The Messenger—1939
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TheMESSENGER
18,000 orderly people entering and leaving Madison Square Garden on the occasion of Judge Rutherford’s address on “Government and Peace”, Sunday, June 25, 1939
Cablegrams and Telegrams
Brazil. Sao Paulo: "Heard message?’
Denmark. Copenhagen: "Reception splendid and news enthusing. Mighty men feeling uncomfortable. Hallelujah.”
A Kingdom smile
England. Birmingham : "Jehovah’s message ‘Victory’ to His great army of locusts heard perfectly with great thrills, exultation; all thanks to Jehovah.” "Magnificent reception of Jehovah’s theocratic message; audience thrilled?’ Bristol: “Locusts thrilled; greatly rejoice with you in victory song.” "Thrilled by your fearless and bold declaration for the Kingdom; reception perfect.” Gillingham (Kent) : "Heard lecture distinctly Sunday.” Hull : "Excellent reception; attendance 1,200; rejoice; Catholic opposition failed; standing firm for Theocracy.” "Reception grand; eager to use book Salvation in sounding doom of religion.” Leeds : "Two thousand heard; excellent reception of thrilling address.” "Excellent reception of your thrilling address. Convention sends greetings and declares united determination to march on with you to victory.” Stoke-on-Trent: "Thrilled by victory shout; best yet.” Liverpool: “‘Victory’ reception magnificent; locusts ready to devour all varnish.” “Let all forces come; victory cooperation assured.” “Reception perfect; attendance 2,410; no disturbance; audience thrilled.” Warrington : “Loyal greetings. Broadcast perfect.” Ellesmereport : “Ready for all co-operation; reception thrilling.” Birkenhead: “Locusts will continue to the complete vindication.” London: “London convention sends greetings to New York convention. With you in sounding religion’s doom and making the old lady howl.” "Grand, stinging, fighting speech; every word perfect. Thousand religionists could not take it; walked out. 7,500 heard entire. Approve war invitation to religionists. Police heavily guard palace; no bombs; no Fascist interference. Three thousand London convention warriors thrilled; engineers satisfied.” "Despite threat, eighteen hundred thrilled with ‘Victory’. Wild with joy for Salvation. Convention set for great locust attack.” “Irish Republican Army threaten London-Belfast circuit. Scotland Yard on watch. Nothing happened. Best overseas reception yet. Engineers greatly satisfied. Keenly anticipate tomorrow.” Manchester : “Excellent reception.
Locusts thrilled and unanimously send keenest appreciation of wonderful surprise Salvation and pray all power tomorrow’s speech.” “Splendid reception; 2,300 entirely with you; no opposition.” Newcastle-on-Tyne: “Fighting locusts heard ‘Victory’ perfectly; all praise to Jehovah for Salvation.” “Reception excellent; 1,600 enthused by opposition’s selfexposure. Praise Jehovah.” Yeovil: “Reception thrilling, clear, strong.”
Hawaii. Honolulu : “Rejoiced hearing ‘Victory’; shouted ‘Aye’; received Salvation.” “Perfect reception; thrilling, inspiring message; pledge ourselves for theocratic Kingdom.”
India. Bombay: “Fair reception.”
Ireland. Belfast : “Reception splendid; entire audience with you. Jehovah continue with you.” “Publishers enthusiastic; rejoice with you in ‘Victory’.”
Latvia. Riga: “Saturday, Sunday, reception perfect.”
Lithuania. Kaunas: "Heard both; enthused.”
New South Wales. Newcastle: "Family of locusts radio 2HD Newcastle received speech very clearly. Assure you of our one-hundredpercent support.” Strathfield : "Upwards two thousand heard giant-slaying speech; repeated applause high points; throng joined in tumultuous ‘Aye’ as it resounded through the earth.
(Continued on page 18)
Published by Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., 117 Adams St., Brooklyn, N.Y. Printed in the United States of America, August, 1939. 5c.
Convention Report—1939
JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM is functioning in the earth today. The King Christ Jesus is present, ruling in' the midst of His enemies. He is using the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, a company of Christians whose lives are devoted to proclaiming the honor of God’s name, and who are God’s witnesses— Jehovah’s witnesses.
The conventions of Jehovah’s witnesses are not like any others in the world, either in purpose or in scope. Their purpose is to do God’s will, and His will at this time is that the Day of Vengeance shall be declared throughout the earth, the proclamation that Armageddon is at the doors.
Arrival of Judge Rutherford at the auditorium
Every convention of Jehovah’s witnesses has this in view: that the earth is about to be cleansed by removing from it every disturbing element, root and branch, and that following its cleansing there will be on this earth the reign of .justice, peace, truth and love for which Jesus told His followers to pray.
Theocracy, God’s government, is in operation in the earth and is most noticeable at these conventions of Jehovah’s witnesses. None of the proceedings are secret. All who love God are welcome at the point at which the speaking is done, and at all the scores or hundreds of places over the planet where the voice of the speaker is heard.
Those who read this Report will have the evidence presented to them of vast assemblies meeting in such far-separated points as London, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to listen to the truths of God’s Word and of His kingdom, as they went-forth by radio beam, and by wire connections to all the earth. They will take note that in lands where English is not spoken there was provision that swift reporters translated simultaneously or took in shorthand and reproduced the lectures for the benefit of the listeners.
Opposition to God’s Kingdom
Is it possible that any human creatures could be fallen so low as to oppose the establishment in the earth of the perfect conditions which are foretold by all the holy prophets since the world began? It seems incredible, does it not? But does it not also seem incredible that the Son of God wras crucified as a malefactor in Jerusalem in A.D. 33, and that it was done at the instance of those who claimed to be God’s own special representatives?
It will be seen in this Report that Catholic Action today is as active against Jehovah’s wit-
nesses as the Jewish hierarchy of Jesus’ day was against Him. To be sure, it is not only in this day that Catholic Action has been opposed to better conditions for humanity. It has always been so opposed.
It is an established policy of the Roman Catholic Church to claim ultra-patriotism in every land in which it is established. In America today this takes the form, not of regard for American institutions, but of ostentatious flagwaving, to cover a hatred of liberty and free speech so deep that it would gladly put to death those who cherish the heritage passed dowm to them by their forefathers, if only it had the power. Admissions to that effect have been made.
The spur of necessity has compelled Spain, Germany in Luther’s day, France in the Revolution, England, Russia, Mexico and many other countries to unhorse the clericals and give the people a chance to breathe. What of America ?
The whole world knows that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy backed and still backs Hitler, Mussolini and Franco in their destruction of the liberties of many people, and that these men stand for exactly the opposite of American ideas and ideals. Who is so foolish as to believe that the men who tire their arms waving the flags of these dictators, and tire their mouths shouting “Heil Hitler”, “Viva il Duce” or “Viva Franco”, are sincere when they pretend to accord honor to the American flag? The Hierarchy makes much of Jehovah’s witnesses’ refusal to salute any flag of any nation, as ascribing salvation to a man-made object, but one glance into the history of America will prove that flaunting hand-service of the American flag is merely a bit of hypocritical musclewasting.
The American flag was intended by the forefathers of this land to be a symbol of liberty. It was the symbol of a nation that had emancipated itself from oppression by all foreign powers, especially that of the Vatican. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence only one was a Catholic, and he did not favor Americans’ yielding to the Vatican.
What of that great liberty - loving empire called the “Lone Star State”? Were the Catholic Hierarchy the leaders in this break from Mexico? Read the Texas Declaration of Independence, which appears in full on pages 25-29 of this issue. Note the words that have been underlined. .
Also, take note of the fact that at this moment the Coughlinites, definitely committed to the overthrow of American institutions, are advised by their leaders to carry flags of the Stars and Stripes when doing their hoodlum work of breaking up lawful assemblies. Such men are not patriots; they are the worst of traitors.
Of what avail is all the talk of the Press about patriotism when it is notorious that it is under the control of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy? It merely serves as a smoke screen .to cover up the Hierarchy’s treacherous course.
The Catholic Press itself is still more reprehensible. It claims to be ultra-patriotic, yet it knows that Judge Rutherford, an innocent man, was denied bail by Judge Manton, and was deprived of his liberty nine months because of that fact, while Manton himself, tenth in line of American judiciary, is one of the most reprehensible criminals that ever lived. And it knows that it never hesitates to refer to' Judge Rutherford as an “ex-convict”, well knowing that he never was a convict, while it is entirely silent about the man who sold justice as a farmer would sell potatoes or pigs. Meantime Manton, on bail, lives in luxury in his Long Island palace, and of his crookedness the Catholic Press is silent.
World-wide Convention Centering in New York
The most important feature of the Worldwide Convention of Jehovah’s witnesses centering in New York, June 23-25, 1939, were the addresses of Judge Rutherford on “Victory”, June 24, and on “Government and Peace”, June 25, with the release of the book Salvation, a guide to truth and life for the Jonadabs who would escape Armageddon. This book can now be obtained on a contribution of 25 cents.
Both of Judge Rutherford’s addresses were broadcast over the world by radio stations. Neither of these addresses is available for The Messenger, though obtainable otherwise. A concluding announcement respecting “Government and Peace” was: “You will desire to study the points made in the speech. For that purpose it will be printed, and you may have a copy upon request made to Watchtower, Brooklyn.”
The address on “Victory” will be obtainable in due time, and announcement to that effect will be made in due course by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. However, it is possible to “purloin” for The Messenger one little taste out of this address, which will surely reach some before they have opportunity to read the whole discourse. Surely this is enough to stir the interest of any person who loves God’s Word:
Delivering “Government and Peace”
Jehovah is now using his witnesses to carry on his strange work in the earth, and he not only likens them unto locusts, but he calls them “my great army”. (Joel 2: 25) That army God now sends out against the religious element of “Christendom”, and their faithful service is a torment to religious leaders. Locusts do not kill human creatures, but they do destroy the food supply. Jehovah’s witnesses do not prosecute a war against men with carnal weapons, but they do destroy the provender which religionists have dished up for the people and which is poisonous; therefore the people of good will flee from religion, because it is a deadly thing. Mark now God’s description in symbol of his witnesses, his “great army”, which he sends among “Christendom”. He describes his witnesses as a “holy nation”, because wholly devoted to God’s kingdom. (1 Peter 2:9) As it is written, locusts have no earthly king, yet they go forth by bands. (Proverbs 30:27) Likewise Jehovah’s witnesses have no earthly king or leader. Christ Jesus is their King and Leader. Of them God’s prophet says: “Whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and . . . [jaw] teeth of a great lion.” (Joel 1:6) Their Leader, Christ Jesus, is the great “Lion of the tribe of Juda”, and they follow his lead and utter his message, which bites and stings opponents. Locusts enter into the houses and even eat the varnish off the furniture. Jehovah’s witnesses enter into the houses of the people and take away the veneer of religion that has been smeared over the people to keep them in darkness Their Leader, Christ Jesus, the great Lion, reduces religion to shreds, completely chewing it up.
While, therefore, neither of the above addresses appears in this issue of The Messenger, the concluding words of the lecture “Government and Peace” are quoted, so that all may have a taste of the thrill that went round the world when 18,000 persons at Madison Square Garden shouted “Aye”. One of the shouters was a Catholic woman in the balcony who had come to be one of the disturbers of the meeting. At first she had booed when the others booed. Warned to desist, she remained quiet till the close, when she apologized to the usher and remarked that she had been helped. As the concluding words of that lecture she heard the following Warning, which is enough to make any person stop and think of his relation to God.
To the Vatican Hierarchy and religious supporters I address these words: You acknowledge yourselves as part of the dictator governments which cruelly persecute Jews and Christians; hence you oppose The Theocracy.
For fifteen centuries you have blasphemed Jehovah God’s name, disturbed the peace of the world, fomented and prosecuted wars of conquest, caused the untimely death of countless innocents, clothed their chief killer in robes of glory and held him up to the world as an example of virtue; Spain being among your more recent scenes of violence. Therefore God declares to you: ‘Upon your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents.’—Jeremiah 2 : 34.
By putting the people in fear you have kept many in ignorance, and now you incite the ignorant to commit for you assaults upon Christians. You have destroyed freedom of speech and of worship, and now you would take away all liberties of the people. Heretofore you have crushed every movement for truth and righteousness ; but be informed that you cannot succeed in your opposition to The Theocracy. Jehovah’s witnesses do not fear you, because God is with us. (Jeremiah 1:19) Your end has come. The divine judgment is written against you, declaring your destruction, and you are going to die, and, further, that the memory of you shall perish for ever.— Psalm 145 : 20; Proverbs 10: 7.
To ALL ORDER-LOVING CATHOLICS, JEWS AND PROTESTANTS I address these words of hope: Heretofore you have followed the lead of unrighteous men, permitting them to think for you. If you would escape disaster and find salvation to life you must forsake religion and choose and serve Jehovah God and Christ his King. All who do not stand for God and His kingdom by Christ remain in opposition and will be destroyed. Those of good will toward God will choose His government under Christ. Those now hearing and who desire that righteous government and peace, say Aye.
Awakening of the Jews
A remarkable thing about the World-wide Convention, centering in New York, is the awakening of the Jews to the fact that God’s Kingdom is their only hope. In an early issue of Consolation magazine will be published a letter from a prominent Jewish oculist appealing to Judge Rutherford to strike a blow for liberty at the Madison Square Garden which would help these people now in such dire distress over the world as a result of the persecutions with ' which Europe is now aflame. That letter was read at the convention, and created a stir. And since the convention the friendliness of many of the Jewish people in New York city is noteworthy. The following are certain selected paragraphs from Der Tog (The Bay}, leading Yiddish newspaper of the world, published in New York July 2:
There were numerous cases in Danzig where members of the same organization [Jehovah’s witnesses] defended Jews against assaults by Nazis, or when those upright women of the common people intentionally patronized Jewish stores just when Hitlerites picketed those Jewish shops. Only a half year ago when like an epidemic all kinds of food stores began to post the well-known signs “Juden unerwiinscht” (Jews not wanted), the same German women have regarded it as a sacred duty to provide their Jewish neighbor^ or mere acquaintances with food or milk without asking any reward for it.
To us, Jews, the members of that organization are true “fellow sufferers”, brethren in distress. When one meets such a man or woman they are the ones who comfort the Jews. They quote various Bible texts and endeavor to prove to the Jews that a time of happiness is impending. In a time of moral depression and total absence of rights, of hopelessness and desperation, when one does not know what the morrow will bring, the active work of the widespread religious society of the “International Bible Students Association” and “Jehovah’s Witnesses” is evidence that we still have a very great number of friends amongst the German common people who literally weep over the great disaster which has befallen the German people.
Therefore we ought also here, upon American soil, create a closer contact with these very important non-Jewish groups, whose members are our sincere friends. Let us manifest toward them the • well deserved sympathy; and when they organize mass meetings to fight against Nazism and anti-Semitism, the American Jews ought to show them open friendship in order to fight, jointly with them, the common foe.
Convention Music
The music at the convention was excellent. Artists from all over the country assisted the regular Watchtower orchestra of WBBR. One of the sweetest sights at the Sunday morning session in the Madison Square Garden was to see a little girl, not over 11 years of age, Wilmazee Whitener, of Kansas, two braids hanging down her back, modestly but skillfully playing a piano-accordion, and very evidently making sweet music two ways, one with her instrument, and the other with her heart to the Lord. God grant that she may pass unscathed through Armageddon.
Resurrection of Kingdom News
IN THE early part of 1918 the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society published three issues of Kingdom News and circulated them widely. The circulation of these papers exposed the duplicity of the clergy so completely that one intelligent person said of Judge Rutherford, “That is the last thing he will ever write.” What he meant was that the hypocrites would be so infuriated that they would cause him to be put to death. They did indeed attempt it, but failed, and since then almost three hundred million copies of his books have been placed in the hands of the people.
It is extremely interesting that the misdeeds of the clergy and their followers led to the publication of Kingdom News Numbers 1, 2 and 3; and it is also extremely interesting, and significant too, that, after a lapse of 21 years, conditions in connection with Judge Rutherford’s address at Madison Square Garden made it manifestly God’s will to publish Kingdom News No. 4, which is shown on the next four pages in slightly reduced facsimile.
In Kingdom News No. 4 appears the best statement of what took place at Madison Square Garden, July 25, 1939. You will find it in Judge Rutherford’s “Open Letter to Mayor La Guardia”, and, just so that the mayor would not be left in any doubt that the matters therein brought to his notice deserve his attention, Jeho-vah’s witnesses placed a million copies in the hands of the citizens of Greater New York between July 15 and the 25th. Not another organization on earth could do it.
INFORMATION for all persona of good will toward Almighty God. RELIGION Is a snare and a racket. GOD’S TRUTH shields, and strengthens the upright.
KINGDOM NEWS
. . . the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, ... of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end . . . The zeal of JEHOVAH of hosts will perform this.—Isaiah 9:6,7.
DEVOTED to the prtn. clples of Justice, truth, equity and kindness as exemplified In the acts and sayings of The Creator of the Universe And of HIs King Christ Jesus.
Vol 1
New York City - July 1939
No. 4
ATTEMPT TO WRECK
Garden Assembly THE FACTS
On Sunday June 25, at Madison Square Garden, New York, a great multitude of persons of good will met to hear the principal address of a three-day convention. The Garden assembly was linked by wire and wireless to dozens of similar assemblies throughout North America and other continents. At the same time also scores of stations broadcast that address. For a few minutes during that one-hour meeting some misguided fanatics, directed by the Hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, tried to drown out the speaker’s voice and break up the assembly by starting a chorus of boos, howls and shouts of “Viva Franco” and “Heil Hitler”, in the top balcony. That short but unlawful disturbance the press of New York and the entire nation snatched up as “news fit to print”, falsely characterizing it as a “riot” that “broke up the meeting” “in darkness” in a “bloody free-for-all fight”. All- present at the Garden and the thousands or millions who heard the whole speech on the radio know what occurred. Falsehoods printed as “news” are unanswerably contradicted by THE FACTS searched out by Consolation magazine and its attorneys. Sincere people who love honesty know that they cannot rely upon the associated press and newspaper publishers who prefer to print what helps to sell papers. In the public interest, therefore, Kingdom News presents THE FACTS asfifound and sent to the Mayor of New York, who also was misled by the false press reports. More facts, in another open letter sent to the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York by-a member of the New York Bar, are also published here, together with other information for the careful consideration of every order-loving person in this world’s greatest city.
Open Letter to Mayor La Guardia
[Dated Brooklyn, N. Y., July 11,1939J
Honored Sir:
This letter is not to ask a favor. The purpose is to place before you some pertinent facts and to respectfully request a statement of your position regarding the same. As the chief public servant of the people of Greater New York your attitude not only affects the people of this city but its influence reaches throughout the land.
FACTS: June 23-25 was the occasion of a peaceable assembly of thousands of Christian people in convention within the City of New York for the study of God’s Word, the Bible. On the 25th Madisoif Square Garden was the key assembly for many other like public assemblies of Christians in America, Canada, Great Britain and Australia, all of which assemblies were tied together by wire and wireless equipment, thus making it one tremendous lawful Christian assembly. The people were there at that time to listen to an address on GOVERNMENT AND PEACE delivered from 4 to 5 o’clock P.M. In addition thereto seventy-five radio stations broadcast the speech. More than eighteen thousand persons were orderly and lawfully assembled at the Garden to worship Almighty God. *
The Catholic clergyman Charles E. Coughlin had his followers picketing a certain radio station in the city. Those and other fanatical Catholics had repeatedly on previous occasions threatened to break
up the Madison Square Garden meeting, and other meetings tied together with it. Due notice of this threatened unlawful action was given to the police officials of the City of New York, as well as other cities. About 4 P.M. three Catholic priests took seats in the gallery of the Garden and about the same time 200 or more Coughlin Catholic pickets, led by an agitator well known to the police, marched into the same gallery immediately back of the speaker’s platform. They came there for the expressed purpose of breaking up that meeting, and this is shown by an abundance of evidence. About twenty minutes after the speech began, and at a given signal from some one of them in the gallery, that company of fanatical persons began a loud disturbance of yelling, shouting and cursing. Ushers called upon the police to quell the disturbance, to which demand the police officer in charge replied : “That is your job.” This statement was made in the face of the facts that the policemen at the time were hearing and seeing the unlawful action of the disturbers.
Ushers lawfully in charge of the meeting hurriedly rushed to the point of disturbance and demanded ef the disturbers that they cease interruption or else leave the meeting place. Instead of obeying, the Catholic fanatical disturbers violently assaulted a number of the ushers, and some of the ushers ^n turn defended themselves. The police .did not even attempt to arrest anyone for unlawfully disturbing that lawful assembly, but they did arrest several of the ushers who were acting lawfully in the performance of their duty. Two weeks have passed and no one of the disturbers has been arrested for an attempt to break up a lawful assembly. Law-abiding citizens have been arrested for doing what the police are sworn to do but which they failed to do.
PRESS: The public press and a few radio stations announced that the meeting at Madison Square Garden was broken up by rioters and that the riot spread to every part of the Garden and that ushers had been arrested.
The meeting was not broken up. The entire proceedings were simultaneously recorded by electrical means and that transcription clearly proves the untruthful statements made by the public press and certain radio stations. For one hour every word of the speaker was transmitted to the English-speaking world above mentioned, was clearly heard, and was transmitted by wire to the recording studio, all of which is unquestionably
The MESSENGER proven by the recorded speech and by the many cablegrams received and publicly read that same night at the Madison Square Garden.
YOUR STATEMENT: On June 29th the New York Herald Tribune quotes you, the Mayor, as follows: “I call your attention, gentlemen, to an incident of a few days ago, when another group, seemingly and ostensibly pretended to be for the good things of life, openly attacked people of your faith.” The paper then adds: “The remark was taken to be a reference to the ‘Government and Peace’ meeting of the International Bible Students Association at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, at which a riot started after charges by Joseph F. Rutherford that the Roman Catholic Church backed Chancellor Hitler in Germany.”
In complete contradiction of this statement attributed to you, that “Another group openly attacked the people of your [Catholic] faith”, I submit the complete text of the speech, also the transcription record thereof, which will be furnished at your request. At the point of the speech where the disturbance began nothing had been said against the Catholic faith and no reference to Catholics, except a quotation from The Catholic Encyclopedia.
The name of Hitler was not mentioned once. There was no occasion at that time to mention his name. In view of these facts the public is misled by the press and by quotations of high officials, who were not present, all of which the thousands of orderly people who were present well know are contrary to the facts.
QUESTIONS: In behalf of a great number of honest, Sincere Catholics and non-Catholics of the City of New York, as well as elsewhere, I respectfully propound to you, Mr. Mayor, the following questions which the people have a right to demand of their Mayor shall be answered:
(1) Section 1470 of the Penal Law of New York says: “A person who, without authority of law wilfully disturbs any assembly or meeting, not unlawful in its character, is guilty of a misdemeanor.” Are you in favor of enforcing that law?
(2) The assembly at Madison Square Garden was a lawful one. A crowd of gangsters, openly claiming to be Catholic Coughlinites, willfully disturbed that meeting, having come there deliberately for that purpose. Police officers there present saw such flagrant violation of the law. Why did not the police arrest and prosecute those willful law-breakers? Do you approve of the action of the police in refusing to arrest the rioters and at the same time arresting ushers who were there by right and acting in the performance of their lawful duty?
| Your copy free
I The speech “Government and Peace”, I given on June 25 at Madison Square | Garden by Judge Rutherford. It | shows what JEHOVAH, the Pro-I tector of all upright persons,, pur-1 poses to do very soon against organ-| ized religion, His enemy and the i destructive foe of all honest people. I It shows how JEHOVAH, the Al-1 mighty God of the Hebrews, will I govern ,the entire world forever i through His King, Christ Jesus, I the Messiah, who is the Prince I of Peace, when every religious. inI stiiution and system is swept from I the earth by His irresistible power.
1 Write for your copy of the speech to
I . WATCHTOWER
| 117 Adams St., Brooklyn, N. Y.
(3) Is the statement published in the aforementioned newspaper, to wit: “Another group [meaning those Christians lawfully assembled at the Garden for worship of Almighty God] openly attacked the people of your [Catholic] faith,” fully approved by you as Mayor or not, and if yes, upon what do you base that statement?
(4) As Mayor do you favor and approve the action .of the Catholic Coughlinites in willfully attempting to break up a peaceable and lawful assembly even though those disturbers did not agree with the statements made by the speaker?
(5) You have publicly denounced Hitler oil many occasions, and properly so. I did not mention Hitler. But even if I had, was that any excuse for Catholic Coughlinites to attempt to break up a lawful assembly?
(6) There is a vast difference between the common people of the Catholic faith, who honestly and sincerely follow that faith, and those who compose “The Catholic Hierarchy of Authority”. Do you favor the Hierarchy, which is desperately attempting to make America Fascist, or do you favor and support the common people of the Catholic and all other faiths who desire to honestly and peaceably assemble, and' who desire a government where men may worship- God according to the Constitutional guarantee?
(7) In the light of more than fifteen centuries of history, showing that the Hierarchy has constantly persecuted Jews, do you now think for one moment that the Hierarchy of Authority is honestly and sincerely in favor of permitting Jews to live peaceably in America like other people, as the press'has stated?
(8) The “Catholic Action” operated by the Hierarchy of Authority has repeatedly attempted to break up lawful assemblies of Christian people in America. The same Hierarchy and its agents tried to do the same thing at our convention on June 25th at London and other British cities, but Scotland Yard prevented the same because they did their duty. Do you approve of such “Catholic Action” or do you favor freedom of speech and freedom of worship in America by and for
BROADCAST: Tune In WBBR (1300.kc.) Sunday, 4 to 5 PM, July 23, 30, and August 6, for broadcast of RECORDED SPEECH “Govern, ment and Peace”, which proves the press did not publish the truth.
Catholics, Protestants, Jews and all others alike?
(9) You cannot close your eyes to the fact that Fascism or Nazism is rapidly spreading throughout America, and the further fact that “Catholic Action” is not only sympathetic but openly supporting that Totalitarian movement. As Mayor of this city which side of that question do you take?
<10) Refusal to salute flags, hail and bow down to men is seized upon as an excuse or justification to punish Christians. That fanaticism had its birth in Nazi Germany and is employed by Totalitarian rulers as a method of coercing and regimenting the people. That religious fanaticism has been brought into America recently, although Americans for 150 years have respected the flag and obeyed the law .for which it stands without being compelled to worship it. Christians do not salute the flag of any country nor hail nor bow down to any man, for the sole reason that Almighty God has commanded that they shall not do so and live. They do obey God rather than men because God’s law is supreme, and they are also diligent to obey every law of the land that is not in contravention of God’s law. Shall Christians be compelled to violate God’s law in order to please men? Is it better to obey the law of which, the flag is a symbol, and decline to worship the flag, or is it better to indulge- in the ceremony of saluting the flag and then straightway with impunity and approval of officials, willfully violate the law of the land?
Jehovah’s witnesses do not ask favors of you as mayor, but they do demand that their Constitutional rights be respected. Jehovah’s witnesses are not asking for a defense, because they* need none. They trust in God and in Christ, who defend them. Jehovah’s I witnesses do have the right, however, to. demand that public officials respect and impartially administer the law of the land by seeing to it that the peoples of all faiths and all. classes have the right to exercise without hindrance the freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of worship of God when such freedom does not endanger the public welfare.
Mr. Mayor, ds official representative of millions of people in this great city, you owe to them and to the public generally throughout the earth a plain statement of what exactly is your stand and what is your answer to the foregoing questions..
Very respectfully submitted,
President
Watch '1’ower Bible & Tract Society
KitiNintti un ti । n n i i i iii niitj Mitin h wtHtiwuiiuiim
liiiiitfiiHiiiiiiHiiittMUHitHuiiimitiiiiiiiiimumiNiiiiimiuiuttimiii
I New York’s Archbishop Notified
1 On July 7, 1939, the following letter was sent to the recently exalted head of the Catholic Hierarchy’s province | of New York, by Joseph Wheless, Attorney and Counselor at Law, 10 East 40th St., New York.
July 7, 1939 Most Reverend Francis J. Spellman, Archbishop of New York, Madison Avenue & 50th Street, New York City.
Your Excellency:
Having but recently come into this City to administer your high office you may be as yet unfamiliar with certain matters of public knowledge passing here not only to the seeming disrepute of your Church and its loyal membership, but which, I am quite sure, greatly irk the peaceable and law-abiding citizenship of our City, regardless of Faith or want of it. An especially grievous instance has just passed under my personal view which I courteously ask to call to your official notice for, peradventure, such corrective action as you may deem appropriate.
What I say is from my personal knowledge supported by sworn testimony of Court record; I Write you upon my personal motion and responsibility in a sense of quasi public duty. Professionally, I appear as trial defense attorney in a series of criminal actions initiated by several of the aggressors in these scandalous attacks upon public decency and personal liberty, things of which your Church avows itself the constant champion.
On Sunday afternoon, June 25 last, a vast public meeting of some 20,000 persons was held in Madison Square Garden under the auspices of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc.; its Presl-
Hear Records Free
You may now hear ‘‘Government and Peace*’ as delivered by Judge Rutherford at Madison Square Garden on June 25. At the time of delivery the speech was electrically recorded. The phonograph records faithfully reproduce everything that was said and heard at the Garden. They will be run for you and your friends, In your own home, entirely without obligation to you. If you have no phonograph even the reproducing machine will be brought. Just fill In and mall the coupon at right: dent, Judge Joseph F. Rutherford, was advertised to make, and made, a public address, broadcast to a large part of the world, on the timely subject of “Peace and Government”; his address began at four o’clock and continued for one hour, despite the incidents I shall recite. An electrical transcription of the entire address was made, and it is available in confirmation of my statements.
For some months past a large gang of Roman Catholic and allied patriots have “demonstrated” before Radio Station WMCA in “protest against denial of free speech” to a Rev. Coughlin. On the Sunday afternoon mentioned, “the entire demonstration line moved over from WMCA to the Garden,” some 500 strong, arriving there after the address had been under way for some twenty minutes. They marched down the balcony corridors and ganged into an unoccupied section of seats behind the speaker’s platform; this I saw. A Roman Catholic priest, whom I did not see, sat in the front row. Upon a sudden flash of electric lights, the entire mob broke out into howls and wild disorder and staged what their witnesses term a “riot” which also I saw, and numerous brawls and fights occurred.
The self-evident purpose of the “Cough-linite” invasion of the Garden was to “break up the meeting” and prevent the exercise of the “right of free speech” by the speaker; this attempt was premeditated, malicious and criminal; it resulted
Watchtower, 117 Adams St., Brooklyn, N. Y. I desire to hear Judge Rutherford’s speech, "Government and Peace” as originally delivered. Please send your representative with the necessary equipment, this being entirely without obligation on my part. Time convenient for me and my friends to hear will be
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City and State .............................. in a number of police arrests, on the demands of the rioters, of ushers making efforts to preserve order, but none of the rowdies were arrested, as yet. Several cases of charges of felonious assault were laid over in Felony Court from July 5 to 11; one case for alleged “disorderly conduct” was tried on two days in the 7th District Magistrate's Court, defended by me, and a judgment of “not guilty” was entered and the defendant usher discharged, on July 3rd.
This case presents such a unique record of perjury on the part of the zealous Catholic complainants that, with the stenographic reports before me, I cite its more signal mendacity to you. One of the pick-eter mob which “moved over from WMCA to the Garden” and who made and swore to the complaint was one, Philip May; his .associate complainant was a young Catholic girl, Agnes Walton. Both of them were “rioting” vociferously. Both swore, with much circumstantial detail and immense contradictions, that the defendant usher, , Joseph Roth, after first striking an “unknown woman” with his cane, then punched Agnes with the ferrule end of his cane, then “raised his cane and struck her on the head. Agnes was knocked unconscious from the force of the blow. Some of Agnes’ friends then escorted her from the Garden as soon as she had received the blow that way”. None of this happened. Agnes was not touched, as the sequel will show.
A witness for the defendant testified that he overheard May tell Agnes to lie down on the floor as if knocked down, and then make a charge to the police that she had been struck by an usher and knocked unconscious. To “rebut” this damaging testimony, the complainants brought in a new witness who had not heard the previous testimony about Roth’s attack on Agnes; this witness “rebutted” too much. He swore that he had escorted Agnes, her sister and other women to the meeting and sat with them in the section referred to; Agnes had sworn- that she had not been in that section; her friend then swore that when the riot broke out, he and his pro-t£g£es started to leave the Garden, he guiding Agnes and her sister by the arm; that as they passed he saw an usher (Russell Kurzen, who was stationed several sections away from Roth’s station, where the other witnesses swore the’ incident occurred) strike the “unknown woman” with his cane; that no one struck Agnes, but that Agnes lay down on the floor at his feet, and was carried out by friends, and that he had taken “moving pictures” of the carrying out scene. This rebuttal witness thus rebutted the entire Story of alleged assault on Agnes by Roth or by anyone and proved that May, Agnes and their other Catholic witnesses had little practical regard for “Catholic Truth." The defendant was acquitted, and the complainants were admonished against making a further complaint for “assault” as a waste of Court time.
These are summary details of this outrage against civil rights on the part of some of your Faithful and of their guilty effort to make capital and credit out of their own crime against public order and right of free speech. Their day of reckoning for it is yet to come.
This latest Catholic outrage against the persons and rights of “Jehovah’s witnesses” (I am not one) is simply the last one so far of a long and disgraceful series of Roman Catholic outrages against these respectable and law-abiding people in lawless attempts to suppress and destroy them and their legal and constitutional rights.
Yo(ur Excellency must know that hundreds, thousands of their members have been subjected to insult, arrest, fine and Imprisonment in many cities and towns of this country, in Roman Catholic communities, by Roman Catholic zealots, for no legal offense. If you do not know, I tell you that in over one hundred instances Roman Catholic attempts have been made (over 30 times .successfully) to force Radio Broadcasting Stations having contracts with this organization, to breach their contracts and deny the right of free speech to its spokesmen; one such attempt was made by the pious Tablet of Brooklyn, but failed; a successful one was made by the heads of your Church in Philadelphia, for which a damage suit IS now pending against your Cardinal Archbishop and others there. A big bill of particulars of other meddling can be rendered: this suffices to point the moral, that there is too much “Catholic Action” abroad in this land, and that countervailing American Action is becoming increasingly restless to offset this evil trend.
It does not become me, not having the cure of Catholic souls, to suggest remedies through your high jurisdiction; I simply call to your attention these obvious abuses, and hope that, knowing them, the seeming unrestrained zeal of your Faithful in this Metropolitan See against the civil rights of Americans may be reasonably abated by a gesture from you.
With entire good will and wishes for good, I am
Very respectfully yours, [Signed] Joseph Wheless
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The MESSENGER
City Magistrate Finds Usher “Not Guilty”
The Law of the Most High God provides that ‘at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the matter be established’. (Deuteronomy 19:15) The spirit of that law is fulfilled by the testimony which follows. City Magistrate Peter Abeles, Seventh District, Borough of Manhattan, listened for two days to the case of an usher, Joseph Roth, falsely accused of having part in the Madison Square Garden “riot” on June 25. This is the usher mentioned in the letter to the Catholic archbishop, reproduced In this paper. The just judge, Peter Abeles, upon hearing the testimony in the case against Roth, said:
“It would seem reasonable that the defendant was an usher. There is no denial of that. There was need for somebody to keep order. Apparently the police left it to the people that ran the ‘show’ to keep order there. With so many thousands of people in a place like that somebody has to keep order, and use the force necessary to preserve order. They may have to
Jesuits and Catholic Moguls Disagree on Methods
Embarrassment, confusion and disunity, say Eugene Pacelli’s Jesuits, result .from unauthorized use of the term “Catholic” by groups of Catholics who actually oppose the general sense and intent of Catholicism in this country. In America (June 24, 1939), their official magazine, Jesuits appeal. for restricted use of the term. Bishops ought to control most strictly the use of the name “Catholic”, say the Jesuits.
J. Noll, a bishop whose diocese centers at Fort Wayne, Ind., allowed his official newspaper, Our Sunday Visitor (June 25, 1939), to print boldly on its front page: “Rutherford should be refuted. We’d be much wiser to devote our time to'answering the arguments. Deprive your enemies of free speech, and your enemies will some day deprive you of your rights. Certainly Rutherford is making capital ’of Catholic attempts to have him silenced. Fortunately we seem to have given up our misguided efforts along those lines, but there, is still a bitter after taste from the previous mistakes. We can prove our claims as the supporters of liberty only by helping protect the liberty even of those with whom we disagree.”
Disagreeing, Pacelli’s “hot” radio priest, Charles Coughlin of Soqial Justice and its “purgatory” racket, prefers the new broadcasters’ code under which he says “anti-Catholic and anti-religious broadcasts, of the Rutherford type, would be barred”. In the priest’s broadcast July 9 he is said to have included the falsehood that ‘Jehovah’s witnesses are against everything and everybody* and that ‘if patriotic Americans would rise up and stand on their hind legs' and come out of their holes, Jehovah’s witnesses could be destroyed in one day’.
Coolest suggestion, perhaps, is John Harney’s. He, as head of Pacelli’s ‘Society of Missionary Jesuits’ (also called “Paulist Fathers”) at New York, holds that ‘heretics may rightly be killed’ by Catholics whenever Catholics are strong enough. '
•So also at Philadelphia, Pacelli’s eminent aide, Dennis Dougherty, cardinal archbishop, insists stoutly that he and his stooges “will take further and more drasuse reasonable force. No one has a right to be there and create a disturbance. That is how I understand it. The people running the meeting had a right to eject any who were lawless. So far as the disorderly conduct charge is concerned I will find Roth not guilty. Now on the matter of assault: IS think that on this charge in Special Sessions the defendant Roth, with all the evidence that has come before pie, would get the benefit of the doubt. I think it would be a waste of time of the Court of Special Sessions, to present this matter there.' You have had as full and complete hearing here as anybody could have in a case like this. I have no patience with anybody who disturbs any public meeting, whether of Father Coughlin or anybody else. Agnes [Walton] was nof hurt. That sticks in my mind. So I dismiss the complaint against Roth.”
Magistrate Abels# Is hereby publicly commended for bls ability to judge between facts and fiction.
tic action if the broadcasting of Judge Rutherford is permitted to continue”.
Likewise Pacelli’s archbishops and bishops who at Washington direct his National Catholic Welfare Conference cause its news bureau to give readers of Catholic-controlled newspapers throughout the United States the advice of their monsignor P. Wynhoven, of New Orleans, in whose syndicated article they read: ‘First of all give Jehovah’s witnesses strong arguments when they call <t your doors; and if that proves ineffective, call the police station or the sheriff, not the priest-house.’
Pacelli personally endorses the campaign now being pushed nation-wide against Jehovah’s witnesses by the Benedictine priest Richard Felix, of Missouri, and his ‘Defenders of Catholic Faith’, with aid of the Knights of Columbus, for the sworn purpose that Judge Rutherford . “shall once more, God willing, wear the stripes of a convict”, even though the pope’s Knight of St. Gregory, Martin Thomas Manton (who during the World War wrongfully denied them bail and held Judge Rutherford and his companions in the Federal penitentiary for nine months), now vainly tries to save himself the need to don the zebra garb and take up his residence .in the Federal penitentiary for “selling justice” (not Social Justice) while serving as the “tenth old man” of the United States judiciary. Catholic press howls continuously about what was done to Rutherford more than twenty years ago, and remains entirely silent about Catholic nobleman Manton and his great crime. Catholic Hierarchy—consistent—hey?
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NEXT ISSUE will include replies, if any, from the archbishop and the mayor.
Experiences with the Police
UNEXPECTED praise comes sometimes, and from quarters unexpected. One Irish New York policeman, on reading the sign “Religion is a snare and a racket”, made the remark, “Ye’re domned right; you people have the right slant on it.”
When a Brooklyn witness was assaulted, the patrolman on the beat used his night stick on the assailant and offered to prefer charges against the aggressor.
Information marchers at Honolulu, Hawaii
In New York, in front of Manhattan Center, a reporter for The Messenger said to a policeman, “How do you find this bunch?” He replied, “They are the easiest collection of people to handle we’ve ever had here. There is no argument with them. They do whatever you ask them to do. You can see that they are a God-fearing lot. Look at their faces. That speaks plainly enough.”
A Theocratic sound-car
In front of Manhattan Center on another occasion a boy of twelve, with one of his hands gripping one policeman and the other another, was giving them a-witness efficiently and alertly, and in the presence of their sergeant. Presently he said, “Well, boys, I’ve got to go and get another earful, but I’ll be back to see you in about an hour. So long!” As he left, the gray-haired, kindly-faced sergeant and the two officers said in one breath, “If that kid hasn’t got some head on his shoulders!”
Infected by the evidences of brotherly love, all around Manhattan Center, one policeman walked up to his colleague, put his arm around his shoulder, and was heard to say, “Well, brother, how are you today?” The captain of police in this precinct, name unknown, manifested considerable concern over the large number of information marches going out, for fear the marchers would not be properly escorted and protected. He was informed that he need not worry about that.
A file of information marchers was moving northward on Eighth Avenue, New York. A man, approaching, rushed over to a policeman in the street, saying loudly: “What the h--does this
mean anyway? Everywhere you go you meet ’em!” The policeman was heard to say: “It’s a conspiracy ...” But the information march moved on.
After Judge Rutherford’s speech, one policeman at the Madison
Square Garden was heard to say, “From now on I’m going to tell those priests something!” In Chicago, while advertising the Sunday speech and giving a witness to a woman, one of the publishers heard someone come up behind him. After placing a booklet with the woman, he turned, and found a policeman standing there. “What do you get for those books?” the officer asked. “These books are not sold, but people of good will (and I hope you are one) like to contribute a little so that more can be printed and distributed,” he was told. He remarked, “You people have something. I am a Catholic, but I’m satisfied the whole thing is a racket. I hope you work all these buildings; for I know a lot of good Catholics living here that think and feel as I do. May I have some of that literature?” He took Fascism or Freedom, Face the Facts, and Enemies. “Good luck to you!” he said as he walked away with his literature.
Denver police were temporarily embarrassed Friday, June 23, when the chief gangster of the city, “Right Reverend Father” Hugh L. McMenamin, temporarily took charge. Whereas for several days previous information marches had been in progress, on that day the police
Six thousand listening in Alexandra Palace, London
bravely arrested one six-year-old child and seventy-two other persons, some of them before they had time to get out of their automobiles, on the ground that the signs which they bore were likely to frighten horses quietly enjoying their feed bags on the grass-lined streets. What they really meant was that the jackasses were already frightened, so that even their collars were twisted around backwards.
The Denver chief, after a bystander had remarked to him that he had taken to arresting school children (a wheelchair pioneer was in the haul), shouted to the witnesses that if they would take off their signs they could go. Nobody took off any signs. One policeman said he knew the arrests should not have been made. The desk sergeant said it was a good publicity stunt. After two hours the witnesses were released and the next morning over two hundred marchers thoroughly covered the city without molestation. The chief was probably sleeping off the drinks some noticed he appeared to have had the day previous.
After McMenamin took charge of Denver the police revoked a sound-car permit granted eight days previously, on the ground that they had received complaints about its operation, whereas the facts were that the sound-car had not yet operated and would not be operating for yet another hour.
One Denver policeman, who arrested some witnesses for marching in such a way ‘as to scare Denver’s horses’, said they had been arrested because they had been parading. When asked how close together people must be to make a parade, he said he did not know. It seems that for several hours the brains of most of the Denver police were under the control of the pontiff operating from Vatican City.
At Mobile, where 1,600 people were assembled at one time, there was not one police officer present, and none was needed.
At Portland, Oregon, pressure from some source (guess the source) was brought to bear on the Portland police department against information marches. Police officials were notified of the Supreme Court decision and the number of marchers was increased from 200 to 950. One policeman smiled on a group and said, “How do you do?” Another said, “The time is certainly short for the damned old pope, isn’t it?” Asked how he knew what was coming, he replied, “By the grapevine method.”
Learning in advance of plans for Catholic action by thirty youths from a Jesuit (College at Winnipeg, the police of the city posted four officers with a cruiser car outside of the theater. A few signs were torn off and one car window was broken, for which the parents of the youngsters paid, but, all together, the gangsters accomplished nothing.
The London police showed a splendid spirit. Whenever a Fascist or suspicious person entered the great Alexandra Palace a man was sent to sit near him and to watch him. The police of Scotland Yard take no chances.
At Los Angeles pressure on the police caused a demand that no information marches be held, but a friendly officer advised the marchers to keep fifty feet apart. This was done with nine hundred marchers, representing approximately nine miles, with the result that at certain times every block in downtown Los Angeles had from five to ten marchers in it.
From the Convention Address of Martin Harbeck
MUCH of the material in M. C. Harbeck’s address was taken from Watchtower articles on the “Drama of Vindication’’, published in issues of February 1 to May 1, 1939, and much of it will be in Consolation magazine, which will contain a digest of his address over WBBR. But a few additional paragraphs are new, and appear herewith:
Under the direction of the president of the Society, the booklet The Kingdom the Hope of the World was translated into many European languages, including the Italian language. One half million copies were printed at Milan and then quickly distributed until the Hierarchy interfered. At Rome I was told by the chief in Mussolini’s cabinet that they (the Fascist government) were married to the Hierarchy and had to consider her wishes, though the marriage was merely for convenience. From 1930 to 1933 a number of European radio stations regularly broadcast the message. The most thorough witness was given in Germany and Switzerland.
Then in the January 1,1933, Watchtower appeared the emphatic statement, “The fight is on, and will continue until the Lord destroys his enemies at Armageddon.”
In January, 1933, Hitler became chancellor with the help of the Hierarchy. On February 27 Hitler’s own party set fire to the Reichstag building, and then the next day a law was passed giving to Hitler and the police dictatorial powers. That same law was then applied against Jehovah’s witnesses, although on the face of it it was directed against acts of violence and Communists.
On April second of the same year the pope proclaimed his “holy year”.
April 4 an order was issued forbidding the operation of the Watchtower Society in Germany; later the property was seized a number of times, but finally released.
In July of that year the Vatican, acting by Cardinal Pacelli, the present pope, concluded a concordat with Germany for the benefit of the Catholics in Germany.
In August thousands of books, Bibles and pictures were publicly burned by the Nazis on the outskirts of the city of Magdeburg. Photos of this bonfire were given to the American ambassador at Berlin.
Thereafter the persecution, the arrests of thousands of brethren and the murder of a number of them, began, and it has continued to this day.
A detailed report of the persecutions of our brethren in. Germany was recently published in the German language by the “Europa Publishers” at Zurich, Switzerland. The same book is now also published in the French language by the “University Press” at Paris, France. The title of this book is “Crusade against Christianity”. The foreword contains the following: “The fact that about six thousand of these Christians are withstanding courageously the Nazi terror in the prisons, penitentiaries and concentration camps, and continue to maintain their Christian faith, is worthy of admiration by everyone who stands for liberty of faith and conscience.”
From the prophetic picture of the conquest of the city Ai we have learned that the Lord’s army on earth is apparently at a disadvantage for a time and hard pressed by the enemy, until the invisible army in ambush enter the conflict.
Some to their own hurt have criticized the explanations of The Watchtower on these three points: evidence of the conspiracy between the Hierarchy and the Fascist and Nazi and Communist element; evidence that the Lord is beginning to put it into the minds of these radical elements and rulers to ‘hate the whore and burn her flesh with fire’; evidence concerning the great multitude and God’s mandate.
Right after the World War a number of new republics were created. All of these republics stood for freedom of speech and freedom of*the press. This was not in the interest of the Hierarchy.
Germany, which is largely populated by Protestants, was betrayed by Catholic Italy, her ally at the beginning of the war. Once before Germany was down and out, when the Catholic thirty-year war was lost by the Catholic forces.
Therefore, as the popes had done in the past, Catholic priests and writers in 1922-1925 preached a crusade against Jews, Freemasons, Communists and Bible Students and pacifists.
We have the evidence that Hitler himself had contact with such priests in Bavaria and Austria, which are the most Catholic sections of the present Germany.
…