Consolation, September 4, 1940

Download: PDF — Consolation, September 4, 1940

Contents

America's Friends (Part 1) 3

Record of Rome 8

Detroit—the Biggest and Sweetest Convention 11

In Clergy-ruled Quebec 12

2 1/2 Well-spent Hours 13

The Salvage Corps 15

Counsel by J. F. Rutherford

The Kingdom Is Here 17

Religious Governments versus The Theocracy 19

Somewhat Similar Conditions in France 19

Millionaire Hitler and His Lies 19

Hitler's Adept Pupil, Goebbels 20

The Inquisition in Practice 21

Proclaimers of The Theocracy 21

Britain Is Admittedly Religious 21

Activities Against The Theocracy 22

Religion in Government 23

Religion Is Making Headway 23

Conspiracies Against The Theocracy 24

The Flag-Salute Humbug 24

What Is The Theocracy? 25

The New Book Religion 25

Habits of Deer 27

British Comment

The War 28

Religion 29

Miscellany 31

Published every other Wednesday by

WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC.

117 Adams St., Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A.

Editor Clayton J. Woodworth

Business Manager Nathan H. Knorr

Five Cents a Copy

$1 a year in the United States

$1.25 to Canada and all other countries

NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS

Remittances: For your own safety, remit by postal or express money order. When coin or currency is lost in the ordinary mails, there is no redress. Remittances from countries other than those named below may be made to the Brooklyn office, but only by international postal money order.

Receipt of a new or renewal subscription will be acknowledged only when requested. Notice of Expiration is sent with the journal one month before subscription expires. Please renew promptly to avoid loss of copies.

Send change of address direct to us rather than to the post office. Your request should reach us at least two weeks before the date of issue with which it is to take effect. Send your old as well as the new address. Copies will not be forwarded by the post office to your new address unless extra postage is provided by you.

Published also in Afrikaans, Bohemian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian; also special Australian edition in English.

OFFICES FOR OTHER COUNTRIES

England 34 Craven Terrace, London, W. 2

Canada 40 Irwin Avenue, Toronto 5, Ontario

Australia 7 Beresford Road, Strathfield, N.S.W.

South Africa 623 Boston House, Cape Town

Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879.

Appetizers

Why So Pious?

A Roman Catholic and a Scot were walking through the streets of London. When they passed Westminster cathedral the Scot noticed that his companion lifted his hat. He did so too. His friend observed, "You are improving—lifting your hat when you pass the cathedral."

"Oh, was that the cathedral?" replied the Scot. "I thought it was the Bank of England."

The Way to Get There

The traveler was on his way with his new high-powered car, and stopped to inquire the direction from a farmhand. Pointing to an oxcart a little up the road, the man said, "See that cart there, Mister? Well, just follow that, and you'll get there."

Protection from Shock

The clergyman was in the hospital. He discovered on awaking one morning that the windowshade was drawn even though it was day. He inquired about this of the nurse; who explained, "There is a big fire across the street, and we were afraid you might wake and think you had died."—Afrikaans Consolation.

Longer than Jonah

Ephraim: Did you know dat Jonah was three days in the stomach of a whale?

Rastus: Dat ain't much. Mah uncle was longer den dat in de stomach ob an alligator.

Ephraim: You don't say! How long?

Rastus: He's dere yit!—Readers Digest.

The Spur of Necessity

The night was dark. The lights of the tourist's car would not reach the top of the signpost, and the tourist was undoubtedly lost. Spurred by necessity, he climbed the post, struck a match. The sign read, "Wet Paint."

Vain Attempt

A colored boy was strolling through a cemetery reading the inscriptions on the tombstones. He came to one which read, "Not dead, but sleeping." Scratching his head, the Negro remarked: "He sure ain't foolin' nobody but hisself."—Clinic Magazine.

Not So Bad

"Hello, dear. How's the pain in the neck?"

"Oh, he's out golfing!"—Labor.

CONSOLATION

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

Volume XXI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, September 4, 1940 Number 547

America's Friends

(In Two Parts - Part 1)

This article, approved in its entirety by Judge Rutherford, will be read with keenest interest by every subscriber or chance obtainer of this issue of Consolation. Read this part, but do not fail to obtain Part 2 in the next issue. Its warning about the "Abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet" should be read by every person who has respect for God's Word. This entire thing is heading up now in such a way that there is no time to lose. Under his last subhead, in Part 2, Elton Groves, the writer, calls on all spectators who desire salvation to seek immediate refuge in God's Kingdom.

IN THIS hour of encroaching disaster America is desperately in need of true friends. Who are the real friends of the American people? Many claim that following their system, politics, or religion will bring safety to the people. How can such claims be tested? How can they be proved as true or false? Certainly no propagandists' views are to be accepted. There is but one true guide: the authoritative statements of Jehovah's Word, the Bible. Jehovah is the fountain head of truth, and He is the author of salvation. It is therefore imperative that we consider the words of the Bible as applied to this day to discover who is for and who against the interests of the American commonwealth.

A consideration of the Scriptural prophecies and the supporting facts will disclose not only the real friends of the American people but also their enemies. The great Theocrat JEHOVAH and His King Christ Jesus are the perfect friends of distressed humanity. It is recorded that 'God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son' Jesus unto it. No Christian can deny that God's love and friendship are boundless. This friendship is limited by the above text to those who believe on Christ Jesus as the Lord's provided Savior. In what category, then, must those be found who hate Jesus' brethren and persecute them for Jehovah's name's sake? Are the organizations today, such as the Roman Catholic Hierarchy allied with the American Legion, and which organizations claim to be protecting the American people from Jehovah's witnesses, actually doing our country a favor? Is it a favor to the Stars and Stripes to induce its citizens to fight against Jehovah's name and His people? Is it an act of friendship to cause one to be executed? Is it a token of love to persuade mobs, poisoned by lies, to set upon the faithful servants of the Lord, when such crimes will be punished by death to the perpetrators in the day Jehovah avenges His people? Will the wealth and lies of Rome and her dupes avail them in the time of the Lord's wrath? Will her claim to be the Lord's servant help in the least? The emphatic answer found in God's Word is: 'I will destroy utterly the city which is called by my name,' meaning "Christendom", of which the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is the chief part. Do the people of this land do well then to heed the words of Catholic prelates or of the American Legion when they denounce Jehovah's witnesses and urge that violence be done them? The Scriptures plainly state that if they do thus act it will be to their own destruction. Addressing these vicious ones the King now says: 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' Concerning Christ Jesus it is written: "This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4: 11, 12) Is it not perfectly clear from these words that the action of mobs who have maltreated Jehovah's witnesses in their native land openly insulted The Theocratic King by attacking His brethren who are performing His commands? Do the hirelings of the Papacy think they can fight the King and protect themselves against His wrath at Armageddon? The answer is repeated hundreds of times in Holy Writ; and it is, The wicked shall die.

Thus is stated the unchangeable rule of Jehovah. The people of this land who are deceived by the Hierarchy, the American Legion or any other agency into thinking that Jehovah's witnesses are foes of the country, and hence act at the instance of such organizations to abuse them, do themselves much harm. It is to such people that are misled into unrighteous action that the Lord's words are addressed: "Touch not mine anointed." Those who advise "summary action" against the messengers of the King give bad advice. They are enemies of the people of the United States of America. The days to come will prove it just as the last dreadful year has proved the agencies of the pope to be the deadly enemies of the nations of Europe, which are now drenched with their own blood, betrayed within by their Catholic Fifth Column while battered by the pope's champion without. The Hierarchy's motto is, RULE OR RUIN. To follow them means ruin. They are fighting against the great Theocrat. So they have no vision of the Theocracy or Kingdom which the Lord promised would rule the world in righteousness. Both the blind guides and their followers are doomed to fall into the ditch, because "where there is no vision [or understanding of God's purposes], the people perish".—Proverbs 29: 18.

There can be no doubt that the real enemies of the people are those who attempt to smear God's message. Their fight is actually against the Lord, and every agency that they enlist in that attack on the Most High is certain to fall at the hands of the Lord's Executioner. What profiteth it a man if he gain everything the world has to offer, if he loses his life and the right thereto by fighting his Maker?

Do the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and all the other super-patriots who are doing the Hierarchy's dirty work think they can hide behind the American flag, when the Lord knows their hearts and their works? The Scriptures plainly teach that every man shall be judged according to his works; and it is impossible to deceive Jehovah.

The works of this gang, even though every effort is made by the majority of the press to cover up for them, appear plainly before men. They brag that they are going to destroy Jehovah's witnesses, who are the people's true friends. They hate them because they expose the conspiracy between the Nazi dictator, the Hierarchy, and America's Gestapo, the Legion. The New York Times, July 15, 1940, publishes a part of a report of the American Civil Liberties Union which states: "An inquiry of the Union's correspondent in forty-six states made in the spring of 1940, showed agreement on the American Legion as the most active agency of interference with civil rights. The Legion has taken first place in this canvass continuously for several years. In only two instances was the Legion reported as opposing what may be characterized as Fascist movements." Note in this connection that a former national commander stated that the Legion is to America what the Fascisti are to Italy. The Union further states that there is a community of interest between Legion, Bund, Ku Klux Klan and the Silver Shirts.

It is plain, then, that the American Legion is pro-Nazi in action, if not in open declaration. It is equally plain that they are anti-God and anti-God's Kingdom, THE THEOCRACY. The astounding record of this self-styled 'patriotic' organization has shocked law-abiding citizens, including some of its own members. Many writers have collected circumstantial accounts of these atrocities committed simultaneously in more than half the states of the Union in the past few months, and their editors have been too much afraid of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy or the Legion to publish them. We are fortunate to have one such article compiled by an unbiased writer and which was refused by his superior, not because it was untrue, but because they did not dare arouse the ire of an organization which has its headquarters in Rome. This article was kindly furnished through the courtesy of the writer and is quoted forthwith as information the American people are entitled to.

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

By H. R. Southworth

In forty-one states of the Union, during May and June, Jehovah's witnesses, known for their insistence upon obeying the laws of Almighty God and their refusal to salute flags, their aggressive publicity tactics, and their unremitting warfare against the Roman Catholic religion and all other religions, were the victims of mob violence and police persecution.

There is one clear case of interstate kidnaping from Mississippi to Louisiana. It is difficult to ascribe this nation-wide outbreak to jitters over the Fifth Column or to fears of a Nazi invasion. Indeed, the Witnesses, though frequently smeared as Nazis by their tormentors, are in reality staunch anti-Nazis and their work is forbidden in Hitler's territories. Moreover, during these two months when the press records scores of attacks against Jehovah's witnesses, it mentions hardly a single attack on a Nazi group.

In nearly every instance the attacks on the Witnesses were led by members of the American Legion, which is not and never has been an ANTI-NAZI organization. Why should the pacifism of the Witnesses at this time so agitate the Legion, which is itself "non-interventionist" toward the present war? ("Let's Keep Out!" writes Captain Eddie Rickenbacker in what the editor of the American Legion Monthly, June, 1940, calls "one of the soundest pieces of Americanism we have seen in many a month".) Then how explain this breakdown of law enforcement from California to Texas to Maine, this orgy of American Legion violence against the members of a numerically, socially and financially unimportant body? Why?

The Witnesses themselves believe the Fifth Column excitement is being used against them by the allied forces of the Legion and the Roman Catholic Church, in the same manner that the anti-Nazi gag laws in Catholic-controlled New Jersey have been used almost exclusively against the Witnesses. (Here it must be noted that the Witnesses do not consider their movement a religion. "Religion is a snare and a racket," declares one of their slogans. Though Christians, they are not Protestants, and are at times the object of disorganized, sporadic Protestant persecution.) The Witnesses point out that the National Commander of the American Legion is a prominent Knight of Columbus and that the inner circle of the Legion is Catholic-dominated. It is true that since 1928, when the Catholic Church suffered a political disaster in alliance with American liberals, the Church has allied itself with reaction, has become super-patriotic, super-American. It works close to the American Legion and today Legion policy and Catholic policy differ on no important point. For example, they see alike vis-a-vis the European war, and both are willing to condemn fascism and not unwilling to practice it.

Jehovah's witnesses constitute the only group in the United States that militantly fights the Roman Catholic Church. They "invade" a town with sound trucks, distribute literature, "work" a street playing phonograph records attacking organized religions, especially the Roman Catholic Church; if allowed, they enter homes and play their phonograph records and distribute literature. For years the politically entrenched Catholic Church has used its power to harass the Witnesses and to restrict their activities by means of city ordinances and police regulations. When Judge Rutherford, one of Jehovah's witnesses, broadcast from London on September 11, 1938, Catholics in the United States used both legal and illegal means to prevent his being heard by his many listeners. In New Orleans a policeman named McNamara cut the telephone wires when the speech began. The Right Reverend Peter M. H. Wynhoven, editor of Catholic Action of the South, commented: "It is indeed a source of deep gratification that notwithstanding the persistent efforts of the Witnesses of Jehovah, their three-day convention in New Orleans was frustrated. . . . Practically every large hall in the city was denied them. . . . The chief of police's office and the sheriff of Jefferson Parish unhesitatingly stepped in to stop effectively this insult to New Orleans."

Evidence that this policy continues is seen in the cancellation of the Witnesses' contract for the use of the Ohio State Fair coliseum for their main convention, July 24-28, 1940. In a suit in federal court for a mandatory injunction, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the Witnesses' New York corporation, names the Roman Catholic bishop of Columbus, Ohio, James J. Hartley, and a Catholic priest, John Murphy, as those who forced state officials to cancel the contract.

The United States Supreme Court on May 20, 1940, decided that the Witnesses could not by law be restrained from distributing their literature or playing their phonograph records. The Witnesses were already planning a monster convention to be held in thirty cities on July 24-28 and this legal victory seems to have impelled them to greater zeal—and their enemies to extra-legal means to defeat them. This situation was further aggravated by another Supreme Court decision on June 3, which gave to school officials the right to force children of the belief to salute the flag. This unfortunate decision, coming at the height of the Fifth Column scare, caused many people to view with alarm the Witnesses' refusal to salute the flag.

It is interesting that the first of the recent attacks took place on May 22, two days after the Supreme Court decision, at the town of Del Rio, Texas, on the Mexican border. For months the Mexican border has been pointed to by the American Catholic press as the probable port of entry for a subversive invasion. The United Press story on this mob action read: "An angry crowd of 400 persons, headed by former service men, escorted three Nazi agents to the city limits of Del Rio late today, and warned them not to return. . . . The three agents had been distributing Nazi literature in this Mexican border town for three days. Police said that yesterday they began forcing housewives to listen to pro-Nazi phonograph recordings and leaving copies of a pamphlet entitled The Watchtower and bearing a swastika on the cover.” The New York Times, which rarely prints a Catholic story without first checking with Catholic authorities, made no effort to check with the Brooklyn Watchtower address given in the U. P. report, but headlined the story “Texas Crowd Expels Nazi Pamphleteers”. (Both the U. P. and the Times later corrected the story, but that hardly explains its origin. This pamphlet was in reality an anti-Fascist, anti-Catholic publication called “Fascism or Freedom” and the swastika was a small drawing on a ball and chain, denoting Fascist slavery.)

In Glenwood, Arkansas, on May 25, three Witnesses were threatened by a hostile group and accused of being Nazi agents. The same charge was made against two Witnesses who were severely beaten by a mob in Sanford, Maine, on June 3. A Witness was tarred and feathered at Parco, Wyoming, on June 22, accused of having given the Nazi salute. A Witness writes (June 27) from Winnsboro, Texas, that the police are saying “a German spy delivers our literature every two weeks. They go so far as to say that he can’t speak English”. The New Orleans Times-Picayune of June 30 carried the following statement by Dr. A. C. Bryan, commander of the T. C. Carter, Jr., Post, American Legion, of Meridian, Mississippi; “We, the American Legion, in co-operation with the police department, are making every effort to round up these ‘Witnesses’. It is the duty of every citizen to report these persons to the police. The literature being issued by members of this organization is printed chiefly in Germany by German printers and on German paper.”

The charge of distributing Nazi literature was brought against the Witnesses in Odessa, Texas, on June 1, and a “kangaroo court” that included many city and police officials and a Baptist minister tried to coerce them into saluting the flag. The Witnesses’ official report on this happening states: “At Odessa, Texas, about seventy innocent men, women and children were hauled into the courtroom by the sheriff and county attorney, held until midnight without food or water, and then the thirty-five men were packed into a small upper room for the rest of the night. During five hours from midnight they were brought downstairs, one by one, and grilled by the American Legion. Purposely deprived of food and drink until ten o’clock Sunday morning, they were then loaded on a truck and carried to the county line, delivered to a mob of a thousand, guided by and including the American Legion, who stoned and drove them on foot along the railroad right of way for over five miles. They were prevented from leaving the right of way to get water; a number fainted and had to be carried by their companions.”

The situation around Sanford, Kennebunk, Biddeford and Saco, Maine, seems to present a clear case of how the Fifth Column hysteria is being exploited, against the Witnesses. The population here is largely Catholic and the American Legion is strong. The meeting place or Kingdom Hall of the Witnesses in Saco was wrecked by a mob in October, 1939, and when after months of fruitless searching, the Witnesses finally found another building, in Kennebunk, it immediately became the target for rock-throwing boys and midnight marauders. Warned that on the night of June 8 they were to be run out of town, the Witnesses called in vain for help from both local and state police. When hoodlums rushed the building after midnight, crying “Let’s finish those damned Jehovah’s tonight!” two of the raiders were shot. Six Witnesses were thrown into jail and the next day a mob burned the Kingdom Hall, unmolested by the police.

Suppressing the long Catholic-Legion background of the case, the police played up the Fifth Column angle. “Search of the premises of the Kingdom Hall allegedly revealed the guns, maps and pictures of the Nazi and Communist dictators,” wrote a special correspondent of the New York Herald Tribune. “The maps, according to police, included one of Biddeford, important industrial center, with the huge plant of the Saco-Lowell shops, textile machinery manufactory, especially designated. There were also maps of Saco, Wells and Kennebunk, as well as other Maine coastal cities and towns.”

Five Witnesses are in jail in Harlan, Kentucky, on warrants signed by Mayor L. O. Smith, a World War veteran, charging the men with “distributing un-American literature and propaganda detrimental to the U. S. Government.” The men are being held under ten thousand dollars bond each for violation of the State sedition laws, but officials have made the posting of bonds difficult for the Witnesses and the acting attorney for Harlan has said, “They are not entitled to bond, being held for treason and sedition.”

At least nineteen attacks on Jehovah’s witnesses have taken place in Texas, a state that went Republican in 1928 rather than vote for a Roman Catholic, but where in recent years the Church has strengthened itself by an alliance with the most reactionary elements in the state. It was a Catholic-Legion mob led by Father Valenta, secretary to the Archbishop of San Antonio, that last August wrecked the San Antonio city auditorium and injured seventeen people in breaking up a Communist meeting.

The effectiveness of the New Catholic alignment was graphically demonstrated in Dickinson, Texas, when Father Thomas A. Carney, priest of the Shrine of the True Cross, was arrested on complaint of a Witness for directing an assault against Witnesses. The priest was defended by a prominent Protestant lawyer from Houston and the trial was officially observed by representatives of the American Legion from Houston, Galveston and other cities. The freeing of Father Carney, the fining of a Witness for contempt of court, and the promise of a grand jury investigation of the Witnesses were cheered by the spectators. The Houston Chronicle (June 7, 1940) reported on Father Carney's testimony as follows:

"Father Carney's testimony was that he had seen the group in Dickinson Sunday and that he had walked over to the car with 'some of my boys' to warn them to leave town. He said that when it became apparent that the group was not going to leave peaceably he walked back to his home, telling 'the boys' to see that the group left town without distributing any literature or phonograph records. 'I didn't tell the boys to hit anybody,' said Father Carney, 'but as long as it happened, I'm glad that they did it. Those people deserve it.' Father Carney read a prepared statement attacking the sect and Judge Joseph Rutherford of Brooklyn, its leader. 'Judge Rutherford is a very dangerous man,' Father Carney said. 'He assails all religions with equal vehemence. In his opinion, the Catholic Church is the work of the devil, and Catholic schools are a danger to Americanism. Several years ago Burke [a witness] came to Dickinson with a loud-speaker attacking the Catholic Church, and I got him out of town then and without calling in any help. I am convinced that these people are anti-religious and un-American, and all this was in my mind when I walked out to their car. We did not carry out our intentions, but I will tell the court frankly that we intended to break those records and to destroy that literature. I consider it a religious and patriotic duty to salute the flag and I think anyone who doesn't salute the flag is a traitor.'"

One of the most alarming features of this wave of violence is the complete unwillingness of local law enforcement officers to protect the Witnesses. The arrest of two men for arson in connection with the burning of the Kingdom Hall at Kennebunk stands out as the sole legal action taken by a state against the persecutors of the Witnesses. Charges against both of those men were dismissed, however, "for lack of evidence." In many cases, particularly in Texas, law officers have been active participants in the violence. At Jackson, Mississippi, Jehovah's witnesses—many of them citizens of the state—threatened by the American Legion, appealed in vain for local and state protection, and on June 27 were driven across the state line by a mob led by the head of a private detective agency, and placed in the hands of Louisiana Legionnaires. "They would not allow the women and children to toilets or to secure food. Several of the Legionnaires went ahead and at every town we were met by officers and ordered on," writes the leader of the group.

The attacks are continuing. Typical of the field reports pouring into the Brooklyn headquarters of the Witnesses is the following from Mounds, Illinois:

"June 27: Gaylen Stephens and wife, of West Frankfort, were notified by friends late Monday night after returning from a study meeting that the police were looking for them. They both went directly to the police station, at which time they were both immediately arrested. This was between 9 and 10 p.m. There was no warrant out for the arrest of either of the above. They were both beaten about the face, knocked down, stomped on and beat with a strap. This resulted in Gaylen Stephens giving in to them and saluting the flag, and I could not find out if his wife did the same or not. However, they were both kept in jail. Mrs. Margaret Stephens was released Tuesday morning, June 18, but Gaylen Stephens was held until Wednesday 'for protection and investigation'. He held a job as draftsman in a W.P.A. office, which job he lost."

The American Legion shows no inclination to slow up its campaign against the Witnesses. Far from condemning the recent wave of Legion lawlessness, National Commander Raymond J. Kelly writes as follows in the National Legionnaire for July, 1940:

"We have been told that far-reaching suppressive measures against flourishing domestic ideological conspiracies might injure innocent people. In my belief the good of the whole nation compels summary action to be taken by our properly constituted federal, state and local authorities to stamp out in their entirety the activities of these subverters, irrespective of what may happen to their fellow-travelers or innocent by-standers. This is no time for quibbling. We must pull no punches. In my public utterances I have stressed the importance of American Legion organizations assisting and working through recognized law enforcement agencies. I see no reason for deviation from that policy at this time."

A typical Legion conception of "assisting and working through recognized law enforcement agencies" is shown by the following resolution (June 27): "Therefore be it resolved by the George Hart Post No. 167 of the American Legion, Harrisburg, Illinois, that in the future no Jehovah's witnesses or any other sect having similar beliefs shall in the future distribute any literature or play any recordings in the city of Harrisburg or surrounding territory, stating publicly that they will neither salute the American flag nor take up arms in the defense of this country in the event of an armed invasion. Be it further resolved that no Jehovah's witnesses shall in the future solicit any further membership to their organization, either in the city of Harrisburg or any surrounding territory."

The Legion's national commander, Raymond Kelly, is now seriously considering the formation of a private army, unarmed but otherwise completely militarized, under the command of Kelly, and with Legionnaires filling all posts of command. This recalls the words of former National Commander Alvin Owsley who said in 1923: "Do not forget that the Fascisti are to Italy what the American Legion is to the United States."

The Department of Justice is concerned over the attacks and it is understood that a special circular has been sent to all United States District Attorneys to take every possible step to prevent interference with the Witnesses’ right to freedom of assembly. The United Press reported from Waxahachie, Texas, on June 3: “The town jail was crowded today with 90 prisoners—most of them women—whom police and Legionnaires had rounded up as they handed out religious pamphlets.” When these people were brought before Federal Judge William H. Atwell, at Dallas, Texas, he said: “If the people of Waxahachie were attacking these [defendants], then the other people should be put in jail, not these. We have no law to make anybody salute the flag. Many of us believe the salute is the love that comes out of the heart. These men, women and children really salute it when they ask for the protection of our great government.”

The Witnesses have just been banned in Canada and there is no doubt that as we draw nearer to war our own tolerance for minority views will likewise diminish. However, we are not at war. The Federal Government would seem to have a clear right and duty to intervene in the case of the Jackson, Mississippi, kidnapping. But this is election year and the American Legion and the Roman Catholic Church together form a political power no vote-seeker can ignore.

Why does not the Detroit Free Press publish some of these facts, instead of abusing innocent witnesses to Jehovah’s name?

This record will be used by the Great Judge of the Universe as a testimony against the unrighteous combine of false patriots and religionists who have no more sincere love for the United States of America than a crocodile has for its prey. If the Legion venerated the flag as much as they profess, it would be well for them to urge obedience to the laws for which it stands. Certainly the American code of Statutes nowhere makes provision for mob violence, but, on the contrary, expressly forbids “summary action” of this sort advocated by National Commander Kelly. Our forefathers believed that loyalty to God was first. The Legion claims that one cannot be loyal to Jehovah and at the same time loyal to the United States. Will the people of this country accept this tyranny, or will they stand by the principles of freedom established in 1776 and written into our Constitution and Bill of Rights? The people of this nation have come to the parting of the ways. They must choose the Legion’s road to Nazism, with all the horrors of Europe duplicated here, or the road to The Theocracy, pointed out by Jehovah’s witnesses, which leads to life under the protection of Jehovah. Between the two is a great gulf and the twain shall never meet. Let each man make his decision and remember that there is no road back from Nazism! The old adage “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” is an apt warning to those who find the glitter of Nazi triumph attractive. No matter what the consideration was which may have induced the Legion to give their strength to the Nazi Hierarchy, it will be poor price for the penalty of meeting Jehovah’s Executioner! They will bitterly rue the bargain when their hordes are thrown back by Jehovah of Hosts, unable to see God’s Avenger, fighting fearfully against themselves in the black night of Armageddon. In this battle, not their money, but their blood, will pay for their crimes against the servants of the Lord.

Record of Rome

The plain motive behind these attacks on innocent and loyal Americans is the suppression of fact. What is it that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is so desperately anxious to conceal from Americans that she is willing to commit murder to silence the witnesses? What is she trying to hide? Have not the people a right to know, that they might decide for themselves what course to pursue? It cannot be denied that Americans are the best judges of what they wish or do not wish to hear. Propaganda is dangerous only when freedom of speech is dead. Hitler well knows that fact, and he learned it from his masters, the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. Ancient historians of the Roman Catholic Inquisition, which Inquisition tortured “heretics” to death for saying anything that remotely offended the Church of Rome, declare that this dread tribunal was the cemetery of information. Today only what is approved by the pope is the Catholic ideal. All else is “heresy” and must be stamped out by threat, violence or death. Hitler has done her work well in Europe. What, then, must the Legion, servant of Rome in this country, prevent Americans from hearing? The answer is, Jehovah’s message which exposes their hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy and Conspiracy

In many places in the Scriptures is foretold the alliance between religion and politics. Religion is represented today chiefly by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy; and the totalitarians, such as Hitler, dominate politics. How do the facts which are known today disclose this alliance? Since the throttling of free speech is so necessary to Catholic Action, it is important to consider the responsibility of the press in fostering this coalition. Catholicism must not be permitted to lose caste in America by linking it with Nazism, according to Hierarchy plans. America must be deceived until she can be crushed, is to follow Catholic tradition of old and all time. Consider now the facts which prove that the Bible prophecy foretelling this coalition is now in course of fulfillment.

Strange as it may seem, Hitler has announced his commission from the pope to crusade for the “Holy Roman Empire”, or world domination by Catholicism, which some Nazis describe as the Catholic Revolutionary movement. He is not the first German to raise the Papal banners in bloody conquest. King Charles fought Luther and the Reformationists in the name of the pope. But this old Catholic empire, the so-called “Holy Roman Empire”, came to an end with the signing of the treaty of Westphalia, signed in Munster, in 1648. According to The Converted Catholic, issue of May, 1940, “Religious tolerance officially began with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which put an end to the sovereignty of the Church of Rome and the papacy’s control over the nations of Europe. It must be remembered that this treaty was concluded between the Catholic and Protestant peoples of Europe, and sworn to by their respective princes. . . . But the Vatican would have no part in the agreement, and has acted ever since as if it never existed or had never been signed and sworn to.

“The treaty was really contained in two pacts, one at Osnabrück on August 6, 1648, and the final one at Westphalia on October 24, 1648. They made effective and final the cleavage between the opposing cultures of Catholicism and Protestantism, and started the world on the road to true tolerance—until the rise of Fascism.” Pope Innocent X, then in office, issued a very severe bull denouncing these pacts and declaring them “void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, and altogether lacking in force . . . they must, therefore, be forever held as if they had never been issued, as never existing, and as never made”.

Therefore when Hitler recently made the assertion that he intended to force Britain and France to sign peace terms at historic Munster, in Westphalia, and stated at the time that the place was significant, he identified himself as the pope’s instrument to recoup what Rome lost in the Reformation! The Catholic church never forgets! The Thirty Years’ War, which was settled adversely to the Papacy at the Treaty of Westphalia, was a setback which Rome never forgave. She merely waited for a champion, a crusader to wipe out this insult to her position of power. The Reformation must be remembered only as a momentary shadow in the forward march of militant Catholicism! Nor was Hitler the first warrior she asked to re-establish her power by the sword. It is interesting to note that the New York Times, in a scathing editorial February 8, 1887, denounced the agreement between Bismarck and the then pope, which agreement presaged the bloodshed of 1914. According to The Converted Catholic it was “this evil use of any means to justify the political ends of papal power that drew the ire of the Times, which begins its editorial with the words: ‘All is grist that comes to the mill of Rome.’ ” It is to be regretted that the New York Times has lost the courage it possessed in 1887.

The next champion to be asked to re-establish her empire by the pope, and still with the purpose of wiping out Westphalia, was Kaiser Wilhelm, of first World War fame. Again quoting The Converted Catholic:

When the Kaiser visited Pope Leo XIII in 1903, the Pope made a plea for Germany’s support of the Holy Roman Empire, and said that Germany would have to become the ‘Sword of the Church’. Wilhelm did not agree to this, and pointed out ‘that the ancient Roman Empire did not exist any longer, and that political conditions had changed. But the Pope did not abandon his point of view’.

Hitler’s aims, and accomplishments, are in line with this. He has persecuted only the liberal elements in the Catholic Church in Germany and Austria. And the fact remains that the Vatican helped him to abolish the liberal Catholic Centre Party, threw its might back of Hitler and made a Concordat with him. It rejoiced at the death-blow to liberalism in Germany and all central Europe. To this day, it has not attempted to excommunicate Hitler, nor has it renounced its concordat with him. Its present peace efforts, if successful, would be to Germany’s advantage. It is obvious to anyone who gives thought to it, that the Vatican’s intensive peace campaign, after contributing so much to the victories of Nazi-Fascism since the Lateran Accord, is but a further effort to help Hitler and Mussolini hold what they have gained by “blitzkrieg” and rape.

Hitler may have disappointed the Vatican in many things, but it still looks hopefully to him as the one most likely to accomplish in its favor what the Kaiser refused to undertake.

In line with this is the statement by the Fascist organ Lavoro Fascista (February 11, 1936): "The struggle against Fascist Italy is a struggle against the Catholic Church. 'Silver Charlie' Coughlin, to use the nickname given him by New Masses, has been likewise described as doing the will of Rome by the Jesuit organ America." "Hitler's early conquests in Austria and Czechoslovakia were applauded as 'a natural readjustment in Europe' by the Catholic Justice Herbert O'Brien in New York, in an article featured in the New York Herald Tribune of March 29, 1938. Needless to say, his opinions are not his own, but were obviously dictated to him by official Catholic authority," to quote from The Converted Catholic, May 19. The Catholic bishops of Germany and Austria have repeatedly applauded the advance of the arms of Hitler. A Catholic cardinal approved the traitorous action of Leopold of Belgium; and according to the New York Times of July 4, "it is believed in Vatican circles that the controversy between King Leopold (a staunch Catholic) and the exiled (popular) Pierlot government of Belgium is about to end, in part because of intervention by the Vatican."

It must be remembered that the chief countries that broke with Rome at about the time of the Treaty of Westphalia, signed in Munster, were the Scandinavian countries, England, Holland and parts of Germany. France was later blacklisted by the Papacy because Napoleon jailed two popes. America was also the haven of Protestantism and thoroughly hated. Thus can be seen just what are the objectives of Hitler. Why does not the Detroit Free Press publish some of these facts, instead of vilifying people who are doing a service to America?

Hitler is prosecuting a "holy war", to destroy "heretics" and restore the Holy Roman Empire. On this point says the San Francisco Chronicle, May 21, 1940: "[Hitler] seems determined that if he forces France and England to their knees he will make them send their representatives to historic Munster, in Westphalia, to sign on the dotted line.

"Munster is symbolic for Hitler. Not content with wiping out the last vestiges of the Versailles treaty which ended the World War, his mind goes back to 1648, when the Germany of the Holy Roman Empire was broken into powerless bits by the Treaty at Munster which ended the Thirty Years' War" ["a struggle between Protestants and Roman Catholics" — Encyclopedia Britannica].

As for the truthfulness of this evidence of the Rome-Berlin-Papal alliance, the facts are fully supported by Pierre Van Paassen in Days of Our Years, George Seldes in The Catholic Crisis, G. E. R. Gedye, and many other Protestant and even Catholic journalists. It is thus easy to see why the Legion opposes Jehovah's witnesses and favors Nazism. Perhaps the Detroit Free Press has no impartial journalists on its staff. Maybe it is merely ignorant of these facts.

Further consummating the Papal plans to get America is the Hierarchy's establishing relations between the United States and Vatican City. Vatican City has a population of about 2,000 people. Why does America make such a point of having relations with this minute realm? It is not for this little bit of ground that this relationship is formed, but in order that the pope might have control of the fifteen million Catholics in the United States of America. This is made clear by Gilbert O. Nations, writing in both the New York Times and The New Age, June, 1940.

In conclusion the following facts are repeated: Hitler is admittedly a Catholic and so describes himself in the German Who's Who (and the Detroit Free Press will never tell you this); he has signed an agreement or concordat with the pope to bring all the world under the yoke of Catholicism; the American Legion and the American press have been assigned the job of putting America under this Roman yoke; Jehovah's witnesses are the patriotic friends of freedom; our forefathers shed their blood battling for the principles for which Jehovah's witnesses now stand; Washington and Jefferson fought for these very principles and they were written into the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and the flag was made a symbol of this freedom. Today Jehovah's witnesses alone of all Americans continue the battle of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. By its deeds the American Legion demonstrates its hatred for the democracy it professes to protect. Jehovah's witnesses have a message from Jehovah which is the most important information for the public welfare today. Hear them if you would live; abuse them if you would be killed by Jehovah!

(To be continued) Detroit—the Biggest and the Sweetest Convention

THE newspapers of Detroit said that the convention of Jehovah's witnesses held in that city July 24-28 had an attendance of 45,000. They ought to know. That makes it in point of attendance the largest convention the witnesses ever held. Judge Rutherford said it was the sweetest convention. He ought to know. He has been at them all. The greatest blessings follow the greatest trials. Pentecost followed the death of Jesus. Mordecai's exaltation was just after the threat against his life. See Esther 5:14; 6:1-14.

In June Jehovah's witnesses were in dire peril: the burning of their homes in Maine, the smashing of their automobiles in Illinois, tar and feathers in Wyoming, destruction of furniture in Maryland, wholesale imprisonments and beatings in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, California, and shooting with intent to kill in South Dakota, and a reign of lawlessness throughout the country. All this followed only a month later by the greatest and most blessed convention ever held. How like the great and good Jehovah God! There were 1,643 immersed at Detroit alone.

It looked for a time as if the witnesses might have to meet "out under the stars", said one of the speakers. But the Lord provided a good place and a large. Convention Hall, Detroit, a succession of huge halls, interconnected, all on one floor, occupying perhaps two good-sized city blocks, was well suited to the purpose. The Eastern Star Temple, two blocks away, was filled. The overflow was taken care of at Trailer City, where 2,900 of the conventioners made their home.

Outstanding features were Judge Rutherford's talks. One of these summarized the presentation on the 'Times and Seasons', which appears in August 1 and 15 and September 1 issues of The Watchtower. His principal address, "RELIGION AS A WORLD REMEDY," will receive attention in The Messenger. When the convention opened, and prior to Judge Rutherford's opening address, it was explained to the audience that he had been a very sick man, and that his presence with them at the convention was a miracle. But both the addresses above referred to were given with all the zest and fire and eloquence that have endeared him to all who love Jehovah God.

Another prominent feature of the convention was the judge's new book, Religion. Consolation suggests that the politicians and others who have been clamoring for "more religion" are in a fair way to have their prayers answered; the first printing is 1,000,000 copies. See page 25.

The new phonograph made a great hit, and especially the way in which it was demonstrated. In each convention hall, as the description was given, the mysteries of this new vertical type, carried by its own handle, and housing books, booklets and a package that looked suspiciously like a sandwich, were shown by witnesses who had been trained for the job.

Seventeen Sub-Conventions

There were sub-conventions at Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, El Paso, Kansas City, Des Moines, Duluth, St. Paul, Boise, Long Beach, San Jose, San Diego, Medford, Seattle, Spokane, and Honolulu.

A pioneer from Montana went to Sioux Falls to attend the convention there. Finding the city fathers there had made a mental surrender to the boys in skirts she went on to attend the convention at Fargo. There the fifth column clergy are the bosses; so she went on to St. Paul. There the mayor and the city attorney had refused the use of the city auditorium (and both have since lost their jobs), but the manager of the convention hall retained his manhood and self-respect, even though a priest from Minneapolis did call up and demand that he cancel his contract and expel the witnesses. The police department of St. Paul was A-1. It was overhauled some years ago, and it would be a good thing for most American cities if they would also have a periodical housecleaning.

At Medford, Oregon, the witnesses had no trouble getting the armory, but nobody would let them have seats, so they made them themselves.

Boston, Massachusetts, birthplace of American liberty, cheered faintly as its heroic police, Gallagher, Flaherty, and Dennis Collins, arrested 8-year-old Irene Smith and 24 others, 12 of whom were children. Richard Judson, a boy of 13, arrested by Fitzpatrick, jailed over night, was described by the clerk of the court as "as fine a boy as I ever saw and I would like to have a dozen like him". See The Messenger for further news.

RIGHTEOUS RULER

THE NEW GOVERNMENT

In Clergy-ruled Quebec

◆ Believing it would be of interest to you, I have set out below a general report of the attempt of the enemy to disrupt the work of publishing the message of Jehovah's Kingdom here. The report is confined to the first three months of the current fiscal year, October, November and December. A large part of these proceedings were carried on in courtrooms wherein the dominating decorative (?) theme was the crucifix, and which proceedings took the form of religious inquisition. The three focal points of persecution are the cities of Montreal, Sherbrooke and Valleyfield.

In the three months mentioned above, hardly a day passed without some of Jehovah's witnesses' being picked up by the police and hustled off to the local police station for "investigation". This is usually a pretext to get the publisher into the station, where the minions of the law try to intimidate him or her by threats of arrest, imprisonment or even physical harm. On these occasions the witness is usually relieved of phonograph and literature.

Between October 1 and December 31 14 publishers have been formally charged; nine under the Montreal by-law proscribing "selling without a license" and five in the vicinity of Sherbrooke accused of being "parties to a seditious conspiracy".

Two witnesses charged with selling without a license were sentenced to two months in prison. There was one acquittal on a similar charge in Montreal North. In connection with these and previous cases the witnesses were required to appear in court on 38 different occasions. All told, 61 publishers are at present awaiting trial in the Province of Quebec, 34 on charges of seditious conspiracy, 2 for publishing defamatory libel, and the remaining 25 for distributing without a license, "displaying placards" or "selling without a license".

Of outstanding interest was the trial of Arthur Titley on November 27 to 29, on a charge of being party to a seditious conspiracy. At the outset the Crown prosecutor was heard giving a whispered warning to a press representative to "not give these people too much publicity . . . that's what they are looking for". Perhaps that accounted for the sparsity of information in the press regarding this case, but certainly the court received a great witness during the trial.

The book Enemies was the principal exhibit and it was a treat to hear the prosecution's "expert" witnesses reading aloud from it the portions which they considered "extremely seditious". The "experts" were a Roman Catholic priest, an Anglican canon, and a Catholic University professor. When the Anglican clergyman finished his testimony, part of which consisted of a slanderous attack on Judge Rutherford, referring to him as "a spider weaving his web", he sat down beside his Roman Catholic co-religionist and whispered, "I hope I didn't spoil anything for you." The picture on page 192 in Enemies was brought up, depicting the harlot riding the beast, and the priest, who sat beside the Anglican canon throughout the trial, was heard to say to his confrere, "I don't think that is in the Bible, is it?" The other, after a few moments' reflection replied, "Yes, I think it is, but not like he is explaining it." (H. L. Stewart was telling the court how the prophecy applied to the Roman Catholic Hierarchy.)

In his defense before the court Mr. Calder, K.C., pointed out very clearly the position of Jehovah's witnesses, and how closely they followed in the steps of the early Christians and adhered to the truths of the Bible. At one stage he challenged the clergymen to cite one scripture in the Bible in support of "Purgatory". The mighty men of Babylon could not say a word.

My impression was that in his address to the jury, the judge (Mr. Justice Wilfred Lazure) followed closely the Crown prosecutor's line of attack and, far from assuming the role of "Prisoner's counsel", he displayed an attitude of religious prejudice.

We have been reliably informed that in all the Catholic churches in Montreal a sermon has been preached in which the people have been informed that Jehovah's witnesses are Communists and should be detained in the homes by some means until the householder can get in touch with the police department and inform them of the whereabouts of the witnesses. ----, Quebec.

2 1/2 Well-spent Hours

◆ I find out it pays to use the doorstep setup. One morning I ran my "Snare and Racket" record, by holding my phonograph on my arm by the side of a house. Just before I ran the lecture the man told me he wasn't religious and didn't care to listen, but after hearing the lecture he agreed it sounded good, also remarked it was a good way of carrying our message, by phonograph.

I then presented the bound books spoken of on this record, but he said he didn't care to read. So then I asked him if he heard our lecture from New York—"Government and Peace." He replied "No". Then I gave him a brief outline of what happened while it was being delivered, and then I asked him if I could call and play the recordings of this lecture for him. He replied that I could, but for me not to go to any trouble, as he was always working. I got his name and house number and bade him good-bye.

In three weeks' time I called back, and met his wife at the door. I asked for Mr. McConnell, but she said he wasn't home but she was expecting him any minute, and asked me to come in. He came home in a few minutes but was too busy to spend any time with me. I asked him if he ever saw a march in this city carrying the information that religion was a snare and a racket. He said "Yes". So I gave him a Kingdom News No. 5, telling him that this would explain why we carried on such a march. I bade him good night and added that I would call again later.

Three weeks more passed and I called again in the evening. Met Mr. McConnell at the door and asked if he would like to hear my lecture. In reply he said, "Well, come in and get it over with." So I entered the hall, took off my rubbers, and just then he turned and asked his wife if she cared to listen to this lecture. She said "No". So then I didn't know what to do. Mr. McConnell scratched his head, looked at me, then looked at her and back at me again, replying to me to come to the kitchen.

Baptism of Theocracy publishers, Manila, Philippine Islands

Both of them were standing at the stove when I entered. Right then she was real snappy with me and didn't care to have me, and asked me quite a few questions. Asked if this was technocracy, politics or religion. I then told her "No", and also added that religion was of the Devil. She then asked if this lecture referred to Christian teachings. I replied that it refers to Christianity, which refers to Jesus' own teachings. She then said I took her up wrong about religion.

Then I asked again if they would care to listen to the phonograph, also stating I didn't want to impose on them if they didn't care to hear it, and wouldn't call any more. Mr. McConnell then asked me how long it would take. I said that as soon as he didn't care to hear any longer it was O.K. with me. His wife mumbled that she never got any good out of listening to anything like this. Mr. McConnell said, "Play one record and I'll tell you what I think of it." Also he said he wanted to listen to a program on his radio. So I played the first record of "Government and Peace" and asked him if he had any question on what he had heard. He said I haven't heard enough. I then said, "You better listen to your program on the radio." So he did.

At Kingdom hall, Belfast, Ireland, a large map of the world is fixed at the back of one window and different-colored ribbons connect each country on the map with a card at the front of the window. On these cards is printed the year's report for the work done in 1939 for each particular country. This has aroused great interest, and from the remarks made by people passing by we find that they are surprised and impressed by the tremendous work that Jehovah has had done by His little army of witnesses.—Robert Anderson.

After this we had another debate and I still asked if he cared to listen any more. He then said, "Go ahead, play it, so we can get rid of you." I continued up to record seven. By this time his wife cooled down and began to ask questions (so many it would take too long to write them out). She was going to make me prove with the Bible some of my statements which I had made about the clergy. I didn't have a Bible with me and she brought me her prayer-book. I said, "This isn't a Bible; it's a prayer-book." She didn't seem to know the difference; then went and got a Bible.

By this time it was more interesting, and I showed her how she could prove from the Bible various statements that this booklet Government and Peace has made. By this time their heart condition was changing and they welcomed me back again as soon as I could to start a Model Study.

This all took place by making a back-call from a doorstep setup. There were two and a half hours well spent. I bade them good night, stating I never received the truth overnight and couldn't tell it all to them overnight. This was sure the Lord's direction on this part of the service. — ________, British Columbia.

Immersion of young Jonadab at Belfast, Ireland

Back-Calls on Foreign-speaking (Canada)

◆ For two years or so the friends in a Saskatchewan company, all English, have been running the Ukrainian "Exposed" and "Religion and Christianity" series for the Ukrainians that were willing to hear them. Some have heard the series once, others twice, and some even more. The people were willing to hear them, and the friends were willing to play for them.

When the letter from Judge Rutherford dated January 20, 1940, was received, urging the publishers to redouble their efforts and especially increase the back-calls, not being able to go out in the country, it being winter, and because of lack of conveyance, they again called on their Ukrainian friends with the series and were very welcome.

During my visit in this company, being able to speak Ukrainian, I arranged for a back-call on a Sunday evening and asked the man to invite some of his friends that like the truth. On my arrival the small house was packed full, far more than I ever anticipated, and all were eager to digest every word that was said. I put on the record which dealt with the "soul" and went over it together with the Bible and the Model Study booklet, which I had to translate as I went along. The audience of 35 were very attentive, and, when the meeting was over, expressed their gratitude for such opportunity, that the Bible is true, and that they were eager to learn more.

The success of this back-call was due to the foundation laid by the friends back-calling and running the lectures over and over. This proves that the lectures can be heard time and again with good advantage to the attenders, and that it is never too much nor too often to call on the interested ones as long as one can manage to do so. The Lord blesses our efforts and brings the increase.

…