Ill                             ■                                                                                                                   ..........

Contents of the Golden Age

Labor and Economics IThe Anthracite Settlement

Herrin and the Press......

Mining by Convict Labor . .    

Child Labor Outrage

Big Business In Frisco

“Treasures from the Last Days”

Filling the Bag

Legalized Tactics.......

Rumblings of the Coming Storm ............. 50

Earth's Rightful King .7.........

Conditions in England

Political—Domestic and Foreign Further Items or Cubbent Interest

Speculating with Public Money

World-Wide lawlessness

League of Nations Defied

Mussolini's Brands of Bravery and Anarchy

Wall Street Gobbling Mexico

Transcontinental Air Mail Service .

Agriculture and Husbandry Waste Land—Growing or Fruit

Science and Invention A Lesson in Volcanology

Vesuvius and Pisanello

Etna, Stromboli, Popocatepetl, and VUlarlca

Lassen and Katmal

Celebrated Volcanic Explosions

Religion and Philosophy The Golden Age Prospect (Acrostic)

God Is!

Words or Lite

An Optimistic View

The Bible or the Creeds

Studies in “The Hasp or God*’ .  .  . . k.

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The Golden Age

A Lesson in Volcanology

THE most popular theory regarding volcanoes is that they are gigantic boilers. Into some cave far beneath the earth’s surface a quantity of water finds its way. The cave may have a roof miles in thickness, but its floor is the molten interior of the earth. Steam is generated. The aperture through which the water entered becomes sealed by molten rock pouring into it, by a slight earthquake, or otherwise. The steam gets hotter and hotter. The potential energy of superheated steam confined in the cave at length becomes great enough to force an opening, either the old one or a new one.

When the opening takes place, no one can tell what will issue from the caldron. Steam there may be, a little; but a boiling geyser of molten rock, inconceivably hot, may reveal itself. What issues forth may be so volatile, so superheated, as to turn into dust the moment it comes into contact with the air. The result of a single volcanic eruption may be to change the climate of the whole earth for two years following.

There is a connection of some sort between volcanic activity and rainfall, and the connection seems to work both ways. In a volcanic region a heavy rainfall may cause a quiescent volcano to resume operations; and when the operations are resumed, they may be the cause of unusual quantities of rain over a large area.

It occurs to us, from the evidence at hand, that a few active volcanoes scattered here and there over the earth’s surface, accomplish a good work. They eject quantities of infinitely fine dust into the upper air, and these dust particles become nuclei for raindrops. Quite possibly the renewals of volcanic activity noted within the past two years are a definite part of God’s plan for causing such changes in earth’s climate as will make for a more general watering of the dry places. The latest efforts of scientists for causing rain in dry places have been along the line of ejecting fine dust into the air from airplanes. It would be interesting if it transpires that the Lord is going to do all that is necessary along this line, using volcanoes to do the work.

Vesuvius and Pisanello

WHEN the subject of volcanoes is mentioned the mind instinctively turns to Vesuvius, the world’s best-known volcano, situated in one of the garden spots of the globe, and in a place easy of access. Near the great city of Naples, Italy, an electric railway runs to within 250 yards of the crater, and tourists take the adventurous risk of going not only to the summit but even to a considerable depth within the crater.

Vesuvius has a basal circumference of thirty miles. Its height is 3,800 feet. There is no record that it was active until 63 A. D.> when many surrounding cities were damaged by an earthquake, and subterranean caves were probably created which have been responsible for its frequently recurring activities ever since.

The greatest recorded eruption of Vesuvius was in 79 A. D., when the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii were buried in volcanic ash. The decorations on the walls of Pompeiian houses which have been unearthed reveal a shameless licentiousness and debauchery among its inhabitants.

Near the edge of the Vesuvian crater the Italian government maintains an observatory established for the express purpose of watching volcanic phenomena. The observatory is connected with Naples by telephone. In a time of eruption, some years ago, when the people about the base of the mountain were alarmed for their safety and for the safety of their homes, they were calmed by the reassuring messages which came to them from the edge of the flaming abyss. The volcanologist encouraged the people with reasons to believe that the eruption would do no great damage, and reminded them that volcanic ash is one of the best of plant foods. At the time he sent these messages the observatory was completely hidden from view in smoke and fire.

When Vesuvius was active in 1921, note was taken of the fact that the Spring of the year, especially the month of April, seems to be the favorite time for the beginning of operations. Professor Maladra, the present volcanologist at Vesuvius, attributes the outbreak in the Spring of 1923 to the heavy rains which fell in February of this year. It was a considerable time after the rains before the outbreak occurred. During the interval we may suppose that the volcano was literally getting up steam.

While much of the western coast of Italy gives evidence of volcanic origin, Vesuvius, until 1920, was the only active volcano on the continent of Europe; but in October of that year Mount Pisanello, in the Apuan Alps, near Carrara, also became active.

Etna and Stromboli

MOUNT ETNA, on the island of Sicily, is much larger than Vesuvius and more destructive. Its height is about 10,875 feet. A railway seventy miles in length ascends in spiral form to the summit. Sections of the railway frequently require to be rebuilt

Since the year 476 B. C. eighty eruptions have been recorded. In that of 1169 A. D. 15,000 persons lost their lives; and in that of 1693 A. D. 60,000 persons perished. In the eruption of 1879 molten lava poured from 100 different mouths. Greek mythology mentions Etna repeatedly.

The length of the eruptions varies greatly. That in 1614 lasted ten years, that in 1911 only ten days, while the eruption in 1908 lasted only eight hours. Professor Ottorino Fiore, volcanologist at Etna, predicted that the eruption this year would last two weeks; and his prediction seems to have come true.

The whole slope of Mount Etna is intensively cultivated. Hence every eruption, while it brings more volcanic ash to enrich the soil, also brings destraction in its wake. The one in June of this year destroyed four villages, and made 30,000 people homeless.

It is pathetic and exasperating to read that when the lava stream from Etna was approaching the town of Linguaglossa the parish priest had the inhabitants kneeling bareheaded in front of a statue of "Saint ^Egidius,” offering the saint flowers and lighted candles if he would stop the flow of lava. Natives of an adjoining town halted a procession which was carrying a staff of this particular saint, so that they could stop the lava from reaching their own town; and the police had to separate the' combatants.

The volcanologists had agreed that the lava flow would stop short of Linguaglossa, and it did. But the saint got the credit of stopping it. If the staff and the statue of our friend JEgidius are so effective as lava stoppers, why not take him up in an airplane and shove him off into Etna itself, and thus stop the lava before it gets started 1

The flow of lava in 1923 was slow, but was thirty feet deep, and in places was said to have run up-hilL It was so intensely hot that trees and vegetation burst into flame ninety feet away from the stream. The explosions as the lava reached bodies of water could be heard seventy miles away. Instruments registered 940° temperature. The damage was estimated at one hundred million lives, about $24,000,000.

Unlike the volcanoes that experience intense paroxysms of activity followed by long periods of repose, the volcano of Stromboli, in the Mediterranean Sea north of Sicily, offers an example of continuous activity. Standing alone in the sea, it is visible at night for a hundred miles, its ever-lighted fires tinting the clouds and sky with a rosy glow which has led to its being known as "The Lighthouse of the Mediterranean?’ The lower portions of the mountain are fertile and inhabited.

Popocatapetl and Villarica

POPOCATAPETL in the Aztec language means "smoking mountain.” Its height is 17,783 feet, which is considerably more than that of Mont Blanc; and it was long reckoned the highest mountain in North America. It has since yielded the palm to Mount McKinley, in Alaska, however.

Within the throat of the crater, which is over two miles in circumference, it is estimated that there are 148,000,000 tons of sulphur, the supply of which increases at the rate of one percent annually. In 1904 a New York capitalist purchased the mountain from its Mexican owner for a half-million dollars. From time imme-morial the natives have ascended the mountain to obtain sulphur.

It is nearly six hundred years since Popocatepetl has been on the warpath, although there was a mild eruption in 1802, and there were perceptible vapors above the crater in 1909. For the last three years it has been slowly waking up. In January, 1920, great fissures appeared around the crater, and poisonous vapors arose. In December, 1920, four daring Americans ascended, although the mountain then was in mild eruption. They found that the small lake which formerly filled the center of the crater had disappeared. A year later the volcano was throwing up smoke, fire, and stones that could be seen a hundred miles, accompanied by noises that were as unpleasant as those made by a jazz band. On the sides of the mountain it used to be a favorite sport to sit upon a goatskin and slide 5,000 feet to the base of the snow-line; but in January, 1922, all the snow went off for the first time within memory, disappearing in roaring torrents poured down the arroyas.

About the time Popocatapetl began to awaken, San Miguel, a small supposedly extinct volcano, burst in twain, belching forth ashes, dust and streams of hot water mixed with sulphur gases, killing 200 Mexicans and utterly wasting one of the most fertile valleys in Mexico. The river in the valley disappeared, leaving the land without water.

In May, 1921, after a series of earthquakes in which fifteen mountains dropped, some of them 150 yards, disclosing peaks that had previously been hidden from sight, the top of the snow-capped volcano Villarica blew off, ejecting pumice and ash over one of the most picturesque sections of Chile. During the excitement a river 300 feet wide completely disappeared, and a big lake overflowed its shores.

Lassen and Katmai

ALL America was much interested a few years ago when Mount Lassen, in the southern part of Shasta County, California, became eruptive. The eruption did not amount to much, however. For excitement along this line we have to depend upon the geysers of the Yellowstone. In August, 1922, in that region, a quiet mud pool suddenly began operations and is now the largest geyser in the district, throwing a column of steaming hot mud and rocks three hundred feet into the air.

One of the most tremendous volcanic eruptions in history was that of Mount Katmai, Alaska, in 1912. Prior to that time, Kilauea of Hawaii was considered the largest active crater on earth. Kilauea’s depth is 500 feet; Katihai's depth is 3,700 feet, its width three miles. When Katmai blew up it broke up an area of fifty square miles, from which hot gases and molten material are even now flowing. The column of steam was conspicuous one hundred and fifty miles away.

When the top of the mountain blew off, the force was so great that every part of it was reduced to finest dust The explosion was heard eight hundred miles distant. Two thousand miles away, the fumes tarnished brass; and at that distance, linen hung out on the line to dry was so eaten by the sulphuric-acid content as to fall to pieces on the ironing-board. Four hundred miles away the acid raindrops caused stinging burns wherever they fell on face or hands. Ashes a foot deep fell a hundred miles in all directions, and within the whole area of the ashfall stygian blackness prevailed for sixty hours.

A hole was blown into the ground where Mount Katmai once stood, within which all the buildings of Greater New York might be placed fifteen times over. During the ashfall the darkness was such that a lantern could not be seen at arm’s length. No lives were lost, however. The district is virtually uninhabited, and there was sufficient warning to enable those in danger to escape.

Dust from the volcano fell 1,500 miles away. Government officials made careful estimates which showed that six and a quarter cubic miles of earth were ejected by the eruption. The fine dust carried into the upper atmosphere formed a haze which so reduced the intensity of sunshine as to cause the cold Summer of 1912 throughout the northern hemisphere. All great volcanic explosions have been followed by pronounced drops in temperature, the world over. During that Summer, the dust veil interfered with the work of the astronomical laboratories and, it is estimated, absorbed ten percent of the sun's heat.

The millions of cubic feet of carbon dioxide given off by the explosion constitute food for plant life, and are an indispensable basis from which all human foods are built up.

Kilauea and Mauna Loa

KILAUEA (Hawaii), "the world’s safest volcano,” is almost as well known as Vesuvius.

The crater covers an area of 2,700 acres, and is eight miles in circumference. In the center of the crater is a lake of boiling lava 1,000 feet in diameter. There is a good automobile road leading almost to its edge. This is made possible because the walls of the crater have been broken down on one side.

A writer in the Chicago Evening Post, describing a visit into the crater of Kilauea, says:

“A descent into the crater of Kilauea lends a certain, awful majesty to fear. Despite the assurance of one's guide that ‘there’s no danger K one can scarcely suppress the desire to scream with terror as he makes his way over the shaking floors of scarce-cooled lava, with unnamed horrors beneath; past redhot rocks and hissing vents; across yawning abysses to the very brink of creation! Man, in the face of this manifestation of mightiness, is small beyond qH expression, a mere dot or cipher in the eternal scheme of world construction and destruction.”

Prof. T. A. Jaggar, Jr., the Government volcanologist at Kilauea, is making a careful study of volcanoes and earthquakes. The Hawaiian Islands are a good place to conduct such a study. Of the several active volcanoes there, Kilauea is most favorable for study on^account of the broken crater. At a favorable place in the crater rim a doorway is being cut which will enable scientific investigations to be carried on much closer to the volcanic fires than is possible elsewhere. In the lava lake of Kilauea the surface rises and falls with the tides of the sea, the movement ranging from one to four feet.

The three greatest active volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands are not located upon the island where Honolulu is situated, but a hundred and fifty miles to the east on the island of Hawaii, the largest of the group. Kilauea is 4,040 feet high; Mauna Kea is 13,805 feet high, and is the loftiest peak in the Pacific Ocean. Mauna Loa is 13,675 feet high and at times maintains a lava river 300 feet high. It is estimated that this lava stream travels from the mountain top to the ocean in one hour, a distance of twenty miles.

On the island of Maui, the crater of the extinct Haleakala, 10,082 feet above the sea, is unusually well preserved. On the island of Oahu the extinct crater of Palola is used as a reservoir by the city of Honolulu. The volcanic fires of Kilauea have limitless possibilities for supplying light and power.

Celebrated Volcanic Explosions

MONG the noteworthy volcanic explosions of history is the eruption of Asama-Yama,

Japan, in 1783. Rocks flew in all directions, one of which, measuring 264 feet by 120 feet, fell into a river and formed an island. So much dust was ejected by this explosion that a dry fog covered the entire earth for months, greatly reducing the temperature. The sun was invisible for some time after rising and before setting.

In 1815 Tomboro, in the East Indies, exploded, ejecting fifty cubic miles of earth into the air. This was the greatest volcanic explosion ever known. At a distance of 850 miles, volcanic ash fell to a depth of two feet. The next year, 1816, is known as the year without a Summer, due to the interception of the sun's rays by the dust which still persisted in the air.

In 1883 Krakatoa, another East Indian volcano, exploded, ejecting three and two-tenths cubic miles of material into the air. This explosion although only half as great as Katmai was much more violent. The dust particles were blown so high that it required two years for them to settle down to the level of the highest clouds. The explosion was heard at a point 2,968 miles distant, where it sounded like the distant roar of heavy guns. Barometers showed that the air wave circled the globe seven times before it became too faint to be detected. Two years after the eruption, there was still a twelve percent loss in the sun’s power, due to the dust yet remaining aloft.                    i

It is self-evident that in volcanic eruptions alone the Almighty has in His power a force with which He can change the climate of the whole or any portion of the earth at wilL How. puny is man! "

Items of Current Interest

The Anthracite Settlement

ONE more crisis in the anthracite coal indus

try came to an end at Harrisburg, when Governor Pinchot, early in September, succeeded in bringing about a two-year truce between the miners and the operators. There are only 310 anthracite mines, all of them in the northeastern part of the one state of Pennsylvania; yet they supply fuel to one-half of all the homes in the United States. Their stoppage, even for a day, means the withdrawal from market of about a thousand tons for each mine, and the enforced idleness of an imaginary freight train forty miles long, with all its engines and cabooses. The stoppage this year was for twenty days; hence the train was eight hundred miles long before it got under way.

That a cessation in the production of anthracite coal amounts in effect to the murder of thousands of persons was brought out by Governor Pinchot in his statement that during the months of January, February, and March, 1923, in the state of Pennsylvania alone, there were six thousand more deaths than in the same three months of 1922. In the period first named there Was a coal shortage, while in the other period coal was plentiful.

By as clever a political move as was ever made in America, the federal Government shifted the responsibility from the national administration at Washington to the state administration at Harrisburg. Had Governor Pinchot failed to bring about a settlement, the national administration could have evaded some measure of blame; and as Pennsylvania is a Republican state the Republican party would supposedly have Buffered little.

Had Governor Pinchot failed to bring a settlement by agreement, he could still have tried to put into operation in Pennsylvania some kind of compulsory work plan, which would perhaps have operated the mines under a sort of glorified peonage system. The Republican party could then have claimed for putting this power into Mr. Pinchot’s hands such glory as would have been advisable under the circumstances. Where such a move was popular, the party could have claimed credit for it; where it was unpopular, Mr. Pinchot could have been blamed tor it. We understand that the Courts, and prop

io

would like to see the miners get enough so that they can live in decency and comfort. The anthracite miners are not overpaid. Many mines are worked on a contract basis, the contractor receiving all that is paid in excess of a living wage. There are miners in Scranton who, because of this, travel long distances back and forth to their work in other districts, so that they may escape'the lower wages and inferior working conditions of Scranton itself.

Miners living in Scranton who have averaged $6.50 per day elsewhere claim that in Scranton, under the conditions that have obtained, $4.50 would have been about the best they could have done. $4.50 a day, at present prices, is not much to receive for risking your life every day, working in the dark, in the wet, in the grime, in the gas, and in a place where there are no toilet facilities. Some of the old mine workings, because of the latter sanitary item, are places which no man would enter but for necessity of gaining a livelihood. Probably the operators would say that the miners would not use the toilets if they were provided; but perhaps they are mistaken.

A thing which in the minds of Scranton residents has created a bad impression of the honesty of operators is that formerly there were great mountains of culm, millions of tons of coal waste, for which the miners never received a cent. Honest people were glad, rather than sorry, when they saw the operators washing this culm and selling every particle of coal which it contained, even down to the size of rice; but they are not glad, and they are not happy now, when they see these operators deliberately mixing the black and worthless rock that remains with freshly-mined coal and sending it all over the country to sell at $10 to $20 per ton to honest people. The thing is being done openly, with nobody sufficiently interested in the welfare of the people to intervene.

Governor Pinchot urged upon President Coolidge that the findings of the United States coal commission on profits and costs in mine operation and in wholesale and retail distribution should be made public in great detail at once. He also suggests turning on anew full light on the rates charged for the transportation of anthracite coal with a view to their reduction. These suggestions are timely.

Herrin and the Press

THE coal commission has already published some interesting and indeed remarkable findings. One of these is in respect to the scenes of horror in Herrin, Illinois, where twenty-six non-union miners were murdered and no punishment for the crimes could be obtained, even though six of the non-union men were marched through the paved streets of the city on the way to the cemetery where they were executed, and the population knew about it and witnessed the tragedy.

For this state of affairs the commission blames the labor-hating public press in the following language:

"Nobody can tell how much this had to do with the failure to punish the members of the mob. It was the storm of protest that swept through the public press of this country. It was the condemnation of the union, the union officials and the public officers. It presented the common aspect of a stranger interfering in a family row. The commission, of course, cannot say what might have been the result if public opinion had waited until the courts had either attempted or refused to discharge their duty. But the whole economic life of the county puts it beyond peradventure that when an indiscriminate assault on the union and the people of the county was made it rendered the punishment of anybody impossible in that county ”

Mining by Convict Labor

TN THE states of Alabama and Tennessee, the Steel Trust and three other mining concerns manage to prevent coal strikes by hiring the convicts of those states to work their mines. These convicts can avoid flogging by producing one ton of coal per day the first month, two the second month, three the third month, and four tons per day the fourth month.

After they have produced four tons per day they may work the remainder of the time until quitting time and receive the same wages for excess coal produced as is paid to free men for the same work. They earn considerable money in this way. The state physician determines which men may be relieved of the responsibility of working underground.

Formerly these convicts slept in bunks two high, and no heed was paid to the question of cleanliness. Now, in Alabama, they must bathe after coming out of the mines, and they do not have to sleep in their working clothes, as was once the case, and as still is the case with the convicts working on the roads.

Child Labor Outrage

IN A few more months it will be just a hundred years since the tailoresses of New York city organized the first woman’s labor union. Since then women’s labor unions have abolished the sweat-shop in the clothing industry. Women and men workers still have much to do before ideal labor conditions will have come.

In Mississippi more than one-fourth of all the children ten to fifteen years of age are at work; Rhode Island works one-eighth of its children; California, Washington and Oregon work only three percent of them. But in the United States as a whole there are more than a million of these little folks at work. Congress has twice tried to prevent this child labor, but in both instances the Supreme Court held that the laws were unconstitutional.

Since the Supreme Court made its last decision that Congress cannot legally prohibit or limit child labor, the slavery of American children has been on the increase. Recently the Department of Labor discovered nearly a thousand of them in Newark and Jersey City engaged in what amounts to work under sweatshop wages and conditions. In Waterbury, Connecticut, because of this ruling, there are eight times as many child workers as a year ago. Tuberculosis is common among child workers.

Since the Supreme Court made its last decision a frail girl of ten years, tubercular, was found in Jersey, hard at work making rompers for talking dolls. She had but recently been operated upon to remove a needle which she had swallowed while at work. One of the standard jobs for such little folks is the linking and wiring of rosary beads. Which is right under the circumstances, Hail Mary, or Bloody Mary? The pay runs from four or five to as high as ten cents an hour. It thus appears that by working hard all day these little folks could possibly earn the price of one meal in the cheapest and dirtiest of restaurants.

There are 1,350 children working in the shrimp canneries on the Gulf Coast. The flesh of their hands becomes raw and sore from the shrimp acid and from shrimp thorns run into their hands. One little girl reported that she used twenty-five cents worth of alum per week in order to keep her hands in such condition that She could continue her work. In the beetfields of Michigan and Colorado the children get so fatigued that they weep and moan and are unable to eat.

Supreme Court and People

HE Supreme Court and the people of Amer-ica are in a predicament An examination of the proceedings of the convention which framed the American Constitution shows that the convention never contemplated that the Supreme Court should have the power to nullify acts of Congress.

This prerogative has been usurped, and it‘is believed that the usurpation could be ended by an act of Congress demanding that it should end, and instructing the President to carry out the decrees of Congress in this regard. Constitutional amendments have also been proposed to accomplish the same ends; but they are harder to procure, and slower.

Judge Ford, of the New York Supreme Court, in an article in the New York American, declared that "courts are the ‘Hindenburg line* of intrenched plutocracy,” and quoted Thomas Jefferson on the courts as a "subtle corps of sappers and minprs working underground to undermine foundations of government as formed under the Constitution.”

He quotes President Jackson as having said that “it is as much the duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the President to decide upon the constitutionality of any bill as it is of the Supreme judges.”

Shorter Hours and Cooperation

HE American Rolling Mill Company, Middletown, Ohio, reports that in various departments in their business, in which the eighthour day was substituted for the'twelve-hour day, the men are in better condition physically and mentally and seem to be much happier and of more value to their homes and to the community at large; also that in the one depart-'ment where the men were lukewarm about the change before it was made, they are now delighted with the change and have been able to add sufficient bonus to their guaranteed wage to earn almost as much in eight hours as they formerly did in twelve. In other words, by considerate treatment their efficiency has been increased.

The makers of Ivory Soap now guarantee their employes full pay for full-time work for at least forty-eight weeks a year; they have a profit-sharing plan, pensions, life insurance and employe representation. All these blessings will come to the employes of the Steel Trust some time, and they will be still happier than they are now. The old idea of big business that the only way to happiness is to make big profits, no matter how the men fare, is one of the greatest mistakes ever made.

The people as a whole are entitled to a large and ever larger share in the industries and their profits. As the inventions of the past become the tools of today, they should come more and more under the control of those who will use them for the benefit of the people. The largest number of people that each employer can benefit in a large way is his own employes,

Biff Business in Frisco

TN SAN FRANCISCO the banks are squeez-ing the labor unions through the contractors.

The contractor must employ non-union men or such men as the banks permit him to employ, or he can get no material of any sort—cement, brick, lumber, plaster, rock, iron, steel, lime, anything.

The banks carry on this scheme through an Industrial Commission, so-called, which virtually every business man in the city has been compelled to join, and which is busily engaged in teaching the building trades to youths in the briefest time possible.

These quickly-taugfit youths are being used to swell the ranks of labor and to break the monopoly which master plumbers and others have maintained for years. The labor unions have appealed to the federal government to investigate the situation.

San Francisco probably got its idea from the similar organization of banks, newspapers, and business men in Los Angeles, called the Merchants and Manufacturers Association. This 'Association has succeeded in making Los Angeles an open-shop town to such an extent that there has not been a successful strike in the city in fifteen years.

The Association claims that this has had most to do with the extraordinary growth which Los Angeles has had in that time. Practically all the employers in the city are under an agreement not to sign any contract with their men or to deal with any union. This makes the employers absolute dictators.

Los Angeles is not an industrial city; its residents are principally from the East, small business men that have made some money and have sought Los Angeles for a home; hence the ease with which the Association’s program has been carried through.

Every employee that gets blacklisted by the Association's secret service force may as well leave Los Angeles; for he cannot find work there. Whenever there is a Strike the Association sends to Kansas City or Chicago and brings in all the help needed to take the strikers' places.

Profiteering-Pauperism and Taxes

ERHAPS the most patriotic class of people in the country is big business, if we let them tell it. They are the first to shout for war, if there is to be a war, though they never go to war themselves, if they can help it Business il so good during war times, and there is such an opportunity to make millions, that they cannot get away from their “essential industries.^,<' So they stay at home and work for the Government for a dollar a year and for themselves at a million dollars a year.

But when the war is over, and the boys that were to die are moldering to dust, big business is not so patriotic. We do not have reference to the Bonus Bill now, but to the fact, admitted by all the Government experts in the income tax service, that they have constantly to watch their wealthy contributors.

Business was good in 1922; there was a surplus on June 30, 1923, of $300,000,000, instead of the predicted deficit of $823,000,000; but the internal revenue fell off until it was less than half that of 1920. Moreover, in 1923 there were refunds of $123,992,820 collected as income tax in previous years. The New York World says that “every now and then some expert drops out of the Internal Revenue Department and becomes miraculously rich as a professional adjuster of cases.” What a field for clever lawyers!

Speculating with Public Money

ENERAL WOOD reports that business in the Philippines has been bad, and that the government bank there has made so many bad investments that if it were a private institution it would be closed. The bank invested in sugar, oil and coal businesses, none of which was profitable to the government No doubt somebody else has reaped or will reap a reward from these investments after the government retires from them. That is the way it generally works. It seems next to impossible to find those who will work as hard for the people as they will for their own pockets.

General Wood says of the management of the National Bank investments:

“They were carried out without regard to sound business principles and oftentimes without investigation, Moneys were advanced without proper security and the affairs of the bank conducted with disregard of sound business methods and at times with disregard to the rules of common honesty.”

Thus do we teach the untutored Filipinos how to govern themselves.

The General says that "the huge investments in the sugar industry in certain provinces have resulted in benefits to a comparatively small number of people.” That is the way things go everywhere. That is one of the principal reasons why the desire of all nations is for Christ's kingdom, so that the benefits will flow forth to all the people equitably and not to a favored few who happen to be personal friends of those in power.

The ex-president of the bank and three other ex-officials are now in jail, thinking it over. No doubt in the end they will want Christ's kingdom, the same as those who suffered through their misguided attempts at sudden riches.

The Divorce Evil

IN AMERICA any man or woman who tires of his life partner may run away to another state, perhaps two to three thousand miles away, gain a residence, and after a little time bring suit for divorce against the deserted mate on the ground of desertion or abandonment, with a fair chance of success. The federal government has interfered during recent years in so many things with which it had no proper right to interfere that it seems to us here is one thing in which it might interfere, so that men of little or no principle might at least find it harder to abandon the helpless victims of their perfidy.

SIR AUCKLAND GEDDES told the graduates of George Washington University that he doubted if ever before in history was the future for so many nations and so many individuals as dark as it is today. Without a doubt he is right. He holds that there are three essentials of civilization: Beauty (the maintenance of cleanliness, order and comfort) ; service (the desire to assist others, regardless of who they are); and truth (unwillingness to participate in or to profit by anything that is not right). These and other similar expressions stamp Sir Auckland as a great man.

THE International Police Congress held its 1923 session in Vienna. It seeks to bring about closer cooperation of all police institutions to stem the tide of criminality which grew out of the World War. The task of police officers is becoming ever more difficult. The criminal of a generation ago traveled on foot; the modern criminal travels in a high-powered car. The policeman of a little time ago swung a dub; today his gun is in plain sight, ready for instant use.

Vienna was the scene of an anarchistic attempt to kill Judge Rutherford a year ago. The city at that time was under the control of Roman Catholic authorities. In the great concourse in which the anarchistic onslaught was made there was not a policeman on hand, though the meeting was one of the greatest ever held in Vienna. We wonder whose power it was that kept the police away from that meeting, and whose power it was that incited the riot.

TULSA, Oklahoma, is a town which often figures in Ampri can despatches as a place where mobs are frequent and where regard for the law is at a low ebb. Tulsa was the scene in 1918 of several attacks by officers of the law upon unoffending Bible Students; later it was the scene of a terrible race riot in which large numbers of innocent Negroes were slain.

Now it is in such evil state that the Governor of Oklahoma has been forced to suspend the state constitution in Tulsa County and to place the whole county under martial law, with a view to breaking up the mob violence and floggings which in recent years have given Oklahoma, and especially Tulsa, such a bad name.

ANOTHER center of lawlessness in America is Georgia, where it is usually directed against the Negroes. Of late it has turned against the whites in the city of Macon, several men having been flogged, one of them so ill with tuberculosis that his life is despaired of. The flogged men are given thirty-six hours to leave town or be slain.

One of the men warned of a forthcoming flogging is a lieutenant of police of Macon, who has promised that there will be some sudden deaths in Macon when his turn comes.

DISTRICT Attorney Banton of New York City is about to begin an investigation respecting the employment of professional gunmen by Union officials and employers. He is authority for the statement that “it is a common practice, when trouble breaks out between employers and unions, for somebody on one side or the other to employ gunmen against the other side” One of these gunmen was recently killed by an opposition gunman while he was in the company of a detective at one of the police courts.

NEW YORK and Brooklyn each had an Italian mob on September 3rd, crazed because the police would not permit them to parade the streets with statues of Saint Rosalia. Forbidden by the police they rushed to a rectory in Brooklyn, calling out to the priest, “You have more power than the police. If you give us the order, the police will let us parade.”

As far as carrying Saint Rosalia in the parade is concerned, a bundle of rags would have been every bit as effective; and as far as the priests actual power in this country is concerned, it is on a par with that of Saint Rosalia. These Italians have the idea that they are still in Sicily. They have something to learn.

IT SEEMS unfortunate that it is so, but the way the law stands only 300 Australians can come to the United States each year to settle, but 30,000 Italians can come. We have nothing against the Italians; they are industrious and honest and make good Americans, but they have to learn our language and to forget a lot of nonsense about what Saint Rosalia and other saints can do for them. But the Australians are not thus handicapped. Moreover, and that is the unhappy part of it, the Australians do not like the situation in which they find themselves. They threaten a graduated embargo on American goods, which they consume in large quantities, as a partial offset.

Moreover, some Australians like a nip of “firewater'’ at their meals and they do not like to have their ships sail dry all the way from Vancouver to Sydney merely because they touch at the Hawaiian Islands enroute. But they might as well learn to get along without the liquor now; for the prospects are that they will have to do so when the Lord’s kingdom is in full control And that will not be long now.

League of Nations Defied

S THE World War grew out of the assassination of an Austrian archduke, so another and greater and final conflict may arise from the assassination of the Italian officers serving on the Albanian Border Commission. Italy seeks expansion east of the Adriatic Sea. Largely to please her, a mythical country of Albania, adjoining Greece on the Adriatic, has been in process of formation, or attempted formation, for some ten years.

Greece and Italy were attempting to definitely fix the borders of this supposedly independent Mussulman state; their interests conflicted; the Italian delegates were suddenly killed; Italy blamed Greece and issued a twenty-four-hour and then a five-hour ultimatum imposing such severe conditions as would be hard for any country to accept.

Greece accepted most of the conditions, but sought modification of others, whereupon Italy seized the unfortified island of Corfu (forty miles long, population 225,000), the key to the Adriatic Sea, and killed fifteen, and wounded fifty Armenian orphan refugees housed in an old fort, in a bombardment that was unresisted and entirely unnecessary. Other islands in the vicinity have been seized since.

Italy refused to pay any attention to her treaty obligations covered by Articles 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the League of Nations Covenant, and the League, that monument of hypocrisy, did not, as required, “sever all trade and financial relations and prevent all intercourse between their own nationals .and those of the offending state and between that state and the nationals of any other state, whether a member of the League or not.”

It thus becomes once more apparent that the strong members of the League pay no attention to their League obligations, and that the League itself does nothing to back up its own obligations. In other words, the League is as though it were not Greece and Italy are both League members.

It was as inter-allied officials, acting under the direction of the Council of Ambassadors, representatives of the Supreme Allied Council of the League, and not as officers of their country, that the Italian officers were serving on the Albanian border commission. They were three miles over the border into Grecian territory ■when slain, but had a right to be there. The nationality of the assassins, or the cause of the assassination, is unknown.

Mussolini** Brand of Bravery

IN REFUSING to recognize the League of Nations, and in precipitately murdering the fifteen child refugees at Corfu, the government of the anarchist premier of Italy, Mussolini, has done as might have been expected of it Even the New York Times, which apparently approved Mussolini’s ruthless destruction of Italian liberties, says that "the reviver of Roman imperialism ought to be reminded that Cfesar, though not wholly blameless in his public life, never assaulted a cripple."

Mussolini is absolutely heartless, or he would remember that Greece is exhausted from a disastrous war, is bankrupt, and is struggling to continue the support of a million refugees hitherto largely accomplished by American aid. He wanted over $2,000,000 indemnity, all of which, if paid, would in effect be food taken from the mouths of refugees.

As excuses for the violence at Corfu, Italy points to the American occupation of Vera Cruz; and for her virtual ignoring of the League of Nations she points to similar violations of the League’s wishes by France in the Ruhr, by Poland in Vilna and by Yugoslavia. Britain occupied Corfu, against the wishes of its inhabitants, for a full half century upto 1864.

Oddly enough, a month before the Italian forces occupied Corfu an Italian warship visited the island, and squads of Italian marines. covered every part of the forty-two miles length of the island on foot, while their officers scoured the roads by automobile. Possession of Corfu by Italy makes the Adriatic Sea an Italian lake.

Mussolini has definitely decided that Italy shall withdraw from the League of Nations if that august body tries to see that justice is done to Greece. Greece appealed to the League for relief, but in vain. The only excuse for the existence of the League is to protect and help the weak nations when they are oppressed by the stronger.

Mussolini’s Brand of Anarchy

AT KANSAS CITY, Mo., on the 31st of August, a federation of liberty-loving Italo-Americans very properly adopted resolutions denouncing the effort to transplant to America the Mussolini brand of anarchy. We quote their resolution:

"The Fascist! dictatorship in Italy has completely destroyed constitutional government and has outlawed all labor unions and labor political parties that do not subscribe to its nefarious creed, wantonly and traitorously murdering thousands of men, women and children, and imprisoning in filthy medieval dungeons over 60,000 men and women without charge or indictments.”

Mussolini is an ardent Roman Catholicfand covets and receives the support of the papal system in his efforts to spread his brand of anarchy throughout the world. Fascism© is growing in every Roman Catholic country. Afi the Roman Catholic church has never hesitated to’support war where it thought that it might possibly gain something thereby, so now it is ready even to support a brand of anarchy with the same end in view.

Perth Amboy, N. J., is a strong Roman Catholic town. Recently the citizens of this town, some of them, beat and stoned knights of the Ku Klux Klan engaged in the innocent pastime of parading streets which as long as they behaved themselves they had as much right to parade as anybody.

The Klan thereupon demanded the protection of the law, a thing to which they were entitled, and which should have been theirs without demand. Klansmen have been attacked recently in Binghamton and in Steubenville, and one was killed in Pittsburgh.

We are not Klansmen, but we demand for Klansmen all the rights in this country that Roman Catholics and others enjoy. In Perth Amboy within recent years priests have incited mobs to break up free Bible lectures which contained nothing offensive to any truth-loving person.

We are tired of seeing the Roman Catholic fifteen percent of the population of this country trying to control the other eighty-five percent by every means in their power, politically and legally, and then resorting to anarchy when they cannot gain their ends in any other way.

We cannot but fear what will happen to the fifteen percent if many of the eighty-five percent turn into Klansmen; and from reports which reach us it seems not unlikely that something of the sort is on the way. The Klan limits its membership to native-born Protestanta.

Wall Street Gobbling Mexico

FROM the assassination of Carranza, in May, 1920, to August 31,1923, the United States Government did not recognize the Government of Mexico, although Mexico has had an orderly government during all that time. The difficulties which have kept the two countries apart have been of a financial nature.

As soon as the New York financiers could properly get their hands on Mexican income there was no difficulty in arranging recognition. This has now been accomplished and a boom in Mexican securities follows as a matter of course.

Mexico is a treasure house, one of the greatest stores of natural wealth on earth, and hence a goal of high finance. There is a saying in Mexico that Mexico can produce anything from a pine tree to a pineapple.

Mexico is today the only country in the world that is on a strictly metallic basis, only gold and silver money being in circulation. Up until now Mexico has had no “national bank of issue,” and the people have known nothing about paper money.

Wait a little; and you can be confident that when the new "national bank of issue" planned by the New York financiers has gotten into operation there will be lots of beautiful printed money afloat in Mexico, and a good share of the gold and silver now there will be under the control of the Wall Street wizards.

Transcontinental Air Mail Service

OR some time now the United States postoffice department has maintained air mail service between New York and San Francisco, the flying taking place only in the day time. The rate of postage is twenty-four cents for each half ounce. The equivalent of a thousand trips across the continent has been made without a fatality.

On August 21-24, after sixteen months’ preparation, all-night flying was inaugurated on a plan which enables the mail plane to leave New York at noon, and arrive at San Francisco the next evening. Chicago is reached the first evening, Omaha at midnight, Cheyenne at daybreak, Salt Lake City at noon. The route is via Bellefonte, Cleveland, Bryan, Chicago, Iowa City, Omaha, North Platte, Cheyenne, Rawlins, Rock Springs, Salt Lake City, Elko, and Reno.

The all-night service was maintained four days, after the airway course between Chicago and Cheyenne had been carefully laid out, lights and signals set, emergency fields located and supplies distributed. After the results have been carefully analyzed the all-night service will be maintained for a month, and then again carefully analyzed. In time a reasonably regular all-night service will no doubt be maintained It staggers the imagination to think of leaving New York at noon and landing in San Francisco the next evening.

THE ZR-1, 962 feet long, weight 75,000 pounds, Uncle Sam’s largest dirigible, completed her trial trip of thirty miles, September 14, the next day thrilling the inhabitants of New York and Brooklyn, then turning her nose toward Philadelphia, going at a speed of a mile a minute as gracefully as a soaring eagle. The crew consists of nine officers and twenty-two petty officers. With four of her six engines going she made a trial speed, while traveling with the wind, of forty miles an hour.

ANOTHER cantilever bridge 207 feet in height, is in process of construction across the gorge where the Niagara River rushes at the rate of twenty-three miles per hour toward the whirlpool. The excavations for the new bridge abutments are being made by the aid of a gigantic steam shovel that was lowered over the edge of the cliff. The earth and rock from the excavations are being dumped into the river, which carries them away as though they were so much sawdust.

The first time the Niagara gorge was spanned was by a New York boy named Homan Walsh, about seventy-five years ago. After eight days of effort he succeeded in flying a kite from bank to bank. The kite string was used to haul a heavier line and subsequently a cable. Passengers were carried in an iron basket on the cable for several years.

Other cables were added; then came sidewalks and at length a railway bridge, over which the first locomotive crossed March 8, 1855. For many years this bridge, the old Suspension Bridge, was the only bridge across the river. It was replaced in 1897 by a steel arch bridge, and there are now two other bridges across the chasm, besides a cable basket over the whirlpool

“Treasures for the Last Days” By Victor Schmidt

FROM Croesus to this day the idle rich have filled their coffers with the wages of the common people. The toiling masses have labored for, fought for, and died for these oppressors. The hardy Lydians were forced to work in tribute mines and upon the banks of the Pactolus that Croesus might become the rich man of the ancients. After their ruler was defeated by Cyrus they were absorbed as part of the Persian Empire, and this was a cruel yoke. The greedy satraps under Cyrus placed an almost unbearable system of taxation upon the subjects. The best men physically were called into the army to fight for the king, so that all lands from the Indies to the Hellespont did obeisance to the mighty Cyrus. But too greedy, he broke the spirit of his people. The masses became disheartened by years of servitude and oppression. An unjust war was waged against the Massagetee; a battle was lost, and the king was killed.

As Cyrus did, bo many rulers since

Have crushed the very souls that bore them up.

The hoplites of the Grecian army were culled from the laboring masses and were forced to spill their blood that riches might be heaped up for their king. Phalanx after phalanx was sacrificed upon the battlefield before the Greeks became disheartened and disgusted with their rulers. The ruddy-faced plebeians of the Tiber also were zealous in collecting talents for the Csesars, and almost every sea and river of Europe *drank the blood of Roman stock that the coffers might be filled. But these hoodwinked Romans also woke up one day to the fact that they were fighting for the wrong king, and they stopped fighting.

We cannot overlook the noble and commendable spirit of loyalty in the hearts of these people to their kings, and that spirit lasted as long as they put confidence in their rulers as public benefactors. Time and again, however, history has revealed that their rulers, with few exceptions, were their oppressors. Those who would rule well have been forced to beat their swords and shields in music to the tune of proteges. The people, lulled -to sleep by this strange music, have been tramped upon and almost crushed. At times they woke up and have wreaked a frightful vengeance upon their overlords, only to be shifted from one yoke to another. In desperation they sought one king, then another, but often found themselves tossed from the hands of an autocrat into the daws of a despot

Oh, for a king of the people I

The masses were unable to extricate themselves from bondage, and the drama of oppression went on. The proletariat of France were almost overwhelmed by the heavy exactions of Louis XVL Under him were about a quarter of a million favored nobles and clergy. They owned half of the soil of France, the castles, chateaux, and buildings of note. They squeezed out of the peasants three-fourths of what they earned. Such an exacting system of revenue was imposed that one could not pass over a road with a sack of grain without paying toll The peasants in the rural districts at timea lived on bread made of ground acorns, bark and bran. The working people, pitiable dumps of tattered rags and despair, were huddled together in cellars and dingy rooms which literally stank. Twenty-three million squalor-stricken, threadbare, starving wretches were having their souls ground down to support a handful of sluggards in luxury. But the question is, Did they wake up! They did. As in a nightmare they rose up like madmen; seizing clubs and flails they slew the oppressing nobility and clergy, set on fire the chateaux of their former landlords, and hurried the king and the queen off to the scaffold. The conflagration spread and in a very short time all Europe was in the throes of bloodshed.

Let no one casually read of the French Revolution; for that was but a side-show to the one that is sure to come, if our leaders—preachers, financiers, and law-making bodies—do not "right about face” and serve the interests of our common humanity instead of trying to reestablish normalcy in feathering their own nests; for they all should be the servants of the people. 'At no time in past history has there been such wide oppression of the people. The burdens placed upon the backs of the poor are far greater than at any other time. Far more people are involved to intensify the final cataclysm. The people will stand oppression until their lives and their dear ones are in jeopardy. Even then, at times, they resign themselves to the lot of death, when not confident in their ability to extricate themselves; but this is not the case when tens of millions are pitted against a paltry few. Armies spring up in a single night,' weapons of all kinds are seized in an instant, and they run like madmen to their prey.

Filling the Bag .

THE Great War served the money kings of the world well to tighten the bonds of servitude upon the already hungry masses. And not. satisfied as yet, they seem determined to perpetrate their project until the people have been drained. A few figures will serve to show how the profits of big business have increased by leaps and bounds. The following concerns exceeded their profits over previous years by the amounts named:

American Woolen Company_____316% over 1914

American Ice Company________393% over 1914

American Fruit Company 547% over 1914

May Department Stores________174% over 1915

Pacific Mills (Flour)____________218% over 1915

Manhattan Shirt Company______275% over 1915

Endicott-Johnson (Shoes) ——353% over 1915

Corn Products Refinery________	639% over 1915
Burns Brothers (Oil)       -	_ 72% over 1916
American Linseed Company____	.780% over 1916
Amoskeag Mfg. Co. (Kinen)—.	.811% over 1917
Cluett, Peabody Co. (Collars)—	-175% over 1918
In 1919 the worker received 4.7 % of the price

on each yard of blue denim produced, while the mill owner received 24.74% of the price on the same yard as his profit The wages of the workers in denim could have been doubled in 1919, and still the manufacturers’ profits would have been double the percent received by the workers. In another industry, the canning of corn, the labor cost increased 22% between 1918 and 1919, but the canners’ profit increased 256%. Also in the iron industry, the labor cost of making a ton of iron increased from forty cents to eighty-six cents; but the price of the iron itself rose from $15 to $30 per ton from 1916 to 1919.

The super-profits of big business per annum from 1916 onward have been approximately $4,800,000,000 per annum. The workers during the same period of time lost each year in wages because of the deterioration of the dollar $4,717,440,000, or nearly the exact amount of the profits of the corporations.

The companies listed below in 1922 voted the corresponding stock dividends:

The Brown & Sharp Mfg. Co__16,000%

The Davis A Brown Woolen Co 3,233%

The Wanskunk Co. (Worsted Goods)___ 1,500%

The Atlantic Refining Co. (Standard Oil) 900%

The Denver Dry Goods Co 900%

This means that for every dollar invested in the Brown & Sharp Manufacturing Company there is a return of $160; and a corresponding return for the percentage named after each company. There are no figures in the category of history that will in any way compare with these gouging dividends of modern money kings. Are our homes any safer now than before the days of the war scare! No! On the other hand millions of American people on account of maladjustments have been forced to mortgage their homes; and the sins of these wealthy men are overlooked; public bandits operate under the garb of American citizenship* their tactics of extortion sanctioned by the law, and approved by the courts.

Legalized Tactics

UT the inquirer asks: "How do they do this money-grabbing?” Almost all the low and subtle tactics imaginable are resorted to in order to accomplish the money-massing. One of the most popular and powerful means employed is that of usury, whereby the loan shark preys upon the people whenever the government is in need of funds. There is a public improvement and the government, instead of paying for it immediately, borrows from Mr. Rich Man. We notice, however, that the willing lender always affixes the interest clause. And what happens? The interest alone in many cases would pay for the improvement several times over. For example, fifty years ago the city of Cleveland installed a new pump and mains for its water works at the total cost of $400,000. The city borrowed the money on bonds to pay for the improvement That city has paid $1,060,000 in interest on those bonds, and the original debt of $400,000 is said to be still unpaid. The people of Cleveland, not having learned the lesson, three years ago voted the sale of $6,000,000 more bonds for the erection of a city hall. When the time arrives for the payment of the latter bonds Cleveland will have paid nearly $20,000,000 for her public hall. In 1920 the city discovered that sixty percent of the money raised by taxation was already obligated for the payment of interest and principal on bonds contracted in years gone by. In many instances improvements like the water pump just mentioned were worn out before the principal could be paid.

The common tactics employed in usury permit the banker to loan out five dollars for every dollar which he possesses. One would naturally suppose this to be impossible. If a man had five automobiles and they were all hired out, he would be limited to his further hiring out until the return of some of them; but not so with money bearing interest. Mr. A. borrows $1,000 from the bank and applies it to his credit. Little money leaves the bank as his checks are credited to the accounts in the particular bank or in the banking system. Later another man, Mr. B, borrows $1,000; it is placed to his credit, and the process goes on five times. In this manipulation it makes no difference whether the loan is re-deposited in that particular bank or in another bank—it is deposited in the system. The transference of the loan from one bank to another is offset by money borrowed from another bank and deposited with it. The bank is prevented from much exceeding the five-handed transaction by^the banking law which requires the holding of fifteen percent as a reserve, but theoretically the bank would be privileged to turn it over six and two-thirds times. This scheme has been carried on with remarkable success in the United States. With $5,806,571,880 outside the United States Treasury vaults in 1919 the loans of the banks of this country were $25,222,849,814. It is much like a man who has five overcoats, but who can account for having obtained only one of them.

Financial Tactics during the War

SUBTERFUGE was played upon the American people during the last war which few are aware of. In order to carry on her part by borrowing all the money from the wealthy financiers, as is generally done, the government, operating under the control of big business, applied different tactics, which turned to the benefit of Wall Street. Just before America entered the war the British Government was indebted to J. P. Morgan and Company to the amount of $400,000,000. When the prospect of the Allies winning the war was very uncertain in 1917 the big financial corporations pulled the strings whereby this nation was inveigled into the war. Had the Allies lost the war the prospects of the Morgan Company of ever being reimbursed would have been shattered. The Allies called for war material, food, railway equipment, etc., from the United States. We raised through Liberty Bonds for loans to Europe covering such demands $11,000,000,000. The greater part of this sum was not paid over directly to the Allies, but was handed over to Wall Street to be credited to the various corporations for war material sent abroad. Wall Street bankers, however, in the meantime have been drawing interest upon the loans which the American people intended for Europe. Of course the American bankers are calling for a cancellation of the foreign debts to us.

When profits were growing larger during the war a tax was placed upon incomes, and the tax would have consumed a great part of the larger incomes had it been enforced. The law

demanded a certain percent upon all incomes of cash dividends. The Supreme Court of the United States by a close decision of five to four stated that stock dividends were non-taxable. Since that time the large investors have evaded the law on the strength of the stock dividend appellation. And how does it work 1 A corporation capitalized at $100,000 declares a dividend of $100,000. If the dividend were paid to the stockholders directly in cash, it would be taxed under the income tax law; but it is converted into corporation stock and thus exempted from tax. The corporation capital is increased by this stock dividend to $200,000, and thud the late dividend is but fifty percent of the new doubled capital. The stockholder loses nothing in this manipulation, is credited with the full amount of his income, and is exempted from taxation.

We might expect that as the result of this evasion the income of the Federal Government would take a rapid decline. This is just what did happen. The official statistics show that during the year 1922 the Federal income under this tax law fell off $1,397,000,000. And this has taken place while the dividends of the large corporations have been on the increase by leaps and bounds. It is apparent that the failure of the nation's income has not been due to any decline in the dividends of the large corporations. The tax fountain is drying up because Big Money has by high-priced and professional legal advice found a way to avoid taxation.

_ Every time the law is avoided in this way there must be increased burdens upon the common people. The expenses of the nation must be met; and the money not coming from the former source, the responsibility is shifted upon the poor in the form of direct taxes—or, as has been suggested, by a sales tax. This being the case the little man must bear not only his own burden but also that of his big brother.

Rumblings of the Coming Storm

WITH such conditions in mind we should not wonder at the events of the past few years. The restless spirit in the oppressed people has occasionally shown signs of remonstrance. The American soldier boy returning home expected to be reinstated in his former job. But his expectation failed of realization, and so in order to effect a compromise he asked the government for a bonus. Time and again his demands have been refused. He forgets to reckon that big business has its eye upon the few remaining pennies in the pockets of the people; and in the contest for this paltry sum : our boys who fought in Europe must lose. If there were any dividends for the rich man in this measure the bonus would have gone through long ago.

Crime is on the increase as never before in the history of the nation. Wade H. Ellis, a member on the committee of the American Bar Association to investigate crime, says that in the period from 1910 to 1921 the number of murders in cities like New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and others increased nearly 150 percent, and that compared with statistics from England and France this increase is appalling. A questionnaire was submitted to authorities in the leading cities in New England asking them what they considered to be the chief cause of the sudden increase of crime. Seventy-five percent of the answers were to the i effect that unemployment was the chief cause. The Great War, and the failure to enforce the Volstead Act were given the places of next im- j portance respectively. Certainly these are but the threatening rumblings of the fast approaching storm.                                             .

The Great Tempest

HE Lord, centuries ago through the prophet | Joel, gave us a picture of the dark day in which the people will rise against their oppressors. “A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as j the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall there be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is like the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame ; of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong • people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty

men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?’⁷—Joel 2:2-11.

The Prophet here gives a detailed description of a disciplined army accustomed to the horrors of war. Such an army fought at Con-tigny, Chateau Thierry, Belleau Wood, and St. Mihiel. They fought then, being deceived, for the money kings; but in the next great conflict they will not do so. Millions have been .trained to shoot unerringly; they have been disciplined while running at full speed to thrust the bayonet clean through the human body and half-way up the musket shaft; they have been taught how to handle clubs and bombs. The English boys were even instructed how with their finger nails to gouge the eyes from their victims⁷ heads.

At first the wealthy, who have heaped treasures for the last days (James 5:3), may seek to make a compromise after seeing that the masses have secured the upper hand, and that their lives and possessions are in jeopardy. But this will not avail; for the people at that time will have learned the lesson of the empty pledges of the past. They may in final desperation offer the tangible cash. “They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord.” (Ezekiel 7:19) Many of these will seek to vomit up their riches as one in desperate agony tries to expel the deadly hemlock poison. They will mourn the day that made them rich. The prophet Job describes the sick man in these words: “He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly. He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.”—Job 20:15,16.

The events of the past few years in foreign countries picture the coming calamity. At the outset of the Russian revolution the lands and possessions of the wealthy were seized, and the plutocrats themselves were quickly exterminated. The hungry maniacs in the Ural district ate human beings, and in some cases dug up corpses in ordel to find food to sustain life. China has been the scene of marauding bands. Thousands driven by starvation sweep the country, burning, pillaging, and killing as they go. The rich are forced to play upon musical instruments before the maddened mob while their burning mansions light up the furious spectacle. The slaughtering instinct of the Turk, the tearing of the body by instruments of torture, the hanging of people by their toes to die of slow starvation, the cutting of the limbs piecemeal until gradual death overtakes the victim—all of these things startle us. We might think that the world is too civilized ever to be the scene of such cruelty. But listen to what the Lord’s prophet has to say about the coming calamity upon all of Christendom: “I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease: and their holy places shall be defiled. Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none " (Ezekiel 7:24, 25) So great will be the slaughter in that day that the multitude will not take time to bury the dead, and a stench will fill the air. “The slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.”—Jeremiah 25:33.

Some will be inclined to take exception to such a picture. Those who love the Lord and His righteousness will proclaim the truth. In the spirit of love is pointed out the only haven of safety during the coming storm. No one for a moment would question the motive of the Government in sending out messages from the weather bureau to warn the people of an approaching cyclone. Those hearing the warning may find shelter for both themselves and their cattle, and thus much property and life may be saved. There is a warning to give, and those whose hearts are right may also find safety in this dark night “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger ” (Zephaniah 2:3) Those who hope to find protection in the coming trouble should not rely upon earthly possessions, but such should resign themselves to the Lord and His righteousness. “Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.”— Proverbs 11:4.

Earth’s Rightful King

UT the people have a King. At one time He was here on earth. He was persecuted by the same greedy band that has oppressed humanity for centuries. He undoubtedly had sympathy and love for the people; for He suffered and even gave His life for them. He is the appointed One that will bring peace and quietude after the clouds of world-wide war, revolution, and anarchy have spent their fury. That same voice that stilled the waves on Galilee’s stormy crest will then speak peace to the raging masses of mankind. Associated with Him in this new kingdom will be a band of faithful followers, who also weathered the storms of persecution while here on earth. On account of their faithfulness they are granted the great privilege of reigning with Christ Jesus and of blessing all the families of the earth.—Revelation 20:6.

Earth’s new King will put down all oppression, and will encourage every desire of the people toward righteousness. The stony heart of selfishness will be replaced by a fervent desire to benefit others. Under His reign the poor and needy will be shown favor; for they will be generally in a better attitude to come into harmony with the laws of the new order. The wicked must retrace their steps if they would have life. “He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endur-eth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.’^-Psalm 72:2-8.

The experience which the people have had under oppression in the past will redound to their everlasting benefit. When justice will be done in the earth the people will make an intelligent choice to do righteousness, having at that time the knowledge and past experience of sin. The oppressed, having been driven from yoke to yoke under earth’s former kings, will breathe the air of liberty with an increased appreciation of the new Ruler. The millions who have toiled, and bled, and died in despair at the hands of treacherous kings will have new hopes enkindled within their breasts. There will be riches for all the obedient; there will be a close bond of brotherhood; and there will be a King who will guard the interests of his people.

The purpose of the reign of Christ is to bring the people to God so that He may ultimately receive all the glory and praise. The prophet Isaiah in speaking for Jehovah relates the ultimate purpose of man’s existence: “I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” (Isaiah 43:7) Certainly this text-could not have applied during Isaiah's day nor since; for man in his present condition is everything but a glory to God. But they will be a glory to Jehovah when mankind brought to perfection will reflect the character-likeness of their God. David wrote the praises that will be upon the lips of the joyous hosts of earth: “Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. Let the people praise thee, 0 God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear [reverence] him.”—Psalm 67:3-7.

‘Taith rests upon the Word of Grace, Upon the work of God abides: No man God’s purpose can erase, The trustful saint in Christ confides: Abundant love is free for aye, God will not cast His own awaj.”

Labor Conditions in England By Arthur E. Isaacs (England)

THE English Government gives the number of unemployed at 1,247,000. 1 do not know whether the Bible states that all governments are liars, but these figures are certainly wrong as regards the number of unemployed. This I will prove from my own experience.

I have been traveling throughout the country with the idea of finding a house or a piece of land on which to erect a wooden bungalow. I ■oon got tired of the Forty Thieves' tales. (There are really more of them than that, and the thieves call themselves real estate agents.) One man had bought up some land in Surrey. I found that he had paid £35 an acre for it, and had started to sell it at £100; but the thought of getting a profit of only £65 an acre had so upset his nights’ sleep that he had determined —so his son told the writer—to charge £150 for the rest. He had never advertised his land; 'but it was selling without that aid, though there is no water laid on.

On the first race day. of the season at Epsom the writer was standing in the High Street, waiting for an omnibus, which did not seem to be running to schedule. Standing on the curb were two men, aged about thirty and forty years respectively, to whom I spoke concerning the buses. I took them to be local out-of-works; but it turned out that they had walked from Whitechapel (in the East End of London, and about sixteen or seventeen miles distant from Epsom), having started at half past eleven on the night previous. It was then about 11 a. m. I asked them how long they had been out of work. They said: “Eighteen months.” They had no unemployment money, but were told that if they each obtained another -twenty stamps on their unemployment cards they would be entitled to more out-of-work pay.

“Then,” said I, “you are all right for parish relief?”

“We are single; and there is no parish relief for single men; only the casual ward.”

I found out that they had had nothing to eat, having no money. I asked them what they expected to do at Epsom.

“Well, we walked here thinking we might meet a bookmaker whose luggage we might take up to the Course or who might employ us for the day.” Fancy, ye well-fed ones, sixteen miles on an empty stomach, no sleep, and no knowledge of when they would have their next meal!

Who says that the workers, as a body, are lazy!

I told them that they were in the wrong position, and went with them to place them.

“You had far rather,” I said, “get some postcards, tear them in half, write a name of one of the horses in each of the races, and sell them at Id. per time. People will probably give you a penny out of curiosity; you can get the names out of those tipped by----(a sporting paper).

Then I suppose that you have a right to live. Do you know that you are living examples of the truth of the Bible?”

Under the circumstances they did not think much of the Bible, as they understood it.

“You are two ex-soldiers; and you are asking for bread or for the means to get same, are you not?”

“That’s right, guv’nor”

“Well, have they not given you a stone? You have a beautiful cenotaph erected in Whitehall; and when they laid the foundation-stone all the men that matter—and women, too—had a fine day out. And now you—or our kind—are told that you do not work hard enough and are ordered to produce more. Have you noticed how our kind take in the picture papers so that they can see Lord and Lady This or That and belaud the idleness and luxury there displayed?”

After a few more comments, which I think gave them food for thought, I wished them good luck and wended my way further afield.

“COLD morning this morning, sirl”

/Yes, it is,” I replied.

I was taking my way over Hungerford Bridge, which runs from the Thames Embankment to the Strand, one cold and frosty morning when I was accosted thus by a man.

“Yes, and you notice it more if you have not had a cup of tea or anything to eat”

I thought to myself: I suppose I look innocent.

“How does that happen? Haven’t you received your unemployment money this week?”

“Never had any, sir.”

“Well, go on,” said I.

“Well, it is. like this, sir: I have been in business all my life, struggled on through the last few years, and finally went under with nothing left. Never having been employed, I have no stamps on my card, and so have nothing to come from anywhere."

A FRIEND of the writer, an engineer, has been out of work for over two years; his last place he had kept for ten years. He owns his own house. He was told some nine months ago that there was no more out-of-work money for him. Owing to the strain on the funds his society also dropped the money which they used to allow their unemployed. To get a living he had to resort to taking in children whose parents did not want to be bothered with them; and daily he can be seen “pushing” a perambulator along the streets.

Another man has taken to cleaning windows after serving seven years’ apprenticeship as an engineer. Two others within a stone’s throw of the writer’s residence have no unemployment pay. One of the members of the union to which I belong told me, three or four weeks ago, that there are dozens who do not receive State benefit And we are not a dead society 1

A FORTNIGHT ago I was at Bookham, about twenty-four miles from London; and as it looked rather like rain, I went into a little log hut to have a cup of tea. (They are erecting all sorts of houses and bungalows at this spot, in fact right through beyond Guildford.) It was Saturday. Inside the hut I found a young man having what turned out to be his dinner. “A cup of tea and four thick, and mind the knife don’t slip!” This being translated means a cup of tea and four thick slices of bread-and-butter, and don’t let the knife go in the wrong direction.

We got into conversation. We started with that evergreen topic, “the weather”; and could you have seen the sky at that moment you would have excused us. He told me that he had started work six weeks ago on the buildings right opposite, after two years out of work. He was getting 1/1d. per hour as a bricklayers’ laborer, though the money should have been 1/1½d. per hour. But he dare not demur or he would be out of work again. He was married, and had two children, whom he had had to put into the workhouse, owing to his hard luck, at the end of last year. He lived in the New Kent Road, by the side of the Elephant and Castle, South London; and he had to pay 13/- per week for room. He also paid 5/- per week for a bed at Bookham, 2/6d. to go home on the Saturday (he was then having his dinner while waiting for the bus), and 2/6d. to come back again on Monday mornings. So, you see, he could not possibly buy a Rolls-Royce, whatever his desire might have been. "And the first week I was in work the workhouse authorities were after me for payment for my children,* he told me.

COMING along a country by-path I noticed a man behind some trees. Thinking that this might be his way of "pulling-up” people, I passed down the lane; hut not being accosted I wanted to know why I was not. So I went back to find a man who said that his age was sixty-nine, and that he was an agricultural laborer. He had a tin can of water by his side, out of which he occasionally sipped, and occasionally put some on his forehead.

“My head feels awfully queer. I don’t know what is the matter with me. I think I shall have to give up. I suppose it is having nothing to eat,” he said. All this was said in a quiet, resigned sort of voice, not a vestige of the canting or begging tone.

Agricultural laborers never did have the unemployment money. This old man of sixty-nine had only another year to live when, if a young Government servant could not manage, on coming round to take particulars, to save a bit for the State, he would receive 10/- per week—not having been a Cabinet Minister.

This poor old man was somebody’s father, probably. Is it not sorrowful to contemplate that our aged poor cannot get sufficient money allowed them that they can live their own lives without being forced to go into the workhouse or walk the countryside!

To sum up: The consensus of opinion seemed to be that conditions at present existing could not continue, and that it is only a matter of time until a revolution would break out. The thought is that if one or two determined men started up as leaders it would be like setting a match to a haystack on a hot summer’s day.

On the roads I have met men and women thinly clad, walking along dreamily, going from here to there, wherever the road might lead. Sometimes they were soaked to the skin. Truly one can wish: ^<fThy kingdom come,” when there shall he no more poverty, no more sickness, pain or death.

In Isaiah 35:1 we find these words: "The wilderness, and the solitary place, shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose” These words apply to the people and conditions of the coming age.

We have in the world much desert and waste land. Very often we hear the remark made that such land is good for nothing. Yes; many will say that it is worthless, and always will be. But in God’s Word w^Te have the promise that these places shall blossom as the rose, and make glad the heart of the people.

When one has seen the desert place (on a small scale) made to blossom as the rose, and that which was considered worthless made very productive, and when there is evidence that the changed condition of our atmosphere in the future will make still greater results in reclaiming this waste land, we may well rejoice, knowing that there will always be plenty of good things to eat and that for all people.

As an illustration I will give you a glimpse of a desert place that was made to blossom as the rose, and to bring forth not only blossoms but fruit, most abundantly.

About ten years ago a promoter and profiteer organized a company of men to grow cranberries. A barren swamp near Phillips, Wis., was chosen as the place. It produced practically nothing but swamp moss and mosquitoes. Not knowing the ins and outs of the business, much time, labor and money were wasted in starting the enterprise.

To get the right man to start it right was a problem; but this was finally overcome by the selection of a man who had made a success of it in another part of the state. Then one of the company took charge of it, and the results were marvelous, far beyond their wildest expectations.

The land in question was almost worthless, but had two conditions that made it ideal for the growing of the fruit: It had a good supply of water that could be used for irrigation purposes, and it had good drainage, the two essentials for success at the present time. This garden spot of eighty-five or eighty-six acres was put under intense cultivation, nothing being ■pared to make it productive. The very latest methods were employed to get the results, and surely they were extraordinary.

By Henry H. H. Gebhardt i , J¹

Large Yield of Cranberries

ROM this acreage in the Fall of 1922 over 12,000 barrels, or 36,000 bushels, or 1,200,-000 quarts, of fine fruit were harvested. You will say: Some yield! Yes; it is the world record for a large area. A larger yield from a email acreage has been witnessed but none on such a large scale.

At the present time we have certain conditions that will not permit of such grand results on all land adapted to the growing of cranberries. Our weather conditions interfere. We have the same kind of trouble that they had four thousand years ago.

In Genesis 31:40 we have these words portraying the exact conditions that the grower has to contend with in the present age: "Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.” Here is the reason why all lands at the present time cannot be used for this purpose.

This is especially so now because the frost would enter in as the chief reason against a complete success. There are thousands of acres of this kind of land that could be used for this purpose but for this one condition, the frost.

There are many insects with which the grower has to contend; but we are assured that there will come a time when nothing ‘shall hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain [kingdom]? (Isaiah 11:9) When the new conditions are in the earth, during Messiah’s reign, a marked change in all things will be the order. We have at the present time the extremes of heat and cold producing results detrimental to both animal and vegetable life.

Milder Weather Conditions Coming

IN GROWING cranberries we have both the early and the late varieties. Observation teaches us that some kinds will keep much longer than others. Some decay very rapidly, while others keep many months.

This brings us to another thought: What will the weather conditions be in the coming age! Will it be warm, something of a hothouse condition; or will it be cold! I am inclined to believe that it will be neither hot nor cold but will be near the 45° mark. I understand that vegetation grows at about 45°.

We have noticed that the late-keeping fruit grows slowly, takes a long time to mature, hence is a better quality for keeping. In speaking of the new order of things (the new kingdom) we find these words: “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations ” These words seem to be used both literally and symbolically.

We would not suppose for a moment that there would grow on a tree fruit that would blossom and develop into mature or ripe fruit &n in thirty days. But would it not be more reasonable to think that on the same tree might be the blossoms, the smaU fruit, the larger, and then the ripe or mature fruit, afi at the same time, similar to the Everbearing strawberry or raspberry; and that the weather conditions would be such that there would be these conditions throughout the year!

Does it not seem reasonable to infer that the perfect fruit would require an atmosphere that would make the fruit hardy, thereby putting it in a condition that would allow for long keeping! Would not a hot or a very warm condition tend to grow fruit or vegetation so that its life would be very short! The Genesis account of creation seems to confirm this last thought.

When the earth is perfect, with its perfect Atmosphere, you can see how much of this land that is now waste can be made to blossom as the rose and produce most abundantly. No insects would be there to destroy the fruit, no frosts to keep the laborer awake at night, no drought to consume away. These are the conditions that are promised. Read pages 82 to 96 in “The Finished Mystery"' for proof of this by the twenty-four prophets.               '

More and more do we see the value of fruits of all kinds. As a health preserver, there is nothing better. Fruit contains many of the elements, if not all, to keep the system in perfect order. When we behold the first man as he was placed in the garden of Eden, with perfect surroundings and a perfect food to sustain life, we can realize to some extent the important part that the future conditions will have on man when the Lord will lay down His rule as to how to eat and what to eat.

Cranberries Healthful Food

THE doctors have lately discovered something new. They don’t know just what it is. They call it Vitamines. Here is the late dictionary definition of it:

“Vitamines, A newly discovered group of substances the nature of which is not yet fully determined, that are found in largest amounts in milk, butter fat, codliver oil, yeast, fresh fruit, and vegetables whose edible parts are essential to the welfare of the body.”

In other words, vitamines are the mineral salts found in all fruits.

Cranberries contain many of the elements which assist in keeping the system in good condition. Especially is this so where acid is required in digesting the food. Cranberries are not only used very extensively as food, but are also used in a medical way. They are one of the very best remedies for erysipelas or infectious skin diseases.

Not only will this waste land be made to produce cranberries abundantly, but we can see signs of other kinds of waste land made to grow other fruit, such as blueberries, very profusely.

Poor Soil Yields Blueberries

Y SELECTION, the blueberry plant is coming into prominence on land that was considered worthless. I quote from an advertisement in one of our Eastern papers showing the possibilities of this fruit:

^<fWhitebog blueberries are a new addition to the cultivated group, and open a new and profitable field to the cranberry grower. They are nearly as large as grapes, practically seedless, and have a distinctively delicious flavor. The market demand is greater than the supply. From our own commercial blueberry plantation in 1922 our returns were $10,000 from sixteen acres, only a portion of which was in full bearing.”

I am told by one who has been over this plantation that while the soil is the very poorest of sand, yet the plants were very thrifty and healthy.

I am sure that the Lord will not use all waste land for fruit. I am inclined to think that some of the more wet or lake-like conditions will be utilized for something else. I refer to the wonderful flower beds found in just such barren places, now too wet for other things to grow on. We have near us one of those wonderful Lotus beds. It is a little beauty-spot out in the waste land, a sight worth going a long way to Bee, especially when in bloom.

A comparatively young Indian who has lived nearly all his life near this place says that he can well remember when there were but a few bunches near the edge of the water. But now it has spread over quite a large area.

These are a few of the things that will help make the old earth good to behold. The Lord says that His footstool (the earth) shall be made glorious.

The question may be asked: How will the earth be made glorious and beautiful! Will it be in a miraculous manner! It would seem not. The injunction given to Adam no doubt indicates the method to be employed. In addition to the earth and the atmosphere, man was given the command to fill the earth and subdue it I am sure that the Lord will have no drones or idle people to cumber the earth when His kingdom is fully set up, but that each person will find the niche for which he is fitted and gladly will he fill it.

Then will the words of the Revelator be fulfilled: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” (Revelation 21:1) This, of course, refers to the spiritual and physical control of our earth, and not to the passing away of the planet and the coming of a new planet. It is this planet that is to be made glorious and to become Eden-like, world-wide.

The Seventh Trump is sounding, To tell us that our King

Has come again in glory Salvation full to bring.

Every saint is now proclaiming The presence of the Lord,

Girding on the Gospel armor According to the Word.

On they march, unfearing, To show the Truth, the Way;

Little Flock, the Master calls them, As He leads them to the fray.

Defying all the demons

Of Satan’s hostile crew,

Enduring all the hardness

As faithful soldiers do,

Never looking backward On the paths they’ve trod,

Always trusting in their Captain To lead them home to God.

Great will be their triumph, -When, through the second birth,

Enthroned with Christ in glory, They restore both man and earth.

—J. Q, Fitz-Gibbon.

WONDERFUL God, wonderful Creator, let me think awhile of Thee. Mere man can but vaguely understand Thy wondrous works. We see the little flower growing there on a lonely spot, even where man has never trod, given life and living, as God intended; and it looks up as if to thank God for the privilege given.

Yea, even this world is as a blade of grass with countless numbers. We behold stretched out in the heavens of unthinkable space twinkling stars like little specks of light; so great is the distance that we marvel at the immensity of it. Ah, who is there that will say, There is no God!' Let him think, and think deeply.

When compared with the ever-unfolding works of God, man is but an atom of wisdom; nay, he is not even that if he does not acknowledge his Creator. We were born in a condition in which we had no choice; but 'tis not for us to say when or how we die. What then! A' little while and our flesh disappears and our bones lie there as a testimony of life.

But wait! What unseen force has shaped those bones to grow into a definite plan—why not some other form or size! By chance it cannot be, and surely not the work of man! So think, I say again, and think deeply. Seek and' ye shall find God.

Words of Life By Oliver C. Hinkett

TO ONE who sincerely believes and follows the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, through and by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, this sudden flood of criticism of the Word of God by professing Christians, especially those professing to be leaders and teachers of Holy Writ, is significant^

What this all means is foretold by our Lord. He declared that in the latter days there would arise false Christs and false prophets; and that if it were possible they would deceive the very elect But, thank God! this is not possible. —Matthew 24: 24.

The topics for sermons, and the various newspaper articles constantly appearing, indicate that our modern pulpiteers have exhausted the spiritual riches of the only Book on earth given to man for his instruction.—2 Timothy 3:13-17.

Has the Bible no more lessons for usf .Is the Bible out of date! Mr. Wells contends that we need a new and simplified Bible; but these higher critics fail to reveal their sagacity and ability to devise another one. Those who believe that the Bible is out of date and not of divine inspiration are in the false Christ and false prophet class, whose faith is in their own works and not in God's. One cause for this condition is pride and a desire for popularity, one of the most debasing things on earth, and a prominent characteristic of the devil. The opinion of some preachers is that the people should be fed with novelty, pleasure, and entertainment. Their churches must bulge and groan with thronging thousands, the hungry mass merely to hear some sweet story—perhaps not pertaining to the Word of God at all.

St. Paul told the Corinthians that he had determined not to know anything among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2) But most preachers seem to know everything else under the sun except Christ and Him crucified. It is by Christ's spirit that we make progress (Romans 8:9); and there is no other method by which humanity may be saved; surely not by novelty, pleasure and entertainment.

Our Lord said: "And I, if I be lifted up . . . will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32) This drawing is through and by His word as contained in the Holy Scriptures (1 Peter 1: 23; John 6: 63), and not in "science falsely so called," so often put forward in these days.

None can know more about the plan of God than He has revealed in His Word. It was given for the meek and lowly of heart (James 4:6), and is progressively shining more and more unto the perfect day. (Proverbs 4:18) Our Lord says: "Seek, and ye shall find.'* (Matthew 7:7) Without the revelation of God's plan as contained in the Bible men would be able to arrive at very indefinite conclusions respecting man's future.

The Bible has been misused as a fiddle upon which to play any tune men chose; whence have come the hundreds of different denominations. But, thank God, they are playing their last tunes.

Selfishness and ignorance are the causes of all the present unrest in the world; and a Bible in the pocket and a gun on the shoulder are not a good combination to remedy the present evils. The world is vainly endeavoring to bring order out of chaos and to reform the people through their own efforts.

The Source of Truth

RUTH is the only thing of real value and the Word of God alone is able to supply that truth. The inspired Word will never lose its supremacy. God says: "My word . . . shall not return unto me void." (Isaiah 55:11) "I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10) The Lord’s kingdom is the only key to the "new order"; and wise is he who puts his trust therein; for out of it shall come all the divine blessings promised in the Word of God.

Jehovah tells us that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the deep. (Habakkuk 2:14) The fact that the knowledge of the Lord does not yet cover the earth, and that the people have not yet been converted, is proof of the failure of the religious denominations. They have had over 1,800 years of trial; and the world today is farther from a knowledge of the Lord and farther from being converted than at any time since the days of Christ and the apostles. All faith should be built upon the Word of God, and not upon man’s word.—Hosea 4:1-6; Isaiah 5:13; Jeremiah 17:5; Proverbs 3:5-7; Matthew 15:9-

The Sins of Mankind     .

SIN (outside of the original sin of Adam) has been profusely advertised, and it has the advantage of being something that most people •want; for the desire for sinful things has been enticingly portrayed by word and picture. Goodness, love, mercy, peace, justice, liberty and happiness (true Godliness), as taught in the Word of God, were set forth centuries ago. Ministers, priests and rabbis have been the salesmen; but a good many of them need to be instructed as to the value of their wares. -

They tell us in lurid word pictures what will happen to us if we are not good. They paint hell in all its horribleness. They dwell on our earthly sins in all their fascinating detail; that is one reason why there are empty pews and empty hearts. That is why religion as taught by some ministers, priests and rabbis today is something a man carries in his pocket and takes a swallow of when occasion may prompt.

These men are selling something that is not conducive to righteousness nor in harmony with the expressed will of God. They are "putting over” the kind of “goodness” that is found in the creeds of fallible and erring men.

It is easy to have people sing hymns, but it is quite difficult to make them feel, down in their very souls, the meaning of those hymns. That is where most preachers come short.

The Word of God is needed, and true followers of that Word are needed to explain its meaning and put into every human heart love for his fellow man, and a real desire to be of service to others and brighten their lives.

What humanity needs, what the world is famishing for, what civilization itself must have, is not teachers who claim to prove that our ancestors were monkeys, but men used of God as instruments to bear the message of truth, enlightening and blessing the poor, groaning creation.

Then the message of these men of God will point the way to brotherhood and true brotherly love, and life, liberty and happiness—the desire of all nations. (Haggai 2:7) Christ’s kingdom upon earth will supply such a need. Thus will Jehovah’s will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.

Worldly Wisdom from Beneath

THE apostle Paul tells us that He who redeemed us gives us wisdom. (1 Corinthians 1:30) How, then, does a true Christian get his wisdom pertaining to spiritual things? The Bible is the only book which supplies that wisdom; and God’s holy spirit operates through it upon the minds of those who put their trust in Him.

Hence we know that the Bible is true; for it brings peace and joy and consolation to those who follow its teachings, and every subject is harmonized when we learn to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15), and to use reason. (Isaiah 1:18) Therein is found a most wonderful plan for the salvation of all who are willing to obey the righteous law of love.

Whence do the wise (?) theologians, who deny and contradict the Word of God, receive their wisdom? From man; for it is a common failing for men to believe certain doctrines because others thus believed in whom they had confidence.

John D. Rockefeller gives a recipe for living one hundred years. Among other things he says: “Live a Christian life, play golf, and always keep plenty of money on hand.” Thus golf, and the possession of plenty of money seem to be parts of a Christian life. That may be all right for John D. and a few others; but how about the many millions of people on earth who are unable to play golf and to keep plenty of money on hand? They surely will have to die. Poor souls. Seemingly they have no business being poor.

Rev. Alfred W. Wishart in an article in the Free Press says that the Bible is based upon facts and not faith and is not infallible. From this it is quite evident that his theory is based upon neither fact nor faith. The theory of evolution is not taught in the Word of God, but is merely an hypothesis which has tripped many a clergyman.

Another Reverend D. D. says:

“I have been for fifty years a minister in the church* I entered the ministry with enthusiasm, believing as I did that the church was the one organization in ths world of divine institution, that it owes its origin to Jesus Christ, and that He was the unique Son of God. I have been reluctantly led to the conclusion that dodo of these things are true.”

It is very evident to a true Christian that this Reverend D. D. is referring to churchianity and not to Christianity; for the former originated with the devil, but the latter with Jehovah God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It has been a common mistake for professing Christian people to get the two mixed.

Another very wise man, in his own conceit, says that "the wages of sin and crime always are social ruin and spiritual death, and the reward of righteousness is self-esteem, social respect, and a genuine success immeasurable in terms of money.” Thus we have another one of the many wise men whose religion is measured in terms of money. And is it any wonder; for did not the Interchurch World Movement say in one of their advertisements: "The money test is primary to a one hundred percent Christianity”! They ignore the Word of God. See Proverbs 28:11; James 2:5; Luke 18:18-25; James 4:4.

Further, I ask, if one’s spirit dies, and after a few short years his body dies, what then is left of him? The Bible answers: Nothing is left. Man says: The soul is left; but the Word of God says that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die."—Ezekiel 18:4,20; Acts 3:23; Romans 6: 23; Matthew 10:28. •

Let us be careful how we treat this Holy Book, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private issuance and that if any man shall add unto or take away from the prophecy of this Book, God will deal with him as it is written in Revelation 22:18,19.

How true are the words of God through the Prophet when He says: "I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this peopfe, even a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”— Isaiah 29:14 (see vs. 13,15).

When these parasites, who sap the very lifeblood of the nations, are removed, the terrible burden which has been carried by the poor people of earth for centuries, will be rolled away. Then will the true Light (John 1:9) shine upon and for all. Then will the children of men begin to survey that wonderful cross and drink water out of the wells of salvation. (Isaiah 12:3) Then, and only then, will peace on earth, good will toward men, be a reality and not a hollow mockery!

Why will not men cease following the theories and fallacies of the would-be reformers and turn prayerfully and sincerely to the study of the Word of God, which is the only remedy for the ills of mankind!

Man's endeavor to rule has been a failure, and has been admitted so by some of the leaders, and will.be admitted so by all reasonable men if they will even casually examine the present conditions.

If anyone thinks that it is safer to offend God than man, and that it is better to retain the favor of the bright minds of the world than to continue in the favor of his Lord and Head, Jesus Christ, then such would not profit much by a study of the Word of God. Hence this is one of the distinguishing points between a true Christian and a mere professor of religion.

While we may look for His leading through human agencies, our trust is not in them, not in man’s wisdom and strength, but in the Lord’s wisdom and strength obtained through His Word, if the mind be rightly applied to its teachings; ."for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”— 1 Samuel 16:7.

Money is not God; neither is might, nor earthly wisdom; but Jehovah is the only true God and Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. His now-dawning kingdom is the only remedy for the ills of humankind today. It will bring peace and lasting blessing to mankind—what Christians have been praying for: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,”

Love, Not Force

THERE is an infinite satisfaction in receiving the gifts of God. But the privilege of becoming the means through which He will bestow light and blessing upon others is the greatest privilege bestowed upon man, and if man’s way of thinking and acting is wrong, to correct it by helping him to get more light.

Envy not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. Labor not for the sake of "ism" or creed, but for humanity's sake. Use truth for authority and not authority for truth. Christ's kingdom upon earth comes not by stress of law or force of arms. Men are attracted by the power of love; they cannot be driven toward the driver.

In an article in the Literary Digest the Baptists of Georgia are reported as trying to enforce the Golden Rule by dismissing from the church those who fail to observe it in conducting their business and by performing proper labor. It would be a very good thing if all denominations were to try that scheme. Then the preachers should soon have to go to work like other men.

When force is introduced into any sacred work, at that moment it loses its sacredness and is no longer the work of God, but of the devil. The truth of religion is never represented by force nor fostered by it Men with true religion in their hearts will follow the Golden Rule in business, politics and in every walk of life. When men have the truth, as contained in the Word of God, the churches will have honest business and stay out of politics.

No religious teaching should have any weight except it is supported by the Word of God; for one plan, one spirit, and one purpose pervade the whole Book. Some one says: "I cannot understand the Bible.” The understanding of the Bible can be obtained only by sincerely and prayerfully applying the mind to that purpose in a childlikee attitude essential to faith in God through Christ Jesus. (1 Peter 5:6) Make a complete surrender of the human will to the divine will “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”—Matthew 7:7.

Education, while beneficial in certain ways, is of no avail in the understanding of the Word of God; for God only is able to make wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15) and give a proper understanding pertaining to spiritual things.

The sooner the world comes to realize the fact that none can know more about the plan of God than He has revealed in His Word, the sooner they will cast their cares upon the Lord and not upon man.

Why do not people judge what is right 1 The signs of the time of trouble are many; but men refuse to read them. As our Lord says, “As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:37) But the time has come for people to understand, and the Lord will make it plain to all those who seek to know the truth.

An Optimistic View By J. b. Alford

WE DO not at this time know positively what became of the Garden of Eden— whether the “thorns and thistles” that infested the earth after the expulsion of Adam from Paradise overran that spot, or whether it has been preserved in some place inaccessible to man. But we shall know, when man fulfils his destiny by obeying God, who told him to “subdue the earth” and “have dominion” over the

* same.—Genesis 1:28.

We do not know whether the Ark of Noah has long since decayed, or still rests on Mt. Ararat. But we shall, in due time, know, when some daring aviator has sailed into those inhospitable altitudes, and investigated the matter and made report.

We may not know, except by deductive reasoning, just what the atmospheric conditions were in the sixteen centuries of human habitation preceding the Flood. But we shall have information when Adam and his descendants down to Noah are returned to our earth in the resurrection, and tell us about these things. It is beyond the limitation of the mental powers of any one at this time to grasp the concept of a perfect man, such as were Adam, before his deflection, and Jesus. But this will be common knowledge to all when humanity are restored to perfection, during the reign of Messiah.

When the Savior of men awakens from death the human race; when this awakened people register in the school of Christ, and obey inviolate the mandates of that holy institution; when they have finished their course of instructions, and received their diplomas of graduation— the right to eternal life; when they, thus restored, comprehend the real plan of Jehovah in restoring His “image” on earth, and enter into cooperation with Him in continuing that plan throughout the “ages to come”—then shall the “imagination of man remain within the bounds of established facts ”

The Bible or The Creeds

By a Former Clergyman of the Church of England

A LL the various denominations of Christendom claim to be exponents of God’s Word, the Bible. Much confusion prevails among them all as to what is truth and what is error on various points. But common to them all are certain glaring errors of the first magnitude; and it is with a view to assisting The Golden Age in its work of removing from the eyes of the truth-hungry these age-long scales of hard-encrusted error that I have drawn up the following table of contrasts, briefly setting forth the truth in the left-hand column, and its corresponding error in the right

The quotations in the right-hand column are taken from the "Book of Common Prayer," the official Service Book of that branch of the "vine of the earth” of which for fifteen years I was a minister. Those in the left-hand column are from the source of all revealed truth—the Word of God, the Bible. The contrariety between the one and the other is so self-evident throughout the table below that it can be seen at a glance, and further comment seems needless.

IN THE BIBLE

“To us there is but one God, the Father."— 1 Corinthians 8:6.

“There is one God, and one mediator, . . . . Christ?’—1 Timothy 2: 5.

IN THE BIBLE

“The Son of God.”—Mark 1:1; et al.

'"The beginning of the creation of God.” "The first-born of every creature.”—Revelation 3:14; Colossians 1:15.

“Meditated not a usurpation to be equal with God.” —Philippians 2: 6, correct translation.

“Made flesh.” “Made of a woman.” “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” —John 1:14; Galatians 4: 4; John 3:6.

“Being put to death in the flesh.”—1 Peter 3:18.

"But quickened in spirit” —1 Peter 3:18, correct translation.

“We SEE Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God [his heavenly Father] should

IN THE CREEDS

“The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God: and yet they are not three Gods, but one God.”—Athanasian Creed.

IN THE CREEDS

“God the Son.”—The Litany.

"Not made, nor created.” —Athanasian Creed.

“The Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one; the glory equal.”—Athanasian Creed.

. the Very and Eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, of her substance; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and the Manhood, were joined together in One Person, never to be divided, whereof is One Christ, Very God and Very Man.”—Articles of Religion, II.

“Who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried.”—Articles of Religion, II; continued from above. taste death for every man.” “As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also took part of the same.”—Hebrews 2: 9,14. ‘No man hath SEEN GOD [the Father] at ANY time.”—John 1:18.

IN THE BIBLE “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” “The first man, Adam, was made a bring soul.” "Dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return.”—Genesis 2: 7; 1 Corinthians 15:45; Genesis 3:19.

"The resurrection of the dead.”—Acts 23: 6; et al. “They that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment.”— John 5:29, R. V.

“God . . . now command-eth all men everywhere to repent; because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men.”—Acts 17:30,31.

“Christ did truly rise again from death and took again His body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature.”— Articles of Religion, 27.

IN THE CREEDS "Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to take unto Himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground, . • • dust to dust.”—Order for the Burial of the Dead.

“The Resurrection of the body." “The Resurrection of the flesh.”—Apostles’ Creed and Catechism.

“And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into eve>-LA8TINO FIRE.”—Athanasian Creed.

“Let us, remembering the dreadful judgment hanging over our heads and always ready to fall upon us, return unto our Lord God with all contrition and meekness of heart.”—A commination.            .

STUDIES IN THE “HARP OF GOD” (         )

11 n With Issue Number 60 we began running Judge Rutherford’s new book. (lift “The Harp of God", with accompanying questions, taking the place of both yyb Advanced and Juvenile bible Studies which have been hitherto published.

“’Looking back, then, at the picture that Jehovah made by the use of the Jewish people and their ceremonies, we see that the bullock slain on the atonement day pictured Jesus the perfect man at the age of thirty years. The court surrounding the tabernacle was a picture of perfect humanity. Therefore the bullock slain in the court foreshadowed or pictured the fact that the perfect man Jesus died in that condition on earth as a perfect man. By His death He provided the ransom-price. He did this to carry out the Father’s plan.

^234.In the picture, the slaying of the bullock was the beginning of the sin-offering. After the bullock was slain, its blood was put into a vessel; and the high priest carried it in this vessel, ultimately reaching the Most Holy, where it was sprinkled, as before mentioned. The high priest in the Holy pictured Jesus during the three and one-half years of His sacrificial ministry; and the high priest’s appearance in the Most Holy pictures Jesus the high priest, resurrected to the divine nature, appearing in heaven itself in the presence of God, there to present the merit of His sacrifice as the sin-offering on behalf of mankind.— Hebrews 9:24.

²³⁵The Scriptures clearly show that Jesus was the antitypical bullock and was made an offering for sin on behalf of mankind; first on behalf of the church, subsequently on behalf of the whole world. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3); “who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Galatians 1:4); “for he hath made him to be sin [an offering for sin] for us, who [Jesus] knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”—2 Corinthians 5: 21.

^236.The law that God gave to the Israelites merely foreshadowed what great things Jesus would do. Because of the imperfections of mankind—Moses and others—that law could not accomplish the deliverance of mankind from death. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”—Romans 8:3.

”^TIn the type, the slaying of the bullock and the carrying of its blood into the Holy as a typical sin-offering foreshadowed the fact that the redemption for mani sin could be accomplished only through the blood of the perfect sacrifice. And for this reason says the apostle Paul: “Without the shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” (Hebrews 9:22,23) The patterns here referred to are the Holy and Most Holy in the tabernacle picture, which foreshadowed or pictured the heavenly condition; and the entrance of the high priest into the Most Holy of the tabernacle with the blood foreshadowed Christ Jesus entering heaven. “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”— Hebrews 9:24.

QUESTIONS ON “The Harp OF GOD

Of what value to us are the pictures made in the Old Testament in studying the New? and what did the bullock slain on the atonement day picture relative to Jesus? fl 233.

What did the court surrounding the tabernacle picture or typify? fl 233.

How was the ransom-price provided? fl 233.

What pictured the beginning of the sin-offering? fl 234.                         .

What was done with the blood of the bullock after it was slain ? fl 234.

What was pictured by the high priest in the Holy? and what by his entering the Most Holy? fl 234.

For whom did Jesus give Him self as a sin-offering? fl 235.

What was the purpose of the giving of the law covenant? and could it operate to deliver man from death? 4I236-.

Was the shedding of Jesus’ blood necessary for the remission of sin? fl 237.

How was the entrance of Jesus into heaven foreshadowed in the tabernacle service? Give Scriptural proof, fl 237.

Seeing Through and Beyond Today

Theories and opinions advanced by responsible men of today influence and guide people’s thinking.

Their viewpoint is largely in the particular field of their interest. Sometimes it is related to other fields, but generally individualistic.

Seldom such general sources of information view events other than as reports of events already transpired.

The viewpoint of advantage, however, sees the cause, notes the effect, and understands perfectly the result.

But such a vision is to be had only from the prophecies of the Bible; for they alone foretell events with certainty.

Studies in the Scriptures deal with prophecies being fulfilled in our day. The topical arrangement permits the consideration of political crises, unrest, and explains their significance.

Indexed verse by verse, the reader has an explanation of most prophetic statements and knows what influence events of today have on the future—a knowledge of no uncertain advantage.

Studies in the Scriptures, a library of seven topically-arranged volumes written in ordinary, not theological, language, together with the Harp Bible Study Course, using as its text book The Harp of God, by Judge J. F. Rutherford.

The eight volumes of over 4,000 pages for $2.85 delivered.

International Bible Students Association

Brooklyn, New York

Gentlemen: Please forward the seven volumes of Studies in the Scriptures and the Harp Bible Study Course. In full payment for the eight volumes I enclose $2.85.