The Golden Age

VoL I                               New York. Wednesday, January 7, 1920                               No. 8

LABOR. AND ECONOMICS

A Creeping Famine

IN THE olden days famine was a scarcity which often leaped suddenly upon the populace. Civilization, however, is threatened with what might be termed a creeping famine, under the name of the high cost of living. Like a creeping palsy this may gradually bring paralysis to a world.

The weakest, physically and pecuniarily, come first under this benumbing influence. A poor family has been accustomed to many necessities and some comforts. First, increased cost of living takes away the comforts one by one. The necessities are anxiously scanned, and cheaper substitutes take the place of one necessity after another. The effort is made to maintain the nutritive value of food and the warmth of clothing, but cheaper food and older clothes are the rule.

Income does not rise with expense; for the employers are fighting the high cost of business, and oppose and postpone wage increases as long as the worker can be induced to cut his living down to a subsistence basis. Labor must live, and a strike forces a little “raise” from a desperate or profiteering employer. But strikes raise the general cost of business; and the worker pays for Ids own wage-raise, plus the substantial profit the employer takes through incrdincfte price-increases.

H ia-li cost of living creeps rrp, and again the family food efficiency is impaired. Little sister, undernourishod. grows sickly; disease steps in, doctors, prescriptions, drugs and finally the undertaker—an appalling problem on top of all that has bonh endured. Less and still less can be bought; hopelessness comes—and the next strike for a raise is the work of a desperate man. Though the raise comes, it is less than needed; and the vicious circle is repeated.

How real this is and how rapidly the creeping death is mounting appear in the figures for the living cost of a family of five:

1018    1010 Increase

House (Rent, Insurance, Heat, etc J.-3306.18—. $3S8.30___27%

Food 681.00— 851.40—25% Clothing: Wife 76.75— W0.46—Jl% Clothing: Husband - - -       144.IS— 153^9— 7%

Clothing: Children (3) -------------- 156.00— 226.58—45%

Doctor, Books, Car Fares, Mise. _ 186.80_ 196.96— 5%

$1,550.86 $1,918.19 26%

The cost of living has not stopped rising; it is still on the move. Temporary expedients give it pause; but after a rest, it resumes the climb.

What does it signify? The Bible tells. We are at the door of the kingdom of God. TJie grandest blessings ever imagined are about to be ushered in. But first the present order of things is divinely permitted to break down, fall to pieces, disintegrate through its own imperfections. It was all divinely foreknown. Jesus said that at this time, “There shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows". (Mark 13:8) Margin reading says, “The word in the original importeth the pains of a woman in travail"—as though the troubles of the closing of the old-world period would come in successive spasms. Again, “I will increase [more and more] the famine upon you and will break your staff of bread". (Ezekiel 5: 16) But not for long; for in only a few years, after humanity's heart is softened by trouble and men have turned for refuge to God, “There shall be showers of blessing” (Ezekiel 34:26) ; and "T will pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it”.— Malachi 3:10.

It is not easy to pass through the birth-pangs of the coming age of blessings, but all who possess meekness, courage and faith will come through it in safety.

Clean Handx

THIS is not the first war that has presented opportunities for “easy money”. Every war has seen thousands of business men who have had a hard time making ends meet but to whom war looked good as a chance for making a little money, as well as profiteers galore who had made money and realized that a big war meant for them a “killing”.

This country might have profited by the example of other nations to minimize profiteering. Some inordinate profits would be inevitable, because rules could not be laid down to prevent all profiteering without stifling honest business. But to neutralize profiteering, tax laws were passed in advance providing that undue profits should automatically flow back as taxes into the national treasury. There would be few amassing inordinate wealth. It forestalled some of the disturbance of confidence that would necessarily follow war.

American foresight failed in this particular. The number of millionaires has doubled since 1916, and there are thousands of newly-wealthy men whose hands are not clean.

Where lives by tens of thousands have been cheerfully laid down, where hundreds of thousands have suffered wounds and rm Hinns have undergone privations, it is a moral asset to have clean hands. In a day of universal sacrifice hands that drip with blood-money are a public menace.

.Any class of business men that outrages public sentiment is doomed as soon as public sentiment is aroused against it. The liquor business abused public confidence, and the public turned upon it to destroy it. The public never forgave Commodore Vanderbilt's “public-be-clamned” policy of railroad management, and they turned upon the railroads with a publicregulation system that made railroad manage-tnent a nightmare. It is not hard to foresee that the new crop of millionaires and nearmillionaires have placed themselves in a precarious position.

Nothing arouses public suspicion like tampering with the private pocket-book. “It is a short cut to dispossession,” comments a man. prominent in public affairs; and “if the men responsible for policies in any industry wish to be deprived of it without fine discriminations as to rights and equities, the sure, quick way is to permit the public to believe that these men are profiteering’.

Whether profiteering is a cause of high prices or an incident connected therewith, the public have come to regard it as a leading cause for the lessened purchasing power of wages. Sooner or later public indignation is likely to look for a victim, and the man that today has acquired the worst name is Mr. Profiteer.

It was doubtless of this class that the Wise Man spoke many centuries ago: “There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men". (Proverbs 30:14) The Psalmist also said: “Why boasteth thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man ! God shall destroy thee; he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living*. —Psalm 52:1-5.

What Could a Laundry Do ?

TN AN eastern city something akin to a shock A was felt by the patrons of the laundries when they saw by window signs that shirts which once cost ten cents to have laundried would be fifteen cents, and those once twelve cents would be eighteen cents.

But what could a laundry dot The small hand laundries do little or no washing, but send the work out to be washed by steam laundries. They iron out the pieces, do them up with their own tags, and get what profit they can—from $1S to $25 a week. This income is equivalent to $9 to $12.50 before the war, and is not an extravagant return for a man who undertakes the responsibility of a business. Perhaps now the hand laundry proprietor can get $30 to $40 a week, and be able to buy better food and clothing and rent a better flat for the children, and enjoy a very little of the “place in the sun" every one has the right to.

The origin of the rise was the needs of the workers to improve the meager Irving they got by ironing. The Shirt Ironers’ Union members have wives and children, and want them to be fairly well fed and clothed. They think it not unreasonable to ask ten cents for ironing plain shirts and twelve cents for shirts with collars and cuffs, for which they had received eight cents, a sum which became insufficient for food, rent, clothing and shoes for the family. For the pre-war wage of eight cents had shrunk in buying power to four cents.

The situation is made complicated by a side issue. Enterprising little promoters make the conditions difficult. They create independent laundries and apply forced methods of pushing the business to a point where it may be sold at a profit of one or two hundred dollars. In these promotion laundries there are no Union ironers, but the proprietor, his wife and all the children, do the ironing. With no proper wage cost it is easy to ask cut prices for work and show such a profit on the books that some would-be laundry proprietor can be induced to buy the business for a few hundred dollars.

In addition, the steam laundries have a rising cost of doing business, consequently keep raising the wholesale rate to the hand laundries. Between all these factors it looks as though fifteen and eighteen cent shirts might come to stay. For under all the circumstances, what else could a laundry do 7

In Bible days men were required to see that not merely the workers but even the cattle had plenty to cat; for it was the law that “thou slialt not muzzle the 01 when he treadeth out the corn'’. (Deuteronomy 25:4) We who look for the Golden Age surely ought to be willing and glad to pay a little more if it is going to help some fellow worker to get some of the plenty we would like to enjoy ourselves.

Money in Steel

THERE is money in the steel business, and the business is an empire in itself. The United States Steel Corporation was formed years ago out of twelve steel plants of various kinds. 132.000 acres of coal lands, certain natural gas wells, and the Mcsaba ore deposits, of Minnesota.

Mr. J. F\ Morgan, Sr., bought these properties in 1901 by giving the stockholders of the original companies bonds in the Steel Corporation, ■ Mir hr kep! flux capital stock of $600,000,000 for himself and his associates, to pay him for his trouble in organizing the company. The stock coat him little or nothing, hut it is the capital stock that controls the company. .

In eighteen years the Steel Corporation, besides paying large salaries and commissions to bankers and officials, and paying the interest and dividends on a billion and a half of stocks and bonds, has laid up assets to the value of more than six times the original value of the properties. In 1917 the Steel Corporation earned fifty per cent on the original value of the properties, and in 1916 another fifty per cent Ordinarily it earns about fourteen per cent on the original value.

The Steel Corporation employes more men than were in the United States Army at the beginning of the World War, and has dependent upon it more people than the entire population of some of the countries involved in the European disputes. It is an empire or monarchy within a republic. Its subjects long for representation in the government of the industry upon which their lives depend.

The workers for the Steel Corporation have the same just right to organize, and to bring together all the men in all the shops as the Corporation had to organize and to bring together the shops themselves. The President of the Steel Corporation, Mr. Gary, denies this right He is unwilling to treat with delegates of labor thus chosen.

It is estimated that from a third to a quarter of a million men went out on strike in the steel business when Mr. Gary refused to treat with their representatives. The statistics of steel production showed a reduction of forty per cent in the output, maintained for many weeks. No doubt the Steel Corporation felt that its tremendous profits made during the war are sufficient to carry it over until the strike is won.

In a great strike there are many hardships and injustices. Not infrequently, strike-breakers, or “detectives”, as they are called, use their efforts to arouse one nationality against another. Thus, they urge Serbians to go back to work, telling them that if they do not the Italians avtJI get their jobs. The Steel Corporation has done something at Gary toward Americanizing the aliens employed in the mills there, but it needs to do more and should instantly dismiss “detectives” engaged in the kind of work here mentioned.

A clever kind of camouflage which has been practiced in at least one locality is to give dead mills the appearance of being busy by burning tar in the chimneys and sending up a thick, black smoke, and to arrange electric lights in such a way as to convey the impression that a mill is running when it is actually cold.

Railroad Perplexities

OR several years railroad managers, or those responsible for the properties, have been in great perplexity. They have the inexorable payrolls to meet; and yet they are restricted by their charters, or otherwise, in what they can charge for transportation. In the effort to get around their difficulties they do some strange things.

Of course, as everybody knows, the financiers and others who could get hold of the properties, robbed the Erie, New Haven, Pere Marquette, Alton, Rock Island, Frisco and many other lines, in the most shameless manner; and the dear public, who paid the bills and who still continues to pay, could only cheer feebly wlien the first generation of robbers turned the properties over to another, presumably to perpetuate the good work.

The death of Mr. Shouts, and the efforts of the company of which he was president to chum up public enthusiasm for an increased subway fare in New York City, has drawn general attention to another railway, the Interborough, one of the greatest railways in the world in point of number of passengers carried, and in point of safety.

In the summer of 1918 the Interborough Company needed $33,000,000 to pay for certain improvements, and current interest obligations of $11,500,000 per year. The money was borrowed from J. P. Morgan and Company, and a statement filed that in the ten years from 1907 to 1917 the gross operating revenues of the road increased seventy-four per cent and the net income available for interest payments, 179 per cent. The statement went on to show that the company’s expected increase in profits on a five cent fare basis would be sufficient to meet all indebtedness ^up to 1926, and contained the statement^hat “the engineers state that in making the estimates, full allowance has been made for the unfavorable conditions brought about by the war”.

Apparently the Interborough wanted the money so badly in the summer of 1918 that it concealed the real facts, or else the real facts were purposely hidden from sight in the summer of 1919 when the process of "churning” for a larger fare was started. It is interesting to watch one of these "churning” operations, and see how the public is gradually hornswoggled. One step was to have a "strike” for higher wages on the part of the men. The Interborough paid the hall rent, lights, printing bills, and time spent in attending the meetings of the "union” that did the striking. Perhaps they thought there would be more money in getting the men to force them to pay higher wages so that they could force a much larger sum out of the public in the form of an increased fare. The wage increase is expected to run to about $5,000,000 per year, while the fare increase asked for will run to $32,000,000.

When the railroads are returned to the men who were running them previously (we can not say to the owners, for the "financiers'* who ran these railroads were not the owners) we shall probably see the Interborough clamor for increased rates repeated on a gigantic scale. It is always the calculation of those who rob the people on a grand scale that the whole matter will be forgotten in a few years; and it generally is. From 1900 to 1910 eighteen railroads of the United States .gave away stock bonuses aggregating $450,414,000, besides paying liberal cash dividends to stockholders; and now of course, the men to whom these bonuses were given are hoping for perpetual interest payments on these gifts.

President Underwood of the Erie has stated that the Government operation of the railroads would have made a much better showing than it has made if the payrolls had not been overloaded with unnecessary employes who were given positions for political reasons.

Early in the War it was reported that master mechanics of railroads had orders to make repairs of locomotives and cars in such a manner as to cause, not serious accidents, but little delays so annoying to passengers and shippers as to discredit governmental ownership. Similar reports were in circulation about railway signal systems. If the railroads were not managed by irresponsible individuals, it might be possible for the same rules for efficient service to apply to railroad executives, directors and financiers, as to railroad workers.

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Swm Dead Millionaires

DICING the Fall of 1919 an unusual number of millionaires passed away; and the manner id which their fortunes were obtained, how they were used and how they were disposed of are, as always, items of general interest, because they are out of the ordinary. As far as most of us are concerned, the nearest we can hope to come to this subject is to read about it. But there is one thing about it that is encouraging, or discouraging—depending on how we look at it—and that is that when we die we each of us leave as much as the wealthiest; that is to say, we leave everything, all we have.

Since the world began, nobody has given away such a colossal fortune as Andrew Carnegie. His known gifts aggregated more than $330,000,000; and inasmuch as at his death he left no more than about $30,000,000 he must have given away many more millions of which no record survives. In his will Mr. Carnegie remdjabered a half dozen British statesmen by life Affinities of $5,000 to $10,000 a year; also all tie living ex-Presidents and living wives of fdtmer Presidents. He is buried at Sleepy HoI14w, New To A

WaKam Waldorf Astor, who recently died in London, was the owner of $60,000,000 worth of real estate in New York City. A grandson of the original John Jaeob Astor, and at one time in publie life on this side of the water, even to occupying the post of minister to Italy, he eventually renounced his country, saying, “America is not a fit country for a gentleman to live in”. But this was before the passage of the Espionage Act

Mr. Astor was a "climber”, for about a quarter of a century trying to break in to English society, and finally succeeded. The war was^Jus opportunity; and for his gifts to the British cause, he was made a viscount, whatever that is. It is estimated that his efforts to get into the peerage cost him $12,000,000. His-daughter-in-law, Lady Astor, an American girl, ran for'the beat in the House of Commons made vacant by her husband when he moved up into the House of Lords. This shows a considerably higher line of thought than that indulged by a Mrs. Astor on this side of the water, a connection of William Waldorf, who recently distinguished herself by appearing in a mule race at the Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, N. Y._? fair. It is hard to see what America ever got in return for the millions that it gave to the Astors.

Theodore P. Shonts is dead, too. Mr. Shonts was reckoned as one of the world’s great engineers, having received at one time a fee of $7,000,000 from one western railroad. Chosen by the United States Government to build the Panama Canal, he made splendid progress with the work, but suddenly resigned to take the presidency of the Interborough, giving as his reason that his love for his family would not permit of his rejecting the offer the Interborough had made him.

Apparently, Mr. Shonts did think a lot of his family at one time, for the allowance which he gave to his wife and two daughters was, for many years, $93,000 per year. But he wrecked his fortune by plunges in the stock market, cut his family's allowance to $45,000 per year (which would still be large enough for some of us to live upon, in a pinch) and finally became estranged from them altogether, and engaged other apartments. However, only two years ago he paid one jewelry bill for his family amounting to $135,000.

Mr. Shonts left an estate valued at $475,000. He divided $200,000 among his two daughters, a sister and two nieces, reserved $100,000 for the payment of a debt to his wife which he acknowledged owing to her, and gaye her $5,000 outright. The balance of his estate he gave to a woman not related to the family in any way, an ex-actress. Mr. Shonts made eight separate wills since 1900, which indicates that the possession of money does not necessarily bring one rest of mind; and it can not be said that his career, as a whHe, is anything the youth of the country should emulate. Col. Roosevelt denounced him bitterly at the time he left the employ of the Government, issuing a public statement that Shonts had left his country for the sake of mere lucre. Col. Roosevelt, himself, is one of the wealthy men who died during the past year, his total fortune aggregating a little less than one million dollars.

Mrs. Russell Sage is another famous millionaire who died during the latter part of 1919. She was a wonderful woman, deserving of the greatest respect. Out of a net estate of $45,261,724 she gave $40,000,000 to philanthropy and education, while the appraisement of her personal wardrobe showed that its value was $288. She always dressed neatly, and her wardrobe was maintained for that purpose and not merely for display.

Then there was another millionaire, little knvmi. but nevertheless the possessor of a large fortune. Solomon Scliinasi, a Turkish cigarette maker, left an estate of $15,000,000. That seems like a large fortune to be collected out of such a business as making and selling “coffin nails’’. Wonder how many buildings were burned by the cigarettes for which Mr. Schinasi was responsible? One hotelkeeper in Willimantic, Conn., has stated that he was burned out seven times, in various localities, and that in each case the fires were proven to have been started by cigarettes.

And Some Live Ones

rp HE number of millionaires in Great Britain is about the same in proportion to the population that it is here. In Great Britain there are 148 individuals with an annual income of over $500,000, and in the United States there are 456 with like incomes. One of these lives in Chicago, and has a personal income of more than $70,000,000 annually. We do not know who this is, and it would be against the law to tell, if we did know; but we can make a guess.

Mr. Philip D. Armour is a very modest appearing and economical man, for one in his station in life; and he says that he buys two suits per year, one straw' hat_r three neckties, sis suits of underwear, two dozen pairs of socks, an overcoat every other year, and a soft hat once in five years, occasionally touched up with ink in the meantime.

The five big packers, of whom Mr. Armour is perhaps the leading spirit, are interested in biggewthings than seeing how nicely they can doll up. They have gained a grip on many of the big hotels of the country. The supplying of meats to six of the great hotels in New York City is supposed in each case to net the packer who ha;? the'eontract about $50,000 profit per annum. "The National Wholesale Grocers Association declares that 375 American railroads arc giving the Big Five a favored service.

, Rabbi Levinthal, of Brooklyn, thinks that the Big Five have gotten a start that nothing can stop. He said recently: “The war has let loose the passions of the people as never before. It has opened up a flood of intense hatreds and strifes that can not be controlled. Speculators are greedily buying up the necessities of life; trusts, like Pharaoh’s lean kine at the banks of the Nile, are swallowing up industry after industry, and yet never seem satisfied’’.

A man with an income of $70,000,000 per year can swallow up a good many big businesses every year and not notice it. Even the little Milk Trust, in New York City, is estimated to clean up $350,000 per day, or $1233^0,000 per year, in the profits they make off from New York’s hungry kiddies, and that amount will buy quite a few industries every year. In England the taxes do something toward curbing the rapacity of the money-grabbers. The old estates are unable to keep the pace and are being broken up. This is a good thing for the country; it is distributing the wealth more evenly.

During the war, with 4,000,000 of the workers absent, we produced in the United States about $550 for each man, woman and child in the country; enough, if properly distributed, to give plenty to everybody. Harrington Emerson, the great efficiency expert, with eight other industrial engineers of similar standing, has issued a solemn warning to the great business men of the country that the cause of present unrest in industry is the acquisition of wealth for which no adequate service has been rendered.

The charge of these engineers is that labor shares with capital in this form of plunder: and their charge is just. The policy of either capital or labor, of exacting profit without rendering fully compensating service, has wasted enormous stores of human and natural resources and can not continue without a wreck that will smash every tiling in sight.

Wc do not know whether the lang and queen of Belgium expected too much profit on their recent trip through America. The trip is reported to have cost them $1,000,000: but we have not the least idea that they went back to Belgium with less money than they had when they came. The same may be said for Cardinal Mercier. He came over here “just to see America’’; but in every place he went bis admirers passed the hat, and the great American public, that loves to have it so, paid cheerfully.

| MANUFACTURING ANDMlNlNG__|

Coal in Spitsbergen

IS IT in. Oklahoma or in Arizona? would be the first question about Spitsbergen. But no; it is a group of islands within the arctic circle some 400 miles north of Norway, with a climate which Air. VilhjaJmur Stefansson, the arctic explorer, assures is "no worse than that of Winnipeg”.

"The mild climate of Spitsbergen,” says Dr. W. S. Bruce, who has investigated 1 he principal island of the archipelago, "is due to the warm drift that reaches the western shores from the Atlantic”. By a "mild climate*’ the doctor seems io mean that it is not quite as bad as ice-bound Greenland; and that Spitsbergen will be a good place to live is suggested by the dream that the islands will become a great steel center.

"Tor”, says Mr. Stefanssou, “there is no reason why great steel mills should not be erected in Spitzbergen, and their product shipped to all Northern Europe'*. This is a modern replica of the counsel; of Henry Hudson in 1607, who said that "it would profit to adventure Spitzbergen”, in otJ^er words, to make it the subject of a stock-selling promotion scheme. This may indeed not be impossible today, for was it not the Boston film of Ayer & Longyear, some years ago, ihal explored Spitzbergen’s mineral possibilities, but—probably wisely—sold out to a more optimistic Norwegian syndicate? And did not a British company go to the islands and start to "adventure” them? However, all the concerns that have tried Spltzbergen have quit, with the one result suggested by Mr. Stefans-son’s remark, "I do not know what they accomplished”. ■

The great explorer is enthusiastic over the possibilities of this "farthest-north” proposition: '‘The coal is better for steam purposes i han the best Welsh coal, and that means it is the best in the world. There seems to be an almost unlimited amount of the highest grade of iron ore; it is this ore which constitutes the wealth of SpitzbA-geft and which is likely to moke it one of the-greatest steel manufacturing centers of the world. The Pittsburgh district is the only one that has the same characteristics as Spitsbergen. The high-grade coal and equally good iron ore are practically contiguous, and both are so close to the sea that shipments can be made by gravity trams. Outcroppings of both coal and iron are all along the coast, and the weathered coal is so good that the miners can use it In their stoves during cold seasons.”

The truth about Spltzbergen is that it is a very cold place. The temperature is somewhat warmer than Boar Island, halfway to Norway; but the thermometer averages about twentythroe degrees on the warm west side, and from eleven to fourteen degrees on the cold east side of the principal island. The west shore is moderated by the warmer, yet cold, Atlantic Ocean currents; but the.east coast is bathed by a frigid arctic current, and is practically uninhabitable. In winter even the west coast is made almost unendurable by the persistent east winds ihat sweep with, arctic severity from the ice plains and mountains of the central plateau and the cast coast. Let us compare the Spitsbergen. climate with Winnipeg; for do not the explorers say that it is "milder than Winnipeg”, and that "records show that the mercury never reaches the same depths in Spitzbergen that it does in Winnipeg and other thriving settlements of Canada”? But Winnipeg has its summer heat enough for crops and trees to grow, while the Spltzbergen climate, according to the Britannica, permits the growth of only one "tree”, the arctic willow growing not over two feet high and bearing a few leaves not larger than a man’s finger nail. There are also some crowberry and cloudberry bushes, poppies, some grass in favored valleys and plenty of bright green moss. There are in fact 130 varieties o£ flowering plants of arctic species.

It has never been possible to inhabit the islands permanently. Hunters have occasionally been forced to winter there, and the islands have been made the basis of a few arctic expeditions which penetrated a couple of hundred miles farther north over the ice-covered Arctic Sea. The ice closes in on the coast in September and does not relax its grip until May, a condition quite different from Winnipeg, which is accessible by rail all the year round. Transportation to and from Spitzbergen is suspended while the ocean ice locks the harbors. From October 14 to February 3 there is no sunlight, .but twilight, except from December 1 to 20, the dark arctie night, lighted however by the bright clear moon.

Prior to the present discoveries of iron orc and good coal the archipelago has never been thought worth lighting over by the predatory European nations. In the summer of 1622, however, British whalers and fishers coming there informed the Dutch workers on the ground that they held a commission from the King ‘"for the depression of any Flemings or interloper’, but they hoped of course that the Dutchmen would go quietly. The Dutchman, however, said that “being a simple fisherman, he knew nothing about these matters; he had been sent by his employers, and would do what he had been told to do”. This it is claimed was the last attempt of the English to assert their “rights” against the Dutch. But now that the islands have assumed “importance” because there is something there worth grabbing, there may be further assertions of rights by one nation of Europe or another.

If any workers want to find a good lonesome place to winter in, they might try Spitsbergen, if wealthy promoters decide to invest some money there. It is not a particularly good place to bring up a family, so those that apply should be single, or widowers, or possibly grasswidowers seeking “ills they know not of," to escape the ills they have. It is probable that there would be movies supplied, and once in a while an airplane from Norway; for, says Mr. Stefansson, “Spitzbergen would not be cut off from the world, even when inaccessible for ships. The radio would provide communication; and with the rapid development of aircraft it is quite possible that a regular passenger and freight service might be maintained. It is seldom that yon find fifty miles of unbroken ice even in the farthest north, and seaplanes would find many open spaces in which to land.”

There is some hope for even Spitzbergen. In the carboniferous era the islands were all united, and were covered with extensive peat bogs in which “the marsh cypress flowered, dropping its leaves and blossoms into the marshes.. There were also sequoia, poplars, birches, ^lan&s and large oaks, and tliick underbrush freely developed under their shadow; and in contrast with the almost total absence of insect life now, thousands of insects swarmed in the tliicker.” In comparatively recent geological times the islands were entirely covered with deep ice sheets. That the ice is gradually disappearing when measured by a period of two thousand years or more is encouraging for tho belief that tho archipelago will eventually be entirely clear of ice fields and glaciers. The same Flood that deposited the arctic ice cap, and caused the glaciation of much of the northern hemisphere, played havoc with tho Spitsbergen climate. Its effects are slowly melting away, and in the course of the next few hundred years will probably be entirely gone, as the earth becomes more like the Eden it is promised to be. Then this group of arctic islands will come into their own, and there may be steel works in Spitzbergen. But not until then.

Building to Cost More

THE intending builder of a house should get his building under way at once unless he wants to pay considerably more for it—so say experienced builders. Next spring is expected to see a fifteen per cent increase in the cost of building materials alone.

The factors producing the rise are labor shortage, unrest, and mounting cost of labor and materials, according to one of the largest concerns in the East

Taking the 1909 cost as a basis of 100%, the cost of building each year has been as follows:

1909 ------	________100%  1914 ______	_______90.4%
1910 _______	________98.9%   1915 ______	________87.9%
1911 ■  , .	___     pft .W*   1910 . - _	—108.3%
1012 _______	_______95.4%  1017 ______	__iaae%
1913 '---------	. . ..   ,92.8%   1918 ■     —	__171.6%

First halt at 1019 174.8%

If labor increases in cost with other items, a building next spring will cost at least 189% of what the same building would have cost in 1909.

One of the stablizers of a social order is a home. If all the people owned their homes, there would be only a fraction of the unrest there is. How to get the people possessed of the sense of security that comes from sitting down beneath one's own roof is a problem the wise men of today would like to solve. They will be no more able to solve this insolvable problem than any of the others that confront them. But nevertheless the time is near, when “they [the common people] shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them" (Isaiah 65: 21), for these are the things that will be brought about by the wise men of the Golden Age*

FlNANCE-COMMERCE-TRANS PQRTATION

R ailrcadFinanden

T HOSE who made unearned millions out of the financing of the New Haven, Pere Marquette, Alton, Frisco, and many another American railroad are perfectly sincere in their desires that the railroads should be returned te them without delay.

To the disinterested onlooker there would seem to be no particular reason why the Pennsylvania should wish to have its road returned; for the rental which has been paid to it by the Government amounts to 11.29% on its capital stock, and that seems like a pretty liberal rate of interest. But other roads have received even better returns. The New York Central has received 12.96% ^on capital stock, the Burlington 22.25%, the Reading 25.7% and the Lackawanna 32.61%.

And then that capital stock. How did it all come into existence 1 Far be it from us to tell; for we do not know. But it is currently reported that the capital stock of the New York Centra) contains $57,000,000 par value for which nothing was ever paid except the cost of printing and distributing it; and we partly believe it. On this $57,000,000 it is said that dividends amounting to $120,000,000 have already been paid. As a matter of fact the public has paid the cost of actual construction of the New York Central four or five times over, and continues to pay it all over again every few years in interest and dividends.

When railroad presidents look about them and see managers of steel plants making salaries of $1,000,000 per year, they cannot understand why the “financiers” who put them into office should object to paying them salaries of $100,000 per year; and the corporation attor-ney^-and consulting engineers see no reason why they should not be well rewarded for any special services they render. Hence fees running far into the thousands, and occasionally into millions, have given another class a heartfelt interesCin the disposition of these railway properties.

And aside from the salaries, and fees of attorneys and engineers, and honorariums of $50. or more for each director who spends a few minutes at a directors* meeting, there is the great, juicy American stock market, where a person who knows what earnings a railroad has made or is going to make, and what kind of report they will publish, can often make a fortune by “wise” moves in the market just before the report is made public.

We do not know how it is now, but a few years ago there were “auditors”* who were on to their jobs so well that they had complete reports of the actual receipts of the road for a month in the hands of the management several days before the month had ended. This was accomplished by a careful withholding or acceleration of deposits sufficient to make the published reports agree with the facts. And in two or three days, in a lively stock market, a “financier” can do a great deal for himself and his friends. It is a great life.

Jesse James Employes

THE dear public would have stood a chance of curbing the old time financier, and Congress was actually making some progress with the difficult problem, when the great railway brotherhoods accidently discovered a way to get some or all of the money that has heretofore gone to financiers, officers, attorneys, consulting engineers and stockholders.

There are fourteen unions of different classes of railway employes, the four big brotherhoods of engineers, firemen, trainmen and conductors, and ten others that are affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. The four big brotherhoods were the first to discover and to use their strength; and if there is anybody that doubts that these four brotherhoods held up the whole country at the point of the pistol just before we went into the war, now would be a good time to bring the truth to the light.

They have exacted such wage concessions from the Government as to make their increased wages amount to more than the total amount which the Government has paid to the railway companies for the rental of their properties. Freight and passenger conductors now receive over $300 per month, and freight engineers receive $392 per month. The latter amount is only $296 less than $5,000 p6r year. There are thirteen states in the United States that pay their governors not more than $4,000 per year; and one of these is Texas, the largest state in the Union. We believe that men who run on the railroads should be well paid, better paid than most men; but we cannot forget the under-dog in this pretty little game of hold-up; and the public, and the lesser railway unions, are the under-dog, very much so. Big dogs ought to be friendly to little ones.

Some of the financial papers are criticising railroad engineers for wearing $12 silk shirts when they are off duty, and for permitting their wives to wear $10 silk stockings. But perhaps these railway men. have as good right to wear such finery as the “financiers" and “auditors" who have milked the same cow in the past, but have done it in a more quiet and gentle manner.

The average wage of all railroad men in July, including over-time pay, was $121-50. If this represents a full month’s work for each man it is not too much, but the men in the lesser unions complain that the four great brotherhoods get most of the money and will not permit the rank and file to receive any benefits at all except as they rise with them and above them. There would have been a strike of some 500,000 shopmen in August, but they postponed a walkout at the request of the President in order to give the Government a chance to reduce the cost of living.

Since the threatened shopmen's strike the trainmen and conductors have renewed their demands for immediate wage increases to conform to the increased cost of living. The Government declined the general increases asked, amounting altogether to an enormous sum, but did set aside $3,000,000, which was used to equalize the compensation of such engineers, firemen, conductors and trainmen as are employed in the slow freight train service.

The railway officials claim that as railway wages have increased, the efficiency of the employes has decreased; and a Pennsylvania railroad official goes so far as to claim that it now requires ten men to produce the same results as were accomplished by six men before the war. There is‘an offset to this in the fact that railroad e’ftgines haul three times more today than they could haul thirty years ago, their weight having increased from 127 cons to 254 tana, so that fewer employes axe required for the tonnage moved. In the Same time the Average freight car has increased in capacity from 20 tons to 50 tons. The traffic of this country has doubled every ten or twelve years, but the employes have not doubled with the traffic; nor has it been necessary that they should do so.

Railway Financa

A TEW A YR go to pieces rapidly. On the

Chicago and Northwestern Bailroad, the line loses eleven cars per day; and taking the country as a whole, there are from 80,000 to 100>000 freight cars scrapped annually. Ties decay and rails wear out. Bridges are an important factor, and they too wear out. On the New York Central lines east of Buffalo there are over 4,000 bridges and trestles, and 15,000 culverts and other crossings. ’

There are various ways of strengthening weakened bridges and prolonging their lives, such as riveting reinforcing material to weakened parts, putting in additional girders, making long, weak spans, into short, strong ones, and .using weak bridges for places where only light duty will be required of them. But even with all this they do wear out.

For four years the railroads have bought comparatively little; and since the armistice the Railroad Administration has been restricted as to the amount of funds it could spend for additions and betterments, so that it is now estimated that during the next three years the railroads should have $3,500,000,000 to invest in 20,000 new locomotives, 10,000 passenger ears and 800,000 freight cars, with another $2,500,000 for new trackage and shops.

The maintenance of the roads has been supposed to be kept up, as was agreed upon when the roads were taken over by the Government; but early in November the President of the Cotton Belt Road declared that much of that road was at that time unsafe for normal operation, aud in some districts was at the point of danger, due to rotten ties, loose and missing bolts and defective drainage. Perhaps funds will be needed to agaiir put some of these properties in first-class condition.

As to bills payable, the railways owe the Government $771^551,000 for expenditures made for betterments. As to working capital, they need a month's working expenses, estimated for all the roads at $353,000,000. Then they need $30,000^)00 more every month, to make good the average loss which the Government now susiains for over)’ momh that it continues, to operate the roads, provided they continue to pay the present returns of interest and dividends, (It should be remarked in this. connection that more than thirty-nine per cent of railway shares pay no dividends.) Atop of all this is the insistent demand of the railway employes for more and ever more wages.

Expecting that shortly, in harmony with the President's promise, the roads would be returned to their former managers, these managers are now saying some pretty severe things about the Government They are accusing former Administrations of having starved them and ruined their bank and investment credit by insufficient traffic rates, and the present Administration of having mortgaged the body, life and soul of the railway properties to gratify the exactions while stimulating the excesses of the four great brotherhoods.

They declaim that since the beginning of the war railroad wage rates have risen 85%, and costs of materials 100%, taken together a rise of 90% in cost of operation. To meet these rising costs the average rates for freight and passenger service have been raised 35%. During the war the average trainload was increased from 452 tons to 625 tons, but even with this saving in operating costs the net cost of transportation during the war was increased 80%.

Higher Rates Propaganda

THE next thing for which the dear public may prepare themselves, in view of the hard facts which the railway managers must face, is a strong propaganda for higher freight rates. We are informed that such a propaganda is in preparation, with a fund of $1,000,000 back of it to see that the work does not lag. In a little while the churning process will be in full swing and the person who does not fall in line will be a pro-G-erman or a Bolshevik or some -other animal suitable for incarceration.

The need of financial relief is evident, Pres-» ident Elliott of the Northern Pacific even going so far as to say that the railroads must have an increase of 25% in the rates, even if there are no more wage increases or higher material costs. On-£he other hand there are wise people who think that if the railroads carry their rates any higher they will stimulate the trucks and bus lines and will have less bosineas and probably less returns. Nevertheless, the lack of tonnage, due to the falling off ia steel and coal production, od account of the strikes in those industries, is forcing the issue; and some Increase in freight rates is certain, to take cafe of the great overhead expense from which the railroads cannot escape.

But just think for a moment of what an increase of 25% in the freight rates will mean to the country. When, the consumer pays this increased freight rate experience has shown that he always pays five times the amount of the increase. For instance, if the freight rate on coal is increased ten cents per ton, the customer pays an increase of fifty cents, the other forty cents being always divided up among the dealers and middlemen as profit on the transaction. Hence the anticipated increase of some $875,000,000 per year would in practice increase the living expenses of each family of five persons by something over $200 per year.

Proposed Rail Remedies

WE ABE not going to propose a new rail remedy. Congress has had fifty of these plans under consideration, and thirteen of them have been pushed with a great deal of energy. The President admitted to the Congress that the question is so intricate that he had no solution to propose; and the Congress is finding it equally hard to know what is the best thing to do. In view of the importance of having the question settled wisely the American Federation of Labor has urged Congress to continue Government control for two years from the conclusion of peace, so that the subject can be coolly discussed at length, and without politics earning into it. The temptation is very great, on the eve of a Presidential election, to let the railroad question develop into a political issue; but in our judgment this would be very unwise. The President has vetoed a bill taking out of his hands the power to fix rates, and this is generally held to mean that he expects to retai a the roads until July first.

In November two railway bills were introduced and passed, the Cummins bill in the Senate and the Each bill in the House. Neither bill becomes a law until it passes both houses and is signed by the President. The Esch bill was passed as a republican measure, the democrats voting against it. It provides for the continued use of joint tarmin^a and other real advantages which have come about through government operation; it requires the railroads to appeal for advances in rates within sixty days from the time- the roads are turned over, if they expect to receive continued assistance from the Government; it provides for continued loans by the Government for a year after the roads are returned, all Ioans to be repaid to the Government within ten years, and interest at six per cent. It also provides a Labor Court of forty members, half employers and half employes, and a Supreme Labor Court of nine members, one third employers, one third employes and one third public representatives, appointed by the President, with assessments of damages against railway property for lockouts (that could never possibly happen) and against union property for strikes in violation of contract. It leaves the rate-making to the Interstate Commerce Commission, providing only that the rates must be just and reasonable. The financial papers believe that the principal features of the Esch bill will prevail over those of the Cummins bill in the joint conference now under way.

The Cummins bill plana for four or five competing lines between New York and Chicago, and twenty to thirty-five railway systems covering the entire country; it authorizes the pooling of freight and puts all issues of securities under federal control; the standard authorized return on the value of the property is fixed at five and one half per cent, and it is required that the rates shall be such as to maintain this standard; in view^r of the fact that a rate which is sufficient to provide a fair return for a weak road affords an excessive return for a strong road, the excess earnings of the strong roads are to be diverted to the weak ones, which have heretofore suffered many wrongs at the hands of their stronger neighbors.

When the Cummins bill was first passed it created great excitment because of a provision making railway strikes criminal and providing punishment for them. In support of this feature of his bill Senator Cummins said;

“A general suspension in the movement of traffw. for a fortnight would starve or freeze, or both, a large number^af men, women and children; and if it were continued a month ox two months it would practically destroy half our population. Our business afiairs would be so disordered that the loss would be greater than in any conceivable war in whinh ve mi^ht engages It is

jiist as much the function of the government in these circumstances to see to it that transportation is adequate, continuous and regular as it is to maintain order, punish n-rimp and render justice in any other field of human activity.”                                              •

As a general thing the Chambers of Commerce throughout the country seemed to favor this legislation; for several of them sent memorials to Congress urging such legislation as would absolutely prohibit strikes or lockouts in connection with railroads or other public service corporations engaged in interstate or foreign commerce. But the railroad men were not enthusiastic for it, some of them even going so far as to say that if the bill became a law there would not be jails enough in the country to hold the violators.

While we appreciate as keenly as any the fact that an interruption of the circulation of goods is as serious as an interruption of the circulation of money and that the one would inevitably lead to the other if long continued, yet we can not see how any employer can ever profit by holding an employe against hi-s wilL

Foreign Railroad Notes

EKMANY is troubled by lack of coal for her railways, but is not saying much about it Germany does not have much to say in these days. Before the war the railways were state-owned, the employes were state employes and it was illegal for them to strike. The freight rates in Germany have been nearly twice as high as in this country; but they have had an advantage over us in one item of the passenger service, as a person could buy a card ticket for a certain sum, giving him the right to travel all he wished during the year. This stimulated passenger travel, and was a good thing all around.

In France only one sixth of the railroads have been state owned and operated. The line which has been under government operation has had forty per cent more employes in proportion to its earnings than the other lines, and the French Minister of Public Works recently made a public denunciation of the whole system, declaring that the road was run in the interest of the employes and nobody else. On the twenty-first of October all the railroads of France were placed under the control of a committee composed of representatives from all the different classes of railway officials and employes*

POLITICAL— DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

The Old Alliances Again

IT WAS the honest expectation of President

Wilson Tvhen he expressed the hopes of ImTyinnity in the Fourteen Principles that thereby a solution -would be furnished of the many serious problems threatening the peace of the ■world. He found it impossible to impregnate the selfish, hardened European leaders with the better ideals. The juster regulations expressed in the proposed basic law of earth seem far from what was hoped for, but perhaps the best obtainable from the aggregation of diplomatic sharks that had long kept Europe in turmoil.

It is not surprising to see one of the leading French publications beginning to come frankly out with what amounts to a repudiation of the hopes of the world and a return to the darkness that culminated in that catastrophic blunder of diplomats and kings—the World War. This was the inevitable outcome when, on the same day a year ago, President Wilson stated that the United States would take no part in a reversion to th& attempt to keep international poise by a balanie of power, and when Clemenceau said that he adhered to the system known ns the balance of power, and had never been in agreement with President Wilson in all respects. The Tiger of France has had his way over the Idealist of America; and in accord with him are the munition makers, the militarists, the nobles and the kings of Europe.

The hesitation of America to commit herself to the repugnant policy of entangling alliances has given the European reactionaries the chance to say that there is to be a renewal of the old alliances, and that it will be "the consecration of a new (!) policy born of American hesitation". It is plainly "Europe for the Europeans". Starting with the Anglo-French Alliance other Alliances will be added, and notice is served that Europe intends to perpetuate "the direction of the policies of our Europe". America is left out not merely because of her delay, but because she is not wanted. America is wanted, nowdver, but only to furnish money, credits, iBunitions and troops, as needed; but American ideals find an extremely narrow market among the controllers of European policies.

The importance of the French pronouncement is that it is the unmasking of European diplomacy. During the presence of President Wilson at the Peace Conference no open breaeh of courtesy was committed. There was no overt act of opposition to him, though the news of a year ago, read between the lines, indicated the deep undercurrent of determined opposition to the ideals of liberty of speech, press and religion for which the real America stands. Savage attacks on President Wilson have token the place of the studied courtesy of a year ago. The half-hearted cooperation of statesmen and diplomats is replaced by a general lining up against what the American President stood for among them. Thus was it ever with Europe, concerning which Washington said 134 years ago:

"Against the insidious wile* of foreign hflwaa, I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizezu, the jealousy of a free people ought to bo constantly awake; store history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the moat baneful foes of republican goYarwnagt.

“Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causae of which are essentially foreign, to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.

"If we remain one people under on efficient govora-ment, we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude aa will eause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice shall counsel.

“Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Kurope, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice ?                                             ‘

“’Tia our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world."

What has been the mental attitude of European diplomats is becoming that of Europe. Fostered by carefully camouflaged anti-Wileon propaganda the people of the Continent are becoming,at one, with the sentiments expressed that the American' Senate “is in favor of, America's not meddling in European affairs. Well, so are we”. The beneficent aspirations of America's President, which might have interfered with the designs of the European poHtic-ians, are turning against him. It was in Europe that the term “Machiavelian” .was attached to statecraft—alias “diplomacy”—and the European politician needs no tutor in the use of propaganda to paint white black.

Doubtless the best American policy is to pay no heed to Tories* and Bourbons, but to observe the admonitions of Washington and those less known ones of Paul and Peter “That ye studyto be quiet, and to do your own business,” (1 Thessalonians 4:11), and “Let none, of you suffer as a busybody in other men's, affairs”. —1 Peter 4:15.                           ..

DoesAmericanization Americanize ?   .

STARTING more noticeably in 1917 came a movement to Americanize the “poor, ignorant foreigner” by means of teaching _: him a reading and writing knowledge of the American language. Chambers of Commerce seemed to be acting as godfathers, but who the real parent was is not so certain. Some thought it was a part of a vast British propaganda work, and that the word “American” was used in such connections to represent things American as the British foreign office is supposed to think that word should mean if America were a properly dutiful daughter—to represent culture for the few and genteel servility for the majority;

Certainly no one living in this land can honestly doubt the propriety of helping everyone who is desirous to be helped to a better understanding of the principles for which the word American has stood and should stand—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But it is difficult to understand how foreign-born persons in opr midst are to be attracted to those principled when such threatening and bull-dozing tactics as have come within our knowledge are employed to ‘’Americanize’'. Any system which does not encotirage the self-respect of the foreigner cannot succeed; any system which does not leave him the power of choice as to whether ne will become an American citizen or not, cannot succeed; for if he is to be a slave he may just prefer to be a slave among relatives and acquaintances of his own native tongue.

Thousands of our foreign-born population in several of the larger cities have eagerly availed themselves of the opportunity to attend night schools where dramatic methods of teaching the American language are employed and where they can quickly grasp a working acquaintanceship with that difficult, though very useful speech. Many librarians and teachers have cheerfully carried extra work to render assistance in this comparatively new field. Because of the individual and true Americanism of the teachers some foreigners have doubtless come into a knowledge not only of the American language but also of the American principles. This is surely commendable, and worthy of encouragement regardless of what motive may have been hack of the starting of the movement

Your Feet and Your Eyes

MATOR General Leonard Wood said some good things to the students of Williams College in an address delivered there September seventeenth. He urged them, “Keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on God” The Major did well to urge these young men to keep their eyes on God. He need not worry about their feet There are very few young men in this generation that do not have their feet on the ground. But he meant to say that no young man can be of real benefit to his country in the trying times in which we live unless he seeks to be guided by heavenly wisdom. And he is quite right.

The Major urged too, and we think with wisdom, that we should “support the Constitution and those principles by which our country has been made” to the end that we might havo “an Americanism with a national conscience”. We certainly do not want an Americanism that has no conscience; and it is to the credit of the American people and the American Government that they have never taken advantage of the weak and helpless, except in the territory taken from Mexico coincident with the discovery of gold in California, and we are suffering the displeasure of the Mexican people to this day because of that act.

It pays for nation to deal justly with nation, as man with man. Too many nations seem to do right from fear of reprisal, but the time is at hand when the nations shall practice and learn war no more, and become not pirates, hut peace-makers, minding their own business.

AG RI C U LTU RE AN D HUSBAND D RY "~|

Czechoslovakian Farming sy Joseph p. same* MY INTEREST has Been aroused by your recent article, entitled “What Rotation of Crops Accomplishes”, to tell you something of fanning conditions in the country of my birth, the new state of Czecho-Slovakia, which lies between Germany and what was formerly Austro-Hungary. Rotation of crops has been practiced there for generations, and with excellent results.

The farmers of Czecho-Slovakiado^L'‘cros*ing” work also. Once I remember they obtained unusually large potatoes, fifteen or twenty from one seed; but big as they were they proved unfit for human beings and were used to feed animals. They were hybrids—nothing else; and although they were large in size die middle of the potato was empty or filled with bad-smelling water. From my experience with these hybrids I believe that when ^c;the earth shall yield its increase” it will come along different lines than the “crossing” of plants. Large fruits con be raised by crossing, but not always of value. Even in the case of the human family, if die father and mother are of different races the children are sometimes unfit for brain work. Wonderful are the fixed laws of God.

The Czecho-Slavokians are close students of hygiene. The towns are reserved exclusively for the residence of human beings, the stables for cows, horses, etc., being built at a distance of fifteen to-thirty minutes’ walk. People from seventy to ninety years of age are in robust health, while men of sixty to seventy have red cheeks and black hair, and walk and act like young people. Gray hair is seldom seen.

The food consists principally of potatoes, black com bread, a palatable vegetable oil made from flax, sour milk or buttermilk, and a little meat once a week. Doctors are seldom seen except at the bedside of the dying. Rheumatism, gout, headaches, indigestion and other stomach troublesare absolutely unimown. The farmers make their own alcoholic drink from plums. Four oufltos of this “Sliwowitz” would make a man so drunk that he could not raise his head. It is used not as a beverage, however, but as a stimulant, a teaspoon nil in the morning and another during the later working hours. In the district of which I write they had very little wine.

At the time I left my native land, twenty years ago, wooden plows, wooden axles and wagons, wooden spoons, forks, etc., were still in vogue. There were no stoves. The cooking was done on something resembling an altar, 'with wood as the fuel, and pots of earthenware. The houses were lighted with fat or harz wood. It was not uncommon to find soup plates and other plates in use that had been used constantly for hundreds of years. I have seen soup plates said to be five hundred years old.

The bread is baked but four or five times a year, immense loaves, ten to sixteen at one time. Before this bread is consumed the outside of it will be all covered with green mold; but the inside of the last loaf will be as sweet and palatable as the first loaf, and' as soft and juicy. I have often wondered at this.

In harvest time the fanners are accustomed to sleep several hours during the heat of the day and to make up for it by working early in the morning and late at night. This makes it easier on the animals; and thus these Hungarians, as they were formerly called, show their intelligence and sympathy for men and beasts*

In the town from which I came, the whole village, and the vicinity, is filled with acacia trees, the same as mentioned in the description of Closes’ Tabernacle in the Wilderness. The people make their furniture of this wood; and even when not painted or varnished it is exceedingly beautiful. The color is greenish mixed with yellow and brown stripes. A characteristic of the wood is that it is neither soft nor hard. It does not decay as does soft wood, nor will it split, nor is it given to wood worms, as is the case with so many hard woods. It is light to handle and easy to work.

When I was a child I used to eat the blossoms of this tree. These are good to eat, sweet to the taste, but with a peculiar flavor. The tree is full of thorns in the last two or three years of its growth, so that in plucking the flowers one must be careful or he will be injured by the sharp points. When the seed gets dry it looks like peas in their pods.

HOUSEWIFERY AND HYGIENE

How to Keep Well By o. vr. pu/iom, m. d.

EW people are aware of the multitude of everyday disagreeable symptoms and ailments of mankind due to autointoxication, the absorption into the system of poisons formed by putrefaction and fermentation of food-stuffs in the bowels. Among these we might mention periodic headaches, drowsiness during the day, insomnia at night, and many cases of general debility, nervousness, shortness of breath regardless of exercise, pain about the heart, rheumatism and neuralgias.

Many say that they have passages from the bowel daily, and therefore their trouble cannot be intestinal indigestion causing autointoxication; but it is possible to have a passage every day and not have a free emptying of the bowel. Many are contented with a passage each day, however small, with an occasional miss, and accredit their ailments to other causes. Loaded bowels with gas formation and absorption of poisons from the sluggish germ-infeeted masses is often the condition existing in spite of the daily movements; and a cure can generally be obtained by proper dietetics, which arc suggested below:

Get a small grist mill and some wheat. Grind it very coarse for breakfast food, which may he prepared by stirring it into slightly salted boiling water and cooking for twenty minutes. Set the mill tighter and make rather coarse flour, which makes delicious gems and bread, when used half and half with white flour. I se no white bread at all. If you do not bake bread or gems, buy coarse bran or graham bread. Eat plenty of coarse vegetables; such as turnips, rutabagas, eelery, asparagus, beets, onions, spinach, rhubarb and cabbage, also plenty of fruit, especially apples, figs, and unseeded raisins. Brink a glassful of water after each meal. Cut the meat to three times a week, and substitute mill: and eggs. Fish, bacon, and chicken are the least harmful meats for any one in this Condition.

_Sec that you get sufficient exercise along with the above mentioned diet Many who have not had a normal passage for years will be gratified to find themselves doing so, and the ailments caused by the sluggish bowel condition disappearing. Why not use cathartics? Because they irritate the walls of the bowel and produce raw or catarrhal areas, which permit the even freer absorption into the system of poisons. This is the reason why many of the symptoms are aggravated by the strenuous use of cathartics in an effort to remove intestinal trouble.

More Remedial Foods

PPLES for nervous dyspepsia, to correct the acidity of the stomach, for rheumatism, insomnia and liver trouble.

Grapes dissolve and dislodge gravel and bring the stomach and bowels to a healthy condition.

Pieplant, or rhubarb, is an aperient, is excellent for rheumatism and for purifying the blood.

Peanuts for indigestion and corpulent diabetes.

Pineapples are good for indigestion. The juice of a ripe pineapple is an almost invaluable remedy for diphtheria, the acid seeming to dissolve the growth in the throat.

Swiss Steak

U pounds thick round steak; 3 cup barley flour. Score meat and roll in flour. Brown an onion in a tablespoon of fat. Put steak (whole) into the same pan, place in oven at 450 degrees and soar uncovered for 15 minutes. Cover the pan while steal: is cooking.

Sluffed Steak

1 pound round steak; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 2 cups boiled rice; 1 teaspoon onion juice; salt; Paprika: Blend the rice with the seasoning. Pound the steak until thin. Spread the steak with a layer of rice stuffed about J of an inch thick. Holl and tie in shape or fasten with skewers. Tut into a covered pan with enough water to keep from burning, and cook in the oven for thirty minutes Take off the cover and brown before removing from the oven. Thieken the stock left in the pan for gravy. Or, if preferred, make individual servings. Cut a 3-inch square of steak, place a tablespoon of the dressing in the center, roll the t-teak around it and fasten. Place in a pan with a little water, and cook as the roost was cooked. These are very good served with a tomato sauce.

____             The Golden Age for January y, 1920

SCIENCE AND INVENTION"" ~|

The Philosophy of Art By T. BarttiLorn • RT may be defined as the visible picture or articulate expression of the ideal of mentality.

The Universe is the visible, expressed material picture, of the ideal of the Supreme Mind— the masterpiece of masterpieces—375,000,000 solar systems suspended in space. “The heavens declare the glory of God: day unto day nttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge; there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard."—Psalm 19:1-3.

The characteristics of men are invariably expressed in their works, in the houses they build, the pictures they paint on canvas, or the social, religious, economic or political systems they form. They are all ideal pictures, created in the invisible mind and visibly expressed.

Harmony or discord in color, tint, tone, grouping or accent, bespeaks a sense of the fitness of things, or the lack of it, in the mind that creates the ideal By their works, and only by their works, may all be known. The social, political, religious and economic world we have known, and see about us now, is the ideal, expressed visibly, of an invisible mind.

Jesus said that Satan is the prince (ruler) of this world (not the physical world). This explaius the riddle of confusion which we see about us. In a broader perspective, however, we note a greater picture, which the Master is painting. We recognize this present low, dark ideal of war and hate as merely the dark pigment with which, obsessing men's minds, Satan is permitted to lay in the shadows, to accent by contrast the brilliant golden sunlit highlights of the color scheme in the painting which the Master is preparing for the delight of a weary world, when Satan’s rule is set aside. Without shadows there could be no picture, no relief, but dull monotony—a blank canvas.

♦ Captain Hartshorn was in several of the hardest fought battles Ln the Civil War. After the war was over he resigned to take up '|he profession of art, and for fifty years has been one of the most Successful of portrait painters. Among his patrons were President Grant, who sat for him at the White House, and many other men and women occupying prominent positions In the United States and in England. One of Mr. Hartshorn's pupils, who paid him $50.00 an hour for instructions, Is now the most successful portrait painter In Boston.

Satan is merely a hog-bristle brush, so to speak, dipped in black, and applied over the yellow (sunlight) undertone painting on the canvas, to represent the shadows. In the little individual pictures that are being painted by every person, if the highest light—the accent— be placed on some insignificant accessory, or if the picture lacks the bright, clear colors of sunlight (truth), but is sombre with the muddy effects of error, hate or pride, it will be cast into the scrap heap! Every one paints his picture, his ideal

In literal pictorial art, the colors form a chromatic scale, similar to the scale in instrumental or vocal music, having harmonious chords; and when the accent in the harmonious color-tones agrees with the accent of light and shadow and the accent of sentiment, a delightful ideal results, that rests, refreshes and inspires, an ideal that speaks as a living personality—a masterpiece. By their works they are known.

A few hints to an amateur may illustrate the literal process:

Suppose we are painting a full-length portrait of a man. The strongest light should rest on the head and shoulders. This locates the accent; all other things are accessories—subsidiary to the main effect—the accent. The character of the man is what we seek to portray. This we find in his facial expression, the visible picture of his invisible self—his color, the expression of his eyes and mouth; there is the accent of the picture. His hands, his clothes, the bookcase behind him, the chair we see dim-ly suggested—a few touches are sufficient to indicate them. They are only the accessories.

A rather dark gray canvas is the best ground on which to paint. After making the sketch and locating the lights, cover them with white, and leave to dry. French brilliant yellow or Naples yellow, laid on thinly with oil that will dry quickly, must be applied first before each painting. Don’t paint color over the same color, when dry, without first covering it with yellow. Yellow is very luminous and represents sunlight even in the darkest shadows (applied under them). Most artists fail to use yellow enough under all their work. Get back to sunlight effect back of every fresh painting. Usa retouching varnish on the canvas before painting, and t*rooly after each coat of paint drio

The panorama of the great day of modern creation covers 49.OGO years—a picture lo be completed in less than 1*000 years from now.

Satan put a very dark shadow, covering 6,000 years into the mighty picture. It is the foil, the contrasting shadow that is to add brilliancy to the high light, the accent to the great picture that Jesus Christ will put in undec the direction of the Supreme Mind. It will be the completion, not of another physical masterpiece, the solar systems, but a new creation, 144,000 divine beings, a still greater masterpiece—the kingdom of heaven on earth—glorious beyond anything ever dreamed of by mortal man. What an ideal!

Sleep

WHAT a peculiar phase of nature is sleep!

We lie down upon our beds at night, in full possession of all our mental faculties, and know that we are going to lose consciousness. And yet the thought gives us no uneasiness, because we are familiar with that condition. All our lives we have witnessed sleep in others. We have experienced it ourselves. We know that when asleep, we know nothing. We are not even cognizant of our existence, or of the existence of anything in all this great universe. And so we fall asleep iu perfect security. We awake in the morning, and at once our mental faculties resume their functions. We are able to take up the threads of business where we laid them down nt night Our joys and our sorrows again live in our memories. We are awake. Our friends know us, and we know them.

What a beautiful picture of death is sleep. When we come to the end of this brief mortal life, we lay it down just as we fall asleep at night Yet how many do it fearfully and with apprehension, with reluctance. Why? Because they fear for what the awakening may be. They do not^know. They fear. Job said, "Tor now" shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shall seek me in the morning and I shall no! be’’, (dob 7: 21) Again we read: ^f'Tor in death there h no remembrance of thee, in the grave who shall give thee\ thanks V—Psalm 6:5.

And soJhen when a man dies, he has fallen ■ asleep. It is true his sleep is of longer duration than the sleep with which we are all so familiar. Man moulders back into dust from which he was made; but ho shall ju.-d ri? surely nwake ns he goes to sleep. Jesus said: ‘Marvel not at this; Cor the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves hoar his voice, and shall come forrli'. (John 5:28, 29) The Bible tells us that the patriarchs and the prophets died and were gathered to their fathers (in the grave), that they have not yet received their rewards. Bo you not think that if they were consciously waiting through all those centuries they would begin to feel impatient at the long delay? But you see they are not conscious of the lapse of time; and when they are awakened, it will be to them as if they had slept but a few hours.

Other Inhabited Worlds

IF THERF are other inhabited worlds outside of our solar system we can never find out anything about them except by revelation. It is well known that all planets are dark • objects, the light we get from the planets of our own solar system being sunlight reflected from their dark surfaces. It would never be possible to manufacture instruments which would enable us to see the dark planets revolving about other suns. The most that has been done in that direction is to determine by the spectroscope that there are dark objects revolving about some of those suns; and this is as far as science will ever he able to go.

The Scriptures seem to indicate that this world is unique in God’s universe in that "all we like sheep have gone astray”. (Isaiah 53:6) Some have held the thought that the “ninety and nine” which went not astray (Luke 15:3-6) must refer to the happy denizens outside of our globe that never knew the sorrows of our fall into sin, and will never know the joys of restoration and the heights and lengths and breadths of redeeming love.

Mountains Slipping

OX THE western coast, according to Professor Morrill, of Colorado Agricultural College, many of the mountains are slipping, producing ground movements of several feet a year. The- movement evidently is not dangerous; for no earthquakes result. It is most noticeable in the Spring, when tie soil is wet.

Other -mountains” are slipping. Russia, as a kingdom (mountain) slipped two years ago. Austria, too, had a Lad slip, and more are said lo be in danger.

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY ~|

AMNESTY FOR DEATH’S PRISONERS

WHAT IS THE PRISON? WHO ARE THE PRISONERS ? WHO IS THE CAPTOR? WHO THE DELIVERER?

*Tfce Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hcth anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek! he hath sent me jto hind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, end the opening of the prison to them that are bound”—Isaiah 61:L

TH bl Bible is a book very rich in pictures; and the picture of a prison-house as representing death is one frequently made use of in Holy Writ. Not only does Isaiah repeatedly employ this illustration or allegory, but the Prophet Ezekiel indisputably refers to death under the word captivity. (Ezekiel 16:53) In the foregoing verses the Prophet had spoken of the blessings which fleshly Israel had received, and which she had not rightly appreciated. As also the Apostle says, Israel had many advantages : chiefly in that unto them were committed the oracles of God. (Romans 3:1, 2) Therefore, when their conduct was less to be approved than that of the surrounding heathen nations, God's people were more reprehensible than those peoples. Nevertheless the Prophet holds forth a ray of hope for them all, when he says: “When I shall bring again [or cause them to return from] their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters [inhabitants] and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives hi the midst of them*’. We are certain that this reference is to the captivity of death; for Sodom had long lain in ashes before these words were ever uttered, and the only captivity from which Sodom and her daughters could be brought would be the great captivity of death.

The Prison Not Literal

Likewise the Prophet Isaiah speaks not of some lireral captivity or some literal prison, into which the Jewish people may or may not have gone, but he spr-a’cs in pictorial language of the prison-b.oir-'o oT death: when ho mentions the '■pro. lainiing of liberty to the captives and the opening of die prison io them that are bouna. (f'saiah 61:1) We would be only pn^s-ingly*lnicmst?d if the Lord’s great Prophet were speaking merely of some historical occurrence belonging to the ages long past.

This proclamation of Isaiah suggests four main thoughts: (1) that of a prison; a place or condition of bondage or confinement; (2) prisoners; those in such a place or condition of bondage; (3) the two foregoing thoughts imply the presence of a captor; and (4) a great deliverer, who is here described as both proclaiming liberty and also fulfilling his own proclamation by opening the prison doors to the poor prisoners.

Assuming for the moment that death is the prison referred to by the Prophet Isaiah, let us look back at the very beginning of mankind’s experience with death, by examining the Genesis account- We find that God made man perfect, a glorious being, richly endowed with happiness, since God had made every provision for his well-being. Though made perfect, man was at best a dependent creature, and there was provided for his bodily needs the fruit of certain trees in the garden of Eden. Solely for man's own good did God forbid him the use of one tree, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die'.—Genesis 2:16, 17.

Supreme Court Defines Decision

No doubt Adam, who had a fuller appreciation of life than any of us has, knew what was meant by the word death. Even though he had no experience with death, his perfect mind would enable him to see ihat death would mean the taking away of life, the life which his Maker had given him as a boon and as a favor. Probably, therefore, more for our own benefit did Jehovah give something of an elaboration of the thought of death. (Genesis 3:19) Surely we have here the highest authority in the universe giving us an explanation of the death sentence. He describes it as a return to tha dust of the ground or, in other words, to the elements of the earth from which man was made. He describes it as destruction, extinction, as a blotting out, oblivion; as a condition in which man is deprived of all his life rights.

We are quite well acquainted with the objection which some people raise to this text when they say: ^<Yes, certainly. Everyone knows that Adam’s body returned to the dust, but that did not affect in any way his soul, his real self, which continued to live’. But how do we know that anything about Adam continued to live after the death sentence was carried out on him? Where do we find authorization for such a thought in God’s Word? Jehovah deals with the responsible part of an individual, not merely with his body. Addressing himself to Adam as a responsible being, he said: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return unto the gTOuhd; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”. Evidently the whole individual was to be involved in the death sentence; and all of this indicates that the prison-house of death is a condition of lifelessness, is a condition in which one’s life rights and privileges are entirely removed. '

But someone interposes the objection: 'Surely it cannot be that the whole world of mankind is mistaken upon this subject! Surely the proposition of the heathen, that the dead are not dead but that they are more alive than they ever were before, must be correct, because so generally believed’. But, we answer, it should not surprise us to find that there is general confusion and lack of authoritative information in the minds of human beings in general on these points; for the Apostle John informs us that “the whole world lieth in the wicked one”. (1 John 5:19) And if the whole world lieth in the wicked one, lies in or is dominated by the spirit of the great adversary of God and man. we could hardly expect to find them on terms of intimate acquaintanceship with God, his teachings and his purposes, since we are elswhere informed of the fact that “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him”. (Psalm 25:14) Those who are estranged from God would hardly be familiar with his plans and purposes; and though we find widespread error on this subject of the state of death there is no reason why that should turn us aside from the only source of accurate information, God’s Word.

Dead Know Not Anything

In further substantiation of the Scriptural teaching on this point we cite Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10. Part of the fifth verse reads: “The living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything”. Verse six: “Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished”. Surely these words are suggestive of complete constriction of one's life activities. If the dead know nothing, if they love not, hate not, and especially if they envy not, there surely cannot be much going on in death.

The subject is made equally plain in the tenth verse. One often hears the first half of this verse quoted, but very seldom the last half, for the reason that it does not happen to harmonize with the popular view on the subject of death. The first half reads: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might”. That is excellent advice for any one; but it becomes even more forceful when the whole verse is read: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest”. Thrown into modern parlance, this simply means: If you ever expect to accomplish anything, you had better be busy doing it now; for after a while you will be dead and unable to accomplish anything.

We turn back to the testimony of the Psalmist: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man [in human beings], in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth', he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” (Psalm 146:3, 4) Then again to the Prophet Isaiah: “The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth”. (Isaiah. 38:18) “In death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks ?" —Psalm 6:5.          .

Prison a Fitting Figure

Do not those texts show conclusively that the dead are dead? They show how appropriate is the designation “prison” to the state of death. If earth's dead were more alive than they were in their lifetimes, then surely the Prophet Isaiah went sadly astray in choosing the figure of a prison to represent death. But our safe ground is in accepting the words of the Apostle: “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit’*. (2 Peter 1:21) Death is the prison referred to; and death is n prison state, a state of bondage or confinement so extreme as to preclude the thought of any activity there.

Now that we have seen what the prison ir, it will not be especially difficult to determine who the prisoners arc. The Apostle says: "Death passed upon all men’ (Romans 5:12), and "in Adam all die*’. (1 Corinthians 15:22) Our own observation substantiates these statements; for we see everyone dying on every hand. Death is working in all, and gradually all sink into the grave. As one also of our own poets has said:

"As the long train

Of ages glide away, the sons of men, The youth in life’s green spring, and he who goes In the full strength of years, matron and maid, The speechless babe, and the gray-headed mon— Shall one by one be gathered to thy side, Try those who in their turn shall follow them."

That is a sad picture of human experience, but a true one. This prison or death sentence includes all those in whom death is working in any manner or degree, all those who are under the “bondage of corruption”. (Romans 8:21) All the members of the human family are therefore prisoners. God has included all in the sin and under its sentence, death, that he might have mercy upon all in the moat effectual and economic manner. The most of these prisoners are locked up, so to speak, down in the dark cells of complete death. Others, with some comparative measure of life and liberty may be said to he walking around in the prison yard, or engaged in its various duties. But none of them is out in the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8: 21), save those few who have been liberated in response to their faith during this Gospel age for the purpose of walking in the footsteps of Christ Jesus their Lord. Of the twenty* billions or so of people who have lived since Adam's day the majority "sleep in the dnst of the earth".—Daniel 12:2.

"All that tread

The globe are but a handful io th~ tribe* That .dumber in it’ bosom."

¹ Who is the Captor f

Now that we know what the prison is and who the prisoners are, it would be an easy matter to identify the captor. The Scriptures tell us that it is "he that hath the power of death, that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14); he who from the very dawn of human experience has opposed the best interests of the race. Many people consider the devil ro be merely a mythic or wholly imaginary personage; others acknowledge his existence but do not attribute to him much power. Neither view is supported by tho Scripture testimony. On the contrary', the Lord Jesus twice speaks of him as the ‘■prince of this world”. eJohn 12:31: 14:30); and the Apostle Paul calls him the "god of this world”. (2 Corinthians 4:4) "God” means a mighty o-u; and "prince” means a prominent one. According to the best authority in the Bible, therefore (that of Jesus, the head of the church, and that of the Apostle Paul, the moat honored apostle in the church), Satan is a mighty one and & dominant figure in human society as now constituted. He “ruleth in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2: 2); and the children of obedience are precious few, when they are once sought out

Our Lord speaks again of Satan in a little parable which he gave, saying: ^<rHow can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil hia goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house”. (Matthew 12: 29) He here refers to the work which ha him* self would do at the time of his second advent. He would come as a thief (1 Thessalonians 5: 2; 2 Peter 3:10), quietly, stealthily, unobserved by the most of people, and would appropriate unto himself the “spoil” of death’s great prison-house, really his own; for he would have bought it with his own precious blood.

The Scriptures inform us that it was ambition that prompted Satan to assume his attitude of opposition against the divine law and wilL We road in Isaiah, first, concerning Satan’s erstwhile glory’ and honor, then concerning his ambition, his fall, and his destruction: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou come down to the ground which didst weaken the nations! For rhou hast said in thine heart [he was not tempted from without], I will ascend into heaven [occupy a more prominent position in respect to heavenly matters], I will exalt my throne above the stars of God [the angelic hosts]: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:12-14) This was Satan’s ambition, to have at least a portion of the universe in which his word would be absolute law, his will the last roeonrse or authority. "Yet thou shall be brought down to hell [to sheet, to death, to the very prison-house into which he has been instrumental in leading so many others—‘no that leadeth into capitivny, shall go into captivity*—Revelation 13:10], to the sides [or limits] of the pit’’—to the uttermost penal tv of death, the second death.—Revelation 20: LO/14.

Captor Himself Captured

“They that see thr-e [historically, in the ages to come] shall narrowly look upon ihoc [shall devote only an occasional retrospective glance at the miserable and futile career of Satan] and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth [human society] io tremble, that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness [robbing mankind of the refreshing influence of the water of truth], and destroyed the cities thereof [those cardinal principles, which, like citadels, keep guard over the happiness of perfect creatures! ; that opened not the house of his prisoners1” (Isaiah 14: 12-17) Not one of death’s prisoners has been released by Satan for the very sufficient reason that, though he has the power of death, he has not the power over death. Satan has been able merely to carry out the .sentence of death already pronounced by Jehovah against man on account of disobedience, but he has no authority to set aside or in any manner to nullify that sentence. So for nearly six thousand years it has continued to be true that ‘‘there the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor”.—Job 3:17-19.

We know now what the prison is, who the prisoners are, and who the great captor is, and are therefore in a position to appreciate properly the work of the deliverer. We are absolutely certain who this deliverer is; for Jesus identifies himself with that office in hi^ words in the Nazareth synagogue. Just after our Lord’s special consecration at Jordan, after his spirit-begetting and forty days of reflection and temptation in the wilderness he proceeded to Galilee. \

‘‘And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood np for to read.. And there was delivered unto him the book of the Prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath scut me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture, fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth.*’—Luke 4:16-22.

Liberty Depends on Jesus

Here is Jesus’ own assurance that in him inhered the fulfillment of this wondei’ful prophecy of Isaiah. He was even then fulfilling such parts of the prophecy as were due co be fulfilled. He had been anointed with the holy Spirit; he was proclaiming the good news, to the effect that sin and death should not always reign, but that deaths prisoners were to be set free. This message had the effect qf re-encouraging those who were discouraged, or brokenhearted, because of the great odds which sin and imperfection seem to have against the human family.           ’      •

But just here we remember a question propounded by the Prophet Isaiah himself: -’Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?*’ (Isaiah 49:24) "While this question has something to do with the Jewish dispersion, the Jews were in some respects pictorial of mankind in general. The race of Adam is a lawful captive; shall it be set free* “Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away-.’’ But.ii they are lawful captives, how can God be just and yet the justifier or liberator of any of Lb.emT Only in the'Scriptures do we find an answer to this question.

God made man perfect and in his own moral image. This made man a responsible creature, rmhor than one living merely along the lines of instinct. ‘ God made man upright’’ (Eccle**-iastos 7: 29), "very good”. (Genesis 1:31) Everything that he possessed of life and blessing had com* to him as a favor from his heavenly Father. God had owed him nothing. Everlasting human life spread itself enticingly before him; lie had only to be obedient to Jehovah's laws, to God's perfect will. In this Jehovah required nothing more of man than he requires of himself—unswerving conformity to the set principles of wisdom, justice, love and power.

Adam a Lawful Captive

Furthermore, Adam was warned as to the result of any possible disobedience. He had the ability to resist any temptation and was distinctly informed what the penalty would be, if he should disobey. Again, wo have the testimony of the divine Word that ‘‘Adam was not deceived”. (1 Timothy 2:14) If, then, Adam had the full capacity for obedience: if he was forewarned of the dangers of disobedience; if he was not deceived, the case against him seems to be clear—he was a wilful sinner. And if a wilful sinner, he was justly condemned and became a lawful captive. The condemnation against Adam will be understood and seconded by the most of people, but the participation of his posterity in the sentence is not so generally understood. What had Adam to do with us?

Surely ho had a great deal to do with us. All the life which we ever had as human beings came to us from him as the father of the race. Suppose for a moment that it had been a literal prison into which Adam and his consort, Eve, were cast at the time of their transgression; they had no children prior to their incarceration. It goes without argument of any kind, that if they ever were to have any children, those children must be born in prison, merely because both parents were there. Such birth in prison would not be because of any moral delinquency on the part of the children, but would be due simply to the fact that their only opportunity for being born at all was under conditions of condemnation and confinement.

This picture fits the facts exactly. All are prisoners, all condemned ones, not because of their own transgressions, but because of the Fact that they were born under the one original sentence. As the Apostle says: "As through one man 'sin entered into the world [in whom all sinned] a,nd through sin. death: so also death passed upon ail men’’ . . . ‘‘through cr.c offense sentence cam? on ail men to condemra-tion”. . . "through the disobedience of one man, the many wvre constituted sinners.* (Romans 3:12> 18, 19, Diaglatt) Or, in the terse, well put wording of the Shorter Westminster Cate-chlsra: “The covenant [of continued obedience on man's part and of a conditional guarantee of life on God’s part] being made with £dain, not only for himself, but for Iris posterity, all mankind, de.scending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.”

This is exactly the Scriptural proposition. No unfair advantage has been taken of Adam’s posterity, for God did not owe them life in the first place: and when Jehovah's plan for their blessing shall have been worked out, none can be found with any appreciation of God’s goodness who will not be filled with a sense of deep* cst gratitute for God’s provision for his eternal welfare. All are, therefore, lawful captives. The Prophet Isaiah announces that these are to be set free. But how?

The Just the Justificr

Two ways are imaginable: one is for God to change his mind respecting the original sentence ; and the other is for a substitute to be found for Adam under the unchanging sentence. We can be sure that no one will be liberated from death because God will have changed his mind as to the justice of the sentence. Justice is the foundation of his throne, and the slightest deviation from justice would cause his throne to totter and the universe to tremble, not knowning what to expect next. But with him ‘'there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17); "he cannot lie” (Titus 1:2): and "he cannot deny himself*. (2 Timothy 2:13) Adam violated justice, an eternal principle. Adam's sin will always be wrong: it will never be right: Wilful sin demands an eternal penalty. Therefore God will not change his mind respecting the righteousness or appropriateness of the sentence. This imaginable way of release is quickly shut off.

Thore is only one way of salvation, the way which divine wisdom has chosen. God purposes to hold the sentence inviolate but to find a substitute for Adam under the sentence, a substitute who would be both willing and able to answer to the demands of divine justice: for since a pen'cct man sinned, only a perfect man could act as substitute for the condemned sinner. No one who is imperfect can take over this everlasting death imprisonment with a view to liberating mankind. A perfect man had sinned; a perfect man must pay the penalty.

No child of Adam can serve in this vicarious death, because all of Adam’s children are imperfect. all born in prison and cannot liberate themselves, much less the whole human race. “None can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.’-Psalm 49:7.

Therefore to Jehovah, the Almighty One, we must pray: “Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee”. (Psalm 79:11) And in response to his need, whether uttered or unexpressed, we are given the assurance: “He hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death”.-Psalm 102:19,20.

Jehovah Brings Salvation

So when there was no other eye to pity, effectually, and no other arm to save, then God's own am brought salvation. Because there was no one else to accomplish this redemption God announced through the Prophet Hosea his own intention of taking a hand in the matter: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave: I will redeem them from death: 0 death, Z will be thy plagues; 0 grave, 1 will be thy destruction". (Hosea. 13 :14) In fulfilment of this purpose God sent the promised deliverer. ‘‘God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might bo saved”—or delivered from prison. (John 3: 17) The Apostle adds his confirmatory word: “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor [of perfect and mature manhood]: that he by the grace of God might taste death for cveiy man”-Hebrews 2:9.

Jesus was born on the human plane, became a man, although he had been a glorious spirit being with the Father before the world was. ^faThe Word was made flesh and dwelt among us". (John 1:14), with the express purpose of suffering death for fallen man. “The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) To any one who believes the Bible to be God’s Word there could be no question about God’s purpose to end the reign ot’*tein and death. But if our Lord has come and has given himself in death ou Calvary more than eighteen hundred years ago, how is it that people arc a till dying at the rate of some hundred thousand every day! Why are not the prison doors open!

That is a proper question; and the answer to it is a secret. But it is a secret which the Lord's ambassadors are now allowed to telL Yes, blessed and honored for telling. (Ephe-sians 6:19; Uolossians 4:3) Christ Jesus has given himself a ransom for all, but the testimony thereof is to be given only in due time. It is not God's design to let all these thousands of millions of death’s prisoners loose in a great pell-mell, helter-skelter. Far from it. Jehovah has laid far-reaching plans for the orderly dealing with and providing for the wants of that vast horde of people. His plans are so well laid that every phase of the process of liberation will proceed with smoothness and to the advantage of all. With this purpose in view, the heavenly Father has been quietly gathering out from among humanity a class of individuals who are to serve in the capacity of instructors. These are not chosen in an arbitrary manner; but the Lord has issued an invitation that ail, within a limited time, who are willing-to pay the price, shall be granted the privilege of a share in this grand vvrk for mankind.

Preparation of Instructors

In our own school system instruction is general, but no one is compelled to become a teacher. If, however, he wishes to become a teacher, then there are certain requirements which he must meet. So with the church of this Gospel age; it is to be made up of volunteers who faithfully fulfil that which they agree to do. These conditions are perfectly plain: “If any man will come after lire, lot him (1) deny liim-self, and (2) take up his cross, and (3) follow me”. (Matthew 16:24) Those who appreciate this privilege of being Christ's disciples more than they appreciate anything else “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth” and “love not their lives unto death”. (Revelation 14:4; 12: 11) These have never been, nor were they intended of the Lord to be, numerous, prominent, or influential in the affairs of the world as now constituted. They arc granted some liberties, are made “trusties", with a view to being made more useful to the Lord as announcers of his message of good cheer. The Scriptures speak of this temporary blessing as being justified by or in response to faith. (Romans 5:1) The prison suit is still worn:     tka prisouan ia general, the world of men, do not recognize that these are much if any different from the rest. But they are happy in the consciousness of cooperation with God (2 Corinthians 6:1) and their reward lies beyond their present trial time, when they are not only to be liberated in the fullest sense from death and all its effects, hut are to be made deputy parole officers under Christ Jesus, the chief officer, and in full harmony with the divine department of justice. (1 Corinthians 6: 2) For such responsible and exalted positions Jehovah has arranged for them to have the superior powers and capacities of the divine nature, the highest of natures. —2 Peter 1:4.

The invitation of this Gospel age appeals only to those who are unsatisfied with the present conditions and who long for higher, nobler, and better things. The most of mankind still prefer the prison conditions, though the first rays of the oncoming Golden Age day streaming in through the bars at the windows serve to emphasize those bars and to make the inmates less satisfied with their conditions than before. It is for this reason that dissatisfaction is so rife in the world today. Selfishness, theft, and various forms of lying abound in this prison; things are not what they seem. The most of those who respond to the light are of small or very ordinary powers, and they are very conscious of their lacks. Perhaps a few have more than ordinary endowments, but, if so, they realize that the best this world has to offer is fleeting and that “the paths of [earthly] glory lead but to the grave”.

Some Liberated by Faith

But whether high or lowly, according to the flesh, all the Master's true followers earnestly desire the divine help and blessing. Since they cannot serve him properly without being free, he liberates them in advance of the world, in fulfillment of the prophecy, “The just shall live by faith”. (Hahakkuk 2:4) Ever since his resurrection oar Lord has in his hands “the keys of death and the grave”. (Revelation 1:18) A key means authority pins technical ability to open a ^iven door. So Jesus has in his hands, or at his disposal, the merit of his ransom sacrifice witlrwhich he satisfies the sentence of death first against his followers of this age, and soon he will use it to make the balance of the prisoners, free. (1 John 2:2) Concerning the church

it is written: “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”—Romans 8:1« 2.                  ’

When this specially chosen and prepared class is complete, then will come the time for the opening of the prison for the residue of men. (Acts 15:17) But how can those who sleep in their graves, those who arc shut up in the dark cells of the prison, be set free? The Master replies: “All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the life resurrection [to immediate and perfect spiritual life for the saints of this present age; to human perfection for the Old Testament saints, who had the testimony that they pleased God—Hebrews 11:5]: and they that have done evil [the vast majority of mankind who have done evil in the sense of being imperfect and unjustified] to the judgment resurrection”. (John 5 : 28, 29, R.V.) This is the judgment time concerning which the Prophet speaks: "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness”.—Isaiah 26:9.

At the end of this Gospel age (which is now at hand), when the great anti typical Priest shall appear before the mercy seat for the sins of all the people, then the sentence of death against mankind will be canceled, completely transferred to the account of Jesus, and the opening of the prison on behalf of the world can take place. Since the Jewish nation was peculiarly condemned because of their relationship to the Law Covenant, they may be described as being in a separate cell house, though really no more dead than the rest of mankind. But all these ox-convicts, Jews and Gentiles, will be let out on a general amnesty and under the care of the Great DeHverer—an amnesty which has some of the aspects of a parole. If, when liberated from death, the individual still prefers sin to God’s holy and righteous laws, he will be remanded to prison; but in such a case he will go back under a sentence of his own. "In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the children's teeth are set on edge. But everyone [who dies] shall die for his own iniquity.” (Jeremiah 31:29, 30) John the Baptist expresses the thought in other words, when he says; “He that believeth on the Son Hath life: and he that believeth not the Son [after full light and opportunity] shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him”. —John 3:36.

No Change In Death

The Messiah, the great antitypical ProphetPriest-King (Deuteronomy 18:15), will not only be the deliverer “to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and they that sit in darkness out of the prison-house” (Isaiah 42:7; 49:9), but “the government will be upon his shoulder and he shall be the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6) One of the first acts of this new Prince will be the exercise of complete restraint over ?Satan, the prince of darkness (Ephesians 6:12), that he may deceive and mislead no more those who were his captives throughout all the Messianic thousand-year reign.—Revelation 20:1-3.

And will death's prisoners know and be known of their friends when they come forth in the resurrection, gradually, every man in his own order! To this question we have the Scriptural assurance that they shall return to their former estate (Ezekiel 16:55), or to the same state or condition of character which they possessed at the time of complete death. If they were wise, just, loving at death, they will bo wise, just, loving in the same measure when brought forth from death. If they were unwise, unjust, unloving at death, they will be unwise, unjust, unloving in the same measure when they arc called forth from the tomb; for there is no change in death. “Where the tree [man] falloth. there it shall be"—until outside power raise it.—Ecclesiastes 11: 3.

An illustration: At the close of the Civil War, Southern prisoners were released from the war prison at Columbus and other places. Those were the same men that had been put there, some of them almost four years before. There were certain changes in body, but they were the same individuals, able to recognize themsblves and be recognized by others outside. They retunmd to their homes in the South and were recognized by acquaintances there. But great changes had taken place in their homeland. W^hen tlmy left, it was in a state ot‘ turmoil and the issue was undecided as to what were to be the dominant governmental principles in the land. When they returned, hgal peace had been established: the question of government had been determined, though there were great needs in reconstruction. So will it be when death's prisoners are released.

Prisons Blight to Disappear .

The tendency of imprisonment is to deteriorate body, mind, morals. So the effect of the sentence of death upon mankind has been deterioration in every way. It has affected man's mind until his once lordly intellect is pitiably unbalanced: it has worked upon his body until he has a mere semblance of his once noble organism: it has dulled his moral faculties until he actually thinks right is wrong and wrong is right. It is for these reasons that the Scriptures state that darkness, or obscurity, covers the earth—human society. (Isaiah 60:2) This darkness is in the minds of people respecting the true character of Jehovah God, The Lord Jesus intimated that any dearth of this darkness should be considered a great and special blessing; ’Blessed are your eyes for they sec: and your ears, for they hear’. (Matthew 13:16) Those who experience now the enlightening of the eyes of their understanding (Ephesians 1: IS) are but a handful, a “little flock” (Luke 12:32), in comparison with the unnumbered hosts which are to have the same blessing ing the future; “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea”. (Isaiah 11:9) Man’s poor discernment of. disinterest in, and universal want of conformity to the standards of righteousness, which Jehovah originally established for him, will then be done away with. “Then the eyes of the [spiritually] blind shall be opened, and the cars of the [morally] deaf shall be unstopped: then shall the lame man [now unable to walk well in the ways of righteousness] leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb [ those who now have no word of praise for Jehovah] shall sing: for in the wilderness [the bai*ren state of human society] shall waters [of refreshing truth] break out. and streams [coordinate proclamation of truth] in the desert;—Isaiah 33:5, 6.

It will be a happy time '.'. hen the great prison doors swing out. They opened in more than six thousand years ago to receive the first pair; they yawned again on Calvary to receive our Lord Jesus as he gave his per lev t life as a ransom price. But it. was not possible that “he [as a new creature | should be holden of death” (Acts 2:24). so Luc* prison doors opened out for the iirst time on that joyful resurrection morning when the angels announced, “He is risen". (Matthew 28: 6) 'Che promise was also made to the church that “the gates of death" should not prevail against her. (Matthew 16:18) Though the followers of Christ have died apparently like the rest of people, this promise was fulfilled to them who had slept in unconsciousness throughout the Gospel age when, in 1878, the sleeping saints were called forth into the first resurrection to glory, honor and immortality; and since then each saint at his change has entered into glory. Having been sown in weakness, they were there raised in glory; having been sown animal, or human, bodies, they were then raised with wonderful spirit bodies, that they might more effectually serve God and bless mankind.

Comfort and Guidance Needed

These are therefore the first-fruits of them that slept; Christ Jesus being the first of the first-fruits (1 Corinthians 15:20; Colossians 1: 18), but when mankind, the after-fruits, shall be gradually called forth from the tomb they will be in need of the strong, paternal guidance and the tender, maternal interest of the Christ, Head and body, who shall then occupy powerful positions as spirit beings. Instead of the darkness which now prevails rn the minds of the people, the glorious Sun of Righteousness with healing in his beams will be shining; and into that blaze of warmth and light shall come the blinking, somewhat bewildered prisoners of death, to be instructed, helped, and blessed up the highway of holiness then open until, if they will, not only all traces of. the sentence of death will be gone, but also all effects of the sentence, all imperfection. A perfect mind, a perfect body.a perfect environment, perfect life, and, last of all, perfect dominion will be restored to those of the now benighted prisoners of hope who will then be willing and obedient toward God's laws. Thus it is that “the Lord looseth the prisoners*'.—Psalm 146:7.

The time for the deliverance of the prisoners is at hand. The terrible storm of the World War which has just swept the nations Jesus declared would be the beginning of the tearing away of the old order of things, preparatory to the inauguration of the new order, under which ati the prisoners will come forth from the prison-house. Another spasm of trouble must come, and then another, even greater than the preceding ones; and then the still small voice of comfort and consolation to all that mourn. These will follow quickly one upon the, other. Let all the prisoners who yet have a measure of life take courage; for notwithstanding the trouble and suffering on every hand, the Golden Ago is at the doors. Let them rejoice for themselves and for their fellow-prisoners who are resting silently in the prison-house of death, that shortly now the testimony concerning the love of God through Christ to the redemption and deliverance of mankind shall be given to alh

“There's a wideness in God’s mercy, Like the wideness of the sea;

There’s a kindness in his justice. Though severe his judgments be.

For the love of God is broader

Than the measure of man's mind;

And the heart of the Eternal

Is most wonderfully kind?*

’ JUVENILE BIBLE STUDY

One question for each day Is provided by this Joonal | The parent will find it interesting and helpful to have the child take up tho question each day and aM ft A finding the answer in the Scriptures, thus developing a knowledge of the Bible and where to find in It the things desired.

• ^L- - ... -- ______

• 1. Q. How should we interpret the parables^ symbols and dark sayings of the Bible?

A. A parable is a word picture intended to teach a lesson and to illustrate some plain truth taught by the Bible. Parables and symbols should bo interpreted in harmony with the plain statements.—2 Peter 1:20; 2 Timothy 3:16; Psalm 97:11.

• 2. Q. How did Jesus speak to the multitudes and why could they not understand him?

A. Jesus always spoke in parables to the multitude. (Matthew 13:34) He spoke plainly to his disciples. (Matthew 13:10-16) It was God's due time for the disciples to understand, but not for file multitude. Jesus was hiding the divine secrets from the worldly wise and prudent. He explained his parables to tho disciples, thanking the heavenly Father that others, without faith, could not understand the mysteries of his coming kingdom. But God has a duo time lor all tn understand.—John 5: 28, 29: Matthew 11:25: Zephaniah 3: 8,9: Psalm 25:14; 1 Corinthians 2:14; 2 Corinthians 4:4.

■7. Q. How did God give us the Bible?

A. He inspired men to write it, his spirit operating upon the minds of men. The spirit of God is invisible. yet all-powerful. No other book was ever inspired by God.—2 Peter 1:20, 21; 1 Peter 1:10-12; Habakkuk 2:2; Heb. 1:1.

• 4. Q. What is the general teaching of the Bible?                                     -

A. Genesis, the first book, tells us about the creation, how sin entered the world and how man lost the blessings of life. Revelation, the last book, tells us that sin, sickness, sorrow, pain and death shall some day all pass away. Other books show Jehovah’s program, containing promises of comfort and good cheer, as well as many historical narratives of men and ■nations.—Genesis, chapters 1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 5:12; 1 Timothy 2:4-6; Hebrews 2:14; 1 Timothy 2:14; Revelation 21:1-6.

• 5. Q. What is the difference between the Old and Ncic Testaments?

A. Briefly stated, the New Testament is concealed in the Old, and the Old Testament is revealed in the New.—1 Corinthians 10:11; Luke 24:27; Isaiah 61:1.

• 6. Q. Why is so much history of the Jewish nation found in the Bible?

A. The Jews were the only nation under a law covenant with God, and the things of their history were recorded to foreshadow good things to come. (Hebrews 10:1; Amos 3:2; 1 Corinthians 10:11) This history also furnishes a wonderful time table, enabling us to determine where we are on the stream of time.— Romans 5:6; Acts 17:26; 1 Timothy 2:6.

• 7. Q. Does the Bible teach anything concerning the future?

A. Jesus said the holy Spirit will guide us into all truth and show us things to come.— John 16:13; Revelation 2: 2, 3; Isaiah 35:1-3; Revelation 21:4; Isaiah 55:13; 11:6,9.

S. Q. Is the Bible true?

A. Yes, when properly translated. If we take an auto trip and have a guide book which points out everything along the road, that we would say is a true book. The Bible is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our pathway.:—Psalm 119:105; Isaiah 55:11; Hebrews 6:18; 2 Timothy 2:13.

• 9. Q. Why do so many persons say the Bible is not true?

A. Because they do not understand it. They may not desire to study it, nor be honest enough to believe it, or humble enough to accept it— Isaiah 55:8, 9; Psalm 25:9; 2 Corinthians 4: 4; Zephaniah 2:3; Psalm 97:11.

• 10. Q. Is the Bible "an old fiddle upon which any tune can be played”?

A. No. The Bible when understood is like a beautiful harp, which yields sweet melody when rightly played. It is filled with good tiding of great joy which some day will come to all people.—Luke 2: 9-11; Psalm 30:5; Isaiah 1: IS; Isaiah 60:2, 3; 2 Peter 1:19.

• 11. Q. Does the Bible contradict itself?

A. No, not if we use the key to the Bible. The key is this: “In due time”—“rightly divide the word of truth.’’—Proverbs 4:18; 1 Timothy 2:6; 2 Timothy 2:15; 1 Peter 3:15.

• 12. Q. Did one man write the all Bible?

A. No, it was written by many writers. These men lived hundreds of years apart, yet their messages are in perfect harmony. The four Gospels were written by four different men and agree in all substantial parts.

• 13. Q. Who wrote the first five books of the Bible?

A. Moses.

• 14. Q. How many books are in the Bible?

A. Sixty-six.             -

Ye Shall Not Sleep

Sleep on, ye brave, In Flanders Field!

Sleep on nnd rest, where poppies grow and fragrance yield.

Sleep on 'till Satan'.* ryce is ran. And stilled are hatred, greed :uk! gun.

Sleep on, ye dead, where poppies grow

Between the crosses, row on row, -* For Christ has come with us to dwell.

“He Un th the keys to Death and Heil’.

Sleep on. dear hearts.

But not forever Bhatt ye dwell

Tn Hander's Fields, Salth lie, who conquered Death and HeR; Salih He, who doeth all things well.

Ye thcU not sleep where popples blow Between the crosses, row on row.

Nay, out for long.

For that great day, so long foretold. By Sage, and Book, and Prophets old—Is come.

And soon The Christ, the present Christ, Will say. “Come forth, Arise!

Tia Barth's glad Day, God's PutkHm,"

.............. . C¹"                             '                "     ' '

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

Iguazu to be Put to Work

ORTY million dollars are nothing after an orgy of spending in which forty billion was ‘•'blown in" without a thought. And debts no longer disturb anyone, when they run into hundreds of billions.

Forty million is the sum which it is estimated will be necessary to go into debt to put Iguazu to work. Iguazu is to be found about SOO miles from Buenos Ayres on the border between Argentine and Brazil, and is a series of waterfalls, 275 in number, some of which rival the Niagara Falls.

The world searcity of coal is particularly felt in South America, where coal is not abundant; , and the Yankees of the South have long looked forward to the time when the cities, railways ■ and industries of Argentine might get their light, heat and power from Iguazu.

The plan provides.for a two or three-year f building operation, producing 150,000 horsepower at first, and ultimately 300,000. Some of the water power is m Brazil, and that country _: is likely to follow the example sot by Argentine.

One of the greatest treasures a country can have is its waterfalls. That the phenomena which produce these sources of beneficent power are among the treasures of the Almighty may be inferred from the statement that "when he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of rain in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures".—Jeremiah 10:13.

Millions for the Chinese

OR a traveler to fall sick in China prior to the advent of Western civilization meant

that nothing but nature would come to the rescue to get him well. It is getting better, as EciencAtakes the place of superstition, and the American-taught practitioner helps the sick to recovery. •

In this work the Rockefeller Foundation is doing something substantial. Over $2,000,000 have been expended in the establishment of medical ifistitutions to teach the Chinese modern medical practice. Existing medical schools and hospitals have been aided by the Foundation, but the two principal institutions * are the Pekin Union Medical College under j construction, and the Shanghai Medical College, buildings for which are to go up as soon as ' ’ J there is a sufficiency of building materials. ^: '

This is an excellent use of wealth. No lover of humanity would begrudge the millions of . American money flowing to the help of the Chinese. In a way it is owed to them to make . a sort of restitution for the untold damage done . by the long encouragement of opium by "civilized” nations making money out of the viceu j The more millions that can be sent to help people that are worse off than we are, the better; for such manifestations of interest go far toward promoting good feeling between the races.                                  .

This, however, is nothing to the gigantic benefits that will flow to the more backward j > peoples when the Golden Age is fully Ushered i i in. Not miHions, but billions, will.be considered ' the proper thing, when the great motive in the hearts of the people will be, not greedy tat tM. genuine brotherly love that we are assured wilt   - *

prevail throughout the whole world moder the auspices of the better day, about to dawn.

And Still They Lome Ci          ;

TWO boys read of a lucky stone to be found only in swallows* nests. They looked for -the nests on top of a barn, and one of them fell forty feet and was nearly killed.                       .

An autoist was preparing to replace a pane-tured tire, and dropped an inflated tire to the. ' ground. It exploded with such force that it •    '

shattered both his legs.

A big copperhead snake crept into the wooden box that holds the bell at a railroad crossing, and put the bell out of eommissian. A party of antoists drove over the crossing and two were killed. ‘                                 .

On Long Island a storm blew down an elee-trie wire across the road. An army officer passing in his automobile struck the wire and . was instantly killed by the current

In Ohio a naan was assisting the local volunteer fire department to put out a fire. An elec-trie feed wire fell against the hose, and the electric current, passing through the metal nozzle which the man had hold of, killed him ..4 . ,                     *         -                                                              • -r '

GOLDEN AGE CALENDAR

JANUARY 7 TO 20, 1920

insi; 132? A. : cim<? -ince C'eiLc’i; 56$® .Tr.rlsh Ent: 2672 of Romo; 2235 of Grteh •t£ra; 25,0 of •        LVa; 133^ Alufiamuodan Era.; 1441b year of UKieycudcD'..* _yf ?ha United £tuieu.

Ja-very 7. Teti-.iettity                                           t

Cfrrl«UDe’ (.My. Kff’pt. n^s:._k *Vn■’-•*. Smyrna;

Shw ruts :O.-, a. m . _;..et_y 5::;x p. in.: l^ilight begins 5:77 f*.. n..         7 :*J2 p. in. ■ Xcw 'p-k < ; 13't, U.K.

•Suwciue «'?•.•?< ae’jitfreH             Mtrvire a» t convtitu*

t>oos.l: 1819. ;\?ur_Lj_cxo v?Jl »xr io Berlin: Ung'.unJ xnnou2*:to r ^e '.Hi bring Brtujh troops out of Biutea an frQQQ an pc•.•Utt-:.

Jwwy f. ■: •rrtfQ

Hatde-of- ^Ve*v OHcan.-t Day, Louisiana: :?ernn<J

teas Day, Bulgaria. Greece, Koumaaio; 191*1, Uvavtuicton J o* Gallipoli ; TD!j». Hal/ p.'oh’biu cake, confectionery j aod paotr; : »2 A'e'v York scU<w.i« elosart for lack of coal;

7.91O. Allied naUo/i? "jh&CAeu" a: ^ecreiary Daniel's i "STMifc; na»> pruenim: Vunareds killed In Berlte I civil war: Buenos Ayrt.s piLraly-’-u hv general strike; | Uongres»m&u Berger convicted of conspiracy to violate J l^jplonagc Act.

Jttntry ?, Fri-lcy

Third Ch'nsunas Pay. Bulgari*, C*'.minai.i t t£!S. '"e*r T<H< Central Railroad cut« 112 t.miu* to save coal: 1919, The Russian delegation 'Q* ynco?, ’iobi*s tic.', in London ask tor 130.000 Al?led tr-ions to Bob shevt.i.a in sit months; Ne* York Uurbor ; uruiy-ed by strike of 1U.0C0 Uuritor vorkur-.                             ;

January it, Saturday                                     j

1917. Al’led governments state the:'* terms of 9*a<*o;

House paaAfei Federal Woman buuraxe Ameudxeat : i ’379. Omenceau and L!oy«t George "sca-o k yreat *■□••• C9M O" the question o' freedom of the .sens.’’ :»n act that I violated ire bask principle of a herievoiccit Lengre of Natiors; T.-u;:aftburg declared a rupuhil •.. ard ’ eH.r.las ‘ one for hours; National «e»sir;ty r.esgu* x-hher ■varhed t>* <ongre^tonai CoriflD.tioe of ibo c.rn.'g*' of I htrn? 4’rovt>y financed by Wall Street and munition manufacturer;-'.

Jattuery ff. Syndep                                          1

19’3, I'nu-.j •*: oppaeM- to the F.^.ti’h n’nn to F’U •! RuTz-jar. Bolshevist r^gtaie mim recognition, aod

*. rs»;/'r:tl 'Ai'.fte unaoCJ’*'®’ his HAp.Q’.;*¹ of the Frc.’.d’ < jtc Joc :          SparisHdCK eoinyl«:e!r .oitie-f; A cant- -

nfli-n ;•.        tr> “carry the -v*rit vf America, eoncrcieiy ;

to iu alien inhabitants'*.

•^rCK."C-*' tf.

₉ ini v. j'.;:,:       1 ’■ to degrees be!ar- re-o : 1*19. V^rat i

o?' K.:b”?une Cowl) of the Fern's? Conference:

n«4 ‘w!      7.:'‘ ’>.u" charities forced to stop perauso

♦•-a-ruu!.             misr.;annged. or fracduicr.t'* t !.abo.*

Party o^r ?'•- •■ * <'rk prociaiiB-i radical tencu demanding ! •‘greater i'Oetivak economic and industrial uctsocrucy". ;

/cr.t-cry it. 7 ir^.'cy                                                  '

Tsrail The’ v-rjca! holiday, Cfty’oa; 1913. F-anra ’ putr. potitr.i '.r'egrayh ser*h*e matter military control; Former Prors'c* t.’r.inau.T arrtsted fer t^ruton: SonUi • 1;»w vjo-v-. in. .M history, b !□ 71 degrees below ter* ; i Ivlp. T’rcs-’.o •: WUson tay-. “Food !s the key to !’"• frO^ruiio:’ v. ^rBolshe'.’..<’n r.inno» be etop*«ed by Tbv t. b-t :■ .; ” fca stopped by S'-rnx food’: T¹*-t '• ftosH Lu.xemoerg :;-_k-»»tru in Bcr'-n : '.cc \ L;r«;ie»i report thu: it hopes boon La reduce            a-d freight ratfc--

J^nt'orp’ TT.-d.eejrfey

*•>■» 7 ei-- Pay. Da.'COrta. SgypJ.         Roumu'A,

r.u*ie^:n. &-■’-■ '-- Turkey, Sniym.;; Cs⁵ U r irk’¹ .‘c* Uen\v* b^Aj i- Paris ; K1S, As>i33;nauco alterne led

e' Fnrsian Wer’-.e- ’-ry.*: iFie^a-d hn-r *!ihtoen 1a ('kRuro; t.'eiDOcratJC .‘.nuo.-»:< licu-eii apnoluii, ai2«;wy board of ore ro!uxa each        1910, ’nearly

diTe-cnr plans for a I of 'atioer. are pi*epo»e*i, "i'otto e( which endanzur vn- Ajse-ican idcuU*’; yc'.a.’idl hundred killed in Ukraine pegrosu /z.’^ery tj. Titurmicy

IdJS, F. d. NrVo.-kI 'Tr.r T.abcr Board crertad: 1D19, Peace Couucil duvidee upon opea covejutals ;.ecretl.y arrhet' at. and Hr Unh r.nd American Journal:‘U enier vroceM ; Ravo.’uJon begun iu Portugal; Ro'ole Senary wtrike continues ??. Argentine; National Woman** Party cables President v» Usou to coma to aid of b'hderal Woman BuiTnige amendment.

/ow.'tfry f3, "•’i’ey

1918, Fuel AdminUtration orders aanafactsring plants closed froAt Jar.. ?_vs ;o 22. and 9 Moadays toilerlng; HHfi. At ‘.'iicriimetLo. Cuih’., <U X. W. »V.’_y are found guilty of            under the ihnnonuge Act; Saaath

u._ai^5>es diurge u.^r disloyalty against Senator Lafollstte.

^CK'.er^ !?, Sal^rdaif

wrj. The Peace council secrecy rnle is modified ta-oLotv three nMVopuim* cor^teaoBue.-.is at all but executive (secret) Timelines; llurwian BoL»hevlsbi of’er to cease v. (i'ld nro^jaganda if .UHe, will enter peace negotiations v.ltJi tier.}; Dr. Liebknecht and Rosa Luasmburg axe oKoiusinutcd tn Berlin; Withdrawal of American boya froc Ri.srin annoucced to be only a matter of a chert Grrte; French Genera.' Janin to hare supremo eommiod of rd Aided trouts in Ru^ia; the French hir.c huaensa in\esiineaU Ln HurtsiHii         Fear packing rompaaiaa

e -e         to have U>J 7 pror-H cf 385.tt39.OGO against

.*012 profits of sis,713X00; Fort:' mates ratify Federal Frobibluon AnutlaeiL

Jex eery (8, Surrey

rjam Wk.-hl Cay, India: 1918. Cr«rBABy raafinaa c.vlu.w.e ('ghi of Kn>er to make wur er peace; Lloyd Goorgr sa,".> to T^bor. ’‘Vo mu^t either go in or go I'fliie* ^-: C. i. Rn:;-f>a«l Wage Cotmnicslor appointed; iplp, Serrotury Rctfxieid su.-a speedy raULng of cable teu^urjhin u           tor AiEgritaa buiint-3.

Jef.vcry /?, Jfo.'iG’cy

Birthday o? Genera’ Lee ’'outlay. .Mm. **•)?., ’”a., Ga-, N*. ».'„ I.-, c., *<a.: Thmpljuay (FplphaDy) day, BH’gu<n. Greece. noum;uita, Serbia. Turkey ; Epiphany day. Kursin. Sin;. m.: ; 1913. Only the “Big 5“ nations of Gn*ut B.-lutin. I'-mue, U. b’., Italy and Japan may a‘.tc..<t ail l'c;xc Copfcrcfic* session*, but oihera may attend xiior i! ji decided that discussions a.7act them ; Relln-ay ’.V«« Board advises $100,900,000 wage ’aereare for Palestine Restoration I'tinci; Jewish Labor Congress fer raiia-R.v rmpio.re;; <roam£s start to raise $3,000,000 I’otes agates!. Jewish govemmeat in Palestine.

^cr.'iary !t. T-ur^ay

:->cc«)Od u-y a* tlheo'ihar.y. F^'.g'f'n. Rosman!® : St. Jolin t>'! Bvnt:_;<r r*ay.             Vi»de’-?J T*?o. ;bii.0R

Ameuun'-eat eufre.i'.e; 131P. Fo.-’i L’*nfhu-: ;«!»uu ;t»r Russia, aniicd •atcrrertioe. o^engFieai-.g «r((.Re ■■?^,»ev:'.              r ’ n •» e.-.'.inc ’.r TiJiep'. n'i.b

M-’.-.hc. i:.-;            cotenien »u-.'<..ny *..• Leneutt

as independent ’'at.'oe:: Cermna hauor.-.J A«<emb'y elected with :*G0 i-neiullsN and De ^omru* h.;d IM Opposition ; Amr'icur rroopj to can joi .’l.ii'K) mi’a# eiut f-im Ona?k of 'r-axs-'-itx’rlsn ttaii're; u-1 ;rj?;do cA'j a&d esgices Crcia u s C. S.