Consolation, January 10, 1940
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Contents
Sweeping Away Their Refuge of Lies 3
"A Liar and a Murderer from the Beginning" 4
Supremacy of Jehovah's Law at Issue 5
"The Crime" of Clara Schneider 5
Counselor for Jehovah's witnesses 6
The United States Supreme Court vs.
The Inquisition 7
Court Gave Courteous Attention 8
American Catholics Also in Danger 9
Australia 10
Africa 11
Under the Totalitarian Flag
Earth's Most Intolerant Cult 12
The Catholic Times 15
Counsel by J. F. Rutherford
Whom Do You Fear? 17
Guarding the People's Rights 19
Private Munitions 21
Aviation 23
Asia 24
Germany 25
Animal Husbandry 26
Birds 27
British Comment
Gathering Clouds of War 28
"Confound Their Politics" 29
The Church of Scotland 30
Central America and West Indies 31
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Appetizers
Not So Easy
A little girl was showing a visitor over her father's farm, and proudly pointed to a cow which, she said, was her very own.
"And does your cow give milk?" asked the visitor.
"Well, not exactly," replied the child. "You've sort of got to take it away from her."
Why, the Very Idea!
A lady, having guests to dinner, told her maid to make mushroom sauce. On opening the can of mushrooms, the maid noticed a disquieting color.
"Well," said the lady, "put a little on some toast and give it to the dog. If he eats it, probably it's all right."
The maid did so; and reported that the dog begged for more. She was instructed to serve the sauce.
All went well until the guests were having coffee, when the maid, white-faced, came in and whispered to her mistress: "Oh, ma'am, the dog has just died!"
There was only one thing to do—explain to the guests and call the nearest doctor to come running with his stomach pump. Eight steak and mushroom dinners were removed.
Then the mistress went to the kitchen and asked the maid where the dog was.
"Oh, dear," said Mary, still in a state of distress, "he's lying under the porch, where he was put by the man whose car hit him."
—Labor.
Walking Off with the Finery
A modern young woman arrived at her grandmother's house wearing a fashionable backless evening frock. Grandma lectured her: "It's shameless. I dread to think what your mother would say if she saw you in that dress."
The young miss smiled. "I suspected it too. You see, it's hers."
Safety First!
An elderly lady motorist was driving along a country road when she spied a couple of repairmen climbing a telephone pole.
"Fools," she exclaimed to her companion; "they must think I never drove a car before."
CONSOLATION
“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A. R. V.
Volume XXI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, January 10, 1940 Number 530
Sweeping Away Their Refuge of Lies
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY are responsible for all the extensive persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses that has been carried on through the United States. This furnishes Jehovah with provocation for entering against them His just decree for their execution. The Hierarchy’s end is near, and their corpses shall not even have burial.—Psalm 83:10; Jeremiah 25:33.
Before their destruction, the Lord declares, He will sweep away their refuge of lies, and this work progresses today with lightning velocity. On Friday the 13th of October, 1939, Judge Rutherford, as counsel for Jehovah’s witnesses, argued the case of Clara Schneider vs. The State (Town of Irvington) of New Jersey before the United States Supreme Court, while the Hierarchy of Catholic Action choked on fishbones. On November 22, when the Court handed down its decision annulling the Irvington (N.J.) ordinance and reversing the decisions of all the courts of New Jersey, thus setting Clara Schneider at liberty, there was more gnashing of teeth in Rome. The authors of “mischief laws” received a judicial kick in the pants.—Psalm 94:20.
But even the seven Supreme Court justices who declared themselves for freedom of speech ignored the main issue, the SUPREMACY OF JEHOVAH’S LAW. How forcibly this was presented to the Court, who were unable to avoid hearing the proclamation of God’s Word, by Judge Rutherford, counselor for His people!—
This Court has heretofore held, in the case of Holy Trinity Church vs. United States, 143 U.S. 457, that America ‘is a Christian nation’. From the foundation of the United States this has been recognized as and declared a Christian nation, which means that the people endeavor to follow the lead of Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ always obeys the will of Jehovah God. All Christians are duty-bound likewise to obey the law of Almighty God. Even the Constitution of the State of New Jersey recognizes that a Christian’s right to worship Almighty God must not be interrupted nor interfered with by the State:
“No person shall be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshipping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience.” —New Jersey Constitution, Article 1, Section 3.
“Human creatures or human powers cannot set aside the Divine law nor prevent the individual person’s conscientious obedience to the law of Almighty God. The law of Almighty God is supreme, and this Court, by holding that America is a Christian nation, even so decides.”
The Roman Catholic Hierarchy are back of all this persecution of Jehovah’s witnesses. They are attempting to frame mischief by law to prevent the promulgation of God’s Word. And although they claim to teach the Bible, they are putting the State above Almighty God. For this reason, in America the Supreme Court is the last bulwark of freedom of speech and freedom of worship. In his argument before the Supreme Court of the United States, bearing upon this point, counsel for Clara Schneider said:
This court is the last bulwark of American liberty. And unless this court upholds the right of freedom of speech and freedom of worship, all liberty in America is gone. . . . I hope this case is not decided solely on the authority of the Lovell vs. The City of Griffin. While the decision in that case is sufficient upon which to base a reversal of the judgment in the instant case, I hope this court will decide that in America a person may worship Almighty God JEHOVAH in a manner agreeable to his conscience, and as set forth in the Bible, without first obtaining permission of a police officer. . . . Upon the point of which is supreme, the law of Almighty God or the law of the State, a distinguished authority on Constitutional Limitations says: “No external authority is to place itself between the finite being and the Infinite when the former is seeking to render the homage that is due, and in a mode which commends itself to his conscience and judgment as being suitable for him to render, and acceptable to its object.”—Cooley’s Constitutional Limitations, 8th Ed., page 968.
Mr. Blackstone, an authority recognized by this Court, has well said: "Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. . . . The will of his Maker is called the law of nature. . . . This law of nature, being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, at all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from the original. . . . Upon these two foundations, the law of nature, and the law of revelation, depend all human laws. That is to say no human laws should be suffered to contradict these."
Counsel for Clara Schneider further said:
It is hardly necessary for me to say that there is a rapidly rising tide of Nazism and Fascism sweeping the whole world. This Totalitarian doctrine and rule has gained control of 'most all of Europe and is reaching out to control America, and one of the means of accomplishing this purpose is to deny persons the right to serve and worship Almighty God without first obtaining a permit from a police officer.
Not all lawyers of America are ashamed to mention the name of Almighty God before the highest court of the land. For more than twenty years the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, the leading religious institution on earth, has attempted to control the politics of all lands, has published far and wide statements to this effect: That Judge Rutherford is an "ex-convict". Convicts are denied the right to practice law before any court. The fact that Judge Rutherford appeared before the highest court of America and argued this important case of the liberty to worship Almighty God should for ever put to silence the Hierarchy, which constitutes a crowd of the most fertile liars that encumber the earth.
Because Judge Rutherford has insisted on telling the people the truth, as set forth in God's Word, which truth exposes the duplicity of the Hierarchy and their unholy racket that they have practiced upon the people for centuries, the Hierarchy has tried to destroy the force of his argument; and in their attempt to silence Judge Rutherford they have repeatedly denounced him as an "ex-convict". In making this statement they well know that they lie, and what occurred in the Supreme Court of the United States in October stamps the Hierarchy as willful and deliberate liars.
Hurried away to the Federal penitentiary on the 4th of July after Manton had denied him bail, Judge Rutherford was held in prison for nine months for the sole reason that Manton, one of the mainstays of the religio-political Hierarchy, had denied him his Constitutional right of bail pending appeal. After the case was presented before the Supreme Court of the United States he was admitted to bail. Shortly thereafter the case, which contained 125 errors, was tried and the majority of the Appellate Court readily reversed the adverse judgment, while the "Knight of St. Gregory the Great" (Manton), working with his coconspirators, the Hierarchy, dissented in that opinion. To show that he was not ashamed, Judge Rutherford immediately thereafter began a campaign throughout the United States and engaged the largest halls in the largest cities, and made announcement with full-page ads in the metropolitan press to this effect: "SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR EIGHTY YEARS; RESULT OF A CONSPIRACY BY THE CLERGY. COME AND HEAR THE REASON WHY" (or, about it). On numerous occasions thereafter he appeared in the courts, because his citizenship was never taken from him, as is shown by the reversal by the higher courts. But even to this very day the Hierarchy still denounces Judge Rutherford as an "ex-convict"; and this they do in order to hide their own nefarious deceptive methods of robbing the people.
"A Liar and a Murderer from the Beginning"
The Hierarchy is trained by the Devil, whom Jesus described as "the father" of lies and "a murderer from the beginning". (John 8:44) When they accuse one of a serious crime such as that of which Jesus was accused and such as they have constantly charged against Judge Rutherford they well know that more often than not the accused is never fully exonerated in the public eye. No doubt there are many people today who think Jesus was a seditionist; others, that He was a fake. The Hierarchy proposes, by the simple process of repetition, to induce many people to believe that Judge Rutherford, who had the respect of the highest court of the United States, is an "ex-convict". The Devil induced Adam to blame a woman when he was caught in a crime. He now causes his agents, the Hierarchy, to besmirch the Lord's servant in order to hide their own crimes.
The same methods are also to be observed among the Hierarchy's allies such as Germany and Russia, the "red Fascists". When an effort is made by smaller nations acting through the League of Nations to have Russia arbitrate her differences with little Finland, the Comintern’s reply is to the effect that no war is fought with Finland (although at this writing some 50,000 Soviets and unnumbered thousands of Finns have been slain), but that a new government has been set up in Finland which “does not endanger Russia”, that this government has been recognized by Stalin’s monstrosity, and that a state of rebellion exists which Russia must assist in quelling. One does not exactly gather just of what Russia is relieving the Finns, but it appears certain that soon they will have nothing more “to be relieved of”. A repetition of the Austria and Czechoslovakia “swipe” is executed while the master liar and murderer looks on in approval at his puppets. And the Hierarchy gets its share of the loot. Soon, no doubt, the robbers will become tired of dividing up with Rome and take the “ole lady’s” share.
Supremacy of JEHOVAH'S Law at Issue
Is it not a terrible condemnation against the Hierarchy that the only man who honored the name of Jehovah at this United States Supreme Court hearing is one they have dubbed “ex-convict”? And the fact that it is not a personal fight, but an effort on their part to dishonor the Lord’s message, puts them first on the docket for His execution. The words of this servant of the Most High were so inescapably plain: “I hope this Court will decide that in America a person may worship Almighty God JEHOVAH in a manner agreeable to his conscience, as set forth in the Bible, without first obtaining permission of a police officer.” The SUPREMACY OF JEHOVAH’S LAW is the vital issue, but the Court, an excellent man-made institution, ignored or disregarded the great LIFE-GIVER. Those who do not discern His THEOCRACY will not receive His blessings.—Isaiah 45: 23; Acts 3: 23.
No lesson teaches the wicked anything, because they despise instruction. (Proverbs 1:7; 13:13) The fact that Judge Rutherford, who was wrongfully held in prison by the Hierarchy’s Manton, has lived to tell of Jehovah’s THEOCRACY for more than twenty years and his voice has been heard over the whole world in the Lord’s name, while Manton has been convicted of a filthy crime and is in durance vile, will teach them nothing. When recently the Hierarchy’s demonized agents, under the influence of Coughlin, attacked one of the Lord’s assemblies and, through the assistance of certain officers of the law enforcement department of New York, had Jehovah’s witnesses arrested for attempting to keep order, when the outcome of this case was to free Jehovah’s witnesses, and the Coughlinites had sore heads and other parts for their pains, they still learned nothing. The further fact is that the opposition of the Hierarchy to the Lord’s message, in which they have used every weapon, from gagging the press to murder, has had no result, but, on the contrary, this message has increased in volume until the last year saw the largest number of publications, and greatest witness, of any. But none of these facts will teach the Devil’s hirelings anything. They are “vessels fitted for destruction”, and not good for anything else.
“The Crime” of Clara Schneider
It has always been one of the Devil’s methods to have his agents accuse a servant of the Lord of sedition or some other crime. Daniel, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, Jesus and the apostles, were all accused of some crime against the government. The Hierarchy’s modern method of “framing mischief by law” is simply the time-old custom of the Devil, the purpose always being to interfere with the Lord’s servant in carrying out His purpose.
Facts
In New Jersey’s town of Irvington, in December, 1935, Clara Schneider went from door to door leaving with interested persons literature explaining the purposes of Almighty God as written in the Bible. From some of such persons she accepted contributions given to aid in printing and distributing more like literature. She was maliciously accused and wrongfully convicted as a violator of the town’s canvassing ordinance. She purposely had not applied to police for a permit, for she considered herself as sent by the Most High God, JEHOVAH, to do His work under Christ Jesus, and that therefore to apply to any creature for a permit would be an act of disobedience to her Creator. Her wrongful conviction was reversed by America’s highest court as an unlawful encroachment upon rights safeguarded for every inhabitant of this country by its Constitution, as defined by the same court in that earlier case of another of Jehovah’s witnesses, Lovell v. City of Griffin (Ga.), 303 U.S. 444.
At this writing the town officials of Irvington claim they will not be bound by this ruling of the United States Supreme Court. Many parts of New Jersey have difficulty in learning that they remain a part of the United States and are not a Papal state. The Supreme Court called their attention to this fact in CIO-Hague case. It is hard to imagine a more astounding example of Inquisition law than the license which Irvington town fathers sought to enforce in the United States of America. This license required those who applied to have their picture taken, be fingerprinted, notify police of their kind of clothing, and made it "mandatory" upon the chief of police to refuse license to any who in his opinion was not of good character. This law was never enforced except upon eleven members of Jehovah's witnesses, against whom it was obviously drafted and executed. When these eleven witnesses of Jehovah, after their arrest by the police of Irvington for "canvassing without the required license", applied to court for relief, be it said to their everlasting shame that the courts of New Jersey upheld this Nazi mischief law even in the highest tribunal of the state.
Counselor for Jehovah's witnesses
Before the highest tribunal of the land Judge Rutherford, representing the cause of Jehovah's witnesses, proved the absurdity of this ordinance as a law and plainly demonstrated to the satisfaction of the court that it was simply a relic of the Inquisition. His argument continued as follows:
May it please the court . . . This is not a religious question. The undisputed evidence that appears in the record is that the petitioner was at the time she was arrested "an ordained minister of Jehovah God to preach the gospel of God's kingdom under Christ" and that she was engaged in this work for that sole purpose. It would be wholly inconsistent to require a minister of the gospel to apply to a human official for a permit to do that which the Almighty commands must be done.
The Irvington Ordinance is subject to the same vice as the Ordinance of the town of Griffin, Ga., considered in the case of Lovell vs. Griffin, for the reason that it attempts to license the press and activities of the press and to license one's activities in performing the duties which Almighty God commands His servants to perform, and for that reason alone it is void on its face, without regard to its application. The ordinance here in question says: "No person shall distribute circulars or other matter or CALL FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE IN THE TOWN of Irvington without first having reported to and received a written permit from the Chief of Police."
To illustrate the point: It is customary for the nuns of the Catholic Church organization in the performance of their appointed duty to regularly call from house to house, and solicit and receive money and other contributions. Under the Irvington ordinance as applied they must first obtain a permit to so call from house to house. Otherwise they would be guilty of a misdemeanor.
The religious organization known as the Salvation Army sends its representatives amongst the people and they call upon them from house to house soliciting contributions and selling their literature. Under the construction placed upon the Irvington ordinance by the Respondent their acts in so doing are in violation of the law.
A motorist might be driving through the town of Irvington and stop to call on several of his former friends residing in different houses in that town, and in doing so "call from house to house". To do so without first obtaining a permit from the police would be a violation of the Irvington ordinance according to the construction the courts below put upon it.
Let us assume that the Nazis, Fascists, and Soviets were moving in secret to invade the American shores and some good citizen learning this fact went from house to house to notify the people of the impending danger and in doing so he printed folders containing such warning which he distributed from house to house without first obtaining a permit from the police. According to the New Jersey courts he is guilty of a misdemeanor.
Should the ride of Paul Revere be repeated in the town of Irvington, New Jersey, without first applying to the police for a permit, the informer would be subject to spend a term in jail, according to the construction placed upon its ordinance by the Courts below.
I submit that if the Lord Jesus Christ, acting exactly as He did when He was on earth in the flesh, were here again and went from house to house in the town of Irvington doing good and preaching the gospel (Luke 13: 22), He would be liable to be incarcerated in the town calaboose for not having first applied to the police to grant Him permission to do what His heavenly Father commanded Him to do.
The petitioner in this case is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, doing exactly what Jesus and His disciples did; and, since she was so doing in obedience to the commandment of Almighty God, it is not within the power of the State or any municipality to regulate or attempt to regulate the manner in which she shall preach the gospel. To apply an ordinance to any person named herein as it has been applied to the petitioner would certainly disclose that the ordinance is void on its face, for the reason that the persons against whom the ordinance is made "do not come within the terms of the ordinance".
Certainly this honorable court would not hold that a person is required to first violate the law of Almighty God and his own conscience by applying for a permit to do what Almighty God commands him to do and this he must do before he could question the validity of the ordinance under which he is arrested.
Only the corporate or totalitarian states attempt to regulate the conscience of men or attempt to compel them to obey man's law which is in derogation of the law of Almighty God.
The very act of applying for a permit to engage in the service or the worship of the Lord God, as the petitioner was doing in this case, would cause her to violate her conscience and to violate the specific command of the Lord to preach this gospel of the Kingdom and to go from house to house to do so; and certainly it is not within the power of the state or the courts to compel a person to violate his conscience or violate the supreme law as a condition precedent to raising the question of the validity of an ordinance.
The United States Supreme Court vs. The Inquisition
In these days of framing mischief by law, as foretold by the psalmist, most cases are decided on some legal technicality and not upon their broad merits. The lawmakers and courts of New Jersey took the unenviable position of not only framing such mischief laws but upholding them even in their Supreme Court and their Court of Errors and Appeals. The town of Irvington set about to destroy the work of Jehovah's witnesses, and in this the courts of New Jersey backed them up, but the United States Supreme Court repulsed the New Jersey branch of Catholic Action; their opinion announced November 22, 1939, reversed the Inquisition and declared unconstitutional New Jersey's anti-Christian act.
Caught in the Snare
At this time the Lord Jesus Christ, Field Marshal of Jehovah's armies, gathers the enemy to battle. (Joel 3:9-15; Revelation 16:16) By means of the message of the Kingdom He is dividing the sheep from the goats, that is, separating the people who are friendly to THE THEOCRACY, and shall therefore live, from the opponents of THE THEOCRACY, who are slated for destruction. The battle is imminent! Viewing this great maneuver in the light of recent events in the state of New Jersey, it appears that certain authorities there and certain courts, who have been doing the will of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, are taken in the Lord's snare: "I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon [Hierarchy], and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord." (Jeremiah 50:24)
These same officials will find that their hire, whether it was money, indulgences, or fire insurance against "purgatory", will seem poor pay, when they must face the fierce anger of the Lord's Executioner.
When they are confronted by the Final Arbiter they will not be able to avoid the issue by some legal chicanery as they did in deciding against Clara Schneider in her various appeals.
Evidently these courts of New Jersey are similar to that of ex-Judge Martin T. Manton, who so delighted to do the Hierarchy's will. Otherwise they would not function as tools of Rome, but would decide on the plain issue involved, which really was THE INQUISITION VS. CHRISTIANITY, Communistic Nazism vs. Freedom; nor would they have asked Hague, the New Jersey pope, or anybody else for suggestions before rendering a decision. And they would scarcely have acted like brother polecats endeavoring to hide the foul scent of despotism, which has been rising up from Irvington these several years past to offend the nostrils of the nation. Otherwise, could they have ignored their oaths of office, strengthening enemies of the Constitution? Could they have forced a Christian, guilty of no wrong and so declared by the honorable Supreme Court of the United States, to carry her case through five courts, costing her much time and burdensome expense, to gain her freedom? They would hardly have done this had they been American institutions, unhampered by pressure from a foreign power.
But no matter to the Christian. All accounts will be settled at Armageddon.
However, the United States Supreme Court recognized the methods of the Inquisition, as is clearly shown by their language in the opinion written by Justice Roberts. They saw that it was simply a modern version of the time-honored trick of the more ancient Inquisition when fiends, such as the Roman Catholic Torquemada, destroyed books, including the Bible, throttled free speech, and killed by rack and stake every critic of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. Referring to Clara Schneider the opinion stated:
The applicant must submit to that officer's [the Irvington chief of police's] judgment evidence as to his good character and as to the absence of fraud in the "project" he proposes to promote or the literature he intends to distribute, and he must undergo a burdensome and INQUISITORIAL examination, including photographing and fingerprinting. In the end, his liberty to communicate with the residents of the town at their homes depends upon the exercise of the officer's discretion.
As said in Lovell v. City of Griffin, supra, pamphlets have proved most effective instruments in the dissemination of opinion. And perhaps the most effective way of bringing them to the notice of individuals is their distribution at the homes of the people. On this method of communication the ordinance imposes censorship, abuse of which engendered the struggle in England which eventuated in the establishment of the doctrine of the freedom of the press embodied in our Constitution. To require a censorship through license which makes impossible the free and unhampered distribution of pamphlets strikes at the very heart of the constitutional guarantees.
The justice, after commenting upon the possibility of fraud being practiced in the name of religion, declared that this is not sufficient consideration for invading the cherished right of freedom of speech. He continues:
We are not to be taken as holding that commercial soliciting and canvassing may not be subjected to such regulation as the ordinance requires. Nor do we hold that the town may not fix reasonable hours when canvassing may be done by persons having such objects as the petitioner. Doubtless there are other features of such activities which may be regulated in the public interest without prior licensing or other invasion of constitutional liberty. We do hold, however, that the ordinance in question, as applied to the petitioner's conduct, is void, and she cannot be punished for acting without a permit.
The judgment in each case is reversed and the causes are remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
SO ORDERED.
(This case was considered, together with three others, from California, Massachusetts and Wisconsin, involving similar rights to distribute information, and all these cases were reversed in favor of free speech.)
Nations That Forget God
It is to be regretted that the Supreme Court did not decide on the important issue as to whether God's law or man's law is supreme. Earnestly Judge Rutherford, as a witness for Jehovah to the Supreme Court, urged upon them, and this for their own welfare as well as for the 130 million whom they represented, that this case should not go off on the Lovell decision, but, said the counselor, "I hope this court will decide whether in this country a man shall obey the commandments of the Lord God without asking permission from a police officer." But on this point the court remains silent, ignoring the great Creator of the universe. Perhaps some of the individuals may yet remember Jehovah and not suffer the fate of the nations that have forgotten God.—Psalm 9:17.
Court Gave Courteous Attention
The Lord is no respecter of persons. Kings, judges and common people must be given the witness alike. It was but another testimony to the Lord's name, even though directed to eight brilliant jurists in a dramatic setting. The justices gave close attention to the arguments of the counselor. Many questions were asked, and in friendly vein. One asked if Jehovah's witnesses were traveling missionaries. He was answered that they were similar. Another justice asked why it was that counsel for the petitioner (Judge Rutherford) cited in his Brief the statutory rights of freedom of religion, and yet claimed that this was not a religious issue. The answer was:
Certainly, these citations were offered in the Brief. If one is granted freedom to practice his religion by the words of the Constitution, with stronger reason he is entitled to obey the commandments of Almighty God without interference. Again was emphasized the difference between religion and Christianity.
God's Enemies Maneuvered
Is it not a tribute to the power of Jehovah that a cause made against His people, begun in a dirty recorder's court of New Jersey, should be carried through all the courts of the state as a testimony against them and finally, in the ornate Supreme Court of the land, turned back in the enemy's face? This was the power of Jehovah, and they are henceforth responsible to Him. The somber elegance of the Supreme Court room, with red carpeting, light marble columns, clear in the illumination from a figured ceiling, decorated with geometric rosettes 100 feet over head, was vastly different from the dirty, evil-smelling courtroom where the Devil first caused one of Jehovah's witnesses to be taken. The Lord made it clear, too, that the authorities of New Jersey had been fighting against HIM. When the attorney for Irvington was asked by the court how many persons had been arrested for fail ure to comply with the tyrannical ordinance he was compelled to admit:
Only Clara Schneider and ten other of Jehovah's witnesses.
In the end, while the court did not declare itself for Jehovah, it did speak emphatically in defense of freedom of speech, and brought a setback to those promoters of Catholic Action who would like to model New Jersey after Nazi Germany:
Although a municipality may enact regulations in the interests of the public safety, health, welfare or convenience, these may not abridge the individual liberties secured by the Constitution to those who wish to speak, write, print or circulate information or opinion... This court has characterized the freedom of speech and that of the press as fundamental personal rights and liberties. The phrase is not an empty one and was not lightly used. It reflects the belief of the framers of the Constitution that exercise of the rights lies at the foundation of free government by free men. It stresses, as do many opinions of this court, the importance of preventing the restriction of enjoyment of these liberties.
Religionist Prefers Inquisition
The decision of the Supreme Court was unanimous with the exception of Justice McReynolds. He dissented, thereby siding with the Hierarchy in giving his support to a foreign power opposed to the principles of American liberty. Time magazine, issue of December 4, 1939, describes how this justice has sided with the principles of Rome for many years:
On a hot August day in 1914, Woodrow Wilson appointed to the Court his attorney general, hot-headed, hard-headed Mr. McReynolds of Tennessee. Legend has it that Woodrow Wilson regretted no appointment more than that one. And legend also gave Mr. Justice McReynolds a bad name: a man intolerably rude, anti-Semitic, savagely sarcastic, incredibly reactionary, Puritannical, prejudiced. . . For many years he had refused to speak at all to Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis. Reportedly he fought the appointment of saintly Benjamin Cardozo to the court; urged Hoover not "to afflict the Court with another Jew". Fortnight ago his one remaining mainstay, solid old Pierce Butler, died. (Time, November 27) In silence last week he heard Justice Owen Roberts read the majority decision re-affirming the civil liberties of the United States citizen, proclaim the right to pamphleteer without a police license.* (*In Irvington, N.J., Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Worcester, Mass., pamphleteers, denied that right, had appealed.) The decision presented no new point of Constitutional doctrine, but to many a thoughtful United States citizen came as a solemn reminder, in anxious days, that beneath the stated rights of citizenship lies a rock-founded base guaranteeing their preservation.
In his familiar attitude of somnolence old James McReynolds heard Justice Roberts announce the Court's decision, seven to one for freedom of the press. Scribbling swiftly, newsmen shoved into the press-room tubes the line, "Justice McReynolds dissents," turned back to stare at the lonely old man nodding in his huge black chair.
American Catholics Also in Danger
It is to be taken as a grim warning that even a Supreme Court justice should be controlled by Rome. Yet opposing liberty of religion, of worship, and of press seems wholly foreign to an American, be he Catholic or otherwise.
Such a course fosters the persecution which our forefathers sought to escape. Religious liberty was nurtured here by those who had seen the effects of the torture chamber and the rack; men who sought a country where their conscience might no longer be outraged by tyrannical restrictions. They wished to worship Almighty God without being charged with heresy because they did not share the tenets of others. Nor was it Protestants alone who sought these shores to enjoy the cherished jewel of liberty. The colony of Maryland was established to give like immunity to Catholics, who were oppressed at the time in England. Many were the Jews who sought relief here from every land. America has therefore been a haven for the persecuted, the land of the fulfillment of their dreams of untrammeled freedom where every man, no matter what his convictions, might lay his head down at night without the horror that tomorrow might bring the end either of honor or of life. Here was blessed relief.
These facts were once well known to every school child. Now many "history books have been tampered with" and a great deal of ignorance prevails in America concerning the birth of the United States. One hears such appalling lies as the statement that 'George Washington was the first Fascist'. The Roman Catholic Hierarchy, in many statements by their members besides Coughlin, have advocated the "corporate state" or dictatorial government for this country. Let it here be stated that the Catholic people should be just as much opposed to this infringement of the people's liberties, or rather such a deathblow to the freedom of Americans by the introduction of totalitarian rule, as should be the remaining people of this nation. And this in spite of the fact that such a government would be controlled by Vatican City. Well may the Catholics of the Loyalist cause of Spain, the Catholic followers of the devout Catholic von Schuschnigg of Austria, and the silent bodies of the Catholic slain of many nations, attest to the fact that Rome pities not her own people. Let Americans of all creeds remember that their interests are mutual if they are to protect and continue to enjoy the freedom which was bought by the blood of our forefathers! —-Elton Groves.
Australia
Supposedly Extinct Creatures
◆ Some years ago an explorer in the big swamp on the northeast edge of Angola was frightened into temporary helplessness by the sight of a great creature of which no adequate description was obtained. More recently a fish was caught off the west coast of Africa of a kind supposedly long extinct. The latest discovery of this nature is a tree frog of Western Australia, also supposed to be extinct, but very much alive. Man does not know even yet all the wonders with which the Creator has filled the earth.
Dingoes
◆ Australia has perpetual war with the dingoes, or wild dogs, which are large, fierce and fond of sheep, cows and chickens. They have even been known to keep a man up a tree all night, and will follow one for fifty miles. Periodically the stock growers of northeastern Australia offer rewards for dingo scalps, sometimes running as high as $15 each. The wild dogs, the size of a collie, are extremely intelligent and avoid all man-made traps.
Plowing at Night
◆ In Australia, and perhaps elsewhere, plowing at night is common, and tractors have been designed that are air-conditioned, weatherproof, soundproof, and equipped with radios and thermos bottles. When the weather is just right for planting there is no time to be lost, and the equipment is kept working night and day by two or more crews.
Intense Heat
◆ In January, 1939, Melbourne, Australia, had a temperature of 109.6 degrees, the hottest in twenty-three years. The heat was accompanied by a drought which caused bush fires and the loss of at least forty-four houses in one locality, besides the ruin of much standing timber. At least thirty persons were dead or missing.
Exports from Nauru
◆ Exports of guano from Nauru, the once German-controlled island on the equator northeast of Australia, have risen in value to $50,000,000 a year. This island, now controlled by Britain, is less than eight square miles in area, but is now producing one-tenth of the phosphates of the world. One ton of phosphates or guano is worth thirty to forty tons of farmyard manure as a fertilizer. The reason for the huge accumulations at Nauru is that there are no rains at that place.
Some Tall Trees
◆ An Australian paper reports a mountain ash in South Gippsland, near Thorpedale, surveyed as 370 feet high, and one was actually cut that measured 326 feet. This last was within twenty feet of what is said to have been the tallest tree ever cut, a California redwood 346 feet high.
Gold Splinter in His Foot
◆ At Mernda, South Australia, Peter Drake, a boy of twelve, went in swimming in the Plenty river and came out with a gold splinter in his foot. Peter is popular now and the local prospectors are trying to get him to tell where he went swimming, and have offered him a partnership.
Birth Control
◆ Birth control is practiced in Australia, among the aborigines, by killing unwanted babies at birth by swinging them against anthills. In China, baby girls are thrown into rivers, or left in garbage incinerators by parents unwilling or unable to provide for them.
Prison Camps a Success
◆ Prison camps, tried in Australia as a substitute for the barbarous makeshifts known as "prisons", have been found to be a success. When the inmates are decently treated there is never any trouble in the prison camps.
Africa
20,000 German Troops in Libya
Swiss dispatches claim that by the middle of July there were 20,000 German troops in Libya, next door to Egypt. These troops arrived at Trieste in groups of 300 to 400, were transported to Libya in Italian ships, and did not receive their military uniforms until they were at sea. Large quantities of munitions were also being shipped to Libya, and it looks as if interesting times were ahead for Egypt and the Suez Canal.
The Mines of Tunis
◆ The reason why Il Duce wants Tunis is not merely that a good half of the population are Italians (or at least there are about the same number of Italians in the colony as there are French), but the Tunisian mines produce one-fourth of the total phosphate rock of the entire world, and are considered practically inexhaustible. Italy needs that phosphate rock for her gardens, and could make good use of the zinc and lead also found in Tunis.
Native Rights in Kenya
◆ In Kenya it is illegal for more than five persons to meet together without permission of the district commissioner, and this tyrannical rule is so strictly interpreted that in Fort Hall Class III Criminal Case No. 83/29 a group were held to have had an illegal meeting because more than five persons went home from church together, and were punished accordingly.
Morocco No Spaghetti
◆ Moroccan followers of Mohammed are sore at Italy for seizure of Albania, with its 800,000 Moslems. At Casablanca a large number of native Moroccans marched through the streets with macaroni attached to their clothing, shouting against Italy and Germany. Who was it put up the Moslems to this?
Messages by Tom-toms
◆ Messages sent by African tom-toms can be delivered distances of 1,000 miles in about one hour. The sound waves travel over a thousand feet a second, and an expert can interpret them and relay them at a distance of 21 miles in about a minute and a half. Whites are not good for this job.
Shishak Caught with the Goods
◆ One of the standard occupations of kings has been that of thievery, stealing either from their own subjects or from some other king. King Shishak, of Egypt, was like that. It tells about him in 1 Kings 14 : 25, 26:
And it came to pass, in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
It took a little matter of 2,943 years to catch this thief with the goods, but they finally found him, March 20, 1939. His mummy was in a silver sarcophagus, the first ever found in Egypt, and that was within a gold coffin. Old Shishak had to die and leave it all, and now he will be placed in a museum and laughed at. Such is fame, and such the satisfaction of taking something that belongs to someone else.
Wants All Negroes Shipped to Africa
◆ Senator Theodore G. Bilbo, democrat, Mississippi, has another claim to public recognition besides the muzzling of his pecan pickers. This time he wants all the Negroes shipped back to Africa, 12,000,000 of them. Each Negro would be given $1,000 cash to depart; nothing said about what would happen if he did not wish to go of his own accord. Bilbo thinks the Negroes would be happier away from the Aryans; and, looking at the mess the Aryans are making of things in Germany and other points, north, south, east and west, it looks as if he might have one idea right anyway.
Eleven Thousand Murders a Year
◆ In the year 1930, when the Italian general Graziani was subjugating Cyrenaica, northern Africa, across the Mediterranean from Italy, thirty executions took place daily, which means that about 11,000 Arabs were murdered annually. One of Graziani's playful methods of subjugation was to take Arab chieftains up in an airplane and then throw them overboard. These facts are brought to light afresh by the book of Knud Holmboe, a young Dane, who chanced to be in Cyrenaica at the time and narrowly missed the fate visited upon thousands of Arabs.
UNDER THE THE TOTALITARIAN FLAG
Earth's Most Intolerant Cult
◆ The (R.C.) Church and the state are independent powers, each supreme in its own sphere; but with the condition that in matters of common concern the Church's view shall prevail. (Leo XIII, encyclical "Arcanum") The Church is an entirely perfect society, dependent on no other power. (Leo, "Immortale") The Church has power not only to teach, but also to judge and punish. ("Immortale") The state should profess (Roman) Catholicism as being "alone true". ("Immortale") Equality in the state, of other "religions as they call them", is wrong. ("Immortale") Complete liberty of speech, publication, etc., is wrong. ("Immortale") The Church and her teachings are the standard by which to judge what the state should allow. ("Libertas") The Church, while recognizing that toleration, by the state, of opinions contrary to Catholicism, may at times [be expedient], nevertheless regards it as an evil, to be restricted as far as possible. ("Libertas") State laws, if opposed to the teachings of the Roman Church, are not binding in conscience. ("Sapientiae")
These principles are obviously the same as those of the most intolerant mediaeval periods; and Leo XIII definitely said ("Immortale") that "whatever the Roman Pontiffs have taught in the past, or in future shall teach, must be held firmly—especially as to the so-called 'liberties' which now are so greatly coveted".
It must also be remembered that the Roman Church claims jurisdiction over marriages of all baptized persons. (See Leo XIII's "Arcanum"; Pope Pius XI's "Casti Connubii"; and the 1917 "New Code of Canon Law".) She also claims a divine right to supervise education "and no power on earth can stand in her way". (Pius XI's "Rapresentanti") Finally, it is an offense, punishable by excommunication, to cite any member of the Roman Catholic clergy before a civil court without previous permission of the bishop. (Pius X, "Motu proprio" decree, "Quantavis," issued in 1911)—J. W. Poynter, England.
Nun Gives Child Her Idea of Hell
◆ In the analytical report of the Municipal Council of Differding (Luxemburg) appears in shorthand the following verbatim report of the meeting of Tuesday, November 9, 1938:
Councillor: I have heard of a certain occurrence in a school at Lasauvage, and I wish to have the matter made public, so that everybody may form his opinion on the case.
The Mayor: The matter is quite correct. As soon as it was reported to me I ordered the police to make an inquiry. We have submitted the case to the inspector of public examination, and to the responsible authorities, in order that the necessary legal steps may be taken. It is the case of a girl pupil who attended mass on Sunday, but not high mass. In order to demonstrate to the children the pains of hell, the sister, who was instructing the class, lit a candle and made the pupil who had not been to high mass hold a finger over the flame, while the class recited the Lord's Prayer. The child suffered her index finger to be burned until she fainted. At first the doctor thought the finger would have to be amputated, but he now states that it will heal in a fortnight's time. The sister pretends that she forcibly kept the flame away from the child's hand, the latter wishing to be grilled longer. This exceptional act deserves an exemplary punishment. I am holding back the police reports. The guilty woman will be punished by the magistrates and by the scholastic authorities.
Councillor: Your explanations are quite sufficient. That instructress will not escape her responsibilities.
The Mayor: When I was informed, I immediately took all necessary steps. The matter will proceed.—From the French Consolation, Sept., 1939.
Gas Masks at the Vatican
◆ In the view of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy Italy is a part of the Kingdom of God and Germany another part, while itself is the most important part. Now that gas masks have been issued to the inhabitants of Vatican City, one wonders mildly if some one of the horned-toad "saints" has been put to work on the poison-gas end of the Kingdom, and just which one of them the pope will "pray" to while he is fastening his new bib around his neck.
Collections Kept Up
◆ The London Catholic Herald states that during 1937 Franco's soldiers, and others who hoped for the re-establishment of the church burden upon the backs of the Spanish people, contributed nearly a quarter of a million pesetas for their cause and in 1938 over a half a million pesetas.
"They Shall Take Up Serpents"
◆ Many papers contain mention of religious groups that make a specialty of handling rattlesnakes and copperheads, quoting as their authority Mark 16:18. Handling serpents without removing their fangs is nothing new. It has been done by devil-worshipers from time immemorial, in India, Arizona and elsewhere. It is as much an impiety to claim that Mark 16:18 is a part of the Bible as it is to make that claim for John 21:25. Both are spurious, and neither one is true. Any person with a copy of the Revised Version, or any other scholarly translation, will see from the marginal comments that these verses are no part of the original Scriptures. Pictures of the snake-handlers show that they are demonized. The account of the performance immediately preceding the snake-handling says, "Some shriek, some dance, some sing, some babble in what is known to the mountain folk as the 'unknown tongue'. Others shut their eyes in a semi-trance." These concomitants of demonism are widespread over the earth.
A Story from Catholic Portugal
◆ Once upon a time a priest was delivering his sermon in a crowded church. He said, "All those whose fathers are Jews will please leave the church; they are not welcome here." Half of the congregation got up and left. The sermon continued, and then the priest said, "All those whose mothers are Jews will please leave; they are not welcome here." The other half of the congregation left, except one old man, who was leaning against a "colonna". The priest continued and then stated, "All those who have Jews for both father and mother, let them leave, as they are not welcome." Then the Christ came down from the altar crucifix and took the old man by the arm and said, "Come on, let's get out of here, it seems we are not welcome!" The old man hung back and pointed to the priest, "How about him?" . . . And the answer was made by the Christ, "Oh, him? Let him stay; he doesn't know who are his father and mother!" — Translated from a Lisbon (Portugal) paper.
Looking to a Japanese Triumph
◆ Looking to a Japanese victory in China, the "Reverend Father" John T. S. Mao, a priest from Nanking, China, in an address in Washington, told of the hope of the Roman Hierarchy to make China predominantly Catholic in the coming post-war period.
Lord Provost of Glasgow
◆ The lord provost of Glasgow (fancy name for mayor), Patrick J. Dollan, was in New York, and everybody at St. Patrick's Cathedral was glad when he came in wearing his gold chain of office. Each link weighs an ounce, and represents a former mayor. Also there was a three-inch medal. The chain is 100 years old, and in that time Glasgow has had, apparently, 27 mayors. Now at that rate, 1,000 years from now, if nothing happens, the boy that holds down the job in Glasgow similar to Lord Provost Frank Hague's in Jersey City, will be burdened with a chain that will have some 297 links in it and will weigh over 18 pounds. The medal by that time ought to be 33 inches across, if they want to do the right thing, and when the lord provost comes to little old New York the Times ought to come across with a story that will occupy the best part of a page instead of only 12 1/4 inches. Lord Provost Dollan was born 1,000 years too soon.
Look for the Adjective
◆ In his peace address to the cardinals the pope said,
Since the beginning of its existence the church has always raised to the Lord its prayer and among men taken action for the triumph of true peace. [Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express]
The catch is in the word "true". Thus the overthrow of the Spanish Republic, with the murder of something like 2,000,000 Catholics, was a "true peace" to the pope because it put the Hierarchy back on the necks of the Spanish people.
Pope Provides Spanish Constitution
◆ In the days of the Papal states those states were admitted to have the very worst government in the world, and it is therefore of peculiar interest that the pope, according to The Catholic Herald, supervised the preparation of the constitution that takes the place of the liberal one of the Spanish Republic, which constitution and which government the pope and Franco destroyed.
Incensed?
◆ A correspondent in Bombay sends a clipping from The Catholic Herald of Calcutta in which occurs the statement that after mass had been celebrated in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Madame Lebrun, wife of the president of France, and another lady were incensed. And then he asks, "And wouldn't you be?"
Franco's Tears
◆ When Franco finally turned his sword over to "god" (meaning thereby the god of this world, the Devil) in the presence of the cardinal-primate of Spain and twenty bishops, he was so overcome with emotion that he wept. Now, if he would go off into a back alley somewhere and weep by himself over the thousands of families he has broken up, and the 40,000 teachers, doctors, lawyers, journalists and artists who were the backbone of the Spanish Republic, and are now homeless refugees in France, and whom he says he will murder if ever he lays hands on them, his tears would be a sign of humanity; but as it is his tears were merely tears of emotion because he was and is so stuck on himself that it makes him cry to think "how nice" he is.
Working in Harmony
◆ Working in harmony with the Hitler-Stalin-Vatican arrangement, The London Catholic Herald reports the arrival in The Netherlands of twenty nuns who left Finland before the Soviet attack took place. They had been working in Finland seventeen years when the order to leave came from their higher-ups. The actual attack on Finland did not come until more than six weeks after they left, but somebody must have known it was surely going to come and that they had better be elsewhere. Of the nine Roman Catholic priests in Finland, two are Finns and seven are Dutch.
Can You Beat It?
◆ The man who violated his oath of loyalty to the Spanish Republic, and thereafter caused the death of approximately 2,000,000 of his fellow Catholics, receiving the blessing of the "holy father" at Rome for so doing, sent a telegram to King Leopold, of Belgium, in which he said, "I wish to express the profound interest of Spain in all acts which tend to re-establish peace for the benefit of all humanity." What beautiful, sublime hypocrisy!
Origin of May Day
◆ The Druids honored the sun upon the first of May by lighting huge fires. Some Irish villages still do this, and pass their cattle between two fires, and even pick up their children in their arms and run through the flames. This appears to be a substitute for the old Phoenician custom of child sacrifice to Moloch, or to Bel, when the children were fed into the fiery furnace.—Picture Post.
Pinkussohn's Bad Act
◆ David Pinkussohn, of Chicago, should shame himself. Formerly in the ancient and honorable business of bootlegging, he deceived and misled the "Reverend Father" P. K. Collins, of Butler, Pa., the "Reverend Father" M. A. McDermott, of Windber, Pa., the "Reverend Father" E. M. Barry, of Waterville, Minn., the "Reverend Father" Charles Havorka, of Hopkins, Minn., and the "Reverend Father" F. S. Strobel, of Bandera, Texas. By ways that were dark and tricks that were vain, according to the Government, Pinkussohn persuaded these five priests to surrender to him $15,000 worth of bona fide receipts for whisky in a warehouse and gave them counterfeit receipts in return. This business of cheating Catholic priests out of their whisky certificates has got to be stopped. It puts too big a burden on the servant girls to have to put up the money twice over. Once should be sufficient.
Bishops Solidly Back of Hitler
◆ "The Catholic leaders of Germany, forgetting for the moment their differences with Third Reich leaders, have been exhorting the faithful at home and abroad to do their utmost in the fight for the righteous cause of the German nation under the guidance of Chancellor Hitler"; so says a dispatch to the New York Times from Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, in reference to the attitude of the bishops and their superior officers in the Roman Hierarchy. The same dispatch states that in the diocese of Württemberg, with a Catholic population of 670,000, there was an average of 437,000 at mass each Sunday during the first three months of the war.
Catholic Periodicals
◆ The American Roman Catholic Register carried a dispatch from Amsterdam to the effect that "circulation of German Catholic periodicals has increased by a total of 7,000,000 copies since Adolf Hitler's advent to power six years ago". Does that look as if there were much to the oft-repeated ballyhoo that the Catholic Church is being persecuted in Germany?
Catholic Governors in India
◆ For the first time in history Great Britain has Catholics in office as governors in India. This is true now of both of the states of Madras and Bengal.
THE CATHOLIC TIMES, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11th, 1938
A fanatical American sect accuses the Church of trying to gain control of the world
"Judge" Rutherford Beats The Nazis At Propaganda
by J. A. Phillips, S.J.
IF you dislike a movement or an institution, stick a label on it. Call it "Socialist," "Fascist," or "Capitalist," and you will always get the ignorant and undiscriminating to shout with you against the object of your hate. That is the modern method of propaganda, used by Left-wing and Right-wing alike. The Communists developed the technique without scruple, but they have been surpassed by a certain Mr. Rutherford (calling himself "Judge") and his "Witnesses of Jehovah."
This American sect—incorporated under the title Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society—originated some fifty years ago with Charles T. Russell (who called himself "Pastor"). This man imagined he had a "mission" to attack the Catholic Church and all organised religion. In 1917 "Judge" Rutherford got control of the movement, and by exploiting every modern means of propaganda he carries on a widespread campaign against the Church. Every slander and calumny, even the vilest, is levelled against the Catholic Church by the "Judge" and the "Watch Tower" publications.
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