Puerto Rican Priests in Politics

PAGE 16

JANUARY 22, 1961

THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL

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

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

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

Get acquainted with “Awake!" Keep awake by reading “Awakef"

m— 1,1, ■ m

CONTENTS

Light, Crime and Corruption

Why Poison Your Mind?

The Miracle of the Snowflake

They Are Pursuing Peace

Seven Years Without Water

Puerto Rican Priests in Politics

Having Bahy the Malayan Way

Overwhelmed

Thirteen-Year Discrimination Ends

The Fascinating, Versatile Fabric

—Fiber Glass

“Your Word Is Truth”

Capitalist? Communist? or Christian? 27

Watching the World

ii/^RIME in the United

\_u States is perhaps one of the biggest businesses in the world today,” said Dr. Paul L. Kirk, a noted criminologist. In 1959 crime cost the American people $22,000,000,000, according to J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Despite this colossal bill, crime is still on the increase.

The great ally of crime is darkness. Across the world the shadowed streets, the dark alleys and the unlit hallways breed murder, rape and burglaries about as fast as filth breeds disease. One report states: “There are 12 times as many crimes of violence at night as in the daytime. Another study reveals that all the murders in Canton, Ohio, Binghamton, New York, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and Hempstead, New York, were committed at night after dark, as were 90 percent of the robberies of Fort Wayne, Indiana, In Salt Lake City, 96.5 percent of all aggravated assaults took place at night; in Minneapolis, 92 percent of the burglaries happened after dark; in Pittsburgh, 85 percent of stolen cars were taken under cover of darkness," Add to this list the number of crimes of adultery, fornication and drunkenness that flourish at night and the conclusion is irresistible that crime, corruption and darkness go hand in hand.

If darkness is a “friend” of crime, then light is its “enemy.” Cleveland Police Chief Frank W. Storey said: “Light always works on the side of the law." Recent experiments with modem fluorescent and mercury vapor lamps in crime-infested areas have proved this true. New

York city, for example, had tried about every way to eliminate crime, with only partial success. Then the city set aside 111 crime-ridden blocks and bathed these in white light. All crime dropped immediately. There was an 18.3-percent reduction in adult crimes, a 30-percent drop in juvenile delinquency. Crimes of murder, assault and rape were cut 49 percent.

That light is a deterrent to crime is further revealed in this report by Don Murray. He states that Chattanooga, Tennessee, “had a 12-block area with a fantastic, homicide rate. The city flooded the area with light, and crimes of violence were cut 70 to 90 percent. Denver cut assault complaints a third by relighting some streets; Brookings, South Dakota, and Marion, Indiana, virtually eliminated vandalism in certain areas by expanding lighting; in Austin, Texas, new lighting cut some categories of crime 90 percent, ... A street lighting program in Flint, Michigan, cut felonies 60 percent in the downtown area.” Everywhere reports are about the same regarding light and crime

Still, in the United States major crimes have increased 9 percent in the first half of 1960. J. Edgar Hoover stated that “crime has been rising four times as fast as population.” What is the cause?

While bright lights unquestionably inhibit crime, they obviously do not remove the cause. Many of the roots of crime lie in the mind. To nip these roots, the dark inner disturbances of the mind that drive men to wrongdoing must be reached. This can be done, not with lamplight, but with the light of Bible truth. “The truth will set you free," said Jesus, This truth can release men from their inner conflicts that lead to crime.—John 8:32.

The truth of God’s Word is a powerful force, capable of energizing the mind to want to live a better life. “How will a young man cleanse his path? By keeping on guard according to your word,” writes the psalmist. “Your word is a lamp to my foot, and a light to my roadway.” The apostle Paul appealed to Christians at Ephesus to allow the truths of God's Word to actuate their minds. Paul knew that the mind must be freed of wrong thinking before right thinking could take root. Therefore, he urged the Ephesian Christians not to “go on walking just as the nations also walk in the unprofitableness of their minds, while they are in darkness mentally, and alienated from the life that belongs to God, because of the ignorance that is in them. ... You did not learn the Christ to be so,” says the apostle.—Ps. 119:9, 105; Eph. 4: 17-20.

The fact that Christians have an accurate knowledge of God and Christ and belong to a common brotherhood by virtue of their faith should be more than enough reason to want to put away the old personality with its .corruptive desires and to put on a new personality in true righteousness and loving-kindness. This can be done, Paul says, by applying the principles of Christianity in daily life. “Put away falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor .. . Let the stealer steal no more, but rather let him do hard work." “Let a rotten saying not proceed out of your mouth, but whatever saying is good for building up . . . Let fornication and uncleanness of every kind or greediness not even be mentioned among you.” He emphasized that decent Christian lives can be lived if Bible truths are allowed to activate the mind. “From every bad path I have restrained my feet, in order that I may keep your word,” wrote the psalmist. —Eph. 4:21-5:3; Ps. 119:101.

Bright, shining lights in themselves will not stop crime. The corruptive roots of the mind, where crime breeds, must be reached with truths that uproot evil thinking and inspire men in the right direction. These truths are not found in movie and television programs that glorify crime and criminals. Neither are they located in obscene comic books, salacious magazines and pictures that are capable of poisoning any mind at any age. Such filth pots can spawn only one thing—crime and corruption.

Truths that build up the mind come from God through his written Word, the Bible. They are truths that speak of a righteous kingdom, of God’s love, of the wicked being destroyed and the righteous inheriting the earth. They tell of things that are of serious concern, chaste, lovable and praiseworthy. “The very disclosure of your words gives light, making the inexperienced ones understand.” (Ps. 119:130; Phil. 4:8) As Paul writes of true Christians: “You were once darkness, but you are now light in connection with the Lord. Go on walking as children of light, for the fruitage of the light consists of every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.” —Eph. 5:8, 9.

YOU appreciate health and life, do you not? Of course! You would not knowingly take poison, would you? You know that poison disrupts the processes of life and may lead to death. Should you accidentally take poison, you would do all in your power to counteract it. But people in general are not nearly so careful when it comes to taking mental poison, poisonous ideas into their minds; yet they should be even more careful.

What is mental poison? It will help us to identify it when we note that all knowledge may be divided into three distinct classes. There is art, which concerns itself with the appeal of the ideal, the beautiful, to the senses and to the mind and heart of man. There is science, which concerns itself with practical things, primarily with how man can wrest from the earth the things he needs to survive. And then there is religion, which fills man’s need to worship, to keep in touch with his Maker and Life-giver.

Not all three of these classes of mental food are equally nourishing. Least important is art; next in importance comes science, and most important of all is religion. Most important because, as both Moses and Jesus Christ said: “Man must live, not on bread alone, but on every utterance coming forth through Jehovah’s mouth.” If we are wise we will not only remember the relative importance of these various kinds of knowledge, but we will carefully avoid any mental poison that may appear under the guise of one or the other of these.—Matt. 4:4.

The Scriptures further tell us that the sayings of God, as recorded in his Word, “are spirit and are life.” It follows, therefore, that everything that contradicts the principles and teachings found in God’s Word must be death-dealing mental poison. While a Christian will not knowingly feed his mind on what he knows to be corrupting to faith and morals, unless he is alert he

will do so unwittingly, to his spiritual harm.—John 6:63.

Moral Poison

For example, we are told that “the minding of the flesh means death, but the minding of the spirit means life and peace.” To be minding the flesh is to do the works of the flesh, among which are “fornication, uncleanness, loose conduct,.,. fits of anger, . . . drunken bouts.”—Rom, 8:6-8; Gal. 5:19-21.

Today the world is filled with minding the flesh under the guise of art: music, drama, literature, and so forth. For the sake of profits, “art” is made to appeal to man’s inherited sinful tendencies. A Christian must therefore guard against reading newspaper scandal, salacious articles in magazines or prurient modern novels.

He should exercise the same care as to his entertainment. More and more the moving picture industry is “Dishing the Dirt,” as the moving picture reviewer for the New York Times (September 25, 1960) named his article in which he gave example after example of motion pictures that were “shocking and depressing in the extreme.” Immorality and violence are also featured on the television screen. All such is moral poison and, if countenanced, will weaken one’s ability to “distinguish both right and wrong.” In fact, it will deprave one so as to prefer evil togood.—Heb. 5:14.

This minding of the flesh that causes death reaches out also to the popular songs one hears today on every hand. Many of them flagrantly violate Scriptural principles and therefore should never be on the lips of a Christian. Some forms of dancing also arouse one’s passions, especially in teen-age boys and girls, and therefore should likewise be avoided.

For the same reason Christians must watch as to the company they keep: “Do not be misled. Bad associations spoil useful habits. Wake up to soberness in a righteous way and do not practice sin.” One who desires to please God may not choose the company of those who show by their actions that they say in their hearts, “There is no Jehovah.” Emphasizing the deathdealing nature of all immoral conduct are the apostle’s words: “The one that goes in for sensual gratification is dead though she is living.”—1 Cor. 15:33, 34; Ps. 14:1; 1 Tim. 5:6.

Science So Called

Just as in the field of art there is an abundance of morals-destroying poison, so in the field of science there is all manner of faith-destroying poisonous propaganda, set out by foolish or wicked men. Having settled once and for all in our minds that God truly does exist and that the Bible is his inspired Word, we will not poison our minds with theories that deny these truths simply because they parade under the name of science. That is, we will not consider any such wholly disinterestedly, as if we wanted to determine whether they are true or not. We know they are false! Our only concern therefore will be to prove them so. As a man who deeply loves and has full confidence in his wife and has no reason to suspect her will not entertain scandal about her but will dismiss it as simply not possibly true, so with the Christian, but even more so. We know that nothing that doubts the existence of the Creator or the validity of his Word could be true, even though it comes to us in the name of science—falsely so called.—1 Tim. 6:20.

Is this a narrow view? Not at all. While tq many reason alone argues that God does indeed exist, there are many others, atheists and agnostics, who deny his existence or doubt it. That does not need to disturb us, for “faith is not a possession of all people.” Further, we know that no line of reasoning could possibly refute the combined testimony in favor of the Bible’s authenticity : archaeology, geology, candor of writers, harmony of writers, highest principles, its influence for good, its preservation and, above all, its prophecies. Surely, God’s "word is truth.”—2 Thess. 3:2; John 17:17.

Along with the other “scientific” mental poison that is widely distributed is the evolution theory. Many have had their faith destroyed by this poison, while others naively think that they can reconcile it with the Word of God. No better proof as to its poisonous nature can be adduced than the effect it had on its popularizer Charles Darwin, and not only on his beliefs but also upon his morals. In his youth he had studied medicine for two years and then dropped it for the study of theology. After graduating, instead of becoming a parson, he dabbled in geology. When he first began to study theology he “liked the thought of being a country clergyman,” and he “did not in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible.” When traveling on a ship, the Beagle, he was “heartily laughed at by several of the officers . . , for quoting the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some point of morality.”—The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin.

But his preoccupation with the evolution theory changed all this. Soon to him “the Old Testament was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos." He even doubted the existence of God.

Formerly he had believed that man could prove the existence of the Creator by reasoning from effect to cause, but now “arises the doubt, can the mind of man, which has, as I fully believe, been developed from the mind as low as that possessed by the lowest animals, be trusted when it draws such grand conclusions?” Proceeding on this false premise, “Charles called the Christian concept of salvation through faith ‘a damnable doctrine,’ argued cogently against all revealed religion, and roundly proclaimed himself at the'end no theist but a thorough going agnostic.”—Scientific American, August, 1958, p. 118.

Darwin’s speculations not only played havoc with his faith in God and the Bible but also with his personal integrity. This is not surprising since for him man’s moral nature was also the product of natural selection. Thus he tells that his five years at university were “worse than wasted," but he so enjoyed those youthful revelries that he could not “help looking back to those days with much pleasure.” He discarded religion on the basis of his theory; yet when asked about his religion he replied: “I have never systematically thought much on religion in relation to science, or on morals in relation to society.” In his first edition of Origin of Species he used the expression “my theory” forty-five times, although it was not at all his theory. Challenged, he saw to it that subsequent editions contained this expression less and less.

Further, Darwin stands charged, by Oxford University Professor C. C. Darlington, of “equivocation on the central issue of selection versus direction,” of confusing “the alternatives on all possible occasions. . . . He was able to put his ideas across not so much because of his scientific integrity, but because of his opportunism, his equivocation and his lack of historical sense. Though his admirers will not like to believe it, he accomplished his revolution by personal weakness and strategic talent more than by scientific virtue.”—Scientific American, May, 1959.

What Darwin’s taking up with the evolution theory did for him it has done for countless millions of others world-wide. No sound scientific proof has ever been produced that has moved the theory of evolution into the field of fact. It is still the “evolution theory.” It is not an array of scientific evidence that causes men to lose their faith in God and his Word the Bible. Rather, godless evolution appeals to men who want to throw off accountability to the Supreme Being, Jehovah God, and who do not want to submit to his righteous laws. Their selfish craving for personal glory or for a life that is not circumscribed by the requirements of the Word of God regiments their thinking in an endeavor to produce evidence, no matter how shallow, to uphold their theory that there is no God. Thus it proves to be poison, a baseless theory that destroys faith both in God and in his Word and weakens integrity.

Religious Poison

Just as the mental poison of immoral “art” runs counter to God’s righteous principles and the mental poison of pseudoscientific theories of men runs counter to the inspired divine Revelation, the Bible, so there is religious poison distributed by professed Christians that runs counter to God’s method of dealing with his earthly creatures. From the very beginning God has had a channel of communication for instructing his creatures upon earth. Thus Adam instructed Eve; Noah, his family; Abraham, his household; and Moses, the nation of Israel. John the Baptist taught the Jews, and when Jesus Christ came he served as God’s channel of communication. After Pentecost God used a "governing body,’’ the apostles and older men of the Christian congregation at Jerusalem, as his instrument to instruct the early Christian congregation as to Christian doctrine, principle and policy, under the direction of the holy spirit and in harmony with the Word of God. There were other religions, but they were not of God.—Acts 15:1-35.

The facts show that today Jehovah God is using a “faithful and discreet slave” class, a body of dedicated and anointed Christians, to direct his work upon earth. This body, also known as the “remnant” of the body of Christ, is the nucleus of the New World society of Jehovah’s witnesses. This society bases its teachings solely upon the Word of God; it carries out the prophetic commission that “this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations”; and it brings forth the Christian fruitage of the spirit, ‘love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness and self-control.’—Matt. 24: 14, 45-47; Gal. 5:22, 23.

However, just as in Jesus’ day some became disgruntled and said: “This speech is shocking; who can listen to it?” and “would no longer walk with him,” and just as in the days of the apostles there were ‘those who created divisions and causes for stumbling,’ so we find it today. Having settled it in our minds what instrument brought us the truth of God’s Word, what instrument is obeying God’s commands and fulfilling Bible prophecy and bringing forth the Christian fruitage of the spirit, we need not read all the literature published by those who dispute these things.—John 6: 60, 66; Rom. 16:17.

Does a Christian missionary have time to study all the sacred writings of the Oriental religions? Does he have time to study all the beliefs of the some 265 religions that claim to be Christian in the United States? Certainly not! He does not have sufficient time to study the Bible and the Bible-study aids that he knows to be the truth. Of course, as he comes in contact with various points of teaching of these religions he will equip himself to refute them, but that is all.

So also when a Christian is handed literature, the contents and spirit of which is that of ‘beating his fellow slaves,’ he is not driven by idle curiosity to examine it. Having settled it in his mind who is being used by Jehovah, who is bringing forth genuine Christian fruitage and fulfilling Bible prophecy, he neither wastes his time nor risks tarnishing his loyalty by perusing such publications. Having built his faith on a knowledge of God’s Word, he knows that there can be no facts that dispute his position and that therefore malicious slander can be nothing but assertions. In this way also he avoids knowingly taking poison. He wisely uses his time to study the Bible, letting it mold his thinking. —Matt. 24:48-51.

The course for those who would be wise is therefore clear. To keep their integrity by upholding God’s righteous principles, to keep their faith strong as ministers of God's inspired Word and to remain loyal at all times to the channel that Jehovah God is using in this day, they will distinguish between mental food and mental poison and will avoid the latter even as they would avoid poisoned material food; yes, and more so, because not merely temporary life but everlasting life is involved.

The             of the

BEFORE you lies a city of steel and concrete. Its arteries are in full swing with bustling traffic. Its shops are crowded

with customers and its streets are teeming with people dashing about, too busy to look upward.

Then a fragile snowflake falls, then two and three; the sky is white with them! With the stillness of a falling feather, each delicate crystal dances downward, alighting on face or street. Now there is an inch, now a foot, now many feet. Traffic is stilled. The shops are deserted- The streets are empty. A muffled silence hovers over the inhabited area. Dirty streets show pure and clean ’neath winter’s sheet. Warmly lit dwellings seem cozier with ermine blankets draped across each roof. The whole world seems transfigured, fair and white when softly, softly falls the snow!

What priceless blessing these tiny crystals, the frailest of nature’s treasures, have bestowed! They have brought peace and a moment of tranquillity to hurried souls and an opportunity to meditate and reflect on the question that God himself asked man: “Have you entered into the storehouses of the snow?"—Job 38:22.

In these storehouses there are symmetry and geometry. There are endless modifications of classes of crystals whose architecture, beauty and variety are beyond description. Here in these regions, most remote from human observation, fragile jewels are born in perfect balance and exquisite in design, each altogether admirable. Here takes place the most delicate of miracles, the birth of the snowflake.

Snow is the solid form of water that grows while floating in the atmosphere. It is formed when the temperature is below

freezing and the water vapor in the air changes from gas to solid without going through the intermediate liquid state.

Scientists claim that the water molecule needs a foundation on which to build before it can become a snowflake. This foundation is found in the air. The upper atmosphere is “polluted with small particles such as dust, salt crystals

from the ocean, pollen from plants, bacteria, volcanic ash and even star dust. According to author John S. Collis, 2,000 tons of star dust falls from outer space to the earth daily.

In sub-freezing temperatures the motion of these tiny particles is slowed down considerably. A water molecule will attach itself to one of these particles. The particle thus becomes the nucleus or foundation for the formation of a snowflake. As soon as one molecule fixes itself to a dust particle, other water molecules will scramble aboard, only “in an orderly sequence in accordance with the system and class of symmetry peculiar to oxide of hydrogen.” When the particle becomes overloaded with water molecules, it becomes too heavy for air flow to support it and begins its glide earthward. Thus is born the snowflake, and we behold with joy the falling snow!

Shapes and Sizes of Snow

What shape and size the snowflake will be when it reaches the earth depends greatly on the temperature and the amount of moisture in the air through which the flake passes on its way down. Snowflakes often take the form of beautiful crystals, generally having a hexagonal design or pattern. Some crystallize with trigonal symmetry. This type is usually born in high clouds and in zero weather. The larger crystals form in warmer sub-freezing temperatures. “The variety of appearance is inexhaustible,” writes Collis, “but very often (though not always) a hexagonal shape is adhered to, so that each Is a little star with six rays crossing at an angle of 60 degrees. If the crystal looks like a composition of fems it will have six outpointing leaves; if like a windmill, it will have six sails; if like a starfish, it will have six ribs; if like a fir tree, it will have six stems with plumes set in perfect symmetry.”

In 1885 Wilson Bently acquired a photomicrographic camera. With it he took pictures of snow. Out of 5,300 pictures that he took during his forty-six years of study, he was unable to find two that were identically alike in shape. A scientist has estimated that 1,000,000,000,000 flakes may fall on an acre of ground in an averagesize snowstorm, and all of them different! “Yet this is not surprising,” says Collis. “It is a wonder of wonders that the dance of the molecules produces these geometrical designs in the first place; it would be too much to ask that the exact same shape be duplicated,” In recent years snowflakes have been preserved with a transparent plastic fluid that hardens rapidly. Preserved snowflakes can be filed on glass slides to be studied under microscope or photographed at leisure.

How big are snowflakes? in low temperatures in the polar region the tiny crystals known as “diamond dust” rarely exceed .005 of an inch in diameter. This snow is too rough for a ski blade to glide through it. A flake of this type may take many hours to fall just a thousand feet. Whereas huge cottony flakes that often measure several inches across will fall the distance in from eight to ten minutes. An average snowflake will travel a few miles from its place of birth before it lands; unless, of course, it was formed in the high cirrus clouds. In that case the traveling distance is much greater.

Weight and Color of Snow

Newly fallen snow is very light, having much air space in its captivating structure. It is only one fifteenth as heavy as ice, and ice, in turn, due to expansion at freezing, is only nine tenths as heavy as water. It takes about twenty inches of dry snow to produce an inch of water, but normally ten inches of snow will make that amount.

Even though snow is comparatively light, it is deceptively heavy. To shovel a five-foot sidewalk for a hundred feet after a thirty-inch snowfall would mean lifting close to four tons of snow, not counting the weight of the shovel! No wonder you gasp, “My aching back!’’ after clearing the sidewalk. The Halifax Gazette stated: “Ten inches of snow covering one square mile weighs 72,320 tons. 123 inches on ten miles amounts to 8,895,360 tons. But if you are waiting for it to melt, give a thought to it. That quantity of snow when changed to water will turn to 1,779,072,000 gallons.” So these tiny crystal buckets do bring to earth oceans of water.

When thousands of billions of these fragile flakes fall, huge banks of white mount up. Highways are covered over. Often cars, trucks and houses are buried. Everywhere the eye can see there is nothing but white, yet scientists tell us that snow is not actually white. When snow crystallizes in the sky it is transparent, like glass. But when snowflakes bunch together on the ground, the myriad minute surfaces of the crystals reflect the light in all directions and create a pure whiteness.

Of what value is snow? Besides beautifying the earth and sky, forests and mountains, it serves a most useful purpose in the economy of nature. It conserves the heat of the earth and protects vegetation from the intense cold of the winter. The soil needs the moisture that is absorbed more easily in the form of snow. Animals burrow into nature’s fluffy blanket and are protected from severe winds and kept warm. Eskimos insulate their igloos with snow. It is so effective as an insulating agent that heat from the human body can keep the igloo room warm.

Besides purifying the air for the city dweller, the fragile snowflake represents “money from heaven” for the farmer. As each snowflake glides down on its microscopic dust disk, it washes out of the atmosphere certain elements such as nitrogen and sulphur that enrich the soil. Back in 1936 these nitrogenous substances deposited in a winter’s fall of snow and hail were said to have a financial value of “$14.08 per acre.” If you ascertain the number of acres under cultivation where it snows and multiply that by $14.08 per acre, you will get a stupendous sum of real money! “Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow?” asked the Creator.—Job 38: 22, AS.

While in the abstract snow’s manifestations are beneficent, yet in reality some of them are otherwise, at least in this system of things. In the city there is the aggravating disruption of the transportation system. In the country the farmer may be stranded for weeks. Sudden melting of deep snow over large areas can cause floods and the destruction of property. Massive snowfalls have caused the death of man and animals, and whole villages have been annihilated by snowslides.

Perhaps the greatest use of snow is still in the future when it will be used as a weapon of destruction at the battle of Armageddon. Jehovah God, the Creator of the snowflake, says that he has reserved snow and hail “for the time of distress, for the day of fight and war." (Job 38:23) The deluge of Noah’s day brought down water, snow and ice upon the world of the ungodly of that time. A supernatural use of these same elements is foretold for the war of the great day of God the Almighty. “He is giving snow like wool; hoarfrost he scatters just like ashes. He is throwing his ice like morsels. Before his cold who can stand?” (Ps. 147:16, 17) Yes, at Armageddon Jehovah will call into service a vast number of these tiny, fragile crystals for a most glorious purpose—the vindication of his great and holy name.

pursuing District Assemblies held by Jehovah’s witnesses during the past year lend proof to the fact that there are actually persons who are not only seeking peace but who have already found it—peace with God, peace with their fellow man and peace with themselves.

The convention servant of the assembly held in Vienna, Austria, writes us as follows: “The ancient Danube city of Vienna has experienced numerous invasions. In 1529 and 1683 it was besieged by the Turks, in 1805 and 1809 it was captured by the French, in those dreadful March days of 1938 it was swallowed up by Hitler’s Reich, and in 1945 it was snatched away by the Red Army. How the city has suffered! All those pushing into it were pursuing war and therefore left suffering, hunger, disease, oppression, rape and despotism behind them. In July of this year Vienna was invaded by a people not nearly as numerous as the Turks, French, Germans or Russians, but this time it was a peaceful invasion. Instead of artillery weapons, cannons and tanks, this time there were three special trains that rolled into the West and South railway stations loaded down with peaceful witnesses of Jehovah. Instead of being armed with crooked sabers, rifles and pistols, and instead of displaying severe grimaces of war, each of them carried concealed in his briefcase or suitcase the sword of the spirit, the Bible, and it was

Jehovah’s witnesses also met together in Berlin, which has become a focal point in the conflict between East and West, a symbol of division and of the world’s lack of peace. From there we are told: “It did not look as though many Witnesses from Eastern Germany, where they have been banned since 1950 and are heavily persecuted, would be able to seize an opportunity to slip quickly through a hole in the Iron Curtain into Berlin as they have done in previous years in order to attend assemblies. Because of this fact, only visitors from West Berlin were actually expected. Sure enough, three weeks before the assembly was to begin, East German police began visiting all known Jehovah’s witnesses in Eastern Germany and were asking them—some trumped-up reason being given for this—to surrender their personnel cards. Without these they would not be able to travel to Berlin.”

But when the time came for the baptism of those symbolizing their dedication to Jehovah God, those being baptized walked past a table where they were counted and asked, "West or Blast?’’ One heard: "West" — "East” — "West" — "East” — "East”. — “East" — "West.” Yes, Witnesses were here from Eastern Germany; they have not stopped pursuing peace even though banned and persecuted there. This results in many more continuing to associate with them, in order to find peace with God, with their fellow man and with themselves.

Peace with Their God

During a time when the nations are pursuing war, there are numberless difficulties encountered by those striving to pursue peace. The eventual winners in this conflict are indicated by the report from Hannover, Germany: “In the midst of the tempo of the times and the mad pursuit after material things, in the midst of this old world surrounded by war and atomic danger, Jehovah’s witnesses celebrated a festival of peace. During the 1939-1945 war, Hannover was severely bombed and the ruins were scooped together and piled together on a huge dumping ground. Later the Nie-dersachsen Stadium was built on top of this pile of debris. In this stadium, on top of the ruins left by the now-disappeared ‘thousand-year Reich,' Jehovah’s witnesses held their district assembly this year.” Was this not indicative of victory for those pursuing peace, for those who were not ‘learning war any more’? (Isa, 2:4) Yes, they have come to be at peace with God through Jesus Christ, and for that reason God blesses them with success.

Even the exterior surroundings at the assemblies stressed peace. That platform in Stuttgart’s Neckar Stadium was decorated with 2,500 flowers and in representing a small paradise certainly reflected quietness and peace. The platform in Dortmund was similar. The Westdeutsche Dort-munder Tageblatt wrote about this on July 30: “Where the platform is normally found [in the Westfalen Hall] a mountainous landscape has been erected with a pool in the foreground springing from a bubbling fountain in the background. The motif of this platform decoration is taken from Revelation chapter 22. Accordingly, a stream of clear water springs forth from the rocks. In front of this stand two persons scooping up the ‘water of life.’ ”

Peace with Their Brothers

In Dortmund’ over eighty of Jehovah’s witnesses asked if they could come early and help in making preparations for the assembly. Not one of them wanted to be paid for this work. They appreciated the privilege of working in the house of Jehovah and in preparing a pleasant place for their brothers to- assemble, where they would feel at home. The report from Hannover also shows their willingness and reads: “During installation work a mechanic was heard to say that we should not take the work away from them. He was told that he could certainly do the work if he wanted to, but would have to db it on the same condition as we, that is to say, without pay. The immediate answer: *Oh, no, that’s all right—you people just go ahead and do it.’ ” A businessman going through the stadium in Stuttgart saw a large sign reading “Volunteer Service.” He observed over fifty persons standing in front of the sign, all waiting to be assigned work. He said, “How different this all is. When we look for just one single worker, we can’t find anyone at all, and in front of your ‘Volunteer Service’ sign there are over fifty persons.”

Outsiders were heard to say over and over again: “This is a completely different world; here there is real peace, no complaining, no swearing, yes, even a different language is spoken here.” The fire chief in Dortmund praised the willingness of the Witnesses to work as ushers, which made it possible for him to reduce his crew of fire watchers to just a few. Neither had the police much to do, since the Witnesses even directed their own traffic. The Stutt-garter Zeitung printed the comments of an observer in the following article on July 27,1960: “On Sunday, week before last, in the stadium. Jehovah’s witnesses were directing the traffic, too. They discovered a car which had been parked improperly.

One of them pulled out a note book, but not to write the license number down. He wrote a note, placed it on the windshield, and then went on. I curiously read what it said: ‘Dear Brother, you have parked in the wrong place. Please, be kind enough to move your car to the proper place.’ I was curious what the owner of the car would do, so I waited. He came, paused a minute, read the note, took it off the windshield, climbed into his car and then parked correctly. The driver was—a policeman!”

Peace with Their Fellow Man

As these thousands of volunteer workers were pursuing peace through serving their brothers, the others of Jehovah’s witnesses were not inactive. They were expressing their confidence in total peace by sharing their love and knowledge with the citizens of the assembly cities. The newspaper Luzerner Neuesten Nachrichten wrote a half-page article praising the activity of Jehovah’s witnesses. The article read, in part; ‘‘It can easily be the case now that anyone in Luzern walking down the street may be stopped by two polite ladies or gentlemen and invited to hurry along to the large hall there on the Allmend where the Swiss annual convention of Jehovah’s witnesses is being held . . . Since there is no such thing as a passive member among them—for each is obligated to advertise his belief—many friendly persons are drawn into an extensive discussion with them almost without knowing it. But why not? It will harm no one to speak about something for once other than about time off, wages, relatives, recipes, the Congo and movies.”

Jehovah’s witnesses prove their love for God and for their fellow man by deeds. Outsiders see this and appreciate it. The stationmaster in Dortmund praised their orderliness. The Hasper Zeitung, in reporting about the Dortmund assembly, headlined the report “Faithful Servants of the True God.” A Stuttgart businessman said he only wished all his employees were Jehovah’s witnesses. An interesting experience was had in Berlin in connection with a leading man in a company supplying chairs for the hall. “After watching for quite some time, he began to confide in one of the Witnesses standing nearby, and expressed his amazement that the preparation work was being carried on so smoothly. He said something like this: ‘We have often provided chairs for religious conventions, but I see that everything is done completely different here with you folks. Everyone is working so quietly and rapidly with one another, and in spite of all the work to be done they are all so friendly to one another. Not long ago while preparing for a religious meeting we were almost driven to despair by all the demands that were made. Last of all, extra-special easy chairs had to be placed in front for the top honored guests, the next section of chairs were to be of the second-best type for other guests and then the rest of the hall was to be filled with normal chairs. You people make no such differences. Aren’t you expecting any honored guests?’ In answer, he was told that about 10,000 honored guests were being expected; he understood exactly what we meant.”

Some were not so friendly to the Witnesses. In Vienna, for example, Catholic church leaders called on the faithful to refuse accommodations for Jehovah’s witnesses. Likewise in Switzerland: “It is true that periodic warnings were issued from the pulpits and the population was asked not to provide any accommodations for the Witnesses. Due to this about one hundred rooms were canceled. But a special campaign to find rooms shortly before the assembly began resulted in our having more accommodations than were needed. The hosts were all very friendly, and because of the friendly attitude shown by Jehovah’s witnesses many prejudices were beaten down. This peaceful and Christian conduct on the part of the Witnesses toward their hosts was well received. Almost everyone who had kept Jehovah’s witnesses was heard to speak words of praise about the guests afterward. One gentleman who had offered a double room met one of Jehovah’s witnesses he knew on the street and stopped her to say: ‘Now, there’s just one thing I’d like to tell you. At church the preacher said we should not rent our rooms to any of Jehovah’s witnesses. But I rented one of mine to your people anyhow. And I must say, the zeal and the spirit of my guests has amazed me. If the people in the Catholic church had this same spirit, then things would be a whole lot better in our church. I’m going to invite you over sometime in the near future so you can tell me more about your faith. I see how happy you are and how well trained your children are. Your belief can’t be anything bad.’ ”

Jehovah’s witnesses are convinced that their belief cannot be anything bad, for it is based upon what is taught in God’s Word. They will continue to seek peace and pursue it. Already they are happily looking forward to their large conventions to be held next summer in New York, New York, June 20-25; Houston, Texas, June 27-July 2; Vancouver, British Columbia, July 4-9; Copenhagen, Denmark, July 11-16; Hamburg, Germany, and Turin, Italy, July 1823; London, England, July 25-30; Paris, France, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, August 1-6. Thousands of Jehovah’s witnesses and other Bible-loving persons of good will are planning to attend these assemblies. Jehovah’s witnesses would like to inrite you to be present. Prove to yourself that they are persons who are really pursuing peace—yes, that they are persons who have actually found it!

SEVEN YEARS WITHOUT WATER

In The Voice of the Desert Joseph Wood Krutch discusses plants that can go a long jj time without water; his candidate for first prize is not the barrel cactus but a plant that < stores little water. “Wander down into the !' driest desert region in northern Sonora, Mexi- J, co," he writes, “and you are likely to find lying about under thorny bushes certain amorphous J; masses of grayish wood eight inches or more [> in diameter. They look rather like a gnarled bur from some old apple tree; they have nei- J ther roots nor stems, and they seem about as [I dead as anything could be. Pick one up and i[ you will find it heavy as well as dry, and !; quite hard—as little like a living plant as [! anything you can imagine.                      ■[

“This, however, is the resting stage of Ibervillea sonorae, a member of the gourd [, family. Sometime towards the end of May, i[ it comes to life by sending out a few shoots upward and a few roots downward.... Sonora's one season of scanty rainfall is about due and ... it must be prepared to take advantage of it. If the rain does come, flowers and fruits appear before the whole thing dries up again into a state of suspended animation which seems almost as complete as that of a seed. At best, Ibervillea is not much to look at: a few straggling stems, small yellow flowers and, finally, a small berry-like fruit rather like a small, soft gourd,...

“Some years ago a specimen of Ibervillea was placed on exhibition in a glass case at the New York Botanical Garden. There was no intention to have it grow, but it showed what it is capable of. For seven years, without soil or water, simply lying in the case, it put forth a few anticipatory shoots and then, when no rainy season arrived, dried up again, hoping for better luck next year.”

A FIERY debate rocked the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico in 1960, from the month of May down to election day, November 8. The Roman Catholic clergy were on one side; government and educational the Popular Party of Governor Mufi Marin. The reaction was immediate.

Some parishioners walked out of churches when the pastoral letter read. When the governor’s wife walk out of the church in Arecibo, the pries shouted: “Get out, all those who wish; yo are not needed in this church.” Priests, in a few instances, were booed; and for the first time in history the San Juan diocese and the old cathedral in San Juan were picketed—by protesters of the pastoral letter.

Governor Marin denounced the pastoral letter as an “incredible medieval interference in a political campaign," adding: “I could never believe that in a modern community like Puerto Rico, so closely associated with the United States, such an incredible position could be taken.”

An Old Dispute

What is the story behind this clerical plunge into Puerto Rican politics? There has long been a quarrel between the Catholic church and the party in power, the Partido Popular (Popular Party) of Governor Luis Munoz Marin. For one thing, the governor’s predecessors had instituted birth-contr linics, and these the gover-

or has continued, to the isgruntlement of the tholic clergy.

Back in 1951 Puerto ico was drawing up its own constitution under its new status as a Com-onwealth of the United ates. The Organic Act, ich the new Constitution would replace, contained a clause in its Bill of Rights that stated: “Never will public money or property be as-or support of any priest, preacher, minister or other religious instructor." This “clause 19” became a focal point of battle.

Bishop McManus of Ponce called the clause “a blot on our constitution.” Monsignor Vasallo of the San Juan diocese added: “If our demands are not taken into account then we will have to declare war against a constitution that is unjust and humiliating for the purposes of the Church in Puerto Rico."

The Constitutional Assembly drew up the new constitution with the disputed clause removed; and the people, on March 3, 1952, voted approval of the new constitution. The Catholic clergy were exultant over the extinction of clause 19, but two phrases in the new constitution disturbed them: (1) “There will be complete separation of the church and the state" and (2) “There will be a system of public instruction . . . entirely nonsectarian.”

Puerto Rico's public school system thus came under attack by the clergy. The director of the Catholic University Center called the public school system “completely atheistic." A bishop called the school system “antidemocratic and, in addition, antireligious.”

Bishop McManus of Ponce rapidly became a leading figure in the 1952 preelection campaign. He condemned education without religion and the distribution of birth-control information. He urged 25,000 Holy Name Society members not to “vote blindly.” He urged “Christian politics against lay politics.”

As the campaign progressed, the promoters of clerical politics published a booklet declaring three of the four candidates for governorship unacceptable, leaving the Independence Party candidate as the only one open for the Catholic vote. To those in doubt as to how to vote the counsel was: “Ask your parish priest.”

But when the Puerto Rican people went to the polls, the Church-approved candidate lost; and Governor Marin and his Popular Party won by an overwhelming majority.

In the spring of 1960, a bill was presented before the Puerto Rican legislature providing for “released time,” an arrangement whereby children might receive religious instruction on school time. Attempts to pass such a bill had failed in years past. The clergy concentrated their efforts to push this bill through. On May 22 a reported 100,000 Catholics gathered before the capitol building in San Juan to hear the bishops urge them to insist that the “released time” bill be passed. The crowd also heard the bishops warn the legislators that if the bill were not passed they would not get the Catholic vote in the coming November elections.

The legislators decided to “table” the bill, and it died. The bishops now declared war on the Popular Party and its head Governor Marin.

Promoting the Catholic Party

The bishops’ next major move was their approval for the formation of a Catholic political party, to be called Partido Acción Cristiana (Christian Action Party). In a joint pastoral letter Bishops Davis and McManus urged the people to support the party’s registration and thus “purify and Christianize public and private life.”

A wave of protest came from all sides, and columns in newspapers began to fill up with letters approving and condemning the clergy’s action. In answering the critics, Monsignor Grovas cited the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano of May 18: “The church cannot be agnostic (or Indifferent), particularly when politics touches the altar, as Pius XI said. It is, then, its duty and its right to intervene even in this field.”

On July 4 government officials publicly denounced the clergy’s actions, and Governor Munoz Marin, though brought up a Catholic himself, warned the people: “If the prelates and priests were to be accorded the right to be obeyed in civil life, the vote, the legislature, all the democratic organs, including the Press, would be superfluous, and freedom would be dead.”—El Mundo, July 5, 1960.

Undaunted, the bishops continued their campaign. They instructed the priests to aid in registering members of the new party. The bishops even said that the use of Church property for this purpose was permissible.

A report from Sabana Grande, in El Mundo of July 18, said that the local priest, Blas Steffany, arranged for a talk in the City Hall and that he went to the public plaza to recruit listeners. On returning to the City Hall, he entered the headquarters of the Popular Party and invited the men seated there to his talk. One of them asked the priest if his talk would be on religion or on politics. The priest became irritated, and some of the men said: “Let’s get out of here; remember the Inquisition.” A heated argument ensued and calls of “aba jo los curas” (“down with the priests”) were heard. Finally the assistant priests had to come and pull priest Stefiany out of the crowd that had gathered.

The Catholic party was registered; it chose the Catholic colors of yellow and white and selected as its party insignia a rosary with a papal emblem inside. Typical of its meetings was one held in the mountain town of Barranquitas. At 5 a.m. a reported one thousand persons gathered on a hill, and the meeting began with cries such as “Viva the Most Holy Virgin” and “Viva the Pope.” Similarly extolled was the Catholic political party. Then came the saying of the rosary. Afterward the group attended mass in the local church.

Election day was drawing near; and it was now that the bishops dropped their bombshell, the pastoral letter forbidding Catholics to vote for the governor and his Popular Party. The pastoral letter said, among other things: “As the bishops of Puerto Rico . .. , we are interested in and are concerned about the chapter of the official platform [of the governor's party] which is entitled ‘Religion and Politics.’ This section starts by saying: ‘We are profoundly concerned about the intent to mix religion and politics. ... Clericalism is not the noble performance of the functions of the religious services. . . . Clericalism is the intervention of the clergy in politics? We see in this part of the [party] platform an antidemocratic attempt to limit the clergy solely to the religious functions.”

No Open Contradiction of Letter

Coming as it did at a crucial point in the election campaign in the United States, the pastoral letter produced front-page news for many continental United States newspapers. Democratic candidate for the United States presidency, John F. Kennedy, had been working hard to counter charges that the Catholic church believes it has a right to tell its members how to vote and its adherents what to do in office. Kennedy’s political camp worriedly sought advice from Roman Catholic theologians, only to learn that no Roman Catholic prelate in the United States would be likely to issue an open contradiction to the Puerto Rican bishops’ pastoral letter.

Thus Richard Cardinal Cushing of John Kennedy’s home state of Massachusetts did not contradict the letter but merely said: “It is totally out of step with the American tradition for ecclesiastical authority here to dictate the political voting of citizens.” Cardinal Cushing did not say, however, that it would be “totally out of step” with the Roman Catholic tradition.

Though Catholic prelates in the United States were cautious in; their remarks, there were some forthright comments, such as that expressed by The Tablet, official publication of the Catholic diocese of Brooklyn, New York, which said that the bishops “are definitely within their rights in advising Catholics of their diocese not to vote for the Popular Democratic candidates.”

Governor Munoz Marin declared that he would take up the bishops’ action with Vatican officials. It did not appear that he would get much help from the Vatican. A guarded statement from the Vatican said that Puerto Rico’s bishops were within their episcopal authority in forbidding church members to vote for the governor, stressing that the bishops’ action was restricted to Puerto Rico and to the “particular and special conditions of that island itself."

And campaigning prelates and priests were busy citing Popes Leo XIII, Pius X, Pius XI and John XXIII to show that the Church has the right to insist on obedience in public life.

The Election and Clerical Confusion

The election campaign neared its climax, and full-page advertisements appeared in newspapers urging the people to vote for the Catholic party. The messages were printed against a variety of backgrounds, such as enormous pictures of the virgin Mary, St. Peter’s Basilica and Pope John xxiii.

A second pastoral letter was read in the churches on October 30, the bishops stressing that failure to heed their previous letter would indeed be “a sin.”

Election day, November 8, arrived. A record number of voters went to the polls. That night the count showed that the governor and his party had won all but three of the island’s over seventy municipalities and had received some 100,000 more votes than the other three parties combined. The governor received 58 percent of the vote from the predominant Catholic electorate. The Catholic party received only about 6 percent of the total vote.

Clerical confusion followed. Catholics who voted for the governor wondered if they had sinned. The woman mayor of San Juan who campaigned for the governor was ordered to do public penance before she could receive communion. “As it now stands,” said the San Juan Star, “the faithful do not know whether violation of the Pastoral urging is a sin, whether they will burn in hell, simmer in purgatory, rot in limbo or float upwards, unblemished.” Later, while attending a church meeting in Chicago, the archbishop of San Juan sent word: “To all is extended the pardon they desire.”

Important Questions

What does it all mean? Was it a wild crusade embarked on by a few impetuous bishops? Or was it a revealing position of the basic tenets and true aims of the Catholic church? Comments by various Catholic authorities, already mentioned, give the answer. In the United States and other countries where its members are in the minority, the Catholic church professes belief in tolerance and freedom of worship. It denies interest in exercising control over political officials and educational systems. But as events in Puerto Rico and other countries such as Spain show, the Church operates under a double set of standards, and it practices a chameleonlike changeableness according to the conditions of the country.

Of greatest importance is the question: Does the practice of priests in politics reflect the pure Christian example of God’s Son? Jesus Christ said of his true followers: “They are no part of the world just as I am no part of the world.” (John 17: 16) Just as a man’s wading into a mudhole to wash a pig would not result in a clean pig but would make the man dirty, so priests in politics will never make the world Christian but it does make the priests and the church they represent worldly. “The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father,” says the Holy Bible, is “to keep oneself without spot from the world.”—Jas. 1:27.

THE Malays have a tremendous fondness for children, and perhaps nothing emphasizes better the hold that their old-world customs have upon them than their common saying, "Bier mati attak, jangan mati adat” which means “Let the child die, but not the custom.”

Among the strange customs are those pertaining to the period of pregnancy and childbirth, which is believed to be a time of increased activity of evil spirits, a time of great hazard. From the time of conception, an expectant Malay mother will thus take precautions to avert imaginary dangers to herself and her unborn child.

The spirit most feared in connection with pregnancy is the “Pontianak,” supposedly the ghost of a stillborn child. The shape of this spirit is thought to be a vampire that daws into the belly and kills the woman and infant. Another vampire is said to be the “Langsuyar,” a beautiful woman whose long hair conceals an aperture in the back through which the internal organs may be seen. The “Langsuyar” is commonly held to be the spirit of a woman, sometimes unchaste, who died in childbirth. Not to be overlooked is the “Penang-galan,” viewed as a human head with long entrails, a vampire that sucks the blood of the victim. When a woman dies in childbirth, eggs will be placed under her armpits and needles in her palms, in the superstitious belief that she will not be able to fly and thus become a vampire.

Weather conditions, together with lunar and solar eclipses, are given considerable regard. A pregnant woman must not venture out in hot rain or yellow sunset, as these are times when spirits are supposed to become very active. Various rituals are carried out if there is an eclipse of the moon. In the State of Perak, during an eclipse of the moon, it is common for the woman to be taken into the kitchen and placed beneath a shelf where the domestic utensils are kept. She will be given a Malay-made wooden rice spoon to hold and must remain there until the eclipse passes. The spoon is supposed to ward off the spirits. In the case of an eclipse of the sun, the mother must bathe beneath the house in order that her child will not be born half black and half white.

A father, too, takes certain precautions to safeguard his wife and unborn child. During the first three months of his wife's pregnancy he takes special care in his treatment of birds and fish. According to the superstition, if he were to lame a bird or accidentally slit the mouth of a fish in removing the hook, retaliation could result to his child by its being born lame or with a harelip. Homeward bound, a father-to-be would likely take a roundabout way, so as to lose any trailing spirit.

When the time comes for the birth, the local pawang or wizard will select the place for the birth by dropping a sharp-pointed object and marking the first place where it lands. There the birth must occur. At that point the bidan or midwife, who is given great respect in the community, takes over, and her word becomes law.

The selected place of birth will be surrounded with thorns and thorny leaves and bitter herbs; the thorns to scare off the vampire who will be afraid to entangle her entrails thereon, the bitter herbs because they are unpalatable. Nets will be hung about the house because the complexity of them is bound to confuse the spirits. Palm leaves are plaited and dressed as dolls to divert the attention of the evil eye from the baby. Perforated coconuts will be hung in the doorway, in the belief that the multiplicity of entrances and exits will misdirect the spirits. Never to be forgotten is the placing of iron nails between the sheets or under the childbed.

Long labor is attributed to the wife’s sins against her husband and can include the act of adultery. It can be easily seen how such superstition can cast doubt on the good morals of a woman and bring suspicion and unhappiness to the home.

To protect the newborn infant from spirits that are believed to cause disease, the midwife will take a mixture of betel juice, areca nut juice and oil in her mouth and spit on the baby. She will also give the child a name, which will be permanent only in the event that misfortune, such as illness, does not come upon it. In that case the child must be renamed to mislead the spirits. After the cord is cut, the child is washed in cold water and wrapped in a black cloth to ward off evil spirits.

If a boy is born in a caul, a membrane sometimes enclosing a child at birth, it is a good omen. Probably because it is reputed that one born in a caul can attain a hardness of body which will make him impenetrable to weapons and, upon death, to decay. The caul is preserved and may be ceremonially disposed of. In royal births it is anointed with gold dust or cut across a gold ring to symbolize power.

If a boy resembles his father, it is a cause of consternation. Malays believe in reincarnation, and this resemblance is an indication that the vital spark is about to leave either the father or son. The child’s ear is immediately pierced to distinguish him from the father. Conversely, if a male child resembles his mother and a female the father, it is considered a good omen.

To determine the future prosperity of the child, it will be placed on a brass or tin tray on which are weighed an amount of rice, seven cloths and an iron nail. Each day one cloth is removed, and on the last day the rice is weighed again. If there is an increase in weight, it is thought that the child will be prosperous.

During the first weeks, the child is still considered to be in particular danger from the attacks of the spirits, so he will be spat on morning and evening and his bed will be smeared with sacrificial rice. These and many more customs are carried out by the Malays to carry them safely through the period around childbirth.

Chinese and Indian Superstitions

The Malays make up about 40 percent of this country’s population; of the remainder, about 38 percent are Chinese and about 11 percent are Indians. The Chinese have absorbed some of the superstitious practices of the Malays and hold many in their own right. When a Chinese baby is one month old, he must be given a taste of whatever food is cooked in the home that day so that when he grows up he will have a strong stomach and be able to take all kinds of foods. On that day, too, he must be taken outdoors so that when he grows up he will not be afraid of the spirits. Another Chinese custom is to shave the head of a young child so that it will not gray prematurely. It is common for a Chinese baby to have one of its ears pierced immediately after birth to protect it against evil spirits.

The Indian, like her Malay sister, may wear a sharp nail in her hair to protect herself and her unborn child from evil spirits. In addition she may wear around her neck or waist containers enclosing prayers or perhaps a bracelet of ginger on her wrist.

Much importance is attached to the physical appearance of the Indian babe. From his birth the head and nose bridge will be molded to give them good shape. Arms and legs will be stretched for good physique. Soot in castor oil is applied to the eyebrows to cause growth. A black or silver cord tied around the stomach is believed to protect the child from evil spirits and dangers, and it is not uncommon to see a little dark-brown body running about, clad only in a black cord about the tummy. The first hair of an Indian baby is spoken of as “God’s hair” and must be cut only by a priest on a festival day.

Government spokesmen repeatedly urge the people to take advantage of the benefits of modern medicine. Throughout this country are to be found many medical centers and hospitals where treatment of disease can be obtained. However, because of the many superstitious beliefs prevalent among these diverse peoples that sickness and death are the result of attacks by spirits, many times modern medical treatment is refected in favor of the bomohs or local medicine men who practice the magical arts.

Only by prayer to the true God, Jehovah, and by complete reliance upon his Word, the Holy Bible, may one find protection from the real evil spirits, the demons under their leader Satan the Devil. Jehovah’s witnesses in Malaya are grateful that they can participate in the great educational work of enlightening human minds, freeing them of superstition by means of the Word of God.

Overwhelmed

•g Telling of the many magazines published for doctors these days, the New York Times Magazine of June 7, 1959, said: “In the United States alone, well

over 1,000 journals devoted to medicine as a whole or to its various branches are published. The total is higher still if journals in fields related to medicine, such as physiology, are counted. In fact, finding journals that can inform him of new developments is not the doctor’s problem. The hard part is choosing which journals to read. A medical editor recently pointed out that if a surgeon were to devote every evening in the month to reading only the principal journals of general surgery in the English language—all containing much information not duplicated .          in other journals—he could not get through one month’s issues before the next

crop descended upon him.”

Thirteen-Year Discrimination Ends

MONG the provisions made in a democracy, such as the United States, for the | well-being of its people is tax exemption for educational, religious and like philanthropic Institutions.

Thus the policy of the state of New York from an early day has been "to encourage, foster and protect corporate institutions of religious and literary character, because the religious, moral and intellectual culture afforded by them were deemed, as they are in fact, beneficial to the public, necessary to the advancement of civilization, and the promotion of the welfare of society. And, therefore, those Institutions have been relieved from the burden of taxation by statutory exemption.”

Certainly the preaching of the good news of God's kingdom by Jehovah’s witnesses, as foretold at Matthew 24:14, comes under such provisions. It is an educational work, that of teaching the people the truth of God’s Word. And it is a religious work. In the truest sense of the word theirs is a philanthropy, being done out of philia or "affection'’ and for anthropos, "man"; these being the two Greek roots of philanthropy.

However, the message Jehovah’s witnesses bring or the maimer in which they carry on their educational and religious philanthropies does not please certain people, for the Witnesses have been discriminated against time and again. An instance of this is the taxing of their Kingdom Farm property, consisting of 797 acres of farmland located in the Town of Lansing near Ithaca in upstate New York. While exempting the school located at Kingdom Farm, the local tax assessors have steadily refused to recognize the farm itself as being entitled to exemption, although its purpose is to provide food to feed those at the school and other ministers serving at the headquarters of Jehovah’s witnesses in Brooklyn. As a result the Witnesses have been paying town, school, county and state taxes on this farm for the past thirteen years.

Repeatedly, Jehovah's witnesses have sought relief from this unjust taxation, but to no avail. Among the ostensible reasons given for denying Kingdom Farm tax exemption was that the ministers of Jehovah serving there had not spent four years at some theological seminary, that they preached paft time and that they received contributions for the literature they placed with the people. Another was that not all the produce was consumed by the ministers, a small surplus of 5 or more percent being sold annually. Another was that the farm itself was not a part of the educational or religious activities of the Witnesses but was merely used to provide food for them. And, further, it was even argued that for the farm to be tax exempt it would have to be located on the same parcel of land on which stood the headquarters buildings.

All such befuddled thinking on the part of the counsel for the Town of Lansing tax assessors certainly betrayed a lack of objectivity, and may well raise questions as to what the motives were that prompted such reasoning. But whatever they were, they were frustrated, for the New York State Court of Appeals in Albany, on November 17, 1960, reversed the decisions of the lower courts, which had upheld the tax assessors of the Town of Lansing in their rulings.

The Appeals Court quoted liberally from legal precedents to show that Jehovah’s witnesses are indeed ministers and that the Kingdom Farm is not subject to taxation. Tax exemption, it pointed out, covered “any society ‘whose organization and object should be of the benevolent, charitable or missionary character falling within the general term "religious” as contrary and distinguished from private and secular institutions.’ This will serve as an answer,” the Court went on to say, "to the argument made or suggested here that the somewhat rudimentary training of these Witnesses and the unorthodox character of their religious beliefs and practices somehow removes them from the beneficent aim and coverage of this statute.” The Court also quoted from other decisions to show that the rest of the arguments used to deny tax exemption to Kingdom Farm were likewise’ invalid.

This fight against tax discrimination was not fought for any selfish purpose but in order that all the contributions made by Jehovah’s witnesses might be used in preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. This court battle therefore was part of the campaign for “defending and legally establishing . . . the good news,” first begun by the apostle Paul some nineteen centuries ago.—Phil. 1:7,

The fascinating, Versatile fabric

In the basement of the I Fiberglas center on Fifth Avenue in New York city, a young woman was completely swept away by what she bility of an exciting, relatively new fabric—one possessing properties and possibilities far beyond the reach of its predecessors. Already the new

saw. Before her were glass fabrics that never need dry cleaning or ironing; rot-proof, shrink-proof, stretch-proof fabrics! Each dazzling display flashed to her mind countless Ways in which bright new color and life could be brought Into her home. “I expected to see just a very limited selection,” she confessed modestly. “But look at this. It's fabulous!'' Her eyes flashed from row to row of fabrics in colors, designs and textures of unbelievable variety. Elegant prints, sheer bouclds and marquisettes, nubby weaves and airy casements, bright sun-toned solids—more than 5,000 styles to choose from! She was in a shopper’s paradise!

Not far away stood another woman deep in thought, as she weighed the matter of taste and pocketbook. “We have just bought ourselves a new house,” she said, “and, of course, the problem of decorating it comes up. That’s why I’m here. I figure that the window space in our new home will take at least thirty yards of material just for the drapes. Between $2 and $7 a yard—that’s not considering what it will cost to make them. You can see that it will run into a considerable sum, even at that.” But she was pleased with the material’s practicability.

Both of these women, along with thousands of others, admired the amazing flexicomer has inspired more magnificent designs and treatments than many fabrics have in their history! Besides, its fiber is as light as a feather and almost as soft as silk. You can light a match to it and it will not burn. You can soak it in water and it will not shrink. Tug on it and it will not stretch. Hang it up in a wet, dingy basement and it will not rot Expose it even to the brightest sunlight and it will not deteriorate—all this because the fiber is 100 percent glass.

No one really knows who discovered glass, but it is almost

certain that the man could not have been aware of its vast versatility. Today men take batches of sand, limestone and other mineral ingredients and melt them in a furnace. The molten glass that comes out is formed into various items, such as windows, bottles, glasses, marbles, and so forth.

Experience has taught us that ordinary window glass shatters quite easily when struck with a stone. But melt the broken pieces down and draw it out into several hundred miles of fiber. The threads become almost invisible to the eye. You can wrap them around your finger and weave them into a window screen. Now throw a stone at the screen and see what happens. Aha! This time the glass does not break!

A water glass is easy to shatter, but try to pull one apart. It is the ability of glass to withstand tremendous pull that largely accounts for its turning up In unexpected places as fiber. Just as your windows or drinking glasses will not stretch or shrink, rust, rot or wrinkle, so neither will material or fibers made of glass.

While glass fibers are mere infants In the family of fibers—hardly thirty years old—still the job performed by them to date has been man-size. Commenting on its many uses, one report states: “Inside attractively sonofaced ‘tiles’ for ceilings, glass fibers sound-condition rooms by absorbing useless reverberated noises, making the sounds we want to hear clearer and more pleasant. Also unseen in walls and roofs, glass fibers insulate homes and other buildings against heat and cold, sharply cutting exists of heating and air conditioning. Almost all home wiring, from the fuse box to the wall outlet is glass fiber-insulated.”

Glass in Plastics

This is hardly a beginning to the fiber’s versatility. Perhaps one of its most dramatic displays of strength is in the field of plastics. Chairs, for example, made only of plastic are as brittle as window glass. But add glass fibers In the plastic and the chair becomes stronger than steel, pound for pound. Some 629 New York city buses now are equipped with plastic seats reinforced with glass fibers.

The aircraft industry soars ahead of others in the use of glass-reinforced plastics. Glass and plastics practically surround passengers in the new commercial jets. The nose radome, the pilot’s foot warmer, the control cables, tables, door latches, passenger seats, cabin ceilings, and a host of other items are all glass reinforced. Today, glass fibers go into battery separator plates, protective underground and above-ground pipe wrap. They are used in disposable air filters and insect screening, as reinforcement for structural plastic products, industrial papers, and in what have you.

The Flberglas people say that a few years ago it would have been difficult to imagine boats with completely maintenance-free hulls, molded in one piece; or colored, translucent panels that could be sawed and nailed like wood to make patio roofs, decorative interior partitions or skylights that absorb infrared light; but they are realities today because of glass. Today we have glass fishing rods, sleds, skis, crash helmets for jet pilots, bullet-proof vests, auto bodies, airplane parts and many other products, “Put glass fibers in paper, and a few strands of paper tape, i-inch wide, can lift a 3,000-pound automobile. Reinforced paper is used instead of steel bands on cartons, as durable tarpaulins, freight car coverings and heavy-duty packaging.” Now these powerful fibers are being turned into yam for beautifying the inside of the home.

Glass into Yarn

Each year about 100,000,000 tiny crystal balls, approximately three-fourths of an inch in diameter are remelted into molten glass. In these pale-green marbles that resemble the marbles children have played with for centuries, men have found cloth, believe it or not.

The molten glass is driven through tiny holes at speeds up to three miles a minute. This stretches the glass liquid into long, thin fibers. The fibers are about one three-hundredths of the thickness of human hair! Out of one small marble alone comes ninety-five miles of filament. The filaments are twisted or plied together and the glass yarn is ready for weaving. The weavers receive the yarn and handle it like any other.

The fabric is often so soft that it is hard to believe that it is glass. Some of the yams are shot through with jet streams of air to blow up or fluff the yarn and give it its bulk. The fabric is put through a special heat treatment at 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, a process known as “Coronizing.” This treatment softens the woven fabric and gives it its fluffiness and makes it feel like cloth. This same heat treatment makes the fabric permanently wrinkle-proof and does away with the backbreaking job of ironing.

At this point the cloth can be dyed or printed with a wide range of designs, styles and colors. Finally the material is baked at 320 degrees Fahrenheit to set the color and give buyers cloth with almost perfect washability. Since each fiber is made from glass, dirt cannot possibly penetrate it, so the material is as washable as a glass or a dish and just about as durable.

Curtains and Draperies

Glass fiber draperies and curtains have proved especially practical. They transmit sunlight like a stained-glass window and, at the same time, are soft to touch and delicate in appearance. They are also easy to maintain. For example, when the time comes to take the curtains or drapes down to clean, simply dip them in mild soapy water and squeeze the material to free the dirt particles. Since the dirt remains on the surface of the fabric, a mild detergent is all that is necessary to loosen the dirt, without the aid of hot water or rubbing. Then merely rinse the material in clear water and hang it up to dry, or roll the curtain up in a towel first to remove excess moisture, then hang it over a shower-curtain rod or clothesline to dry.

Fiber-glass drapes are easier to clean than blinds. According to a Los Angeles newspaper, the supervisors of a new $24,-000,000 courthouse figure that the maintenance cost of fiber-glass drapery installations is only one tenth that of blinds. There is no need to dry-clean fiber-glass drapes. However, if you insist on having glass draperies cleaned commercially, then ask to have them "wet-washed" or "wet-cleaned.” Request that they be treated in the same manner as a fine woolen blanket. The danger of sending glass fabrics out to commercial cleaners is that the solvents used in the commercial process can be harmful to dyes in the fabric. And, too, the tumbling action of the cleaning process can be abrasive in nature. For the same reason, it is not recommended that glass fabrics be washed in a washing machine.

When hanging glass draperies, be sure the fabric clears the floor, ceiling or any projection, such as window sills and radiators. The movement on a traverse rod will not damage the material. Since glass fabrics do not sun-rot and are highly fade-resistant, there is no need to have them lined. However, if you choose to line the cloth, then make sure the lining is preshrunk and washable. While it is not necessary to use weights to improve the appearance of glass drapes, yet if weights are used, see that they are relatively light and are covered with cotton or similar material.

While glass fabrics are ideal for draperies, they are not recommended for bedspreads, tablecloths or upholstery because of the possibility of abrasion.

Of course, the fabric can be sewed. But first cut off a practice piece and run it into the sewing machine several times, until you find the proper pressure adjustment. Then sew with ordinary cotton thread, but with a sharp needle and with slightly looser tensions than usual.

As you reflect upon the many ways glass is used today, think how bountifully God has provided for man the resources of the earth, even "the hidden treasures of the sands.” (Deut. 33:19, footnote) Beyond Armageddon in God’s new world, an eternity will unlock many more secrets that will move man to glorify God for making his home and life so beautiful.—Ps. 115:16.

EVER since the end of World War II the nations of earth have been more and more sharply dividing themselves into two opposing camps: the Eastern and the Western bloc. The Eastern bloc, headed by Soviet Russia, advocates Marxist communism as the panacea for mankind’s political, economic and religious ills. The Western bloc, headed by the United States, recommends its own political ideologies and gives more or less lip service to religion. The East refers to the West as “capitalist” and the West says that the East practices “godless communism.” Both sides are extremely suspicious of each other and the state of their relations is that of a “cold war.”

Because each side feels very strongly about its ideology, each jumps to the conclusion that any who disagree with them must be of the opposing camp—a tool of the capitalists on the one hand, or a stooge of the Communists on the other hand. Thus when Jehovah’s witnesses distributed a special issue of this magazine telling about the Roman Catholic Church in the twentieth century, many irate Roman Catholics accused them of being Communists. Likewise, because they published certain facts regarding the designs of the heads of the Eastern bloc they were accused of being capitalists.

Obviously, Jehovah’s witnesses cannot be both Communist and capitalist at the same time, can they? But they can, at the same time, be neither Communist or capitalist, but something entirely different, and that is exactly the case with them; they are 100 percent Christian.

That Christians should take their religion so seriously as to set themselves apart from the rest of the people of their own nation or of the bloc in which they live seems exceedingly strange to those about them. Most persons professing to be Christians seem to have no difficulty at all in reconciling their idea of Christianity with their political ideology, be it the communism of the East or the capitalism of the West. Why not? Apparently because they are Christians in name only. They ignore the pattern set by Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, and the'example of his early followers as recorded in the Christian Greek Scriptures.

When Satan the Devil offered to Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, at the end of his forty-day fast in the wilderness, Jesus rejected the offer. When his own people, the Jews, wanted to make him king by force, he “withdrew again into the mountain all alone.” He was not at all interested in political rule. And when he was on trial before Pontius Pilate, he plainly told that Roman governor where he stood in regard to the governments of this old world: “My kingdom is no part of this world. If my kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews. But, as it is, my kingdom is not from this source.”—Matt. 4:9, 10; John 6:15; 18:36.

Because of his keeping separate from the world Jesus was hated, and so will his followers be if they follow his example. “You will be hated by all the nations on account of my name,” he said. “If you were part of the world, the world would be fond of what is its own. Now because you are no part of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, on this account the world hates you.” And regarding his followers he said in prayer to his heavenly Father: “They are no part of the world just as I am no part of the world.”—Matt. 24:9; John 15:19; 17:16.

The apostles and disciples of Jesus followed his example. When brought before the authorities, Peter and the other apostles said: “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.” Why? Because, as the apostle Paul wrote: “As for us, our citizenship exists in the heavens.” And the disciple James wrote: “The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world.” And again, “Adulteresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.” —Acts 5:29; Phil. 3:20; Jas. 1:27; 4:4.

True Christians today therefore can no more take sides in the cold war between East and West than Jesus and his disciples took sides in the political strife between the Romans and the Jews. How can they when they have their own heavenly King, termed in the Scriptures the “King of kings and Lord of lords,” and their own heavenly government, the kingdom of God, to which they owe their allegiance?—Rev. 19:16.

Concerning their King and kingdom it was long ago prophesied: “For there has been a child born to us, there has been a son given to us, and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Father for eternity, Prince of Peace. To the abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end.” That Is why Christians pray, “Let your kingdom come,” and why they make the most important thing in their lives the advocating and preaching, not of the ideology either of the East or of the West, but of the good news of God’s kingdom.—Isa. 9: 6,7; Matt. 6:10; 24:14.

That Christians can be of neither the Eastern or the Western bloc is further indicated by their being likened to spiritual soldiers engaged in a spiritual warfare: “As a right kind of soldier of Christ Jesus take your part in suffering evil. No man serving as a soldier involves himself in the commercial businesses of life, in order that he may meet the approval of the one who enrolled him as a soldier.” “For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful by God for overturning strongly entrenched things. For we are overturning reasonings and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are bringing every thought into captivity to make it obedient to the Christ.” Since the ideologies of both East and West are opposed to God’s kingdom, a Christian soldier cannot take sides with either.—2 Tim. 2:3,4; 2 Cor. 10:4, 5.

While thus keeping separate from the world, Christians must fulfill their commission to make known the truth, regarding both the blessings of God’s kingdom and its execution of the wicked. Jesus said that "he that is not on my side is against me,” and those who are against him he will dash to pieces as the vessel of a potter.—Matt. 12:30; Ps. 2:9.

At the same time Christians keep themselves informed on what is going on in the world, in both the Eastern and the Western bloc. But in doing this they do not take sides; they remain objective. They at all times keep themselves clean from the world by remaining 100 percent for Jehovah God and his kingdom by Christ

Coup in Ethiopia

<$> On December 14 Emperor Haile Selassie I, who bears the titles of King of Kings, the conquering Lion of Judah, Defender of the Christian Faith and the Chosen of God, found himself without a kingdom. Haile Selassie, whose name means "the Power of the Holy Trinity,” was in Brazil at the time on a state visit. However, a few days later he was back in Ethiopia and still emperor.

Algeria in Turmoil

<$> President Charles de Gaulle of France paid a visit to Algeria December 9. His presence there set off wild demonstrations. Fighting that lasted for days broke out between Moslems and European settlers. The death toll in Algeria rose to 124, of whom 116 were Moslems and eight Europeans. On December 13 De Gaulle returned to Paris more determined than ever to push ahead with his policy of autonomy and then self-determination for Algeria.

Canterbury Talks with Pope

<g> On December 2 Geoffrey Fisher, the archbishop of Canterbury, called upon Pope John XXIII In Rome. The archbishop Was the first head of the Anglican Church to do so since before the Reformation. Dr. Fisher said: "I am in Rome neither to boast nor to complain, but to greet Pope John in the courtesy of Christian brotherhood." The talks, which lasted sixty-five minutes, were termed "cordial.”

Priest Heckler Cleared

<$> Giuseppe di Bella was charged in court with heckling a Roman Catholic priest during a church sermon at Tre-castagni. A Sicilian court dismissed the charges, stating that it was no offense to heckle the priest if he was talking politics. Local elections were being held in Sicily at the time and the priest appeared to be politicking from the pulpit. Giuseppe reportedly shouted: "Don’t hold a rally—get on with the mass.”

Shortage of Ministers

The United Church Observer pointed out that there is a “desperate” shortage of ministers in the United Church of Canada. There has been a steady decline in the number of recruits for the ministry In the past three years, from 185 to 166 to 120. The Observer described the present shortage as "frightening."

Army of Volunteers

The end of British military conscription Is in sight. The last conscripts have received their calllng-up papers. By the end of 1962 these men will have been released from the army. Then the army will be, for the first time in 21 years, made up entirely of volunteers. Since June 3, 1939, over 5,000,-000 men have been conscripted. The British War Office stated that it will have to manage on an army of 165,000 men, which appears to be enough to keep the NATO commitments.

Telephones for Italians

<$> About $544,000,000 (340,000,-000,000 lire) will be spent in Italy over the next five years to bring her telephone system up to Western Europe’s standards. Nine out of each 100 inhabitants are expected to have a telephone by 1963. For the first time the telephone will be brought in to hundreds of small villages.

Snow Cripples New York

<$> From Virginia to Nova Scotia a howling blizzard raged December 10. When it halted two days later, from seventeen to twenty inches of snow had fallen in New York city and along the Atlantic coast. It was the heaviest early-season snowfall in U.S. Weather Bureau records for the area and the worst snowstorm in thirteen years. Ten thousand men and 3,000 pieces of heavy snow equipment were being used to clear the snow from New York city’s 6,045 miles of streets. The death toll related to the storm was 286 persons.

Photos of First A-Bomb

With the reluctant approval of the U.S. State Department, the Atomic Energy Commission, on December 6, released photographs of the types of bombs that .were dropped on Japan in World War IL The uranium bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, was described as 28 inches in diameter, 120 Inches long and about 9,000 pounds in weight. Whereas the plutonium bomb, which was exploded over Nagasaki three days later, was 60 inches in diameter, 128 inches long and weighed about 10,000 pounds. The death toll in the bombings was about 100,000,

Cut-Rate Prices

<$> The Soviet Union is undercutting the Western world, particularly the United States, on the foreign markets. For example, Soviet oil is being offered at prices that U.S, producers cannot match. Soviet sugar is being sold on world markets at sharp discounts. Prevailing prices are $98 a ton —Russia’s price, $84 a ton. Soviet lathes sell in Western Europe for $3,000. The same lathe in the U.S. costs European buyers about $10,000. A boring mill in the U.S. is priced at $46,000. The Soviet Union is selling the same mill for $21,000. The Russians are expected to grab the foreign market in machine tools away from the U.S. within the next six years, and it is easy to see why.

Egyptian Cotton Growth

<$> The Egyptian Region’s Ministry of Agriculture has reported expanding the area under cultivation with specially selected cotton seeds. In 1959 this area reached a record of 441,000 acres as compared with 45,000 acres in 1953. Cotton yarn and textiles export climbed from 19,000 tons in 1952 to 50,000 tons in 1960. Cotton represents 70 percent of Egypt’s total exports and is expected to rise to 90 percent.

Flights from East to West

<$> Persons fleeing from East Germany numbered 200,000 in 1960, a total of nearly 3,000,000 since the end of World War II. The figure was 44 percent higher than in 1959. As a result, West Germany's population has increased 8.3 percent during the past 10 years, while East Germany has suffered a decrease of 5.4 percent in the same period. East Germany is the only country in Europe with a declining population.

land for the Landless

<$> The Malayan government has set aside the equivalent of $16,170,000 for land clearing, fertilizer and farmer subsidies. About 4,000 landless families are scheduled to receive ten-acre plots.

Books to India

<$> The Russians are said to be sending more than 4,000,000 Communist books into India each year, while only 1,350,000 copies of the Bible were distributed there in 1959. The problem is not to get the people to read the Bible, the Canadian Bible Society said, but to provide them with Bibles in languages they can read and in quantities that are needed and in a price range the people can afford to pay.

Supersonic Transports

<$> By 1970, it has been predicted, transport airplanes will be taking passengers from New York to Cairo, a distance of more than 5,000 miles, in about five hours’ flying time. Such transports are now being built by the Russians, according to American plane builders. The airplanes are designed to hold 150 passengers, fly no less than 2,000 miles, at altitudes between 60,000 to 80,000 feet, and travel at rates two or three times the speed of sound.

Easing Hypertension

•$> Japanese doctors have found a way to ease tension. Instead of bathing the entire body, only the arms and legs of the body are bathed. This method has lowered the blood pressure of 200 patients, according to Dr. Takashi Sugi yama of the Tohoku University School of Medicine. The partial bath, carried on each day for a week invigorates the peripheral flow of blood and aids circulation. Wholebody bathing was said to be bad for those with hypertension, because water pressure about the abdomen helps increase blood pressure, not lessen it.

Transfusions Dangerous

More people die of blood transfusions today than of appendicitis, complained Dr. Carl W. Walter, Harvard professor of surgery. The deaths are bad enough, he said, but there is no way of telling how many patients, after having been given a blood transfusion, later come down with a dangerous attack of hepatitis.

Youth Fitness

<*> A recent report compiled by the American Association of Health, Physical Education and Recreation shows children in the United States inferior in physical fitness to British youth. The British state that American children spend too much time "watching their team play,” while the British "encourage the children to play themselves.”

Having Children After 3S

Dr. D. Frank Kaltreider of the University of Maryland School of Medicine said that, while there are excellent reports of women having babies at 35 and over, still he feels that “thirty-five” is a little elderly for that sort of thing any more. Older mothers, he said, are plagued with high blood pressure or hypertension. The incidence of diabetes, he said, was three times that of younger women who had borne children. Older mothers are more likely to have twins and large babies than younger women; also the risk of death is more likely in older women

Stop-the-Rot Campaign

<$> The British are in the midst of a “stop-the-rot” campaign to fight tooth decay among British children. Surveys show that five out of six British children have bad teeth, and three out of ten rarely use a toothbrush. Among twelveyear-olds only one in two hundred has sound teeth. Unless parents take immediate action, “one in four under five will need false teeth by the time they are twenty.” Three main reasons are listed for the prevalence of tooth rot, namely; Too many sloppy foods, not enough apples and not enough raw vegetables. The report stated: “There is nothing like raw fruit or vegetable juices for cleaning the teeth.” A good brushing also helps.

Why People Shiver

<$> Experiments conducted at the medical school of the University of California at Los Angeles reveal that a tiny part of the brain in the rear portion of the hypothalamus is what touches off shivering when one becomes cold. If this region is destroyed, one is unable to shiver. Physiologist Douglas Stuart pointed out that shivering is nature's way of keeping one warm, for it produces body heat without one’s doing physical exercise.

Too Many Churches?

The Chancellor of the Worcester diocese is Quoted as laving said at Worcester that ‘there are far too many churches in this country EGreat Britain] and I should not be shy to make an order resulting in a reduction of their number.” A fellow countryman replied: “Until now I have always understood that the chief problem of the Church of England was not an excess number of churches but a shortage of Christians.”

Khrushchev and the Pope

<$> Flans have been discussed for a Khrushchev visit to the "Eternal City,” Rome. It is no secret that Khrushchev has wanted to see the pope. Of course, the Italian Catholic party is opposed to the idea, but the Italian Communist party, the second strongest in the Italian Parliament, is all for it. Some suggest that the pope would avoid such a meeting, but many feel that Pope John XXIII is just as curious to meet Russia’s Khrushchev as Khrushchev is to meet the pope.

A Snail’s Pace—How Fast?

The University of Maryland recently discovered that a snail travels along at an average speed of 23 inches an hour, that It can pull items 200 times It own weight and slide along the sharp edge ofra razor blade without getting cut.

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