Golden Age, January 21, 1920

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January 2L 1920»VoL1»N<k 9

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VOLtTMl 1 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1B2O NOMMB •

CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE

LABOR end ECONOMIC!

WuUsf mi * Grand Scala. 263 The Six-Hour Her—F..^ «»tH

SOCIAL ud EDUCATIONAL A Lancuaee Museum.—,-.265 Rockefeller's Fortune _—.2M Laz Morality ________—________265 0 Charity What Sina.____266

Loxuriea Wanted..........-....265 Prohibition at Work.______267

FINANCE, COMMERCE. TRANSPORTATION

Aftar the Public’s Money-271 Business Curtailment Around the World by Rail.272 Predicted -

------273 Ford’s Caroline Street-Car

Trade System____-1.273 New Jersey Tries Again--274

AGRICULTURE and HUSBANDRY Hybrids----275 Th, pineapple,___376

Moder* Forestry *Neol'cJ*7*r.^5 Cooperative Farm Seiling, 376 SCIENCE and INVENTION

AcS?Sas8Xd^±.r::i77

HOUSEWIFERY sod HYGIENE

Szvta* Mother and Babe.,278 Vegetarians! Powdered Milk and Egga.,.273 W« Eat Crow——___279

Saccharin for Sugar—......279 And Other Meats..,-.....^..280

RELIGION and PHILOSOPHY

The ware of Spiritist Literature ________—.—281

Eulcidlnt * New Way

TRAVEL and

WttJth Untold

Music Hath Charms.——..285 Ito Maka Newfound

land Warmer.,—

Liberty In Canada.

England Bas Enough.——285 Athletics at Harvard..—-266 Golden Aco Calendar* January

Frnm West’s History—....283 Bible Acrostic

Juvenile Bible 6*™<y---------

MTSCELLANT

Judge Cooley on

Religious Porseeution~236

Niamey Castle Annex...__386

The Calf Path (poem),—387

The Kingdom of the Mind-.287 Stanzas for the Times— —287 Still Free (poen>)._ 287

31 to February 3. 1920 886

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Golden Age

VoL I Nev York* Wednesday, January 21, 1920 No, 9

POLITICAL, DOMESTIC and FOREIGN

Real Prison Reform

FEW persons are interested in prison reform, some of them on humanitarian and others on political grounds. The very few who are really interested on humanitarian grounds are usually woefully lacking in knowledge of actual prison conditions. Under the leadership F of an affable and entertaining guide, picked from the guards with a view to making a favorable impression on visitors, they have been swished deftly around the more public parts of the prison and often have the idea that it is a very nice place. True, even to those who know the inside life of a prison, it is possible to imagine worse conditions; but that is beside the question of real reform.

Of those who are periodically interested in prisons on political grounds there is much occasion for questioning their entire sincerity; for they deliberately overlook the most truthful and most accurate source of information—the prisoners themselves. There are some difficulties in • the way of securing complete information from V- men while they are actually under sentence, but there is no great difficulty involved in gathering it from men who have served sentences and are out. Of what earthly use is it to ask Judge So-and-So or Senator This-and-That his views on prison reform, when he has no idea of what a prison is like?

There would be minor differences of opinion even among prisoners and ex-prisoners as to what could-^be most advantageously introduced in the shape oPreforms; but most of them, we believe,wouTd agree on these, named in the order of their importance:

(1) Judges should be obliged by law to spend thirty days in all jails to which they are likely to have to sentence men (or at least in one of the jails) and sixty days in the penitentiary to which they expect to commit prisoners. This should be as necessary to qualification for a judge’s commission as a diploma from a law school. For obvious reasons it is not likely that such a reform as this will ever be suggested by the judiciary itself, but we believe that the better-minded of them would agree to its reasonableness and would submit to its requirements. The idea has the approval of God Almighty; for he sent his Son, an entirely innocent person, into the world and allowed him to suffer almost unthinkable indignities “that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God”. (Hebrews 2:17) Such judges would have to serve under a bona fide sentence, unknown to the prison officials. Sfkty days would not injure them, and it would actually pay; for they would increase in “wisdom never learned at schools”. It is a serious matter for one human being to deprive another human being of his liberty for long periods of time.

(2) Separate absolutely and entirely all prisons from state or federal departments of justice. Why should a prison be under the control of the very department which was instrumental in having the prisoner indicted and sentenced? Has not that department done enough when it has turned him over to the prison officials? Is there any adequate reason why prisons should not be managed by prison commissions, only one member of which could be of the legal or judicial professions?

(3) Establish a parole board that paroles— one that has some regard for the evident intent of the parole laws. This board should be absolutely separate from the departments of justice -and from judges and district attorneys, who usually are employes of such departments. Why not have such a board composed of civilians, not professional politicians? Under present parole arrangements it frequently occurs that a prisoner will secure a recommendation from the officials of the prison, but fail to get ratification from the judge or district attorney who had to do with sentencing him to prison.

' Take this actual example: An Italian was convicted of complicity in. a counterfeiting scheme and sentenced by a judge to three years’ imprisonment. The man was guilty and the sentence was probably not excessive, as such sentences go. But note now what happens. The man knew not over a dozen words of English and in disappointment he employed four of them, saying, "Aw, go to h----The judge

promptly added five more years to his sentence, making, eight, ostensibly to impress the man with the dignity and majesty of the law. But was it the dignity of the law or his own dignity of which he was more conscious ? Surely the law was not magnified by such an outburst. If six months had been added, the majesty of the law would really have been revealed. What chance would that man have for a parole, even if he were a model prisoner* What chance did he have! None, while that judge lived or was in office. The man served his time, barring a few weeks cut off by presidential commutation. *

(4) Abolition of limited outgoing mail. There is no-earthly or heavenly reason why a man should-not be allowed to write all he wants to. The limits have been removed on incoming mail in most prisons. Removing the limitations on outgoing mail would not materially increase the burdens of the prison postoffice. There would be an increase for the first few weeks,, then it would drop back to something near normal. Among one thousand prisoners there would probably be not over fifty who would write more than of^e letter a week. There is no real reason why either incoming or outgoing mail should be read, though almost no prisoner will object to having the envelope opened so that the management could be sure no harmful narcotics or saws, etc.,\ came in. If a prisoner’s outgoing mail rose above a certain number per month, let him pay'the postage.

(0) Absolute and unequivocal abolition of compulsory attendance at religious services. To force attendance at religious service of any kind is uu-Christian, un-American, unconstitutional, and inhuman. It works hardship to Christians, to the irreligious, and to Jews, and could do no good to any one. Have the religious services if desired, make them as attractive as possible, but let the men go on their own volition.

(6) Select the major officials from ex-prison^* ers—surely there are enough in all walks of life and in all the varying degrees of capacity. By the most hardened and disinterested prison official it will Ixi admitted that a certain percentage of the prisoners are innocent. Those who have the best opportunity of knowing aver that these innocent run somewhat near ten per cent of the whole number. If the courts are nine-tenths efficient, that is not a bad average for imperfect and often biased human beings, even though it is hard on the tenth-tenth. Among those who are guilty there is probably a good forty per cent who have sentences out of all proportion to the crime committed. Even if some of these men became wardens or deputy wardens they could not mitigate the sentences, but they could approach the problems of the men with sympathetic hearts and understanding minds—a thing which few outsiders, even though well-intentioned, can do. The men do not want to be coddled or toadied to; many of them played the game and lost and they are willing to take their medicine in a manly way; but they^do want and are entitled to talk to officers ashman to man and not as caged beasts to man. '

Stripes and Stripes

STRIPES for prisoners’ clothing have been abolished in the better-ordered prisons of this country, but the stripes which attach to the man’s reputation are as difficult to eradicate as though they were actual stripes in his skin. The old idea, which was generally accepted in Jean Vai jean’s day, ‘•‘once a convict always a convict”, has no foundation in reason, justice, or fact. There are a few professional flirters with prison cells; these take their chances, give no quarter and ask none. But these do not make up the bulk of prison inmates.

The most of them are men who have either (1) violated the law in some purely technical >ense, unacquainted with the multitudinous statutes on the law books, or (2) succumbed to various kinds of allurements under heavy stress,

and (3) a few others who have set out to beat the state or government in some manner that does not involve the lives or happiness of other citizens but merely property, and (4) political prisoners—those who have committed some statutory offense against the state as such, as distinguished from offenses against life or I property of the state’s citizens.

Added to these is a small fifth class of innocent men, and a sixth class, also of minor proportions, who are guilty in both intent and fact. But whatever the occasion for their incarceration, it is surely an incontrovertible proposition that, when a man has been convicted by self or by jury, been sentenced by an authorized judge, and has served his sentence, he has paid all that the law demanded of him as a penalty for his misdeed. It not infrequently happens that with his discharge the one-time prisoners greatest difficulties begin. If he is a man of affluence he may not need to worry; but if he was well cleaned up financially by the expense of his de-? fense fight and by his expense while in prison, he may experience grave difficulty. His position is somewhat recognized by the law when it requires the prison officials to provide him with an outfit of clothing and a ticket back to the point from wliieh he was sentenced. But this docs not get him a job.

It must be admitted that there are certain philanthropic agencies which help in securing wage jobs for men that are not experienced in clerical, professional, or executive positions. It is seldom that such agencies have anything to offer for professional men. The lawyer cannot return to his profession. His own fellows bar him. The doctor can seldom return to his prac-, lice: no opportunity is given him to profit from 0 his lesson. Occasionally a former employer will take a man back for sake of the man’s family.

But why should there be any charity, why any patronizing at all? If the penally has been paid, why make the man continue to pay it for the rest of"his life? Why is he barred from civil service positions, though his services may be most expert? Is it not because of the old idea, such aa voiced by Emmanuel Kant, that the state is aVny^ie being with a soul and that this soul has had its dignity offended? All right, suppose that were true. The state by its properly constituted agents has prescribed what is assumed to be a just retribution for such offense. Does the government profess to be satisfied in the matter and at the same time dissatisfied? If the ex-prisoner happens to be a man of means the government will gladly let him invest his money in bonds or other government securities. Fine, perfectly proper. But why discriminate against the man who has only time, skill and experience to invest in government activities ? There are no statistics to show thht a man is less reliable as an employe after he has been a prisoner than before.

Furthermore, why should there be no recourse against the state for one who has suffered false imprisonment ? Do we still believe that the king can do no wrong T Government agents with almost unlimited legal machinery and means at their disposal can, if they wish, make a very sorry time for a man of meager pecuniary backing. He may not be able to stand the expense of a fight long enough to prove himself innocent. He is put into prison for one, three, five years, until his case worries around to where he is shown to be not guilty. The man, if in middle age, is financially ruined for life. His family has suffered great hardship; yet there is no practical means of redress. He cannot sue the government for the mistakes of its agents, though in every other kind of business it is a well-established rule of action that principals are responsible for the acts of their agents. I# the judge and prosecuting attorney responsible for his incarceration are still alive, he might proceed against them individually or under a conspiracy charge, if there seemed to be any element of conspiracy. But what prosecuting attorney would show zeal in presenting such a case to the grand jury and in carrying it through the courts? What judge could be found who would be willing to pronounce sentence against a fellow judge? Then possibly there was no evil design whatever on the part of the officials, but the unjust imprisonment was simply due to human imperfection and frailty. What then ? Even if an ex-prisoner had pecuniary means with which to carry on litigation he has no statutory grounds for so doing.

It has been left for heathen Japan to take the lead in improvement in some of these matters. There, if a man is discriminated against in the social or commercial world simply because he has served a sentence in prison, the person who discriminates against him is subject to fine and imprisonment; and the law is enforced. Furthermore, a man falsely or wrongly imprisoned can get full financial redress, not from individuals but from the government. The people by its representatives made the mistake; the people should pay for its mistakes, just as any individual is required to do.

Persia and the World War

IKE the nations, of South America, and all other nations that were able to keep out of the conflict, Persia was benefited in some ways by the world war. Its capital and trade have doubled.

The country is a high plateau, 2,000 to 6,000 feet high, with no railways, few roads, only one navigable river, and is cut off from easy communication with the rest of the world by mountain chains on the north and south.

The rains of ages have washed the soil from the hillsides, seaming them with gullies, and making travel difficult and expensive. It may be said that virtually the whole trade of Persia is carried on the back of beasts of burden such as traversed the country twenty-five hundred or more years ago.

These conditions have largely cut Persia off from the rest of the world, although the culture of its inhabitants has not greatly suffered because of this; and it is known as the most enlightened of the Mohammedan nations, the Persian being styled the Frenchman of the east.

The first noteworthy appearance of Persia on the pages of history is as a part of the Medo-Persian empire, established by Cyrus the Great, the second empire in history that bore sway over the whole civilized earth.

When the third world empire made its appearance, Alexander the Great invaded Persia and traversed it with his conquering hosts from one end to the other, going on through Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass into India, and returning to Babylon by Baluchistan and the-shore route along the Persian Gulf.

The priests of Persia teach the boys and men to disregard and despise everything said to them by the women, and as a consequence the Persian has no home life worthy of the name. Insolence frpm her twelve-year-old son is expected by the Persian mother as inevitable.

When the Shah of Persia visited Paris some years ago he shocked the hotel patrons by throwing his chop bones under the table after he had finished his meal. He probably thought there was no reason why he should not feel ■ at home and act accordingly.

Before the war the finances of Persia were under the control of an American, Morgan Schuster. He managed these so efficiently, and protected the Shah so effectively from the jm- a positions of the financiers of more highly; civil- " ized nations, that Schuster was compelled to resign his position. The diplomatic pressure i became too strong. .

The pearl fisheries of the Persian Gulf have an annual output of about $1,000,000 per year. , Roses flourish so profusely that they are cul- ( tivated in fields for the purpose of manufacture into perfumes. The population is estimated at about 9,500,000. *

It is certain that the kingdom of Persia is the second part, the breast and arms of silver, of the great image which Nebuchadnezzar saw । in his dreams, and which the Prophet Daniel explained to him; and it is equally certain that , the kingdom which is to replace the Persian ' kingdom, and all the other kingdoms seen in 1

that vision, is the kingdom of the Lord, Mes- ’

siah?s kingdom, which brings with it the dawn of hope for the Persians and for all the other peoples of the earth.—Daniel 2:1-49. ,

French Women

Page 141 contained a reflection on French women which would better have been omitted. We are not perfect in judgment—yet—but trying to be—and do not wish to do an injustice to anybody. -

Blarney Castle -

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—G. E. J., Tarrytown* N. I\

The Golden Age for January 21. 7920 2G3

I LABOR AND ECONOMICS ~|

Thrift Supremely Needed

ALL the nations of the world are today like ** the prodigal son. They have borrowed their future inheritances; and after a drunken debauch lasting from August 1,1914, to November 11, 1918, they are now engaged in feeding the hogs—the profiteers—in a way that was never before true.

The average working man is limited in education and has no knowledge whatever of political economy. With the outbreak of the war many of these men suddenly discovered as munition workers or ship riveters that they could get three times as much money as they had ever earned before in their lives. Myriads of these men knew so little of economics that it would be folly even to try to tell them that all the wages paid to them during the war had to come out of somebody's savings. And having flirted for a time with wages of $10 to $20 per day, lots of them have concluded that the world has changed; and that instead of having to work hard for a living hereafter, and to be careful of the dimes, nickels and pennies, they can safely spend every cent they earn, without any reckoning day ever arriving.

No heresy could be worse. If there was need for these men to save during the war so that they could participate in the various loans, it is still more necessary now; for the interest on all the loans must he paid, and the running expenses of the governments must be paid, and there is no way in which these expenses can be met except by the savings of the people. Whether these savings of the people are obtained indirectly by loans or directly by taxation, it is certain that these obligations must be met, and it is self-evident that the governments cannot borrow from him who has saved nothing.

Canada Labor Conference

AN INDUSTRIAL conference was recently assembled in Canada, attended by one-third employes, orih-third employers and one-third representatives of the public. Resolutions were adopted looking toward legislation on unemployment, sickness, old-age insurance, minimum wage laws, better pay for school teachers, better housing conditions, compulsory education up to fourteen years of age, liberty of press, freedom of speech, eight-hour days, and union recognition and collective bargaining. The conference* ■ was divided on several points, but put the questions up to the federal and provincial prime ministers for consideration and action.

The commission said in part:

“The commission believes that the day has passed when an employer should deny his employes the right to organize—a right claimed by employers themselves and not denied by the workers. Employers gain nothing by opposition; for the employes organize anyway, and refusal only leaves in their minds a rankling sense of injustice. The prudent employer will recognized such organization and deal with its duly accredited representatives?*

Wasting on a Grand Scale

AS illustrating the fact that some people

• have no regard whatever for the conservation of the products of human toil, Chairman William J. Graham, of the House Committee investigating war expenditures, reports that 72,000 bales of cotton were left lying uncovered for months on the grounds at Nitro, W. Va. He also reports that hundreds df millions of dollars were paid to concerns that never delivered a dollar's worth of property to the Government, to cover profits which they figured they would have made on contracts signed before the armistice went into effect, provided they had fulfilled those contracts.

She Saved for Her Boys

CAPITAL and labor are not the only elements of the population that exact profits without rendering compensating service. A woman in New York city lived on seventy-five cents per day so that she might leave a fortune of $250,000 unimpaired, to be divided between her two sons. One of her sons, a doctor, she appointed executor. The doctor paid a lawyer $35,000 to settle the estate, and then divided what was left between himself and his brother. His brother thinks that somebody exacted too much profit and is trying to find out who is at fault.

The Six-Hour Heresy

FTENRY FORD startled the industrial world

A when he announced his policy of a minimum wage of $5.00 a day and he has recently raised that to $8.00. It could not be done, was the Durden of the press that represents the reactionary sector of the manufacturing front; it would disturb relations between employer and labor in an ever-widening circle. But it was done; for Ford profited by attracting the cream of the workers; and other concerns still paid what they chose. Ford produced ‘‘Fords" better and cheaper because the men were more content to work under conditions prevailing in his great shops than in the establishments of others less democratic than himself.

Time was when the twelve-hour day was impossible; yet it worked out all right. Then in succession the industrial impossibilities were the ten-hour, the nine-hour and the eight-hour day; but no concern that was up to date in its methods ever Jost anything by the better working conditions spelled by the shorter work-day.

Now the impossible thing is the six-hour day. Not merely impossible, but absolutely, to the nth degree, impossible, unthinkable, unbelievable, visionary, absurd, insane, is this latest industrial heresv!

Why? '

Because it hath not been so received from the fathers.

But Baron Leverhulme. than whom no one in the world, at least in the British world, knows better how to make money out of soap, comes and says that the six-hour work-day is perfectly feasible. The baron says that it is easy in a business where the overhead expenses, including interest on capital, salaries of partners and managers, repairs and renewals, depreciation, rent and ordinary taxes, are together equal the pay-roll cost.

Here are his figures: Number of articles produced under the eight-hour day and forty-eight-hour “week, 1000; pay-roll. $5000; overhead expenses, $5000; production cost per article or unit produced, $10.00. The raw material cost would be the same per unit unless reduced by a loss co^t fdj a larger quantity.

If the^working hours were reduced to a six-hour day and a thirty-six-hour week, and two shifts worked in the plant, the baron figures the cost as follows, the same wage being paid for the six as for the eight-hour day: Articles produced, 1500: pay-roll $10,000; overhead, $5060; total, $15,000: unit cost, $10.00. In other words, the impossible has been done—the men work six instead of eight hours, and the goods cost no more to produce apiece. Work is given to two men, where it had been available for but one!

To this the objection is raised that before the war the pay-roll in billions of dollars in American factories was 4.5 billions, and overhead only 2.5 billions. On this basis a factory producing say 1000 articles would cost $4500 pay-roll and $2500 overhead; total $7000, with unit cost of $7.00 per article. The baron did not allow for any increase in overhead, but more salary must be paid managers for longer hours; aud allowing for an increase also in overhead, the figures would be: Articles produced, 1500: pay-roll, $9000; overhead $3500; total cost, $12,500; unit cost, $8.33. It looks as though it couldn't be done, and get the goods out as cheaply as before. .

The factor that will produce goods as inexpensively as before and yet permit the six-hour 1 day is the attitude of the worker. He will feel better about his work and work a little faster if he is to have a 25 per cent shorter workingday. Suppose the worker works one-fifth or 20 per cent faster than he did under the eight-hour day; that this is readily possible may be seen from the rate of work of the average worker, who feels that any increased speed on his part may result in his having to meet that speed at all times. '

With production one-fifth, or 20 per cent, faster than in an eight-hour day the figures would be: Pay-roll, $9000; overhead. $3500: total $12,500; articles produced 1800; unit cost, $6.94 per article. The miracle is quite feasible, but it takes the cordial cooperation of the worker to accomplish it.

It is certain, however, that in the Golden Age, when the motto of trades unionism, "One for all, and all for one*’, becomes a living reality with every one, including both employer and employe, the possibilities of the worker drawing on his untouched latent powers will cause industry’’ and production to jump forward. When for the principle of self-interest is substituted that of real love of man for man, the incentive to do everything reasonably possible for one another vk-ill actuate men and result in great benefits for the whole people. ’

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL]

A Language Museum

INSTITUTE of Phonetics is the official title of the new language museum which the British Government is about to start in London, ' so that it can furnish its traders with better means of dealing with natives than have hitherto existed. Some idea of the need for such an Institute may be gathered from the fact that in many portions of Southeastern Asia a different language prevails in every 500 square miles of territory: in other words one can not go twenty-five miles in any direction without running into a new language.

Methods for making records of all languages are approaching precision. By means of the X-ray, photographs are obtained of the exact position of the vocal organs necessary to produce any sounds, and the sounds themselves are photographed or transcribed by a needle into / phonetic curves on smoked paper. Studying these records the linguists are able to convert any language into English sounds and thus to reduce it to writing. By means of this Institute it is hoped that the traders will hereafter be able to do business with the natives without the aid of interpreters. Arrangements are also under way for the preservation of current dialects and an attempt will be made to restore the languages spoken in Chaucer’s and Shakespeare’s times. Similar institutes have long existed in France and Germany.

Recalling the scattering of humankind and the confusion of their tongues at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), we are impressed with the thought that the means now being taken to , preserve records of all languages indicates that they have served their purpose and that now, in the dawn of the Golden Age, we are approaching a time when there will be but one language in general use, as was the case at first.

Lax Morality

CHRISTIAN citizenship in the United States is said to be in a bad way. Instead of the “unparalleled moral and spiritual uplift” expected by unpractical decu-inairws from the war, the same theorists report that opportunities are multiplying rapidly for sexual temptation ard license; marriage is being deferred until middle life; divorce is increasing; abortions are on the increase; the sex appeal is universal, everywhere, in the newspapers, at the theater, the movie, the street carnival, the dance, the fair; society reeks with it, the home is steepe<b in it, schools condone and often encourage*'it, professional life wallows in it and the Government is often influenced by it—so says President B. S. Steadwell of the National Purity Federation. At the rate the people are traveling, it is feared that America will strike bottom on the level of the ancient pagan orgies of the worship of licentiousness. One of the greatest agencies for moral decline is said to be the automobile, which supplies opportunities for secret association and puts the country road house practically at the city limits.

Is America approaching the condition prophetically spoken of in the Bible when the Good Book spoke of a civilization to come "which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt”?—Revelation 11:8.

Luxuries Wanted

AMERICANS have a well-earned reputation

• as good spenders. An unprecedented demand exists for every kind of luxury at any price. On the twenty-seven kinds of luxuries listed by the Government the 1919 import tax exceeds that for 1918 by 12o%. Imports of necessities show no particular increase; but in such articles for women as feathers, furs, jewels and perfumery the value in 1919 is about six times that in 1918. Now that the saloon has gone, fair woman is getting more of her share of the money and is showing herself a spender of the first order. Money is better spent than hoarded, but better still invested where it may produce more wealth. The present prosperity is not likely to continue indefinitely; and when it ends, the spenders will wish they had saved or invested what they have been so lavishly wasting. -

High living is fun—until the bills pour iir. Habits of luxury demand continuance, and destroy all tendency to the traits that succeed. Not merely will the spenders be forced to economy and thrift, but they are liable to swell the hosts of discontent.

Rockefeller's Fortune

MR. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, Sr., is long

. since out 01 business. He has just added $100,000,000 to his vast gifts for education and philanthropy. At present he is devoting his time and much of his money to the question of the preservation of health and the prevention of disease.

We do not know how much Air. Rockefeller is worth, and it does not seem to be our business to moke him tell, but he is said to be worth about $1,000,000,000. Supposing that he is worth that amount; and that it was all invested in freight ears at the old price of $500 each. We got to figuring on that and found out something. Such a fortune -would buy a string of 2,000,000 standard cars.

And how long a train would that make? Suppose the train was made up in Jersey City, and the cars were each forty feet long and added one by one as the train progressed on its way. Before the caboose left the yards at Jersey City the engine would have traversed the route indicated by the following cities, and in the order named:

Newark, Ti’enton, Philadelphia, Wilmington (Del.), Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Norfolk, Wilmington (N. C\), Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, Miami, Key West (the jump, ing off place for Cuba), Tampa, Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso (on the edge of Mexico), Tucson, Los Angeles, National City (on the edge of Lower California), Santa Barbara, San Jose, Oakland, Stockton, Sacramento, Ashland, Salem, Portland (Ore.), Tacoma, Seattle, Bellingham, Vancouver, Prince Rupert (on the edge of Alaska), Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Port Arthur, Sudbury, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, Moncton. Halifax, New Glasgow, Sydney (the jumping off place for Newfoundland), Truro, St. John, Bangor, Portland (Me.), Boston, Providence, New Haven and New York, with enough more co go almost to Chicago and ■haefc. '

The train would he 15.152 miles long, sufficient to cross the continent five times, or to reach in a straight line three-fifths of the way around the world.

Mr. Rockefeller made some of his money in the. oil business. and there is still some money in ltie oil business apparently, for we notice that Mr. F.figor, the new President of the Standard

Oil Company, not long ago paid $100,000 for one little book seven inches long, five and a quarter inches wide and half an inch thick, published in London in 1619; the only known copy of the first edition of Shakespeare’s works.

O Charity, What Sins!

O CHARITY, what sins have been committed in thy name! In the Army and Navy Bazaai^ hi the autumn of 1917 a net sum of $645 was raised for "relief*’ at a cost of aver $71,000. At most, charity is a plaster which covers up a sore that had better be exposed to the sunlight and the air.

We do not see anything very charitable in the founding of an orphan asylum by’ a man who has made his money by the use of child labor, of* the founding of an old folks’ home by a man who has overworked and underpaid men and women until they have broken down before their time. He is trying to discharge a just debt in a poor way.

We do not see anything very charitable in a gift of old clothes to the poor on the part of those who have such large incomes that they do not know what to do with the surplus revenues continually pouring in upon them. A real charity was that of a landlord in Wakefield, Mass., who recently made to a tenant the gift of a house in which he had lived for twenty-six years and had paid rent continually and faithfully during all that time. The man who did this is worthy of a statue in the ^public square of lus city. <

The indiscriminate giving to beggars puts a premium upon beggary. Not long ago a onelegged beggar refused a permanent job at $18 per week because, he said, he could make $40 ■ per week at begging. Another one-legged man sits in his old clothes on the sidewalk during '"working hours’’, but on Sundays and holidays nuts on an artificial leg and a Sunday suit and moves about with as much ease as anybody.

So-called “organized charity” is for the most part a disorganized and inefficient way of trying to patch up a situation which makes it possible that in the same city there should be some people worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and others equally honest, and perhaps even more industrious, who cannot earn enough to keep their children properly fed and clothed. Three of Philadelphia's recent charity drives were failures.

In two European countries, one of which nobody dares to name, it has been recognized for a generation that a citizen who has produced things for his fellows for thirty or forty years has earned the right to live; and he is given an old-age pension.

A form of charity has been started in Toledo which gives promise of doing real good. Ihc Social Service Federation is trying to improve the furniture in the homes of the poor, and has invited and received gifts of almost everything uhbe found in any home, ranging all the way from rocking-horses to violoncellos. The Federation is trying to give the touch of personal interest without which charity is a detestable thing. It makes a point of having a visiting housekeeper prepare and serve a meal on a dining table in the way in which a meal should he prepared and served, thus to elevate the home ideals. We wish this effort well. If continued in the spirit in which it is being started, it can hardly fail to be a real blessing to both its founders and its beneficiaries.

/ Not a few people are interested in charities after the manner of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha. The Lord, at Elisha’s request, had just healed Naaman, the Syrian general, of his leprosy, but refused to accept anything at his hands. Gehazi coveted the gifts which Naaman had exhibited and ran after him with a great "drive” for money for the theologians, "the sous of the prophets”. He got the money, about $2000, and valuable gifts of clothing. Upon his return to Elisha, the prophet asked him where he had been. Gehazi denied having been anywhere; whereupon Elisha rebuked him for appropriating to himself gifts asked in the name of religion and said, "The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed tori' ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow”.—2 Kings 5: 27.

Prohibition at Work

ONE of the effects of prohibition came to fight the other day when $25,000 was offered for a $100 share of the stock of Huyler's, whose $15,000 capital stock is worth $3,750,000. Lowney’s stock has advanced from $75 a share to $185.^ Page & Shaw stock goes at $200. Continental Candy started at about $7 and now is $14. Loft’s was $12.50, but now sells for $26.

Back of the boom in candy is national prohibition. The prediction has come true that millions accustomed to liquor would turn to candy. The coffee industry, too, is having a big boom on account of the demand for a good beverage in lieu of the defunct alcoholics. The establishment o- -toffee houses is not far off, to take the place of saloons.

But the backers of the great reform realize that their work is not finished; for they say that then* is "tern business ahead. The obtaining df national prohibition is chiefly the work of the Protestant clergy; and as the Protestant churches enroll only 25,000,000 of the population, or 23 per cent, of whom fully 5,000,000 do not actively favor prohibition, there are but 20,000,000 Protestants behind the militant reformers, or 19 per cent of the population. Thu clerical leaders of the movement, who have gone to great lengths politically and wielded their lobby with such telling effect in the state legislatures to bring about the prohibition miracle, are concerned over what confronts them.

One of the former leaders of the political Anti - Saloon League of Virginia, Methodist Bishop James Cannon of Texas, expresses his apprehension: "Although the liquor traffic has been outlawed in this country, it is still alive, not asleep, nor dead, but alive and openly defiant. During the next year you may look for some progress by the liquor people; and this will continue until the people are aroused to the realization that this traffic is really an outlaw, which needs chaining, and until it is chained permanently, it will endeavo$ to institute an era of lawlessness and murder. * There is danger ahead”

"The liquor traffic,” continues Bishop Cannon, “will defy the law, and will shoot down men who go out to enforce your law. This has already been done in Virginia. You should not allow your state to be honeycombed with such outlaws, to continue without punishment, any more than you would allow thieves and other lawbreakers to go without their just deserts”. Bishop Cannon appreciates how difficult will be for a minority to enforce their will upon an indifferent majority, in the face of an active, unscrupulous and thoroughly organized body such as the saloonmen will have in the field.

To intimidate violators of the FederalAmend-nient many laws of great stringency have been proposed, on the theory that the more terrible the legal penalties, the less will offenders be inclined to break the law. As a matter of fact the only effectual preventive of crime is the absolute certainty of immediate punishment even under rather mild penalties; and with a large body of the people indifferent or hostile to prohibition, the sureness of punishment is very doubtful in far the greater portion of the violations of the law. This is evidenced by the great increase in drunkenness as an offense in most of the cities.

The new reform by Christian America has elicited the warm approval of the head of the Moslem Church. Abraham Effendi, spiritual head of the Mohammedans, was greatly pleased when the news came to him of how America had turned over a leaf. He said: “It is with pride that we observe America's adoption of proliibi-tion after trying drunkenness. Our law regards drink as the worst evil, because it breeds other evils, whereas other habits may hot do this. Sobriety was the secret of Islam's success as the builder of empires. But drinking brought ruin. It came from contact with Christian Europe, whose other bad habits we acquired, at least in nur cities, for the country is still sober. Our women do not drink. If ever Islam recovers, it will be because prohibition is restored to make men strong, clean and intellectual. I am delighted to observe that America is realizing God's command as spoken to our prophet". Christian Boston has just sent a shipload of its outlawed rum to Constantinople in the hope that the benighted total abstainers of Moslem heathendom will turn the rum into funds for the spread of the gospel.

Some of the saloonkeepers are turning their plants into intellectual centers. One of them hoisted the slogan. “While you can't get booze, drink of the Pierian Spring', and he is doing a rushing business in books, with the sign, “Good books, 25 cents each. Improve your time’’. The reason was given by the bartender: “I noticed all the men who were in the habit of getting drunk at night sitting around having nothing to dm They were quite lost for a means of spending their time. The riling was a success as soon as the crowds got used io the strange-looking things across the bar. Here they feel at home, and not embarassed while they look for the book they w|sb. . Philosophy and sociology are most desired. V£ry little fiction is wanted; they leave that for the women". Not a few saloons are turned into restaurants, and furnish the best meals for the money to be had in town.

It is the argument of the liquor men that most of the people want at least a little to drink, and that the best interests of the community are served by permitting the serving of intoxicating beverages through a system of orderly and “respectable" saloons; otherwise the people will make their drink at home, the total of drunkenness will be increased, and the liquor dritfik will be of the worst description. This contention seems to be borne out by the alleged doubling of arrests for disorderly conduct due to intoxication, since war-time prohibition went into effect; but we doubt the truth of the statement. The difficulty has been that in the past the respectable saloons were far outnumbered by the drinking places of a low type where drunkenness, drugs and women were the vogue; and this condition was attributable to the commercializing of the trade by the great breweries.

Every effort at reform is commendable; but reformers must not forget that they are opposing insuperable odds in the fallen condition of humanity, on account of which every good work has to be incessantly fought for against powers of evil that at any instant may bring about the destruction of the achievement of decades. The builders of the prohibition structure must not feel too bitterly disappointed if the next few years, in the prevailing spirit of unrest, should behold a partial failure of their well-meant plans. It is too soon to expect Millennial conditions through any reform that may yet be undertaken; but the reforms are cpming soon, under the auspices of the approaching Golden Age, when such efforts will not be in vain, but will have back of them not merely a majority sentiment but a power for good which nothing can successfully withstand.

For the world is yet in the night time. The Golden Age will be the day time, the era of light, and the people then will become children of light. Now ‘'they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night". Then the sentiment will be: ‘To are the children of light, and the children of the day, not of the night nor of darkness; therefore, let us uot sleep; but let ns watch and be sober. Let us who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope [in the mind] of salvation". And world-wide the hope will grow into certainty that "God hath not appointed us ro wrath, but to obtain salvation'*.—1 Thess. 5: 5-9.

MANUFACTURING ANDJyUN]NG|

THE white coal pile is as large as ever. The /T'HE supply of sulphur for the world formerstreams run as full as ever they did; and * ly came from Sicily, and was obtained with difficulty, not only because about fifty per cent of the sulphur mined was wasted, but because the noxious fumes generated in its purification, or smelting were extremely destructive of plant and animal life for mileS around

Hie White Coal Pile millions of horse power that would do the work of the nation, and possibly of the world, are running to waste every day in the United States as they have done for centuries.

Most of these white coal piles are in the far West, many of them on Government land, although there are many in the eastern states.

Water power is expensive to develop, because the whole plant must be completed before there is any return. Hence large capital is required; and as the Government is not engaged in the business of selling power or lights, it must entrust this development to others.

The coal shortage is making lots of people think about these water powers, and what a lot of good could be done by the current that could be generated ii we had our streams all harnessed.

Congress has the matter up now and is endeavoring to find some way to attract capital to these fields, and save the nation's coal and oil, develop new industries, build up new communities, provide employment for labor, and increased markets for agricultural products.

It is not as easy a task as could be desired. Many of the common people are fearful of seeing these great heritages of the nation fall into the maw of the combinations of capital that now control so many of the necessities and accessories of life.

It seems to us that if the Government could build water powers by employing soldiers for the task, it could rent the completed plants to operating companies, municipalities, cooperative societies or other entities that could oper-ateiliem advantageously for all concerned, without bringing aux* great groups of capital into the problem.

We are sure that the development of these water powers is one of the blessings that await mankind in^the Golden Age, and perhaps it is just as "Well that the development has been deferred so that the people will be the ones to receive the benefits instead of the few who just bow are easting longing looks in that direction.

The Mining of Sulphur

Within the past quarter century, the sulphur supply has come almost entirely from the vast beds of it which lie far down under the subsoil of Louisiana, covered with an impenetrable bed of quicksand. Fortunes were expended in various plans to find a way through this oil-saturated quicksand, and finally a method was perfected. The sulphur is now obtained by melting it with hot water forced down one pipe, transforming it into a yeast by forcing compressed air through another pipe, and letting it boil up to the surface out of a third pipe. It comes out pure and, after being cooled and solidified, is blasted into small pieces which can be loaded on cars. .

Besides being used in the manufacture of powder and the vulcanizing of rubber, sulphur is largely used in germicides. It is the most efficient constituent of many of the sprays used for killing parasites on treed and vines.

In the Valley of Hinnom, or Valley of Gehenna, or Valley of Tophet, as it was variously termed,which lay on the southwestern edge of Jerusalem, the Jews were accustomed to burn the garbage of the city, using sulphur (or brimstone as it is sometimes called) to complete the work of destruction. To a person standing upon the edge of this valley at night, and looking out over its dull fires, glowing here and there, it had the appearance of a “lake of fire and brimstone”, and was a fit representation of complete destruction. Its fires represented the complete destruction in the Golden Age of everything that is unclean, impure or in any manner injurious to life and happiness.

Among things that will be destroyed are the perverted thirst that creates the brewery and distillery, and the selfishness that, makes the high financier and the thief; for these and other evils will be ended by making men better.

Silver Up

HINA wants silver; and in response to the law of supply and demand the price is climbing. Up to May 6,1919, the export of silver had been prohibited since the summer of 1918, and the normal demand for silver for China simply could not be met. Since May the greatest silverconsuming country of the world—China—has had nearly twenty million dollars worth of silver. Still the Chinese demand is not satisfied, and the Chinese merchants and authorities are outbidding the rest of the world for all the silver that is obtainable. The Oriental republic wants more silver and yet more, and is expected to ask for it at the rate of $120,000,000 a year.

France and England have had to prohibit the export of the white metal. Silver has gone so high that it pays to melt the coin and sell it as bullion for the Chinese market. In the United States the silver dollar is worth about a cent or two over the gold dollar, but not enough to tempt much turning of coin into bullion; but if the unrestricted export of silver were permitted, the price might rise to a height where the demand for silver bullion would cause much of the silver coin of the country to be melted and the country be stripped of its small change. Fortunately, however, the value of the smaller coins is so much lower than their face value that it would require a rise that is entirely unlikely, to deprive us of our small coins. Most of the silver dollars are worn and their light weight renders them unprofitable as bullion.

Mexico is profiting by the situation; for the peso has gone from 50 cents to 99 cents, and the peon can get about the same wage as before in Mexican money and is enabled to keep up with the cost of living without a raise in wages.

An interesting feature of the existing condition is that hundreds are taking their silver heirlooms to the melting-pot. Old knives, forks, spoons, silver plate, jewelry and silver ornaments are daily coming out of their hiding plabe^. All such articles are paid for only after they have been assayed to ascertain the proportion of silver, and a small charge of about a half per cent, is deducted for the operation of melting into bars.

Chink’s appetite for silver is reported to have almost'paralyzed the retail trade of Paris. Hundreds of thousands of five-franc, two-franc, one-franc and half-franc pieces have gone to the pot, and there is not enough coin to do business with. For days at a time department stores could do little business, because there was not enough coin. Waiters are in desperation; for there are no tips. Barbers, chauffeurs, and attendants in public buildings are suffering a “short” period. One of the big stores made its own money out of cardboard circles stamped as good for certain amounts in trade at the store, and the oth^r stores followed suit, and then arranged to exchange the new “money”. Now many are issuing and using cardboard coin. The situation is aggravated by the fact that everybody is hoarding silver coin, which takes still more out of circulation. The prospect of getting enough silver is not improved by the circumstance that 60 per cent of the Mexican silver mines are shut down because of revolutionary conditions.

The world has stuck its hand down into its pocket and found that it is short of change.

Besides the phenomenal demand in India and China, one reason for the limited supply of silver is the falling off in production. In 1911 the ■world production of silver was 226,192,000 fine ounces; in 1916 this had fallen to 156,626,000 fine ounces. Mexico produces about one-third of the silver of the world; in 1913 its production was 70,000,000 ounces; in 1916 it was only 22,000,000 ounces, but it is estimated that it was 45,000,000 ounces in 1919. As a result of the great demand, old silver mines are being worked over and new districts opened up in the countries on both sides of the Rio (grande.

This illustrates what a delicately balanced fabric civilzation is. Who would think that so slight a circumstance as a somewhat increased demand from a remote country for a metal would tend to upset the trade of whole cities and put the retail trade of the world in jeopardy! And how carefully ought the men in charge of the affairs of nations to have stepped in the matter of plunging the woz-ld into a strife whose evil effects seem only begun! If a little matter, like a little fire, starts appreciable troubles, how great are the world difficulties that may be looked for from so tremendous an act of violence as the World War! It would be far better that imperial ambitions had never begun the great cataclysm, were it not that it was foreknown by the Creator and evidently was permitted in order to work out better and greater things, leading eventually to the greatest possible blessings—those of the Golden Age.

^FINANCE-COMMERCE-TRANSPORTATION^

After the Public’s Money

SOME color is given to the report that in some recent conferences the electric railways determined on new ways and means for getting more money out of the public. Unprecedented methods are being resorted to by these public “servants” to bulldoze the people into compliance with their demands.

In Toledo the electric railway company was ousted from the streets on account of a variety of complaints, including an exorbitant fare for the privilege of riding on the street cars. Instead of waiting to be put out in conventional fashion, the street railway company quit the city by quietly removing its cars at midnight without warning to the city officials, partly because the company expected the city to seize and run the street cars.

The Toledo mayor charged the company with breach of faith, with doing an act typical of the hour selected for its performance, with bad treatment of the carmen, who consider themselves innocent victims of a condition that has forced them out of work, and with a variety of other offences. The street railway company said that they could not afford to run the cars at a loss, that they would not permit the interurban cars to run in over their tracks, that they might pull down the wires and tear up the tracks, that they might put the cars on sale, that they could not possibly meet the unreasonable exactions of the city management, that they could waive their position under the ouster ordinance, that ‘'Toledo would have to beg hard to get her cars back15, and that ‘’the cars would be for sale unless they could make Toledo see our point”.

The Toledo public, for whose benefit supposedly the street cars were originally permitted.^ upon the streets, resented the company's attitude by voting six to one against repeal of the ouster, negotiated with other street car companies for cars to run on the tracks, looked for other means of lighting the city than the electricity supplied by the company, paid 10 to 50 cents to ride in all kinds of vehicles, arranged free motor truck transportation for employes and for people coming in on the interurban lines, sacrificed comfort, time and money rather than give in to the autocratic attitude of the company, and displayed u genuinely American spirit against the alleged Bourbonism of the street-car officials.

The attitude of the press in other cities ranged from a friendly interest in the problem the common people had to meet to that of papers committed to corporation interests no matter what corporations may do. The heartless comment of one such publication was in part as follows:

“As the people of Toledo had for their street-car company the enthusiastic lack of affection which it seems to be the fate of such corporations everywhere to excite, there was no difficulty in getting the inhabitants of the city to vote their company's cars off its streets until it stopped charging six cents fare and two cents for transfers. That vote, however, was cast on an understanding, by the voters, not that the company would remove its ears from the streets, but that it would return to a straight five-cent fare. Instead, with truly malignant docility and between two days, it deported all its cars into the State of Michigan; and the Toledans found themselves the winners of a most inconvenient victory against the hated foe. They were confronted with a painful alternative—that of riding in automobiles at a cost considerably greater than the rates they held intolerable, or of walking. The warning to be found in Toledo’s attempt at compulsion by exclusion should be heeded in other cities where the desire to ride at what the street-car companies declare to be less than cost might lead to action of like unwisdom.”

During the war many corporations made and laid away immense reserve sums; and this expression of a corporation mouthpiece is concrete evidence of the arrogance with which the corporations generally “feel their oats”.

The politicians of Toledo doubtless are no different from those of other cities having wealthy public utility companies, and doubtless did their share to “milk” the street railway company, held it up with graft ordinance, and for private profit did the many other things well known to politicians as useful for extracting coin or concession from corporations, while seeming to act in the interests of the people. They waxed loud in vote-getting denunciations of the heartless street railway; but it was always possible that after the proper amount of “oil” had been applied by the corporation interests the politicians talk would again he smooth as butter, because, forsooth, had not the “milk” pipe-line been re-established between corporations and politicians?

One of the good political statements for making the people feel right and help get the milk-line in -operation was that the politicians *would not repeal the ouster nor give the street railway company a franchise”. It was quite possible, of course, that “judicious concession” would cause enough politicians to “find a suitable solution” to bring the cars back on terms mutually satisfactory to corporation and politicians. It is a great political game, not letting the left hand know what the right hand does.

Everybody lost through the brawl. The company claimed a daily loss in fares of $7800. The 1400 employes lost their wages, perhaps totalling between $4000 and $5000 a day. The merchants reported business very dull. Manufactories were unable to keep their pay rolls full. The common people paid double or more for transportation, representing perhaps $6000 a day loss, besides the loss of wages. As it was a strike by a company, no troops were called to keep the striking officials in order, lock them up in bull-pens or enjoin them from interfering with a commodity of first rank as a necessity. Nothing that took place was calculated to allay unrest or to make the people feel that in some way the arrogant power of corporations ought to be curbed.

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