Golden Age, November 14, 1928
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(The Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND' COURAGE
this isMie
OBSERVATIONS ON SOUND
CHURCHIANITY ■
interesting criticisms
ORIGIN OF OBREGON MURDER
CRUELTY IN ASYLUMS
GOD’S COVENANT FOR
RECONCILIATION radiocast by Jn-3 ’-e Rutherford
Volume X - No.
November 14, 192 8
Contents
Labor and Economics
Novel Way of Ending Strike . . . . . . . , . . . .
A M*S Out of Work ... . . . . . , . . . . • , . .
A Forward Look ...................
Switzerland Has Free Burial ............. » 115
Social and Educational The Gushing of the Heroes...............
A Word on Child Training...... .
Finance—Commerce—Transportation Who Owns ilie Raiironds?
Political—Domestic and Foreign
Trying to Help the Turkish People ............ 105
In Defense of Al Smith .........
Police Officers Are Human Beings ....
Origin or the Obregon 'Mcedf.k . .......... . , . 113
Science and Invention Some Observations ox Sound
Chemical Belt Surrounding the Eau.h ........ .
Home and Health
A Wise Bulldog ....
Cancer Caused by Chemical 1’otsoxs . . ; .
Tried It On -the Dog .....
Northern State Hospital of Washingto..
Travel and Miscellany
Traces of Truth in Indian Legends
Religion and Philosophy
London’s Church Attendance Ducim vted . ....... ,
Coul‘1 Be Dispensed With
Warm Reception Hoped For . .
Ralph Connor Lands in Hell in a Filibeg
Pastor Advises I.ess Bible Study .
Stoning of Bible Students at South Amboy
Churchianity Versus Christianity
Ax Appreciative Listener .....
The Devil’s Fight Against the Truth .
God’s Covenant for Reconciliation ....
The Serpent at Kns.i ath-septier
The Children’s Own Radio Story .......... .
Published every other Wednesday at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn. N. v.. I’. g. A., by WOODWORTH, KNORR & MARTIN
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Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N, Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Golden Age
Volume X
BrooHysa, N. Y«, Wednesday, November 14, 1928
Number 239
Some Observations on Sound
THE source of a sound is usually an elastic body distorted from its normal shape and released, vibrating more or less symmetrically about this normal shape or position. The distance from a point in one impulse to the corresponding point in the next impulse is called the wave length of the sound. The frequency of these waves as they strike the ear determines the pitch of the sound.
The sounds which we hear coming from stringed instruments come, not from the strings, but from the sounding boards. It is infinitely more important to have a good violin than it is to have good strings on it. As violin strings cut through the air they communicate almost no motion to it and therefore emit practically no sound directly.
In the human throat, air from the lungs is blown over elastic vocal cords and their vibrations are communicated to the air after being-projected against the roof of the mouth as a sounding board. Good singers have the roofs of their mouths highly arched.
Sound pulses which reach the air with sufficient frequency and regularity become changed from mere noises into musical tones. Two hundred and sixty-four pulsations per second give the tone called middle C. Fewer pulsations per second give lower tones; more pulsations per second give higher tones, or, as it is termed, higher pitch.
Media for Sound Waves
OUND may be conveyed by any elastic substance. If produced in free air, at a distance from all obstacles, it spreads in spherical waves, (iinrinishiug as it spreads over greater and greater surfaces. In the air sound travels approximately 1100 feet per second, but the velocity varies with the temperature and other circumstances. In water sound travels four times as fast as in air.
Sound can 'be conveyed by any elastic su|| stance. Place a watch on a table, smother it with a pillow so that its ticking can not be heard, put the ear to the edge of the table and the ticking of the watch will be heard coming through the wood, strong and clear.
When a gun is fired five miles away at sea there are two reports. The first one comes through the water in about six seconds. Twenty seconds later conies the report transmitted through the air.
The noise in a vehicle is much less 'when it.is loaded than when it is empty. This is because the bodies and clothing of the passengers absorb many of the sound waves.
Sound waves may be bent by passing the® through large thin-walled spherical balloons. When the balloons are filled with heavy gas the sounds converge; when filled with lighter gas they diverge.
A curious but unintentional example of sound diversion occurred in the British House of Parliament when a shaft of warm air, rising through a large ventilator in the floor, so diverted the sound that a speaker on either side of it could not be heard by one sitting on the opposite side.
Reverberation conies when sound waves hit solid walls and rebound, sometimes echoing scores of times before they come to rest. Reverberation is corrected by coffering or deeply 1’eeessing plastered walls.
The Human Sound Receptacle
THE air ripples set up by sound pass through the outer ear in man and beat against the ear drum which covers and protects the middle ear. In the middle ear are three little bones, the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup, the uses of which are to convey the sounds to the inner ear, the cochlea, the exquisite harp of 2700 strings which baffles and shames the atheist.
Man has heard volcanic explosions at 2000 illites. Ue can hear artillery firing at .150 miles, a railway whistle at two miles and the noise of a train at 8200 feet. A balloonist has heard the report of a rifle and the bark of a dog at 5900 feet, the beating of a drum at 4.550 feet, the rolling of a cart at 3255 feet, the croak of frogs at 3000 feet, the note of a cricket at 2500 feet and the voice of man at 1.600 feet. The cry of a babe has the greatest carrying- power of any human articulation. This is to make sure that its wants will receive attention.
The trained ear can distinguish sounds to as low as sixteen vibrations per second and up to as high as 40,000 vibrations. The untrained ear does well to hear as low as 24 vibrations and as high as 30,000. We hear even in our sleep. The passing of a street ear raises the blood pressure, even though the sleeper remains fast asleep.
Sounds Man Can Not Hear
BATS are guided in their flight, at night by echoes which come hack to them from shrill notes which, they send out from little noisemaking centers in their wings. These noises are so shrill that they can not be heard at all by human ears.
The air is full of sounds that man can not hear, but they mean, life or death to the insects and to the birds and other creatures that make their living by secondary methods. Watch- the ears of cats and dogs and see how responsive they are to sounds you can not detect.
Everybody remembers the story of the holy geese in the holy temple of the holy city and how the holy Roman soldiers were awakened by them, when the wicked heathen Goths tried to climb up into the Capitoline Hill one stormy night. The holy geese saved the holy city by squawking at the .right time. Thus the holy fires in the holy temple did not go out but continued to smoke, holy smoke. We still have the holy candles with us!
Reptiles have ears, fishes have ears, worms have ears, and whales have ears. The dip of an oar is enough to send a whale out of sight beneath the waves. In the effort to accommodate himself to the rising din about him which is making him partly deaf, it is said man’s ears are getting larger and larger. We do not know if this is true.
By means of mechanical ears, which transform inaudible sounds into audible ones, or into visible signals, man is able to hear nr sec: the roar of a magnet as it picks up a piece of iron, or the shrill sounds of inaudible foghorns set to guide ships into port in a fog.
A mechanical ear attached to the outside of a dwelling enables a detective to hear the conversation carried on within, or to detect a gun fired 135 miles away. It is hoped that man may yet set up silent sounds that will destroy or entrap insects and other pests.
Man can sense some of the low sounds which he can not hear when the floor beneath him in a church trembles from the deepest notes of the organ, pitched so low that while his body can feel the vibrations, his ears can not hear them at all, though a trained ear may be able to do so.
Locomotive Whistles
TXT HEN the Britishers hear about American * ’ bells and locomotive whistles and the unending racket which they make from one end of the land to the other, day and night for ever and ever, they smile incredulously. They think we are joking. Over there they have no grade crossings. Incidentally, that one little item saves them 5,000 funerals a year.
At Van Wert, Ohio, in 1925, a Pennsylvania train, running through a heavy fog, struck a. school hack, even though the whistle had been blown, and the hack driver had walked on the tracks to listen before speeding into the path of the onrushing train. Seventeen children were killed in that wreck.
Investigations were subsequently made to see whether locomotive whistles could not be differently pitched. It is thought that if all locomotive and traction whistles were of one pitch, and nothing else could use it, the ear would soon become accustomed to instinctively associating it with danger.
Western lines are experimenting with musical locomotive wl.iistl.es, soft, cooing, in place of the screech-owl type generally used. Sirens audible at three miles are used on the Southern Pacific lines in California. The direct annual cost, in coal and water, of operating railroad whistles is figured at eight million dollars for the United States alone.
A siren is a very simple .form of whistle. It consists of two circular discs, the one fixed, the other pivoted to revolve nearly in contact with it. Both dises are pierced by a circle or circles of holes through which steam or compressed air escapes as the holes in the two discs come opposite one another.
Sound is much affected by atmospheric conditions, topography and buildings, so that a blast from a single whistle can not always be heard for any great distance in a specified direction. Some have expressed the belief that the locomotive whistle, like the headlight, should be reflected forward, to confine the sound, as far as possible, to the region ahead.
Unexplainable and Unnecessary Sounds
MYSTERIOUS noises in the sky have been heard within the past few years in various parts of the earth, notably in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, the Mississippi valley and Honduras; also over London. Though the skies were clear, these explosions were so severe as to shake the houses. At last reports the scientists grappling with this problem had not been able to suggest any reasonable theory to account for them.
In various places in the earth street criers rend the air with cries which seem to accomplish little except to lacerate the nerves of all in the neighborhood. Such cries were much more common once than now. Hand-organs and streetbands are largely things of the past.
Riveting machines are passing out. One man with an electric welder can do what four men did with the riveter and do it quietly, and do it better. Barking dogs are a nuisance in a city and a menace anywhere. City dwellers, with their nerves torn by the racket, do not find the same delight in being awakened by crowing roosters as do some others of mankind.
Of all noises in the city and out of it, the one that seems to be the greatest general nuisance is the unrefined, coarse, blatant, discourteous squawk from the automobile. It speaks for itself. That it accomplishes its purpose of giving sudden alarm is not to be questioned, but there are some kinds of horns that are less beastly than others.
The tooting of an auto horn in front of a house is illegal and indefensible, if its object is to arouse the inhabitants of the house. There are other and better ways to accomplish that end. Yet it is often done by those (and they are many) who never think of anybody but themselves. Why anybody should awaken a whole neighborhood because he wishes to speak to one person who can be awakened otherwise, is a mystery.
A study of the noise of New York city charges forty percent of it to aut>» trucks, twenty-five percent to the elevated railway, twenty percent ■to surface cars of the street railway, and the balance to automobiles, taxicabs, fire apparatus, horse-drawn vehicles and excavating and building operations.
The Audiometer in Practice
THE little machine for measuring the volume of noise in a given vicinity is called the: audiometeri By means of this instrument it has been discovered that at the brink of the Canadian-Horseshoe Falls of Niagara there is no greater volume of.noise than is sometimes equaled at New York’s busiest corner. That corner is fixed as being at Broadway, Thirty-fourth Street and Sixth Avenue. At this point there is an elevated railway, three sets of double street car tracks and an exceedingly heavy six-way traffic. "”Two sets of subway lines and two railway lines are too far below- the surface to add to the noise, but they do add to the traffic.
Oddly enough the noise map of New York shows that the quietest place in the city is in a subway station when all trains are far enough away to send back no roar. As a rule the noise map of the city is almost identical, with its traffic map, but not quite.
Cottagers near bodies of water complain of unnecessary noises by motor boats. Britain estimates its cost in fatigue due to jazz bands as not far from one million pounds a week. As one long-suffering Briton put it, he wishes they ■would take the din out of dinner and restore the rest to restaurant. There is some agitation in Britain for a public health noise abatement act.
Disturbing Effects of Sound
WHY should some sounds, disturb one, and other sounds which to others seem worse have no effect on him? Here enters the human nervous system; and strange are its ways. Let us have a scientific explanation. It is worth reading, because of the nice way in 'which it tells us something we already know: It is Helmholtz’s explanation of why a discordant note offends the ear:
The essence of dissonance consists merely in very rapid beats or changes in intensity of the sound. Two consonant tones flow on quietly side by side in an undisturbed stream; dissonant tones cut each other up into separate pulses. These pulses may be too rapid for the ear to separate, but their existence may be demonstrated. The nerves of hearing feel these rapid beats as rough and unpleasant because every intermittent excitement of any nervous apparatus affects us more powerfully than one that lasts unaltered.
It is i h<■ odd way .that this works out in everyday life that is interesting. The Syrians and many others enjoy music that is full of half and quarter tones that are painful to the ears of others; but having become accustomed to it they like it. Jazz is in the same class.
New York had the odd example within the past year of two riveters perched in the ironwork of a towering building, pleading with a lady who was practising scales in a studio opposite their rattling machine guns. They begged her to stop her racket, as it upset their nerves. It is well known that the city dweller is as much upset by the odd sounds of the country as his country cousin is by the racket of the city when he comes to town.
A stationary engineer works for hours on end in a deafening roar, but let an usual sound come from the engine, a bit of grinding or scraping, he hears it instantly and is alert to locate the trouble. It is not so much the noise as the unusual noise which distresses.
Many people sing when in the bathroom. The reason is because the note is struck for them by the running water. The reason why work in a noisy office is so distracting is because of the unusual noises. The click of the typewriter does not disturb. One gets used to that; but conversation, singing, whistling, the ringing of the telephone!!!
The Search for Quietude
ER-MANY lias offered, the modest sum of $200 as a reward to the engineer devising the best plan to eliminate unnecessary noises from the city. In. this country we pay millions of dollars to prize fighters and Teapot Dome statesmen who spend only a few minutes in their breath-taking' exploits. Look at the way we reward public service thieves. What strange people these Germans are! No wonder we wanted to make the world safe for hypocrisy.
The only quiet places in New York are in the interior of blocks and in the tops of skyscrapers. Street noises hit the walls of the buildings and ascend in heavy volume ten. floors, after which, they gradually die out until, when the twentieth floor is reached, they are well dissipated. Vessels in the harbor are a greater annoyance on the top floors than lo wer down. Unnecessary noises from tugboats and other harbor vessels have been much reduced in New-York in recent years, as a result of determined efforts to that end.
It has long been recognized that quiet should reign in hospitals and in their surroundings. The sick do better where it is quiet So do the well. Removal from a noisy place to a quiet one is as good as a vacation. Silence soothes the bruised nerves of the ears.
London is as quiet as a graveyard, compared with New York. There are few autos, ancl they travel quietly. There are few phonographs. Even the children seem quiet about their games. Yet the Londoners are beginning to complain of the noise of a noisy age.
In Paris a nervous play-writer, M. Bernstein, had an architect design a supposedly soundproof room; but in spite of padded walls, two feet thick and stuffed with sawdust, he found that his sensitive ears picked up as much noise as ever. Ue gave up the fight and went to a hotel
Herbert Spencer valued, silence so much that rather than waste his time listening to a conversation which he saw was becoming unprofitable lie wore ear-muffs which he impolitely drew down when he began to suffer. These earmuffs contained little wax cones with which he closed the portals of his ears.
Grenville Kleiser, writing on the value of silence, says:
Great is the power of silence. There is nothing more eloquent than the still small voice of conscience. Think of the silent growth of the forest. The world upon which you now stand is whirling silently through space. The great forces of nature are silent. How wonderful is the silent power of truth, constantly at work, without effort, sound or confusion. Only man is wasteful, prodigally squandering words, speech and energy. Silence will help you to solve personal problems. Silence is golden. Silence will give you rest from inordinate ambition and desire. Silence will promote quietness of spirit. Words are squandered in useless daily talk. The loss of time and energy from this source alone is incalculable. Add to this the incessant noise, alike in the country and cities, and the need of some counteracting influence is obvious.
Inventions in the Realm of Sound
WE HAVE already mentioned the sound .house at Calais, France, which guides ships into the harbor in a dense fog which light can not penetrate. The sounds sent forth from ■it are inaudible to human ears, but are picked up by mechanical devices.
Super-sounds have been produced up to 300,000 vibrations per second. This was done by what is called a piezo-electric oscillator. At this rate these sound waves do not register in the air. Frogs and fish died within a few minutes when the waves passed through the waters in which they swam. One-celled organisms, called paramecium, broke in pieces.
By means of the hydrophone, much used during the World War, any water sound may be magnified any number of times desired. The addition of each vacuum valve after the first squares the volume of sound. With one valve the sound is magnified seven times, with two valves forty-nine times, with three valves forty-nine times forty-nine times, and so on. The footsteps of a fly may be made to sound like the roar of heavy artillery. The geophone does for land sounds what the hydrophone does for water sounds.
Everybody knows that we have thousands of sound waves of all kinds passing through our bodies constantly. If we wish to get any of them not audible to our ears we have to go to our radio receiving apparatus. A perfect receiving apparatus could receive every sound in the world.
A loud speaker’ device uses a new series of sound waves. They travel at twice the speed of ordinary sound waves and are capable of hurling the human voice many miles. Shall we praise this inventor or lock him up ’ Who v ould want to live in a world where titantic bellowers could project their words in tones stupendous? Even Spencer’s ear-muffs hold out no hope.
The exponential horn, So called, is a new invention which broadcasts the natural human voice or tones of musical instruments'without distortion. At a mile it is claimed to function perfectly. The secret of the horn’s volume lies in a mathematieally-precise enlargement of the tone chamber, which is four feet square.
The Toepier method of sound photography has been greatly improved upon recently by the discovery that sound waves produced between a point source and a photographic plate east shadows on that plate. The twinkling of stars and the phenomenon of heat rising from the ground, both caused by varying density of the air, are keys to the new method.
By the Osiso, which transforms sound into a pencil-point of light, the totally deaf may understand speech by viewing the audio-frequency waves of the output of any good radio receiving set or telephone. The receiving is done on a series of revolving mirrors.
By a German invention, patented by the firm of Mertens, books and papers printed in a certain kind of ink may be heard by the blind, but the form intended to be used is a series of dots and. dashes printed on a tape. It is necessary that the blind person be familiar with telegraphy.
London’s Church Attendance Decimated
TX;,AN article in the London Daily News, Lloyd George says in part:
A religious weekly which from time to time has for nearly a generation conducted a census of the attendance at the places of -vgprship of the various denominations in London, at the last return revealed a sensational diminution in the numbers at both morning and evening services.
This experience could be repeated in probably every city and town throughout the land. There is a marked decline in Sunday school attendance. Charabancs in their stimulation of a new wanderlust have a large share of the responsibility for this state of things.
Petrol has declared war or- the pulpit, and for the moment it is winning.
The preacher sees his armies decimated before his eyes, and he is finding increasing difficulty in obtaining recruits to.»fill up the gaps. The crowd around the altars of the priesthood is visibly thinning. Meanwhile the shrines of nature are thronging with adorers every Sunday. The sunshine, the verdure, the pure, reviving air of the country are joyous and invigorating realities which give life to weary multitudes.
At a time when there is a. sense of gloomy disappointment with a religion that failed to prevent war, even if it ever tried, these allurements are proving disastrous to our churches. So far there has been no serious attempt made to reconcile the conflicting appeals of church and charabanc; so the former continues to wane and the latter to thrive.
Novel Way of Ending Strike
EIGHT hundred clothing workers in Milwaukee, after being on strike six months, opened a factory and went into business on their own account. They have already secured ' clothing contracts that will keep them busy for ' months and have even taken business ■ that would normally have gone to their old employers.
Would You Believe It?
WOULD you believe it that the Alice Foote Macdougal Coffee Shops of New York city not only do not pay their waitresses anything, but require them to pay $10 a week for their jobs ? Seems hard to imagine any concern that far down in the scale, doesn’t it ? The tipping system is bad enough, but to shake down the employes of part of their tips is the outside limit.
An Intolerable World for Girls
rpWENTY-FOUR college girls from universi-•JL ties and colleges in thirteen states came to Chicago without letters of introduction, to see if they could earn their own living as working gilds. They pooled their earnings, worked at all kinds of menial and unpleasant jobs, and at the end of their six weeks’ experience had less than 83c each, per week above their expenses. They conclude that, in its present condition, the world is an intolerable place for honest, industrious, intelligent Avorking girls, The world's favors are for its Dohenys, Daughertys, Falls, Stewarts and Hayses. It is a devil’s world.
The Gushing of the Heroes
aetlett Cormack, a converted reporter, detailed to write up the gushing of the heroes on their return from the World. War, tells us in the New Republic that lie had to manufacture all the gush; that the returned men were sore as boils at everything connected with it; that they knew the Germans had been lied about; that the atrocities never existed except in the mind of liars; and that they would like to see the' uimmntipnables that would get them into another nor. Ure furiher sins that when he had done as he was bid to do and turned in copy glorifying tb<* wai and what was gained by it |h|iitityi<liBoy:Wotild-: eyenchold his nose as he
Philadelphia Bootleggers on the Run
T) HILADELPTIIA bootleggers are on the run.
Fifteen of them have deposited $10,000,000 in local banks in the last year. In every instance the depositors gave fictitious names and ileti-tious addresses. Saloon-keepers, gunmen, and police were found to be in partnership, the usual combination. Philadelphia is a picture of
America under prohibition. ■
New York Central Service to Chicago
BY THE use of au air shuttle service between
Chicago and Cleveland, Chicago business men are now able to leave the .municipal airport there at 5:20 p.m. and catch a train at Cleveland which lands them in New York at 9: 50 a.m. the next day. Returning they leave New York at 6: 00 p.m. and, changing to airplane at Cleveland, arrive in Chicago at 8: 45 a.m.
New York’s Finest on the Job
WITHIN three minutes after New York’s recent subway crash a squad of police arrived on the job and met two policemen already out of the subway with their second load of injured. In fifteen minutes police lines extended for seven blocks, and in less than half an hour two hundred policemen were each working effectively at some phase of the rescue work; searchlights were flooding the subway and acetylene torches were cutting through the steel cars to reach those entrapped. By morning only one of the dead was unidentified and only a few of the injured.
Who Owns the Railroads?
HE American Rolling Mill Company says that there are 868,801 holders of railroad stock, 1,000,000 holders'of railroad bonds, 71,-000,000 persons whose insurance funds are tied up in railroads, 46,000,000 savings bank depositors whose savings are in the same place, 1,000,-000 college students whose alma maters are endowed with railroad securities; and then it says hopefully that ”thus the money received by the railroads each ymir again returns, directly or indirectly, to practically every responsible person in the United Slates’’. That means that if you don’t get some of these benefits you are not responsible. And, obviously, if you object to the present plan, you are not responsible either,
lore
Control of Foreign Customs
]\4TAN¥ loans by United States hankers to xVA foreign countries provide that in eases of default the bankers shall install representatives as collectors of customs. The inevitable result of such contracts is a call on Uncle Sam to see that the collector is appointed and placed; and that means the landing of marines and war if there is any resistance.
Jersey’s Nets Traffic Regulations
ERSEY auto speed has been raised to forty miles in the country and thirty miles in cities. Pedestrians must cross on crosswalks and are governed by the lights, the same as autos, but when they have started to cross with the proper signals have the right of way over autos. Garage owners must report every damaged machine within ttventy-four hours of receipt.
Mens Abominable Clothing
GERMAN scientist has established that the weight of man's indoor clothing is four times that of woman’s and that the temperature inside the men’s clothing is seven degrees higher.than in that of the women. Both men and women admit that men’s clothing is an atrocity, but the men are afraid of being jeered by one another and do not dare follow the path to freedom and health. The women have gained liberty and health, and their present sensi ble dress looks far better than the dowdy garments of the past.
The Movement Toward Lower Wages
EFERRING to the movement toward lower wages for the workers, the Chicago Trib~ we well says : “The lowering of income can result only in less schooling for the children, a meaner diet, more crowded homes, poorer clothing. fewer recreations and a lessened ability to meet misfortune that must be expected in every ■family. -Reduced incomes must result, as well, in a general lowering of the purchasing power of scores of mining communities throughout the state, a reduction which will be reflected mot only in th«> reduced prosperity of the retailors in these communities, but also in the Edgers of the manufacturers, wholesalers and jobbers who supply these tradesimm.” The Tribune adds that a reduced standard of living makes workmen sullen; and it is so,
What One Woman Swallowed . ■ -'
THE Sficnti/ie American presents a picture of the 2,533 pieces of metal, beads, glass, screws, coins, pins, washers, and nuts taken from the stomach of a poor woman in Canada whose insanity took the form of swallowing everything in sight. A still more difficult thing to swallow is the doctrine of eternal torment, but some people manage to get it down somehow.
Bare Arms or Not
MAY a woman travel around with bare arms on a hot summer day or may she not? The Pope and some of the bishops say she may not, but she is doing it anyway. The past season has been particularly hot and dry in Europe. The tourists have worn less than ever, and the general consensus is that in trying to regulate women's clothes the old-timers have met their Waterloo.
Could Be Dispensed With
N ENGLISH clergyman, Rev. John Bevan, at the Congregational Conference at Oxford made the statement that “the Old. Testament could be dispensed with”. There is another thing that could be dispensed with, and with much greater profit, and that is the sanctimonious, whining, begging, hypocritical clergy that are supposed to teach that same Old Testament and its associate book, the New Testament, and have neither knowledge of nor belief in the contents of either one. Of what earthly or heavenly benefit are they to man ?
Trying to Help the Turkish People
IN THE effort tu help "lie Turkish people U:e
Turkish Minister of the Interior requires each province three times a year to supply the following information: f
What arts and industries are decaying,. ■andWhyli Hew can they be restored? y
What are the social conditions in the province1 How is capital distributed among the inhabitants'? What are the main causes of poverty and lack of comfort'? Are there any unemployed and in what numbers? What should be done to find them, work?
Are there in the region any oppressors or feudal lords, and, if so, how can they be eliminated?
Are calumny and backbiting prevalent, and how can theyjfee suppressed?'. ... ?.< - -< . ■ ; cw cwWW
Is the movement of population advancing or receding? At what age does mortality chiefly begin? What is the position of infant mortality and the
the province? Are there Is- malaria, tuberculosis, or syphilis prevalent ?
What is the position of primary education? In what proportion do children of age to receive compulsory ||i|i|OOtlO|den.t the schools? What is the number of people knowing how to read and
BtttWhat is. the number of bridges, roads, hospitals, kigiid libraries, and what measures can be taken to IldHilhp them ?
- Pennsylvania’s New Stockholders
THE Pennsylvania Railroad has added 101,-000 new stockholders to its list, all from its own employes. Their average purchases are three and one-half shares each, at par. This is a step in the direction of government ownership, and. a proper step. The people should own their transportation systems.
New York’s Pneumatic Mail System
OVER half the letters between Brooklyn and
New York post offices are carried by pneumatic tube. The cartridges, two feet in length, each cany 500 to 700 letters and are propelled at thirty7 miles an hour. A cartridge can be shot every sixteen seconds. Tubes also extend the u hole length of New York city from the Custom House to 125th Street, serving postal substations on the way. The system has worked perfectly for five years.
New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Omaha
A FTER a partial survey of prisons in which federal prisoners are kept the Congressional investigation committee declares that in the Tombs Prison, New York, the Moyamensing Prison, Philadelphia, the Omaha City Jail and the Cuyahoga County Jail in Cleveland the conditions are terrible and even the medieval conception of humanity is forgotten. The Cuyahoga County Jail'was the worst one of the bunch.
Pullman Busses in California
rpiIE Pickwick Stages System, operating on : the Pacific Coast, is putting into operation
all-metal nitecoaches with sleeping accommodations for twenty-six passengers. The cars .have . a driver, a steward and a porter. Meals are served. There is a lavatory.
Power Trust Works Thoroughly
THE Power Trust claims that in debauching the teachers of the country they have overlooked nothing and nobody from the eighth . grade up to the state superintendents of public instruction. Moreover, they.have carefully scrutinized every line of economics used in the schools, and if a book teaching the truth regarding'-public ownership advantages was on the list they have used every power to get it re-' moved.
A Man Out of Work
A MAN out of work is not a pleasant man.
How can he be? Such a man wrote a letter to the financial writer B. C. Forbes in which he said some unpleasant things. Mr. Forbes had the courage to print it. We quote three paragraphs. They are not nice, but they contain some things that should make us all stop and think:
You, like the rest of the hirelings, prostituting your mentality to the interest of the big business whole hogs (and God knows that’s flattering them), like to sneer and snap at the “whinings” of the failures— riie protests of those who are driven to the river, as I probably shortly shall be, because I am denied the riglit to make an honest living in a country overflowing with plenty; in a country which B. McFaul says m. the 3 ale Rcvicu; is easily capable of supporting five or six times its present population in absolute comfort: in a country in which, despite the fact that there have been bumper crop yields—actually overproduction in all lines, agricultural and manufacturing—there have been between six and seven millions of people out of work, and in a country which, according to Irving Fisher, makes it the hardest kind of a task for eighty percent of the population to eke out a bare existence.
On the other hand, the whole hogs you are in the contemptible business of defending have been increasing by leaps, and bounds. Twenty-five years ago, the apex of wealth was estimated at about a quarter of a billion. Today we have swine whose wealth is estimated at over two billion—two of them at least—another at over a billion, and hundreds over the quarter of a billion mark. The 30,000 figure explains very graphically where all the prosperity is going.
Our farmers, performing ten, twelve and fourteen hours each day of hard labor in the hot sun, receive, in most instances, less than two percent on their investment, while our elite bankers, lolling around in luxuriously furnished offices in palatial bank buildings for a few hours each day, and spending the balance of their time on artistically horticultured golf links, reap fifty percent on their investment.
A Forward Look
HE following lignros were compiled from reccm statistics. A high degree .?f accuracy is not claimed, but a sufficiently near approximation thereto has been attained to enable us to view present conditions in comparison with the futirro from an unusual angle.
Popalctiimt of the United States -
Engaged- in various occupations Men and women, 16 to 65 .............................. 45,000,000
Married women keeping house.................. 21,000,000
Total more or less usefully engaged...... 66,000,000
■ Nonproductive classes
Children, 1 to 15 ...................................................... 36,000,000
Idle men and women, 16 to 65 .................. 10,000,000
Aged men and women, 65 and over...... 3,500,000
Average number of workers
temporarily sick .......*...................................... 500,000
Criminals ....................................................... 350,000
Blind, deaf or otherwise partly or - ’
wholly disabled............................................. 150,000
Total more or less nonproductive............ 50,500,000
Grand total............................ 116,500,000
This is representative, in a Way, of all nations, although conditions differ greatly in other countries.
Under the conditions of God’s kingdom, now being established in the earth, the efficiency of the working population will be much increased, for several reasons. For example, (1) they will be rapidly lifted to higher levels, physically and mentally, advancing toward perfection. (Acts 3: 21) (2) As the centuries pass and life lengthens and the people find themselves free from sickness and with no traces of did age or decay, ’ they wall naturally accumulate greater funds of knowledge and greatly increased skill in all the arts, crafts and professions. (3) The perfooted organization of society with its control and direction of human activities by competent and unselfish authorities, will result in happy and satisfactory working conditions for every one and in giving each individual the opportunity to develop his best powers under favorable conditions. This alone will probably more than
double present production........Isa. 65:17-25: 66:
22,23: Kev. 21 :l-5. '
There will he no more marriage and no more children. (Luke 20:35; Isa. 65:20) There will be no idle classes, cither poor or rich. (Isa. 65: 22,23; Prov. 19:15; Isa. 1:19) There wdl be no incapacity by reason of old age (Isa. 65: 20: ' Job 33:19-25); or by reason of sickness. (Isa, 33:24; Luke 5:23-25; Heb. 10:17) There will be no criminal class. (Isa. 11:9: 13:9: Ps. 72: 7,9: Acts 3:23) There will be no more blind, deaf, dumb, lame or otherwise partly or wholly disabled.—-Isa. 35: 5, 6.
All the nonproductive classes will disappear in time, although there will he children and old people coming up in the resurrection for hundreds of years, only to grow up nr to grow’ young, as the ease may he. When the resurrection is complete these classes will have fully disappeared. :
While the resurrection is progressing the population of the earth will steadily increase, because only those who choose to be '.ricked will be cut off in the second death. ' .. ■
When the resurrection is complete the earth will be fully populated with highly efficient, productive workers, every one doing his share for c A the common good of all, and all nonproductive factors will be eliminated. x
What will happen to the eight-hour day as a result of more than twice doubling production?
In addition to the above it may safely be anticipated that the steady progress of invention for a long time to come will add much more to the power of production of human workers.
It is not hard to visualize conditions of the future. They will surely be such that men will have little to do besides attend to the operation of machinery, and that for only a few hours each day, the remainder of their time bmrg spent in enjoying the glories of earth, .and in cultivating their higher powers. Music, art, sculpture, refinements of every kind, will be enjoyed By all to an extent now unrealized by even- •• the most favored. •
Thy kingdom come!
Warm Reception Hoped For
oho-o [From•Montreal Daily Star}
NERVOUS curate (giving out notices): and the subject next Friday will be ‘Hell’. The “The vicar will continue his pleasant series vicar hopes'to see you all there. The collection of Friday evening addresses in the parish hall, will be for the new heating apparatus.”
In Defense of-Al Sjnith By Wilson McHarg
I AM a great admirer of your fearless truth-seeking magazine, but in your article, “Laws Binding on Al Smith,” I think you do him a '■great injustice. There is no law binding on any man who is fearlessly standing up for truth and justice. I am a Protestant, but we sprang from 'his church, through men who would not allow the church to dictate to them with laws that did • not appeal to them.
Treat a man as you find him, no matter what church he goes to. A.1 Smith has allowed no bigotry to rule hint in his dealings with others of different views from his. Why should we ■show any toward him because of church laws centuries old? Four times governor of New York, I believe his state has given the Bible Students more privileges than has our state of Pennsylvania with its Protestant governor.
What church law was ruling that Baptist clergyman of New Jersey who was coming with a hundred members of his flock to take the law into their own hands and clean up the Bible Students who were then on trial for selling books in South Amboy without a license ? Could anything be more anarchic ? And who is meddling more in. polities than our Protestant clergy? They claim it’s a good cause; but God never gave the church any other weapon to use than moral suasion where personal rights are concerned.
Laws infringing on personal rights are tyranny, can not command respect, and lead to a condition that calls for a big upheaval and a reformation leading back to the law's respect of personal rights before the people can again be made to have the respect, they should have for the law. Al Smith has stood for all those good qualities; so let us be as broad as he and give him credit for what he has been and not for what he might be.
[We publish the foregoing because it presents an apgle that should be kept in front, namely, that of tolerance. Nevertheless, we are constrained to wonder why the Roman Catholic Church should continue to have laws on its books which call for the murder of heretics and the expropriation of their property unless they hope some time to be able to put those laws again in force. We doubt if they get the chance, but that is beside the mark.
Out in the service work we occasionally meet people who. when addressed in the kindest, most friendly way, respond with almost unbelievable meanness and bitterness. In nine cases out of ten, if we ask, “Pardon me, may I ask if you are a Catholic?’’ the answer' comes back, “Yes.”
The question naturally .arises, If the bitterness is so often expressed, is it not a sure sign that it is really there and is being nurtured by the laws and rules and regulations of the church which ought to be repudiated but are not repudiated by those in her high councils ?
Mr. Smith must know of these laws. They have been called to his attention often enough. Why does lie not repudiate them openly, frankly, courageously, and" say, “If the Catholic church stands for the murder of one’s fellow men and the sequestration of their property because of their belief, then I am not a Catholic.” But he does not dare to do that and probably does not wish to do it, nor does any other Catholic.
Wo admit that we would eheei’fully trust the institution with which. Mr. Smith is connected as far as we would the Methodist church, the Baptist, .church, or any other of those churches of the now dark ages, but that would be only as far as a five-day-old’infant could throw a cast-iron bull 'by the tail. These institutions neither teach nor .practise truthfulness, honesty, tolerance or humanity, and are a curse to the earth. Let* the World War speak for itself.—Ed.] ■
A Word on Child Training By John Galsicorthy
T SHOULD like tc see all school children def-A ffiitely taught to be kind to animals and birds. Apart from the benefit to creatures who have no say in their own fate, this would have a most civilizing effect. Proper treatment of criminals, drunkards, lunatics, prostitutes, of the outcast and the helpless generally, is intimately interwoven with early education in the proper treatment of animals and birds. To
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a considerable extent, criminality arises from the injudicious and unkindly pressure of life. Childreip. can hardly be taught how to deal with the :un satisfactory grown-up of their own species ; hut' if taught, as they easily can be, to treat birds and. animals well, they will grow up naturally, with a kindlier and more judicious attitude in all the practical affairs of life.
Police Officers Are Human Beings ZL/ ('• -?’•
POLICE officers aw human beings. This was demonstrated reeenih at South Amboy.
N. J., where they did what they were told, but where at the trial they showed that their hearts were not in the work of arresting inoffensive .....Bible Students; and when no others appeared against them they showed no interest in the ease.
A week before the Detroit Convention a party of Paterson (N. J.) Bible Students were canvassing Port Jervis, N. Y., which lies sixty-five miles from home, on the edge of our territory. About three o’clock the friends began to be stopped, and as the next week was Convention week they thought they had better cease work without any argument; but as I had not been arrested, and knew I had a perfect right to engage in the Lord’s work in this way, I continued working.
At length an officer came along and said, “Yon will have to cut that out; you can not canvass here on Sunday.” I said,'“Why not?” He said: “To do that you must see the mayor or chief of police.” “Who gave them authority to issue permits for preaching the gospel ?” I asked. He replied: “I don’t know anything about that. I’ve received instructions to stop you people from canvassing, and before you do any more you will have to see the Chief.” As I insisted that I had a perfect right to engage in this method of preaching and didn’t want to be interfered with, he decided to take me down to headquarters immediately.
My car was just around the corner; so I invited him to ride down with me. On the way to the police station I had an opportunity to explain our work and methods more in detail, and he agreed that there was no harm done and that as far as he was concerned he didn’t care if there were a thousand Bible Students canvassing in Port Jervis. Arrived at headquarters the officer said: “'This man was selling books; he would not stop, and I brought him ■down.”
There seems to be something about the possession of a uniform and brass buttons that makes some men think they are a little above the human and that common people who enter their presence arc to he treated like dogs, for the Chief turned ou me like a roaring lion and demanded: “Where are your credentials?” I said : “Credentials! I am a Christian and a citizen of the United States.” He said: “How many are there in your party?” I answered: “Fifteen.” He said: “You come sneaking into town and scatter all over the city and you did not come and ask permission.” I said: “Why should we? Why should we come and ask permission to do something that we have a perfect right to do?” lie said: “You can not canvass on Sunday.” I said: “You do not need a license to preach the gospel.” He said, “Fifty people have called up and said they did not wish to be annoyed." I said: “You have listened to their story. They do not know what they are talking about. Now hear the other side of it before you judge whether we are common peddlers and hook, agents.”
I then told him: “Our sole purpose in coming to Port Jervis is to preach the gospel, to bring to the citizens of this city a message that will gladden and cheer the hearts of all who are in distress and need of comfort. We are sending this message to the people every week by the use of over one hundred radio stations, and in order that those who hear it may investigate’ it more thoroughly, and also in order to stimulate and assist home Bible study, we are placing it before them in printed form. These four books which we are leaving for $1.63 contain the most vivid description of the Divine plan ever published. They contain conclusive evidence that Jehovah, the great Creator of heaven and earth, has a definite plan respecting mankind, definite time features in connection with that plan, and it is His intention to eventually bless man with life, liberty, health and happiness.”
He interrupted and said: “Hold on; you’re not going to preach any sermon to me.” J
I replied: “I'm not preaching any sermon to you, but simply stating facts in order for you to use your own reasoning faculties to determine whether or not we are peddlers and book agents.”
“'Well,” he said, “'you are selling books, because a lady called at my own door and wanted $1.63 for them.” I replied: “Did you buy them? And did she annoy you?” He said, “No, and furthermore you can’t sell any more books here on Sunday. If the people want to hear the gospel they can go to church.” I asked him which church they should go to, and he replied, "Any chwrchA I then told him that that was another reason why we were in Port Jervis, because the gospel was not being preached in any church
io»
in lids city, or in any church "between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
‘•'Well, then,” he said, “why don’t- you people hire a hall or tabernacle F I replied: “Because those methods are obsolete and we have discarded that, method for our present way, which is by using the radio and printing presses and calling on the people from house to house.”
“Well,” he said, “you can’t do any more of it here.” When I demanded to see the ordinance prohibiting it, he refused, and ordered us out of town : and when I asked him where he received authority to order us out of town he became very indignant, hammered the desk with his fist and talked so loud that he could be heard clear across the street.
I then said: “See here, Chief, I’m the one that has a perfect right to be indignant. As a citizen of the United States the Constitution grants me the right to worship God according to the dictates of my conscience; and it is your duty, as Chief of Police, to see that the Constitution is upheld, not to violate it. Whom are you working for, the citizens of Port Jervis or the fifty people who you claim ’phoned and wanted us stopped? Instead of sending men out to arrest us you should be giving your men instructions to see that we are not interfered with.”
“'Well,” he replied, “don't ,you know that- you can't make a legal sale on Sunday ? If you sell books for $1.63, is it legal?” I answered: “If you buy cigarettes or newspapers on Sunday, is that legal?”
He then said: “Your books may be all right, and I have no fault to find with you, but- you can’t do any more canvassing on Sunday; if you do you will be locked up.” “'All right,” I replied, “we are going to canvass, and I warn: you that if we are interfered with it will cost the City of Port Jervis some money. If the city wants a fight on its hands, we will accommodate it.”
“'Make one more canvass,” he replied, “and see how soon we fight.”
As the Convention was only a week away and it was four o’clock, we decided to postpone the conquest of Port Jervis until a future' date, which we hope will be in the near future.
This work is being directed by Jehovah. The fight is His fight, and we can rest assured that potty ordinances will not be permitted to interfere.
[On Sunday, September 23, Paterson workers and their friends to the number of thirty-one went to Port Jervis and finished their canvass of the city. As one of these gentlemen was completing his canvass his prospective customer said, in a friendly way, “Do you know to whom you are speaking?” The canvasser said, “No.” He replied, “I am the Chief of Police. One of your men was up here some- weeks ago and talked rather saucy. I had him down at the Station. We don’t mind your coming up here but we don ’t like to have the people bothered on Sundays.” AU. of this shows that the police, after all, are human beings like the rest of us, and, when they have matters explained to them, can see a point as well as anybody. The police should be treated with respect- in those things v,-herein they show regard for the laws of the land and the interests of all the people, including especially those who are representing the King of kings and Lord of lords; but the Lord's business comes first and is not at any time to be subordinated to the whims or tyrannies of men who assume rights which are not theirs and are trying to stop what they have no right to stop and what can not be stopped by any human power.—Ed.]
Ralph Connor Lands in Hell in a Filibeg
Ralph Connok, of Winnipeg, has in years gone by made a. hell for Bible Students in Canada and in the United States, has preached hell to- thousands of misguided unfortunates who did not know he was lying to them, and the most natural place for him to serve his chosen master is in some locality congenial to them both.
It is with peculiar interest, therefore,- that we notice a picture of the Reverend Ralph in a .Canadian paper of recent date, and beneath the illustration of a figure in kilts, with three medals pinned on his or her manly or unmanly bosom, these words: “'Ralph Connor, Canada’s well-known divine and author, who will conduct the open-air service in the Devil’s Cauldron, off the golf course, Sunday, September 2, at the Banff Highland Gathering.” -
This is the man who led the prohibition fight in Manitoba and of whom, after he had carried the fight, it was a matter of public knowledge
that a Lew nights hel'ore. burglars had broken into his house and entered his cellar and got so drunk tbar they broke up a lot of furniture but stole nothing, and that the preacher did not have enough courage to prosecute them.
lie is also the man who started the fight in
Canada against i!ie Bible Students, and is tinone responsible for the first arrest during the war and who made a threat, to carry the war into the States, and probably did. ■
No more fit man to deliver a service in the Devil’s Cauldron could be selected.
Traces of Truth in Indian Legends By Harry J. Valentine
BY COURTESY of E. F. Kellner, Jr., now residing at Superior, Arizona, I have had the pleasure of reading an old history of Arizona, published in 1884. The book is entitled “History of Arizona Territory’'’ and was published by Wallace IV. Elliott & Co., of San Francisco. There are said to be only two copies in existence, one of them being in the Library of Congress, at Washington.'
All Arizonians have read of the massacre of the Oatman family by Indians in 1851, James Oatman, his wife and four children were beaten to death, one son was left on the scene of the tragedy as dead, and two daughters in their teens were made captives and forced to live many years with the Indians, Mojaves and Apaches.
-<■ Olive, one of the daughters, survived many years of Indian life; and through the efforts of - her brother who had been rescued by friendly
Pima Indians, she was rescued back to white civilization. She lived in New York many years after'her rescue. The other sister died while living with the Indians.
On page 93 of the old history I find a story about a strange Indian legend which the Indians taught Olive Oatman. It bears a striking resemblance to Scriptural truths concerning the flood. The history reads as follows:
An imposing mountain stands near the west bank of the Colorado [river] at the head of the Mojave Valley. It is the highest peak in sight, and is regarded with reverence by the Indians, who believe it to be the abode of the spirits of their departed.
' In the narrative of Miss Oatman, who was an Indian ■captive for many years, this mountain is alluded to. Her parents were murdered by Indians near Gila Bend on Gila River. The particulars are given elsewhere, Her description is interesting, as furnishing an additional example of the universality among the tribes of North American Indians of the tradition of a deluge.
‘ ‘ They told me, pointing to a high mountain at the ■ northern end of a valley, that, in ancient times there was a flood, which, covered all the world except, that mountain, and that by climbing it one family was saved from the general deluge; that this family was very large and had great riches, clothing, cattle, horses, and plenty to eat; that after the water subsided one of the family took all the cattle and one kind of clothing and went north, and was there turned from red to white; that another of the family took deer skins and bark, and from him the Indians have descended: that the progenitor of the whites had a red complexion until he stole, and then he became white; the remains of the old ‘big house’, in which this ancient family lived, were up there yet; also pieces of bottles, broken dishes, and remnants of all the various kinds of articles used by them.
‘ ‘ They said also that this venerated spot had been, since the flood, the abode of spirits, and that if the feet of mortals should presume to tread their enchanted land, a fire would burst from the mountain, and instantly consume, them. It is their belief that the spirit of every white'whom the Mojaves had been successful in slaying is held there in their perpetual chains, and doomed to the torment of quenchless fires, while the Mojave by whose hand the slaughter was perpetrated is exalted to eternal honors and superior privileges therefor.”
To the writer this legend is a weird confirmation of four great Scriptural truths, viz:
1. There was a world-wide flood which covered everything, possibly excepting the very top of some high mountain.
2. That one family was saved from the flood.
3. That somehow unseen spirits or demons came into existence at the time of the flood. ::
4. That the spirits are held in chains, prisoners.
There is also the suggestion of eternal torment which Satan so carefully cultivated so many hundreds of years among the white race.
Pastor Advises Less Bible Study
THE Reverend Thomas H. Whelpley, pastor
.Mof Chelsea Presbyterian Church, New York city, is represented as having advised his congregation to study the Bible less and men more, ■'thus turning the instructions of our Lord and the apostles-and prophets exactly upside down.
The apostle did not say to Timothy, ‘From a child thou hast known all kinds of men, big men, little men, tall men, short men, fat men, thin men, rich men, poor men, beggar men, thief, doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief’; but he did say, “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.”
Our Lord said, “This is eternal life, that they might know thee.” To know God was, in Jesus’ estimation, the greatest blessing of life. Jesus never advised His apostles to study man; but He did pray to the Father, “Sanetify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
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