Awake!, May 8, 1950
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RELIGION AND THE WORKINGMAN
Extent and purpose of Catholic Action in labor
Hang the Black Crepe on Wooster
How death came to freedom in this Ohio town
Yellowstone Spouts Off!
Meer some of the leading citizens of geyserland
The Meaning of Baptism
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
Newt scurcw that are aH* to keep you awuk# to flies vital u^ues 0/ our tones murt he unlettered by censorship and selfish inierevto. “Awake!” has no fetters. It recognizes facts, fncses facto, is free to publtoh facto. It to not bound by political ambitions or obligations; it Is unham^red by adverttocrs whew toes must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But It does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.
«Awake !” ums the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Ito own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncenBcred, on* ths* scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal's viewpoint Is not narrow, but to intorna-tionaj. It is read in many nations, £n many languages, by persons of all age®. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass In review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—whyt its cover* age is aS brood as the earth and as high as ths heavens.
Awake!” pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, to championing freedom for all, to comforting mcum^rs and strengthening those dtoneortoned by the failures of a delinrttiant world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a right* eous New World.
Get acquainted with “Awake!” Keep awoke by reading “Awake!”
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CONTENTS
Itoligitm and the Worfcmsinai]
Catholic Labor School*
The Catholic Church as Employer
Prefigure Tattles
Hope for the Laborer
Hsnff the BZack Gr^pf? nrt Wooster
Events Leading Up to the Murders
Ih This DemocracyT
Light-Angered Shoppers
Private Pdice provide Proieotioa
Kleptomaniacs Professional Shoplifters
pnotwtior? for Small Stores
The Frame on Which W’e Haug
Variety in Dvtsi^u and Composition
Secret of Vitality Within the Bones
Yellowstone Spouts Off!
Geysers
Stories and Superstitions
Colombia’s Distinguished Visitor
"Thy Word Ts Truth”
The bfe&niDff Of B&piintiu
'^WotI^s in CdlisimV*
Watching the World
/Iw/IKE/
®^Now it is high time to awake.— Romans 13:119?
Volume XXXI Brooklyn, N. Y., May 8, 1950 (Humber 8
RELIGION AND THE WORKINGMAN
Extent, Purpose and Effect of Catholic Action In Labor
RELIGION and labor. There was a time when these would have been considered strange hed fellows. Particularly was this true of the last two decades of the nineteenth, century, which saw the meteoric rise of the Knights of Labor organization, only to be superceded by the American Federation of Labor. And, doubtless, that is what T. V. Powderly, for thirteen years the colorful president of the Knights, would have thought; for his lengthy autobiography The, Path I Trod contains an extensive and bitter indictment of “Ecclesiastical Opposition”. Incidentally, Powderly was a devout Catholic with socialistic ideals.
Today, however, there is the closest cooperation between religion and labor. Indicative of this are the remarks made by Jack Kroll, director of the Political Action Committee (FAC) of the CIO, at the annual conference of the Religion and Labor Foundation. According to him no two interests of the nation are more happily joined in a single foundation than religion and labor. “Between uS there ought to be complete harmony,” he said, “for we are both devoted to the ideal of human welfare.” He further stated, “It is written that ‘the laborer is worthy of his hire’. It is also written that you ‘shall not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the grain’. Now these two texts declare the 'whole philosophy of just and harmonious labor relations. They declare & great policy, in which labor and religion can join without reservation.”
While the Protestant clergymen and church groups are often urged to take an increasing interest in the welfare of labor, their activity does not begin to compare with the labor activity of the Roman Catholic Church. As the basis for such activity Catholics point with pride to the expressions of their leaders. Two of the predecessors of the present pope, Leo XIII and Pius XI, have issued encyclicals on the subject, which have been termed the “Magna Chartas of Labor”. Regarding the present pope we continually note such headlines in the papers as “Pope Hails Workingman— Says Catholic Church Seeks to Improve Labor Conditions”, and “Pope Holds Unions Needed in Economy That Has Defects”, while Cardinal Spellman “Cites Dignity of Labor”.
Then there is the Catholic Defense League, which gives free advice on labor legislation to trade unions, handles cases of discrimination and arrest for labor activities, etc.; and the National Catholic Welfare Conference, whose social action department has an especially effective publicity bureau which makes known the labor views of the more liberal elements of the Catholic Church,
Catholic Labor Schools
The Catholic Church also organizes labor schools, the first being the Xavier Labor School of New York city, founded in 1935. Today there are more than a hundred such . schools, located in every
industrial city of the United States. Twenty-four of these are directed by Jesuits, thirty-two by diocesan anthocities and the remainder by various other Catholic bodies. At such schools workingmen arc taught both the theory and the tactics of labor umonitm. Each year some 7,500 workingmen graduate from these schools.
The power of Catholic Action in Johor, however, is primarily felt through its own labor union, the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists (ACTU). This union, first organized early in J 937, from the beginning has had the “spiritual* direction of the Catholic clergy, and the backing of the Jesuits of Fordham University and Cardinal Spellman. Regard, ing the motives of its founders, we quote; “They had seen how good and how necessary is the instrument of trade unionism, and how badly it is in need of trained [Catholic] leaders” and/'how, in the absence of such leadership, racketeers. Communists, and other undesirables can work, fight and bludgeon iheir way into control of American unions’’.
This union, the ACTU, has locals in every industrial city, although it doe* not reveal thu actual extent of its mom hership. In its recent convention it condemned the Taft Hartley labor law, called for labor unity, higher minimum etc. It is especially active in De troit (as also are the Catholic labor schools), where it claims to have been the deciding far tor in electing Walter F. Reuther as president of the United Auto Workers union (UAW’). While Protestants may enroll in the Catholic labor schools, the ACTU is strictly limited to Catholics.
Working together with the Catholic labor schools and the ACTU are the Catholic labor papers. Among these are the Catholic Worker of New York city, which competes with the communist Daily Workert and which advocates, according to one of its editorials, "worker ownership of the means of production and distribution . . . and the elimination of a distinct employer class;' Others include the Labor Leader, also of New York city, and the Wage Earner, especially effective organ of the Detroit, Michigan, ACTU. Those papers in general adviMiate labor unity; speak out against labor racketeering, and especially against communism.
The most prominent place in the Catholic labor movement is occupied by its clergy. There are labor archbishops, labor monsignors, labor bishops and labor priests. The latter have particular!v attracted much attention and have been featured in sntdi magazines as Foriune and Look, From the description of the more prominent lahar priests in Fortune, we quote:
Father Philip A. Carey rung a busy labor Reboot, niiphuHizcH tactics and philosophy. Father Rico attends conventions, advises unionists, joins pickets. Father Smith lectures unci writes; he is the author of Spotlight on Zrdbor Unions. Father Cliinry, Dvl-ruit ACTU cho plain, ... is known as the "organizing priisd” . . . One of the moat active labor priests is Father George Higgins. afflistant director of the social-action department of die National Catholic Welfare Conference. In that capacity he is in close touch both with priests all over the country and with top officials of national labor bodies.
Concerning the activity of labor priests a spokesman for Catholic Action in labor, V. Riesel, writes in Look: “The priests say their work ie based on papal encyclicals. No one can force them out of the labor movement now—not the suspicious labor leaders, or the Catholic conservatives, or the Communists, The labor priests are here to stay/1
Liberal Distrust of Catholic Action
With all this increased activity by the Catholic Church in the labor movement has come, as noted above, a suspicion on the part of some labor leaders. Labor priest Rice, writing in V. Riesel’s syn-
dicated labor column, devoted the entire article to a bid for the confidence and trust of the liberals in U.S. labor who have a “fundamental mistrust” of Catholic participation in labor. He lauded the activity of the ACTU, complained of the “liberal mistrust that is mountainous”, and closed with a plea for “a little more liberalism from the liberals, please!”
In discussing the activity of the lahor priests Fortune also reports that liberals in labor distrust the ACTU and that they consider it as a pressure group. In telling of the resignation of Kermit Eby, a Protestant, as director of the Education and Research department of the CIO, it quotes him as saying: “There are two extreme poles of power attraction in the CIO, the Communist pole and the ACTU pole. Both receive their impetus and inspiration from without the CIO. Both believe the control of the CIO is part of the larger struggle for the control of the world.” In similar vein is the indictment of the Catholic lahor activity by James M. Freeman, in his pamphlet Ao Friend of Labor,
What are the facts? Why are labor liberals so suspicious of the role the Catholic Church plays in the labor movement? Is the welfare of the workingman the sole motive of that religious organization ? or must the indictment of Mr. Eby, that it is merely a part of a greater struggle to rule the world, stand ?
The Catholic Church as Employer
The extent of the interest of the Catholic Church in the welfare of the workingman may be ascertained by noting the way she treats those in her employ. When the cemetery workers of the Catholic “Calvary” and “Gate of Heaven” cemeteries struck for higher pay and a shorter week, Cardinal Spellman ordered seminary students to dig the graves, and he himself led the strikebreaking tactics, at the same time drawing across the trail the red herring of communism.
Another Catholic dignitary, Bishop MeVinney, of Providence, Rhode Island, blasted a union because of its slow-down tactics by which the union hoped to gain its demands. Why? Because it was working on a Catholic building project. The bishop further complained that bricklayers today are only laying 400 bricks a day, whereas years ago they laid from 1,000 to 1,500 a day.
UurthftrmOTe, it is a notoricfiis fate that no class of workers, from janitors to college professors, is as poorly paid as those employed by Catholic institutions, such as parochial schools, etc. Is not here a place for “charity to begin at home”!
Further Inconsistencies
Too, the Catholic Church claims that she must inject her religion into the labor movement to counteract the influence of labor racketeers. Yet when the rank and file of the International Longshoremen’s Association recently rebelled against one of the most notorious labor racketeers, Joe Ryan, she used her influence to break the strike, labeling those leading it as communist, thus causing the men to submit to continued unjust conditions. Is that the way to help labor clean house and improve its lot?
Again, one of the chief tenets of the Catholic labor movement, as enunciated by the popes, is that strikes should not be violent, that property is to be held inviolate, tec. But the past year witnessed a strike by a Catholic union in Quebec which was marked by, to quote the Toronto Financial Post, “appalling violence,” and which was “one of the worst demonstrations of lawlessness this country [Canada] has ever seen”. Regarding this strike of the asbestos workers employed by the (Protestant) Johns-Manville Co., the report of the Weekly People states: “A word from the chaplain of the Catholic Syndicate, Father Phillipe Camirand, ended the violence for the time being, but not until many policemen were beaten and disarmed.
Indeed, some of the policemen, while prisoners of the strikers, were beaten in the presence of Father Camirand. The priest refused to intercede on behalf of the police, and later proclaimed that the strikers were 'fighting for the doctrines of the Boman Catholic Church’J*
Another fact which strongly impugns the sincerity of the claims regarding the motive of the Catholic Church in the labor movement is the factor of the date of its activity. Pope Tien XIII issued his- encyclical on labor, Rerum Novarum, in 1891. Concerning this a Jesuit, R. J. Henle, writing in Commonweal (a Jesuit publication), states: ‘There is no use imagining where we would be had we taken seriously the encyclicals of the great Leo in hi a own day instead of in the fortieth year after.”
Ib it not a significant fact that all this activity on the part of the Catholic labor schools, the ACTU, the Catholic tabor press, the Catholic labor clergy, priests, bishops, etc., did not begin then, nor even before, when the need was greatest ? that it waited until the ora of the New Deal, under the favorable conditions of the Wagner Labor Act, ami coincides with the extensive organising of labor by the CIO? When the labor movement showed the greatest activity and expansion, when it constituted a power Io be reckoned with, then, suddenly; the Catholic Church heroines interested in the labor movement. And especially ha$ she chosen to interest herself in the CIO because of its vitality and radical leadership.
Pressure Tactics
There was a time when Michael Quill, head of the powerful New York Transit Worke rs Union, dared to criticize the Catholic participation in labor, though he himself is a Catholic. In a speech in Boston he referred to the New York Catholic tabor school movement as a ‘"hindrance, a nuisance and a strikebreaking outfit”. But iso effective were the attjutks of the Catholic press and Catholic Action right in his own union that before a year had rolled around ho completely submitted to its influence and Complied with its demands regarding political issues, etc.
Then /here was a time when J&mes B, Carey, likewise a Roman Catholic and now secretary-treasurer of the CTO, ulso objected to this dictation. It seems that he had addressed a liberal group which Catholic spokesmen saw fit tn label communist. The ACTU sent a letter to Carey regarding tfje incident, to which iic replied:
I have received raaiiy pressure letters of this type. I am surprised, however, to find how riowl y you follow the same pattern . . . I seriously object to the labor movemenVs being used as a battleground for or against certain political philosophies^ I am, therefore, very much opposed to any liirialiun. from any sources outside the labor movement in regards to the iiolicics of the labor movement.
But the pressure was too great—after all, this was Catholic pressure, and Carey was a Catholic, So, before long, we find him writing the ACTU for a list of I he group? to which they objected.
The president of the CIO, Philip Murray, at one of its conventions n<it, so very long ago, hod it go on record that "we ask no nian his national origin, his color, hie religion or his belief* , „ , This union will not tolerate effort? of outsiders—individuals, organizations or groups—whether they he communist, socialist or any other group, to infiltrate, dictate or meddle in our affairs . . . We engage in no purges, no witch hunts”. But, after Catholic pressure was brought to bear because of this “drivel”, at the very next gathering of the CIO it went on record that organized labor "wants no damned communists meddling in out affairs”; and the resolution passed objected only lo outside political groups meddling, th ns leaving the door wide open for the ACTU to “infiltrate, dictate and meddle” in the affairs of the CIO.
Submit or Get Out/
While the CIO in general has yielded to Catholic pressure, there was or is a left-wing faction in that organization over which it has been unable to wield any influence. This faction was led by the UE (United Electrical Workers union), the third largest Affiliate of the CIO, It had ousted J. B. Carey from its presidency in 1941, arid the fight for its control has continued ever since. Typical of the tactics used and the forces involved was the fight at Erie, Pennsylvania/for control of the UE there. Just before the union held its election, the local labor priest gave the fight front-page publicity in the parochial press, stating that the issue was the same as that which confronted Italy a year ago, and then added: “What is most perplexing is the fact that there are many Catholics working at the General Electric who say publicly that priests have no business interfering irk of Uw xxvavp?'L CfclW-
lics are either bad Catholics or just stupid !” However, whether “bad” Catholics or just “stupid”, they rejected such interference by a vote of three to one.
The fight between the left-wing unions (communist controlled, maybe, or merely not subject to Catholic pressure) and the right-wing (submitting to Catholic pressure) executive body came to a head at the 1949 convention at Cleveland, Ohio, late in 1949. There the executive committee, while ignoring charges of union violations such as crossing picket lines, racial discrimination,. anti-Semitism, etc., charged the left-wing unions with communism and had the convention pass a resolution to oust communists. Any who would not go along with the executive committee in its support of those policies of the Truman administration which had the support of the' Catholic Church, specifically the cold war against Russia, with its Marshall Plan, Atlantic Pact, etc., were communists.
along with the administration on such jV-IY 8, 1950
measures as public education and health insurance, as the Catholic Church opposed these—for reasons best known to herself!)
Regarding the plans for the convention, the New York Times (Nov. 6) stated: “They [the left-wingers] were to be accused of every crime in the book?* Immediately after the keynote speech by President Murray, in which he announced his purpose to clear out the leftwing element, a Roman Catholic bishop, Edward F. Hoban, gave an address in which he instructed the delegates: “You must repudiate those enemies of God and man who seek to pervert your efforts and to enlist your great forces to fight on the side of evil.”
While the CIO gave lip-service to the fundamentals of labor union democracy at the convention, it repeatedly winked at violations of such. Thus it has completely reversed itself as to what should W pfcraTnvuifi lntere^ and importance in the labor movement and, with the consent of Murray and Carey and at the instance of the ACTU, it is now “being used as a battleground for and against certain political philosophies”. Or, rather, it would be better to say “religious” philosophies, as the Detroit Free Press states that “we cannot help wondering just how broad a line separates the CIO 'right' from its 'left' ”
What Next?
All twelve left-wing unions were scheduled for expulsion, aggregating a total of about 900,000 members of a claimed six million (some hold only four million). It was thought best, however, to limit the expulsions at the time to two, the UE and the FE (Farm Equipment), because of the size of the fight that the CIO would have on its hands as the result of such expulsions. In January 1950 the CIO ousted the California state council CIO on similar charges of cbm-TnuinsY BympnUiy and ftouting union policy.. And, although the right to act as
bargaining agent for the electrical work' ers was still in doubt, in March three more unions were expelled.
It is the purpose of the CIO to win back as many as possible of that 900,000 by the formation of rival unions and by the raiding tactics of “right” unions. To that end a rival electrical union was formed, headed by Carey. As noted by the New York Times, “The immediate prospect . . , is for a period of con-fusion and intra-union battling.” And while there will be many battles with union ballots and before the courts, they will not he limited to such: Already there have been smashed windows and broken heads. (In fact, one left-wing delegate attending tho convention has been bealen up and had an eye blinded by right-wing raiders.) And it will also invade the Catholic churches, ns noted by a radio report of a priest who instructed lux parishioners to leave the UE and join the new' rival union.
From the foregoing it is quite clem* that Catholic Action on the U.S. labor front has boded no good for labor unions. Her treatment of her own employer,s, her inconsistent practices, and her pressure tactics, all show that she has an nx to grind, and that her motive is not to help the labor movement but to control it for her own ends. As a result of her meddling, dictating, infill r ating and interference, the CIO, most vital force on the American labor scene, has been emasculated, and the efforts of-labor organizers, instead of being directed to “organize the unorganized”, arc being diverted to raiding tactics; labor is fighting labor so as to fight her cold war instead of the common enemy of labor, the oppressing classes.
Hope for the Laborer
Today the labor unionist finds little ground for optimism or comfort on the American labor scene. Catholic Action has let the AFL go its way, ns it considers that body politically “safe”, although, as a force, rather stagnant. It has succeeded in causing the CIO unions to engage in internecine warfare. Within the CIO Catholic Murray eyes with distrust Protestant and socialistic Reuther; while even in the new electrical union Carev had to fight one Kelley for control» To the one extreme is Catholic Action with its “right” political philosophy and its rule-or-ruin policy, and at the other extreme are the communists, advocating something worse (if possible), or, at best, liberals who engage in the wishful thinking that totalitarian Russia is amenable to appeals to reason and for justice.
And everywhere are tho racketeering labor bosses. The voting of themselves in for life prestdenries at enormous salaries is neither democratic nor conducive to honesty and the best interests of the unions. And jurisdictional disputes and the raiding of other unions hip ladies that not only arc unfair to the employer but that make the principle of solidarity among labor seem a mockery. All of which goes to underscore the wisdom of <1 prophet of Cod who Jong ago wrote: Put no trust in princes, in a mere man, in whom is no help?’—Psalm 146:3, An Amer. Trans.
But let all lovers of righteousness, in and outside of organized labor, take hope. Bible prophecy shows that it will not be long now before Oue, who was once a carpenter but who is now ruling as '"King of kings and Lord of lords”, will ^judge the poor of the people . ■ . and save the children of the needy’. He will break in pieces the oppressor (be the oppressor a totalitarian dictator, a religious pressure group, or- a racketeering labor boss). Under His just rule men “shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit, they shall not plant, and another eat . . . Mine elect shall long enjoy (he wort of their hands”.—Xsdrifl/j 65:21,22.
WANSTHE BLACK CREPE
How mobs struck down Freedom In this Ohio town
Murder by dem o n i z e d mob-
sters! The victims:
freedom of worship
and freedom of assembly* The
time: during “brotherhood” week
in February, 1950. The place,: in the open streets of the religious, Presbyterian-college town of Wooster, Ohio* Let the dis- ~ graced, egg-splattered American _ flag fly at half-mast in memory of this frightful crime! Let all America mourn this vile deed. Let the good- people of Ohio weep for Wooster. Let the citizens of that would-be pious town hang their heads, in shame. Let the fascist-minded, flag-saluting mobsters, who dragged that proud emblem of freedom through Wooster's egg-smeared streets, now be put on trial for having assaulted and killed the very principles of freedom for which the flag stands!
This outrageous attack and impalement of freedom occurred during a three-day circuit assembly of more than 800 Christians known as Jehovah's witnesses. On Friday and Saturday the assembly held their sessions of worship inside the fortresslike Wayne Theater, while threatening mobs milled around on the outside. However, the Sunday program for February 26, scheduled to be held in the high school auditorium, was canceled after lawless mobrule overpowered the constitutional authorities, But lot the one in charge of that Christian assembly* Mr* L, E. Reusch, a traveling representative of The Watchtower Bible Society, give his eyewitness ac-
Pftwooivl OF *• WORSHIP
WOOSTER
& count of that wicked
. outburst of violence.
From his vivid report the following is taken.
For eleven hours mobs ruled the city of Wooster. From 4:00 o'clock Saturday afternoon until 3: 00 Sunday morning the police were powerless, A pitifully inadequate police force was finally supplemented by volunteers of the National Guard in an attempt to maintain order, but to no avail. We were inside the fortlike Wayne Theater, safe, warm and comfortable, enjoying our1 circuit activity meeting, from 7 until 9 p.m., Saturday. Outside the mob raged and howled, venting their spleen on the few police and guardsmen who formed a cordon outside the main entrance. The police chief was the main target of attack, and he was literally plastered from head to foot with eggs,
Estimates vary on the number in the mob, but from 9:00 on it grew in numbers until midnight, when the chief estimated there were 1,100, The chief was all for dismissing us immediately out the rear doors, but that was not deemed a wise thing to do and we told him that we were going to stay put until order could be maintained, oven if we had to sit it out all night. The audience was calm, unexcited, and settled down to making the most of the situation. The time was occupied to good advantage as brethren related ex
periences and sang their Kingdom songs. So manifest was the operation of the Lord's spirit in this situation that the chief of police later . commented to me about it. In all his life he had never witnessed anything to compare to it. He was in the army for
seventeen years and in police work all Ms life, yet had never seen a more disciplined group of people.
While the impromptu program progressed we organized squads quickly and quietly to hold the entrance ways. The women and children ware moved out of the immediate danger areas. The men, with coats mid ties removed and sleeves rolled up, calmly took up strategic positions. The chief said: ‘‘It’s a good thing the mob couldn’t get in'; they’d of never gotten out!” He would have dearly loved to deputize our bays for his own forces, had. I said the word, hut that was not our job. We chose to ait tight and hold the fort, and for this course the chief later expressed real adniira* tlon for our calmness, dignity and remarkable self-restraint under the circumstances.
Meanwhile, the situation in the cafeteria was more serious, We had rented an upstaire hail just half a block awsj* frozzi the theater, and we were tied in by direct wire as well as by the usual telephone connections. What concerned us was the fact that only seven of our men together with thirty women were in the cafeteria. You can imagainc the thrill we got when at th a main auditorium we received from them the telephone request.* “Sing nong# Nos, 38 and 60; we are holding the fort here !'*
That little handful nt the cafeteria, men and women alike, ^quitted themselves valiantly as they literally fought for their lives, unassisted by the police. Fully 150 temporarily insane mobsters (surged around the doorway trying to force their way in. Up the narrow stairway they backed our men, but that is as far as they got. There the line held. After a half-hour of unsucce^ful attacking, Johnny, the leader (John Thomasetti), called off his gang, “Wait a minute/’ he said, “there’s something wrong here. There are only half a dozen of them and a hundred of us, ard we can’t get in. There’s something wrong."
About that time, according to the police chiefs story, he and some of his men arrived nt the cafeteria, “What’s going ou here, Johnny?” asked the chief. “We’recalling a retreat/’ said Johnny, “they’re too much for us, and 1 want that man arrested; he hit me with this.” He held out a five-inch piece of pipe. The chief looked at it disdainfully and remarked that it wasn’t so much. To which Johnny replied: “R—, that's what broke off!”
By 1; 45 a.m. I took a reconnoitering tour around with the chief and decided the mob was now small enough and cold enough (it was down to 6 degrees above zero Fahrenheit) that we could leave the building with the minimum of trouble. So. while the chief and his men bottled up about 100 of the mob in the Greyhound bus depot next door, whore they had taken refuge from the cold, some of our men diverted the attention of the rest at the iwn entrance with the fire hose. Washing down llie egg-soaked sidewalk made it Appear that wo were preparing to eojjie out. Meantime, the assembly was quietly making iis; exit unobserved out the rear doors. The mu-neiiver was h pen-reel success, the enemy was completely fooled, no one was hurt, and the chief expressed real admiration for the strategy. The theater evacuated, wo then went to the rescue of the beleaguered cafeimu furec, andj with the help of guardsmen, the building was cleared. It wa*, now 3:00 a.m., the end of a very long day. sieven hum's of which were under actual siege.
Around JI: 00 t/dodc Saturday at the peak of the fury, the mayor canceled our contract for the highschool auditorium, declaring that a (state of emergency existed. Consequently, with freedom of worship and freedom of assembly completely dead in Wooster, our Sunday services had to be moved to the Kingtlum Hah of Jehovah’# witness at Canton, Ohio.
Events Leading Up to the Murders
Officials of such organizations as the Daughters of Union Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, and the Spanish-American War Veterans showed they were no friends of freedom and would not protect freedom. By their open opposition they encouraged the murderous attack that followed. They brought much pressure to bear on the school board and on the superintendent, D. R. Bodenbender, in an effort-to
prevent Jehovah’s witnesses from using the high school auditorium.
But Bodenhender refused to yield to this subversive, un-American influence, declaring that he would rather lose his job than go back on his word. If Wooster had more men like Bodenhender, willing to stand by principle father than yield to pressure, the entire fracas would have been nipped in the bud. But alas! there are few of such men. More, it seems, have the markings of "Fire Chief Lloyd Eiver-hardt. Friday night, during the assembly, Everhardt was observed as the ringleader of a nasty pack of hoodlums that rallied outside the theater, blocked traffic, dragged the American flag on the ground, and then hung it upside down on the marquee of the theater, hoping that the Lord’s witnesses on the inside would be blamed for this disgrace.
The next morning a visit to Mayor Hillcn’s office proved he was a “little man” when faced with a big pro hie ng a man who tried to please both sides. His attitude at first gave encouragement to the rioters, and only after the matter had gone too far and was out of hand did he use his power in a futile attempt to disband the killers. When the offices of the sheriff and state police were called upon for help, to protect life and public property, they said they had no jurisdiction. Later, when it was too late to prevent the overt acts of violence, the sheriff’s office gave the local police some help. A case of too little too late.
Saturday afternoon conditions worsened. The troubled air thickened. Menacing little gangs of hoodlums ranged the streets unchecked. By 4: 00 o’clock it was decided to ask Ohio’s Governor Lausche to call out the National Guard. Urgent telegrams were sent to this effect. Repeated telephone calls w'ere put through to him. Altogether, at least thirteen telephone calls were made by the mayor, the chief of police, the sheriff and Jehovah’s witnesses, pleading that the governor prevent the massacre of human rights in
Wooster, but all to no avaih No help came from the National Guard, except for a few local men who volunteered their services.
Is This Democracy?
After it wras all over, after America’s glorious freedoms lay dead in the streets, many freedom-loving people began to mourn for the victims. One Chinese student at Wooster college asked: “Is this what democracy means 1” To the Wooster Dally Record a veteran of the last war wrote:
-I happened to be one of the privileged ones who were inside the Wayne Theater on Saturday night, February 25, while a crazed mob waited outside* to throw eggs. ... I thought about a lot of things that night. I couldn’t help but think of how many of my old schoolmates and friends were waiting outside. Could this be what some of them and myself fought for in the stinking jungles of Guadalcanal or the bloody battlefields <>£ the globe"' Or do 1 vaguely remember that we were fighting against such violence, against suppression of the Four Freedoms? How many of those Four Freedoms were denied us at this assembly? I ask you—did I, as a veteran, deserve to have my placard ripped off, and to be pushed oft the streets of the town I once longed to come home to? Did I spend those forty-two odd months in vain? I’ll leave the answer to you.
Referring again to the report made by the imnitter in charge of that Christian assembly in Wooster, it says in conclusion:
Only the protecting hand of Jehovah could have preserved us. And save us He did, and it. is to Him that we give all the thanks and praise. It reminds one of the time when Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened to see the chariots of the Lord surrounding the besieging forces at Dothan and then having the enemies’ eyes struck with blindness. (2 Kings G: 13-23) It occurred again at Wooster, Ohio, in the early hours of February 26, 1950.
LIGHT-FINGERED SHOPPERS
EVERYONE shops. Almost everyone pays the storekeeper for the merchandise obtained. But h few iight-fingered shoppers, sometimes as many as ten to twenty-five in a day in the large stores, do not pay for the merchandise they get The loss to light-fingered li Tiers is your loss, because the store must add the cost of the pilfered items to tho amount yon pay.
Does yocr locality have a one-percent sales tax! Do you sometimes begrudge paying it 1 You pay an equal tat to shop-Jfters in increased cost of your purchases. IF you spend $100, you give $1 to a shoplifter. As far bark as 1939, before the days of tho .present mflid imi, <me largtf store in York city had a total shoplifting expense of one million dollars a year. At that limp a smaller Sture in that city had signs in live languages, snyir.g, “Dishonesty Means Prk on Don’t Bring Disgrace to Your FamilyEven so* tliiw store had three or four arrrwLs daily, and shoplifting cost it a hundred thousand dollars a year.
A 70-percent increase in shoplifting in the two years prior to 1948 was reported by a New York newspaper. It is estimated that from $30,000,000 to $75,000,000 a year goes out the door with lightfingered shoppers. This figure would be even higher were it not for an additional $25,000,000 a year spent on detective forces trained tc trap shoplifters. A five story department More probably hires about forty detectives, eight Id each floor, a^d their ever-watchful and extremely efficient eyes reduce the million or more attempts each mouth to approximately 100,000 successful instances of light fingered shopping in a week,
A shoplifter may be one of Beyond types. There are professional thieves who premeditate their crimes and use them as a means of livelihood. On ap prehension they are usually turned over to the police for criminal proneeiitimi. A few are kleptomaniacs, neurotica who have a compelling urge to steal. Bat tho vast majority of shoplifters, probably 90 percent of them, are apparently normal individuals who steal without premeditation. They im*p something that they want; they think no one is Jookirg, and a shoplifter is born,
SMrHJi^ely enough it is not "Light-lingered Louie”, the profession al thief, who is responsible for a greater portion. of this petty larceny, but their overwhelming numbers throw most of the blame onio common, ordinary people, our next-door neighbors. Plain "Mary Doakes"? a young girl from the neighborhood, probably between seventeen mid twenty years old, is the culprit who rakes down most of the shoplifting take, It in not “Joo Donk os”, hut his sister “Mary", for shoplifting is a woman's job. Cold facts and bare statistics prove this to bo true. Out. nf 338 shoplifters examined in Chicago, 313 were women. Some null.ori-ties claim that seventy-five percent of all 1 ight-fingered shopping is done by women, others say eighty, anti some say that ninety five percent cf nil shoplifters are female.
But those who compile these statistics often fad to mention that perhaps this vast majority is not fill due to a hick
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of feminine integrity, or even because Mary’s desire for nice gloves, perfume and nylon hose may be stronger than her brother Joe's, but part of this feminine predominance in shoplifting may be attributed to the fact that women predominate among shoppers. It's a woman's business, but perhaps if more men went shopping the percentage of male shoplifters would be greater.
Why do people steal from the stores? What makes them take a chance on the mistaken idea that the hand 5s quicker than the eye? Why will a person risk his reputation for a $3.98 item? These questions continually puzzle store detectives.
A Look at a Light-fingered Shopper
Come with us as we look for a shoplifter. There is our friend Mary Doakes, sauntering through the town’s largest store. She is an apparently honest girl, and has no thought of stealing. “Surely,” you say, “she wouldn’t he a shoplifter?’ But we continue to watch. She stops at the glove counter. That is a nice pair of gloves that she is examining, and she would like to have them; but she knows that she can’t afford the few dollars that they cost. She fingers them for a minute, wishing. She looks around to see if anyone is watching. The clerk is talking to a customer at the other end of the counter, and apparently no one else is looking. Mary hesitates, then quickly tucks the gloves under her coat. Her conscience twinges, but she is afraid to stop now. Her heart is thumping faster as she hurriedly pushes through the crowd and out onto the sidewalk.
But look, the man who had been standing half-way down the counter was watching her, and he has followed her
outside, where he stops her and says, “Pardon me, Miss, did you pay for those gloves?” She is horrified to learn that he is a store detective, and despite her protests his firm hand directs her back into the store and to the elevator that the employees use. They go up to the office, where the stern head of the store’s protection department listens to what the detective tells about the theft. She quivers as she denies it. “Stop your lies! Show us your sales slip,” is his response. Notice how Mary's face has turned pale, betraying her fright. The theft took such a tiny moment; hut she is afraid of what her family and friends will* think when they hear of her shame, and she is afraid that she may even go to jail for her crime. She is sternly lectured. The store’s files are checked to see if this is her first offense. The mutual association with which this store is connected is called to see if she is listed in their files of persons wTho have been caught shoplifting in other stores in the city. .
As she has no previous record, a form that has been filled out is put in her trembling hand. It is a confession, giving her name and the full facts regarding the theft. She is instructed to sign it. Signing is not only an admission of guilt, but means that she will be indexed along with common criminals in the store's records, and in the files of the mutual association that keeps a record of the city’s shoplifters. She is told that if she , does not sign she will be turned over to the police and prosecuted. She rereads that last paragraph of the confession. It says, “I have implored the firm to forgive me and save me from disgrace and mortification of a criminal prosecution, I promise that I will never again enter
------s store.” AH this for a $4.98 pair of gloves!
Fearing the results of refusal, she signs and U released. This time she will go free, but she is told that if she is caught shoplifting again in any store in the city she will be prosecuted on both charges and her signed confession will be used.
Private Police Provide Protection
This picture is re-enacted many times each month in every large city. Very few of thoae apprehended make a second attempt at light-fingered shopping, ft is reported that only one out of twenty repeats. The cost is too great. First offenders are reminded of the dire conse^ quenccs of light-fingered shopping-; while habitual ehopliftcre arc dealt with more severely. Of those who try to got out of a store with merchandise they have not purchased, it is estimated that nine out of ten are caught.
The stores have many ways to keep check on merchandise and customers. Store detectives may be anywhere, some are clerks, others ap/war to be customers, or they may carry stock from one place tn another. Almost anyone in the store could bo a detective; perhaps he is the man at the end of the aisle, or the person who is examining the goods alongside of you. If his suspicions have been aroused he may push up against you in a crowd to see if he can feel I he stolen item hidden under your clothes. These men know the particular departments that must be watched, for shoplifters are generally found around the perfume, glove, handkerchief, jewelry and hosiery counters.
The watchers also "know where most shoplifters hide their look Perhaps it is in a large handbag, or a tuck-in brassiere, a billowing coat sleeve, a loose coat lining, or in a loose umbrella. Store detectives know these caches and are constantly alert to see that they are not used to conceal purloined merchandise. The shoplifter's te/i-ta/e actions; the way gfte handles displayed items, and her very manner, may all betray her,
Stores, ho we ver, exercise great caution in dealing with shoplifters. A person falsely accused of stealing merchandise may bring a damage suit against the store, and no store wants this type of publicity. In some large stores even a detective is not permitted to accost a customer during his first few num ths on the joh, but must call another detective who has been with the store for a longer period of time, and both Ite satisfied that the person in question has actually stolen from the store before the person is accused of theft. Tt is reported that many stores permit the thief to go out onio the sidewalk before accusing her, so that sho will nut be able to say that she was merely taking the goods to the light to examine them. This U little help to the guilty shoplifter, for a store detective has no qualms nhiml accosting anyone who has stolen from the ata re, and no amount of shouting about a "’damage suit" will frighten him into releasing n guilty shoplifter.
Kleptomaniacs
Some shoplifters are mental cases. They steal for the thrill they get out of taking some th lug without paying for it. Those mentally unbalanced persons are “kleptomaniacs'; and usually they have sufficient money to pay tor their purchases. A rich worn an seeking “thrills’' through shoplifting is called a kleptomaniac. A poor woman is more likely to be called a plain thief. The New York Herald Tribune defined kleptomaniacs as “crooks with social standing'". A real kleptomaniac does not take anything that she needs, but takes it merely for the thrill of stealing, and the stolen object has no value to her. It is the action, not the result, that gives the pleasure. It is reported that among shoplifters there are very few kJeptojnanitieSy Jess than one in a hundred.
Psychiatrists have tried to explain why normally honest people suddenly decide to steal. “Are Shoplifters Thieves?” was the title of a report in Newsweek, August 4, 1947, which gives the conclusions of a Northwestern University psych i at ri mt, who had studied 338 shoplifters arrested in Chicago. He said that many were persons of “social and political consequence and high intelligence”. He reported that the value of the articles stolon was generally small. It was his conclusion that seventy-seven percent had "some definite mental, emotional, or physical disorder” To bear out this conclusion he told of one man who, while depressed over his wife’s death, tried to steal a $24 statue from a Chicago store, and similar other experiences, all designed to prove that shoplifters are not so bad, but that they need mental treatment. Perhaps some persons arc at times mentally irresponsible; but covetous-ness, di shonesty, lying, thievery and companion evils should not be lightly passed off with “emotional stress” as the excuse.
Almost all shoplifting is confined to items costing $50 or less, generally less Ilian $25. Most persons are fearful of taking larger items. Mary Doakes wouldn’t take anything that costs more than a few dollars. Most of those who have made a profession out of stealing would rather “lift” many small items than a few large ones, so that when they are caught the penalty for the particular theft will be lighter. However, some daring professional crooks have gone in for far more valuable items, sometimes stealing paintings, jewelry, art, silk, tapestries, etc. Their loot must be small or otherwise easy to conceal, and, in this type of theft, never cheap.
Professional Shoplifters
Professional shoplifters know what they want before they enter a store. They seldom finger an item before taking it, but walk up to a counter, remove the item at the first opportunity, and are may a, 1950
gone. Their busiest time is when the stores are particularly crowded, such as at noon hours when office workers may be shopping, on week-ends when the stores are packed, and during the annual Christmas rush. “Twenty more shoplifting days till Christmas,” might well be their early December slogan.
The elaborate arrangement of a professional shoplifter for getting nut of the store with stolen merchandise would amaze the layman. “It is not difficult for a thief to steal valuables in a store. The problem is to escape with them,” said Sunset magazine, January, 1927; and over twenty years later that statement is still true. A light-fingered shopper can often get an item off the counter and out of sight, but getting out of the store Without betraying herself is another matter.
Some employ special equipment, such as an overcoat with a very large pocket, boxes with fake bottoms, or large handbags with a slit in the bottom so that while milady appears to be looking for something in her oversized purse she can be pulling items from the display counter through the slit and into the bag. All of these devices, however clever, sooner or later fall victim to the alert store detective. lie notices that the overcoat does not hang properly, or knowrs that items that have disappeared must be somewhere, and the box or handbag that was resting on the counter comes under suspicion. The culprit is apprehended, and probably will be in jail before the day is over.
More difficult to catch are light-fingered shoppers who work in pairs. One picks up the merchandise and passes it to the other who brushes by in the crowd. When the first is stopped by the store detective he can safely submit to search and I hen loudly protest about a “damage suit” against the store.
One man who was eating an apple asl^ed to sbh some rings in a jewelry store. He complained about a worm in
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the apple and threw it out into the gutter His accomplice picked it up and removed a diamond ring from the ‘wormy” apple.
The Saturday Evening Post described a shoplifter who wore a loose trenchcoat and left the fly of his trousers open. Through the open fly. and onto hooks inside his baggy trousers had been deposited eleven model railroad ears, two signal towers, a loading platform, three bundles of track section, and other items. How one maxi could hide alt of this in his pants legs, even with a loose trenchcoat hanging over them, amazes anyone except a store detective. But with all thin loot a man's actions betray him, and he too falls victim to the ever-watchful eye of the store detective.
One .woman hid an expensive bolt of silk by putting it through a slit in a large pleat in her skirl and into a bag that hung between her legs. She was trapped only after an alert detective noticed tljat the man Tier in which she walked indicated that she was carrying something between her legs.
To amateurs the process is more simple. They pick something up when they think no one is looking, and another item is lost to light fingers. But again, in trying to get out of the store without detection the light-fingered shopper generally trips up and finds that she has fallen into the strong arms of the law and is under the capable care of a store detective.
Light-fingered shoppers are continual ly finding new ways of trying to sneak their stolen goods out of stores, hut as each new method is found the spotters learn how to watch for it. Perhaps you have gone into the same large Hore five times a week for years and have never seen a shoplifter, bnt such is not the case with the eyes of the store detective, trained Jo watch for tell-tale actions.
Protection for Small Stores
Smaller stores that cannot afford special detectives arc also warring aguiuKt their enemy, the shoplifter. Groceries are posting signs “Shoplifters Will Be Prosecuted”. Large mirrors in stores serve not only for decorative purposes, but help clerks to watch unsuspecting thieves. The alert jeweler never turns his back while merchandise is on the counter He c/oses drawers immediately on removing any item, and shows only one watch at a time. Some dime stores cover tempting counters with glass. Clerks can he instructed to count the number of items taken off the shelves for a customer’s inspection and to be sure that the foil number is replaced.
The odds are against the light-fingered shopper, whether she is plain Mary Poakcs or a hardened professional crimi nal. Mary Doakes has nine chances of getting caught for every one chance of escaping. The professional shoplifters criminal experience gives him bettor odds on the individual theft, but his multitude of crimes are sure Io lead to his capture. Without question, shoplifting does not pay!
Painfully shameful it is that so seared has become the conscience of this world, ruled by the “father of lies”, Satan the Devil, and with dishonesty so prevalent that large department stores must hido rheir an I i shoplifting campaign under a heavy el oak of secrecy for fear of pern lilting publication of information of possible value fo shoplifters. The multiplied millions of petty thefts provide only another distress call for the blessings of God’s kingdom, so anxiously awaited by Christians, because that kingdom will forever clear this earth of the corruption now existing under demonic rule. The estabfishinent of God e new world will iiiark the end of all dishonesty, corruption and theft Then Christ’s instruction "love Lhy neighbor as thyself” will be applied by all living creatures, and the work of store detectives will be finished. Their time can then be used constructively, as God may direct.
The Frame on Which We Hang
MAN may boast of his advanced scientific wisdom and learning, his vast knowledge of mechanics, his great engineering skill, yet he has never built and will never build a structure so wonderful as the human skeleton. This bony scaffolding, made up of more than 200 separate pieces, is the basic framework to which the muscles and sinews are attached. It gives support, shape and outline to the body as well as protection for the vital organs within. Observe a few external facts, and study some of the hidden wonders of the hones, and you will be convinced that the great Designer and Builder of the human body, by His superior wisdom, knowledge and skill, has produced a masterpiece of engineering far surpassing anything built by man.
The human skeleton is made up of the skull, the spinal column, or trunk of the body, with the ribs, and the limbs (the arms and hands, legs and feet). The skull includes not only the hard shell that encloses the most important organ of the body, the brain, but also the capsule bones that give form to the nose and ears, and the jawbones that are so necessary for eating.
What a jellyfish man would be without his backbone! It is made up of thirty-three bones in childhood, some of which fuse together during growth to give strength to the adult frame. In the neck, regardless of how long or short it is, there are seven vertebrae, and these are so constructed as to allow the head to be rotated in practically any direction. Below the neck is the thoracic section, with twelve vertebrae, to whieh are attached twenty-four ribs. In front, the upper seven ribs on each side are fastened to the breast, to form a walled-in chest cavity, 'which gives protection to the vital heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, etc.
Down the spine from the thorax is the lumbar region, the “small” of the back. It is here that the five largest vertebrae are located, a wise provision by the Builder, for it is here that the greatest strain, twisting and bending of the spine occurs. This whole column rests on the sacral bones, five in number in childhood, but which are fused together in adulthood to give strength and rigidity. It is to the sacral that the pelvis is also attached. Due to her child-carrying assignment in life, a woman has wider hips than a man, because the perfect Designer saw fit to provide her with a larger sacral vertebra and a wider pelvis. Completing the spinal column, everyone has a flexible coccygeal, or “tail hone”, which too is a very wise provision. The sensitiveness of this terminus makes the creature sit down with care, and, as a consequence, there is less shock to the spinal column. It is certainly no vestigial structure, no leftover from a mythical period of evolutionary monkeyhood. When you stop to consider it the column of the backbone is truly a marvelous piece of engineering. It serves many functions in a most efficient and practical way—supporting the upper part of the body, allowing great movement of the body, permitting the legs beneath to lift and carry huge amounts, perhaps more than 200 pounds, in addition to the weight of the body. Many strains are placed upon the spine during the day. Consequently, the Creator put shockabsorbing disklike cushions between the individual vertebrae to prevent them from rubbing. These cushions are capsules containing 80-pereent water, which take up some of the sudden shocks imposed on the spine a thousand times a day. Gradually, under the pressure of the day, the water is squeezed out so that a person is from one-half to three-quarters of an inch shorter at night than in the morning.
The importance of each and every hone in our bodies is not fully appreciated until through some unfortunate accident we lose one or more of them. The loss of a finger is crippling, the loss of a hand or an arm is a great handicap, the loss of both arms is very tragic. How supremely thoughtful, then, the Creator who provided man in the first place with arms and hands! Not clumsy grappling hooks like those of a mechanical/diver, but appendages of perfect design: arms that are ingeniously attached to the rest of the frame, that swivel in shoulder sockets, that bend at the elbow to give flexibility and great leverage; and hands and fingers having deft skillfulness and dexterity as well as strength.
Variety in Design and Composition
Have you ever marveled how7 a little child can fall many times its owm height from a cherry tree and pick itself up unharmed ; how 200-pound football players can smash against each other time and again without injury; how a middleaged man can crawl out of an auto accident with a broken leg and a few7 weeks later have it mended together again? On the other hand, have you ever w7on-dered why an 80-year-old grandmother may only bump her arm against the doornob and break it; and yet when she dies her hone frame is capable of remaining intact long centuries after the body of flesh has decayed and disappeared? A study of the changing structure and chemical composition of bones will explain and answer these questions.
Each bone of the body is best shaped
for its particular function, and is either long, flat, short or irregular. The long bones in the limbs and ribs give support and leverage. Not straight like broomhandles, they are slightly curved in one or two directions for greater elasticity. The flat bones found in the skull provide maximum protection, whereas the flat ones in the pelvis furnish large surfaces for attachment of powerful leg and back muscles. The short hones of the wrist and ankles are made to give strength as well as freedom of motion. The irregular bones, including the vertebrae and jawbones, are cleverly designed for their special functions.
Some people may think bones are dead, lifeless, rocklike deposits in the body. But under the microscope it is observed that all bones are made up of living cells, and throughout they are honeycombed with minute pores and canals through which lymph flows to constantly bathe the living bone cells in life-sustaining fluid. The middle section or shaft of a long bone is made up of compact material, wdiereas the knuckle ends are of a cancellous or spongy material, the demarcation between the two being called the epiphyseal line. Tt is in this narrow zone where growth in length takes place as an individual develops from babyhood to adulthood. Covering every bone like the bark of a tree is a thin, fibrous sheath, called the periosteum, to which the muscles and tendons are attached, and beneath which is a growing zone that takes <*are of the bones’ expanding diameters during development. When full stature is obtained, activity in these growing zones ceases. Thus is displayed more evidence of the great Builder’s wisdom, for what man-made brick is gifted with the ability to grow?
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