Awake!, December 8, 1949
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THE KU KLUX KLAN —Symptom of Fear
What is the Klan’s origin ? Its history ? Its modern aim ?
Free Worship in Ireland
Paddy revisits his homeland and meets Jehovah’s witnesses
Christendom’s Religions Sow and Reap
How they seek to hold their congregations
Meet Brazilian Royalty, King Coffee
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News sources tliat are able to keep you awoke to tha vital Issues of our timet murt be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. “AwakeI” 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 enj it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This Journal keeps itself fred that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom* It maintains integrity to truth.
“Awake ?’ uses the regular news channels but is not dependent cn them. Its own correspondents are on all co fitments, in scores of nations* From the four comen of the earth their uncen sored* a a* the* scenes reports come to you through these columns. This joumaTs viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, rn many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, reiigicn, history, geography* science, social conditions, natural wonders—wry, its cover* age is aa broad as the earth and as high as the heavens,
“Awake!” pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a right* eous New World.
Get acquainted with “Awake;” Keep awake by reading “Awake!”
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CONTENTS
The Ku Klux Klan—Symptom cf Fear Why Ku Klux Klan Was Formed Methods of Origins) Klan Modi-ra Ku Khix Klan Recent Klan Outrages iir.c
Restraining Measures
Free Worship in Ireland
Blind Fear
Constitutional Guarantees
Water^Walkers of tbo Deep Being a Good Provider for a
Pair of Platypuses
Taking the Fight Out of Flowers
Priest Leads Mob Against Christians
Christendom's Religions Sow and Reap
C'ergy Antics
WhstV < nukingf
Pird Ttat Slick to Your Ribs? A S'.ury Hard to Swallow Mert Brazilian Royalty, King Coffee “Thy Word Is Truth” Children Witnesses
A New Dominion?
5jSj 13 Ei
Watching the World 20
/AWAKE!/
^“Now it is high time to awake.—Ramans 13:11 9j
Volume XXX
Brooklyn, N, V., December 8, 1948
Number 23
The Ku Klux Klan-—Symptom of Fear
ONE malady afflicting the world today is fear, even as Jesus foretold. (Luke 21:26) The Ku Klux Klan is a symptom, like a surface sore, revealing the presence of the plague. The Klan was conceived in fear, raised by terror, and now breaks forth in chronic malignancy portending the cancer fatal to human accord. It is but the exterior manifestation, one of many surface boils erupted by the virulent fever within. As the American variety of age-old illness, the Klan deserves analysis because of its threat to corrupt the constitutional safeguards erected to quarantine the United States from Europe’s consuming hatreds.
Examination of how the Klan was bred takes us back to the Old South, birthplace of the Klan during that era, doubtless the most terrible in American history, the Civil War and Reconstruction years, 1861-77. State’s Rights, specifically the right to secede, was the nominal issue upon which the Civil War.was fought. But destruction of Negro slavery, particularly after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, clothed the Northern cause in the A
garb of a cru-sade-
Perhaps many
think that it is j
best to leave the Jb hates which
racked this coun- R /I*
try buried with
the Union and
Confederate dead who spilled each others’ lifeblood for antithetical principles. But hate itself is the backdrop before which the Klan played its part. Hate has outlived all its victims. Turn then the pages of history back to December, 1865. The South, Virginia to Texas, had been since April a stricken, defeated land. Six young Confederate veterans are seated around a table discussing the generally doleful outlook. They, like most of their out-of-work fellow townsmen of Pulaski, Tennessee, decided to liven up the Christmas season, and suggested a club. The name “Kuklos” derived from the Greek word for “circle” was suggested, which they decided to prdnounce “Ku Klux”. (This was later thought to suggest the rattling of bones.) Another called out: “Add Klan.” Thus as a social club to relieve boredom and unemployment the Ku Klux Klan was born.
The founders adopted the use of robes or sheets, hideous masks, which the initiates provided for themselves as fancy dictated, and formed a code of signals by whistle, with which each was also pro-vided. Extreme r f t > secrecy was en-* / /FXt joined at the
J. / y r. meetings, guard-fa ed by sheeted sen-
'i w B tries in an old de-
Hi __ serted house near
- Pulaski. Curios-
tty, then fear, was aroused, e&-penally among the superstitious Negro population. Then, in 1867, an embittered Congress threw the inflammable Reconstruction Acts upon the Southern embers of war. Id the crucible that resulted, the Ku KJux Klan was forged as a sword, for the creation of which the North must bear a measure of the blame.
Two years before, Lincoln, champion of freedom and advocate of reasonable rehabilitation measures, had been slain by a priest-inspired fanatic. Beneath the statue of Abraham Lincoln as a statesman, Andrew Johnson provoked the ire of Congress by stubbornly insisting upon carrying out Lincoln's policies; which brought on impeachment proceedings on himself. A radical Congress, led by such monsters as Thaddeus Stevens, took dver reconstruction. These acts of Congress disfranchised all but renegade Southern whites called “scalawags”, and invited “carpetbag” rule by low Northern immigrants, said to carry all their belongings in a “carpetbag”. A virtual reign of terror ensued.
In that year, General Nathan Bedford Forest, wily officer of the Confederacy who had so troubled General W. T. Sherman of the Union that he had offered $50,000 (or promotion in case of an officer) for his capture “dead or alive”, was persuaded to organize the Klan to meet this threat to Africanize the South. The weird names of the officials, the Grand Wizard and his Ten Genii, an almost autocratic ruler of “the invisible empire”, as it was called; the Grand Dragon and his Eight Hydras, each of which ruled over a “realm”, a division co terminus with a state; the Grand Titan and his Six Furies; the Grand Cyclops and his Two Nighthawks, actually followed a highly organized military pattern.
Why Ku Klux Klan Was Formed
The condition which this secret and highly trained organization sought to rectify is described by the impartial Encyclopedia Americana:
In several states negroes filled the office of lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, superintendent of education, and other important offices. In some instances they even sat upon the benches of the higher courts. They occupied seats in the legislature of all the Southern States, that of Mississippi in 1871 having as many aa 55 colored members. A considerable portion of these were ignorant, some of whom were unable to read or write and all of whom were the pliant dupes of unscrupulous Northern men. With the State and local governments controlled by ignorant' negroes and designing white men, an era of extravagance, misrule and corruption set in which amounted in some instances to outright robbery and plunder.
It is seldom made clear in history books that three-fourths of the South’s white population, which was rated in all at about million at the outbreak of the Civil War . (Negro slave population about million with a few thousand “free Negroes”), never owned any slaves; that the black race was not intrinsically any better than the white, since a number of slave-holding Negroes resided in the South; that about 60,000 of the families owning slaves owned only a single slave each (whose possession, of course, would not have induced them to fight a war to retain); that the large and profitable slave-holdings of 100 to 2,500 were limited to 2,000 prominent Southern families, who dominated the political as well as the economic aspect of Southern life.
As is usual, of course, the poorest people, having the least stake in the war, suffered the greatest. Furthermore, one historian of the day, Chiniquy, quotes Abraham Lincoln as saying that foremost among the agitators for war were Catholic priests, acting on instruction from Rome with the intent of destroying the hated American republic. The pope was said to be the first to recognize the Confederate States of America, while a Papal army under Maximilian in Mexico was poised to aid the Confederacy.
(Chiniquy's Fifty Years in the Church of Rome) Now, after suffering a devastating defeat while supporting what they considered to be their rights, the South was subjected to as many as twelve years of humiliating "punishment” through the misrule of their former slaves, as well as suffering robbery and violence from evil men, who "like scum, rose to the surface in the great upheaval”.
How could the disfranchised white stop such a destructive fury? The Ku Klux Klan, necessarily secret in operation (in Tennessee under the infamous Governor Brownlow, it became a hanging offense to be known as connected), seemed the weapon forged for the terrible chaos. Said one writer, the Ku Klux Klan "took the law into their own hands and began to attempt by intimidation what they were not allowed to attempt by ballot or by course of public action. . . . The agency by which the South was saved from the devilish scheme of Thaddeus Stevens to Africanize it and convert it into a mongrel, half-breed section, was the original Ku Klux Klan”. Extenuating its original formation historian Dixon declares: (fWhen laws become lawless contrivances to defeat the ends of justice, it is not surprising that the people resort to lawless expedients for securing their rights.”
Methods of Original Klan
Many years after its disbandment, Thomas W. Gregory, former attorney general of- the United States, said in 1906: “It is safe to say that ninety percent of the work of the Klan involved no act of personal violence ” Part of the effectiveness of the Klan was the whispered rumor that they were the ghosts of Confederate dead returned to avenge wrongs. Typical of this ruse was the water trick.
A hooded, masked rider, either “headless7’ or wearing a grisly mask, alighted at the home of a Negro who had been insulting whites. In sepulchral voice he asked for a drink of water. Behind him he had deployed several ranks of other ghostly riders. The Negro dared not refuse, and after the figure had consumed a glass of water, he asked for, and was given, a bucketful. While appearing to drink the whole bucket of water, he actually poured it into a rubber or waxed canvas container under his robe. Watching with frightened eyes the colored man received back the bucket with this comment : "That is the> first drink of water I have had since I died at Shiloh.” After this enactment the klansman received perfect attention while he admonished the Negro on proper conduct.
By 1868 the Klan had 550,000 members, 40,000 in the state of Tennessee. In 1869 General Forest gave the first order for disbandment. Up to this time the Klan was involved in very few abuses, even though responsible for a number of deaths, meted out usually to arsonists and rapists. But while Klan had first been its strength it became its weakness, in the years from 1869 to 1877, when it went into oblivion for nearly fifty years. Even then the Klan did not degenerate into the collection of fanatical cowards hidden by the modern Klan sheet. But criminals did steal the costume for their evil deeds, and unprincipled Klansmen also committed outrages, protected by disguise of the powerful order.
It is fairly evident that the leaders In the old Klan were chiefly Confederate veterans, army men, not the undisciplined hoodlums that beat poor victims today. It was created in a desperate day, an illegal band raised up to meet legalized lawlessness. The power of the old Klan was forged by the folly of the Reconstruction, the vindictive effort to punish the whole South for their mistake in fighting for 2,000 aristocratic families, who could have been reimbursed at much less cost than half amfflion graves and six billion dollars.
modern nit Kfax Klan
While the original Klan was forced upon the South to combat the hate of fanatical Northern men, the Ku Klux Klan was revived to exploit hatred and multiply hatred. Admiration for the original is said to have led Col. William Joseph Simmons to bring forth the Klan resurgent (1915). Evil results from Reconstruction still cast their shadow. After the South was left to solve its own problems the Negro was unjustly held responsible for all the South’s woes.
From 1876 to 1905 was a tragic era for the Negroes in the United States. Both disfranchised and segregated by “Jim Crow” laws, the practice of lynching became general. During these thirty years alone, three thousand Negroes were lynched. It can be seen from this that even ten years later, in 1915, there was plenty of fuel for a hate organization like the modern Klan.
Some who have read about atrocities of the Ku Klux Klan during the summer of 1949 perhaps do not know that nearly three decades ago the Klan had swelled from Simmons’ small beginnings to several million members operating in 46 states. It was a money-making racket destined to control the polities of states as far removed from the old South as Maine, Indiana and Colorado.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, chartered in Georgia on July 1, 1916, employed two professional organizers, E. Y. Clarke and Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler. Even the hypocrisy of these leaders, who, while whipping up the old recipe “chastity of white womanhood”, had been charged with illicit relations, did not dim the cause of hatred. Not only the name, paraphernalia and methods had been suggested by the old Klan, but hatreds between peoples were still motivating causes. The conflagration of passions was fired by the new Klan.
Meanwhile another and more terrible war had been fought, leaving its aftermath of bitterness and bereavement.
Collier's magazine recently recalled that during the twenties 50,(k)0 sheeted and masked figures paraded down Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue, evidence of a New Reconstruction.
No catalogue of Klan crimes throughout most of the states of the union is attempted here. Besides the monotonously dreary record of floggings, sensational Klan murders occurred in states as far apart as Texas and Indiana. In 1924, Senator Owen Brewster won the election for governor of Maine by means of Klan support. Throughout the entire GOP primary campaign Brewster was referred to as ‘Klan-supported’ and his opponent as “anti-KKK”. Two years later Brewster made a disgraceful effort to elect the KI an-supported candidate, for senator. Largely due to waning Klan influence, Brewster was defeated for both of Maine’s Senatorial seats, and did not succeed in gaining the Senate seat until 1940.
The Klan-gained almost complete control of Indiana about the same time, and was ousted only after Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson, now serving a life sentence for murder, exposed many state officials. Many indictments followed.
Illinois also had its Klan terror. Just a few weeks ago an innocent Negro was released from a Lake County prison after serving 26 years on a false charge. The judge declared the trial to have been a “sham”. It was shown that Smith, a state attorney, and Kennedy, Roman Catholic chief of police, both of whom were Klansnien, had a grudge against the accused Negro. It was generally conceded that the resurgent Klan’s greatest strength lay in the Middle W6st, “especially in the highly explosive Chicago and Detroit areas.” Shortly after Klan operations one of the worst race riots in the country occurred in Detroit
Colorado, a state practically without racial prejudices, fell victim to Klan be-guilement. Here business preferment was held out as inducement to join the
Klan. During the twenties Dr. John Galen Locke, Klan dictator, controlled the entire state. Says a chronicler: “In all save the use of violence the rise of the Ku Klux Klan to power in Colorado anticipated the pattern adopted a few years later by the Nazis.” In 1925 Dr. Locke put Clarence J. Morley in as governor. But shortly thereafter the power of the Klan was broken by the jailing of Locke for contempt of court
The Klan and the German Bund
The Nazis turned the business of hating into a profession. But up to the time of their invasion into American society the Klan was the most effective American variety of hatemongers. It is therefore not surprising that the two sought each other's company. In a letter to Governor Arnold, who was still fighting the Klan in 1946, Edward James Smith, founder of the Protestant War Veterans (a front for the Ku Klux Klan) declared that he arranged the joint Klan-Bund meeting held at Andover, New Jersey, August 18, 1940, At this meeting Smith praised Fritz Kuhn (Bund leader since indicted) as a 'Christian martyr' and also said his sympathies were with the new Germany. New York's attorney general Goldstein published secret documents revealing:
The Klan and the Bund laid plans just before Pearl Harbor to merge into one huge anti-American combine. After the war started, and the Bund was dissolved, collaboration was continued by leaders of the two organizations. —N. Y. Times, August 13, 1946,
Both its Bund affiliation and’ other facts cast some doubt as to whether the Klan has been actively anti-Catholic. Thomas Kennedy, former chief of police of Waukegan, Ill., was both Catholic and Klansman. A "Klan Ex-Kaliff”, Dr. Alton Milford Young, was confirmed in 1948 as a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Albert Deutsch, when a reporter for PM, discovered: "Incredible as it seems .... a number of well-heeled
Catholics and Jews are warm personal friends of the KKK chief.”
Generally during the war the Klan went into abeyance or, as has been charged, operated secretly with the Bund. In 1946 the government sued the national organization, operating then with its head James E. Coleseott of Atlanta, for $685,000 income taxes; Cole-scott, who had been getting rich on the $10 initiation fees, called "klectokens”, promptly dissolved the Klan and the government could find no assets on which to collect.
Recent Klan Outrages
and Restraining Measures
The latest impetus to Klan resurgence came with the State's Rights Dixiecrat convention in Birmingham, 1948. Orators told conventioners that again the South was threatened by the Civil Rights measures with "Negro domination”. Like dogs long denied a bone, such rabble-rousers as Alfalfa Bill Murray, "untidy and unpressed,” and Gerald H. K. Smith shook out the old slogans for "a lily-white primary” and snarled about "chaste white womanhood”. It was a.disgusting demonstration that many Dixie-crats did not want but could not get away from. The flags of fear and hate were not waved in vain. Following the election a new series of Klan outrages occurred in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.
A recent Supreme Court decision accorded the Negro in Georgia the right to vote in the white primary. This issue, with 200,000 Negroes preparing to vote in the September, 1948, white primary for the governorship, put spokes in the wheel of the Herman Talmadge supporters, who operated the Ku Klux Klan of Georgia. Cross burnings at Wrightsville, Mt. Vernon, Columbus, Macon, Conyers and elsewhere frightened many of the Negroes away. At Swainsboro Negroes were intimidated by receiving small cardboard coffins labeled "KKK”. Following in the footsteps of his hate-peddling father, "Ole Gene/ to whom the Klan once contributed 100,000 votes for his election, "Young Huurnion’’ easily won the election.
In many sections of the rural South, the people still fear that if the Negro were able to elect candidates to office he might retaliate on the white for past wrongs, and instead of seeking out the whites to blame he might take it out on the race. They also fear the effect of the words of some inflammatory agitator, if Negro franchise is instated. This fear cannot be too quickly dismissed, because of the record of Reconstruction days.
On the other hand, it is greatly exaggerated by such politicians as the Tal-ipadges, since Negro suffrage is now allowed* in about half the Southern states; and also the very election of the Talmadges, father and son, proves that the white primary is no insurance against unfit officeholders.
Where the tinder is lit the fire starts first. At Birmingham and vicinity Klan violence flared after the Dixiecrats convened. The victims, however, were generally white. The incident at Dora, about 25 miles from Birmingham, was typical:
At about 11 p.m, on June 3, Mrs. Irene Burton, her two daughters ages 16 and 18 and three men were sitting in the Burton living room when armed hooded figures entered the house, and at gun point herded them into ears outside. Mrs. Burton said the house was surrounded by about 150 men. About 25 cars were in the cavalcade which wound up a dirt ”oad and stopped at a secluded spot. During the ride the younger daughter said the men made filthy remarks to her. (Quotation from CIO News, July 4, 1949)
There the mother was lashed with a heavy machine belt while the daughters looked on. Afterwards one of the daughters was lashed and the other threatened with a rope around her neck. After beating two of the men unmercifully, the third, a cripple, who could not bend over, was commanded: f<Lie down and we*U beat your head in." One of the victims testified to the fact that "there was a period of prayer between each of the fpunishments' and another prayer at the end".
At this and other floggings, of which more than sixty were reported in Jefferson, Shelby and Walker counties, a Klan chaplain called a “Kludd” officiated. Some of these, doubtless, are Protestant preachers, as several have admitted Klan affiliation and the Inman Yard Baptist Church of Atlanta approved the attendance of 100 Klansmen in full regalia. According to some the name "Kludd" is suggested by the sound of the descending lash. On the other hand, Georgia church women, the Valdosta Ministerial Association, and individual ministers have protested the Klan. While a Talmadge-controlled Georgia legislature defeated an anti-masking bill, such was passed in Alabama and it is hoped that this will halt Klan outrages. Morris, Alabama head, was jailed for failing to produce Klan records after court order. Governor Warren of Florida has taken a stand against the Klan. But the Klan goes on burning the wrong house (California), whipping the wrong man (Georgia), making mockery of freedom and equality.
Of all minorities, it is generally admitted that Jehovah’s witnesses have fought the hardest to rear up safeguards against the encroachments of mobs, gangsters and prejudiced haters. The upward of thirty decisions they have won in the Supreme Court, covering the framework of the Bill of Rights with sinews of strength, have not been won without expense, blood and tears. But in the end minorities—colored, white, Jewish, Gentile, or others—must look to Jehovah God if they wish protection in that terrible day of Armageddon when He demolishes such un-Christian growths as the Ku Klux Klan. Jehovah will also destroy the fear that breeds such horrors, and His serene kingdom will house no discord.
“Awake!” correspondent Id Ireland reports Jehovah’s witnesses In Eire encounter many conditions that make the exercise of this constitutional guarantee difficult
important Courts of Justice, opposite
PADDY was homesick, and New York sweltered under the hottest heat wave for years. He stood on the sidewalk and thought of the land of his birth and childhood, Ireland. Memories of cooling rain, fog in his nostrils and the wind in his hair took hold of him. “I’ll go back,” thought Paddy, ‘TH go on a visit and see how they do under their new free republic.”
The plane carrying Paddy and others came in at the Shannon airport. After passing through the customs, Paddy took train for the capital of Eire, Dublin. The train chugged along oblivious of time or hurry, making its way through lovely open country, with stony, rugged patches suddenly merging into open stretches of smooth, green, sloping hills. And here and there, dropped as though from the sky itself, natural lakes nestled in the greenery, supplying the area with little trickling streams. There are only three towns of any real prominence in all Eire—Cork, Limerick and Dublin. Dublin was Paddy’s destination.
Arriving at last, and free of the slow-moving, jostling crowd of fellow travelers, Paddy established himself at his hotel and enjoyed a typical evening meal of fried steak and trimmings. Later, standing at his window, he could see the river Liffey running through the center of the city, and the reflection of the traffic as it passed over O’Connell bridge.
With a population of over 460,000, Dublin is the hub of Irish life. Here are the two houses of parliament and the DECEMBER 5, 1949
which we have the massive Guineas factory, shipping beer daily to many parts. In Dublin, too, are to be found the headquarters of many religions orders, and the name plates struck Paddy forcibly as he walked around the city sight-seeing. He passed the “Congregation of the Holy Ghost and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” and the “Cannelites” and the “Passionist Fathers”, the “Franciscan Capuchins” and the “Augustinians” and the “Dominicans”, and repeatedly he was asked by written notices on collection boxes in the shops to help the “Holy Ghost Fathers”. He was tempted to ask if he might be shown around the “Hospice for the Dying” and the “Monastery of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge”.
A screeching of brakes rudely interrupted his reveries, and, turning sharply, he saw a cyclist carrying two passengers, one on his handlebars and one on his crossbar, narrowly escape destruction under a heavy double-decker bus. Paddy was suddenly aware that he was about the only person at all concerned. The bus driver looked blank and unmoved, the cyclist and his companions went cheerfully on their way, and the passersby hardly bothered to turn a head. As he paused to watch the stream of traffic it seemed to him that every man did what was right in his own eyes, and one: and all had consideration for and made way for the cyclists and horse-drawn vehicles. Bicycles, bicycles everywhere, careering along at strange angles, carrying passengers galore, traveling at a
crazy pace in and out of the heavy traffic, sometimes going the right way and frequently going the wrong; often completely ignoring traffic signals, but coming to no harm for all that The greatest nation of cyclists apart from Sweden.
Jehovah’s witnesses in Ireland
And then he saw him! He was standing near the main crossing of O'Connell bridge in about the busiest part of the town, hatless, short and square with fair hair and a clear open face. In one hand he held The Watchtower and in the other Awake! “You'd know them anywhere/’ thought Paddy, trying to maneuver his way through the steady stream of cyclists to reach him. There at last he was shaking hands. “I saw you people in New York; I saw you in Chicago. Boy, you get everywhere/' “Not me,” said a soft Irish voice; “the farthest.I've been is Liverpool” “Say, can you come and visit me! I'm staying at the------hotel, Can
you come up and have supper and tell me how your work goes on over here! It's sure good to see you folk again.” And that is how it came about that, three nights later, comfortably settled in a quiet corner of the lounge, Paddy heard the story of how Jehovah's witnesses carry .on their work in Eire.
*We work,” said the witness, “much as do Jehovah's witnesses in all other parts of the earth. We call on the people in their homes and invite them to study the Scriptures in the light of world events and Bible prophecy. We have our difficulties because of the appalling ignorance of the masses on Scriptural matters and their readiness to believe false reports about us when we are misrepresented as Communists, atheists, and even Mormons. Dublin is more cosmopolitan, but, even so, it has 90 percent Roman Catholic population. Outside in other cities and towns in Eire it is more difficult.
“The Douay copy of the Holy Bible is our mainstay and help, many Roman
Catholics not being aware of its existence. They will handle our personal copy with reverence and joy when it is shown to them, fondling it as a child might a well-loved toy. Quite frequently, when these good people grow to appreciate that we love them, are their friends, and only wish to assist them to understand the purposes of the Almighty more, they will permit us to return to their homes at a time convenient and discuss holy matters with them and their families.
“Time and again, though, these wholesome, uplifting, educational hours are stopped by the clergy, who bring pressure upon the householder, and encourage the neighbors to cause a disturbance, thus closing temporarily, at any rate, the home of that sincere lover of God. Very grim persecution has been known to be brought upon those who dare to go against the dictates of the priests.
“Many are the activities resorted to, in a vain attempt to hinder our preaching work, and recently a series of letters have appeared in the local press. Deliberately untrue statements have appeared in the press, such as that 'Russian atheism is defended by the Witnesses'. This and many other like statements are made with the purpose of hoodwinking the people, and with an effort to stem the tide of the waters of truth from reaching the common people.
“Catholic Action is brought to bear. Persons are attending classes to study our books in order to show 'where w’e err’. School children are shown the literature in their classrooms that th$y might readily recognize it and hinder their parents from taking the same. These youngsters are trained from infancy in obedience to their religious teachers. All must learn the Irish language (Gaelic), which is of little use except within the boundaries of this wee island. But despite the bitter opposition, the Kingdom message is reaching them and day in and day out the home Bible studies are held with fearless ones.
“Four of our missionaries in the town of Drogheda have valiantly defied all the threats and personal abuse. Time and again they have been attacked in the streets as they have visited the people in their homes, taking to them the Kingdom message/These four witnesses are just harmless girls. They have been attacked by mobs armed with sticks, and they have been threatened with guns; one of the party narrowly escaped being immersed in oil and a match being set to her.
‘‘On one occasion recently the priest actually followed the witness from door to door and, while doing so, suddenly made a dash across the street where one of his dupes had lost his temper and was beginning to knock one of the witnesses about. The priest, however, tried to hold him down with the help of others, with the cry, ‘Don't touch them; don't give them the opportunity to bring you up to court/ (This being a reference to a court case in Cork in which similar action resulted in mobsters' being fined; and publicity that has not been favorable to the Church.)
“These threats, however, have been partly hindered by a good Franciscan monk, who publicly preached that if all Roman Catholics were as zealous as Jehovah's witnesses the whole world would be Catholic. He urged the people to treat the witnesses kindly and not interfere with their work.
“To the west of Drogheda lies Sligo, and here two missionaries, man and wife, together with two or three local witnesses, have met with a barrage of lies all put out with the avowed purpose of counteracting the growing interest in the Kingdom message in that town. In the Council Chamber one of the councilors at a meeting of the corporation made reference to the activities of individuals who styled themselves ‘Witnesses of Jehovah' and were spreading poison among the people. Here again, these men have overstepped themselves, for it has resulted in many inquiries, and, when the mayor and others on the council were visited, regrets were expressed for what had been said.
“From there we come farther south, to Cork, where other missionaries are located. In July, 1948, following upon mob action, two witnesses were badly bruised. For the preservation of the right to preach the gospel, it was deemed advisable to bring these lawbreakers to court. A detailed account of the proceedings was given in the local press and several of the mobsters were fined. It was interesting to see Catholics testifying against the mobsters to the confusion of the priests and their cohorts. Since 1937 Eire has had a written constitution which guarantees all citizens freedom of speech and worship. In defense of their rights under the Constitution, the court case referred to resulted in the conviction of the defendants; and it has had a salutary effect in that district ever since.
‘Tn Limerick, a city of 50,000 souls, there are four other missionaries and they have been up against the combined opposition of1 the priests since their arrival in the city. Failing to achieve their end by continually warning the people, they proceed to make it impossible for the missionaries to find rooms in the city. Pressure is put on the householder so that they have to turn them out of their homes.
Blind Fear
“As an example of the binding influence that instills fear, the following experience well illustrates: A visit to a small Irish cottage resulted in a regular Bible study, despite the warning that had been issued. Blinds were drawn and the Bible study was held in the light of a small lamp kept constantly burning before a statue of Jesus. But one week when the call was made, the poor woman in the cottage told of a most terrifying experience which occurred a. day or two before. The lamp had gone out! Almost demented was she with fear, for she was sure that a curse was upon the house* And the reason? Because she had been having Bible studies! A terrible fear had taken hold of this woman and she had crouched in a corner of the house too fearful to attend to the needs of her child* When the Kingdom publisher called she did her best to comfort this poor soul. Perhaps you would like me to read you something from the Bible about lamps/ said the witness. Together they read about the ten virgins and the fact that the lamps of some went out. To you see why the lamps of the foolish virgins went out?' ‘Yes, because they had no oil/ was the reply. To you think that maybe yours went out for the same rea-spn?' Why, certainly not/ she replied, ‘for my husband always sees to that/ ‘But let us look/ On the lamp's being taken down it was found to be empty of oil; and there was much relief. The Bible study goes on”
Constitutional Guarantees
• All this while Paddy listened with interest, and he soon came to realize that the preaching of the Kingdom in Eire differs widely from that in most other places. “If you have time, I would suggest that you obtain a copy of the Bunreacht na hEireann and study it before you return home.” “What on earth is that?” asked Paddy, “The Constitution of Ireland,” answered the witness, rising to take his leave.
Of the many sound clauses Paddy liked the one about education where “the State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the family, and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide for their young”. But especially he thought good the portion about religion on page 144, where the State “recognises protestant religions and other religions at the date of the coming into operation of this constitution”.
The noise of fighting from the street below caused Paddy to go to his window, and, looking down, he saw a free-for-all scrap taking place between the Democratic Youth Movement and some young Catholic boys* The former had apparently been delivering an open-air talk, which had been interrupted by the dissenters. The Commotion came to an abrupt end as armed police made their appearance at the corner of the road.
Peace settled down once more upon the closing evening, and Paddy stayed, leaning against his open window, gently fingering the petals of the geraniums growing in the window-box. As he did so his mind was occupied with the perversity of man and the complications that false religion has brought to humankind.
So much beauty in Ireland! So much that God has made and that is good. Everywhere you go in Ireland you meet with such amazing variety of shrubbery and plants and the greenest of green grass. One appreciates why this is referred to as the “Emerald Isle”, One appreciates too why Irish emigrants all over the world through their natural gift of song have told the world of their love for the Mountains of Mourne that “sweep down to the sea” and the sweet beauty of “Killarney's lakes and fells”.
But those boys just fighting. What were they fighting for? A better world? A better government? Has no one ever taught them the words of our Lord, Master and King that the kingdom of God will come and those who seek first the Kingdom will receive all other things?
Only then will the land of thejharp and the shamrock be free of partition, strife, poverty and, above ajl, religious strife and ignorance. Those will be days when “Irish eyes are smiling” with the Kingdom smile of perfect health and life and good-will toward God and man; for Jehovah's new world, undei; the healing rule of His Anointed King, will bring “glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will”.
usual interest the peculiar flocks of birds that follow in the wake of ships a thousand miles from shore. Sometimes for amusement, sometimes with apprehensive fear, mariners have watched these birds as they cruise over the waves, first down in a trough, then up on a crest that threatens-to break over fhem ; half leaping from wave to wave, half flying above the water; skimming the surface for any refuse thrown from the ship's galley; now walking, now running, now standing still on the undulating bosom of the deep, or flitting hither and thither like butterflies of the sea.
“Petrels” (Little Peters) these birds are called, because they seem to stand, and even run, on the watePs surface, a feat that reminded seafarers of the apostle Peter, who attempted to walk on the water. (Matthew 14:29) There are several species of petrels that belong to a larger family of tube-nosed swimming birds that include shearwaters, fulmars and the famous albatrosses. The smaller and most common petrels, the Wilson's petrel and Leach's petrel, are also known as stormy petrels because they often frolic around storm-tossed ships in the wildest weather, a thing that led superstitious sailors to look upon their presence as a bad dmen. Upon sighting the birds the superstitious mariners would exclaim in Latin, Mater Carat (Dear Mother), referring to the virgin "Mary. And so it was, when non-Latins heard this expression, they called the birds “Mother Carey's chickens.”
These small petrels are about six or seven inches long but have a very large wingspread, sixteen inches, thus giving them tremendous power of flight. They may be distinguished from their closest relatives, the shearwaters, by their smaller size, their graceful and elegant form, and their airy flickering flight. Unlike so many other birds, the plumage of these little water-walkers, as far as is known, does not vary in color with the seasons, nor is there any difference according to sex. The raiment that covers the upper part of their body, wings and tail is a sooty black, while underneath they are clothed with grayish feathers. Frequently the base of the tail and the sides of the rump are white; their bills and long legs are black; and the webbed feet of the Leach's petrel are black. Wilson's petrels are yellow-footed.
Following ships on the ocean's highways and picking up whatever they can is more like an excursion trip or a picnic for petrels. Their regular meals consist mostly of plankton, small fish, squids, minute crustaceans and greasy matter from whales and seals. They have a special craving for oily and greasy foods to give them the superabundance of oil needed to protect their skin and feathers from the corrosion of the sea.
Where Do They Nest?
This is a question that went unanswered for many centuries, all because no one ever saw them on land or ever found their nests. Popular opinion was that when breeding time came petrels simply laid their eggs on the surface of the ocean and let the sun hatch them. Another myth, as related by The New Nature Library, says: “Among the many senseless stories sailors tell of the petrel is that it never goes ashore to nest, but carries its solitary egg under its wing until hatched."
In recent years naturalists have solved this mystery and thus put an end to another superstitious hang-over of the Dark Ages. It has been found that during nesting time Leach's petrels land on the barren shores of islands along the coast of Maine, Newfoundland, Labrador, Greenland, Iceland and the northern British Isles, In the middle of May along the Maine coast, and a little later farther north, these ocean-going birds come ashore and, like bank-swallows, they burrow twisting horizontal tunnels, two to four feet deep, in the earthen banks. In the Pacific Leach’s petrels nest in the Kuril, Aleutian and Alaskan islands, Wilson's petrels, though commonly found along the sea lanes of the North Atlantic during the summertime, yet, unlike the Leach's petrels, comes September, go south, far south.. They head for the Antarctic, and there in the Southern Hemisphere's summertime they breed on lonely shores like their northern cousins.
If you happen to stumble onto the nest of a Leach's petrel the chances are that you will never know it. After watching the burrow's entrance from dawn to dark for a few days, yet never seeing a bird come or go, you will probably conclude it is an abandoned rabbit hole. This is because the bird has the nocturnal habit of visiting its nest only under the cover of darkness. Carl W. Buch-heister, one of those who kept a night vigil over the breeding grounds of this mysterious bird on Little Green island off the coast of Maine, describes his experience in Audubon Magazine as follows.
We waited breathlessly. Nine o'clock—and yet no sound save the rumbling of the surf below. . . . Then—from out of nowhere™ came a series of twittering sounds, rapidly uttered. “They have come! The petrels are here!” Such exclamations were involuntary as petrel notes began to come from all directions. Soon the blackness above was alive with eerie sound and ghostly activity and, at the same time, the ground itself seemed to have found a voice for, from far down under the sod, came soft purring notes. Each bird that had remained home to protect egg or chick, deep within the nest burrow, now answered the call of its mate, home from the sea.
Yes, home from the sea, these Leach's petrels had come. Home across miles and miles of ocean, under the cover of darkness and on this, as on many a night, through impenetrable fog. Navigating under such conditions each -bird had reached its island home and now, from among hundreds of burrows, unerringly chose his own. This was the mystery that the night brought to Little Green. To read of this phenomenal homing ability as you sit warm and comfortable in your library, evokes wonder enough. But to lie on your back on an oceanic isle, in a night so black with darkness and fog as to render useless the eye of any living creature, is to experience this phenomenon in all its soul-stirring reality....
Just before the first light of dawn, before the gulls and terns awakened, the calls quickly ceased and the. petrels vanished, The birds had changed shifts, and now the former stay-at-homes had departed for the sea and food. The departure, like the home-coming, was made under cover of darkness. This is the inexorable habit of Leach's petrel wherever on the globe it may nest.
Robin eggs -hatch in 14 days; herring gull eggs hatch in 28 days; the eggs of the bald eagle take 35 days; but the eggs of the Leach’s petrel, though they are no bigger than robin eggs, take from 35 to 42 days to hatch. The chicks also grow very slowly and remain in the burrows for as long as 50 days after hatching. This is because they are not fed regularly, even going two or three days without food before a parent returns. This means that four months are required to raise an offspring of one 1
It is a remarkable thing among bird society that petrels have so few children and yet are able to balance their losses and thus prevent extinction. What seems to us to be a perilous life on the high seas is to them a life of comparatively few dangers, though occasionally a storm too great even for their mighty wings sometimes overtakes them. This was the case in 1933, when several petrels were picked up dead in the middle of New York state, the victims of a cyclonic storm that had hurled them inland with disastrous results. But aside from such unusual circumstances they have few enemies; and it is a good thing, for aside from squirting or spitting out of their mouths a vile-smelling substance when frightened they are ill-equipped to fight. So we see that the Creator has made ample provision for caring and providing for the fowl of the air, though they spend most of their life roaming over the expanse of the seas.
©eing a Good Provider for a Pair of Platypuses
The Bronx zoo in New York city has a pair of platypuses—and worries. The squat-bodied platypus is one of the strangest creatures known to man. It has a duck bill and web feet, but no feathers. Instead it has a fur eoat, sharp claws, and climbs trees. Its tunneled holes into the banks of fresh-water streams have two entrances or
exits, one by land and the other under water. Though a mammal, it lays eggs and hatches its young, which nurse at the mother’s breasts. Added to all this eccentricity, the platypus is fussy about its diet. And that is the chief source of the worries of the Bronx zoo. The two brought from Australia, Cecil and Penelope, want worms, lots of worms, thousands of worms daily. They eat their own weight in worms every day. When Cecil and Penelope moved into the zoo frantic SOS cries went out for worms, and harried attendants dug up the zoo grounds in intensive worm hunts. Garden worms and nightcrawlers were brought in, but after two days Cecil! and Penelope tired of them. Finally the shovel brigade unearthed an active little squirmer they called the “fighter worm”, and these tickled the platypus palate no end. Cecil and Penelope would eat them all day long. Now the biggest earthworm farm in the world is under the lion house at the zoo, and daily harvests of “fighter worms” keep Cecil and Penelope happy.
taking the Fight Out of Flowers
In an alfalfa flower the pistil is held down under strong tension by the petals as if it were the willow spring of an Indian deer trap. When a bee alights on the petals to sample the flower’s nectar, this spring is sprung and the pistil flies loose, slapping the astonished insect with terrific force. Pollen is splashed on the insulted bee while at the same time pollen picked up from other flowers is knocked off, thus aiding cross-fertilization. Wild bees are tough and rough enough to take this punishment, but the more refined, gentle “civilized” bees soon learn to sneak up on alfalfa flowers with such daintiness and care they do not disturb the pistil spring. Result: less and less alfalfa seed is being produced, for the wild rough-and-tumble bees are becoming scarce. A professor of the University of Nebraska has set out on a project to take the kick out of the alfalfa pistil. By developing a blossom with less pistil bang, the professor hopes that a romance between flower and timid bee can be struck, and as a result the winged creature will cuddle up a little closer and caress the pollen-coated pistil.
Priest Leads Mob Against Christians
CHRIST JESUS was mobbed and eventually murdered at the instigation of religious priests. His footstep followers today are mobbed and some of them murdered by rabble roused by religious priests. So deluded are these mobster dupes that they believe they serve God by such devilish tactics. It is as Jesus said to His followers i “Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever kiileth you will think that he doeth God service.”—John 16:2.
C Recent on a long and continuing list of mob-bings against Jehovah's witnesses is one led by an Episcopal priest in Gainesville, Texas. On Sunday, October 2, an advertised Bible lecture was to be given at the high school auditorium. The day before men led by an army chaplain came to the school and wanted the Awake/ containing the article on Cardinal Spellman’s spat with Mrs. Roosevelt. He got it, read it, and complained about a picture showing white and colored persona together. Shortly afterward school principal Moore and superintendent of schools Wilson canceled their contract with the Witnesses for the holding of the Sunday Bible talk in the auditorium.
<L After the Saturday evening session about 50 Legionnaires waited upon Malcolm Downie, ordained minister and traveling representative of the Watchtower Bible Society who was to deliver the talk Sunday. At him they fired the usual questions: Would you fight T Would you salute the flag Are you Communists T Brief explanations from the Bible satisfied some of the men, but the chaplain, Johnstone Beech, challenged: “I am a priest and I fought for my country; so why can’t you people do the same?” Why! Because Christians follow Christ, not that priest. A simple answer, but too deep for the priest. He said: “Let's go back to the Legion Hut, boys, and talk this thing over.” He left, with his Legion hunting pack heeling obediently.
<L Thirty Witnesses were to remain in the auditorium that night, but at 11:30 p.m. the Legionnaires returned, plus the police chief, plus about ten of his men, plus the sheriff and several of his deputies. Must have been quite a talking-over the priest held in the Legion Hut. These mobsters, official and unofficial, were armed with guns, knives and blackjacks. The sheriff threatened to use his gun. The Witnesses were forcibly evacuated from the building containing their equipment. Some of the Legionnaires were recognised as being also involved in the mob action in Duncan, Oklahoma, which was reported on in the November 8 Awake/
C On Sunday morning a baptism service was scheduled to be held at the school. About 250 Witnesses were there, and 10 candidates for immersion. But the auditorium was locked, so services were held on the steps. The same religious priest that had led the opposition Saturday was again working for Satan on this “sabbath” mom. (Romans 6:16; . John 8:44) Four times he scouted the enemy camp by circling the school in his 1950 Buick, and then drove off. Not long after he had left 50 cars pulled up, mobsters poured forth, and surrounded the Witnesses. School superintendent Wilson appeared, unlocked the doors, admitted mobsters, who piled all the Witnesses* supplies in the building out on the sidewalk. Standing by were the police force and the sheriff, to see that priestly wishes were fulfilled.
C The Witnesses adjourned to their regular Kingdom Hall to finish the baptism, but the fire truck and 8 or 10 cars appeared, loaded with mobsters armed with guns and knives. They drove the Witnesses from the hall. They stormed over to the private home of one of the Witnesses and prevented delivery of the public Bible talk there, when they learned that last-minute arrangements had been made to hold the lecture there instead of at the auditorium. One of the witnesses was kidnaped and driven by car to the state line, and there set afoot. As a last resort, the public lecture had to be delivered in’the Kingdom Hall in Fort Worth.
C Not all persons in Gainesville are opposed to freedom of worship and assembly. Not all fight against the flag’s principles while draping themselves in its folds. Not all are afraid of Bible truth. Not all flout Jesus' teachings. In other words, not all persons in Gainesville approve of the religious priest that leads the police pack and Legion lackeys in mob action against true Christians.—John 3:19-21.
n Christen!) ones Religions
A MAN will reap just what he 11 sows. The man who sows to gratify his physical cravings will reap destruction from them, and the man who sows to benefit the
spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit?' (Galatians 6: 7, 8, An American Translation) Thus the choices before man are shown and the definite consequences resulting from each. Certainly what here applies to man applies also -to organizations of men, including any supposedly Christian organization*
Christ Jesus spoke a parable concerning a sower, telling a large crowd: “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some of the seed fell by the path and was trodden on, and the wild birds ate it up. And some of it fell upon the rock, and when it sprang up it withered, because it had no moisture* And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out* And some fell on good soil, and grew up and yielded a hundred fold 1” (Luke.8:5-8, An American Trans.) Good seed sown in good soil would yield a plentiful harvest.
But upon entering Christendom's fields, what does one find? Not a crop of rich, thick “grain” ready to be harvested, but a sight quite the opposite is apparent. The “field” is gutted and charred from past millenniums of wars and “holy crusades” that have culminated in two global holocausts during the current generation. Christendom's flocks have been tossed and clutched by the world's fears, generation after generation; and to the eye seeking Christians calm of mind and fortified with Bible knowledge they present a sorry harvest indeed.
There is something wrong. The pic-
ture is not right, and many religious leaders are free to admit it. In its issue of July 17, 1949, the New York Times quoted the figure of the 1949 edition of The Year-
. book of American Churches, citing the current United States church membership as 77,000,000. In the foreword of the book, Dr. Samuel McCrea Cavert, general secretary of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, points out that the ratio of church membership in this country is higher than at any previous time* However, though dubbing the United States a religious country, at least on the surface, Dr. Cavert added that only 30 percent of the members regularly attend church except at Easter: Just what T:eeps them away in droves' has the gentlemen of the cloth worried and looking for a solution.
The seed-sowing clergy are looking at their fields and wondering. What can the trouble be? Many might tend to blame the elements, arguing that the stormy and turbulent times make spiritual attention difficult. To test this answer, take the Bible as an example. Its entire history is one of violent opposition, the worst ever leveled against any work. Yet today the Bible lives in a thousand languages and prominent Bible education campaigns are being waged outside the bounds of the orthodox religions. The Bible is a stirring testimony to the fact that any work truly of God will flourish despite the oppression of the “elements” of the old world.
Rather than hastily blame the “elements”, would it not be wise to first examine the sowers? Out in their religious gardens they can be seen performing many emergency measures in watering here, transplanting there, enriching the soil elsewhere. A look at their methods, if discovering the trouble, may also aid in understanding why sixteen centuries of such antics have brought the field to its present state. Will “Christendom” be found the undeserving victim of the strife she has inherited? The loving parent whose children did not cherish her own godly teaching and deportment! Or do her current habits convict her of now simply reaping the certain consequences of long neglect and folly!
One cannot help but wonder. Remember, Jesus did not say that all the seed sown would bring a good yield. Some were to fall on rocks and perish, while others would be choked to death by thorns and weeds. In the days since Jesus’ earthly sojourn it is evident that not all that has been called Christian has been such. But who is responsible for the imitations! Who let the rocks and weeds and thorns increase in the field! Let Christendom’s religions answer for themselves.
Clergy Antics
Those faced with empty Sunday schools might take a course in ventriloquism from the “Rev,” Willis P. Miller of Lynn, Massachusetts. The report is that Mr. Miller spins Bible narrative around his dummy Victor’s wisecracks and humor, to the delight of the youngsters. So entertaining is the show that daily overflow audiences are accommodated by extra sessions.
Another “reverend”, Milford P. Henkel, of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, has taken more drastic action through an all-out one-man “back to church” campaign. Highlight of the promotion stunts came when he donned a devil’s disguise complete with red mask and horns, armed himself with placards and pamphlets and walked about the community streets. “Excuses for not attending church are inspired by the Devil,” he said. “That’s what rm trying to show.”
But as an inducement to more and more theatrics from the pulpit, the Visual Action Headquarters of Portland, Oregon is engaged in selling religious publishing houses on ideas like its “sermons in chemistry”. Just add a drop of red chemical to a glass containing a black liquid. Result: the liquid becomes clear. Don’t you see how vividly that teaches the power of Christ’s blood over -black sin! Or buy a set of strange chemical balls and watch Christ’s victory over sin and materialism by seeing the balls first sink in water, then float after special treatment.
Directly opposite from test-tube theology but still another way of getting listeners is found in the high-pitched, banjotwanging evangelists sounding off over the air lanes around Los Angeles, California. Some of these bring in from $48,000 to over a million dollars a year in listener contributions. With most of these preachers, or screechers, plenty of volume. is the. foremost requirement. Collier's magazine published an article on the matter in its January 15, 1949, issue and cited the case of one who was induced to cut down on his noise. He did so—and lost his following 1
Where nothing else seemed to work, the taxis came to the parsons’ rescue in Coldwater, Michigan, and Angola, Indiana. Their zeal fired by free taxi rides offered to church attenders on Sundays, the various congregations there began a slight upswing in attendance this year. Whether or not the church attendance will be lastingly benefited is not known, but the taxi drivers are elated over an increase in their business due to the good-will this has caused. The New York Times captioned its account of this with the words: “Free taxicabs to Church Help Lord—and Profits.” Strange how everyone starts thinking of how to help the Lord when the source of revenue hits the skids. Crying out from the depths of his heart, a pastor in I^itro, West Virginia, announced from his public church
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