Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

in this issue

SWITZERLAND ACORNS FROM THE OAK ON THE MORATORIUM A SHORT TOUR IN INDIA ALUMINUM POISONING ELECTRIC POWER RATES OBEDIENCE THE WAY TO LIFE

every other WEDNESDAY

five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25

Vol. XIII . No. 316

October 28, 1931

Drop in the Building Industry . 41

Victory of the Machine .... 41

West Palm Beach Hit Hard . . 41

The Rich Will Feed the Poor . 41

Good-bye to the Coopers . . . 42 West Virginia’s Sinking

Fund Commission . . . . .42

Manless Factory at Milwaukee . 42

Pinchot on Aiding the Poor . . 42

“No Right to Exist”

Why Mooney Is Kept in Prison . 45

African Natives Gut of Work . . 45

In a South Carolina Mill Town . 55

Russia Building World’s Largest Army  

Pennsylvania Restive Under Blue Laws

MacDonald’s Day of Judgment . 53

AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY

Ford Workers Must Have Gardens 43

Tuberculin Testing of Cattle in Ohio . ......

Burned 75 Acres of Oats , . . .57

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Acorns from the Oak . . . . . 41

Crimes of the Native-born . . . 41

In Harlan, Kentucky .... 4’2

Gold and Silver in the Streets . 42

Keeps the Property Up . . . . 43

More Radio Blessings Ahead . . 55

SCIENCE AND INVENTION

Printing Visagrapii for the Blind 53

HOME AND HEALTH

Public Health of Detroit . . . 46

Aluminum Poisoning ..... 54

MANUFACTURING AND MINING

Progress in Ten Years . . .

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

Six Billion Idle Dollars .... 41

“'Wrecked Within a Year” . . 41

Cutting Time of Ocean Mails . . 41

Dividends a Fourth Less . . . 41

Modern Uses of Tank Cars . . . 42

The Railways and the Highways 43

On the Moratorium

Union Pacific After Business . . 53

Georgia Power Company Rates . 56

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

Switzerland—The Fortress of Europe . .

What Made India Pook .... 40 “A Short Tour In India” . . . 47 Shaw on Russia . .

Depression in the Far East ... 57

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Charity Day in Cleveland . . . 43

Obedience the Way to Life . . . 58

Published every other Wednesday tit 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A., by WOODWOkTH, KNORR & MARTIN

Copartners and Proprietors Address: 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, A. Y., V. S. A. CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH . . Editor ROBERT J. MARTIN . . Business Manager NATHAN H. KNORR . . Secretary and Treasurer

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al™ Golden Age

Volume XHi                       Brooklyn, N. Y.₉ Wednesday, October 23, 1331                      Number 316

Switzerland—The Fortress of Europe

A BAILIFF is just a man that collects rent for the landlord by due process of law, but it is astonishing how impudent and overbearing such a joint servant of a landlord and his tenants can become. Sometimes he gets to feel that he is more important than either the landlord or the tenants whose joint interests he serves. It is all right for a servant to have the job of carrying your rent back to the landlord, but he does not need to think because of it that he is of any undue consequence.

In the 13th century the counts of Hapsburg were bailiffs for the emperors of the Holy (?) Roman Empire, and, among other things, were supposed to collect the rents of the foresters living in the cantons of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden.

As time went on they seemed to forget that their job was simply that of humble rent collectors and acted as if they thought that they were sovereign rulers. Hence it came about that in the year 1291 some of these foresters leagued themselves together^- to oppose these usurpations.

A few years later, thirty-three of these men, among them William Tell, met at a solitary spot on the Lake of Uri and projected a rising of all the residents of the cantons for January 1,1308. On the day fixed the rising took place and the Hapsburgs were deposed and expelled.

It is ’ not now generally believed that the stories of William Tell have much historical value, yet the efforts to discredit what is told of his acts of heroism may be the result of the same evil influence that has tried in every country to magnify the clergy and the nobility and to minimize the achievements of the liberty-loving and independent common people.

For failing to remove his hat in the presence of a Hapsburg representative, Tell is said to have been compelled to shoot an apple from the head of his own son, but confessed that a second arrow -which he bore on his person was intended for the heart of the tyrant had he failed. Arrested, he escaped while being taken as a prisoner across Lake Luzerne, and shot his captor dead.

Switzerland did not fully gain its independence from the “Holy” Roman Empire until 1648. Its last Avar with Austria was fought in 1498, and the fight which the mountaineers put up at that time has left such an indelible impression upon the minds of the Austrians and their other neighbors on all sides that no country of Europe felt like violating Swiss neutrality in the World War even though such violation, if successful, might have been the means of winning the war.

In the 200 years in which they were waging their triumphant struggle against the Hapsburgs, one canton after another was added to the little group of three and there were accessions from France and Italy until now there are nineteen full cantons and six half cantons.

During the World War, on account of being hemmed in by belligerents’ land on all four sides, the country was in a position of extreme difficulty. It was compelled to obtain coal, iron and foodstuffs from the Central Powers and to maintain its army on a war footing to insure its neutrality. It became a natural clearing house for the refugees and prisoners of all nations.

At the close of the World War, the country took particular pains to serve notice on the incipient League of Nations that Swiss neutrality is not chosen according to circumstances, but is a permanent and fundamental principle of the state.

Surrounded by war-like neighbors and being naturally a courageous and hardy people, Swiss soldiers have been much in demand by the rulers of other nations. They formed the best soldiers to be had for hire, and became so eager for the booty -which thus came to them as to give rise to the saying throughout Europe, “No silver, no Swiss.”

Rather a surprising statement is made that these soldiers, though their services were for sale to the highest bidder, rendered to their paymasters as high a courage and as stubborn a fidelity as was ever manifested by the soldiers of any other country, regardless of the motives for which they fought.

This trait of being faithful to a paymaster, regardless of the sacrifice of one’s own life or the lives of one’s fellow men, is not set down to their credit, although if one is so avaricious as to be a soldier for money, it may be presumed that he would be more worthy of respect if he were a good soldier than if he were a poor one.

On account of the fact that the country is landlocked there are frequent jokes about the Swiss navy, yet it is a fact that in 1799 the country did have a small fleet on Lake Zurich commanded by an Englishman, Colonel Williams. At that time Switzerland was fighting to regain her liberty from the French, who had temporarily overrun the country. Williams was so disgusted with the French successes that he discharged his crew, scuttled his vessels and took to flight.

Aspirations for Religious Liberty

It is perhaps but natural that, holding the Hapsburgs in such disesteem, the Swiss, many of them, should have entertained the same unfavorable impression of the Hapsburg religion, Boman Catholicism, as they had of the Haps-burgs themselves. It was therefore natural when the Reformation got under way and the Protestants were driven from first one country and then another, that they should find Switzerland a good place to make their home and to proclaim their teachings.

Driven out of France, John Calvin fled to Geneva, and for twenty-three years was the virtual czar of the city, ruling it in all matters great and small. A hairdresser was imprisoned because he made one of his clients too beautiful; a man who swore was compelled to kneel in the place of his offense, clasp his hands and kiss the earth; and no one might wear silk or embroidered hose, nor might they adorn their persons with silver or gold. The citizens of Geneva were forbidden to eat or drink in taverns outside of the city. All citizens must be ’n their homes at nine o’clock at night. Because Servetus disagreed with Calvin, he was baked five hours by a slow fire, while Calvin sat at a nearby window to enjoy the scene. Calvin was the founder of the Presbyterian church.

The influence of Calvin still persists in Geneva, where even to this day if one drives an auto on Sunday he is arrested. Calvin’s memory is held in such respect in Geneva that because he at one time spoke on a street corner no one may indulge in street-speaking. To attempt it would mean to be locked up.

In commemoration of Calvin and other personages of the Reformation era, Geneva has its Wall of the Reformation, or Roman Wall, twenty feet high and a block long, crowded with statues- of such worthies as Calvin, Knox, Co-ligny, Cromwell, William the Silent, and others. The reason the wall is called the “Roman Wall" is that it designedly faces Rome.

There are many families in Switzerland called Sarrasin. The people of this name believe that they are descendants of the Saracens who overran southeastern Europe in the 10th century and in the year 920 occupied the pass in which is now located the hospice of St. Bernard.

According to the last census there are in Switzerland 2,230,597 Protestants, 1,585,311 Roman Catholics, and 20,979 Jews. The order of the Jesuits is not allowed in Switzerland, and the foundation of religious orders and new convents is prohibited.

At times in bygone centuries, the Swiss Catholics and Protestants have fought with each other, the last great conflict taking place in 1712, when victory rested with the Protestants. Swiss history since then has been a period of tranquillity favoring the progress of commerce, agriculture, manufacturing and the arts and sciences.

An Influx of New Ideas

One of the best things that can happen to a country is that it should become known as a haven for the. oppressed. Up until now the majorities in all countries have been influenced by the Devil, for “'the whole world lieth in the wicked one”. The majority do not do any thinking. The constant effort of their religious teachers is to persuade them against thinking, and to even threaten them against thinking, by saying or inferring, ‘This is a great mystery. We know all about it, but you cannot possibly understand it, and therefore you should not try to understand it. In fact, if you try to understand it, you will get all mixed up. Your only safety is in accepting just what we tell you. Regardless of.' whether or not it seems reasonable, it is your only path of safety.’

It is a little different with the minority. The minority may not think correctly, but it has to think; indeed it must think in order to live at all. Hence, it is a great boon to a country to have these people driven into it. This has been the making of America and Britain, and it has been the making of Switzerland.

In the year 1685 alone the revocation of the Edict of Nantes is credited with driving 60,000 Huguenots from France into Switzerland. These Huguenots were France’s most intelligent citizens. They founded the silk industry of Zurich and Bern and the watch business in Geneva. They also introduced banking and wholesaling.

At the time of the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of the Huguenots, 2,300 refugees from France crowded into Geneva in one day, and although the city at that time had but 1200 homes and was itself nearly bankrupt, Geneva shared what she had wuth the panic-stricken masses who were fleeing empty-handed from the Roman Catholic church’s relentless persecutions.

The natural result of expelling all the most intelligent people of a great country like France and of crowding them into a little country like Switzerland was to give a great spur to education. Prof. Thomas C. Hall, who for ten years has been lecturing upon the history of culture at the University of Goettingen, Germany, declares that Switzerland is today the most cultured nation in the world, due to the fact that in other countries the culture is limited to small groups, while in Switzerland it is diffused throughout the whole people.

A study of international patents shows that per million of population the Swiss obtain more than three times as many as those of any other nationality; and even in patents granted to their own nationals at home, their ranking as compared with citizens in the United States is as 542 to 382. In other words, the Swiss are the world’s foremost inventors.

Switzerland is one of the few nations, perhaps the only one, which observes the 24-hour system of time-keeping, beginning at the midnight hour. The twenty-four-hour time system controls the transportation lines, telegraph lines, custom service, and all institutions under federal control. Three o’clock p.m. is the 15th hour, etc.

As the country offers asylum to all kinds of political refugees, it has become a kind of international clearing house for thought and theory. For many years it has been the free and open laboratory in which every European scheme of government has been hatched. It is inevitable that the Swiss should be proficient in languages, and equally inevitable that education should be general, because the acquisition of languages is education in itself.

There are no government statistics on illiteracy, but out of 59,122 persons who became married there were only one Swiss woman and four Swiss men who could not write. Education is compulsory, and instruction, books and materials are provided free up to the age of fifteen years, when the annual fees amount to $12.00.

The Swiss technical schools are second to none in the world. They teach everything, from •waiting on tables to watchmaking. In all Swiss educational institutions special attention is paid to gymnastics and physical culture. In the mountain districts schools are kept open only during the long winters. In the summers the boys work in the fields, while the teachers attend to their own farms.

The German language is spoken in nineteen of the Swiss cantons. The French language is spoken in five, and Italian in the remaining one. Nearly all the cantons have alternate names in French and German. The Swiss German is a difficult dialect and is sometimes simply called Swiss. In some of the valleys there are still to be found those •who speak Rumonsh, an independent Latin tongue which is neither French nor Italian.

There are great differences in the Swiss people. The French Swiss are active and vivacious ; the Italian Swiss, fiery and irritable; the German Swiss, calm and thoughtful. Yet all are independent and liberty-loving and have no desire for governmental union with France, Italy or Germany.

Much of the soil is stony and sterile, but no spot that can be turned to good account is left unoccupied. The productive land is cut up into 300,000 small farm plots, about one-third of which is under grass and meadows. The majority of Swiss foodstuffs have to be imported.

In proportion to its population, Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world.

The Swiss are very jealous of their reputations. A rather comical incident brought this to light. It seems that in Germany the word “Schweizer*” docs double duty. It describes either a dairy worker or a citizen of Switzerland. Several years ago, when a notorious criminal in Germany gave his profession to the police as

QOLDEN AGE

that of a Schweizer, the envoy of the Swiss government in Berlin solemnly waited upon the German government and persuaded them to abolish the expression “Schweizer” as descriptive of a worker in the dairy business. The Swiss government did not intend that the world at large should consider that the country of their pride, instead of being a model republic, is a home of crooks.

Swiss Political Hems

The nineteen cantons and six half cantons are variously governed locally, but for federal purposes have the equivalent of a senate and a house of representatives and a cabinet of seven men. The cabinet, or federal council, is elected for a term of three years. Two members of this council hold respectively the office of president and vice-president for one year. After this brief term the vice-president is elected to the presidency, and in his turn another member of the council becomes vice-president.

The Swiss claim to possess the only truly democratic government in the world, and to have shown what plain men can do in the way of government without the help of- a ruling class of gentlemen of leisure, of millionaires, or of professional politicians. The principles of the referendum and of the initiative are in force. Any 50,000 citizens may demand a direct popular vote on any constitutional question. Clergymen are not eligible for deputies, but every other citizen over twenty-one years is eligible for election.

The country has compulsory old age pensions. All employees between the ages of nineteen and sixty-five are compelled to pay a certain amount into a fund, into which their employers pay a like amount. Everyone may draw his benefit upon reaching the age of sixty-five.

Military service is compulsory. Every would-be officer must start as a private, and promotion is by merit and not by seniority. The Swiss consider it an honor to serve in the army, and a misfortune to be rejected.

The postal service is prompt, reliable and efficient. The tourist’s baggage goes very cheaply by parcel post.

Capital punishment has been abolished in fifteen of the cantons. In one of the cantons a new law requires the sterilization of all the mentally unsound.

Some of the country districts are losing their population. The village of Balm, canton of So-leure, lost all its citizens except one old man named Gunsberg, who at last reports occupied all the offices of mayor, magistrate, municipal counselor, and a half dozen other posts. When he dies off, the village will cease to exist.

Because its frontiers are composed of mountains, rivers and lakes, and because it occupies the highest and most mountainous land on the continent the country is aptly styled the “Fortress of Europe”. It is believed to be impregnable in the hands of an armed garrison. It is but 226 miles in its greatest length, and 136 miles in its greatest width.

Four of the greatest rivers in Europe, the Rhine, Rhone, Po and Danube have their rise in the Alps. The highest mountain peaks are in the south and east. From Mount St. Gothard four mountain chains radiate to the north, south, east and west.             .

The largest lake, that of Geneva, has an area of about 220 square miles, with Lake Constance nearly as large. Both of these lakes, as well as Maggiore on the south, belong partly to other countries. The bottoms of these lakes are below the level of the sea. Rapid mountain torrents, thick with sediment, feed nearly all the lakes, but the rivers which leave the lakes emerge as clear and limpid streams.

The avalanches are famous for their destructiveness. In many places stone galleries are built or tunnels are mined out of the solid rock to protect the roads. The avalanches are of three kinds: the stroke avalanche, which pours down the slopes like a swiftly flowing river, and which can be quite successfully regulated; the ground avalanche, which performs the beneficial task of bringing down soil from the heights to the plains; and the dust-snow avalanche, which is the most dangerous, on account of its suddenness, and the most difficult to provide against. The latter is a collection of loose, freshly fallen snow which is driven by the wind to the valley below. Inasmuch as the forests are the natural ramparts against avalanches, the forest laws of Switzerland are very strict, and no one is allowed to fell a tree, even on his own ground, without government consent.

In the higher regions of the Alps are several hundred varieties of flowers found only in the Arctic regions and in the upper Alps.

Diversity of Climate

In the wintertime, and more particularly in the valleys that are open to the east and closed to the w^rest, Switzerland is a cold place. In the summertime you can get any climate you want. In midsummer, on the lowest levels it is very hot; while on the higher levels it is much lower in temperature, with dry, clear weather, suitable for those suffering from lung disease. In the latter portions there is a uniform morning wind blowing downhill in regular alternation with the evening wind blowing uphill.

One of the best known winds in the Alps is the foehn, a warm, moist south wind that blows with great velocity and is frequently followed by heavy rain. This wind is calculated to blow for seventeen days in the spring, five days in the summer, and sixteen days in the autumn. On its approach the thermometer rises and the barometer falls rapidly. Presently, a fierce storm breaks out.

The Playground of the World

It is needless to say to readers of The Golden 'Age that Switzerland is the playground of the world. In its 3,600 hotels, with invested capital of approximately $3,000,000,000, it employs an army of 61,000 persons, to look aftei' the needs and comforts of travelers from all parts of the globe. The Swiss are quoted as being the best hotel keepers in the business. If a good idea on hotel management is developed in the United States or any other part of the world, it is no time until it is being used in Switzerland. Moreover in normal times, the prices are extraordinarily moderate.

The country has 400 health resorts and every possible attraction for devotees of winter sports. A flourishing occupation is that of the professional guide, whose services are indispensable where glaciers are to be crossed. These guides are intelligent and respectable men and are well versed in their duties.

The scenery of the country is surrounded with stairways, bridges, railings and platforms until one almost feels that much of it is in captivity. Many of the mountains may now be ascended by cable or cog-wheeled railways.

Transportation Items

In the year 1929, 160,000 American tourists registered and in the previous year more than 100,000 foreign tourist autos entered the country. On the railways the windows along the sides are five feet wide. There is thus an unblocked expanse through which one can look upon the passing landscape. These windows run all the way to the top of the car without any cross bars to bisect and mutilate the view.

This is an item which the American railways could well consider. We have at least one railway in the United States the passenger car windows of which are so designed that they can be neither raised nor lowered and hardly a breath of air can get to the passengers in the hottest weather. This is not the case in Switzerland, because the big windows have comfortable handholds at top and bottom by which thej^ can be either raised or lowered.

In its aviation department, which is highly developed, the Swiss military has a section devoted to Alpine research. The aviators of this section scour the high mountains looking for lost tourists, and when found, if possible, drop food to them from the air.

Experienced travelers in Switzerland buy subscription tickets which permit an unlimited use of the railways for a week, a fortnight, or a month, as the case may be. Though the country is so small, it nevertheless has 3,670 miles of state railways. The distances between various points are much greater than it seems from the map they should be. This is owing to the great mountains that lie in the pathway and which the railroads can pass only by sneaking around as best they can.

Motor trucks are cutting into the business of the Swiss federal railways badly. In the effort to meet the competition, the freight rates have been reduced 10 percent. In the United States, in the effort to meet the same competition, the railroads have been foolish enough to ask for an advance of 15 percent.

The Simplon Tunnel, 12| miles in length, is the longest in Europe. In the building of this tunnel the engineers had to fight against rising temperatures, landslides, bursting rocks, eruptions of hot water, exhalations of mephitic gases, and terrible inundations.

Switzerland has the highest railway in Europe, the Jungfrau line, which goes up 11,240 feet, and is building a new railway connecting St. Moritz with the Piz Bernina, ■which will attain an altitude of 13,390 feet. Eighty-eight percent of all mileage of the railways is electrified, and about 95 percent of all the towms and villages are served by electricity.

An odd thing about the country is that it is almost impossible for a stranger to get a plain drink of water. He can always get carbonated or mineral water at 25c a bottle, whether he likes it or not; but if he wants plain water, it is almost impossible to get it.

Other Swiss Industries

Of course the country has some enterprises besides the tourist business; but, having only one small coal district, and the coal in that district being of very poor quality, it cannot hope to do any heavy manufacturing. Iron ore has been found and worked at various places, and at different times asphalt, sulphur, salt, silver, copper and lead ores have been extracted; but it cannot be said that the country is rich in minerals. It does, however, have a number of mineral spring’s, and thermal and medicinal baths are dotted all over the country. The hot springs at Baden have been celebrated since Roman times.

Switzerland is noted for the manufacture of cheese, condensed milk, chocolate, and watches, especially wrist watches. It has many hundreds of small factories employing only two or three persons, and some large ones, engaged in the production of preserved fruits, synthetic perfumery, parts of watches, jewelry, embroidery, music boxes, wood carvings, aniline dyes, artificial silk, cotton and textiles.

When Westerners visit the country they are amused to see the women scarecrows in the fields, due to the fact that here, as in many other parts of Europe, the field workers are commonly women.

Switzerland is famous for its good roads, some of them built by the Romans and some by Napoleon.

Though it is landlocked, it does have a port on the Rhine at Basel, and it also has port rights at Cette, in the Gulf of Lyons, on the French coast. Plying to and from the latter port, which is connected with the state railways by a special lino, the Swiss now have twenty-eight vessels of 105,000 tons total tonnage.

The Swiss Cities

The cities are all small, as shown by the accompanying table:

Zurich	215,640	Lausanne	76,200
Basel	141,650	Saint Gall	64,850
Geneva	126,700	Winterthur	52,700
Bern	109,020	Lucerne	45,700

Basel, chosen as the seat of the Bank for International Settlements, is advantageously situated on the Rhine, a little below the point where it becomes navigable. It is at the terminus of French, German and Swiss railways, also the St. Gothard line to Italy. It was the first, town to organize a police force. It has four air transportation companies which connect it directly with London, Paris and other cities, and it has been a prominent banking center for five hundred years.

Geneva, not the metropolis, and not the capital, is one of the most conspicuous cities in the world on account of being the home of the League of Nations. The city owns and operates its own gas and electric lighting plant. Genevans are great lovers of trees. There are blocks where one can walk under sycamore trees so closely interlaced that the sun can hardly peep through.

Bern, the capital, has streets which are adorned with fountains and purified by rills of water running beside them. A number of bears are maintained at the cost of the city. These bears are kept in a pit, and into the pit in recent years several persons have fallen. At least two of these persons were killed by the bears, the ancestors of which have lived in the pit for centuries.

Besides its bears, Switzerland has many other wild animals: wolves, chamois, goats, boars, stag, badgers, snipe, heathcock, cockoo, blackbird and woodpecker, and the lakes and rivers produce a varied abundance of fish.

What Made India Poor

TN HIS address to America, heard here over the radio, Mahatma Gandhi said, in part:

The time was, not very long ago, when every village was self-sufficient in regard to the two primary human wants, food and clothing. Unfortunately for us, the East India Company, by means which I would prefer not to describe, destroyed that supplementary village industry, and the millions of spinners who had become famous through the cunning of their deft, fingers for drawing the finest thread, such as has never yet been drawn by any modern machinery. These village spinners found themselves one fine morning with their noble occupation gone. From that day forward India has become progressively poor.

Acorns from the Oak

depression Hits Yellowstone Park

rHIS past summer, in the height of the tourist season, Yellowstone Park was virtually deserted. Hotels which ordinarily employ sixty or seventy maids did not have enough work to keep a tenth that many busy.

The Drop in the Building Industry

TN THE first half of 1928 the contracts let in the United States for public buildings, power plants, conduits, roads and bridges amounted to $3,444,867,000. In the first half of 1931, three years later, they were only about one-half that sum, or $1,808,226,000.

Frank Oxman Is Dead

TpBAKK Oxman, the cattleman whose perjured testimony caused Tom Mooney to be sentenced to death for the San Francisco Preparedness Day bombing, is dead. So far, so good. It is a blessing to mankind to have him dead. Mooney is still in prison and still innocent.

Crimes of the Native-born

^PHE Wickersham Commission surprised -A everybody by reporting that the foreign-born commit considerably fewer crimes than the native-born, and that in crimes for gain the native-born greatly exceed the foreign-born. The report states that the cost of crimes exceeds $1,207,565,821 a year.

Victory of the Machine

WITH the aid of labor-saving machinery the workers in the manufacturing industries in 1929 produced 42 percent more than in 1919. The men that produced the surplus 42 percent have just put that many people in the bread line. Despite all theories to the contrary, labor-saving machinery does indeed save labor.

Six Billion Idle Dollars

THAT the banks are bursting with money is admitted. That the big fellows that control it are nervous as to w⁷hat to do with it is also plain. They put as much as they are allowed in the saving’s banks, to earn 3 percent or so, and when the government recently offered $800,000,000 at 3% percent these men oversubscribed the 'mount seven or eight times in 24 hours.

“Wrecked Within a Year”

/N overnor Nobman of the Bank of England is . quoted as saying recently that “unless drastic measures are taken to save it, the capitalistic system throughout the world will be wrecked within a year”.

Drinking Water Carried 7,000 Miles

A NORWEGIAN steamer recently started with 835,200 gallons ofpure drinking water, from Cardiff, Wales, for delivery to the twenty whaling vessels now in the Antarctic. The water will be carried 7,000 miles.

Cutting Two Days from Time of Ocean Mails

OUT 650 miles at sea, west of Southampton, England, on August 12, a plane carrying European mails was catapulted from the decks of the Europa, and the same day landed mails at Southampton, at Amsterdam, Holland, and at Bremerhaven, Germany, thus saving forty-eight hours over the regular steamer time.

West Palm Beach Hard Hit

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., the so-called “playground of millionaires”, is hard hit. The millionaires are feeling the pinch so much that only 63 percent of last year’s taxes have been paid, and it has been necessary to pay city employees in scrip, and to declare a moratorium on running expenses.

The Rich Will Feed the Poor

IN AN address at Cottonwood, Idaho, Senator

Borah declared that during the coming winter the rich of America will feed her poor and that if they do not do it voluntarily they will, nevertheless, do it. He is in favor of greatly increasing the income taxes, particularly in the higher brackets.

Dividends a Fourth Less

AT LAST the big fellows are beginning to feel the depression, along with the common herd. When the dividend disbursements for September were made it was noted that they were only about three-fourths what they were a year ago. For 900 companies the dividends were $350,000,000, compared with $475,000,000 in September 1930.

Good-by to the Coopers                       .

OOD-BY to the coopers; it is their turn to go. A new machine makes paper barrels. It is said that they are lighter, stronger and cheaper than the wooden ones. For years the business has been slipping. The steel barrels took the best trade, and now the paper ones will take what is left.

West Virginia’s Sinking Fund Commission

IN THE past ten years the state of West Virginia has saved thirteen million dollars for its taxpayers by the way it has handled its county and municipal bonds. A district decides to build a school. In other states banking houses bid for the issue of bonds in its entirety, with the district paying interest on the entire sum, from the start. In West Virginia the bonds are purchased as the district needs the money. The savings in interest go to the district erecting the structure.

The Manless Factory at Milwaukee

T WHAT is commonly called The manless factory’ at Milwaukee engineers have designed a plant for the construction of automobile frames which is so complete and operates so perfectly that it turns out 10,000 frames a day almost without human aid. Here and there are policemen who watch to see that nothing goes wrong with the machinery. These machines have no hungry wives or children at home. When all factories are similarly equipped, what will become of the men who now work in those factories, and their families as well ?

In Harlan, Kentucky

IN HARLAN, Kentucky, while the coal strike was on, somebody blew up the soup kitchen where the destitute miners and their families were fed. One could hardly suppose the miners did this. An editor who was engaged in investigating charges of brutality against one of the miners’ lawyers was shot in the leg. It is hardly supposable that the miners did this. An auto of one of the miners’ lawyers was bombed and several cars of their lawyers were bombed with stink bombs in plain view of the sheriff’s office. It is hardly supposable that the miners did this. Apparently somebody in Harlan is determined that law and order must cease and ruin follow. Wonder who it is.

Modern Uses of Tank Cars

UNDREDS of tank cars, some of them linea with glass, some with nickel, and some with rubber, are being used for the transportation of milk, caustic soda, acetic acid, wood alcohol, formaldehyde, glycerin and ethyl fluid, and in Canada they are being used for the transportation of beer, -wine and other beverages.

Postage Stamps May Taste Better

HE Department of Agriculture is working on the problem of making the postage stamps taste better. The editor of The Post Office Cleric quaintly suggests that there be a 1-cent stamp with mint mucilage, a 2-cent with raspberry, a 4-cent brown gravy combination, and so on, thus affording stenographers a chance to save their lunch money and their employers’ time at noon, by taking a turn at licking the backs of the little adhesives that carry the mail around the country.

Pinchot on Aiding the Poor

IN AN address at Detroit Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania pointed out that it was easy for our government to declare a moratorium to help Germany, and to recommend a loan of $1,200,000,000 to help her, and that the federal government alone has the strength to feed America’s unemployed during this coming winter. Answering the objection that it pauperizes people to help them when they are unemployed, he called attention to the fact that the people the government saved from starving in the Mississippi flood were not pauperized by it.

Gold and Silver in the Streets

TN AN illuminating and convincing article in the Vancouver (B. C.) Sun, its editor says in part:

It may shock Americans to learn that their five-billion pile of gold is as valueless as the 143 earloads of silver cartwheels that today clutter up the treasury vaults of Washington. It may take the mining industry, as in the,case of silver, some time to become reconciled to the depreciated value of gold, but, viewing the trends of world trade and world credit, it is now clear that the fiction of gold and silver as money are fast being regarded as the folly of a rich and antiquated world. Incredible as it seems, and strange as it sounds when first heard, it is certain that the historic metallic fiction of gold and silver is vanishing.

Too Much of Everything

f'pOO much cotton; let's destroy a third. Too much corn; let’s destroy a third. Too much wheat; let’s destroy a third. Too many automobiles; let's destroy a third. Too many ships; let’s destroy a third. Too many houses; let’s destroy a third. Too many people; but hold on now, this thing has gone far enough. The real trouble is not that we have too many people, but too few, especially too few of the right kind.

Keeps the Property Up, Anyway

A Detroit landlord, William Trethaway, having difficulty in collecting rents in the 225 houses he controls, has hit on the novel scheme of having his tenants work out their rent by painting, repairing and otherwise improving his properties. Jobless tenants are paid 50c an hour for 50 hours a week. Of the $25 thus earned, $5 is given them in cash, and the rest is credited to the rent account. And the tenants are said to like the arrangement.

Mother Tortures Her Children

SUSPECTING that some of her children had taken some pennies a Los Angeles woman tortured them by burning their finger tips with matches. The palm of one of these, a five-year-old boy, was burned to the bone, and he will have a seared hand for life. Close scrutiny will show that this woman was a believer in the doctrine of eternal torture, and was trying to be like the god she worships, which god is the Devil, the inventor of the doctrine.

Progress in Ten Years

DESPITE hard times, there has been some progress in ten years. In 1921 pig iron production was 16,700,000 tons; in 1931 it will be 22,000,000 tons. In 1921 copper production was 305,000 tons; in 1931 it will be 700,000 tons. In 1920 the silk imports were 30 million pounds ; in 1931 they will be 60 million pounds. In 1920 the butter production was 800 million pounds; in 1931 it will be twice that much. In the first six months of 1921 sales of fabricated structural steel were 318,000 tons; in the first six months of 1931 they were 958,000 tons. In the year 1921 the tire companies made 22 million casings and a like number of inner tubes; in the year 1931 they produced the same number of casings and inner tubes in the first six months.

“No Right to Exist”

"TJk. Hjalmar Schacht, former president of •L' the Reichsbank, Germany, makes the following startling statements: “Never was the incapacity of the economic leaders of the capitalist world so glaringly demonstrated as today. The ruling classes of the world have completely failed, in political leadership as in economics. A capitalism which cannot feed the workers of the world has no right to exist.”

Ford Workers Must Have Own Gardens

THE automobile business being a seasonable business, Henry Ford has decided that hereafter the men who work for him must also work their own gardens and produce for their families at least a part of their own foodstuffs. Without doubt this will be a good thing for these men, and for Henry, who will have to pay them less, but the market gardeners will notice the difference.

Chanty Day in Cleveland

THEY have just had charity day at the race track in Cleveland, with the result that $9,347 net was raised toward caring for the unemployed. It is very wicked for horses to trot unless they wear white ties and have their collars on backward, and hence the Cleveland Methodist Ministerial Association asked to have the sheriff of the county removed from office. The sheriff only laughed and suggested that the ministers confine their activities to preaching the Word of God, when they would have less time to interfere with those who are trying to do something to help the poor.

The Railways and the Highways

THE Pennsylvania Railroad Company, defining its attitude toward the highways, expresses its belief that “the primary purpose for which the public highway system exists and is being extended is to meet those transportation needs of citizens which fall under the heads of pleasure and convenience, not to serve the purpose of heavy mass transportation, either passenger or freight”. The company then makes tlie proposition that “when all elements of real cost are considered, heavy transport service, over hauls of any considerable length, is, and will continue to be, much more economically and efficiently’ performed by rail”. Incidentally⁷, this last argument is a good one for low⁷ rates.

Russia Building the World’s Largest Army

AT ONE of the so-called peace conferences of the League of Nations the Russians proposed that all armies be immediately disbanded, and all navies and war material be destroyed. The conference was so flabbergasted that it did not know what to do, and so it declared the proposition out of order and proceeded with its program along the usual hypocritical lines.

From that moment the Russians turned in the other direction, and, though they still talk peace, they are preparing for war on the greatest scale on which any people have ever made ready for a great conflict.

In 1922-23 the Soviet spent 244 million gold roubles on armaments; in 1926-27, 692 million; in 1927-28, 814 million; in 1928-29, 930 million; in 1929-30, 1,113 million. This year’s budget is for 1,390 million gold roubles, which is five and one-half times as much as nine years ago.

There is now compulsory military service for the whole of the able-bodied population. Full mobilization would bring together a force of 12 million trained and partially trained men. The equipment of this huge force is improving every day. The air force is organized into 100 groups and commands about 1,600 planes. A great military headquarters is being built in Asia, beyond the Ural mountains.

The Russians are expecting to be attacked through the Baltic states. They are anticipating a war in which all capitalistic states will be arrayed against the Soviet order. In the preparation of their plans the Russians have the benefit of the best engineering talent in the world.

Pennsylvania Restive Under Blue Laws

OF THE 26,501,443 automobiles in the United States 1,733,283 are in Pennsylvania, and almost all of these are out on Sunday violating the ancient blue law’s. A considerable number of these cars that are illegally chasing up and down amidst some of the most beautiful scenery in the world belong to church members.

In the morning, when the solemn hour for hypocrisy draw’s near, they will be found ranged on all sides of the mausoleums dedicated to the god of this world; in the afternoons they will be found parked at the country clubs, the while their owners are ambling over the green turf chasing golf balls.

Now there is a vast and holy difference between golf balls and baseballs. Just what it is, we have not yet been able to discover, but it is vast enough to keep the hypocrites all on the side of Sunday golf and all the liberals on the side of Sunday baseball. There is a great gulf fixed between the two, so that those on the one side who would fain pass to the other are forbidden to do so by the long-nosed evangelical frauds that control piety in the Keystone state.

Recently, the liberals almost took the old blue laws away from the Grundy saints, but in the showdowm the Sarcophagus saints beat them by a vote of 101 to 99. However, these long-tailed roosters in black feathers had to hear some plain talk before they marched out of the Harrisburg barnyard as victors in the strife. We quote from some of the speeches of the liberals:

There is no member of this Legislature; there is not a single church leader who dare say that he would want the Blue Law enforced in its entirety. What we are now engaged in is enforcing a part of the law.

Our duty is clear. Let us stop this religious hypocrisy. Let us remove from the Blue Law those things we do not want to enforce. It is a pity that religion has crept into this matter. It is not the function of a Legislature to decide the conscience of man. That is his affair. If you believe that the people are still able to govern themselves, then you cannot continue the present Blue Law policy. Boys have been arrested for playing baseball on the Sabbath. The church is branding them as criminals—an awful indictment against the religious fanatics. Let us stop our methods and let us train our children to enjoy clean sports.

Be fair and prove that you are not hypocrites. Try to enforce the law against Sunday sale of gasoline. You dare not and you know it. If you attempted to prove your honesty and stopped a single gasoline station from operating on Sunday you would find at the next session of the Legislature the most powerful lobby ever assembled and there would be a bill wiping out every last vestige of the Blue Law’. And yet you arrest young boys. Lay aside your local prejudice. Lay aside your bigotry. Be men and pass this amendment.

Why Mooney Is Kept in Prison

Tom Mooney insists that he is being kept in prison by the influence of California labor leaders who fear his exposures of their alliance with Big Business if he is allowed his liberty. These labor leaders know that the judge who tried him, and the jury that convicted him, are agreed that he is entirely innocent of the crime for which he is serving a life sentence. They know he went to prison on perjured testimony, and that the prosecutors connived to have perjurers brought into the state to convict him. Behind his back these labor leaders have connived to keep this innocent man in prison. H. L. Mencken, editor of the American Mercury says of them:

What they fear is that if he is released unconditionally he’will upset their apple-cart. Things, at the moment, go well with them. They are on good terms with the Babbitts, keep the slaves they lead in order, and got their fair share of public jobs. Scores of them have their snouts in the trough. They are invited to all considerable banquets, and sit on innumerable boards and commissions. Not a few know where and how to get good tips on the stock market.

Mooney, turned loose, would spoil all that. He harbors what are called radical ideas, and does not believe that it is wise for labor leaders to be so complacent, lie would try to stir up the slaves against them, and hence against the Babbitts. So they refuse to ask Governor Young to pardon him, but content themselves with asking for a parole. Out on parole, Mooney would be safely hamstrung. The moment he uttered a word against the Babbitts or against the labor leaders who play their game, he would be clapped into prison again as a Bed, and there he would remain for life. Naturally enough, he protests against being-paroled. What, he demands is a free and unconditional pardon, as befits an innocent man.

The whole affair throws a curious light upon the present status of the whole American Labor movemeat. It has got so conservative that its chief dignitaries are quite as conservative as Andy Mellon himself. They are slick and shiny fellows, hobnobbing with bankers, bishops and such highly respectable fowl, and ready and eager to put down every sign of radicalism. They draw big salaries, travel incessantly and luxuriously, break up all strikes that look serious, and arc first over the top when there is a banquet. A few weeks ago a group of them went to West Point, reviewed the Regiment of Cadets, and were given royal honors. Simultaneously another group delivered the poor Rayon strikers at Elizabethtown, Tenn., to the mercies of the bosses.

It goes without saying that such elegant fellows have little sympathy with Mooney. He is frankly an agitatoi; and if he were set at large tomorrow he would undoubtedly have something to say about their sybaritic ways, and he would even go to the length of arguing that they ought to be kicked out, to make room for men less eager to curry favor with the enemy. Down the line in the rank and file of the unions he has plenty of partisans, but the men higher up know how to keep the lid on. When resolutions are passed, they are always mild ones. There must be no Bolshevism!

It may seem incredible, but I am assured on the highest authority that it is a fact, that during the 13 years Mooney has been in prison, the American Feder-ationist, the organ of the American Federation of Labor, has never so much as mentioned him. His imprisonment has been discussed elsewhere to the extent of acres of print, and even the most conservative newspapers have had to take notice of it. More, it has had repercussions all over the world, and at one time it threatened international complications. But though Mooney, without the slightest doubt, was railroaded in his character of a union man and would not have been accused at all had he not been one, the chief journal of the union movement in the United States is silent about him!            -

African Natives Out of Work

FORMERLY, in the vineyards of northern Africa, thousands of natives were employed, each carrying on his back a copper cylinder from which poisonous dust was distributed over the vines to keep down minute forms of life hostile to the growing plant and its fruit. Now the spraying of the vineyards is being done by modern mechanical means; a single truck driver can do the work of scores of men, and the poor olored men are without the employment they

so much need. It is the same story all over the world. The man has been racing the machine, and now the machine has won the race and the poor man is no longer needed, except as a customer. But customers without money are poor customers; hence, in the Devil’s way of looking at things, the necessity for frequent wars. It helps to get rid of surplus humans, brother men, created, originally, in the image and likeness of God.            "

On the Moratorium By E. E. Cassel (Florida)

THE last treasury report credits $7,500,000,000 in circulation, and as per demands of the federal reserve banks upon country banks this amount is increased or diminished at the option of the financial desires of New York bankers.

As a result of the deflation ordered on numerous occasions by the reserve banks, 7,000 banks were forced to close their doors. Of this number 2,500 were national banks. As fast as the national currency (paper money) reached the treasurer at Washington, it has been destroyed, thus reducing our money crop $3,000,000,000 during the past 11 years. Important in this connection is the fact that the crop of money left in the United States is apportioned as follows: Four percent of our people have 80 percent, and 96 percent of our people have 20 percent. Effective optimism, declarations nor advertising can compel either the 4 percent or the 96 percent of people to spend more than they are now spending.

This condition is the natural result of government by business executives instead of by the people. The international bankers of New York, who loaned foreign countries $17,000,000,000, it appears, caused Mr. Mellon, their representative, to get busy and have the president issue that moratorium only against further money being paid to our government for one year, seemingly and perhaps so the bankers would be sure to get theirs, regardless of the amount due the government. Many times I have related the power of business executives over congress, but in this case it was over the president, and if subsequently approved by congress it W’ill mean a tremendous hardship for the masses to pay the present deficit plus the complete loss of the foreign loan by our government.

Had the idea of protecting or accommodating either the United States government or the German government been entertained to any extent, the moratorium would have been issued subsequent to the election of Herbert Hoover.

How the newspapers and magazines could make the mistake of commending the moratorium issued by President Hoover, which means a complete loss of our loan, at least for one year, and does not apply to the $17,000,000,000 loaned Germany by financial speculators, is for you to answer or use as facts or circumstantial evidence amounting to an indictment against this alleged wonderful executive achievement.

In lieu of the condition in which the foreign loans were negotiated and the meager possibility of collecting, the ability of our president and of congress should first be directed to our own-financial situation, and either a moratorium issued or an accommodation such as granted the reserve banks amounting to the issuing of currency sufficient to meet our entire debt obligation for at least a 50-year period and without interest should be approved by congress.

The Public Health of Detroit

DETROIT is having a hard time taking care of its unemployed, but, right at a time when the poor need every dollar for the care of their families, the city was subjected to an expensive high-pressure publicity campaign in favor of toxin-antitoxin which additionally diverted more than $100,000 to the offices of private physicians.

Public funds were used to whoop up the campaign, including preparation and publication of newspaper stories, advertisements, posters, lectures, billboard advertisements, radio talks, free literature, and 251,960 visits of nurses to the homes. All this cost the city a lot of money.

When the doctors cashed in on this they were supposed to get $4 for each child, if they could contrive to get it out of the parents; otherwise they were paid $2.50 by the health department. One of the doctors who helped shove this over on Detroit is quoted in the August 8, 1931, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association as having said:

At no time was the question ever raised of the amount of money we were going to spend. The only question was on the results. We started out with $5,000 to pay physicians, and during the year we spent $120,000. We increased the $5,000 appropriation to $120,000. We estimate this year that the cost of payment to physicians will not be nearly so high. We have gone through the first difficulties and now it is merely a matter of taking care of children as they arrive. We have, in our budget, a definite appropriation of $45,000 to pay physicians for this work.

⁴⁴A Short Tour in India” By one of Jehovah’s witnesses

INDIA is a land of complexities; a complexity of nations, languages and religions. It is a continent rather than a country. Its population of 319,000,000 people is divided into seven distinct races, which are subdivided into numerous tribes, each speaking a language peculiar to themselves and following different religious customs and beliefs.

Statistics show that there are 222 distinct languages, besides various local dialects, whilst in their religious world the variety of creeds is legion. Hinduism, which is divided into numerous sects, claims a following of 68 percent of the population, and Christianity one percent. Their Christianity is of the same variety as in other Christian (?) lands, and would be better labeled “Churchianity”.

For centuries enshrouded in superstitious ignorance, India is slowly beginning to awaken to the foolishness of some of her practices. Many are well educated,' intelligent people, ranking-on an equality with their Western brethren, but the masses are still held in the bondage of superstition instilled by religious fears.

Child marriage (and widowhood) still stands out as one of the most sorrowful practices. Statistics show that there are over 100,000 widows under five years of age, and 300,000 between the ages of ten and fifteen years.

Their religious laws forbid the remarrying of a widow. Thus a little girl may be married (or rather bethrothed) at the age of five, made a widow at six, and must remain so all her life. With these thoughts in mind one can realize the impotency of man to bring himself out of the terrible bondage into which he has fallen. Only Christ’s kingdom can possibly cope with such a problem.

Come with me now on a tour through a small portion of this vast land and we shall see firsthand how the people live, and talk to them about their real hope of deliverance, the kingdom of God.

A Glimpse at Bombay

Our tour commences from Bombay, and a word about this wonderful city may be of interest. Bombay is a modern, westernized city of one and a quarter million population. Situated on the western coast of India and in a central position, it forms the gateway to India from the Western world. It is a business-man’s city with its electric cars, automatic telephone systems and all modern conveniences. Its people are very cosmopolitan; two distinct peoples have settled there, and two distinct languages are spoken besides English.

Built on an island, its expansion is somewhat limited and in many localities there is considerable congestion, and the housing problem has been very acute. Its public buildings are palatial, as are many of the residences. On the other hand, it has a large amount of slum property where native Indians are huddled together in squalor. This, of course, is to be anticipated with such a population.

Bombay is the western terminus of two main railway systems, one serving the northern half of India, the other the central and southern areas; it is by the latter that we shall commence our journeyings. Luggage is packed, and includes a camp bed and blankets and pillow, for we shall not find these things supplied at the numerous sleeping-places encountered on the tour.

Passenger’ trains are divided into three services : Mail trains, Express passenger, and Local trains. The “Mails” offer the best service for those taking a long journey, and the fares are slightly more than the “Express passenger”. The local trains are, as the name implies, unsuitable for anything but a local trip.

The first part of our trip is from Bombay to Madras, a distance of 800 miles and occupying thirty-three hours, including two nights. Arriving at the Victoria Terminus Station, tickets are obtained, luggage weighed and a ticket given and we proceed to find vacant lower berth sleeping accommodation in a second class compartment. This is not difficult to find, and soon we are comfortably accommodated and saying “Good-bye” to those we leave behind.

Indian Train Equipment

Being a British possession, Indian railways have been developed upon the same general lines as those found in Britain, the construction and operation being very similar except where tropical conditions have called for some modification. As is the case on all occasions where long distances have to be covered, all the carriages are fitted with sleeping accommodation.

There are four “classes” on the Indian “Mail” trains: First, Second, Inter, and Third. The third class compartments are plainly fitted and are used exclusively by the native Indian of the lower castes; the “Inter” is a little better; “Secends” are a moderately comfortable compartment with upholstered scats, electric light and fans, and lavatory accommodation, and are used by the “better class” Indian and Europeans, and they compare favorably with the English “third class” coaches. The “First” class are not much better than the “Second”, but the fares make them more exclusive.

Owing to the tropical sunshine and heat there are special fittings in the window-frames to make traveling as comfortable as possible: each window is capable of being opened to the fullest extent; and besides a pane of smoked glass there is also a wooden loovred shutter which excludes the light but allows a free passage of air, and a frame fitted with a wire gauze to allow air and light through but exclude mosquitoes and other unwanted objects. Each is adjustable at the wish of the passenger.

The journey from Bombay to Madras is rather uninteresting as far as the scenery is concerned. The first 150 miles is a gradual climb until the range of mountains running parallel with the coast, the “Western Ghats”, is passed. As this part of the journey is passed during the night we are unable to see much of the country. Once across this mountain range there is a clear run of some 600 miles over open, flat, scorching plains.

Dining Car Service

After a fairly good night’s rest (we cannot call it sleep) the dawning light brings us to full consciousness again, the train begins to slow down, a station is just ahead. Where are we ? It is Khurduwadi. There is a refreshment room here and as soon as the train has reached a standstill a man in uniform appears at the carriage window shouting “Tea, Sir” (another evidence of British ways!). “Yes, please, bring two.” This is just to be going on with, for in another hour we stop at another station, a restaurant car is attached to the train and breakfast is announced..

One disadvantage of the Indian trains is the absence of corridor coaches; this means that when one wants to enjoy the privileges of a restaurant car one has to change compartments at one station, have the meal, and wait until the train stops again before returning to one’s own compartment. This is not so bad as it may seem, for the train stops fairly often.

This being our first experience, we decide to investigate the facilities of the restaurant car. The smell of fried bacon is wafted along with the waiter, who brings us a plate of porridge; this is followed by a small portion of fish; then comes the 'eggs and bacon’, after which one is left to fill up any vacant corners with toast, marmalade and fruit. The bill comes next, and i.s two rupees (3/-). That will have to last all day! Thank you very much.

Returning to our own compartment we are free to enjoy a whole day in this railway carriage. What a thought ! The first consideration is the morning portion of scripture, the “manna”. After this there is a new Watch Tower to read, and the time is interspersed with conversation with some fellow passenger and a snooze.

Madras to Travancore

At 7:30 a.m. on the following day we arrive in Madras, a town of some 500,000 people and, like Bombay, westernized to a great extent. Here we are met by a fellow pilgrim in the way to life, and are conducted to his home, where his good wife has prepared a “good old English breakfast” for us. There is not much time to spare in Madras (we shall call here on our return journey and spend a few days with the Lord’s people in Kingdom service). Arrangements are made for a public meeting in two weeks’ time, and after a pleasant time of fellowship we again take train for Travancore.

To reach Travancore from Madras we have to travel by train for 18 hours, and the final stage of 50 miles has to be done by- motor bus. The scenery, however, is very different from that of the previous journey. The line skirts a mountain range, there is an abundance of trees, and the evidence of Indian village life is seen in various forms.

Primitive contrivances for drawing water from the numerous wells, plowing with a very primitive wooden instrument drawn by a “yoke of oxen”, and other things make the journey quite interesting. The last fifty miles of the railway journey has to be made on a branch line of narrower gauge, with no fans provided, and the noonday sun is felt to an uncomfortable degree.

The end of the railway trip is Ernakulam. Here we are met by the representative of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society in Southern India. A “Ford” motor car transformed into a bus carrying 10 persons awaits to transport us to Kottayam, a distance of 50 miles.

We are now leaving British territory, Travancore being a “native state” having its own

QOLDEN AGE

ruler and government but paying* a good percentage to the British government for “protection”. This requires our passing through the customs with our luggage; but the signing of a form declaring that w^re have no dutiable articles with us is sufficient to pass the local official.

Jehovah’s witnesses in Kottayam

The road from Ernakulam to Kottayam is through beautiful woodland scenery, the condition of the road is good, and the driver makes “Old Henry” hop along quite well. At each village we are stopped by the local policeman to check the number of passengers for “overcrowding”, and each village presents a similar picture of interest.

Usually a few shops line the road, with scattered huts and ramshackle dwellings round about. The shops are simple, square-shaped rooms open on one side, and the shopman is seen squat on the floor in front of an array of goods; he is usually chewing “betel nut”, a favorite habit which discolors the mouth and tongue a vivid red. If it is a tailor’s shop there is a “Singer” sewing machine with its industrious owner treadling away merrily.

We reach Kottayam at 7 p.m.; it is dark, and in the dim light of the oil street lamps we cannot see very much of the town. On arrival at the home of our host we are introduced to about ten of Jehovah’s witnesses who cannot speak a word of English, are shown to our room, and proceed to enjoy a bath and general tidy up.

It is a pleasure to be in the home of one of the Lord’s people. Away from modern civilization as this is, the Lord has His people serving Him with a zeal which would put many in England or America to shame.

A special cook had been engaged for our tour, one who could prepare a meal in European style. This may seem to be an extravagance. Why should not we eat the same food as the Indian ? We shall have more to say about this later on. The evening meal was prepared; and after family prayer we all retire for a good night’s sleep.

The morning dawns and a golden-tinted shaft of light penetrates the stately palms and banana trees out in the garden, finding its way through our open window on to the opposite wall. The voices of the rest of the household engaged in singing a morning hymn tell us that it is time to get up. A bath is prepared and we soon join the others with truly Eastern salutations.

The Ubiquitous but Useful Ford

Now our real tour has commenced. After an early breakfast luggage is packed for a two days’ motor tour; this consists of cooking utensils, food, oil lamps and, if we may include him in the luggage, the cook. A local friend has kindly lent us his motor car for the trip and all is ready.

Arrangements have been made for a two days’ convention for Jehovah’s witnesses in the village of Talapadi, seven miles from Kottayam, the first item on the program being an address of welcome by one of the local elders. Some 80 to 90 brethren were assembled and all showed an earnestness in the worship and service of God.

Though these people are of simple upbringing, living for the most part in mud-walled huts with a roof of plaited palm leaves, and dressed only in a simple wrap of cotton cloth, yet they are well educated in the things of God and are loyally serving His kingdom interests.

Addresses were given showing the special part which the servant of God is called upon to play in these last days of the age, and the privilege he has in sowing the seeds of truth for the harvest of the next age. In the evening a public meeting was arranged in the center of the village, out in the open air. A crowd of about 100 gathered round and listened for an hour to the explanation of the purposes of God in sending Jesus into the world and of the hope of His kingdom.

Village Life at Night

Talapadi is only a small village, and there is no accommodation for travelers; so we engaged the use of an empty bungalow for the night. Sleeping out on the veranda, on a camp bed, with glowworms flying about and various other insects making weird noises in the trees, is not half a bad experience when one gets accustomed to it. To an Englishman India is an interesting country to travel in.

Amongst the interesting things seen in the village life is the native torch for use at night. It consists of a bundle of palm leaves tied together, which, when lit, smoulders with a red glow. When a light is required it is waved about and soon bursts into a flame; thus the native goes about after dark.

The next morning we are up with the sun, a bath under the trees is enjoyed, and after breakfast we prepare for a day with the Lord’s people in praise and service. Four symbolize their consecration to the Lord by water immersion in a neighboring lake, and there are many joyful hearts.

Only one thing interferes with our wholehearted joy, and that is to hear the Indian sing his hymns. A hymn sung in a foreign language is not very interesting; but when it is sung to a sort of native chant in a minor key using only about six different notes it becomes, to the Westerner, a trial of the flesh. However, there is a valuable lesson for us; it shows us that voice or lips, words or tune, counts for very little when the heart is in tune with the Lord, to whom the praise is offered.

These meetings were held in a privately-owned “hall”, a simple rectangular building of four stone walls, with a tiled roof, situated under the shelter of the palm trees and far away from the “madding crowd” of civilization. After many hearty and long-remembered “salaams” we took our departure back to Kottayam for the night, preparatory to setting out on a fourteen days’ tour farther south.

Traces of the Work of Thomas

The people of Travancore are much inclined towards Christianity, and there is a tradition that Thomas visited this part of India and introduced the teachings of Christ. Whether or not that is true, it is remarkable how many people in this locality have names of Hebrew origin. Abrahams, Jacobs, Josephs, and similar names, abound all over the state and it is supposed that they are descended from the Israelites after the dispersion from Jerusalem and Judea. In one locality there is the claim that they migrated to India at the time of the Babylonian captivity. They are known as “Syrian Christians”.

Though they do not recognize the pope as their head, their organized form of “Christianity” is similar to that of the Roman church. There are as many roadside shrines of the Virgin Mary, complete with all the candle-burning idolatry, as there are Hindoo shrines in other parts of India.

The native “Christian” shaves his head bare, whilst the Hindoo shaves it bare with the exception of a round tuft varying from the size of a trouser button to about three inches in diameter, which he allows to grow long and coils up into a “bob” at the back of his head. The effect is, to say the least of it, weird.

Leaving Kottayam again, our next stopping place is the somewhat obscure village of Tiru-valla, where resides a faithful old brother whose hospitality we are to enjoy for the night. A few meet together in the afternoon for Bible study, and a few more from the neighboring dwellings call in for the evening, but this is more or less an informal gathering.

A Warm Indian Repast

By far the most interesting experience on this occasion is the insight into Indian dietetics. How would you like to try a meal in the real Indian fashion? It is dinner time (8 p.m.) and there is plenty for all, so we will accept their kind invitation.

The Indian seems to scorn the use of cutlery and crockery; his argument seems to be that hands and fingers were made long before Sheffield came into existence, so why waste money on such unnecessary things as knives and forks and spoons. As for a table, well, isn’t the ground big enough?

Chairs? They only collect the dust and take up a lot of room. No, we’ll do without such encumbrances. Come and sit down to dinner. Curiously reluctant, we obey. A mat of plaited palm leaves is put down on the floor and the rest of the family squat down cross-legged upon it in a circle. As this is a little awkward for us Westerners, we are honored with a stool to sit on.

The wife, our hostess, conies along with a bowl of rice and deposits it, together with three other basins of meat, vegetables and currie, in the center of the “table”. Each one has a plate (it seems to be a luxury) and proceeds to help himself to a handful of rice from the central bowl, then a bit of meat and some vegetables; this process has made his hand in rather a mess and the next thing is to take the currie bowl and pour some of the inustard-pepper-soup-looking contents over his hand; this is really very economical, for it washes his hand at the same time as flavoring the rest of the dish. A handful of this mixture is taken and eaten, and so the work of feeding the inner man goes on.

If ever you want a real good hot dinner try some boiled rice with genuine Indian currie. You may like it; but when I tasted it I cried with a loud voice and said, ‘Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.’ Now perhaps the reader will appreciate why a special cook was engaged to take charge of the Englishman’s commissariat department.

Plenty of Good Things in India

Fresh vegetables are plentiful, and the variety good. Tapioca is grown and used as a vegetable, and there are various other of earth’s productions, not seen in the more northern latitudes, which are also used in this way. A long thing called “snake vegetable” is very good boiled. There is also the “ladys-finger”, which is a very popular food. It is a long pod containing white seeds, and the whole thing is boiled.

Fruits are also in great abundance; bananas grow wild, and pineapples, sweet limes, popaya and pomallo are very plentiful. In the garden of our host at Kottayam there were bananas, arrowroot, tapioca, castor oil, popaya, beans, potatoes, and many other things growing.

Our next stop is Kattarakara, in central Travancore. Here we leave one member of the party behind to organize some meetings, whilst we take train for Tuticorin, a seaport town on the south coast, where we are to embark for Colombo, the capital of Ceylon. Arriving at Tuticorin at 9:30 p.m., and not knowing what accommodation there is in the town for travelers, we find refuge in the station retiring-room for the night. Meals are provided in the station refreshment-room and we make ourselves “comfy”. In the morning we book a passage on the steamer leaving for Ceylon in the afternoon; then we are required to obtain a doctor’s certificate of health before being allowed to enter that beautiful sunny isle.

Having a few hours to spare we distribute some literature, “A Testimony to the Rulers,” to the shipping offices and general business premises of the town as a witness to the purposes of God in this our day. One such leaflet was put in the customs office. When we afterwards were on the boat we got in touch with the customs clerk and found that he had read our leaflet; and he readily purchased the whole set, saying how he longed to understand the Bible more fully.

Experiences in Ceylon

The 150 miles across to Ceylon was an experience better left undescribed. The boat rolled a good deal, and we found it convenient to lie down most of the time. We were met at Colombo by another of the Lord’s saints who, being a customs clerk, quickly got us through that irksome performance of luggage examination and conducted us to the place of meeting.

Being Sunday, there was the usual afternoon service of the local company of Jehovah’s witnesses being held and we joined with them in ■worship and praise. Special emphasis was laid upon the responsibility of the Lord’s servants at tins time to raise up the standard of truth before the people; to proclaim before the world that the King of kings is here to execute judgment upon the nations before the work of deliverance.

Leaving Colombo the same night, we take train to a point on the northwest coast of Ceylon, where a short steamer ferry connects with the South Indian Railway on the mainland. The night was spent in the train; and the next morning, after crossing the ferry, we journey through a stretch of desert land under a scorching sun, with sand and dust blowing in through the carriage windows in clouds. It is rather a tedious journey; breakfast is obtained on the train, after which we change on to another line where refreshment facilities are practically nil, and throughout the day we continue journeying back to Kattarakara, where our next meetings are planned.

Christ’s Joint-Heirs at Kattarakara

At Kattarakara there is a Traveler’s Bungalow. This is a Government-owned establishment for the use of travelers. Almost every Indian town and village of size has one. They are the only facility for casual accommodation. We rented the use of this for two days. They are ?1can, plainly-furnished bungalows distinguished into two classes. The “First class” provide one with bedding and food if required; the “Second class” have none of these provisions. The one we are to stay at is “Second class”, and we quickly make ourselves “at home”.

The three meetings held at Kattarakara were encouraging and showed one the sincerity and devotion of these primitive people whom God has been pleased to call to joint-heirship with Christ in His kingdom work. The second day we went over to a neighboring village. This was reached by a short run in the car, which we then left at the side of the road. Our path then lay through some woodland, across a rocky path and seemingly away from everywhere. Reaching a native dwelling, we heard the sound of singing and found a gathering of forty or fifty people waiting our arrival.

An address was given on the special privileges of the “Servant of Jehovah”, revealing, through the Prophet Isaiah, that God has been developing a class of people for a special work in connection with the setting up of His kingdom and now the time has come for that kingdom to be established. At night a crowd of some 1.50 to 200 of the general public came in from the surrounding district and listened to an address on the purposes of God.

The Devil Has Missionaries Too

Our next place to visit was another isolated village district in southern Travaneore near Trivandrum, the capital of the state. Here Jehovah’s witnesses have been able to bring the light of truth to a large number of people; this, of course, brings opposition from those who profess to be of the Lord’s organization but who form part of the Devil's system of things.

The London Mission Society has a large institution here in the form of a school and dispensary. It employs many Hindoos as teachers in its Christian (?) schools; and one man, after serving it as a teacher for twenty-four years, read a book called The Divine Plan of the 'Ages, which gave him such a clear understanding of the Bible that he began to teach it to his scholars and friends. But the L.M.S. apparently does not want the people to understand the Bible; for on hearing of this it dismissed him from its service.

On hearing of our meetings the L.M.S. and others sent out their representatives on bicycles to warn the people not to attend; this, of course, was a good advertisement, and quite a large number turned up for the evening meeting.

The capital of the state of Travaneore is Trivandrum, an Old World city still without its proper sanitary arrangements, electricity or water supplies; wells are still used, and oil is the only source of illuminant except where an enterprising individual has installed his own private plant for modern methods.

From the missionary’s point of view this should be a fruitful city, for there is a good proportion of intelligent people who have some inclination to learn about the hope of life, and, judging by the numbers who came to our lecture, there is considerable desire to know more of the Bible and God’s provision for salvation. Many Hindoos attended and listened intently to the message of God’s judgment on hypocritical Christendom and the coming deliverance from the bondage of the “beast” and the “'false prophet”.

Returning home from Trivandrum we have one hundred miles of thickly wooded hills and dales, with their silvery rivers sparkling in the sun. It is a delightful corner of man’s eternal home. Resting in a village en route we make a satisfying feast from earth’s own natural foods,

A boy climbs a cocoanut palm and cuts down six tender cocoanuts, each yielding a pint of cool, refreshing drink; a pineapple is purchased for 3 “chuckrams” (2iZ>d), and a dozen bananas for the same amount; with a little bread this makes our midday meal. Continuing the journey we soon reach our destination, Kottayam, followed by more public meetings and the sowing of seeds for the harvest of the incoming age of life.

Hindus Listen to a Baptism Discourse

A most interesting experience resulted from an immersion service on the following afternoon. A discourse on “Consecration and Baptism” had been given for the benefit of those who were to symbolize their consecration to the Lord, and a part}' of friends made their way to a riverside for the actual immersion. On reaching the place selected, a crowd of people (natives) began to gather round wondering what was to take place. A family on the opposite shore also saw us, jumped into a canoe, and paddled across. Tn a few minutes there was quite an audience.

Instead of proceeding with the immersion immediately, a lecture was given on the subject “Jesus Christ and Christianity”. The audience was composed mainly of Hindoos, and it was pointed out to them that true Christianity is more than a code of moral laws and human philosophy: it is God's provision for giving life to a dying and dead race by the ransom sacrifice of Christ; that Hinduism is human philosophy based upon mythology, and “Orthodox Christianity” is just the same and has led the world into disbelief in God. What was intended to be merely an immersion service resulted in the proclamation of the truth of God to at least 100 “heathen” who showed more interest and appreciation than many who label themselves “Christians” ; and many “Testimonies” were distributed at the conclusion of the service.

We now begin to make tracks for Bombay and home. October 17 being set apart for a worldwide witness day, a meeting is arranged in Madras on our way home. Notices are distributed at the church doors and in some of the homes of the people. Madras is a town where almost everyone can speak English; so for once we can speak direct to the people instead of using an interpreter. What a joy! Another large and appreciative audience comes and hears the message of the Kingdom. Our hearts are cheered that the Lord has so prospered our labors for His name.

Four days are spent in calling at the homes of the people with the message which has so cheered our own hearts, and the joy of the Lord is truly our strength. Another train journey across that arid plain of central India and our tour is brought to a close, with gratitude to the Giver of all good gifts for His love and protecting care and the great privilege enjoyed in His service.

Printing Visagraph for the Blind

DISCOVERIES in television bid fair to make a complete success of Robert E. Naumburg’s remarkable invention by which the blind may be quickly taught to read any book, regardless of whether or not it is printed in embossed type. The whole field of literature, in all languages, is thus thrown open to the sightless. At present they have access to about one-tenth of one percent, embossed in Braille, Grade One and a Half, Braille, Grade Two, New York Point or Moon Type.

The Printing Visagraph is about the size of a desk, and of two main parts, the lighthouse, which does the work of the human eye, and the printer, which raises, on light aluminum, letters, allof one height, which are of the general shape of the letters being scanned by the lighthouse.

The scanning of the printed letters of a book or magazine or newspaper is done by a beam of light from ah electric lamp, broken up by television methods into six points of light which are made to operate dots and dashes corresponding to the shape of the letter. Thus the letter T comes out in the form of a long horizontal dash and four vertically grouped dots.

The Visagraph was demonstrated in April at the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York, to the World Conference on Work for the Blind. At the demonstration, a young woman, blind, adjusted the instrument without the aid of any other person and read from a book with which she was not familiar at the rate of twenty words per minute. She had learned to operate the machine and read the alphabet in less than a month.

The aluminum sheets can be preserved as a permanent record, or they can be ironed out and used over again.

We know that in God’s own good time “the eyes of the blind shall be opened”, but in the meantime we should think it would give an immense amount of satisfaction to Mr. Nauiriburg and his associates to have been instrumental in bringing out such a wonderful device for assisting the blind. We hope for a wide use and popularity of the machine. We have no information as to its cost, but would imagine that item to be considerable.

MacDonald’s Day of Judgment

THE Wailing Wall riots at Jerusalem took place August 23-24, 1929, and seem to have marked the day of judgment for Ramsay MacDonald. In the investigation and settlement of that affair the Balfour covenant with the Jews was practically disowned and the Zionists were driven to a discouragement bordering on despair.

Oddly enough, it was just two years later, August 23-24, 1931, that the crisis arose in British financial affairs which has ended the political life of Ramsay MacDonald. It was on the 23rd that he saw he could no longer carry on as head of the Laboi’ government, and on the 24th that his resignation as premier of the British Empire took place.

Aluminum Poisoning By H. C. Temple, MD. (Oh io)

THERE has been considerable of discussion pro and con in regard to the effects of aluminum on food prepared in aluminum cooking utensils, some contending that it is harmless, others that the aluminum poisons the food cooked therein.

Dr. Charles T. Betts, of Toledo, Ohio, has published a work on “Aluminum Poisoning”, in which he shows the injurious effects of aluminum on the human system, when taken even in very minute particles, and he contends that its poisonous effects may be, and often are, obtained from food of various kinds when prepared inbaluminum cooking utensils.

Dr. G. Schmidt corroborates this testimony by showing the poisonous effects of aluminum drugs; and Dr. S. R. Love, by a series of electronic analyses fully confirms the findings of Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Betts, and establishes beyond a reasonable doubt the injurious effects of aluminum upon the human system, and the possibility of poisoning by food prepared in aluminum cooking vessels.

The tests and observations made by Dr. Love, and the lectures of Dr. Schmidt, and the articles w-ritten by Dr. Betts are especially strong and convincing. Unlike Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Dr. A. S. Cushman, and other defenders and apologists for the aluminum trust, they do not stop at mere chemical or electronic analysis and draw conclusions therefrom, but they establish a convincing connection between this method of taking particles of aluminum or compounds thereof into the human system and the definite effect on the person thus partaking.

Dr. Wiley and Dr. Cushman merely analyzed food for aluminum, and, because they found only small cpiantities or mere traces of aluminum in suspected food, concluded that persons partaking of such food could not possibly become poisoned thereby; while Dr. Love and Dr. Betts each found poisoned persons and then traced the poison by means of scientific tests back to the aluminum and the aluminum-poisoned food.

I am thoroughly convinced that certain kinds of food cooked in aluminum cooking utensils are poisonous and dangerous in proportion to the weakness or diseased condition of the person partaking of it, and that even the very stl’onges’ will be injured to some degree thereby, even though it may not be apparent for some time.

Aluminum poisoning may be regarded in very much the same manner as hay fever. People of supersensitive respiratory tract cannot go through ragweed or goldenrod patches without danger of the effect of that which they inhale of the pollen. It is as absurd, says Dr. Love, for the healthy person to say to the hay fever victim that there is no harm in inhaling the pollen because he can do so without harm, as it is for the man who can digest anything without injury to say to the person of weaker digestion that there is no harm in eating food cooked in aluminum containers.

Symptoms of aluminum poisoning are very similar to that of lead poisoning, depending much upon individual susceptibility to the effects of the mineral or its alkaloids or compounds in the system: some persons can imbibe large quantities without evil effects being manifest, while others may become poisoned by very minute quantities.

Following the prolonged absorption of small quantities of the metal or some alkaloid or compound thereof taken into the system with the daily food, slight indigestion is usually first manifest, then periodic headaches with attacks of dizziness, usually occurring a few hours after the meal; this is followed by tenderness and slight pains or cramping in the stomach and bow’els, with nausea. These symptoms increase in severity as the person continues to imbibe the poison, until finally ulceration of the stomach and bowels results and the victim becomes an incurable invalid.

Tw'o great forces are operative in fostering this evil upon the people. First: Because of the great financial interests involved, the aluminum trust is hiding from the people a knowledge of the evil effects resulting from food cooked in aluminum vessels and is making false claims for the safety and convenience of aluminum cooking utensils. And, second: Because of the beauty and convenience of aluminum cooking utensils, the majority of housewives are loth to believe in its evil effects.

In a South Carolina Mill Town By a Colporteur

FOR the past several years I have noticed conditions gradually growing worse and worse, and have been working among the semistarved for the past three years, but not until yesterday did I really get my eyes open to actual conditions among the mill workers. We get our mail through the post office located in the mill commissary. While in the commissary yesterday I thought it .would be convenient to get a few groceries (the store is of brick, of huge dimensions, and has the appearance of a well-kept modern department store), but instead of coming out with an armful of groceries, I came out with a heartful of utter disgust. Here is what I found:

Onions (selling elsewhere for 3c a pound), 10c Shredded Wheat (selling elsewhere for 13c a package), 20c

Kellogg’s Bran (selling elsewhere for 13c a package), 25c

In other words, they wanted 55c for a 29c order. Upon discovery of above exorbitant prices, I made inquiries and found that this is just “the beginning of sorrows”. The mill hands patronized other stores until the “big wigs” notified every department in the mill that none could buy their groceries outside the commissary, that to do so might cause their dismissal from work. Hence the poor, illiterate pieces of humanity are forced to work hard and long hours for $8 to $11 a week and then turn around and pay twice, and sometimes three times, as much as the man on the outside for his eats.

As I sit here and write I can hear the grunts of an old man, seventy-nine years old, who is wearily pushing a plow all day long in order to keep away from the doors of the poorhouse.

In the rurals of Georgia, last week, I spoke to a white man who is trying to raise a family of eight little children on fifty cents a day. If this isn’t a miracle, what is it ?

Do we need the Kingdom? You be the judge?

This is just a sample of the sufferings of the poor, and oui’ hearts grow heavy as we see the terrible strain under which the people have to live, but it spurs us on with this message of hope, but, sad to say, it seems too good for their weakened minds to grasp. It seems as though, when they fully realize the blessings of the Kingdom, when Satan will no longer be able to enthrall with his devilish schemes, their songs of praise must rise higher and higher and never cease, for it will be so utterly different from the browbeaten lives they must live now.

George Bernard Shaw on Russia

George Bernard Shaw, recently back from a trip to Russia, says that the Russian government is the ablest and most enlightened in the civilized world, that there is no unemployment, and that the people are healthy, care-free and full of hope. He thinks that in Russia one of our racketeers of the Al Capone type would not have as much chance of survival as a rat in a yard full of terriers. In a paragraph full of grim humor he says:

If you walk into a State bank (banking in Russia is a public function, as it should be in every sensible country) and proffer a sum of money on deposit they will pay you 8 percent interest on it. But if you do this on a scale which suggests you are obtaining more than your fair share, their income tax commissioners will look into the matter; and if they find that you have been speculating or exploiting the labor of others, your relatives will presently miss you and you will not turn up again. There are no millionaires nor ladies and gentlemen there. Priests are so scarce that unless you go into a church where they are actually officiating you will not notice their existence. .

More Radio Blessings Ahead

A SUBSCRIBER in Arkansas sends us a clipping telling of a French priest offering up prayers to be saved from the perils of the radio. Our subscriber thinks the preachers in France are getting scared, and that they do not want their prisoners to know what they have been doing to them. All of this seems reasonable, and if these prayers against the efforts of Jehovah’s -witnesses to enlighten the people should turn to curses and anathemas, we can be sure the witness will go out over more and better stations constantly and that more and more people will be hearing the message of the Kingdom. Every blessing from these priests and preachers is a curse; every curse, a blessing. The worst thing that could happen to us would be that they should “bless” us.

Union Pacific After Business

ITOW are the mighty fallen! There is so little -1J- business to be had, and trucks are taking so much of even that small amount, that so great a railroad as the Union Pacific is going out, cap in hand, and begging for business from door to door. There is nothing wrong about this; it is all right every way, but it is an unusual thing for the executives of a great railroad to send all employees of the Maintenance of Way department out to talk to the storekeepers and others, to try to get their business, and to demand the names of those talked to and whether their attitude toward the U. P. is good or adverse. .It shows anxiety; and the anxiety is abundantly justified. The employees are given a hint that if they do not solicit business it won't be long before they will be out of jobs. A circular to all employees of the department says:

I had hoped that the Superintendent's letter of March 17th was fully explanatory as to the seriousness of the situation confronting the railroads, and you should make use of every possible opportunity to talk to shippers, explaining the service we afford and the necessity of our increasing our earnings if we are to maintain present forces.

Georgia Power Company Rates

	Atlanta	Jaeksonvilb
	Bates	Rates
11 kwh., lighting only ..........	$1.55	$0.77
30 kwh., lighting only........,  .	2.50	2.10
200 kwh., cooking, refrigeration, lighting . . .	9.00	6.95
387 kwh., cooking, refrigeration, lighting ....	12.74	10.69
229 kwh. for lighting; 242 kwh. for power . . .	27.53	23.29
700 kwh. for lighting; 1,300 kwh. for power . .	103.90	86.00
1,000 kwh. for lighting; 3,000 kwh. for power . .	183.83	102.50
2,000 kwh. for cooking, heating and refrigeration .	61.94	52.50
22,624 kwh. for lighting; 26,220 kwh. for power .	1,217.23	1,090.78
35,000 kwh., combined lighting and power . . .	979.02	650.00
368 kwh. small industrial power.......	22.18	11.04
Sums of the two columns.........	$2,621.42	$2,036.62
Difference between the sums........	. . . •	$584.80

THE Georgia Power Company, when it came to the Mourner’s Bench before the people of.

Georgia, was not as penitent as it should have been. In the effort to prove that neither they nor others like them would be faithful if placed in positions of public trust, they made the mistake of attacking the rates of the Jacksonville (Florida) municipal plant, claiming that the rates of that plant are 45.5 percent higher than the national average.

This attack seemed to the Jacksonville commissioner of public utilities so uncalled for that he made eleven comparisons of the rates of the two plants, and they showed that in every instance the Jacksonville rates were much lower than the Georgia Power Company rates.

When you come to think of it, how eager these affiliates of the National Electric Light Association are to shine as benefactors! In 1930 the twenty largest ones, gas and electric, serving the ten largest cities in the United States, gained $4,544,000 in gross income and $3,594,000 in net profits over 1929. They did not like to have temptation rest in the way of their fellow men, so they took all they could get during these hard times, so as to keep others from getting it, and being injured by it.

Tuberculin-Tesiing of Cattle in Ohio

(HINGE the farmers have learned that often their best cattle are seized under the tuberculin tests, and that the supposedly tuberculous meat is sold to the people at full price, and that there are no known instances where milk from tuberculous cattle has conveyed tuberculosis to humans, they are getting less and less enthusiastic about having their herds decimated, and getting only a portion of what the cattle condemned are really worth.

Hence we read in one of the Dayton (Ohio) papers that the sheriff is sending deputies along

with the state veterinarians, to preserve order and prevent violence. It seems like a prudent thing for him to do, so says a Dayton subscriber, because “both the republican and democratic sheriffs have been caught taking several thousand dollars from the county through unfair tactics; so the people have no faith in them. They are allowed 75c a day to feed the county prisoners, but keep the largest amount of it and starve the prisoners on weak coffee and bread”,             .

Burned 75 Acres of Oats By George F. Gardner {Massachusetts)

TN THE Boston Globe of July 30 I noticed where a farmer in Illinois harvested 5 acres of oats and when he found that he could get but 11 cents a bushel for his grain, which had cost him 40 cents to raise, he burned 75 acres so as to avoid adding 4 cents more a bushel for harvesting and threshing.

My query is this: How many packages of rolled oats could have been gleaned from this seventy-five acres? And how many hungry children would it have fed? and for how long? Interesting conjecture, isn’t it?

There must be something wrong when a bountiful God will give a man ripe grain like this, and our social system forces him to destroy it; and that at a time when it is most urgently needed by the innocent unfortunates of our enlightened (?) land.

The Depression in the Far East By Our Korean Correspondent

BECAUSE of the world-wide financial depression, and the low value of silver, the trade between Japan and China has been very miserable for the last few years. The Japanese financial department published information that the import excess up to the end of May of this year is about $2,500,000, w’liich is record-breaking since there was trade with China. They say that if they continue to publish the result of the trade there will be great discomfort among the people, and so they will stop publishing.

In Japan, in the year 1930 about 40,000 factories discharged 569,433 employees. Of these, 409,284 were females, discharged because the thread-making and textile business was very bad. And 160 factories closed down altogether.

The price of cocoons has fallen to a very sad mark, $1.04 for every 8.2817 pounds of cocoons. Therefore most of the farmers are brokenhearted and some of them are feeding their cocoons and mulberry leaves to their cattle instead of raising summer breeds of silk worms.

In Korea the price of barley has fallen to 30c per bushel. This is the lowest price since 1902. Barley is the summer food of Korean farmers.

The Korean governor general’s estimate of income for the year 1931 is $119,000,000, made with great care, in consideration of the financial depression. But in reality the depression is worse than ever, so there will be about $10,000,000 deficit, with no way to make the deficit good. Furthermore, from the year 1932 the help from the Japanese government, $7,500,000, will be cut off and the necessary expenses of the 16th division of the army will be added. There will be no way of passing through this difficulty without levying heavier taxes upon the people. “Thy kingdom come,” speedily.

NO ONE will ever gain eternal life who does not get a knowledge of the only true God; give God the first place in his heart; obey God’s commandments to the best of his ability; get a knowledge of Jesus Christ, God’s Son; accept Jesus as the bread from heaven; hear and listen to His voice; become one of His sheep; do the work Jesus gives him to do; give earthly possessions a secondary place in his heart, and show love and mercy toward all.

Disobedience is the way to death. Obedience is the path to God’s favor and hence to His gift of everlasting life.

Ever hear about Noah? Yes; of course. Well, let’s think a little bit about him. “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”—Heb. 11:7.

Noah lived in a time when things were not going right in the earth. When Lucifer became Satan, the opposer of God, back there in Eden, about the time of the fall of our first parents, he carried with him in his insurrection some of the angels of God; we do not know how many.

In the sixth chapter of Genesis Satan’s evil influence over these formerly obedient sons of God is revealed. It does not say that it was at his instigation that some of these angels “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation” and were disobedient in the days of Noah, but we know that such was the case. The story of what happened is clear. Here is the account just as it appears in the Scriptures:

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirits [spirit sons, angels: the word is in the plural] shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh. . . . There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”— Gen. 6:1-4.

We can see what this means. Satan saw that man was dying, and, ever desiring to make it appear that the Creator’s word is not to be trusted, cast about for a way to create a race that would not be subject to death. Though he had lied to Eve and told her she would not surely die, Eve was now dead, and so was her husband, Adam. Together they had sinned and together they had died. “The wages of sin is death.” “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Nothing was saved out of the wreck. Both souls had sinned, and both had been destroyed.

Evidently by Satan’s arrangement, multitudes of the angels were induced to assume human form, and to live as men. As men they took, that is, seized, as many of the daughters of men as they chose, and made them their wives. The result was what Satan expected.

'When the children of these unions were born they became giants. The greater vitality of their fathers made them so, naturally, and the records of the doings of these giants are all the basis there is for the so-called mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome and other lands. Their fame has come down to us over more than five thousand years. There are traces of their work in Egypt, Palmyra, Easter Island and elsewhere.

This mixed race was an evil race. "We read further' that “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. (Gen. 6:5) If matters had been left to go on, the original Adamic stock would have been entirely wiped out. Taking as many as they chose the disobedient ones would soon have taken all the women, the sons of Adam would have been destroyed, and there would have been nothing left in the earth but a race of hybrids obnoxious to the divine arrangement.

It is probable that at the time that God made His purposes known to Noah there were very few in the earth who maintained their integrity toward Jehovah God. There may not have been more than the four families of Noah, and the wives of his three sons, but, in any event, “Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations.” (Gen. 6: 9) This does not mean he was physically perfect, but that he was perfect in his complete devotion to Jehovah; but as for the rest of humanity we have the record that “all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth”.— Gen. 6:12.

. Noah Did as God Commanded

Up to this time there had never been rain in the earth, but as ‘‘'Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6:9) he “found grace in the eyes of Jehovah” (Gen. 6:8) and God took him into His confidence, called his attention to the fact that the earth was filled with violence, a thing- Noah could not help seeing and knowing, and told him of His purpose to bring a flood that would wipe out the whole wretched arrangement of things.

Then followed the test of Noah’s obedience. He was told to make an ark, a huge box of about 80,000 tons capacity, as large as the very largest liners as far as capacity goes, wherein he, his wife, his sons and his sons wives, and pairs of all the animals would be saved alive in a flood that he, Jehovah God, was about to bring upon the earth.

Preparation of that ark, namely, the building of a vessel over 500 feet long and over 90 feet wide, and three stories high, must have taxed Noah’s resources, and that of his sons, and their time and strength, for many years. Divine wisdom showed him how to make his tools, and how to use them to best advantage, but even then it was a huge task.

In the absence of statements in Holy Writ to the contrary it is evident that Noah had hundreds of employees over a term of years, and though they ate at his table and shared his bounty they were unbelievers and scoffers. During all the time that the ark was in preparation Noah was, so the Scriptures declare, “a preacher of righteousness.”—2 Pet. 2: 5.

The preaching which Noah did by example was as convincing as the preaching which he did orally. He preached obedience to Jehovah God by placing all of his property and laying-all of his powers, his time, his influence, all that ho had, in God's hands.

Aren’t you glad that he did it? Aren’t you glad that we have the simple record, “According to all that God commanded him, so did he”? Noah is your direct personal ancestor, whoever you are. Not only did God make of one blood all nations of men that dwell on the face of the earth, and we correctly apply that to father Adam, but, additionally, at the time of the flood that blood stream narrowed down to the one man Noah, for only he and his direct lineal descendants survived.

And don’t you suppose that Noah himself -was glad? Think of all the years, all the effort that was put forth in dressing those great timbers, and swinging them into position, and pinning them securely, and calking the great vessel, inside and out, and conscious all the time that the great bulk of the observers, even those engaged on the boat, and those that had listened to his warnings, were scoffers.

Plow do you suppose Noah felt when he saw all the animals, pairs of them of every kind, come trooping into the ark which he had made? Apparently he did not have to drive them in. The angels attended to that. Noah was already in the ark. The account says: “They went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.”—Gen. 7:15.

All Noah and his family had to do was to act as a reception committee and say, ‘Right this way, boys and girls. Your room is two flights up, second door to the right.’ Or, ‘This way, Mr. and Mrs. Hippo; we have saved a nice big airy room for you on this floor, in the bow of the boat.’

The lion roared his delight, the elephant trumpeted in glee, the dogs barked joyously, the horses neighed, the rooster crow-ed, the parrot screeched, the tiger purred, a thousand different kinds of birds sang, and in every way they knew how the whole menagerie as they came on board showed their good will and friendliness to the one that was being used to save their lives.

And how do you suppose Noah and his family felt when the whole company was on board and all was in order and promptly the great door began to slide in its grooves and he realized that the great Jehovah God had shut him in? Wasn’t he well repaid for all his obedience? He was.

And how do you suppose all the passengers felt when the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the window’s of heaven were opened, and the deluge came down, first a few⁷ drops, then a patter, then blinding sheets of a great storm, and then cloudburst after cloudburst, the lightning crashing and the thunderrolling, with death to all outside but life to all inside? The animals w⁷ere not disturbed. They were made to know they were in the place of safety. There was no disorder. We may be sure of it.

And how do you suppose Noah and his family felt when, the waters rising higher and higher, they finally felt the great boat gently lifted on the bosom of the rising seas? Weren’t they glad then that they had taken God at His word and shaped the timbers carefully and driven home the great pins so that they would hold, and put the pitch on with care, inside and out?

And what do you suppose were their feelings when they emerged into another world, a world in which all w^ras secure, a world in which there were no fallen angels to seize their wives or daughters, no giants to fill the earth with corruption and violence, a world that should never again be overwhelmed by a flood of waters? We know how they felt, for we have the record of it. Their first act as they emerged from the ark of safety ■was to worship God, Maker of heaven and earth, and to praise Him for His great deliverance.

As in the Days of Noah, So Now

We pause for a moment to make an application of this act of obedience to our own times. Today the witnesses of God are confronted with much the same kind of situation as Noah and his family faced back there more than four thousand years ago.

Today, as then, there are giants in the earth that have a power above the human. There are great financial giants that have the power to drag the millions of men and women into a slavery as complete as any that existed before the flood. These giants have the machinery in their hands, and know how to use it so as to betray peace-loving men and women into engaging in and supporting war in the most horrid forms in which it has ever been waged.

These giants have it in their power to lay hold upon all the property of the world, and to charge the people for their necessities as much as they desire, and there is no limit to their avarice. These giants have the armies of the world at their beck and call. They have the statesmen of the world kowtowing to them in abject submission. And they have the clergy of the world blessing them and telling them, in defiance of all Scripture and all common sense, that they are the salt of the earth, the kingdom of heaven, the elect of God, the heirs of all God’s blessings here and hereafter.

These giants have developed an interest system which is as unscriptural as it is impossible of continuance. It is a system that is grinding the faces of the poor, wrecking the middle classes, and maintaining in idleness and uselessness millions of parasites who have never done for their fellow men one single usefu¹ act.

God is about to cause another catastrophe similar to the flood that will sweep these all a-way. The only ones that will be saved in that flood will be those that get into the ark of safety. That ark is the kingdom of Jehovah God, of which Christ Jesus is the great executive officer now present. It is earth’s only hope. There is no other.

As Noah of old warned the people of the coming flood, so Jehovah’s witnesses today sound again the warning of the deluge of God’s wrath as it will be manifested in Armageddon. As there was scoffing and ridicule then, so there is scoffing and ridicule now. But as there was no other way to safety then, so there is no other way to safety now. "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of man.”

The very fact that the ’warning is being given is evidence that the catastrophe is near at hand. The warning was given by Judge Rutherford in his address at Columbus, July 26, 1931. The message was broadcast on more than 500 stations, making it inconceivably the greatest radio message ever uttered.

The very fact that Jesus taught us to pray for God’s kingdom implies that it is the only hope of the world, and the very fact that that kingdom is being announced as now present, and that it is being urged as earth’s only hope of deliverance from racketeers financial, political and ecclesiastical, is also evidence that the flood of God’s wrath will soon be upon the world.

That brings us back to the subject of Noah’s obedience. If it -was well for Noah and his family, and the other creatures that were saved with him in the ark, to fall in line with Jehovah’s provision for them, what do you think about the present situation? Is it best to be obedient and fall into line or not? The question answers itself.

“By Faith Abraham . « . Obeyed”

And now, having taken rather more time in the consideration of one life of obedience than we had meant to do, let us consider another, and in some respects a still more prominent example, if that be possible, namely, that of Abraham, the father of the faithful. The outlines of Abraham's acts of obedience are presented in one connected account in Hebrews 11:8-19.

“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” (Verse 8) Abraham was a successful business man, with 318 male servants in his establishment; but at 75 years of age he broke loose from his old connections in Ur of the Chaldees. (This is the city now being excavated by the University of Pennsylvania department of archeology.) As an act of obedience to Almighty God, Abraham went several hundred miles across a dangerous country to take up his abode in a land of which he had no previous knowledge, and in which throughout his lifetime he was a sojourner, a stranger and a pilgrim.

We continue reading from the Scripture account. “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Verses 9 and 10)

These verses tell us just why Abraham was content to tear himself away from a substantial city in which he was himself one of the most substantial citizens. It was because he had hopes of sometime seeing the kingdom of God and being a part of it.

Will his hopes be gratified? Listen to the voice of Jesus himself, addressed to His critics, the scribes and Pharisees and other hypocrites: “When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are: depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.”—Luke 13:25-29.

How do you suppose Abraham .will feel then ?

Won't he be glad that he left Ur and went to Canaan, just as Jehovah God had told him to do? He will be “'in the ark’’. He will be in the Kingdom. He will be safe, and he will be supremely happy. "When the door is shut he will be on the inside.

And as for those that would not go into the ark, the Kingdom, and would not allow others to go in who wanted to do so, how do you suppose they will feel? Well, they will feel just like the outsiders felt back there in the days of Noah, as soon as it began to rain. The ark that they had sneered at and poohpoohed at did not look like such a bad place after all. It looked like a good place to be in. And if they could have got in out of the wet, especially if they could have run things their own way after they got in, they would have been well pleased if Almighty God would have slid open the door and invited them to make a run for shelter. But He did not do it, and they drowned. The time for kidding and joshing and sneering and ridiculing and lying had gone, and with it had gone the chance of life. Nobody has ever been or ever will be compelled to be an heir of life.

There are plenty of people in the earth today that are in the same fix as were those critics back there in the days of Noah and as the scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites of Christ’s day will be when the course that they decided upon back there has come to its natural and legitimate end.

It is just as easy now to turn away permanently from the kingdom of God as it was in Noah’s day to ridicule the ark which God had provided as man’s and beast’s only way of safety. It is just as easy now to ridicule the kingdom of God, earth’s only hope, as it was for the scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites to hold out against Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. All they had to do was to keep close together, bound together by the cords of sectarianism and hatred of the light of advancing truth.                              '                 "

Jehovah Rewarded Abraham’s Obedience .

We continue our story in the book of Romans, for the story of Abraham’s life appears in many places in the sacred Word. In the 4th chapter we are told that Abraham had been promised by Jehovah that he should be the heir of all the world, a father of many nations. His acceptance of that promise was an act of faith. The apostle says that “being not weak in faith, he

[Abraham] considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform”. —Rom. 4:19-21.

Had Abraham remained in Ur of the Chaldees he would have died childless; but see how God rewarded his obedience in going forth from the land of his nativity into the land where the remainder of his life was spent. Returning to the account in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, the apostle says:

“Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.” (Verse 12) Every Hebrew in the world today, and every Hebrew that has ever lived, including the Lord Jesus Christ himself, is a descendant of Abraham and owes his life and his lineage to Abraham’s obedience in leaving Ur of the Chaldees.

Abraham’s descendants extend further than to include the Jews. They also include all the Ishmaelites and the Midianites, and other descendants of Keturah. A reasonable estimate of their total number is that they would be sufficient, if now living, to populate the whole of Asia as thickly as it is now peopled.

But Abraham is the father of an infinitely greater multitude than those who have descended from him according to the flesh, and this comes about by an even greater act of obedience than that which brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees. The account in the 11th chapter of Hebrews goes on:

“By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”—Heb. 11:17-19.

Would You Do It?

Try to put yourself in Abraham’s place. He had left his old home and nearly all his kindred to go into a far country in obedience to Jehovah’s command. His father had died on the way. He had, after a long, long journey, arrived in the promised land. He had been as-

Brookltn, N. Y. sured that because of his obedience he should be the heir of the world and the father of many nations. He had waited and waited, years and years, and finally, in his old age, when he was ninety, Ishmael had been born. But he was told that this should not be his heir. He had waited yet again another ten years, and finally, when he was a hundred years of age, and Sarah was seventy-five, Isaac had been born. Here at last was the one that was to be his heir, the desire of his heart.

Under the tender, watchful eyes of aged parents, Isaac had grown into beautiful young manhood. He had blossomed out into a youth of twenty-five, not yet quite a full-grown, mature man, for the age of maturity is thirty, but he was at an age of great attractiveness, an age when a good young man is attractive to everybody, an age of strength and beauty and grace and thoughtfulness, for a man learns much by the time he is twenty-five.

And suddenly God put Abraham’s love and obedience to a great test. The account is in the 22d chapter of Genesis. “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lowest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”—Gen. 22: 2.

Can we fathom the depths of the agony of this old man, now 125 years of age, as he thought what this would mean to Isaac, to Sarah and to himself? Yet he waited not a day to show his obedience to the divine command. Early in the morning, the very next morning, the account shows, with Isaac and two servants, he started on one of the most terrible three-day journeys that any father ever took. And finally they came to the place.

And how do you suppose Abraham felt when, as he and his only son, the one whom he loved, drew near to the place of sacrifice, that son, himself well able to put up a stiff fight for his life, had he seen fit to do so, looked calmly in his father’s face and asked, “My father, . . . behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

And how do you suppose Abraham felt when with aching heart he replied, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering”? And what could have been his feelings as together they were building an altar, and laying the wood in order, and it finally came time for him to bind Isaac and lay him upon the wood i

The climax of his agony came when he stretched forth his hand with the knife in it. Another moment and the warm blood of the one he loved best on earth would be gushing forth to redden the altar and the earth beneath and Abraham’s heart would be torn in two.

“Because Thou East Obeyed My Voice” '

Ah! But what is this? The angel of Jehovah catches him with upraised knife and stays the whole proceeding. He is forbidden to touch the lad, and there, caught in a thicket by his horns, is the ram which God provided to take the place of the lamb of Abraham’s heart.

Dear friend, you know the story. You know what it all means. You know, that in that allegory Abraham represented our heavenly Father, while Isaac represented His only Son, the One whom He loved, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. What Abraham went through only faintly pictures what the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ went through that a Savior and Redeemer for humanity might be provided, that God’s name might be vindicated and His original purposes regarding mankind brought to fruition.

And now, how about it? What do you think about Abraham’s reward for his obedience? Was he adequately repaid? Ah, yea! Right there, when he caught sight of that ram in the thicket, Abraham saw Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God. "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw’ it, and was glad."

Can you imagine just how- glad Abraham was as he went back home? Try to picture in your mind the reversal of that three-day trip. Quite probably the return journey w-as made in a single day. Abraham and Isaac would want to get home as soon as they could and tell Sarah and all the rest of the family all about it.

And the story has been told and retold for centuries, and it will never grow⁷ old. It is a story of faith, yes. But it is a story of obedience too. And in the picture of w⁷hat happened on Mount Moriah not only can we see the faith and obedience of Abraham, but we can see the obedience w’hich led Christ Jesus to Calvary and w⁷ould have kept Him on the tree even had deliverance been granted from any other source than the hand of God.

The way of obedience is life, and it is happiness too. And there is no other way to either.

IN A FORTHCOMING ISSUE OF THE GOLDEN AGE WILL APPEAR:

“The Thing of Duty—The Jaw Forever”: The Tariff.

The tariff is a subject which engages much of the time of our politicians in Washington; and since it more or less directly affects every citizen, its discussion should prove of interest to GOLDEN AGE readers.

Child Labor Benefits No One

An article showing some of the outstanding objections to child labor, pointing out that children of sixteen and under arc more likely to be injured when operating or working about dangerous machinery and that thousands of these children are keeping older and more capable persons out of work.

To Drive the Government Out of Business

Which, being interpreted, means driving the people out of everything that is being done for their welfare and convenience. Big business organizations resent any effort on the part of the people to run some of their own business enterprises without paying exorbitant profits to private interests.

Good Board at 75 Cents a Week

Someone suggests an excellent way to reduce the high cost of living and to be stronger and healthier in the bargain. .

Two Aluminum Articles

Tending to show that aluminum trusts may have consciences but that these do not interfere with their business.

A Thousand Miles Up the Amazon And Items About Korea

Blocks to Mankind’s Prosperity

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