EVOLUTIONISTS "DECEIVING, AND BEING DECEIVED"

Through false evidence the religion of evolution has deceived too many for too long with too little!

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Delinquency’s Roots Uncovered

Knowing what they are will help you to keep your child in the right way

What Causes Inflation?

The banks? the government? the people? or all three?

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Christendom’s Pagan Beliefs

Do you accept doctrines that are false?

FEBRUARY 8, 1954 semimonthly

TriE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

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CONTENTS

Evolutionists “Deceiving,

and Being Deceived*’

Dishonest and Dogmatic Deceivers

Cardiff Giant Sneers

Delinquency’s Roots Uncovered

When Delinquency Begins

What Causes Inflation?

The Government’s Responsibility

The Philippines Elects a President

Religion in Philippine Politics

The Beard’s Checkered History

Flint Tool of Piltdown Man Also Fake 23 “Mammoth” Meetings

Fame Slips from -Swan scorn be Man

“Your Word Is Truth”

Christendom’s Pagan Beliefs

Jehovah's Witnesses Preach

in All the Earth—Israel

Do You Know?

Watching the World

Evolutionists "Deceiving, and Being Deceived”

DO YOU believe evolution? If so, why?

Do you know the arguments used to support it? Can you prove those claims with scientific facts? Rather, is not belief in evolution based on faith in the scientists that preach it? And on what do they base their evolutionary belief? Certainly not on decisive scientific facts- If you read their books carefully you will find them fat with speculations and assertions, but pathetically thin in facts and proofs. Unless supported by faith in scientists, the theory collapses. On the basis of the evidence offered the case for evolution could never stand in an impartial court. Yet it stands in the minds of millions of men on the sole basis of faith in scientists. Is that faith well founded? Is it scientifically supported?

Can science prove its claim that life just happened to start spontaneously some 1,500 million years ago? No, and even the speculated ways are too fantastically improbable to gain any acceptance by scientists generally. Is there a fossil record of life for the 1,500 million years they claim it has existed? No, for they claim fossils only for the past 500 million years. Then how do they know life existed 1,000 million years before that? They do not know. They have no evidence. When the fossil record does start, the first living forms -are revealed as very complex and highly developed, and in great variety, and with great gaps between the various forms. Then where is their evidence of a chain of life slowly evolving upward, link by link? They have no such evidence. The tremendous gaps between different kinds of life they bridge only with speculations and assertions, and not with scientific facts or proofs.

Their alibi is that the fossil record was laid down so long ago that it has been damaged and hence is now incomplete. If that is true, then the nearer the chain of life gets to man the more recent it is and the more connected it should become. But their reasoning must not be true, for the last gap, the one between ape and man, is the greatest of all. The record of this change from ape to man is supposedly the most recent and should be found in the accessible earth layers near the surface; but the search has been as fruitless as it has been frantic. Their desperation is seen in their hastily declaring numerous scraps of bones found to be the missing link long needed to connect ape to man. Instead of cool men of science skeptically weighing each bit of evidence, they smack more of drowning men clutching straws.

The Piltdown Deception

One of such “straws” was the Piltdown man. Over a period of years some bits o£ cranium bones, a jawbone with some teeth in it, and a canine tooth were found in a gravel pit at Piltdown, some forty-five miles south of London. Amateur scientist Charles Dawson took these fragments gathered from different spots to Sir Arthur Woodward, curator of the South Kensington Natural History Museum. Out of his imagination this scientist constructed the Piltdown man’s head. It was hailed as a missing link, one of the oldest men, the dawn man, and became world famous in evolutionary teaching. Launched toward fame by Dawson and Woodward in 1913, forty years later it crashed in disgrace as “a most elaborate and carefully prepared hoax.”

A paper issued November 21 by the British Museum and written by J. S. Weiner. K. P. Oakley and W, E. Le Gros Clark revealed that scientific tests showed that the jaw was no more than fifty years old, the cranium bones were fifty thousand years old, and hence not from the same creature. In fact, the jaw was from an ape and the cranium bones were human.* The teeth had been pared down to look somewhat human, and the jawbone chemically treated to look old. Scientists had always known the cranium looked human and the jaw apish, that they were not found together, that there was no proof they belonged together but every indication they did not; yet, with no grounds to do it and much grounds not to, the scientists forced the two into one skull and hailed it as a missing link that was part ape and part human. They were so right in its being both ape and human, so wrong in its being one skull and a missing link. But their starving theory was so hungry for proof that they would grab anything to feed it and sustain it To no avail; the Piltdown man proved indigestible.

Everyone is aware of the flair for large numbers that scientists have. Many are

* This appeared In the booklet Evolution vereug The A'gw WorZa, pages 10, 11, and released 1950; also Xwote/ April 8, 1951, page ID.

impressed by the fantastic figures; a minority knows how flimsy are the foundations for them. It is interesting to note how the figures have been juggled for the Piltdown man. Formerly its age was given as from a half million to one million years. Quite a broad range; it was usually given as 500,000 years. In 1949 Dr. K. P. Oakley announced to the British Association for the Advancement of Science that fluorine tests showed Piltdown man was not more than 10,000 years old. But that figure gained no popularity, as the scientists always favor using the fantastically high figures. They sound so much more impressive, and fit evolution’s needs far better. When Science News Letter, September 17, 1949, reported Oakley’s reduced figure it also said: “A long controversy over whether the skull and the jawbone were from the same individual seems to have been settled also, as they both have the same fluorine content. Some experts held that the skull was that of a relatively recent man and the jawbone of an ancient anthropoid.” So in 1949 they thought the fluorine tests settled it that both jaw and cranium bones were of the same age and from the same individual and were 10,000 years old. Now these same fluorine tests show the parts are not the same age, not from the same individual, not 10,000 years old, and that the “experts” that thought the skull recent and the jaw ancient had it just backward. The fluorine tests now show the cranium bones to be about 50,000 years old and the jawbone about 50 years old; the former they say is from an ancient man, the latter from a modern ape. If the deceptions were not so pathetic and dangerous, their ridiculousness would be laughable.

Yet in the face of all their folly the evolutionists preserve an outward front of confidence. As their manufactured evidence crumbles they stand in the midst of the ruins and pompously proclaim tneir evolution theory unshaken. Several of the reports disclosing the Piltdown hoax were prefaced by what seemed like a declaration of religious faith instead of a scientific pronouncement. Typical was the one that introduced the embarrassing news to readers of the November 28 Science News Letter: "The grand picture of man’s evolution from a common ancestral line with the apes and monkeys is unshaken by the exposure of the Piltdown man hoax in England.” They sound like the boy that whistles as he passes the graveyard after dark.

A few scientists years ago said the Piltdown man was a farce, that the cranium was human and the jaw was from an ape, but they were silenced by the vast majority of evolutionists. But now it is different. It seems that most of the scientists always did suspect it was a fake, to read their statements issued since the hoax has been exposed. Most of them certainly kept their suspicions concealed as they dogmatically taught the Piltdown lie. Typical is the "now it can be told” tale from the American Museum of Natural History in New York city.For years they displayed Piltdown man as a missing link, and at this writing still do; yet we are now told that for the past twenty years those who work on this subject at the museum were almost unanimous that the Piltdownite was false. Then why exhibit it, you ask? The report answers: “They made no public issue of it for ethical reasons.” A form of ‘honor among evolutionists,’ with no concern for unethical deception of the museum's visitors. How many more of the museum’s evolution exhibits are suspected and disbelieved by the exhibiters, but remain on display to deceive the public “for ethical reasons”?

Incidentally, the scientists that finally discovered the hoax relative to Piltdown man stressed how clever the deception was and hence no scientist should feel too bad about being taken in by it. Others took their cue from this and rushed to-the support of the evolutionists generally, absolving them of gullibility and redeclaring faith in the theory of evolution. In this vein the New York Times, November 24, salvaged from the' Piltdown wreckage a compliment for the scientists, saying editorially: "The scientists have proved that they are good detectives J* But a few days later a Reuters dispatch from London disclosed some plain-spoken ones were in no mood to whitewash the gullible scientists: “Members of Parliament have con.-isj>artly bogus. Six memBere~have put forward a motion in the House, of Com-mons ‘that this House has no confidence in the trustees—because of the tardiness of their discovery that the skull of the Piltdown man is partially a fake.’ ”

More Deceptive “Men*'

The Providence Sunday Journal, November 22, 1953, said concerning the Piltdown fragments: “The Encyclopedia Bri tannica, with reserve as to some discrepancies, has called the relics the second-most important known to science, Beaten only by the Javanese ^rmissing link* turned up in 1891.” Now that the number two "missing link” is debunked, how trustworthy is number one, known as the Java man? About as little as was Piltdown man.

As in the Piltdown case, the bits of bones called “Java man” were found at different times and in different places. In 1891 a man named Dubois foimfl^. molar tooth In a riverbank in Java/A month later)and. ^few feet jtway he found the top part of a skull, (gpout a 'year lanTfr and away he found a thigh bone, and a month after "that another tooth. Though Iheye, said there was no proof the fragments belonged to the same individual, and that the skull piece was gibbon or chimpanzee while the thigh bone was human. But the public in _igeneraljs_not jold thesethings, about Java man; .he is used as proof of man’s con-necfion with primitive apes in the same dogmatic way as was the Piltdown man. When Java man is discredited the evolutionists can save face by saying they suspected it all the time, as they did in the Piltdown case; but,untiljoroed. toJki this ffle^w^hi^shtneir^spfcigps^and, teflch th^JavjLm^ jie.

Evolutionists expound on other supposed missing links connecting men and apes, such as Peking man. Neanderthal man, Heidelberg man and some South African ape-men. But drying up the flood of assertions and claims that these are stepping-stones from ape to man is the fiery fact that modern-type men have been found in deposits older than those containing these supposed links. If modern-type man existed before them they could hardly be modem man’s ancestors* They might be degraded men descending and degenerating, but hardly could they be evolving apes ascending to manhood. This fact is like gravel in the mouth of evolutionists and many blind themselves to it and few can bring themselves to mention it. Evolutionist Hooton says thisi when evidence does not fit the theory scientists are not above concealing it: “Heretical and non-conforming fossil men were banished to the limbo of dark inushum cupboards, forgotten or even destroyed.” After mentioning the modemtype men that are older than the famous missing links, evolutionist Sir Arthur Keith said: “The majority of anatomists in the authenticity of these discoveries because they run so contrary to our preconceptions." Life magazine, May 21, 1351, reported the find of some of these modemtype men and said: "These bones were amazingly different from those of the subhuman Neanderthal and Piltdown men who lived during this same period* Instead here were modem men, true Homo sapiens who . shared the earth with primitive creatures once thought to be far below them on the evolutionary tree/' Coder's magazine, August 11,1951, commenting on this, said: "This rocks the whole theory of evolution*"

Dishonest and Dogmatic Deceivers

The foregoing shows dishonesty in concealing evidence that is damaging to their theory, but a few more examples of dishonest or dogmatic deceptions will be briefly cited* Ernst Haeckel was a famous evolutionist that used diagrams to prove resemblance between human embryos and animal embryos, and also skeletal resemblances between men and animals* Once a Dr. Brass supplied Haeckel with accurate diagrams for use, but Haeckel doctored them before use to make them better support evolution* He was challenged on it, and confessed: "I begin at once with the contrite confession that a small number of my diagrams are really forgeries in Dr. Brass’ sense* Hundreds of the best zoologists lie under the same charge.”—Mimch-ener Allgemeine Zcitung, January 1909.

Evolutionists used to teach that animals acquired characteristics due to environment, which is true, and that they passed, these on to their offspring, which is now known to be untrue. In the 1920’s ^a Dr. Kammerer of Vienna claimed to have a specimen that acquired a characteristic from environment and passed the characteristic on to its ^offspring. Note the outcome of the case: “The climax of Kammerer’s case came recently when a certain American scientist journeyed to Vienna to investigate his claims first hand. Upon examination of one of the specimens which has, it was claimed, developed new Structures, the visitor found that Kammerer had injected India ink under the skin to produce a swelling. Upon being confronted with the fake, Kammerer picked up a revolver and shot himself.”—Back to Creationism, 1929.

Time magazine recently said that some evolutionists “jump to conclusions as quickly as a monkey jumps on a banana.” In their haste to find proof to bolster their baseless theory, evolutionists are inclined to speak first and think later. If not dishonest, many of them are dogmatic even before careful investigation, and they deceive others, in their dogmatism. In 1922 a tooth was found in Nebraska. It was the tooth e£ an ancient man *iM in viVn the theory of evolution, scientists said. In 1925 the American Museum of Natural History declared: “Every suggestion made by scientific skeptics was weighed and found wanting.” Alas! in 1928 the mu^Sl'um admitted it was only a pig’s tooth; Yet books printed years afterward were still using the tooth as proof of man’s evolution. This is a very common practice? this continuing use of “proof” that has been completely discredited. It is not Wwafc", it is deceptive.

When frequent hasty claims are made pride prevents a later acknowledgment of error; many evolutionists will guard their reputations even at the expense of truth. Yet enough exposures develop to discredit them as authorities whose pronouncements should be gullibly swallowed, though many still gobble down everything the evolutionists dish out. Here are two examples that expose the fallacy of their fantastic age figures, to 'bulwark the example already given of this in the case of the Piltdown man. A fossilized shoe sole was discovered some years ago in rock classified as Triassic, approximately 10,000,000 years old! The little row of holes was around the edge where it was sewed, and even the twist of the thread could be measured. It was an embarrassingly early period for shoes to exist. The second instance is where scientists found a skeleton in the Mississippi valley in the United States., and.said.it was. 50,000 years old. Digging deeper, they found a flatboat. Someone remembered a flatboat had been wrecked and a man drowned during a flood, and the 50,000 was changed to 50.

A Deceptive Religion

Actually, evolution is a religion. Its clergy are the scientists; its laity are the gullible believers; its oracles are the evolutionary pronouncements swallowed in VfiivA faVCn anh vrnf) of proof. One scientist says at the opening of his book: “When a white-robed scientist, momentarily looking away from his microscope or his cyclotron, makes some pronouncement for the general public, he may not be understood, but at least he is certain to be believed. No one ever doubts what is said by a scientist. Statesmen, industrialists, ministers of religion, civic leaders, philosophers, all are questioned and criticized, but scientists— weNW. StveriVaVi,            Wings xriio

stand at the very topmost pinnacle of popular prestige, for they have the monopoly of the formula ‘It has been scientifically proved ... * which appears to rule out all possibility of disagreement. Thus the world is divided into Scientists, who practice the art of infallibility, and non-scientiste, sometimes contemptuously called ‘laymen/ who are taken in by it.” —Science Is a Sacred Cow.

To show the blinding prejudice and religious faith infiltrating evolution the following is quoted: “Then why do the majority of the men of science accept evolution? It is their faith; they stoop to many means to convert others, and they view the Bible as their competitor. Sir Arthur Keith said: 'Evolution is unproved and un-provable. We believe it only because the only alternative is special creation, and that is unthinkable.’ Professor Watson of London University said: ‘Evolution itself is accepted by zoologists, not because it has been observed to occur or . . . can be proved by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible.’ Dr. Caiman of the British Museum said scientists profess to accept it ‘as a convenient weapon with which to meet the fundamentalists.’ Professor Bateson stated: ‘Though we must hold to our faith in the evolution of species there is little evidence as to how it came about, and no clear proof that the process is continuing in any considerable degree at the present time.’ Professor D. H. Scott contended: ‘Yet evolution remains— we cannot get away from it, even if we hold it only as an act of faith, for there is no alternative.’ Sir J. W. Dawson, professor of geology, said that to believe was ‘an act of faith, not that kind which is based on testimony or evidence, however slight, but of that unreasoning kind which we usually stigmatize as mere credulity and superstition.’ And finally, Professor T. L. More, University of Cincinnati: ‘The more one studies palaeontology, the more certain one becomes that evolution is based on faith alone; exactly the same sort of faith which it is necessary to have when one encounters the great mysteries of religion.”’—"Let God Be True”, second edition, pages 85, 86.

It is wrong, however, for the evolutionists to say faith in the Bible is like faith in evolution, without foundation. Study of the Bible, not the creeds of the apostate religions of Christendom, discloses its wisdom and fulfilled prophecies that prove it true and give foundation for Bible faith. It also foretells the peril and deceptions of the last days, which in a general way embrace such ridiculers as evolutionists. Blinded by prejudice, desperate for proof, anxious evolutionists are driven to gullibility and become easy victims to deceptions. They believe their theory because they want to believe, not because of any proof. Deceived by themselves and by others, they then deceive millions, and make themselves a part of the sign of the last days: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be ... deceiving, and being deceived.” —2 Timothy 3:1, 2, 13.

Cardiff Giant Sneers

Cooperstown, N. Y., Nov. 21.—Folks visiting the Farmer's Museum here swore today that the Cardiff Giant sneered when word got around that Britain’s Piltdown Man is a phony. Back in 1869 the 10-foot, 4-inch Giant was dug up on Stubb Newell’s farm near Cardiff, N. Y. It wasn’t until months later, alter the Cardiff Giant was exhibited in many parts of the country, that Newell’s brother-in-law admitted the “ancient man" actually was born in a Chicago sculptor's garage—at the cost of a barrel of beer.—New York Sunday News, November 22, 1953.

3$ DELINQUENCY’S ROOTS UNCOVERED

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ONE can scarcely read a newspaper these days without an item on child crime or an announcement of some new committee appointed to investigate juvenile delinquency. Like a swollen, spreading sore delinquency grows. Law-enforcement agencies now fear the greatest outbreak of delinquency in all the annals of history. Already they say it has mushroomed into “the crisis stage in America.” The United States Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby, disclosed that in the short period 1948-1952 the average nationwide growth was an apall-ing 29 per cent. Not only that but latest surveys show that the age of child criminals is steadily decreasing. And all the while their crimes grow more numerous and more deadly. Newest and fastest-growing crime trend today: the “pre-teen” delinquents between 5 and 12 years old. Delinquency grows at a faster rate than the child population! What are the roots for a crime growth as revolting and hideous as this? What is the remedy?

To dig to delinquency’s roots we must find out where this cancerous crime growth develops. Is it just in big cities? Far from it! No longer a phenomenon peculiar to city slums, juvenile crime has spread tn the suburbs and to the rural sections this spread been limited to certain classes? No! Delinquency’s sinister has taken root at all social levels. and poverty can no longer receive blame, for child crime also flourish---: -r: well-to-do levels. Said an architect TiiliirrT • r -for a Harrison, New York, con-struction firm (that-had a $40,000 house burned to the ground by youthful vandals): “I’m beginning to think that the wealthier a kid is,

the less rein his parents have on him.” He explained: “It’s the wealthier kids whd have raised the most trouble with new houses.” Is this child crime trend that afflicts all social classes just a national problem? No, it is international. But since the United States is regarded as one of the more civilized nations, its rate of delinquency will furnish us with information to help uncover the sinister roots that give life to world-wide child crime.

Investigators Try to Find Roots

The United States Children’s Bureau disclosed that in 1952 more than 1,000,000 children ran afoul of the law. With “hidden delinquents,” those who escape the eyes of the law, estimated at 30 per cent above those known, we begin to visualize the tremendous magnitude of child crime. No wonder the United States Senate authorized an investigation into child delinquency! Result? “Federal, state and local authorities told Senate investigators today that juvenile delinquency was too big a problem to be met by the local community alone.” (New York Times, November 20, 1953) Child crime too big for local law-enforcement agencies! That is delin-

quency! But in spite of its $44,000 appropriation the Senate investigators did not dig to the roots. Reason: the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare said that the roots were hard to find.

These deep-lying roots, who can uncover them? Hundreds of committees turn to the learned child psychiatrists to expose the roots. What do these brilliant scholars come up with? The roots? Let us see. At the impressive Senate investigation of delinquency a noted child psychiatrist and director of a big-city child guidance clinic concluded that too many people “go off the deep end” in blaming parents for delinquency. The New York Times quotes his exact words to the Senate investigators: “For my money, the parents of America are doing an excellent job.” What a classic example of the wisdom of the thinking of child psychiatrists!

When Delinquency Begins

Praising today’s children and parents as ‘fine and excellent’ when, at the same time, federal, state and local authorities declare that child delinquency is too big a problem for local communities to handle alone is no way to uncover delinquency’s roots. To do that, would it not be logical to ascertain when delinquency begins? A United States government study of a group of delinquents revealed: “Almost a half of the group were giving noticeable signs of becoming delinquents at the age of eight or younger. Delinquency begins early.” Another authority revealed: “A potentially dangerous delinquent can usually be discovered at about 8, his behavior becomes obviously delinquent at about 11.”—Newsweek, November 9, 1953.

That delinquency definitely does begin early is borne out by everyday reading of newspapers. At Anchorage, Alaska, a 9-year-old boy stabbed a 5-year-old girl to death; the body had more than 100 stab wounds. In New Orleans, capture of an 8-year-old led to discovery of a “dub” dedicated to Adolf Hitler; children “qualified” by throwing rocks at street lights. The F.B.I.’s observation on auto theft arrests: more than half were children under 17! Brooklyn police in July, 1953, broke up a threatened pitched battle between rival gangs of girl warriors fighting over affections of a boy. About 30 teen-age girls had formed battle lines when police intervened. Their weapons: switchblade knives, butcher knives, pen-knives and ice picks. Of eight girls arrested by police, one was 13, another 14, and two 15. Remarked the assistant district attorney: “We expect the girls to restrain the boys from gang fights. If these girls, the mothers of tomorrow, start gang-fighting themselves, what will the future hold?”

In Arkansas two young boys, aged 7 and 9, slipped out of bed and looted a gasoline station while the parents were out night-clubbing. In Utah, a 14-year-old gun moll, after exchanging shots with policemen, complained: “I hate cops; I wish I had got me one.” At Miami, Florida, police, following the trail of stolen hypodermic needles, flushed out four juvenile gang members. Smallest: a redheaded 12-year-old with head buried ostrichlike in the sand. Hauled out, he screamed: “Why didn’t you shoot? I’ve had cops shooting at me before.”

At White Plains, New York, a 9-year-old boy told police that he was the leader of a gang of juvenile thieves responsible for 26 burglaries. The 9-year-old leader opened safes by touch. At police headquarters, while detectives were busy, the youth opened the police safe. Utterly amazed and still disbelieving, the detectives locked the safe and defied the boy to open it again— which he did. The boy-leader’s accomplices in the burglaries: youths 8, 9 and 11 years old!

Do we need more evidence that delinquency begins early? Note this case history of a New York boy. Five years old: He stole a bicycle, though just given one by well-to-do parents. Six years old: He set fire to two cars. Seven years old: He broke into an office building and stole $30. Eight years old: He broke into neighbors’ homes seeking money; when he found none he set them afire. Nine years old: He assaulted a 3-year-old boy; beat to point of death a 14-year-old girl. Ten years old: Today no institution will touch him. He is “too tough to handle.” Thus delinquency begins early. Reported the director of Philadelphia’s Youth Study Center: 8- to 12-year-olds are now moving in on graver crimes (burglary, holdups, assaults) once the sole territory of youths 15 and up. One youth who had been robbing since the age of four told a policeman: "You don’t scare me, copper—you can’t turn me in. I’m not 7 yet!”

“Most Important Cause”

Armed with the fact that delinquency begins early we begin to question the “wisdom” of the psychiatrists and psychologists who tell us that today’s parents are doing excellent jobs, that the Bible is old-fashioned and that modern children should be allowed to develop according to their own inclinations. The child psychiatrists tell us in effect: ‘Train up a child in the way he wants to go.’ Does it make sense? Is it logical? What way does a child naturally want to go? Is it not the delinquent way? Almighty God inspired a man wiser than psychiatrists to write: "Folly is bound to the mind of a child; the rod of correction will remove it far from him.” So, then, how should a child be trained? God’s Word advises: "Train up a child in the way he should go; and even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:15, 6, An Amer. Trans.) Note that the emphasis is on the way a child should go, not on the way he wants to go. And who is responsible to "train up” a child in the way he should go? None other than the parents!

Thus it is that in discussing the causes of child crime, the head of the F.B.I., J. Edgar Hoover, declared: “The most important cause is what should be called parental delinquency.” (New York Herald Tribune, March 9, 1952) Uncovered is one of the main roots of delinquency’s malignant growth—parental delinquency! Do not children leam quickest by imitating someone? Parents are the logical ones to imitate. And yet these adults are figuring in the greatest moral breakdown in all history. Can we expect their tots and toddlers to be unaffected? The adults need discipline themselves. No wonder they are delinquent in disciplining their children! Then the parents that want to discipline their children are advised by the psychiatrists to spare the rod. As a result the trend is “pre-teen” gangsters! How foolish, then, to reject the Bible as old-fashioned when it is the book that diagnoses the cause of delinquency! Since God’s Word assures us that delinquency or folly is the outcome of a child’s unrestrained actions, it recommends the "rod of correction.”

Is this rod literal? Modern educators maintain that the rod is not literal. Yet the Bible is clear: “Withhold not correction from the child; for if thou beat him with the rod, he will not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from Sheol.” (Proverbs 23:13,14, Am. Stan. Ver.) To say that the rod is not literal is to water down the force of this scripture. Obviously what the Bible writer basically meant was a literal rod! This administration of pain is not going to kill the child. Rather, it will drive folly from the child’s mind. A child by its folly brings pain to the parents mentally. To prevent childish folly and parental pain the child must suffer pain, for its training and future welfare. Parents, therefore, are Scrip-turally admonished to .take a literal rod and administer pain to correct a child. But the rod by itself is not enough. There must be the rod and correction. That is,/ the parent must give his child, together with the administration of pain, some explanation as to why he is being disciplined.

The rod need not invariably.be a literal one. Correction is often given effectively by word of mouth, the lips being used with rodlike effect. Rodlike discipline can also be administered by depriving a child of some cherished privilege, specially something that has a causal connection with the offense committed. Thus the parents that do not abdicate their parental authority, that are not afraid to stand up to an angry and often contemptuous youngster and that discipline their children with practical wisdom in a loving way are striking at the very roots of juvenile delinquency.

Four Sinister Roots

Committees will continue to come up with what they believe to be the causes of child crime, such as crime-comic books, "sexy” literature, entertainment glorifying crime, idleness, bad associations and inefficient courts. But these are not the roots, for all these factors can be reasonably controlled by the parents. They are the ones responsible for knowing with whom their children associate. They are the ones responsible for supervising their children’s time and activities. They are the ones responsible for judiciously selecting their children’s reading matter and entertainment. When the courts get a child, whether they be efficient or not, delinquency has already taken root: parental training has been neglected.

So let the child psychiatrists boast about the wisdom of their methods. The fact remains that their modern methods have backfired. They now have delinquency so great that local authorities cannot handle it alone. For being “modern” this world now must spend thousands of dollars on committees to Investigate child crime, and while they feebly search for the roots, delinquency increases. How they could save time and money by accepting counsel from the Bible, the book that goes right to the roots of delinquency! But this they reject. Is this wisdom? It is really foolishness. Their wisdom Is foolishness to God. “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” “They have rejected the word of Jehovah; and what manner of wisdom is in them?”—1 Corinthians 3:19, New World Trans.; Jeremiah 8:9, Am. Stan. Ver.

The Bible uncovers delinquency’s roots. There are four; (1) parental delinquency, or a failure of parents to discipline their children and train them up in the way they should go; (2) a modem age that refuses to live by that standard of true wisdom, the Bible; (3) responsible citizens and leaders of the world are delinquents themselves; and (4) the superhuman ruler of this world is also a delinquent! Yes, the Bible clearly shows that the “god of this world” is Satan the Devil! (2 Corinthians 4:4) But the sign of his world’s “last days” is now visible: “In the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, without gratitude, with no loving-kindnessj having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control.” —2 Timothy 3:1-3, New World Trans.

What an apt description of the moral breakdown afflicting the modem age! Does it mean anything to you? It should. Keep awake then by following the counsel of God’s Word and by living for the time, now so near, when all delinquents will be forever uprooted by God at Armageddon.

to think, fixed or unaltering. Its value changes. Since one of money’s purposes is the storing up of purchasing power for the future, it would seem that money should be something definite and constant, like a pound or gallon, but it is not. There is no certainty as to what a given amount of money will buy at any given future time.

Money, the thing you get for your daily labors and use to buy the things you need for your daily life, can be stored up to protect against unforeseen emergencies, but as the two previous articles in this series have shown, it cannot be really trusted as being firm or secure. Actually, the fluctuation of money's value within just the past century has made thousands destitute and has impoverished millions. How so?

The amount of money in existence is not stable. It changes. When its supply is increased, at first almost everyone is pleased, but if this goes too far there is actually a danger of there being too much money. Victor S. Clark, consultant in economics at the U. S. Library of Congress,

k, What Is Money?

page 74: "If the supply of money passes the saturation point, it ceases to act normally. It resembles water that in proper quantities fertilizes fields, turns the wheels of factories, and transports products, but in case of a flood bursts dams, reservoirs, levees, sweeps away canals and ditches. of thrift and labor.”

The point is that if more money becomes available than there arc things for people to buy, the result will merely be that prices will go up, and the extra money you have will enable you to buy no more things than when you had less money but prices were lower.

Obviously money’s value depends on what it will buy. If it buys more, its value has increased; if it buys less, its value has diminished. The changes in money's value are. therefore, registered in the genera, price level. Economists have long been concerned with the Instability of the value of almost every form of money that has ever been used. One writer called the monetary policy “simply a universal means of juggling with the standards of weight and measurement.” Changing the amount of money it takes to buy a pound of coal or pint of beer, he says, is the same as changing the weight of the pound or the amount of liquid in the pint.”

Yet the amount of money it takes to buy various things does continue to change. It changes when the quantity of money is increased, cither by the banks, the government or the counterfeiter. If there is more the people to buy, the people will be more anxious to buy, and manufacturers and

washes the fertile soil from farms, and

* The Rokr of Mowy, by Frederick Soddy, pege 31

storekeepers can raise prices and still move their stocks. Inflation is not high prices, but it is the increase in the amount of money people have to spend, without a corresponding increase in the things they can buy. This produces high prices, but the increasing prices are the symptom, not the disease.

Though government policies are frequently involved, inflation can be caused in many ways: a war, the end of a war, a series of strikes, severe government spending, an increase in bank loans, or just everyone spending his money quicker.

The Banks Can Cause It

The banks can increase the amount of money in circulation, and thereby prompt inflation. The increase of 228 per cent in the volume of money (including bank credit) in the United States between 1939 and 1950 was not through the government’s producing more bills and coins, but through the “creation” of billions of dollars of additional bank deposits.¹

The way banks can do this was explained in “Banks—a Sound Depository?” the previous article in this series. Briefly, it is based on the fact that for every dollar a bank actually has, it can loan out five or more dollars, either as bank notes (paper money issued by banks) or in a bheck-ing account, keeping its original dollar for the few who will demand actual money in payment.! Since loans are their chief money earners, the banks naturally try to increase these when they can, and by inducing customers to borrow they thus have some power to start an expansion of credit. When this newly loaned “bank money” is spent, it raises prices. This means greater profits, conditions favorable for enterprise. Manufacturers and dealers want loans to expand their businesses. There is a greater borrowing of money to finance this expansion. Production is stimulated, trade is swollen. Everyone has more money to spend and prices continue to rise. But the borrowing stays ahead of the production of new items to buy, and very subtly a severe inflation may have gotten under way.

Thus it is that the Encyclopaedia Britannica (volume 15, page 694) warns: “In a community with a highly developed banking system what requires to be considered is, not so much an addition to the supply of money, as an addition to the supply of bank credit.”

While banks must now maintain an adequate reserve and “sound” practices, a nation’s government-appointed Central Bank (in the United States the Federal Reserve Banks) exercises control over that nation’s money and can cause its value to go up or down. One of its duties is to see that bank-produced inflations, as described above, do not occur. Professor W. A. L. Coulbom of Oglethorpe University says in A Discussion of Money, page 162: “A Central Bank is unlikely deliberately to engineer inflation, except in time of war, and then it will be doing only what the Government orders. . . . its duty is to control the monetary system to the best advantage of the whole country.” Nevertheless, its ability to do this depends on its judgment, and on page 163 he points out that the Central Bank can expand credit and later contract it. If an expanded credit is contracted severely, “would-be borrowers are therefore unable to do the business they intended .. . prices fall . . . bankruptcy to some . . . new loans cannot be got: there is a crisis, perhaps hopeless panic: everyone trying to sell, no. one wanting to buy; prices falling headlong; even the oldest and soundest firms suspected of being insolvent; if there are many small banks [as there are in many lands] , numbers of them will collapse. But if the Member Banks are few and wealthy, like the British ones, even a serious crisis is unlikely to cause a run on them.”

In 1937 some accused the U. S. Federal Reserve board of being responsible for that year’s fair-sized depression. “The Board came to the sad conclusion,” said Kemmerer, “that it was easier to start a depression than to reverse one once it had begun.”² Thus it is possible for a nation’s banking system, if only through misjudgment, to cause inflation, a depression or perhaps even a panic.

The Government’s

Responsibility

Governments in need of ready cash during wartime or in other emergencies can also have a big hand in inflation. “The exigency of war has been the commonest cause of inflationary action by the State,” said

Coulborn, on page 160 of A Discussion of Money. During the American Revolution so much paper money was issued by the Continental Congress that by January, 1781, one hundred dollars in Continental paper money was worth only one dollar in silver. A historian of the time said this currency, “like an aged man, expiring by the decays of nature without a sigh or groan, . . . gently fell asleep in the hands of its last possessors.” The collapse of this money has been memorialized in the popular American expression: “Not worth a continental.”

“Inflation,” said Clark, on page 77 of What Is Money? “is the last recourse of a government in financial distress.” During the distress of the Civil War the U. S. government printed “greenbacks” to such an extent that within two years the paper dollar lost almost two thirds of its value. It was not until after the war when confidence was restored in the government that greenbacks regained their value.

Although governments rarely resort to literal “printing press” money today, China did so since 1934, with disastrous results, and other governments still resort to a type of borrowing that has similar dangers.

When, during World War II, U. S. banks bought Treasury bonds to finance the war, they did not pay for the bonds outright. They simply created an account (which banks call a “deposit”) granting the government the right to draw a certain amount in checks. These cheeks could be spent just as if they were money, and the receivers of the checks deposited them in their own banks. Thus, the imaginary supply of nonexistent money was increased. To the banks that received the checks, they were money, and on the principle by which banks make loans they could loan out several dollars more for every $1 the government thus borrowed.

Confusing? It was to columnist Frederick C. Othman, whose column in the New

York World Telegram, December 3, 1949,

FEBRUARY 8, 1951,

said: “The more [the government] spends which it hasn’t got, the more there is for the rest of us to spend. That’s inflation and, white it doesn’t make sense to me . . . that’s the way bank credit works.”

When a government spends more than its income, it has three choices: raise taxes, borrow, print money. Printing money or borrowing from banks will prompt inflation, but the political factor is against raising taxes. Taxation is blamed on the government, while inflation’s blame is often cast on the storekeepers who raise their prices because of the money’s decreasing value.

Governmental officials hold the reins over the two extremes of inflation and recession. They can argue for higher or lower money, as certain U. S, Congressmen did in Washington last June 2, and they can take action to raise or lower it. Yet if their knowledge is faulty and their decision is wrong, the value of your savings can continue to wither away, as they have done in recent years throughout most of the world. But are not these men economic experts? To listen to each political side in almost every nation, it sounds as though they think the other side would ruin the country. Too often, as the next article in this series will show in detail, they have almost done so.

Velocity of Circulation

The speed with which money circulates (the “velocity” of circulation) likewise affects its value. How many times the same piece of money is used to buy something is equally as important as how much money there is. For example, suppose each piece of money in a certain locality is used once each week, each person who receives it keeping it a week before spending it. Now, if suddenly each piece of money is spent twice a week, much more money will pass through each person’s hands. With actually no more money added to circulation, the storekeepers will get the same pieces of money twice as often, and their total receipts will be twice as great as when the same amount of money was circulating slower. Therefore, an increase in velocity will have the same effect on prices as an increase in the quantity of money. The faster the supply of money moves, the higher prices will rise.

So, although modern inflations have been pumped into existence through the printing of extra paper money, or the increase of bank loans, yet even if a monetary system consisted entirely of gold pieces, inflation could occur. If people had been saving their money for some time, slowing down its velocity, "and they were suddenly prompted to spend this hoarded money, the velocity of circulation would increase. There would be a greater demand for the things for sale in the stores, and prices would rise.

Thus, many factors come into play to keep the value of your hard-earned cash unstable, but the causes of Inflation are basically three: political juggling for votes, the banks’ anxiety to make additional loans, and the speed with which the available money is spent. The first two increase the quantity of money in existence, the third the amount of work it does. All three produce inflation. The demand for goods increases, and the value of all savings diminishes in proportion to the rise in prices. The change may be a small one, or it may be great. It may even reach the runaway proportions described by one writer in this manner: “All savings have been destroyed. Ninety-nine men out of a hundred are penniless. A few speculators have made their fortunes; bankers, by and large, have managed to survive; but the great mass of the population have nothing left but their ability to start life over again. And if they

are too old for that, God help them?’

Amazingly, that picture is not overdrawn. The disaster of runaway inflation can be, and has, even within the last decade, been just as serious as that! It has happened time and time again; yet the people want either to forget that it happens, or to try to convince themselves that this time it will be different. But there is little reason to think that it will. The amazing extent of such inflations, particularly since World War I, will be the subject of “Why Not to Trust in Mammon” in Awake’s! next issue.

iiTyTE WILL win with the people.” So W said presidential candidate Ramon

Magsaysay in his election day message to the people of the Philippine Republic. What the people expected to win, according to Mr. Magsaysay, was not just an election. He expected them to win freedom. “The people will decide whether they and their children will walk as free men, or will crawl as slaves. The substance of freedom is the right to choose one’s own government. Against the mighty will and determination of twenty million Filipinos, a handful of madly ambitious men will try to violate and subvert this right. I expect the saboteurs to fail, and the people’s will to prevail.”

With missionary zeal Mr. Magsaysay stumped the Philippines from end to end. *‘Clean out the grafters!” was his campaign cry. No polished product of high society was this crusader for clean and honest government. He was a man of the people, a man wbo was unabashed when shaking the grubby hands of the rice farmers, the greasy hands of the mechanics or the gnarled hands of those “toilers of the sea,” the humble Filipino fishermen. The son of

Japan es e occupation and a renowned Huk fighter, he knew his way around among the common people, whose votes could put him in the president’s palace for four years. So off he went to visit them, working like a human experiment in perpetual motion. Thousands of people packed the town squares to greet him. But the lonely barrios were not forgotten either. Magsaysay found his way into those too, riding his sound truck, or even walking when compelled to do so. No other political aspirant had ever covered so much territory.

When General Carlos P. Romulo abandoned his attempt to run for the presidency and merged his newly formed Democratic party with the Nacionalista party, Magsaysay’s campaign received a considerable boost and President Quirino’s hope to face a divided opposition was shattered. The Nacionalista standard bearer made the most of this advantage and soon built up a tremendous amount of public opinion in his favor.

It was not only the common people that took a strong liking to the Nacionalista

candidate. His popularity was well established among the young businessmen of the islands, often referred to as “the Jaycee crowd.” Most of these are members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce who admired the young presidential candidate for his personal honesty, relentless industry and administrative ability* His remarkable record as secretary of national defense under the Liberal Party government was still fresh in their minds. They wanted a change in the person occupying the president’s office,

American Interests

It was quite obvious that the Filipinos were not the only ones who took a fancy to Magsaysay. Americans in the islands felt the same way about him and did little to conceal their favor. Loud cries of “American intervention” coming from President Quirino and his Liberal Party colleagues did not seem to disturb the American community in the least. And Mr, Magsaysay became even more vocal in asserting his friendship for the Americans. Their military advisers had been his closest friends and constant companions in the days when he was fighting the Huks as secretary of national defense* He was not going to turn his back on the Americans. He was still glad to have their friendship and advice* In the midst of all these windy political blasts, the United States ambassador to the Philippines maintained a precise and proper position of neutrality, refusing to be prodded into making any public statement that would involve him in the current local controversy*

It cannot be denied that the Americans have a stake in the Philippine Islands. They once governed this country. Then they gave independence to the Philippines on July 4, 1946. They fought side by side with the Filipinos against the Japanese in Bataan and on Corregidor* They suffered

IS

with them in the horrible “Death March” of Bataan and died with them in the filthy prison camps. After the war the American government poured $2,000,000,000 into the Philippines in the form of grants to rebuild the country’s economy. Various agencies were set up to aid in the rehabilitation of the islands, the latest being the Foreign Operations Administration (FOA). The Americans are vitally interested in seeing that this country’remains a “show window of democracy” in the Far East*

It is precisely this interest in the survival of democracy in the Philippines that got the people so worked up over the last elections. This is the reason why Mr. Magsaysay made the statement that “we will win with the people.” The people wanted the assurance that democracy still existed in the Philippines* They remembered too well the 1949 presidential elections, when it was reported that even the birds and the bees voted and flowers were registered as voters under their botanical names. Fraud, terrorism and murder sabotaged the elections, frustrated the people’s will and put in power what Mr. Magsaysay called “a handful of madly ambitious men.”

Everybody wondered if it was going to happen again. Grim predictions were made of the possible mass arrest of the Naciona-lista Party candidates, of the possible assassination of Magsaysay, of wholesale election frauds and possible revolution* The political pot was boiling hot, and what was popping out with each lift of the lid was well described by Compton Pakenham, Newsweek's Tokyo Bureau Chief, as “violent, vicious, poisonous,”

President Quirino was the standard bearer for the Liberal party* An old-school politician, he is as polished and eloquent as a Spanish aristocrat. His political party administration has repeatedly been under fire of charges of corruption. Surplus war property scandals, immigration quota rackets. Import Control Office manipulation by 10 percenters, illegal beer sales by a former senator and wholesale terrorism by political bosses with private armies called "special police” have plagued Quirino and his party. Deeper and deeper the party machine became embedded in swampy wastes of corruption. In a last desperate attempt to get it pulled out of the mud Quirino raised the cry of "American intervention.” The people must close ranks around Quirino and fight off this alleged threat to national sovereignty. But the people rallied around Magsaysay instead and left the Qulfmo party to sadly salvage what it could from its shattered election hopes. Magsaysay won by a landslide vote.

At the Polls

Election day was not nearly as exciting as anticipated* In fact, for the Philippines, it was rather quiet. Foreign correspondents fanned out through the country with particular interest in the trouble spots. Negros Occidental and Cavite were sure to provide plenty of uproar, so it was said. But the province of Cavite stole the show for real live action.

On November 6 Governor Camerino had addressed a crowd on the campus of the Cavite city high school. Surrounding the crowd were the governor’s "special police,” armed with air-cooled machine guns, carbines, rifles and sidearms. The governor waxed eloquent and indignant against his Nacionalista opponent, Senator Montano. Waving in each hand an automatic carbine, the governor shouted a warning to those who were planning to leave their homes on election day to vote the Nacionalista ticket not to leave home or they would get hurt.

But it was four Liberal Party men who had the life blasted out of them about noon on November 10, election day. Their bullet-ridden bodies in the streets of Bacoor, Cavite, were a shocking reminder that political maturity has not been reached, at least in Cavite, So with the young man who stopped several bullets accidentally when he was caught in the gun fire that ripped through his house and the Nacionalista Party leader of Bacoor who was taken by force from his home to be liquidated nearby in retaliation for the four men who had died earlier in the day*

These incidents were symbols of democracy gone mad* Others died too, by gun fire and cold steel, but the casualties were far less than expected. The Philippine Constabulary and army troops guarding the polling places and a special rapid system of communication seemed to scare the advocates of fraud and terrorism. The popular will seemed to have been expressed and the people had won for themselves their democracy and their election. Magsaysay and his party had won with the people.

Religion in Philippine Politics

After the voting was over and victory for Magsaysay and his coalition party was assured, people began to take stock of the outstanding events of the campaign. Prominently mixed up in the whole affair was the Roman Catholic Church, the largest religious body in the country. A pastoral letter of September 12, 1953, signed by its archbishops and bishops in the Philippines, disclaimed any favoritism for one political party over another. This position was emphasized again by Archbishop Rufino Santos in a radio broadcast, his long statement being published in the Manila Times the day before the election. It is one thing for archbishops to issue public statements that the church favors no political party* It is another thing for the priests to pay attention to the statements. Evidently a lot of priests paid no attention to the supposed political neutrality of the church*

On October 12, 1953, one month after the pastoral letter that pronounced political neutrality by the church, the Manila Times published a news report from Mas-bate under 'the heading “Priest Bats for Mag’say.” The report stated: “Coalition presidential candidate Ramon Magsaysay received a big boost today when Fr, Francisco Hermida, vicar forane, at a rally here exhorted the big audience to vote ‘for the right man and the right man is Magsaysay.’ ”

In the Philippine Free Press of November 14, 1953, there appeared an article entitled “The Politics of Christ,” written by Teodoro M. Locsin. In his article Mr. Loc-sin made the following statement: “At any rate_} never has the Catholic Church in the Philippines been so mixed up in politics as during the last election campaign. Some priests went farther than expressing a desire for free elections. One Visayan priest went so far as to begin his sermon one Sunday with the words: ‘Magsaysay aco,' which is Visayan for ‘I preach. . . .’ Everybody knew what he meant.”

The Manila Times of November 7, 1953, reported that President Elpidio Quirino had complained about this interference by the priests in the elections. Under the heading “EQ Notes Meddling by Priests,” the newspaper said: “President Quirino revealed today at a press conference that he senses a growing resentment of the people over the direct participation of the Catholic Church in the elections. The president said he did not realize this dangerous trend until after he had received many reports unfavorable to the church. If this trend continues, he warned that there might be danger ahead. He said that he personally has nothing against the church, but he has begun to notice the popular resentment against priests for their working openly for politicians, and using the pulpits and confessionnaires for political purposes. He stressed that a democracy works on the principle of the separation of the church and the state.”

President Quirino had fallen out of favor with the church because of his refusal to discharge three top education officials in his government who were accused by Catholic elements of conspiring to eliminate optional religious instruction from public schools. A Catholic judge was appointed by the president to investigate the accused officials, alt of whom are members of the Masonic order. The Catholic judge found them all “not guilty.” Quirino retained the officials and lost favor with Catholic Action.

When Will Freedom Come?

So Magsaysay and his party have won, and on December 30 in Manila Magsaysay took the oath of office. And the Catholic Church thinks it has won also, as it hoped to do. But what have they all won? Freedom? The national treasury is reportedly bankrupt. The land tenure system is feudalism at its very worst. The economy of the country limps along on the crutch of United States’ aid. Outdated and typhoon-smashed railway, road, steamship and communication systems have the country in a state of semiparalysis. The public school system is far behind in meeting the educational needs of the rising generation. Cheap, grafting politicians infest the¹ land like intestinal parasites in an ailing body. The incoming administration will face all the frustrations and problems of the outgoing one, plus a few more. Not much freedom there. Only more worry.

But this beautiful land of the Philippines will soon know freedom. And thousands of its people already know where that freedom will come from. Not from a national election, but from the one perfect heavenly government authorized and empowered by Jehovah God to rule all the earth will freedom come. Flee to that kingdom now.

BEARDS have enjoyed a checkered history, They have been symbols of wisdom and power, or of humility and subjection. They have been outlawed by legislation and they have been made compulsory. Beards have been associated with philosophy, prophecy, literature, medicine, adventure, socialism and vegetarianism.

According to tradition, Adam was created with a beard. However, tradition has never been a reliable source of fact. (Matthew 15:2-6) Some maintain that the “fruits” of man’s chin are a part of the curse God bestowed upon man for eating the forbidden fruit in Eden. Others teach that Jesus wore a beard, thus setting the pattern for men. The book Light from the Ancient Past is quite illuminating on this point Its author, Jack Finegan, says: "The illustration at Dura [Roman military outpost on the Euphrates River] is of special interest because the picture of Christ is one of the two oldest such representations now known. ... In both pictures Christ is shown as a young and beardless man with short hair and wearing the ordinary costume of the day. These and similar portrayals are the earliest type of Christ as far as is now known in early Christian art. Later in the third century Christ appears still as youthful but with long, curly hair, and from the fourth century on the more familiar bearded type appears?*

Bas-reliefs, statues, drawings and pictures of ancient history, such as that of Egypt, Chaldea and Ur, all depict men as being clean-shaven. At Genesis 41:14, Joseph is mentioned as being shaved before appearing in the presence of Pharaoh. About the Egyptian custom, McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopaedia has this to say: The Egyptians, “for the most part, shaved the hair of the face and head, and compelled their slaves to do the like.” The Egyptians, however, considered the beard a mark of wisdom. Their custom was to tie a false beard upon their chins. Authorities say that this was done by way of compromise “between their love of cleanliness and their desire to preserve some trace of the distinguishing sign of manhood.” The figures of Egyptian gods were distinguished with beards that were turned up or curled at the end. No man living was permitted to wear a beard of a god; but after the death of a king this emblem was fixed on his statue.

Unlike the Egyptians, the Israelites let their beards grow. They were commanded by God not to cut their side locks short or around, and not to destroy the extremity of their beards. (Leviticus 19:27) This prohibition is usually understood to apply against “rounding the comers of the beard where it joins the hair; and the reason is supposed to have been to counteract a

superstition of certain Arabian tribes, who, by shaving off or rounding away the beard where it joined the hair of the head, devoted themselves to a certain deity.” (.Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature. Volume 1, edited by John Kitto) Baal worshipers rounded their beards in honor of the sun. So, by not trimming or shaving their beards, the Israelites were not participating in the customary practices of pagan nations. When in mourning the Egyptians would let their beards grow. Under these same conditions the Israelites would shave theirs clean. (Numbers 6:9, 18; 8:7) Baal worshipers trimmed theirs, but in times of sorrow would permit them to become shabby.

The Assyrian representations of men appear to be both bearded and beardless. The royalty and nobility among them seem to have worn beards. The humbler classes and eunuchs were beardless. The Greeks for the most part wore beards, as their statues show. The Romans, on the othei’ hand, were a clean-shaven people.

The Mark of Dignity

For the most part, among the ancient nations beards were greatly prized and even cherished. The Chinese regard the Europeans as the first people on earth, on account of their thick beards. To have but a few hairs on one’s chin was regarded by them to be as peculiar as a face without a nose. The beard was said to contribute to one’s respectability and dignity of character. To touch an early Frenchman’s beard, or cut off a bit of it, represented a most sacred pledge of protection and confidence. To shave an individual was to inflict torture. To pluck a man’s beard was a great insult. To be beardless was a mark of infamy that degraded a person from the ranks of men to those of slaves and women.

Men associated the beard with thoughts of honor and importance. When a man’s honesty or integrity was doubted, he would say, ‘Look at my beard. The very sight of it should prove to you that I am an honest man.’ When deserving of a rebuke, one would say, ‘Shame on your beard.’ When good friends would part, they would bid, ‘May God preserve your beard.’ Or when speaking of values, they would assure one, ‘It is worth more than your beard.’ It was customary in Bible times for men to kiss one another’s beards when they greeted each other.

Why have men worn beards? Primarily, because they grew naturally. Because it was the style. Because they were ordered to wear them by their rulers. To inflate ego. One contended that when men wear beards “the country is always great.” (The last time Americans wore beards the nation became involved in a civil war. The Confederate and the Union soldiers fought behind vast ambushes of hair. The war, in fact, was frequently referred to as the “war between the beards.”) Wars have often served to popularize the beard, because shaving is rather inconvenient in the front lines. Sometimes a gruesome crop of whiskers was purposely grown to frighten the enemy. Alexander the Great, prior to the battle of Ardela, ordered all the men of his army to shave in order to prevent the beard from becoming a convenient handle for the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. World Wars I and II were fought mostly by clean-shaven men. The army felt that shaving kept up the morale of the troops.

Shaving Methods

Shaving has come a long way since the horseshoe-shaped scrapers of yesteryear. The ancients used flint, sharks’ teeth, shells, bones or glass as razors. Today, the whisker-cutting edge of one advertised blade “is four millionths of an inch across or the thickness of 200 iron atoms.” Al-

most every type of preparation imaginable has been manufactured to soften the beard, moisten the face, remove the oily film surrounding the hair shafts, make the face feel cool and smell clean. Elbridge J. Casselman, expert in pogonology (beard culture), after some 25,000 experiments, offers the following for a good shave: “If a man would spend three minutes softening his beard/* said he, “he could shave ordinarily in ninety seconds and end up as if he had just left an expert barber?’ Tests show that it takes water “three minutes to soak into the center of a hair that is only six one-thousandths of an inch thick?’ Such a hair, according to Mr. Casselman, is only “medium tough?* Soak the beard at least three minutes before shaving.

Experts also testify that the average American male, by the time he has reached the age of sixty-five, has spent more than two thirds of a year out of his adult lifetime standing before a shaving mirror. In a single year men have spent more than $112,800,000 on razors and blades. Add to this the colossal amounts spent on patented lotions, ^powders, pastes, soaps and creams, and one begins to vaguely see the immensity of the beard-shaving industry. In 1951 alone over 5,000 tons of thin safety blades were manufactured!

Modern development has produced for man’s convenience the electric razor. It introduces an entirely new technique in shaving. The shaver consists of a shearing head mounted on a powerful little motor encased in a handle made of some suitable substance. The shearing head is fixed with a plate with slots. This plate rests against the skin. The hairs of the face penetrate the openings or slots in the shear plate and through a reciprocating motion of an inner plate the hairs are sheared off.

The shave is not as dose as with a safety razor and in some cases may cause skin irritation. Many feel, however, that the electric razor is an improvement over the safety razor. It may be necessary to develop a special technique after a period of practice before results seem satisfactory. While water and soap are not needed with electric shavers, repairs are required from time to time. After a shaver has been in use for some months, the cutting edge becomes dull to such an extent that its cut* ting efficiency is greatly reduced. In addition to the need of sharpening, instruction books of some brands recommend that shavers be serviced at regular intervals by an authorized dealer or returned to the factory.

Science has made shaving easier for man. While whiskers are still an everpresent male development, the removal of them is no longer a difficult chore. Research is easing the often-painful task of improving the appearance of clean-shaven modern man.

FLINT TOOL OF PILTDOWN MAN ALSO FAKE

<L A December 11 dispatch from London reports that British scientists admit that at least one of the flint tools found with the skull of Piltdown man is also a fake. Evolutionists were ecstatic about the triangular piece of flint when it was first exhibited at the Geological Society in London, and it was "handled with reverence—drawn, photographed and eventually lodged in the British Museum, At the time of discovery it was considered to be supplementary evidence of the extreme antiquity of Piltdown man and that the Piltdown site was one of the earliest prehistoric workshops in Europe, if not the whole world.” But the reddish-brown Stain on the flint "was not caused by natural iron from the site gravel but was implanted with a solution of chromate to simulate age. ... It is also likely that a hunk of 'worked' thigh bone of an extinct Ice Age elephant found on the site and thought to be a bone tool is as bogus as the rest of the remains?’

MAMMOTH MEETINGS

DHE Baptist Standard, June is, camea an editorial headed "A Mammoth Meeting/’ which said: “It la generally conceded that the Southern Baptist convention attracts a larger number of people than any other religious convocation in America that meets annually. The meeting of the convention in Houston May 6-10, with 13,000 registered messengers broke all previous records.. . . The huge throngs In Houston for the convention are accounted for In three ways, First, the fact that the convention met in Texas, the banner Baptist state. Second, the fact that the convention met in Houston, the Magic City of the Lone Star state___. Finally, this year the con

vention met near the center of Baptist population for the first time in three years.” Apparently things went fine, for “there were fewer discordant notes and divisive issues raised to mar the spirit of the meeting than usual.”

But two and a half months later the September 3 issue contained an editorial headed “Baptist Boasts Bested?¹ It said: “Baptists will have to revise their claims about having the largest attendance upon conventions and religious meetings.” Theirs is still the largest annual meeting, it said, but it asked: “Now who beats the Baptists? ... of all groups, we would least expect the Russellites, better known as Jehovah's Witnesses, to beat us. . .. What does all of this prove? A small sect, in 111 repute in almost every community where it Is known, attracts 91,652 people from 97 different nations of the world. They must have something. They do. It is zeal. They propagate false theories about God and man with a fanatical zeal. ... If Southern Baptists were as zealous in propagating truth as are me jenovan witnesses in peddling false doctrines, we could win the world to Christ in one generation.”

Paul’s work no doubt seemed like that of a “small sect” in “111 repute” to the chief priests of his day, who even tiled to discredit it as being of men, a “sect of the Nazarenes," as the Standard tries to imply about Jehovah’s witnesses. (Acts 24:5) If "in ill repute” in almost every community where they are known, attendance "from 97 different nations" would indicate that this must be throughout most of the world, rather than in a certain 'banner state.’ Additionally, the 91,562 attendants (90 less than the Standard’s report) were only those who could get inside; 74,267 more packed the various overflow facilities, making a total of 165,829.

Christianity is a zealous religion, -as the Standard should know. If its readers replaced prejudice with right doctrine, they too could have this zeal. Yet the numbers are not the thing In which to boast, but the mark of the true Christian organization is the world-wide preaching activity that Jesus foretold in Matthew 24:14, coupled with unity, faith, zeal and sound doctrine. As to unity, there were no discordant notes at the witnesses' assembly. Faith was manifest when so many would come from so far, at their own expense. Zeal was acknowledged by the Standard; and as to doctrine, it was the great spiritual feaat presented at this gathering (rather than its being In a “Magic City”) that drew such an amazing attendance—the very same thing that accounted for the growth of the early Christian congregation, which both amazed and infuriated religious leaders of the apostles' day.

Christendom’s Pagan Beliefs

HRISTENDOM claims to be the realm where Christianity is practiced. However, in view of Christendom’s corruption, oppression, crime, poverty and warfare, can anyone take seriously that claim? Hardly. Then it should not be too much of a shock for us to learn that some of the foremost doctrines of Christendom are not Christian but are of pagan origin.

Note first of all the teaching of the trinity: According to the Catholic Encyclopedia the trinity consists of three persons that “are co-etemal and co-equal: all alike are uncreated and omnipotent.” Concerning its pagan origin Abbott’s Religious Dictionary states: “Trinity is a very marked feature in Hindooism, and is discernible in Persian, Egyptian, Roman, Japanese, Indian and most ancient Grecian mythologies.” Hopkins, in his Origin and Evolution of Religion, at pages 293 to 307, goes into this matter extensively.

The idea of the trinity was unknown to the Jews, who worshiped only one God, Jehovah. (Deuteronomy 6:4, Am. Stan. Ver.) According to Bibliotheque Ecclesias-tique, by Dupin, “The word triad, or trinity, was borrowed from the pagan schools of philosophy and introduced into the theology of Christians of the middle second century by Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch.” The term trinity is not found in the Scriptures, nor an explicit or plain expression of it. Could we imagine Christ Jesus introducing such a radical teaching and then neither he nor any Greek Scripture writer explaining it to us?

Jehovah God is uncreated and eternal, “from everlasting to everlasting.” But Christ JesUs is neither, for we read that “he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,” “the beginning of the creation by God.”—Psalm 90:2; Colos-sians 1:15; Revelation 3:14, New World Trans.

Far from claiming equality with his Father, Christ Jesus emphasized his inferiority to Jehovah. “The Father is greater than I am,” and “I cannot do a single thing of my own initiative.” (John 14:28; 5:30, New World Trans.) The only text in some Bible versions that speaks of the Father, the Word and the holy spirit as being one has been rejected by modem Bible scholars as spurious, it not being found in any Greek manuscript earlier than the fifteenth century. True, Jesus did say that he and his Father were one, but he also prayed that his followers might become one in the same way; clearly they could not be equal and coetemal with Jehovah.—John 10:30; 17:21.

As for the holy spirit, mistranslated “Ghost”; there is no Scriptural basis for considering it a person. It is God’s active force by which he accomplishes his purposes, such as inspiring men to write his Word. (2 Peter 1:21) While the Bible does at times seem to personify the holy spirit, it is more reasonable to hold that an impersonal force used by God would be personified than that thousands of persons could be immersed with an individual, or the individual be poured out upon them as the spirit was at Pentecost.—Acts 2:2, 15-18.

Another basic teaching of Christendom of pagan origin is that of the immortality of all human souls. Pythagoras, born 608 B.C., taught that man had a soul separate and distinct from his body. This theory was developed and popularized by Socrates through his foremost pupil Plato. The Roman Catholic scholar Augustine (A.D. 354-430) played a vital role in fastening this teaching on his church.

In striking contrast with the pagan teaching that every human creature possesses an immortal soul, God’s Word tells us that man “became a living soul,” and that the lower animals are souls. (See Genesis 2:7; 1:20, 30, margin; Numbers 31:28.) It also states that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die”; that no man can deliver his soul from death, and that Christ Jesus poured out his soul to death. (Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Psalm 89:48; Isaiah 53:12) In the Scriptures immortality is restricted to Jehovah God and Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16) However, the promise is that Christ’s body members will receive immortality at their resurrection.—-1 Corinthians 15:53, 54.

Immortality of the soul being of pagan origin, it should not surprise us to learn that the teachings of eternal torment (hell) and purgatory are likewise of pagan origin. Centuries before Christ the Buddhist priests of India were teaching hellfire. (Harvard Classics, Vol. 45, pp. 701-704) And says the Encyclopedia Americana on the subject: "While there are many and significant variations of details, the main features of hell as conceived by Hindu, Persian, Egyptian, Grecian, Hebrew and Christian theologians are essentially the same.”

But according to the Bible, not eternal torment, but death, extinction of life, is the wages sin pays. “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3:19; Romans 6:23) In death man has no preeminence over the beasts, when he dies his thoughts perish, ended are ail consciousness, knowledge, wisdom and ability to do any manner of wdrk. (Ecclesiastes 3:19; 9:5, 10) Such texts as seem to indicate otherwise will be found, upon careful consideration of the context, to be figures of speech used by Christ in his parables or illustrations and in the highly figurative book of Revelation.

Likewise with purgatory. In vain do we look for any reference to it in either the “Old Testament” or the “New Testament.” But we do find references to it in Egyptian papyri that go back to 2000 B.C. According to Plato in his Phaedo, Socrates told of “those who appeared to have lived neither good nor ill” and who after death “suffer the penalty of the wrongs which they have done to others, and are absolved, and receive the rewards of their good deeds according to their deserts." The Roman poet Virgil’s description of what goes on after death reminds one of Dante. Says Virgil: “For this are various penances enjoined; and some are hung to bleach upon the wind, some plunged in water, others purged in fires, till all the dregs are drained, and all the rust expires."

Truly the teachings of the trinity, immortality of the soul, eternal torment and purgatory are not supported by the Scriptures but are of pagan origin. In teaching them Christendom belies her claim to be Christian even as she belies that claim by her works. “By their fruits you will recognize them.”—Matthew 7:16, New World Trans.

AWAKE! f

Jehovah’s Witnesses All the Earthf

Israel

ISRAEL is a modern experiment in nation building, and truly she is beset with many difficulties, trying to do in a short time what others have taken many years to accomplish. Hers is a difficult task because she is surrounded by enemies. Actually each individual is compelled to take military training with the exception of women with children and girls who object on religious grounds.

Currency is not on the free market, there being several rates of exchange, depending on the purpose of the funds. Religious institutions are given the lowest rate, no doubt a form of discouragement, since there is considerable feeling against missions here.

Some of this feeling against, missions (mainly so-called Christian missions) is not without reason, as many of the missions “buy" people with food and clothing parcels, and promises of helping them get to some other land. Reports have it that more than five thousand have been baptized under such circumstances. Under such circumstances the proclamation of Kingdom truth by Jehovah’s witnesses does not make great strides. Religion is not well spoken of or respected. Christianity is not considered a force.

However, there are some who hear, believe and respond with zeal. For example: A young man who said he was an unbeliever, meaning atheist, listened to Jehovah’s witnesses and was amazed with their message. He believed it. Now expressing faith in God, he says: “But we cannot spend one hundred and fifty to two hundred hours helping each one like you have spent with me. We have to find some faster way of getting the message of the Kingdom preached.” He was shown how he could help. Since he understands both Hebrew and Arabic, he has become a great aid to the Christian missionaries here in Israel.

Shortly after having studied with Jehovah’s witnesses, he found a note on his door telling him to discontinue his associations with these religious missionaries “or else." The note was turned over to the police. They were cordial but chided him that he, a Jew, should have Bible studies with Christian missionaries. But after a brief discussion on their keeping various traditions that they could not explain, they were willing to leave well enough alone.

Interest is being manifest among the professed Christian Arabs in Israel. These were amazed to learn that Mary, the, mother of Jesus, later had other children besides Jesus. This has caused quite a stir, especially among Greek Orthodox Catholics and Roman Catholics. At one place a Catholic woman destroyed the Bible when this was shown to her. But there are always others who are impressed with the truth and desire to learn more.—Matthew 13:55, 56; Mark 6:3.

In our ministry we find another kind of Jew here in Israel, one who was acquainted with Jehovah’s witnesses in Germany and fled to Israel during Hitler’s reign of terror. These Jews highly respect Jehovah’s witnesses for their love and integrity. When these Jews came to Israel and found Jehovah’s witnesses living and believing just as they do in Germany, it did something to them. It made these people realize that Jehovah's witnesses are true Christians following the footsteps of their Leader and Commander, Christ Jesus. Many, many Jews have told the missionaries of the Watch Tower Society located in Israel of the faithful course of these witnesses in Germany and of their helpfulness during times of peril.

Practically the same thing was reported by a group of Jews from Bulgaria, who had come to Israel to make it their home. A group of six Bulgarian Jews requested visits and revisits by Jehovah's witnesses. They desired their Bible questions answered, Sometimes these discussions covered a period of over two hours. Several of these in attendance remarked that there are a good many Jews in Israel thinking and talking about the work of Jehovah’s witnesses, but fear holds them back* They fear losing their jobs. They fear persecution from fanatics. They fear their religious leaders and traditions.

Jews are quick to speak what they hear. This has caused a few some difficulty. As soon as these hear about the message of the Kingdom they begin to talk it to their relatives and neighbors, thinking that these should be impressed even as they were. Instead arguments follow, an avalanche of abuse is heaped upon such ones* Not having any knowledge, or faith, or the answers, they become discouraged. They conclude that it is useless to try to combat those versed in Talmudic teachings. On the other hand, there are others who see this “danger” and are becoming thoroughly equipped before saying anything to relatives or friends* So when the hour does arrive they will be able to stand.

Here in Israel is where Christianity began, and it began with the Jews. Jews were its foundation stones* Now, after nineteen hundred years one would think Christianity was an invention of the Gentiles. Progress is slow* In Israel Jehovah’s witnesses are liked, but Christianity is stigmatized* Yet the work of preaching continues, comforting the meek and warning the wicked. The hour of Jehovah’s vindication will indeed find faithful ones among those who were the first to embrace and hail Jesus as the Son of the only true and living God, Jehovah.

/  • How the Piltdown man was proved a

j hoax? P. 4,

\   • What the Piltdown hoax shows about

science’s fantastic age figures? P. 4_S 1F2.

*   • What deplorable position the American

t Museum of Natural History admitted regard-i ing the Piltdown lie? P. 5, 1Tt.

J • Whether the Piltdown man is the only evolutionary hoax? P. 5, 113.

• * • Why people believe in evolution? P. 7, T[4.

f • Whether juvenile delinquency is confined j to cities and the poor? P. 9, H2*

(  • At what age juvenile delinquency begins?

) P. 10, If2.

’  • Whether a literal rod should ever be used

/ on a child? P. 11, !T4.

j • What foolishness is evident in modern \ child-rearing methods? P. 12, 113.

/ • What inflation really is? P. 13, U6.

• • Why a government might favor Inflation? P. 16, 01*

• • Where the people were incensed over reports that even the birds, bees and flowers were registered as voters in a presidential election? P. 18, D*

• • Whether Jesus wore a beard? P, 2t, fl2.

• • Why the Baptists recently withdrew their claim to having the largest religious conventions? P* 24, 1[2.

• • From where the trinity doctrine came? P. 25, U.

• • Where “purgatory," not mentioned in the Bible, apparently originated? P. 26, US.

• • What Justification Israel has for objecting to missions? P. 27, jf3.

• • What prevents many Jews from associating with Jehovah’s witnesses? P. 28, fit.

  ) )

  ) ) ) i )

  
  
  
  
  

In do-China: Reds Launch Drive

For over seven years the Indo-Chinese War has been a full’scale conflict. Pressure in France to end the struggle has been mounting. Thus a Communist Vietminh radio offer (12/10) to negotiate a peace in Indo-China was hailed as a sign of an end to the conflict. But two weeks after the Communists offered peace they launched something else: a strong military drive, sweeping from central Laos to the Mekong River on the western border with Thailand, This drive alarmed not only Thailand and the French but the entire West. For loss of Indo-China would open the way for conquest of Malaya and of Indonesia, Also Indo-China’s rice production is vital to the food supply of southeast Asia. Some French officials believed that the drive might be a pre!-ude to a Red peace offer on the basis of a divided Indo-China. Whatever the Reds¹ reason, there was graphic proof that they could still hit hard.

Chief Purger Gets Purged

The purge is a method of eliminating rivals in a struggle for power. Cold-eyed Lavrenti F. Beria was a purg-er of no little distinction. He owed his rapid rise to power in the Soviet hierarchy to his skill in purging. In 1938 Beria became chief of the purgers: head of the secret police. In 1941 Beria rose in power, becoming also deputy premier under Stalin. After the war Beria was made a marshal of the Soviet Union. Following Stalin’s death, Beria continued his upward climb by becoming the first of the first deputy premiers. As No. 2 man in the Soviet Union, Beria had reached a pinnacle of power that no previous head of the secret police had ever attained. But then came the purge. Premier Nfalenkov’s regime arrested Beria as an “imperialist agent.” Brought to trial in December, the ex-No. 2 man in the Soviet Union was accused of using the Ministry of Internal Affairs to overthrow the Communist party. Beria, so long responsible for the security of Russia, was found guilty of being an anti-Soviet agent as long ago as 1919, Beria and six of his old-time lieutenants in the secret police were sentenced to death. A firing squad carried out the sentence (12/23). Thus Beria, chief of the purgers, after devoting a lifetime to purging others, finished his career by being purged himself!

President on the 13 th Ballot

<$> According to French tradition, when members of Parliament go once in seven years to Versailles to elect a president they must do so with pomp and dignity. But 1953 was an unhappy year for tradition. For never before in the Palace of Versailles had there been such confusion. The election turned into something like the rough-and-tumble battles that take place in the U. S. when a national convention nominates a presidential candidate. France’s six major parties, running the gamut from far ri^ht to far left, had nearly even distribution of Parliamentary seats, thus making it difficult to obtain a majority vote on a candidate. After a week-long struggle the 13th ballot came up (12/23). Elected president was 71-year-old RenG Coty. The majority vote was 477 out of 871. President Coty, an Independent, was virtually unknown throughout France until his election. A French president Is usually regarded as a political figurehead; however, the presidency takes on added prestige and power when a coalition government is in control. Mr* Coty's main power is the right to nominate new premiers. Would the election Improve the government’s stability? Observers could only predict further instability in the foreseeable future.

President in Ten Minutes

While the prolonged balloting for a French president was going on, the Swiss showed their neighbors how swiftly a presidential election can be handled. For the Swiss elected a new president (12/22) speedily and with no uproar or confusion. How do the Swiss do it? The secret lies In the 7-man Federal Council. It is the highest administrative body in the country. Council members remain in office until they die or resign. It has become the habit of the two houses of Parliament to elect members of the Federal Council to the presidency in the order of their seniority. Thus for years past Swiss presidents, elected for a one-year term, have succeeded each other as noiselessly and as surely as if they followed each other by right of heredity* In this way the Swiss elect a president in much less time than the French or anyone else. So in December the outgoing president rang a little bell, and the Swiss Parliament chose 57-year-old Rudolphe Rubattel as president for 1354^-all in ten minutes.

Isles Returned to Japan

<$> During World War II the U* S* seized the Bonin and Ryukyu island chains from Japanese control. When the 1951 peace treaty was completed, Japan agreed to American-administered U* N. trusteeship for the islands* Last August Secretary of State Dulles promised Japan that the Amamis, five principal islands of the Ryukyu chain with a population of 200,000 inhabitants, would be returned. The U* S* fulfilled this promise (12/24)* Japan was exultant but wondered about the return of the rest of the Ryukyus and the Bonins. Mr* Dulles stated that as long as “conditions of threat and tension exist" the U. S. “intends to remain as custodian of these islands/'

Japan: Stampede at the Palace <g> In 1948 a new Japanese custom was inaugurated: The public was allowed to stream Into the palace grounds to wish the emperor a happy new year. The crowd this year was enormous* During the day thousands thronged into the grounds to cheer the royal family with cries of “Banzai!" (“10,000 years' life") When the gatSs closed the crowd outside got out of hand. Thousands surged toward the gates, sweeping away a cordon of police* In the mammoth stampede men and women were trampled underfoot* Some children, strapped to their mothers’ backs, were killed or injured. At least 16 persons were crushed to death and many more* injured* Thus a sevenyear-old custom brought a crowd of 700,000, cheers of “Banzai!” and a stampede at the palace*

Sikhs Riot in India

<$> The Sikh religion, a reformed offshoot of Hinduism, has about 6,000,000 adherents* The Punjab, in northwestern India, is the principal seat of this sect* According to the second volume of the Sikh scriptures a Sikh should worship one god, observe morality and practice the use of arms. Thus an orthodox Sikh carries a dagger. In December, when Prime Minister Nehru was delivering a speech at a sacred shrine of the militant Punjab sect, a crowd of infuriated Sikh demonstrators broke up the meeting. The Sikhs were demanding a Punjabi-speaking state. As the prime minister cut short his speech, police dispersed a screaming crowd of 500,000. One group of Sikhs, fully manifesting their martial spirit, brandished clubs, spears and axes as the prime minister left* The Sikhs want a Punjabi-speaking state in order to safeguard their culture*

New Zealand: Train Disaster

An active volcano was a factor in causing the worst train wreck in New Zealand’s history (12/24)* Mountaineers who climbed the 9,175-foot Mount Ruapehu volcano found that a crater lake in the volcano’s summit had dropped twenty-five feet* This indicated that an eruption had lifted the water and thousands of tons of ice over the southeast rim of the crater. Cascading down the mountainside, the water and ice washed out a 100-foot bridge spanning the Wangaehu River* When the Wellington-Auckland overnight express train arrived at the mountain stream, there was no bridge.

The locomotive and five cars of the nine-car train plunged twenty feet into the rampaging river. A sixth car clung precariously for minutes on the shattered rim of the breaking bridge before falling* Travelers were trapped in the coaches beneath the icy waters of the swollen river* One car was swept downstream for two and a half miles. Of 267 passengers aboard the train, 155 were listed as dead* To recover 114 bodies officials said they had to scour an eightymile stretch of the river. Other bodies may never be recovered, as it is thought that they have been swept out to sea, more than a hundred miles from the scene of the tragedy*

Czechoslovak Trains Collide

<$> In the past few years it is known that a number of serious train wrecks have occurred In Czechoslovakia, but news of such tragedies has been kept secret by the Communist re^ gime* Recently a train collision was so severe that news leaked out within twenty-four hours. The Bratislava-Prague express smashed into the rear of a local train, the impact demolishing the rear coach of the first train* This disaster occurred near the Moravian village of Sakvice, near Podi-vin, on the Bmo-Breclav line. Prague radio reported that 103 persons were killed, 83 injured*

One Death Rvery Nine Minutes <|> One naturally becomes alarmed at the fact that more than 200 people were killed by train wrecks over the three-day Christmas week end. But train wrecks do not kill hundreds of people eveiy day; automobiles do* In just one country, the U* S., auto accidents, during those three days, killed many more people than were killed by all the train wrecks world-wide* According to an Associated Press report the total deaths from auto wrecks came to 523—one person died every nine minutes! Auto accidents on U. S. highways kill from 30,000 to 40,000 people every year. For the first eleven months of 1953₁ autos killed an average of 102 persons every day!

Indians Attack Trains

In what sounded like a brief item from IL S. history of the early West, a report from a newly constructed railroad between Co rumba, Brazil, and Santa Cruz, Bolivia, told of attacks by Indians, This railroad, first rail link between Brazil and Bolivia, runs through a jungle region where the Yanaigua Indians have never had contact with white civilization. Upon seeing a train, the savages let fly a hail of arrows. Trainmen duck, for fear there may be some Indi An William Tells. To meet the menace of Indian arrows, railroad officials decided (12/29) to issue firearms to train crews.

Socket Plane Falls Ten Miles

<$> When the news came out that Major C. E. Yeager had flown a Bell X-1A rocket plane at a speed of more than 1,600 miles an hour, it was not revealed that the plane had nearly crashed. Later, informed sources said that the rocket plane went out of control after it had climbed above 70,000 feet—thirteen to fourteen miles high. Whizzing along at more than two and one half times the speed of sound, Major Yeager lost control and the plane dropped nearly ten soulchilling miles. At about 20,000 feet pilot Yeager regained control. One government official said the pilot was living on borrowed time.

Man's Best Hope for Peace

<$> A national public opinion poll conducted by Elmo Roper recently revealed that ^If73 per cent of the people in the United States feel their best hopes for peace rest in the United Nations,” (New York Times, 12/15) A review of history shows that a great number of people also hailed the League of Nations as man's best hope. But the League, with its 54 nations, failed. In 1929 people again hailed the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Some 62 nations renounced war as an instrument of national policy. Within 15 years almost all were at war. In 1945 the U. N, was formed. Sixty nations agreed to outlaw war. Since then wars have started in Greece, Korea, Malaya and Indo-China. With the failure of peace pacts and peace organizations, how fortunate for man that Jehovah God will bring peace to this earth! Despite the 73 per cent of U. S. public opinion, Almighty God*s Word still says that the best hope, indeed the only hope for peace, Is God's kingdom by Chrtat Jesus, the “Prince of Peace.”—Isaiah 9:6.

165,829 People at Yankee Stadium Heard the Talk

AFTER ARMAGEDDON-GOD’S NEW WORLD

WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ

A copy cl the talk is available in 3 2-pa.ge-booklet form. You may obtain a copy on a contribution of 5 cents, or hatfe 7 copies for 25 cents. Write today for your copy and enjoy reading ujhat 165,829 people applauded mJ ken hearing.

WATCHTOWER               U7ADAWSJT.              BROOKLYN I, M Y,

Enclosed is □ 5 cents Tor 1 copy; □ 25 cents for 7 copies of the booklet After Armatjeddun^God’s New World.

Street and Number pjatne ....................    or Route and Box ........................................................................

1954 YEARBOOK OF

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

Reports...

519,982 different individuals preached 72,344,728 hours, placing with people 22,116,916 Bibles, Bible study aid books and 25,115,729 HTrtcfttower and Awafce! m.a.g aiines.

AMAZING? Yes, it is.

But those are only a few of the many amazing facts and figures you will find in the 1954 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Indeed the ‘good news of God's kingdom’ is being preached world-wide. For a firsthand report of what was accomplished in each of the 143 countries from which a report was received send 50 cents for a copy of the 400-page 1954 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It will be mailed, postpaid, anywhere.

NOTE: The world-wide preaching is not yet completed. As delightfully pictured on the 1954 calendar, it will continue and expand throughout the world during 1954. You may obtain a calendar for 25 cents; five to one address for $1.

WATCHTOWER            1T7 ADAMS ST.           1ROOKLYN 1, N.Y.

Enclosed la $ ................ Cor □ 1954 Yearbook of Jehovah^ Witnesses ;

□ 1954 calendar; Q flve calendars

Street and Number Name........                  ..... .........................••• or Route and Box ........................... .......................

CHy ........................................................................................... Zone No.........State.......................................................

32

¹

The article “How the Banks Cause Inflation¹’ in the April 30, 1951, iVew .Republic explained: “Also due for burial Is the crude notion that the Increase in our money consists of ‘printing-press' money with which our improvident government pays Its bills. The money Issued by our government, the coins and bills outside of the Treasury and the Reserve Banks, has actually decreased by about $1 billion since 1945. The real offenders are the banks of deposit, which during the same time have created’ nearly S3 billion of additional bank deposits." Of course, government policies and banking laws make this possible.

f In the United States, however. Individual banks are no longer allowed to Issue bank notes, so this is done through checking accounts.

²

The ABC of the Federal /Peaem?         page 161.