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THE MAN WHO STOLE A CONTINENT BY JOHN M. WEATHERWAX

COVER: Coat-of-Arms of the slave trader Sir John Hawkins_

The John Henry and Mary Louisa Dunn Bryant Foundation Los Angeles 29, California Copyright, 1963, by The John Henry and Mary Louisa Dulin Bryant Foundation. Printed in the United States of America

Printed by the Bryant Foundation for the Education Department, Eastside Settlement House, 1219 East Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles 11, California. Eastside Settlement House is a National Monument of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc Printed as a public service through the courtesy of Mr. James A. McGann, Founder-President, West Indian American Club, 923 East Adams Boulevard, Los Angeles 11, California. Additional copies, at twenty-five cents per pamphlet, may be obtained at the Settlement House or from the Aquarian Spiritual Center Bookshop, 1302 West Santa Barbara Ave., Los Angeles 37, California. December, 1963.

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There was a man who stole a continent. Being cruel as well as greedy, and possessing power, he enslaved twenty million of its people, sending them over the ocean -ten million to the Eastern Hemisphere and ten million to the Western Hemisphere. In the process of capturing the twenty million people whom he sold, eighty million other people died-some during slave raids (for when a village was raided, often the very young and very old and the sick were killed), some from exposure, disease and grief during shipment abroad, and some by suicide at the water's edge or in transit. The sale of twenty million human beings as slaves gave the man hundreds of millions of treasure. But this was only the start of his enrichment. He and his children and grandchildren and those to whom they sold slaves received much, much more (many billions more) through the unpaid labor of whole generations of slaves. But this, too, was not at all the end of their enrichment. After emancipation from chattel slavery, thousands of millions of additional dollars were received by the man's children and

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grandchildren and the other former slaveholders, through a practice of paying the descendants of slatJes on the average only one-half the wages received by whites. (This practice is continued to this day, made easy because most descendants of slaves are distinguishable from other people by their color.) And so, from these three sources- ( 1 ) the sale of slaves, (2) the unpaid labor of generations of slaves, and (3) the practice of paying (on the average) a half-wage to descendants of slaves-there was, over the years, a tremendous, almost uncountable, accumulation of wealth. The quantity of this stupendous treasure is now so immense that banks in every city of the land, and underground vaults for the storage of gold, are required to house and guard it. Although this treasure-every penny of it-has been squeezed from the very hearts of blacks, absolute control and disposition of it is in the hands of whites. And even though an ocean of blood was spilled by The Man Who Stole a Continent, and even though agony and heartbreak for millions of innocents was the "gift" to humanity of his slaveholder de-

scendants, and even though the half-wage system today means poverty and lack of opportunity and despair and unnecessary disease and earlier death for millions upon millions of descendants of slaves right now, the beneficiaries of this ethically upsidedown world would not dream of making restitution to anyone! By failing to do soin fact by simply refusing to equalize wages - they are able to stifle the hopes and crush the aspirations of millions of people. And because (when wages, or rent, or interest, or profits or property are concerned) they have accustomed themselves to separate Cause from Effect, they see nothing immoral in their actions. They can and do establish wage levels for millions which will not permit the family of the wage-worker to have proper nutrition; and then they blame their action on "competition" or "the market" or "prices"whereas the legislatures which they control could establish minimum wage levels at a level which would make proper nutrition possible. More: they could, if they wished, equalize with a federal government check at the end of each year, every income below the national average. Or guarantee to descendants of slaves medical-dental treat5

r ment equal to that now available to whites. Or pay reparations to the descendants of slaves (since the "property"-that is, the labor, of the slaves was stolen from them) . But programs to equalize the economic status of descendants of slaves and the rest of the population are brushed off as "not their concern." The accumulation of this fabulous wealth made it possible for The Man Who Stole a Continent and his children and grandchildren to build railroads and bridges and tunnels, mines and oil wells and lumber mills, power plants and office buildings and factories, farm machinery and grain siloes and canneries which made the exploitation of other continents and other peoples easier. Besides, all of the favored managers of these enterprises, and especially the owners thereof, were able to have many homes, even palaces, many automobiles, many servants, and the luxury of jet travel at the dictate of a whim. The finest hotels, the most able doctors, the best office suites, were at their command. Professors holding degrees from the oldest universities, research scientists and tech-

nicians with highly developed skills and insights and training, were instant to do their bidding, for each of the man's children and grandchildren waved a wand of gold. But the management and safeguarding of this immense wealth brought with it many problems. The mere presence in one country alone of twenty million descendants of slaves (to say nothing of one hundred fifty million other people), greatly outnumbering the numerically small group of those who were the inheritors of The Treasure, was disquieting and at times even alarming to the children and grandchildren of the Man Who Stole a Continent, and their close associates. To preserve "law and order" and thus prevent any open challenge to their control of The Treasure, the children and grandchildren and their political experts devised a system of police, courts and prisons, which dealt with any who stole from them, or who organized demonstrations or uprisings against them. Those who organized revolutions against them were severely dealt with. To assist the police, courts and prisons ( especially in periods when criticism of the

Administrators of The Treasure was loud) , there were repressive laws and ordinances and procedures, together with a variety of oaths that the people were compelled to swear to, investigating committees, and threats of job-loss for the more vocal or active critics. Worried by the extent, the sharpness and the accuracy of criticism, and by the persistence and ingenuity of the critics, the children and grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent quietly prepared concentration camps in the mountains and deserts at out-of-the-way places. These were for the forcible detention of any large-scale protesting groups which might get out-of-hand. In preparation for such eventualities, dogs were trained by police in scores of cities, and practice use of these dogs was resorted to in breaking up local demonstrations. All of the people who served the interests of the Administrators of The Treasure, including all those who did a variety of public duties necessary for the operation of a large and complex society, were called "public servants." No less than two million "public servants" were on the payrolls in a single 8

country, the main headquarters country of the Administrators. And since the descendants of The Man Who Stole a Continent were too smart and clever to payout of their own pockets the wages of this huge army of civil and military "servants," they proposed an "income tax" through which (by the simple device of withholding wages) they were able to take money every day from the pockets of every worker in the land; thus the burden 'of paying the vast army of civil and military "servants" fell not on those who "owned" and controlled The Treasure, but on the ordinary man and woman, already overburdened with living expenses. Yet it was they, the "owners," the Administtators of The Treasure, whose pocket-picking system was watched over and cared for by courts and police; it was they who were the chief beneficiaries of the complex operations carried on by the two million "public servants." Without these servants they 路could not have carried on for a day the huge job of distributing the products of their factories; managing credit, monthly billings, advertising mailings; keeping up the roads, patrolling them; guarding warehouses; collecting customs duties, and so on. The

Administrators preferred to have all these services paid for mainly by someone other than themselves. Because rubber was needed from the tropics for automobile and truck tires; and vegetable oils were needed for soaps and cosmetics; and gold and diamonds were needed for adornment and for industry; and uranium was needed for the making of atom bombs, free access by The Administrators to the resources of the world was a key need of the Top Brass. Therefore, systems of international law, including treaties, agreements, conferences, world courts and world forums for the expression of opinion, had to be devised. But since the gentlemen and ladies of the Top Bracket were unable to rely on instant obedience from such bodies (which often included even relatives of those killed in the original slave raids), the Administrators had several armies, navies and air commands under their absolute control. But these bodies were often used on loan, asit were, to the government or sovereigns of other countries, to enable those countries or sovereigns to crush and hold in check those who did not wish to be mere appendages of another power.

Special bodies of armed men, called "Guards," were used to reinforce local police bodies in keeping "law and order" ( that is, in repressing demonstrations against The Establishment). "Force and violence" was decried; except that an unlimited amount of "force and violence" could be used, and was used, by representatives of The Administrators. That also made it nice for The Administrators, for all the force was on one side-their side. The Man Who Stole a Continent was sanctimonious.

Everything tending to develop blindness to one's own best interests was encouraged through these channels. Meekness was praised. The virtues of being a good servant were extolled. Obedience to authority, re-

It had been his practice to carry a Bible in one hand and a Gun in the other. His descendants learned this lesson well; but desiring to avoid direct use of force wherever possible, they early saw to it that the churches and the schools were used to promulgate value systems that (once they were in the minds of the ruled) would tend to discourage any seriou~ challenging of The Establishment's ways of doing things.

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gardless of whether that authority was honest, or good, or humane, was presented as a Great Virtue; and conversely, those who challenged authority were labelled "Trouble-makers," "Subversives," and "Reds"-even though many of those who cbllenged authority quite obviously were blacks, and many who sought redress of grievances quite obviously were trying hard to avoid causing "trouble" by teaching their followers the techniques of nonviolence. But it was not alone in the worlds of ethics and politics that The Establishment was supreme. People were taught to eat food that had been poisoned by deadly sprays; they were constantly urged to smoke cigarettes in the face of scientific evidence .that smokers much more frequently than non-smokers get lung cancer; they were propagandized into. thinking that drinking stupefying liquors was socially the thing to do; and they were encouraged to get into needless debt, thus making them work and study and plan on how to get out of debt instead of on how to achieve a 1'ational society functioning in the interests of humanity. Most important of all, people were 12

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taught to take into their minds ideas and concepts poisoned by prejudice, hatred, suspicion, fear and doubt. For with every passing decade it had become more and more obvious to the children and grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent that such attitudes and moods among the people was the best possible means of preventing the descendants of the slaves (as well as the poorer whites) from uniting against their oppressors. And so, on a street named after an early President, hundreds upon hundreds of offices worked the clock around, and from season to season and year to year, setting region against region, city groups against people from the countryside, men against women, children against their elders, black against white, and each national group against the descendants of other national groups. The, foreign born were pitted against the native born, unorganized labor against organized labor, and the educa~ed against the uneducated. Even those who lived on one side of the railroad tracks were taught to hate and fear those who lived on the other side. Films, radio and television with subtleness insinuated these concepts into their

product; fashion and society enforced them; almost every social organization was encouraged to have its own "standards" by which all but a minute proportion of the population would be excluded. l'he purpose of all this was to fragment society, to encourage division, to prevent the ordinary people from achieving unity; for The Establishment correctly perceived that unity down below would mean a speedy end to The Establishment's ability to deceive, and hence to rule; hence, an end to The Establishment itself, and the beginning of rational cooperation instead of selfish greed as the motivating force in government. The school and church promulgators of the value system of the Power Structure were especially sensitive to certain words. Advocates of "socialism" or "communism" automatically became social lepers .. And those who wished merely to have an honest debate on the merits of such systems versus the "enterprise" system of The Power Structure, became economic outcasts. Although the postal system and certain largescale electrification projects were examples of the value of public ownership of certain services, advocacy of "nationalization" of

banks or railways or insurance companies was regarded as near-treason, and such advocates could hold no job in any bank, railway or insurance company. Because the children and grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent had the requisite money and power, they were able to retain control over the policies of newspapers, magazines, television stations, radio programs and other media useful in creating and shaping public opinion. They did this in various ways, such as by outright stock ownership, by loans, by advertising, by licenses, sources of paper, sources of talent, monopoly of channels, etc. Through blacklists, loyalty checks and other devices for pe.rsonnel control, serious critics of The Order were eliminated. Through campaign gifts to both parties, the Top Bracket people always had plenty of spokesmen in the highest law-making bodies, and usually sent one of their own number to sit in the seat of highest power in the government. A Senator from one of the Dakotas, for instance, could sit in the Senate for life simply through being backed by one of the main families of The Establishment. It was

But those in the diamond mines grew

very nice for the politicians, who showed their deep gratitude by voting as The Establishment wished on all key measures; The Establishment showed its gratitude by allowing them all the latitude, all the "personal freedom" they wished regarding

getting dust and dirt in wages while the owners lived in palaces. In the central part of the Continent,

could be made; new "reports" could be awaited as excuses for postponing action. By such measures, by such devices and procedures and strategems, the children and grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent were able to keep everybody "in line."

children were cut off because they did not bring in enough rubber, and discontented with their current wages, decided to establish a government of their own, and did. In the northern ~part of the Continent, those who worked in the oilfields of one

the railroads and man the hydroelectric plants that The Establishment "owned"

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weary of digging and grubbing for, and finding, diamonds that they and their women could never wear; and those in the gold mines became bitter about handing the gold they dug to their employers and

lesser legislation. In emergencies, highly "controversial" (i.e., critical) bills could be "lost in committee" or could be "filibustered" to death. New "studies" of civil rights violations

Well, almost everybody. For with the passage of time, new generations of people had arisen on The Continent That Had Been Stolen. They were needed by The Establishment to work in the mines, to tend the plantations, to run

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those who worke.d in the rubber plantations, recalling the days when the hands of

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of the biggest countries of that area, cut off the flow of oil to The Power Structure, took up arms, and in a few years won internal self-rule - fighting during those years against the biggest and best-equipped armies the children and grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent could

(that is, purchased with their inheritance from the robberies committed by The Man Who Stole a Continent).

send against them. In near-pamc, the Power Structure began to devise "formulas" for independence that would permit them (The Establishment) to retain indirect control.

"If you will let us keep the portfolios of Foreign Relations, and Defense, and Finance, we will give you all else," they argued. Many who listened to their talk thought "half a loaf is better than no bread," and these people agreed to accept a sort of half-rule. "Let us be Partners," said the spokesmen

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of one of the National Branches of the Power Structure - addressing national groups under their domination. "Let us call ourselves a Community, and be happy together." And so many of the countries desiring Freedom took that route, knowing that the so-called "Community" (with a white-dominated country of another continent to the north in control of both money and guns) was scarcely "Independence." But it at least appeared to be some-

tries desiring Freedom took that route, knowing that the so-called "Commonwealth" (with another white-dominated country of the continent to the north in control of communication, transport, banking, and industry) was scarcely "Independence." But it, too, was regarded as a way-station, a very big step forward toward true Independence; and it certainly was much better than they had before. Of course, The Establishment did everything it could to win support for the fiction that "Community" and "Commonwealth" were Freedom, were V huru. For above all, The Establishment could not afford to break the flow of precious raw materials to its own shores by having any contrary thought take root. The Establishment was somewhat in

thing better than they had before. "Let us be Partners," sang the spokesmen of another National Branch of the Power Structure to their colonies. "Let us call ourselves a Commonwealth. Let us share and share alike; let us Share-theWealth, Hold-the-Wealth, in Common. Common Wealth, don't you see? Let us help one another in True Brotherhood and Be Happy." And so a number of the coun-

disarray, it was somewhat shaken, during the process of letting go even partially of over thirty countries. But it was not dismayed, for it still held control of major world finance centers, communication lines, air-Iand-and-sea transport networks, trade distribution channels and armed forces. The Establishment was jolted, but was very

far from unseated. Meanwhile, noting with happiness the

success of their distant relatives in attain-

A courageous and able local represen-

descendants of the slaves in the Western Hemisphere began to shake off the illusions, the fictions, the misconceptions, that had kept them "in line" for so long.

tative of the biggest of these organizations, in a Southern city, was shot in the back and killed from ambush by a person who took seriously the doctrines of white supremacy. His own values having been warped and twisted by these doctrines, he saw nothing wrong with an action which earned him

They began to "demonstrate." Starting with a bus boycott in a Southern state, followed by sit-ins at soda fountains 1n another Southern state, participation in -.the struggle spread. Soon Freedom Riders were turning up in many key cities, challenging directly the hallowed institution ,known as "Segregation." Some of their buses were overturned and burnt; and they (the non-violents) were imprisoned, many being beaten. There were stand-ins, wade.ins, sleep-ins. There were larger and larger

wide.

ing a considerable measure of self-rule, the

demonstrations; and arrests by the hun-. ,dreds began to take place. Children and .grown people were knocked down on the streets with streams of water from fire,hoses. Police dogs tore at the arms and' legs and throats of demonstrators. But none of these stopped the demonstrators. The largest and strongest of the national 'organizations of the descendants of the

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contempt of decent human beings

throughout the world. But these warped values had not been created by him. They had been created and fostered by The Man Who Stole a Continent and his children and grandchildren and agents, who found them useful tools through which to silence the voices of the oppressed. Children attending Sunday School were dynamited . It must be noted that the moral sense of The Man Who Stole a Continent, as well as the moral sense of his children and grandchildren and agents, was not only warped but perverted. Nowhere is this fact better shown than

slaves were before long drawn into the ;protest, which had at last become nation-

in the attitudes of all of them toward property - especially toward "their property." The Man Who Stole a Continent justi-

fied his seizures of land and people by stating that he was bringing progress to a Dark Continent, and was "rescuing" barbarians from paganism, thus was "saving souls" that would otherwise burn in hell. He claimed, when his voice could be heard above the wails of the people he was destroying, that he was bringing enlightenment and civilization to a backward land. Never mind that so-called "pagans" had developed the very alphabet he himself used; never mind that the very numbers he used to total his profits came to his country by way of the "Dark Continent." Never mind that sciences like medicine developed there for thousands of years before the people of his country emerged from clubswinging and cave-dwelling. Never mind that a murderer-such as he was-could not possibly save any soul, not even his own. Never mind that the "enlightenment" he brought was disease and slavery, death and destruction to every people he came into contact with. Never mind that the "progress" he brought was a steady

a corroding of spiritual values, a steady lowering of moral values, both private and public; a withering beyond tears of the very souls of millions upon millions of the people of The Continent He Stole. No wonder they revolted against further rule by the children路 and grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent. No wonder that most of them have little or no use for the Great White Father, nor for his progeny, and are determined to rid themselves of the last remaining shackles of his era, in order to stand Free, Sovereign and Equal among all the other peoples of the world. In the Western Hemisphere, the children and grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent justified their use of slaves by saying that slaves were "property" and that the "owner" of such "property" could do with it as he liked. Thus they justified lashing, mutilating, burning, lynching and plain murder. Thus they justified the breakup of families, selling whomever they wished "down the river" - as the

retrogression: a lowering from year to year of all standards of living, whether in housing, health, employment, family life or child welfare. Never mind that he brought

eloquent phrase of that period put it. Thus they justified sleeping with another man's

wife, and thus they justified selling as slaves their own children from such unions.

But one day a great Civil War raged. The President of the North, after two fruitless years of warfare, saw that the war would end either with a stalemate, or with victory for the South. Fearful lest the 路 North should lose, the Civil War President was reluctantly forced to agree to put 300,000 former slaves and descendants of slaves into service. Some 200,000 fought in the army and navy of the North; some 100,000 built fortifications, roads, bridges, and served as wagoneers, camp cooks, 路scouts, spies, and servants to officers. The 路 addition of the 300,000 blacks made victory for the North possible, as the Presi路dent himself made plain and clear on numerous public occasions. But sadly, the President who had ordered the Emancipation of the Slaves was murdered soon after the surrender of the chief military leader of the slaveholders. His murderer was an embittered white supremacist who was assisted by other white supremacists of both the North and the South. Into the dead President's shoes stepped a man who favored the slaveholders - a man who adopted a policy called "Restoration" - that is, the Restoration of the Plan-

tations to the Former Slaveholders. In the two highest law-making bodies of the land, however, there were men who had the :courage to insist that the former slaves be accorded the full equality that was their due. They wrote and passed the Reconstruction Laws which set the country on the track to Democracy. They even tried the Restoration President, attempting his impeachment, losing their effort by only one vote. For eight years the former slaves and the descendants of slaves had the vote in the eleven Southern states-the years which history calls the Reconstruction Period. They accomplished so many great things, such as starting the public school system which we have today, that the descendants of The Man Who Stole a Continent were afraid they themselves would never get back into power on a state level in the South unless they forcibly removed the former slaves from office. And so these advocates of "white supremacy" said "Good-bye" to morality, and "Welcome" to murder. Through intimidation, beatings, arson, fraud and deceit they cut down the voting registers.-and prevented the descendants of

former slaves from going to the polls. By flaying people to death in the public square, and by burning people to death at huge spectacles attended by women and children, and by organizing five thousand recorded lynchings, plus many thousands of unrecorded dumpings into sloughs, throatcuttings and stabbings in the dead of night, hidden snipings and untold numbers of merciless mutilations, the "white supremacists" served faithfully the presumed "best interests" of the children and grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent. ( "Would you want your daughter to marry a black man?" was one of the stock questions asked by supporters of the system who "deplored" violence yet made it possible for it to continue, thus themselves being implicated. Another question they asked was "Don't you want white civilization to continue?" Another was: "But are they really ready for the vote?" ) And the children and grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent, sitting in state courts as judges, and in governors' chairs, backed up the bloody-handed "patriots" by freeing them when they were caught, praising them and the South's "pe-

supporting in every possible way the rule at local police and sheriff levels of the most brutal, the most callous and the most unprincipled elements to be found in areas specializing in unprincipled, callous and brutal acts. Of course there were occasional twinges of conscience. Here and there an official might say some kind words about the descendants of slaves. But such officials were not reelected; very well-financed opposition to their candidacy at re-election time would suddenly turn up, and they would as suddenly find themselves out of a job. Even a President or two made public statements, forceful statements, demanding that his Party live up to its campaign pledges on Equality. But such words were a long way from the deeds at local levels which would mean a change in race and class relations at those levels, where change must of necessity come if Words are to be transformed into Action.

culiar institution," rewarding them, and

And the Supreme Court took many excellent stands on Equality. But in the administration of the law there are many loopholes for those who want them. Six

years after the decision outlawing "separate but equal" schools, six per cent of the South's schools were integrated; eight years after the decision, eight per cent of the South's schools were integrated. At that rate of progress, a hundred years could pass before that one aspect of Southern life-the school system - could be integrated. And what about all-black schools in Northern and \Vestern cities, based onghettces? Again, it took over twenty thousand armed men to place one colored student in a famous old university in an infamous old state. At that rate, it is conceivable that if enough people of the old slave stock were to register for entrance in the colleges of the South, there might well be not enough soldiers to go around. And when three little girls of African descent are, after heartbreaking struggle, "admitted" to a formerly lily-white public school in a Southern city, is that school really "integrated"? And has there been any change in the basic attitudes, in the morality, of the community in which that school is located? But what of the whole character of life in a divided land? Who will look at that life as a whole and find the answers to

today's burning questions of real equality and of national unity? Can the spirit of the nation ever be cleansed of the filth in which that spirit has moved for almost three and a half centuries? Can the heart of a nation change? - a nation which to this day denies the vote to three out of every four black adults of voting age; a nation which to this day countenances the system by which descendants of slaves receive wages, on the average, half that of whites? Who will make the nation look at itself -who will make it characterize itself justly, accurately? And who will live, in a society which spawns ambushers, to lead the nation back to brotherhood, to cooperation, to equality, to democracy-the real thing? All of this-and much, much more-is the legacy of The Man Who Stole a Continent. It is a legacy of crimes committedcrimes so numerous and so terrible as to defy even listing. It is a legacy of corruption on a giant scale; a legacy of greed unbelievable. It is a legacy of corroding, all-pervading

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immorality. It is a legacy of a pattern of life which could please only one being: Satan. And yet it is a legacy which has been (even down to today) zealously defended by the children and grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent. Those children and grandchildren even today assert in loudest tones their "right" to the stolen wealth they inherited; their "right" to the unpaid labor of generations of slaves; their "right" to steal half of the wages of the descendants of slaves today. Such a morality is the morality of Satan. Perhaps The Man Who Stole a Conti-

Satanic, and has only one possible end: to be cast out altogether and forever from the society known as humankind; to be cast into the burning fire which is its natural home; to be remembered only (by the generations which follow its end) as the most devastating catastrophe that ever befell mankind.

nent WAS Satan. If so, the cruel and selfish actions of his

children and their corrupt philosophy of life would be understandable as the actions and the philosophy of Satan's Children. Likewise Satanic, are the grandchildren of The Man Who Stole a Continent-they of today who grind the black man's face in the dust through their evil "policies." For the morality of The Man Who Stole a Continent and of his children and grandchildren and agents can only be characterized as the Most Way-Out Evil this world has ever known. And Way-Out Evil is

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