Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

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in this issue

SHALL

RADIO CENSORS

RULE?

BILL TO AMEND RADIO ACT

NORWAY

NOTES ON NEWS

OBEDIENCE SWEETENS

FRIENDSHIPS OF GOD

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every other WEDNESDAY five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25

Vol. XV - No. 377 February 28, 1934

• • • o<e) • ¹                —-                                        '■               "                                      •       • •

CONTENTS

• • >" I ....... I                                                                           ~ ■■ *• *

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

Filching from Pay Envelopes . 335

Civil Service Raises Age Limit . 338

This Depression.......344

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Shall Radio Censors Rule ? . . 323

To Safeguard Broadcasting ; . 328

Official Stupidity in Baltimore . 338

Too Busy to Live......341

World- Is Not So Crowded . . . 341

Answers of School Children . . 342

Larkman Should Have the Money 346

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

L. & N. Asks for 2c Fare . . . 343

Ability of Dillon, Read & Co. . . 343

Power Trust and San Francisco . 343

Problem One of Destination . . 347

What a Receiver Is For .... 348

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

Where Nebraska Money Goes . . 345 Why American Municipal Govern

ments Are What They Are . . 346

Obiter Dictum.......346

A Few Profitable Investments . . 346

London “Bobbies” vs. American

Police.........347

Senator Long Is Pessimistic . . 348

155,222.21 Reasons for Gratitude . 348

No More Winter Eviction in N. Dak. 348

AGRICULTURE and husbandry

Vivisection Useless and Barbaric . 339

An Embarrassing Question . . . 339

Beaufort’s Scale Ashore . . . 345

Down on the Farm.....345

Majesty of Law in Evansville . . 348

SCIENCE AND INVENTION

Back to the Rain Barrel . . . 339

HOME AND HEALTH

Food Recipes

A Prescription That Worked . . 340

What Columbus People Drink . . 340

What an Apple Does

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

Norway—Land of Midnight Sun 329

Effect of World War on Chinese . 336

Boyhood in Denmark

Growth of Winnipeg

Russia’s “Voluntary Settlers” . 347

Conditions in West Australia . . 347

Russia Not a Paradise—Yet . . 348

The Self-satisfied Evangelist . . 336

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

What Is the Cross?

“Out of the Mouth of Babes” .  .

Christian’s Dialogue with Jew  .

Sees It Coming

Working on Sunday!

Obedience Sweetens Friendships of God

--—-------------

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crhe Golden Age

Volume XV                      Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, February 28, 1934                     Number 377

Shall Radio Censors Rule?

MILLIONS of listeners in the United States, long accustomed to hearing the refreshing truths of the Word of the true God, JEHOVAH, when they tuned in the familiar voice of Judge Rutherford, have been wrongfully deprived of that pleasure in recent months by the action of entrenched selfish interests.

Millions of these listeners have registered their vigorous protest because of such wrongful interference with their Constitutional rights as American citizens, and have petitioned their representatives in the Congress at Washington to act in the public interest.

Many of the disappointed ones have often asked, What is the responsibility of the Congressional agency, namely, the Federal Radio Commission, with respect to the regulation of broadcasting to enable the people to hear what they desire and need to hear?

A similar question occurred to Congressman Sinclair, of North Dakota, when he received the “Protest and Petition” signed by many of his constituents. Immediately he wrote to the Radio Commission. Promptly the Commission’s chairman replied. That reply was sent by the congressman to the Washington Watch Tower representative. When that reply was brought to the attention of Judge Rutherford, he wrote to the chairman of the Commission.

Are you interested in the immeasurable value of the radio as an agency of public service for the public welfare? Is your interest large enough to move you to take time to weigh the title question of this article in the light of reasons expressed by three men who bear a responsibility to serve the people?

Their expressions are here reproduced, in the following correspondence.

Congressman Sinclair’s Letter

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Washington, D. C.

January 27,1934.

Mr. Anton Koerber,

Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, New York.

Dear Sir:

Yours of the 25th is at hand, but inasmuch as no Washington address is attached thereto, I am replying to your New York office.

A large number of petitions relative to the broadcasting of Judge Rutherford was recently delivered to my office. Inasmuch as these petitions were the first information I had directing my attention to the situation about which complaint is made, I took the matter up with the Radio Commission and am enclosing a communication received from the Chairman. Since receipt of his letter I have made inquiry of the Chairman of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, which is in charge of radio legislation, as to any bills pending before the Committee seeking to remove grounds for complaint. I was told that there is no measure before the Committee as yet. I am not a member of that Committee, but you may be assured that any legislation reported by it and coming before the House will have my careful consideration.

Because of the heavy demands on my time during the session, and my very limited clerical force, it will be appreciated if you will convey the above information to those of my constitutents who were kind enough to give me the benefits of their views through their signatures on the petitions. It is my desire and intention to serve them at all times to the best of my ability.

Thanking you for your cooperation, I am

Yours very truly,

J. H. Sinclair.

Radio Commission’s Chairman Wrote

FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION Washington, D. C.

January 24, 1934.

Hon. J. H. Sinclair,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

My dear Congressman Sinclair t

Permit me to acknowledge receipt of your favor of the 23rd instant, enclosing petition and protest, relating to the refusal of certain stations to broadcast the speeches of Judge Rutherford of the International Bible Students Association.

The Commission, during this year, has received a number of letters protesting against these broadcasts because of their critical nature of all religions and all teachings of the Bible save that of Judge Rutherford and his institute. These broadcasts consist of both original speeches and electrical transcriptions of speeches of Judge Rutherford.

I have no doubt that a number of stations who aro carrying these programs received letters of protest from listeners and I have been told that certain stations, because of these protests, declined to continue to broadcast the Rutherford programs.

Under Section 29 of the Radio Act, the Commission is forbidden to censor programs. It is only when stations have applications for renewal of their licenses pending or when other applicants apply for facilities used by existing stations that the Commission, in the public interest, convenience or necessity is permitted to judge the nature and character of the programs broadcast by stations in order to pass upon the question of public interest.

You will note from the next to the last paragraph of this petition, that petitioners complain that “The National Broadcasting Company, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and others, have wrongfully by threats, coercion and other improper influence prevented many stations from broadcasting this message ...”

Under the theory of the Radio Law, station owners are not compelled to broadcast any and all programs offered to them. It remains with them to see what programs they will or will not broadcast. I rather imagine, however, that because of the criticism of other religious faiths and the protests received by station owners was the cause of some of them discontinuing these programs.

I return the protest and petition.

If there is any further information we may be able to give you in the matter, please command us.

Sincerely yours,

E. 0. Sykes,

Chairman.

Judge Rutherford Wrote Commission

February 8, 1934.

Judge E. 0. Sykes, Chairman,

FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION, Washington, D. C.

Sir:

Your letter of January 24, 1934, addressed to Honorable J. H. Sinclair, member of the House of Representatives, is, to say the least of it, hardly fair to me. The high office which you hold requires you to be fair and pass on such questions only that come within the jurisdiction of the Federal Radio Commission. Probably you have inadvertently overstepped the proper bounds.

You quote the next to the last paragraph of petition recently presented to Congress, which quotation is as follows: “The petitioners complain that the National Broadcasting Company, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and others, have wrongfully by threats, coercion and other improper influence prevented many stations from broadcasting this message.”

In your response thereto you completely ignore the question raised. No one for one moment would undertake to say that radio stations under the law as it now exists are compelled to broadcast any and all programs. Congress is asked to prevent by law undue discrimination. Surely no man holding a high official position could in fairness say that any corporation, person or persons can be acting righteously when using threats and coercion to prevent a radio station broadcasting whatsoever programs they wish to broadcast. The point raised by the petition is that those named are using wrongful methods, such as threats of boycott and coercion to prevent radio stations from exercising their legal rights. This Congress is asked to make it a punishable offense to use such wrongful methods, and to thus deprive radio stations from exercising their legal rights and preventing the people from hearing what they wish to hear.

The two big broadcasting corporations, and the Roman Catholic clergy in particular, are attempting to prevent the things you say that the stations have a right to do, to wit, broadcast programs as they see fit. Are you in favor of permitting powerful corporations and influential religious organizations using boycott and other threatening methods to prevent American citizens hearing what the law says they have a right to hear? If not, then you should have told the congressman that you do not favor such methods. Your letter is silent upon that point. If the Commission of which you have the privilege of being chairman favors such wrongful methods of coercion and threats, then Congress, acting as the agent and servant of the people, should abolish the Commission.

In the concluding paragraph of your letter you volunteer to furnish to the congressman further information which you may be able to give. You could have told the congressman in your letter that clergymen, and particularly Catholic priests, had a conference with members of the Federal Radio Commission, their purpose being to induce the Commission to take Rutherford off the air and to refuse to renew the license of stations that continue to broadcast his speeches. Such facts would support the petition and are quite valuable to the American people.

You could also have told the congressman that your Commission addressed letters to me asking me to file with you copies of my speech delivered on a certain occasion, to which speech objection had been made, and also asking me to file with you a list of stations that had broadcast such speech and that your request was fully complied with. You had no right as a Commission to censor the speech, and manifestly the purpose of asking for such information was to determine whether or not you had sufficient grounds to refuse a further license to stations broadcasting the same. If such was not your purpose, then what was your purpose ?

Furthermore, you could have told the congressman that after you had received protests from the Roman Catholic clergymen you had made demands upon me to furnish the Commission with a list of radio stations in which I am a stockholder, and to state how much stock I hold in such stations. What could have been the purpose of the Commission in obtaining this information if it were not to aid the clergymen in accomplishing their purpose to exclude my speeches from the air? If the facts had developed that I had a large amount of financial interests in certain radio stations, would you have used those facts to require such stations to cease broadcasting my speeches or to forfeit their license or fail to have their license renewed? If that was not the purpose in getting the information, what was the purpose? Certainly an American citizen has the right to own stock in a corporation, even in a radio station, without personally being required to make report to the Federal Radio Commission. You might explain to Congress what you wanted with that information. Fortunately I had no stock in any of them, except a single share in one station, which was given to me and which since has been disposed of. It would be a great wrong for the Commission to refuse a license to a radio station merely because a man not pleasing to clergymen holds some stock in that station. You have in your files the letters of the Commission to me and my replies, and these facts you might furnish to the Congressional Committee.

Then your Commission further requested that I furnish you a list of radio stations in which our Society holds stock. That letter and my reply may also be of interest to the Congressional Committee.

Shortly after the conference of clergymen with the Federal Radio Commission, and after the Commission had received at least two copies of my speech “Effect of Holy Year on Peace and Prosperity”, and after I had filed with your Commission a list of radio stations that had broadcast that speech, your Commission wrote letters to a number of radio stations requiring such stations to report to your Commission as to whether they had broadcast such speech or not. Was it merely a coincident that your Commission sent out such letters to various radio stations after the clergy had called on you, or were you aiding them to get Rutherford off the air by doing indirectly what you could not do directly? You may explain that to the Congressional Committee and also tell the Committee what was the purpose of the Commission in demanding of radio stations the information as to whether or not my above-mentioned speech was broadcast when you already had copies thereof on file. Practically at the same time the Roman Catholic press began a tirade against radio stations that had broadcast that speech and they began to employ boycott methods to compel stations to cease broadcasting any and all speeches of mine. This they began with the leading station at St. Paul and station WHK Cleveland. Was the Commission acting strictly within its legal duty in demanding such information from various radio stations, which information it already had, or was it to indirectly give a warning to those radio stations to yield to the protest of objecting clergymen and to aid them to accomplish what the Commission could not legally accomplish? Copies of the Commission’s letters to the various radio stations regarding that matter might be interesting information to Congress just at this time.

In your letter to Congressman Sinclair you say: “I have been told that certain stations, because of these protests, declined to continue to broadcast Rutherford’s programs.” Were you told that information after your Commission had demanded of these stations the information as to whether or not they had broadcast my speech on “Holy Year”, and if so, do you know just what was the moving cause of those stations discontinuing to broadcast my speeches?

Since my speeches that have been broadcast have never mentioned a human creature in a derogatory manner, but have merely called attention to the gross errors taught by men and organizations to the detriment of the peoples’ vital welfare, is it your opinion that the Radio Commission has the legal right to refuse to license a station because that station broadcasts my speeches? If so, would the Commission have the legal right to refuse to license a station that broadcasts a speech severely criticizing the administration of the national government? While this Congress is in session it might be of interest to the members thereof to know just how far the Commission believes it can go in refusing a license to a station that broadcasts a speech criticizing the errors taught and practiced upon the people by various organizations.

Is the Radio Act relative to what is of public “interest, convenience and necessity” for the benefit of shielding institutions or organizations that have for years been deceiving the people, and still are deceiving them, or was that provision put in the law to permit people to hear what is the truth and what is therefore of vital public interest, convenience and necessity for them to hear?

This government was established on the theory that it belongs to the people in general and not to certain selfish interests. Aly associates and I are not trying to get members or to build up any kind of an organization. We are merely trying to help the people, while these selfish interests stand in the way thereof. We have no desire or inclination to attack any man personally, but we only wish to inform the people of truths upon which their very life depends. If in America it is no longer possible to expose gross errors in order that the people may learn the truth, then entrenched selfish interests teaching such errors may feel safe. It is certain that they do not want to have the public to examine the things that they are teaching, and that of itself is very persuasive evidence that they know they are wrong and that they are doing injurj⁷ to the people.

In your letter you state to Mr. Sinclair that protests have come to the Commission against my speeches “because of their critical nature of all religions and all teachings of the Bible save that of Judge Rutherford and his institute”. That statement is hardly in accord with the facts.

On at least two occasions when I have been before your Commission I have stated the facts as they exist, and you should know them for that reason. Besides that I personally know that you have some books which I have written also setting out the facts. Permit me to say that Rutherford has no institute, nor have I any teachings of my own. I am a follower of the plain lead of Jesus Christ, calling attention to Jehovah God’s Word of truth according to His commandments. My effort is to enable the people to ascertain what is in the Bible. If the clergymen are wrongfully misleading the people as to what is in the Bible, and hiding from them the truths therein, as their prototypes did when Jesus was on earth, how could I call attention to the truth of the Bible without such truths’ exposing the errors of others? I have no fight with any man. Never at any time in a public speech have I attacked any man. My sole purpose is to aid the people to understand the Bible, and you well know that the Roman Catholic system has never tried to help the people understand the Scriptures. Now when their parishioners begin to get some knowledge of the Bible, which is of vital necessity to them and which truths enable them to see that the clergy have duped them and kept them in error, these facts cause the clergymen to become violently angry at anyone who speaks the truth. They should not blame me; they should blame the Lord for having put those truths in His Word. If the position of the clergymen is right, then why not come out and defend their position and show the people wherein I am wrong? If what I am saving is wrong it will fall of its own weight; and if what I am saying is God’s Word of truth there is no power under heaven that can destroy it. The clergy well know that personally I amount to little or nothing but it is the truth that angers them.

Having no adequate defense the clergymen are compelled to either keep silent or else put a gag in the mouth of the one who speaks the truth. For some years they have practiced silence, but now when they see the people learning the truth they seek to put a gag in the mouth of the one who tells them the truth. The American people have a right to hear what they desire to hear without anyone acting as their censors or guardians. Even if you desire to aid these men in keeping the people in the dark concerning the vital truths of the Bible you should not use your high official position to accomplish that purpose, but on the other hand you should unhesitatingly furnish to Congress the evidence that would help the members thereof to see what is their plain duty in protecting the interest of freedom of speech and freedom of worship of Jehovah God amongst the people.

Just before the destruction of Jerusalem Jehovah sent certain men to give notice and warning to the people of the approaching disaster coming upon that city. The clergymen of that time violently opposed those men and had them beaten and thrown into prison. The clergymen used their influence to keep the people in ignorance of the truth, and they succeeded largely in doing so. Shortly thereafter Jehovah God caused the city of Jerusalem to be completely destroyed and multitudes of people to die. What happened there, as the Scriptures show, merely foreshadowed what is now about to fall upon the nations called “Christendom”, of which Jerusalem was a type.

What my associates and I are doing is merely to give notice of warning to the rulers and to the people of the approaching time of tribulation, which will be far greater than that which came upon Jerusalem. It is not man’s warning, nor is it man’s word. These truths of notice and warning are not man’s word. These truths of notice and warning are set forth in the Word of God and those who know them and love Jehovah God are commanded to tell the people about them. Anyone, therefore, who attempts to keep these truths from the people is fighting against God and not against man, and every one who thus opposes God will experience the trouble of Armageddon and “will find no way of escape”. Appropriate thereto are the words of Jehovah’s prophet at Jeremiah 25: 33-36 and of Matthew 24: 21, 22. The Scriptures point out plainly that there is just one way of escape. God has commanded that the people shall be told of that way just now. Do you wish to lend your support to those who are trying to keep the people in ignorance of these vital truths? If so, the responsibility will be upon your own head. Better let the people hear and let each man take his own responsibility as to what he shall do. My responsibility before God is to tell the people the truth, and in no other way can I be faithful to Jehovah God.—Ezekiel 3:18,19.

God sent Moses to demand of Pharaoh of Egypt, the then great world power, that the people might be permitted to hear the truth and worship God in their own way. Pharaoh refused to permit the people to enjoy that privilege, and God killed all of their firstborn and then destroyed the nation. Now the people are again asking that they be permitted to exercise their God-given rights to proclaim the truth and to worship Jehovah God in the way that they choose. Certain selfish organizations are desperately attempting to prevent the people from exercising this privilege, and the rulers are warned not to support those selfish organizations in their wrongful course, nor to join with them in hindering the free proclamation of the Word of God, and Jehovah makes it plainly to appear in his Word that those who do interfere shall suffer a like fate that came upon Egypt.

You will recall that when I personally stood before your Commission on one occasion I used these words: “This is not a threat, but a warning,’’ and you are familiar with what came upon some members of the Commission thereafter. I now repeat those words as applying not only to the Federal Radio Commission but to all the ruling powers of “Christendom” that interfere with the proclamation of Jehovah’s Word of truth. It is a friendly warning. Opposition to me cannot affect me personally in any way whatsoever, but willful opposition to a free hearing of the Word of God in this critical hour will result disastrously to all those who oppose the free proclamation of God’s Word of truth. Jehovah God through Christ Jesus will inflict the punishment. I have nothing to do with that. No man will inflict the punishment upon the nations. Receive now, if you will, this kindly warning and cease to give aid to those who are fighting against God’s Word of truth. No man can successfully fight against Jehovah.

Let the Federal Radio Commission administer the law fully and fearlessly and refrain from aiding a class of selfish corporations who wish to keep the people in ignorance of the great truths of Jehovah’s purpose. The congressmen must have these facts in order that they may intelligently meet the responsibility that is upon them. The National Broadcasting Company and others have set themselves up as the religious guardians of the American people. They have determined that Catholic, Protestants and Jews may speak to the people, provided they raise no controversial questions. They deny the facilities of their radio stations to those who want to tell the truth for the benefit of the people, and thus they assume the position of guardians for the people as to what they shall hear concerning the Bible. The Roman Catholic clergymen in particular desire the people to hear nothing except what they and their fellow religionists may agree upon. Does the Federal Radio Commission wish to assume the responsibility before God of agreeing that these two big radio corporations, and the clergymen, may determine what is of public interest, convenience and necessity, and thus prevent the people from hearing what they wish to hear?

If the Commission answers the foregoing question in the affirmative, then I insist that Congress in fairness to the American people should define what constitutes public interest, public convenience and public necessity, and that this be done as a guide for the Federal Radio Commission. I will here suggest a definition, which I know is in harmony with the truth. Necessity is that which the people really need. Convenience is that which builds up the people in righteousness ; and public interest is that which is for the general welfare of the people. The great truths contained in the Bible are therefore of supreme public interest, public necessity and public convenience. “Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” (Proverbs 29; 18) “Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.”—Proverbs 30: 8.

Very sincerely,

cc

Hon. J. H. Sinclair, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

"Not a Threat, But a Warning"

Official records at the Federal Radio Commission in Washington show that it was on June 15, 1927, that those words were used by Judge Rutherford in his summary speech at the end of a two-day hearing before the original commission. Of that original group of five appointed by Calvin Coolidge, the only remaining member is Judge Sykes, the present chairman. Within a short time after that hearing, the first chairman, William Bullard, and the first vice-chairman, John Dillon, were cut off in death. Soon thereafter, the other two original members, Orestes Caldwell and Henry Bellows, resigned from the commission to pursue private ventures, as did also the commission’s first secretary, Sam Pickard.

To Safeguard Broadcasting

APPRECIATING, as he does, the boundless usefulness of radio broadcasting as an instrumentality of public service, Louis T. McFadden, of Pennsylvania, has moved with characteristic boldness and foresight to do his part toward providing a timely safeguard for the steady and proper development of this marvelous means of communication.

That such a progressive step should be taken by one who was chosen by an overwhelming majority of both Democratic and Republican voters to represent all the people of the Fifteenth District of Pennsylvania in the Seventy-third Congress is noteworthy.

On February 14, 1934, in the House of Representatives, at Washington, Congressman McFadden introduced a bill to amend the Radio Act of 1927. Its provisions are unique. Its spirit of fairness is at once arresting and refreshing. The bill was referred to the Committee on Merchant Marine, Radio, and Fisheries and ordered to be printed. It is designated as H. R. 7986 of the 73d Congress, 2d Session, and is here presented in full text:

A BILL

To amend the Radio Act of 1927, approved February 23, 1927, as amended (44 Stat. 1162).

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Radio Act of 1927, approved February 23, 1927, as amended (44 Stat. 1162), is amended by the addition of two new sections to follow section 28 of said Act (44 Stat. 1172), said new sections to read as follows:

“No person, persons, company, association, or corporation owning and operating a radio broadcasting station, and receiving and broadcasting radio programs for hire, shall discriminate in the use of such station in favor of a program of speech sponsored by any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office, and/or by any religious, charitable, or educational company, corporation, association, or society or any other like association or society, and against or to the exclusion of another person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office, or of another religious, charitable, or educational company, corporation, association, or society chartered or licensed under the laws of the United States, because and for the reason that such person, religious, charitable, or educational company, corporation, association, or society holds and promulgates and advocates views contrary to those expressed in programs that have been broadcast. The owner, lessee, or operator of any broadcasting station contracting for or accepting and broadcasting radio programs for one legally qualified candidate for a public office, and for one class of religious, charitable, or educational company, corporation, association or society, and refusing to contract for or to accept and broadcast for hire radio programs of speech offered for broadcast by another legally qualified candidate for a public office, or by any other religious, charitable, or educational company, corporation, association, or society within the provisions of this section, because or for the reason that such legally qualified candidate, or such religious, charitable, or educational company, corporation, association, or society holds or promulgates a contrary or different view from that which is expressed by the person or parties broadcasting programs, shall be deemed guilty of an unlawful discrimination. All persons, companies, corporations, or associations owning and operating a radio station who shall be guilty of a misdemeanor shall be punished by a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000, and in addition thereto may be required to forfeit the license for operating such broadcasting station.

“No person, persons, company, association, society, or corporation shall by threats, or by coercion, or by misrepresentation, or any other like manner interfere with or prevent, or attempt to interfere with or prevent, the broadcasting of any radio program by any owner, lessee, or operator of any radio broadcasting station; or interfere with or attempt to interfere with, or to prevent any owner, lessee, or operator of any radio broadcasting station from entering into a contract with another person, persons, company, association, society, or corporation, to accept, receive, and broadcast programs of speech and music by radio. No person, persons, company, association, society, or corporation shall induce or attempt to induce any person, persons, company, association, society, or corporation to withdraw business or financial support or social intercourse from any radio broadcasting station, or the owner, lessee, or operator of any radio broadcasting station in the use and operation of such radio station or in the broadcasting of any and all programs offered to be broadcast, or which may be broadcast at any such station. Any person, persons, association, society, or corporation violating this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000, or in the case of an individual or the responsible officials of an association or corporation, by imprisonment for a term of not less than sixty days nor more than two years, or by both such fine and imprisonment.’’

Norway—Land of the Midnight Sun

IF YOU were at the north pole on or about March 21 you would see the edge of the sun for the first time in six months, and if you could remain there six months you would see it all the while until September 23, when it would retreat below the horizon, to be out of sight for as long a time as it was visible. On June 21 the sun is at its highest point and bathes everything within the arctic circle in continuous light throughout the entire 24 hours. From that point of view we could say that all the lands within the arctic circle, northern Alaska, northern Canada, northern Greenland, northern Russia and northern Siberia are lands of the midnight sun; but by common consent that name is applied to Norway, because it is the most accessible of them all, and enjoys the best climate.

The Gulf Stream is the making of the country. If it were not for that, Norway would be almost uninhabitable; but its influence is so potent that it makes possible permanent human habitation within 700 miles of the north pole, and so, because Spitsbergen is politically a part of Norway, and Norway is the subject of this article, we begin with the northernmost part of the land of the north, and the northernmost habitation of civilized man.

The Spitsbergen islands, comprising an archipelago of 25,000 square miles (half the size of New York state), have been known since 1194, and often visited by Norwegians and Russians. More than a hundred kinds of flowering plants grow there. Sea fowl are so plentiful that at times they literally darken the air. Foxes, bears, reindeer, walruses and seals abound.

In 1870 rich coal deposits were found, now estimated at 9,000,000,000 tons, and 1,200 persons, including miners and their families, live there the year around. In the summer, when they have one day which is four months long, it is not such a bad place to live; but in the winter, when they have a night of the same length, it is not so attractive.

The Stor coal company of Spitsbergen, formerly an American concern, has the most modern colliery in Europe. Cutting machinery in the mines, and modern docks and loading facilities, enable the loading of a 6,000-ton vessel in 24 hours; this one company now ships some 200,000 tons of coal a year all over Europe.

Jumping-Off Place for Explorers

It was from Kings Bay, Spitsbergen, on May 21, 1925, that Amundsen and Ellsworth set out to fly to the pole and back. They started with two planes, but after going to within 13C miles of the pole one was forced down and the other went to its relief. After three weeks of desperate effort the six men aboard returned safely in one of the planes. The other plane was abandoned.

It was from Kings Bay, Spitsbergen, May 9, 1926, that Byrd and Bennett flew direct to the pole, circled it several times, and returned to their base in 151-k hours, having flown 1,360 miles without a stop.

Two days later, May 11, 1926, the Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile expedition set out from Kings Bay in the Italian-built dirigible Norge, sailed over the pole, and landed safely in Alaska after a flight of 71 hours.

Two years later Amundsen lost his life in a desperate attempt to save by airplane some of the members of the last, ill-fated, Nobile expedition. He was a typical Norwegian, in many respects the most remarkable of explorers, the first to negotiate the Northwest Passage, and the first to reach the south pole. From a youth of 15 he trained himself to be an Arctic explorer, always sleeping, in the bitterest weather, with his windows wide open. He had the scientific training, the will and the muscle to make a great success of his chosen field of work.

Nansen was another of the Northland’s successful explorers. For twelve years he was the acknowledged athlete of his country, which means, in Norway, that he was the champion cross-country skier. At twenty-eight he first crossed the mountains of central Greenland. Subsequently he designed and built the Fram, drifted with it across the Arctic ocean, and by means of it, April 8,1895, attained 86° 14 north latitude, the highest until then attained. He was eminent as a peace-worker and considered as the most eminent of Norsemen.

Another Norwegian, Henrik Ibsen, greatest dramatist of his time, was eminent, but not loved as was Nansen. The people of Norway and of the world had respect for his ability, but his countrymen despised his vanity and selfishness. He was an explorer and advertiser of the follies of mankind.

Coming Down to North Cape

From everywhere else in the world it is up to North cape, but from Spitsbergen it is 650 miles down. North cape is far above the arctic circle, but, as it is on an island in the midst of the Gulf Stream, it is in waters that never freeze. This bold headland, 968 feet high, is a suitable landmark at which to begin our consideration of Norway proper, a country that is more mountainous than Switzerland.

Norway is of the shape of a huge dog, with its head to the south and its tail to the northeast, over a thousand miles away. The southern cape, called The Naze (Norwegian for nose), is in the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska. Oslo, the capital, is of the same latitude as the northern boundary of British Columbia. Trondhjem is of the same latitude as Nome, Alaska, and North cape is of the same latitude as Point Barrow.

There is rail connection from the iron mines at Victoria Havn over the Kjolen mountains to the most northerly part of Sweden; there is rail connection from the important city of Trondhjem across the same mountains to the central part of Sweden; and there is rail connection from the metropolis of Bergen, via Oslo, the capital, to the southern part of Sweden; and Trondhjem and Oslo are connected; but, for the most part, Norway must always depend for transportation upon the sea, for it is strictly a sea country.

The northern lands of Maine, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, Greenland, Scotland, and especially Norway, are bordered by submerged mountain valleys which in Scotland are called firths or friths and in Norway are called fjords. Depressed by the ice deposited upon them in the time of the Flood, these valleys and headlands have risen as the ice melted, and in many places elevated ocean beaches or terraces are to be seen.

There are numerous peaks and ridges many thousands of feet in height boldly jutting out into the ocean. The fjords extend far inward, sometimes as far as a hundred miles. Hardanger fjord, 1,000 feet deep, is flanked by cliffs 6,000 feet high. Numerous torrents fall over these cliffs, and when the brinks are covered with mists, as is often the case, these waterfalls, seen from the ships in the fjords, have the appearance of falling from the sky.

Widows of Lofoden

The great fishing ground of Norway is off the

Lofoden islands, well above the arctic circle, due west of the northern tip of Sweden. Here the tides wrestle with one another as great volumes of water seek to flow in opposite directions, and twice each day the innocent-looking fjords become channels of death.

In calm weather, and between tides, a small boat can navigate safely, but during the spring tides, and when natural currents are whipped up by heavy western gales, vortices are created in which no ship can survive. Not only have boats actually been swallowed up in these whirlpools, but even whales caught in them have been whirled around until they were dead. The scenery is sublime.

The departure of mail boats is very carefully regulated so as to take full advantage of the tides, but, even when care is taken, many lives are sacrificed. As a consequence, there are two islands in the archipelago populated almost entirely by widows and orphans, the men having been lost in storms at sea. Sixty-seven million pounds of cod are taken off the Lofoden islands in a year. ‘‘Men must work and women must weep.”

Norway is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Nine-tenths of the population live along the coast, or near the fjords, or on the small islands called skerries, of which there are about twelve hundred occupied. In many places these skerries form a natural breakwater and render navigation of near-by fjords comparatively safe and delightful.

As the country is so far north, and is so mountainous, much of Norway is under snow the year around. The line of perpetual snow is at 3,000 feet elevation in the north, and at 5,000 feet in the south. Even on some of the farm lands there are snowdrifts in the pastures as late as June 27, with the next season’s frosts only eight weeks away.

Effect of the Midnight Sun

The midnight sun does something else besides bringing tourists to Hammerfest and North cape. Once the summer gets really started it keeps right on coming without any let-up, for most of the time the sun continues to pour its light- and life-giving rays upon vegetation and it grows very rapidly. Flowers and fruits grow of unusual size and fragrance.

There is an abundance of moisture: seventy inches of rain on the western coast, and from ten to twelve inches on the mountains that border Sweden. The mountain slopes are therefore well clothed with oak, beech and magnificent pine forests, while willows and birches extend almost to the snow line. Wild cranberries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries abound.

Song birds are plentiful, sea fowl breed by the million in the cliffs, and bears, foxes, wolves, lynxes, hares and lemmings find shelter in the forests. All life accommodates itself to the nocturnal sun; the poultry goes to roost while the sun hangs high in the northwestern heavens. A rooster must feel abashed to wake up and find the sun shining full in his face, and realize that he had nothing to do about causing such effect.

The trip to Hammerfest and North cape is a favorite with Germans. They train themselves to sleep during eight hours of the twenty-four by turning on all the lights in their staterooms at night and accustoming themselves to sleeping in the glare. The German is willing to pay to see the midnight sun, but he is not willing to go without his customary sleep.

Hyperboreans and Vikings

The ancient Greeks and Romans thought that the north of Europe was made up entirely of ice, snow, mists, clouds and darkness, but that far beyond the north wind was a race of Hyperboreans, living in perfect peace, dwelling in a land where fruits and grains ripened without the care of the husbandman. No one suffered pain or illness, but when the old men and women grew weary of existence, they threw themselves headlong from some high cliff into the sea. Back of these fancies there may be some reference to the “land of the midnight sun”, as the fruits, longevity and cliffs are certainly all features of present-day Norway, and doubtless were of the Norway of long ago.

There is some doubt about the word “viking”, whether it is derived from vick, an Icelandic word for bay, or fjord, or from vigt, which means to fight, but there is no doubt about what the vikings did during the eighth to tenth centuries. They issued forth from the fjords or vicks, and they issued forth to fight their way to thrones in all parts of Europe from southern Russia to Great Britain. The vikings were the sailors par excellence of their time.

Norwegian school children are taught that America was discovered by Leif Ericson in the eleventh century, and it is probably true; his father Eric the Red was the discoverer of Greenland. One of the viking boats was recently discovered, buried in blue clay. The keel is 103 feet long, the solid trunk of an oak tree. The vessel is sixteen feet in width and contained all the equipment and implements of war with which the Norsemen, as they were also called, made their fame known in every country of Europe that borders on the sea. There was even one Norse crusade to the Holy Land.

Are the Norwegians the Goths?

The sovereign of Norway subscribes himself king of the Goths. Whether this means that the Norwegians claim to be Goths or that they claim to rule Goths is not clear; but it is clear that the Goths, from the fourth to the eighth century, overran the whole of Europe from Russia to Spain, and were largely responsible for the destruction of the Roman Empire. The Goths never accepted the headship of the ‘pope’. The Norwegians are like that.

In the days of Alexander the Great, Pythcas, a Greek astronomer and trader, living at Marseilles, was commissioned to visit the countries to the north. He evidently got as far as Norway; for he describes a land where the nights at midsummer were only two or three hours long. His description of ice fields and icebergs is most amusing. It is, so he says, “of neither earth, sea, nor sky, but a blending together of all three, a something in which land, air and water seemed to float and mingle together, producing a heavy girdle round the shore, along which the feet of neither men nor animals could make their way, nor boats be moved by oars or sails.”

That the Atlantic can be crossed in open boats has often been proved in recent years. In 1886 Magnus Anderson, in a boat some eighty feet long, crossed in 63 days. He was 42 days out of sight of land and capsized twice in midocean, but finished the trip safe and sound. Subsequently Captain Folgero, with three companions, sailed a 42-foot boat, drawing four feet of water, from Bergen, Norway, to Chicago, via Shetland islands, Faroe islands, Iceland, Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, Boston and Philadelphia. More recently (1933) Alfon Hansen, with cat and dog, sailed from Bergen to Chicago, and from there to Rio de Janeiro, by way of Halifax, in a 36-foot sloop, making the trip in 77 days; and, apparently after sailing eastward over the Atlantic, is now again on his way to Rio de Janeiro, this time from Sierra Leone, Africa.

In marine tonnage Norway ranks eighth among the nations, and her ships, mainly tramp steamers, are familiar sights in every corner of the world, especially in the sugar and lumber trades and in China’s coastwise trade. In the whaling industry Norway stands supreme.

Fishers and Traders

Besides being the world’s banner whalers, the Norwegians shine as fishermen and traders. Here is a clipping from an English paper published in Brazil. It explains that 100,000 Norwegians are employed in the cod fisheries and that some 80,000,000 fish are marketed annually. Many of these go to the South American continent, in Norwegian ships loaded down with paper, timber, cement, machinery, paint and other Norwegian products. The annual output of wood pulp is about 1,000,000 tons.

A Norwegian product that has much influence on human comfort is eider down. Eider ducks are found along the entire coast. From each nest about one ounce of down is taken, which is cleaned and used for making the most comfortable of bedquilts. The total product of eider down is about 3,000 pounds a year.

The United States has, as high-grade American citizens, about 400,000 persons that were born in Norway. That is a goodly number from a little land that has only 2,650,000 population— less than that of Chicago. The United States could take all they have left and would be in luck to get them.

Devoted to the frozen north, the Norwegians sought to gain a foothold on the shores of Greenland, but after forty-nine sittings the World Court ruled against Norway and in favor of Denmark, and Norway accepted the decision gracefully. About the same time it seized the whaling island of Jan Mayen and made each of its two inhabitants an official of the realm. Jan Mayen is out in the middle of nowhere, on the way from northern Norway to northern Greenland.

A Bit of Norse History

In the year 872 Harai Haarfager made a vow that he would not cut his hair or whiskers till he had united Norway under a single government. That same year he was entitled to a shave and haircut. This union of Norway under one government had far-reaching effects. The petty chiefs no longer quarreled among themselves, and united to raid the coasts and rivers of all European lands. Charlemagne, before he died, is said to have been greatly worried by these incursions.

Oslo, the capital, was founded in the middle of the eleventh century, A.D. 1048. Oslo was the name of the capital until 1624, when the name was changed to Christiania, in honor of King Christian IV, who rebuilt it after a fire. On January 1,1925, the town resumed its old name. Oslo is of the size of Providence, R. I., 260,000.

About the time Oslo got its old name back the Norwegian parliament tried to change the name of Trondhjemto Nidaros,but ran into a hornets’ nest. The people, to the number of 25,000, came out in a pouring rain to protest against the change.

From the year 1397 to 1523, under arrangements known as the Union of Calmar, the three Scandinavian kingdoms, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, were ruled by a common sovereign. Norway separated peacefully from Sweden in 1905. In the World War, though entirely neutral, Norway lost over 800 vessels, with a total of 1,200 lives. There is not a more peace-loving or peaceable people in the world than the Norwegians of the twentieth century.

The people are very democratic and industrious, care little for luxuries, and are among the most progressive and enlightened of mankind. Children between seven and fourteen must be in school. Women voted thirteen years before they did in the United States. The Norwegians care little for royalty.

Even the poorest people have six meals a day, at 5:00, 7:30 and 11:00 in the morning and 1:00, 4: 00 and 7: 00 in the evening. It seems that all mankind delight in showing how they can misuse their digestive apparatus and still keep going. It is claimed, how’ever, that, with the exception of Sweden, the death rate in Norway is less than in any other country in the world.

More About the Customs

A Norwegian marriage feast is a thing to be dreaded. Months are spent in preparation for it, and friends, neighbors, acquaintances and kinsmen come from far and near. There must be such an abundance that none of the numerous items of food or drink will run short. Several couples are usually married at once. The gowns worn by the brides are frequently the property of the church, hired for a nominal sum.

The public “steam kitchen” provides wholesome food for the poor at low prices and is a huge success, patronized by thousands of bachelors, of both sexes, and by hundreds of families. The charter granted to the company limits its profits to 6 percent; its stock has been watered four times and it still has no difficulty in making its 6 percent.

One of the public conveniences of Norway is a telegram box attached to every street car. At the post office a messenger opens the box, takes out the messages, to which stamps have been affixed, and sees to their transmission over the wires. The costs of telegrams are nominal. Norway has thirteen radio stations.

A writer on music says: “Through all Norwegian music runs an undercurrent of melancholy. The mighty ocean that beats incessantly upon the rocky shores, the murmur or roar of the waterfalls, the dark and mysterious fjords, the imposing cliffs, the gloomy forests of pines, the wastes of rock and ice, the long nights of winter, and the desperate struggle for existence against the forces of nature cast a shadow of seriousness over the souls of the people, whose lips are not so free with songs as those of the southern latitudes of Europe.” Grieg is one of Norway’s outstanding composers.

Whenever Americans think of Norwegian music they involuntarily think of Ole Bull, admitted master of the violin, and so recognized the world over. Though an American citizen for many years, he contrived to visit Norway May 17, of every year, the Norwegian “Fourth of July”. On his last public appearance in Bergen, his home city, he played for an hour in a pouring rain, and the thousands of people that heard him stood bareheaded in the rain as long as he continued to play.

We are not much impressed with the sagas (sayings) or eddas (poems) of ancient Scandinavia. Filled with tales of murder, cruelty and demonism, they manifestly dishonor Jehovah God and honor the Devil, and the quicker they are forgotten, the better. The skalds, singers, that recited these sagas and eddas corresponded with the minstrels of England and the continent. No doubt many of them, like the clergy of all ages and nations, were mere tools of demons.

The state church of Norway is Lutheran. All sects are allowed to preach, teach and hold meetings, except Jesuits. On Sunday nearly everybody dresses up and goes to church in the morning, spending the afternoon in recreation and visiting. The higher clergy are appointed by the government; all the clergy are unpopular with the people. Norway has, or did have, a state lottery.

Agriculture in a Land of Rocks

Norway is a land of rocks. Its stone walls are the thickest and the highest to be found. Travelers report seeing women cutting hay upon the sides of mountains so steep that they have to be anchored with ropes around their waists to keep them from falling over the precipices. Potato patches are often at an angle of 45°. It is common for a farmer to have a waterfall on his premises, and cliffs 2,000 to 4,000 feet high in lieu of fences.

Norway does not raise enough food to supply its own wants, and is a large importer of Minneapolis flour. The buildings on many of the farms are seven or eight hundred years old. Anything built within a century is considered modern. The eldest son inherits the father’s farm, but must make compensation to the other heirs. The farms are not cut up for inheritance purposes.

Farm buildings are all united with the house. This is almost necessary where the winter is so long and cold, but in case of a fire it means the loss of everything. Potatoes and other root crops are stored under the house, where they will not be frozen. There are cellars under the stables, where the manure is housed so that it will not lose its strength by exposure to the weather. The woodshed adjoins the kitchen.

The stabbur, or storehouse, is two stories high, and contains the winter’s supply of provisions for the family, such as flour, fish, dried meat, pork, bread (which is baked only once or twice a year), butter, cheese, and extra clothing and bedding. The storehouse is protected from invasion by rats.

Grain, instead of being stacked, is hung over wooden frames to dry. In some places snowsheds are erected to catch the drifts in the meadows and grain fields, to prevent the snow from piling up in one place. It is often necessary to feed the cattle in the barns until the middle of June.

The Norwegian farmer has plenty of difficulties. The farms are very small and very hard to work. The average Norwegian farm has less than eight acres of arable land. The season is short. The building of one barn at present prices costs more than a farm is worth. Mosquitoes are most rapacious, as in Alaska. They make some places uninhabitable.

A Comparison with New Mexico

Norway is of the same size as New Mexico. There is much waste land in each. The numbers of acres of arable land are approximately the same, 1,711,224 in New Mexico and 1,795,000 in Norway. A comparison of some of the items will be interesting.

	New Mexico	Norway
Corn, bushels	4,420,000
Oats, bushels	1,512,000	13,621,000
Potatoes, bushels	166,000	28,143,000
Wheat, bushels	777,000	720,000
Barley, bushels	208,000	4,922,000
Apples, bushels	1,147,000
Rye, bushels		556,000
Horses	166,000	176,823
Cattle	1,189,000	1,309,655
Sheep	2,490,000	1,692,406
Swine	54,000	317,343
Goats	226,282	344,352

Norway also reports 2,227,000 metric tons of hay, 686,000 tons of beets, and 12,000 tons of mixed grain. New Mexico, to offset this, had 4,400 tons of broom corn, 34,000 mules, 64,000 milch cows, and 5,937 burros. Norway supports more than seven times as many people on her arable acres as does New Mexico, but if it were not for her fisheries she could not begin to do it.

Norway has a revolving fund loaned to young farmers at 3 percent for a term of 25 years. These loans are often made to young couples just starting in life and enable them to acquire farms and improve themselves and the state.

There is no export of fruit from Norway, but in the berry season everybody has an ample share. Wild strawberries are of a size and flavor not obtainable elsewhere, and cherries, currants and gooseberries are particularly good.

Some Items of Government

Every year Norway plants about 15,000,000 new trees to take the place of the ones cut down. You have heard of Norway pine and Norway spruce. In the days of sailing vessels the masts came from Norway, the best ones from the tops of the hills, where they stood alone, exposed to all the fury of the wintry blasts. Sheltered trees are like sheltered men: they are too soft to stand the storms, and snap when needed most.

Norway tried prohibition and gave it up; some other countries have done that too. Liquor is now purchasable in certain official stores. No person is allowed to profit personally by its sale. For administrative purposes the country is divided into six dioceses and subdivided into twenty bailiwicks. The great powers have guaranteed its independence.

Ten years or so ago Norway made a flourish in the direction of Bolshevism, but gave it up; the people are too independent and liberty-loving to wish for dictation from Moscow or anywhere else. Norway now (1934) has a laborite leader in the chair of the Storthing.

All Scandinavia, including Norway, is extremely humane—socially-minded. Nobody is left sick and destitute; everybody is looked after. Sixteen hundred skilled, government-trained midwives give close attention to the arrival of new Norwegians. Sick clubs, for the mutual protection of the poor, have been in operation in all Scandinavian countries ever since the Middle Ages.

Iceland—the Oldest Republic

Iceland was settled by the Norwegians in the ninth century. It is mostly a treeless waste of volcanoes and snow fields, yet there are fertile valleys that support nearly 100,000 people. At times the volcanoes erupt, and melt the snow fields back of these valleys, and the ensuing floods cause great loss of life and property.

There are two technical schools, a university, and twenty newspapers which are widely distributed and diligently read. The Icelanders are educated, intelligent, industrious, frugal and temperate. They have no army, no navy, no fortifications, no deficit, no criminals, and no jails. In June, 1930, Iceland celebrated the 1,000th anniversary of the oldest parliament in the world. It is of the size of Kentucky.

There are no railways, but there are 379 miles of roads; and 1,742 miles of telegraph lines serve 200 stations. Regular steamship service carries the mails to all points. Hay, potatoes, turnips and berries are the crops. Stockraising and fishing are the principal industries.

There are hundreds of geysers. The Great Geyser has a vent 8 feet in diameter. At irregular intervals, six to thirty hours, it ejects a column of boiling water from 80 to 150 feet in the air.

It was in Iceland that the Spanish Hebrew, Christopher Columbus, learned of Leif Ericson’s discovery of America. Traces of Leif’s settlement near New Bedford, Mass., have been discovered.

The Lapps and Their Country

Lapland is one of the most forbidding regions of the globe, consisting of mountains nearly always covered with snow, separated by vast tracts of moorland wastes. The governments of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia nominally divide between them the responsibility, but the Lapps actually carry that responsibility themselves.

The Lapps all profess Christianity. They are the shortest people in Europe, often not more than four feet, but capable of great exertion and fatigue. Their vision is many times as keen as that of so-called “civilized” people. They are said to be sad, melancholy, self-indulgent, good natured, miserly, selfish, and not infrequently wealthy. The Lapp receives his last bath when two years of age. Every good Lapp goes to church once a year, when all religious affairs for the year are attended to with neatness and dispatch.

The Lapps live on the flesh and milk of the reindeer, use it as a beast of burden, and clothe themselves in its skin. They move constantly with the herds from place to place, living in tents the year around. There are 30,000 Lapps, mostly in the Norway portion, and there are estimated to be 400,000 reindeer, semi-wild.

The Lapp woman carries her baby strapped to a board which hangs over her back. In the domestic economy every part of the reindeer is used, the intestines for gloves, the sinews for thread and the bladders for bags and pouches. The reindeer is milked twice a week; the cheese made from its milk is said to be very gamy.

The Lapp changes his clothes only when they wear out, but he does not bathe even then. The hair of his reindeer suit is next to his flesh day and night, winter and summer. His skin, protected from sun and wind, is milk-white, but, as he never washes, this peculiar fact is generally unknown. The Lapps pay no taxes.

The reindeers subsist on a peculiar kind of moss which grows only in the arctic regions and is very nutritious. The Arctic ocean fields of perpetual ice lie about 350 miles from the section of Norway in which the Lapps make their nomadic homes.

Finland—“Land of Marshes”

The country of Finland borders on Norway only in that portion of both countries which is above the arctic circle and which we have just described under the name “Lapland”, but, now that we are into it, we will say it is a very highly educated, progressive country.

Finland, called by the natives, in their own tongue, “Land of Marshes,” is also called the “Land of a Thousand Lakes”. These extend like a network over a large proportion of its surface, some of them being of very considerable size. Dense fogs^ire frequent.

Finland is of the combined size of Pennsylvania, New York, and all of New England except Connecticut. Winter lasts from six to nine months. In the north the sun is absent during December and January, but during the short summer, while the sun is almost constantly above the horizon, the heat is often very great. Crops are sown and reaped in six weeks.

Finland’s great and valuable forests provide her with her most important industry, but there are 280,000 farms, raising wheat, rye, barley, oats, potatoes, flax, hay and live stock in abundance. There are three universities. Illiteracy is less than one percent.

It is singular that the Lapps should live in the same country with the Finns, the one the most unwashed, and the other the cleanest people known. The Finnish bath, or sauna, is to all intents and purposes a Turkish bath. Stones are heated in a metal container, and on them cold water is thrown. The skin is stimulated by means of cold water and a vigorous switching with bundles of water-soaked twigs. At the last an old lady rubs the bathers down, men and women alike, and in the same sauna at the same time.

The people seem never to get colds or pneumonia, and are among the most athletic of all peoples. In the break-up of the czar’s government the Finns, all Protestants, regained their ancient liberties. Women vote as well as men. Cooperatives are highly developed. Liquor may be sold only between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., except in hotels, between noon and 1 a.m. Profits are restricted to 7 percent.

Filching from Pay Envelopes

OUT of fifty contractors examined by the to surrender part of their weekly wage or lose New York county attorney general it devel- their jobs. How does it come that the fiftieth oped that forty-nine had been forcing employees man failed to live up to the code?

Gleams

The Self-satisfied Evangelist

Mrs. Walter Ferguson, writing in the Cincinnati Post, says:

“There is no person in the world quite so selfsatisfied as the average evangelist. He not only knows he is always right, but is equally sure you are always wrong.

“Personally, I am not able to understand how men and women with such religion ever manage to get through life. If I really believed as they say they do, that all men who thought differently would burn forever in hell-fire, I know I should be too miserable to exist. Why bother with such a world?

“But let us give them the benefit of sincerity. This man believes himself hand-picked by divinity to be right in his religious thinking and probably does pray for such lost souls as mine. There is no complacency like unto the complacency of the self-righteous.

“But this evangelist's god and mine are not on speaking terms. I, pitiful mortal, who would faint with pity to see one man burned in the physical body, cannot even dimly imagine a divine Father who could burn his erring children in perpetual flames.

“And if I believed multitudes of my fellows were doomed to such a fate, I should pray, not for my soul, but that death would end everything and immortality prove but a madman’s dream.”

What Is the Cross?

Guy Thorne, on page 25 of his book, WAen It Was Dark, says:

“What is that cross to which all (?) Christians bow? It was the symbol of the water god of the Gauls, a mere piece of their iconography. The Phoenician ruin of Gigantina is built in the shape of a cross. The Druids used it in their ceremonies. It was Thor’s hammer long before it became Christ’s gibbet. It is used by the pagan Icelanders to this day as a magic sign in connection with storms of wind. The symbol of Buddha on the reverse of a coin found at Ugain is the same cross, the fylfot of Thor. The cross was carved by the Brahmans a thousand years before Christ, in the caves of Elephanta. I have seen it in India with my own eyes, in the hands of Swa Brahma and Vishnu. The Vishnu attributes as many virtues to it as the most pious Roman Catholic. There is the very strongest evidence that the origin of the cross is phallic. The crux, ansata was the sign of Venus. It appears before Baal and Astarte.”

“Out of the Mouth of Babes”

PJ. de Jager, pioneer, writing some time • ago from Brandfort, South Africa, says: “A class of children at the above little country town of the province of Orange Free State was instructed by their teacher to write an essay on the latest book each had read. Judge Rutherford’s Hell booklet was the one read by a young girl of about fourteen years, whose father is greatly enthused by this and other truth literature. She wrote her essay on this subject and got a VG (very good) mark from her teacher, who happens to be a Roman Catholic (no doubt the only R. C. in this little dorp). The teacher made special mention of this remarkable essay to the father and expressed surprise that a child of that age should be imbued with ideas such as these, ideas so foreign to most people of more mature years.”

A Christian's Dialogue with a Jew

Dr. H. H. Hewett, of Philadelphia, reports the following conversation with a Jew:

Christian: Who was Jesus Christ?

Jew : He was a religious man and a prophet. C: You believe He was thoroughly honest? J: 0 yes; and He had a large following.

C: Do you believe He was the Messiah that Moses wrote about ?

J: No; He was a great and good man, but not the Messiah.

C: Do you think one could do the miracles He did without God’s help?

J: No.

C: But Christ said He was the Messiah. He said, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.” Read John 5:39,45,46. Christ was either the worst faker that ever lived or He was the real Messiah. To prove this one way or the other, study the New Testament: it will help you believe the Old Testament; for the New proves the Old, and the Old proves the New. And then if you are honest with yourself you will believe, yes know, that the Christ who was crucified was the real Messiah.

A Jew without Christ is not a Jew at all.

The Dead Know Not Anything

Mrs. C. C. Burch, of Pennsylvania, says: “Here is something that happened in our family which might be of interest to Golden Age readers. My husband’s brother, who lives in Detroit, and his wife, ate for the evening meal some Hamburg. A little while after eating both became very sick. My brother-in-law was found

by someone after lying all that night, and next day until evening. He had his hands over his head, eyes wide open, and was purple. They rushed them both to a hospital. They called it food poisoning, gave him every test for life there is, pronounced him dead, and went to work on her.

“Here are his words for it. ‘They put me on a stretcher to take me to the morgue. A couple of internes must have thought they would see what they could do. They gave me a shot of adrenalin and I came to life. Now I can say no one can tell me there is any existence after death, because I knew nothing.’ ”

Sees It Coming

Grubbs, of Kentucky, says: “On Sunday, • October 4, Dr. David M. Walker, pastor of the 9th Street Christian Church, Hopkinsville, Ky., in his lecture to the men’s Bible class, made the following statements, prefacing them with the remark that he did not know whether he dared make them or not, but that there was no longer a shadow of doubt in his mind that our modern civilization had failed, that the present type of religion has failed and the present type of orthodox preacher was a failure, and that they all would have to be, and shortly will be, replaced by something better.

“This strikes me as being something so exactly in line with the teaching of Jehovah’s witnesses that I thought I would send it on to you.

“I was there in person and heard these statements first-hand.”

Working on Sunday!

AYS Mrs. M. R. Reed, of Pennsylvania: “It happened just six miles from here, in

Reedsville, and if you want the names I can get them for you. The story is of a butcher and a preacher’s wife.

“The butcher was very worldly and did not go to church Sundays, but very often killed and prepared his meat for sale. One Monday the preacher’s wife came out to his wagon and purchased a piece of meat. After paying for it, she said, ‘Was this meat killed on Sunday?’ Wes,’ he replied, and she said, ‘Well, I don’t want meat that was killed on Sunday’; and he replied, ‘Very well,’ and took the meat off her plate and refunded the money.

“Sometime after that she again purchased meat. After she had it on her plate and had paid for it and was leaving the wagon, he cried, ‘Wait a minute; was this money earned on Sunday?’ Much astonished, she said, Wes.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I don’t want money that was earned on Sunday; give me the meat.’ He took the meat off her plate and returned her money.”

Superstition, Hypocrisy and Fear

AYS M. T. Butcher, of Canada: “Some fifty years ago, an American was visiting at a certain place in the old country. He was accompanied by a black Negro servant. He and the Negro attended church service one Sunday. They were seated below the high pulpit, which had steps leading up to it. The preacher, with great fervor, was denouncing a certain sect, saying they were a bad lot, exceedingly bad. He was using very abusive language and striking the desk of his pulpit so violently that the hymn book was thrown down to the floor near where the two men sat. The master motioned to the black man to take the book up to the preacher. Just as the preacher remarked ‘if I am not telling the truth, may the Devil take me’ he spied a black-looking personage coming up the steps. Thinking the Devil was taking him at his word he began to take back some of his statements, and with fearfulness began to say that, after all, those people were not so bad as some thought them to be; in fact, they were ‘as good as some of us’. As the black man entered the pulpit it was too much for the preacher. He fainted.”

Effect of World War on Chinese

CW. Orser, of Ontario, writes: “I was oper-

• ating a meat shop in the city of Owen Sound. Two customers happened in together one day, viz., a Chinaman and a Canadian churchman. A religious debate sprang up between them. The Chinaman said to the churchman, ‘Do you believe there is a God?’ and the churchman said, ‘Yes.’

“Chinaman: ‘Do you believe there is a Jesus?’ “Churchman: ‘Yes.’

“Chinaman: ‘Do you believe there is a heaven?’

“Churchman: ‘Yes.’

“Chinaman: ‘Do you believe there is a place of torment?’

“Churchman: Wes.’

“Chinaman: ‘We Chinamen once think there was a God, we once think there was a Jesus, we once think there was a heaven, we once think there was a hell of torture. Germany and Austria sent their missionaries to our country to tell us all those things and to love each other, not to kill each other, not to return evil for evil. Britain and France sent their missionaries to our country and tell us all the same things and to love our enemies. Then a great war start between Austria and Germany on one side and Britain and France on the other, and we see them murder each other after telling us to be good. We know then, no God, we know then, no Jesus, we know then, no heaven, we know then, no hell.’

“The Chinaman continued, 'Rich man, he can have everything, big car, big house, lots of servants, send his family to college, if they go wrong he can buy them off; that’s the only heaven. If a man is poor he is all right if he can get work, he can feed his wife and family, but if he can't get work and has to steal for his wife and family he goes to jail; that’s hell. All the missionaries told us was lies.’

“Notice that the churchman was dumb. Nothing further was said.”

Official Stupidity in Baltimore

dela Rogers St. Johns, writing some time back in the New York American, said:

“A police magistrate in Baltimore has decided that you can’t sell the Bible in that city on Sunday. Joseph Degutis was arrested for going from door to door selling the Holy Book on the Sabbath and the magistrate declared he had broken the law by working on Sunday.

“In a long and varied experience, that is the absolute height of intolerance, stupidity and short-sighted policy.

“Probably it would be a good idea if Degutis sold the police and the city of Baltimore a Bible on some other day, and they might then read therein:

“ Which of you, if his ox or his ass fall into a pit on the Sabbath, will not pull him out?’

“Jesus preached upon the Sabbath. Not exclusively. But He did preach on Sunday. The words of those great sermons are contained in the Bible. To pass them on to humanity, which needs them more today than for some centuries, whether it is done on Sunday or any other day, is an act of good. To sell one Bible which will be read is an achievement.

“The specter of intolerance assumes more and more gigantic proportions when we read of a thing like that. And the meeting in Washington of a congress of preachers of all religions to fight against intolerance might make a good start by trying to reason with Baltimore on a deal such as was given Degutis.”

(Subscribers of The Golden Age will be interested to know that the Degutis above referred to is one of Jehovah’s witnesses. He was charged with “working on Sunday”. The Magistrate dismissed the case.—Ed.)

False Charges a Boomerang

L. Campbell, Esq.,* of Ohio, says: “I am • enclosing herewith a clipping from the

Sunday School Times which I thought would be of interest to you. I think that this paper is published in Philadelphia. The following language of the article is significant:

“ ‘Russellism, one of the most plausible and convincing false cults of today is sweeping America. ... So much of the teaching is entirely in accord with prophetic scriptures that Rie cult is the (more) dangerous and misleading.’

“To me, it seems rather paradoxical that you are 'the more dangerous and misleading’ because ‘much of your teaching is entirely in accord with prophetic scriptures’. If it be a fact that your teachings are 'the most plausible and convincing’ and are 'sweeping America’ it is not within the realm of my reasoning power to understand how, in this educated land, with all of its radio, press and pulpit, any 'false’ teaching could be, or remain, plausible and convincing, at least to the extent that it would sweep all America.

“As a seeker after the Truth I have read what you have had to say, along with reading and listening to many prominent writers, statesmen, financiers and preachers. For my part I am convinced that you more nearly approach the truth than all of the others put together. There are just any number of my business friends and associates who think the same thing. Our vaunted leaders have led us into the present mess and now admit that they do not know the way out. Your teaching seems to offer the only hope.”

*(Mr. Campbell is general counsel for a large Ohio corporation.—Ed.)

Civil Service Raises Age Limit

PERCEIVING that older workers must live, the United States Civil Service Commission has raised the age limit at which stenographers may apply for examinations from age 40 to age 53 years. Meantime, in some private businesses, the age limit is as low as 35.

Home and Health

Back to the Rain Barrel

Roy D. Goodrich, pioneer, spends his busy winters in Florida. As to what he drinks, he says: “Rejoice with the citizens of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida! Read the following advertisement from the Fort Lauderdale Daily News and see how our city solons are saving for us a whole $50 every three months. Isn’t it wonderful? And as you read, rejoice again that a large part of that 40,000 pounds of alum from Philadelphia goes down the sewers, without our drinking it; for according to my pencil, if we thirteen thousand souls in this city had to drink the entire 40,000 pounds of alum every three months that would be just a little over one pound of the stuff each, per month. We have a fine rain-water tank from which we drink ‘aqua pura’. The clipping from today’s local paper follows. Rejoice, and again I say rejoice.”

SAVE MONEY

A saving of $50 every three months is being made by the city of Fort Lauderdale on freight rates by having alum bought to be used in purifying process at the municipal water works shipped through Port Everglades, Alwen Neuharth, city auditor and clerk, stated this morning. The alum, which is bought in lots of 40,000 pounds, is shipped from Philadelphia.

Food Recipes

May Berg, of Maryland, says: “Some workers can work all day with no dinner; others can not; so am sending what I take on road in a small covered can.

“1 cup raisins, 1 cup dates, % cup figs, y₂ cup nuts (any kind); grind in food chopper. A teaspoonful of honey should then be added. You can vary by using coconut or a few drops of lemon or orange juice. Grease palms with butter, and roll in small balls size of marble. Lay on platter until dry. Cheap, nourishing, and leaves one mentally alert.

“For chop suey: Dice, season, fry a little, either pork, veal or lamb chops—four of them. Add one large cup of diced onions. In five minutes add one cup of diced celery and one cup of diced potatoes. Cover with water, stirring often with turner, adding water as needed to just cover, until potatoes are just done. Do not cook too long. Ten minutes before taking up add four tablespoons of Oriental show-you sauce. (All chain stores keep sauce.) Vegetables may be prepared night before and placed in a covered granite dish with just a little water in the bottom. A nice, quickly prepared meal for tired, cold workers, and everyone who eats it says, ‘Delicious.’ ”

Vivisection Useless and Barbaric

Forbes Winslow, D.C.L., M.R.C.P., LL.D., of England, says:

“I have had forty years’ experience as a busy London physician and have been at three different hospitals for ten years, and at one for over twenty years. During that time I have never seen a single case of disease treated by means of anything that had been learned from vivisection. . . . The vivisection of animals is only the preliminary to vivisecting human beings. At the present time patients are placed in some hospitals—and I can say what I know, and am prepared to support—purely to be experimented upon. The same thing also happens in some lunatic asylums. ...” (From an address delivered at Ware, England, London, November 29, 1910.)

‘‘I trust you will do your utmost to remove the belief that some people may have as to the usefulness of vivisection. If a person like myself can get through his professional career without the aid or assistance of vivisection, surely that is a sufficient reason and a sufficient argument that humanity can be treated and suffering can be alleviated without resorting to a cruel practice. ... As a result of forty years’ experience I say that vivisection should not be tolerated.” (From an address in London, December 5, 1910.)

An Embarrassing Question

THE Wisconsin Anti-Vivisection Society says:

“Hundreds of thousands of our dumb animals are, every year, in the medical schools and laboratories, being mangled—cut up alive—conscious, helpless and strapped down, so they cannot move a muscle, any more than they can utter a sound, because their vocal cords are split! These barbarities are done under tho cloak of ‘medical research’ and for commercial profit! Would the public allow men to turn hot lead into dogs’ ears and burn out their eyes with carbolic acid out in the street? Would they allow men to sit out on a street corner and bore holes in cats’ heads and paddle the brains around? Would the public stand for a man’s strapping a dog down to the sidewalk and disemboweling him and stuffing him with towels? Would they allow anyone out in the street to sever a dog’s head from his body, with the exception of a large vein, ‘to see how long he will live with his head cut off’? Certainly not! They would at once take action against such revolting cruelties! Then why should a public think that these crimes are any less criminal because committed behind closed doors in the medical schools and laboratories, by professors or men with ‘scientist’ after their names?

A Prescription That Worked

Mary A. De Groff, of New York, says: “I have been a subscriber for the Golden Age magazine since its first issue, and have found it very interesting and instructive. In one issue we found a recipe to be used as a help for constipation which we can recommend very highly, as we have found it is also a cure for eczema. Knowing from experience how annoying this disease is, I feel sure that some of your readers will be pleased to learn of this simple remedy. My husband was badly afflicted with eczema and spent many dollars on different so-called 'remedies’ without obtaining much relief. He decided to try this remedy for constipation, and before many months had passed the eczema had entirely disappeared, and he has now been quite free from it for over a year. Am repeating the formula for the benefit of those who may desire to give it a trial:

"Take one pound of prunes, one pound of raisins, and 10c worth of senna leaves. Pit prunes and mix all the ingredients together. Put through food chopper twice. Mix thoroughly. Dose: 1 heaping teaspoonful each night before retiring.

"This is but one of the many helpful things we have found in the Golden Age magazine.”

What Columbus People Drink

WHEN you meet them the people of Columbus, Ohio, seem like exceptionally fine people, but listen to this item from the Columbus Citizen which shows what they drink. It says:

An idea of the amount of chemicals used in purifying Columbus water was revealed Monday night when City Council authorized the Board of Purchase to advertise for bids for chemicals to be used in 1932. The needs for next year were as follows: 8000 tons of lime, 3000 tons soda ash, 1200 tons sulphuric acid, 500 tons bauxite, eight tons of liquid chlorine, and 500 tons of coke.

Probably there is some water mixed with that highball, enough to wash it down, but we should think that a people that would be able to drink that much lime, soda ash, sulphuric acid, bauxite (an aluminum ore compound), liquid chlorine and coke would be afraid to mix with it two such dangerous gases as hydrogen and oxygen for fear they would cause an explosion that would wreck the works.

What a race of supermen and superwomen they must be that have internal apparatus that can handle such corrosive and malodorous libations. It is astonishing how much abuse the human frame can stand, and how much it has to stand, in Columbus and elsewhere.

Social and Educational

Springfield Company Wide Awake

WRITER in the Springfield (Mo.) Leader, has the following amusing skit regarding one of Jehovah’s witnesses in that city:

“Numerous people have been surprised in all sorts of inconvenient and embarrassing situations lately by Jehovah’s witness. The witness is a very serious and very forward young woman who is selling a book and leaving printed tracts with people who don’t buy the book, whether they want the tract or not. Sunday morning a young householder was down in his basement, shirtless, an old pair of trousers rolled up to his knees, washing his car, scrubbing the basement, sorting his fishing tackle, and all the other little jobs which go to make a Sunday morning, when suddenly he heard a voice at his elbow say, ‘I’m the messenger of Jehovah!’ At first he thought a visitation had arrived to chide him for not going to church instead of piddling in the basement. After firmly refusing to buy a book, he found himself standing alone in the middle of the basement, a broom in one hand and a printed lecture in the other. Another man was taking a bath the other morning when he heard a knock at the door of his apartment. He called out that he couldn't come to the door because he was, as he put it, naked as a jaybird. ‘All right,’ a voice came back, ‘I’ll wait.’ There was nothing to do but to go to the door. He slipped on a robe and opened the door. It was Jehovah’s witness, calling him from his tub to buy a book. If the witness continues with her present tactics, we predict that she will soon be an angel.”

Demons Often Incite to Murder

EMONS often incite to murder. The ouija board is one of the contrivances employed, it being a means or device by which they can spell out messages to those willing to make use of it. In St. Johns, Arizona, a girl of fifteen who made use of a ouija board was instructed to shoot her father in the back so that her mother might marry another man, and went ahead and did as she was instructed.

Too Busy to Live

THE Michigan Tradesman says about somebody who is always in a hurry: “He hadn’t time to greet the day,

He hadn’t time to laugh or play; He hadn’t time to wait a while, He hadn’t time to give a smile; He hadn’t time to glean the news, He hadn’t time to dream or muse; He hadn’t time to train his mind, He hadn’t time to be just kind; He hadn’t time to see a joke, He hadn’t time to write his folk; He hadn’t time to eat a meal, He hadn’t time to deeply feel; He hadn’t time to take a rest, He hadn’t time to act his best; He hadn’t time to help a cause, He hadn’t time to make a pause; He hadn’t time to sing a song, He hadn’t time to right a wrong; He hadn’t time to send a gift, He hadn’t time to practice thrift; He hadn’t time to exercise, He hadn’t time to scan the skies; He hadn’t time to heed a cry, He hadn’t time to say good-bye; He hadn’t time to study poise, He hadn’t time to repress noise; He hadn’t time to go abroad, He hadn’t time to serve his God; He hadn’t time to lend or give, He hadn’t time to really live; He hadn’t time to read this verse, He hadn’t time—he’s in a hearse.”

All Came True Except the Clock

GP. McCorkle, of California, says: “Once • upon a time, and for many years, I was in the banking business. Along in 1920 a young man came along and sold me The Golden Age, which I have been reading ever since; and it has taught me many lessons.

“It put the banker and the preacher in a class together and said something about a time coming soon when we would be exchanging our white collars and silk shirts and patent leather shoes for blue shirts, coveralls and brogan shoes, and our gold pen for a hoe and an alarm clock.

“You know, somehow or other, that sounded pretty good to me and I sent several dollars to you to pay for new subscriptions. Then the bank stock changed hands, the new owner took my job from me, foreclosed against my home and left me and my family afoot.

“So I came up here into these hills, bought this wild and woolly ranch, donned the blue shirt, the brogans, the coveralls, and annexed myself to a fine grubbinghoe. Raising things to eat and a settin’ out little orange, pecan and persimmon trees.

“What I’m writing this letter for is to ask now if you are able to tell me just where I might buy a suitable alarm clock? Please do! If you will, then your words and prophecy, in my case at least, will become fact. Your faith will be lost in sight.”

Delayed Mental Recovery

(Selected)

Sam Barnes had been in an insane asylum for some time, but his was not a hopeless case, and finally the doctor slapped him on the back and said: “You’re getting along fine, old man. Write home to your folks that you’ll be with them inside of two weeks.”

Sam went joyfully to his room and wrote the letter. Then he addressed the envelope and took out a stamp. He had just licked it when it slipped from his fingers and landed, sticky side down, on the back of a beetle which was crossing the floor.

When Sam saw the stamp zigzag across the floor, climb the wall, and disappear into a crack, the expressions on his face would have taxed Lon Chaney to reproduce. Laying hold of the letter, he tore it fiercely into fragments, and yelled bitterly: “Home in two weeks! I won’t be out of here in three years!”

The World Is Not So Crowded

THE world is not so crowded as we some--*■ times think it is. In the immediate neighborhood of a great city it seems over full. But only recently three youths strayed into the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas, not one of whom had before that day ever seen a barber shop, a street car or a railroad train. Their ages 19, 20 and 21, they had come to town to see if they could get work on the forestry program. They decided to return to whence they came, concluding that the noises of the big city of Fort Smith were too terrifying. None of them before visiting Fort Smith had ever been in a town of more than a hundred inhabitants. They were from forty miles back in the hills.

Answers of School Children

ONDONERS get a lot of fun out of answers of school children to questions put to them at examination time. The following is from a

London paper:

A miracle is something that mother doesn’t understand.

Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offense.

Gorilla warfare means when the sides get up to monkey tricks.

A Tory is a man who is for some time on one side. The prevailing religion of England is Hypocrisy. The Roman civilization was about as good as ours except for gunpowder.

(Jeorge Lansbury is the fiercest Christian in England.

Britain has been responsible for many damns on the Nile.

The chief industry of Ireland is fighting.

A ball falls to the ground because it is pulled by gratitude.

The objective of “he” is “she”.

Wild beasts used once to roam at will through the whole of England and Ireland, but now wild beasts are only found in theological gardens.

Sins of omission are those we have forgotten to do.

The expression “Chance my arm” means, “Will you marry me?”

Democracy is the form of government where quantity rules and quality pays.

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat is a few knaves holding clubs bluffing many innocents holding spades.

The horse you bet on is called a cert; if it loses it is called a dead cert.

Boyhood in Denmark

EFERRING to his boyhood in Denmark, Chris Jensen, of New York, says: “My childhood was spent out on the farm, in the country of Denmark, some forty years ago. In those days, of the dark ages, a child had to work.

“I remember the summer I was nine years old. I was hired out to a farmer for the six summer months, for the munificent wage of one cent a day and my keep. I was allowed to sleep in a little room next the cows. It was hardly fit for a dog. I had to get up at five o’clock and work for an hour and a half, and then go in to breakfast. I went to school only a half day a week, and had to do up my morning chores before I went, and then walk about two miles to school.

“The next summer, when I was ten years old, I was hired out to another farmer for six months, for my keep and about one and onefifth cents a day, Sunday included; for I never rested on Sundays at either place. From that place I had to walk about ten miles to school, after doing my morning chores; so you see that it was not all roses to be a child in those days.

“After that summer I stayed at home until I was fourteen, and during that time went mostly with my father to work, and had to follow him, which was not hard, as I was used to the outdoors and was healthy and strong, even though I was only a little shaver.

“When I reached the age of fourteen, my father hired me out to another farmer, to do a regular man’s work, for a year. I had not been working there more than two months when I was thrown into a machine, and my left upper leg almost half severed. That kept me in bed for two weeks. But the farmer could not afford to keep me in bed and still pay my wages. So I had to get up, and hobble around with a cane resting against my stomach, as my leg was too weak to stand upon. That cost me plenty in suffering during the years to follow; for my leg was not sufficiently healed, and my foot turned sidewise when I walked. I can feel it to this day, and that happened thirty-five years ago. This cost me in doctor’s bills my winter’s wages.

“The year after that I was hired out to a different farmer. But there I stayed for only nine months, when I left and went to the city. That was a turning point in my life, as then I had a chance to learn something useful, where I could make a decent wage with lighter and more pleasant work.

“I often shudder when I think of my childhood days, spent in hard manual labor, when I should have spent my time in study and play. Those were hard days and harder bosses. But those hard knocks have stood me in good stead many a time in later years, when I was up against it. In such a school you learn to take trouble without a murmur.”

Singing in the Face of Death

SEVEN bridge workers were down in a caisson 102 feet below the surface of the Missouri river at Kansas City. The caisson caught fire and the only air that could get to them was filled with choking smoke. The men lay face down in the mud and water and began to sing. The fire was put out and they were rescued ten minutes before it would have been too late. And, somehow, it makes you feel glad that they sang when they knew it would be all over, one way or the other, in a few minutes. Makes you think of the band on the Titanic that never left their seats, but went down, down, and as the waters flowed into their horns they were softly playing, “Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee.”

L. & N. Asks for a 2c Fare

EFORE the accursed World War came along, the railroads were all selling thou

sand-mile tickets and round-trip tickets at a Sea-mile rate of fare, and glad to get it. A person could get a night’s ride in a Pullman, in a lower berth, for $2. Day coaches and Pullmans ■were crowded, the railroads were making money, and the people were happy.

Then came the Pork era. Fares were doubled, but for shame’s sake 10 percent was deducted from the doubled rate, and ever since the war the people have had to pay 3.6c per mile or go by the bus or use the old Ford or stay at home. They did all four, and the railroads were the losers. Pullman fares were not exactly doubled, but almost so. On a 200-mile night run the railroads and Pullmans used to get $6; under the Pork arrangement they get $10.20, which is more than the people will pay.

When the Interstate Commerce Commission sent out a questionnaire inviting suggestions, the L. & N. responded that they would like to go back to the 2c fare, but would be willing to charge 3c in sleeping ears. They pointed out that this seems to them the only chance of regaining their lost business; and we believe that they are correct.

The experience of the L. & N. in trying to charge all the traffic will bear is a mournful one. Passenger receipts in 1923 were $26,000,000; in 1932 they were $5,000,000.

Commerce and Finance

Ability of Dillon, Read & Company

THE ability (and some other things) of Dillon, Read & Company, Big Business financiers of New York city, may be judged from the fact that they so planned and engineered one of their great investment projects that their firm put up $5,100,000 while the general public put up $25,000,000. Yet Dillon, Read & Company had absolute voting control, while the public, which contributed, all told, six times as much money as the promoters, held only one-quarter of the voting strength of the company. This company is said to be the first in the world to work out to perfection the scheme of selling a property and still controlling it. How well they have succeeded may be gathered from the fact that one of the members of the firm unloaded on the public at a profit of $6,843,380 on an investment of $24,110, and did this in the face of the fact that he well knew no dividends would be paid on the stock with which he parted company. Captain Kidd and Jesse James meant well, but they were mere infants, and pikers at that.

The Power Trust and San Francisco

AYS Franklin Hichborn, of California: “Twenty years ago, 1913, San Francisco voted $45,000,000 in bonds to bring water from the Sierras. Since then additional bonds to the amount of $40,000,000 have been issued, making a total of $85,000,000. Dams have been built; reservoirs constructed; the power crop developed and brought to Newark, within twenty miles of San Francisco. At Newark this power has been turned over to a power company for 4.5 mills a kilowatt hour, to be resold to the people of San Francisco.

“The power company has now been enjoying the benefit of and profits from that power for six years. But although twenty years have passed since San Francisco voted vast bond issues that the people might enjoy the benefit of pure water from the Sierras, not one drop of Sierra water has flowed in San Francisco mains. The people of San Francisco have paid the bills for the dams, the reservoirs, and the power development. But San Francisco has no water from those reservoirs, and the power company has the electric energy. The people of San Francisco are buying the power back from the power company at monopoly rates.”

Growth of Winnipeg

IN 1870 Winnipeg was a Hudson Bay trading station with 215 people; it was incorporated in 1873; its present population is 212,815, making it the third largest city in Canada. In 1876 nine farmers shipped 857 bushels of grain, the first appearance of its grain to the outside world. In 1930 the shipment of all kinds of grain passing through Winnipeg was 400,000,000 bushels. In an average year the volume of wheat passing through Winnipeg amounts to one carload every forty seconds, day and night. It accordingly has the world’s largest railway terminal yards.

Winnipeg enjoys the cheapest electric power of any city in the world, supplied by its own municipal plants and those of the private concern, The Winnipeg Electric Company. While in 172 representative North American cities an average domestic rate per kilowatt hour is 6.55 cents, in Winnipeg it is only .921. Winnipeg homes use 5,553 kilowatt hours a year, against an average for the 172 cities of 418 hours.

The Manitoba telephone system is owned by the province, and employs 1000 to 1300 people.

This Depression

Birch, of New York, says: “The doctors • tell us that the depression has helped people a lot, as many now are eating in a saner manner.

“Oh, yes’. The depression helps—

• 1. The holes in my clothes let in sunshine vitamin D.

• 2. Fewer people are being injured in auto accidents, as I haven’t the ‘jack’ to buy a license.

• 3. The neighbors aren’t bothered by my radio any more, as the electric company shut off my power, through my failure to pay my bill.

• 4. This walking around looking for work is surely helping the shoe industry, and, of course, it gives me exercise.

• 5. I never could do much hand work, but now, after cutting my own hair -with the aid of two mirrors, my fingers are getting very nimble.

• 6. I am no longer proud. Put in your pants as many patches as there are in mine and your pride will soon disappear.

• 7. Maybe we are not supposed to shave off our beards. Anyway, I find this helps to cut down the cost of razor blades.

• 8. Continually listening to ‘No’ when asking for work, I become meek.

“So, being healthy, humble and meek, I welcome the depression. Isn’t that so ?”

Agriculture and Miscellany

What an Apple Does

TTEALTH. CULTURE says of an apple, that:

“It starts all the secretions into vigorous action and floods the system with a new tide of life. It is a friend to health and a foe to disease. It is a food, tonic, condiment and cosmetic all in one. It kindles the brilliancy of the eye and it plants roses in the cheeks. You cannot eat too many—after the heartiest meal there is always room for an apple. An apple is a social fruit; it draws human creatures together in fellowship. Plenty of good apples will keep the children at home and in at night—husbands as well—and keep the doctor away. It promotes temperance. It appears on our table in many appetizing forms. Raw fruit as it comes fresh and crisp from the trees and the refrigerators needs no culinary art to improve it. A knife spoils it; let it be crushed and crunched in the mouth, and then it gives out its richest flavor and yields the greatest satisfaction. The apple family contains in its varieties exquisite flavors adapted to all tastes. It is the oldest of our known food necessities.”

“Judge” De Meza Slow to Learn

uth A. Wheeler, of New’ Jersey, says: “Sometime in the second week of September, 1 do not recall the exact date, I was on the

way down town accompanied by my collie dog, Lad. Just before I came to the corner of H----

and P----avenues, a w hite streak flashed across

the street, landed on top of my dog, and tumbled off on the other side. I then realized that it was De Meza’s dog, a fox terrier, not Wm. G. De Meza’s, but T. L. De Meza’s, his brother. Mrs. De Meza came out of the house and looked for the dog. I pointed to him and she started to call him, ‘Here, Judge; come, Judge; here, Judge.’ Meanwhile the dog, not paying any attention to her, had followed me, in the street, until he was directly in the middle of the cross streets. There he stood, barking at us, while Mrs. De Meza stood on the sidew’alk clapping her hands and frantically calling for ‘Judge’ to come. While he stubbornly remained standing there three cars came from three different directions and had to stand and wait until ‘Judge De Meza’ removed himself from the middle of the crossroads.”

Beaufort’s Scale Ashore

THE Weather Bureau has adapted the Beaufort’s Seale to use ashore, largely for the benefit of foresters. We show the combined table.

Wind Velocity in Numeral.                             Statute Miles.

0—Calm ..........................................................-..........  Less than 1

Smoke rises vertically.

1—Light air ...........................................................

Direction of wind shown by smoke drift, but not by wind vanes.

2—Slight breeze

Wind felt on face; leaves rustle; ordinary vane moved by wind.

3—Gentle breeze........................................_....................

Leaves and twigs in constant motion;

winds extend light flag.

4—Moderate breeze

Raises dust and loose paper; small branches are moved.

5—Fresh breeze.................................................................

Small trees in leaf begin to sway; crested wavelets form on inland waters.

6—Strong breeze

Large branches in motion ■ whistling heard in telegraph wires; umbrellas used with difficulty.

7—High wind  .......................................

Whole trees in motion; inconvenience felt in walking against the wind.

8—Gale  ..........-

Breaks twigs off trees; generally impedes progress.

9—Strong gale ................................................

Slight structural damage occurs (chimney pots and slate removed).

10—Whole gale .........................................................

Seldom experienced inland; trees uprooted; considerable structural damage occurs.

11—Storm

Very rarely experienced; accompanied by widespread damage.

12—Hurricane....................................................................Above 75

No definition needed.

Where the Nebraska Money Goes

Representative Morehead, of Nebraska, made

the following statement in the House of Representatives:

“Nothing is wrong with Nebraska, except that entirely too many of us get up in the morning at the alarm of a Connecticut clock; button a pair of Chicago trousers to Ohio suspenders; put on a pair of shoes made in Massachusetts, wash in a Pittsburgh tin basin, using Cincinnati soap and a cotton towel made in New Hampshire; sit down to a Grand Rapids table and eat pancakes made of Minneapolis flour, with Vermont syrup and Kansas City bacon fried on a St. Louis stove; buy fruit put up in California seasoned with Rhode Island spices and sweetened with Colorado sugar.

‘ ‘ Then we put on a hat made in Philadelphia, hitch a ‘Detroit mule’, fed on Texas gasoline, to an Ohio plow, and work like hell all day long on a Nebraska farm covered by a New England mortgage.

“We send our money to Ohio for auto tires and wonder why the taxes are about $2.75 per acre, while the farmers of Ohio pay only $1 per acre taxes and drive on paved roads.

“At night we crawl under a New Jersey blanket, to be kept awake by a damned dog, the only home product on the place, wondering all the while why ready money and prosperity are not more abundant in this wonderful State of ours.”

Down on the Farm

Louis Ludlow, Congressman from Indiana, recited the following poem on the floor of the House:

“Down on the farm, ’bout half past four, I slip on my pants and sneak out of the door; Out of the yard I run like the dickens To milk ten cows and feed the chickens, Clean out the barn, curry Nancy and Jiggs, Separate the cream, and slop the pigs;

Work two hours, then eat like a Turk, And, by heck, I’m ready for a full day’s work.

“Then I grease the wagon and put on the rack, Throw a jug of water in an old grain sack, Hitch up the horses, hustle down the lane— Must get the hay in, for it looks like rain.

Look over yonder! Sure as I’m born, Cattle on the rampage and cows in the com! Start across the medder, run a mile or two, Heaving like I’m wind-broke, get wet clear through Get back to the horses, then for recompense, Nancy gets a-straddle of the barbed-wire fence. Joints all a-aching and muscles in a jerk, I’m fit as a fiddle for a full day’s work!

“Work all summer till winter is nigh, Then figure up the books and heave a big sigh. Worked all year, didn’t make a thing;

Got less cash now than I had last spring.

Now, some people tell us that there ain’t no hell; But they never farmed, so how can they tell? When spring rolls ’round I take another chance, While the fringe grows longer on my old gray pants. Give my s’spenders a hitch, my belt another jerk, And, by heck, I’m ready for another year’s work!”

Government and Misgovernment

Why American Municipal Governments Are What They Are

Oscar Ameringer, of Oklahoma, says: “The fundamental cause of the inefficiency, corruption, and bankruptcy of American cities, so clearly demonstrated by New York and Chicago, is the private ownership of public utilities, resulting in an unholy alliance between their uppermost and bottom-most elements, in which the assumed protectors of the common good function as procurers, defenders and apologists of special privileges engaged in the looting of the masses of their decent, honest, and lawabiding citizens.

“For illustration, under the American plan of municipal government, cities are permitted to remove ashes and cinders, but are not allowed to sell coal. They are empowered to pump sewage out of the cities through 10-foot sewers, but they cannot pump gas into cities through eightinch pipes. They can maintain fire departments but must not sell fire insurance. They are qualified to conduct schools, but are incapable of publishing school books for their school children. They can pave and repair streets, but cannot operate street railways. They can furnish police protection for banks, but the street light protecting the bank entrance at night must be furnished by a private concern. They can operate switchboards in police stations, courthouses, and city halls, but the connecting telephone wires must be owned privately. In brief, the American municipality is a house divided against itself, in which the earnings go to big brother Big Bizz while the operating expenses are borne by the rest of the family.”

Obiter Dictum

Charles E. Kremer, of the Chicago bar, writer and lecturer on admiralty, and dean of the Admiralty Bar of the Great Lakes, gives the following thoughtful presentation of the now all too common “incidental, collateral and therefore not binding opinions of judges”, called obiter dictum (i.e., those opinions, expressed by the court, which have no direct bearing upon the case in hand, and are therefore entirely out of order):

“Of obiter dictum we have to say, that it is like the illegitimate offspring, conceived in mistake and born in error, with no parent but the one that gave it birth, and the fair name of that blighted by the birth of it. Brought into the family of the good and proper, it is disowned by those who stand its sponsors whenever it seeks to take its proper place among them. It is cast out by reason, because it is without right.

“Tolerated but not adopted, found but not followed, fit for space but not for place, writing without right, print without principle, done but to be undone. It is far-fetched and unfair; it is not wicked, but worse. It flatters the fools and fights the fair. It is words without wisdom. More than nothing, yet less than something. To follow it is to go from error to wrong, and the perversion of right, placing with the things that are the things that seem to be.

“Usually bad reason, always bad taste, and never good law. It is a fiction and a failure. Ui-conceived, ill-considered, and ill-born. Like the hanging culprit, it stands on nothing and kicks at law.’’

A Few Profitable Investments

United States Senator Gerald P. Nye, of North Dakota, told the Senate and the people something of great public interest when he said:

“The records are filled with instances of favors accorded campaign contributors. Men with selfish interests to be served through legislation find it profitable to contribute to the campaign funds of a party, and at times to both parties. Investments in the form of such contributions have been found to be productive of certain and positive returns—returns of such proportions as make ordinary investments seem silly. Campaign contributions buy political favors. To establish that this is true, may I offer the very concrete evidence afforded through the record of campaign contributions in 1924 and legislative returns enjoyed by these same contributors in 1926? In 1924, with a presidential and congressional election on, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon, Payne Whitney, the Marshall Field estate, George F. Baker, sr., George F. Baker, jr., Vincent Astor, J. B. Duke, Julius Fleischmann, Cyrus Curtis, and Joseph E. Widener, to name only a few men, made contributions to party campaign funds ranging from $5,000 to $25,000. In 1926 the parties to which they contributed became sponsors of a tax reduction bill, which was whipped through Congress by party leaders and which saved to these men each and every year sums ranging from $200,000 to nearly $3,000,000.’’

Larkman Should Have the Money

Edward Larkman, of Buffalo, is suing the

State of New York for $15,000 for keeping him locked up eight years for a murder it is now known he did not commit. The man should have the money without a question, and should not have to sue for it, and he did not ask for enough. For the state to fail to pay is to commit an act of felony.

London “Bobbies” versus American Police

Jin Tully, American novelist, writing in the

Shanghai Mercury, says:

“The London police are the finest I have seen under the sun. Their courtesy, kindness, and efficiency would, or at least should, shame the police of any American city.

“In America the police are belligerent. They carry clubs and wear gruff expressions. Prisoners, long before trial, are often beaten unconscious by them. They are past-masters at many devious ways of torture. American citizens chatter about the Land of the Free—and grovel before the police. Tainted with the money madness so prevalent in America, the police often betray the government they carry clubs to defend. Often if a citizen tries to explain an action to a policeman he is tersely commanded to ‘tell it to the judge’. That official, too often a graduate from shyster lawyerdom, is more arrogant than the policeman.

“An American who becomes successful after an enforced environment in the underworld never loses his early inculcated fear of the police. This fear, in a greater or lesser degree, permeates the whole American social system. That fear in itself is a worthless weapon is proved by the fact that America is undoubtedly the most lawless of the so-called ‘civilized’ nations.

“In my wandering about London I have talked to and observed scores of ‘Bobbies’. I am continually amazed that such a group of high-class men can exist in the world.”

Russia’s “Voluntary Settlers”

everend” Abr. Kroeker, of Minnesota, is quoted in the Hutchinson (Kans.) Neivs as saying:

In the month of March 1930, and also in the beginning of April of the same year, several millions of people were sent out from all parts of South Russia into the icy regions of the northern part of Russia, where they were forced to work in the woods and mines; this can be proved by authentic reports. This transportation was carried out in the most inhuman manner. Aged people, up to eighty-five years old, women who were about to become mothers, sick and maimed, were crowded into cattle cars. The doors were locked and a pail was put into each car for convenience. They then had to endure a most discouraging voyage of from seven to ten days, if not longer. Even water was given them in insufficient quantities. These railroad cars bore the inscription with large letters “Voluntary Settlers.”

One woman, well known to me, became the mother of twins in the midst of the throng in the car; the babies, of course, could not live. When these people arrived at their destination they had to go to work at once, felling trees and dragging them away, etc. No exception was made for weak women and girls.

Their food was the most unsatisfactory and unsanitary, and many perished, due to the inhuman struggle and hunger; among these are individuals whom I know personally and who were very respectable citizens and had never harmed any one.

Conditions in West Australia

Mrs. Ellen Davies, pioneer, says: “There has been no starvation in West Australia during this year of all years of depression; but doles and meal tickets, free rents, etc., have been gladly availed of by many. Old age and sick pensions also have been a blessing to hundreds. If all the churches were closed down, the people would all be comfortable; but the hundreds of useless, expensive buildings and their hangers-on take much hard-earned money which would be better spent in clothing and housing the people. However, Armageddon will soon clean up all rubbish off the earth, and create a better and healthier atmosphere.

“This is only a tiny town; yet there are three churches, and almost every week there is some social get-up for one or the other. People are so superstitious and afraid to refuse, for fear they will lose their parson and have no parson to sprinkle their children, marry or bury them. This even after the truth has been shown them on these subjects. One poor man w’ho committed suicide was refused service by the priest, while a rich man who did the same had a great funeral with services by the same priest.

“This is a wheat-growing district, also sheepfarming, with a fine healthy climate and fair rainfall.”

The Problem One of Destination

Senator Dickinson, of Iowa, in an article in the December Review of Revieivs, says, “We are no longer a going concern. We could not liquidate now and pay off our debts.” If a concern that is able to borrow ten million dollars a day, and has to borrow it, to keep the hunger mobs off the streets, isn’t a going concern we just don’t know what a going concern is. Looks as if the real problem in this instance were not one of going, but one of destination. Here our good old truck is headed down a five-mile hill, and making eighty miles an hour, with nobody able to throw it into second gear, and yet a statesman is trying to tell us we are not going. Tell that to the chauffeur, Mr. Roosevelt, He knows we are going.

What a Receiver Is For

SUBSCRIBER in a town in Illinois had the misfortune to have funds in a bank in his home town which went into the hands of a receiver. After the lapse of 26 months the following information was available, and readily suggests what a receiver is for: his business is to receive. Theoretically he is a trustee for the depositors, but there is nothing in this statement to indicate it, and everything to indicate the reverse. Six months after this statement was made, no settlement had been made. Expenses as reported by the receiver to date: Bank closed April 24, 1930, or 26 months before this report.

To receiver’s salary and expenses (to date) $5,167.70 To legal expense and attorney’s fees (to date) 4,123.74 Clerk and stenographer hire, and janitor 1,509.49 To auditor’s expense closing the bank 642.37 To other miscellaneous expenses             5,003.85

Total expenses to date                    $16,447.15

Total expenses to date averaged $632.00 per month. Balance in hand of receiver at date $7,046.89

Senator Long Is Pessimistic

enatob Huey Long, of Louisiana, says he feels sorry for the new president; that he has admitted that we must scale down the big fortunes and spread it out among the people, but that the blind financial powers and their powerful influences do not seem willing to let loose one inch. The way Senator Long puts it:

‘ ‘ I think they would let the country and all its people go slap damn to hell, and go with us, before they would surrender their mastery of money control in America. What use on earth has a man for $1,000,000,000? He cannot use it. If 300 men owned that much apiece there would not be a dime left for anyone else. And yet we have some fortunes that were rated as high as $8,000,000,000 and $10,000,000,000. A few financial overlords have not sense enough to see that they can only eat and wear and live in just so much. They cannot see, will not see, that if they take 90 percent of everything unto a handful of people, and let the balance have but 10 percent, their 90 percent will rot and the people starve because they cannot get it, even in the midst of plenty.”

Russia Not a Paradise—Yet

DISPATCH by a special correspondent of the London Times says of conditions in

Russia:

“During the last two years 70,000,000 peasants have been driven from 14,000,000 holdings on to 200,000 collective farms. Those who have proved themselves successful farmers are hunted down, exiled to labor and timber camps in the north, massacred, and destroyed, and in their place young, politically inflated party members seek to ‘plan’ the new agriculture.

“Sowing operations take two or three times longer than they did before. In many districts 90 percent of the new machinery imported from abroad now is so much scrap. A complicated harvester machine loses a bolt and there is no one to make the necessary adjustment. Where it is now necessary to revert to horse implements neither horses nor implements exist.

“The introduction of the passport, intended, apart from its use for political terror, to keep workers in fields and factories at their work, can succeed only by brute force aided by the ruthless use of hunger as a weapon.”

Majesty of Law in Evansville

oster Lewis, an Evansville (Ind.) business man, found in his yard a redbird with a broken wing. He took it into his house and tended it until it was able to fly, but the bird was grateful and did not wish to leave. Thereupon the deputy game warden came along and had Mr. Lewis arrested for illegal possession of a migratory bird. Evansville must be thrilled to have an officer of the law who is so conscientious. But maybe besides being conscientious he was in hope of making a few dollars, no matter how he made it, and his conscience works only when he sees a chance to make something. Some people have a conscience like that.

155222.21 Reasons for Feeling Grateful

ILLS which the Democratic national committee forgot to pay in cash were $107,571.71

owing to the National Broadcasting company and $47,650.50 owing to the Columbia Broadcasting System. We wonder if it is not just possible that these broadcasting companies feel that the present administration has, collectively, 155,222.21 reasons for feeling grateful to them and allowing them to have about anything they want that is not already nailed down.

No More Winter Evictions in North Dakota

TN NORTH DAKOTA, at present, a debtor J- who is in default from inability to pay cannot be evicted from his home or farm on mortgage, contract or tax deed; the tenant who cannot pay the terms of his lease may not be turned out; and the householder or farmer cannot be dispossessed of personal property and chattels except it be proved that, having the means, he willfully refuses to satisfy his creditors.

Obedience Sweetens the Friendships of God

A LITTLE German-American woman, the wife of a miner, was suddenly left a widow with eight small children. All she could do to keep her household together was to go out by the day to do washing, cleaning, scrubbing, the hardest work that women do. She did it all with such a cheerful spirit that when it was kindly hinted to her that the burden seemed too much for one pair of shoulders, and perhaps good homes could be found for some of the youngsters under some other roof, she smiled sweetly and said, “Nein! I keeps der childer; each one has him’s place.”

It is that way with friendships. No matter how many we have, each friend has his own place in our hearts, and it is a place none other may ever occupy. The friend may pass to another continent or another world; the friendship remains. The friend may prove false and the friendship may die, but the place in the heart remains unoccupied. The friend may become nearer and dearer as his faithfulness becomes more and more manifest, and the years stretch into decades, and thus the friendship becomes sweetened until it becomes one of the dearest things in life.

This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

—Canticles 5:16.

What is true of the friendship of humans for each other is true, also, of the friendship of God for those who were made to be in His likeness, and who even in their fallen condition still retain something of the original godlikeness of our first parents.

Only two persons are needed to link up Adam with Abraham; namely, Methuselah and Shem. Methuselah lived 243 years with Adam and 100 years with Shem; Shem, in turn, lived 150 years with Abraham. Without a question of doubt, Shem and his grandfather, Methuselah, were, between them, well acquainted with Adam and with Abraham.

And thus we see that though Abraham did not come into the world until 1,078 years after Adam had passed from the scene, and though actually there were nine patriarchs in the line between them, yet in effect they were as close to each other as a child to his great-grandfather.

Abraham the Friend of God

If the Scriptures did not bring the matter to our attention we should be almost afraid to say that Abraham was the friend of God, yet there it is in the Book, and in God's own words, “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.”— Isaiah 41:8.

The expression occurs earlier. It is the time when the Moabites, the Ammonites and the people of Mount Seir were in conspiracy against Israel. They were discerned coming with their hosts to attack the people of God. Then Jehoshaphat stood and cried out his prayer to Jehovah God, “Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever ?”—2 Chronicles 20:7.

The thought is earlier still. Abraham was old and he was childless. He had talked with Jehovah God about the matter. “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in [Jehovah]; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”—Genesis 15:5, 6.

There we have one of the principles of friendship demonstrated. It is that of confidence in the word and the motives of another. Abraham believed God and fully trusted Him when the way did not seem clear, and God loved and trusted him for it. A little later He said to Abraham, “Walk before me, and be thou perfect.” (Genesis 17:1) Here is another principle of friendship, a right course, a praiseworthy course; true friendship cannot be lavished on an unworthy object. Abraham walked with God, and, because of that, God was his friend.

And finally God took Abraham into His confidence regarding the destruction of Sodom, and He tells us of the reason why He did so. It shows a third principle of true friendship: knowledge and appreciation of one’s justice and judgment. The account says:

And [Jehovah] said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of [Jehovah], to do justice and judgment; that [Jehovah] may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.-—Genesis 18:17-19.

Prior to all these rich and sweet expressions and manifestations of divine friendship for an earthly creature, Abraham had shown his unqualified obedience and submission to the divine will in coming out of the land of his nativity into a land in which he lived as a pilgrim and a stranger all the remainder of his days. He did this in obedience to a divine command.

Reason for Mentioning Abraham

The reason why we mention Abraham, the friend of God, is that he so well illustrates those principles which we would properly expect to find in those who have received God’s friendship. Such a friend, we may feel sure, was Joseph, the humble carpenter, who was the foster father of our Lord.

Joseph, according to tradition, was elderly at the time of his marriage to Mary, the mother of our Savior. It is an interesting fact that all the early pictures of him represent him as an elderly man. Tradition is that he died about one year after our Lord had begun His ministry.

Tradition has it that he was previously married ; that his brother Cleophas had died without issue, and Joseph, in obedience to the Mosaic law, had reared a family of four sons and two daughters before his engagement to Mary had taken place. There are many reasons why this does not seem unreasonable. We state the matter briefly.

This theory makes Joseph the father of James, Joses, Simon and Jude and two daughters, these children being born to him by Mary the wife of Cleophas, and the eldest son of the couple raised up to the name of Cleophas, though Joseph was his actual father. Nothing in the Jewish law would deter Joseph from engagement to and marriage of a virgin of Israel as his own wife after or while his levirate marriage to his brother’s wife was in effect.

It is certain that God had a reason for establishing the law of levirate marriage, that He honored it in the case of Tamar, and honored it again in the case of Boaz and Ruth, and finally and most convincingly, it would seem, in the case of Joseph and Mary the wife of Cleophas. This last levirate marriage resulted in the birth of “James the Lord’s brother”, whose identity with “James the son of Alphseus (Cleophas)” is taken for granted in this connection. The couple thus had the great privilege of being the parents of two of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, James and Jude, while Joseph, in addition, had the grand privilege of being the foster father of Jesus and shielding Him and His mother in the years when they needed such aid.

Joseph W’as a Good Man

Joseph was a good man, a kind, simple-minded, obedient, lovable soul. When, after his betrothal to Mary the mother of Jesus, she proved to be with child, he was naturally grieved and disposed to break off the connection, but his obedience to the will of God survived this great test, and so we have the Scriptural account of the whole incident:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the holy [spirit]. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the holy [spirit]. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus.—Matthew 1:18-21, 24, 25.

Joseph was most certainly entitled to be called and to be considered as the friend of God. Not only did God specially communicate with him a very personal, private message by one of His holy angels, in itself a marked evidence of confidence and of interest, but He allowed this man to be the caretaker for many years of His own dear Son, the Savior of mankind, and of His Son’s mother.

He allowed this good man, Joseph, to bear the stigma of having a child born in bastardy, and yet from among his children He selected two of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and two of the six apostolic writers of the New Testament Scriptures.

Joseph Not of the Body of Christ

There is good reason to believe that Mary is of the Body of Christ, for she is expressly mentioned as being present in the upper room at Pentecost, and as she made her home with the beloved disciple John there is no reason to suppose that she did not make her calling and election sure as one of the overcoming church of God. It would be the most natural place in which to look for Mary.

Honored above all other women in that she was privileged to be the mother of the Lord, she would yet, it is clearly seen, not occupy any especially advantageous position in the Body because of that. The position she will always have will depend on what happened after Pentecost, and not on what happened before. Only those who have the Lord’s spirit can understand such a statement as this, but it is manifestly true.

Jehovah God could have found thousands of women in Israel that He could have used to become the Lord's mother, and any one of them could have fulfilled the duties of motherhood as well as the one selected, yet the choice was a good one, a proper one, and Mary was a proper person to receive the honor which came to her. In her place in the Body of Christ she will be well treated by all in the Body and outside of it, but she will not be worshiped in any manner whatsoever.

Joseph, the man with whom she lived for probably thirty-one years, is almost certainly not of the Body of Christ, as he died before the spirit was poured out at Pentecost. This is in no way to his discredit. We cannot be positive, but it seems very reasonable that he will be grouped with the fathers of the former dispensation who will eventually be made princes in all the earth.

But if that be true, the honors and opportunities that will shortly come to him in the earth will be his not because he was the foster father of the Lord, nor because he was the father of two of the apostles of the Lamb; but very probably the principal reason for it will be found in the fact that in his youth and up to advanced years he obediently performed the divine will in raising up a family to his brother, and only in his later years considered raising up a family of his very own.

We can be sure that because he was thoroughly obedient at heart God selected this man to be the consort of Mary the mother of our Lord, made him the caretaker of the infant Jesus, made him the head of the home in which Jesus came to maturity; and it seems very certain that we can say of him that, like Abraham of old, he was the friend of God; and yet he was just a plain man, just an obedient, honest, truthful, trustful, patient, upright man, such as one would wish to have for a friend, and such as, having, one would appreciate.

Did You Make a Date for March 25?

If you didn’t, you had better, for on that date there is going to be a mass assembly of Californians at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, Jefferson and Royal Streets, to hear

JUDGE RUTHERFORD

in person, 3:30 Sunday afternoon, March 25, 1934, in a public lecture on

“WORLD CONTROL”

Readers of THE GOLDEN AGE within a reasonable distance of Los Angeles will want to get there and hear him. Judge Rutherford is well known throughout the earth by his famous weekly broadcasts over hundreds of radio stations. Millions of American citizens have petitioned Congress to keep him on the air. He is the ONE man who has challenged the combined clergy of the world to a public debate that the people may hear truths which vitally concern them. You will hear him in person if you go early. Doors open at 2 o’clock.

DIVIDING THE PEOPLE

by Judge Rutherford

to Have World-wide Distribution

during

THANKSGIVING TESTIMONY OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES—March 24-April 1

Do you wish to have a part in this distribution? Now a message of notice, warning and instruction must go to the people of earth who are of good will that they may be able to take their stand on the right side. Everyone who has learned of the Kingdom should want to help his neighbors so that they too may have the privilege of being on the right side.

There are undoubtedly many readers of THE GOLDEN AGE who are isolated and not associated with a company of Jehovah’s witnesses. All who desire to see Jehovah’s name honored are privileged to have a part in the distribution of this heart-cheering message contained in the booklet DIVIDING THE PEOPLE. If you live in a city where there is a company of Jehovah’s witnesses, we suggest that you get in touch with them, or write to this office and we will give you the address, so that you can get into the witness work there. If isolated, we suggest you fill in the blank below and mail it to The Watch Tower, for we know that great blessings will be yours if you participate in the proclamation of this Kingdom message.

You will surely want your neighbors, relatives and close friends to know about the dividing of the people even as the Lord foretold of ‘dividing the sheep from the goats’. Below we are printing a testimony in bold type that can be cut out and pasted on a small card. This you can hand to your neighbors and ask them to read, or if you are going from door to door, just hand the card to the persons who answer at the door, and let them read it. After they have read the testimony hand them the booklet. A small contribution of 6c is then made to help defray the expenses of the publishing of this booklet. Try it. You will have many blessings; for you will know that you are having a part in what the Lord commands must be done now. ‘This gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world, and then the end shall come.’

TESTIMONY

In these days of perplexity you want to get on the right side of every question. You learned when a child what Jesus said about dividing the people as sheep and goats are separated. That apt prophetic parable is now being fulfilled over all the world and every one is taking the side of Jehovah or against him. Which side are you on? You cannot decide that properly unless you have the facts before you. The booklet Dividing the People explains the whole matter so clearly that with it as a guide you can make no mistake. Send for your copy and read it carefully, that you may be able to help your family and your neighbors to also decide the right way. You may contribute five cents to aid in a wider distribution of this very helpful message.

ORDER BLANK

The Watch Tower,

117 Adams St., Brooklyn, N. Y.

I would appreciate your sending me 50 copies of the booklet Dividing the People. Enclosed find $1.75 to be used in the advancing of the Kingdom message. I desire to distribute these among my friends and neighbors and have a part in the special testimony period. Please send me a report blank, so that I may inform you at the end of the week of the number of booklets placed. If there are any of Jehovah’s witnesses living near by, I shall be glad to know their address.

Name

Street_____________________________________________

City and State_______________________________