Golden Age, August 15, 1923

Download: PDF — Golden Age, August 15, 1923

Contents of the Golden Age

Social and Educational

The Reading of Fiction.........

Real Author is Invisible.........

Political—Domestic and Foreign

Poland, Child of the Battlefield (Part 1) ....

Making War a Business...........

Peace as a Desideratum...........

Wars in the North—Lithuania . ........

War in the South—1'krainia..........

War In the East—Russia...........

At the Peace Conference...........

- War in the West—Germany..........

Reports from Foreign Correspondents......

From Switzerland..............

From Canada...............

China and Her People (Part 2).........

The Queues are Gone............

Chop Sticks and Chop Suey..........

Fashion’s Capricious Whims..........

A Chinese Romance.............

Chinese Homelife and Patriotism........

Burial ol the Dead.............

Language, Spoken and 'Wiltten.........

Education and Learning...........

Nation Hard to Understand..........

The Great Stone Wall............

701) •

71S

COMMERCIALIZING Religion . . . .

God’s Books or Remembrance . . .

Lists of God’s Friends.....

Some Nantes to be Blotted Out . . One Chance for Every Man . . . Another Book of Life to be Opened God’s Jewels Being Polished . . .

Studies in “The Harp or God” . .

Published every other Wednesday at IS Concord Street. Brooklyn, N. Y., U.S.A., by WOODWORTH. HVDG1NGS & MARTIN

Copartners and Proprietors Adders: 18 Concord Street. Urool-C./n, A’. I7., U.S.A.

CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH . . . editor C. K. STEWART .... Assistant Editor Five Cents a Cott—$1.00 a Yeah 3 Foreign Offices : British.....34 Crn

Canadian ....... Australasian ..... South African ....

' .J. MARTIN . Business Manager JIUDGINGS . . Sec’y and Treas. ri'ANd:.*: to TUB COLDVN AGS

270 Dundas Street \v.. Toronto. Ontario 495 Collins Street. Melbourne, Australia G Lelie Street, ('ape Town, South Africa

Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N. 1., under the Act of March 3, 1879

ahe Golden Age

V«luie IV

Brooklyn, N. Y.» Wednesday, August 15, 1923

Number 102

Poland, Child of the Battlefield

In Two Parts (Part I)

T30LAND was born on a battlefield, and has ■1- been on one ever since. There are sections of Poland which have been traversed seven times by advancing or retreating armies since that fatal day in 1914 when the Czar of all the Russias posted the red notices of universal mobilization everywhere throughout his far-flung dominions and the march against Przemysl, the Austrian fortress, was begun.

In 1917 the government of Russia, at that time one of the Allies, proclaimed the independence of Poland; and the nucleus of the present government was formed, with its headquarters at Warsaw, the ancient capital of the kingdom. Poland, as a separate government, had been out of existence for 122 years, since the emperors of Russia, Austria and Germany had laid violent hands upon it and divided its territory. The League of Nations confirmed Russia’s cession of territory, and added certain areas from Germany and Austria.

In the east a line was fixed, called the Ethnic line, beyond which it was not considered vase for Poland to go, on the principle that the new Poland should be, as largely as possible, Polish in fact as well as in name. The ancient bound-r sury on the east had been considerably farther away, but the intervening territory is now largely populated with Ruthenians and contains very few Poles.

Within the territory assigned to the new Poland, and in other territory seized and held by her in addition to that granted by the League of Nations, there is an area as large as Germany, and a population of 30,000,000, a little more than one-half of whom are Poles. Official Polish figures admit 8,000,000 non-Poles within the area; other estimates are higher, running to nearly one-half the total population.

The new government is a republic, with a constitution adopted March 17, 1921, vesting the power in a president elected for seven years, an assembly called the Sejm, a senate and the courts. Men and women twenty-one years of age may vote. The constitution provides equal rights in religion, free compulsory education, state care of orphans, and prohibition of night work by women and by children under fifteen years of age.

As was to be expected in a country containing millions of Germans, Russians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, and Jews, besides the Poles, the assembly is a cosmopolitan affair, with nineteen distinct political parties in the field; and of course the new government functions laboriously. This natural difficulty is heightened by a disposition on the part of many of the Catholic Poles to say to all these other persons that they must, in substance, become actual Poles in language, manners, religion, and culture, or expect to be treated as traitors and enemies.

The first President, Doctor Gabriel Naruto-wicz, was assassinated by a political opponent five days after his election. The present President, Stanislas Wojciechowski, is a leader in the cooperative movement, and is supported by various liberal parties, but highly respected by less liberal elements as well. There are six women members in the Polish parliament.

During a crisis in one of Poland’s many military adventures an American organization offered to plan and equip five sanitary trains; but before a move could be made, it was necessary to obtain the individual approval of fifteen department heads, a minister of railways, and the military commander.

A drastic law provides that every attempt against the government of the existing regime, army or police, with the object of seizing power, is punishable with death; and every preparation for such an attempt is punishable by imprisonment for twenty years. It is said that on one occasion 15,000 Ukrainian Nationalists were arrested before and during the polling in East Galicia, all the candidates of the Communist party were arrested, labor union leaders were arrested, the union offices were closed, and the funds confiscated. These steps against liberty of thought and expression indicate fears for the stability of the government and tend to promote its instability.

Making War a Business

THE early history of the new Poland shows -*• that war was its principal industry, the business to which all other enterprises in the country were subordinated. One would have thought that after all the harrowing experiences through which this war-torn section of the world has passed, its inhabitants would have welcomed nothing so much as peace; the reverse seems to have been the case.

When the armistice was signed Poland had no army; in a year it had 300,000 men under arms; in another year it had 700,000 under arms; today, next to Russia and France, it has the largest standing army in Europe. Not all of these are fighting men, however. Cracow has gained fame as the headquarters of a cavalry regiment of young noblemen which has a distinct understanding that it is not to be sent to the front. In some of the cities there are officers in excess of soldiers. This is due to the fact that when war is on it is the peasants from the country that do the actual fighting. Wounded .officers are seldom seen.

Like all other countries with great armies, the militarists have found plenty to do; and Poland has been embroiled in wars north, south, east and west. The new Poland has had an overflowing abundance of that mysterious thing sometimes called patriotism, but not properly so called, which makes a people ready for conflict with neighboring nations on the least provocation. For a time it looked as if the Polish people had become accustomed to war as the normal thing, and dreaded peace as bringing with it dangers to which they were not accustomed.

About the time that he left Poland the great musician Paderewski, the world’s most famous pianist, made the statement that it was necessary for Poland to maintain an army of 800,000

men because she dared not swell the ranks-' the unemployed by further demobilization, ':

Because of its geographical position Pola lays claim to being the barrier of civilizatiote: against the spread of bolshevism. There iifc3 enough truth in this so that as long as their nation puts up a warlike front against Russia^ whether necessary to maintain such a warlike front or not, it can confidently count on free" J food and free clothing for its army and income for the aristocrat officers who would otherwise have to go to work the same other people. The financiers of the world find^ it profitable to maintain a great Polish armjCS rather than brook a system which seeks theirj* elimination as governing factors. In the end?S it is the common people of other lands-are maintaining the army, anyway. There arthq ways of getting it out of them by legislation J drives and otherwise. ?

Peace as a Desideratum

POLAND has been made a barrier against i Russia, but is the last country in the worlds to make an effective one geographically; fotf 2 it has no natural frontiers. The country is & < vast plain, something like our Middle West/ paradise for agriculturists, but not for warriersc^ And as a real barrier thirty million people^ even though well armed, will hardly keep apart J sixty million Germans and a hundred and eighty million Russians if the Germans and.?? Russians really determine to get together.

Running a country as a war-making mashing has the natural effect of destroying in it eyery^ thing of beauty and of value. German Austrian Poland, when turned over to the Polish^ government, had 7,500 miles of State railways*! 1,800 miles of rivers navigable for 1,000-totf > boats, superb schools and universities, post» roads, civil and military buildings, and.teip* phone and telegraph Services. These desirable i things have not been extended and improved-^ upon; they have been restrained. Bridges have^j been neglected. The peasants have been re? *3 duced almost to starvation, living on: batk^ grass and acorns ground into flour; and this in -one of the most fertile spots on the globe. '

War does not tend to spiritualize people, all J the preachers of the world to the contraty'hot*^ withstanding; it tends to bestialize them. MpMC Israel Winebrom of York, Pa., arriving in -

August IB, 1923

- ’America just after one of the Polish wars, reported that a few miles out of Warsaw the train was held up and systematically robbed by Polish soldiers.

The soldiers have a hard time of it, too. In one of the campaigns a visitor reports that he had seen several trainloads of wounded soldiers return from the front. They came in box cars, sick, dead, and wounded lying on the floors unattended and amid stench and agony unspeakable. What is there “spiritual” in this?

War destroys the incentive to save. Warsaw has grown in a few years from 600,000 to 1,200,000 population; and here the money obtained from France, England and the United States is largely spent. Warsaw is a fine modern city, full of handsome stone buildings, wide, well-paved streets, gardens, and open squares filled with trees and plants. Its residents spend their money as they get it; a fair dinner costs about $1.50 in American money.

The Parliament has endeavored to do what it could to improve the condition of the peasants. A law has been passed, limiting the size of the landed estates. All the estates of the Czar and the Russian church have been confiscated. The forests, which constitute twenty percent of the country, have been nationalized. These are the things to which Poland needs to give attention, and not the affairs of her neighbors, except to be at peace with them. On account of the fertility of its soil, eighty-five percent of the whole area of Poland being arable, it has the densest population of the whole middle east of Europe, averaging two hundred for each square mile. Under a proper government it has tremendous possibilities.

Wars in the NorthLithuania

O THE north of Poland lies Lithuania, the little Baltic state which has Latvia on the

north, Russia on the east, Poland on the south, and Germany on the west. Lithuania is to Poland what Ireland is to Great Britain; it prefers its own separate government. There is a Lithuanian language as there is an Irish language; but as the Irishman prefers his own rule, even though he speaks the English language, so the Lithuanian prefers his own rule, even though he speaks Polish, as is often the case. There was a time, centuries ago, when the two countries lived under one Polish king;

-i

and both countries suffered alike under Rus- ? sian misrule later. -/

When Lithuania had its own separate government, generations ago, its capital was the principal city on the railway line from Warsaw to Petrograd. Its population is fibout half Jewish, with minorities of Lithuanians, 7 Poles and Ruthenians. It is the natural capital for Lithuania, and no other Lithuanian city would be so acceptable to the Lithuanians. The Jew’s of Vilna are friendly to the Protestant Lithuanians, from whom they have received ... kind treatment, and hostile to the Catholic Poles, from whom they have received much unkind treatment.

Now it happens that Vilna, if possessed by Poland, would give Poland a'corridor to Latvia, and make a wall that Russia must climb over to _ get in touch with Lithuania. And it also happens that Vilna was the birthplace of General Pilsudski, sometimes called its George Washington. And it still further happens that General Pilsudski, in the language of the New York Times, “is animated by vast personal ambition, . by immense and bitter hatred of Russia, and . by fervent patriotism of the narrow nationalist type, whose prime object is to extend the country's rule and power to the utmost limits, regardless of justice or even of possible conse- -qm-nces.” _

At SuvaJki, October 7, 1920, Polish and Lithuanian delegates agreed that Vilna and the ter- ’ ritory for forty miles to the south should re- J

main a neutral possession. On the same day the :

Polish General Zellgowski attacked Lithuanian ' troops with Polish regulars, and two days later < occupied Vilna. Since then the usual hypocriti- ' ; cal palaver has been had before that council of highwaymen known as the League of Nations. Everybody admits that Zellgowski acted ille- ; gaily; but all the same Poland keeps Vilna and > will keep it, and Lithuania has been despoiled of ever becoming a respectable country. The <

League of Nations has had the matter up before ’

it ten times; but the conclusions finally are that since Poland is in Vilna with a strong army and refuses to get out, the all-powerful League . of Nations can do nothing for Lithuania. At one time it did threaten to send an army, but failed to do so.

The League of Nations finally awarded Vilna ; to Poland, preferring to do an irreparable in-

justice to a small country rather than to offend its disobedient son. Of course the League of Nations promised to have the city restored to Lithuania, which of course they will never do, and of course the Lithuanians are angry clear through. They say now that they want Vilna back, and want to retain their independence; but in the event that this is impossible they say that they will turn en masse to Russia, Ger-- many, or any other country rather than Poland, Seeing Poland disobey the League of Nations and finally get its approval of the disobedient act, Lithuania soon did the same thing. It seized the port of Memel, which the Allies were expecting to make into a free port for the joint use of Germany, Poland and Lithuania. But the Allies at once sent warships and a thousand French soldiers to retake the port.

Over 50,000 soldiers of Lithuanian descent fought with American troops in the World War. These Lithuanians are demanding that something be done to curb Polish rapacity. They claim that when Polish troops invaded Vilna they imprisoned prominent citizens, closed newspapers, attacked high schools, placed teachers under arrest, and ejected the students from the schools and even from the orphanages. They also claim that the soldiers outraged seven women, among them two sisters thirteen and fifteen years of age, and killed seven Jews and two sons of a Russian priest. Russia has offered to mediate between Poland and Lithuania, but Poland has declined.

War in the South—Ukrainia

OLAND has had trouble with Czechoslovakia over the coal mines of Teschen, but

the dispute did not result in war. The Allies awarded the city of Teschen to Poland but gave the mines themselves to Czechoslovakia. They were already in Czechoslovakian hands, and the Czechoslovaks said that they intended to keep them, no matter what the League of Nations decided; so the League decided to let them keep them. But the decision was unacceptable to Poland, and is assigned as the reason why Poland refused to join the “Little Entente” of Czechoslovakia, Serbia, and Roumania, formed for their mutual protection against Russia.

Poland’s real war in the south was in what was once the extreme northeastern part of Austro-Hungary. This country, commonly called

Eastern Galicia, borders upon that portion of the Czar’s former dominions commonly callei ^ the Ukraine. Taken together, the Polish proVsv inces ol Galicia and the Russian provinces of . Volhynia, Podolia, and Ukraine constitute Ukrainia. The majority of the people in these four provinces speak the Ukrainian tongue. J The Allies promised them that their future status should be decided in accordance with the J wishes of the inhabitants; at the same time they practically told Poland that she could go as far ? as she liked in subjugating Eastern Galicia and 5* in bringing its citizens into the Polish Republie whether they cared to come or not. ’

So Poland entered upon a war of conquest. This was four years ago. A cigar maker, Simon Margulies, returning to New York in the fall of 1919, made the statement respecting this J campaign:

“Although everybody knows that the population/$£ Eastern Galicia is almost entirely Ukrainian, the Polefl / claimed all of the country and characterised Ukrainian soldiers as bands of robbers and murderers. No robbers and murderers could have been worse than the Poles.4 When the Poles entered Tamopol this jrear, they seized all the horses, cattle, and grain which they could find. i They even robbed the people whom they met of their i ehoes and clothing. Many a man was stopped on the roadway, and forced to divest himself of every bit 0/ his clothing and give it to the Polish soldiers. Even I, * an American citizen, w'as held up and robbed of my -clothing.” v

It is claimed that throughout the elections held-in Eastern Galicia force, fraud and forgery have been perpetrated against the Ukrainians; the educated have been put into prison, and great, : numbers of the common people confined in con- z centration camps which have no sanitation and ' < have become breeding grounds for epidemics;. the harvests have been seized and confiscated and the inhabitants, even the Polish population,, ** are deeply hostile to Polish rule. Eastern Galicia is the richest country in Central -1 Europe; it has extensive oil wells, and is a, key position to the interior of Russia. _ '

There came a time in the spring of 1920 when the Ukrainians, some of them, decided to break away from Russia; so they entered into a bar* " gain with Poland to invade Russian Ukrainia, with a view of conquering Volhynia, Podolia^ and the Ukraine, in return for which these - -Ukrainians would give up their claims on East-ern Galicia. The bait to engage in another war -

GOLDEN AGE 9lt

was alluring; so in the Poles went pellmell. The Poles reached Kiev, their objective, on the morning of May 8, 1920. Then the Russians got after them and chased them four hundred miles, almost to the doors of Warsaw, incidentally frightening the whole snivelized world into hysterics.

The Poles left Kiev in a panic and were in a continuous panic until midsummer, when the Bolshevist rush was stopped. But the effect upon Poland was to close largely one of the best markets for Polish goods. The Ukraine is a natural outlet for the products of Eastern Galicia; but trading between the two is now 'difficult, on account of the mutual suspicions on both sides of the border.

War in the East—Russia

T THE same time that Poland invaded the

Ukraine, with a view of gaining for the

Ukrainians a freedom from Soviet Russia which apparently few of them really sought, they also invaded White Ruthenia, on the ground that part of this area had onco belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, some 150 years ago, although it has been Russian ever since that time, and was not included by the Allies within the area the Poles might properly have.

The Russians considered this a wanton attack ; and the most capable military officers rallied to defend their fatherland, although, as the San Francisco Examiner remarked at the time, “the Russian people probably did more than any other great nation in history to avoid this war with the Poles, and even allowed the Polish armies to march two hundred miles into Russian territory and occupy it for months without making an armed resistance.”

The Russians made the mistake of moving upon Poland faster than their supplies could follow them; but by the middle of July the Poles, who sixty days before had been far into Russia, were being chased across their own country and were asking for an armistice.

On July 31, 1920, the New York World in its headlines told the situation in a nutshell: “Debacle of Poles is Pitiable Sight; Men in Wild Panic; Bolshevik Patrols are Fast Rounding Up Broken Fragments of Northern Armies ; Allies to Limit Terms that Poland may Accept; Munitions Being Rushed to Warsaw from All Sides; Hungary Would Mobilize.”

On August 7, 1920, the New York Times reported the Russian armies as only forty or fifty miles from Warsaw and a general exodus of the inhabitants under way. All outgoing tf ains were crowded to the limit, while the incoming Oriental Express from Paris had but five passengers aboard. Several of the legations' had already cleared out, and the remaining foreign representatives were expecting to go shortly.

On August 9, 1920, the Philadelphia Press reported a complete internal collapse in Poland, a military catastrophe; that three hundred deserting officers had been placed on trial and twenty-three of them executed; that the Polish government had ceased to coordinate, the finance ministry being the first to leave.

On August 14, 1920, the New York Times reported the Russian troops only twenty miles from Warsaw and advancing all along the line except in the extreme south; that the population of Warsaw was in a frenzy, and hundreds of refugees were fleeing they knew not where.

These despatches are sufficient to show that the great Polish army, despite its size, withered before the Russian advance. The advance was actually checked by a new army of 75,000 women, peasants armed with scythes, boy scouts, veterans of other wars, and a few of the regular troops, hastily raised by the Polish General Haller and the French Genetai Wey-gand. These were sufficient to break the greatly extended line of the Russians and compel a retreat. But this particular war, in which the Poles were the aggressors, leaves them nothing of which to boast. They had a narrow escape.

When the Russians were nearest Warsaw, they sent airplanes over the city and deluged the defending armies with literature stating that they were friends, not enemies, and urged the Poles to stop fighting where they had everything to lose and nothing to gain. The New York Times of July 30, 1920, commenting on this phase of the situation, acknowledged that' Bolshevist sentiment was shaking Poland, and that Warsaw might turn Soviet at any moment.

At the Peace Conference

T THE peace conference which followed this disastrous campaign the proposals which Russia put forward electrified the intelligent people of the world, those who were apprised of the fact through such newspapers as are not afraid to print the good that people do. These proposals were so different from what the Allies would have put forward, so much more' reasonable, and so much more sensible.

They began by reminding the Polish people that they had no wish to interfere in any way with Poland’s independence or liberties; that they did not wish any of the spoils which victors in wars are accustomed to claim, and which the Allies did claim from Germany; that as far as frontiers were concerned they were willing to give the Poles even more territory than had been allotted to them by the Allies, but that they did wish the Poles to stay on their own lands and to be peaceable, and to cease allowing themselves to be used as catspaws by the French bankers. To cap the climax, they served notice that unless the Poles would agree to an armistice within ten days, they would at once begin a winter campaign against them.

The Poles saw the logic of the situation, and peace was arranged. But so strong was General Pilsudski’s desire to reengage in another war with Russia the succeeding summer that he was saved from it only by the strong influence of others who have Poland’s real interests at heart.

In the latter part of last year, at the Moscow Disarmament Conference between Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Roumania, the Polish government stated that it could not reduce its army below 373,000 without the consent of its French advisers.

It is of the highest importance to Poland that it should be at peace with Russia, the natural market for everything Poland has to sell. Polish banks have always done the bulk of

Russia’s banking business, and Polish engineers have always managed Russia’s largest industrial enterprises. Even as it is, a considerable percentage’of Polish textiles finds its way into Russia through the hands of Jews and Ruthe-nians acting as middlemen.

War in the West—Germany

THE trouble between Poland and Germany has been largely over the Silesian coal fields, claimed by each of these countries as vital to their interests. The whole of Silesia was not brought into the argument; as ar whole it is estimated to be about seventy-five percent German population. There are parts of Silesia

where seventy-five percent of the populations are Poles; these were not excluded in the voting, which was to determine the future of Upper Silesia, so the Poles had an advantage. To qualify for a vote one must have lived in the < district since 1904. The vote resulted in a pro* t portion of sixty-one to thirty-nine in favor o£ , Germany and against Poland. J

those Polish the eighteen the war.

Before the

The Poles complain that the voting was un-r J fair, as the proprietors of the large estates in that section organized their workmen to vote aS they desired. It is said that of two hundred meetings planned by the Poles in Allenstem ^3 only forty were held without being broken up, and that during the final week before the voting the Poles wore unable to hold any meetings at all. The Poles also complain that they did not *3 have opportunity to return to Upper Silesia " 5 patriots forced out of Silesia in months of German terror after war Dr. Paul Weber, a German

statistician, estimated the Poles in Upper Silesia- >3 as fifty-eight percent in J 889 and fifty-three percent in 1910. Polish statisticians estimate-the Polish population in Upper Silesia at sixty* .J two percent. The Golden Age simply gives what data it has on this subject, without guar— ^|| anteeing accuracy.

Before the plebiscite was taken, German officials charged that Poland was mobiliaing 140, 000 troops with the intention of seizing the did* 3 trict, no matter what the plebiscite showed. 3 This charge was true; and its truth was admits ted months before the seizure by General Korv fanty, the officer entrusted with the seizure -andT’ later made a member of the Polish cabinet.

. ' • ■ ■ ■''••J*

At the time Korfanty’s troops seized the area it was under the care of the Allies, so that the ”5 seizure was virtually an act of war against*^ them. But without a doubt Korfanty was Jg merely obeying orders that had come to him,> in a roundabout way from France. \

British reports state that when the seizure | oc&irred, men and women were dragged from. bed, flogged and tortured, for having Germans under their roofs. Local companies of Germans 5 made some effort to protect their properties,-but desisted from defence when warned by the Allies that they must do so. The League of' Nations has awarded the bulk of Upper Silesia to Poland, despite the belief of England andk^

Avocst 15, 1923 QQU)EN AQE ™ '

■" Italy that Germany should have it so that she might meet her reparations payments and restore world trade to normal.

r. ' For the year 1923 Poland seems to have gotten along pretty well, except that it narrowly escaped conflicts with Danzig, the free city on < the Baltic which acts as its port of entry, and again with Russia through open encouragement of a.revolt by the Ruthenians against the Soviet administration. Marshal Foch advised the Poles to close their border against Danzig and i route their goods through some other port, if they cannot get along with the people of that , ‘ city, and to mind their own business as regards . Russian affairs. This is very sound advice.

The population of Danzig is largely German.

When the Russians were in contact with the Germans all along the north-central frontier of Poland in the summer of 1920 they showed the utmost friendliness to each other, although the Gormans would not allow them to cross the line, and fired at some of them when they endeavored to do so.

Poland's course with Germany would seem to be to retain .her good will, and not encourage her ill will. Poland now has several million Jews and others who would welcome a German government; for they can remember when under that government they were well fed, well clothed, business was good, prices were moderate, and there was quiet and comfort. Why be always on the warpath?

Reports From Foreign Correspondents

From Switzerland

loyd George wrote some time ago: “The confusion in the economical life of Central Europe is continually growing worse; everywhere the shivering insecurity increases.”

If 1922 was the year of fruitless, resultless world conferences, 1923 may be termed the year of complete stagnation.

If we look at it from a distance, it would seem as if all big politicians, big business concerns and big clergy would bo condemned to inactivity; and that they would stand like paralytics, helplessly watching the increasing dissolution. Nothing is moving onward or backward; everything stands perfectly7 quiet.

. The opposing elements of society have entrenched themselves, as did the soldiers during the war, so H at they cannot move. From the economical standpoint we see the conditions, too, so embroiled that the great men of this world do not dare any more to take any energetic measure. If they try to take one, then immediately there are serious dislocations discerned which they fear may be worse than the actual conditions. Therefore politicians prefer to keep matters as they are, although they concede that the continuation of such conditions will surely lead to a wreck.

But if, from our high tower of The Golden-Age, we consider more attentively the motion beneath in the bustle of worldly affairs, we must recognize that the stagnation is only an apparent one.

It has been generally conceded that 1922 produced nothing at all; that-it was found impossible to bridge over the chasms of disagreement, and that there will never be an agreement, either political or economical. Efforts to come to agreement have been virtually abandoned. •

A few optimists only cry for a world conference at which, in every case, the questions of war reparations and of the treaty of Versailles shall be revised, hoping that thereby every difficulty may be lifted. But others point to the endless conference at Lausanne about the Orient question, where the most extreme efforts of the mighty7 ones of earth did not succeed in arranging a satisfactory peace. Very evidently these diplomats are far from being able to solve the thousandfold, difficult European problems.

Because of this recognized inability to create orderly conditions we notice how, far at the back, there develops a feverish activity. What is the meaning of this activity7, of this intense recruiting, of this concentration of all energies in every camp?

Did the mighty ones recognize that there must be a thorough change in the leading of the people; and are they just now busy instructing the masses of the people, to prepare them for the incoming order of things? Not at all!

Quite the contrary! They hold more obstinately to their old principles and aims; and it seems that an iron determination animates them to try everything, so as to gain or to die. As the Reichskanzler Cuno said on this line on March 6th: "We shall go this way unto the end, even if it is a long and difficult one/' Otherwise stated, they prefer to come to an extremity rather than to lose their positions, as the well-known English leader of the railway workers, Thomas, said: “We know we go to the precipice, but we go not alone." ences. They demand the most extreme conc.ei>y^ tration of all forces for the last and demsiv^^ battle.

The clergy, too, does not make any exception, \|| Everywhere we see it in the first ranks of the Jg| armies of the wealthy classes, and specially dp - 3 we see the Catholic church coming to the front' 'S| as chief factor, developing an intense and un*-expected energy.

Dostojcwsky puts in the “Grossinquisitor” these significant words into the mouth of the Catholic church: <

Or, as Trotsky said a few days ago at a demonstration against England, according to No. 105 of the Iswestija:

"In case we come to it, the war will be for life or death; therefore doos Russia wish that This cup’ may-pass away until Soviet Russia shall be sufficiently armed and prepared, and then shall it begin the war itself.”

It seems to be the chief activity of most of the party leaders of the present time to influence the great masses of the flock. The masses of faithful followers are being always better organized and instructed—for what? For the great and final conflict, which the Scriptures also foresaw long centuries ago, and which they designate, in order to show the difference between it and all other former battles of national kind, as the greatest fight of classes, the Battle of Armageddon.

And really there is no doubt that if we exam-

ine more strictly the actual conditions in the world, we must recognize that all classes and groups of interests are preparing designedly and systematically for this mighty final fight. We do not know whether they hope to be victorious ; but certainly they seem to be entirely dominated by the thought that the best thing to do is to put all the cards into the game, in order to obtain a decisive result, as there seems to be no possibility of peaceable settlement.

Fascism and Bolshevism have therefore, under such conditions, the very best prospects of flourishing; and more and more is humanity divided into these two mighty parties. The intermedia! elements, which still speak words of warning and preach reconciliation, are termed pernicious individuals, without principles, who

-prejudice the courage of the attacking troops. The opposing forces want no more confer-

"I will gather again the Hock, I will quiet it, and this will I do from now and forever. ... - 3

"They will gaze at us, and fear us, and yet be proud of us, because we are so mighty and. wise, and because 4 we were able to tame the revolutionary flock. ... '3

"/Vo shall absolve them, because they are weak and miserable; and they will love us like children, if we allow them to sin.”

But the effort of the church to bring the tumultuous and discontented masses of people 7^ under its dominion will very soon prove to be a failure; and the church itself shall fall in the £ great final conflict, according to the clear witness of the Scriptures. |

Don Sturzo, Secretary of the Catholic popu-lar party of Italy, has in view to create a big “Catholic Internationale" as a counterbalance against the “Socialistic Internationale"; and for this purpose he treats also with the leaders j of the “Christian Socialists." They first of all think of a cooperation of the “Popolarie" of Italy (Catholic popular party), of the German “Zentrum,” and of the Austrian “Christlich-, sozialen Partci.”

The events in the world develop, as we can ' .J see, in the lines pointed out, exactly as the prophets of God foretold it. J

With giant strides we are rushing toward | the battle of Armageddon, and today we are j able to assure with certainty that this gigantic 3 and final conflict will be the birthday of the\J new order of things—the Golden Age.

“For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Yet once* it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens [the ecclesiastical conditions], and the earth, [the social order], and the sea [discontented mob], and the dry land [the wealthy class];-and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come."—Haggai 2:6,7.

From Canada

WHILE the saying that "an army travels on its stomach” cannot be taken literally, it expresses crudely a fundamental truth. Nations travel upon wealth produced primarily from the land; and it is possible to travel wisely and unwisely, depending to a great extent on the ability and character of those in control of national affairs.

" Canada, of course, is mainly an agricultural country, its extensive grain fields being the heart of its national life and prosperity. The following from the Free Press Prairie Farmer expresses a principle which would well apply to the basic industry of any country. Under the heading, “Canada's One Outstanding Industry; Why Not Help It Along,” it says:

. "Has Canada one outstanding industry? She has. What line of manufacturing is it ? It isn’t manufacturing at all; it is fanning.

"Are there figures to substantiate this? There are. You can find them in a government blue book.

’ "What is the total amount invested in agriculture? In 1931 it was placed at $6,832,000,000.

"How does that compare with the money invested in other industries? Leaving out the railways it is as large as the capital in all other industries put together. ‘ "Then if the farming industry were being encouraged and were doing well in Canada, the country would be increasing in wealth and business would be good generally and employment provided for everybody? It would. Even a fool could see that.

“But do the men we elect to Parliament see it? That’s often the question.

“Then what sort of men are they? Now you’ve asked something.”

With cheap land, long hours of labor, big shipments of grain and cattle, and ninety percent of the farms mortgaged to the hilt, the farmers are beginning to wake up and to say that something is wrong. They have investigated freight rates—water and rail, government price control, the milling industry, the bank act, credit restrictions (at times vital to the farmer), machinery combines, and the everlasting tariff wall (the price of big business) the lowering of which has been the hoary promise of the professional politician for many decades. The farmer now declares loudly that he has been flim-flammed long enough.

Seeing the writing on the wall, the moneyed interests have endeavored through a corrupt press to keep farmer and labor apart, to keep them lighting one another. This has failed, as the evidence proved that both were being robbed by the same astute and relentless enemy — a combination of financial and political power. Joint action by farmer and labor is in evidence everywhere. This fact makes unnecessary the quoting of much statistical evidence proving that the great majority of the country, made up from these two classes, have a common grievance expressed in their slogan: “Production for use and not for profit.”

Those who own the money and the factories desire “production for profit.” It is to their interests to get as large a margin of profit in a foreign market as is possible in competition with other countries; hence the organized effort to secure earth's products at a low price through credit restrictions and low wages.

The following from the Toronto Star, June 7, is self-explanatory:

"The plight of the Canadian farmer was pointed out to the. Toronto Methodist Conference today by Rev. S. W. Dean, in his report on the financial department of the church. ‘The basic industry of our country— agriculture—suffers serious handicap/ he said. The farmer is computed by the dominion department of labor to be receiving for what he sells only 10^% more than in 1914, while he now has to pay 112% more for what he buys than he did then? ”

That the farmer no longer expects the church systems to champion his cause, is evidenced by the further statement that “there were 1,200 preaching places without churches, and 300 circuits yet without parsons.”

When the people see how the surplus wealth of their country has been poured out, and is being poured out to further enslave them, we think drastic reforms will be in order.

The Moose Jaw Evening Times, May 25, 1923, in its editorial puts its finger on the visible source of the trouble:

“The fact that the increase in the National Debt this year was $49,000,000, as compared with $81,000,000, for the previous year, proves that the Government has accomplished a great deal by way of putting a stop to the war spirit and war attitude towards expenditures. But satisfaction to this fact is liable to cloud the vision,, to the other fact that $49,000,000 has been added to the National Debt upon -which interest has to bp paid to the amount of approximately $2,500,000 a year.”

To get a better view of the trouble, however, we must look at the matter in an international way, and note the other nations are doing the very same thing.

The fruits of the labors of the farmer, the hired man, and the factory hand are being taken by heavy taxation for the purpose of paying off the heavy bonded indebtedness incurred during the last great war as well as to build up the material and man power for future wars when the same toilers or their sons will be called out to destroy one another because Big Business so decrees.

The Annual Report of the Department of Labor shows loss of trade-union membership as follows:

“During the three-year period from 1920-22, decline tn trade-union membership in Canada, 101,425, the loss in the last calendar year being 156 in branches, and 36,699 in members.”

The recent efforts of labor to better conditions resulted in failure and consequent loss of their union funds, and a measure of dishearten-ment. The foe was too well entrenched and organized, and the result is that a large number of workers despair of getting redress by constitutional means. This condition should be noted by the “powers that be,” instead of inwardly rejoicing at a surface victory.

Unfortunately in this hour of stress our great church systems, Catholic and Protestant, offer no panacea or even anything to alleviate conditions. The Protestant systems like an army taken by surprise are in great confusion, absolutely oblivious to anything but efforts toward church union—recrimination, mutual distrust, selfish striving, is the order of the day. But notwithstanding some spirited opposition by about one-third of the delegates it looks as though union would be consummated by the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists.

Instead of being occupied in giving out the gospel message to the people, they are on the defensive, even seeking to justify their existence in the eyes of the people.

We might multiply quotations from the Canadian Press to prove the point, such as:

“ ‘The working man has a grievance with the Church/ said Rev. G. Dickson, . . . ‘these men are at the Church door demanding an explanation. We must open the door and let them in for a consultation. What

will happen when that takes place?’”—Manitoba FfM, ~ Press, May 9, 1923.

Reference to a “non-church goers union” at* ; Newbury, Ontario, was made by Reverend C. D. Farquarson of that town, in discussing church attendance at the closing day’s session of the Congress of Social Service Council of Ontario:"

“ T have been invited, and have attended, a meeting of the Union,’ he said. ‘Discussion was quite frank , . . they charged us with all kinds of falsehoods. One man said we were old fogies. So we are/ added the speaker frankly.”—-Edmonton Journal, May 10, 1923.

According to the Nelson Daily News, Arch* *'-pa bishop Du Vernet, addressing the triennial session of the provincial Anglican synod, states:

“If we are to justify our existence as the Anglican Church, organized to function in this province as one united body, we must cooperate more as a provincial unit, with other corresponding church units, to bring _?J| the influence of a united religious force to bear upon' the provincial government in matters pertaining to the social and moral welfare of the people of this province. United we stand; divided we fall,”

The papers are flooded with accounts of heal-jag campaigns which seem to be very well at- U| tended, though no doubt many go from curiosity. A climax to the various “healings” by Rev. Chas. S. Price, in the Vancouver Arena, ia found in the Vancouver Sun, June 2, 1923:

“Rev. R. Edwards dies at Sanitarium of violent overexcitement. He came to Vancouver as a minister deeply * interested in this evangelistic campaign to witness and —jl study the conversions and healings reported' to be brought about under Mr. Price’s ministry. He was ; profoundly impressed, and went before Mr. Price, on the Arena platform to be healed of the conditions which , impaired his general good health. He was anointed by» Mr. Price, and he collapsed on the platform. He stated afterwards that he did not lose complete consciousness, but he did not know that he had fallen down. It was -apparent to his friends who saw him that he cama under some powerful psychic influence. In a few ~ moments he came around, and he stated that he Was healed. He was absolutely sincere, and was moved to a

high pitch of religious fervor by his experience. Under the impulse of this suggestion he attended all ofrthe Price meetings and took an active part- He was most enthusiastic and was quite carried away. As a result 3 he overtaxed his strength, and a week ago last Tuesday suffered a complete nervous breakdown. He became daily worse, and was taken to Dr. McKay’s sanatorium, where he died on Wednesday morning/* _

China and Her People—In Four Parts (Part Two)

CHINESE habits and customs make interesting study. Many of these are childlike and simple; others are gruesome and hardly understandable to the Western mind. The Chinese have happy natures. “Instinctive happiness, quiet dignity, patience, and pacific temper, dependence on justice rather than force, and love of wisdom for its own sake,” is said of them. These are values which a world bent on mutual destruction through the application of the science of war.can ill afford to ignore. China needs our sympathy and all the assistance we can give her, not for the money it will bring the benefactors but for the blessings it will bestow upon humanity. In the past the Chinese men and women have dressed alike; and to many they have looked alike. Their jewelry is distinctively their own; they wear jade principally, and a great deal of gold; they are as much addicted to diamonds as are Americans, and one frequently sees a pretty Chinese girl with barbaric jade ornaments in her ears and the conventional blazing on her fingers.

The Chinese have deep and shallow wells, like other countries; but they draw the water with closely woven baskets and empty the contents into heavy wooden buckets, which, two in number, swung across the shoulders, they carry on bamboo poles. For sprinkling they use a basket fastened to a long pole of the same kind.

Much has been said by the missionaries about the Chinese women bumping their heads upon the rocks and causing severe headaches, about the mothers throwing girl babies into the rivers, etc.; but the facts do not seem to warrant such z exaggeration. And for years they have been getting away from the terrible practice of encasing their feet in small shoes. of filters and strainers. But thanks to the Chinese for getting the sensible notion of cutting off his pig-tails some time before this. A firm in Houston, Texas, bought up these queues; and when goat-hair and camel-hair became short Chinese hair was thrown on the market, and 800,000 pounds were disposed of, representing the hair of 2,400,000 heads, or nineteen carloads.

For hundreds of miles along the Wall the people are quite poor, eking out an existence from the stony ground with great difficulty. Unable to own a donkey, they often harness themselves to the crude implements of agriculture. Yet honest, smiling faces greet the traveler along the way. Little children gather wild flowers for the stranger; adults toiling in the fields will stop and politely and gladly prepare a bowl of rice for the hungry, ofttimes imposing their kindness upon the traveler.

There is not only the large, peaked coolie hat, used as a protection against heat, but other hats which are emblematic of rank. For instance, t£o social position of the Manchu woman can always be determined by the ornaments on her bonnet, often consisting of precious jewels. These hats are said to range in price from a few dollars up to $10,000 each.

Most of the tea made in our country is like lye. The Chinese know how to make tea. It is light amber in color—a “nectar with an intoxicating fragrance, half aromatic, half like the meadows in June, combining the freshness of spring with the beauty of summer sunshine robbed of its dust and heat?' Now, if you do not take your next meal at a Chop Suey, we’d like to know the reason why.

The Queues are Gone

CARTOONISTS habitually picture the Chinese as wearing queues. This was never a Chinese institution, and they no longer wear them. The queue was ordered to be worn by the Manchu dynasty as a symbol of submission to the reigning monarch. When the Manchus were overthrown, the first thing to go was the ■ bated queue, Chinese by the thousands being publicly sheared daily while bands were playing.

Prior to the World War camel-hair and goathair were imported from Europe for the making

Chop Sticks and Chop Suey

MANY" have wondered at the Chinese use of the chop stick, or “kwei-tsze,” as it is called. Many centuries ago they used metal forks, like other civilized people, but a really ' bright physician among them discovered that contact with metal mars the delicate flavor of many a dish; and finding it hard to make forks of bamboo, they did the next best thing. Besides, the use of forks hastens the process of taking food, while the chop sticks necessitate the gathering of food in smaller quantities, thus enabling the cater to finger over the flavor of the dish, much to the benefit of his digestion.

J!

One of the popular Chinese dishes in this country is chop suey, which means “mixed fry.” It is simple enough to make: Peanut oil is poured into a deep frying pan, where it is heated until it smokes. Then chopped celery, onions, various kinds of meat, sprouted beans, and other vegetables according to taste are added, as well as salt and seasoning. Cornstarch is used to add nutritive value, with a dash of syrup and of soy bean sauce for extra flavoring. Prolonged simmering over a slow fire makes the dish very easy to digest. The same process—chopping up the ingredients and cooking them over a slow fire—is used with practically every Chinese dish. Those who eat Chinese food rarely suffer from digestional or intestinal troubles.

The foreigner in China must transport himself and goods with the Chinese means of locomotion. The usual journey is made by rickshaw or on pony-back. The trunks, bedding, food, etc., precede, piled on donkey carts and covered by large tarpaulins. The donkeys jangle the bells hanging around their necks, as their tiny hoofs patter over the dusty roads. The drivers doze and sleep, and stop along the way to drink fheir cups of tea and to chatter over the rice or macaroni bowls.

Fashion’s Capricious Whims

DEALING with the most conservative people in the world, it has been next to impossible to push the Paris nonsense into the minds of the Oriental women. It has been customary for the Chinese women to change their style of dress about once in every ten or twenty years. But now impressing the Western idea of civilization of changing the style at least once a year, blossoming out at Easter in the fastidious crazes of the French modemakers, is the business of the foreign merchant. Part of the education now is to teach these simple folk the vanity of new duds and to get them to ape the American woman; and it is not unusual to see their little feet in French slippers, with high heels.

The Chinese enter into many activities of the American business life. Perhaps the poorer classes take to the laundry business, eating, si.,-eping and working in their shops; and often

Btooutir/M ®

it is claimed they work nearly the whole of the twenty-four hours in a day.

They love fireworks. On arriving at a ChL nese temple, the worshiper is given some fireworks to explode, presumably to put the god into good humor. On the Chinese New Year the entire night is spent by the household in sending off skyrockets and making every imaginable noisy display. However old, disgruntled, and out of sorts the Chinese may be, he enjoys these occasions. This celebration resembles our Christmas and Fourth of July in combination —everybody buys fireworks and toys.

The Chinese have a great liking for games of skill. Their chessboard has 256 squares, and. the game they play is quite complicated. They have simpler games, and often play for money. Since the smoking of opium has been tabooed and largely overcome, gambling may be said to be their chief vice. In their idle moments they congregate in convenient places along a stone wall to smoke cigarettes, making a holiday of it, forgetting their troubles, and talk and laugh and have what is thought to be a good time. They probably get more out of life, from the mere pittance upon which they exist, than any other people could possibly get. '

Think of the inconceivably happy lot that shall be theirs when the Lord’s kingdom is established upon the earth with plenty to eat, plenty to wear, with a good home, with laborsaving devices equitably distributed for the benefit of all, with nothing to molest nor make afraid, when wars and exploitation shall have ceased, when there shall be no sickness, pain or sorrow anywhere, with the prospects of living forever filling their hearts with gratitude, and of seeing the return of their ancestry, for whom they have always had such reverence!

"i

What the Traveler Sees

WHAT strikes many travelers in the Orient

is the ordered leisure of the Chinese, aa compared with the rustling, bustling rush here. This does not mean that the Chinese live a life of inertia; for often it is one of deep contemplation and meditation. But it does mean Ion- ‘ gevity for them, minds untorn by the roar of traffic, hearts more at ease from business pressure, and nerves less tense—a thorough easygoingness which unquestionably shall obtain under the peaceful administration of the King'

1 'I

■s

of kings and Lord of lords, when the necessity , for such devitalizing bustle is relegated to the memories of the past.

A traveler sees little mud houses, high plaster walls, pagodas and palace roofs, long lines of camels with their burdens, heavy woodenwheeled carts with prairie schooner matting covers, flocks of long-haired goats, a great variety of domestic animals, and often wild beasts. There are long avenues of cypress trees, walls made of blue and yellow tile and carved dragons, arches, swinging windbells, marble bridges, pools for water fowl, stone-paved courts filled with roses, monasteries with gongs; and the sun and the moon shine the same in China as here.

There are large families in China; and while the housewife has a sort of humdrum experience she is proud of her boys and girls. But she drifts with the tide, never questioning, acquiesces to the age-old order of things, and takes things as they are as the basic principle of her existence.

The Chinese make perfect hosts and hostesses. They retain their fine spirit of hospitality that seems to belong to another age. They have poise and grace, and a guest is considered above all things. They have a graciousness which is sadly lacking today in the United States. They are fond of gayety, but retain ztheir inherent dignity. They do not want intrusion; but they are interested in you, if you are from the outside world.

Courtship and Marriage

BEAT and beneficial has become the change in the matrimonial customs. Formerly it

was the rule for parents to sell their daughters or to wish them off onto the prospective husband, even though he were a total stranger, as far as the girl was concerned. Few girls will now wed a person with whom they are unacquainted, and much less will they consent to concubinage. Very many of the families are becoming conservative, and encourage the damsels to marry only those suitable and pleasing to the damsel herself. Instead of reverencing the slow moving of their parents to the inevitable change the daughters take the “law” into their own hands and elope with their heart’s choice. May we not suppose that they in this, too, are copying their White sisters? As the young girls become educated and more and more in a position to assert their rights as to the choice of life-partners, let us hope that a high regard for virtue will come with it, so that polygamy and immorality shall become unknown among them.

There is a difference of opinion as to whether baby girls are still sold in China. Yet in 1920 there sprang up a demand, and ten dollars each was the price paid. Sometimes the sale of a Chinese girl would be consummated in this country among her own people. Seven hundred dollars was the price paid for a twelve-year-old girl not very long ago. She was dressed in long clothing, and sold by her foster mother to a rich restaurant proprietor. This was aired before the Supreme Court, and the judge annulled the marriage.

A noted Chinese editor has this to say about marriage in China:

"The Chinese cupid is a most philosophical imp. Love with us is not the greatest thing in the world. Love is a delusion, an intoxication, a mirage, the product of a deluded brain. It is a disease, a most contagious, deadly disease, a kind of 'dementia Americana? It is a pathetic malady, turning the strongest head and making the wisest man a fool. When a man is under its spell, he acts in the most idiotic way and performs all sorts of antics which he will utterly ^pnounce and repudiate when he is free from its hypnotic influence.”

We must remember this is a Chinese view, and a base and God-dishonoring view. If this editor got his ideas from the infidelity or misconduct practised in America, then shame to the White trash that caused it. Conjugality, love of home, love of children, conservation of life and property, is a normal condition. Marriage is a sacred institution and should be hallowed, and its purity protected. Some wives are held in such low regard that they are little above a cheap substitute for a harlot, reducing the legal companionship to one of debasement and slavery. The world today has largely lost its conception of the sacredness of the marriage tie, and herein lies the secret of the immorality outrunning the progress of the age. Debauch the mother, lower her ideals, take away her refinement, refuse her devotion and respect, and foster a system which takes away her purity—by bringing her into politics, usurping the functions of manhood, and letting her smoke cigarettes—and the nation that does these

B&txnanr*

things is dead. It is but a question of time when it will sink into the cesspool of licentiousness, and then slide into oblivion. Marriage with the Chinese may, as with some others, be merely a matter of business. Perhaps this is the reason why they sell their little girls, and why many of them live such lives of shame.

Liin Tsuie was a Chinese slave girl. She was kidnaped by bandits in Kwong Tung and sold for $25 to a woman in Canton, who kept her as a servant girl until she was fifteen years of age. Then she was sold for $100 to a dealer in slave girls, who later sold her for $200 to a “rich man” in San Francisco, who smuggled her into America as his wife. Then again she was sold, this time for $3,600. In telling her story she said that a Buddhist priest in San Francisco’s Chinatown had a part ownership in her during a period of six years in which she brought in $18,000 to her masters.

…