RELIGION CHOOSES CAESAR!

Christendom’s clergy caught in the same snare that took the Pharisees in Jesus’ day

Politicians See Red

The witch-hunt rages as they arbitrarily divide the world into two camps

Shanghai, a City of Contrasts

A traveler’s impressions of China’s capital

Curious Funeral Customs

Objectionable ones arise from false doctrine of immortality

FEBRUARY 8, 1948 semimonthly

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL..

News sources that are able to keep you awake to the. vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. “Awake!” has no fetters. It recognizes facte, faces facte, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ambitions or obligations; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It , maintains integrity to truth.

“Awake!” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the-scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal’s viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its Coverage is as broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.

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CONTENTS

Religion Chooses Caesar!

Rejecting the Kingdom for a Political Makeshift

End Justifies the Means

Wartime Snaps the Spiritual Ties

Two Breeds of Polish Dogs

Comets and Milky Ways

Politicians See Red

Hollywood Crumbles

Before Smear Campaign

Witch-Hunt Loyalty Purge

Propaganda’s Two-Party World

“To Secure These Rights”

A Modern Belshazzar Feast

Wicked and Wanton Wasters

Shanghai, a City of Contrasts

Night Life, Religious Tolerance

Curious Funeral Customs

An Older Definition

“Thy Word Is Truth”

Death and Adam and Abel

Religious Hooliganism in Red Granite

For Freedom’s Cause

Watching the World

ZlVWKE/

®^Now it is high time to awake.— Romans 13:11

•" ' —i                  i i i iMSg"... n.'-R-r- i              .j.——. . . 11

Volume XXIX                       Brooklyn, N. Y_o February a, 1948                          Number 8

RELIGION CHOOSES CAESAR!

SIX thousand years ago Jehovah God declared a divine principle. Sixteen centuries later Noah preached it. Four centuries after Noah, Abraham lived it. Another four centuries pass, and Moses was telling it in Egypt. More centuries roll by but the principle lives on. In the eighth century before Christ Isaiah preached it. In the seventh century before Christ Jeremiah voiced it. All the faithful men before Christ preached it and lived it. And true Christians since Christ have clung to it, Jbecause Christ on earth both preached it and practiced it.

Christ Jesus followed it when tempted in the wilderness by Satan, when the people sought to crown Him king, when He preached to His disciples, when He denounced the scribes and Pharisees, and when He was haled before world rulers. What was this divine principle! When before Pontius Pilate, charged with sedition, with His human life hanging in the balance, Christ Jesus caught up this principle stated by God in Eden and repeated by all the prophets down to His day and He put it in a nutshell when He, proclaimed to the world ruler before Him: "My kingdom is not of this world!” (John 18:36) For persons devoted to Jehovah God the divine principle to follow was and still is, Separateness from this old world.

rnis separateness was shown by Christ when He was on earth. After His anointing as King of Jehovah’s new world to come, Jesus retired for a time to a wilderness retreat. Satan sought to entice Him into league with this world: "The devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the Kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee.” “Get thee hence. Satan!” came Jesus’ quick rejection or a role in world politics. In an instructive prayer in the presence of disciples Jesus said: “I am not of the world.” To the contentious religious rnansees Jesus said: ^<fYe are of this world: I am not of this world. Jiiven a popular democratic draft.to force Him into politics did not flatter Jesus into abandoning the principle of separateness: “A great multitude followed him, . . . When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.”—Matthew 4:8-10; John 17:14,16; 8: 23; 6: 2,15.

Choosing Caesar in Jesus* Day

And how did the religious clergy of Jesus’ day, the scribes and Pharisees, stand on this issue of separateness! Was Jesus right when He told them, “Ye are of this world”! The clergy noted His ih-fluence, that the common people heard Him gladly, and they lamented that "the world is gone after him”. Among themselves they reasoned: “If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.” So they de-eided it was expedient that this one man die to save theiy prominent places and their nation under Caesar. (John 11:48,50) They artfully roused the rabble elements against Christ, lied about Him, accused Him of blasphemy and sedition: and pnnn they had the fickle mob plnmnrintr for His bLnDd.

But their national law did not permit them to put a man to death, so they turned to Caesar for help, to use the state as their “church sword”. Ana to ger iiiat "sworcr ro unsueatne and impale Jesus they trumped up this false charge: “We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Casar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.” But Pilate found Him innocent of sedition. (Luke 23:2,14) Yet when Pilate sought to release innocent Jesus his own patriotism was questioned by the irate religionists: “If thou let this man go, thou art not Cassar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speak-eth against Ciesar.” But the Jewish religionists were only adopting a pose of patriotism; for they chose to have released Barabbas, guilty of robbery and murder and sedition, in the stead of innocent Jesus. Their concern over punishing seditionists was a sham; they had a religious axe to grind and were using the state to grind it. The religionists of Jeans’ rinv refected hotn Uofl ana t;nnsus fhtnr irw.er nnd phnsft t.rif! Koman emmre* When Pilate cried out to them concerning Jesus, “Behold your King!” they stormed back: “Away with him, array with him, crucify him. , . . We have no kina hut Cassar!”—John 19:12-15.

Clergy Now Choose "Caesar”

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil, says Jehovah God to wicked reli-cionists. (Jeremiah 13:2?) The political clergy have not changed during the past nineteen centuries, so far as choosing Caesar or the state is concerned. Even the ^preachers and priests that accept Christ in-one breath blow out the next hundred in windy political babble. Indeed, religious organizations of Chris-tendom'instract their clergy to ignore the divine principle of separateness from this world, urging them to plunge into politics. Typical are the following.

Recently the Congregational Christian-Churches “called on the churches’ 4,000 ministers to take the church into politics, ■nrsflch noli ties from the nulnit”. Later, Ehisbrgainzation stooped to greater silliness: “Our fathers assumed that the kingdom of God would come in suite of the state; we should make it possible for ths IdnrrrMm ro come inrouem me state. Their tatners were ngm; me sons nave abandoned Bible truth.

Not long ago the betitled “Lord Bishop of London”, named Wand, simpered: 'Clergymen must take an interest in polities ... so that they can bring Christian influence to bear. It is the duty of the clergy to expedite the coming of the kingdom of God, and to mediate the friendship of God to man. This means fhnt mi-nisfers must strive to lmnrove conditions, so that tins woria win become a-nttie more nae me Kinuaom or heaven.7 W hat presumptuous arrogancy, for clergy to pose as mediators between God and man, when that is Jesus’ office! That is exceeded only by their gall in thinking they can make this world like the kingdom of heaven. God’s principle of separateness of the Kingdom and this world stands true, and the bishop is falsifying.

But for unsurpassed devilishness note the following Associated Press dispatch from Vatican City, the pope ■ speaking: 'The Catholic Church will never permit herself to be shut within the four walk of the temple. . . . The separation of the church and the 'world ... is con-t.Tflrv to the unrisTian iaea.” Christ Jesus said the ciiuren and me world should be separate. The fake vicegerent at the Vatican says they should not be separate. Christ and the pope cannot both be right; and Christ is not the one who has Bed! The heads of popedom do not stop at deals with small-fry politicians or big-time dictators, but would deal with the chief politician himself, Satan. Pone Pius XI in a press interview said: . The neaa or tneTjatnoiic Church would consider it his duty to deal with the Devil himself ... if reasonable grounas existed to support the hope that such dealings would protect or advance the in. terests of religion among mankind.’’ The popes greet isatan and his poirticai deals with onen armsj Christ Jesus" spurned tits political advances with the rebuke: 'Get thee hence, Satan!”

Rejecting the Kingdom

for a Political Makeshift

Fawpingly and obsequiously the clergy curry favor with the politicians by supporting the schemes of the rulers. They pray for the political makeshifts, bless them, misapply Bible texts to them, all to swing me people into line, with glib irresponsibility the clerics brush aside as visionary the kingdom of Christ and misapply the Bible.promises concerning it to political creations. Did they not do this relative to the defunct League of Nations ? The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America said years ago: ’’The League of Nations is rooieu in me gospel”" ‘the supreme hope for the future is in the League of Nations”; the League is “the political expression of God’s kingdom on earth”. Of the League another organization drooled, “In a world as oai K as tins, wny blow out the only light?” Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” But the political ciergy mew mat light out of their lives and hovered over the League like moths over a flickering flame, till it was quenched in the bloodbath of World War II.

Now they are asininely courting anew their resurrected lover, this time unrealistically pet-named United Nations, One Protestant preacher said at the time the United Nations was formed that the following prophecy of the psalmist was then fulfilled: “Say among the nations that the Lord ‘ reigneth." Central Conference or American Rabbis came out in support of the United Nations because of “the ultimate establishment of the kingdom or God that we "see in it . Tne ecriprures state concerning ChristThat there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby they can be saved; but the American Unitarian Association sola out C’hnst for “Caesar" when it recently said' (Christianity must abandon its claim to a monopoly of the way to salvation. . . . Christianity should recognize the United Nations as a force which also has a role Of salvation/' federal Council snnkes-man Nolde declared: "The hope of man-, Kind is now nxea on the United Nations.”’ When the United Nations’ permanent site, in New York city, was consecrated Cardinal Spellman piously dubbed it a “temple of peace”, and .Mayor O’Dwyer blubbered that the plot of land was “hallowed ground”.

The clergy of Christendom have thus proved themselves seditious against Jehovah God, These modern Judases have turned their back on Christ’s kingdom and face the state to laud and salute it, to pledge their allegiance to it, and vainly seek to cover up their treason by painting the political state as being Christ’s kingdom on earth. They try to drag God and Christ into politics to make their own entry seem righteous. But Jehovah God starids by His principle of separateness from this world; and as for Christ Jesus, He would not let Satan ensnare Him into world politics centuries ago and He will not enter now to please Satan’s ministers and transform them into ministers of Christ and righteousness.

To sum up in a specific example the clergy’s transfer of Bible promises from Christ and His kingdom to political makeshifts, note their antics relative to

the League of Nations and United Nations. They said the League was the political expression of Christ’s kingdom; Christ said His kingdom was no part of this political world. They did not object when the League of Nations, Inc., spoke of the League as the lone light that should not be blown out; Christ said He was the light of the world. They have said both the League and the U. N. were the only hope of the world; the Bible says that in Christ’s name should the nations hope. They give the U. N- a role of salvation; the Bible speaks of Jesus as the only savior. Religious leaders have said the U. N. would fulfill the prophecies that ‘swords would be beaten into plowshares and nations would not' learn war any more’, but those prophecies belong to Christ’s kingdom. Like robbers the clergy have stripped Christ’s kingdom of the Bible promises concerning it and lavish them upon their political conglomerations. They revel and reel and stagger like drunken men in their orgy of Scripture-wresting that will lead to their own destruction.

In Closer Embrace with "Caesar”

All this they callously do to slake the unquenchable thirst of their overweening ambition. Like the Jewish Pharisees and scribes of Jesus’ day, modern priests and preachers of Christendom’s cults and sects fear the loss of their exalted place in the nations if they cling uncompromisingly to Christ. So they curry favor with the filthy, mud-slinging politicians by trying to give their regimes a form of godliness. Also, they would worm their way into the political creations to further secure their place in this evil world. Specially pandering to President Truman in his audience, a Baptist “reverend” last November 27 said: “God is still in His heaven, and one day, through us and our co-operation, He shall make all things right with the world.” Though it will cruelly shock and injure the “reverend’s” ego, God will manage to do it without aid or co-operation from him or his clerical and political cronies. This “indispensable” one also prayed for the success of the Foreign Ministers’ Conference in London and for the success of the United Nations, “where the future of the world is in the balance.” God did not bother to hear him. The London conference has flopped, and the U. N. is flopping daily.

Yet the clergy persist in flopping with it. The World Council of Christians and Jews has applied for affiliation with UNESCO of United Nations. The growing World Council of Churches is also “making eyes” at U. N. On October 28, 1947, Pope Pius XII “called upon the world today to keep faith in the young United Nations even though the latter’s motives seemed to be ‘a voice crying in the wilderness’ ”. Actually, U. N. is a part of the wilderness. Eight days earlier it was announced, “The Holy See believes it would be a good idea if a spokesman for Christian churches would receive a sort of honorary non-voting membership in the United Nations.”—Buffalo Courier-Express, October 21,1947.

End Justifies the Means

Religion rejects the divine principle of separateness front this world and trots out another to take its place: The end justifies the means. The clergy justify their entry into politics by claiming that in the end they will bring in moral law. But morality and integrity are drowned out as wave after wave of juvenile and adult delinquency sweeps over the earth again and again. The'end, moral law, is not realized.

Then, they say their entry will bring God into government. It has not brought God into the governments of Christendom. It is out of Christendom that two world wars have erupted, and not heathendom. Clergy blessings have never brought good. See how the Roman Catholic Hierarchy blessed the Nazis and Fascists during their heyday; but despite temporary successes God was

not brought into those dictatorships. ite-ligion’s support did not give them God. The results argue that she gave them the Devil. Not that they did not already have the god of this world, but religion gave them a double dose of him and they became twofold more the child of hell than before conversion, as Jesus foretold. (Matthew 23:15) Religion’s blessing of the League of Nations did not bring God into it. The blessing turned into a curse, and the League failed. Now demon religion blesses the United Nations. Poor United Nations! No wonder it is being laughed at, and considered only a glorified debating society—and since bad-boy Vishinsky’s vituperative outburst it has lost the glory aspect. It is just a^-sounding board for national ideologies. With hands tied by the veto, it does nothing but babble, babble, babble, like Tennyson’s brook. Some say it would be better if its hands were, tied less and it, were more tongue-tied. Alas, “it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good”; and religion in polities is an ilLwind!

But Christendom’s relicions, blow on, and claim that their entrv into politics will give a spiritual tie tor world unitv. Tneir gusty words omy cause division. Has not the thrusting of greedy papal paws into the public tax funds to grab money to finance Catholic schools caused sharp division.iii the United States? Has not the chummy hobnobbing of Truman and the pope widened differences both in the United States and in the East-West world crisis? Of the exchange of letters between Truman and the pope, last August, the New York Times said. _r‘Satisfaction is felt in Catholic circles oyer what is frankly stated to be, in the last analysis, an anti-communist crusade.” The pope spreads the old oil on democratic leaders, and his oily words and shining phrases do much to furbish up the sword of democracies as a “sword of the church”. Like simpletons the flattered politicians trot like lackeys to and from the Vatican. In his letter to the FEBBUARY 8, 1948

pope on building world peace Truman sermonized: “Except the Loan build the house, they labour in vain that build it.” (Psalm 127:1) Obviously, Truman thought that by getting the pope with him as a builder he was getting the Lord m as a builder also. What a sad, sad ease of mistaken identity! Vain builders I

Wartime Snaps the Spiritual Ties

Religion claims to tie together spiritually peoples ‘rrorn all nations, and thus overcome national barriers. But with war comes the test. Will spiritual ties hold fast? or will national bonds win out in the tug of war for allegiance ? Which ties snap in the tensions of wartime? It is the spiritual ties that break as Catholic kills Catholic, Protestant kills Protestant, and Jew kills Jew, with the national ties holding strong in bloody bonds. It is spiritual forces that split up to enable all persons to side with their respective nations, and not a split of national forces to make a solid spiritual front. Religion’s vaunted spiritual ties are weaklings that melt like wax in the heat of war, and spiritual brethren slaughter one another as their allegiance goes first to national bonds.

And the churches bless these wars that usher in killing within their own denomination. How on earth can they do so? The same old pretext: The end justifies the means. In World War I the Rood end that iustifi'ed the wicked means of war 'that Hung spiritual brethren at each other’s throat was, “war to make the world safe for democraev" ana ”the war to ena war''. 55b the clergy blessea uie unnoiy means, but the good end that was to justify them never came. Instead, it ushered in an era of totalitarianism and set the stage for a war four times as destructive, World War II. Arid when it came, the clergy were primed for another whirl on the merry-go-round of war. This time they hopped on war’s bandwagon, and. said, ‘This one is oknv. because its Rood end is to save the world frnnkthe dictators.’ Typical was the Baptist resolution passed during the war: “God has a stake in this war. . . . While war. itself is unholy, liberty and justice and brotherhood are most holy.” But the .good ends for which World War II was fought are not'in sight, not even around the proverbial but elusive corner. On the contrary, the clergy and politicians and other selfish interests are priming the guns for World War III. But this time it is a simply won-n-n-der-ful end that justifies it: to ‘save the world from atheistic Communism’. A ‘glorious crusade’, no less!

Sad to say, there is no end to the good ends the clergy concoct to justify unholy war. One war sets the stage for the next. War follows war. Bound and round the vicious circle goes. One nation arms, others do. One expands, others do. One builds spheres of influence, others do. One calls names, others explode into retaliatory name-calling. Hate breeds hate, and soon each is following in the wicked footsteps of the others, trying to outstrip each other in evil-doing, striving to repay evil with greater evil, as each makes itself in the evil image of the other. Thus Satan ensnares the world, and catches it in this demonic whirlpool of rendering evil for evil, evil for evil, evil for evil. Round and round the devilish maelstrom spins with increasing velocity till the world becomes dizzy. And certainly Christ’s kingdom is no part of a dizzy world! The clergy may try to make it so, but their end will be with this present evil world, which will be drawn ever closer to the vortex of the swirling mass, and finally drawn under to destruction.

Whence the Slogan to Justify

Political Meddling?

All this endless evil the clergy justify with their slogan about the end’s justifying the means. Always the world stoops to the dirty means, never does it reach up to the happy end. And because the good end that is to justify the means is never reached, the dirty means remain unjustified. This should cause no surmise, when we probe back -to the origin of this slogan. Let us see where the clergy get this principle by which they justify their breaking of God’s law concerning His ministers’ not meddling in this world’s politics.

It is true that the Jesuits follow it, but it did not originate with those so saturated with wickedness. Go back farther. The Pharisees used it when they stooped to the unholy means of murder to rid themselves of their Exposer, Christ Jesus. It was expedient that this one man die that the good end of saving their nation under Caesar might be gained, they reasoned. But go back farther still. Go all the way back to Satan in the garden of Eden. He justified to Eve the evil of disobedience by holding forth a glorious end. By means of disobedience Eve would not die as God had said, but would be immortal and be as a goddess. (Genesis 3:2-5) Thus Satan reasoned to her, justified the evil means of disobedience by the supposed happy end that awaited her. But the results of following Satan’s slogan that the end justifies the means brought evil from its first application onward.

The principle cannot work, because Christ Jesus said it could not! Did He not say that a good tree brings forth good fruit, and an evil tree brings forth evil fruit; that an evil tree could not bring forth good fruit? Neither can evil means bring forth a good end. The means determine the end. Good means, good end; evil means, evil end. (Matthew 7:16-20) The principle cannot work to justify the clergy’s entry into politics, for still another reason, namely, that worldly meddling by those serving God is expressly forbidden by God’s Word. Therein Jehovah warns those who would please Him: ‘Christ is not of this world, His kingdom is’not of this world; pray" not for this world; I have chosen you Christians out of this world; love not the. world, neither the things in the world; he not conformed to this world, but set your- affections on things above; Satan is the prince of this world, the god of this world, and the whole world lieth in that evil one; finally, whosoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God.’—See John 17:9,14,16; 18:36; 14:30; 15:18, 19; Romans 12:2; Colossians 3: 2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17; 5:19, American Standard Version ; James 4:4.

That is plain talk. There can be no mistaking its meaning. True Christians delight to heed it, because only by so da-ing can they escape the destructive maelstrom of this world and gain life in Jehovah’s new world of righteousness. Then life will really be worth living. Then the King Christ Jesus will judge the poor, save the needy, break in pieces the oppressor. The righteous will flourish as long as the moon endureth, and His dominion will be from Sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. Swords will be beaten into plowshares, spears into pruning-hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the young lion together, and a little child will lead them. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all Jehovah’s holy mountain, for the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Then the meek will inherit the earth,.and delight themselves in the abundance of peace, and dwell in the land forever. There will be no more sorrow or sighing, sickness or crying. Pain and even death will vanish as God wipes away the tears from all faces.—Psalms 37:11, 29; 72:1,4,7,8; Isaiah 11: 6-9; 33:24; Micah 4:1-4; Revelation 21:1-5.

Wise worldlings in their conceit will retort that all this Bible talk is visionary, is a fairy tale, is like living in a fool’s paradise, without showing any practicalness and hard-headedness for this realistic old world. But we ask,

Where have all their practical plans and realistic talk and hard-headedness gotten mankind in past centuries and in this present generation, except a deeper sinking into the mire? Actually, the Bible talk is too straight for this crooked and perverse generation, including its clergy of Christendom, to take.

Talk Too Straiffht for the Clergy to Take

Also too straight for the hypocritical clergymen of Christendom to take is the following talk that true Christians might well address to them: You have abandoned the Bible principle of Christian separateness from this present evil world, and tied onto Satan’s principles. You have, like Esau, sold your birthright in the Kingdom for a bowl of pottage to eat with this world. Like the wayward Jews in Samuel’s day, you crave a human political king over you and reject God’s King Christ Jews. Like ths Pharisees, you have chosen “Caesar”, or the political state, as your king. You label the United Nations as vour light. vour hope, your savior, your kingdom. You woo it and wish your religious organizations could worm their way into matrimony with it, and no longer even bother to claim to be the virgin bride of Christ. You refuse to enter the Kingdom yourselves, and hinder others who would enter. .Blindly you .lead the blind, with the ditch of destruction yawning ahead to catch you both. Appearing outwardly clean unto men, inwardly your organizations are full of dead men’s bones, the bones of the dead from the wars you have blessed and of the dead you have otherwise misled into opposition against God.

Your worship has become formalism. You mumble “Lord, Lord” with your mouth, but your heart is far removed. Yom lips babble tradition mechanically, and doctrine ceremoniously. Because you have swilehetPytmi: allegiance from God to this world you are befuddled, you are bewildered, you are fooled, you are blind, you are witless, and by your perverse backsliding you have turned your religion into a mockery, a hollow, empty, death-dealing mockery. Flare up at this if you will, and snap back that Jehovah’s witnesses are crackpots and liars in saying these things. But it is not Jehovah’s witnesses who tell you that your religion hasi degenerated into a colossal fraud and'moekery. No man tells you, not even the nasty old “Commies”. Neither is the informant the demons, nor the Devil. It is Jehovah God who brands your religion a mockery. Take it from Him, at Isaiah 29:13-16, Moffatt translation:

Since this people draw near me with their mouth, says the Eternal, honouring me with thpir lips, while their hearts are far remote; since their religion is a mockety, a mere tradition learned by rote; I will now deal with them to their amazement, bewildering, surprising them, till their wise men lose their wits, and their clever men are fooled. Woe to the men who hide their plana from the Eternal, working in the dark, and thinking, No one sees or knows! Perverse creatures that you are I

The Christian's Choice

Since God says this, Christians believe it. ‘Let God be true, though it make all men liars.’ (Romans 3:4) True Christians will shun the muddy wallow of hoggish politicians. When Satan seeks to entice them into that snare, God’s servants will hurl Jesus’ words in his face: “Get thee hence, Satan!” And they might even add, “Go to the clergy of Christendom, who have offered to deal with you for religious advantage!” Until this present evil world passes, Christians • will keep in mind and heart the words Jesus said to Pilate nineteen centuries ago, and which still ring clear and true to this distant day, "My kingdom is not of this world.” Let religion choose “Caesar” Christians . eboose Goel and Christ —Joshua 24; io.

Two Breeds of ^Polish Dogs

’’g “Conditions in Poland are not the same as they were before the war. * , . Rome [meaning the Roman Catholic¹ religion] is held in great subjection, and is hot permitted to take advantage of the credulous people, but in spite of everything jthe Polish nation is very religious and obedient to Jlome. The religion of Jehovah’s witnesses is spreading rapidly over here. For instance, the following experience has taken place: It so happened that those who profess Jehovah came and began to preach the gospel, trying to induce the people to plover their neighbor; this occurred in Dobrzyn on the river Varta. Imagine what took place—the savage-like mob, at the instigation of the priests, fell upon these witnesses with clubs and with stones. Thereupon the villagers started to beat them up and stone them and sick the dogs on them (reverting to practices of the Middle Ages). The dogs in obedience to their inhuman masters moved towards the bloodstained witnesses lying on . the ground, but the dogs demonstrated more kindness than the mob, in not attacking; the dogs turned away from them, ignoring the repeated orders to turn on the witnesses. After the mob had filled its vicious appetite they left those bleeding witnesses lying on the ground. One of the dogs, a large wolf-like animal, but, no doubt, a very wise and faithful dog, refused to go with his wicked master, hut instead circled around and returned to those who had been beaten up, joined them and departed later with these witnesses* 1 was an eyewitness of this entire affair. The people constantly devour themselves instead of loving one another, [Signed] S* Choie winski, [city of] Makowo, October 20, 1947J* (Translated from Amery ka Echp, Polish weekly of Toledo, Ohio, December 7, 1947*) It is easy to see from this that the four-footed Polish dogs are a much better breed, having far more intelligence, than the two-legged ones that wear their white collars backwards. “Beware of [these latter] .dogs,” warns the apostle Paul. They are “greedy dogs which can never have enough”.—Philipp iane 3:2; Isaiah 56:10,11

Comets and Milky Ways

IN ANCIENT times comets caused great excitement, for they were viewed as ill omens of approaching disasters. While educated people today are no longer bound by such superstitions, yet these strange and little-known visitors to our Milky Way galaxy, when they put in their appearance, have no difficulty in seizing and holding man’s attention and interest. This was demonstrated when M., J. Bester of South Africa first announced last September that he had spotted a comet, the fourteenth new one of the year. A couple of months later people in Australia and New Zealand caught up with this “great comet of 1947”, which is much brighter than Halley’s famous comet of 1909-1910, After charting its course across the southern skies it was announced that on December 2 it whizzed past our sun at 90 miles a second, missing it by a mere 10,000,000 miles. (But comets should not be so careless in flirting with our sun, for in some cases they have been split in two because of coming too close to the sun.) The tail that it dragged after it appeared in the heavens to be five times the diameter of the moon, and was estimated to be between ten million and seventy-five million miles long. Slowing down to a speed of 30 miles a second, it was predicted, the public in the Northern Hemisphere would get a glimpse of the comet; but this view was abandoned as the comet faded fast. Comets are strange celestial bodies, comparatively small in mass yet enormous in dimensions. Halley’s comet was estimated to weigh but 30 million tons, which means that the earth weighs 220 trillion times as much, vet that comet ex-panded to a diameter of 220,000 miles (the earth’s diameter is only 7,900 miles). The brilliant tail on a comet is the next thing to a vacuum. Some calculate that the tail of Halley’s comet weighed only 1/4000000000000000000000 FEBRUARY 8, 1948

(one four-sextillionth) as much as a similar mass of air I Comets travel in various-shaped orbits. Many return every four to seven years; others take longer. Halley’s makes its round trip every 76 years; Swift’s (1862) takes 119 years; others take over a thousand years, and some will take even twenty thousand years before they again come into view of men of good-will that live in the coming New World of righteousness under Theocratic rule.

Stretch your imagination to its limit and you will still find it impossible to comprehend how exceedingly large our universe really is. The jet plane holding the official record traveled at the speed of 650 miles per hour. If the pilot had kept up that speed for 12 days he would have gone a little over 186,300 miles, the distance that a ray of light covers in one second. At this fantastic speed light rays travel 6,000,000,000,000 miles in a year. Now our Milky Way is so great that if a beam of light were to pass through its diameter it would take it 20,000 years. And yet this stellar system, our Milky Way with the earth m approximately the center, is but a small chip in the vast unlimited and uncharted ocean of cosmic space. Scientists tell us that out there beyond the limits of our Milky Way there are more than 100,000,000,000 other galaxies like our own system of stars, each made up of several billion suns, star clusters and nebulae. These are not stationary, but are all in motion with our galaxy drifting at the rate of 10 or 12 miles a second. My, what an insignificant celestial speck this earth! Of a truth, the AH-wise Creator of this universe, whose name alone is Jehovah, is so infinitely great that He is beyond comprehension by mortal flesh. “O Jehovah, how manifold are thy works I In wisdom hast thou made them all.”—Psalm 104: 24, Am. Stan. Ver.

"Who killed Cock Robin T'’ Why, Parnell Thoma* and hla Un-AtneHcan Activities Committee, be* cauie tEie bird had a red breast! AI»o hhrh on their list of subversives stand that rascally Little Red Hen and that cleverly snileless Little Red Rid* Injr Hood. Even Little Boy Blue may reveal some red underneath after provocative probins. And even you, dear reader, may take on a pinkish hue if viewed through the committee’s colored glasses!

MANIA to divide the world into two camps has seized many politicians. They decree that all men must be in one camp or the other, that there can be no neutrality nor a third position. As they see it, all travel their way or the wrong way. And as the United States Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities sees it, any who have the temerity to disagree with them travel to the Left, In their hysteria they see red. They are color blind to brown-shirted find black-shirted Fascism. So very much so that they act ridiculous, and thereby justly draw ridicule in return. But the nation and the world are tense and restless, as this arbitrary separation into two camps proceeds. True Americans were made uneasy by the investigations that fol-loweddn the wake of President Truman’s order to purge disloyalty from among Federal employees; In its parallel activity the Un-American Activities Committee, headed by John Rankin and J. Parnell Thomas, general inquisitioners of government employees, officials, Hollywood celebrities and organization heads, has not had any quieting effect on the disturbed people. Aroused liberals have dubbed the investigators variously as ‘Tin-American Committee”, "Red-baiters,” “Thought Police” and the “Agent of American Fascism”.

Of the many indignities these Congressmen have forced upon Americans, most astonishing is the one against Dr, Edward Barsky. For years he was esteemed by the government for his work as chairman of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, whose operations dated back to rendering assistance to the Loyalists of Spain. Investigation of Barsky came about in this wise. When British Labor leader Harold Laski spoke in Madison Square Garden some months ago, the meeting was sponsored by Barsky’s committee. In his speech Laski charged that during the war the Vatican, meaning the pope, had given active aid to Franco. Nobody denied the statement; the evidence for it was too damning. But thereafter Thomas received many postcards urging investigation of Barsky, the “Red Fascist”. When Thomas, with the impertinence of one impressed with his own authority, demanded the names and organization records of Barsky, the latter refused because many in the files were actively engaged in anti-Fascist work in Spain and others he feared might be discriminated against because they were on the pay roll of the government. As a result, Barsky and nine others were sentenced to a fine and six months in prison for “contempt of -Congress”.

Contrast now the litmus-tested loyalty of Thomas’ partner John Rankin with that of democratic Barsky. “Congressman Rankin, the most foul-mouthed

member of the House, Negro-baiter, labor-baiter and anti-Semite, was placed on the official Nazi propaganda bureau (Welt Dienst) honor roll in 1940, stated Winchell in February 17 broadcast.” [In Fact, March 4,1946) Amazing that the United States should employ an outspoken Fascist and hate-mongerer like Rankin, a Bilbo rabble-rousef, to persecute a man like Barsky.

Note the hoodlum activities of the committee’s backers. In historic Independence Square Hall, a Philadelphia protest meeting of the Progressive Citizens of America was heckled and stench-bombed by hundreds, prominent among them the notorious American Legionnaires. The meeting was called to protest “the conduct . of the House Un-American Activities Committee’s investigation of Communism in Hollywood; the meeting was sanctioned by the Federal District and, Circuit courts”. The PCA speaker that engaged the auditorium was drowned out by the American Legion siren and cat-calls to “Go back to Russia, you bums” and “Shut up, you Communists”. The un-American attempt to halt-free speech resulted in one arrest, an arrest of a member of the group that had a right to be there, the PCA.

Hollywood Crumbles

Before Smear Campaign

Many view the Congressional investigation of Communism in the cinema colony as poorly disguised endeavor to dictate to moviedom. There is a serious threat to liberty in the contempt charges against the ten directors and writers who refused to testify in the unfair way demanded by the bullying committee. Eric Johnson fell under the Rankin-Thomas steam roller, and announced that the producers for whom he speaks have suspended the ten cited for contempt of Congress. Johnson’s capitulation, after first opposing the Hollywood witch-hunt, furnishes an excellent example of the difficulty to hold fast to principle in the face of a Red smear campaign. Top-notehers in Brer Rabbit Hollywood may lie supine before the issues at stake, but the rank and file of filmdom know the fake cry of Communism is a scare to rush Hollywood into harness to pull for political propaganda. An editorial appearing in PM, October 23, 1947, focuses on the seriousness of the Congressional invasion of California:

■ The issue is not who is a Communist in Hollywood, but whether the committee has any more right to interfere with the content of movies than it would to interfere with the content of books or newspapers: Rep. Thomas takes the position that the movies are a key opinion area and that what they produce has immense influence on the mass mind. He is right. But the conclusion he draws from it, that Congress must therefore purify the industry of its dangerous ideological elements, is completely wrong. It is exactly because the movies are an immense mass influence that, like the press, they must be left free. Thomas’ opinion is very close to that of Vishinsky, who has argued that because the American press has a vast influence on mass opinion the government must muzzle it. It might horrify Thomas to find himself so closely linked with his comrade Vishinsky in a doctrine which most Americans repudiate utterly; but the conclusion is inescapable. Thomas is doing more to bring into American life the basic Russian approach to the organs of mass opinion than all the Communists in Hollywood could ever do.

Witch-Hunt Loyalty Purge

The president’s loyalty purge is equally held in contempt by liberty-lovers. The loyalty program, to which was later added a security program, was originally based on a presidential order for a five-member secret tribunal to pass judgment on the activities of 2,000,000 federal employees. Dr. Frank Kingdon scores the method:

This Federal Loyalty Board could proceed on mere rumor, would not have to disclose “the source or sources” of its information, and could discharge any federal employee suspected of subversive activities. [As of July over 900 had been discharged.] No person discharged by the board would have any right of appeal to the courts. No person under suspicion would have the right to confront and cross-examine.his accusers. The denial of these two rights constitutes a direct invasion of ancient legal protections won from tyrants and cherished in every age by free men. (New York Post, July 18, 1947)

Colliers magazine (December 27,1947) regarded the fingerprinting of employees, requirements to give information about their personal lives and affiliations, and the ensuing firing without open trials as alarming to many people, but nevertheless took comfort from the fact that a Loyalty Review Board of twenty members finally began to. function. PM, however, points out that in November the appeal board had not granted a “right to hearing with traditional safeguards” to seven employees fired June 23. Also, three were cleared, but not rehired.

Little wonder that the Open Forum questions the constitutionality of the president’s order; another wonders whether the- “police state has not arrived” ; and the former deputy chief counsel at the Nuremberg Nazi trials declared that the loyalty discharges were so unfair in comparison to the treatment accorded Hitler’s criminals that “it would seem that we are providing American justice for Nazis, but Nazi justice for Americans”. (In a letter to the New York Times, May 4, 1947, from A. L. Pomerantz. Besides being deputy chief counsel, he was senior trial counsel in all Nazi industrialist cases.) Obviously the Four Freedoms, so victorious in ace aim, have been hammered into a meaningless hulk by the president and his hatchet men, maddened to the point of always seeing red.

Propaganda's Two-Party World

Many defend the unprecedented firing of federal employees and the stench raised by the Rankin-Thomas-Adamson holier-than-everybody fanatics on the basis bf the critical international situation. They reason that the many aggressions of Russia, her brutal totalitarianism, her on-the-houi;-every-hour opposition to everything, and her strangulation of freedom in the Soviet, call for drastic measures of extermination. But they forget the drastic measures may kill freedom. Most Americans fear to say anything unfavorable about the anti-Red committee, knowing they will be falsely accused of defending Communism. It is this very fear that has stifled public indignation against comrades Rankin and Thomas; and it is this very fear that the politicians' count on to give them freedom to launch their barrages. The device is not new.

It works like this. The committee arbitrarily divides the world into two classes :, Communists and anti-Communists. You do not wish to be in either class? ‘That is just too bad, brother. We have already divided up the world.’ Mussolini divided it into two classes also: Fascists and Democrats. Hitler’s world was bi-party also: Nazis and Communists; and the latter included the “Red” capitalists of the United States, you like it or not. This¹ simple, arbitrary division of the world into the “fors” and “against-ers”, and its benumbing, hammering repetition by every means of communication till the ears and eyes are exhausted into acceptance, makes the next step obvious: dress everybody the propagandists do not like in the red outfit, regardless of reason or truth, and the smear is there to stay and to ruin.

And how easy and Nazilike do the propagandises make it for neighbors to tattle and falsely testify in snoopy spy fashion, for the witnesses are protected from any cross-examination by the accused! How tempting it is made.for obsequious ones to worm into the favor of the propagandists, to join the popular witch-hunt of the day! And what better way of avoiding suspicion, than to accuse others first? Why, a man might have gone to a Russian ballet once; his favorite candy might be red jelly beans; as a boy he might have gone to a little red schoolhouse and taken red apples to teacher! Let such damning evidence stand uncountered? Never! Get into the witch-hunt quick! Now do you think all this unreasonable, absurd? Fanaticism is all of that, but don’t you ever think it is not effective.

•While men for a second time in this generation fall victims to the same slogans shouted by the same hucksters of Fascism, a document is issued that offers real relief for liberty-lovers. This is the report of the President’s Committee on Civil Kights. The 178-page book w’as presented on October 30, 1947, after more than ten months’ preparation, and its title is a quotation from the Declaration of Independence,

“To Secure These Rights”

With the security police sent forth .by executive order to purge disloyalty from the ranks of government, and while the "Rankin-Thomas bloodhounds were yapping at the liberties of better Americans, it comes as a happy coincidence that during this double-barreled assault on liberty by the holier-than-everybodies the Committee on Civil Rights was unobtrusively doing some excellent and unsung work in behalf of liberty, formulating some effectual restraints on both Fascism and Communism, which would not necessitate fingerprinting and litmustesting by a member of the official Nazi honor roll such as John Rankin. Not on the flimsy emotionalism and fanfare and showmanship of the “Un-American Committee”, but on solid constitutionalism and freedom did the Civil Rights Committee found their report.

It condemned Fascists and Communists as “equally hostile to the American heritage of freedom and equality”, but it opposed the government loyalty tests on the ground that “our whole civil liberties history provides us with a clear warning against possible misuses of loyalty checks to inhibit freedom of opinion and expression”. It condemned the principle of “guilt by association”, saying, “Affiliation with a dubious organization is, by itself, not necessarily proof of untrustworthiness.” It scored the procedure by which the loyalty of federal employees is ruled against without due process of law, where the accused is charged with no crime, cannot face his accusers, cannot subpoena witnesses or documents, cannot be represented by counsel, and cannot have a written record of the proceedings or a written decision. Astutely the report points out that it is not just the civil rights of the federal workers involved, but the rights of all citizens. Above all, the government should be exemplary in its safeguarding of civil liberties for its employees. Then the report goes into much detail on how the work of enemies of democracy should be nullified, without sacrificing the liberty for which the battle is fought. It is a sound and adequate remedy, as sensible Americans that study the report will acknowledge.

Also brought under scrutiny by the Civil Rights Committee was the unjust treatment of minorities. Racially, the largest is the Negro, and the ones bearing the greatest burden of injustice. Besides the heavy cloud of fear that hangs over the Southern Negro because lynching still goes unpunished, the Negro is excluded from jury participation, prevented from voting, discriminated against in the armed forces, debarred from public parks, beaches and places of entertainment, and segregated into separate schools, hospitals and transportation facilities. He is the loser in wages, health and life expectancy, as well as mentally burdened with the effect of segregation and prejudice. Moreover, the report found prejudice against Negroes in Washington, D.C., almost as great as in the deep South. Religious minorities have also suffered as victims of prejudice, the report stating: “There still are

communities in which sporadic interference with unpopular religious, political and economic groups takes place. The steady flow of court cases in recent years involving groups like Jehovah’s witnesses proves that.”

Admitting that all the legal remedies in the book will not melt away prejudice nor alone stem the stream⁰ of human hate, the report devotes pages to the most analytical, searching treatment of destroying prejudice. Manifestation of prejudice "ranges from the mild, secret feeling of the social snob to the violent, murderous impulses of the insanely prejudiced”. The effects of this internal prejudice upon international situations is heavy, the report avers. In sweeping recommendations the committee urges a national housecleaning. Strengthen the Civil Rights Section of the Department of Justice, check Congressional committees that deprive citizens of civil rights, prosecute for police brutality, enact, and enforce anti-lynching laws, remove hindrances to equal suffrage, end race segregation and discrimination, expose the bacsers of nefarious schemes of Communists and Fascists, and, above all, educate the people.

Under human rule this idealistic program will never be realized, but in these troubled and hysterical times when rabble-rousing politicians rave madly and see only red it is indeed exhilarating to know that some men in political circles not only speak the word democracy but know what it means. It is a heart-warming work, a bulwark to tottering democracy and freedom, that the Committee on Civil Rights has'provided. The committee did not mention the Lord, but their recommendations come very close to the injunction of His Son Christ Jesus: ‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.’ Jehovah God will not forget righteously disposed men in every walk of life, and to the merciful will He show mercy at Armageddon. Thereafter, in His new world of righteousness, will prejudice and discrimination be no more. With their passing will also pass the propagandists that see red if any oppose them.

oft— <)-

1 visitor sailing to Shanghai by sea enters the yellow Yangtse river and shortly swings into its wide tributary the Whangpoo, sailing then almost into the very heart of the commercial capital of China, the city of Shanghai.

Once ashore the visitor finds that there is a vast contrast between the peoples and customs of the Eastern world and those of the West. The most outstanding sight is the huge mass of humanity jamming the streets. It is soon obvious to the visitor that Shanghai’s streets are more than thoroughfares to get from one place to another. Here they are certainly used for that purpose, but in addition to they are used as markets, shops, barbers’ saloons, food kitchens, and, for many, home and bed.

So the visitor looks out on a seething mass of great activity; for, say what you will, the Chinese are not lazy. They are very industrious people, plying their trades or hurrying about their business as though their lives depended upon it, as they do. Here is a tinker ax' work, there is a barber shaving a customer, yonder is a mother bathing her child, over there a portable chow shop or street kitchen where many varieties of food are bought and eaten; yes, all on the sidewalk amid the passing throngs.

While the sidewalks are thus jammed the roads also are tightly packed, mostly with rickshas and pedicabs (a pedaled ricksha). After much bargaining coolies trot or pedal their fares to their destination. Intermingled with, this the visitor sees old military transports and gun carriers put to varied uses, and many jeeps as well as large America n-made autos and small British cars. What an incessant noise arises from these busy roads 1 To squeeze a pathway through so many human-propelled vehicles the motors have to continually blare their horns from morning to

past midnight. Repeated. antiumwa campaigns the slightest effect.

dress of the people is varied, better-class Chinese men wear

others wear pajama-like suits of various colors, while still others adopt the Western style of open neck shirt and slacks or shorts. Women prefer to keep to the old style of shapeless dress, sleeveless, and fittjng closely round the neck. The poorer classes wear short pants and often a ragged jacket which is left open at the front to expose a bronze tanned body. Some omit the jacket and just wear \ the shorts. Beggars, many are women, wear blue dungarees and a jumper-like jacket.

The name Shanghai means “above the sea”. Several waterways run into the Whangpoo river, and these are ail jammed with eraft of all kinds in which the Shanghai waterman lives with his family. The water in these creeks is black and evil smelling, yet it is used to wash clothes, to bathe in, and even to “clean” the vegetables and rice for the river-dwellers’ meal's.

The visitor finds it interesting to watch Chinese labor, It is very primitive. All that can be done by hand is so done; The heaviest burdens are carried on bamboo poles borne across the shoulders of Chinese coolies. Two coolies are able to carry very heavy loads suspended from the center of a pole. The burden is eased by chanting a traditional song as they shuffle along with the load. Wide two-wheeled trucks piled high with loads are pulled by three or four men using ropes and very much energy. By their side modern trucks rumble ny, indicating that modern equipment gets things done quickly and less laboriously. But the Chinese stick to their age-old method. So ancient and modern go hand in hand. Narrow beflagged lanes teeming with Chinese life and activity. Broad fine streets lined with fine modern department stores, shops, offices, hotels, air-conditioned cinemas and skyscrapers. Western architecture is seen among buildings of Chinese style, with sweeping roofs and images of dragons and demons.

Civil W’nr, Family Life

The city originally housing three million people now houses four and a quarter million. Chinese are leaving the northern areas of China and the countryside because of the civil war and are moving into the cities.

There is little in Shanghai to suggest civil war, yet this rages to the north and involves very large numbers of fighting men on both sides. There is plenty of food in the shops, also an abundance of clothes, household utensils and furniture;. in fact, one can obtain more in Shanghai than in most oth^r places around the globe, but at a price. The war of 1939-45 brought severe inflation to China, and this has produced a black market system that practically runs the business life of China.

Houses range from huge blocks of modern apartments to humble mud huts with thatched roofs. Chinese live many families to a home; many use just one room and are very overcrowded in numbers, sleeping on mats on the floor or on specially-built racks one above the other. Houses are scarce, due to the enlarged population and warfare that hinders building programs. This situation has given rise to many rackets to the hurt of the people, but the poor escape these racketeers because of living in and on practically nothing. Yet the poor seem contented and happy with their lot.

Family life is a very important factor in China. Chinese marry young, often the girls are married at fourteen and have two or three children by eighteen. Men who can afford it have concubines and provide a separate home for each and the children. Children are very numerous, a full house being a happy house. These children receive much parental care and affection. They are very beautiful children and grow up to develop fine, supple, handsome bodies; especially so does this appear with the boys.

In modern days the children receive an education, and they display a real thirst for knowledge; sometimes they are the only members of the family that can read and write. Children and adults patronize the portable street libraries, where they sit on forms on the sidewalk and read their borrowed books.

Make Way for the Law!

For the most part the general population of Shanghai are very law-abiding and orderly. Of course, the Chinese people are prone to become excited very quickly, and the visitor occasionally witnesses a local disturbance of the peace where perhaps a ricksha coolie has demanded a little more fare than that which was originally bargained for. At the sound of angry voices a crowd quickly gathers and adds to the noisy chorus until a policeman arrives.

In America or Great Britain it is not the best thing to do to argue or wrestle with the constable when he is lawfully, or even unlawfully, going about his business. That argument is best reserved until one is in the learned presence of the magistrate or judge. However, in this city of contrasts things are different. The police have limited powers to administer the punishment of the law on the scene of the “crime”, such as in the case of the ricksha coolie or pedicab driver that has run out of his line, causing traffic confusion, or perhaps been caught boosting a fare. The punishment consists of a hefty clout aside the head or the confiscation by the police of the seat of the vehicle. When this occurs one can see vigorous protest put up by the defendant, not so much against the cuff of the head, which is taken in good part, but against the confiscation of the seat. It is a common sight .to see a policeman at one side of the seat and an indignant coolie at the other and a tug o’ war ensuing for the possession of the seat. One often sees piles of such confiscated seats on the roadside, or a line of them along a route where several offenses have occurred, as a sort of warning tb others.

For more serious offenses the usual “ticket” is given, and where the nature of lawbreaking demands it a “Red Maria” is called out. This is a machine similar to the British “Black Maria”, only very much more fearsome-looking. It is a large truck painted red and has a businesslike-looking machine gun mounted on the front, with two policemen to man the gun standing at the ready. The whole chariot tears through the congested streets emitting a shrill air whistle and a clatter of bells, and before which everybody seems to disappear,

yes, even the rickshas and the pedicabs.

Drunken men or women are never seen on the streets in Shanghai, unless it be an occasional foreigner. Heavy drinking is shunned by the Chinese generally, and few are the drinking saloons, and these patronized mainly by visiting army, navy, or foreign business personnel. Of course, there are many vices and rackets in the city, but the visitor sees little evidence of them on the streets.

Another thing that strikes the visitor as a contrast with cities in other parts of the world is the cleanliness of the main streets of Shanghai. One seldom sees any sign of garbage on the road or sidewalk. Yet one never see£ the large automatic garbage collectors at work that are so common in America. Whereas in New York, for instance, one sees the sidewalks lined with bins of garbage awaiting the collection thereof, and sometimes has to dodge a cloud of dust as it is deposited in the van, it is not so here. All one sees in the way of streetcleaning is a coolie armed with a coconut-fiber broom and a small bamboo basket on a short pole who sweeps the curbside and sidewalk spotlessly clean. Then, too, there are poorer-class children with a large bamboo basket that is strapped to their backs. They have a pair of metal tongs and walk along the sidewalk and pick up every scrap of paper they see, putting it in the basket on their back. They then sell the contents to wastepaper merchants. The visitor cannot help thinking what a harvest these children would have in London or New York. Anyway, it keeps the streets looking very clean. Not all streets in the city, however, come in for such treatment. In the smaller streets and Chinese lanes one often sees evil-smelling garbage piled up; even the bodies of dead cats and dogs have been seen lying there.

Night Life, Religious Tolerance

Life in this “city of contrasts” goes on well into the early hours of dawn. The seething, noisy streets do not begin to thin before midnight. The Chinese family are very fond of all coming out upon the sidewalk when day is done and gather socially to talk over the events of the day, rates of exchange, and best ways to increase thgir income. To make this task a happier one portable street kitchens come around with (to the Chinese) appetizing victuals to appease the inner man. So the visitor sees the families gathered around on the pavement, sitting on stools, or lying on bamboo mats, with bowls of rice, vegetables, sliced fruit, etc., while children play around, yes, even at that late hour, and infants feed contentedly at their mothers’ breasts. The cinema closes about 11 p.m. and masses of excited coolies with ricksha and pedicab seek their last fares for the day, but it is not until the clock strikes the hour of two or three that silence, so sweet in this busy city, comes to the busy streets. Even then they are not empty. So many make them their home. Sleeping on bamboo mats with a bundle of belongings for a pillow, they are at peace with the world until the rumble of the first streetcar awakens them to another day of ceaseless activity at 5 a.m.

So the visitor regards life in Shanghai. He wonders, as he watches the seething masses of people hustling hither and thither, what goes on inside so many minds. He realizes they have a veneration for one god or another, but notices the great absence of religious intolerance. What one man believes seems to be no concern of others, and, although many different religions are practiced, there are never any fights or disturbances about them as in India, just over the border. Many in Shanghai claim to be Christians, but manifest the same

confusion as the Western world in this respect, for there are Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, China Inland Missionaries, all with varying creeds. Then, many profess Buddhism, and th^re are many images of that god in various parts of the city, where adoring hands keep incense burning continuously before them and prostrate themselves before them also. When a real Christian visits the Chinese families at their home in the good old Scriptural way he is, generally spealring, well received. If he has books explaining the Scriptures most Jolks, if they can afford such books, like to obtain them; for there is evidence of a thirst for knowledge on Bible matters.

The average Chinese is not concerned about what the future has in store; his past experiences have taught him that he cannot trust it anyway. He lives for the day, and lives a day at a time; his life centers around his family and their welfare, and the task of making as much money as it is possible to make while the day lasts. The Westerner finds something very lovable in the Chinese. They have a keen sense of humor. They carry their many burdens so very cheerfully, even the poorest of them. They are hospitable and kindly on the whole, with many among them of high intellect and skill.

Shanghai will continue ever a city of contrast'as ancient Chinese customs are still carried on alongside modern twentieth-century developments; and, forthe most part, the visitor likes it that way, for there is something very fine about the old carefree way of living, that, were it not mingled with the blustering, noisy machinery of modern times, would be less trying on the human machine.—Contributed.

DEATH is a great mystery to most people, and because it is a mystery they fear it. Where does man go ? What does he do, see or feel when he “passes away” into the “great unknown” and “far beyond”? Will he return and live again or is he gone, gone forever?. Questions like these rise up and haunt the minds of the living, particularly at funerals of their friends and loved ones.

At funerals woeful anxiety and mental anguish, accompanied with dread and nervous trepidation, seize hold and make the flesh of uninformed persons creep. Moreover, everything connected with funerals seems to add to this fear. The black crape on the door, the dim-lit room with its candles, the heavy hush broken only by the sobs and wailing of the mourners, the tone of the preacher’s voice, the hearse and pallbearers, the procession to the graveyard, the tombstones, and even the beautiful flowers and rich, satin-lined casket do not lighten the weight of sorrow that attends most funerals.

Customs, traditions and beliefs dictate funeral procedures, but where did such things originate and what do they mean? Scientists that study races of people and their customs, and who try to explain everything by the evolution theory, hit a snag when they come to the subject of funerals. Among widely scattered and primitive people living in Melanesian, African, Australian and American areas is found a remarkable connection and resemblance in their beliefs about death and funerals. Of course, there is an endless number of different customs among them when it comes to their funeral superstitions about lacerations, wailings, attire of the hair, food, sexual taboos, exits from their homes, feasts, dances and purification ceremonies, but in all their mystics and traditions there is a common basic similarity of meaning. Nor are the beliefs and funeral customs of the so-called “highly civilized” people in this twentieth century so far removed from the beliefs and customs of the “savage” races. Fundamentally both groups have a similar attitude about death and the corpse, a similar fear of “ghosts” and spirits, a similar belief about life after death and immortality of the soul or “something”. And because of this universal belief by practically all religions there is a certain resemblance in the ritual of their funerals.

Customs Arising from Belief

in Immortality

The fundamental belief of the ancients, says Miss Effie Bendann in her authoritative work, Death Customs, is that “the dead would ‘walk’ unless the body is disposed of with appropriate ceremonies”. To prevent this, various devices were employed, including the tying of the big toes and thumbs together, binding the elbows at the sides, bending up the knees, and putting the whole corpse in a bag or net. Certain tribes in India buried the corpse face down with thorns on the top so it would not turn over and get up. The» sacred books of the ancient Persians supposed that the corpse was saturated with an uncanny power that could be turned loose on mortals. The Chaldeans thought that unless the body was buried the spirit would attack and harass the living. The Egyptians believed that unless the body was embalmed the deceased had no chance of living in the next world. The Greeks taught that unless the body was buried the soul could not get into Elysian fields. The Romans said that unless the body was buried the soul would wander around this earth. Having such superstitious beliefs those ancient pagans, and likewise their descendants, paid special and reverential attention to the disposal of a dead man’s body according to the traditions handed down from their devil-worshiping forefathers.

From the northern limits of Arctic Asia to southern Africa and the islands of the seas the manner in which the corpse is carried out of a house is of great importance. Among the Hottentots, Bechuanas and Barongas, and many other African tribes, and among the Eskimos of Hudson Bay and Greenland, as well as among the remote Tibetans, the corpse must not be carried through the regular entrance lest the “ghost” learn his way back in. A hole is knocked in the side of the house, through which the body is taken out. As late as 1890 it was a custom in the British Isles to open the doors and windows at the time of death to allow the “spirit” to escape. In France, Germany and Switzerland tile roofs were removed so that the “soul” could escape upward.

Some races cremated the bodies of their dead. The Egyptians never cremated, but developed instead the art of embalming, at least for those who could afford it, about one-fifth of the population. The cheapest form of embalming consisted of soaking the body for 70 days in myrrh and then salting it down. Before that time the Egyptians put their dead in clay jars, like the Babylonians. Other peoples have used other methods of disposal, consisting of funeral pyres, desiccation and smoking, placing the bodies in hollow trees, and interring, sometimes on the side, sometimes sitting up, and sometimes standing up. Also it is considered important, by many, which way the head of the corpse is facing.

“Mourning” Because of Fear

Frazer, the eminent anthropologist, and others have pointed out that at first glance one might be led to believe that the harsh devices resorted to by the survivors in afflicting themselves, upon the death of their relatives, is a mark of great devotion, love and affection for the deceased. But “a more careful study”, says Bendann, “reveals the fact that such is not the case.” Their “devotions” spring not so much from affections as from fears.

Many races believed, like the tribes in central Australia, that unless they displayed a great amount of “grief” the dead man’s spirit would -be offended and evil would befall the survivors. Laceration and mutilation of the mourner’s body is common. Cutting off the hair, fingers and lobes of the ears, burning the breasts, arms and thighs with firebrands, scratching the face until it bleeds, etc. —all of these things are done to convince the “soul” that one is sorrowful for it. Because of such devil-inspired practices Jehovah God strictly prohibited His people to disfigure themselves over the loss of a loved one. “Ye are the children of Jehovah your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.”—Deuteronomy 14:1, Am. Stan. Ver.; Leviticus 21: 5.

During the period of mourning some heathen smear themselves with black paint and wear black garments. Some abstain from certain foods and activity. Others, as in Japan, hold a great three-day feast, a feast for the dead, of course, with plenty of intoxicating sake on hand. Others “purify” themselves by using cow dung and salt, by blood-letting, by fasting and by wallowing in the dirt. All these customs are prompted by a great fear to do otherwise.

Noise at a funeral is also considered very important by some people. Wild shouting and dancing upon the grave is said to be for the purpose of driving the body’s “spirit” into the ground. The beating of drums, rattling of brass, and the shouting and wailing with great uproar are a general practice in some countries even today. Professional mourners are sometimes hired, as in ancient Greece and Rome, and they are paid in proportion to the volume of their groaning, the degree of their breast-beating and the violence of their tantrums. Women are usually employed for this job, since they can easily work themselves up into an emotional lather.

Down in British New Guinea the “ghost” of a dead wife is said to be a very fearful thing, and so everywhere the widower goes he carries with him an axe to defend himself against it. And so it goes, people of every race and language go through any number of demonic antics in connection with their funerals, the repeating of them all being an endless and most unprofitable task.

Christendom’s Funeral Customs

You may laugh or be shocked at all these pagan practices, but do you know that the thousands of funerals conducted every day throughout Christendom are only “refinements” of such-pagan rituals? When Catholicism and Protestantism adopted the religious doctrines of the pagans (see Awake! December 22, 1947) they also accepted this basic belief about the dead, that is, that the body is merely a shell in which some immortal, indestructible and invisible “soul” or “spirit” or “ghost” lives until the time of the body’s death. Christendom’s clergymen in conducting funerals continually impress upon those present this pagan idea that the mystic “soul” is either hovering very close or has fluttered away on a long journey to some heaven, hell or purgatory. Little wonder, then, that the atmosphere in a funeral parlor is. so thick with fear that those present have a weird and eerie feeling as they sit silent and hushed in their seats.

The specially selected black, dresses and veils on the women and the black arm bands on the men carry the same meaning as the savage’s black paint. The black crape on the door replaces the ancient Greek mythological custom of hanging on the door a strand of the dead person’s hair. The elaborate and stately funeral procession is as old as the sunworshiping Egyptians and the heathen Chinese. Gorgeous funeral trains of barges carried the mourners, the priests and the functionaries of the state down to the tombs of the pharaohs. In A History of Mourning (1890), Richard Davey says:

Those [funerals] of the Chinese and Japanese resemble in many ways, very strikingly too, the ceremonies which the Roman Catholics employ to this day: there are the same long processions of priests and officials; and Richard shows us a sketch of a very grand burial at Pekin, in 1675, in which we behold the body of the Emperor of the Celestials stretched upon a bier covered with deep violet satin, and surrounded by many lighted candles ; prayers were said for the repose of the soul.

The wax candles sometimes placed beside the casket are as pagan in their origin as the pagans themselves. Laetan-tius, who died about A.D. 330, derided the pagan Romans “for lighting up candles to God, as if He lived in the dark”. True Christians never use candles to brighten up funerals, as already pointed out in past issues of this magazine.

So-called “modern” funerals, such as those conducted at Forest Lawn cemetery at Glendale, Calif., that have dispensed with some of Christendom’s orthodox funeral customs, still hold on and retain the one basic pagan belief of immortal life after death. Teaching that all buried in Forest Lawn “have entered into that happier Life”, they make the same claim as the pagans who bury their dead in the Ganges and in Abyssinia’s Debra Libanos.

Often a Racket

Oftentimes the funeral business in America and other countries is one of the cruelist rackets there are. Daily it may take advantage of people that are in a sea of despair and trouble, at a time •when their “sales resistance” is at its lowest ebb. With some exceptions the clergymen, the undertakers and the tombstone chiselers, as a class, flock together, buzzard fashion, to rob and devour the substance of orphans and widows. In no uncertain terms Christ Jesus denounced the smooth-feathered, black-frocked clergy who “devour widow’s houses, and for a pretence make long prayers”.—Matthew 23:14.

Nor are the clergy satisfied with the undertakers’ huge “take” of money. Complaining that the average undertaker fee for a funeral is $410, whereas co-operative burial associations do the same job for a cost ranging from $84 to $165, the Federal Council of Churches said: “Competition in the funeral business is not in terms of price and quality, but competition for the possession of bodies.” Once they get the body they charge as large a toll as the “traffic will bear”, for they have six prices ranging from Mrs. Bond’s “modern” funeral in Forest Lawn that cost $25,000 on down to $90 baby funerals. One “soft-hearted” undertaker who admitted that he made a profit of $95 on a $225 funeral was very much upset at the hardheartedness of some of the other boys in the business. “Why,” said he, “some of these bums charge a family $90 to bury a little baby in a casket that only costs $4.50.” Tombstone concerns are also noted for their ability to chisel both the granite and the poor customers.

Funerals should not be conducted according to pagan customs, traditions and beliefs that are fathered by the Devil and his demons. Funerals should not be occasions for causing morbid fear by teaching the Devil’s “immortal soul” lie. Above all, funerals should not be an occasion for the commercial exploitation of the bereaved in their hour of grief.

Rather, funerals should be an occasion used “to comfort all that mourn”, to show that man does not inherently possess an immortal soul that may be in torment in “hell” or “purgatory”, but that the deceased is unconscious in a restful sleep, awaiting a resurrection from death if it be God’s will for that person. (Isaiah 61:2; Ecclesiastes 9:5,10; John 5:28, 29, Am. Stan. Ver.; Revelation 20:13, margin) There can be no objection to a nice-appearing casket or flowers to brighten the surroundings on such occasions, when these things are not overdone designedly with a view to influencing the “ghost” of the deceased, as was the underlying motive of many pagan funeral customs, due to pagan misunderstanding in believing in an inherently immortal human soul. (Ezekiel 18:4) Funerals should be simple and sober occasions, devoid of creature worship. Funerals should be occasions for praising Jehovah God for providing His Son, Christ Jesus, as the redeemer and vindicator who will not only resurrect “both the just and the unjust”, but “destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil”. (Acts 24:15; Hebrews 2:14) At a funeral all should be assured that by the Theocratic Kingdom man’s “last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”. (1 Corinthians 15:26) Then, funerals will end forever!

Death and Adam and Abel

ADAM died, blit not because he had to .and because he could not have lived forever on earth, neither because he had to die in order to go to heaven. The human perfection in which Adam was created, and God's statement to him, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” opened up to the first man on earth the opportunity of living in his earthly paradise for endless time. Death was. threatened for eating the above-mentioned fruit while God’s prohibition rested upon it; and for eating contrary to God’s prohibition Adam died.—Genesis 2:17; 3: 6.

When Adam died, where did he go? Being a willful wrongdoer by joining his wife Eve in her violation of God’s law, Adam went into destruction. He was destroyed. He chose to serve the great Serpent, Satan the Devil, who had put temptation in the way of Eve and then Adam, and so, being willfully wicked or lawless, Adam suffered destruction. This accords with God’s fixed rule of action: “Jehovah preserveth all them that love him; but all the wicked will he destroy.” (Psalm 145:20, Am. Stan. Ver.) Since the love of God is proved by the keeping of His commandments, the course of action taken proved that Adam and Eve did not love God, and hence they did not experience His preservation.

Shocked at this, some readers may ask: But did not Adam’s soul survive somewhere? Honest examination of the Bible will furnish such readers the answer No. The reason why is that Adam was a soul, and when he, the man of flesh and blood and bone, died, the soul died. He was made a soul, as God’s own description of His creating of Adam states: “And Jehovah-God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2: 7, Am. Stan. Ver.) Adam was a soul, a man, a breathing creature, and when he died it was the soul Adam that died, and that meant everything concerning Adam. Adam, therefore, went completely out of existence.

The doctrine of the “inherent immortality of all human souls” as taught by Christendom is a lie, the great lie first told by the Devil, “that old Serpent,” for the very purpose of deceiving mankind and bringing reproach upon the Creator, Almighty God. That lie of the Devil induced the course that led to the death of Adam and the millions of others since. Hence Jesus said of the Devil that “he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there i» no truth in him. When he speabeth a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8: 44) Adam, by his willful conduct in Eden, killed his offspring that were in his loins unborn by bequeathing to them the inheritance of death.

The Devil is spoken of at Hebrews 2:14 as having the power of death. Now, while he possesses the power of death, the Devil himself is not immortal. In Eden God entered His judgment of destruction against the Devil, and in' due time the Devil shall be completely destroyed. In execution of that judgment from Jehovah God, His Soh Jesus Christ will destroy the Devil; for it is written: “Forasmuch then as the children [of Abraham] are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” (Hebrews 2:14-16) Even holy angels are not immortal, and those spirit creatures ,that follow the Devil in rebellion shall suffer destruction as demons. The religious doctrine that, the dead are conscious in a “purgatory” or in a “hell of torment”, undergoing conscious punishment there, is entirely false and is the fruit of the Devil’s first lie.

“Purgatory” is a demoniacal myth that never had a semblance of existence except in the mind of those who do not know or accept the plain Word of God. As to “eternal torment” in a sadistic place of torture, there is no such thing taught in the Bible. “Hell,” as that word appears in the ancient English versions of the Bible, means the grave, or tomb, as denoting the state of death or nonexistence. There is no conscious existence after death in a purgatory” or in a theological “hell”. Do not take our word for this, but that of the Scriptures, which say: “The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward ; for the memory of them is forgotten. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou go-est.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5,10) “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” (Psalm 115:17) “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?” (Psalm 89:48) Other texts speak likewise.

The Scriptures abundantly testify that God has provided a resurrection out of death for those who obey Him, and thus He delivers souls, or the existence or persons, from the grave or deathstate. If those who have died are alive somewhere, then they could not be resurrected, because “resurrection” means coming out of death and becoming consciously alive again. The doctrine of “inherent immortality” would therefore make God a liar in promising a “resurrection”; and we know that God cannot lie. This is further evidence that the doctrine of inherent immortality of human souls originated with the Devil.

■ Abel is the first one whose death the Bible records. Cain was the first one born to Adam aiid Eve, and then Abel was born. (Genesis 4:1,2) Cain yielded to the influence of the Devil and murdered his brother Abel. Why? Because Abel chose to serve Jehovah God. When the creature Lucifer, before he turned himself into a devil, was made overlord over humankind in Eden he was given the “power of death”, which power he was thereafter permitted to retain. By inducing Cain to obey him, and seeing that Abel was faithful to God, the Devil chose to murder Abel in order to carry out his wicked works against God’s purpose. The Devil is the one that was responsible for the murder of Abel. The Lord Jesus stated thereafter with authority that Abel was a righteous man and that the Devil was a liar and a murderer from the beginning.—Matthew 23:35; John 8: 44.

Abel, of course, was under the condemnation of death inherited from his father, Adam. But when he died thus suddenly by being murdered, he died for being faithful and devoted to God. He died, therefore, differently from Adam, and death for Abel then did not mean destruction forever for him. His blood cried to God from the ground, showing that God remembers Abel in death. He will therefore preserve His lover Abel by bringing him forth from the dead by a resurrection under the established kingdom of Jesus Christ and setting before him the way to everlasting life on earth.

Religious Hooliganism in Red Granite

RED Granite, Wisconsin, was the stage for a drama of religious intolerance during May, with the local priest playing the villain. On May 4, 1947, three of Jehovah’s witnesses went from door to door preaching the gospel of Christ’s kingdom. Of one of these ministers Catholic priest Wojak demanded, “What is your business in town?” The reply that it was preaching the Kingdom gospel did not seem a good cause to Wojak. Two of the Witnesses had been chased from the town by a gang of young hoodlums under Wojak’s control, and the third, an elderly man, had been ordered to, leave town, his bookbag seized and Bible literature torn to shreds, and then transported by the town marshal, Joseph Marshall, to the edge of town, set afoot, and told to hike toward Stevens Point, forty-five miles distant. This officer is a member of the local Catholic church, and admitted that priest Wojak had told him to do something to stop Jehovah’s witnesses.

On May 11 a number of Jehovah’s witnesses preached in Red Granite and had about completed the town, without having any trouble. Then witness Luke Laszewski called at the home where the priest stayed; not knowing of this, however. In answer to his knock a voice cordially cried out, “Come right in.” The Witness did, and told the stocky, middle-aged, uncollared man before him that he was preaching the gospel. Ragefdlly the priest, Wojak—for it was he—leaped to his feet, locked the front door, and hysterically yelled, “Boys!” Out popped two of the hoodlums of the previous week, pounced upon Laszewski, and rained blows upon him. The villainous priest increased the odds of two against one to three against one as he pitched into the melee, glancing a blow off Laszewski’s nose that broke it. But the hoodlums were taking punishment also, FEBRUARY 8, 1948

and the mother of one of the rowdies called in daughter Caroline Baumann. This 24-year-old feline of the family seized the Witness’ hair with one hand and clawed his face with the other, till the victim, now battling under oddw of four to one, was a bloody mess, 1 |eld by hooligans Wojak and Caroline, Laszewski was lashed by blows from James Baumann and Robert Nigbor. With a crash the door broke open, and the unfair battle surged into the outdoors. There it was seen by another Witness, the brother of Luke Laszewski. He rushed to cut the odds to four against two. Ducking a swishing blow at his head, piously aimed from behind by the priest, the newcomer whirled and straightened as he landed a solid haymaker on the priestly instigator of the fight. This nasty turn of events for the villain caused the fight to cease.

The Witnesses were first charged by the district attorney with assault and battery, but that was changed to riot and illegal assembly. At the jury'trial the priest put in a pompous appearance, but was soon tangled in his own web of lies that he wove when on the witness stand. He had cried “Boys!” that morning to get them to go to the ball game with him, and not to get them to attack the Witness, Wojak claimed. But the game did not start till two in the afternoon. Well, he wanted the best parking space, right behind the home base screen. Then he said he wanted to watch them drag the field. But watching that for two or three hours did not seem so sensible, so he then claimed his real reason was to watch the players practice. But alas I the players do not. start to warm up till thirty minutes before game time, at 2 p.m. Wojak claimed he was a regular attender at the local ball games. Yes, he attended last Sunday, May 4, he said. But that Sunday he did not go early; he

was rotinding up Jehovah’s witnesses and getting them run out of town. Moreover, one of the mobsters on the priest’s side swore under oath that Wojak did not go to the game at all on May 4. It was obvious that on the stand Wojak and his mob, including moll Caroline, floundered in falsehoods, their testimony differing widely from what they had said at the preliminary examining trial.

The witnesses of Jehovah spoke with straightforward truthfulness on the stand, and were unrattled on cross-examination. Verdict, not guilty. Rejoicing Witnesses I Sad Hooligans I The priestly villain foiled again!

For Freedom’s Cause

♦ In Manilla, Iowa, publishers were “egged” while engaged in street Witnessing, It is not necessary to narrate all the details, details that have been seen in many other cases in many other towns. But noteworthy for freedom’s cause is this write-up appearing in the August 7, 1947, issue of the weekly Manilla Times: It Can’t Happen Here?

Twice in the last few weeks a deplorable incident has occurred in our town—Manilla. A group of so-called citizens took the law in their own hands and abuseu a minority religious sect—in short they were * ‘egged? *

The rights of minorities are so much a part of the American way that they hardly need defending-Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press, are the beacons That set America out as an island in a world of darkness.

Our government is a government of laws. Minorities are not denied their constitutional rights Unless the national defense Is threatened and then only under due process of W It is a short step from egging to lynching—from denying rights to one minority to denying rights to all minorities

■from law by mob to law by tyrants.

The U. S. Supreme Court has ruled that ttis particular group has the right to distribute their literature. Any person or persons attempting to deny them this privilege by mob action can only be held In scorn by true Americans. They are driving one more nail into the scaffold that was so well built in Germany and Italy,

America isn’t great because we have the biggest battleships or the tallest skyscrapers but because you, Mr, Average American, believe in democracy and tolerance. Let’s keep America great

This message submitted and paid for by the

Manilla Kiwanis Club

Manilla, Iowa

Joy for You Today

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AWAKE!

Little Assembly

Convenes, Adjourns

The Little Assembly (or Interim Committee) of the U. N. met for the first time on January 5. The six members of the Soviet bloc boycotted the meeting, as was expected. They were the three Soviet states Russia, White Russia and the Ukraine, and the Russian satellites Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, Representatives of El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Lebanon, Paraguay and Yemen were also absent, but appointment of representatives by these countries was expected to take place soon. The meeting was cut short, after hearing a proposal for postponing the discussion of the controversial veto question for ten weeks, so as to give U. N. members an opportunity to submit proposals. Meeting again on January 9, the Little Assembly voted to adopt the proposal made at the first meet-Ing and then to adjourn until late in February.

Unholy Violence In "Holy Land" & The beginning of 1948 witnesses a continuation of the Arab-Jewish violence that marked the end of 1947. There was a toll of over 700 Arabs and Jews killed and 1500 or more wounded, as a result of bombings, raids and battles. Big shipments of TNT and other explosives were discovered going to Palestine from various points in the U. S. A raid on a New Jersey farm resulted in the seizure of 68 tons of the superexp]ostve, cyclonite, intended for the same destination. A half dozen arrests were made, the men being charged with making or causing । to be made false export declarations, and the men were released on bail for action of the Federal grand jury. (Shipment of arms to the Near East is 'forbidden.) Meanwhile Britain continues to send arms to Arab states, offering the explanation that it is done to fulfill certain contracts.

Kashmir, Pakistan, Hindustan

<§> The problem of Kashmir, brought to the attention of the U. N, Security Council by Hindustan on January 2, was briefly considered by that body on January 6. Pakistan’s ambassador at Washington asked for a week's postponement of the inquiry, which was granted. Pakistan Is charged with seeking to add Kashmir's 80,000 square miles of territory to its own domain. Kashmir, whose inhabitants are mainly Moslems, seeks to remain independent. Kashmir's ruler called upon Hindustan’s Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for aid in resisting the onslaughts and raids upon Kashmir allegedly originating In Pakistan, The debate in the Security Council was deferred, until midJanuary.

Interim Aid Agreement®

French Foreign Minister Georges Bldault and U. S, Ambassador Jefferson CafTery on January 2 signed the interim aid agreement between the two countries by which France received Immediate shipments of fuel, food and fertilizer, besides further supplies, amounting to about $300,000,000. Austria, on the same date, also signed such an agreement for aid, in the sum of $50,000,000. Italy signed its agreement the following day, covering goods valued at $200,000,-000. Each of the three countries agreed to deposit money received for the goods furnished them, in their respective national banks, as an anti-inflation measure. They also agreed to make the relief supplies available at fair prices and, whenever necessary, to give special consideration to the poor and needy.

France Resists Communism

<$> In France the uphill battle against inflation and Communism saw some progress In early January. Premier Schuman won a decided victory in his fight for anti-inflation measures, the National Assembly passing his tax bill by a vote of 315-268. A loan bill, enabling the government to withdraw a special tax in the case of those investing in national bonds was passed, only Communists voting against it The loan bill will enable the government to counteract inflation by bringing into the national treasury, and out of circulation, a sum of 125,000,000,000 francs. French peasants were warned against the cajoleries of Communism, which, according to the minister of agriculture, offered to give them more while actually planning to take away all they had. The formation of a Socialist labor union to counteract the influence of Communists in union affairs also made progress,

ITO

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment meeting in Havana, Cuba, was in January working on arrange-

merits for an International Trade Organization (ITO)* Many questions were raised on such subjects as cartels, restrictive business practices, tariff agreements, customs; unions and subsidies. The world trade charter drafted at Geneva last summer was also being considered by the conference,

Koreans Greet XLN. Group

< The U. N, Temporary Commission on Korea arrived In Seoul, Korea, on January 8, having come by plane from Tokla The fifty-member party was welcomed at the airport by U* S, and Korean officials* The Soviet Ukraine, also appointed to serve on the Commission, was not represented. Though night had fallen, long lines of people hailed the commission,

Michael Forced Out

No one with his eyeteeth cut believed that Michael of Rumania abdicated of his*own free will* He was forced out, Moscow operating through the Rumanian Communist Foreign Minister Ana Pauker, and her associates* Michael (and his party) went to Switzerland and hopes to be able to save some of his possessions, Michael should be thankful he got off so easy.

Calls Vatican and U* S.

Warmongers

In a six-hour speech, delivered at the opening of the Communists National Congress In Milan on January 4, Togliatti, Communist leader, denounced the U* S* and the Vatican as the worEd's biggest warmongers. In addition to delegates representing Italy’s reputed 2,250,000 Communists, top Communists from Britain and France were also present at the Congress. Said Togliatti: "The danger of war is the consequence of expansion and the program of world domination by an Imperial* jfftle power. This is the kind process going on now in the United States* But there is another power, the Vatican, which, while conducting on the one side a campaign for peace In general terms to delude the people, on the other side lines up with the imperialistic powers any time the International situation worsens,'*

Ifjtftaii Republic

<$> Ml 111ary drums sounded throughout Italy In heralding on January 1 the beginning of the Italian Republic* The Constitution of the new republic came Into force as of that date. The Italian flag was raised everywhere, but without the cross of the Royal House of Savoy,

Britain Nationalizes Railways <$> Britain began 1948 with the nationalization of its railway system, the Transport Act, covering railways, Loudon transport, and other transportation facilities, taking effect January 1. As a result the British people now own 52,000 miles of railway, 2,000 ndJes of canals and thousands of miles of bus, tram and trucking routes* Duplicating lines will be eliminated. The former stockholders are to receive 3 percent on their shares, which total about $4,000,000,000* The new stock has a maturity date of 1078-1988*

The Union of Burma

The people of Burma, on January 4, at 4:20 a.m. (the hour and minute set by Buddhist demon-worshlpera), began a new national existence, independent of the British Commonwealth, which had ruled Burma for 62 years* The Constituent Assembly, in its last session the day before, approved the appointment of Thakln Nu as prime minister, he having served tn that capacity for the interim government since the assassination of Premier U’ Aung San last July. Most of the cabinet posts are held by members of Thakin Nu's Anti-Fascist Peoples’ Freedom League, a Socialist party. The Assembly earlb er elected Sawbwa of Yawnghwe as first president of the Union of Burma.

Bulgarian Opposition Warned <§> Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgaria’s premier, on January 12 warned the Opposition in the Parliament that they should remember what happened to Nikola Petkov, the Opposition Agrarian leader, who was executed last September, The Opposition, composed of nine Social Democrats, had dared to criticize the budget advocated by the premier*

New Indonesian Council

The Netherlands government on January 13 appointed seven represents ti ves of D u t c* h - co n-trolled areas of Indonesia to serve as a preliminary federative council or interim government of a federated United States of Indonesia, No representatives of the Indonesian Republic (of Java) headed by Premier Amier Sjarifudin were included*

Military Aid to Greece

and Turkey

At the beginning of January the attempt of the Greek Insurgents to seize Konitsa as a capital for their °government” In northern Greece was beaten back by Greek Army troops. The British Foreign office, following similar notice by the U* S, Department of State, warned Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania against recognizing the rebel government. In Greece itself the U* S. approved increases in the allocation of aid funds to finance increase in the size of the Greek Army and National Guard. U. S, Marines were reported going to the Mediterranean to reinforce four U* S. Ships. The LL S* also arranged to give Turkey 4 submarines and 11 ships, and Greece was to receive $ submarines. The U. S, Mediterranean fleet held maneuvers off the coast of southwestern Greece,

Plan for West Reich

German political leaders in the Western zones of occupation on January 8 accepted American-British plans for a bizonal eco^ aomlc administration The plans include arrangements for a cabinet, an upper and lower legislative house, and a supreme court to interpret its laws. Also a central hank to regulate currency and credit is proposed. The new German administration will not, however, be a new German Western state. It will have no army and no ministry of foreign affairs, and its actions will be subject to review by the occupation authorities. The French expressed fear that the ultimate result of this plan would be the establishing of a strong central German government, something to which they are opposed.

Yugoslavia Demands Gold

Shortly before the German invasion of Yugoslavia, $56,000,000 in gold was sent out of the country and deposited with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the credit of the National Bank of Yugoslavia. This gold, together with about $14,000,000 other funds, has been frozen by the U. S„ which means that Yugoslavia cannot get it. Having made repeated demands for the release of these funds, the Yugoslav government, complaining to the U. N., now threatens to take international action. The U.S. secretary of state has replied that until Yugoslavia does something about U. S. claims against her Washington’s attitude will not change. These claims include $42,000,000 for expropriated U. S. property in Yugoslavia, and recompense for American airplanes and fliers shot down over Yugoslavia.

8Gth U. 8. Congress Reconvenes

At the opening of the second session of the 80th Congress the U. S. president delivered the customary State of the Union message, to outline proposed policies. These were, as he said, to outline the course of America for “the next ten years”, but the message failed to meet with any enthusiastic reception on the part of the predominantly Republican Congress, which did, not envisage the president In his present position “for the next ten years'*. Nor were the Democrats responsive. The president was charged with appealing to the voters by advancing measures which would apparently benefit the “little man”. He dwelt on the high cost of living, Including housing, and recommended (1) a cut of $40 in the taxes of every individual, including dependents, with increased taxes.on corporate profits; (2) rationing and price-wage controls as and where needed; (8) a program for construction of 15,000,000 housing units; (4) increased rent controls; (5) extended social security provisions; (6) provision to wipe out discrimination as to civil rights, to be covered by a special message; (7) a national health program; (8) federal aid to schools; (9) a minimum wage of 75 cents an hour; (10) labor laws to replace the Taft-Hartley Act; (11) funds to enforce antitrust laws; ^f (121 universal military training and a strong armament program: (13) provision for entry of Europe’s displaced persons ; (14) enactment of the four-year European Recovery Program; (15) continual, full support of the U. N.; (16) conservation of natural resources; (17) farm aid provisions; (18) statehood for Alaska and Hawaii; and (191 a $50,000,000,-000 Industrial expansion program, with development of atomic energy, keyed to “free competition”. Many Washington observers attacked the program as a revival of the “New Deal'**

EBP—Why, How Mach

and How

& Testifying before the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee od January 8 Secretary of State Marshall, in a 5,000-word statement, urged the necessity of full aid to Europe. Answering questions as to why, how much and liow_f and insisting on the full $17,000,000,000 program, he said, “either undertake to meet the requirements of the job, or don*t undertake it at all.”

Fighting Church-State Links

<$> Formation was announced January 11 of an organization called “Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State”. A manifesto was Issued by leaders in the organization stating that its “single and only purpose Is to assure the maintenance of the American principle of separation of church and state upon which the federal constitution guarantees religious liberty to all people and all churches of this republic”. It mentioned such obvious violations of the principle as the president’s having a representative at the Vatican, aid to religious schools^ etc. The Catholic Knights of Columbus were quick to brand the organization as “intolerant”.

TL S. Cable Strike

Twenty-five hundred cable and radio workers of the American Communications Association, a CIO union, went on strike January 2 and cut off almost two-thirds of the commercial facilities for communication between the U. S. and other parts of the world. As the strike continued Joseph P, Selly, union president, and other leaders were arrested.

Economic Report for U. S.

The president and his council of economic advisers prepared an economic report which was presented to Congress January 14, in conformity with the Employment Act of 1946. The report set three objectives for 1948: to halt inflation, by adopting measures previously recommended by the president; to maintain top’level production and employment; and to plan for the future so that after ten years there will be employment for 64,000,000 Americans.

Cosmic Bay Body Found

On January 12, at the French Academy of Science ft was announced by Dr. F. Jollot-Curie, French high commissioner for atomic energy, that a new type of radio-active body had been found to exist in cosmic rays by which a more complete disintegration of the atom would be possible, resulting in the release of greater energy than in methods thus far employed. “Bigger and better explosions*’ seem to be in prospect

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