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Ill Arluu* Etrvcl                                UrooklVD 1. K Y„ U.S.A,

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FiG6 cento o c«py                                     On* dallor o yMr

CONTENTS

Colombia's 1949 Violent, Its 1930 Uncertain

Position of Catholic Priests

What About Presides CElect Com^z!

Exit 1949, Enter 1950

Multiple Uses of Bamboo

Beneath Hollywood^ Grease-Paint

Snare of Hollywood Worship

Marihuana Thiekens the Plot

Certainly Not Al) Bad

Dunean’s Adult Delinquency

Breeds Juvenile Delinquency

Naples—in a Setting of Beauty and Misery

Villainous Mt. Vesuvius

Pompeii, Past and Present

Tortillas, a Staff of Life

The Fl't^I PapermakRTaf Np\t< Itpjjis on Worship Novel Notices on Nature The Failure of Confucianiam

ConfucianumPs Evolution

“Thv Word 1b Truth-’

Written Word versus Tnditron Gilead Gn.doatefl ftt Fourteenth Clas Watching the World

/AWAKE!/

®^/4fNow it is high time to awake.— Romans 13:119)

Volume XXXI                        Brooklyn, N, Y., March 22, 1950                           Number 6

COLOMBIA’S 1949 VIOLENT, ITS 1950 UNCERTAIN

By “Awake!” correspondent in Colombia

TRULY 1949 has been a historical year for Colombia, Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of its sons were slain in unprecedented political violence. Conservative rule was re-established. Above all, the Catholic Church was forced out into the open us an enemy of freedom. At the year's end, however, one question of intense public interest remained unanswered: Would Colombia's republic be destroyed under its newly elected president, pro-fascist Laureano Gomez!

As has already been reported by Awake! the first part of the year was marked by a sanguinary political campaign terminating in a Liberal party victory in the June congressional elections, in spite of the widespread, priest-instigated violence. Back to his homeland sped Gomez from Spain to take direct command of his Conservative party, which he has bossed for the past eighteen years. One thing was certain: the presidential campaign theme would be the order of the day, “Christian civilization versus communism.” It remained to be seen just how much Gomez had learned during his stay in Franco Spain.

Aside from scattered killings in rural areas, conditions were fairly peaceful for a few weeks following the congressional elections. Amid great public expectancy the new congress convened on July 20, From the start it was evident that the two parties were irreconcilable and would not agree on anything. One of the first projects that the majority Liberals slammed through moved the presidential elections six months closer, with the expressed purpose of getting them over with before organized political violence swept the country to intimidate their rural voters.

Violence and Bloodshed

With newspapers and radio playing up each congressional argument and every act of violence, the gulf between the two political camps widened. Discourses kept the people stirred up. Killings became so numerous during Sept cm her and October that the newspapers were full of the reports from all parts of the country, with conditions rivaling those, that occurred in India not so long ago among the Hindus and Moslems. Liquor played its part in brewing trouble, and many a cafe was the center of operations for an assassination party. Even trains were attacked.

Robbery accompanied the agitation and kept the police busy. In the region of Villanueva, Caldas, bandits decapitated several policemen and hung their heads in the public square, as trophies of their victory. Death came upon citizens via rifle, revolver, knife and the deadly ma-chete. Many people were burned alive in their homes. Reprisals were common, with innocent persons suffering the com sequences. Apprehensions and prosecutions were practically unheard of as the unofficial civil war raged.

During the night in the coffee district at Arauca, Caldas, armed invaders, including fifty uniformed policemen, burned and pillaged the village, being resisted by the inhabitants, who fought back with rocks and bottled-gasoline firebombs, Only when soldiers arrived in the afternoon were the attackers routed, leaving a loll of fifty dead Araucans. Police visited the settlement of El ria-yon, Santander, and burned down its sixty-seven houses, resulting in the death of a "considerable number of men, women and children”. In the important commercial city of Cali the Liberal party headquarters was attacked, and twenty-two persons were killed. That incident became known as "the massacre of Cali”.

Aa the violence rolled over Colombia, refugees hegan pouring into the larger cities. They left behind homes, possessions, farmlands and, yes, even murdered relatives. The Venezuelan government reported that 1,3(K? exiles had crossed over ila border from Colombia. Five thousand took refnge in the city of Pereira. The writer talked personally with people exiled from their homes, and they talked bitterly of the unbearable conditions from which they had escaped. They placed a large shore of the blame on the priests who kept political passion at fever pitch,

Valuable coffee harvests were going to waste, as pickers would not work even at double pay, considering their lives worth more than whatever salary might be offered them. Time stated that over 800 citizens had been killed in the coffee valleys in one month. One coffee company, after twenty years, was forced to close down due to the unstable conditions.

Position of Catholic Priests

Upon his return from Spain, Lan ream* Gomez had taken over efficient control of his Conservatives, and hence the priests,

4

who had been ho prominent in political campaigning, v*ere able to take a less conspicuous position. As for the continuance of their activity, Colombians tan bitterly relate the facts. However, a few news clippings define their position. The priest of Darien, Valle, who uses the pulpit for bis political speeches, said that “the extermination of Liberals was (he only way of pleasing God”. In Bogota, at la Iffletiin de La Porciuncuta the Franciscan priest on July 24 talked against the Liberals so harshly that the major'll y of the congregation indignantly made a noisy exodus, causing such an uproar that it was impossible to hear the priest. Military police arrived in time to discourage any action by the crowd that gathered outside the church. At the same place a young girl was denied ab-sohitiim because she confessed that her family was Liberal and that she felt satisfied to believe as her parents did. At Sasa ini a, Cundinamarca, a political agitator with a black skirt spewed out from the pulpit a political harangue of the crudest character,

In Santander, at Barichara and Cabrera, two priests were exposed to assassination and were classified hk "communist priests", merely because they pleaded for “judgment, serenity and reason”, in order to save the country from the disaster to which irresponsible authorities were directing it. Such a position, however, is the exception and not the rule. The Catholic Church, which could serve as a unifying factor among Colombians, has proved herself a real troublemaker and opposed to the liberty of the people. Thus she stands guilty of a good share of the violence and suffering that have rocked this land.

The Laitbmahinff Body in Action

But what was happening in the legislature while the country was taking a blood bath ? Xot much. That is to say. not mpch in the way of law-making. Congressmen were seeing plenty of action on

AWAKE!

th A lawless front, however, as Latin tempers had their fling. On August 3 the Conservative minority in the house of representatives put on a whistle-blowing manifestation for three hours while trying to drown out the opposition. It seems that the whistles, fifty of them, which were passed out by Congressman Gomez, were brought from Europe by his father, Laureano Gomez. On August 17 Senator Lleras Restrepo took living proof with him into the senate chambers to support his discourse on official persecution. Several refugees from Nuevo Colon, Boyaca, displayed their flogged bodies as evidence of police abuse. On September 8, in an early morning session which was being broadcast by radio, not only did tempers flare but guns blazed, and when the tiring censed 34-year-old Gustavo Jimenez lay dead on the floor of the house of representatives. Two or three others received minor wounds.

. The senate had another show in October when Dr. Castro Monsalvo turned up with a large quantity of rifle hullets, captured in the department (state) of Magdalena, that were destined to he distributed by the police to certain political leaders of that section. Little was accomplished by congress during several months’sessions. Each party accused the other of the responsibility for the deplorable conditions in the country. Conservative president Ospina Perez declared that more than two hundred police had fallen before “organized subversion”. Liberal presidential candidate Dario Echandia, on the other hand, said that the government could stop the bloodshed with the laws that .it had but wasn’t eager to do so, since it was desirous of intimidating the Liberals and falsifying the voting.

As the politicans "wrangled, the widespread violence not only continued but mounted in intensity, with Conservative Roman Catholic and Liberal Roman Catholic slaughtering each other. Eearing that many thousands of their voters MARCH 22, 1950

had been scared out of going to the polls in the rurals, the Liberals withdrew their presidential candidate, Dario Echandia, attempting at the same time to postpone the elections. Echandia announced that they would not recognize the result of the ^,fbloodv farce”.

The next move of the Liberals, it appeared, would be to impeach the president. (The vice-president, "whom congress elects by a majority vote in Colombia, was a Liberal.) But on November 9, at 4 p.m,, the president suddenly placed the entire country under martial law and obliged congress to discontinue its session, El Espectadar carried headlines of the impeachment attempts being started, but few⁷ copies reached the public, us the military police immediately confiscated them from the newsboys and closed the editorial offices. Complete censorship was placed on all newspapers and radio stations. Curfew "was also put into effect as one of the emergency measures. Meetings and public gatherings would need special permission from the military authorities.

What About President-Elect Gomez?

As scheduled, the November 27 elections were realized, but only the Conservatives voted. It was interesting to note that, in a country whose population is only eleven millioh, where the women do not enjoy the right of suffrage and when the Liberals did not go to the polls, over one million- votes elected Laureano Gomez to the presidency. In the June congressional elections when both parties went to the polls, one out of every six persons voted.

The new president, who is to take office August 7, 1950, is one of the most-hated men in Colombia. It is rumored that the Jesuits are behind him, and the tactics that he has used seem to lend support to such a conclusion. His battle cry is against the communists, and it appears that his conception of communism includes all that are not in accord with his

fanatical religious and political views, that is, Liberals (whether they profess Catholicism or noth Jews, Protestants, etc., etc. It mattered little to Gomez when a Liberal party director declared publicly that "the party is anticommunist and its faith Catholic". Neither did he have much faith in the report of the U.S. State Department on Novendjer 3 which stated that the confusion in Colombia was purely internal and that nothing received by the State Department tended to indicate that the political tension had communist agitation as its origin.

Ie the Gdmez communist crusade merely to cover up his own fascist ideas 1 Colombians remember him as "the head of a Nazi fifth column” in a muntry that favored liberty and democracy during World War II. Time reported him as condemning the United States as "pagan”, at the same time dedicating his efforts in pro-Axis editorials in his newspaper El Sir/lo, ini til he saw that fascism was losing. Cartoons in Colombian newspapers show G6mez with swastika and military garb. Crudely painted phrases on walls and buildings in BoguUl read: mucre el dictadar (death to the dictator). El Diaria de Nueva York likened G6mcz to Franco. When several thousand Conservatives gathered together on October 8 for a centennial celebration in Bogota, El Tiempo termed it as a manifestation of typical totalitarian flavor with vivas for the “Falonge” and ^(fFranCo”. They were well guarded by military police as they goose-stepped through the heart of the capital. Included in the procession was a large number of blue shirted youths belonging to the Conservative youth movement. Gomez has promised that the first step he will take upon entering the presidency next August is to end for good "the disease of playing politics”.

Exit 1949, Enter 1050

As this is being written 1949 bows out, and we take a last glance at the conditions it leave* behind for 1950 to struggle with- Info in the capital and in other large ci ties appears quite normal and peaceful, with a well-organized army and military police functioning under a state of martial law. The people are discouraged from talking about the political situation, and it is unwise to speak anything against the government.

Shortly before elections, Alberto Heras Camargo, secretary general of the Organization of American States, publicly stated in Washington, D. C., that “the Liberal party, which governed Colombia for !fi years, must not be outlawed. . . . Nobody, not even a majority party, and, least of all, a minority party, nor a group of civilians and militarists, nor all the armed forces, will ever be able to govern by force a countiy whose invariable and vigorous tradition, aside from her Catholic faith, is that of liberty” However, the conditions in hie homeland run perpendicular to his declaration.

The government believes that what the people do not know will not bother them too much, and hence continues its strict censorship of the news channels and as. cures them that peace and tranquillity blanket the land. But, until it outlaws and is able to enforce prohibition of speech, refugees leaving their rural homes to find protection in the cities will talk of the conditions they left behind. And, until the mails are censored and every letter opened and read, the people will know that things are not as peaceful as the government would have them believe, However, a censored report was published on December 6 telling of five deaths in the department of Tolima. Then, on December 14, eighty-two were reported dead in a Conservative district in Boyaca. The attackers were "bandits”. No doubt the government is forced to publish such reports from time to time, since it would be inconsistent to continue martial law if everything were calm and peaceful. At any rate, it ia difficult to vie-

ualize the Conservatives restoring civil rights and ending martial law merely to have congress with its Liberal majority convene again to perhaps impeach the president and declare the November elections illegal. It is therefore expected that martial law will continue until the Con-seryntives control congress as well as the presidency,

Laureano Gomez and his goose-stepping Conservatives look forward happily to a church and state rule. Disappointment and confusion enshroud the Liberals. Smiling contentedly is the Catholic Church, which pasted the Liberals as communists and condemned many of them to hell, at the same time maintaining the blind loyalty of their vast majority. Thus ends a violent 1949 in Colombia, and an uncertain future commences.

Multiple Uses of Bamboo

<L One of the strangest and most remarkable products of bamboo is a porous, medicinal silica secreted by the joints, known as tabasheer or tabishir. It is ordinarily sought by opening those joints of bamboo that give a rattling sonnd when shaken. It is a silica residue^ formed when the rapid growth of the stem, often more than twenty feet in two months, takes up the moisture. At first jellylike, it gradually solidities into small milky white masses. As in certain varieties of opal, to which it is practically identical chemically and physically, it becomes transparent when immersed in water, (hydrophanous). Its optical properties are so remarkable that it is at once phosphorescent, and has an index of refraction less than any other solid or liquid, halfway between that of water and air. It probably has greater absorptive powers than any other substance, the pom occupying two and a half times as much space as the silica itself. From ancient times it has been valued by Orientals for its supposed medicinal qualities. An important product nf China and Asia, 160 species of this treelike grass arc found from the sea to 10,000 feet elevation in the Himalayas; while seventy species are found in the Americas, one of these thriving 15,000 feet high in the Andes. Occasionally a single cane will reach 120 feet Ln height, growing to a girth of three feet.

<L Possibly no plant is put to such a variety of uses, the palm not excepted. Besides for furniture and house constructinn, the larger caues, with their strong solid partitions at each joint, are serviceable for bridges, ladders, masts, poles, joists, fishing rods, staffs, framing, etc. When the partitions arc removed the stems serve excellently as water pipes or drains. If these are sawed at the sections, the natoral partitions serve as the bottoms of water pails, cooking utensils and life preservers. Cut from smaller stems are the parts for bows, arrows, quivers, walking canes, flutes and smoking pipes. When split, they serve to make nets, hats, Ashing rods (as we]] as in whole stems), wickerwork, umbrellas and chopsticks. Parts of the leaves of some species are used for papermaking, thatch and hats. The yonng shoots are used for food, either boiled or pickled. The seeds also furnish food and the ingredient for a kind of heer. Spiny species are planted as hedged for defense against foes, animal and human. Besides all this some kinds furnish sweets fnr the table, a substance called “Indian honey”, an air-dried saccharine exudation from the nodes or joints of the stem. When it is remembered that this plant is but one of millions created for man’s use by a loving God, it is no longer a cause for wonder that Jehovah looked at His creation and declared it “good”.—Genesis 1:12.

Hell Gets Hotter

<L A United Press dispatch out of Tiysil, Norway, on January 7 of this year, tells how Heli, near Trondheim, warmed np from 40 degrees below zero one day to 14 degrees above the next day. Thus Trysil, where it was four above zero, one day was hotter than Hell, and the next day it was colder than Hell.

BENEATH

Beneath the bri^Hgtata±

adoration Hollywood is viewed A land of glamor. Contrastingly, bene&th the red glare of fiery denunciation it changes into a mucky morass of revolting intimacy. Depending then on which brand of publicity and stage effects are employed to exhibit it, Hollywood appears either as sunny heights of achievement or low^r swamps of depravity.

Not, of course, that the pa Im-wavers claim sinless perfection for Hollywood personnel and performance. Multiple laughs and shrugs would quickly dismiss BueJi uninformed opinion. But instead they deify rnther than deny the misdeeds of Hollywood’s great. More subtle than the adulation of metal and wooden images, Hollywood worship arises from a deeper, more universal impulse—the desire to shed miserable realities.

By thus providing escape for the drudgery-filled mind, Hollywood has admittedly huilt its empire. In the phrase of analysts, it “does your dreaming for you”, provides "reverie by experts ’. Film fantasies become, then, the aspirin for jitters and frustration, increasingly demanded by atomic-age sufferers. Zealous “publicity” has brought forth acts and episodes of cinema life to brighten and prolong the temporary illusion.

If Hollywood's boosters have outdone themselves in creating the legend of “Holly topia” the critics have achieved some exaggeration. Vice in the western colony is their repeated theme. Pressured to find shock material in a world conditioned by much shock, press reporters are hard put to furnish avaricious pres scs. F requeh tl yj’ Wj’h bl e c dtrfe b pond-enfs open the bidding for “salable items”

publici ty-shy principals.

Those two extremes might be likened to grease-paint, that indispensable of Hollywotnl make-up, which comes in a variety of shades. For the fans the characters are made up in orchid pink glamor. By the defame is the personages are smeared with lampblack scandal. Our quest is for the true aspect of what is beneath Hollywood’s grease-paint.

Snare of Bollywood Worship

For practical admonition, let the rising generation turn to a page from the composite case history of thousands of young women.

In the cuhicle of one of Warner Brothers’ well-guarded entrances, a policeman picked np the phone. After a brief wait, during which his eyes brushed the excited (‘luster in the small lobby, the connection clicked in his ear. "The girls are here, sir/’ he announced. At the other end of the inter-office line, the studio’s publicity official answered abstractedly, “Another crop of young hopefuls. All right, Hike, telFem I’ll be right over."

The "young hopefuls” were all of that, and about as pretty a group of matureshaped teen-agers as you would want to see. Surprised glances constantly peered upward as the laughter and normal chatter muted on the acoustical celotex. It was as if the ceiling were reminding them: “Speak softly, genius at work.”

Blondes mostly, one was an intensely expectant brunette, Jane's black bob, pagoda style, fitting the crown of her bead like a silken skull, fell to a single cylindrical curl around her neck, The ebony sheen was parted singly, clung closely to her beautiful head contours, and, where it lay upon her white collar, waved upward like the inverted petals of a raven lily. No angles appeared beneath the blue serge suit, trim to a pair of red, ankle-strap platforms, matched by the leather bag slung from a shoulder strap. The red accessories, even to gloves, picked up her dark beauty strikingly.

Concentrating on the big event of a movie studio visit, she tried to thrust out all thought of family and home. Yet the wonder of what her schoolmates would think if they could see her now returned to mind eyen in this expectant moment. Without willing, the memory of her departure from Doevillc, named for a distant generation of Does lately represented by her family alone, brought her back to Main Street.

There was the Greyhound bus standing before Daley's Drug. According to the press clipping her mother had sent in her first letter, “The whole tovrn turned out to see Jane off.” Barely conscious of the cool pane of the bus window, her flushed, smiling face pressed against it. Seven or eight of the football squad craned over the crowed ahead of them. Their white, unbuttoned sweaters, open to a view of muscle-bulging checks. Each heirs the coveted red “D”. John was with them, of course. John was hers. Conveyed without jealousy on the part of all the girls except Susie, title vested now exclusively in Jane, because Susie had finally defaulted.

Sudden clacking of the bus motor warned the celebrators to step away. Songs and shouting drowned in the din. Daley’s Drug moved slowly past Her last glimpse of the merrymakers struck one sobering chord—the serious eyes aboye her father's smiling lips. It had been a wonderful day, full of the food her ambition craved.

The sights of the trip from the Mississippi to the coast engrossed her attention. Still in the haze of her first expansive view of the Rockies, a stir in the knot of waiting girls broke the reverie. Looking up she saw a handsome man striding down the lobby toward them. Excited curiosity before each successive door that their charming guide opened to let the girls enter kept at peak pressure. A red light over one glaring on a warning sign, “Do not open when red light is on,” held them up several minutes.

Then the red light faded and they were led into a large room which was, their guide explained, a “set”. Machines and cranes bearing large unlit lamp assemblies were being shuffled about. Workmen moved everywhere in apparent confusion. Of course, the girls quickly spotted the little trailer, as they could see through the open door, fitted out as a frilly pink and blue dressing room. Beside the wheeled dressing room was a matching small house with the same low gahlc-roof design. Jane's dreams, which had taken a backseat before all the onerous machinery in the rather dingy studio structure, flamed once more.

Back in her small room in a Hollywood boulevard hotel, she sat down to write. The events of the day trooped past on the many sheets penned to her family. Thrillingly described over many pages was the unexpected sight of Miss Craw-fbrd feeding her pup. In a crowd, she related, the guide had pointed out the back of Clark Gable's head. As she labored over the composition, the intense yearning returned; desire to become a great actress flamed to the feverish fingers holding the pen. So full of Hollywood worship, this letter yet failed to alert her parents to the symptomatic warning inherent. This was partly because she dared not write them of her ripened determination to remain. Closing the envelope for posting, _tshe wondered how she could manage to stay.

77i« Bait

With only two more days of the tour, this problem required haste. The next day an unexpected solution appeared. It happened while she was being shown through a dance studio. As the girls looked on_T she enjoyed the admiring glances of one of the instructors. Ho asked if she would like to try one of the exercises several students were practicing. It w^Tas quite easily performed, to the teacher’s apparent delight. As the routine was finished he asked her into the office, while her tour-mates looked on covetously.

So ecstatic was his praise of her ‘‘exceptional grace and promising talent” that she confessed her great longing to try for cinema stardom. Instantly she received sympathy: “You have come to the right place for help.” Before many minutes he had completed a letter to ber folks full of heart-warming phrases ahout her “natural aptitude for the dance”, “tremendous talent” and “photogenic personality”. He expressed hope that “sbe would not he denied the opportunity to express the artistic nature she so evidently possessed”. He concluded with a plea for parental permission for study in Hollywood, that she “might lay hold upon her proper heritage”. As she tucked this letter in with a note of explanation for “Dad especially”, delight shone in dancing brown eyes. Like dead emhers lighting in the breeze, her despairing hopes soared.

Her friend, who was now fully in her confidence, had offered to escort her hack to the hotel. “The chief problem for girls like you,” he pointed out, “is the matter of publicity. The casting directors have to see you in film, and they won’t consider a screen test unless they can see the right photos. I think I have the right man to put you across but it will take some pictures. I have a camera and a little studio in my hotel ...” He let the suggestion die there.

Pictures, of course; that was what she needed. Had not her camera portrait appeared in several upstate newspapers? Jane’s hopes were indeed establishing new altitude records this day. Her knight met and downed each barrier to her ambition. Managing only to prevent it from sounding blurted, her request surged forth: “Would you take my picture?” It was arranged for the following night when the tour left for home without her.

The “studio” turned out to be a hotel room. Camera and accessories stood at one end, while screened off at the other end were bed and dressing table. Even her billowing hopes did not repel the finger of fear. The finger grew into a hand clutching her heart when the friend suggested that she change behind the screen into some bathing attire. Common sense should have come to her aid admonishing that this was simply a man’s sleeping quarters. She had no intention of using it as he suggested, even for “publicity shots”. Not without much inner struggle over the death of her hopes, she handed back robe and suit and announced that she was leaving. As she walked toward the door the “photographer” did not bar the way, as She had been taught by many movies to expect. Instead he spoke disarmingly, in soothing, boudoir tones. Observing her hesitation, he said casually, “Why don’t you have a cigarette before you go. Forget the pictures, if that is what worries you.” He proffered a package, remarking, “This is a new brand just put on the market.”

Marihuana Thickens the Plot

Well, why uot ? Taste of the first “drag” proved that it was a brand she had never smoked before. Almost instantly she had no nerves. Anxiety fled like a foolish nightmare. Even the drab room brightened. So exhilirated was her whole reaction that she drew deeply, inhaling hope with each lungful. The new sensation was Overwhelming. With the last remembered puff all moral resistance fled. In these few moments the fumes of a little-understood poison had infused another beautiful, if unwise, victim. For the rest of this black night the sordid stimulation of marihuana reigned unchallenged.

The extensive use of the marihuana cigarette for seduction has never been exposed to the general public. It is one of the most powerful aphrodisiacs known. It stimulates rather than narcotizes every organ in the body, particularly the sexual. When smoking is gen-erallj^f so prevalent, even among highschool students, what is easier than slipping in a few marihuanas which look just like the unprohibited brands, especially in the dim light of bars, or the darkness of parked cars'? Authorities claim that the high-school traffic in marihuana (also .spelled marijuana) poses an unusual problem of enforcement

Next morning Jane’s reverie of cryirig out her misery on her mother’s shoulder was cut short. A loud knock sounded, The photographer again I Fear alone forced her to admit him. Without a word he held up the horrihle pictures of her made the night before. “The boss likes them. He wants some movies of you/⁷

Hope flickered a moment hut the leer in his eyes drove it away. Exposure of her body, not acting, was what the boss wanted. If she had only taken dramatics and ballet at school the predicament might not. inspire such desperation. As if following her thoughts the tormenting voice broke in: ‘Til fix up the rent with the clerk as we go out , . . ” At the door she bid mental adieu to family and friends, relinquished John to Susie. The movies she crashed were licentious ones.

Many civic and veteran's clubs throughout the United States and probably elsewhere constantly demand nude films for “entertainment purposes". Without such source of income the pornographic film makers could not batten on the beauty of so many young women. Instead of regenerated as movie stereotype so fondly depicts, the real Jane Does more often reach the mental institution, the prison, the morgue. Misery unmeasured bought for money so meager! Perhaps no more than a “fringe industry”, the licentious film should not be overlooked in this picture of Hollywood without paint.

Moderate investigation dissolves many Holly topi an myths. Again, specifically, it punctures the conception that the picture personnel is one democratic family. On the contrary, it is as rank conscious as a rajah’s principality. Dollar economy rates the four top castes in about this order: owner-producers (who usually pay homage to some bank), producers, directors, stars. Consequently if you happen to be a lowly “walk-on” you will have about as much association with “royalty” as the rajah’s drudge. (Exceptions admitted.) Nor are degenerates rigorously purged from the top ranks. Homosexuality, drunkenness, drug addiction, and indulgence in mass orgies called “sexual circuses" corrupt a fringe element.

Certainly Not All Bad

But when viewing the sordid and unfavorable side of Hollywood, do not lose sight of this fact: Thirty thousand or more employees of the cinema factories include the finest artists and craftsmen of superlative skill and attainments. The majority are exceptionally talented people earning a living in the manner to which they are best adapted. Most of these occupations are as moral as medicine and law. Many require a professional mastery possessed by few people on earth. The generous and fine people of Hollywood should take no offense for exposure of a seamy side foreign to their association.

In fact, removal of misconception should be welcomed. Shipwrecks such as Jane Doe are caused by misconceptions

that are not fostered by reputable cinema officials. The concensus of their advice to young people is briefly this:

Don't come to Hollywood to learn drama, expecting to enter the movies. If you have talent and love to aet, learn acting or dramatics in your home town, or in some nearby city where you can we friends and family. The principles of acting, dauring, singing are the sarae all over the world, not held in monopoly by Hollywood. Do not confuse love of the life you people live in Hollywood with love of the profession for itself. As in other fields, work, which becomes intolerably hard except to those who cherish it, hrings the juiciest rewards.

From the Bible comes even better advice: Avoid the glitter nf this world’s Utopias. They will turn out to be snares, even as Hollyiopia, Seek the only satisfy-ing goal, Gcxl's kingdom.—Contributed.

Duncan’s Adult Delinquency Breeds Juvenile Delinquency

€, Criminal teen-agert of Duncan, Oklahoma, take after their lawless a du lb. This is shown by an editorial in the Duncan Banner, which woe reprinted recently in the Tuhn Tribune. It tells bow more than a dozen youths had confessed to shoplifting and stealing from loading store® in Ducaafl. They did this, bot because nf want or need, for they came from prosperous homes. They stole presumably for the “thrill” of it. Other vandalism committed by Duncan’s youthful criminals includes the dauugLug of gold lettering on business buildings, the breaking of numerous windows of occupied huildingft, and the pouring of kerosene over front porches and then setting them afire while the rwidencea are occupied. No fines were paid. No prison sentences werfl imposed. No bonds were posted. And no names of the offenders were published in the public press. Atonement for their juvenile tuna consisted only of apologising to the victims, returning stolen goods or paying for same, and attending Sunday echuol.

C One possible reason why these juvenile delinquents got off so easy was because authorities realised that the youth of that city were only following in the footsteps of Duncan’s adults. It will be recalled that only six months prior to this petty larceny ths ad tilt population of Duncan threw all law and order to the wind and assaulted Jehovah’s innocent witnesses. (See Awake I November 8, 1W9,) During that reign of terror, Dun can’s children watched their parents smash windows, set antomohilee on tire, and mob ha rm less Christians as they engaged in worshiping God. Teen-agers watched prominent dtizcus, American Legionnaires, and ootr-ing city officials Lead the mah in committing' Crimea far greater than petty thievery. Teen-agers observed that all this crime was unopposed by law-enforcement agencies. It is little wonder, then, that the delinquent children follow the disgraceful example set by Drm can's lawless adults.

The Lard is our God, the Lord alone; so you muni hrve the Lord your God with all your mind and all your heart and all your strength* These instructions that 1 am giving you today are to be fired in your mind; you nuat impress ttiew on your children, and talk about them y<m <ir? titling al home, and when you go off on a journey, and when you lie down and when you get up; yes bind (ham on your hand as a sign, and they must won on your forehead p* a mark; yOK must inscribe them on the doorposts of yottr house and on your gates. Train up a child in the way Aa should go; and mch wfcen be is old, he will not depart from it. The rod of correction gives wisdom; bid a eAihi who u left to himself brings disgrace on his mother.—Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Proverbs 22: 6; 29:15, An Amer* Trans.

STEAMING south of the island of Sardinia, with its buff-colored hills patched with fuzzy green, the ocean liner makes straight for the bay of anticipation the azure expanse before us, searching for another sign of land. Only a lonely vessel breaks the blue, trailing a wisp of smoke. As for land and Italy, many more hours will pass before sighting them, and our imaginations are spurred by the exciting curiosity that the unknown creates. We ask ourselves about Naples, the Isle of Capri, smoking Mt. Vesuvius, the once-buried city of Pompeii, and scan the horizon again with sharpened expectation and hope of seeing V Italia. Would you like to see it, too?

Nearing Naples, w^Te pass by the well-known ‘isle of the lovers', Capri (kah'-pree), rising from the sea like a tasty morsel for the mouth of the bay of Naples. Capri means "goats", and a goats' paradise it would be, if they could have free hand. How they would delight to romp among its rocky- crags, vineyard-covered slopes, its verdant olive orchards and sunny beaches! But, instead, these same features have transformed

Capri into an international summer resort, to delight vacationing humans who pass the time there as happily as would their four-legged, bearded friends.

Look at that water! Here must be the

—in a Setting

„of Beauty and Misery

land's four villages—two by the beach and two among the rocky heights—busy catering to the tourist life that fills the place. Ranging in color from light turquoise to a deep sky blue, the crystal clearness of the water permits a glimpse of the sea floor even in the deep places, thought by many historians to have been the ‘‘island of the sirens” in Homer's Odyssey. To keep from being enchanted and drawn to the island, the sage Ulysses insisted on being bound to his ship's mast and having his rowers' ears stopped with wax so only he could hear the enticing, sweet songs of the sirens. Even local legends tell of how natives used the liquid voices of lovely girls hidden among the many caves of the isle to lure passing sailors to shore. To the tourist's lasting regret, the sirens are gone; only the caves remain. But even these oiler the prospect of adventure, so we set out to explore the best known, the Grotto Azzurro.

Entrance to the grotto is made by boat through an opening five feet high—an impracticable stunt if the sea is rough. This opening is the top of a huge arch, now almost completely submerged, although in Roman times it is believed the arch was above water, affording easy access to the cavern within. Since then, estimates arc that the island has sunk 15 to 20 feet, leaving just the roof of the arch above the surface. Beyond this arch is the cave, 90 feet w^ride, 160 feet long, and 45 feet high; the water in it is over 45 feet deep. What makes it so outstanding is its illumination, as the w^Tater under

the arch refracts the sunlight from outside and' magically transmits a soft bluish glow to the interior. It is fascinating to watch tiny silvery gems glisten and dance where the water splashes. Objects placed in the pool magically become lustrous silver pieces; a swimmer has the sheen of a silverfish.. To leave and emerge into the sunlight outside again is like leaving an unreal world behind. But we must, for there are other sights to see.

The bay of Naples is said to have once contained crystal-clear water like that surrounding the Isle of Capri. But today, due to heavy commercial traffic, the harbor is generally cloudy in color and often littered with floating debris thrown from passing boats or nearby factories. However, should one enter the bay by boat on a moonlit night, he would be fascinated by the resplendent effect of silvery ripples on inky-black waters hemmed in by the embroidery of a thousand lights.

Villainous Mt, Vesuvius

To the right as you enter the bay of Naples is the stubby, sulky, dark figure of the unpredictable Mt. Vesuvius, now the only fully active volcano on the continent. Today it rears itself up from the very edge of the bay on the southeast side from Naples. Green orchards and vineyards thrive on the rich volcanic soil around its base. Its top half is covered with loose rock pumice called lapilli, in places over one foot deep, and it acts like seashore sand when you walk through it. At the summit is the yawning mouth of the crater, many acres in area, and the rim is hundreds of feet from the crater's now-solid floor. While there is no ‘‘blow-off” hole in the crater floor today, where steam, gas or smoke may escape, it is still active within. Stepping along the ridge, which is from four to twenty feet broad, one must use care not to slip with the frequent landslides that break off due to the heat in the rim and fall to the floor of the crater. The rim is honeycombed permitting the heat to escape.

14

This is what the almost 4,000-foot-high Vesuvius is like today, hut nineteen centuries ago it was a harmless hill covered over with orchards and luscious vineyards, sleeping soundly. Suddenly, on August 24, A.D. 79, it awoke with a roar, spitting ashes, pumice, lava and fire over the countryside, burying homes and towns swiftly and suddenly, Pompeii, Stabia and Ercolano disappeared from view under volcanic matter. The population of Pompeii alone is estimated as having been over 20,000, of which number only a few thousand failed to flee in time. Another disastrous eruption in 1631 claimed 4,000 lives. In 1767 the lava flow advanced toward Naples; in 1794 it invaded and destroyed Torre del Greco; Massa and S. Sebastiano were the next victims in 1872, while 1906 saw Vesuvius cut loose against the innocent towns of Bosco Trecase, Ottaiano, S. Giuseppe Vesuviano. These are among Vesuvius’ most violent acts.

The most recent display of the mountain’s had disposition came in March, 1944, when it recoiled and struck out in smoking fury. For over a week, several series of explosions vomited smoke and dust into the air, reaching a height of from 9,000 to 15,000 feet. Lava, although thrown out in several different streams, fortunately did little damage to home or life. The roar, the fire and the blackened skies caused the humble Catholic'folk to pray fervently to their saints for protection, even laying their images in the lava’s path in the hope that this would halt its approach.

Pompeii, Past and Present

Twelve and a half miles south of Naples, beyond Vesuvius, lies what remains of the ancient city of Pompeii. Utterly destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79, it remained buried beneath a blanket of rock pumice and ashes, 19 to 23 feet deep, until finally uncovered by excavations in 1748. By means of these careful diggings modern man has

A W A K E !

been able to penetrate the intimacy of the family life of Pompeii’s dwellers.

One thing stands out in their paintings, sculpture, inscriptions, magnificent temples, and the individual household shrines of their gods. It is an air of religious mystery emanating from it all and telling of a pagan, devilish religion, highly developed. Noticeable is the worship of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of mother* hood and fertility, Jupiter, Venus, the satyrs, besides other sex-gods and goddesses ; the majority of the buildings are decorated on the outside with symbols of the human organs of reproduction. Idolatry was a part of their daily life. Interesting, however, is the lone home believed to be that of an early Christian, in which was found an inscription of the “Lord’s Prayer” in Latin, and which home was the only one that did not have a household shrine for idolatry!

A short distance from the ancient, lifeless Roman city is located the new Italian city of Pompeii. Modern Pompeii has a magnificent temple, too: a sumptuous church bedecked with gold, rubies, emeralds, other precious gems and huge statues of the “Madonna” and the “saints”. Here, as well as in Naples, one can see that almost every home has a modern household shrine of a “patron saint”, particularly favored being St. Anthony, where a small lamp or candle glows surrounded by flowers, and other religious objects. Look! the shops, post offices and the banks have them, too. Even the busses, ears and trucks t Images are found in every piazza, in tiny niches on the outside of buildings, in cubicles. Now wait! Did we not just remark about this same religious peculiarity in old pagan Pompeii? Aly! there is no difference is there?

The City of Naples

Naples itself is a city of contrasts, greatly damaged by the war. Its customs are quaint, fashions quite modern, mannerisms amusing and enjoyable. Typical of this observation is the city’s transportation. One can take an up-to-date, electric,. trackless trolley through the city, ride a funicular railroad from the bottom to the top of the hill, or hail a taxi or horse-drawn carriage for a trip around the city, dodging trams, bicycles, motorcycles and the small Italian automobiles. For carrying merchandise, there are huge trailer trucks, or a midget truck built around a motorcycle or motorscooter. If these are too fast, or too expensive, one can use the mule-drawn carts, or carry the goods in the peculiarly Italian style, on his head. Anxiously you will watch a young Italian riding a bicycle and nonchalantly balancing on his head a large, six- by two-foot tray filled with freshly baked bread, or an old woman walking unconcernedly under a bulky bundle that may have required a good husky man to lift! And over there is a comical sight: the basket man, with forty different baskets on his back; and the broom man, currying some four dozen kinds of brooms and brushes, crying out “sco-pe-ah-e-e” to advise the 150 families in the apartment house that the broom man is here again.

Every morning Neapolitan women go out to do their daily shopping. They may come from an ample flat of four to six rooms with a bath, or from a small, one-room stone house with an open charcoal Ire, an earthen floor, a single 15-watt bulb for light, a bare log and clay tile roof under which a family of twelve huddle on wooden beds with straw mattresses, Along the streets or in the piazzas are rows of stands displaying fruit, vegetables, fish, flowers, eggs, meat and other foodstuffs. Gesticulating Italian vendors, both male and female, try to out-shout each other in their Neapolitan dialect in order to attract, attention and sell more wares. Among these the lady shopper makes her way, buying a little here, a little there, and putting her purchases into the inevitable shopping bag she carries. Canned goods find no market here.

Then to the paniticio where, according

to the size of her family, ahe wifi buy three or more kilograms of the large Italian loaves of bread. Everything is sold by weight; an exception is eggs, which are sold for 35 lire each. At the wine store she will purchase the essential vino da pasta, choosing red or white according to the taste of her family, all of whom like wine, from bahy to daddy. And, oh! we must not forget die spaghetti. How could we when it is eaten every day. Here there is lots of variety, for in Italy spaghetti and macaroni are prepared in at least one hundred different styles, sizes and shapes, either very, very thin or quite thick or somewhere inbetween. Finally, with a few spoonfuls of tomato paste and some cheese, she sets off for home to prepare her average Italian rneal.

Beggars, and the Remedy

One of the things that nmr the beauty of this picturesque peninsular city is the dirt and filth that covers a large portion of Naples. Tt is conquered only on a small seale-by the daily street sweepings, accomplished by men and women with brooms that look like those legendary ones that witches rode on. Thin condition cannot be attributed to material poverty alone, but greatly responsible, also, is the poverty in knowledge and morality. Beggars are abundant, and make themselves a general nuisance not only to tourists and foreigners but to the natives as well. Describing this condition, the Borne Daily American of September 21, 1949, reports:

All over Naples today, you Ree sights like this. They ore not new. They are not born of the war, necessarily. For Naples is traditionally b city of beggars. They have their own Guild, They apprentice children at a tender age, . , , are experts in faking physical ailments calculated to awaken the sympathy of the passer-by. And yet, despite the misery, what a beautiful city Naples is and with what spirit even its poorest inhabitants live. Even the beggars have time lo laugh, and when they chnit and are detected, they laugh all the harder. Any horse-drawn hack driver asks juat twice what he expects to get and when, without comment, you halve his price and give him the correct one, he simply chuckles and may even insist op shaking hands with you iiuiuediakly as a mark of esteem.

The visitor to Naples cannot help but reflect iqion the pitiful existence of many of its people. As he reflects, he may wonder what can be done to alleviate their indigence, to improve their lot. Even go did the writer of the above article in the Daily American when, moved by the figure of a tiny, eight-year-old girl begging,, he opined ;

Sbc was a measure of the great and ancient tragedy of this great and ancient port. For generations, good people have tried to do something about the beggars of Naples, and particularly about these begging children who arc a reproach lo the conscience of the world. But the problem h much bigger thrni the agenniea which have thus far dealt with it.

We can only agree. The problem w much bigger than the agencies and organizations that have thus far dealt with it. None of Italy's past nr present political regun os have succeeded in remedying it Economic recovery programs and foreign aid only slightly scratch the surface but provide no cure. The fact that the world's wealthiest religious organization finds its headquarters in this land, with untold opportunities to hetter the welfare of its adherents, still leaves the problem unsolved. It is much, much too big for them.

Clearer and clearer becomes the truth of the Word of God as one considers the impotence and inability of men to ^fpull themselves up by their own bootstraps'. Only one real hope exists for this groaning creation, and sensible persons are turning their hearts toward it now. Only Almighty God can bring to an end the present unjust system of things and establish His perfect rule of righteousness by His King, Christ Jesus.

By "Awake!” coirespomdent In Guatemala

BREAD has the undisputed honor of being the staff of life. A North American, thinking of bread, simultaneously thinks of wheat But not so with people in other countries., Some bread is made of rice, of nuts, dried roots, dried fish, other grains, and, quite frequently, of corn. Here in (fuatemala maize, or corn, is the most important crop among the Indians, because it is the basis of their staff of life, the tortilla, as well as being used in nearly everything they eat or drink. It is used to make the internationally famous tamales, for hot and cold drinks, and even half corn is mixed with coffee or cocoa.

Since the family cook would know most about the food, perhaps we should visit one Indian hut and follow the cook around a bit. It won't be hard to find her. If we walk among a group of huts, all we need do is to listen for the soft clapping of hands that reminds us at first of a group of small children playing “patty-cake”. If we follow that rhythmic patting sound to its origin,_r we'll come to a small, rather crude kitchen at the hack of the hut, where mamma and perhaps her helpers are busy shaping and toasting tortillas.

But her work started earlier, for making the tortilla, that reminds us of a very flat pancake, is a drawn-out process. The day before our lady brought out corn that had been thoroughly dried on the husks, and this had to be shelled and the dry grain had to be softened; so into a large pottery cooking utensil it all went, covered with water, to cook for several hours, generally overnight. Oh, let’s not forget, she put cal, or lime, in the water to soften the stubborn husks. In the early morning this lime water must be poured off and all the corn thoroughly cleaned.

Now to make tortillas from this cooked and washed corn she brings out a flat grinding stone and something that looks like a rock rolling pin. It is her handstone. She puts a handful of grains on the flat stone and with her handstone rubs back and forth, so that as the corn is crushed a flat sheet of paste is continuously spread over the grinding stone. Every few minutes she dips her hands into water, and she sprinkles the stone to prevent the paste from sticking to it. If our friend lived in a pueblo or town, her job would be a bit easier, because then she could go to the local mill where a power grinder would do quick work of turning her washed and cooked corn into masa. In town, the local mill is easily spotted, because a continuous stream of Indian women with baskets of corn balanced gracefully on their beads is headed that way.

But back to the more primitive method. The milss of paste on the grinding stone is now divided into lines of even little pats, to make her work quicker when she begins the shaping. She takes one of these pats and presses the palms of her hands together, flattening it out. Now comes the slapping sound we've been hearing, for she keeps patting her hands together, evenly shaping the cake. After each slap she slightly turns the cake with her right fingers, and so the tortilla keeps going around until it is well shaped and of the thickness she wants. By now we can hear the same patting sounds coming from all the nearby huts, and the slapping chorus means that dinner is under way, so all is well.

Ab fast as each tortilla is shaped it is tossed on a pottery griddle called the cental, set up on bricks ot pieces of metal over a wood or charcoal fire. She toasts one side a few minutes until it is dry and slightly browned, and then flips it over to cook the other side. The fire under the cental is roaring, so the cook, to prevent burned fingers, has to flip and pick off the tortillas with a quickness that almost looks like a sleight-of-hand trick. She has no grease on the griddle; the tortillas are toasted dry. Now each baked tortilla goes into a basket lined with clean cloths. We've noticed tortillas are always wrapped in napkins or cloths, so they can stay warm for hours.

It seemed strange that nothing Was added to the corn to season the tortillas, so we ask why not even salt was added. She tells us the Indians don’t care for salt, but at times do use it. If they are going on a long journey special tortillas are made. A great deal of salt is added before shaping them, and this is done in order to preserve them. These salted tortillas keep for weeks; then when the Indians stop along the way to eat, they build a fire, re-heat the tortillas and bav^ their meal.

While the rest of the tortillas are being haked she has time to talk to us. We remember having read that most historians agree that corn originated in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala. Supposedly between 2000 and 1000 B.C. teosmte, a wild grass (the ancestor of corn), was found growing in this section. Our hostess tells us that corn is very important to the Indian, because it not only feeds him but also his animals, and, in some places, even provides the thatched roof for his home. Each year the planting of corn is time for celebration, They pray to their gods, pagan and so-called Christian, to send rain for their crops. But if their gods get overly zealous and send too heavy rains, the images of these gods suffer, for they are beaten and put out in the heavy downpour.

The tortilla is rather stiff, and this body to it is very advantageous, because daily the very edible tortilla also serves as an eating utensil. iTor dinner we have black beans, tortillas and coffee, an Indian menu that varies very seldom, be it breakfast, dinner or supper. We get our beans in a bowl, but with our tortilla we form a scoop to dish the liquidy part to our mouth. The Indian often tears his tortilla into bits, then presses this against the food with his thumb until it sticks. It is a bit difficult at first, but they can eat a whole meal without getting their fingers dirty. Other foods that are really more of Spanish origin come served on tortillas, and the handy tortilla that serves as your dish is also a tasty companion for the salads that come piled on it, meats, vegetables, beans, cheeses, and just about anything you might desire.

Guatemala, like every other land of the' world, is hard hit by increased prices on food, so Indian and Ladina must work all the harder for their daily portion of tortillas and black beans, but many are turning a hearing ear to the Kingdom gospel being widely preached in their beautiful land, and realizing that men do not live by tortillas alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.—Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4.

The First Papermakers?

C. Thousands of years before man made paper, perhaps thousands of years before man was even created, wasps turned out paper of the highest grade. Today these oldest papermakers still practice their wonder-working art. According to the family's ancient and secret formula, bits of wood are chewed to pulp, mixed with-saliva juice and spread out in sheets to dry. Bleaching is dispensed with as a human extravagance that adds nothing to the paper's strength.

18

News Items on Worship

_t In Defense of Conscience

? “No country or people can build a genuinely dem erratic society unless underlying ail in a pro-]■ found respect for the integrity of conscience.” So |> stated thirteen clergymen, educators and civic j, leaders to the Greek minister of war when they f protested against that country’s wicked treatment ( of conscientious objectors. They cited Jehovah’s •( witnesses in Greece, as examples of those who had • suffered execution and long imprisonment solely ]• because they refused to violate their conscience ] toward God and bear arms.

Freedom of Worship Denied

• *3? When Protestant evangelists were atoned out of Frascati, Italy, three miles from the pope’s summer home, by u priest-directed mob, they were called “communists”. The “communist” charge, the Vatican newspaper explained, was because !> they were “discrediting the Catholic Church, the pope and clergy; deriding the methods of teaching Catholic doctrine, its dogmas, its rites; and in-[ sinuating against the moral conduct of its bishops ¹ and clergymen”. Congressman Ed Gosaet, of ) Texas, lead a group to the State Department to ■I protest this unlawful interference in religions | freedom. But one might ask why Ed Gosset (lid { not direct a similar protest when a priest-led moh ( at Gainesville, in his own state of Texas, denied ¹ Jehovah’s witnesses their right of freedom of wor-/ ship. (See Awake! December 8, 1949.)

f Vatican Called Totalitarian

• *3? If Truman had attended church Sunday, Jan-| uary 15, he might have learned something. In his । sermon, Truman’s pastor, E. II. Pruden, rejected the pope’s invitation for Protestants to become Catholics and fight communism. “It is inconeeiv-i able,” said Pruden, “that one form of totalitarians ¹¹ can be defeated by the mere adoption of another form, however exalted the ideals of the other* may J. be. The very fact that communism in Italy has become such a tremendous force in that nation '( after hundreds of years of the presence there of < the headquarters of the Roman Church, makes ¹ us wonder if the Roman Church lb really the an-i swer to communism which is frequently claimed J for it.”

Novel Notices on Nature

'Y? Of all things, birds and bees sometimes become aviation’s No. 1 hazard. For example, pigeons plague Cleveland's airport by taking off and landing in utter disregard of signal tower regulations. If one gets mixed up in a whirling propeller people may be killed. Over Calcutta, India, a vulture intercepted six fighter planes, causing one plane to crash into another. Result: D people killed, 37 injured, Bees are not as bad, but when 4,000,000 of them board a plane to cross the English Channel and some of the bee cases spring a leak, well, it is bad enough. In the melee that

followed hundreds of hees were killed, but not before they had tortured and wounded the 30 irate passengers. If not the roughest, all agreed it was certainly one of the most painful crossings of the Channel.

Like many a story based on song and love, life and death, here is one containing all four ingredients, pins a touch of scientific bizarre. The social custom among mosquitoes of swampdom is to invite the boys up to the girls’ apartments. The girls do the inviting or luring, whichever way you view it, by broadcasting their sentimental love calls on the soft evening breeze. All the idle dandits in the vicinity come a-fiying. So far, song, love and life I Death followed when scientists went to Africa in 1947, and to Cuba in 1943, and there set up microphones and recording machines beneath the windows of wooing mosquitoes. As a little Miss sang out her passionate love song, described as a modulated warble, it was electrically recorded. Later, when played hack through a suitable trap, multitudes of lighthearted males flew to their sudden death.

THE FAILURE OF CONFUCIANISM

WITH the advent of the 20th century there has been in China a growing ' awareness of Confucianism’s failure. Although it has ruled for hundreds of years, it has failed to bring China freedom ; it has failed to bring her higher living standards; it has failed to nring her peace. Because Chinn's sehobirs all

through the centuries have boon dominated by the Confucian theory of knowledge and have neglected the study of physical laws, giving preference to research into human relations, sho finds herself at a sore disadvantage in this Atomic Age when scionHfie know-how determines where a nation stands.

After twenty-four centuries of Confucian dominance China's government is still very corrupt, ignorance and superstition still grip the masses, illiteracy has not been driven out, nor have the living standards of the common people been raised. The Confucian religion has failed to prepare China for the age in which she now lives or to bring to realization the idealistic conditions that are envisioned by it in The Book of Bites, which states:

When the Golden Rule shall finally prevail, the world will belong to all. They will elect the virtuous and the able to take charge of affairs. There will be mutual trust and neighborliness. People will not only love their own parents and look after their own children but the aged will find happiness during the remaining years; the able-bodied will be usefully employed ; the young will be properly brought up; the weak, the widowed, the maimed, and the crippled will be taken care of. The men will have what they want. The women will have their mates. There will be a plenty of commodities everywhere that people no longer will on the efforts of imperfect humans to bring it about, little prospect is hold out to the Chinese people that it will ever exist, The conditions here described ns resulting from the application of the Golden Rule seem to reveal the deep-n»o|pd desire in all races for the reestablishing of the Edenic conditions.

The State Religion

The prominence of Confucianism in Chinese government and its success in dominating Chinese life was due to its strong support of the despotic form of government that ruled China for about thirty centuries. When the nobility fully realized what a powerful tool it would be in governing the people they did everything within their power to exalt it above all other religions. Its first step toward becoming the supreme state religion was in 195 B.C., when the founder of the Han dynasty became the first ruler to offer sacrifice before the tomb of Confucius, upon whose philosophy the religion is founded. The position of supremacy was not actually reached, however, until 136 B.C., when the Confucian College of Doctors was established, with a curriculum consisting of the five faculties corresponding to the five Classics compiled by Confucius.

In 125 B.C., when these Classics were made the basis of civil service selection of members in governmental offices, Confucian ism became firmly implanted upon the necks of the Chinese people, to control their every thought until A.D. 190^ when it began losing its domination of Chinese government and education by the removal of the Classics as a civil service requirement. Since then China, as a mighty giant, has slowly become cognizant of the fetters with which Confucianism has bound her for so many decades. Regarding this the distinguished Chinese professor, Chan Wing-Tsit, made the observation that "with the advent of the Intellectual Renaissance beginning in 1917 Confucianism has been condemned as the chief cause for China’s downfall”.

In spite of the growing realization of this religious bondage the main body of Chinese, perhaps 250 million in number, continues in its age-old method of worship. They are reluctant to abandon the religion given them by their forefathers ’ and doubtless reason that what was good enough for their ancestors is good enough for them. So, blindly continuing in the fetters of religious creature worship, they regularly visit the temples to make sacrifices to Confucius and their many ancestors.

Although occidentals look upon Confucianism as a religion, the Chinese do not. They call it ju chia or ju chiao, meaning the School of the Learned, or the Doctrine of the Learned. It is a system of training which involves education, government, rules of social conduct and religion. The thread that runs through the whole Confucian system is Chung and Shu. Chung is defined as being true to the principles of one’s nature, and Shu, the application of these principles in one’s contacts with others.

It is difficult to really define Confucianism because of its being such a vague naturalistic or materialistic system of worship. Its views changed with each successive period in history, when such philosophers as Mencius, Han Yu and Shao K'ang-chieh contributed their own

22

opinions to it, Confucianism did not remain uninfluenced by other religions, for the influence of the Buddhist metaphys-' ics is seen in the producing of the Rational Philosophy or Neo-Confucianism movement, which dominates modern Confucianism. Taoism has also left its mark on Confucianism, for nearly all the Chinese who profess Taoism are also Confucians. Most of the temples in China, in fact, are used to practice Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and the same priest will perform the rites of whichever one the worshiper requests.

Confucianism's Evolution

This peculiar religion evolved from the philosophy of Confucius, a Chinese who lived from 551 B.C. to 478 B.C. The name Confucius comes from K'ung Futse, which has the meaning of master K’ung. Although credited with being the founder of the religion that bears his name, yet in all his 73 years of existence as a traveler and teacher he made no effort toward founding a new religion. He was more interested in the ancient teachings, customs and worship of his native land and desired to revive these rather than begin something new. His teachings were devoted to practical morality and to duties of men one toward another.

This was doubtless due to the prevailing circumstances of his day, as the government was decaying and divided into warring feudal states. Being extremely corrupt itself the government was unable to hold the country together as a united whole. As a result the people suffered severe hardships and had no incentive to improve their own corrupt morals. It w’as Confucius’ desire to see a happy state of- tranquillity brought into existence throughout the entire Chinese empire.

To accomplish this he advocated, among other things, almost unlimited authority for the sovereign over the minister; for father over son, husband over wife, and elder brother over younger—a

A WAKE/

tight family relationship. Ur course, he also advocated his Golden Rule, “What you would not have others do unto yourself, do not unto others/' as a remedial factor for the nation’s troubles.

An idea of the kind of government desired by Confucius is seen from the type of rule he exercised over Chungtu when he was appointed its minister by governmental powers. He regulated the manners and morals of the people. He outlined the types of food people of different ages were permitted to eat, the styles of dress to be worn on private and public occasions, even to the number of bows they were to make when greeting one another. To further regiment the citizens, he went so far as to specify what thickness their coffins were to be and the width and depth of their graves.

In regard to his opinion of spiritual things he is quoted as saying: “To give one's self np earnestly to the duties in-eumbcnt upon men and, while respecting spiritual beings, to keep aloof from them may be considered wisdom/’ The educated Chinese of Confucian tradition considers the worship of spirits a superstition to be removed by education, and yet they accept ancestor worship in all seriousness. So in sidestepping demon worship they have tripped over creature worship and have plunged headlong into the Devil's religious pit. Regarding ancestor worship Confucius once eaid: “When parents are alive they should be served according to the rules of propriety. When they are dead, they should be buried according to rules of propriety. After they are dead, they should be sacrificed to according to rules of propriety/'

It doesn’t appear that Confucius believed in the immortality of the soul, as he would never discuss the subject of life after death. The explanation for ancestor worship seems to he based upon the reasoning that the foundation of all things is heaven, so the foundation of man is the ancestor. The Confueianist considers that sacrifice to the ancestors is an expression of gratitude, a reminder of his origin.

Up to the Christian era ancestor worship was performed before an individual impersonating the deceased, usually the grandson, but after a time this custom gave way to the use of wooden tablets. From ancient times to the 11th century the worship took place before dawn, accompanied with the burning of candles. Right to this day the custom of burning candles and incense as w^Tell as making offerings with paper money has been observed by the Confucian worshipers. It is interesting to note the similarity of these customs to those of one of the chief religions of our modem Western world.

For centuries after Confucius' death he was worshiped by his descendants as any other ancestor, but when the tentacles of Confucianism gained a complete stranglehold upon Chinese thought and hie the worship of Confucius was advocated for all, and even made mandatory in the schools by the government, Portraits and images of him were ordered to be set up in schools throughout the empire, and every prefecture was directed to build a temple to him. So strong had Confucianism as the state religion become by A.D, 1370 that the emperor took away all official titles given by the state to all gods except to Confucius. Finally, Confucius was exalted to the level of heaven and given the same sacrifice as it. This was considered the highest position to which he could possibly be exalted.

Concept of Heaven

To the average Chinese mind heaven is the supreme being or deity to which worship is directed. It is really preConfucian, as it was worshiped by the emperors as a personal, perfect deity who rewarded good and punished evil as far back as authentic secular histop? goes. The emperor's duty was to worship heaven once each year on the winter solstice as the representative of the people. We see in this ancient Chinese custom the influence of a people who lived before the Chinese language was spoken. These were the very ancient Nirnrod worshipers, who were the founders of the first despotic government following the Noachian flood. It is indeed significant that modern-day Christendom once each year observes a similar custom of special worship near the winter solstice or the 25th of December, as the Chinese did. It can hardly be called Christian.

The Confucian concept of heaven was both deistic and naturalistic. Confucius observed that “if you have committed sin against heaven, you have not got a god to pray to”, and then Meneius, who ranks next to Confucius, repeatedly spoke of “paying sacrifice to Shang-ti”, whom he -considered lord of heaven. This deistic impression of heaven changed to a more materialistic one as is revealed in the Chung Yung, the most religious of their sacred writings, where the will of heaven is interpreted in terms of human nature. This book is one of The Four Books written by Confucian worshipers and added to the five Classics compiled by Confucius to thus form the sacred writings of Confucianism. Then Han Yu in the Tang period of the seventh century A.D. declared that reward and punishment did not come from heaven. Shao K’ang-chieh openly declared in the 11th century A.D. that “there is no. Heaven outside of nature”. With varied opinions such as these being constantly added to Confucian doctrine there is little wonder that it has resulted in the vague, confusing, materialistic religion of today.

By sweeping away the cobwebs of religious confusion we find that the human heart seems to be the basic concern of this system of worship. With it as the origin of good, Confucianism oilers a three-point program: Pirst, each individual has as his moral goal that of being a chun-tzu or gentleman; second, to be a well-fitting member in his family, always working for its prosperity; third, to take an active part in world society with the realization of the Golden Rule as the goal. Hence Confucianism believes that humanity can, by its own efforts, pull itself out of the deep miry pit into which it has fallen and then enter a world of unity, tranquillity and peace. With all its naturalistic, philosophical reasoning Confucianism has led China down a blind alley, for it has failed to eliminate avarice, greed, feudings, oppressions and wars in China, in spite of its many centuries of absolute dominance.

Confucianism, like Buddhism, is just another human philosophy that has developed into a shackling false religion, and which stands among the many other brain-children spawned by the god of this world for the deception of earth’s inhabitants. It has served Satan’s purposes well in diverting the worship, love and attention of China’s multitudes from Jehovah, the Creator of man and the one worshiped by the ancestors of the human race, to vain philosophy and creature worship. Well indeed did the Bible writer warn mankind: “Take care that nobody exploits you through the pretensions of philosophy, guided by human tradition, following material ways of looking at, things, instead of following Christ .’’—Colossians 2 : 8, An Amer. Trans.

Because Confucianism has failed to bring higher' living standards, unity, freedom and peace to China it does not mean that the attainment of such a condition is hopeless. If we were to depend upon humans to bring it about it would indeed be hopeless, but since we have the sure Word of Almighty God Jehovah that such a world will be created by Him, we know it is not hopeless. Under His rule the practice of the Golden Rule will be a matter of course. With that prospect the failure of Confucianism should not dishearten the Chinese, but should be an incentive for them to learn of Jehovah.

Written Word versus Tradition

HRIST JESUS came into conflict with the clergy of His day because of the oral traditions followed by the rahbis. The record states: “Then came to him from Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees, saying: Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answering, said to them: Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said: Honour thy father and mother: And: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. But you say: Whosoever shall say to father or mother, The gift whatsoever proceedeth from me, shall profit thee. And he shall not honour his father or his mother: and you have made void the commandment of God for your tradition. Hypocrites, well hath Isaias prophesied of you, saying : This people honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me, And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men" —Matthew 15:1-9, Douay.

This is certain: The old Hebrew Scriptures do not teach us to put faith in the oral traditions of religionists, which traditions men have since recorded and published as being equal to the inspired Scriptures or even superior to the Scriptures where there is a conflict between the two. In this matter the Greek Scriptures agree with the Hebrew Scriptures. They quote no tradition, but do quote hundreds of times from the recorded Hebrew Scriptures. When Christ Jesus was tempted by Satan the great ad

versary during His forty days in the wilderHe          the ^Ti%±rLy’^rs at

tacks by using the written Word of God. In meeting the first temptation He said: “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” In foiling the second temptation He said: “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” In turning back the third temptation He said: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and’ him onlv shalt thou serve.” In each case He drew upon God’s written Word to beat hack the Devil, —Matthew 4: 4, 7,10; Deuteronomy 8:3; 6:16; 6:13.

In declaring His mission on the earth Jesus read from the written prophecy of Isaiah, at chapter 61, verses one and two. (Luke 4:16-21) Later Christ said: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17,18) To opposing religionists He gave the advice that they study God’s written Word.—John 5: 39, 46, 47.

Some time later, when explaining His strange experiences to His astonished followers. He again magnified the written Word of God by saying: “These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and

said unto them, Thus it is written” (Luke 24:27,4446) Ln no case did He refer to the rabbinic schools of teach’ ing with their traditions and precepts of men,

The case of Jesus of Nazareth is precedential. It makes certain that men who follow the religious interpretations of orthodox religionists andwno put human traditions ahead of God’s written Word will surely oppose and persecute the true proclaimers of God’s Word. Paul uses himself as an illustration to show how a blind adherence to religious traditions and systems leads a person into opposition to those who stick to Ood’a Word. He confesses: “Ye have heard of my maimer of life in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and made havoc of it: and I advanced in tht* Jews' religion beyond many of mine own age among my country men, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of rny fathers.”—Galatians 1:13,14, 4»i. Stan. Ver,

Paul knew how the religious tradition* had for a time blinded him to the truth in the writings of Momos and of the other prophets and the psalms. He also foreknew that men pretending to be Christian clergymen would develop a system of religious precepts and traditions and would thereby hide the truth from the members of the religious organizations. Hence he wrote: “Beware lest any man cheat you by philosophy, and vain deceit; according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8, Douay) Paul knew that such traditions of supposed church fathers would be dangerous lies that would offer a false way of salvation, a way different from that contained in the inspired written Word of God.—Galatians 1: 7-9.

Therefore Paul stuck close to the written Word of God when be preached. He encouraged his listeners to check up on him with their manuscript copies of Bible books. Luke pronounces those persons noble who did check up on the truthfulness of even an apostle: “The brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Tbeasalonica, in that they received the wttrd with all readiness mind^ and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were ho.” (Acts 17:10,11) Therefore, when a religious organization forbids its rntunliers to read the Bible and requires its members to accept what its clergymen teach without comparing their lea<‘hing.s with the Holy Scriptures, such religious organization Indies its claim that it is apostolic.

The apostle Peter turned his hearers or readers to God’s written Word aw their shining guide until the day God's kingdom should dawn. Peter writes: ^flWe hare the more firm prophet real word; whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: understanding this first, that no prophecy of scripture is made by private intvrpretation. For prophecy came not by the will of man at any tune; but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by Un* holy [spirit]. But there were also false prophets among the people, even aa there shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition, and deny the Lord who bought them: bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ... be mindful of those words which I told you before from the holy prophets, and of your apostles, of the precepts of the Lord and Saviour/*—2 Peter 1:19-21; 2:1; 3:2, Douay.

Peter claimed no infallibility nor sought high-sounding religious titles or worshipful honors. He shunned all such snares built on hum^n traditions and sided in with the written Word, quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures: “The word of the Lord endureth for ever.”—1 Peter 1: 25, Douay.

Fourteenth Graduating Class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead

Left to right: Front row: Gavotte, R., Van Ike, B., Alexander, W., Yeatts. M.. Ball. J.. Gielenfeldt. E., Barbutza, E. Second row: Boss, L., Honkala, I., Alaurer, ].. Bennett. L.. Thompson. J.. Ramer. V.. Miller. J., Fullerton, R. Third row: Hoornveld, E._t Siebert, E., Smedstad, J., Romocean, G.. Sherwood, ,T., Whittemore, B., Mykytyn, P., Blais. I... Bochko, A. Fourth row: Palusky, A., Mihara, I-I., Bingham, A., Kraft, M., Mihara. K., Mazur, A.. IJall, I,.. Siemens, V., Miller. M. Fifth row: Stutl. r, J., Ballard. V., Wesley, N., Wiens, G., .Tames, M., Schwarz, B., Chap-M man, P.. Kerr. F., Irwin, 1.,, Filteau, A. Sixth row: Wiens, B., Mahler, E„ McBride, D„ Flamm. E„ Garbinski, C., Hernandez, N.. Vawter, V., •'J Slough. G., Bunse. S.. Spalding, M. Seventh row: Wayne. M., Mazur, E., Gross. H., Chapman. V., Gourdes. E.. Potter. T., Van Ike, IX, Luoke, R., Rondeau, L., Blais. G.. Terleski, .1. Eighth row: Hughes. G.. Ward. L., Smedstad. C., Hall. D.. Statland, E„ Hing, K„ Brown, L.. Vittum, J., Purucker, II., Worms, II., Major, P., Danyleyko, M. Ninth row: Tucker, 1., Richards. L„ Yeatts, W., Mahler, B., Maurer. D„ Slough, A., Ludke. F„ Whittemore, IC, Hoornveld, T.. Marti:, II., McGregor, I... Carlson, A.. Kushnir, P., Winterburn. V. Tenth row: James, Karns, W., Alexander, G., Stutter, A., Hernandez, A., Sherwood. W.. Bingham, L., Gilks, W,. Wayne, T., Bogard, G., Fullerton, L., Siemens, A,, Filteau, AI.

Gilead Graduates Its Fourteenth Class

ON Sunday morning 1,591 persons were assembled at the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead for the graduation exercises of the fourteenth class. The principal address was by N. H, Knorr, president of the school, on the subject of "Qualifications for Service”. He stressed the need for prayer, for thinking on virtuous and praiseworthy things, for using descriptive language and clean speech, and for knowing the qualifications required for various service positions of responsibility. Moreover, these graduating missionaries were encouraged to stick to their foreign assignment. Would they permit home ties to draw them back from their missionary work? Did not Abraham leave his homeland in accord with God's command? In faith he served God in a land strange to him, but it soon became home to him. Will not all the earth be made glorious, and will not any location on it make a beautiful home ?

After this discourse each member of the graduating class was presented with an envelope containing a class picture and a gift from the Society to aid him in getting started in his new assignment All have received their foreign assignments, which scatter the class to twenty-two nations. Those assigned to Quebec province in Canada go to their assignment immediately, whereas most of the remaining ones proceed to New York city to work till after the international assembly, to he held there July 30-August 6. In the envelopes presented at the exercises 99 of 103 graduates found diplomas of scholastic merit After the last student had received his envelope, a resolution was presented and unanimously adopted by the student body. It forcefully expressed their resolve to faithfully serve in their foreign missionary assignments. A photograph of the fourteenth class appears on page 27.

-i*------------<j«

The Best of News

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28                                         AWAKE!

Soviet-Chinese Pact

<$> The Soviet government and the Chinese Communist regime, after two months of negotmtions at Moscow between Mao Tzc-t.nng and the Russian leaders, annimnced in mid-February ihftt an agreement had at last been reached. Foremost hi the agreement is a thirty-Jear treaty of alliance which unites the two largest communist-dominated countries In the world, and links together some 7 50,000,000 people in an immense bloc that extends from the Rs Mio to the China sefl-The vast majority of these people are only Just emerging .from centuries of virtual serfdom. The agreement also provides for return to China of the Manchurian railway, Port Arthur and Dairen, and the Manchurian Industries taken from China by Russia and once valued at two billion dollars-The agreement also confirms the complete independence ot the Mongolian People's republic. A loan of $300_tO00j)0h Is to be extended to China by Russia, to cover purchases of Russian products. From Faris camo a report that secret codicils to the Sinn-Soviet treaty gave Russia Key posts in the Chinese government and army as “advisers”.

Famine In Chin a

<•> A dispatch from Shanghai (2/7) staled that in East Chinn, north of the Yfliigt/.e alone, there are more than Ifj/KKJXW famine victims. Almost three million of them are said to have already exhausted all supplies nf food. Meanwhile the U. S. was wondering what to do with about 50,-000.000 surplus bushels of potatoes ami $115,000,000 worth of dried eggs and milk.

Communists Claim Formosa

The Chinese communists in early February announced the incorporation undei' an Eastern regional government of six provinces in East China. The provinces are Shantung, Kiangsu, Anhwei, Chekiang, Fukien ami Taiwan (ForjDPwi), It was added that the comniuntals Intend capture Formosa this year,

Hirohito a War Criminal?

<?> Soviet Ambassador Alexander S. Panyushkin called at the V. S. Stftte Department (2/3) and jvn-pnsed that Emperor Hirohito nurl several other Japanese be trjed as war criminals tn an intei’-natlona 1 court. This rather tardy propowa? was viewed by the State Department as an elTort to divert attention from Soviet failure to repatriate over 370.000 Japanese war prisoners. The next day .f. B. Kernan, chief prosecutor In Japanese war crimes trials in HUG, proposed Instead the trial of Soviet premier Stalin.

Far-East "Greece*

<$> Indu-China is being viewed as a sort of Far-East Greece, where East meets West. The French government (2/2) made final ratification of the Bao Dai regime. The Soviet had recognized the “rebel” government of Ho Chi Minh two Cays before, which move was strongly protested by the French. Britain and the U, S. quickly backed up the French-sponsored regime of Bao Dal, however, by granting recognition in less than a week anil recognizing at the same time the other states of Indo-Chlnn: Laps and Cambodia. France completed steps tn give the three states of its former Far-East colony independence, but meanwhile Bao Dai, being supported by French troops, is being suspiciously eyed by neighboring states.

Aid to Indonesia

<$> The Export-Import Bank agreed (2/W) to lend _T1p to a hundred million dollars to the new republic of Indonesia, to help finance the purchase of goods needed for reconstruction of the republic’s economy. The goods are to be purchased in the U. S,

Moslem-Hindu Rioting

<$> Shoot lag, stabbing, bomb-throwing and arson marked rioting in Cfileunf] and vicinity in mid-Febrtrjfry. The disorders are attributed to the ecounmic war between India and Pakistan and arc aggravated by the strong contention over Kashmir, claimed by loth Moslems and Hindus.

Truman for Police State?

<$> Giving the president his due, one must approve his attitude that his position does; nut exempt him front (observing the Taws that govern his more than 140,0(10,000 fellow citizens. Tie said, ”[ believe that as president it is necessary for me to be more careful in obeying the law than for any other person to bo careful. I never infringe n traffic rule. I never exercise the prerogatives which I rawueUm&is have of going through red lights.” In view- of this statement the wo Ms of Senator Wiier-

M A12 (J If 22, 1350

ry of Nebraska come In striking contrast. He said (2/B), "President Truman is going all out to socialize America, just as they are socializing Great Britain. That is the nnttero. He has asked officially for power, power and more power,” He added that the president has proposed "radical schemes that lead directly to a police state”.

"World's Nightmare of Fear” $>U. S. Senator McMahon, in view of the president's order to go ahead with the manufacture of the H-bomb, urged (in early February) that extreme measures be taken to prevent atomic wur, and suggested a $50,000,000,000 worldwide campaign by which the 17. S. wonld aid countries all over the world, communist or noncommn-nist, and ease tensions. Senator Tydings, also alarmed by the possibility of a hvdrogen-bomli war, urged that the president propose an international disarmament conference "to end the world’s nightmare of fear”. Secretary of State Acheson said these speeches showed the goal toward which the U. S. is driving, but not the way to get there. He said ‘agreements with the Soviet Union were worthless unless based, on strength and backed by force'.

U. S. Coal Crisis

Culminating ten months’ dispute involving the miners, the operators and the government (not to mention the Innocent bystanders), President Truman finally (2/11) took the step he had been seeking to avoid. He resorted to use of the Tnft-Htlrtley law and obtained a court decree ordering the miners back to work. John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers, passed the order on to the miners, who did nothing. They refused to return to work, the 370,000 of them, insisting on a contract to replace the one that expired hi June. Meanwhile coal stocks had been greatly reduced by the three-day week strategy and other Lewis maneuvers. The situation was far

30

from conducive to a peaceful solution, seeing the miners wore disregarding the president, not saying which president. The situation was called "fantastic’ uml grew steadily worse.

II. S. Accidental Deaths

<$> The National Safety Council announced (2/5) that, during 1949 91,000 men, women and children lost (heir lives in accidents. Of these, 31,000 were due to auto mishaps. Accidental injuries were sustained by 9,490,000 persons and resulted in fin economic loss of over seven billion dollars.

Too Much Religion

<$> There was too much religion at Wheaton College (III.) when mass confessions contiiiucil day and night for 38 hours (2/11), The authorities called a halt to the "ruurnthon revival”, considering that the students had been revived enough and should return to their classes.

U. S, National Income

Q The Bureau of the Census announced in early February that the national income for 1949 was .$210 billion, which is only .$2 billion less than the 1948 record. The bureau also stated that, while fatuity Incomes were the highest in history, -prices had increased along with income, and so the average family was probably no better off than during the war.

Essential Industry Closed

The Waltham Watch company closed its doors (2/3). leaving 1,231 skilled workers jobless. The rnujpuiiy during the lust two wars turned out preclsion-instrinoeiit parts. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was charged with selling the American watchmaking industry "down the river” by refusing to extend $2,(XX),(X)O in working capital. Said u trustee ; "You can’t set off an A-bomb or an H-bomb unless you have precision workers to make the fuses. The only other place where these workers can be found ij? in Switzerland, which in 24 hours could be inside. Instead of outside, the Iron Curtain.”

"Mighty Mouse”

It was announced In early February that a powerful new aircraft rocket had been developed by the U. S. navy for air-to-air combat in case of future wars. The rocket is nicknamed the “Mighty Mouse”, and has greater speed and. range than' aircraft rockets developed during World War II. A direct hit will destroy any known plane.

Keels Laid

<g> The keel of the greatest merchant ship ever ordered for the U, S. was laid (2/8) at Newport News, Virginia. It is to be a prestige liner, the first in decades to compete with the British ‘Queens’, it will cost $70,373,000, will be at least 980 feet long and will be registered at 48,000 gross tons. At Quincy, Massachusetts, the keel of a $15,000,1X10 U, S. super-destroyer was laid (2/1), and two similar destroyers are being built at Bath, Maine.

Teachers’ Confederation

Early February saw the formation of the World Confederation of the Teaching Profession, us a tentative draft constitution was adopted by repretieutatives of the three major international teacher associations. Dr. Wm. F. Russell, president nf Teachers College, Columbia University, estimated that 3,000,000 teachers from 55 countries outside the Iron Curtain would join the confederation. The primory purpose of the organization is to foster fl conception of education directed toward the promotion of International understanding and goodwill, io order to safeguard peace and freedom and respect for human dignity.

Caribbean “Good Neighbors”

In early February representatives of the Inter-American organization were on n tour of Caribbean Island republics to probe into the hottest dispute In the *

AWAKE ! inter-Amerlcan scene. There was angry conflict between the Dominican Republic on the one hand, and Haiti, Cuba and Guatemala on the other. Hemispheric unity was in the balance and the Good Neighbor policy lu the discard. The Dominican dictator Trujillo had been charging that the other governments had been giving aid to forces within their borders that aimed nt seizing the Dominican government. He asked his government to give ii*ra power to declare war. He got it. Haiti, oe-copying the same little Island with the Dominican Republic, accused Trujillo of planning some excuse for using his war powers. Both Haiti and the Dominican Republic appealed to the Inter-American treaty. Hence the factfinding got under way.

Argentlpa Frees “Plotters**

After inquiry into an alleged plot ‘directed from al;road to sow strife in Argentina', it was announced (2/9) that new evidence showed there was no plot. All suspects were released, including two U. S. citizens and a Briton, nnd the informer was held for trial instead. While nnder arrest the “plotters" were held incommunicado.

Spanish-Russian Trade

Said the I’. 6'. Aetna and World Report (2/31 : "Spain’s Generalissimo Franco, while talking anti-Russlan, is building a rather flourishing two-way trade with the Russians. Franco is shipping mercury, lend and textiles in exchange for Stalin’s cotton, petroleum and fertilizer. Deals are handled by intermediaries in Egypt, Iran and Afghanistan,” Meanwhile the Vatican is supposed. to be showlog aloofness toward Franco, putting off the negotiation of tt now concordat.

Marshall Flan Report

<$> In the annual report of the Marshall Plan Council. issm^i at Paris (2/7), it was pointed out that Westebn Eu rope’s production and foreign trade had regained approximately their prewar volumes, anti the dollar deficit had been nearly cut in half in two years. According to Paul G. Hoffman, economic cooperation administrator for the plan, the progress toward liberalization of trade in Europe had, nevertheless, been "disappointing”.

British Politics

<$> The royal proclamation issued by the king (2/3) was read by a medievally attired “crier” the next day. It was the official way of dissolving parliament, and opened the way for elections. While such affairs in Britain are quieter than in the U. S., there were Some pretty strong statements made. Winston Churchill declared that if the British Labor government was returned to office ‘there would be further steps taken along the roml to totalitarian enslavement’. He also proposed “another talk with the Soviet Union’’ to settle East-West differences and end the bomb race.

Atomic Secrets to Russia

<§> In London Dr, Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs, a scientist who had full access to atom- and hydrogen-bomb secrets, was charged (2/3) with having given atomic secrets to Russia. A week later he confessed that he had engaged in treasonable activity over a period of seven years. Be also named several confederates who had helped him to get atomic secrets into Russian hands.

Bonn and Unemployed Germans <$> Chancellor Konrad Adenauer proposed (2/9) to spend 3,400,-000,000 Deutsche marks ($800,-000,000) to light uuempln.yment in Western Germany. The money was to be used for (1) housing construction: (21 railroad repairs; (3) launching enterprises for the unemployed; (4} export contracts: (3) postal, telephone and telegraph reconstruction; (6) credits to medium and small businesses nnd handicrafts. Re ception of the plnn by the deputies was lukewarm, and one of them accused the government itself of causing unemployment.

Stuttgart Speech

• •$> John .1. McCloy, U.S. high commissioner for Germany, was in the U. S. In early February, had been there for a week, to find out what the American attitude toward ri revival of Nazism in Germany was. Hi' found out by observation and by conference with President Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson. Baek in Germany, he addressed a gathering of 1,000 Germans in Stuttgart (2/R) and said, “I told the American people that I was concerned over the re-emergence of nationalist in groups; that there was, in my judgment, still too much traditionalism and authoritarianism in German life; that many undesirable former Nazis and nationalists were finding their way back into Important places.” He stressed that the German people, “by denying guilt, only called to mind the docility with which the greater number of them accepted Nazi outrages.” While the German people are to be helped in developing a peaceful, self-supporting, democratic stale, they are to he “deprived of the means of waging war”.

German Boundaries Uncertain

Jacob Kaiser, the minister of All-German Affairs in the West German Federal government, issued a statimient (2/12) that the Oder-Neisse lands of East Germany still belong to Germany, and the East zone government’s recognition of a “peace frontier” that gives these areas to Poland does not affect the German claim.

Liberian Outbreak

• <& Liberia, West Africa, declared a state of emergency (2/14) in the area of the Firestone rubber plantations (a million-acre concession), after a fnrions outbreak by workers ever wages. The Liberians are descendants of freed L^T. S. slaves, w]m founded the republic with the help of President James Monroe.

MARCH 22, 1950