Golden Age, January 17, 1923

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The Golden Age

▼•lune IV

Brooklyn, N. Y„ Wrdn—riiy, Jan. 17, 1#23

Namber 87

Impressions of

BEFORE a person can spend five weeks in Britain, or even five minutes, he must find ' some way to get out of the United States, if he chances to have been born an American citizen and to have lived here all his days. And getting out of the United States is not such an easy matter as one might think.

If the opportunity arose for him to visit the British Isles, his first thought might be: “1 will go and get my ticket immediately”; but if he tried to do so he would find that tickets to European countries are not sold in that way. Before one can travel, he must first obtain a passport.

If he thought: “I will get my passport immediately,” he next discovered that passports are not like newspapers, but are more like the plans and specifications for building a house. The Government seems to have formed the opinion that whoever wishes to travel is of the criminal class, or at least is a suspicious person ; and that his desire to absent himself from these shores for even a brief time indicates a strong probability that he should be locked up.

The Government first wishes a photograph; and it has to be a special kind of photograph, too—a front view, 3x3 inches in size and on a white background. Then the Government wishes to know that you have been born; that when you were ’<orn, or at least some time prior thereto, you had parents; and that these parents were your ancestors. The Government seems to wish to know that one of these parents was your father; for his name is asked, and it is necessary to supply an affidavit from some one who knows that you really were born; and that you are still alive; and that at the date of youi\ proposed trip you are the same person that ygu were at the time*you were born, or words to that effect.

Then comes the first inquisition. You go to a trusted friend of yours, and are carefully taken •part, and put down on paper before his search-

Britain (Part i)

ing scrutiny. He passes upon your age. This is an important item. It affords circumstantial evidence that you are old enough to travel, if you have the money and the inclination. How could the Government trust you with a passport if it did not know you were old enough to travel T

Your height is put down. This is also important. If you were only a foot high, it would not be safe for you to dross the streets; and while you might do very well boarding steamers and railway trains, yet it would be very hard for you to climb to the top deck of an omnibus; and the Government does not wish you to run the risk of stubbing your toe and failing to reach the seats where the best view of the scenery is to be obtained. Again, the Government would not feel like issuing a passport to you if you were twelve feet high; for in that case if you took a top seat in the omnibus and the omnibus tipped over, it might be claimed that you tipped it over; and if you were found among the wreckage there might be complications for the Government as well as for yourself. It is best to be safe. .

The kind of forehead you have is then put down. It is wise to do this. There was once a prophet concerning whom it was written, "1 will make thy forehead like adamant.” It might be that you have an adamant forehead, and with everything so high it stands to reason that the Government does not wish to lose any prophets just at this time.

What about Your Face ?

EXT a record is made of your eyes. This is to make sure that you will be able to cross the streets while away from home. It is also to save the Government the embarrassment which would be occasioned by having it published abroad that the paternal U. S. A. is raising cyclops instead of citizens. 11 you have but one eye, and that is right in the middle of your forehead, you don't go abroad. That is all there is to it.

Mention is made of your particular variety of nose. You see, it is this way; Julius Caesar was a Boman, and therefore had a Roman nose. He went away a perfectly good citizen of a republic; but on the way back he came to the Rubicon, jumped in, swam ashore, and took the liberties of the people away from them. If you have a Roman nose, what is to hinder you from jumping into the Atlantic Ocean on the way back home and suddenly putting the whole 110,000,000 people of America under the iron heel of despotism! You could do it, oh, so easily! Everybody said that the Kaiser could do it sure. So if you have a Roman nose, you had better see a beauty doctor before you ask for a passport. ' '

Your friend wishes to know about your mouth. The Government has reason to wish to know about this; for the mouths of Americans get them into more trouble while they are abroad than does any other one thing. They think that they are citizens of the greatest country under the sun, and they like to mention the fact; at least they do until they find that this is just what everybody else thinks of his own particular land. Besides, the Government wishes to know that you will be able to take your meals in the usual way. It does not wish foreign governments put to the annoyance and inconvenience of feeding you through a tube in your nose.

Then there is the chin. Lady Astor, an American girl that has found her way into the British Parliament, is authority for the statement that Americans have good chins. (And ■he is reputed to have used a cuss word when ■he said it.) The Government wishes to live up to its reputation in not sending anybody abroad unless he has a chin of some sort; so if your ehin is missing you can count on staying right in Podflik until the robins nest again.

Tike Bair Quettion

FTNAT.T.V, there is the hair question. Now this a Serious matter in the minds of some people; or not in their minds, let us say on

top of their minds. There are those that insist that hair and brains cannot be grown on opposite sides of the same scalp at the same time. Then there are others who claim, as did one Hilkiah Crooks of yore, that a goodly thatch of feathers is necessary, and that if one does not have it he will be minus the necessary pipes wherewith to lead off the fog and smoke that otherwise becloud the brain. Doubtless the Government is collecting statistics to determine which is right — the bald-headed man who boldly claims that wisdom has taken the place of his hair, or the thick-haired youth who feelingly reminds the Government that the strength of any government lies in its men, and that the strength of Samson, the strongest of all men, lay in his hair. “Sometime we'll understand."

We said: “Finally there is the hair question”; but it was not finally. The Government wishes to know whether you have a complexion. This is more important in America than it is in the British Isles; for there the damp climate gives everybody a good natural complexion, while here there are many people who would not dare to leave home without bringing their complexions along with them in a vanity bag or something like that. The Government is interested to know whether your complexion is a real one or whether you got it at the corner drug-store.

When it gets to the matter of having a face and of deciding what kind of face you have, there may perchance be a row between you and your friend. He wishes to put you down as having a thin face; but you do not wish to go down in history or even down in the Atlantis as having a thin face. You plead with him; you point out that with seven kinds of faces on the list he should be able to pick you out a better one. But he is obdurate, and he shall be punished as befits the offense.

Then comes the second inquisition. You and your trusted friend go before a passport official of the United States Department of State. The official looks you over critically. His is a very important job. He represents the whole imperial United States Government, in one of its most important departments. His decision on this great matter now to be decided is final He crosses out the word "thin” opposite the description of your face, and writes in the word “ovaJL”

You glance piercingly and haughtily at your friend to see .whether he takes in the full magnitude of his unstatesmanlike analysis of your features. He seems utterly oblivious; he doea not seem to realize* how nearly he has jeopardized the good reputation of our State Department abroad. Suppose now that the State Department had overlooked his error; think what international animosities and ether things just like them might have happened. One shudders to think of it, even with shudders selling as high as a shilling apiece.

Paying for Democracy

THE inspector gathers in your application for passport, and your birth certificate, and your photographs. Then he collects $10 for doing his sworn duty in giving you an oval face, and tells you that you will receive the passport in four or five days. This “service” was formerly free; but since the world was made safe for democracy some jobs must be found for the increased number of democrats and a way must be found to soak the democracy every way they turn, or they might forget that they are free.

Uncle Sam’s example of piggishness in the free issuance of passports has been followed by all countries toward citizens of the United States. Europe contains a score of countries, and the United States is but one. Therefore when a United States citizen visits ten European countries on a trip (and most across-ocean travel is in that direction) he must pay $100 for having his passports viseed in the ten countries; but the European may go all over the United States on the one $10 passport. Thus Uncle Sam charges his citizens $10 for an imaginary “service” before they leave home, knowing that, because of that charge of' $10, made without any proper reason, those citizens will be mulcted $10 more for every country that they visit.

Another Hold Up

THE third inquisition comes afer you have received your passport You go to the British Consulate in New York. There you are catalogued by a clerk and fined $10 for being an American^citizen; then careful inquiry is made as to whether you plan any propaganda while you are in the British Isles. In view of the purchased control of the U. S. press during the war, this latter item is properly one for \ i __________

•A prince can mat a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a’ that; But an honest man’s aboon his might— Quid faith, he maunna fa’ that 1 the British Government to continue to consider. You pass inspection; your passport is visaed; it is stamped. You are now in the hole to the tune of $20; but you have received a piece of paper, folded, stamped with the great seal of the United States Government, and signed by Mr. Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State, which proves beyond question that you have been born and that you a have a forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, hair, complexion, and a face, and that you are over one foot and under twelve feet in height A triumph of American diplomacy. Bomu)

You go and get your ticket. It is a foot high, and a foot and a half long, and recites encouragingly what responsibility the Company assumes respecting your baggage in case of a wreck, and what disposition will be made of your own remains, in case there are any remains.

The fourth inquisition Consists of a strip six inches wide, attached to one end of your ticket It asks the same old questions which you had to answer before you got your passport; and unless put into the hands of the transportation company the day before the ship sails, your right to sail on that ship is forfeited.

Cheer Up

ON THE back of the ticket itself is the fifth inquisition. The questions are the same as before. TJheer up I This is the last time that you must answer these questions until you get aboard the boat. At length the great day arrives. You are at the dock an hour ahead of time. You appear before an officer, who examines your passport and looks scrutinizingly at you to see if you are the person described.

You start to go aboard, up the long carefully-enclosed gang-way, and are stopped once more. This time it is your ticket which is subjected to scrutiny, to see that it is made out in due form and properly endorsed. In another half minute you are out of the United States; i. e., you are aboard a British vessel, an auxiliary of the British navy and manned throughout by British seamen.

For a’ that, and a’ that,

Their dignities, and a’ that, The pith o’ sense, and pride o’ worth.

Are higher ranks than a’ that*

Who Has the Right to Make Prices? By rA. H. Kent

SHOULD the laborer price his labor; the producer of soil-products price them; the manufacturer his output; the wholesaler his commodity, and the retailer his wares!

Who will agree to such a proposition as a whole! Who believes that it could be made to work out justly for all! And yet is not this what each faction is trying to do, and trying to prevent the others from doing!

If this system of pricing is right for one class, it must be right for all But if it will not work well for all, then the principle must be entirely wrong; for each class of workers is vitally interested in the price of the products of all the rest Being a thing of collective interest, price should be regulated by all that are interested either as producers or as consumers.

If the reins of our Government have gotten into the hands of those that neither labor nor produce, then such Government should have no part in pricing the products of the labor of those who do labor, until it is again subject to the will of the people.

Neither should the laborer and producer make the oft-repeated mistake of choosing other delegates or representatives to make prices for them. Deputing power to a few representatives to act for the whole people invites the attack of all opposing interests upon those few. If they are thus influenced, or yield, the cause of the people is lost

To a large extent people have test faith in representative government Experience, they believe, has taught that it is cheaper to pay a good round profit to private interests than to place industries under government control to be operated at cost The claim is that the tendency to graft on the one side equals the tendency to profiteer on the other.

When private capital goes into business it exacts every possible profit for the interests behind it That the burden of these profits is equaled or outweighed by the waste, incompetency, and graft of our administrators is a compliment (!) many of our public men are paying to themselves and to our public institutions when they fight government ownership. We mentioi this to show that there is little chance of improvement unless the people keep the government more in their own hands.

Let the people use every modern method and appliance to save labor and to increase production: and their efforts to better conditions mo

will oome to naught, as long as it is given to a few men, or to any one class of men, to arbitrarily make prices. And a government, that is to any extent controlled by special interests — whether that of fanners, laborers, manufacturers, merchants, or preachers — would be no exception.

Those that produce and labor in social service are the ones who are interested collectively in the prices at which they must exchange the products of their labor. Collectively they have the right to get together and name the standard wages upon which all product prices should be based.

The legitimate object of government is to search out and protect the individual rights and means of its subjects. Experience shows that the people should never delegate their rights away but should reserve to themselves the final decision of all questions by suffrage. It is an old saying, "If you want any thing done do it yourself.” If not, send someone else to do it, and this is especially true of governments.

The opposition to a system of standard prices will come either from those who from lack of thought fail to see its great benefits or from the comparatively few that are now profiting by the existing unsettled and unjust price conditions. All classes of labor engaged in useful pursuits, including fanners that own anc work their own farms, and merchants anc small factory owners who do their own labor, are interested in a wage that in buying power will equal the price of the products they collectively produce and distribute.

To accomplish much, men must make the best use of the means at hand. Each class of labor has an organization for the betterment of their own conditions; and over these is an organization of which all are a part and to which all are subject, the United States Government. Whatever we may expect of farm and labor unions, it is evident that they can do little as long as the general Government is controlled by those of opposing interests.

That a government of the people should so look after the interests of its every subject that no other organization for that purpose would be necessary, we believe is evident to alL But the number and kind of such unions is a monumental evidence that it does not. It occurs to us that if each union would take eg

the subject of a standard wage and standard product-prices based on labor cost, and discuss it until thoroughly understood by its members, they would demand such a system and vote it through.

More good could be done at one election by installing a system of prices that would equalize the expense of living and properly distribute the fruits of labor, than has been done by Congress and Legislatures for the last one hundred and forty-five years.

Who is now making our prices! Is it the laborer and producer who, together, are the great consumer! Or is it the go-between, the juggler, and the gambler! Shall we, as usual, leave prices for Congress to influence by tinkering with the tariff, rail rates and ship rates, farm credits, etc.; or shall we turn the job over to the Reserve Banks! Three years ago they fixed prices and almost fixed everything else by juggling interest rates, bank creditors, bond markets, and cash reserves; and no one questions that they can and will do the same thing again if it suits their purpose.

Or shall we try the plan of Irvin Fisher, Professor of Political Economy of Yale University and ex-President of the American Economic Association, for taking the starch out of one of the few standards we have, the dollar, by trying to follow up our ever-changing prices with an ever-changing dollar! Professor Fisher, your currency would not make even a good football. You could never tell how much it was inflated, and when you got the thing all puffed up and ready to kick off, some one might be fool enough to name prices on a gold basis and that would knock the wind clear out of it. Now, Professor, really do you think you can ever kick a goal with a dollar like that!

Prices are figured from the amount of gold represented; and not from the denomination of the currency representing it. We have a dollar that'is as standard in weight as the yard measure is in length, or as the bushel is in capacity; and it would be just as reasonable to expect the yard measure to indicate the price of the product it is used to measure, or for the bushel measure to price the product that passes through it, as to expect the dollar to Indicate the price, or measure the Value of the product for which it is exchanged. Pricing is feat the function of the dollar.

The analyst separates product into its orig

inal elements; and by experiments and actual tests we determine the elements or properties that are useful; and that some are of more value than others; and that is about all we have accomplished in our effort to measure value. But let the true value of product be what it may, collectively we are interested in getting it at the least possible cost in labor; and for the purpose of exchanging products we should price them as near as possible to labor cost, so that each may receive equal value for his money. ,

If prices are wrong, as every ones knows they are, then let us make prices that are right, and not unfix everything else in the hope that prices will in Some mysterious way adjust themselves. When we have properly standardized our labor, products, and other values, as we have our dollar, and rightly established the relation between them by a system of standard prices, we may go ahead doing business on a fair basis for a thousand years without a price swing, strike, lockout, panic, or millionaire.

We are glad to note the effort being made toward the standardization of product. "The Truth in Fabric Bill” is surely a step ahead; but why not widen its scope! Draft a "Truth in all Products Bill,” based on truth in labor, and truth in prices; then draft a “Truth in Legislation Bill,” that will enable us to pass all bills direct from the people to the statute books.

Not knowing whether a price is fair causes dissatisfaction the same as knowing it to be unfair. Social unrest will not or should not be alleviated until men place themselves under just regulations. With the help of divine wisdom, as already revealed in the Bible, it is possible for man to institute a just system of laws; but the power to keep those from breaking them who would so desire, is, of necessity, a superhuman power. We believe the time is near when such power will be used by the King of kings and Lord of lords; but used only as a means to an end. The end to be accomplished is a creation of human beings so schooled by experience and divine wisdom that no outside restraining power will be required. Man himself, an earthly image of his heavenly Creator, endowed with wisdom, justice, power, and love, will reign supreme in his own sphere, the earth. “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.”—Psalm 115:16.

"All the Foundations of the Earth are out of Course** By Charles w. Apgar

WE HAVE hopes that the human race will eventually overcome its tendency to be easily fooled, and will learn how to distinguish between truth and propaganda. Knowledge is the antidote; and knowledge of God’s Word is the best antidote. Although many have expected it, the earth will never “leave her course.” Prior to December 17, 1919, many of the inhabitants of the civilized earth (as distinguished from the heathen) expected a great calamity — on that date the earth was to be overtaken by another body and possibly be blown to atoms. Such superstitious ideas would be impossible, and the people would know this if they were thoroughly instructed in God’s Word. For instance, we read : “The earth abid-eth forever” and “He hangeth the earth upon nothing.” Of course, if the earth is hung upon nothing, there are no literal “foundations of the earth” to get out of course.—Ecclesiastes 1:4; Job 26:7; Psalm 82:5.

“Who laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be removed for ever.” (Psalm 104:5) The proper understanding of our text lies in the fact that throughout the Bible the word “earth” and “world” are quite frequently used in a symbolic sense, not meaning the literal planet on which we live but organized society. In proof of this, we offer 2 Peter 3: 6, 7, 13; Zephaniah 3:8, 9; Revelation 21:1. These scriptures are sufficient, with proper consideration, to convince any reasoning mind that not the literal earth and heavens are here referred to; but that they are mentioned as in our text, in a symbolic sense. Earth is a condition of social and civil arrangement.

Our laws are some of the “foundation” stones. None will dispute the necessity for just and equitable laws. Laws are right and good and necessary, but unrighteous enforcement of laws is the greatest difficulty with which we. have to contend. Our laws are so written as to enslave us to lawyers. They are impossible of understanding by the common man of the street.

The following by Thomas Edison appeared in the Chicago Herald-Examiner of October 26, 1921, under the title, “Life Too Intricate”: “Life is becoming so intricate, so involved, so mixed up, that it is difficult to tell what will happen as the result of any act Government finance, and industry are daily becoming more fixed in a maze that human Ingenuity seems incapable of untangling.

"Those fellows down at Washington pass laws without any more knowledge of what effects will he produced than they might have if they were children. They pass a law to do one thing, and it does the reverse. They press a button here, and a totally unexpected explosion happens there. This is because the whole fabric of cul civilization is becoming so intricate that nobody can follow its designs.

“I began to notice this many years ago when a legislature out West passed a law giving a bounty for ths killing of coyotes, only to discover a few yean lata that, in the absence of coyotes, jack rabbits were multiplying »o rapidly the law had to be repealed and a bounty offered for the killing of rabbits.”

The tendency of our social structure is to form unions and belong to organizations and lodges—the Ku Klux Klan, the W. C. T. U., chnrch societies, etc.—societies for and against everything. It is not unusual to find one person belonging to several societies which are contrary the one to the other.

Selfishness is so ingrained in our law-makers and enforcers that laws for the relief of our poor and oppressed are impossible to operate. There are “jokers” in nearly all laws. Money, not love, is back of all rule. We quote a well-known scientist:

"Forty yean ago, Herbert Spencer wrote some wonderfully illuminating chapters on the complexity of civilization in his day. Spencer took up thirty-four laws enacted by the British Parliament for the relief of the poor, and demonstrated that thirty-two of then laws actually harmed the poor.”

Our System of Trade

OUR competitive system of trade causes business to organize on an efficiency basis, which must of necessity not only reject the old and infirm, but soon kill off the able. The result of the continual driving for efficiency is recklessness, disease, and suicide. Another resuit is our false standard of salesmanship; that is, men are trained to sell people things they do not want. There are basements and storerooms full of articles, many of them quite useless, purchased from men trained to sell these things whether they are needed or not.

The main feature of our earth is big business ; and big business so controls the price of labor that men are not able even to provide a proper and decent home and surroundings for a growing family. As a consequence, marriage (which is the very foundation of our social structure) is reduced to a low estate. For instance: J J' the man is not able to provide for a good home, the wife must work; and since the wife must spend from seven to ten hours a day toiling to help support the family, the results are that she has no time to prepare good meals for the family. She must purchase prepared foods, of low food value, in order that she may be able to quickly prepare it, say in from ten to twenty minutes. Big business meets the emergency by preparing food and putting it up in packages, with the greater portion of the food properties removed — the main argument, of course, being that they are prepared so easily and quickly that husband will not have to wait for from one to two hours for dinner.

m

Low vitality results from eating these improper foods, and consequently there is a greater need for doctors; and doctors are not in business for their health—nor for ours, either. Of course it is true that the doctor is glad to come when called upon, and that he does his very best to effect a cure; but the point is that it would be much better if the doctors were organized on the basis of keeping people well, rather than of curing them after their health is once impaired. The spirit of the new age will be along new lines — keeping people from getting sick, rather than healing them. “And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick.”—Isaiah 33:24.

At present, many schools of medicine are contrary one to the other, each forming associations to fight the other, and trying to pass laws to forbid others the right to practise. Politicians

ThE politicians, who draw good salaries, increase the burden of the tax-payers year by year; and they are looking on while the doctors, lawyers, preachers, etc., are digging down deeper into the poor man’s pockets. These are the foundation stones that are out of course. Selfishness is the mortar which is supposed to hold these stones together, that they may form a good solid foundation. But this foundation is crumbling.

Church Sytlenu

THE chureli systems, professing to be friends of the poo? producers, desert them in times of need, such as strikes and unemployment, calling them Bolsheviki, etc. They hate failed utterly to help the oppressed in times of direst need. Without one word of objection or of warning one hundred and eighty thousand preachers and priests permitted the financiers of this country to throw us into the greatest war the earth has ever known, producing countless bereaved mothers and widows. When the history of all the cowards has been written, these 180,-000 preachers and priests will head the list. When I think of heroes, I have only to think of many of the widows left behind, with large families, to face the ever-rising prices and poor pay to women, yet bravely facing all the difficulties of life.

Other classes who prey upon the masses, worthy of mention in this article, are those who profess to be friends of the poor, yet who taka advantage of their every weakness, their every difficulty, and who run second only to the preachers, are the pawn-brokers, the loan sharks, and credit clothiers. Do not these advertise themselves as friends of the poor? Yet are they not exacting from the poor more than the poor are able to pay and more than others do pay? For instance: Do not credit clothiers charge $75 for a $35 suit and require first payment of $25 cash? And do not newspapers and magazines, except Tick Golden Age, take their advertisements and fail to expose them?

It is true that the earth slightly recognizes her unstableness; and therefore we have what we are pleased to call “our daily portion of reformless reforms.” We have “sex equality” now, which of course means social confusion. We have prohibition now, which means instead of beer at five cents, poison at seventy-fiv', cents per drink. We have the so-called “red light district” abolished, only to scatter its former inmates all over our cities and towns. We have committees to investigate, which is a very good thing and appreciated; but sure remedies, it seems, are missing. There is nothing stable. Today we have it; tomorrow we have it not.

We were told of a “new earth” in order to get us to fight Germany. President Wilson and other notable men traveled through the length and breadth of our country promising the young men of this nation that if they would only join the army they would be permitted when they returned to enter politics and to have a voice in the affairs of the Government such as they had never had and never dreamed of before. The voice of labor was promised , a hearing at all times if we would only consent to this plan of war. But now they Bay: "Back to normalcy.” They do not says "Let us go on to the new earth that we have promised you.” On the contrary they say: “Let vs go back to the conditions before 1914.” They <io not seem to be so anxious now that the voice •f labor shall be heard at all times; they do Mot seem to be so anxious now to reward those who so faithfully served their country.

Meantime, we have all learned the lesson that God has designed in this matter: namely, that it does not pay any one to seek to destroy his neighbors’ lives. Who, more than our returned soldiers, can say that they have not been rewarded for their service to their country! Propagandists tell us a great deal about charity and what we should do for suffering humanity, but they forget to think about these from the standpoint of justice.

False standards are fast overthrowing justice. There are a thousand classes, all opposed to each other; there are a thousand publications, all supporting the various fanatical ideas promulgated in the thousands of societies and organizations; and these thousands of schemes are all selfish. There all is confusion; there is little justice. We are headed for the ditch. “But Jesus answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”—Matthew 15:13, 14.

Like many other admonitions of God’s Word, these words are falling on deaf ears. Oh, that we could through some means call mankind’s attention to those scriptures which speak of the coming calamity as a result of the oppression of the poor, the perverting of judgment, and the unequal distribution of this world’s goods! “If thou seest the oppression of the popr, and the violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is' served by the field.”—Ecclesiastes 5:8,9*>

“From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, 0 inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fieeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.”—Isaiah 24:16-20.

Christ’s Kingdom —The Remedy

ALL sorts of remedies are suggested by all sorts of people. But Christ’s kingdom is God’s sure remedy; for “justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.” (Psalm 89:14) “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.”—Isa. 28:16,17.

If there is scant justice in the applying of our laws; if plenty of food does not mean a living for all; if conditions are such that a wife and home are not possible for our young men; if our hundreds of different religious beliefs do not bring peace and a true knowledge and appreciation of God; if our preachers preach politics instead of Bible; if our going-to-church is founded on superstition; if our prosperity depends on selling each other needless articles; if divorce bids fair to outrun matrimony; if our health depends on powders or pills; if by every reform movement we grow worse; if we give a dollar to the hard-working producer and call it charity and not justice; if we would rather have "red-light districts" instead of making marriage possible; if we are going to free all the murderers; if we tar and feather a man who speaks for people’s rights; if dogs are well-fed while human beings go hungry— then are not “all of the foundations of this earth out of course”! "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a. new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”—2 Peter 3:13.

A Universal Language for the Golden Age By lames Denson Bayers

IN LOOKING forward to the blessings mankind will enjoy in the Golden Age one may try to speculate about what some of those blessings will be. We can, of course, have only the faintest conception of what they will be ultimately. But can we not safely vision in part, at least, the state of the human race when the incentives to individual, national, religious and racial hatreds shall have forever passed away in a world of peace and plenty and of brotherly love based on perfect understanding! Whatever the perfection attained by other forms of physical well-being, we do know that ignorance and misunderstanding shall pass away and men shall know one another in loving association. In this fraternizing of the whole human family, which we know will be a fact, what will be the means of intercommunication between the peoples who today are so woefully sundered by the nearly five hundred different languages spoken in the world!

According to the Biblical record there was a time when all men spoke one language. Whether the diffusion of different languages was commenced by the miracle of the Tower of Babel, or whether the latter is an allegory given in Holy Writ to symbolize to the understanding of the faithful in later times the modern babel and confusion of Christendom, we can but guess. We do know, however, that the difference of language is a mighty barrier to the brotherhood condition Christ and His saints will soon establish. We know that all obstacles to the establishment of His reign will be overcome and will disappear.

How will the obstacle of mutual misunderstanding between the peoples, represented in the present confusion of languages, be erased! Will it be dispensed with miraculously, or will God’s orderly and natural way take its course in the establishment of a common language! Some sincere Christians in the truth believe that in due time God will miraculously turn to His people "a pure language,” while others just as sincere believe that God’s natural law, Which we see performing such wonders every moment, will, within the requisite lapse of time, set forth among men a language common to all nation^ and races.

Christ told us enough to indicate clearly to the inquiring minds of faith when the time would be drawing near for His presence and the establishment of His reign. We are instructed to look for many things coming on earth that had never been known before. These things are all in one way or another heralding or preparing the way for the setting up of the kingdom. For more than two thousand years ineffectual attempts have been made to establish a common world language, but all attempts either to make a national language the world tongue or to create an artificial language sufficiently practical for international usage failed until just a few years after 1874.

It is a noteworthy fact that soon after that date a self-sacrificing, kindly Jew, Ludwig L. Zamenhof, began the basic work to which he practically gave his whole life, finally offering freely to the world what great minds had utterly failed to bring forth after life-long attempts— a marvelously practicable and common language for the world, far more perfect than any national language, yet so simple in its structure that it can be learned perfectly by an adult in one-tenth the time required to gain indifferent mastery of a national language. This wonderful language is Esperanto. One may well ask what are some of the reasons for giving consideration to Esperanto as of more than passing interest to those workers heralding the Golden Age.

First, is it a reasonable expectation that during Christ’s reign on earth all nations will become one people, having a common means of understanding, one language! We believe that all are agreed that this is so, some believing that God will establish a common language miraculously, others believing that some language common to all peoples will grow up naturally.

Second, assuming that Christians would be expecting such a universal language to be brought about, should its appearance not be looked for during the great diffusion of knowledge heralding the presence af Christ! As stated above, Esperanto appeared early during the period of Christ’s presence.

Third, on its appearance among the people of this present evil world, over which the prince of darkness holds sway, should we not look for indications that it was not favored but, instead, was and is being hampered by Satan! One of Dr. Zamenhofs heaviest burdens was the ridicule of the worldly-wise and, later, close scrutiny and suspicion from governmental forces. None of the worldly great and rich favored it with their patronage. Governments were appealed to in vain to help its diffusion that the peoples might be brought more closely together and wars made less probable. Large numbers of the common people, poor in worldly riches and power, but rich in the idealism of human love, learned its simple forms and began exchanging letters with one another among all nations of the earth and, beginning in 1^05, held annual world congresses where all nationalities gathered and proved the efficacy of the language by perfect understanding of one another in its usage. Thus the confusion caused by many languages gradually is being swept away.

The ‘Internal Idea” of Esperanto, a very real and vital something that can never be fully understood and enjoyed except by one who has become versed in the language and has mingled with Esperantists of foreign national languages, is of a nature closely akin to the love between Christian brethren. As might be expected, Satan, finding one more instrument of welding into reality the brotherhood of mankind being brought forth among the beings suffering under the pall of his dark rule, set about to thwart its purpose. Finding that it could not be destroyed, he brought out imitations of Esperanto. Of these, the only two that gained any considerable following were simply the result of thefts or plagiarisms of an inferior sort of the original, uncopyrighted Esperanto. None of the imitations are spreading among the people of the world with anything like the rapidity of Esperanto. The supporters of the imitations are everywhere violently bitter in their envious opposition to the greater spread of Esperanto. Esperantists go calmly along their self-sacrificing way of teaching the language, trusting that their ideal, being a noble one, will bear fruit of its own inherent feood, whatever be the opposition. This is all as it should be.

Recently some friends in the truth in Europe wrote in Esperanto to the present writer suggesting that\the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society be approached with the proposition of putting the '“Scripture Studies” and other books and tracts into Esperanto in order that many people could be reached with the witness of the truth who otherwise are barred easy access to it. Having heard'Spanish- and Italian-speaking people expressing their great craving that they could have all the volumes and tracts in their languages, we hastened to Judge Rutherford at Bethel Home with the appeal. We were very much surprised to learn that already this past spring and summer Brother Harteva of Finland had fulfilled the commission given him of translating into Esperanto, and was publishing just before the gathering of the 14th Annual World Congress of Esperantists in Helsingfors the book “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.” Our joy was heightened when we received from our Esperantists friends in the truth in Europe letters telling of their happiness at having this great message in the international medium and of their confidence in being able to reach with this message of present truth many whom they could in no other manner reach.

We are assured that very large numbers of people of the languages into which only a portion of the message of present truth has been translated can be reached by means of Esperanto. As the Esperanto literature is not yet nearly full enough to supply the reading demand, new and interesting translations will be purchased and read as much for their Esperanto value as for their content of the truth, thus reaching many who would otherwise miss the message. The translation into Esperanto of “The Harp of God” is now under way.

Is it not possible that there are a number of the friends who see in Esperanto one little added means of serving in the great work of heralding the Golden Age and who would like to give a few hours to the study of it? Correspondence with brethren in other parts of the world, either by letters or postal cards, alone brings great joy and profit. This is something that is immediately available after only a few hours of study. Then who knows but that this may prove an expanding field of service? The Lord alone knows what disposition He will make of our services consecrated to Him.

Opportunity to enter an Esperanto class conducted by the writer will be offered to interested persons living in Brooklyn or New York. Others can, with little loss of time from ths other and admittedly greater work, take up the study alone or in groups. The opportunity of spreading the truth is not the only benefit which comes from learning Esperanto; there are other very distinct and varied benefits.

The Soldier Bonus By B. F. Mason *

MUCH is being said pro and eon as to the propriety of the soldier bonus, mostly pro. The vote of four million soldiers, and of perhaps a large number of their friends and relatives, is a factor for politicians who would succeed themselves in office.

Those politicians and soldiers who urge the bonus, while posing as patriots are, I think, actuated by selfish expedience, though perhaps they do not realize this. Were this tax to be levied on war profiteers, it would be profitable. Were it levied on accumulated wealth, it would not be altogether indefensible. But since our Government derives its funds almost solely from export, import, and internal revenue duties, if the bonus is allowed it must come through a tax imposed on commodities that the people must use. This being true, then the only reason why the tailor earning fifty cents, one dollar or two dollars per day, will not contribute as much toward this fund as does the millionaire, is that while the tailor must stint his family in the use of the bare necessities of life, the millionaire needs not to consider expense.

From a common-sense view of the facts our soldiers of the World War are not more entitled to a bonus than are the veterans of other wars in which our country has been involved. Indeed, the soldiers in the late war were better cared for and better paid than were those of any previous war.

I take it that the average American would wish that every citizen injured in the service of his country, and by reason of such service, should be compensated as far as a reasonable stipend could compensate. Every soldier honorably discharged who really wants a job, but who cannot find it, should be employed by the Government in work suited to his capacity.

The funds needed for the compensation of soldiers should be obtained by an ad valorem tax. Although we have no precedent for such a tax in history, yet I think that we should lose no time in making such a precedent.

The statesmen who built and launched the ship of staff were intelligent, educated business men. When It became necessary to finance the government which they had established, they did what business may usually be trusted to do: Instead of levying a tax on the wealth of the classes, they imposed it upon the subsistence of the masses.

The four billion bonus would cost each man, woman, and child in the United States forty dollars sash. It would cost every family of five two hundred dollars each. Our country already owes twenty billion dollars; the bonus would make it twenty-four billion dollars, or twelve hundred dollars for each family. If twenty years are required to liquidate this debt, then at four percent interest each family will have paid about seventeen hundred dollars. If this sum is wrung from the people by the taxation of commodities, millions will die from starvation and from diseases incident to malnutrition.

Our national wealth has been estimated at one hundred billion dollars. It has been estimated that ninety percent of this wealth is possessed by less than ten percent of our people. If this is true, this ten percent of our people could pay off our debt without depriving themselves of many of the luxuries to which they are accustomed.

To pay interest on this colossal debt, to provide a sinking fund, and to meet current expenses will probably add twenty percent to the cost of living. This in itself is a crushing burden. But if it were collected automatically day by day, as silently as falls the dew, the victims as a rule do not know what it is that hurts them.

State, county, and municipal taxes add perhaps another ten percent to the cost of living. These taxes are met by excise duties and also by an ad valorem tax on real and personal property. As in the ease of the national tax, people do not seem to realize the excise tax; but the ad valorem tax is irksome, since it must be paid annually and in a lump sum. Moreover, because the manner of assessment is not at all consistent with true equity, it works a great and undeserved hardship on many individuals.

Ad valorem taxes are imposed upon nominal owners of property, while in most cases the nominal owner is not the real owner. For instance, a man buys property, real or personal, makes a small cash payment, and gives mortgage notes for the balance. He must pay tai on this property as well as interest upon the notes. If he fails in either case, he is liable to foreclosure. This is all wrong. Justice would tax the seller on his unpaid notes, secured on the property, and would tax the buyer only to

the extent of his equity in the property. It is not possible to make a dishonest man give an honest estimate of his actual cash; but perhaps a fair value could be approximated by having bankers certify an oath as to the sum of the annual deposits and of the annual withdrawals of each patron.

If notes, mortgages, stocks, bonds, etc., were legally invalidated, if not officially stamped annually, these would all be returned for taxation. Verily our legislators seem to accept Satan’s version of our Lord’s dictum: "Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not ■hall be taken away even that which he hath.” —Matthew 25: 29.

If intelligent humanity were united in support of righteousness, justice would prevail; ■nd happiness would result. “When the right

eous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” (Proverbs 29:2) For long centuries «

this planet has been subject to Satan, the a

usurper, and his minions of darkness. The peoples of earth cannot obtain a righteous government until Satan is overthrown by Him to * whom the government belongs by right, the Prince of Peace. (Ezekiel 21:26, 27) Will He comet He has come. Earth’s empires are crumbling before His irresistible onslaught.

Our country has been greatly blessed of God. “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” (Luke 12:48) Many who have been successful as the world counts success might even yet profit by reading James 5:1-8. .

Conditions

ONDON was somewhat excited a few days ago through the arrival in town of some “hunger marchers” who have come up from the

provinces to interview the Prime Minister. Mr. Bonar Law, who is now Prime Minister, refused to see them, and referred them to the Ministry of Labor. The men declared their purpose was to see the Prime Minister, and there was a fear that violence would be used. The government tried to dope the press to lead public opinion against the men by insinuating that its leaders were communists. Mr. Bonar Law refuses to ■ee the men’s deputation. There is more than one reason for this. Mr. Bonar Law has said he will not follow the way of his predecessor, Mr. Lloyd George, who was ready (at the psychological moment) to take everything into his own hands. But there is also the notion to repress these agitators, and not to pander to them, and there is in Mr. Bonar Law’s refusal something of a challenge of authority against these methods! The fight between authority and the hunger party will come in due time.

The recent general election has brought a good many1 labor members into the House of Commons, and they feel themselves very strong. Besides having a good deal of physical energy, the labor party has a very considerable measure of intellectual ability in it, but from the politician’s point of view it lacks in this that it has no proposals save a complete redr

in England

ganization of society. Ultimately, of course, that will be the issue.

General conditions in the country are fair considering the tremendous amount of unemployment which has obtained for a time. The outlook for trade, both at home and abroad, is poor. It is reported that the Christmas shopping trade in London is not nearly up to expectation: an indication that there is not so much money to spend.

In religious circles there is a considerable amount of internal energy, but as to moral force the religious world is impotent: it has no proposals at all. There are neither fruits nor leaves on its trees. The churches have no message for the people, though they are continually endeavoring to stimulate the people to give to the support of their systems. In the English church system there is a movement which has for its object the endeavor to get the church once again into the possession of the faculty of healing. It is claimed by them that the church in the days of its purity could heal the bodies of men > as well as their souls; and Satan is doing something to help them, for now and again there are certain psychological movements which result apparently in some measure of physical healing. Their desire is to bring life into the church by any possible means in order that it may regain its position in the eyes of the people. The Bible

student knows that the time for the giving of healing to the body is not yet come, and he knows that anything that anticipates the coming of the kingdom of our Lord is from Satan, who is trying to discount the work of the glorified church.

The head of the Liverpool University claims that researches made there gave demonstrations of reaction from inorganic matter which are elosely allied to life, and he suggests that it may be possible to demonstrate how plant life begins. There follows the further suggestion that it may be possible to show how animal life emerges from plant life, and thus the secret of life be disclosed. We shall see. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”—Deuteronomy 29:29.

Conditions in Greece

THE political world is rather excited about the Greek executions. The inhuman side of this action is kept to the fore, but the ugly phase is not openly discussed. Politics would be a poor game if all the failures arc to be shot by their successors. It seems as if Isaiah’s word will soon be quite up-to-date. He tells of the time when “a man shall take hold of his brother, of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand: In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.’—Isaiah 3:6, 7.

Man-Traps in Russia By Peter p. Enns

A GENTLEMAN living in the government of Ufa, Russia, writing to a friend in Portland, Oregon, under date of April 19,1922, reports conditions in his vicinity at that time in the following language:

“Every thing is very high, a pud (forty pounds) of flour costs twelve million rubles, a pud of potatoes three million rubles, a horse from one to two hundred million rubles, a cow from fifty to sixty million. A pound of butte costs sixty to seventy thousand rubles. The famine is great, many thousands axe dying, no <me has grain for seed. We are getting a little from Soviet Government, so that we can put in about twenty-five ittj (about sixty acres). Last year we had 130 acres.

“It is terrible. The people kill human beings, and eat them, and make sausage of them. Many put traps to catch them; parents eat their own children. Wo would like to get to another country, but it is impossible to travel. The conditions are not much better tn the South. The father writes that they will starve soon.”

The Gospel Of Dirt By F. Leon Scheerer

Thomas Caklylk, a leading essayist and historian, was born in 1795 and died in 1881. Not long before his death Carlyle, who knew Darwin well, wrote the following:

"I have known three generations of Darwins—grandfather, father, and son—atheists all. The brother of the famous naturalist, a quiet man who lives not far from here, told me that among his grandfather’s effects he found a seal engraven with this legend 'Omni ex con-chis’ (everything from a clam shell) t I saw the naturalist not many months ago, told him I had read his 'Origin of Species’ and other books, that he had by no means satisfied me that we were descended from monkeys, but that he had gone far to persuade me that he and his so-called scientific brethren had brought the present generation very near to monkeys. •

“A good sort of man is this Darwin, and well-meaning, but with little intellect. It is a sad and terrible thing to see nigh a whole generation of men and women, professing to be cultivated, looking around in a purblind fashion, and finding no God in the universe. I suppose it is a reaction from the reign of cant and hollow pretense, professing to believe what in fact they do not believe. And this is what we have got to — all things from frog spawn — the gospel of dirt, that is the order of the day. The older I grow — and now I stand on the brink eternity — the more comes back to me the sentence in the Catechism, which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its "waning becomes: 'What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.’ No gospel of dirt, -teaching that men have descended from frogs through monkeys, can ever ret that aside.”

Animal and Human Vivisection

FROM an address by Walter H Hadwen, M. D., M. R., C. S., of Gloucester, England, at a public meeting in Los Angeles, June 16, 1921, stenographically reported for and published by the California Antivivisection Society, 622 Bryson Building, Los Angeles, California, we quote in part as follows:

"You are sitting by your fireside one evening and your terrier is lying at your feet. Suddenly the little fellow starts, pricks his ears and utters a low growl. What has happened? Why, the little terrior has heard • footstep on the garden path long before you have heard it. Why ? Because its sense of hearing is so much more acute than your own. Yeur puss is lying on your lap. Suddenly it starts to the wainscoting. It has heard the sound of a mouse which hasn’t reached your ears. Look at the sleuth-hound and watch it on the trail. See it as it tracks its quarry mile, after mile. Why is It that the sleuth-hound can follow the trail like that? Because its sense of smell is so much more developed than your own. You notice those little specks away up there in the sky. You can hardly perceive them, but you notice them gathering in innumerable flocks. What does it mean? There is a body lying out upon the desert plain, and the birds of prey are waiting yonder until death has closed the scene and they can swoop down upon the carcass. Why is it that they are able to see from that enormous distance what you cannot perceive at all ? Because their sense of vision is so much keener than your own. You are riding a high-bred horse. You give him but the slightest touch with the end of your whip. Notice how he dashes forward. Why ? Because his sense of feeling is so marvellously acute. If in these lower animals the sense of hearing, the sense of smell, the sense of vision, and the sense of feeling, can be so much more acute than our own, what right has anyone to say that their sense of pain is not also equally acute simply because they cannot express toemsalves in articulate language? .

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