Golden Age, December 24, 1919
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December 24,1919, VoLl. No. T
■SB Published every other 1ml week at 1£6S Broadway, V-F New Pork, N.Y.,UJ3^..
Ten Centa a Copy—|L50 • Year
VoiCMt1 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1913 NCMBD T
CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE
LABOR nd
The Food Supply
Chomleallted Food*
Milk a* * Food
Dletributlon el Food.......-190
ECONOMICS OddldM In Food
Benefiting the Cripple* —.198
Mining under the Ocean
A Coffee Shortage
SOCIAL nd EDUCATIONAL Th* Ne* MUlionalrea--190 Htunen Longevity__300
Condition* ot Nenboy*---190
MANUFACTURING and MINING
The Chilean Nitrate*...—.4801 Docreaeed Efficiency —202
OU from Coal.____________Sul American Industrie* ____202
FINANCE, COMMERCE. TRANSPORTATION
Short Like Railroading 203 Cnnada'e Finance*__20*
A Very Weighty Matter 203 Ric* Import*___204
- POLITICAL, DOMESTIC and FOREIGN A Canadian Revolution—JOS The Greet Agnoattc'o Governmental Limitation* 207 True Vision____—JOS
AGRICULTURE and HUSBANDRY - Dehydrating Grapca____JOO Buying tn th* Dark——209
HOUSEWIFERY and HYGIENE Typhne a Pestilence Ne*—210 Remedial Fool* _
SCIENCE ead INVENTION Creation Nearing Perfection______________________
RELIGION and PHILOSOPHY Unlvem! Peace------JIS Juvenile Dlble Study.
TRAVEL and MISCELLANY Service tor Traveler*__223 Dieease Aggravate*
Th* Big Bean ______J23 Shortage.
The Golden Age
Vol. I New Turk, Wednesday, December 24, 1919 . No. 7
LABOR. AND ECONOMICS
The food Supply
FEW questions are of greater human interest just now than that of food. Everybody must eat to live, and all are interested to ’ know whether there is food enough in the world to feed its millions, and if there is how those that need it can get it
As a whole the American crops are excellent; and in the matter of live stock we have now 4,609,000 more swine, 350,000 more milch cows i and 287,000 more of other cattle than we had a ■ year ago. Australia has a vast surplus of food;
• and the crops in Canada, South Africa, Argentina and in many parts.of Europe were all of generous proportions. .
■ The great American hen continues to do her
I. duty. Last year she produced, it is calculated, k 23,052,000,000 eggs. That looks like a lot of
' eggs; but it amounts to only 210 eggs per year,
or a little more than one every other day, for every ma-n, women and child in the United.
i States. Probably the poultry raisers ate some
i eggs which have not been counted. .
»• It requires a great quantity of food to supply t 110,000,000 people for a year. A little while ago the Government disposed of what many people, thought was a large surplus of food, accumulated for the army; but somebody got to figuring on the total and estimated that the whole lot ’ did not amount altogether to a day’s supply per [ household. The Government bought this meat at wholesale and sold it at the same prices, in some instances for 50 per cent less than the j current prices charged by dealers.
' There is one article that is short, however, and ■ that is salmon. The salmon catch, all the way T?.'' from Behring Sea to the mouth of the Columbia
Biver, is the poorest in the history of the fishing business. In the great Fraser River, of British, Columbia, the salmon pack this year was only 7,000 cases as compared with 155,700 cases iri 1915. The Canadian Fish Commission believes . that the salmon business has been ruined by a too efficient system of traps and seines in the Puget Sound region; that the fish have been . caught before they could get to their spawning grounds, and therefore reproduction has ceased. ' If this is true it is a pity; for salmon is a staple . article of food that will be missed.
Chemicalized Foods
A GOOD many of the plants that were former-■tA. ly engaged in the manufacture of alcoholic 7 liquors are now being turned into “food fac* tories”, and we do not know whether to view, this with pleasure or with alarm. It alldepends upon what the chemists connected with these plants intend to do. ■ .
If they are planning further assaults upon the life insurance company’s mortality experience — tables by fixing up doctored frankfurters, cakes ’ colored with egg-yellow made. from coal tardyes, bleached fruits, processed rancid oils, cream scoured with soda ash, corned beef and 1 ’ smoked ham redolent with chlorine, ice cream ' colored with ribbon dyes and pies made of re- -juvenated decayed fruits, we can tell them now -that there is plenty of this kind of material on — the market and we can get along better without these things than with them.
Just recently we discovered that the Horse -Aid Society has a connection with a Brooklyn sausage factory,possibly the same plant, or one. of the plants, in which some 60,000 diseased
:attle were formerly turned into sausage annually, until the proprietors of the works were sent to the penitentiary. Now these diseased cattle are diverted; we do not know just what do< s become of them. .
1 f the chemists would turn their attention to the needs of the human system they would do a great service to humanity. As an indication of possibilities along this line we note the familiar fact that the human body contains some sixteen or seventeen elements; that the soil contains the same elements; and that the grain which grows on the soil contains the same elements. Yet when we make our grain into white flour we take for human use the least nutritious portion of the grain, containing only a few of the elements, and give to the cattle the outside of the grain, the most nutritious and valuable parts, and the only ones that contain the minerals needed by the system.
Dr. Wiley, the food expert, recently told the House Committee on Agriculture that it is due to the use of white wheat bread that at the *ut break of the war only sixty per cent of our . jd ng men were found to be in proper condition for military service. The human system is not properly nourished by white bread.
. Milk as a Food
THE chemists or somebody else have been working away at the milk question, and 'have discovered a method for condensing buttermilk and reducing it to a semi-solid condition where it gives promise of being of great utility in baking. It is said that this solid milk can be added to bread, producing a more healthful ^oaf, and one which takes a delicious brown at a comparatively low baking temperature. This lower temperature allows the retention of a larger amount of moisture.in the loaf. It looks as though this discovery might be one of considerable value.
Fo • some tine a means has been used for
converting fres'” milk into a dry powder which ’ can be shipped anywhere and eighty per cent ■ " of the freight saved. This powder may be kept '. for weeks, Or even for months, and with proper i precaution can be remade into fresh sweet milk . J at the end of that time. ,
Milk is ideal as a food because it has all five I ui the elements necessary to human life and ! growth, ‘fats, nitrogenous substances, sugar, minerals and vitamins or growth-factors. No other food can take the place of milk for the human infant. Without its vitamins the growth is stunted, as is now so unhappily the case with the million or more of European babies that have never tasted milk; and there is an eSect upon the eye, called dryeye, which shows the hunger of the child’s system for just what the milk provides.
Because it is pertinent to our subject, and because it is important, we mention here that where infants of under eighteen months cannot be nursed, the best available substitute for the . mother’s milk is to be had by letting good fresh cow’s milk stand until the richer portion has all . risen to the top. To this top milk add an equal volume of pure water, and to the mixture add one ounce of sugar of milk to each quart of mixture. After the child reaches eighteen months this preparation may gradually give way to ordinary cow’s milk.
Distribution of Food ■
IT IS easy enough to criticize our present methods of distribution, but we ought to criticize them and keep on criticizing them until we do something definite to improve a plan whereby it costs from two to ten times as much to deliver foodstuffs to the consumer as it does to produce the food itself—a plan which has increased in “efficiency” until now every sixteen people in the country support a distributor, as against thirty-one people in 1870. Gambling in the stock markets has something to do with this inefficiency; and Congress ought to make it illegal for these gamblers’ quotations to pass through the mails or over the wires. In one day there is more wheat sold in Chicago than comes into Chicago in an entire year; and every time it is sold there is a tax, however slight, laid on every table in the land. .
Another item which enters into distribution ’ costs and the welfare of the people is the storage of food. In August, a representative of Swift and Company informed a Congressional investigation committee that the total supply of dressed meats ready for the market on June -first was sufficient to last for only ten days. But if that was the truth on June first, and if the newspapers tell the truth, which is equally uncertain, then it was not true three months later; for at that time, and with men, women and children suffering for lack of food, it was estimated that there was $2,000,000,000 worth of food stored in New York City, not altogether in the licensed warehouses, but much of it in brewery lofts and other unlicensed places.
suddenly drop the prices so that on arrival at the charge that they had been held over three destination the shipper receives far less than
months with the object of increasing the price, the stock quotations had led him to expect The ten million eggs were seized in Detroit, and financial power of these packers is so great that there were like seizures in Buffalo and else- no competitor can hope to succeed if they use where. At that time the charge was also made their power to break down his credit that warehousemen were storing food in one
city as long as the law permits, and then moving Oddities in Food
it to another-city and re-entering it to storage FT1HE widespread use of the automobile has without keeping any record of the time when - -1- so reduced the demand for horses, and the
At that time, when the Government began to get after the hoarders and profiteers in human necessities, millions of dollars worth of foodstuffs were seized in a St. Louis warehouse on it was first stored.
Because of their power, the five great packers, Swift, Armour, Wilson, Morris and Cudahy, upon whom the nation specially leaned in war time to supply food to the army, are now the special objects of suspicion in the matter-of profiteering. These five packers own ninety per cent of all the refrigerator cars in the country. In 1916 they slaughtered eighty-two per cent of all the cattle, handled half the poultry, eggs and cheese, and are rapidly gaining control of all foods for man and beast. They are also making large inroads into the marketing of building material and fuel commodities.
the f- 1 in that same year he became in this has done a good work. In times of high
These five packers have gained control of 762 other companies. They now manufacture or deal in 775 commodities and dominate the food supply of the world. The recent boost in shoe prices is traceable to them in this way: Controlling the hide supply they took excessive profits and passed the increase on to the manufacturer, who added something more for himself, and the wholesaler and retailer followed the same course. These packers quickly dominate any field they enter. In 1917 Armour first undertook the greatest rice merchant in the world, his sales amounting to more than 16,000,000 pounds. Immediately, the wholesale price of rice increased eighty-five per cent.
The big packers control the stockyards to which the nation’s meat supply is shipped, control the commission men who are the producers’ only representatives at the yards, discriminate against independent packers who would use the yards, prevent new packers from getting into business, and restrict the meat supply of the nation by so manipulating the livestock prices as to discourage the producers. A favorite way to do this is to boost the market until an immense quantity-of stock is known to be on cars on the way to the yards, and then to growers find them so unprofitable, that the Government has sanctioned the sale of horse meat, with a view to killing off the surplus supply. It also hopes to add to the leather supply by this means. All horse meat or horse meat products must be labelled as such.
The New York State Department of Farms and Markets has issued an appeal to the people of New York City to learn to eat rabbits, calling attention to the fact that at prevailing meat prices rabbits are cheap and wholesome food, and are considered a great -delicacy in many parts of Europe.
The United States Department of Agriculture has been setting forth the virtues and advantages of the goat. The goat will eat anything, stay anywhere and submit to any kind of treatment. In return it gives a rich, creamy milk that is especially good for babies and can be made up into seventeen different kirfds of cheese. Roasted kid is considered to be one of the most delectable of meats.
In the foregoing, the Government has made efforts to assist the common people in providing a meat supply at prices within their means, and prices for meats we might remember the conditions in the siege of Samaria when “an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver’*. (2 Kings 6:25) and the terrible conditions which prevailed then and at the time of the siege of Jerusalem in A. D. 70, when women even ate their own children.
It is a comfort to know that these conditions of scarcity are all temporary and will give way to a better time when there will be plenty for alL
“Fear not, O land; be glad arid rejoice:Jfor the Lord will do great things* Be not afraid [of food shortage],-ye beasts of the field: for the
pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the
tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine' Mining Under the Ocean do yield their strength."—Joel 2:21, 22.
Benefiting the Cripples
ABOUT 200,000 American soldiers received such wounds during the World War that they are more or less .disabled and require special training to fit them for the future. Human nature is very forgetful of what it owes to its benefactors; and these soldiers, who might find many ready to help them today, would not find as many two years from now. Further, it can not be long, in the nature of things, before they will be expected to compete with those who are uninjured, and when they do, it is necessary that they be specially fortified by training if they would hold their positions. -
The Government is undertaking the training of all disabled soldiers; and experience has shown that there is hardly any trade or profession that they can not master under the personal and kindly care of their teachers, provided they have the will to do so. Their compensation,. when fitted for the new work, is usually superior to that before they entered the service. While learning they are given compensation of not less than $75 per month if they live alone, and $30 for wife and $10 for each dependent child.
During the Golden Age there will be some very wonderftri healings of cripples. We read, “Then shall tfie lame man leap as an hart”. (Isaiah 35:6) We had some wonderful examples of God’s power to heal during our Lord’s ministry, and also during the days of the apostles. How thrilling must have been the scene, shadowing forth the coming glory of the V?fsianic age, now “dawning, when Peter said to the man from his mother’s womb, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have I give thee: In the name of Jesus tChrist of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took hiiri by the right hand and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood arid walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping, and praising God”. (Acts 3:6-8) Immediately following this wonderful exhibition of God’s power comes St Peter’s still more
wonderful sermon on the Times of Restitution (Acts 3:19- 21) as a result of which thousands of Jews were converted to the Christian faith.
ONE OF the oil fields of the .Pacific Coast, lying within a few miles of Los Angeles, extends out into the Pacific Ocean, and a con- • siderable number of oil wells are located at £ some distance from the shore. '
In England, the workings of the Cumberland 1 coal field run two miles out under the sea. The ventilation of these mines is a nice engineering problem, but is successfully accomplished.
At Workington, England,’in the year 1837, before the science of surveying was as highly developed as at present, the sea burst through and the workers were drowned. ■
Many of the oldest mines of England, long ago worked out and abandoned, have filled with water in the lapse of time, and constitute an ever present danger to the miners in adjacent mines, who may be drowned at any moment.
A Coffee Shortage
THIS would look nice for a headline, would it . not, in a day when we are fed with news regularly that first this item of food and then that item is not to be had at the old price because the supply is so limited f '
The facts are that there probably never was a time in the world when there was as much coffee in sight as there is at this moment About half of the coffee-users of the world have been_ without coffee for five years, and during that time the production has been the same as ever. The green coffee beans keep indefinitely, and ' get better, as they grow older. * . . .
Maybe somebody can tell us, atop this information, why coffee that can be bought wholesale ‘ in Brazil for 12|c should sell here at retail for . 75c, but it is hard for us to understand. It looks to us as though the system of distribution is . too well organized, so well organized that the common people have not even a “look in” un- . less they can arrange for cooperative buying.
Well! Anyway! The Golden Age comes along, not all at once, but gradually. Given the . '
necessities of life in abundance, and statesmen ' who have a real and abiding interest in people, it will not be long before such a condition as . this will be corrected. ... .
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
The New Millionaires
HE new millionaires, created by the bloodmoney of war profits, have distinguished themselves by a display of foolishness, during the year 1919, unexampled hitherto in the ■ history of the United States, or in any other country, so far as we can judge, with the possible exception of the Boman Empire in the ' period just before its fall. *
' In the matter of personal adornment, nothing has been too rare of too costly to suit the taste of the newly rich. Dealers in gems have found it almost impossible to import sufficient quantities to keep their customers supplied, and the gems sold have been of the very highest quality. The dealers report that whereas they have two rush seasons, Easter and Christmas, this year it has been Christmas in every day of every month. This is an unhealthy state of affairs.
During the summer season, the most expensive hotels in all parts of the country, with rates ranging from $7 to $25 per day, were unable to care for their guests, and resorted to the construction of automobile camps to'provide shelter for those who could not be accommodated with rooms indoors.
At Saratoga, where a club seat at the ring side is $8.80, and the cheapest admission is $1.10, the grounds were packed as never before, tho gate receipts ranging from $65,000 to $100,000 per day and the daily bets at the track running as high as $2,000,000. In the great cities, bookmakers toured the sky-scrapers and placed other millions.
The gambling at Saratoga was not confined to horse-racing; but at the card table hundreds . of thousands of dollars were repeatedly pivoted ':rin the turn of a card. A similar mania is reported from France, where fortunes are won and lost in. a single play. It is supposed that part of this high-strung nervous tension in America and in France is due to the suppression 'of - the liquor traffic in this country and the cocaine traffic in France.
The women of France and England arc reported to have lost much of their womanly modesty during the year, and perhaps the same is true to some extent in this country. In France and England the dresses are alleged to be nearing the vanishing point, and if they get much worse in this country than they- were at some of the bathing resorts, we can adopt the Japanese style of separating the men and women bathers by a line, and paying no further attention to such little items as dress. At one American resort over 500 girls were detained by the police, and word sent to their mothers to bring their daughters sufficient underclothing so that they could go home in decency, or the clothing would be supplied by the city.
At the most expensive restaurant in New York, where two tablespoons of coffee cost fifty cents, the most beautiful and elaborately dressed women of the age stand in line waiting for an opportunity to obtain seats. The houses in which some of these people live have cost fabulous sums. One is alleged to have cost $5,000,000. One man used 200 tons of coal to heat Iris house during last year’s coal famine. A woman expended $60,000 for an opera cloak.
Every one is willing to criticize these millionaires, but in some cases we fear the judgment is too severe. We therefore urge that our readers do not tliink too uncharitably of them. Remember that they as well as the poor are in some respects under the control of the present social system. Custom has fixed laws and barricades around their heads and hearts. False conceptions of Christianity, endorsed by the whole world, rich and poor, for centuries, have worn deeply the grooves of thought and reason in -which their minds travel to and fro. They feel that they must do as other men do; that is, they must use their time and talents to their best ability and on “business principles”. Doing this, the money rolls in on them, because money and machinery are creators of wealth.
Thus they no doubt reason that having the wealth it is their duty not to hoard it all, but to spend some of it They perhaps question whether it would be better to dispense it as charity or to let it circulate through the avenues of trade,, and wages for labor. Under present wrong conditions, therefore, it is extremely fortupate for the middle and poorest dasses that the wealthy are “foolishly'extravagant”, rather than miserly, spending lavishly a portion
of the flood of wealth rolling into their coffers— for diamonds, for instance, which require “dig-< ging”, polishing and mounting and thus give employment to thousands who -would only add to the number out of work if the wealthy had no foibles or extravagances, but. hoarded all the money they could get.
In making these suggestions for the measure of consolation they may afford to the poorer classes, we would not be understood as in any sense justifying the selfish extravagance of the rich, which is wrong, and which the Lord condemns as wrong. (James 5:5) Can we wonder that many are envious, and some angry and embittered, when they contrast the wastefulness of the newly rich with their own family’s penury, or at least enforced economy, While we wait until the Lord shall vindicate their cause, we cannot wonder that such matters awaken in the hearts of many of the common people feelings of envy, hatred, malice and strife such as we see occasionally manifesting themselves in . the current news of the day.
Conditions of Newsboys
AN INVESTIGATION of the industry of street marketing of newspapers in the principal cities revealed interesting facts about the newsboys.
• In Cincinnati, for example, there arc 2,800 t newsboys, or 12% of the boys of the city i between ten and sixteen. The boys are not
' orphans; for 81.2% have both parents living.
They are not from very poor families; 90% of the poor families in which there are newsboys receive no charitable assistance. . The f Jews are 6% of Cincinnati’s population, but furnish 29% of the newsboys, shoving that the trading instinct is a strong factor in turning boys to the occupation. About 87% are native born. The native born are 90% in Seattle, .80% in Baltimore and 70% in Boston.
The daily earnings of, newsboys average twenty cents in Cincinnati, twenty-two cents in Baltimore and twenty-eight cents in Chicago. Jn England and Wales the earnings of 45,000 street traders are 12A cents a day.
Many newsboys are in constant touch with degrading or criminal surroundings. According to Maurice B. Hexter, Superintendent of the United Jewish Charities, who made the Cincinnati investigation, the boys on two papers were dealing with twenty-three supply men, of whom thirteen were colored men with extensive criminal records. In some cases the boys have to bribe these men to obtain their quota of papers. “No wonder,” says the Journal of Education, . ‘flying, cheating and gambling flourish”.
Human Longevity
ONLY a little while ago we learned from the “experience tables” that the average of human life has gradually increased from 33 C, to 35 years. How is it that it is now said to be shortening? The answer is that it is shortening for those who have reached 55 or more years of age, while it is greatly lengthened for.many who would have died in infancy but for the superior care infants now receive.
Between 1900 and 1910, in nine American States, the average death' rate for all persons under 35 years of age decreased 15%. For persons between 15 and 20 years of age this decrease was as great as 19%. Between 35 and 45 years of age the decrease in the death rate wafe 7%. Between"45 and 55 years of age it was 2%. But over 55 years of age the death rate increased 9%. The causes assigned for this increase are chiefly diseases of the heart, kidneys, circulatory system and apoplexy.
These diseases of maturity, or “degenerative diseases”, as the physicians call them, show what we all know to be a fact; namely, that we are living too fast. A French surgeon believes that he has discovered a method to prevent all these diseases of old age. It consists in grafting the interstitial gland from a young animal to an old animal, causing the latter to take on youth and vigor. His first experiments were i with 120 animals, in each case with success. His next experiment was with a man over 80 years of age, upon .whom he grafted a gland taken from a monkey. The result was that in a short time the man was restored to the health, ' . vigor and mental alertness of a man of 30 years. ’
The time is at the door when the life of .
humanity shall be returned to its youth, but our understanding is that the restoration will ' be done by Christ; for the gift of God, eternal • life, can come only through him. (Romans G: 23) Nevertheless, the French experiments are interesting. They are adding to our fund of human knowledge and at any rate enable us to see how7 easy it will be for the Lord to perpetuate human i life indefinitely when, in due time, his kingdom shall be established in the earth. ■ I
’ » V
MANUFACTURING AND MINING
The Chilean Nitrates ' bv t. a. h. ciarke CHILI’S nitrate of soda deposits were discovered by'Indians about n hundred years ago. In building a fire they noticed that the ground took fire in various directions. Fearing that this was the work of evil spirits they took' specimens to the priest, who analyzed it and piled the unused portions in his garden. The next spring there was wonderful vegetation in the spot where the nitrate had been piled. Curiously enough, nothing grows on the nitrate beds themselves; but when nitrate is mixed with soil the results are marvelous. Experiments have shown that on soil where nitrate of soda was used the productivity lacked only about twenty per cent of being double what it was without the nitrate.
The only nitrate deposits capable of being worked commercially exist in Chili, and constitute Chili’s most important article of export. Fish skeletons have been found in these nitrate deposits, and it is supposed therefore? that at some time the deposits constituted the ocean’s bed and were formed by decay of its fishes and seaweeds. The deposits are now found at eleva^ tions of 2,000 to 6,000 feet above the sea, to which they have been raised by the earthquakes that are characteristic of the region. The grounds are largely owned by the Government and are auctioned off from time to timp-
The rock in which the nitrate deposits are found is generally white, but may be yellow, gray or violet It is salty to the taste and soluble in water. The nitrate pampas are in the midst of rainless deserts. The caliche (nitrate rock) is broken up by explosives, transported by rail to rock crushers, boiled, refined, crystallized, dried and packed in 2001b. bags fur shipuj -oi. Iodine and table salt are byproducts eTihe process of manufacture. The standard nitrate used for fertilizing purposes is ninety-five per cent pure.
It is estimated that 50,000 men are employed in the 167 plants engaged in the production of commercial nitrates, and that three per cent of the available deposits are being worked. During the war Chili experienced a great boom, on account of the immense quantities of nitrate used in the manufacture of munitions. The nitrate has to be lightered out to vessels often to a distance of several miles; but great efficiency in this work enables the loading of as high as.250 tons per hour, in spite of the heavy swells frequently experienced.
Surely God’s ways are not man’s ways. "Wliat a strange thing that, out of these desert wastes, should come something which is causing hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the United States, and elsewhere, to yield almost double their usual crops. The Lord has available all the materials wherewith to turn this earth into a Paradise again as soon as the dock of the ages has struck the time that suits his plan and purposes. -
Oil From Coal
IMPERILED economically by the hard peace conditions, Germany is impelled to thrifty employment of her resources. A resource lacking in the German Republic is petroleum, and the Germans are establishing vast factories to convert coal into petroleum and coke. The coke will contain most of the energy from the coal, and the petroleum will be a dear addition to the national resources. According to the daims of Prince Loewenstein, a prominent chemist and manufacturer, 13$ % of the coal can be taken out and the remaining “cokelike” substance burned with only 2% loss of efficiency. The 13|% will comprise 10% crude petroleum, 1J% benzine and 2% heavy oil. The government plans to build huge plants for the process, and to utilize the “coke” in the national railroads, which hitherto have used annually about 12,000,000 tons of coal. The processing of the coal will give 18,000 tons of benzine; 24,000 -tons of heavy oil and 120,000 tons of crude petroleum for use in the nation’s industries.
The distillation of coal of shale for oil is not new. A process was patented in England in 1850 and another in this country in 1854. By 1859 over sixty plants were working the American oil shales and supplying the newly invented "kerosene”, to take the place of the whale and animal oils and candles hitherto used for lighting. Up to 1860 the shale-oil industry prospered, but the discovery of petroleum in liquid form brought an end to the business.
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I
‘ “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack • subject to the same divine law as anyone else, Hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich”, and that one of the requirements of even the —Proverbs 10:4. Mosaic law was the employer should so regulate
I working conditions “that thy manservant and
decreased Efficiency thy maidservant may rest as well as thou”.—
Deuteronomy 5:14.-
T N A manufacturing plant no factor is as • important as the contribution of the workers, lie ability and willingness of the worker to turn out all the work possible is all-important, j nd has been a prime mover in the efficiency I nd profitableness of manufacturing industries.
War conditions have had an interesting effect l^pon the working branch of manufacturing, iccording to a large Philadelphia manufacturer un investigation shows that the product per man per hour under identical conditions today I nd before the war is one-third less now than I 'hen. This is notwithstanding' an increase of 100% in wages. In an investigation covering * everal states the wage per man per hour had I ncreased 240% while the product per hour had decreased 62%.
। Of course, the reliability of such figures is bject to investigation as to motives that might vuntrol the investigators. What the average business man finds is liable to be what he wants
I o find. Figures can often be "adjusted” to tell I ilmost any story.
But if the figures are to be relied upon, the mtcome of easier working will result in a smaller sTolume of goods produced, less goods per capita, and higher prices for the goods that are produced. There is no question that if every worker □reduced twiefe as much there would be twice as much available for distribution among the workers, whether by the current wage system 6r under any other regime. The only way to ^pell plenty is w-o-r-k.
Perhaps some of the let-up in work is owing *o justifiable causes. Somtimes in the past the vorkers have been worked too hard, in which case ought uork less strenuously; for a workers health and well-being are of untold more importance than the product of his labor. Knowing the tendency of employers in the far and the recent past to drive labor beyond mdurance, persons of broad view are glad to-see any improvement in working conditions.
Employers seem to think that they are a kind ... privileged class, not bound by necessity to work to the extent they make their employes work. They should remember that they are
American Indueiriee
XPRESSED in millions of dollars the capitalization of the various industries of the United States is as follows:
lUlIroodF______ - — . '|1G,5C3, or 4M%
Iron and StecL.—_________________>- 4,281, or 10.*%
Chemicals - - ________ a034« or 73%
Textiles________—2^00, or 7.2%
Food -...... .. ’ ________ 2,174, or 5.6%
Lumbar_____ 1,723,‘ or 4.4%
Paper and Printing_____ __________ 1,433, or ao%
Beverages - --------- 1X)13, or 2.7%
Metals (other than iron and steal) 1,013, or 2.0% Stone, Clay and ds— 987, or 2.3%
Vehicles -___- -....... 008, or 2£%
leather _______ - - - - ■ 743, or 2.0%
Tobacco —. 303, or .9%
Miscellaneous__■_____ - 2,047, or 6.4%
Totax, 039,296, or 100%
Economists divide human activities into production, distribution, and consumption. Of the industries here listed, those devoted to distribution amount to 44.5%, and those devoted to production are 55.5%, showing a substantial equality between the two. If farming, commerce and finance were added, the figures would be somewhat different. 1
It is noteworthy that the one industry that has been a drag on the others—beverages— with a billion dollars investment, has been wiped out by national prohibition. It is the only one, except tobacco, whose destruction could not cause some serious consequences. It is gone, and is a good riddance.
The industries of today, with an American population of a hundred million, are nothing to those of the incoming Golden Age when the billion and a half world population will in a few hundred years rise to over twenty billion. Of this incomprehensible number over a billion should be domiciled in the United States, and the industries of the country should be ten or twenty times what they are now.
The contrast between those now having control of these vital and indispensable interests is suggested by two Biblical expressions: now, "the workers of iniquity flourish” (Psalm 92:' 7); then, "in his days shall the righteous flourish”.—Psalm 72 :,7.
FINANCE -COMMERCE -TRANSPORTATION
Short-Line Railroading
George M. BRINSON had put some $700,000 of his own money into an 88-mile railroad running out of Savannah,. Georgia. The line ran through farm and timber lands and touched no other large city. He was making the road begin to show a fair return. ■
It was a typical, local, rural enterprise. Mr. Brinson lyas president, general manager, and pretty much all the officers. He could pay his workers better wages than they had earned on farms or in the timber. They gladly worked hard for him, because he was a good boss. In Un emergency the shop men would put on extra Steam to get the rolling stock ready for renewed service. Others willingly worked the same way, and regarded themselves much better off than they had been. .
The road-bed was not yet seasoned, and before putting good, substantial, new locomotives on the line, Mr. Brinson bought five old "rattletrap* locomotives, to take the brunt of the rough service and rack themselves to pieces. The line had some cars of its own, but not enough for Uie traffic; and it borrowed the needed extra rolling stock from the big lines, which were getting new business from the Midland and glad to accomodate a new "feeder*.
Mr. Brinson has appeared and testified before the House Committee on Interstate Commerce. The road had been in operation only a few years before the American-German war. Now he cannot get a shop-man to help out by speeding up when a locomotive is out of repair and is urgently needed to handle traffic. The big lines nd longer loan him their cars. The local labor receives the same wages as the Government pays everywhere. He cannot make the old deale, to induce traffic to move over his line, even if he could get the cats to carry it
The total investment in the road is about $1,200,000, including $360,000* of bonds. Mr. Brinson says the bonds are in default as to interest payments; but the bondholders, being local people, have not foreclosed. He states that he cannot possibly, operate the road to dear expenses, to say nothing of paying interest on the bonds. The value of his $700,000 in the
stock has been largely wiped out; and there -seems not the slightest chance of ever declaring , ' ; C
dividends on the investment
Things look blue, if not black, lot the Midland. And it is typical of the little roads which . ' have signed the short-line contracts governing conditions of operation. •
The country’s railroad expansion requires '
substantial, enterprising business managers of ;
Mr. Brinson's type. He is the kind of man that 5. throws railroads into new stretches of country, . and opens up and develops them. The railroad development of the land is in the hands of the Brinsons, the executive heads of the hundreds ! of short-line feeders for the big systems.
How much does Mr. Brinson feel like building another short-line road, like the others he has ■ built and successfully managed up to a paying position, before he sold them to others 1 What . ]
is to become of the necessary expansion of the * country’s roads! Who will develop the territory just ready for new lines! ’
The old is passing. Perhaps new ground will be opened up effectively by truck lines. Perhaps ■ cheaper transportation than railroads will be ■ found in the Ford gasoline motor car. Inventive genius constantly working oh new and better methods. Soon even the world will realize that s "old things are passed away; behold, all things * Are become new".1—2 Corinthians 5:17. ‘
A Very Weighty Matter _
MB. EDITOR: In your issue of October 1st, 1919, page 6, second column, you make a statement which has been called in question, viz., “Every year out railroads carry 650 tons for every man, woman, and child in the land". I would like to ask whether this can be a misprint or a misstatement If that means each man, woman, and child, and there are five in the ' average family, it would mean 3,250* tons tp be loaded find unloaded for each family, and it would look as if Dad would hav6 to hustle lively in moving freight, in addition to earning a living.—E M., Los Angeles, Calif., Oct 25,1916.
Just the kind of shot we might have expected i from A country where the climate is so perfect that houses are a nuisance, clothing is a burden and the food question is a joke I E. M. ought to
live up in the frozen North through one or two of our January and February water-pipe festivities, and “heft” our imitation marble slabs, our limestone-laden flour, our ,rbony”-laden hard coal, our “loaded” fabrics; and then he would know why we have to have things up in this country in the winter time in order to keep alive.
Suppose now, E. M., that we were to get a box of oranges from the paradise where you live. It comes right through 3,127 miles to New York. To start with, let us suppose it weighed 60 lbs. Statistically speaking, when that box of oranges reaches our front steps it will weigh just 93.81 tons. You just send the box right along and see how bravely Dad runs out and lugs that 93.81 tons up the steps, and watch the smiles on the faces of the kiddies when he does so. Railroad tonnage is figured in ton-miles. 650 tons for each person means 650 tons carried one mile. But most of our things are carried many miles, and this runs up the tonnage. A ton of Scranton coal in Los Angeles would weigh, theoretically, over 3,000 tons. But, pshaw, what is the use of our sending coal to Los Angeles? They would not know what it was when they saw ft.
Rice Imports
THE shipment of American foods to Europe has had an interesting effect upon the rice trade. In 1917 the total rice movement from China and Japan to the United States was 33,486 tons; but in 1918 one American banking company alone, through one American ■ port, imported a quantity three times as great
In 1694 a vessel bound for Liverpool from Madagascar was blown so far out of her course that die had to put in to Charleston, S. C., for repairs. While there the captain of the vessel gave a small package of rice to one Thomas Smith, to use as seed. It had been supposed previously that rice would qot grow in this country, but Smith grew enough rice the first year to almost feed the whole colony, and it has been a staple crop of the marsh lands of the southern states ever since. No doubt the Lord knew how suitable is the South for rice production; and it was his hand that guided the Madagascar vessel to these far shores, and laid the basis for a part of the great food supply that will be needed by the myriads of mankind that will fill the earth in the Golden Age-
Canada’s Finances * ‘
THE new governing factors of Canada will ' have large problems to handle. During the four years ending with 1918, Canadian investors | -advanced seventy-one per cent of the total sum । ■ of $1,561,619,024 put into the war during that J
period. In that time the national debt was
multiplied by more than five, and the interest on the debt by more than nine. Within that period, although the gold supply increased, the £
paper money in circulation increased so greatly that there are now only forty-two cents in gold
back of every paper dollar, while in’1914 there
were seventy-four cents back of each dollar.
The Government’s requirements'for the year, '
on account of demobilization and other extra- ; ordinary expenses due to the war, are estimated * at $800,000,000, of which amount only about * $280,000,000 can be provided by the revenues of the country. Somebody must “find” the balance. g At the close of the fiscal year Canada's debt will be about $2,000,000,000* or $250 per capita. The pension burden in Canada will be very heavy. The 8,000,000 people of Canada will ' try to pay in pensions an amount equal to that ■ paid by 50,000,000 people of the United States to the Union Veterans of the Civil War. «
No Solomon, or collection of Solomons, will handle the complicated questions that modern , statesmen have to face without experiencing a J large part of the “distress of nations, with perplexity” which our Lord said would inunedi- g ately precede or accompany the time when they 1
shall “see [with the eyes of their understanding] • the Son of man coming [into control of earth’s affairs] in a cloud [a time of trouble such as— never was since there was a nation] with power [irresistible] and great glory” (ultimately). « Then the Lord adds: “When ye see these things » $ come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God \ is nigh at hand”. (Luke 21:25-31) The new ” |
Canadian legislators have a hard job ahead of I them, and in the end they will be even more ; glad than others when the Lord lifts the burden from their shoulders, and bears it away himself by inaugurating the Golden Age for which we k.
have always longed. What a blessed condition f
will then obtain everywhere! All who will accept the gracious arrangements of the incoming < J Messianic kingdom will thereby be enabled to ? return to divine favor and life everlasting in a p world-wide Paradise restored. f
POLITICAL- DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
A Canadian Revolution
NOBODY need be alarmed when we state that a revolution is in process in the great country to the north of us. It is a peaceful revolution, but none the less real The people seem bent on no longer entrusting their interests to either of the two old parties, but of having a housecleaning, from the ground up. The work of removing all the old political elements and placing new parties and new men in charge of the country's affairs is in full swing, and apparently nothing can stop it
During the war the Canadians came to feel more and more a just sense of their country’s importance in the affairs of the world, and at its conclusion demanded separate representation of Canada at the peace conference and the privilege of signing the treaty on their own account. In the treaty as drawn there is no distinction between Canada and other powers sipiatory to it. This determination of the Canadians to have something to say about how they will be governed in the future is now reflecting itself in the domestic politics of the provinces and dominion.
Throughout the war Canada was governed by what the Canadians have called a Unionist Government; that is, a coalition of the so-called Conservative and Liberal parties, in which all differences were merged until the war should be won. Now the common people are raising such a clamor to be heard on their own account that the old line-up of the Conservatives and Liberals has been resumed, and for the delectation of the public the Liberal leaders have been telling the people what they think of their late bed-fellows. In a statement printed in the 1 public press they recently denounced the Government in these words:
"We charge that the Government has failed io represent the people and has outlived its usefulness. No body of men has the right to usurp power and continue to rule without submitting its policy to the consideration of the people. The Government has failed to take the people info its confidence in framing its ' policy in the past, as also in formulating its policy for the future.”
The Canadian people as a whole seem to believe pretty much all that the Liberals have had to say about their late bed-fellows, but they go farther and believe that the Liberals themselves are as untrustworthy as the Conservatives. They claim that the whole arrangement by which the people have been governed by orders-in-council, by which liberty of thought has been terrorized through wholesale arrests, seizure of publications, and breaking-up of meetings of law-abiding, God-fearing people, through overworking the word “patriotism’s has been, to say the least, extra-legal
Now the Canadians seem to have reached the conclusion that, for them, terrorism shall cease to terrorize. And who shall say that they, at least, have not shown some real common sense, and some real patriotism? Does true patriotism mean that one may never dare to have a different opinion from that held by the person or persons who, for the moment, have the reins of power ? Or does it mean if one is really patriotic, that he must wave his arms and throw his hat in the air, and shout himself black in the face, every time such person or persons give expression to a new. thought or to a contradiction of an old one?
The new determination of the Canadian people to be done with old party lines first came to light in a by-election held in St Catherines, Ontario, in February, 1919. The District had always been a Conservative stronghold. There a new party, the Labor party, entered the field. It had been unknown hitherto, and a candidate was secured with difficulty. But it came~very near winning the election, and its supporters claim that it did win the election if the votes had been honestly counted. It was a startling indication of the temper of the people, of their determination to have a real democracy instead of an autocracy posing as a democracy.
During the summer there was another expression of the popular dissatisfaction with the old Canadian parties in the troubles at Winnipeg. There were many things connected with the Winnipeg troubles that have never been cleared up, and it is not generally known on this side of the line, even to this day, that the majority of the Winnipeg strike leaders were British-born, and of proven loyalty to Canada and the Canadian people, right at the time when they were being widely accused as fomentors of
. disturbances among foreigners* In the Fall the - Canadian people had their long-desired opportunity to give an expression at the polls of just how they felt about how things have been managed by the old parties.
. In October came the elections for the legislature of Ontario, the most populous, most con-aervative province in the Dominion. Besides the new Labor party, the United Farmers of Ontario, another political party only two years old,xentered the field. These farmers are.abso-
lutely against any return to the sale of liquor, ui ~~~
are opposed to^ intervention in Russian affairs,' katchewan and Alberta. At the end of a week “ - - ~ - -- - - he also was arrested oh the charge of inciting
demand that Canadian politicians keep out of European affairs altogether, welcome settlers from oppressed lands to come to the Dominion, have a plan of progressive legislation in view which they hope to make into laws, and are linked up with similar organizations of fanners in the provinces of New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, who furnished them with speakers in the campaign.
The result was a campaign that is described -as having taken on the nature of a religious revival. The women voters leaned more and more to the side of the two new democratic parties. Prominent men who entered the con-, test on the Government side swung to the side of the people during the fight. The outcome was a surprising victory of these two brand new parties over the two bld ones. The Conservatives, who had formerly held the control by a ' total of 80 out of 111 seats, Were dethroned, j hhd the coalition of the Labor and United »Farmer parties has 56 seats, a majority of pne over all the old party candidates and independents put together. .
The people of Ontario went to Considerable
trouble to lay emphasis Upon their disapproval of the old parties.- A so-called labor-soldier candidate was defeated apparently for no other - status of women.
reason than that he was backed by the expiring Conservative government. One man was report? ed as. elected merely because he had been attack* ed as a Bolshevik. Th« mayor of Brantford was * elected, supposedly, because he ignored the demands of the Conservatives that he should not let one of the western labor leaders, Mr.
Ivens, speak in the city. of "a government Of the people by the people,”
The gentleman, William Ivens, about whom be it noted that Israel had a republican fonfi
Newsj the official organ of the strikers. When he was arrested and taken to the penitentiary near Winnipeg, another gehtlemim, by the tibine of Woodsworth, was placed in charge of the same paper. The latter is an interesting character, ah idealist, for twenty years a minister in the Methodist church, htithor of k patriotic book, entitled "Strangers within our Gate—Coming Canadians,1* founder of the Winnipeg People’s Forum, founder of the Canadian Welfare League, and Director of the Bureau of Social Research of Manitoba, Sas-to hold an unlawful assembly. When the facts were explained to the pebple of Brantford, they seemingly concluded that those responsible for the arrests of Ivens and Woodsworth were entitled to a rebuke; and they administered it Since then the United Farmers have wbii three out of five by-elections in New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan, points twenty-five hundred miles apart. In New Brunswick the United Farmers candidate was returned by a 3,000 majority over a returned Soldier/ In Ontario the Farmers* candidate had a majority of nearly 2,000 and in Saskatchewan of nearly 4,000 votes. This shows an awakened people.
The Farmers' platform includes lowering of tariffs oh goods imported from other countries, especially if imported from Great Britain; reciprocity with the United States; a tariff commission; taxation of unimproved land Values; fen Income tax ranging from 2% oti $2,000 to .50% on Inoothes of $100,000; Ihherit-ahce tai; indoihe tax on corporation profits; public ownership of public necessities; abolition ~ of titles; aboHtidn of the Canadian senate; national prohibition; referendum and recall; and complete equalization of the parliamentary
We cknhot but sympathize with the people in ■ their aspirations for a more democratic government, and in these aspirations they approach . more nearly to the standards sei forth in the Scriptures. To the confusion of thode who ignorantly claim that the Bible sanctions an established empire rule over the people, instead
■p the dispute in Brantford centered, is a Method- of government which continued for bver four ] ist minister, and at the time of the troubles in hundred years. And it was changed for that of Winnipeg was editor of the Western Labor a kingdom at the request of “the Elders,” with< .
out the Lord's approval, who said to Samuel, then acting as a sort of informal president, “Hearken unto the voice of the people in-all that they shall say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them”. The people feel their need of a wise and strong ruler and will find him in the Lord, and in him alone, and that shortly. The now parties in Canada may do something to alleviate the condition of the Y people; but they can not do much. The conditions the leaders of these parties must face • are very difficult. They will find themselves confronted with problems they have not foreseen, and will be expected to produce changed ■conditions more quickly than will be possible* We hope for them that they will be wise, and kind, and just, and strong for the interests of all the people.
Governmental Limitations
IT IS plain enough that if none of us ever did anything, or produced anything, we would all be naked, homeless and starved. Until we get to work and produce something there is not much to govern, unless it be to form a sort of mutual defense society to prevent the stronger from killing and eating the weaker. 60 the fundamental fact of government is work. "If any would not work, neither should he eat.” (2 Thessalonians 3:10) We must not get the idea that any kind of government mon can devise will make it unnecessary for him to work. And just now, when there is a shortage of almost everything that human beings need, due to the great waste of the war, the governments of the world are right in their conception that anything that will cause the people as a whole to produce more goods will be to the benefit of the people as a whole.
This brings us to the question of how men can * be induced to produce more, so that there will be more to divide. The prevailing rule of thought in the past has been that the only thing that will induce the average man to put forth his best efforts is a desire to own and to hold things. And it must be admitted that there is a great deal of truth in this contention. A system which makes each 'man responsible for the care of his own wife and children will cause the average man to put forth more effort than where his work will be used for the benefit of the wives and children of others. -
Any man who has the idea that it would be better for the Government to own and operate all the industries of the country would do well to visit any public building in any city of the . United States and note the general shifUessness of the occupants, the dirt, disorder and indifference manifest on all sides, and then turn to any equally large building in the hands of a private concern and note the difference. The general atmosphere of the one is dirt and laziness, and of the other cleanliness and industry.
The average man looks upon a political job as an easy one; and while he has the job he is liable to expend most of his energies in trying to retain the job rather than in trying to render efficient service. But if he has a job with a private concern he knows that he must produce definite results,, and that if he does not do it he may lose his job. He sees other men about who are doing their best to help themselves up in the world; and his fear of what they may do to him and his family if he does not do the work expected of him leads him to put forth more effort than he might otherwise do.
So then there are some good things to be said about competition. But competition in many lines is an abosolute waste. Two telephone sys-terns or two street railways in the same community are a nuisance. Two telegraph companies render better service than one; but it is a great waste to the community as a whole to have to maintain two complete sets of offices, poles, wires and equipment Here is a legitimate field for Governmental activity—how to produce an absolutely reliable and efficient telegraph service, one equal to that provided Jby private owners, but at less expense to the public. The public should pay less to the Government for such a service than to private owners because a Government ownership of telephone •poles and wires would enable the telegraph Unes to be operated in con junction with them at reduced cost. All the wires could be carried upon the one set of poles. Governmental telegraph service in European countries shows that this is a problem which, if placed in the right hands, can be handled efficiently by 'the Government, and at reduced costs to the pubEc. Besides, the Government has facilities, through the Post Office, for the delivery of telegrams.
Competition^ if it can be honestly maintained, should result in good service and low prices to the consumer. But if all the milk dealers, for example, gather together and agree on certain prices, competition ceases, and there is as true a monoply as though one concern did all the business. And there is the disadvantage that one concern could do all the work, and do it more efficiently and more economically than a dozen, all traversing the same streets, at the same time, with the same product. Which is better, to have a real monoply and not admit that it is such, or to admit that monoply is inescapable in such a business, and* endeavor to hold it in restraint by having the municipality itself engage in the business as a competitor 1 In numerous cities abroad this plan is followed with good results.
Unrestrained competition is bad, too; for it leads to long hours, abominable shops and factories, adulteration of goods, false representations of merchandise, and the dishonest underselling of competitors with a view to ruining them. We must have the aid of a Government, national, state or municipal, to prevent the stronger from killing the weaker by laws of their own making. Fortunately, at this stage of the game, the worker himself has something to say about it; and his protests against long hours, low wages and unsanitaiy working conditions all operate to the advantage of society as a whole. He would render a still further aid to humanity if he would blazon upon the housetops every act of adulteration of goods or misrepresentation of them that comes to his knowledge, even if he lost his job by doing it
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