Consolation, October 4, 1939
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Contents
Counsel by J. F. Rutherford 3
Victims of the Snare 5
Catholic Mantón Uncensured by Rome 6
Smoke-Screen (Part 2) 7
“Hurts Coughlin’s Business 8
Coughlin’s Relation to the Church 9
His Anti-Semitic Campaign 11
Under the Totalitarian Flag
Gradually Caving In 13
Vatican Piggery Plundered 16
The New Government
Witnessing to Prisoners 20
A Thrill in Montana 21
“Out of the Mouth of Babes” 21
Jew-Catholic Boycott of a Barber 22
When Dictators Become Funny 23
Denizens of Sea and Air 24
Confuses Religion and Christianity 25
Types of Unfair Competition 26
British Comment
Holiday Freedom 28
Chaplains 28
The Vatican and Franco 28
Enemies of the Kingdom 29
Infidel Parsons 29
Roman Catholic Absurdities 30
Nun’s Cruelty to a Boy 30
Extracts from “Death in Cellophane” 31
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Appetizers
Surely a Misunderstanding
Two ladies were sitting at an open window. One was listening to a church choir practicing across the way.
The other was listening to the noise of the crickets.
The first one said, “How loudly they sing tonight!”
And the other one said, “Yes, and they tell me they do it with their hind legs.”—Labor.
Just Like That
Lawyer—Then you admit that you struck the defendant with malice aforethought?
Defendant, indignantly—You can’t mix me up like that. I’ve told you twice I hit him with a brick, and on purpose. There wasn’t no mallets nor nothin’ of the kind about it—just a plain brick like any gentleman would use.
The Popular Overture
Two dear old ladies were enjoying the music in the park. “I think that’s a waltz from Faust,” said one. “I thought it was a minuet from Mignon,” said the other. The first went over to what she thought was the board announcing the items. “We’re both wrong,” she said; “it’s a refrain from Spitting.”
Had Credentials
A member once brought to his British club a visitor very tubby in figure and with a beetroot complexion. Noticing him, one member asked another, “Who is that chap?”
“Colonel V——,” was the reply.
“Is he a full colonel?”
“Generally,” was the reply.
Nice Manners
Mama—I was glad to see you remembered not to throw the orange peel on the floor of the bus, Johnny.
Johnny—Yes, mother, I remembered what you said about being neat. I put it in the pocket of the man in the next seat.—Labor Herald.
Oh, So!
Mr. Stiles—Why, darling! What ails your eye? Why the bandage?
Mrs. Stiles—Don’t be ridiculous! This is my new hat.
CONSOLATION
“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A.R.V.
Volume XXI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, October 4, 1939 Number 523
COUNSEL BY RUTHERFORD
Victims of the Snare
IN THE preceding issue of this magazine the Scriptural proof was submitted that “religion is a snare” set by the Devil to catch fearful men. It is written in God’s Word: “The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in Jehovah shall be safe.” (Proverbs 29: 25, A.R.V.) The Bible, the Word of God, long ago foretold the present time as “times of peril, days of evil”. (2 Timothy 3: 1) Satan, knowing that his time is short before the final battle at Armageddon, has brought great woes upon the peoples of earth, and these woes have constantly increased since 1918. (Revelation 12: 12) These are the days of which Jesus prophetically spoke when He said: “Men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after the things coming upon the earth.” (Luke 21: 26) Dictatorial rule in many of the nations has put fear in the hearts of the people of every nation, and they are looking for some way to safeguard their interests. Satan has taken advantage of his own wickedness and, through his earthly agents, is greatly increasing the fear of men.
Economic conditions that have come in the past few years have brought great fear upon the commercial men of the world. They fear that they cannot hold the power over men which commerce has given them. More recently their fear has increased by reason of the activities of the radical element, which threaten to destroy commerce and profiteering in the land. That fear of men or what men might bring to pass has led the commercial men right into the snare of the Devil, and their words now fully admit that fact. For the first time in the history of America commercial men insist that only religion can save the nation from disaster. In August, 1939, the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York released to the public press their report, and the following is quoted from the public press, and the report, to wit:
“NEW YORK, Aug. 13.—That religion should be an integral part of public education in the state’s schools is the first recommendation made by a special committee of the New York State Chamber of Commerce, appointed in February, 1938, to inquire into the efficiency and economy of the educational system of the state. The committee warned that if the nation does not uphold its religious foundation its whole structure will fail.”—THE PRESS.
The report of the committee says: “At this time the state and nation find themselves in different conditions and with different needs from those which our country has ever heretofore known, and our educational system must be adjusted to meet these present-day needs. This committee is convinced that the great lack in our homes and in our national life, is the lack of true, simple religion.
“In these work-a-day, warring, strenuous times, we have been paying less and less attention to our religious convictions and feelings. Those convictions and feelings still exist; they are more important today than they ever were, and it is vital that in our education they be honored and promulgated rather than subordinated or excluded. If this nation does not maintain its religious foundation, its whole structure will fail.
“When we say religious, we do not mean any particular church or sect. We do not want church differences mixed up in our schools; but we do want our scholars to appreciate and understand the importance of their following and making the most of the faith with which they are identified. We want them to know and to live by the basic rules of life which each will find in his own religion. Integrity, kindly human understanding and true morals are found in each, and those our scholars must know and follow all through their lives if they would build high characters and play the part we need them to play in the future of this nation.
“The United States cannot have or maintain a right system unless it is based on true religious principles, and, therefore, in spite of the fact that some hesitate to include religion in our educational program, we place it first.”
If that committee had advised the study of the Bible, and the faithful service of Jehovah God, and Christ Jesus, it would have done well. Contrary thereto the report completely ignores the Bible and no mention is made of Jehovah God or Christ Jesus. Religion alone is stressed as the savior of the nation.
There are more than 200 religions practiced in America, and not one of those religions teaches or advocates God’s announced remedy for the ill effects upon the peoples of earth. Many of the religions are under the direct control of demons and honor the Devil himself openly. In fact, all religion is based upon the worship of demons or things pertaining to demons. In the face of the plain statement to this effect in the Bible, the aforesaid committee reports that religion is the hope of the nation. The Roman Catholic Hierarchy religious institution takes the lead in religious matters, and yet that institution has been diligent to keep the people in ignorance of the Bible, and that institution also continuously persecutes those who teach the Bible to the people. The Hierarchy publishes the fact that its principal doctrines are based upon the traditions of men and not upon the Scriptures. That institution has been in operation for more than 1500 years and it has completely failed to instill in the people integrity and morality; and this every honest and sincere person knows. Adolf Hitler is a Catholic and a practitioner of religion, and his regime for several years has had the support of the Roman Catholic religious institution. It is well known that Hitler constantly consults the wicked spirits, and certainly Hitler and his religion are not teaching and cannot teach the youth morality, integrity, or even common decency.
Religion has always been the institution of persecution and crime. Jesus Christ was crucified by religionists, and all His disciples suffered persecution at the hands of religionists, and His true followers today likewise are persecuted.
The early settlers of America fled Europe because of religious persecution and settled in America, where they might worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. The men who founded the United States government embodied in the fundamental law the provision guaranteeing the freedom of worship. The Roman Catholic religious institution has always fought against that part of the American Constitution. When Christians assemble peaceably to teach the Bible, and to worship God in spirit and in truth, the religionists of the Hierarchy make a desperate attempt to break up such a meeting of Christians and to prevent the study and teaching of the Bible. That kind of religion could never instill in the minds of American youth integrity, morality or respect for the law.
The report of the aforesaid committee of the Chamber of Commerce discloses that the members of that committee are either ignorant of the Bible or purposely ignoring it, and for the Bible teachings they substitute religion. The Bible is the Word of Almighty God and is absolutely opposed to religion, assigning as the reason therefor that religion originated with the Devil. Christianity means to obey God’s command, as set forth in the Bible. The Bible contains the word of God, and concerning it the Christian, Christ Jesus, said: “Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17) It is by the Word of God that the right principles of honesty, integrity and morality can be taught. The Bible is the only safe guide for man: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105) It was written and given to man that those who love righteousness might be guided in the right way and learn true morality, honesty, and integrity, and that they might worship Jehovah in spirit and in truth.
The clergymen, who are the religious leaders, have not taught the people to have proper respect for the Word of God. They have substituted the teachings of men for that which is contained in the Bible, God’s Word. The Lord Jesus Christ instructs all His followers to pray to Jehovah God: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) There is no religious institution or organization in America that teaches the people that God’s kingdom is the only hope of the human race. The committee of the Chamber of Commerce now urges the people to choose ANY kind of religion and teach it, and ignores the Bible. The word of God, as set forth in the Bible, makes it clear that religion is a snare of Satan and his associated demons. (Deuteronomy 7:16) Jesus emphasizes the fact that religion is of the Devil. (Matthew 15:1-9; John 8:42-44) The apostle Paul likewise denounced religion. (Galatians 1:1-16; Acts 26:3-20) The apostle makes known how God rescued him from religion, the Devil’s snare. He told the Athenians, who were practicing religion, that they were in fact worshiping demons: “Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.” (Acts 17:22) Note other translations of this same text: “Men of Athens, I perceive that you are in every respect remarkably religious.” (Weymouth) “Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Athenians, I perceive that in all things you are extremely devoted to the worship of demons.” (Emphatic Diaglott) “Ye men of Athens! in every way, how unusually reverent of the demons ye are, I perceive.”—Rotherham.
Do the good people of America, who believe in honesty, integrity, and morality, desire to have their children taught religion, which is the worship of Satan and other demons, and which is against God and His kingdom by Christ Jesus? Is the committee aforementioned wholly ignorant of the teachings of God’s Word, or have they willingly ignored God’s Word to draw the people into the snare of the Devil?
From the beginning of America this was considered a Christian nation. The Supreme Court of the United States long ago so held. Now it appears that the clergymen, or religious leaders, have turned the people away from God and Christ, and have substituted religion entirely for the Scriptures. The clergymen, fearing that by preaching Christ and Him crucified they might not receive the honor which they desired, adopted religion instead of Christianity. They soon induced themselves to believe and led others to believe that religion and Christianity are the same thing; yet the Bible shows that religion is directly opposed to Christianity. The clergymen, desiring to increase their own power and influence and to enlarge their fields, solicited political and commercial men to join their institutions, and as an inducement they have made commercial men the chief ones in their flocks. The commercial men were induced to embrace religion; and they feared to refuse to support it, because it might militate against their interest to do so. The clergymen and the principal of their flock, the political and commercial members, even as God foretold through His prophet, draw near to the Lord only by the words of their mouth, while their hearts are far removed from Him; and thus they are caught in the snare of religion. (Isaiah 29:10-13) The love of money and the power that money would bring was an added inducement for the commercial men to embrace religion and to associate themselves with the clergymen. In this connection mark the words written in the Bible relating to such: “But they that will be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”—1 Timothy 6:9, 10.
It was an easy matter for men representing the commercial interests to be led into the religious snare. It is manifest that if they ever knew anything about the Word of God they have turned away from it, as the Scriptures further state concerning the charge, which the apostle gave to Timothy: “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.”—1 Timothy 6:17.
Mark this: that the report of the Chamber of Commerce committee aforesaid has completely ignored God and His Word.
Now in this hour of stress upon the world, when all men aside from Christians are filled with fear, the Chamber of Commerce by its committee urges upon the people that they teach in their schools ANY kind of religion. Thus it is seen that the Devil is leading the nation into his snare.
Will the teaching of religion save the nation? Far from it! There is one God Almighty, whose name is Jehovah. He is the Creator of heaven and earth, and He alone is the fountain of life. (Psalm 24:1; 36:9) He gives special warning to those who pretend to serve Him and who forget God and turn away from Him, and His warning is couched in these plain words: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” (Psalm 9:17) If the advice of the Chamber of Commerce committee is followed the whole nation will be taught to forget God and His Word.
Let the people keep in mind that Jesus Christ emphasized the importance of God’s kingdom as the only hope of humankind. There is no other hope. The people must now choose between the instruction given in the Bible and the advice given by religionists. Instead of religion’s planting any hope in the minds of men, and making any provision for their salvation, exactly the contrary is the result.
Jehovah God plainly directs the people to the only means of salvation, and the only thing in which they can hope, and in this record He says: “Behold, my servant [Christ Jesus] whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased; I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall declare judgment to the nations. And in his name shall the nations hope.” —Matthew 12: 18, 21, A.R.V., margin.
The report of the committee of the Chamber of Commerce discloses the fact that the members thereof are victims of the snare. They are blind to the Word of God and are following their blind leaders, the clergymen of the religious institutions; and concerning this the Lord Jesus, directing His advice to the multitude, said that they should avoid the blind clergymen; “for the blind lead the blind, and both shall fall into the ditch.” —Matthew 15: 14.
The American people, as well as the people of other nations, must now make their choice between religion and the kingdom of God by Christ Jesus. Instead of following religion, which leads into the snare of the Devil, let the people devote themselves to Christianity, which means learning and obeying the Word of God and worshiping Almighty God in spirit and in truth.
Catholic Manton Uncensured by Rome
WHERE are the patriotic flag-wavers of the Catholic Press? Why not a few salvos for Hoover, Cahill and Murphy for ridding the bench of the greatest criminal and traitor of modern times? Martin T. Manton, Knight of St. Gregory the Great, of the Roman Catholic Church, was convicted in June, 1939, of accepting the sum of $186,000 for only six decisions handed down in the second highest court of the land, the United States Court of Appeals. There were a good many other cases which undoubtedly could have been used by the prosecutor, but six seemed enough to prove the crime. It was a difficult job to bring to justice such an arch-criminal, and, no doubt, had the investigators made any slips, Manton would have been on them like a tiger. But the work is accomplished; the courts of justice are cleansed of an influence more deadly than Communism. Now where are the professional patriotcers that are always lathering forth about little children who conscientiously refuse to salute a flag, and the self-constituted saviors who are advocating “Franco’s way” to save the country from the “Red Terror”? Speak up, Catholic Press, or forever after admit your hypocrisy.
It certainly takes a lot to cause a distinguished Catholic to be excommunicated if he divides his spoil with the Hierarchy. Martin T. Manton has not been either excommunicated or even publicly censured. The people are left to surmise that the Catholic Church finds nothing blameable in defrauding and betraying the United States Government. What is the reply to this from Rome’s American flag-wavers? (See “A Mighty Catholic in the Pit”, in Consolation Nos. 519, 520, 521.)
Recipe for Making a Bishop
◆ Details from Rochester, N.Y., show that it takes two hours forty minutes of standing up and sitting down and all kinds of religious things like that to make a first-class, or A No. 1, bishop of the Roman Catholic church. The one that was made over was the “Most Reverend” Walter A. Foery. The ones that made him over were the “Most Reverend” Emmet Walsh and the “Most Reverend” Francis Keogh. They did a good job, which was helped along by the presence of four archbishops, 14 bishops, 500 monsignori and priests, a pack of dogs and two cats. The result, according to the dispatch, was that:
He emerged at the end of a two hour and 40-minute ceremony as spiritual descendant of the original apostles through the invocation of the Holy Ghost, the ministrations of his episcopal consecrators, and his own prayers and pledges.
Smoke-Screen (In Two Parts—Part 2)
WITH Armageddon almost within reach it is inevitable that the totalitarian monstrosity should begin to make its appearance in America, and many are wondering if Coughlin is the peculiar combination of Catholicism, craftiness, conceit, inconsistency and inflammatory oratorical power necessary to put it over.
One of the interesting features of the recent convention of Jehovah’s witnesses in New York city was the reading of the following letter to the conventioneers. The letter, signed by Dr. Herbert M. Lauring, optometrist, of 707 West 71st St., New York, was addressed to Judge Rutherford, principal speaker at the convention, and was dated June 23, the opening day of the assembly. It said:
It was with great interest that I read the posters in the subway announcing the mass-meeting in Madison Square Garden on June 25 at which you are to speak on “Government and Peace”.
No doubt you are familiar with the series of articles on “The Catholic Church in Politics” by L. Lehmann, published a few months ago in The New Republic, in which the author described the attempts of the Roman Church to deny religious liberty to Jehovah’s witnesses, the denomination of which you are the spiritual leader.
Let me say right now, that I am a Jew, and a firm believer in freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and thought; therefore, when I read of the vile machinations of the priests to suppress your church, I became aroused to anger. I really am unfamiliar with your political and economic views, and am totally unaware of the nature of the remarks you will make in Madison Square Garden. I do not know whether you will be pro or anti-administration. However, you will have an excellent opportunity at this great meeting to expose to the whole world the Catholic plot to undermine our democratic and representative form of government, and set up in this country a Papal-Fascist dictatorship to be ruled from Rome.
The leader of this insidious movement is Father Charles E. Coughlin, who is at this moment disseminating a wild and bestial anti-Semitism, having had wide success among certain Catholics. In Germany Father Coughlin is now a great hero, and at the recent meeting of Fritz Kuhn’s German-American Bund in Madison Square Garden, his name was cheered to the echo.
If Father Coughlin were speaking only for himself, and not for his church, then it is quite apparent the priesthood should repudiate him from every Catholic pulpit in the nation. Yet what do we find? Certain official organs of the Catholic Church, like the Brooklyn Tablet, openly support him. Other prominent Catholic churchmen covertly give aid and comfort to him. The few scattered Catholics who have disavowed him have been like voices lost in the wilderness. When Cardinal Mundelein declared that Coughlin did not speak for his church, Father Coughlin in reply virtually told the Cardinal to go to blazes. Despite the fact that the Detroit priest is propagating a savage race-hatred, which will finally culminate in rivers of blood running through our streets, the priesthood, by its silence and concealed assistance, gives assent to his activities.
Of approximately 140 million people in the United States, 115 million are Protestants, 21 million Catholics, and 4 million Jews. The great Protestant majority and the Jews believe in a parliamentary representative form of government and the Bill of Rights. The Catholic Hierarchy desires an authoritarian state, such as the Dollfuss-Catholic dictatorship in Austria, prior to Hitler.
Although the Jews are the target of Catholic anti-Semitism at this moment, they cannot very well lead an anti-Catholic campaign because of their small numbers, and because the enemy would then howl that the Jews are attacking Christianity. The audacity of the Catholic Church in presuming to speak for all Christianity is something which should enrage all Protestants. It is therefore the duty of the Protestant Church, of which your denomination is a branch, to assume the leadership of a great movement to shed light upon Catholic intrigues to subvert our government, and to make itself the state religion of our country. Once you give the lead, the Jews will follow.
Again may I emphasize that at Madison Square Garden, on Sunday, you will have a wonderful opportunity to fire the opening gun in a battle to preserve our institutions. I assure you that my friends and I will be present to hear you speak.
Well Chosen Words
Dr. Lauring’s words, above set forth, were well chosen, as those to whom it was read were mostly well aware, and as the readers of this magazine also well know. It is good to know that men of his intelligence are waking up to what is coming; for come it surely will. Coughlin is a menace to America and to mankind.
Coughlin has occasionally been mentioned in these columns, but not at any considerable length, because heretofore the space could be used to better purpose, but there is a reason at this time for giving this man some of the publicity he craves. It should be said at the outset that, like every Catholic priest, CoughHe has been taught to disregard the Holy Scriptures. Thus, in a sixteen-page lecture entitled “Following the Christ-child” there was not one Scripture citation. Holding the Scriptures themselves in slight esteem, Coughlin and all other Roman Catholic priests hold in even less esteem those who place their sole reliance in the Word of God and not in the words of men.
It was thus a natural outlet for Coughlin’s energies that in 1927 he used his then considerable influence with radio station WJR, Detroit, to prevent, and he did prevent, the broadcasting at that time of Judge Rutherford’s address on “Freedom for the Peoples” over that station. That address, originating in Toronto, Canada, was taken for the largest number of radio stations assembled in a wire-connected chain up to that time, 53 stations. But for Coughlin, it would have been 54. He will be fully rewarded for that service when destroyed in Armageddon, but is entitled to some temporary compensation in advance. This is it.
In 1937, ten years later, in a letter to a correspondent in Massachusetts, he referred to the message of God’s kingdom, issuing from the pen of Judge Rutherford, in the following language:
The literature which you enclosed is only a very small part of the vicious material being circulated by Judge Rutherford and his followers, who for years have been notorious for their opposition to the Catholic Church.
In the same letter he did his best to defend the doctrine of “Purgatory”, which anybody who has read the booklet Uncovered (probably referred to in the foregoing) knows has not a leg to stand upon.
Hurts Coughlin’s Business
The circulation of the truth on any Scriptural subject hurts Coughlin’s business, and that accounts for his hatred of Judge Rutherford and of Jehovah’s witnesses in general. He has a racket for enrolling, for the small sum of $1 each, the departed ones of Catholics, Protestants and Jews. If one is enrolled it is $1; if two, it is $2; if three, it is $3; if four, it is $4; if five, it is $5. It is making money just like that. What do the people get for their $1, $2, $3, $4 or $5? They get stung. That is the total return.
The suggestion has been delicately advanced by some of the priest’s critics that some of the hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing in to him should be used for direct relief of poverty. He does not seem to have thought of that. He is for Coughlin first, last and all the time.
It would be hard to find anywhere a more thoroughly selfish man than this so-called “Christian priest”. The way the Yiddish newspaper of New York put it as respects his followers and Jehovah’s witnesses in Der Tog (The Day) of June 27, 1939, is translated as follows:
Give the Coughlinites liberty and they will know how to appreciate it. They went to a convention of Christians, a group that is opposed to the pope, and caused a riot. At the meetings of Coughlinites no one is permitted to contradict by the use of a single word, but the Coughlinites themselves are not similarly particular concerning liberty of speech; they intruded into the convention of another organization and started a riot. The followers of Hitler used exactly the same methods during their first years in Germany.
I have not yet heard him (Judge Rutherford) speak a single unkind word against Catholics, neither against those in this country nor in general. His lectures, therefore, truly come in the category of free speech. What is here involved are ideas, and freedom of speech is the basis of our democracy. You ought to see the list of persecutions which Jehovah’s witnesses are suffering in the various cities and towns of America. They are refused halls in which to hold their meetings, and, when they hold meetings, are assaulted; their children are expelled from schools; they have been tarred and feathered. This has been done by Catholics against the witnesses because they have denounced, not Catholics, nor even the pope, but the Papacy.
Norman Thomas Inquires
There is no use in inquiring of a gangster why he does what he does, but it is sometimes done, merely to get him on record, or to show that he dare not speak up like a man and tell what his motives are. Norman Thomas wrote Coughlin as lately as June 23, 1939, calling his attention to the fact that Coughlin asserts his own right to proclaim his ideas in the press and on the air but that his professed followers are leaders in denying or trying to deny those rights to others. He cited the civil liberties rally in Jersey City, not disturbed in any way by any except Coughlin’s followers, one of whom actually had the brass to loudly announce that he had the right to break up the meeting (so another account states). Thomas went on to say to Coughlin:
Now this Jersey City experience was not unique. Groups professing to be your followers have violently broken up outdoor meetings, I am reliably informed, in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and elsewhere, quite in European black- and brown-shirt style. I myself witnessed the amazing exhibition of your followers at a hearing before the board of education in New York city in favor of closing the schoolhouses to discussions of “controversial issues”. Yet the same crowd pickets radio stations very noisily in your behalf, and does it in the name of free speech! These things are bad enough in themselves. They are worse in the light of their parallel to the rise of totalitarian dictators in Europe.
Coughlin’s followers picketed radio station WMCA because that station refuses to carry his addresses. That was their right. But did they have a right, after their twenty-third picketing, to pick a fight with those selling publications exposing Coughlin? Certainly not. But they did pick it, and it took 125 policemen to restore order on Broadway between Forty-eighth and Fiftieth streets on Sunday afternoon, May 21, 1939, because of that fact.
But when it came to Jehovah’s witnesses’ own convention in Madison Square Garden, June 25, 1939, and the Coughlinites had boasted beforehand that they would break up the convention, and marched on it with that end in view, Jehovah’s witnesses were most mightily and immediately and definitely interested. This is not the place to tell the story; it has appeared elsewhere. But the Coughlinites completely failed of their objective. They were put out as disturbers; and that is just what should be done in every assembly where they try to take away from others the rights which they claim for themselves, and which America so freely grants to them.
Brief Historical Sketch
Coughlin’s great-grandfather helped dig the Erie Canal; his grandfather was a Buffalo carpenter; his father was a church sexton; and Charles E. Coughlin was born in Hamilton, Ontario, October 25, 1891. He was educated in a parochial school, graduated in Toronto University, and, in 1926, was sent to Royal Oak, Michigan, to act as priest for twenty families. A natural orator with a fine voice, and Catholic training in all the arts of rhetoric, he made a radio hit from the first with those who are weak in the head. One attack on Hoover brought him in 1,200,000 letters, and an attack on a big business group brought in 600,000. As a rabble-rouser he is in the same class with Hitler.
The resemblance to Hitler’s methods has been noted by many. The source of Hitler’s wealth was his royalties on the book Mein Kampf. A part of Coughlin’s income is derived from his biography and addresses, bound in one book, and marketed for $3. Twelve of Judge Rutherford’s wonderful books can be had for that money, and any one of them is worth a million times more to any person who wants to live through Armageddon than all the things Hitler and Coughlin have ever written or said or done in their whole lives, or than they will ever do.
Coughlin has his critics. The editor of The Churchman, a Protestant Episcopal publication, recently said of him that he is engaged in “dropping a torch into a world filled with high explosives”. Dr. E. Boyd Barrett, author of Rome Stoops to Conquer, said of him: “He is anti-labor, anti-Communist, and pro-Fascist in the manner of his master, Pius XI. Like Pius, he is in an indirect way anti-Semitic. . . . Father Coughlin has thus made himself the incomparable spokesman and sounding-board of the Holy Father.” Senator Bailey, of North Carolina, said of him:
There is nothing more sinister in our life right now than that Coughlin from the radio of the Shrine of the Little Flower. . . . That voice stirs the depths of hate throughout the land of liberty, matches class against class, foments the fires of revolution, to crucify the American people upon his damnable ambition. Coughlin! Not “Father Coughlin”. . . . When . . . a minister of a church comes down into the political arena and goes out with his radio incendiarism to stir up the fountains of hate in a distressed land amongst a suffering people, I take it nothing amiss, and I make no apologies, but I will snatch the halo from his brow and throw it into the nearest spittoon, and then throw the spittoon into the gutter.
Coughlin’s Relation to the Church
In his letter to Judge Rutherford about Coughlin, it will be recalled that Dr. Lauring said: “The few scattered Catholics who have disavowed him have been like voices lost in the wilderness.” Al Smith called him a crackpot and Cardinal Mundelein said he is not a spokesman for the Catholic Church and his remarks should be considered only those of an individual. And “Reverend Father” James R. Cox of Pittsburgh (perhaps to shine up his own badly spattered escutcheon since he was arrested for misuse of the mails), referring to Coughlin, said: “A Catholic priest should be the last man to encourage rabble-rousing mob vengeance and mass hysteria.” There is also a curious story dating back to the days when Merlin Aylesworth, then president of National Broadcasting Company, was one day reported as testifying that it was a Catholic group that vetoed the application of Coughlin to speak over his network. The next day the transcript of the official record did not show that he had said what the reporters the day previous had said that he said. The moral here seems to be that the transcript had been fixed to suit the exigencies of the case. Aylesworth probably said it, but the Hierarchy did not wish to have it in the record that one of their greatest “heroes” was not acceptable to them.
Probably Coughlin knows better how he stands with the Roman Hierarchy than does anybody else. He talks personally with Rome by radiophone, and his bishop is solidly behind him. The Vatican has never disavowed him. Coughlin has said publicly that Bishop Gallagher (now dead) and the pope were back of him. Gallagher said that the voice of Coughlin is the voice of God. His words were:
I pronounce Father Coughlin sound in doctrine, able in its application and interpretation. Freely I give him my imprimatur on his written word and freely I give my approval on the spoken word.
Throughout the pages of his paper occur again and again the words “Reverend Charles E. Coughlin, LL.D. (by permission of his Ecclesiastical Superior)”. Does this show any indication that the Hierarchy disapproves of this man?
When in June, 1938, there was issued from Royal Oak the statement over Coughlin’s signature, “I regret to state that on specific instructions from my superiors I am advised to withdraw from all public appearances until next November,” Coughlin claimed that the statement was sent out by one of his secretaries. Whatever the facts, it is certain that the Hierarchy is in close touch with the whole situation and very generally endorsing everything Coughlin does.
When he resumed broadcasts January 10, 1934, after fourteen months off the air, Coughlin said, “I understand that my radio teaching is subject to the supervision of my immediate superior, the Archbishop of Detroit”; also, “I deplore the confusing agitation which has been fostered by Social Service.” Take out of these statements what you see fit.
The manager of radio station WJR, Detroit, has declared that Coughlin’s sermons have the approval of Archbishop Edward Mooney, of Detroit. He ought to know; and his name, Levy Fitzpatrick, suggests that he is of the same church. When the question was put direct to Mooney he gave a typical Hierarchy straddling answer by explaining that “Catholic Church authorities, in passing on writings or utterances, make a clear distinction between permission and approval.” The effect of such equivocations is to make honest, straightforward persons certain that the Catholic Church is back of Fascism, body and soul, but doesn’t want the name of it until after the game is in the bag.
One of Coughlin’s stooge organizations is the so-called “Committee for the Defense of American Constitutional Rights”. You can judge of about how much value it would be in preserving American rights when you know that at one of its meetings the 6,000 persons present made the sign of the cross and were led in it by the “Reverend Father” Edward J. Higgins. He and they believe it right to murder persons teaching independently of the Roman Catholic church organization.
Converted to Fascism
Coughlin never stays converted to anything very long. What he really wants is dictatorial power, no matter how he gets it. A year or more ago he proposed the abandonment of the American form of government, and a Fascist system of representation in which the members of the House of Representatives would be elected according to class, as in Italy and Russia. Thus cotton farmers, steel workers, coal miners, doctors, industrialists in each branch of industry, and all other classes, would incorporate and choose their own representatives. People are easier to control “a la chess-board”. Divide the country up into such classes (as it was in the Dark Ages, with its various guilds), and all that is necessary is to secretly control the leaders. Can you guess who would do the controlling? See Italy, Germany, Spain.
His magazine said last fall that the only unbiased source of truth is “Father” Coughlin. Do you remember the Italian statement, “Mussolini is always right”? Do you know that that is the way the German people speak of Hitler? During the Ethiopian war Coughlin was all for Mussolini. That tells where his heart is. Mussolini reciprocates: the Italian newspaper Regime Fascista praised him to the skies this very year, saying, “It is impossible for Italians not to express their sympathy with this apostle of Christianity.” As Coughlin’s sympathies are with Mussolini and with Franco the Butcher, so they are also with the German outfit run by the man who murdered his best friend. The New York Post printed, in parallel columns, extracts from Coughlin’s talks and those of Goebbels, Hitler’s Jesuit-trained propaganda minister, showing their similarities. At the Nazi German American Bund meeting held at Madison Square Garden, New York, February 20, 1939, the mention of Coughlin’s name was followed by the greatest ovation of the night. And Coughlin is alleged to have said of Hitler that he is the best Christian in the world.
Converted to Nazism
Not only are whole sections of Coughlin’s talks mere translations of Goebbels’ preachments to the German people, but he follows Hitler’s methods and principles, or lack of them. Thus he has learned that hate is a more powerful motive than love and works it to the limit. He has also learned the force that comes from the hammering reiteration of a few narrow ideas.
The Catholic magazine The Commonweal courageously referred to “his cavalier disregard for pertinent historical testimony, his insensitiveness to the consequences of his acts on German and Italian Jews [and] his all too pious acceptance of propaganda from a party whose Fuehrer proudly boasts his machine is based in huge lies”.
The Review of Reviews said: “It has not escaped the notice of observers that the general contour of his doctrine is oddly similar to that of National Socialism (Hitlerism). Although the Nazi dictator has abandoned virtually the whole of the program which he sold to the German people in 1930, the fact remains that it was excellent political copy.”
The St. Paul Pioneer Press said of him, “There is no longer any doubt as to what Father Coughlin is up to. This man, who burns with an unpriestly ambition for worldly power, has observed how Hitler arose out of the flames of prejudice; and he does not scruple to belie his sacred office by attempting here in America to arouse a race hatred against the Jews as a means of achieving his purpose. His unctuous disavowals of this purpose, while he utters falsehoods and misrepresentations, do not conceal his meaning, but bring it out more clearly. His technique is to retail Nazi propaganda, and then squirm out of responsibility by professing to deplore it.”
Dr. Harry F. Ward, of New York, chairman of the American League for Peace and Democracy, said of him, “He is constantly slipping over subtle defenses for Hitler and equally subtle suggestions that democracy is not working over here and that Fascism is working better over there” and that his goal is “a controlled totalitarian state in which the church is the ruling force”.
When Coughlin made his 14-month retirement from the air, in October, 1937, the New York Post said of him, “The more he said, the more clearly he was revealing himself as a sanctimonious stooge for special interests, a reactionary with more than a streak of Fascist ideas.”
It is well known in New York that there is an open alliance between Coughlin and the German Bund. On the day before the Bund meeting there was a Coughlin meeting in New York, and at that meeting literature and tickets for the Bund meeting were distributed. At the Bund meeting itself Coughlin was the hero of the day.
His Anti-Semitic Campaign
No man in public life ever told more lies or got caught at them more quickly than Coughlin did when he started his lying campaign against the Jews, and that right in the midst of their horrible sufferings in Germany. He published the so-called “Protocols of Zion”, which all now know to be forgeries.
He charged that wealthy American Jews financed the Russian revolution; but Kerensky, one-time premier of Russia, immediately declared that there was not a single Jew in the first government established by the revolution.
He claimed that the American Secret Service had provided the above information, and that it was included in the unabridged British white paper which he had. Then the chief of the United States Secret Service, Frank J. Wilson, denied that any such report had ever been made, and the British Government, both in London and in New York, produced copies of the original white paper and showed that no such statement had ever been made; and Coughlin had to admit that he did not have the paper, and had never seen it.
Professor Johan Smeretenko convinced radio station WMCA that Coughlin had been broadcasting untruths, and they announced over the air that he had “unfortunately uttered cer-” tain mistakes of fact”—a nice way of telling the world what he is.
He mentioned Kuhn, Loeb & Co. as having had a share in fomenting the Russian revolution; and that concern announced that it had never had any relations, financial or otherwise, with any government in Russia, Czarist, Kerensky or Communist. Then he supposedly quoted from a Jewish magazine to back up one of his statements; and it was seen that he misquoted the article.
Then he charged that present economic distress is due to the international Jewish bankers; and figures were produced showing that only one Jewish banking firm, Kuhn, Loeb & Company, had participated in the loans to which he referred and their share was 2.88 percent of the total. In other words, Coughlin’s charge was 97.12 percent false and he is not a 100-percent liar. Neither is Hitler; it is not scientific.
Eddie Cantor, motion picture comedian, said of Coughlin, “Father Coughlin is a great orator, but I doubt that he has a sincere atom in his entire system.”
A Friend of Big Business
No person has panned Big Business harder than Coughlin, but he is a personal friend of W. R. Hearst, champion of Fascism in the United States. When he begs over the radio he gets results. When he talks, the people pay for it and are glad to do it. When he lectured in Madison Square Garden the crowd paid from 50 cents to $2 a head to hear his what some have called “poisonous and inflammatory economic and social nonsense”; yet his gang were not willing that Jehovah’s witnesses should have Judge Rutherford lecture to the public FREE, but had to try to break up the meeting.
At the very time Coughlin was blowing about stock market chicanery over the radio, his secretary, without his knowledge, so he says, invested $20,000 of his surplus funds in such a way as to rake in $100,000 net on the deal. It is a good thing Coughlin did not know about it, or he would have put in ten times as much.
He is a good cardplayer; sometimes plays until 12:30 a.m.
His first church burned at exactly the right time. How odd! Catholic institutions that have served their time have a habit of burning just when the insurance funds would come in best. This $30,000 shack went up just as Coughlin was moving into his million-dollar silo where he now holds forth.
Coughlin says the laborer is on the side of the angels, but when he built his new shrine he refused to have anything to do with union labor, and the wages he paid were 25 percent to 40 percent below trade union rates.
The New Republic stated that “the two most prominent purveyors of lies in the United States at present are Representative Dies and Father Coughlin”. Wonder why they said that.
In November, 1935, Coughlin stated: “At no time has it been or will it be our desire to establish a so-called ‘third party’.” He established such a party within a year thereafter.
He is flexible in his convictions, having been a New Dealer three times. A friend of Roosevelt, he called the president a liar and a scab. A “lover of labor”, he denounced the CIO, and John W. Edelman, of that organization, said of him, “We recognize Father Coughlin as an unscrupulous man.” Nothing worse could be said of anybody.
He is conceited beyond the power of language; he has suggested bullets instead of ballots, to put his changing ideas across.
He said, “We Christians with a united front could go forth and do in one year in the United States what Franco accomplished in Spain.” His gang tried some of it, on a mild scale, in Madison Square Garden, June 25, 1939.
As showing that this person imagines he is America’s future Hitler, he said in his broadcast of January 1, 1939: “Let those who are with us reap the rewards; let those who oppose us by their silence or their action suffer the consequences.” That is a typical Hitler threat.
See the Exhibits
Under the engaging title, “Charles E. Coughlin: Priest, Gambler, Hypocrite”, the Freethinkers of America, in their February (1939) Bulletin, published some reproductions from the Detroit Free Press showing some of this man’s financial transactions. These will be found on pages 18-19, and are well worth examination by anyone who is interested in the peculiar phenomenon holding forth at Royal Oak, Michigan. The fact that there are millions of Americans fallen so low as to pay any attention to a man of this type shows the desperately low moral and intellectual estate of vast numbers of the American people and their need of God’s government of peace, truth, honor and justice and love.—Elton Groves.
UNDER THE TOTALITARIAN FLAG
Gradually Caving In
◆ Gradually caving in, the New York board of regents finally yielded what they hitherto refused, and now the clique that is out to control the schools and everything else in the state can arrange for the children to be excused from one of the precious thirty hours per week of schooling, so that they may receive religious instruction that “Mary is the mother of God”, and that God is so sore at humanity that unless somebody pays, his priests well most of them will have to cook for eternity. But if the money is forthcoming to the right bagman, then the poor apes can get to heaven, where they can enjoy the company of the Torquemadas, the Bloody Marys and the Borgias who succeeded in crashing the gate in ages gone.
Who Was to Get Worthless Stock?
◆ A story in the New York Daily News is incomplete. It sets forth that a lawyer arranged with Monsignor John M. Kiely to dispose of “some worthless stock held by the priest”. The priest gave the lawyer $500 commission for putting through the deal, and the lawyer gave the priest his check for $2,600, the price of the stock. Something went wrong. Probably the lawyer could not find any sucker that would pay $2,600 for the “worthless stock held by the priest”. Anyway, the $2,600 check bounced back and the priest mourns his $500 paid to the lawyer, and at last reports was trying to get it back. The missing part of the story is a description of the stock, and who was to pay out $2,600 for what the News says was “worthless”.
New York’s Police Force
◆ The London Universe carries the interesting information that of the 18,000 persons on New York’s police force 12,000 are Roman Catholics; also that the chaplain of those 12,000, the “Reverend Father” Joseph A. McCaffrey, has been made a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. Is it the fashion now for city chaplains to be made officers in the United States Army? Why? Also, and the items may have a relation to one another, there come reports from Washington that the Army is to be “vitalized” by removing 2,300 high-ranking officers from their jobs, and putting younger men in their places. One wonders if the complexion of the Army is to be altered to suit the ambitions of the Hierarchy.
Meat on St. Patrick’s Day
◆ St. Patrick, it seems, was not a Roman Catholic, but is nevertheless the patron “saint” of the cathedral and archdiocese of New York. For that reason, on St. Patrick’s day, March 17, 1939, Roman Catholics in New York were permitted to eat meat, despite the fact that the day came on Friday. More religious foolishness, of no possible benefit to anybody except the dealers in meat.
Rachel McDowell Again
◆ Rachel McDowell, “religious” editor of the New York Times, writer of weepy stories about Pope Pius XI’s tenderness, etc., has broken loose again. This time she expatiated on the fact that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, which hates American public schools worse than anything else, would stage an annual communion breakfast of a so-called “Board of Education’s Bureau of Attendance Catholic League” at which 2,000 guests would be present. While the principal speakers would be members of the Hierarchy, yet the president of the board of education of New York city was expected to be there in all his glory, to give apparent sanction to this un-American organization’s activities.
Religious Excitement in Buffalo
◆ Big religious excitement in Buffalo. First, the “Reverend Father” John J. Nash said that “there are certain enemies of religion today who are carrying on their propaganda in these United States against religion” and, “These enemies are not outside the walls clamoring to get in; they are within our gates” and they avowedly tell us that religion is an antidote, a soporific, invented by the priestcraft to quiet the people and prevent them from thinking”, and that these tactics are “only a prelude to a campaign of violence designed to destroy religion and the things that spring from it”, and that “they’re here on the plea of free speech”, and “I maintain that we must take action to halt this situation, or avow ourselves foolish before the whole civilized world”. Nash says that “every American is in favor of free speech”. He does not say who are these persons who now have free speech, but who should have it taken away, nor does he say who should do the taking.
There was more excitement when, at the same meeting, the “Most Reverend” John A. Duffy made the mistake of saying that Exodus 20:7 is the second commandment. To be sure, it is the second commandment according to his religion, but not according to the Bible, as you can see for yourself if you refer to Exodus 20:4, where anybody may see that the second commandment is, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” instead of “Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain”. Bishop Duffy should throw his religion into the ash can. It is of no good. He should accept Christianity instead. Oh, oh, this is talking against religion, and Nash does not like things like that. Now isn’t that just too bad?
“Mary the Mother of God” and “Baby Jesus” honored at Newburgh, N.Y., July 16, 1939, and God dishonored by public idolatry, on Mount Carmel day.
Hierarchy Sore on Spanish Veterans
♦ When the 149 members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of the Spanish Republic returned from Spain they wanted to place a wreath on what is called the Eternal Light in Madison Square Park, but the Hierarchy was sore at the idea, and so Lieutenant Charles Maura of the New York police department, and Terrence Cusick, one of the employees of the New York City Department of Parks, forbade them to do it. In order not to offend the Hierarchy, the wreath, bearing the title “In memory of those who died for democracy”, was placed outside the railing surrounding the base. Another great victory for Franco, the pope and the Devil.
Enlarged Gall Bladder
♦ A certain physician received a series of requests to donate money to the building of a new Catholic hospital. At length he gave up $300. Then he received a request to purchase tickets at $10 a ticket. Becoming shy of sending more money, he received another notice to purchase tickets, stating that “this is the second request”. Then he received an invitation to a dinner at $1.50 a plate; this was also ignored. Then a committee called the physician’s nurse and told her to remind the doctor that he had not ordered his tickets, and that if he found it impossible to attend the dinner, to please send the money or a subscription anyway, and lastly the same request was made by mail. The physician’s wife wants to know— If all outside of the Catholic church are Communists, Reds and heathen, why do they accept or even want the money which non-Catholics have?
“Shall Our Hearts Remain Cold?”
♦ The Scripture declaration is that “the dead know not any thing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5), and that when a person dies “his thoughts perish” (Psalm 146:4), which fully explains why people working the worst of all rackets do all possible to discourage the common people from possessing the Scriptures, or using them. Martin J. Blake, C.M., Our Lady of Angels Novena, Niagara University, N.Y., writes as follows, and you can either believe what he says or believe the Scriptures. Take your choice. It is a free country, and if you wish to believe something that is not true, and that will never do you or anybody else the least bit of good here or hereafter, just go right ahead and support the racket:
Hopefully and expectantly the Souls in Purgatory look to us for help. Because we do not see them suffer, shall our hearts remain cold? Because we do not hear them plead, shall our ears remain deaf?
The big idea is to come across with a dollar. You can imagine who gets the dollar, and how much good it will do to people that are asleep in death.
Monks Find Their Tongues
♦ The monks of the Trappist Monastery of Mount St. Bernard, England, do not generally indulge in talking. Only with permission and on special occasions do they engage in conversation. Such a special occasion arose when their new church was on show and many visitors came to look it over, including numerous girls (wearing trousers, slacks and shorts) who wandered all over the monastery grounds. The monks generally consider conversation a sin (and maybe it is in their case), but on this occasion the salutary association with normal people made things all right. The monks could talk to the ladies without sinning.
Best They Could Do
◆ The Roman Hierarchy is often embarrassed in its attempts to place its own men in the key positions of the world, and so compromise is frequently necessary. It is therefore of interest that the new British ambassador to the United States is not an out-and-out Roman Catholic, as is the American ambassador to Britain. The most that can be said, in his case, is that his father was a Roman Catholic. He is, however, an admirer of Hitler and will be very useful to both the Hierarchy and Hitler in his new position. He thinks Britain should pay the U.S. what it has borrowed, and is not at all wrong in his view that this would put Britain in a mighty lot better standing in this country than it now occupies.
A Mere Oversight
◆ An ad soliciting funds for the building of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (Catholic) states that those who donate £1 will have their names subscribed in a book of remembrance. It quotes Malachi 3:16, but examination of the verse fails to reveal any mention of the money consideration. A mere oversight, perhaps. The ad further states that “for all time this book will remain within the precincts of a Glorious Temple”. In these days of bombs and air raids it is best not to be too sure of that.
Noyes’ Book Now Approved
◆ Noyes’ book Voltaire has been condemned by the Vatican, but as they gave no explanation of their condemnation, he went ahead with its publication anyway. Seeing they could not bluff him, the Hierarchy compromised, and a preface explaining the “difficulty” makes the book acceptable. It wouldn’t do to antagonize the British reading public at this juncture.
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