Contents of the Golden Age

Social and Educational

Learning to Write ............

Finance—Commerce—Transportation

How to Acquire Just Titi* to Commodities.....

Robbery of Common Energies..........

Public Pays Compound Interest.........

A Standard of Value.............

otic Golden Age

Volnme V Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednmday, December 19, 1923 Nn»bwlU

Forms of Insect Life

A LEARNED professor, a good multiplier, has figured it out that if nothing happened to any of the children or grandchildren even unto the nth generation one female fly could, in one season, count her posterity to the number of 4,472,286,103,628,713,559,320; and that the rest of us would have to move off the planet in order to make room for them. Fortunately most of her children die; and flies live hut a few weeks.

Some people regard the common house-fly as comparatively harmless; but in point of fact it is one of the greatest disease carriers known. One hundred and sixteen kinds of germs have been found in the track of a single fly. The worse the carrion the more this fly enjoys it. Its specialties are the distribution of germs of typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, summer complaint, and eye infection.

It would be bad enough if there were only one kind of fly; but the entomologists tell us that there are 50,000 varieties, and profess to believe that the total may be six or eight times more than that great number. The greenbottle fly has been identified as a carrier of the germs of paralysis.

It is said that in the Spanish-American war there were more soldiers killed by diseases carried by the fly than were killed by bullets. The presence of flics indicates uncleanliness.

Wherever a fly walks he leaves a sticky fluid full of germs. This fluid exudes from the ends of hollow hairs fringing the cushions of his feet, and enables him to walk upside down on the smoothest surface.

In some places flies are thick to a degree that we know nothing about in America. At one place in France, in the summer of 1922, flies held up a fast train crossing a bridge. There were so many of the little creatures on the rails that their bodies formed a jelly under the wheels.

How to Kill Flieo

HERE are several ways of getting rid of flies besides the traditional and effective fly-paper and swatter. One way is to burn pyrethrum powder in the house in the morning. The flies become stupefied, and may be swept up and burned. Of course the house should be aired subsequently.                            .

Another way is to close the windows and boil vigorously for five minutes a pint of water to which has been added ten drops of carbolic acid. At the end of that time the flies that are not dead will escape from the room if the windows are opened. This amount suffices for an ordinary-sized kitchen. For a larger room or for a whole house a larger quantity should be used. If desired, twenty drops of the carbolic acid may be dropped on a hot shovel, and quicker results can be thus obtained.

Another way is first to remove carefully all other liquids from the room, and then place formalin, diluted with about forty parts of water, in saucers about the room. After several hours the flies, unable to get other liquids, will drink of the formalin and die.

One thing which tends to prove that the fly was originally created by the devil is that it loves every evil thing and hates every good thing. The odors that are most pleasant to man, such as mignonette, white clover, geranium, heliotrope, lavender, and honeysuckle, are all displeasing to the fly. Flies will not stay in rooms in which these plants are growing; nor will they stay in a room which has a considerable quantity of blue in it.

The breeding of flies on manure piles can be prevented by scattering borax over the pile, and then sprinkling with water. This does not injure the manure.

A bob-white or a cliff-swallow will eat a thousand flies or other insects in a day. Good far bob! More strength to his appetite I It ia said that boh also disposes of about six million weed seeds per year. This would indicate that he is a citizen of which any community might feel proud.

Sixty Kinds of Mosquitoes

New Yobk State boasts that it raises sixty kinds of mosquitoes, although there are only two varieties that are at all plentiful. The right way to raise mosquitoes is to have around the premises a few tin cans half filled with rain water. Or they may be raised in gutters, roofhollows, water tanks, catch basins, or wet cellars. These receptacles must have stagnant water in them; otherwise there will not be a good crop of mosquitoes.

Most of the mosquitoes which are found in New York city are grown on the premises. They are the fresh-water varieties; and the inhabitants cannot blame the New Jersey or the Long Island salt marshes for their production, but must blame themselves. Park lagoons are good places in which to raise mosquitoes.

The word "mosquito” means little fly. Like the house-fly the mosquito subjects the multiplication table to a great strain. The mother mosquito lays as many as four hundred eggs at one time, and may become the ancestor of 10,000,000,000 able-bodied singers and jabbers in just thirty days by the clock. And yet we consider a hen faithful and industrious if she produces one egg a day!

Unlike some physicians, the mosquito presents its bill before it injects the poison into your system; and, also unlike some physicians, the presentation of the bill is not the painful part of the performance. The insect injects a drop of poisonous saliva before it leaves. This looks like an act of what may be described as •pure cussedness,” and convinces us that the mosquito is one of the devil's own inventions.

Mosquito a Bad Citizen

THE mosquito has a bad record. He it is that carries the germs of malaria, yellow fever, dengue or break-bone fever, and filiariasis, which is the infestation of the body with long, Blender threadworms. If you have a disease of any of the above varieties, the mosquito loves to come and bite you and poison you, and make you think unkind things about him. Then he goes off and bites some other luckless chap and injects the germs of your disease into him. And if that does not show the disposition of the devil, will you not please point out something that does ? Moreover, a mosquito will bite you when you are asleep, and make you awake peeved and resentful.

Mosquitoes are great travelers. They are sometimes blown forty miles from their breeding places during the eight days between birth and maturity. They are found all over the world. High up in the Canadian Rockies they so infest the trails that passage is had only at the expense of great discomfort. In the Himalayas they are found 13,000 feet above the sea.

Modern medicine claims that the weakening of the Greek and Roman races by malarial infection caused by mosquitoes was the reason why they gave way before the barbarians. In the Summer of 1922, the Baltic seacoast was so infested with unusually savage mosquitoes that many were made ill. In Chicago, during the same season, there was one occasion when they were flying in such swarms that they were mistaken for smoke, and caused two false firealarms to be sent in. It is believed that the Panama Canal could hardly have been built if some means of fighting and conquering this pest had not been discovered. Dogs and cats are immune to mosquito bites.

Mosquitoes have their tastes in colors. Careful experiments extending over a number of years have proven that they remain away from anything yellow, but are partial to reds. The mosquito's preference in colors is found to run in the following order, with his least preferred color first: Yellow, orange, white, light blue, olive green, slate gray, black, scarlet, browns dark red.

Ways to Kill Mosquitoes

THERE are three ways of getting rid of mosquitoes: By not giving them a chance to be born, by giving their natural enemies a chance to get at them while they are still wrigglers, and by suffocating them while they hre in the wriggler stage of growth.

Mosquitoes swim for a week before they fly; and at this stage stagnant water is essential for them. If the pool in which the eggs were laid is drained, that is the end of the family. If fishes get into the pool, that also is the end of the family. If the pool is covered with oil, the little sinners will suffocate; but the oil has to be renewed every ten days, as it is only a temporary expedient.

There are microbes that destroy mosquitoes; but it takes sixty kinds of microbes to kill the sixty kinds of mosquitoes, each kind having its own special diet. And when a man has a mosquito drilling for blood, it is beyond human nature to expect him to look around for the identical kind of microbe needed to slay the animal. He just slaps his enemy hard, and lets the microbe feed on the remains. More than this a well-trained microbe could not expect.

Mosquitoes flee from smoke; for they do not like it. The water-dog is a natural enemy of the mosquito, as is also the duck. In tropical countries the larvse are destroyed by tiny fishes called “millions,” raised for the purpose, also by a variety of beetle which has a fondness for them. Poison gas, such as was used against humans in the World War, has been used in poisoning mosquito waters in New Jersey.

In addition to the foregoing there is a water fern, with leaves too small to be seen by the naked eye, which is said to have been used successfully in Panama to prevent the propagation of mosquitoes.

Cockroaches and Bedbugs

ERE is a nice pair, cockroaches to get into your food and bedbugs to get into your

bed. There are said to be about a thousand species of cockroaches. We should imagine that one would be plenty. Roaches will not travel through a house that guards carefully against the admission of food to any place except where it must necessarily be kept.

Id places where the roaches have become a nuisance, the food materials should be confined in insect-proof containers or in ice boxes, and great cleanliness would have to be maintained. A liberal dusting with sodium fluorid furnishes an efficient means for getting rid of them. Various poisons are also sold for the purpose.

There is another way to kill cockroaches, and that is to keep a centipede around the house; but most folks would consider the cure worse than the disease. A centipede is as fond of cockroaches as the average boy is of ice-cream cones. The centipede will also eat moths, mosquitoes and flies, but will not bite humans unless frightened or molested. The centipede has fifteen pairs of legs. In this climate he grows to be only an inch in length, but in the tropics may grow to be a foot long; and one variety attains a length of eighteen inches. His bite is painful* but the pains may be assuaged by the wounds being dressed with strong ammonia.

As to the bedbug, specimens have been known to survive when kept for a year in a sealed vial, with no food whatever. Bedbugs have also been known to live in unoccupied houses for long periods. An application of paint composed of equal parts of shellac, turpentine, and corrosive sublimate is a good way to get rid of them— shellac to tangle their feet, turpentine to strangle them, and corrosive sublimate to burn them up.

A remedy suggested by the government is to place in the center of the room a dish containing about four ounces of brimstone, within a larger vessel, so that the possible overflowing of the burning mass may not injure the carpet or set fire to the floor. After removing from the room all such metallic surfaces as might be affected by the fumes, close every aperture, even the keyholes; and set fire to the brimstone. When four or five hours have elapsed, the room may be entered and the windows opened for a thorough airing.

Brimstone is the most deadly fumigant known. If the Lord wanted to make sure that a soul when it died would be stone dead, burning it in brimstone would surely do the trick. As a means of torment it would be of no value; for death would ensue too promptly. All the arguments of common sense, as well as all the arguments of the Bible, are completely opposed to the theory of eternal torture.

The Industrious Ant

THE telegraph poles of the Panama Railway are of iron; the reason for this is that the army ants of that region destroy a cedar pole over night. Talk about army ants! Before a marching column of these invaders the wild animals flee in terror; if they wait, the bleached bones of the biggest and strongest of them litter the ground in a few hours.

The ants in America are mostly subterranean* although in Wisconsin there is one variety that builds a mound about twenty inches high. In Europe ant mounds are often as much as three feet in height. In Africa the termite, or white ant* raises its hills to a height of fifteen feet and constructs them so strongly that a heavy beast like a buffalo can stand upon them without breaking them down. These buildings are six hundred times the height of their tiny builders.

There is an ant in the Argentine which bites its way through the tympanum in the ears of sleeping infants until it reaches the brain and kills its victims. It is one of the most serious pests in the world. This ant will eat anything we eat, and can probably thrive in any climate short of the Arctics. Its spread to other lands would be a great calamity.

The Useful Spider

THE spider is one of the most useful of the insect friends of man. Man's enemies are the natural food of the spider. Day and night he goes after the flies, mosquitoes, and other insects which man has come to recognize as pests. Spiders injure no plant food nor other product of human industry. Contrary to the general belief they are, as a rule, neither noxious nor injurious in any way.

The web that the spider makes is genuine silk, and the finest silk known. A thread long enough to reach around the earth would weigh but one pound. These threads are so small in size that a million of them can lie side by side within a space not so wide as the length of a yardstick. On account of its fineness the thread of the spider is used for the cross-lines of telescopes.

A spider is said to have saved the life of Robert Bruce by spinning with marvelous rapidity a web across the mouth of a cave within which he was concealed. His pursuers passed the entrance of the cave, convinced that the web across its mouth proved that no one was within. A web may be made in forty minutes.

There is a spider that builds airships. This spider anchors itself with its feet, and then sends a number of strands of fine silk out through its spinnerets. When enough silk has been spun, the spider lets go its grip on the ground, the wind catches the silk, and away goes the spider, sometimes for hundreds of miles.

The tarantula, the giant spider of the Southwest, has a vicious bite; but it will not bite unless it is molested. A Pasadena dealer sells B,000 mounted tarantulas a year, employing an army of boys to collect specimens. There is some doubt as to the degree of poison properly attributable to a tarantula- bite. Professor W. J. Berg, of the University of Arkansas, haa made experiments which lead him to question their poisonous qualities altogether.

Another insect-destroyer is the wasp, of which 1,500 varieties are known. Wasps and spiders are not good friends; they are too much interested in the same raw material The wasp is the oldest paper-maker known; its nest is a marvel in its absolute perfection for the purpose for which designed. An industrious wasp can teach a boy to dance in a very brief time.

The Locust Plague

AMERICA knows little about locust plagues, but they are common enough in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. The best-known variety in the United States is somewhat under two inches long; and although it is quite common, it does not seem to flourish in this climate as locusts do elsewhere.

In the East, especially in ancient times, there have been locust plagues which have stripped the country for miles around as completely as would a fire. Pasturage, vegetables, fruit, crops of all kinds, and even the bark of trees disappear as if by magic.

The prophet Joel described a locust invasion elaborately. This description is believed by Bible Students today to foreshadow the overrunning of Christendom by the hordes of communists that are being made every day by the folly of present rulers:

"A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame bumeth; the land is as 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 ran 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 ran 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 rfiall tremble ? the sun end the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining?'—Joel 8: 3-10.

Sometimes locust plagues have lasted for two or three years. They swept from one region to another in swarms many square miles in area, and so dense as to darken the sun, as the last verse of the foregoing prophecy points out

The locusts come out of the ground in the Spring, split their outer skin and hop away, all in the same direction. Although they destroy the crops, they are themselves edible; and the natives kill them by the ton. They make good food, either dried and ground into meal, or fried in butter, or smoked. They are also used as fuel.

Beetle* Galore

THE number of known varieties of beetles is now said to J>e over 100,000, of which not less than 10,000 are native to the United States. Additionally, there are about 1,000 fossil species known.

The Japanese beetle is said to be, at this time, our country's worst crop pest. This form of beetle hatches out underground, where it attacks the roots of growing trees. It is persistent to an uncanny degree. Other pests die out or move on; but the Japanese beetle stays on the job until every green tree is killed, including the roots.

The beetle itself, when it emerges from the ground, is about a half inch long and seems immune to almost every form of poison except arsenate of lead, which is also poisonous to humans, and cannot be used on fruits and vegetables without danger to human life. Unless some way can be found to stop the spread of this beetle, it is predicted that it will sweep from coast to coast, destroying every leaf-bearing tree. Perhaps the devil made this one, too; it looks like his work.

Another kind of beetle that we could get along without is the wood-boring beetle, which has become common in California. This beetle not only bores wood but is able to go through alloys harder than lead. It has put hundreds of telephones in California out of commission by boring holes in the cables that carry the wires.

Another beetle that makes a nuisance of itself Is the pine beetle, which seeks the destruction of the yellow-pine forests of the Northwest. The loss from this pest is now set at $300,000 per year; but a way has been found to conquer it, and where the treatment has been applied the loss has been reduced by one-half.

The mordella beetle should have been called the moreyes beetle; for it possesses more eyes than ten thousand of us humans put together. It has been estimated that the mordella has twenty-five thousand eyes, including many in the back of its head. Under a microscope these little eyes are very beautiful The dragon fiy is said to have not less than twenty thousand eyes, and the horsefly also has eyes by the thousand.

The Boll Weevil

THE boll weevil came to the United States from Mexico twenty-one years ago, and has already destroyed enough cotton to make 500 shirts for every male in the country. The loss is calculated at over $2,000,000,000. A single pair of weevils can produce 12,775,000 weevils in one season. The cotton fields of the South are being ruined by this pest, and are being used for other crops. Mild winters and moist summers favor the growth of the weevil

The boll weevil is small, rather less than onefourth inch in length, with a snout half the length of its body. When squares or forms begin to appear on the cotton, the weevils punch holes in them, laying one to three eggs in each. The weevil is light yellow when young and black when fully matured.

Beans, peas, and cowpeas are often damaged seriously in storage and in the field by weevils; but they never attack corn or wheat. The crop should be harvested as soon as possible after maturity and subjected to fumigation, heat, or cold, in order to destroy the weevils in it Guinea fowls destroy weevils.

Crude sulphur is used as a weevil fumigant. Take a common tin can, and cut a one-half-inch hole a third of the way from the bottom. On the opposite side make two holes with a ten-penny nail; on the top lid make a three-quarter inch hole; into the can put one-fourth pound of sulphur; apply match and close lid down; the crude sulphur applied in this manner will continue to burn for six hours.

After the second chopping of the cotfon, before the cotton begins to bloom, the over-wintered weevils should be picked from the young cotton plants. At first sign of weevil damage to the squares, the field should be gone over care-

Fully once each week; all squares on the ground should be picked up, and all yellow squares on the stalks which show signs of weevil puncture should be pulled off and burned. The picking of the cotton should be completed as early as possible; for it cuts off the food supply, starves millions before hibernating time, and prevents the development of the young weevils.

The Muscular Caterpillar

SINGLE caterpillar has 4,000 different muscles, and is able to drag twenty-five times its own weight A caterpillar has an appetite, too. The American silkworm at the end of its life as a caterpillar has eaten not less than 120 oak leaves. This food, three-fourths of a pound in weight, and consumed in fifty-six days, equals in weight eighty-six thousand times the primitive weight of the worm.

The Summer of 1923 witnessed caterpillar pests in Oregon and in Bohemia. In Oregon a man was driven from his house by them, crops were destroyed, telephone lines were pulled down, and at least one train was held up. In Bohemia the peasants walking through the forests had to carry big cotton umbrellas to prevent being smothered by the caterpillars which fell from the trees in quantities.

The tent caterpillar is a ravenous insect which weaves a web around a duster of leaves for the protection of its young. This tent is water-proof and insecticide proof; hence spraying must be done before the webs are formed. After the webs are formed, they can be destroyed by burning with rags saturated with kerosene fastened to the ends of long poles.

Caterpillars hatched out from eggs laid by small brown and black moths have attacked fields of alfalfa in some places, infesting the fields to such an extent as to make these appear ragged. They strip away the foliage, leaving the bare stalks. Prompt cutting is the only remedy. The yellow and black-billed cuckoos eat the caterpillars in great numbers. We appreciate the service they render, even though we do not admire their taste.

Some Other Peets

THE Hessian fly, introduced from Europe in Revolutionary days, causes an average annual loss to the wheat crop of $50,000,000. Some yean the loss is double this amount. The fly is very small, only about one-tenth of an inch long, with a form much like that of a small mosquito. The government recommends the following program as to the best method for controlling this pest: Sow the best of seed in thoroughly prepared, fertile soil, after the major portion of the fall brood of flies has made its appearance and passed out of existence. If possible, sow on ground not devoted to wheat the preceding year. In the Spring-wheat section, the earlier it is sown in the Spring the less it will suffer from the pest.

The European corn borer has already been introduced. It tunnels through all parts of the corn plant and also attacks celery, swiss chard, beans, beets, spinach, oats, potatoes, tomatoes, turnips, dahlias, chrysanthemums, gladiolus, geraniums, and timothy. The Department of Agriculture pronounces it the most injurious plant pest we have yet imported. The best way of suppressing it is to gather and bum all remnants of crops and wild grasses within the infested area such as would be liable to harbor the borers during the Winter.

In the southwestern part of the United States there is an ear-tick, a blood-sucking parasite which infests the ears of cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, and other animals. This pest seems to prefer the semi-arid climate of that section, where it causes heavy losses among live stock.

Some insects are much stronger in proportion than is man. A grasshopper can jump two hundred times its own length. If a man could do that, he could jump almost a quarter of a mile.

A blow-fly has been harnessed, and found able to drag more than two hundred and fifty times its own weight

In an experiment made with a small hornbeetle, weighing two grams, this insect was proved capable of alternately raising and lowering a piece 6f stick weighing two hundred times as much as itself. In order to rival such a feat a man would have to lift a motor truck laden with eight tons of coaL

Evidently the subjugation of the 750,000 varieties of insects is going to be a big job; but the One that win supervise the work is fully equal to the task. Probably the Lord made some of the useful insects. No doubt the devil made some of the others. The Lord is the better architect, and victory is sure to crown His banners in the end.                     — " ^r

Learning to Write By e. e. Coffey

WRITING is within itself an art, and one commonly practised by almost everyone. Hence helpful information along this line should be of general interest Before dearly explaining how anyone who writes poorly may easily and with little effort greatly improve his penmanship, I shall explain briefly concerning the origin of writing as practised today.

Man seems to have learned to write through slow, progressive steps, just as he has learned to do many other useful things. No doubt it was quite early in the history of mankind’s existence on the earth that certain individuals began to think or ponder on some means of communication other than that of the human voice. Thought along this line was doubtlessly fostered by necessity, which, as has been well said, "is the mother of invention”; t. e., the human race had increased to such an extent that they could not keep in touch with one another by oral conversations.

Man’s first efforts toward overcoming this obstacle seem to have been in the way of picture writing. Crudely drawn or carved pictures were used to represent words. Later, symbols seem to have been substituted for pictures. Some people, as the Chinese, who have a different symbol to represent each word, never progressed beyond this stage. However, other peoples, as the Babylonians and Egyptians, went further and evolved a system of phonetic or syllabic writing allowing syllables of words to be represented by different characters.

But the Phoenicians, it seems, deserve to have credit for producing the first real alphabet. As they were great traders and navigators, they were at least the first to bring the alphabetic system of writing to the attention of the world at large.

The foregoing indicates that mankind were a long time in learning to communicate easily by the method of writing. Yet this does not show, as some have erroneously supposed, that man has been evolving upward. It merely demonstrates to the mental vision that when excluded from Eden man was left to shift for himself.

Since discovering the alphabetical system of writing, man has experimented through many centuries in an endeavor to find suitable material and tools with which to carry on this helpful art. Through successive ages, stone, sun* dried brick, parchment, papyrus paper, etc., each has been used as material on which to write. Our grandfathers used foolscap paper, quill pen, and soot ink in carrying on their first correspondence.

For a long time writing, as one of the three B’s, has been listed among the essential branches which every child should learn; and those who attempt to master the art attain to many graduating degrees of skill. Some few may become skilled penmen; a great many may come to write somewhat legibly; and not a small number may continue to write throughout life so poorly as to require much effort on the part of their friends to enable them to decipher the scribbling.

At one time, previous to the invention of the typewriter, the few who did become skilled penmen were in great demand. Business houses required rapid and skillful writers to carry on their correspondence, and paid excellent salaries for such service. While there is no such demand today, yet good writing, like good manners, brings its own reward.

Character, too, is as truly revealed in our handwriting as in our daily conduct. Those who merely scribble are often careless. Those who fail to capitalize words where this is necessary, and who misspell, etc., show lack of education. Hence it is that business men, as a rule, ask for a written application from those seeking employment

For the foregoing and many other reasons everyone should desire to write well. To satisfy this desire does not require special effort or expense, and is in no way injurious, but from every standpoint beneficial.

Attention Necessary to Accomplishment

TO THIS, as with other branches of learning, there is no "royal road” or special short cut. In fact, there is only one practical and beneficial method by which to acquire both speed and beauty in penmanship, and that is by the so-called muscular movement. The essentials of this method of writing are: (o) Correct position of body, feet, hands, and pen; (b) movement, speed, and form.

The position which this system calls for is

the most healthful poise one could assume while writing. Adults as well as children when attempting to write often assume positions which are very detrimental to the health; and they hold their pens or pencils in such a cramped position that it is utterly impossible to write in a clear and legible way.

The muscular system allows the pen to glide smoothly and gracefully along with the least expenditure of effort and at the correct angle. Hence such method of writing is restful and does not cause fatigue. In this brief article I will not go into such detail as to explain how to learn and practise the muscular system of writing.

The reader whose interest is aroused by this may learn fully concerning the system from many of the writing books used in the public schools throughout the various states or may procure at small cost from publishing companies supplying them, teachers’ courses in muscular writing.

One-half hour’s regular and intelligent practice each day will in a few months revolutionize anyone’s penmanship. Such improvement will be admired by all who see it and, like other things of beauty, will bring lasting joy and real satisfaction to the executor.

The foregoing is given with the intent to encourage all who practise this worth while art to attempt it in the correct way. Many letters go to the dead-letter office, and many business transactions are misunderstood, because of illegible writing, all of which could have been avoided if everyone had been required to learn to write in the proper manner.

But in this as in every other worthy endeavor where improvement is sought discouragements will at times come, and there will be periods when no improvement may be seen. Yet where one continues to persevere, improvement will begin again and continue through another period.

In this connection it is quite desirable and helpful to know just what rate of progress one is making. In the past, one attending school might know by having his work graded. However, of late it has been found more satisfactory for students or pupils to grade themselves, especially in writing. Measuring charts and tablets now in general use make what was formerly an irksome task to the teacher a real pleasure to the pupil

In closing, in preference to a summary, it^r ' might be more profitable for the reader’s mind ■ to take a retrospective view of writing that the ₄ halo and foregleams of the future may become ' more realistic. We see that by this means man has been enabled to accomplish many pleasur- , able and worth while things.                      <

Great poets and prose writers have been enabled to pen their thoughts and thus transmit them as a heritage to future generations. Parents have been enabled by this means to keep trace of the wanderings, fortunes, and misfortunes of their children. By the same means * lovers for a long time have had the pleasurable satisfaction which comes from conveying by letter one’s affection prompted by heart impulses.

But most important of all, writing has been a ' means by which the words of God to mankind and those of Jesus His Son, the Savior of man, have been first recorded and preserved for fu- f ture generations. Throughout the early Chris- . tian era and the dark ages monks and copyists copied and recopied the words of Holy Writ -that they might be read and preserved to other ^: peoples. True, some errors crept in; but notwithstanding, Jehovah’s purposes relative to humanity have all along been accomplished, and the "people for his name” have been continually selected.                                                       *

Judging the future from what God’s Word holds forth, it is doubtful whether writing will be of much importance in the Golden Age or rather in the ages to come. Doubtless resurrected humanity will desire to practise what * they have been taught, for a time at least, and will desire to write to those of their loved ones whom they cannot see personally.

But with other cheaper, quicker and more satisfactory means of communicating perfected it seems that writing, like many other inventions of the past, will be relegated to the memoirs of the past—to the semi-plastic cycle of sin. '■ One thing is already certain, namely, that much < that has been written in the past, and counted Classic, is now seen to be ol little real worth. .

Of one thing we are assured; and that is, I that in the future age when man is perfected, what he does he will do perfectly. Should he ₄ write he will pen graceful, artistic lines which will be a pleasure to the eye; and the thoughts which these depict will likewise be ennobling, elevating and inspiring.                           ’      ■

LAND, raw material, and energy or force of all kinds are products of Nature’s handicraft. and are heirs to the bounties and patrimony of that common mother to whom men and all things owe their origin and allegiance.

She grants no preferential rights, and demands that her bounties shall be intelligently conserved and employed solely for the material well-being of all her offspring, without partial discrimination or favor of any class. The only title to land and raw material honored by her mandates is possession for necessary use.

Monopolization of her land and raw material for speculation and profit is a rank violation of her law and of the natural and moral rights of her disinherited heirs, and is the sole cause of the world-wide social unrest and discontent that gender anarchy, revolution, and war.

Commodities and social service or values are evolved from raw material by natural energies intelligently applied. The volume and character of energies employed are correctly defined by the volume and character of the products or units created by them. Energy is merely force, or labor, an inherent property of matter, no matter by what or whom generated.

We determine correctly the volume of labor or digestive energy employed by each of our more than twenty-four million cows in defined units of beef, milk, butterfat, hides, etc. We define the energy or labor capacity of all grades of engines and dynamos by the units created regardless of passing duration. We define the labor or energy of blood, nutrition, light, heat, gravity, etc., by things done, without giving thought to time. Time is not a factor in defining the calories contained in a bushel of wheat.

We define man’s volume of labor or energy applied solely by the products or units created. When we employ a man to cut a cord of wood, grow a bushel of wheat, break an acre of ground, or construct a bridge of given character, the product is the only thing considered.

We find that human capacity for efficiency and creative energy per unit varies as widely in degree and volume as found in any other class of units; hence nature and justice demand that human units be classified and graded in accord with capacity for rendering useful social service. That classification will prove an incentive to efficient service, and will eliminate social discontent and inaugurate the Golden Age.

By H. E. Branch

If I create units of useful social service from Nature’s land and raw materials, she exacts full equivalent, in labor or energies expended, for benefits received. I have no moral right to withhold unneeded land and raw material from the service of my coheirs.

Benefits exacted without equivalents given is confiscation pure and simple. Our rich men and those who control industry are solely responsible for the world's social chaos today existing.

Let us inquire how the confiscators acquire fictitious and preferential rights to land and natural resources without giving the just equivalent demanded by natural law. The tribal chieftain claimed land and natural resources to which he had no moral or natural right, and his fictitious claims were sustained by favored leaders who persuaded the general public that affairs were being administered for the common good.

The retainers, the public, paid tribute to the chieftain and favored leaders for the use of land and natural resources to which all were equal owners and had equal rights and, in event of war, pledged their lives and "sacred honor' in support of the false claims put forth by grafting and exploiting leaders, just as the public does today. .

The Entente gained the support of the general public under the false pretense that its intention in the World War was to destroy militarism, autocracy, despotism, and Kaiserism in the interest of humanity and democracy, with no desire for annexations, indemnities or natural gain.

Now, France asks the German citizens whom they were not fighting, to pay the debts of a government in which they had no voice. She demands their choicest land, richest resources for her leaders and "captains of industry,” while the war brought nothing but loss and sorrow to the masses of France.

Robbery of Common Energies

OF COURSE the French leaders will pretend to administer the confiscated territory and resources in the interest of the French masses. French citizens who accept those false claims at face value should be in a home for the feeble-minded. France, Italy, England, and the United States want their armies of millionaires, created by that war for humanity (1), to administer the mines, oil fields, and other great

Industries of Russia, Turkey, Austria, and Germany in the interests of a common citizenship, just as our power plants, mines, railways, mills, factories, etc., created by the united energies of all citizens, are confiscated and administered by our trusts in the interests of the "captains of industry" to the detriment, loss and robbery of the common energies that made those enterprises possible.

It was reported that Garvan, of the alien property board, sold to his own organization the chemical foundation, himself, copyrights and patents belonging to German citizens, estimated worth $20,000,000 to $50,000,000 for about a half a cent on the dollar. When threatened with investigation, he reported that the government had committed greater crimes for the public good.

Secretary Fall leased the Teapot Dome oil fields to the Sinclair Oil Company, Harry Sinclair, on a royalty basis. The people, the government, supply the resources and the energies to prosecute the enterprise, while Harry Sinclair—for the public good —reaps the harvest, with no risk nor even investment! The people had no voice in the appointment of Fall, yet they are expected to endorse the betrayal without protest or criticism.

Press and officials told us the sugar trust was robbing the public, and threatened reprisal. The sugar trust, like other criminals of great wealth, was found immune to law and order germs; and the public was begged to punish itself— for the common good—by boycotting the trust.

Diaz, the Mexican despot, had his congress vitiate thousands of titles to rich resources and then granted them, on a royalty basis, to Guggenheim, Phelps, Dodge, and others. Our press and officials hailed Diaz as a statesman, a public benefactor who was developing the resources of his country and the interests of its people. When Dias was deposed they frankly confessed to misrepresentation for a quarter of a century; called Dias a despot, and said that there had never been an honest election in Mexico under his regime.

Dias confiscated the resources and energies of the Mexican people for royalties to himself and untold millions of concessionaries. Our officials now demand that the Mexican people— government—shall honor illegal grants made by a despot without consulting the parties or citizens affected. The illustration given makes plain the methods employed for diverting public resources and energies from public service to private gain.

The only honest titles to property acquired are through an equivalent in useful service for the use of Nature’s raw material supplied.

Public Pago Compound Interest

THE great fortunes of today, private or corporate, are the products of confiscation of natural resources that are the common heritage of all mankind. Every great enterprise is the product of public—or national—natural resources created by public energies.

From natural resources the public energy built and equipped our railroads and then was saddled with a debt of $20,000,000,000 at compound interest For eighty years the public, the nation, had been paying compound interest on railroad debts to the few, for products and energies supplied by the public without cost.

In eighty years the interest alone represents products and energies enough to build and equip the railroads of the world five times over. That debt is constantly augmenting with no intention of liquidating. At simple interest alone the public pays $1,200,000,000 annually on that debt; in addition the public pays all operating expenses, for repairs, improvements, extensions, huge salaries and lobby fees to corrupt press, courts and officials.

Other corporations are created and operated by the public for the benefit of confiscators of public energies and resources. Their debts, capitalizations, are a mortgage against natural resources and energies; and their interest, profits, surpluses, dividends and even their taxes are collected from the public at the public expense.

They are the invisible government that owns and controls the press, and supplies the woof and warp of national policy. This invisible government has created thousands of multi-millionaires out of confiscated resources and driven millions of our people into mortgaged and rented homes.

When we contrast war and prewar pledges with postwar facts we fully realize why armed force and penitentiaries are employed to teach a spurious Americanism. With our vast natural resources of raw materials, tools, improved machinery, control of natural energies and in-

telligent labor, two-thirds of cur adult population intelligently employed five days of six hours each per week, in agriculture, power plants, forests, fisheries, packing plants, horticulture, .mills, mines and factories, can create an abundance for all and a surplus against future contingencies, while employing the other third of our adults on public works for the general social uplift.

We can, and should, keep at least 6,000,000 men constantly so employed.

A study of our accomplishments in 1917-18 when it was "work or fight” will prove that I am indulging in no pipe dream.

With 4,000,000 of our ablest men taken from the channels of productive industry and more than half of the remainder employed in creating war supplies, we not only fed, clothed and cared for ourselves, our great majority employed in war pursuits, but we also fed, clothed and cared for the better part of Europe. Now we must either cancel fictitious titles and administer industry and natural resources for the common good or be overwhelmed in a social cataclysm.

Where standards are employed there can be no controversy nor confusion. We have a standard for each and every class of units; we employ standards for every class of units except that of defining units of labor or social service —commodity units created by industry. Each standard is limited to defining the volume and structure of its own units. Duration defines the time value of its own units and‘nothing else. Time employed has no defined relation to service or labor value. Three men shear sheep for ten hours, one shears fort}’, another sixty and the other one hundred. Hence the product and not the time measures the labor or service rendered by each.

A Standard of Value

OR centuries social economists have talked glibly of standards without comprehending

or demonstrating the law, volume and structure of standards. If they knew what they were talking about, they failed to make it clear. My demonstration published in The Golden Age, April 14,1920, was the first made public. I will quote from that article so that any intelligent student can solve and verify the problem of standards for himself!

"Standards are natural products over which men and nations have no jurisdiction, no option in their selection and establishment. Nature established gravity, duration, space, altitude, longimetry, etc., as standards of weight, time, capacity, height, length, etc. Man had no choice in the matter whatever. A standard is identical in character with the units defined, with the units that compose its structure.

"The law of standards defines a standard as the greatest possible or culminating unit of its kind and includes all units of its own character. Gravity includes all weight units, space all capacity units, duration all time units, etc. There is no exception to this Jaw or rule. Hence the standard of values must include all units of value x»r all factors of commerce. An understanding of that law makes the location of a standard a simple matter. Name its greatest unit and you have the standard.

"Space units include the universe and is the standard of capacity and the greatest unit of capacity. Duration includes all time units from seconds to eternity, and is the only possible standard of time. Gravity embraces all weight units; altitude all height units, etc. Obedient to that law all social factors, all units of commerce from toothpicks, minerals, power sites, etc., to the world’s greatest transportation systems are parts or units of the standard of value.

“Labor is the world’s greatest unit of value and includes all other units combined. It is the greatest unit of commerce and is the only possible standard of value.”

When our money becomes a token, symbol or indication of service or labor values in different denominations of units instead of tokens of weight values as at present, we shall have selfadjusting scientific money not subject to inflation nor deflation, and not requiring a legal-tender act. *

Ford for President? By L. D. Barnes

|           ORD for President” would look good to would make it uneasy for the heads of the

I        A the toiling masses. He is the best em- money-crowned kings. Some one has said that

^!      ployer of labor extant. He raises wages and Mr. Ford could nm the country single-handed

reduces profits, yet makes more money. He and do a better job than all the opposing poli-would have to run as an independent. Mr. Ford ticians put together.

Perplexity of the Nations By Robert f. QrosseU

AT THIS writing just what the outcome shall be of Germany's unconditional surrender to France is unknown. Having surrendered, * Germany is apt to expect too much leniency on the part of France for “honor's” sake; but France does not intend to satisfy any honor. Both governments have been to an enormous loss in the struggle of the Rhineland, normally the richest industrial center in the world. While the people of .Germany do not want war, but long for peace and prosperity, the settlement is not apt to be thoroughly satisfactory; and sooner or later some disgruntled leaders will cause internal strife to break out. [Already the case.—Ed.]

The thrift of the poorer classes would soon bring order out of chaos were they left to themselves ; for about two and one-half millions are organized into agricultural societies, and nearly four millions of the labor people are cooperatively organized. What the near future holds for Germany and France time alone will tell

Germany has occupied the unique position of a nation profiting by its own debased currency. By borrowing from abroad when the mark was higher, and paying their debts when the mark was lower, the government and the people have made money by the drop in value. By this procedure, by buying all the materials and commodities possible, as the mark has gone down the relative value of their possessions has increased; for the goods purchased suffer little if any shrinkage compared with the shrinkage of the mark. Hugo Stinnes has increased his wealth enormously by thus taking advantage of the falling mark. He bought on credit railroads and manufacturing establishments, mortgaging the one to buy the other. The drop in the value of money made his property valuable. He consequently paid off his debts at something of a fraction of what they were contracted for.

Debtors Benefited by a Dying World

THE creditor is ruined by inflation. That which is owing him will be repaid to him in money that is worth less and less. The debtor is enriched in a converse manner. The money he owes is worth less and less until the debt is negligible. Then he pays and the property is his. It is obvious that to get rich in Germany one has simply to go deeper and deeper into debt—to borrow and buy.           ,

Germany financed the war with paper; that is, she printed paper money and bonds instead of taxing the people. This was done on the theory that she was bound to win and that the loser would be made to pay. An elaborate scheme bad been worked out whereby the cost would be garnered back from the Allies- And as Germany had informed herself as to where the convertible wealth of her enemies lay, that wealth was to be seized for payment of the cost of the war. In this light, therefore, the paper money and the bonds served merely as a temporary expedient until the spoils might be collected from the vanquished.

It is not difficult to understand why the German government is worried at the downward plunge of the mark with its erratic fluctuations from day to day. All business transactions are made difficult and precarious by the conditions that exist.

Yet in Germany there is no dearth of skilled bankers and financiers. Notwithstanding this fact, those in authority are proceeding to cope with the enormously inflated currency as if such a condition had never existed before. The corrective measures (if they could be called such) taken are along the old lines—those of the French Revolution. Speculators in foreign exchange are held up as the guilty men, and not the officials who by their course have made the violent fluctuations in exchange possible.

In this pursuit of mistaken remedies there is talk of closing up the brokers' offices and of raiding the banks that do business in foreign currencies. The great numbers of Germans who hasten to get rid of their mass of depreciated marks for whatever these will bring in dollars, francs, and guilders are regarded as little more than traitors to their country.

Fiat Money Brings Disaster

WE CAN learn something from history, and that branch of study teaches us that a fiat currency always invites disaster.

The complex conditions of civilized life today make money absolutely necessary as a medium of exchange and as a measure of value; for none other seems to be known or practicable. In ancient times when life was simple, men resorted to barter, which consisted of the simple exchange of goods. But this method is crude and cumbersome, and inadequate for civilized

needs. Men then looked about for some article which would serve as a unit of value.

In savage communities the unit was shells, cattle, beaver skins, corn, cocoanut, salt or some other article of general use. But this unit was soon found to be unsatisfactory, and a unit of more intrinsic value was sought. The use of metals was then resorted to; and gradually gold became accepted as the most satisfactory unit which could be found. And so in the course of time the gold standard became the basis for the currency systems of most modern governments. This signifies that the underlying unit of value is gold, and that all other forms of currency are ultimately redeemable in gold.

In the past many governments have been led astray in times of financial stringency by false economic theories, and have attempted to issue currency not redeemable in gold, but basing value on the mere word or fiat of the issuing government. This form of currency is known as “fiat money." But the use of fiat money by a government ultimately brings disaster. The effect is to bring into operation an old economic law which is, simply stated, that "bad money drives out good money/'' When bad money is issued, people will hoard their good money; and in due time the bad money will depreciate in value because there is no real intrinsic value back of it. The rule with respect to fiat money is that it may be issued to the extent that it is necessary for the needs of the community as a medium of exchange; and that when that point is reached it will be indicated by the money's going below par, when the issue of it should stop.

With the seizure by the French of the Ruhr district, which constitutes the industrial heart of Germany, the intense activity in the latter country has somewhat slowed down.

The largest German iron and steel plants and the head offices of the large German combines are located in the Ruhr valley. From the Ruhr comes a heavy percentage of Germany’s exported goods, especially iron and steel products; and it is from this region that the German railways and other public utilities derive much of their fuel. Ruhr coal also plays an important part in Belgian, Dutch, and Italian industries.

The Ruhr is the most important industrial region in Germany. It contains the best coal fields, and the most important German industries are located there. The big German Industrials, after the loss of their Lorraine iron and steel plants, concentrated their efforts mainly in this district and established a number of new factories to replace those lost

The French government has been informed that Germany cannot pay unless France releases her hold upon the Ruhr; and in turn France has replied that she cannot exchange her occupation of that territory for promises which she has no means of knowing will be fulfilled.

While Germany has defaulted in her reparation payments with the plea that she is not able to meet them, the improvement of her industrial resources has gone forward at a tremendous pace. After the armistice Germany's mercantile marine was practically nothing. At the end of 1922 it was 2,250,000 tons, with 500,000 tons under construction. New docks, new harbors, new terminals, new railroad yards, new canals, new locks, new mills, new machineiy, new villages for the workers, and new administration offices have been built In the meantime the government was restoring the railroads with new rails, new roek ballast, and new freight equipment. New town halls and new public utilities have been built by municipalities. There has been extensive development of electric light and power projects- Private building has gone on at the same extensive rate. New buildings are exempt from the rent laws which have ruined the <fid landlords in the cities. While the old landlords are scarcely able to keep their old houses in repair, new buildings were cheaper. Profiteers and traders built fine houses. New houses have gone up everywhere.

With the enormous increase in the issue of paper marks, and consequent depreciation, the demand for money has grown greater and greater, until the printing presses are scarcely able to keep up with the demand. On January 6,1923, there were 1,336,501,000,000 Reichsbank notes in circulation; and this amount rapidly increased until on March 7, 1923, the amount in circulation was over twice what it was on January 6, being 3,871,256,000,000 marks.

Ex-Kaiser Going Mad

NDER the caption of "Several Reasons Why the Kaiser should be Reported Mai"

Herbert Kaufman says:     -

“Germany at last posts her score. Not counting civilian deaths from grief, shock and penury diseases, her officials announce that the great war killed 1,945,000 assn, made 533,000 widows, orphaned 58,000 children, and left 1,130,000 fatherless. Bernhardi and the other High priests of Weltmacht have nothing to say.

"Humor repeats that the ex-kaiser is fast going mad. If he reads these figures they will doubtless complete the job. Conscience and remorse must be constant companions of the recluse at Doom.

"Memory is a drainlesa poison cup. The once haughtiest head in Europe is now only a haunted house rife with the ghosts of past grandeurs and the mocking wraiths of thwarted ambition. Erile has imposed a harsher sentence upon Herr Hohenzollem than any international tribunal could ever have issued against the Prussian king. Justice does not always sit in a court room. Her verdicts are as often delivered at sleepless bedsides. The Furies do not wait upon man to act; they have a law of their own.”

The published letters of late Ambassador Page advise his sons to forget Europe, locate the whole future of the race in new countries— chiefly ours—and assert that the continent will not be worth living on for another fifty years.

Labor Situation in England

THE labor situation in Great Britain is serious. The number of unemployed is computed by the Ministry of Labor to be about 1,300,000.

There is also dangerous discontent among farm laborers in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Shropshire due to low wages; and a strike of 15,000 workers in Norfolk occurred some time ago. The farmers acknowledge that their employes are not getting a living wage, but contend that they cannot pay any more, due to the low prices received for their products. The facts as revealed on both sides indicate the desperate condition to which the agricultural industry has been reduced. The laborers demand a minimum weekly wage of $7.35 (a meager wage indeed) against the $5.87 offered by the farmers for a week of forty-two hours. The strike reached such a pass that it was necessary for the farmers to go to work in their fields armed with guns.

There is a striking similarity in this protest of the farm laborers with that of the Peasants* Bevolt which occurred in the year 1381 in the nine counties.

Prior to the visitation of the Black Plague in I34R and 1349 the suvmlw of labor had been abundant and cheap. This plague, the most terrible which the world has ever witnessed, advanced from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Baltic, and swooped down upon England at the close of the year 1348. Green, in his history of England, states:

"The traditions of its destructiveness, and the panlo* struck words of the statutes which followed it, have been more than justified by modem research. Of the three or four millions who then formed the population of England, more than one-half were swept away in its repeated visitations. Its ravages were fiercest in the greater towns, where filth and undrained streets afforded a constant haunt to leprosy and fever. The whole organization of labor wu thrown out of gear. For a time cultivation became impossible. ‘The sheep and cattle strayed through the fields and corn/ says a contemporary, ‘and there was none left who could drive them.* Even when the first burst of panic was over, the sudden rise of wages consequent on the enormous diminution in the supply of free labor, though accompanied by a corresponding rise in the price of food, rudely disturbed the course of industrial employments; the harvests rotted on the ground, and fields were left untilled, not merely from the scarcity of hands, but from the strife which now for the first time revealed itself between capital and labor,

"While the landowners of the country and the wealthier craftsmen of the towns were threatened with ruin by what seemed to their age the extravagant demands of the new labor class, the country itself was torn with riot and disorder. The outbreak of lawless self-indulgence which followed everywhere in the wake of the plague told especially upon the landless men, wandering in search of work, and for the first time masters of the labor market; and the wandering laborer or artisan turned easily into the sturdy beggar or the bandit of the woods.

"A summary redrees for these evils was at once provided by the Crown in a royal ordinance which was subsequently embodied in the Statutes of Laborers. 'Every man or woman/ runs this famous provision, 'of whats> ever condition, free or bond, able in body, and within the age of threescore years and not having of his own whereof he may live, nor land of his own about the tillage of which he may occupy himself, and not serving In any other, shall be bound to serve the employer who shall require him to do so, and shall take only the wages which were accustomed to be taken in the neighborhood where he is bound to aerrtf two yean before the plague began. A refusal to obey was punished by imprisonment. The laborer was forbidden to quit the parish where be lived in search of better-paid employment; if ha di» beyed he became a fugitive and subject to impriaanmmt at the hands of the iusticea of the peace.

^tfA more terrible outcome of the general suffering was seen tn a new revolt (1381) against the whole system of social inequality which had till then passed unquestioned as the divine order of the world: Their (the peasants') longing for a right rule, for plain and simple justice; their scorn of the immorality of the nobles and the infamy of the court; their resentment at the perversion of the law tq^escape oppression. The revolt spread like wildfire through the country; Norfolk and Suffolk, Cambridge and Hertfordshire arose in arms; from Sussex and Surrey the insurrection extended as far as Devon. Their grievance was mainly political, for villainage was unknown in Kent; but as they poured on to Blackheath, every lawyer who fell into their hands was put to death; *not till all these are killed would the land enjoy its old freedom again/ the peasants shouted as they fired the houses of the stewards or flung the records of the manor-courts into the flames."

After some bloodshed the revolt was quelled and afterward through the Summer and Autumn seven thousand men were said to have perished on the gallows as a result of the insurrection.

Sentiment against War Growing

THERE is a growing sentiment against war throughout the laboring world. This is particularly manifest in England. Some months ago, when war threatened with Turkey, the labor members of Parliament made it perfectly clear that the labor element of Great Britain would not support a war with that country.

Those were remarkable and significant utterances on war made by the organized but poverty-stricken workers of England during the early part of the Great War. They were being urged to join the army and had been told to think of their honor, of their manhood, and especially of England’s greatness. But the workers replied by saying that they had nothing to lose, and therefore had nothing at stake; that they were disinherited and destitute under English rule; and that they could only be disinherited and destitute under any other government. And they ended by saying, "We will let those fight who have something to lose."

In Bulgaria the people want no more war. The peasantry of Bulgaria have the idea that war costs too much and buys too little, and therefore they want no more of it. The Bulgarian leaders declare that they are through with war forever. Instead of conscription in the army Bulgaria has a new law of conscripted labor in behalf of the state. It has the advantage of a military system with none of its disadvantages. Every boy and girl of school age is conscripted for education for seven years’ attendance at school. At the age of twenty every young man is required to put in eight months of work with the colors in some form of labor for the commonwealth, such as the building and repair of highways, construction of railways, lumbering, erection of buildings for the government, the making of clothes, working in public office, etc. Soldier rations, but no pay, are given this labor army. All girls of sixteen or over in the villages are conscripted for eight months of industrial training along with some outdoor work; in the cities unmarried young women must serve eight months in government offices. After the eight-months period has been served, the citizen is thereby exempt from national conscription, although he is subject to ten days' conscription each year to serve in his own community. Conscripted persons may purchase exemption, but the fee is very high, and very few have sought this way out.

This labor army levels all lines; there are no exempt classes either by social position or by political influence. Bulgaria has simply turned the current of communism into new channels of conscripted common labor for public progress.

Bulgaria has about 45,000 young men every year reaching the age of twenty. The bulk of the force, of course, is engaged in plain manual labor; but each man is enrolled at the work he best can do. Authors are set to writing upon compulsory labor, etc. Artists are set at painting pictures for the state. Builders, architects, and engineers fall, of course, into their own vocations. The workers are building new and better roads, constructing new railway lines, docks and harbors. Thus the forces, which in the various other countries of Europe form the standing armies engaged in no construction or production, and which at any time by reason of war may be turned into destructive channels, are, in Bulgaria, turned into useful, constructive channels for the common benefit and upbuilding of individuals into good ritizana.

Radical Russia Rich in Rubles

WITH reference to the present Russian situation Herbert Kaufman says:

will some day learn what local caroenteTn have discovered—that weight is perilously placed on weakness. The folks who rule at Moscow have not the wisdom and experience to sustain the structure they support Eussia must reframe her government as we now erect houses—by using unwarped stuff with extra material at the cross beams, and resting them on broa^ tops instead of whittling important timbers to fit little mortise and tenon joints. It is bad business to place reliance on least dimensions.”

Tchitcherin, Commissar for Foreign Affairs, that master at sowing the seeds of discord, who threw out the poison which curdled the sweet milk of concord at the Genoa Conference, outwitting Lloyd George, does not appear to be in a position to work his nefarious schemes. The foreign policy of the Soviet is becoming vacillating, which in itself constitutes a flag of distress. The lessons of history would indicate that another great shift at the Roulette Table is about to occur in Russia.

The standard value of the Russian ruble is .5146 in U. S. money. A Soviet journal is authority for the statement that at the beginning of the war the amount of paper rubles outstanding was 1,630,000,000; by the end of 1917 it had reached 27,300,000,000; at the end of 1919, 225,000,000,000, and at the end of 1920, 1,168,000,000,000. The statement goes on to say that at the time of writing, October, 1921, the prices in Moscow were 48,600 times higher than in 1914; and the editor argued that on this basis the monetary circulation was insufficient for Russia's needs. He calculated the country's needs for currency at that time to be 48,500,000,000,000 rubles. Russia’s total of paper currency, as stated by her Commissar of Finance, stood at the end of 1921 at slightly more than 11,000,000,000,000 Soviet rubles. According to the London Economic Review at the end of 1922 it was 450,000,000,000,000 rubles, being forty times greater than one year earlier.

[Some of the information we get about Russia must be taken with a grain of salt. The plute press discolors and distorts the Russian situation (as it does of other countries); and it will continue to do so.

Senator Brookhart, who returned from Europe in September, was quite optimistic about Russia. He said: *T saw enough in Russia to feel sure that the country will come through in good shape. The people I saw had enough to eat and to wear. Their clothes .were plain, as was their food; but the point is, there was enough of both.” He further said that crops were good in Russia, and that the Russians should have a million tons to export. The government is erecting model houses for the people in many parts of the country which are in striking contrast to the houses erected during the Czar regime.—Ed.]

No Unemployment tn Frai^

TN FRANCE, while the government is heavily A involved in debt—the public debt standing at the close of the year 1922 at the enormous figures of 316,984,988,000 francs (being $61,178,102,684.00 in U. S. money, calculating on the basis of the gold franc at .193)—requiring approximately one-half of the revenues of the government to meet the interest alone, the people are industrious and frugal and the country as a whole is in a prosperous condition. Sixty percent of the people live on agricultural land. Reconstruction work is employing all available labor, and has kept wages up. There is practically no unemployment and economic conditions among the people are good.

But, enormous as are the debts of the various nations of Europe today, undoubtedly as asserted by William G. McAdoo, should those nations eliminate their land and sea armaments, and the personnel employed in them were to direct their efforts along constructive lines, Europe’s indebtedness would be wiped out in a generation.

But will there be united action in disarmament? Preparations are going on in nearly all the world on the most gigantic scale preparing for the next war, and the angry tusks of Mars are ever sharpened and shining in the limelight, which shows that a small minority of selfish men still rule the world's affairs. But the time has about come when the Prince of Peace shall speak peace to the nations, when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Apparently the people must dearly learn the terribleness of the awfulness of war and, more than likely, the “next war” will teach that lesson for all time; for when the nations are ushered into Armageddon’s yawning mouth they will disappear forever, and Christ’s beneficent reign of righteousness will then bring to the peoples of earth life, liberty, and happiness with the attendant joys of justice and love.—Isaiah 26:9.

A Voice from the Farm By a Farmer’s Wife

IT IS wholesome and invigorating lor us to behold ourselves in the mirror occasionally, to see ourselves as others see us, to realize definitely what manner of creatures we are; for how can we correct our faults in carriage, in dress, or in morals, if we do not see them! It is well for the "hired help’¹ and the farmer to be frank with one another, especially when they have such a good medium as The Golden Age, and may take refuge under a nom de plume, while they are reciting plain facts to each other.

Upon reading an article in The Golden Age, No. 76, entitled, "The Farmer’s Skirts Not Clear," we are impressed with the fact that men everywhere show a surprising inability to put themselves into another’s place, and that therefore they are unable to exercise much clemency, one towards the other. The farmer, as well as the hired “hand/' is a victim of the prevailing lack of confidence of man in man; and for the evil ways of a few all must suffer under this present rule of Satan.

Greedy is an adjective which may properly be applied to men in all walks of life; and, no doubt, the farmer’s greed has contributed no small part towards getting the world into its present dilemma.

Verily, contentment is a jewel few possess.

Had the farmer from the beginning been content to give his attention, first, to such products as he could grow in his particular locality to supply the needs of his family; and, second, to such money crops as he, working in conjunction with his neighbors, could harvest without the aid of outside help, and without machinery which he must go into debt to purchase, he would have given many of our “floating” population a chance to become expert in the agricultural business, and would have very noticeably relieved the congestion in municipal centers.

These latter men would have found it necessary, on account of the scarcity and consequent high prices of farm produce, to go out upon the land and start little empires of their own—a thing many would not do now, even though they could get farms and equipment for almost a "song.” They know that the man who buys a farm, buys himself a “job” which requires long hours and hard labor, with a remuneration which is uncertain, and which often falls below the yearly wage of laborers in almost any other occupation.

If instead of exerting every energy to gaifl wealth and position, and to make a place in tin world for their sons, the farmers and their wives had pursued a "pay as you go” course from the beginning, they would have left room not only for these sons, but for other men’s sons to make places for themselves—a procedure which should be more satisfactory to the young men, and decidedly better for them from a moral standpoint It is a fact that half the joy in possession lies in the getting, a pleasure of which many parents seem bent on robbing their children.

Perhaps this standard of living would necessitate a much simpler life for some. Instead of the super-six, old “Dobbin” might still be on duty; instead of the piano, the music might have to be furnished by the birds or by the vocal talent that could be developed in the neighborhood; and instead of costly works of art, the local scenery might have to suffice. But old “Dobbin" is not half bad; there is no sweeter music than the songs of birds or of well-trained human voices; and no artist ever put on canvas richer scenery than we may see in almost any locality, if we can get the dollar sign away from before our eyes long enough.

Under this system the standard of living would be universally good and conducive to happiness. All could have enough work for health, and have time left for physical, mental, and moral development. In addition to this, a more brotherly feeling would be in evidence in at least one class of men. Did you ever live in a new country where all the settlers were on about the same level financially! If so, did you note the neighborliness which prevailed!

As for ambition: God hasten the day when human efforts shall not have for their goal wealth and influence, gained through the selling of or speculation in the necessities of life. There will be higher aims for ambition in the Golden Age now dawning.

Tha Farmer Cannot Turn Back

BUT the time is past for the farmer to adopt this style of living, even if he would. There is no returning to what might have been; for there loom in the way great public debts, most of which he voted upon himself, and other debts, contracted in answer to the call to make prog-

reas; and these debts must be met if he would retain his honor.

In late years, a certain high standard of living—set up by nobody knows whom, and requiring a maximum of energy and management to attain and maintain—has been urged upon the fanner from every side. No particular moral traits are advocated except that he be always optomistic and a good "spender.” The world’s standard is satisfied only by dollars and outward show.

The farmer is brazenly told that if he cannot keep up with the procession, he is lacking in business ability and in brains. It is strongly hinted that he is little less than the scum of creation, a hindrance to progress, and unworthy a place on the face of the earth. Do we not see the hand of “big business" in this, opening up new fields for financial operations and creating larger markets for high-priced machinery and expensive perquisites to luxurious homes!

Small wonder, then, that we see the farmer adopting the methods of “big business" even in his treatment of his hired “help."

There are other reasons also for the fanner’s change of attitude towards his “help.” The laborer approaches him with a “Bill of Rights,” stating what he will or will not do, and the number of hours he will serve each day and, while admitting that he is not an expert in agricultural lines, boldly demanding an expert’s wages. Most farmers would consider themselves prosperous indeed if they received accordingly for the hours they themselves put into their business! “Ye oldtime" farm ^<fhand" was not so particular; consequently, “ye oldtime” farmer was less exacting in his demands and not so jealous of time lost by his hired man. The average “floating laborer" nowadays reminds one of the man traveling in Europe who missed the sights because he was so busy keeping himself from being imposed upon. .

Naturally, the stubborn attribute in the fanner’s nature is aroused; and he retaliates by getting along the best he can without this help, employing “hands" only when unavoidable in harvest time. It is not an uncommon thing to see mothers, daughters, and young children out in the fields trying to fill the places which should be filled by men who are spending their time riding over the country on box cars.

Farm Hands Not Always Reliable

TN CONSIDERING the social side of the J- hired man’s life on the farm, let us remember that he is usually an entire stranger to the family. Many wicked acts have been recorded as perpetrated by this “stranger help” upon the farmer, upon his family, or upon his property. Some deplorable instances have occurred even in our own section of the country. Then do not blame the family for holding themselves aloof; at least until they know the “hand" can be trusted. Their attitude may be more as a measure of safety than a product of snobbishness. Here again the innocent suffer for the wickedness of the guilty.

There are exceptions. Last year a laborer came to work for a farmer at the wages his employer felt that he could afford to pay—to an untried “hand" at least. The man did not act as if he feared he might do more than he was paid for, but took an interest in his work. If he had spare time, he did not hesitate to do whatever needed to be done about the farm, without waiting to be told. When he did not know how the fanner wanted a thing done, he paid attention to instructions and did not need to be told a second time. When he was sent to do anything, the farmer knew that the task would be done, and done well. He did not “speed up” at the expense of thoroughness, as many laborers everywhere do now. He was mannerly and considerate.

Soon things began to run so smoothly that the fanner saw his way clear to allow the man several half-days off, and to give him privileges with his employer’s property that would not have been permitted to one in fifty other strange ^,#hands.” He was treated as one of the family, and was offered work for all the next season on a crop-sharing basis with good wages guaranteed whether crops failed or not

This farmer may have been an exceptional one, but we are sure the “hand” was of unusual type; for laborers such as he do not remain “floaters” long. They either go into business for themselves or are found indispensable in another man’s business at a good remuneration.

The usual lack of harmony between the farmer and his hired help, however, is directly traceable to the system under which both work. If society could devise some means whereby the farmer could be assured of receiving just compensation for reasonable hours of honest labor, soon neither the hobo nor the very rich man would have an excuse for existence. The farmer should have remuneration, if he has done his part. Most farmers of more than a decade's experience can testify of years of privation and sometimes of want, through no fault of their own. They tilled the soil well; but either the rain did not come, or the hail swept their fields dean, or pests played havoc with all growing things. They tended their live stock faithfully, but disease ravaged their herds.

There lives a man in our neighborhood who raised enough wheat this year to furnish twenty-four families of five each, with flour for one year; and all that he has left, after all expenses are paid, is sixteen dollars. He has a large family to support. Many farmers in the wheat section of the far West are finding themselves in very much the same predicament this season.

Perhaps the game of chance is all right for a young man with no one dependent upon him; but for a married man with a family, it is little less than tragedy.

Agriculture is the hub around which all other businesses revolve. Put the farmer on the payroll, and you will establish a substantial and uniform standard of living which not only will prove very satisfactory to all in the end but will greatly promote a brotherly feeling among men. It is an unacknowledged fact that one worker is not entitled to shorter hours until all can have them; neither should one receive more compensation than another for the same expenditure of energy.

Such a plan would necessitate specialisation and government control; and it is possible that money will not be needed at all, but that a system of credits will be evolved which will enable each individual worker to obtain his quota of the world's productions.

The time has come when what was thought impossible yesterday is done today; and if we cannot, or will not, find a way to give justice to all men the great King just now assuming control will ere long make all things right.

The development in vegetation, reclaiming arid lands, feeding or renewing the soil, scientific destruction of pests, learning what insects and animals are harmless and profitable to farm life, advancement in stock raising, and earing for farm products are among the many things that bespeak a better day for the tiller of the soil We know that it is coming; for the earth shall blossom as the rose and yield its increase, and man will not bring forth the fruit of the field for trouble, but for blessing and the privileges of life, under Messiah's kingdom.

Another Unholy Trinity

notice in the Manchester, England, Guardian:

"Services at 10:30 a. m.

"Subject: *The Three Great Failures.'

"Choir.

"Sermon.

“Pipe organ offertory.”

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Prenatal Diet

IF WE could only tell the story of prenatal diet so that everybody could take in the idea we could regenerate this country in two years!

Think what we are producing as the physical aspect of the AmerirAn nation! Ninety-seven percent of our school children have decayed teeth and malocclusion, forty percent have abnormal breathing tracts and posture defects, twenty percent have infections of the skin, and smaller percentages have defective hearing, defective vision and flat feet.

Think of the record of contagious diseases among school children: Colds, whooping cough, mumps, measles, scarlet fever, chicken pox, and several others. No other animal existing compares with the physical condition of human beings in civilized communities.

What is wrong with civilized man as an animal V Has he not both the medical and the dental professions working for him to prevent these diseases and defectsT Yes; but we have all strayed so far from the fundamentals of natural living that the combined knowledge of all the scientists does not keep us well, and does not prevent disease.

The practice of prevention is so closely associated with disease itself that we have come to believe in vaccination as the natural preventive of smallpox, in cod liver oil as the logical preventive for rickets, in pasteurization as the natural method of securing safe milk, in early orthodontia as the preventive for malocclusion, and in extension of the cavity walls of a carious tooth to the sound enamel structure as dental prophylaxis I

Valuable as these procedure^ are, we are forced to the realization that not one of them is truly preventive. The fundamental truth which we have lost sight of is the inherent ability of the body cells, under normal conditions, to build perfect structures, and to establish and maintain a natural immunity to disease. What must these cells have to build a perfect structure!

The human body is made up of sixteen elements, and all animal and vegetable life contains the same sixteen elements. Even the soil is similarly composed, so that only by the most perverse and unnatural* methods of preparing food can the human animal escape being perfectly nourished. It is man’s perversion of his natural food supply which, in my judgment, is

By Dr. A. C, Fones the cause of ninety percent of our physical defects.

In order to have food that will not spoil, and that is, therefore, a good commercial propositi m, the refiners take the essential life elements out of it and give us in exchange a product that we can keep for a year, if necessary; and we call it food.

Can you think of any natural food, any fruit, vegetable, grain, milk, or eggs that will not spoil! It is impossible to name one; for bacteria molest any food that nature produces. Yet we eat hundreds of tons of degerminated and refined products that even bacteria scorn.

White sugar, white flour, degerminated corn meal, corn starch, polished rice, pearled barley, and patented breakfast foods galore from which practically all the twelve mineral elements have been removed; and the lack of even one of these elements eventually means sickness and finally death. These refined foods are useless for tooth formation, as they are practically calcium free.

Where Mothers Lose Their Teeth

IN THE formation of the human embryo the cells must get their building material from the blood of the mother; and the mother’s blood must obtain the sixteen life elements from the food which she eats. She must get them from her daily dietary; for if this fails to supply the elements necessary, her bones, her teeth, and other tissues will be robbed of calcium and other elements to maintain the developing child.

Dentists are all familiar with the deterioration of tooth structure during pregnancy, and this is only one of the many unfortunate conditions developing through ignorance of correct diet. The crowns of deciduous teeth are formed when the baby is born, and the cusps of the six-year molars are in process of formation. Who made them! The mother, from the food she ate during the prenatal period. Did her diet supply perfect building materials for teeth! Not if she consumed the usual American diet of meat, boiled potatoes, white bread, white sugar, pastries, tea and coffee. These common foods are practically calcium free, and her child cannot possibly have sound deciduous teeth without calcium and phosphorus.

We are trying to stop dental caries at the wrong end. We must get to the source, which is during the prenatal and preschool life. If

Dbcbmmb if. IMS

you build a house, and put it on a weak foundation, if you substitute inferior materials in the construction of it, you will expect to have a leaky roof, defective plumbing and other troubles. If we try to build a child’s body by substituting refined and demineralized products for nature’s food, we can expect the very defects which inevitably develop.

Show me the deciduous teeth of a child, and I will tell you the condition of the osseous tissue of that child. The factors which govern the calcification of the teeth also govern the calcification of the bone; and I believe that a defect like carious teeth can never exist as the sole imperfection in an otherwise seemingly healthy body.

There is not a tissue in the entire body that can be constructed or maintained without the mineral elements in proper physiological balance. The perversion of the physiological balance found in the natural foods can result in an imperfect structure of any organ, including the teeth.

If there is one message that I could bring you, it is to urge you to consider that imperfect tooth structure does not occur as a single defect, but that it is the index to the structure of the other tissues and organs in that body. This viewpoint places a tremendous responsibility upon the dental profession. It means education of the public to insure not only perfect tooth structure, but a sound and healthy body as well.

What must we teach regarding prenatal diet! It can be made so simple that anyone can understand it. The return to a natural diet means

m

the consumption of liberal quantities of dairy products—clean raw milk (a quart a day for the expectant mother and the growing child), fresh butter and cheese, eggs, every vegetable and fruit, fresh and raw when possible, but unpeeled and served in its own juice when cooked; for the juice of cooked vegetables contain the mineral salts.

It means whole-grain bread and cereals, with the bran and mineral elements retained. It fneans natural sugars, such as honey, figs, dates, raisins, real molasses, pure maple sugar, and syrup. Such a diet supplies all essential elements for a perfect body, and the cells with their God-given intelligence will do the rest.

The truth about diet should be spread by every dentist whenever the opportunity presents. The introduction of courses in dietetics into the public school curriculum will provide the largest field for improving the present conditions. Every girl going through the junior and senior years of high school must have the training in dietetics, especially as applied to prenatal feeding, before we have strong teeth and healthy bodies.

[The foregoing is unquestionably true, but if all his patients were to eat whole wheat bread, instead of white bread, the doctor would soon be out of a job. What a pity, when people can keep well for the price of two doctor's calls (eight dollars), that they neglect such a simple path to health. For the above sum, a mill is to be had which we have found is all that could be desired in the way of a hand mill.—Ed.]

Mark Twain’s Reputation Saved

GENIUS, faith, purity, romance, and the spirit of cooperation have been in every generation since the days of Adam. With these have been the spirit of rebellion, anarchy, and bolshevism. Each generation has measured its people with the standards that obtained during its own life. A genius might be transplanted to another age and there be considered a fool, and everybody coincide in such opinion. A crazy person might be translated to another epoch, and there be rightly considered the wisest of men. If it had not been for leading the Israelites out of Egypt and giving the law at Mount

Sinai, Moses might never have been heard of. If Jezebel had been a good woman, we might never have heard of her. Passing through crises in the destiny of nations brings some noble characters to the front; as for instance, Washington, Lincoln, and Grant. Sometimes a man will get many pages in the histories because of his meanness, as Nero. Mark Twain would probably never have been heard of had he not been a "funny man.”

Mark, whose real name was Samuel L. Clemens, was born in 1835. His schooling was very meager. As a boy he was a printer's devil; and after drifting around as a typesetter he abandoned that work, and became a pilot on a steamboat on the Mississippi river. He tried his hand at silver mining, and later at gold mining, meantime writing as a reporter for some of the western newspapers. He edited a paper in Buffalo, N. Y., later was married, and otherwise became acquainted with the severe experiences of life. He died in 1910.

It was Mark Twain’s humor and philosophical turn of mind together with honesty and candor, which brought him to a high plane among humorists. As he was such a prolific writer it is not expected that his writings would be devoid, of some stale and inconsequential stuff. But Mark was a good observer having excellent descriptive powers; his strain of humor kept up the interest, and finally he was given a place in the Hail of Fame. Doubtless many places have sported their local Mark Twains, who have passed away without special notice because of circumstances or association.

The original Mark wrote a prayer—he did not say it, he wrote it—a sarcastic prayer which he did not intend for the Almighty to hear. It was a sort of travesty on our present-day civilization; and he said of it: "I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the whole truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead?’ Here it is:

Mark Twain** War Prayer

LORD, our God, help us to tear their soldiers vx to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dud; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the wounded writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless, with their little children, to wander unfriended through wastes of their desolated lands in rags and hunger and thirst, sport of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it For our sakes, who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feetl We ask of One who is the spirit of love .and who is the ever-faithful Refuge and Friend of all that are sore beset, and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Grant our prayer, 0 Lord; and Thine shall be the praise and honor and glory now and ever. Amen,"

Mark Twain on Monarchies

qpHE horrors and hellishness of the results of war are depicted in that prayer; and the blasphemy of it all in calling upon a gracious and loving Creator in such terms of selfish hatred is manifest

With prophetic vision Mark stepped into the future fifty years—to 1939—and declared that by that time monarchies would be swept from the earth. At the time of utterance he could hardly have had advantage of “The Time is at Hand," based upon “The Divine Plan of the Ages" (first two volumes of Pastor Russell's works), and therefore was a very good guesser.

"Another throne has gone down, and I swim in oceans of satisfaction. I wish I might live fifty years longer; I believe I should see the thrones of Europe selling at auction for old iron. I believe I should really see the end of what is surely the grotesques! of all the swindles ever invented by man—monarchy. It is enough to make a graven image laugh, to see apparently rational people^ away down here in this wholesome and merciless slaughter-day of shams, still mouthing empty reverence for those moss-backed frauds and scoundrelisms, hereditary kingship and so-called nobility. It ia enough to make the monarchs and nobles themselves laugh—and in private they do; there can be no question about that I think there is only one funnier thing, and that is the spectacle of these bastard Americans—these Hammersleys and Huntingtons and such—offering cash, encumbered by themselves, for rotten carcasses and stolen titles. When our great brethren, the disenslaved Brazilians, frame their Declaration of Independence, I hope they will insert this miming link: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all monarchs are usurpers, and descendants of usurpers; for the reason that no throne was ever set up in this world by the will, freely exercised, of the only body possessing the legitimate right to set it up—the numerical mass of the nation.’ Things are working. Bye and bye there Is going to be an emigration, maybe. In a few years from now we shall have nothing but played-out kings and dukes on the police, and In fact overcrowding all the avenues of unskilled labor. I want to say a Yankee mechanic’s say about monarchy and its several natural props. I am glad you approve of what I say about the French Revolution. Few people will. It is odd that even to this day Americans still observe that immortal benefaction through English and other monarchical eyes, and have no shred of an opinion about it that they didn’t get at second hand. Next to the Fourth of July and its results, ft was the noblest and the holiest thing and the most precious that ever happened on this earth. And its gracious work is not done yet—not anywhere in the remote neigh-borhgpd of it"—1889.

Spiritualism Antagonistic to Scripture Teaching By J. 0. Watson

ST. PAUL, in 1 Timothy 4:1, tells us that in the latter days (and we are in them now) some will depart from the faith and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; and his words are certainly being fulfilled now. For there are in Vancouver, B. C., and elsewhere, professed religious people who not only claim to be able to communicate with the dead, but positively assert that they have done so and have received messages from the dead. This imaginative communication with the dead is technically called spiritualism, but is nothing less than witchcraft, no matter by what other name one chooses to call it, and is of evil origin; and the originator of all evil is the devil.

To our surprise a noted author. Sir Conan Doyle, an upholder of spiritualism, paid a visit to Vancouver just recently and delivered a lecture on spiritualism, and showed to the audience photographs purporting to be of spirits of the dead, and stated (according to our local newspaper report) that spiritualism was not antagonistic to Christianity or other religions. I will now show with proof from Scripture that it is impossible to communicate with the dead, and that Sir Conan Doyle’s assertion that spiritualism is not antagonistic to Christianity and other religions is utterly false and misleading.

In Ecclesiastes 9:5 we are told; "The dead know not anything . . . the memory of them is forgotten.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 reads: "There is no . . . knowledge, nor wisdom^ in the grave ” Job 32:8 tells us: "There is a spirit in man”; and in Job 14:10 we read: "But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost [spirit], and where is he?” In Psalm 104:29 we read: "Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust" And we learn by reading Ecclesiastes 12:7 that when a man dies and is buried, his body (which was formed from the dust of the ground—Genesis 2:7) returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God, who gave it Then if, as we know, a dead man's body decays away when buried and the spirit returns to God, what in : the name of common sense is there in the grave to communicate with?

There is but one answer, i. e._f Nothing. A witch may be able to communicate with evil spirits in the air, angels of the devil; but that is an entirely different question. In Exodus 22:18 we are told: "Thou shalt not suffer [permit] a witch to live." Neither were they permitted to live in early days but when found were either stoned or burnt to death. But today in many cities they are received with open arms, and by paying a small amount of money they are granted license to carry on their nefarious calling. But I am now straying away from the subject, and will return.

In Deuteronomy 18:10-12 we read: "There shall not be found among you anyone that mak-eth his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord.”

And in Leviticus 19:31 we read: "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled [corrupted] by them: I am the Lord." Now all these statements refute the assertions and claims of those who contend that they communicate'with the dead; and we can only conclude that those who make such claims are atheists and delight in evil

Should this writing meet the eye of Sir Conan Doyle and others who indulge in spiritualism, and I hope it will, I would refer them to Psalm 50:22, which reads: "Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver”; and also to Psalm 55:23: "Deceitful men shall not live out half their days.”

Moreover, in Isaiah 8:19,20 we read: "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." I now warn my readers to be on their guard and avoid all those that indulge in evil practices, if they wish eternal life.

“There 1b light for me on the trackless Wild, As the wonders of old I trace.

When the God of the whole earth went before To search me a resting place.

“Has He changed for me? Nay! He changes not; He will bring me by some new way.

Through fire and flood, past tmch crafty foe. As safely as yesterday.¹*

I

The'Rivals

1HAVB in my study two pictures, one of the pope with his tiara, and one of Jesus with His shepherd's crook, and knocking at the door. I have marked them "Rivals for World Rulership.** I feel like saying with the Prophet:

"Remove the diadem, take off the crown: . . . exalt him that is low [the lowly Jesus], and abase him that is high [the Pope, the king of Babylon]. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him."— Ezekiel 21:26,27.

"He bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the ttust."—Isaiah 26:5.

' " ■I

By W. H. WalUck

"All hail the power of Jesus' name,

Let angels prostrate fall

Bring forth the royal diadem

And crown Him Lord of alt"

One can almost hear the Coronation Song of the new Ruler:

"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art

worthy to take the book, and to open the seals

thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed ' to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation: and hast made them unto our God kings and priests: and they       ,

shall reign on the earth. And every creature      j

which is in heaven, and on the earth, and such J as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard ' ' I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and . power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne,      _r

and unto the Lamb for ever and ever"—Reve-     ? 3

lation 5:9,10,13.

Christmas Bells By Frederick Lardent (London, Eng.)

0 Christmas bells, ye ring and ring 1 I hear your music pealing.

To me there's mockery in the tones That on the air an stealing.

For peace is but an empty name;

Good will—ah, who can find it?

For selfish greed stalks through the earth And misery walks behind it

0 Christmas bells! what other sounds Now fill the earth with sighing!

The earth brings forth enough for all; Yet men for bread are crying.

Though they an given Christmas cheer, And told to banish sorrow, Their mournful eyes behold with fear The specter of tomorrow.

And round the world is heard the sound Of busy hammers ringing;

And hands are molding guns for war While lips of peace an singing.

Gigantic vessels sail the seas With weapons forged for killing;

And hearts that should with love o'erflow, Hate's vengeful tide is filling.

0 brils, the curse is over all, And Adam's children languish;

For back at Eden's gate began dix thrmfland years of anguisk

God's wrath has rested on the race;

Its marks are all about us.

Go search throughout the whole wide earth, And see what sin has brought us!

On every side disease holds sway;

Hear now the captive's moaning.

The curse of sin is on the race, The whole creation's groaning.

Vice, crime and evil prey on man;

And death fills up the measure. The bells toll o'er ten billion graves.

How can they tell of pleasure?

Peal out, but not of empty joys

That vanish with the morrow;

Bing out the message God has given— How He will banish sorrow.

Tdl earth the song the angels sang Full soon will have fulfilling;

That God shall give eternal joy ’ To every soul that's willing.

Tell out, 0 bells, their long-lost dead Shall come baric from Death's prison I Tell of the joy of the new earth;

Tell them the Lord is risen!

He holds the keys of death and hell;

His power shall wake the sleeping And raise them up to perfect life, And end earth's night of weeping.

CHRISTMAS, like nearly every sacred thing, is commercialized and is made a part of that great Satanic counterfeit system, miscalled Christendom, the mammon part of which is thrust upon the common people by their clerical advisers, backed up by their accomplices after the fact—the financial, political and social advisers and benefactors; and they all are pushing for the perpetuation of commercialized civilization called "religion,” whose crown and joy is its League of Nations, heralded with loud acclamation as the "political expression of God’s kingdom on earth”—a brazen, barefaced counterfeit without a parallel since the days of Constantine.

All professions alike seem to be prostituted by commercialism. The doctor of medicine now takes a contract to attend the sick of some large concern, and can hardly wait to hear of the complaint, but diagnoses with a—"Here, you’ve got a cold, take that,” and "Next, please,” with as little concern as a barber.

This characterizes Christmas, too, a festive season (save the mark!), a trading season to stampede all classes into paying more than they should for presents, etc., under which all older store-help groan, longing for the miserable farce to be over, not knowing anything of the real Christ and His wonderful work, nor the approximate real date of His birth. The Star of Bethlehem is now recognized as a work of the devil in his attempt to deliver Jesus into Herod’s hands through the magi(cians)—sorcerers.

This and other sacred things should now be seen in their true light. "Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors/' (Isaiah 58:3) "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6, 7) How sure we are that these abominable counterfeit Satanic feasts shall be swept out of the earth, "with the besom of destruction” (Isaiah 14;23), accompanied by the howling of the clerical shepherds, and the wallowing in the ashes of the “principal of the flock," now crying for the peace of Christ in the kingdom (?) of Christ—a paradoxical plea, to be sure.—Jeremiah 25: 34-38.

We take off our hat to the Turk for refusing to harbor the Supreme Patriarch of the Greek

By John H. G. Snow

Orthodox church, the Eastern division of the great counterfeit. This man had the inherent hypocrisy begotten of this system to sigh and say it was a dreadful sight, etc., when the Soviet authorities ripped open those cotton-batting saints in the presence of all the people. Bad as the Turk is reported to be, he is evidently a notch above the bunch of pious frauds and hypocrites who are bent on perpetrating for gain these scandalous crimes on the masses of the people, and perpetrating the systems’ counterfeiting of the true kingdom of Messiah, even when the gaff is blown and the fraud is publicly demonstrated.

All hail the day when the "Stone” (the Lord’s true kingdom) will fall upon these rascal systems and grind them to powder; and what if the grinding has begun now! Hallelujah, anyhow! We do not have to say "How long” now; for Mr. Lloyd George has admitted that Satan is the one “doing Europe” and, “alas, Satan has not done with Europe.” No, we answer; Satan has to finish casting out Satan, not only in Europe, but all over the earth.

One thing we wish particularly to note is that when Mr. Lloyd George dropped diplomacy and stated the truth about who was running Europe, he began to go into oblivion. Will he be able to keep out? Well, we shall wait and see.

[We would not disparage the giving of gifts. Christ was God’s gift to mankind. But let the gifts be simple, useful; and, above all, let the gift come from the heart. Never give to get something in return. Give for the love of it and not for reciprocity’s sake. And is it not wrong to teach children a doctrine or a myth which calls out from them more love for Santa Claus than for God!—Ed.]

"Once a little baby lay Cradled on the fragrant hay, Lang ago on Christmas I Stranger bed a babe ne’er found; Wondering cattle stood around, Long ago on Christmas.

"And today the whole wide earth Praises God for that Child’s birth Long ago on Christmas!

For the Life, the Truth, the Way Came to bless the earth that day, Long ago on Christmas.”

187

The Song of the Angels By Mrs. E. Hunter

DEAR old Christmas, with its good cheer I What happy memories of childhood cluster around this season I

We all treasure the joys of Christmas and recall with pleasure its sweet songs of heavenly music, the merry faces of little children bright with expectation of coming favors, the beautiful Christmas trees bespangled with gold and silver, and the twinkling little candles like tiny sentinels on the mount of green.

Sometimes at the top of the tree there would be a bright star, or an angel with outspread wings, bearing the message of joy.

Many are the delights of Christmas; and we are glad that the poor old world has had so much pleasure in the celebration. While we cannot agree that December twenty-fifth is the correct date of our Savior’s birth, nevertheless we are glad to join in the happy song of praise and thanksgiving for Jehovah’s gift of gifts to a lost and dying race—His Son. But ah! how few of earth’s millions have any serious thought of the real import of the birth of Jesus, the Holy Child of Bethlehem. Yet it is the great outstanding event of history, without which there would be no hope of a future life.

Let us pause and consider for a moment as we glance backward on the stream of time. Let us listen to the Song of the Angels, as it rang out on the hills of Judea more than nineteen centuries ago.

It was in the quiet stillness of the night, and the faithful shepherds were watching their flocks in the open field. Above glistened the lovely stars, silently proclaiming the glory of God. Suddenly appeared the angel of Jehovah with the song that has come down through the ages: ‘Tear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

Immediately the heavenly choir caught the glad refrain and filled the air with the sweetest song of earth—the Song of the Angels: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good wil] toward men.”

What a benediction, what hope for the children of men in the Song of the Angels I

“Happy shepherd on whose eye Shone the glory from on high, ” Of the heavenly majesty.”

Ab Peace as Kef                          ,

ND now after so many years we turn our longing eyes in every direction for some manifestation of the promised peace on earth.

Oh, sad indeed are the conditions in the world —man killing his fellow man and perfecting every device for further slaughter; the idle rich living in luxury while the poor are struggling to keep alive the little spark of life. In the slums of our great cities we see sights that make the heart sick and the brain faint—little children reared in crime, who never had a chance, who were doomed from birth to fall by the wayside, many of them old before reaching maturity. Add to all this the selfish exploitation of the common people by corrupt men in high places, the gambling curse, the drinking curse, the insane asylums, the hospitals, the reform schools, etc. What a picture of the sighing, crying, and dying of the poor human race I

We turn from it all; and we listen again to the Song of the Angels: “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Could there have been a mistake 1 Did the angels misunderstand this message which they brought from the courts of Jehovah No; they were perfect angelic beings, and the message was one of joy and not of sorrow. How can we harmonize the message of "joy” and “peace” with the night time of weeping! Again we pause and look into the distant past

In the Garden of the Lord, the one perfect beauty spot of earth, our first parents came into being with all the grandeur of perfection, mental, moral, and physical. But Satan, that old serpent the devil, aspiring to make himself like the Most High, reached out to acquire dominion over them. One act of disobedience to the just requirement of their Creator, at Satan’s instigation; and the jewels of perfection began to fade. Out into the unprepared earth they were driven to wrest their sustenance from the soil as best they could, struggling with the adverse conditions amid the thorns and thistles. Separated from the fellowship of their Creator, the Eden home gone, the dominion of earth lost, and the death penalty upon them, our first parents were indeed reaping the bitter fruits of disobedience; and by inheritance the penalty has fallen upon every member of the human family. The sentence, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” has never been revoked.

The first faint gleam of hope for the condemned race was that the "seed of the woman” should utterly destroy the power of sin. About midway between the fall of Adam and the Song of the Angels in the hills of Judea stands that wonderful promise made to Abraham: "In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; . . . and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.”—Genesis 22:17,18.

Some Christians believe that this promise was fulfilled when Jesus died on Calvary and thus became the Redeemer of the world. But a moment's reflection will prove the fallacy of such a thought. True, some were blessed and, through faith, passed from under the curse in Adam to the promise of life in Christ, "saved by hope." But more than half of the human race have lived and died without hearing of the name of Jesus. Consequently they have not been blessed. And we still have the sorrows of earl h.

Blessings Sure to Come

YET the angels had sung: "Good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” We must conclude that the blessing tarries; for as we view the changing scenes of church and state we find no record of wonderful blessings having come to the world such as predicted by the prophets of old and as sung by the angels. Why the long delay in granting the blessing to all as promised?

Reflecting on God’s Word, we find that He is a great economist and frequently accomplishes more than one purpose at a time. Evidently it was His will to permit six thousand years of evil to teach men the exceeding sinfulness of sin and its awful results; and at the Baine time He has been sending crucial tests to certain elect classes whom He purposed to use in blessing the non-elect world in general. The long time it has taken to prepare these elect classes for their future work gives us some idea of the importance of that work in Jehovah's sight.

In the Old Testament we have the record of tome faithful ones who were loyal to God and th ■ principles of righteousness under adverse conditions. Of this class the apostle Paul wrote: ‘‘Tney were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy” (Hebrews 11:37, 38) Tenderly and with reverence we think of those dear prophets of old, and rejoice to know that a great reward and honor awaits them. They will represent the earthly, visible phase of the kingdom, “princes in all the earth” (Psalm 45:16), during the Messianic reign.

Another elect class representing the heavenly phase of the kingdom has been called during this Gospel age to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and to sacrifice with Him their little all of human life, aims, and hopes, exchanging these for "glory, honor, and immortality,” proving under severe trials faithful unto death. Of this class it is said: "And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” as “kings and priests” unto God, ruling, judging and blessing mankind. (Revelation 20:4,6; 1:6) They are Jehovah's appointed missionaries for the conversion of the world. Then that gracious invitation found in Revelation 22:17 will be extended : "The Spirit and the bride say, Come, . . . and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.”

Earth's Restored Paradise

MANY are the promises of a restored earth, the Golden Age long dreamed of by poet and sage, and spoken of "by the mouth of all the holy prophets.”

As we catch a glimpse of these times of refreshing, we are assured that the Song of the Angels has rung true: "Good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”

Let us consider a few of the blessings which shall obtain in that new earth. Justice shall be the foundation of the government-to-be. (Isaiah 28:17) Human life will be more precious than fine gold. (Isaiah 13:12) "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat” (Isaiah 65:21,22) “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”— Isaiah 2:4.

And again, ‘when the judgments of the Lord are in the earth the inhabitants will learn righteousness? 'Their flesh shall be fresher than & child’s, and they shall return to the days of their youth’; and, blessed thought! "there shall be no more death.” This will be Paradise on earth, with the gift of everlasting life to whosoever will give heed and receive instructions in the way of righteousness and life.

The Song of the Angels is on the eve of fulfilment. Good tidings of great joy are going forth to the meek ones of earth, a message fragrant with hope. On every side we see preparations for that perfect government which shall be "the desire of all nations.”

In an interview some time ago Marconi said: "Science will transform the world. Within fifty years life on this planet will be so changed that we who are here now would have difficulty in recognizing it. It will be a better and happier world” And again: "The age of what are known as scientific miracles is not in danger of coming to a pause; it has only just begun.” He tells much of the wonder-world to come and fears that life will be too easy for the human race with electricity doing the labor; that "if people are not careful they will deteriorate.”

Groundless fear! Very few of the human family have had an opportunity to develop themselves physically, mentally, and morally. The struggle for existence has kept most of us busy. With long, delightful hours of leisure, what wonders could be accomplished toward the goal of perfection! The latent qualities of reason, memory, and determination will be developed ; the Godlike quality of benevolence shall radiate from every face, which will be returning to His image, with the added blessing of health that bespeaks the harmony with nature’s beneficent laws.

Jehovah't King Now Present

THE waste places of the earth will be made to bloom lie the Garden of Eden, and man will have the privilege of cooperating for his own development. Already we see the desert blooming like the rose and streams breaking forth in dry lands—all because we are living in the dawn of the Golden Age, the due time for the blessing of all nations. Not all are familiar with the fact that the blessing time is in the world’s judgment day. The Prophet says: "When thy [God’s] judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.* There needs must come the humbling of the nations by bringing to naught the wisdom of men; for it is based upon selfishness. The Lord shakes the nations to shake out unrighteousness, untruth and irreverence; then the desire of all—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in a real, tangible form—shall come. God’s mind is made up; He has declared it; He will do it. "Sing unto the Lord with the harp . . . make a joyful noise before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth."—Psa. 98:5-9.

When Jesus in His humiliation came to earth to be man’s Redeemer few recognized Him as the Messiah, the One sent from God. So now in the end of the age we find similar conditions existing; and again it is true that "there stand-eth one among you whom ye know not" (John 1:26)—earth’s rightful King, Jehovah's Anointed, veiled from the sight of flesh, but recognized by the eye of faith through the prophecies as now present, by the signs of the times, the predicted running to and fro, and the increase of knowledge—all indicating preparations for the blessing of all nations by the Prince of Peace.

True, there is a destructive work as well as a constructive work going on in the world today, which may seem to nullify the promised peace on earth. Many are the dire forebodings heard on every side. In a magazine article ex-President Wilson expressed the opinion that "civilization is tottering.” It is indeed the world's dark hour just before the dawn. But again we see the wisdom of God; for this destructive work will act as a purifying fire to humble and maka the world ready for the blessings which God has for it.

The silver lining to the dark cloud is the kingdom of Christ set up in "power and glory,” which is the only remedy for the ills of the human race. Happy and wise are they who have sufficient faith to touch the hem of His garment (to recognize His presence) and be among those "millions now living [who] will never die.”

When Christ and His footstep followers begin their reign of a thousand years, and the glories of perfection stretch out before the won* dering gaze of humanity, for the blessing of all the willing and obedient of the human family, the Song of the Angels will ring out not only in the hills of Judea, but gradually and rapidly to earth’s remotest bounds: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

[ STUDIES IN THE “HARP OF GOD” (’^WG£EiF^,5S&*^D'•)

*1          rrfl With Issue Number 60 we began numlug Judge Rutherford's new book, 11 |

*                    “The Harp of God", with accompanying questions, taking the place of both eV*

'                     Advanced and Juvenile bible Studies which have been hitherto published.

’“These scriptures clearly foretell the resurrection of Jesus. Besides this, Jesus had told His disciples while in Galilee that He would be put to death and rise from the dead. (Luke 24: 6,7) "And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus Baid unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into hands of men: and they shall kill him, Bud the third day he shall be raised again. And x they were exceeding sorry.” (Matthew 17: 22,23)

But it may not be expected of them that they should understand the meaning of these Old _f Testament scriptures as referring to the resurrection of the Lord. They were not men of great _: learning. They were poor and followed humble occupations. They had doubtless not had the advantage of a great amount of education; but a stronger reason is that the holy spirit had not then been given and their minds had not been illuminated, and it is not to be expected that they would understand then the deep things of God's Word. (1 Corinthians 2:14) Nor is it at all surprising that they had forgotten some of the saying of Jesus concerning His betrayal, His death and resurrection. We must remember that they loved Jesus very devotedly; and uppermost in their minds was the hope that He would be the deliverer of Israel. Only five days ... before His death they had joined our Lord in

His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when the common people hailed Him with gladness and joy. (Matthew 21:1-11) His death was so very sudden, so cruel, the shock so terrible, that the minds of these faithful disciples and others who , — loved Him dearly were stunned. They were truly ■ overwhelmed with sorrow and grief. He had been rudely snatched from them; unjustly tried, brutally condemned, and then subjected to the most ignominious death known to man, the death of the cross.

²⁵²Clearly in fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah above noted, Jesus was put to death as an evil one, thereby making Hisigrave with.the wicked; and He was laid in the sepulchre of a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph.—Matthew 27:57-60.

“‘Little is said as to the doings of the disciples and their associates immediately following the crucifixion K>f Jesus, when He was laid away in the tomb. Th^ good women went and "beheld where he was laid.” No doubt little else was done. After 6 o'clock p.m. of that day was the beginning of the sabbath day, and under the law the Jews must rest; hence we are not to expect that they did much of anything. Nor could it have been a day of much rest to them. It was a day of great sorrow. They could do no work to divert their minds from the terrible shock caused by the crucifixion of the Lord. The rest must have been one merely 6f cessation from labor. Surely they had little rest of body or peace of mind. It was a day of sorrowful waiting for them, because tomorrow they would go to the tomb. The sabbath ended at 6 o’clock p. m., but the night followed, which prevented them from visiting the tomb then.