<3^e Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

nimiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiii in this issue THE ENGINE THAT NEVER STOPS FOOD CONTAMINATION BY ALUMINUM EVENTS IN CANADA KEYS PETITION NOTES ON NEWS WITH OR AGAINST JEHOVAH

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

Vol. XVI-No. 399 January 2, 1935

CONTENTS

...I                          ,                  ■■ ■—          .....

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

The Townsend Revolving Pensions 207

How the Strawberry Code Worked 213

Income in the United States . . . 214

Tax-exempt Real Estate .... 217

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Jailing Women in Milwaukee . . 208

Send Petitions to Washington . 210

Petition..........211

6,000,000 Still in Bondage .... 214

Salvation Industry in Bad Way . 214

$1,250,000,000 Annually by

Catholic Institutions.....215

In Heyday of Purgatory Blasphemy 217

MANUFACTURING AND MINING

Wilton Junction Not Sorry . . . 208

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

Brisbane Describes “What-Is-It” 203

All a Matter of Bookkeeping . . 204

Who Owns the Natural Gas? . . . 204

The Huge Sears Roebuck Company 208

Senator Bravo, of Argentina . . . 213

Destruction of Coffee in Brazil . . 213

Conway’s Bad Guess.....217

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

Lawyers Protest Lawlessness . . . 207

Censorship in the Society Islands . 207

Repudiation of Christianity . . . 212

Raw Materials Shortage in Germany 212

The German Spy System .... 212

Evangelist, Visitor, Sunday Visitor 218

AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY

“Kindness to Animals

Always Pays’’......205

Some Thoughts on Dogs .... 206

A 112-Pound Bunch of Grapes . . 213

Montana Cattle Shipped to East . 213

SCIENCE AND INVENTION

Rubber from Gas

HOME AND HEALTH

The Engine That Never Stops . 195

Danger of Food Contamination by Aluminum

Chronic Poisoning by Aluminum and Its Alloys

Two More Group Poisonings . . . 208

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

Events in Canada

The Dutch No Longer Dutch . . . 204 “Biggest Liars and Thieves Afield” 218

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Keys

Should Black Hate Millennium ? 210

The Invitation Came Too Late . . 215

The Nicholas Brady Estate . . . 215

Romanism and the Truth .... 216

Either $25 or Eternal Torture . . 218

With or Against Jehovah . . . 219

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GOLDEN AGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.

117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U.S.A.

Clayton J. Woodworth President         Nathan H. Knorr Vice President

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The Golden Age

Volume XVI                      Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, January 2, 1935                      Number 399

The Engine That Never Stops

ONE could not say that the heart never rests, for it does, as will hereinafter be shown; but if it stops, you stop, until the resurrection. One of the marvels of the Creator’s hand is the human heart, or any heart, for that matter. In the human it is five to six inches in length. The men are more large-hearted than the women. If any of the women write in about this it will be easy to convince them that they have misunderstood us. Men are larger animals and require larger hearts, in the proportion of 6 to 5.

The average heart weighs rarely over 12 ounces, yet this efficient machine pumps all the blood of the body through itself once every three minutes. Every twenty-four hours it beats 108,000 times, two ounces of blood to the beat, but so wonderfully adjusts its efforts to the needs of the body that during athletic contests it will work three and one-half times as hard, for short periods, pumping as much as eight gallons a minute.

In a day of moderate activity a man’s heart does enough work to lift a 150-pound man 1,000 feet. Even when the man lies the whole day in bed the heart still does enough work to lift the 150-pound man 500 feet. The blood stream travels at the rate of 61,000 miles a year.

In the heart are special nerve cells whose functions are to keep the heart beating as long as we are alive. These work without the voluntary action of the brain; if they did not we should die in our sleep (and people sometimes do). But what goes on in the brain has much to do with what takes place in the heart. The brain is the general manager—sometimes.

Scientists who were rather too curious found that when a woman who had been married eight years was kissed by her husband her heartbeats jumped from 70 to 116 and remained there for several minutes. When the apostle said, “Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss” (1 Thessalonians 5:26), he could not have meant to include the sisters—at least not unless the men of that time were different from what they are now—> and the women too. That straightens it all out nicely about the men’s being more large-hearted than the women. Two-thirds of the heart is to the left of the breast bone; one-third, to the right.

Some Differences of Opinion

There are some differences of opinion about the heart. One medical view is that the heart contains a small mass of tissue called the pacemaker, and that the beat of the heart has its origin in this. Another is that the lungs do all the driving and the heart is merely a governor. A physician with experience in the dissecting room is of the opinion that the heart is motivated from the brain.

A German physician, Dr. Mendelsohn, believes that the circulation of the blood depends upon the vital activities of the glands of the body, the huge quantities of liquids excreted, the flow of saliva, etc. He mentions that we exhale a pint of water daily in gaseous form, as one of the items in this view. Breathe on a pane of glass on a cold day and see what a quantity is continually poured from the lungs. Thirty ounces of saliva are swallowed every twenty-four hours.

The heart is provided with what are described as “little dinner pails”. These are tiny, disk-like structures between the muscle fibers. Their duty is to collect food materials from the blood and pass them around to the heart muscles.

But if there are differences of opinion as to what it is that makes the heart beat, there are no differences as to the present prevalence of heart disease in some of its fifty forms. In 1926 one death in every six among policyholders of the New York Life Insurance Company was caused by heart disease. More recently the statement was made by Thomas Parran, Jr., state commissioner of health, that practically one out of every four deaths in the state is from this cause.

At all times in New York clinics there are 1,500 sufferers from heart affections, with 1,500 more in the hospitals and other institutions. Dr. Paul Dudley White, of Boston, says that over two percent of the population of this country have heart disease. In the country as a whole there were 132 deaths per 100,000 from this cause in 1900, but in 1929 there were 211 deaths per 100,000 of the population. Back in the quiet days of 1868 the deaths from heart disease were only 53 out of every 100,000; so they are now four times what they used to be. Supposed to be a disease of old age, over 4,000 persons under 45 die from this cause in New York state every year.

Some of the Reasons for Heart Disease

One of the main reasons for increased deaths from heart disease is that people live twice as long now as they did in the Dark Ages. The average of human life then was twenty to twenty-five years; now it is nearer sixty. The people are better fed now than then, and fat persons are more subject to heart ailments.

It is easy enough to make up a list of the things that cause the heart to get discouraged and give up trying to carry a man along who uses liquor and tobacco continuously, overworks, overworries, and, especially, overeats. It may be a happy way to die, but most people dig their graves with their teeth. Underfeeding is bad, too. The heart does laborious work and has to have food, but the best stove ever made can be ruined by jamming more fuel into it than it can handle properly.

Fright makes the heart go faster. Don’t get scared; the other fellow is far worse scared than you are. Joy is all right, but too much joy is like too much sorrow; excessive emotion wears the heart out.

Kidney trouble or liver trouble eventually means heart trouble; for the heart has to keep pumping fresh supplies into the damaged organs, and that makes its work harder.

Too much of athletics is just too bad. Nurmi, the world’s greatest runner, has a heart that is double size. It functions perfectly, but Nurmi must keep exercising to keep that big heart well; when he stops, no more Nurmi. Many athletes have hearts smaller than normal; the muscles are small, but tight and powerful.

There is a big difference in responsiveness of hearts. With some, one cigar a day would be too much; others smoke five a day and think it moderate. Still, why kill yourself with tobacco at all? However, it is your heart, and getting a tobacco heart is one way to bump yourself off. Many do it.

The telephone, the telegram and the automobile: are they blessings or are they merely aids to the undertakers? They keep us all steamed up, until finally the heart flies the black flag and says, What’s the use?

Fifty Kinds of Heart Disease

Rheumatism is another cause, and you can aggravate that by drinking tea and coffee. Many like to go by that route. Why object? If a person prefers to have caffeine in his system to having life, let him have what he chooses. High blood pressure comes from having too many toxins; the arteries dam up, and finally the heart gets weary of working for such an unreasonable master and quits for good.

Goiter heart, it is claimed, has been cured by the removal of the entire thyroid gland. This may be necessary in some cases; we do not know.

Endocarditis, inflammation of the inner lining of the heart, is common north of the Mason and Dixon’s line and unknown south of it. It is thought that difference in atmospheric pressure has something to do with this. More likely, the southerners get more fresh air.

Sometimes heart defects exist at birth. This is rarely the case, but does happen, and when it does happen it is very serious. Still, people who have weak hearts, and know it, and make use of what they know, live long and useful lives, sometimes. Such people must moderate work and play.

The heart rests one-tenth of a second after each beat, and slows down and recuperates while we sleep. Deprive yourself of necessary rest, and you will come in for an earlier ride in one of these new side-door automobile Pullmans when your friends "say it with flowers’’.

Some have suggested that certain Siphonap-tera, or Aphaniptera, better known as fleas, are responsible for certain types of heart disease. All right, then don’t harbor fleas.

There have been a few instances of slits in the heart which have been sewn up by surgeons and the patients recovered. Sometimes the surgeons have finished a heart that might have gone on beating.

Heart Disease Not Inevitably Fatal

If the doctor tells you not to drink champagne, better not drink it. A wealthy New York woman thought she knew better, and took too much. She got dead drunk in Paris, eyes glazed, heart ceased to beat, but her body maintained a temperature of 102 degrees for 16 hours. (The heat of the body rises after death.) The woman finally died; it was probably just as well. She was of no good to anybody, not even to herself, and probably never would be of any good, and the world is just as well off without her. People who live to pamper their appetites are entitled to little sympathy.

Heart disease is not inevitably progressive. The heart patient must take care of himself; that’s all. Sane living methods, adequate sleep, proper food, reasonable hours of work, and even some play, and thousands of them go on for years and years.

Sometimes death comes at once to heart sufferers; but they commonly linger on for long. For every death from heart disease there are ten cases of heart invalidism.

On the other hand, if your heart is sound you may take courage. It will be equal to all the demands that you make upon it, if they are within reason. Indeed, there are numerous purely nervous disturbances of the heart in which there is no cause for anxiety. A medical examination will disclose whether or not the heart is sound; if it is, you have little to fear.

The X-ray shows that when one is suffering from any kind of heart trouble there are large gas pouches either in the upper part of the stomach or in the upper left bend of the colon. This shows that what we eat has a lot to do with what happens to our hearts.

The “Don’t’s” on eating are: Don’t eat too much food; don’t eat the wrong kind of food; don’t eat wrong combinations of food; don’t eat when too tired; don’t drink too much of anything, and certainly not too much of anything that stimulates.

Some of the Symptoms

Some of the symptoms commonly supposed to be associated with heart trouble are said to be fullness of the chest, particularly on the left side; intermittent heartbeat; hot and cold flashes ; pain in the region of the heart; pains in the breast and down the left arm; aching between the shoulders; shortness of breath; severe exhaustion; giddiness; blue hands and feet; palpitation; profuse sweating; extreme nervousness.

A physician says, on “Sinus Arrhythmia”: “The heart rate waxes and wanes gradually, usually being faster when breathing in, and slower when breathing out. This is common in healthy people, and has no special significance.” That disposes of scare No. 1.

On the subject of “Premature Beats” the same authority says: “A beat occurs too soon after the last one, so that there is a short interval before it and a longer one after it. The beat is comparatively weak, so that, while it can be heard over the heart, it cannot be felt as a pulse beat at the wrist. This may or may not be serious, depending on other factors. In an otherwise normal heart it means little.”

Valvular murmurs are not considered serious. Where no two beats are alike the heart may he kept going by a physician, with digitalis, frtr some years. When a normally beating heart suddenly becomes very rapid and the rapid beating continues for a period and then stops as suddenly as it started, the condition is serious. The most serious of all is where the pulse is regular in time but the alternate beats are strong and weak; in these cases death generally occurs within a year.

Angina pectoris is the most dreadful of all pains; when it comes on, the bravest and calmest may roll on the floor in agony. A writer says: “A heavy burden lies upon the patient’s chest and he dare not try to breathe because of excruciating pain, and without breath he must die.” The heart feels as if it were being squeezed in a powerful vise; the pain fills the chest and runs down the arm; the face is the color of ashes; sweat pours from the forehead; a physician should be summoned at once. He will probably provide nitroglycerine or amyl nitrite, and heat, in the form of a hot water bottle applied to the chest.

Heart Affections in the Young

Probably that heading ought to be “Heart Disorders in the Young”, for that is what is meant. Ninety children out of 10,000 are found to have organic heart disease. This discovery led, in Philadelphia, to the founding of the Children’s Heart Hospital, where all will be done that can be done for these poor unfortunates. The hospital has 200 beds.

Many of these children are victims of the after-effects of scarlet fever or other infectious diseases. Malignant rheumatism is another great cause of their sorrows. Some, when they got older, found the pace of petting parties, bootleg liquor, night clubs and high-speed automobiles more than they could keep up with.

In New York state in 1915 a total of 275 persons between the ages of ten and twenty-four succumbed to heart disease; in 1925 the total was 361. The figures speak for themselves.

A mother who really wanted to save her little baby, born with a weak heart, gave it sun baths every afternoon at two o’clock. At first only the legs were bared for five minutes, front and back; then she was bared to the hips; then entirely undressed, and still with only five-minute exposures. Each week the duration of the exposure was lengthened, until at length the child was getting fifteen minutes naked, front and back. In fifteen months, as a result of these sun baths and the accompanying periods of complete rest, the heart was almost completely normal, skin ruddy, and flesh firm.

Anything decayed in the body, like decayed teeth, decayed tonsils, decayed food in the intestines, etc., may induce heart troubles. How can a heart be well that every three minutes is visited by blood that has been in contact with something decayed?

Young girls may have murmurs over the base of the heart which are merely indicative of changes taking place in their organisms and do not necessarily mean that the heart itself is in any danger. Irregular or extra heartbeats are perfectly normal in a great many cases. In fact, extra beats are a carefully planned act of nature, meant to insure the continued beating of the heart. Don’t get the idea that you have a bad heart unless you really have; for the world already has too many hypochondriacs.

Nature Plays Some Pranks

Nature plays some pranks, even with such an organ as the heart. One in about 100,000 has a heart on the right side instead of on the left. Edward Reynolds, of Wilkinsburg, Pa., has two hearts, the larger one on his right side, the smaller one on the left. He has never suffered any inconvenience because of this. A man at Sandy Hook, Ky., tried to suicide by shooting himself in the left chest. It happened that his heart was on his right side; otherwise he would have died immediately.

A poor little Shoreditch. (London, England) lad was able to live to seven years of age with his heart on the right and turned clear around, so that the-back of the heart was to the front of his body. Certain organs that should have been in the abdomen were found in his chest.

It is astonishing what some men dare do with their bodies and with the bodies of others. In Berlin Dr. Werner Forssmann, ayoung surgeon, propelled a rubber catheter 2 feet inches long from above his left elbow upward and under the collarbone and finally into the heart itself. The course of the probe was carefully followed by X-ray apparatus. The experiment is said to have lasted less than a minute (which seems incredible) and to have produced no ill effects. More to be feared is the announcement that he will now undertake by this method to inject medicine directly into the interior of the heart. Glucose is suggested as one of the drugs to be injected.

A British device stimulates the heart into activity if used within ten minutes after it has ceased to beat. A needle is inserted into the heart and an electrical current is used to produce an artificial beat.

We don’t like to say anything about the rubber hearts made for cats and dogs or the insertion of the heart of one animal into the circulatory system of another. All vivisection is abhorrent. Photographs (moving pictures) are existent which reveal the opening and closing of the valves of a calf’s heart. These were taken through glass windows inserted in the walls of the organ. He that marks the sparrow’s fall would surely mark that work too.

The Heart Beats Thirty Minutes After Death

The new instrument which replaces the stethoscope, namely, the electrocardiograph, is so sensitive that it records heartbeats thirty minutes after death is reported by any other means of acquiring that knowledge. In this device tin body of the patient supplies the electric curren The strongest current is obtained by joining the right wrist to the left ankle.

The current generated is multiplied ten trillion times, but could as readily be multiplied five hundred trillion times, if that were desired. The results are most extraordinary. Every sound is magnified enormously, and then photographed, with the result that the exact response of the organ to various treatments may be studied.

Heartbeats, by this method, have been transmitted from Buenos Aires to Spain, and so clearly that doctors in Madrid diagnosed the condition of their patients 6,750 miles away. Phonographic records are now made of heartbeats, as well as the photographic records. Nothing is left to chance. The electrical disturbances in the heart are recorded at the same time that X-rays of its movements are being taken.

The statement is made that “through the new method it is possible to accurately time any point on the curve of movement within approximately one one-hundredth of a second of the corresponding event on the electrical curve of action”.

What a physician thinks of the value of a good heart:

“I have found it a rule to which there are few exceptions that the pupil with the normal heartbeat under all conditions is the same one who is dependable in all circumstances. I venture the assertion that by making the heart record of any class of students one can as easily classify them as to reliability and success in life as from all the other class records which are usually kept, from which to recommend, promote and graduate the student. But the danger: One boy in a present physiology class shows a heartbeat of 175 per minute after violent exercise, and this boy plays football. I shall not be surprised at any time to learn that he has the ‘falling sickness’ on some field of great effort, or that his heart has ceased for ever.”

Danger of Food Contamination by Aluminum

IN A 32-page brochure entitled “The Danger of Food Contamination by Aluminum”, by R. M. Le Hunte Cooper, M.D., B.S., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., published by John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd., London, Mr. Cooper, referring to the fact that aluminum is not found in the human fetus, says of subsequent experiences:

Granted that many sources of entry are very small and even infinitesimal, collectively they must be very seriously considered, and that this collective supply is not only steadily increasing, but has already reached dangerous proportions, the following list of vessels made in aluminum will prove:

“Saucepans (and this metal has recently actually been used to line vessels made of iron, copper and nickel), preserving pans, frying pans, poachers, grill-ers and toasters, kettles, porridge cookers, pasteurizers, steamers and different patent cookers, colanders and sieves, officers’ canteens and water bottles, cooking spoons, fish lifters and fish slicers, egg slicers, ordinary spoons and forks, skewers, and actually lemon squashers, custard and egg whisks (from which the metal must become freely detached), coffeepots (some wholly aluminum, and others with a patent aluminum structure to fit inside vessels of other material), teapots, tea-inf users, milk containers of various kinds, milk jugs, water jugs and bottles, cups, tumblers (especially nests of tumblers for picnic baskets and collapsible tumblers), canisters for holding tea, sago, rice, sugar, etc., and flour dredgers, biscuit tins and biscuit boxes, pepper pots, salt cellars, mustard pots, toast forks and racks, thermos flasks, and patent caps for whisky and other bottles, patent caps for glass milk bottles to assist pouring, tooth paste tubes and tooth powder boxes, and wrappings for suppositories and pessaries. To show the ever increasing growth of this evil the Encyclopedia Britannica gives the following startling information: ‘Aluminum foil is rapidly replacing tin foil for wrapping chocolates and cheeses and for tubes holding cosmetics. Steam jacketed pans are made of this metal for institutions, kitchens, and in foodstuff industries. Producing thin sheets for bottle and jar covers is alone an industry of no small importance. The brewing industry makes wide use of it in the form of vats and fermenting vessels, storage vessels for yeast and beer, and tanks for transport of beer by road and rail. In Europe the dairy industry uses aluminum widely as tanks and vessels for the storage, pasteurization and transport of milk and cream, and for vats used in cheesemaking. For many other foodstuffs which are weakly acid aluminum finds rapidly extending use, e.g., in jam-making, fruit-preserving and meat-extracting, and the production of high-grade gelatines.’ ”

Just lately I find that the makers of electric refrigerators are beginning to replace the heavy metal drawers for making ice cubes with others made of this metal, and that it is largely used in the manufacture of ice creams, so extensively sold in the streets. I think it will generally be accepted that the reason why, under these conditions, we are not all continually ill, and that it causes ill effects at one time and not at another, lies in our powers of elimination and acquired immunity. So long as the former are working efficiently, no obvious symptoms develop, but any cause temporarily weakening these will at once allow the system to become overcharged, and adverse effects to follow. This throws additional light on the beneficial effects of saline laxatives, and the benefits of change of air and change of diet, which may often in reality be due to change of cooking.

SPEAKING- of the ever changing standards of living and the factors that govern, the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix editorially says:

So much has been said about the manner in which the standard of living improved in the years prior to 1930 that it is taken as a matter of course, and the decline since that year is equally apparent. In the period before the depression, stretching over many years, there was a tremendous development of facilities for making life comfortable, easy and entertaining. Radios, automobiles, electrical appliances, better houses and furniture and a thousand other things, all contributed to a feeling of satisfaction and pleasantness. It was, and is, very desirable, and undoubtedly is in the nature of civilized progress.

But it may be well to ask if that improving of living standards applied all the way through the business of living. For example, did it apply to food and the very necessary function of eating? Certainly there was a vast improvement in the convenience of preparing meals. Electrical devices, tin cans and can openers, prepared foods and service, all showed vast improvement. But did the improvement extend to a greater nourishment, a greater variety of healthy grub, sufficient quantities of simple foods well prepared? Or did it result in undernourishment, with meals hastily snatched and lacking both in quantity and quality? It is a matter on which there may be a difference of opinion, but it seems certain, while nourishment may have been ample, it came in condensed forms or in new forms of food of inferior quality which were substituted for those that came directly from the farm.

It may seem unimportant so long as the required amount of nourishment was obtained, unimportant, at least, so far as the consumer is concerned. But it has had a very definite effect on the market for agricultural products. Competent farm experts suggest that if Canadians ate the variety of native foods, including what they consider to be a proper quantity of dairy products and meats, it would be a healthier country and the agricultural acreage in Canada would be only slightly more than enough to feed the population of this dominion. There would be no vast quantity for export unless further land were brought under cultivation. And so, if the improvement in living standards had extended to foods, on the basis suggested by the agricultural experts, there would be no farm problems.

Wheat to the Pigs

When it is a matter of which gets the preference, humans or pigs, big business sees to it that the pigs do, according to an item appearing in the Edmonton Bulletin. It reads:

The international wheat commission, which, by the way, has not been commissioned by any Canadian authority to do anything about wheat, has had a bright thought. It proposes to “denature” large quantities of wheat so as to increase its use as animal feed and decrease the amount of flour available for human food.

There being more wheat in the world than can be sold under the trade-strangling tariffs with which the countries have isolated themselves one from another, wheat is to be turned into pig-feed—perhaps—in order to destroy the commercial surplus. As between people who are hungry because they cannot get wheat and pigs, which are being fed on a cheaper and more suitable diet, pigs get the preference in the wisdom of the international wheat commission.

And likely enough, if their subjects let them, some governments will accept and act upon this porcine advice from their wheat “brain trust”. There is not, after all, much difference in folly between compelling farmers to grow less wheat and sprouting wheat so that it cannot be used for human food.

Both are means to the same end—the end of curtailing wheat in order to avoid having to “curtail” the tariff barriers and other trade restrictions which have been built up to prevent wheat’s being grown where it can be grown economically and exchanged for the products of other countries which could better employ their resources, time and people in producing other things.

If as a result of the proposed pig-feed policy people have to go hungry because they cannot get wheat, that will be just too bad for the people. The tariff-mad governments apparently have nothing better to offer.

Birds Enjoy the Grasshoppers

A Canadian Press report states that birds are aiding the farmers to fight pests. We quote:

While the Saskatchewan government is preparing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to carry on the 1934 battle against grasshoppers, a game little army is already in the field carrying on a private war against the pests.

W. 0. Fraser, M.L.A., Souris, whose home is in the center of the ’hopper-infested district of southern Saskatchewan, was in Regina Monday, and in an interview told of the daily destruction of thousands of grasshopper eggs and how it was being done.

“There was no grain down by my country, this year, ’ ’ he said. ‘ ‘ The grasshoppers wiped it out clean in six rural municipalities. Lacking grain as a food, the birds have turned to grasshopper eggs.

“The Hungarian partridge is the leader in the enterprise. One flew against a wire fence the other day and was killed.

“Inside that bird were found 80 ’hopper pods, and each pod carried about 20 eggs. Another bird that was shot was found to be gorged on ’hopper pods.

“There are thousands and thousands of Hungarian

partridge down there moving in floeks that number as high as 60 and 80 birds. There has been no snow and the ground is so dry there is no frost to stop their getting the pods from under the surface.”

Among the Financial Highwaymen

The government committee to investigate the spread between the price paid to the producer and that paid by the consumer apparently went too far to please the prime minister, for when the chairman, Mr. Stevens, presented his booklet covering the matter Mr. Bennett, the prime minister, immediately suppressed it. When one reads the booklet it is easy to see the reason for suppressing it. It is too lengthy to quote in full, so we will confine our quotation to his remarks concerning the two gigantic department stores of the land and one or two other specially interesting items.

Mr. Stevens begins his pamphlet by saying:

I have studied Canadian affairs assiduously during all my term in Parliament. I have tried to keep in touch with the interests of the people at large. I think my interests have been largely wrapped up in those of the general public and, during recent years in particular, certain things have become very deeply impressed upon my mind. It became abundantly clear to me that a great section of the people of Canada was laboring under unusual handicaps. There was acute suffering. I refer to the farming community. It is true that citizens generally have suffered also, but I think there is no class of people that has had to endure such a broad leveling down. That is my impression; that is my conviction.

When I made a speech in Winnipeg in the fall of 1933 on the question of livestock I did it because I felt that there was no justification for the low price that was being paid to the farmers for these things. Hogs were gradually rising, because of the amount that we could get over to the British market under the Imperial Trade Agreement. But for beef, when you find a western producer of first-class steers, highgrade, well finished steers, getting, as some of them did, as low as a cent and a half a pound on the ranch, and two and a quarter cents and so on in the Winnipeg market, the thing is outrageous.

It seemed to me to be something that we had to face. I looked earnestly for causes and I became convinced that the bringing of the control of that great industry into the hands virtually of one concern— certainly not more than two—indicated that here lay perhaps part of the cause of our trouble. I was convinced then, and I am more than convinced now, as a result of the investigations we have carried on, that these companies controlled that business. I am only going to cite in that respect one point—one that has come out in the evidence and that has been proved beyond peradventure—and it is this, that during the last four years of intense depression and, I might say, demoralization of business, and of low prices, scandalously low prices were paid to the farmer for his meat products. During these four years Canada packers have had the most prosperous years of their existence and piled up reserves that were not warranted under normal business operations.

Then speaking of the exploitation of the tobacco grow^Ters he says:

The tobacco industry in Canada has gradually passed largely into the control of one big institution, that is, the big institution takes about 80 percent of all the production, and the others take about 20 percent. You can see, therefore, that one institution virtually controls the situation.

In 1931 they (The Imperial Tobacco Co.) brought a man up from the United States called Lea, who had been used to buying tobacco from Negroes in the south, and was a typical bulldozing American buyer. They brought him up and put him in charge of buying in Canada, and in the fall of 1931 they just cut rates that they paid the grower down sharply from 32 cents and 33 cents to 19 cents.

After showing then the enormous profits to the Tobacco Co. he states:

I hope the picture is clear. On the one hand you have fabulous earnings and fabulous wealth for the companies, with the farmers cut down to the very verge of starvation. Scores of farmers were forced to leave their homes.

Now as to his findings in reference to the Robert Simpson Company and the T. Eaton Company we quote:

Then the classical one of all, to my mind, was the Robert Simpson Company of Toronto. The Robert Simpson Company was practically an ideal institution. It had been fairly well managed.

There is no doubt about that, and over a long period of years it had developed and ploughed very handsome profits back into the business as well as distributing them. During the years from 1898 down to 1928 it had made an average of 11 percent on its capital. In other words, it paid well and much of that capital was in the form of profits that were ploughed back in and stock was issued. For instance, five thousand shares of preferred stock was issued in one lump to the Flavelle interests and they still have it as a matter of fact. Then there were many other classes of stock issued without any equivalent in cash going into the company as well. But all that part of it was strictly minor; that can go by the board as simply releasing the earnings that were not taken out. But on that, as well as the invested capital, they paid 11 percent, roughly speaking, right throughout the whole history down to about 1928.

In 1925 Sir Joseph Flavelle and his associates who were in control of the business conceived the idea of taking $5,000,000 out of the business. They proceeded to do it and succeeded admirably, and still kept the business in a fairly healthy condition. Well, there is not much cause to complain there. We will let that go.

They went on then until 1928, I think it was, and they decided to have another refinancing under the leadership of Wood Gundy, and so they did this, roughly speaking. I am not going into the exact details of all the evidence, but in the printed evidence it is seen that they wrote a letter to their employees and said, “Now we are going to make an issue of,’’ I think it was ‘ ‘ $12,000,000 ’ ’, and they said ‘ ‘ we invite you”—no, they did not put it that way; they said “we have made it possible for the employees to participate in this wonderful company, and we urge the employees to participate, and we have set aside a peculiar class of stock for you, that is, Class B stock, which you can get at $50.00—the other was $100, but you can get this at $50, Class B stock. ’ ’

Then they said further to the employees, “If you want to borrow some money with which to pay for your stock you can go to the Bank of Commerce, ’ ’ of which Sir Joseph Flavelle was president, “and they will lend it to you on the stock if you have not enough in your savings with which to buy that.”

To make a long story short: The employees of the Robert Simpson Company took some $2,000,000 of this stock. They had not any idea that Sir Joseph Flavelle intended to back out of the company. They thought they were participating in an issue of the stock of the company which was going to enlarge and expand its operations and make it even more prosperous than it was.

Well, they sold $12,000,000, or what was left after the employees took their part, to the public and the public took it. What did they do with it? $10,000,000 of it went in cash to Sir Joseph Flavelle, the Fulger Estate and the Cox Estate. Sir Joseph’s interest, I think, came to 70 percent, or $7,000,000, and the others received the other 30 percent, or $3,000,000.

They took that clean out of the company, extracting it from the company. In its place they left $12,000,000 of mortgage bonds. But the tragedy of the thing is this, that the bonds were not secured by the assets of the Robert Simpson Company, they were secured solely by the common stock of the Robert Simpson Company, which was placed in the custody or under the ownership of a subsidiary holding company.

But the point I am making is this: Here you had an institution that was healthy, strong, very profitable, and it is now loaded by that $15,000,000 that they took out in that way, and another extra $5,000,000 that was spent in buildings in Montreal. They simply loaded it with a bond debt of $20,000,000 which is a fixed debt calling for payment of interest, and then this other stock that was issued is absolutely valueless.

The $2,000,000 that the employees got is not worth a snap of the fingers. There is no chance of its ever being worth a snap. And it was bought on a letter from the manager of the company suggesting that the employees take it.

There may be those who will say that I have been unfair to Sir Joseph Flavelle. Certain gentlemen have said to me that Sir Joseph wanted to sell out and didn’t he have the right to sell out? Yes, he had the right to sell out, if he had said to the public, “I am selling out my business and I am going out of this business.” Did he do that? If you will take the prospectus you will find that his name was prominent in them all. And the impression, as I pointed out when the thing was presented to the Committee, the inevitable impression was that Sir Joseph Flavelle was still in the business. The employees were asked to participate in the prosperity of a business institution of which he was the head. Nothing was said about the fact that they were going to take $10,000,000 out and leave a lot of liabilities in its place.

I think it is safe to say that had the public known the facts, namely, that they were pulling out of the partnership and pulling out $10,000,000 on their personal account, no one would have bought a single dollar of those bonds or that stock. I do not think there is any doubt about that.

Now, I come back to Simpson’s. Simpson’s, when they made that last loan or shortly after, cut their employees down on an average of about 17 percent. Many of the employees were getting and had got for years $17, $18, $19, or $20 for a week—which is not a large wage, but for a person who is working at that kind of work, that is a fair wage—were cut down to $12 a week, hundreds of them.

I have not said much about the T. Eaton situation. Perhaps I might say just a word or two. The T. Eaton situation is a bit different from that of the other companies. They have not paid out such large sums—except to 40 executives who got very handsome bonuses —by way of salaries and bonus as some of the others. They have not refinanced in the way some others did, and they have not drawn out of the business large sums in the way Simpson’s did. What they did was to spend huge sums of money in expansion, and in that huge building in Toronto which seems to be a veritable white elephant. The effect of their management in the last five or six years has been to increase their spread by about ten to twelve points over what it was, say, five years ago. Then, of course, they are doing just what Simpson’s did, taking off at the bottom and forcing it back on the others.

Moral Pork Destroying Itself

Speaking in regard to the Stevens’ investigation the Toronto Star, under the heading “Inside Its House of Glass”, editorially says:

When a radical of any kind mounts on a box and tries to make a speech denouncing conditions and advocating a new and better order of things he is regarded as a dangerous man. Generally he is regarded as a Red, a hireling of Moscow, an agitator who wants to tear down the fine edifice of our democratic institutions and set up in its place, with materials imported from Russia, a Bolshevik state.

The disclosures made in the tobacco investigation are likely to do more to condemn the present order of things and arouse anger and disgust in multitudes of people than all the speeches agitators could make.

It is shown that the growers of tobacco must accept whatever pay for their crops is offered them even though it is almost a starvation price and yet the profits made on the manufactured tobacco runs into high figures. Some of the incomes run as high as from $70,000 up to, including bonuses, $140,000 and more.

In manufacturing industries the private owner of a mill or factory used to think himself rich when he acquired a modest fortune. He looked upon his superintendent, foremen and employees with a personal interest. Between them there was a direct human relation. Then joint stock companies, corporations, combines, mergers, trusts followed, and the present order of things came about.

It is destroying itself. No moral responsibility is felt by invested capital toward those who work in the fields or in the shops. The man who buys shares in a Corporation knows nothing about the work in the fields or shops. He expects a profit on his investment, and the more he gets, the better he feels. No doubt the corporation pays “the market price’’ for the field crops it buys and pays current wages in the shops. A corporation pays big salaries to its officials if they make big profits for the firm; and this is the job of those who direct operations. They make big profits, and the individual investor who buys shares and gets profits does not know enough about the business to ask questions. It is now established as a rule that a man should make all the money he can, although many still insist that the way in which it is done shall not be illegal. It used to be that men spoke of a just profit on a transaction in the sense that it was a moderate profit; it begins now to be supposed that a man is entitled to wring out of a transaction all the profit it can be made to yield, however immoderate it may be and whatever injury may come to the people at large as a result of it. The system is ruining itself inside its house of glass.

Advantages of the Simple Life

Under the caption “Canadians Live Longer”, the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix editorially says:

Why do Canadians live longer than residents of the United States? It is a question not easy to answer, or rather one on which there may be a lot of speculation and in respect to which a great many possible and partial explanations offer themselves. The fact that Canadians, on the average, really live longer than their neighbors is established in a statistical bulletin issued by one of the leading insurance companies in the United States. The bulletin has the following:

“The Canadian lives longer, on the average, than the white resident of the United States, if we omit the province of Quebec from the reckoning. His expectation of life at birth is 60.74 years, as compared with 59.31 for the white male in the United States. For females the figures are 63.23 and 62.83 respectively.

“Even if we include Quebec, which is somewhat less favorably situated as to mortality than the rest of Canada, it is still true from age one on, for males, and from age two on, for females, that the Canadian has a better expectation of life than the individual in our white population.”

“Leaving outside the question the circumstance that lynchings, gang shootings, murders, bombings and highway accidents take a far greater toll in the republic, there are a number of opinions worth considering. One is that the Canadian climate, with its rather severe winter, tends to build men and women of stronger health than do the southern states, in which there is a large population. Another is that life in Canada is less strenuous. This point is dealt with by the London Free Press as follows: ‘No doubt the real explanation is found in the fact that for the most part we live more quietly... take our pleasures less violently and find ourselves closer to the simple life which everyone applauds but few follow.’ ”

Brisbane Describes the “What-Is-It”

rtiiur Brisbane describes the “what-is-it” in the following pointed manner:

“Lloyd George in his memoirs says that while England was borrowing American dollars so industriously ‘the United States, shocked by the cost of war, was suspicious as the allies asked for credit’. He does not add, as he might, that Americans would have been wise to refuse the credit, since all of their gallan-allies have turned out to be gallant welehers. The latest display of American financial genius consists in shipping American gold abroad. First, the government took away any gold that American citizens happened to have. It was too good for them. Then it raised the price of gold to $35 per ounce, nearly doubling it, thus enriching the British, who own the world’s principal gold mines. Now they start sending abroad that gold, bought at fantastic prices with American taxpayers’ money, or taken from citizens by high-handed methods. If there is among the African bushmen a six-month-old infant that knows less about money than the gentlemen who manage the finances of this country, that infant should be exhibited here as the legitimate successor of Barnum’s ‘what-is-it’.”

All a Matter of Bookkeeping

CERTAIN general ideas are indispensable to any understanding of the situation in which we find ourselves. Unquestionably, the first of these is that of the nature and source of money. As to its nature, I think it is sufficient to say that money is an effective demand for goods and services, by which I mean that it is of no use wanting goods and services of any description, nor is it of any use that those goods and services shall be in existence and available, if your request to be supplied with those goods and services is not backed by something which we call money.

Now the second point in regard to money is as to its source, and I will put this as shortly as possible by saying that practically all money is actually created by the banks, and claimed as their property. There is now no argument possible about this, nor is it, in fact, denied by bankers themselves. So that the situation in which we are faced amounts to this: that no matter what are the physical realities in regard to food, clothes, houses and luxuries, and no matter how abundant they may be, we cannot obtain them without obtaining something which we call “money”, and all money is derived from the operations of the banking system.

Please be quite clear in your mind about this. When the employer, the so-called “capitalist”, says that he is making money, what he means, and what he only can mean, is that he is making goods for which he gets money which previously belonged to someone else. He is simply exchanging goods for money, but when a bank makes money, it makes money out of nothing, it gives nothing, and lends everything. It has, as we say in technical language, “a monopoly of credit.”

If you look at the physical reality of the productive system in the western world today, you cannot fail to realize that we are living in an age of material wealth and plenty. Not only are the shops full of goods of all descriptions; not only are corn, coffee, rubber, all the metals, and, in fact, every raw material, so much in excess of requirements that practically all producers are engaged in all sorts of schemes to endeavor to stem the flow of real wealth, but nearly every farm and factory in this and almost every other country, with the exception of Russia, is working much less than a quarter of its possible output.

Yet, if you turn to the Press, and more particularly the London Press, which is paid to ex-By Major C. H. Douglas (England) press the views of the financial interests, you will be told that only severe economy, lower wages, higher taxation, and other symptoms of severe scarcity can be deduced from the present situation, and that we have to accept them. Now I think it must be obvious to ordinary common sense that one set of statements cannot reflect the condition depicted by the other set of statements.

Either I am deluded in telling you that there is plenty of corn, coffee, rubber and many materials, or else a set of financial figures, which says that we must economize because there is not enough, must be false. In other words, it is impossible that these figures can be a reflection of the facts. So that the first essential in dealing with the situation which arises out of this conflict of facts and figures is to correct the figures. I would point out to you that what the financiers tell us to do is to correct the facts, which is some indication of the state of mind to which too much concentration on figures will drive people.

It is perfectly possible to retain and to extend the present system of private administration and private property, while at the same time organizing the country in such a way that every citizen shall draw a dividend from the activities of the community as a whole, of such magnitude that almost immediately poverty, financial anxiety, economic depression, and all other features of our present social system will disappear like the bad dream that they are.

Who Owns the Natural Gas?

IF ONE is asked, Who is it that owns the natural gas ? the natural answer would be, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” but in the United States, according to the Federal Trade Commission, the natural gas in this country is dominated by eight utility companies that produce and purchase 85 percent of the national supply.

The Dutch No Longer Dutch

THE Dutch are no longer Dutch, and anybody who cannot understand that is in Dutch. Unless you want to get their Dutch up you must hereafter refer to the Netherlands by its proper name and to the people who live therein as Netherlanders. The Dutch East Indies will hereafter be known as the Netherland Indies.

“Kindness to Animals Always Pays” (From the Worcester Telegram)

TpULL-SIZE cancers of horrifying type have A been bred in healthy guinea pigs by perfect inoculation from cancerous human [creatures]. Scientists at the Rockefeller Institute are studying now to determine if cancer is a “catching” disease, and the guinea pig is the medium by which they hope to prove or disprove it.

Guinea pigs make the finest subjects for vivisection that surgeons can obtain, because they are small and do not cause the amount of trouble that a mastiff or other large-sized dog, or even a big cat, would create.

People object to having dogs and cats flayed alive for study, but they ignore the humble and homely-looking guinea pig, although doctors say that the little fellows have just as highly developed nervous systems as any other creature.

A dog when under vivisection without anesthesia wall moan and whimper as the knife works in the vital organs, and as the nerves are stimulated with hot irons or electric sparks to study the reaction; a cat will cry out and struggle until the very last gasp.

The guinea pig, however, seldom gives any trouble, although it shows all the symptoms of a man when under agony; right in the very middle of a most interesting severance and electrical stimulation of a ganglion nerve, or trephining the skull, the heart will stop beating and the creature dies.

The wonderful [?] vivisection operation by a noted New York surgeon in which the entire bony structure of a guinea pig’s head was removed, leaving the brain entirely exposed, was spoken of admiringly by eminent surgeons. The brain throbbed and palpitated in full view of the students, and every day, for ten days, the vivisector cut away a portion of the brain until the senses of sight, sound, and, it was believed, feeling, were destroyed.

In a recent experiment with a living guinea pig at the Rockefeller Institute, the creature was strapped on its right side in a tiny steel casing so that it was immovable; then a surgeon removed the ribs covering the heart, and made what is described as practically a door in the creature’s side two inches square.

Then the fleshy covering around the heart was removed and the heart itself was gently lifted out and held in the air. Strong electrical currents and injections of nitroglycerin kept the creature alive for four days while the doctors studied the functions of the organ.

Death of the creature was made positive by plunging a needle into the upper ventricle and then into the lower ventricle. The peculiar feature of vivisection of guinea pigs, however, is that the creatures are timid by nature and are very affectionate to people who are kind to them.

It is always necessary for a vivisectionist, when he desires to get the best results, to pet the guinea pig and feed it himself for days and even for weeks before the ordeal under the knife, otherwise the creature is likely to expire through abject fear on the operating table.

Most vivisectors secure the love and confidence of the little fellows before they strap them on the death boards, and all the time they keep up a gentle, carefully modulated caressing tone to the dying cavies, so they may keep them on duty for a longer period.

To demonstrate this sensation of fear and how it acts on the subject, two guinea pigs of the same litter were selected. One was kept in the office of the surgeon for several weeks; he petted it, fed it with sugar, and allowed it to play around every day. The little chap became so friendly that he would climb into the doctor’s chair, scale up his shoulder, and nuzzle against his ear in dumb love.

The other guinea pig was kept in the stable and, although fed often, it was not spoken to or caressed. The two guineas were strapped to two operating boards at the same time. The pet guinea pig accepted it all as a matter of course, and as long as his master, the doctor, spoke to him he lay quiet and never stirred. The other one, however, showed every indication of utmost terror. Its heart action was trebled and its condition was made deplorable through its fright.

The pet guinea died under the knife without much trouble as the operator kept up a soothing conversation, addressed to it, until its spinal cord was severed, but the other one died almost as soon as the knife entered its hide, practically scared to death. All of which tends to prove that kindness to animals always pays even in the case of a vivisector who is about to expose all the creature’s insides. Kindness kept one creature alive whereas fear hastened the death of the other.

Some Thoughts on Dogs By Miss Bite (London)

MY PET aversion, next to the creepy, crawly things that Keating’s famous powder says a lot about, is a dog. There is an exception to every rule, however. I like the one at home, of course; but if there is another I tolerate, it is the one that is very well chained or very well fed (so well fed that he just could not take another bite) or one that is toothless and old.

I have changed my mind about what constitutes a Christian, too. Once upon a time my best definition was that a Christian is very, very good, speaks correctly, walks quietly, stays at home and waits to go to heaven. But now I know that a Christian is oftentimes a tramp, and goes in for plenty of excitement. Unlike the worldling, it need not be costly to his pocket. To get his “thrills” he does not need to march up to a pay-box first and part with a foolish shilling or two or, worse still, a good half-guinea or more.

Let us see. Just take a trip with me this fine spring day to the neat little village of Scare ’Em. First of all, we come to the policeman’s cottage. We open the gate, and are well pleased to find the officer of the law at home as well as his fine massive bulldog at the open side-door. Come right on with me; for the next bit of free fun is to be had just next door.

We approach the large iron gate of a nice, quiet country homestead; and our eyes look over a long, neat path bordered with pretty daisied lawns to the noble porch beyond. Is it a brown door-mat or is it a huge brown specimen of my pet aversion lying there? The only chimney smoking is one far enough away at the back of the house. We hope someone will answer the door, so that we may impart some comfort and be comforted, too!

Now proceed with me down this little track on the left. It is somewhat rough and stony, but it leads to a farm and another beyond. This time we see no chimneys smoking, and remember it is market day at town, five miles away. However, we give it a try to see if there is any chance of saying, “Millions now living will never die; deliverance has come.”

Hark! What’s that? Only the scraping of shoes on the mat? Anything like the sound of a rat (no, not that) makes my heart go pitapat. That proves to be chained; so we go to this door and the other, while our friend at the end of his tether makes frantic bounds to get nearer. There is evidently no one at home; and to get to the farm beyond we must pass near that kennel. And so we go, when lo! a sudden bound, and dog and chain have parted; and for a brief moment we are not sure whether something went at us or over us. It is all so sudden; and we go on, glad to find we still have our pound of flesh, “for a’ that!”

We are both pleased and surprised to find that on reaching farm number two no whoo— whoo—whoo breaks upon the stillness of the air, but just the sweet, pathetic little mew—mew— mew of a few small kittens. As we venture back to the road we wish for another way than the one we have come by and, further thought, we wish for no more surprises in the canine way.

Just carry on a little longer. A little farther on and we come to a sort of small holding. With quick and practiced eye we look around, and our vision takes in the doorway, the outbuildings and the low wall on the right. Unhappily, however, we fail to examine the sugar-box just at hand; and a few seconds later we are glad that Christian is not clothed in a £200 fur coat, for the loss would have been too great. The sugar-box contained nothing sweet, but, instead, a sleeping dog, startled out of his dreams by my unwary feet colliding with his unpretentious domain. My coat will go out with me no more, since it is not the fashion just now to wear one all ribbons!

And now we come to the last of all. In a good story the best is at the end. By this time we are so warm that we have no need of a coat. We are so warm that we care not what happens next. And right here the biggest of kennels meets our admiring gaze, and a black-coated dog with a collar such as I’ve seen on no other! He is a great dog; but just why everybody in the village is in awe of him I cannot well make out, for the dog is blind and cannot bark, lying down, and loving to slumber.—Isaiah 56:10,11.

He shows his teeth, however; for our visit is a most unwelcome one. “Millions now living will never die? Of course, they do not die! Do I not see my dead mother every night speaking to me over my shoulder? You go right away before I put the police on your track, deceiving the people with that Rutherford rubbish! Do you think to teach me? Do you not see that I am a real, live bishop?”

We come away. I am still Miss Bite, and will call again tomorrow.

Problems Political

The Townsend Revolving Pensions

SAYS Norman Hawkins, of South Dakota:

“You published recently a notice about the Townsend Revolving Pensions. It is true this organization is powerful, and gaining every day, but I brave criticism in my effort to strike at this cancerous growth, sometimes being called insulting things. I feel you should do the same, if you can be convinced of its rottenness. Here are some of the figures: There are about ten million eligible; the total population is 125,000,000. The pensions will revolve on a sales-tax plan estimated at 10 percent. About 8,000,000 are expected to accept the pension. This is about one in fourteen. If every pensioner made room for someone else in industry, it is possible (a wild estimate) that in time half the entire population -would be gainfully employed at an average of $100 per month. For every two pensions the government would receive $10 per month. But to meet the expense the government would need a per capita assessment of more than $14, which means a per capita loss of $9 per month, a total of more than $15,000,000,000 a year. Business men will gain about 8 percent in business volume and lose 10 percent to the government. No matter how the equation is juggled (some estimates place the tax at 6 percent and the amount of pensioners as low as 5,000,000), the results are similar. I believe it is to the interest of the people to show them that billions will be poured down a rathole. Such hair-brained cure-alls are plunging the world to-ward anarchy and final collapse. They are simply further evidence that Satan’s organization will be hung by its own rope. It will certainly be a jolt for millions of numskulls to find they have been duped. I look forward to seeing more of this in a future issue. And keep on hammering Ambrose!”

Excitement Among the Midianites

THERE is excitement among the Midianites at Plainfield. At a political meeting Judge De Meza, who granted Jehovah’s witnesses the most unjust trial in the history of American jurisprudence, was referred to as “Hitler De Meza”. The statement was made that he “hates anybody who does not agree with him”, which is probably true, and that “he is unjust”, which is certainly true. It seems that the inhabitants of Plainfield would have everything to gain by making a change in their city judgeship.

Poisoning Parties and Miscellany

Chronic Poisoning by Aluminum and Its Alloys

IN A 28-page brochure, "The Clinical Aspect of Chronic Poisoning by Aluminum and Its Alloys,” by Leo Spira, M.D., published by John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd., London, Mr. Spira tells how he became a victim to chronic disease and got -well himself, and helped many others to get well, by discarding aluminum utensils. He noticed in himself and others some or all of the following symtoms due to the use of these poisonous utensils: constipation, colicky pain, dryness in mouth and throat, loss of appetite, retching, nausea, vomiting, thick white or dirty gray fur on the tongue, excoriations between the toes, soft corns, infantile eczema, soft and brittle finger nails, neuralgia, twitching of the legs, giddiness, excessive perspiration, anemia and depression. He found a great deal of difference in ability of some constitutions to meet the conditions. Since the introduction of aluminum utensils into Germany diseases hitherto unknown are making their appearance. He mentions the case of a dog with persistent rash and sores associated with intense itching which did not respond to local treatment, but cleared up completely eight days after the aluminum utensil from which the dog was fed was discarded. A herd of cattle kept in the environment of aluminum factories and feeding on fodder exposed to the gases emanating from these factories all perished within a very short time.

Jailing Women in Milwaukee

A MILWAUKEE judge has just sent to pris-on for thirty days a woman, Mrs. Martha Schmidt, a naturopath, a graduate of the National College of Drugless Healing in Chicago. Who do you think has the most reason to be ashamed, this judge who has done the will of a lot of shameless racketeers who claim a knowledge and a skill they do not possess, or this woman who was trying to relieve human suffering by methods which many have found good ?

Rubber from Gas

IT COSTS too much to employ it in a commercial way, as yet, but rubber as good as that grown in South America is obtained from acetylene gas by the addition of water and salt. The acetylene itself is obtained from heating coal and limestone and thus producing the calcium carbide used in acetylene manufacture.

Two More Group Poisonings

GROUP poisonings go merrily on, and will continue indefinitely. Why not? At Urban, Northumberland county, Pa., potato salad, made the day before, was kept overnight for two nights in aluminum containers; the result was that thirty people were nearly killed. Any reader of The Golden Age would have known that result; others could know it if they desired, but they don’t desire. When the aluminum advertising experts got on the job they fixed it in this wise: They said, “It was said the potato salad blamed for the outbreak of illness had been made the day before the outing and that as a result of the mixture, having stood overnight, it became contaminated in some unaccountable manner.” Isn’t that a good cover-up job? The other group poisoning was at Los Angeles national military home, where 350 were overcome similarly. The way the advertising men doctored this up was that “investigating officials expressed the belief that a certain meat had caused the poisonings”. A right good advertising job, boys. Why tell the truth when it pays so much better to hide it?

Wilton Junction Not Sorry

THE little town of Wilton Junction, Iowa, installed its own municipal lighting plant three years ago. The annual gross income of the plant, $13,000, has been paying the operating expenses of the town, which amount to about $5,000, and the interest on the bonds, besides building up a reserve fund. This is all very sad for the power trust, but Wilton Junction is not the least bit sorry.

The Huge Sears Roebuck Company

THE Sears Roebuck Company, in the four years from 1930 to 1933 inclusive, received and paid out for merchandise $921,633,082. In the four years merchandise was bought from 6,600 manufacturing sources; only three-fourths of one percent of it from outside of the United States.

Bound in a Sheaf of Wheat

IN A WHEAT field in France a nine-year-old boy fell before the reaper and was swallowed up by the machine. The father expected that the boy would be killed, and all hands, including the boy himself, were greatly surprised when he emerged from the machine bound in a sheaf of wheat, but quite uninjured.

THE SIXTEENTH

in the series of eighteen short Bible talks by Judge Rutherford is presented on this page. The subject of the “keys” is one that is of greatest concern to all. If any man claims he really has the keys of heaven and can use them to exelude any individual from God’s favor, as the popes of Rome have assumed to do, it becomes a matter of importance to ascertain what truth there is in such claim. If, further, the one claiming to have the keys asserts that he also has authority to rule the world, it is of greatest interest to all to have such claims conclusively shown to be false and fraudulent. This Judge Rutherford undertakes to do in the subjoined talk.

Keys

MILLIONS of good people have been led to believe that the apostle Peter was the first pope and that the popes in their regular order succeeded Peter, and stand in his shoes, and have the sole authority to interpret the Scriptures and to exercise supremacy over the Chris-tains of the world. To support that false claim the words of Jesus are improperly cited, when He said to Peter: “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”

The Bible plainly shows that there have never been any successors to the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ Peter was one of the twelve, and no one ever succeeded him; hence no man since Peter’s day has had the same power that the Lord bestowed upon Peter. The word “keys” used in the foregoing scripture symbolically represents the privilege of unlocking, that is to say, understanding, the truth relating to the kingdom of heaven. The prophets did not understand that mystery, but Jesus said to His faithful apostles, in Matthew 13:11: “It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” Later Jesus said to Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” meaning that He would permit Peter to have the first understanding of this mystery.

The pope is the head of the Catholic church organization, but he is not the head of the true church. To Jehovah God belongs the true church, and Christ Jesus He has made the Head of the church, as the Scriptures declare. (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:23) It is to Jesus Christ and the members of His church that Jehovah has committed the kingdom of heaven. It is to that divine and invisible organization that Jehovah has delegated the power to rule the world in righteousness. It is made up of creatures whom God has taken out of the world for His name’s sake. The keys of understanding of the kingdom of heaven first given to Peter through the operation of the holy spirit made known that God was taking out of the world a people for His name, and that this favor was first extended to the Jews, and later to all, without regard to nationality, who devoted themselves wholly to God and kept His commandments. The names of these faithful ones are not written in earthly books, but the Scriptures declare that they are written in heaven and the Lord alone knows who they are. It is these faithful ones that receive an understanding of the mystery of the kingdom of heaven.

Some time after Pentecost all the apostles met together at Jerusalem and there the Lord revealed to them the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, to wit, that Christ Jesus is the chief or Head of that organization, and that others God has taken out of the world as a people for His name and these must be faithful witnesses to Jehovah, and proving themselves faithful unto death they participate in the first resurrection, form a part of the kingdom of heaven or the royal house of God, and reign with Christ.

Carrying out his well laid schemes of fraud and deceit Satan has deceived men, overreaching them, and inducing them to believe that a man on earth is a successor of the apostle Peter and is clothed with the same power and authority that Peter received, and that to him, the pope, is given the privilege of unfolding the Scriptures. There is absolutely no authority for such claim. You know that the pope as the head of the Catholic hierarchy participates in the politics of this world and is a friend of this world, and concerning this it is written, in James 4:4, that he that is a friend of the world is God’s enemy, and hence could not be a successor to the apostle Peter. Peter, wholly devoted to God, finished his work on earth, and no one could

succeed him. Do not permit Satan to use men to deceive you. Be guided by the Word of God and then you will go in the right way. Every person who now fully separates himself from the Devil’s organization and takes his stand wholly on the side of God may receive the knowl-

[The foregoing talk on “Keys” is one of the eighteen prepared by Judge Rutherford in phonograph record form. These records are meeting with wide favor, being distributed at cost by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society (Brooklyn, N. Y.). They may be used edge of the mystery of the kingdom, which was first delivered to Peter, and then to the other apostles. Obtaining this knowledge does not depend upon any man now on earth, because Jehovah and Christ Jesus are the Teachers.—Isaiah 30: 20.

with any phonograph, of the usual type, at the customary rate of 78 revolutions per minute. Inquiries concerning this unique set of records should be addressed to the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, and not to us.]

Why Should Reverend Black Hate Millennium?

ONE of the most widely read magazines in England is The Quiver. One of its valued contributors is “Reverend” Dr. James Black (Edinburgh), pastor of St. Giles church. In the August Quiver Dr. Black has a three-page article, “Must We Believe in a Millennium?” In the September issue is a two-page article from the same pen, “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.” The two articles are intended to teach the same thing, i.e., that it is ridiculous to believe in the kingdom for which Jesus taught us to pray or to hope for a time when there shall be no more death. Dr. Black is a frequent visitor to America. When he comes here he is welcomed at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church, perhaps the wealthiest congregation in the world. He is also welcomed at the offices of W. A. Kissel & Company, 49 Wall Street, where, so we are informed, he has purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars of stocks on margins. Just why one of the gambling fraternity would object to a Millennium we do not know, but presume it is the pulpit training that leads him into the error. The clergy instinctively seem to apprehend the truth that when God’s kingdom does really come the jig will be all up with them, and they will have to get to work. Meantime, those who can are figuring on any kind of way to get out of developing callouses on their hands, and they resent the spread of doctrines that hold out no better hope for the “cloth” than to get up before daylight and work honestly all day like other people. Gambling, to them, seems a much better alternative.

Send Petitions to Washington

OLDEN AGE readers who have been circulating the petition calling upon Congress to publish all the testimony and report of the hearings before the Federal Communications Commission should send these petitions to A. Koerber, 1603 Massachusetts Ave. NW., Washington, D. C., and not to the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, as stated in The Golden Age No. 397, issue of December 5. Perhaps you will ask, ‘What is it all about?” That is just why the petition is being circulated, that the public, you included, may know what it is all about; and it will make interesting reading. This petition is merely asking or instructing Congress, the servants of the people, to make known what was done in regard to a matter of vital importance to the nation. Radio broadcasting is of great importance than most persons realize. If they knew how certain interests are struggling to control the radio and to keep certain programs from being broadcast the people would know that there is something back of it. Hence the petition appearing on the opposite page. Sign it, have others sign it, each one for himself or herself. When you have as many names as you can get in the allotted time, send the petition in. And remember, it is to be sent, not to the Watch Tower, but to A. Koerber, 1603 Massachusetts Ave. NW., Washington, D. C. All petitions should be there by January 12, 1935.

PETI

TION

To THE CONGRESS of the United States of America: Greetings!

In obedience to the mandate of the Seventy-third Congress, second session, the Federal Communications Commission, Broadcast Division, has taken the testimony of many witnesses in relation to the broadcasting of programs of public interest, convenience and neces-	sity. We are deeply interested in these facts and therefore PETITION Congress to publish all the testimony and the report of the Commission, at government expense, and mail to each of us, the undersigned, a copy thereof.
NAMES	ADDRESSES

Items of German News

Complete Repudiation of Christianity ing command to Hitler youth, which speaks for itself as the expression of Hitler himself. That this pronouncement was inspired by Gog of Magog there is not a reasonable doubt. The people in every land who have preferred the Devil to Jehovah will soon have their chance to show exactly where they stand:

‘¹ Throw from you the last remnants of your Christian education, which destroys the character of Nordic man. Hurl from you the Jewish-Christian ideas of sinfulness, pity and love for your enemies. Carry before you the conquering symbol of the swastika. We must be hard if we would conquer. A curse upon sympathy and mercy. Praised be he that makes us hard and cold, so that we may unmoved see the destruction of the evil sons of sound fathers. Youths, do you not feel the spirit of your fathers that aroused them to fight against that foreign doctrine Christianity? Does not your heart burn to renew this struggle? Seize the weapon of your fathers and conquer with the sword the spirit of your future. In this struggle let Widukind [an ancient Saxon chief], who led uncompromisingly and bitterly in the struggle against the Jewish-Christian invasion, be our example.”

In curious contradiction of this statement of his spokesman is Hitler’s own statement, published a day later, that "the Nazi State professes positive Christianity. It will be my honest endeavor to protect the two great Christian confessions in their rights, to guard them in their doctrines from interference, and in their duties to produce harmony with the obligations and demands of the present state”.

Graft Among the Hitlerites

THE Manchester Guardian reports the resentment of many German people at seeing Nazi officers driving about in splendid cars bought with party funds. Graft is rampant. A favorite form is the holding of welfare collections. These collections are in reality forced contributions, like Liberty Bonds. £2,400 was collected in a single evening. Ostensibly for charity, much of it went into the pockets of the collectors. A onetime head waiter in this way grabbed £5,000, and is supposed to have another £7,000 salted away somewhere. In July Hitler was fired at by an assassin, but no news of it was allowed to get into the papers. Two persons, Von Alvens-leben and Gregor Strasser, who had the hardihood to approach Hitler and urge reforms, have since been murdered.

Raw Materials Shortage in Germany materials. Various boards now control all dealings in textiles, cereals, rubber, oilseeds and finished and unfinished iron and steel products. Housewives may not throw away the shortest piece of thread or wool. The potato shortage is acute. The railway stations have been notified to avoid the handling of foreign publications or their licenses will be taken away. Neither the black, white and red flag of imperial Germany, nor the red, gold and black flags of the republic of 1919, may any longer be displayed. All busts and pictures of men who took part in the revolution of 1919 have been destroyed. In most places new automobile tires are unobtainable. Cloth is synthetic, of wool or cotton substitutes. One concern is engaged in making cloth from bark.

The German Spy System

GERMANY’S spy system is complete. It can break into any private dwelling, can employ torture, and there is no appeal from its acts or decisions. It can arrest and imprison on suspicion without its victims’ knowing why they have been incarcerated. Personal revenge may be the only motive, but it cannot be questioned. The victims may be robbed, and there is no redress. If a German living abroad expresses himself against the Nazi regime his relatives in Germany will be imprisoned. Dispatches from Germany say that 32,077 amnesties have been granted in Berlin alone, and that school children heretofore barred from certain classes will again be permitted to attend them; and that makes one wonder why they were barred in the first place.

Hitler a Dictator Extraordinary

WITHIN a half hour after Von Hindenburg’s death, and without the knowledge or consent of the German people, Adolf Hitler proclaimed himself president as well as chancellor, making himself head of the army and the navy and the whole bureaucracy, state and municipal. He has the nomination of all German ambassadors and ministers, foreign diplomatists are accredited to him, and he alone has the final decision between peace and war. He having seized the power, it was a comparatively simple matter, by means of suitable inducements to make it snappy, to have the German people “approve” his course.

Items Agricultural

How the Strawberry Code Worked

LAST spring, just when the middle west was burning up with the worst drought in history, there was a bumper crop of strawberries in the state of Washington, but the code authorities, so that the middlemen could get their profits, compelled a fourth to a half of the crop to rot in the fields. Only a statesman whose symbol is the jackass can explain how such action was of benefit to society.

112-Pound Bunch of Grapes

THERE was recently exhibited at the Los Angeles County fair a single bunch of grapes which weighed 112 pounds. The Scriptures mention a somewhat similar bunch brought back by the spies who went to spy out the land of Palestine, requiring the use of a staff and two men to bear it conveniently. That would be the only way the California bunch could be handled by men afoot.

Suicided Rather than Destroy Crop

IN GREENVILLE county, South Carolina, a tenant farmer shot and killed himself rather than plow up three acres of cotton he had laboriously cultivated. Government inspectors found he had three more acres in cotton than was permissible under the contract he had signed with the Government.

Montana Cattle Shipped to Eastern States

SOME idea of the severity of the drought this past season may be gathered from the fact that in order to save some Montana cattle it was necessary to ship them all the way to the Atlantic states to be pastured, there being no place for them in between.

The Big Mistake of the Kikes

THE big mistake of the Kikes in South

American trade was when they demanded cash and a high price for high-grade silk stockings and then shipped out hundreds of dozens of darned second-hand women’s stockings that bore no relation to the samples on which the order had been obtained. This was done in the boom times following the World War, and was advertised all over South America as a sample of American honor. This job, so well started, was finished by the international munitions grafters, whose trail of bribery leads all over the world.

Senator Bravo, of Argentina

IN THE senate chamber of Argentina Senator Bravo, a Socialist, read letter after letter proving that a general of the Argentinian army had received bribes from the international munitions grafters of America, one of the most highly respected professionally patriotic corporations of the United States. He was invited by the minister of war to commit suicide: it was estimated that his nephew had collected $60,000 from the Colt Company and it was proved that he had shared in the graft.

Destruction of Coffee in Brazil

SINCE June, 1931, Brazil has destroyed 31,082,000 bags of coffee, of a market value of $450,000,000. No more coffee trees may be planted. This seems to have woraed out well for the coffee planters, and certainly has worked out well for the people. It would be a good thing all around if Brazil would make it a 100-percent job. In the long run, coffee does nobody any good.

Terracing Land in Kansas

KANSAS is glad to adopt the terracing of land, so common in many parts of the South. It is no disgrace to have crooked rows; the method saves the rains that have heretofore run off; the soil itself is saved; gullies are controlled; there are many other advantages.

Bees Do Not Always Lose Sting

Dr. J. G. Myers, of Imperial College, Trinidad, has discovered, by careful observation, that bees do not always lose their lives when they sting, but in many instances are able to withdraw the stinger and use it again.

Social and Educational

Income in the United States

IN THE United States there are 160,000 families whose annual income is $25,000 or more. These are classed as “wealthy”. Further, 471,000 families are classed as “well to do”, with income of less than $25,000 and over $10,000. There are 1,625,000 “comfortable” families, whose income is from $5,000 to $10,000 a year. Income of from $3,000 to less than $5,000 (enjoyed by 3,672,000 families) places one in “moderate circumstances”, while less than $3,000 but over $1,500 provides a “minimum comfort” for 9.896,000 families. There are 11,653,000 “poor” families, whose incomes are less than $1,500 yearly.

Busy Times at Washington

A FRIEND, a Government employee at Washington, who says that her Golden Age is sometimes read by as many as fifty persons, says: “My life this past year has been hard, although I work for the Government. The new deal increased my hardships in every way, besides more than doubling the work at the office. I have been absent from my desk three hours in the past year, and often stayed until eleven at night. The comfort of knowing what is coming is all that has sustained me.”

A Shipload of Joneses

WHEN the liner Orduna sailed from Liverpool on a Welsh League of Youth cruise to North Africa she had on board 102 Joneses, 68 Williamses, and 53 Thomases. The number of the Evans family was not listed, and mankind remains uninformed as to how many by the name of William Williams, of Thomas Thomas, and of Evan Evans, were in the party.

G 090,000 Still in Bondage

ROMAN Catholic officials estimate that, aside from those held in convents, there are 6,000,000 slaves still in bondage, mostly in Ethiopia, China and Moslem countries. Yearly 2,000 are taken across the Red sea from Africa for sale to Moslem masters in Arabia.

Twelve Fingers and Twelve Toes

A FARMER’S boy in Seatonville, Ky., has twelve fingers and twelve toes, all seemingly perfect. A little girl near Montdale, Pa., has six fingers on one hand, all perfect

Salvation Industry in a Bad Way

THE church business in the United States, or what might be called the “salvation industry”, is in a bad way. Its income decreased from $1,101,000,000 in 1929 to $435,000,000 in 1932, much of which latter amount necessarily goes for interest, insurance and rents. It is this loss of income that is binding Catholic priests, Protestant clergymen and Jewish rabbis together, and not that they are so fond of one another. In their joint literature they bemc the fact that their church members have had to put up $6,000,000,000 to aid the government in its relief program, and yet that none of this huge sum can be sluiced off into church channels. Sad-eyed, they publish in one batch of literature a letter from President Roosevelt, in three different places; also they publish once Secretary Wallace’s proposition that these that have made the world unhappy by their doctrines “will, by working on the human heart, so balance the message of the economist and the scientist that we will yet be saved from ruin”. The dominies don’t think it just fair that the people of the country should spend twice as much for smoking as they do for churches and benevolences, or three times as much for amusements and drinks. On a nicely gotten-up front page they represent Uncle Sam pulling a rope and assembling 213 kinds of Christians and Jews to meet in their 213 respective places of worship on either Saturday (if Jews) or Sunday (if not Jews) to put salvation peddling back on its legs.

Spiritism Spreading Rapidly

HDHE London Daily Herald says that the pope, J- “worried by the development of exaggerated and often hysterical and sensual cults of the Madonna,” is sending his secretary of state to Buenos Aires to see what can be done abc it. Two Italian convents in which “morbid" devotions were practiced were recently suppressed by the pope.

Send the Dominies to the Cleaners

SAYS Ernest Huntington, of Illinois: “The churches, especially Catholic, want to clean up the movies. Why not the movies clean up the churches? The churches have enough material to keep the movies going with stories to last them years. Give the hint in the magazine.” The suggestion is a good one, and the movies would be improved by adopting it.

No Longer Taken Seriously

The Invitation Came Too Late

ERE is an invitation from St. Joseph’s House for Homeless Boys, 16th street and Allegheny avenue, Philadelphia, Pa. According to the letter (in which form the invitation comes) a cord of St. Joseph is enclosed which has been touched to a relic of St. Joseph. It is of no good to try to peddle cords in these days unless they have been touched to something dead; the deader they are, the more cord you can sell. We admit that Joseph is dead, and he will be that way until the resurrection. This is nothing against him; there are millions of other people who are dead, too. The invitation goes on to mention that next to the virgin Mary St. Joseph stands highest in heaven. How this could be when Joseph is still dead and quietly awaiting his awakening is not explained. The next point in the invitation is to mail to “F'ather” Thomas Joseph, C. S. Sp., a list of the favors you would like to have granted. Just how this would do any good is not explained. It may be true that St. Joseph stands highest in heaven, in some respects, but he isn’t there; he is dead, and nobody can do anything while he is dead. And as to the other Joseph, who wants the list sent to him, he is not in heaven, and never will be; so it is useless to ask him to do anything. The invitation goes on that 30 days of prayer were to begin last May 15. It is all over by now, so even if we had gotten the cord, which we haven’t, how could we take part ? Following the cord and St. Joseph and prayer propositions there is expressed a willingness to accept contributions for a “vigil light” to burn at St. Joseph’s shrine, coupled with the statement, “We are in very, very great need.” Just how an institution that is “in very, very great need” is going to be helped by burning extra kerosene in front of the picture or the statue of a man who is dead is not explained. After coaxing the recipient of the letter to come across with something substantial there follows the suggestion, “Come to St. Joseph with your trials and tribulations; he will help you.” That being the case, it is good not to accept any of these invitations, cords, prayers, kerosene or contributions. The gentleman who writes the letter is fully assured that St. Joseph will look after all his needs and it will strengthen his faith to just let St. Joseph do it. While we appreciate having this invitation sent to us, we seem to feel that we were slighted when somebody snitched the cord that was really a part of the invitation, and, anyway, we haven’t a particle of confidence that the party extending the invitation could put anything across either in heaven or with St. Joseph in the place where he is: in his grave.

The Nicholas Brady Estate

TF YOU visit the Nicholas Brady Estate, out on Long Island, you are told by a polite cop that you may not enter; if you do you will be arrested. You may not even look closely inside. The estate is a mile square; it takes 58 gardeners to keep it shipshape. Nicholas Brady is said to have made $100,000,000 in Anaconda copper. When his wife dies his estate will all go to the Catholic church. Mrs. Brady is over there now, as close to the pope as she can get, and so we read, under a Vatican City date line:

“Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady of New York, a papal duchess and recent winner of the Laetare Medal of Notre Dame, was accorded the rare privilege last night of being the only woman ever admitted to the traditional St. Peter’s Eve services in the presence of the pope. By special permission of ‘his holiness’, Mrs. Brady was conducted by Msgr. Ottiavan and placed behind a huge marble column where she could observe the ceremony but be hidden from the pope’s sight. ’ ’

And then, by contrast:

“And the common people heard him gladly. And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts; which devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation. And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor woman hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: for all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.’’— Mark 12:37-44.

And she never saw the pope, and never will.

$1,250,000,000 Annually by Catholic Institutions

THE Associated Catholic Newspapers, Institutional Merchandising Service, Providence, R. I., claims that $1,250,000,000 is spent annually by Catholic institutions, and that this year, on account of times’ being so good in their line, $300,000,000 has been appropriated.

No Longer Necessary to Write the Names

NDER old methods of cashing in on the “purgatory” wrinkle some work devolved on those who received the coin of the realm. They had to go to the trouble of writing the names of those who had contributed, and those of their friends, living and dead. The priest got what he could, and all he could, but he did have the argument that it cost him something to write down the names. Charges of as high as $1 a name were considered all O.K. Now, however, times have changed. The people cannot go as deep into their pockets as they used to do, and even if they did there is nothing there when they get there. So a great improvement has been made. We see this in a sales sheet that has come from the “Office of the Provincial, 2222 West Market Street, Louisville, Ky.” The sheet contains spaces for listing the names of 20 living persons and 20 dead ones. On the margin holes are punctured and there appears the caption, “Please do not tear punctures because they fit the binder in which all scrolls will be collected and preserved.” “While amount of the offering is not obligatory, it is suggested to enclose 25c for each name listed.” This would be at the rate of $10 for the sheet. The sheet itself, in quantities, would cost much less than 1c a sheet, but let no one hastily assume that the net profit on this proposition is $9.99 a sheet. To be sure, it might be, for another explanatory note is that “while no definite offering is prescribed, it is suggested that you send at least 25c for each name listed. Every additional dollar will accelerate the completion of, and make effective the assumption of Mary purse”. It costs money for postage, in these days, and for every sheet returned there might be a cost of 9c for postage and other expenses; so no reasoning person would expect a profit of more than $9.90 on the proposition. As soon as $5,000 has been gathered in these sheets “will be bound in a beautiful leather covered and gold embossed book” which will probably cost around $5 for the 500 sheets it will contain; so here is another expense of 1c a sheet, reducing the net profit to around $9.89 a sheet. The principal thing on each sheet is a picture of St. Anthony of Padua, born in A.D. 1195, holding in his arms the infant Jesus, who died a full grown man in A.D. 33, 1,062 years before Anthony of Padua was born. When Anthony looks over the 500 sheets, containing 20,000 names, he will be charmed to find his own name and picture on every page.

Romanism and the Truth

TN AN anonymous tract entitled “Romanism J- and the Truth” we find the following:

“There was a strife among the disciples which of them should be accounted the greatest, and the Lord said unto them—‘The Kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors; but ye shall not be so, but he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that doth serve.’ If this does not mean that one disciple was not to lord it over all the others, the words have no meaning. It would be difficult to imagine anything more directly in opposition to the Lord’s teachings in this matter than the papal system of church government. It is laid down clearly in the New Testament that ‘there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’, but the Roman Catholics are taught that there are others. They pray to the Lord’s mother and to other ‘saints’, who have not the office of mediator. Moreover, Roman Catholics are encouraged in the practice of bowing down before images, which is forbidden in the Second Commandment. They say they do not worship the images, but use them as symbols of the object of their worship. The Commandment does not only forbid the worship of images. It says plainly: ‘ Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them.’ The practice is therefore inexcusable.... Another instance is the custom in the Roman church of calling the parish priest ‘father’ and the pope the ‘holy father’. Our Lord said, ‘Call no man your father on earth, for one is' your father which is in heaven. ’ The Roman Catholics make these words of no effect by their tradition. They profess to believe in the infallibility of the pope; but Peter, whom they pretend to follow, was not infallible in any sense of the word. If he had been, it would never have been recorded that Paul on a memorable occasion ‘withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed ’... .The Romans show that they are the least Catholic-minded of all professing Christians, for it is nothing to them that the Lord said, ‘Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst.’ If Christ is there in the midst, seeing that He and His church are one body, here is a definition of Catholicity with which Roman interpretation is altogether at variance.”

Lotteries, Raffles, and Bazaars

IX/TANY are writing the New York papers that they see no difference in principle between the government’s operating lotteries and the churches’ operating bazaars and the raffles now so common; however, the whole thing is wrong, no matter what allegedly “holy father” is back of it. It is merely one more scheme for robbing the poor of what little they may have.

Why Not Save the Candles?

IT SEEMS that St. Christopher’s Inn, Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, Graymoor, Garrison, N. Y., does quite a large business, having provided 43,223 night lodgings and 144,000 meals in 1933. We presume some way has been found to make the taxpayers help out on the expense. From some of the advertising literature at hand, it seems that candles are sold. One hundred imaginary candles are set in type, the “1” being used. The candles are sold for 10c each, but the man who buys the candle doesn’t get the candle; all he gets is a receipt, and we are not sure whether he gets that. The statement occurs: “These offerings, 10c for each candle, will go towards feeding the hungry unemployed, lodging the homeless, clothing the naked and procuring medicine for the sick.” These are worthy objectives, and we were just wondering if, under the circumstances, it would not be a praiseworthy thing to save at least the cost of the candles. These probably cost 1c each, and if a man took, say, 100 candles and specified that they were not to be burned, that would be a saving of $1. Come to think of it, that might be done anyway. The man could pay $10 for his 100 candles, but as he doesn’t get the candles, and his name is not on the candles that are burned, and he doesn’t see them burned, and he doesn’t even know whether they are burned, and nobody in heaven or earth really cares whether they are burned or not, why, maybe they aren’t, and that is what we recommend. Just here we notice some of the brethren in the priesthood are not as economical as they might be. It seems a big waste to send a shipload of priests all the way from Italy to Argentina just to have a big public exhibition of doing what Jesus said should be done in the closet, with the door shut. Still, if there are to be such junketing trips, it would certainly seem that it is best to save on the candles.

“Beautiful Battle of God”

AMBROSE says that what is going on in Germany, i. e., the contest between Catholics, Protestants and atheists, for the control of the Nazi State, is a “Beautiful Battle of God”. However, the real “Beautiful Battle of God”, as a matter of fact, is Armageddon, just ahead which Ambrose recently asked all mankind to pray might be averted, but which will not be averted, but will do its righteous work, once for all, in Germany, and everywhere else.

“Reverend Father” Conway’s Bad Guess

THE Chicago Tribune, referring to the collapse of the bucket shop of Crowley and Doherty, has the following paragraph:

“Mr. Canaday asserted that the Reverend M. J. Conway, 1610 Semple street, South Bend, Ind., was the principal loser among the victims. The Rev. Mr. Conway lost $45,000 of funds belonging to widows and orphans, which he had invested in worthless brewery stock marketed by the defendants, the federal prosecutor said.”

The Tribune is to be commended for concealing the fact that “Reverend” Conway is a Catholic priest, and also bringing to him sympathy for his loss of the $45,000 entrusted to him for the care of widows and orphans. Of course, the widows and orphans are out of luck; that is just too bad, for they can sin. The priest, who ‘could not sin’, lost their $45,000, gambling.

Tax-exempt Real Estate

THE Tampa (Fla.) Morning Tribune says:

“It has been estimated that Trinity Church in New York city owns real estate worth $300,000,000. The idea of the tax-exemption of churches is of ancient origin. The church originated as part of the state. In primitive times the ruler was also a god. In Roman times, the emperor was also Pontifex Maximus; that is, both temporal and spiritual head of his people. Obviously, when the church was a part of the government it would not be subject to tax upon its property, because a government does not tax itself. The old idea of exemption of the church has survived so strongly in the United States that railroads give clergymen reduced rates and a whole fabric of similar favors has been spun.”

In the Heyday of the Purgatory Blasphemy

THE New York American says: “Outside the lowest depths of crime, it is impossible to conceive of any human [creature] actually enjoying the agony of another under torture. Yet for centuries, in a period of highest cultivation in Europe, both men and women gathered to see human creatures die under torture most horrible. And a public execution, by rope, fire, or torture, meant a public holiday.” The same article, referring to the numerous statues to militarists says: “The world has erected and maintained more statues to such wholesale killers than to all other types of men put together. ‘To the greatest killer, the greatest glory.’ ”

"Evangelist,” "Visitor,” and "Sunday Visitor”

THREE papers that did all they could a year ago to force Judge Rutherford off the air were the Albany (N.Y.) Roman Catholic Evangelist, the Providence (R.I.) Roman Catholic Visitor, and the Huntington (Ind.) Roman Catholic Sunday Visitor. These three papers are now out with propaganda demanding an end of what they call anti-Catholic persecution in Mexico. The Evangelist says, hypocritically, “It would be a happy day if religious forces in this country would always cooperate against oppression here or abroad.” Meantime, agents of the Roman hierarchy here have the hardihood to mutilate and destroy evidence belonging to the United States Government, which evidence discloses their underhanded plots, and the same parties are disclosed as eager to murder in this country all who expose and oppose them, if only they dared. Fear is the only deterrent with any would-be murderer.

"The Biggest Liars and Thieves Afield”

SAYS Constance E. Burness, of London:

“Your paper, The Golden Age, is sent to me from Bulawayo. I do admire the way you speak out against the doctrine of that terrible Roman Catholic religion, which I am sorry to say is increasing rapidly in England, owing to the high church parsons in some cases being Jesuits in disguise. They have wormed themselves into parliament, newspapers, banks and every other place in England, to the detriment of England. I have lived in East Africa and know the hold they have on the Kaffirs. No white man will employ a Roman Catholic native, as they are generally the biggest liars and thieves afield.”

"Some People Don’t Know”

SAYS Mrs. Harry Larson, of Montana: “I thought I would relate an interesting conversation between a Catholic priest and my fifteen-year-old daughter, which occurred during the last campaign. Catholic priest, reading testimony card, ‘Who is Jehovah?’ Answer, ‘God.’ Priest, sneeringly, Why does it say “Jehovah God” if they mean the same?’ Answer, Well, some people don’t know who Jehovah is, for instance, like you now; that’s why it says “Jehovah God”.’ No more questions.”

Either $25 or Eternal Torture

SAYS Mrs. A. L. Martin, of Texas, in a letter that would touch anybody who has a heart: “About three months ago one of our Mexican men took suddenly ill and died. His father, broken-hearted, went to the priest for consolation and hope. The priest told him if he would give him $50 he would come and pray the boy’s soul out of hell and even go to the cemetery with him. The poor old man told the priest he did not have $50. The priest then told him if he would give him $25 he would at least pray him out of hell. The poor man cried and told him he had no money. The priest then became very angry and told him his boy could just stay in hell then. The poor fellow came home and I heard him that night crying and groaning and praying all night. The next morning I went over and tried to console him, telling him his boy had been a good boy and worked hard all his life and was now at rest. He then related to me about going to the priest for consolation and what the priest had said. Every word here about this white-collared cur in human form is the truth.”

(Concluded from page 223)

Ever merciful, kind even to the unthankful (Matthew 5:45), Jehovah, just before the “midnight” hour of slaughter of His enemies, seems to call the attention of individuals of this class to an opportunity of changing their course and receiving His favor. He pictures the ruling factors of earth as taking counsel together against Him and against His anointed King after the beginning of the King’s rule in the midst of His enemies. Then Jehovah warns them, saying, “Be wise now, therefore, 0 ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”—Psalm 2:1-12; see also Psalm 41:1,2; Ezekiel 18:21-23.

The prophetic parable was uttered by Jesus and recorded for the purpose of comforting the “righteous” in the day of judgment, now present. The cutting off of God’s enemies, the “goats” on the King’s left, and the establishment of “the righteous” as subjects of blessing by God’s kingdom organization over earth, will occur in fulfilment of Jehovah’s purpose to vindicate His name and to make His name great.

With or Against Jehovah

JEHOVAH’S NAME is the issue now before all creatures. This fact, revealed only in recent times, is becoming clearer continually to those who are alert and who,recognize the supremacy of and are jealous for the Most High God, “whose name alone is Jehovah.” (Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 52:6) He and His King are the great Teachers. By them all willing ones are now being taught the truth, which alone will refresh and preserve everyone now living who sincerely obeys that righteous instruction.

Jehovah’s King is Christ Jesus. He is the chief executive officer or prime minister of the only government now functioning which shall never be destroyed. (Daniel 2:44) He is also the Wonderful Counselor. (Isaiah 9: 6, 7) When on earth, about nineteen centuries ago, as a man, Jesus uttered many prophecies, the record of which is preserved to this day in the Bible. He stated that the words which He thus spoke were not His own, but the words of His Father, Jehovah, who had sent Jesus to earth to perform certain duties in the execution of Jehovah’s purposes.

By keeping always in mind that the fulfilment of Jehovah’s prophecy leads to the vindication of His great name, those who read and consider the prophecy are enabled by God, in His due time, to discern and understand its meaning.

Among the prophecies recorded as having been spoken by Jesus are those commonly known as “parables”.

A parable is a word picture; an imaginative narrative, in cryptic form. By means of a parable knowledge of Jehovah’s purposes is conveyed and to be learned, in God’s due time, by those who are entitled to understand the truth. (Daniel 12:10; Matthew 13:10-17) Every prophecy of Jehovah is a statement of a creature uttered by authority and direction of the Creator, the Most High God, concerning something that will occur in furtherance of the Creator’s purpose.

The clergy, as mouthpieces of Jehovah’s enemy, Satan, have attempted to teach the falsehood that men can or may interpret prophecies recorded in the Bible. The Word of God plainly shows that Jehovah, the great Author of His Book, is the only one who gives to His humble and obedient creatures an understanding of His Word; and that only He can and does interpret, in His own time and way, the dark sayings which He in ancient times caused men wholly devoted to Him to write for the information and guidance of His witnesses living upon earth at the time now present.

To understand a parable it is necessary to rightly apply the figures of speech or symbols used. (2 Timothy 2:15) To understand a prophecy it is likewise necessary to study the record provided by God and to wait for Jehovah’s interpretation which He, in His own time and way, makes known to His obedient servants by enabling them to discern the fulfilment of the prophecy or that the prophecy is in course of fulfilment.

In Matthew, chapter twenty-five (verses 31 to 46), is found one of God’s prophecies uttered by Jesus. It is generally called “the parable of the sheep and goats”. It was the last prophetic parable recorded as spoken by Jesus when on earth.

Time of Judgment

Time becomes a vital element in understanding the parable of the sheep and goats. In other words, the time the parable was uttered bears a relationship to the time of its fulfilment. It was spoken by Jesus in response to the question of His disciples as to His second coming and the inauguration of His Father’s kingdom. Answering, Jesus outlined certain events that would occur during the time of His second presence at the end of Satan’s world. Jesus showed what would be His attitude toward His servants, both the true and those who merely claim to be His servants: those who diligently and zealously obey His commandments, and, on the other hand, the lazy, indolent and slothful ones.

In the parable of the virgins and of the talents (Matthew 25) Jesus distinguished between wise and foolish followers of His lead. He pointed out His accounting with and judgment of His servants, which accounting and judgment appear to be rendered privately, and not before the nations of earth.

Then follows Jesus’ statement of the parable relating to another judgment, this being the parable of the sheep and goats. That judgment does take place before the assembled nations of earth. Thus He indicates that there is a close proximity between His judgment of His servants and the judgment mentioned in the “sheep and goats” parable.

In that parable the King’s throne, or judgment seat, does not seem to be that of the Mil-

lennial throne which will deal with the living and the awakened dead during the reign of Christ Jesus. On the contrary, this seems clearly to be the throne or court established to judge the things existing at the time of or during the presence of the King in the “day of Jehovah”, before the beginning of the construction or organization that will follow the “battle of that great day of God Almighty” at Armageddon.

Gathered Nations, Assembled Kingdoms

Plainly Jesus said: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.”

In a vision the prophet Isaiah saw the Lord upon His throne of judgment, the time of which seems to be located definitely as shortly after He takes His power to reign. The throne described in the prophecy of Isaiah (chapter 6) and that mentioned in the parable of Jesus (Matthew 25:31) are clearly one and the same.

Angels are messengers of the Lord. The holy messengers around the throne of glory are mentioned by the prophet Isaiah. Jude, quoting from the prophet, said: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints [holy ones], to execute judgment upon all; and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed.” (Jude 14,15) In Revelation (19:11-14) the Lord Jesus is described as the one “called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. . . . And the armies which were in heaven followed him.”

The parable shows that “before him shall be gathered all nations”. Nations are composed of two general divisions: (1) Those who form the governing factor and who are in the minority; and (2) those who are governed, and who make up the majority.

The governing factors are composed of three elements: commercial, political and ecclesiastical.

Kcclesiasticism is properly divided into two groups: (a) the clergy, called “shepherds”, and “the principal of the flock” (Jeremiah 25: 34-36); and (b) the rank and file of ecclesiasticism, making up the flock.

For more than a thousand years, and even to the present day, certain men, each in his turn, have occupied a position of leadership in which they have adroitly but wrongfully demanded (and received from many) recognition as the “chief shepherd”. By some misinformed persons the clergymen who in their turn have occupied that high position of leadership have been frequently designated as “father” or “pope” of all the shepherds, as well as of the flock. According to God’s Word, the father of all false shepherds is “that old serpent”, Satan the Devil; not any human creature. (John 8:44) God’s “good shepherd” is His faithful Son, Christ Jesus, who alone is rightfully called the “chief Shepherd”. —John 10:14,15; 1 Peter 5:4.

As to the fold or flock, it is often true that the leading members, whom God calls “the principal of the flock”, are men of mighty commercial power or political influence. They cunningly use religion as a cloak to conceal their real motive while they diplomatically dominate and control the people. Such are kings (governing factors) and nobles (highly respected ones), mentioned in Psalm 149:8. These, as the counterpart of the Pharisees, are properly designated as hypocrites.

Many among the “common” people are blinded by Satan, the god of this world. (2 Corinthians 4: 3,4) Such blinded ones are in sympathy with and support the governing factors. Others among the “common” people sincerely desire righteousness, peace and truth.

The nations of earth are gathered now. They are bound together by compacts, various leagues, treaties, and other arrangements, as well as by a common hatred for and opposition to the activity of Jehovah’s witnesses, just as the Lord foretold they would be. (Isaiah 8:9-15; 54:15; Zephaniah 3:8) In this assembly of the nations the commercial and political factors are to the fore. The ecclesiastics also join heartily in the assembly. All the assembled ones claim that the combined peoples constitute the kingdom of God on earth. For this reason they designate their combination as “Christendom” or Christ’s kingdom, to the utter disgust of all sober-minded persons.

Sheep and Goats

To whom, then, do the symbols “sheep” and “goats” apply? “Sheep” represent that class of people of the nations who, though not begotten by the spirit of God, but disposed toward righteousness, mentally acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Lord and who are looking for and hoping for a better time under His reign.

Such, of a docile temperament, believe in the Almighty God and believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of mankind. They strive sincerely to do right and want to do good. They do not claim to be consecrated followers of the Lord, but they have great respect and love for God and His people. They manifest a sheep-like disposition.

“Goats” represent those of another class, who claim to be “Christians”. They do not acknowledge Christ Jesus as Jehovah’s King, but claim that the existing disorder of things, created by men’s hands and by them proudly designated as “civilization”, constitutes “Christendom”, or Christ’s kingdom, and that it must at all costs be preserved, perpetuated, rebuilt, or “recovered”.

Since the “goat” class, when judged by The King, is to suffer a punishment similar to that “prepared for the devil and his angels”, it is reasonably evident that this class is moved by and manifests the Devil’s spirit; hence we may be aided in locating the class by observing its spirit and its conduct.

Guilty Goats

To those of the “goat” class the Lord said: T was hungry, and you gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink.’ These words are to be understood as applying both literally and spiritually. The positive command given to those who lead or assume to be leaders and teachers of God’s people is: “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being en-samples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5: 2, 3) The food for the obedient creature of God is the Word of God. (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4; John 4: 34) The clergy as a class have repudiated the Word of God, and teach the people higher criticism, evolution, traditions, political theories, and many other false things. Their wrongful course has produced a famine in the land for the hearing of the Word of the Lord. When some of their flock hunger for the truth and ask for it, they receive it not. When such find the truth elsewhere, they are ridiculed, misrepresented, persecuted and driven from among the ranks of “the flock” by the false shepherds and those in sympathy with them. The Lord pronounced a denunciation upon the false shepherds through the words of His prophets.—Ezekiel 34:1-8; Jeremiah 23:1, 2.

Further, in the parable the Lord represents himself as saying, “I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not.” Many seeking after truth and righteousness have called upon clergymen for godly counsel and instruction and have been turned away unsatisfied. The psalmist describes those who have thus wandered about in a solitary way, saying, “They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city [organization] to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord.”-Psalm 107:4-6.

"With Force and with Cruelty”

Literally this scripture has been fulfilled in this: Many of Christ’s brethren, Jehovah’s witnesses, as strangers have called at the doors of clergymen or those in sympathy with the clergy, and announced that they were calling upon the people to talk to them about God’s kingdom and His purpose to vindicate His name, and have been refused admittance and driven away with unkind words and sometimes with threats and violence. Recently, by way of example, one of these messengers of peace, while going from house to house and upon identifying himself as one of Jehovah’s witnesses to a certain householder was by that householder seized and almost choked to death.

During the World War, at the instance of the clergy and “the principal of the flock” of many of the denominational churches, a large number of sincere servants of God suffered physical pain because of their nakedness and lack of clothing, which had been taken away from them wrongfully and which wrongful acts were inspired and aided by clergymen, Catholic and Protestant. In many instances these humble fol-loweKS of Christ were tarred and feathered, covered with grease, thrown into cold water, beaten with sticks and otherwise ill-treated, because they were striving faithfully to represent the King of kings, the Prince of Peace.

“Sick and in prison” means an unhealthy or diseased condition and a condition of restraint of liberty of thought or liberty of action, either inside or outside of walls or iron bars. Again both a spiritual and a tangible fulfilment of these words of the Master’s parable appear. The Lord, foreknowing the course the shepherds and principal ones of the flock would take in ill-treating His brethren, described it through His prophet thus: “The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that ■which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.”—Ezekiel 34:4-6.

During the World War the beastly organizations and institutions of men became particularly active, and no more wicked persecution of Christ’s brethren has ever blackened the world’s record than that instigated and carried on by the clergy and the principal of the flock against defenseless, inoffensive men and women who dared to proclaim the message of Jehovah’s kingdom in obedience to the commandment of the Prince of Peace. In The Golden Age (No. 27) an expose of a number of these wicked acts on the part of the clergy and their associates was published. In that persecution Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Hebrews, bankers, business men and political “strong men” all joined against humble followers of Christ who did nothing more than deliver to the people the good news or gospel of Jehovah’s kingdom, the testimony of Jesus Christ. Throughout “Christendom” humble brethren of Christ were restrained of their liberty of action and prohibited the freedom of assembling together to study God’s Word and to worship Him according to their desire and right to do in obedience to His command. Great numbers were arrested and imprisoned without warrant. Many were arrested and put into jail merely because they had in their possession Bibles and books containing songs of praise to Jehovah. Many were haled into court, fined, ill-treated and imprisoned without trial and contrary even to the law of men.

It is a well-known fact that during the World War the clergy and the principal ones of their flock indulged in this persecution of God’s servants upon the pretext of patriotically looking after the interests of the present world, to ‘make the world safe for democracy’. In other words, their friendship for the world was the excuse for their persecution of the brethren of Christ. James says: “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”— James 4:4.

"Ye Are of Your Father the Devil”

As then, so now, the intolerance shown toward humble men and women who, as Jehovah’s witnesses, persistently go among the people announcing Jehovah’s kingdom, has been manifested at the instance of the clergy and the principal ones of their flock, who themselves claim to represent Christ but who by act and word deny entirely any genuine relationship to the Son of Jehovah.

A recent notable example of such foolish conduct is the frantic attempt of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and its clergy and press, ably assisted by Hebrew and Protestant clergymen and others, to keep from “their people” the truth about Jehovah’s kingdom and to prevent further exposure of the real purpose and significance of the so-called extraordinary “holy year” declared by the “chief shepherd” of “organized Christianity”.

Another example is the not uncommon practice of ‘framing mischief by a law’, to enable the clergy and politicians, acting jointly, to attempt to deprive the people of a city or community from being served at their homes by Jehovah’s witnesses with the good news of the kingdom of Jehovah.

During Jesus’ stay upon earth the clergy of that time schemed day and night to persecute Him and His disciples. In modern times the clergy and the principal of the flock are the counterpart of the scribes and Pharisees; and these the Lord himself described as the offspring of Satan. He said: “Why do ye not understand my speech? ... Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth.”—John 8:43,44.

It is entirely consistent, therefore, that the sons of the Devil receive the same kind of punishment that God has prepared for their father. —Matthew 25:41.

‘When Did We Neglect You, Lord?’

Clearly, then, the Scriptures definitely identify a class of men made up of faithless clergy and the principal of their flocks, commercial giants and political men of influence, who claim to be “Christians”. Such have had reasonable opportunity to know the truth of God’s Word. They have willfully and studiously rejected and resisted the truth. These, with great outward show, have built hospitals, libraries and like “public” institutions, under the pretext of doing “Christian” work. At the same time many of them have deliberately ignored God’s commandments. Additionally, they have viciously persecuted true servants of the Most High God. When the truth has been brought to them they have Scoffed and spurned it. They go even further and deny the Bible whenever it suits them to do so, and pompously announce that the earth must first be cleaned up or “rebuilt” by their achievements and experiments, noble and otherwise, and “then Christ can come”.

In Jesus’ parable those of the “goat” class are represented as saying, at the time of judgment: ‘When did we do these things mentioned ? When did we fail to minister unto you, Lord? Or when did we find you a stranger and did not take you in, and naked and clothed you not ? When did we find you sick and in prison and did not visit you?’

The King answers: “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”

“How Shall Ye Escape?"

Christ Jesus and His brethren, Jehovah’s witnesses, are dear to the heart of the Almighty God. In His Word God has declared that none shall with impunity touch His anointed. (Psalm 105:15) These are to Him as ‘the apple of His eye’, precious in His sight. He loves them, and He forgets not ill-treatment of them.—Zechariah 2: 8, 9; Luke 18: 7, 8.

In Jesus’ day the Pharisees had ample opportunity to learn that He was God’s faithful and true witness, and yet they refused to acknowledge Him. Jesus seems to hold that they were unworthy of a further opportunity of life when He said to some of those who deliberately refused to hear: “How shall ye escape the judgment of hell [Gehenna] —Matthew 23: 33, A.R.V.

The faithless clergy of “Christendom” have had even greater opportunity than the Pharisees. They have had the words of Jesus and the apostles, the instruction of God’s prophets, and the testimony of Jehovah’s witnesses of today. All of these they have stubbornly ignored. In playing the hypocrite, they have gone even further; for they have openly claimed to represent the Almighty God and His Christ, and at the same time have denied God, denied His Word and His works, substituting therefor their own “leadership”, traditions, inventions, experiments, achievements, and mischievous laws. This they have done deliberately. The principal of their flocks, the commercially and politically influential ones of earth, have brazenly supported the clergy in their wicked course. If the Pharisees of Jesus’ day were unworthy of a further opportunity for eternal life, why would not the same be true of the modern Pharisees?

(Concluded on page 218)

Only January Left Now for This Special Offer

Judge Rutherford’s Three Books The Harp of God, Deliverance and Reconciliation on a Contribution of 50c

ORDINARILY these books are offered on a contribution of 25c each, but now’ if you send your order to The Watch Tower before February 1 these three in English, only, will be mailed on a contribution of 50c. These three books have been translated and distributed in scores of languages. Millions of copies of each one have been circulated, and if you are not already a possessor of these three publications it will be well worth your while to obtain them now, while this special offer is being made. The 50c that is being contributed for these three bound books is used for the further spreading of the Kingdom message in all parts of the world.

The rulers of every nation have offered various remedies, all of which have failed, and the people continue to suffer. Who is to blame? What shall we do? What will you do? Read the answer by Judge Rutherford in these three books.

The Watch Tower, 117 Adams St., Brooklyn, N. Y,

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address below the three books, written by Judge Rutherford, The Harp of God, Deliverance, and Reconciliation. The contribution made, I understand, will be used for printing of more literature so that this Kingdom message can be preached in all the world for a witness. (Matthew 24: 14)

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UNIVERSAL WAR NEAR

Why are the nations arming for war? Which side will the churches take? Why is the truth involved? What will be the result? The people and Congress are deeply concerned.

JUDGE RUTHERFORD

in person

will give the Bible answer to these questions

Sunday, January 13

time

Eastern Standard 12:30 PM

Central Standard 11: 30 AM

Mountain Standard 10: 30 AM

Pacific Standard    9: 30 AM

direct from the

Shrine Auditorium at Los Angeles

over a coast-to-coast network

including stations listed below