Consolation, February 4, 1942
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Contents
Acts of The Theocracy in New England (2) 3
The People Catching On 4
Newspapers on the Spot 7
Why Penalize Godliness? 9
Barring a Child from School 10
"Interfaith" in New Haven 10
South America — Walked 20,000 Miles 11
Spain — Franco Stands by Hitler 12
Rocky Mountain States 13
Science — Things at the Door 14
Social — Crime in the United States 15
Education — The Lost Books of the Bible (?) 16
A Faithful Witness 17
State, War and Navy Departments 18
Russia — Free Religion, Not Free Worship 19
Under the Totalitarian Flag
The Origin of Mardi Gras 20
Foreign Conspiracy Against America 21
Mixed on the Subject of Murder 22
The New Government
All Things Work Together for Good 24
Chiniquy and the Bishop 26
Southern States — Maury Maverick Defeated 27
British Comment
Margaret Wilson Becomes a Brahman 29
Turnabout 29
Trials in the Libyan Desert 30
British, Germans, and Khamsin 31
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Notanda
Vatican Rule in New England
◆ In Connecticut the Catholic governor distinguished himself by lashing out against the American public-school system; the chaplain of the state senate went out of his way to pray lengthily for Pope Pius XII, and eight days later, after an act had been rushed through the Connecticut legislature before the court adjourned, it turned out to be an authorization of legalized gambling for church societies. After another twelve days Archbishop Spellman, of New York, also panned the American public-school system. On the same occasion, one of Archbishop Spellman’s fellow speakers, “Rev.” William A. Scully, referring to the public school, said that the children who attended them had been allowed to grow up without religious safeguards. This was a hot one; for, while Catholics make up only 11 percent of America’s adult population, they furnish 33 percent of all the criminals in the nation. In New York State 56.6 percent of the criminals are Catholics, while the annual report of Sing Sing Prison shows that there are 848 Catholic prisoners to only 572 of all other sects.
At Lowell, Massachusetts, a public school was rented to a Catholic parish for use as a parochial school for the princely sum of $1 a year. Thus the taxpayers built a school wherein are taught doctrines wholly incompatible with the institutions upon which America was founded; and they thus accomplish their own ruin and enhance the prestige of a foreign power.
A dispatch from Washington says: “A bill introduced by Senator David I. Walsh, of Massachusetts, a Catholic, would extend the federal old-age and insurance benefits of the Social Security Act to cover more than a million lay persons (nuns, monks, etc.) employed by religious and charitable organizations throughout the country.”
CONSOLATION
"And in His name shall the nations hope."—Matthew 12:21, A. R. V.
Volume XXIII Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, February 4, 1942 Number 584
Acts of The Theocracy in New England
(In Two Parts—Part 2)
The Artlessness of Youth
A FRIEND in New England writes that a good wife was narrating to her husband at some length the witness to the Kingdom which she had been privileged to give that day to a tradesman who called at the door. Her little four-year-old daughter, seated at the table, had been taking it all in until the conversation was finished. Then she brought down the house by saying, demurely, "Mother, you talk too much; you should use the phonograph." By the way, have you ever talked yourself out of a placement of literature by continuing to talk after the party had decided to take the literature?
Mrs. Louise Pittroff, of Massachusetts, writes:
In making a back-call in territory not visited for some time, I found a lady who had been a Catholic until some four years ago, when she started reading the WATCHTOWER literature along with her Bible. Her husband still claims to be a Catholic, though he has not been to church for five years. They have two girls, seven and nine. The mother had been teaching these children for about six months, when her husband insisted upon sending them to the Sunday school in the Catholic church, and they went. When the nun came to the place in the Catechism where it teaches the false doctrine of the Trinity, the child of seven said quaintly and pointedly, "That is a damned lie; how can three gods be one?" Then the little girl continued to unfold the truth as her mother had taught, whereupon the nun said, "You cannot be a Catholic if you talk that way." The little girl replied, "I don't want to be a Catholic; it is the Devil's own mess; I want to be a Christian." That ended the Sunday school; a model Bible study is now in progress in the home, and it is a thrill to see the youngsters dig in and study. The Model Study No. 2 is just the thing.
In the Grip of the Hierarchy
The reason that Jehovah's witnesses are having such a warm time in New England is that so many of the officials there are under the control of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. The Roman Catholic Register, in a single issue, stated that Governor Murphy, of New Hampshire, had been made a member of the Catholic Order of the Knights of Malta and that Governor McGrath, of Rhode Island, had assisted at mass early in the morning of the day in which he was inaugurated governor of the state.
If you live in New Haven, Connecticut, and you want your children to come home to you bearing scars they will carry throughout life, you might try sending them to St. Stanislaus parochial school of that city. One parent, Walter Remian, is suing the outfit because one of the teachers, carefully not named, but assuredly either a priest or a nun, held his little boy on a hot radiator last February, burning him terribly.
The Red Mass hocus-pocus, relic of the Dark Ages, when all judges were supposed to be mere clerks of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, and to do as they were told with the lives, liberties and consciences of their fellow men, was introduced into the United States in 1928.
This grotesque and foolish performance has thus far been pulled off in New York, California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and in the District of Columbia, and, most recently of all, in Massachusetts, where the governor, the mayor of Boston, the Supreme Court and some lawyers were in attendance. The objective is to make it appear that America is a Catholic country, which it is not, and that all courts are subject to Roman canon law, which they are not.
Rifts in the Clouds
Every now and then an honest man realizes that there is something seriously wrong. Thus James F. Shea, Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, a courageous and honest Catholic, wrote to the Springfield Republican of that state a scathing denunciation of "accursed, sanctified, gambling joints", designating them as a "shame and a disgrace in the name of the church". He called on the clerical gamesters of Holyoke, Ludlow, Springfield, Chicopee, Chicopee Falls, Aldenville and Willimansett to clean up. He is, however, wasting his breath. It is impossible to clean up anything that is rotten from skin to core.
A Torrington, Connecticut, hard-working street laborer accumulated $18,000 during the course of his life, and you might be interested to know that he left it all to the "Very Reverend" Matthias Faust to be used in saying masses for the repose of the souls of the poor. This is the more pathetic not only because the dead are dead and already in absolute repose, but because of the way this money was earned. The York Herald-Tribune, that ever-faithful servant of the Hierarchy, explains that the money will be split up among thousands of Franciscans to buy 18,000 masses, and that "the offering for a low mass is $1, which pays for the supplies that the priest uses". The supplies, it should be explained, consist of a little cracker and a swallow of wine for the priest, of a possible total value of one cent. The remaining 99c is pure velvet. If you heard about the Franciscans in Germany and your memory is good you can guess about how much influence any performances by sodomites would have with the Almighty, Jehovah God.
Writing from one of the largest cities in New England, Hazel Henderson, one of Jehovah's witnesses, says:
I have had a wonderful time in this section, as you may judge from the enclosed subscription orders. One is for the mayor and one for the chief of police. The mayor has been on our back-call files for six months. I had hard work to reach him at first, but found him to be a person of good-will toward Jehovah God. He has taken some books and many booklets, has subscribed for Consolation, and I am welcome to call on him often. He is a Protestant. As to the chief, he is a Catholic, but is a very broad-minded man. He also is on our permanent back-call list. When I called for his subscription he told me he would never bother us unless we actually started trouble. He also told me I did not call often enough, and that he hoped I would call often, and he would give me his time and attention.
The People Catching On
The work of Jehovah's witnesses is helping the common people to catch on to the hypocrisy of the clergy. There is no limit to the conceit of the clergy and the preposterous things that they expect the people to believe. Thus, in an address at Boston, the Jesuit "Rev. Father" Richard J. Hegarty made this absurd statement:
When a baby is born into the world, it lives with merely human life. Take that same infant to the font and watch the priest as he pours the water and says the words of baptism. The first channel of divine life streams into the child's soul. The child now rejoices in a second nativity, for now it is a child of God. Little boys and girls grow up. They need special strength to fight the temptations of the world. In confirmation the bishop taps for them another channel of divine life and the children become strong with the strength of
Christ. If boys and girls die a bodily death, there is no recall from the grave. When mortal sin kills the life of God in the soul, in the sacrament of penance another channel of divine life restores to it divine vitality.
The Providence Visitor says that when you kiss the ring of your own bishop you get down on your right knee, but when you kiss the ring of some other bishop you don't have to kneel. All you have to do is to bow down low. In other words, the people of Providence don't have to kneel to the "Most Rev." James Cassidy, D.D., bishop of Fall River, Massachusetts, which is almost next door to Providence. Mr. Cassidy, realizing that many of the American Legion are Catholics, recently denounced the American Legion convention held in his city. He stated that they had left the public park in a condition "worse than any circus ground ever abandoned by any circus" and that during the convention "no woman who really realized the danger dared to venture into the city". The "Most Reverend" ought to know: it is his baby; and if Jehovah's witnesses were to put on a big drive in Fall River to tell the truth about the racket he himself is operating, like as not the American Legion would be the first tools that the bishop would call on to make trouble for the decent Americans and the law-abiding Americans that go to make up the witnesses, and that are so opposite to the American Legion in cleanliness and honesty and true patriotism.
Helping Brother Catholics
Experience shows that those who have been Catholics are most helpful to their brother Catholics when, the eyes of their understanding opening, they begin to sense something of the length and breadth and height and depth of the love of God which passeth human understanding. (Ephesians 1:18) This is brought to mind by a communication of A. L. MacDonald, of Massachusetts, in which he mourned the failure of the Boston American to tell more than one side of a story for fear that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy might be grieved. It is a fixed rule of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy that their church must never be mentioned except in praise, no matter how black or filthy its record. This is a sorrow to MacDonald. He told about a hearing before the Cambridge, Massachusetts, School Committee, regarding the expulsion of little Mary Richards for refusal to salute the flag. The dialogue was between MacDonald and Carr and was treated with great timidity by the American, but as it is of public interest it is given below as it occurred:
MacDonald: On behalf of Mary and her father we desire to express our gratitude to the Cambridge School Board for arranging this hearing. In these days when the rights of individuals are so trampled upon and denied in totalitarian countries, how thankful we all should be that we are living in a country whose laws are so jealous for the rights of individuals that even a little child, expelled from school, is guaranteed by law a hearing before her peers. We feel that this board has a friendly sympathy and interest in Mary and her problem, as it is inherent in all Americans to love children, and especially to have love and respect for children who have the courage of their convictions, even if we do not agree with them. Because of the publicity given the activities of Jehovah's witnesses in recent years, we feel that this board is convinced that Jehovah's witnesses are honest, sincere and law-abiding individuals.
Carr: We are not convinced of any such thing (holding up a book Enemies). This is their publication. Do you call this law-abiding? Page 190: "The foregoing evidence proves conclusively that religion is a racket, and that those who practice it for gain are racketeers, and that the chief ones among all racketeers are those who make up and form the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, who rob the people of their money," etc. Page 192: "The Roman Catholic Hierarchy have 'houses' all over the earth within which they practice fraud and deceit, carrying on their racket," etc. Is that law-abiding? Page 274: "The harlot, that is, the Roman Catholic organization," goes up and down the earth with her instruments of sound under the leadership of the Devil and in opposition to the faithful followers of Jesus Christ." Is that law-abiding? I call it scandalous libel. (And on and on, in indignation, he read all through the book, punctuating each reading by asking, "Is that law-abiding?")
MacDonald: You have asked the right man, and you will get an answer in love and without partiality. You see, John F. Fitzgerald, ex-mayor of the city of Boston, is my third cousin; and all my cousins on that side are Catholics, and naturally I have a great love for the Catholic people. I am glad you have brought up this matter of the Catholic church, for while it apparently has nothing to do with flag saluting, every one in this auditorium now has the opportunity to see just what the sore spot is. You have let the cat out of the bag. This same thing happened at the State House in Boston, at a hearing appointed before a committee appointed by the State Legislature, on the proposed bill to amend the Massachusetts State Flag Salute law, so that children who had conscientious objections to saluting the flag might be excused. Mr. Judson for Jehovah's witnesses had just finished his plea in favor of the amendment when Mr. Melley, the member of the House of Representatives from Chelsea, put this question to Mr. Judson: "Do you subscribe to the statement of your Society that the Catholic Church is Public Enemy No. 1?" Mr. Judson replied, "I do." Mr. Melley, the member of the House of Representatives, said, "That's all I want to know. In other words, if you insist on such a statement about my church, I am sitting on the Committee and will see that your children continue to salute the flag or else—." Now here it is again tonight. Because the Catholic Church can not refute these plain statements of Jehovah's witnesses, and because they cannot stop the parents, they are actually holding their children as hostages, taking it out on innocent children. Now as to the matter of legality, it is perfectly legal and is also law-abiding in America to criticize the Catholic Church. The church in these United States is not untouchable. In this country you can criticize the mayor, the Boston Elevated, or the president and still be law-abiding. The Supreme Court has recently ruled, in the Cantwell case, that it is perfectly law-abiding to criticize the doctrines and actions of the Catholic church, even if it angers members of that church.
Mr. Carr: Do you call the language used in this Enemies book law-abiding?
MacDonald: Those statements are quotations from the Catholic Bible.
Carr: The Catholic Bible says that about the Church?
MacDonald: You probably refer to the statement about the Catholic Church's being a harlot. That's from the Catholic Bible. Take the prophet Nahum, for instance. In the Catholic Bible he speaks about the bloody harlot that sells out nations and families through her whoredoms. You and I have got to get rid of this clannishness and face the truth. Here is a clipping from the Boston Globe: "German Catholics Urged to Pray for Victory of Reich. Berlin, April 3. (AP) German Catholics in several dioceses are admonished to pray for 'victory in the German struggle for liberty' in new prayer books containing for the first time special 'war prayers'. A foreword asks the faithful to say prayers especially for 'the protection of our courageous soldiers in the enemy's country'". Do you realize that right now, while we sit here, hordes of Nazis are thundering against the Greeks and British to destroy those two democracies, and the German army has the prayers of the Catholic prayer book for their victory? You are offended because the Catholic religion is referred to as a racket. Do you know of any meaner racket than the "Purgatory" racket, which takes money to get poor creatures out of a place that doesn't exist?
The chairman, Mr. James Fitzgerald, put an end to the argument, and to his credit he said that he had allowed Mr. Carr to make remarks that were not relevant to the subject, and for that reason he permitted Mr. MacDonald to reply, but that this must now stop.
An interesting question was later asked of little Mary by a member of the School Committee, "Weren't you baptized at St. Catherine's?" The answer was "Yes". Also, her father, Mr. Richards, was asked, "What were you before you became a Jehovah?" and the answer was, "A Roman Catholic." Another interesting episode was when MacDonald asked Mrs. Macklin, the school teacher, of what the opening exercises in the school consisted. She replied, "Singing, reading the Bible, and the flag salute." When asked if she would excuse a little child from the Bible-reading exercise, if he so requested because of 'religious' scruples, she replied that she did not know what she would do, as that occasion had never arisen. That gave witness Fowler the opportunity to read from the Massachusetts General Laws, chapter 71, section 31, "BIBLE TO BE READ IN THE SCHOOLS. A portion of the Bible shall be read daily in the public schools, without written note or oral comment, but a pupil whose parent or guardian informs the teacher in writing that he has conscientious scruples against it shall not be required to read from any particular version or to take any personal part in the reading. The School Committee shall not purchase or use in the schools schoolbooks favoring any particular religious sect." This gave a splendid opportunity to show the Board the inconsistency of permitting a child, because of scruples, to be excused from the reading of God's Holy Bible, but a child could not be excused from participation in a man-made ceremony of saluting a man-made emblem, even if he sincerely believed that doing of it is a violation of God's commandment.
Newspapers on the Spot
The newspapers are in a tight spot. Many of them feel that it is a matter of life or death with them to stand by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, and that means that they must take sides against Jehovah's witnesses. In other words, they must line up either with the "sheep" or with the "goats", and are doing that very thing.
"Reverend" Stanley High, Noroton, Connecticut, feels that he must do what he can to make Jehovah's witnesses appear odious to their fellow-Americans.
Many will be interested in what judgment was visited upon him for his malicious article in the Saturday Evening Post. An Anchorage, Kentucky, family, Mr. and Mrs. William C. Moorehead, sued Mr. High and the Saturday Evening Post for $40,000 damages for that story. The Mooreheads contend that in the article "Armageddon Incorporated" (September 17, 1940) "Reverend" High attacked and ridiculed Jehovah's witnesses, and in it printed a picture of the Mooreheads beneath which was the caption: "Witnesses look like average Americans, as, in fact, they are. A typical Louisville family of witnesses." Then the Mooreheads go on to say that they are not Jehovah's witnesses, and never were, and that the article exposes the organization's membership to ridicule, contempt and disgrace, and so caused the Mooreheads to be humiliated, embarrassed and their reputation damaged to the amount stated. Well, it's "Reverend" High's baby; let him nurse it.
Almost all newspapers, at one time or another, take dirty cracks at Jehovah's witnesses, because it is so pleasing to the Hierarchy. For example, the Boston Post, which knows better than to use such a headline, had this mean caption to a mean and un-American as well as illegal performance, "Put Jehovahs over City Line: Police Order Four out of Roxbury." In America no police have a right to do anything of that sort. The article gave the credit of this piece of bigotry to police lieutenant Michael T. Clougherty. He was, of course, trying to please the Vatican.
The Post isn't wholly unfair. It had a letter from Frank A. Ray in which Mr. Ray said to the editor:
I saw in the Post recently an account of a little girl who refuses to salute the flag. Who am I, or any other man, that we should determine what a man should hold conscientiously? As for myself, I do not believe some things taught by Jehovah's witnesses, but I know them to be honest, upright, good citizens, believing and practicing what our glorious flag represents: liberty and justice for all. Those people say to salute any flag is a violation of the second commandment of the Decalogue. Should we persecute them for their belief? I answer No, and if there is a law to compel people to salute any flag it should be erased immediately. Let us remember that we are living in the year 1940; and not in the Dark Ages, when liberty of speech and even liberty of thought was prohibited. In persecuting those people we violate what the flag stands for: liberty and justice for all. Sometimes the persecuted is wrong, but always the persecutor is wrong.
Two Common-Sense Editorials
Here and there is an editor who has both courage and common sense, sees the issue, and is not afraid or ashamed to put down in black and white what he honestly thinks. Two such editorials follow. The first is from the Quincy Patriot Ledger, and the second, from the Harwich Independent. Both of these are Massachusetts papers:
Quincy has two flag salute cases on its hands. It has a teacher and a ten-year-old student who refuse to salute. Both of them apparently are good citizens except for this refusal to salute the flag. The teacher has been suspended from her position; the boy is not allowed to attend class. As the state gets more and more of such cases, it becomes increasingly obvious that some kind of policy must be adopted in regard to the religious groups that cross the paths of civil authority. Shall we deny these people of all civil rights? Shall we send them to concentration camps? Shall we jail them for violation of the civil code? Shall we ignore them and let them go merrily on their way? If we decide to prosecute them to the full extent of the law we would be forced to do likewise with other nonconformists and prevent such things as the conscientious objection to bearing arms, a right enjoyed for years by the Quakers. We have an increasingly serious issue building up, and it should be settled as quickly as possible before it gets troublesome.
Most of us thrill at the very sight of the Stars and Stripes, yet there are some people who believe themselves to be good citizens, yet are opposed to saluting anything. It is on moral grounds that the parents of the Falmouth boy object to having their son salute at all. They are sincere in their belief that it is not necessary to prove his patriotism or love of country, especially by saluting the flag every day. The Falmouth school committee believe they are right in enforcing their interpretation of the law which requires the flag salute in the public schools of Massachusetts. Many others in town are just as firm in their belief that the school committee is doing more than the law expects in refusing to permit him to remain in school and receive his education. As we see it, the youngster, in following the commands of his parents, believes he is a dutiful and obedient son. He is in the process of learning to think for himself, and until he has a mind sufficiently developed to know what he personally prefers to do in such matters we believe he is justified in listening to his parents. We wonder how much better citizen he will make if he is forced to do something contrary to the wishes of his parents. He cannot have as much respect for the flag if he is forced to salute it against his conscience, and the only good it can do him or any immature child is to do so with a genuine thrill of patriotism. We do not believe that compulsory saluting can breed patriotism. That comes only from within the breast and, to be of value, must be genuine and come from a heart so grateful that it comes under the protection of the Constitution and the Stars and Stripes that it thrills with real American pride at every opportunity to renew the pledge so sacred to all Americans. We do not believe that patriotism can be legislated into any human being, and a false salute might actually breed contempt and ultimate hatred for the flag. The Falmouth school officials ought to exercise American tolerance in this case.
Real Americans Cherish Liberty
Real Americans cherish liberty, and the best of them do not hesitate to say so. Zechariah Chafee, Harvard Law School professor, has been studying freedom of speech for 21 years. Let him have the final say in this matter of the rights of Jehovah’s witnesses in New England. In an interview in the Boston Post, March 9, 1941, he said something that true Americans should ponder:
I think our Supreme Court will stand firm for protection of freedom of speech. I think the Jehovah’s witnesses’ decision against the pupils who did not salute the flag was a special case. No utterance was involved, just a patriotic ceremony. Still I think it was most unfortunate and unnecessary.
As I’ve thought this thing over for twenty years, it’s grown on me how important open discussion is in making the kind of country you want to live in, in contrast to a country where neighbors spy on each other and everybody looks around before he speaks his mind. Arthur Garfield Hays tells a story of an old slave who met his former master long after the Civil War. The master asked him if he was as well off as before his freedom. The slave had to admit his clothes were frayed, his room leaked and he fared poorly for meals. “Well, wouldn’t you rather be a slave than live in this kind of freedom?” the master asked. “No, suh,” was the answer, “there’s a looseness about this freedom that I likes.” “Well, I think a lot of us feel that way.”
Why Penalize Godliness?
◆ Some person signing himself merely “M. C.” writes an interesting letter to the Bridgeport (Conn.) Times, October 7, 1941, regarding the dismissal from school of a thirteen-year-old boy for conscientious refusal to salute the flag, and sets forth the following excellent reasons why such act by a school board is un-Christian totalitarianism in reprehensible defiance of God’s law. He said:
To begin with, the parents of the boy say they are devoted to our country and respect its flag. Hence, the question to be asked is: What clearly is the motive behind the refusal of the boy to salute the flag? The answer is—Conscientious Godliness. But as there is scarcely a market for this aforesaid quality in our times, I fear such motive will not be viewed or examined with due and proper consideration—and in any way under the blazing but right way, to wit, the Bible, which contains God’s infallible word.
Who is properly constituted to be an arbiter in this matter? Hardly mere man. When this matter is calmly and candidly considered in the light of the Scriptures, an entirely different side of the argument is at once seen.
These Bible facts are not brought out by the newspapers. These facts, indisputable as they are, would incline one to see this model student in the true light and would help us to conclude more wisely on the subject, thereby being fair to all. In a government of liberty-loving people, such as ours, a person is entitled to conscientious conclusions on all things and is unique in this respect when contrasted with dictatorial nations.
Liberty is an American possession and is cherished today more than ever before. In fact and actuality this right is the very principle of which the flag is emblematic, and, therefore, should be held dear to all real Americans.
To cause a young school lad to violate his sincere convictions—in America—now—or anytime—is an incongruity not easily digested by Americans unless they have a constitution that would put to shame that of a rhinoceros—to be sure. And when I come to think of it, that it is a young boy so treated, why, my trusty pen fails me to say more except that he should most certainly be given the benefit of the Bill of Rights’ guarantee of complete religious freedom, before it is too late. The boy is an ‘honor student’—and, in these dark and dangerous days, such a student should not be led to look upon his Creator without proper respect.
Every day we read about public prayers directed toward the Most High for relief and guidance because of the prevailing abominations practiced by ungodly rulers. When public-school officials are confronted with this flag-saluting problem and similar cases, then let them turn to God in this hour of war and rumors of war—men’s hearts failing them from fear of the things coming to pass—these conditions aggravated by sway of brute compulsion; and by the free exercise of free men’s minds correctly and studiously applied to the Lord’s consoling revelations, and thereby granting to harmless children all that we Americans love and hold dear—and above all, “Let Freedom Ring!”—all four of them—for all. It cannot be otherwise if this nation puts its ‘trust in God,’ as its nickels and dimes say it does.
When the school board convenes for a hearing to argue the case of the Clark lad, it will do well to consider the inexorable and unchallengeable law of God, voiced by the inspired psalmist, David, to wit (Psalm 2): ‘Be wise, therefore, O ye kings, dictators, presidents: be instructed, ye judges, officials of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and trembling, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that fear Him and put their trust in Him.’ “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”
The grim joke in this case is that the school board banned this thirteen-year-old boy from school without ever enacting any requirement that pupils must salute the flag. Ephraim E. Sinn, a member of the school board, made this statement and objected to the arbitrary action of the other members of the board. Mr. Sinn is a lawyer.
Barring a Child from School
◆ Referring to the barring of a seven-year-old child from school because she loves God and cannot disobey Him by saluting any flag, the “Reverend” Robert Y. Johnson, pastor of Elm Street Congregational church, Southbridge, Massachusetts, when asked his opinion concerning the exclusion of the child from school, made the following statement:
To force a person to salute the flag whose conscience forbids it is a denial of one thing for which our flag stands. In my opinion this child should be encouraged and permitted to express her love for America in other ways, ways that do not violate her religious training. An American is defined not by his conformity to outward ceremonies, but by his actual devotion in daily life to the ideals of freedom and equality. How many of us who salute the flag do so, always, with clean hands? I am sure that one way to increase the love of Americanism among us all would be to show toward this child something of the graciousness of Lincoln, also his sense of humor.
“Interfaith” in New Haven
◆ The New Haven Register contains a huge advertisement (10 inches by 16 inches) stating: “New Haven churches invite you. World-wide communion Sunday, October 5; a testimony of unbroken spiritual fellowship across the barriers of hate and prejudice; join in common penitence; add your faith and prayer. Only united spiritual forces can rebuild a just and permanent world. Synagogues observe Yom Kippur Tuesday evening, September 30; day of atonement Wednesday, October 1! Auspices: New Haven Council of Churches; New Haven Interfaith Committee.”
The Interfaith Committee is composed of Catholic clergymen, Jewish rabbis and representatives of some but not all of the 210 varieties of Protestant clergy. What is it that all these have in common? Is it faith in “the only name under heaven, given among men” whereby any may approach to Jehovah God? Not at all. Is it faith in Jehovah’s Kingdom, for which Jesus taught His followers to pray? No. Is it a belief that Jesus alone can and will “make all things new”? No. The clergy expect to do that themselves; and as far as the Jews are concerned, they expect to do it without any help whatever from Jesus, whom they do not own as their Savior and Lord. Is there any one thing that all these diverse religionists steadfastly hate? Yes; just one thing. What is that? It is the pure truth of God’s Word, as taught from door to door by Jehovah’s witnesses. Themselves all guilty of teaching subversive doctrines, unscriptural doctrines, and unreasonable and preposterous doctrines, they seek to justify themselves in their iniquity.
South America
Walked 20,000 Miles
◆ A Venezuelan boy, Julio C. Berrizbeita, finished a walk of 20,000 miles and sailed for home after hoofing it into 47 of the 48 states of the United States, and much of Mexico, Central America and Colombia. He started with five friends, but after one of them had been killed by hostile Indians, the four others gave up the trip and Berrizbeita went on alone. He left home with $50 in cash and a guitar. The latter was his means of livelihood. He sang and played in hotels and night clubs along the road. Fifteen years of age when he started, he was 19 when he returned, and with a fund of information that will be a joy to him and his friends for the rest of his life. Much of the way he was able to follow the Pan American Highway, the 16,847-mile route of which is now largely completed. He wore out 50 pairs of shoes on his four-year journey.
German Legation in Bolivia
◆ The Bolivian Congress is not able to figure out why it should require more than sixty employees at the German legation in La Paz to look after the business between Bolivia and Germany when there is not a particle of business to look after. It is simple enough. The sixty are merely perfecting plans for taking over the country, as soon as Germany finishes up with the Eastern Hemisphere, if, as and when she gets away with that still rather large job.
Japanese Schools in Brazil
◆ The Brazilian Department of Education discovered 78 Japanese schools, within barricaded enclosures, where Japanese is taught from Japanese books, Japanese flags decorate the schoolroom and the picture of Japan's emperor adorns the walls. In some of the schools books were found which explained how to make bombs and airplanes.
Only Portuguese Papers in Brazil
◆ The Brazilian Government, following up its closure of 2,000 schools that did not employ Portuguese teachers, has decreed that all papers published in Brazil hereafter must be in the Portuguese tongue. This affects 180 newspapers and periodicals which have heretofore been published in German, Italian and Japanese. The newspapers of the world are a great source of danger to the common people of every land. They are for the Hierarchy and always against Labor.
Air Mails to South America
◆ It is now possible for businessmen to send air-mail letters from points in the United States to Buenos Aires and get answers back in a business week. By steamer this would take 30 to 32 days. The two Pan American systems operate 26,000 miles of air routes over South America, while the German and Italian lines operated some 21,762 miles, operating under various names and well supplied with planes and parts.
An Attempt to Promote Homesteading
◆ In a praiseworthy attempt to promote homesteading, Brazil is now making marriage loans, the repayments of which are spread over twenty years. In addition, there is a reduction of 10 percent of the initial sum upon the birth of each child. When the child is ten years of age there is a further reduction of 10 percent if the parents can give proof that the child is receiving proper care and education.
Japanese and German Schools Closed
◆ In the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, 78 Japanese schools were closed because the children, born in Brazil of Japanese parents, were taught all about Japan but nothing about Brazil. Two or three years ago 200 German schools were closed for the same reason. There are said to be 600,000 Japanese in Peru alone.
Spain
Franco Stands by Hitler
◆ In 1937 Franco the Butcher made the statement: "Spain will follow the structure of the totalitarian states, such as Germany and Italy. She will adopt corporative forms, for which the greater part of the formulas can be found in our own country, and it will exterminate the liberal institutions which have poisoned the people." This promised extermination is on the way. Passengers passing through the Canary Islands (from which place Franco flew the British-owned airplane that started the rebellion against the Spanish Republic) state that if they throw a piece of old bread to the children on the docks, they fight for it like wild dogs. Meantime, Spain has shown its undying appreciation of Hitler for helping to ruin the land by acting as the agent for supplying Germany with toluene for its T.N.T., and cotton linters and pulp for high explosives, and by the millions of pounds at that. The governments that made it possible for Franco to pull off his stunt in Spain know all about this traffic.
Spain's New "Scholars"
◆ Now that the liberty-lovers have all been killed off, Spain is back about where it was 400 years ago. This is demonstrated in a new book put out by a doctor of divinity and a professor of geology and mineralogy in which they dissect the book of Genesis. According to their calculations the first epochal day lasted 20,000,000 years; the second, 2,000,000; the third, 1,500,000,000; the fourth, 160,000,000; the fifth, 70,000,000; and the sixth, 30,000,000. They think mankind is now in the seventh creative day, and in that they are correct, and it is the only one of their statements that is correct. At this point, and as showing how much more beautiful is truth than error, consider the following from page 24 of Judge Rutherford's book Creation:
The Scriptures divide the creative work into seven days, or periods of time. While God could have done this work in seven days of twenty-four hours each, had he so desired, the facts show that he did not do so, but that the term "day" is a period of time covering many centuries. This creative period has no reference to a twenty-four-hour day. Since the Lord has divided the creative periods into seven, it is reasonable that these creative days, or periods of time, are of equal length.
The law of God later given to man provided for a week of seven days each, each day being twenty-four hours long. Each of these days being of the same length, it is reasonable that the seven creative days or periods would each cover the same period of time. The Scriptures, together with subsequent facts which are indisputable proofs beyond a doubt, indicate that the seventh day or epoch of creation, mentioned in Genesis, covers a period of seven thousand years of our time.
If then we assume that each of the creative days was of the same length, we must conclude that the period of time that elapses from the beginning of the creative work to the end thereof is a period of forty-nine thousand years.
Honors from Bloodstained Hands
◆ Although both Britain and America are still appeasing General Franco with cash loans, food, cotton, and other materials, the Spanish dictator is now recognized as another Fascist enemy of democracy. All but the Hitlerite and other Fascist war correspondents in Spain reported authentic atrocities committed by Franco. H. R. Knickerbocker, of the pro-Franco Hearst press, wrote how he saw grandmotherly women murdered by Franco officers, but Hearst editors changed the story so readers could not tell which side committed these atrocities. Catholic war correspondents of Libre Belge, La Croix, and German newspapers admitted Franco murders.—In Fact.
Rocky Mountain States
Indians Want Obedience to Laws
◆ The Kootenai tribes of Indians in Montana want Uncle Sam to live up to his own laws. Many years ago, the Indians made a treaty by which they were to have exclusive hunting privileges in certain territory, and now the white men, with whom the treaty was made, want to make laws for the Indians. The situation seems to be that the white man does not live up to the law (of the treaty) but wants the Indian to live up to the law which is binding only upon the white man.
Six Niagaras in One
◆ It seems hard to visualize a water power six times as efficient as that at Niagara Falls; but that is the Grand Coulee dam in the state of Washington, now completed two years ahead of schedule. Standing at its full height of 550 feet, this dam is the greatest structure built by man. The lake created is 151 miles long, extending to the Canadian border. Irrigation will be provided for an area of 2,000 square miles in the center of the state of Washington, all rich land.
Parachute Jumpers in Washington
◆ Don't be disheartened. There are parachute jumpers in the United States, but they are engaged in a good work: forest fire extermination. They land anywhere, guiding themselves somewhat to a preferred landing spot. They are equipped with radiophones, which enable them to keep in touch with the aviators that carried them. These useful citizens are characteristically referred to in the state of Washington as "smoke-jumpers".
Oregon Loggers
◆ Oregon loggers are, in the language of the woods, also called by the artistic names of "jungle-buzzard", "timber-beast," "timberhound," "woods savage," "brushcat," and "lumberjack".
The Bunker Hill Mine
◆ The Bunker Hill gold mine, in the state of Idaho, was discovered by a donkey, which pawed away the sod beneath its feet and brought a rich ledge of gold to light. Several million dollars' worth of gold was taken out of the earth as a result of that streak of luck.
Who would think that the paw of a donkey might make all the difference in the world in the fortunes of many, many families, and indeed of a whole section of a state? Think of the possible vanity that donkey's paw brought into play.
The Matanuska Experiment
◆ It is said that of the 235 families located at Matanuska, Alaska, 35 have quit and returned to the United States, even though the government has so far expended about $18,000 per family to get the settlement established. Winters are cold, but in the six weeks of summer, when the sun shines 18 or more hours per day, potatoes, string beans and peas will grow as well as anywhere. Alaska is now a scene of great activity.
Shearing Corrals in Utah
◆ It used to be that the sheep were driven in from the ranges to be sheared; but not now. The shearers go out where the sheep are grazing, take the portable shearing outfits, woven-wire fencing and clippers along and do the clipping in jig time without interfering with feeding operations at all. And both the range and the sheep are conserved, say the Utah sheepherders.
Talk About Water Power
◆ Talk about water power: the pipes that lead from Boulder Dam to the electric turbine generators are thirty feet in diameter and three feet thick, fabricated by welding. Every inch of eighty miles of these huge pipes was critically examined with X rays, looking for weak spots.
Science
Things at the Door
◆ We see new methods for making three-dimension photographs, and the prints of these photos do not require the old-fashioned stereoscope to view them. We see a new synthetic rubber made from gases formerly wasted in oil refineries—a rubber even more stable than natural rubber. And we see a new chemical treatment that makes hardwood soft and plastic while the wood is hot, and then permits a return to natural stiffness and strength upon cooling.
Out of our laboratories have recently come liquids obtained from ordinary wood that will likely give us a new raw material for an infant chemical industry; glycerine produced from petroleum; a method by which coal and oil can be made in the laboratory from plant carbohydrates, thus accomplishing in a few hours what has taken nature millions of years to achieve; a computing machine for multiplying and dividing complex numbers—constructed largely of telephone relays and switches; television by radio in natural color, using a single channel; a successful method of transmitting television views from an airplane to the ground; a “pocket size” emergency oxygen inhalation apparatus for parachute descents from high altitudes; a vanishing cream that protects against poison ivy; and a remarkable diet for humans that will provide adequate nourishment for a year at a cost of less than $3, except for the deficiency of one vitamin which can be provided by adding tomato juice.—Industrial Power, August, 1941.
Sweet Mystery of Life
◆ For reasons of His own, and for reasons the scientists have not yet learned, the Creator placed in every human organism minute quantities of aluminum, arsenic, boron, bromine, nickel, silicon, tin, and vanadium.
Ingenuities of the X Ray
◆ Maintenance men for the Detroit Edison Company, to be on the safe side, had to condemn and replace many electric light poles which seemed to be rotting but later proved to be perfectly sound. Now an X-ray machine mounted on a truck peers into the poles where they stand, determines their condition, and thus saves the company a lot of poles and a lot of money.
California and Arizona citrus-fruit growers use 100 X-ray machines to sort their crop. With them, after one severe frost, California salvaged 2,000,000 boxes of oranges which otherwise would have been condemned. The machines had cost $250,000; the oranges they saved for market brought $7,500,000.
In testing metals, X ray shows up interior bubbles and cracks otherwise never suspected until some machine smashes up under stress. All airplane parts subject to strain are X-rayed. Navy inspectors, X-raying a turbine for a destroyer, discovered that a contractor had filled a crack in a casting with a metal plug and hidden the trick with a plating of metal. All steam tubing for warships is examined by X ray; bursting steam lines mean horrible death for men below decks, and might cripple a ship in battle. One of the biggest X-ray jobs ever tackled was the examination of 80 miles of welds on Boulder Dam penstocks.—Webb Waldron, in Readers’ Digest, October, 1940.
Declining Infant Mortality
◆ Studies of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company reveal that infant mortality has declined by 45 percent over a period of twenty years, and the death rate among children from one to fourteen years of age has decreased by 60 percent. The improvement was much accelerated in the last decade over that of the one previous.
Social
Crime in the United States
◆ Every twenty-two seconds, hour after hour, day after day, a crime of desperate proportions--robbery, assault, burglary, rape, kidnaping, manslaughter, murder—was committed in the United States. Over a twelve-month period nearly one million five hundred thousand such major crimes were committed—a crime against one out of every eighty-four American citizens, affecting one out of every sixteen American homes. Thirteen thousand five hundred of our citizens were murdered. That was at the rate of thirty-seven per day. Sixty thousand were robbed and over forty-five thousand assaults were committed last year. And the menace is growing every day. The science of crime prevention, in spite of all the strides we have made, is still in the horseback stage of its development. —Homer S. Cummings, United States attorney general, 1933-1938.
Churchianity and Gambling
◆ The Institute of Public Opinion undertakes to ascertain what the public think on any question. It recently made a study of who favor and who do not favor the churches' raising money by lotteries and games of chance. The figures follow:
Favor Oppose
Catholics 58% 42%
Protestants 21 79
Other denominations 23 77
Non church members 35 65
Combined national vote 31 69
Where the Money Goes
◆ A survey of 14,469 wage-earning families in forty-two cities discloses that of the average income for the group of $1,515 the sum of $508 a year went for food; $367 a year, for housing, including heat and light; $160, for clothing; and $87 a year, for the purchase, operation and maintenance of an automobile.
Poverty Kills Babies
◆ Studies of the United States Government show that in families with an annual income of less than $500, out of every 1,000 babies born, 168 die, while in families with an income of $3,000 or more, out of every 1,000 babies born, only 30 die. There is an offset. The baby in the family of the poor comes to know that he must "toil terribly" to rise above the station in which he was born. He learns to work, to achieve.
To Keep Sane, Go South
◆ Your best chance to keep sane is to go south. Life is easier there and there are fewer mental cases than in any other section of the United States. The East is harder than the West: it is harder to keep warm in cold weather, and to get something to eat in any kind of weather. Washington, D.C., is the hardest place in the country. Trying to figure out what the politicians will do next has an unsettling effect on the mental balance.
More Boys than Girls
◆ Always there are more boys born than there are girls, and it is generally held that food has something to do with it. If food in the family is plentiful there are girls, and if food is scarce it is more likely there will be boys, bread-winners. Others claim that wars bring a surplus of boys, to replace those cut off in death. A recent conclusion is that surplus vitality means surplus boys. Who knows?
Too Much Pressure
◆ If our institutions for the mentally afflicted are overcrowded, it is because an expensive and inefficient government is bringing so much pressure to bear on the individual that no small number become mad. Would it not be wiser to relieve the pressure and so do away with the need for these institutions?—Fred L. La Rochelle, M.D., in New York Times.
Education
The Lost Books of the Bible (?)
◆ Under the intriguing title “The Lost Books of the Bible” and the “Forgotten Books of Eden” there is being circulated a book which claims to contain fascinating information withheld from the Bible. The book is supposed to give information about Adam and Eve and the boyhood of Jesus, and other things that have been “suppressed”. The advertisement says that “an enlightened clergy has permitted—yes, recommended—that they be released”.
There is nothing new about these “lost” books, inasmuch as they were never lost. They were never a part of the holy Scriptures written under inspiration, but miserable counterfeit writings, the product of human imagination. They are “apocryphal”, though not among the books generally known as the “Apocrypha”.
The better known “Apocryphal” books are all included in the Roman Catholic version of the Bible, but were not a part of the Hebrew Scriptures, nor ever circulated as a part of the Bible by the Protestant Bible Societies. These latter books are all added to what is known as the “Old Testament”.—See The Golden Age No. 452.
The “Apocryphal” books are bad enough, but these “lost” books are even worse.
Refused an Education
◆ At the Mary Keppel high school, Alhambra, California, Joan Lawrence, sixteen years of age, was suspended from school because she refused to undress and bathe in community showers with other girls. This seems a strange reason for refusing a modest girl an education. The probable facts in the case are that the Mary Keppel high school is not a public school at all, but a parochial institution of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy.
Religious Caterpillars
◆ Processionary caterpillars feed upon pine needles. They move through the trees in a long procession, one leading and the others following—each with his eyes half-closed and his head snugly fitted against the rear extremity of his predecessor.
Jean-Henri Fabre, the great French naturalist, after patiently experimenting with a group of these caterpillars, finally enticed them to the rim of a large flowerpot, where he succeeded in getting the first one connected up with the last one, thus forming a complete circle which started moving around in a procession which had neither beginning nor end.
The naturalist expected that after a while they would catch on to the joke—get tired of their useless march and start off in some new direction.
But not so. Through sheer force of habit, the living, creeping circle kept moving around the rim of the pot—around and around, keeping the same relentless pace for seven days and seven nights—and would doubtless have continued longer had it not been for sheer exhaustion and ultimate starvation.
Incidentally, an ample supply of food was close at hand, and plainly visible, but it was outside the range of the circle, so they continued along the beaten path.
They were following instinct—habit—custom—tradition—precedent—past experience—“standard practice”—or whatever you may choose to call it, but they were following it blindly.
They mistook activity for accomplishment. They meant well—but they got nowhere.
The motto of these caterpillars was, “Give us more religion.” Some of them were Methodists, some Baptists, some Presbyterians, some Catholics, but all were agreed on the one subject that what they all needed was more religion.
A Faithful Witness
THE following letter, received from the WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, is published here as notice to Consolation readers that Judge Rutherford, the regular contributor of the column "COUNSEL", has finished his earthly course. The publication of this letter here will also offset, in some degree at least, the distorted statements on the subject that have appeared in the press. These distortions will not be dignified by particular mention. The letter herewith is sufficient reproof. The numerous telegrams received by the SOCIETY on this occasion from other zealous witnesses are an added testimony to the Truth, and some of these are inserted following the letter.
TO ALL LOVERS OF THE THEOCRACY:
On January 8, 1942, our beloved brother, J. F. Rutherford, faithfully finished his earthly course as a warrior for THE THEOCRATIC GOVERNMENT and a minister of the Word of God. Knowing of your deep concern and of your prayers to God for him ever since his serious illness prior to the Detroit Convention of July, 1940, we hasten to notify you.
It was Brother Rutherford's desire to "die fighting with his boots on"; and this he did. The Lord graciously spared him to complete the report of the 1942 Yearbook of Jehovah's witnesses, therein showing that the greatest witness ever given had been accomplished and that the year's distribution of books and booklets reached the grand total of 36,030,595 copies. He always had foremost in mind to DO THIS ONE THING, to declare the name of Jehovah and His kingdom, to keep covenant with Him, and to look well to the interests of his brethren.--1 John 3: 16.
To him it was a joy and comfort to see and know that all the witnesses of the Lord are following, not any man, but the King Christ Jesus as their Leader, and that they will move on in the work in complete unity of action, as they unanimously expressed at the Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah's witnesses in St. Louis. All those standing steadfast for THE THEOCRACY will now not mourn or be disturbed or fearful, but will rejoice that their faithful fellow servant and brother has maintained his integrity toward the Lord, in sickness and in health, through evil report and through good report, and has now entered a higher field of service forever with the Lord.--2 Tim. 4: 7, 8.
Brother Rutherford's consistent faithful activity and unbending devotion to THE THEOCRACY, especially since becoming president of the Society, January 6, 1917, has been and continues to be a true and blessed example to us all as of one who 'fought a good fight and kept the faith' and proved worthy of a part in the vindication of Jehovah's name by Christ Jesus; and for this we give thanks to God.
With you keeping on working, determined, by the Lord's grace, to let nothing stop us until the Lord's "strange work" is finished, we are,
Your brethren and fellow servants,
WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC.
TELEGRAMS
Learned of Brother Rutherford's passing and feel sad at breaking of human ties. Rejoice in knowledge that he finished his earthly journey "blameless in the day of our Lord".
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, ROCHESTER, N. Y.
We, the Highland Park [Detroit] Unit of Jehovah's witnesses, being assembled together in service meeting, and upon hearing the announcement of Brother Rutherford's advancing on to greater fields of activity, by Jehovah's grace, make the following declaration: We will follow our leader and commander Christ Jesus in further and increased activities for THE THEOCRACY, continuing to turn the battle to the gate, believing this to be a course that will now prove conclusively that we have not been following any man. We look to a continuation in following the outline of the new work as the means of accomplishing this greater activity and are confident the Lord will continue to direct His organization in His appointed way.
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