Church Responsibility in Our Critical Tinies

PAGE 5

No Common Market for Britain

PAGE 8

Parents Can Be Cruel

PAGE 13

Those Terrifying Tornadoes

PAGE 17

APRIL 8. 1963

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Volume XLIV                        London, England, April 8, 1963                            Number 7

CAN a Jew become a Gentile or a Gentile become a Jew? Just what is a Jew?

Time magazine for December 7,1962, says: Modern Israel has never been able to answer the basic questions, “What is a Jew? Does a Jew become Jewish by birth, or by religious observance, or by mere inclination?” Of course, Jewish authorities could always turn to the Bible for the definition, but they have preferred not to. Time says: “Aware that providing an answer could rip apart the government’s delicately balanced coalition of agnostic secularists and ultra-religious rabbis, the Knesset has never officially defined a Jew, although the word appears in many laws.” Immigration authorities are said to use “an administrative order that defines a Jew as anybody who professes to be one and has not embraced another religion." Does this mean that a Jew converted to Christianity can no longer be considered a Jew? If not a Jew, what is he? Those questions appeared before the Israeli Supreme Court for answering.

Oswald Rufeisen, a Polish-born Orthodox Jew, was converted to Catholicism. Thereafter he joined the Carmelite Order in Poland. After that he gave up his Polish passport to come to Israel, but was refused entry. Israeli officials argued that

Rufeisen was no longer a Jew, but an apostate. Rufeisen stated that his ethnic origin is and always will be Jewish. “If I am not a Jew, what am I?” he asked. “I did not accept Christianity to leave my people. It added to my Judaism. I feel as a Jew." He pointed to the Israeli Law of Return, which states: “Every Jew shall be entitled to come to Israel as an immigrant.” But Rufeisen was not allowed to enter. He took his case to the Supreme Court of the land, demanding that the Israeli government show why he should not be permitted to enter as a Jew.

Israeli State Attorney Zvi Bar-Niv declared: “It is not enough for the applicant to say he feels Jewish. Jewishness is not a club based on feeling.” Zvi Bar-Niv insisted that “an Israeli may be Christian, Moslem or atheist. But ‘Jew’ connotes not belonging to any other religion. The attribute of a Jew is a common culture whether you observe it or not.” On the other hand, Shalom Yaron, counsel for Rufeisen, stressed: “The time has come for people in Israel to be like all others. Since the state considers an atheist a Jew, what is the logic in not considering a converted Jew a Jew?”

Then in December, 1962, the Israeli Supreme Court handed down its decision, ruling that a Roman Catholic cannot be a Jew. Judge Moshe Silberg suggested, according to TimCj December 14, 1962, that “the priest might still be considered a Jew as the term is understood in rabbinical courts. But the Law of Return, he added, is secular legislation, and must be interpreted according to secular principles: 'The question is what is the ordinary Jewish meaning of the term Jew, and does it include an apostate.’ Said the Judge: ‘From the extreme Orthodox to complete freethinkers, there is one thing common to all people who dwell in Zion: we do not sever ourselves from the historic past and we do not deny the heritage of our forefathers.’ There are some ‘differences of nuance and approach’ among Jewish thinkers, but ‘the lowest common denominator is that no one can regard an apostate as belonging to the Jewish people.’ ”

Does that mean that a Christian can never be a Jew? What does the Bible have to say about that? The truth is that the Bible views this matter quite differently. It states that Jehovah would “conclude with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant” The old covenant was to pass away, but the new one would be made with those begotten with God’s spirit. God would put his law within them, and in their heart he would write it (Jer. 31:31-34) Thus these begotten with God’s spirit would become God’s children, true Judeans indeed, spiritual Jews, that is, praisers of Jehovah God.

The apostle Peter was both a natural and a spiritual Jew. Paul refers to Peter as a Jew, though he was also a Christian, which shows that a Christian can also be a natural Jew. (Gal. 2:14) What is more, Paul calls uncircumcised non-Jews “Israelites” or Jews. (Gal. 6:15, 16) He tells Gentile Christian converts that they are “Abraham’s seed.” “If you belong to Christ,' you are really Abraham’s seed, heirs with reference to a promise.” (Gal. 3:29) Jesus Christ was of the tribe of Judah. All his anointed followers who hold to him as God’s promised King or the Seed of promise are therefore Judeans or Jews in a spiritual sense.

Paul argues that one may be a Jew in name and circumcised in the flesh, yet if he fails to meet God’s requirements he is not a true Jew in the sight of God. On the other hand, one outwardly a Gentile may be counted by faith as a Jew inwardly, a spiritual Israelite. Paul makes this plain, saying: “He is not a Jew who is one on the outside, nor is circumcision that which is on the outside upon the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one on the inside, and his circumcision is that of the heart by spirit, and not by a written code. The praise of that one comes, not from men, but from God.”—Rom. 2:28, 29.

In this same letter Paul argues: “Not all who spring from Israel are really ‘Israel.’ Neither because they are Abraham’s seed are they all children, but: ‘What will be called “your seed” will be through Isaac.’ That is, the children in the flesh are not really the children of God, but the children by the promise are counted as the seed.” —Rom. 9:6-8.

It becomes plain that spiritual Israel is a “new nation” in which the separating wall between Jew and Gentile has been removed. (Eph. 2:19-21) Before God, therefore, all men stand the same, be they Jew or Gentile, bond or free. None are true Jews unless God brings them into the new covenant by means of his holy spirit, Those in this way called and begotten are the true Israel of God.—Gal. 3:28, 29.

FOR many centuries the nations of the world that profess to be Christian have been undec the moral leadership of religious organizations that are often referred to collectively as “the church.” Her members form the bulk of the populations of these nations. From childhood through adulthood she has been their religious instructor and the guardian of their morals. In view of the profound influence she is in position to exercise on their thinking and their morals, why is it that they are manifesting serious moral deterioration? Why is it that in Christendom the times have become extremely critical?

In the United States, where it is reported that growth of church membership has been exceeding the rate of population increase for about fifteen years, an alarming increase of crime has also been taking place. During 1961 there were four serious crimes every minute. For the past five years crime in the United States has increased five times faster than the growth of its population. What is the reason for this when church membership has been rising? Should not greater church influence result in less crime?

Strangely enough, statistics show that most of those who commit crimes are church members. This was revealed as early as 1926 by a study of prison populations that was made by three Franciscan priests who were prison chaplains. After mentioning that only 40 percent of the population in 1926 had church affiliations,

Is she providing moral leadership!

they wrote: “The sixty percent profess no religion scarcely ten percent of our prison population, whereas the forty percent who profess adherence to religion are represented by close upon ninety percent of our prison population.”¹ Since 1940 church membership has increased 76 percent and crime has risen 128 percent. It is of interest to note that, according to a report by the Bureau of Prisons of the U.S. Department of Justice, 26.4 percent of all Federal prisoners in 1951 were Roman Catholics, and that was out of a population in which only 19 percent of the people claimed to be Catholic.

Expressing concern over the moral breakdown in England, where the church also has had a strong influence, the headmaster of a school stated: “The moral standards among young people are declining rapidly. . . . We all welcome the increasing material prosperity, but I could wish that politicians were prepared to bring home to the nation that in many ways our standards have declined to a frightening extent.”² This is indicated to some extent by the 6.5-percent rise in indictable offenses in the Metropolitan Police area of London during 1961.

Moral decay among professed Christians of Germany broke into the news when the newspaper magazine Parade of November 25, 1962, made the following report about West Berlin: “A wave of vice is sweeping West Berlin. Residents who feel they should throw all traditional morality to the winds in a world gone mad have been conducting a series of parties so wild, so depraved, that even the sophisticated West German vice squads find them shocking." Moral deterioration is not confined to the “unknowns" in Christendom. It extends into the ranks of national leaders. When Senator Kenneth Keating deplored American adult delinquency that is evident in payoffs, kickbacks, theft of union dues, and so forth, the New York Journal American of April 24, 1962, observed: “The Senator tactfully pointed no finger, but he needs look no further than the U.S. Congress to find evidence of the kind of adult delinquency which is weakening the moral fiber of this nation. Newspapers have recently carried innumerable reports of junk-eteering legislators who pad their government expense accounts far more brazenly than a private businessman would ever dare. ... A few Congressmen in recent times have been jailed for accepting bribes and kickbacks. Others who have listed their own front porches and bedrooms as offices, in order to collect unearned rent from Uncle Sam, suffered no legal penalty. Many legislators, when exposed by the press, have shruggingly admitted that their wives draw regular government pay as secretaries or assistants, but never go near their offices.”

There have been many exposes of political figures who have accepted expensive gifts and outright bribes, in many cases from criminals. The Senate Crime Investigating Committee under Estes Kefauver discovered evidence of corruption and connivance at almost all levels of government. What accounts for this moral decay in nations of Christendom that have been under church influence for a very long time?

Church Responsibility

Claiming to be the teacher and guardian of Christian morals, the church has the responsibility to follow Christ's example of integrity to God and to divine laws. As his professed follower, she is obligated to obey his commands. But when we look at her history, we fail to find her following his steps closely.—1 Pet. 2:21.

Jesus said that his followers were “no part of the world.” (John 15:19) Ignoring this statement, the church has, for centuries, made herself very much a part of the world. She has sought status in the world, has crowned worldly rulers, has become involved in politics, sought public popularity and in some cases given support to cruel dictators. Such things Jesus never did. He was so unpopular with the world that it murdered him.

Admitting the worldliness of the church, Methodist bishop Hazen G. Werner said; “We who are to overcome the world have been overcome by the world.”³ That could not have been said of Jesus and his disciples. Unlike Jesus, the church is more concerned with pleasing the world than she is with pleasing God. Regarding this The Christian Century remarked that twentieth-century Christianity is “overanxious to placate and accommodate the state and the world at large.”*

How can the church fulfill its responsibility to provide Christian moral leadership when she has become part of the world and is cravenly trying to be pleasing to it? Instead of striving to conform to the Scriptural image of Christianity, she is striving to conform to the world’s warped image of Christianity. This is setting a bad example for the people. Is it any wonder, then, that she has abjectly submitted to nationalistic demands that are counter to God’s Word? German clergyman Martin Niemoller admitted the failure of the church to stand firmly for Christian principles against the pressure of Nazism when he said: “So it is that the church, with its knowledge, carries the chief measure of guilt; for she saw most clearly what was happening, what was developing. She showed more fear of man than of the living God. We the church must beat our breasts and say: My guilt! My guilt! My enormous guilt!’’⁵

Church Failure

With such a poor example of upholding Christian principles, how can the church imbue respect for Christian morals among her members? How can she inspire them to stand firmly for what is righteous when she fearfully has compromised with wicked rulers? How can she provide them with a standard for right conduct when she is overly anxious to be pleasing to the people and inoffensive to all regardless of their personal conduct? How can she be the guardian of morals when she seldom if ever takes disciplinary action against immoral members? What action has she taken against those members who are filling the prisons because of crime? What action has she taken against those members who are morally unclean? What action has she taken against those members guilty of political corruption and unethical business practices? Since such things are not becoming to Christians, how can she tolerate them if she is truly the leader and guardian of the people’s morals?

In the Christian organization of the first century persons guilty of bad conduct were disciplined and, when unrepentant, were thrown out of the congregation. The apostle Paul instructed the Corinthian congregation “to quit mixing in company with anyone called a brother that is a fornicator or a greedy person or an idolater or a re-vller or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man. . .. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves." (1 Cor. 5:11, 13) In some countries where over 90 percent of the population are members of the church, immorality is rampant. Unmarried couples are permitted to live together and raise families without any disciplinary action from the church.

Unlike the early Christian organization, Christendom does not stand firmly for the high moral standards of the Scriptures. What else can her influence do, then, but contribute to a general moral breakdown? Clergyman David W. Barry confessed: “Today there is little to distinguish a church member from a nonmember in most communities.”⁶ Also admitting the church’s moral failure, clergyman J. Irwin Miller said: “The church seems to be indifferent to group morals.”⁷

Having failed to fulfill her responsibility to guard the morals of her members and to provide them with moral leadership, the church has no reason to be puzzled at the rise in crime along with a rise in church membership. So in the face of the church’s failure to fulfill her responsibility toward God and toward the people, persons who strive to be true followers of Jesus Christ must separate themselves from Christendom’s religious systems, but not from God. Sincere persons are, in large numbers, associating with His witnesses, who have taken up the task of educating the people in Christian morals and setting them an example of uncompromising integrity to the laws of God. These Christian witnesses of Jehovah God have become, as Jesus said, “the light of the world.”—Matt. 5:14, 16.

references

1 Crime and Religion: A study of criminological facts and problems, by Leo Kalmer, pp. 19, 20.

2 Daily Express (England), June 17. 1961. a The Houston Post. October 1, 1961. 4 The Christian Century, February 27. 1952. o Dana News Agency, December 6, 1945. e The New York Times, August 10. 1959. r Toronto Daily Star, November 3, 1961,

ONE “No!” and dreams of a grand “Atlantic community” of the West were, at least for the present, brought to an end. In its place was a rift in the Western alliance.

On January 29, 1963,          j|

De Gaulle, who speaks for        H

France, stood firm for his objections to British membership in the European Economic Community (EEC.), perhaps better known as the Common Market, which now comprises France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This end. ed Britain’s chances to enter Market, at least, for the time being. Europe, Britain and the United States were shocked. Some called the French stand “a bitter blow, but not a mortal one.” The U.S. State De

partment termed France’s rebuff of Britain “most unfortunate.” British Prime Minister Macmillan assailed the action as “backward.” He said that the French government seems to think “one nation can dominate Europe.” Belgium’s Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak said: “The Common Market will continue to live, but the European spirit has been badly hit.”

Outside of Europe, especially within the countries of the British Commonwealth, the reaction was different. There were few if any tears shed. Their markets would have been affected measurably by closer British ties with the European continent. So their support of Britain’s entry into the

Market was by no means enthusiastic. But why all the

distress about the “British rebuff” when for at least four years Britain has resisted entry into the Common Market?

j What were De Gaulle’s ---' reasons for blocking the British bid? How will Britain and the United States be affected by the French stand? Out of the stench and filth of World War II there arose a new Europe. It was a divided Europe, divided politically and economically. The formidable problem from the outset was: How could Europe be united? Instead of trying to unite Europe through military strength, as Napoleon, Bismark and others had tried to do, men of Europe set about to build this

unity by building up diplomatic relations and mediating freer access among nations.

Foremost with a solution to the problem was M. Jean Monnet, the French economist, who idealized the gradual communing of all Western Europe’s economic resources and labor. He envisaged a common market system, eliminating tariffs, quotas and other trade deterrents. He won men from Germany, Italy, France and the three Benelux countries to his side and urged that a Common Market was the only solution. Adenauer from West Germany, Spaak from Belgium and others agreed. So, after years of negotiating, on March 25, 1957, the Treaty of Rome was signed, legalizing the European Economic Community or the Common Market. A new Europe came into being when the Common Market began operating on January 1, 1958.

However, during all these negotiations, Britain, the once-great international trader and richest nation of the last two centuries, kept to herself. After four years of trading outside the Common Market, she reluctantly made a bid to enter the Market. Why? How would this have affected the Commonwealth countries? This was no easy decision. One Australian editor said: "Britain’s decision must be numbered among the historic pronouncements of the century.”

Why Britain Wanted to Be In

Britain realized that she was in acute economic and political trouble. British influence, power and prestige were fading and her marketing position was rapidly deteriorating. In just five years the Common Market has become the world’s greatest trading community. Its imports from outside member nations have increased by 39 percent and its exports by 30 percent. Even more impressive has been its rise in productivity, which has increased 19 percent, against 12 percent for Britain.

“Britain’s prosperity,” says Time, for January 25, 1963, “is poised on a knife edge. In the past decade, its economy has grown only 2£% per year on an average; in 1962 it rose only 1%, whereas in the Common Market even a 4% growth rate is considered disappointing. Since 1950, balance-of-payments crises have brought Britain to the brink of bankruptcy six times. By draconian measures the government succeeded last year in boosting exports 3% for a new $11 billion postwar record, helping to maintain gold and hard-currency reserves. However, it was only able to achieve stability by cutting back credit and curbing industrial expansion. ‘Other countries have had their economic miracles,’ sighs a Manchester journalist. ‘Britain has had its crises.’ ”

For five years she wondered whether the Common Market would serve Britain’s best interests. The Market has gone ahead by leaps and bounds. It has reduced the tariff walls among member nations by 50 percent, more than two years ahead of schedule. It has almost doubled its trade. British Foreign Secretary Lord Home said that if Britain wants to remain the leading partner in the Commonwealth and fulfill her overseas commitments she will have to produce another 1500m a year in exports. This could mean only one thing—vigorous trading with Europe. Speaking to eleven Commonwealth prime ministers, Britain’s Prime Minister Macmillan said: “Britain cannot isolate herself from Europe.” He told India’s Jawaharlal Nehru: “Our prospects of supplying aid are a hundredfold greater inside the Market than outside.” Britain could not do this by staying out of the mainstream of European economic life. Once inside the Common Market, Britain could boost its exports. It also had hope for a heavy influx of investment capital from the United States and other foreign companies eager to have a British toehold in the Common Market. The Commonwealth countries were assured by Macmillan that Britain would join the Market only ‘if Commonwealth interests were adequately safeguarded.’

Reactions

Many Commonwealth prime ministers were not solely concerned for commercial interests; they feared a gradual disbanding of the Commonwealth and possibly the Monarchy. Apart from the cry of “severing Commonwealth ties,” the obvious objection to Britain’s entry was purely a financial one.

Prime Ministers John Diefenbaker of Canada and Robert Menzies of Australia were foremost in their opposition to Britain’s entry. Diefenbaker warned: “We have spent 100 years resisting the magnetic pull of the United States. This will put us in danger of being sucked into their orbit. The whole position of Commonwealth relations will be changed.” Menzies argued that loss of the tariff-free British market for their exports would mean that Commonwealth nations would have to finance Britain’s Common Market membership. Said he: “Clearly, part of the initial price, and perhaps the final price, is to be paid by us!" Menzies was not against Britain’s entry in an effort to protect her own economy, but he was against her joining at the sacrifice of the Commonwealth countries. Australia was concerned about having to seek new markets for her products. New Zealand, Ceylon, Pakistan and other Commonwealth nations were likewise concerned.

Yet, for all their protestations, most of the Commonwealth leaders felt sure that Britain was going in, no matter what they said, and no matter whom it hurt. The honeymoon was over. When opposition became strong, Macmillan made this plain. He warned that a Britain excluded from Europe would become a pygmy “in a world of giants.” He admitted that Britain would ultimately have to act in its own best interests—not the Commonwealth’s. “After all,” said he, “we’re independent too.”

The De Gaulle Stand

Few envisioned Britain outside the Common Market. However, Charles de Gaulle was cool toward Britain’s entry from the beginning. Once he told the British: “Come into the European Community without reservation—economic or political—or stay out!” De Gaulle found it difficult to see how a country like Britain that is “insular” and “maritime” could successfully link itself with Europe. But even if Britain could make the bridge, he wondered if it would not change the nature of the original concept of a close-knit Community by opening the door to other nations like Denmark, Sweden and Norway, until in the end there would be a colossal Atlantic community under American leadership that would completely swallow up the European Community.

De Gaulle suggested that the British transform themselves into “Europeans.” Newsweek, January 28, 1963, says that by this he meant for the British to loosen their close ties with the United States and divest themselves of their Commonwealth links, or accept some form of associated membership in the Common Market that would give them no political voice in the alliance. France was not really interested in an Atlantic partnership with the United States at the helm. It is more interested in a Europe led by a France that would be strong enough militarily and economically to stand up to both the United States and Russia.

For some time it has been known that De Gaulle’s desire is to build an independent “third force,” Europe on the foundations of the six-nation European Economic Community. He appears willing to face possible economic consequences stemming from his tactics. What France has in mind, said De Gaulle, is “a strictly European construction.”                      .

A Shock to Americans

It may come as a shock to Americans, but criticism of the United States’ policies is on the rise in France. It has not as yet reached the stage of “Yankee, go home,” but the undercurrent is present, nevertheless. U.S. News c£ World Report, February 4, 1963, says: “There is a growing amount of anti-Americanism based on a fear of U.S. investments in France and Europe. Commenting on this phase, the newspaper ‘La Nation’ said: ‘People are wondering, not just here but in the whole Common Market, if we have not just reached the saturation point. And the activity of the big American auto firms, particularly in Britain and Germany, is something to be really concerned about. American gigantism remains in effect a cause for concern for European industrialists.”

The article quotes another statement from the Paris newspaper Le Monde: ‘‘Europe has passed from being the beneficiary of the U.S. to being its rival.... No longer is Europe the beggar but the competitor.” The article went on to say: “They [U.S.] regard the European community as the first step toward an Atlantic community run by them.” It said that many people fear Britain's entry into the Common Market as a means of continuing American domination of Europe, and added: “But the real danger of American domination is elsewhere. The U.S. already has among us many Trojan horses, and they continue to send others. They are their capital investments.”

So economic planners in the French government are worried over the “Americanization” of France and Europe. Some continental Europeans felt that the United States pressed Britain to join the Common Market as a means of preventing Europe from playing an independent role in world affairs. One European official reportedly stated: “We want to be U.S. partners. But we do not intend to follow Kennedy’s foreign policy as political satellites of the U.S.”

This being dictated to by the United States from the point of strength has become distasteful to many. What De Gaulle no doubt foresaw in Britain’s entry into the Market was Uncle Sam in the driver’s seat To that he objected.

As disconcerting as this may all be to those who had hoped for a “United States of Europe” and to those who had longed for economic and political unity between nations, still all is not lost. The present struggles between nations merely highlight the futility of placing one’s trust in political governments, whether they be capitalistic or communistic. (Ps. 146:3, 5) These differences underline the fact that lasting peace, unity and prosperity can come only from a source that is vastly greater than anything that man can muster, namely, a superhuman power.

We can thank God for providing us with such a rule! His Kingdom government by his King Son Jesus Christ is the unifying force of all nations. Of Jesus Christ it is written: “On him nations will rest their hope.” (Rom, 15:12) He has been laid by God as a “foundation cornerstone.” “No one exercising faith in it will by any means come to disappointment.” (1 Pet. 2:6) Rather than trusting in human schemes that lead only to disappointment, how much wiser it is to place confidence in the kingdom of God, which is destined, not only to unify the earth and bless it with peace, but to last forever and ever.—Rev. 11:15.

FOiK TKEEH OX ONE THINK

• A real oddity is the Siamese family of four trees growing together In the forest near Susz bei Olsztyn, Poland. Three beech trees, each 140 years old, and a pine tree of about the same age have grown together in such a way that they seem to have just one trunk.

their domestic needs for hpt water and to heat indoor and outdoor swimming pools. It is a rather surprising sight to visitors to see people swimming in one of these heated, outdoor pools on a cold winter day.

The name of a non spouting hot spring in Icelandic is laug and actually means a place to bathe. This suggests the use to which these

QOR most of the 70,000 inhabitants of Reykjavik there is no need to have hot-water tanks or furnaces in their homes, not even in the middle of Iceland's cold winters. The heat for their homes and the hot water for their baths are provided by a system of centrally heated water.

From a place about ten miles outside the city the hot water is drawn out of the earth and pumped through a conbrete-encased pipe to several large tanks perched on a hill above the city. It then flows in response to the pull of gravity through the system of pipes that connects three-quarters of the city's residents with the tanks. There is a loss of only about five or six degrees from the time the water leaves the pumping station until it reaches the farthest house, even in the middle of winter. Its temperature at the station is about 85° Centigrade, or 185° Fahrenheit. No cost is involved in heating the water, for that is done by the earth.

Because Iceland is a land of volcanic activity it has a great supply of hot, underground water. This is evident from its many hot springs and geysers. In 877, when the Norwegian chieftain In golf ur Arnarson viewed the coastal plain where the capital city of Iceland now lies, he saw what looked like smoke rising frort^ the ground. On the basis of this first impression he called it Reykjavik, which in his old Norse meant Smoke Bay. What he actually saw was Steam rising from the hot springs. But the name he gave to this place has stuck to this day.

The hot, underground water is tapped by means of deep wells that average around 350 meters, or about 1,148 feet in depth. Elsewhere in the country deeper wells have been sunk, the deepest being 2,200 meters, or almost one and a half miles.

Other towns have installed their own hita-veita or hot-water system. They, like the people of Reykjavik, use it to heat their homes, supply springs were put in olden times. History records very early use of a hot spring for this purpose. Chieftain and historian Snorri Sturluson, who lived from 1178 to 1241, had a farm about a hundred miles from Reykjavik, From a nearby hot spring he piped hot water to his farm and caused the water to flow into a basin. This basin, called Snorralaug (The Bath of Snorri), still exists today and hot water is still flowing into it. He was the first man in Iceland who is known to have put the water of the hot springs to a practical use.

Since Iceland is a volcanic country, rain or snow water that seeps down through the soil becomes heated when it reaches hot underground areas. The hotter it becomes the greater becomes its pressure. In some places in Iceland this superheated water is shot out through a vent and high into the sky. This is called a geyser, a word in Icelandic that signifies “The Gusher” or “The Spouter.” The word comes from the Great Gey sir in Iceland. Every six hours it shoots a plume of water into the air, sometimes reaching 212 feet.

In a place called Hverageroi ("Geysers’ Hedge”) there is a village with a great number of greenhouses. These are all heated by hot water taken from the ground. The greenhouses produce a rich variety of flowers, vegetables and fruits. When viewing the village from a nearby mountain ridge, clouds of steam can be seen rising from the ground throughout the area.

As a source of heat and power the hot springs have a great potential, as is so evident from the uses to which the people of Iceland have put them. By using this clean source of power, the city of Reykjavik has come to be known as the "smokeless city.” It should be an inspiration to cities in other parts of the world that are located near hot springs. They too can eliminate much smoke and have an abundance of cheap power by drawing hot water from the earth.

AS PUNISHMENT for not being able to spell the word “fox,” a doctor and his wife took turns beating their three-year-old daughter. For half an hour they whipped her with the whalebone stock of a riding whip, striking her everywhere— legs, back, knuckles, head. A mass of ugly bruises and broken skin on her thigh were the telltale evidence of this shocking instance of parental cruelty. This happened in England in the nineteenth century, but it is mild compared with what an increasing number of parents are doing to their children today.

Parental mistreatment of children has become so widespread that doctors and social workers are becoming gravely concerned. The brutally mistreated child has become such a common sight to doctors that they have coined the expression “battered-child syndrome.” The word “syndrome” means a group of signs or symptoms that characterize a disease. In this instance the signs indicate a child that was battered by its parents. They might consist of repeated fractures, burns, cuts, bruises and the advanced stages of starvation.

The deputy chief of the Children’s Bureau of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare expressed the concern that many persons are feeling about parental cruelty. This public official stated: “While child

abuse is no new problem to the Children’s Bureau, our deep concern today is motivated by its apparent increase and by its particularly violent nature.”

When the Children’s Division of the American Humane Association met in New York city during the summer of 1962, the Chicago Daily News reported it as stating: “Of 163 abuse cases involving 190 children, fifty-six had died. Sixteen of the victims suffered brain damage and 70 had broken bones. More than 25 percent of the abused children were under three years old. In 190 brutality cases, 122 were beaten, ten were burned, seven were strangled and six were thrown or dropped. Others were buried alive, bitten, stepped upon, forced to eat pepper and given electric shocks.” This number represents only a fraction of the battered children in the United States alone.

The American Medical Association reported in its Journal that during 1961 nearly 750 parent-abused children were reported by doctors and district attorneys. Very likely there were many more than this number that went unreported. Commenting on this possibility, Dr. C. Henry Kempe said: “For every child who is abused and enters a hospital, there must be an additional hundred treated by unsuspecting doctors.” Doubtless still more never see a doctor. The Chief Medical Examiner of New York city, Dr. Milton Hel-pem, said that a New York child dies every week from physical violence in the home. For the United States as a whole, it is estimated that about two children are brutally assaulted by their parents every day. This mistreatment, mind you, is done by people living in a nation that professes to be Christian.

Calculations are that six or seven British children out of every hundred are ill-treated to the extent that they require help from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. This society was formed in the latter part of the 1800’s to protect children from mistreatment. Organizations similar to it exist in the United States.

The Unwanted Child

The couple who bring a child into the world have the moral obligation to give it the warmest possible welcome. Because they are responsible for its existence, they are responsible for feeding, clothing and sheltering it. Above all, they are responsible for giving it love. Great and lasting damage can be done to the child who knows that it is not wanted and not loved. If he succeeds in surviving infancy without parental love, he will probably be one more of the great tide of children who are swelling the ranks of juvenile delinquents the world over.

Many children are not wanted because they were accidental conceptions. If they are illegitimate, as so often is the case, they are a constant reminder of their mother’s moral uncleanness. If they are legitimate, they compel their parents to make major changes that they did not want to make in their lives. In either case, instead of being welcomed with warm, loving arms, a great number are made to suffer because they exist. Like unwanted property, some are given away or abandoned. Others are starved, beaten, burned and even murdered.

In October of 1962, a schoolteacher in Ilkeston, England, was charged With having killed eight illegitimate babies over a period of fifteen years. Nine years before this the bodies of five babies were found in a flood-damaged house in Harwich, England. On the opposite side of the world, in Korea, the number of abandoned babies, unwanted by unloving parents, is soaring into the thousands. In the city of Taegu alone they are being abandoned at the rate of 125 a month.

Starvation

Unloving parents usually neglect giving an unwanted child enough to eat. New York doctor Vincent J. Fontana commented on this fact. He said: “The maltreated child frequently exhibits signs of malnutrition, vitamin deficiency and obvious physical neglect long before he is physically abused.”

Unless a mistreated child is rescued in time his parents may allow him to starve to death. This happened to a three-year-old New York boy in 1950. Both parents were arrested, but the police arrived too late to save the boy, although they did save his sister. When found, the two children were covered with vermin and ulcerated sores. Another case of callous neglect took place in the same city four years later. A couple locked up their apartment and disappeared, leaving their two infant children inside. When the children were found, one was dead and the other was suffering from hunger and thirst. The parents were finally located and arrested.

It is difficult to comprehend how anyone, let alone parents, could watch a child slowly waste away from starvation while they are amply fed themselves. A stonyhearted father in San Francisco did this with his two-year-old daughter. As a widower, he lived alone with her. When discovered by the landlord, she weighed a mere eleven pounds rather than a normal thirty pounds. Her skeleton-thin body was covered with open sores that oozed pus all over her dirty bedclothing. Police found her father in a nearby bar, dressed in expensive clothes. In a somewhat similar case in Buffalo, a five-year-old child was kept a prisoner by her parents for three years, during which time she slowly died of starvation.

Beaten and Burned

Beating and burning are the most common forms of parental abuse. This is the way unloving parents show their resentment for a child’s existence and their lack of control of their own temper. Some of the beatings given children are so brutal that they are sadistic.

A five-year-old British girl was beaten systematically morning and night for four months by her father or his paramour. They starved her to such an extent that she resorted to eating the pig swill at school and the dog’s food at home.

In the United States a fifteen-month-old boy was beaten to death by his father who lost his temper while teaching the youngster to walk. This was in 1950. Two years later a mischievous boy of two and a half years was beaten to death by his stepfather, who was trying to sleep during the day because he was a night worker. Another father used a cat-o’-nine tails on his five-year-old son. A couple in Ohio repeatedly beat their two-year-old son because he could not be toilet trained. After one beating they threw him onto the back porch, where he died. For this same reason a mother in Washington, D.C., beat her four-year-old daughter to unconsciousness, fracturing her skull and lacerating her face, arms and legs.

According to the American Medical Association, parental beatings may be a more frequent cause of death among children than automobile accidents. Usually the severely beaten child is under three years of age and often so young that it cannot tell doctors why its tiny body is so badly bruised and its limbs are fractured. A child in Washington, D.C., however, was old enough to be able to say: “Mamma kept hitting me with a big black stick.”

Not being satisfied with beating their children, some parents deliberately burn them. This is the second most common form of child abuse. Whatever is handy is used—matches, lighted cigarettes, electric irons, open gas flames and boiling liquids.

A man in England held his two daughters, ages five and six, before a fire until their legs were blistered. A father in the United States burned his three-year-old daughter with matches because she failed to come home on time from play. In February, 1952, a young mother held the hands of her three-year-old daughter above flaming gas jets as punishment for playing with lipstick. An eight-month-old girl was treated in a hospital for second-degree burns on her left foot and the entire lower right leg. She also had a fractured leg. She was then released to her parents. Five months later she was back again with a fractured elbow, fractured skull, fractured leg and a seared back. It was then obvious to the doctors that this infant was the victim of parental abuse and could not again be returned to its parents without endangering its safety.

Why Parental Cruelty

The pressure of prolonged poverty along with too many children irritates some parents to the point where they take out on their children the resentment they feel for their miserable plight. But that explains only a few of the cases of parental cruelty, because most battered children have average parents with average incomes and education.

Gambling and drunkenness are underlying factors in many cases of abuse. These vices can adversely affect the temperament of a parent. If he is angry over a gambling loss, he is not likely to have patience with his children. Very likely he will abuse them. In order to recoup his gambling losses, he may very well neglect their basic needs. On this matter of gambling the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post stated: “In a substantial number of cases the prime cause of the children’s sufferings was gambling by one or both parents.’’ It made this statement in connection with a report that the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children gave help to more than 70,000 neglected children during 1960. One wonders what happens to children in countries where no such society exists to protect them.

Oftentimes a child suffers abuse when his father or mother is drunk and unable to exercise self-restraint. Drunkenness removes the check that a sober mind places upon a person’s temper. It was in a state of drunkenness that a mother in New York city brutally mauled her twentymonth-old daughter. Other factors that contribute to parental cruelty are illegitimacy of a child, divorce, being a stepparent, low mentality, bad home background of the parents and poor living conditions.

It seems inconceivable that parents could be cruel to their children who are their own flesh. It would seem that paternal and maternal instincts would cause them to have a natural affection for their offspring, but this is not always the case, as has been shown by the many instances of parental cruelty that have been cited. This shocking lack of natural affection is the fruitage of a wicked world. The growth in the number of such persons who have “no natural affection,” and that to such an extent that doctors and social workers are gravely concerned about it, is significant because the apostle Paul mentioned it as one of the characteristics of the “last days.”—2 Tim. 3:1-4.

This does not mean that it is wrong to punish a child when the need arises. Not at all! The Bible clearly says: “The one holding back his rod is hating his son, but the one loving him is he that does look for him with discipline.” (Prov. 13:24) Such punishment properly administered is not sadistic; it is not an expression of cruelty. It is motivated by love.

Yet the fact remains that these are critical times, and it is vital for all persons to keep a watch on their own attitude. Emotions must be kept under control. Those who would win the approval of God must not allow feelings of resentment and frustration to smother the “natural affection” that members of a family ought to manifest toward one another. Isolated incidents easily multiply until they become characteristic behavior. How vital it is, then, to cultivate love, long-suffering, kindness, self-control and the other fruits of God’s spirit! Those who do so bring happiness to those around them and put themselves in line for the blessing of everlasting life in God’s righteous new world.—Gal. 5:22,23.

THOSE

ON June 20, g* 1957, the g area around '

Fargo, North Dakota,     g (J-

had been alerted to the g possibility of torna-              J

does. Then, along toward evening, = the weather bureau at the local air- | port received a phone call from an \ alert citizen some twenty miles * from town. He had sighted a funnel cloud that had dipped to the earth and appeared to be churning toward Fargo, Shortly another call reported the tornado closer to town. Immediately televi- ■ sion and radio stations were notified, and people jumped into their cars and headed

away from the approaching storm; those who remained went to basements and cellars.

The advance warning was lifesaving, for while the tornado plowed through town, leaving a path of destruction and devastation, only a few persons were killed. Six of the fatalities were the Munson children, aged one to sixteen, who had been playing outside near their home in the Golden Ridge section of Fargo, Their parents were away at work. Around 7:30 p.m, Mrs. Munson received an urgent phone call from her sixteen-year-old daughter Phyllis, “Mommy,” she cried, “there’s a storm coming at us.” The phone went dead just as her terrified voice was saying, “Mommy, it’s hitting us.”

Those who are caught aboveground in the path of a tornado seldom live to tell about it The violence of these most powerful of nature’s storms is unbelievable. Clayton F.

Van Thullenar, research chief of the Severe Local Storm Warning Center, obA **$$*^/ served: “The more ^we l^earn’ the more impossible it seems that tornadoes can really ex-UalF~ 1st. By all the rules, Nature can’t possibly put so F much violence in a dot. And yet, there they are,” Whereas the winds of a hurricane are believed rarely to exceed two hundred miles an hour, those of a tornado have been estimated to reach about five hundred miles per hour. In a populated area such power can wreak destruction at a terrifying rate.

Death and Destruction

On two successive days in June of 1953 tornadoes raided the cities of Flint, Michigan, and Worcester,

Massachusetts, leaving in their wake 235 dead and more than 2,500 injured. The Massachusetts storm ripped through the central part of the state for an hour and fifteen minutes, destroying property at the rate of $800,000 a minute.

But even these vicious twisters did not match the devastation left by the most destructive tornado in United States history, one that originated in Reynolds County, Missouri, March 18, 1925, That mile-wide black, turbulent mass of clouds—but which had no clearly defined tornado funnel— swept at sixty miles an hour across Illinois to Princeton, Indiana, In its 219-mile path it left 689 dead, some 2,000 others maimed or injured and millions of dollars’ worth of property damage.

The Chicago Tribune reported that city after city was turned into a “picture of ruin.” In West Frankfort, Illinois, eyewitnesses said that the tornado picked up and hurled bodies a mile and a half out of town. “City of Gorham destroyed by tornado,” wired one mayor to another. “Town burning up. Impossible to estimate number of dead and injured. All people are homeless.” One reporter wrote concerning De Soto, Missouri: “In less than five minutes after the storm struck nothing remained of the village except ruins, not a single building escaped the winds of destruction, , . . When bodies were taken from the wrecked schoolhouse and laid out, row after row, there was no one to claim the lifeless forms. The children’s parents were either dead or on the way to hospitals.” In the village of Parrish, Illinois, only three of the 500 inhabitants escaped injury.

During the period from 1916 to 1961 tornadoes snuffed out the lives of well over 9,000 persons in the United States and injured ten times that many. That represents an average of over 200 persons killed and 2,000 injured each year.

Although tornadoes have occurred in other parts of the world—fifty being reported in England over an eighty-two-year period, with frequent occurrences in Australia, as well as reports of them in many other countries—nowhere do they match the violent and destructive twisters of the United States. These occur in every one of the continental states, although they are largely concentrated in the midwestem states that stretch from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. This is frequently called “Tornado Alley,” with Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa being the states most often visited by the deadly twisters.

Birth and Life of a Twister

Whereas tornadoes have been reported in every month of the year, 68 percent of them occur during the four months from April 1 to July 31, and most of these in “Tornado Alley.” But why there arid at that time of the year?

The combination of the flat midwestern plains flanked on the west by the towering Rocky Mountains and on the south by the warm Gulf of Mexico lends itself perfectly to the birth of tomadic activity. During spring and early summer cold, dry air slides down from the Rockies and moves southward over the plains eventually to meet warm moisture-laden air moving northward from the Gulf. Generally speaking, it is the instability of the atmosphere produced when these two swiftly moving masses of air collide that gives birth to tornadoes.

An early authority on tornadoes, Colonel John P. Finley, described the clouds from the converging air masses as suddenly being “thrown into the greatest confusion, breaking up, as it were, into small portions, which dash pellmell over each other and in every direction, now darting toward the earth, now rushing upward to considerable heights or at moderate elevations, rolling over each other in a well-developed whirl.”

Often accompanying the turbulent darkgreen boiling mass of clouds is a vivid display of lightning, a heavy shower of rain and even hailstones. Out of this convulsive upheaval a narrow “chimney” of swiftly rising air is born, and by some unknown mechanism develops a spin that whips the winds around at some 500 miles an hour. By all the rules of nature the development of such fantastic energy is an impossibility, meteorologists say; nonetheless, it happens regularly, to the terror of those who have seen a tornado in action.

When the twisting funnel of wind dips to the earth it heralds its approach with a terrific roar that may be heard twenty-five miles away. Witnesses have described the roar as that “of flights of jet airplanes,” or as “a thousand railway trains.” These dynamoes of nature are unpredictable. Some never touch the ground, others may touch and ascend and do a kind of hop, skip, and jump across the countryside, destroying everything in their path when they come in contact with the ground. Still others will plow ahead mile after mile, leaving an unbroken path of utter devastation. The longest continuous path on record is that of the twister that moved a staggering 293 miles from Louisiana, Missouri, across Illinois, to the eastern boundary of Jennings County, Indiana, on May 26, 1917, and accounted for 101 deaths en route. However, tornadoes, as a rule, will dissipate after only a few miles; twelve to sixteen miles being their average length.

Fortunately their path is not very wide, averaging around four hundred yards, although they may vary from scarcely a hundred feet in width to a mile or two. Their speed also is unpredictable. One of the fastest moving was the famous sixty-mile-an-hour tri-state tornado of March 18, 1925, which also claimed the greatest number of lives. On May 25₄ 1917, another moved through Kansas slightly faster, being clocked at sixty-five miles an hour. The slowest occurred near Pratt, Kansas, on May 24, 1930, where it moved along at only five miles an hour. On occasions, tornadoes have even been known to stop in their paths for a few minutes before resuming their normal movement.

Stranger than Fiction

On March 23, 1913, Milton Tabor, editor of the Topeka Daily Capitol, became one of a very select group who have looked a tornado in the eye and lived to tell about it. It was just beginning to form in the clouds overhead and although it was some distance away he said that it appeared to be “an enormous hollow cylinder, bright inside with lightning flashes, but black as blackest night all around. The noise was like ten million bees, plus a roar that beggars description.” Later this twister swept into Omaha, Nebraska, and killed ninety-four persons, injured hundreds more and left a path of destruction through town five miles long and a quarter of a mile wide.

Perhaps the most graphic description is that of Will Keller, a Kansas farmer, of the tornado that passed over his house on June 22, 1928. At the sight of approaching tornadoes he hustled his family to the cyclone cellar, but before entering himself paused to take a last look. “Two of the tornadoes,” he reported, “were at some distance away and looked to me like great ropes dangling from the clouds; but the near one was shaped like a funnel with ragged clouds surrounding it. ... As I paused to look I saw that the lower end which had been sweeping the ground was beginning to rise. ... I knew that if the tornado again dipped I could drop down and close the door before any harm could be done. . . .

“At last the great shaggy end of the funnel hung directly overhead.... I looked up and to my astonishment I saw right up into the heart of the tornado. There was a circular opening in the center of the funnel, about fifty or one hundred feet in diameter, and extending straight upward for a distance of at least one-half mile, as best I could judge under the circumstances. The walls of this opening were of rotating clouds and the whole was made brilliantly visible by constant flashes of lightning, which zigzagged from side to side. Had it not been for the lightning I could not have seen the opening, not any distance up into it anyway.”

These terrifying tornadoes have accomplished fantastic feats, driving straws into steel girders and splinters of wood through a quarter-inch steel plate. They have carried farm animals and humans aloft and spewed them out considerable distances away. Once a pig was delivered back to earth with such force that its legs were driven into the hard ground up to its body. During a violent twister in Saline County, Kansas, a farmer named T. W. Carter was swept upward by the winds only to be safely deposited back to earth sometime later. He recalled grabbing ahold of something while in flight, and on his return he found that he still clutched in his fist the coarse black hair that evidently once belonged to the tail of the horse that had been his fellow traveler.

Several other almost unbelievable escapes, which have been verified by the United States Weather Bureau, appear in the recent book Nature on the Rampage: “There is the case of a woman who once took refuge in a closet under her back stairway and opened the door at the end of the storm to find that the closet and stairway were all that remained of the house. Another woman jumped into a bathtub and pulled a mattress over her; and she, the hathtub, and the mattress were all that survived. At Ponca City, Oklahoma, a twister lifted a house in which n man and his wife were at supper, exploded it, and settled the floor back to the ground without injuring the occupants.”

Safety During a Tornado

But if you should ever find yourself in the path of a tornado, do not count on such unusual escapes. Take all the steps possible to preserve your life. Many persons in “Tornado Alley” have built underground rooms, commonly called “cyclone cellars.” They are the safest place to be during a tornado; as far as is known no one who hqs sought refuge in one has been killed. If no storm cellar is accessible the next best place to be is the southwest corner of the basement. This is so because tornadoes usually move from the southwest and debris almost always falls in the northeast corner.

If you are in a house without a basement seek shelter against an interior wall on the ground floor, underneath some heavy furniture if possible. Because of the sudden reduction of air pressure when a tornado passes over, buildings often explode outward, so being next to an interior wall affords a greater chance of survival. To equalize the air pressure, before the tornado strikes open the windows on the north or east of the house, the side away from the approaching storm.

If enough warning has been given in advance, you may want to jump into your car and flee; tornadoes can be outrun, since they usually travel at only thirty or forty miles an hour. If you are caught in open country, move at right angles to the approaching storm; there is a chance you may get out of its path. But if you cannot, find a ditch or depression in the ground, get into it, and lie face down.

The key to safety is advance warning. The Severe Local Storm Warning Center in Kansas City, a young agency set up within the Weather Bureau, has done much in providing this. It studies weather patterns and reports to any part of the nation when conditions favor the birth of the deadly twisters. Local observers are thus put on the watch. There is no question that these alerts have saved hundreds of lives, as, for instance, in Fargo, North Dakota, in June of 1957. So when tornadoes are on the prowl, keep alert, heed the warnings and avoid the terrifying experience of being struck by a deadly twister.

ITHOUT a doubt, you have often walked through a forest and marveled at the great variety of mushrooms springing up from the forest floor or protruding from the sides of trees and fallen branches. Knowing that some varieties are poisonous, you probably refrained from picking any of them because of not being able to distinguish the edible variety from the poisonous. There are, however, certain types of mushrooms that have such outstanding features that they are easily recognized. By being acquainted with these you can enjoy tasty delicacies that have delighted kings and epicures for centuries.

Some mushrooms taste like sweetbreads, others like oysters, and still others like chicken or veal. Commercially grown mushrooms tend to be bland and cannot begin to compare with those that have grown wild. Two hundred years ago Professor Richard Bradley of Cambridge said: “Whoever has been accustomed to eat mushrooms will certainly allow them to be one of the greatest dainties the earth affords.”

What you might call toadstools are actually mushrooms. The two words can be used synonymously. “Those poisonous ‘toadstools’ are mushrooms too,” says

Campton’s Pictured Encyclopedia. In his book Mushrooms in Their Natural Hdbi-tats, A. H. Smith says that “mushroom” is “a general term applied to the fruiting bodies of fungi which are relatively large and fleshy, particularly all gill fungi. It is

thought to be poisonous by one not well informed.”

The term “toadstool” is a carry-over from many years ago when there were many superstitions about mushrooms. It was thought that toads had the habit of sitting on them, that elves used them for umbrellas, and that fairies danced by moonlight in the rings mushrooms sometimes form. Whether they are called toadstools or mushrooms, they are a form of fungus that feeds upon other plant life, helping to clear the earth of dead plant matter. Some can be the tastiest food you ever put in your mouth, but others can be a deadly poison.

Poisonous Mushrooms

The mushroom known as the Amanita verna is a beautiful, well-shaped mushroom that stands on a tall, graceful stem. Its creamy white color makes it look very inviting, but do not pick it. With good reason it is called the Destroying Angel,.for it is fatally toxic. The members of the Amanita family vary in color from creamy white to delicate greens and reddish oranges. Although some types are edible, no less than twelve are known or suspected of being poisonous. In fact, some of this species are the most poisonous of fungi.

They are characterized by a cup at the base, out of which the stem rises, and a collar or a ring around the upper part of the stem.

The poison of the Amanita takes eight to twelve hours to begin working and then the victim is struck with nausea, diarrhea, delirium and blindness that will last for several days. He goes through alternating periods of stupor that finally drop him into a coma, frequently leading to death. This frightful result from eating the Amanita makes mushroom gathering very dangerous for the uninformed person, because the Amanita is a very common mushroom.

Another dangerous mushroom is the mysterious, bright-orange Jack-o’-Lantern or Clitocybe illudens. You might see a cluster of these brightly colored mushrooms growing at the base of a tree, with their umbrellalike caps overlapping one another. At night they give off a phosphorescent light. Leave them alone.

Many uninformed persons believe that mushrooms should be cooked with a piece of silver, such as a silver spoon. If the silver turns dark, they conclude that the mushroom is poisonous. This is a dangerously wrong conclusion. The same can be said for the misconception that a poisonous mushroom turns dark when it is brought in contact with metal. This happens to the edible Boletus aurantiacus. Its whitish stem turns dark blue when a knife blade touches it. On the other hand, the poisonous Amanita will not tarnish silver. Another falsehood is the claim that edible mushrooms peal easily.

You run a good chance of ending up in a hospital or in the graveyard by following such rule-of-thumb methods for determining whether a mushroom is safe or dangerous. There are many books about mushrooms with color illustrations that you can consult so you can make knowledgeable selections of edible varieties. Color slides of mushrooms in their natural habitat are also available.

Eaten by Ancients

Mushrooms were a common food among the ancient Greeks and Romans. In fact, Greek philosophers and Roman historians mention them in their writings. Pliny the Elder, for example, found mushrooms difficult to understand. He wrote: “Among the most wonderful of all things is the fact that anything can spring up and live without a root. . . . Now whether this imperfection of the earth—for it cannot be said to be anything else—grows, or whether it has at once assumed its full globular size, whether it lives or not, are matters which I think cannot be easily understood. In their being liable to become rotten, these things resemble wood.”

A poisonous mushroom is suggested by Suetonius as the cause of death for Claudius Caesar. He said: “Verily it is agreed upon generally by all, that killed he was by poison, but where it should be, and who gave it, there is some difference. Some write that as he sat at a feast in the Capitol castle with the priests, it was presented unto him by Halotus, the eunuch, his taster; others report that it was at a meal in his house by Agrippina herself, who had offered unto him a mushroom empoisoned, knowing that he was most greedy of such meats.”

The effects of eating a poisonous mushroom are described by Hippocrates, who tells how the daughter of Pausanius was seized with nausea, suffocation and stomach pains after having eaten a fungus. Thus the ancients are seen to have enjoyed tasty mushrooms and also to have suffered from eating poisonous varieties.

Unusual Plant

Unlike plants that possess chlorophyll and are able to take energy from light by means of photosynthesis, mushrooms must get their energy indirectly by feeding upon plants that have used photosynthesis to grow. This enables them to grow in dark cellars and deep mine shafts, feeding upon timbers and decaying plant remains. The mushrooms you see poking their heads above the forest floor are the fruit that this fungus sends up when the time comes for it to reproduce.

From the gills or holes under the cap of a mushroom or from its surface come millions of spores. In some varieties billions are produced. These are carried away by the wind, but since the spores must land on the right kind of host, which varies with the variety of fungus, only a small fraction of the total number of spores released succeed in reproducing new plants.

The actual plant is not the mushroom we see sticking up from the ground or protruding from the side of a tree. It is a very fine mass of webbing called mycelium. By brushing away the leaves from the stem of a mushroom and carefully digging it up, you will be able to see this fine webbing.

When there is plenty of food for this fungus lying on the ground in an unobstructed area, it will grow out from one spot at an even rate in all directions. Its fruit will come up at the same time along the periphery of its growth, forming a beautiful circle that has been called a “fairy ring.” After centuries of unobstructed growth, a ring can be as much as fifty feet in diameter.

This unusual fungus can be found in every country of the world and in all colors of the rainbow. You name the color you like best and chances are you will be able to find it in one of the more than three thousand types of mushrooms. If you were to pick a different mushroom every day, it would take over ten years to pick one of every kind.

Food Value

Opinions differ as to the nutritional value of mushrooms. Some say there is very little, while others claim that they are of the same nutritional value as vegetables. A century ago C. F. Schwacgrichen, professor of natural history at Leipzig, found that the people in the neighborhood of Nuremberg subsisted on raw fungi and black bread. He experimented on himself and ate nothing but these two foods for several weeks. He apparently suffered no ill effects from the diet.

Rats that have been fed mushrooms as their only source of protein were found to gain more weight than when on a milkproduce diet. Mushrooms are an important part of the diet of reindeer. In fact, many wild animals eat this fungus.

Mushrooms can be fried, sauteed, broiled, baked, stewed, fricasseed, made into soups, omelets and sauces, and used in many other ways to produce mouthwatering dishes. If you pick more than you can use right away, they can be frozen or dried for future use. To dry mushrooms slice them about one-eighth of an inch thick and place them on screens so air can circulate around them. If it is a hot, dry day, put them in the sun, or you can dry them in an oven, but leave the oven door open and set up a fan to blow into the oven so the air will circulate. The dried mushrooms can then be stored in a screw-cap jar. When you want to use them, soak them in water and they will be almost as good as new.

Edible Mushrooms

It has been said that the mushroom Boletus edulis, when dried, is richer in protein than most vegetables. This is a stubby mushroom with a short, bulgy stem and a reddish cap. It is delicious. One of the finest and tastiest toadstools is the Boletus aurantiacus. It also has a short, thick stem and a reddish cap. Both lack the gill slits on the underside of the caps that are so evident in other types of mushrooms.

The Giant Puff-ball (Calvatia gigantea) is a tasty mushroom that can supply food for a large family. It looks like a ball and grows to as much as fourteen inches in diameter. With a fissured or cracked surface and grayish-white color, it presents a rather unappetizing appearance. Seven trillion spores have been estimated as being in a sizable specimen. The beautiful Coral Mushroom (Hydnum coralloides) looks for all the world like the coral that grows in clear tropical waters. When young it is pure white and then turns a creamy color with age. It is tender and tasty.

The highly esteemed Morels (or Morchella) are distinctive mushrooms that can be easily identified. They resemble small brown or yellow            _Mor.,

sponges growing

on stout, white stems. When the stems are cut in half you will find them to be hollow. These exceptionally delicious mushrooms are among the elite of the mushroom world. There are several varieties of them, and all are edible.

Another edible mushroom that is easily identified is the Sulphur Polypore. This is a sulphur-yellow growth that has no stem. Protruding from the dead wood on trees, it looks like a cluster of small, overlapping shelves that are often five to six inches broad. Only the young plants should be eaten. You will find them to have a taste resembling chicken. In fact, they are considered the chicken of the mushroom world. The attractive and edible oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) grows in a similar fashion—like shelves on the side of a tree. It is white or tinted with ash color or brown.

The Shaggymane (Coprinus comatus) is still another delicious mushroom that can be easily identified. It stands three to four inches high and has a barrel-shaped cap that covers the major portion of the stem when young.

The cap has a shaggy surface that resembles a stick of cotton candy or the bearskin hat worn by some British regiments. It is white with a tinge of pink. Because it has the peculiarity of melting away into ink after a few days, it cannot be preserved. This peculiarity can verify your identification of it so you will have no trouble recognizing it when you see it again.

Even if you are unacquainted with mushrooms, you need not ignore them altogether when taking a walk through the woods. The Morel, Sulphur Polypore and Shaggymane are so distinctive that you can easily recognize them. These you can safely pick, but before you pick any other edible varieties you should gain a thorough acquaintance with them by means of a well-illustrated book on mushrooms. Never pick a mushroom that you cannot positively identify. If there is the smallest amount of uncertainty,

Sulphur Poiyporu          leave it where it

is. Pick only the ones that you definitely know are safe. Take them home and add them to your meal for that day. They will make you ffeel that the meal you ate was fit for a king.

The Pendulum: Original Ouija Board

I VENATION by means of a pendulum, such as a suspended ring, is found from Europe to the Far East and has been common throughout much of history. Byzantine historian Marcellinus relates one of the earliest detailed accounts of pendulum divination. He records that in the time of Emperor Valens (A.D. 364-378) a number of men were arrested for divination regarding the name of the emperor’s successor. The method the diviners used was to set out the letters of the alphabet in a circle, as in a modern ouija board, and to suspend a ring over the center of the circle. The pendulum, by the direction of its swing, indicated the various letters of the alphabet.

The name the pendulum diviners came up with was Theodosius. To thwart the pendulum users' prognostication, Emperor Valens ordered that his famed general Theodosius the Elder be put to death. Upon the death of Emperor Valens, the coemperor, Gratianus, invited Theodosius, the son of Valen’s great general, to become emperor in the East.

A more common way in which the ancient Romans divined was to hold a pendulum suspended in a glass container; then the alphahet would be recited and the pendulum would ring out against the glass at the right letters.

The methods of the ancient Romans have survived to the present time. At one time in spiritualistic circles it was very popular to suspend a pendulum or ring in an empty glass and to ask the spirits questions. One tap on the side of the glass meant No, and two meant Yes.

Just as the ouija board makes some accurate predictions, so does the pendulum. Many persons will testify that the pendulum has made true predictions, such as the example recorded in Collier’s magazine of August 18,1951, about a practitioner of divination, a Belgian soldier, Jean Chalotcaux, who was held at a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany during World War II: "In February, 1941, fellow inmates persuaded him to apply his technique to predicting the exact date of the end of the war. Chaloteaux, using a swinging pendulum over a calendar, announced, correctly, that the date would be May 8, 1945.”

Prediction Is just one of many purposes for which the pendulum is used today. Adherents of the widespread cult of radiesthesia, for example, claim to be able to divine practically anything by means of the pendulum. Medical diagnosis is one of the most popular forms of divination.

The radiesthetists are not in complete harmony as to how the pendulum works. One school maintains that their divinations are due to psychic powers such as clairvoyance. Another school, the physical radiesthetists, usually explain the pendulum's operation on the basis of radiations. Many writers reject the explanations of both schools of radiesthesia and call it all quackery, so that their view is similar to that expressed by D. H. Rawcliff e in Illusions and. Delusions of the Supernatural and the Occult;

"Most of the medical radiesthetists' claims . . . constitute the most arrant nonsense. They are particularly keen on the supposed relation of colour to disease. In a volume entitled La Radiesth^sie written by a well-known dowser, one is informed that a certain state of dark green is ‘in resonance with’ b. koch, one of the bacteria associated with tuberculosis. If a culture of b. koch is covered with a cloth of this shade of green 'all virulence ceases.’ More strange still, if a patient’s 'radiation' is found to be fifty-five centimetres and if ‘the pendulum stops in resonance also with black, the person examined is, without doubt, suffering from haemorrhoids’. . , . Co I our-therapists have ‘perfected’ a permanent table of up to a hundred diseases and ailments, each with its specific shade of colour and detectable with the aid of a pendulum. Diagnosis at a distance is also possible, say the radiesthetists, ‘Ail users of Radiesthetic methods,' it is claimed [in the Journal of the Medical Society for the Study of Radiesthesia], ‘know that blood or serum or a letter will keep pace minute by minute with its owner. We know the fact but not the explanation.' ”

The way the pendulum is used today, as well as the way it has been used to function as a ouija board by the ancients and by the spiritualists, shows it to be an instrument widely employed in divination, all forms of which are condemned by the Bible.—Deut. 18:10; 1 Sam. 15:23.

HE weekend of December 29 and 30 of 1962 was a happy occasion for Jehovah’s witnesses In Argentina. It had been keenly anticipated since 1959, when the president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society announced plans for constructing a new Bethel home for housing the Watch Tower Society’s branch office in this country. The term ‘‘Bethel" is a Hebrew word meaning “House of God,” and is applied by Jehovah's witnesses to the buildings used by them as headquarters in the many countries of the world where they carry on their Bible educational work.

The need for a larger Bethel home in Argentina reflected the fine growth ’Jehovah’s witnesses have experienced here particularly since 1946. In that year there were 415 Witnesses publishing the good news of God’s kingdom in this South American country. Now there are more than 9,000. The building that the new home replaced was now inadequate. The cramped quarters needed to be replaced with something more commodious.

Construction on the new building began in August of 1961 with the demolition of the old house. While the building was going up during the following months, the Bethel family lived in temporary quarters set up in the building at the rear of the property. This building is used for literature storage and for printing. In September of 1962 they were able to move into the new building, although some finishing work had yet to be done.

It is a roomy, well-planned building that is ideally suited for the workers at the branch and the missionaries. There are three stories, with provisions for adding a fourth floor when needed. On the first floor are located the office, dining room, kitchen, shipping room and garage. A dormitory with twelve spacious rooms takes up the second and third floors. Handsome, wine-colored marble covers the front of the building up to the second floor, where it meets attractive tricolored stone that covers the front of the second and third floors.

The dedication program began at 3 p.m, on Saturday, December 29, with a warm welcome being given to those in attendance by a member of the Bethel family who acted as chairman. The first speaker introduced by the chairman had been sent to Argentina by the Watch Tower

BETHEL HOME

By "Awake!" correspondent in Argentina

Society in 1924. He spoke about the remarkable growth of Jehovah’s witnesses in this country since his arrival here. Another speaker, who had come to Argentina in 1925 to do missionary work among the German-speaking people, expressed the feelings of all present when he gave credit to Jehovah for the fine growth of the theocratic organization here and for these new, expanded facilities for caring for the spiritual needs of that organization. In his expression of thanks to Jehovah, he read Psalm 115:12, 14, which says, in part: “Jehovah himself has remembered us; he will bless , , . Jehovah will give increase to you.” Certainly he has done this in Argentina.

The branch servant for the Watch Tower Society here used the building of the new Bethel home as an illustration of the work involved in building up a new Christian minister. As it took time and effort to build the new home so it takes time and effort to build new ministers, he pointed out. After giving some of the interesting details about the construction of the building, he concluded his talk by saying: “This building is dedicated to the same One from whom its materials came. Who provided the earth from which the materials came—the cement, the iron, the sand? What could be more appropriate than to give these things back to him in dedication? We therefore dedicate this building to Jehovah God.”

For all of Jehovah’s witnesses in Argentina, the new Bethel home stands as physical evidence of the fact that Jehovah's organization is expanding here. This is what they are happy to see, for it means that Jehovah is blessing their efforts to find and to feed his “sheep."

DID Jesus Christ die on a stake, that is, a simple upright pole, or on a cross, a pole with a crossbeam? Most persons in Christendom will answer, “Why, on a cross, of course!’’ But just what are the facts on which that expression is based?

True, the cross is the symbol of Christendom, even as the crescent is of Islam. But, according to The Encyclopaedia Britannica, “the cross has been used both as a religious symbol and as an ornament from the dawn of man’s civilization. Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found marked with crosses of different designs, including every part of the old world. ., . It was not, however, until the time of Constantine that the cross was publicly used as the symbol of the Christian religion.”

Among the various forms of the cross used are those that resemble the capital letter “T,” the letter “X” and the swastika, as well as the simple cross, in which all four arms are of the same size. Christendom’s most common form is the crux immissa, in which the vertical pole extends just a little above the crossbeam.

In execution the condemned one was first scourged. His body was then fastened to the stake or cross by ropes, or by nails, or the hands by nails and the feet by ropes. There is a record of persons not expiring until nine days after being fastened to the stake. This cruel form of execution, originating apparently in the Orient, was ended, it Is claimed, by Emperor Constantine because of his veneration of the “cross” on which Jesus died.

Even though .the crux immissa has found general acceptance in Christendom, the facts are that “no definite data are found in the New Testament concerning the nature of the cross on which Jesus died. It is only the Church writers after Justyn Martyr who indicate the composite four-armed cross as Christ’s vehicle of torture.” —New Schaaf-Herzog Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, page 313.

It is a well-known fact that crucifixions did take place on just plain poles, now known as crux simplex, as well as on those consisting of two pieces and now termed crux compacta. Josephus repeatedly tells of hundreds and even thousands of Jews being crucified at one time, but he fails to tell the nature of the stakes or crosses. It may well be asked, Did the Romans first build crosses with crossbeams'‘before executing all these, when the simple stake served just as well for the torture and death of their victims?

Further, concerning the only Greek term the Gospel writers used in describing the instrument of Jesus’ torture and death, Bible commentator Calmet says: “The Greek stauros, aTavpog, a cross, often denotes only a piece of wood fixed in the ground, by the Latins called palus or vallum” And says another authority: “The Greek word for cross, stauros, properly signified a stake, an upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling [that is, in fencing in] a piece of ground. But a modification of it was introduced as the dominion and usages of Rome extended themselves through Greek-speaking countries. Even among the Romans the crux (from which our cross is derived) appears to have been originally an upright pole, and this always remained the more prominent part.”—Imperial Bible Dictionary.

Now, was the stauros on which Jesus hung a stake or a cross, a simple or compound crux? Interestingly, not all voices in Christendom hold that Jesus suffered on a cross. Such works as History of the Cross, by Henry D. Ward, M.A., and The Cross and the Crucifixion (German), by Hermann Fulda, present extensive and powerful arguments in favor of Jesus’ having suffered on a simple pole or crux. In fact, as Fulda points out, some of the oldest illustrations of Jesus’ suffering show him on a simple crux, even as there are pictures of Prometheus and others fastened to a simple pole.'

Arguing in favor of its having been a Simple stake or pole is the fact that both the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter speak of Jesus’ having been put on a xylon, which simply means a piece of wood. Thus we read at Acts 5:30: ‘‘The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew, hanging him upon a stake,” or “tree,” AV, AS, RS, Dy. See also Acts 10:39; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24.

If Jesus had been fastened to a cross made up of two pieces of wood and so constructed into a form, would it be described as merely a piece of wood? But a club is merely a piece of wood and so we find the Gospel writers repeatedly using xylon when referring to the clubs or pieces of wood that the mob carried that came to take Jesus: ‘‘Judas, one of the twelve, came and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs.” (Matt. 26:47; see also Matthew 26:55; Mark 14:43, 48; Luke 22: 52, AT, RS, Cath. Confrat.) Certainly the mob that came to take Jesus did not come equipped with crosses but with pieces of wood, clubs or staves, as xylon is variously translated in these instances.

Bearing out the proper meaning of xylon is also its use in the Greek Septuagint ver

sion of the Hebrew Scriptures, Thus at Deuteronomy 21:22, 23 we read: “If there be a sin in any one, and the judgment of death be upon him, and he be put to death, and ye hang him on a tree [xylon]: his body shall not remain all night upon the tree [xylon].” And so also at Ezra 6:11: “Every man who shall alter this word, timber         shall be pulled down from his

house, and let him be lifted up and slain upon it.” In the Septuagint the word stau-ros does not occur.

While the word xylon generally means a piece of wood, no longer living, it is at times used in the Scriptures to refer to figurative living trees. This is the word used in Revelation when speaking of the tree or trees of life.—Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14.

There is a distinct word in Greek for tree, namely, dendron. From it comes the English word dendrology, the science or study of trees. Dendron occurs some twenty-five times in the Christian Greek Scriptures and is used both literally and figuratively, as shown by these examples: “Others began cutting down branches from the trees.” “Already the ax is lying at the root of the trees.” This word dendron, meaning a living tree, however, is never used in the Scriptures to refer to the instrument of torture and death to which Jesus was fastened.—Matt. 21:8; 3:10.

Thus we have seen that the cross as a religious symbol goes back to early human history. And while the term stauros, the only one used by the Gospel writers when referring to that upon which Jesus hung, could mean either a plain pole, a stake or a cross, the fact that elsewhere in the Scriptures it is referred to as a xylon, which simply means a piece of wood and allows for no such twofold meaning, indicates that the kind of stauros on which Jesus died was not a cross, a crux com-pacta or crux immissa, but simply a pole, a crux simplex.

Quake Bocks Libya

& Al Marj, Libya, was shaken by three earthquakes on February 22, The quakes left about 80 percent of the buildings in this town of 12,000 people wrecked. The number dead was 265 and the injured and homeless ran into the thousands, A state of emergency was proclaimed throughout Libya. Aid to the quake victims from surrounding nations came quickly.

War Threat

An attack on Cuba by the United States, said Russia’s defense minister Rodion Y. Malinovsky, "would mean a third world war.¹' The Soviet Union, he said, "will be in the first ranks of those who will come to its assistance.” The war, he asserted, would be carried on, not only in Cuba, but also on the U.S. mainland, wiping out all industrial and administrative cities in the very first hours of the war. A war begun by the West, he reiterated, “will be the last war” and "the entire system of capitalism will be burled, once and for all.” Washington reacted negatively. The incident was typical of the verbal exchanges between East and West in recent years.

New Iraqi Regime

•$> Premier Abdul Karim Kas-sim was assassinated early in February. The new regime headed by the provisional president Abdul Salam Aref reportedly was busy ousting local Communists.

Flu Epidemic

<$> “Asian flu” zigzagged its way across the United States, leaving many with sore throats, headaches, fever and pain. The flu lasted from a few days to three to four weeks in a community. Along the East Coast flu was in epidemic proportions. Virginia had 9,000 cases in a week. In Louisville, Kentucky, 9,000 children were absent from schools. The Federal Communicable Disease Center reported that deaths from influenza and pneumonia were 29 percent above normal midFebruary. By mld-March it should have run its course for 1963, say doctors.

Trichinosis

The parasite Trichinella spiralis infects pork. Housewives arc warned to cook pork at least a half hour to the pound. Farmers too are warned not to feed uncooked garbage to their stock. Undercooked or uncooked pork may harbor the parasite. Science News Letter, February 16, 1963, urged physicians to counsel their patients about pink pork. Trichinosis is a disease difficult to diagnose. It may masquerade as intestinal disorder, tuberculosis, primary heart disease, rheumatic disease, and so forth. Over three hundred cases of the disease were reported in 1961 in the United States, but there is no way of knowing how many cases were not reported.

Efforts at Conciliation

$> Premier Khrushchev of th? Soviet Union, eager to patch up differences with the Chinese Communists, said that when capitalism is buried the Chinese Communists will be present to witness the occasion. Write this down, said the Russian leader to reporters: "I promise you that when we throw a last shovel on the grave of capitalism, we will do it with China.”

Stem Justice

<$> The newspaper Tadzhikstan Communist said the supreme court of the Tadzhik Soviet Republic sentenced N. Babadzho-nov, chairman of the Dushanbe city executive—the equivalent of mayor in the U.S.—to death by shooting for taking bribes. Three associates of Babadzho-nov received from four- to eight-year prison terms. They were accused of accepting graft in connection with apartments, property lots and automobile sales.

Television Watchers

<$> A survey made in Yugoslavia by doctors, teachers, psychologists and writers revealed that television affects boys worse than it does girls. The boys’ school grades dropped sharply as soon as a television set was installed in the home. It also affected their working ability, whereas television had a contrary effect on girls. The report warned that long watching of television is definitely harmful to the child’s mental health, with a likelihood of certain psychological deformations.

Watch Those Eyes

<$> The London Daily Express published this short item: "Children lose 300 eyes every year because of injuries by arrows, airguns, catapults and .fireworks."

Whale Bide

<$> Four marine biologists climbed aboard a 45-foot-long finback whale and rode the mammal for three hours off the coast of San Diego, California. The whale, entangled In a fish net, was so exhausted it could not swim. When the men finally freed the whale from the net and fish line, they said the big fish gave a flip with its tail and disappeared in the open sea.

Cataracts

<$> A study by four University of Michigan physicians revealed that the use of cortisone has been responsible for the development of cataracts in the eyes of arthritis patients. Fourteen out of thirty-eight patients who took dosages of corticosteroids for a year for rheumatoid arthritis experienced changes in the lens of the eye. Science Digest, March, 1963, says that the findings confirm earlier reports "of an association between the drug and cataract formation." The doctors further reported that the amount of drug and the length of time it was taken seem to be the determining factors. A number of patients who had taken corticosteroids over a period of more than four years were also found to have the same type of cataracts.

Party Lines

$ The Okanagan Telephone Company in British Columbia, Canada, installed on their telephones an automatic device that limits calls on four-party and six-party lines to eight minutes. The device has cut down on telephone-hogging. Mothers complained that they were unable to get emergency calls through because the lines were deliberately being blocked. A nine-year-old girl almost bled to death while her sister tried desperately to get possession of the line. The new device will definitely limit the talkers.

The Walkathon

Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt once said that a test of fitness was a fifty-mile hike. His idea was to walk the fifty miles in three days, but that idea got lost in the shuffle. Out of Washington, D.C., came reports of girls, U.S. Marines and high school boys, all hitting the trail to prove their fitness. Attorney General Kennedy, the president’s brother, walked the fifty miles in 17 hours. A group of congressional secretaries hiked 32 miles in 12 hours. Newsweek, February 25, 1963, said President Kennedy’s one idle remark "put more vigor into Americans than his Council on Physical Fitness.” San Francisco’s News-Call Bulletin said in an editorial called “50-Mile Madness”: "For good or bad, one of President Kennedy's campaign promises has come true. He’s surely got the country moving again.”

"Cotton Goosing'' & American cotton fields are now being weeded less and less by man and more and more by geese. Growers find that the white Chinese variety of geese can do a better job and more cheaply than men with hoes. One cotton grower has estimated that he saves $16.50 an acre yearly by using geese. “Cotton goosing,” as the use of geese to weed fields is called, has been employed for close to fifty years. There are now about a million geese used in U.S. cotton fields.

Alcoholic Women

Alcoholism in Washington, D.C., is on the increase among women. It is reported that the former ratio of one woman to five men treated in clinics in Washington has changed to one woman to three men. Dr. Anthony Zapalla, a member of the Washington Area Council on Alcoholism, blames the rise in female alcoholism 'to tension caused by the changing status of their sex in modern society.’

Church Symbols Returning

George W. Cornell, associated press religious writer, quotes J. W. Gouker of Philadelphia as saying: “At one time, most Protestants almost completely abandoned symbolism in their churches. But now it is coming back.” In the past, the writer says, such items as crosses on the altar, candlesticks, carved or painted figures, vestments for choir and clergy, widely shunned by Protestantism, were viewed as a carry-over from Roman Catholicism. Gouker, who for twenty-five years has been director of the ecclesiastical arts department for what is now the Lutheran Church in America, said: "We went too far in many cases and rebelled at everything, at art forms with any trace or tint of the Roman Church. Lutherans and Episcopalians retained a little, but they also were pretty stark and barren for a long time. But now most of the churches are regaining something of what they had lost. It's awfully difficult any more to tell whether you are in a Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran or Episcopal church.”—Corpus Christi Caller, February 15, 1963.                              ’

Cheating In Washington

<$> Washington, D.C., pays from $85 to $100 a month of welfare funds to some 2,954 disabled persons. A check revealed that more than half of those investigated were ineligible for such aid. On February 14 an investigation was ordered by Senator Byrd.

Contact Lenses

<§> A thirsty uncle, visiting his niece’s home, reached over to quench his thirst with a ready glass of water. Before his niece could say "Stop!” down went water and lenses. The coed now keeps her contacts in a well-marked safety container.

Kidney Stones

<$> Miss Yuk-Hang Cheuk of Ames Research Laboratory told the American Chemical Society of a new way to detect a kidney disease called cysti-nuila. A certain pill is placed on a porcelain plate and a drop of test urine is added. Within a minute the solution around the pill will turn to a cherry-red color if the disease is present in the patient. Preventive treatment can be followed if the disease is discovered in its early stages. If the condition is not treated, the patient is likely to develop kidney stones.

Sudden Death

<$> In Canada's bleak logging country around Kapuskasing, 1,500 unionized lumberjacks went on strike in January. Ignoring the strikers, local farmers continued to keep the logs rolling to the mills. Union men protested without result! Tension mounted and so did violence against the farmers. On February 11 some 400 striking woodcutters staged a march against the nonunion men. As they drew close, a hail of bullets stopped them. Twelve men fell. Nine were wounded, three dead. The strikers became enraged. There was lynch talk. Some 237 strikers were rounded up by police. Nineteen farmers were arrested. New negotiations were ordered. The last report was that strikers would return to work and the farmers would resume their woodcutting.

Mm-JimiI mtt<m

<$> Mechanization dominates in the United States. Only onefifteenth of its workers now labor on farms. But France still has nearly a fourth of Its workers tilling the soil. In Italy a third of the working force work the land. If the U.S. devoted the same number of workers to farming as does Italy, it would need some 25,000,000 farm hands. However, the jobless rate in America is higher than in many other lands. In the U.S. 5.8 percent of the labor force is jobless; in West Germany, 1.0 percent; in Japan, 1.1 percent; in France, 1.9 percent; in Britain, 2.4 percent, and in Italy, 4.3 percent. Of course, if the U.S. had to use as large a portion of its manpower to work the farms as does Italy, it could put all its unemployed to work and still have a shortage of some 20,000,000 farm workers alone.

You never lose

Yes, you need to grow in knowledge, but, “with all that you acquire, acquire understanding.” (Prov. 4:7) To do that you must go to the highest authority, God’s Word, the Bible. Scriptures are assembled on seventy themes and 287 subjects in the convenient handbook “Make Sure of All Things.” Your copy is available for only 5/6 (for Australia, 6/-; for South Africa, 55c). Send now.

WATCH TOWER       THE RIDGEWAY      LONDON N.W. 7

Please send me the convenient handbook of Bible quotations on vital subjects "Hake Sure of All Things." I am enclosing 5/6 (for Australia, 6/-; for South Africa. 55c).

Name...............	'            Street and Number ........................................................................ or Route and Box........................-......*..................
Post Town...............	Postal ........................................................................ District No...........County ..............................................
APRIL 8, 1963	31

live in a busy world, yet minutes a day can save your life!

“How is that possible?” you say. By budgeting those few minutes each day to read the Bible’s message of life. It is clearly outlined for you in the two books: “This Means Everlasting Life” and “Let God Be True.” Send 7/- (for Australia, 8/-; for South Africa, 70c).

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In- AUSTRALIA address 11 Beresford Rd., Strathfield, N.S.W, CANADA: 150 Bridgeland Ave,, Toronto 19, Ont.

SO. AFRICA: Private Bag 2, P.O, Elandafontein, Tranavaal. UNITED STATES: 11? Adame St,, Brooklyn 1, N, Y.

32

AWAKE!