Awake!, May 8, 1947
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Anticlerical Wave Sweeps over Italy
More to it than meets the eye that depends on the columns of the large controlled newspapers
Newsprint Crisis Threatens Free Press
How hoggish tactics of few deny rights of many
What Ails the Public Schools?
The physicians babble prescriptions, but patient uncured
Warfare on Weeds
Seasonal blitz on the garden front
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News sources that Bre abJe to keep you awake io the vital issues of our titties must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. "Awake I’4 has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ambitions or obligations; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that It may speak, freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.
"Awake I” uses the regular news chanr Is, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all cot inenta, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-thescenes reports cAme to you through these columns. This journal's viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its coverage is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens,
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CONTENTS
Antielffricfl.l Wave Sleeps over Italy
Vatican Polities Causes Anticlericalism
The Hierarchy Stoops Low
Communism in Italy
Communrshs with Vatican bn Later an Pact
Newsprint Monopoly Threatens Free Press
Occupants of the Newsprint Monopoly Pigpen 12
What Ails the Public Schools?
Analysis of the Complaints
The Cure for All Ills
Freedom to Preach Worth All Buffering 16
In the Valley of Copan
A Challenge to Catholic Zeal
One Day of Rapture for the May-fly
Speedy Litigation
Warfare on Weeds
Chemical Warfare Against Weeds
Poverty-stricken Britain Gambles Away
$100 a Second
"Thy Word Is Truth”
The Bride Invites
Catholic Capers
What This Warring World Needs
Watching the World
Volume* XXVIII
Brooklyn, N-Y,, May 8, 1947
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Num bar 9
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Anticlerical Wave Sweeps over Italy
Why h Italy now the of heated anticlericalismT Why do »o many Catholic pen pie In Italy sympathize with the anticlerical newspaper* that dir up aminst
the Vatican T What hw the Catholic Church done to precipitate a rrli-Eiowa crisis? How Have com hat Ina this new threat to her prealise? In th* antideric titan attributable to Communism T Out of Italy itself com* the answers to these and other carrent questions plnguing that unhappy land* On-the atenea report* of two “Awakecorrespondents in that country have bean combined to give readers Ihn feel of the Itoi inn pulse on anti clericalism,
ANTICLERICALISM is no new thing to war-ravaged Italy. Examination of her history shows other periods wherein it appeared in the land. Many of the country’s most beloved statesmen and leaders were anticlerical. Giordano Bruno pitted himself against a teaching of a powerful clergy and suffered burning at the stake for his courage. Mazzini was another who gave impulse to the movement of independence that resulted in the establishment of the liberal government, that existed in Italy prior to World War I, and this’ man wrote much about the troublesome, divisive, immoral and politically meddling Roman Catholic Hierarchy. Another was Giuseppe Garibaldi, hailed by the Italian people as the man who united Italy, resulting in its becoming a major power of the world. In his path of uniting the Italians, continually torn by sectional wars and feuds, stood the Catholic Church and its clergy, sustained in power by foreign troops. At a time when he and the, forces seeking to liberate Italy were hard pressed by the troops of the foreign powers, .which had been called in by the pope to prevent the losing of his temporal power. in the land, Garibaldi wrote the following encouragement and exhortation to his followers: “That generation today graying under the burning sun of battle will appear at
Italy’s] next genera
tive front of vour
tion, raised under hatred and executions of priests and foreigners, strengthened by the memory of many . outrages and by the
avenging of many hardships suffered in prison and exile. No one knows how long this period will last in which you find yourself, 0 Italy. But everyone knows that the solemn hour of rebirth is not far off.” (Words of Garibaldi cited by the anticlerical newspaper II Mercante, January 3,
Today, with her cities in ruins and her land ravaged by war, many of
her people homeless, hungry and cold, a great section of the population of Italy is again taking up the cry of these liberty-loving leaders of the past. Italy must have a rebirth of the freedom she lost during the nightmare of fascism. She must not after having come out of the frying pan of one dictatorship fall into the fire of another.
Memories
But one majr ask, How can there be danger of such happening? Has not Italy been liberated and fascism de-
stroyed? The Fascist party as such no longer exists in Italy, but the libertyloving people know that its principles live on. They know that those formerly allied with fascism are still present and active. They remember the arms of the Boman Catholic Church open wide to receive the rising Fascists. They remember the pope's concordat with Fascism in 1929, and that then "the supreme religious authority expressed its pleasure because God had been given back to Italy, and Italy to God”. (Carriere della Sera, October 13, 1944) They remember that at the very time the League of Nations met to consider the Fascist attack on helpless Ethiopia, Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s newspaper, reported that fiftyseven bishops and nineteen archbishops of Italy sent a telegram of congratulations to Mussolini which read: “Catholic Italy thanks Jesus Christ for the renewed greatness of the country made stronger by Mussolini's policy/' (August 22, 1935) They remember the statement of Cardinal Schuster, of Milan, wherein he declared: “The Italian flag is at this moment bringing in triumph the cross of Christ to Ethiopia to free the road for the emancipation of the slaves, opening it at the same time to our missionary propaganda/’
The people of Italy remember the Hierarchy's blessing of Mussolini's campaigns of aggression, its blessing of Fascist war weapons, its blessing on Italy’s part in securing for butcher Franco a Fascist rule in Spain. The Italian people cannot forget the blessings of high Catholic prelates that regularly accompanied aggressions of the dictators of the Axis powers. The smooth speeches of Catholic clerics may lull distant nations to sleep as regards the church’s past love with her Fascist bedfellow; but on the Italian home front they are only hollow-sounding hypocrisy. The Catholic Church in Italy may no longer support fascism in words, but her actions speak louder and bear the stamp of the Fascist regime from which the land has but so recently been unshackled. In fact, since democracy is the order of the day, the Italian hierarchy perpetuates fascism under the name of democracy. How?
Vatican Politics Causes Anticlericalism
After the destruction of fascism and the giving to the people the opportunity to select their own rulers by democratic voting, there was immediately formed a party under the name of Democrazia-Cristiana (Christian Democracy). To this party flocked all the old-time Fascists that had not been executed by the allies or partisans. Immediately the Catholic Church backed this new party. For the elation of a provisional government, a great campaign swung into action, a campaign into which the church and its clergy threw themselves with a. zest. From the pulpit the people were urged not only to vote for the party's candidates, but also to do everything within their power to see Hiat the party's candidates were elected. Vatican efforts did not stop there, however. New newspapers were formed with the tlier-archy's financial backing and these threw their weight into the battle to re-enthrone a fascism plastered with a "Christian Democracy'’ label. All of the thousands of parish papers did their bit. To all this was added the advertising by thousands of posters hung in conspicuous places all over the land.
On the point of the church’s political campaign the head of the Socialist party had this to say during a recent convention: “There is at this moment in Italy a definite rebirth of anticlericalism that disturbs the ecclesiastical hierarchs . , . And we say, Whence does this rebirth spring? If springs from the fact that in the elections of June 2, 1946, the church made the mistake of intervening openly with spiritual weapons in the political battle.” However, the Socialist party leaders have declared that they are hot
anticlerical, and in fact have no sympathy with the anticlerical press now operating in Italy.
Another part of the campaign of the church to win the election for her chosen ones was that of offering material aid in the form of bread, flour and sugar, items very scarce and rationed in Italy, to buy votes. The term "spiritual weapons” applied by the Socialist leader to the political campaign waged by the mighty religious organization is hardly apt in describing this last-mentioned effort of hers to gain power. Indignant at this illegal means of securing votes, the anticlerical paper Don Basilio wrote in its issue of November 10,1946, in an article entitled "To Prison with All Traffickers in Flour”:
We ask formally that the republic’s attorney proceed penally against these clerical organizations that distribute packages of flour to the voters to buy their votes for the Christian Democracy party, and against those who furnish such flour in violation of the ration laws . . . The flour is everybody’s, paid for by everybody and destined to everybody, not just those who vote for the large, land-holding, pontifical Prince Ruffo! . . . Let everyone remember: Whoever offers flour right at the occasion of the election does it to grab the power for those defrauders of the people that tomorrow will make it scarce.
The Anticlerical Newspapers
In view of this desperate campaign of the church to remain in her privileged and powerful position, enjoyed under fascism’s twenty-year tyranny, the liberty-loving people, many of whom are devoted and ardent Catholics, have become disgusted. This disgust has found expression through the appearance and growing popularity of the anticlerical newspapers, which have grown from one in September, 1946, to three in December. Contrary to what one might think, these papers are not Communistic. They favor nd one political party above another. Their desire is to see ar Italy free to speak, publish and worship as each may wish to, and to have a government made up entirely of laymen totally free of Vatican influence. Against religion and the Catholics they have nothing, but are definitely against the Hierarchy’s cloaking her political activity under the name of religion. When priests cease their political activity and confine themselves to caring for the spiritual welfare of the people, then the anticlerical newspapers will voluntarily discontinue publishing. Until that time their determination is to fight and expose the hypocrisy and corruption of church and priests so that Italy’s freedom may not again be strangled by these clerics, whom the antielerics term “foreigners”.
True to this determination, each week their papers appear with articles thoroughly documented demonstrating the cupidity of the Hierarchy and her priests, together with the cartoons illustrating satirically all her great riches of gems, money and property in the midst of a starving, homeless, poverty-stricken multitude of Italian people. Especially cutting is their exposure of the ehurch’s complicity with Fascists and Nazis. Numerous photographs have been published showing the present pope posing with Mussolini, or high prelates of the church posing with Nazi and Fascist officials. And in these they are sometimes seen rendering the Fascist salute. These pictures and the statements made in favor of fascism during its reign cannot be successfully denied by the Catholic Church.
On December 22, 1946, an editorial in the anticlerical newspaper Don Basilio gives information as to the aim of the anticlerical movement. It reads:
Our unfortunate nation is facing a great conspiracy. Organized to perfection are all the forces that have always opposed the efforts of those desirous of winning the fundamental freedoms and give society the most advanced forms of civilization. The clerev are
at the head of such maneuvers. Their allies are anybody, hierarchical and conservative parties. The conspiracy led by De Gasperi aims to suffocate the only voice, out voice, which has risen to oppose their dictatorial schemes. The hour has come, therefore, to call together all the forces that wish to defend the freedom . . . Firmly united in the justice of our struggle, we invite ail those wh(? believe in the freedom of Italy to r&Uy around us for the accomplishment of this program:
Denounce the concordat which was stipulated with Mussolini without consulting the Italian people.
Creation of the laity state.
Freedom of thought and of its manifestation.
Laity concession of school and family. The teaching should be done by the state, and the marriage licenses given by the civil courts. Thfe introduction of divorces.
Absolute freedom of religion and the equality of all faiths before the state.
It is interesting to note public reac* tion to this type of expose of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy as more of an ambitious and meddling political organization than a teacher of religion. The Italian public, of course, are well aware of the truthfulness of the charges of greed, immorality and collaboration with the Fascists and Nazis. Many express their satisfaction with the expose of the clergy given in the anticlerical newspapers and with the freedom measures championed by such publications. After all, the attainment of the aims nt that would only bring the democratizing of the Italian state that many steps nearer to the American form of government. Abolishing the concordat between church and state, creating a state separate from church, public schools separate from religion, marriage licenses by civil authorities, legalizing of divorce, freedom of thought^ freedom of religion—all such desires are reasonable to minds favoring democracy. One of the co-editors of Don Basilio declared: “Other religions besides the Catholic should have the right to carry on their missionary work in Italy if they want?
The Hierarchy Stoops Low
The enraged Hierarchy combats the wave of anticlericalism by excommunicating practically everyone in any way connected with the movement. I^romi-nent Hierarchy spokesmen hurl their vituperative reports and slanders recklessly against all who dare to side in with the anticlerical movement In addition to establishing rival proclerical papers of their own, there have been in-atances> where the Catholic Church has adopted Chicago’s “newspaper war” technique, suyh as heaving bundles of anticlerical papers off trains, and beating up newsstand’dealers who display them. As for meeting and answering the charges made in the anticlerical papers, the Hierarchy Is silent. As always, her comeback is suppression' of speech and press. Having no truth with which to defend herself against this exposure of her corruption, she recently caused the state to arrest the publisher of one of the anticlerical papers on the charge of “vilification of the state religion and its heads”. The trial was held with the conviction and sentencing to two years’ imprisonment of the publisher, which* conviction was based on the Fascist penal code and the concordat made between the pope and Mussolini.
Rabarbavo, a newspaper especially created by the clergy to combat the anticlerical press, defends the application of the Fascist code in suppressing II Polio and condemning to prison its publisher, in the following mariner:
The clergy invoke the Fascist code, the judgment of the magistrate. In this very thing their moral and civil superiority over their critics consist; who, instead, against the opposing press invoke the suppression of their papers and the imprisonment of their joumaL ists. [January 5, 1947]
Almost laughable is their reasoning and accusation that the anticlericals in-
yoke the law of suppression of opposing newspapers and the imprisoning of their journalists. Laughable it is, for the Hierarchy has done in arresting and condemning the director of 11 Polio the very thing they accuse the anticlerical press of wanting to do. This is really a case of a thief crying out “Stop thief” to distract the people’s attention from his own thievery. The clergy have suppressed the liberty of speech and press of one of their opponents, and then defend their action by accusing their victim of wanting to do the same thing! On the Hierarchy’s use of the Fascist code to sup-Sress freedom of speech and press, the [ilan paper II Mondo Libero, January 6, 1947, comments with strong feeling:
The Holy Inquisition recommences to function: the manager of the weekly II Polio has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. We expect to be the next. Was it worth the sacrifice of making life miserable for the German 8$ only to fall into the hands of the Vatican SS ?
Rather, than Jaeing atheistic, the press opposing the Hierarchy reveals a knowledge of the Scriptures rarely manifested by the Catholic Church. Often they contrast the sayings of the church and her priests and also their actions with the words and acts of Christ and the apostles, pointing out how the Roman Catholic Church and her clerics have fallen away from following Christ. With reference to Jesus’ words at John 18: 36, “My kingdom is not of this world,” the anti-clencals say concerning the Hierarchy: “Their kingdom is of this world.” As for themselves', the anticlerics make it plain that they are not conducting a political campaign: £fWe will never go tp Parliament, never take part in politics,” flatly declares one of the co-editors of Don Basilio.
One needs but go about Italy among its people and talk about conditions and religion to see that the anticlerical papers are not the ideas of a few malcontents as the Hierarchy claims, but that they are accurately reflecting the feelings and opinions of a great bloc of the population. These papers do not blame God for the terrible conditions in the earth, neither do they hold Him responsible for the wicked course taken by those claiming to represent Him. So it is that in talking to the people one finds many who bitterly condemn the priests and the Catholic Church, yet who at the same time give a respectful ear to a discussion of God’s Word, the Bible. Their complaint is not against the Lord and His Word, but is against those who hide behind the Lord in order to more easily and freely carry on their’eorrupt practices and political meddling. They know that the priests are not living by the principles of Christ. Hence they demand that priest and church return to teaching religion instead of trying to maintain themselves as a temporal power at the expense of the people’s liberties. When the church withdraws from politics and tends to its religious business, then and then only does it seem that the Italian people will believe that the church represents God. As the matter now stands the Catholic Church in Italy finds its chief supporters among the elder Catholic women.
Communism in Italy
The people have lost confidence in their leaders. Many who have chosen to follow a specific political course have embraced Communism hoping to find in that political party more honesty in its leaders, but the more sincere persons remain dumfounded and bewildered, trying to ascertain the policy of compromise which Communism still practices in Italy. No one can deny that the Communists are very strong in Italy. After twenty years of oppression under the Fascist dictatorship in which the church collaborated, the people are turning to that which they believe the opposite of what they just had. They remember the Communists suffered persecution under
the Fascist regime. They see in Communism that which seems to offer a.hope of a more equal distribution of the wealth, and,.above all, the Communist has always had a reputation of being anticlerical. With these things in mind it is not difficult to understand the swing to Communism.
However, the Italian Communists are not all the same as regards their attitude toward a Supreme Being. One might classify them into three different groups. In one group fall all those who have lost all faith in God and His existence. A second classification would take in the many Communists who still have faith in God and His Word, but are against the church because of her stand with the dictators and her present course of action in Italian politics. The third type are those who believe that the Catholic Church has been established by God as His means of salvation, but who are convinced that she should cleanse herself of politics and corrupt priests. Conversations with many Communists reveal that they are not definitely convinced that Communism is the solution of their difficulties. More or less they have entered the party because for the present it seems the best thing in sight. These persons are still looking to see if there isn't something better in the offing.
There is a strong likelihood that m the future Communism will lose many of its adherents in Italy. As has already been mentioned, many have become Communist because of their anticlerical feelings and the belief that Communism provides a rallying point for them. But now the Communist party shows a tendency to soften its tone toward the church and seems to be seeking a compromise. Constantly they reiterate: ffWe don't love the anticlerical press.” On this statement an anticlerical paper states:
Fine. To tell you the truth, neither do we anticlericals love it a lot . . . Nevertheless, what fault have we if the situation of the country is such that with only an anticlerical journalism . . . can one hope to put an end to invading clericalism which threatens • to stifle even more than in the past every free breath in the nation?
Then the paper asks the Communist party to judge whether or not the happenings of recent days warrant their fear that their liberties are in danger, pointing out that ten out of seventeen deputies voted toinclude in the new constitution the following article: “The relations between church and state are regulated by the Lateran Treaty/' Continuing from the anticlerical paper on this point we quote:
But if ten out of seventeen deputies, namely, the majority, believe impossible to include in a constitution the pact made by Mussolini to strengthen his own dictatorship, and by the Vatican to extend her power over Italy and tramp with the church r^te over the liberal state founded in 1870, who can doubt the grave and imminent peril of the country^ being given over for many years to eome to papal justice? . . ..Opportuneness! There is a lot more involved here. To our point of view, it is a question of urgent and immediate necessity and cannot afford to be postponed, for any reason. [Il Mercante, January 3, 1947]*
From all this we see that anticldrical-ism is strong and rolls through Italy like a tidal wave. It is getting stronger. That the anticlerics are not atheists, but believe the church should get out of politics and stick to its duty of looking after the spiritual needs of the people is manifest. The purpose of their campaign through the anticlerical newspapers js to drive the church out of politics, to cause her to reform, that they can thereafter return to the church and regard it as truly the organization of Christ. In this purpose they are doomed to failure. By her fruits of political intrigue, immorality, corruption, greed, inquisitions and warmongering, the Roman Catholic Hier-~ "■—■ "* ■■ >■■■
* See later news Hem on next page that showa that, this Vat lean-Mussolini pact was voted Into the new Constitution, with Communist assistance.
arehy has beyond recovery identified herself as of Satan the Devil. She has made herself a part of the kingdoms of this world, with which Jesus would have nothing to do, of which He said His kingdom was no part, and over which He declared Satan the Devil was the god. —Matthew 7:15-23; 4:8-10; John 12:31; 14: 30; 18: 36; 2 Corinthians 4:4.
No, it seems clear that the mighty wave of anticlericalism now sweeping over the tortured little Italian peninsula will not wash dean the bloody skirts of the Vatican and convert her to Christ. (Jeremiah 2:34) “Can the' Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ! then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” (Jeremiah 13:23) However, there is a flooding wave that will do a washing work of this sordid religious organization. The Roman Catholic Hierarchy claims to have a covenant with death and with hell, to be able by masses for money to transfer dead souls from purgatorial torment to heavenly bliss, to be a refuge in a time of trouble. And in trying to support such contentions she has brought forth a great mountain of religious traditions and lies which have no foundation whatsoever in God’s Word. Behind these falsehoods and under their covering the Roman Catholic Hierarchy seeks to entrench herself and hide unpunished. But Jehovah God’s Word shows that she will be washed out.
Because ye have said, We, have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down.—Isaiah 28:15,17-21.
That washing wave that rolls over this religious organization entrenched behind lies and a supposed covenant with death and hell does not cleanse the Roman Catholic Hierarchy of her filth. It washes away the mountainous refuge of falsehoods and religious tradition which the Hierarchy has built up and behind which she hides. It leaves her stripped naked before the nations with her doctrines exposed as originating in godless paganism rather than in God’s Word, the Bible. And the source of this overflowing scourge and beating hail that sweeps away her refuge df lies is not anticlerical newspapers. It is the clear “waters of truth” from Jehovah God’s Word.
Communists with Vatican on Lateran Pact
Pnt 1 ^&rcb 25 the Lateran agreement between the Vatican and Mussolini, made in 1929, was made a part of Italy's new constitution. It recognizes Catholicism as the state religion. It means that the divorce ban will be kept, and that under this Vatican-Mussolini concordat religious education
in public elementary and high schools is obligatory and dictated by the Catholic Church, that salaries of priests and maintenance of Catholics will be subsidized or paid outright by the state. Through taxation Jews, Protestants and other millions of n on-Catholics will finance the Catholic. religion. Protestant religious leaders and many Italian newspapers saw in the move a curb on freedom of religion and press. The Lateran pact of 1929 restored the temporal power lost by the Vatican in 1870. This Fascist-Vatican accord is now in the new constitution, thanks to the Communists in Italy. Communists held the balance of power in the voting, and threw their weight behind the Hierarchy. Communists appease the papacy to wheedle votes for the coming October election.
Newsprint Monopoly Threatens Free Press
THE earth and the fulness thereof belong to Jehovah God, but its resources are often monopolized by hoggish humane. The Creator overlaid large sections of the earth with beautiful green forests. Trees not only clothe the earth with beauty, but provide man with many essential products. One of these is paper, adaptable to numerous purposes. Foremost in this field is newsprint paper. Newsprint is the standard paper used by nearly all newspapers and is the grade of paper upon which this magazine is printed. In 1900 the United States consumed sixteen pounds of newsprint per person. In 1945 the figure jumped to sixty-two pounds per person. Remember, these figures refer to newsprint only, for if all grades of paper were included the consumption would rise to three hundred pounds per person annually. In 1946 the United States used well over four million tons of newsprint, and early figures for 1947 indicate a much larger consumption for the current year. The amount used during last January jumped 20 percent above that of January 1946. The increasing demand for newsprint enhances its commercial value and draws out the worst in men of greed.
Eyes turn toward the source of supply and production. Canada leads the world in producing newsprint. And during 1946
her production was some 5,250,000 tone, which was an increase of 894,000 tons over 1937. However, during 194G newsprint mills in other countries produced two million tons less than during 1937. In 1926 thirty-eight United States paper mills with a total plant capacity of 1,739,000 tons per year were manufacturing newsprint paper. But in 1946 only six of these mills were still operating, with a capacity of only 680,000 tons. Henee, more and more the United States has turned toward Canada for her supplies of newsprint. From there the United States noir obtains more than 75 percent of its requirements, and CanadaJs increased production has been outdistanced by the greater demands.
Hoggish Publisher a Corner Market
During the recent global war the United States government effected a fair distribution of available supplies to publishers large and small, and averted monopoly by controlling precious newsprint paper. But the death of government control in the fall of 1946 marked the birth of monopoly. Crowding out the small publishers, the large publishers planted themselves in the newsprint supply trough and gobbled up all the available paper. Some of this they lavishly squandered in a flood of f ulbpage advertisements, and some of it they stored for
future use. Pressure was clamped upon the paper mills, and the mills yielded and became a party to the big business monopoly at the expense of jobbers and small consumers that were considered “less desirable customers”. The longterm contracts of the large publishers with the mill contained “requirement clauses” that threw wide open to the large publisher all the mill’s production that he claims to require. The hasty scanning of any of the large daily public newspapers is sufficient to convince one that the exorbitant requirements are for commercial advertising rather than news reporting. In other contracts the large publishers were granted the privilege and guarantee of the first call on the total output of the paper mill.
Such hog tactics practically ended the open market in paper and stifled opportunities not only for expansion but even for existence of the small publishers. Many small publishers are heing strangled out of operation. Hearst papers in the United States consume 15 percent of the total newsprint used by the nation. Two hundred other large publishers in the United States use 85 percent of what remains. The 17,000 small publishers struggle along o few’ scraps that are left.
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., publishers of Awake! have been getting newsprint from the same paper mill for ten years, during the last seven of which a yearly contract had been annually renewed. Four months prior to the time of the contract’s expiration in 1946, the Watchtower Society was notified that the mill would not renew the contract for the coming year. The reason: large newspaper accounts were “more desirable and suitable”. Like many other small publishers, the Society was cast out to search for newsprint in the open market, a market that had been practically closed off. The Society was forced to stop printing booklets containing Bible treatises.
Government Intervention
In response to the nation-wide call of the small publishers, a Senate subcommittee, was organized to investigate. Several days were devoted to hearings at which the small publishers explained their plight. Culminating the hearing was a closed session with a number of large publishers, the announced purpose being to see what could be done on behalf of the small printers. The result was amazing: A committee of seven men representing some of the largest publishers in America was formed as a result of this closed hearing for the purpose of investigating the cases of the small publishers. The Senate subcommittee had handed over the hopes of existence of the small publishers to the powerful hands of the ones that were already choking them. Ten days elapsed and the seven-man committee reported buck to the Senate subcommittee as follows:
. We re-affirm the voluntary undertaking of the publishers to do all in their power through local association, and otherwise to see that all newspapers of general circulation, daily and weekly, obtain sufficient newsprint to continue to publish.
With respect to other publications, the committee is of the view that newspaper publishers cannot undertake to provide newsprint for such uses.
The fact that this farcical committee recognized the need of assistance from the large publishers proves that they know their monopolizing of paper has resulted in a shortage endangering the existence of the small publishers. However, they clearly declare their refusal to break their monopoly. Other newspaper associations, such as The Association of Newspaper Editors, idiotically deny that the small newspapers are in danger of closing down because of a lack of newsprint. Their declaration is that their investigations show a sufficient supply of newsprint for large as- well as small publishers. We believe this statement is true. There is an adequate sup-
ply of newsprint for all if fair distribution were followed. But the large publishers have glutted themselves on newsprint and have bloated their papers with advertising that is flagrantly space-wasting, So unjust and discriminatory has become the newsprint industry that it has recently been necessary for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to make inquiry into the matter. They have made this statement:
For the past several months we have been investigating complaints of a conspiracy among newsprint manufacturers operating in. Canada to restrain trade into the United States. These manufacturers, including subsidiaries of American firms, supply approximately 80 percent of the United States newsprint demand. The complainants have alleged that this conspiracy restricts production, fixes prices on exports to the United States and allocates the available supplies to favored newspaper publishers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been conducting the investigation to date, but we expect in the near future to proceed furtheriby means of grand jury subpoenas.
Free Press Endangered
The government faces an imposing problem. They face a monopoly that is not only greedy, but sinister. It is a monopoly that has.within its power .the ability to strike down freedom of the press. Freedom of the press can be dealt a death blow just as surely by control of newsprint as by strict censorship. If the columns that carry news reports and editorial opinion and public reaction are controlled by a few powerful interests, the presentation of essentia! news will, be just as narrow and limited and prejudiced as those few interests. On the other hand, if news and opinion are channeled to the public from many sources, the public will hear all sides of crucial questions of the day and they may use their own intelligence in forming their own opinions. It is more than a matter of a cry for help being raised from*the choking throats of small publishers. It is a cry to awaken all to the menace that confronts freedom of the press.
Occupants of the Newsprint Monopoly Pigpen
There axe two hogs in the newsprint pigsty. One is the big publishers and the other ia the mill owners. In the illustration on page 10, the one with the hat on is the latter. A report in the New York Times, April 4, tells of Canadian concern about the policy of newsprint manufacturers of that land. Price increases of newsprint are wholly disproportionate to increased manufacturing cost®. They have risen twenty -nine dollars a ton, or fully fifty-one percent, since the beginning of last year. This report coming out of Quebec declared that 4<the security holder, who is today rejoicing in fat profits and increased dividends, may well have reason to regret what many here regard as shortsighted price policy”. Combined net profits of sir leading Csnadian newsprint companies, after all charges and taxes were deducted, were $48,568,307 for 1946, to compare with $14,767,616 for 1945 and $12,884,323 for 1&43. The increase for the period is $35,683,984, or 276.1 percent. As of April 1, newsprint advanced another six dollars a ton.
ITFT
,rrow
GRADUALLY the health and strength of America’s public schools have been failing. Now the system lies on its sickbed and many physicians diagnose and prescribe. Congestion in its overcrowded schoolrooms is very bad and its deficiency in books, supplies and equipment as well as teachers has weakened the entire system. In recent months it has suffered more than a dozen convulsions in the form of teachers’ strikes; even the students themselves, in some instances, have marched out of the school buildings on "strike”. When an emergency call is sent out in the form of marches on city halls and State legislatures the sleepy political "physicians” give the patient their usual delayed-action pills, ointments and injections. Little do they realize the trouble is not a local infection, but rather a national malady, the virus of which reaches to the j where it is eating away the inner vitality of the school system that was once America’s pride and strength. It is therefore high time for Mr. and MrS. America, the parents of the 23,000,000 school pupils, who sit at the bedside wondering what ails their beloved educational system, to awake and examine-the symptoms, diagnose the disease, and administer the
proper,treatment before it is too late.
Why in America, where the greatest opportunity has been offered in the way of public education, was it necessary in the recent war to reject 1,704,000 men, 13 percent of the army’s strength, because they lacked a fourth-grade education? Why is it that since the war there are 7,000,000 children between five and seventeen that are not in school? Or why is it that 10,000,000 adults are not able to even read and write? Recently the New York Times made a nationwide survey seeking the answer to these and similar questions. This was followed by a convention at Atlantic City, N. J., of 10,000 of the leading school administrators, who listened for several days as 600 speakers reported from head to foot the ailments of the public schools.
Ailments
The greatest single cause for this crippling condition is said to be the low salaries paid teachers. Teachers have virtually stampeded from their schoolrooms for other jobs that offer more pay. Some 280,000 teachers have left the schools since Pearl Harbor; more than 600,000 since 1939. Ten thousand classrooms have been closed for lack of teachers, and the teachers that have remained are required to teach many more children. A few teachers get between two and three thousand dollars a year, but 28,000 get less than $600 a year, and 197,000 less than $1,200. After teaching for fifteen years one teacher said she got $60 a month for six months of teaching.
In an effort to better their condition teachers have joined the unions, and strikes have followed. The largest and most severe of these was staged in Buffalo, N. Y., where 3,000 teachers walked out for a week, leaving 72,000 pupils to roam the streets. Teachers, on the whole, are not radicals and do hot favor strikes, many are outspokenly opposed, but due to the financial “squeeze” they are in they have become desperate. This open warfare, and the odium it has raised, has had a very demoralizing effect on both the teachers and the pupils.
The question of teachers’ pay brings up another regarding the requirements a teacher should meet in order to teach. At present 125,000 teachers, or 15 percent, ate said to be incompetent because they hold sub-standard certificates. This is twenty times as many as before the war. But how can these be dismissed when there is a shortage of teachers estimated between 125,000 and 500,0001 Nor is there any hope for improvement in the near future. Twenty-two percent of the college students were enrolled in teachers colleges in 1920; 17 percent in 1930; and only 7 percent in 1946,
If the system is to grow stronger teachers must have their job guaranteed; it must not depend on political power. At present only 42 percent of the teachers have this protection, called tenure; 505,000 are unprotected. There must be increases in salary through the years, with old-age retirement benefits, if teachers are to remain on the job. And they must have their “personal rights” unmolested. So say the diagnosticians.
Other complaints have to do with the shortage of equipment. Classrooms are overcrowded and out of date, and corridors and cowsheds are pressed into service. In some’cases there are not sufficient textbooks to go around. Teachers also complain that the books should be revised, and not only the books but also the curriculum should he overhauled.
All of these things are like open, running sores that do not heal, and for which soothing balm in the form of federal financial aid is sought These sores are scattered over the country. There are 1,674 schools that spend $100 a year per classroom; 790 schools spend 60 times this amount. New York spends $179 per pupil; Mississippi, only $35. The national average is $105. The poor states seek federal aid; the rich states are opposed. It is indeed a lopsided nation that spends $2,500,000,000 on its public schools and four times that amount on alcohol and tobacco.
Analysis of the Complaints
First of all, should teachers’ salaries be raised? Those that say “no” argue that teaching is one of the softest jobs in the world, with three months’ vacation, They can have the job, say the teachers that are quitting every day. The holding of 40 to 60 youngsters under control is one of the hardest jobs in the world, and so they want more pay. In 1939 their salary averaged $1,408; now it is up to $1,950, but living costs have gone up that much too. Teachers’ salaries have gone up 31 percent, but wages in other fields have gone up 79 percent, So why should one go to college to get a teacher's job paying $2,000 a year when the fellow that quit school after the sixth grade is making $3,000 aa u bricklayer ?
Not only should teachersJ pay be increased, but - some of the injustices should be removed. For example, in Mississippi the salary of the 8,929 white teachers averages $1,108, whereas the average for the 6,236 Negro teachers, doing the same work, is only $398,73. Don’t overlook the 73 cents I
Should teachers be required to have four years of college to teach elementary grades, and,'in addition, a master’s degree for teaching high school? One who advocates this says, “We cannot continue to tolerate emergency teachers. It is just as sensible to recruit midwives to practice medicine just because we need more doctors.” It is questionable whether such advocates have the education of the children at heart or the enrollment in their colleges, which incidentally has dropped from 120,000 to 64,000-
This raises the question, “What are the requirements of a first-rate teacher?” One must have knowledge of the subject to be taught. Sincerity and enthusiasm, and the desire to tell others what one knows, are also necessary for successful teaching. The fourth essential is personality, which is listed as the all-important factor by a number of instructors. Per-
sonality, the ability to “put across” what one is teaching, includes the ability to deal with others without giving offense, sometimes called tact, and the ability to handle schoolroom problems with the pupils’ interest at heart.
What about tenure, advancement pay and old-age pensions for teachers? The least that society should do for the underpaid teaching profession is to give them such guarantees in gratitude for their valuable services. Also, teachers complain that their “personal rights” are invaded. Say they: If it is all right for the parents to set the example for their children by smoking and boozing, why not allow the teachers to give the children the same example?’ Why in the world teachers want to get down in the same wallow as some twentieth-century parents is indeed hard to understand.
Should the school buildings, equipment, books and curriculum be improved? In 1930, 4,395,000 students were attending high school; in 1940, 6,601,440 were attending, and these were only 77 percent of those eligible to attend. There were 28.3 students, on the average, in a class in 1934, but today many classes run over the 150 mark. Such figures fully recommend the expenditure of $10,000,-000,000 during the next decade for buildings and equipment.
The Vital Organs Are Also Diseased
It is not always apparent to the casual observer when the internal organs of the human body are diseased. And so it is with the malady that infects the vital organs, the textbooks and curriculum, of the public schools. Some of the “doctors” that have rushed to the bedside of the suffering school system have prescribed a purgative in order to remove from the books, especially the history books, all “bias”. The folly of this is manifest from a two-year survey just completed on 313 standard textbooks, which shows that so much “bias” has been flushed out of the books that even essential information is now omitted. If it were not such a tragic matter the Jesuits could be complimented on the thorough job they have done in removing aU evidence of their bloody footprints from the pages of the school history books. The ignorance resulting from such removal enabled the Catholic dictators, Mussolini, Hitler and Franco, to almost re-establish the “Holy Roman Empire”. Keep the children ignorant of this history and the same organization will soon be able to overthrow the American government, and with it its public school system. (For further details, see the April 8, 1947, issue of Awake!)
Plenty of criticism could be leveled at the overprogramed, nonessential activities that are packed into the curriculum for the purpose of “enriching” and broadening the pupil’s viewpoint of life. Especially is this true in the high schools. At a time in life when the students are restless, flighty and unstable they are put in a whirl of activity, from morning to night, with homework and social functions piled on to “keep them out of mischief”. What kind of citizens such mass-production, run-of-the-mill methods make is manifest by the delinquent, pleasure-crazy “graduates” that are loosed on society.
The basic and essential principles of education are woefully neglected by the pre.sent system. Thirty percent of those entering college are below the reading level of the elementary schools, and when it is realized how important reading is to obtaining knowledge, whether on the subject of chemistry or on the interpretation of xjausic, it is manifest that the educational system has ‘strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel’. No wonder it is sick!
Instead of teaching pupils how to think for themselves, how to use their own heads, the whole tendency is to feed the minds of the youth with the cooked-up propaganda hash of this old dying world. The principle of individual think-
Ing is destroyed and in its place the youths are regimented to think as a unit or mass* There is no difference between mass "thinking” on Nazi ideologies and mass “thinking" on this new global philosophy of a so-called “United Nations”. Both are regimented, robot thinking. Why not teach the youth the simple processes of individual thinking? Teach them how to solve problems and make decisions without outside influence. Teach them how to analyze and weigh evidence and reach a logical conclusion, and then how to act upon the same. The fundamental three B's of reading, Jriting and 'ritkmetic are still essentials, but are given only a superficial scratching.
The Cure for All Ills
Should federal money be used to help the, states finance the public schools? This is a question that has been debated for many years. The United States spends 1.5 percent of its national income on education, while Great Britain spends twice that amount, and Bussia five times as much, or 7.5 percent, for the education of its people. The suggestion has been made that America should spend not less than 5 percent of her income, or between five and eight billion dollars, on her public schools. And since the states are now spending two and a half billion, the suggestion is made that the federal government make up the balance. How-
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ever, of the ten bills before Congress that, call for federal aid for the schools, the Taft bill, which is the most likely to be passed, proposes to spend only one-quarter of a billion on education of the youth, and part of that is unconstitutionally earmarked for Catholic parochial schools, in violation of the separation of church and state policy.
Those standing at the bedside of the ailing public school system have prescribed, as a cure, a whole list of fifteen or more remedies. Let them all be given. Raise the salaries of the teachers (some states have already done so), Taise the standards of the teaching profession, lower the moral requirements of the teachers, increase their pensions, build them new schools, give them new equipment, revise the textbooks, overhaul the curriculum, and let the federal government foot the bill. Alas! the patient fails to recover. Schools are a part of this old world and in these “last days” they reflect the fierce times in which we live. Their downwardplunge is only the same trend in which the entire world moves. To reform the schools would be to divorce them from the world. That is impossible. And since the old world is beyond reform, it will be destroyed at Armageddon, In its place the Theocratic government of Jehovah God, the kingdom of heaven, will educate all in the precepts of righteousness.
Freedom to Preach, Worth All Suffering
C From the September 30, 1946, issue of the (Swiss) paper Volksrecht we quote: “In the great Nurnberg Stadium, built by the Nazis, where Hitler used to assemble multitudes of Naris to hear his official announcements and speeches, there on Sunday the so-called “Jehovah's witnesses" held their first convention since 1933. Among those present were large numbers of former prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, whose bondage aggregated a total of some 20,000 years. The leader of the movement in Germany, Rudolf Frank of Wiesbaden, declared in his address that it was no mere chance happening that the first mass assembly in this stadium since the Nazis were ousted should he held by Jehovah’s witnesses and should take place on the very evening before the Nazi leaders were to be executed—those men who were responsible for all the suffering Jehovah’s witnesses endured in Germany. ‘That we should be permitted to live to see this day/ exclaimed the speaker, ‘is worth all the suffering we had to endure P ”
In the Valley of Copan
IN Honduras, near Copan, there is a beautiful valley, about eight miles long and two and a half miles wide. Near-by mountains covered with lush vegetation rise to a height of -a thousand feet above the level of the valley. Majestic pines crown their heights. In the valley a dense undergrowth of short p$lms and bamboo trees spreads in all directions. On the mountain slopes game abounds, deer, wilcj hog, and many smaller animals. In the valley the parrots chatter to the accompaniment of the wild turkey’s gobble and the quail’s notes. The climate is inviting and healthful, wTarm and pleasant. It is such a valley as might perhaps be found in many places, yet it has an air of mystery and detachment from modern life that gives it an aspect all its own. True, there is a modern town at one end of the valley, but one can turn his back on it, exclude it from his gaze and concentrate on the more intriguing view of the remainder of it.
In the valley there are things that call to mind an ancient civilization, and with little effort the now forsaken scene can be peopled' by the imagination with a festive throng, festive yet solemn, as they gather from all directions and
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converge upon the center of attraction, a collection of remarkable images, curiously carved and arranged in order upon a large plaza, approached by steps of great width. To one side is a high tower, past which flows a river that beats against the rocky base, threatening to undermine with the passing of time the imposing structure. Another stairway leads to the river and down to the very edge of the waters. The people who congregate in this ancient temple area are quite*familiar with the story of the origin of the religious arrangements: how, many years ago, a great and powerful chief from Yucatan came and conquered the original inhabitants, establishing a civilization that produced these remarkable objects which attract the eye by their curiously and skillfully wrought ornamentation.
Yes, the people worship many things, most of their gods being identified with heavenly bodies with which their wise men are quite familiar, knowing their movements, their rising ,and their setting by intricate calculations, which are all recorded in stone, represented by curiously wrought symbols. Chief among the gods is the sun-god Tonacateculti, who was the father of Tezcatlipoca the moon-god and of Quetzalcoatl the evening star. A more sinister god is the god of death, represented by the vampire bat. The priestly wise men have also devised a complex calendar to keep track of events and to guide them in the matter of preparing the land for cultivation and the planting of various crops, including the “tobaco”, still grown in the valley to this day.
A Closer Look
Let ns draw a little nearer to inspect the images .that attract the populace to this surprising center of religious rite and worship. We note, as we approach, that these images are in the form of stone,pillars, but skillfully .carved, so that the figure of the god itself is surrounded by elaborate scrolls and de-
signs, giving him an imposing appearance, calculated to impress the worshiper, Before many of these pillar-gods there are altars, also carved from stone, with broad flat surfaces, and in many instances containing depressions into which a liquid may be poured, which is then carried off through spiral channels. The superstitious fear of the worshipers is heightened by the fact that the liquid received by these altars is blood, often, if not altogether, the blood of human victims J
For the most part, besides their ornamentation the carved figures have upon them hieroglyphics, inscriptions, or letterings”, finely executed- It appears that the human and well-sculptured figures represent actual personages, doubtless heroes or “saints” of the time gone by and now measurably worshiped because of their e^ploits^ which appear to be recorded in the hieroglyphics which are part of the statue.
The monuments known as “altars” are associated, generally, with one or another of the images, though some are oft by themselves. They vary greatly in form and size. Some are small, in the shape of a human head with grotesque face, and have a depression in the top, apparently intended to receive burning incense. Many of the altars are of rather simple design, rectangular or round, but almost always covered with the ever-present hieroglyphics. Some are ornamented, and have no inscriptions. One is in the form of a tortoise, the great block of stone constituting the back laid upon five other stones carved in the form of the feet and head.
As we observe some of the larger images more carefully we note that the ornamentation around the central figure includes smaller faces and figures of curiously wrought animals and other otb jects. These, it seems, represent episodes in the life of the hero here practically deified, and the inscriptions on the sides and back of the column tell more about his exemplary 'life.
The Hieroglyphic Staircase
The large staircase, upon closer inspection, reveals hieroglyphics in abundance. Consisting of 63 engraved steps, and each step 100 feet long, the entire group of stairs contains 2,500 individual blocks of hieroglyphics. The stairway is divided into eight grades and is so arranged as to read as a continuous account of some outstanding event.
And there,* in front of one of the greater images, our attention is attracted to a large altar of more than ordinary importance. Global in form, flat on top, and with a depression toward the front, from which two canals in spiral form lead off. It is called the “Bock of the Sacrifices”. The stair seats of the great amphitheater on all sides surround this grim altar. The crowd assembles as the priests prepare for their gory task. Fearful of witnessing the dreaded human sacrifice, we hastily withdraw from the scene of dut imagination, and now see only the valley with its dense undergrowth and its surrounding heights of summits crowned with majestic pines, and the whole wrapped in the peaceful warmth of a tropical summer day. But in among the shrubs and trees of the valley we now discern the ruins of that former civilization, the half-cultured, half-savage civilization of the ancient Mayas.
Certain of the temples and edifices of the ancient constructions have been restored, and the government of Honduras is making a national park out of the ruins. Already many tourists are making it a point to stop at Copan to see the ruins. At Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, there is a display of miniature replicas of many of the temples, pyramids, altars and estelas which once filled the valley.
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