j NEW YORK
OU have seen the photographs

_of teeming multitudes wor-
Shipping at their holy places

throughout the world and you
think of them when you sit in,, |

the bleachers at the Yankee Sta-
dium and look around at’ the
100,000 men, women ‘and. chil
dren who constitute the sect
known as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

These are Americans and Can-
adians; they have come by jalopy,
us and train from every part of
North America and you talk with
them and discover that most are
Workingmen, dirt farmers, little
Shopkeepers in that store around
the corner. Many have brought
their babies and they sit under
Parasols in the torrid sun — for
Ours and for days listening to
weir speakers whose words come
to them from a score of loud-
Speakers. The men sit in shirt-
Sleeves, the women in light, sum-
ae dresses and their faces are

, They have the missionary’s
Zeal to talk ‘and they will tell
You in the words of plain English
that has much of the Bible in it
at they are Jehovah’s Witnesses
fcause they want a world of
Peace and brotherhood.

ot ‘see many Negroes among

€m, men .and women, young
4nd old, and you talk with some
of the Negroes.

Ne is a man of 35, from
A lcago, where he is a clerk in
Saag store, a square-built,
ng Spoken man with large
: Nds and he wears the little
’nvas pouch that is filled with
“ir literature. He says that
A IS a Jehovah’s Witness be-
Use there is brotherhodd here,
he is no prejudice, no discrim-
‘ 10n, and a black man is equal
ie White man which is God’s

me had seen a group of white
i ansans, two men and two wo-
Mee Stand in the right-field
a3 re for snapshots, arm-in-
ae With four Negroes. The Chi-
Witt, Negro stood talking easily
a white man from Texas;

“Ghanian

:
LL RRB BBR SBE RE Ee RE ESE ERR E NE EERE REET

Jehovah's
Witnesses meet

Te) Pe td 2

Peer,

it is a heartening sight in this
land of jimcrow and I mentioned:
that tothe man from Chicago.

That is the way it is with the
brethren, he said, for that is how
God wanted it.

Then he might be chosen to
go to the missionary school
known as Gilead, here in New
York, and after two years study
and training, he can be sent
abroad as a missionary. There
are Jehovah’s Witnessses in vir-
tually every country of the
world, he tells you, and their
literature and speakers bear that
out.

The man from Chicago had
once been a Catholic but he had
left that faith for this one be-
cause he believes now that this
is the true word of God. He
says that it is not easy to bring
the Lord’s word to the people
under this system. He uses the
word “system,” and he means by
it a state which represses un-

‘ orthodox ideas. But after all, he

says, Christ went to prison, too,
and he was crucified, and if that
could happen to the Son of God
it can happen to him too.

e.

He speaks a great deal about
peace, as do all the Witnesses,
and you talk to him about it.
You want peace too, you say,
and ‘you favor a méeting of the
Big Five to achieve peace around
a conference table. What does
he think of that.

He does not think much of it.
He wants peace too, that is why
he is a Witness, but peace can-
not come through man’s efforts:
it can only come, as the Bible
said, after Armageddon when the
hosts of good will defeat the

By JOSEPH NORTH

hosts of evil, and then the swords
will be beaten into plowshares
and there will be no more wars.

You persist, wondering if he
means that all political mass
movements to effect changes that
can bring peace are fruitless.
Yes, that is what he means. Je-
hovah’s Witnesses stand on the
sidelines so far as politics are
concerned, he said. They are
taught that political action is
hopeless, they do not vote, salva-
tion lies only in spreading the
true word of God.

I ask him about trade unions,
what does he feel about them?
Well, he would not go to strike
or picket unless he absolutely
lad to in order to keep his job.
But trade unions, like everything
else in this “system” are out to
make money. He would not
pioneer in building unions, but
he would join them if it became
necessary.

We return to the theme of
peace and I ask him what he
thought about the war in Korea.
It is a war like all other wars,
he says, in which people are
slaughtered to make money for
big men behind the scenes. Je-
hovah’s Witnesses, he says, would
rather go to jail than to war
because the Ten Commandments
of God say “Thou Shalt Not Kill.”
Later I encounter several young
men who have been in prison
because they wouldn't go to war.

But the man from Chicago: and
the men who had been in pris-
on said they would not try to
end war through any kind of

TEYUET 14 CY

The challenge

es
Mane:

WE are hearing a great deal
ttyeeent new rockets and space
fen What are the possibili-
comiens te fantastic fiction and

rose of us first realized that
Sie Could be more than play-
ed ing when the Germans start-
A Mbarding London with V2s.
8reat many captured Ger-
Tockets were taken to the
d States at the end of the

“Many. with them went a good

Man
Hite

ed on extensive rocket
At In recent years.

Spenge Sent, the United States
a for them $1,000 million

ih whe rocket research.

Teseargh tion to this, a special
j i Institute is being built
Million. “Se at a cost of $1,575

Brita;

n fae also spend a great deal
Woo hg research, both on the
On a mr range in Australia and
°xtensiy Se in Wales. Doubtless
Carriag — Tesearch is also being
mo Out in other countries.

in “Saks are ever again used

ed ¢ “oh they will be develop-
“Which , Yond the German V2s,
ig how Seem very amateur-

€y will’ go much farther

By: MICHAEL SEATON

and will be aimed much more
accurately. Furthermore, they
will probably carry atomic weap-
ons. :

e

It is quite clear that such
weapons should be banned. But
this does not mean that high-
altitude rockets should be banned
as well. A great deal of valuable
research can be done with
rockets.

Using rockets, we can study
the earth’s atmosphere up to
heights of several hundred miles.
Apart from the intrinsic inter-
est of such studies, there are al-
so some important practical ap-
plications.

When radio waves were first
discovered it was soon proved
that they travel.in straight lines.
Eminent scientists therefore pre-
dicted that radio signals could
never be sent across the Atlantic
because the earth is curved.

Their prediction were wrong
as Marconi proved when he first
established transatlantic radio
communication. The explana-
turned out to be that there ex-
ist high in the atmosphere

of space travel —

COMO AMM eA ea AU TE Me TE CO UL UL UL UA ah lt el

various regions containing free
electrical charges. The most im-
portant of these regions are call-
ed the Heaviside Layer, and the
Appleton Layer.

In these ‘layers radio waves
are reflected in much the same
way that a mirror reflects light
waves. The atmosphere at the
heights of these layers, 60 miles
to 200 miles, can be studied
with rockets. The results obtain-
ed help to improve long-distance
radio signalling.
©

Rocket: research is also very
exciting for the astronomers.

Most of our knowledge of the
universe outside the earth is ob-
tained by studying light waves
received from the stars and other
distant bodies. There are: many
other radiations from the stars
which we cannot yet observe,
such as X-rays and most radio
waves.

These radiations are stopped
in the earth’s atmosphere.

Once we can build an observa-
tory outside the earth atmo-
sphere, astronomy will advance
by leaps and bounds. Such an
observatory could be a rocket
circling the earth, an artificial
moon. Or it could be on the
moon itself.

eace movement beyond their
own which is God’s. It is useless,
for the Bible said, and they quote
chapter and verse, that there
will be wars and rumors of war

until the end of time, until Arm- ©

ageddon, and then there will be
peace.

You return to the scorching
bleachers and listen to the speak-
ers under the canopy in the
middle of the diamond, where
the pitcher’s box is when the
Yankees are at home.

This is the day Witnesses from
the West Indies report and each
story is virtually the same: work
hard, have faith, endure persecu-
tion, and you can get recruits.
Each tells the same -story, with
slight variations, and closes say-
ing that this man or that woman
did not believe but “after I
studied with him, he believes and
he is here today.” The applause
rumbles up from all sides of the
great stadium.

The sun’is beinning to set and
the speaking ends for a recess ati
5.30. Sessions begin again at 7
p.m. They gather up their child-
ren and go to the nearby cafe-
teria they have set up.They wear
the little square celluloid patches
which say they are Jehovah’s
Winesses. They are eager to re-
turn to hear the next reports.

You look at them and think
that here are people who want
what you want: peace and broth-
erhood and equality. But the
precepts they are taught tell
them that man cannot win peace
—that he must wait for divine
intervention; man cannot win
brotherhood, except after Arma-

» ulation.

geddon, the final slaughter which
they say is inevitable.

You look at these people of
grass-roots origins who eschew
faith in themselves, who stand
aside from politics which they
could help mould so that it re-
presents the will of men and not
of Mammon. And although they
avoid politics they seem not to
know that the U.S. State Depart-
ment uses some branches of their
organization as a cover to pro-
mote its warmongering policies
in lands where the Brotherhood
of Man is the way. of life.

You think about their leaders

whom you hear exhort these
thousands to follow their instruc-
tions “obediently,” ‘“submissive-
ly,” without question.

That takes on even more sinis-
ter meaning when you read their

literature which singles out the .

socialist lands for special cal-
umny, and your suspicions grow
when you read a piece of their
literature here signed by Philip
H. Beck, of New York, which pur-
ports to be a letter to President
Malenkov and which concluded:
“The Atomic Warfare is called
in the Holy Bible the Great Trib-
The Atom and Hydro-
gen bombs, will be used freely.
You will advance to the River
Rhine, fighting will be in Greece
and in the land of Israel and
your nation will be finally beat-
en.”

You hear N. H. Knorr, their
topmost spakesman, lead them in
a “loyalty pledge” which speaks
again “all subversive movements
against the institutions of this
world,” and from all that you
have heard that could mean any
progressive group that wants the
betterment of man on earth now
and that opposes war.

The followers, you feel, are
told to disavow politics but you
wonder about these statements
of their leaders. And you think
—locking at all these plain peo-
ple—don’t they realize that their
abandonment of polities helps
the rule of Mammon on earth.

You go away from the Stadium
feeling a weight of sadness, for
though they have worlds of faith
they have no faith in themselves.

<+ Sen
0 ee, o>

This raises the whole exciting
subject of space travel. .

Space travel will certainly be
within the bounds of technical
possibility very soon. But it will
probably be as costly as making
atom bombs. Most of us would
like to see more effort devoted
to feeding the world and raising

livving standards before such
schemes are carried through.

Nonetheless, the challenge re-
mains. Once hunger and want
have been conquered, the con-

quest of space will be one of the
most exciting tasks on which
man has ever embarked.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 14, 195‘ — PAGE 9

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