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

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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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