Golden Age, June 21, 1922
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June 21,1922, Vol. Ill, Na 72
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Volume 3 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 1822 Number 71
CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
Twenty Thousand Suicides .....................................*..............589
A Protest against the Press ................... 590
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
British Government Monopoly
How the Opium Comes ....5*0
Dope-Peddlers ............
Dope-Routes
Drug-Boosters
In the Vice BnsinedS ..
England’s Monopoly of this Deviltry ______
England's Side Partner ... 588
Tub Golden Age, a Sailor’s Viewpoint ..............590
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
One of the Blessings of War ................... ........
Not like Raymond Street ..... .
SCIENCE AND INVENTION The Glory of the Winter Sky ......... -.......—
HOME AND HEALTH
Habit-Forming Drugs in
America .........................579
Tons of Morphine Used 579
Effects of the Drugs ........580
Pandemonium o£ the Mind 581
Agonies of Drug Maniacs 582
Dope-Selling Doctors ........586
Doctors under Indictment 580
The Food We Eat ............695
Park i ng-Ilou se. Frug ali ty 697
RELIGION AND PHILOSOiniY
Demons .back of Dope
Symbology, Beautiful
Thought Expression
True Bible Teaehers
**No More Sea” —-
Christian Science versus
Bible Science .. -...602
“Take It by the Tail’1 ....603 Prcjiii of the Gohlen Ago 606 Studies in the "Harp of
God” ................................607
Mblbtcii en<TT other Wedaesdiy at 18 ConeoM Street. Brooklyn, N. Y.f . . . . V. 6- A by WOODWORTH, HUDGINGS and MARTIN CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH.......Editor
flOBRKT J. MARTIN .... Business Managsr WM. F. HEDGINGS......Bec'y and Trea®,
Cnpartuera and proprietors, Addrest: 18 Concord Blroet, Brooklyn, N. T......U. S." A.
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The Golden Age
Volume III Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, June zl, 1922 Number 71
Habit*Forming Drugs in America
OPIUM, morphine and heroin, all derived from the opium poppy; hashish, or canni-bus indica, derived from hemp; cocaine, derived from the coca leaf; and the drugs chloral, ether, arsenic, trional, sulfonal, veronal and paraldehyde, a-re said to have 2,000,000 addicts in the United States, and the number is growing by leaps and hounds.
Drugs addicts are irresponsible. The hold which habit-forming drugs have upon their victims is such that they will stop at nothing to obtain the $5 to $8 per day which they must have in order satisfy their horrible cravings. Of nineteen persons arrested in Boston at one time for violation of the narcotic law a careful oversight was kept for one year. During that time, one was convicted of murder in the second degree, one of robbery, and seven each served six months’ time in prison. At the end of the second year, all but two of the nineteen were serving prison sentences; and those two had been but just released from a penal institution. The police reports of the city of Boston for the years 1919-1920 show 172 arrests in 1919 for violation of drug law's, and 304 arrests in 1920.
Tons of Morphine Used
IKING the first ten months of 1919, the United States imported 250 tons of crude
opium, enough to produce 35 tons of morphine. One ton would be sufficient for the medical needs of America from Alaska to Patagonia. The combined population of Germany, France, and Italy is 133,000,000 and that of the United States is 105,000,000; yet the United States imported ten times more crude opium than those other three countries together.
There is something about the atmospheric conditions of the North American continent that makes it impossible for the natives to do things by halves. There is a tang to the air that makes their rushes in any direction almost irresisti- ; ble. This has long been known by students of j American conditions. It was these rushes that \ so quickly broke the German lines in the Ar- ! gonne when the America^ troops got under way. ' Just at present many of the American people are rushing to ruin by the drug route.
The United States today is in far graver danger of ruin from opium than is China. This ■ country is using more opium than is China, and the use of that drug is spreading far more rap- ; idly than it has ever spread in China, after that heathen country was forced to accept importations of it at the muzzle of Christian England’s cannons. The same crowd of capitalists that caused the forcing of opium upon China is now engaged in demoralizing the United States by ' the same means. i
“Pop, what is this white powder the kids are buying and selling? They say it is great jazz medicine,” was the first inkling that one citizen ; of New York had that the opium curse is spread- j ing like w ildfire among even the school children. In the nine months preceding October, 1921, in the city of New York, the arrests for drug using and unlawful selling numbered 2,488, of which nine wrere children from twelve to fourteen years of age. All nine of these were engaged ; in selling the drugs to other children. It is claim- ; ed that there are 400,000 drug addicts in New York city alone. It is estimated that in Fort i Worth, Texas, one person in every hundred in the city is a drug addict.
British Government Monopoly
THE most horrible of all the horrible features i of this accursed monopoly of the British gov- : eminent is the fascination that one drug addict ■ finds in fastening the habit on another. In nu- ; morons instances mothers make addicts of theix children. In one family, where both the fathex ;
- and the mother were addicts and dope-peddlers, ' four children, ranging in ages from a baby of r »two years to a child of twelve years, were all drug addicts. An Italian dope-peddler in New .York had taught his eight-year-old stepson to use heroin.
Dr. Simon, head of the New York Narcotic ■ Squad, reports the case of a girl addicted to yi the use of drugs that was made so by her chum, who could no longer procure the drug cheaply, and hoped, by making her room-mate an addict, to procure the drug at lower cost. Here is another of the horrible features of the business that is presided over by the political side-partner of the Church of England. The risks of sell-■ ing the drug are so great that the dope-peddlers raise the price as soon as they are convinced . that the user has become a confirmed addict.
A policewoman of New York remarks that, in addition to the contamination of others so ■ that assistance may be had in gaining even for a little time the benefit of a lower price, there is a moral lechery in the minds of addicts which : makes them wish to ruin others. She says on this subject:
“It is a marked peculiarity of the addict. Nearly • every one of them, after reaching a certain stage, finds complete satisfaction only in fastening the habit on some one else. And oftentimes the victim is a friend or loved one.”
So true is this that the dope-peddlers have a saying that “every new hop-head is good for six more hops.” These men, mostly addicts themselves, display the ingenuity of the devil in creating drug users, so as to widen and increase their business. They deliberately tempt the victim, frequently some young girl or boy, offer-y ing a box of heroin to snuff, passing it around at a party, in the certain knowledge that when . tire habit is acquired here is another human being that will stop at no crime to get the daily supply of $5 to $8 worth of the drug of which they would be denied altogether were it not for that beneficent trading organization reigned •r over by King George V, “by the grace of God.”
What with the Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley and Reading Coal Companies ruling over America’s coal deposits “by the grace of God,” and selling coal at $10 to $13 per ton which actually cost them about $2 per ton, and the ' British empire reigning over the dope business “by the grace of God,” it makes an honest man eager to get such a god (2 Corinthians 4:4) by the back of the neck and “shake the stuffing out of him.” And, indeed, that is just what is happening. Satan is even now being bound, and his house broken up, preparatory to a better day.
How the Opium Comes
OR information as to how the United States secures its supply of opium we are indebted to a good man, Charles N. Lathrop, secretary of the Social Service Department of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Lathrop does not see that the British empire is part of Satan’s empire, and that the church which officially supports and cooperates with that empire cannot possibly therefore be God’s true church ; but he does see some salient facts which we reproduce:
“How is the opium consumed in the United States secured? I find that the Secretary of State ascertains through the United States Public Health Service the amount of opium desired by the pharmaceutical companies. He then sends a statement of this desired amount to the British government, which controls the output of opium; and the amount is sent to this country from England. In this manner we import 640,000 pounds of crude opium annually, which amounts to 50 grains for each person in the United States. Incidentally it is important to note that no other civilized country imports more than three grains per capita.”
It goes without saying that in bowing down before the big business interests that are manufacturing opiates in this country under the high-sounding mime of “pharmaceutical companies” the United States is showing exactly the same spirit that is shown by the husband of the Church of England in bowing down before the big business interests that raise the crude opium in India and turn it loose to ravage the world.
Effects of the Drugs
WE HAVE before alluded to the fact that drug addicts become criminals. Statistics of the New York Drug Squad prove that 65 percent of all the addicts become such; and the percentage increases as the price of the drug increases, directly owing to the fact that the addict will risk his life and risk his soul rather than be deprived of what he has come to feel cannot be done without. In other words, his will is weakened to the point where he cannot resist temptation. In Oklahoma a man gave a hashish cigarette to a police officer, putting the policeman to sleep and allowing some of the prisoners in the jail to escape. This is merely a sample of the cleverness the addicts exhibit in outmaneu-vering the apostles of the law.
The most devilish of all drugs is heroin, the drug that is specially used to lure girls from the path of virtue. It has the property of producing temporary sex insanity, but is later followed by complete sei atrophy, the pitiable condition of millions of British subjects in India—directly due to Britain’s policy of subjugating them by opium.
Heroin is the drug that was used in forming among schoolboys and schoolgirls the secret society recently exposed in the press. Thousands of boys and girls were initiated into this society; and thereafter boys and girls displayed badges openly, pinned upon their breasts or coat lapels, thus signifying their right to approach others wearing similar badges, or to be approached by them, for sex purposes. In one New England town 20,000 boys and girls, so a reputable Christian physician tells us, were found wearing these badges before the police discovered their significance; and the badges were selling so rapidly that the makers could hardly keep pace with the orders.
Nor are the dainty cigarettes in their dainty cases as mild and innocent as our cigarette-smoking young ladies would have us believe. They have in their mixture a poison called furfural, the “kick” from which is equal to two ounces of whiskey to every cigarette. This not only increases the desire for cigarettes, but makes confirmed “dope” addicts of their users. Thousands of young girls in cities and small towns have the habit, and the menace among high school girls is an ever increasing problem. With a biain-drugged consciousness at a time in life when the young maiden needs to have her mind exercised to the highest moral standards, with no sense of duty to God or man, and often free from the uplifting influence of home and parents, she becomes an easy victim for the downward path, the end whereof is in plain sight.
The three drugs in most general use among addicts are heroin, morphine, and cocaine, in the order named, the first two coming from the opium poppy. Opium itself is a brownish substance, resembling hardened molasses. Hashish, an extract of hemp, is about the consistency of syrup, dark green in color, bitter in taste and sometimes sold in the form of cigarettes. Its effects are even worse than those of opium. Other forms of “dope” are mentioned in the opening paragraph of this article. They have various effects, depending upon strength, mixture and the individual using them. One eighth of a grain of “dope” will put a normal person to sleep for many hours; while addicts use from 15 to 30 grains a day, the average addict uses about an ounce a month.
Pandemonium of the Mind
De Quincy’s “Confessions of an Opium-Eater” has long been a classic on the subject of the opium user’s sufferings; and we quote a few sentences:
“The worst pandemonium which those who indulge in opium suffer, is that of the mind. Opium retains at _ all times its power of exciting the imagination, provided sufficient doses are taken; but when it has been, continued so long as to bring disease upon the consti- ■ tution, the pleasurable feelings wear away, and are sue- ■ ceeded by others of a very different kind. Instead of disposing the mind to be happy, it acts upon it like the spell of a demon, and calls up phantoms of horror " and disgust. The fancy, still as powerful, changes its direction. Formerly it clothed all objects with the light of heaven—now it invests them with the attributes of i | hell. Goblins, spectres, and every kind of distempered '] vision haunt the mind, peopling it with dreary and re- 1 volting imagery. The sleep is no longer cheered with j, its former sights of happiness. Frightful dreams usurp S their place, till at last the person becomes the victim of an almost perpetual misery.”
“The opium-eater loses none of his moral sensibili- ' ties or aspirations; he wishes and longs as earnestly as
ever to realize what he believes possible, and feels to be
exacted by duty; but his intellectual apprehension of what is possible infinitely outruns his power, not of . execution only, but even of proposing or willing. He
lies under a world’s weight of incubus and nightmare;
he lies in sight of all that he would fain perform; just | as a man forcibly confined to his bed by the mortal । languor of paralysis, who is compelled to witness injury | or outrage offered to some object of his ten derest love: c’i he would lay down his life if he might but rise and j walk; but he is powerless as an infant, and cannot so [ much as make an effort to move.”
A more modern picture of a morphine user’s ! suffering is given in the New York Evening 1 Journal of April 30, 1921. It is the story of a । most unfortunate and most unhappy woman. | We will let her tell her story in her own lan- | guage: j
“Some years ago while suffering from a severe illness 1 I contracted the drug habit—morphine habit. No one in I the world could have been more horrified or shocked than I was when I discovered that I was addicted to
ne QOLDEN AQE
morphine. I am a widow with a little family to care for. ... . I had always looked upon people who were the victims of habits as weak, unworthy, unstable persons who enjoyed their habits, otherwise they would not persist in the same.
“The horror of it all dawned upon me one week-end • when I had felt that I must cease taking the medicine, as I needed it no longer. I went to my home without my usual supply, and was far away from where I procured it. And what was my great surprise to find that I was stricken almost helpless and suffering the tortures of hell, or worse, really, for want of my medicine. I could not believe it—that I, the strong-willed scoffer at other people’s habits, was myself the victim of a habit. What I suffered I never can tell you; or how I lived through the week-end until I could get to the source . of my supply and fall in the door of the drug store in a state of collapse more dead than alive from the sudden deprivation of my usual dose of medicine.
“I went to the physician who had prescribed it, and o® my knees begged him to cure me. He honestly told me that no cure had ever been found for morphine addiction, and that the only thing he could do was to . . . keep me apparently normal by supplying my needs physically for the drug.
“I would not believe it. I was determined to find a cure. I waited until my vacation, taking in the meantime just as little of the drug as would keep me mentally and physically balanced. For without it I could do no work, was a nervous shaking wreck that could not ap-' pear even decently before my employer and business companions.
“So to keep in the semblance of normality I had to take it until I could find help. At vacation time I walked.from one end of the city to the other, in and ■ . out of physicians’ offices, begging for a cure. I was laughed at, taunted, sneered at, called a 'dope fiend’ and almost thrown out of reputable, high-class physicians’ offices who would not and could not help me. I made up my mind to cease of my own accord. I tried it. ; I went without it until I fell on the streets; I was taken to my home, nearly collapsed entirely with a heart attack from the sudden withdrawal of the drug, and the physician who was called by my family saw the situation and gave me morphine to steady me for the time being; and for many days I lay too weak to care what \ could happen to me, weak but glad to be normal again, as I could only be under the influence of the drug of my addiction.”
Morphine, after a few doses, produces loss of appetite, headaches, and general dullness. Ideas of duty and of right relations to others become obscure. The margin between truth and falsehood becomes more and more cloudy. The power of analysis disappears. The brain does not receive accurate information; it can no longer
Brooklyn, N. T<
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discriminate and act wisely. It forgets to carry out promises; it is suspicious, credulous, full of intrigue and deception. Most users of morphine die in ten years, while others live on a little longer, if there are breaks in its use; but fifteen years is about the limit.
Cocaine is even more dangerous than morphine, and indeed is the most dangerous of all drugs. Once it has become a habit, permanent cures are almost unknown. A dose causes exhilaration, mental activity, and a general sense of well-being. After the effects have worn off depression follows. Then another does is necessary, and another and still another. When the system will stand no more the victim falls insensible, or becomes hysterical. It acts upon the heart, stimulates the brain, pain and distress disappear; and the cocainist is at rest. When denied the drug the victim is excitable, melancholy, worried, unable to sleep and generally miserable; and if he is unable to procure the cocaine will resort to any drug procurable for relief. But with the cocaino-maniacs there is no substitute for the drug. They are literally crazy until they can procure it.
Agonies of Drug Maniacs
THE agonies of drug maniacs when their supply is exhausted passes the power of human speech to describe. Household furniture has been hastily sold at two cents on the dollar of valuation just before the expected visit of the dope-peddler. Demons appear before the eyes. At a convention of the California Anti-Narcotic League held in Los Angeles two women, in tears, told of their horrible sufferings when they began to do without the drugs to which they , were addicted; and another fell to the floor in a faint when she began to try to put it in words. In another instance the mere thinking of what she had suffered caused one woman to faint and fall into a profound coma.
While this article was in preparation a visit was made to the office of Dr. Simon, head of the New York Narcotic Squad. The Doctor de- -scribed the appearance of addicts and showed : pictures of men and women before and after their deterioration. Sad indeed were the changes revealed. The drugs had done their deadly work, and there was change enough wrought in some of the faces in a period of three years to mar the countenance so completely that they were
scarcely recognizable as the same individuals. He said:
“In the user of morphine the pupils are contracted; in the user of cocaine arid heroin the pupils are dilated. If one starts to question an addict a small, bead-like perspiration will break out on the upper lip. When they have the desire for the drug, the ‘yen’, they travel at a very rapid pace. After they have procured the drug they still travel at a very rapid pace, with one hand in the coat pocket, holding the drug, and ready to scatter it to the winds or into a pool if a detective happens along. A detective can tell from the appearance and movements of an addict when he is> on the way for his drug.”
“There is nothing in criminal history more alienating, more socially deteriorating, more damning or more malignant than narcotic drugs.
“A man may take a drink of whiskey daily for ten days and not emerge a drunkard. But a man who takes narcotics daily for ten days, unless he be suffering from a particular disease, will become a drug addict.
“There is no man but will, through the slavery of drugs, slowly but surely, and ultimately, be in the gutter.
“A drug like cocaine produces mental changes that will make a thief, or possibly a murderer. With varied hallucinations, delusions or mental aberrations, it is not remarkable that the arrant coward under its influence may become a desperado.
“Narcotic drugs suck the soul into the very depths of hell.”
“The cure of drug addicts is adequate, but not ideal. Colonies should be organized where drug addicts can be taken after they leave the institutional hospitals. The reason that many of them go back is that they are usually down to their last cent. They have used their last penny for drugs; they are without work, sometimes without clothes, except the few rags which are often insufficient to cover them. No provision being made for them after they leave the hospital, they are tempted to return to their old environment; and when they do, they are almost certain to return to a use of the drug.
“An addict is medically cured in a week or ten days; that is, he has no further bodily need for the drug. But the mental craving for it persists. The drug addict must be spiritually built up. Their desire for cure must come from the heart. There is where the real cure must come; and there is where there is a great need for welfare bodies who will secure positions for addicts on farms or camps where they are away from the old environment until they can overcome the mental craving for the drug.”
“Most of the drug addicts have mentally and morally deteriorated. We have had bank presidents go to the gutter from the use of drugs. The addicts sacrifice food to such *n extent in order to satisfy their cravings that when they take the drug cure they not infrequently gain thirty to eighty pounds of flesh in one week.”
Dope-Peddlers
OT only does the United States through its highest officials bargain direct with the f
Holy British Umpire for thirty-five times as t much opium as this country could possibly take | care of legitimately, and thus becomes particeps | criminis (partner in crime) in the ruin of myr- J iads of its citizens, to satisfy the pharmaceutical > pirates of big business, but there is an immense | and unknown additional amount smuggled into ? the country by underground routes. j
There are various distributing centers for the J illicit traffic. One ring operates from Montreal f through the Northeast and in New York city; ; another works in central Canada and the lake i cities to Kansas City, Mo.; while San Fran- ; cisco is a well-known western center, and ac- I tivities are increased in Philadelphia as efforts j are made to put down the evil in New York. J
The profits of the smugglers are enormous^— ; very much more than when their goods are ob- i tained through the regular pharmaceutical chan- i nels; for big business does not readily let go i of large profits in any business where largo J profit are to be made. A smuggler can buy j narcotics in Europe for $3 an ounce and sell 1 them in the United States for $12 an ounce; and ■ by adulterating the drugs, as is often done, f these immense profits can be increased from 300 j percent to 1,000 percent. I
Ingenious methods are contrived by these ; agents of Beelzebub for smuggling dope into the J country. Revenue agents recently confiscated = two teddy bears, and found them filled with ; “dope” worth hundreds of dollars. An Italian J gentleman, recently given a seven-year ride to J Sing Sing for his proficiency, had an artificial ; left arm, which was hollow from the wrist to the i elbow. In the wrist was a small door with a ‘ spring, which he could open for the removal of > packages of cocaine. There were two compart- ; ments in the arm, one containing ten packages and the other twenty packages. ' j
In the lower part of a platform scale in a j Bowery restaurant $1,000 worth of the drugs } were found by the police. A supply was found ! hidden in a bird-cage which was taken from off ; a vessel in Brooklyn. Seamen and others aboard i freighters coming from China, Germany, and j Italy have been detected bringing in quantities.
A woman peddler hid in the collar of her dog, i which always accompanied her on her walks, ( the drugs which she dispensed to her customers. j
Inmates of the penitentiary onBlackwell’sIsland " ’Were supplied with drugs by heroin and morphine pressed into letter paper with a hot iron. The prisoner chewed the paper, and thus obtained his drug.
f Dope Routes
i Z"\NE of the peddlers discovered in New York had a route as definite as that of a milkman.
i Beginning at six every morning he made his ! rounds of fashionable apartment houses, leaving : three decks of cocaine here, a phial of morphine ■ there, half a dozen decks of heroin at the next
: place. Sometimes, his books showed, he was
called on to supply additional opium or heroin ; for a party, just as a caterer might supply din-= ners for a wedding. On several occasions he ’' supplied experts to cook opium for a patron who wanted to treat his guests to a smoke.
: At examination time the peddlers hang around
j high schools, where nervous children are unstrung by the fear of failure in the arduous and useless examinations. Just at the time when the tension is at the maximum the peddler comes along with his heroin and cocaine in a'"Closed automobile; and the children buy, even though ' ‘ tire dope-peddlers know in advance that the sure i end is a horrible death within about ten years. , Boys are often hired as watchers for dopepeddlers, and later become addicts and peddlers themselves. Soothing syrups for babies constitute a common form by which the habit is in-y. culcated without the victim being aware. Rich i and poor, sages and knaves, from every walk of life they come, and from every grade of mentality, to become slaves, to be ruined.
Doctor Simon’s lieutenant, Mr. Donoghue, de- scribing the difficulty attendant upon the appre-, hension of a dope-peddler, said:
Y “Someone will call up here and tell us that they are ■ peddling such and such a drug at such and such a corner, w . and ask us why we do not arrest them. Why? Because we have to buy the drug from a peddler before we can convict him, for the reason that no court will take the y word of an addict who might be called as a witness. So , the members of the police force are compelled to act as i ■ addicts and actually purchase the drug themselves.
“The detective makes up as an addict. [The writer saw a photograph of one of these makeups that was per-•- feet, and turning around he beheld the detective himself. No one would have recognized him for the same
' individual, I am sure.] He hangs around with a gang of addicts until he can learn from them where to purchase the drug. Often the addict is suspicious; but when he is reassured, he will tell where to get the drug. Tho peddler is approached and asked for a ‘deck of C’ or s ‘deck of H,’ or whatever drug he wants. The dope-peddler, too, is skeptical and often holds out for several days before he will sell the drug. Finally he asks to see the money. He takes enough to cover the cost of the amount to be purchased and then tells the detective, disguised as an addict, to meet him at a point several blocks beyond where the sale was contracted. While the ‘addict’ is waiting, someone, often not the person who made the sale, will come along, slip something into his hand, and is off.”
The Drug-Boosters
/Commissioner Simon is calling attention to a 'o' new type of criminal, the drug-booster. Sometimes it is a man, but often a woman. The drug-booster is merely an advance agent; he does not carry the drug with him, but merely informs the drug addict where to get the drug and the drug vendor where a sale can be made. Thus he receives a double commission, one from the vendor and one from the purchaser. This business he finds highly profitable and somewhat safer than selling the drug outright, as it is difficult to convict the drug-booster. The addict will not testify against the one who makes it possible for him to get his drug; for he looks forward to the time when he is free again to buy his dope. How the drug-booster makes new addicts is told by the New York Times of November 27,1921. We quote from that paper as follows:
“The narcotic division finds the ‘drug-booster’ in all sorts of places, but recently he or she has been frequenting the white light district. In Broadway restaurants and dance places, from ‘ham-and’ joints to the most expensive lobster palaces, this agent is doing a profitable business. Often he is found at a table, and sometimes through introductions, sometimes through girls who are working for him, suggests to his intended customer a midnight party somewhere, promising something unusual or ‘bohemian’ in this party. A promise of some bootleg whiskey is often the bait; a place where sure tips on the races can be obtained is another glittering attraction offered. Sometimes when the booster feels it is safe he promises his new-found friend a real ‘dope’ party, at which they will be merely witnesses, not touching the drug themselves at all.
“Then from the restaurant the party, with two or three prospective and unwitting customers, goes to a room somewhere in the vicinity. If the party is supposed to be ‘bohemian’ the room may be on the lower East Side, and the now crowd is introduced to those who have the stuff. They are treated to an exhibition of ‘hop’ smoking, and watch the effect.
“Then the time is ripe to get them. They are asked to ‘try it once just to see what it is like’, and often they do. Perhaps the effects are not as wonderful as they are anticipated to be; but generally on another night they allow themselves to be persuaded to try another pipe to sec if the second may not go better than the first, and then the curious pleasure-seeker is almost surely hooked. Before he knows it drug-taking is a pleasure to him, and then a necessity ; and another drug addict is made.”
The New York A merican, in its issue of March 19, 1922, gives additional information on the same subject, saying of this latest advent in the criminal field:
“Sometimes he distributes free samples, sometimes he enslaves a number of girls and spreads the habit through them all over a factory or store. He and his assistants work on a commission basis. He is the successor to the cadet or procurer of the white-slave traffic; for he finds he can use girls more profitably in peddling drugs than in other forms of vice. Recently Hr. Simon has found school children engaged in this practice. One of the women referred to above had a large clientele in fashionable hotels and made a specialty of boosting the drug among college students.
“Dance hall habitues number many drug-boosters; others pose as chorus girls. If their customers are of the higher planes of society they seldom fall within the clutches of the police, because there is enough money available to buy the drug without resorting to crime.”
One of the Blessings of War
THERE has been circulated widely the theory that the increased use of drugs in the United States since the World War is due to prohibition. While this theory may contain a measure of truth, it is discounted by the fact that the increase in consumption of drugs and narcotics is just as great in European countries, where there is no limitation on beverages, and by the further fact that the majority of drug addicts were not previously users of alcohol. Colonel 0. G. Forrer, Administrative Assistant in the narcotic division of the Treasury Department, denying that prohibition is the cause, says:
“The truth is, that victims of the drug habit practically in every instance are young men and women, often in their teens. Rarely are they alcholics. The difference between a drug addict and an alcoholic is that the alcoholic, after a ‘'spree’, usually is sorry and, repenting, experiences a period of reform. The drug addict has no such experience. Once a victim there is rarely any cessation. The disease is rarely curable, and even when the body is cured the mental craving continues.”
But there can be no doubt that theWorldWar itself wrought immeasurable havoc. Suffering from cold, hunger, rain-soaked trenches, homesickness, and many other causes, or lingering on beds of pain in hospitals where physicians and attendants were too scarce to give them proper attention and relief, many of our boys sought relief from their ills through narcotic drugs. They were relieved by the hypodermic needle day after day and week after week until, instead of forgetfulness and cure, they were the slaves of a habit a thousandfold worse than the disease or even death itself could have been.
Oue splendid young fellow of our acquaintance, in the full vigor of health, went "over there” to serve his country, leaving here a young wife. While lying in the hospital suffering from shell shock he was constantly given paraldehyde or veronal. "When the war was over he returned to these United States a moral wreck, incapable of earning a living, seeking only his daily portion of "dope”, and has since pawned or sold all of his own possessions and even his wife’s jewelry and furs in order to obtain funds to buy drugs.
We get further light on the damage wrought by drugs,during the World War from a report by Miss Rujaro, for three years with the California State Committee on Readjustment. She said, as reported by the San Francisco Examiner for Octohm- 17, 1920:
“It was part of my duties to meet and help the returning boys who had gone to Siberia to wag,' the so-called ‘war’ in Russia. At first I thought my work would be to aid them in getting back into their old jobs, in straightening out their allotment tangles, and in helping them in a hundred other little ways; but I soon found out there was a more serious help to be offered.
“Sane, patriotic American citizens will scarcely believe it possible—at first I could scarcely believe it myself—that this more serious help was to be the care and cure of narcotic addicts—boys who had gone ‘over there* to the frozen land ‘clean’ and who had come back, not maimed by shot and shell from Bolshevik guns, but torn in nerves, with health shattered, with hope almost gone, because tbvy had fallen victims to an iniquitous ‘drug ring’, the directing heads of which are Americans—I should say American traitors—and whose field ‘workers’ in Siberia were their Jap agents, whose chief employment is to receive ‘exported drugs’ for the purpose of smuggling them back into the United States.
“From many of the boys I learned that it was no uncommon experience to have American manufactured morphine, cocaiiie, and heroin daily offered to them while on duty in Vladivostok and the Russian hinterland.
iJ
r
“Suffering from homesickness, fighting a ‘war* of which they knew neither the aim nor the reason, or idle in camps in the limitless snow wastes, some of the brave lads yielded to the temptation that promised them ‘freedom from worry and care’.
“Those lads came back slaves. There were numbers of them.” . «
Dope-Selling Doctors
rOHE mere fact that the pharmaceutical companies obtain, through the offices of the
United States and British governments, thirty-five times as much opium as America could possibly legitimately consume proves that the medical fraternities which these pharmaceutical companies control have a large responsibility in this matter. Many times they allow their sympathies to get the better of their sense when dealing with patients who are suffering from painful diseases, and it is an easy matter by dealing out dope of one kind or another to fasten a habit upon an innocent victim before either the doctor or the victim is aware of what is transpiring. Dr. Blair, writing in the New York Survey makes the following charges:
“After thirty years of medical practice, it comes as a distinct shock to be obliged to admit that the narcotic evil must be largely laid at the feet of my own profession.
“The writer has figured the matter up' and down, across aud back again; he has estimated available supplies and where they go in regular trade; lie is in a position to know with fair accuracy how much narcotic drugs are used in professional channels; he has investigated intimately the industrial situation, and he has visited the large proprietary medicine plants throughout the Union. The result is that he is, with infinite regret, compelled to admit that the dope-selling professional man is the main narcotic menace in this country.
“There are pedlers of narcotic in all of our large cities and in some of the smaller ones; but there are dopeselling professional men in nearly every community, and in the aggregate they vastly outnumber the peddlers.
“The narcotic laws must be enforced in the full recognition of the fact that professional people are responsible for a large proportion of drug addiction. The great body of ethical and capable professional people must join in the crusade against the physician, dentist, or druggist who is catering to narcotic addiction. They owe it to the public to do so. and they owe it to the professions of which they are members to run to earth the degenerates therein who are trafficking in human weakness and vicious habits.
“There are several classes of medical dope-sellers. The most troublesome and the most hopeless one is the medical man or woman who is addicted to the personal use of large quantities of narcotics and who is gradually going down the slope. There are many, many such, and they are found among the high and the low in professional circles.
“Then there is the obsessed, ignorant, and often very sympathetic dope doctor who can’t say ‘No’ to the patients who want narcotics constantly prescribed. . . . He reports every case of addiction as one of disease other than addiction. The last class of medical dope-seller or commercial dope-doctor is frankly vicious. He is rarely a narcotic addict himself, and is in the game for the money he can make out of it.’*
Doctors Under Indictment
TAISPATCHES report that thirty-five physicians of Chicago were under indictment at one time for furnishing ‘snow* and other drugs to victims, and that some of them have grown rich in the business in a very brief time. One of these men had 600 ‘patients’ visiting him two or three times a week, netting him about $6,000 per week clear profit.
Conditions in this respect are very serious in and about Boston also, as evidenced in the following from the New York American of January 8, 1922:
“Assistant District Attorney Charles W. Blood is engaged in assembling an amazing mass of startling information of orgies and immoralities involving the names of many prominent young physicians and business men of Woburn, Medford, Malden, Everett, and other towns near Boston.
“Women whose lives have been ruined, and who have been induced with Satanic campaigning to indulge in narcotics, have fairly tumbled into the prosecutor’s office to narrate the sordid details of the diabolic manner in which they were enslaved to the unscrupulous doctors who turned their professional knowledge to corrupt purposes.
“Enough has already been disclosed to justify the authorities in their charge that a certain group of professional men have been engaged in a nefarious Society of Indulgence that preyed on moral girls and enervated them through drugs so that morality would succumb to immorality. Girls in their teens, others just attaining womanhood, matrons with unblemished records, have been snared into the iniquitous net on their visits to doctors as palients; have been induced through infatuation for some member of the ring to indulge in their gay parties, and have with carefully planned cunning been led from one surreptitious step to another until they have entirely forsaken the upright teachings of their homes and have entered with full vehemence into the orgiastic sordidness planned for them.”
Dr. T. D. Crothers, Professor of Mental and Nervous Diseases in the New York School of
Clinical Medicine, in his book “Morphinism”, writing to his brother physicians, says:
“Institutions which claim to be hospitals or sanatoriums in many instances depend largely on the secret or open use of this drug for all forms of diseases under their care. There can be no doubt that in this way much of the morphinism comes from its surreptitious use by dishonest, unprincipled persons. Careful study of morphinism shows that one-fourth of the cases have contracted morphine addiction from curiosity or association. Of the remainder, a large percentage are undoubtedly first due to its reckless use by ignorant and unskilled persons, as well as by physicians. This is clearly evidenced from the fact that a large number of physicians, and many others, do not understand the danger from the use of morphin by the needle. As physicians, they are taught to prescribe it for transitory and other pains, with little thought of any possible dangers from its continuous use.
“No doubt irresponsible and irregular doctors contribute very largely to the spread of this addiction. The custom a few years ago 6? teaching patients to use the needle and furnishing them with the drug to relieve states of neuralgia, and unexpected pain paroxysms was .very dangerous. This practice undoubtedly made many morphin victims. Foolish physicians who thought the whole province of medicine was to relieve pain under all circumstances, and who used morphin in a routine way, have made many victims of this class. Many quack medicines for the relief of pain contain morphine; and when this is discovered the purchaser buys the drug direct, and its use is continued.”
At one time an effort was made in New York to assist the so-called medical addicts, who acquired the habit innocently because of some painful disease, such as gall-stones or cancer. This was done by providing them with certificates so that they could daily procure the drug, in ever decreasing doses. These prescription certificates were provided for their own protection, so that if found with the drug on their person they would not be subject to arrest. But it was found that the effects of the drugs so lowered their moral sensibilities that they used the certificates to protect themselves while they procured the drugs from dope-peddlers in much larger quantities than the certificates called for. Hence the registration of all addicts was made necessary.
In the Vice Business
THE patent medicine manufacturers and the drug stores are great sinners in this matter. The patent medicines contain “dope” in an adulterated form, and through this means a constant user of patent medicine often becomes an addict without realizing it. He simply knows that he cannot get along without his “medicine.” The drug addict mentioned in this article as having acquired the paraldehyde habit in France has no difficulty in procuring paraldehyde or veronal. He goes into any drug store in any city where he happens to be and procures his drug without the least difficulty. Paraldehyde and veronal lead to the use of the more deadly drugs, heroin, morphine, and cocaine; and he may by now be an addict to one of these.
England’s Monopoly of This Deviltry
NGLAND has a monoply of this devil’s business of drugging the world with opium. The natives of India are encouraged to grow the accursed poppy, and are loaned money without interest if they will engage in it. There is big money back of the industry,as well as big money in it for the British Empire—the two-horned beast of Revelation. “Wherever drugs are confiscated,” says Commissioner Simon, “there is found a trail that leads to a ring that is international in character and has the backing of great wealth.” Peddlers and venders of these drugs always are able to get bail when arrested, no matter how large may b(; the amount fixed.*
The Boston District Attorney, discussing this subject, says:
“The fact seems to be that the British government is responsible for the largo quantity of opium flooding the world today. The cultivation of the poppy is fostered by the government; manufactured into opium in the government factory, at Ghazipur, and into morphine by British firms in London and Edinburgh; and sent out into the world through trade channels—illegal and otherwise.
“When manufactured, the opium is disposed of in three ways as follows:—a certain amount is reserved for Indian consumption and handed over to the Excise Department; another portion, styled ‘medical opium’ is sent to London, and the remainder is sold at monthly sales at Calcutta. Most of this Calcutta-sold opium finds its way to China eventually. The revenue to the government for the year 1905-6 w*as nearly $22,000,000 net from this ‘monopoly’ as the blue book referred to calls it. After the opium is thus auctioned, England as a government is no longer concerned.
“A study of England’s colonies and dependencies and foreign concessions shows that the opium trade is the source of very great Colonial revenue, often reaching the proportion of one-half the entire amount. The Straits Settlements in 1917 had a total revenue of $19,672,104 of which $9,182,000 came from opium traffic. Hong Kong in 1917 derived one-third of its revenue from
opium. India, the source and fount of the opium trade, » derives its revenue from many sources; but two of them
—opium and excise—concern us. Excise duties are collected exclusively on spirits, beer, opium and intoxicating drugs. For 1916-1917, the total revenue was 118,799,968 pounds sterling, and the revenue from opium and excise amounted to 12,375,904 pounds sterling. During ten years, ending 1916-17 the net receipts from excise duties increased 47 percent and opium receipts 44 percent. The revenue from other drugs (excluding opium) increased 67 percent. The total revenue of India for the year 1919-20 was £135,5; 0.000, and of this, the amount from opium and liquor was£15,743,100. In the year 1920-21, the total revenue decreased to £134, 825,900, but the revenue from opium and liquor increased to £16, 616,000.”
England’s Side Partner
BUT the United States is a guilty partner in the whole devilish business. The same writer goes on to say that although the government policy of the United States has always been to discourage the opium trade in China; yet it permits a vast quantity of morphine and heroin manufactured by our esteemed “pharmaceutical companies” to be shipped to Japan, knowing that it will be transshipped to China -and sold in the foreign settlements of Shanghai and other Chinese cities in which the sale of opiates is strictly forbidden in the native city, but cannot be prevented in the foreign quarters. All the Chinese addicts have to do is to cross the line into the foreign section to obtain all they wish ; for there was enough of the accursed stuff shipped by our “pharmaceutical companies” from Seattle in five months to give a dose to every one of the 400,000,000 men, women and children of China.
As a consequence the Chinese people an* -ee-.ing through the whole heathenish, hypocritical performance, and are seriously doubting the dictum of our Supreme Court to the effect that the United States is a Christian nation. Japan itself, heathen nation as we know it to be, while it is a large buyer in Calcutta of crude opium find a large buyer in America of manufactured opium, FOR THE CHINESE WHOM IT IS IN PROCESS of subjugating, has no opium shops of its own and protects its people from the dangers of opium by strict laws.
Demons Back of Dope
AFTER reading the evidence accumulating for a couple of years to show the phenomenal increase in drug addiction, one is struck by the fact that an influence more potent than human ingenuity is at work in the earth. For instance, what motive could prompt a “drugbooster,” described above, who is not an addict himself, to persuade others to use the deadly stuff? Is the power for evil in the human heart greater than the power for good? When we consider that six thousand years of degeneracy, when man first fell into sin and began to lose the glorious image of God in which he was originally created, have been insufficient to eradicate the last vestige of uprightness, we are inclined to believe in the power of good. In every human soul we can trace some spark of righteousness. Hough exteriors, calloused consciences and countenances make this less discernible in some; but here and there, when some tender chord is struck, we catch a glimpse of the better self that has now grown too weak to struggle for the mastery. So we look outside the pale of humanity to discover, if possible, the source of such diabolical work.
From the beginning of the world Satan, the prince of devils, has craved complete possession of the human race. To this end he has sought to destroy the mental and moral image of God that was the original gift to mankind. By any means through which reason is dethroned, the will weakened, and the impulses and emotions stirred to their depths, he seeks his prey. From most of the exhilarations the mind is able to recover its balance* and the higher faculties restore some measure of equilibrium, so that not until debauches are so repeated and frequent that the will is entire dethroned is the battle for moral supremacy on the part of the individual a hopeless one.
Associated with him in his realm Satan has a host of demons, “angels which kept not their first estate.” who like himself have defied divine authority and are now engaged in an endeavor to subdue the world of mankind to their own rulership. The all-wise Creator is permitting this reign of evil for the instruction of the human race in the “exceeding sinfulness of sin”; and when it has served His purposes Christ’s reign of righteousness will come in.
And as if to reach the zenith of his power in demoniacal inoculation, the prince of devils has engineered a course for the debauching of the human race that only his genius could contrive. By no better means could he more quickly and more effectually destroy the will power that stands between moral uprightness and degeneracy. In this rapid increase in the use of drugs we see his hand, and from his own realm of demons, through the channel of a medium, we have the confession. In the New York World of March 22, 1920, Mrs. Lambert, spiritist, is quoted:
“The four great divas [princes of the demons] are now in control of the situation, and are closest to the earth plane. The divas are responsible for the awakening of the general desire for too much liberty, in fact they are raising hob with almost everything and everybody, and unless some of the ‘masters’ stop it there will be worse disaster. It is this ‘control’ that is behind Bolshevism and it is also causing a greater tendency to drug addiction, particularly among women. The divas understand they are playing havoc on this ‘plane’ but they are working for future generations, for some reason, and ultimately they will teach these generations that there is a sort of soul intoxication with a stronger kick in it than the best that ever passed over what was once known as a bar.”
But the Lord will “cause the wrath of devils to praise him”; and when iniquity has come to its full our Lord Jesus will “rule the world in righteousness.” And so through the blackness of darkness of sin and despair, we see white hope coming on the wings of the Millennial morning, the Golden Age; and with Whittier we are able to say:
"If for the age to come, this hour Of trial hath vicarious power, And, blest by Thee, our present pain 1 Be Liberty’s eternal gain ■
Thy will be done!
‘‘Strike, Thou the Master, we Thy keys, The anthems of the destinies!
The minor of Thy loftier strain,
Our hearts shall breathe the old refrain, Thy will be done!”
Twenty Thousand Suicides
TWENTY thousand suicides are reported for 1921. Of these, 858 are children; 509 are exsoldiers; and 76 are millionaires. The oldest - person was one hundred years, and the young' est five.
To these the dark cloud had no silver lining. All was murky and hopeless. To any who are discouraged we -would say: Hold on a little longer. Perhaps the worst is yet to come; but the dark night with its coal-black hour must give way to the morning light. The sunrise of a bright new day is now at hand.
- - The day dawns, and the the damnable conditions that produced 20,000 suicides in one year —among them over 800 immature children—is condemned of the Lord and the responsible sys-terns of church and state are doomed to oblivion. In this connection it is truly comforting to know that God is on the side of the poor and oppress
: ed. “His enemies shall lick the dust.”
’ Evildoers and workers of iniquity—inequality in social conditions — are responsible for Sr such conditions; and the blood of these 20,000 suicides, and that of the 20,000,000 killed in the f war, cries from the ground, as did the blood of ► Abel. The world, the flesh and the devil, big business, big politics and big church—must pay the costs. “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered."
“Thy kingdom come” is the only cure for the By L. D. Barnes world’s complication of diseases; and the kingdom is the only thing that will rid the world of official banditry, and bring life, peace and safety to all. “Millions now living will never die!” Relief is in sight. The time is at hand, the day dawns. Two hundred and fifty thousand radio sets were installed the past year. Construction plans for modern homes make provision for this latest wonder. Landing stations on the house-top for the family airplane that will rise like a bird are suggested.
People will sit in their own homes and get the world news without the aid of “high-jack” newspapers. In the same way they will get moral and religious instructions. Thus the Word of the Lord will go forth from Jerusalem, the world’s future capital. Thus will communicate the world’s mighty princes. A lecture by Moses on the majesty of the law; encouragement from father Abraham and from Job; good words from Daniel, Joseph and Isaiah, and a warning from the lofty Malachi, will be the chief items of the day.
Glorious time foretold by these and others of the holy prophets, now at hand! What grand possibilities! "What cause for rejoicing, as the resurrection intelligence is registered in the billion happy homes. WTiat cause for thankfulness for the life that now is, though all seems dark—and for the life more abundant to come!
The Golden Age from a Sailor’s Viewpoint
By A. Insberg (On Board S. 8. “Chateau Thierry” En Route from Panama to Honolulu)
"VTOUR magazine, The Golden Age, is very much appreciated on this vessel. The issues are read and reread until they are pretty well worn out. While passing from one to another such remarks as these are often heard: “It’s certainly a very interesting magazine”; “Those people have the right dope.” Especially good is the article, “Everlasting Life upon the Earth,” which we would like to see reproduced. The article shows wide scope of learning and keenness of observation by the writer, besides a wonderful knowledge of the Bible.
Whatever topic you take, you seem to treat it thoroughly without favor or partiality and (what’s best) without hypocrisy; and this open-mindedness and invitation to investigation is what we admire.
You have truly an up-to-date exchange of news, while putting yourself in the background and permitting no criticism, however harsh, nor money interests, to swerve you one bit from the . course once taken. Your delight and only concern seems to be that, no matter what personalities are involved, there be truth, nothing but the truth on every subject. Of course nothing can be perfect at present. If we are looking now for wise Solomons, humble and faithful Moseses, or patient Jobs, we are looking for the right thing ahead of time. Perfection of knowledge is a thing of the future. And we may be sure that when those tested to the last for righteousness and truth, those faithful men of old come back again on this earth as perfect human beings, The Golden Age will be published and circulated every where. For is it not written that the law shall go forth out of Zion and the Word of the Lord (instruction in righteousness through wireless, movies, newspapers, and magazines such as The Golden Age) from Jerusalem?—Isaiah 2: 3.
Under the protection of that blessed kingdom the truth only will prosper. Favored indeed is your portion, his portion, ‘who buys the truth and sells it not’. Yes; and the truth makers one an optimist, too; i. e., he sees the silver lining through the dark clouds shining—he sees the blue above. And such a one would not permit the clouds to mar the beauty of the vision—the vision of the Millennial Canaan, where milk and honey flow. Such a one lives for the future, and takes his happy view from the standpoint of earth’s perfected creation.
And, more than that, you explain the cause of earth’s present miserable condition and the sure remedy for it—the kingdom of God. This all shows -wisdom, as well as a large amount of faith, which very few mortals now possess.
We admire your stand for truth and righteousness and for the liberties and rights of the people. For in lasting contempt and dishonor will be hole 1 anyone who, knowing the right way, at the same time through fear of mortal men fails to show it to the people; or one who through greed or love of earthly honor forsakes the Godgiven privilege of instructing others in the wisdom from on high, which leads to peace and life eternal; or one who sees a great calamity, earthquake or other disaster, coming upon the people and does not warn them in time to escape it, or, knowing the remedy and means of escape, does not make it known to the people. But in everlasting honor, praise, and respect of their fellow men will be held such as see the disaster coming and, knowing that many lives will be lost and also knowing the only way to escape from this disaster, are proclaiming it from the very house-tops, that thus much suffering and bloodshed may be avoided and many lives saved.
For be it known that the warnings and instructions that have thus far proceeded from The Golden Age, that all “seek meekness, seek righteousness” if perchance they may escape the judgments of this day and be able to stand the searching rays of ever-increasing light, are not from man, nor man-directed. They are the' voice of the Almighty, calling upon all to give an account of their stewardship, and to repent, to disassociate themselves from their former wicked ways and “isms” and to “kiss the Son” of Man—make friends with the new incoming King of glory, humbling' themselves before Him. Wise is he who will heed these instructions, who will strive to comply with the golden-iron' rule—the only rule of the incoming kingdom, the rule of love. “He shall be blessed upon the earth.”
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