Golden Age, March 1, 1922

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Mar. 1, 1922, Vol. Ill, No. 61

i!JSB Published every other Infj icceh at J8 Concord Street, VbF Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A,

Five Cents a Copy—$1.00 a Year Canada and Foreign Countries, $1.50

Vol. 3

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1022

NUMDEn fl4

COWTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE

LAROK AND ECONOMICS

Shecldins the Advance Price Is not Value

Guard ................................323 What is a Labor Cult?

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Incoming Liberty ...... 327 Price Reduction

• MP5.! Gripping, Heart- Appreciated _______________

Inspiring ................. 330 Our Vanity Iios .........„

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

The Prosperity of Fools ... 325 Drought in “Church” A Union Pacific “Sermon” 331 Finance

Tliroo -Fingered Jack’s Price Cycles of a

Railroad “Sermon”- ........331 Century ............................335

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

Picketing and the Courts Picketing and the People

SCIENCE

Snow Removal in Sweden

HOME

323 Picketing and the

qo.i Siipr-c.iie Gouri

The Irish Question

AND INVENTION

335 Rains in the Golden Age .,.,336

AND HEALTH Wilat to Eat and Why ........... ........

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

Thoughts on a Visit to “The Old Country” ....

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Christian Science ................345 An Incomplete Picture

Takiuu the Teiiinoruture ..*.34* FulfiilmcDl cif Prophecies 350 fcjitcky-J-'rttintwJTbeologiaas 341) Studies in tJie Harp of God351

Fourteen Pages of Mon's Sauls

Blessings ....349 Errata -------------------...........351

Published ercry rther Wednesday at IS Concord Street, BrwWm N. Y......U- S. A

to WOODWORTH, HUDGWCS and MARTIN CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH.......Editor

ROBERT .1. MARTIN .... Busings Manager WM. F. HUUGTNGS ...... Sec’y and Treaa. Copartners anti proprietors, Address: 18 Concord Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., . , . . U. S. A. Five Cents a Copt — $1.00 a Year foreign offices: British.: 34 Craven Terrace. Lancaster (rate. London W. 2; CV/Httftan.: 270 Dundas St. W.» Toronto. Ontario: Australas-lan: 495 Collins St.. Melbourne, Australia, Make remittances to The Golden Age Entered os second-class matter at BrooUjB, K. X ■Kier the Act of March 3, 1879,

crt<? Golden Age

Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, March 1,1922

Shackling the “Advanced Guard”

I TN THE present condition of the world the , * average man cares only for himself and his Lj ' family, and the more pronounced his self-interest the more likely he is to go into business g , for himself. It follows that many business men K _ are the incarnation of selfishness and look upon employes only as an unavoidable evil, to be worked as hard as possible for as small a wage as possible.

t*' Hence it happens that labor unions were ' Y formed, to protect the interests of workers and ' bring to bear such influences upon employers ’ as would cause them to pay a living wage and grant decent working conditions. When the B conditions become unbearable the workers in _ the unions strike for the better wages, better IS? hours, better sanitation, better foremen, or ■>. * whatever it is they happen to have in view.

If the employes are all skilled workers the employer will think long and hard before he , flatly refuses their demands. But if the workers are unskilled and he can control his foremen 1 (and he usually can), the employer will often refuse the demands; and a strike results.

The workers feel that they have a just cause, 2 but they have no way of compelling the em' , ployer to see as they see. Therefore they can „ ' only wait until the effect upon his business is I' such that he manifests a disposition to see both Ir sides of a question of which, ordinarily, he sees F but one.

C The employer determines to break the strike.

He engages detectives to sow discord among - the old employes and engages new employes to take their places, paying, for the time being perhaps more than the old workers asked. What are the old workmen to do? They see their work and therefore their means of a livelihood passing from their hands into the hands of others. They gather on the streets leading to the factory, to try to dissuade the new employes (commonly called “scabs”) from taking the places which they feel rightfully belong to them.

This gathering along the streets is called picketing, the theory being that these workers, trying in a peaceful way to accomplish a real reformation in the community by pressing a selfish employer into paying decent wages and granting decent hours of labor, are the outposts of union labor; and so they are. If these outposts, these pickets, cannot accomplish the reformation work they have in view, if they are restrained from undertaking it, the workers have no redress, but must meekly take from the employer’s hand whatever, in the way of hours of labor, sanitation, wages, and other working conditions he may see fit to impose upon them.

Picketing and the Courts '

LAWYERS are trained to the belief that their place in the world is as protectors of property. Lawyers associate with the propertied classes. Lawyers draft most of the legislation that is enacted and, of course, only lawyers ever constitute the courts; so that lawyers in th> end, are the ones in whose hands the destiny of union labor rests.

When a large employer has trouble of any kind he goes and sees his lawyer, and as a strike is the biggest trouble he can have he goes at once to the biggest lawyer he can afford to see; and that lawyer, if there is any possible way of bringing it about, will do all that lies in his power to help the employer win the strike. Hence it follows that judges have often in the past been requested to grant injunctions restraining union labor from having pickets about employers’ plants.

An instance of this occurred recently in Phil-

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adelphia. Fifteen hundred members of the Waist and Dressmakers’ Union were banded together in an effort to prevent their wages from being cut and sweatshop conditions restored. They 'went out on strike rather than submit to the cut. Their former employers applied to Judge Finlettcr of the Court of Common Pleas for an injunction restraining the girls from lining the streets and telling other girls why they were on strike. So important was this matter to the strikers that when the case was called in JudgorFinletter’s Court it is estimated that at least a thousand of the girls were crowded into the court room and into the corridors of the building, waiting, almost breathlessly, until the Judge should decide whether or not they might stand out in the cold and try to induce other girls not to take their places. In this instance the judge did not render any decision, as the hearing was merely preliminary.

In New Jersey a group of strikers, following the advice of men higher in the labor-union ranks, attempted to picket a machine shop after a judge had granted an injunction forbidding them to do so. They were taken from the picket lines and sentenced to 90 days in jail and a fine of $50 each. After six days in jail their case was appealed, and they were released.

In New York city, in October last, Nathan Seidner, a picket of the Motion Picture Attendants’ Union, was also jailed for failing to heed the order of the court forbidding the picketing of the Waco Theatre.

When picketing by workers goes beyond the attempt peacefully to dissuade “scabs” from taking their places, to threats or acts of violence against the “scabs” or attempts to intimidate prospective customers, it passes the point of safety to the common welfare and becomes an appanage of anarchy which no thoughtful man could •countenance.

When picketing commences many employers endeavor at Once , to spread widely the impression that threats or acts of violence have been committed and that customers are intimidated. It is on this basis that some at least of the injunctions against picketing have been obtained. Such is alleged to have been the basis upon which an injunction was granted Maurice J. Pass, a shoe merchant of Brooklyn, against the Retail Salesmen’s Union, in which case when the injunction was granted, Supreme Court Justice Squires is alleged to have said that there is no

such thing as peaceful picketing and that he could not countenance the act or acts of any individual or company of individuals engaged ^ in preventing trade and customers from coming to a store, which was in his judgment what.' peaceful picketing, so-called, was intended to effect. -

Brooklyn has been a hard place for union labor during the past year, since the so-called “American” plan was inaugurated, for trying to break up and destroy all union labor organizations. When Justice Selah B. Strong, of Brooklyn, granted a temporary injunction, September 22, 1.921, restraining the Leather Workers’ Union from picketing the A. L. Reed Company plant he said in part:

“It is not the labor organization in the shop which is-objected to, but the paid agent, the walking delegate^ and the picket of labor, who so often become a menace to society and a danger to liberty, These defendants are under the employ of a labor organization. What are they paid to do? Who pays their wages or salaries, and how do they earn them ? They describe themselves as ‘pickets’ and ‘labor agents’. What do pickets and labor agents do? What can they be employed for? For what good purpose ? The defendants allege in their'; answer that they are ‘peacefully picketing’. Why picket, at all? Why not leave the plaintiff alone as it desires and thereby permit the pickets to employ themselves at some useful and commendable occupation where they can do a real man’s work and earn a laborer’s honest wage? Picketing and the posting of sentinels are done as war., measures. Our laws and institutions will not permit of the waging of private war in such a manner.”,

Laws should be made and enforced for the protection of the helpless. Alas! this is seldom done. It does not seem possible for a court to sympathize with a man who gets up and goes to work before daylight and who works for a soulless corporation, who makes the money for the corporation and then claims the right to appeal to others not to take his job from which he must feed his family. Pitiable condition!

Picketing and the People ’

THE people of America are quite satisfied to have picketing done if it is done in a peaceful manner. This has been demonstrated in Arizona, where the people of the whole state, acting through their legally constituted representatives in the state legislature, passed in 1914 an act forbidding judges in that state from issuing injunctions against picketing. This is just the way to get at it. Judges are human beings,

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the same as other people. Their real masters should be the people, and the people have the absolute right to decide on measures for their own welfare.

% The Supreme Court of the United States does not agree with the opinion of The Golden Age on this matter. In an opinion, upon which the court divided five to four, the Court held that the sovereign state of Arizona had no authority through legislative action to prohibit the courts from enjoining picketing in labor disputes. Four of the nine justices including the liberty-loving Justices Brandeis and Holmes, agreed with the people of Arizona, so that, in effect, the opinion of one man in Washington 'has outweighed the opinions of the majority of all the people of the state of Arizona on this important subject. Was this man morally right?

Picketing and the Supreme Court

The Golden Age has the utmost respect for * the Supreme Court, though it believes the decisions of that court have tended constantly to encroach upon the rights of the people, and that it has arrogated to itself powers that were

never entrusted to it by the Constitution and hence that do not belong to it.

On three different occasions now the Supreme Court has ordered arguments on whether picketing is or is not legal. The fact that this subject comes up so often shows that the court realizes how important it is. It has finally decided, in the Granite City, Illinois, case, which has been before the Supreme Court for five years, that only polite picketing will hereafter -be recognized, suggesting one picket at each

The court held in effect that picketing is illegal in cases where it is shown that there is intimidation, importunity or following of men, and that then the lower court may decide as it . thinks expedient. It is obvious that almost any employer can produce at least one witness who . will swear that he has been intimidated, importuned or followed by pickets. This is a serious blow to the cause of union labor.

Arthur Brisbane, commenting on this decision in the New York American, says:

“It requires 'importuning and dogging* to persuade a 'scab’ to give up a well-paid job, secured when some union workman walks out. No importuning, no dogged persuading, and picketing becomes an ineffective joke.”

The Prosperity of Fools

f T IFE today is filled with the most perplexing

■Lf problems of all history—problems that are ■- taxing the wisdom of the most brilliant minds to solve, and with doubtful results. Let us look about us now, stopping from the busy affairs A- of everyday life; for thinking will do us good.

Of all ages of the world’s history we witness ; that this age has the richest and most wide' spread blessings. Agriculture has made wonder? ful bounds. By crossing and selection and graft- ing, the most luscious fruits the world has known | . for four thousand years are developed, and the / - finest and greatest variety of vegetables. These are raised in such widely distributed areas of : the country and in such abundance as would

. feed the world, and all have enough.

«• Parallel to this we see the marvelous system of travel and transportation. Besides the ancient horse we see the steam railroads, capable of rapidly and efficiently carrying this produce to the consumer, wherever such may live. California products go to New England; apples from . Nova Scotia to the Pacific coast; Oregon apples K to New; York; watermelons from North Carolina

By J. A. Meggison ‘ ;

to New York; canteloups from Colorado to New York; Michigan beans to the Gulf coast; Maine .: potatoes to the Mid-West, and at such a price as to be within the reach of all. »

Manufactures, also, have developed beyond " the wildest dreams of our fathers. Devices for the kitchen have made the home-keeper’s work easier. Useful devices of every sort have nifide -this world like one of the dream-planets of old. All these, too, are carried by the railroads and distributed without breakage to all parts of the world. Automobiles, trucks, electric freight and passenger lines also aid in bringing these prod-nets to the users; country produce to the city, and the city manufactures to the country. Telephone and telegraph, and wireless of both, .. facilitate the ordering and delivering of these products. Furthermore, there are the Stock .• Exchange and clearing house, capable of making ~ -the exchange of values almost limitless; banks, where money, as a medium of exchange, can be spread widely over the country, and where the 1 worker can deposit his earnings for safe invest- ■ ment, or obtain money loans to tide him over a >

the GOLDEN AGE

hard period—a situation which by every law of reason ought to make this world, especially this country, a paradise of happiness and plenty.

And yet, paradox of paradoxes! We witness this country so tangled in business and transportation that the farmer finds it often utterly impossible to get his produce to those who wish to use it. Last year showed Michigan peaches and plums rotting on the ground while people in Chicago would have been glad to pay a reasonable price for them; watermelons in North Carolina rotting because of the impossibility of getting cars to send them to the hungry New Yorkers; California oranges and lemons rotting in piles because the growers could not ship them; Maine potatoes rotting in the warehouses there, while Bostonians and Philadelphians paid fabulous prices for that article of food.

The business situation: Millions of workers looking for work, but no work to do. Hundreds of electrical projects on the books, but no money obtainable to carry them out. The merchants wish to sell, and vainly try to, but the public have no money wherewith to buy. The public wish to work and earn the money wherewith to buy, but there is no work. The manufacturers would gladly furnish the work, but the financiers have called in the money and refuse to let it out again. From whatever point we start the lines lead back to the financiers. Because financial giants are grappling to hold and increase their power, the interests of the public are sacrificed in the struggle.

The blessings of mankind are being hindered and held, because though ms f has now more blessings than hitherto, yet many of the mighty financial and commercial princes are seeking to turn these blessings into their own coffers, and in order to do so are robbing the ones who earn them. When will the mighty cease to take advantage of the less fortunate? “O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame ? How long will ye seek vanity and leasing [lies]?” How long will you turn God’s blessings into curses?—Psalm 4: 2.

Let us earnestly hope that the sentiments expressed below are not generally held by financiers, but they have been expressed by more than one of them. Less that a year ago a member of “Big Business” said to a representative of the New York Globe substantially the following:

“We are going to put out of employment in the United

States in the near future five million men, on the theory that idle men will be obedient men. We are going to have the open shop. If this does not suffice to accomplish our purpose, by January, 1922, we will put out of employment twenty million men in the United States . . . •

In California, at least, one of the great commercial institutions was told that it could get loans only on condition that it would agree to discharge its employes whenever these financiers directed it to do so. They have stated that they will ‘make labor eat out of their hand’. Judge Gary is reported by the press to have said that unskilled labor would soon be glad of the chance to push a wheelbarrow for $2.50 a day.

Has money-madness and the craze for power robbed these men of their common sense? Do they fatuously suppose, against all the warnings of history, that oppression of their fellow men and keeping them down in necessity, squalor, and hand-to-mouth living can really benefit the rulers and holders of power? Of what use will it be to fight against the inevitable uplift of the common people, when the time is here at last for their blessing? Others have fought against destiny with no avail; will these fare better? Why will not these leaders of trade and finance read the lesson of the French Revolution, of the Russian Revolution, of King John and the Barons of Runnymede and of the American? Revolution ? The people will stand for a certain amount of tomfoolery, and then they will throw off the power of their oppressors. More than this, when the signs of the times show conclusively that the day of better conditions for the common people is dawning, is it not rather asinine to fight against that dawn?

But how can the great princes of finance and com^nerce help the people to a higher level, and thus put a buffer between themselves and the social convulsions? By sharing the profits more generously -with the workers, by cooperative measures, as in Henry Ford’s factories, those of Rice & Hutchins Shoe Co., Proctor & Gamble, and others. It has been proven that in times of social distress the employes in these places are large-minded enough to come together and. by common vote reduce their own wages. Did ever anyone hear of a board of directors or any other group of financiers voluntarily reducing their own profits or income?

It is commonly recognized that we are living at the end of the old order of things; and the

world is struggling to right itself after the insane orgy of war. As Isaiah said, “the earth [society] shall reel to and fro, like a drunken man, and shall fall and not rise again.” The old order can be neither patched nor invigorated. Society first sympathizes with the worker and vows to make the world safe for “Democracy”, and then swings back to the other extreme and supports the financial kings—reels to and fro. “The transgression thereof is heavy upon it.” Like Cain, its punishment is greater than it can bear. ‘ ‘ They would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them; and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them?” — Proverbs 1:30-32.

INCOMING LIBERTY

Through the increase of education and spread of knowledge the workers are raising their stan-■ dards of living. They demand more comfortable homes, more conveniences, more leisure time to enjoy life and the products of their labor. These desires are legitimate and proper; and as the total wealth produced at any one time amounts to a certain value, if the workers share a greater ,part it means proportionately less for the exploiters of labor; approaching a condition where each one reaps rewards "proportionate to his input of labor. But certain of the financiers and ■- profiteers will not consent to such division of the spoils. Because of selfishness they want the lion’s share. Such are butting their heads • against a stone wall to no purpose; for the day is at hand when the poor are to be lifted up. It is inevitable. The reign of selfishness is nearing its end. “God [the Lord Jesus] standeth in the congregation of the mighty, He judgeth among the gods [the financial and commercial princes and rulers of the earth]. How long will ye judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked?

Defend the poor and needy, rid them out of the hand of the wicked [profiteers, commercial and financial oppression].” But these leaders are blind as bats and cannot see that their stewar'd-ship is at an end. The Lord declares: “They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness [willful ignorance of coming judgments].” And in the struggle “all the foundations of the earth are out of course”.— x Psalm 82:1-5.

Oh, that the great leaders of men would see the foregleams of the incoming kingdom of God! Oh, that they might realize that they can smooth their descent by being generous to their fellow men, the common people! “Blessed is he that considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble.” (Psalm 41:1) Like the unjust steward (Luke 16 [they can make friends with the common people by helping to lower the cost of living and the taxes, providing industry. But many of them seem to give strong evidence of being the class mentioned in Amos, chapter 8:4-7: ‘ ‘ Hear ye this, ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, saying, When will the [religious feast of the] new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will not forget any of their works.” They act as if drunk ■with money and power, undermining the solidity of business principles, and the foundation of society and of law and of order; amid the laughter of fools, blindly rushing in a drunken revel to their doom. ‘ ‘ The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” (Proverbs * 1:32) “The needy shall not always be fot-^ gotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever.”—Psalm 9:18.

The Irish Question By Thomas R. Smith (84 years of age)

IH A V E been wondering whether a few thoughts on the Irish question would be out of place in your growing, popular magazine, The Golden Age. You seem to discuss every other question that would be of interest to the world, and I think that the Irish question has passed the boundaries of nationalism and is ofl world-wide interest now.

There are two nations in the world concerning which the minute you touch anything it becomes of world-wide interest; and these are the Jewish and the Irish nations. They are the two martyr nations of the world. The Jews have suffered for more than nineteen hundred years the Irish, for about eight hundred years. Moreover, their sufferings have been along similar

lines. Their religions have brought sufferings to both of them. It is not my purpose to discuss the Jewish question now; but let me say right here that I am glad that all the wrongs of this persecuted race will be righted, and their sufferings forever ended, by a restoration to their own land in accordance with Jehovah’s promises to their fathers.

Now it is not my intention to look at the Irish question from a sectarian point of view, nor to take sides with either the English or the Irish in this present perplexed situation. I am an Irish-born citizen of Scotch extraction originally; but by a better understanding of God’s Word and plan, and by a clear knowledge of English and Irish history, and by having imbibed more of the spirit of Christ and His golden rule, I can see the taproots of this wicked sectarian tree which was planted in Ireland long ago by both parties, Protestant and Catholic alike, and which is now yielding such horrible and bitter fruit. Let us get to the root of this whole affair.

After having been held as a slave for seven years by an Irish Chieftain in the County Down, Patrick, who afterwards became the Apostle of Ireland, escaped and went back to Scotland, where he met with some Christians and became converted. This was the first step in his preparation for his great life-work as the Apostle of Ireland. Take away all the foolish, false superstitious trimmings with which ignorance has dressed Patrick up; and you will find him one of the greatest, noblest, bravest men that ever lived. The story that he banished all the snakes from Ireland is the worst kind of ecclesiastical “bunk”, and no one except a creed-blind man ‘would believe it. There never was a snake of - any kind in Ireland. There are in the sea two islands on which no snake can live—Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and Ireland in the Atlantic.

Patrick was neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant. He was a pure apostolic believer in Christ. He had no creed at all, such as Roman Catholics and Protestants now have. The Council of Nice was called in 325 A. D. by the Emperor Constantine, who compelled the council to adopt the false doctrine of the trinity—three gods in one. This was the first great departure of the church from Christ. If Patrick was tainted with this error, it was the only one; for his methods of work and of preaching were simple and Biblical.

Adopting the simple methods of the Salvation . -Army, Patrick took a little drum of some sort, and stood in the villages or at every crossroad, where he beat his little drum, and gathered the people, whom he then told the story of Jesus. He had no vestments, no fish-god hat, such as they paint him with in modern pictures. Read Geoghegan’s History of Ireland, edited by John -.■> Mitchel. There were no popular cardinals, no priests, no masses, no vestments, i purgatory. *• Patrick knew nothing about such things; they were not invented by the creeds up to that time. By preaching the simple truth of Christ Patrick turned the Irish from being sun-worshiping V pagans to being apostolic believers in Christ.

Patrick left the Irish a free, independent church; and that church never acknowledged the pope or the Romish church until between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when Pope Adrian IV gave Henry II of England a bull authorizing the English king to conquer Ireland and bring the Irish under the rule of England, and thus also under the Romish church. In return Henry was to pay a penny per head every year; and this is the origin of Peter’s Pence.

Strongbow, the English general, landed some- , where near Wexford, on the southern coast of Ireland, and there established what was then known as the English Pale. Now that Pale of English origin or planting did not, you may be sure, have a mushroom growth. It was nearly five hundred years before that Pale embraced the whole of Inland. And, strange to say, the O’Neils and the O’Donnels of the North were the last to yield.

It would be a tedious task, and would enlarge 1 i this article beyond reason, for me to enter into all the details of how this sectarian hate of the Protestants of Ulster has grown which now blocks the liberties of the Irish people. Enough to state the truth, regardless of consequences, that England, whether Catholic or Protestant, never has treated Ireland right. It was Catholic England that attacked Irish liberty and that for nearly five hundred years took away that liberty as far as she could. It was Catholic \. England that destroyed the independent Irish ' , church that Patrick had left, by removing the native Irish bishops as fast as the English Pale ' advanced, and thus gradually brought the Irish under Rome. '

Thus Catholic England robbed Ireland of ; both liberty and church; but the crime of Prot- :

* estant England was equally great; for it robbed the Irish people of commercial prosperity. It took the silk and cotton business away from Ireland, and kept that business in England. It £ would have taken the linen business also, but , for the peculiar bleaching qualities of the Irish > climate and water, and for the tough fiber of Irish flax, which cannot be duplicated in either England or Scotland; otherwise it would be English linen instead of Irish. Furthermore, ' England will not allow any Irish mine of any kind to be opened in Ireland. And absentee landlords had no sympathy or real interest in the poor Irish tenant except to squeeze out of him as much money as possible through a heartless steward who sent it to the absent lord . . either in Paris or in London or in some gamb-

: ling den in continental Europe.

To be as brief as possible I will cite only a ‘ , few instances from history to show where some i! of these taproots of Catholic and Protestant hate were planted that are now bearing such deplorable fruit. About the sixteenth century A there wrere over 40,000 Protestants in Ulster f killed as such under one of the O'Neils and Bloody Mary of England. To off-set this slaughter on the Catholic side, Cromwell with his L psalm-singing Roundheads, after a prolonged siege of the- city of Drogheda, massacred every soldier that was in the city, together with all ■<: Catholic citizens. He did not spare even one

" Catholic. I need not prolong this tale of cruel A __ murder and woe.

These two samples of sectarian hate are only two of hundreds of the same kind that occurred during a period of nearly eight hundred years. I Of course they were not all so large in scope

•, or operation as these were; but they exhibited

? the same Satanic, sectarian, murderous spirit

s on both sides when bach side in turn came into

j pow’er. Is there any wonder, after such a sow-

ri- ing of sectarian hate, that they are now reaping

such an abundant harvest of massacre and mur-x der?

I-' There is a figurative mental picture of this | whole affair that forms itself in ray mind. To me it seems that Satan has taken the w arp of » Catholic hate, eight hundred years old, and the woof of Protestant hate, five hundred years old, and has put them into the great national loom. Then he has set the Irish to weaving a huge e- Satanic web of vast national proportions, in the ' corner of which he is sitting like a great spider, laughing vdth unrestrained glee at the helpless and hopeless struggles of the poor Irish flies that are wobbling around, unable to get any- . V where because caught in this cruel, devilish web of their own weaving. And they neither see nor know what is the matter with them.

The real trouble in Ireland, and the whole trouble, can be traced back to creed-making. If there had never been a creed made, there would never have been a martyr. If the old Book of God, the Bible, had been kept in the hands of the common people, love instead of hate would -have been the ruling element in human life. For in all the civilizations that have preceded this, our so-called Christian civilization, the priestly class have been the chief tools through which Satan has blinded the world, retarded progress, and stopped or dw’arfed spiritual growth—all with the purpose of maintaining control of the common people.

In Egyptian civilization the priests knew better. They had a knowledge about which the common people knew nothing, and kept it from the people because they thought that if they imparted it to the people they would lose their pow’er over them. When Jehovah gave the Mosaic law to the Israelites He put iron-clad restrictions upon the Jewish priestly class so as to restrain them from the abuse of priestly power. Did this arrangement restrain? No; emphatically No! In all the world’s history no priestly class ever abused their priestly power as did the Jewish priests. In time they usurped the kingly power; and they made so many traditions (creeds) that our Lord Jesus told them that through these traditions (creeds) they had made void the law of God. It was the priestly class with their Jewish creeds that brought about the greatest tragedy of all the ages—the crucifixion of Christ.

Then look at the civilization of India—Hindustan. Did you ever see such a rotten mess as the castes and creeds of the Hindus? The Brahmins, the most exalted sacred caste of all, is the most Satanic.

It was Solomon who said: “There is nothing new under the sun”. This is particularly true in regard to error. God governs this world by law’ and through law; and to each law He has attached rewards and punishments. Whenever any error becomes worn out or repulsive, nearing the goal of its evil reward, Satan takes it

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over, strips it of its old dress and perhaps of some of its rude, repulsive features, puts on a new dress, and with a new name palms it off again on poor humanity. Nevertheless, in es-sense and result it is still the same old error.

In our paganized, so-called Christian civilization, we have a sacred Brahmin caste, priestly still in its functions and power. We have the high, reverend, separated, Brahmin priestly class clothed in modern dress, tall silk hat, white choker, Prince Albert coat, and other priestly trimmings. It was this modern Brahmin priestly class, both Protestant and Catholic with the Greek Church to help, that was responsible for th© great world-wide war. Bishop Hamilton, of the M. E. Church, said: “The Christian church was responsible for this war”.

Look at the so-called Christians on both sides in the trenches. What are they like, and how do they act? Do they not act like demons that have come up out of the creed-hell, and are throwing sulphurous flames and liquid fire at one another ? Here, then, I have traced this whole sad business to the taproots of this venomous Satanic tree of creed-hate, and I have tried to tell the plain truth without sectarian bias. I should like to see Ireland free and united under a government of the Irish people’s own choice. I know that when Christ’s kingdom is fully in power Ireland will be free. Then the angel’s song,

Mind-Gripping, Heart-Inspiring

PLEASE permit me to congratulate you and your colleagues on the reduction of the subscription price of your wonderful magazine. I rejoiced when I read the announcement on the back cover, knowing that the smaller cost will introduce its wholesome enlightening pages into many a home where it could not before be afforded because of the industrial depression and low wages.

It is grand to have such a source of information as the splendid articles appearing from time to time in The Golden Age afford, and I offer you my humble appreciation and thanks for your loyalty to the principles of truth and righteousness and your labors to turn on light and expose the systems of darkness in this, the dawning of the long expected 'Day’.

All the subject matter of its columns is good, but some of the articles are of unusual excellence, gripping the mind and inspiring the heart

“Peace on earth, good will to men,” will be true. | The Protestants of Ulster are making the

same kind of mistake that the Catholics made A in the time of William III. William was a representative monarch; James the Stuart was a des- “ potic, absolute king. But the Catholic priestly % leaders and their creeds of the dark ages drove C the people into the wrong camp and made them fight against their real interests. So the Protestants of Ulster, by their priestly leaders and ' their creed hate, are led into the wrong camp and are now fighting against the liberty of their \ own country.

How long, O Lord, how long will men remain creed-blind, and go against their own best interests? I am for the liberty of all the people of this world everywhere; but I am against killing or murdering men in order to obtain it. I -do not believe in war. I am striying to be a peaceful follower of Christ. With much sorrow -I fear that this truce between the English and the Irish will be a failure, and that they will begin killing one another again. But it is joyful to know from God’s Word, the old Bible, ‘ 3 that even if this truce is a failure (which :

I hope it will not be) Christ will when He as- -

sumes the kingship of this world give Ireland \ full and complete liberty, independence from England forever. God speed that day for Ireland and for the whole world!

By Alfred A. Knight

to the highest degree. The long article by O. L. Rosenkrans, Jr., in the December 21st issue on “The Counterfeit New Era”, was wonderful, not only because of its truth and breadth, but also because its effect is to focus on the mind the general condition of things and the principles operating to produce them in this truly awful day which, without some such assistance, the ordinary mind can vaguely sense but can nei-’ ther clearly recognize nor define.

“A Vision of the New Era,” by Robert Lawson in Number 58, was also excellent and inspiring. These foreviews, even if not flawless, create intense desire for such conditions of prosperity and contentment to come, and for the spirit of greed and insane blindness that now grips society to be banished as the miasma of the marsh before the rays of the rising sun. The cry goes up from the heart: “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be cone on earth as it is in heaven!”

A Union Pacific “Sermon” By c. Elmont Bell

IN ANSWER to the question, “Is there anything new under the sun?” I believe we can say: Yes, there is. We have here in La Grande a railroad evangelist, hired and sent out and paid for by the railroad management. What do you think of that? He has full liberty to go into all the shops and talk to any of the men or to go on any engine or machine and talk to the men as long as he wishes, with no questions asked. None except high officers in the railroad service have this privilege.

This is a Anion of big business and the churches with a whoop; for all the preachers in town are backing him to the limit of their ability. He is getting huge crowds in the largest church

L" in town; but I have not heard a man that* went I to hear him speak well of him and the railroad F nien have no use for him at all.

The lady members of the church are very j enthusiastic over him. The evangelist goes by | „ the name of Three-Fingered Jack, has been a f saloon-keeper, gambler, and general all around LJ tough. The newspapers are backing the railroad / <$mpany. From one of their recent issues I

j; ■ give you several paragraphs from one of his

“sermons”. Fifteen persons went to the r mourners’ bench the night this “sermon” was

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delivered.

There are other mourners here, too; for the railroad company is cutting its force terribly hard early this winter. The business men are mourning because freight and passenger rates are so high; the railroad company is mourning . because it has to spend perfectly good money to “evangelize” the men it has laid off. Everybody around here seems to be mourning except Three-Fingered Jack. Why should he mourn? He is Brother Jack here, Brother Jack there; he is a well-paid, happy, prosperous employe of the railroad company, and the “sermon” shows that he does well the work he is supposed to do.

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Three-Fingered Jack’s Railroad “Sermon”

WE HAVE in this great land of ours the greatest system of transportation in the world. The cost per million tons per mile is very much less in this land than in any other nation. Our rates for transportation in the United States are less to the shipper than in any other nation in the world.

The average cost per mile of these great interstate ■ commerce carriers is about $52,000, and there are about 1048 of them registered as class A railroads in the United States of America.

I have told you from time to time some tilings concerning these great railways, but this is the first time 1“” have mentioned them in a more extensive way. I pray that when 1 have finished you will recognize the railways as one of God’s great evangelistic movements for the uplift of the human family; and I pray that you will learn to recognize the railroad man as an evangelist, no matter what department he is connected with.

A few years ago the automobile came in; today it is one of the largest industries. A few years ago the moving pictures came in; it is another great industry. When the automobile came the people found it necessary to build highways throughout this land. Immediately all over the United States good-roads commissions wera organized; and we began to construct highways throughout the country. Today you can start from New York with your private automobile, and in a few days time you can land in Portland rolling over hard-surfaced roads eighty percent of the distance. Yet the railroads are carrying practically the same number of passengers and the same tonnage of freight as they did prior to the automobile. Traffic has not decreased—it has increased.

We are spending millions of dollars in the state of Oregon and in the United States, building highways. If these highways were used for pleasure caravans and the purposes for which they were constructed they would last practically indefinitely. But the use of our highways is abused until I am afraid in the future there will come laws that will take away many of the privileges of the producer which they are abusing. The saloon-keeper abused his privilege until we have probition. I am very much afraid that there will come into effect a movement prohibiting the use of our highways for other than pleasure and private purposes, because the roads are being practically demolished and worn out even before we have paid for the bonds issued for the construction. People are destroying the benefit of the whole movement by overloading the highways with excess tonage.

We have hundreds of thousands of acres of undeveloped land in the state of Oregon. There is enough unfilled land in this great state of Oregon to produce provisions to feed the starving masses of Armenia, without taking one ounce from the present production of the United States, and without begging people for hundreds of thousands, yes, millions of dollars to feed these starving Christians. Yet we go on and on, paralleling our railroad with highways. Roads are duplicating one another, and without developing one acre or one foot of this undeveloped land. That class of construction is, to. me, wasteful, and a sin in the sight of God.

Now if the millions of dollars that have been spent in Oregon that wray were expended to develop the undeveloped parts of our state, we would make it possible for our returned soldiers from overseas to come down here in some of these valleys and take this land and start cultivating the soil. Then we could have a highway

to his place. He could truck his stuff down to a shipping point and put it in touch with the markets.

That kind of development would increase the shipments of the railroads and double their traffic. We could reduce passenger rates; we would be able to lay the stuff down to the people in the East; we would reduce the cost of living, and it would make it possible for the people in this great country of ours to have a saving out of that which they earn.

It is true that we are anxious to have a highway running from New York to Portland in 1925. I am anxious to see those people pouring through the city of La Grande in 1925. I would like to see one thousand automobiles stop here every night. That would mean $8,000 a day at least. For every car stopping in your town would leave money enough in La Grande to lay highways across your beautiful valley, to every 1G0 acres, and help to make it productive and make a prosperous city. But if you build alongside of the railroad track, I am afraid that you will be able to ride along the highway only for a pleasure trip.

That is a waste of money. If you want to compete, compete far enough in the country so that you may open up new territory and bring out new possibilities.

Now then, I honestly believe that we should begin from the platform of every church to take up every movement affecting public expenditures to see if every dollar is going to be expended for the full benefit of the human family, whether in Oregon or elsewhere. We are all Americans; and never in the history of the world, like today, did we need the undeveloped lands of our country. All Europe is torn to pieces; in all Europe there is suffering, starving, nakedness. Children that should be the size of our boys and girls of 14 and 15 are the size of our boys and girls of 7 and 8 years, for lack of bodily sustenance to nourish them. Yet we are spending our millions and millions paralleling developed sections of the country and sections that are valueless.

When Jesus Christ came into the world what did He do ? He made it a new world. He made the old new. He said: “Go ye into the world”. He means for man to inhabit all the world. Yet we spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing roads that do not touch undeveloped sections; but let a railroad run down there, and they will have a highway there. And as soon as the railroad gets there it pays forty-six percent of the construction of that highway. Then you say, Why can’t we have more money here ? Because the railroad company you are working for has to pay forty-six precent of the cost of the highway paralleling their roads.

This is a railroad lecture, isn’t it ?

Yes, sir. God Almighty put the iron in the bowels. ■ of the earth for the construction of railroads and equip- ' ment. The Almighty put it into the mind of man to place a spoon over the top of a teakettle spout to see . the lid raise up in order that he could get the idea of . the power of steam so he could connect New York with' ■ San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. .

Now you go over to the roundhouse, look up at one of . those mountains of steel over there. Watch it roll out on the track, then see some clear-brained engineer climb > those steps. He leans over to look out along the side of that mountain of metal, lays his hand on the throttle • and then looks back at the train behind him and he says: : “I don’t know whether there are a thousand or two thousan d people back there, or not; I don’t know whether they are Christians or not; I don’t know what their destination is going to be.” ~

If he doesn’t run according to the orders of the dispatcher and to the books of rules there is something . liable to be doing. He will pull the throttle open with.. his eyes upon the rail, with the lives of those people in his hand. There is not a more responsible position in the world that that of a locomotive engineer. '

Oh, my job is nothing like it, for whenever a man goes to church, it is either because he is a Christian or he believes in Christianity or he wants to be a Christian. •But everybody gets on a train to ride. When the man on the freight train pulls the throttle, he doesn’t know ■ how many unfortunate men there may be riding the : rods or brakebeams; in the old coal car, or riding in a > “box”. Some people think it quite honorable to ride in ? a private car, but somehow or other many of them do notv ride as easy as they might.

I have ridden the pilots of engines, stealing my way over the railroads. I know the conditions. The engineer/ says: “One thing certain, if I get off the rail, or have^” a collision, and if I kill my passengers, they are some _ mother’s sons or daughters. Or it may be some child of God, who is not able to pay his way and ride on the cushions, but I must be careful of everything.” :

[These “sermons” are being paid for to help keep up the high rates charged for freight and. passenger service; also they help to keep the’ men “contented”. It is a corporation adaptation of the old papal-empire scheme of controlling the men through the women. Roger W. Babson, high priest of big business, says the-safety of our investments depends upon our churches] '

Drought in Church “Finance”

WITH a drought in literal rain there has appeared a dry spell in the finances of religious organizations of the current style.

The complaint is as wide as the church system is throughout the world. There was a season ofi hot religious weather during the war. It was expected that the rain would come again after that titanic conflict; but the spirit has declined

thus far to descend on institutions that for the time declared, “We have no king but Caesar”.

After having repudiated and disowned Christ, and having taken up with the devil for a period of four or five years, the religious organizations of “Christendom”—Christ’s kingdom, as the word is intended to signify — have besought Christ to come back with them. Unfortunately the spirit of Christ seems to have declined to have anything more to do with institutions which give manifest evidence of playing fast and loose with Him. At any rate the old Christian spirit of freely giving does not appear again, and a loud and painful cry goes up from the persons in control. To cite the Manchester Guardian of Manchester, England:

“In a bankrupt world it is not surprising that the Church should be faced, as never before, by the difficulty of raising the money necessary for carrying on her work. Alike at home and abroad the position is reallv desperate.'’

In order to suit the representatives of big business the churches were built and operated on a scale intended to satisfy the insistence of the rich for the best things of life, even in the buildings where they were wont to worship. Now these plants are found to be in what the business world would term a state of over-extension, and the management of the concerns faces the excruciating necessity next mentioned:

“It is not a question of being unable to take advantage of the many openings for work which the war has made. It is rather a question of whether or not reductions and withdrawals, wasteful of past efforts and disheartening to enthusiasm, can be avoided. Everybody knows that there are today in England four dioceses the work of which is hindered because the retired bishops are taking pensions of £1,400 [$5,502] or £1,500 [$5,895], Why should a diocese with a larger average of small and ill-paid livings than any other in England be burdened with a house which eats up, in rates, a great part of the bishop’s income? And why should bishops in general be expected to live as if they were great territorial magnates, whereas they are the poor and much over-worked officials of a very poor corporation ? And why, at a time when an example of simple and homely living is perhaps the greatest boon which the Church could bestow on the world . . . should bishops and official clergy generally be supposed to show in their dress, furniture, plate, and so on, the standard of wealthy country gentlemen and city merchants ?”

The answer to these pitiable queries from an emasculated Churchianity is that once upon a time the church of God was a manly, vigorous institution compelling the respect even of the

potentates that hated it; but big business and -big politicians took the church over, gave it -money and many other largesses, lowered its | standards for their own benefit and that of the J sycophantic millions that crowded into it, and ' k robbed the ministers of the church of their man- ] hood, while compelling them to maintain stan- A dards of living that would not disgrace big busi- ,

ness and big politician. In Biblical figure of k

speech, the church was once upon a time a vir- A gin, but these two estimable and respectable A characters made her a courtesan. The end of , every such individual is that after her owners ' y get through with her, she is cast out. This is k what ails the prostitute churches of England ’ today— and not merely them, but those of other j nations where the churches have allowed big 5

business and big politicians to debauch them. ;

Let not these degenerate institutions imagine k that they are coming iu for another period of A usefulness to their erstwhile friends. This is the end.

There is a left wing of the churches which A contains many noble and godly men, and these men still burn with the fervor of real religion. To them heart-breaking is such a condition of impotence as the churches are in in their mission work. <

“In the mission field the position is truly deplorable.

I was told only the other day of a deputation representing natives of Southern India to a number of 15,000, '

who desired instruction with a view of baptism, which ■ was sent away from one Mission with the assurance that it was impossible to provide a single worker, male or female, lay or clerical, native or European. And the ' situation in India, which is now so extraordinarily favorable to mission work may never recur in the same form. ' The combination of circumstances which has led to what is known as the. ‘mass movement’ in Southern India presents a special opportunity, and it is heartrending ; to be hindered by lack of funds. Yet with home cir- A

cumstances as they are, a big increase of income for ' -any missionary society seems hardly within the realm of possibility.” ?.

When Constantine the Great about 325 A. D.

destroyed the church of God and substituted, for 4 that holy and steadfast organization, the state A churches of Constantine, and started the fashion i of having the churches act as a department of the government, the ultimate failure of the sys-tern now known as Churchianity became assured.

As suggested in the Manchester Guardian, the -worth of the church to the state is still the main thing in governmental circles:

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“The value and importance of mission work are being recognized more and more every day by all who are Interested in problems of Empire.”

But how fared mission work in this same India during the palmy days of the established State Church of England? According to the Parliamentary inquiry in 1832, while there had been an ancient church in India probably since the days of the apostle Thomas, as soon as British imperialism entered India Christianity there was struck with a decline. One authority stated that “the Christian religion has been visibly on the decline during these past eighty years, and the priests were so abandoned, or so starving, as to make a kind of traffic of the sacraments”. According to lion. George Peel in “The Future of England”, a book published in 1912 by the MacMillan Co., of New York.

“This deterioration was hastened by the singular conduct of our government, which up to 1831, at any rate, - -"treated Christianity worse than they treated the vilest of creeds. For instance, our regulations expressly provided that converts to Christianity would be liable to be deprived not only of their property, but of children and wife. We obliged Christians to drag the cars of idols, and our magistrates caned them publicly if they disobeyed. Our officials were employed to pull down . churches and to build mosques. Thus our administrative Jacobins attacked their own religion without scruple .... They filled the role of hostlers to Juggernaut.”

Then a turn was made and Christianity was let have its own way. What were the facts at the time Peel wrote?

“The facts are obvious. The educated classes of India have steadily become more critical of their English rulers an^ more, directly opposed to English influence. . . . For five years past ‘the Oxford Mission in Calcutta has hardly made six converts, and it is stated in the last - report of the Cambridge Mission to Delhi that there is not a single case of baptism to show as the result of twenty-five years of college work’. Finally the Bishop writes that, ‘I can see no evidence of any movement towards Christianity in the higher ranks of Hindu society at present, nor any hope of it in the immediate future; on the contrary, the educated classes seem to me further off from the definite acceptance of the Christian faith than they were when I first came out to India twenty-five years ago’. The Bishop . . . wishes Christian endeavor to concentrate itself on the outcasts, the . pariahs, the depressed classes. . . . He claims that ‘the work in India, so far from being a failure, has been going on for the last thirty years by leaps and bounds, and we have the definite prospect before us of creating and building up a powerful Church of some ten million Christians within the next fifty years’ I”

Evidently a church composed of “outcasts and pariahs” of no political significance does not interest big business and big politicians; for Peel concludes:

“I drew rein. . . . Enough to conclude that, at no date within the range of present consideration, will Christianity win India as a whole.”

When the church was separated from big business and the state it was the object of contempt and persecution. Big business and the state have not changed. Any Christian religion today is the twentieth century, that takes its stand with Christ as king, and not Cajsar, is ostracised and persecuted. For it must needs obey its Master Christ, and must take its stand against mammon worship, wage-slavery, and war ;and this neither big business nor big politicians will tolerate. The sooner the sincerely religious people in the . / churches realize this, the better for their Christianity; but the worse for their wealth and popularity. i

Old bottles cannot hold the new wine. No . “well-recognized” church in existence today can come out boldly and resume the truly Christian course that once upon a time characterized the church of God without being burst from within and broken from without; and this they fear to do. It is impossible for the ideas of the Manchester Guardian to-be carried into effect:

“If the Bishop of Manchester and ‘Dick* Sheppard and a few other leaders of the Life and Liberty Movement would get together and work out, on half a sheet of note paper, a plan for getting rid of the bishops’ palaces, deaneries and other official residences, and for rearranging the finances of the Church they would arouse much official opposition, but a far more exceeding torrent of popular approval and support. And when they had effected their reform, they must then go on to order matters so that we should not see five, six or seven clergy at small and fashionable churches in London or on the, south coast, and one in Lancashire and Yorkshire parishes of from 12,000 to 15,000 people. Then, when the laity see the Church setting an example of apostolic simplicity of life, and making the best of her resources, they will—when the present distress is a little passed— give her the funds she requires for her real work of converting the world at home and abroad.” 1

Such optimism is idealistic, unpractical, childlike and childish. It ignores the plain fact that any government in Christendom would persecute and suppress such a church, as the governments did the heroic religious conscientious objectors during the World War. The moment^? a crisis arose, this church would be obliged to

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