Golden Age, November 26, 1919
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November 26, 1919, VoLl, N<u5
|S| Published every other IV3S1 week at IMS Broadway, VF New York, N.Y..U.SM
Ten Cents s Co>y^|L50 a Tear
VOLFXS 1 WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 2d. 1919 Mhmil
CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE
LABOR «M ECONOMICS
Capltal-labar Tension........132 Food and OeUitB ■-■--J CT
High Coot of Living —........132 Demand tor Labor—--184
The Little Profiteer____________133 Principle* of Bouts** .. 434
Decentralising Packing______133 Janitor* on Strike-------134
SOCIAL and EDUCATIONAL
8bort<o of Teacher*________130 Too Little Dall__134
Anto Thieves in France....135 Education for the Poor..—.134 UoUeca Graduate Union......130 Newspaper Men Organiia-439
MANUFACTURING and MINING
Shaft Bearings and Olla....1ST Safiestion System*—.—438 Textile* Bunning Full........1ST Wilf Labor Bo Seereor—-139
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
ProcrsM of Australia. Wasting Others' Mnn*y Ballread Equipment.....
139 Conference of
.140 Ale Traneit.
Advertising Moa.
POLITICAL— DOMKSTIC «sd FOREIGN
.140 .140
Oat Bove and th* French....141 Bit* of Peace Army
Officers and Men
A War By-Product...
AGRICULTURE
Affrieultnve In AlnO*. Old Mulms Valuable.
14Q .140
Who Are Anarchists!._______143
Japan*** Aviation____—144
Meat Service of Foreign
Governments__...^444
e«4 HUSBANDRY Vegctarianlnn a Settled
Question ....149
Rat Police in England
The Fittest Hurries
Rotary Magnetic Motor
Future of th* Airplane
Seaweed Utilities
Cheap Cooper...........
Nitrogen industry
SCIENCE nntf INVENTION
Recent Chemical Plants_____149
Alcohol In Industry—.150 Africa and th* Alrplaa*,,, 14A Canadian Chemistry——160 British Motor Feel_______1W
Scientific Management
in BIN* Tunes___IK
Notm an InAoena*
HOUSEWIFERY «r4 HYGIENE
151 Cauftce Adenoid*.
-153
Immunity to 'Flu".............151 J tulieri Hables Dylng—^—153
Prevention of Pestilence....151 Snap Beat Health-Guard...453 Volcano*; to BUmel..........152 The Drag _——,,,, .>153
French Hygienic R*newal-I52 More Honey Bedpan* ,, .454
RELIGION M PttlLQSOFBY MRU*n* New Lirina Will Merer TRAVEL sM MISCELLANY ths Madsn Fairy Land Travelers* Rlsfca ... — New Fork ..-......—_______159 Moro Accident*——
SWEET OLD POEMS
Wait Tbou on God......-W-1U Lay Down Toor Rails.
Golden Age Calendar, November 26 to December 8 —
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.IBS 1W
tobllshed esery other Wednredsy at 1335 Broadway. New Tort, N. Y., by woanwoarn, Hvpoiwca and Mastix. Charron 3. Wooswmtr,....___.Editor
BoanaT J. Majstix._____.Business Mgr.
Wm. F. Bune»<M....S*e*y and Trees. Copartner* and proprietor*. Address ♦of each, 1265 B*wa.r, New York, N. Y. Tu Cxkt* a Corr■■81.M a YMax. Make remittance* to TA* 0*M*a Are. gw 5
The Golden Age
VbL I A Nev York, Wednesday, November 2C, 1919 No. 5
LABOR and ECONOMICS
CAPITAL-LABOR TENSION
NE SKIRMISH after another between capital and labor causes the common people, who have to foot all the bills, to wonder where this thing will end. Every •strike to improve the condition of some of us makes it just that much harder for all of us. And the strikes are each strange strikes. They are not what they used to be. This striking of policemen is an entirely new thing, and a shock all around.
’Theoretically police have no right at all to strike; for they represent us, the people as a whole. They are appointed custodians of law and order. We want to know where they are all the time, because we never know when we may need them. And yet we must not forget that the big boys in uniform are just ordinary men like the rest of us, and they have to live, and since the prices of everything have risen so dreadfully they have fallen an easy prey to the idea that they ought to have more money, so that they can provide their families with the thing? they need. It all seems human enough, when you think of it. But if they knew there was an ordinance forbidding them to join a union, then they should have obeyed the law. because they expect us to do so.
The steel strike is and has been a long, hard battle. Pennsylvania is in line with what those acquainted with this section had expected. Many of the workers in the Eastern mills are of so-called "Pennsylvania Dutch” extraction, a very conservative, slow-going, kindly-dis-positioned class of people who live simply, own their own homes and accept with resignation conditions which they can not easily change. In the steel business there have been but two shifts during the twenty-four hours, from time immemorial, the men generally working from 5:00 until 5:00, running one week on the day shift and the other on the night shift This arrangement gives the ’orlrfr one Sunday off every other week, and every other /»k he works a straight twenty-four hour shift, from
5:00 p. m. Saturday to 5:00 p. m. Sunday. Then the following week he works from 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p. m. each day up until Saturday inclusive, his night shift starting in at 5:00 p. m. the next day.
The operation of'blaet furnaces continuously is almost inevitable, as the expense of shutting one down and starting it again is very great. In not a few instance*; the temporary shutting down of a blast furnace has caused the failure of the company operating it No doubt a part of the effort to get three shifts of eight hours each into the steel business, instead of the long twelve-hour grind which has been the rule heretofore, is due to the success of the railway workers in procuring a working day of eight hours. The work around a blast furnace or steel mill is as hard and as dangerous as railroading, and it is hard to see why the one class should continue to work twelve hour when the other has to work but eight.
President Wilson’s conference at Washington of representatives of capital and labor had a great task mapped out for it "for the development of a new rdv tionship between capital and labor,” but the labor delegates bolted and upset the program when the right of collective bargaining was not conceded by the capitalist group. It is hard to see how such a conference could do other than make further concessions to labor, because all can see that labor has the strength that comes from superior numbers, and it now seems determined to have a voice in the management of practically every great industry with which it is connected. In Japan this principle of "attendance of labor delegates at all conferences of the company” has just been conceded to the printers of Tokio. This is the more remarkable because labor unions in Japan are outlawed organizations.
A blind man, on the dark side of the moon, can aes plainly that an intelligent, determined, powerful majority will have its own way eventually. "Be wise now, therefore, O ye (money) kings.”—Psalm 2:10.
HIGH COST OP LIVING
WHO’S TO BLAME? If we can find him and fix him with one in the cranium, he is done for, and the difficulty, of course, will settle itself. Such a cast of mind makes Mr. Average Citizen an easy mark for people who are too smart for him. As a matter of fact, the man to blame is often the best one to help fix things up, and may be as anxious as anyone to see his error corrected.
However, to definitely fix responsibility for the high cost of living, may enable a good many Average Citizens to relieve some mental tension. Such responsibility can now be definitely and finally set upon the right parties. To know the genesis of “H- C. L.” throws tight upon the subject. This is known in certain circles. The insiders even know the individual transaction with which “H. C. L.” was born.
Tradition of the street has it this way: It was in the early days of the big war, in 1914 or thereabouts. The event, took place in the explosives industry. Many of the smaller nations were caught short of gun powder. The American powder companies were filled with orders for way ahead. They did not care whether any more orders came or not.
One of the smaller countries had exhausted its patience waiting for the big powder companies to accept their order for a few million pounds. They approached a lesser concern supplicating permission to spend their money. Even the small companies were full of business from large customers, with orders booked far ahead. The ruling price was say thirty cents a pound. So the small concern, in order to discourage the small country, said that they would accept the order at a dollar a pound or thereabouts.
The general situation was in control of His Excellency, Mars, the world’s Over-Lord of the last few years, and powder at a dollar was cheap beside the possible ruin of War. The order was placed, and the little powder concern had the best order yet on its books.
Within a month or thereabouts, the current price of powder was a dollar a pound. Other business grasped the golden opportunity. Other commodities, bought by countries at war, were jumped up to a figure intended to approach tde famous sfanokru’, "&Z && fr&Sc ircH bear.”
Steel, iron, copper, lead, guns, pistols, leather, ships, ocean transportation, grain, canned foods and a swarm of others, left Mother Earth, for a trip whose top was the sky. Government control was forced into the field to regulate the race between supply and the demands of War. The insatiable greed of Mars for more and yet more to bum up and destroy in the Great Pastime, interlocking with the willingness of the trader to accept the enormous prices offered without haggling by the buying agents of foreign governments, created a bad combination for Mr. Average Man. He must pay more or go without and see the food and clothing the kiddies needed go sailing across the Atlantic. The imperative demand of hungry stomachs and cold backs were the enforced compliance of the common people with the ruinous course of the War Lords of Europe. Thus was "H. C. L.” born and quickly grew from expansive infancy into boisterous maturity.
The blame for the high cost of living rests upon Mars. The ready purse of War began it and sustained it On no other shoulders does exclusive responsibility rest
The whole world is crying out against the high cost of living; it is the cry of ignorance and emotion against plain arithmetic.
Mathematics says that there Is no cost of living problem if the buying power of the worker is undiminished. If when commodities rise, wages rise to the same extent, the worker’s day’s labor continues to get him just as much at one time aa another. He lives v^rith the same comfort because he has the same things to work with, play with and live upon.
But the common people are common people because they are not smart enough for the uncommon people, many of whom started from the common level and by ability or crookedness have risen to places of power.
If the people were clever enough to insist upon having, in the business of exchange or trade, a measure of value that would not vary in actual value, they would not be troubled about the high cost of living. If a dollar would always buy the same quantity of goods, varying only with scarcity or plenty, the people would have one less important factor to contend with. Their wages_would always be at a figure that they could understand.
But when the dollar, right under the nose of the man on the street, imperceptibly shrinks day by day, the wage earner, to use a common phrase, does not know “where he is at.” In his mind for many decades a dollar has been a dollar, and that was all there was to it. But with the advent of War a dollar ceased to be a dollar's worth, and Mr. Worker and Miss Worker found them-zzr&zrtb ty &&& and Jgi? of ibis
world’s goods.
If the profiteer in labor had wished to find a clever scheme without being seen, to rob labor of the products of his labor, he could not have devised a better imtru-ment than the vanishing dollar.
The business man could always raise prices at will unless he was hindered by a public service commission or by a food commissioner. Getting wages raised, however, was not so'simple & matter because it was usually the result of a fight with the employer. The employer could always keep ahead in the race, for he could raise prices again and it would be some time before the worker would realize that the employer’s price-increase meant just that much real wage decrease.
One party was making more than the other party. It was always the business man who did the price raising. He was making invisible differential between the extra pay grudged to the worker and the additional price he forthwith charged labor and which ordinarily was substantially larger than the wage increase it was supposed to balance.
Labor not understanding, and in the home circle finding the mathematics of prices and wages transmuted into emotions and feelings developed by privations of . loved ones finds it impossible to maintain the calm, self-। ’ possessed demeanor of pure mathematics. He first cries / out Some day he may act. Conan Doyle, the great English writer, says that unless effective steps are taken promptly to check rising food cost there will be grave violence in Great Britain. In Florence, Italy, the workers ransacked the stores of the profiteers and after declaring a strike secured a reduction in prices of fifty • to seventy-five per cent France has doubled the number of selling booths from which low price food is distributed and has established cheap restaurants to serve meals at fixed prices.
Low food costs are imperatively needed; but if food prices are forced down, who will pay the farmer enough for him to make a living and enable him to keep on raising farm products for the rest of the people to eat?
Truly in every direction there are intricate and perplexing questions which must be solved to keep the people from greater discontent, and yet the solution of .these problems appears to require a more than human wisdom, and a Solomon has not yet appeared to show the way- But—the Golden Age draws on apace, and soon the long looked for Messiah shall arise and bring order out of the world’s confusion and chaos. "Thy kingdom come.*
THE LITTLE PROFITEER
AMAN has to live, and when rising prices are fashionable, the price autocrat has to make his profit represent as good a living as before. To a dealer wages or salary are spelled "profit,” and his wage may be large or small or even minus—he must make money when the making is good. If prices double, the dealer, to have the same wage, should obtain like profit This is only fair. Any worker's income should vary with prices, so that there be nona of the inequity of soma getting less and others more. ITndesired consequences might be cited from such inequalities—unrest, discontent, vindictiveness, revolution, anarchy.
The big profiteer does not bear sole responsibility for the prevailing distress. Everyone does who helped ‘•boost” prices or wages. The retailer did not neglect his part in raising the cost of living. In the sunshiny trade days of 1915-1916 some retailers were slow to sense the changing situation. Honest fogies, they could not charge a multiple profit on goods they had bought low. But the little profiteers persuaded them to "play the game,” and get their share of the golden stream while it lasted. A grocery trade journal ran full-page advei^ tisementa that raising prices was the style and no grocer should fail to raise his; "everybody was doing it,” and "they could get the money.” It was a kind of golden age, which forced thousands of Fords and hundreds of "sixes” and "eights” upon a willing retail trade.
But now dealers looking for a too-good living have to be reasonable. It has seemed as though a jail sentence was the only thing to keep some dealers within bounds. For the public weal, the little profiteers have to adopt the new fair-price fashion.
Profiteers are nothing new. They had them in days of old, when the prophet Ezekiel said, "Thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extoHion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.”—Ezekiel 22:12.
DECENTRALIZING PACKING
THE KENYON-ANDERSON bill recently before
Congress for the decentralization of the packing business aims to correct the waste in hauling animals from points all over the country to Chicago or Kansas City, and then shipping directly back the finished product. It hopes to eliminate a long string of commission merchants and middlemen. It proposes to license all packers and provides a list of punishable offenses for unfair, unjustly discriminatory or deceptive practices in commerce.
The bill proposes to license any number of standardized plants erected by municipalities or subdivisions of states, or by their accredited representatives. It proposes that records and accounts shall be submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture and that the services of the plant shall be available to all customers on the basis of fair and reasonable returns and without unjust discrimination. It contemplates the services of special cars and the assistance of the Government in matters of inspection, standardization, plans and advice, but not financial assistance.
It is the hope of the framers of the bill to change ths packing business from a centralized business into one in which the local centre of production will be the local centre of distribution. However, if it is profitable to decentralize the packing business, one can not but wonder why the great packers have not found this out long ago. But perhaps they have had too many other things or hand to give this phase of the business adequate attention. It is freely claimed that the big packers have been busier in cornering all substitutes for meat than in providing meat itself for the people at legitimately low prices. It certainly looks as though something is wrong when 700,000 lbs. of beef, lamb and pork are kept in storage so long that they have to be sold for fertilizer at l£c per pound.
FOOD AND CLOTHING
ACCORDING to the National Industrial Conference kBoard in its recent research there is a race between food and clothing, as to which will increase the most in price.
Between July,. 1914, and July. 1919, food increased in price 90%. but was distanced 10% by clothing, which increased 100%. Other increases were, shelter 28%, fuel, heat and light 57% and sundries 63%. The average advance in the cost of living was 73%.
The figures computed by the Board ore claimed to be those of the average family expense or budget, and probably represent the facts, unless there was an effort to make the figures as small as possible in order to have them show that wages increased as much as the cost of living. There is an old saw to the effect that “Figures do not lie, hut liars do figure.” There is no intention to discredit the figures arrived at, but before accepting them as final, it might be well for “the man on the street” to know something about the personnel of the Board, their connections and the motives by which they might be influenced.
According to the Board the percentages of a man’s family expense are distributed as follows: Food 43.1%, shelter 17.1%, clothing 13.2%. fuel, heat and light 5.6% and sundries 20.4%, total 100%.
DEMAND FOR LABOR
THE maintenance of a proper labor supply depends somewhat upon the wage* paid to labor- If the wages are sufficient to keep labor at work the supply is more plentiful than if some are not at work. A man who u idle temporarily because he is dissatisfied with hu wages or other conditions of labor is, for that time, not a worker at all. If all the workers in the country went on strike at the same time it could not be said that labor it plentiful but that it is scarce.
For some reason that does not appear on the surface the Scriptures intimate that just before the dawn of the Golden Age there will be a period during which work will not be obtainable on any condition. Possibly this will be caused by a temporary break-down of credit. The passage reads: 'Tor before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbor”.—Zechariah 8:10,
PRINCIPLES OP SUCCESS
a NY WORKER in any occupation might profit by y^the advice given to army officers by Major-General McGlachlin:
You must have courage, self-reliance and good judgment.
Courage is a very common natural gift, but it may also be developed by practice in dangerous games and occupations-
Self-relianre is usually a result of training and personal effort, to be attained by actually performing tasks.
Good judgment comes from the study of your task before you do it and from reflection upon the results obtained and mistakes that may have been made.
In your life from day to day, you should observe the principles of simplicity/ directness, thoroughness and promptness.
The simpler your thoughts and reasoning, the more clear will be your decision. The simpler your language, the more easily you will be understood.
Direct statements will result in clarity of understanding by your subordinates and by your superiors, and are equally appreciated by both.
Thorough treatment of subjects that you are required to handle will result in their effective disposition.
You must train yourself to regard these subjects not merely from your own standpoint but from that of your superiors and that of your subordinates, keeping in view always the interests of the government which you serve.
Do not sacrifice thoroughness to simplicity. Brevity is a virtue, but thoroughness is the more important principle.
Be pror.-.pt. It is indispensible. Procrastination is the root of all evil. Those who put things off do not do them- Those who do not do them are not useful.
JANITORS ON STRIKE
THE 7,600 members of the Chicago Flat Janitors’
Union are demanding $3.o0 to $5,00 an apartment a month and living quarters on or above the street. The flat owners declare tliat the janitors are now getting $125 to $175 a month, free living quarters, free heat, light and gaa, and that the demands signify wages et $200 to $250 a month.
SOCIAL and EDUCATIONAL
SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS
HE STATUS of the teaching profession is important because it reflects the public attitude toward the future welfare of the people.
A report from 1,512 school superintendents indicates that the United States is short 38,000 teachers, or 5.8% of the 650,000 teaching positions. There are also 65,000 persons accepted as teachers who are not fit for their positions. This represents 103.000 teaching positions without teachers of even fair abiliiy.
Of the 1.512 school superintendents, 1,430, or 94.6% report that the teachers' salaries have not been increased in proportion to the increase in the cost of living; 1,267 or S3.6% report that they have found it necessary to lower the standard of qualifications in the effort to get teachers; 1,052 or 69.6% report that the number of girl and boy teachers below twenty-one is increasing; 1,895, or 92.3% report that promising young men and women are not taking up teaching as in the post. The situation is least serious where salaries have been increased most.
The development of the mind and character of the young is not to be compared with the washing of windows, if the criterion is the wage increase of the workers. Either the teaching profession is considered of no particular importance, or there is a systematic scheme to discredit the public schools by impairing their efficiency.
The real trouble may be that the teachers are a negligible factor because they do not control votes and are not properly unionized. Perhaps if the 650,000 American teachers were welded into a trades union they would have a labor backing which would give pause to school boards that pass up their petitions for relief from grinding poverty. No class of workers is more important than those that control the future of the people as the teachers do through the education of the young. They should be given salary increases at least commensurate with the higher cost of living.
Nicholas Vel-mirovic, the moral and mental loader of Serbia, according to the Educational Review, asserts that "If there is anything to bo learned from the war, it is doubtless this: The education of youth in all the countries of the world must become an international affair of the very first importance.”
Neglect of the teaching profession bespeaks no promising future for this country, for the man. and woman of twenty years hence will be largely what the teacher of today makes them. "Trcin up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6) is still a good recipe for the creation of future citizenship.
AVTO THIEVES IN FRANCE
NINE HUNDRED automobiles, most of them stolen, were missed by the American Expedition in France. The car-stealing epidemic was not confined tn any one cla«s or any one nationality. If a car was left by the roadxide it was certain to disappear in a very short time. Perhaps a farmer hauled it to his farm and built a haystack around it. Or a passing unit of some other organization helped itself to magneto, carburetor, spark plugs, spare tires and spare wheel. Instances are on record where between dark and daylight, and in a driving mow storm, the three good wheels, engine, steering gear and radiator of a temporarily disabled machine disappeared and were never recovered.
Fords with the numbers painted out have been hard to trace, as it was practically impossible for anybody to prove that the car ever did belong to the American Expeditionary Force. The great majority of the passenger cars in the American army service, however, were unknown to France before the war, and when offered for sale were quickly recovered.
Many people who have or profess to have great respect for the eighth commandment* “Thou shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15), seem to take the position that it applies only to stealing from individuals In principle it is just as wrong to steal from an association of people as from an individual, yet there are many, even oom ingly respectable people, whose consciences are lax when it ccmes to dealing with a corporation, or with the Government The Scriptures show that in the Golden Age thefts end defalcations mast be made good for the full amount and 20% additional; and where, far any reason, as might be the case with a corporation, this cannot be made good "unto him against whom he hath trespassed.", it is required that "the trespass be recompensed unto the Lord." (Numbers 5:6-8) There is hope here for some who by stock manipulations have robbed corporations ef millions. If personally required to make up all these defalcations they would be reduced to virtual slavery for myriads of years, but no doubt the "recompense unto the Lord” will take some form of contrition not expressed so much in dollars and cents as in true repentance and reformation of heart
COLLEGE GRADUATE UNION
THERE IS an impression that the technical professions are very well paid. Young men by thousands are fitting themselves to become mechanical, electrical, and civil engineers.
But there are so many young technical graduates that they cannot obtain adequate pay and hence they create a kind of educated proletariat. In New York they have been so underpaid by profiteering employers that they have organized a trades union and are asking salary increases of $500 a year.
This affects 3.160, including junior engineers, engineering assistants, chemists, architects and inspectors in engineering work. The present college system tends toward an over-supply of educated workers and a killing competition among them.
If young men realized how poorly paying the technical professions are, especially at the outset, far leas would go to college but would enter the more remunerative and useful trades.
The value of college education is greatly overestimated. Now that the workers are well paid, there is not the reason that formerly existed for spending four years and several thousand dollars for something that no longer guarantees a good income with relief from hard work.
In breaking with all college traditions and lining up with the working people the young technical graduates of New York have learned that not exclusiveness, but cooperation wins success.
The advice of old time is still good to "consider the airt,” but the college man is learning from another of the insects of ancient Palestine which had a deserved reputation for getting whatever it went after: "The locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands.'’—Proverbs 30:27.
TOO LITTLE BAIL
OCCASIONALLY" we hear it said that the bail required for certain violators is too large; there have been instances in which bail was denied altogether. But it is seldom one hears of a case where the bail might be considered too small. It seems to us, however, that $1,000 bail is too small a requirement for any one of the three men in Northern New York who climbed into the room of Mrs. Le Felche in the absence of her husband, pulled her from bed, stripped her in the presence of her eleven year old son and six year old daughter, and poured hot tar and feathers over her naked body.
The Jews were forbidden to torture any living thing. Torture is wholly foreign to the character of him of whom it is written that he is "the God of all grace”
(1 Peter 5:10) whose “tender mercies are over all his works”. (Psalm 145:9) Men who so far forgot their original inheritance of godlikeness as to torture a helpless woman in the night time, have fallen far. The Lord says to some such, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself” (Psalm 50: 21) and the intimation is that they thought wrong.
EDUCATION FOR THE POOR
NOW THAT COLLEGES are raising millions, next in order should be donations of large amounts to help the children of the poor who are not able to invest a thousand dollars a year for education. Twenty million dollars given to Yale represents about $5,000 per student. To properly or appreciably affect the education of the poor children would be an enterprise like a national drive for Liberty Bonds. There are, conservatively speaking, perhaps ten million children of the poor in this country, and to supply each one of them with an endowment that would provide an income of $200 a year would require the raising of the enormous win of fifty bfilion tidbit
If it is a financial impossibility to provide a $200-a-year education for all the young people, it is probably a good thing that a few thousand Yale students are going to have that much added to the liberal amounts already provided for their education.
“Higher' education is regarded a good enough thing for tens of thousands of young men to invest in it hundreds of dollars a year a piece, but it is seriously lacking in one element, for after it has done all it can it usually leaves its beneficiaries in the position of those the Bible speaks of as “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”.—2 Timothy 3: 7.
NEWSPAPER MEN ORGANIZE
A YEAR AGO Boston newspaper men averaged $21 a week. They organized a union, interviewed the typographers, pressmen and photo-engravers as to what they were getting, presented demands of $38 minimum for reporters and $45 for desk men, and got it. The newspaper owners did not want to recognize the union, but they did when they thought of the embarrassments of missing several editions. There was no mention of the brain workers* victory in any Boston newspapers.
The man who organized the Boston editors and reporters in his opening address alluded to them as brainless brainworkers. He seemed to think that, as the Scriptures express the matter, “the laborer is worthy of his hire,” and he could see no reason why the men who do the rough work around newspaper offices should receive twice the pay for their work as do those who actually supply the material for the reading public.
MANUFACTURING and MINING
SHAFT BEARINGS AND OILS
ROLLER BEARINGS will bear the heaviest loads, ballibearings rank next and babbit metal is next.
If the bearings are loose, thick lubricants like graphite and grease are best, especially where there is flying dirt. Such lubricants form ridges around the shaft at the ends of the journal and close the openings to the entrance of sand or dirt
The best oils for high speed shafts with light pressure bn the bearings are a mixture of 20% sperm oil (obtained from the blubber and head of the sperm whale), 30% olive oil (of which the better grades are dark and poorer grades light in color) and 50% light mineral oil*
For low speed shafts with light pressure on the bearings the best lubricant is 50% olive oil and 50% light mineral oil.
For high speed shafts with heavy pressure on the bearings the best lubricant is 35% lard oil (the liquid obtained from crystallized lard by straining under pressure), 25% sperm oil and 40% heavy mineral oil.
For low speed shafts with heavy pressure on bearings the best lubricant is 50% colza oil (a pale yellow oil obtained from rape seed) 25% lard oil and 25% tallow oil (obtained from solid tallow by pressure).
For moderately high speed shafts with very heavy pressure on the bearings the best lubricant is 35% sperm oil, 20% colza oil, 25% lard oil, 15% tallow oil and 5% fine plumbago.
. For low speed shafts with very heavy pressure on the bearings the best lubricant is graphite-grease which consists of 25% tallow, 30% palm oil, 83% mineral oil
-and 12% fine graphite.
The resistance of various oils to being squeezed out of bearings at 65 degrees temperature Fahrenheit is as follows:
Sperm oil _________________
__L0
Light mineral oil
1 T
Cottonseed oil
_______________1.0
Olive ait — _
Lard oil—____________________
______________o o
Rupe oil.. .
°.3
Neatsfoot oil__________________
°.4
Tallow oil_______
Heavy mineral nil ____ _
__4.0
Castor on .....-____
______________32.0
At 220 degrees Fahrenheit all oils are about equally fluid.
Castor oil is obtained from castor beans by pressing, steaming and filtering and is nearly colorless.
Neatsfoot oil is obtained by boiling out the feet nt slaughtered animals, and if properly prepared from fresh material contains less than of 1% of fatty acid, but the commercial oil sometimes contains as high as 30%. Neatsfoot oil containing over 4% of fatty acid should not be used as a lubricant.
Tallow oil should have a sweet clean odor when used as a lubricant and should be free from suspended matter.
In the Scriptures the Body of Christ is compared to the human body, and in this figure the joints are particularly referred to. These joints, in a way, compare to the bearings in a piece of machinery. Unless they are well oiled there is trouble. And again, if they are well oiled with the spirit of loving service of other members c£ the Body, “The whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:1G.
TEXTILES RUN FULL
THE PROSPERITY of the textile industry is shown by the percentage of the total number of spindles that are busy. At present the industry is running as near full capacity as possible, for on account of repairs and other necessary idleness it is never feasible for 100 per cent of the spindles to be in operation.
The following percentages of spindles active at different dates clearly indicate the rise of the textile mills from the depression of last winter. The figures are for the woolen mills, which are fairly representative of the whole industry: ____
Present time, 92%, August 91%, July 91%, June 85%, May 83%, April 71%, March 58%, February 59%, January 63%, December (1918) 84%, November 88%, October 91%, September $2%.
The total number of spindles in the woolen mills is 2,176,953 and in the worsted mills, 2,307,178, grand total, 4,484,131. Some branches of the business are running 95% of full capacity, and others are running double shift, the latter circumstances being the cause of the high prices for some goods produced on overtime pay rates.
If Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, were here today he might not advise to “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise" (Proverbs 6:6), but ‘*Go to the mill worker," for there has seldom been a time when the mills were busier than now.
SUGGESTION SYSTEMS
E ‘'MONEY makes the mare go/' ideas make the business go. The ideas of all the workers are more valuable than those of any one person. A business immensely benefittod where ideas flow naturally and freely from every worker to those that can make them operative.
A variety of suggestion systems for employes has been tried out. In most instances they failed, but in a few cases they have achieved the hoped-for success. That the failures for outnumber the successes is owing to the failing that executives have of not giving really considerate treatment to those that work with them.
In one suggestion system described by System the writer ascribes the fault to the management:
“The blame rested wholly with the management. The general manager was not seriously concerned about getting Ideas that he could use from the workers. He was fairly confident that he and the executives associated with him were competent to run the business ni! right. The sug*estloa system he looked upon ns more or less of a game which might amuse the employes.
“As a result of this attitude, no serious eTort was made to apply the suggestions even though some of them gave indications of constructive thought on the part of employes, Not many workers can be kept continuously Interested In the moderately remote chance of winning a rather slender prize, particularly when the purpose of the contest is so obviously farcical."
In the few cases where the suggestion system Is a success. System continues, the controlling factors are:
“1. The oper.mindedness of the management and the serious desire for ideas of employe?,
*•2. The willingness to consider thoroughly the ideas that are offered, no matter whether they seem good or not at first glance; and the intention la any case to let the employe know the decision and the reason for 11
“3. The desire to reward fairly the man who makes the suggestion, If it has any value.”
The danger that a management runs of being set down as simply hypocritical in asking for suggestions, crops out when the employe is net fully advised of the executive attitude toward the suggestion, and a detailed explanation is not given why the suggestion will not work or is net expedient at the time: ‘’'The Eastman Kodak Company.” continues System, “uses an analysis sheet by means of which those responsible for looking into the suggestions of workers measure the cost of changes aguimt the savings they may effect. The worker is taken into the confidence of the management, and if an idea cannot be used with practical results, the reasons as they are shown by the analysis sheet ere fully explained to him.” As a result, this concern receive* cordial cooperation from its employes.
In contrast to the Eastman attitude, the following about a superintendent who at first bed apparently favored a suggestion, tells the story of the complete failure of a suggestion system: “A day or two later ha (the superintendent) told the department head he had decided against it, ending with ‘for reasons which I cannot disrug? with you/ Imagine how speedily that wan, who could not or would not take th* time to give hi* reason* to a responsible department head, would have spoiled th* chanoe* of any suggestion system.”
Frank and cordial treatment of workers is likely to keep them more interested in their work than in ideas for social, industrial and political change, and the opinions of executives in this respect is somewhat as follows: “It is safe to say that when the minds of workers are turned in the direction of building up, there is not much room for those ideas which tend to tear down and destroy, ideas often lying hidden, making the workers disgruntled and gloomy of temperament, inefficient of hand, and fertile soil for seeds of unrest, dL^saticf^tion, or industrial strife.” Evidently th* safe thing for business management is to be a kind of “big brother” to those who work with them. In the present crisis nothing less will answer than the practical application of the Golden Rule in every business. Such a business is likely to suffer least in the periodic labor storms that sweep over industry after industry.
It pays to be brotherly. It is the natural thing for men to treat one another with consideration and even with brotherly love. It is the thing that is to be the rule in the fast-approaching Golden Age, for the rule then is to be that every man, from executive down, to hold his position, must “love his neighbor as himself/' and that those that will not accommodate themselves must inevitably be dropped as the misfits of a better social order, the unfit that cannot survive.
WILL LABOR BE SCARCE!
IT ATX DEPENDS upon whether we cortinueTo lend money to Europe. If we lend her what she requires labor will be scarce, for we shall have to continue to run our fields and workshops at full speed to fill her requirements; but if we withdraw our credit then there will be a change in the other direction.
Just at present labor is scarce in America. More than 3,000,000 men have been returned from the United States army and navy to civil life, and nearly all of these have at once found profitable employment One thing that has made this possible is the immigration , situation. There is no immigrant labor to be had.
Prior to the war we were receiving a net immigration from Europe of 800,000 persons annually. During the past five years there has been no net immigration, the number going out having just about equalled the number coming in.
FINANCE, COMMERCE and TRANSPORTATION
PROGRESS OF AUSTRALIA
IN THE YEAH 1917 the manufactures of Australia amounted to over one billion dollars. This means that she is rapidly coming into a position where she will be able to produce all or nearly all the things she needs or uses. At present her principal imports are apparel, machinery, paper and drugs. The exports consist principally of grain, dressed meat, hides, wool, and metals. The country contains rich stores of gold, coal and other metals and minerals.
Australia is 2,400 miles long and 1,900 miles wide. The interior u at present an immense plateau, an almost barren plain, except in the eastern and southeastern portion, in which there are extensive plains admirably suited to stock-raising and agriculture. The rivers are subject to great irregularities, depending upon the fall of r^ia. The climate is generally hot and dry but ven* healthy. Occasionally there are excessively hot winds from the interior which result in great discomfort, followed by cold winds from the south. Snow storms are common in June, July and August, the winter season.
Australian trees and bushes generally have scanty foliage and thick leathery leaves, well fitted to retain moisture. Some of the eucalyptus trees have been found to measure 500 feet in height.
Australia was first settled in 1788 as a penal settlement. In 1851 gold was discovered in large quantities and a great immigration followed. The last convict vessels arrived in 1868, and in the 80 years in which it was a penal colony. Australia and Tasmania received about 140,000 of theee exiles from their native shores. Th* effect of the outdoor life was to restore most of these convicts to noble, upright, healthy manhood. Many of the most respected families of Australia today trace their lineage to these men.
Come to think of it, we all trace our lineage to a convict, an exile; namely, father Adorn For God "hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek after the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be uot far from every one of us." (Acta 17:26,27) God foresaw the wisdom of placing a hardy race of men to subdue the Australian continent and pursued the policy, strange to us. but wise, as we now see, of letting its pioneers be exites who for one reason or another had incurred the displeasure of their follow men. and been banished from, their midst, only to find a happier home elsewhere.
WASTING OTHERS' MONEY
HE PEOPLE who have done the least work in the world, and therefore have the least right to be wasteful. are frequently the most prodigal in wasting money which has been saved by others and which temporarily comes into their care. Representative Bland of Idaho, who has been investigating conditions in France, reports that 70 per cent of the funds sent to philanthropic and benevolent organizations in France has gone for expenses of administration and that the committee of which he is chairman are bringing with them copies of an agreement under which $1.*00.000.000 worth of Government property which included. as two of the items, food and textiles alone worth $500,000,000, was sold for $400,000,000.
Possibly it was necessary for Government employes to destroy several million dollars worth of automobile parts and other material at Verneuil, France, as testified by a former officer of a motor unit in the expeditionary force, but it seems hard to believe that some use could not be found for bales of flax, automobile bodiea, wheels, tires and axles in a world in the condition of the one in which we now find ourselves.
The end of the war has left the War Department with a great number of unused automobiles on its hands, some 47,000. Many of these, still in their crates, are piled five high in au open field near Washington, where they have remained ever since the armistice was signed, their covers and upholstery rotting away and thair-machinery covered with rust. Congress is now pressing for the sale of these machines, and with many of the automobile factories three months behind in their orders there seems no reason why they should not be sold at once for what they will bring. Any money the Government can save in this way will be so much leu it will have to procure otherwise.
The greatest waster of the ages u a something described in the eighteenth chapter of Revelation as "Babylon the Great1*. Concerning this symbolic city it ia said that "in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.’’ (Revelation 18:24) The fall of this mystical city is indicated as just preceding the thousand year reign of Christ, described in Revelation 20:1-7.
RAILROAD EQUIPMENT
CONTRARY to expectation the equipment of the railroads is not being kept up as thoroughly as it should, and the manufacturers of railroad equipment are being hit by a shortage of orders. The Government is seeking to reduce the billion dollar shortage on the anticipated Income from operation, and for the time is letting equipment go. Railroad men sav that there can be no relief for a year or more.
At the same time there is an enormous demand for railroad equipment in foreign countries, but the proper arrangements have not been made yet for financing huge orders from outside the country. European countries are able to pay only in bonds and the American banks are not prepared to handle such bonds for the equipment concerns. With an unprecedented need for their product in domestic and foreign markets, equipment manufacturers are obliged to see their plants dose down for lack of business.
CONFERENCE OF ADVERTISING MEN
THE PROCEEDINGS of the Associated Advertising
Clubs of the World,, held at New Orleans September 24th and 25th, read like a page from the proceedings of the League of Nations. There were delegates from all parts of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Great Britain and Argentina, cablegrams from the Prime Minister of Australia, the President of Peru and other dignitaries whose habitat is far from our shores.
The subjects discussed were such as to how to help Mr. Wilson solve the industrial problem, how to make Latin America better known to the people of the United States, how to protect Liberty Bond holders against securities of questionable value, how to make the United States better known in Mexico, and other subjects such as one would expect to engage the attention of statesmen but which very properly engage the attention of those who have so much to do with molding public opinion and directing the success of public ventures as falls to the once-despised advertising man.
The advertising man of today is a disseminator of information. He is expected to supply real news, and if the concern with which he is connected is not doing work that is important enough to merit publicity there is no reason why it should expect the public to be interested in what it has to say. The advertising man is a pusher for business, a pioneer, an expert in the art of creating new wants or new ways to supply old ones.
Every person who announces a policy is an advertis®, a publisher, a proclaimer of what he purposes to do. When Satan said, ‘T M ill exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; 1 will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High* (Isaiah 14:13,14) lie vus advertising or announcing his policy, namely that of Relf-aggrand i7prnpnt. When ouj Lord said, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me7’ (John 6:38) he was advertising or announcing his policy, that of complete submission to the Father's will. In the Golden Age it will be apparent to all that his was the wise course. The Lord's present high exaltation ‘’above every name that is named” is justly merited. In his prehuman existence, and in his earthly minirtry, he was always faithful and efficient in all that he was given to do. His promotion was as inerttable as was Satan's downfall and ruin.
AIR TRANSIT
WHILE transit by air is not yet out of the realm of science, in some cases it almost approaches being an established method of transportation.
The difficulty of using air commercially is its danger and excessive cost. A motor truck or automobile can stop and rest if disabled, but there is short shrift for the airplane that would like to rest in mid air. To make air travel even approach safety there would have to be established air lanes marked by landing places frequent enough for a machine to volplane to safety anywhere.
Efforts are being made to “practicalize” air travel. An airplane of 19,000 pounds, to carry 3,000 pounds of mail, and equipped with three motors and wireless telephone, and manned by two pilots and a navigator, is being built to run between New York and Chicago in seven hours—provided nothing happens.
Giant gas-bag machines are planned in England to travel between New York and London. They are to be luxurious affairs, with saloons, lining room, and sleeping cabins. The equipment contemplates 3,500,000 cubic feet of gas, a carrying capacity of seventy tons, a nonstop ability of 6,000 miles and a speed of eighty miles an hour, to cross the Atlantic in fifty hours—always provided the inevitable does not occur.
It was an approach to practical transportation when a nine-year-old Texan with his mother rode from Houston to attend school at New York. The trip was safely made from Dallao, via Arkansas, Illinois, Indianapolis, Dayton, Cleveland, Buffalo and Binghamton. The risks of the air lane were sharply illustrated by the killing in a fall of Major Frissell at Port Jervis. N. Y. He had said the air was “bumpy”, and it proved to be so.
In the present state of air transit, men, Like riches, “make themselves uings; they fiy away as an eagle toward heaven” (Proverbs 23 :5), but men lack the sure sustaining power which keeps the eagle safe and sound in his wide flung kingdom of the ^ky.
POLITICAL, DOMESTIC and FOREIGN
OUR BOYS AND THE FRENCH
k GREAT many American soldiers did not come away from France with very good opinions of either the country or the people. They detested its mud, which is everywhere, its unpaved streets, its lack of bathtubs, its omnipresent manure piles, its system of charging Americans several times as much for supplies as it did Frenchmen for the same articles, and its women most of all. The true American loves and admires true womanhood and finds little to admire in a community where, according to a prominent D. D., a man can enter almost any home and treat the woman of that home as his own wife. And he stated that this is largely true throughout France.
The French people did not find all of our soldiers all that they chould wish, either. They found them too much addicted to hard liquor, and not infrequently too rude in speech and act. The effect of French liquors upon our soldiers may be judged from the fact that at one time in the summer of 1918 there were 30,000 officers and men of the American troops absent without leave from their organizations.
According to the mother of an American soldier now buried in France, the French are reported to be greatly shocked over the American neglect of some cemeteries in which are buried the American dead. Some of these cemeteries, a year after they were first used, were said to be full of rows of closely packed white crosses and long trenches instead of, as with the French, individual graves, carefully cared for. In some of the cemeteries there was said to be no flag flying, no person on guard, nothing to indicate that anybody had any interest in the weed-covered grounds. In the French grounds the officers and men are buried together; in the American grounds they are kept separate Wliat is the reason for this?
General Pershing is of the opinion that the Americans who fell in battle in France should be allowed to lie where they are now buried, but this does not seem to agree with the general sentiment of those who have lost their lored ones on the field of battle. General Pershing was given a great welcome on his arrival in New York, but his return did not awaken the enthusiasm expected, and a few days later the proposition to award him a golden sword was received so coldly in Congress that it was abandoned for the time. The American people are thinking a lot now about the boys they have lost and are not so much interested in the
It will be a great day for the fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and sweethearts of the boys that fell in France when ‘’all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth” (John 5:28,29) and it will be a great day for the boys themselves. V/e believe that this awakening of those now asleep in death is near at hand and that it will not be so long before some of those boys now buried in France will come and look at the very places where all that was left of their mortal rpmaim was laid in the summer of 1918. In a future issue we hope to give the reasons for our belief that the resurrection will begin within the next decade.
SIZE OF PEACE ARMY
IT IS GENERALLY believed that Senator Chamber
lain effectually killed the so-called March bill, recently presented for Mr. Baker, Secretary of War, and the General Staff of the United States army. Senator Chamberlain denounced the bill not only because it aimed at a vast military establishment, 509,000 men in time of peace, but because the General Staff wanted for the purpose a lump sum to be expended entirely at its discretion, Congress merely serving in the capacity of milker of the public cow to provide the funds. Senator Chamberlain said that the bill as proposed spelled “Militarism to a degree never surpassed in the palmiest days of the great general staff of the German army.” The General Staff was what ruined Germany. There is no General Staff in the navy, probably the most efficient, best managed department of the Government. Perhaps that is the reason for its efficiency.
It may be true that there are good reasons why the United States peace army should in a few years be four times as great as it was in 1917, but it would seem as though the wreckage in Europe' should be convincing that it is not a good thing to have millions of armed men standing around with nothing to do. It stands to reason that some of those men, those who have the most to gain by it, or who think they have the most to gain by it, will use what influence they have to bring on war, in the hope of profiting thereby.
What is the proper size of a standing army for the United States in time of peace? Should it be 500,000 as proposed by Mr. Baker, or 300,000 as proposed by General McAndrew, former Chief of Staff of the American Expeditionary Force, or 120,000 as it was in 1917? Obviously it all depends an what we want the army to do. There is no need in hiring for a particular job of work four times as many workers as are necessary for that job. Am! then there is to be considered also, that to get men for this particular job the wages must be high enough to attract them, or they will have to be obtained by conscription, and it does not seem reasonable for the United States to resort to conscription in time of peace. Various forms of peace conscription have been proposed.
There are but two general reasons for ar. army in time of peace. One is to properly guard our outlying possessions against sudden attack, and the other is to maintain order at home. What reason is there to believe that the forces adequate for this purpose in 1917 would not again be adequate in time of peace? Senator Swanson says with .reference to large military expenditures, “A large part of the immense sums now appropriated for armaments could be utilized to secure better educational advantages, to construct good roads, to build better homes, to aid religious and charitable institutions, to develop industries, and for the general advance of comfort and civilization.” These are the words of a statesman and this is a statesmanlike utterance.
In time of peace the principal duty of the United States army is to preserve order within the United States itself, and possibly with the idea that because of post-war conditions there would be more disorder than usual, Secretary of War Baker has issued orders that hereafter State officials can call directly upon commanding generals of military departments in their vicinity to furnish such troops as may be necessary for the protection of lives and property, thus performing duties which formerly devolved largely upon the National Guard of the State itself.
The armies of olden times did not amount to much, at least not to start with. The first account of a ‘•battle” recorded in the Scriptures is in the fourteeth chapter of Genesis. There four kings carried away captive Abraham’s nephew Lot, after they had defeated the five opposing kings. We are not to suppose that the army which captured the Sodomites was a large one, even though the names of four kings are introduced in connection with it. This was not a very long time after the flood, and the entire ]>op illation was not as yet large.
The suggestion of certain higher critics about vast ■rmies, great cities, etc., at this time, are out of harmony with the facts—first, the shortness of time after the flood; and second, the ability of Ahrnhaan^ with 318 men, to even make an attack and disconcert and confuse the army and deliver Lot and the Sodomites and all their goods. These facts all agree that the cities, the armies, the kingly powers of that day, were very meager in comparison with what we have in mind when we use similar terms in our own day. In all probability the armies of the four kings combined did not exceed a thousand men.
OFFICERS AND MEN
ECRETABY BAKEB of the War Department lias revoked the military order posted at Camp Mac
Arthur, Waco, Texas, which, in effect, forbade the attendance of an officer at any social affair at which an enlisted man was present and which made it obligatory upon the officer either to leave or to force the enlisted man to leave. This revocation was a good piece of business. We do not want in this country a set of lazy prigs that imagine they are some uncommon clay, too good to associate with their fellows. Uniforms do not vnska mm
Senator Chamberlain has protested that there must be a reformation of the court martial system which will make it impossible, as was recently the case in Texas, to impose the death penalty for a minor offense and then carry it out within 48 hours, before the papers in the case could reach Washington for review. He presented a bill authorizing amnesty for all soldiers, sailors and marines convicted by court martial.
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