crhe Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT '  ',7 AND COURAGE

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in this issue

INTERNATIONAL ......

BROADCAST e

another great radio hookup

/ NUTS ~ THE KIND IN SHELLS \

/              source of supply, food value, etc.

“DENS AND CAVES”

their part in human history

A NEEDLESS TAX

how to save taxpayers $300,000,000 annually

A SYMBOLIC RATTLESNAKE

RECONCILIATION

first of another radiocast series by Judge Rutherford

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EVERY OTHER WEDNESDAY

FIVE CENTS A COPY OR ONE DOLLAR A YEAR

Volume IX - No. 231                 July 25, 1928

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Contents

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.   ..... Labor and Economics                                      .......

&TKBS IN- THE HIGHWAY W. .  . j......A  .  ,              ..ri-ry -. - . 678             .--'^|^^ gg|j

The Clubbing 'at Export, I’ehnsylvaniit . g :•■ . ...... 685                       igggjg

EMPLOYMENT *.....ggN. . . .  . . ^? .  .  .  . .- . . . . . . . .  690                   -WgfWW gCi

Social and Educational ■                            l«gf jgj|

INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST  ...... . . ........ 678            ” J*^Jf’

The Power of the Press  ...... . .........

Curses of the Skive Trade ............... 680               -

What the Children Enjoy in Films ............ 684

Finance—Commerce—Transportation

In justice of the Railroads

Widespread Tax Villainies in Chicago .......... 670

Big Business Scrutinizes Taxes...........  .

American Capital Works Abroad ............ 685

American Express Company to Pass Out.....  686

A Needless Tax of Thbee Million Dollars Every Year .... 691

Agriculture /CNd Husbandry

A Tip to Raisin Growers ............... 694

Home and Health

Nuts—The Kind that Come in Shells .......... 675

Orange Juice and Blood Infusion ............ 67'1

Cooking-Ware in Germany ........ . ..... 684

Still in the Picture ........  695                         .

An Unvaccinated Authority on Smau.pox ......... 695                  ’

Travel and Miscellany

Earthquakes Render 275,000 Homeless .......... 680

One Hundred Buried Alive .............. 680

Strange Tribe Found in Brazil ............. 688

Great Increase in Eni’tiiqunke.s ............. 686

“Dens and Caves of the Earth’’ ............ 687

Religion and Philosophy

Hebrews Studying New Testament ........... 685

Annual Fake at Jerusalem .........  686

A Symbolical Rattlesnake ............... 692

Bible Questions and Answers ............  .  696

Reconciliation .............  69"

The Children's Own Radio Story . . . . . ...... . 703

Published every other Wednesday at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N, Y., II. S. A., by WOODWORTH, KNORR & .MARTIN

Copartners anil Proprietors Address: in Adams Street, Brooklyn, A'. Y., p. a. CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH.. Editor ROBERT J. MARTIN.. Business Manager NATHAN II. KNORR .. Secretary and Treasurer

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tf-ic Golden Age

Nuts — The Kind That Come In Shells

WHEN Jacob sent his sons on their second trip to Egypt he sent along with them a little present to the man who had spoken so gruffly to them, but who had nevertheless returned their money. The present included almonds and pistachio-nuts, showing that even back there they had discovered that humans enjoy these goodies. Walnuts are mentioned in Canticles 6:11.

More nuts would be eaten, except that there do not seem to be enough of them to go around. They are becoming more plentiful, and people are giving more attention to them as a staple food. Nuts are so rich, having practically no waste in their composition, that they should be eaten as a part of the main meal, with other J| substances having greater bulk.

Vegetarians point to the lithe, active squirrel and recommend the eating of nuts for reducing the abdomen and increasing agility. It is estimated that New Yorkers spend about $40,000,000 a year on nuts.

they are used as trade names to advertise chewing gum and bacon. Holland has just taken official notice of the beechnut and will hereafter increase the edible oils of the country by gathering and using these delightful little parcels of food dropped by the beeches at the end of the year.

Ben-nuts, from the East Indies, are used as sources of oil.

Betel-Nuts—Brazil-Nuts

ETEL-NUTS, fruit of the areca palm, in the East Indies and the Philippines, are used as a vermifuge and are also said to have stimulant and tonic properties. The natives utilize betel-nuts as coat buttons.

Bladdernuts, of Central Europe, are worn as beads of necklaces.

Bonduc-nuts, of India, are also used as beads.

Boomah-nuts, of Africa, are used for tanning.

Brazil-nuts, or nigger-toes, as they are sometimes called, constitute the seeds of a majestic tree whose habitat is Venezuela and Northern

Brazil. They grow together in a pod, woven about each other so closely that the ingenuity of man is incapable of putting them back into the pod when they have once been removed from it. The aborigines gather these from the jungles and bring them to the river ports, whence the river steamers carry them to the coast. New York uses twenty thousand tons a year.

Breadnuts grow on a tree in Jamaica and make good food.

Butternuts—Candlemts—Carob-Beans

TJIITTERNUTS, sometimes called while wal-nuts, are grown in the United States. They are so rich that not many can be eaten at one time. Brazil and British Guiana also have a butternut sometimes called the souari or sn-warrow.

Candlenuts, of the South Sea Islands, are used as sources- of oil.                          •

Carob-beans, sometimes called St. John’s-breacl, are said to constitute the main food ration of one-twentieth of the world’s population. The carol) is quite familiar throughout the Old World, where it has saved whole tribes and races from starvation and has been utilized as the basic ration for armies. It has just been introduced in California. It needs no irrigating, fumigating, fertilizing nor pruning. If it is once properly planted it will take care of itself, and prefers to do so.

Cashew-Nuts—Chestnuts— Cobnuts

CASHEWS come mostly from India, although small quantities come in from the West Indies, Mexico and South America. Besides be' ing much enjoyed for its edible qualities the cashew⁷ is a source of oil.

Chestnuts once grew in abundance in the Eastern and the Southern states. The Spanish variety is found in Southern Europe, Northern Au leu and 'Western Asia. It is a?; important item in the food supply of France and Italy, being eaten raw⁷, boiled, roasted, and in porridges and cakes. In Korea the chestnut serves as a substitute for the potato. Chestnuts are good, too.

The blight of the American chestnut t-ee by infection from Japanese nursery stock in 1904 is one of the greatest tragedies in the tree life of the Western world. The present indications are that this blight, which the Japanese and Chinese trees resist fairly well, will destroy every American chestnut tree. The Department of Agriculture estimates that this will take only about, ten years more. If that calamity should occur the cheerful chestnut roaster will disappear from New⁷ York streets, where it has been a factor every November and December within the memory of all now’ living.               .......

Chestnuts are used as a substitute for cereals, and in various parts of the world' the oil is used in cooking.           “

Cobnuts are akin to American hazelnuts. They are found in England, Spain, Sicily and other parts of Europe.

Coeoanuts—Cola-Nuts—Coquillas

COCOANUTS are the fruit of the cocoanut palm and bulk large in the nut imports of the United States. Whoever has missed his piece of eocoanut pie or eocoanut cake may have .1 benefited his system dictetiealiy. but he certainly has defrauded his palate. Cocoanuts grow in , both the East and the West Indies.

Cola-nuts are native to West Africa, hut are also grown in tropical America. In seasons of famine in. the Kougo Ilie natives subsist on colanuts for months at a stretch.

Coquilla-mds. grown in Brazil, are valuable for decorative turnery.

Corozo-nuts, sometimes called vegetable ivory, are. found in Brazil and Colombia and are made up into toys.

Cumara-nuts, from Brazil, are valuable for their perfume.                        -

Dika-nuts, from West Africa, are used as sources of oil.

Filberts—Gru-Grus—Hazelnuts

ILBEHTS are eaten chiefly as a dessert in England and America, but in some coun

tries in Europe the meats are ground into flour and made into bread. These nuts, akin to hazelnuts, are widely distributed.                 ’

Gru-gru nuts, from South America, are worn as beads.

Hazelnuts, American filberts, are spread I pretty well over the northern and eastern parts of the American continent. .Most American boys know where to find ths bushes in the fall of the year. The American hazelnut, which, grows wild, is smaller than its cultivated British cousin, the filbert.

Hickory-Nuts—Horse-Chestnuts—Lichi

HE hickory-nut is one of. the best ever. This .

is an American nut, as popular now as it was with the North American Indians, who called the tree Paweohiccora. It grows throughout the United States and Mexico.

IIorse-chestnuts._S!are .widely distributed. The European variety contains starch.

Litchi nuts are popular in Australia, where they sell for sixty cents a pound. The trees do not bear their first crop until they areabout twenty-five years old. Nobody but an Englishman would have the patience to wait that long to get returns from an investment, but those who have producing litchi groves in Australia are ’.veil

Palm-nuts of West Africa are used as sources j of oil. The oil rivers, so called, are given that j

name because of the great quantities of oil nuts •obtained from these palm trees.

Peanuts—Peanuts—Peanuts

EANUTS are worthy of a separate subheading all their own. Who could imagine

the lot of one who had never enjoyed a fresh roasted peanut ? And when it is meal time, and you are hungry, what is so maddening as to have somebody crack and eat a few, especially ■ when the very first one makes your mouth water? And when you have eaten one, where is the place to stop? Fresh roasted peanuts have about the most “moreish” taste of any article of human food.

Dr. George Washington Carver, of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, one of the leading chemists of the world, a modest, gentle negro, regards the peanut as man’s universal food. A legume, with power to bring nitrogen from the air, it is a soil-builder, rather than a soil-robber.

Dr. Carver has developed 165 by-products of the peanut, ranging from the purest of milk for the sick-room to a useful variety of ink. These discoveries include ten kinds of milk, two grades of flour, two grades of meal, five break-— fast foods, three relishes, nine wood stains, ^w Worcestershire sauce, several kinds of oils, face powder, face cream, food flavorings, pastries, confections, stock foods, tonics, punches, etc. One of the milks obtained looks like milk, tastes like milk, and will yield butter and cheese just like cow’s milk.

Peanuts were introduced into Virginia as food for slaves, but as they have been found in ancient mummy graves in Peru it would look as if they are indigenous to the Western world. They grow all over the southern .and southeastern parts,of the United States, the crop amounting to about 750,000,000 pounds a year, from 1,000,000 acres of land.

Peanut butter is popular, but should be more so, as it is an important food, containing a high ■percent of both protein and fat. Peanut oil is of higher grade than cottonseed oil, and only slight J y lower in grade than olive oil. A bushel of Spanish peanuts will make a gallon of oil arid twenty pounds of oil-cake and hull. .Peanut vines and waste make excellent feed for cows ■ other live stock. China has erected a stone

et in memory of the American missionary who introduced American peanuts into China.

Pecans—-Pecans—Pecans

IF PEANUTS are entitled to a separate subhead, so are pecans, the most popular of American nuts, and the most important item in nut exports. Plant-breeders have developed from the bitter hard-shelled seedling the choice paper-shell product for which retailers ask eighty cents a pound. The finest grades come from Georgia.

The pecan surpasses all other nuts in the percentage of fat, having 70.7 percent. This is more than six times as much as is contained in round steak and nearly twice as much as is contained in cheese. It is seven times as much as_: is contained in boiled eggs. It also contains 12.1 percent of protein.

It is now about ninety years since a Spaniard named Delmas settled in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and found a nut tree growing wild on his plantation. He liked the nuts, cultivated them, and thus gave the paper-shelled pecan its start in America.

Before his death Luther Burbank declared that if he were a young man he would go to Texas, and knowing the possibilities of the pecan industry, would devote his life to it. He considered the pecan superior to any other nut and sure to repay well those who give it attention. Pecans can be grafted upon the worthless pignuts, which grow wild in northern states.

Physic-Nuts—Pinons—Pistachios

HYSIC-NUTS grow in tropical America.

Their use is indicated by their name.

Pinons or pine-nuts are natives of the far West, where they are gathered by the Indians. They often trail the gophers to their underground caches after the first snow falls and collect the pinons which the gophers have stored for the winter. The nuts find a ready sale in New York.

Pistachio-nuts, or green almonds, as they are sometimes called, are grown in Sicily, Syria, Persia, India and Northern Africa. After the nuts arrive in America they are processed to make them white.

Ravensara-nuts, also called the Madagascar clove nutmeg, are used for seasoning, except in Connecticut.

Sassafras-nuts, from Brazil, are used to flavor chocolate.

Soapnuts, from the West Indies, are used for washing.

Walnuts-rrLast But Not Least

THE American black walnut has about the hardest shell of any nut, but when you finally get down to the meat it is excellent. Many Americans, however, have never seen an American walnut, and when the term is used they think only of the so-called English walnut.

The English walnut comes from Persia. It has been planted by English colonists and others in California and Chile and is grown in most of the southern countries of Europe, but has never been grown on a commercial scale in England itself. It was planted in California in 1867.

Walnut trees suffer little’from pests and hear indefinitely. There are trees in France which" are known to have been cropped regularly for j hundreds of years. Many of the best trees in i California are over fifty years old. About two-thirds of the nuts drop from the trees when mature.

The California Walnut Owners Association has a cracking-machine which. cracks and removes the meats from fifteen tons of nuts daily. The shells are made into charcoal. The meats are used in a great variety of ways. Nut loaf is said to be an excellent substitute for roast beef.

Steps in the Highway

China, Japan

and the League THE League of Nations is supposed to exist for the primary purpose of keeping its member nations from warring upon each other. China and Japan are both members of the League and are now at war with each other: and the League does what it usually does in such cases, nothing. Seven associations of merchants, students, farmers, lawyers, workers and women of Chekiang and Hanchow sent a cable dispatch to the New York Times, in which they said: “Japanese soldiers stationed at Tsinan, without any reason whatever, fired ruthlessly on Chinese soldiers and civilians, destroyed the wireless station, and broke down telegraphic communication. Over one thousand Chinese were killed. To the surprise of us all, a group of Japanese soldiers rushed to the Bureau of Foreign Affairs for Shantung, and after having sliced off the ears and nose of Mr. Tsai-Kung-hsi, the commissioner, killed him, together with ten members of his staff.” According to the clergy the League of Nations, which permits things of this kind, and does nothing to prevent a repetition of them, is “the | political expression of God’s kingdom on earth”.

Injustice of the Railroads

TpOR years the railroads J- have had everything

they have asked for and ! have been making money hand over fist. Passenger rates, freight rates, sleeping-car rates, etc., have . been held sky-high; yetj the railroads have brought | on a panic by insisting on { buying coal at less than | the cost of production. | Why rob the miners or allow them to be robbed tor pamper those who are al-j ready overpaid? The fact! is that the Big Business interests of the com!-! try have no regard whatsoever for justice, Iioim esty or the interests of their fellow men. Moues is their sole god.                                I

TiceZre Good Men and True

rnWELVE good men. and true have decided -L that Harry F. Sinclair paid Albert Fall $268,000 for a part interest in a farm, and not for the lease of Teapot Dome. The United States Supreme Court and the United States Circuit Court of Appeals are both on record that the lease was a corrupt lease. Probably none of those twelve men will have to work any more, and each one of them will feel that lie is justly entitled to a car as long as the block.

Widespread Tax Villainies in Chicago

INDIGNATION against tax villainies in Chicago is more -widespread this year than at any previous period. The average taxes are up thirteen to sixteen percent over last year, but in many instances the increase has been eighty percent, suggesting that favorites are getting-off without any increase. One man with a fiveroom house, heated with a stove, had his taxes raised from $71.14 to $363.33 and -will lose his home as a result.

Treaty Destroyed White Supremacy

TT NOW appears that the treaty between Brit--*• ain and Japan had much to do with destroying white supremacy in the East. The Western nations would have been willing to limit hostilities to Europe; but Japan, under her treaty with Britain, moved for war upon German possessions in China, with the result that, today the whites have lost much of their supremacy all over Asia, but especially in China, and are liable soon to lose it all.

Big Business Scrutinizes Taxes

IG Business, knowing that millions of dollars are stolen every year from the taxpayers. are proposing a strict scrutiny of local taxes and what is done with them. They think there is no reason why it should cost several times as much in one place to collect taxes as it does in another, and no reason why paving or equal inerit should be double in one place what it is in another. It really looks as if the common people might get some benefit out of this, i.e., unless their two enemies get together and agree to divide up. If they do, then _fthe lot of the common people at the end of the excitement will be worse than it was in the first place.

Pasteurization of Milk

PASTEURIZATION of milk simply means holding milk at 142 to 145 degrees for thirty minutes. It is never boiled. Nothing is added and nothing taken away. In cities where pasteurization is required there has been a reduction in deaths from diphtheria and tuberculosis to about half the former number, and a still greater reduction in the number of deaths from typhoid fever, scarlet fever and diarrheal diseases.

Orange Juice and Blood Transfusion THE editor of Health Culture, while acknowl--*■ edging with much appreciation the many splendid acts of self-denial on behalf of others which have been performed by blood transfusion, says that, as far as his experience goes, one cup of sweet orange juice by mouth answers any emergency in which blood transfusions would be used. His observations in hospitals do not prove to him that transfusion is either necessary or reliable.

Date Palms in American Deserts

OME of the desert lands of the Southwest are now⁷ producing dates of twice the food value per acre that can be obtained from any acre of corn, or three times -what can be obtained from any acre of -wheat. Moreover, the methods of drying, sterilizing, packing and shipping dates have been so thoroughly systematized that it is now possible to obtain perfectly clean and delicious dates in America all the year around.

Turks to Have Family Names

THE latest development in Turkey is a determination to adopt family names, and a commission has been assigned to the task of studying the question as to how the Westerners got their names and to make suggestions as to how the Easterners may have some. Oaths have been abjured in Turkey, i.e., religious oaths. In their place one makes an averment on his word of honor as a gentleman, and that is not a bad idea for Westerners to adopt. Perjury is bad enough and common enough; but perjury in the.name of the Lord ought to be impossible. Turkish finances are greatly improved. The country steadfastly refuses to borrow⁷ money but pays as it goes.

n. GOLDEN AGE

Curses of the Slave Trade

dered made the following statement:

The power of the modem press is mighty. Editorial and other comment set forth in its columns, intensified from time to time by repetition, finally and almost subconsciously become molded among the community into a standardized conviction, prejudice, sympathy or inanity. It is fallacious to assume that newspaper comment is a mere barometer of existing public opinion, but rather it often initiates, shapes and directs the thoughts of men into certain definite channels.

Nobody Dares Say a Word

Heyw’OOd Broun, writing in The Nation, criticizes the Irish for inability or unwillingness to stand-criticism, and then adds: “And. still more precarious is the position of the New York newspaperman who ventures any criticism of the Catholic church. There is not a single New York editor who does not live in mortal terror of the power of this group. It is not a ease of numbers but of organization. Of course if anybody dared, nothing in the world would happen.”

Did You Know?

DTD yon know that after a corporation had macle and paid out 180% in dividends by operating its lines on a five-cent fare, it can then contrive to break its contract with a great city by getting a federal court to order a sevencent fare? In the House of Representatives in .Washington Congressman La Guardia asserted that the Interborough Railway Company could make money operating on a five-cent fare and that ‘’everybody in New York knows it except the three judges who sat on the case”.

Frantic Activities of Power Trust

rpilE frantic fear of the power trust lest the -*• people in general should actually learn that the electric power which they wish to sell and are selling at as high as ten cents a kilowatt costs them only a fraction of one cent to produce, has led to the most gigantic corruption of officials in Washington, to secure their activities against the Boulder Canyon Dam bill. Millions of dollars are bandied about like ten-cent pieces, because the power trust well knows that government production and sale of power would expose its colossal thievery to all the world.

General of the United States Navy, briicves ihnt liockworns, blackwater fever, malignant Urtian malaria and bacillary dysentery are all of African origin, as were also yellow fever and elephantiasis. The latter dreadful disease was brought in a slave ship landed at Charles- .. ton, where the parasitic worm responsible for it is now endemic in a small restricted area around the city.                             ,

Earthquakes Render 275,000 Homeless

HpB'E earthquakes in the Balkans have ren-dered'275,000 persons homeless. During the last week, of .April the government observatory at Athens recorded, as many as a hundred shocks in a day. The wrecking of power plants left the falling cities in absolute darkness, and in the midst of it all cold rains fell upon the unhappy refugees. Many of these rushed from their homes with no earthly possessions except sheets snatched from their beds as they rushed to places of safety.

One Hundred. Buried Alive

HPWO Mexicans have just found in a cave in that country the bodies of one hundred men, women and children who were buried alive during the Spanish conquest, or perhaps more recently.. The bodies of the unfortunates were tied together by the thumbs. The sharp contractions of the facial muscles showed that death had come only after intense suffering. The people of Mexico are trying to so order their affairs that there can not be a repetition of horrors like this.

Benjamin Fmnklin and Daylight Saving

TT IS one hundred forty-eight years since

Benjamin Franklin invented or proposed daylight saving to the French government. The immediate reason was to save in the cost of candles. To aid in putting the daylight saving into effect the church bells were rung every morning at sunrise and coaches except tor medical purposes, were ruled off the streets at night. It was his daylight-saving plan that led Franklin to propose the motto, “Early to bed and 41 early to rise makes a man healthy, ’wealthy and wise.” :■ ■ ■ . i > <■

The Hypocritical League

rpilE New York Times is a groat admirer of the League of Nations but is forced to admit that, “Paradoxical as it may seem, the only delegations which fought to carry out the terms of the Versailles Treaty and the compact of the League, which insists that the principal business of the League is to promote disarmament, were those of Russia, Turkey and Germany.”

National Publicity Board

THE public utility corporations know on which side their bread is buttered and how to keep the butter. They have organized an educational campaign to which $400,000 has been contributed, having for its object the molding of the opinion of teachers and school children so that they will come to look upon the possession of all the wealth in the country in the hands of a few as the normal, sane and sensible thing.

Skyscrapers                        F&et'"'   ........

A BRITISH engineer says American skyscrapers are built to last only forty years. Maybe so, but they look as if they would last forty times that. Another British cousin says the eagles on our quarter-dollars have duck feet. Maybe so, hut every one of them is good for five rides on the subway, or at any rate it was until recently.

Tax the Billboards

rpAX the billboards until they are taxed out of sight. That is the latest advice of the national Committee for the Restriction of Outdoor Advertising, and all sensible people will agree with it. Why have the finest scenery in the country ruined by unnecessary and often hideous signs? Just now their principal objective st'ems to be to spoil all the young women of the country by turning them into cigarette fiends.            -

Insurance Savings of the People

THE people of the United States pay insurance premiums annually to the amount of $4,200,000,000. These insurance payments rep-• resent their principal savings. By their skilful handling of these vast funds a few great financial institutions have succeeded in getting practically all the wealth of the country into their hands. Oddly enough the means taken by the people for their protection becomes one of the greatest agencies for their enslavement. Surely the --Lord’s kingdom ■ will provide some better way than this.

Two Low-Down Serum Tricks

TT NOW appears that there never was any •*- epidemic of diphtheria in Nome, and that an aviator offered to fly with the serum, but his offer was turned down because the dog-team stunt would make better advertising for the serum. Now the premier of Quebec has denounced the trick that was played on Col. Lindbergh in getting him to fly to the relief of .Floyd Bennett with a serum for pneumonia when there was pteuty cf the right serum in Quebec. Business must be relatively poor when serum makers or " sellers are forced to resort to such ignoble tricks ililiiM                                   ■     ■■ ■

Interest System Nearing the End mil ERE are municipalities in interest is due and payable that have been distributed as families that faced starvation.

knows how the interest can be paid, and the payment of the principal seems out of the question. These communities are among the first in the world to demonstrate the unworkability and the impossibility of the interest system. In the end it is sure to ruin itself and the civilization upon which it is based and which it has helped to make.

Idleness Benefits Nobody

IDLENESS benefits nobody. Senator Wagner of New York state put this matter very well in a speech in the senate when he reminded his hearers that “every human being exacts a living from the society in which he lives. If permitted, he gives his services in return: if not, he secures his maintenance none the less, perhaps, from the superintendent of the poor or the warden of the jail. These men who are now idle must, live and will live. Your only alternative is: Will you compel them to be parasites or will you accept the marvelous wealth that their idle hands are anxious to create for you?”

Swallow Crosses Atlantic Twice

A FRENCH farmer who had fed a swallow repeatedly attached a note to the bird, requesting any who found it to do likewise and grant the bird its liberty. After six months the bird came back with a note sent by a boy living in Martinique, one of the French West Indies, showing that the swallow had flown twice across the Atlantic.

The German Dogs of War

DURING the World War the Germans had ^: trained dogs to carry messages between two points that they knew, had taught them to deliver carrier pigeons to points where they could be released safely, and had even taught them to lay down telephone cables. Eventually these dogs had to be equipped with gas masks to enable them to make their trips.

The New York to Atlanta Service

fliers being guided by beacons ten miles apart. Stops are made at Philadelphia, Washington, Richmond, Greensboro and Spartanburg. Letters mailed at night in New York will be delivered in Atlanta by first mail in the morning. An extension to Miami will be made shortly.

Airplanes Annihilate Distance

THE 270 miles between Cincinnati and Chicago were recently flown in 105 minutes, while the 220 miles between New York and Boston were flown in 85 minutes. A new air mail service has been opened between New York and New Orleans via Atlanta: also one between Albany and Buffalo. 11,466 miles of airplane routes are now^T operated daily in the United States.

a place to sleep, but that it is the women that want fine homes, jewels, silks and limousines, and that therefore it is to gratify their wishes that the men engage in the trade rivalries which are the root of all modern wars. Thus he claims the women are to blame for the wars.

In the Wilds of Montana

TN THE wilds of Montana there are children who have never seen a railroad train, a telephone or telegraph line, a movie, radio, typewriter or airplane, or, what is still more remarkable, a flight of stairs. Yet these children, both boys and girls, are expert horsemen, having practically grown up on horseback, and are incapable of losing their way in the wildest country.

Gliders and Rockets Next

Not a Lynching in Georgia

carry surplus fuel for the locomotive plane ahead and will be detachable. Another German firm is experimenting with rocket planes driven by a gunpowder mixture, and hopes within a year to make a flight into space above the earth’s atmosphere in a specially designed airship.

A Campaign for Health

A STORE with four thousand employes installed a campaign for health, under strict supervision. The first year of the trial showed eight thousand days of sickness saved, the second year another great gain, a total saving of twice as many days of sickness. A campaign against colds alone resulted in a saving of 5,495 days. This shows how little the people know about caring for themselves. many excellent people in that great state may now rejoice that in the year 1927 there was not a single lynching in the state. Moreover, there was a national decrease in lynchings from thirty-four in 1926 to twenty-one in 1927. Of these tw’enty-one victims seven were in Mississippi, three in Arkansas, three in Tennessee.

Liberia’s Future Mortgaged

WHEN it was learned that the Firestone

Company would open rubber plantations in Liberia there was general rejoicing, as it was hoped the country would be helped upward in its difficult path. It seems to have been helped the other way. The agreements which the little country has been obliged to sign make it virtually the slave composite of the Firestone interests.                 '      :

Where the Money Conies From

A DISPATCH from Rome states that one-half of all the missionary funds of the Rowan Catholic church come from the United States. The breach between Mussolini and the Vatican seems to be widening, the latest items of disagreement being as respects rival claims as to who is to do the educating of the youth and whethex’ or not girls should take part in athletic games.

Union Outlawed in Texas

T HE Railway Labor Act guarantees to employes the right to select their own representatives without interference or coercion. In Texas the Texas & New Orleans Railroad undertook to avoid recognition of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks and to organize its own union in their place. The Texas courts have now issued restraining orders, preventing the railroad company from further interference with their employes’ union.

The Grading of Eggs

HE grading of eggs has now been systematized, and dealers are supposed to mark them accordingly. Grade A have air cells not over one-fourth of an inch in depth, no visible development of .the germinal disks, and shells of uniform size, clean and sound. Grade B have air cells not over three-eighths of an inch in depth,, ■yolks and germinal disks may be slightly visible, and shells as in Grade A. Grade C may have still larger air cells, with germinal disks plainly visible but no blood showing, yolks also, plainly visible, dark and freely mobile. Shells may be of variable size and clean or dirty.

The Bar of the United States

points out that the whole bar of the United States is at the bar. In Washington Sinclair was acquitted when every sane man in the country believes (he Supreme Court’s opinion of him. in Cincinnati a millionaire bootlegger murdered his wife in the streets and after’ two months’ incarceration is on the streets, ^||||||gih|hlt ^h'Toii.gTslaiid City an old negro without money and without friends was sentenced to prison for from five to ten years for the theft four years previously of a penny notebook from a spectator at a boxing contest. The Nation points out that these injustices are undermining the American government.

Keith’s Level-Headed Statement

th Arthur Keith, president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, has made the level-headed statement that medical men can find no ground for believing that the.: brain is a dual organ, and are convinced that it dies when the body dies. This is the Bible view and the true view. But for the resurrection, death would end all.for every human being.

Strange Tribe Found in Brazil

SOUTH AMERICAN explorer, A. Hyatt Merrill, has found in Brazil, near the Bolivian border, a tribe of 350 men and women who are supposed to be descendants of tribes from the South Sea Islands. They had no knowledge of firearms nor of clothing; their language is entirely different from the tribes around them; and their land is inaccessible except through dangerous rapids that are death to the invader. They are slowly dying off.

New York to Peking

IN AN interesting article in the New York Times, Vilhjalmur Stefansson presents good reasons for believing that it will be but a few years before mail will be carried regularly from New York to Peking via Cochrane, Churchill, Fort Bae, Norman, Fairbanks, Nome and one or two stations in Siberia. This route would not be quite as short as the air line, which would be almost over the North Pole, but would be more practical both in winter and in summer, on account of absence of fog. The Wilkins flight across the Arctic brings the whole scheme within the range of practicability.

New Plan for Crossing Continent

WHOEVER thought. out the new plan of crossing the continent by night trains through the Alleglianies and the Rockies and airplanes by daylight across the plains certainly had a good head on his shoulders. By this means travelers will be assured sound rest, at night, while by day they will be traveling over the portions of the country freest, from clouds and fogs, and where landing, if that should be necessary, is safest. To us this plan seems perfectly practical and will result in cutting the time from coast to coast from four days and nights to two days and nights, a saving worth while.

Local Bonded Debts Tripled

IN THE last fifteen years the bonded debts of local governments have been increased from three billion dollars to eight and one-half billion ’dollars. These are net bonded debts, after deducting all moneys now held in sinking funds.

The Food of the Seventy Runners

THE food of the seventy cross-continent runners consists chiefly of eggs, milk, cereals, vegetables, beef broth and fish. Grease in every form is excluded. The food is cooked in iron and nickeled steel containers and is served on specially non-crackable porcelain ware.

Cooking-Ware in Germany

A GERMAN subscriber writes in that he understands that the German government has prohibited aluminum ware for cooking purposes. We would be interested to have confirmation of this report, with fuller particulars than are now available.

What the Children Enjoy in Films

CAREFUL observations in a London school showed that children enjoyed the heartiest laughs, not from slapstick comedies, but from watching a caterpillar struggling to discard its outgrown overcoat, watching a bear take its daily dose of condensed milk, and watching a negro miner enjoying a square meal.

Dangers of Working in Radium

TUIVE young women whose tissues are wasting and bones are rotting as a result of painting luminous figures on watch dials sued the United States Radium Corporation for $250,000 each. No cure is known for those who have thus been poisoned by radium paint. Settlement out of court has been agreed upon.

The Cannibals and the Christians

m'HE Caribs of the West Indies formerly had the unpleasant habit of eating strangers, yet they were so honest that when one of them missed something from his hut it was customary for* him to explain his loss and to mourn it by saying, ‘‘Some Christian must have been here.” Surely a fine testimonial to the kind of Christians with whom they came in contact! Not even as good as cannibals.

Traffic Accidents in Britain

WITH the rapid increase in motor vehicles there is also a rapid increase in traffic accidents in Britain this past year. The total number of road accidents increased from 124,287 to 133,943. The road fatalities were 5,195.

Airplanes with Gun Turrets

BRITAIN has designed, built and tested a new form of airplane with a revolving gun turret in each wing, enabling the gunners to fight enemies anywhere above, in front, back or on the side. The new craft has a speed of over ninety miles an hour.

178,500 Stills in Use

THE capture by the federal government in 1925 of 17,850 illicit stills, and the estimation that this was only about one in ten of the stills actually in use, leads to the conclusion that there are not far from 178,500 manufacturers of illicit liquor in the country.

The Makers of Illicit Drugs             .

THE makers of the illicit drugs of the world -®- are all found in Great Britain, France, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and India; and all of these countries steadfastly block all efforts to end the illicit dope trade. They turn down every proposal that is made to them.

Roads and Famines

TT IS being discovered in China that, in districts where there are roads worthy of the name, famine conditions are readily taken care of. The food is taken in and the hungry are taken out until conditions are balanced. Concrete roads and automobiles are making over the world.

Zionism Forging Ahead

TNr. Chaim Weizmann^-, president of the Zionist organization, has been in New York after a visit to Palestine and expresses himself as satisfied that the Zionist settlements are now about to enter upon an era of growth and prosperity such as they have never known before. The past two years have been somewhat reactionary, but conditions are now improving’ in every way. The Jewish population of Palestine is now 160,000.

Tons of Dead Letters Annually

EVERY day in the New York city post otnee there is an accumulation. of twelve bags of undeliverable mail which the senders cvident'y designed to he delivered in New York or New England. The total number of dead letters received and disposed of last year was 24,(k>6.928.

Bread Riots and Automobiles

AT BU BAREST, Hungary, on April 23, forty persons were injured in a bread riot. Three days later in the same city a Hungarian automobile manufacturer asked permission of his government to present a gold and silver automobile costing $200,000 to a member of the British nobility. This is what might be called unilateral prosperity, an unhealthy variety.

Labor Getting a Bad Set-Back

THE friends of labor are disappointed to see that it is getting a bad set-back. In Detroit the eight-hour day is said to have practically disappeared, while elsewhere the wages of unskilled labor are being cut and even union niem-ben?, in the building trades, are taking union jobs at less than the union scale, country is in an unhealthy condition.

Ninety percent of all the motion pictures of the world are of American make, but they arc not all made in America. Much of the machinery, copper, lead, steel and electrical apparatus business of the world is in the hands of American concerns, with the list growing endlessly and with phenomenal speed. The whole world is being gobbled.

Press Exhibit at Cologne

THE international press exhibit: at Cologne traces the rise of the newspaper from ancient fire and smoke signals, drum language and tribal runners down to the days of Gutenberg, and finally to the daily newspaper of today. The manner in which news reaches the newspaper is illustrated in a most interesting way by electrical devices.

H ebrews Studying New Testament

THE Bible School of Temple Israel, Far

Rockaway, a congregation of the Jewish Reformed faith, has opened one class which is given over to the study of the New Testament exclusively. This is said to be the first time that a Bible school.class in a Jewish Reformed congregation has ever been devoted exclusively to the study of the New Testament.

American Capital Works Abroad

AMERICAN. capital, produced by the brawn

.....and brain of American labor, is now at work in foreign lands, making goods and filling orders that but a little time ago would have been taken care of in our own land. This is becoming true, in every line of business. Branch factories abroad mean less work for the older factories at home. And wages abroad are as nothing. Concerning this advance of American firms into foreign countries an article in the New York Times says: “The march of American firms to the four corners of the earth has been effected without the noise and fury of a military campaign. No specialcorrespondents have broadcast its advance in the news. Only as one nation or another takes steps to protect its domestic market against the invasion of American products, films, or automobiles, or oil, has the American public been aware of what is going on.” The Remington Typewriter Company has 01,000 salesrooms throughout the world/ The ..........International.....Telephone .and Telegraph Company has over 50,000 employes in foreign lands.

The Clubbing at Export, Pennsylvania

THE American Civil Liberties Union report

of the clubbing at Export, Pa., obtained after interviewing a mine manager, coal and iron corporal, coal and iron sergeant and several merchants, is as follows: “At.7:15 a. rn., on. April 20, a large group of state troopers entered Export in automobiles and upon arrival jumped but of their cars, clubbing without warning a considerable number of men who happened at that time to be on the street. Among those clubbed was an automobile mechanic who was about to commute to Pittsburgh and who was attacked while standing on his front porch. One man who, though a sympathizer with the Union, had not worked in the mines for a number of years, lies in a Greensburg hospital as a result of injuries inflicted when clubbed. A clerk in a dry goods store received a number of blows. The streets were cleared effectively. At White Valley and Export there have been a number of isolated cases of clubbing of men on the state highway, also an incident of a trooper riding 'down a man on the state road,”

Annual Fake at Jerusalem

ONCE a year at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, all the lamps are extinguished and after hours of suspense and prayer a fire which is said to have come down from heaven is pushed through a window of the sepulchre. Every year a number of people are injured in the riot which follows this blasphemous performance.

The Bible a High Explosive

T THE annual meeting of the Foreign. Bible Society held at London recently Premier Baldwin made the following interesting and accurate statement regarding the Bible: “It is not only the greatest literature in the world, but above and beyond all in that it always has been and is in the nature of a high explosive in. the world.”

Gene Tunney’s Fine Words

CALLED upon to address .thirty-four crippled boys and girls who had just graduated from a trades school, Gene Tunney, world’s champion heavy-weight boxer, said: “I personally believe that the boys and girls who are members of this institution have shown more courage in one day than I have ever been called upon to show. It is much more appropriate to cheer the boys and girls of this institution for the courageous fight they are carrying on than to cheer a great hero for knocking a home run over the fence or a boxer for winning a championship.”

Dutch Planes to East Indies

THE Dutch have officially announced their new airplane service from Amsterdam, Holland, to Batavia, in the island of Java. The planes will leave Amsterdam on the first of the month, arrive at Batavia on the tenth; leave there on the fifteenth and arrive at Amsterdam on the twenty-fifth. There will be no night flying. Through service of both the British and the Dutch from Europe to the Far East has been delayed owing to the fact that the Germans very cleverly obtained a monopoly of air service across Persia, and aircraft of other powers are not permitted over their soil. Turkey also rules out the fliers, so the route to the East has to be via Egypt, Palestine and Mesopotamia, with a long hop from there to India.

Cuba Destroys Coast Defenses           .

AVANA has done the sensible thing. Acres of valuable property were covered with earthworks, upon which ancient and useless cannon -were mounted. All this property worth millions of dollars will now be transformed into a public park. Military barracks throughout Cuba are being largely turned into schoolhouses. Good idea. The one is the exact remedy for the other.

American Express Company to Pass Out

THE announcement is made that on February 1, 1929, the railways of the country will assume the business of the American Express Company now carried on their lines, and that they will take the express company holdings at actual cost less depreciation. No doubt the next step will be that the people will take both the railways and the express business, employing the same method.

Greeks Displeased with Lipsticks

ARLY in April six hundred Americans of

Greek parentage, displeased with American girls on the ground that they are too exacting, coquettish and frivolous and too addicted । to short hair and lip sticks, returned to the land of their fathers with the express object of finding Greek wives. Most of them are said to be getting along well with their errand abroad.

Great Increase in Earthquakes ■■

b. F. J. W. Whipple, seismologist at Kew Observatory, London, referring to the January earthquakes in Switzerland, the February earthquakes in Palestine and Portugal, the March earthquakes in Italy, Turkey and Persia, and the April earthquakes in Mexico, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, declares that there have been more disasters of this kind in Europe in the last few^T months than there had previously been for many years. The double earthquake at Corinth has completely ruined the city and destroyed the hopes of its former inhabitants _: of ever rebuilding it. The Manchester Guardian notes one hopeful sign in all these sorrows when, it says: “It would almost seem that man is learning his lesson, for the one consoling feature of the disaster is the prompt forgetfulness of political strife and the immediate offer from old enemies of aid to the homeless."

Canaan. It was an underground city cut out of solid rook. It is said to liave a mild temperature,- and is well ventilated.                   . ..

In southwestern China, about the headwaters of the Yangtse Kiang, are great numbers of caverns which bear evidences of occupation by thousands in times of war, while in the provinces of ■ Kan-Su -and Shen-Si great numbers of similar caverns are excavated in the .hillside, and even today, are favorite dwellings of the people. -                   "

.There are many and various causes for the formation of eaves. Those in limestone and gypsum are the results of the dissolving power of water that is charged with carbonic acid. Limestone caves are marked by stalactites (limestone “icicles” hanging from the roof) and stalagmites (similar “icicles” projecting upward from the floor). Many limestone caves contain remnants of the bones of hyenas, elephants and bears. -Caves of gypsum often contain foul air. Trachyte. and lava caves were evidently caused by gas.

Some eaves contain myriads of bats, a whirring multitude that it taxes the -powers of language to describe. Some caves thus long occupied contain vast deposits of guano, extensively used as fertilizer in some places. The ancient tombs of Egypt abound with a form of bat known as the tomb-bat.

Notable Caves in Europe

J T IS not to be wondered at that great use has been made- of caves in the world’s center for wars, strife and hypocrisy masquerading under the name of religion. Throughout southern Europe the old feudal castles stand in high isolated positions on rods which are drilled through and through-with, galleries and chambers.

On the approach of foes the lord of the castle gathered in his retainers and in a few hours these vast underground chambers were filled with plows, looms, bedding, garments, household utensils of every sort, sheep, oxen, horses and whimpering women and children. History records horrible tales of these fugitives suffocated by smoke in their caves or walled up by their enemies and left to starve.■

In France there are thousands of such places, mostly under churches and castles. . There are forty-nine such: places in the department of

Vienne alone. There are churches and other so-called religious institutions in America which have such places and they are being added to every year. These places have made ideal torture chambers and were so used in the days of the Spanish Inquisition.

One of the most gorgeous European caverns is that of Antipharos in the Greek archipelago. On one occasion a throng of five hundred persons descended into this grotto, where they passed three days. The roof is adorned with stalactites, many of them twenty feet long, and hung with festoons of various forms and brilliant appearance. In some parts immense columns descend to the floor; others present the appearance of trees and brooks turned to marble.

There are a number of caves in the rock of Gibraltar, one of them, St. Michael’s cave, being many feet above the sea. The Ghar Dalam cave at Malta contains many relics of antiquity and is being fitted up for visitors. The Grotto del Cane, on Lake Agnano, Naples, Italy, exhales deadly fumes in which, in ancient days, many poor slaves were, suffocated by their masters. There are caves in southern Europe through which great winds sweep, playing like invisible musicians on an organ of rock columns.

The Caves of France

MONG the thousand or more caverns or rock shelters of France there are over one hundred that contain prehistoric paintings, engravings or sculptures. Fully a hundred more have furnished good samples of flint and bone industry, as well as bones of animals long extinct.

At Troo, 150 miles south, of Paris, the little city of that name is built in the base of a cliff of chalk and most of the .homes are built wholly or partly underground. The valley of the Loire abounds in such rock villages, and they occur in many other places in France, Spain and northern Italy.

For the most part the people living in such homes are poor and often degraded, yet many of these places are the homes of families of honest, workers, decently furnished and ornamented outwardly by ledge gardens, hanging vines and neatly curtained window’s.

Ain the grotto of Osselles,. five miles from Besaneon, hundreds of aristocrats, men, w-omen and children, lived during the days of the French Terror. The cave extends 2,600 feet into the earth. Parties have been held there that are considered great successes.

At Crozon, on the coast of Brittany, is a most beautiful cave opening out of the sea. Its roof is lined with slabs of emerald green marble. Its wmlls axe a mass of white, lilac and gray, with intervening streaks of red. Its floor is strewm with red and yellow boulders, and upon that floor, according to tradition, several explorers have been trapped by the swift rising tides and drowmed.

At Tron a Romain, a century ago, a young man, drafted for the army, for a period of two years eluded all attempts to catch him. When amnesty was declared he returned home only to find that his mother had died and his sweetheart had married another. He returned to his lonely cave three hundred feet .above the ocean and threw⁷ himself into the sea.

The Caves of Northern Europe

THE Peak cavern in Derbyshire, England, is nearly a half mile in length, and, at its low^T-est part, is six hundred feet below the surface. There are caves in Kirkdale, England, and Gailenreuth, Germany, that are remarkable for the quantities of bones of elephants, rhinoceri and hyenas that have been found in them.

Within the past iwoj'ears important caves have been discovered ih Chatham and Derbyshire, England. The one in Chatham contained four thousand hammer stones, flint axes and scrapers and other wmrked flints, and was one of the arsenals of long ago.

In Nottingham and Staffordshire, England, thousands of habitations, stables and workshops w’ere cut in the hillsides, and many of these w’ere occupied until, within a few years, the local health authorities required them to be vacated.

One of the grandest natural caverns of Scotland is Fingal’s Cave, in Straffa, one of the Western Islands. Its sides are of basaltic columns which are almost as regular as hewm stone. In a cave on the island of Eigg the Laird of MacLeod entrapped tw^ro hundred libertyloving men wdio refused to bow’ dowm to him and suffocated them all by building a huge fire in the mouth of the eave and allowing the smoko to drift into its farthest recesses.

Iceland (like Hawaii) has many eaves formed of lava, and it may be added that in the vol-

canie country near Rome there are many nat-A ural cavities of great extent and coolness, sometimes resorted to as a refuge from the heat.

The cave at Frederikshall, Norway, is of great depth, calculated to be several thousand feet. In this vast cavern echoes roil like thunder through the awful gloom, the whole scene being spectacular and awe-inspiring to the last degree.

The Mammoth Cave

WHEN thinking of caves in'America one naturally thinks first of that great abyss, Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky. Only 150 miles of this cave has been explored, so that its true dimensions are not known, except that it is known that its aerial diameter exceeds ten miles.

The main cave is three miles long. Its greatest enlargement is known as the Temple, an oval room 541 feet long, 287 feet wide and 125 feet high. The Indians used this as a rendezvous and have left their torches and other relics in abundance. The Star chamber mimics the starry heavens by reason of its lofty ceiling of black oxide of manganese flecked by snowy crystals of gypsum. The entire cave was once sold for $40. It is to become a national park.

Everywhere in Mammoth Cave the atmos” phere is chemically and optically pure and of the uniform temperaturdfef 54 degrees, winter and summer. In summer the air flows outward from the cave; and in winter it flows inward. Years ago it was believed that this air was specially good for lung sufferers, but the theory has been abandoned.

Mammoth Cave contains seventy-four species of blind creatures, the most interesting of which is a blind fish, four inches long, colorless. The fish seeks the dark and shuns the light, being much disturbed by any ray of light. All trace of. the eye of this fish disappears after it reaches two inches in length. European caverns contain several hundred species of blind creatures.

During the Civil War a Negro husband and wife broke away from their plantation and started north. Pursued to Mammoth. Cave they disappeared into its gloom. Their pursuers sent for bloodhounds and traced them from cavern to cavern and from hall to hall until finally they made their last stand on the edge of the Bottomless Pit. As the bloodhounds £ closed upon them the two poor slaves were seen to join hands and leap together into oblivion.

Kentucky has many caverns and great ones. Colossal Cavern, the entrance of which is only one and one-half miles from Mammoth Cave, is of immense size, a worthy rival of Mammoth Cave. It is owned by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, which purchased it in 1896, a year after its discovery. Few Kentucky caves have been explored to any distance and many of them are inaccessible to visitors.

It is believed that many of the larger caves are interconnected; but exploration has been only partial, hence this is not surely known. It was in an effort at such general cave exploration that Floyd Collins a few years ago became firmly fastened in a narrow passage and died in spite of all attempts at rescue.

Luray and Other Eastern Caverns

THE Luray cavern of Virginia, underlying -®- about one hundred acres, and conveniently accessible from all the great cities of the East, is the most visited cavern in America, and well worth a visit. This cavern, bought in 1878 for $40,000, was recently wired at an expense of $18,000, to make its scenic features still more attractive.

There are innumerable caves in the Shenandoah valley, due to the fact that the formation is limestone, and rainwater charged with carbon dioxide will gradually eat limestone away. The so-called Shenandoah caverns, three miles south of Mount Jackson, have been recently opened.

In the Racoon Mountains, near the northwestern extremity of Georgia, is Nickojack Cave, which has been explored for three miles and in places is fifty feet high and one hundred feet wide. A stream of considerable size, which is interrupted by a fall, runs through it.

In the Cumberland Mountains, Tennessee, at a depth of four hundred feet, a stream was found with sufficient current to turn a mill. In another cave in the same state, called Big Bone Cave, were found the bones of a mastodon.

Mount Tabor Cave, near West Liberty, Ohio, is said to have remarkably beautiful color effects from the blending of iron and copper ores. One of its stalagmites, seven feet in circumference at the base, is believed to be more than a hundred thousand years old, as a stalagmite grows barely an inch in a thousand years.

Cave-in-Rock, twenty miles south of Shawneetown, Ill., a century ago was a haunt for criminals. Dread of these criminals brought the settlers^ together into..-villages:, and whelped ..to establish law and order in the vicinity.. The. cave in. the .Mississippi bluffs, made famous by Tom Sawyer, lias been rechristened Mark Twain and opened to the public. It is a gruesome cave, dark, damp,: dangerous and of unpleasant associations.

Caves in the West

HE Ozark region of Missouri has numerous caves, one of which is now serving as a vast cold storage plant for fruit. Wind Cave, near Hot Springs, South Dakota, has been explored over a hundred miles. In this cave is a single cavern, known as the Eair Grounds, which is several, acres in extent. This cave is a government institution, open to the public.

The Lewis and Clark Cavern of Montana, forty-five miles southeast of Butte, has a collection of stalactites and stalagmites said to have few equals in the country. The entrance is at the summit of a limestone cliff twelve hundred feet above the river at its base. The largest chamber thus far explored is about one hundred feet in each direction.

At Twin Buttes, Idaho, is a huge cave of volcanic origin, at the bottom of a crater long since extinct. Seems as if it would be a rather bad place if the old volcano should start working again. The passages in this cave are said to be peculiarly tortuous.

At Carlsbad, New Mexico, is a huge cave of unknown dimensions. One room is more than half a mile long, 400 feet wide at its widest point and 348 feet high at the highest point, sufficient to house a half-dozen New York or Chicago skyscrapers. The cave is known to extend into Texas. This cave contains millions of bats which pour forth like a cloud of smoke every evening: and return do. their underground:' home in the: early morning.

A cave in Nevada contains Chinese writing of .a form in general use. prior to the beginning of the Christian era. Several caves in northern California are rich in animal remains. At El Dorado, California, wmrkmen in a marble, quarry suddenly crashed into a beautiful cavern one hundred feet long and thirty feet wide of which no one previously had any knowledge.

Caves in Southern Climes

HE caves along the northern shores of South America are inhabited by great quantities of what are called oil birds. These birds go forth only at night to feed on fruit. Great numbers of them are killed by torchlight for the sake of the oil obtained, which is said to be excellent for illumination and cooking purposes.

Last Hope Inlet Cavern, Patagonia, is famous for the finding in it of the bones and large pieces of the skin of the great- extinct sloth, Megatherium, with the hair still on.

Ceylon and Australia have numerous caves which have been used for ages as breeding places of swifts and bats. These caves contain exceedingly valuable deposits of guano. Curiously, too, it is in these caves that the edible bird's nests are found which are so much prized by the Chinese.

Near Te Kuiti, Australia, is a cavern called Glow Worm Cavern. The walls of this cavern are literally covered with millions of small glowing worms which give the rocks the appearance of being studded with brilliant jewels. The lights of these glow worms instantly pale at the least noise, as for instance when a person speaks. In the daylight these curious little creatures look like ordinary grubs.

WORTH: The product of human energy or service.

Value: The measure of worth.

Credit: Belief in the integrity of a statement.

Money: The symbol and measure of the exchangeable value of service.

Relative value: Value of service performed as fixed by mutual agreement.

Dollar: A term which has been fixed as the moral and legal unit by which relative values may be reckoned.

The dollar unit is standard, unchangeable, and is in no manner affected by the material bearing its imprint.

Modern business is conducted by the use of credits stated in dollars.

Big business is generally confined to book credits.                                      ...

Retail business requires credits in such form as may be passed from hand to hand.

An ideal form of circulating money bears this statement:

For Value Received

-—The United States of America—

Promises to pay to bearer on demand . . . Dollars, etc.

All of our paper money is United States government notes. Should the issue be five billion dollars, each dollar wmi|| he secured by a government reserve of sixty dollars in good, tangible property and a reputation for integrity exceeding that of any or all banking institutions.

-Unfortunately (with a very slight exception) not one dollar of this money ever reaches a citizen until the dollar has passed through the banks and the citizen has paid tribute with his note, discounted at six percent 1

The issue, travels and redemption of a good government five-dollar note may be illustrated as follows:

I am a government clerk, performing service which has been determined to be worth five dollars a day; and in exchange for service rendered by me I accept a government credit note for five dollars.

I purchase meat from the butcher, and he accepts my government credit note in payment, thus fully discharging the government’s debt to me, but transferring it to the butcher. The butcher purchases bread from the baker, who accepts the government note, thus fully -discharging the government’s debt to the butcher, but transferring it to the baker; and so on, from hand to hand, with each holder of the note except the last one, who is to have the government’s debt to him fully paid.

In due time the government gives notice that its services to the people must be paid for; and tax bills are sent to them. The taxpayer holding the five-dollar note originally paid to me for service rendered to the government, presents the note; and it is accepted in full payment for service rendered by the government.

Though the government’s redemption of its obligation to me has been deferred one year, it has finally been redeemed as pay for taxes. Meanwhile the note itself has often been materially redeemed by various citizens who have been abundantly remunerated in the use of a convenient, unimpeachable and “perfect medium of exchange”.

The history of this five-dollar note is practically the history of every note issued by the government.

Briefly stated, the condition is as follows: About the year 1863, a combination of banks loaned to this government one billion dollars, for which they received one billion dollars in interest-bearing bonds, and a quantity of circulating notes (designated “national bank notes”) which have averaged $800,000,000 a year. To get these notes into circulation, they are loaned by the banks to the people on their notes discounted at six percent, so that during sixty-five years the people have paid direct to the banks on their discounted notes $3,120,000,000, and at three percent interest on bonds, $1,560,000,000, making a total paid to the national banks $4,680,000,000, and the original billion-dollar loan still remains unpaid! And this agreement is still working!

The Federal Reserve System was organized in the year 1913. Their circulating notes are explicitly “'obligations of the United States Government”. These notes are loaned by the banks to the people on their promissory notes at a discount of six percent, and these identical notes are deposited with the government as collateral, and the banks receive an equal amount of circulating notes without charge!

If these notes average three billion dollars a year, during the fifteen years of the system the people will have paid, at six percent, $2,700;-000,000, to the banks for the use of their own money! besides that paid-to the national banks, $4,680,000,000, making a total paid, for which no value has been received, $7,380,000,000.

.The remedy for this great injustice is so simple as to be almost unbelievable, thus:

"All-sections and parts of sections of the National bank and the Federal Reserve bank laws relating to or authorizing the ussue, receipt oh paying out or exchange of circulating notes by⁸ these banks, also the authority of Federal Reserve banks to act.as fiscal agents, or in.any other capacity for the United States, are hereby REPEALED!’ And, at once, the same government notes (properly worded) now in circulation will be paid directly to government employes without expense, and with an annual saving of 300 million dollars to the taxpayers!

A Symbolical Rattlesnake By J. L. Bolling

WE GLEAN the following thoughts from an article which appeared in a recent issue of The National Republic:

The flags and drums used in 1775 by the American forces in the Revolutionary War bore a rattlesnake insignia and the motto, “Don’t Tread on Me.” Benjamin Franklin was much impressed with it, and set about trying to fathom its symbolical meaning’. He wrote:

‘T sat down to guess what could have been intended by this uncommon device. I took care, however, to consult, on this occasion, a person aecpiainted with heraldry, from whom I learned that it is a rule, among the learned in that science, ‘that the worthy properties of the animal, in the crest borne,’ shall be considered; he likewise informed me that the ancients considered the serpent as an emblem of wisdom, and, in a certain attitude, of endless duration— both of which circumstances, 1 suppose, may have been had in view. Having gained this intelligence, and recollecting that countries are sometimes represented by animals peculiar to them, it occured to me that the rattlesnake is found in no other quarter of the world besides America, and may, therefore, have been chosen on that account to represent her. But then the worthy properties of the snake, I judge, would be hard to point out. This rather raised than suppressed my curiosity; and having frequently seen the rattlesnake, I ran over in my mind every property by which she was distinguished, not only from other animals, but from those of the same genus or class of animals, endeavoring to fix some meaning to each, not wholly inconsistent with common sense.

“I recollected that her eyes excelled in brightness that of any other animal, and that she had no eyelids. She may, therefore, be esteemed an emblem of vigilance. She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders. She is, therefore, an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. As if anxious to prevent all pretentions" of quarreling with her, the weapons with which nature has furnished her she conceals in the roof of her mouth, so that, to those who are unacquainted with her, she appears to be a defenceless animal; and even when those weapons are shown, and extended for defence, they appear weak and contemptible; but their wounds, however small, are decisive and fatal. Conscious of this, she never wounds till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and^autioned him against the danger of treadin^lm her. Was I wrong-, sir, in thinking this a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America ? The poison, of her teeth is the necessary means of digesting her food, and at the same time is certain destruction to her enemies. This may be understood to intimate that those things which are destruction to our enemies, may be to us not only harmless, but absolutely necessary to our existence.

“I confess I was wholly at a loss what to make of the rattles, till I went back and counted them, and found them just thirteen, exactly the number of the colonies united in America; and I recollected, too, that this was the only part of the snake which increased in number. Perhaps it might be only fancy, but I conceived the painter had shown a half-formed additional rattle; which, I suppose, may have been intended to represent the province.of Canada. ’Tis curious and amazing to observe how distinct and independent of each other the rattles of this animal are, and yet how firmly they are uni ted together, so as never to be separated but by breaking them to pieces. One of the rattles singly is incapable of producing sound; but the ring of thirteen together is sufficient to alarm the boldest man living.

“The rattlesnake is solitary, and associates with her kind only when it is necessary for their preservation. In winter the warmth of a number together will preserve their lives; while, singly, they would probably perish.

“The power of fascination attributed to her, by a generous construction may be understood to mean that those who consider the liberty and blessings which America affords, and once come over to her, never afterwards leave her, but spend their lives with her. She strongly resembles America in this, that she is beautiful in her youth, and her beauty increaseth with her age. 'Her tongue is also blue, and forked as the lightning, and her abode is among impenetrable rocks.’ ”                 '

To the foregoing we add the following thoughts:

One of America’s mottoes is, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” represented by the brightness-of the serpent’s eyes. Like the serpent in question, she is extremely loath to attack unless unduly, provoked, and she has never yet surrendered to another nation. Compared with other big nations, her military defense has always seemed inadequ^, “weak and contemptible” in the eyes of militarism, indicated by the defenceless appearance of the snake: but like its bite, her attacks have always proven effective in defeating her enemies. And as the rattlesnake warns of the danger of treading on her, so America gives ample warning to her foes before declaring war; as, for example, in the late World War. What a tremendous whirr and buzz went up from her forty-eight rattles before she struck in 19171 In note after note, the head of the serpent warned her foe, but to no avail. She “generously” gave notice of her intention to strike. In harmony with the fact that the rattles are the only part of the snake which increase ia .number, this symbolical rattlesnake has grown forty-eight large and well-developed rattles, all of which are “distinct and independent of each other” as free and independent states, but “firmly united together” in a common purpose, represented in the Federal government. They could be rendered impotent only by separation. But the “ring” of all together is “sufficient to alarm the boldest” nation in existence. America is solitary and isolated; she has no “associates" except in war, when she thinks it necessary to preserve her own existence. In a winter time of trouble, as in the great war, she seeks the company of other symbolical serpents, but leaves them as soon as the necessity for such association is over. She avoids “entangling alliances”, or friendships with other countries. This was pointed out by a great French statesman recently, who said that his people did not understand America’s peculiar attitude in this respect.

And how true it is that America, exerts a strange power of fascination over the immigrant, which impels him to remain with, her! , Viewed from the standpoint of the world, she is indeed beautiful, just as the serpent is regarded with admiration by certain religious cults, notably the Satanists, of Paris, whose leader wears a snake around her neck for a necklace. The Scriptures seem to refer to this country in the verse quoted by Franklin. Truly, “her abode is among impenetrable rocks” in the sense of her geographical position of isolation. No nation has ever yet invaded this “impenetrable” abode successfully; and it -was Lincoln who said that if the Old World should pool her wealth, combine her armies, and place a Napoleon at her head, they could not make a track on the Blue Eidge or take a drink out of the Ohio “in a trial of a thousand years”, so “impenetrable” is America’s position among the nations of earth.

We would dissent from Franklin’s view that the undeveloped rattle represented Canada; rather, we would suppose that it was a prediction of the growth of the United States into more than thirteen colonies; and we see that this has been sighallyffiiTfilled. There is little likelihood that either Canada or Mexico will ever become a part of this symbolical rattlesnake, although this is not an impossibility, and there are forces at work with such an end in view.

Now the question¹¹¹' arises,'“'Who made this prophecy, and "who invented these wonderful correspondencies? for there is nothing fanciful or far-fetched in- the whole picture: it is an accurate symbolical representation of the United States. The answer is that Satan, anxious to have some tremendously impressive symbol of himself, the cunning serpent, somewhere in his empire, is the inspire! of it, A con-

•templatiam -of - the picture ■ will ■ give > us< a fresh insight into the "depths of Satan⁷; Additionally, in a previous article, has been pleased to recognize and favor .* :iiei u’a above nil o'her Gentile

A Tip To Raisin Growers

A FRIEND in California who knows the inside of the raisin game includes in a letter the following expression, which we have no doubt some readers of The Golden Age may note to their profit:

A very practical advice would be to tell each and every sensible raisin grower to resign from the Associa-„ tion at the very first “resigning” period which the contract allows (and it took II. S. Federal action to put these resigning periods into the contract, by the way), because woe to those who are members of the Association when it falls: the bankers will take away the very clothes off their backs in order to cover the millions the Association takes below the surface when it sinks.

If The Golden Age feels like rendering the raisin growers a service, why not a heading and a paragraph or two in the following style:

Sun-Maid Raisin Growers Have Rough Going

Farmers’ cooperative selling organizations seem to have the usual run of bad luck in their management and financial, returns to farmer-members. The reason seems plain. The cooperatives lack the intensely practical and self-seeking management of a firm operating along the usual non-cooperative lines. With mankind what it is. where hundreds or thousands of more or less unappreciative and more or less suspicious individuals comprise a giant cooperative, there is not the keen incentive on the part of the management to reduce overhead expenses, to weed out nonproducing employees, and to secure the highest possible returns for their produce with the least possible expense.

Result: Fifst, the officials at the head of the cooperative become lax and easy going; second, they discover perfectly “legitimate” little ways of lining their own pockets at the expense of the farmers; third, these petty methods of graft grow into great wrongs whereby millions of dollars are robbed from the groaning ranchers.

If information which conies to The Golden Age from seemingly reliable sources is correct, an unsatisfactory " condition exists among the raisin growers of California and in their cooperative, Sun-Maid Raisin Growers. A giant raisin-marketing cooperative, organized in 1912-|||of California . Associated Raisin Co., for some years gave the farmers fairly good returns. The high prices of the world-war period, succeeded by the 1918-1919 craze of high raisin prices immediately after the Prohibition Amendment, gave the raisin growers high hopes that their cooperative would prove the exception to the rule.

But when the inevitable slump struck, it struck hard. Raisin prices went down. Hundreds lost vineyards that represented life-time earnings. Reorganized in 1921 under the name of "Sun-Maid Raisin Growers”, the farmers’ cooperative made a brave rally. Immense advertising campaigns made the name of "SunMaid Raisins” widely known; and the growers for years gladly paid the bills, bills running into many millions of dollars, while they themselves struggled along at starvation returns of 31c and less a pound for their raisins, hoping that relief was just around the corner.

However, it is now alleged, by those who should know, that certain abuses have crept into the management Alt is also alleged that, should this mammotlwrganization go bankrupt, with almost 50% of the raisin growers as its members, these members and shareholders would be billed for their proportionate share of the losses.

From the perspective of some 2,000 miles, it would appear to The Golden Age editors that the discontented raisin grower’s easiest way out would be to jerk out his grape vines, a few acres each year so as not to make a too-sudden change, and plant other crops that seem to promise better returns.

Many farmers, of course, will keep on growing grapes and making raisins, but will take advantage of their forthcoming withdrawal period, allowed in their. cont.ra.cts, and will withdraw⁷ from the Sun-Maid Raisin Growers.

This will delight the “independent” or privately-managed raisin packers.-At present these “independents” invariably give the vineyardist higher prices than the cooperative does. But their love for the grower is akin to the love of a pack of hungry wolves for a nice, juicy baby

Iamb, as their past history has abundantly • proved. In the good old pre-Association days, raisins sold for 5e a pound one year ana L^e a pound or less the next. Some, however, will prefer to battle with this up-and-down market condition rather than the slowly demoralizing, consistently starvation returns that the Sun

Still In the Picture

AST October I was told by a reputable physician that my blood pressure was so low that any sudden shock and I “would pass out of the picture”. Walking a city block was real hard labor for my heart, and stairs were impossible, even had I wanted to disregard the doctor’s orders, which were not to try them.

After reading your article on “Aluminum” in The Golden Age, about the 30th of November, we left off cooking in aluminum from that hour. In three months, December, January and February, my blood pressure rose from 110 to 120, and I could actually feel how much better I felt every morning than I had felt the day before. My nerves stopped hurting me; my vision steadily improved. I had previously stopped trying to do any physical work, but I resumed light tasks and the exercise I have taken all my life, and some garden ^ork. On the first of March my blood pressure was 120.

All last summer I took sun baths and was on a special diet without improvement. I could not increase the number of red blood corpuscles whose absence was causing all my trouble. I continued all these helps to health all winter. The first of March I added many walnuts to my diet, and Dr. Russel’s Green Bone, with many oranges, apples and lemons. On the 30th Maid Raisin Growers doles out to its hopeful but hungry members.

Either way, the farmer always gets the rough end of the deal while a few individuals roll up fat bank accounts, roll around in big cars, and live in beautiful homes that put king’s castles to shame.

By Gladys Barady

of March my blood pressure had risen from 120 to 130, in one month! It is now normal.

In the days of my slavery, to aluminum poisoning I had to have ten to twelve hours a day in bed and then I got up tired. Now I can stay up till nine or ten o’clock; which seems perfectly marvelous after you’ve had to go to bed at seven for three or .four years.

Your fearlessness in publishing these “Aluminum” articles has literally saved my life and helped me to become once more a useful member of society. You are welcome to publish this so that I can do my little part to help others as you have helped me. Also I must acknowledge in a personal letter to Dr. Charles T. Betts and the other doctors whose opinions you publish, my undying gratitude for their honesty.

You have my thanks, which seem utterly inadequate to show you what I feel about this thing you are doing and what you have done for me.

Needless to state, but if ten thousand doctors swore on ten thousand Bibles that aluminum ware is harmless to human beings, I would not believe them, for my own experience has proved that it is a deadly but very slow and insidious poison through which I was losing my life and which worked in a fashion so subtle that no one could discover what was the matter.

An Uovaccinated Authority On Smallpox By G. W. Emery

T HAVE studied medicine considerably and so A have come into contact with a good many medical men, one of whom was Dr. AV. G. Scott, of Los Angeles, a close friend, a real authority mi smallpox.

In the Civil War he was in charge of the government hospital at Memphis, Tenn., where he had thousands of smallpox eases pass • through his hands. Afterwards he was in charge of similar work in Mobile, Ala.

He said to me, in effect : “I have attended thousands of smallpox cases, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, and one had the disease as bad as the other, notwithstanding the vaccination or its time. Of twenty-one who died in the smallpox epidemic of 1898-1899, eighteen died of vaccination. I knew of one case, that of a young woman, with a little sister and a father to support. She worked in a department store and was compelled to submit to vaccination.

She died in three days. I myself never was vaccinated, never took the disease, never was afraid of it and was only careful to keep my blood and stomach in healthy condition by physical exercise, proper food and regular hours.”

Dr. Scott was my intimate personal friend from 1895 to the time of his death. If this is not enough^ ask for more and I will write more. If such evidence is not good, where would you seek it? On one occasion Dr. Scott said to me, “T do not believe it is necessary to put one loathsome disease into the human system to’keep another out.”

Bible Questions asid Answers

QUESTION: In what sense was Jesus the only begotten’Son of God?

Answer: Jesus is the only begotten- Son of God because, the Bible teaches, He is the firstborn and only direct creation of God. In Co-lossians 1:15 we read: ‘'‘[The Son of God] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and. for him.” In speaking of Christ Jesus the heavenly Father says in Psalm 89:27, “I will make him miy firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.” The Scriptures teach that before; He came to earth He was with the Father as the Logos. As the Logos He was a mighty spirit being and was the agent of the heavenly Father in the creation of all things. Subsequently the Son of God came to earth to become man’s Redeemer. At the age of thirty He was begotten by Jehovah to the divine nature, when He came to Jordan. After His crucifixion He was raised in resurrection a mighty spirit being. The only begotten Son of Jehovah has been the treasure of the Almighty God. He has been the Father's agent in the creation of all things except Himself, and He will be the Father’s chief representative in the ages to come.                          „•

Question-: Was Jesus while on earth true God and true man?

. 'Ans-wer: No. While on earth Jesus was a perfect man, and except Adam before he sinned, the only perfect man that ever existed on earth. On account, of His obedience in doing the will of the heavenly Father, Jesus was the greatest man that ever lived. The Bible teaches us that there is only, one personage who is God, and that is Jehovah, the Father of Jesus. In 1 Timothy 2:5 we read: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” In John 17:3 we read: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” The Bible here clearly states that there is but one person, who is God, and He is the Father of Jesus. Furthermore, it was God who sent Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ was not God.

Question: How do you Bible Students study the Bible?                             .......

Answer: A Christian" should study the Bible | topically. By topical Bible study we mean a thorough study of on# subject at a time. For instance, it may be a good thing to take a concordance and turn to the word “God”, and find the passages giving information about that Being. The important scriptures may be carefully studied. After that subject is thoroughly understood, the subject of Jesus, the Son of God, Christ, or any term relative to this Being may be examined in the same way. Now this would be very laborious; but if there would not be any other means it would be highly profitable. But Bible Studies containing a topical digest of different Bible subjects are now published by the International Bible Students Association and may be secured at a very low cost. One of the publications, called The Harp of God, is an excellent book for beginning this study. In this literature the scriptures are cited and in many instances the quotations are made. This literature does not take the place of the Bible, but it is a topical discussion of the Bible. The Christian should accept as truth only such liter- g ature as is in harmony with the Bible, and the Bible should be the final and only test.

Reconciliation

[Radiocast, from Station WBBR, New York, by .Tudste Rutherford.]

rpHTS is the first of a series of lectures which -*• .1 hope to broadcast concerning the reconciliation of man to God. It is of first importance toman that he learn his proper relationship to his Creator. Few are they who know God. It is a duty laid upon every follower of Christ, to serve in the capacity of an ambassador to enlighten man concerning God's purpose and plan of reconciliation of man to Himself. The Apostle Paul wrote: “Now then,we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”—2 Corinthians 5: 20.

The message of God’s Word has to do with man and his-experiences from his primacy to the present time. This is the appropriate time to gain a knowledge of the facts. A sharp contrast is drawn between the perfect and the imperfect man.

, A mighty prince, clothed witlugreat power and-authority and having, received, a dominion over,which to- rule, with light heart and buoyant, step walked in the way of happiness. His countenance was pleasing to the eye, his face radiated with smiles, and his-voice- musical and as dear as the trumpet sound on the. morning air. The beasts of the field and the fowls of the air obediently responded' ta his call. His food and raiment were supplied in abundance; and his castle, situated in the sweet-scented groves, was a place-of joy and delight.. His relationship with God was that of. confidence and trust. He was monarch of all he surveyed. But his happy situation was one of short duration.

A man, apparently bent with years, journeyed through the valley of darkness. .His garments would..mark, him as a- tiller of the soil and. a feeder, of swine.. His.visage was greatly marred, telling, of thoughts, impure and.a heart wherein resided malice and ill .will. His voice was husky and cruel, and at his approach, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air fled before him.

<■ The. mighty prince was the self-same one who-became the cruel and repulsive man. Shorn of his power and authority, and alienated from the mighty God. he no- longer walked in the way of happiness. Now his journey lies along a ‘dreary and dismal way and leads to the bog of despair.

Why the change from prince to pauper? His power and,authority, his dominion and his life, llllllllillM

he tcceived from the Most High God. Because of disloyalty and unfaithfulness to his God and to the trust reposed in him he lost all. A wide gulf now separates him from his Creator and Benefactor.

Is there hope of a reconciliation between the man and. the'Most High God?. Is it possible for the man ever to be restored to his dominion and to his place of honor and trust? These questions find answer in the sacred and holy Word of Jehovah. God. Therein, is disclosed the cause of the alienation of the mighty -prince, from Jehovah and the statement of God’s gracious provision leading to a way of reconciliation. The. Bible is God’s sacred Word of truth. From it and it alone is obtained the true history of the prince and the pauper. The story is more thrilling and fascinating than any fiction ever told.

The earth, was .the beginning of this, drama and the home of the mighty prince. The earth is yet the place: of the domicile of man and all the offspring of the first man. Now after a lapse of more than.sixty centuries-comparatively few of his offspring understand who owns the. earth,, why it was created, and man’s relationship to the Creator. No man can have a proper appreciation of the history of the race, of his obligation to the Creator, and of the prospect set before him, if he ignores or turns aside from-the sacred truths contained in the Scriptures.- The Bible is the fountain of truth; and the more one drinks at this fountain, the sweeter is its lifeflowing stream.

The earth incites the wonder and admiration of man even though he is imperfect and his understanding greatly limited. Whether, the earth is viewed with respect to the formation of its. various strata or its vegetable and animallife; whether by the use of the microscope its endless varieties are seen; or whether by employing the; telescope the relationship of.the earth to the other planets and the stars is considered, the reverential man stands in awe; and; wonderment at the wisdom displayed in its creation. And when he learns that the earth was created by the Most High God and made to be Ihe lasting habitation of man his mind and his heart yearn to know more about it and more concerning its great Creator. The telescope was not invented until 1608 A. D._? and .it is no matter Cor surprise that prior to that time man thought the earth to be the center of all things.

The knowledge of the great Creator, as He reveals Himself in His creation of man and His provision for man, was preserved by a very few. This knowledge was merely a tiny stream of truth which trickled down through the centuries, and few were they that drank thereat. Early in the history of man he put God out of his thoughts; consequently the vision of man was limited to things he saw with his natural eye. When the sun and the moon and the stars came into view some men gave consideration to the creation but not to the Creator. Because it was apparent to them that all life enjoyed by all creation of earth proceeded from the sun, that planet became the object of worship by men. Those who did retain a knowledge of the Creator and had faith in Him knew that God was beyond the starry heavens, and they worshiped Him as the Creator^- of both heaven and earth. Such were so few, however, compared with the greater number, that they are hardly observable.

The development of the telescope, together with increased knowledge of things, brought men to see that the earth is not what man once had thought it to be. He learned that, instead of being fixed and the center of all things, the earth is a sphere and one among the other planets associated with the sun, and that the sun is the center of this planetary system known as the solar system.

Increased knowledge, commonly known as physical science, discloses that there are stars so enormous that the earth beside these is but a pigmy. Astronomers claim that Betelguese is so large that the sun and its satellites, including the earth, could be placed in the interior of Betelguese’s shell and still keep their respective distances from each other. It is difficult for man to conceive the enormity of this tremendous star or planet. The enlightened student of the Word of God knows, ho wever, that the earth holds a place of importance in God’s creation far greater than that of Betelguese or any other star save alone the one which is the place of the throne of the Eternal God.

It is claimed by savants that the writers of the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures wore ignorant of the relationship between the earth and the other stars and planets of creation.

There is no evidence, however, to support such a claim. It is quite evident that it was not the purpose of God to state in His Word, which constitutes our Bible, all the facts relative to the earth and its relationship to other bodies of creation. The spirit of God operated upon the minds of the faithful men of old who wrote the Bible and it is reasonable that they understood some things about the creation that are not recorded in the Scriptures. AVhat they did write under divine direction "was and is true, and of that we can be absolutely certain. These holy men of old wrote as they were moved upon by the holy spirit.—2 Samuel 23: 2.

The Bible is the only credible guide either as to the real relationship between man and the earth and the great Creator of both or concerning the purpose of the creation of both. Taking the Bible as his guide man sees that the earth occupies a place of great importance in God’s plan and purposes and that in His due time every creature in heaven and in earth will be brought into harmony and into one grand harmonious whole or unity. To this effect the inspired witness of Jehovah wrote: “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” —Ephesians 1:9,10.

The constellation of the seven stars forming the Pleiades appears to be the crowning center around which the known systems of the planets revolve even as our sun’s planets obey the sun and travel in their respective orbits. It has been suggested, and with much weight, that one of the stars of that group is the dwelling-place of Jehovah and the place of the highest heavens. It is the place to which the inspired writer referred when he said: “Hear thou from thy dwellingplace, even from heaven” (2 Chronicles 6: 21) ; and that it is the place to which Job referred when under inspiration he wrote: “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?”—Job 38:31.

The constellation of the Pleiades is a small one in size compared with others which scientific instruments disclose to the wondering eyes of man. But the greatness of other planets is small when compared with the Pleiades in importance, because the Pleiades is the place of the eternal throne of God. For a like reason the great groups of stars, greater in size than the planet earth, must in the eyes of Jehovah he of far less importance than the earth because of the close relationship between the earth and tint throne of Jehovah. Concerning this relationship the prophet of God wrote: “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." (Isaiah 66:1)' Thus it is shown from His Word that there is a direct and intimate relationship between the throne of Jehovah and the earth.

The creation of the earth did not happen by chance, nor did the earth come into existence by the operation of blind force, as self-constituted savants and wise men claim. Its formation was by the will of God and it was created 'directly under His supervision. (Isaiah 42:5) “For every house is budded by some man; but he that built all things is God.” (Hebrews 3:4) Future ages may witness these other planets of greater size giving glory to the Creator beyond anything that is now revealed to us, but man can not now conceive of any of them ever being more highly honored than the earth. When man comes to appreciate this fact he will more fully appreciate how he has been favored by the great Creator.

That which lifts the earth into a position of importance beyond anything possible with the other planets is the fact that upon the earth has been staged the great drama of creation and here has been given the lessons of good and evil apparently intended for all time and for all the intelligent creatures of Jehovah. It must also be kept in mind that the Logos, the glorious Son of God and the active agent in the creation of all things, at the will of Jehovah left the courts of heaven and came to earth and while on the earth was subjected to the severest testings; that He here proved the perfect man’s proper relationship to Jehovah; that He suffered an ignominious death and was raised out of death and then exalted to the highest place in heaven next to Jehovah. All this was done in order that God, in His due time, might establish His will amongst His creatures on earth and in heaven, and all to the everlasting good of the peoples of earth and to the glory of Jehovah,

The exaltation of Jesus was higher than all others of God’s creation, and none other will ever ho so high, aside from Jehovah. That exaltation was not because of something Jesus had developed within Himself:. It was not because He had developed a character separate and distinct from Himself; nor was it because of what He had done before He camo to earth; but it was because of His fidelity, as a man while on the earth, to Jehovah in the faithful performance of His covenant and His duties and obligations laid upon Him by His Father. The. earth, was made the place where Jesus gained His victory through faith, and the earth was honored above all the other places by reason of what Jesus did upon it.

Because God used the earth and man for His eternal purposes, and because 'His beloved Son Jesus when a man upon the earth proved His fidelity to God before men and angels, the conclusion must that the earth is the most favored, and will remain the most favored, in the planetary creation of God and will always be dear to the heart of the Creator. The man who traverses the earth now does not have a proper appreciation of the favors that have been bestowed upon him at the hands of the Creator, but in God’s due time he will come to a proper appreciation.

God made the earth suitable for animal life that is found upon it. The animal creation eats and drinks and enjoys existence and in due time perishes. Man is more than merely an animal to exist and propagate his species. His mind gives him capacity to search out the great truths in God’s arrangement and ibis litis him far above the other animal creation. His mind needs food and his gracious Creator has abundantly provided all his ways -with food for both body and mind. Some men now have a sufficient, knowledge of things to prove that man may make an endless search into the wonders of the earth, and other great creative works of Jehovah which are related thereto, and that making this search his worshipful adoration toward the Creator will increase. In these marvelous works of creation God displays His wisdom, justice, love and power. When man begins to learn thereof he is filled with wonder, admiration, awe and reverence for the Master Workman. He needs to come to this attitude before he begins to learn wisdom. In fact wisdom is the application of knowledge according to the divine standard; therefore man must know of God and know God, at least to a degree, before he can become in any measure wise. .With profound respect and reverence, mingled with fear and trembling, man pursues his way in seeking knowledge of the Almighty. As his appreciation of his knowledge of God increases, his affection for Jehovah increases. Then he delights to know more of God’s works, and his pleasure leads him to seek them out. One of the holy prophets of Jehovah, musing upon the wonders of creation, exclaimed: “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.”—Psalm 111: 2.

The Bible is God’s Word expressed and revealed to His creature, man. The general thought amongst men is that the Bible is a confused mass of thoughts expressed. This erroneous conception is due to men who havemisrep-resented God and His Word. The Bible shows the clear statement of God’s purposes concerning the earth, and man once made its prince. Its opening chapters show that it was intended for man's instruction. It discloses that God intended man to he the monarch of the earth as long as he would remain in full harmony with his Creator.

God endowed the perfect man with the faculties of reason and .justice, wisdom, love and power, and gave him the freedom to use his will. In these respects man was made in the image and likeness of his Creator.

Jehovah created the earth, and therefore it is His by right of creation. He set in operation His laws, intended by Him to produce results, and results followed in harmony with His will. The heavens and the earth were made by the expressed will of God. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made: and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”—Psalm 33:6, 9.

Man’s Dominion

0 HAVE dominion, means to reign or rule over. God intended from the creation of the earth that perfect man should have dominion over the earth and its creatures. A prince means a governor or ruler who holds sway by authority. The perfect man Adam was made a prince or ruler of the earth. One clothed with authority is always subject to the one conferring that authority and must conform to the terms and conditions upon which the authority is conrerrc-d. JJl power and authority will by final analysis be 1‘oaiid to reside in Jehovah. All power and authority rightfully exercised must be exercised in harmony with His will.

Jehovah expressed His purpose of creating man. Addressing Himself undoubtedly to the Logos, His faithful and active agent in the creation of all things,- He said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”—Gen. 1: 26.

The power of Jehovah knows no limitation. For Him to will a thing to be created means that it is certain to be done according to His will. Having determined to make man in His own image and likeness He proceeded so to do. It being His will that man should be a prince and have dominion over the things of the earth, this was done. That man was created for the earth and that the earth was created for man there is not the slightest room for doubt. Upon this point God’s will is expressed: “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited; I am the .Lord, and there is none else. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.”—Isaiah 45:18,12.

Since the dominion of all things resides in Jehova.li He could give it to whomsoever He might will. It is written : “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1) “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” —Psalm 115:16.

Man, as well as the earth, belongs to Jehovah, because God created man. The authority of man to have dominion over the earth having been conferred upon man by Jehovah, man must exercise that authority and dominion in harmony with God’s will. When Adam was granted dominion and made a prince in the earth the duty and obligation devolved upon him to exercise that authority in harmony with his Creator. Adam was placed in Eden as its caretaker. He ■was not required to put forth laborious efforts to produce his food. Eden yielded freely all the food that was essential for his sustenance and for his pleasure. He was given control over the animals, the fowls and the fish, and these were to render and did render obedience to him. He was clothed with power and authority io produce bis own kind: and had ho exercised that God-given authority in harmony with his Creator he would have produced a perfect and happy family of children. God gave him the privilege to exercise bis own faculties. He could will to obey or to disobey. This, however, did not at all relieve him fmm the obligation of being in harmony with Jehovah and exercising his authority in harmony with God’s holy will.

Eden was a large district, larger than is . generally supposed. It must have embraced a considerable area of land. Four rivers floAved out from the garden and watered the land round about. Eden not- only had beautiful groves which pleased the eye and produced food, but therein were to be found all the precious stones and much fine gold. The garden portion of Eden was on the eastern side and the entrance was from the east. It was more beautiful than the other part of the district. It was in that garden that man was placed as the caretaker and where he found his pleasure and his employment. The earth was for man and the perfect prince was placed in a perfect home.

The ecclesiastical teachers misrepresenting God and His Word have led the people to believe that- had Prince Adam remained a good and faithful officer of Jehovah God in due time God would have taken him to heaven. There is absolutely no evidence upon which to base such a conclusion. Adam had no promise of heaven;, and there never was a possibility, under any circumstances or conditions, of his going to heaven. He was strictly and purely of the earth; and the earth alone was to be his everlasting home. Concerning this it is written: “The first man was of the earth, earthy.” (1 Corinthians j 5:471 Since the earth was made for the home of man we should not expect to find any promise of heaven for him, and there is not a word found in the Scriptures whereby Adam was promised heaven as a home. A proper understanding of this matter here will enable the student to have a clear understanding of what shall be the final destiny of the human family.

The dominion of earth was never absolutely and irrevocably given to Adam. Had that been done God could not have taken it away from him even though lie disobeyed. Nor was Adam given life without some limitations. Upon this W the'•ecclesiastical'teachers have misrep-roented God and His Word and led the peorfle illllOlBiB

elusive that life and dominion were conferred upon Adam to be held and enjoyed by him for ever upon condition that Adam render obedience to the great Giver. It would be inconsistent for God to give His creature life and dominion with no conditions or limitations added. In the event His creature, possessing life and dominion, should become a rebel his rebellion Avould continue for ever if his life were to continue for ever. The clergy, yielding to the seductive influence of Satan, have fallen into this great error. They have proceeded upon the theory that God granted Adam endless life, and that Adam, haring become a rebel, must spend his eternity in torment, being alienated from God. But the Scriptures do not at all support such a conclusion. On the contrary, the Scriptures shew that God gave man life and made him a prince in the earth upon the expressed condition that man be obedient to God. Should man never be disobedent and always remain in harmony Avith his Creator he Avould for ever enjoy life and dominion OA^Ter the earth. But in the event he should become a rebellious creature, then the condition attached Avas: “Dying thou shalt die.” With the coming of death all things Avould be lost. Death therefore Avould conclusively prove that man’s dominion and his life Avere held conditionally.

There is no thought expressed in the creation of man, and dominion granted to him, that he should ever go to torment. There is no thought expressed in the Bible anyAvhere that God purposes to put any of His creatures in a place of endless torture. On the contrary, the declaration of His laAV is plain and simple, and means that life and dominion Avere granted to Adam upon condition that he obey and that disobedience Avould mean the loss of his princely authority and his life.

Adam, as the prince of the earth, resided' in Eden. Adam was perfect and his home was perfect. It will not do to say that he was only partially perfect, and that he had at that time no opportunity to develop a character, and therefore his character was imperfect. It is written: “All the works of Jehovah are perfect.” (Deuteronomy 32:4) It was impossible for Adam to develop a character, because God made him a character. Every creature of intelligence is a character. He does not possess a character. Orthodox teachers fell into the great error of teadung that man has a soul;. whereas the Scriptures clearly teach that roan is a soul. They also fell into a like error by teaching that man has a character; whereas the Scriptures teach that man is a character. If Adam had to develop a character, then he was not perfect when he was put to the test; whereas the Scrijitures declare he was perfect. He was endowed v.with the faculties of justice, wisdom, love and poAver. That did not mean that he possessed all knowledge. The Scriptures show that the highest of God’s creation will continue to acquire knowledge in all the ages to come. (Psalm 27: 4) Adam had sufficient knowledge, however, to know what to do and what not to do. He knew what was -wrong and what was right because God told him. He possessed the faculty of applying knowledge according to God’s instructions, and had he so applied it he would have proven his wisdom. He was clothed with power and this he exercised over the animal creation and he should have exercised it over Eve in the right way. He had the ability to be unselfish, which is love expressed, and had he chosen to exercise it properly he would have proven his love. He was perfect, in his organism. He had all his faculties about him. He was therefore a perfect man. It is true that Adam had not then had much experience, but experience is not the only way of acquiring knowd-edge. God told him what he might do and what he might not do, and that should have been sufficient. The experience through which he did thereafter pass only confirmed what God had previously told him. No excuse can therefore be offered for Adam because of his lack of experience.

Adam, with understanding clear, and being perfect, beheld the earth and said: ‘This is mine because Jehovah has given me dominion over it.’ Im summoned before him the animals and the birds, and named them and said: ‘These are mine because Jehovah gave dominion over them to me.’ At his call they obeyed his voice. He saw his beautiful wife and said: ‘This lovable creature Is mime because God made her and gave her tn he my companion and helpmeet.’ lie walked amidst the beautiful groves and scented the sweet blossoms, and ate the fruits, and said: ‘These arc all mine because my God provided them for me: hut He has asked me to not eat of the fruit of that one tree and 1ms told me that death shall result if I eat.’ He would say ; ‘AU these things are mine upon condition that I obey my Creator and if I disobey I will lose all of them.’ This must have been his conclusion because it is written: ‘‘Adam was not deceived.” (1 Timothy 2:14) This is proof that Adam was in possession of all his God-giyen faculties, which faculties were perfect. ;

Prince Adam was rich because all the gold and the precious stones were his, and all the cattle and the flocks were his because he was the man and the trusted representative of Jehovah and to him all of these things had been committed. He was strong and vigorous and knew no such thing as pain. He was happy because his environment was happy and everything about him was at ease.

One may possess all the means of doing good, but if he does not employ those means to that end he does not accomplish good. Adam was endowed with the faculties of wisdom, justice, love and power, and these he must use as he might choose. It was the will of God that he should do right, but God permitted Adam to exercise his own will as to whether he would do right or wrong. That which is exercised in opposition to love is selfishness. Pride is the fruit of selfishness. “Pride goetli before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” God made no law compelling Adam to exercise the faculty of love toward Him, but He endowed Adam with that faculty and then told him what would be the result if he followed a selfish course... Jehovah has announced His rule of action, to wit, that he who loves God will keep God’s commandments. (John 14:15) Love is therefore the fulfilment of God’s law. God commends His love to His creatures in that everything He does for His creatures He does unselfishly. He afforded the opportunity for His perfect and intelligent creature to be like Him. One must know God and follow a like course to for ever remain in harmony with Him. Adam did know^T God. because God communicated with him and Adam did have the opportunity to remain in harmony with God. Another irrevocable ride of action of Jehovah, and which is announced in His Word, is, that to know God and to be like Him means to enjoy endless life.

The mighty prince that started upon his way of peace, perfection, beauty and happiness, surrounded by every inducement to walk in harmony with God, might have enjoyed these blessed Unrigs for ever. He became a pauper, and his offspring have continued to suffer.

The Children’s Own Radio Story By C. J. JF., 'Jr.

Story Nine

THE most recent of our radio stories was X^- about the wonderful adventure of the young hoV Jesus, in the temple at Jerusalem. You no doubt remember that He stood before the wise and learned men who were gathered in the temple and asked them many questions so deep that none could answer.

Then, when Joseph and Alary came to seek Jesus, and found the young boy in the temple, in ••answer to their question He said, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”

We step forward with the Bible account, which says little about the life of Jesus from the time of the adventure in the temple until Jesus was about thirty years old.

Of that period, about eighteen years, the Bible says: “And he went down with them [Joseph and Mary], and came to Nazareth, and. was subject-unto them. . . . And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour^- with and man.”

‘Do you notice that little remark which Jesus was subject unto Joseph and Mary? ness] till the' day of his shewing unto Israel.”

As every thing that Jehovah God does is always exactly right and is always done at exactly the right time, we would of course expect to see John, the herald of Jesus, appear upon the scene just before Jesus Himself, as a man, began the great work which Jehovah entrusted to Him.

This was the case. When Jesus had passed from boyhood to manhood, and was, according to the Jewish law, a full-grown man, that is, about thirty years of age, the voice of the Lord God came to John in the wilderness.

The Bible says that “the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness, and he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”

Of course, when this fine young man began to go about Palestine telling the people about the coming of Jesus, and baptizing them, the wise men in Jerusalem became very excited about it. These wise men were called Pharisees and Sadducees, and rvere mostly priests and doctors and lawyers. They wanted to hold the great power which they had over the people, and feared that the coming of John was the end of their wicked sway, for they had deceived and lied to the people and of course they did not want the people to know about it.

So they sent some of their members to John, to ask him questions and to try to scare him. But John was sent by Jehovah God, and he was not frightened. The account in the Bible reads thus:

“And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias ? And he saith, I am not. . . . Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. , , . .Ho it is . . . whose shoe’s latehet I am not. worthy to unloose.”