder how the Spanish Republic, cut in half by Franco's army, could have continued to function as long as it did. Mails were carried between the two parts by submarine. Steamship and air-mail service were also maintained. Only the railway and highway communications were cut.
In the assault on Teruel, 400 Fascist airplanes staged the world's greatest air battle. The German and Italian planes used were described as new ones, spreading death and destruction for all the daylight hours, and dumping 1,500-pound aerial torpedoes on their objectives below. The destruction spread to villages fifteen miles behind the battle front.
A British commission which examined the city of Alicante after a series of air raids by the rebel forces found that eighty bombs had been dropped within a certain time, but not one of these fell within a quarter of a mile of any military objective and that the only conclusion possible is that the raids were deliberate attacks upon civilians or else were conducted by persons unskilled in air raids, which is doubtful.
Spanish Rebel General Yague made an address at Lerida, Spain, in which he complimented the courage of the Spanish Loyalist soldiers and said that the German and Italian soldiers in the Rebel ranks conducted themselves like birds of prey. He thought that per haps some day a reunited Spanish people would fight both the Germans and Italians.
Protestants pressed the pope to say something to Franco deploring the bombing of civilians in Spain, but it must have been understood between them that what he then said was to go in one ear and out of the other; for it had not the least effect.
The Massacres of Majorca
In a new book by Georges Bernanos, a French Catholic writer, he tells of his experiences on the island of Majorca: how he greeted the arrival of the first Italian airplane without displeasure, but how, finally, his eyes were opened to the horrors of Fascism as he saw the mass executions, 3,000 in a few months, in a small island, with a peaceful agricultural population who had never had much to do with politics. He declares that all suspects were dragged out of their houses at night and massacred; not a sick or wounded person was spared; sometimes the massacres took place in the presence of a priest; appearances were carefully preserved; no one was allowed to wear mourning; no shops were closed.
The New York Times, in its issue of January 19, carried a dispatch in which it is stated that refugees, gathered in the main square of Santa Coloma de Queralt, were machine-gunned by Franco’s men. The town was subsequently recaptured by the Loyalists and so the truth got out.
October 7, 1938, to get a good name for himself, Franco caused 345,000 packets of cigarettes and 250 tons of bread to be dropped on Barcelona and Madrid. He hoped thereby to weaken the resistance of these two important centers of Loyalist Spain. The day previous he had dropped 2,500 pounds of high-explosive bombs on Palamos and four incendiary bombs. The Loyalist government reciprocated the bread and cigarette maneuver by dropping tons of stockings, shirts and other wearing apparel in Burgos.
The Dépêche de Toulouse, one of the most influential newspapers in France, reported that Franco sent enormous quantities of American wheat to Germany in exchange for munitions. The wheat had been contributed by charitable societies.
In fourteen months Valencia was bombed with something more substantial than bread 460 times, during which bombings 3,000 persons were killed and more than twice that many wounded.
2,000 Air Raids on Barcelona
During the course of the war Barcelona was subjected to some 2,000 air raids, in which tens of thousands of bombs were dropped on the city. Hundreds of men, women and children were killed, and thousands seriously injured. Over a thousand buildings were destroyed.
After the capture of Barcelona the rebel conquerors celebrated an outdoor victory mass in the city.
There was great rejoicing at Rome over the Barcelona victory of the “Spanish rebels”. The former king and queen of Spain, whose marriage, after many years of married life, was declared void by the pope, were there at a “solemn mass”, and so was Vladimir Ledochowsky, superior general of the Jesuits. Just a “coincidence”, of course.
Jerry J. O’Connell, liberty-loving representative from Montana, wanted justice done for Spain. Although O’Connell is a Roman Catholic, and even though his meeting was picketed by Catholics hostile to his stand, he boldly addressed 6,500 people at Pittsburgh, protesting against the Spanish embargo.
The embargo against the Spanish Republic would have been lifted early in May, and the agreement to do so had already been formed by Secretary Hull and his advisers, when word came from Roosevelt, then fishing in the Caribbean, to wait until he got back. It seems that the Roman Hierarchy turned the heat on him and, as usual, he went along with the great enemy of democracy.
Bringing Hypocrisy into the Open
Bringing the hypocrisy of the so-called “Non-Intervention” powers into the open, the prime minister of Spain, Dr. Negrin, announced at the League of Nations that the Spanish Republican Government had ordered the immediate withdrawal of all non-Spanish combatants fighting on the Government side, and asked for the immediate appointment of an international commission by the League of Nations to see that this was done. The very same paper that announced this courageous stand also announced that Italy was sending fresh troops to Franco. Negrin claims that if the Moors, Italians and Germans had been withdrawn from Spain the Republicans could have re-established order in three weeks.
The United States may send munitions to any country that needs them, except Spain. The reason it could not send them to Spain was that it would offend the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, which is the power behind the Franco-Moorish-German-Italian attack. Mexico has no such scruples and recently filled a ship full of munitions for the Spanish Republic, and followed that with a large order of munitions for Mexico, placed with makers in the United States. Miss Dorothy Thompson, noted columnist, said:
A legitimate, friendly government has the right to buy from us in the markets of the world whatever she needs for her defense against rebellion. That is a principle of international practice which the American government has stood for from the beginning of her history. Our historic tradition has been on the side of not only selling arms to friendly governments, but of preventing arms’ going to rebels against which such friendly governments were struggling.
Italian Non(?)-Intervention
General Ambroglio Barlatti, in Il Mediterraneo, explained Italy’s interest in the Spanish Civil War, when he said:
It is time that the Spanish war be recognized as a continuation of the Abyssinian campaign. We must impose our influence on the Spaniards so that the Mediterranean may become the Italian lake of which Mussolini has spoken.
In view of the fact that Italy was officially at peace with Spain, it was rather interesting that the Italian government published the information that since the war began in Spain Italian fliers shot down 580 airplanes. In April, 1938, the Italian fliers dropped 291 tons of explosives on their Spanish neighbors; in May, 431 tons; and in June, 719 tons. The Italian government was one of the governments on the Non-Intervention Committee, supposed to be struggling to bring about peace in Spain.
When the Spanish Government reported the return to Italy of 10,000 Italian soldiers and the immediate replacement of 4,549 sent to Spain in 16 ships, details of the names of the ships and the number of men on each ship were given. The Republic estimated that after this exchange the Italians still had in Spain 900 pilots, 2,000 aviation mechanics, 10,000 chauffeurs, 5,000 engineers, 10,000 laborers, 2,000 secret police, 1,000 army service men, and 60,000 soldiers, making in all about 91,000 men. [Condensed from a Barcelona dispatch by Herbert L. Matthews in the New York Times.]
Up to the fall of Barcelona 2,928 out of some 50,000 Italian soldiers in Spain had been killed. Undoubtedly Mussolini expects that his investment of men and money in Spain is going to yield returns to Italy that will justify the lavish expenditures. The rebel victory undoubtedly increases Italian prestige and power considerably. British statesmen, however, continue to hope that they will be able to offset Mussolini’s influence in Spain by means of loans to Franco, who will not be in position to ignore Britain.
Pope Rejoiced to See Ruin
Pius XI, foreseeing the ruin of the Spanish Republic when the Anglo-Italian deal was made, said, “God be praised,” when Pacelli told him about it.
The Manchester Guardian, seeing that there had been no square deal intended for Spain, said:
It is two years since the foreign invasion of Spain began. It has taken that time for the Powers to produce even a paper scheme that might give the Spanish Government not a square deal, for nothing so absurd is contemplated, but a deal less crooked than that which has brought it within sight of defeat.
Franco the Butcher discloses the heart of Fascism (Catholic Action) in his rulings regarding education. His so-called “minister of education” closed fifty high schools in the territory under his control, giving as a reason the following strictly Papal principle:
The people are better off without education. It unfits them for their destiny as peasants and workers.
That is rich, for a “minister of education”.
And it shows what must inevitably happen in any land that comes under Fascist control. There will be a drying-up of all sources of information for the common people. This drying-up is actually under way in the United States today, when children are driven away from the public school because they refuse to worship the flag, and when the Roman Catholic Hierarchy conspires to keep Judge Rutherford off the air, and when the newspapers and the movies are so polluted with superstitious Roman Catholic rot that they can hardly be seen without nausea. The prophet saw this day coming when he said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”—Hosea 4:6.
With respect to Franco’s tentative government setup John V. Hinkel, in the New York Times of September 5, 1938, says:
In its setup the government appears to be totalitarian. Freedom of speech and of the press is curtailed under it; commerce and industry are strictly supervised; no political opposition—particularly from the Left—is countenanced; the people are mildly regimented, and there are other earmarks. As perhaps the most influential non-government personage in Nationalist Spain, Cardinal Goma y Tomas, head of the Spanish hierarchy, commands a great deal of respect and attention. The cardinal told the writer that “the spirit of the laws promulgated thus far by the Nationalist government is in complete harmony with the teachings of the church”.
That the traitorous Spanish rebel setup is backed by the Hierarchy to the limit is indicated in The Register, Catholic paper of central California, of August 21, 1938:
Nearly 900 cardinals, archbishops and bishops throughout the world have written letters to Cardinal Goma, primate of Spain, which appear in the book being issued at Burgos, showing the sympathy of world Catholics with the Nationalist cause. Included are collective letters of sympathy from the Hierarchies of the United States, Canada, Britain, Mexico, and other countries. With Vatican approval, the book is being published as a sequel to the 1937 Pastoral Letter of the Spanish Hierarchy.
How things will go is shown by the fact that Franco had a formal inauguration of his regime at Burgos, Spain, December 2, 1937, in which he was enthroned beneath the old-time arms of King Alphonso’s Spain. He was sworn in with religious rites. The exercises took place in the Roman Catholic church of Huelgas.
The Franco tribunal at Bilbao sentenced
Dr. Pedro Lozano, director of the hospital of Durango, to eleven years’ penal servitude because he continued to look after the patients when the Loyalist forces were in Durango.
“The Butcher”
Franco admits he has a card file of some 2,000,000 persons many of whom will be put to death and the others sentenced to penal servitude. He announced that he will not tolerate any other “Christian religion” in Spain than the Catholic religion. He concluded a treaty with Hitler.
Franco will absolutely control the press in Fascist Spain. Orders issued by him regulate the number of papers and reporters and make the newspaper a department of the government, subject to it in every detail.
Cardinal Goma, chief representative of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy in Spain, fully approves Franco’s course of action. He said:
A regime of perfect accord between the Church and the State must be established, since the former must intervene on many issues. I am happy to be able to tell you that up to now we are in complete agreement with the Nationalist government, which, on the other hand, never takes a step without consulting me and obeying me. The representative of the minister of justice will bear me out in that.
Jacinte Benavente, Spain’s greatest living writer and Nobel prize winner, points out the connection between Fascism and the Inquisition, and shows that no good may be hoped for with the Hierarchy in control.
I have never hesitated. From the very first moment I put myself on the side of the victim against the hangman, and I will continue fighting on the side of the people until the end. Fascism, I am sure, is the bloody child of the Inquisition. It takes possession of labor to exploit it; of heroism to debase it; of glory to soil it; of thought to prostitute it.
Double-crossing America and Spain
IN READING your magazine I have come to the conclusion that it represents one of the greatest weapons against Fascism in this nation. Such a weapon is badly needed, and should be made as far as possible the medium of the freedom-loving Americans for the expression of their opinions.
The majority of the nation’s press have steadily veered toward the pro-Fascist elements. But this is not always because of any desire or ulterior motive. We must realize that a publisher is in business for profit. Suppose for a moment that you are such a publisher. You receive, in one week, ten letters upholding democracy and two hundred claiming to, but really upholding Fascism. You know these are pro-Fascist letters, and you refuse to let a campaign of this kind bother you. But week after week the stream continues, heaping abuse upon you for not reflecting the true sentiments of the reading public. You begin to veer. The apologists for Fascism take heart and redouble their efforts. You keep on veering, until you reach the stage where you are afraid to let anyone speak to the contrary, no matter how reasonable the arguments.
That, my friend, is the application of an old principle; it was popularized and made easy by Hitler. I let Herr Hitler speak for himself (quoted from Mein Kampf): “Any statement, carefully and patiently repeated, becomes a truth. Any people, if subjected to a clever and persistent course of propaganda, can be made to think that heaven is hell, and that a life of misery is heaven on earth.” Such a campaign is now being launched, has in fact been launched for some time, in the United States. Editors are being subjected to propaganda, largely unseen by the public. Most of the names behind this propaganda have a strangely similar ring: Conway, Halloran, Murphy, O’Brien, O’Reilly, O’Connel—O’WhoNot?
The similarity in names is in itself an evidence of collusion. But this collusion is further testified by the fact that from week to week the arguments are altered, and all of them in precisely the same manner. The arguments, accusations and charges are varied precisely as the official publications of the pro-Fascist groups are varied. This week you will see that the Spanish elections of 1936 were falsified. Next week you will see a special feature of the villainous “Reds” infiltrating into the now legal government and Paul Revere Franco riding to save the honor of 133,000 officers and 25,000 men, not to mention the royal family. Next you see Franco in a thrilling serial: in the first part he is a retiring family man with great responsibility thrust upon him; in the second he is suddenly a great leader ruthlessly facing the necessity of killing (there seems to be part of a reel missing right there) and rallying all the forces of good to save Spain; the third part shows him stemming the tide of “Red” legions, killing 285,000 out of an original 30,000 (how the rabble does multiply!); the fourth part reveals that he planned it all the time, not against the government, but against those who sought to undermine the government, and that he really would not have stemmed the tide if it had not been for the kindly efforts of loyal men of the faith throughout the world, whose great work has changed a hostile press to a sympathetic one (yes, they admit it).
When this campaign touches on the wounded men returning from Spain it reaches the depths of hatred. We were told of this hatred when we left Spain, warned that our every word would be misquoted and that we would not be allowed to find here a haven of peace. We knew that we would have to continue living that war, because we know what Fascism is. The veterans are ridiculed, prevented from speaking at public meetings, charged with being Communists in order to discredit their testimony. They are the objects of hatred, prejudice, conniving, conspiracy, slander and libel.
What the friends of Fascism do not realize is this: The men who fought for the liberty of the Spanish people have learned courage and iron discipline. At Jarama they fell in windrows before the attack of tanks and planes, but those who lived gave Franco his first great defeat. From Brihuega they retreated all the way to Guadalajara, then turned to drive the Italian blackshirts thirty kilometers and capture an entire brigade of men. At Caspe they counterattacked without artillery and with their own troops retreating on all sides; they were cited as having, in that action, saved the life of the Catalonian Republic. Those who live are welded into an everlasting brotherhood, a brotherhood tried in fire and pledged to die if necessary in defense of democracy. They are a powerful force for good, because they have learned the essential qualities of leadership and intelligent thinking. They will fight in good faith with anyone for the preservation of human rights and principles.
If the readers of your magazine want to protect their own rights and guarantee free speech to others who want freedom, they can do nothing better than to write to their local newspapers and the national magazines. They must meet the threat of the pro-Fascist forces by using the weapon used by those forces. If those who love democracy and tolerance will only make their presence felt, if they will broach the subject freely to the editors and demand a hearing, some of the press will eventually be open to their point of view. They must exercise unceasing vigilance against the usurping of the freedom of the press through clever conspiracy.—Norman Hawkins, South Dakota.
United States Air Pilot Requirements
FLYING in the United States is regulated by the new Civil Aeronautics Authority, and flyers are examined by inspectors of the Bureau. The flyers’ law is the “Civil Air Regulations”, referred to as CAR, and issued by the secretary. These regulations are exacting and voluminous, covering every phase of private and commercial flying activity.
A written examination on CAR must be passed by applicants for pilot ratings before flight tests are given; therefore the regulations have to be studied in detail.
Pilots receive ratings according to ability, which is governed by the number of hours spent in the air, at the controls, and by the weight of the aircraft flown. The greater the weight, the more skill required, and hence the better the rating.
Some pilot ratings are: “Student, Solo, Private, Limited Commercial, Commercial, Instructor, Instrument, Glider and Airline.”
Types of aircraft are land, sea, single-engine and multi-engine, which types are listed on a pilot’s certificate and to which type the pilot is limited.
In detail, some of the requirements for a “Private” are that the applicant read, write and speak English, be twenty-one years of age, pass satisfactorily a physical examination before a doctor or doctors appointed by the Bureau, which doctors issue a Student certificate. This physical examination must be submitted to once each year and also after a confining illness or serious injury.
A minimum of eight hours of dual flight instruction must be taken before a student is permitted to make his first solo hop.
Next, have thirty-five hours of solo time, which must include practice in maneuvers and five hours of cross-country flying. In a logbook the date of flight, time, number of plane, type of plane and engine, and a notation of any damage, if such should occur, must be recorded. This log must be signed by the pilot and attested by a notary public before being submitted to an inspector with an application for the desired rating, which application must also be notarized.
Two identical photographs, showing head and shoulders, definitely one and one-half by two inches in dimensions, must be provided.
A written examination is then taken on the air traffic rules, meteorology and navigation, which examination successfully passed opens the way for the actual flight test on aeronautical skill. For this test the applicant is required to furnish an airworthy ship of the type required for the rating or weight classification.
If the applicant has a solo rating and his flight test meets with the approval of the inspector, he immediately receives a temporary “Certificate of Competency”. This is followed sometime later, through the mail, by a permanent certificate and identification card. On the certificate is specified the weight classification and type, land or sea, single or multi-engine, to which the pilot is limited. The certificate bears a permanent number and, for a Private rating, has to be renewed yearly.
Renewal of a certificate is accomplished by the pilot’s submitting to physical examination and showing his application for renewal, with certified logbook, to a Bureau inspector. This is for the purpose of proving that the pilot has met the yearly requirements, in flying hours, to hold each rating on each type of aircraft.
Pilot certificates have been issued to the number of more than forty-four thousand.
Commercial and special ratings are relatively harder to earn than a Private. Private pilot privileges are that he may carry persons or property; but not for hire. He may also earn an Instructor rating after two hundred hours flying time at the controls.
The physical requirements, and especially that of vision, are very rigid, and must necessarily be so, due to the responsibility and strain of an active pilot’s life.
It is a common practice for student pilots to rent planes; and average rates for the light or cheaper type, those under 1,000 pounds, are $10 an hour for instruction and $6 an hour for solo time, gas and oil furnished.
Aircraft must be inspected regularly and carry a “Certificate of Airworthiness”.
Flying is an art; therefore the yearly requirements as to time in the air are necessary to insure that the pilot’s skill is adequate to his trust. An airman flies by feel; which means that through the relative sensitiveness of the controls he knows when the plane is, or is not, in a safe attitude of flight.—Herbert E. Jenkins, New York.
Other Flying Creatures
Something About Geese
Geese are valuable for their eggs, their feathers and down, and their flesh, 80 percent of which is edible. Feathers and down are used for stuffing pillows and mattresses, particularly in Europe. Goose feathers are also used to adorn hats. Geese kept especially for their plumage are plucked four or five times a year. They probably do not enjoy being plucked!
Geese sometimes produce two broods of young in a season, there being about ten young in a brood. They may be eaten three months after they leave the shell.
The liver of a fat goose is often very large, larger, in fact, than all the other viscera or “innards”. By special feeding the liver can be made abnormally large. When this is done the object is to use the liver for the making of the well-known pâté de foie gras for which Strasbourg, France, is famous, although it doubtless has other claims to distinction.
Farmers in the United States often breed the Gray Toulouse goose. These mature late and are sometimes called “Christmas” geese. They are good egg-layers, though their flesh is not as good as that of some other geese.
The most profitable geese to keep, from the standpoint of many raisers, are the Gray African geese, which are long-necked and tall, and large-headed. They have a large knob on the base of their bills and are of a gray color, which is darkest on their backs. They are ready for market in a shorter time than most other geese, and do not require a great deal of labor and time to bring to maturity. They are good layers and have a fine-flavored flesh.
The so-called “Chinese geese” are good, too. They are small and graceful and come in white and brown varieties, lay well, and taste good, when cooked.
Mockingbird in Milwaukee?
◆ For ten years we have been feeding birds and squirrels, each year receiving new and greater thrills.
A large covered feeding station, well up off the ground, of which two sides are protected by glass and provided with perches, is the center of most of our activity. The menu consists of sunflower seeds, peanuts, chick feed, bread and cake crumbs, puddings made of melted suet combined with yellow cornmeal and bird gravel, and for an occasional treat we tie doughnuts in the tree branches.
Each morning, gathered around our porch with unfailing regularity, are nine of the very fattest peanut-fed squirrels imaginable and a number of little red squirrels.
The bird population at this time includes juncoes, nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers, a pair of cardinals, bluejays, chickadees, an occasional pheasant, three crows (who in extremely cold weather overcome their wariness) and, almost unbelievable, a mockingbird. Whence he came no one seems to know.
Considered almost strictly a southern bird and not migratory, his identity puzzled us. Somewhat darker in color than they usually are, we could scarcely believe we had such a prize until a number of persons who thoroughly understand the study of birds viewed him and positively identified him as a mockingbird, although his powers of ventriloquism should have convinced us before.
Having been here all winter, through the many changes of weather, dependent on us for food, he has become very tame, submitting to close scrutiny with binoculars and calmly concentrating upon his food while people stand within a few feet of the feeding station, so certain is he that he has found sanctuary.
Thrill of thrills, shortly before last week’s storm when it was almost as black as night, he burst into as magnificent a song as I have ever heard, thus more surely establishing his identity.
For greater joy, let’s have more sanctuaries for birds. When the ground is covered with ice and snow, scatter a few crumbs. The results will amply compensate the effort.—Mrs. W. F. Jackson, in Milwaukee Journal.
Lighthouses Cause Death of Birds
◆ The powerful lights of lighthouses along the New England coast cause the death of thousands of birds each year. They fly against the thick lenses and are killed or fall stunned into the sea.
Shamming Death
◆ The land rail and water rail sham death when in danger, seeking thereby to avoid detection or interest on the part of their enemy.
RIGHTEOUS RULER
THE NEW GOVERNMENT
The Magistrate of Umtali
The magistrate of Umtali, near Salisbury, South Africa, must certainly be anxious to please somebody. He fined one of Jehovah’s witnesses £10, or two months’ imprisonment at hard labor, for receiving a contribution of the exact cost of one Riches book, which book he delivered. When the case got to the High Court Mr. Justice Lewis quashed the conviction and sentence; but one can but wonder at the first magistrate’s cast of mind that would lead him to do such a great injustice as he attempted to perform toward witness Chirochino.
Convention in Lagos
◆ The Nigerian Daily Times, Lagos, Nigeria, contains the equivalent of four columns of news about the convention of over 300 of Jehovah’s witnesses held in that West African city. Two of the conventioners traveled over 500 miles on bicycle to attend. “Sandwich boards” were used to advertise the public meeting. It was a great blessing to the conventioners to hear Judge Rutherford’s lectures by phonograph in their own native tongue, Yoruba. There were 800 at the public lecture; 63 of whom were immersed. Some 3,000 pamphlets in Yoruba were placed in the hands of the people, and more would have been put out except for a heavy downpour characteristic of that part of the world. What a blessing to see the message of Jehovah’s kingdom, man’s only hope, being widely spread over all Africa and over all the civilized world!
Branch office of WATCH TOWER at Sydney, Australia
Utter Stupidity in Lying
◆ Jehovah’s witnesses know that Judge Rutherford lectured to 25,000 people at Sydney, Australia. The Roman Hierarchy tried to prevent that, but failed. It then printed and circulated in The Register (its boilerplate weekly, issued at various places) the lie under the double heading “Rutherford’s Visit to Australia Total Failure”. That was bad enough. Then one of the Hierarchy’s dupes went to one of Jehovah’s witnesses doing business in a Pennsylvania city and tried to get him to put in his store window a card upon which he had mounted The Register’s lie. To try to put the lie over he stated that it had been published in the Boston Free Press. And inasmuch as it so happens that there is no paper of that name in Boston, the triple lie was triply stupid—like the Hierarchy every way.
“Most Reverend”
Simonds Fibbed
◆ The “Most Reverend” J. D. Simonds, Roman Catholic archbishop of Hobart, Tasmania, made an address in which he set forth the complete misinformation that—
In such predominantly Catholic places as the Irish Free State, Quebec, Malta, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Hungary, and also in Switzerland and Holland where Catholics formed a very large proportion of the population complete freedom in education and politics was given to the non-Catholic minority.
The statement is most untrue, as Jehovah’s witnesses have experienced the most bigoted intolerance, persecution, arrest and imprisonment in almost every one of the countries named, particularly in Irish Free State, Quebec, Austria, Hungary and Switzerland.
Pioneering in Nigeria, West Africa
Jehovah’s Kingdom publishers and Watch Tower branch office at Lagos, Nigeria, West Africa
Pioneering in Nigeria
◆ I am very grateful to Jehovah for the revealing of this wonderful truth, through Jesus Christ. I am joyfully carrying along the Lord’s work in spite of all opposition of Satan’s earthly agents in this part of Northern Province of Nigeria. I enclose here a picture of myself, as I was instructed to do by the branch office in Lagos. This picture was taken while I was witnessing to the Kingdom in Jos. At this place I was sent for by the commissioner of police, who asked me many questions, and, after my answering all, he said, “You can go, but don’t run other churches down.” Then I told him that I will merely tell the people that “hell” and “purgatory” are not places of punishment according to the Bible.
After many days I traveled to Makurdi, where I was again marched up to the commissioner of police. He also propounded many questions about the witness work and our method of living. After answering him he presented me with one shilling and told me to continue along.—Peter Otudo, Pioneer.
A Squawk from Chile
THE JOURNEY*
A courageous publication which cannot and must not keep quiet, because it cannot lie.
Chañaral (Chile) October 1, 1938
PROPAGANDIST
WARNING to CATHOLICS
There has arrived in this port a certain young lady with a German passport, who very insistently goes about offering books of partly Protestant and partly Atheist propaganda. The Investigation Bureau cited her on suspicion of espionage. She has been left free.
Catholics are warned that the books offered by this propagandist are all condemned by ecclesiastical authority.
October 8, 1938
PROPAGANDIST
WARNING to CATHOLICS
A certain damsel with Israelitish features, apparently German, and who refused to give us her name, appeared in our editorial office to tell us that she felt she had been referred to in a paragraph appearing in one of our former issues and which bore the same heading as this. She told us she is not a propagandist; she gave a somewhat strange reason, to wit, that the books she offered were sold for less than it cost to make them, which, naturally, is not easy to prove to any of us; and, besides, whether she gains or loses does not alter the matter in any way. She also said that she had not been called to the Investigations Bureau under suspicion of espionage; so the agents had told her. She finally declared that the books she was propagating were ANTI-RELIGIOUS, that is, are directed against all religion.
The Catholics knew that already.
* Translated from the Spanish.
Kingdom News
◆ When Jesus was on earth He taught His disciples to pray, ‘Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. . . .’ Indeed, the kingdom of heaven constituted the chief theme of Jesus’ ministry on earth. It was a strange doctrine to the Jew religionists whose allegiance belonged to the Romans. It was an incomprehensible Utopia where men dwell together in peace and contentment; where wars and famine are unknown and men love their fellow creatures even as themselves; where hatred and ill will are not to be found and God’s will is the law supreme. A kingdom where men are never sick and one need never die. A rule that honors God and magnifies His illustrious name.
Men with faith in Jehovah believed in the kingdom of heaven. They fervently prayed for this glorious time with complete faith in every promise concerning it. Not all were so blessed as to live in “that day” when Jehovah’s King is fully enthroned. This alone makes the present day most unique! Jehovah’s kingdom has come. It is here; a living reality! Daily the lives of the Lord’s people are crowded with events that concern the Kingdom interests. Daily Jehovah’s witnesses bear testimony to the onward march of the great King of kings. Even while the enemy’s structure is crumbling in complete disintegration Jehovah exalts His King upon the heights. Daily the Kingdom is thrown into conflict with the remaining members of the Devil’s agents in the earth. Daily the kingdom of God is presented to all who accept it. Daily WBBR rejoices in the mounting evidences that the Kingdom is here. This is KINGDOM NEWS. This sort of news is what thrills the hearts of all who have placed their hopes in the kingdom of heaven.
WBBR is pleased to announce that with the beginning of the special Watchtower Campaign, January 1, it inaugurated a series of weekly programs devoted to KINGDOM NEWS: interesting items gleaned from the field affecting the Kingdom interests throughout the world as reported to the Watch Tower organization and which appear in “New Government” section and elsewhere in every issue of the Consolation magazine: field experiences re-enacted before the microphone; court records pertaining to the witness’ work unfolded in living sequence. This is KINGDOM NEWS.
(To be continued) Foods
Scotch Scones
One quart buttermilk, 2 teaspoonfuls salt, 4 teaspoonfuls soda, 4 teaspoonfuls baking soda, 8 cups wheat flour. Mix the ingredients to a stiff but moist dough. Take a heaping tablespoonful of dough on floured hands and roll around until well floured; then pat to not less than 1/4 inch thick, to make about 3 inches in diameter, and bake in skillet over fire. It is best not to grease pan, but bake slowly until browned, and then turn over with spatula or pancake turner. About five minutes for each side of a panful is about right. They will rise while baking, making them just right to split and eat with butter or honey. May be eaten hot or cold. Baking without grease makes them better to digest. Will keep a few days.—Mrs. F. E. Shimer, California.
Wheat as a Breakfast Food
◆ In an ordinary thermos flask put half a cup of wheat grain. Pour in a small quantity of hot water; wait a few minutes, shake the flask gently and pour off the water. This serves the double purpose of cleansing the wheat and warming the interior of the flask. As soon as this is done, fill the flask with boiling water and stopper it. If this is done just before going to bed, the wheat will be ready to eat in the morning. If done properly the grains will be burst open and will have so swollen as to fill the flask. The wheat will be still hot, and one has only to add sugar and milk to make a tasty breakfast. For simplicity, economy and nourishment, this preparation is hard to beat.—Republished by request.
Banana plant growing in front of a home on Temple street, Los Angeles, California
Golden Health Bread
◆ Take 1 1/2 cups wheat flour, 3/4 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup honey or molasses, 1/2 teaspoonful salt, 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, 1 1/2 teaspoonfuls soda, 1 teaspoonful baking powder. Mix dry ingredients; add buttermilk; stir well; then add honey or molasses. Stir well again and put in well-greased loaf tin and bake in moderate oven 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Honey makes it golden; molasses, dark.—Mrs. F. E. Shimer.
Homemade Breakfast Food
◆ 3 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon soda, 2 cups buttermilk or sour milk. Bake in moderate oven. Cool. Cut in strips and dry for a short time in oven. Grind through food chopper. Dry and crisp in oven. This usually takes four hours. It is even better if raw sugar is used. Needs only milk or cream to be ready to eat.—Mrs. John Hill.
On Mushrooms
◆ An expert on mushrooms says that if you have any doubt about your cookery's including some one of the eighty poisonous varieties, put some solid silver article into the cooking receptacle. If the silver stays bright, then the mushrooms are entirely safe; but if it tarnishes the least bit, then throw the whole potful out.
Coffee at Two Cents a Pound
◆ Pour wheat, peas or barley into a baking pan, to the depth of half an inch or less. Place this in a hot oven, and when it starts browning stir occasionally, so that all the kernels will roast uniformly. When all appear roasted to a coffee brown, remove from the oven and run the kernels through a coffee grinder.—Harvey Johnson, Washington.
Natural Phenomena
Studying Jupiter’s Volcanoes
Astronomers at Griffith observatory, Los Angeles, on the night of October 12, had an interesting experience studying the effects of a huge volcano on the planet Jupiter. It was in the form of a huge cloud, black as night, which hung over a considerable portion of the planet. There was some discussion among the astronomers as to whether it might be the shadow of one of Jupiter’s moons; but this was dismissed. It was manifestly a huge storm, and the explanation that it was the dust of a tremendous volcanic explosion seems most reasonable.
Man and the Rat
◆ Popular Science Monthly claims that the rat population of the United States equals the human population and that the annual loss from their depredations is over $1,000,000,000, or four times the nation’s annual fire loss. Rats have been known to cause the death of elephants by eating their hoofs, and at least one miner was killed and eaten by them. Twice a year every vessel is freed of rats by the use of poison gas. Under ideal conditions, the progeny of a single pair of rats would reach the staggering total of 350,000,000 in three years; but man and other animals interfere.
Surf at Coronado Beach, California
Good Name for New Geyser
◆ A good name for the new mud-slinging geyser in the Yellowstone National Park, it seems, would be “The Felix Windle”. In the single season of 1938 this geyser carved out a hole 15 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep. Like “Father” Felix and Mr. Windle, it throws mud forty feet into the air; but not at Judge Rutherford. The Yellowstone curiosity decorated treetops that far above terra firma.
Strides 200 Feet Apart
◆ The strides of lightning average to be about 200 feet apart, and careful studies of many photographs establish that the path from heaven to earth is usually opened up by a preliminary flash from earth to heaven. Or, in any event, the flash en route from heaven to earth is met part way.
Coronado and the Buffalo
◆ First mention of the buffalo is made by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Spanish explorer. Traveling from the Rio Grande eastward he and his men came upon the strange animals now known as buffalo, but which he described as “a new kind of oxen, wild and fierce, whereof, the first day, they killed fourscore, which sufficed the army with flesh” COUNSEL by J. F. Rutherford
Petition
EARLY in the year 1938 a company of some two hundred clergymen presented to the president of the United States a paper in the form of a petition “for a return to God, home and country” and requested the president to “make any suggestion of ways and means by which we and our brethren in the ministry can be of the highest value to our day and generation” about returning to God, home and country.
It seems strange that anyone who even pretends to serve God and Christ should appeal to an outstanding politician as to how he can return to God. Such a course is what the Scriptures designate as ‘going down to Egypt [the world] for help’. Those clergymen, by their petition to the president, plainly show that they have forgotten God and ignored His Word, and the Lord declares woe shall be their lot. “Woe to them that go down to Egypt [the political ruling power of the world] for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots [horses and chariots symbolically standing for war equipment and an organization to carry on war], because they are many; and in horsemen [the men who manipulate the political and commercial warfare], because they are very strong; but they [the clergymen or religious leaders] look not unto the Holy One of Israel [God’s organization], neither seek the Lord!” The Lord then declares what He will do to such, saying He “will arise against the house of the evil doers, and against the help of them that work iniquity”. (Isaiah 31:1-3) By their words addressed to the president as set forth in their petition those religious leaders show that they have completely forgotten God and His Word and that they are floundering about seeking help from any source. Truly they are, as Jesus said, blind guides of the blind. What does God say shall be the end of those who forget Him and His Word? “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”—Psalm 9:17.
The words of the clergymen’s petition clearly imply that those religionists at one time had some faith in God and in the blood of His beloved Son, Christ Jesus, by which man is redeemed from death. Now they have fallen away from God and have lost faith in His Word and in His great arrangement for redemption. Under such circumstances, then, can they hope to “return to God”?
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