Golden Age, May 24, 1922
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May 1922, Vol. Ill, No. 70
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CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE
LABOR AND
Prices Are What We Make
Them
Yn(ue Versus Price
Petition of Money to Labor
ECONOMICS
Labor Cost .....
J list Level of Prices
Can the Muh Itiules Be
Fed-'
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
Appreciated In India
A Golden Tribute _____
Loin* a Great Work ..
Full of Vital Topics
Branding the Undo-drank'S 527
Darwinism iu the SuPnol* 533
Scientists Repudiate Darwinism ....
No Transitional Form,* Ex-
is* ....
Variations Revert to Type 534
New I'orrns of Life Appear
Suddenly . ___________
Where Are the Supor-
Apc>:>» ? __________________
Speculations Are Nor
Facts
manufacturing and mining
Mining Life in Oilio ____________________________________________________________
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
Methuselah the Banker ....51.6
25K Tons of Gohl to ..... Square Inch __________________BIT
Ercd i’i^ the Gold Standard ............. 517
Ship-Owner Annroll 1 stS In Britain _________________________ 535
Principal Doubles in Ton
Years ............. GJ
Four Centuries Would Buy the Earth ...... ..
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
Warring against, the Papal Empire
Reply by Judge Rutherford ..
Clear the Way
Women Win the Fight
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY The Massacre of the Farmers ....... ...
HOME AND HEALTH Remedies for Constipation
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Features of the Impending
Trouble
Old Age and the Golden Age _____..............
Unsnarling the Hell Snarl 540
Fig Tree not yet Blooming 541
The Four Cardinal Attributes _____
Heights and Depths of Love ........
Studies in the '“Harp of God” ...........................-...643
Frtlfclwd othsr Wednesday it IS ec-nrcrd Street, Brooklyn, N. T., . . . . U ?. A by WOODWORTH, HUDQING8 ID* MARTIN CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH...... Editor
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! Golden Age
1^" ■ ! --------- -------------------------- ------- -■gi
Volume III Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, May 24, 1922 Number 70
Methuselah the Banker
i..-
(With Apologies to Methuselah)
"VTOTHINCr like this ever happened; but it clearly illustrates what is happening. It has a basis of facts, and Ilie calculations are reliable.
Prior to the flood there were ten patriarchs. The years wherein they lived, according to the true Bible chronology, were as follows:
b. c.
Adam ....................4129-3199
Seth......................3999-3087
Enos .....................3894-2989
Cainan ...................3804-2894
Mahakihel ................3734-2839
Jared ....................3669-2707
Enoch ....................3507-3142
Methuselah ...............3432-2463
Lainech...................3245-2468
Noah, to the floo.' ..........3063-2463
■ When Aiethuselah arrived on the scene Adam was getting well along in years; in fact, as the f- record shows, he had only 233 more years to y live: and realizing that he was growing old he said to Methuselah’s father: “Enoch, you have D always been a good boy; and now that you have to an addition to your family I feel like doing r something for your child, John D., Jr., my new great-great-great-great-great grandson; so here L, is $1.1 would like to have you put it out for him '' at interest : and when he is old enough, I would |... like to have him go into the banking business, h'* I think that there is a lot of money in that busi-t ' ness, if properly handled; and I will be ready, t as long as I live, to give my best advice as to how to safeguard the fund. My boy Seth wants * to borrow $1 from me right now; so we will lend it. the money to Seth at 6 percent interest. M e will K/.. let him have it on a sixty-day note; and then at the end of the sixty days he will renew the g. note, with the interest added; and so on indefi-k:' nitely.” ’
Principal Doubles in Ten Years
THIS seemed like an excellent suggestion to
Enoch, and so the transaction was made in due form. Seth gave his note for $1 on January 1st, B. C. 3432, and on March 1st renewed it for $1.01 and so on, at sixty-day intervals, with the following result: For convenience w’e give the principal of the unpaid note as it stood on certain stipulated dates, omitting fractions:
September 1st, B. C. 3431
January 1st, B. C. 3429
March 1st, B. C. 3428
Mav 1st, B. C. 3427
Mav 1st, B. C. 3426
March 1st, B. C. 3425
January 1st, B. C. 3424
November 1st, B. C. 3424
September 1st, B. C. 3423
July 1st, B. C. 3422
A Thousand-fold in a Century
ADAM saw that he was starting Methuselah off on a profitable path. While it had looked at the outset that Methuselah was going to make only 6 percent on his money, yet in actual practice the money had doubled itself in ten years and six months, so that, allowing for a time or tvTo w’hen the note went to protest, and thus brought additional revenues to the young financier, Adam discovered that Methuselah would normally double his money every ten years. In a little while, then, as things went at that time, Seth’s notes on January 1st of each decade were as noted on next page.
On January 1st, 3332, Seth came around to Methuselah and said: “It looks to me as though you are asking too much for the use of that dollar that you loaned me a hundred years ago today. I had no idea at that time that it would cost me over a thousand dollars for the use of that dollar for a hundred years.” But Methuselah had begun to see the value of his scheme; so he talked Seth into leaving the note, the same as usual, and let the money pile up, multiplying at the rate of over a thousand times a century, and took a mortgage on Seth’s home, to make sure that the interest and principal would all be paid some happy day. From that time onward business seemed to pick up rapidlv.
3412 B. C...................$
3402 B. C
3392 B.C
3382 B. C
3372 B. C
3362 B. C................... 128.00
3352 B. C................... 256.00
3342 B. C................... 512.00
3332 B.C................... 1024.00..
A Million in Two Centuries
ON JANUARY 1st, 3232, Adam came around to see how Methuselah was making out and was surprised to find that he had just renewed Seth’s note for the tidy sum of $1,048,576, and to learn that Seth had been compelled not only to give a mortgage on everything he owned but to borrow large sums from his children and his grandchildren to provide the collateral necessary to secure the loan.
In a little while (as things went then), namely, in only a third of a century, as Adam was ill, at the point of death, he sent for Methuselah to find out how the interest plan was working: and when Methuselah told him that Seth’s note* at that time was for $10,150,215.68 and that he held mortgages on all the then existing real and personal property of every sort on the whole earth, excepting Adam’s own house and the bed upon which he was lying, Adam just curled up and died.
Indeed, Enoch himself had become so disheartened at the way things looked that he. too, left the scene, sick at what he saw coming on the earth, and remained here only fifty-seven years longer. But in that time the bonds and bills receivable, mortgages and othei- collateral, in Methuselah’s hands had grown until the total was now $536,870,912. And the original dollar was still out at interest, working as hard as ever.
A Billion in Three Centuries
WHEN the third century came around, January 1st, B. C. 3132, ten years after Enoch had left the scene, the notes had reached to the sum of $1,073,741,824, and Methuselah was as wealthy as the wealthiest man living in the year 1922 A. I).: hut unlike him Methuselah was only nicely started in life.
From this point onward things seemed to come Methuselah's way. In the next century, down to the time of Seth’s death, which was a period of forty-five years, the notes came rolling in. When Seth felt that he was slipping away, he sent for the young banker to find out how much he really owed him for the loan 345 years previous; and when told in a stern banking tone of voice that it was on that date, January 1st, 3087 B. C., a sum total of $26,815,832,425.92, Seth gave one gasp; and they sent for the undertaker.
Four Centuries Would Buy the Earth
IT IVAS only a little while longer to the four hundredth anniversary of the loan. This period soon passed; and when it was expired, January 1st, 3032, the total securities in Methuselah’s hands, covering all the admitted indebtedness of Adam’s posterity, was the magnificent sum of $1,099,511,627,776. This was enough, and more than enough, if invested in a World War, to make the world safe for plutocracy. But Methuselah had more sense. He concluded to put it into the real estate business; for he knew that, with his interest-machine working properly, the world was safe for big business anyway—until something happened.
Looking the matter up in the Rand-McNally atlas of the. time, and confirming it by the “World Almanac”, Methuselah found that the total land surface of the earth is 54,807,420 square miles, which, at 640 acres to the square mile, amounts to 35,076,749,800 acres. He purchased the whole outfit at $30 per acre, and had the deed recorded; but as it all belonged 'o him anyway, he did not have to pay out any money. It was’ just a matter of bookkeeping. But even according to the books he had $47,209,133,776 left over, after buying the whole earth at $30 per acre, and without ever having done one stroke of work himself, all as a result of a “wise investment” of $1 left to accumulate by perfectly proper banking methods for a matter of 400 years.
How Could the People Pay it?
BY THIS time Methuselah had acquired the appetite for making money. He had learn-
ed the interest game thoroughly, and he now ~ ' went in for it in a large way. During the next P four centuries the fortune which he amassed in notes and bills receivable, mortgages, bonds and other collateral on all that wTas in the earth or ever would be in the earth was as follows:
Jan. 1st., B. C.
2932 $
2832 _____
2732 _____
2632 :
; 1,125,899,906,842,624
1,152,921,504,606,840,976
1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424
1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176
i; At this point Methuselah thought it was time for him to begin to build, and so he decided to
L' put a nice house on each acre of land that he
” owned. Figuring the matter up carefully he
found that on every acre of land surface of i. the earth, as a result of his frugality in letting that $1 work for him steadily for 800 years, he was able to erect on each acre a building which would cost him just $34,465,160,155,879 per <■ acre; and allowing that there would ultimately be 50,000,000,000, of Adam’s posterity born, | this would be at the rate of $689.30 for each one of them for each acre of the whole earth.
' Not being blessed by nature with any more sense than the law allowed, being ignorant of about every item except how to keep his old r interest-machine working, Methuselah started ? to build, using only solid gold, at $27 per ounce, for his building materials. His gold cost him, ■ delivered on the job, $648,000 per ton.
t.
L 256 Tons of Gold to the Square Inch
FIGURING up how much he would need, the old gentleman found that in every acre there » were 43,560 square feet of land and 6,272,640 - square inches. He reckoned up to see how many f tons of gold he could afford to stand on each square inch of the land surface of the earth, J and discovered that to place one ton on each ' . square inch he would be loading down each acre with a plate of solid gold amounting in value to $4,064,670,720,000. But as he had more than eight times as much wealth as this on hand, why should he care ? So he started to have the work done.
About this time his grandson Noah came along. We say about this time, but actually it was some forty-nine years later, and the build-ing operations were already under way. Noah asked his grandpa how much his wealth was at > this time, and was told that business had been good since Methuselah began to build, because he now had thirty-two times as much, and that therefore he intended to put 256 tons of solid gold on each square inch of the earth’s surface, instead of only eight tons as he had originally planned.
Erecting the Gold Standard
NOAH tried to reason with him; but the old man was getting cross and childish, and seemed to think because he was in the banking business that nobody else knew anything. So he roughly ordered Noah off the premises, meaning that he should get off the earth. Thinking the matter over Noah perceived that the only thing he could do was to take to the water; so he and the boys of the family got to work on their boat. They worked as hard as they could; for they could see that the old man was getting crazy and that things did not look a bit good for anybody.
Meantime Methuselah continued to do a good business. His little nest-egg had so grown by the time his 900th birthday came around that it was the neat figure of (if the pencil didn’t slip somewhere) $1,237,940,039,285,370,274,899,-124, 224. This wealth caused the old man’s mind to go back on him entirely; for he found that, building as hard as he could, it was impossible for all the inhabitants of the world to erect the gold as fast as it came flowing in. Therefore he determined to do something that would make his name remembered throughout all time. He had all the gold that could be possibly handled brought into one place; and there he erected on a plot a mile square a building of solid gold, which he called the The Gold Standard.
“As It Was in the Days of Noah”
THE great pile grew like magic, and kept get-ting higher and higher. They put in electric elevators and ran them like the wind, trying to keep pace with the delivery of the material, lifting it up and placing it in position. They had gotten up about seventy-nine miles when something happened. Probably nobody will ever know just what it was. Some said that the tower was.built too rigidly; it could not stand the strain of the great wind which blew away the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor. Others said it was because the foundation was laid in blood. Anyway, to the horror of all onlookers in the year 2463 B. C., it swayed a few moments, gave a sickening lurch, tore a big gap in the canopy, and came down with a roar, burying Methuselah and all of that civilization in the ruins. It fell, and great was the fall of it.
And when the canopy was torn, down came the waters, ocean deep, floating Noah and all his family to safety. If you look the matter up, yon will find that Methuselah died the year of the flood.
We reiterate the first statement of this article, namely, that “nothing like this ever happened”; but we leave it to the reader to judge whether or not any civilization can endure which is built upon the interest basis. There will come a time when the burden cannot possibly be borne. The "World War has made the burden already impossible. In a little while the great tower will fall and bury civilization in its ruins. When that time conies the only happy people on earth will be those who have learned well the lesson that the Word of our God which liveth and abideth forever is better, far better, than any image of gold that the supposedly wise but indescribably foolish financial people of the world have erected or can ever erect for their happiness or protection.
Lump Sugar
Appreciated in India By C. Manning (India) S MY subscription will be expiring shortly, I hasten to renew the same, money order follows. I request the favor of your continuing to send your good paper, which is clearly bringing to light the hidden things of darkness, in which the “god of this world” (age) has had a jolly good time, but evidence through the Golden Age is not lacking, that his number is up, and he shortly will be leaving the stage with his following.
The Golden Age magazine is truly being guided by the Author of light—Christ Jesus— and is fearlessly exposing all things which have blinded the minds of the common people. It is a pity that the “G. A.” is not printed and published in every country in the world, with news and information necessary in that particular part of the globe; for many things happening here are not happening there, and vice versa. But the dear Lord will arrange all that in due time. All the articles are good, but the specials are best.
A Golden Tribute By T. Hewitt (New Zealand)
AVING been a Bible student from boyhood, I have been greatly interested in the Bible
studies appearing the Golden Age. . . . The unregenerate cannot interpret the Book of books for my soul’s welfare. It is impossible for them to do so because the spirit of God docs not speak with them. . . . The late war troubles were foretold in the Book of books. The spiritually minded saw this looming over evil-doers, but were powerless, being outnumbered by big church and the kings of the earth. But if we are blessed with spiritual eyesight, we see the oceans of God’s love for the faithful.
Doing a Great Work By Tom CuUen
OU have a remarkable publication; and while I am anything but religious, I cannot but bring myself to believe that you are doing a great work. You are to be congratulated on the compilation of your articles, and on such contributors as 0. L. Rosenkrans, Jr. His article, “The Counterfeit New Era,” in the issue of December 21, is commendable, to say the least. It is splendidly written, and mirrors life as we have seen it for the past twenty years. I am widely advertising the The Golden Age, and this article in particular, and will continue so to do. Not alone is Mr. Rosenkrans’ article good to peruse, but every one I have been able to get hold of is most interesting reading.
Full of Vital Topics By Robert Fisher
THIS is just to express my appreciation for the wonderful and inspiring reading matter that is contained in the Golden Age magazine. It is the most wonderful magazine that is printed today, so full of the most vital topics. And to know these are just foregleams of what the Golden Age is going to be I Truly every creature in heaven and in earth will be singing praise unto our heavenly Father then. The "Harp of God” study is truly wonderful, so simple to understand. I think its simplicity is what makes it so noble, just like the teaching of our dear Master; and may His blessing attend your untiring efforts to herald the incoming Golden Age.
Warring Against the Papal Empire
Evangelical Protestant Society
HEADQUABTBBS
118 Fulton Street, New York City
“The Protestant”, 52 Bliss Building, Washington, D. C.
March 29th, 1922 Bev. J. F. Rutherford,
Pastor, International Bible Students Assn., Brooklyn, N. Y.
Dear Sir and Brother:
A number of gentlemen here in New York, appreciating the seriousness of the Roman Catholic encroachments upon American institutions, have organized a Society known as the Evangelical Protestant Society.
The objects of this Society are to defend and promote Evangelical Christianity in cooperation with Evangelical churches; and to defend American Democracy against the encroachments of Papal Rome. This movement is designed to be nation-wide and international. It is to be a fight absolutely in the open, and its work will be constructive rather than destructive. It is to be a sustained and permanent effort, working through the various Evangelical bodies of this country; and it is the purpose of the organizers to fight the Romanist evil in three practical ways, as follows:
(1) By intensive Evangelism throughout the length and breadth of the country.
(2) By pitiless publicity — showing them up to the American public, including their own members.
(3) By combating them in a political way along the lines employed by the Anti-Saloon League.
This movement has been inaugurated during the past few weeks, and there are a number of well known men who are ’dentified with this movement as “Charter Members”. Only men of the highest character and influence are desired as “Charter Members”; and as soon as 100 or more have been enrolled we will then elect officers and begin operations.
Among those who have become “Charter Members” are:
Dr. David James Burrell, Marble Collegiate Church, N. Y.
Bishop Wm. Burt,
Methodist Episcopal Church, Buffalo, N. Y.
Dr. John Roach Straton, Calvary Baptist Church, N. Y.
Judge Gilbert 0. Nations,
Editor of “The Protestant”, Washington, D. 0.
Mr. Allen W. Johnston,
Author of “The Roman Catholic Bible and the Roman Catholic Church”, Schenectady, N. Y. Dr. Robert Stuart MacArthur,
President, “Baptist World Alliance”.
Rev. Edwin D. Bailey,
Prospect Heights Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Db. Curtis Lee Laws, Watchman & Examiner, N. Y.
Dr. Frank M. Goodchild, Central Baptist Church, N. Y.
Rev. Oscar M. Voorhees,
General Secretary, Phi-Beta-Kappa, N. Y. 0.
Mr. John W. Ripley,
50 Church Street, N. Y. C.
Rev. J. A. Davis,
Inland South American Mission, N. Y. “ and many others.
We are very desirous of having you as one of the “Charter Members”; and I am enclosing you herewith a. copy of the Manifesto, Preamble and Constitution of the “Evangelical Protestant Society"’ and would ask you to look these over very carefully, and then kindly sign the copy of the Preamble and return it to me, when you will be duly enrolled as a“Charter Member” of this Society.
I think you will agree with me that it is time for us to be up and doing, and we believe that the “Evangelical Protestant Society” will fully serve the purposes for which it has been incorporated. This movement was born in prayer.
Thanking you in anticipation, I remain, Yours sincerely,
Evangelical Protestant Society. By E. C. Miller, Chairman.
I.eply to the Foregoing by the President of the International Bible Students Association
Brooklyn, N. Y., March 31, 1922.
Mr. E. C. Miller,
Chairman, Evangelical Protestant Society, 113 Fulton Street, New York, N. Y.
Dear Brother Miller:
Your very kind favor of March 29, inviting me to become a charter member of the Evangelical Protestant Society, to hand. It is very good and kind of you to invite me so to do, and I deeply appreciate your confidence. Likewise I appreciate your sincere desire to see removed from the land the institution that Satan has used for such a long while to the detriment of mankind. But I must decline to accept your invitation to become a charter member of your Society. Being a Christian and devoted wholly to the Lord Jesus Christ, and believing that Papacy is inimical to Christianity and the welfare of man, you may be at a loss to understand why 1 decline to join your organization. For this reason I set forth the following explanation :
Jesus taught His followers to pray: “Thy kingdom come”. When He stood before Pilate He said: “My kingdom is no of this world”. By the word world, as we hot', understand, He meant the social and political order and not the literal earth. Both He and St. Paul declared that Satan is the god of this world. Jesus sent forth His disciples to preach the gospel of His kingdom until its establishment. He did no' authorize them to preach American or English democracy. Satan over-reached the loaders in the early part o the Christian era, organized the Papal system of Rome, which system early joined hands with commercialism and professional politicians, and which alliance the Lord through His Prophet designates by the term “beast”. Luther and others led a great reformation movement, resulting in tremendous good and the formation of Protestant organizations for truth and righteousness, in the name of the Lord. But in time the leaders of these various Protestant organizations united forces with commercialism and politicians, and both Catholic and Protestant systems became a part of Satan’s empire. In both Catholic and Protestant organizations, howrever, there have always been some real, sincere Christians: and these have continued to pray: “Thy kingdom come".
The great event to which every real Christian has looked forward has been the second coming of our Lord and the end of the world.(Matthew 24:3) In this chapter cited Jesus details the evidence that would mark the beginning of this long-desired event. Such evidence began to manifest itself in 1914 with the be,ginning of the World War. Careful students of prophecy could see, measuring the record by Biblical chronology, that this World War marked the beginning of a change of dispensation. It was then the duty, as well as the privilege, of all Christians to preach the message of the Lord’s kingdom and not the message of murder of fellow-men. If the peoples of the world wished to ' war, that was their business. Christians represeated the Prince of Peace.
But you will agree with me that Catholic and Protestant organizations alike joined with other worldly institutions to preach the people into the war; that all Christians who dared to stand for the teachings of Jesus and the apostles (2 Corinthians 10: 3, 4) were persecuted and many sent to prison and others flogged, tarred and feathered, and dl-treated; and that in almost every instance such unjust persecution was begun, encouraged and carried on by those who claim to be ministers of the Protestam and Catholic churches. The reasons for this and a brief history of the events are set forth in The Golden Age, Number 27, under the title “The Distress of Nations”.
The United States went into that war upon the slogan, “Make the world safe for democracy” ; and at the same time Catholics and Protestants joined hands to destroy religious freedom and democracy, and indulged in the worst religious intolerance and persecution America has ever known. During this war many Protestant, as well as Catholic, clergymen boldly declared from their pulpits to the yeomanry of the land: 'Go to war, and if you die upon the battlefield fighting to make the world safe for democracy, your death will be counted as a part of the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ’. Such a statement was not only wickedly false, but the worst kind of blasphemy upon the Lord’s holy name. The record made by these clergymen during the war is a shame to the cause of Christianity. Some of that record is published in Numbers 60, 61, 62, 63 of The Golden Age.
As to the claim made by your Society, that the Catholics meddle in politics and seek to control the government and have designs upon the institutions of America, I fully and heartily agree. You may find some evidence to aid you and ' your workers in this behalf collated and set forth in The Golden Age, Number 46-47, under the title “Earth’s Oldest Empire”.
But. my dear Brother, as Christians, let us ask ourselves: What would my Lord have me do? You must agree with me that a Christian holds a commission higher and greater than any earthly government or organization can give to mam That commission is not to preach American democracy or English democracy. It is not
to destroy the Catholic system; nor is it to join hands with big business and big politics to coni’- ' trol the world. It is not authorizing one class to persecute fellowmen; but it is a commission of
|^{ love and mercy for doing good. It reads:
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me. because the Lord 'r hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; *’>■ he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the ; ’ _ prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.”—Isaiah 61: 1. 2.
Instead of preaching men into the Avar and encouraging such unrighteousness; instead of joining hands with big business and profession-'• al politicians to put the American people in an - alliance with disintegrating Europe, why not stick to the God-given commission and tell the It people the real remedy for their ills?
I have the deepest heartfelt sympathy for any man or organization wanting to see unright-:;r' eousness and wickedness eliminated from the r universe. I am sure there are many men of lovable character in vour organization, with the ? honest desire and purpose of destroying evil.
But, my dear Brother, let us take cognizance of ' the fact that it must be accomplished in the
Lord’s appointed way and in the spirit of the Lord. A Christian cannot join an unholy alliance that has to do with any part of Satan’s f kingdom. He must stand aloof from this and be a faithful and true witness for the King of glory. ^11 the nations are in distress and per-„ plexity, men’s hearts everywhere are failing ~ them for fear, and all efforts that are put forth p- to bring order out of the disturbed conditions must fail, unless they are in harmony with the divine arrangement. Briefly stated, I understand that divine arrangement to be this:
• That God through Christ Jesus has provided redemption for all who will be obedient to righteousness; that He first takes out from the world those who shall compose the church, the gi members of His body; that this work is about gf completed, and when completed and His king-dom is in operation the blessings of life, liberty •; and happiness will be offered to all mankind, g’- and those who refrain from violence and evil now will be amongst the first that will be the recipients of the Lord’s blessings; that the end Bjr of Satan’s empire is here: that we are at the v-end of the old wicked world; that the evidence of these facts, testified aforetime by the Lord Jesus, has been manifest since the beginning of 1914, when began the great World War, followed quicldy by famine, pestilence and revolution, which Jesus declared would mark the beginning of the passing away of the old order. (Matthew 24; Luke 21) This is good news to Christians and every one that loves righteousness. Why? Because it means the kingdom of heaven is at hand—that which will bring relief and blessing to the people, lienee, Jesus said: “This gospel [good news) of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come”.—Matthew 24:14.
Permit me to say, dear Brother, that your efforts and those of your organization to defend American democracy will be uselessly spent. Christians are ambassadors of Christ’s kingdom, not of some earthly, political organization. Why not obey, then, the Lord’s command? Why not fulfill the commission He gave by going forth and telling the people that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and that its establishment and operation is the only panacea for the ills of humankind? Why waste your efforts to patch up the decaying elements of Satan’s empire! Soon that empire, in all its elements, including the wicked Papal system and the daughter Protestant systems that have likewise followed a similar course, will pass away, and instead will come in the peaceable kingdom of the Lord. Then “the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”.—Isaiah 9:6.
If you believe that you can advance the cause of Christianity by defending American democracy against the encroachments of Papal Rome, then go on and do so. You may prosper; you may not. As for me, I must preach the message of Christ’s kingdom and nothing else. I cannot feel that the spirit of the Lord is in anything else now.
I have pleasure in sending you under separate cover copies of each of the above-mentioned numbers of The Gowen Age and a copy of each of my books, “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” and “The Harp of God”. I hope you will receive them in the same kindly spirit in which they are sent.
Believe me, my dear Mr. Miller, yours for the cause of righteousness,
Very sincerely,
J. F. Rutherford, President.
Prices Are What We Make Them By a. h. Kent
A STANDARD price makes a stable dollar.
- Silver and gold are products. Their relation to each other has been established by law. They have been divided into units of which the dollar is the standard, other units being fractions or multiples thereof. The purpose of this was to provide a value easy to handle and in convenient amounts to be used as a medium in the exchange of other values.
But it has been left to those interested to determine as best they can the ratio between money and product, labor and product, or product and other product, with the result that prices are being arrived at without system, and consequently are unstable and unsatisfactory.
WHY GOVERNMENT MONEY?
Just why the Government has given gold and silver a standard weight, a standard fineness of metal, and a standard ratio between each other, and has left other products, prices and property unstable is one of the questions the present is always asking of the past. The only plausible answer is that money was put under government regulations and other products were not. If the order had been reversed, products and other values standardized, the ratio between them established and gold and silver left in the hills, we would not now be $350,000,000,000 of gold in debt.
One reason why prices were not put under government control was that the people deemed it one of their inalienable rights to bargain, trade, corner, squeeze, bull and bear, to the full extent of their several abilities, so that right has proven itself to be $350,000,000,000 wrong. It is quite often policy to forego some rights, especially if they are questionable.
If gold and silver, as products or specie, have a specific value it is being badly disordered by the man that pencils the price tag. If they have not, the price-maker is the only person that can stabilize their buying value.
If a different price is named for each transaction we say prices fluctuate. That is not because the value of product has changed, neither the value of gold, but some of the multitudinous ramifications of the human intellect have directed the pencil to make new figures.
As a standard of value the dollar represents 25.8 grains standard gold. As a medium of exchange it represents any old thing agreed up-
on; add to or take away a part of its cont and it will still function in the same manner.
The only conclusion is that prices are con-^tg trolled by the price-maker. He may be coxk^| trolled by motives, circumstances or other causes, not excluding his wife’s opinion. The J* fact that commercial values are as stable as yardstick until some one changes the price is-'^ proof conclusive.
If the relativity of money, labor, product, "s and other values were established by law, as.g they should be, several of our large questions would be answered. But before we attempt tofS establish prices we should evolve a plan that plain and practical, that comprehends the equate rights and means of all to labor and enjoy the-;.) fruits thereof, for if prices are permanently fixed on other than a just basis we perpetuate^ injustice.
However, there could be no system more un-.pj just than the common practice of naming, or being forced to accept, a price as far from jus*-^ tice as supply, demand, competition or other cir-rj cumstanc.es will admit. -
Establishing prices on an existing price-level^ would work justice, providing each article was priced right when established, otherwise hot;-^* but if prices had the habit of being right there would be little need of fixing them. So wisdonr"*] suggests, as justice demands, that the price of each article be rightly determined before being established. -I
VALUE VERSUS PRICE |
The maximum value of product cannot be-* measured. If we could determine the value of' one calory of food to life we could compute the .-value of life, which value is not determinable. J® There is nothing to compare to life, nor can kJ there ever be. This explains why men of all ages have looked in vain for a measure of?? value. --g
Nature’s great store-house (air, water, and j earth) is filled with values, each contributing -.S its part to life. Man’s province is to assists nature in production, to gather, combine, and-3 store these values for use. This we call work, 'f labor, expense; and in measuring and dividing^ this expense we are interested collectively. ‘
Our system of production, manufacture, sale, and distribution is complex. Into it are woven 'JS the lives of our whole people; and on them^-a
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should the expense of living bear equally, as also the blessings of life. This we believe can best be done by measuring the expense in laborhours and bartering the labor content or earned increment at labor cost.
This implies the standardization of all product. The word “standard” applies to the thing measured or established. When one or more
qualities of a product are measured or established, it becomes standard in that respect. It ' may be standard in quality, standard in size, " standard in price.
( One product made standard helps in estab--■ lishing others until finally all will become standby.- -ard in every respect, as a product of standard r quality, produced by standard labor, working ■ standard hours, receiving a standard wage, the product to be measured by a standard measure, scale, or weight, bought with a standard dollar, | ' at a standard price, based on standard labor ' cost and standard quality. Necessarily price is I"' ' the last factor to be established; for to be equal g they must graduate with one another in order ? to represent the other standard qualities.
THE RELATION OF MONEY TO LABOR
There is one way to establish that relation which looks practical. Here it is: The Government could ascertain the daily average production of gold and silver per man enga ged in those pursuits. This average could be used as a base for the wage of all occupations. In other w’ords, we could say that a man was entitled to a wage equal to the average value of the gold and silver he could produce and coin in a day. That would fix the value of our money on a laborcost basis where it could be measured in laborhours.
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PRODUCT PRICES
There are two things common to all product that should be considered in computing prices; cost and quality. Labor cost is the only legitimate cost there is. Usury and increase (Bible), interest and profit (modern), have no place in a system of fair-dealing. Figure six percent in interest or profit on all the wealth of the nation, and where would that colossal sum in addition to labor cost come from? It is due to those that hold the wealth and from those that labor.
It requires the proceeds of the whole product sold at labor cost to pay for its production; and that is as it should be. Surely people are entitled to labor cost for what they produce and distribute, and surely they should be able to buy other product at the same price. That leaves no balance with which to pay interest or profit. Adding six percent to the value of the property only increases the burden. Adding it to the price of product only increases the price of living and that increases the cost of the next product. So there is no way to get interest and profit excepting, it may be, out of the earnings of the producer or the savings of the consumer.
The quality of product may be determined by tests and measured or expressed in comprehensive terms as food calories, heat or power units, tensile strength, friction, resistance, long or short staple, etc. All product should be tested, graded, and classed according to their respective use.
LABOR COSTS
As the labor costs of articles vary greatly, compared to their quality or value for use, it is necessary to devise a plan by which e'ach article may sell at its comparative value, the whole product being labor expense. In the end each producer receives equal and full pay for his labor. We will take coal, to illustrate how this may be done. Coals in general use test from (say) 1000 to 3000 British thermal units, while their labor cost is practically the same. We will say it is $1.50 per ton, for all grades. We would price the coal testing 1000 B. T. units at labor cost or $1.50 per ton. At that rate a coal testing 2000 would bring $3.00 per ton. Another testing 3000 would bring $4.50, other qualities being equal. The 2000 test coal would show an excess value of $1.50 per ton. while the 3000 test would show an excess of $3.00 over labor cost. This unearned increment should belong to the public and be used in general expense. This might best be done by the government taking the coal at the mines at labor cost, selling it according to grade, the unearned increment to be earned in delivering, in place of going into the hands of the coal barons to be used in fighting anything that looks like a square deal in coal, as is done now, under our lax system of looking after things of collective interest.
JUST LEVEL OF PRICES
We believe the above system, if followed, would put prices on an absolutely just level where they could be permanently established by law. If it bears any defe. G, joint them out.
We should never stop until we have established the relation between labor, money, and product beyond controversy. The good effects of stable prices would be so far-reaching that they can hardly be comprehended. It would put the question of production and distribution as a whole where it could be worked out to the utmost efficiency without running counter to special interests.
We must be properly fed, clothed, and sheltered, before we can make progress in other lines of endeavor. The need of the hour is to determine on a system of economics that is perfectly just and right between man and man; then get behind it as one united people and put it into practice. Individuals or small groups of men may resent justice, but no large body of men will oppose anything they know to be perfectly just and right.
LABOR-HOURS
In conclusion, wre would say: Measure our money in labor-hours, measure our product in labor-hours, and then in dollars and cents. Prices once established should never be changed. The reason for this rigidity is that whenever a price changes it changes the relation of
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all stored wealth to that product. If some must fluctuate, logically it should be the ho of labor. If product increases in quality it take less; shorten the hours of labor. If laboj^ and machinery become more efficient, it willWS require less time in production; shorten the^3 hours. If yields of fruit and grain increase/7'f it will require less labor; shorten the hours. If?^ more men are used in improvements there willySI be less left in production; lengthen the hour£M|| Prices are the most important factor in orrfcw economic system. They determine the relatioH^JM between money and other values. The fairaegSfgi of any business transaction depends on price on which it is based. It is of as much, olff|! even more importance to rightly determine.^ quality and price, than to measure quantity.
If our govermnent would make the necessa computations from a standard-wage base, and? stamp each article of product with its actu labor expense, also with its food contents oiF* service qualities showing the excess value, (if-? any), added to make the selling price, the publia would soon learn what a fair price is and would demand it. Have wTe any proof there have ever-been any fair prices? If so, by what rule can it.,^ be proven? .
The Massacre of the Farmers By Edwin G.Erler
DIOGENES is said to have searched the world for an honest man, and failed to find one. The writer has been searching for years for an honest publication, one that would tell the truth, so far as humanly possible. He has tried the magazines, the daily press, the religious press, and even the Socialist press. The first three mentioned he has found filled, more or less, with the propaganda of big business and big politics; the last, while better in many respects, was also unreliable. But in the The Golden Age he has found his ideal. There is no propaganda; it aims to tell the truth, regardless of whose toes are trodden upon; and it is not controlled by the “interests”, whose touch means corruption.
Ten years before the World War, there were magazines — among them the American, McClure's, Cosmopolitan, Everybody’s, Hampton’s —and some of the daily papers, not controlled by the big financial interests; but today this has
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all been changed. At that time we also had fear-^4® less writers: Ida M. Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Charles Edward Russell,/^ and Ben Hampton were among the best known, although there were many others just as strong."'^ “Muckrakers” they were called by those whose^ dark, sinister workings they exposed to the. light of public condemnation. Where are they/^g today? Some have been wrecked, both physically and financially, by those whom they exposed; the others have been “outlawed” by these same <3 “interests”, and no magazines or newspaper'-^ dares print what they write under penalty of being killed financially or forced into bankruptcy.
Go to a news-stand, examine the magazines, and what do you find? Some filled with stories,-^ many with propaganda, others with a lot of drivel about some rich, profiteering grafter who''J| is held up as a model for the youth of our coun-^ try to emulate! Still others are devoted to thetr
.which would arouse "honest citizenry.
The writer spent
^blooded, He-Man articles exposing the crook- . edness in our state or national life, nothing
pictures of "tainted” movie actors and actresses, or filled with sex-slush to tickle the palate of romantic old ladies or foolish, love-sick schoolgirls. All is soft-pedal stuff; none have red-or national life, nothing
the fighting spirit of our
twenty-five years in the
« newspaper game and knows whereof he speaks. Through years of contact with the national magazines and daily papers he knew their policies t and has watched them fall, one by one, from their high estate, until today the utterances of practically all are controlled from the business office. If further proof is necessary, the recent exposure, through Congressional investigation, I of how big business and the war profiteers bought the control of twenty-five of the leading daily papers of this country, and through them, by their dastardly propaganda plunged us into the World War, a $25,000,000,000 war debt, and stole from the taxpayers many billions of dollars, should convince the most skeptical.
The and one at a con-the
The Golden Age has made many exposures of big business in the past, but I wish to bring ? out one side of their "work which netted them * many billions. During 1919 and 1920 the press 4 was flooded with propaganda, urging the farmer to produce larger crops and more Livestock. He ■» was told that Europe was starving and would f: take all he could raise at high prices. After the crops had been safely planted, the propaganda f changed; farm sales at unheard of prices began to appear in the papers. Farms were reported ( to be selling at double and even treble former prices. Long lists of sales were printed all over the Middle West in which farms were reported r to have sold at from $300 to $500 per acre, which i * were worth only $100 a few days before. ” clamor became louder and louder; higher higher went the inflation. Farms bought g ~ day were reported to have sold the next g phenomenal advance, until even the most Jg; servative farmers and investors caught s speculation fever and became “frenzied financiers”. Credit could be had almost for the asking, money was as free as water; farms and v homes were mortgaged to obtain funds for "first payments” on land which the buyer hoped to sell in a few days at a big profit. Then, just the right moment, when every credit had been Strained to the last dollar, when big business had its vaults filled with farm mortgages, they closed the flood-gates, the money supply stopped and—BAM! it was all over, except the foreclosures.
It is a sad story. With his home or farm mortgaged to the limit, all the money accumulated by many years of saving, long hours and arduous toil, tied up in first payments, with the largest crop in the history of the country on his hands and no way to get it to market, because big business refused to furnish freight cars while thousands of “empties” stood idle on obscure sidetracks or were moved about from place to place, the producer saw prices go down, down, down, until far below the cost of production; and when he complained he was advised by his banker and through press propaganda that he must sell anyway, and was called a slacker if he refused to take what was offered him.
Oh I it was a fine game, and big business netted from three to five billion dollars from it; and the end is not yet. Hundreds of thousands of farmers are bankrupt and are helpless, while their homes and farms are slipping one by one into the hands of Shylock. Thousands more, who mangaged to hold on during 1921 in the hope of relief from low prices, are losing their all this spring. The records of every county in the big agricultural section, are black with foreclosures, while Wall Street fiddles, and food speculators and stock exchange grafters amass fortunes gambling with that which the farmer had to sell at a loss.
Did big business stop at this! No, indeed! There were other riches which they coveted. Billions in tax-free Liberty Bonds—bought by both farmer and laborer at 100 cents on the dollar, who were in many instances forced to borrow the money to buy them with or be branded as slackers, during the frenzy of war times— were still to be gobbled up. By bankrupting the farmer and throwing millions of laborers out of employment, big business was able to gather in the bonds at 70 to 80 cents on the dollar. Then when the last one had been squeezed from the original buyer, the price almost immediately went to near par.
That many papers and people are the innocent victims in helping spread the propaganda of the interests, there is no doubt; but that it is directed by those who expect to profit thereby, is also true. Witness the drive to inveigle this country into the League of Nations last year and, what is as bad or worse, the Four Power Pact this year, under the guise of a “Disarmament Conference”. While the country was taken up with the clamor of the “Disarmament” show, the stealthy propaganda for putting over on us the iniquitous Sales Tax and the repeal of the Income, Luxury and Excess Profit taxes —the ones through which big business is forced tn contribute to the expenses of govermim”+— goes merrily on.
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Satan and his allies, big business and big politics, may keep us down for a while by sitting on the safety-valve. But believe me, it is golfing pretty hot; and some of these days the pressure will get too strong; and then the despoilers of the common people, the arrogant heads of big business, who corrupt our courts, buy seats in Congress and own our legislators; these de-bauchers of the righteous, traducers of the truth and trampiers on our free press, free speech, and the glorious Constitution will get their just deserts; for is it not written: “I will visit on the earth its evil, and on the wicked their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and the haughtiness of . the tyrants will I humble”?—Isaiah 13:11.
And again; “Come now, you rich, weep and y lament over those miseries of yours which are x approaching. Your securities have become worthless, and your garments have become \ moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have become rusted; and the rust of them will be for a testi- Y mony against you, and will consume your bodies like lire. You have heaped together treasures . for the last days. Behold that reward which you have fraudently withheld from those laborers who harvested your fields [the farmers] cries out; and the loud cries of the reapers has entered the ears of the Lord of armies.”—James 5:1-5.
They may postpone the day of retribution for a few years with espionage laws and the methods adopted by the Department of Justice \ during the war. But like a cancer, whose growth cannot be stopped, the longer the operation is deferred, the greater the danger to the life of the patient. Will they see their evil ways and y take warning in time prevent the day of reck- d oning?
Mining Life in Ohio By p. o. Mace
T AM postmaster in our little town; and when the mines work I work in the mines, while my wife takes care of the post office. Of course my wife does not have to take charge of the office very often, as there is but little work at the mines the present time.
The idea that I am wanting to convey in this article is to show the city folk, and those of the small towns that have no mines around them, the real working conditions of the despised coal miners.
We are supposed to have a working-day of eight hours. If a husband and father is the man that he ought to be, he arises while it is yet night, at 4:30 A. M., starts the fires and gets things in order for the good wife to arise a half hour later, to prepare his breakfast and pack his dinner pail, so that at 6.00 he may take his departure for the workings.
He proceeds to kiss the good wife and tells her to have no fear but he will return in the evening to her and the kiddies, knowing full well that when he enters the mines, with millions of tons of rock, slate, and dirt over his head his life may be crushed out at any moment, and he may be carried home to the good wife and the kiddies a corpse.
I have seen that right here in our little town more than once. I saw a father and a son both mustered out of the service in that way at once.
We work at all times by artificial light. For years I worked by the light of a single candle power, but thanks to science for the invention of carbide, we have a better light now.
When you enter the mine you must look out for gas, and after the gas the black damp that-endangers your life at all times. When a boy I have gone to work with my father, and found the room blocked against entrance with a board, ■ and the word “Gas” written thereupon. My father would take off his coat, and in the dark feel his way to our work, and with his coat fan the gas out into the main airway, so that we could perform the day’s labor.
Life in the mines is also endangered by the electric power. In walking the main hallways,
if you touch your head against a wire it will tyring you down in an instant; and if your heart is bad you may stay dowm.
' ■ I knew a boy a short time ago who while hauling coal became entangled in the wires. They went in and got him at quitting time. The coroner’s verdict read, “By accident”. I wonder why those wires were not put over on the rib
L of the entry, where he or his horse could not s? get into them.
Also, when we are in the mine, we work by * artificial air, pumped into the mine by the use £ of a fan; that is, when the fan runs. When it stops for an hour or so we don’t work by any, | and the powder smoke is so terrible at times f that your head aches as though it -would burst. | But we must work or we cannot live.
Then there are miners that toil in water sev-r oral inches deep in their entry or room, as the
Amid these conditions, with bad tops over our heads, with death-dealing gases, impure air, dangers from electric wires and with water under foot we work from 7.00 a. m. until 3.30 p. m., timbering our own places, laying our own track, shooting our own coal, handling our own slate and refuse, and buying our own supplies. In
Branding the Undesirables By n. a. Eckerman
NOT long ago, in conversation with a party of men, the Henry Ford proposition of taking over the Muscle Shoals came up. One of the party called Mr. Ford a vile name, stating that men who try to upset precedents which have been in vogue for years are nothing but bolshevists and socialists. This conversation opened up a line of thought.
All will agree that the man who would seriously make such a remark is an undesirable citizen. Have we other undesirables, and who are they, and how shall we deal with them?
Should men be classed as undesirables, traitors, when they have filched six billion dollars of the savings of the people, as the Denver Post of January 5, 1922, reports that the Wall Street bucket-shops have done?
Should people be classed as undesirables, traitors, who make and sell illegal whisky, knowing in advance that the proven results are blindness and death? One Chicago undertaker reour town we mine from six to ten tons per day, each.
For powder we pay $2.30 per keg; carbide is 8| cents per pound; squibs are 25 cents per box; coal augers are 14 cents each; picks are $1 each; shovels are $2.50 each; and there are bars, slate hooks, wedges, and other things too numerous to mention that also have to be purchased.
For working under these conditions we receive at my own town 80 cents per ton for loading coal which has sold as high.as $14 per ton 80 miles from my home, and for which, now, at a distance of 50 yards from the coal car, I pay $3.25 per ton.
Out of my eighty cents a ton I have rent to pay and must also pay the butcher, the baker, the grocer, and the parasites that never, did an honest day’s work in their lives. The question is, Where is the getting-off place to this kind of thing?
I am glad that the time is drawing near when all wrongs will be made right, under the rule of the Prince of Peace. I am not a professor of Christianity, i. e., not a member of any creedal church, but I have the truth, and it is more precious to me than all the gold in the world. I would not part with it for any sum of money.
ports that sixty-five percent of his burials result from this cause of death.
Should doctors be listed as undesirables, traitors, who, with full knowledge of the results, and doing it for profit, sell the various kinds of outlawed drugs, such as morphine and opium preparations? Could we not remove some of the temptations from these men by making sale of these drugs absolutely illegal, the Government only having the right to dispense them, free, on physicians’ recommendations?
How about placing on the undesirable list, for deportation, those who deliberately sell stock to their fellow men which they know has nothing more substantial back of it thanabrainstorm and blue sky?
Is it not about time to place on the undesirable list, for deportation, those who, entrusted with office, deliberately throttle the will of the people for the benefit of a few unscrupulous financial thieves?
And why not list for deportation those who are so quick to cry out against reformers, as though they were a nuisance, when these are only calling attention to gigantic wrongs that ought to be righted?
And then we have the “regularly ordained” undesirable who, to save his job, is willing to perpetuate a system of lies, even admitting privately that the Scriptures do not teach the doctrine of eternal torture, but that he does not think it best to tell the people all the truth on the subject.
Then, too, there is the charity undesirable, who solicits and collects funds for some worthy cause, applying eighty cents out of every dollar to his own use. How about deporting him?
And then we have a gigantic organization which collects millions of dollars from the public, ostensibly for the maintenance of homes for the deserving and unfortunate, but which, instead of applying its income from rentals and vj membership fees to the ends it is supposed to « serve, pays out salaries of $10,000 to $15,000 per year to a number of figureheads, while some ~ of the donators are practically starving today. - s.-How about having these guilty men listed as un- 7 desirables, and deported?
Millions of people who daily come in contact . with the above and other undesirable classes have a great lever which they can use to better : conditions, and which would be of great value to the undesirables themselves. Would it not be ; a good idea for those who thus come in contact with men who are undermining their own characters and doing untold mischief to others to -proclaim them loudly as undesirables, fastening the name only on those who are known to deserve it? Would it not help some who are now . . secretly fighting the truth to take a final stand on the side of justice and right?
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