Forty Thousand Plus!
By the time this issue of the Bible Banner reaches its far-flung readers more than forty thousand copies of the Extra Special Bible Banner will have been mailed. We believe this to be an all-time record in gospel journalism. It sounds like an issue of a Chicago or Philadelphia daily newspaper. Already it has been hailed as an amazing accomplishment by brethren far and near.
Forty Thousand plus--the plus depends upon the increasing demands that are being made for additional mailings. It now appears that not less than Ten Thousand additional copies will have to be printed to fill these orders and requests.
It was thought and suggested by some that it has been so long since the Norris debate in 1934 that the public issues have become too old to elicit much interest now. I believed all the time that the interest existed now almost if not entirely as great as when the debate was held. Now I know that it does.
Through the wide mediums of radio and press the followers of Mr. Norris have been kept tense by his own blatherings on these very things. The response to that Extra Special Bible Banner reveals the depth of that dormant but dominant feeling in the hearts of all of our people against the pettifoggery, treachery, dishonesty and deceit of J. Frank Norris--a smoldering resentment which time could not smother out or extinguish has fanned into full flame again. The silence has broken into an explosion of facts that can be heard the world around, and which J. Frank Norris can never explain away. For ten years the deepest desire of my soul has been to expose, mercilessly expose the dishonest dealings of J. Frank Norris and thus to render impotent his malicious attacks upon the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Heretofore I have not had the financial means nor the advantage of a right opportunity to do so. Evidently Mr. Norris has misconstrued our ten years of silence and gloating over his infamous tirades against the church, he made a final and fatal blunder of believing that he could stage an act in playing the role of an unvanquished challenger by once more defying the churches of Christ. But the performance did not end as he had the stage set for it. Walt Disney wrote a song which bears the title of "Right In Der Fuerher's Face." It runs along in rhyme through several verses, the substance of which is: "When Der Fuerher says, Ve are de master race--we say p-p-p-phew-ew-ew right in Der Fuerher's face!" In righteous indignation, Christians all over the nation are saying "Phew!" right in Frank Norris' face!
There is but one thing more that I would most rather do--that one thing is to meet J. Frank Norris face to face on the polemic platform, before gathered thousands, under rules binding him to fair and honorable debate, to again expose his unscriptural doctrine and practice, and to have it transcribed into an accurate record for the generations to come. In a daring moment J. Frank Norris issued a challenge for the 1934 debate to be repeated. When it was accepted, his courage turned to cowardice, and his back-down was inglorious and ignominious. We have no intention of letting the public forget this fact. Nor shall they be ignorant of another fact--namely, the fact that two Dallas men, an editor and his co-editor, became a party to Norris' schemes against the church, helped him in his designs, and furnished him his way out. Their names should go into the record along with those who gave Norris succor before and after the 1934 debate. They should be yoked with J. Frank Norris as a trio in sin and shame, until they repent of their deeds against the churches. Their part in the Norris scheme cannot be disguised by the fiasco of a so-called radio debate. The whole thing is a play into Norris' hands and has been done in the spirit of spite and revenge against the churches of Christ, and the preachers, in Dallas and Fort Worth, who do not indorse these men, nor fellowship them in the repeated things they have done. I refer to the Dallas duet, J. L. Hines and Eugene S. Smith. Their combination should henceforth be known, and doubtless will, as Norris, Hines and Smith. If a "Send-Me-A-Dollar" campaign is renewed, whether ostensibly for the editor's birthday or with an auctioneer's voice on the radio for his "work," remember one thing, the part of it that does not go into personal property and gain will be used in a campaign against the churches of Christ and every loyal gospel preacher in Dallas, Fort Worth, and everywhere, and whoever sends it will be aiding in that ignoble cause.
In a final word--when the Special Issue was announced we had not contemplated the proportions into which it would develop. I thought that it would be possible to hold it within twice the regular size of the Bible Banner. But the demands increased, the material was too vast and the needs expanded far beyond a mere "double-header." The Special Issue became a book instead of a paper. The material in it, arranged in average page size and form, would make a 200 page book. Before it had developed into a publication of that size, we announced our willingness to furnish it for five cents per copy and in same proportion in lots for five dollars per hundred, fifty dollars per thousand copies, delivered. We did not back out of that offer forty thousand copies are being delivered as promised. But future orders cannot be filled at that figure, as any one should be able to plainly see. A seventy-six page magazine that would make a 200 page book-for five cents-postage paid! It was our offer, we made it, we have kept our word and I am happy. I am happy that so many copies have been put into circulation; I am happy in my heart that a wounded cause has been vindicated--I am happy, unspeakably happy, that it has been my personal lot, regardless of cost or loss to me, to do it.
The task has been immense and it has required time. It has been impossible to answer the inquiries that have come, due to the delay in delivering the Special Issue--but it is now the answer in itself and will explain the delay. We do not have a perfect set-up and some mistakes will occur but if any reader does not receive the Special, or if any reader knows of anyone who ordered a copy who did not receive it, please send us a card, and it will come, no postage necessary, just a card and we will correct any error with dispatch.
To all who have helped to make this work possible, to churches and preachers all over the nation, north, south, east and west who ordered these copies by the dozen, the hundreds and the thousand, and to all who ordered even one, I want to say "thank you,"--with all my heart--and God bless you. And to J. Frank Norris and those who have aided and abetted him I want to say again: They shall not pass!-F. E. W. Jr.