THE ANCIENT ART OF BEGGING

History shows the art kept alive through centuries by the use of many methods

“Out of the Mouth of Babes”

How youngsters teach a parent the facts about Santa

Spare Parts for Your Body

Present amazing replacements of bodily parts go far beyond mere wigs and false teeth

Socialization Through Taxation

As in 1776, can taxation now lead to tyranny ?

DECEMBER 22, 1949 semimonthly

THE MISSION OP THIS JOURNAL

Newt laurces that are able to keep you awake to the vital Issut* of our times mint be unfettered by censorship and seltuh interests. ‘'Awake!'’ has no fetters* It recognize* facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is net bound by political ambitions or obligations; it Is . unhampered by advertisers whose toes must net be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This Journal keep* itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it dees not abuse it* freedom. It maintain* integrity to truth.

“Awake!” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. It* own correspondents are on oil continents, in scores of nation*. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on^the-scenes reports come tc you through these columns. This Journal’s viewpoint is not narrow, but is international. It is read In many nations, in many languages, by person* of all ages. Through its page* many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geograpny, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its coverage is a* broad as the earth and as high as the heavens,

"Awake 1” pledges itself to righteous principles, to exposing hidden foes and subtle dangers, io championing freedom for all, to comforting mourners and strengthening those disheartened by the failures of a delinquent world, reflecting sure hope for the establishment of a righteous New World.

Get acquainted with “Awakef’ Keep awake by reading “AwakeI”

tur Hr WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCiyrTT. (NC,

CONTENTS

flwAKEI

it is high time to awake.— Romans 13:119)

Volume XXX                      Brooklyn, N.Y,, December 22, 1949                        Number34

THE ANCIENT ART OF BEGGING

OF ALL the arts practiced by men probably one of the most universal and most lucrative (for amount of effort put forth)* is the ancient art of begging. Ancient in its basic forms and methods, but very much a modern problem in almost every country and in practically every large city in the world. Along the main streets of the world are to be found the beggars: the blind, the maimed, the crippled, and the diseased, as well as many, mainy able-bodied whose only plea for pity is based on apparent poverty.

Just when the practice first began is not definitely known. It seems likely that while the human family was young and its members lived in small groups in family relationship begging was unknown. Its nearest kin was the hospitality extended to travelers who then were without any suitable medium of exchange. In a book entitled The Beggar the author suggests that this very type of hospitality extended to the traveling stranger may have developed into or at least produced the practice of begging and, as a natural counterpart, the custom of almsgiving. As is pointed out, the treatment accorded strangers today among uncivilized tribes' undoubtedly illustrates the superstitious attitude with which strangers were viewed by many in ancient times. They believing that all persons possessed magic powers of some sort, a stranger was received with considerable caution, and usually treated well lest he be a god in human form or cast upon them a magic curse. Others, free from such superstition, however, may have merely shown hospitality as a spontaneous expression. At any rate, some availed themselves of such hospitality, either superstitious or otherwise, and decided to make capital of it

Fatee Religion Breeds Beggars

Lest anyone should think that almsgiving is a distinguishing mark or product of Christianity, it might be mentioned that the books of Confucianism speak approvingly of almsgiving. It was also held in high esteem by the Egyptians, and during the famous negative confession which the Egyptian was to make before the altar of Osiris is found the following: "I have given food to him who was hungry, I have presented water to the thirsty; I have given clothing to those who went naked, and a boat to the shipwrecked.” Similar religious value has been placed upon the beggar and his donor for many centuries in India, where “holy” beggars have infested every temple and shrine from time immemorial. And the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences states that the “giving of alms was a part of the ritual of many early religious feasts”.

As far as Europe is concerned most authorities agree that begging really got under way as a thriving business along about the twelfth century. The helping hand came from religion. The Roman Empire had fallen and its provision of “free corn” to poverty-stricken citizens had disappeared. Religion thus stepped onto the scene as the patron of the pbor. The Catholic Church provided food and lodging for beggars in its monasteries, but it did much more. It sanctified begging. The “holy” cloak of religion was extended to cover the beggars. The Church indoctrinated the people with the idea that it was saintly to dispossess oneself of earthly goods and to rely wholly upon the charity of the people. And to this they added the correlative dogma that to give-to such ones was to gain merit toward future salvation. One authority says:

The early Christian churches cared for their own poor, but took great pains to prevent pauperization. However, there grew up in the course of time the theory of religious merit of almsgiving. Charity became a means of securing forgiveness of sin to the giver, a means of grace. Almsgiving, no longer the means primarily of helping a fellow-man in need, became fundamentally a method of washing away one’s sins. With the rise of monasticism in Christendom, the religious basis of begging in the cleansing grace of charity was completed in the theory that those were of superior sanctity who forsook all their worldly possessions and depended entirely upon the charity of God’s people. Thus, the religious basis of beggary had its roots deep in man’s desire to free himself from sin by giving to a oeggar and on the other hand got its justification from the desire to attain salvation by becoming a beggar. From both points of view religion sanctified begging.

With this kind of backing the beggar business really began to blossom.

The Church Enters the Business

The Church, however, grew to like the business so well that she decided to open up a few branches of her own. The golden opportunity seemed to present itself in the form of St. Francis of Assisi, who formed an order of monks without monasteries. For this Franciscan order begging was to be adopted as the mode of living* It is claimed that “Saint” Francis intended that begging should only be a sort of last resort and that “good works”, accompanied by physical labor as a means of gaining a living, should be the program for his disciples. Begging was to be a sideline to be indulged in only when other work was unduly slack. As time progressed, however, it seemed evident that the followers were more interested in the financial returns than in the “good works” and manual labor. They soon were giving the most of their time and their very best attention to the gathering of alms and the pursuit of legacies; as one put it, they became “little more than whining alms-seekers”.

Still the field looked big enough for additional workers, and hence other orders, the Dominican, Carmelite, and Augustinian, were formed and soon were doing very nicely, gathering in alms hither and yon throughout all Europe. It was not long before it began to get noised around among the common people that begging was_znot only a virtue but also a very nice means of getting one’s living with a minimum of effort. Believing they knew a good thing when they saw it, they too began to practice the art, and, according to one authority, during this period beggars became so numerous that they threatened to overrun the continent. Thej^f were well organized and often belonged to fraternities, 'Beggars' Guilds/ with members in every country of Europe. T. M. Lindsay, in A History of the Reformation, says:

The veiy fact of begging seemed to raise those who shared in it to the level of members of a religious organization. It is true that the begging friars were always the butt of the satirists of the close of the 15th century. They delighted to pottray the mendicant monk, with his sack, into which he seemed able to stuff everything. ... On their heels tramped a host of semi-ecclesiastical beggars, all of them with professional names—men who begged for a church that was building, or an altar cloth, or to hansel a young priest at his first Mass; men who carried relies shout for the charitable to kiss—some straw from the manger of Bethlehem, or a feather from the wing of*the angel Gabriel; the Brethren of St. James. who performed continual and vicarious pilgrimages to Compostella; and sometimes robbed and murdered on the road; the Brethren of St. Anthony, who had the special privilege of wearing a cross and carrying a bell on their begging visits. These were all ecclesiastical beggars. The ordinary beggars did their best to obtain some share of the sanctity which surrounded the professions; they carried . . i the picture of some saint, or placed the cockleshell, the badge of a pilgrim, in their hats, and secured a quasi’ ecclesiastical .standing.

Reverses for the Beggars

There were hard times for the beggars nonetheless. After the passing of the scourge of the Black Death at the middle of the fourteenth century there was a great shortage of workers. Forgetting their religious instruction, some of the people actually became resentful of the beggars, particularly the strong and healthy ones who were by no means lacking. In 1349 England issued the Royal Ordinance of Labourers, which was sort of a fourteenth-century 'wage and price control law’ and which put wages oack to the pre-Black Death rates, forced men to accept work offered them at the fixed wages, provided that food should be available at reasonable prices, and penalized those who accepted higher wages than those stipulated, and prohibited the giving of alms to able-bodied beggars. Things reached the point where almost gruesome punishments were legally provided for able-bodied men caught begging. In England in 1536 a decree provided that Such Should be whipped for their first offense, have their ears cropped for the second, and be executed as felons and common enemies for the third. Frankly, for the beggars, things looked bad.

The Reformation also served to take much of the joy out of life for the beggars. Heretofore the benediction which the Catholic Church had placed upon begging had served as a bulwark of protection and the legislation against them had an uphill fight in trying to overthrow this old theory. But then the storm broke in the form of the Protestant Reformation. The views of the Protestant leaders threatened to ruin the begging business in northern Europe. Luther voiced the belief that the “crying need of Christian countries was the prohibition of begging”, and went so far as to write; a book called “The Book of Vagabonds and Beggars”, which was an expose of the fakery of professional beggars. The Calvinist teachings laid great stress upon work as a religious duty and taught that prosperity was a sign of God^ favor and the mark of a Christian. If one was poor, either he did not live right or he did not work hard enough, or both. This doctrine was extremely unpopular among the beggars. Even some Catholics, such as the Spanish Vives, wrote in favor of suppressing their activity; the writings of Vives did much to break down the old system so long supported by the Church.

The beggars held on and weathered the storm the best they could and finally the rapid growth of cities came along in time to put begging back on its feet. With the formation of huge metropolises the beggars dug in and entrenched themselves once more as permanent fixtures on the social landscape. They had just the right environment in these big cities. They were generally unknown (an essential in the begging game) and prospects were to be found in abundance. As one writer put it, “With more and bigger cities came more and better beggars?*

The Profession in Modern Times

A few centuries in the stream of time have now passed under the bridge, but conditions in the world of beggardom have not changed greatly. They are still applying their talents to getting something for nothing. In India and in the various Mohammedan lands, where religious beliefs have ever favored them, conditions have scarcely changed from the time of Christ. In Europe the effect of the mendicant monks in medieval times has never fully disappeared. From 1870 to 1880 a statistical investigation was carried out in Bavaria to determine the scope of the problem in that sector. Results showed that some 20,000 persons were convicted each year for open begging or begging by letter. In 1865 Italy prohibited mendicancy; but the local authorities have the power to issue permits (permissi di mendi-care), and begging, with a license or without one, abounds, especially in the southern provinces.

In the year 1900 a census taken in Spain showed 91,227 professional beggars, of whom 51,948 were women. Spam never benefited by the writings of Vives because all attempts at suppression of begging were successfully resisted by a Dominican monk named Soto. Thus up into this twentieth century in many Spanish cities beggars have continued to take out a license to carry on their trade. Seeking alms in Spain has continued to enjoy recognition as a legitimate business, and in some places the municipality demands a percentage on the collections. At least up until about 1937 Seville was the only city that prohibited begging on the streets. In some of the other towns mendicants are permitted to ply their trade only one day a yreek.

Of the Latin-American countries the island of Puerto Rico possibly most resembles Spain in its culture and it very clearly has retained the Spanish attitude toward begging. In 1945, when the insular officials did a little beggar-counting they got a final figure of something like 1,900 professional beggars; this in an island 100 miles long and 35 miles wide. In the metropolitan area of the capital, San Juan, there were well over 400. On Fridays (Beggar Day) some store owners report as many as 100 beggars filing in and out of their respective stores, picking up the one or two cents handed out to them.

In the United States, where begging has no legal standing, there is no census to show the extent of the beggar population. There is every reason to believe, though, that it has its share, particularly in the larger cities. It is estimated that there are between 6,000 and 8,000 professional beggars in New York city alone. New York has for long been the beggars' paradise and they travel from all over the country to the Big City there to join their other fellow artists. New York’s mendicancy squad of 18 detectives arrests about 150 beggars every month.

Their Methods

But whether in Madrid, Paris, New York, or Bagdad, the mendicants* methods are basically the same. Their methods and stories are handed down from one generation to the next, each generation revising or bringing them up to date and then passing them on to the next. Their devices for playing on the emotions of the public are legion, their stories without number. Their methods generally reflect the spirit of the age or country in which they live.

In India, where spending part of one’s life in conditions of renunciation and self-restraint are a religious requirement for one to reach the state of Nirvana, the beggars are able to hold a rather high intellectual and spiritual status and they put it to good use. The superstitious beliefs of the Chinese people provide the angle from which Chinese beggars work, and it is amazing the things that the people permit. For example: If a woman is unduly hesitant about responding to the beggar’s requests it is considered a perfectly legitimate device by Chinese beggars for him to throw a snake around her neck to make her drop her “grudging gift’*. The trick has the added advantage that those who behold the act are usually so filled with terror that they are generally quick to avoid similar circumstances.

In the Middle Ages, when religion virtually converted beggars into saints, the smart thing was to carry some religious object along, that "feather from the wing of the angel Gabriel” or perhaps a "stone from the tomb of Christ”. In southern European and Latin-American countries, where religious training still keeps the begging profession on a pretty high standard, many beggars follow the medieval methods and carry a picture of some female saint to aid them. In the United States a more materialistic view prevails, and hence the methods differ. Especially in the larger cities they very frequently utilize certain conditions or events as the basis of their appeal—an epidemic of disease, a recent fire* a flood, any one of these or similar disasters may produce amazing numbers of “victims^, beggars who were no closer to the disaster than the headlines of some newspaper. Some new catastrophe may change a thousand stories on New York's Times Square or Chicago's Ldop.

On the busy city streets the beggar must, be brief and in a moment arouse pity in the prospect. Some use a tableau method, setting forth their apparent misery without the use of words, aside from perhaps a well-placed groan. Thus the man sitting on the sidewalk with a sign "Help the Blind”, or perhaps an amputated arm or leg clearly visible and with a box of pencils alongside, or maybe just an anguished look and tattered clothes are relied upon to tell the tale.

In Latin-American countries the pictures not only are pitiful, but are frequently revoking—legs bloated with elephantiasis or filaria, or twisted and deformed arms and other members giving evidence of the effects of venereal diseases on childbirth. In the Middle Ages skin diseases, inflammation and ulcers were often counterfeited by the skillful

application of certain plant juices, or a mixture of lard and blood, and other vile-looking concoctions. Artful disguises were prepared using patches, bandages, plasters, and crutches, or perhaps a woman might pad herself to simulate pregnancy. Investigations demonstrate that the same or very similar methods are still in use today. And while it is somewhat doubtful whether the medieval practice of deliberately deforming children to make them good beggars is carried on today, nevertheless in Asiatic lands and in southern European and Latin-American countries many parents are very quick to capitalize on a deformed condition in their offspring and . quickly put them to work—begging.

Beggars by Choice

What are we to assume then? Are all beggars absolute humbugs or are most of them just human derelicts who have no other recourse than to appeal to human charity in this lowly manner? The evidence, compiled over a period of many centuries and confirmed by modern-day investigations and social studies, is sadly against the beggars. While it is true that there are always some persons who are so incapacitated either physically or mentally as to make them practically useless in the society or economic system in which they live, yet there is abundance of proof to demonstrate that the majority of them beg because they want to beg. These vagrants live as leeches upon humanity.

Two such ones were picked up by the police in San Juan, Puerto Rico, somewhat over a year ago and they found that between the two of them they had in their possession some $5,213. It is estimated that Broadway Rose, a panhandler who works only the more famous, New York night clubs, extracts from her prospects, mostly screen and radio celebrities, the amazing sum of $10,000 a year* These, of course, are exceptions, but they show that begging can be a paying proposition, and it usually is, not only in the United States, or the Western Hemisphere, but throughout the world.

The Blame, and the Solution

Who, then, is io blame P and what is the solution ? Though the greed of selfish men has always kept millions in poverty by means of oppressive commercialism, and although power-hungry politics has ever been responsible for unrest, economic confusion, and wars which tear people and nations from their normal way of life and fill them with despair and rob them of their incentive to work, yet the greatest responsibility falls upon false religion. Religion fostered and provided the unhealthy atmosphere and false beliefs which enabled begging to fasten itself upon humanity and grow and spread until it had become an integral part of humaix society world-wide. In Europe and in the Western Hemisphere the history of begging is inseparably connected with the history of religion, i.e., so-called “Christendom” with her Crusades, her panhandling monks, and her saintly beggars and salvation through almsgiving.

And why did religion support it? and why does she still do it today f Because she is a beggar herself. Religion, whether heathen or so-called “Christian”, is the greatest of them all in the ancient art of begging, “Something for nothing” has ever been her motto as she dishes out vain philosophy, empty babblings and worthless traditions in return for the riches deposited in her outstretched palm. Though she builds huge cathedrals and temples, ornately decorated, and provides somber music, paintings and statuary for her prospects to hear and see, yet she differs but little from the beggar who fits himself out with an old squeaking fiddle and tattered clothes and sits upon the sidewalk.

In all the long centuries of her exist-enee during which she has ever played the role of patron of the poor, her sys-tern of “charitrias never brought true relief or comfort to the betrodden peoples of the world. She has given, but only so that she could ask more. She consorts with greedy commercialists and politicians and then piously says, “God must love the poor—He made so many of them? Of such ones spoke Jesus when He said, “For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men.” Certainly the trumpet-blowing, almsgiving religionists of today with their widely publicized acts of charity are no different from their Pharisaical counterparts in Jesus' day. (See Matthew 23:3-5 and 6:1-4.)

The remedy? From human sources, there is none. As long as greed continues poverty will straggle along behind, and there will always be some who tire of earning their bread by the sweat of their brow and resign themselves to a parasitic existence, joining the rank$ of the mendicants. The millions of beggars today by no means form a vanishing race, in spite of the hundreds of charity organizations, in spite of the social security plans, in spite of the U. N, And yet they shall vanish, and that shortly. For there is a remedy, and it is God's kingdom. That righteous government will break to pieces the present system dominated by Satan and his demons and give the whole earth to the meek for their residence. Under Kingdom rule none of earth's inhabitants shall beg, but all will work amid joyful conditions and surrounded by fruitful abundance. Let none think, however, that entrance into that righteous new world can be gained by the religious practice of almsgiving or the equally religious practice of begging. Bather one should now 'work out his own salvation’ and by such works demonstrate his faith in the Royal Government of Christ Jesus.—Awake! correspondent in Puerto Rico,

Know Your Stuffing!

It is the time of year when roast turkey, duck, goose and chicken, together with their stuffings and trimmings, frequently come to the dinner table. Preparing these big meals often means a mad rush, and in the rush, sadly enough, anything is thrown together and called stuffing.

What a mistake! Made right, the stuffing becomes the memorable dish of the meal, the part the guests remember and talk about long after they forget what salad or desert was served. Made right, the flavor of the stuffing unites with the meat in perfect wedlock. Made right, it is not sharp or violent in seasoning; rather it is delicate, mellow and suggestive, like perfume. Its tantalizing aroma teases the appetites of the guests and coaxes them to additional helpings, until they and not the bird are stuffed.

Want to learn the trick of making this exciting dish T Then begin with a simple recipe of bread and butter, chives or onions, thyme and parsley, salt and pepper, and a little water, and after you learn htfw to combine these with artistic taste and expert judgment, then add such fancy things as nuts, fruits, hits of "bacon, and seasonings. Fundamentally, stuffings are composed of these basic ingredients: cereals, vegetables, meats, nuts, fruits, seasonings and liquids.

The cereal makes up the bulk, and it varies according to the grain used: wheat, rice, rye, barley, corn, oats, buckwheat or soybean flour. The form these take is very important. Cracker crumbs should be used sparingly to avoid slippery texture. Bread, whether white, rye, wholewheat or raisin, if old and dry, can be ground to crumbs, or if fresh, can be cubed and toasted. Other forms of cereals used include noodles, macaroni, oatmeal, cornmeal and boiled rice.

The vegetables precooked, include fresh peas, beans, corn, carrots, white or sweet potatoes, celery, mushrooms, green peppers, cabbage, sauerkraut and onions. These are prepared in various ways, Onions, for example, are either par-DECEMBER 22, 2249

boiled or fried in a fat afterward used in the stnfl&ng. Potatoes are steamed or boiled and then riced when hot to make them fluffy.

Meats for the mix may include the heart, kidneys, liver or sweetbreads of the bird itself, or various cuts of pork, beef or veal that are first cooked. Also bacon, sausage or deviled ham, or raw oysters are used for various stuffings. Some recipes call for eggs, first hard-boiled, then chopped or sliced and added to the mixture. Others suggest mixing in beaten raw eggs, which upon baking stiffen the stuffing.

To give that crunchy, ’‘old-fashioned” taste, add nuts to the stuffing. Hickory nuts and'walnuts, or roasted, buttered and salted almonds, pecans or peanuts are favorites, as well as chestnuts. Stuffings with fruits are foe strong-flavored birds, and greasy goose demands the tartness that apples and prunes or apples and raisins give. Other fruits that make excellent stuffings include canned peaches, apricots, grapes, currants, oranges, pineapple and cranberries. The part of the mixture may be only water, but better to use soup broths, bouillon cubes, milk, tomato juice, sauerkraut juice, orange juice, wine, or cognae, depending on the recipe’s design.

Last, but of prime importance, are the seoso#-ings, Of the host of herbs and spices that may be used, some of the more important include: thyme, sage, summer savory, caraway seeds, mustard, black pepper, chili powder, horse-radish, chives, garlic, pimientoes, sweet marjoram, ginger, cloves, mace, cinnamon and allspice. Lemon and orange rind with sugar, or olives, or sweet or spiced pickles, are also very useful at times.

Do not be afraid to experiment with some of the 2,000 stuffing recipes, but do so on a small scale and at times when company is not expected. Learn to judge the finished product by how it feels and tastes before cooking, then adjust the moisture and seasoning accordingly. If at first you fail, do not become discouraged. Profit by what you learn and try again. Remember that only cooks that know their stuffings earn their reward of praise.

Jehovah’s witnesses Not AntkCatholic

THE New York Daily Compass is a liberal newspaper. Its correspondents are free to speak their own mind. Recently one of them did so, and was in error. A letter to the editor caught up the statement and proved its falsity. It is typical of the Compass that it demonstrated its spirit of freedom and fair play by publishing the letter in full in “The Readers' Forum”, in spite of the fact that the letter was of some length. It appeared in the Sunday Compass, August 7, and was as follows:

Minister, Compass Printer, Takes Issue With Stone

Dear Editor:

Your commentator I. F. Stone is pretty good. Generally speaking he is logical and sincere and ready at ah times to stand for the truth even when it might be unpalatable to the vast majority.

Hence it was somewhat of a shock to read in his column of last Friday these words on the late Justice Frank Murphy:

“ . . None was readier to speak for the hated and the hunted, whether it was the antiCatholic Jehovah's witnesses or the fugitive Eisler.”

Okay. He can say what he pleases and I for one would defend to the death his right to say it. But in these days of sudden witchhunts it is also good to pause a while and consider the impact of such an utterance upon the ones concerned.

I have been one of Jehovah's witnesses for more than 25 years and I do not consider that they, or myself, are anti-Catholic. To brand a whole Christian body of persons thus in a daily metropolitan newspaper is unjust, to say the least, unless the writer is sure of his facts. It is submitted that here he is in error.

It is a known fact that the Catholic population are only “children of the Church ” and have no part in its administration. That part belongs to the Vatican and the College of Cardinals, plus the bishops and priests in the various dioceses of the world.

Many honest Catholics today are greatly incensed at the conduct of their rulers in the central organization. To be more specific, many Catholics in New York City today are not in agreement with Cardinal Spellman's recent strikebreaking activities against Catholic grave-diggers and his attack on Mrs. Roosevelt and have emphatically so expressed themselves.

Mr. Stone would do well to review the whole record of Jehovah's witnesses and the fight they have made for civil liberties in recent years. They have carried nearly 40 cases to this nation's highest court and in general the civil liberties all of us now enjoy have been made more secure thereby. It is only necessary to glance through the IL S. Supreme Court’s series of decisions handed down from 1939 onward to appreciate the truth of this. In al! these it will be observed that Jehovah's witnesses, far from having an “axe to grind” against the Catholics, have only justly fought back in the medium of the courts when a bunch of clerical fascistic officials have denied the Jehovah's witnesses freedom of worship and have instead set themselves up as the law like Mayor Hague of unsavory memory. Is that bad?

Right now honest Catholics in the city of Quebec are in process of getting their eyes open to the nefarious doings of their central organization. In the recent trials there of Jehovah's witnesses—on the grounds of seditious conspiracy, mark you—there have been plenty of persons of the Catholic faith who have voluntarily come forward and expressed themselves as completely in harmony with the stand the Jehovah's witnesses nave taken and have symbolically embraced them with open arms.

No, Mr. Thaekrey, Jehovah's witnesses are not anti-Catholie. I personally have many Catholic friends with whom I can still drink a glass of beer at the day's end without the party ending up in a free-for-all. And if sometimes I may forget to bring them copies of our paper Awake! they will not hesitate to remind me of the matter. And many are the Bible studies we have in Catholic homes, with their own Catholic Douay Bible as a guide.

In recent weeks The Daily Compass has through its commentators and news sources published much information on the Vatican as a whole and its fight against young democracy and progression. Some of your editorials on this have warmed and thrilled my heart and I say, Thank God we have come to the time when there is’ a daily newspaper that is not afraid to speak out, sincerely and honestly, against a totalitarian political organization that behind a religious front seeks to hide its record of deceit and hypocrisy and the wicked trafficking in the souls of men! I am proud to be associated with such a paper. While I am not anti-Catholic, I am anti-Vatican as a whole; and if this be treason, make the most of it.

For the record it may be stated that Jehovah's witnesses are against any setup wherein the State is supreme. That will hold good for Nazi-Fascism, Communism or Vaticanism. (Vatican City is now a temporal state and as such can—and has—entered into concordats with other totalitarian states .such as Italy, Germany and Spain. Since also its cardinals and bishops are loyal first to the Vatican and secondarily to the country in which they may be domiciled, it may be asked how in the event of any compulsory loyalty oaths they would fare, without making a mental reservation, a ■well-known characteristic of the Jesuit Order, once banned from all Christendom in 1773 by Pope Clement XIV,)

Recently I have been engaged in practically a one-man fight against the whole Department of Justice and the State Department of this country when I came before them for a visa for permanent residence here (I am a British subject). Finding out my religious affiliations, they tried unsuccessfully to deport me because, of all things, I had not bought U. 8. savings bonds, donated my blood for war, or donated to the Red Cross—all of which they have admitted was purely. voluntary, especially in view of my draft board classification of 4-D (ordained minister), which one prejudiced inspector sent to Washington as 1-A! This red herring was „ seen through by the Board of Immigration Appeals, and I now hold a non-quota visa for permanent residence, awarded to me after a terrific fight. I do not much resent being linked to "the fugitive Eisler" in Stone's article—I can appreciate, though not a Communist, what he went through at their hands.

The Roman Catholic hierarchy is not a sacred cow. It is not above honest criticism by any individual, whether on account of its doctrines or political dabblings. If its pope claims to stand in the place and stead of Jesus Christ, and as such claims infallibility, it is not treason to scrutinize such claims. This the men who started the Reformation did not hesitate to do. Most, if not all, of these reformers were once priests in the Catholic Church, Of course, by their action thus taken, they became anti-Vatican. But never antbCatholie, since at all times they were anxious to fight and even die that their Catholic brethren should learn the truth.

The freedom that we now have we owe to those noble men, and it is no wonder that now, in a free democracy, the feudal-minded hierarchy sees in every progressive piece of legislation a threat to its superstitious hold on the Catholic population.

Eric Symondson, Linotype Operator, The Daily Compass

^President Truman's New Beads

C Washington, Oct. 10 (AP)—President Truman received today the pope's medal and rosary, especially blessed for him by the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Representative Neil J. Linehan, Democrat, of Illinois, presented the gift, which was entrusted to him during an audience with the pope on Sept. 22.—New York Times, October 11, 1949.

"Out of the Mouth of Babes"

The story at how some of the younger generation teach a parent the facts about Santa Claus

(6 A ND so that, my boy, is the story of

XXSanta Claus. Now you go out in the yard and play. J see your little friend Joseph coining over here. Go play with him, and remember to be good if you want Santa to bring what you asked for.” With this dismissal of his young offspring Humphrey, Mr. Meyers shifted and settled himself more comfortably in the big porch chair.

“Bid you mail my letter to Santa?” the still-lingering Humphrey anxiously queried.

**1*11 take care of that. You go on and play. I’ve got some reading to do,” responded the elder Meyers as he waved his son off with one hand and with the other plopped the Sunday paper of this chill December mom into his lap. Papa was deep in Li’l Abner by the time Humphrey greeted Joseph in the yard,

‘‘Hi, Joe. What's Santa bringing you?”

Joe was two years older than Humphrey, and eyed the mere child coolly for a moment before grunting, “Nothing.”

To young Humphrey, freshly filled up on Santa exploits, such a catastrophe was not to be taken lying down. In shrill voice he demanded to know whether Joe had sent a letter to Santa, was shocked to hear he had not, and was appalled at the boy’s ignorance when he asked where letters to Santa should be addressed.

“To Santa’s workshop at the North Pole, of coursel Where else?”

“I see him in the department stores. How many Santas are there?” questioned Joe. When Humphrey unhesitatingly shouted “One!” the older boy dipped into his fund of superior wisdom and sharply countered: “I see lots of them downtown. Which is the real one and which are the fakers?”

Little Humphrey Junior was flabbergasted, Big Humphrey Senior for the last few minutes had been dividing attention between Dogpatch and the front yard, and with the loosing of this heresy from Joe’s lips the front yard won the tug-o’-war for his attention hands down. The comics slid to the porch floor. The relentless Joe sensed his advantage and pressed it; “Some kids get lots and others little or nothing. Why doesn't Santa treat them all alike?”

“If you’re good you get presents; if you’re bad you don’t,” came back the somewhat recovered young Humphrey.

“I try to be good, yet Santa leaves me nothing.”

“I am good, and he leaves me lots,” Humphrey submitted as proof.

“Your father is rich and mine isn’t. It isn’t a case of being good or bad, but rich or poor. Jesus liked the poor and helped them, but said it would be hard for the rich to be good and get the gift of life. Santa is just the opposite. He favors the rich and forgets the poor. That’s not right.” This simple logic from one so young as Joseph caused a thoughtful expression to replace the look of annoyance that had settled on Mr. Meyers’ face.

But Humphrey was still trying to be a faithful disciple of Santa and started quoting what he considered the highest authority in existence: “Well, my father told me that if I was good Santa would give me lots.”

“Sounds like bribery to me,” rejoined the Unimpressed Joseph. “And whavs more, tell me how Santa gets into the house.”

‘Down the chimney."

“You don’t have one."

“Then he comes in the door."

“But isn’t your door locked?"

"Finally young Humphrey has spotted the flaw. With narrowed ga^e he charges, “Say, you don’t believe in Santa, and that’s why you get nothing!"

But Joseph is not floored by this attack on his faith. Instead, he calmly asserts: “Santa Claus is St. Nick, and Old Nick is the Devil."

When this low blow was landed Mr. Meyers had just about regained his composure after the charge of bribery. Now he was really shaken, and half rose, from his seat, but before his rising protest could get out of his mouth his young son, intrigued by this new light on old Santa, inquired: “Where did you get that?"

“Joan Whitfield. She’s one of Jehovah’s witnesses and read all about it in a magazine called ⁽A wake!’ She says Christmas is not Jesus’ birthday at all. It’s a commercial racket nowadays. Parents bribe,the kids to be good, and the kids brwe Santa. One boy put 25c in his ■stocking along with a note telling Santa to buy himself some beer. I read that in the paper.”

Little Humphrey’s mouth broke into a wide grin as he asked, “Is that why he has such a beer belly?"

When their giggles had subsided Joe pointed out that that tummy was one good reason why Santa could never wriggle down a chimney, then asked in confidential tone, “Do you really believe in Santa Claus ?”

Humphrey, oblivious to the parent eavesdropping from the porch above, broke down and confessed. “Well, no, not really, but I let on like I do because it seems to make my father and mother hajapy. Why do parents try to make kids believe such stuff, anyway?”

“Oh, they think we’re just kids and

don't nave mnen sense, say, let's go to the back yard and play in your workshop, huh?”

By this time the elder Meyers was almost prone on the porch. It had started out as a pleasant enough day, but the nasty turn events had taken had made it a rugged morning for the head of the house. He was gazing vacantly off across the street when motion caught his stare and focused it on the figure of a young girl about twelve years old. She had about passed the house before Mr. Meyers realized that this was Joan Whitfield, the young lady that had briefed Joseph on Christmas- She was the young’ rebel responsible for the toppling of the Santa fable, and with a shout and a wave he drew this young Miss Whitfield onto the porch for a reckoning.

Joan Takes the Witness Stand

“What is it, Mr. Meyers?" she innocently inquired.

“What’s this you are going around telling the children about Santa Claus ? Why do you want to disillusion the younger children and spoil their fun? It doesn’t hurt you if they believe in him, does it?

* You’re a bad influence on others!"

The bad influence quickly recovered herself from this verbal butz, and replied, “No, it doesn’t hurt L>e. I don’t eare who believes in Santa ox who celebrates Christmas. The July thing, when other children ask me what Santa Claus is going to bring me for Christmas I have to tell them that. I don't believe in him. I have to tell the truth. I don’t believe it is right to tell Hee***

This kid is going to hike some smooth handling, AjrSJ thought Mr, Mgyera. He swapped his ap-           f

proach of indig-           \

nant scolding for an attitude of in-dulgent toler-anee. “Oh, come now, it is not that

serious. It is only innocent make-believe. The lies as you call them are only little white ones. No harm in that, now, is there ?”

“The parents lie to their children, then the children lie to the parents. The children may think their lies are also white ones, but the parents usually think they are black. The trouble is, nearly everyone that lies tries to justify it by saying their lies are white. If parents don't want their children to lie to them, then the parents better set a good example and not lie to their children/' Joan answered with such simple reasoning and obvious sincerity. When she continued with a question of her own Mr. Meyers sat thoughtfully tugging his ear lobe. "You think Christinas lies are white, blit do you know that the Bible shows them black                                     _t

“What do you mean by that! It's all in honor of Christ's birth, isn’t it?”

“No, December 25 is not the birthday of Christ Jesus?'

“What! Can you prove that?" Mr. Meyers demanded.

“The Bible proves Jesus was born about the 1st of October. First, you remember that when Jesus was born the angels sang to the shepherds that were out in the fields with their flocks. Well, in Palestine the sheep do not stay in the open fields during winter. By December 25 they would have been brought into the sheepfolds. So Jesus could not have been born at that time/' Joan answered; and as Mr. Meyers slowly nodded in agreement she continued, “Then the Bible shows that John the Baptist was born in the spring, and that he was born six months before Jesus. That means Jesus must have been born in the fall of the year, not in wintertime. Also, we know that Jesus was thirty-three and a half years old when He was killed, and that was in the spring, about April 1. So He must have been born thirty-three and a half years earlier, which would mean in the fall of the year, around October 1."

“Joan, you simply amaze me with all this. Where did you learn it?" Mr. Meyers was no longer indignant or indulgent, He was interested.

‘Tm one of Jehovah's witnesses, and the Watchtower publications tell me all about it, especially the Awake! magazine?'

“I’ll have to look into that later. But supposing we do have the wrong day, why do you say that stories about Christina & and Santa Claus are black lies. It's still in honor of Christ, even if it is on the wrong day?'

There was no hesitancy in Joan’s answer as she said, “Christ did not command Christians to celebrate His birthday. He told them to keep a memorial of His death. In the Greek Scriptures there is only one birthday that they tell about as being celebrated, and that was Herod's where Salome danced and caused John the Baptist to lose his head. But mainly the fact that it is the date December 25 that is celebrated is what makes it bad?’

“Why so? Why did they use that day?”

Why December 25?

“The Roman Catholic Church set that date as Christ's birthday. They picked that day over three hundred years after Christ died, and selected it because it was the holy day of the sun-worshipers, the day when they said the sun had a rebirth. The Catholic Church deliberately picked that day of pagan-worship so that it would appeal to the heathen and make it easier to convert them to Catholicism?’

Mr, Meyers was impressed, but not through. “Well, what is wrong with that? If by doing that we could make more Christians, why not?”

“Do you have a Bible?" Joan asks. When Mr, Meyers answers in the affirmative and fetches it from inside the house at the girl's request, Joan continues, “Read 2 Corinthians 6:14-16?'

After some thumbing of the pages to find the text, Mr, Meyers reads aloud: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness! and what communion hath light with darkness! And what concord hath Christ with Belial! or what part hath he that believe th with an infidel! And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols! for ye are the temple of the living God.”

Mr. Meyers slowly shakes his head from side to side as he says that that does not look so good for Christmas, a pagan festival with a Christian label. He questions Joan as to how sure she is that Awake! is right in saying what it does about the pagan origins of the Christmas celebration, and when she informs him that the ideas are not those of Awake! but can be found in many encyclopedias and other books he goes into the house and returns with a volume from his set of encyclopedias and another book on the subject. After reading intently for a few moments, he looks up at Joan and says, “Call Humphrey around here. He is in his workshop in the back yard/’

To Joan’s call Humphrey answers, “Can’t come now. Busy.”

“Doing what!” Joan asks.

“Beading a Dick Tracy comic book,” comes the muffled reply from the workshop.

Ai^this point Mr. Meyers jumps up and strides to the edge of the porch and shouts for his son in a tone that brings both Humphrey and Joseph almost as quickly as the echo. When all four are on the porch Mr. Meyers unburdens himself as he resumes his seat, “That's the trouble with this younger generation. Always got their heads buried in comic books or some other trash. No wonder there's so much delinquency. When I was a boy your age I was working after school and helping make the family living. But all young folks can do nowadays is read comic books.”

Background of Santa and Christmas

Fortunately for the model boy now grown to manhood, LiT Abner lies out of sight behind the chair. He addresses his

DECEMBER 2S_} 1949

son, “Humphrey, this morning I told you a lot of stuff about Santa Claus ano Christmas. I heard you and Joe talking in the yard afterward, so I know you don’t believe it. But I've learned some more things, and I want you to listen to them.” Then Mr. Meyers reads bits from the two volumes he has brought out, interweaving his own comments as he paraphrases the substance of what the books contain. His words are as follows:

“It shows here that Christ was not born on December 25, but that that was the birthday of an ungodly man named ‘Nimrod’ who lived thousands of years before Christ. After he died the people thought he became a god, and that he was represented by the sun. So they worshiped the sun, which is contrary to God’s Word the Bible. The days start getting longer about December 25, so that was considered the time when the sun was reborn. Those pagans put evergreen trees on Nimrod’s grave on December 25, because they thought that Nimrod did not die but w^Tas immortal. On this day there was much feasting, overeating and overdrinking, just as many do now on Christmas.

“When the ancient pagans celebrated this day they exchanged gifts, as Christendom does today, and as the three wise men did in Jesus’ day. Those three wise men were heathen religionists out of the East. They were stargazers, and were led by a demonic light to Herod, that they might betray Jesus’ whereabouts to the cruel ruler that wanted to kill Him. This shows that the early Christians did not celebrate Jesus’ birthday, that ‘in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday’.

“Here it quotes the Catholic Encyclopedia as saying ‘Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church’ and admits that ‘the well-known solar feast, celebrated December 25, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our Christmas date’. The Catholic World editor says: ‘It is a well-known fact that

15

popes and councils in the early Church deliberately placed a Christian festival on or near the day of a previously heathenish and generally licentious celebration/

"My goodness! Here it says that the Century Dictionary says that Old Nick means the Devil and refers to St Nicholas ! And the encyclopedia goes on to tell us that St Nicholas was a Catholic bishop of the fourth century and was called later by the Dutch 'Santa Claus’. I never dreamed that all this was in back of Christmas! And here is still more. In worshiping the sun as the source of life holly was thought to be sacred because it was always green. Mistletoe was specially sacred to the pagan worshipers, and when a boy found a girl under it he kidsed her. The Christmas trees, the holly, the mistletoe, the special eats, the heavy drinking, the gifts and the date of December 25—all of it is saturated with heathen idolatry and not true Christianity. And the Bible text Joan had me read shows the two should never be mixed together, Pve been blind, but the truth has now made me free of such paganism.”

After a thoughtful pause, he turned to his son Humphrey and ordered, "Forget about this Santa Claus blasphemy.”

"I never believed it anyway. Joe told me it was all a fake/’ replied Humphrey.

"Joan told me/' volunteered Joe.

“The Watchtower publications told me,” chimed in Joan.

Mr. Meyers looked silently from one to the other of the children around him. In a quiet voice he said, “And now I’ve learned it, ^fOut of the mouth of babes.’ ” —Psalm 8:2; Matthew 21:16.

an arm an auto accident? Were some of your arteries or nerves shot away or shattered in the last war? Do cataracts blind your eyes? Have your teeth or hair fallen out? Has arthritis frozen your joints? Have a hole in your skull that needs plugging up? Need a new roof in your mouth? Or do you need a replacement for your lungs, kidneys or heart? If so, you will be interested to know that there are many shops around the country that are now in the business of supplying “spare parts” for the human body, both natural and artificial.

The best-known natural-replacement part is the cornea for the eye, the clear membrane that covers the iris of the eyeball. If you knock the window out of your house, or if the windshield of your automobile is scratched or cloudy, you get new glass to replace the old. Likewise, if “the windows of the eyes” are damaged or defective they can/ in many instances, be replaced by transplanting good corneas from other peopled eyes. But few people would sacrifice their sight in order that another might see, and even if they were willing to do so it might lead to double misery; for if the transfer should be unsuccessful, then two persons would be blind instead of one.

This led to the setting up in 1945 of an “eye bank” to which people could will their eyes. At death the hospital is then free to remove such “willed” corneas before decay sets in, and preserve them until needed. It makes no difference whether the corneas are from those of a still-DECEMBER 22, 1949

for Your Body

born baby or from an old man of 70, as long as they are healthy. And not only the corneas are placed on ice in the ^ffbank” but also the humor, the clear gelatinous substance that fills the eyeball. It is bottled and put in a deep-freeze unit for use in eyes where blood clots form.

During the first two years after the eye bank was set up more than 600 corneas were donated. Specialists in grafting sprouted up fast, so that in three years, instead of 10 or 15, there were over 90 capable of performing this delicate surgery. Not all the 250,000 blind people in the country will be able to have their sight restored through transplanted corneas. If their optic nerves or retinas are damaged, or if they have poor muscle control, then replacement of the tiny front window will do no good. Statistics show that many transplantings are unsuccessful, and some cloud up from unknown reasons. So unless a person is practically blind, better to get along with poor sight than gamble with the possible loss of sight altogether.

Need a new jaw or a shinbone, or a vertebra for your broken back? You can now get these replacement parts and many others for the framework upon which you are hung. Heretofore, a person requiring a bone graft had to have a piece of bone taken from another part of his owft body, or a friendly donor had to undergo an operation to supply the needed bone. Now. all the surgeon has to do is to go down to the deep-freeze compartment in the hospital and select ,a piece of frozen bone for the job at hand. In 1946 a couple of “bone lockers” were set up in New York hospitals where pieces of bones sealed in jars were kept at temperatures of 10 to 20 degrees below zero. Supplies for these surgical stockpiles were obtained from amputations and from healthy persons who met with sudden death.

The great success in bone-grarting is due to the fact that the replacement part is actually living cells that soon become an integral part of the body. One survey showed that out of 104 eases only 4 developed any complications. A 22-year-old girl, a victim of poliomyelitis, has her spine propped up with bones from nine different individuals. With more and more hospitals throughout the country setting up “bone hanks”, it will not be long before every community will have its own deep-freeze unit well stocked with a good supply of bones of every size and shape for the repair of local frames.

Other "Second-Hand” Parts

Cartilage is another name tor the “gristle” found in different parts of the body. It is a tough, flexible substance resembling to some extent certain synthetic plastics. Most useful in plastic surgery on noses and ears, and for facial repair work, cartilage in times past was taken from the patients own ribs or hipbone. But now regular cartilage banks are set up. The idea of storing this gristle is not new, but for a long time its storage was unsuccessful because it was hard stuff to preserve. Finally, it was learned that if kept in a refrigerator in a special salt solution which is changed weekly it could be kept for two years without spoiling. A few doctors report great success over a five-year period in which they performed 375 cartilage graftings.

Smaller, yet very important, “bank accounts” have been opened for. human arteries and nerves. A good artery from an accident victim is placed as the lining in a metal tube made of vitallium so that the ends of the artery extend beyond the tube. These are folded back to form cuffs over the ends of the tube. The whole is then quick-frozen and kept until needed. In replacing a section the ends of the broken artery are simply slipped over the frozen cuffs, tied with silk, and the whole, tube and all, is sewed up in the body of the patient.

nierve replacements are even more marvelous when one considers their delicate nature. If only severed, nerves can be “glued” together with special cement, but if a section of nerve is torn away completely, it must be replaced if paralysis is to be prevented. Freshly removed nerves are quick-frozen and later dehydrated in high vacuum and stored in sealed containers until needed.The Russians were among the first to remove such nerve fragments £rom battle casualties and use them to patch up the war-torn legs and arms of soldiers. Another report tells of 28 peripheral nerve graftings, most of which were very successful. Of these one was outstanding indeed. It involved the connecting together of six nerves from a shoulder with 17 nerve endings in an arm, a feat unparalleled in surgery.

Skin-grafting_r for long a slow, tedious and not too efficient operation, has in recent times received a great impetus, thanks for the Brown Electro-Dermatome. This instrument peels as much skin off in 5 minutes as formerly took 30 to 45 minutes. As a result many, many more victims of burns and accidents need not be cursed with scarfaces, but may have their faces and arms patched over with skin as good as new.

A line of research having far-reaching and intriguing possibilities has been that carried on by a number of individuals in an attempt to replace pulled-out teeth with others that will take root and grow. It has been suggested that if such a thing becomes possible then tooth banks could be set up similar to the other spare-part collections. One dentist in California, advancing along this line, replaced extracted molars with young wisdom tooth buds, and out of 35 cases he claims 33 were successful. The operation is limited to those between 12 and 19 years of age, for by that time their jaw formation is about set and their wisdom teeth are still in the budding stage.

Replacing lost blood, the body's most important fluid, with other people’s blood is now almost as common a practice as driving your car into a service station and having a quart of oil poured in. And, as crankcases are drained and refilled, so also is the blood, in some cases, completely changed in a person’s body. Sometimes a newborn baby is cursed with the dread disease known as erythroblastis, is jaundiced, and^has a red blood cell count only half that of normal—all because the Rh factor of its blood is a different type from that of the mother. The procedure in such cases is to drain out the baby’s poisoned blood and replace it with the opposite type.

As to the propriety of this procedure, or, for that matter, blood transfusions in general, much could be said. But the essential thing is that true Christians and believers in the Bible are commanded by Holy Scripture “to abstain . . . from blood”. (Acts 15:6-29; Leviticus 7: 26, 27; 17:10-12) Blood transfusions violate God’s laws concerning the sanctity of blood. If such violate the Life-giver’s laws, then instead of being life-savers, blood transfusions are ultimate deathdealers.—See Awake! September 22, 1949, p. 25.

Arti/fcioZ Replacement Parts

Just as a well-equipped repair shop carries stocks of extra parts for the machines it services, so the modern hospital has on hand not only natural spare parts but also many substitute materials with which to rebuild and fix up human machinery. Several metals are used in such repair work in the form of pins, nails, plates, tubing and wire meshing. When brain tumors and abscesses are removed stainless-steel wire mesh is used like the reinforcement in concrete in filling up the hole in the skull, which sometimes is an inch and. a half in diameter.

Vitallium, an alloy of cobalt, chromium and nickel, is another metal used for mending breaks in the human body. Like stainless steel it is noneorrosive and nonirritating, and therefore, in the form of plates, pins or braces, it can be left in the flesh for the lifetime of the body. In one outstanding case, where a 10-year-old girl’s throat was almost closed shut with scar tissue following the removal of her tonsils and adenoids, vitallium provided her with an artificial throat and thus saved her life. The castmetal throat was covered with a film of skin and then put in place and worn by the girl for seven months. When the skin was completely grafted, the metal throat was removed, and after 4 years with no sign of returned scar tissue the girl won a superior rating as a soprano in a state high school contest.

Tantalum is one of the rarer metals of the earth, and, unlike stainless steel or vitallium, it is malleable and soft and can be rolled out into thin foil only 1/4000 of an inch thick, or it can be drawn into wire thread one-fourth the diameter of a human hair. More than 30,000 feet of such suture was used during the war to tie severed nerves and blood vessels together. Wire gauze made of tantalum has been successfully used to repair large ruptures in fat people where their tissues are not strong enough to hold together.

Substitute Joints, Limbs,

Teeth, Eyes, Hair

An artificial hip joint, consisting of an 18-inch steel shaft with a plastic ball on the end, has already been tried out. The shaft is hammered into the thigh bone and the plastic knob fits into*the socket of the pelvis. So successful has this proved, it is now hoped that a similar shoulder joint can be perfected.

There are something like 350,000 added yearly to the list of 23,000,000 disabled Americans—^victims of poliomyelitis, wars and accidents. Many of these are held together with mechanical braces on their necks, backs and limbs. Plenty of others, one-armed and one-legged people, are hobbling around on artificial limbs. But instead of turning out the heavy, clumsy old pirate-style peg legs, the modern arm-and-leg shops are proci u c i n g aluminum-weight, free-riding limbs with knee and ankle joints, sponge rubber toes, and felted soles. In place of the burdensome harness straps, modern limbs are held in place by vacuum. One make of leg even allows the toes of the foot to swing to the side through a 4-ineh arc to mimic the natural foot when walking. Thus much of the awkwardness and discomfort of former models is eliminated.

The same is true of the new, powerful, sensitive, lifelike hands and arms that have been invented. When this mechanical hand is covered with a molded plastic glove the deception is practically complete. These gloves come in five skin colors, five sizes and two degrees of vein prominences, with inserted hairs on the backs to match the natural hand on all points.

So common are some artificial devices that only passing mention of them needs to be made. Rotating glass eyes for the one-eyed; toupees and wigs for the baldheaded; false teeth, bridges and plates for the aged; glasses for the dimeyed ; arch supports for the weak-footed; padding for sagging shoulders; girdles for flabby muscles; ^ktfalsies^;> for relapsing breasts. Even the artful powders, rouges, lipsticks, hair dyes, etc., of the cosmetic manufacturer are extensively used as substitutes when the radiant beauty of youth begins to fade.

Artificial Organs

Replacing exterior parts of the human body is wonderful enough, but when machines can take over the duties of organs on the inside it is little short of a miracle. If the hard-working kidneys, which normally are capable of removing poisonous impurities from as much as 800 gallons of blood per day, become overloaded and break down there are artificial kidneys able to take over the job and thus extend a person's span of life a few months or years. The first of these machines were as big as bathtubs, weighed a hundred pounds,- and were able to remove an ounce of urea from the blood in an hour’s time. The later models, working on the same general principle of osmosis, are only about a foot square and weigh a mere ten pounds. It is not necessary to remove the kidneys in order for these robots to take over. A tube is simply inserted in the artery of the patient’s wrist and after the blood is run through the machine it is returned to the body through a vein. This' permits the overworked organs to recover and again take up their normal duties.

Robot hearts and lungs probably represent the height of achievement in substitutes for human organs. In emergency cases there is an external glass lung, no bigger than a clenched fist, that oxygenates the blood and frees it from carbon dioxide. The cardiopulmonary machine, a combination artificial lung and heart, has proved itself capable of taking over the duties of the heart for more than a half hour at a time while surgery is performed on the heart. Venous blood is shunted around the heart, through the machine, and after oxygenating it it is returned to the aorta, or great artery, where it flows to the brain. Most intricate, this machine prevents sedimentation, controls the temperature, removes air bubbles, controls rate of oxygenation, prevents loss of water, separates the blood’s red coloring matter, and reduces the sugar in the blood.

But, however wonderful and useful these spare parts may seem, they are still very poor substitutes. This is because man’s scientific learning is absolutely incapable of duplicating the altogether marvelous design and efficiency of the human body. Of a truth, only the Almighty God, Jehovah, can and will restore broken and deformed men of good-will to the state of perfection once enjoyed in Eden.

MANY people who read the figures on taxation submitted by learned though confusing economists do not realize that those endless figures represent little Stoords hacking away at American freedom. This article attempts in simple language to present the.consensus of opinion of responsible economists and politicians on the very dismal outlook that government spending forebodes.

Have you ever complained about the high cost of food? Your taxes are costing you more. In 1947 food cost Americans $47| billion, taxes $54J billion, which computed per person comes to $330 for food and $371 for taxes. On a pair of shoes, 502 different taxes are levied. Only the very rich worry much about the fact that federal income tax takes up to around 90 percent of large incomes.

But have you considered how states and municipalities are "fishing in the same stream” 1 On this one tax authority points out: “Thus if a person is a ‘citizen* of Delaware, maintains a ‘permanent abode in New York*, and spends ‘a portion of the taxable year* in California, he will be taxed by all three states.” If you live in Philadelphia or certain other cities, you will also pay a personal income tax to the

If you drive a motor vehicle, besides the multiple taxes added in the purchase price, you are taxed for this privilege by federal, state and often local govern, ment Local governments also, figure in the “crazy-quilt pattern” of taxation by adding their own "take” on death, gift, tobacco, alcohol and other tax levies al-

DECEMBER 22, 1949 I                                r

ready exacted at the federal and state levels.

The impetus to taxation increase has, of course, been war. But other wars have never brought the mountain of debt piled up by World War IL Up until World War I, the federal government relied mainly on excise duties (chiefly liquor and tobacco) and customs for revenue. Then came 1945, of dubious taxation distinction. “In the one year of 1945 the government spent more than it had spent from the inauguration of President Washington to the administration of President £Eoover—140 years and including World War I.” This all-time peak climbed above the $100-billion level. After 1933 the government threw away the principle of balancing the budget. From 1933 through 1947 the United States collected $248.5 billion in taxes and spent $485 billion. If a family spent almost twice as much as it earned for 14 years, a school child could tell you that the family would "go broke”.-to show how far the United States has progressed toward "socialism”, sometimes referred to as the “welfare state”. Britain, with government ownership of most business, socialized medicine and other federal services, supported at a cost of 40 percent of the national income, exhibits "democratic socialism” in operation. Despite this "terrific take” from its subjects, Britain has been recently forced to a doubtful expedient, a one-third devaluation of the pound. Therefore many question why America should follow in

Britain’s footsteps when Britain herself stays barely afloat largely through Amer* iean support* How then can the United States do better for herself by adopting socialism? It reminds one of the drunk being helped by the sober man, who decides to get drunk himself in order to help his intoxicated companion better.

How big has American government then become, or how far has it gone On the road to socialism? At present Senator Byrd estimates that all taxes have reached nearly 30 percent of ur national income. The entire personal income of most of the western states is required just to finance Uncle Sam, And this does not include state governmental costs. Government is gigantic in other ways: It owjis 24 percent of all the land, an equivalent in area of seventeen of the western states; “it is now in business to such an extent that our biggest manufacturing concern looks like a bicycle shop in comparison,”

Government ownership increases taxation for two reasons: “First, it removes one more source of income from which it can collect taxes. Secondly, it adds one more possible source of cost, which the people must pay for by more taxes,” Nor is government noted for its economical manner of running businesses.

Summing up the tax situation Webster says: “How bad is taxation, and how does it affect our lives, our economy, our country? Its filching finders reach out at the unborn baby, grabbing at the food, the medical care and hospitalization of its mother and the layette prepared for its arrival. Those grasping, itching fingers will follow and clutch at the child throughout its life, and like ghouls, desecrate its final resting place. Its every need, comfort and luxury will be less plentiful and more costly—at school, play, home, work, business, and retirement—all because of taxes. No thing it will ever own or use can escape many of the myriad forms of taxation.” (Vital Speeches, May 15,1948) Excessive taxation has another terrible implication.

Destruction of Freedom

Note the warning of Britain published in the Economist of London: “A state which taxes away 40 percent of all incomes, and much more of the incomes of its successful and energetic, is killing the motive power that *keeps it alive, ♦ . . The long continuation of taxation anything like 40 percent of the national income will ruin the country ” (March 1948, quoted in Time magazine, March 28, 1949, p. 27) Time explains that the heavy taxation leaves nothing for savings, has almost impoverished the middle class, who were looked to in the past to invest their savings in British enterprises. Capital investments came from private individuals. This source is now gone, so that when new machines, new equipment is needed, they must be bought by the government. In order to do this government must increase its taxes.

The “un-merry-go-round” is self-accelerating, all controls thrown to the winds. If this analogy were followed the outcome would evidently witness the disintegration of the merry-go-round through its self-generated centrifugal force. Perhaps there would be some pieces left, even some hobby horses, but as an organized, functioning vehicle it would be no more. The question then for determination is, Can this happen to democracy?

The opinion of many economists is that excessive taxation will eventually destroy the American way of life. Herman Steinkaus, president of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, evaluates the situation darkly: “The history of other nations over the centuries is that when the national government takes over 25 percent or more of the people’s total income in taxes, it virtually becomes its master instead of its servant.” In America, the prognosis of the tax disease, just as in England, brings destruction of private enterprise followed by government ownership. A tax on business as such is thus, in the final analysis, a tax on enterprise.

Just how taxation destroys private enterprise can be observed in an exaggerated degree by observing its operation on those in the high brackets. One wealthy business executive estimated that an investment of $30,000,000 in a paper factory would bring about $9,000,000 gross profits. Of the net profits of only $2,500,000 after all expenses, the government exacts a corporation tax of another million, leaving $1,500,000 for dividends. As the Businessman is already in the 80% bracket the government would take $1,250,000 of the dividend, leaving the businessman $250^000 on a risk of thirty million, less than one percent Faced with these facts, the man did not purchase the paper factory, which would have given employment to many. Instead, he decided to purchase 2 percent tax-exempt municipal or government bonds. Thereby went more backing to the government, which all know is not only extravagant but corrupt and grafting.

No tears need be shed for the man who had only $250,000 for his trouble, but the small investor also goes through the tax meat-grinder. Says the Saturday Evening Post article “Capitalism's Worst Foes Aren’t Reds at AH”: “It is all very well to wave the atomic bomb at enemies, but we shall not have much to save if some curb is not placed on those at home who are responsible for the endless expansion of bureaucracy and the continual rise of government cost." (April 14, 1948)

All agree that the high tax on business is destroying individual initiative. Magill expresses it thus: “With the present scalb of taxation we have put the brake on men's initiative to a dangerous degree by piling heavier and heavier burdens on them as they try to climb the ladder.” Small investors are so much affected by this condition through purchase of securities as trust funds, annuities, etc., that they hold a large share in business. “If this goes on a little longer ” says one editor, “the idea of helping the worker and the ‘little fellow* by bashing American business over the head may lose its appeal?’

Just in passing it might be well to add that federal aid to states and price-fixing also hurry along the socialistic process. One writer, pointing out that the government has no money except what is taken from the states, never returning all that it collects, compares this device to taking blood out of one arm of the patient, spilling a little in between and injecting his own blood into the other arm. Many states are now balking at this type of “transfusion”.

After socialism then what ? “Given ambitious and unscrupulous leaders with socialistic tendencies, how easily can the fruits of taxation be socialism.” After the “regimented economy”, the "planned state” "the next post-graduate degree is T.S.’—the Police State.” Could this mean first the English version "with a slight Russian accent or undertone” 1 Thus "individual liberty can be destroyed by government spending and taxation”. (Vital Speeches, May 15, 1948)

The welfare state has never proved satisfactory. Being told what to do, where to do it, and when to do it is slavery. Such type of slavery may give security, but not a security in freedom to pursue individual happiness. Up to the gresent time no other nation has been as igh in its living standard as the United States or as free for individual action and initiative. But is that all being now periled by the spree of spending?

Students of the Scriptures see even more in this-apparently haphazard pace of government. The current, powered by the invisible forces of Satan, hurries all nations to the Dead Sea of Armageddon. Let the wise take notice and act with discretion by learning the Lord’s way to safety, and His provision of a Theocratic government to replace all kinds of imperfect human rule.

vTORD IS T_ROtjj

Bad Conscience Begins

Conscience is that faculty of the mind by which the human creature realizes and distinctly perceives or appreciates that the course of action taken by him is right or wrong. Men “shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another”. (Romans 2:15; see also 2‘ Corinthians 1:12 and 1 Peter 3:16) Before Adam the first man ate the forbidden fruit he knew it was wrong, because God had told him so. He also knew that both he and his wife were nude, but, being innocent, they were not ashamed.—Genesis 2* 17,25.

When Adam and Eve had taken the course of action in violation of God’s law, they distinctly perceived and appreciated that they had done wrong, and a realization of their nakedness was evidence to them that they had done wrong. They were fearful and, trying to hide their nakedness, they hid themselves. Before committing their act they, of course, possessed the faculty of mind, and now that faculty of the mind began to manifest itself because of their wrongful act. But there was no expression of regret because of their ungrateful deed and act of rebellion. They sewed fig leaves together and covered their nakedness. Their act of doing so in no way indicated that they had been lifted to a higher i*ealm of thought’ as founders of a self-righteous “legion of decency”. It shows that their conscience condemned them as criminals. (Genesis 3:7-10) Their showing of fear was another evidence that their conscience condemned them and they knew before God they were wrong.

The clergy have time and again said that they exercised their sexual functions and that this was what was meant by violating God’s law against eating forbidden fruit. Such clergy conclusion is worse than absurd, for the Scriptures clearly show that this was not what they did. The Bible plainly shows that God had forbidden them to partake of this fruit and that their act in doing so was that which was wrong, because it showed rebellion and disloyalty to God,

On the same day God called them to account. There was no expression of regret on their part nor manifestation of repentance. They began to offer proof tending toward excuse or self-justification. The woman blamed the serpent. The man blamed both the woman and his Creator, saying, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” (Genesis 3:12) The inference to be drawn from this statement is that, if God had left Adam alone in the garden and not given him the woman, the wrongful act would not have been committed, and that therefore God was partially responsible for the wrong.

The Devil has ever tried to induce men to believe that God is responsible for the sufferings and woes of mankind. Doubtless he made that suggestion to Adam at the time that Adam sought to blame somebody else and justify himself. This proves conclusively that Adam did not express any regret or sorrow for having displeased or grieved his Creator Jehovah God.

The act of sin and rebellion on the part of God’s creatures could not go unnoticed or unpunished. Punishment must follow swiftly or God's law would be a nullity and His universal government a farce; and sin now begun would wreck His universe, God proceeded to enter judgment against man in harmony with the law which He had announced, that death would result from their sin. Because the woman had assumed a superior position and had run ahead of her husband and blazed the trail in disobedience, she must suffer some things in addition to the penalty of death. During her life God declared that she must be subject to her husband and conceive and bring forth her children in sorrow,

Adam and his wife, under the terms of God’s judgment, were to continue to exist for a time, and during that existence they must be deprived of the peace and joy of life- By their wrongful act their right to life was forfeited. Within the allotted time provided by the law they must return to the dust of the earth from which man was taken. They must leave their perfect and happy home and go out into that part of the earth that would produce thorns and thistles., Against these they must battle to get their bread and eat it in the sweat of their face, and thus continue until the judgment be completed in their death. While the penalty was death, the issue that had now arisen respecting Jehovah's universal sovereignty caused Him to enforce that penalty in such a way that they did not die instantly. So He drove them out of Eden.

Adam’s control over the animals was now gone and he was no longed in God’s image as God’s representative on the earth. He was no longer in God’s likeness in having that perfect balance of the faculties of justice, wisdom, love and power. Being expelled from Eden, Adam’s return and eating of the fruit of the tree of life was prevented by setting a guard at the entrance. The' words of God’s record, “So he drove out the man ” shows that Adam did not willingly leave after the judgment was pronounced against him, but that he was compelled to go.

Outside Eden and without God’s protection, Adam and Eve could hope for shelter and protection from no one. They knew not when their lives might be taken away from them by accident or by the wild beasts now subject to the Serpent’s influence. Their condition was anything but a happy one. Their communion with God was now cut off, because God had turned His face against them atid they had no privilege of prayer or other means of communication. There is no reason, however, to deduce that they felt any sorrow or repentance for their sin. Nothing in the record indicates it. The silence of the record must be taken as presumptive evidence that Adam’s attitude was that of indifference.

Bather than being faith, Eve’s expression at the birth of Cain, namely, “I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah,” was a presumption on her part that she was the woman whose seed would bruise the Serpent’s head and that Cain was the seed. It was likewise presumption when she said at the birth of Seth: “God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel; for Cain slew him.” (Genesis 4:1,25, Am. Stan. Ver,) There was no real basis for her conscience to be at ease, leading her to think that henceforth she was the favored instrument of God, and that her husband, Adam, was the favored instrument of God, to bring forth a seed that would bruise the Serpent’s head and vindicate God’s name and universal sovereignty.

And the facts show that Adam and Eve were never used as God’s instrument in that behalf. The woman of God’s promise (Genesis 3:15) is His universal organization of holy heavenly creatures, and the Seed is His Christ, His only begotten Son.—Galatians 3:16; 4: 26.

Gold Coast Jig-Saw Puzzle

By "Awake r wre*p©nd«nt ia Gold Coast fitQELF-GOVEBNMENT this year!”

kJ That is the way, we are told, the political Gold Coast picture will look when put together. But putting the pieces of this jig-saw together, that is the puzzle,When too many play the game, when there are too many ideas of how the pieces should go together, when too many pull apart, break up and scatter that which is already assembled, the problem is not solved.

After the disturbances in this African country last year (reported in Awake! September 8, 1948), the United Gold Coast Convention (U.G.C.C.) began pushing harder than ever to attain selfgovernment for the country in the shortest possible time. All political parties and tribes in the land began singing in unison as they demanded freedom from foreign domination. The familiar letters S.G. (Self-Government) began to appear on buildings throughout the busy sections of the large towns. Europeans, while shopping, were heckled with cries: "We want self-government” and "Go back to your country”.

Little groups fathered on street corners around bill-postings of the daily news headlines, there to discuss the latest developments toward the goal of home-rule. Rumors, whisperings and gossip, which spread like wildfire, added to the unrest and tension of the populace. Piling more fuel on the fiery demands for self-rule, the Ga State Council passed a resolution which stated that it was in favor of independent government for the Gold Coast within the British Commonwealth of Nations.

The daily newspapers were most active in whipping up enthusiasm among those trying to solve the picture-puzzle game. For example, the Accra Evening News declared vehemently: “We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquillity.” "For a century and five years," said the African Morning Post, “the Gold Coast has served under the tutorship of Britain. They have realized their backwardness as a nation, and are now up for self-government,”

Alarmed by the fact that this political puzzle-game had become a sort of "national sport”, and that already the finished picture was fast taking shape ir the camp of the opposition, the government decided it too would play the game. His excellency the governor appointed a committee for constitutional reform, and under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Coussey many prominent Africans, including the president of the U.G.C.C. and members of his puzzle-party, were appointed to the committee. It seemed it would not be long before the picture of self-rule would be completed. '

But suddenly, a surprise move! Some of those that had been working on the puzzle for a long time decided they did not like the way the picture was shaping up, and so they began pulling it apart. First, the Eastern Regional Council of the U.G.C.C. denounced the newspaper campaign of the Accra Evening News, the Morning Telegraph and the Gold Coast Express. Then other pieces of the pretty picture were jerked out when rumors had it that some of the leaders *of the U.G.C.C. had accepted bribes from the government with which they had bought fiew cars, etc. More pieces began flying apart, and finally on June 12 of this year, with the West End Sports Arena in Accra packed out, Kwame Nkrumah raised his hands and launched a new political party designated Convention People's Party (C.P.P.), which party avowed it would examine and reject the report of the Coussey Constitutional Committee if it did not give full self-government this year.

Politics is indeed a puzzle, for here, overnight, a one-time powerful advocate, yea treasurer of the U.G.C-C., without so much as first resigning his position in that organization, changed his U.G.C.C. shirt for one labeled C.P.P., himself be* coming its leader. Three days later, when the U.G.C.C. attempted to rally its forces of puzzle-players their meeting was punctuated throughout with hooting and heckling, as reported by the GoZa Coast Daily News;

On Wednesday at the Palladium many of the country’s leaders attended before a large crowd to discuss the political situation* These included Dr. J. B* Danquah, Mr. Akufo Addo, Mr. Obetsebi Lampley, Mr. Ako Adjei and others. The very men—the big six—whom the people less than a year ago lauded as heroes. The meeting in question was a farce and developed into organized hooliganism. In the very name of freedom those present in the audience refused the speakers the ordinary freedom of speech. Those who deny others even the freedom of speech have no right to set themselves up as - apostles for national freedom.

By now the multi-piece puzzle, instead of forming up into a pretty, harmonious picture, has turned into a heap of deranged, misfitting and discordant ideas. Threats, coercion and violent propaganda seem to have become the rules of the game. The Gold Coast Express, which advocates the cause of the C.P.P., warns: ‘Tjet it be clearly understood that even at the point of guns we will not flinch from our efforts towards self-government.”

Will the Coussey Committee grant full and complete self-government, and wilt the aims of the people in general be achieved? These are moot questions. To the neutral observer, the political situation in this small African country looks like a jig-saw puzzle, unsolved and un-solvable. Surely what is needed more than imperial government or self-government is Jehovah God's Theocratic Government!

TO MEET YOUR NEEDS

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NOVEMBER

Atom Plans In the U. N.

The subject of perennial interest in the United Nations is control of the atom bomb. While the, U. N. Atomic Energy Commission apparently long since gave up trying to solve the problem, It was in early November being studied by the Big Five members of the commission and Canada, by the General Assembly’s Political and Security Com-mitte and by a special political committee. No progress was made toward agreement. U. S. proposals call for the establishment of an international agency as trustee and operator of ail atomic energy facilities, elimination of the big power veto in atomic matters, destruction of atomic weapons after the agency has been set up and a permanent system of inspection. The Russians, on the other hand, want immediate outlawing and destruction of all atomic weapons, national ownership and operation of atomic facilities under an international control system, retention of the big power peto and periodic inspections of national facilities.

The Soviet delegate, Vishinsky, made spectacular claims (11/10) about Russia’s progress in developing atomic energy. Said he: “We In the Soviet Union are utilizing atomic energy, but not in order to stockpile atomic bombs . . . Right now we are utilizing atomic energy for . . . razing mountains; we are irrigating

1-15

deserts: we are cutting through the jungle.” Said John H. Dickerson, U. S. assistant secretary of state, “Whether or not this is nonsense I will not say. I can say, however, that when the Soviet representative said this he was Implying a recognition of one of the basic facts that must be taken into account In any solution of the atomic energy question ; that Is, the same atomic energy developed for peaceful uses is automatically and inescapably available for military purposes. If nations have devices in their possession which can level mountains, they also have In their possession devices which can level cities.”

Throe-Power Talks

The talks held between the foreign secretaries of Britain, France and the United States at Paris (11/7-11) aroused a good deal of speculation, because not much was said about what was being discussed. However, It was understood that the chief subject of consideration was Germany. The outstanding result definitely known was that the Allied high commissioners will get together with officials of the West German government to see what can be done about ending the dismantling of former German war factories.

Council Considers Germany

& At the meeting of the Council of Europe’s committee of ministers (11/4) admission of the Western German state as soon as possible as an associate member was approved. Associate membership provides for delegates to the Consultative Assembly of the council but does not include a seat on the executive committee of ministers. The approval was passed on to the Consultative Assembly for consideration.

Prophecy by Hoffman

<$> Paul G. Hoffman, economic co-operation administrator, declared (11/14) that if lyestem Europe should fall under the domination of Soviet Russia and if nations now free should become satellite police states, the U. S. would be compelled to spend upward of $35,000,000,000 each year for defense and would thereby destroy free enterprise. He stressed that the Western European* nations must co-operate more closely, particularly iu lifting trade barriers.

Communist China Protests

North China’s Communist government in mld-November notified the United Nations that the Nationalist government of China’s delegation to the General Assembly “cannot represent China and has no right to speak for the Chinese people in the United Nations organization'’. As China is one of the Big Five powers in the U. N., this raises quite an important issue.

S Ino-American Exchanges

<$> While the U, S. was shipping 75 used army tanks to the Chinese Nationalists, and arranging also to send eleven B-25 bombers, American as well as British ships were having difficulties in Chinese waters. Two British merchant ships were held off Shanghai and the American S. S Flying Cloud was damaged (11/15) by guns of a Chinese Nationalist warship. No one was hurt, and the Flying Cloud made Its escape, proceeding on Its way to Korea.

Israel Spurns Jerusalem Plan

Israel's representative to the U, N, asserted (11/15) that an International regime for Jerusalem would “convulse the city tn wide-spread discontent and confusion”. In a 36-page memorandum Israel rejected the draft statute of the Palestine Conciliation Commission for International control of Jerusalem. The U. N. the day before had issued a clarification of the plan, stressing that U. N. organs would normally act only In an "advisory and consultatory capacity”, leaving conduct of local administration to Israeli and A'rab authorities in their respective sections of the city.

Arabs Seek U. S. Aid

& The representatives of seven Arab states, charging that the Israeli government was not cooperating with the U. N. Conciliation Commission in its efforts to Solve the Palestine problem, asked the U. S. to join them in calling on the Tel Aviv government to do so, The note was delivered to the state department by the Egyptian ambassador, who said, "Prospects for peace are dim.”

United States of Indonesia

<$> The round-table conference or Indonesia at The Hague, after ten weeks of arduous deliberations, completed its work November 1. The painfully attained agreements brought to an end 300 years of Dutch rule over the islands of the East Indies. Nothing is being said about the British-held parte of the islands. Definite settlement of Dutch New Guinea’S status was deferred for one year. The most Important of all agreements reached during the negotiations is the Statute of Indonesian Union, establishing a n®w relationship between Indonesia and the Netherlands based on equal partnership in the fields of trade, foreign relations, defense and social and cultural matters. On November 2 a Dutch cabinet minister signed the document transferring sovereignty over Indonesia to the United Stated of Indonesia, effective December 30, 1949.

Caribbean State

It was revealed in early November that Britlan is planning to set up a new ‘near-independent’ state in the Caribbean area by forming a federation of six of its colonies, including British Honduras, and representing a population of nearly 3,000,000. West-Indian colonial' governors met in Barbados to discuss the project, together with Lord Lis-towel, Britain’s minister for colonies,

Costa Rica Inducts President

Costa Ricans were looking forward to four years of progress and peace as President Otilio Ulate took the oath of office at San Josd November 8. Au enthusiastic throng witnessed the inauguration in the national stadium. A new Constitution became effective at the same time.

Colombia’s State of Siege

& As the number of political murders in Colombia rose In' early November, the government declared a nation-wide state of siege in an attempt to restore order. Bogotft, the capital, was placed under a nine o’clock curfew law. Armed forces throughout the country were placed on the alert. President Mariano Ospina Perea sought to strengthen his rule by decreeing that' any Supreme Court ruling on constitutional questions must be passed by a three-fourths majority. The court, however, denounced the decree as unlawful. The president’s attempt to suspend congress also met with opposition. The conflict centered around prospective elections.

Secretary of the Interior Out

<§> J« A. Krug, U. S- secretary of the interior, resigned (11/11) suddenly, taking President Truman by surprise. But the president quickly named the undersecretary of the department, Oscar L. Chapman, to succeed Mr. Krug. The appointment will have

to be confirmed by Congress when it reconvenes In January

New U. S. Navy Chief

<$> Admiral Forrest P. Sherman, one of the architects of the unification plan for the armed forties, was appointed new chief of naval operations (11/j), succeeding Admiral Louis E, Denfeid, who was ousted for criticizing and opposing unification policies. Sworn in the next day, Admiral Sherman moved briskly Into his new duties, starting off with abolishing a unit in his office known as the organizational research and policy division. Its functions, he said, had been completed. It played an important part in the controversy that led to Denfeld’s dismissal.

Steel Strike Ends

<$> Though It had threatened to paralyze American industry, the steel strike came to a quick end in mld-November. The U. S. Steel Corporation, making a third of the nation’s steel, was the last of the big firms to fall Into line with CIO demands for company-financed pensions. Capitulating on the 11th, it followed the pattern set by Bethlehem Steel, guaranteeing pensions of $100 a month at 65 after 25 years of service. The strike loss was put at $445,000,000 In production and $270,000,000 In wages.

Coal Strike Halt

& After striking for 52 days, some 371,000 coal miners were sent back to work (11/9) by the union’s president, John L. Lewis, but only till the end of the month. It was a sort of truce, during which negotiations could continue. November 15 the UMW and Its president paid $1,420,000 In fines for contempt of court in a 1948 strike.

CIO Expels Leftist Unions

The Congress of Industrial Organizations in convention at Cleveland, after long and bitter debate, voted by a large majority to bar Communists or Fascists from the executive board (11/1).

The next day the convention pelted two leftist unions frotfi the organization. Philip Murray was re-elected to serve as president for a tenth term.

Eleven Communists

Free on Ball

$> Just after eleven o’clock November 1 an official of the Civil Bights Congress handed $2flO_tOOO in government bonds to a bailiff in the U. S. Court House, New York, bailing out eleven Communist leaders, convicted of conspiracy to advocate the violent overthrow of the government. The eleven were set at liberty, pending appeal.

Presidential Polities

<$> President Truman in the November elections entered the political arena in New York with a direct radio appeal from the White House for the election of former Governor Herbert H. Lehman as U. S. senator. He also urged the re-election of Mayor Wm. O’Dwyer of New York city. The voters complied with the president’s wishes. The president also made political news of another kind when he predicted that the federal deficit for the fiscal year would total 5| billion dollars.

Worst U. S. Civil Air Crash

A fighter plane which plowed into a passenger transport at Washington airport (11/1) brought down the latter and occasioned the death of the 55 persons aboard. The man who flew the fighter plane, recently purchased by Bolivia, himself escaped with his life. The accident, worst in U. S. civil aviation history, brought a wave of demands at Washington for strict regulations barring military or training aircraft from commercial airports.

U. 8. Population

The Census Bureau in curly November released new estimates of U. S. population, the total for all states being 148,720,000. The rate of increase is roughly ten million every four years.

New Polish Defence Chief

♦ Russia’s Marshal Konstantin K, Rokossovsky became Polish minister of defense and marshal of the Polish armies November 7, Polish president, Boleslaw Bierut, announcing the appointment, said he had asked Russia to relieve Rokossovsky of his Russian army duties to come to Poland. Marsha] Rokossovsky was born in Poland. The previous minister of defense, Marshal Michal Rola-Zymierski, was allowed to resign to take over other tasks. The new marshal called on Polish $rmed forces to consolidate their bonds with the Russian army,

Prague Executions

The Communist government of Czechoslovakia (11/5) hanged six alleged leaders of a revolt claimed to have been under way last spring. The official press agency announced that the Brno Supreme Court had rejected appeals for clemency. Anti-Communist trials in Comrnnnlst countries are handled with far more dispatch than Communist trials in anti'Communist countries.

Salazar Supporters Win

In mid-November’s elections the supporters of Premier Antonio de Oliveira Salazar won every one of the contests for Per-tugftVB 120 deputies elected for four-year terms. The opposition was negligible and was completely swept aside.

Investigation of Dependencies

<$> Egypt demanded (11/4) that a U. N. mission of experts be sent to investigate ‘inhuman exploitation’ of native peoples in Tunisia, Morocco and other sections of French North Africa, The Egyptian delegate told the Trusteeship Committee of the General Assembly that Egypt would welcome a similar investigation of economic and political conditions there for purposes of comparison. A vote (31-3) in the Trusteeship Committee called for a U. N, investigation of education conditions among 200,000,000 people in British, French and other dependencies.

Egyptian (Wnet Falla.

Egypt’s coalition cabinet composed of representatives of all political parties, fell (11/8) after an existence of but a few months. Premier Hussein Slrry Pasha formed a new caretaker cabinet the same day.

Libya and Somaliland

Independence for the former Italian colony of Libya was voted (11/9) by the U,N. General Assembly’s Political and Security Committee, to become effective in 1952. The Soviet representative took occasion w Issue warning that If colonleg were used as bases for a war against the U. S. S, R., Moscow Es ready to return blow for blow. Tbc next day the Committee approved a ten-year Italian trusteeship over Somaliland, under the supervision of a three-nation advisory committee. After ten years this former Italian colony will be made independent.

Philippine Storm

<$> A terrible tropical storm raking through the central Philippines (11/2) left in Its wake some dead and an estimated property damage of ten million dollars. Winds of over fifty miles an hour flattened buildings, toppled trees, broke communication lines and wrecked barges and sailing boats.

Subverting Catholic Judges

<$> It comes with considerable surprise that the pope in early November warned Catholic judges to handle divorce applications the Roman Catholic way. Entirely aside from the right or wrong of the current divorce problem, it ts no judge’s prerogative to let his religious predilections govern in matters of law, He is under oath to apply the laws of the government under which he holds office, not the rules of a foreign temporal wuler, such as the pope is acknowledged to be. The pope’s Interference in this Instance is being noted with deserved suspicion. The Catholicism of a judge has no bearing on his office, or should not have.

Index to Volume XXX of Awake!

January a, 1449

Uniting Relfxioil’s Divided House 3 No Stoop. No Squat, Nq Sunburn .. 8 Kmog Spells Death  

Noah's Ark Found Again?

TrannfoRton—A Doctor'¹ Opinion .. 12 Spearheading War on Old Age .... 13 Inland-Hopping in the Caribbean 1?

The Amazing Mr. Ostrich ’ ............ 30 This Thing Called ^M So til”1

Christian Integrity in Greece

Watching the world

January 22, 1949

Quebec City. Bring Your Witnesses t 3 Mexico'^ Sideshow .......

ran? Marvelous Senes of Taste .... 12 tbb Reaurrectlon Planta________

A Few Facts on Smoking ...

Along Alaskan Gold Trails ■—

Soul Death1 ..................

Women Clergy in Danish State

Church .......

February 0, 1949

Evolutionist1 Are Old Fogle¹ .

Taking the Poise of the U. N

Hitching a Ride on the Wind ...... 13

Bunny 8palp?

Rugs Have the Floor .....

Parental Curbs Against Juvenile

Delinquency1 .................-

February 22, 1949

Evolution— Weighed and Wanting 3 Mexico's Public Enemy No. 1

The Chinese Fustile

Death Takes the Wheel ...........1

Indigo Ladles vs, “New Looks" -17 Rome Conquers E. Boyd Barrett .. 1g Managua, Nicaragua, a Heavenly

Spot?

Human Genealogy of the King1 ... 24 Geneva, the Protestant Rome

March 8, 1949

Mining Links Still Missing

Black-put for Pain ............. ............ 13 Venezuela's Blitzkrieg Coap

Belgium Changes Rule by Popular

Demand ........._______..... .............. 21

The Nobel Prizes

Baptism or Immersion1 ......

The Farce of Freedom in Spain .... 27

March 22, 1949

Has Democracy'a Cradle Become Its Grave? .................   .........

Counter Revolution In CoBta Rica 0

Speeding Past Bound ........

Improve Your Talking Machine .... 17

Vain AntfcM of Male Courtship „„ 20

Proper Hatred1.........

Gilead Graduates Twelfth Claes - 23

April e, 1949

The Pope and Morals .......-

Tapping the Maple

Oily Riddle of the Middle East .... 18

Death-dealing White Beauty

Quebec City's Falling Stare .

Ifiraei'8 Ceasing of Red Sea1

Norway's Trials Against Collaborators

April 22, 1949

PoJknd’8 Court Trials and

Jehovah's witnesses

Red Tide Sweeps South in China .. 9

Bird Architects .

Trinidad's Famous Pitch Lake 17

Air Capital of the World —.

Resurrection of the Body?1

Embexzlement—Priest Confession 26

May 8, 1949

Canada’s Greatest Petition I........

The Shame of Edmundston

Osteopathy'Fights for Health .

“Let the Deatf Bury Their Dead" 13 Meet Friendly, Little Cuba.......

Green Gold .....

The Mysterious “Trinity" a Fraud¹ 24 From an American Citizen in

Greece.......................  _

May 22,. 1949

Religion’s La&t Stand

Jehovah’s witnesses Executed ..... 12 ftEuee Riot Kxplodea It «. Afclea .. 18 Today’s Cities Tomorrow's

Ghost Towns? .......-...

Among the Clouds

Freedom of Conscience in P. I. .. 24 Life-giving Atonement for Mau¹ -25 Cloudburst Devastates Minas

G erase ............................

Juns 8, 1949

A ram co Builds an Empire

A”, y. Library Fomentf Sate

Capturing Sound

Havanas Daily Bread   - 17 Co-operation Among Animals , 20 Perun Government Stops Bible

Lecture......................-.....

Translators Hide Truth on Soul¹ .. 24 Jesuits in Swiss Constitution —. 26

June 22, 1949 The Flood of Noah’s Day .......-

Spreading Hope with “HiiP£^f1.......

Many Roads to Salvation? —

Indonesia's Road to Freedom   13 The Digestive system

Bring!i g the Outdoors Indoor1 —20 The Way to Lasting Happy Lite¹ .. 25 Suppressing Truth on Greece

July 8, 1949

Big Business Milks the EC A ........ 3 The Chavante ..................-

Dazzling Aurora Borealis

Advice About Dogs .....

Tlgare—African Religious Racket 17 Hard-Sheila of Turtledom

The Human Soul Destructible¹ ....25 Liberation of Jew¹ from Cyprus.... 27

July 22, 1949

Hope for Stumbling Jews

Justice Takes a Holiday ............—

Battling the Moth- Menace

Port Royal—Jamaica’s Lost

CapMat ...........  —

Underground Marvels...................—

A Righteous Standing with God1 .. 24 ‘'Copper-Ci vl llzatlon"   

August 8, 1949

Science in the Role of Savior

Pine Tree Riches ...

Indian Drew in Guatemala ...

Inside Story About Aluminum

Compulsory Celibacy, vice or

Virtue ?

The Hummingbird ....

Sinning Against One’s Own Body¹ 25 Catholicism Absorbs Heathen Goda 27

August 22, 1949 Gangstere In Government ..

Your Mind tb. Propaganda

Lion Eat Straw like Ox

Finding the ' Fountain of Youth” io This Business of Baby-Sitting

Awakening from Death’s Sleep1 ..34 The Religious Goods Business

September &, 1949 Colombia’s Black-skirted Politicians Lose an Election ...........-........

Left-Handers in a Right-Handed World

Shanghai Falls to the Communists 13 Some of Surgery’s Successes

Fighting the Locust Plague.....

Whom God Begets Spiritually1 .... 25 Everlasting Life Possible ?

September 22, 1949

Television's Triple Challenge ..... .. 8 Total Peace1 in a New World.......

Berlin Shivers in Cold War —... J3 Buddhism's^rTwln Sister  —— 16 Glimpse of Venezuelan Market.... 17 Battik over Medical Care Thickens 20 Is Blood Transfusion Scriptural?¹ 25 '‘Patriotic” Mobsters in N. Z......._ 27

October 8, 1949

Cardinal’s Curse a Blousing........ 3

Spellman’s Letter Backfires --------- 8

Feathered Fishers...................-—... 12

Catholic Authorities Look at Crime 16 gualnt Cures of Antiquity ------------17

euador Suffers as Earth Quake¹ 21

Hatred Between the Two Seeds¹ ..25

Gilead’s 13tli Class Graduates .... 28

October 22, 1949

Iran—International Tinderbox .... 3 Will You Finance Freedom's

Destruction? ....................

Mexico Trends Toward the Modern 13

Ancient and Primitive Homes ........ 17 Fwvpcei £EKSMK.ni.tt.(Lteatl<iti.

Decree.......................

Spicy Cooking

Ine Sleep of Death to Be Broken1 .. 25 A Missionary in Cuba ,—

November 8, 1949

The Pope Purges His Chureh

Duncan Disgraced by Folly ........ 8

Wild Wisdom Outwits Winter ...... 12 Going to Build a Home?

Turkey Discards Her Shackles ....21 The Rock upon Which the Church

Is Built1

Catholic Censorship of WBBR Foiled

November 22, 1949 Greek Minister of Public Order Receives a Letter .....

Ritual Marder in Africa1......-

El Salvador, Land of volcanoes .. 13 Gospel-Preaching In Caribbean .... 16 la          t CtfS 1 ------

"Parents Ln the Lord”¹ -------......... 25

Eucharistic Congress in Ecuador 37

December B, 1949

Ku Klux Klan-Symptom of Fear 3

Free Worship In Ireland

Water-Walkers of the Peep ______.... 13

Priest Leads Mob

Christendom's Religions Sow am)

Reap

Meet Brazil’s Kfng Coffee...........

Children Witnesses¹ ____________.........25

A New Dominion ?

December 22, 1949

The Ancient Art of Begging

Jehovah’s witnesses Not Anti

Catholic

“Out of the Mouth of Babes” .......,

Spare Parts for Your Body .......... it Boclftilzatitm Through Taxation .... 2i Bad Conscience Begins1 .........-.....

Gold Coast Jig-^aw Puaiie ............

Phenomenal Growth!

But How?

In every corner of the globe their numbers are growing by leaps and bounds, and from every corner of the globe comes the query of astonishmcmt, “Why is it that Jehovah’s witnesses increase so rapidlyOf this you can be certain, the consistent and wide-spread growth of this group of Christians is not merely a

__                  V chance happening. There is a reason, an answer to the oft-heard question.

If you would like to know' why Jehovah’s witnesses continue to grow in number, whereas church groups complain of increasing apathy on the part of their followers, you should read

The 1950 Yearbook of Jehovah’s 'witnesses

This enlightening book contains information on the structure of the organization of Jehovah’s witnesses and factual reports from 104 lands with respect to their growing work. The president of the Watchtower Society also gives his report on the over-all progress of the work world’ wide. The Yearbook also contains Bible tests and related comments for each day of the coming year. You may obtain a copy of the 1950 Yearbook for only 50c.

The 1900 Calendar is also now available. It ptetures Bethel, the world headquarters of the Watchtower Society, in Brooklyn, N. Y. The Scripture text for the year, “Preach the word'* (2 Timothy 4: 3), appears at the top, and the Calendar pad, upon which are shown tlte testimony periods and Scriptural themes for alternate months, is attached on the right. Calendars may be had for 35c, or 5 for 01 if sent to one addivsa.

WATCHTOWIB              117 Adamo St.              Brooklyn L N.Y,

I have enetooed C 50c for iry copy of the 1950 PeordooJt oj JtjftovoA'j          ; F7 25c for the IMO Cal

endar ; fl <1 ^^or 5 calendars.

Name ,___________________-.....—..............    —   Street----------------------------------------------------------

City..,.... .........-____________________________ Zone No.-----State----------------—

32

¹

Articles thus marked appear under the general heading "Thy Word Is Truth”