Awake!, November 8, 1949

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THE POPE PURGES HIS CHURCH Can fie sweep back the Red tide with the papal broom of excommunication?

Duncan Disgraced by Patriotic Folly Oklahoma town seeks to honor the flag by violating the principles for which it stands

Wild Wisdom Outwits Winter

Storing up food in summer to overcome hunger in winter

Rock upon Which the Church Is Built

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

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CONTENTS

The Pope Purges His Church The Papacy Pulls Its Punch Counterpunchea Subdue the Decree Lies and Smears Boomerang!

Meet Crusader MeGra th

Duncan Disgraced by Patriotic Folly Delinquency of Officials The Mobsters' Putsch

Real Patriots Speak Out

Wild Wisdom Outwits Winter Birds irith Wise Foresight Behold the Wisdom of the Ants I

The Human Life-Span

Going to Build a Hornet

Rammed-Earth Construction

Glass and Concrete

Things io Consider in Home-building

Five-Percenters in the Government Pantry 20

Turkey Discards Her Shackles

Dramatic Reforms Introduced

"Thy Word Is Truth”

The Rock upon Which the Church Is Built 25

Catholic Censorship of WBBR Foiled

Watching the World

/AWAKE!/

^'Now it is high time to awake."—Romans 13:11 ?/

Volume XXX

Brooklyn, N. Y., November &, 1949

Number 21

THE POPE PURGES HIS CHURCH

Catholicism has' fought Communism on many fronts. Its failure is evident in that it now fights for Its life on Its own home front. Will papal excommunication of Catholic Communists purge the pope’s church? Will It turn back the Red tide that now rises in the ranks of Catholicism? And if not, what will?

THOLICISM threw a desperation uneh at Communism when the pope excommunicated Catholics professing that political doctrine. Did the punch land? With force? With strpng follow-through t Did the Red fo$ go down? Stagger back? Or strike back? These questions find their answer in the aftermath of the papal decree against Communism issued on July 13. The official translation from Latin of the decree follows :

This Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office has been asked:

1. Whether it is lawful to enlist in or show favor to the Communist party?

2. Whether it is lawful to publish, read or disseminate books, newspapers, periodicals or leaflets in support of Communist doctrine and practice or write in them any articles?

3. Whether Catholics who knowingly and freely place actions as specified in Nos. 1 and 9 above may be admitted to the sacraments?

4. Whether Catholics, who profess and particularly those who defend and spread, the materialistic and anti-Christian, doctrine of the Communists, ipso facto, as apostates from the Catholic faith, incur excommunication reserved especially to the Holy See ?

The most eminent and reverend fathers, charged with the defense of matters pertaining to faith and morals, after having previously heard the opinion of the consultors at a plenary session held on Tuesday, the 28th day of June, 1949, decreed that the above-mentioned questions be answered as follows:

To No. 1—In the negative, for communism is materialistic and anti-Christian. Besides, Communist leaders, although they sometimes verbally assert thAt they are not opposed to religion, show themselves nevertheless, both by doctrine and by action, to be in reality enemies of God, of the true religion and of the Church of Christ.

To No. 2—In the negative, inasmuch as this is prohibited by law itself [of Canon 1399, Corpus Juris Canonici],

To No. 3—In the negative, in accordance with the common principles governing refusal of the sacraments to those not having proper dispositions.

To No. 4—In the affirmative.

And on the following Thursday, the 30th of the same month and year, His Holiness Pope Pius XII, when informed of the decision in the usual audience granted to His Excellency, the Most Reverend Assessor, approved and ordered to be published the above answers in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

This papal decree concerns “not only Italy, but all the world”, said the Vatican newspaper Ossenvatore Romano, This means that it the decree is tuKen ai value, millions of Catholics will be excommunicated, for millions of them are members of the Communist party. Many additional millions support the party by votes or in other ways. To illustrate this, in Catholic France there are 1,000,000 Communist party members but in the. last general election the party polled 5,000,000 votes. In Italy, a 99.4 percent Catholic country, 2,283,000 are members of the Communist party and 8,000,000 voted for the Communist and left-wing Socialist parties. The New York Times of July 15 speaks of ‘12,500,000 Czechoslovaks, 9,000,000 of whom are Roman Catholics, and 2,311,000 of whom belong to the Communist party”. The same success story for Communism can be read in strongly Catholic Poland and Hungary and other

tend church

SWEEPING BACK THE OCEAN?

parts of Eastern Europe.

Truly it can be said that many millions of Roman Catholics are Communists or Communist supporters, and are therefore hit by the papal decree of excommunication.

The Papacy Pulls. Its Punch

Though the blow lands upon many, the papacy seems to have pulled its punch. It lacks any sharp application that imparts snap and vigor to it. The extent of its force is vague and confusing at best, and in the Communist-dominated lands where a knockout blow was needed most it amounted to no more than a feinting motion that drew swift counterpunching from the Red foe. The blow started from Rome did not thud home in Czechoslovakia,* where the Catholic cause is on the ropes. In the face of sharp counterblows it seems that the papacy is back-pedaling rather than wading in for a

HUUWUUWll BlLLgiCiSt. J_i±e LUO,I. aug-

gests this picture is as follows.

On July 14 in an article accompanying publication of the decree the New York Times said that the Roman Catholic clergy would “bar from the sacraments those who knowingly and freely enlist in or support the Communist party and read, or write in any kind of publication

in support of Communist doctrine or activity". It also stated that any excommunicated by this decree could not repent and get absolution from any priest but must have the matter referred to papal Rome and await a decision from the Congregation of the Holy Office, But two days later the Times quoted Vatican sources as saying the clergy would conduct no witch hunt for. Communists in their parishes and only when a “widely known Communist should attempt to at-and receive the sacraments he might be ousted by the priests” and that “if a Communist renounced the party and asked for forgiveness from his confessor, this would be granted, without any additional formality required to wipe out the excommunication”.

Again, Vatican circles said not all Communists are automatically excommunicated. If Catholics joined the party thinking it would not conflict with their religion they would not suffer automatic excommunication, but only if they continued in the party after learning of the decree. However, it seems that some can remain Communists and also Catholics, if refusal might “mean arrest or even death”. In other words, forget Jesus’ words about being “faithful unto death” (Revelation 2:10) Also, those who mere-

Jy support Communism with votes or money incur no excommunication. Does not all this conflicting interpretation smack of hedging? Marriage is one of the sacraments, and at least the sacraments are to be denied Communists who remain in the party after this decree. This was announced on July 17. But on August 17 the ruling was published that the church would marry two avowed Communists if they would rear their children as Catholics!

Counterpunches Subdue the Decree

Note how the papal punch at Communism has been pulled in Communist-controlled countries. Through fear the blow has not been allowed to land. A Religious News Service dispatch from Berlin said: "Konrad Cardinal VOn Preysing's office here announced that the excommunication decree recently promulgated by the Vatican against Roman Catholics assisting the Communists will not be read from pulpits in Berlin or the Soviet Zone because Red officials have threatened to arrest clergymen and laymen discussing the subject in public.”

In France the same listlessness is apparent. A New York Times correspondent wrote for its August 7 issue: “In each place the local priest was asked what had happened in his congregation since the issuance of the decree. In village after village the story was the same. Nothing has happened. The priests have not even mentioned the Vatican decree at mass or posted it on the church doors as the edict requires.... A known Communist was supposed to be godfather at a baptism. The priest said: Tie is a good fellow. Why start anything? So I let him act as godfather? ”

In Poland the government launched a counterblow that stopped the papal decree in its tracks. The Polish government issued a decree of its own that will “make priests liable to five years' imprisonment should they implement the Vatican's excommunication edict”. Article 4 says: 'Tie who misuses freedom of creed by refusing to let another person participate in a religious ceremony because of political, social or scientific activities or opinions is liable to imprisonment of up to five years.” Another article provides penalty for anyone who "forces another person by whatever means to participate in religious worship or ceremonies, or who illegally prevents another person from taking part in such ceremonies or worship”. As a result, the N. Y. Times correspondent found that in Poland the Vatican's decree has had "no discernible effect on the party membership”. He also reports: "If the Vatican's decree ordering the excommunication of all Communists and supporters of Communism was intended to have an immediate effect, it has failed in that purpose in Poland. . . . The church hierarchy is evidently loath to implement the decree at this time,”

Note the following Religious News Service dispatch of July 18 that gives Czechoslovakia's explosive reaction to the papal decree:

Prague—A law is being drafted that will give the Communist-dominated government virtually complete control of the Roman Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia, it was announced here by the government's official news agency. . . . Observers here believe that announcement of the proposed law constitutes a direct answer by the government to the Vatican's' decree of excommunication which Minister Cepicka called a “most foolish . . . act of a foreigner who does not know our country at all”. Cepicka claimed that 90 percent of the population last year voted approval of the government in elections and said that fully one-third of Czechoslovakia’s 9,000,000 Catholics belong to the Communist party.

“Let no one,” he declared, “have the slightest doubt that any one who, in any way, should attempt to carry out this directive of the Vatican perpetrates treason. All acts violating valid laws will be punished as such. Whoever tries to carry out on our territory the order of the main enemy of our state (the pope), let biro count on the fact that he must forfeit all right to call himself a Czech or Slovak?1

Catholicism Retreats in Czechoslovakia

And was this challenging gauntlet cast down at the feet of the Catholic hierarchy in Czechoslovakia fearlessly snatched up and the battle joined? Did the prelates obediently and zealously relay the excommunication blow launched by the supposed ‘‘Vicar of Christ”? Hardly. The .New York Times, August 10, reported that a high Roman Catholic churchman there said “it was one thing for the Vatican to state a theoretical proposition” but “still another thing for a Czechoslovak to put the edict into practice”. rtThis is a Communist country and everyone cannot be excommunicated,” he said.

Previously Vatican circles had said that the excommunication of convinced Communists was automatic and that “excommunication has no need of a material executor who can be traced and punished”. In Czechoslovakia the press has maintained this same position; but the high churchman above quoted said that “unless specifically stated no one had been excommunicated”. This same Times report also said:

A Communist National Committee chairman, who headed a delegation that recently called on Archbishop Josef Matocha of Olo-mouCi asked whether his delegation, as Communists, were to consider themselves excommunicated, The archbishop, he said, replied that they should await explicit action by the church in Czechoslovakia and, in the meantime, continue to worship as always.

Out of Moscow came stinging denunciation of the papal decree. After claiming this was the Vatican’s contribution to the “cold war”, the Moscow radio hurled the following counterpunch:

Today the Vatican has taken its stand firmly on the side of the most extreme reaction. The Holy See has not the slightest intention of excommunicating those who publicly call for a new war, for dropping atom bombs. People will hardly be likely to forget that the Vatican never employed against the warmongers and Fascist chiefs those measures which it today threatens the upholders of peace and democracy [Russian term for Communism], On the contrary, the Vatican clique always managed to live in the greatest harmony with aggressive and Fascist chiefs.

For example, Hitler’s ally, Franco, stained with the blood of the Spanish people, is still in high favor with the Holy See. The Vatican’s attitude to Franco today is a repetition of its . attitude to his patrons, Hitler and Mussolini, not so long ago. After the Fascist seizure of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), the pope himself officially congratulated Mussolini on the victory. Even in face of Oswieeim and Buchenwald, Pius XII never found one single word of condemnation for Hitler and his clique.

All the facts shout that the papacy is not practicing what it is preaching—excommunication of Catholic Communists. The pope is purging his church in theory only, not in fact. Granted that Communism is guilty of much sin and cannot be harmonized with Christianity, still it has' not yet matched the devilishness of Catholic Hitler and Catholic Mussolini. Honest Catholics requested the pope to excommunicate them, and were told to mind their own business. Millions of Fascist and Nazi Catholies fought for the Axis .Powers, but were not excommunicated. The record shows that papal blessings accompanied the conquests of Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito and Franco. The supposed persecution of Catholic hierarchies at Axis hands was largely smokescreen to blind the democracies. Had it been real, and had the pope opposed bloody World War II, would he not have invoked excommunication of the Catholic perpetrators of that global blood-bath?

Lies and Smears Boomerang!

Now some emotional Catholics reading this will shout that Jehovah’s witnesses are Communist because of taking this position. These Christians have often been slandered and libeled with the Red smear* Not so long ago "Father” Baker’s magazine Victorian, published at Lackawanna, N. Y., reported the following lie:

The Catholic Press tells us that the atheistic government of Poland is financing sects like the Jehovah’s witnesses in order to destroy the Catholicity of the people. ‘TVatch-tower” salesmen are making the rounds of homes with pamphlets reviling the Church, Sunday lectures also are organized, denouncing Catholicism and glorifying Communism.

This is only one of many instances where Catholic propaganda has painted Jehovah’s witnesses a fiery Red. But let these lying tongues now take note, that there is not one Communist that is also one of Jehovah’s witnesses, and that Jehovah’s witnesses have never had to excommunicate millions to purge their ranks of Communists! And let these Red-smearing Catholic zealots always remember that by papal adrhission literally millions of Catholics are also Communists and many millions more are supporting Communism with money and votes! And let them not forget that even a showy decree of excommunication was not enforced and could not wash off the heavy splashes of Red that stain the ranks of Catholicism! The tables are turned! Their charges boomerang! They have dug a pit for Jehovah’s witnesses; they have fallen into it themselves I Now let them wrestle with the beam in their own eye before worrying about motes in the eyes of others.

One final thought to consider: Catholicism is no bulwark against Communism. It prepares the ground for Communistic seed. It has spawned poverty and oppression in the countries it has so long dominated. It has not ^aught the Bible. It has not built up a faith that is resistant to atheism. Hence it is that Communism has taken such strong root in the Catholic soil of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and even in Catholic Italy. Knowledge of the Bible builds a shield of faith that 'will turn aside the fiery darts of atheistic Communism, and this knowledge and shield Catholicism does not offer, Jehovah’s witnesses do have it, and that is why they have not one single Communist in their ranks. All those who possess such knowledge and live by it will be delivered from all oppressive forms of human government at Armageddon, to live thereafter under the peaceful reign of Christ’s kingdom.

Meet Crusader McGrath

*3? On August 16 Senator McGrath, now attorney general, served as chief speaker at a Knights of Columbus convention in Portland, Oregon. He said Catholics must “rise up and put on the'armor of the church militant in the battle to save Christianity and democracy”. He urged a “bold offensive” against the “carrion-demon of erase materialism”. “Piety and patriotism alike demand a reminting of the coinage of our Christian civilization. They demand an exorcism of materialism and Godlessness. We must declare that the law of Christ makes illegitimate much that pretends to be legal, that our politics, our economics, our education, our sociology, must not only be moralized but vigorously evangelized,” he said, then added significantly: “This cannot be done by affecting a silken piety or some sentimental vaporing, but by example, and a determined, manly application, in the manner of St. Paul, resolute and muscled in character. And if we Catholics must stand alone in that battle—far better the valiant few than the indifferent many. The Spartan advice still holds: 'If thy sword is too short stay close to thine enemy.’ ” But Paul did not use muscle to evangelize, nor the sword, nor Spartan methods. Strange talk this, from the attorney general, that urges a religious group to militantly save the nation.

Duncan Disgraced by Patriotic Folly

Mob violence, done in the name of the flag, led by prominent citizens, participated in by American Legionnaires, supported by cursing city officials, unopposed by the police, brings shame to Duncan, Oklahoma. But many residents of Dunean have no sympathy for mobs or mob rule.

WOULD you seek to honor God by serving Satan? Would you increase His worshipers by the forced conversions of a devilish Inquisition? Would you teach democracy by practicing monocracy? Would you inspire respect for the 'flag by violating the principles for which it stands? Would you defend Constitutional law and order by scuttling them in a spree of lawless disorder and mob violence? Would you go north to get south? climb up to get down ? jump into water to dry off? put on overcoats to get cool in summer? or strip off to warm up in winter? How foolish to try to accomplish such purposes by procedures so opposed! The one attempting it could only err; “in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray?'—Proverbs 5:23.

It was just such folly as the foregoing that led astray some patriotic citizens of Duncan, Oklahoma. They tried to teach democracy by practicing mobocracy, tried to inspire respect for the flag by violating its principles, tried to defend the Constitution by scuttling it, tried to convert others to their brand of patriotism by using force. They wanted to mold everyone into their patriotic pattern. There was not room in their narrow minds for more than one way—their way —of expressing love of country. So, snatching up the ugly cudgel of mob violence they sought to club the dissenters into conformity with their own narrow rut. No Constitutional law establishes their patriotic ritual or brands as a heretic any who fail to conform, yet they overran the flag's principles in a vain attempt to force participation in their outward show of ceremony and formalism. In their folly they went astray, and brought disgrace to their city.

Following their usual policy, the public press failed to give the facts and whitewashed the wrongdoers. Only the highlights of Duncan's patriotic folly can be given here. Jehovah's witnesses arranged to hold an assembly for worship in Duncan, July 15-17, the climax of which was to be a public Bible lecture. The high school auditorium was contracted for as the assembly-place, and advertisement of the public talk began. Leaflets were distributed on the streets and from door to door, placards were placed in store windows, and by permission of City Manager John Bender two large street banners were stretched over the main street.

Delinquency of Officials

Enter Police Chief Raymond Webb. He was police chief in Guthrie, Oklahoma, when police interfered with the work of Jehovah's witnesses there. Now, Webb demanded that the streamers be taken down, after police and fire department personnel had assisted in hanging them. Why? He said they blocked motorists’ vision of traffic lights. They did not. The real reason? Webb was only an inglorious puppet, whose strings were pulled by City Commissioner O. B. Powers. When Powers was approached he generously seasoned Ms speech with blasphemous cursing as he shouted that the signs must come down, could go up nowhere else, that all the city commissioners were American Legionnaires and in harmony with him in opposing the witnesses, and then threatened to ‘‘knock your damn head off That was on Thursday, July 14.

On Friday, July 15, the wholesale removal of the placards from store windows began till few were left. It was evident that organised and concerted pressure had been brought to bear. However, when witnesses called on storekeepers and explained the work and disproved the misrepresentations, many of the placards were returned to the windows. But recurring rumors and threats nfade it evident that trouble was brewing for the public meeting. Influential 0* B. Powers rabble-roused by airing his dislike for’ the witnesses. Pressure was brought on Dion. Wood, school superintendent, to cancel the contract. Mr-Wood even went to reason with unreasonable Powers, to no ayail. Through it all the school superintendent 'proved that he was a real American, appreciating that patriotism involved more than flag-waving. He stood by his contract, and championed free speech, worship and assembly.

On Saturday the temperature of patriotic hotheads rose higher. Witnesses preaching the gospel from door to door in near-by Comanche were mobbed by several hundred persons, forced into their cars and run out of town. In Duncan that afternoon during advertising on the streets threats of violence piled higher. Roving hoodlums taunted and cursed the ministers, tore the Bible magazines from their hands and ripped the advertising placards from their backs. Chief mobster and prominent businessman R. L. March donned brass knucks and attacked one witness. But when March saw that another witness was taking a motion picture of his display of the stormtrooper spirit he abandoned his original victim and charged and beat the photographer in an effort to destroy the camera. He broke his left hand. So outrageous was his conduct that the police had to arrest him, though they were generally indifferent t-o the street mobs that were assaulting the ministers. The police refused to accept proper charges against March, and by forfeiture of a ten-dollar bond he w’ent free.

The Mobsters' Putsch

Sunday, July 17, was D-day for the Nazi-spirited mobsters. During the morn' ing and early afternoon the mob's soundcar cruised the streets rabble-rousing against the witnesses and recruiting gullible simpletons. (Proverbs 14:15, 29) The Bible lecture wTas to begin at 3 p.m. At 2: 15 p.m. thp witnesses assembled in the auditorium, about 700, began singing Kingdom songs. Outside was a mob of 200 or 300 hoodlums.' Then into the hall marched two lines of about 50 men each, headed by one carrying an American flag. A line coming down each side of the hall, they met at the stage and the ones carrying the flags posted themselves one on each side of the speaker at the microphone, M. M. Downie, a traveling representative- of the Watchtower Bible Society.

The mob's spokesman grabbed the microphone and demanded that everyone sing the national anthem and salute the flag or be put out of the building. Then he mounted a chair and led as mobsters sang about a flag whose principles they were at that very moment flouting. Jehovah’s witnesses sang « Kingdom song. Another mobster repeated the demand, and led off the singing, but with the same conflicting result. Then one of the frustrated hoodlums struck a young witness, who hit him back. The fight started, and raged on for thirty minutes.

Leading in the mobbing was R. L. March with his bandaged hand that he had broken the dav before, his sister Mary March Sheppard, W. H. Sharp, Jack Cohen, Otto Utt, Robert McVay,

Herbert Strachan, George Smith and Jerry Pitman, The rioters brought their weapons, but many of them were wrested from their owners and used on mobster heads. One mobster hurled a chair that almost completely sheared an ear from Utt’s head. Otto raced from the hall a bloody mess, shouting, “Who said the witnesses won’t fight? Look at me!” The hoodlums had rallied support from surrounding towns and did not know all their cronies, so when a witness held one mobster and shouted for another piobster to hit him, he obliged and knocked out his own man. Most of the mobsters were World War II veterans and Legionnaires. Older Legionnaires were watching outside to see the anticipated flight of the witnesses. When they 'did not appear one of the oldsters took his ball bat and dashed into the building to help. Soon he emerged, minus the bat, and bawling, "They took my bat away from me!” About a dozen witnesses and an equal number of mobsters were badly beaten, but even the hoodlums admitted they got the worst of it. When one was later asked if they cleaned out the witnesses he retorted, "We couldn’t even stop them from singing 1”

Bible Lecture Delivered!

■ The fight was halted by firemen who turned their hoses on the battlers. It was one minute till three. The microphone was gone, many witnesses were bloody and bruised with clothing torn, the mobsters were gathered in one corner, and the two flag-desecraters resumed their position alongside the speaker on the platform. This was the setting for opening prayer and song and introduction of the speaker. Then for fifty minutes Mr. Downie shouted his speech, without microphone, notes or Bible, Opening remarks that Jehovah’s witnesses pledged allegiance to Jehovah God and Christ’s kingdom, but respected the flag and its principles and obeyed the laws of the land drew a tremendous burst of applause from the witnesses themselves, which seemed to knock the wind from the mobsters and made some of them think for the first time. By the end of the talk, which was successfully con-eluded, the mob outside was almost beyond control. Windows were smashed arid firecrackers thrown into the audience. One of the firecrackers seriously burned a child on the cheek.

At the conclusion the.mobsters wanted to make a speech. They were told they could, but the witnesses, walked out on them then. Who could learn anything about Christianity or even patriotism from such blinded tools of folly? Be it said, however, that even some of these blinded ones got their eyes opened by that afternoon’s events. After the lecture some of them were chagrined at their conduct and apologized for their part in the fracas. The inhabitants of Duncan generally seem to disapprove of the mobbing. But March is set in his evil way, for Sunday evening he went to a tourist camp and stoned one of the cars of the witnesses and burned its upholstery. Other mobsters went to motels looking for victims. One woman managing a tourist camp was so incensed she threatened to greet the gangsters with a shotgun if they returned to her place. On the other hand, the presiding minister of the Dunean congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses was fired from his secular employment because of the mobbing. But Sid Caldwell, American Legionnaire, said he was withdrawing from the Legion because of their lawless share in the rioting. Which shows there are some in that organization who understand real patriotism, and stand for it.

Real Patriots Speak Out

Editorially, the press generally condemned the mobsters. The Shawnee News-Star said: "There’s an uncomfortable parallel between Hitler’s troopers smashing a Jewish synagogue and a gang of misled Dunean veterans interfering with the worship of Jehovah’s witnesses.” Columnist Leon Hatfield said in the Oklahoma City Advertiser: “Oklahoma this week took a high place on the national shame list becausea small group of twisted thinkers at Duncan committed an atrocity in the name of patriotism?* Under an editorial caption “The Duncan Disgrace” the Frederick Press stated:

The United States flag is too sacred to be used by any group while committing a crime. . ... No self*respecting organization, reli-1 gious, fraternal or civic, will allow its program' to be interfered with without protest even if the intruders seek immunity by displaying the U, S, flag. . . . Some may argue that the Jehovah witnesses ought to be glad to salute the U. 3. flag. Jehovah's witnesses interpret the Bible to mean that it is a form of idolatry to salute anything man-made. Many have paid with tjieir lives for refusing to salute the flag. The IL S. Supreme Court has ruled on this- and decided that the Jehovah's witnesses can not be compelled to salute the U. S. flag when it conflicts with their conscience. When Mussolini began his purges in Italy, Hitler in -Germany and Franco in Spain the first group that was sent to the concentration camps is said to have been Jehovah's witnesses. And while many of them were tortured to death few if any of the faithful are said to have been conquered. Jehovah's witnesses love the United States. But they believe they are disobeying God when they join a combat organization whose object is to kill.

Newspaper columns devoted to publishing reader comment were sprinkled with letters condemning the Duncan mobsters, but most remarkable was the expression of Erle P. Halliburton carried in the Duncan Daily Banner, July 24. He is one of the owners of the extensive Halliburton interests (relative to the oil industry) in Duncan, and many Duncan citizens work for him. His statement shows rare insight It follows :

Duncan made the front page of the Dos Angeles Times and many other metropolitan newspapers as a result of the unpleasant episode* between certain citizens and the Jehovah's witnesses last Sunday. It's the kind of publicity that the Ku Kluxers are giving Georgia and other states. Such publicity is undeserving of our city, yet it is given more news space than the kinder publicity that the chamber of commerce tries to get published throughout the nation.

I do not share the religious beliefs of the Jehovah's witnesses, but I would defend with my life their right to practice their religious faith, and I would do the same for any other religious denomination. If it has. been the practice of the school board and the superintendent to allow other religious denomina-■ tions to use the auditorium—and I am told the Baptists pay $50 a month for the privilege of using the auditorium for Sunday school classes every Sunday morning—then they were within their rights by not discriminating against the Jehovah's witnesses when they allowed Jehovah’s witnesses to use the auditorium.

As I understand the belief of the Jehovah's witnesses, they place God above any government. They are, therefore, opposite of any Communists, who place Communism above God, and any other government other than Communism. Perhaps this would not be a bad world if we all placed God above political ideologies. At least we would avoid devastating wars, caused generally by people who place government ideologies above God. Those Jehovah's witnesses who refused to register for the draft went beyond their belief. [None refused to register; press reports that confused identity may have left that impression.] But those Jehovah's witnesses who registered for the draft and, as conscientious objectors refused to fight, were within their rights. If we had all been this kind of a Jehovah's witness, including our enemies, there would have been no war, .

Let he without sin cast the first stone. Was it the Jehovah's witnesses who were holding a peaceful meeting, for the purpose of worshiping, in accordance with their consciences, God as they understand Him, or was (Continued on page 28)

cellar and barn crammed with more than enough to keep his family through the coming wintertime, a wise man is prone to boast of his foresight and industry. But when he brags of his accompli s h m e n t, let him remember that he is not the only animal that works hard all summer laying up provisions against a time of scarcity. There are many lowly , creatures—insects, birds and mammals s —that silently do * the same thing.

Working industriously as farmers, gardeners, butchers, dairymen and honeygatherers, these go about garnering, in grain, hay, meat, nuts and sugar with seemingly more foresight than many humans.

The best-known examples of those among wild life that store up food for the wintertime are the bees and squirrels. Bees, if not given a furnished house by man, first set about constructing a suitable warehouse and apartment of exceptional beauty and utility. The first few floors of a hive contain the sleeping quarters for some 5,000 workers as well as a huge nursery for the young. On the upper floors, where there are thousands of cells, the winter's supply of pure honey is sealed away in airtight containers of wax. As long as there is any empty space in this attic the bees continue working.

Mr. Squirrel, in storing away his nuts for the winter, is more sagacious than the bee. Not only does he hide them away in hollow trees, but he also buries any number of nuts in the ground, just to make sure he is not caught short if misfortune robs him of his cache in the trees. So often, however,- the squirrels themselves forget where they bury their winter supplies and soon a new crop of young trees is growing up from the unclaimed nuts.

Other rodents that lay up a good supply of fodd before the snow flies include the mice, gophers, beavers and pikas. Comes autumn, field and harvest mice and other species that live in or near cultivated fields of grain fill their nests and burrows with a good supply of these man-raised, hunger-satisfying kernels. But when it comes to stealing grain from the farmers, the mouse is one of the smallest of petty thieves compared with his cousin, the gopher. In the great grain states of Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas the amount of grain hauled off by gophers is said to be a serious taxation on farmers.

Gophers dig vast tunnel-works underground. A gopher is among the most industrious of workers, digging as much as a 200-yard tunnel in 48 hours. That is about 1,000 times its own length. If a man were to do the same amount of work he would have to shovel out a half-mile trench a foot deep; and remember the gopher does it all by hand: no pick and shovel for him! Public opinion to the contrary, pocket gophers do not fill their cheek pouches with the excavated dirt and carry it out. Instead, after they shovel a good pile beneath and behind them, they turn around and push it on out, bulldozer-fashion. Their large cheek pockets, however, are not idle appendages, but are used to carry in seeds, grain and nuts for the side chambers of their rambling homes.

Another member of the rodent family that outsmarts winter hunger by filling up the “larder” ahead of time is that famous dam-building fellow with proverbial energy ;to work, the beaver. During the summertime these wise creatures build a dam and stock-pile the pond thus formed with a good supply of limbs off poplar, alder, swamp ash and willow trees. Then when streams and ponds are frozen over and deep snow covers the ground the beavers live on the bark of the limbs.

Farmers, in “making hay while the sun shines”, and piling it away in their barns for the winter, only mimic the lowly little pika. Smaller than the common hare, the pika lives at very high altitudes—up to 16,000 feet; never below the timber line—in the Alps, Himalayas and Rockies. Europeans call the pika the “piping” or “calling” hare, due to its shrill bark, while the American Indians name it “little chief”. Instinctively and ingeniously, “little chief” begins cutting down great quantities of grass and tender herbs in the early autumn. But, somehow, some spark of intelligence tells this little fellow to first allow the sun to dry and cure the new-mown hay before stacking it away deep in his underground barn.

Birds with Wise Foresight

California woodpeckers have such a.

strong instinct to wintertime-that they often go on a rampage apd drill holes in trees and tele-phone poles by the thousands, into which they wedge acorns and even smooth pebbles for the future. Many of the nuts are forgotten apd the following year a new crop is stored away. Concerning these birds W. Tresper Clarke of Brooklyn, New York, writes the following to Science News Letter magazine:

store up food for the

One of - the difficulties a number of years ago, and it possibly still exists, was that woodpeckers riddled electric and telephone poles, and inserted hundreds of acorns into the holes. A few months later the woodpeckers would return to find a juicy worm inside. Most often they pecked out the worm and muc-k the acorn meat still in the shell. Many of the-holes would be cleaned out by removing the acorn hulls, so that the same holes could be used again the next year.

The woodpecker apparently uses this method to select a portion of food for his exclusive use, tl^en eats it in his own sweet time. Do you suppose the bird knows that by so doing he is cultivating a crop of animal food from his vegetable food and does it on purpose? If so we would have a good example of Brer Woodpecker playing Food Technologist, converting vegetable material into animal fats, proteins and vitamins which, to my way of thinking, is really something!

The butcherbird, or shrike, is another bird that makes sure it does not go hungry during the wintertime. This powerful bird feeds on insects, frogs and lizards, but when these are not easily obtained it is the custom of this bird to seize mice, shrews, etc. It then carries them off to a thorny tree or a barbedwire or spiked fence, and there it impales its victims. Often it happens that several choice cuts of meat in a frozen state are hung on the thorns, like meat in a butcher shop, near this bird’s nest where it can be eaten when needed. It is said that the Germans call these birds “nine-killers” in the belief that the birds aim to have at all times at least nine victims hung up in their open-air refrigerators.

Behold the TFfedoffi of the Ants!

If perchance you think the bees, squirrels, mice, gophers, beavers, pikas, woodpeckers and butcherbirds are the smartest of all creatures in the world, then you overlook the marvelous activities of the ants. In fact, a study of ants shows they are unexcelled as harvesters, farmers, gardeners, canners and dairy operators.

During the summer the harvest ants carry on their life and social activity in the upper galleries of their mounds, but ht harvest time these chambers are converted to granaries where garnered seeds are stored. They collect a great variety of grass and weed seeds: pigweed, lambsquarters, knotgrass, prairie sunflower, millet brome grass, squirreltail, witch grass, dropseed, pickle poppy, saltbush and kernels of wheat. Very careful to thresh their grain before storing it away, the chaff is stripped off and dumped in the dooryard and the seeds are carefully deposited inside—each kind of seed in a separate bin.

Sometimes after the grain is gathered in a long rainy spell soaks it up, a thing that would be disastrous to the ants before the next spring if not corrected. Wild wisdom comes to their aid and energetically they haul the seeds out on bright sunny days to dry them before they mold or germinate. They are then taken down to the deep subterranean warehouse for the winter. Down there, far below the frost line, it never freezes solid at the time the seeds are most needed nor do marauding rats and mice break in and steal their treasure.

If it so happens that there is insufficient food in the locality certain species of ants put on their overalls, get out their farming equipment and go to work, if one can believe the following amazing report as given by the naturalist Royal Dixon.

Early one spring, rambling through the woods I stumbled upon a patch of dwarfed, semiwild rice. It was about three feet by five feet in extent, and the rice was two or three inches high. From all appearances it was being carefully tended. The soil about the roots was loose, and there wasn’t a weed in it. Stranger still, there wasn't another blade of rice anywhere near. That rice hadn’t hap’ pened: it had been planted.

Noticing a great many ants running to and fro among the tiny rows, I stretched out on the ground to see what they were up to. Soon it dawned upon me that those ants were cultivating that patch of rice, and in a businesslike fashion. Some were vigorously burrowing, as scientific a piece of plowing as you ever saw; others were weeding. Where a blade ot grass showed its head above ground, <a couple of husky fellows neatly clipped it off and dragged it away. There were guards to keep off cutworms and enemy insects.

All summer I visited this ant “farm". By late August the ripe grain was 24 inches high and harvesting got under way. A steady line of workers climbed the stalks; each plucked a grain and hustled it down and off to an underground storeroom. By dropping color on them to identify them, I found that the same ones worked on the same stalk until it was stripped. In one comer a group were using their heads to save their legs; the ants that climbed the stalks plucked the grain and dropped it to the ground, where it was picked up and carried off by another squad. . , .

These agricultural ants are common in most of our southern states. Their closest rivals in intelligence, perhaps, are the parasol ants of Brazil who grow their food under artificial conditions down in the basements of their homes.—From J7ie Digest,

Gardeners and Canners

Leaf-eutting ants are nicknamed <fpar-asol” ants because when headed for home each carries in its powerful jaws a fragment of a green leaf much larger than itself, held overhead as if it were a parasol or umbrella, No, the ants do not eat the leaves even though they are vegetarians. The leaves are used as fertilizer for their underground “mushroom” gardens, which are very extensive, several square feet in area, and extend downward to a depth of eight feet. Here, on the floors of these light less rooms, the ch ewed-up leaves are made into humus beds upon which the ants grow crops of white mold or fungus for their special diet

Society life in a leaf-cutting ant colony is divided according to work performed. The workers that care for and cultivate the gardens are quite small in size, whereas those that cut down .and haul the leaves home are nearly three times, as big. The soldiers that defend the city against5 all enemies are still larger.

The wisdom of the wild honey ants of Australia may not exceed that of the Brazilian leaf-cutters but it is just as wonderful. Instead of gardening, these ants gather honey and bottle or can it for their winter .supply of food. Bees pack their honey-bearing nectar away in waxy cells; not so, these ants. They select members of their own tribe, place them in circular chambers that lead off every 9 to 12 inched from a vertical shaftway that goes down 6 or 7 feet in the ground, and here in these chambers they make “bottles” out of the chosen ants. These special repositories are fed sugar-sweet nectar brought in by the workers until their abdomens swell out to a diameter greater than their length.

When thus filled, these jirwmba, as the natives call them, are incapable of mov-. ing around and look for all the world like amber-colored cherries with a head and thorax and tiny legs attached. If the natives do not dig up these golden balls of honey, which are the size of peas when inflated, and eat them, the honey lasts the colony all winter.

Antdom's "Dairymaids” and "Cowboys”

Wild wisdom as displayed by ants finds no greater expression than in the way they maintain herds of “milk cows’' for their own use. The common red ants found throughout the United States are among those that pasture and look after such “cows”, which are small green, brown, black or red plant lice or aphids. These lice suck the juice from leaves or sap the sugar from roots. They need only a small amount of this for themselves, and the rest they excrete as a honeydew. If stimulated by ants they will put to shame any Holstein cow by producing several times their own weight in a single day—up to 48 drops in 24 hours!

It is most interesting to watch the “dairymaid” do* her milking. Going back and’forth between the lice as they graze on a green-leaf pasture, she gently strokes the aphids’ abdomens, causing them to give drops of milk. Nor is this robbery. The ants repay the plant lice by protecting both them and their young from all their enemies, and in the fall of the year the ants gather the aphid eggs 'and store them in their own mounds. Then, with the coming of spring they are gently carried out, hatched, and looked after for the rest of their lives. Dixon says that once, at the distant rumble of thunder, he observed thousands of ant “cowboys” dash up a tree, round up the herd and carry them to the underground barns of safety before rain fell.

Then there is another group of animals, which include bears, raccoons, badgers, woodchucks and bats, that hibernate all or part of the winter. During the summer these store up food for the coming period of famine, not in barns, not in nests, not in hives or trees or in the ground. Instead, they store up several months’ supply of fat right beneath their skin. This way they always have it with them, never have to bother about preparing meals, and can draw upon it without disturbing sleep during winter.

Thus creatures that do not migrate and are not able to forage for their food in the dead of winter are endowed by

Jehovah God with instinctive wisdom that enables them to make necessary provision for the future. The ants being the most representative of this class, the Lord tells us to learn this wisdom from them: “Go to the ant, 0 sluggard, study her ways, and learn wisdom; for though

she has no chief, no officer, or ruler, she secures her food in the summer, she gathers her provisions in the harvest. The ants—they are no strong folk, yet they lay up their food in the summer.” —Proverbs 6:6-8; 30*: 25, An American Translation.

The Human Life-Span

While modern skeptics doubt the Biblical ages of the old patriarchs, the Jews and other ancient races never questioned the great ages. Josephus gave a list of ancient authorities who believed that the early patriarchs did live nearly a thousand years. And he also observed that their astronomical and geometrical discoveries could not have

been made had they live less than 600 years—an observation supported by modern astronomical researchers. ... As we go back before the Flood, we are confronted by that objection which is supposed to weigh heavily against the probability of historical accuracy, viz., the extreme longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs. Better knowledge of physiology has constrained the most able modem investigators to minimize that objection. For example. Dr. Foissac, in his Le Longe-vile Humaine, wrote:

C “There is nothing in the human organs, in the functions, or in the properties of the body, to indicate their duration ... It is neither contrary to reason, nor to the laws of the human organism, apart from unnecessary and incidental maladies that disturb its harmony, or external violence that injures its mechanism, that it should live for many centuries. The long life of the Biblical patriarchs is a fact more rational, more in accord with the known laws of physiology, than is the brief existence of men who inhabit the earth today.” (pp. 346-7); C The consensus of opinion, expressed by scholars and scientists who have made these matters a life-study and are most competent to judge, is.that: (1) It is more difficult to explain why man dies than to show that he should live forever.—Dr. A. E. Crew. (2) There is no physiological reason known at the present day why man should die.—Win. Hammoun, late Sur. Gen. U. S. Army. (3) Death is not a primitive attribute of living matter; it is of secondary origin. There are animals that. never die.—Prof. Weismans. (4) The human frame as a machine is perfect. It contains within itself no marks by which we can possibly predict its decay. It is apparently intended to go on forever.—Dr. Monroe. (5) In years to come, when man learns more about how to live, he will never know illness, and will live for thousands of years.—Prof. J. S. Haldane. {6) With a perfectly balanced endocrine system, such as a normal man has, one should live forever. In fact, your Fountain of Youth lies within yourself.—Dr. Fried enburg, N.Y. (7) The cause of somatic death is simple, and may be completely avoided. Old age, which is somatic death partially consummated, can also be prevented. It is possible for man so to control his vital energy that perpetual youth, with perfect health, may be realized.—Harry L. Gaze in How to Live Forever, p. 23. . . .

C, The beat authorities of modern times express the opinion that the remarkable ages to which the Biblical patriarchs lived is actually more natural and more in accord with the known laws of physiology than is the present short life-span of modern man. Then where is that “progress” we read so much about? Medical progress, for instance? If there is any one point on which leading scientists agree, it is that they ean find no physiological reason in the body why man should not live forever.—Dr. George R. Clements, writing on the subject of “Longevity” in the Chiropractic Home magazine of July, 1949.

JT MAY surprise some to assert that despite the progress in the technique of building and the manufacture of materials of new composition the basic substances for home construction are still wood, earth and stone. By an extension of the term "earth" to include products of the ores, it can be shown that.all building material is taken from the forests or the earth. Today the adobe mud houses, the rammed-earth structures, and the wood frame homes, form pleasingly graceful, practical, durable and often inexpensive housing for millions of Americans.

But, some will'ask, have they not much better materials.for construction today! For skyscrapers, yes, the old stand-bys have been totally replaced by structural steel and reinforced concrete. These two materials also have their place in certain kinds of home construction, as related later. But throughout the World kiln-dried brick, sun-dried brick (adobe), native stone, or wood finished in natural color or painted gaily, make houses both functional and charming. Any of these materials that are cheap or near by, or both, can be fashioned into a house that will suit the most discriminating. In the West, certain limestones, noted for their pink and red shadings, and loosely called flagstone, have gained popularity for house, patio and chimney construction.

Rammed-Earth Construction

It is also likely, due to the high cost of materials and" skilled labor, that the “dirt house”, “rammed earth,” or “pise NOVEMBER 8, 1948

de ierre-\ construction, may, where the climate is not too rainy, nor the soil too sandy, become popularized. (Simply stated, rammed-earth construction is where wooden forms as used in concrete construction are filled with earth that is pounded or rammed into hardness.) A recent example of such successful construction is the Gardendale settlement, built by the government, in 1936. The several residences, still in perfect repair, are still occupied.

Rammed earth has a long history and many specimens have been preserved through the centuries. In America, an amazing example is the presently utilized Church of the Holy Cross, near Charleston, South Carolina, Built with walls reaching 43 ffeet high at the ridge pole, more1 than a hundred years ago (1840), it has survived one earthquake, and several hurricanes. Examples of ancient mud and rammed-earth houses abound in England and France. In general, after a slight pitting effect by the rains of the first two years, these earth . houses without either stucco or plaster do not erode in the weather. Good old dirt, how many things can be done with it 1

The government gives full instruction about how to build a pise house, in Farmer’s Bulletin No. 1500. You may never have heard much about the good old earth house because “there is no profit to anyone in rammed earth homes except the man who is going to live in the house and for that reason no industry has seen fit to publicize the method". Also fear on the part of the masonry and lumber com-

panies has caused them to instinctively fight any building method that is free.

If the low cost appeals to you, however, do not consider building in any city or county where the building code has a throat-hold on private construction. One party built such a home in Los Angeles county and was forced by the building inspector to Gunite (a high-pressure, hosed application of concrete) every wall! The building inspector was not interested in the fact that earth walls have outlasted steel, stone and concrete. Contrasted with this, one authority claims: “In the last twenty years rammed-earth construction has grown up and attained a state which can cautiously be termed 'foolproof’” For reasons above stated rammed-earth construction has been sabotaged and omitted from all mention by most authorities and building periodicals.

While on the subject of earth, it should be mentioned that adobe brick can now be made from a great variety of soils; addition of an amount of oil to each batch of mud (worked with water in an old dough or plaster mixer) which will be calculated by the company selling this, makes this brick water-corrosion proof; and you can “Build Your Own Adobe”, say authors Paul and Doris Aller in the book of that name, who did a beautiful job by themselves, judging from the illustrations. (Stanford University Press; The Baker and Taylor Company, 55 Fifth Ave,, New York 3; Copyright 1946) A little Portland cement is often added to adobe bricks and to the earth for pise construction.

Glass and Concrete

Of materials which have been developed to a fine art in recent years are glass and reinforced concrete. Modern houses now have complete sides of plate glass, sliding glass doors or transparent or opalescent glass brick. Glass is also used for woven curtains and shower doors, while mirrors are utilized to give a larger appearance to a small room. Glass wool is commonly used for insulation, No one should build today without a thorough investigation of glass.

Concrete is distinguished from mortar in that mortar is made usually of various cementing materials, sand and water, while to make concrete to this is added broken rock, bricks, coke or other material. In general usagd concrete means a mixture of water, Portland cement, sand and various sizes of broken rock. The broken material is called aggregate. When discovered that the coefficients of expansion of steel and concrete were the same, steel in various forms was increasingly used to reinforce. This permitted the use of concrete for cross members as well as uprights, while the steel was protected from fire and erosion. More and more popular for construction is the slab floor, concrete poured usually on a matting wire for foundation floors. Amateurs can pour this; however, they are admonished to be sure to place everything in the floor before pouring—electric conduit, water and sewer pipes, cold air returns (if furnace is used), and anchor bolts in the footings if frame is to be used.

The advantages of this floor are: it is cheaper than a floor of wood if the usual subfloor and tongue-and-groove top floor are built; it requires no repairs, is impervious to termites, is quicker and easier to pour. Afterwards it lends itself to a variety of treatments: a new type of wool carpet of gay colors can be cemented directly to its surface, or linoleum, linoleum tile or asphalt tile can be used; or it can be painted with some of the new rubber base paints, and used with throw rugs.

There are two general types of new materials for construction: “composition” and “synthetic”. Of the former the Cellotex Corporation probably makes the most. One of their products most highly recommended by some is Cemesto Board. This can be used as the single exterior and interior wall of a house. The Cellotex Corporation also makes a roofing material that can be laid on the rafters without sheathing. Tile board (or masonite) satisfactory.for kitchens and bathrooms is another composition. Plaster board or rock lath is now used instead of wood under plaster (and sometimes alone with joint seals, wallpaper or paint). Many combinations of wood, eellotex and metal are sandwiched for paneling.

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