The Conflict of the Ages

By Arno Clement Gaebelein

Chapter 7

The Revolutionary Propaganda in the United States

The program of Sovietism is the program of world-revolution. This is not a secret. The trumpets of Moscow have blared it for years. The red agitators are found in every continent. They are active among the Mongolian races in the far East. They sow their seed of hate in India. In Central Asia they have been partially successful. Africa is feeling it and the black races are stirred by it. Throughout Europe the agents of Sovietism are found in every country. If it had not been for the recent events in Germany that country would probably have been plunged into a red revolution, which would have cost many thousands of lives. It was Mussolini who saved Italy from a similar fate. In France, England, Spain, Austria, Bulgaria, Roumania and all other European countries the red agitators are active. In Australia, South America, Central America, in Mexico and Canada have the same experience and fight the encroaching Communism.  

According to the claims of Russia successful revolutionary propaganda is now carried on in fifty countries. But the country which is in the grasp of communistic intrigues as perhaps no other civilized country, is the United States. Communism has become a menace, greater than any other menace in the past and present history of our republic.  

It used to be said, and people believed it, that when the ostrich is pursued by hunters and the pursuit becomes hotter, that the bird, in order to escape the consciousness of danger, buries its head in the sand. It is a zoological myth. No animal is so stupid as that. But our government for a number of years has played the alleged ostrich feat, and talked itself into the dream that there is no danger, refusing to believe that the agitation of the lawless ones could affect our "glorious country." Ever since the congressional investigation under the able leadership of the Hon. Hamilton Fish, Jr., has uncovered the nation-wide activities of the enemy within our gates there has been an awakening. Yet some of our legislators slumber on, while others are opposing the legislations needed to crush out the open and secret activities of the seed of the serpent, advocating the overthrow of our government, and the establishment of a Soviet government under the direct domination of Moscow. The fullest awakening to this horrible menace has not yet come. May it not be far away when our country will be purged from the agitators from abroad and still more so from a certain class of American citizens, who have aligned themselves with the Soviets to assist them in their vicious propaganda.  

Communism is now a political party in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in September 1919 by a number of the extreme American radicals and is a part of the third Internationale. It was composed almost entirely of foreign born workers. A short time later it was forced into hiding on account of its illegality. Then in December 1921 the Communist party was camouflaged under the name "Workers Party of America," but in 1928 the mask was thrown aside and they came out into the open as the "Communist Party of America" in full allegiance with Moscow and the Comintern. And here we must quote from the congressional report :1  

The communists came more and more into the open until today they flaunt their revolutionary activities throughout the country. Since 1925 the Department of Justice has had no power, no authority, or funds from the Congress to investigate communist propaganda or activities. During the period that the Department of Justice had actual authority the Communist Party was driven underground where it could not function successfully. Just so long as the agents of the Department of Justice were active the movement remained comparatively stationary and innocuous. At the present time the Communist Party of the United States is thoroughly and highly organized, nationally and locally, and is extremely active.  

This shows how thoroughly asleep our government has been and how it has permitted a revolutionary party, under outside, non-American domination and control, to carry on its program of destruction of our government, our industries, the American family, our patriotism, our Churches and our schools. The trail of the serpent has become most prominent in our country. The astonishing growth of communism, this offspring of Marx, Weishaupt and other godless elements, we shall now briefly follow. Who does not desire in view of it to cry out with a loyal American citizen and writer— "In God's Name why do we Americans permit the working of red Russia's conspiracies in this country? Have we lost the sturdy stamina of our forefathers?"2  

W. Z. Foster, several times candidate for the presidency on the communistic ticket, has voiced in clear language what the object of this party is. In his acceptance speech in 1928 he said:  

"The working class must shatter the capitalistic state. It must build a new state, a new government, a workers' and farmers' government, the Soviet Government of the United States. No communist, no matter how many votes he should secure in the national election, could, even if be would, become president of the present government. When a communist heads a government in the United States, and that day will come just as surely as the sun rises, that government will not be a capitalistic government, but a Soviet government, and behind this government will stand the red army to enforce the dictatorship of the proletariat."  

This same radical, in the investigation of the congressional committee revealed the fact how completely the communistic party is under the control of Moscow. He also made it clear that they only own one flag, not the flag of the United States, but the red flag. How highly organized this alien party has become may be learned from the fact that the "Trade Unity League," a section of the Red Internationale, has in the United States over seventy-five organizations affiliated with communism.  

All the leading industries are represented—agriculture, clothing workers, metal and iron workers, cleaning and laundry, food and packing houses, the needle trades, painters, furniture workers, miners, railroad workers, rubber and textile workers, leather workers, etc. Then we find the United Farmers' League, the American Negro Labor Congress, Workers of Library Publishers, Council for Working Class Women, Bezboshnik (Russian godless society), Labor Sports Union, Young Communist League, Young Pioneers of America, Negro Champion, Young Comrade, International Press, Friends of the Soviet Union (with modernistic preachers and educators as paying members), Hungarian Sick and Benefit Society, etc., etc.  

Still more astonishing is the communistic press. It has a paid circulation of about 350,000. One of the leading papers is the "Daily Worker." In ten months it doubled its subscription list. Its issues, it is said, are from 35,000 to 40,000 copies. Other English periodicals are: "Labor Defender," "Young Worker," "United Farmer," "Labor Unity," "Working Women," "Southern Worker," "Communist," "Liberator" and others. Other periodicals are published in Yiddish, Russian, Polish, Finnish, Italian, Scandinavian, Greek, Lithuanian, Bohemian, German, Armenian, Bulgarian, Lettish, Estonian and Japanese. We recommend our interested readers to study Report 2290 of the Seventy-first Congress published in 1931 to see what Communism has achieved in the line of organization and publicity during the few years of its existence.  

Perhaps the most serious aspect of this un-American propaganda, aiming at the destruction of our American ideals and institutions, besides all religion, is its activity among the young people. The communists conduct an extensive and intensive campaign among the young for the spread of the communistic doctrines, attempting to prepare them for militant participation and leadership in the future revolution, when the bloody scenes of Russia of 1917-1920 are to be repeated. The "Young Pioneers of America" and the "Young Communist League" are imitations of the Boy Scouts of America. They are both dedicated to the hatred of American institutions and the American flag. They are stirred up in every possible way to wage a relentless warfare against all religious beliefs and to hold their own parents in contempt and disobey them in case they maintain faith in God. It is not enough that they are irreligious, but they must be anti-religious. Then there are communist summer schools and camps. Here the most pernicious work is done. These schools are in different parts of the country. In the state of New York yearly 15,000 young communists are turned out with intense class hatred, as well as hatred of God, hatred of our government and hatred of American traditions. The Fish Congressional Report says: "In the vicinity of New York City the Communist camps include a very high 'percentage of Jewish boys and girls, estimated to be as high as ninety per cent3. There is no Federal law prohibiting such camps teaching disloyalty and practically treason to thousands of healthy and bright young future Americans, and they are permitted to exist and continue to warp the minds of immature children whose parents have fled from countries where they were oppressed to a land of freedom and equal opportunity." 4  

During May, 1933, in Amherst College, where certain teachers may have spread the seed of infidelity, a score of freshmen burned the American flag in a Communist demonstration. They call themselves "the sincere Communists of Amherst College." They sang the Internationale. The newspaper report said that the president, Dr. Stanley King, "declined to comment on the incident." In 1929 a "Children's Congress" was held in Moscow. Seven boys and girls, about the age of fourteen, were sent from the United States as delegates, among them a young negro, who had left the Boy Scouts and joined the Pioneers. One of the delegates, a vicious youngster, was arrested before the departure of the delegation. After these delegates returned they became very active among school children. One young girl, daughter of foreignborn parents, concluded her speeches: "Remember the only country we have is Soviet Russia—we children of today will be the leaders of the revolutionary movement a few years hence, when we will make this country another Russia."  

They have now also established "Communist-Workers Schools." They are in existence in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Seattle, Portland, Oregon, Youngstown, Pontiac and other places. Here revolution against the American government, the tactics of revolution and probably the different forms of violence, besides hatred of religion, are systematically taught. And here again our government is still asleep.  

Another activity is among the negro residents. In order to give facts to the reader who has not access to the Congressional Report, we quote from it.5  

"The communists for years have looked hopefully toward the negro residents of the United States as an element where they might gain recruits for the Communist Party. Work among the negroes is considered one of the major activities of the party.  

"Up until this time, the communist effort to interest and line up the negroes in this country has not met with great success, although a considerable number of negroes employed in the northern industrial centers have joined the movement. In the South efforts among the negroes have not been very fruitful, although some headway has been made in certain sections.  

"The Communist Party has a negro work department and a national negro organizer. This special department extends down through all communist units, including the District, the section, and finally to each unit or nucleus, with a responsible director.  

"The task of the communists among the negro workers is to bring about class consciousness, and to crystallize this in independent class political action against the capitalist class; to take every possible advantage of occurrences and conditions which will tend to develop race feeling with the view of utilizing racial antagonism. At every opportunity the attempt is made to stir up trouble between the white and negro races.  

"The negroes are made to believe that the communists practice complete racial and social equality and that only when a communist  

Government is set up in the United States will the negroes obtain equality and freedom from exploitation by the 'white bosses, and in order to attract and impress the negro, the communists make a point of encouraging mixed social functions where white women communists dance with negro men and white men communists dance with negro women. It is openly advocated that there must be complete social and racial equality between the whites and negroes even to the extent of intermarriage.  

Several pages in the Congressional Report are devoted to the propaganda which is carried on in our military organizations—the Army, the National Guard, the military training camps and units in schools and colleges. Young Communists sneak in, enlist and then carry on an underhanded work to create a revolutionary spirit. A small sheet, "The Rebel Guard," is published by them and secretly circulated. They attempt to break down the morale of our defense forces and also try to discourage enlistments. In connection with the schools, colleges and universities, the report says: "The evidence presented to the committee of communist attacks against military training in schools and colleges is extensive. Such activities have led to considerable agitation in some of the big universities. Opposition to military training in educational institutions provides a fertile field for inflammatory speeches and articles by young communists who pose as favoring eternal peace while advocating civil war and revolution." Let it be remembered that Professor Einstein, the socialist and scientist, sent a telegram after his first visit to our hospitable shores, to a large gathering of young people's societies, advising them to become "militant pacifists." Of late, we believe, he has taken a more positive stand and has become the president of some youth pacific organization. General L. R. Holbrook, Commander of the first division of the United States Army in 1931 said:  

"It is well to remember that the political power in control of Russia has declared war on the United States, and is today openly advocating the overthrow of this government in every place and at every opportunity. Russia evidently is preparing to fight the world. Preaching disarmament among other nations, she is today creating the greatest war machine the world has ever known.  

"We will face a new alignment in the next war. We will forget our foes of the World War and welcome them as allies. This is not an alarmist theory. Foes of the recent conflict will work together against the common enemy for the preservation of our government, our homes and firesides, and our religion, for we face the loss of all these if any enemy bent on their wholesale destruction should triumph.'*  

And this destructive propaganda continues, as we prove later, by a certain class of American educators and the so-called "men of the cloth," clergymen of different denominations.  

Congressman John E. Nelson made some statements which present the situation in the right light:  

"Communism in the United States is organized on the theories of Karl Marx, with tactics applied by Nicholas Lenin. Their objectives are definite and they have adopted an uncompromising policy by which to attain them. The postulates of American communism, openly declared, are as follows:  

To arouse working-class consciousness.  

To teach that our Government is dominated and controlled by and for the capitalist class; that the workers "produce everything and own nothing," and the capitalists "produce nothing and own everything."  

To educate the masses to a common view point, and set them up as enemies of capitalistic society.  

To prepare them for the revolution that is to usher in the dictatorship of the proletariat.  

To expropriate all means and instrumentalities of production, and to suppress or eliminate all those who may oppose them.  

To make America a Soviet Republic.  

"The idea that all American communists are ignorant rogues and selfish adventurers must be dismissed, if we are to have a proper conception of this communist situation. The actual dues-paying members of the Communist Party in the United States are, as a rule, men and women of foreign extraction, of unusual intelligence and ability, actuated by no hope of personal reward, and absolutely devoted to their cause, for which they are ever ready to sacrifice their time, health, and talents. They are the heralds of a new social philosophy, the apostles of an intellectual religion divorced of all spirituality, and the captains of an army. Absolute obedience and continual activity are demanded of every member and they are subject to a discipline as exacting as that of any military organization. The communist is a zealot, supremely selfconfident, and as devoid of compassion as an executioner. Whether we like it or not, theirs is the old crusader spirit, modernized with the instruments and methods of today. All this gives them a strength and influence all out of proportion to their numbers, a kind of strength possessed, perhaps by no other organization in this country."  

He also states the fact that orders for work, the work of destroying our country are received directly from Moscow. Groups of workers, including negroes and young people of both sexes, are continually sent to Russia to be trained as communist agitators and active revolutionists. They are ordered to bore from within, in the army, the navy, the national guard, the schools, the labor unions, the industries, the American Legion, and to establish themselves in key positions, to be ready for leadership when the day of revolution comes.  

One of the chief aims of this vicious propaganda is to overthrow the "American Federation of Labor." If this were achieved the doom of this country would have arrived. The late Samuel Gompers, a patriotic American citizen opposed these agitations and so do also the present excellent leaders of the Federation, Mr. Green and the Vice-President Matthew Woll.  

And how many pages might be filled with the commercial aspect, the never-ceasing attempts to hurt our commercial enterprises and industries by "dumping". Russia itself is agriculturally and also industrially in a desperate condition. To give just a faint glimpse of what has happened and the misery, which exists in that land of godlessness, we quote from Report 2290 of the Seventy-first Congress:  

"The Communist Party in Russia consists very largely of members from the industrial centers, and is directed by city workers for their own benefit. The peasants were looked down on as inferior beings and were regarded as little better than animals to plant and harvest the food supply for the city workers. Consequently there was no cooperation between the communist city workers and the peasants, and the bulk of the peasants hated and feared the communists, who sent out expeditions into the farming country and confiscated most of the grain from the farmers on various pretexts, such as nonpayment of taxes or counter revolution, or paid for it in worthless currency or receipts for government bonds. The poor peasant became more and more exasperated and often found the more he harvested the less he had, so he began to plant only a sufficient amount for the needs of his own family. The result was in effect a gigantic, though undirected, strike by the peasants of Russia, which forced the Soviet Government to change its tactics. First it permitted a modified free trade and agriculture revived. Lately it has begun to create huge state farms and organize the peasants into enormous producing cooperatives.  

The first step was a campaign to eliminate or liquidate the Kulaks, or so-called rich farmers, who were bitterly opposed to communism. These Kulaks were the more thrifty farmers who were able, through individual effort, to acquire a few cows and horses and live in a better house than the other peasants. These Kulaks were not rich in the sense of American farmers, as they probably did not make over a couple of hundred dollars a year, yet the word went out from Moscow that they must be suppressed. A reign of terror ensued. Peasants were told that they could take away the property of any Kulak who had as much as two cows or two horses and the red army and police were used to wipe out the Kulaks. In turn these farmers, the best in Russia, began in desperation to kill off their cattle, so that in 1928-29 it is estimated that 15,000,000 head of cattle were slaughtered, seriously impairing the milk, butter, and cheese supply of Russia, and also the production of beef.  

"It is difficult to ascertain accurate figures as to the number of Kulaks that were driven out of their homes and deported to the northern forests to cut timber or to work on the roads in Siberia. The figures available vary all the way from 500,000 to 5,000,000, and the truth it probably about halfway between. The suffering that these Kulaks endured, together with their families, is one of the terrible tragedies of recent Russian history.  

"The ruthlessness of the Soviet Government in liquidating the Kulaks aroused the sympathy of the peasants and caused widespread resistance and antagonism so that Stalin issued an edict from Moscow that the Kulak liquidation had gone far enough and that from now on only counter-revolutionists among the peasants would be suppressed. The warfare against the Kulaks had brought about chaos in Russian agriculture, as the best farmers and those who gave employment had been deported or ruined. "  

We must refrain from mentioning other different forms of the Russian propaganda and such organizations as the "United Farmers' League" with headquarters in Minnesota, spreading Communism throughout the Northwest and sowing the seed of revolution; the "All American Imperialistic League" which aims at the rebellion of Mexico and South America against the United States. There is also a certain "Press Federation" which is serving Communism; the "League for Industrial Democracy," a radical organization active in universities and colleges disseminating its theories among our American youth through liberal clubs; "The Friends of the Soviet Union," raising money to promote friendly relations with Russia, aiming at recognition; "International Labor Defense" which is a branch of the International Red Aid of Moscow. This labor defense spreads communistic propaganda through the publicity derived from the radical, so-called class-war prisoners. It claims to defend all workers who are being persecuted by "the capitalistic government." These prisoners, who have been guilty of criminal actions, receive through this labor defense, bail bonds, attorneys' fees, etc. For instance, the Sacco- Vanizetti case, the Mooney-Billings case, the Gastonia case and others were carried on by this defense. In the case of the defendants tried for killing the police chief of Gastonia, about $30,000 was furnished by the Garland fund and the communistic organizations in our land gave $100,000. Yet not a dollar came into the hands of the men conducting the defense. The Garland fund has kept this labor defense and also the "American Civil Liberties Union," of which we shall have more to say, partly in funds.  

The field of their greatest activities has been the different industries where they have fomented discontent, which has led to serious strikes. Underneath is a most pernicious propaganda. While they demand certain concessions and reforms they maliciously obstruct and prevent their execution. The leading communistic-led strikes took place among the textile workers in Paterson, N. J. The leaders were, to judge by their names, foreigners—Weisbrod, Ruben stein, Wagenknecht and others. Then came strikes among the fur workers of New York, in Bedford, Massachusetts, in Gastonia, South Carolina, where the chief of police was murdered, a shoe strike in New York City. Many other strikes were engineered by them, among the dental workers, the needle trade, the window cleaners and cafeteria workers. There is an organization in this country, which has been a great encouragement to this foreign and revolutionary element. It is the Red-defending "American Civil Liberties Union." As the real character of this organization is not generally known, we quote what the Congressional Investigation Committee has to say about them. (Report 2290, p. 52.)  

"The American Civil Liberties Union is closely affiliated with the communist movement in the United States, and fully 90 per cent of its efforts are on behalf of communists who have come into conflict with the law. It claims to stand for free speech, free press, and free assembly; but it is quite apparent that the main function of the A. C. L. U. is to attempt to protect the communists in their advocacy of force and violence to overthrow the Government, replacing the American flag by a red flag and erecting a Soviet Government in place of the republican form of government guaranteed to each State by the Federal Constitution.  

"Roger N. Baldwin, its guiding spirit, makes no attempt to hide his friendship for the communists and their principles. He was formerly a member of the I. W. W. and served a term in prison as a draft dodger during the war. This is the same Roger N. Baldwin that has recently issued a statement 'that in the next session of Congress our job is to organize the opposition to the recommendations of the congressional committee investigating communism.' In his testimony before the committee he admitted having said at a dinner held in Chicago that 'The Fish Committee recommendation will be buried in the Senate.' Testifying on force and violence, murder, etc., the following is quoted:  

The CHAIRMAN. Does your organization uphold the right of a citizen or alien—it does not make any difference which—to advocate murder?  

Mr. BALDWIN. Yes.  

The CHAIRMAN. Or assassination?  

Mr. BALDWIN. Yes.  

The CHAIRMAN. Does your organization uphold the right of an American citizen to advocate force and violence for the overthrow of the Government.  

Mr. BALDWIN. Certainly; in so far as mere advocacy is concerned.  

The CHAIRMAN. Does it uphold the right of an alien in this country to urge the overthrow and advocate the overthrow of the Government by force and violence?  

Mr. BALDWIN. Precisely on the same basis as any citizen.  

The CHAIRMAN. YOU do uphold the right of an alien to advocate the overthrow of the Government by force and violence?  

Mr. BALDWIN. Sure; certainly. It is the healthiest kind of thing for a country, of course, to have free speech—unlimited.  

"The American Civil Liberties Union has received large sums from the Garland fund, of which Roger N. Baldwin is one of the directors. During the trial of the communists at Gastonia, not for freedom of speech, of the press, or assembly, but for a conspiracy to kill the chief of police, of which seven defendants were convicted, the A. C. L. U. provided bail for five of the defendants, amounting to $28,500, which it secured from the Garland fund. All of the defendants convicted jumped their bail and are reported to be in Russia. The $28,500 bail was forfeited, including $9,000 more advanced by the International Labor Defense.  

"A committee of the New York State Legislature, back in 1928, reached the following conclusion in regard to the American Civil Liberties Union:  

The American Civil Liberties Union, in the last analysis, is a supporter of all subversive movements; its propaganda is detrimental to the interests of the State. It attempts not only to protect crime but to encourage attacks upon our institutions in every form.  

"Your committee concurs with the above findings.  

"The principles of free speech, free press, and free assembly are worthy of an organization that stands for our republican form of government, guaranteed by the Constitution, and for the ideals of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, instead of an organization whose main work is to uphold the communists in spreading revolutionary propaganda and inciting revolutionary activities to undermine our American institutions and overthrow our Federal Government."  

In the membership of this Red-defending organization we find a strange combination. Here are out and out atheists, free-thinkers, agnostics, politicians, preachers of different evangelical denominations, editors of "religious periodicals," and professors in various institutions of learning including theological seminaries. How can Communism with its agitation against government, private ownership, above all against God and against His Christ, against religion and against the church, this menace of our country, be curtailed if "Christian" preachers and educators help along its continuance? Here is an item which should open the eyes of every reader.  

"More than four hundred educators and clergymen of the 'liberal' and radical type have signed a memorial in favor of the removal by Congress of the U. S. Treasury's right to exclude from entry at the customs houses obscene books, pamphlets and circulars. One of the signers of this memorial is Bishop Francis McConnell, president of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ. Another is Rev. Harry F. Ward, of Union Theological Seminary, president of the American Civil Liberties Union. The circulation of most of the material thus excluded by the Treasury is criminal under Federal and state laws; the effect of removing the Treasury restrictions would be, however, to make its access to the country easier. Bootlegging this obscenity is one of the active New York 'rackets.' Some of the material already excluded by the Treasury specifically mentioned in the Senate debate as representing unwise 'censorship,' is of the pervert and degenerate type. The worst of this type of European 'literary' filth has not heretofore even been offered for entry into this country, because of the restriction it is now proposed to strike down. Some of it is obscene attack on religious faith."6  

The same issue of the "National Republic" shows where Harry E. Fosdick of the Riverside Church, New York City, stands, and he has thousands of followers among the "clergy" and men and women in cap and gown.  

"It has often been stated in these columns that among the most active apologists for Soviet Russia in the United States are ministers of radical and 'liberal' affiliations. Eighty-seven ministers, headed by Harry Emerson Fosdick, on March 6 issued a statement deprecating the absence of a 'note of humility' in Christian and Jewish protests against the slaughter, jailing and general repression of religious workers in Russia, and declaring that the anti-religious atttiude of communism is due 'to the failure of the churches to recognize their obligations to the social and economic needs of the people.' The statement argued that 'whatever values may be born out of the Russian experiment should be given the opportunity to mature' and an appreciation of all efforts to 'bring about a closer understanding between the Russian people and the outside world' was urged. 'An adequate commission of research and inquiry' was suggested. The claim that the atheism of Soviet Russia is due to the character of the Green Orthodox Church of course no longer has weight, in view of the fact that in their campaign for the extermination of religion, the Moscow masters now frankly extend their system of terrorism and repression to all forms of religion. Atheism is fundamental in communism as is the system of extirpating by terrorism all opinions, either religious or economic, not in accord with communist doctrines. The proposal of compromise and understanding with such a system and the suggestion of any value or virtue in it, coming from a quarter long known to be tolerant if not sympathetic with bolshevism, is grotesque. Reformists and socialists of the type joining in this ministerial outgiving are today the most hated targets of bolshevist persecution and if, on Russian soil, they were to criticize the soviet government as freely as most of them habititually do the American government, they would have to finish the argument in front of a firing squad."  

To show the utter blindness of these religious leaders we quote from the February issue (1930) of the "Federal Council Bulletin" of the Federal Council of Churches, of which the modernistic methodist Bishop Francis McConnell used to be president. In an article by a Rev. O. J. Price we read:  

"These two views of life (i. e., the Christian and the communist) have much in common—both are seeking the salvation of humanity, both are international in outlook and both create and secure supreme personal loyalty and sacrifice."  

What a slander of Christianity, which does not seek the salvation of humanity, but offers salvation in Christ. Nor does Communism have anything to offer but destruction in its program.  

Frequently protests are made against police action in dealing with the riotous Communists. Among these protesters we find Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin, President of the Union Theological Seminary, Professor and Mrs. Charles A. Beard, Professor John Dewey of Columbia, Susan Bran-deis, daughter of Supreme Court Justice Brandeis, and others.  

Several years ago the "New York Herald Tribune" published a most enlightening article on the changing religious views during the last fifty years. We reproduce a paragraph, quoted by the writer in his magazine, "Our Hope":  

"The arrest of a flock of students from the Union Theological Seminary for picketing in the recent dressmakers' strike might cause the visitor to make inquiries, and he would find that there was a definite trend among students for the ministry and young clergymen toward making the church a sociological institution; that many of them were getting their doctrines from the writings of social reformers, from the British Labor Party and from Soviet teaching rather than from books of theology. He would learn that the intellectual leaders among the young clergy criticized the church as a reactionary middle class institution; that they regarded the ideas of the saving of souls and of the reward in the hereafter as relics of days of unenlightenment, and that it was their program to direct the energy and devotion and emotional enthusiasm of religious men and women toward the solution of the industrial, social and racial problems of the present day. He would find young clergymen here and there engaged in such enterprises as organizing strikes or inducing the white members of the parish to mingle socially at dances and card parties with their Negro coreligionists."  

Let us remember that Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin is the President of the "Seminary" and one of the professors is Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, who has plastered on his church-building the figures of Darwin and Einstein. This institution has rejected supernatural Christianity. Here we must mention two preachers of the modernistic type, who went to Russia on invitation of their friends, the Soviets. They were well guarded and were led only to places where they saw certain things, the horrible miseries of the enslaved millions were kept in the back ground. Returning one of these men spoke in the "Clergy Club" of New York City and is reported to have said, "These Russian Soviets, though they are atheistic, succeed better in putting the kingdom of God on earth than we do with all our churches in America." Legislation has been brought about to deport aliens who are caught in anti-government activities. The bill should include "clergymen" who are dissatisfied with our country, who lend a hand in the attempted overthrow of our institutions. Put them on a ship and send them to Russia to help them build "the kingdom of God" over there!  

About a year ago there was held in the same New York Seminary the "New York Intercollegiate Conference." The program covered several days. The two leading topics under discussion were "Guiding the Revolution" and "New Tactics in the Social Conflict." One of the leading speakers was Norman Thomas, a former student of this Seminary, one time a Presbyterian preacher, now Socialist of the outspoken kind. Many colleges and universities were represented. Speeches were made on themes like these: "Students and the World Revolution," "Revolution Through Education," "The American Civil War of 1931-32." Then arrived a telegram from the all-red Chicago Conference for the League of Industrial Democracy, greeting the Theological Seminary Conference—it read: "Swell Conference. Twenty-three colleges represented. Yours for the revolution."  

And there are ostrich congressmen and senators who laughingly say—no danger!  

A certain New York-modernistic-pacifistic pastor, who also had visited Russia, preached on "If I Were a Dictator." Here is his answer: "I would close the Churches, abolish tariff-walls, eliminate armaments, teach birth control in the public schools and make a knowledge of contraceptive methods a legal prerequisite to marriage." He also said: "No one institution has so blocked the progress of modern civilization as the Church. Empires come and go, but the Church stays on forever."  

One of the prominent religious organizations, seems to be the "Methodist Federation for Social Service." This organization is committed to the Socialistic propaganda. Its leading spirit is the Rev. Harry F. Ward. He is radical and closely identified with the "American Civil Liberties Union." This Methodist Preacher says in his book, "The New Social Order," that the system under which our Government is living is doomed to go, and whether or not the new order comes peacably, or through violence depends on the so-called middle and property class (the bourgeoisie). This class, according to Ward, must bow to the inevitable and allow the proletariat of the world to establish the new social order for which these men are working, or a violent revolution will follow. Mr. Ward is an ardent exponent of Syndicalism. The National Republic, February 1932, in an article by George B. Lockwood says: "Harry F. Ward, head of the Methodist Federation for Social Service, now in Moscow, drinking deep from the head-springs of Bolshevism, has been active as a director of the American Civil Liberties Union. On this Board he sat alongside some of the Communist leaders of the country. He was a delegate to the Anti-imperialistic League held in Frankfurt, the organization which is a subsidiary of the third internationale. He is also a professor in the Union Theological Seminary."  

And so we could continue filling page after page with the ever increasing undermining propaganda which is done by some preachers and teachers in colleges. They are strengthening the hands of Stalin whose acts of violence, cruelty and inhumanity are beginning to overshadow the deeds of Lenin and Trotzsky-Bronstein.  

We don't know how many of these baptized "comrades" bow before the edict of the red dictator, but they are certainly working in harmony with his schemes.  

We must mention another bulletin of the "Methodist Federation," Bulletin No. 8, published April 15, 1932:  

"In this bulletin is found an acknowledgment over the signatures of Bishop Francis J. McConnell, President, and Harry F. Ward, Secretary for the Federation, that, 'The Federation has continued to co-operate with boards and agencies within our own church and with many groups outside the church working definitely for a new social order. Among these may be mentioned the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Industrial Democracy, Labor Research Association, International Labor Defense, Committee on Militarism in Education, Fellowship of Reconciliation . . .' "Bishop McConnell says in the Bulletin, 'We simply cannot be respectable—. These questions we raise in our Bulletin simply have to be got up for consideration in religious circles. We can't be bothered to discuss what everyone else is discussing. We must go ahead and raise other questions.'"  

Note the affiliation with the organizations which have been unmasked in their socialistic-communistic propaganda. The "new social order" for which this Methodist Bishop is working can mean nothing else but that for which these radical organizations stand. We give a little more light on some of these organizations.  

The Fellowship of Reconciliation is an organization which, according to the history of its movement, devoted its time in the United States during the World War period to "defending conscientious objectors and opposing war propaganda" while the government was making desperate efforts to mobilize. The members of this latter organization are responsible for the creation of Brookwood Labor College, a socialist center, and for Reconciliation Tours, operating in New York City for the purpose of taking excursions of students into the haunts of communism, I. W. W.'ism, birth control, atheism and other subversive movements. The Committee on Militarism in Education, another of the Methodist bureau's "co-operating" organizations, according to the history of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, was set up by it, although most of its officials are from the ranks of the American Civil Liberties Union. The Labor Research Association, still another Methodist bureau co-operating organization, is a fountain head for much radical literature.  

And all along while men of the stamp of Sherwood Eddy, once a Gospel preacher and Y. M. C. A. worker, but now a Socialist, and professors of the Union Seminary, paint rosy pictures of the red Republic, returning Americans, who lived in Russia, tell a different story.  

"The wife of another American engineer, Mrs. MacMurray, came back a few weeks ago. 'I'll never go back,' she said. 'Sorrow, fear and hate, combined with a jeering contempt for the finer things of life, hang over the land of the Soviets.' Then she declared: 'No moral code is preserved. Men and women live together like animals. They live where and how the Government directs. All labor is forced labor. If they do not work where the Government commands, they are refused a food card. I could not make friends. The people are afraid of everyone and of everything.'  

"Such is the Red Paradise!"  

But this is almost unbelievable—an infidel, once professor in a certain college, where he taught his infidelity, also a member of the different socialistic-communistic organizations, said: "Communism is the great secular religion with Marx in the place of Jehovah, Lenin in the place of Jesus, Trotzsky in the place of St. Paul and Stalin in the place of St. Peter." Here the coming man of sin, the beast, shows its teeth.  

The agitation for the "new social order" a la Russia evidently is everywhere. The August issue (1932) of the "National Republic" reports the following:  

"Dr. Albert E. Taussig of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, has accepted the presidency of the St. Louis branch of the red defending American Civil Liberties Union. Rev. George M. Gibson, Rabbi Isserman, Bishop William Scarlett of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Prof. George Stephens, Dean Sidney Sweet, Rev. Ralph Abele and Professor Fuchs accepted the directorship of the radical organization."  

The same Monthly tells its readers in the December issue (1932):  

"Many strange bedfellows were found with the revolutionary elements of the country during the recent election campaign. Among the ministers that were finally forced to come out in the open in their activities in behalf of red candidates for President and Vice- President of the United States were: Bishop Francis J. McConnell, of the Methodist Federation for Social Service and President of the Federal Council of Churches, who helped organize the nation for the Socialist candidate for President and Vice-President; Rev. Allan Knight Chalmers, pastor of the Broadway Congregational Tabernacle of New York City; Rev. John Haynes Holmes of New York City, prominent in red circles; Reverends Charles C. Noble, Eugene Schrigler A. Raymond Grant, Walter Foley, John C. Vernon, Carl Clark, John K. Montgomery, J. Lester Hawkins, C. H. Davis, Glen Trimble, O. B. Wells, Donald H. Tippett, Robert J. Tucker, Fred W. Adams, Frank Kingdon, Halford Luccock, Edgar S. Brightman, Irving Beiler, Paul Hutchinson, Dan B. Brummitt, Harold W. Ruopp, Howard H. Callaghan, while Winifred Chappell of the Methodist Federation for Social Service was among those who helped organize the nation for the communist candidates, Foster and Ford."  

The question arises, how can this strange fact, that preachers and educators, who claim to be Christians, are active in this propaganda, be explained? How can it be explained that these men, who profess to be religious, can link themselves to the communistic idea and work for it, when Communism is anti-God, anti-religion, anti-Christ, and anti-Church?  

Has Communism changed? NO! It still stands firmly by Lenin and his Satanic saying: "Religion is the opium of the people. We must fight against religion. We must create a militant atheism." The Third Internationale still demands that its law is obeyed—"Among the objectives of the cultural revolution interesting the great mass of the population, the struggle against religion, that opium of the people, holds a special place; this struggle must be carried on inflexibly and systematically." They have not changed. The five-year plan of the godless, the "Bezbojnik," is the practical evidence that there has not been a change. But how can it be explained?  

The answer is very simple. We give six words and these six words contain the answer: Bible Criticism—Modernistic Apostasy, Atheism— Socialism—Communism, Ruin. These words are the horrible steps taken by these present-day leaders and educators of Christendom. It is the fulfilment of Bible predictions, we quoted before, which nineteen hundred years ago were written by the Spirit of God as a warning of what the end of Christendom would be. First the Bible as God's Word and revelation is rejected. It begins in a small way. The authorship of the Pentateuch by Moses is questioned. The opening chapters of Genesis are mythological conceptions handed down by the Hebrews. Direct Creation is questioned and next they cast themselves into the fogs of evolution, believing, as we have shown in our opening chapter, that the foolish inventions of Charles Darwin and others, are the real solution of human existence. Then they go step by step towards a total rejection of the Bible as the supernatural Book of God. Out of this comes the religious modernism, which is apostasy from the faith. Religious modernism, like its author, the power which controls it, the father of lies, does nothing but negate.  

Can the Bible be trusted as being the supernatural revelation of God? The religious modernism answers decisively— No! Is Christ the eternal Son of God? Another—No! He was a good man, a religious leader on the same level with Buddha Gautama, Zoroaster and Confucius. They go a step further and claim Him to have been a Socialist and several years ago a Presbyterian preacher, perhaps a product of the Union Theological Seminary, declared that Christ was a Communist and if he came back to the world and would teach again, they would deport him. Let us remind ourselves that such claims, as Christ being a Socialist, stated in a previous chapter, were also made by the infidel followers of Illuminism during the nineteenth century. Was Christ born of the Virgin? No! Biology cannot explain such an occurrence. But biology is unable to explain many other facts and the questions we like to have answered remain for ever unanswered. Did He die a sacrificial death for our sins? The evolution theory does not believe in the fall of man. Sin, as it is spoken of in the Scriptures, does not exist. Atonement, they say, is a theological invention. He died for the socialistic principles He advocated, as a martyr. He was buried—was He raised from among the dead? Dr. Harry E. Fosdick has been reported as saying: "His body rests in a Syrian grave, but His soul is marching on." With the denial of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christianity collapses and becomes a religious system without power, without hope—and worse, a system of deception and delusion (1 Cor. xv:13-19. Yet many hundreds of Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopal preachers and educators and those of other denominations, brazenly deny this cardinal truth of Christianity. And because they believe that Christ died, as others die, and that of His body it is true, "dust to dust, ashes to ashes," they reject His priesthood. The Person of Christ is non-existent; He only lives by His example, His words and His teachings. Then they become "Agnostics" (in Latin: Ignoramus)—know-nothings—free-thinkers, atheists. Dr. Harry E. Fosdick is quoted as having said in a sermon: "You may be surprised when I, a minister, say to you that it does not matter very much whether you believe in God or not." Professor W. N. Weiman of the Divinity School, Chicago University, wrote: "In what sense (i. e., the Divine Being) may be called personal is a matter of further consideration. With me it is an open question whether God is a personal Being, a thing, or a principle."  

And here is Dr. Shailer Matthews in his "The Growth of the Idea of God," published in 1931. He is the head of this so-called "Divinity School." In this book he repudiates the idea of God as a Sovereign, also the doctrine that God is a spirit. He also denies the existence of the soul.7 These modern apostates, whose constant increase is fostered by these infidel, dishonest institutions, which sail under the name of Christianity, but are in reality the destroyers of the foundations of righteousness open wide the gates for our youth into the hell of atheism.  

Having become infidels by rejecting God's holy Word, God's holy Son and God's holy Gospel, the one power in the world, which can save man and lead him to righteousness and peace, they turn to Socialism, to Communism as the saviours of humanity. How true it is which was spoken by the lips of the Son of God: "If therefore the light which is in thee become darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matt. vi:23). What they are coming to may be learned from a publication in connection with the Union Theological Seminary. In "Religion Today," a symposium on the question "the future of the Church," was recently printed. A certain "reverend," who is radical, expressed himself as follows:  

"There will be no gods in the future, no Jehovah and no Lord, but to quote the words of Charles W. Eliot—one omnipresent, eternal energy, informing and inspiring the whole creation at any instant of time and throughout indefinite spaces. There will be no churches as we have churches today. There will be just the community, with its sacred places of the common life. An hour each day will be given to communal consecration and will replace Sunday. Bibles will be replaced by the assembled literature of all ages and peoples, the works of universal genius sanctified by usage, and growing with the growing vision of men's minds and hearts. There will be a new calendar of saints, including Jesus, Isaiah, George Fox, Darwin, Pasteur, Lincoln, Emerson, Tolstoy and Gandhi."  

The "American Association for the Advancement of Atheism" and "Freethinkers' Association" were right when they called these "Reverends" "brothers" and invited them to join in with them and assist in the work of destruction.  

That able theologian, scholar and president of Princeton, the late Dr. Francis L. Patton, spoke a number of years ago words of tremendous importance and significance: "The only hope of Christianity is in the rehabilitating of the Pauline theology. It is back, back, back to an incarnate Christ and the atoning blood, or it is on, on, on to atheism and despair."  

These are golden words. The road of modernism, including the "famous" middle-of-the-roaders, who are neither fish nor fowl, who are trembling lest they might lose position and popularity,—this road leads, on, on, on to atheism, to world revolution, national disaster and finally to the judgment of Almighty God.  

Can America be saved from such a horrible goal? YES. But salvation can come only by a whole-hearted return to God, by confession of sins and repentance, by a renewed preaching of the Gospel of God, the power of God unto salvation. Let the hopeless apostates, who have turned away from the Christ of God and become advocates of the destructive forces of the mystery of lawlessness, let them follow their road. Long ago their coming doom was written in the Word of God—"their end is destruction" (Phil. iii:19). But let the millions who still maintain faith in God and in His Word (though many hundreds of thousands in profession only), let them turn to the Lord in humiliation. Let true believers yield themselves fully to the Lord and give an outspoken witness for Him. The Lord can answer by the manifestation of His Spirit in sending such a powerful revival, which will be God's answer to the prevailing infidelity.  

History reveals the fact that while France suffered untold horrors in the revolution during the closing years of the eighteenth century, England escaped. Edward Hartpole Lecky in his comprehensive "History of England," devotes a good deal of space to the moral conditions in England. He also mentions in a number of pages the great religious revivals under the Wesleys, George Whitefield and others. More than that, he shows that these revivals saved England from the fate of the bloody revolution through which France was passing. We quote his words which are well worth reading.  

"Before the close of the century in which the Evangelical revival appeared, a spirit had begun to circulate in Europe threatening the very foundations of society and of belief. The revolt against the supernatural theory of Christianity, which had been conducted by Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists, the material conception of man and of the universe, which sprang from the increased study of physical science and from the metaphysics of Condillac and Helvetius, the wild social dreams which Rousseau had clothed in such a transcendent eloquence, the misery of a high-spirited people ground to the dust by unnecessary wars and by partial and unjust taxation, the imbecility and corruption of rulers and priests, had together produced in France a revolutionary spirit, which in its intensity was unequalled since the days of the Reformation. It was soon felt in many lands. Millions of fierce and ardent natures were intoxicated by dreams of an impossible equality and of a complete social and political reorganization. Many old excuses perished, but a tone of thought and feeling was introduced into European life which could only lead to Anarchy, and at length to despotism, and was beyond all others fatal to that measured and ordered freedom which can only endure. Its chief characteristics were, a hatred of all constituted authority, an insatiable appetite for change, a habit of regarding rebellion as the normal as well as the noblest form of political self-sacrifice, a disdain for all compromise, a contempt for all tradition, a desire to level all ranks and subvert all establishments, a determination to seek progress, not by the slow and cautious amelioration of existing institutions, but by sudden, violent, and revolutionary change. Religion, property, civil authority, and domestic life, were all assailed and doctrines incompatible with the very existence of government were embraced by multitudes with the fervor of religion. England, on the whole, escaped the contagion. Many causes conspired to save her, but among them a prominent place must, I believe, be given to the new and vehement religious enthusiasm which was at that very time passing through the middle and lower classes of people, which had enlisted in its service a large proportion of the wilder and more impetuous reformers, and which recoiled with horror from the anti-Christian tenets that were associated with the Revolution in France."  

And if there is no return to God, if there is no genuine repentance, if Christendom continues in its downward grade, in its Satanic denials, in its road of Christ rejection and atheism—then what? History repeats itself. Once upon a time there existed great churches in northern Egypt and northern Africa, in Asia Minor, also in eastern Europe. But they had gone into apostasy. As a result all forms of unrighteousness and licentiousness followed. Then when the measure was full God permitted the rise of Mohammedanism and used the hordes of Arabia to wipe out that apostate Christian civilization. And if modernism continues without repentance and in its denials, then God will permit the Russian "hammer" to demolish our country, and the Russian "sickle" to reap a greater and more bloody harvest than the harvest of 1917-1919 in unhappy Russia.  

Macaulay was another great and far-seeing historian. He made almost a hundred years ago a prophecy concerning the young American republic:  

"Your republic will be pillaged and ravaged in the twentieth century, just as the Roman Empire was by the Barbarians in the fifth century, with this difference, that the devastators of the Roman Empire came from abroad, while your Barbarians will be the people of your own country and the product of your own institutions."  

God save our country from such a fate!  

 

1 Congressional Report No. 2290, page 9.  

2 "T. N. T," Col. Hadley, page 62.  

3 As we write this a High School teacher sent a letter requesting information as to the "Young Pioneers." This teacher has a large number of Jewish children who are "Pioneers" and they are making efforts to spread their revolutionary propaganda among others.

4 Congressional Report, page 28.  

5 Congressional Report, pages 32-33.  

6 National Republic, April, 1930, page 36.  

7 "God and Cosmos," Dr. Graebner, page 21.