The following is the text of the pamphlet “New Dealism (Russian Communism) Exposed”. This pamphlet also included pictures, church information for Temple Baptist Church in Detroit, and ads for other Norris books. I am omitting some of this information for brevity’s sake. I am including the portions about the Northern Baptist Convention which may not truly relate to the primary subject. – MBG
READ THE ADDRESS
New Dealism (Russian Communism) Exposed
Including 32 Scenes of
TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
AND
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
FORT WORTH, TEXAS
Two independent Baptist churches which stand for 100% Fundamentalism and Christian patriotism as opposed to modernism and every brand of communism.
REV. J. FRANK NORRIS, D. D., LL.D.
Pastor
Speaks over
KTAT (1240 kilocycles) FORT WORTH
and
WJR (750 kilocycles) DETROIT
Total membership of over 15,000 – under one pastorate
25c PER COPY
The Following Order of Sunday Services
of
Temple Baptist Church
DETROIT
9:00 A. M – Radio service on top Fisher Building.
9:30 A. M. – Prayer Service, Temple Church, 14th and Marquette.
10:00 A. M. – Bible School in Church, Century Theater, two public school buildings and tabernacle.
11:30 A. M. – Preaching by Pastor in Century Theater, 14th Avenue near Grand Boulevard.
3:00 P. M. – Bible Lecture on Prophecy in Church, 14th and Marquette. Baptizing every Sunday.
6:30 P. M. – Young People’s Meeting, Masonic Temple.
7:30 P. M. – Preaching by Pastor in Masonic Temple.
ONLY TIME REPORT OF REVIVAL EVER BROADCAST OVER N.B.C.
The National Broadcasting Company, July 30th, through its well-known representative, Mr. Stanley High, who came to Detroit and made investigation and broadcast a report of the Detroit Revival – this the only time in the history of the world’s greatest broadcasting company where any report of a revival meeting has been broadcast. The following report was broadcast to the whole North American Continent:
“And here’s something for the New Dealers to think about. Dr. J. Frank Norris is in Detroit and on the war path. Maybe you never heard of Dr. J. Frank Norris. Well, that only goes to prove you’ve never been in Texas or, for that matter, almost any other Southern state. Dr. Norris is a Southern Baptist minister. In many respects, he’s the most potent political force among the Protestant ministers of the nation. For years he’s been minister of the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas. That church, by the way, has a membership of more than 12,000. Dr. Norris is the country’s leading fundamentalist. Two weeks ago, in Dayton, Tenn., I saw a letter written by William Jennings Bryan – the last letter he ever wrote – in which he called on Dr. Norris to carry on. Well, that’s what Norris has been doing. If you doubt that ask Jim Ferguson – one time Governor of Texas. It was Norris-more than any other man that brought about Ferguson’s impeachment. Or ask the present Governor of Texas. It was Norris – more than any other man who brought about his election. When Dr. Norris announces that he’s going on the air, the devils in Texas – if any tremble and lie low.
“And Dr. Norris – with an anti-New Deal, anti-Communist, anti-Coughlin platform–has moved into Detroit. He’s taken over the Temple Baptist Church, the largest in this city. And he’s still running the Fort Worth parish, too. Last May he got a circus tent, set up on Grand River Boulevard, about three miles from the center of the town, and started services. He preaches there six nights a week. His crowds, all through May, June and July have averaged more than 5000 every night. Plans are now afoot to give him a daily radio hook-up. If you doubt he’s making a dent, let me just mention the fact that the Detroit Chief of Police has ordered all of his men who are off duty on next Sunday night – to attend the Norris tent meeting. Well, I had a long talk with Dr. Norris this afternoon. At the end of the first five minutes he was calling me Stanley. At the end of the first half-hour, I was on the way to believing that here’s a Protestant Father Coughlin – arising out of Father Coughlin’s own Detroit – using the same mass technique, but standing on a diametrically opposite platform. Dr. Norris is persuaded – and how he tells you – that the country is on the way toward Communism. ‘You don’t know it,’ he said, ‘but the foundations have already been swept away.’ And he went on to prove it. The working man, says Norris, is O.K. It’s the ministers of the gospel and school teachers that we need to fear.’ Don’t think that that’s the fantasy of an evangelist. The good doctor has been having sessions with big and hard-headed business men. He’s got substantial backing-and when I say substantial, that’s what I mean. He’s joined up – in an informal way with the anti-red, anti-New Deal campaign of William Randolph Hearst. He’s out to swing the Protestant churches into a national beat-Roosevelt campaign in 1936. And, believe me, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with.
“He’s against the New Deal because he’s convinced that it’s Communist; that Roosevelt is out to destroy the courts; that given half a chance he’ll make himself dictator; and that all this has come to pass because – as Dr. Norris puts it – Mr. Roosevelt, like Caesar and Napoleon, is drunk with power.’ But the immediate Norris objective is Father Coughlin. For weeks he’s been quietly gathering what he calls ‘the low down.’ He planned to start the shooting tonight. But Father Coughlin is out of town, so the fight won’t begin before Thursday, at the earliest. And that’s not the half of it. He’s got wind of the fact that Father Coughlin plans a coast-to-coast speaking trip. ‘I’ll dog his steps,’ says Norris. ‘In every town he speaks, I’ll speak the next night, and by the time he is ready for the fall campaign I’ll be all set to go on the air with as many broadcasting stations as he can command.’ Well, nobody in Detroit is laughing that off. Not with 5000 people turning up every hot night in the more than hot tent to hear Frank Norris speak. And you know it’s just possible that the biggest show of the year is in the making – right now – under that white canvas, out there on Grand River Boulevard.”
WHAT IS A FUNDAMENTALIST BAPTIST?
A Fundamentalist Baptist is one who believes in a supernatural Bible which tells of a supernatural Christ, who spake supernatural words, who performed supernatural miracles, who died a supernatural death, who rose in supernatural power, who ascended in supernatural glory, who reigns a supernatural priest, who is coming in supernatural victory and who will establish a supernatural kingdom on the earth.
A Fundamentalist Baptist is one who believes in the verbal inspiration of the Bible versus the traditions of men,
Who believes in the virgin birth of Christ, that he is both the Son of God and God the Son,
Who believes in the deity of Christ, that in his Person He is very God,
Who believes in the vicarious atonement of Christ on the cross for the sins of the whole world,
Who believes Christ rose from the dead the third day according to the Scriptures,
Who believes that Christ will return personally, visibly, bodily to the earth,
Who believes in order to be saved the soul must be born again (“Ye must be born again”),
Who believes that every truly born-again soul should declare his faith in the act of baptism, setting forth the Lord’s burial and resurrection,
Who believes that a church is an independent body of baptized believers, subject to no hierarchy of men, recognizing Christ only as its great head,
Who believes that the one and only mission of the church is not to regulate or enter into the social, economic and political affairs of the government, but to preach the gospel of salvation to the individual soul.
The above, in brief, is the platform of the two great Fundamentalist Baptist Churches, Temple Baptist Church, Detroit, and the First Baptist Church, Fort Worth.
THE WORLD’S WORK
IN ITS TWO ISSUES, SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1923, PUBLISHED THE FOLLOWING
“The Fundamentalist War Among the Churches”
“I hear the Fundamental Movement ‘lacks a leader,’ and so it does – at present. Fundamentalism has only started. No one man started it. It is a result of simultaneous uprising all over the country. Organization, with accredited leadership, will come later. Potential leaders abound, and among the strongest, shrewdest, and most romantically adventurous is J. Frank Norris, of Fort Worth, Texas.
In Fort Worth opinion regarding Norris is divided. Several years ago his enemies got him tried “for burning up his church.” He was acquitted. Later on, a mass-meeting ordered him out of town. Legend recounts that he and his merry men prepared to defend themselves with a machine-gun. I asked him about that. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘All we had was sawed-off shot-guns.’
“Many of Frank’s’ former foes adore him, as does half the community. Buildings covering a block and more attest his success, and his auditorium, when alterations are complete, will hold five thousand applausive adherents, with a choir of seven hundred.
“Recently his paper-circulation 55,000 (I saw the affidavit) – proclaimed in red headlines, “WAR IS DECLARED-SECOND COMING OF CHRIST ISSUE!” Nailed to the door of his church, meanwhile, was a huge poster announcing his ‘World Convention of Fundamentalists.’ The array of celebrated speakers included William Jennings Bryan.
“Prince of crowd-gatherers, paragon of advertisers, Norris has created a new profession, that of the church-efficiency expert, and is its most brilliant practitioner. Heralded as the Texas Cyclone,’ he will enter any city you choose to name, lay hold of some doddering, dead-and-alive downtown church, draw crowds into it, galvanize them, get the gloriously revivified institution financed, and erect a living, lasting monument to his abilities. After witnessing his performance in Cleveland, Dr. W. W. Bustard declared that in the service of a business corporation Norris’ genius would be worth $50,000 a year. He understated the case.
“It is true that Norris’ belief in “the literal, personal, bodily, visible, imminent return of the Lord to this earth as King’ somewhat limits his leadership.
“It was Norris who said to me at the very start of the first talk I had with him, There is going to be a new denomination. He named the three distinguished Fundamentalists who are about to organize it.
“The champion college-baiter, so far, is Rev. J. Frank Norris, who has transformed his church bulletin into an ultra-Hearst newspaper, the Searchlight (now The Fundamentalist). In an upper corner of its front page, we behold Norris grasping a Bible in one hand, while the other directs the glare of a searchlight. In the corner opposite, revealed by the glare, cowers Satan. Red headlines complete the effect. Week by week Norris flays the evolutionists in this adventurous journal, and mails it far and wide.
“A year or so ago, hearing that evolution was tolerated at Wake Forest University, near Raleigh, he raged against Wake Forest and mail Searchlights to allegations the North Carolina ministers. Uproar followed. A local religious paper attacked President Edwin McNeill Poteat, and all over North Carolina anti-evolutionists demanded his resignation.
“In his warfare upon his Alma-Mater – Baylor University at Waco, Texas – Norris is succeeding. Professor G. Samuel Dow, author of ‘Society and Problems,’ and an ‘Introduction to the Principles of Sociology,’ stood his ground until flesh and blood could endure no more, then resigned. Professor O. C. Bradbury has done the same. Encouraged by these triumphs, Norris is not only assailing Professor Pace, a lady, but insisting that President Samuel Palmer Brooks must go.
“Of late, Rev. J. Frank Norris has invented a new instrument of torture for colleges – the trial. At his recent ‘world convention’ of Fundamentalists, he turned his church into a courtroom and tried three Methodist institutions, the accused being Southern Methodist University at Dallas, Southwestern University at Georgetown, and the Texas Woman’s College at Fort Worth. Dr. W. B. Riley, eminent Fundamentalist, presided. Armed with college notebooks, six young folks, graduates or undergraduates of the accused, appeared as witnesses. Before a vast congregation, Rev. W. E. Hawkins, Jr., as prosecuting attorney, examined the witnesses for two and a half hours. Defense there was none. All the accused were convicted.”
Dr. T. T. Shields of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Writes as Follows on the First Baptist Church, Fort Worth
It is always a tonic for jaded spirits to come into the presence of Dr. Norris. He is always bubbling over like a mountain torrent, and radiates energy like the summer sun. We do not know much about the constitution of radium, but when it was discovered years ago by the Curies it was hailed as a new element. We understand, however, that one of the characteristics of radium is that it never diminishes, it never burns itself out. We have seen many human dynamos, many men of abounding energy, but almost invariably after a while their energy diminished, their pace slackened, they reached the crest of the hill and descended; and by and by they passed from public memory.
Dr. Norris is, of course, still a young man. It would therefore scarcely be appropriate to quote what is said of Moses in relation to him, that “his natural force was not abated.” We have a suspicion that, were it possible chemically to analyze Dr. Norris’ constitution it would be found to contain a large proportion of radium. At all events, we found it most refreshing to meet him again. It was like getting a new atmosphere, electrically charged.
We were last in Fort Worth in 1926, when the old auditorium of the First Baptist Church was still standing. Dr. Norris and his people have seen strenuous times since then. Their building was destroyed by fire, and through failure of the insurance companies they received little insurance. For more than a year now they have been in their new auditorium. It has an enormous area. We shall not say what it will seat, although we know within fifty. The average estimate of a building’s seating capacity is so far from being accurate that to give exact numbers would have the effect of misrepresenting things as they are to the popular mind. It is enough to say that from our count the First Baptist Church auditorium seats approximately the same as the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London. There is, however, this difference, Spurgeon’s Tabernacle has two galleries, the Fort Worth auditorium has none; the people are seated on one ascending floor.
We have heard Dr. Norris many times, and in many places, under varying circumstances, but we were never more thrilled by his messages than we were when we heard him from his own platform in Fort Worth. Evidently he is a larger figure in Fort Worth than ever before. He enjoys a larger measure of public esteem, and is therefore more popular than ever before. In this, we greatly rejoice. There never was but one Dr. J. Frank Norris, and the passage of time serves only to endear him to the multitude, and more firmly to establish him in public confidence. May his bow long abide in strength.
THE NEW DEAL UNCOVERED
MRS. ROOSEVELT’S RED CONNECTIONS
Address by Dr. J. Frank Norris at a luncheon of several hundred representative business men at the Barlum Hotel, Detroit, Tuesday, August 6, 1935.
(Stenographically Reported)
MR. JOSEPH E. BLYTHE, CHAIRMAN: We went out yesterday after dark to Lake Orion – I have heard about Lake Orion all my life – I knew there were islands out there, but I never knew so many islands could be in one lake the last island we went on, we found this gentleman. I am going to leave it to your good judgment whether or not I selected a man who could fill the place, Dr. J. Frank Norris, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas, and also pastor of the Temple Baptist Church of Detroit. He is dividing his time between the two places. If you have noticed the papers in the last few weeks, you will have seen how Mr. Hearst has been playing Dr. Norris up quite a bit in his articles against the New Deal.
It is my pleasure at this time to introduce Dr. J. Frank Norris, and he is going to tell you something about the New Deal. (Applause.)
DR. NORRIS: Ladies and gentlemen, it would seem unusual for a minister, one who has been here so short a time, to be called upon on this important occasion. But the time has long passed in this country whether West, East, North or South, where we face but one issue. I know we are in the habit of speaking of the crisis that confronts us,” until it has almost become trite.
While the men slept, the patriotic citizens of this nation, the evil forces have been sowing tares of destruction in our fields.
The issue before us today is not the depression, the issue is whether or not we are going to have any government left after that crowd at Washington gets through. I hail from the South, and since my ancestors set foot on the shores of South Carolina, driven from the St. Bartholomew’s persecution in the 16th Century, from then until now they have always been Democrats, but I am now, and have for a long time, several months, taken occasion over the radio, in the press, from the pulpit and platform, to express what I believe, and what is my deepest conviction, that the greatest menace that ever confronted America is the “New Deal” no more or less than the American name for Russian Communism.
A very patient, patriotic people laid aside their political and sectional differences and in our great distress we were willing to support the Chief Executive, and we did most loyally. But now the facts are well known to the most of us that the one supreme purpose today in Washington is to destroy this government and build on the wreck and ruin of the most splendid government of all time a duplication of the Soviet Government of Moscow. And the sooner we face it and meet it openly and above-board, on platform, over radio, in the city, in the country, that much sooner we will be rid of this menace.
The great trouble, ıny friends, and I speak as one who has been over the South, West and North recently, first, there is an indifference; second, there is a lack of adequate information as to what is going on.
The New Deal comes to us with the hands of Democracy, but with the voice of Moscow; it comes like Absalom sitting in the gates stealing the hearts of the American people, while at the same time it reaches forth and tears the Stars and Stripes from its mast and unfurls the Red flag of Communism; it comes with “Hail Master” on its lips, but with the price of of treachery in its heart; it comes with a smile like Joab, only to thrust the sword of treachery into our vitals. That’s the New Deal.
What is the New Deal? The New Deal is a Poker Player’s term. It is well named. It is gambling today with the most vital interests of the greatest republic on which the sun ever shined. It means, if it prevails, that there will be no individual freedom left; no freedom of press; no freedom of conscience; no freedom of worship.
People who talk about the New Deal – “regimentation,” “collectivism” – they should go with me, where I went immediately following the Soviet capture of Russia – look at the 120,000 churches – Greek Catholic, to be sure, but in the first five years of Soviet rule, 80,000 churches were razed to the ground. So thoroughly Atheistic is this menace that they have even broken down the slabs over the dead and have driven plows over the graves. Why? They don’t want the people to have anything to remind them of a life beyond.
Oh, they say this New Deal is not Communism-Lenin, the greatest brain of this generation-I have read his works, and one thing he instructed his followers was, when they were in foreign lands, always to deny they were Communists. And this New Deal is running true to form in this country.
Let me give you a definition in the concrete of what means the New Deal – Here we have a meat strike in Detroit-I am not arguing the merits or demerits of the strike – Only a few months ago Rexford Tugwell, an open outright Atheist, a student and follower of Lenin, by his order 6,000,000 pigs were killed – and I know something about the hog business myself – and my friend, Hon. Joe Blythe here came from Arkansas, where they have the “Razor-backs” – he knows about hogs-by this time those 6,000,000 pigs would have made fifteen hundred million (1,500,000,000) pounds of meat – let’s see what that would mean:
- Increased consumption of the farm products to fatten hogs.
- Increased labor for the packers, thereby, decreasing unemployment.
- Increased traffic for railroads, thereby increasing revenue, as well as employment.
- Increased volume for retailers, thereby increasing profits.
- Increased space, thereby increasing rents, and most of all,
- It would have meant decreased price of meat to the consumers, and the riots now being witnessed in this city – and spreading, and will spread, we fear, throughout the nation – would have been avoided, and this trouble with the housewives, who can’t buy pork chops on their meager wage would not have happened.
That is what the New Deal has done for the consumer.
When I drove through the fertile black lands of Texas, and saw literally thousands of acres of cotton, waist-high – there would be right beside it one-third of the acreage plowed under-I said to my wife – “This thing is wrong” – Why not go ahead and grow the cotton, put the gins to work, let the government buy it up, give it to the Red Cross to clothe the naked in our great cities and in the country. They are out to destroy, that’s why.
I am telling you what the New Deal is.
My state, Texas, raises more corn than any other State in the Union, with one exception, and do you know because of the New Deal, Texas imported from Argentine Republic sixty million bushels of corn last year? That money went out of Texas down to Argentine Republic because of this triple A – that’s the New Deal.
They need to turn back and follow the example of a man named Joseph, who instead of destroying the pigs and plowing up the cotton, and destroying the wheat, gathered it all into barns, stored it, and when the famine came there was enough and to spare to feed and clothe the people.
I believe profoundly – I am not in politics, therefore, I can say what I please – (Laughter) – I believe profoundly the scheme today is to destroy this present government and civilization of ours in order that this scheme of Sovietism may be erected in its place.
MRS. ROOSEVELT’S RED CONNECTIONS
I am not advertising anybody’s books, but if you haven’t read it, you should get “The Red Net Work,” and read it – A very brilliant university woman compiled this information, telling “who is who” and their Soviet connections in America. I have studied it a great deal, and it is absolutely authentic – it never has yet been challenged or denied.
Will I shock you if I give you the connections of the most powerful individual in this government? It is not the President. You know we have a way of saying and boasting – we men – “I am the head of the family,” and we are – but the woman is the neck, and the neck turns the head – (Applause and laughter) – These women know what I am talking about – and the men, too. And the interesting thing is we men like it.
I heard of a story about a Democratic Congressman who was up eulogizing the President – this happened down in Arkansas – Joe Robinson’s state, and he said:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I want to do honor to the great man in the White House, who has led us through this great depression and saved us.”
A half drunk Irishman sitting over in one corner said: “I don’t like him.”
This Congressman went on: Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know he is the greatest statesman since George Washington – he saved us through the bank panic –
The drunk Irishman spoke up: “But I don’t like him.”
The Congressman continued: “I want you to know that our great President has some unseen power over, and in, and around him, behind him, directing his course –
The Irishman yelled out: “I don’t like her either.” (Laughter.)
I yield to no man in paying just tribute to womanhood. I can quite sympathize with old Adam, when after the world was made-and it was superlative – but he was lonely-God put Adam to sleep and the first major operation was performed on him and woman was made, and she has been operating on him ever since. (Laughter.) – Well, they are the best things in the world.
MRS. ROOSEVELT’S RED CONNECTIONS
Gentlemen, in this Red Net Work – I want to read just an excerpt:
“MRS. FRANKLIN D. R0OSEVELT: Socialist sympathizer and associate; pacifist; Non-Intervention Citiz. Com. 1927 (Opposed to Monroe Doctrine, which the Roosevelt administration has abrogated; 26 of its 75 members leading Socialists or Communists);”
Then it goes on and gives a long list of her connections and activities, some thirty odd connections – then it gives her connection as the principal factor in what is known as “The National Woman’s Trade Union.” Read the document, “Reds of America,” and then see in that list who are her associates – here are some of them – well known communists and radicals:
“Wm. Z. Foster, Scott Nearing, Benj. Gitlow (the first American Communist arrested during the war), Robert W. Dunn, Eliz. Gurley Flynn (I. W. W. – Communist) and their fellow Fund directors, (Norman Thomas, Harry Ward, Sidney Hillman, etc).” All these are well known Reds. And, Ladies and Gentlemen, the most prominent worker and director in those organizations (and there are some forty odd in this country) – is the First Lady of the Land. I regret that this is true.
Then on Mrs. Roosevelt’s connections with the Russian organization, the National Woman’s Trade Union League, I read from the Red Net Work, page 207:
“NATIONAL WOMEN’S TRADE UNION LEAGUE
“An ultra radical A. F. of L. affiliate to which Mrs. F. D. Roosevelt announced that she donated her radio earnings and of which (according to a press report) she said she had been a member ‘for years.’ It is listed in the Lusk Report as ‘a Socialist organization favoring pacifism.’
“Whitney’s ‘Reds in America’ (p. 177) states that In a document found at Bridgman at the time (1922) of the raid of the illegal convention of Communists was one on “Work Among Women” in which it is set forth that: “The interest of the working class demands the recruiting of women into the ranks of the proletariat fighting for communism” (four categories of work were then defined).
“‘The Woman’s Trade Union League is at present jogging along. With the introduction of new blood it could be made a powerful weapon.’
“At any rate, the official report of the Garland Fund, which I have, show that Communists Wm. Z. Foster, Scott Nearing, Benj. Gitlow (the first American Communist arrested during the war), Robt. W. Dunn, Eliz. Gurley Flynn (I. w. W. Communist) and their fellow Fund directors (Norman Thomas, Harry Ward, Sidney Hillman, etc.) voted as a Board to donate to the National Women’s Trade Union League, Chicago, Ill. – April 11, 1923 – for general budget for 1923, with special reference to training workers in the trade union movement, $2,500′ and (Report for year ending June 30, 1926) to the ‘National Women’s Trade Union League, Chicago, Ill., $147.33’ and to the ‘New York Women’s Trade Union League, New York City – for salary of an organizer, $2,500’; and (Report for year ending June 30, 1927) to the ‘National Women’s Trade Union League, Chicago for educational work conditioned on raising an equal amount from trade union sources, $629.’ A notation also of $913 paid on conditional appropriations is listed on page 8 of the 1924-5 report.
“According to. Whitney’s ‘Reds in America,’ Mrs. Raymond Robins and Agnes Nestor, its executives, sponsored a parade for the release of ‘Big Bill’ Haywood (who afterwards escaped to Russia), referred to by the Chicago Tribune at the time as an ‘anarchist parade.’ Its president, Rose Schneidermann (now a Roosevelt appointee to the NRA Labor Board) has resented, it is said, the nickname given her of the ‘Red Rose of Anarchy.’ She has a long record for radicalism.”
Ladies and gentlemen, it is a very serious thing when the position we have all honored-our boys and girls, our citizens, of whatever creed or color, have honored, when it is the known record that the First Lady of the Land, has these socialistic, communistic connections open and above board!
We are not surprised that the White House has become a second Reno, and knowing our Southern womanhood, I say to you that the mothers of the South will join with the mothers of the North, East, and West, in re-establishing the high ideals represented by the First Lady of the Land from the days of Martha Washington to Mrs. Herbert Hoover. (Applause.)
Moral standards, Christian patriotic ideals, must be maintained in this day of free-lovism, divorce and Communism. (Applause.)
We don’t need to have the First Lady of the Land to advise our boys and girls to take a glass of beer.
Incidentally, the only promise that the “New Deal” has kept – what is it?
Not the reducing of the public debt, as was promised.
Not reducing the number of high-priced, high-powered usurping bureaus, as was promised.
Not the reducing of unemployment, as was promised.
Not the reducing of taxes, as was promised.
The only promise that has been kept is that the New Deal has turned rivers of liquor back on the homes of the American people. (Applause.)
No wonder the New Deal has left God out of its schemes, not one time have any of the “New Dealers,” or has the Chief Executive, or the First Lady of the Land followed the example of Washington, Lincoln, Wilson and other Presidents, and called the people back to the God of our fathers!
But how could we expect otherwise when the chief advisor, Rexford Tugwell, and other brain-trusters, are known to be open and blatant Atheists.
I am defining the New Deal, which has long since become the “Raw Deal.” Here is the New Deal, and we need to say so, over this country – the laborers and farmers for a large part are intensely prejudiced – we may as well face it – they are prejudiced against the courts-and those people need to know the best friend and defender the laboring people have are the courts of our land – roll back the hands of time to the Medieval days and see how the laborers and the poor were oppressed.
Little did you and I think we would ever see the day when the Chief Executive, who kissed the Bible, lifted his hand to Almighty God and swore, and specifically said and declared he would maintain and support the Constitution and laws of our Country – and I am sure every informed man here will agree with me – that the President of the United States for the first time in American history would come out openly and defy the courts of our land and the Constitution – and if his word can go he should be impeached.
Now you say, “Oh, well, our courts will protect us.” Wait a minute, let’s see – What means the 400,000 C. C. C.? Why are they being given military training? Let’s be honest and face the facts as they are. Are they being trained for foreign wars? Suppose that a wrecked condition should come after the President says to the farmers, you can have 38 cents for your wheat and 6 cents for your cotton? Suppose there should be an uprising? The Chief Executive could declare this country in war, and put it under Martial Law – every lawyer here knows he can do it – What would you do? What would your Courts amount to?
Ladies and gentlemen, that is exactly where we are today. We are right on the eve of it.
Mr. Roosevelt is a very shrewd man, a man of many admirable traits. He is the shrewdest politician that has ever been in the White House, and the sooner we wake up to that fact the better off we will be. He has a shrewd appeal.
I heard this story that happened at some meeting where the President was present. Somebody said that the three greatest men that ever lived were Julius Caesar, Jesus Christ, “and you, Mr. President.”
He said, “Why mention the other two?” – (Laughter.)
You have to admire his nerve – Out where my friend Blythe came from – did you ever hear a woodpecker, pecking away on top of some of those tall pines? – You can hear him up there just going away, you can shoot at him, and he will look all around and smile, and he will go on knocking, knocking – You shoot at him again, all he will do is to change his limb just as you shoot – (Laughter) – One day up on top of a tall tree there was a woodpecker just knocking away – there came up a heavy storm, like the one this morning – it was lightning and thundering – a keen bolt of lightning came, struck the top of that tree and split it clear down to the tap root, and, Ladies and Gentlemen, to this day that woodpecker thinks he split that tree. (Much laughter.)
I’ll not make the application. (Applause.)
Now, I want to tell you something else that happened down in the land where my friend hails from – Have you told the people up here? Well, I knew it when I first saw you last night. (Laughter.)
The animals down there in Arkansas had a Convention – all the “varmints” from the bottoms came – just as they started with the proceedings in walked Bro. Skunk – he walked up to the front and sat down–all the delegates got up and walked out, and didn’t lose any time getting out, and moved the Convention over to another place. Just as they started again, in walked this same delegate, Bro. Skunk, and walked up again to the front and sat down – they lost no time getting out of the doors and the windows – after they had all left except Brother Fox, Brother Skunk said to him,
“Brother Fox, I want to ask you a question, what is the matter with this Convention? I ain’t done nothing – I ain’t bothered nobody – I have behaved myself – when I came over yonder and sat down they all got up and walked out when I came over here and sat down they all left again, now I want you to tell me, Brother Fox, what am de matter?”
Brother Fox said: “Brother Skunk, you want me to tell you? It ain’t what you have done, it is what you might do they are afraid of.” (Roars of laughter and applause.) I am scared of what the New Dealers might do. (Laughter.)
Why, my friends, if it were normal times, the President of the United States has done two things that would be just grounds for impeachment.
Can you imagine the President of the United States writing a letter to Congress and saying, “Pass that law, Constitution or no Constitution.”
That is what happened when the Guffey bill was passed assessing non-licensed companies 25%and if they do not submit it would mean confiscation. Of course it will not be maintained.
Take the Wagner bill, here is what it means. It means that a hired walking delegate of Moscow, with an American citizenship can go out to Henry Ford’s plant and say, “I am going to organize these 72,000 employees” Mr. Ford doesn’t want that and he says, You can’t do that.” All right, Mr. Ford then he can go to that Labor Board, and that Labor Board has the authority to tell Mr. Ford to step aside, and they would fix all prices, costs of production, price, labor and hours, and overhead expense and control that entire plant. Now it remains to be seen whether or not the Supreme Court will maintain it. Of course they will not.
Why are all the various laws being passed? – Here is the menace, the danger of it – don’t you folks fool yourselves – the vast majority of farmers and laboring classes – they are confused. Here is the purpose, Mr. Roosevelt proposes to say to the farmers I gave you nine hundred million dollars through triple A (AAA) processing tax, but the courts have knocked it out, I can’t do any more – and as that great body of farmers, North, West, East and South are told that, where will your Courts be?
Again he will say to the miners and the laboring people, I had them pass the Guffey bill, but the courts knocked it out. I did all I could for you. What else? He will go through these alphabetical bureaus, that now have a total employment of 60,000. Let everyone be knocked out by the Supreme Court, and he will smile and say to all these different classes, It is your Courts that have defeated you.”
Ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to the hour when confidence in the courts is broken down, then you call John Dillinger from his grave and apologize to him.
Let me show you something else – you take the Radio Commission – it is gone. They have now what is called the Communications Commission – Have you read that law? You had better read it. It means this, this Communications Commission, that without notice the President can fire any member of it he wants to and not give any reason for it.
I had a contract to go on a certain radio-they told me I was to say nothing except on religious matters, to refer not at all to the administration – one of the gentlemen told me he feared and trembled at what the National Broadcasting Company broadcast with reference to my activity in these things – when he heard that he said, Dr. Norris, if I were to put you on my radio system, they would put the screws to me at Washington.”
I am talking about what the New Deal is.
That’s the issue we are facing. Let me give you a sample of it. This is a great city – I was in Los Angeles a few years ago, and a friend and I were in my room overlooking one of the main thoroughfares of the city, and we looked down and there were four automobiles going abreast – he folded his arms, smiled and said, “That’s Los Angeles” –
“No,” I said, “that’s Detroit.” (Laughter.)
Go where you will, China, go down into Ethiopia, anywhere, and you are
still riding in Detroit.
Now, my friends, here in this great city you have this situation – Is it all right to go ahead, I don’t want to violate any of your rules or customs on this occasion – but they told me last night the bridle was off – I don’t wear one anyhow – (Laughter).
VOICES: Go ahead.
How many of you remember that the Federated Women’s Clubs of America met here a month or so ago? Several addresses were made -one was by one Prof. Bergman of Wayne University – I wonder if there is any woman present who heard that address – the papers reported that Prof. Bergman said this: that democracy of the people, for the people and by the people had perished from the earth. How many of you read that ? All right, several of you. More than seventy years ago on the battle ground of Gettysburg, the greatest battle ever fought in American history, when was shed the best blood of the North and South, who fought to the last ditch-when Abraham Lincoln stood there and dedicated that field, he said:
“This ground is consecrated – here are those who gave their lives that Democracy of the people, for the people and by the people, may not perish from the earth.”
Yet, you have a professor here in your university, owned by the city, as I understand it, supported by the tax payers of this city, who, before the Women’s Federated Clubs of America, declared that Abraham Lincoln was wrong, and that democracy of the people, for the people and by the people is gone. Where is your red blood? I say to you that that professor, in the state where I came from, in the shadow of the Alamo, would never be permitted to teach in a university in that state! (Applause.)
The time has come to speak out in meeting. I am talking about what the New Deal is.
You women read that address of the Professor of Columbia University – read it as a matter of record, in which he openly advocates the indiscriminate relationship of the sexes, free-lovism, and he denies even that there is a Supreme Ruler of this universe – that’s the author of this triple A (AAA). When it started he said it would take a force of fifty, now then he has 5400 on the pay roll.
I am talking about the New Deal.
What is the latest policy of the AAA, the last and final word of Communistic regimentation?
When the government plowed up the cotton, killed the six million pigs, destroyed the wheat, killed the cattle, the farmer, the hog raiser, the cattle raiser, were given an option. But now the AAA, one of the 57 varieties of the bureaucratic government which has supplanted the constitution, says to the six million potato growers of America, “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not.”
Read the latest ruling which is the law of the land, and will be until the courts knock it out – if one of the six million potato growers plants one row more than his allotment he will subject himself to a fine of $1000 or one year in jail. He has no option.
My wife’s mother lived to be an old lady; she made her home with us, and she ran the garden, chickens – and her son-in-law also. (Laughter.) She was a great woman. When gardening time came she planted so many rows of beans, so many rows of cabbage, so many rows of potatoes. Now if she were living and planted one row too many they would send the old lady to jail or compel me to pay a thousand dollar fine for her.
The purpose of the New Deal is to destroy this present civilization, to destroy the greatest government in the world, to destroy the constitution, to destroy the present economic system-in short, to take advantage of a distressed and suffering people and destroy, I say, the greatest civilization of all times and build on the wreck and ruin of a once powerful, magnificent and the highest civilization to erect, mark my words, on the ruins of our present civilization just exactly what the U. S. S. R. did in Russia. And this would mean slavery for the laborer and the farmer.
It is the Mark of the Beast “That no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast.”
All classes are involved, none will escape the banker and the hog raiser, the capitalist and the laborer, the farmer and the merchant, the minister and the lawyer – in short, it means to destroy individual initiative which is the corner stone of this republic, and substitute New Dealism, regimentation, which is just another name for Russian Communism.
Too long has the ministry kept silent. Too long have business men kept silent. I measure my words. I know the powers that be will undertake to persecute any man who dares to exercise the inalienable rights of free speech, but I would rather go to my grave a free-born patriotic Christian citizen than to live and be chained to the chariot wheels of the greatest tyranny ever known in history -the despotic rule of Russian Communism! (Applause.)
ROME FELL AND WILL AMERICA?
America is following in the steps of Rome to her downfall. Rome ruled the world, and then fell into the snare of regimentation. The following causes undermined and destroyed Rome:
First, through what was known as Collegium the right of private ownership of property was brought to an end.
Second, the increase of taxation became the burdensome stone that ground the empire to pieces.
Third, in the year 301 the emperor Diocletian issued a decree to put all industries in a straight jacket, and a maximum and minimum price was fixed for every commodity whether product of field or factory.
Fourth, there was an imperial decree that fixed the maximum and minimum wage whether laborer, lawyer or physician.
Fifth, the depreciation of currency was followed by ruinous inflation.
Sixth, laws establishing a caste system which destroyed individual initiative.
Seventh, the increase of an ever growing corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy that hastened the downfall of the empire.
“WAR ON GOD”
I have just received from one of the greatest laymen, a great Christian patriot, Mr. Maco Stewart of Galveston, a document that should be read by every patriotic citizen. The title is:
“WAR ON GOD”
“The School, The Church and The Home, The Objectives” and it says:
“‘The Soviet Power Must Exercise the Most Fervent Propaganda Against Religion. (Bukharin)'”
“A Movement is known by the principles of its founders, the literature it circulates, and the pronouncements of its leaders. Marx and Engels have been characterized as the ‘two Machiavellian Atheists, the Evangelists of the Gospel of Hate.’ Their manifesto of the Communist Party has been labelled by Bukharin as the “Testament of Modern Revolution.” The teachings of Marx and Engels are diametrically opposed to the Gospel of Love as proclaimed in God’s word and as demonstrated in the birth, life and death of the Son of God, Jesus, the Savior of the world. In the A. B. C. of Communism, Bukharin tells the world that ‘religion and Communism are incompatible both theoretically and practically. ALL RELIGIONS are one and the same poison, intoxicating and poisoning the mind, the will and the conscience. A fight to the death should be declared against them.”
“Red Radicalism as Described and Modern Socialism as Defined by Its Founders and Chief Promoters.
“Too much emphasis cannot be placed on the real meaning of Socialism and Bolshevism as defined by its founders and chief promoters. The following pronouncements of Orthodox Socialists show that Socialism-Bolshevism is a unified international movement fundamentally Atheistic and Marxian.
“Morris Hillquit (former member of Congress from New York), the great Historian of Socialism in the United States, head of the Legal Department, Soviet Bureau in the United States (1919), International Secretary, Socialist Party, National Committee American Civil Liberties Union (1920), boldly proclaimed: ‘It is high time that the American public abandon the myth of the “diverse meanings of socialism” and the “diverse kinds of socialism.” There is not and probably never was a theory and movement of more striking uniformity than the theory and movement of socialism. The International Socialist movement – is all based on the Marxian program and follows substantially the same methods of propaganda and action – There is no such thing as EUROPEAN socialism or AMERICAN socialism. There is only one kind of socialism the world over – INTERNATIONAL socialism, which means everywhere the same.’
“‘Karl Marx, Fred Engels, Ferdinand Lassale are unquestionably the theoretical founders of the modern socialist movement. The INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST MOVEMENT IS STILL Marxian.’
“In the light of this authoritative statement as to what International Socialism-Bolshevism means, it is interesting to quote from the principles of its founders, the pronouncements of its leaders and the literature it circulates. These pronouncements should be of especial importance to the Christians of the United States, which is at the present moment the battle ground where a fight to the death is raging. If the Socialist-Bolshevists succeed, every vestige of ethics and morals will have been obliterated, all individualism of private property and enterprise will have been terminated.
“Zinovieff, President of the Executive Committee of the Komintern, and the founder of the International Youth Movement, to show his hatred of the very idea of God, published an appeal at Christmas in which he stated: When the right moment arrives, we will deal with the Lord God; we will make Him descend from the highest heaven, where He has taken refuge; we will keep Him vanquished forever.
“In an article, ‘The Crucifixion of Russia,’ Canon J. A. Douglas (London ‘Morning Post,’ March 14, 1930), describes Bolshevism as a ‘body of Communism and a soul of Atheism, not an easy-going, intellectual Atheism which despises religion as a dying delusion, but a virulent, dogmatic Atheism, which regards it as the supreme enemy, hates it, and is set on exterminating it.’
“Lunatcharsky, in a manifesto appearing in one of the first numbers of ‘Bezbochnik,’ ‘The Atheist,’ a propaganda newspaper fighting against the very idea of God, stated, ‘We have done with the kings of the earth, let us now apply ourselves to the king of heaven. With all my heart I wish the Atheist” every success in its warfare against the revolting spectre of God, who throughout the whole of history has caused such diabolical evil to mankind.’ This is what the Soviet government, which we are asked to recognize, has achieved, – the publishing of the ‘Atheist’ by the official press, with the official approvement of the Minister of Public Instruction…
“After This the Deluge!!
“Disbelief in God removes the fear of future punishment. Destruction of Government removes the fear of present punishment so the Iconoclasts shout:
“‘AWAY WITH GOD AND GOVERNMENT! LAW AND ORDER!’
“‘AWAY WITH THE TEN COMMANDMENTSAND THE GOLDEN RULE!’
“‘HAIL THE GOSPEL OF HATE AND DESTRUCTION!’
“‘HAIL THE LAW TO THE TOOTH AND CLAW, HORN AND HOOF!’
“‘HAIL STANDARDS OF BARNYARD AND THE JUNGLE!’
“‘BEHOLD THE CARNIVAL OF CRIME AND CHAOS!’
“‘CAN AMERICA SURVIVE? IT WILL WITH THE HELP OF THE READER'”
SHALL THIS GOVERNMENT WITHDRAW RECOGNITION FROM RUSSIA?
In the first place we should never have recognized that bandit government. And when we did recognize it there was a clear understanding that the Soviets would cease their propaganda for the overthrow of the United States Government, and now the official statement published from the Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, that not only have the Soviets violated this agreement to cease their propaganda but have increased one hundred fold, and when the State Department protested vigorously against it to the Soviet Government at Moscow, what happened?
The Soviets added insult to injury and in plain western language, as the cowboys would say, the Soviet government told Uncle Sam, “You go where the fires don’t go out, and stay there, too.”
And through the Soviet sympathizers in the Washington Government Uncle Sam whimpered mildly and has gone and taken the back seat and no longer resents the insult of the Soviet government. Indeed the Washington Government has become an annex of Moscow!
You talk about the pork barrel, never has there been – not since Caligula, when Caesar shoveled the coin to the hungry multitude by the scoop fulls – never has there been such a pork barrel as we now witness in the nearly five-billion dollars campaign or election fund.
Are the American people to be put on the block and sold to the highest bidder ?
Talk about corrupting the electorate!
Talk about subsidizing or stuffing the ballot box!
No wonder the whole nation is gripped with an increasing fear – “What meat has this our Caesar fed upon?” – as he makes the Lilliputian two-by-four congressmen jump around like Tom cats on a red hot stove, until they dare not call their life their own? (Laughter.)
I believe the revolt is coming. You can believe what you please about Huey Long, but I admire that red headed, pug-nosed, son of Louisiana, who had the intestinal fortitude to tell Roosevelt, when he threatened to cut off his supply, to go where the fires don’t go out. (Laughter.)
Now we needn’t fool ourselves on this, ladies and gentlemen, the everlastingest fight this country ever saw is on-Roosevelt is not going to surrender. He is going to fight. And if you think there is not a crowd that is going to fight with him, you are simply misinformed. But I believe the great body of conservative American people will not bow down to the Red flag of Moscow. (Applause.)
A gentleman asked me a while ago what the South would do? The South moves slowly in these things, but I thank God that in the South we still believe in the God of our fathers; we still believe in the old Bible; we still believe in our homes; we still believe in individual initiative; we still believe in freedom of worship; we still believe in freedom of speech and the press. I admire the courage of Henry Ford, Wm. Randolph Hearst and Col, Frank Knox – the latter would make a great President. (Applause.)
I believe old Texas will join with Michigan when that issue is put squarely up to them, the New Deal, the American name for Russian Communism.
Here is the thing we need, ladies and gentlemen, we need to put fight and faith into this thing, we need some of the fight of Micky Cochran in politics – we need some of that spirit – we need to take the war into Africa, instead of get ting on the defensive.
Take the offensive. Where is the spirit of Valley Forge? Of Yorktown? Of Gettysburg? Of the Alamo?
What is needed is some red-blooded, one-hundred per cent Americans like Samson, who took the jawbone of a well-known animal and put three thousand uncircumsized Philistines out of business before sundown. And the Philistines are in power at Washington. (Applause.)
But everybody is scared. The average business man will say, “Don’t quote me.” Well, you might just as well be quoted, for if this New Deal is re-elected you will not be allowed to have another meeting like this.
You say, “I hate to hear you say that.” – Listen, it is the minorities that have wrecked governments, not majorities – it was only a hand full in that vast Empire of Russia out of a population of 170,000,000, that organized and overthrew the government. There is something about it that is demonized.
What will our answer be? We have no choice.
Now I am going to make a statement that perhaps will surprise you – the danger is not among the farmers, there may be some of them led astray, but not for long; the danger is not among the laborer – with his little dinner bucket – when he goes home at night he will be all right – he, too, may be misled for a while, but I’ll tell you the two greatest dangers today in this whole business:
First: In the schools and universities – these aping, asinine, dry-as-dust, swallow-tail Soviet Professors that are pouring it down the throats of our boys and girls. (Applause.)
Second: Another danger, and I am ashamed of this the ministers – but I can quite understand how a man could be swept away in the great body of ministers, who are naturally sympathetic with the downtrodden – you go hear the men who stand in the pulpits – especially in the North, what do you hear? You will hear a so-called social service program – “collectivism” – an imitation and echo of the real thing in Moscow they are spreading that in the pulpits. It is the scheme of Sovietism to bore within the churches, within the schools, to undermine and finally destroy that is the whole scheme. That is what they did in Russia, therefore, America should wake up.
I’ll not speak any longer, I am glad to have had this opportunity to meet you – I spend half of my time here and half in Fort Worth.
May I close with this illustration? Every time I go to the City of San Antonio, a city of about 300,000 population – there is one place I always go, to that old mission, the Alamo, that has been there for a long time, and will stand, as it is being preserved-As you come into the entrance, you hear voices – oh, not audible, and you feel the spirit of those 183 immortal men, who chose to die for what they believed rather than live. From one side to the other is about 170 feet distance – Col. Fannin took his sword-when 6000 Mexicans were rapidly surrounding them – and he said, Gentlemen, you can yet escape, but I want to know how many are willing to die for the freedom of Texas?” He took his sword and drew a line clear across from one wall to the other, and said, “Every man who wants to die to set Texas free cross over this line” – and every man leaped over, except old Col. Bowie, who was lying on a cot bleeding from many wounds (and he said, “Boys, take my sword over” – they grabbed his sword and took it across the line – then he said, “Take my gun over” – Then he said, Take me over” – and when they found him they found Mexicans piled six feet around his dead body. “Thermopylae had its messenger of defeat, the Alamo had none.” – A woman, captured, told the story.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have come to the dividing line. It is no longer a question of the Republican Party versus the Democratic Party. It is not a guestion of Capital versus Labor. The question the American people are facing is whether or not they will have any Government at all, any courts at all, any Constitution at all, any freedom of speech, any freedom of worship.
As far as I am concerned, and I think I speak the sentiment of everyman and woman here today, we will cross over and die like our forefathers before we will surrender to the Red flag of Moscow.
(The crowd rose as one person and the applause lasted for three minutes.)
At the close of the address, former Governor W. M. Brucker of Michigan said:
“Mr. Chairman, friends and members of the Club: I came in late, but I heard most of the address of the speaker. I have read a good deal of this ‘Red Net Work,’ and know quite a good deal about what the speaker said. This address is one of the best, most forceful, and inspiring talks I have heard in a long time, and I was glad to see you give the response to him that you did.”
WHY THE TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH, DETROIT, WITHDREW FROM THE NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
Both the Northern and Southern Baptist Conventions have given official sanction and recognition to the Soviet propaganda.
There was appointed in 1934 session at Rochester, New York, what is known as the Social Action Commission of Nine, and it brought to the Convention at Colorado Springs in 1935 the 15,000 word report which in its economic and political program is no more nor less than a chapter out of the writings of Karl Marx.
One Edwin McNeill Poteat introduced in the Southern Baptist Convention last May, the session at Memphis, a similar Marxian program and was given the best hour of the Convention, setting aside the great missionary causes of the Convention, and not only did the Southern Baptist Convention receive this report, but enlarged the Committee that will bring it to the session at St. Louis in 1936.
Therefore the Temple Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan, distributed a private ballot to its members and only eight voted to stay in the Convention while practically unanimous vote of the church adopted the following resolutions.
WHEREAS, the Temple Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan, has supported and co-operated with the Northern Baptist Convention and the Baptist Convention of Michigan, by sending money to their Boards and delegates to their annual meetings;
WHEREAS, June 24th, 1935, the Northern Baptist Convention at Colorado Springs forced on the churches of the Northern Baptist Convention for their consideration, adoption or rejection, the Communistic plan of Karl Marx, by the following action of the convention:
“1-Received the report and authorized the General Council to make it available to individual churches for study.
“2-Continued the Social Action Commission for a year with the understanding that its educational program and peace plebiscite among churches be conducted only for those churches desiring them.
“3-Stated that neither the whole 15,000-word report nor a part of it ‘shall be made a test of Baptist fellowship or service.'”
WHEREAS, the Northern Baptist Convention officially appointed the “Social Action Commission” for the avowed purpose of binding the Convention to a political and economic program which is a violation of the most fundamental doctrine held by Baptists, namely, the separation of church and state; and further the Convention by its action in receiving, authorizing and continuing the “Social Action Commission,” and forcing its communistic plan upon the churches, has thereby thrust a divisive issue among all the churches;
WHEREAS, the report of the “Social Action Commission” sums up, sets forth, and advocates essentially the revolutionary, communistic plan of Soviet Russia, which is better known by its American Brand of “New Dealism”;
WHEREAS, the one and only business of the church and the ministry is not to enter into or regulate the economic or political affairs of the Government, but to follow the admonition of our Lord, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” thereby maintaining the age-long and cherished Baptist faith of separation of church and state; that the one and only mission of the church of Jesus Christ is to preach the gospel of salvation to the individual, thereby carrying out the Great Commission, “Go preach the gospel to every creature”;
WHEREAS, the leadership of the Northern Baptist Convention and the State Convention of Michigan, has departed from the age-long and Scriptural position held by Baptists, by substituting a so-called social or communistic gospel instead of the gospel of salvation for the individual soul;
WHEREAS, ten years ago the Northern Convention at Seattle, Washington, adopted what is known as the “inclusive policy,” sending out both modernist and fundamentalist missionaries, and at which Convention the action adopting the inclusive policy repudiated a resolution offered by the late Dr. W. B. Hinson, requesting all the missionaries of the Northern Baptist Convention to signify their belief and acceptance of the fundamental doctrines of the Virgin Birth, the Deity of Christ, the Atonement on the Cross, the Resurrection of Christ, and the New Birth of the individual soul”;
WHEREAS, there has rapidly developed in the Northern Baptist Convention an unscriptural and unbaptistic, ecclesiastical, centralized dictatorship over the churches, as evidenced by many definite, concrete actions through the years, the latest of which is the action of the Northern Baptist Convention at Colorado Springs when the Convention authorized” in the report of the “General Council” to the churches what was designated by the “15,000-word report” of the “Social Action Commission”;
WHEREAS, the s0-called plan of designation of mission funds is a misnomer and dishonest, because when the church designates a certain amount to a mission station the Foreign Mission Board simply decreases the appropriation to that station, thereby forcing orthodox Baptists to support, in an indirect though very definite way, the unscriptural, modernistic, socialistic leadership of the Northern Baptist Convention;
WHEREAS, the Northern and Michigan Baptist Conventions belong to, and are a part of the World Baptist Alliance, which is controlled and dominated, in the main, by modernistic leadership; and
WHEREAS, the Temple Baptist Church has been on record for several years in its stand for the historic faith once for all delivered to the saints;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of Deacons of Temple Baptist Church, and the members of the entire church, in special called session at 3:00 p. m. Sunday afternoon, June 30, 1935, that we exercise, as a church, our inalienable, sovereign right as a body of believers, in recognizing Christ only as head over all things to the church, and reaffirming our faith in the fundamentals of the Christian faith as commonly held by Baptists; and further we reaffirm and declare it our purpose to have no part or lot with the unscriptural, unbaptistic, socialistic, modernistic Convention;
RESOLVED SECOND, in separating from these bodies, from these ecclesiastical organizations, which have departed from the faith held by Baptists, we call upon all true orthodox Baptists throughout the Northern Baptist Convention, to join with us in contending for the faith once for all delivered, and giving the gospel of salvation to the individual soul;
RESOLVED THIRD, that we reaffirm our faith in those foundation principles – freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of worship;
RESOLVED FOURTH, that Temple Baptist Church urge every individual member to make regular contribution to worldwide missions; and that we support the Association of Baptists for Evangelism in the Orient, which Association of Baptists has adopted the identical Confession of Faith held by the Temple Baptist Church;
RESOLVED FIFTH, that copies of these resolutions be given to the denominational and secular press that the world may know of the uncompromising position and stand of the Temple Baptist Church against all the present day vagaries of modernism, socialism, communism, ecclesiasticism, and our positive stand for the faith in the whole Bible as our only rule of faith and practice.
Excerpts from the stenographic report of address by Dr. J. Frank Norris on “Why Temple Baptist Church Withdrew from the Northern Baptist Convention,”
NORTHERN CONVENTION AUTHORIZED COMMISSION AND TOOK MISSION MONEY TO PAY EXPENSES
Now let’s keep before us the record: In 1934 at Rochester, New York, there was appointed by the authority of the Northern Baptist Convention, a Committee of nine, known as “Social Action Commission” – that Commission was authorized to bring in a report on the need of the churches to enter into the “social, political, international affairs.” Furthermore, several thousand dollars – $4,500.00, I believe was the amount, was taken out of mission funds to pay the expenses of this “Social Action Commission.” This Commission was to bring in a report at the next annual Convention which met two weeks ago at Colorado Springs.
Talk about endorsement of the “Social Action Commission” – money talks.
The Sanhedrin purchased Judas with thity pieces of silver, and this Northern Sanhedrin purchased the 15,000 socialistic, Communistic, Social Action Committee report with forty-five hundred pieces of silver.
Here the missionaries are bleeding white, salaries unpaid, being called home by the scores, yet the Northern Baptist Convention takes $4,500.00 blood-money out of the mission fund – it is indeed the price of blood!
Suppose the Northern Baptist Convention had submitted to the people who gave this mission money, the right to vote on whether or not the money they gave for Foreign Missions should thus be taken and spent to foister on the churches this Communistic plan of Karl Marx and Lenin?
Talk about freedom of the church, the Northern Baptist machine absolutely dominates every church under its control. That’s why there is such a universal revolt.
Now listen to these writings sent to the churches – I can take the writings of Karl Marx and find that very term, “Social Action Commission” – and it is characteristic of the writings of Lenin:
“We therefore recommend that such a program be conducted by the denomination through the local churches with the following definite objectives:
“I. To create social attitudes based on these fundamental considerations: * * * *
“II. A second definite objective of such a program of education should be to keep before our constituency certain basic issues among them being:
“(1) Economic security for all. This would involve general education on the need for unemployment, sickness and accident insurance and old age pensions; assembling and distributing the facts, relative to specific measures for economic security; making available lists of information sources and agencies; and co-operation with other denominations and for the furtherance of economic security.”
Here is another aim:
“(2) Collective bargaining industry” –
They have anticipated the Wagner bill ahead of time. It is exactly the reproduction of the rule of Sovietism. Here is an interesting thing in this report on the economic issue:
“This would involve a program of education for a better understanding of the relative positions and problems of employers and employees over wages, hours and conditions of work; and further the provision for a social action committee in every church, or in co-operation with other churches, to ascertain and publish the facts in the event of conflict and to encourage the exercise of moral judgment; and finally the support of whichever party, in a dispute, is in the right by purchasing the products of the industry or by contributions to the needs of the workers of funds, moral encouragement and places of meeting where needed.”
Just stop here a minute and imagine, if you can, the Church at Jerusalem, or the church at Antioch receiving from the ecclesiastical headquarters at Rome, the order to appoint “a committee in each church,” and for these two great soul winning churches at Jerusalem and Antioch to cease preaching the gospel of redemption of the individual soul, but that the “Committee in each church” enter into the labor disputes, the economic and political affairs of the government at Rome.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER COMMUNISTIC TEACHERS
You saw in the paper that Prof. George S. Counts of Columbia University – the hot-bed of Communism in this country – he is now on his way with 350 public school teachers from America. They are going over to the University at Moscow to study Communism this whole summer, and come back to teach your boys and girls while you pay their salaries–they selected these school teachers from various parts of the country, some from Detroit, some from Seattle, and from one end of the country to the other.
Now this Northern Convention crowd has said they want to have these teachers to have a free hand for discussion-that is, they can come to your school, tell your boys and girls to tear down the Stars and Stripes and put the red flag in its place. That is what they are coming back to advertise.
You heard some say the Northern Baptist machine didn’t endorse Communism – here it is:
“III. A third definite objective of such an education program for the denomination should be to inculcate in individuals worthy economic motives and incentives that through them the basis of the economic system may be shifted from that of acquisitiveness to that of service. * * *
“IV. A fourth definite objective should be to impress upon our individual members the importance of effecting changes in the economic order by the exercise of their three-fold citizenship, political, civic and economic.
“(1) By political citizenship support should be given to whatever political party or candidate represents, on the whole, the most favorable disposition and opportunity to effect the desired changes.”
They use the words, “desired changes” for revolution.”
They haven’t the nerve to come out openly and use the word revolution; they come like Absalom with slimy words like “desired changes.”
I want to emphasize the responsibility of the deliberate endorsement of the Northern machine of this diabolical report.
The appointment of this committee in 1934, and the preamble states that it was for the purpose of entering into the field of “politics, economics and international affairs.”
Keep in mind their responsibility. – Their endorsement is measured by $4,500.00 which they voted to take out of the mission funds – money that belongs to the missionaries in foreign lands.
Talk about their responsibility! Read the minutes of the convention, and you will find their report was “received” at the Northern Baptist convention at Colorado Springs. How do their followers and supporters understand it?
To quote the words of the pastor of Jefferson Street Baptist Church: “It was received unanimously. I have never seen such unity.”
HEAD OF DETROIT BAPTIST UNION OFFICIALLY ENDORSES REPORT OF COMMISSION ON SOCIAL ACTION
I say this kindly, these gentlemen that come out in the papers, they don’t mind, I am just reading it in the paper and giving it out – Dr. H. C. Gleiss, the main piston rod of the Detroit Baptist Union, said in the Detroit Free Press, June 29th -here are the headlines, “Hails Report of Baptists, Detroit Minister Calls Document on Current Affairs Epochal” – that was in there and I suppose he wants me to read it – Listen, “The report of the commission on Christian Social Action, presented this week at the Northern Baptist Convention in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was described as ‘epochal’ by the Rev. H. C. Gleiss, superintendent of the Detroit Missionary Society, upon his return to Detroit from the convention.” Listen to what he says:
“The topics touched upon in the report include peace, international relations, economic and industrial affairs.” Now let’s stop a minute, Dr. Gleiss is a sensible man, and holds a high position – Now let’s see – we are getting down to where we live – that is not all he said about this report which endorsed Russian Communism, he said it was “epochal.” What do we mean when we say epochal?” – it means the beginning of a special or a historic event. To illustrate, The Declaration of Independence was epochal-Great Britain thought so. The Battle of Waterloo was epochal. The birth of Christ was epochal, it marked the beginning of the Christian era, and now the head of the Detroit Baptist Union says that this report of the Social Action Commission, which endorsed Russian Communism-he says this report is epochal.”
NO GOSPEL IN THE REPORT
There is no Gospel in the report, but the most serious indictment, is not only in what the report says, namely, its endorsement and advocacy of the Russian Communism, but what it fails to say. Think of it, the Northern Baptist Convention spending $4,500.00 for a 15,000-word report, and sending it to the churches to adopt, and not one word said in behalf of a single great Christian doctrine of our faith.
Now keep in mind this 15,000-word report proposes a remedy for our present day illsand what is the remedy? Answer: World revolution, Communism.
What was the remedy in the New Testament days?
What was the remedy that Paul, under the inspiration of God, proposed to the church at Rome? “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth: to the Jew frst, and also to the Greek.”
Read this entire report.
Not a word said about the authority and integrity of the scriptures, our only rule of faith and practice.
Not a word said about the Deity and Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Not a word said about the Virgin Birth of our Lord.
Not a word said about the Atonement of Christ on the cross for our sins.
Not a word said about the New Birth of the soul, dead in trespasses and sins.
Not a word said about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ the third day according to the Scriptures.
And yet this 15,000-word report is sent forth as a solution of our present ills!
I wish the Northern Baptist Convention had a monopoly on this political, socialistic, modernistic, communistic scheme, but the same conspirators, the same Absaloms and Judases have introduced it in the Southern Baptist Convention – they use the same terms; they speak the same shibboleth. A modernist, by the name of McNeill Poteat, came from New York to the Southern Baptist Convention to present this same scheme, this bloodless social gospel, and the tragedy is the Southern Baptist Convention “received it,” heard it, and not only continued the Committee, but appointed a larger Committee, and now both Conventions will meet in the same city, St. Louis, next year. They both speak the language of Ashdod.
I want to stop here and say, everyone of you Baptists who by your name, your presence, your money, support that you are guilty of the same thing. That is why this church is not going to swallow it. Oh, they will come back, and you will hear them say now, I wonder if anybody ever heard this, “Oh, you Fundamentalists are always causing division and strife.” A good woman jumped on me when I was absent and she said, “Now there is Frank Norris stirring up strife in Detroit, causing division.”
Who caused this “Social Action Commission” to be thrust on the churches of Detroit – and upon the churches from Maine to California? Who put it on the churches of America – Baptist churches and asked you to endorse this report that names and endorses Russian Sovietism ? Who caused the division? It is as it was when Elijah, after three years when the heavens were brass, and the country was burned up – when Ahab went out to meet Elijah he said to him: “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” And old Elijah answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and they father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.” You are the cause of the trouble!
We need to keep the issue straight – Oh God, pity the poor little preacher who said, “Oh, I am glad you are going after them, I am situated so I can’t open my mouth.” – I would jump in the lake if I couldn’t declare my convictions. (Applause.)
That is exactly what is going on all over the South, all over the North, all over the East, and all over the West these Socialistic, Ecclesiastical conspirators come and sit in the gate of your church, and reach forth their communistic hands and steal the hearts of the people while at the same time they reach up and steal the erown from the brow of Jesus Christ! And it is high time somebody was making a protest. I am glad the church here is making it (applause) and you will be happy to know that hundreds of others are going to make it, too.
Oh, they come, this crowd, with “Hail Master” on their lips, with a smile, but with the price of treachery in their hidden hands. They come with a kiss, but they plant the crown of thorns. They come like Joab when he said, “Hail, Brother Abner, come take a walk with me,” and Abner, fool that he was, walked outside the walls, and, when out of sight of the people, the traitor thrust the sword of death under the fifth rib, and the inspired record says that Abner died as a fool dies.
CHIEF JUSTICE CHARLES EVANS HUGHES PLEADS FOR NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION NOT TO APPOINT SOCIAL ACTION COMMISSION
The Watchman-Examiner of March 14, 1935, edited by Dr. Curtis Lee Laws, published an editorial entitled, “Is Chief Justice Hughes Right?”
Before giving the editorial and the letter of this great Baptist layman, let it be remembered that the agitation for the appointment of the Social Action Commission of nine was filling the air. Conservative Baptist laymen and ministers were outspoken in opposition to the appointment, for all knew then, as we more thoroughly understand now, that responsibility of the Convention for sponsoring and propagating Communism was unmistakable.
The Convention took mission money to pay expenses of the nine on the Commission of Social Action, and the very appointment of the Committee for the announced purpose of going into “economic, political and international affairs,” was a pre-endorsement of the report of the Committee. Everybody understood the mission of the committee, therefore, the following letter of protest from the great layman and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, pleading for Baptists not to become entangled in social and political issues, but to “nourish the Spiritual forces of our people,” was indeed timely, but the appeal of the great layman fell on deaf ears. The letter was to the President of the Northern Convention, Dr. W. S. Abernathy, who himself is a modernist, and the letter in full is as follows:
“My Dear Dr. Abernathy:
“As one of its former Presidents, I am glad to extend through you my most cordial greetings to the Northern Baptist Convention.
“The Convention meets at a time when the thoughts of the people throughout the country are centered upon social and economic problems of grave importance. There is no lack of social and political agencies to deal with these questions, which inevitably give rise to serious controversies between different schools of political and economic thought. I see no advantage to the church in entering into the domain of these controversies. The church has a far higher mission and cannot afford to impair its supremely important function of nourishing the spiritual forces of our people.
“Behind all plans of social improvements, behind all disputes as to economic and political needs, and essential to real progress in the great enterprise of the Republic, is the sense of moral responsibility in the individual citizen. No scheme of laws can take the place of self-discipline and the culture of the spirit of men.
“The task of aiding in that discipline and culture must be performed in the atmosphere of liberty. With the expansion of knowledge, and with the unprecedented facilities for the spread of information, there is little prospect of success in the employment by the church of mere authoritarian methods. The part of my ecclesiastical inheritance that I most prize, as a member of that great body which this Convention represents, is the tradition established by our forbears, despite severe persecution, of religious liberty, then their distinctive tenet, now an article of our national faith cherished by all our people. The zeal of those preeminent leaders found its motive power in their conception of the dignity, the inalienable right, and the responsibility of the individual soul. It is the mission of the church constantly to vivify and reenforce that conception, which is the essence of the teaching of the Master. In this way, there may be inculcated that spirit of reasonableness which makes keen the sense of fellowship and brotherhood, which underlies both domestic peace and international good-will, and without which all devices for social betterment will be but mocking futilities.
“I trust that the churches represented in this convention will realize that their highest privilege lies in this field of spiritual culture, making each religious assembly a power-house for the diffusion of the currents of sympathy and understanding. In this quiet but persistent endeavor, the churches will justify themselves anew in a difficult age, and in a struggle with the forces of evila struggle not less keen because of the absence of intolerance and truculence-the victories of faith may again be won.
“I send my best wishes to all,
“Very sincerely yours,
(Signed) “CHARLES E. HUGHES.”
(The editorial continues):
“The Chief Justice, the son of a Baptist minister, was reared in a Baptist atmosphere and he quite sees the implications of the utter separation of church and state. He realizes that it is not the function of the state to control the churches or to meddle in their affairs. He realizes that it is not the function of the church to enter the domain of controversies which grow out of economic and political problems. He feels that, in doing so, the church will impair its supreme function, that is, its spiritual function.
“Read again the words of Chief Justice Hughes:
“Of course so wise and able a man was not counselling indifference on the part of Christians to social, economic and political questions. To be genuine Christian we must be interested in these questions. On the other hand, this paper agrees fully with Justice Hughes that when the church as such enters the domain of these controversies it impairs its supremely important function of nourishing the spiritual forces of our people.’ By leading men and women to Christ and instructing them in righteousness the churches should make of their members the best of citizens, and this can and should be done apart from all party political questions and affiliations. We shall be glad indeed if the discussion of social and economic questions by our strong men and women, results in a deepening sense of social and political responsibility. We shall be sorry indeed if it results in our ministers turning their pulpits into platforms for the discussion of economic and political questions. By so doing they would no doubt attract the attention of a few, but surely they would alienate and disgust the many.”
EDITORS OF OTHER DENOMINATIONS INTERPRETED ACTION OF NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION “DRIFTING TOWARD RUSSIAN COMMUNISM”
Dr. James H. Snowden, editor of Presbyterian Banner (a Post-Millennialist) has written a timely article in that paper of the date May 16, 1935, entitled “The Greatest Danger to Our Protestant Churches,”
He says in part: “This greatest danger is not evolution or higher criticism or modernism or the new board for Foreign Missions, but something that is deeper and more insidious and in the end more deadly. It is the spirit of secularism that is now sweeping over our Protestant churches, the ‘social gospel,’ that we all formerly supported and still support in its true sense, but that now is being submerged in the swamp and sea of economics and politics, of socialism and pacifism, even drifting towards Russian communism. All our Protestant Churches are now more or less consciously and often unconsciously being carried out upon this sea. They are gradually, in various ways and degrees, substituting psychology for sin, sociology for salvation, a crusade for the cross, the world for the church, and the social order for the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is too slow in its coming and they want to reach it by a short cut. They see a vision from mountain top that is not unlike that which was spread out before our Lord as a temptation to hurry Him up and get the world at a word. These men have been and mostly are still evangelical. But their passion for spiritual means has cooled and they want direct action.’ Preaching little harmless sermons’ as they call them, about sin and penitence and faith and Christian character has lost its charm and power for them and they want to do something that will pull down the strongholds of Satan, which with them usually means capitalism, and bring in a new order in which social inequalities and wrongs will be adjusted. They are turning their churches and assemblies into political platforms on which they proclaim their economic theories and propose their remedies. – They are setting up new standards of orthodoxy of a political nature and often brand those who hold aloof from their propaganda as lacking in Christian vision and spirit and hopelessly outdated and belated.”
Dr. Snowden continues: “The Baptists at their last national convention appointed a Commission on Social Action (1934, Rochester), prompted by this same spirit and it is now giving widespread uneasiness to that sturdy conservative body as to what it may do. The editor of their national organ, The Watchman-Examiner, is conducting a symposium on the subject and he is standing like a rock against this incoming flood. However, some of their social associations are not waiting for the deliverance of this Commission on Social Action, but have taken the bit in their own mouth and the Baptist Union of Rochester, N. Y., recently adopted a long series of principles or proposed actions to be submitted to the forthcoming National Baptist Convention (Colorado Springs, 1935), and the first proposal is that ‘Society (the people acting thru the State) shall assume control (which may involve ownership) of all the God-given natural resources of the earth, including the land surface, mineral and oil wealth and the product of the lake, sea and river, and much more to the same effect.’ Whereupon the strong First Baptist Church of Rochester separated itself from the Union and the Baptists all over the country are reported to be alarmed.”
The first time in the history of America that two large churches 1200 miles apart with a total membership of over 15,000 are under one administration.
Dr. J. Frank Norris when in Fort Worth speaks over KTAT, 1240 kilocycles, and when in Detroit speaks over WJR, kilocycle frequency 750. These two radios cover the whole North American Continent from Canada to the Gulf, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The radio expense is very heavy, and it is supported by the voluntary gifts of friends who believe in Fundamentalism versus Modernism, in Christian patriotism versus New Dealism or Communism.
Dr. Norris does not receive any regular annual salary from either of these two churches and believes that “They which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.”
The radio expense of WJR Station at Detroit for fall, winter and spring is $12,000, including cost of time, stenographic work, postage, music and other necessary expenses.
WILL THE NEW DEALERS PUT J. FRANK NORRIS OFF THE RADIO?
The following letter to Dr. Norris’ attorney at Washington is self-explanatory. Let all the friends of free speech, of righteousness, of fundamentalism, of Christian patriotism pray that the schemes of the evil one will be brought to naught.
October 1, 1935.
Hon. Louis Titus,
Investment Building,
Washington, D. C.
My Dear Mr. Titus:
I have been informed from sources that I consider both reliable and authoritative that the powers that be are going to attempt to cut me off the air because of what I have said concerning the New Deal.
Then if this is true we no longer have free speech and we should tear down the stars and stripes and unfurl in its place either the swastika, the flag of Germany, or the red flag of the U. S. S. R. Why would the administration take its spite out on me? I am just an humble Baptist preacher – one who believes in the old-fashioned Gospel and I am opposed to every phase and brand of anything that smacks of communism.
I am pastor of two great churches, dividing my time between the Temple Baptist Church, Detroit, and The First Baptist Church, Fort Worth. They have a total membership of over 15,000.
It would be a very foolish policy on the part of the Administration to cut me off because the people would want to know why, and I have plenty of ways to put this tyrannical act of suppressing free speech before the American people An unknown friend, Mr. W. H. Fraser of San Diego, California, wrote me the following letter and enclosed with it a clipping from the Sar Diego paper, giving my interview on the New Deal. This interview was published in daily papers from Boston to San Diego.
“San Diego, California,
“September 28, 1935.
“Mr. J. Frank Norris,
“Fort Worth, Texas.
“My Dear Mr. Norris:
“The enclosed clipping appeared in a local evening paper yesterday. If you have been quoted correctly I want to say ‘more power to you.’
“It is about time that intelligent people woke up to what the New Deal is attempting to do. Unfortunately a great many ‘Parlor Pinks’ and a large number of the clergy are in sympathy with the present administration. Most of our clergy are fine well meaning men but also most of them are about as impractical as a ‘pocket in an undershirt.’
“This latest move of the Administrator. is so filled with politics that a school boy should see through it but I am afraid most the clergy will not.
“Yours for success,
“W. H. FRASER.”
WHF:GB
The following from the San Diego daily:
“U. S. M0SCOW ANNEX, NEW DEAL CRIME, PASTOR’S REPLY TO ROOSEVELT
“FORT WORTH, Sept. 26 (I.N.S.) – President Franklin Roosevelt’s letter to the clergy was met with blistering scorn in a statement by Dr. J. Frank Norris, for 25 years a stormy figure in the political and religious life of Texas.
“‘The new deal is nothing on earth but Russian Communism under an American name,’ Norris declared. ‘It has ruined the country and the quicker that patriotic Americans unite to wipe it off the face of the earth the better off we will be.’
“‘Terming the government at Washington ‘merely an annex to Moscow,’ Norris declared that the economic practices of the new deal had brought the country to disaster, and termed the destruction of cattle, hogs and cotton ‘a policy of suicide.’
“‘The new deal is little short of a crime against the country,’ said the fiery minister.
“Norris said he planned to make addresses attacking the new deal and has prepared a lecture on the subject, showing the Communistic trends of the administration'”
The above quoted letter and quotation from the San Diego newspaper are only a sample of what I have been receiving from all over the country. For example I have to day received the fcllowing from one of the greatest layman in Texas:
“Galveston, Texas,
“September 30th, 1935.
“Dr. J. Frank Norris,
“Fort Worth, Texas.
“My Dear Doctor:
“I have just read the San Antonio Light of the 26th containing an account of your attack on the New Deal, as being communistic. With this I agree most thoroughly.
“I am handing you a pamphlet which I think may prove of interest to you.
“Respectfully,
“MS:m
“MACO STEWART”
And in the same mail in which the above letter came I received the following from a well known citizen in Chicago:
“Chicago, Illinois,
“September 30, 1935.
“Dr. J. Frank Norris,
“First Baptist Church,
“Fort Worth, Texas.
“Dear Doctor Norris:
“I was privileged to have given to me your booklet entitled New Dealism Exposed’ and upon reading it, I recognized a kindred spirit.
“Under separate cover today, I have forwarded to you, with my compliments, autographed, two of my books, ‘Sinister Shadows’ and ‘T. N. T.’ Do not take the trouble of acknowledging them until you have read them, if by any chance you have not encountered them before. Upon reading them, let me hear from you and I shall be glad to send you, with my compliments, another book which reads directly on atheism in the American college.
“In this letter, I am enclosing a series of Paul Revere Lessons which I think will interest you.
“Let me congratulate you upon the fine fight you are making. Undoubtedly you know about THE PAUL REVERES. This organization is a shelter and sanctuary for people who think like you and I.
“Sincerely yours,
“EDWIN M. HADLEY”
I want you to please get in touch with the radio authorities and ascertain if there have been any charges made or even any discussion with reference to what I have been publishing or broadcasting. Yours very truly,
J. FRANK NORRIS.
JFN:W
A WORD OF COMMENT
That this is not false alarm I have the facts where the Michigan net work refused to carry out their contract with me because they said:
“We fear the pressure at Washington if we have you on.”
At the proper time the full facts of this “pressure” will be given to the public.
We will see whether or not we still have free speech in the good old U. S. A. And if I am put off the air the friends everywhere will know the underground cause that brought it about.
THE NEW DEAL ATHEISTIC AND OPPOSED TO CHURCHES
The following fine letter from one of Texas’ greatest Baptist laymen gives first hand authoritative information which this great layman secured by personal investigation.
Just think of it. In the old state of Tennessee, the home of Old Hickory Jackson, there is a communistic five-year plan that engulfs a territory practically the equal of the state of Tennessee.
The letter is as follows:
STEWARTS
Attorneys
Galveston, Texas, October 4, 1935.
My dear Dr. Norris:
“I am in receipt of your pamphlets on New Dealism and congratulate you on your success.
“I think you would be much interested in obtaining a pamphlet setting forth the views of Dr. Morgan of the TVA. I only have one copy of this pamphlet or I would send same to you. In this pamphlet, Dr. Morgan points out exactly what is being attempted in the Tennessee Valley, and if you will obtain this pamphlet from the TVA Authority, attention Mr. Goff, Room 352, New Sprankle Bldg.. Knoxville, Tenn., which is styled “BENCH MARKS IN THE TENNESSEE VALLEY” by Arthur E. Morgan, and read it, you will see that the Russian system is being run in that section.
“Last month I visited TVA headquarters in Knoxville, and learned by direct statements from Mr. Goff, Secretary to Dr. Morgan, that the entire scheme was President Roosevelt’s and not Morgan or Lillenthal’s. Goff stated that the two men I have just named were acting only by direction of the President. You may recall that some fifteen months ago Roosevelt made a talk in the town of Norris, Tennessee, and stated that he was laying out a plan for America. Norris is a town of 350 houses costing from $8,000 to $10,000 each and all occupied by TVA employees paying from $30.00 to $40.00 a month rent. There is not one church in this settlement and when I asked Mr. Goff about it he explained that if the Baptists were permitted to have a church there, then necessarily the same demand would be made by each one of the other denominations, and as a result there would be so many churches, thereby bringing about a conflict; hence it would be best to have no churches.
“I made a trip to Knoxville to the TVA headquarters to find out exactly what was happening. This TVA had control of 40,600 square miles comprising 100 countries, of which 85 counties have been organized and in each of these 85 counties there is a County Agent or representative paid by TVA, who is endeavoring to have the farmers sign up a five-year contract under which the control of their farms will be virtually passed over to the TVA.
“Under the guise of soil erosion an attempt is being made to bring about control of these farms. It is thoroughly explained by the leading spirits of TVA that what they are seeking to bring about is not lowering the cost of electricity, but a general social regeneration and particularly voluntary collectivism. They lay great stress on the proposition that it is all to be voluntary.
“This is exactly he scheme tried by Lenin and when he had pushed the Russian people to the breaking point, he promptly adopted his new economic policy and let up on the pressure just as the President has announced a breaking spell as he has pushed our people to the left.
“Do not fail to get this pamphlet by Arthur E. Morgan which I am sure will be of interest to you, particularly that part describing what is known as the Workers’ Council” which is the exact counterpart of the way things are being run in Russia.
“I congratulate you on the good work you are doing, and wish you every success.
Sincerely,
(Signed) MACO STEWART.”
AND YET THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTIONS HAVE GIVEN “SANCTIONS” TO THE ABOVE PLAN!
(HEREWITH IS A PERSONAL LETTER)
This appeal I am addressing to friends of Fundamentalism in both government and religion, to all who still believe in the constitution, the courts, and our blood-bought liberties-to all who still believe in individual initiative, as well as freedom of speech and freedom of worship, to all who hold to those fundamental principles which have made America the foremost nation in all the annals of time – in short, to all who oppose modernism, New Dealism, and all of the speckled-bird varieties of Communism, to those who still believe in God, home and native land, I make this appeal.
I am the pastor of two great churches with a total membership of approximately 15,000, and I refuse to receive a stated annual salary from either one, choosing to go wholly by faith, believing that “they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.” And I am going forward with the deep and abiding conviction that America is facing the greatest crisis in its history, not even excluding the Civil War.
I come to you not asking for one cent for myself, but giving you the opportunity to join in a nation-wide and independent crusade against the greatest menace that ever blighted the human race, a greater menace than either the Bubonic plague that swept over the world from the middle of the second century down to the middle ages, or the Black Death that decimated the population of England in the 14th century – And, believing with you and millions of other Christian patriotic men and women, that the one supreme need of the hour is to arouse multitudes of people that they may see the danger confronting us.
To that end I am, every week, on the 50,000-watt radio station WJR, Detroit, every Sunday at 9:00 a. m. with a kilocycle frequency of 750. This station is heard all over the United States and Canada, and from ocean to ocean. Without doubt the radio is the greatest factor moulding public sentiment that time has ever witnessed.
I signed the contract with this powerful station individually, and the total cost of this broadcast, going through the fall, winter and spring, including clerical help, postage, music, as well as radio time, is approximately $12,000.
And I haven’t 12 cents to start with.
Russian Communism is flooding our country with millions of pages of red propaganda.
If a certain percentage of people in New York would pay $1,000,000 to see a 21-year-old negro knock out an Irishman in fifteen minutes, surely there are enough patriotic people that will rally to support the greatest cause under the shining stars, namely, the defense of our flag, our constitution, our Bible, our homes, our churches, and our souls.
I have no organization backing me. I expect no reward or recognition, but I am happy in undertaking this extra burden.
I am on a great radio in the Southwest when I am in Fort Worth, and this, too, is a heavy expense.
This folder will give you some idea of the multiplied duties that are thrust upon me. In addition to the two great churches, Detroit and Fort Worth, I am making other and important appointments – this season calls for appointments in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, Toronto, Columbus, Cleveland, and other strategic centers.
In order to save time I am making these distant points mainly by air, and that is a very heavy expense.
If you desire to have some part in this continent-wide crusade you will kindly fill out the enclosed card and drop it in the nearest mail box. If you desire to send a cash contribution, simply put a bill in an envelope and mail it to the First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Tex., or Temple Baptist Church, Detroit, Mich.
I have chosen for my motto in this continent-wide crusade:
“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”
For everyone sending in a contribution I will set apart a percentage of it to pay for one year’s subscription for my paper, The Fundamentalist, which gives a stenographic report of my sermons.
Yours very sincerely,
J. FRANK NORRIS.