PRESIDENT BY A LANDSLIDE!

Why Celebrate Christmas?

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Catholic Action Boomerangs

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/adapting the Atom to Peacetime Uses

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital Issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. “Awake!" has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish factf. It is not bound by political ambitions or obligations; it Is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. Hut it does not abuse its freedom- It maintains integrity to truth.

“Awake 1” uses the regular news channels, but is not dependent on them. Its own correspondents are on all continents, in scores of nations. From the four corners of the earth their uncensored, on-the-scenes reports come to you through these columns. This journal's viewpoint is not narrow, but is International. It is read in many nations, in many languages, by persons of all ages. Through its pages many fields of knowledge pass in review—government, commerce, religion, history, geography, science, social conditions, natural wonders—why, its cover* age is aa broad as the earth and as high as the heavens.

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

Get acquainted with “AwakeV* Keep awake by reading “Awake?*

Ehleretf it jecruKt-eJaffl tsiftw *1 BrrokJytv N. Y Act <rf Wirch 3, 1871). Printed In U. S, A.

CONTENTS

Comments on U. S. World Policy	3	What Water Can Do	20
President by a Landslide!	5	Why Celebrate Christmas?	21
Catholic Action Boomerangs	9	Past Attitudes	21
Do You Take This Politician?	12	Pagan Origins	22
Adapting the Atom to Peacetime Uses	13	Medieval Myths	23
Isotopes for Industry	14	‘'Your Word Is Truth"'
Isotopes for Agricultural Uses	15	The “Seventy Weeks’’	25
Isotopes for Medical Use	15	From Cane to Sugar	27
Religion in the Turkish Village	16	Watching the World	28
Judge and Marriage	17	Index to Volume XXXIII of Awake!	31

Comments on U. S. World Policy

ACCORDING to John Foster Dulles, expert on foreign affairs and former republican adviser to Secretary of State Dean Acheson, the U. S. “is today less liked, more isolated and more endangered than ever before in its history”. This, he explained in Philadelphia, April 14, is because since World War II "we have not given out of compassion or because of love of our fellow men”. “Our vast public loans and grants to other nations have been made,” he said, “not because we wanted to make them, but because we have been told that we had to make them in order to achieve certain political objectives?’ Continuing: “The gifts have not carried a message of sympathy and good will but rather expressions of annoyance, grumbling and carping criticism. The result is that we have not gotten what we bargained for?’

Even when U. S. support was successful many justly cried “shame”. Dr. Herbert Kitchen of Buffalo’s First Unitarian Church explained on April 22, 1951, that freedom-loving peoples throughout the world have turned against the United States because of such things as “our support of Franco’s Spain and our putting of power in Greece back into the hands, not of the valiant fighters for liberty for the people, but of the corrupt and effete tenth of one per cent of the ruling class that has exploited and impoverished the populace”. Then, he said, “We are surprised and bewildered when other peoples struggling against similar inhuman conditions fail to take us at our own evaluation as emancipators of the slaves, champions of freedom and liberators of the oppressed?’

He described the Chinese as “a people pushed beyond the limits of endurance by hunger, poverty and exploitation, who rebelled against the war lords centered around Chiang Kai-shek”, and said, “Millions of our wealth was poured out to bplster a tottering regime, repudiated by the people, while graft and corruption, according to our own investigations, absorbed it?’

He swung a telling blow with the statement: “We owe it to ourselves and to our fellow men to remember one towering fact: that the chief reason why the false and dangerous doctrine of communism is spreading in the world is because poverty, degradation and social injustice is the lot of two-thirds of the people on our planet, and communism steals the initiative and offers them food and a roof over their heads, while our answer more and more is just words about the benefits of democracy, but accompanied by armaments instead of a chance to live with dignity and decency which those people crave?* Loathing and opposition to communism, he pointed out, defeat their “own ends if

hose ends are sought by welcoming as >ur allies the ones who practiced the same :rimes against humanity, but who do it n the name of the status quo”.

A similar situation existed in Russia, iccording to “Rev.” Leopold Braun, the jnly American Roman Catholic priest in hat land from 1934 to 1945. Speaking at i Knights of Columbus breakfast in New ifork he said on January 27: “Organized jootlicking and appeasement hid from the (American people the truth about what ivas happening to the millions of dollars’ vorth of aid that we gave to Russia.” He barged: “The American people were ■ooled into believing that our wartime aid to Russia was aiding the Russian people, when instead it was implementing the harsh and brutal regime of Stalin and the Politburo.”

If an oppressive government webe weak, obviously it would use its power first to put down internal opposition, and U. S. dollars strengthen not just “good” governments, but any who will oppose the current enemy, no matter what the policies of the government aided. This was shown when the U. S. aided communism while it fought nazism, and now helps other totalitarian lands stay in power if they will oppose communism. When Tito broke with the current enemy it mattered not whether his people actually wanted him. Life magazine said: “Right now he is on our side, against Stalin. U. S. taxpayers are therefore helping him: well over $200 million worth of economic and military aid in two years, and probably more to come.” Life called him “ally, not friend”, and explained ; “The world coalition against Kremlin imperialism cannot aspire to political uniformity. As leader of this coalition, the U. S. must learn to live with strange bedfellows without falling in love with them. Of these, Tito is not much stranger than Franco or Ibn Saud.”

Yet Arthur Bliss Lane, former American minister to Yugoslavia and ambassador to Poland, pointed out in the Saturday Evening Post, January 5: “We may hide behind the cryptic diplomatic phrase that our support of Tito is a ‘calculated risk.’ By juggling with this catchword, which at best is an admission that we are evading moral principles, we are trying to convince ourselves that we are bolstering up Tito in his fight against the Kremlin. What we are actually doing, however, is to bolster up Tito in his fight to enslave the Yugoslav people. We are building up him and his coconspirators into a regime which, enriched by our financial support and military equipment, will be in a position to destroy any possible attempt which may be made in the future by the people of Yugoslavia to regain the democracy which they have lost. . . . We have no right to continue to impose on them the cruel bonds of a communist machine.”

In wartime innocent civilians trapped on the battlefield are often butchered in the cross fire without a chance. Similarly today millions are caught in the trap of cruel governments kept in power by U. S, aid. It may seem to be a military necessity, but it certainly does not convince oppressed people that democracy is their savior!

Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity; that speak peace with their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings: give them after the operation of their hands; render to them their desert. Because they regard not the works of Jehovah, nor the operation of his hands, he will break them down and not build them up.—Psalm 28:3-5, Am. Stan. Ver.

WITHOUT democracy there frequently is tyranny, for rulers with absolute power are rarely just rulers. One of the shortcomings of democracy (as all human governments have shortcomings), how* ever, is that the people, who themselves must rule, can rarely be specialists. They would trust their health only to specialists. They would not tinker with a fine timepiece unless they were trained in that field. But these same people must decide which foreign policy is superior, whether an isolationist or an internationalist policy is better for the nation and the world, and which candidate has the solution to major national and world problems. They must, in short, decide on questions that confound the experts,^so that they can appoint the man with the most nearly correct solution.

For this reason the statesmen, the men of highest thought whose skill is in managing the affairs of state, must become politicians—men who can convince voters, appeal to emotions and accomplish their own ends to stay in office. The United States recently witnessed an outstanding example of politicians in action. Rivaling in interest value any baseball world series, it began when Senator Kefauver threw his coonskin cap into the ring and ended only

when Governor Stevenson conceded victory in the early morning of November 5. It flooded the eyes and theears, and surged right into millions of homes time and time again through the modern miracle of television. The candidates, for president and vicepresident, plus their helpers, President Truman and Senator Taft, gave fifteen hundred speeches and traveled 187,000 miles, running up a campaign cost "conservatively’* predicted in advance at $85,000,000!

Stevenson's Methods

The campaign speeches were a high point. Adlai Stevenson relied on their content; Dwight Eisenhower, on their mood. The first tried to persuade his hearers; the second, move them. Both methods can be effective. A specialist is impressed by the mind; the majority of voters by the heart. Stevenson said: “Maybe I’ll be defeated, but this kind of campaign will eventually be accepted. And the reason is that people really want a change—a change not in parties but in the whole approach to public office and politics/' “One of the first objectives of a candidate . . . should be to get his views across, show the voters where he stands and where he’s going/’

Amazingly enough for a politician, Governor Stevenson apparently did just that. He disagreed to some extent with his predecessors. He disagreed with Texas’ view on offshore oil* He disagreed with the American Legion’s pressure tactics, and he disagreed with the South on civil rights* When he disagreed, he said so. Finally, he disavowed democratic Senator McCarran. In his final pre-election speech he said: “Talking sense is not easy. It means saying things that sometimes people don’t like

to hear; it means risking votes, and candidates are not supposed to do that. ... I remember the night in Dallas when I spoke to Texans of my views about tidelands oil. I remember the crowd in Detroit on Labor Day when I said I could be the captive of no one but the American people. I remember the evening in the railroad station at New Haven when I identified a powerful democratic leader as not my kind of democrat. I remember the American Legion convention when I said that those who have served this country must always be Americans first and veterans second, and that our free enterprise system must include free enterprise for the mind. I remember audiences down South listening to what I had to say on the subject of civil rights/'

His major point was that he had talked straight, even on controversial issues, while his opponent, Stevenson charged, "has adjusted his position, state by state, section by section* to the demands of the local political machines.”

In criticism of General Eisenhower, Governor Stevenson quoted Lincoln's words: “Nor do I believe that we can ever advance our principles by supporting men who oppose our principles.” But the democratic candidate accepted Truman's support, and, according to this theory, he implied Truman’s principles were his own.

It has been suggested that Stevenson was reaching for the intellectual vote through thoughtful speeches spiced with irony, through his marvelous capacity for understatement, and that Truman was reaching for the rabble-rousing element; the two men playing both ends against the middle. Whatever the plan, it did not work.

Eisenhower's Methods

The successful campaign waged by General Eisenhower revolved around his personal integrity. It was to convince the vot-ere that, though his party had no recent record to point to, their candidate was a man of sufficient integrity, morals and experience; a man who wants peace, recognizes evil, desires unity; a man with’faith in God and in the future, and that such a candidate would make a good president.

It was admitted that he was uninformed in many fields of government, so, rather than extensively discuss the issues of national policy, he generally exploited the issues that had high emotional content —the dread of war, the fear of Communist subversion, revulsion against corruption.

The New York Times magazine said, October 19: “Turn him loose on simple, down-to-earth dogmas such as honesty in government and the casualties in Korea and the setting seems as natural to him as the drill field or the big chateau at Rocquen-cort. On the other hand, his pronouncements on farm programs, natural resources, foreign policy, etc., are delivered like unfamiliar quotations from a textbook and get only a meager and dutiful response.”

Said the Times, November 2: "Eisenhower's campaign was largely a personal one—an appeal to the people to give him the presidency and he would give them an administration that was fair, just, honest and friendly. He offered few specifications of the policies that he would follow if elected.”

Both sides stood on the "record”. The democrats said, "You never had it so good”; the republicans pointed to the corruption in the democratic regime. A Republican National Committee pronouncement published in the New York Daily News (October 29) said: "Since Harry Truman became president there have been 22 major scandals involving the White House, 78 major scandals in the Department of Agriculture, 48 major scandals in the Bureau of Internal Revenue. ... If you add other agencies the total is well

over 200... . The whole moral fiber of our government has been infected with Pen-dergastism. And the Truman administration has tried to keep the lid on. President Eisenhower will give honest government.”

How? The general promised on October 4 to “bring into Washington’s executive departments and to appointive offices men and women who are incorruptible” and who would “in turn choose their subordinates that are incorruptible, and you won’t get this: A corruption in government, duplication, extravagance, waste and working one against the other,’ because they will work for one thing, the government and the people of the United States of America, and not for their own self-aggrandizement”.

Where he would find such politicians was not so clear. The magic test to actually locate them was not explained. But he will now have the chance, and it is certainly hoped that he will succeed. Yet, the Dallas Times-Herald, which supported him, reminded: “We are gratified by this election, but, in fairness to him, those who voted for him need not expect him to be a miracle man.”

Korea, Negro Vote, Communism

The Korean war was another major point of the campaign. The democratic candidate said the administration's policy was basically sound; the republican said it was a “negative” one of containment. He struck a telling political blow when he proposed a trip to Korea, if elected, and said he would “forego the diversions of politics and . . . concentrate on the job of ending the Korean war”. Truman retorted : “Now he’s been my military adviser ever since I appointed him Chief of Staff. If he knows a remedy it’s his duty to come and tell me what it is and save lives right now.” Apparently many voters wanted to try Eisenhower’s suggestion that the “miserable stalemate there must be freshly reviewed by fresh minds", but they probably also agreed with Governor Stevenson that the “root of the Korean problem does not lie in Korea—it lies in Moscow”.

The struggle for the Negro vote also played its part. New York’s republican Governor Dewey charged democratic vice-presidential candidate Sparkman with running on a strictly “white supremacy” ballot in his home state. Then the democrats asked in the New York Daily News, October 29, if the republican candidate thought a “last-minute visit to Harlem and a halfhearted declaration about 'working toward the elimination of segregation’ ” would wipe out his acceptance of such segregationists as Jimmy Byrnes. Three days later the Republican National committee retorted in the same paper that Democrat Sparkman had voted “against every civil rights proposal that has been considered in his sixteen years in Congress”, and listed twenty-three instances of this. In Harlem (New York’s, famous Negro section) President Truman said, “All you’ll have to do is look at... the Congressional Record” to see “who are the opponents of civil rights”. Of course, he did not expect his audience to dig out old copies of the Congressional Record to see that democrats had voted against them, too.

Both sides tried to connect the other with communism. When someone discovered Senator Nixon’s private fund (despite his television plea, he was the only candidate who would not make his income tax returns public), he said: “The Communists, the left-wingers, have been fighting me with every smear that they have been able to do.” Then, on the other side of the fence, when republicans said good times were based on spending for war, Stevenson said this paralleled “other voices . . . saying the same things to us.,. the voices of the most evil and malignant force loose in the world today—the force Of communism”. Neither party actually said the other was Red, but both implied that their critics parroted the Communist line.

“You, Sir, Are the Worst...”

Vilification, slogans, well-turned phrases and political mud were the stock in trade of politicians on both sides. A good slogan, a pertinent expression, can drive a point home, but they can also be accepted too readily by those who are untrained in the art of politics, who are unable to recognize the slogan’s flaw. Anyone who voted on slogans alone would have been confused.

Note this sampling: Eisenhower spoke of his “great crusade”. Truman called it “the great disenchantment". Eisenhower criticized Stevenson’s humor, said conditions are not a laughing matter. Stevenson replied: “My opponent has been worrying about my funnybone. I’m worrying about his backbone.” The republican “truth team” labeled Truman a “political cuckoo”, “laying eggs ih another’s nest” and claiming credit for things Eisenhower had done. Truman called the republicans “moral pigmies”. The “truth team” accused him of the “big lie technique”. Vice-presidential candidate Sparkman got into the act, calling them the “pathetic dinosaur of Old Guard republicanism”. Stevenson said Eisenhower’s was a “campaign by platitude”, and republicans said, “Adlai means Trumanism—with a Harvard accent.”

Misrepresentation continued. The president went to one extreme when he said the general was “willing to accept the very practices that identify the so-called ‘master race’ although he took a leading part in liberating Europe from their domination”, and the republicans went to the other when they said he was accusing the general of anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish sentiments. Rather, he was commenting on the men Eisenhower had accepted into his .ranks.

Also, Stevenson’s “high level” sagged when, in Massachusetts on September 19, he said concerning Eisenhower’s use of Oliver Cromwell to illustrate his “great crusade”: “It obviously could not be because Cromwell sent his Roundheads on a bloody crusade against the people of Ireland with religious persecution, starvation and the sword as his weapons.” Mention of Cromwell among the Irish in parts of Massachusetts can often start a fight, and whether “Ike’s” use of Cromwell was wise or not, Stevenson’s dignified speeches failed to hide an unsavory motive behind injecting this religious persecution issue.

Neither party came through the campaign with clean skirts. If the world felt alarm at such goings-on, at the smear tactics and condemnation of policies and personalities, it should remember that the United States goes through this once every four years. When it happens, both parties claim more than they have actually done, and each usually accuses his opponent of being worse than he really is. Newsweek’s president said, November 5, “From the very first this was a most confusing campaign.”

By the time it was over the voters were getting groggy, but there was no doubt about the final vote. Whether it was the disgust at corruption, the fear of communism, Eisenhower’s promise to go to Korea, objection to Stevenson’s telling what he thought, or merely the fact that “I like Ike” was more than a campaign slogan, the nation went to the polls and endorsed its national hero. Twenty years of democratic rule had ended. General Eisenhower won a thirty-nine-state landslide to become, on January 20, the thirty-fourth president of the United States.

By "Awake” correspondent in the Netherlands

S IT wrong to preach the good news of Christ in sections where Catholics are in the majority? Catholic action says it is wrong. If the good news of Christ disturbs the Catholic clergy, then what should one do? Catholic action says one should not preach. If a preacher calls on a good Catholic with the gospel of Christ, is that an intrusion into the private life of that party? According to Catholic action, it is. Is it permissible at any time to call into Question the actions of the Catholic Church? Catholic action answers it is not permissible, not even when authorities are of Catholic source. Does Catholic action justify shameful mob action against Christians? Yes, it does. The Catholic press and the clergy-inspired mobs of Venlo support these conclusions.—See December 8 Awake! for an account of what happened at Venlo,

The Roman Catholic paper Te Elfder Ure did not agree with the methods of mob violence, boycott, pressure, etc,, that the Catholics in Venlo (the Netherlands) used; nevertheless the paper thought it proper “to try to prevent the public appearance of Jehovah’s witnesses along decent, democratic ways'’. Is there anything decent in preventing Christians from assembling and worshiping God? Is there anything democratic about forbidding Christians to assemble in public or in any other place? Is not this very suggestion antidemocratic and anti-Christian?

Jehovah’s witnesses do have a different view from that of the Catholic Church, Dtf22, 1952

but does that mean they cannot assemble in Catholic districts simply because they are in the minority? Is not Catholic tolerance for minorities, or is it just for majorities? The Friese Koerier of June 7 had an interesting comment: “If it is indeed true that a Roman Catholic is forbidden by his conscience to attend a meeting of Jehovah’s witnesses, what danger was -there to fear anyhow? Whoever is sure of his case certainly will not let his conviction sink away because dissenters testify te the contrary among themselves. And why that fear of the -public nature of the assembly in which no Catholic was going to have a part anyway?”

The clergy would have no fear of a meeting of a public nature, if they were sure of their position, if they were sure of their flocks, if they were sure of their principles of faith. Nor would the clergy fear if their flocks were properly fed, had they been told the truth, had they not been fleeced so terribly by the clergy and duped into poverty anti servitude. If the clergy are honest they will admit that the only reason they oppose assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses is that they recognize the starved condition of their congregation and they fear lest the hungry be attracted to the pure truths of the Bible offered freely at such assemblies.

Catholic clergy objected when Jehovah’s witnesses assembled at Venlo, and many voiced their objection, as did one mobster that demonstrated te front of the assembly tent. He cried out: “What are they doing in Venlo?” Someone with more judgment

answered: “What are our missionaries doing in Abyssinia?” Meaning, What are Catholic missionaries doing in nonCatholic lands? If Catholic cities be only for Catholics, and Catholic lands for Catholics, why not Protestant cities for Protestants and Protestant lands for Protestant, heathens for heathens, and so on? Why do not Catholic papers condemn their own practice of sending missionaries into lands solidly Protestant or heathen?

To condemn Jehovah's witnesses in the way they preach, the Catholic Church is condemning the apostle Peter’s ministry, because Peter preached to others than those of his own faith. The Catholic Church would have to condemn the methods used by the apostle Paul when he went into districts where no Christians were. Was the apostle wrong in going to Ephesus, where the inhabitants were worshipers of Artemis? Was the shameful action of the Ephesians in causing unlawful mob hysteria justified bn the grounds that Paul preached Christianity in a city of Artemis worshipers? Was this mob action justifiable just because Paul preached something different as admitted by the mobsters, “This Paul has won over a considerable crowd and turned them to another opinion”?—Acts 19:26, New World Trans.

Catholic Action might answer Yes, but the city recorder of Ephesus had more sense when he said: “For we are really in danger of being charged with sedition over today’s affair, no single cause existing which will permit us to render a reason for this disorderly mob,” (Acts 19:40, New World Trans.) Nor do defenders of the Venlo disgrace have a single reason for justifying that shameful mob action.

Not All Doors Closed

The Limburgs Weekblad resorted to labeling Jehovah's witnesses as “nihilists”.

Said the paper: “Nihilistic as Jehovah’s witnesses are they could have expected to find all doors in Venlo closed.” This propaganda trick was to first label Jehovah's witnesses a pesky, nihilistic sect and then venture upon these grounds to deny them the right to evangelize, with force if necessary. But not all doors in Venlo were closed to Jehovah’s witnesses; in fact, there were a good many prominent doors wide open with the welcome mat out in front. For example: The owner of “Nation -aal”, the manager of the swimming pool, the owners of the bus transit systems, all knew that they were doing business with Jehovah's witnesses. None of them objected. Their breathes of contract and oral agreements did not begin until clergy pressure and danger to their commercial business were threatened by Catholic-inspired action.

When the Catholic press pointed an accusing finger at Jehovah's witnesses, calling them nihilists, they merely disrobed themselves, exposing themselves as such. According to Webster’s unabridged dictionary, nihilism is, “A doctrine which denies, or is taken as denying, any objective or real ground of truth,” or, “The doctrine which denies any objective ground of moral principles,” or, “The doctrine that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake, independent of any constructive program or possibility.” This in no way applies to Jehovah's witnesses, because they accept the Bible as basis of truth, the foundation for their teaching and conduct; that is what they preach. “It is written” or “Thus saith Jehovah” is what they say. Roman Catholic circles ignore this as the sole basis of truth and view the authority-undermining action of the Venloners as their salvation. This

smacks of nihilism. Jehovah’s witnesses advocate a constructive program, namely Christ’s kingdom.

Furthermore, if all the doors were closed to Jehovah’s witnesses, why should the Catholic clergy and press express fear and deplore the activity of Jehovah’s witnesses from door to door? Perhaps they realized that the doors were not as slammed shut as they would have liked them to be. Truly, if the clergy believed what they were telling the people they would not have had to make themselves ridiculously conspicuous by trying to arouse public emotion and endeavoring to drive the witnesses out of Venlo. It is regrettable that an organization that calls itself * the “mother church” should be represented by such persons and have to stoop to such barbarous practices.

The Boomerang

A student after observing what had taken place was moved to write: “As nondenominational I must say the following from the heart: Does the Catholic clergy permit itself to be so quickly influenced by another religion? Does it stand so weakly in its faith?” The answer no doubt can be found in Jesus’ words. Did he not say that those who both heard and obeyed his words built their house on a rock foundation and would not> suffer loss from any storm, but those who heard but did not heed actually built their faith homes on sand and would be easily disturbed? In fact, he concluded his sermon on the mount saying that such a house built on sand would collapse. And Jesus goes on to say this: “And this is the judgment: Because the light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than the light. For their works tvere evil. For every one that doth evil hateth the light and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved. But he that doth truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest: because they are done in God.” —Matthew 7:24-27; John 3:19-21, Douay.

Another very enlightening boomerang comes from the paper De Vlam^ which says: “Rome borrows—just as any other Christian church—the missionary commission from the New Testament. This commission applies to every Christian. The minister, who visits nonmembers in.their homes, evangelizes. The Salvation Army evangelizes . . . This evangelization is a duty. Also so by Jehovah’s witnesses. Every evangelist concerns himself with the religious conviction of his fellowman. The conversion is a personal matter . . . The Roman Catholic Church recognizes her missionary task by the arranging of conferences for non-Catholics in districts not predominantly Catholic.

“This intrusiveness’ applies especially, however, as concerns peoples who are not at all Christian. What right does the Catholic Church have—according to standards set by De Tijd—to intrude upon the religious ways of the Mohammedan, the Buddhist? If such meddling is not permissible, why then does Rome lament the expulsion of Roman Catholic missionaries out of China? .. . Continuously it appears that Roman Catholic circles hold a double moral of freedom. They demand rights for themselves, which they—if need be with violence if one claims to possess the power to that end—withhold from others. Therefore, the disturbance in Venlo is so extremely important and revealing. Therefore, it ought to be a warning for every non-Catholic. What today is done to Jehovah’s witnesses . . . can overcome another 'minority’, which attempts to penetrate into the South. That is the core of the matter and the rest is cheap talk.”

No more need be said.

Responsibility After Voting                        ;

Especially in election years we hear regu- ■■ larly that it is one’s duty to vote. The impli- > cation is that in this way the people select J their rulers. They do not. All they can do is i put their stamp of approval on one of several previously chosen men, and if all candidates > are c^shonest a billion ballots would not improve the government. Witness the out' standing example of recent choices for sheriff in Muskogee, Oklahoma. If you did not like < the present sheriff you had these choices: < Jess Crossland, arrested 50 times for bootlegging ‘ between 1945 and 1948, but who avowed, “I haven’t sold a pint in four years.” Ex-sheriff Eddie Briggs, ousted from office ‘ in 1949, when he was convicted of conspiring to sell wholesale liquor without a federal tax stamp. Fred ’'Slim” Payne, former county liquor kingpin, who was convicted with Briggs in 1949.

Wisconsin Share’s McCarthy's Sins

-- "The result of this election is an appalling thing,” said Leonard F. Schmitt, the man who lost. “The effect upon me personally is utterly unimportant. I did not enter this campaign because I sought or needed a job. What is important is that a man with the most corrupt record ever made by a Wisconsin senator is overwhelmingly endorsed by Wisconsin voters.” Was his viewpoint prejudiced? Then listen to Life magazine, September 8: "McCarthyism is a loijn of exaggerated campaign oratory; it is also abuse of the freedom of speech we enjoy in this country , . . reckless accusation . . . slander.” : Why? Because McCarthy is lavish in his charges, casting them in- every direction, but is woefully short on proof with which to reel them in.

- His apologists say he is uncovering communism. No one could object to charges he wouk^ prove, but his reckless flood of unproved charges weakens confldenee in the U, S. world-wide. Unproved character assassination drives just men from government, opening the way for the base and corrupt, providing the very weakening influence that communism likes to see. For example, he never did get around to telling the public who those 205, more or less (the figure fluctuated like a March thermometer), ’‘card-carrying Communists” or Communist sympathizers in the government were, A men with just one eye open could see that if McCarthy had such a list and was fighting communism he would turn it in so these Communists could be ousted before doing democracy more damage.

4

McCarthy is not the only man in Washington who dislikes communism. A major reason why the president would not accept McCarthy’s charges and the Tydings Committee would not approve them is that his idea of a "Red” is perverted to the point that anyone who disagrees with him is ‘parroting the Communist Daily Worker’s line’, and to where he thinks Time magazine fs red, afong with the New York Post, Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Portland Oregonian, If such a ‘guilt by dislike* theory prevailed, none would be safe!

_x Now, according to the Bible's principle, Wisconsin's republican voters have accepted responsibility for this type of rule, by supporting him in the September 10 primary. Paul told young Timothy not to make hasty appointments so he would not become responsible for the sins of bad appointees, (1 Timothy 5:22) Whether McCarthy's policies are good or bad, Wisconsin’s republicans have accepted responsibility for them.

Individual Responsibility

Much is said these days about political honesty, but all too frequently the people are responsible for the politicians’ attitude, as Oscar L. Chapman, secretary of the interior, pointed out in New York, May 24: "The sins of governments are nothing but the sins of individual human beings on a larger scale. If in our hearts there is intolerance, fear, suspicion, greed and a desire to get something for ourselves regardless of the effect on our neighbors, we cannot expect that the things that our government does will be any different.”- ‘Just voting' Is not enough as long as the people themselves do not divorce greed and graft. Politicians are no better than the people who support them.

to Peacetime Uses

T)0 many believe that atomic energy is synonymous with total destruction. They know only of the atom as a fantastic weapon of war. What these people do not kpow is that this invisible atom which threatens the destruction of civilization might well be the beginning of a grand era, if used rightly. With the smashing of the atom an almost infinite source of energy was tapped for mankinds use.

It is theorized that there is enough atomic energy locked up in a piece of coal to take the Queen Mary across the Atlantic and back again! If the nuclear energy bound up in an ordinary railroad ticket were released there would be sufficient power to operate a heavy locomotive several times around the earth! In a pound of water there is enough atomic energy to heat to boiling temperature over a million tons of water’. A breath of air is claimed to have enough nuclear energy to keep an airplane off the ground for almost a year; and a handful of snow contains sufficient atoms to heat an apartment house for more than a year. That is, if the mass of these atoms could be converted completely into energy. So far, only uranium and plutonium can be so utilized, and only about one-tenth of one per cent of the theoretical energy in these can be released.—Truths Men Live By and The Advance Science Magazine, 1934.

Till now this energy has been directed almost 100 per cent to destructive purposes of war. However, there are indirect benefits of atomic energy which are already beginning to revolutionize medical practice, industry, and agriculture. These come through the radioactivity produced in atomic furnaces. War and preparation for war do not interfere with such efforts to convert the atom to peacetime uses_t since only an infinitesimal fraction of the atomic energy production is required to save and improve lives, in contrast with the billions needed to destroy them.

The constructive products of atomic energy are of two kinds, both created by the controlled nuclear fission within an atomic pile. One is power in the form of intense sustained heat which may some day be harnessed to supply whole cities with cheap electricity. A by-product is a great variety of new radioactive materials called radioisotopes, which are simply the radioactive forms of ordinary elements like carbon, iron or cobalt, which are easily detected with Geiger counters.

By tagging chemical substances with radioisotopes, they can be traced as they move through the body of an animal or the pipe line of an oil refinery* The variety of processes traceable with radioisotopes is almost unlimited. The labeled atoms can be traced through any perplexing combination of reactions and systems. For example: The radioactive atom can be traced from fertilizer to plant, plant to animal, animal to man, etc. The radioactive isotopes can be followed from carbon dioxide

to glucose, to fat. Dilutions or chemical changes of tracer isotope make no dlf-ferefice; it still can be traced through a complicated chemical reaction in the metabolism of the body, through an entire biological cycle or through any other physical or chemical process, and still maintain its identity. So sensitive is this form of analysis that it is often possible to detect as few as 100,000 atoms—about a billion billionth (1O^1S) of a gram.—Federal Science Progress, May 1947.

The atoms are tagged or labeled for as long as the radioactivity lasts. The term “half life’* specifies the time required for the radioactivity of an isotope to fall to one-half its initial value. The half life of ri Iff erent materials varies widely: for uranfum-238 it is 4.67 billion years; for radium it is 1,690 years; for polonium-210 it is 136 days, while for another isotope of polonium (214) the half life is only about a millionth of a second.—Constructive Uses of Atomic Energy.

This method of tagging and tracing chemical substances with radioisotopes is now considered the most important development in science since the invention of the microscope, and it has already found practical application in industry, agriculture and medicine.

Isotopes for Industry

Radioactive measuring devices have been developed which automatically correct industrial densities in the manufacture of paper, linoleum, paint and foam rubber. The sensitive instrument is made to measure the paper’s gloss, or the porosity as in foam rubber. With the aid of the “beta ray thickness measuring device” it is possible to measure materials only millionths of an inch thick. This device will prove valuable in maintaining quality-production control. The thickness of material can be determined by bouncing electrons off a coated surface or by passing a beam through the material to be measured. A radiographic device may be used for detecting flaws in metal castings, through the same sort of signals from the isotopes, which do not come in actual contact with the product.

The Shell Development Company laboratories in Emeryville, California, are using exploding atoms to measure the effectiveness of new lubricants for tomorrow’s machinery and automobiles. Standard Oil of California tests the lubricating qualities of oils in engines equipped with radioactive piston rings. Infinitesimal particles of metal wear off the rings, drop into the oil and, since they are “hot” (radioactive), the wear can be accurately measured and tested. Radioactive rubber is used in B. F. Goodrich test tires. The radiation counter measures the exact amount and distribution of rubber left on the pavement during skids, sharp turns and quick stops. Testing company laboratories are using isotopes to determine how different products stand up under wear. Radioactive floor waxes and paints are subjected to vigorous tests, then checked with a Geiger counter to see how much radioactivity, and thus how much wax or paint, rubbed away.

Engineers are also using isotopes as tracers to study more theoretical problems, such as what happens to the components of oil when broken down in “cracking” plants. Steel plants are using the same techniques to learn how different metals combine in the production of alloys. Other fundamental problems confronting the research metallurgist that can be solved by radioactive tracers are related to “oxidation, diffusion vapor pressures, and the kinetics of reaction in solid alloys, such as age hardening, quenching, annealing, and homogeneity of powder mixtures”__Iso

topes for Industry, by P. C. Aebersold.

Isotopes for Agricultural Uses

Agricultural research workers have found isotopes a remarkable tool for studying the problems of plant diseases, such as tobacco mosaic virus, the uptake of phosphate compounds and fertilizers from soils, and the most fundamental and puzzling process of all—photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis, the mysterious process whereby plants make use of the sun’s energy to convert carbon dioxide into sugar, is being studied at the University of California with the help of radioactive isotopes. Fertilizer containing radioactive phosphorus is being used to test growing plants. The amount of radioactivity found in the plants thus fertilized indicates just how easily each kind of fertilizer gives up its phosphorus, how it reacts to various soil types and how it can best be applied. In, addition, isotopes are being used to trace the metabolic processes of cows and the migrations of mosquitoes, which have made large areas of rich grazing land useless to ranchers.

Radioactive forms of certain metallic elements like molybdenum-, zinc and iron are being fed to plants to find out precisely what minute quantity of these elements is required for normal growth. Atomic radiation is being used in an attempt to reduce the insect population by sterilizing the bugs. All this knowledge is expected to lead to better crops and more abundant food for the world, and provides an outstanding example of how atomic energy is already being harnessed for the beneficial uses of mankind, toward ends that may eliminate in time some of the major causes of poverty and strife among nations.

Isotopes for Medical Use

A group of Northwestern University doctors headed by the noted brain surgeon, Loyal Davis, announced a new atomic way of detecting and locating brain tumors with the atomic counting machine, the isotron. Heretofore it took weeks of painful tests to determine whether the disease was present, and even then the results were not always dependable. Now the malignancy can be detected painlessly within two hours. Eye disease called keratitis, in which a film growing over the eyeball causes blindness, is treated with radioactive strontium. Radioactive iodine in the treatment of certain kinds of thyroid cancer has proved successful. Radiophosphorus has proved effective in treating skin cancers and certain blood diseases. In the near future radioisotopes are expected to be used in the sterilization of drugs and foods.

Atomic Heat and Electricity

Last November in Harwell, England, atomic-heated water flowed through pipes providing heat for some eighty rooms in an office building at an estimated saving of $7,420 a year. The atomic furnace would need stoking only once in about thirty years.

Useful electric power from atomic energy was produced for the first time in history in December 1951. Heat energy was removed from a breeder reactor by a liquid metal of a type not revealed, and this energy produced enough steam pressure to drive a turbine. The turbine, in turn, generated more than a hundred kilowatts of power, which supplied a lighting system and operated pumps and other equipment. Experts are predicting atomic-heated homes for the real estate market before 1962,

Work on a nuclear-powered submarine is well under way and completion of the project is predicted as early as midsummer of 1953. Atomic-driven aircraft is seen by scientists and aeronautical engineers as being capable of long, sustained flight, capable of high speeds as well as almost unlimited range. The plane is conceived to be able to circle the globe so swiftly that it would always be under cover of night

If it is possible to manufacture atomic-powered submarines, aircraft and warships, then it is just as practical to create nuclear-powered commercial airplanes, ships and locomotives, and to harness the almost limitless power of atomic energy for other peacetime uses. As for atomic-driven automobiles, they are at present difficult to envision because of the lead shielding required to protect the passengers from re on. The weight of this shielding has been placed at fifty tons. That is far too much weight for hauling around a 150-pound man.

However, there is no question of the practicability of atomic power plants. At present the costs and the hazards of operation are obstacles to commercial use which are not completely surmounted. None can as yet say with certainty when atomic energy will take the place of coal as a source of electric power, but it can be said that the atom’s future is bright. The atom is here to stay.

f-'S':"¹                                       ■'

Religion in the Turkish Villag

THE setting of this article is in the land of Turkey, where the majority of the people are Moslems. Our attention is drawn to life as it is in Turkey, not as it exists in the big cities such as Istanbul or .Ankara, but in the smaller villages. Some might contend that in the larger cities the people are corrupted or modernized, as they say. So our attention is drawn to the village where the people, not yet modernized, do practice their religion as they have been taught from of old by their religious leaders. Here it can be better seen and understood how Moslem practices affect the lives of millions in this land of Turkey.

In the village is located a mosque. Every

Friday the Moslem priest (hoca) comes to the mosque where he begins to preach. “Yea, Moslem community, God the Almighty says in the Quran. ...” Then, from the first word to the last one, the subject of his sermon is hell-fire, purgatory, burning, torture and torment. After the sermon Moslems leave the mosque trembling. One writer expresses the scene: “They all tremble in every limb when they leave the mosque. Everybody thinks only about the time when he will be burning in the hell.”

But what is the purpose of such lugubrious ceremonies? In answer we have only to remember that before the mosque there is always a carpet, which, after such ceremony, no Moslem passes by without placing upon the rug “the money right of the hoca”. A rather curious thing is the fact that the more the clergyman terrifies the community with this “purgatory” of his, the greater benefit he reaps from it. A Turkish Istanbul newspaper reported that during Ramadan (Mohammedan fast) the places in the mosque were being sold, and even a 'black market* was introduced. (Cumhuriyet, June 4, 1952) By being steeped in such dreadful fatalism, these village Moslems are hindered from exercising their power of reason. The hell-scare ceremonies are used to support the Clergymen.

In addition to the doctrine of hell being used by the clergy, there are two other teachings which seem to serve as a basis for Moslem doctrine and clergy support. They are namaz (prayer) and abdest (ablution). A Moslem writer asks: “But namaz and abdest, one may wonder, is that the only basis of the Moslem doctrine?” There are Moslems who say, and some of them really seem to believe it themselves, that when the time for prayer and ablution approaches a man who is at the point of death has to get up for that purpose; all operation has to be postponed; “yes, even when a woman is in childbed, the head of the baby is already there, the other part is not seen yet, but it is time for namaz. The woman has to’get up and perform her ablutions and namaz in that particular position. If she does not, the baby and the mother will no more have their daily bread.” The same writer reports the following: “A neighbor who was listening that day to this sermon began to thrash with a stick his wife who was at the point of death. ‘What is the matter with you, neighbor, are you going crazy?’ 'No, I am not crazy, on the contrary, today I have become clever/ he said.

‘Today at the mosque I became angry, You were there too. What did the priest say?

Instead of lying like this she would better perform her narhaz/ "

Judge and Marriage

In the village the priest is in reality the judge. Everybody submits to his judgment. Opponents are brought before the priest and are made to kiss his hand. Afterward the priest says: “The gavur [non-Moslems, unbelievers] have no conscientiousness. Moslems are the only conscientious human creatures God has created.” That means that the “court” is now in session. The operation does not last long, hardly more than five minutes. After the judgment has been given 'the priest usually will say again: “The only conscientious human creatures God has created are the Moslems.” Then in a very serious tone he jvill add: “The greatest blessings of God will go upon those who perform their ablutions and then drink a little of this . , . dirty water.” The opponents then leave, but first they both must give the priest a present, which is usually two pounds of sugar and sometimes cigarettes.

From his role as a “judge” in the village he might be called upon to perform a marriage as priest. Although the Koran, which he regards as holy, forbids the use of alcohol, it recognizes the right of a man to have more than one wife. This has presented many problems, because existing laws forbid bigamy. Women have become articles of merchandise which can be bought and sold as if on public market.

Many marriage engagements take place in the early years of one’s life, sometimes at birth. But babies thus engaged must be born on the

same day, same week or at least the same month. When the engagement takes place presents are made to the ‘betrothed’, and the father of the fiance pays half of the price for the wife that day. When daughters are born fathers are said to leap for joy, shouting: “Oh, I see a thousand liras!” Generally, girls are engaged when they are ten or twelve years of age. Their fiance may also be of the same age. The only thing that reaUy seems to matter is the price. The engagement is called “yarim nikah” (half marriage) and is celebrated by the priest, who also bears witness that the half of the price has been paid.

However, such an engagement is not absolutely necessary. There are two kinds of marriages: (1) Official marriage and (2) marriage without any other formality than the bookkeeping operation between the two fathers, this latter method being the more popular one. Regarding the latter method, you may buy as many women as you desire, or, better perhaps, as your purse permits. The price in the village runs between 500 and 1,000 liras per wife. In many cases the father-in-law, having received an advance, sells his daughter to another client. In other cases the daughter, carefully educated by her father, gets married and goes to her husband. Then, after a couple of days, she returns to her father and the latter finds another husband. Often a father, after being paid for his daughter, will arrange to have her ‘kidnaped’ from her first husband and delivered to another. As a matter of fact, in many cases a father will arrange in advance two marriages at once for his daughter. These combinations are frequently accompanied by armed frays between neighboring villages.

To a certain extent, marriage has become a sport with the people. It is reported that in one little village a woman 25 years of age “has already changed six husbands, another one at the age of 35, eight husbands”. In the same little village it is reported that “there are 20 men having two wives, and other men in the neighbor village having three to four wives”. The children born in these harems are either not registered at all or “one of the wives takes out a marriage license and all the children of the harem-keeper are registered on this very same license”.

As to the official marriage, it can be done with a previous engagement The wedding will then take place in two or three years, just the time for the fiance to gather the other fifty per cent of the price he has to pay to his father-in-law. When this is done the fiance’s parents visit the girl’s father and say: “Death exists, torment exists, now that we are alive let us marry these children, thus fulfilling God’s command.” In Turkey, coffee is generally served when one fiays a visit. But on that particular night no coffee is served, because that would mean that the proposition is already accepted. Acceptance, of course, is impossible without bargaining.

A wedding might continue for a week or even longer if there are several weddings at the same time. During this week, the men and women have a good time, but separately. Men enjoy themselves mainly by hunting and wrestling. On the wedding day the Moslem priest leaves the mosque and goes to the cemetery. There he opens the Koran and prays, waiting for the betrothed. They arrive, accompanied by the whole village. Special prayers are then said and the bride is brought to her husband’s home, where she has to wait for him. The latter comes home at night and enters the room where his wife is waiting for him.

The people are taught that if nobody listens to the conversation between the newly married couple on their wedding night the baby will come into the world deaf. When

the lady peeking through the keyhole is convinced that the new husband is not impotent, not a prisoner of the evil spirits, as they say, she beckons with the hand to a man standing at the door, who shoots a gun* The whole village, waiting for the sound of the shot, say,

(“Thank God!”) In his book, Kbyiimden {From My Village) _t pages 13-15, the Moslem village teacher, Mahmut Makal, relates that a young husband, Memich, caught a cold during all those interminable ceremonies, especially at the cemetery, and as soon as he entered the room where his wife was waiting for him, he—well, he fell asleep. So the man at the door could not 'shoot the gun* The entire village became alarmed. All the men of the village arrived, entered the room, and, in spite of all his resistance, they took Memich to the priest whose duty it is to dislodge all the evil spirits* “The priest maybe understood the situation, but if he understood it or not he seemed to have done his duty?’

Birth of a Child

When a wife is about to give birth to a child no medical assistance is sought. In fact, the village is without such. Moslem women would never resort to such “remedies”, as they call it* At most a midwife would assist. But that is rather rare too. The usual manner is to have the child with the help of two or three neighbors or even alone! “If the delivery tarries and the woman has great pain, the husband washes his hands immediately and the woman has to drink the dirty water*” When the child is born the neighbors will put the child on the father’s shoulder and ask him: “Are you heavier than your burden is?” If the father wants his child to be happy, he must answer: “My burden is heavier than I am.” If it is a boy they pull the father’s right ear. Then the priest is invited. He shuts his eyes, opens the

Koran and puts his finger on one of the pages. That is the way to find a name for the baby* Then the father has to perform his ablution and whispers three times the ezan (calling to prayer) as well as the name of the child. The mother has to remain in bed for forty days. She does not suckle the babe until she hears “three ezans”.

In many villages they believe in the so-called AZ-Karisi (the vermilion woman). That is supposed to be a female evil spirit. They claim they know what she looks like. This is the way they describe her: “Her face is entirely black, her lips thick, her hair is long and disorderly, her teeth are like pickaxes. * . * She has one lip on the ground, the other in the sky,” This woman is a terrible enemy of the mothers and their babies. It is supposed that this evil female spirit looks forward to killing them. The women must never be left alone* A Koran has to be put on the bed of the mother and the child. The light must never be put out in the room. Indeed, these primitive village^dwellers are enveloped in fear and superstition. During the past few years effort has been put forth to overcome some / of these terrible conditions, but much of it still remains*

The reason for much of their enslavement and ignorance is their religion, which is to a great extent Moslem. But these conditions are not due to continue forever* God’s Word, the Bible, comforts us with the promise that soon “the wicked shall not be: * , , But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace”. (Psalm 37:10, 11) Under the Kingdom rule/marriage and childbearing will be restored to their proper level again. Mankind the world over will be freed from false religious bondage and will praise the Maker of the new world arrangement, Jehovah God.

What Water Can Do

By "Awakei” correspondent in Pakistan

OEVERAL hundred miles from the capital of Pakistan there is a little paradise of greenery. Here can be seen what water can do. From hundreds of miles of dried, parched earth life emerges with all its splendor. Mile after mile can be: seen well-cared-for plots, half in green with summer crop, and the other half being tilled ready for the winter sowing. What a contrast with the lifeless desert! This transformation is brought about through the life-invigorating power of water. It is a precious Item here, because it seldom rains. Each priceless drop that works its wsy down from the mountains is guided into irrigation channels, rivers, tanks and canals; every possibility is explored to maintain this^ luxuriant table of paradisaic green.

C Here time does not exist. Life passes slowly. Progress is virtually nonexistent. The mule, the ox and the camel are twentiethcentury tractors, trucks and trains. Old wooden plows, antiquated hoes, ancient scythes, are the cultivators, combines and harvesters of Punjab. But the fields prosper. Old folks and young work out in the open among the vegetation like bees in a clover field. Happiness and contentment can be felt among the people who love the earth.

C Because of this oasis, small villages and large cities have mushroomed into existence* They are architecturally speaking magnificently designed. Huge green lawns surrounded with flower beds and gardens, rows of stately trees, fountains and artificial waterfalls dress the cities. The majority of city people look rather anxiously to ‘'this little patch of green”, because at Punjab is where most of the food is grown. Their diet for the most part is meager, consisting mostly of rice, sugar, and ata_} which comes from wheat. Their snow-white garments, too, find their beginning in the garden spot at Punjab where cotton is raised and transformed into garments in some of the world's largest cotton mills.

C The streets rare alive with bronze-faced people arrayed In white. It becomes obvious that the country is Moslem, because most of the women in the streets are veiled. While the percentage of "Christians” present is small, yet, as far as the East is concerned, it is surprisingly great, about three per cent of the population or approximately 45,000. The predominant religion is Islam, and the whole area is surrounded with mosques, some in the cities being exceptionally large, while others in the villages are rather small, not exceeding six feet square. However, there is a likeness between the Islam religion and that of Chris tendom—t hey are both divided, Islam being split into some seventy-two different sects.

<L During British rule, many missionaries from various churches concentrated their activity in this garden spot. The native people were given many attractive offers by them and, believing they could improve their status, embraced what they believed to be Christianity. In fact, conversions often came en masse. Many of the present villagers are descendants of these converts, living in the identical locations where their fathers lived. Missionaries are not welcome here. Their experiences with religious missionaries of the past have greatly embittered them. The people tell how “church missionaries” cared for the people's spiritual needs, which was a farce, and their conduct was cultivated hypocrisy. Instead of mingling with the people, as did the apostle Paul and Barnabas, these false religious missionaries would assume an "uppish" attitude and hold themselves aloof. They lived a life of luxury and ease. They feathered their nests in fine mansions, and servants waited on them hand and foot. The people of Punjab have chalked them down as a definite liability instead of an asset. Even the sound of their presence is obnoxious to them.

4 But after viewing this beautiful land, visiting with its peoples, and appreciating the strength there is in each drop of water that trickles from the tops of the mountains down to this parched earth and its miraculous effect, it gives rise to new hope that the life-giving waters of truth coming down from the Great Mountain, Jehovah God, through his Son Christ Jesus will sink deep into the hearts of these honest-hearted Punjabians and make this spiritual desert-condition sprout and blossom like a rose. (Amos 8:11; Isaiah 35:1) This is our prayer

THE matter of celebrating

Christmas has long been a controversial one. Disagreement has existed not only as to when and how it should be celebrated, but

also as to whether or not ft should be celebrated at all. Religious editor Adrian Fuller of Detroit, Michigan, Free Press_f on December 1, 1951, expressed himself as fully in accord with the “many groups and individuals [who] seem to feel that the religious origin of the holiday has been obscured in the modem binge of secular celebration which attends Christmas”.

About the same time the National Council Outlook, official spokesman for organized United States Protestantism, and therefore representing some 30 million churchgoers, lamented: “Christmas is being over-commercialized. [Seemingly it would be all right to commercialize Christmas as long as it was not being overcommercialized! ] In some communities this year, the merchants began decorating their Christmas windows and displaying * their Christmas merchandise in early November. The practice of holding elaborate drinking parties in homes and offices is increasing. Office drinking parties in one large eastern city became so bad last year that the churches, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, denounced them and urged their discontinuance. A West Coast city filled its jails last year with drunks, ‘celebrating Christmas? ”

Past Attitudes

If it is agreed that modern Christmas celebrations are getting too boisterous, what shall we have to think about the medieval Christmas celebration known as the “Feast of Fools”, which feast was celebrated in Roman Catholic churches in Great Britain and Germany down to the Reformation and in France as late as the eighteenth century? Concerning this feast the Encyclopedia Americana (Vol. 11, page 454), after telling that in extravagance of merriment the Saturnalia exceeded the gayest carnivals, goes on to say: “The feast of fools, among Christians, was an imitation of the Saturnalia, and like this was celebrated in December. [This feast consisted of consecrating a fool to act as a bishop, who in turn celebrated mass and blessed the people.] . . . During this time the rest of the performers, dressed in different kinds of masks and disguises, engaged in indecent songs and dances, and practiced all possible follies in the church?’

And on the same subject the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Vol. 9, page 46S) states: “A mock mass was begun, during which the lections were read cum farsia, obscene songs were sung and dances performed, cakes and sausages eaten at the altar, and cards and dice played upon it . . . [Sometimes an ass was led to the church sanctuary and] mass was then sung; but instead of the ordinary responses . . • the congregation chanted [Hee-Haw!] three times?’ And all of that with the tacit

approval of authorities of the Church!

On the other hand, Oliver Cromwell, Puritan ruler of England, in 1644 banned Christmas because he considered it a pagan festival. Then you would have gone to jail for baking mince pies or plum puddings on Christmas. Massachussetts Puritans passed a law in 1639 that "whoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labour, fasting, or in any other way, shall be fined five chillings”.

An interesting incident showing how the principle of religious freedom fared under such a law has come down to us in history. Governor Bradford one Christmas day found a group of lusty young men idling when they should have been working. Inquiring of them the reason therefor he was told that it was against their conscience to work on Christmas day. The governor then told them that since they made it a matter of conscience he would spare them until they were better informed. But when he later found these same lusty youths, whose consciences had forbidden them to labor gainfully on Christmas day, strenuously exerting themselves playing stone ball, pitching bars, etc., he took away their implements of play, telling them that it also was against his conscience for them to be playing while all the rest worked. If working on Christmas was a matter of conscience then neither should they engage in sports; if it was too holy for one it was too holy for the other; and if it was a matter of devotion they should keep to their houses.

Pagan Origins

The fact is that those who, like the religious editor of the Free Press, complain that modem Christmas celebrations are out of keeping with the "religious origin of the holiday” are sadly mistaken. Since the Christmas celebration actually had its origin in the boisterous pagan feast of the Saturnalia, "whose extravagance exceeded that of the gayest carnivals/* it must be agreed that the modern Christmas celebrations are becoming ever more like their pagan religious original. Nor are such com-plainers any less mistaken if they mean to imply that Christmas had a Christian religious origin.

The Catholic Encyclopedia states that both Irenaeq^ and Tertullian, early "church fathers**, omitted it from their lists of Christian festivals; while Origen assailed the very idea of celebrating Jesus* birthday, "as if he were a king Pharaoh.’* Even Augustine (A.D. 354-430) pointed out that Christmas was neither of apostolic origin nor did it have the sanction of a general council. According to best authorities, Julian, bishop of Rome A.D. 337-352, is responsible for celebration of December 25 as Jesus’ birthday, while the earliest calendar listing such is for the year 354.

In vain do we look for early Christian customs resembling those now obtaining at Christmas time. Actually, the use of the Christmas evergreen, mistletoe, holly, etc., has its origin in animism, which is "the belief that all objects [particularly those of nature] possess a natural life or vitality or are endowed with indwelling souls. The term is usually employed to denote the most primitive and superstitious forms of religion”.—Webster's unabridged dictionary.

Thus we are told that "to the ancients, each tree in the forests, e^ch bubbling spring and tiny flower, was the home of a woodland spirit. They were all personalities with effective powers and as such were used by the heathen in many ceremonials. . . . Branches of evergreen were the first holiday gifts exchanged in the belief that in giving the friend a branch one also gave the happy properties of its

particular spirit”.—Park Avenue Social Review, December 1951.

Another form of paganism attributed supernatural powers to such things of nature apart from the notion that they had a soul. Thus the very center of one of the most important ceremonies of the early English Druids was the mistletoe, which was held to have curative and protective powers. After each ceremony the mistletoe was distributed to the worshipers for them to take home and hang over their doors. It was esteemed particularly powerful because its leaves as well as its berries usually grow in threes. Myths involved it in the vicissitudes of pagan gods, from which stems the association of the mistletoe with the goddess of love or cupid. The holly was likewise used because of its supposedly protective powers, it also figuring in mythology. Another plant was the rosemary, which because of its fragrance was considered to be able to preserve one’s youth.

In addition to attributing souls and magical powers to plants, the ancient pagans also gave them symbolical significance, much the same as is being done today. The evergreen was used in pagan temples to symbolize everlastingness, because of its remaining fresh and green during winter when all else lay as dead. According to one historian (Hislop) the burning yule log symbolized the death of Nimrod, while the erect and green Christmas tree pictured his supposed resurrection from the dead.

Medieval Myths

According to a medieval legend ‘the spruce tree came from the far icy north to join other trees in honoring the babe Jesus. The magnolia, the cedar, the palm, the oak, the olive, etc., each had something to offer, but the poor spruce had nothing. In dismay and sorrow with its branches painfully drooping it vainly wept a flood of,hot tears. The stars in heaven noting its plight sent down a shower of tiny stars to decorate it. And so when the stardecorated spruce came to the manger the babe Jesus blessed it with a smile!’

And according to another tradition or myth St. Nicholas appeared as a bearded saint, arrayed in bishop’s robe with pastoral staff and miter, riding a gray horse or white ass with a basket of gifts for good children and birch rods for the bad ones. He would call early in the evening to ascertain the conduct of the children and reward them accordingly on the following morning. Stockings were hung up for him in some places and in others shoes were set out. He used to make his calls on December 6, St. Nicholas Day, which was changed to December 25. Gradually the bishop became Santa Claus with his red costume, and reindeer took the place of his gray horse or white ass. Incidentally, St. Nicholas is the patron saint of Russia, pawnbrokers, thieves, etc.

However, it is not St. Nicholas nor even Santa Claus who fills the stockings of children in Italy around Christmas time; rather it is Befana. And who is she? She is supposed to be an old woman of Palestine who was too busy with her household duties to view the wise men or magi on their way to visit Jesus, expecting to do so when they returned. Since they returned by a different way she is supposed to be still looking for them. She, however, in spite of her Santa Claus role of filling the stockings of good children with toys and of bad ones with ashes, is used by the mothers in Italy to scare their children.

Reports of about a year ago told of Santa Claus and the Christmas tree being rejected by certain Roman Catholic prelates in both France and Mexico as both “Anglo-Saxon and pagan”, in one place the children even burning Santa in effigy. However, in view of the claim of the Roman Catholic Church to be able to sanctify pagan customs by adopting them it is apparent that this complaint regarding certain Christmas customs is based more upon their being Anglo-Saxon than on their being pagan.

WTty Shun Christmas              .

Surely in view of all the foregoing evidence showing the origin of Christmas customs in pagan ceremonies and medieval myths our question is most fitting, “Why celebrate Christmas?” But perhaps someone will object, accusing us of presenting only one side of the picfure, and may ask: Why should we not celebrate Christ's birthday? Why not let Christmas spread good cheer? Do not poor families get Christmas dinners? poor employees, bonuses? shut-ins and other unfortunates, gifts? Besides, did not the three wise men or magi bring gifts to the babe Jesus in the manger and should we not imitate them, since God led them to Jesus?

God did not lead the wise men (how many there were the record does not state, and actually they were magi or demon worshipers) to Jesus. Had he, they would not have first gone to Herod, thereby jeopardizing the life of Jesus and causing the death of countless innocent infants. Besides, the record indicates that when they called, Jesus was no longer a babe in a manger in a stable but a child with Mary in a house.—See Matthew 2:1-18.

And while it may be true that at Christmas time some of the needy get a little charity, it may well be asked to what extent is the giving of such charity merely the salving of a guilty conscience for neglecting them the rest of the year. Besides, when we consider the vast sums spent for useless and unneeded gifts, for sending countless Christmas cards, for feasts where people overindulge in both food and drink; when we consider the many automobile accidents caused by drunken Christmas drivers and the many fires in homes due to carelessness in smoking and Christmas-tree candles, then we must admit that we are paying a pretty steep price for the little bit of charity the unfortunates get. And how much of all this display at Christmas time is sincere? How many crowd the churches only then and perhaps at Easter? How many partake of the festivities that do not even claim to be Christian one day in the year, such as Jews, agnostics, etc., doing so only because “everybody’s doing it”? Yes, how much sham, how much hypocrisy is there about all this Christmas celebration?

Further, there is absolutely no justification for the December 25 date for Jesus’ birthday. If God had wanted us to celebrate it he would have had it recorded;¹ but the fact is that the only two times that a birthday is even mentioned in the Bible are in connection with celebrations of the day by pagan rulers.—Genesis 40:20; Matthew 14:6.

But even if Christmas did much good in providing employment, in stimulating business, in relieving suffering, the Christian would not be justified in having anything to do with it because of its pagan origins. Both Jews and Christians were warned not to have anything to do with pagan religions, and the early church all understood it that way.—Exodus 23:24, 32, 33; Deuteronomy 7:16; 1 Corinthians 10:19-22; James 1:26,27, New World Trans.

Truly in.view of the foregoing our question is appropriate, and so we ask it again: “Why celebrate Christmas?”

The “Seventy Weeks”

FOREMOST among the many lines of evidence to which a Christian can point establishing the authenticity of the Bible is fulfillment of prophecy. True, such is circumstantial evidence, but reasonable men, such as have open minds, will not captiously dismiss conclusive circumstantial evidence.—Isaiah 41:22, 23.

A remarkable example of fulfillment of Bible prophecy concerns itself with the “seventy weeks” mentioned at Daniel 9:24-27. It was given to Daniel “in the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus”, and relates to the coming of the Messiah. (Daniel 9:1, Am. Stan. Ver.) And since this prophecy not only establishes the exact year when the Messiah would appear but also just when he would be cut off in death, thereby giving us the length of his ministry, it is of real help in determining the date of Jesus’ birth, regarding which there is much difference of opinion in spite of its being celebrated on either December 25 or January 6.

The angel Gabriel said to Daniel: “Seventy weeks have been divided concerning thy people and concerning thy holy city—to put an end to the transgression and fill up the measure of sin and to put a propitiatory-covering over iniquity, and bring in the righteousness of ages. ” (Daniel 9:24, Rotherham) Modern translators are agreed that these seventy weeks are not weeks of literal days but weeks of years and so render them, “Seventy weeks of years are destined for your people” (An Amer. Trans.); “Seventy weeks of years are fixed for your people.” (Moffatt) See also footnote to Rotherham.

This construction of Daniel’s words is in keeping with the Scriptural rule repeatedly stated and applied, namely that of a day for a year, as well as being in harmony with the physical facts as we shall presently see.—Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6.

As to when these 70 weeks began to count we are Informed that it would be from the “going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem”. This word did not go forth in 537 B. C., for at that time only the rebuilding of the temple was stipulated. (Ezra 1:2-4) But in Nehemiah’s day, in the twentieth year of the reigp of Artaxerxes (actually the third Artaxerxes) this command was given. And when did Artaxerxes begin to rule? The writings of the most authoritative historian of the times, Thucydides, when taken in connection with the chronology of Diodorus Siculus, Greek historian of the first century A. D., establish the fact that this Artaxerxes began his rule in the year 474 B. C. This would bring the twentieth year of his reign, at which time the command was given to restore Jerusalem, to 455 B. C.

. According to Daniel’s prophecy, Messiah the prince would come at the end of 69 weeks of years, or 483 years, which brings us to A. D. 29. In this connection note that there was no year zero either B. C. or A. D.; hence from 455 B. C. to A. D. 29 is only 483 and not 484 years, as one might ordinarily think.

The prophecy next goes on to ten us that the Messiah would be cut off (in death) after the sixty-ninth week; that he would confirm the covenant with many for one week, that is, the seventieth, in the midst of which “he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease”. (Daniel 9:26,27) From the Scriptures it is apparent that these two events or things, the cutting off of the Messiah in death, and the causing of the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, both apply at the same time; in fact, the one resulting in the other. How so?

Throughout the writings of the apostle Paul the fact is stressed that the sacrifices of the law could not take away sin; that only the blood of Christ Jesus could do that; and that being counted righteous in God’s sight depended not on one’s own works, of the law but upon faith in the ransom sacrifice of Christ Jesus. Also that the law arrangement was merely a tutor to bring the Israelites to Christ, that it merely served as a shadow of better things (the realities) that were to come. And that the sacrifice of Christ freed the Israelites from the law and broke down the partition of the law arrangement which separated them from the Gentiles. Yes, by means of the blood of Christ, God “blotted out the handwritten document” consisting of decrees that actually were against the Jews. Thus, as far as God was concerned, the death of the Messiah made an end to the effectiveness of the Jewish sacrifices and oblations, even though they kept observing them until their nation was destroyed and they lost all track of the Le-vitlcal priesthood.—See Romans 5:1; 8:1-4; Galatians 3:13, 24; Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 10:1-10, New World Trans.

We know that Jesus Christ the Messiah died at Passover time, in the spring of the year, and since, according to this prophecy, that was three and a half years after he came as Messiah A. D. 29, it follows that he died A. D. 33, Friday, April 1, Gregorian calendar. There is no valid objection to this date as far as any other line of evidence is concerned. This fact therefore enlightens us as to the birth of Jesus. How so?

Luke tells us that Jesus began his ministry when he was about thirty years old (Luke 3:23); and since it was obligatory for the priests to begin serving at the age of thirty it is reasonable to conclude that Jesus did not delay once he reached his majority under the law. Accordingly we are forced to the conclusion that he began his ministry about October 1, A. D. 29, and therefore must have been born about October 1, 2 B. C. This time is in keeping with shepherds’ still being outside tending their flocks.

And what about the Messiah’s ‘confirming the covenant with many for one week’? This doubtless is the covenant God made with Abraham, which was made -firm with the Jews for the duration of the seventieth week in that the opportunity to become members of the spiritual seed of Abraham was limited to them during that time. (Galatians 3:16,29) Then A. D. 36 the opportunity to become part of the seed of Abraham was extended also to the Gentiles, in Peter’s bringing the good news to Cornelius.—Acts 3:25,26; 10:1-48, New World Trans.

The final words of this prophecy (Daniel 9:27) tell of an abomination and a desolation that would make a full end. When the Jews told Pilate that they had no king but Caesar, and therefore chose an alliance with Rome in preference to the Messiah, they certainly were guilty of an abomination in God’s sight. (John 19:15) And this very abomination resulted in their complete desolation and destruction A. D. 73, when the besieged last Jewish stronghold of Masada fell to the Romans.

By “Awakef” correspondent in Hawaii

AMERICANS are said to have the largest “sweet tooth” in the world, consuming about seven million tons of sugar annually. The Hawaiian islands produce about one million tons or one-seventh of the total amount and one-fourth of the sugar produced on American soil. Thus is seen the great part this Hawaiian industry plays in American economy.

At the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company’s mill, huge trucks haul the cane in from the fields. The trucks are unloaded by cranes and the material moves up a chain belt into the mill. An average of 100 tons of stalks enters the mill per hour, and about seven and a quarter tons of loose material is required to produce a ton of raw sugar.

As the belt carries the cane stalks on an inclined plane many sprays of water are played over them to wash out field trash and mud picked up in harvesting. Approximately ninety million gallons of water are used at this mill every twenty-four hours. The stalks are then cut into smaller sizes to facilitate grinding. The grinding out of the juice is accomplished by a series of large steel rollers so notched and meshed as to do a thorough job of extracting the 87 per cent juice from the 13 per cent plant fiber. The juice containing the desired sugar is an ugly olive-green color, looking very muddy—a far cry from white granulated sugar!

Tg In the boiling room the juice is first sampled and then weighed through automatic scales. From scale weights and analysis of samples the amount of sugar entering the factory is determined, and also forms a guide to detect any loss of sugar. As it comes from the cane the sugar solution is on the acid side, and for better clarification it is mixed with milk of lime to change it to alkaline. From here it is piped through tubular heaters to raise the temperature to start the clarification process in the big clarifiers. The lime slowly settles out, carrying with it much of the extraneous matter, and foam also rises to the surface, giving

further clarifying action. The clarified juice drawn from the mid-section of the clarifying units is now straw-brown in color and translucent It is ready to go to the multiple evaporators to reduce its water content, which at this point is still 85 per cent. This boiling is all done under vacuum to reduce the amount of heat needed to make it boil, usually about 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

To start the formation of sugar crystals a certain amount of powdered sugar is added to the mixture at the proper time. So as the saying goes: It takes money to make money, it might be said that it takes sugar to make sugar! This addition of sugar starts the formation of the true crystals that are desired. However, many so-called false crystals also form, these being detected by removing a sample and viewing it under a microscope. When these false crystals form, water is added to break them up so that they will re-form as true, hard crystals. When full, each of these vacuum pans holds about forty tons of crystals and molasses, called the 'mother liquid’. The desired crystals must be separated from the molasses and so for this process many centrifugals are used. These consist of a spinning basket to hold the crystals inside a container that catches the blackstrap molasses, removed as an important by-product.

Nearly three-fourths of the raw sugar produced In Hawaii is sent to the ‘mainland’ for refining in bulk form, that is, without being bagged. Huge special trucks haul the raw sugar to giant storage plants where it is stored until shipped by steamer to the refineries for further treatment and the finished product.

Thus is seen firsthand how another staple product so well liked and desired in daily living is made. So the next time you put a spoonful of sparkling white sugar in your coffee or enjoy the frosting on your cake, remember that you are sampling another of earth’s many material riches placed here by the loving Creator for the pleasure and service of mankind.

Korean Truce Plan

<♦> Eighteen nations have been locked in battle tor two and a half years on the 600-mile-long, 135-mile-wide Korean peninsula that has little natural wealth and little strategic military value. Total casualties, including civilians, have probably reached two million. The U. N. succeeded in halting aggression, but now can find no way to stop the war. Many prisoners surrendered to the U. N. because they were told they could thereby free themselves from Communist con’ trol, and now the U. S. refuses to agree to send them back against their will. The Kremlin demands that all these rejectors of Red rule be returned, and it is over this matter that the truce talks are stalemated. India proposed a compromise (11/17), which the British called “timely and constructive”, but the U. S. demanded that the "loopholes" in the Indian plan first be plugged, and Russia rejected it.

H-Bomb I

<$> The report was out that the U. S. had set off a hydrogen bomb. The Atomic Energy commission seemed to admit it (11/16), but there was no great shock like the one that struck after the first atomic bomb was announced. Apparently the world had .just taken it for granted that the horror weapon would be pro* duced. Previous explosions resulted from fission, the explosion of plutonium when it is struck by neutrons. The vastly more powerful hydrogen bomb is the result of fusion, where the hydrogen is transformed into helium, producing tremendous energy. Where the first A-bombs wrought total destruction over a one-mile radius, the present H-bomb, which requires an atomic bomb to set it off, Could probably destroy a ten-mile radius, and there is theoretically no lifnit to the size of such a weapon. Eyewitnesses said that in the recent test (11/1) a two-mile-wide flame shot five miles high, that the light flash equaled "ten suns”, and that the whole island burned "brilliant red” and then disappeared. Time magazine said: "It was the kind of event to date the beginning of a new era.” A sailor simply called it a "lulu”?

Naz! Return?

<$> "I guess his imagination just ran away with him,” said the New Orleans mother of one of a teen-age gang of Hitlerlike juvenile "storm troopers” recently. On the more serious side, however, there were many who did not think the reports from Germany of actual nazi revivals were imagination. There, although nazis received less than a tenth of the total West German vote, four were elected to office in Lower Saxony. For the first time since the war they campaigned on the "good old days” under Hitler. As to fears of nazi revival, former U. S. Commissioner John J, McCloy had said the Germans are "tempted to justify the war and to blame the Allies for failing to understand that they were really fighting to defend the West”, while many former officials long for a return of the "all-prevailing power” they once had. This possibility, he said, cannot be ignored, but he believes that there is less chance of its now recurring "than at any time in recent German history”.

New York Rackets

The Kefauver Crime committee uncovered in many cities "evidence of active and often controlling participation by former bootleggers, gangsters and hoodlums in the political affairs of the community”. It reported that in 1942 New York racket boss Frank Costello "unquestionably had complete domination over Tammany Hall”, which is New York’s democratic machine. The five-man New York State Crime commission followed this up, to demonstrate (1) the "criminal and questionable associations” of some politicians; (2) their methods of staying in power; (3) the power of party leaders to pick judges and award favors in the courts; (4) the results of this power in the hands of “unfit persons”. When public hearings opened (11/13) one district leader after another reluctantly admitted knowing and sometimes complying with the requests of crime leaders. The selling of judgeships, salary kickbacks and the use of party funds by individuals were also under investigation. Thomas (Three-Finger Brown) Luchese admitted having social contacts with the mayor, judges and political chiefs, although it has been charged that he is the present boss of the narcotics racket. The New York Times cautioned that no evidence of criminal wrongdoing had been proved against the politicians, but said “the testimony has already damaged the little that remained of Tammany's prestige**.

Assault by “Leering”

<$> In- Yanceyville, North Carolina (11/11), an all-white jury took only 58 minutes to convict Mack Ingram, a lanky 45-year-old sharecropper, of assault by merely “leering” at a 17-year-old white girl from a distance of sixty feet. She admitted he had not chased her or run, and had not spoken to her, but she said she was frightened and ran away when he stopped his car and started across the field. The Negro's attorneys said he did not even know she was a girl, sirice she was wearing blue jeans, a checkered shirt, a straw hat and was carrying a hoe. The trial had been- a subject for Communist propaganda, which claims two kinds of justice exist in America for two kinds of color. The Negro's attorneys said he could not possibly receive a fair trial in Yanceyville because of left-wing attacks on the local officials. The sentence for “leering**: a suspended six-month jail term and five years* probation.

South African DlfficnltieB

South Africa has become a racial tinderbox. With just 2.6 million whites, it has 8.4 million Africans, 360,000 Indian immigrants and about 1.1 million persons of mixed blood, locally called "Coloreds”. The Nationalist party's four-year-old policy of “apartheid” (apartness) includes stricter segrQgation and abolition of Colored voting rights. Six months ago a native resistance campaign began to fill the jails with organized violators of segregation rules, and 26,000 have been arrested. By November bloody race riots occurred, and more than 40 were killed, including six whites. India and Pakistan brought the matter before the U. N„ and in South Africa itself a major constitutional question arose. When the appellate court (South Africa’s highest legal body) declared a racial law unconstitutional back in April, Nationalist Premier Daniel F. Malan put through a law giving parliament the right to override the court. The court promptly declared the new law unconstitutional (11/13). Dr. Malan then said he would abide by the ruling until the national elections in April. Meanwhile racial fears will be a major campaign issue.

Political Milestones

<$> While General Eisenhower was naming his cabinet and learning about his new job as U. S. president, notable political events occurred elsewhere. First, in Britain the queen read the Speech from ^j the Throne (11/4), which is prepared by the party in power to state its policies. Further denationalization of iron, steel and road transport was pledged. The welfare state will remain. Rearmament, the Korean fight, and support to NATO will continue. In Greece 70-yeA-old Marshal Alexander Fapagos, popular hero of the Greek civil war, won an overwhelming political victory (11/16). His Greek Rally party received 238 seats in the 300-member parliament, giving him a strong enough government to attack Greece’s current economic chaos. Some critics, however, say that in the past he sponsored harsh measures against labor and peasant leaders, and that his wealthy supporters will not favor economic reforms. Other recent¹ political developments included the spectacular and controversial resignation of

U. N. Secretary General Trygve Lie (H/10), and an overwhelming re-election of Puerto Rico's Governor Luis Mufloz Marin (11/4).

Israel's President Dies

Cham Weizmann, born in Russia of Orthodox Jewish parents, became an early Zionist leader. Through the favor he gained by scientific achievements, he won Britain's support to “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jews”, and in 1948 when the state of Israel was established he became its first president. After the 77-year-old leader's death (11/9) Prof. Albert Einstein was asked if he would accept the presidency. He declined, saying he was not suited for the position.

West Indies to Unite

The West Indies, discovered by Columbus, claimed by Spain, colonized in part by the British, and famed in history and legend by the pirate fleets that fought for their wealth, have been kept going in recent years mainly through meager help from the mother countries and rising tourist trade. Various suggestions have been proposed to improve their present status, and after years of debate the British Foreign Office announced (11/15) that most of the British islands had agreed to federate. The federation would control all but foreign affairs, defense and certain economic matters over which London would still hold control, and would probably allow considerable mutual assistance between the various islands. Delegates from Jamaica, Trinidad and the Leeward and Windward islands are to meet in London this spring to draw up a charter for the proposed federation, and some of them hoped that other islands would also want to join.

Transarctic Air Service

<$> Man's continually advancing conquest of the skies took still another step forward (11/20), A Danish pilot and crew, in what they called just a ''wonderful pleasure cruise”, instituted direct service between Lbs Angeles, California, and Copenhagen, Denmark, by way of the bleak and frigid north polar regions. Thirteen crewmen and 22 passengers made the 5,852-mlle trip in 28 hours, four and a half of which they spent on the ground at Edmonton, Alberta, and Thule, Greenland. The new route is 1,000 miles shorter than by way of New York, and scheduled service Is to be started in the spring if government permission can be obtained. Regular commercial transarctic flights were sure to come, but their actual arrival marks another milepost in the amazingly abort history of air transportation.

Smoke and Lung Cancer

<$> Dr. Percy Stocks, Senior Research Fellow of the British Empire Cancer campaign, has offered tentative evidence that chimney smoke may contribute to the cause of lungcancer, along with the exhaust fumes of motorcars and tobacco smoking. The British Medical Journal said that the case against chimney smoke was strong, but not yet proved. The Manchester Guardian Weekly commented (11/6): “If it could be proved that the smoky atmosphere of British towns was not merely a costly nuisance but a killer as well, the public conscience might at last be aroused from its apathy.”

A Better World

<$> Today there is guerrilla fighting in Burma, war in Malaya, a major rebellion in IndoChina, war with no victory in sight in. Korea, native strikes and violence in South Africa, and demands for home rule and fear of the Mau Mau in North and East Africa. India’s quarrel with Pakistan remains unhealed. Indonesia got selfrule from the Dutch, and now faces Internal political tension, mounting lawlessness and army revolts. Injustices and inequalities are rampant. A U, N, body reported: “Fully half of the world’s 2,400,000,000 are living at levels which deny them a reasonable freedom from preventable disease, a diet adequate to physical well-being, a dwelling that meets basic human needs, the education necessary for improvement and conditions of work that are technically efficient, economically rewarding and socially satisfactory.” Today’s world remains far short of really desirable conditions, but Christians look, not for man’s betterment of the old, but to God’s establishment of the new, under which there will be peace, health, life, justice and equality, as 2 Peter 3:13, Isaiah 9:6, 7 and 32:16-18 specifically state.

Calendars are 25c each, or five to one address for $1.

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Street and Nurnber or Route and Box

Index to Volume XXXIII of Awake!

January 8, 1952 Compromising Americanism to Exalt Catholicism

Concentration Camps in the

Philippines

The Compulsory Flag Salute

False Religion Rocks Freedom 24 Personality of Satan, Demons² .. 25 Watching the World}

January 22, 1952

History Is Made in Hollywood .2 3 The Power of a Doll .................

Britain Changes Governments .. 9 The Family Helicopter

Court Takes Child for Transfusion 16 More on Blood Transfusion

Malaya Opposes Free Worship .... 21 "la Satan Necessary?”2

Evolution—“As Everyone Knows” 37

February B_r 195?

Inquisition: Loyalty Campaign 3 Inquisition: Smear Campaign .... J The History of Sewing

Science and Creation—Failures in fixing age of earth

Science and Creation—Earth’s age by radioactive clock

Science and Creation—Evidence that matter of earth and universe same age

The Cold War on Mickey Mouse 21 Why God Permits Wickedness² .. 25

February 22, 1952 Civil Liberties—Practical or Poetry?

The Political Puzzle of Asia and the Middle East

From the Heart of the Navajo .... 9 Insects Wage War on Evolution . .. 12 The Radiocarbon Clock

Geologists Backtrack on Time .... 16 The Fawcett Jungle Riddle .

Intolerance Incorporated . .. ..

End Of What World?2

Are Doctors Infallible?

Blood Like Fingerprints

March S, 1952

Hoover Return “Old” Virtues .... 3 Israel—“Magnificent Idea” ?

India's Sacred Suicide

Nature's Thermometers

How Big the Mental Tragedy? .. . 17 Is Israel the Messianic Nation?² 25

March 22, 1952

“Make the World Safe”

Picking Pockets of Taxpayer

Judicial Conniving at Duncan

Mob Violence Condemned ... 9

Jets of the Sea

Nostradamus—Prophet or

Blind Guide?

The Prodigy of Rubber

"End of the World”—When?² .... 24 From General Hershey to Draft

Boards

April 8, 1952

Give an Inch—They Take a Mile 3 Slavery’s Offspring—Segregation 5 Demonism Haunts Jamaica

Draft Officials in Court .........

Justice of Sin’s Penalty—Death2 25 “Jonah and the Whale²’?

April 22, 1952

Specialists in Spookery

Author Spillane Makes Mind Over 8 "Brain Age” or "Comic Age’”? .... 12 "Let Them Have Dominion”

Part-Time Job for Woman

“A Ransom for All”—Why, How?²25

May 8, 1952

Religion’s Diagnosis—Aliment and Remedy

The Modern Reformation

.—Reform or Relapse? .....

Nature Builds 20th Century

The Waldenses and Their Form

of Worship........

Study Pays Off Before Caesar . .. 17 Do You Believe in Vivisection?

Heavenly and Earthly Hope2

Eighteenth Class Swells

Proclamation, “Go Forth” . 27

May 22, 1952

Bible Truth—from God or Man? 3 United States Constitution—A

Fading Parchment

Would Paradise Kill the Race? .... 8 To Another World by Microscope 9 Air Travel—Safe or Suicide?

Truth Makes Free in

Barotseland ...

From Gods to Flags

The Bible—Dispensable?2

June 3, 1952

"A Wicked and Adulterous Generation ”  

Decline of the Judiciary

Behind Protestant Murders in

Mexico

Function of the Human Lungs .... 13

Wycliffe and the Loi lards

Where the Kids Dictate

Scripture or Tradition?2

Venezuela}

June 22, 1952

What Real Missionaries Are Like 3

We Are No Accident!

Cuba’s Quick Change in

Government

Why Christians Shun Gambling .. 13 Bolivia’s Popular Revolution

Starlings Stump the Experts

Draft Act Narrows Definition

of ‘‘Minister”

Three Gods or One God2

Jamaica}

July 8, 1952

Reprimand for Presidential Draft

Appeal Board

The Knotty Problem of Trieste .. 5

Our Atmosphere  

Constitutional Crisis South Africa 13 John Hugs and the Hussites .

Push-Button Skin Color

Deathbed Repentance2  

July 22,1952

Political Landlords in Outer Space 3

Guard Child Through Training .. 5

Protestants, Keep Out!”

World Unity as Human Leaders

See It

Flattering Titles Unscri ptural² 25 Citizenship Granted Despite

Conscientious Objections

August 8. 1952

Free Speech—for Ministers Too .. 3 "Released Time” fop Religion .... 5 Pope Demands Bible Study ...

More or Less About Bathing Suits 13 Earth’s Past—Calm or

Cataclysmic?

A Mammoth Misrepresentation .. . 23 “Giving Thanks Always for All

Things "2

The Philippines}

The Totempolar Region ................

Wresting the Land from Italy’a

Feudal Lords ............................

Injecting Blas into God's Word²

September 8,1952

Noah s Flood in the Folklore of Nations ....................................

Why Asia Turns to Communism .. Blossoms Provide Exquisite Food Blood and Oil ..................,...............

Choosing the Right Hat ..........

Futile Prayers² ...........................

Ireland} ................................................

September 22, 1952 The Army Chaplain’s Role ........

Unrest Marks the Ballot in Italy Blood Extenders—PVP. Dextran and Okra ....................................

My Aching Feet! ...........................

The Banana—Fruit of Antiquity Objections to Blood Transfusions Panama} ................................................

Misconceptions Regarding

Prayer² ........................................

October 8, 1952 Persecutors of Children Routed .. Women of the Middle East ........ Which Way, America? ................

Masked Robber of the Wilds ....... What Sweden Thinks of Religion Prayer "a Self-generating

Power” ?² ....................................

Denmark} ...........................................

October 22, 1952 The World Is Wide-Asleep ........

The Quebec Hierarchy a

Persecutor—Guilty or Not

Guilty? ........................................

Brazil’s “Alcatraz” Revolts ........

Keeping Warm the Ancient Way Our Fine Finny Friends of the Gilead’s Nineteenth Class

Graduates ...................................

November 8, 1952 Maintaining a Christian Standard East Meets West in Olympics .... Separation of Church and State Religious Belief in America ........

Nature’s Clumsy Clowns .....

Facts About Thanksgiving ........

Religion in Olympic Games² ........ Do You Favor Corruption? ........

November 22. 1952

True Confessions by Evolutionists A Rich Uncle Named Sam ........ The Potter's Pots and Pans ........

Egypt's Plight, Plagues,

Proposals ....................................

Any Sense to Dreams? ....................

Acting Consistent with Prayers²

December 8, 19&2 Investigating Bureau of Missing Links ,...........................................

In Defense of Freedom ................

Moon Children ......„.............................

Religious Intolerance Shames Venlo ............................................

The Camel ............................................

Exercising Faith in Prayer² ........

Cyprus} ................................................

December 22, 1952

Comments on u. S. world Policy President by a Landslide! ........

Catholic Action Boomerangs ........

Adapting the Atom to Peacetime Religion in the Turkish Village .... Why Celebrate Christmas? ............

The “Seventy Weeks”² ................

Truth”.

New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures

A MOST valuable product of modern printing! The world is full of books, but none can compare with the Sacred Scriptures. Enjoy reading the printed page, yes, but do not fail to enjoy the best! In past ages men treasured any small portion of the Greek Scriptures. Now you can have the entire Greek Scriptures containing the sayings and doings of Christ and his companion disciples.

The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures is written in common English. No effort has been spared to make it the most accurate version now available. You will find it delightful reading and thoroughly understandable. It measures 7-5/16" x 5" x 1", and is bound in green leatherette. Cross references, chain references, footnotes and Appendix furnish valuable help in understanding the teachings set forth in the Greek Scriptures. The cost is $1.50 postpaid. Send stub below with remittance.

Enclosed is $1.50 for a copy of the Neto WM Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures.

Street and Number or Route and Box ...

City.......................................    Zone No.........State.......................    ~....................

32                                            AWAKE!

¹

For Information on the date of Jesus' blrUi see page 25_t

²

Articles thus marked appear under t The feature "Watching the World” j, Articles thus marked appear under