Consolation, May 1, 1940
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Contents
Coughlin's "Christian Front" 3
This Is Coughlin's Baby 3
Jesuits Trained Cassidy 5
Who Wants Fascism? 6
Hitler Showed the Way 7
Don't Worry About Coughlin 8
Animal Husbandry 11
The New Government 12
The Last Grand March 12
The Preacher and the Bible 12
Freedom of Air 13
Campbell Trims an Editor 14
Acting as Own Attorney—Blessed 14
Counsel by J. F. Rutherford
Human Immortality or Resurrection: Which? 17
Spain and Portugal 19
Under the Totalitarian Flag 20
The Totalitarian Monstrosity 20
Achievements of the Hierarchy 21
Denouncing the Other Crooks 22
Headed for the Ditch 25
The Mobilization Plans 25
Unparalleled Regimentation Ahead 25
Victory in Hubbard, Ohio 26
Damage Suits 26
British Comment 28
"Pope's Air-Raid Shelter" 28
Tempted of the Devil 28
A Vicar Got Angry 29
Africa 31
Published every other Wednesday by
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Appetizers
The Tenderhearted Businessman
The firm had advertised for a stenographer. One of the partners was interviewing a very pretty girl who had applied for the position. The other partner came in, took a look at the girl, and called the other member of the firm aside and whispered: "I'd hire her."
"I have."
"Can she take dictation?"
"We'll find that out later. I didn't want any obstacles to crop up."
In an Ugly Mood
He found his own front porch with wonderful accuracy, navigated the steps with precision, and discovered the keyhole by instinct. Once in the dimly lit hall there was an ominous silence, followed by a tremendous crash.
"Why, whatever has happened, Henry?" came his wife's voice from above.
"It's all right, Mary, but I'll—I'll teach those goldfish to snap at me," was the reply.—Labor.
No Need to Rush So
The American car was flying through the Warwickshire lanes, when it suddenly pulled up with a screech of brakes opposite a gate on which was leaning an old countryman.
"Say," said the driver, "kin you tell me if I'm right for William Shakespeare's home?"
"Yezzir," he replied, "but there's no need to hurry so—he's been dead some years!"
Carry On
"Get ready to die," said the footpad, presenting his revolver. "I'm going to shoot you."
"Why?" asked his victim.
"I've always said I'd shoot anyone who looked like me."
"Do I look like you?"
"Yes."
"Then shoot!"—Montreal Daily Star.
An Infallible Calculation
Jim: I can tell you how much water to the quart goes over Niagara Falls.
Joe: Betcha can't. How much?
Jim: Two pints.—Kellygram.
The End
Blacksmith, to new assistant: "When I nod my head, hit it." He did.
CONSOLATION
“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A. R. V.
Volume XXI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, May 1, 1940 Number 538
Coughlin’s “Christian Front”
AT THE middle of January, 1940, Scotland Yard brought it to the attention of the United States Government that the date set for “Reverend Father” Coughlin’s “Christian Front” to put into practice his “Call to Action” was to be the 20th of that same month. As the plans included, among other things, the wrecking of printing plants, bombing of Brooklyn and Philadelphia navy yards, and of West Point and Annapolis, seizure of Federal Reserve banks, National Guard armories, railway terminals, key post offices and all utilities facilities, Uncle Sam was almost forced to turn over in his sleep and arrest, not the tens of thousands involved, certainly not, but a few samples conveniently ready to hand.
An inducement to do something was furnished by the fact that fourteen congressmen were to be assassinated; and as congressmen do not like to be assassinated, it was almost necessary to stage some kind of act.
Scotland Yard has had recent experience that makes it more interested in things of this kind. In England the same gang calls itself, at present, the “United Christian League”, while in Canada its cognomen is “National Christian Party”. It is strong to work the word “Christian” into the title. It’s a big help.
There were seventeen men arrested, and three of these denied that they were members of Coughlin’s Christian Front, but the rest of them, and fittingly too, looked to him as their inspiration, their instructor, their friend.
Of the seventeen, one was a captain of the 166th Infantry of the New York National Guard, two were sergeants, one was a corporal, two were rank-and-file members, one was a member of the United States Marine corps, one was an ex-cavalryman, and one was an expert bomb-maker. A better cross-section of the gang that is getting ready for the big putsch could hardly have been selected.
This Is Coughlin’s Baby
Parents sometimes deny their offspring, and for a time Coughlin denied paternity of this outfit, but afterwards admitted it, with his usual evasions. It was he that first proposed the name, and the first cell or post of the Front was organized in the Church of the Paulist Fathers, Columbus Square, New York city, and used a post-office box of the Paulist Fathers as its mail address. A statement of one of the Paulist Fathers, made in New Bruns-
Social Justice
Royal Oak, Michigan July 31, 1939 Price, Ten Dollars Per Year 10¢
CHRISTIAN FRONT CARRIES FIGHT INTO MORE STATES
Story on Page 3
Units of Militant Christian Front Are Being Formed in Middlewest
Hosts Battle Communism in New York
Movement Spreads; Start 36
NEW YORK—Out of hectic events in New York and along the Eastern seaboard during the last six months there is emerging a newly organized and rapidly growing militant Christian Front.
This inevitable counter-action to Communism, so forcefully manifested in European countries, is taking concrete form in the Eastern states and is marching forward to a predicted membership of 5 million in 1940.
Organized along military lines, as a defense mechanism against Red activities and as a protector of Christianity and Americanism, the Christian Front is spreading from Greater New York into Philadelphia, Boston and other Eastern centers. Leaders of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago and other key cities of the Middle West will begin in August.
Women in Farm Auxiliary Units
Women are not admitted to membership in the Christian Front but several hundred women leaders are reported to be launching a “Lydia” department to be recruited from the ranks of Christian mothers, women professionals and business women and housewives.
The Front for the Christian Front in Philadelphia was established last week with an initial membership of several hundred. Branch units are to be founded all over Philadelphia, Mount Airy, Germantown, the Chestnuts and Central New Jersey.
The first great public demonstration of the Christian Front is scheduled for an undetermined date in September when a huge mass meeting will be held in New York. Similar meetings are now being projected for Boston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit and Chicago. Following the big mass meetings plans will be perfected for driving the national membership of the organization to 5 million before the summer and fall of 1940.
wick, New Jersey, of the readiness of the Roman Catholic Church to kill anybody with whom they disagree has often been published in these columns.
◆ If you were mentally pubescent you would be disturbed that the Dies committee, before and after the seizure of the seventeen samples, always indicated that it was “not interested in developing that line of investigation”. Dies himself was reported to have been in with Coughlin on the silver racket and was, within two months of the arrests, principal speaker at a Madison Square rally which was attended by thousands of the Front and was dressed at their posts or lodges or companies as a “must” event. Coughlin has urged Dies’ nomination for the presidency of the United States.
As early as 1936 Coughlin made the statement, “Democracy is doomed! I take the road to Fascism.” There was nothing irregular about this. The Roman Hierarchy is necessarily against democracy. In their eyes the people are nothing but serfs, to be bossed around by priests and higher officials. On the part of the public press, and most certainly on the part of the Hierarchy, there has been a “conspiracy of silence” regarding the subversive activities of his Front. Even J. Edgar Hoover, who was responsible for the arrest of the seventeen, shies away from naming or arresting the man who put the young men in the hole where they now are.
1 Only two days before that stalwart Practical Catholic, Adolf Hitler, opened his arms and Stalin fell into them, “Reverend Father” Coughlin urged another big war on the Communists. When anything like this is to be pulled off, the big noise at Royal Oak should be given a little inside information, as a thing like this makes him seem even more foolish than usual.
2 If Coughlin had worn the cloth of any other religious faith than the Catholic he would have had an open fight on his hands from most of the American press years ago, and the delicacy with which his activities have been ignored all this time, although it may be a tribute of confidence in the Christianity and citizenship of the rest of the Catholic clergy, is open to a suspicion of less honorable motives. My version is that the press passed him up for fear that Catholics would regard an attack on Coughlin as an attack on the church. — Westbrook Pegler, in the Chicago Daily News.
3 The question is, How can a church founded in justice and charity permit its official representative to go contrary to these principles of justice and charity? The direct answer is that he is not an official representative of the church when he speaks over the radio or writes in that paper which goes under the incongruous name of Social Justice, for the reason that his own superior has stated more than once that he has given no approval. His paper, Social Justice, bears no stamp of imprimatur from his Bishop which is necessary if he writes as a Catholic priest. — “Reverend Father” Gregory A. Feige, Jesuit, in an address at Williamstown, Massachusetts, reported in New York Times.
4 Fritz Kuhn, leader of the Nazi Bund, in his testimony before the Committee, spoke of the close relations the Bund enjoyed with Father Coughlin. He was not asked to develop this line of testimony. Homer Martin admitted that he had had a conference with Father Coughlin. He was not asked to develop this line of testimony. There was no further mention of Father Coughlin in the hearings of the Committee. Is it because Chairman Dies does not consider Father Coughlin un-American? Then he does not consider anti-Semitism and Nazism un-American. Organizers of the Christian Front and the Christian Mobilizers have been arrested 251 times for breaches of the peace and assault, upon police officers and citizens in New York City alone, according to police records. Yet when the Dies Committee investigator was in New York, did he investigate Joseph McWilliams, Bernard D’Arc, John Cassidy and other leaders of these movements? The answer of course, is NO. — Thomas L. Harris, in The Protestant Digest.
5 The fact that Father Coughlin’s name is enthusiastically cheered at the meetings of the German-American Bund; the fact that invitations to the Christian Front meetings and to Bund meetings have been handed out by the same men at the same meetings; the fact that the Christian Front maintained picket lines at WMCA radio station every Sunday for a full year, bearing large placards on which was the picture of Father Coughlin, has escaped the notice of investigators. Last Sunday J. Edgar Hoover, head of the federal bureau of investigation, said he understood Father Coughlin had no connection with the Christian Front, although its followers sometimes used his name. I am afraid that Hoover should get around more. One might, for instance, get records of Father Coughlin’s speeches, or read copies of Social Justice. There was, for instance, that meeting in the Metropolitan Opera house in Philadelphia, July 14, 1939, in which Father Coughlin, speaking from Detroit by wire and amplifier, praised the achievements of John Cassidy, commander of the Christian Front, urging the members of the audience to support and join that organization, and ending by conveying upon Cassidy the blessings of Almighty God. Cassidy is now under arrest with sixteen others, on the ground that they are implicated in a plot to spread a general reign of terror. Hoover thinks there is no connection between Father Coughlin and the Christian Front in spite of the fact. Father Coughlin’s paper, Social Justice, conducted a Christian Front contest for months last year, offering prizes for the best answers to certain political, economic and social questions. It was a cute contest, because each answer was accompanied by 50 cents, and the right answer (prepared by Father Coughlin) got a prize. The proceeds of this educational lottery were to be used for the broadcasting funds with which to help finance Father Coughlin’s radio addresses to the nation. One question in this contest was: What is America’s strongest safeguard against Communism? The answer was, “A Christian Front.” In the issue of November 20, 1939, the question was asked, “What is Father Coughlin’s most emphatic advice to the Christian Front?” And the answer was, “Meet force with force as a last resort.” Evidently the Christian Front boys think the time has come for the last resort. But Father Coughlin has nothing to do with it all! (Dorothy Thompson, Copyright, 1940, New York Tribune, Inc.)
--Jesuits Trained Cassidy
It should surprise no one to learn that John F. Cassidy, the leader of the seventeen sample Fronters, is a graduate of the Jesuit Fordham University, New York city. He has thus been perfectly trained in disloyalty to American institutions and in plans to take them over. The president of Fordham, “Reverend Father” Robert I. Gannon, boasts that in the last three years that university received unsolicited gifts of $450,000. The wonder is that they were so small, when one realizes the forces that are backing Fascism in this country.
Cassidy is tendered the Fascist salute by his followers. He was an active member of “Reverend Father” Curran’s International Catholic Truth Society. There is a vast difference between Catholic truth and just ordinary, common, everyday truth. He was present when the first Christian Front was formed under the guidance of “Reverend Father” Edward Burke at the rectory of the Paulist Fathers in Manhattan. He is a forceful orator. He repeatedly shouted, “We have tried the pen, and now we must use the sword,” and urged the younger members to train for street fighting and “other things”.
The Little Flower goes to seed
6 The names of some of Cassidy’s companions are Michael Joseph Bierne, Leroy Keegan, George Kelly, Frank Michael Malone, Alfred J. Quinlan, Michael Vill, and Edward Walsh.
Cassidy’s pal, Claus Gunther Ernecke (suicided April 11), he introduced as his “military director”. He is said to be of the Bund, and illegally in America. At a meeting in Philadelphia shortly before his arrest, this man, called “Bill” by Cassidy, boasted, “We have the guns and soon we will call on Philadelphia to join our ranks.”
Francis P. Moran,7 Boston unit, whose Christian Front meetings were addressed by Coughlin by piped-in telephone, made incitements to violence as frequently and openly as Cassidy or Ernecke. Coughlin’s paper, “Social Justice” boasted that in Worcester and Springfield riflemen’s groups in units of 100 riflemen each were being organized. This boast was less than a month before the seventeen were arrested.
Cassidy’s spiritual adviser, “Reverend Father” Edward Lodge Curran, the “Reverend Father” Coughlin himself, and his adjutant at the “Reverend” Cyril Keating, have furnished inflammatory oratory for the Fronts in many places—Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and elsewhere. To start a revolution in the United States takes a lot of work.
7 The Daily News is kind, when it wishes to be. Knowing the church to which Cassidy, Bierne, Keegan, Kelly, Malone, Quinlan, Buckley, Walsh and others of The Christian Front belong, it was good of the News to designate as the reporters to write the story “down”. Michael O’Brien and John McNulty. The gentlemen did as they were expected to do. Instead of acknowledging John F. Cassidy as the leader of the plot (under Coughlin) they wrote it that “Kennedy named Bishop as a ringleader in the group”. That was nice of them, to cite Kennedy as their authority. The paper that published their story referred to the Boston leader, Francis P. Moran, as Francis P. Morgan. That was nice of them, to change “Moran” to “Morgan”. It helps to cover things up. In the story nothing was said about Coughlin’s encourCoughlin the Ringleader
In May and June, 1938, in his paper “Social Justice”, Coughlin urged his followers to organize platoons, gave them detailed instructions on how to proceed, and told the Christian Front groups by radio, “You and your group are directly affiliated to me.” Later in the year, “It is necessary for us to solidify and strengthen a virile, closely woven Christian Front.”
In July, just after his Front tried unsuccessfully to break up the assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in Madison Square Garden (June 25, 1939, at which convention Judge Rutherford was the speaker), Coughlin addressed 8,500 “enthusiastic crusaders” of the Front at Philadelphia. John Cassidy, head of the organization, was there and pointed out that units were then in formation in several cities of the eastern seaboard, and when Coughlin had finished his address he said over the piped-in telephone wire, as his closing salutation, “And God bless Mr. Cassidy and the Christian Front.” Two weeks later he issued “a call to action”.
In less than six months Cassidy was in jail, when Coughlin promptly disowned him. But in a week he had received such assurances of noninterference and of support that he bucked up courage enough to “associate himself definitely with the Christian Front”. If a man is a natural liar he can lie both ways a week apart.
The appeal for action bore fruit. There were fifteen instances of theft of guns and ammunition from National Guard units and their concealment in Brooklyn hideouts. From the Rock Island Arsenal, largest U. S. Government supply base, there were stolen 4,115 percussion caps, besides percussion fuses, mortar shells, and percussion primers.8
After Coughlin regained his nerve it came out that his organizations had been formed in nearly all cities. His organization in Jersey City came to the relief of the seventeen by helping to raise money for bail, and in Brooklyn four thousand turned out for the same purpose. Now watch these traitors become heroes in the eyes of the dirty press.
Who Wants Fascism?
Who wants the totalitarian state in the United States, which end these seventeen had in mind in their plot? It is now several years since Major General Smedley D. Butler announced that fourteen of America’s billionaires assured him that they had studied Mussolini’s methods, that he was making a go of it, and that they intended to set up the same system here. Myron C. Taylor, Roosevelt’s personal ambassador to the pope, is a great admirer of Mussolini, his system and the results he obtains.
Myron C. Taylor, born rich, had made $20,000,000 when he was but 50 years of age. His cut of 25 percent in the wages of the steel company employees at Gary, Indiana, was prior to the passing of the ordinance that steel workers and others who eat out of garbage cans in that city must be careful where they throw their scraps. They try to keep the streets of the city clean, as is proper in the largest city of the Steel Trust’s domains.
Taylor saw the pope and bowed three times going in and three times (deeply) on going out, after which he said he did not have any plans. That seems exciting. Pacelli failed to “bless” him as he backed out, because he is not a Catholic, YET.
Fascist plans for America are in good shape. The grand knight of the Knights of Columbus told an audience at Detroit that the 450,000 members of his order are ready for whatever role may be assigned to them “in the event the United States is forced to protect its ideals”. Coughlin will tell them what to protect, maybe.
The Navy wants a share of the coming glory, and asked Congress to pass a bill empowering the president, under certain circumstances, to take possession of a factory. If that isn’t a dictatorship, what is it?
8 This all seems regular. How are Coughlin Christian Fronters to grab the United States Government unless they have supplies for the machine guns previously stolen! The word “stolen” is probably too harsh a word. If the thing is honestly investigated it will probably be found that this was merely a case of one inside Christian Fronter unlocking the door to another.
agreement by radio, by telephone and by publication, of The Christian Front, or of the fact that less than a year before his imprisonment for conspiracy to overthrow the United States Government Cassidy was a speaker on the same platform with the “Reverend Father” Edward Lodge Curran, in Brooklyn. The “News” watches its steps closely. It could lie to high heaven about Judge Rutherford, but it is not going to get caught telling the truth about America’s Public Enemy No. 1, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy,—not if it can help itself. It wants to stay in business.
--The Hierarchy’s scheme is to resurrect the ancient guild system in which masters and servants in each trade would be in One Big Union controlled by the bishops, and the man that did not turn Catholic would not be able to eat, because he would not be able to get a job.
The priests want theirs in this life and are illegally and with astonishing impudence operating gambling rackets (Bingo) in countless American cities, as Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, in defiance of all law.
The bankers are so impressed with the weekly hauls of the religious crooks that their latest provision for them (in Denver) is that they may do all their banking business in little private rooms, built for their special use.
Hitler Showed the Way
In his book Mein Kampf Hitler showed everybody how to go about it to destroy a people's government and inaugurate a totalitarian one. The book was not written in vain. It even showed the Hierarchy how to do it, and so, come 1940, “the Papal nuncio in Berlin was the first at the doors of the Fuehrer’s chancellery to extend to him the greetings and good wishes of the pope himself, and of the Catholic clergy.” And the bishops of Germany, in their pastoral letter to all the faithful, authoritatively declared:
In this decisive hour we admonish our Catholic soldiers to do their duty in obedience to the Fuehrer and be ready to sacrifice their whole individuality. We appeal to the Faithful to join in ardent prayers that Divine Providence may lead this war to blessed success.
The pope knows he could stop the war tomorrow if he would put Germany under an interdict, but this would mean shutting off his own revenues, and it would require honesty and courage. And the pope has none of these things.
There has been a deal said about neo-paganism in Germany in recent years, but nothing is heard of it now, since the bishops have told all the neo-pagans that they can become Roman pagans by merely signing on the dotted line.
The persecution stories received an awful setback when Sister Bogumila, back from a sojourn in a Polish convent on the outskirts of Warsaw, said, “I can’t exaggerate in saying how nice the German soldiers were to us.” She explained also that at the time of the bombing of Warsaw Hitler came to the convent, and ascended the steeple of the adjoining church, so that he could gloat, with his own eyes, on the spectacle of thousands of his fellow men being murdered in a few minutes of time and the homes of their wives and children destroyed.
Before and After the Arrests
Just before the arrest of the seventeen plotters against the American Government, and when the Fronters were feeling their oats the most, Raymond Eteldorf, in The Observer, Dubuque, Iowa, America’s only daily Catholic paper, showed what was in his mind, and what is in the mind of all the Fronters as the next step in the program to “Make America Catholic.” From the issue of January 11, 1940:
It seems that the universal conversion of America, if ever it comes before the last days, must come from universally concerted and organized efforts. And such efforts in the Catholic Church are best effected by a special religious order. Often in the history of the Church, when there was a great task to be done, it was accomplished by a religious order. In the middle ages, when the masses seemed to be losing contact with the Church, it was the Franciscan order that re-established this contact; when the Albigensian heresy tore at the fibres of faith, it was the Dominican order that crushed the heresy; after Luther attempted a reformation that resulted in division of Christianity, it was the Jesuit order that accomplished a true reformation.
9 “ALBIGENSES. . . in the twelfth century in the south of France, distinguished by their zealous opposition to the Church of Rome.” “In their beliefs ‘we find no vestiges of Dualism, nor any thing which indicates the least affinity with Oriental theories of emanation’.” They had “unwavering belief in the corruption of the mediaeval Church, especially as governed by the Roman pontiffs”. “Innocent III enjoined upon all princes to expel them from their dominions in 1209.” “The heretics were hunted over to the proselytizing zeal of the order of Dominicans, and the bloody tribunals of the inquisition; and both used their utmost power to bring the recusant Albigenses to the stake, and also, by inflicting severe punishment on the patient converts, to inspire dread of incurring the Church’s displeasure.” “It is likely, as has been remarked above, that many who held the simple truths of the Gospel, in opposition to the corruption of Rome, were included in the title by the Romish authorities.”
“With the exception of the charge of rejecting [ecclesiastical] marriage, no allegation is made against their morals by the better class of Roman writers. Their constancy in suffering excited the wonder of their opponents. ‘Tell me, holy father,’ says Evervinus to St. Bernard, relating the martyrdom of three of these heretics, ‘how is this? They entered the stake and bore the torment of the fire, not only with patience, but with joy and gladness. I wish your explanation, how these members of the devil could persist in their heresy with a courage and constancy scarcely to be found in the most religious of the faith of Christ.
(Continued at foot of page 8)
--Six weeks after these arrests, six of Jehovah’s witnesses in Montreal were sentenced to two months in prison “on charges of conspiring to distribute seditious libel”. Had they been distributing any of Coughlin’s inflammatory stuff? Oh, no. What had they been doing, then? Oh, just doing what the Lord told them to do, proclaiming The Theocracy as man’s only hope. But can men and women (some of these were women) be jailed on such accusations as this? Oh, no, not at all,—not legally; they are just plain Christians, not persons with a “Christian” Front.
You can be sure that the seventeen arrested in Brooklyn, and the tens of thousands that should have been arrested at the same time, will go scot-free. You will read slobbery stuff about their idealism, etc., etc., until you want to vomit. The same forces that set entirely free the “Reverend Father” Cox at Pittsburgh, and also set free his fellow crooks after they had confessed their shameful part in his disgraceful acts, will see to it that neither these men nor the man who incited them to their course will get anything out of this but a good advertisement. But you watch and see what Jehovah’s witnesses get for telling the truth.
Don’t Worry About Coughlin
Of course, you already know that Coughlin was caught redhanded in this Christian Front conspiracy; but don’t be worried about him. He is not worried about himself, nor is any other person connected with the biggest racket in the world. The Vatican crowd know that they have the politicians of the United States, from the president down, ready to step to one side and let them have their own way, and this applies to most of the judges, too.
Did anything happen to that Pittsburgh crook, Cox, who operated one of the worst swindles ever pulled off in the United States? Why, certainly not. Did anything happen to the Dougherty gang in Philadelphia for their conspiracy against Judge Rutherford? Why,
The foregoing citations from McClintock & Strong’s Encyclopaedia regarding these faithful witnesses of the Lord should be supplemented by the fact that that bloodthirsty son of the Devil, Ambrose Ratti, in one of the latest statements he ever made [and he will never make another anywhere, for Isaiah 26:13, 14 shows plainly that he is dead for ever], gloated over their destruction.
certainly NOT. Will anything happen to Coughlin? Most certainly NOT. The Hierarchy will take care of all that. Politicians do as they are told.
There is not a more unprincipled man in the world than the Jesuit-trained Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister. Coughlin has repeated Goebbels’ stuff word for word, without changing a comma. Like Hitler himself, the two men received their training in the greatest lie factory beneath the sun.
At the salesroom for Coughlin’s junk, at Royal Oak, Michigan, visitors are invited to enroll for the Radio League of the Little Flower, with the assurance that it is a “non-political organization”. This outfit took in about $1,000,000 from the public and invested $99,192.17 of that amount in the National Union for Social Justice, which is a political organization.
At the same time that this horsecollared gent was denouncing stock trading on the radio as “gambling with other people’s money” he was trading in auto stocks.
While he was bemoaning the low price of silver, one of his female clerks was holding 500,000 ounces of the metal, and when Coughlin, with the alleged help of Dies (yes, the same Dies), had shoved the price up from 29c an ounce to 64.6¢ cents an ounce, you can guess how much Coughlin was really grieving over the sad lot of the 10,000,000 “starving unemployed” when he sold out.
About the Christian Front
Oh yes, a few kind words about Coughlin’s Christian Front. In his paper, Social Justice, May 23, 1938, telling the Fascists of America how to go about it to pull off the same kind of deal Hitler pulled off in Germany and Franco pulled off in Spain, he said:
Let your organization be composed of no more than 25 members. After a few contacts with these 25 persons you will observe that two of them may be capable of organizing 25 more. Invite these capable people to do that very thing.
Three weeks later he added to the foregoing instructions (issue of June 13, 1938) further details of how to get ready for the big push:
When the moment arrives, and not before that time, Father Coughlin will assemble all organizations whose leaders care to follow him.
The names of the various organizations affiliated with The Christian Front are all known: The German-American Bund, The Christian Mobilizers, The American Patriots, The American Nationalists, The Citizen’s Pro tective League, The German-American Business League, The Crusaders for Americanism, etc.
After advertising over the radio November 7, 1938.
I am hereby withdrawing from all radio activity in the best interests of all the people; I am doing this without attempting to offer one alibi, thereby proving that my promise is better than my bond.
he was back on the air again early the following year and on July 30, 1939, had this to say for himself and his Christian Front buddies:
We will fight you in Franco’s way if necessary. Call this inflammatory if you will. It is inflammatory. Rest assured we will fight you and we will win.
Catholic Boys Believed Him
Because he has a fine radio voice, and is trained in all the standard tricks of demagoguery, and because he has the false social front that goes with the horsecollar, some thousands of Catholic boys believed him, took him at his word and organized a crazy conspiracy to seize the United States with a few old rifles, after the manner of Hitler’s gang in Germany. According to their advertisements only men could join, they must be over 18, they must have a military record, and the hookup was through Post Office Box 69, Station G, New York City.
The movement grew rapidly. At the time of Judge Rutherford’s lecture in Madison Square Garden, June 25, 1939, the gang felt strong enough to undertake to break up a Christian assembly of 18,000 persons. They tried it and failed. Five weeks later, in Social Justice for July 31, 1939, Coughlin described the emergence of the “highly organized and rapidly growing militant Christian Front” and announced that a goal of 5,000,000 members by the fall of 1940 was their objective. In the same month, July, 1939, he harangued the Christian Front in Philadelphia, Pa., and “blessed” it (over the telephone). The chairman of that meeting was John F. Cassidy, one of the Catholic boys involved in the conspiracy against the Government. Cassidy may go behind bars (probably not), but the one that incited him will be punished, certainly not.
In the July 31, 1939, issue of his paper (see cut on page 3) “Reverend Father” Coughlin carried screaming headlines “Christian Front Carries Fight Into More States”; and, in the August 7 issue of the same paper, said, “The place for you, as a Christian, is on the Christian Front.” In The Commonweal (Catholic weekly journal) appeared the admission:
Father Coughlin, the Brooklyn “Tablet, Social Justice and their many abettors and sympathizers must bear the direct responsibility for the plight of these 17 young men. For months the Tablet’s correspondence columns have been the free public forum for the national director of the group, John F. Cassidy.
After Cassidy and his friends were arrested, on January 14, 1940, Coughlin “roundly disavowed” the Christian Front members caught in the sedition and conspiracy net and expressed hope that the Department of Justice would “substantiate every statement made”. At this point he was interested in saving his own hide.
A week later, having regained his nerve, he again proved how perfectly not one thing he says can be believed, by reversing himself as follows:
I take my stand beside the Christian Fronters. Recognizing also that in one sense the opposition to Communism is on trial (??) I freely choose to be identified as a friend of the accused. It matters not whether they be guilty or innocent; be they ardent followers of the principles of Christianity or the betrayers of them, my place is by their side until they are released or convicted.
Probably in the meantime Coughlin was tipped off that nothing would happen to him. Certainly not. Do you think the most ancient racket in the world is going to let one of their stooges down the way he was at first going to let Cassidy and the other boys down? You don’t know religion.
Bishop Pegler on Coughlin
THERE is no telling how far the Rev. Father Coughlin may go, so just to play safe I am going to dig up my credentials as a Bishop of some church in Colorado, the name of which escapes me at the moment, and protect my interests. I am just anticipating the day when it is established that everyone in this country must go to one church or another under the Coughlin system of government. When people must go to church or go to jail a great mass of citizens who are now non church-goers will be in the market for a nice, convenient church connection, and that is where my Bishop’s license will come in handy. In order to prove that they belong to a church and go to it people will have to possess church cards, and they will have to get them punched like a meal ticket or get a stamp every Sunday and possibly once or twice during the week.
I am not bothering my head about what Father Coughlin thinks would be a fair initiation fee into a legal American church or what he has in mind as weekly dues or assessments, but I will guarantee this: I will guarantee that nobody will undercut me, because I aim to have me a great big plant, short services and a system of fees, dues and assessments so small that they will defy competition.
In California the Ham ’n’ Eggs racket was a great success on a penny a day, but I am no pig for money, and I probably will be able to get the collection down to a penny a week in my place, and still do very well for Bishop Pegler by running a fast grind. My services will be only about three or four minutes—just long enough for my congregation to get their church cards punched or stamped, so that they can’t be picked up by the Brown Shirts during the ensuing week and tossed into a concentration camp as atheists.
“In and out, fast and no waiting, and please don’t block the aisles” will be the plan of my church, and they don’t have to wait for my sermons, because I will have them printed on dodgers and hung up on a spike at the door, and each customer can grab one as he goes out. They will be very good, sanitary sermons, too—all about the money-changers and international bankers and the value of gold—and nobody is ever going to stick me for heresy under the Coughlin system of government and compulsory religion, because I am going to plagiarize Father Coughlin’s own stuff, and nobody ever will be able to prove what it means, if anything.
I understand that the Rev. Father Coughlin favors the Franco way, and I am glad to say that this way is O.K. with the Right Rev. Bishop Pegler of some church in Colorado. I am not yet sure of the name of this church, but I was appointed a bishop thereof several years ago, and I will fill in the blank when I find my diploma, which is somewhere around. Under the requirements of the Franco way, all marriages must be performed by religious authority, and it takes no genius to see what that will mean to Bishop Pegler when he gets his share of the seventy million unorganized Americans under the eeny-meeny or ibbety-bibbety system.
Say he gets only half a million of them and say there are about 100 other qualified clerics at present holding credentials in this Colorado church, for it is really a very small cult, Bishop Pegler will get his cut of the marriage business at anywhere from $2 to whatever the traffic will bear, with time and a half for elopements after quitting time. He will get his regular grind for membership stamps on compulsory church cards. He will get collections to support his radio program, compulsory subscriptions to his church paper and compulsory funeral fees, and he can speculate in the silver market while raiding the market through propaganda. And he need never pay any attention to the income tax, because churches are immune under the law. And anyone who interferes with him will be a dirty atheist Communist, subject to arrest on sight and life imprisonment in a concentration camp.
You may quote Bishop Pegler as saying that if there is a fair division of the new business he will be 100 percent for the Franco way and an ardent supporter of Father Coughlin. It gives Bishop Pegler a terrible start to think that he laughed when he unexpectedly received his appointment as bishop of that church in Colorado and was going to tear it up. It goes to show that you should never throw anything away.—Westbrook Pegler, in New York World-Telegram.
Normandie Laid Up for the War
♦ The recent arrival of the liner Queen Elizabeth in New York recalls that the French liner Normandie, built at a cost of $50,000,000, also is laid up in the port of New York for the duration of the war. About 700 of the crew returned to France to join the army. The other 559 of the crew remain on board, but seem almost lost in the big ship, which now smells of mothballs from end to end.
Hard Question for Aged Poor
♦ Three million old-age pensioners in England find the increased living costs more than they can meet. In a debate in the House of Commons a man in the gallery arose and yelled, “How can a man and his wife live on ten shillings ($2.50) a week for the two of us?” Attendants hustled him out.
Animal Husbandry
The Graceful Deer, a Thing of Beauty
◆ The deer is one of the most graceful and beautiful of animals. While not all the different kinds are equally beautiful, each has its unique characteristics. There are fifty-two different species. The best-known classifications are the reindeer, red deer, the wapiti, the caribou, the elk, the moose, and the (by some not considered to be a true deer) musk-deer.
Deer are found in all parts of the world except Africa and Australia. Grass-land deer gather in herds, especially at the approach of winter. They feed on meadow herbage. Forest deer feed on leaves, buds and twigs.
The deer may be said to be more useful to man than either the horse or the cow, but this is true, of course, only of the domesticated deer, particularly the reindeer. But even the wild deer have proved to be highly useful, although that usefulness, unfortunately, is to be realized only when the graceful creature has been slain.
The tame reindeer's milk is used for food. A nutritious cheese may be made from it. Their meat is palatable, and they serve as beasts of burden both by carrying loads and by drawing sleds. The skin is utilized for footwear, clothing and bedding, and the antlers provide material for handles for implements and tools.
The deer's antlers are easily the most interesting and outstanding thing about the animal. The creature gets new headgear every spring, and each spring there is something different about it. The sad thing about this is that in all species except the reindeer only the male gets the new headdress. The female literally has nothing to wear. The female reindeer, however, for reasons as fully known to her as to men, gets antlers as well as the male. She is the only female in the deer world so favored. By way of contrast, the male musk-deer has no antlers, the only male in deerdom so discriminated against.
As spring approaches, the hairy skin with which the crown of the deer's skull is covered becomes swollen. Gradually the antlers appear, at first soft and covered with skin. They are then said to be “in the velvet”. After a while the antlers harden, shedding the “velvet” or skin-covering. The budding horn formation grows with astounding speed. The antlers of a full-grown stag are produced in ten weeks. They remain until the following winter, when they are shed, to be replaced in the spring by another pair. Each successive pair of antlers differs from the set of the preceding year. The first year there is but the straight “beam”; the second year it has a single branch; the third year, two branches; and so on. However, the deer's age cannot necessarily be told by the number of branches, as the addition of branches after five or more years is not always uniform. Sometimes, when the horn base is injured there may be a surprising number of branches on the antlers.
Seemingly the chief use the male deer makes of his horns is to fight his rivals for the possession of the female. Sanguinary battles are fought, often resulting in the death of one or both of the contestants. When the horns lock the result is usually fatal to both deer.
A deer with one point or branch on each antler is called a two-point deer; one with two points on each antler, a four-point deer. In Scotland a twelve-point deer is a royal stag.
The size of a deer's antlers are often prodigious. The giant stag of the Irish peat bogs sometimes attains to an antler-spread of from ten to twelve feet, measured from tip to tip. These stags have palmated antlers or horns, like the moose; that is, their horns have broad, flat centers, like the palm of the hand. The entire rack of antlers, however, is shed after the breeding season, to be replaced by a new set before the next breeding season.
Testing Cows at a Half Mile
◆ The morning, some years ago, when the veterinarian came to give my cows the tuberculin test it so happened that three of them had broken out and were in a field of tall Iowa corn. This was told to the veterinarian, but he did not wait for them, as he was in a great hurry. A week later he denounced one of the cows as tubercular, but it was one of the cows that was a half mile away in the cornfield. When this was told to him, was his face red?
—Contributed.
Farmers Must Be Alert
◆ Farmers have to be quick to learn. The growers of perfume flowers in southern France have had to learn a new business. The synthetic chemists made it impossible for them to go on.
The Last Grand March
◆ Concord company of Jehovah’s witnesses decided to have their last information march and lecture in Antioch, Contra Costa county, California. Owing to the fact that it was to be our last and only march in this town, we wanted it well advertised. Zone servant S. E. Johnson and company servant D. D. Rousch decided to put an advertisement in the local paper, which was done. City councilmen were seen and permission to use the city park for the lecture, “Government and Peace,” was granted. Then the fireworks broke loose.
The editor, Walter B. Stafford, noting from the advertisement that the lecture was to be in the city park, became incensed and began to try to stop it. He saw all the city councilmen and each one gave an evasive answer and passed the buck to the other. No way to stop the permit appeared; so out came the editorial in Thursday’s paper. For a master stroke of advertising at no cost, and by the Devil’s own crowd, now note the facts and be the judge.
The police were asked what they could do about it, but by now our company servant stepped in and ate all the varnish off the chief’s desk. They all received a witness. Records were played, each received a booklet Government and Peace, and all were invited to the lecture. They were informed that we were going to march and use the sound-car. Objection to this was raised, but on being shown Liberty to Preach, and further witnessing, no more was said and they were left a little bewildered at being “walked over so roughly”. However, the chief, Grover Donovan, sensing a possible disturbance, promised full police protection.
We imagine Friday night must have been a long one for them, as Saturday came and still nothing appeared on the horizon that offered them a solution as to how to stop us. And march we did, to the complete dismay of the police, one of which was heard to say, “If they would only take off those signs.”
Meanwhile word was sent to the Oakland company and a grand crowd of the witnesses turned out. Jehovah blessed us with a beautiful, warm day and 3 p.m. found a crowd of about 150 gathered to hear “Government and Peace”. Chief Donovan, true to his promise, had his whole force out, including most of the boys from the fire department. They certainly patrolled the crowd well, giving those they were not familiar with a good looking over. Just before the company sound-car started the lecture, a buck nun and about six husky young rowdies showed up and seated themselves near the edge of the crowd. They communicated with each other by a sort of sign language, done with their hands. They sized up the crowd and the police, decided there were too many, and when the lecture came to the point where the disturbance in Madison Square Garden started, they signaled each other with their hands, got up, and left. The lecture came to an end with no disturbance.—Garland C. Hill.
The Preacher and the Bible
◆ While witnessing to a man he invited me to go to a church where he goes every Sunday and the preacher reads the Bible. He told me that the preacher preaches the same things that we preach. The church is located at Kingsland avenue and 104th street, Corona, and it’s a Methodist Italian church.
I left my bag of books in the car and went inside the church together with this man, and we took seats while Mr. Rossi (the preacher) was preaching the Bible. There were about 15 people in all. The preacher was saying that when a person dies he goes into the kingdom of God. When the sermon was over, the man introduced me to the preacher and I arranged an appointment with him to see him again.
Two days later I met him above the chapel, where he lives. I took along a bag of books and two Bibles, handed him one of the Bibles, and asked him if he could quote from the Scriptures about a dead person’s going into the kingdom of God. He began to tell me a different story; so I asked him to read Ecclesiastes 9:5-10; and when he had done so he looked at me and said: “The Old Testament contradicts itself and the prophets differ in their testimonies with one another.” I wanted to make it easier for him; so I told him to read John 3:13. But the only thing he could answer was about what Jesus had said to His disciples, that they would be with Him; or probably the preacher had in mind John 14:1-4. After that he said that the apostles of Christ were not educated in any school, since at that time there were no schools, and consequently they wrote what they could under the circumstances.
I told him that I was one of Jehovah’s witnesses and if he wanted to learn I could explain the Bible for him. He said that we are active but have the wrong ideas. The conclusion was that I left a Face the Facts booklet with him, and with the result that a friend of the man that had introduced me to the preacher left the prison house (church) and regularly comes to an Italian model study of the Bible.—Tony Pietroforte, New York.
Kingdom hall and publishers, Roseto, Pa.
Freedom of Air
◆ I certainly agree that censorship of the radio is a dangerous thing. Few people have more decided views on things, more firm convictions of the errors or values of some of our organizations, than myself, yet I see no reason to deny anyone the right freely to criticize, explain, or even denounce that with which he disagrees.
Consider Coughlin. Here is a man whose church does not deny him freedom of speech—and no one can say our Catholic leaders are not conservative and patriotic to the State—so why should America bar him when the religious leader of world religions does not bar or excommunicate? If millions want to hear him, why not? But we are on dangerous ground when we do not allow others to blow away the totalitarian smoke-screen and freely gaze on his motives and doctrines.
Consider also Rutherford—a man whom millions petitioned several times to hear. If he is wrong in his views, why not have a “town meeting of the air” and hear his opponents and himself discuss the matter? And if he is right—well, then, no sane person would want to deny him full use of the air. These two men are as far apart as the poles in thought—one is an avowed champion of religion and Fascism; the other champions Christianity as man’s only hope. Surely we are strong enough mentally in America to hear these men and decide for ourselves.
And who are these censors, anyway? When did we hear of them as outstanding leaders of thought, philosophy, or Scripture, or government? And who gave them the right to take away our basic liberties?
Let us have freedom of the air! When Christianity, religion and politics are taboo, then the mental life of the nation dies.—H. R. Hewitt, in Oakland (Calif.) Tribune.
Campbell Trims an Editor
Editor, Scioto Gazette.
Sir:
In an editorial in your paper of October 5 entitled "A Tough Problem" are statements at variance with truth. In fairness to those assailed in the editorial these statements should be corrected.
I have deposited $100 to be given to anyone proving that Judge Rutherford has ever printed or made any statement against any race intended to stir up racial hatred. The editorial says Rutherford's disciples carried "obnoxious" banners. What was on these banners? One read, "Fascism or Freedom, Which?" All know that Fascism curtails freedom. This banner condemns Fascism. Is exposing Fascism obnoxious to you?
Your editorial says we carried banners assailing "formalized religion". I have Webster's Dictionary before me. "Formalized" is defined as "having the outward form without the inward reality". Is it wrong to condemn lip service and formalism which is based on the traditions of men and not on the Word of God?
Another banner read, "Religion is a Snare and Racket." Certainly formalism and ceremonies based upon the traditions of men are just that. Christianity is observing and practicing the word of Almighty God.
Regarding the statement that these people shouted insults at certain religious groups is certainly not true. This undoubtedly is a reference to announcements made by sound-cars. I read these announcements and still have them in my possession, and not one religious group was named and absolutely nothing insulting was said.
"This is nasty business." What do you mean? The editorial with reference to Judge Rutherford and his associates is not based on facts. You say when people of this type are given the convenience of broadcasting, the prospects are horrible. Why? Many of those men and women who carried banners are residents of Chillicothe and known to be God-fearing people. Jehovah's witnesses gladly observe every law not in violation of God's law.
One more banner, the only one used not yet mentioned, was "Serve God and Christ, the King." Is this one obnoxious to you? or which one was?
Would your Bible thought for the fifth of October, found immediately under this editorial, be appropriate here? — "Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully." — Psalm 52:2.
Yours for truth and the practice of Christianity,
HAROLD G. CAMPBELL
(In the Scioto Gazette, Chillicothe, Ohio)
Kingdom hall, Toledo, Ohio
Tent at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, used for advertising "Government and Peace"
Acting as Own Attorney—Blessed
◆ On December 6, 1939, I was arrested while engaged in the witness work. At first taken to the police station and asked if released I would continue in the work, and replying in the affirmative, I was told I was under arrest on account of selling without a license, as per enclosed charge. When taken before the judge I pleaded "not guilty", and my trial was set for 2 p.m. The city attorney inter viewed me before the trial to persuade me to acknowledge guilty, but, of course, in vain. The prosecuting attorney, Russell Scott, put in the prosecution. When the prosecution finished I filed a motion to dismiss, which Judge King overruled. Then I made my own defense, not having an attorney. I followed the order of trial as outlined in Advice for Kingdom Publishers. When making my defense the judge stopped me, asking me not to deliver an oration, but allowed me to finish when I told him I would directly come to the point of the case. The judge did not render judgment today, but asked the prosecuting attorney to file a brief, and asked me to have one filed. Judge King took the book Salvation, and Attorney Russell Scott contributed 25 cents for another Salvation and Government and Peace. Everybody was happy and the friends all went home rejoicing to press the battle to the gate more than ever.—W. J. Drewelow, Pioneer, California.
(The subsequent history of this case is most interesting. Drewelow filed a brief and his bail money was returned. The police officer who made the arrest in this case admitted privately that he had had private orders for six months to make this arrest in any way he could. These orders, it is certain, did not come from the chief of police, but from the religious racketeers, without reasonable doubt.—Ed.)
Elizabeth Fuentes, 10-year-old faithful Trinidad, B.W.I., Jonadab, sleeps quietly till her Day of days shall come.
A California scene—Using the record on “Baptism”
The Man Cutting the Hedge
◆ Daines Stiles, a company publisher, while going from door to door, Sunday, approached a man cutting his hedge and presented the literature and stated that the booklet would show the totalitarian menace to our own country. The man cutting the hedge said he did not believe such a thing could happen, as they had too good men at the head of this country. The witness went down the street and was soon confronted by a patrolman in a scout car, who stated to him that he would have to go to headquarters so the chief could see what kind of literature he was distributing. The publisher got his wife and children, who were in the territory, and went to the station and told the officers assembled there that he was one of Jehovah’s witnesses, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and that he was authorized to do this by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, as evidenced by his testimony card, which he presented, and, further, that he had a legal right to preach in this manner, as evidenced by the Liberty to Preach booklet, which also was produced. The chief stated to the witness that he had a perfect right to do as he was doing, and told him to return, if he wished, to the field. The witness offered to play the phonograph for the officers; but they stated they did not have time, but accepted booklets, and the chief told his men to take the booklets, and literature was placed with all but the officer detaining the witness. This officer admitted that the person complaining against him was the man cutting the hedge. The witnesses returned to the same territory and found increased interest.
Wide-awake, Intelligent Teacher
◆ Word comes from Kansas that in one classroom the teacher is using Government and Peace as a textbook for the instruction of the children in the principles of true government.
Comforting “Him That Hath No Helper”
◆ One of Jehovah’s witnesses tells the following touching tale of one of the Lord’s poor. The book accompanied the tale. Its covers were black with grime; the cloth had been worn through at top and bottom, both front and back, exposing the boards for a half inch. Every page was discolored, and on the designated page 84 there were lead-pencil marks enclosing the quotation “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
It makes one think of the narrative of Matthew 21: 28-32 and the Master’s words, that society’s outcasts would go into the kingdom of heaven while the religionists would, unless truly repentant, get nothing at all:
A publisher of the Providence, R. I., company, while witnessing from house to house, met a woman who recognized the literature and told the publisher the following story:
One day last spring a bum called at her house and asked her for something to eat. She took him in and gave him food. Upon leaving he took out of his pocket this book Enemies and told her that this was the most wonderful book he had ever read. He said that he wanted to give it to her because she had been kind enough to give him something to eat, but that he had read it only twice and was now reading it for the third time. Therefore he requested her name and address so that he could send it to her when he finished it. She gave him the address, and after several weeks she received this book in the mail. So curious was this woman to know the contents of this book that had enraptured the man of misfortune that she sat down and read it.
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