God’s Answer to Prayer of Distressed Humanity

Berlin—A Bone of Contention

Teaching by Television

The Great Lakes of North America

MAY 22, 1959

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CONTENTS

Do You Want to Retire?

God’s Answer to the Prayer of

Distressed Humanity

Mandalay- Golden City of Burma

Berlin—A Bone of Contention

Teaching by Television

"The Great and Agonizing Danger”

The Great Lakes of North America

Preaching Against Galileo

Latin Gestures

Serums and Vaccines Not the Same

“Your Word Is Truth”

Israelite Wars No Precedent

Watching the World

WHEN your alarm clock awakens you on a Monday morning, how do you feel ? Do you sit on the edge of the bed wishing for the day when you do not have to get up and go to work? If you do you are not alone. But is retirement the happy time you imagine it to be? Many social scientists and retired persons do not think it is.

The big problem that would face you is what to do with your time. It is

uselessness and loneliness mounted, he killed himself.” This, of course, Is an extreme case of retirement shock.

The way to avoid the bad effects of retiring is to work. Instead of sitting about the house doing nothing day after day some retired persons develop hobbies to occupy their time; others find part-time jobs and still others engage in small money-making enterprises.

true that you could sleep in every morning, but what would you do the rest of the day? When this problem confronts you every day, will you not wish for your old job?

For some persons the change from daily work to daily leisure upon retirement produces bad effects. Regarding this the New York Times Magazine of February 15, 1959, said: "Gerontologists—medical men who specialize in problems of old people— have testified that forced leisure often results in ‘retirement shock’—a numb inability to adjust that leads to depression, illness and premature death.” The article cites the case of an executive who was compelled to retire at the age of sixty-five because of company rules and states: "After eleven months in which a sense of

Work may seem unpleasant while you are engaging in it, but it is far better for you mentally and physically than doing nothing. Idleness is deteriorating. In his book The Retirement Handbook Joseph Buckley states: "The secret of longevity in retirement is to keep active both mentally and physically. If the mind and the body are allowed to remain inactive for any considerable period of time, the result is a rapid deterioration of their functions."

Although there are many companies that compel employees to retire at the age of sixty-five, there are a number that consider this practice unwise. By permitting an employee to continue working after sixty-five the company benefits from his

experience and knowledge and does a service to the employee. His retirement can come as a gradual tapering off. Some companies rehire their retired workers on a part-time basis or use them as consultants.

A person’s usefulness as a worker does not cease when he reaches the age of sixty-five. He is more stable, more careful and more responsible than many younger employees, not to mention that he has much greater experience. He can learn new things if he wants to. Buckley states that it is “the lack of interest in learning rather than biological degeneration [that] is responsible for the myth that older people are slow, or unable, to learn.” At the age of eighty-five Arturo Toscanini could memorize the score of an entire opera. Justice Holmes began the study of Greek at the age of ninety. A widow of ninety-one has taken up the study of philosophy at a New York school. These examples prove that older persons can learn new things and need not be idle when they retire. There are many retired persons who pursue studies they never had time for before.

Man was pot designed to live in idleness but rather to work. When the first man was placed in the garden of Eden by his Creator he was given a work assignment. “Jehovah God proceeded to take the man and settle him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to take care of it.” (Gen. 2:15) He also had the task of thinking up names for "every wild beast of the field and every flying creature of the heavens.”

It is a mistake to think that lying under a tree in total idleness would be living in paradise. That was not true in the first paradise, and it will not be true when paradise is restored. Idleness is degenerating. It was one of the contributing factors to the wickedness of Sodom. "This was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters lived in pride, plenty, and thoughtless ease.”—Ezek. 16:49, AT.

idleness contributed to the downfall of more than one civilization. Regarding this Hr. Edward Stieglitz said that “superabundance of leisure, or the abuse thereof, has marked and initiated the decadence of cultures throughout history.” An out standing example is that of ancient Rome The historian John Lord tells us, in his book Beacon Lights of History, that in Rome “habits of industry were destroyed, and all respect for employments that required labor. The rich were supported by contributions from the provinces. . . . The poor had no solicitude for a living, since they were supported at the public expense. All therefore gave themselves up to pleasure. Even the baths, designed for sanatory purposes, became places of resort and idleness, and ultimately of intrigue and vice.”

It is God’s purpose that man should work. This is evident not only from his commands to the first man but also from his commands to Christians, as voiced by his chief Representative, Jesus Christ. On one occasion Jesus said: “We must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.” (John 9:4) Those works consisted chiefly of preaching and teaching the commands and purposes and truths of God. The divine will that Christians should work was also expressed by the apostle Paul: “If anyone does not want to work, neither let him eat.” (2 Thess. 3:10) The ministry provides upbuilding work for all Christians today, whether they are engaged in secular occupations or are retired from them.

If you realize how essential work is to your mental and physical well-being you will not want to retire to a life of idleness. No matter how unpleasant it may be for you to get up in the morning to go to work, you are better off by far than the person who wakes up to face another day of boredom and a feeling of uselessness. Look upon productive work as a blessing. For your own good keep working.

WHAT IS IT?

WHERE CAN THIS ANSWER BE FOUND? HOW CAN YOU BE

NEVER before has humanity been so greatly oppressed by so many woes. Newspapers are filled with distressing news of juvenile delinquency, crimes, inflation, higher taxes, greed and dishonesty in politics, the cold war and threats of a hot war, food shortages and diseases. Heart disease and cancer yearly claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of persons. To lose a loved one to death is one of the most unbearable things that distressed humanity must endure. How long, people ask, will such frightful conditions plague mankind? Will it always be like this?

Many from distressed humanity have prayed to God to show them what hope there is. Has God answered their prayer? Indeed he has. God’s answer is found in his Holy Word, the Bible. Fittingly God has used his beloved Son, Christ Jesus, to express his answer. In his sermon on the mount Jesus gave us God’s answer when he taught his followers how to pray: “You must pray, then, this way: ‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified. Let your kingdom come. Let your will come to pass, as in heaven, also upon earth.’ ” (Matt. 6:9,10) Ah, here is God’s answer to the prayer of distressed humanity—his kingdom!

“The Kingdom of the Heavens”

Because God’s kingdom will bring about God’s will right here on the earth, nothing is of greater importance to mankind than the Kingdom. All other interests are secondary to the Kingdom, since Jesus said: “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom.” (Matt. 6:33)

Because of its primary importance Jesus quit the carpentry work and worked full time at preaching God’s kingdom, thereby bringing good news to distressed mankind: “Jesus set out on a tour of all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom.” —Matt. 9:35.

Kingdom is a real government It

is a heavenly government. Showing that God’s kingdom is heavenly, Jesus introduced many of his illustrations by the phrase: “The kingdom of the heavens is like ...” (Matt. 13:31) It is impossible to read very far in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark or Luke without reading about the Kingdom. Matthew’s account contains twenty-eight chapters. Did you know that the Kingdom is mentioned in twenty-one of these chapters? In the thirteenth chapter of Matthew alone Jesus used the phrase “the kingdom of the heavens” eight times. Al] together the word “kingdom,” referring to God’s heavenly kingdom, appears in that one chapter twelve times’ Jesus truly stressed God’s kingdom as the only hope for distressed mankind.

God’s heavenly government has a King and 144,000 royal associates. Those who reign with Christ in his kingdom are chosen from among men and are an exception to the rest of mankind, since they will be the only ones ever taken to heaven. They are “the hundred and forty-four thousand,

who have been purchased from the earth.” (Rev. 14:3) The Bible shows that there will be many earthly subjects of God’s kingdom. In the same sermon in which Jesus told us to pray for the Kingdom, he indicated that the Kingdom would have earthly subjects, in his well-known words: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.’’—Matt. 5:5, AV.

How does God’s kingdom answer the prayer of distressed mankind? By bringing an end to all wickedness, wars, crime and violence. Showing what the Kingdom would accomplish, Christ, the King, said he would “send forth his angels, and they will collect out from his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and persons who are doing lawlessness, and they will pitch them into the fiery furnace, ... At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Matt. 13:41-43) For the Kingdom’s earthly subjects to shine “as brightly as the sun” they need relief from the oppression of sickness and death. This God’s kingdom will provide, for of its King it is written: “He must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet. As the fast enemy, death is to be destroyed.”—1 Cor. 15: 25, 26.

But what of those who have died? How will the Kingdom benefit them? By means of the Kingdom, death and Hades (the common grave) will give up those dead in them. (Rev. 20:13) Pointing forward to that grand time when the kingly “judge of the living and the dead” raises all those in the graves or memorial tombs, Jesus said: “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28, 29) All who are raised from the dead in an earthly resurrection are in line to “inherit the earth” by gaining the prize of everlasting life by being obedient subjects of the Kingdom.—Acts 10:42; Matt. 5:5.

Power of Established Kingdom

Distressed humanity should take heart in the fact that the long-prayed-for kingdom is already established in heaven. Bible prophecies and related facts show that the Kingdom’s establishment took place in heaven A.D. 1914. That year the “seven times” of the "appointed times of the nations” ended, and it was time for Christ to be made "King of kings.” Prior to 1914 Christ was sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God, "awaiting until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet,” (Heb. 10:12, 13) But in harmony with Daniel 7:14 Christ received the long-promised kingdom A.D. 1914 and, invisible to human eyes, “there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed,”—AS.

Following the birth of God’s kingdom, there was another event invisible to human eyes: “War broke out in heaven.” (Rev. 12:7) In this heavenly conflict Satan and his demons were “hurled down to the earth.” This meant increased woes for distressed mankind, as the Bible shows: “Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” (Rev. 12:9, 12) During this “short period of time” left for this old world and its false god, Satan the Devil, the good news of the Kingdom’s establishment must be preached to all the nations, just as Jesus foretold in his great prophecy concerning the “end of the world” or “last days.” Said Jesus: “This good news of the kingdom

win be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.”—Matt. 24:14.

Kingdom Makes a New World Possible

Ah, so the Kingdom will bring a complete end to this oppressive old, wicked world! The “accomplished end” that Jesus said would come after the Kingdom preaching is finished is not the end of this earth; it is the end of the present evil world or system of things. Its destruction at God’s universal war of Armageddon makes way for a righteous new world. Showing the invincible power of God’s kingdom are the words of the prophet Daniel: “In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”—Dan. 2:44, AS.

But more than the removal of the nations of the earth must take place to bring in a new world and relieve distressed mankind. The invisible god of this world, “the god of this system of things,” the Devil, must be put out of the way along with his demonic spirit creatures. The Bible assures us that God’s kingdom will destroy the symbolic heavens of this wicked world and thus put Satan and his demons out of the way. Foretold the apostle Peter: “Jehovah’s day will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a hissing noise, but the elements being intensely hot will be dissolved, and earth and the works in it will be discovered [destroyed].”—2 Cor. 4:4; 2 Pet. 3:10,12.

The destruction of the symbolic “heavens and the earth that are now” does not leave a void. No, God replaces the wicked heavens and earth with “new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.”—2 Pet. 3:7, 13.

New World Society Now

This promised new world of righteousness is at hand, for the Kingdom is established, and within this generation God’s heavenly government will destroy this wicked world. Since the birth of God’s kingdom there is, in fact, a New ’World society on earth. The New World society is the outgrowth of the Kingdom’s operation and, unlike the Kingdom, is visible to human eyes. It has been functioning on earth since 1919 with visible results. Each year tens of thousands of new believers declare themselves for God’s kingdom and associate themselves with the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses in proclaiming God’s kingdom as the hope of mankind.

Having embraced God’s answer to the prayer of distressed humanity, those of the New World society are not despondent over the world’s grim situation. Why? Because they know these distressing things were foretold to come upon the earth following Satan’s defeat in heaven. None other than Christ Jesus foretold these things: "On the earth anguish of nations, not knowing the way out . . ., while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth.” (Luke 21: 25, 26) Concerning the woes, such as world wars, food shortages and pestilences that were foretold to come upon the generation of mankind in the “last days,” Jesus said: “These things are a beginning of pangs of distress.”—Matt. 24:8.

“Lift Your Heads Up”

Since 1914 (A.D.) these foretold “pangs of distress” have come upon one generation in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Though those of the New World society

take a serious view of these woes and pangs of distress, they are also obedient to the command of Christ: “As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.”—Luke 21:28.

Ah yes, when one understands the meaning of these pangs of distress, then these very distress-causing happenings are in themselves cause for casting off the garments of distress and dismay. No more should the head be held low in despondency; no more should the true Christian be dispirited in hopeless dejection, for now is the time of all times for lifting up one’s head in joyful expectation of impending deliverance at God's war of Armageddon. “Rejoice in the hope ahead.”—Rom. 12:12.

Though deliverance is so very near, death still is with us. How, then, can those of the New World society seem so happy? Because even death does not hold the terror or produce the hopelessness that it does for those who do not know the Kingdom hope. When those of the New World society lose a loved one to death, they are not overcome by despondent grief. They do not grieve overmuch, because the Bible declares: “We do not want you to be ignorant concerning those who are sleeping in death, that you may not sorrow just as the rest also do who have no hope.” (1 Thess. 4:13) This does not mean that those of the New World society do not sorrow at the death of a loved one. They do. Even the Lord Jesus “gave way to tears” at the death of his beloved friend Lazarus. (John 11:35) But the grief is not excessive or hysterical. The resurrection hope comforts them, for, like Paul, they "have hope toward God... that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.”—Acts 24: 15.

No More Tears and Tombstones

After Armageddon, during the reign of Christ the 'King, those dead in the memorial tombs will be raised to life again. Nevermore will they have to die because of sin inherited from Adam. By being obedient subjects of the Kingdom they may prove worthy of the gift of everlasting life in God’s glorious new world. And how wonderful it will be! For God “will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more. The former things have passed away.”—Rev. 21:4.

Yes, the former things that oppressed humanity will have passed away forever. Gone then will be the streams of tears that have flowed in dimly lighted funeral parlors! Gone the somber work of grave digging, casket buying and cemetery-lot purchasing! Gone the work of embalmers and tombstone makers! Gone the dreary funeral procession and the mourning garments of black! Gone any need to visit cemeteries to remember dead loved ones with flowers, for cemeteries will exist no more! “All those in the memorial tombs” will have heard the voice of the reigning King and come forth in a resurrection in a new world. Those who stay obedient to the Kingdom will “inherit the earth” everlastingly and for them “death will be no more.” Jehovah will have fulfilled his promise that “he will actually swallow up death forever, and the Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces.” —Isa. 25:8.

Begin now to wipe the tears from your face and the faces of others by embracing the Kingdom hope, telling it out to others, that they too may know God’s answer to the prayer of distressed mankind.

ANDALAY” is the title of one of *** Rudyard Kipling’s poems, one that many persons have read. Many more persons have heard the song, "On the Road to Mandalay,” that Oley Speaks composed, thus setting Kipling’s poem to music. Yet few of these persons perhaps have heard much about the intriguing city that inspired Kipling’s pen, the city that is often called in Burmese “Shweman," meaning "Golden City.”

Mandalay really had a golden past. Not that the city is an ancient one—actually it was founded in 1857. But one of the "Golden Kings,” as the Burmese kings were called, did the founding. King Mindon established the city believing that a royal city under the shadow of famous Mandalay hill would perhaps counteract the rising importance of British-held Rangoon.

Near Mandalay hill King Mindon built a magnificent gold-gilded, wooden palace, surrounding it with high walls. What a tourist attraction! Unfortunately, during World War II, the palace was destroyed; but the square brick walls that guarded the palace still stand. One of the main attractions of Mandalay today, the four great walls are twenty-seven feet high, ten feet wide and about a mile square. It is surrounded by a moat seventy-five yards wide and eleven feet deep!

One marvels at the vast amount of back-breaking labor necessary to dig this nearly five-mile-long moat and build those huge walls without help of modem machinery. Here and there portions of the wall are crumbling away, and the old structure seems to brood sadly over the loss of its former glory. The area inside the walls, originally containing the palace and other important buildings, was spoken of, not only as the “Golden City," but even as “The Center of the Universe"! But alas! in 1885 British troops from Rangoon arrived at the palace, and King Thibaw, son of King Mindon and last of the Burmese kings, was compelled to surrender to British General Prendergast. Though Burma secured her independence from Britain in 1948, the Burmese line of kings has not been restored. Little wonder that Mandalay clings to the golden past and somewhat jealously eyes Rangoon, the present capital of Socialist Burma.

Mandalay Hill and Its Pagodas

Another place of great interest to visitors is the nearly thousand-foot-high pagoda-crowned Mandalay hill. Three covered stairways, marked at intervals by giant statues of Buddha, lead up to the top of the hill. From here a magnificent view of Mandalay and its environs can be obtained. Everything around the hill seems to speak of King Mindon, who here built several pagodas.

By far the most famous of these is the Kuthodaw pagoda, lying just southeast of the hill. Here one sees a truly remarkable religious work. Inside the pagoda compound stand row upon row of small white pagodas. Each little pagoda covers an upright marble slab on which has been inscribed in Pali a portion of the Buddhist scriptures. These slabs are four or five feet high and three or four feet wide. To inscribe one slab alone would take a great deal of painstaking work, yet there they stand by the hundreds’ The grand total is given at no less than 729! A veritable Buddhist bible in stone!

This remarkable work was performed at the order of King Mindon in 1871. He sum-.moned an assembly of 2,400 monks to the palace. These discussed and examined the Buddhist scriptures for five months and then had them inscribed on the 729 marble slabs in the hope that the words might endure forever. By this work King Mindon secured for himself a place in the Buddhist hall of fame.

Here in the quiet of famous old Kutho-daw pagoda, under the cool shade of the kayay trees, Burmese students come to study and meditate.

Mandalay’s modern-day population of about 180,000 makes it the second-largest city in Burma. More than 77 percent of the people are Burmese Buddhists. There are, however, large numbers of Pakistanis, Indians of various groups and a large Chinese population. There are also a sprinkling of other Burmese tribes and a few Anglo-Indians and Europeans. All in all it is a colorful population indeed.

Located on the mighty Irrawaddy River, Mandalay sprawls over a large area, being some twenty-five square miles in extent. It is well laid out, although the streets are apt -to be narrow, with sidewalks only in the main business section. Some scars of war still remain—battered, roofless, windowless, bombed-out buildings thrusting their bare walls upward as if in mute protest against the horrors of modern warfare.

Street Scenes

The tourist is fascinated by the traffic on the narrow streets. Often long rows of carts laden with merchandise and hauled by patiently plodding, brown-colored oxen move slowly along in spite of the loud shouting and urging of their stick-waving drivers. Here and there a wheel screech-ingly protests its lack of grease. Small ponies trot smartly along with some halfdozen passengers crammed into the little pony carts. Hundreds of trishaws swarm on the streets, especially after office hours, since only two bus lines operate in the city. Bicycles carrying one, two and even three members of a family weave in and out among the traffic. Jeeps both new and old are commonly used. Great lumbering trucks, mostly of the older types, are much in evidence. An occasional new car comes shooting down the street, only to stop suddenly as a cow saunters across the road. So in the busy mornings and evenings especially this mixed mass of traffic moves along to the accompanying raucous blowing of horns as the car and truck drivers try to blast their way through the mass of vehicles.

One can hardly leave the subject of traffic hazards without a word about the cows that frequent the streets of Mandalay. Mixed up with the jostling, horn-blowing traffic, there are always a few large and small white or brown cows wandering up and down or across the streets,, according to their bovine will. Since cows are considered holy by many people in the East, no one would think of harming these sleek, well-fed creatures; and well do they seem to realize this.

Naturally they are especially fond of the bazaar section with its stalls and boxes of lush vegetables. The cow intent on getting a free feed will usually make a quiet, flanking movement at a time when the stall owner is loudly arguing over prices with

a prospective buyer. Unobserved, bossy will seize a mouthful of juicy carrots or lettuce and, backing slowly away, will enjoy the repast. Again she will edge in for another raid, but alas for bossy! Chances are that the stall owner will not be caught napping a second time. Shouting loudly in indignation and backing this up by feebly thumping a stick on bossy’s ribs, he scares the animal away. But bossy is determined, and she simply saunters on to the next stall and repeats the process until the heat of the sun reminds her of a nice shady spot nearby where she will nap during the hot afternoon.

Yes, Mandalay is in the hot and also dry belt of Burma. How does the city get its water? There are a number of wells both ancient and modern. However, here again the city has to remember King Mindon, as the main water supply is drawn by pipe from no other place than the old five-mile-long palace moat. Fresh water flows into the moat from a canal to the east and empties out through an underground pipe to the west. At regular intervals much of the water is drained out so that the thirsty city can be certain of a regular supply of clean water.

Crafts and Religion

Two small industries or crafts now attract our attention. In the southwest corner of Mandalay there is a street set aside for the making of images of Buddha out of stone or marble. Here blocks of stone are skillfully chipped and carved until the finished product, a small or medium-sized, highly polished image of Buddha, is turned out. This is truly one of Mandalay’s ancient crafts, another link with its golden past.

In certain southeast districts of the city one hears a steady rhythmical hammering noise. This comes from the gold beaters. These craftsmen, assisted by women, laboriously beat out, for days on end, small pieces of gold to a leaflike thinness. The beating is done with wooden hammers or mallets. Often the gold beaters work in deep underground pits so that the wind cannot blow the precious gold dust away. Women wire the fine beaten gold leaves together. Then they are sold throughout Burma for covering images or pagodas.

Though Rangoon can boast of larger buildings, Mandalay, with its thousands of yellow-robed monks, remains the Buddhist heart of Burma. Yet, we are glad to say, freedom of worship prevails in Mandalay. Among the thousands of Buddhist pagodas in the city and its environs, Moslem mosques can also be seen; a large Catholic church lifts its spires upward; there is also a large Baptist church and other smaller churches are in evidence. Awake! readers will be interested to know that there is a small, active group of Jehovah's witnesses here, who, throughout Mandalay, daily preach of the incoming of the glorious new world by the hand of Jehovah God.

Now, indeed, is the time for men of good will in Mandalay and elsewhere world-wide to look, not backward, but forward and learn of the time when God’s kingdom will bring in a truly golden era to the everlasting joy of its obedient subjects.

War II. Hitler’s allied foes directed their attacks in increasing measure at the very heart of the German Reich, at its capital, Berlin. American and British bomber squadrons took turns in attacking both day and night so as to systematically wear down Berlin. Anyone who was there will remember the horrible night of November 22-23, 1943, when the larger part of the Hansa district was laid low in rubble and ashes, leaving over 4,000 persons homeless. The “thousand-year Reich” was on its last legs. Its military

ON November 10, 1958, the attention of the whole world was suddenly drawn toward this divided city of Berlin. That day Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, speaking at the Sport Palace in Moscow’s Lenin Stadium, declared that the time had apparently come for the powers who had signed the Potsdam agreement to relinquish their occupation rights and for “the Soviet Union to hand over to the Soviet sector government her part in the supervision of Berlin.” Since Khrushchev gave the Western powers six months to think it over, his declaration had the effect of a planted time bomb. The world fixed its gaze on the approaching deadline date, May 27,1959.

It is not surprising, then, that there is hardly a city in the world more often mentioned in news reports than Berlin; and for many of our contemporaries, regardless of the continent on which they live, Berlin is not just a dot on the map, but rather the foremost outpost of the Western world. Its unique position allows it the most intimate contact with the Eastern bloc.

What led up to the present situation? Let us go back toward the close of World might had been broken. Allied armies flooded in. As the fronts were collapsing, the Russian army moved into Berlin. The rulers, who had directed the last-ditch stand from Berlin, either shot or poisoned themselves or attempted to escape under disguise. The end of a most disastrous period in human history had arrived!

Especially in such situations does it become apparent how the inborn desire in man to live spurs him on to activity. A shining example of this can be found in the people living in Berlin. In spite of the distress already reigning in their destroyed homes, and in spite of the hunger peering from the sorrowful eyes of their children, they set their impoverished bodies to work rebuilding their city. For many years a well-known sight in Berlin was the “rubble women” hard at work. Not less than seventy million cubic meters of rubble and ruins covering the territory of the onetime metropolis had to be gotten rid of, because 63 percent of the buildings had either been partially or completely destroyed. In spite of the hopeless political and economic situation, West Berliners, with unexcelled courage, began rebuilding the city they considered their home and

which they did not want to leave. The reconstruction would naturally have been impossible but for foreign aid.

West Berlin Today

In the meantime large sections of residential and business districts have been reconstructed. But the inhabitants of Berlin have not let up on their work. They are now busy constructing new traffic arteries, increasing their industrial capacity and once again setting into motion their educational and cultural institutions. In other words, they are building on the capital of Germany and, as they see it, on what will one day be among the foremost cities in Europe,

Today anyone taking a tour of West Berlin is definitely impressed by what human assiduity has been able to accomplish in just a few short years. This former capital of the German Reich is, as it is often called, truly the Western world’s show window in the East. Explanatory models everywhere show the direction future building will take.

Without a doubt the largest and most daring undertaking is the new superhighway circling the city, its first section having been opened to traffic last November. In his words of welcome Federal Minister Lemmer took the opportunity to say: “I wish that Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko, who came to East Berlin on Wednesday, would look at this work so that he could see what could be done for all of Germany if everyone would just live in freedom.”

One of the largest building projects during the last few years was the reconstruction of the Hansa district, which was completely devastated during the war, Many celebrated foreign architects participated in this work. Buildings up to seventeen stories high were erected. The “Interbau,” a construction exposition well known outside Germany, presented testimony to Berlin’s determination to rebuild. Over 1,300,-000 visitors were counted, of which 36 percent were from East Berlin and the East Zone.

One might refer to Berlin now as “one mammoth building site.”

Furthermore, large orders are channeled to Berlin businesses by the Federal government; and yearly up to five hundred conventions, conferences and workers' meetings of German and foreign groups, large fairs and expositions are held. Then, too, Federal offices and buildings are being transferred to Berlin; in addition, sessions of the “Bundestag,” church assemblies and other cultural events are held, in harmony with the government’s declaration of October 13, 1957: “Berlin can continue to rely upon the support of the Federal Republic.”

East Berlin

How different it all looks in East Berlin! A visitor who crosses the border at the “Brandenburger Tor” suddenly finds himself in an entirely different world, laying before his eyes the stark contrast between West and East. Visitors to East Berlin explained:

“We scarcely believed we were still in Berlin. Ruins and more ruins. One can hardly speak of reconstruction plans. This does not mean, of course, that no reconstruction is going on in the East sector. But, nevertheless, it must be stressed that one must keep his eyes wide open if he wants to see any new buildings. And when a person does see such buildings, then they are government buildings meant to put up a good front. The picture changed as soon as we drove along the Stalin-Allee. Here an ostentatious street has been built with many magnificent buildings, all according to the Soviet pattern. Whereas all the streets in West Berlin were once again

bathed in a sea of light, in East Berlin there were still hours when there was no electricity; the factories were asked to observe instructions given in this connection and housewives were exhorted to economize.”—Rote Foden, April, 1957.

The 1,381-kilometer-long line of zonal demarcation, with its more than 400 watchtowers, hundreds of bunkers and other observation posts as well as barricades of all kind, such as ditches, embankments, alarm systems, barbwire entanglements, tree barricades, lookouts for snipers, automatic shooting systems, etc., passes through the middle of Berlin.

So it is understandable that West Berlin, as an island in the East Zone, acts as a center of attraction for East Zone inhabitants and that daily hundreds of them desert over into West Germany, leaving all their belongings behind. It is only too clear that East Zone officials are determined to do away with this “show window of the West.”

Khrushchev made this very plain on November 10, 1958, during a Soviet-Polish friendship meeting with his friend Polish Communist boss Gomulka, held in the Moscow Sport Palace, when he made his plans known. He had chosen his words carefully, to be sure, when he said: “It is now proper that the Soviet Union turn over its part in controlling Berlin to the Soviet sector government.” He called upon the Western powers to take similar steps.

The West could not completely hide its displeasure either. Concerning this the magazine Der Spiegel wrote on December 10, 1958: “The person who desires to see Berlin as the capital of a reunited Germany . . . should actually like nothing better than to have all Allied troops evacuated from the city. Actually, however, the continued Allied occupation of Berlin is the only, even though purely formal remainder of the claim for a united Germany. As long as Berlin is controlled by the victorious powers, then the division of Germany into two states cannot yet be formally declared binding.”

To Divide or Not to Divide

The question arises: Was it originally the plan of the victorious powers to partition Germany? An unprejudiced observer who closely follows press reports on this matter is forced to answer, No. According to Der Spiegel of December 10, 1958, it was actually Stalin who, in December, 1941, first expressed the thought of partitioning the German state. He probably thought that the Germans, who only a few months before had started the war with Russia, would capitulate before ever a Russian soldier would tread upon German soil.

This plan of Stalin’s to partition the country was enthusiastically applauded by his Western allies. But, as a German saying has it, it is easier to catch a bear if several help out, but when it comes time to divide the skin, difficulties often arise, since everyone wants the biggest piece.

As Stalin saw the progress being made by the Soviet attack, he moved the East German border back to the “Oder-Neisse Line,” thus benefiting the Soviet Union and Poland, so that this de facto settlement would not be contested at some future date.

However, when this plan for partitioning Germany was brought up for discussion by Russia’s Western allies at Potsdam, Stalin suddenly did not want to hear any more about it. As Lenin’s pupil aspiring toward world revolution, he saw the unexpected possibility of bringing all of what still remained of Germany under his control. His new plan was to “begin a revolution in the social structure in Germany,” or, in other words, to dethrone the monopolists, then demilitarize Germany and place it under the leadership of a

Marxist-Leninist party. Here the views held by those who had conquered Hitler began to drift apart. Stalin’s agreement to having a Kommandantura (military command) in Berlin only reveals what he thought the future development of things would be. He apparently imagined Berlin as the future seat of a central German government and obviously did not feel that under these conditions anything could stand in the way of saturating Germany with Marxist theories.

Even though their political goals were completely different, it was apparent here, too, that neither the East nor the West was striving for a divided Germany.

The Soviets Act

In the summer of 1945, while the West was still thinking about the Potsdam agreement, the Soviet Union began following an established and fixed plan to get the “social revolution” under way. To the Kremlin's strong men the most appropriate method seemed to be taking steps such as closing all Soviet sector private banks and opening provincial and state banks, expropriating “feudal landlords” and large farms of over a hundred hectares, and confiscating or temporarily seizing control of industrial concerns, and also forming a communistic party for Germany. Still this caused no suspicion on the part of the Western powers.

With the fall of 1946 came the first test of power over Berlin. Elections held in Berlin on October 26, 1946, were won by the Social Democratic party and this aroused the mistrust of the Soviets.

Two years later, on March 20, 1948, the Allied Control Council practically ceased to exist, and a few days before the currency reform in West Germany the Soviet commandant in Berlin left the Kommandantura. Now it was blow for blow. On June 24, 1948, the West mark was introduced in West Germany and in Berlin’s three Western sectors. Two weeks later Stalin answered with the blockade. What should the West do now? Sacrifice Berlin?

'If Berlin falls, West Germany will be next. If we plan on holding Europe against Communism, then we cannot budge an inch’—this was the gist of General Clay’s words of burden to his superior officer in Washington; the West retorted with the airlift, a gigantic undertaking that demanded much of the organizers as well as of the pilots who, without letup in all kinds of weather and at the risk of their lives, delivered to Berlin its needs by air. On May 5, 1949, Stalin called a halt to the blockade. He realized that it had failed to prevent Germany from being divided. Three days later the constitutional assembly adopted West Germany’s Bonn Constitution, thus making the division of Germany an actuality.

Ten days after Khrushchev’s ultimatum, local elections were held in West Berlin and 93 out of every 100 eligible Berlin voters appeared at the polls. * Khrushchev was forced to realize that West Germans, as well as West Berliners, were farther away from recognizing the Eastern regime than ever before. West Germany’s living standard is undeniably much higher than East Germany’s, and since this does not contribute to the glory of Moscow it is termed a “threat to the world.” Khrushchev said Berlin was like a match that was getting nearer to the powder keg.

All this has led up to the present situation, a situation in which the Soviet Zone has at least been able to start fraying the nerves of Bonn politicians. One high CDU official put it this way: “Our position is like that of a man who has been sentenced to death but who has at least been given the possibility of a revision of his sentence or perhaps even the possibility of a pardon.”

FOR most persons television means entertainment. Particularly is this true in the United States, where 47.5 million or more than two thirds of the world’s sets are to be found. There 90 percent of the families have sets, in Great Britain 45 percent do, whereas in West Germany by now from 10 to 15 percent do. Unfortunately, however, where television is watched most it is synonymous not only with entertainment but all too often with the lowest grade of entertainment. Ironically, just the opposite situation prevails where TV is in its experimental stage, as in New Zealand. There licenses are granted for broadcasting only educational programs!

Repeatedly the press reports the complaints of leading figures in the cultural world, such as Mischa Elman and Edward L. Murrow, regarding the situation. Waxing sarcastic, Fortune, December 1958, America’s foremost Big Business magazine, described the current TV fare as compounded sentimentalism, counterfeit intellectuality, “barbarisms from the police blotter,” and monstrosities “from Hollywood’s celluloid cemeteries.” To the same effect but in a more dignified vein, the editor of the New York Times, September 23, 1958, wrote: “Few thoughtful persons will deny that television has sunk into a malodorous quagmire. The hours during

this is so Fortune ope week there appeare on U.S. television networks “221 killings, 192 attempted murders, to say nothing of robberies, kidnapings, attempted lynchings that made up the remainder of TV’s tableau of violence.”

An Instrument of Education

However, as the Times editor went on to say: “TV has, in the educational field, some chance to redeem itself. It can prove that it is a constructive force for good in the Society. If that development is welcomed by those who watch and listen, there is a possibility that children will get something better than mayhem and murder in the entertainment hours.”

Systematic experiments to use television to supplement conventional schoolroom teaching have received favorable reports in England, France and Canada. Press reports also tell of the increasing popularity of educational TV programs in Mexico, Italy and especially in Puerto Rico. And

today Venezuela is making extensive use of TV to overcome her educational problem. That the way out of the school crisis in the United States lies in the same direction is a point effectively made by New York University professor Charles A. Siep-mann, in TV and Our School Crisis.

Among the pioneers of teaching by television must be mentioned the Board of Education of New York city, which in 1951 began its broadcasts “The Living Blackboard” over station WPIX for the benefit of some 500 home-bound high-school students. In that year TV came to the rescue when a strike shut down the public schools in Minneapolis and two years later it served a like purpose in Baltimore, even as it did late in 1958 in Arkansas when the segregation issue resulted in the governor of the state closing down the high schools in Little Rock. As was well observed, such emergencies quickly reaffirm “the potential of television as an instrument of instruction.”

With the year 1958 ETV (Educational Television) appeared to be coming into its own in the United States. Now practically all subjects taught in regular schools can also be learned by TV. In fact, ETV ranges from preschool-age material to college postgraduate courses. Says the New York World Telegram, July 21, 1958: “More than 200 colleges and school systems use TV regularly. More and more colleges are offering credit courses using the medium of television. Fifty thousand students take courses via ETV. Some eight million public school pupils receive at least part of their instruction via ETV. Over 30 million persons watch ETV stations.” At present thirty-four noncommercial ETV stations operate in the United States.

Obstacles to Overcome

One of the obstacles that all progress has to face is prejudice. Thus while the friends of ETV compare it to the printing press or to the combustion engine as to its also being a radical, far-reaching forwardlooking invention, some conservative educators have opposed it, emphasizing its negative features. However, it must be said that this obstacle is steadily decreasing in size.

Another major obstacle to overdome is, of course, the cost of building or buying and then operating an ETV station. ETV usually means buying or building a station exclusively devoted to ETV, as commercial stations generally have neither the available time nor such rates as ETV can pay. The cost of a good ETV station is about $250,000, and it costs from $100,000 to $250,000 annually to operate it. An exception is found in New York city, where station WPIX, which is, according to Fortune, its most profitable local station, broadcasts seven hours of ETV five days a week as prepared by the Board of Regents of New York State and by the META, the Metropolitan Educational Television Association. The cost, about $250,000 annually, is borne by the state.

Thus far about half the cost of ETV in the United States has been borne by such institutions as the Ford Foundation and the Fund for Adult Education. The rest of it has been borne by universities, colleges, boards of education, city governments, local industry and business. Members of women’s clubs have made house-to-house canvasses seeking $2 contributions for their ETV station. “Contributions have ranged all the way down to nickels and pennies from children and their families who were anxious to have available the services of an educational television station,” says a META Newsletter.

The fact that the lighting and acoustics of most schoolrooms are not ideal for presenting television programs presents another major obstacle. And more important

still is the high standard required of television teachers. What is good enough for the average classroom is not good enough for ETV. An ETV teacher must not only be truly a good teacher, an exceptional one, but also something of a showman. As a report on ETV in England expressed it: “Humanity and assurance were as important as actual clarity of exposition, and it was the first two qualities rather than the last which amateurs not used to the medium were most often unable to convey.” (Siepmann) A fact, incidentally, worthy of note by all who teach in public: the importance of warmth and conviction to hold interest.

And still another obstacle to ETV has been loss of talent. When an ETV station strikes gold in an unusually interesting program, more likely than not some commercial station will offer the professor more money to present his program on its channel.

Pioneer Experimenters

Among the very first, if not the first ETV station in the United States, was KUHT, sponsored by the University of Houston, Texas, which opened in 1953. And among the more notable examples of pioneering in ETV must be listed the Pittsburgh station WQED, which in 1955 launched a “television teaching demonstration” that was to last a year. It proved to be such a success that not only has the program continued but in 1958 a second ETV station- was built in the Pittsburgh area. Its success has attracted nationwide attention. Among other features, it offers a complete high school course and the necessary lessons during the summer for high school pupils that failed so that they can make their credits by attending TV classes in their own homes.

While the emphasis in the Pittsburgh ETV is on supplementing and enriching regular classroom instruction, in Hagerstown, Maryland, the goal is to relieve the teacher shortage as well as provide better instruction. Begun in 1956 and due to run five years, it is an experiment in “closed circuit” television, which means that the programs are fed by coaxial cable to the various classrooms. This, of course, limits the reception to the classrooms, but has its advantages in that it permits a number of programs to be sent out at the same time over the same cable, each classroom tuning in its own program. Currently 18,000 pupils in all forty-eight of the county's schools are receiving some of their instruction by television and that on a variety of subjects. Teachers still conduct the reviews, recitations, etc., but by this method a classroom can have as many as a hundred pupils instead of the usual thirty. This experiment has well been termed “the most significant thing going on in United States education today.”

Going even farther than the foregoing is “one of the strangest and boldest experiments in education ever undertaken,” that being carried out in the St. Louis area. There subjects are taught entirely by television. Students come together in classes ranging from 70 to 146, the older the students the larger the classes can be.

And pioneering the field, but no longer in the experimental stage, is ETV’s fountainhead, the Educational Television and Radio Center at Ann Arbor, Michigan, which, in conjunction with the University of Michigan and ETV stations throughout the United States, provides material for use by ETV stations; acting as a clearinghouse, as it were, for kinescopes, the name given to simultaneously filmed television programs for use in schools and on ETV.

Advantages

The chief argument for ETV can be summed up in better education for more

students. The very fact that not only students but also parents and colleagues can view a lesson has a salutary effect on the teacher, a fact readily admitted by some instructors. Then too, an ETV teacher spends far more time to prepare a lesson and most likely has far more authentic and illustrative material at his disposal than the average teacher, making his lessons more valuable as well as more interesting. Also, in ETV the most gifted teachers, as well as men and women outstanding in their field, can be used, persons who would not otherwise be available for classroom instruction.

A good illustration of this is the physics lesson broadcast by Dr. Harvey E. White, University of California professor and the author of the most widely used college textbook on physics. In this particular instance some three hundred colleges are offering full credit for those taking this television course, truly showing the possibilities of ETV. This particular course is supplemented by discussions in college classrooms, local teachers giving reading and problem assignments and laboratory work as well as the examinations. This, doubtless, is the largest class ever to be taught by one teacher.

Another advantage of ETV is that it permits high schools and colleges to offer courses in languages or the sciences, even though not having facilities or instructors for such subjects. And still another advantage ETV has is that it gives an unlimited number of students a front row seat at scientific experiments and operations by noted surgeons.

Further, in colleges where large enrollments require a number of classes of fifty each to be taught the same subject, they can all be taught at the same time by the one teacher by means of TV. And according to META, “there are even those who state that a television lecture is actually more intimate than one viewed in a large lecture hall.”

Still another advantage of ETV, the open-circuit kind, is that it permits parents to drop in on their children’s classrooms any time and see how they are being taught, not to say anything of their benefiting from these lessons themselves. In one course for children in England it was found that more adults were taking the course than children for whom it was designed. Many who have been unable to get the schooling they needed in their youth are now able to get it by ETV. In fact, it is estimated that some fifty million adult Americans are trying to improve their education by means of ETV. There is much talk about colleges not being able to provide instruction for all who want it, especially in the years ahead. They could by means of television.

Results and Opinions

More so than in most other lands, in the United States scientific research has been done to evaluate the merits of education by television. The picture on the whole is most favorable. Classes have been taught by television, and “controls,” or like classes, have been taught the same subjects by the conventional method and then the results compared. It was found that, “by and large, children learn as much and as fast by television as under normal conditions.” It was further found that it made no difference whether the classes were large or small, whether the students were second or ninth grade, whether the classroom teacher took over for the oral review or whether the TV teacher handled the entire lesson. At one university experiment 46 percent of the TV students earned A’s or B’s, whereas only 30 percent of the students did that were taught the conventional way.

As for the students themselves, the vast majority liked learning by television; in one instance 80 percent and in another instance 75 percent stated they would like to have the experiment continued the following year. In one university 220 students were given five weeks of instruction on a certain subject by television and then five weeks in a regular classroom, after which they were given their choice: either to go to the auditorium where the instructor spoke in person or go to classrooms where TV sets were used. Actually 79 percent preferred the TV method.

As for the parents, for the most part their reaction has been favorable. Not only have they appreciated being able to sit in on their children’s classrooms but they report that children show greater interest in their studies taught by TV than in those taught the conventional way, which is not surprising when we note how truly fascinating the miracle of TV is. In one test from 62 to 70 percent of the parents were in favor of continuing the television teaching.

Opposition?

Yes, there has been some. As already noted, there are some who view it as a “monstrous dehumanizing of education.” Others fear for their jobs. Then again, some children or students complained that in ETV they were unable to ask questions of the teacher.

An American Cynic once stated: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public,” as though it were impossible to do so. Much of commercial television appears to act on that principle. However, those interested in ETV, educational television, do not thus denigrate the American public. Rather, they proceed on the principle that “the number of Americans who would rather learn a little something than receive a sample of shaving cream is absolutely colossal.” And in conclusion let it be said that Awake! agrees with this observation, because God placed in man a hunger for knowledge, for truth, for understanding, the most important and exalted of which is that relating to Him and his purposes.

THE:

" In his recent work, The Right of the People, William O. Douglas, associate justice, United States Supreme Court, writes: "There has developed ... in recent years a tendency to require the citizen to obey an extreme ordinance or statute, even though it is unconstitutional. The rights of the individual are then sacrificed to the interests of orderly conduct of the processes of government. The Court has gone far in requiring that sacrifice. The most striking example is Poulos v. New Hampshire, 345 U.S. 395. Jehovah’s Witnesses had been arbitrarily denied a license to speak in a public park. The Court, in affirming their convictions for holding a religious meeting without the required license, held that their remedy for violation of their right to speak was to proceed as required by state law to compel issuance of the license.

"The Poulos decision is a significant departure from prior decisions which have allowed the individual the right to resist the unconstitutional demands of government. The right to speak, guaranteed by the First Amendment, was sacrificed to the delays, the expense, and the necessities of pursuing the processes of an ‘orderly society.’ . . .

“The risk- the great and agonizing danger—in situations of this kind is that the citizen will be caught in the treadmill of an elusive administrative remedy. While he pursues it, his constitutional rights are denied. And it may take so much time to go through the intricate administrative system with all of its hearings and appeals that any relief will come too late and the great occasion, when the right to speak, to worship, or to assemble might have been enjoyed, will be lost."

THE GREAT LAKES OF NORTH AMERICA

By “Awake!” correspondent in Canada

LIKE massive jewels on the bosom of the continent rest the Great Lakes of North America. The five lakes vary in size from Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the world, to lakes Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario in descending order of size, if not of importance.

Some statistics are necessary if we are to appreciate fully the immensity of this great waterway that leads from the heart of the continent to the Atlantic seaboard 2,200 miles away. Lake Superior, the most westerly and greatest for elevation, lies 602 feet above sea level, covers an area of 31,820 square miles and stretches 380 miles in an east-west direction 160 miles wide. Its depth is of particular note, recent surveys recording depths to 1,333 feet. This vast body of water, with its harbors locked in twenty-four to thirty-six inches of ice for four winter months each year, is clear and cold, with temperatures ranging but a few degrees above freezing even in midsummer.

To the east Lake Huron, with its many bays and harbors, extends over an area of 23,000 square miles, 247 miles in length and reaches a depth of 750 feet.

Lake Michigan, located to the south and entirely in the United States, is attached like a giant appendage to the main watercourse by the Straits of Mackinac. Ranking third in size, with an area of 22,400 square miles, its great length of 320 miles provides a valuable water route from the heart of the American farm and dairy country by way of Chicago and Milwaukee.

Proceed now from Lake Huron by way of Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River into Lake Erie. It is a puddle by comparison, with a depth of 210 feet, flowing 241 miles east, 57 miles wide and a bottom covering 9,940 square miles. Built on this link of the water highway are the cities of Detroit, Windsor, Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo, each important in its own right for the production of many kinds of industrial goods, such as iron and steel, cars, planes, home and factory machinery and appliances, things to wear and things to eat. Produced in enormous quantities, they go all over the earth.

Last to be considered is the 7,540-square-mile blue expanse of Lake Ontario, ranging 180 miles from the city of Hamilton to the entrance of the St. Lawrence River. The depth of 738 feet provides ample depth for navigation to numerous small ports. These, together with the larger ports of Toronto, Hamilton, Kingston and Prescott, make up one of the hubs of commerce and lake shipping so essential to the Canadian economy.

Overcoming Obstacles to Navigation

Although the greater portion of this immense waterway was excavated and as-

sembled by the natural processes of creation, some obstacles and hurdles remained.

You may wonder how these lakes are linked together and how navigation is accomplished from lake to lake as the entire watercourse drops from 602 feet above sea level on Lake Superior to 246 feet on Lake Ontario, thence down the St. Lawrence River to sea level. To overcome the drop on the St. Mary’s River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron the huge Sault Ste. Marie locks were constructed, which now handle a greater tonnage than the Suez Canal of international fame. To surmount the insurmountable, namely, Niagara Falls on the Niagara River connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, the obvious course was taken. Niagara Falls was bypassed by the construction of the Welland locks and canal cutting across the Niagara peninsula, thereby taking care of a more than 300-foot difference in water levels.

The difficulties of navigating the St. Lawrence River itself over a span of 245 miles from Kingston on Lake Ontario to Montreal were solved for only shallow draft boats and barges (those drawing about fourteen feet of water) by the construction of the Rideau and Ottawa canals, thereby continuing the flow of raw materials and industrial output to Montreal, where ocean liners and tramp steamers from the seven seas have access except for a period of about three months each year, during which the entire watercourse is frozen over, held fast in sub-zero temperature.

Commercial Arteries

Now, in this era of speed and scientific advancement, a long-dreamed-of change is taking place on the navigation front. For the past fifty years men have visualized the day when ships from Shanghai, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Genoa, Cape Town, Hamburg, London, Rio de Janeiro and all parts of the globe would sail directly into the farthest reaches of the Great Lakes. This is now becoming a reality. On the basis of a multimillion-dollar cost-sharing agreement entered into by the United States and Canadian governments, the St-Lawrence Seaway or deep waterway project has been launched. Much has already been done between Montreal and Lake Ontario. This has entailed a major upheaval in the lives of many—whole towns have been moved and entire populations transplanted, valuable tracts of land bought up, large power plants built, new and deep canals excavated, capable of accommodating the largest boats now in operation on the Great Lakes. Many of these ore and grain carriers of recent construction measure 700 feet in length and 75 feet in width. It is expected that deepening of the entire waterway will be completed by 1960. Truly, these wonders of creation can be compared to jewels, not only for their marvelous beauty and splendor of setting, but for their inestimable value to Canadian, American and world commerce.

We might visualize the St. Lawrence RiVer as a mighty arm with its five fingers (the Great Lakes) reaching into one of the world’s richest bread baskets. From there, by floating power, hundreds of millions of bushels of grain are each year transported to numerous outlets for processing and transshipment to many distant markets of the world. Grain is loaded into giant carriers capable of transporting up to 800,000 bushels on one trip. These sail from the western ports on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, such as Port Arthur, Fort William, Duluth, Superior and Chicago, to ports and facilities on the more easterly lakes of Huron, Erie and Ontario. There it is loaded into small canal boats of shallow draft and conveyed to Montreal or Atlantic ports for overseas delivery to Britain, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Not only do the Great Lakes provide a very necessary mode of transportation of food for man and beast, but they are likewise used to syphon off the mineral wealth of iron ore from the famous Mesabi iron range in Minnesota and the Steep Rock pits in northwestern Ontario. To feed the hungry steel mills of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie, fleets of ore carriers sail around the clock during the season of navigation on the upper lakes, which is usually May 1 to November 1, stockpiling ore for winter and future use.

Out of the surrounding forests come spruce, poplar, jackpine and balsam by the millions of cords to be taken by water to the pulp and paper mills in the east. The demand for paper is on such a scale that one wonders if the supply will hold out, in spite of government and private reforestation projects.

Tourist Attraction

The Great Lakes and their tributary areas provide a paradise for tourists, especially those who desire to holiday amid natural surroundings. Literally hundreds of thousands travel north each year to enjoy moderate temperatures by day with-their cool evenings and nights when peaceful and refreshing sleep can be enjoyed. Particularly on the shores of Lake Superior and the northern shores of Lake Huron hunting and fishing abound. Some of the finest roads on the continent make traveling easy from point to point, enabling tourists to take advantage of many pleasure trips by boat to the innumerable points of interest.

Of special interest to the tourist of late is the completion of the Mackinac bridge over the Straits of Mackinac. Crossing at this point has long been a slow business by ferry. Construction of the bridge began in 1954 and it was opened for use on November 1, 1957. It is considered the longest suspension bridge from anchorage to anchorage, and with its approaches it extends nearly five miles. The main span of 3,800 feet is supported by towers 552 feet high, enabling the largest ships to pass below freely. This is a great boon to highway travelers, an easy access north and south between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace. The cost, estimated at $80,000,000, is to be paid for in tolls.

All in all, the Great Lakes of America, without the puny efforts at improvement by man, exist as a testimony to the majesty and power of our Creator, and to his loving provision for the needs of man.

PREACHING AGAINST GALILEO

<1 In Man and His Universe John Langdon-Davies, when discussing the Roman Catholic Church’s preaching against Galileo, writes: “But some people would not look through Galileo’s telescope for love or money; especially did the Aristotelians avoid it. They said it was a distorting mirror, ‘Oh my dear Kepler,’ wrote Galileo to his friend, ‘how I wish that we could have one hearty laugh together! Here, at Padua, is the principal professor of philosophy, whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the moon and planets through my glass, which he pertinaciously refuses to do. Why are you not here? What shouts of laughter we should have at this glorious folly! And to hear the professor of philosophy at Pisa labouring before the Grand Duke with logical arguments, as if with magical incantations to charm the new planets out of the sky,’ Meanwhile Father Caccini began to preach sermons to the text, ‘Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?’ ”

Latin’s speech, but about a certain select number of signs and motions made with the hands, face and head that have a definite meaning just as words do, and which the foreigner finds most interesting as he observes and learns to use them.

Now suppose you come with me and we will walk down the street in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and “watch” the people as they talk. There is a boy on the corner motioning for his friend to cross the street to where he is. Notice how he does it. It’s quite different from our North American gesture. He holds his hand out with the palm down and

IT HAS been said that gestures are an international language, and well they may be. However, it seems to me that in Latin America there are some that are just peculiar to the Spanish-speaking people. I remember once I was on a bus that wound its way southward through the state of Oklahoma. Across the aisle from me a gentleman was carrying on an animated conversation with a Mexican youth who was returning to his home in Guadalajara. An American lady sitting beside me watched them intently, apparently very much intrigued by the conversation. At length she turned to me and said, “Tell me, is it part of the Spanish language to use your hands like they do when they talk?’’ I could not help smiling, and I thought how true it is that anyone who has watched the flashing eyes, the smiling face and the gesticulating arms of the Latin when he talks realizes that he speaks, not only with his lips, but with his face, his hands, in fact, his whole body.

But on this point I want to tell you, not about the spontaneous gestures that come automatically as a natural emphasis to the draws his fingers toward himself with a downward stroke. It almost looks as if he is waving his hand, doesn't it? There is no mistaking what he means, however, for here comes his friend straight over to see what he wants.

This gesture calls to mind a comical incident that happened once when a Latin friend visited with me in the United States of America. We went into a shoe store and she was looking over some shoes on a sales counter. Seeing a pair she liked, she wished to summon a clerk to find out the price. Naturally, she gave him this Latin gesture, and he, with a rather startled look, just raised his hand and waved back. Finally, after two or three attempts, my friend gave up and went out of the store. Then the clerk was overheard to say: “I wonder what was the matter with that lady. She just stood across the store and waved to me.”

But let’s get back to San Juan. Let’s cross the street and go over there to the fruit vendor’s cart. He has some delicious guavas, and they are in season now. It’s all right if we cross here, but we’ll have

to watch for a break in the traffic. Oh, here comes a taxi, and the driver thinks we are wanting a cab. See how he points straight ahead with his finger. He is asking us if we want a car. We must tell him No. No, don’t shake your head, although he would understand it if you do; there is a much more expressive gesture. Just raise your forefinger and shake it from right to left. He will know in a second that it means no. Easy, isn’t it? Quite expressive too.

Once across the street we buy our fruit and stop to chat a moment with the vendor. We ask him how his business is going. As an answer he gives a most interesting gesture. He extends his hand palm downward with his fingers widespread and moves it from right to left several times as though it were balanced on a pivot and could fall either way. This means that things are mediocre: not good, not bad. He usually accompanies this gesture with the expression “Regular” which has the same meaning. If business is bad he would have drawn his forefinger across his throat and made a scratching noise with his tongue. This would have said, ‘Business is impossible, dead, no good, it was cutting his throat.’

Here comes a small boy to buy some fruit. Notice how the vendor looks at him and wrinkles one side of his nose'. No, he isn’t making a face at the lad, he is merely asking him what he wants. That is a strange one, isn’t it?

Look over there at the policeman. He is asking that car driver the same question, but in a different tone. See the one who is blocking traffic. Notice how the policeman throws both arms out with hands turned palms up and by the expression on his face we can see he means, “What is the matter with you? Why don’t you move?”

As we move along we see many interesting expressive motions as we observe the people. But now I am going to tell you about another that I do not think we will see in the street. It is used when you are suspicious of someone and want to advise another to watch him. This is done by raising the forefinger to the eye and pulling the lower lid downward for an instant. Now suppose you were in a crowd and wished to warn an usher or a guard of a certain suspicious character whom you feared to be a pickpocket. All you would have to do would be to catch the eye of the usher or the guard, look at the person, then point to him; but to do this you do not have to point with the finger. You may just purse your lips and tilt your head slightly backward and thus point with your lips. Next indicate that you suspect the person of being a thief by extending your right hand palm downward and fingers outstretched. Close your hand one finger at a time starting with the little one and at the same time turn your hand to the right a half turn. Thus without opening your mouth and without making a sound you can convey the entire message and put the other person on guard. As I said before, you probably will not see this one on the streets of Puerto Rico, but I have seen it used in other places.

In addition to the ones used to express whole ideas we see those used for certain words. “Money,” for example, is expressed by rubbing the thumb across the tips of the fingers several times with the hand held out, palm up. “Food” is said by placing the hand close to your mouth, palm up, and opening and closing it several times. To say “alcoholic drinks,” you place your thumb to your lips, close your hand and then raise your elbow as if you were drinking from your hand. “Stinginess” is indicated by closing your fist and tapping the elbow on your other arm. If you want to say that something is very good, place

the four fingertips and the thumb together and tap your cheek.

Perhaps one that we see most often and that sometimes I find exasperating is the one for. “I don’t know.” Watch and you will see someone put a blank expression on his face and usually pull the comers of his mouth down and throw his hands backward with his elbows bent so that his hands reach about to his shoulders. This says, “I haven’t the slightest idea of what you mean.”

So here on the streets of San Juan we have seen .all these gestures and many more. They show us that Spanish is a very animated language and so are the people who speak it.

Really, I think I might have answered “yes” to the question the lady asked me on the bus. While it is true that in Spanish we can get the idea across without using our hands if we want to, yet we see that many Latins get many ideas across without using their mouths, just their hands.

Serums and Vaccines Not the Same

MANY persons refer to serums and vaccines indiscriminately as though they were one and the same thing. But far from it; there is a striking difference between the two. Making this matter very clear is an article by Dr. Philip M. Stimson of the Cornell University Medical Center. It appeared in the New York Daily Mirror, September 15, 1957, and from it we quote as follows:

“In brief, a serum is a product prepared from blood and it contains such immune or protective properties, medically called ‘antibodies,’ as were possessed by the donor of the blood. By the injection of a serum, a person receives the donor’s antibodies as a boost to his own, to help him ward off or fight an infection, but the benefit from a serum injection lasts only as long as its protective substances survive in the receiver, normally only two to four weeks. . . . Because serums carry antibodies already formed, they can give immediate protection a short while and also sometimes heal, but they do not produce new antibodies.

-g “On the other hand, a vaccine is not made from blood but from the infective substances themselves—viruses or bacteria or their products, and when injected into a person acts somewhat like an attack of a disease to stimulate a person to produce his own immunity. Because they gradually produce antibodies, vaccines gradually help us to protect ourselves but do not heal.

"Serums for medical use are obtained from people and from animals, usually horses. From the whole blood, the clot containing the cor-

4 puscles is removed and the liquid remainder is the serum which carries practically all the various antibodies the donors have developed. Naturally, the quantity and variety of the antibodies varies with the history of the donor. If a man has had measles or infectious jaundice or many other infections, his blood contains antibodies against those illnesses.

“Odd But True. If a horse is injected with the germs that cause diphtheria or tetanus, curiously enough he does not get sick but his blood develops antibodies, called antitoxins, against those terrible infections and when some of its blood is taken, the clot removed and the serum carefully prepared we have diphtheria and tetanus antitoxic horse serums which are invaluable remedies and have saved countless people from death due to one or the other of those dread maladies.

‘S’ “For treatment of infections, human blood serum, which is naturally more expensive to buy than horse serum, doesn't contain a high enough concentration of antibodies against any infection to be of value except when especially prepared for whooping cough. 'J? “Of the proteins that are present in the serum, one called ‘gamma globulin’ contains practically all the antibodies ^present in the whole serum. This protein in liquid form can be separated from the rest of the serum.’’ It permits the giving of the same amount of antibodies with but one twenty-fifth of the bulk of whole serum. “ ‘Immune gamma globulin’ preparations are now generally used, when available, instead of whole human se-

^! rums.’’

Israelite Wars No Precedent

ISRAEL’S WARS—NO PRECEDENT

ii'T'HIS sect [“Bible Students” or Jeho-

I vah’s witnesses] was considered by the Nazis to be almost more dangerous to the regime than the Jews, for while no German could turn himself into a Jew, any German could become a Bible Student, and, as such, refuse to take part in military service in any shape or form. The fortitude shown by these men was most remarkable and earned the grudging admiration even of their jailers. . . . They had been beaten, tortured, and starved, one man had been publicly hung, but I was told that there had not been a single instance of one of these men forsaking his principles and buying liberty by entry into the armed forces.” Thus Captain Best, a Senior British Intelligence Officer, in his book The Venlo Incident (1950) writes about the witnesses of Jehovah in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, where he himself was kept for five and a half years.

Why did the witnesses of Jehovah take such an unequivocal stand against serving in the Nazi armies? Do not the Scriptures tell Christians that they must obey the “higher powers,” and are these not the governments of the world? And do not Christians have the example of the wars fought at God's command by the nation of Israel? So argued the German Catholic and Protestant clergy during Hitler’s regime, and since, for that matter.

But did they argue soundly, Scriptural-ly? No, they did not, said Jehovah’s witnesses in Germany, The text regarding the “higher powers” (AV), “governing authorities" (RS), or “superior authorities” (MV) at Romans 13:1, does not refer to the rulers of the worldly nations but to divine rule within or over the Christian congregation. How do we know? Because of the context. It shows that these authorities are placed in their positions by God, and certainly the corrupt and dictatorial governments of this world, whether of the Eastern or the Western bloc, have not been ordained or set in position by God. They are not God’s ministers or public servants to deter wrong and encourage right. But even if, for the sake of argument, Paul’s words be applied to “good” human governments, still in the case of conflict the apostolic principle would apply, “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.”—Acts 5:29.

As for the precedent set by the nation of Israel, let it be noted that no other nation ever occupied a position similar to it. No other nation had Jehovah as its God. (Ps. 33:12) Neither did any other nation enter into a solemn contract with Jehovah as it did at Mount Sinai. God there offered the Israelites, on condition of obedience, the opportunity to “become my special property out of all other peoples,” and to “become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Unanimously they accepted that offer, saying: “All that Jehovah has spoken we are willing to do.”—Ex, 19:5-8.

So long as they lived up to their side of the agreement they were assured success in battle, health and long life, material abundance and great population increase. Can any nation today point to such blessings by Jehovah God?—Deut. 28:1-14.

In fact, Israel's very existence had involved one miracle after another on the part of Jehovah God. Without miraculous intervention Abraham would have died

MAY 22, 1959

without an heir and there would have been no nation of Israel. Had not Jehovah intervened at the time of the seven-year famine, Jacob with his entire family consisting of his twelve sons and their families would have perished.—Gen. 41:14-57; 45: 8; Heb. 11:11,12.

More than that, it took a miracle to get the Israelites out from under Pharaoh’s genocidal policy, the tenth plague assuring their deliverance from Egypt. And to clinch that freedom it took another miracle, their deliverance at the Red Sea. Then while in the wilderness, it was only due to a series of miracles that the nation of Israel was not destroyed by opposing nations, that it did not perish from hunger and thirst and that it did not succumb to pagan worship, which would likewise have marked its end. Further, once having entered the Promised Land, it was only by many great miracles that Israel was not swallowed up by its enemies in the days of the judges and later in the time of kings David, Asa, Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat and others. Is there any nation on earth, was there any other nation at any time, that can point to such a series of miracles accounting for its origin and continued existence?—Ex. 17:8-13; Num. 21:3; 2 Ki. 19:35; 2 Chron. 14:12.

Different from all other nations also is the way Israel received its laws. Its constitution was not the product of learned men but was given to them by God himself at the hand of a mediator, the prophet Moses. (Ex. 24:18; 34:11-27) Uniquely, therefore, could Israel boast, "Jehovah is our Judge, Jehovah is our Statute-giver, Jehovah is our King; he will save us.”—Isa. 33:22.

Note also the matter of rulers. Man has coined a saying, vox populi, vox Dei, “the voice of the people (is) the voice of God.” But both the facts and the Scriptures dispute that saying, for they show that the voice of the people is often the voice of loose conduct, as in antediluvian days, in the days of Lot and in our day. It is all too often also the voice of ignorance, bigotry, superstition and selfishness. The people have supported men like Hitler and ungodly Communist bosses. Then, again, ambitious men have often waded through a sea of blood to get their crowns and thrones, as did Constantine, Napoleon and others.

But not so with the nation of Israel. Just as God chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he also chose Moses to lead his people and Joshua to be Moses’ successor. When his people sinned Jehovah let them go into captivity to enemy nations, but when they repented “Jehovah would raise up judges and they would save them.”—Judg. 2:16.

Their first king, Saul, was picked by Jehovah even as was King David, and it was Jehovah who established the dynasty of David. Thus it might be said that from David to Zedekiah, all of royal line sat upon “the throne of Jehovah,” Surely no rulers nor ruling dynasty today can lay claim to such divine appointment.—1 Sam. 10:17-24; 2 Sam. 5:1-3; 1 Chron. 29:23.

And finally, let us note that it was Jehovah God who commanded when his people were to fight. He ordained that his people wipe out the degraded Canaanites with their sex perversions, their phallic worship and their cruel and bloody oppression. At no time did Israel engage in selfish wars of conquest. When God’s time came for the nation of Judah to come to its end because of its unfaithfulness, God through his prophet Jeremiah warned its rulers not to oppose or resist the conquest of their land by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, but to submit to and co-operate with him. Can any nation today point to such evidence?—Deut. 9:4, 5; Jer. 27:16-18.

Truly the wars fought by the nation of Israel furnish no valid precedent or basis for Christians today to engage in settling disputes between worldly men.

Dalai Lama in India

The Dalai Lama reached safety in India on March 31. Viewed as a living Buddha by over a million Tibetans, the 23-year-old leader had eluded Communist Chinese forces during a two-week, two-hundred-mile trek through his country's mountainous terrain. On March 28 Communist China abolished the Dalai Lama's regime, installing the Panchen Lama, and imposing military rule throughout Tibet

Berlin Air Corridors

A U.S. Air Force C-130 transport plane was buzzed by Soviet jets as it flew between West Germany and West Berlin on March 27, Moscow has tried to impose a 10,000-foot ceiling in the Berlin air lanes. The C-130, however, flew at 25,000 feet, a desirable altitude for efficient operation of that type of craft. On April 2 Russia warned that there would he a risk of collision with Soviet fighters if Western planes flew in the Berlin air corridors at altitudes above 10,000 feet.

Adenauer to Seek Presidency ■$> On April 7 Chancelfor Konrad Adenauer decided to run for election as West Germany's president this summer. The 83-year-old state head's decision to relinquish the position of chancelfor of the Bonn government was viewed by some observers as a withdrawal from the forefront of that nation's political affairs. The office of the presidency of West Germany has been one of considerable honor but relatively little power. On April 8 Adenauer vowed that Bonn's foreign policy will not change “by one lota** when he relinquishes his post.

Spain and Franco

4; A Roman Catholic movement was reported on March 28 to be active in protesting the regime of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, Posters bearing the letter "P,” for protesto, or protest, were appearing with considerable frequency on walls of buildings in Barcelona and other places. On April 1, marking the twentieth anniversary of his rule, Franco warned his nation against communism and a relapse into "lassitude and overconfidence." Franco assumed power in 1939, at the end of Spain's 1936-39 civil war.

Baghdad Pact Minus Iraq

Iraqi Premier Abdul Karim Kassim announced the withdrawal of his country from the Baghdad Pact on March 24. The treaty, signed in Baghdad in 1955, linked Britain, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Turkey. Baghdad’s withdrawal had been expected for some time.

Rocket Photographs

On March 13 scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory, White Sands, New Mexico, fired a rocket equipped with a special camera 123 miles into space. At that altitude the device began photographing the sun, taking into its scope clouds of hydrogen gas encircling the sun at a distance of about 4,000 to 6,000 miles from its surface. This was the first time the sun's weather had been photographed, and it is thought that eventually similar rocket photographs will help meteorologists to determine the earth's weather,

NATO Meeting

On April 4 a three-day parley of the North Atlantic Council concluded in Washington, Foreign ministers of the fifteen nations comprising the North Atlantic Treaty Organ-ixation had met to        the

Berlin problem, German issues and European security. In a closing communique the Council declared "its unanimous determination" to maintain a free West Berlin and to uphold the West’s obligations and rights in that city.

Under Hungarian Regime

The communistic regime of Hungary is currently making a new drive toward collectivization. The nation's peasant population is being deprived of land holdings and is being herded into collective organizations. Farmers who resist these moves are often imprisoned and are sometimes tortured. Though about a year ago Budapest announced the end of trials of persons involved in the 1956 revolt, recent reports tell of a new mass trial of workers from Csepel Island. Ten received death sentences and twenty-five others were given prison terms of from two years to life.

Jehovah’s Witnesses In Russia < On March 18 Jehovah's witnesses in the Soviet Union were denounced by Moscow’s highest official organ Pravda. The Communist party' paper claimed to have “news of greater activities by Jehovah’s Witnesses from Kurgan, Irkutsk and Tomsk, and from the districts of Western Ukraine.” It was said that magazines, leaflets and mimeographed sheets from Brooklyn had appeared in these regions. Pravda warned:' "We must not remain indifferent to the signs of greater activity by this dark force.” It went on, "Their criminal ravings are topped by impromptu prophecies that a devastating war and the end of the world are nigh and that mankind is heading toward the day of its destruction." Pravda reiterated a familiar line, asking: “Who could finance an underground organization of apostles of the divine powder keg? Only those who organize sabotage and espionage on assignments of the warmongers.” On March 26 the Buffalo Evening News remarked editorially: “It seejns the Witnesses have been gaining converts all over the Soviet Union . . . They must be making gains if Khrushchev, with many more pressing matters on his mind, takes time out to denounce them. He is quoted in Pravda as saying their mission is to infuse a spirit ot resignation and meekness into the Russian people and charges they are subsidized by ‘the more reactionary forces of capitalism.’ ”

Japan and U.S. Forces

& A decision handed down by a Tokyo District Court judge on March 30 held that the presence of U.S. forces in Japan was unconstitutional. This was so, it was maintained, because of the “no war” clause in the Japanese charter. The Tokyo government was expected to appeal the decision directly to the country's supreme court. Japan gave assurances that no shift in policy on U.S. troops was anticipated.

Nepalese Ejections

Forty-five days of balloting came to an end in Nepal in the first week of April. They were the first elections in the country’s history. The Nepali Congress Party attained more than half, of the IOS seats in the parliament, with only a few posts going to the Communists. Balloting was carried on in a rather unusual manner. Because literacy is quite low, parties were identified on the ballots by means of pictures. Nepal’s King Mahendra called for the elections and, though he will continue as the nation’s monarch, considerable power is expected to be vested in the Nepali congress party leader B. P. Koirala. Governmental affairs will, however, probably go on without major change.

Under-Ice Voyage

<& The U.S. atomic submarine Skate made a record trip under the northern icecap recently. With a crew of 106, it covered 3,090 miles and remained under the ice for twelve days. During that time the Skate had surfaced ten times, once, on March 17, at the North Pole. The U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus and the Skate itself had both traveled under the polar ice pack about seven months earlier. The recent voyage, however, set under-ice records for time and distance.

Cyprus: First Council Meeting <$> The first meeting of a committee in charge of Cyprus' governmental affairs until the island becomes Independent early next year, took place on April 6. Turkish Cypriotes and Greek Cypriotes were brought together, along with the British governor. Included in the transitional committee were two former leaders of the E.O.K.A., the National Organization of Cypriote Fighters. Thus began, the initial stages of governmental changeover in preparation for the new Cypriote republic.

British Ties with Brunei

In keeping with an accord reached by London with the Sultan of Brunei on April 6, that British protectorate in Not th ■Borneo is soon to be granted more internal autonomy. The 2,200-square-mile land has been a British protectorate since 1888 and has been governed by a British Resident since 1906. Its chief export is oil and it ranks second only to Canada in oil production in the Commonwealth. Brunei is expected to have a written constitution within six months of April 1, along with considerable autonomy in its internal affairs.

Americas Bank

<$■ After three months of discussion the twenty-one American republics completed and initialed on April 8 a charter for an inter-American bank. The $1,000,000,000 institution has been formed by a special committee of the Organization of American States. It is to aid in the advancement of Latin-American economic development.

Buenos Aires Riot

Communist and Peronist workers demonstrated in the streets of Buenos Aires on April 3. The disturbances lasted several hours before order was restored. It was reported that 144 persons were arrested and 17 were injured. The riots were staged in protest against the Argentine government’s new labor and austerity policies.

U.S.-Bulgarian Ties

<$> The U.S. and Bulgaria resumed diplomatic T-elatitms on March 27, after a nine-year

lapse* Sofia had charged the U.S* Minister with spying in January, 195 0* Official relations were resumed only after the Bulgarian government withdrew the espionage charges. Bulgaria and the U.S* pledged full freedom hence’ forth for both countries' diplomats.

Rojas Degraded

The Colombian Senate deprived one-time dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla of civic rights, rank and a pension of $3,000 a month by a vote of 44 to 17 on April 2. The penalties followed an earlier conviction of Rojas on charges of violating the Colombian constitution and improper conduct while he was president of that country between 1953 and 1957.

Atom Heat to Electricity

<$> In conventional atom power plants the heat resulting from fission reaction must be channeled through some medium such as steam before electricity is produced* On¹ April 7 it was revealed, however, that at the Atomic Energy Commission's laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, a means of generating electricity directly from atom heat had been successfully developed. The new system uses the thermocouple principle, A piece of uranium is used as one of the metalic elements and the second element is cesium in the form of gas. The cesium is heated and becomes a plasma* Heat from fission reaction is then converted into electricity and this comes directly out of the reactor without any intervening medium such as steam. Though it is in its experimental phase, the thermocouple device may open new fields in atomic power production and propulsion in space.

Animal Flight for Life

What may well become the largest man-made lake in the world is threatening wild life In Africa* Waters of the Zambezi River, backing up from Kariba Dam, have flowed over vast areas formerly covered by dense forest. The lake, which is expected to continue rising until late July, may by then embrace an area of about 2,000 square miles* As the waters have risen, small sections of the forest have been isolated, causing the animals either to swim to safety on the distant shores or perish. The Zambezi River divides Northern and Southern Rhodesia, and both governments have co-operated in animal rescue work. They have, however, apparently been able to concentrate mainly on larger creatures, and the toll of medium-sized and smaller animals has been very heavy.

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