Golden Age, November 10, 1920
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Golden Age ■
A ' JOUR-NAL- OF -FACT
hope-and-convicTion
Nov. 10, 1920, Vol. 2, No. 30
IBB Published every other ■ K*B trrt'Ar at 35 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, Xeic York City
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' VOLWMin WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 10, 1920 NcrMBDM
. CONTENTS of tho GOLDEN AGE
A ■
? LABOR AND ECONOMICS
Kansas indurfriai delations Objections to the Law..........69
' ‘ Court ...... -_____97 The Eight to strike.__________„tt
' First Effects vt the Law—67 How About the Constitution 70
, Who to the Public?———68 Jama Talked Plainly Also_74
’ SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
: A Money-Mad World-------.71 Control of Transportation....72
. : Money Control of Wages-----71 Control of Legislation.-----—Tt
.* . Control of Rents in New Y*k 71 Control of the Courts........—73
Control of Food Product's 72 Control of Thought___7$
FINANCE— COMMERCE—TRANSPORT AVION
<■■ -x. Transportation Benefits__—74 Exercises for Business Men-tjfc
$ U. POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AJflft FOREIGN
/ . ---Norway’s Conciliation Crts..75 Conciliation Verras Lltiga-
. i American Conciliation CTts 75 tkm --------------
7 . Informal Courts of Equity....75 Bolshevism _____
. SCIENCE AND INVENTION
•*. Invention and Prophecy._______._________-_____.....
agriculture and husbandry
Blasting Out Stumps.__________—________________—
,. HOUSEWIFERY AND HYGIENE
Castile Soap................... 82 Dried Fruits and Their Tse..84
> The Barrier of Disease
■ TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
Color and Its Maker.__~85 Dear Hayom______________:------...8IF
, ' RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
' - Advanced Bible Study------------------------------------------------
i Behind Nature’s Machinery is the Intelligent, Omnipotent
V God -............... *
; - Having Given Man Capacity for Appreciation God Provides
- • Him a Revelation...................... .....M
The Existence of a Book Implies Motive on the Part of the
• Writer ......._
What AxtonisheR Thoee Who Terra the Bible a Manufactured HLstwy
. Juvenile. Bible Study..........
Waiting for the Bugle (poemi—„
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'flu-Golden Age Teluu II New York, Wednesday. November 10, 1920 Number 30
Kansas Industrial Relations Court
DURING the coal strike of last winter the people of Kansas were without coal in zero weather; and in desperation Governor Allen called the legislature in special session, January fifth, to deal with the emergency. At that time the citizens in some parts of the state were cutting down their shade trees for fuel, in order to keep the women and the children from freezing. ,
In the interim, while the legislation was in preparation, the mines of the state were manned for three weeks by volunteer workers who produced a quantity of much needed coal, albeit at an expense to the state estimated at two hundred dollars per ton for the supply produced. This is ‘ sufficient evidence that the working of mines by volunteers is not practical, and that some better way to keep the mines working should be devised.
The Kansas Legislature tackled the problem and, using New Zealand and Australian laws as . models, succeeded in a very brief time in bringing forth a law which is a novelty in America, in that it is the first law ever passed in this land compelling employes and employers to submit their differences to a tribunal for adjudication. The law was passed on January tjventv-fifth. ‘ ’
The industries covered by the law are tin* manufacture and preparation of food, the manufacture of clothing, the mining or production of fuel, the transportation of these commodities, and all public utilities, such as water, gas and electric plants. The Court may intervene in anv industrial controversy, either on its own initiative, or that oT the employers or of the employes or of a Committee of ten citizens or of the attorney general of the state.
The Court can summon all interested parties before it and make such orders, pending investigation of the condition of the workers, as ar to the public interest. It has the power to settle and adjust all controversies affecting working and living conditions, hours of labor and wages. It grants the right of collective bargaining and the right to choose one’s own field of labor.
The Court has the power to establish or to change working and living conditions, hours of labor, rules and practices, and a reasonable minimum wage or standard of wages. Striking is absolutely forbidden. Persons can quit work, individually but must not influence others to quit. Picketing is made unlawful. ' r
Any person violating any order of the Court ■ \ may be punished by $1,000 fine br one year in , the county jail: but officers of labor unions who call strikes are liable to $5,000 fine or two years ! in the penitentiary. Lock-outs are forbidden, J except by order of the Court. This provision | makes it the only law ever passed in America ; which requires the manager of an industry to • ; get permission from anybody before he can j close his plant. . ;
is
First Effects of the Law
WITH tin* power of the state behind it, the first effect of the law, was, of course, to put the mines into full operation and to increase the production of coal. It is claimed that seven hundred men took advantage of the law ami appeared bofon* the Court to request an adjustment of grievances. A provision of the law does away with court fees, and without any expense a workman’s case may be appealed to the Supreme Court of the state, and is given priority.
The Court was able at once to correct an abuse, a species of thievery which had been practiced by the coal-mining companies and of which the men justly complained. If a miner wanted to draw half of his pay ahead of time the companies had been charging ten percent interest. The Court reduced this to fifteen cents in each case, thus correcting a great wrong.
Governor Allen was naturally very enthusiastic about this law, and has been reconunending it to legislative bodies and to commercial and manufacturing associations everywhere, including the Republican National Convention. He has boasted that the bill has teeth, and this is ■probably true. One of the questions at issue just now, however, is whether “teeth” and a gatling gun policy are better in the long run, or whether the old American idea of fair play and honest dealing is best, after all.
While it is true that many chambers of commerce, and “big business” in general, have stamped the Industrial Court with their approval, yet there are other men of ability and influence who have misgivings, and the law has been denounced by some economists, by the governors of some states and by some who are held in great esteem as statemen. Mr. Herbert Hoover, at one time world food administrator, has said of the- new Industrial Court that its summary actions “may both stifle a delicate adjustment of industrial processes and cause serious conflict over human rights”.
Ou May 28, while elated with the first flush of victory, Governor Allen came on to New York in a special train and debated the value of his new law with Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor. The debate was held in Carnegie Hall. In the debate Governor Allen showed himself an able logician, and asked his capable antagonist three questions which have been widely published since the debate and which, at the moment, Mr. Gompers found it bard to answer. The questions wore:
1. When a dispute between capital and labor brings on a strike affecting tin' production or distribution of the necessaries of life. thus threatening the public peace and impairing the public health, has the public any rights in such a controversy, or is it a private war between capital and labor? 2. If you (Mi*. Gompers) answer this, question in the affirmative, how would you ''protect the rights of the public? 3. And. in addition, let him define for us, if he will, who had the divine right to forbid the switchmen to strike in their outlaw strike— who controls this divine right to quit work?
Who is the Public?
ovep.nor Allens questions, and the attempts to answer them with fairness to all, have thrown much light on the question of who and what the .public is, and what are its real and its fancied rights. Kansas has 14 percent of population made up of employers and 54 percent of employes, and the conclusion has been jumped at that the remaining 93 percent constitute a public that is really not a party at all to any controversy which may arise between miners and mine owners.
But a more critical examination of this question narrows us down to the fact that the public is made up of workers of some kind, and that if there are any of the public who do not work, and who are not interested in the living conditions of those who do work, then they may as well be eliminated from the discussion.
The wives, the children, the brothers, die sisters of workers, and their fellow workers and their families in other trades have a real interest in the living condition of miners, although it is true that educated as they are by employer owned newspapers (14 percent of the population) they sometimes give no thought to that subject until they are without coal in the midst of zero weather, and then, perhaps, the thoughts are only of anger that the miners should have as little regard for their comforts as they have shown for the miners' own comforts.
This presents a new aspect to the strike, or one generally not seen. No person can claim rights without acknowledge ng-responsibilities. If we claim the right to have coal we must acknowledge the responsibility to see to it.that the miner gets a fair deal. In every strike the workers who are not directly involved in the struggle, that is* to say the public, by whatever inconveniences they may have to suffer, are helping to bear their proper responsibility for failure to s^e that economic justice has been provided for other workers.
Mr. Gompers, with his long experience in such matters, saw this point: for in his public answer to Governor Allen, published after the debate, he said:
"The public has no rights which are superior to the toiler's right to live and to his right to defend himself against oppression. Every strike for the improvement in the condition and standards of those engaged in industry has its relies and influence for the uplift of all,”
Did we ever think of that before? Did wo ever seriously reflect that we ought to as zealous in the cause of labor when it is underpaid as we are in our own behalf when a strike shuts off the necessities of life I Did we ever stop to think that workers do not bring on the sufferings which are incident to strikes, and in which they themselves suffer most of all, unless they are 'forced to do so by intolerable conditions?
1 These observations help us to see how the interests of all are bound.up together and that the gatling-gun method of adjusting difficulties of this nature can never succeed. No majority of the people can have rights which impose upon a minority of the people intolerable conditions. The claims of justice can not be righteously fulfilled as affecting the whole public if at the same time these claims are denied to any part of the public.
i Now coming to the Governor’s new law we can see the necessity, if it is to be a success, that it must be administered by men of the highest character, men whose sense of justice is unusually keen, for these men are assumed to represent all the people in their efforts to see that justice is done to each and every one of its component parts—surely a large order.
1 One can see that whatever rights the people as a whole have to the enforced service of miners, or other workers, they have the same rights to the services of the highest-paid and most capable men in their midst, and the ability to compel an employer to continue to pay out money to workers once employed is as real as the ability to compel workers to continue working for certain employers. The Governor’s new law is a step toward socialism.
Objections to the Law
IMMEDIATELY after the Kansas law was passed, the movement spread to other states, Illinois, Colorado. Wyoming, Nebraska, New York and Massachusetts: and there will evidently ^e an attempt to make such legislation general. ’’ But can we be certain that the temporary success of this Court is any augury that it will prove to be a permanent remedy ?
Until now the whole peorde. sitting in the Court of public Opinion, have been passing upon matters of this nature, and if the newspapers would but do their duty and tt'll all the facts, and not suppress the facts favorable to the miners, our opinion is that this informal Court would still l>e better for the settlement these issues than any formal Court that could J>e appointed by a Governor. If there is to be such an Industrial Court then it should be elected by the people as a whole, and not appointed.
The living conditions of the miners are not good. Their work is very irregular, as previously shown in The Golden Age, and the report of the President's Commission has shown that foi* two years they have been working for a wage thirty percent below the level of bare subsistence. Wien the mines are working, which is a poor percentage of the total, time they should be working, they are overcrowded with men and have insufficient cars to enable these men to make a living wage.
Offsetting the condition of the miners is the fact that in 1917 all the bituminous coal mines east of the Mississippi River made an average profit of 100% to 150% on the invested capital. This profit was less in 1918, but even these large profits were still enjoyed by about one-fifth of the total number of mines.
The Industrial Court will be liable to establish precedents which will make it increasingly difficult for the workers to progress in the direction of better wages or greater control of. the industries by which they live. Indeed, some students believe that by the delays which will intervene before revisions of rewards may be obtained this law may be the means of bringing about the very unrest it is supposed to allay.
The Right to Strike
HE newspapers of the country are mostly owned by wealthy men, and the uniform impression they convey with reference to almost every strike is that the men who have quit work as a protest against their low pay or excessive hours of labor, or other unsatisfactory conditions, are a band of assassins, highwaymen that must be quickly cowed by the display of force. This is not true; and Mr. Gompers has truthfully said in this connection that ‘‘American workmen, through organization and protest, through the strike, have paid back to America in fitness for citizenship a thousandfold for the sufferings strikes have caused”.
Surely the people as a whole do not approve of the employment of children in mines and in factories or of the sweatshop in which, in order to exist, whole families for a mere pittance work sixteen hours a day in the most unsanitary conditions. It was the strike that measurably put an end to such conditions as this in America, and it is to be feared that any Industrial Court would have accomplished the same results much more slowly and less thoroughly, if at all,
. It is true that strikes are a nuisance, and that the country has had thousands of them to try its patience, yet the American people would not tolerate a condition such as prevails in India, China or Japan, where the workmen must accept ■ what is given them and where many are at all times on the edge of starvation. No one will deny that one or two or more human beings striving for a right have more justice on their side than a million other human beings seeking to take that right away. Moreover, history has shown that the strike has repeatedly been proven to- be a measure necessary to public progress, as long as the mainspring of business is selfishness. ’
In an address to striking shoe workers of Worcester? Massachusetts, President Lincoln said: ‘’Thank God, we live in a country where, at the last point, the workman may stop work”. The New York Times says that President Wilson has also declared that the right to strike is inviolate. Attorney General Palmer, however, > admits and denies the right in the same breath ' “by the following statement, issued October 29, ■. 1919. He said, “It does not follow that every i strike is lawful merely because the right to strike is recognized to exist. Every case must stand upon its own bottom and be governed by its own. facts.”
How about the Constitution?
KANSAS had its birth in opposition to slavery, but now it is alleged by some of its foes to be the champion of that condition. The Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution provides, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted;- ^Jiall exist within the United States, or any place’subject to their jurisdiction”.
The legal definition of "involuntary servitude” is "any control by which the personal service of a human being is disposed nf or coerced foi\ another's benefit”. The American Federation 4>f tabor claims that the Kansas Industrial Court law violates this constitutional
. right, and states that the Federation will never surrender its right to strike.
It is tacitly admitted by all well-informed and honest people that, during the war, the United States Constitution was ignored and deliber . ately violated by the very officers who had promised Almighty God and the American people that they would uphold it to the letter, in peace and in war. Conditions developed that made the servants of the people, sometimes mistakenly called the authorities, feel that they were justified in overreaching and assuming prerogatives never entrusted to them by the people and therefore still rightly’ in the' people’s care.
Miners and others were enjoined from striding or were notified that they must not strike, and the people were content to let the matter pass unchallenged; but now that the country is at peace the right to do these things is challenged. The right to do these things implies the equal right to issue injunctions against employers, forbidding them to reduce wages or-to lock out employes, and compelling them to submit to the workers3" demands. No such rights have ever been delegated by the people to anybody.
The Industrial Court did not start off in Kansas without a hitch. On its first visit to Pittsburg, the Kansas coal center, two thousand miners went out on strike as a protest against the presence of the Court in their midst, and remained out for a week.
The leader of the miners, Alex. Howat, refused to testify before the Industrial Court or to recognize it, on the ground that it is an unconstitutional court. After a week in jail he gave bond, pending an appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court. While he was locked up practically all of the coal miners of Kansas left their work. The Industrial Court took no steps to lock up the twelve thousand miners that thus held it in contempt, Init the incident raises the question whether it is a good thing to have a Court in existence that functions in this manner.
Judge Underwood, of Tulsa, Oklahoma (whether having this incident particularly in mind or not we do not know), has made the statement that in his judgment the time will rotne when the golden rule will be followed by all men, and when courts and lawyers will be a thing of the past. That is the kind of doctrine The Golden Age believes in, and it also believes in the men that do believe in that kind of doctrine. '
A Money-Mad World
IF THE love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, then the tree of evil must be growing more rapidly now than ever before, for its roots are surely spreading with lightning rapidity.
The actual money of the world is not so great. If all the currency of the world were divided equally it would give each person only about forty dollars. The greater part of what passes for money is merely a printed acknowledgment of indebtedness. There is a great deal more of this kind of money afloat now than ever before.
Before the World War the average indebtedness, the world over, was about $26.67; now it is six times as great. If all the money in the world were divided equally, and all the debts in the world were divided equally, we would each be $140 in debt until we could sell some of our other property and turn it into money, in case we happened to have any to sell.
Early the other morning a money-mad milkman passed the house. He was driving slowly, and was slowly pouring off a large part of the cream from the top of each milk bottle, thus making up little bottles of cream which he would sell, later in the day, to the damage of his employer and his employer’s customers, for. the benefit of his own private purse.
An illustration of the lengths to which people will go when they are money-mad is afforded by a circumstance which has been brought to our attention. There is a business in New York in which two hundred fifty men and women are employed. The business has been successful and within a year has accumulated a fund of $225,000 over and above dividends, interest and surplus. Two men, the general manager and his assistant, each in the business over ten years, and each receiving over $15,000 a year salary, came to the president, representing all the em-ploj'fe^asked a share in this special fund, and finally requested that a committee of employes be named to run the business in the place of the president of the concern. Seemingly, every person in that business, from the president down, wAs m^iiey-mad.
Money Control of Wages
THE Anaconda Mining Company, of Butte, Montana, has the reputation of being one of the most cold-blooded combinations of wealth in the country. Living conditions in Butte are very bad. The air is so gas-laden that nothing green can live, and the prices for necessities are out of proportion to the wages, $5.75, paid to the ore diggers.
In April the miners went on a strike for better wages and picketed the works, a thing in itself entirely lawful, whatever may be our views regarding its abuse. In two days from the time the picketing started, other employes of the company, in the guise of deputy sheriffs, and in the company of their employers, shot down twenty of these pickets. *
This was done while the sheriff and members of the city police force calmly looked on and did nothing. Unable to face such a combination of wealth and power many miners have left Butte, and the company has. imported men to take their places, but has probably not gained as much as it has lost, owing to the lesser efficiency of the new men.
Control of Rents in New York -
ENTS in New York and vicinity have risen to heights that are almost incredible. We know of a man who was paying $75 per month rent; his landlord at one jump increased his rent to $225 per month—another $150 to $400.
Conditions like this are possible only because there is a shortage of homes, and investigations have now disclosed a permanent arrangement in New Y'ork for maintaining such a shortage indefinitely. The buildings of New York are mainly of brick; nearly all the brick is made in yards located along the Hudson River; all of the manufacturers of brick in these yards sell their product through a dealers’ association; a builder who is not a member of that association cannot get any of that Brick, and no man can become a member of that association unless his competitors admit him to membership. In other words the building business of New York is in control of the men who control the dealers’ association. As a matter of fact, persons who are not members of the dealers* association can not get cement either; for Hie cement dealers dare not antagonize those who now hold the strings of power that control the building operations and thus the rents of the great city. We shall discuss this whole housing question at length in our next issue.
Control of Food Production
FOR more than a generation the fanners of the West have been compelled to pay extortionate rates of interest for the money needed to put in their crops. Fifteen percent was not uncommon, and much more than this has been obtained by the familiar ruse of “shaving’ notes.
At length, after a long battle, the farmers succeeded in securing legislation bringing about the establishment of federal farm loan banks, to loan them money at 5 percent to 54 percent. But at once the victory was spoiled by a suit brought to test the constitutionality of the farm loan bank act, the bonds of the farm loan banks could not be sold, and as a result the farmers are now paying the same old interest as formerly.
The bankers of the Farm Mortgage Bankers’ Association have now come out with a formal statement to other banks whose cooperation they court, claiming all the credit for the operation by which the farmers have been deprived of the privilege of borrowing money at a reasonable rate of interest. No doubt these bankers would be the first in the land to urge other people to contribute their dollars or their sons to be used in the defense of American honor; but where is their own honor, when they know that the Government has urged the farmers to plant more crops and they stand directly across the path by which alone the farmers can provide more food for the people?
The bankers need to got at it and clean out the hypocrites that are in their midst. When the Executive Council of the American Bankers’ Association met for their three-day session at Pinehurst. N. C.. in April, they discussed the need for more farm owners, longer lease*' for tenants and means for. stopping tin* drift fr< .a the farm to the city. Moreover, they listen'd to a message from the Secretary of Agriculture to the effect that there is an increasing demand for food to feed the increasing population, and that this must be met by producing mor*' food to the acre and by improved methods, as otherwise the cost of production will increase more jmd more. Bub how is the farmer to produce more and cheaper food, if he is deprived by the bankers of the use of capital, at reasonable figures, which every business requires if it is to live!
Control of Transportation
ONE of the meanest tricks that are played upon the workers is played by politicians who pretend to be interested in the lot of the workers, so as to take the leadership away from some man who is really interested in their welfare. They thus deceive the workers into hoping for better conditions, knowing all the time that they have no intention of aiding them.
Everybody knows why government management of the railroads was made out to be a failure. It was a failure which was deliberately planned. The same men were permitted to operate the roads under government management who had everything to gain financially, ami nothing to lose except honor, if they could succeed in proving to the public that. government ownership is a failure. How well they accomplished their purpose you can readily learn by asking any railroad man to tell of the instances that came under his own observation of how operating costs were deliberately multiplied, and the time of crews wasted, by the men who recently secured the advance in freight and passenger rates.
It is not true that transportation lines cannot lie operated successfully by the public, and it is not true that higher than five-cent fares are a necessity for the proper operation of street-car lino? that were honestly built and financed. In San Francisco, which has public ownership of ■rreet-car lines, the passengers are carried for a iivo-rent fare, the same as formerly: the cars are clean, commodious and comfortable; and they pay a handsome profit to the city.
Control of Legislation
THE wealthy minority in both Democratic Republican parties controls absolutely the ;j-rious of a great majority in each party. The tool that is used to accomplish this is the press, ■ Inch has been trained to yell "pro-Germanism’’, " Bolshevism." "Anarchy," every time an idea adverse to rheir interests lifts its head. Fear “L a change for the worse is made the basis for a constant pressure by the wealthy minority— mie percent of the population — against the undoubted rights and interests of the majority.
For six years there has been introduced in the assembly at Albany a bill providing for an eight-hour day for women. Is this bill in the interests of the people! It is. Is it a patriotic measure’ It is. Tias it the support of the “patriots” at Albany that twice denied elected representatives the seats to which they had been elected ? It has not.
During this entire period of six years this bill in the interests of humankind has not been permitted to come before the Assembly for discussion. The man wjio would bring up this bill without obtaining the consent of the party boss Beforehand would never see his own bills, the bills in which his personal constituency are interested, brought out of committee; he would never be put on any important committee, and his apparent inaction would cause his defeat the next time he came up for re-election. Moreover, if he should refuse to vote as the boss wished him to do, the boss would very probably be able to control enough votes to defeat any measures which he desired to have passed.
Before hp was elected President, Mr. Wilson made the following statement:
“The facts of the situation amount to this: that a comparatively small number of men control the raw material of this country; that a comparatively small number of men control the water powers that can be made useful for the economical production of the energy to drive our machinery; that that same number of men largely control the railroads; that by agreements handed around among themselves they control prices, and that the same group of men control the larger credits of the country. Suppose you go to Washington and try to get at your Government. You will always find that while you ap> politely listened to, the men really consulted are the men that have the biggest stake- -the big bankers, the big manufacturers, the big masters of commerce, the heads of railroad* corporations, and of the steamship corporations/’ '
Control of the Courts
IT WOULD be too much to say that money controls the courts of the United States: but there is no question that it has a larger influence than^ft ought to have. Who are the wealthy profiteers that have gone to Atlanta, and why has the Department of Justice not shown the enthusiasm in prosecuting cases of -this kind that it sjiowpd in the prosecution of politically friendless Bible students, seven of whom it sent there fo? twenty years each because of a disagreement as to the true meaning of a text in the. Revelation of St. John!
Early in the year tin- Attrrn-- C 1 -al admitted before the Senate Committee Un Agriculture that the packers had clearly violated both the civil and the criminal provisions of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, but admitted also that no criminal proceedings would be brought against them.
Benevolence such as he did not show toward the Bible students that he sentenced to Atlanta, was manifested by Judge Howe toward Felix Gouled, a wealthy army raincoat contractor. This man was convicted October 18, 1918, of defrauding the government and was sentenced to seven years in the penitentiary and a fine of $10,000, but he was not locked up and denied bail, as in the case of the Bible students. On the other hand he was released on $25,00Q.bail; and now, while his case is up before the Supreme Court, he is permitted to go to Europe for three months to undertake a large sale of ' cotton to the Polish Government.
Control of Thought
IT WAS a great discovery that Jhe men cf greatest wealth in the United States—the great financiers—made when they discovered a-plan to suppress thought. The greatest concern*! in the country’ are represented in this plan’, and the plan is both simple and sinister.
Every clergyman, editor, lawyer, teacher, physician, labor leader, merchant and public official is supplied with carefully prepared literature, conveying to his mind just the kind cf impression that Big Business wants circulated abroad by these, the men of influence in the community.
Additionally, the foreign press in America is to be made over. It is to be supplied with . American advertising, supplies and credit, and it is to do what its American backers dictate. If there is any attempt at open discussion of economic questions, the American advertising will disappear, the American supplies, including the paper upon which to print the publication, will be withheld, the American credit will be shut off. the paper will die, and another victory for this particular brand of one-hundred percent Americanism will have been gained.
What tatter plan could he devised of stopping all progress than to feed the most influential men in every connuunity with propaganda <*al-culated to poison their minds, and then to shut off the life breath of the few papers that do have an outlet for public opinion?
Transportation Benefits: 2?// z?. J. Wilson
Mr. Editor: In your April number, page 495, under the heading, “Finance—Commerce—Transportation,” I find the following: ‘ The proposition is under way in England, as in America, to raise the railroad rates so as to put the railroads on a paying basis. Those who use the railways, whether for travel or for merchandise, should pay for them.” I presume at least you endorse that sentiment or you would not give it a hearing in the columns of your publication.
There never was a greater economic errer promulgated than that the users of a public utility are the only ones benefited by such utility. The late James J. Hill recognized the fact that the presence of a railroad created land values second only to the presence of people upon such land; consequently, the holders of vacant land were benefited in a greater degree by such railroads than the people who used them. That being the fact (and no rational person will deny it), then the burden of upkeep and maintenance should be borne equally by all who are benefited by such utilities.
"Without population land has no value, and without transportation you cannot have a prosperous community. So, to my mind, the speculator who holds vacant land out of use is of no value to the community and should ho taxed out of existence, the same as any other nuisance.
James J. Hill uttered another vital truth when he said: “Land without labor is a wilderness, and labor without land is a mob”.
At least $350,000,000 of value has heen created in vacant land in Seattle by the street-car system, and the holders of such land have never been called upon to pay one penny by taxation, to extend, maintain, and operate said system. Our City Councilmen are back numbers, and they abe^preparing to make the users of our street-cars pay all the expense that goes with the system, but they let the holders of vacant property, the operators of the great department stores, and the owners of the great office buildings in the business districts escape absolutely, nothwithstari^ling the fact that they are the greatest beneficiaries of the car svstem.
In addition to this, the rent hog has boosted rents beyond the power of endurance, and that increase also has been passed on to the ultimate consumers, so that the ordinary citizen is robbed of his birthright, and is unable to provide the necessaries to clothe, shelter, and nourish his wife and family properly. These questions are up for settlement and never will be settled until they are settled right.
Please give this letter space, and thus help the people think along correct economic lines.
James Talked Plainly Also
The Apostle James gave the wealthy men of his own times a rebuke in the following language:
“Hearken, my beloved brethren. Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats I Do not they blaspheme [misrepresent] that worthy name [Christian] by which ye are called?”—James 2:5-7.
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shalhcome upon you. Your riches are corrupted. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton.”—Jas. 5:1-6.
Exercises For Business Men
A Southern Lumber Company has compiled and published the following rules for keeping well and keeping a sweet’ temper during business hours: ■
Rise 7 a. m.
Stand in the middle of the room, raise arms slowly, take deep breath and think of the month's bills, lowering the arms in attitude of despair. Do this 10 times.
Extend body flat downward on floor, cover eyes with hands, kick heels, think of the railroads and weep—till dry.
Kneel, wring hands, meditate upon radicals and groan 150 times.
Collapse on floor. Grovel vigorously, think of the income tax and gnash your teeth as in anger.
Follow till exhausted.
While cooling off try to get a number on telephone.
Norway’s Conciliation Courts
IN 1797, by a royal edict, while Norway and Denmark were still under one sovereign, there was instituted what has proven to be the ■‘most beneficent law ever promulgated by a king.
This is the use of the principle of conciliation procedure, an arrangement by which the parties to a suit meet a special tribunal in private, with or without attorneys, tell their stories, receive advice from’the judge as to their rights, and his advice as to what would be an equitable settlement. The plan met with immediate and permanent success.
■ Every village containing at least sixty fanii--iies constitutes a separate district of conciliation. The*districts are purposely made small so ■that all the parties may know one another. The very best men in the community are selected as the peacemakers or judges of these causes.
‘ The plaintiff states his case in writing. A fee of twenty-five cents is charged for issuing ; the’summo'ns. with fifty cents more if a conciliation is effected. No case can go to a regular court unless it is accompanied by a certificate that it has been before the conciliation court. As a general thing, lawyers are excluded. Parties who refuse to appear before the conciliation court must pay the costs when the case goes to the regular court, even if they win.
Agreements of settlement are recorded and can be enforced the same as final judgment. Nothing that is stated in the conciliation court can l>e used if the case goes into the regular court, except that if either of the parties was . willing to settle he receives a certificate to that effect. From seventy-five to ninety percent of the cases are-peaceably adjusted in these courts of conciliation. Any attempt to abolish them would bring about a revolution.
In one year, out of 101.669 cases submitted to this court, conciliation was effected in 81,015 » instances, and 7,866 more cases were success-fully^&rbitrated in the same court, thus adjusting about nine-tenths of the cases amicably, quickly and cheaply, without loss of time or money and without severing old ties of friendship an$ go$d will.
American Conciliation Courts
AN ATTEMPT was made in North Dakota, in .1893, to introduce the Norway and Denmark procedure, but the act permitted either of the parties to the conciliation to send another to represent him at the hearings, and made it necessary that the hearings be held before a justice of the peace. These provisions weakened the effect of the act, and when it was subse* quently so modified as to require attorneys tn represent the parties before conciliators could be called in, it died an ignominious death.
In Cleveland, Ohio, in March, 1913, the ♦ Municipal Court of Cleveland opened a concilk ation branch for causes involving not more than ’ $35. Proceedings are private, defendants always appear in response to notices mailed, agreements are always reached and there are nd appeals. The cost to litigants ranges from 25 cents to 55 cents. Formerly, 40,000 cases were brought annually before the justice courts 0$ Cleveland. Now the conciliation branch is taking care of more than 25,000 of these and the limit , has been raised from $35 to $200. .
Minneapolis also has a newly organized conciliation court in which causes involving , not more than $1,000 can be tried, although: summary power?* of disposition are limited' far causes not exceeding $50. It is expressly provid** ed that satisfaction of judgments may be made ' either in a lump sum or in installments in suchs> amounts and at such times as the judge may deem just and reasonable.
Of 3,500 cases thus far disposed of in the Minneapolis Conciliation Court 1,745 were recorded as settled out of court. A rule has been put into effect that no single plaintiff can file more than three suits in any one month, and thus the flooding of the court with the claims of telephone companies, gas and electric conn panies is prevented. * 1
Informal Courts of Equity
CHICAGO has an informal court for the trying of claims amounting to less than $35.
Contested cases are tried at an average of fifteen minutes each. During the first year one judge disposed of about 1,000 cases a month. The limit has been gradually raised to $200, and a second, and then a third, judge put oa the calendar. During the first four months of 1918 these judges disposed of 6,863 cases. About forty percent of all the causes which go to court in Chicago are for claims of less than $200. What is saved the contestants may be judged from the fact that a jury trial in a cause involving $300 usually costs the parties .for witness and counsel $75 and the public a like amount.
. In the State of Washington there is now an attorneyless small claims court in which claims of $20 or less may be tried and final sentence obtained at once. Plaintiffs must pay $1.50 to enter suit
Another step forward is that in several states the office of Public Defender has been created, to make sure that a poor man accused of crime is adequately defended. This is on the true theory that the State has no good interest in merely seeing a man convicted—an innocent man.
Conciliation Versus Litigation
Abb ah am Lincoln's motto was
.“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the realjoser, in fees, expenses and waste of time.” Compare these wise and kindly expressions of a great man with the bare fact that in some cities of the United States— notably Philadelphia, though it is doubtless true elsewhere — that there are men who make a living by watching hospitals and doctor’s offices and getting powers of attorney from persons who have been injured in accidents. These powers of attorney are subsequently auctioned off to lawyers who make a specialty of handling such cases.
Alex.‘Simpson, Jr., Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, is quoted in the Journal of the American Judicature Society as having said:
‘T happen to he president of the board of trustees of the Methodist Hospital in Philadelphia : and until that board by resolution forbade it them was not an accident case brought to that institution that there was not at least a dozen lawyers coining in to see the injured man and trying to get to represent him on a contingent fee. This is not an exaggeration; ir is an actual fact.”
But there are staunch defenders of right in the Bar Associations. In New York city recently a majority of the^Bar Association passed resolutions expressing the opinion that two of the judges before whom they practiced daily were unworthy of renomination. This had a'direct bearing upon the earning power of these lawyers,, and required of them a considerable degree of courage and faithfulness to right for the sake of right.
Bolshevism: By Newton T. Harkhorn
VIDENTLY the meaning of the word Bolshevism, as applied in Russia, is government solely by the working class in the interest of the working class. Hence the underlying principle of Bolshevism is government by a class in the interest of a class.
Some years since, in London, in discussing American politics, one of the heads of the greatest banking house in the world said to me: “You do not have popular government in the United States; the people do not rule; mopey rules”. The New York agent of that banking house, who was also the agent of the British Government in the United States, was for fourteen years chairman of the national committee of one of the two great political parties which have elected the president of the United. States for fifty years past.
Evidently the English baron afore mentioned was good'authority on the kind of government which we have in the United States.
Now then, if, as before stated, Bolshevism is government by a class in the interest of a class, and if the English baron was correct in his analysis of our government, we have had Bolshevistic government in the United States for these many years: the only difference between^ Russian Bolshevism and American Bolshevism being that in the United States it governs in the interest of the capitalistic or aristocratic class, while in Russia it governs in the interest of the working class.
Rev. Dr. Fisher, head of the Industrial Department of the Inter-Church World Movement, was sent to Russia by that organization to learn the facts in regard to the Bolshevist government. At the Atlantic City’ conference he reported that the Russian Bolshevist government was a sincere and successful effort by the working people of Russia to administrate the government in the interest of the working people, and that if he lived in Russia he woqld be a Bolshevist. I was at that Conference as the accredited representative of a leading American newspaper, and I heard (and secured a verbatim report of) Rev. Dr. Fisher’s speech. But the paper I represented refused to print the report, and it did not appear in any paper, as far as 1 could learn. Dr. Fisher stated that nothing but lies appeared in the American Dress about Russia: he also stated that Lenine was a’greater statesman than the British Premier, Lloyd George, or Clemenceau, or President Wilson. The celebrated aphorism of the last, "Make the world safe for Democracy," seems to have lieen very generally translated into "Make the world safe for Imperialism”. From such few direct reports as we have, truly Lenine seems to "ne about the only one of the world’s prominent statesmen who is making a sincere effort to apph the famous slogan.
Tn England ninety percent of the working people are organized in labor unions: and they notified the English Premier. Lloyd George, to quit meddling with Russia or take the consequences. And he quit.
The Inter-Church world move seems to have collapsed, and possibly one reason for the ™ collapse is that Dr. Fisher was tolling the truth tn the American working men-too industriously to suit aristocratic Bolshevism. Dr.. Fisher, • however, is not the kind that lies down at the
ergck of the whip; and we may hear more from him. .
The A in e r i can press with scarcely an exception (possibly the Hearst papers) is controlled by big capitalists who are in terror lest working-class Bolshevism shall get control; and their press goes into spasms at the bare thought of Communism, as they call it.
Communism may destroy the vital spirit of industry, but if it can show worse results than have come from aristocratic class communism (rule by the few in the interest of the few) in the past few years, it must indeed be a dreadful system. But the fact is that the Soviet System is.not real communism. However,-we need not expect righteous government by either the working class, or the middle class, or the aristocratic class. All of them are bound to' fail under the depraved conditions that obtain. The psychology of the times is peculiarly phenomenal; the old social, political, economic and religious world is in its death struggle, and the birth of a new world of surpassing glory is-about to take place—the kingdom of heaven— the Golden Age. ’
Invention and Prophecy: By Frederick Lardent, DJF.O.A., London
ONE reason why so many wonders in our midst are taken as matter of course, is the fact that invention and improvement have arisen by seemingly slow successive stages. But had they been more suddenly thrust upon the human race what an excitement would have been caused!
For instance, to change instantly as a means of transit from the horse or the camel into the long serpent-like train, which rushes and hisses over the surface of the land at fifty miles an hour, and within which are seen men quietly reading er sleeping, or surveying the quickly passing landscape, would l:av<» surely brought forth marked expressions of astonishment.
A^aim to see men able to overcome the power of gravitation and to rise and soar like a bird high in the air and then quickly disappear in 'he fr-r distance—in other words to see them, as it wipre,/mount up with wings as eagles’’— would I^avp been a marvellous sight in days gone by.
Again, to come to the edge of the glassy sea and to witness a few men disappear in a strange looking craft, which eventually glides beneath the waters like a fish; or to hear the voice of a relative or of a notable singer or the fuH r ; music of an orchestra proceeding from a box- । -upon a table: or to see a man talk to his friend । who- is actually at a very great distance, by ’ simply speaking through a small funnel-like ; contrivance; or to touch a switch and find one's * vicinity illuminated by a powerful light; or to 1 enter an immense vessel, equipped with many ‘ conveniences for human comfort and pleasure, and in a short time find one’s self upon another continent, the other side of the world—all these t 1 and many other such-like marvels would have s caused our friends of long ago to think they : were living in a land of endless enchantments.
Indeed, the fairy-fiction writers of the past . ' did not conceive of such wonders.
But this is in fulfillment of prophecy; the ' "shall'* of so many a prediction may now be ‘ turned into the present tense — ‘knowledge { * has increased? ‘many are running to and fro? : ‘chariots are raging in the streets? ‘they rfo seem like torches' and ‘run like lightnings'. (Nahum 2:3. 4: Daniel 12:4) Also the “swift, 1 ; beasts” of Isaiah 66:20 — literal, 'swaying ; furnace’ as of a train in rapid motion—are now rushing toward Jerusalem.
Moreover, we are witnesses to the foretold ‘'time of trouble" upon the nations, and the increasing prosperity of the Jews and their return to the land of their forefathers. (Romans 11:25) These prophecies in their fulfillment point to the fact that we are on the eve of an entirely new dispensation. Thinking men realize, too, that the present-day marvels are but in their infancy. Forogleams of greater wonders are still reaching the ears of the public, and we may rest assured that, when these discoveries and inventions are all utilized for the general welfare and happiness of mankind, the coming age will be superior in every way to any which has been witnessed in the past.
What, then, if this new age be ushered in by the roar of thunder? What though mankind be afflicted by foreboding fears ? What though the many idols be heaved up and dashed to a thousand fragments upon the ground beneath? If day is breaking—the sunlight of which will illuminate and bless the groaning millions— then with a clarion voice ringing throng!) earth and sky let us say—let it Come !
True are the words of the poet:
“We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time.
In an age on ages telling, To be living is sublime.
. Hark! the rumbling in the nations, Iron crumbling with the clay.
Hark! what*soundeth 1 'Tis creation Groaning for a better day!”
Now there is one of these foregleanis before the notice of the writer: A London newspaper speaks of a new age—a rublier age—or the age of silence, to be made possible by the discovery of a Manchester chemist.
One night, working alone in the solitude of his laboratory, Mr. S. J. Peachy, one of the lecturers of the Manchester College of Tech-nologyT^iscovered that it is possible to vulcanize rubber swiftly and perfectly by means of two cheap gases at a mere fraction of the cost of existing processes. The whole arrangement is so simple\ thet any unskilled person could manipulate it alter a few hoars instruction. The discovery has since been followed up with great perseverance and assiduity, ami it is now recognized by the rubber experts that the Peachy process will be useful in dozens of ways in the manufacture of such commodities and necessities as boots, clothing, paving, floor covering, upholstery, tiles—in fact the whole waterproof industry will undergo a change revolutionary in character.
Truly what a welcome change is here suggested, for we all—especially those amid the traffic and bustle of town life — realize more or less the terrors underlying the nerve-racking noises of the present time. Bible students are also among those who view this and similar discoveries with favor; for they verily believe that a certain amount of quietude, especially amid the surroundings of delightful nature, induces a calm, restful, meditative spirit, a mental concentration so essential for the exercise of the higher impulses. This they believe will be a necessary adjunct to humanity in the Golden Age.
The prophet Isaiah also tells of an age of quietude—“In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength". Again, “The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever: my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in quiet resting places".—Isaiah 30:15; 32:17,18, So much for this point of view. And now comes still another foregleain which we may term the 'world’s wireless concert’. To explain this we cannot do better than quote the words of the Italian, Aldo Cassuto, whose voice was flung nine hundred miles away, from London to Rome. He says: “Speaking to somebody who is nearly a thousand miles away, with nothing between us but ether, is a strange sensation. The men who are listening to me are people I know. Some of them are very good friends, and I can imagine I see their faces bearing the marks of anxiety for the success of the coming miracle. I throw my voice into the mouthpiece, and I tell them that I am the friend they know, that they should recognize my voice, that I am very glad to talk with them. But I cannot have an answer from them. The wireless stations in Rome are not powerful enough to transmit the voice to such a distance. They are condemned to be dumb: I am condemned to be deaf. Will they hear me? I must confess I did not feel quite sure of it until T saw the wireless telegram of my editor at Rona*, announcing that the message got through all right."
This recalls another remarkable incident in
a London government building, when in the presence of some members of Parliament a colonel entered into conversation with some air men who were travelling miles away at great speed in their machines. The voices of the air men, including one of their songs, were heard distinctly by the honorary gentlemen, who were all keenly interested in the experiment. As a further proof of the bona-fideness of the messages sent and received, the airmen were asked to assemble in the evening at a certain place to dine, which was accordingly verbally accepted and fulfilled. .
What a marvelous foregleam of the Golden /.ge this news becomes! Even at its birth we ere astonished, and we can well foresee that soon as such lines of communication are perfectly established, two or more individuals a thousand miles apart will be able to converse and reach a decision. And what a great convenience this may be for those grand worthies when they rise from their sleeping condition— Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David and such like—who, as representatives of Jesus Christ and His bride the "little flock”, will be the visible representatives in the glorious kingdom to be established world-wide. -
Thus the handicap of distance will be largely mitigated;, for if David happened to be in London, Joseph in New York, and Abraham and others in>Jerusalem, thoughts and reflections over any given matter could be communicated one to another immediately, and one-ness of viewpoint maintained. Thus—“BA sendeth forth his commandment upon the earth, and his word runneth swiftly." (Psa. 147:15) "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together/’—Isaiah 40:5.
With such inventions before us, coordinating as they do with the fulfillment of prophecy and the Bible time-features, what reverential student can doubt that we are living in the very dawu of the Golden Age»* which is so beautifully picturecFin the Divine Word? The majority of the people are blind to this great fact. Indeed, is it not again foretold by the same Daniel— beloved of God—that 'tlm wise <»nly win understand. no^e <*f the wicked shall understand’ 1 —Daniel 1^:10.
At the present time the wise in the Lord's sight see men struggling on and on. many of them selfishly grasping the benefits of each new invention as some new toy for personal aggrandizement, while many are using other contrivances in the shape of the merciless instruments of destruction on their fellows for selfish ends. But when the storm now bursting upon the human race with such relentless fury and, thank God! never to be repeated, is over, then mankind will have learned somewhat of that needed lesson, 'The fear [reverence] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdon?. (Psalm 111:10) Chastened, distressed, and hmSbled to the dust they will perceive that no real lasting progress toward happiness and life is possible unless there is restored this dispositiqn as the-basic principle.
"The fear of the Lord” will then become d veritable ''fountain of life”, and each heart, in consequence, will gradually become righteous. They will then learn to know God, and this knowledge will cause their hearts to pulsate with increasing affection, and the more so as they realize the unutterable goodness of God displayed in providing in His plan and purpose ‘a ransom for all' through the sacrifice of the man Christ Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. And when in the Millennial day mankind will see the results of the Atoning Sacrifice— how that, in consequence, all those who have died in Adam will awaken by power divine and be given a fair opportunity to come back into complete harmony with God — then they will realize that the “love of God is broader than the measure of man’s mind”. Then the wonderful science of human ingenuity will be of practical, wholesome util ity in every homestead, as under the auspices of the best of governments nothing will be allowed for another’s detriment and this will mean general comfort, pleasure and edification. .
Then the precious reservoh* of blessing from the dear Lord’s hand will flow freely—a congenial climate, dependable seasons, fertility of soil, and more important still, His spirit will be poured on all flesh. Thus gradually mental, inoral and physical health will be restored. Pain, fear, headache, heartache and sorrow will vanish like mists before the sunrise; and the last enemy to be destroyed will be death. No wonder we are told through the beloved Apostle John that every creature who will choose the way of wisdom, love and life will say with gratitude: "Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and forever”.
Blasting Out Stumps:
HAVING in my first article told how to make primers and what kind of dynamite to use for stump blasting, I will now try to describe the best way to make and load the holes for removing stumps, and in my next I will take up the simpler subjects of boulder-breaking and subsoil ipg.
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