Golden Age, October 1, 1919
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.VOLUME 1 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER L 1919 NUMBER 1
' Golden Age
/ ' CONTENTS
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Tbe.Go^sa Age (Poem)-,-..-.... _................'......--
1 LABOR AND ECONOMICS
% Ite "Ptamb Plan"...........
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
The Power of the Press.... —................. 7 The Woman Spellbinder..........— , —
Fecundity of Japanese Women...............'—. 7 Negro Education in.Cincinnatl—*
• . MANUFACTURING AND MINING .
Making the Worker a Partner.................. » How Ldng Will the Ofl Last?..............-
The Phosphate Mines of Florida— — ,... —
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
American Exports snd Inflation........... 11 Immense Exports of Foodstuffs.......!........
Sunshiny Daya for Big Banksra................ 11 The Demand for Automobiles.............
Restoration of Our Merchant Marine........... 13 Tank Care for Transportation.........
POLITICAL^-DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
To Hasten the Coming of Democracy.......*.... 13 Jewish Persecution in Poland.... —14
Freedom Exists Where the Weak are Free..... 13 Do More Balkans Mean More Trouble?—...... 14
» - AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY .
What Rotation of Crops Accomplishes......... 15 Conservation of Soil Fertility................... 16
’ ■ Dynamiting the Earth Into a Paradise.......... 15 Turning Florida Swamps Into Farms..;.
Hauling Milk with Trucks.....................16
? SCIENCE AND INVENTION
The Future of Wireless........................ 17 The Manufacture of Lightning............, ,
Comets—The Tramps of the Heavens.......... 17 Wood More Durable Than Iron.. — .... — ..-——
HOUSEWIFERY AND HYGIENE
Nervous and Stupid Children................... 19 Washing Made Easy—...........—........
Teeth Extraction the Cure for Disease.......... 19 “Famine and Pestilence'*
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Neglect of the Bible......—...............21 Talking With the Dead?.........%
The Trail of the Serpent
Dealing with man’s early relationship with the Angela, and showing why there is now so much written about communication with the dead.
By LAODICEA MESSENGER
The publication of this remarkable and thrilling serial will begin in a subsequent issue of this Magazine— Worth more than the price of a year’s subscription. Subscribe NOW and be sure to get it all.
THE GOLDEN AGE
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The Golden Age
VoL I New York City, N. Y., Wednesday, October 1,1919 No. 1
SALUTATORY
WISDOM of the right order is essential to the ’ » welfare and happiness of mankind. During * the few years recently past the world, through fiery experiences, has acquired a vast amount of knowl-. edge; but to properly apply that knowledge is now the important question. There is a perfect standard • of application and when that standard is known and followed the result is certain to be satisfying. It is the privilege and duty of every one who can do so
Nor is this magazine published for pecuniary profit -or gain to anyone. All the money realized from its publication above the operating expenses will be used for the further dissemination of such knowledge amongst the people as will be beneficial to them. It is backed by some of the best and ablest men in the world and shall be maintained as an educational medium for the purpose of teaching the true relationship between science, agriculture, labor and pure religion.
to render aid to his fellow in the wise application of acquired knowledge and to aid him to increase knowledge and wisdom. Such aid, to accomplish a good result, should be rendered unselfishly. “The wise man will hear and increase in learning.**
This magazine enters the field, therefore, with a mission which is peculiar and unique. It has no rivals because it has
THE GOLDEN AGE
Behold! Time’s gateway open swings. And Peace is poised on outspread wings; And joy stands tiptoe while she sings:
Good-bye old yean I Good-bye old tears! For angels wait to bar this gate On-moaning Misery and Hate.-Love holds the key Of things to be;
And Hope holds out a !ilr white page. And bids you write. With deep delight. The glory of THE GOLDEN AGE.
8. Agnes Nourse.
Its publication is for the benefit of the people, advising them of perils and pointing them to s better and nobler life.
Its purpose is to explain in the light of Divine wisdom the true meaning of the great phenomena of the prevent day and to prove to thinking minds by evidence incontrovertible and convincing that the time of a greater blessing of mankind is now at
no competitors. Every one joining in a similar effort to do'good will be welcomed by us.
Its policy is and shall be not to array the rich against the poor, nor the poor against the rich, the classes against the masses, nor the masses against the classes but it will seek to do good unto all mankind.
It is not published in the interest of any religious denomination, nor is it the advocate of any political party or organization. It is no respecter of persons because of race, color or condition of servitude.
hand. Like a voice in the wilderness of confusion, its mission is to announce the incoming of the Golden Age.
There are more sad hearts in the world to-day than at any time of its history. A devastating war has afflicted the nations until they are torn and bleeding to death. Accompanying the war came the great pestilential influenza, claiming double the number of victims that fell as a result of the war. In the past few years, millions have gone down into death and other millions bemoan the loss of their loved ones.
■ - - ■ —' ■ ........ -- . ---------a j
Everywhere the cost of living mounts higher and higher and conditions of real want and famine stare many people in the face. In practically all the trades of the world f^e laborers are on strike or threatening to strike and thereby stop the wheels of commerce. There is a general unrest everywhere.
The financiers are no less in perplexity. They have yielded somewhat to die demands of labor, only to be convinced in their own minds that further yielding would mean disaster; and the tension is becoming such that the industries of the land are threatening to close down, all of which would bring greater distress both to producer and consumer. The Chicago Herald and Examiner in its financial columns recently said:
"If, declare the corporation heads and their backers, walkoats in the Crane and Harvester works are rehearsed for more serious and extensive industrial interruptions; if the boildina workers prove to take their responsibility as lightly as their fellows in the Crane and Harvester shops; if the street railway employees are uncompromisingly insistent upon a seventy-seven per cent increase in the wage scale, then, say employers and their financial backers, let it come to an extreme issue. Financial men do not mince words. They state pointedly they will back employers to the limit; will permit every important industry in Chicago and the Middle West territory to be strike stricken rather than submit to an unreasonable wage or unjust condition. If it must come to a drastic condition between employer and employee, well and good; they, the representatives of capital declare, will not avoid the test; let the thing be settled now and definitely; they are ready to meet and combat it to a final conclusion is the assertion.”
The nations are in distress politically, financially and socially. Daily problems are arising, the solving of which seems beyond the power of human ingenuity. Seeing all these things coming to pass before our very eyes, who can lightly pass over the words of the Great Master foretelling these times when there would be "upon earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking to the things coming upon the earth I*
These distressing times have come at the very climax of the development of inventive genius—at the very time of the greatest increase of knowledge. And why? There is a reason, and that reason we must ascertain and govern ourselves accordingly. There to a wide diversity of knowledge, which, if properly applied, would result_in great and beneficial wisdom to the people. What, then, to the real meaning of the present conditions, and is there a supreme remedy that will bring order out of chaos and establish a lasting peace, prosperity and happiness to the people? Tax Golden Age enters the field for the very purpose of answering these questions and confidently expects to answer them to the satisfaction of all thinking minds.
Tax Golden Age win carry into the homes of the people the desired message which will tend to restore calmness to the disturbed minds and comfort to the saddened hearts. We do not expect to accomplish this by human wisdom, because that has been tried and failed and such wisdom is foolishness in the sight of Jehovah. But we will point the people to the clear and indisputable evidence in the light of present-day events, disclosing the divinely expressed remedy for the reconstruction of human affairs that will bring the desire of all nations, assuring to the people life, liberty and happiness. We invite all order-loving, law-abiding, God-fearing persons to aid in passing this message of comfort on to those who desire to be comforted.
The troublesome times upon the earth have awakened the people to a realization that they have neglected Bible study and have not provided their children with sufficient teaching concerning the great truths in the Bible. Our Religious Department will carry in each issue a carefully arranged Bible study in such simple form that it can be readily understood by any one. This will enable the people to remain at home and quietly study their Bibles and increase in knowledge and in Divine wisdom. Every parent owes it as a duty to his child to see that the child is provided with proper Biblical instruction. The Golden Age will supply this long-felt want.
LABOR and ECONOMICS
THB"PLUMB PLAN**
HE “PLUMB PLAN” for solving the railroad problem is engaging the attention of the American people as few propositions have ever done. This plan, evolved by the railroad brotherhoods, is based upon the constantly rising cost of living to the consumer; the knowledge that the repeated increases in wages have brought no real benefit to the workers, ^ut have greatly enriched the owners of capital; the conviction that further advances in wages at the expense of a cost of living exceeding that of the wage increase, are wholly futile; the knowledge that increase in the productive power of human effort should be reflected equally in increased wages and decreased cost of living, not increased cost of living; the knowledge that increased cost of transportation results in an increase in the cost of living while decreased cost of transportation results in reduced cost of living, and the assurance that the rights of all railroads are based entirely on grants which the public made to the present owners.
The remedy proposed is that private capital be eliminated from the railroads by requiring the private owners of railroad stocks and bonds to surrender their securities for Government bonds with a fixed interest return based upon the money actually invested, and that the roads be managed by corporations in which the public, the operating managements and labor shall be equally represented. One-half the net savings would go to the public by increasing service without adding costs or by reducing costs, the other half would be divided between the operators and the wage earners.
The railroads would be placed in control of a board selected one-third by the President, one-third by the operating officials and one-third by the employees; and are to divide any surplus between the nation and the employees, or to meet any deficit by taxation.
No matter how the railroads are operated, there are three partners in the industry, capital, labor and the public. It is a self-evident fact that until management is wholly efficient, the rate the public pays is excessive. It is labor's proposal to readjust the interests in the railroads to a new balance. It is labor’s claim that skill is the prime force in the railroad industry ; and that beyond giving to capital a reasonable return on the money honestly invested, the public owes it nothing.
Operating the roads as a unit, centrafizing purchases and discontinuing competition wherever it h wasteful and unnecessary could hardly fail to result in great ultimate savings. And it is the public, in the end, that has to foot the bill, however the roads are operated. As to the government's operation of the railroads, this has not been such a total failure, as many would like to think. A large part of the apparent losses are due to decreased business since the war and greatly increased wages. The total wage bill of January, 1919, was 66 per cent higher than the corresponding figure for the last month of private operation.
Government operation without the active and willing cooperation of the employes tends toward stagnation and bureaucracy, and does not satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the railroad workers; hence there must be a considerable participation of employes and officers in railway management. As long as the brotherhoods are in opposition, with capital and Government against them, they will not feel the responsibility which they must feel if the interests of the public are to be preserved.
As a matter of fact, it has been a long time since the executive heads of the railroad companies were in control of the properties over which they presided. Railroad presidents have said repeatedly that it was becoming impossible to manage the railroads under a system -of Federal control plus „the interference of forty-eight separate states. The rate-making power was lost long ago, and so was the control of wages. The roads were beihg held up by the Government on one hand and the employes on the other. And it has not always been true that the executive heads of the railroads have managed those properties in the interests of their stockholders. Sometimes they have managed them with an eye on the stock market, sometimes with a view of completing mergers in which the bankers were interested. Was not the New Haven wrecked by a man selected by a leading banker?
It is claimed that there are now 12,000,000 stocks holders of the railroads. Their holdings would not be disturbed by being exchanged for Government bonds. They would have a larger actual voice in the management of the railroad properties as voters of the United States Government than they ever had as stockholders. It is well known that the officials of the railroads have been selected by the bankers, and their selections have not always been good ones.
: In financial circles there is ranch talk that the road* should be returned to the owners and that when they are returned there must be a dividend guaranteed by the United States treasury or else a marked increase tn rates. But this is not a good time to increase rates.
As for the guarantee of dividends, if the Government is to guarantee the securities of private corpo-Titians it will not be long, and ought not to-be, before complete and direct control over the affairs of those corporations is placed in the hands of the Government Transportation by rail is a public business which the Government could as property take under its control as the schools, highways, water supply, postal facilities, irrigation and fire protection already administered by it
Under any system of private ownership it is and will always be a real problem to know what to do with the weak roads. Obviously, the best thing to do with them is to merge them with the systems they would most benefit, so that they might have the advantage of common terminals, through trains and such other advantages as come from unification.
It b believed that if the Plumb Plan is adopted the President’s appointees to represent the public on the board of directors should be chosen much as the members of the Supreme Court are chosen—for life, or during good behavior. They should not be selected because of the prominent place they occupy in the councils and activities of the political party in power.
. It is claimed by bankers that if private capital is to enter freely upon the venture of further developing the railroads, and if railroad credit is to be reestablished on a solid basis of genuine confidence, 6 per. cent, on the final valuation, plus a modest share in earnings in excess of this percentage, would constitute the minimum required. This, it is believed, it will be impossible to guarantee. .
If the railroads under public regulation cannot finance themselves, and if the Government will not finance them as long as they are run for private profit, it necessarily follows that the Government must take over the ownership and ultimate control of the railroads. The plans for a partnership of capital and the Government do not work. They are out of date. The railroad brotherhoods have learned that in an ultimate test of strength they have the power to enforce their demands upon both capital and Government. Compulsory arbitration is out of the question.
The railroad employes constitute a large part of the citizenship of the country, and they will be interested as citizens, will they not, in seeing that the railroads are efficiently managed? And how about the public?
If they are the actual owners and have to pay the interest on the bonds, won’t they be as much interested as they are now? .
Railroading is the only business that has every industry and every individual in the country for its client, and every person in the country ought to know the invaluable service the roads perform. The railroads comprise 275,000 miles of line, the average line being 95 miles long and employing about 7 men to the mile, or 1,800,000 in all, for the 2^05 lines. These lines carry the meat-calves. born in Texas, fed in Oklahoma, fattened in Iowa, slaughtered in. Chicago and shipped in iced cars to your home town. They bring your cantaloupes from the Imperial Valley in California, your other melons from Colorado or Southern Indiana, your strawberries from Missouri or Mississippi, your Oranges from Florida, California, Louisiana and Texas, your bananas from the seaboard; they bring you everything you eat or wear or use. Every year our railroads carry 650 tons for every man, woman and child in the land, which is about three times what the railroads of any other land carry.
Under the Plumb Plan the division of dividends is so arranged as to make it to the personal advantage of the operating employes to get their additional compensation in the form of dividends rather than increase of wages. It is hoped that this will provide an offset to an indolent policy on the part of the employes, who, instead of exerting more effort to create new business, could decide merely to raise wages, and so impose a selfish tax upon the public.
Some objections offered to the Plumb Plan are that labor itself promises nothing, but apparently anticipates relatively high wages as compared with other industries, and might use its voting strength in ways that would not be for the best interests of the rest of the country. It is feared that more attention would be devoted to increasing wages than to increasing efficiency and that many men would be retained in service who would not be able to make good under private operation. It is feared, too, that as new railroads would have to be built out of Government funds, there would be political rivalry among different sections for such new lines, and new "pork bills” that would put the notorious river and harbor appropriations far in the shade.
When the Prophet Nahum in his vision in chapter 2:3-6 foresaw the railroads with the locomotives running "like the lightning,” "with flaming torches in the day of his preparation,” he little imagined that these wonderful "chariots” were destined to become the property, not of kings, nor of the rich, but of the common people, like himself.
SOCIAL and INDUSTRIAL
THE POWER OF THE PRESS .
IT may be true, as some claim, that if there were no crimes, scandals, riots, accidents, etc., there would be many less newspapers, but it would seem as if we could spare a few newspapers that now make a living entirely out of the garbage can. The influ* efice of the press is remarkable. An indiscreet statement or an untrue statement at a critical time has ' not infrequently produced disastrous results. It has been claimed that the race riots in Washington and Chicago in July were largely due to two items, which we reproduce herewith.
On the morning of the worst day of the race riots in Washington, D. C, a Washington paper printed this on its first page: .
“MOBILIZATION FOR TO-NIGHT
“It was learned that a mobilization of every available -ce man stationed in or near Washington or on leave here has been' ordered for to-morrow evening near the KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS hut on Pennsylvania Avenue between Seventh and Eighth Streets. The hour of assembly is 9 o’clock, and the purpose is a clean-up that will cause the events of the past two evenings to pale into insignificance. Whether official cognizance of this assemblage and its intent will bring about its forestalling cannot be told.”
Two days before the riot in Chicago a Chicago paper said:
"Not only is Chicago a receiving-station and port of refuge for colored people who are anxious to be free from the jurisdiction of lynch taw, but there has been built here a publicity or propaganda-machine that directs its appeals or carries on an agitation that every week reaches hundreds of thousands of people of the colored race in the Southern States. The State Street blocks south of Thirty-first Street are a ‘newspaper row* with The Defender, The Search-Light, The Guide, The Advocate, The Whip, as weekly publications, and there are also illustrated monthly magazines such as The HalfCentury and The Favorite" .
In Washington an individual crime was made a race issue. Marines, soldiers and sailors took up the issue which had been suggested to them. Unoffending negroes were assaulted upon the streets and were even dragged from street cars for the purpose.
The trouble in Chicago a week later amounted to a small sized civil war. In one instance in the latter city a negro woman and the child in her arms were beaten to death by whites without provocation. Scores of other deaths resulted among both blacks and whites as a result of the reign of terror.
During the war a large influx of negroes into Chicago overcrowded the negro section and negroes of means were being gradually forced out of it into, outlying white sections. This caused a strained situation. The actual beginning in Chicago was in a clash among bathers at an amusement resort.
Negroes are intolerant of the indignities to which they were subjected before the war and claim with considerable force that having done their full share in making the world safe for democracy they are not to be deprived without protest of the liberties which they fought to enjoy.
The large packers of Chicago have announced that they will dismiss all negro employes, possibly hoping thus to effect the removal of some thousands of negroes back to the South, where they are needed for farm work and where they are more appreciated.
A newspaper is the smallest thing a man purchases, but it is like the tongue: “The tongue is a little member; the tongue is a fire,x and setteth on fire the course of nature; behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth I”—James 3:5, 6.
FECUNDITY OF JAPANESE WOMEN
IT is part of the scheme of Japanese civilization for mothers to rent their daughters to foreigners or others as temporary wives, and {here are brokers in Japan who make a business of supplying such wives, sometimes showing a dozen or more to the prospective purchaser before the final choice is made by signing a register and unmade by signing off.
Japanese bride-merchants in America do business entirely by photograph, and of course, according to American laws the brides thus selected by their future husbands become permanent additions to the family.
While with our Western ways of looking at things we may find fault with the Japanese women for the view they take of the marriage relation, we can not find fault with them for any failure to act as mothers. So many children are being born to the Japanese women of California as to cause some anxiety to the people of that state.
Ten years ago the number of children born of Japanese parents in California was 246. During the years 1918 this number had increased to 4,920 for
earn the name of spell-binder. Surely here the spell of woman’s magnetism should help the new orators-to-be to become the real thing.
Anyway, at the suggestion of Mrs. Medill McCormick, Chairman of the Woman’s National Executive Republican Committee, schools of public speaking for women are to be the thing: for the wofneti must be qualified as campaign speakers. Who knows but that the binding of the feminine spell might put into power the right parties, whoever they may be ?
Woman's struggle to escape from'economic, industrial, civic and social bondage is one of the interesting signs of the day. There is coming the day . when woman will forever cease to be man’s serf, bound to the home, but as a- boon companion be with him in a mutual helpfulness which will mean much for the rise of the race to the place and power intended for all the people.
Throughout all the years of human history which precede the promised kingdom of God upon earth woman’s position, Scripturally and historically, has been second to that of man. “The head of the woman is the man.” , (1 Corinthians 11:3). The fact that we see this headship now questioned is evidence that.the long-promised kingdom is near. At its close the Scriptures show sex distinctions will have entirely vanished. “They that enter into the kingdom shall be as the angels.”—Matt. 22:30.
NEGRO EDUCA TION IN CINCINNA TI
ONE of the most successful educational enterprises in the United States is the Douglass High School of Cincinnati. Blacks from all over the city go to this school by preference. They feel that they get the best chance by staying in their own crowd, and they are probably right. In the main entrance of the Douglass School are four placards reading: “SelfControl, Self-Reliance, Self-Respect, Race Pride.” The teachers are of high-class, and largely drawn from the South. The school has every feature calculated to make it an attractive rendezvous for colored boys and girls until the closing hour, which is 9.00 P. M. Its play rooms, libraries, medical attention, open-air rooms for tuberculous children, special classes for defectives, and courses in manual training and domestic science, all have proven that the best way to deal with the colored boy or girl to make for contentment and order is to give them a chance, and to give them that chance by themselves.
While it is true that "of one blood God hath made all nations of men,” nevertheless under present imperfect conditions a wise segregation is probably an advantage to all concerned.
the one year and in one nothem California county during that year there were 176 children born of Japanese parents and but 86 born of white parents. There are now more than 3O,tXX) Japanese children -in California who are native-born and possess all the rights of leasing and ownership held by white children. Statistics show that intermarriage between ■whites and Japanese is almost unknown. The chil-. dren of such marriages are excluded from white .society and they and their parents are compelled to live in the Japanese quarters. These conditions do not augur well for the amalgamation of the Japanese and white races.
Here we have a very literal fulfilment of the . Lord’s promised punishment of Mother Eve and her daughters: “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.”—Genesis 3:16.
THE WOMAN SPELLBINDER
AS THE PEOPLE draw near to the better age, h. a leveling process is observable. The worker seeks to act on the plane of the captain of industry, and to manage the business. The laity perceive that the gulf between them and the clergy is an illusion. The average citizen demands his share in the actual governing. The powerful and influential are correspondingly reduced. Mountains are trimmed down arid valleys raised up.
Woman seeks her place by the side of man, and if possible a little above. Having secured the vote, she becomes a voter, and some of her enter politics. They say that in the older woman-suffrage states, . the woman politicians are the equal of their male predecessors anywhere.
In the newer woman-voting commonwealths the evolution of the woman in politics is going on. The first stage is the zealot, enthusiastic, with a burning zeal for the uplift of womankind. She is developed into or is succeeded by the crafty self-seeker. The woman politician steps from the chrysalis; and finally the female grafter and corruptionist completes the cycle.
In many states the woman voter is at the zealot stage. The opportunity for doing good, of reforming, of correcting abuses, appeals to the best instincts of the high-minded. Consequently the door opens, and forthwith appears in the approaching political campaign the woman political speaker. It is the Republican oratress first. It remains to be seen whether she will equal her male predecessor, who from his soapbox so deftly threw a spell over his audience and bound them with his webs as to
MANUFACTURING and MINING
MAKING THE WORKER A PARTNER
DISCUSSION proceeds widely as to the best way to meet the increasingly insistent de. mand of the worker that he be permitted to have a voice in the management of the business. All employers now know that they must deal with their employes by collective bargaining and it would seem the part of wisdom for thetn to spend some time now in considering how they can make the best solution of the new situation which is bound to arise when the employee demands a voice in the management.
■ It is a curious thing that while the average man ' will admit that he knows nothing about most subjects he has never studied, such as music, geology, botany, astronomy, etc., he is fully convinced of his ability to govern or help to govern business or political institutions of any kind without ever having studied the subject or without having ever had the least experience. This makes the coming business partner a liability for a time until he has learned something of his new duties, but not as much of a liability, perhaps, as some people would like to think. '
It not infrequently happens that a night watchman or railroad conductor or other unskilled or semi-skilled worker is thoroughly successful in controlling the politics of a ward, the operations of a lodge or the conduct of a labor organization. They control such affairs because they know men and how to deal with them. While, therefore, a great many mistakes will be made in the transfer of a certain amount of power to the workers in an industrial organization, nevertheless it is highly probable that the manufacturer will discover qualities of leadership where he has not been accustomed to look for them, and where they will be of value in the business. •
When a suspicion exists between a manufacturer and customer, as a result of a supposed injustice or grievance, the man who is called upon to settle that grievance and remove the injustice is a man who has made a study of human nature, and at the same time is capable of seeing both sides of a problem. Such men are to be found in the marketing end of a business, either in the sales or advertising departments.
The laborer is just as necessary to the manufacturer as the customer. His opinions exercise a considerable influence in labor ranks and his vote counts for just as much as the president of his company. The suspicion in' which he holds his employer may be and probably is many times deeper than that of any customer and may affect the efficiency of his work and his whole attitude toward the business.
’ This suspicion must be cleared away not by a mere statement of intent but by interestihg and truthful statements regarding the necessities of the company, its policies and what it hopes to do. It would seem, therefore, that the marketing et\d of a business is the end best fitted with this new problem which is here and here to stay. The best thing to do with a pressing problem is to solve it and not try to dodge it or postpone it, especially if it is a problem that will not be dodged or postponed.
"A wise man wiil hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels." (Proverbs 1:5). This is as good advice to the managers of labor to-day as it was thousands of years ago, when it was written. ‘
HOW LONG WILL THE OIL LAST!
HE production of petroleum in the United States has averaged about 950,000 barrels per
day for the past year and a half, with a consumption somewhat in excess of production. From January, 1918, to January, 1919, the stock on hand decreased from 150,000,000 barrels to 128'000,000 barrels, but had risen to 132,165,000 barrels by the end of May, 1919.
When the Standard Oil Company begins to sell oil stock in the open market it is a pretty good sign that those on the inside see the beginning of the end and are trying to place their money where it will be safer.
There are several distinct oil fields in the United States: the upper reaches of the Ohio River, Northwestern Ohio, Southeastern Illinois, Northeastern Oklahoma, North Texas, Northwestern Louisiana, Southeastern Texas, Southern California and Wyoming. Some of these fields are now 85% exhausted.
The average investor in oil stocks, especially in new companies, never seems to know that most wells decline in production very rapidly, which makes necessary constant drilling to maintain production. The average decline of flowing wells in some fields approximate 15%> a month. Pools in Oklahoma jiwhich three years ago provided 500,000 barrels per ;*day now produce only 30,000 barrels and oo : one property where at that time thirteen wells were producing 13,000 barrels of oil per day one hundred wells are now producing only one tenth as much.
The Bureau of Mines of the Federal Government stated recently, in effect, that the country is now facing a serious shortage of petroleum. While this country has produced 57of the world’s supply of petroleum it has done so by a depletion of the national reserve supply.
’• Oil wells, like mining properties, are obviously ielf-liquidating. Every barrel of oil or pound of metal removed correspondingly reduces the amount recoverable and consequently reduces the value of the property. Hence, the absolute necessity of oil producers being continually on the lookout for new ^sources of supply to serve as a production supply ^against their declining wells.
Few, if any, producing companies ever show on their balance sheets any reserve for oil depletion. It frequently happens that a new company will begin to pay dividends prematurely, with the result that it soon requires more capital with which to continue operations. It is generally unwise to purchase stock in companies^ which pay immediate dividends.
All of the oil companies—the most prosperous as well as the most wheezy—would be glad if they could find some way of maintaining a permanent supply of oil, such as was miraculously provided for the widow by the old Hebrew Prophet Elisha. The story is brief and very interesting:
"Now there cried a certain woman of the wive* of the *oc* of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen, And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me: what hast thou in the house? And she said. Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said. Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out And it came to pass, when ' the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel: and he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God: and he said. Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest”—2 Kings 4:1-7.
THE PHOSPHATE MINES OF FLORIDA
FLORIDA produces about 52 per cent, of the entire world’s supply of phosphate and about 82 per cent, of the supply of the United States. These phosphate beds, underlying almost the entire state, are one of the great reasons for the productivity of Florida soil. The greatest and richest beds of phosphate are in the vicinity of Tampa, which has the distinction of being the largest shipper of phosphate rock in the world.
The phosphorous employed in the manufacture of matches and for medicinal purposes is obtained from phosphate rock by mixing it with coke and sand and heating it in an electric furnace. It is marketed in the form of sticks, which are made by conducting the phosphorus from the melting pot through a pipe surrounded by cold water. The phosphorus solidifies in the pipe and can be removed as a continuous rod. The phosphorus sticks are packed in jars covered with water, to avoid spontaneous combustion.
Acid phosphate, for years one of our most popular soft drinks, could n'ot be manufactured or sold at the soda counter, if it were not for the output of the Florida mines. Owing to its remarkable influence on the growth of bone in young animals, it has been used in the treatment of bone affections. It is also most effective in pulmonary troubles and skin diseases and as a nerve tonic
It has been well known for many years that a trace of phosphorus in the manufacture of bronze adds greatly to the tenacity of the metal and to its value It is an essential of calcium phosphide used for distress signals at sea and was widely employed during the Great War in the manufacture of smoke screens for hiding vessels from submarines.
Phosphate mines, strictly speaking, are not mines at all, but merely open pits. The deposits are of all sizes and shapes, hard-rock, soft-rock and pebbles, and frequently occur in pockets of limestone, from which they are scooped with the naked hand. The work is all done by negro labor, principally with pick and shovel, but sometimes by dredges or other hydraulic apparatus. Alter mining it requires to be washed, dried, pulverized and sacked.
The human family needs these phosphate deposits at the present time for food and medicinal purposes, and it strikes us that a fatherly Being who had the foresight and beneficence to lay up stores of food and medicine for an uncreated race is a. God the human family can trust, and a God they will love when they know him. “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good."— Genesis 1:31.
FINANCE, COMMERCE and TRANSPORTATION
AMERICAN EXPORTS AND INFLATION
IN the end Europe must pay for our goods in their own goods or in gold. Meantime we can and should lend them all of our savings that we can •pare, but if we go further and inflate our credit position in order to lend them more we cannot fail to cause a further rise in the cost of living. The proposition to accept European notes, backed by European mortgages, in payment for American goods, is all right, but not if those notes are to be used as a basis for the further inflation of our currency. The temporary and illusory gain that would follow such an inflation would be more than offset by the unrest of labor and all the other evils which accompany inflation.
It was in August, 1915, that the quantity of money in the United States began its rapid increase. One month later prices began to shoot upward, keeping almost exact pace with the quantity of money. In February, 1916, money suddenly stopped increasing, and two or three months later prices stopped likewise. The money in circulation in the United States rose from three and one-third billions in 1913 to five and a half billions in 1918, corresponding to the rise in prices.
The money in circulation in the world outside of Russia increased during the war from fifteen billions to forty-five billions and the bank deposits in fifteen principal countries from twenty-seven billions to seventy-five billions. Prices have trebled' also.
The main cause for the present extension in bank credit is the Liberty Loan. Subscribers for the loans have not paid their bonds in full. These bonds are unrivalled security for borrowings and will continue to be so until the Government which issues them redeems them. Until they are paid there is little chance that prices will fall materially from their present high leveL Prices in Europe since the war began have riseh more than they have in the United States, and for the same reason—too much money. In Russia the Bolsheviki have issued eighty billion dollars of paper money, or more than all the rest of the world put together.
The poor world is suffering from something that only a few individuals experience—too much money. They are finding out that money “maketh not rich,” without corresponding increase in the things that
money will buy. So vast is the seeming inflation of business that business men everywhere are enlarging their businesses, like the man in the parable whose ground “brought forth plentifully: and Jie thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits, and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.”—Luke 12:18-20. J
SUNSHINY DAYS FOR BIG BANKERS
HE only man in the world with a full bank account is the American, and he will have
plenty of foreign friends as long as he has money to lend.
Representatives of many foreign governments and municipalities have been rushing to America to secure great loans here. Some of the amounts are:
The Swiss Republic, $30,000,000 Denmark, 15,000,000
Czecbo-Stovakia, 25,000,000
Belgium, 50,000,000
Canada, 75,000,000
Finland, Several millions
Poland, Several millions
. Argentina, Several millions Brazil, Several millions
Germany, A large loan
France, An important bond issue '
In addition, the most powerful financial syndicate ever formed in this country, if not in the world, will undertake to loan from one to five billion dollars in credits to thousands of foreign buyers with which in turn to purchase American foodstuffs, raw materials and other supplies.
As much of these vast sums will never leave the country but be expended here for American products, a great circulation of money will result and a large volume of business will be done by American concerns, linked up with the international financiers. There will be plenty of work until these amounts are spent, and at good wages, for American labor will not permit its net return for a day’s work to decrease, whatever figures the cost of living may reach.
The time is coming, of course, when Europe will have placed all the orders needed to reestablish her shattered industries, and also be able to ship goods into the American market; and then a reaction may be expected in America, with the usual phenomena, of less work, lower wages and falling prices. But for a time this country is safe from the difficulties incident to business depression.
The time is coming, however, when a perplexing ' situation must be met; for borrowings have the unfortunate faculty of the limitation imposed by the ability of the borrower paying interest. But it looks as tnotJgh America was safe for another year of good times. '
RESTORA TION OF OUR MERCHANT MARINE
THERE has been no American merchant marine worth while since Commodore Vanderbilt sold his line of trans-Atlantic steamers to his English competitors. The necessity of building ships to transport our soldiers to France has again placed a great fleet of merchant ships under the American flag. The Shipping Board has announced the opening of 62 regular cargo liner services, twenty-five of which start from New York. They cover South America, Africa, the Pacific, Italy, France, the North Sea states and England. Besides this it has been announced that over $200,000,000 worth of merchant ships have been ordered, which indicates that the magnificent ship-building facilities put up during the war for military needs will not be allowed to go to ruin.
The plan of sale announced for Government ships ia very generous. It allows the purchaser to charter for three years, paying from his profits. At the end of the three years he has the option of buying the ships outright at $110 a ton or returning them to the Board.
It is not clear just how the American buyers of American ships expect to make money out of the purchases, because it is quite well known that ■ American-operated ships are the most expensive to run in the world-, and often fail in competition on equal terms with the shipping of other nations.
. IMMENSE EXPORTS OF AMERICAN FOODSTUFF
IN 1918 the quantity of fresh beef exported was 540,000,000 pounds, or 86 times as much as in 1914. The quantity of bacon exported was 1,000,000,000 pounds, or five times the amount exported in 1913.' The amount of condensed milk was 553,000,000 pounds or 26 times as much as in 1913. Of . this amount 25,000,000 pounds went to India or four times as much as was shipped to India the previous year. Taking all kinds of foodstuffs into consideration the United States is now exporting four times as much as before the war. The money value is six times as great. It is now estimated at $3,000,000,00^ per year While then it was $500,000,000 per year. "
Many a man is deceived by such figures into thinking that it represents the increasing wealth of the country, whereas it represents the opposite. Every ton of raw material taken out of the land impoverishes the real wealth by that much. It seems, all right to the thoughtless, but it is like what the Bible speaks of when it says, "There is a way that seemeth good to a man, but the end thereof is destruction.” A country which enlarges its exports by sending away its actual wealth would come to nothing if the process were continued long enough.
THE DEMAND FOR AUTOMOBILES
OWING to the unprecedented prosperity of the farmers, the demand for automobiles is now estimated at 60 per cent, ahead of the supply; and orders, both by dealers and the consuming public, are being booked for months ahead. The growth in popularity of the motor car is shown by the registration figures for the year of 5,500,000, over a million cars better than the best previous figures. In California there is one automobile in use for every seven adults in the state.
No family purchases an automobile without the families next door desiring also to fulfil the ancient Bible prophecy to the effect that "many shall run to and fro” (Daniel 12:4). In order to fulfil this divine prediction, men that are wholly unable to afford it mortgage their houses and. sell everything they have, as though an automobile were a “pearl of great price.” All over the country the American people are beating their chicken houses into garages.
TANK CARS FOR TRANSPORTA TION
MORE than 100 commodities are now transported in tank cars. Kerosene, gasoline, sulphuric, muritic, nitric and picric acids, ammonia, alcohol, benzol, ether, coal-tar, chlorine for bleaching, tannic acid for tanning, turpentine and rosin for paints, vegetable oils for soaps and butterine, linseed oil for paint makers, soya bean oil, castor bean oil, peanut oil, cocoanut oil, olive oil, corn oil, whale and fish oils, fats and oil from the meat packers, asphalt for roofing and roads, caustic soda for soap, silicate of soda and potash for soaps and fertilizers, molasses, glucose, vinegar, pickles, skimmed milk and wine are all shipped in tank cars
POLITICAL, DOMESTIC and FOREIGN
TO HASTEN THE COMING OF DEMOCRACY
HE NATIONAL SOCIAL UNIT ORGANIZATION is the name of a corporation whose inception was recently approved by Supreme Court
Justice Lydon of New York. The charter purpose is to "hasten the coming of a democracy, both genuine and efficient, by building upon a basis of population units an organization through which the people can get a clear idea of their common needs, and can utilize the technical knowledge of skilled groups in formulating and carrying out programs to meet these needs." ,
A similar social unit system in Cincinnati is reported to have successfully developed a quite genuine democracy in small groups of the population, who by the unfavorable conditions of tenement city life had been unable to "find themselves" sociologically. The groups by a direct process of practical - education in the social and economic needs of the people cultivated in a mixed population a spirit of independence quite comparable to that which has been the pride of American tradition. Incidentally the social unit incurred the cordial opposition of the local politicians who found their grip increasingly impaired as the knowledge of their former subjects grew.
Knowledge is power. It is independence. It is the foundation of true democracy, which in essence is the actual direction of the people’s affairs by the people themselves.
The time for general enlightenment on all topics is not merely coming—it is here. The chains of ignorance and superstition are about to be forever broken. The common people are about to enter into a greater and greater freedom which will soon— and to the people, unexpectedly—blossom out into that which Paul promised, when he foresaw the better age just now ahead, and said: "The creation [all created beings] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption [the chains of ignorance, superstition, disease and ultimately death] into the glorious liberty of the [perfect earthly] children of God."
The coming of that which has not yet come— genuine democracy—is Just around the future’s corner. It draws very near. All humanity will soon go forth to meet it, but it will not come through any of the well-meant plana which are now
being experimented with. Certainly no one could have any better purpose than the backers of the social unit system, but they are dealing with a situation too complicated for them to save it. The world will be saved for democracy, but it will be" through the agency of the coming kingdom of Messiah. '
FREEDOM EXISTS WHERE WEAK ARE FREE
HE degree of civilization of a community may be measured by the liberty accorded to the
weaker members of the community. Where the defenceless are defended and the individually weak are backed up by the power of all, liberty exists in tangible form.
Those classes which are without a voice and without a vote are most likely to be imposed upon by the strong and unscrupulous. One such class consists of those who under the law are classified as infants and minors. It is a promising sign when the rights of such classes are defended as in a recent instance in an Eastern city.
A boy is not supposed to exercise any particular legal rights, but when a property owner in Dobbs Ferry, N. Y., chased nine-year-old Roland White so that the boy fell down and hurt himself, because the lad was scooting past the house on a pushmobile, it was apparent that in Dobbs Ferry at least a boy has some rights.
The man had asked the children why they could not scoot on the other side of the street; his wife was nervous and the noise annoyed her. One of the neighbors was not surprised that the boy might have suffered from the kind of pain that gains plaintiffs substantial amounts from damage suits, for she said that when the man was chasing the boy he had such a terrible look on his face that it frightened even her; but the magistrate merely imposed a sentence and then mercifully suspended it He made it plain that the majesty of the law protected even boys on scooters, because “there is no law that prevents boys from scooting or roller-skating on the side-walks," and that "a man must remember that he was a boy once himself."
If judges and big people generally remembered that they like to have liberty themselves, and would allow others the same liberties they insist on, and if they would protect and help and be a big brother to those less able to look out for themselves, civilization would take a step upward and there would be real liberty for grown-ups as* well as for children.
In the Golden Age, which is fast approaching, the rights of every person will be safeguarded, even those of little boys and girls. "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir” (Isaiah 13:12). The people are promised a better time than they have ever even dreamed of, as evidenced by these words: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9); and liberty for the weakest, even the boys and the girls, will characterize the greatness and majesty of the coming better order of things.
JEWISH PERSECUTION IN POLAND
NDER the charge that all Jews are Bolshevild the ruling party in Poland is engaged in a
shameless persecution of Jews, with a view to making their political hold on the country stronger. Ugly illustrated posters, depicting the Jew as a serpent or vampire, appear in the newspapers and are doing everything possible to fan the fanaticism of the ignorant masses into a brutal massacre.
The Jews are blamed for the high cost of living, despite the fact that this phenomenon is world wide and has been caused by the fiscal policies of the warring countries.
As high as eighty Jews have been killed in a single pogrom in Poland, and they are of frequent occurrence; Sometimes whole streets of Jewish homes are burned down, accompanied by brutalities in which the Roman Catholic Polish Christians seem to equal the Turks in their attacks against the Armenians.
Some of the factories in Poland belong to Jews, but in them no Jewish operatives can be employed, despite the fact that one-third of the populace are Jews. Polish workmen will not work with Jews and they can only work in small home industries of their own. Theycan not enter the civil service.
The Poles, politically and culturally a backward people, have won the power to make their land a hell for its three million Jews by no merit of their own, but simply by the victory of the Germans over the Russian and of the Allies over the Germans.
The Poles understand well what their role in Europe is. Their role is to keep a strong conscript army on the Vistula, while the French keep watch on the Rhine. They know very well if they fill this role, they may treat Jews, Germans and other minorities as they please.
That the Jews would have a very hard time for many' centuries was not unknown to the Jewish prophets. And even these pogroms were foretold; for the Prophet Jeremiah says: “I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain [kingdom], and from every hill [lesser nation], and out of the holes (protected places) of the rocks [strongholds of society].” (Jeremiah 16:16.) This dreadful hunting of the Jews, however, is prelude to the regathering of as many of them as desire, back to their home country. The Messianic kingdom will come after enough of the Jews are reestablished, and through them will flow the greatest benefit to all the people of the whole world.
DO MORE BALKANS MEAN MORE TROUBLE ?
HE break-up of the Austrian empire has created four new Balkan-states, Hungary, Jugo-Slavia,
Czecho-Slovakia and Poland, besides old Austria.
The civilization of the world broke down because the Great Powers played the Balkan states against each other for their own purposes. The Russian Empire and the plans of Germany for a Mittel-Europa collided. Now the whole of Central Europe has been Balkanized. From the Baltic to the Aegean the whole territory is now filled with small, ambitious, indefinitely bounded states. Will they keep the peace? Will their larger and more ambitious neighbors help them to keep the peace, or will they, in pursuance of their own ambitious designs, contrive to keep these small states quarreling among themselves in the hope of themselves profiting by the melee? >
Europe must get to work. Will she get to work better with a large number of petty states or a small number of large states? Are customs barriers a help to commerce or a hindrance? If there are many boundaries to cross will trade be facilitated or hindered? If Europe does not get to work boundaries or no boundaries, what will happen?
Practically all the people of Europe, at least an overwhelming majority, profess obedience to the commands of Jesus Christ, but evidently they have two things more to learn. One of them is suggested by Paul, that "if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10) ; for unless Europe gets to work she will not have enough to eat except by borrowing money from the United States and paying for food with the same money. The other thing that these Christians require is to realize that there is no permanent relationship possible among them except that based upon this ancient principle: "Thou shaft love thy neighbor as thyself.*
AGRICULTURE and HUSBANDRY
1FHAT ROTATION OF CROPS ACCOMPLISHES
IT HAD probably been discovered elsewhere by other fanners that corn always does well when it follows a crop of clover, but it was discovered anew in a section of North Carolina by a young farmer who purchased an abandoned farm and who noticed that his first crop of corn did best in a part of the field that had grown up to wild clover. The next spnng he seeded all his wheat in clover and has been doing it ever since. His farm is now one of the show-pl aces of the state. Other farmers in the neighborhood have followed his example and from ■ poor fanning country have built up the best Corn-Belt in that part of the South.
Many years ago a great potato-producing industry developed in Aroostook County, Maine. The potatoes were grown in rotation with oats and clover; two years of potatoes, one of oats and one of clover, with as heavy an application of fertilizer as the potatoes would pay for. Wonderful results were obtained by this rotation and enrichment of the soil, and now It has been discovered that this same rotation, with equally good results, can be obtained in any potato-growing country.
In the so-called Black Belt of Alabama and Mississippi many lands had been cropped to cotton without change or rest for a hundred years. The yield of cotton had fallen so low as to make the land practically worthless until somebody discovered that it was naturally adapted to alfalfa. Now it is producing great crops of alfalfa, three or four tons to the acre, and after a few years produces corn rivalling the yield in the Corn-Belt states.
Twenty years ago the sand-hill country of North Carolina was regarded as worthless. Fifty cents an acre was a good average for the land. The soil is little but sand for 20 feet or more down. A hotelkeeper undertook to raise vegetables for his table. He found that cowpeas and fertilizer worked a revolution in the soil. After turning under a few crops of pea vines he was able to produce 60 to 70 bushels of corn per acre. The system spread gradually until now the sand-hill region is one of the most prosperous in the state. Now land is selling at $200 to $250 per acre and the yield of cotton runs to a bale or more per acre.
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