Golden Age, December 5, 1923
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THE PEOPLE
WITH ROOTS
ITEMS ON ACCIDENTS
EDUCATION
AND SALVATION
Canada, andJoreurn Countries $
FEDERAL RESERVE BANDITRY
OLD
WORLD
DYING
VbL V BiAVeeldy
December 5» 1923
a Journal of fact Kope and courage
NEV
WORLD BEGINNING
Contents of the Golden Age
Social and educational Some Items on Accidents
The Deadly Antomobik*
Hallway Accidents li< du* - d
Accidents nt Home
Accidents In Mines
Danger from Machines
Prevention of Accidents
Seculab Education as a Path to sti.v.ui'E-
A Few Slips . .
Finance—( ■ommfjdt.-— Transportation The Federal Reserve Bamhtry
J low the Trick is Worked
Federal Reserve’s Precarious CoiiUdem
After the Storm (Poem)
Political—Domestic and Foreign Making Church Members
An Open Letter to Mr. Edward Buk
Science and Invention Tue People with Roots
Some Harmful Plants
Some New Friends
Earth’s Real Travelers
Flying at Great Altitude
Jesus’ Return Birdliko
Travel and Mi-scellany Preacher and Jack-Rabbits
Religion and Philosophy Thanksgiving (Poem)
A Reporter Attends a “Harp” Study...... ....
Pastor Russell’s First P>ook—In Three Parts (Fait ill) . . . . 131
Presence of Christ before Rapture of Church
The Kingdom of God
“I Say unto AU, Watch”
Studies in “The Habu of God'*
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Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, J». Y.. under the Act of .March 3, 1878
The Golden Age
Volume V Brooklyn, N. Y„ Wednesday, Decembers, 1923 Nam bar lit
Some Items
SHORT time ago a railway companion was discussing the fact that the automobile is now responsible for the greatest number of accidents of any one thing in the whole category of casualties, and made the remark, “I wish to live. I have two automobiles at home, and from what I have personally seen within the past few weeks I have decided that the only sane course for me to pursue is to sell my cars and keep off the highways as much as I can.”
Based upon available statistics, if you are to meet with an accident of any kind you have one chance today of being hurt in some way by an automobile and only three chances of injury by any other means. If you are to be hurt by an automobile you have one chance of being hurt by collision of the machine to three chances of injury by the automobile in any other way. Next in order are cranking the machine, where the chances are one to four; repairing the machine, one to five; skidding, ditching, or overturning, one to nine; entering or leaving the garage, one to nine; struck by automobile, one to eleven. It thus seems that it is eleven times safer not to have an automobile than it is to have one. The traveler above quoted was right.
The Deadly Automobile
IN THE foregoing statement collisions are grouped together. We have not the figures for collisions of automobiles with each other, although we witness them frequently; and they are many. But the figures for collisions with locomotives are at hand and show that by this means 8,101 were killed at grade crossings in America in the past five years and 24,208 were injured. In the last three months of 1922, 517 persons were thus killed and 1,710 were injured.
Some of the causes of automobile accidents •re collision with elevated railroad pillars, poles, trees and hydrants; boarding or alight-mg while the automobile is in motion; vehicle
on Accidents
with no chains skidding on slippery street; running up sidewalks; struck while making repairs on streets; vehicle backing up suddenly; material falling from trucks; view obstructed while crossing streets by bundles carried; sitting on curb and hit by mud guards; stepping from behind elevated railroad pillars into path of vehicle; disobeying traffic officer at crossing; driving on wrong side of street; disobeying signal at crossing; headlight glare; running car in air-tight garage, thus exhausting oxygen; bee sting, dust, gnats or bugs in eye, and involuntary sleep or other cause depriving operator of control of car.
Besides the situations that result in accident there are thousands of cases where accident is averted by a margin so narrow as to seem little short of miraculous. The most interesting case of this kind that has come to our notice is that of Mr. and Mrs. Allen Wallace, of New York, who were out driving the coupe along the Grand Concourse bridge in the Bronx. An autobus ran into them in the rear and knocked the car through an iron fence. In an instant the car was suspended in a network of electric wires where the occupants were in danger of electrocution. A second later it turned a complete somersault and fell twenty-five feet, landing right side up with all four wheels on the ground, but on the tracks directly in front of a speeding electric car. The motorman jammed on the brakes, and in another instant Mr. and Mrs. Wallace stepped from their car unharmed. They had escaped death twice by collision and once each by falling and by electrocution, all within a few seconds.
Nobody is Safe
RESS items which give us some idea of the war which the automobile is waging against humanity are that in the year 1922 the auto deaths exceeded twelve thousand. New York
was first with 849; Chicago second with 736; Los Angeles third with 321. Ninety-one children were killed on the streets of Detroit. Besides the number killed there was an army of 325,000 injured. One car in each thirty-two injured somebody during the year.
For pedestrians the only measurably safe course is always to cross at a corner and to look in each of the four directions before crossing a street, or else wait until the traffic has been stopped.
Many accidents result from the improper loading of trucks. The tendency is to load the trucks to their utmost capacity and then add a little more. The loads are often piled insecurely; and when the trucks have been jolted around a little, some of the load falls off. In the loading of a truck the heaviest articles should always be placed at the bottom; and when unloading the articles should be removed from the top downward, to avoid the crushing of hands or feet.
Children are killed by trucks on the streets of New York every day. Loads which have no place on the highways at any speed are taken over them at railroad speed. The danger from automobiles even extends to some extent into the home itself. In New York, in one instance within the past few months, a car ran wild, climbed a porch, and killed a baby in its cradle.
Avenues of Death
FOR at least a million children in New York city there is no place to play except the street. Always a dangerous substitute for a playground, the public streets are now avenues of death. Driving rapidly in a taxicab through one of these streets, many of them occupied by scores of little folks playing unconcernedly in and among the vehicles, one cannot wonder that so many of them are slain or crippled for life. The stealing of rides on vehicles continues to be a fruitful cause of accidents to children.
Both children and adults are killed by the hundred because they try to cross the streets at some other point than the street intersection. This practice, called “jay-walking” in New York, resulted in the injury of 6,168 persons during the year 1922. In a single month the police of New York warned 8,000 persons of the danger which they were incurring in thus crossing the streets except at the authorized places.
But no blame that can be laid upon the fre- iCv quenters of the streets can absolve automobil- ! ists from the accidents for which they are responsible. No person has any moral right to ; traverse the streets of a city at such a speed that if some person aside from himself makes a slight miscalculation it may result in his death. Yet there are thousands of drivers, and their ranks are being added to daily, that take chances—chances with the lives of others and with their own.
Some of the accidents are caused by defective vision. Near-sighted people cannot see at a distance without glasses, and far-sighted people cannot judge nearby distances with sufficient accuracy to prevent accidents.
New York has adopted a plan of ringing bells and blowing whistles at 2:59 p. m., as a warning to truck, taxicab and automobile drivers to be careful; for 1,200,000 pupils are going home from school.
Railway Accidents Reduced —
IT IS with a measure of relief that we turn ■ from the ever-increasing list of automobile accidents to consider the encouraging fact that in America the danger on railroads is now less than one-third of what it was in 1889. In the thirty-four years in which accident figures have been tabulated there has been a gradual improvement, the most recent years being the safest of all. In 1920 one person was killed to each 5,673,000 carried.
The operation of the 250,000 miles of American railroads in 1921 resulted in the accidental death of 5,587 persons and the injury of 43,324. The operation of the 50,000 miles of British railways resulted in 20,285 accidents of all kinds during the same year. In the same year also only four passengers were killed on Canadian railways out of a total of 51,318,422 carried. It has been observed in America that since prohibition went into effect the number of railway accidents has been greatly reduced.
The human factor enters largely into rail- ;
road accidents. A tower-man does his work j
with unfailing accuracy for twenty-four years;
not a serious error is chargeable to him. He I reaches the age of sixty-eight. He supposes that he is as well able to do the work as ever;
his employers suppose the same. He throws
the switch against the midnight flyer between - Philadelphia and Atlantic City, causing it to be
ditched with the loss of seven lives. How could the railroad company know when to retire this always faithful servant! Who can answer!
" It is evident that for a long time to come
there must be numberless accidents on highways and railways, unless the speed is greatly ' reduced. Probably one of the early steps which
the Lord will take in His control of earth's ( affairs in the near future will be to lessen
i C speeds of vehicles to a point where they will still serve all human needs without risking human life.
No doubt also many railways and highways will be relocated, or partially so, to remove their da tiger points. Modern methods of excavation and •‘on.structiOTi would enable many railroad ■ lines to be straightened and greatly improved
frnni every point of view, if only the incubus of ’lie necessity for profit could be removed . even temporarily and it was necessary merely
to consult the interests of the public. All this will surely be done; and then the old road beds can be used for automobile traffic.
Haste is responsible for many accidents about railways. Cars must be unloaded immediately upon receipt, so as to save demurrage charges; and the work of unloading is frequently done when the men are fatigued and the light is poor. These conditions make for error of judgment, . and error of judgment causes accidents.
Municipal Railways
New York City has occasional railroad accidents of a different nature from those found elsewhere. Once in a while an elevated train, or part of it, goes off the structure into the street thirty feet below. Almost every elevated accident results in several deaths.
C In one instance, years ago, the trains became stalled between stations, and several persons started to walk the tracks to the nearest station. A train started suddenly; and a boy's body, projecting from the aide of the train, where he had caught on, swept seven persons te their death, plunging them into the street below.
More frequently there is a subway accident, and the wonder is that there are not more. One that has never been in a subway jam during the rush hours can form no adequate idea of the
hurrying, struggling, pushing mass of humanity, all seeking to get home at the same time.
Joseph Gallo and his wife were caught in such a subway jam when they arrived in New York on the way from their ranch in the West to visit friends in Czecho-Slovakia. After the wife had boarded the train, the doors were suddenly closed in front of Joseph. Poor man, he did not know that the only thing he could do was to take the next train and then, not finding his companion, to report the matter to the police. So he started to race on foot after the train, and wandered about in the tunnels for hours, dodging trains and in imminent danger of electrocution. Meantime his poor wife, alarmed and distressed, after having tried in vain for several hours to locate her faithful mate, broke down and was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she died of fright.
The subway is the safest railroad in the world; but it has its tragedies, all due to haste. Moreover, the haste seems necessary, for the people must get home; and how the difficulty is to be rectified at this time does not just now appear. More subways would help, and are being built
Accidents at Home
SOME years ago it was figured out by a genius with a penchant for figures that a man stands more chances of being killed in his own home by some unlooked-for accident than he does of being killed while a passenger on a railroad train. This is probably true. On the railway train the engineer and the fireman are equally interested with the passengers in saving their own lives. In the home many unexpected accidents may occur, and there are causes of danger not found aboard trains.
An analysis of 373 accidents at home shows 44 injured while working around the barn; 42 slipped on lawn, steps, porch or boards; 39 cut on bottles or sharp instruments; 29 fell on stairs; 24 using hand tools; 22 slipped on rug or floor; 18 ran into beds, bureaus, doors, etc.; 14 hit by falling objects; 13 by lifting and moving articles; 11 scalded or burned while cooking or cleaning; 8 cutting corns or nails; 8 fell from ladders, trees or windows; 7 bitten by pet animals; 7 poisoned or infected by insect bites; 6 burned while lighting cigar; 6 fell from chairs or tables or upon getting in or out of bed; 4
carrying children; 4 finger caught in door or window; 3 slipped in hath-tub; 33 unclassified.
Numerous home accidents are due to gas leaks. In New York city, during the first ten months of the year, 2S2 persons were killed by gas leaks. Occasionally the fumes from a gas-heaxcr kill a whole family. In one instance a cat turned on the gas, and killed itself and a child.
There are a number of deaths due to electric shock. A man steps into a wet cellar, the water in which has been charged by an electric wire; or he attempts to turn the electric lights on or off while standing in a bath-tub. Many persons do not know the danger attached to touching an electric light fixture, especially with wet hands, when they are at the same time standing or sitting in a tub of water.
Occasionally what looks like a terrible home accident turns out differently from what was expected. In New York, Mrs. Veechio saw her baby fall from the fourth-floor fire-escape of their home. She ran screaming into the yard, expecting to find the child dead, but found it unharmed, bouncing up and down and enjoying itself in the pillows of a baby carriage into which it had fallen.
Occupational Accidents
NEXT to what may be called public accidents, the largest number of accidents are those connected with occupations. In a single yer.r in New York state the accidents to children under eighteen, sufficiently serious to keep them away from work at least two weeks, were 1,983. The accident hazard with youthful workers is greater than that with the mature; for children are by nature more irresponsible, careless and curious.
In a single year, in the country as a whole, twenty-three persons were killed at their employment and three million injured. Five out of every hundred persons employed, every year sustain injury of some sort.
A study of the nature of the accidents reveals the fact that twenty-five percent were caused by machinery, twenty percent by some flying object, thirteen percent by falls, ten percent in the handling of objects, and eight percent from hand tools.
This study, made officially by the State of Wisconsin, discloses the fact that, contrary to the usual .impression, the number injured as a result of carelessness on the part of the worker is not large. There is of course a human element in all accidents: Ignorance, inexperience, indecision, all leading to error of judgment.
The annual loss in America, due to industrial accidents, is said to be not less than one billion dollars. A man is killed by industrial accidents every six minutes, and one is injured even’ fourteen seconds. One thousand persons are killed every year by falls from ladders.
Accidents in Mines
PUBLIC attention is more riveted on mine horrors where a hundred men are killed at a time than it is on the lesser accidents, in _ which but one man loses his life; yet the history of one year after another shows that one-half of all the miners who lose their lives while at work are killed by falls of rock or coal, only one or two being killed at a time.
In America the number of deaths in mines averages about a hundred a month, while the injuries are a hundred times as many. The following table shows the surprising regularity with which deaths and injuries in mines occur from year to year:
Year Number of Deaths Number of Injuries 1919 1,183 118.529
1920 1,130 118,490
A thoughtful consideration of the foregoing figures will convince almost anybody that mining is not so safe a business as clipping con-pons, or talking over a telephone, or sitting around a directors’ table; and that it should be as well paid.
Mining is fifty percent safer now than it was fifteen years ago; for there are thus many less accidents. Many mine accidents are seemingly unpreventable. Some explosions have occurred because flashes of lightning have entered the mine and reached gas pockets or else have prematurely fired shots. One would suppose that in a mine one would be safe from lightning; hut it seems not to be the case.
Other accidents are preventable; there used to be many such. It is only a generation since coal-breakers were built directly over the mouth ~ of the single shaft; and when the breaker burned and fell into the shaft, not a man remained to tell the tale.
Mine Disasters
VEN as late as August 27, 1922, forty-seven lives were lost in the Argonaut mine, in California, because a safety exit required by law had been plugged up by the mine owners to save the possible cost of draining the shaft. Those mine owners should be sentenced to become miners for life.
Some of the great mining disasters of the past year are the gas explosion at Spangle, Pa., in November, a year ago, when 71 out of the 118 men in the mine were killed; an explosion at Bessemer, Alabama, in the same month, when 86 were killed; one at a mine on Vancouver Island, in February, when 33 perished; and one at Dawson, New Mexico, on the same day, when 120 died and only two were saved of all that went into the mine. Less than ten percent of all mine fatalities are caused by explosions of gas and dust.
Allied to mining is the business of quarrying. One-eighth of the men in this business receive injuries every year, and one in fifty is killed. The causes of quarry accidents are haulage, explosives, machinery, and falls of material, in the order named, with haulage as the most prolific cause. Every once in a while a fatal accident results from the common practice of using the teeth to crimp blasting caps to fuses. Other fatal accidents occur from dropping dynamite cartridges into deep holes instead of lowering them slowly and safely.
The smelting business, still dangerous, is safer than it was. In 1913 the rate of injury was 264 to a thousand employes; in 1921 it was reduced to 63. This great decrease is said to be almost entirely due to the many safety devices installed by the American Smelting and Relining Company to reduce their accident liabilities.
One of the world’s greatest industrial accidents occurred at Oppau, Germany, in the Fall of 1921, in a plant engaged in manufacturing nitric acid and ammonia from the atmosphere, for fertilizer purposes. A double explosion occurred, killing 586 persons and injuring 1,952.
A very considerable toll of human life is taken annually by explosions of boilers, gas tanks, sewers, and chemical apparatus of va rious sorts. It is not generally known that even five percent of gas in the air forms an explosive mixture. The increasing use of chemicals, especially poison gases used for commercial purposes, to disinfect or to rid goods of vermin, causes many deaths.
Danger from Machines
rpiIE increasing use of women in manufactur-ing operations brings a danger peculiar to women. Some terrible accidents have happened to them by reason of their hair catching in the machinery. At the plant of P. F. Collier Company, on one occasion, one poor woman was thus scalped completely; and the pity of it was that she survived and ran screaming through the plant. It is needless to add that every woman engaged in manufacturing operations should wear a close-fitting cap. Also, women many times have had their lives endangered by loose-fitting dresses and flying aprons; for swift-moving wheels and belts form a suction.
Only the great strength of a fanner engaged in operating a circular saw saved him from a terrible death. His clothing became caught, and dragged him toward the revolving blade. He braced himself while the machinery stripped his overcoat, sweater, trousers, shirt, and underwear to shreds, so that when the danger was past he was entirely nude save for his shoes and socks. Both men and women should wear close-fitting clothing when working about machinery; and all moving parts of machines should be enclosed in gear cases, to minimize the risk.
An unusual accident happened to some electrical welders. They were repairing a cracked cylinder, and had neglected to examine the interior of the cylinder before beginning their work. While the work was in progress, a little steam was noticed; but no attention was paid to it. Just as the job was finished, the cylinder exploded with terrific force, seriously injuring two men and almost wrecking the plant. The cylinder had contained just enough water to turn it into a miniature boiler, with no outlet for the superheated steam generated.
A machine that should be given a wide berth is the hydro-extractor, sometimes called a “centrifugal” or “whizzer,” used for separating liquids from solids, extensively employed in sugar mills, dye houses, laundries, and industrial plants. High speed is essential to the effectiveness of these machines; and numerous accidents, some of them fatal, have been traced to them.
Dangers Aloft
Tp ALLS are responsible for many deaths and J- injuries. For several years New York had a peculiar attraction in a man that had trained himself to climb the face of buildings. This man, popularly called the human fly because he had learned to climb merely by the use of his finger tips, had painted in large letters across the back of his shirt the motto, "Safety Last.” He fell ten stories to his death while scaling the front of a hotel for a movie film.
More fortunate was a window cleaner in the same city. He fell five stories, and was taken to the morgue to be prepared for burial. While in the morgue he regained consciousness, and objected strenuously to the program that had been mapped out for him. They were just about putting him into a vault.
One of the worst features about falls is the liability of injury to the brain. A severe blow upon the head, even though the skull is not fractured, is liable to do far more harm than is a broken arm or leg. Carpenters, bricklayers, masons, painters and electrical workers are in special danger from falls in connection with their work, as so much of it is aloft.
Elevator Accidents
NEW YORK and Chicago, on account of their great numbers of immensely tall buildings, have many elevator accidents. In the last eleven years, in these two cities alone, there have been 1,122 fatal elevator accidents. The Bureau of Standards of the Department of Commerce has made a survey which shows that three-fourths of these accidents could have been prevented if the elevators and shaftway doors had been equipped with well-designed interlocking devices.
Rarely does an elevator fall; the typical accident is where a person tries to board a moving car, but slips or stumbles and falls into the hoistway. Or a workman opens a hoistway door, reaches in to grasp the operating cable, and loses his balance. Or a woman steps off a descending elevator and the operator starts the car too soon. The woman changes her mind, tries to step back into the car, and is crushed between the landing and the top of the elevator door opening, as the car goes down. There are elevators in New York which travel forty miles a day and make 4,000 stops in that time.
Even the public structures take their toll Some two years ago the public was shocked when a bridge collapsed at Chester, Pennsylvania, causing the death of twenty-four men, women, and children. It transpired subsequently that the cause of the accident was the ramming of the bridge by a canal-boat eleven years previously, regarded as trifling at the time.
Many of the drownings which occur every summer would not occur if there were at hand persons who know the proper methods of resuscitating those who have been in the water for some time. It is claimed that the pulmotor is not a success. It strains the tissues of the lungs, and in almost every case the patient dies from pneumonia within a year. The hand methods are easy to learn and to apply, and do not injure the patient in any way.
Prevention of Accidents
WE HAVE often wondered how accidents will be prevented during the time of Messiah's reign and subsequently. We believe that such will be the case; for the Scriptures declare as much. Of some things we may feel sure. People will know that they have all eternity before them, and 'will not be in such a hurry ' as now; speeds will be reduced. Instead of railroad trains running from sixty to a hundred miles an hour, their speed will be reduced to what is then known to be absolutely safe, maybe to only thirty miles an hour; automobiles will be harmless, and flying machines not tolerated at all unless they are proven safe beyond all question. And above all things the engineers, chauffeurs, and aviators will be tamed; and no one with a speed bee in his bonnet will be permitted to operate any kind of a machine for locomotion.
Again, people will know that the things they make are made to serve as long and as satisfactorily as possible, and as a consequence machinery will be perfected to a point where only carelessness would be liable to cause an accident Every man will love his fellow and will try to avoid injuring him or even permitting him to injure himself.
In the third place, men will become Godlike, and that means that they will become thoughtful, careful and considerate not only of others but of the wonderful bodies which God has placed in their own care.
The People with Roots
THE people with roots grow the same as other people, except that they grow much taster. If we had a boy that got into the habit of growing an inch every eleven days, we would take him to a doctor to find out what could be done to stop it; yet that is the rate of growth of the average plant.
The growth of plants can be seen by means of the crescograph, an adaptation of mirrors which magnifies up to a hundred million times. By means of this instrument, the invention of a Hindu, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, the effects of heat, cold, electricity, light, alcohol, and other things affecting plant growth can be seen, and precise conclusions reached.
The effect of alcohol on plants is much the same as on humans. At first the plant acts exhilarated; subsequently a serious depression is noted. In the matter of light, plants may have too much as well as too little. Unless the proportion of light is right the plant will not reproduce. A length of day favorable to both reproduction and growth results in the “everbearing” type of fruits. Light has a more important hearing upon plant growth than has temperature.
By shortening or lengthening the plant’s hours of work, i. c., its hours of light, vegetables such as spinach, usually available only at certain seasons, can be supplied to the table the year around. Violets also may be grown in any season; and poinsettas, heretofore regarded as a Winter flower, may be grown in July and August.
Plants grow more rapidly and with greater vigor in tin cans than in ordinary florists’ pots. One of the probable causes of this is the stimulation due to the metals of which the can is made. Plants do well in any soil that is even slightly impregnated with metal particles.
There are thirteen chemicals used by plants in making their growth. Ten of these are usually present in sufficient quantity; but nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, usually in the forms of ammonia, phosphoric acid and potash, are things continually being taken out of the soil, and therefore requiring to be replaced.
It has been suggested that the spread of plant pests in America, where formerly there were almost none, may be due to impoverishment of the soil. It is also suggested that as humans take diseases when their food is insufficient or unbalanced, the same may be true of plants. In any case it may be set down that malnutrition of plants will result in malnutrition of the people who eat the plants and their fruits.
There is considerable evidence available that by means of recent discoveries certain plants can be caused to grow ten times or even a hundred times faster than heretofore, making reforestation and a thousand kindred problems merely questions of convenience.
Like Human Beings
ETURNING to the invention of our Hindu friend, Sir Jagadish, it seems that carrots visibly register anger and pleasure, while potatoes and turnips, after an alcohol jag, manifest the same lack of interest in life, while they are sobering up, that some men do on the morning after a wild night.
It is a good thing for plants to be washed occasionally, just as it is for boys. Moreover, the washing should be with soap and not merely sufficient to spread the dirt nicely from one place to another. And what is of equal importance, the under side of the leaves of the plant specially need washing, like the back of the boy's neck and behind his cars; for it is there that the microbes chiefly gather.
It is found that rabbits inhabiting the oak zone of mountains act as a barrier to the spread of cacti. The plants can go neither up the mountain nor down it; for the rabbits effectively destroy them when they come within their zone.
Some plants have the faculty of motion. One of these, the Volvor globator, as viewed under a microscope, whirls like a top. Other plants manifest a freedom of choice as respects where they fasten their tendrils. After having occupied a hole in a post thirty-six hours, a tendril has been seen to withdraw itself for anothei hole in the same post more to its liking. Where several holes are available, the plant’s tendrils may pass several before finally deciding per manently where to remain.
Some plants are strictly vegetarians, most of them, in fact; but at least one, the eats,
flies and other insects. When these insects alight on the upper surface of the leaves, the leaves close in on them; and the plant becomes their tomb. Occasionally somebody from the tropics reports a tree with tentacles which suck tbs blood of any animal that comes within reach. The existence of such a tree is doubted, however.
Like some human beings the century plant dies when it makes its crowning effort. The Agave attenuate, as it is called botanically, waits until the erd of its life to bloom. It then throws out a spike that may have as many as a thousand blossoms; but the effort kills the plant. The many young plants which, in the meantime, have formed around the base of the trunk, may then be taken off and planted.
Some Plants Harmful
SOME plants, like some persons, injure that with which they come in contact. Prominent in the list is the well-known poison ivy. This may be distinguished from other creepers by the fact that it has three divided leaves, while the harmless creepers have five leaves.
Ivy poisoning may sometimes be averted, even after the plants have been handled, provided that the parts exposed are washed with great thoroughness with soap, water, and alcohol. An inefficient washing only tends to spread the poison. The affected parts should be bathed with warm salt water, preferably sea water, and dried without rubbing. Another good treatment consists of one teaspoonful of boric acid in a quart of hot water. People have been known to die from poison ivy. When specimens of that plant have been brought into the house, they have been known to poison the whole family. When thrown into a fire, the poison is carried through the whole house.
It will be news to many that potatoes sometimes cause poisoning. This is when they are harvested prematurely. The green parts contain a poison called solanin, 0.2 grams of which are sufficient to produce bad effects. There is always a minute quantity of this solanin in potatoes, but not enough to do harm when the potatoes are mature, unless they are old and cooked with the sprouts on.
Concerning poisonous plants in the state of Utah the Salt Lake City Telegram says:
“Th* loves of livestock within Western national forests and largely in the State of Utah from poisonous plants aggregated about six thousand cattle and sixteen thousand sheep during the past year, according to a report issued by the United States forestry service. The principal poisonous plants on the ranges are the locos •nd lupines of the pea family, to which also belong the alfalfas and vetches; water hemlock or poison parsnip of the parsley family, which includes the much relished vegetable celery; death camas; bunch flower family; and the much dreaded larkspurs of the crowfoot family, of which are the buttercup and the peony.”
This finding of poisonous plants which are closely akin to some of our safe, sane and highly prized vegetables and flowers shows that even the vegetable families, as some human families, have their black sheep.
Some New Friends
WE PROPERLY place the highest valuation on our old friends; but it is well to make some new ones, also. We introduce you to several new ones. They have excellent traits. There, for example, is Burbank’s new blackberry bush, which has all the good qualities of the old blackberry but is without its thorns. It is a sort of reformed blackberry, so to speak.
Then there is the hydra-headed barley. We do not know where it is grown; but it has several heads, with a combined length of fruit on one stem of ten to twelve inches as against three to four inches on the ordinary one-head stem.
Then there is the kaa lee of Paraguay, more aristocratically known as the Stevia rebaudiana. This plant is one hundred and eighty times as sweet as sugar. Uncle Sam has some of the seed, and is experimenting with it. Perhaps we shall hear more of it later, and then more people will be sweet, and the sweet ones sweeter.
Then there is the soap plant, which blooms in June or July, and which is found all through the southwestern portion of the United States from southwestern Kansas to and including California. The roots are one to ten inches in diameter and two to sixteen feet long, very saponaceous and produce a fine lather. The soap plant has been used for centuries for cleaning purposes by the residents of those parts. We have some of the powder. The lather is very agreeable to the touch.
As a hint of what is coming, H. F. Hanes, a farmer of Willow Glen, Louisiana, near Alexandria, planted Irish potatoes this Spring in a field whereon last year he had raised a large crop of tomatoes. To his surprise he found that one of his potato plants had borne tomatoes as well as tubers. It is understood that Burbank has been trying to bring this about, as the plants are known to be of the same family; but in this isolated instance Nature has boat him to it. But unfortunately she has not left a record of how she did it.
Plant lovers have large expectations based upon the experiments of Richard Diener, whose nursery is near Mount Tamalpais, California. In three years he has tripled the size of half a dozen well-known flowers, and has developed a blight-proof tomato bearing fruits weighing three pounds each; also a mammoth potato. He says, and seems to have proven, that plant and animal life may be greatly increased in size by a scientific process which he has discovered* One of his products is a white leghorn rooster weighing ten pounds. It is hoped that its prog- , eny may lay mammoth eggs.
Interesting results may follow the planting, of some seeds found in the tomb of King Tut-ankh-Amcn. Hungary reports the wheat grown < from some of this seed as of excellent quality.
Making Church Members
REVEREND Doctor George Hugh Birney, of Cleveland, Ohio, is authority for the statement that “if Christianity had been one tithe as much interested in building itself into the hearts of men as it had been in building monuments to itself in cathedrals of stone and brick, the World War never would have been fought.” Just what we have been saying all along. In due time some of these preachers will get converted and become real Christians. Wait and see.
The Gastonia, North Carolina, Gazette speaks of one of the gentlemen engaged in local “evangelistic” work as follows: “It would pay the mill owners of Gaston to keep this man in the county, for reasons other than the great spiritual good he has accomplished. He is veritable poison to the agitator, and never fails to take a telling crack at them when the opportunity presents itself.”
Somehow we seem unable to recall that any of the apostles were engaged in that line of endeavor. No doubt if Gaston business men are selling all the goods they wish to sell, then an apostle of low wages in their midst would be something they would appreciate.
Purely as a matter of good business, and, according to the despatches, not because they themselves are connected with any church, the business men of Riverside, California, have organized a campaign which has as its aim the bringing of every Riverside child into some Sunday school and every family into some Riverside church. The decision to embark upon this enterprise came after a discussion of the needs of the country.
No doubt these business men came to the conclusion that what the country really needsj is more principle, more Christianity; and, misguided on the subject, they thought the best way for people to get it is through the denominational churches.
Our thought is the reverse; namely, that if ? all the saints and all the hypocrites who are attending churches would abandon the church' systems altogether, and thus avoid participation in their sins, the whole world would be far better off. Everybody could tell then who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil; but when all look alike, talk alike, act alike, and belong to the same organization it is hard to draw the line. Christianity is an individual matter.
Hamilton, Ontario, is having a probe of its1 Y. M. C. A. It seems that this institution has* made a specialty of teaching the youths of the ■ city how to play pool, with the result that some of them have become gamblers, and one of them has just recently shot and killed one of his comrades. Where did we see the sign: “Body, mind > and spirit; cigarettes, pool, and gambling; pay. now; $5 a throw5’?
The Y. M. C. A. makes a nice door into almost any one of the denominational churches. That is the particular office it is supposed to fill. It wants to “save” the young men, even if ’ it has to destroy all their home principles and ■ take all their loose change in doing so.
PASTE this in your hat, Mr. Bok! If governments would draft all able-bodied men into service and take over excessive private wealth during the period of emergency there would bO no more war.—The Pathfinder.
Earth’s Real Travelers By Walter Mitera
WHILE the world is proudly excited over the tally marvelous transcontinental flight accomplished by Lieutenants A. Macready and G. Kelly in our day, the age of marvels, still, it is well to remember that the human fliers have a long way to go in order to cope with at least some of the members of the fowl kingdom and especially so with the arctic tern. This bird breeds as far north as it can find land for nesting, and winters as far south as it can find open water for feeding. It is said that the arctic tern journeys about 22,000 miles annually. It journeys 11,000 miles between Summer and Winter homes. The arctic tern's annual migration is equivalent, practically so, to circumnavigation of the globe.
The ornithologists tell us that the longest single flight of any known bird is the flight over the Atlantic ocean and the Caribbean sea, made by the golden plover from Nova Scotia to South America, the distance of 2,400 miles. The golden plover breeds on the barren grounds of the far north; and its autumnal migration is overland through Labrador to Nova Scotia, and from there over the Atlantic and the Caribbean sea to its Winter home in South America. In the Spring is returns north overland to its Summer home, by the way of Mississippi Valley, to the regions above the Arctic circle.
The Pacific plover, on leaving Alaska, has a landless course of 2,000 miles before reaching its Winter home in the Hawaiian Islands. The range of a nighthawk is from Alaska to Argentina, a distance of 7,000 miles, which exceeds the journey of any other land-bird.
The birds of Central Europe are of very special interest to the people as to their leaving in the Fall and their returning in the Spring again. We will just mention two kinds of birds very well known to Central European people, as well as to most Americans: The Stork and the swallow. Each of these kinds of birds do much flying toward the latter part of each Summer, and particularly so just previous to their departure for their Winter home.
The stork’s autumnal migration is very remarkable. It is a great mystery just how these birds set a certain day as the date of their 'departure, gather themselves to the number of thousands and hover over a certain chosen locality for hours. Sometimes these fly over a certain locality at the altitude of about from four to five hundred feet; but toward their departure they soar so high that one just barely can see them as a whole.
The autumnal migrational departure of the swallows differs greatly from that of the storks. The storks as a rule start their journey any time during the day; whereas the swallows gather together sometimes for days. But no one has been fortunate enough to see them leave, so far as we know; for they evidently take their leave at night. They merely disappear, not to be seen until the next Spring.
The stork clatters a great deal just before leaving; and as a rule the whole mustered army of them join in one loud happy chorus in the air, thus bidding “Good bye” to the dearly beloved home of their birth. Practically all the landbirds are at rest at night; they do not fly at night while in their Summer home, but it has been observed and proven that the same birds while on their way south fly at night as well. ,
Flying at Great Altitude
Mr. W. E. D. Scott, while looking through the telescope, observed birds flying across the face of the moon, among which were recognized warblers, blackbirds, finches, and woodpeckers. Their flight above the earth was estimated from one to two miles.
Other subsequent observations made through similar instruments against the moon at night showed birds migrating at varying heights from GOO feet to 15,100 feet. The birds fly at a high altitude to take advantage of the favorable wind currents.
While the storks and the swallows gather themselves in large flocks on leaving their Summer home, these return in somewhat different manner. The stork as a rule returns to his from-year-to-year nest with much advertising of his presence with his bill on his arrival at his Summer home, letting the dwellers know that his successful but tedious journey has been made. The swallow likewise makes himself known to the village dwellers by much singing pointing to the happy time coming.
The appearance of birds in the Spring has attained a certain pastoral significance in practically all countries. Some hold that it is abso-
lutely safe to plant vineyards, etc., as soon as the stork appears.
The bird kingdom is more than sufficient to convince us, beyond all shade of doubt, of the marvelous wisdom and the great providence of God, the Author of all beauties, manifest even in the birds.
Jesus, while teaching His disciples, directed His words to show the great importance of one’s reliance upon God’s providence, illustrating the same by the fowls, how God cares for them.— Matthew 6:26.
The migration of the fowls presents to us a beautiful picture of Jesus and His migrations, starting with His journey from earth to heaven from Mount Olivet. As the birds on leaving the cold country are seen but by few, so it was with our Lord Jesus. He was seen but by few (Acts 1:1,2, 9) when leaving this cold, harsh world for His home above. He was seen only by those who loved Him and who were interested in Him as one sent from God.
The migrating birds can be seen on the face of the moon as they journey at night, by aid of a telescope; the same is true of Jesus. The moon pictures or symbolizes the Mosaic Law; we shall go further and say that the telescope symbolizes the Word of God, through which only can anyone see God’s doings. Those who look through this telescope (God’s Word) see Jesus from afar, even in the dark night.—Luke 24:24-27; Deut. 18:15; Rev. 5:5; Acts 3:22, 23.
As one could never see the migrating birds at night any other way but on the face of the moon, the reflector of the sun, and with the aid of a telescope, so no one could see, nor would any one ever be able to see, the real Migrator, Jesus, in this six-thousand-years-long night of sin and sorrow except on the face of the Mosaic Law, represented by the moon, which is the reflector of the unobscured light of the true Gospel.
By aid of a telescope we can see to what extent some of the birds are visible when leaving for the south country; but their return is marked by great contrast; they return quietly and unseen. After their arrival, however, they
Thanksgiving
For all the fruit and golden grain, The sunshine and abundant rain, The moon and stars that wax and wane, Give thanks unto the Lord. with convincing force announce their presence by much singing, which indicates a happy time. So too, Jesus has come, quietly and unseen, and with songs of joy for a needy race.
Jews’ Return Birdlike
OT much time elapses before these birds begin busily to gather material to renew their forsaken houses, or to build new ones. What a beautiful similitude there exists between the manner of the migrating birds and their return and the second presence of Jesus to the earth I He is present; the trumpet is sounding. Not everybody at once learns of the presence of the birds; some learn, sooner, some later; but all will learn. The chances are that some of the plain expectant folks learn of the presence of the birds sooner than will some ornithologists.
We, too, have many wise (?) spiritual ornithologists who do not recognize the widely announced presence of our Lord; who say that Jesus will not come for some thousands of years yet. But, thank God! there are some of the villagers who perceive the presence of our Lord by the manifold signs of the times which enable them to do so. Thank God, we no longer must reject those signs at the point of the oldtime scare weapon of "excommunication”!
Jesus is now removing the old lining of the house, the work of the prince of darkness, and is relining it with the new material that He has gathered. He how is preparing a place wherein to mother the billions to be brought forth from the tomb.—Hebrews 12: 26, 27. .
It often happens that when the swallows leave their nest over Winter, a sparrow gets into it to raise its family. The swallows on their return find their nest occupied; and if unsuccessful in removing the sparrows, as it often happens, the swallows will carry mud and close in the entrance to the nest, leaving the sparrow within to take the consequences. In Revelation 20 we find a corresponding incident to this, one which shall take place in the future. The devil, too, will be bound and shut up in the bottomless pit for a full thousand years, during which hie offspring will dwindle to few and yet fewer. .
By Irene Davis
For zephyrs and for singing bird, For blessings and each kindly word, That tender hearts have gently stirred, . .
Give thanks unto the Lord. .
The Federal Reserve Banditry System
WHEN the Federal Reserve Banking System was in the making it was heralded as a panacea for all financial ills, and was declared to be the long-looked-for savior of the farmer, as it would afford him the means by which he could get ready money at a low rate of interest for the harvesting of his crops, the stocking of his farm, and the installing of adequate machinery to carry on his business in the most economical way. But some far-seeing legislators vigorously opposed it, for the reason that they could see the hand of big business behind it and that it would tend toward the enslavement of the farmers, an added lever in the hands of the money power to keep control of farm products by curtailing and regulating the circulation of money so that it would not benefit agriculture.
What big business really saw was the collapse of industry after the war if some financial coup was not devised to stem the tide of disaster. It met the immediate needs and saved the day for industry; but, as a remedy to bring permanence and stability to our financial structure, time will tell that the patient was revived only to suffer more acutely when the death throes really come. The Federal Reserve Bank is thoroughly under the supervision of Wall Street interests and dominated by them. Therefore it did not function for the relief of the rural districts. So severe became the condition of the farmers that the Federal Land Bank was organized. We are told that the Reserve System and the Land Bank should not be confused, as the latter is a very worthy institution and under ordinary circumstances would be a blessing to ameliorate the hardships of the farmers were it not for other vicious legislation and profiteering.
In The Golden Age No. 103 was an article on the “Pirates of Finance,” which showed how the Federal Reserve System is getting possession of all the gold in the country; in other words, how they are practising highhanded banditry and doing it according to law. [Also see The Golden Age No. 55, page 38, article on “Mismanagement of the Federal Reserve System.”] Now we have authentic information how this octopus banking institution sets about to injure and if possible destroy every bank that does not become a member bank of the Federal Reserve System.
We do not know whether there is a graduated Beale of prices which member banks must pay annually to the parent institution, but at least some of them must pay $1,200, or $100 a month, for the privilege. If a bank thinks it is sufficiently strong and independent to transact its business without the aid of the Federal Reserve Bank with its $100 monthly toll it finds itself embarrassed and harassed in a number of ways.
How the Trick is Worked
TF A check belonging to a bank not a member J- bank of the Federal Reserve finds its way into some of the membership banks they do not try to collect it, but mark it that payment has been refused. This embarrasses not only the perfectly reliable firm that gave the check but the bank upon which the check is drawn. This leads to ill feelings and the loss of business —results which the Federal Reserve Bank has planned.
Another way of crippling non-membership banks is by returning the check, saying that for such and such a reason it is non-negotiable and therefore uncollectable through the Federal Reserve Bank; or that the drawee bank has “refused to remit at par,” and that therefore the check is returned without presentation.
Another way is to send the checks to other membership banks all over the country, getting their rubber-stamp endorsements on the back, and finally returning them with the notation that they were not honored at the drawee bank, when in fact the drawee bank never saw them, and the checks were purposely sent around to avoid being paid.
Still another way: The regional Federal Reserve Bank will hold up all the checks on a given bank for a given time, without presentation for payment, until they amount to several thousand dollars—$15,000 or more. Then the Federal Reserve will send a representative with the checks to collect in cash this accumulated lot of checks, hoping that they will find the bank short of the cash, in which case the embarrassment could easily amount to a run on the bank and it would be destroyed if it did not sign up and become a cog in the Federal Reserve looting machine.
It is clear from the foregoing that the object of the Federal Reserve Bank is to have complete control of all the financial interests of the country, and not to allow a substantial banking institution to take care of its local conditions independently, so that such a community might be prosperous while others might be in dire need. The Federal Reserve Bank seems to be intent on making the whole country suffer together, if they are to suffer, and if prosperous the System will take a lion’s share of the profits.
Not long ago, it is reported, the State Court of Kentucky indicted a representative of the Federal Reserve Bank for his unlawful and malicious tactics in connection with handling the Federal Reserve business; and the United States District Court restrained the System from carrying on its 4fhold-up” (accumulation of checks) methods in that part of the country. The Supreme Court sustained the lower court in its decision.
Independent business men of all kinds are thus seen to be in jeopardy. The farmers are not the only sufferers. Big business seeks the control of all industries, the output of all natural resources, the flowing of the water, and the breathing of the air, so that a toll may be extracted from every human being. And it is all right; we must supinely submit to it, and be thankful for the privilege; for it is done for the most part according to law. No wonder there are ominous signs of the collapsing of presentday civilization! No wonder that men’s hearts are failing them for fear of the things coming upon the earth! No wonder that the earth is being terribly shaken! Big business wants a feathered nest on Easy Street; but the Bible says that their gold and their silver will not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath.—Zephaniah 1:18.
Federal Reserve's Precarious Condition
ATE in September the American Bankers Association held a meeting in Atlantic
City, in which the Federal Reserve System drew most attention. “Six changes were recommended to save the Federal Reserve from ruin,” was the telegraphic report. Not ruin from bankruptcy, but ruin from reversal of public opinion; for it was emphasized that “it was not an attack on the Federal Reserve System, but an attack to save it from radical attacks on American democratic institutions, foreseen by the bankers, which will be made at the next session of Congress.” They want to save this "American democratic institution” from “politics.” What chicanery 1 What camouflage! Another case of seeking to pull the wool over the eyes of ths American people so that they will notbe arouse* by the “radicals”!
All the bankers want, according to the report of the Economic Policy Commission, is restoration of the provision embodied in the? original draft of the Federal Reserve Act fol? the appointment of two members of the Federal1 Reserve Board by Federal Reserve banks, in order to insure the presence of trained bankers on the board.” A trained banker, in the mindr of the proletarian gentry, is a skilled skinner is currency control by mean manipulation of funds* entrusted to his care, taking the profits for him* self. There are honest bankers who transart' legitimate business, of course; but these as Si. rule are not connected with the pirates in th© upper story of frenzied finance. As the Federal Reserve banks, no doubt, are coming in for just-criticism they desire to pass the buck to th©' Board, by insinuating that its personnel is not up to trained banking standards! ‘
Another proposal is “to secure the services of high-class men on the Board, by having it elect its own Governor and Vice Governor instead of having them appointed by the President.” This means the further centralization 6f power in the hands of the money kings. Other recommendations are: “To have the Governor of the Board made the chairman of the Board; that the Secretary of the Treasury be replaced i by the Under-Secretary as an ex-officio member of the Board; that the chief functions of the< Comptroller of the Currency be transferred the Federal Reserve Board itself”! ‘'
With all the power the Federal Reserve Sys-tern now exercises for the enslavement of the people, by hedging within certain confines the medium of exchange by which business is carried on, it does not take a trained banker to see the dire results from such centralization of interests. Should we be surprised to learn that couched behind the scenes sit the Morgan inter* ests? We should not.
One good thing recommended, which modifies • the foregoing somewhat, is that the Federal' Reserve System should forbid the establishment of branches or member banks in foreign countries in the guise of agencies. It seems that this has been done to some extent; and recommendation is that there should be as amendment to the Federal Reserve Act forbidk ding it'. The report goes on to say: "All traditions and practices of central banks of other countries confine such central note-issuing institutions to the establishments within their own borders. Their outstanding duty is to provide currency for and protect the gold and credit structure of their own countries. It is unnecessary to emphasize the danger of legal and political complications that may arise from such governmental or semi-governmental institutions domiciling in foreign territories,” etc. It seems by this that the Federal Reserve System was establishing a precedent by encouraging the starting of agency banks on foreign soil, which of course would pay homage to the parent institution.
Regardless of the report, and even the rectifying of its business methods, as recommended by the Economic Policy Commission, which surely is exceedingly favorable to fmancialdom, we opine that we shall hear much of the Federal Reserve in the next Congress and in the next campaign.
That there is a storm brewing with increasing fermentation is very clear to anyone who will use his gray matter at all. The conflict is inevitable and irresistible; for those in advantageous positions will never relinquish their hold upon our natural resources voluntarily. The old order of things, the old world, has ended; and as the now-dawning new order will soon be ushered in with Christ as King, in which every man is to have an equal chance according to his character for peace and happiness and everlasting life, the leveling process will be hard on some but a blessing in the end for all.
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