and the Pope's share in it, the debasement of <enttype='GPE'>France</ent> by priest-ridden traitors, and the horrors of the <enttype='NORP'>Spanish</ent> and <enttype='NORP'>Portuguese</ent> hell
<p> They earned their pay. Not only did they work up the <enttype='NORP'>Japanese</ent>
people to a fanatical enthusiasm for the plan of making themselves
rich by exploiting a third of the world but they created nests of
traitors from <enttype='NORP'>French</ent> Indo-<enttype='GPE'>China</ent> to the <enttype='LOC'>Persian Gulf</ent>. There were
10.000 <enttype='NORP'>Buddhist</ent> quislings in <enttype='GPE'>Rangoon</ent> alone and there were others in
key-positions all over <enttype='GPE'>Burma</ent>. Ceylon teems with them. For ten years
the work has proceeded under a very thin disguise of <enttype='NORP'>Buddhist</ent>
concern for the spiritual interests of men. Yet in a Parliament of
Religions held at <enttype='GPE'>Chicago</ent> in 1939 <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> had been emphatically
warned that these <enttype='NORP'>Buddhist</ent> priests had already grown fat on
imperialist gold.</p>
<p> While disreputable atheists and materialists like <enttype='ORG'>Haldeman</ent>-<enttype='PERSON'>Julius</ent> and McCabe, who told the world the truth, were very properly
ignored by all respectable folk these spiritual gasbags, who
blinded it to the realities of life, where loaded with <enttype='ORG'>laurels</ent> and
dollars. It is nice, and so profitable, to be profound and
spiritual!</p>
<p> However. Immense as is the work which I bring to a close with
this booklet I have no space to enlarge, upon even so important a
side-issue as the corruption of Buddhism (which was quite willing
in every age to entertain a business proposition) by the fine
imperialist's of <enttype='GPE'>Japan</ent>. It is enough that "our two great religions"
have made a mockery of every compliment, that every long-haired
idealist in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> had lavished upon them. They have prostituted
themselves to the <enttype='ORG'>Butchers Union</ent>, while atheistic <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>, upon
which most of these idealists have poured abuse for the last twenty
years, has won a splendid tribute from a disillusioned world. But
I have still an important point to make in regard to <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> of
<enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> to complete the explanation of its behavior.</p>
<p> In his recent work, 'You Can't Be Too Careful,' H. G. <enttype='ORG'>Wells</ent>
says: "The most evil thing in the world today is the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent>." It is also one of the most respected things in the world
today, especially in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>. But there is no mystery about the
respect, the power, even the adulation which it enjoys. It commands
about 10000000 votes, nicely bunched together for the most part
in certain states and at the disposal of the priests. It has
$4000000000 invested, an income of about $1000000000 and an
army of about quarter of a million paid agents of one kind or
other. It has a very large press and radio-service. It has about
5000000 auxiliary troops, open fanatics and secret intriguers,
sworn to promote "the welfare of <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent>." It has immense
opportunities of rewarding loyalty, from a Papal Knighthood to a
job as janitor. It has a control of editors, politicians, writers,
libraries, cinemas, radio programs, owners of halls and theaters,
professors, booksellers, even the police, the public school's,</p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
3
.
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM</p>
<p>parole-boards, the mails, etc. It has . . . But maybe that will do.
What we had better ask is what excuse is made for themselves by the
politicians, professors, and others who chant the praises of "the
venerable <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent>."</p>
<p> You know it. They reply that <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> does good -- oh, an
enormous amount of good: so much, in fact, that it is one of the
foundations of the state. In a recent book (Mission to <enttype='GPE'>Moscow</ent>),
which the pious Mr. <enttype='PERSON'>Gollancz</ent> spreads in <enttype='GPE'>England</ent>, Ambassador <enttype='PERSON'>Davies</ent>,
discussing the vices and virtues of <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>, says that with all its
faults it must not be classed with <enttype='NORP'>German</ent>y and <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, as a
totalitarian state. Phew! Are there still folk who talk like that?
However, what Mr. <enttype='PERSON'>Davies</ent> mean's is that the <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>n state is, and
the <enttype='NORP'>Nazi</ent> state is not, "based upon the altruistic principles of the
<enttype='NORP'>Christian</ent> religion." If that is true of <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent> -- if you will
pardon the supposition -- how far more true it must be of the
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n civilization with its 100000 parsons and its more
brilliant exhibition of those principles. And of <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent>es which
render this inestimable service <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> of <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent> is immeasurably
the greatest: <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> that regards all the others with
contemptuous tolerance and pronounces them rebellious and
ineffective offshoots of the age-old <enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> on which the sun never
sets.</p>
<p> In western stories, of which I am fond, I often read in
descriptions of cow-town of the "false front" of the bank. the
saloon, and the store. The phrase fits the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> In <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>,
for it is, to <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>ns, the false front of the international Papal
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent>. That is why so many <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>ns hesitate in face of the most
conclusive evidence to admit the charge we bring against the <enttype='LOC'>Black</ent>
International. Why, they say, this is <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> that first raised
the banner of religious freedom on <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n soil: <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> that
want to understand the relation of the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> to the world-war. It is an idea of crucial importance in estimating the world-situation but no journalistic oracle in <enttype='GPE'>the United</ent> States dare say
<enttype='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Sweden</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Norway</ent>, and <enttype='GPE'>Argentina</ent>. In none of these countries
does the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> command the allegiance, of more than one-sixth of the population except <enttype='GPE'>Holland</ent>. where its members and
political representatives are one-third of the whole -- still not
enough to have Influence on the general character -- and <enttype='GPE'>Argentina</ent>,
where, however, the constructive class is (or was until 1935)
mainly skeptical (and probably still is). <enttype='GPE'>Argentina</ent> is, in any
case, the one, power whose place in this list would be disputed.</p>
<p> There would be general agreement to put these countries at the
lower end of the scale; <enttype='GPE'>Poland</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, Eire,
<enttype='GPE'>Brazil</ent>, and most of the smaller <enttype='LOC'>South</ent><enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n Republics. In these
<enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> claims the great majority of the people and certainly as
regards the constructive forces they are <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> countries. They
are all <enttype='NORP'>Fascist</ent>, as none of the above ten are, but, for the moment
I am looking at what by general agreement would be called their
it is only little more than half <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> and its dictator is not
a <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>. <enttype='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<enttype='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> as a whole was in the highest class,
but events have shown that the progressive qualities were in non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Bohemia, and that <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent><enttype='GPE'>Slovakia</ent> is at the level of
<enttype='GPE'>Poland</ent>. I have omitted <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent>, which on the ground of recent
accomplishment (reduction of crime and illiteracy, social
legislation, etc.) I should be disposed to put in the first class,
because its place would be warmly disputed. But one thing is not
open to dispute: whatever progress has been made in the last 20
years was due to an anti-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> body of statesmen and supporters.
<enttype='NORP'>German</ent>y must be left out of account unless we go back to pre-<enttype='NORP'>Nazi</ent>
134. Add these to the figures I gave in No. 13, and you get such a
reply to the claim that <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent>ism promotes a high standard of
character that you wonder that any apologist has the effrontery to
make it.</p>
<p> But all <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s make it, and very emphatically, because it
is the only excuse they can provide for the politicians,
professors, and writers whom, in one way or other, they get to
praise <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> and denounce critics. If this claim is so
decisively disproved by the only exact test we can apply -- the
volume of crime in <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> lands and the proportion of criminals
in mixed lands -- so decisively that no sociologist in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>
thinks it prudent to discuss the matter, where must we look for
even a plausible bit of color for it? The language of Papal
encyclicals and the gorgeous comments of apologists on them suggest
that there might be more sincerity in the claim that <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> is
more effective in inspiring social justice. We will defer the
examination of this to the next chapter, but the reader will be
prepared to smile. Social justice in <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Vichy</ent><enttype='GPE'>France</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>,
<enttype='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, and <enttype='GPE'>Brazil</ent> as compared with <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Britain</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>,
<enttype='GPE'>Denmark</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Sweden</ent>, or <enttype='GPE'>Switzerland</ent>! It sounds like a bad joke.</p>
<p> But what other test can we apply? Is the great 'service of the
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> that it provided, or moved the authorities to provide, free
education for the children of the workers? See the table of
steatitic of illiteracy which I gave in No. 13 (p. 21). They are
more damning than the statistics of crime or illegitimacy. Our
search for these massive social services of <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> begins to
remind us of that naughty definition of metaphysics -- looking in
a dark room for a black cat that isn't there. Let us, in order to
be quite just to our <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> fellow-citizens, approach the subject
in a different way.</p>
<p> Chapter III</p>
<p> THE WICKED WORLD EDUCATES THE CHURCH</p>
<p> This ghastly war and the <enttype='NORP'>Fascist</ent>-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> conspiracy that led
to it interrupted an unsteady and unequal but very real and
triumphed, in most countries, over the vicious clerical-royalist
reaction that had followed the fall of <enttype='ORG'>Napoleon</ent>. Briefly, the
period characterized not merely by an advance of from 1870 to 1914
was characterized, not merely by an advance of applied science
which more than doubled the wealth-reducing capacity of a nation
but by the employment of a very large part of the new wealth to
create systems of universal free education, an immense
multiplication of free libraries, the establishment in most
countries of fully <enttype='NORP'>democratic</ent> political regimes and the
enfranchisement of women, factory-legislation, schemes of old-age
pensions and health and unemployment insurance, sanitation, re-housing, and other measures which doubled the average expectation
of life, a considerable growth of temperance (or temperateness),
and great reduction of crime, the doubling (generally) of real
wages, the enormous improvement of hospitals and services for the
distressed, and the spread of an anti-war sentiment.</p>
<p> Some say that that is a materialistic conception of progress.
Most men and women in 1914 would have said that they did not care
a damn what you called it but that -- if they read a candid account
of life before 1870 -- the world, in spite of its lingering
defects, was a very much better place to live in. But let me again,
in passing, point out the humbug of this "spirit" and "matter"
business.</p>
<p> I have just been reading, dreary as the occupation was, one of
those numerous recent works on the beauty of modern high-brow
Buddhism and how it will save the world. Out of the mush of
Verbiage I picked the general statement that the <enttype='ORG'>Supreme</ent> aim of
Buddhism is "the extinction of suffering." Funny. That is exactly
the supreme aim of atheists and materialists. I pointed out years
ago that progress is not to be judged by some misty goal in the
clouds but by the success of a nation in reducing suffering. And
while a certain number of people in every generation can be
persuaded to lessen the risk of suffering for themselves by
despising the wicked world and its wine, women, and song, and
retiring to a semi-nudist colony to contemplate their navels --
which seems to be Buddhism -- it seems to us atheists and
materialists far better to remove or reduce as much as possible the
sources of suffering (disease, poverty, war, ignorance, etc.) for
millions of people.</p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
15
.
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM</p>
<p> Talking of our navel-contemplators, I fancy you will find a
little irrelevance well worth inserting here. I do not know whether
you ever came across a priceless book published nine years ago by
Professor T. O'<enttype='PERSON'>Conroy</ent>. It ought to have been reprinted in 1938 and
scattered by the million over <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>, at the time, when the Japs
were spending millions a year in lying propaganda. O'<enttype='PERSON'>Conroy</ent> lived
in <enttype='GPE'>Japan</ent>, teaching in one of the leading universities, for 15
years. He married an aristocratic <enttype='NORP'>Japanese</ent> lady and was more
intimately admitted to <enttype='NORP'>Japanese</ent> life than any other white man. And
in 1933 he wrote this scalding indictment of the nation, showing
that for corruption, cruelty, and unscrupulousness the Japs could
not be beaten. Buddhism, he shows, fully shared this corruption,
though it was at that time -- the government had not yet invited it
to prostitute itself to the national greed -- a fat, indolent, and
useless body. But what I want to quote is an illustration of its
corruption which he gives (pp. 87-8) and which, sensational as it
is, like the similar revelation in <enttype='NORP'>German</ent> monasteries, I have not
seen reproduced or referred to since in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n literature or
journalism.</p>
<p> A few mile's from <enttype='GPE'>Tokyo</ent> was a large and rich monastery of what
was understood to be the very strictest sect of <enttype='NORP'>Buddhist</ent> monks.
They were so holy that they closed their doors against the wicked
world and wanted to be alone. But in their extensive grounds there
was a home for feeble-minded women, tended by the good monks, and
a rumor spread in <enttype='GPE'>Tokyo</ent> that numbers of these unfortunates were
just unwanted wives whose husbands paid the monks to take them
over. A <enttype='GPE'>Tokyo</ent> paper organized a raid in 1928, and though the police
at once suppressed it, published an amazing story. The <enttype='NORP'>Buddhist</ent>
monastery was a colony of sadists, just as the <enttype='NORP'>German</ent><enttype='NORP'>Franciscan</ent>
friars were found to be colonies of sodomists. When the raiders
burst in they found the monk-keepers gambling and squabbling with
blood-splotched paper money, while the women, half mad or half
dead, lay about, mutilated, exhausted, fouled with the monks'
excrements. Women were chained even in the temple, and rape, sexual
mutilation, and ignominy were but a few of the foul performances
that took place." And this is the second greatest "spiritual"
religion of our time: the religion over which our idealists and
scorners of materialism go into ecstasies!</p>
<p> Like the monasteries in the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> provinces of <enttype='NORP'>German</ent>y and
the more <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> republics of <enttype='LOC'>South</ent> and Central <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> and the
<enttype='GPE'>Philippines</ent>, these <enttype='NORP'>Buddhist</ent> monasteries -- O'<enttype='PERSON'>Conroy</ent> says that
decent <enttype='NORP'>Buddhist</ent> priests told him that 60 to 80 percent of their
body were corrupt -- illustrate what is always likely to happen in
medieval conditions; that is to say, wherever the monastery is
surrounded by a drowsy or drugged population of believers free from
the taint of heresy. It was the normal condition of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
monasteries throughout <enttype='LOC'>the Middle Ages</ent>, and it lingered, as in
<enttype='NORP'>German</ent>y, <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, <enttype='NORP'>Spanish</ent><enttype='GPE'>America</ent>, and the
<enttype='GPE'>Philippines</ent>, wherever this parasitic <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> atmosphere lingered.
This is the first broad proof that <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> was taught sense and
virtue by what it calls the wicked world or the materialistic age.</p>
<p> An examination of the progress and the causes of social reform
in each country would clinch this proof, but obviously a
satisfactory treatment of that subject would require a large
volume; and, as it is one of those inquiries that <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> does</p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
16
.
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM</p>
<p>not like, no historian or sociologist has taken it up and there is
no work to recommend to the reader. I have, as some readers will
know, not only given a large amount of material for the study in
previous works but have written one in which enough of the evidence
is condensed to satisfy any candid inquirer (How Freethinkers Made
Notable Contributions to Civilization, <enttype='ORG'>Haldeman</ent>-<enttype='PERSON'>Julius</ent> Co. 1938).
In this work I examined the record of progress, particularly during
the last 100 years, in respect of the struggle for freedom,
education, social and political rights, the emancipation of woman,
philanthropy, and general improvement, and I showed that, while in
those days religious folk, though by no means so lenient to
<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s as they now are, at least thought them an immeasurably
larger and more respectable body than freethinkers, yet fully one
half the pioneers in all reforms were freethinker's and none were
<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s.</p>
<p> You wonder what <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> apologists, loudly claiming that the
<enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> leads in progress and civilization, say to that. The answer
is: Nothing, as far as I can discover. I have several times quoted
a very popular apologetic work, published under the patronage of
heads and professors of several <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n universities, entitled The
Calvert Handbook of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Facts. It ought to say "of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>
Rhetoric" or "<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Lies." It makes the usual generalized claims
but, as <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> must have exerted this mighty influence on
progress and civilization through definite individuals, the leaders
of chief workers in reform-movements, I look for the names of these
-- and find none. There is a lot about <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> relatives of
Presidents, rich <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> men of business, <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> diplomatists,
<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> judges, and so on, but for every <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> named as a
worker in reform-movements I will undertake to name a hundred
skeptics.</p>
<p> There is in the book an article on <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s who contributed
to <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>n civilization in particular or civilization in general.
It names <enttype='PERSON'>Sobieski</ent>, whose monument is <enttype='GPE'>Poland</ent>, Ferdinand and
<enttype='PERSON'>Isabella</ent>, whose monument is <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and the discoveries of <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>,
who would have gone to the stake if they had not professed
<enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent>ism. That covers the later Middle Ages. Then we have a Father
<enttype='PERSON'>White</ent>, who is said to have set up the first printing press (from
<enttype='GPE'>England</ent>) in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>, another who was great at shorthand in its
infancy, another who invented a balloon; and another who (getting
the idea from <enttype='GPE'>England</ent>) built the first railroad in <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>. Two or
three are credited with naval and military distinction, and there
is the usual bunch of great <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> scientists (Pasteur, Fabre,
etc.) most of whom were skeptics. There are the men who wrote
"<enttype='GPE'>Maryland</ent>" and "The Conquered Banner," the architect of the <enttype='PERSON'>White</ent>
House, the man who sold the estate for it, and the man who planned
the city of <enttype='GPE'>Washington</ent> (a "majestic plan"). There you have the
do not represent a small body of <enttype='NORP'>Quakers</ent> or still smaller body (at
that time) of freethinkers but the biggest religion in the world.</p>
<p> Did anybody ever say that no <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> ever won any sort of
distinction, even in shorthand, ballooning, or writing songs? We
are familiar with <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s writing any sort of tripe for their own
hypnotized people, but this sort of thing is written for non-<enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent><enttype='GPE'>America</ent>ns and has the patronage of <enttype='PERSON'>Nicholas Murray</ent> Butler </p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
17
.
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM</p>
<p>and the President of <enttype='ORG'>the Carnegie Institute</ent> of Technology. The
great work for civilization was achieved from 1870 onward. How many
of these illustrious <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent>s fall in that period? Only the
balloonist as far as I can see. We may admit that gas and hot air
are entitled to clerical respect, but what the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> apologist,
claims is the inspiration of our progress in education, the
reduction of social service. How many of crime, and poverty, and
suffering these brilliant men figure in those fields? Not one.</p>
<p> Let us try another way. As the Jesuits are supposed to have
inspired <enttype='GPE'>Jefferson</ent> and <enttype='PERSON'>Adams</ent>, who loathed Jesuits and their creed
as much as <enttype='ORG'>Haldeman</ent>-<enttype='PERSON'>Julius</ent> does, perhaps it will be claimed that it
was the subtly compelling influence of Papal encyclicals that
permeated the world and somehow fired large bodies of men and women
(mostly skeptics) to devote their lives to ridding the world of its
medieval evils and miseries. This would be very singular when we
reflect that of those who are supposed to be the closest readers of
the encyclopedias, the priests, not one -- unless you want me to
count Father <enttype='PERSON'>Coughlin</ent> -- figures in the long list of reform-leaders, and not one <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> layman is found in any list of, say,
the hundred leading social workers of the 19th Century. The
influence of religion on leader's of reform is one of those studies
which our sociologists carefully avoid, though most of them give
religion a high-place in the list of inspirational agencies, but I
have made the research elsewhere, and the grotesque scratchings in
the byways of history of the Calvert Handbook confirm me. The Papal
encyclicals moved the world to great deeds and through atheists and
<enttype='NORP'>Quakers</ent>! Really, apologists ought not to advertise so blatantly
what they think of <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> intelligence.</p>
<p> But what are these grand encyclicals (or "to the whole world")
educated in sound views of social ethics. What I mean is that in
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Britain</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>France</ent>, <enttype='NORP'>German</ent>y, and <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> a social-<enttype='NORP'>democratic</ent>
movement (without the capital letters) spread in the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> world
after 1900. Quite bold books appeared, and there were "social
experts" and all sorts of novelties. What was the inspiration?
Evidently it did not come from the <enttype='ORG'>Papacy</ent>. Had local hierarchies
and their <enttype='PERSON'>Ryan</ent>s and <enttype='PERSON'>Williams</ent> a finer appreciation of the
remember that <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent> and <enttype='NORP'>German</ent>y were not at that time open allies
of <enttype='PERSON'>Franco</ent>, and <enttype='GPE'>America</ent> and <enttype='GPE'>Britain</ent> had not declared their attitude </p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
20
.
THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM</p>
<p>to what everybody still called a rebellion. But there was no
reserve at <enttype='GPE'>Rome</ent>. In a blistering and most untruthful attack on
<enttype='ORG'>Communism</ent>, which he represented as the aggressor in <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>, the <enttype='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
spoke of it as a force that was attempting to subvert established
order of every kind from <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent> to <enttype='GPE'>China</ent>, from <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent> to <enttype='LOC'>South</ent>
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>." From this year onward he appealed repeatedly for "the
extinction" of <enttype='NORP'>Bolshevism</ent> in <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Mexico</ent>, and <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>, and, as we
saw, "he holy cry for blood was taken up in the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> section of
every country.</p>
<p> When the <enttype='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<enttype='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>n crisis, which might be called the
first stage of the world-war, arose in 1938 the service that the
Vatican and its <enttype='ORG'>Black International</ent> in every country had already
rendered the imperialist thugs by this propaganda was apparent.
<enttype='ORG'>Joint</ent> action at once by <enttype='GPE'>Britain</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>France</ent>, and <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent> would have
strangled <enttype='PERSON'>Hitler</ent>ism in its cradle and put a cheek to the ambitions
of <enttype='GPE'>Japan</ent>. But <enttype='GPE'>Britain</ent> was under obligation only to support <enttype='GPE'>France</ent>,
and <enttype='GPE'>France</ent> was persuaded by its <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> politicians and military
leaders, the present <enttype='GPE'>Vichy</ent> crowd, that <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent> could not be trusted
to keep its word: in reality, that active partnership with so
disreputable a power and helping it to cheek the strength of
<enttype='NORP'>German</ent>y must not be undertaken by <enttype='GPE'>France</ent>. As late as 1940 <enttype='NORP'>British</ent>
generals of the stuffy <enttype='NORP'>Tory</ent> type were saying: "We may have to ally
our selves with <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>, but God forgive us." That contemptuous
attitude the <enttype='ORG'>Black International</ent> fed in every country for ten
years, to the very great profit of the bandits.</p>
<p> We admit the double root of this hatred of <enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>, or the
capitalist and the <enttype='NORP'>Catholic</ent> roots, but we have to recognize this
difference: that the capitalists, who make no pretence of moral
principle, are honest opponents of a dangerous rival system,
whereas the priests, who profess to be the moral saviors of a
wicked world lie about their motives and by their action run the
risk of bringing upon civilization precisely that ruin which they
in the other countries (<enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>France</ent>, <enttype='NORP'>German</ent>y, <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent>, and <enttype='NORP'>Spanish</ent>
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>, etc.) in which the advance of Socialism and <enttype='ORG'>Communism</ent>
detached tens of million# from the <enttype='NORP'>Roman</ent><enttype='ORG'>Church</ent> there was certainly
no official encouragement of the movement. The mechanism of
propaganda was a substitution of facts for lies, of knowledge for </p>
<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
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THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM</p>
<p>ignorance. The policy of <enttype='ORG'>the Church</ent> when the <enttype='NORP'>Fascist</ent> reaction began
in each country sufficiently proves this. It closed the schools,
suppressed freedom of discussion, and strangled literature; and it
filled the jails with the men and women who had been most prominent
in exposing the clergy, and it had, and continues to have,
thousands of them labelled <enttype='NORP'>Communists</ent> and shot.</p>
<p> We talk about the blindness of men in the red haze of war, but
the third year of this most terrible of all war's has been, to the
intense mortification of the <enttype='ORG'>Black International</ent>, a year of
illumination. Self-interest has, of course, helped the <enttype='NORP'>British</ent> and
<enttype='GPE'>America</ent>ns to surmount the prejudices that have been pumped into
them by press, pulpit, literature, and the cinema for 20 years, but
it will hardly be questioned that the magnificent conduct of the
<enttype='GPE'>Russia</ent>n people has been the main fact that opened the eyes of folk
to their great qualities and the soundness of their system. Right
until the hordes of <enttype='NORP'>Nazi</ent> tanks, set free by the absence of any
opposition on the western front, were within a few hours run of
<enttype='GPE'>Leningrad</ent> and <enttype='GPE'>Moscow</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Britons</ent> and <enttype='GPE'>America</ent>ns were whispering that of
Box 926, <enttype='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
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THE FRUITS OF ROMANISM</p>
<p>should have its industries destroyed. Big industries mean clotted
urban populations, free discussion, freethought, birth control, and
so on. The Vatican had seen that painful development in <enttype='GPE'>France</ent>,
<enttype='GPE'>Belgium</ent>, <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and <enttype='GPE'>Czecho</ent>-<enttype='GPE'>Slovakia</ent>. The <enttype='ORG'>Black International</ent> was
ready to join in the plot to de-industrialize those countries and
<enttype='PERSON'>Leo</ent>pold restored, men like <enttype='PERSON'>Bonnet</ent> put in power in <enttype='GPE'>France</ent><enttype='PERSON'>Franco</ent>
firmly established in <enttype='GPE'>Spain</ent> and <enttype='PERSON'>Salazar</ent> in <enttype='GPE'>Portugal</ent>, the royal
family propped on the throne of <enttype='GPE'>Italy</ent>, and so on. By hook or crook
