Golden Age, October 1, 1930
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Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND. COURAGE
in this issue
“YOUR MONEY’S WORTH””
ODE TO THE LAWYER
AT THE CROSSROADS
DEVELOPMENTS
IN BROADCASTING TECHNIQUE
HYPOCRISY
Full text of an address by Judge Butlierford, broadcast in AVATCHTOAVEii national chain program.
mmimmummiiiiiiimiiiimiiimsmsEiimmmiiiiEmiii every other
WEDNESDAY
five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.50
Vol. XII - No. 288
Octobe r 1, 19 3 0
LABOR AND ECONOMICS
Workers in Linoleum Industry s 5
Unemployment and Mental Sta
bility .........» 6
Children in Canneries .... 6
At the Crossroads......15
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
“Many Wonderful Works” ... 4
Not Overlooked ....... 5
A Study in Quietude ..... 5
Military Training Optional ... 6
Telephones at Crossroads ... 7
Trainloads of Food Destroyed . . 9
The Fading Glory of Columbus . 16
A Chance for Honest Journalism 23
MANUFACTURING AND MINING
A Few Words About Iron ... 23
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
“Your Money’s Worth” .... 3
Electrification of Lackawanna . . 7
It Paid to Debauch the Women . 7
Relative Safety of Airplanes . . 7
Women Own One-half the Wealth 8
Passes on New York Central . . 9
Ode to the Lawyer ...... 10
Money and Barter ...... 24
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
Indian Department Stores Empty 5
No Free Speech in Korea ... 5
Redding’s Electric Plant ... 6
Jefferson County’s Dog-Houses s 6
Britain and Vatican at Loggerheads 8
Mooney and Billings ..... 5
Using the Church as a Cat’s-paw 14
Justice in Iowa ....... 18
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
Painting Lilies and Carnations , 5
Boulder Dam under Construction 9
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
Cheapening of Beryllium ... 5
Berlin’s Mammoth Loud Speaker 6
Television on the Airplanes ... 7
Some Recent Developments in
Radio Broadcasting Technique 19
HOME AND HEALTH
Shellac, Sulphur and Corrosive
Sublimate........9
Iron Versus Aluminum Utensils 14 A. Personal Experience with Alu
minum ...... ... 14
“Youth at Seventy” ..... 21
Try It Four Weeks and See . , 31
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
Venezuela Out of Debt .... 7
Attractions of North Dakota . . 17
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Jericho Skeleton Bears Witness 22
Hypocrisy.........24
An Open Letter to the “Right
Reverend Bishop” .... 30
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Golden Age
Volume xn Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, October 1, 1930 Number 288
“Your Money’s Worth”
IN THIS 285-page book, published by the Macmillan Company (New York), we have a most interesting study in the waste of the consumer’s dollar. The announcement of the book says:
The consumer of today is Alice, in a Wonderland of high-pressure salesmanship. With everything advertised as the best, how—except through the wasteful process of trial and error—is the consumer ever to determine the best ? The consumer is under mounting pressure, directed by ever increasing astuteness on the part of the advertiser, to buy, buy, buy—while no means are offered him whereby he may use intelligent selection in his buying.
It is the purpose of this book to explore the wonderland of advertising and salesmanship and to indicate a path that may lead out of it to the solid ground of fact. The first part of the book analyzes, with a great wealth of concrete data, the plight of the average consumer; the second part describes existing scientific agencies, such as the United States Government Bureau of Standards, for the impartial testing of available goods, and proposes a way out. Untold billions can be saved if knowledge can be substituted for sales forcing.
Until we read this book we did not know that some prunes are dipped in glucose to make them shiny and so add to their market appeal; nor did we know that the “Listerine” which is supposed to guard our throats and nasal passages, sweeten our breath and kill our dandruff, is so exceedingly mild in its antiseptic properties that it would take $495 worth of it to equal the antiseptic value of a cent’s worth of corrosive sublimate or 33c worth of carbolic acid.
Most of us knew that about everything today has the endorsement of this or that actress, but perhaps did not know that the Famous Names, Inc., of Chicago, New York and Hollywood, is in the business of providing endorsements for anything the advertising man wants to have endorsed. The fees run as high as $2,500. Queen Marie, of Rumania, was one of the celebrities whose endorsements were for sale at a price, fixed by Famous Names, Inc.
Did you know that rice wholesaling at 7c a pound becomes puffed rice at 61c a pound; wheat wholesaling at 2|c a pound becomes puffed wheat at 68c a pound; and corn at l^c a pound becomes corn flakes at 20c a pound? Funny; isn’t it? And expensive.
The state architect of New York, Mr. Sullivan Jones, declares that “on the average not less than twenty-five cents in every dollar the consumer pays for building materials goes to meet the cost of selling him. The net result is in general the substitution of one product for another. We are paying 100 percent more for our building materials than we need to—the price of competition”.
If you want to buy rubbing alcohol put up in attractive form it will cost you up to $1.50 a quart; but when several universities got together and bought five carloads the price was 25c a gallon. All depends on who buys and how they buy; doesn’t it?
Prices on liquid soap vary from 8c to $2.75 a gallon. Quite a difference; isn’t it? Gillette safety razors used to sell for $5.00; now they can be had at Woolworth stores at 10c. When bicycles were selling at $100 each all the metal parts together cost less than $3.65. All the hard rubber parts of a $2.75 fountain pen cost less than 11c.
Most deodorants are paraffin oil at 20c a gallon, with 2 percent of pine oil added, making a total cost of 22c a gallon. It sells for $2.50 a gallon. Carbon tetrachloride, an effective grease solvent, a clothes-cleaning and moth-killing agent, and a fire-extinguishing liquid, may be bought at wholesale at 8c a pound. It sells at 90c a pound.
The best conceivable soap can be sold at 10c a pound. The medication in any medicated soap is so small as to add nothing of value. The treated soap may actually be less efficient as an antiseptic than a pure soap unmedicated.
“One dollar starts you on the road to health” when you buy a pint of a certain mineral oil, but if you bought the same oil at wholesale you could get a gallon of it for 70c. Naphtha soap chips never contained enough petroleum distillate to be effective as a cleansing agent.
The A. & P. Company put out an A. & P. Sweet Milk Chocolate which was improperly so branded. The government found it excessive in the amount of cocoa shells ground into it and compelled its destruction after the fats it contained had been recovered.
Sanatogen was boosted to the skies, but “laboratory analysis showed that one dollar’s worth of wheat flour contains as much energy as $197 worth of Sanatogen”. You have all heard about Bell-ans. The American Medical Association says of it: “Bell-ans (Pa-pay-ans, Bell) possesses the virtues—and they are few—and the limitations—and these are many—inherent in a mixture of baking soda, ginger and charcoal.”
At the same time that the Royal Baking Powder Company was warning the public against the use of phosphate baking powders and claiming that cream of tartar was the only healthful ingredient it was engaged in manufacturing and selling in Canada, through a company controlled by it, a phosphate baking powder known as “Magic Baking Powder”, and owned 49 percent of the capital stock of a corporation engaged in the manufacture of phosphate for use in baking powders, sold to the manufacturers of phosphate baking powders.
One manufacturer stocks 2500 varieties of women’s handkerchiefs. The buyer would have a better chance if there were but twenty-five.
A beautiful but simple electric reading-lamp stand was a failure when sold at $3, but when dressed up with dust-catching gewgaws that added nothing to its value, it sold readily at $15. There are 278,000 types of men’s sack suits, 6,000 varieties of single-bit axes, and 78 sizes of bed blankets.
For the best possible floor wax use -J pound beeswax, 1 pound paraffin, | pint raw' linseed oil, Id pints turpentine. Melt the beeswax and the paraffin, add the linseed oil and turpentine, and stir* the mixture thoroughly and vigorously. Unfinished wood will be darkened somewhat by this wax as a result of the absorption of the linseed oil. Use hot water, not flame, as a source of heat in making the wax, to avoid the risk of igniting the turpentine. The mixture will cost around 25c a pound.
These are some of the items we gleaned from a hasty scanning of the book. The careful reader will find much more. The work is the product of experiences of two observant men in the Federal Trade Commission and the National Bureau of Standards.
“Many Wonderful Works” By Joseph Levens
THE enclosed advertisement, boosting the
Community Chest, clipped from the Enquirer, Cincinnati, May 7, 1930, speaks pretty loudly for itself, as to truthfulness. I have no way of knowing what methods have been taken to make collections for the Community Chest in Cincinnati, but in a certain town in Ohio one party at least (who was already drawing a salary of $50 a week) was given $60 a week for his remuneration for collecting or boosting the collection of the Community funds.
A lady in this town was one of ten engaged in the collecting who got $100 a month as collector, and she was rated as possessor of property valued at over $450,000. After having the injustice of the situation pointed out to her, and also after asking the management of the funds to give assistance to a needy family, and being met with the reply, “We have nothing for them,” she withdrew as a collector.
The employees of a certain business house had been liberal contributors two years ago, but when some of these same contributors, out of work and hard up, w’ere refused assistance when they needed it, they changed their minds as to its efficiency; so when the collectors came soliciting last year they were unceremoniously shown the door.
The organizer’s generous share is what these thieves are after. “Charity” (LOVE) of the other fellow’s goods is the incentive, not What can I do to help? (Note the squibs: “Shelter the homeless—through the Community Chest”; and on the reverse side, “Correct the causes of crime—through the Community Chest.” This was repeated in another column. Also the white heart on black ground, with the legend,—“Your Community Chest furnishes wholesome outlets to the energies o:f youth; helps to make our-boys and girls better citizens. SHARE!”)
Not Overlooked
Two Long Air Lines in China
TWO more long air routes are being opened in China this year, making three all together, with mileages ranging from 1,032 to 1,454.
Prayers Landed Wrong
IN THE village of Coatepec, Mexico, while the villagers were all assembled in the plaza, praying for the discontinuance of extra heavy rains, there was a cloudburst in which the village was wrecked, the livestock drowned, and the crops destroyed.
Indian Department Stores Empty
IT IS said that since the boycott in India went into effect the department stores are empty, and their customers were formerly 90 percent natives. Banks and newspapers are also being boycotted, and their owners are begging the viceroy to promise dominion self-government.
Millions of Rats in Mexico
TWO provinces of Mexico have sent a delegation to the department of agriculture at Mexico City, calling attention to a plague of rats which is now overrunning 20,000,000 acres, ruining crops, killing stock, and threatening human life.
No Free Speech in Korea
^pilERE is no free speech in Korea. A lad of sixteen who started a circulating library was arrested, beaten mercilessly, and put on probation for three years, and the society was disbanded. Japan runs Korea.
Catholic Teachers in Public Schools
THE canon laws of the Catholic church forbid
the attendance of Catholic children in nonCatholic schools, yet in the city of Brooklyn there are two thousand teachers who are Catholics.
Reptile Business Is Good
THE reptile business is good, that is, the business of killing reptiles to provide skins for milady’s shoes. Last year there were imported into the United States about thirty tons of reptile leathers. Most of it came from India, though Brazil also sent many shipments.
Painting Lilies and Carnations
NEW methods of painting lilies, sweet peas, carnations and other flowers have been discovered. In five minutes after their stems are put in .water they are painted a brilliant and lasting blue, in which, if desired, initials may be imprinted.
One Dollar Compounded Annually
A Study in Quietude
ONE dollar compounded annually at 8 percent T N A study on quietude it was found that by for 1,000 years, if coined into silver dollars, J- reducing the office noises 15 percent the pro
piled edge to edge, would cover every square foot of the United States to a height of more than 297 billion miles, Some of our great fortunes have already been in existence more than two hundred years. The common people are now rapidly nearing the end of the time when they can pay the interest bill.
......Workers in Linoleum Industry
TjMG-URES of the department of commerce J-1 show that from 1927 to 1929 the average worker in a linoleum factory increased his output from $4,330 to $5,368. Of this amount $1,038 went as increased income of the proprietor, and $19 went to the worker himself. Pondering this unequal split of profits, Labor says very truly that “higher wages and shorter hours are the only salvation of a machine age”.
duction of typists was increased 5 percent. Working under the handicap of noise they burned up 25 percent more energy than when they labored in quiet surroundings. In an experiment with rats it was found that when subjected to constant noises a third of each litter was born dead. .
Cheapening of Beryllium
THE cheapening of the metal beryllium to. about four dollars a pound, made possible by a new process, will revolutionize aeronautics, so it is believed. The metal is much stronger than aluminum, and means that all-metal fireproof planes can be built much lighter than is now possible. The metal is widely distributed throughout New Hampshire, New York, Colorado and the Carolinas.
Berlin’s Mammoth Loud-Speaker
GOLDEN AGE
Military Training Optional
BERLIN has a mammoth loud-speaker with HpHE attorney general of the United States a range of twenty-five miles. It is planned -A- has just handed down an opinion that mili-to install it in a balloon and broadcast music to tary training in the land-grant institutions of an entire city. It is said that the operation of the United States is optional; thus backing up this instrument causes vibrations strong enough ’ the University of Wisconsin in its claim. It is
to produce air waves which can be felt 150 feet away.
likely now that many American universities will follow Wisconsin’s example.
, Unemployment and Mental Stability
AFTER an inspection of the insane asylums of New York state Governor Roosevelt made the statement that unemployment and •worry over economic conditions are so breaking down mental stability that instead of a net increase of 1,000 to 1,200 patients anticipated for this year, the net increase would be from 1,700 to 1,900 patients.
Redding’s Electric Light Plant
IN EIGHT years’ time the municipally owned and operated electric light plant of Redding, California, has earned a net profit of more than five times what the plant cost in 1922. Meantime the system has been rebuilt, the streets have been paved, a flying field has been bought and equipped, and the electric rates have been reduced 40 percent.
Alabama Power Company Not Suffering
HHHE Alabama Power Company is not suffer-®- ing seriously under its arrangement for buying power at Muscle Shoals at one-fifth of a cent a kilowatt hour. Within sight of the dam some of this power is sold at twenty times its cost, and almost any merchant can afford to stay in business if he can sell at $1.00 a yard goods which it costs him only 5c to put on his counters.
Barkoski Killers Jailed
FOR beating a coal miner to death with a poker, jumping on his body and breaking his ribs, the two guilty men, Walter J. Lyster and Harold A. Watts, private police of the Pittsburgh Coal Company, got one year and ten months, respectively, and have now begun serving their sentences. It certainly is a surprise to find that they got anything more than to have somebody shake a finger at them and say, Naughty! Naughty!
United States and League of Nations
Hl HOUGH not a member of the League of Na- ' tions, representatives of this government have officially or unofficially attended eighty-four League conferences or meetings; and Americans, officially or unofficially, have con- ........
tributed nearly $8,000,000 to its expenses. The largest gift, one of $2,000,000, was from John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Children in Canneries
FTWIE United States Children’s Bureau visited
-*• a number of canneries in which they found .... 3,300 children at work. They were working ten to sixteen hours a day, two-fifths of them at night, and some of the poor little kids were under eight years of age. These children have to work standing, in air that is hot and stea.my, ’ and where ventilation is poor.
Hyman Abramson Saw the Town
TTyman Abramson, of Kansas City, is 101
years of age, and is in New York city visiting relatives. The other day he went out to see the city and was gone from seven o’clock in the morning until ten at night. When he returned he was peeved to find the family had set the police on his trail. He thought he was old enough to know what he wanted to do; and he may be right at that.
Jefferson County’s Dog-Houses
JEFFERSON county, Alabama, not only believes in the lash, used with such effect that pieces of overalls are frequently picked out of . the flesh into which they are driven, but also believes in dog-houses, of which it has nine. A ' white prisoner recently died of suffocation in 1 one of these. The only air available comes through two auger holes. Three hours is the limit that one can bear of confinement in this device for upholding Alabaman civilization, ;
Venezuela Out of Debt
ENEZUELA has the distinction of being the only country in the world that is out of debt. It was the discovery of petroleum that brought this about. About $9,000,000 a year is thus realized. Much of this sum will now be used to build roads and improve harbors and otherwise develop the country.
Blue Laws in New Jersey
THE Camden county chamber of commerce has voted in favor of a more liberal Sunday than is now legal in New Jersey. Meantime all the Jerseyites do just as they please, blue laws or no blue laws, the same as they do in every other state between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Telephones at Crossroads
IN ENGLAND, for the convenience of motorists there are telephones at the principal cross roads, so that belated automobilists can communicate with hotels or other places without delay. Moreover, bold lettering on the illuminated signs enables them to be read at night, at a distance.
Electrification of Lackawanna
THE electrification of the Lackawanna from
Hoboken to Dover will be completed this year and is expected to cut down the running time by fifteen or twenty minutes between the two cities. Eventually the road expects to maintain a service providing the subway type of trains, running every ten minutes during the rush hours. This new service will in effect make the Lackawanna suburban territory a part of New York city itself.
It Paid to Debauch the Women
HAT it has paid exceedingly 'well to hire artists to debauch the women of the country into smoking cigarettes is proved by the extraordinary profits of the $265,000,000 American Tobacco corporation. In the first five months of this year its profits increased more than 100 percent over the same period of 1929. The wages paid employees are notoriously low, the average wage of the women workers being given as $8 for a 50- to 60-hour week. The wages of the men are said to range from $10 to $15 a week.
Bull Starts for Porto Rico ■
HOLSTEIN bull that was to make his future home in Porto Rico took offense at his cage, dived off a ferry boat in New York harbor, and started out to swim for his West Indian paradise. He got about seven miles, when he was captured and after a desperate struggle was put back into a safer crate.
When Birds Come North
EPORTS of phenologists, who make a constant study of such matters, show that while some springs are early and others late the return of the birds from their winter homes always coincides exactly with the opening of the flowers. It is as though both the plants and birds receive some signal of when to act.
Television on the Airplanes
ohu Hays Hammond, Jr., reports the invention of a device allowing the pilot, even in the thickest fog, to see the scene below on a television screen in the cockpit of his plane. The new device will enable an aviator to televise a battle scene spread out on the sea covering a 100-mile area.
Relative Safety of Airplanes
FRENCH aviation expert estimates that French trains are 160 times as safe as French planes, and 20 times as safe as American planes. It still costs sixteen to nineteen cents a mile to transport air passengers; and on only two routes in the world, one in Colombia and one in Persia, is the passenger paying for the cost of his trip. The United States is now far in advance of all other countries in the world in miles flown and passengers carried.
Castle Got a Job
Clarence R. Castle, of Toledo, father of three small children, was out of work nine months, but at last got a job pushing a wheelbarrow with a construction gang. Near the evening of the first day he slumped dead over his wheelbarrow. The coroner’s jury gave a verdict of gradual starvation. We merely add that America is the richest country in the world. We have too much of everything and the government is advising the farmers to raise less, so prices can be kept up. Wonder how the little Castle kiddies will get along now.
The United States of Europe
THE twenty-five European nations which M.
Briand would include in his United States of Europe would embrace a population of 300,000,000, with a total wealth of $250,000,000,000, as against $360,000,000,000 in the United States with which we are most familiar. His proposed new nation would exclude Russia and the British Isles.
Women Own One-half the Wealth
MOST men, when they die, leave their fortunes to their wives; and this is probably the largest factor in the fact that in America today approximately one-half of the wealth is owned by women. The women outnumber the men as stockholders of leading American corporations, and exceed the number of -men reporting incomes of more than $500,000.
Christ Dominates Earth’s History
IN AN editorial on earth’s great men the New
York American said: “When the real history of the world is written, when values are known and blessings are realized, the figure of Christ will be seen rising above all others in earth’s history, dominating that history as a great mountain dominates the valleys and low hills around it.”
Blamed God for Poor Pruning
WHEN the branch of a tree crushed a Lockport boy’s leg he sued and recovered $20,000 from the city, on the ground that the tree Avas not kept properly pruned. The city defended itself on the ground that the falling of the branch was an act of God. The Almighty has been accused of everything else, but this is the first time we knew it was part of His work to keep the trees properly pruned.
Britain and Vatican at Loggerheads
THE British people as a whole are backing the Labor government in its refusal to let a foreign influence, which in this instance is the pope, dictate who is or who is not to be the head of the British dependency of Malta. In evident protest the British government has recently transferred its minister to the Vatican to another post and has not appointed a successor. The odd thing about this controversy is that it rages about the head of Lord Strickland, prime minister of Malta, who is himself a Catholic.
Sweet Chocolate Not Candy
Tl/TOST people would naturally think that UJI sweet chocolate is candy. It looks like candy, tastes like candy, and sells along with candy, but it is not candy; at least so says the United States circuit court of appeals. As a result $7,000,000 in taxes that have been paid by chocolate manufacturers will be given back to them.
259 Miles versus 250 Feet
T N THE city of Windsor, Canada, 250 miles from Niagara Falls, electric current, manufactured at Niagara Falls, is sold to Canadian householders at a profit, and the Canadian charge is two cents a kilowatt hour. On the American side of the line, 250 feet from Niagara Falls, electric current, manufactured at the same falls, is sold to American householders at five cents a kilowatt hour. In other words, it ■ costs the American for his current two and a half times as much as it costs the Canadian, and the Canadian carries his current more than five thousand times as far, in the bargain. Domestic consumers in Ottawa, Canada, pay less than one cent a kilowatt hour. It seems that in Canada the government tries to do something for the people. . .....
Mooney and Billings
TH VERY time the state of California does one -®—more thing to indicate its determination that neither Mooney nor Billings shall ever come forth free men, more evidence pops up showing the infamy of keeping these men in prison for a crime they did not commit. After the latest acts of the California state supreme court and of Governor Young, in refusing pardons to both of them, one more of the state’s own witnesses, an elderly man now living in Baltimore, Maryland, testified under oath that he had given false testimony at the triabo'UkotlT™ and has gone to California personally and acknowledged to the California Supreme Court that he has done wrong. But in California, as in Massachusetts at the time of the Sacco-Vanzetti murder, the state has thus far determined, with all the resources it has back of it, that, innocent or guilty, these men must pay the price for the views they held, not the deeds that they “did”, and pay they will. Judge Griffin, who tried Mooney, says that the case was one of the dirtiest jobs ever put over.
Regains Sight after Thirty Years
BLINDED thirty years ago by the falling of a tree, J. F. Fish, president of the Northwestern Business College, of Chicago, has suddenly regained his sight. Though he had expended $50,000 in vain effort to restore life to his deadened optic nerve, the recovery came about unexpectedly in the quiet of his own home.
Getting Together on Prohibition
ON SUNDAY, May 18, eighty-four protestant churches in Scranton, Pa., and vicinity, all had sermons or addresses on “Prohibition—A Moral Issue”. It is rather singular to find them all preaching on the same subject at the same time, and one rather wonders how they came to do it. The sermons were advertised in full-page advertisements in the Saturday papers.
Boulder ham under Construction
BOULDER DAM, 727 feet high and 1,225 feet across, impounding the entire flow of the Colorado River foi’ a year and a half, and creating a lake 115 miles in length, is under construction. It will take seven years to complete the job, and the cost, which will be repaid from water and power sales, will be about $165,000,-000. More than 7,000,000 acres will be irrigated when the dam is in operation, and 550,000 horse power will be available at all times, about half of which will be used in pumping water over the divide into the Los Angeles area. The water in the dam would cover the state of Kentucky to the depth of one foot.
Trainloads of Food Destroyed
1T7ITH New York housewives buying less be-* V cause of high prices and unemployment it makes one sick to realize that trainloads of food, fine juicy melons, string beans, spinach, summer squash, tomatoes, lettuce and other vegetables, all in perfect condition, have been destroyed in the vicinity of New York this summer. The people of the city could eat it all if they could get it at a price they could afford to pay. As it is, the farmer who did all the work necessary to produce this food gets nothing for it, and, in addition, must pay the freight on it to New York. It is said that at the height of the season the finest Long Island spinach brought the grower only 10c a bushel.
Shellac, Sulphur and Corrosive Sublimate
SHELLAC to catch them, sulphur to strangle them, and corrosive sublimate to burn them up. Now that it is discovered that smallpox is carried by the bedbugs, the way to get rid of the disease is to first get rid of the bugs. That is all there is to do. Costa Rica recently had smallpox vaccine sent from Indianapolis, wherewith to fight the smallpox. Think of all the beds that could have been cleaned in the five days that elapsed before the vaccine arrived. And, moreover, the cleaning of the beds would have been a positive way of stopping the spread of the disease, and that is more than can be said for any other method. This method has been tried out at San Antonio, Texas, and is known to work, sure-fire, every time.
Passes on New York Central
ACCORDING- to the best of our knowledge, information and belief it has been officially decided by the Interstate Commerce Commission that no railroad company has any right whatever to issue passes except to employees. All others must pay the fares shown in published tariffs.
We have before us a circular letter sent out from Gibson, Indiana, reporting the loss of pass “S-1383, Favor, Right Rev. Jos. F. Smith, Vicar General, Diocese of Cleveland, Cleveland, good between all stations New York Central System Lines”. It is signed “F. Grundler”,
If anybody finds this pass we hope he will be good enough to send it back to the “Right Reverend”, so that when he resumes work at his desk at Cleveland the superintendent of the Cleveland division, or whoever it is he works for, will not be cross with him for losing his pass. Employees should be very careful about such things, for if somebody that is not an employee should get a pass and lose it it would be a scandal involving Big Business and Big Church, maybe, and we cannot afford to have the bulwarks of our civilization held up to shame and contempt.
Ode to the Lawyer
By the author of "Ode to the Milkman”
AS YOU finally walk out of the lawyer’s office it is not likely that you will think there is much ode. to the lawyer. And this is not without some foundation in fact; for that gentleman, having acquired a knowledge of law, and having also, from the experience of his own and of others, acquired the knowledge of how to get around it, sees the psychology of his position and uses it to advantage—to selfish advantage, according to his own individual propensities.
A thorough knowledge of law does not make a lawyer. The ideal condition is one where all know the law “from the least of them unto the greatest”.
A lawyer is a ‘practitioner in the pleading of law’. A judge may be said to be a ‘practitioner in the administration of law’.
Law has to do with the regulation of human conduct, in order that society may live equitably and at peace. Today, law is classed as civil, criminal or international law.
Civil law contemplates the rights of individuals, usually in the matter of holding property, either real or personal.
Criminal law has to do with alleged offenses against society.
International law is either civil or criminal law of conduct between members of different nations or groups of people.
It is apparent, then, that as long as there has been a human race, living under a form of society where differences of opinion occur, there has been a need for an expressed opinion of right and wrong. That expressed opinion is what we know as ‘law’.
It will be further apparent that the origin of ‘law’ dates back to the time of the first expressed opinion, or shall we say, ‘judicially’ expressed opinion of right or wrong.
Various histories may be consulted on the point of when that first judicially expressed opinion was given. Our evolutionist friend wouldn’t venture a guess, especially if he is a lawyer, because he would have to admit that his progenitors were monkeys and some law ‘precedents’ are so old that they might reach back to that stage of human history, with the result that present law might be termed ‘monkey legislation’.
But, among almost all nations, a belief in their origin points back to a time when, for an offense, not always clearly defined, their first father was driven from a country which favored his existence to a land which necessitated hard labor to maintain his life.
The most famous jurist who ever lived, who was also the writer of a better code of laws than exists today, substantiates this. He says, in substance, that the first man was banished to a foreign country for disobedience.
Law, to that eminent jurist, was not merely an agreement between two or more individuals to agree to a certain principle, as for instance, to ban the use of alcohol in certain forms, to prohibit stealing, etc. Rather, to him, lave, whether civil, criminal or international, was the opinion, expressed, unexpressed or implied, of the Great Judge, upon the principles which form the skeleton or framework of society in His universe.
And I submit that this statement will withstand the attacks and battering-rams of all so-called “jurists”, ancient or modern, eminent or otherwise, who, deluded in such a weighty matter as justice, administer in so-called “Christian” countries, today, “Roman law.”
Just as true is the statement, that both ancient and modern jurists who have administered Roman law instead of Mosaic law are, to the extent that these two codes of law differ, ‘off.’ And I know of only one judge living today who does not come within the scope of that word ‘off’, and he has ceased to practice it, believing it a much more honorable thing to teach it. There may be others.
Someone has said that Mosaic law forms the basis of our code of laws today. That does not seem to agree with the facts.
You will remember the young boy who got his first jackknife. It was a double-bladed knife.-The first day he broke the little blade. His father had a new blade put in. The next day he broke the big blade. Again a new blade wyas put in. The next day he broke the handle and a new handle was put on.
Well, if you can figure out when he got a new knife you can likely figure out also when people got started on Roman (heathen) law. ..... \
A fundamental difference between the Roman and the Mosaic codes, and this difference cannot be overestimated, is that the former presumes two parties to be involved in a dispute
while the Mosaic code postulates a third party, or, more properly, always includes Jehovah God as the First Party.
The first four laws of the Mosaic code deal with the conduct of the human race with respect to the Creator. The Boman code recognizes no such relationship.
The Mosaic code recognizes a relationship and a need for law to govern the conduct of the human race as between:
(a) Man and Creator
(b) Child and parent
(c) Man and man, regarding the sanctity of life
(d) Man and woman
(e) Man and man, regarding property and, (f) Laws pertaining to hygiene.
The Roman code is defective in that it fails to recognize any duty of conduct between man and his Creator as such, or between man and his Creator as a First Party in all legal actions. That, of course, is natural in a man-made code of laws. But, it also indicates that the Roman code is man-made; therefore the product of an imperfect mind; therefore, where it differs from the Mosaic code it is an incorrect expression of the principles of right and wrong. The facts show that it does so materially differ from the Mosaic code and that it encourages and condones some of the major evils in the present system. Its administrators, as a result, are to be criticized for that in their study and application of the law they exact its observance to the letter, all the while prohibiting their minds from delving too deeply into its hoary foundation and the inequity of its results. Justice deals with fundamentals, and yet judges are afraid to investigate them. This results in much injustice to the people.
The most ludicrous of these differences, to me, appears to be that in all sobriety a judge will require a witness or prisoner to take an oath on the Bible (which contains amongst other things the Mosaic code) and, by inference, require him to say,
I swear that the evidence I shall give will be as true as the words of this Book, which I recognize to be the inspired words of God, the Great Judge.
The learned judge then proceeds to forget all about that Great Judge and His code of laws, and judges the man on the Roman (heathen) code.
Every such judge, to the extent that his judgment, based on the Roman code, differs from the Mosaic code and dissents from the Supreme Judge, makes a farce of the Scriptures. And here we note some of the essential differences:
In respect to the lending of money the Mosaic law (Lev. 25: 36-38) reads,
Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; . . . Thou shalt not give him [thy brother, even though a stranger, or sojourner] thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. I am the Lord your God .. .
This law provides that money shall not be loaned upon usury, or interest, but “thou shalt [recognize thy duty to the First Party, thy Creator, and] fear thy God”.
The Roman law is a positive contradiction of the Mosaic law on this point and condones interest, and excessive interest. And this abuse of money which, like cankers spreading, grows in size the more it is used, will accumulate until it has eaten up the wealth of the world and starved the people who created it.
This child of injustice is the parent of other children of iniquity: the stock exchanges, the slums, the banking system, child labor, national debts, huge taxation, coupon clipping, agricultural bankruptcy, etc., all attributable to payinginterest for the use of money.
Protection for these husky children of iniquity is afforded by legislation, vaults, armies and navies, battleships, aeroplanes, gases, the militia, the judiciary, the police, the governments, etc., so that almost every guardian of righteousness in the world finds its time occupied in the defense of iniquity, as Tennyson said,
‘ ‘Uis honour, rooted in dishonour stood,
And faith, unfaithful, kept him falsely true.”
Usury is likewise the vicious opponent of peace, of disarmament, of agricultural prosperity, of living wages, of life itself, and of brotherly love. Were this statute taken from the Mosaic code made an amendment to the Roman code, and enforced, it is inconceivable what a colossal transformation of the earth would result.
With respect to the relationship between child and parent the two codes do not greatly differ, except that here again the Creator is not recognized as a First Party, much to the detriment of child and parent.
As between man and man, with respect to the sanctity of human life, the Roman code presumes greater mercy than the Mosaic code, in that capital punishment is not required for the same offenses. In effect, however, this results in greater crime. Murder is not always punished by taking the murderer’s life. Lighter punishment results in more crime. Justice is justice and Chicago is Chicago.
Here, again, Jehovah is not recognized as a First Party. Nations today undertake, for selfish purposes, to violate the law of the sanctity of human life. The Mosaic law would hold them responsible: tooth for tooth, eye for eye, life for life. The Roman law recognizes, or at least does not dispute, the right of war as a final arbiter in all dispute.
Israel at times undertook to violate this law by making war on their neighbors, prompted by a selfish purpose. When this occurred, Jehovah administered His own law, brought retribution upon Israel, and they were required to pay, life for life. 1
However, there were occasions when Jehovah pronounced the sentence of punishment or extermination on neighboring peoples, and He re-1 quired Israel to act as His executioner. On these' occasions He gave them positive instructions, and prospered their warfare fought under His' instructions. In this He was merely chastising' wayward creatures. I
Where human life is taken in order to acquire property or to defend seized property, no justification can be offered under the Mosaic law. This again shows the necessity for recognizing the great First Party in any equitable eternal code of law. :
As between man and woman, there is a growing looseness in amendments to our present code which presumes to bring about equal rights between them. Broadmindedness is desirable, but, with infinity on the east to infinity on the west as His scope, who can be more broadminded than the Creator, and His word is that ‘woman was made for man’ and that ‘man is the head of the woman’.
Adultery is punished more lightly under the Roman law, and grows faster as a result. A doctor testified in the Canadian house of commons that two percent (two people in every hundred) of the people of Montreal, Canada, are added each year to the list of those afflicted with venereal diseases and diseases resulting from violation of the laws regulating the conduct between man and woman. It is said that one-sixth of all marriages in the United States result in divorce.
As between man and man, regarding property (and possibly more lawsuits, civil, criminal and international, arise in controversies involving property than any other) the Roman code differs so completely from the Mosaic code that there is little, if anything, in common between them.
Fundamentally, the Roman code says, title to property (internationally) may always be decided by war.
Civilly, title to real property vests in the crown or the state and may be granted by it to any individual by gift, or for a price. The individual registers a certificate of his title and may then sell or otherwise dispose of his property and receive the benefits which accrue from such sale; or, he may will it (at death) to his descendants.
j Fundamentally, the Mosaic code says, title to property is in the Creator. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.”
j Judges don’t take that seriously though. Yet '.they do take seriously the oath of the witness (who swears that his own veracity will be on a (par with that of the Scriptures.
| The only transfers of title to ownership of ireal property provided in the Scriptures are Jhose made by Jehovah to Abraham (Gen. (17: 8) and to the Jews (as descendants of Abraham) as a deed of gift. Stephen said Abraham’s right to that property has not been abrogated, ;but still persists. Nations under Roman law, however, have usurped it, and it stands usurped today.
- This, deed of gift to the Jews was qualified by stating that while the land could be bought and sold, the law of jubilee required it and certain other rights to be restored to the individual each fiftieth year. In the event of a sale the price was to be determined by the years of use which could be made of it before the fiftieth year arrived:
The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. (Lev. 25: 23, 24) Because the Jews violated this law, the Supreme Judge sentenced them to seventy years banishment in Babylon. Violation by Gentile nations under Roman law would seem to merit much severer punishment.
Today, if a bank holds a mortgage for $1,000 on a $2,000 property, in the event of inability to pay principal and interest by the mortgagor, he loses the entire property. Under the Mosaic law he could only lose its use for a term of years (unless it happened to be a house and lot ■within a walled city, and even then he would likely not lose it).—Lev. 25: 25-32.
From the foregoing it might now be evident as to who is the author of the Roman code, which usurps the rights of individuals and a nation granted under the Mosaic code. You’re right1 It is the same one who misused the earth in the first place, and who now seeks to apportion the proceeds of his theft among his evil progeny, and withal ‘legalize’ it.
History records the same usurpation ‘legalized’ under Egyptian law which, as administered by Egyptian judges, condoned the oppression of the Israelites by the taskmasters. Appeals to higher courts were useless until ‘the cries of the people reached the Supreme Judge’. It is recorded that then lie delivered them with great slaughter to the Egyptians.
And history repeats itself.
Between the plantiff and justice today is a great gulf fixed. He might as well, at the outset, make up his mind that a lawsuit will not bring him justice as measured by the Mosaic law; and even justice as contemplated in the Roman law is obtainable only in theory. To illustrate:
F. V., a farmer, shipped a earload of cattle by the C. railway, in winter. Opportunity was to be provided him, under his contract, to feed and water the cattle in transit at least once in twenty-four hours. The railway company was to get them to their destination as quickly as possible.
Due to rough handling en route, cold weather, no water, and delay, the majority of the cattle died.
A clear case for some $2,400 damages was made against the railway and granted by the trial judge, with costs. The company, however, knowing the man had little money, threatened to appeal the case if the man did not accept about $800 ($400 of which would be required to pay his lawyer). They also made.it clear that if they lost on appeal they would take it to the next court, for no other purpose than to so burden him with costs that all he obtained from them eventually would be eaten up with lawyers’ fees. Eventually F. V. was forced to settle for sufficient money to pay his own lawyer’s fees and his expenses, receiving no compensation for his $2,400 loss. ,
In this way corporations teach the people not to expect justice. Truly, “We are all equal before the law, but we are not all equal in getting around it.” Likely it was of this practice that Jesus said,
Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. (Luke 11: 46) °
And this ease is typical of the practice of withholding justice from the poor, by threatening to pile up ‘the costs of justice’ to defeat the ends of justice. Courts of appeal are, therefore, used as a bane instead of a blessing, notwithstanding the integrity of many of the judges.
An amelioration of this system might be achieved by dispensing with the legal profession, as such, and placing lawyers in the service of the government, there to teach and dispense law and to argue before a judge the respective points of view of plaintiff and defendant. However, we place no great faith in ‘nationalization of lawyers’.
It was Anatole France, I believe, who once said,
The majesty of the law is the same to rich and poor alike, in that it prevents them both from begging bread and sleeping under bridges.
But it may not be deduced from the injustices of the law’s administration that all lawyers and judges are crooked. Many judges, desiring to administer righteousness, will render a judgment which overrides the technicalities of the law, only to find that it will be appealed and the appeal courts will say the technicality must be observed, and that, not because they wish to observe the letter and not the spirit, but because shackled with ‘precedents’, they are severely pulled into line by having their decisions reversed by higher courts, and no judge likes his decisions reversed.
These precedents are awful things. Literally, they are adjudged cases or decisions of courts of justice considered as furnishing an example or authority for an identical or similar case afterwards arising or a similar question of law.
When Galileo explored the realms of science and found something that disagreed with existing ideas ‘precedents’ were rained down on him and he was told he was violating law, just because he investigated something that was never investigated before.
When, in England, the question arose as to whether women could vote, it was decided on ‘precedent’. They haven’t voted before, and it must be taken that to do what has not been done in the past is unlawful.
And a ‘smart’ lawyer need only twist his case to fit precedents, or bring out the points in his case which fit a precedent, and neglect the points which don’t fit, and he wins his case. He quite frankly admits there is no responsibility on him to bring out the whole truth, but just enough to fit the precedent. Corporations pay big salaries for this, and, largely, that is what corporation counsel are for.
The Apostle Paul evidently didn’t think that was an honest way of making a living, so he took up tentmaking. .
Jesus too spoke of ‘precedents’ as ‘traditions rvhich make void the word of God’ (the Mosaic law in particular), which rendered the spirit of the law of none effect.
Who fails to see the preparation of the ele-' ments the world over today seeking for deliverance from the iron heel of Roman law, and its author, the Devil, and all its inequities, must be blind!
The cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of armies. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton: ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. ...
And to those who ask, “Which law should I abide by, Roman law, or the Mosaic law as confirmed by Christ?” we say, Let your minds go back, back for a moment, over the countless hills of time, over the mountains of centuries, to the eternal wisdom of the apostle:
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . , Behold, the judge standeth before the door.
Using the Church as a Cat’s-paw
T T SOFTENS one’s animosity against the
Bolsheviki somewhat, as respects their severity toward the priests of the orthodox church, when one learns that immediately after the revolution hundreds of generals and courtiers disguised themselves as priests and bishops, and mendicant monks became spies and traveling messengers of conspiracy, and the church itself was a well-defined center of antagonism and conspiracy against the Soviet system.
Iron versus Aluminum Utensils
Dr. S. R. Love, St. Petersburg, Fla., writes that he had one patient who for years came in at intervals for acute digestive troubles, but that when he returned from the North this past fall he was in splendid health, the best the doctor had ever seen in him.
In about a week the man came in sick. The doctor suggested he had been poisoned with aluminum. The man said it was strange, but that when the family went north for the summer they had borrowed a lot of iron cookingutensils, having left all the aluminum pots in Florida. As soon as they got back to them the old troubles reappeared.
A Personal Experience with Aluminum By Mary E. Elcstrand (Calif.)'
I COULD not believe that aluminum could be so poisonous, when so many people are using aluminum cooking utensils, until I had experience with a glass jar of homemade canned beans. This jar had an aluminum lid. When I was ready to use the beans, I could not get the lid off the jar. So I set the jar in a back shed, and in time the lid was eaten full of holes.
Three years ago I bought a good many aluminum cooking utensils. I churned a little cream in one of these utensils. Both butter and buttermilk were so black that I threw it all out.
When I got to reading The Golden Age, I read so much about aluminum poison that I: quit its use and got agateware, as it is much-----------
easier to clean and looks much nicer. My ex- -— perience has led several to quit its use, and : they are getting agateware instead.
At the Crossroads By H. Sillaway
DURING the past ages of man’s existence conditions were decidedly unfavorable for scientific and mechanical advancement. Not until near the end of the eighteenth century of our so-called “Christian” era did Providence begin to favor the enlightenment, freedom and opportunity necessary for any marked degree of progress along scientific and mechanical lines. This progress, necessarily slow at its beginning, has gained momentum with time. It seems almost unbelievable that the accumulated mechanical achievements of our day are in the main the products of less than a century of scientific development.
Before the advent of labor-saving machines and devices, the necessities of life produced by slow, crude methods met the demand; and when the machine appeared, in the inevitable displacement of crude hand labor, some thinkers of the day regarded it with alarm. Apparently it must eventually lead to a radical state of unemployment that would spell catastrophe to the social fabric. But as time went on and the demand for labor increased, with the increased installment of labor-saving machines confidence was restored and the calamity predictors promptly forgotten.
In the process of machine development every avenue of commerce was stimulated. By it the demand for raw material of practically all kinds was many times multiplied over all former demands; and the great mining and steel industries were given birth. Great transportation projects were launched to facilitate the moving and distribution of raw material and the products of factory and farm.
The building and operating of factories led to the segregation of an ever increasing element of the population into city and town and to the creating of great industrial and mercantile centers. A market for farm products was created, and the farmer prospered with others.
As the result of all this, a general era of prosperity was ushered in such as was never before known. That this was to continue indefinitely was the apparent mental attitude of the majority; for few ever stop to consider the relationship of existing social conditions to their foundation cause.
An analysis of the situation, however, reveals the startling fact that the fears of those who in the beginning visioned breakers ahead were not so far-fetched as they have been generally considered, as it is now plainly evident that the fruitage of mechanical science has indeed headed the present social order straight toward the rocks of an inevitable destruction. That this has not occurred before is due to well defined reasons based on the foundation of mechanical development and progress.
The deceiving part of the entire program has been that, instead of a decreased demand for labor with the installment of labor-saving machines and devices, we find that for a prolonged period of time the result was the very opposite in the stimulation of the labor market with a continually increasing demand as the resources of the nations were gradually developed.
The development of these resources went hand in hand with the development of the machine, and were essential to it, and a part of it; and as long as the machine was in process of development, a healthy demand for labor was the natural result.
Another item that has tended to prolong the era of labor prosperity is that with the buying power increased through more prosperous conditions than formerly, and with the cheapening and multiplying of manufactured products through labor-saving machinery, the wants, necessities and luxuries of the average individual and his family far exceed those of the days of crude hand-manufacturing. But this alone is badly inadequate to furnish more than a small percent of available labor with employment under a condition of completed machine development.
But while the machines will continue to be improved for many decades to come, if not indefinitely, the development of the machine in the sense of which we here speak is necessarily in a limited space of time. With a completion of its development the general demand for labor must cease and a destructive era of unemployment result, with disastrous effect upon the present social fabric, which is entirely unsuited to the developed machine. That, at least, would be the natural result without the exercise of providential influences in restraint.
In tracing the development of the machine we find its completion in a practical sense already past history centering around the beginning of the present century. At that time we find the machine had come into general use in the leading nations c¥ earth. Enough factories had been built to reasonably meet the manufacturing demands of the day in these nations; and fairly adequate transportation facilities had been completed. The machine age was fully ushered in; and without some abnormal influence to prevent it, a radical state of unemployment and a more or less general stagnation of business must soon have set in, with spasms of increasing severity.
For a time it appeared that this catastrophe was immediately inevitable, and symptoms of it did actually develop. But the time in the divine arrangement for this was not yet ripe, and a miracle was interposed. This miracle was nothing more or less than the mushroom development of the automobile. It can be clearly seen that the automobile has not been a part of the development of the machine in the sense in which we are considering it. Rather its development has been merely a part of the mechanical evolution of the developed machine in its further improved application.
The development of the automobile has meant also the development of the resources of raw material that enters into its manufacture and upkeep, and the development of its resources of operation, such as the gasoline industry, filling stations, garages, and the building of suitable highways.
This has been done; and now that the world is fairly well supplied with motor vehicles, it can be truthfully said that the development of the automobile is complete. Again a crisis is upon the present social order; and this time it will be met, for iniquity has reached its full and the time is ripe.
Under our social organization the great blessings resulting from the scientific and mechanical advancement of our day have been counterbalanced by sore evils that are throttling the masses with their encircling clammy tentacles of power. These evils are emanating from a gigantic and powerful plutocracy which is a direct hybrid fathered by the iniquitous social order under which it came into existence, and born of the machine in its period of development by a forced conception through seizure of the financial advantages made possible by it. The corruption that has ensued as the result of the centralization of such an enormous volume of wealth into the hands of the few has never been surpassed in earth's history.
The demand for labor henceforth cannot be otherwise than on a decline. Labor-saving machinery is constantly being improved, with the ends in view of greater capacity, more perfect and simple automatic operation, and a reduction in needed operators. One man now does the work with a machine that all the way from half a dozen to a thousand or more, according to the kind of machine and work, formerly did. ‘
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