Consolation, December 20, 1944

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Contents

In Brief

Where Hitler Can Go

Tried to Enslave the World

Most Terrible Place on Earth

Torture, the Devil’s Mark

Attempt upon Hitler’s Life

Concordat Still in Force-

Why Not Excommunicate Hitler T

The Use of Tobacco

Effect on Brain and Nerve

Smoke in Your Eyes

Discouraging False Advertising

Kirksville Proofreader Not So Very Bad

“Thy Word Is Truth’’

Angels vs. a “Star”

Field Experiences in Australia

“Pope Asks that Africa Not Be Land of Sects” 1.9

Spellman Flies Back and Forth

label Case Terminated

H. G. Wells, in Crux Ansata

“This Shinto Catholic Pope”

“A Final Baek-Call”

Peter Was Never in Rome

Witnessing in Dixie Land

Eudoxius, the Forgotten “Bishop”

Presenting “This Gospel of the Kingdom”

Practical Use of “God’s Word

on Vital Subjects”

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The Santa Claus Racket

♦ Children are naturally honest, and they have to mingle with adults for quite some years, and watch them closely, before they learn to lie so that nothing they say can be believed. One of the most successful methods yet used to turn children into liars is the Santa Claus method. When the child learns ■ that both papa and mamma lied about Santa Claus, it naturally tries to imitate them.

There is now maintained in western New York an actual school for helping storekeepers to work this racket more thoroughly. It covers one week’s instruction in the art Among the 18 Santa Claus subjects taught are: Origin, history and evolution of Santa Claus; art of make-up for Santa Claus; costumes for Santa, their care and how to wear them; what the store expects of Santa, what the customer expects of Santa, what the parent expects of Santa, what the child expects of Santa; various and most efficient settings for Santa Claus _ in the 'store; science of Santa Claus mechanics; Santa Claus showmanship; child psychology; etc., etc.

In large type the proprietor of this Santa Claus school inquires regarding the clerk or salesman who might take up the course of instruction, “Does he create a preference in the minds of the children and parents so they will bring their children to your store in years to come?” and then, in one paragraph, he tells the following truth which ought certainly to make him wish to get into ‘ some other line of business:.

Your Santa Claus, among all your personnel, comes in closest contact with the dearest , thing your customers have—their children. The impression that your Santa Claus leaves with these children not only has its influence on the parents but also on the child as a future customer (and truth-teller.—Ed.].

CONSOLATION

“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A.&.'F.

Volume XXVI Brooklyn, N. Y<, Wednesday, December 20, 1944 Number 6S9

Where Hitler Can Go •

AMAN with a unique “Charley Chaplin” mustache waited in the nuncio’s drawing room. He was not exactly nervous, for he had far too good an opinion of himself, but still this venture of his was a rather bold move, and he could not be altogether sure of its outcome. However, since the fact that he , had been admitted to the nuncio’s palace at all carried some significance, he was not entirely pessimistic about the situation. Presently the nuncio entered, and the man with the funny mustache fell upon his knees, kissing the cardinal’s ring. Rising then he assured the lean ecclesiastic before him that he was, despite appearances to the contrary, a good Catholic. What was more, he was a Catholic with plans, having in mind no less than a counter-Reformation movement that would bring back Germany to the feet of the cardinal’s own superior, the pope of Rome. The cardinal viewed the strange man inscrutably, while not a flicker of a smile appeared on his features. He was too astute a politician and too clever at evasion to give an answer that would mean either yes or no to this rather wild dreamer. He put him off with well-chosen words. After all, who knows what changes the future might bring to distraught Germany. Almost anything might happen, and the nuncio pigeonholed the entire incident for possible future reference.

Years pass, and the newly-elected moderator of the Free Church Federation in England is giving his induction address. He remarks:

Nor can we exonerate the Papacy of a measure of responsibility for the rise of Hitler to power. The Roman Catholic vote in Germany was reckoned at eleven millions and turned the scale in the final election which gave Hitler his small majority. This was made possible through Catholic diplomacy. Von Papen, expelled from America in the last war, had his Catholic clique in Germany and at the Vatican. Rarely has Hitler shown more cunning than when he sent this scoundrel to negotiate agreement with the Papacy. The present pope, who had spent much time in Germany, while Nazism was fighting for power, and at that time was secretary of the Papal state, signed the concordat. So determined was the Vatican to secure privileges for itself it entered into an agreement which turned millions of Roman Catholie votes in Germany to the support of the Nazis.

The intervening years had witnessed tremendous events. The man with the funny mustache, together with his Nazis, had greatly increased his outlook and his ambitions. Instead of merely bringing back Germany to the fold of the “shepherd” in the Vatican, he would bring the whole world into subjection to the sway of the “pastor of pastors”. But he must not let the world know his purposes. So he said:

Germany wants nothing that she is net ready to give to others. . . . War would be madness. Our one great task is to assure the peace of the world. . . . We have no thought of invading any country. ... We do not wish to oppress or subjugate other people. . . . We are filled with the unconditional wish to make the greatest possible contribution to the preservation of peace in this world. . . All we ask is the Sudetenland. ?. > We neither intend nor wish to annex Austria. . . . The Germans and the Poles ought to live together in harmony. ... We assure all our neighbors of the integrity of their territory. . . .

All that Hitler, the man with the funny mustache, said he would not do, he did. All that he said he would do, he did not do. However, while he lied atrociously, he did not lose his religion.

While many years later a noted writer might say, “Hitler would not have happened if it had not been for our indifference,” that still did not exonerate Hitler; and while others were disposed to blame his backers instead of him for the worldengulfing tragedy which he provoked, that still did not lessen the blame that rested upon him as the instrument of th'e hidden conspirators.

Tried to Enslave the World

Said Sumner Welles in his book The Time for Decision:

No verbal interposition by the United States in the winter of 1940 would have been effective. Only one thing could have deflected Hitler from his purpose, the sure knowledge that the power of the United States would be directed against him if he attempted to carry out his intention of conquering the world by force.

That, of course, is but one man’s opinion. Another man asserts that Hitler was fully prepared to invade the United States. This man is J. Carlton Ward, Jr., president of the Fairchild Engine and Aircraft Company, who told the subcommittee on war contracts of the Senate Military Affairs Committee that Hitler planned to invade the United States with armored forces from Mexico after a feint through Newfoundland. The attack was to come after England had been defeated.

As a matter of fact, Hitler did not really make a secret of his intention to conquer the world, and his Nazis had a favorite song, “Tomorrow the world!” which they delighted to sing.

High Nazi officials had some very definite ideas on the subject, too. Walter

Darre, in 1940, in a speech to a group of inner-circle Nazis, said:

A new aristocracy of German masters will be created. This aristocracy will have slaves assigned to it. These slaves to be their property and to consist of landless, non-German nationals. Please do not interpret the word slaves as a parable or as a rhetorical term. We actually have in mind a modern form of medieval slavery which we must and will introduce because we urgently need it in order to fulfill our great tasks. These slaves will by no means be denied the blessings of illiteracy; higher education will in future be reserved only for the German population of Europe, . . .

The reference to medieval times is interesting, for it is the period often referred to as 'the age of faith, when Roman Catholicism ruled’.

Conditions -among unskilled Danish 1 workers in Germany illustrate what the Nazi ideal (for other nationals) really is. A Danish report states:

The worker rises at 4: 30 or 5 a.m., dresses and makes his bed,-etc. Then he gets his breakfast, about one quarter of a liter [| pint] of coffee;. two slices of bread, and about 10 grams of margarine (in addition he gets 50 grains of sausage twice a week). The work goes on without a break until 12:30 p.m., when there is a rest period until l.p.m. The worker then eats the piece of bread kept over from the morning meal, but gets nothing else * to eat. The work continues until 6, when the workers are marched back to camp. The workers are unable to obtain any kind of drink during the day, even water. It happens frequently that a worker collapses during the work. The warden then tries to encourage him with a beating, and if that does not help he is left until he recovers or until the end of the working day, when his fellow workers can bring him back to camp,

“Slaves” Lack Appreciation

A strange thing about “slaves”, however, is that they do not generally appreciate beiflg slaves. Many of thoseof other lands imported by the Germans to do their work for them, or at least the more objectionable kinds of work, have made consolation their escape. Hence we read that some 50,000 escaped men terrify Germany. They have become “desperate killers” who roam the country in squads of about five, though some go singly, and with them it is a case of kill or be killed. “Slaves” are so unreasonable I The German people, and particularly those in more or less isolated sections, live in constant fear of these escaped “slaves”. The slightest noise at night makes German farmers jump, for they do not know but that they may see an escaped “slave” the next thing, one that is armed, and sometimes in uniform, obtained by the simple expedient of killing a German soldier. A hand grenade in one or more pockets completes the slave’s equipment.

Of course, the Germans have not exactly made themselves the most loved of Europe’s heterogeneous population. ■ And it is a case of the innocent suffering with the guilty. Most of the better Germans are in concentration camps, or dead, and now those that have thus far managed to save their hides have these foreign “slaves” with which to contend. But why should Germans be hated? True, they have sold their souls to Hitler, as it were; but does that make them respon-sihle’' for his deeds? Surely they bear great responsibility, particularly such of them as have endorsed or condoned the things the wholly unprincipled dictator has brought about.

Most Terrible Place on Earth

Notable among the crimes of the fuehrer are the ghastly extermination camps. While Jews have been the chief sufferers, the wholesale executions have by no means been limited to those of that race. The notorious Maidanek extermination camp is called the most terrible spot on earth. There was a torture stdff there that even included German women, whose duty it was to torture women prisoners. This camp had a capacity of 45,000 prisoners, and executions have run as high as 18,000 in a single day. The Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes charged that 1,380,000 bodies had been burned at the camp, 600,000 of them in special furnaces made to burn four bodies in fifteen minutes. The members were first cut off. Others were burned on bonfires in a near-by forest or in the immediate vicinity of the crematorium. The commission stated that 820,000 pairs of victims’ shoes had been found, among them many belonging to children.

Other camps of extermination were located in Auschwitz and Birkenau in Upper Silesia, where more than 1,715,000 Jewish refugees were put to death , between April 15, 1942, and April 15, 1944. Victims were led to fake bathing establishments and ordered to strip for bathing, after which cyanide gas was released, killing them in from three to five minutes. Jews and non-Jews suffered the same treatment. At Birkenau alone there were fifty separate, furnaces used to burn the bodies. The accounts of these atrocities, carried in large part under the direction 6f the inhuman Himmler, are fully corroborated, and not the least _ doubt exists in the minds of Russians' and other nations of Europe that they are true.

Added to the evidence of the thousands of pairs of shoes left by the unhappy victims are the thousands of suitcases with personal effects and the endless heaps of clothing salvaged for the use of the German people. Many of the shoes found belonged to children, some about a year old.

Still another camp, similar to the one at Maidanek, was located at Sobibur, Poland, where executions were carried out by means of gas-filled chambers. Says the New York Times: ■

For a long time the Germans hauled the bodies into a near-by forest, and buried them in mas? graves, but toward the end of 1943 they began to burn the bodies in a huge openair, multi-layered crematory.

As regards the murder of 102,000 civilians and prisoners in the Rovno region of Poland, a reporter says:' .

I frequently saw how Ukrainians, Russians, Pole$ and Jews—-Soviet citizens—were killed. They usually were brought to the place of execution, forced to dig their graves and then forced to undress and lie face downward in the graves. They were shot in the back of the head with tommy-guns. Then another layer of people were disposed of. Others were killed with exhaust gas in sealed trucks. . . . Many groups of bodies have been burned by the Germans, since the bodies bear proof of torture inflicted before death.

Besides victims of every nationality, Hitler is now charged with having murdered a fifth of the entire Jewish race. The February issue of Jllackfriars, monthly magazine of the Dominicans, was devoted to a symposium on the Jewish question; rabbis, priests, and Catholic laymen being among the contributors. “Everyone roust have asked himself what is the reason and how is it possible that Hitler should have already butchered nearly a fifth of the whole Jewish race,” the editor whites in a preface.

Torture, the Devil’s Mark

Escaped prisoners tell of the sickening cruelty of German captors. Captured after his ship had been sunk by a raider, Michael McPartland; British merchant seaman, suffered fiendish torture. He says:

I was’ tortured for one hour every day for fourteen days. They cut round the nails of my fingers and toes and then pulled off each nail with pincers. Then they pushed red-hot needles down my fingers . . . The knowledge that I had to go back for more at the same time every day was almost worse than the pain.

Another prisoner, Harry Baur, film actor, told the German Gestapo, “1 would rather die standing up than live on my knees.” He died of the effects of torture after emerging from prison covered with sores and having lost seventy pounds of his 'weight.

A Stockholm dispatch to the London Daily Express, early in 1944, reported that 47 British and other Allied prisoners of war, including airmen, were massacred by a group of guards who shot at prisoners haphazardly in barracks, courtyards and workshops.

Another who suffered torture at the hands of Nazi captors is Kurt von Schuschnigg, whose son was beaten to death by guards in the notorious Sachsenhausen concentration camp. At last report the former Austrian chancellor was living under surveillance in a small Prussian village. The report came from Vatican City.

On October 3 sixty persons were killed in a Vienna food riot, due to curtailing of food rations to an intolerable degree.

Violence is the habitual tool of the Devil. Hitler has. sought to instill this quality into the minds of German youth, a youth that has now been so thoroughly corrupted that their return to normal and civil conduct after tlm war is despaired of for the most part.

Further Evidence of Torture

During the years of occupation the French patriots have struggled with the Gestapo, at the cost of 50,000 lives in Paris and at least 200,000 in France as a whole. The torture rooms of Paris tell a grim story, according to the Manchester Guardian, which says:

More than .one elegant mansion in the Avenue Foeh contained the padded torture chambers of the Gestapo, which had its headquarters in a large building in the Rue ties Saussies,< formerly a branch of the Surete Generate, whose detailed archives no doubt served the Germans well. Here today in a little room on the top floor I saw the simplelooking bath in which prisoners of the Gestapo ■were immersed until they lost consciousness; there are other rooms with four1 stakes driven in the wall to which victims were tied and the electrical devices with which they were tortured. One padded wall bears the deep marks of fingers that dug into it in agony . . .

The Belgians are determined not to forget what the Germans have done to their patriots. They are going to preserve the torture house of Breendonck. On the outskirts of this little Belgian town stands a rambling, gray building marking the location of the German concentration camp, one of the most notorious in the country. Thousands of patriots have been tortured and killed here. Says the Scranton Times, in an article by L. S. B. Shapiro:

Here is where the German mania for efficiency made confluence with the German tradition for ruthlessness and rampant cruelty. The niceties of modern torture are still on display here and they constitute the most damning evidence I have yet seen of the Nazi regime’s capacity for unbelievable inhumanity.

The reader will not desire the details. Too much has already been recorded of the horror of Nazi brutality. Suffice it to say that the record takes the mind back to the Dark Ages, sometimes blasphemously called “the age of faith”, when torture was the order of the day and the Inquisition did its gruesome work with the approval of Catholic clergy. Nor is there want of relationship, for the work of the Nazis was inspired by the same tool of the Devil. This fact has not been overlooked. Many observers have boldly announced the evidence of kinship. Calling attention to the genesis of the Nazi segregation (and extermination) of Jews, the Weekly People said:

The September 1, 1941. German police decree is the offspring of the Fourth ^ateran Council presided over by Pope Innocent III and made up of 412 bishops, 800 abbots and priors and the deputies of almost all the Christian [ 1] rulers of Europe. By Canon 68 of that council all Jews and Saracens “of both sexes in every Christian province and at all times shall be marked off in the eyes of the public from other peoples through the character of their dress”.....Today the

“Christian” origin of the yellow badge is conveniently ignored. ,

Attempt upon Hitler’s Life

In view of the untold misery he has provoked it is not surprising that an attempt should be made upon the life of the Nazi dictator. Aside from the murder to his personal credit, that of his little niece, previously corrupted by him, Hitler has so many indirect murders to his credit that he can take his place with Torquemada, Cortez, and other noted murderers of history without blushing. The “mine” which was intended to blow him to pieces, however, only slightly injured him, though a number of his aides were.more seriously injured. Some contend that this attack was faked to give Hitler an excuse for another “purge” and to rally waning German sympathy for the fuehrer. Various silly stories were published concerning the event. It was said the bomb or mine was imported from Britain, that “a Jew of Moscow ordered” the assassination. It was fatuously claimed that the Almighty had spared the murderer’s life. Ley, one of the Nazi leaders, addressing the German people in a broadcast, said:

On your behalf I ask the Almighty to preserve Adolf Hitler for us as you have preserved him so far. . . . Inflict us with whatever you like. Send us work, burdens, bombs, shells; all this we will bear, no matter how hard it may be. But the one thing we ask you: preserve us Adolf Hitler.

Ley’s indirect prayer to his “god” via the German people by radio must have been touching. He erred, however, in addressing this god as “Almighty”, for he is not that, though his power is not doubted. See 2 Corinthians 4:4. There is only one “god” who could possibly be interested, Satan, “the god of this world.”

Adolf Hitler himself considered the attack the “worst crime in German history” ; an indication of his modest estimate of himself. Screaming his rage over the radio he insisted that the report of his. assassination had been greatly exaggerated. Meanwhile^ things were put to rights in the German army, and additional murders were added to Hitler’s vast list. He asserted that “in the end we will win this war”, though he did not say how. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels took occasion to warn the German people that if the Reich is destroyed Germany “will not have a chance to repeat this struggle for another ten, twenty or fifty years”; which 'is something for everybody to think about. He said the fuehrer had bad a miraculous escape. The source of the “miracle” is questioned. Dr. Ley said, “I do not believe in miracles, but one may say the Lord had a hand in this game.”

Many aspects of the bombing lead to the conclusion that the whole thing was a badly planned hoax. The story is full of holes. The Manchester Guardian questions whether there was any plot back of the bombing, and. compares the deliberately planned purge with the one of 1934, as follows:

After June 30 [1934] many of the so-called “ringleaders” were stated to have committed suicide, and this also has found its echo in the latest news flashes from Germany, as has the announcement that others implicated were shot by the security police.

Hitler, however, found he had friends. Priests preceded their sermons with prayers of thanksgiving at Hitler’s escape from death in the bomb plot. The pope also sent congratulations to the fuehrer on his escape. Afterwards he took it all back, saying, in effect, that even if he had sent congratulations, which he didn’t think he had sent, or not even any of his assistants, it wouldn’t mean anything anyway. That, of course, is understood.

Concordat Still'in Force

But, in spite of all that, the pope wants Hitler to know that he hasn’t forgotten altogether that Hitler made a brave attempt to make Germany what a previous pope said it must be, “the sword of the church.” After all, Germany at one time had the official title “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation”, and its kaiser was considered the successor of Caesar, whose title he wore. (Kaiser is a variation of Caesar.) And was it not the present pope himself, when still nuncio in Germany, that had arranged with the one with the funny mustache for a concordat between Germany and the Vatican, a concordat still in force in every detail? And had not the pope ordered the dissolution of the Catholic Center Party so as to give Hitler his chance ? And let no one think that Hitler was the mere ignorant and innocent tool, op Germany the unwilling and irresponsible instrument of the pope’s will to power. The Vatican -uses innocent and ignorant tools, to be sure, but not for the job assigned to Hitler and Germany, and which job was undertaken with such bestial and unequaled 'ferocity. The Papacy does not intend to drop Hitler— yet. It does not drop a friend until it is certain that it has absolutely no further use for him.

But Hitler does seem to be in a tough spot. The New York Times pictures him as having no place to go, pointing out that Sweden has joined Switzerland in denying him right of asylum. Spain and Argentina are none too sure that they want him. It would be embarrassing to have him around. So, although Hitler’s super-submarine is reported to be all ready for the getaway (it can cover 20,000 miles without refueling), he has no place to go, maybe. But look at this headline in the Philadelphia Record!— “Vatican City Would Give Refuge Even to Hitler.” It is shown to be authentic, too. But the “even” seems to be unnecessary. So it is possible that the man with the mustache, who knelt and kissed ■ the cardinal’s ring in the nuncio’s palace so many fateful years ago, may kneel before the same man in another office, and under immeasurably different circumstances, at the Vatican. Hitler and the pope are still interested in winning the peace, although they have quite obviously lost the war that was to establish Germany as the “sword of the church” once and for all. Many are now rooting for the pope, saying they want

“God” to have a seat at the peace table, as chairman, maybe. No one can rightly object to honestly taking God into consideration at any time. But in this case, once again, the wrong “god” is being pushed to the fore. Nor does anyone who is informed doubt that the “god” will have his innings at the peace table, but it is insisted by the pope-pushers that “god’s” representative must be there too. And if he is, it will not be an unforeseen development.- Scripture counsels us to be awake to what is happening these days.

Why Not Excommunicate Hitler?

Some ^have foolishly clamored for Hitler’s excommunication from the Catholic church, wondering idly why this has not been done. The California Jewish Voice (in this country the Jews still have a voice) says:

Why has not the Church excommunicated him? . . . The Church has many times excommunicated not only individuals, but entire countries. Thus Pope Gregory V excommunicated the whole of France in 998, . . . Henry IV, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, was excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII in 1076 and later had to wait 3 days barefooted in the snow, in front of the Pope’s palace at Canossa, before he was permitted to enter and recant, His transgressions were mere nothings, when compared to the murders and inhuman atrocities of Hitler, Why then is not Hitler excommunicated?

Foolish question. Will a man excommunicate his right arm? Will a mother excommunicate her devoted son? Yet, the “Church” can be stern, when “great issues” are at stake. Thus two Italians of the Milan diocese were excommunicated recently for disregarding a “miracle by Our Lady”. The Vatican radio itself officially gave out this information. . It becomes apparent which is the greater sin in its judgment, that of Hitler being entirely “venial”, though it has been “mortal” enough as far as the lives of millions of unoffending humans is concerned.

In view of the/foregoing, it is not difficult to see why American soldiers in North Africa learned that their prisoners, Hitler’s Nazis, are completely con-', 'need of Hitler’s Catholicism, refusing to believe that Hitler persecuted the Catholics. In fact they knew very well that this was not the case. German propagandists make the following assertions quite seriously:

Whether the incredulous believe it or not, whether they know it or not, Germany is, at this critical point of history, the sole defender of .Christian values. For Christianity, Germany is the last hope in Europe. ... It is as clear as daylight that at the present time Germany is defending Christianity.

All this is completely understandable when one considers the following facts, well known, but coming once again from a far-away source, the New Zealand Standard, which says, with tongue in cheek:

A recent cable (in the daily press) suggested that to ensure peace, etc., the pope and Church leaders should take part in the peace conference. While admitting the need for greater morality in world affairs it is doubtful if these dignitaries have sufficient knowledge of the ramifications of world politics to be entrusted with the responsibility. As papal nuncio to Germany the pope ranged himself and the Catholic Front Party on Hitler’s side, thereby helping him to power. (The result we know to our sorrow.)

And the New York Herald Tribune, noting the direction of the wind, says: . . . if [the pope] was also speaking for a negotiated peace with the Nazi evil—and it is inevitable that his carefully guarded words, produced at just this critical juncture in the development of the battle, should be so interpreted by many—then the address could only be regarded as an unneutral intervention in favor of the Hitler conspiracy in the moment of its greatest peril.

And it was nothing else I Just listen to this from the pope’s lips:

We should, therefore, wish that governments and people should keep before their minds, at least as an ideal at whicl\ to aim, the fundamental thought which, inspired the words spoken. in compliment to Marcus Claudius Marcellus by the most distinguished orator of ancient Rome: "To conquer oneself, to curb anger, to spare the vanquished, to raise the fallen enemy—a man who does this I shall not compare to the greatest of men, but indeed as most like to a god,”

But the pope, even when quoting pagan orators, is fooling very few people these days. The general impression, and an accurate one, was expressed by the Negro commentator in “The People’s Voice”, Ben Richardson;

The besetting evil of Catholicism in Europe and America is its connection with and its basic espousal of Fascism. It is a dictatorial system that stifles the individuality of its adherents. It blinds them to anything collective outside of the church scheme. It has no place for the divergent thinker who would question its doctrine or dogmas. It is a Jim Crow Church as far as Negroes are concerned. . . . The presence of Fascism and its sympathizers in the world at all is a threat to the welfare of all people. That a church should embrace this dastardly wrong is almost beyond belief.

London Cavalcade also sees, riot too dimly either. It says:

Shortly before^the fall of Rome, the pope made one of his appeals for lovingkindness. The motif was "Don’t be too hard on poor Hitler”. Next the Germans evacuated Rome, leaving it virtually 'undamaged; in striking contrast to the treatment of other towns. Meanwhile, discreet peace proposals were passing between Berlin, Rome, Madrid, and Lisbon.

They Never Give Up

The suggestion is also cautiously advanced that the United Nations should build a new Germany around the Catholic church. Since that is what Hitler has been trying to do, there. is really no change of plans. ’

Conditions inside of Germany show that order there is breaking down, if the Nazi control of the situation may be dignified by the name of "order”. Already hundreds of persons simply vanish every day. Some are executed and others imprisoned, while still others are Nazis killed by infuriated Germans. A neutral observer remarks;

Hatred and violence and terror prevail in the Reich as the armies reel back under Allied ■and Russian blows. A woman I Saw in a Berlin shelter during an air raid burst out loudly saying, “We Germans bombed Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and other places. This is our retribution. We deserve it.” She wras unmolested.

But 500,000 anti-Nazis are in peril. Germans who have not backed the murder-regime of Hitler are ie danger of final liquidation to prevent the formation of any alternative government under the Allies’ control and to destroy any leadership that might sign an armistice.

Finally it is of interest, and significant, too, that as soon as the American army entered Germany Archbishop Spellman, a great friend of the pope, was on hand to say the first mass in the conquered territory. The press dispatch says, religiously ; .

Drawn together by the invisible bonds of religious brotherhood, American soldiers and German civilians knelt shoulder to shoulder last night in the Parish church of Roetgen as Archbishop Francis J. Spellman of New York celebrated his first formal mass on German soil. . . . From here he will return to Paris and thence to Rome.

And how long will the simple simply be simple? The evidence is overwhelming that the one thing that still-keeps Hitler going is the moral support he is receiving from Rome, whither and whence the ubiquitous Spellman flits with his messages of ‘peace’ and other considerations. So that to the picture of the man with the funny mustache kneeling in the drawing room of the nuncio’s palace ' we may add the cherubic figure of the American archbishop hovering in the background; and the works of his father he will do.—John 8: 44.

The Use of Tobacco

THE Encyclopedia Britannica suggests that the best way to study the tobacco problem is to consider the consumption in various countries per head of the population. This seems like a good suggestion. The Britannica gives the following figures (pounds per year). The figures for the United States are official; those \ for other countries are approximate:

Italy 2.35 Egypt

Erance 2.9 Belgium

Britain 2.95 United States

It will be of interest to inquire what the United States is receiving in the way of health in exchange for a tobacco rate more than twice the consumption of Italy or France or Britain. Some further facts on consumption in the United States are available. In the 14 years from 1915 to 1929 the ordinarysize cigars manufactured in the United States were slightly reduced in number; the number of very small cigars was cut to less than half; the pounds of tobacco and snuff dropped off 15 percent; yet the total leaf tobacco used went up from 551,687,780 pounds to 781,676,000 pounds.

Into what did all this extra tobacco go? You know the answer; for you see the answer everywhere. It went into cigarettes. And it did not go into the large cigarettes either; for they were reduced in the interval by one-third. 'But the number of small cigarettes went up from 17,964,348,272, which would seem to be quite enough for 122,775,046 persons (1930 census) to smoke in one year, to about seven times that number, or 119,038,841,560, in the year 1929. The babies don't smoke; not all the school children smoke; not all the young folks; not all the women; not even all the men. But it is perfectly obvious that those who do smoke cigarettes average more than 1,000 a year each.

What Do They Get for It?

Physicians -and druggists make eon- /

DECEMBER 20, 1944 stant use of the National Dispensatory. Any one of them will be glad to lend you the book long enough that you may read (fifth edition, page 1576):

The cases of serious illness produced by the emanations of tobacco, and by its application to the unbroken skin, are innumerable, and many instances of fatal poisoning by tobacco are recorded; some of them being due to its being swallowed purposely or accidentally, some to its use medicinally in .an enema, and some to its application to eruptions on the skin. Nicotine stands next to prussic acid in the rapidity and energy of its poisonous action.

A single drop of nicotine on the unbroken skin of a rabbit has caused its death. The nicotine in a single cigarette, if injected hypodermically in an abstainer from the use of tobacco, is sufficient to kill him. A baby has been killed by a grandmother’s nicotine-laden kiss.

When tobacco is burned only 30 percent of its nicotine is inhaled; the other 70 percent is turned into deadly pyridine (used for denaturing alcohol), collidine and carbon monoxide. The latter forms a fixed compound with the coloring matter of the red blood cells, and ultimately destroys these valuable citizens, and the function of the blood in conveying oxygen to the ti^ues. If smoke is inhaled with the air with which your blood is cleansed, in the two thousand square feet of internal surface of your lungs, then the cleansing process is im-pededj Trying to handle its job of caring for a system that is filled with w’orn-out cells which it cannot remove, the heart has to work harder, and at length skips a beat now and then. In such cases, smokers’ heart has arrived.

Effect on Brain and Nerve

Tobacco’dulls the memory. Those who are bright with it would be brighter without it. Cigarettes destroy precision of thought. Most gunmen, gangsters and prostitutes use them excessively. In nine cases out of eleven, where insanity has resulted' from excessive drinking, it has been found that the primary cause was smoking. One who uses both liquor and tobacco can hardly stop drinking unless he first gives up smoking. '

The effect of nicotine on the brain is depressing. That is why smokers say that they smoke in order to quiet their nerves. But the more their nerves are quieted by that means, the more necessary .it becomes for them to have more and more to get the quieting effect. At length the nerves go in the opposite direction, and the smoker is almost sure to seek relief in strong drink. Whisky and cigarettes are cousins.

A French physician, Ceisne, who examined thirty-eight boy cigarette smokers between nine and fifteen years of age, found that twenty-two had circulatory disturbances and heart palpitation, thirteen had intermittent pulse, eight had anemia, four had ulcerated mouths, one had consumption, and several had nosebleed, insomnia and nightmare. Tobacco stunts the growth of boys mentally and physically.

Judge Gemmill, of Chicago, says that cigarette fiends lose the faculty of blushing; their ideas of property rights and of the‘value of telling the truth are distorted ; they are firone to lie, to steal, to become addicted *to liquor, and almost every youth who goes to the chair goes there smoking a cigarette.

A very incomplete list of employers that have objected to the use of cigarettes by their employees are the H. J, Heinz Company, Pennsylvania Railroad, Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, National Cash Register Company, Cadillac Company, Fifth Avenue Bank, Larkin Company, Burroughs Adding Machine Company, Marshall Field, John Wanamaker, Morgan & Wright Tire Company, and Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Thomas A. Edison refused to employ cigarette smokers, at all, asserting that the acrolein poison generated in smoking “has a violent action on the nerve centers, producing degeneracy of the brain, which is quite rapid among boys and is permanent and uncontrollable”.

"Smoke in Your Eye#’

Under that very catchy headline, In Fact has a copyrighted story by Dr. Hal Bieler which is presented herewith:

What happens when concentrated tobacco smoke is blown into your eyes? After three puffs the inclination to get the eyes away from the smoke becomes imperative. But if the smoke continues the eyes grow red, inflamed and very painful. The conjunctiva becomes swollen and there is a watery exudation. The final result is a pair of painful, red^ wet, and swollen eyes. ■

Now, compare the eye to the air-cell of the lung. The eye is a delicate organ, but the aircell of the lung is exceedingly more delicate and more sensitive, and it also has a much richer blood and lymph supply. The membrane lining the air-eeU controls the chemistry of respiration. It is thin enough for gases to permeate, while the blood supply is so rich that these gases can be diffused quickly to the cells of the whole body. Oxygen gas is absorbed and carbon dioxide-gas is eliminated. The absorption of oxygen allows for tissue oxidation, and oxidation is life. This process of oxidation in the body tissues is controlled by the internal secretion of the adrenal glands. The lungs necessarily receive a rich supply of adrenalin through the blood stream. Likewise it is important to note that the lungs have a thick network of lymph vessels which help to carry away irritable wastes.

Now, the difference between the response to irritation in the eye and the air-cell is dependent upon the sensation of pain. The conjunctiva of the eye is extremely sensitive to irritants and registers irritation as pain, which pain impels the. owner of the eye to move his eye away from the source of the irritation. But the air-cell of the lung contains no sensory nerve. Consequently, great damage can be done to the air-cells without the owner of them feeling pain. On the other hand, the air-cells of the lung have a rich sympathetic nerve supply which is under the control of the solar-plexus or ‘'abdominal brain”. The protective function of this “abdominal brain” is to send more adrenalin to the injured air-eells and thus allow for deeper and Quicker oxidation and the consequent removal of the irritating poisons. Now, it is well known that when the adrenalin content of the blood stream is raised there is a feeling of well-being and a surcease from nervous tension, and to get this reaction is the average smoker’s reason for smoking. Since the air-cells, lacking sensory nerves, can register no pain to their smoker-owner, they just lie still and “take it” while the chemical response made to this smoke misleads the smoker'as to the real effect. The eyes, on the other hand, being “sensitive” and “irritable”, cause a , motor response which protects their own chemistry and preserves their healthy state.

What is it that these air-cells “take”? Literally they are smoked. The action of smoke on the delicate air-cells of the lung is quite similar to the action of smoke on a fresh ham hung in the smoke house to be “cured”. The irritants which the smoke contains shrivel and dry and preserve and harden the exterior of the ham. The surface of the ham js so thoroughly embalmed and mummified that it becomes impervious to the action of bacteria, even at fairly warm temperatures. When smoke is inhaled into the lung the same irritating process takes place. The lung becomes red, wet and inflamed and there is cough and exudation of serum. When the stethoscope is applied “smoker’s rales” are heard over the entire respiratory tree. The body’s defense mechanisms are called into activity and the battle starts between the embalming effect of the smoke and the ability of the adrenal glands to neutralize the irritation and destruction. The absence of actual pain makes the culprit oblivious to the damage and the gentle bath of extra adrenalin enshrouds him in a fool’s paradise. Ue is unaware that his lung lymphatics are getting black with tar-like irritants; that the actual breathing capacity of his air-cells has been diminished more than one-half of the normal, and that his resistance to lung cancer, respiratory diseases or to severe infections has been decreased by more than one-half of the normal.

It Is Admitted

It is admitted that many physicians smoke; many of them use morphine also. It is not to their credit. Writing on this subject, and mentioning that an Alabama farmer used morphine every day of his life from the age of 18 until his death, at 94, Dr, Raymond Pearl, of Johns Hopkins, said:

, “There are none so blind as those who will not see,” and just about the meanest trick of human nature is that a- man or woman who has become a habitue of morphine, alcohol or nicotine not only believes that the drug he uses is harmless, but he often succeeds in getting his family and some of his friends addicted to the particular narcotic which soothes his nerves. It is said that the physician addicted to morphine leaves an average of seven opium addicts behind him when he dies.

Those who smoke, chew or dip snuff are not permitted to handle young tomato plants; they spread the tobacco disease of mosaic among plants, and insects continue the spread of the disease through the greenhouse; so says Science News Letter.

“The sensation of sucking a cigarette gives abnormal stimulus to the sex instincts.” “A baby born of a cigarettesmoking mother is sick. It is poisoned, and may die within two weeks of birth. The post-mortem shows degeneration of the liver, heart, and other organs. Sixty percent of all babies born of mothers who are habitual cigarette smokers die before they are two years old.” These are statements of those who have given attention to this subject. And ex-Presi- * dent Herbert Hoover once said:

There is no agency in the world that is so seriously affecting the health, education, efficiency, and character of boys and girls as the cigarette habit. Nearly every delinquent boy is a cigarette smoker. Cigarettes are a source of crime.

$50,000,000 Annual Fire hoes

In July, 1944, a single cigarette, flicked from a public rest room, landed on six inches of excess canvas dropped on the ground by Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus at Hartford, Connecticut. In ten minutes the tent, 520 feet by 220 feet, was in ashes and at least 164 had been burned to death, with hundreds more seriously injured. Regret on the part of the smoker that he caused so much suffering will not bring back those that were slain. If he could be located, it could also be said to him that the odor that arises from a confirmed smoker is exceedingly distasteful to many, and it would have been better for him to remain away from the show, anyway, fire or no fire.

The Vancouver Province is at hand with a story that has a headline spread across four columns, reading as follows: “Blaze Threatens to Spread into Alberta; Soldiers Flown In to Battle Gigantic Fires Ravaging Forests from Yukon to Alaska Road; Only cAet of God’ Can Check Inferno Destroying Valuable Timber." In the year 1929 the three leaders in the cigarette business, Reynolds Tobacco Company, American Tobacco Company, and Liggett and Myers, had net earnings of $84,406,254. This seems to suggest that the manufacturers of firebrands can scatter them all over the earth, and burn up $50,000,000 or more of forests and other valuable property every year, and only an “act of God" can square the account with them for the tragedies -of which they are the cause. Isn’t there something grotesque about expecting Almighty God to follow around three concerns that make upward of 119,038,841,560 cigarettes a year, and put out the fires that thtsse start?

One of the smaller cigarette concerns, Philip Morris & Co., in a single year spent $1,352,582 to advertise their particular brand of cigarettes, and on January 8, 1941, the Federal Trade Commission ordered the company to cease and desist from making false and unwarranted claims about them.

Discouraging False Advertising .

On August 31,1942, the Federal Trade Commission denied that finger stains disappear if one smokes Pall Malls, or that Pall Malls cause less finger stain, or that they protect the throat by filtering out all the irritants. On the same date the Federal Trade Commission denied that Lucky Strike cigarettes were toasted, or that they are smoked by most tobacco experts, or that they are less acid than any other brand, or that they offer throat protection, or that they contain better or higher-priced tobacco than competing brands, or that they afford protection against coughing, or that they are made from the cream of the tobacco crop, or from lighter or finer tobacco.

On March 9, 1943, the Federal Trade Commission denied that Old Golds are lowest in nicotine and throat-irritating tars and resin content when tested with seven leading brands, and declared that the differences between the brands are small. PM represents the commission as saying in substance that the differences are, in the first place, too insignificant to have any effect on anybody’s throat and lungs; and, in the second place, no such .test means anything, because there is so much variation of the cigarets of every manufacturer, variations due to changing weather during the tobacco growing season, variations in the mixing and blending, variations in the density of packing, variations in methods of handling and distribution, and even variations in climatic conditions after manufacture. All anybody can test is an infinitesimal sample of the total number of cigarets on the market, and all the test shows is the composition of those few cigarets at that particular time and place. Other tests at other times and other places would show other results.

The Truth About Cigarettes

Never having read any cigarette advertising, and being therefore unaware of his great blessings, a leech that sucks the blood of a cigarette fiend will drop dead instanter. The human creature that sits stupefied before a radio loaded down with cigarette nonsense, or reads a paper loaded down with more nonsense of the same kind, is helped some by T. Swann Harding in an article in The . Progressive under the headline used above. Says Mr. Harding:

The funny thing about cigarettes is that they are not what they seem to be to the casual observer. They have metaphysical qualities known only to advertisers. Scientists appear to be unaware of these esoteric characteristics.

For instance, experts in the Department of Agriculture will tell you that whether one cigarette is better than another is a matter of the smoker’s individual taste. It is true that the tobacco of which the average cigarette is made may come from several different barrels each containing the weed of a different type. But the blend, and the flavoring materials used, determine cigarette quality.

Buyers call for the cigarette with the most appealing flavor, and, remember, a cigarette is more than a mere blend of various tobaccos. It contains likewise many aromatic/flavoring substances—-tonka beans, vanilla, licorice, chocolate, maple sugar, rum, alcohol, fruit flavors, essential oils, sugar, resin, tobacco oils, glycerine, and so on. In general, different manufacturers keep their flavors a great secret.

When blindfolded, consumers altogether fail to sense these mysterious metaphysical qualities of cigarettes advertisers yawp about. In other words, if they can see the package, they can tell what kind of cigarettes they are smoking. But, if they are blindfolded, and the cigarette brands are shuffled, they can’t tell one from the other, unhappy people.

Kirksville Proofreader Not So Very Bad

KIRKSVILLE, Missouri, is a nice American town of 10,080 people; it is the site of Kirksville College of Osteopathy and Surgery, and of Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, but it is so busy educating proofreaders and sending them out into the world that none can be spared for home-town work. This comes out in a note,from one of Jehovah’s witnesses residing in that city. The witnesses advertised that on a set date they would study “The First-fruits of the Resurrection”, and the proofreader thought it had something to do with the World War, so he changed it to read “Fronts” instead of “Fruits”. That wasn’t so bad. The next line of the advertisement was intended to read, “And let him that, is athirst come.” The proofreader pondered that for a while; then he went and took a drink and changed the word “athirst” to “Athiest”, seeming to have the idea that it would be a good place for an Atheist (he muffed the spelling) to come and learn something. That wasn’t so bad either.

But the best part is to come, and. at this point it is only right to quote from the letter of Joseph A. Dengle, of Kirksville, which not only proves that one word in the advertisement was correctly spelled, but shows also that it pays to advertise the Kingdom, no matter what the proofreaders do to cover things up:

After witnessing to the lady she said, “I have slammed the door in your people’s face many a time, but I shall not do so any more. I have been a Methodist all my life, but I was completely disgusted last Sunday at church when all they did was to pass the plate around. I turned to the lady next to me and said, “I am getting tired of this, and I believe that I shall go to the meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses; for they advertise in the paper, ‘No Collection.”’ “Yes,” said her elderly neighbor, “but you have to stand on the street corner and sell The Watchtower.” Result: One bound book, two'booklets, a Watchtower, and the best laugh for many a day.-

Angels vs. a “Star”

THROUGH tricks of religion put over upon pleasure-seeking persons desirous of celebrating Nimrod’s birthday, the peoples of “Christendom” have been led to make a pretense of celebrating the birth of Jesus Chrfst at this season of the year. In the celebration they mix angels, “star in the east,” wise men, Santa Claus, Yule log and “Christmas” tree and toys all together in one religious hodgepodge, and bring reproach on both God and Christ.

All Bible and historic calculations are that Jesus was born early in autumn, about October 1, and not on December 25, which is Nimrod’s reputed birthday. At the time of the real birth what a great thrill must have gone through the holy creatures of heaven! All the heavenly host must have been on the alert as to what was now about to take place. The specially honored messenger moved forward to his position of vantage over the fields of Bethlehem; at the given moment this angelic officer stood forth to 'the view of the shepherds guarding their flocks by night, and delivered his message which has thrilled the hearts of millions of people adown the centuries. With authority he said: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”—Luke 2:10,11.

This angelic officer was not alone. God had provided him with an angelic train, a mighty host to accompany him to earth on his wonderful mission. With befitting dignity these stood by until the honored officer had delivered his message; and then this great multitude of heavenly creatures stood forth, praising God, as they sang: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Since the creation of man no event compared to this had occurred. Mark well whom Jehovah ..God chose for His -earthly witnesses to establish the fact in the minds of men. The Pharisees and • the financiers, the lawyers and the priests, the wise men, big business, big politicians and big preachers who ruled Israel—not one of these was honored by being asked to witness to the birth of Jesus. The reason why is that they were a part of the Devil’s organization. God honors them that honor Him. To please God we must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

A little band of shepherds had brought their flock to a hillside across the ravine to the east of Bethlehem. These were humble men, earning an honest living. They trusted the Lord and the promises He had made to father Abraham, They had brought their sheep into the corral, and there kept one of their number on watch to guard the flock from the wild beasts while the others slept.

The Lord’s angel appeared unto them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. Evidently the reflected glory of the Lord, sent forth from His angel, attracted their attention; for they all were awakened and listened to the message delivered by this heavenly officer. These shepherds humbly hurried forward to see the child and to relate their testimony to others. They took no credit to themselves. Had they belonged to the Devil’s organization they would have swaggered about in long robes and said: "Behold, what honored men we are. Look up to us!’

On the contrary, the shepherds gave glory to God and praise to Him for-all the things they had heard and seen, and that were told them. This is in exact harmony/with all of God’s arrangements. God resists the proud and shows His favor to the humble-minded. (1 Peter 5: 5) All His intelligent creatures should learn from this. Whoever exalts himself will be abased, but he who humbly submits "himself to God’s holy will in due time will be exalted.

But-—did not God send these wise men from the east to be witnesses to the birth of His beloved Son? Should not we revere the memory of these three wise men on December 25 or on January 10? Herein has that "Old Serpent”, Satan, deceived the people. He has kept prominently before the minds of clergy-ridden people “three wise men” as though they were sent of God. So, to answer the above questions properly, we must look for a moment at Satan’s organization.

Whereas Jehovah uses good angels, Satan the Devil is a mimic god and uses the angels he first deceived and drew after him and who .became wicked demons. These the Devil uses in his organization to blind humankind to God’s arrangement for man’s salvation.

Satan knew God had declared that the ‘Seed of promise’ should bruise the head of the Serpent and his seed, and that the promised seed should bless all the families of the earth. (Genesis 3:15; 12:3) Satan, through his emissaries, set out to destroy this Seed. He had been inEden, the garden of God; and from the time Adam was driven therefrom Satan has resorted to every known means to destroy those who have striven to be obedient to Jehovah. He caused the persecution of all of Jehovah’s prophets. He sought the death of Jesus’ human mother. From all these wicked attempts God protected His own.

The so-called “wise men”, of whom the Bible does not state whether there were three or more, were astrologers or soothsayers who lived in the east^ possibly Persia, well known to be of those who communicated with evil spirits. Their stimulated powers of vision saw a light rise to the west, because they were in the east, and they were instructed by an unseen power to follow this light. This light was called a "star”. But stars do not move about in this manner. The Devil and his angels exercise this power even today, and cause lights to move about to deceive others. These “wise men” were just dupes of the adversary and his demons, and therefore fell readily into a conspiracy against Jesus’ life. They did not go directly to Bethlehem, where they would have gone if God had sent them. They first went to Jerusalem and presented themselves to King Herod. And why? Because Herod belonged to the Devil, as his prior and subsequent acts show. The Devil knew that Herod would want to kill any possible rival. Therefore he drew these wise men or magicians into the conspiracy with Herod for the purpose of destroying the “young child” Jesus. In this attempt God thwarted him and delivered His beloved child, and did not let the magicians report to King Herod on the child’s exact location. “Then Herod saw that he had been tricked by the astrologers, and he was very angry, and he sent and made away with all the boys in Bethlehem and in all. that neighborhood who were two years old or under, for that wms the time he had learned from the astrologers by his inquiries,”—Matthew 2:16, Smith-Goodspeed Bible translation.

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