1938

Consolation

Magazine

Contents

Amos Pinchot’s Letter to the' President 3 How Patriotic Are the Priests!

“Freedom of Speech as an Axiom”

“Adults Please Sign”

A Forgotten Roosevelt

A Simple Way to Get Well

Your Questions Answered

by Judge Rutherford

No Apologies, Mr. O’Neal

Smiling on Murder

Britain

A Prisoner in Quebec

China and Japan

California

Jerseyville (Named After New Jersey) 26 By Trail and Stream and Garden Path

(Winter and Spring)

British Comment

March Snow

Published every other Wedhesday by THE GOLDEN AGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. 117 Adame at., Brobklytl. N. T„ U. S. A.

President             Clayton J. Woodworth

Vloe-Preatdent              Nathan H. Knorr

Secretary and Treasurer Charles E. Wagner

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Appetizers

Taking No Chances on Chris

♦ A while ago one of the Japanese steamships took a great big flock of Catholic ecclesiastics to Manila. There were so many, and the god that the priests order down from heaven was in such demand, that it was, necessary to install three altars to keep from having things all gummed up. Saint Christopher is the Roman Catholic god that looks after transportation arrangements, but the canny Japanese were not taking any chances. In the chart room, to aid in the steering of the vessel, they had a little shrine in honor of one of the Yayorozu-Kami, their 8,000,000 deities. And so, with a first-class Yayorozu-Kami in the chart room, and Saint Christopher on the other three sides of the vessel, it sailed the seas all O.K. When you go on a trip it is best to have plenty of gods along, especially when tome of them have shown from time to time that they are not to be depended upon.

One-Fourth Convert Each

♦ According to the “Reverend Father” George Herman Deery, ex-president of Mary-grove College, Detroit, there are more than 40,000 Communist organizers in America “highly trained in all the arts of demogog-uety and of mass psychology and organization”. And as there are already some 50,000 Communists in the whole United States, as shown by their vote, then they must already have procured, almost one-fourth of a convert each, and in a few generations or centuries they may get to be as strong as the Populists or Socialists who, at different times, have had as many as 2 or 3 or 5 or 6 members out of the 500 in the lower house of Congress. Horrors I

Air Bombing in India

♦ At the very time that the British Government advised the belligerents in Spain to refrain from air-bombing, it was itself following its settled policy of bombing the villages of the tribes on its frontier, and killing and mutilating men, women and children in northwest India. One wonders if, on hearing of the Hierarchy’s murders in Spain, the Archhypo-crito of Canterbury meekly folds his hands across his breadbasket and says, “Let us prey. ’ ’

CONSOLATION

CONSOLATION

"And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A. R.V.

Amos Pinchot’s Letter to the President

[Amon R. Pinchot, Esq., is one of the foremost attorneys of New York city.—Ed.]

January 29, 1938. The Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt, The White House, Washington, D, C.

My deab Mr. President :      '

In February 1937, soon after you sent your Supreme Court bill to Congress, I heard from sources which seemed fairly reliable;

• (a) that you had become convinced that, in order to carry into effect your program of reform, you would require an enormous increase in the powers of the presidency;

• (b) that, after constitutional barriers had been removed by the passage of the Supreme Court bill, there would follow a senes of bills expanding your powers;

• (c) that a bill reorganizing the executive branch of the government and lodging vast powers in your hands had, in fact, already been drafted by three men, chosen by you, and been presented in your behalf at an executive, that is to say closed, session of a special committee of Congress; and finally

• (d) that this bill was of such a revolutionary, and indeed incredible, nature that it was being kept from the public and from members of Congress outside of the special committee.

Inasmuch as it would seem that any bill of this kind, prepared for the President at the government’s expense, should be considered a public rather than a private document, I decided to secure a copy of the bill, but for many weeks all efforts were unsuccessful. Wherever I applied I was met either with the statement ..     that the bill was unknown, or that it had not

£^::    been printed and was not yet ready for dis-

tribuuon, or that the existing copies were be-j? ing carefully guarded.

The clerk of the Senate Committee on Government Organization told me that the typewritten copies, which had been made when the hill was presented, had disappeared, and that, MARCH 9,1938 so far as he knew, there was but one left, and that was in the Committee ’a safe. He said the bill had not been printed and that copies would not be available.

A member of Congress from my state wrote: . In regard to your request for a copy of the original Brownlow Reorganization Bill, I would say that it is impossible to get one of these. There were only a very few of them printed [he was in error here; none was printed] and as nearly as I can find out they were all gathered up and kept from general distribution. I tried to get. one several weeks ago for a friendly newspaper but was unable to do so ... It is absolutely impossible to get the original bill.

A Democratic senator, whom I asked to help me in the matter, said that he had himself at' tempted to secure a copy of this bill, but had been unable to do so. Other sources, including an experienced Washington newspaper correspondent, proved equally unproductive.

In the course of time, however, I did obtain a copy of the bill. And, on reading it, found that its provisions were even more extraordinary than I had been led to suppose. Indeed, Mr. President, this bill strips Congress of the most important powers it now possesses, while, in effect, it transforms .the government into a dictatorship presided over by you.

After eleven months in hiding, the bill was printed as an appendix to Senator Byrd’s minority report on the so-called Byrnes’ reorganization bill (S 2970). And on January 17, 1938, it was filed, and thereafter was briefly commented on in the press. But today, I believe that not one person in ten thousand -knows of the bill’s existence, and not one in a million has the slightest notion of its contents. For this reason, Mr. President, plus the faet that the question of executive reorganization is now before the country, I am Writing you this letter at this time.

The Background of the Bill

May I go back a little, and remind you that, in the summer, fall, and early winter of 1935, you held a series of conferences with Mr, Brownlow of Washington, Professor Gulick of New York, and Professor Merriam of Chicago. And at these conferences you expressed your intention of reorganizing the executive branch of the government.

You then instructed these three men, known thereafter as the President’s Committee, to make an investigation and report a reorganization plan. You set aside $100,000 from government relief funds to pay their expenses. Whereupon your Committee made the investi-' gation and produced the report. And this report, covering seventy-two printed pages, and known as the Brownlow Report, you sent to Congress on January 12, 1937.

And you accompanied the report with a message signed by yourself, warmly approving it, and asking Congress to enact, as quickly as possible, the legislation required to carry its recommendations into effect.

In that message you said:

The Committee has now completed its work, and I. transmit to you its report, Administrative Management in the Government of the United States. I have examined this report carefully and thoughtfully, and am convinced that it is a great document of permanent importance.

• • ♦

I endorse this program and feel confident that it will commend itself to you also with your knowl- -edge of government, and to the vast majority of the citizens of the country who want and believe in efficient self-government.

In placing this program before you I realize that it will he said that I am recommending the increase of the powers of the Presidency. This is not true.

What I am placing before you is not the request for more power, but for the tools of management and the authority to distribute the work so that the President can effectively discharge those powers which the Constitution now places upon him. :

So much, Mr. President, for the so-called Brownlow Report and your message, both of which were read in the Senate Chamber on January 12, 1937.

Four weeks later, that is to say on the morning of Tuesday, February 16, 1937,_;Messrs. Brownlow, Gulick and Merriam appeared at an executive, that is to say closed, ..session of

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the Special Joint Committee on Reorganization of Government Departments. And there, representing you, they submitted a bill covering some sixty-six typewritten pages, and entitled “The Reorganization Act of 1937.” This bill I will now somewhat fully discuss.

The Bill

Mr. President, upon reading your bill, my first conclusion was that it must be a forgery. So far as I know, it is the most remarkable legislative proposal that has been made by any president. For, not by ■ inference or indirection, but in plain language, it authorizes you not merely to reorganize, but, by executive order, to abolish, or to change the name and functions of every agency and office in the entire executive branch of the government— without consulting Congress—including those agencies and offices which have been ereated-by Congress during the last 149 years to do the country’s business.                    ¹

And, what is still more incredible, it permits you to abolish, or change the functions of, the office of President, despite the fact that the presidency is a constitutional office, whose functions are described and bounded by the Constitution.

Moreover, the stenographic record of the executive session of February 16, 1937, proves that the bill was shown to you and discussed with you by Mr. Brownlow and his associates, before they presented it to the Special Joint Committee.

Owing to the length of the bill, I will only quote the text of some of the more important provisions. The sections dealing with Civil Service, fiscal control, and those providing for two new departments, and a National Resources Board, are so long and so complicated that I can only touch on them briefly.

On the other hand, I will quote all of the section entitled “Power of. the President,” and most of the section on definitions, because these two sections show the scope and purpose of the bill, and the nature of the powers it places in your hands. And I would like to say" at this point not only that these quoted passages are fairly quoted, but that there is nothing in the rest of the bill which in any way tends to modify or change the meaning of the parts quoted.                         ;'

Since this bill was submitted by,your Committee of three, both houses of Congress have written bills of their own. And it is unlikely that your bill will either be passed or debated,.

consolation.

though a motion to substitute your bill for any of these bills is possible at any time. But your bill is nevertheless of profound importance. And it should be carefully studied by the people. For it is a detailed, authentic description . of the changes in American government you desired to make last February, and which, so far as the record shows, you still desire and intend.

The first paragraph in the bill is a statement of its purpose;

A Bill

To provide for the reorganization of agencies of the Government by transfer, retransfer, regrouping, coordination, consolidation, segregation, and abolition, to extend the merit system, to reorganize the auditing and accounting functions of the Government, to establish the Departments of Social Welfare and Public Works and the National Resources Board, to change the name of the Department of the Interior, and for other purposes.

• Section 2, of Title I, reads as follows:

Power ov the President

Whenever the President, after investigation, shall find and declare that any transfer, retransfer, regrouping, coordination, consolidation, reorganisation, segregation, or abolition of the whole or any part of any agency, or the functions thereof, is necessary to accomplish any of the purposes set forth in Section 1 of this Title, he may by Executive order:

• (a) Transfer or retransfer the whole or any part of any agency, or the functions thereof, to the jurisdiction and control of any other agency;

• (b) JSstohlish any agency to receive the whole or any part of any other agency, or the functions thereof, and this shall include the power to establish Federal corporations and direct that such action be taken as may be necessary to effect the transfer to any such corporation of the assets and liabilities of any federally owned and controlled corporation or corporations and empower any such Federal corporation to exercise such functions as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes for which the federally owned and controlled corporation or corporations were established;

• (o) Regroup, coordinate, consolidate, reorganise, or segregate the whole or any part of any agency, or the functions thereof; or

• (d) Abolish the whole or any part of any agency, or the functions thereof, and this shall include the liquidation and dissolution of any federally owned and controlled corporation in accordance with the laws of the United States, or of any state, territory, or possession of the United States (including the Philippine Islands), or the District of Columbia, under which such corporation was organized; and

• (e) Prescribe the name and functions of any agency transferred, retransferred, established, regrouped, coordinated, consolidated, reorganized or segregated unMARCH 1938

der this Title, and the title, functions, .tenure, and •method of the appointment of its head, or of any of its officers or employees.

(I have underscored [italicized] the parts of this section to which I want to call attention.)

Summary of Powers of the President

Summing up the foregoing section, headed “Power of the President,” it authorizes you to reorganize, regroup, curtail, transfer, or wholly to abolish, or change the name and functions of each and every “agency” in the executive branch of the government. It per- 1 mits you to decide the method of appointment of all heads, officers, and employees of all reorganized agencies, which means that, if the bill were enacted, your appointments would require no confirmation by the Senate.

It permits you to establish, without limit, new agencies to take over the functions of such agencies as you may abolish, or change in name and function, or transfer, in whole or in part. But it does not, in so many words, describe the meaning of the word “agency”, though the meaning seems plain enough.

Therefore, in order fully to grasp the' significance of the section entitled * ‘ Power of the President,” let us turn to the section headed ‘ ‘ General and Miscellaneous Provisions. ” This section (Section 501 of Title V) defines, the meaning of the important words used in the bill. And it makes abundantly clear the bill’s intention to strip Congress of power.

General and Miscellaneous Provisions

When used in this Act unless the context indicates otherwise:

(a) The term “agency” includes the President or any executive department, independent establishment, commission, legislative court, board, bureau, service, administration, authority, federally owned' and controlled corporation, agency, division, or activity of the United States, whether in the District of Columbia or in the field service, or any office, or part thereof, and shall include the municipal government of the District of Columbia, the Botanic Garden, Library of Congress, Library Buildings and Grounds, Government Printing Office, and the Smithsonian Institution; Provided, that the inclusion of the municipal government of the District of Columbia within the meaning of the term “agency” shall not be construed to authorize the abolition of the municipal government of the District of Columbia or the transfer of all the functions of such rmmicipal government to any other agency.

In the foregoing words is found the only

limitation to your power over federal agencies. For they protect the government of the Dis, trict of Columbia from annihilation by executive order. To this extent the statement that the bill allows you to abolish “every” agency * must be modified.

On the other hand, section 501 further strengthoils your power by providing i

The term “functions’’ includes any rights, privileges, powers, duties, or functions, or any part thereof.

Thus, Mr. President, if your biJi were passed, not only every agency, office, and fpne-lion—always excepting those of the fortunate District of Columbia^hut every right, privilege, power, or duty attaching thereto would be subject tQ abolition, alteration, nr transfer by your^plf, at your sole discretion, and without.reference to Congress.

Provides Ng Congressional

Check on Reorganization

In the P^t, various bills have empowered presidents to reorganize certain parts of the executive branch of the government, but always within well defined limit?. And no previous bill has sought to give or even suggested giving a president such unbounded power as is conferred pu you by this act.

Commenting on the 1932 reorganization bill, which authorized President Hoover to reorganize the departments, Senator Byrnes of South Carolina said, on August 16,1937:

Any executive' order issued under the act (of 1932) was required tp be submitted to the Congress and might he set ft3j.de by resolution pf either branch of the Congress.

But no such provision is found in your Reorganization Act of 1937.

And if sueh a bill as yours were passed, you could exercise all the powera-^enumerated in the seotion entitled “Power of the President” and clarified in the section entitled ‘* General and Miscellaneous Provisions”—at will, with finality, and with no accountability to anyone.

In a word, the bill is so drawn that, through your power to abolish, or transfer, or change all fedora] agencies, their officers, and thejr functions, you can control the policies, decisions, and actions of these agencies. And especially, you can control the immensely important independent commissions and boards, which are primarily the instruments of Congress and not of the President.

As we all know, there are certain regulatory agencies in our government, some purely executive and others semi-judicial, upon whose policies and action depends, in large measure, the welfare of every section of the country. These agencies intimately affect the nation’s economic life, the life of every class of our people, of all consumers, of labor, of business, and agriculture. I have in mind such agencies as the Federal Reserve Board, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Power Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Forest Service, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and others which I may refer to again.

Mr. President, any chief executive, armed with the powers granted in your bill, could shape with an iron hand the policies and decisions and action of all these agencies. For, if their policies, decisions, or action did not suit him, he could disestablish the agencies themselves, remove or discipline their officers, or change the functions of the agencies, as he pleased, in accordance with his own will, or his bias, or his political advantage.

You may reply that, if these powers were misused, Congress could enact a law repealing your bill; and then pas? another reorganization bill limiting your authority. But sueh a repeal would be virtually impossible, For, your veto of the repealing act could only be overridden by a two-thirds vote of both houses. And any president with such money and job patronage as you possess, and fortified by the leverage on Congress which your reorganization bill provides, should have little difficulty in blocking any attempt at repeal by Congress.

Gives Executive Power to Annul Laws

Now, while we are on this subject—namely the power over Congress^'our reorganization bill gives you—let me point out that the bill places in your hands what is, in effect, a new and unconstitutional authority to annul laws which Congress has passed.

Mr. President, almost every important law relating to industry, or labor, or to finance, or agriculture has—indeed must have^an agency, an executive instrument, charged with carrying its purposes into effect. The antitrust laws have such an instrument in the Department of Justice, with the Federal Trade Commission acting both as a fact-finding and regulatory body. The so-called Guffey Coal Act has, as its enforcing* instrument, a commission without which the purposes of the act cannot be achieved. The Wagner Act sets up the Natkmal Labor Relations Board , as its executive arm for protecting labor’s right to bargain collectively, and for preventing unfair labor practices.

It would be interesting to know what would be the reaction of Mr. 'William Green, or Mr. John L, Lewis, to the fact that a president of the United States, who is known as the chain, pion of liberalism and labor, has sent to a closed session of a special congressional committee a bill empowering him, or, for that mat; ter, any other President, to render the Na, tional Labor Relations Act void by:

• (a) abolishing the Labor Board;

• (b) by transferring the Board’s functions and personnel to some other agency; and

• (e) by changing the Board’s functions and personnel.

Mr. President, I repeat that the section of your bill headed “Power of the President,” which is quoted in full jn this letter, in effect enables the President to annul any law passed by Congress, provided the law requires for its enforcement an executive agency. Your bill js a reactionary bill, for it turns the national legislature into a mere debating society, which may effectuate its policies only when the President approves.

It is a truism to say that, over a range of years, the attitude of the White House repeats edly changes from liberal to conservative, and from conservative to liberal. And recent events have shown that one can no more pre, diet the mind of the president than the mind of the king.

If your bill were passed, it would place the laws relating to business, to consumers, and to agriculture in precisely the same state of uncertainty aa those relating to labor. For the executive commissions and boards charged with enforcing these laws would function or not function according to the will of one man namely the President.

America’s most important and progressive policies—such as the policy of conservation of natural resources, the policy of preventing monopoly and encouraging competition, the policy of protecting wage earners and farmers, and other similar policies—did not spring into being over night. They developed through generations of public discussion, patient education, and unselfish work.

They have been embodied in laws passed by the people’s representatives meeting in open

MARCH 9, 1838                   _ debate in both houses of Congress, under the eyes of the people. This democratic method is the foundation of liberty and progress in every democracy in the world, And to protect this method against the encroachment of personal government behind closed doors is, especially at this time, the duty of all democratic nations.

To empower one man to nullify the laws which express our national policies, by abolishing or controlling the agencies which enforce them, is at once a blow to progress and a denial of the democratic principle.

At this point, Mr, President, let me remark that, so far as I know, informed persons agree that the executive branch needs reorganization. In the last few years the agencies, of government have multiplied so fast, and furiously, that our federal "bureaucracy numbers nearly 900,000 people. And it is growing like a weed. In fact, these agencies, boards, commissions, authorities, corporations, et cetera, have become so numerous that they overlap, cancel each other’s efforts, and create endless confusion and expense.

And, what is worse, this overmanned bureaucracy will gradually become as corrupt as it is costly and inefficient. But this condition, however unfortunate, should not be made the excuse for clothing you with such powers as Mussolini used in setting up his corporate state, or as- Hitler seized in order to end the German republic, and reduce the Reichstag to g fiction.

And hepg, once ,more, I want to say and make it clear sunlight, that, in this letter, I am not diseipsing the various reorganization bills which have been presented by either hopee of Congress, though certain of these bills contain some of the dangerous provisions in your bill, I am discussing only your bid, written for you by Messrs. Brownlow, Gulick and Merriam, and presented in your behalf tn the Special Joint Committee op reorganization, at the executive session of February J6, 1937.                .

Who Was Responsible for ike Rill?

Did the draft of your bill, submitted on February 16, 1997, have your approval? On this point we will consult the record. At the executive session Mr. Brownlow testified that he had shown the bill to you. He also stated that the bill puts in legislative form the recommendations contained in the Brownlow Report on reorganization. That was the report which

7

you endorsed with such emphasis in your message of January 12, 1937.

When examined as to whether you approved the bill, Mr. Brownlow was non-committal. He said that he could not '‘undertake to speak for the President.” Further questioned by committee members, he said the bill was "tentative” and offered as a basis of discussion. On the other hand, it was brought out that he and his colleagues took months to prepare it; that it was in the making back at the time when the Brownlow Report was being written; and that, in drawing the bill, he and Professors Gulick and Merriam were assisted by a skilled "legislative draftsman.”

Mr. President, responsible men do not draft a bill providing for unparalleled changes in a nation’s government, and present it to a congressional committee, and then spend days on end defending its provisions, as did Mr. Brownlow, Professor Gulick and Professor Merriam, unless its contents has been well considered—and, what is more, authorized.

And this should be especially true when a bill is written under instructions from the President himself, after conversations with him which extended through a summer. And, says Mr. Brownlow, "these conversations were renewed in September, October, and December.” And Mr. Brownlow further says that, after the Brownlow Report was finished, and before he took your bill to the Joint Committee, additional conferences with you took place.

But, assuming that this first draft was tentative, the same can hardly be said of the revised, or second, draft, dated February 22, 1937, which contains practically the same provisions as the first draft. And, for three men, appointed and paid by you, to have offered such a bill, not once but twice, without assurance that it had your approval, would not merely have been a breach of trust but a piece of reckless effrontery,

I know Professor Merriam. I am acquainted with Professor Gulick. And I am told that Mr. Brownlow is a responsible and intelligent person. I believe these three men incapable of presenting in youT behalf, even as a basis of discussion, a bill embodying such novel and astounding provisions, unless they were satisfied that they were acting with your full approval and consent. And, until an adequate explanation is forthcoming from you, your bill must be taken as expressing your views, and as a statement of the extent to which you

planned to break the authority of Congress and expand your own by reorganizing the government.                ■

Other Provisions of the Bill

Mr. President, in addition to the boards and commissions I have mentioned, your draft of the Executive Reorganization bill deals with many subjects. It gives you life and death, power over the ten federal departments, War, State, Labor, et cetera; over the Tariff Commission, the Court of Claims, the Communications Commission, and all other boards and commissions. It even presents you with the Library of Congress. This, like the rest, you can reorganize, abolish in whole or in part, or change in name and function, without leave of Congress.              ’

Likewise, it permits you to create any number of new ‘ ‘ receiving agencies, ’ ’ and to transfer existing agencies and their functions and appropriations to them. Under the bill you could, for instance, establish a new receiving agency headed, we will say, by your secretary, Mr. James Roosevelt, and transfer to his charge the army, or the navy, or the Federal Reserve, or the Communications Commission, or the National Labor Relations Board, or the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and those various other agencies which loan money and allocate the vast sums which are spent for public works and other forms of relief. Or, if you preferred, you could rid the government of any or all of these agencies by merely signing your name to a piece of paper.

During the discussion of your bill at the February 16th hearing of the executive session, Congressman Cochran asked Mr. Brownlow, who was explaining the bill, the following question;

The power that you suggest he given to the President—that would enable him, if he so desired, to abolish, say the Federal Trade Commission,, the Tariff Commission, the Communications Commission, or any other independent agency that is now set up in the executive branch of the service, would it not?

Mr. Brownlow:

"Well, he might.”

Mr. Cochran:                        "

"He could abolish the board and set up an individual. ’ ’

As an example of how we may expect the administration to use its power of transfer, if your bill, or one like it, were enacted, let us take the case of the Forest Service, a very efficient agency which for years has been located in the Department of Agriculture, where the conservation policy is faithfully adhered to.

The Forest Service was organized by a great public servant, and the tradition he left behind him remains strong to this day. Yet, the Brownlow Report, which you so heartily endorse, recommends that government lands and natural resources, now in charge of the Forest Service, shall be transferred to the Department of the Interior, where a thoroughly bad tradition has prevailed, and where almost anyone, with a strong political pull, has been able to get about what he wants from the government.

It should be remembered that, long ago, President Theodore Roosevelt, with the consent of Congress, transferred the National Forests from the Interior Department to the Department of Agriculture, for the very reason that he could not trust the Interior Department to guard and administer them properly. Your bill now proposes to turn the National Forests back to the department where, like the oil resources, they were in constant jeopardy.             '

The Civil Service

Again, your bill, while it provides for extending the civil service, at the same time abolishes the Civil Service Commission and places the service under the President’s control. It authorizes the President to exempt from civil service requirements large numbers of employees. And it permits his agents to appoint, without limit, whatever new employees may be needed, and exempt them from civil service requirements.

Federal Accounting

Your bill deals with federal auditing and accounting. It abolishes the Comptroller General, who has served Congress as its watchdog over government spending. It does away with the pre-audit system, by which Congress keeps track of the expenditures before they are made. So that the diversion of funds to purposes unauthorized by Congress may be prevented. Your bill scraps the pre-audit in favor of a post-audit, to be made after the money is spent. In a word, the stable is locked after the horses are gone.

Mr. President, such an arrangement takes ■ the nation’s purse strings from the hands of Congress, and places them in your hands. Again, should Congress vote an appropriation for some purpose not approved by the White House, the bill permits the President to remove or control the agency designated to spend the money. Thus, as already pointed out, it permits the President to block or defeat the intention of Congress.

New Departments and

National Resources Board

Your bill provides for two new government departments, which will certainly not tend toward economy. Nor will it reduce the number of federal employees, or the political power they give the White House, It provides for a National Resources Board, and this too will expand the federal personnel.

This National Resources Board is a very far-reaching proposal. It may be described as one of the New Deal’s more grandiose legislative reveries. It is to be the central agency through which the federal government will plan the economic activities of states, counties, and cities, and regiment them through new swarms of federal agents.

On November 14, 1937, Secretary Wallace stated that industry ought to be federally managed, and its volume and the character of its products regulated, very much as his ever normal granary plan proposes to regulate the quantity and character of crops on American farms. The National Resources Board is the embodiment of this thinking, and, apparently, of the thought of Assistant Attorney General Jackson, who announced, in his radio address of December 26, that the government should act as an “overseer of our industrial progress.’’

Is This Democracy?

Mr. President, in brief summation, all the evidence shows that your draft of the reorganization bill was designed—and deliberately designed—to strip Congress of power and centralize control in the White House. If passed, it would unquestionably transform the government into a dictatorship. And I defy any competent person to read your bill without arriving at this conclusion.

It seems beyond belief that anyone could have expected Congress—even in its humble days before the court controversy started the rebellion in the upper House—to pass such a bill.

If, under White House pressure, the elected representatives of the people were to enact this measure, renouncing their own power and giving it to you, they would be like condemned men who, on the eve of execution, are required . to dig their own graves.

And yet, if your Court bill of February 5th had been enacted, as you and your advisors expected, your Executive Reorganization bill of February 16th would undoubtedly have been the next order of business.

In your message of January 12, 1937, you told Congress and the .public that your plan involved “nothing revolutionary,” and no increase in your power. You said:

In placing this program before you I realize that it will be said that I am recommending the increase of the powers of the presidency. This is not true.

In that message you further stated that your objective was to preserve “that freedom of self-government which our forefathers fought to establish and hand down to Us.” And you said that your purpose was to give substance to the great dream of American democracy.

Mr. President, you ask very rightly for cooperation, and for confidence in the government. And all men and women of good will should work for that end. But how can there be confidence when the Chief Executive himself proposes to undermine the government and the principles of democracy on which it rests!

Will you not therefore, in the interest of the public, withdraw your recommendation for executive reorganization, and let the country concentrate on recovery ?

Sincerely yours,

Amos Pinchot.

How Patriotic Are the Priests? {Continued from page 11)

article was to discourage Polish people from joining other than Polish Catholic churches.

Neither my wife nor I speak Polish,.but when this article Was published I made an appeal to a Polish Catholic priest, Reverend Justyn, of 199 Clark street, Buffalo, N. Y., explaining my whole case and he informed me that the church has nothing to do with my affairs and cannot aid me. Subsequently I listened to Judge Rutherford’s lectures and accepted the Truth and serve it.

I have a sister who is a nun, and am fond of her, but since I accepted the truth neither She nor any of my relatives will associate with me in any way and have repudiated me as a brother. I am also told that I am cursed because I send my children to the public schools.

In view of my experiences, I wonder just how patriotic are the priests of the Roman Catholic church. Does patriotism consist in hating real patriots who have done something for their country, and casting them to the dogs when they can no longer pay to keep up fine church buildings and palaces and automobiles, fine clothes and wines for the priests f Looks like it.—Stanley J. Patryas, Illinois.

How Law-abiding Are They?

♦ Police departments all over the country are in perplexity. They are endeavoring to discourage gambling, in every direction, but are balked at every turn by the religionists, particularly the agents and accomplices of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, who encourage gambling to the point where they circumvent or directly oppose the law, going so far as to openly assert that they will carry out their schemes, law or no law. Here is the picture, then. Men who make no pretense of being religious are trying to safeguard the morals of the young and the ignorant, while the "custo-

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CONSOLATION

*‘Freedom of Speech as an Axiom”

IF ONE is honest he has to hand it to the Catholic Hierarchy for continuously pretending to believe and practice in the United States what their own spokesmen in the Papal ehair have repeatedly denounced. Thus, the Hierarchy has denied over and over again the right of free speech, has denounced it as a colossal error, has done everything possible to prevent Judge Rutherford from telling the truth over the radio, and yet, the Hierarchy in the United States, in its letter to the Hierarchy in Spain, had the unmitigated gall to make use of the following sentence:

Your words [recounting the alleged slaughter of priests in Spain] horrify us, who are wont to accept liberty of conscience and freedom of speech as an axiom.

Let that soak in. The United States Hierarchy is horrified because the Spanish Republic did not encourage the free use of churches as arms depots and stations in which to incite sedition and insurrection, but in America it has to admit, despite its infamous attempt to choke the wind off Judge Rutherford, that “freedom of speech as an axiom” is maintained here. Probably a private note went along to the bishops explaining that, though such freedom of speech is an axiom here, it is an axiom in which the Hierarchy does not believe, and as soon as it feels strong enough to do so it intends to dispose for ever'of both the freedom and the axiom. Such is the Hierarchy.

No Freedom in Quebec

♦ That the Roman Catholic Hierarchy certainly does not believe in freedom of speech anywhere is abundantly proved by the statement of Cardinal Villeneuve at Quebec, November 1, 1937:

Paganism has many offers. Among them are freedom of speech, freedom to insult our traditions, our beliefs and our religion.

Notice how cleverly this is spliced together. The casual reader is led to believe that freedom of speech is necessarily opposed to the truth and what therefore the Roman Hierarchy holds as the essentials of civilization, namely, Catholic traditions, beliefs and religion, and therefore is in itself evil. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The prophets believed in freedom of speech, and were sawn asunder for it; Jesus believed in freedom of speech, and was put to death for it; the apostles did likewise, and eleven of the twelve are believed to have suffered martyrdom. The Roman Hierarchy hates freedom of speech because it fears the truth. Hence all its uproar against Judge Rutherford.

“For every wrongdoer hates the light, and does not come to the light, for fear his actions should be exposed and condemned. But he who does what is honest'and right comes to the light.”—John 3:20,21, Weymouth,

What Else Would He Do?

♦ Speaking in Jersey City the “Reverend Father” Matthew Toohey, of Newark, hailed Frank Hague, mayor of Jersey City, as “Public Enemy No. 1 of Communism” and in the same breath extolled Dictator Duplessis, of Quebec. What else would he do? All three of them belong to the gang that is bent on the destruction of human liberty and determined to bring all mankind under the iron heel of the Roman Hierarchy, whose rise was coincident with a rise of Europe’s Dark Ages.

“Adults Please Sign”

LAMAR, Colorado, is a city of ■        4,500 inhabitants, 72 of whom do

It&r not use their own brains, but do as they are told by somebody who handed them a sheet of paper marked “Adults Please Sign”, Among those that signed were 6 Geisers, 5 Hassers, 4 each of the Gruenloh, Emick, Idler, Weis, Denning, Fox and Smith families, 3 Linenbergers, 3 Williams’ and 2 each of the McCall, O’Neil, Strain and Moran families, and there were 17 others trotting that Sunday in single harness besides the more or less single “Reverend Father” Benedict Pedrotti, who headed the list immediately under the words “Adults Please Sign”.

Another priest signed under Pedrotti, but thought better of it and erased his name. Probably it was he who also tried to erase the words “Adults Please Sign” but did not do a good job. The ones who signed would have cheerfully signed their own death warrant without reading it or knowing what it was all about. What they did sign was a protest against a Spanish program of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of which not one of them probably understood one word.

The owner of the broadcasting station to whom the alleged protest was sent saw through the whole scheme and wrote a plain but kindly letter to Pedrotti reminding him that he himself is a Catholic, and a member of Pedrotti’s church, and a supporter of it. He reminded Pedrotti that the only businessman on his list of 72 had been refused time orr the radio for exploiting a lottery scheme; that the station had never shown a profit during its existence; that the words “bitterness”, “prejudice,” “vehemently,” “decent Christians,” “creeds,” “decency,” “germ of dissension” and ‘‘honesty” were used in the accompanying protest a little too freely to make a hit; and especially that the very same programs about which the list of adult signers protested so strongly when given in Spanish had only a few weeks previous been given in English and. none of the alleged protesters said a word.

Mrs. George S. Williams, who purports to have written the protest, was the twelfth one to sign under “Reverend Father” Pedrotti, and her hubby, Dr. George Williams, was the last one on the “Adults Please Sign” list. One would think that he would have known

MARCH 9, '-928

better than to let Pedrotti make a fool of him. But some doctors are not so wise. Some of them have no more sense than Pedrotti himself.

Arizona’s Sheep Trails

♦ Arizona’s sheep trails, thirteen of them from north to south of the state, are from one to five miles wide, and are traversed twice every year by a half million sheep. Two mounted men and a dog keep the flocks moving at the rate of two or three miles per day. The routes are definitely marked by white stones a quarter of a mile apart and are mostly remote from human habitations. The herders are required to proceed at a set rate per day, so as to make room for the flocks of others that follow on behind.

Petrified Rushes in Arizona

• ♦ In Arizona’s petrified forest there are a number of petrified giant rushes upright in place, four feet tall and eight inches in diameter. As in the fallen monarchs of the forest lying about them, the living cells have been changed into solid blocks of silica, agate chalcedony and jasper.

“Reverend” Judas, Denver, Colo,

• ♦ “Reverend” Judas, Denver, Colp., is a black goat, with white spots. His job, “Rev-erend”-like, is to get foolish sheep to race along behind him to the slaughter house. He has developed a taste for nicotine and, besides luring sheep to their destruction, enjoys nothing more than smoking a cigar.

Municipal Ownership in Fallon, Nev.

• ♦ Fallon, Nevada, 2,000 population, paid $6,000 for grading and graveling its roads, and $20,000 for asphaltic oil surfacing, without charging the citizens anything. Yes, you guessed it, Fallon has its own power and water systems.

Matanuska Colony Getting Along

• ♦ Although one-fourth of the families gave up the fight and returned to the States, the Matanuska (Alaska) colony is getting along. It now has 173 homes, 4 sawmills, a hospital and a high school, and is figuring on a cream* ery and cannery.

13

Epueopsl bishop of Norih Carolina

After ten years of aduiinJCralinn, Buhop Bayley found hi* Catholic population had ictfrwisfd a third anrt hr* rhurdiM *nd priest* doubled their original number. True, the Civil War had taken ill Lull of the diocese, but the “Coinn'ifidorc" had wrought a nufwlcua change i_B the putrlA at(,;tud< law^rri the ckujvh. ffcUn Hall bad boen fahuUi in a tnara «tm4 mariner than ever. Though always pinched for funds, tfjatik* to donations from abroad and the intern^-getifTTwity of the people themselves, there came Into the fltate of New Jersey, as if a part of one great pa^anL, the Jesuit*, the Dominican*. the Paision-ksta and numerous onlsi nf Sisterhoods, establishing convrtit aahctnls and THitad in*titu- [Turn In pa^e SOI

tian* of kinung aod charity. Meanwhile it bad been rumored that the Biifrip to be promoted to a higher post. Bishop Bavley had absolutely no d«iy* to leave Newark- Buwrvcr. word rame from Rojtio io August, JS"®, that the Holy Father, Pius IX, wishing to hmiCtt him, w» promoting him to the prlmatiai tee of tire U tilled Slates, the Ajchbuheprie of Bakimoit. He aloui filled to appreciate this splendid honor. .. But to tbc Catholic's of his own diooe«e ii( was singular recognition of th* sterling aEuracter of the Bishop. Furthermore, it E Laced llume-a acai of Approval upon

Is WOrk <d nearly twenty year* ib ibe pjvtrnmeElt of (ha djexest: of Newark-

Tbu». lotlg before ■ Roosevelt became a President of die United Stata, a Roosevelt governed the Catholic Church in America is its titular bead, when in 1B7« James Roosevelt Bayley wii C0°-ttcffttvd Arehbiihon of Baltimore in itlc-ceMLOa to Archbishop Martin Spalding. As Baltimore's Archl.ii'hop, however, Bayley was got destined U> live totig.

The strain of work at Newark told bcavUy on his health- In 187$ he petitioned Rom* to give him a coadjutor, recommending a youthful, vigorous aod keen prelate to whom he hod taken a most particular fancy, Bishop James Gibbons, of Richmond. He did find time, ticverthdesi. to Inaugurate valuable leg. ulaliuD regarding mixed martisges arid clerical dreas- He lUCCraied also IS freeing the venerable Catbedml of Beiti-more from debt, and, as special levied Puls IX- he conferred the red bat upon his old friend, the Archbishop of New York, Grat American Ln enter tha Barred College of Cardinals. John Cardinal MeCtosiey. A trip to Europe was of avail to his health and, desiring to die io b>> betoved Newark, he returned tn foil old home in August, IftST. Ou October 3d of that year, furtiGad by the ncraments of the Church, in rumnmd-

Ino especially dear io him, he paued 10 bis alrmal reward.

James Roosevelt Bayley should nut be forgotten today. Hi* talent* wm too great and his inuUEnct tna widespread (O uBoW hi* memory to fade from the public eye, The Catholic Church has m4 tu Roosevelt and h* served the Cburch nobly. The late Cardinal Gi.li-buna, the immMi*ted sucVf*** of Arch-bishop Bayley in Baltimore, fully appreciated the true greatness uf his predecessor. The Cardinal would haw wished Indeed (a set the day* ot Franklin Roose-. veil. During th* Wilson Administration, when Mr, llpOscvsEt *u (hr then Assistant Secretary of th* Nny, tbs Cardinal, knowing b>s dose nrUt kuiihip 10 Archbishop Bayley and ths Archbishop's intimacy with lh« Roosevelt facvLily, took a particular iutBTTflt in hi*]. Hr regarded the yucing Roosevelt 4i a father would

4 SOU and Wil wont |6 ewll him affectionately. “My bay/

So (he Bcm of historical account is rich ia the cfaed* of hundreds of hertric pioneer priests and bdahcni who helped build tbs Calhobc Church irk America. Not th* least al tbese 19 J a nits Roosevelt Bayley. How atrange it that this truly noble figure awulta as yet a sympathetic bcagraptwr tu place before tbs Catholic reader* oi America a man win? itfU'tiifavd a fartuae to beconm a Catholic because he believed iu heart and aOul that the Catholic Church Is the one true Chsinih of Chriit; a man who wu instrumental iu the founding of a great Catholic • university, Fot-d-h%m, apd actually founded another, SetOu flail; who wjj not too pmud tu work among tka poorrst and most wretched immigrants, the secretary q( an Archtiiihup and m auitar, James Roosevelt Bayley, tbg lastly nephew of a saintly aunt, Mother Seton, a great prirat pud bishop and la*t, but by lead, a true tlodaevcli.

Unclassified

May Have Plenty of Business

♦ Congress appropriated $750,000 for the erection of a cancer institute at Washington. The reason why they did it is that, since the use of aluminum for purposes of cooking, deaths by cancer have steadily mounted until they are now 137,000 annually in the United States alone. But, of course, Congress does not know that, and probably never will. The institute will be run and-managed by those that have learned nothing about cancer in the last hundred years, and are determined not to. Quito likely it will feed its guests of food cooked in aluminum; and if so, the mon that run it will have plenty of guests and therefore permanent jobs, in a time when good jobs are hard to get.

Glass Tops for Railway Coaches

♦ Glass tops for railway coaches, so that passengers may see all the scenery, are coming into use on German railways, and it seems as if the idea could with profit be extended to all railways, now that unbreakable glass is to be had and serious railway accidents almost never occur.

Saint Isaac’s Cathedral at Leningrad

• ♦ Saint Isaac’s Cathedral at Leningrad has a great dome containing 1,068 tons of cast iron, 5241 tons of wrought iron, 321| tons of brass, and 247 pounds of ducat gold used for plating the structure.

MARCH 9, 19M

Corn Hogs and Other Hogs ,

• ♦ Senator Vandenburg, talking in the Senate about corn hogs and other hogs, said;

I understand the average eorn-hog benefit payment In Iowa is under $400. But 1 know, for example, about one com-hog contract in another State where t|ie beneficiary was paid $219,825 for not raising 14,587 hogs on 445 acres. Again, I understand the average cotton contract throughout the ■ South is under $1,500. But I know, for example, about one cotton contract which paid $168,000 for not planting 7,000 acres.

Sweatshop Regulation

♦ The Department of Labor shows that despite all the efforts made in 15 states to regulate home labor, i.e., sweatshop labor, the results accomplished arc almost nothing. Women and children are driven mercilessly, toiling far into the night to earn an average of 3|c an hour, many of them earning only 1c an hour for the hardest kind of work.

Not So Easy Whipping Spaniards

♦ "General” O’Duffy’s Irish brigade, backing up General Franco in his war against the Spanish government,- backed out of the conflict after four months and returned to Ireland, having found that the Spanish Republicans are not as easily licked as they had supposed,

A Simple Way to Get Well

I HAVE just read your article on “Aluminum Poisoning” in the issue of September 26, 1936, and wish it could be read by every housewife in the country.

I would like to give you some more facts that happened in my own home and caused us to throw out every piece of aluminumware in the place.

In the spring of 1935 I went to my dentist to have an abscessed tooth removed. In looking over my teeth the dentist informed me that I had pyorrhea and it wouldn't be long before I would have to lose all my teeth. I asked what caused such a condition, when I had always been very careful to keep .my teeth in good condition. He told me that no cure had ever been found, and could not give me any reason why people contracted the disease.

About six months elapsed before I again went to the dentist to have a bridge swung in where the abscessed tooth had been removed, and when this was done I casually asked how my teeth and gums looked. The dentist said they were in good shape, but he had forgotten what he had told me on the previous visit. I then reminded him of the fact that I had a bad ease of pyorrhea at that time, which he remembered. He asked me what I had done, and I promptly told him the story.

A few days after my first visit I happened to get hold'of a copy of “Aluminum Poisoning”, and read it from cover to cover. Some of the simple tests to prove the effect of this poison in foods convinced me that many stomach ailments of both my wife and me were due entirely to the aluminum kitchen utensils which we were using. My wife certainly hated to part with all the expensive steam cookers and percolators, but we threw out the whole business and bought iron frying pans and enamelware.

We did not stop here, but threw out all the baking powders that contained aluminum sulphate and never again will any of these products ever enter our house. My wife and I have both long since recovered from stomach troubles, gas pains and many other distresses that we were subject to without knowing the cause. Today I have all my teeth and haven't had a toothache since.

If a campaign of education could be brought to the attention of the users of aluminumware and cheap baking powders, the hospitals and the graveyards wouldn’t do so much business. Common sense should have people asking, “Why do we have more sickness today than ever before, in face of the fact that we have better hospitals, better-trained nurses and doctors, new inventions that are constantly being put out to eliminate disease?” The answer is simple: 95 percent of the kitchens today are equipped with aluminumware. Newspapers will not publish anything detrimental to aluminum, for fear of losing the fat sums they obtain from the advertising by the Aluminum Trust.—William E. Deane, Florida.

Aluminum and Milk

♦ Aluminum milk cans, milk pails, ladles, pans and other equipment are widely used on farms. Aluminum tank cars are used to transport the milk to dairies and to manufacturers of milk products of various kinds.

Among firms using the aluminum’ milk transport tanks are the Pevely Dairy Company, of St. Louis; the DeKalb County Agricultural Association, of Illinois; the Milk Cartage Corporation, of Pittsburgh, Pa.; the Franklin Ice Cream Company, of Kansas City; and the Hershey Chocolate Corporation.

At dairy plants milk storage tanks are often made of aluminum. Immense aluminum tanks are used for this purpose by the Menzie Dairy Company, of McKeesport, Pa. ; the Rieek-MeJunkin Dairy Company, of Pittsburgh, Pa., and other cities; the Twin Cities Dairy, North Tonawanda, N. Y.; the Akron Pure Milk Company, Akron, Ohio; and the Dairymen's Milk Company, Cleveland, Ohio.

Aluminum paint is widely used to paint the walls and other exposed surfaces in dairy plants.

Aluminum Cables and Tank Cars

♦ More than 100,000 miles of aluminum cables were used in rural distribution lines of the United States during 1937. The 230,000-volt transmission line from Boulder Dam to Los Angeles will be of aluminum. The metal is also now being widely used for construction of tank cars for the transport of aviation gasoline. These are legitimate uses for this metal.

Your Questions Answered

QUESTION: Who are the greatest public enemies to be found among mankind ?

Answer: The greatest public enemies are those who employ fraud and deceit and lead the credulous people into a trap which results to their great injury. Satan the Devil is the greatest of all enemies, and his greatest ally or instrument on the earth used to defraud the ignorant and do injury to the people is religion or religious systems. Therefore the specific answer to the question from the Bible is that the greatest pilblie enemy to be found amongst mankind is the religious organizations, embracing those who practice religion for selfish gain. Amongst the many fraudulent schemes employed by the Catholic religious organization to defraud the people is the one which they call “purgatory”. The clergy of that religious organization fraudulently claim to represent God on the earth, and thus appearing in a pious manner they gain the confidence of credulous persons and easily overreach them and thereby fraudulently and wrongfully induce such persons to believe that t their loved ones who have died are in “purgatory”, there undergoing conscious suffer-' ing. Then the clergy say to the bereaved credulous persons, “If you will contribute your financial support to our church, the priests thereof will pray for your beloved ones who are in purgatory and thereby shorten their term of punishment and relieve them of much suffering.” Such a claim not only is a monstrous lie, wholly unsupported by any truth, but is a gross defamation of God’s holy name. That lying claim concerning “purgatory” is equivalent to saying that God is in agreement with the clergymen and backing them up in their scheme to collect money from the poor credulous people upon the theory that they ean get their dead ones out of “purgatory”. Thus they make God a party to a great fraud. There is no such place as “purgatory”. The dead are not conscious anywhere, but arc in the grave, where there is no knowledge, wisdom or device, where they know not anything and are suffering nothing. (Ecclesiastes 9:5,10; Ps. 115:17) What, then, is the greatest injury resulting to the people from such a fraud? Such credulous persons are wrongfully induced to pjirt with their money upon a false representation made by clergymen who falsely claim to represent God; such persons are led to believe that their dead are in conscious suffering and that it is their duty to contribute money to help them; they are induced to ally themselves with and follow in the lead of clergymen of a devilish religious organization; and thus the people are kept blind to the kingdom of God, which kingdom is their only hope of salvation and life. This visible enemy of mankind, and which is the worst of such enemies, keeps the people in the dark, robs them of their substance, destroys their peace of mind and turns them away from God and into everlasting destruction. There could be no greater enemies.

No Apologies, Mr. O’Neal

GEORGIA’S City of La Grange again. Its mayor, R. S. O’Neal, is reported as being greatly incensed and full of wrath because The Golden Age labeled him ’a Catholic’. He insists that The Golden Age apologize to him fqr placing him in that undesirable category.

This is what The Golden Age did say in its issue of August 11, 1937:

When Bishop G. P. O’Hara, of Savannah, dedicated the new Catholic church here in Lagrange, a few months before arrests started here, Mayor O’Neal had a prominent part in the dedication.

MARCH #, 1038

This connects O’Neal with the Hierarchy, and reveals the source of our persecution. Thus the serpent’s trail leads to Vatican City-—as usual.

Our letter to O’Neal got the immediate, response of increased persecution; hence this letter made a hull’s-ej’e hit. It revealed the head inquisitor, O’Neal, as the tool of the Hierarchy. We were lacking that proof.

It does not appear that Mr. O ’Neal is legally or ethically entitled to an apology. It was stated that he was connected with the Hierarchy and acted as a tool of the Hierarchy.

17

It is a matter of widespread knowledge that the Hierarchy is the chief enemy of the truth and devotes much energy toward attempts at stopping the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses. The Hierarchy would prohibit entirely the circulation of Bible teachings if it could; and uses every agency, Catholic, Protestant or Jewish, that It can enlist for that unholy purpose.

Mr. O’Neal, as mayor of the City of La Grange, assisted that wicked organization greatly in carrying on a vicious persecution against Jehovah’s witnesses. Therefore, whether he realizes and admits it or not, he' was acting as a tool of the Hierarchy at the time.

Counsel for Jehovah’s witnesses has now been informed by Mayor 0 ’Neal that if Jehovah’s witnesses do not violate the La Grange ordinance they will not be arrested. In view of the fact that Jehovah’s witnesses never violated any law in La Grange, this is a step forward in the policy of the La Grange officials. If the mayor adheres to his word, La Grange may yet be entitled to a place on the list of law-abiding communities in the United States.

Smiling on Murder

IN Consolation No. 473, November 3, 1937, page 26, see the item about the murder of Monaghan at the police headquarters in western Pennsylvania. Monaghan, a Uniontown hotel keeper, was killed by the district attorney, the assistant county detective and two Cossacks of the Pennsylvania State police. Quotation:

Two doctors are involved. They certified that the man came to his death from "alcoholism and a weak heart”, but an investigation by honest medical men showed 13 fractures of ribs, nose and jaw, 2 hemorrhages caused by blows, 53 cuts and bruises, and blood on the ceiling and on every wall save one of the torture room, the passageway, the lavatory and the shower room. The men who committed the murder will probably be reproved, but gently, so as not to break their spirit.

It occasionally happens that some very excellent persons who are subscribers for Consolation simply can not and do not believe that the world is in the condition in which it is. As Salter put it, such persons do not want to read the “blood-curdling stuff” which ’occasionally finds its way into these columns.

Which is better, to face the facts, tell things just as they are, and lose a few subscribers, or try to change into sheep such swine, dogs, wolves, goats and other cattle as have been lured into the belief that they are sheep when they are not 7 This skit is submitted to Judge Rutherford for his approval or disapproval on that basis, and if you see it in print you will know that he thinks it right (by way of merely one example, on one subject only) to let the people of Pennsylvania know what kind of judges they have on the bench. So read what happened to the one murderer, the one who “took the rap” in the case above mentioned :

SOMERSET, Deo. 21.-~Stacy Gunderman, former State trooper who was convicted of beating a 64-year-old hotel man to death during a third degree, got a Christmas present today. Supreme Court Justice George W. Maxey gave him a parole —and his blessing.

The young and husky Gunderman, sentenced to 364 days for second degree murder, was taken into Justice Maxey's courtroom at 10:30 a.m. He has 65 more days to serve. But it is the Yule season, and Justice Maxey made a speech.

"Throughout your 15-month ordeal,” said Maxey, “you . . . Staoy Gunderman , . . have conducted yourself with condor, courage and dignity.

“I do not believe you have ever had any malice t in your makeup, and without malice, no man can V be a murderer.”

Nothing is said above about the three other persons besides the two doctors; the case is closed until Armageddon. Monaghan is dead, and all the persons concerned know that the public will forget the whole matter overnight, being entirely interested only in the latest murders, occurring elsewhere.

This magazine has little use for the Philadelphia Record, It refused to print an advertisement stating the simple facts about the WIP petition. Nevertheless some would say that it had considerable courage to publish the two following editorials Tn its issue of December 23, 1937.

WHY THE THIRD DEGREE CONTINUES

Justice George W. Maxey couldn’t have stood by Stacy Gunderman any more faithfully if he had been his lawyer instead of his judge.

Gunderman, a former State trooper, beat an aged prisoner to death. He claimed he did it in self-defense, in spite of the fact that the medical evidence showed the victim had been struck almost innumerable times and that Gunderman, an athlete, should have been well able to defend himself without violence.

In spite of Justice Maxey’s attempts to save him, the jury convicted Gun demon. Maxey then gave him a ridiculously light sentence which made him eligible for almost immediate parole.

Now Maxey cuts this sentence still further by giving Gunderman his freedom as a Christmas present. In addition, he praised Gunderman’a “candor, courage and dignity."

If you want to know why police brutality and the third degree continue to exist, ask Justice Maxey.

JUSTICE

On Memorial Day, 1937, Chicago police attacked a group of strikers demonstrating with their wives and children outside the Republic Steel plant. The police killed ten people and wounded many others in a scene of incredible brutality, of which a photographic record has been preserved in a film saved from suppression by the Lu Follette Civil Liberties Committee.

None of the police was punished, Nona of them was even brought to trial.

On December 21, 61 persons who took part in the demonstration, many of them victims of the police attack, one with his leg amputated as a result of injuries incurred in it, were found guilty and fined “for unlawful assembly."

The impunity with which the police killed, the apathy of the people, the indifference toward the crime, ths imposition of punishment upon the workers rather than upon their attackers, the fact that in 1937 one could dommit murder wholesale to break a strike and get away with it, these will forever stand as condemnation of the processes of justice in our time.

Because it is pertinent to the issue, take a moment to see Consolation No. 471, issue of October 6, 1937, page 23, and see paragraphs Nob. 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 on that page. Was it right to publish these facts? Do you want the truth, of would it suit you better to have things smoothed out and covered up? What is the answer? Surely no subscriber for Consolation should want this magazine to be less truthful and less courageous than the Philadelphia Record, which is afraid of Cardinal Dougherty and of Gimbel Brothers. Of whom is Consolation afraid? The great and good God and His Vindicator. Jehovah God is just, and He will not permit Maxey to go down to the grave in peace.'—1 Kings 2: 6.

Social and Educational

AT.ittle Girl and the Truth

♦ My teacher gave us a composition examination. He ehose the subject of writing a letter to Santa, for the whole school. I wrote the following, but did not receive any mark for it, but I have peace of mind, because I know that I did the right thing, I am a girl of fourteen and have been in the truth since my brother died, two years ago. My composition was;

I do not believe in Santa Claus or Christmas, since it isn’t really Christ’s birthday; but I do know that Jehovah God is the only real gift-giver. —Ruth Lindsay, Ontario.

Playing Grocery Store in Schools

♦ In the publie schools of New York city it has been found that permitting children to play grocery store has enabled many to quickly master problems in arithmetic that were . previously beyond them. A child is chosen to be the grocer; the others are customers. They receive a handful of. milk bottle tops designed as money. Proper sums must be used in all transactions. They soon learn how to add and subtract, and thereafter get along better in their regular class work. .

The Esquimo Syllabatlum

♦ Esquimos are being taught to read and write by the use of a syllabarium of 60 phonetic characters, representing all the sounds used in their language. They learn the characters readily, and as all words are merely groupings of syllables, the result is a written language in which the words are much shorter than they would be if spelled with the “Roman letters of the English tongue.

Milady’s Furs                       ■’

♦ American women demand furs from all over the world, and get them to the tune of $400,000,000 annually. Of this amount the domestic catch comes to be about $65,000,000 annually, with $5,000,000 sent to Canada for raw furs.

Britain

Democracy vs. §13,000,000

♦ Democracy may have skidded of late in Great Britain. But at least the world can thank British democracy for letting the cat out of the bag on its Cabinet's policies in Spain.

Why is the British Government preparing to grant Franco virtual recognition as a belligerent?

Why has the British Government “played along” with the Fascists in Spain, sacrificed democracy, risked the whole British lifeline in the Mediterranean?

Why?

For the paltry sum of $13,000,000 a year.

Don't believe us, if this strikes you as incredible. Foreign Minister Anthony Eden told the House of Commons precisely that on Monday. When Laboritcs denounced the proposed exchange of “trade agents” with Franco, a virtual recognition of his regime, Eden declared:

British trade in the part of Spain controlled by Franco has been $10,000,000 in the first nine months of this year (about $13,000,000 for a full year).

It is worth while taking the normal steps to protect that.

And when Eden was confronted with the cry that members of the British Cabinet held big interests in Spanish orc fields, through the British firm of Keen, Guest, Nettlefolds, Eden merely replied:

I don't know.

For many months it has been common talk that the British Government was sacrificing the interests of the Empire to the commercial interests of its plutocrats.

Repeatedly, we have heard that the Chamberlain Government, forced to choose between saving British prestige in the Mediterranean and saving the investments of British high finance in Spain, had chosen to sacrifice the nation's power in the Mediterranean and rescue (or hope to) the investments.

It was difficult for most Americans to credit this sort of talk. To us, Britain had become a champion of democracy. Even its conduct subsequent to the World War had not disillusioned us entirely.

But now we learn, from the Foreign Minister himself, that the whole shifting, shilly-shallying, eroweating policy which has been thrust upon the British people is the quid pro quo for $13,000,000 worth of trade with Franco.— New York Post.

Demons Get a Big

Kick Out of It ♦ The demons get a big kick out of deceiving gullible humans. One of those disreputable old birds persuaded a prominent English woman, Lady Florence Barrett, that he was her husband. ‘Now he lives in a house in the spirit world somewhat like the one in which he did live; he cats and drinks through the pores of his skin instead of through his mouth, and he wears clothes produced through thought.’ She published this drivel, never having been taught the truth that this is all the work of devils, intent on perpetuating the lie that death is not death, and incidentally getting malicious satisfaction out of their evil deceptions, They told the lady that after death “each works at his own trade”. Evidently a coal heaver is still a coal heaver, a plumber still a plumber, a gangster still a gangster, and a pope still a pope!

What’s This? What's This?

♦ What’s this in the Worker's Weekly, Wellington, New Zealand? Sounds like lese majesty of Britain’s new king when it says: This insignificant individual, of whom we previously knew practicaliy nothing, is being puffed up into a great and wise monarch. There have been only a few months to do this. Previously, we had understood that Edward the Eighth was the greatest, wisest and kindest man in the world. But now it seems that there was a slight mistake. Brother George is the wisest man in the world, and Edward is a jazz-loving, irresponsible pursuer of _ grass widows. The artificiality of all this must be plain to many people. Never has the British ruling class shown its hand so plainly.

Lost His Pants in the Fight

♦ The loss of the black shirts took all the stuffing out of Mosley’s Fascist crowd in Great Britain, and the British people as ft whole, as they hear more and more of Fascist doings in Germany, Italy, Ethiopia, Spain and elsewhere, have less and less use for the whole outrageous humbug. In London it cost £3,000 to protect 3,000 drab-looking Fascists on parade. At Southampton the resistance was so great that Mosley could not speak at all; 20,000 Britishers in front of him chanted “We don’t want Mosley’’; and they didn’t. One enthusiast climbed to the top of the speaker’s truck, or started to, but the Mosleyites pulled him baek, pulling off his trousers in the operation. This hero business comes high, and there is nothing much worse for a hero than to have his pants pulled off in public. Imagine Hitler or Mussolini or Franco going around without any pants on! Shocking! This time Mosley was in luek that the good-natured crowd of Britishers did not reverse the tactics and send him to his hotel in his shorts. That would have been funny and would have served him right. As it was, the police had to act as his bodyguard, and he was mussed up some by the crowd.

Jardine a Spiritist

♦ The Reverend R. A. Jardine, who married the duke of Windsor and Mrs. Wallis Warfield, is an out-and-out spiritist. He claims that on at least three occasions the Lord Jesus appeared to him in person, the last occasion ordering him to perform the marriage which created so much attention. The Scriptures plainly show that Jesus since His ascension never appeared to Jardine or anybody else, nor will He ever so appear. Jardine was fooled by one of those old nephilim (fallen angels— demons) that have done so much evil in the world, from Noah’s day tillnow.

March 9,1938

Progress in British Rehousing

♦ In British areas of 50 or more workingclass homes where a third of the houses are overcrowded or unfit for human habitation cities are encouraged by the general government to co-operate in tearing down the slums and building new working-class homes. The new flats are built around large interior squares where the children can play on grass and among trees with no danger of being killed by traffic. Tremendous progress has been made. The rents are exceedingly reasonable, running from 87 cents per week for a bed-living room up to $4.65 per week for houses with three bedrooms, a parlor, kitchen and bath.

The Burdens of a Giver

♦ A British financier who has given away somewhat more than $50,000,000 to causes that seemed to him worth while has been tormented almost beyond endurance by the receipt of 70,000 letters a year, from every corner of the earth, begging for money. Every one of these is marked ‘¹ Personal ” or “ Urgent ’ ’ or “ Important”, and though none of the requests are complied with, it takes six secretaries to handle the detail work involved.

Four Men Kill a Woman         ‘

♦ At Leeds, England, the band in the Huddersfield Sporting Club struck up “God Save the King” and four Irishmen from the Irish Free State accepted it as an invitation for a fight. By throwing bottles and glasses, and breaking up some tables, using the legs as clubs, they managed to send five men to the hospital, but their greatest achievement was to kill a woman, Mrs. Edith Watson, typical crybaby work.

Extra Pay to Chief Objector

♦ Most members of the British House of Commons receive £600 a year for their services, but the member, Major Clement R. Atlee, recognized by the Government as the leading opponent of its policies, receives £2,000 per year salary. This very unusual procedure seems a wise one and typically British.

Getting Ready for the Murderfest

♦ Getting ready for the murder fest, Britain is building four huge new arsenals at a eost of £20,000,000. Construction wiil take two years.                                      ‘

21

A Prisoner in Quebec

WE got out of prison about three hours ago, in a pouring rain and sleet, and are glad indeed to be out, I can assure you, however, that I am not sorry that I was there. It is much worse than I thought, even though the bed and food were clean, Much to my surprise I found that almost fifty percent of those in the prison have not committed any great crime. One prison man said that only about ten'percent of the inmates are real criminals. If a man wants to live a year in a month, let him go to prison. Can you imagine in a civilized (?) country a young lad getting two years for stealing two bottles of milk? Another one got five years for stealing a bicycle. Last Sunday in the yard, where the prisoners spend one and two hours a day, were three kids, One was ten years of age, one twelve, and one thirteen. Crime: One threw a stone at a wild duck; another one stole a cake of maple sugar. At the same time in that yard was a man in for assaulting a girl of twelve, sentenced to a year. It is his fourth offense. One prisoner said to me, ‘ ‘ That fellow ought to be hung. ’'

Most of the men that I talked to ate men with enough stamina to remain men no matter how unfairly they have been treated. “I live my life to please God, not the priest, the -------11 ” said a big, fine-looking man, in for a year for selling bootleg whiskey, now and then, with his groceries. He was anxious to get a Bible, as were also several others. Most of the guards are real men, and many say ‘‘Good night’¹ to each of the boys as they go away after locking them up at six o’clock.

You might ask how witnessing for the Kingdom went. We had a Gideon Bible there, I showed one after another of the boys, as occasion offered, Leviticus 25; 8-13, about the year of jubilee, and the returning of everyone to his possessions, and then I went on from that and gave the Kingdom message. I noticed how opportunities were sent our way by the Lord, so that we might find the right ones. When I tried to pick them—the right ones—-I had poor success,

Yesterday, our last day, the Lord graciously let me get a size-up of what was done by the Truth message. The leader of the boys in our part said: “When you and Brown came we were told that you two were Communists, and only two of us had any sympathy for you, for that reason. Today we are all on your side but one man, and he is ignorant. As you talked to us the boys began to say: ‘Why, those men believe in God, like we do!’ Even Vezina over there. I heard him tell the guard that he was turning ‘Jehovah’ himself.” I am to send a French Bible to them through this Vezina. He was the chief captain of the prisoners. However, three days before we left he had his job as captain taken from him, also some of his good time, because he swore, or so it was claimed by another prisoner. The loss of his position put him upstairs with us, whereas before he was in special quarters with other trusted prisoners who worked in the kitchen and all over the prison.

One of the things that impressed me was the way the men made the best of their fate. One or two lads were grand singers, and we got song after song—in French, of course— after wo were locked in our cells for the night.

We got lots of fresh air at all times, also warmth when needed. The food was clean, but can you imagine how a human loathes thin oatmeal porridge (all he can eat) with white bread (a generous chunk) and tea without milk or sugar twice a day? In the morning we got extra, one good-sized sandwich of bread and butter. We could have molasses with the porridge.

An old prisoner was allowed to pay for and have one pint of milk a day, butter and sugar. I'was allowed to buy a pound of raisins. Brown was refused butter and sugar. He could not eat the porridge the last week. At noon twice a week we had pea soup, good, but not enough; three times a week we had beef stew with vegetables in it. The cook was really a good cook. Wc had a tablespoon to eat with. On Sunday we had beans, and fish on Friday. The beans were good.

What makes prison life so unbearable is the confinement, and the idleness, as well as the one-sided diet. If we had been with degraded men, that would have been worse still. Wc were given a place with men who had a respect for cleanliness of mind and body. We had with us two bank managers for a while. One spoke English, and wc had some good talks. lie told me he had read Millions Now Diving Will Never Die, by Judge Rutherford, and said •it was a wonderful book. He was from Gaspe.

He speculated with money entrusted to him, and lost it, and had to go to jail for it,

A case came to my attention yesterday which is a sample of how they get^men into jail. Four young fellows, some of "them married, all of them working, got drunk, and while in that condition stole a box of butter—about fifty pounds. They were caught and imprisoned. The wife of one of them offered the grocer $25 for the butter if he would drop the charge. Parents of another one of them did the same, but the grocer refused. lie said they had done a wrong, and they must suffer the consequences. One man got two years in Vincent de Paul; one got six months in Quebec prison, and two got two months each. These three were all in our ward.

One of the lads with us was a cowboy and had spent two years in a circus. He did stunts out in the yard. He told me some great stories about cowboy life. He was in for stealing babbitt metal from an old shed. Another man was a sealer, in for five months for $6 which his wife-stole. He was permitted to serve her sentence. I have addresses of many of these to send literature to when they get out.

The men in the ward next to ours said their beads together before they were locked in every night. One man told me that those in. authority tried to institute this all over the prison. The priest told them about it on Sunday at mass. He warned them not to try to get out of it, as anyone caught not saying his “Hail Mary” would be put in the dungeon— a damp, dark place in the basement—with no furniture whatever, with bread and water for food. The governor himself came to see that everyone was taking part. At least one man had been committed to the dungeon. There was so much opposition to it, however, that it was dropped in one ward after another, until only one ward kept it up.

On Sunday the Catholics, or those who had been Catholics at all, are compelled to attend mass. Anglican mass is conducted in the afternoon, which, one man told me, about four men attended. We were thankful we were not asked to go. We told them emphatipally that we were not Protestants. A young man told me: “We go to mass so as to keep in with our parents and those who are ruling over us here, but we don’t believe in it any more. I was with two hundred other prisoners in another jail, and everyone went to mass, but only four of them believed in the priest any more. We are wait-

MARCH9, 1938

ing for a leader, French, English, Russian, even Jewish, so long as he can speak French, and at the word we will throw the whole thing down. It’s coming not many years off.’f One man said, “It’s coming perhaps twenty years away.;’’ Another said, “Three years and we will see enacted in this province what has happened in Russia, Spain, Mexico, etc.” One of these men took part in the prayers at night.

Two boys, ki^s almost, were dared by two men to steal the ‘ ‘ host ’ ’ from the church. They carried it in a piece of paper to a field and smashed it between two stones. When the judge asked them why they did it, they, replied: “Because when we grow up we don't want to be Catholic any more. We want to be Communists.¹ ’

Jury trials are very often a farce in this province. The judge tells the jury what they are to do. “I want you to find this man guilty. ’ ’ This in the ease of one man who had been a roomer in a home where jail-breakers had taken refuge, and he had not notified the police.—Fred Greenwood.

Adorers of the Precious Blood

♦ The Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood and the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Ottawa borrowed $49,000 from the Sun Life Assurance Company^ guaranteeing payment in case of default. Then they defaulted and the insurance company tried to collect. The defense, brazenly made in court, was that the Adorers outfit could not legally make the guarantee which they made. The judge on the bench, Justice Latchford, was astounded at the defense, and said so. He thought the ten Commandments still have some weight. He probably did not know that the Hierarchy has had the effrontery to even change these.

Canada Kills 2,000 Buffaloes a Year

♦ When the’American bison neared extinction the Canadian government bought the last herd of 700 and placed them on the Buffalo National Park of 200 square miles, near Wainwright, Alberta. This area contains food for 5,000, and it becomes necessary, for the welfare of the rest of the herd, to kill 2,000 every year. The buffalo meat is sold and the hides are used for coats for the Canadian Mounted Police. Before the butchering this yfear the herd had grown to over 6,000 head.

23

China and Japan

How the War Started

♦ July 7, 1937, Japanese troops at Lukou-ehiao, China, claimed to have missed one soldier and opened fire on the Chinese city of Wan ping because it refused Japanese right of search of the city between midnight and dawn. Ten days later Japan served notice on China not to make any military preparations of any kind. This is probably the first time in history that any country intending to make war on another country, but pretending to be at peace with such country, assumed to notify the country to be attacked to be sure to do nothing to defend its citizens. Japanese shrapnel used to kill Chinese was "Made in America”.

Narcotics in North China

♦ One of the worst and meanest methods of conquering a country is to destroy its inhabitants by opium and other narcotics. As this is done in India, so it is now being done in North China, where Japanese, Koreans and Chinese sell opium, heroin and morphine without any serious interference. Addicts are increasing faster than they can be cured. When the Chinese officials make an attempt to cure an opium addict and he backslides he is finally shot. Chinese drug peddlers are also often shot, but nothing can be done with the Japanese and Koreans.

The Population of China

♦ The population of China, 466,785,858 in the year 1936, is equivalent to the total population of North America, South America and twelve Australias rolled together. It is somewhat less than that of the whole of Europe.

The Destiuction of Nankai University

♦ In destroying the Nankai university, China, the Japanese first fired 400 shells into it. Next soldiers entered who saturated everything with oil and set a great fire. The work was completed with dynamite.

Dumdum Bullets Extracted by Herbs

♦ A dispatch from Nanking, China, claims that vertrain ointment, a strictly Chinese herb medicine, has been used very successfully in withdrawing dumdum bullets and healing wounds without the necessity of surgery.

Four Weeks of Undeclared War

♦ In the first' four weeks of the undeclared war of Japan against Shanghai, 200 civilians were killed in the Cathay-Palaee bombing, over 1,000 at the intersection of Edward VII and Yu Ya Ching Road, 200 at the Sincere company’s plant, 200 at the South station, and 300 on a refugee train at Sungkiang. These are besides assaults, death and ruin at Whangpoo, Hongkew, Chapei, Pootung, Nan-tao and Woosung—all in one month.

China Shipping Out Her Valuables

♦ Although the young and inexperienced and ambitious Chinese nationalists are eager for war with Japan, and altogether too confident of their ability to now stem the tide of Japanese invasion and conquest, yet a sober view of the difficulties in the way is shown by the older men, who shipped millions of dollars out of the country, to Hongkong and to London, to make sure of its safekeeping in the conflict.

Thousands Died of Eating Mud

• ♦ It makes the heart ache to know that thousands of poor Chinese died in the province of Szechuen, China, in the spring of 1937, from eating white mud, well knowing when they ate it that they would die within a few hours from clogging of the intestines. The mud is palatable, and the poor victims of starvation chose to die with full stomachs rather than endure the tortures of ravenous hunger.

Hosiery Knitters in Japan

• ♦ Hosiery knitters in Japan receive wages of 20c per day. In 1929 Japan sent 1,908 pairs ■ of cotton knit hosiery into the United States;

last year, 7,386,048 pairs. Figure it out for yourself.

All Queues Must Co in China

• ♦ For 300 years the Manchus required all Chinese to wear queues as marks of submission to their rulers. In 1937 the law went forth that they must all be removed.

Economic Strain Leads to Insanity

• ♦ The effort to keep alive is so great in Japan that 86,278 persons went mad in 1936. This resulted in a great increase in crime and suicide.

California,

In the Name of LibertyI

THE BATTLE to force Jehovah’s witnesses to salute the flag at school ig has broken out on a new front, this time in New York State. At Center* reach, L. I., the parents of 13-year-old Grace Sandstrom are under a $10 suspended fine because, forsooth, they are guilty of keeping their child from school by encouraging her not to salute the flag, an exercise required in that town.

We had hoped that these attempts to make flag homage compulsory, in the name of liberty, were dying out. Evidently, however, some effort is still required to teach school authorities that the very principles the flag stands for forbid such intolerance. Their notion is not American. It is Communist, Nazi, Fascist—take your pick.

It is also silly to think you can kick people into patriotism. And in the case of these Jehovah’s witnesses no question of patriotism is involved. With them the issue is purely one of conscience, based on a peculiar literalistic reading of a passage in the Bible.

We may think their notion that it is wicked to salute any symbol is ridiculous, but it is no more ridiculous than the belief of certain school authorities that American liberties are to be safeguarded by punishing some poor child or its parents for a refusal to give a merely outward sign of homage, even when there is full loyalty in the heart.—San Francisco Chronicle.

Hammering in the Lesson

♦ Slowly, but with seeming sureness, the California courts proceed with their course of instruction to school boards that they cannot punish children and condemn them to illiteracy because of religious beliefs held by their parents.                             '

The Appellate Court of the Third District has just handed out its lesson to the school boards. The Court upholds a ruling by Superior Judge Peter J. Shields of Sacramento that the Sacramento board'of education exceeded its authority in expelling little Charlotte Gabrielli from school because, in obedience to her parents, she did not salute the flag..

Little Charlotte declined to salute the flag because her parents think the Bible tells them

MARCH S, 193£

it is wicked to pay homage to any inanimate object, indeed, to any object other than God. No question of loyalty was involved. Nevertheless, the Sacramento board, conceiving that the Republic was endangered, commanded that Charlotte should not be admitted to school.

Judge Shields told the board its action had no backing in law. Others told the board its action had no backing in common sense. The board, however, remained convinced that its course was promoting patriotism and making children loyal citizens by depriving them of a schooling. Now the Appellate Court tells the. board, and if the school directors still persist, no doubt the Supreme Court in its turn will tell them the same thing.

' Some people can get a lesson the first time. Others have to have it hammered over and over again.—San Francisco Chronicle.

Living Worms in Sausages

♦ If it is true in San Francisco it is probably true elsewhere that one-fifth of all the sausages in the best markets contain living worms, and unless when the sausage is cooked it is thoroughly cooked, the one who eats it will have trichinae for the rest of his life, fte may be told that he has rheumatism, or nervous stomach or pains in his joints, when what he has is colonies of trichinae which, once implanted in his body, are there until he dies.

California Appellate Court              .

• ♦ California Appellate Court upheld the Sacramento Superior Court in its decision that Charlotte Gabrielli, 11-year-old witness for Jehovah, need not salute the flag in order to get an education. The opinion of the court ^J was:

While it is within the province of school trustees to promulgate all reasonable rules and regulations for the government of the schools under their charge, those rules, regulations and acts must be reasonable, and not arbitrary.              .

Smoke Screens over Los Angeles

• ♦ Army smoke screens laid down over Los Angeles resulted in acid drippings from the skies which ate holes in washings on the line and even on articles on the persons of those exposed, besides making automobile tops look like the craters on the moon. Who pays for all this, and why 1

25

Jerseyville

In .Jail, Jerseyville, J1J. I HATE to he bothering you so much, but they now have me in the jug, in Jerseyville, this cold day, the second day of the witness period. A policeman asked me to get in oar with him, saying he wished me to talk with him, which I reluctantly did. He then drove toward town, asking first what I was doing, I then told him that I was preaching the gospel by means of tracts, pamphlets, and the printed page. He then asked if I was selling. Answered, ‘Nq; but was leaving publications with the interested ones on contribution to oover cost of more publications,’ He asked, and said they gave me ten minutes to get out of Grafton, and that I should leave in a hurry. I challenged, but gave no information on that affair.

He then said ho would give me ten minutes in which to get out of town. I replied that I would stand upon my constitutional right and my commands from Jehovah and IJis Christ and would not leave town. He got his circulatory system notched upward then, and banged his fist down upon steering wheel, growling savagely, “You will leave town,” stating that he had many (6) complaints fpr trespassing and offered to get the judge down to tell us what the law was, to which I assented.

At the police station the officer looked over Uncovered and read about purgatory’s being urt scriptural, and said he and they would never allow this to be circulated, having several churches (about six very cosily opes) and that I should work in with them.

The so-called “judge” arrived asking what the charges were. Officer identified me to the judgo as that fellow that had been in Grafton and was run out, the mayor giving me ten minutes to get out, Judge grunts, “Oh-huh. ■’ Gets my name, address, and former address, and says I was violating town trespassing laws, and that they had numerous complaints from the Jerseyville residents.

I then asked who were some of those com-plainer® that presumably- said I stepped right into their homes and played the phonograph, and put fliy foot ip the dopr, etc, After the judge wrote up,the charges the police asked him what he was to make it. He answered, ‘Peddler's license.’ I then informed them of

their admission that the trespass charge and complaints by the people were false.

He then asked me to go out of town and no further action would be taken, I calmly informed them that under no consideration would I leave till it was finished, Showed them my testimony card, and emphasized the fact that I had the high honor of being a duly authorized representative of the Society, and acting under their instructions, ’I will finish the town, and they can dp with me as they will, but I am determined to forge ahead, eqme what may.’

■ The judge (a small ghrjveled-up cigarette fiend) then ranted about five minutes about a New York concern’s taking the brass to defy laws and ordinances of Jerseyville, Ill. I asked, when he piped down, “What ordinances and laws were we defying?” He said, “Peddler’s license.” I replied, “Did you know that articles religious needed no license formerly? and if this work needs a license, since when was the law changed?”

The officer went on to state correctly about taking mail orders, I told him that that is what I was doing, and am going to do. Then the judge ordered officer to lock mo up, which was done, not even allowing me freedom to take a book into the cell with me upon which tp write this letter, and it is quite chilly ip here and 14° above outside, The cop got an admission from me that I would accept a 25c contribution for a book.

Heard indirectly that the Grafton judge told them that they could do nothing with me, save the peddler’s license clause, and then they would have to see me personally “sell” the book and take the money, I demanded a trial by jury. I have the statement on order of trial and am diligently pursuing it.—R. B, Ebner.

You Figure This One Out

♦ At Belleville, III., Bishop Althoff proposed a suspension of gambling and selling intoxicating liquor at church affairs. Not such a bad wrinkle. Then at Wildwood, N, J., Grace A. Kramer, Ph.D., also a Roman Catholic, intimated in a public address that the interests of the American public would be best conserved if Roman Catholic children were segregated from other children. You figure that one out,

By Trail and Stream and Garden Path (Winter and Spring)

{Contributed)

(fDUDDY!” called Jane. “I hear Jimmy J—* asking to bo in.”

Buddy opened the door. On a shelf just outside sat his pet pigeon, peeking at the door and cooing softly by turns. “Come in,” invited Buddy.

Jimmy flew down to the porch and walked proudly into the kitchen. Buddy hud just closed the door when June handed him a paper. "One answer is wrong. Add this again before you get any brcak^st,”

Buddy looked puzzled, “ What are nine apd eight?” he asked Jane.

"What are eight and eight!”            ■

“Sixteen. Oh, then nine and eight are seventeen. Is this—ouch! Jane, look!”

There, perched on Buddy’s shoulder, wag Jipnny. Bat he wasn’t behaving—no indeed. He was hungry and was asking for his breaks fast ip such a way that Buddy had to nay attention. Clinging to the little boy’s shirt, the pigeon reached up and ran his bill softly around and around his ear. Then he grabbed hold of the lower tip of his epr and gave it a quick jerk.

‘ ‘ No wonder Jiipmy is cross. He hasp't had breakfast yet,” said Jane as she brought out his own little box of grain. Jimmy knew what wa$ in the box and fluttered quickly to the floor. Buddy took the box, sprinkled a little of the grain on a paper, then brought Jimmy’s own little pan filled with water.

When the pigeon had finished eating, he flew onto Buddy X head for his morning frolic. He pulled Buddy’s hgir, pecked at his shirt, apd walked up and dawn his arms when the boy held them out,

Then suddenly he decided he’d had enough fun for one morning, and walked to the door. Buddy opened it, and Jimmy flew out to his home in the loft above the ahiekens.

■ ‘ Buddy, ’ ’ called Jane, ‘^! if you will hurry you may (some with me this Teaming.. I’m gm ing to the hollow beside the stream to tpke some pictures.”

“Pictures! Why!”

■‘Yqu’ll seo when we get outside.”

A little later Jane, camera in hand and Buddy at her side, was walking down the road that led to the wooded hollow. Snow was deep

MARCH 9, 1838               ' on everything. It clung to the sides of the trees and lay thick on every branch and twig. Even the straggling weeds along the roadside were heavy xvith soft, glistening snow. It was a world of almost unbelievable whiteness and beauty.

“Want some to eat?” called Buddy. He buried his mouth in the fluffy snow piled on a little branch, and giggled when it wept up his nose and into his ears-

Finally they reached the hollow, and all Buddy could say was “Oh!” while Jane spoke not a word.

The little stream made a merry, gurgling sound as it bubbled over the stones, no longer hushed and covered with ice. The banks on either side were soft and white clear to the water’s edge.

Suddenly a bluebird flew across the still whiteness. Its wings were the bluest blue, and its breast the pjepst rose. There was just a flash and it was gone. But Jane and Buddy knew that spring wasn’t far off,

“Are the robins back?” asked Buddy,

“Not yet,” Jape answered. “It is a little tao .early for them. They should be here in two weeks or less. The bluebirds have been back for more than ft week- ”

^IfIt makes springtime seem pretty close,” murmured Buddy.

“Yes, we feel we can almost see the grass turning green ’way down under this snow. And here is another sign that winter ia nearly over. ’ ’                       .

“What’s that, Jane!”

“I shook this bush, and here are some pussy willows in bloom.”                    '

‘ ‘ Even with snow on them! ”

“Yes, even with snow on them- They are such early wakers, these smooth gray pussies. Snow doesn’t bother them.”

“Are yqu going to take pictures now?”

“Bight away—-and I had better be getting pt it. This may be my last chance this winter. ’ ’

“Why!”

“Because we may not have another heavy snow. It ie getting warmer now. By tomorrow there may not be a flake of snow anywhere in sight”

2T

itish Comment

t By J. H&n&ry (London)

Religion

RELIGION and its interests have had some space in the newspapers during the past few weeks, mainly because its leaders have been trying to let the people know how concerned they are for the safety of the interests they have in their care. An outsider might well say that these interests are those of an industry which is in the hands of a combine.

In 1922 a commission of prominent men in the Church of England was appointed at the instance of the two primates; it was to make suggestions for a common ground of acceptance of doctrine for the clergy and the principal of their flocks. Canterbury said he wanted the church to give a clear light for "this bewildered generation". After fifteen years the commission has delivered itself, of an abortion. In effect the published report admits that the Church of England has no settled doctrines, and there is no message for the people. As to the Bible, it is admitted that it is the .Word of God, but its statements are to be held subordinate to the finding of the critics, and to historical and scientific discoveries. Quite evidently the church is the important thing; it will keep an open door to all who will give it financial and moral support. One writer makes the comment, "The church seems more concerned about digging itself in than anything else.”

In its weakness the Church of England turns towards the Papacy. The report says, "It [the Church of England] is bound to resist the claims of contemporary Papacy,” but adds, "Some of us look forward to a reunion of ¹ Christendom ’ having its center in a Papacy, such as might be found in a Papacy which renounced certain of its present claims.”

There is nothing new in this exposure of the weakness and nakedness of the church, except the fact of its admission. Another evidence of the internal unrest amongst prominent religionists in England comes to light in the publication of a report of a joint committee, appointed by Canterbury and the Free Churches. Both these sections are realizing they are losing ground: they see their existence threatened by the apathy of the masses of the people, and the contempt in which their claims are held. The people are making their way without the guidance of these self-appointed lights, and the thunders of the parsons now leave the masses cold. The clergy see that unless they combine and show a better front they stand little chance of retaining their ' ‘ inheritance ’ *. In order to bring union the established church is now willing to forego some of its reserved honors: it will agree to allow a select number of Free Church "ministers” to be made bishops, no doubt with the expectation that they will be styled "my Jord bishop”.

This will not be acceptable to many of the ordinary members of the free churches, whose fathers fought for religious liberty; but, poor sheep, necessity will drive them into the common fold, built to protect them against the ungodly pressure of contempt and apathy. On -the other hand, those who refuse to be so led or driven will surely hear the clear message of the warning now being given by Jehovah’s witnesses, and will find the fold which the Lord Jesus has ready for them. The religionists go on their way refusing to hear the message which is being given: they refuse to be guided by the book upon whose revelation their structure is professed to be built.

While church committees are being mentioned it may be said that the Church of England has another committee at work. In this case it is an investigation concerning the "spiritists” religion. The trouble is that there are at least 200 clergy in the Church of England who make open acknowledgment of being spiritists. The report of this committee is to be kept private. The editor of the leading spiritist journal says the inquiry is not to discover what truth there may be in spiritualism, but to find out what damage is being done to the church by reason of the increase of this altogether unorthodox section of religion. The committee may discover some facts in this demonism; they will not find truth there.

All this reveals that religionists know their systems are in danger, and fear is laying hold of them. Their churches are getting to be a burden to be carried. The true worshipers of Jehovah do not carry concern of this kind: their trust is in the living God, and in Christ, the Head of the church, and the followers of. Christ are not required to carry His care. They know, too, that the day of Jehovah with its judgments is come, and that the churches: founded and sustained by human device have had their day. Religionists seek collective security, hoping at least to get some peace amongst themselves, and perhaps make religion safe in the world. But they will find that security is the security Which the Devil, the enemy of God, has led them to, to their destruction.

It seems apparent that the leaders of the Church of England sec no hope of its preservation except by the support of the Free churches and then all going together to Rome, which, whether they like it or not, would mean control by the Hierarchy.

That there is a very definite movement inside the Church of England for its union with Rome is evidenced in a statement made by a lay representative in the church Assembly, who proposes to raise the matter in the Assembly, in session at this writing. This gentleman, Mr. W. P. Adams, states, quoting, “There are 1016 clergymen in the Church of England who have subscribed to the faith of the Council of Trent, and have pledged themselves to it. Moreover, there are 2000 others who are in sympathy, and who join in a season of prayer for the return of the Anglican church to the Papacy. ’ ’ The Council of Trent was the answer of the Roman Catholic Church to the Reformation movement.

All unknowingly these religionists are fulfilling the Scriptures they willfully neglect. Judge Rutherford, in his recently published book Enemies, shows that the prophecy at Isaiah 23:16-18 is now in process of fulfillment; that the Papacy is the harlot of that prophecy and of Revelation 17. The Devil is both leading and driving all religionists inter his trap and to their destruction. There is now no hope for these systems, but the Scriptures show that many sheep will flee from the false shepherds and find safety in the fold of the true Shepherd.

The troubles of religionists are not all internal. Just when they think,of uniting to revive belief in religion a widespread anti-God movement has been launched in Britain. Its existence has not hitherto been realized; now it is announced the movement expects to hold an anti-God congress in London next April. An observer.says, ‘ ‘ A stream of pamphlets, books, magazines and posters is being poured out. They prove the rise of a militant movement to discredit the Christian : faith and destroy

MARCH 9, 1938  .

belief in God among the British people.” It is said that the Congress of the Godless was conceived in Russia.                ■'    "■ v ■,

And adding to the religionists’ trouble, Jehovah’s witnesses are now in open warfare against religion. In the book Enemies already mentioned, it is categorically shown that religion has been the chief instrument of the Devil in his purpose to turn men away from God, the Creator, and from Christ, the Founder of Christianity. It is made clear for all to see that Christianity and religion are opposites, and that the only way to understanding and to knowledge of Jehovah is to drop religion and accept the teachings of Jesus and His apostles. Jehovah’s witnesses well know that it is not their own business that engages them. They are not commissioned to destroy religion. They know that in their work they, are only obeying the lead given to them, and that the day is come when Jehovah will expose and destroy all that is in opposition to Him and to the glory of His name. Their lead is, ‘The battle is not yours, but God’s.’

The Hierarchy has already disclosed its purpose to class these faithful servants of Jehovah with anarchists and Communists and with those who declare themselves as anti-God.

The Hierarchy and British Politics

A recent edition of the London Sunday Express, after stating that a speech by Lord Fitzalan, a Roman Catholic peer, had much to do with the defeat of a bill which would have made euthanasia legal in the ease of incurable disease, adds, “Although Roman Catholics have been allowed to sit in Parliament since 1829, their power has grown considerably since the war, and many people believe that our Foreign Office, in which they have great power; is more influenced by the Vatican than it is by the Houses of Parliament. ”

Diversion

A recently published biography tells a story about a former bishop of the see called “S odor and Man”, so called because the diocese is of the southern Hebrides and the Isle of Man. The bishop was one of a select company to meet in a London drawing room. As he entered the room the announcer called out, “His lordship the bishop of Sodom and Gomorrah. ’ ’ It was a bad slip for the bishop, but it must have given some of the company some amusement. After all, the announcer dropped into

..... 29 a measure of truth; for Jehovah likened His professed people Israel to Sodom and Gomorrah, and Jesils himself said of the religious combination of this day that ‘spiritually it is called Sodom and Egypt See Isaiah 1:10 and Revelation 11:8.

Various

London is keeping Up with the times. Robbery with violence is getting prevalent, as well in the streets by daylight as in housebreaking and burglary. And a few days ago, in a broadcast on social welfare work, Lord Ponsonby said, “London is a dangerous place for the stranger, particularly beautiful girls.”

Liberty of the Subject

Contrary to general belief, there is no provision in the law of England giving liberty of religious belief or manner of worship. Recently the Lord Chief Justice spoke of the liberty of the subject as a priceless possession. A case eanie before him of a claim by a young man against the London police for unlawful arrest. Wearing an overcoat, he carried another on his arm taking it to the cleaners, and two smart policemen held him up as a suspect. The police were let in for £300 damages. Right of personal liberty depends upon common law, since Magna Ch art a, and later statutes. Most important liberties, according to Hals-bury, are : (1) right of personal freedom from wrongful detention; (2) right of property; (3) right of freedom of speech or discussion; (4) right of public meeting; (5) right of association (trades unions, etc.) ; (6) right to a just trial; (7) right to strike.

Football Pools and Queues

Cash betting on the results of football matches is illegal in Britain, but an enormous business is done in investments in the results of the most prominent league matches played every Saturday. Betting is not to bo mentioned : the philanthropists who arrange the ' pools always speak of “investments” when they try to allure tlyeir friends to share what they receive, oven to promising a possible £27,000 for the investment of a penny. In the Times a writer says, “On any Friday afternoon or evening in the winter season there may be seen at Ludgatc Circus post office two queues of almost cinematographic length, winding towards the two wickets at which postal orders are sold. They are football pool enthusiasts, constrained to pay the financial penalty of last week’s unsuccessful forecasts before they can again exercise their talents afresh on the morrow’s matches”. In November the post office sold nearly 45,000,000 postal orders, a large proportion going to make up the pools. Forty million pounds sterling annually go into these pools; the managers say they distribute 80 percent, retaining the balance themselves. One firm employs over 5,000 clerks, and in Liverpool the post office has opened a special office to deal with the business. The weekly “investment” seems to have become as much a part of the workingman’s life as has the weekly visit to the cinema.

The Campaign for Fitness

When the Great War was on and the manhood of the nation was conscripted for service it was declared that the men could be classed only as C3 Instead of Al. When put into training for the front the better food and tho physical exercises soon made a difference in their appearance and gave the men more stamina. Now that war is again threatening, there is a cry for men fitted to defend the nation, and the government is actively sot on a fitness campaign. It hopes, by some development of the muscles and by general exercises, to have more men immediately ready for the army and for the services necessarily called for in war. But there is little being done in the social and commercial conditions which keep the men in short food, and in the cramping conditions in which they manage in some way to subsist with their families. Money rules the situation: dividends must be kept up, and that so frequently means wages must bo kept low.

During the past herring fishing season millions of this fish were thrown back into the sea rather than disorganize the market. Of course, the whole social and commercial system is wrong; but the fact that there is great plenty both of fish and of other foods for the people is clear, if only money did not stand in the way of their getting it. IT ere is an example of mismanagement in the milk business. The government controls the country’s milk supply, distribution and prices; but, by what must be called stupidity, it causes millions of gallons of skimmed milk to be turned into the drains rather than allow its free sale. It is possible for a manufacturer of umbrella handles and buttons to obtain large quantities of milk at 5 pence per gallon when it is impossible to obtain it for infant feeding at less than two shillings and four pence per gallon.

March Snow—Cover Design for This Number

FOR some time now Old Man Winter and

Mother Nature have been having an argument, and it looks as if Mother Nature was going to win out. But it has been quite an argument, and all about the return of Daughter Spring. Mother Nature is determined to deck out everything in right good style, but Old Man Winter thinks things are all right just as they are, and, anyway, he is comfortable and doesn’t want to be disturbed.

As one who is bested (or worsted) in an argument sometimes gives one parting shot to his opponent before leaving the field of combat, so Winter, in former years, on similar occasions, has taken delight in leaving behind a good fall of March snow before giving in to Mother Nature’s demand that he make room for Daughter Spring, and take himself off to realms farther north. It seems an ungracious thing for Winter to do, but perhaps is only just recompense for the inroads that have been made in his hitherto uncontested bailiwick. Besides, it seems that territories once wholly subject to his sway for a good quarter of the year now have but fitful evidence of his erstwhile rigor.

Sporadic and spasmodic are Winter’s efforts to be stem. Only seldom does he have the field for more than a week at a stretch. Mother Nature is constantly admitting smiling and gentle visitors in the form of mild and pleasant days. No wonder Winter is disgusted. But he is not ready to go without leaving some evidence of what he could do if he had a mind to, only ... It may be that this year he will not even have the gumption to do this, but will beat an ignominious and limp retreat before approaching Spring.

Then laughing Mother Nature will get busy and put things in shape and welcome joyous Spring in good style, decking all things with glorious verdure, w^rhile all her living charges hold carnival at the advent of kindness, and the victory of warmth and cheer over coldness and gloom,            .

March snow, at best, is an acknowledgment of defeat, the last desperate effort of a defeated foe. Soon the gnarled oaks will awaken to the genial smile of Spring and forget their transient intimacy with Winter. Decking themselves in royal style they will join the general rejoicing.

Why You Should Subscribe for Consolation

CONSOLATION, 117 Adam. St., Brooklyn, N.Y,

Send Consolation for one year to the address below. Enclosed find $1.00 ($1.25 if to Canada or elsewhere outside of the U. S. A.) to aid in publishing the truth.

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Do You Want to Engage in the Greatest Campaign of All Time?

EABERS of Consolation know that religion is a racket. They have had the'proof submitted to them time and time. again through the pages of Consolation and the publica-' tions of the Watch Tower. Would you not like to have a share in getting this information to millions of other per- . sons throughout the world through Judge Rutherford’s new booklet CURE, also the bound books ENEMIES and RICHES? Beginning April 9, a world-wide campaign will begin, which campaign will mean the calling upon more than 10,000,000 people with the new booklet CURE and ENEMIES.                     , '

So that you can have a share in this campaign, place your order now and ask for detailed information. On a contribution of one dollar, 40 copies of the CURE booklet will be sent to you along with two copies of the clothbound book ENEMIES and a copy of the clothbound book RICHES. As soon as your order is received w:e '; will mail to you a personal letter by Judge Rutherford setting out the details of .this campaign along, with , other vital information. . ' Order your stipply now and be ready April 9 tb be one of those who will have a share in the greatest witness ever given exposing the. -l practices of religion and at the same time setting put before the people of the world what_z is their only hope, which’ is the Kingdom.

Enclosed find a contribution of one dollar to aid in forwarding the ■ Kingdom work in the earth. Please send to me, at the address be

low, 40 copies of the booklet Cure, 2 copies of the bound book ’ .Enemies, and 1 copy of the book Riches. Also send me a copy of . . Judge Rutherford’s per^lwal letter and other information about the special campaign with this new booklet.

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32