Golden Age, June 4, 1924
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Contents of the Golden Age
* Labor and<Ecunomtcs
Mexican Laborers in the United States . • , ’ Labor Conditions in CaodMhSlovaHa ....
, . - SOCIAL. AND EdUCATTOITAL
Poverty in Winnipeg - ■..... ...
SOMETHING ABOUT Lm INSUBANCB
XhuEsr ar Wood News........ w •
Graft among War Profiteers . . . ....... . . Cabto^to Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . - . . Bridges in Australia and Elsewhere .
' • ’ • • fit* -
, .... Political—Dqmxsko and Fobtom
Political Rumblings in the United States . \
Civilisation “As Ta" . . . . .. . • . * . . . Cuba, Colombia, French Guiana, Venezuela ancT Brazil GhUe and Peru, Great Britain, France . ..
Porto Rico,. Holland, Germanyr Lithuania . • • . . Warhonia, Russia, Austria, Greece, Turkey .....
Persia, India .
China, Japan> Malaya ......... South Africa. Australia......._. .
Ripubis non Fcbemn Oouespondents—Canada
569 560
561 568
' Tbatsl and Mmciuun
Radio Beimdcastxng n»M Watchtower WBBR . Tn BiwiiuTi o» Mankind........
Miasms Gebat Sea Monona ........
Baston Obi into Religious . . . . Sundae's Face Smzazkd with* Blood Fatskd Sntdeb's Wail .. . . . Fathkb Stlvesteb Wants Monty . Pwttrwfl m Kings ...... Could PisstncrnoN Go Fuethui? . Studies or ths “Hasp or God** . . .
567 56T
Published every other Wednesday at 18 Concord Street, Brooklyn, X. Y„ U. 3. A, by WOODWORTH.* HTJDGINGS A MARTIN
Coyei teen eed Proprietors Address.* 19 CD^»r4 Strict, Brooklyn, N. 7.. (7.8. A CXATTCN y. WOODWORTH . . . Editor ROBERT J. MARTIN . Furfnw Maaaaup WM. F. HUDGING8 . . Sstfy and Treaa.
yrve Cun a Copt—>1.00 a Tbab Mass RmtiTrASCM to THE GOLDEN AGE> yoaaiGM Omcta: BritUA.....94 Craven Timet, Lencaeter Gate, London W. 2
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Asrirotaeion . . - - . . 4S5 Collins Street, Melbourne. Australia doatA A/rieas......S LeUa Street, Capo Town. South Africa *
Entered as ooeond-elaes matter at Brooklyn, X Tw under the Act of March X 1379 .
Golden Age
BrMklnu N.Y„ YtMiy, J<UM 4, 1924
Something about Life Insurance '?
f pulS article is not an attack upon the life J. insurance business. Life insurance is a good thing; under present conditions it is a necessity; there are circumstandes in which.to be without it, if able to provide it, would seem to be almost a crime. But we are of those who believe that death is shortly to be swallowed up of life, by the establishment of the Lord's kingdom; and hence we take a glance at life insurance as one of the businesses which, a few years hence, will be as extinct as the Dodo. This is an obituary, written in advance, so to speak. ' "Vyhen Life has come, fear of Death will cease.
Marine insurance has been in use since before ' the time of Christ; fire insurance also reaches far back into the past; but life insurance is but three and a half centuries old, the first policy having been written in London in 1583. It was ? of slow growth for two hundred years, so much so-, in fact, that it is estimated that at the beginning of the nineteenth century there were but . about one hundred policies in force on the whole < \ American continent.
The real beginning of life insurance in America on a large scale came with the formation of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York in 1843. Today the total amount of insurance in force in the 260 companies doing business in the United States is twice the amount of * the national debt, and leads all other forms of business and investment.
Life insurance has been growing prodigiously of late. Within the past ten years it has doubled in volume. In 1922 the incomes of the insurance - companies were more than double the amounts paid to policyholders, so that those who are engaged in the business are not in any immediate danger of going to the poorhouse. The year 1923 was a boom year in new insurance risks; for all records for new business were shattered by an increase of seventeen percent over the previous high year of 1920.
The business is as safe as any business can-; be. Half of the population of the country are- 1 ^directly interested in it; ten percent of the assets of the companies are invested in Govern-Ufent securities; several of the companies are ? in the billion-dollar class; and their actuaries ? can tell to an almost absolute certainty, out of ; each one thousand of their policyholders, howj; many will die each year. , -
The age when there is therleast chance ofj dying is from twenty-five to twenty-eight. The1 ’ vital powers idowly increase from childhood up • to that point, and then slowly give way from. that point onwards At ninety-six, according tcj ’ insurance calculators;- the policyholder is dead anyway, no matter how long he may actually •' live after that age is. reached. *
■ • ■
Some Interesting Statistics
THE experience of the companies show -that ■ out'of a thousand who continue paying inT ; suraace to the end of their days:
45 will die within one year after they are injured, ■ 52 more will die before the end of the second, year*
168 more before the end of the fifth year, ; » 165 more before the end of the tenth year, 337 more before the end of the twentieth year, 232 more die after paying steadily over twenty yean. ;•
Out of 1,000 men who were healthy at twenty-five and who live lor forty years more, statistics show that:
10 become rich, -
40 become well-to-do,
50 are still self-supporting, *'
360 are dead, '
540 are dependent upon others for subsistence, ■
The Census Bureau shows that in the decade from 1910 to 1920 the amount of insurance in : force increased eight times faster than the population. It also reveals the interesting fact that the crowded cities of the East have lower death.
rates than have the Western cities. New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were well below the average in the number of deaths per thousand;
- while Los Angeles (probably because so many Hl persons go there to recuperate) had a death, rate almost double the- general average for the -* whole country. •
■ . There are said to be about fifty persons in the United States who carry insurance to the ; amount of $1,000,000 or more. The largest indi- vidual 'policyholders at present are said to be as follows: ' .
$6,000,000, Adolph Zukor, of the Famous-Players Lasky Corporation;
$4,500,000, Hodman Wanamaker, son of JohnWsn-amaker;
$3,000,000, Pierre DuPont, dynamite and gunpov-. der king; ■
$3,000,000, J. C. Penny, of the Golden Rule Storer; : $2,000,000, Mrr. Evelyn. Marshall Field, wife.of
- : . . • Manhall Field.-3rd; .• ;
. $l,fiQ0,000, Mrs. Mollie Netcher Newbury, the Boo-
y . ; ... tan Starq (.Qhicagq^. . . ' :
. In 1922 a western man’s policy was settled for $1,517,820. Twenty-four, companies were in-. ; volved in the settlement, as’ the law forbids the ■ placing of more than $200,000 by.one company
- ; ■ on the Ufa of any one person. .
Unusual Forms of Insurance .
THERE are said to be 134 forms of insurance' in-general use, and some of the insurance j companies will take a chance on any kind- of risk. Those commonly known are life, fire, . marine, accident, health, plate glass, tornado, ' hail, riot, and weather. But statesmen have insured against assassination, parents against loss of their children by kidnapping, fathers have insured against twins coining to the house, students against failure to pass examinations, young men against getting married, married men against laying violent hands on their mothers-in-law, pianists against injury to their hands, singers against injury to their voices, _ violinists against injury to their bow hands, beauty specialists against injury to their hair. One man insured a trick baboon; and another insured against delivery of coffins at the wrong house at night, thus causing fright and possible
I . suits for damage.
The National Civic Federation is skeptical as to the value of any health insurance scheme yet ’
worked out, saying that "from a- study, of foreign experience, and of projects and proposals -in America today, this committee is of-the opin- r ion that no plan has yet been devised for efficiently and economically providing, medical attention, hospital care and other features of" health conservation, as a benefit of insurance in. conjunction with a eash insurance benefit during short sickness."
Some of the accident insurance oompanies (wa-speak from experience) contain so many exceptions as to the kind of accidents for which they pay nothing that the money sent to them is about as good to the sender as if thrown down the sewer. Such companies, apparently run not for the insured but “for revenue only ". deserve little consideration at the hands of anybody tryingto tell the truth about insurance. Principle. pays. Lack, of principle does not pay, in the long run. In the. Golden Age, the Golden Rule will be in force everywhere. . .
Life huwanct Incatigatioiu . ;
ABOUT every twenty years there is a great k flareup in the insurance world, a series1 of investigations in which ths same old things are ' brought to light; and then everything, settles ; back where it was before. Charles E. Hughes, the present Secretary of State, made his reputation in one of these investigations, in 1906. The Mutual was in the frying-pan then. <
There was another in 1921. This time it was the Prudential, Newark’s -billion-dollar com- -pany. The President was accused of putting the policyholders’ money into his own private bank and there making a large profit on it, besides the profit included in his annual salary of $75,000. It was found that the company had a self-perpetuating board of directors, the same being about as soft a thing for the directors as one could imagine. It was brought out that although a law was passed in 1906 requiring in- -surance companies to sell their bank stock; yet' in this case the law had not been obeyed up to fifteen years later, although it has been obeyed since. The lack of mutuality in a "mutual” com-, pany was brought out by the fact that in six years only one policyholder out of 15,000,000 had attended a policyholders' meeting.
Insurance companies have about twenty-five' ^percent of their, holdings invested in transportation facilities and constitute the greatest
single capitalizer of industry, besides being Targe loaners to the national, state and city . governments, by the purchase of their securities. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, the banks are accused of virtually compelling their patrons to fall in line with whatever insurance company they chance to be most interested in; this is on the complaint of R J. Wickham, President of the Canadian Federation of Insurance Agents.
One of the principal sources of profit in the* insurance business is the lapse, or canceled policy. A man. finds that he can no longer afford to carry as much insurance as he is carrying, or cannot carry any at all, and, with some exceptions, loses virtually all he has paid. In 1913 there was in New York state twice as much insurance lapsed as was paid out to the policyholders. •
' New York has one company, the Postal Life, which has-no agents. The company has 27,000 policyholders, who have advertised the business
, among their own friends. The Postal is said to ’ sell insurance at seventeen and one-half percent less-than do the other insurance companies generally in the field, and to have as some of its policyholders the agents of other companies.
Grmip Insurance
EUROPEANS love to cooperate and thus to save money; but cooperation spreads slowly in America. In Britain there are nearly two and one^quarter million people in the great Rochdale cooperative societies. A penny out of every pound sterling expended for supplies goes toward the insurance of the purchaser arid, if he is married, toward the insurance of his wife as well Automatically, the more he spends the more his insurance grows. The plan works, and works well
Of late Group Insurance, which is a form of cooperation in insurance, has become remarkably developed in the United States. All the? actors, actresses, and theatre employes of at least two of the greatest theatrical organizations are included in a policy which insures them all, without cost to the insured, and without physical examination.
It frequently happens now that copartnerships carry insurance so that in case of the death of one of the partners the business may not be interrupted by the withdrawal of capital Two railroad companies, the Erie and the Dela
ware and. Hudson, have insured on the group plan all who have been with them more than two years. The Pullman Company has also effected group insurance for its 33,000 employes, men and women, without cost to the workers. The Southern Pacific Company has a policy' covering the 90,000 employes of that great system. The United States Steel Corporation has its own insurance fund; it charges itself only seventy percent of the usual premiums, has paid all its losses, and has save4 $30,000,000 besides. The total number of employes covered by group insurance at this time is said to be about 2,000,000. _
In the city of London the newspapers have used insurance of readers as a means of increasing the circulation, with remarkable and not always happifying results; In one case a dividend of 5,000 percent was declared byjthe insurers. Millions of pounds sterling were collected from the very poor; and when the policies were declared illegal, the money was kept instead of being returned. London financiers seem to have as little principle as have New York financiers. _ -■ . . , . '..c .
Workmen's €ompeiuatimliuunact '
v V trial accidents in all parts of the United . States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico. Sixteen of the states have followed the example' first set by Norway, and. have established their own accident funds; while in Ohio, where exclusively state funds are used for this purpose, it is calculated that at least $15,000,000 per year have been saved to the insuring employers. State insurance funds show an administrative expense of about seven and one-half percent as against thirty-seven and one-half percent in states where private companies operate. *
Immediately the United States Government, ’ with all its vast resources, wanted to establish its own accident insurance fund for its own employes, the so-called United States Chamber of Commerce passed resolutions opposing the idea, on the ground that the United States had no right to engage in business of any kind, but must always hire financiers at a high price to do the business for them. Wonder if the United States Chamber of Commerce uses postage stamps, and how it gets them! Wonder if it has ever seen a mail wagon in .the streetl The
. idea that only '“financiers* have the right to do anything is rich. ’ ' :
In explaining the effort that has been made in: New York state to prevent the establishment of: an exclusive state fund for workmen's compensation, Samuel Untermeyer, the great lawyer, said:
“Many false and misleading statement! have been made by representatives and officials of insurance com-panics to. destroy the confidence ef, the public in the State Insurance Fund. It hardly seems possible that in., this country such downright thievery as we have found could exist in the insurance business, but it does.”
The American Federation of Labor has demanded slate monopoly of workmen's compensation insurance as a national policy. One reason for this is the excessive difference in cost between private company rates and state rates. In Minnesota an attempt has been made to cause the insurance companies te disgorge part of the overcharge. It is claimed that the history of private companies shows that sixty-five percent "of the insurance money remains with the companies and that only thirty-five percent reaches the unfortunate workmen. The National Association of Credit Men has been warned in fearsome tones by one- of its lecturers that any attempt on the part of a state to engage-in the insurance business "is the most dangerous and insidious of all socialistic movements.” Growling because somebody looks at his bone. A few such' speeches will turn everybody into- Socialists.
Unemployment Insurance ' ■ ....
WE HAVE mentioned the Wisconsin unemployment insurance law. We mention it again. The Huber Bill, as it is called, provides that all employers in the state form themselves, into a state-wide mutual insurance company and- : pay premiums in proportion to the regularity' with which they keep their force working. The- • unemployed are entitled to benefits for sixT . weeks, at the rate of one dollar per day for mem] and fifty cents a day for boys and girls unde£ eighteen. Those on strike or locked out are nbf' included in the insurance arrangement. Wiscon-*’
sin has its own state-owned and state-managed life insurance company. Massachusetts also ha» one. ’
Queensland, Australia, has its own state-owned and state-managed insurance company; All kinds of insurance business, fire, life, marine and accident, is transacted by the company, which is now in its seventh year. Bolivia haw enactments requiring the postal telegraph employes to deposit five percent of their earnings in savings banks, where it becomes an insurance fund against old age. Deposits may be withdrawn only in case of resignation or illness, in which latter case the consent of superior officers must be obtained. - -
The Supreme Court has ruled that life insurance is not interstate commerce and therefore is not subject to federal control, but both President Cleveland and President Roosevelt urged such, control. As matters now stand, the insure ance companies duplicate and multiply selling expense, some of which could surely be cor- ■ reeled. Moreover, by federal control it would -not be necessary or expedient for the insurance, companies to spend such vast sums lobbying- as . they now do. Or, at least, if they did spend it^ it would be all in one place, ready for investigation.
Easton Getting Religions
WE ALWAYS knew that some of the best people on earth Uve at Easton, Pennsylvania; but we never quite appreciated what a godly community it is until we got a program showing the deeply spiritual themes of the First Presbyterian Church for February and March. For some reason or other nothing was said about what was to be on deck March 2nd and 16th. We much fear^that bn those two occasions’ the pastor slipped back into the old habit of preaching the gospel. But maybe we arc wrong/ he may be innocent But whatever it was that he did he was ashamed to put it on the program:
February 3: Electoral—7-Instrument Orchestra and Dramatic Address, “The Great Hunger/' Allentown's Best
February 10: “Lincoln Night"—4 Reels—Address— Male Quartette—Kivanis and Rotary invited guest*.
February 17: Magnificent 6-Reel Picture—“Streams-of Life”—Prof. Davis and Orchestra—22 boys in uniform.
February 24: Lafayette College Band—40 Instrument**
March 9: 6 Reels—“Silas Marner.”
March 23: Easton City Band. , . .
March 30: Lafayette College Chapel Choir—40 Men.
Digest of World News
(Broadcast from WATCHTOWER WBBB oa a waro leogtli of 273 metora, by the Bdltor)
FOB some time there has been agitation before Congress to increase the salary of postal clerks. It has been pointed out that if this bill passes it will take in the neighborhood of $130,000,000 annually, to meet the increase. The Postmaster General has stated that this . increase will have to come from the second, third, and fourth classes of mail.
iiThis statement has aroused 'publishers, who claim that the rate is already so high that the larger publications have more than half of their output sent independently of the mail; and that if there is another raise, it will compel them to organize more extensive machinery for their own distribution, taking their publications out of the. hands of the mail altogether. The pub. lishers point out that the figures of supply and demand make it necessary to pay increases to get the right kind of men, but that these same figures also show an over-supply of men; for , other avenues of employment in local eommuni-ties, do not pay so well as the postal service.
Here is a good example of the tug of war that continually goes on between those who desire - more pay and those who have to foot the bill. We do not doubt that the postal employes would be benefited by a raise in salary, and that the . efficiency of the mail service would also be in. creased. The bill calls for a horizontal raise, but the United States Chamber of Commerce has suggested that the postal employes should be allowed a temporary salary supplement on a sliding scale, adjusted to the needs of the employes in their respective localities until there - can be a readjustment of wages to meet the prevailing conditions. We would like to see some such sliding scale of wages applied to the members of Mr. Morgan’s Chamber of Commerce itself.
THEBE seems to be no end to the Teapot Dome and other investigations of public officials. Some of the witnesses refuse to testify, and impeachment proceedings are under way. Some claim that these inquiries into the acts of prominent men are being overdone; that they are prompted by political cunning, which is trying to put both the old parties into disrepute.
But while the leaders of the major parties are 'disturbed, there seems to be no let-up in the activities. What is called by some a “political bogey” has appeared in the possibility of a third party movement Senator Shipstead refers to the political agitation as having a parallel in the days of the candidacy of Abraham Lincoln, when the Republican party came on the scene.
The Farmer-Labor party of Minnesota at a recent conference amalgamated and unified its interests for united action in the coming cam- ' paign. .The farmer, labor and other progressive forces of the State are being brought under the banner of a single standard, Since this conference the Nonpartisan League has by almost unanimous vote affiliated with the FarmerLabor party and has resolved itself out of existence. Sympathetic interests throughout the entire Northwest are expected to affiliate with this movement and to bring to a head a formidable third party movementwhich is expected to meet in convention sometime between the conventions held by the old parties.
The irregularities of the Teapot Dome lease were aired over two years ago in-progressive and independent journals like The (Natiow. But . the greatest news-gathering agency in the world, the Associated Press, aa late as last November threw a damper on the escaping steam and endeavored to lull the public to sleep by referring-lightly and humorously to the leaking information, as though it were nothing unusual and hardly worthy of notjce. Mr. Geddes has resigned as chief of the Washington staff of the Associated Press and has accepted,a position where he can serve the Sinclair oil interests more openly, as their chief publicity agent.
As a result of the recent disclosures at Washington as to where campaign funds come from, and that some individuals contribute heavily to both parties, several bills are now before Congress for the regulation of contributions. One of these restricts individual contributions in national campaigns to $500 for presidential electors and to $100 in the election of members of Congress, and limits these contributions to one party and to one candidate. '
More Rottenness
ANOTHER graft among the war profiteers
■ has come to light. In order to dispose of some of the surplus war stocks the Government employed auctioneers in various places to cry
GOLDEN AGE
the sales* One Baltimore firm, employed 113 days, was paid $230,370.72. Auctioneers in New York, employed eighteen days as ordinary auctioneers, sandbagged Uncle Sam to the tune of $50^110-08 at one time, and $167,747.18 for four days' services at another time. A Louisville firm, for one day's labor, which it is said could have been done by any derk in the war department, was paid $244-94.80. In addition to these, many ordinary auctioneers who had conscientious scruples and endeavored to be honest, received $1,000 and up a day for such services.
During the war the meat packers were contracted with by the Government to produce a specially cured bacon for the army. The packers turned out great quantities of this army bacon. When the armistice was signed and everybody knew. that the war was at an end, the meat packers, not having been officially notified by the Government that the war had ended and that no more army bacon would be needed, con’ tinned the curing of the army bacon; and of course in dne time wanted their money for the army bacon, that was made for the army after ■ the services of the army had terminated. These i t MDs were evidently turned down.
\ Swift & Company sued the Government for $1,000,000, which suit was a test suit The Gov. ernment lost, and therefore Unde Sam must pay millions of dollars to the packing interests because of an “oversight” The decision is a precedent for similar claims which will be made by other packers.
Frank A. Vanderlip, chairman of the Citizens ' Federal Research Bureau, which he organized, declares that he will resign as director from many of the organizations in which he has financial interests. Though a big business man he is out of sympathy with big business; and because of his activity in unearthing unscrupulous practices of some of our public men, his business associates made it known that they desired his resignation.
One remark in Mr. Vanderlip's letter to his critics shows the cleavage now manifesting itself between those who are public-spirited and those who are rolling in predatory wealth. He said:
one regret in the matter is that men with whom I have long been, associated in busmeas are now » blind to thepresent situation in the Government at Washington.” ~ Soma predict that as Harlan F. Stone, of New
BMeunr, ItZ ' «
.x
York, has been chosen“to succeed Harry M, / ’ Daugherty as Attorney General, the Depart. T meat of Justice will undergo, a cleaning; for it . is said that three years ago Mr. Stone went before a Senate Committee with a demand for a “thorough-going investigation of the Depart* ment of Justice.” -
A boom has been launched to make New ' ' York’s governor, A. E. Smith, president of the -United States. Efforts will now be made. to-capture the Democratic nomination. It has been said that a Catholic can never be president.. This is resented; and Judge Tiernan is reported to have said: “We defy the American people to defeat him [Governor Smith] solely because of his religion.” This campaign year promises to ? be a lively one. . .
. Oregon has a state law compelling all ehil-dren to attend the public schools. It was fought, in the courts, and the Federal District Court has handed down a decision that this law is . unconsitutionaL The argument for the adop- :. tion of the law was that“a divided school can. no more succeed than a divided nation.” Those. ; who opposed it thought that it amounted to the , same as though it had been entitled “An Act to ■Prevent Parochial and Private Schools from _ '■ Teaching the Grammar Grades.” Oregon is to : appeal the recent decision to the Supreme Court; J
Goilizatim “'At la*’ . ;
ORRIBLE conditions are reported as- • tabling in a convict camp in California;"
It is claimed that prisoners have been handcuffed, chained to trees, and refused food and' water for forty-eight hours; that others have been beaten into unconsciousness; that two boys were beaten with hammer handles. Most of this ,. cruel treatment administered by deputy sheriffsis done with no feeling of sympathy and with ears that are deaf to pleas for mercy.
The Bureau of Locomotive Inspection ordered a number of engines out of service of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce protested to the Interstate Commerce Commission about the order. The national legislative representatives of the transportation brotherhoods then united in a- stinging rebake of the action of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.
In the Brotherhoods’ letter, it is pointed out' that there is a rapid increase in the number of < faecfdents because of defective equipment, especially of locomotives. In 1922 there were 622 accidents; in 1923 there were 1,348 accidents— an increase of 117 percent. The number killed in those accidents increased about 100 percent The Pennsylvania alone had 181 accidents from defective engines in 1923; eight were killed and 197 were injured!
''Judged by the production for the month of February, it is estimated that 5,000,000 automobiles will be manufactured during the year 1924. The output in February is usually very, low; but this year it was the third highest in the history of the automobile industry, being 336,363 cars. June of last year was the peak month, with 350,410 cars.
In the United States the killing of coal miners by explosion is three times as frequent in proportion to the miners employed as in Great Britain. It is claimed that two-thirds of the fatal and serious accidents at the bituminous . mines of the United States could have been prevented by the very inexpensive sprinkling of the mines with powdered shale. Explosions in three places have already cost more than 200 lives in 1924.
JUutku
ALTHOUGH war is one of the greatest of all ■ curses that could afflict mankind, yet it stimulates invention; and in many ways those who live on- after the war are benefited by these* discoveries. One invention resulting from the World War is- the sonic depth-finder, an instrument by means of which the plains and hills . and valleys of the ocean-bed may be accurately charted.
Experience has proved that the best depth to lay a submarine cable is about two miles below the surface, where it will be subjected to a uniform temperature and be free from tidal or current movements such as otherwise would soon wear it out The United States Government is about to lay a cable from Seattle to Seward, Alaska, and has two wars laps engaged in surveying the route where the cable will be laid. The sonic depth-finder is being used in making the survey.
Canada
WINNIPEG is stirred by the death of a five-months-old infant. The parents had been farmers. In 1922 they sold their farm, and after a year or two moved into Winnipeg with $700 to show for their eighteen years’ work on the farm. However, there were seven children, the $700 were soon spent, the father could not get work in the city, and was obliged to seek work as a farm laborer at a distance. It is terribly cold in Winnipeg in the winter. The family lived in two rooms, without heat, and with scant covers for their beds. As they could not pay their electric light bill, the service was discontinued; and one utterly cold night, with not a ray of light in the room, the under-nourished mother felt her baby -grow cold. She ran to the neighbors for help. They came in and found that the baby was dead. The time to be considerate of the poor is before such things happen.
Mexico
TN THE New York Times of April 1st, Dr. J- Frank Bohn says:
‘‘There are now a half million Mexicans in the state of* Texas. Fifty-five percent of the people at San Antonio, the largest city in Texas, are Mexkoa There is one county in. Texas where three Americans vote the straight Republican ticket, and over 1,800 Mexicans are voted straight Democratic by their American boas."*
Dr. Bohn goes on to show that in 1920 there were 1,000,000 Mexicans on this side of the Bio Grande, that by now the number is probably half a million more, and that Mexican laborer* are gradually but steadily driving out all other outdoor laborer* in the Southwest He say* furthers
“Nemesis has come to judgment The despised American Indian is returning to claim, through the economic power of cheap labor, the toiler's share in 500,000 square miles of territory under the stars and stripes."
Reports from Mexico City are to the effect that 1,500,000 acres .of land in Mexico which formerly belonged to the people as a whole, and which were subsequently taken from them by the acts of crooked ecclesiastical politicians and others, have been redistributed to the people te whose ancestors they originally belonged.
Dr. Bohn points out the interesting fact that at the time Mexico City was captured by the Spanish murderer Cortez, more people assembled regularly in its market-place than then lived in any city in Europe.
It is said that 400 Mexican laborers who were imported into the Minnesota beet-sugar fields by the Minnesota sugar corporations have been supported the past winter by the charitable people of St PauL It seems too bad that these poor Mexicans were not paid enough for their work during the five months of the sugar-beet season so that they could live through the winter. We can hardly believe that it is necessary to raise the price of sugar in order to give these workers enough to live on. These poor Mexicans have gone through a hard winter housed in primitive shanties, devoid of every comfort. Do we want to raise sugar in the United States if we have to do it on such a basis as this?
The New York Times reports that a large company in Montana has made a request through the Mexican Consul for Mexican laborers, promising equal treatment with American labor. Does this mean that American labor is ultimately booked for the same experiences as came to these Mexican laborers in the sugarbeet fields of Minnesota?
Cuba
TO ALL intents and purposes the administration of the affairs of Cuba is in the hands of the National City Bank of New York and the Royal Bank of Canada. These two institutions, between them, operate eighty-six banks in Cuba and have seventy percent of the deposits in the island, as against thirty percent held by Cuban banks. These banks control the railroads of Cuba and seventy-seven percent of the sugar production. Every family in the United States is interested in the price of Cuban sugar, because Cuba is the greatest sugar producer in the world. The price the Cubans get for their crop determines what the American housewife pays.
Gofombia
THE United States of Colombia are stirred over charges .made in the United States Senate that funds paid to Colombia by the United States of America, on account of the virtual seizure of the Canal Zone during President Roosevelt’s administration, have been improperly used in connection with the world-wide fight to control the oil interests.
The Colombians indignantly deny any irregularities, although they acknowledge that Blair & Company of New York loaned Colombia $5,000,000 prior to the ratification of the treaty, and it seems that Mr. Doheny is a-partner in Blair & Company. This is the same Mr. Doheny
whose son carried $100,000 in a black satchel from New York to Washington to loan it tor v Mr. Albert Fall, Secretary of the Interior under i President Harding. ’ .
It will be remembered that Mr. Doheny loaned this money to Mr. Fall, not to influence Mr. Fall to let the Doheny oil interests take over the United States naval reserves oil in California, . but merely because Mr. Fall was ah old friend. We do not know whether the Government: of Colombia is an old friend of Blair 8b Company or not •
It is also pointed out that the Tropical Oih Company, operating in Colombia, is a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company; and that the-pipe line now in use at Colombia was negotiated; by Mr. James W. Flanagan who, at the time the! negotiations for the line were-made, said that* he was a friend of the American Secretary of the Interior, Mr. FalL How the Teapot Dome " family does grow! The whole world is fairly -dripping with oil
French Guiana ’
THE New York Times paints a horrible pic-' 1 ture of the conditions which have prevailed . 1 for nearly 300 years in one of the world’s worst • pest holes. French Guiana is a penal colony in l the tropics, where a white man can hardly live j at all, where practically no food that a white man can eat can be raised, where the bread quickly gets full of worms and ants, and where . the body becomes infected_with little creatures that breed so rapidly as to destroy the flesh and to render amputation necessary. It would not be possible to exaggerate the horrors of the French penal colony in French Guiana. If the half is true, it is enough to make the heart sick to think that any people supposed to be civil- ■ ized, to say nothing of being Christianized, would consent to the perpetuation of such horrors from generation to generation. Several Germans have recently been sentenced to this hell-hole.
Brazil and Venezuela '
DR Alexander H. Rice, a noted South Ameri
can explorer, ha* just set sail for a trip of _ exploration in which he hopes to traverse the northwestern part of Brazil and the southern part of Venezuela, a district which has never l yet been visited by white men. .The object ofl t
_fhe trip is to make accurate maps of the region, locating definitely the source of Venezuela's great river, the Orinoco. It is supposed that in their head waters the Orinoco and the Amazon are. connected, the water flowing in both direc-tiona.
. _• The district which will be traversed by Dr. Rice's party is believed to be the least known part of the earth. It is filled with reptiles of immense size, and a part of the route is through' a district inhabited by cannibals—not a very pleasant prospect for Dr. Bice and his courageous wife, who will accompany him on the trip. Dr. Bice goes with a splendidly equipped expedition, which includes among other things a radio broadcasting outfit, specially constructed flat-bottom boats, a sea plane, and a supply of bombs with which to argue with the cannibals if they become too obnoxious in their attentions ta the party. .
Chile an/i Peru '
OBTY-FIVE years ago in a war between 'Chile and Peru Chile seized the two most profitable provinces of Peru£hamely, Tacna and Arica. The reason why these provinces were-seized was that they contained rich nitrate' deposits, which since that time have yielded Chile a revenue of about $2,000,000,000. Naturally, Peru wishes these provinces returned; and naturally, Chile does not wish to give them up. The provinces have been held so long by Chile that the population has become mostly Chilean and very little Peruvian. The dispute has been referred to President Coolidge for arbitration.
Great Britain.
THE London Economist reports the volume of shipping during 1923 to be practically the same as it was before the war. The Trade Supplement of the London T<mes shows that in the season from the summer of 1922 to the summer of 1923, the vnt profits of the ten principal British shipping companies aggregated about $15,000,000. For the past three years the dividends of these concerns have averaged eleven and three-tenths percent.
It has been brought out in the British Parliament recently that British whisky exporters receive a bonne of six’ cents per gallon from the British treasury, and that about $300,000 per year is now being paid out on this account.
It is claimed that in spite 6f the great nirin-bere of persons still employed at agricultural work in England, there are now over 1,000,000» fewer men on the farms than were employed in English agriculture fifty years ago. The popo-lation of Great Britain has doubled in the last eighty years. . ....
Despite all the fabulous expenses that have, been piled upon the British people because of the World War, the British Government had" within the past year, and in spite of a big cutf in taxes/a surplus of $215,000,000 over and above all expenses.
England has been .having a strike of the air-, men who carry the-British mails to the continent. A new air mail company capitalized at a» million pounds, and subsidized for ten years by the Government, undertook to cut the pay of the there to about one-fifth of what it had been; and this seemed to the fliers themselves a little hit too much of a good thing. Until now the. wages of these fliers have run to the neighborhood of $4,000 a year. ' ' j-
A British airplane started from. Southampton on March 25, expecting to fly around the world . The dangers of aviation are well illustrated in' * this flight by the fact that on the initial journey, across the Channel, the machine encountered a heavy fog, and only by a narrow margin escaped die diffs which suddenly appeared out' of the fog only fifty yards ahead.. .. ., ■
Same idea of the difficulties whieh face the British Premier may be gathered from, the fact that in one day, Premier MacDonald has been required to answer 123 questions. Each of these; " questions must be answered satisfactorily to the House; and if the answer is not satisfactory, it might mean at once a vote of loss of confidence, and the end of his' ministry.
Prance '
HE Minister of Labor of France reports * that alcoholism and drunkenness have de-, creased fifty percent within the last ten years. Investigations seem to show that the principal cause for this is the high cost of living, the workmen not being able to afford the cost of ■ alcoholic liquors.
The London Daily News gives details to show that the World War came near being over early in the year 1917 with the Germans as winners. This was due to-a great mutiny of about 100’ divisions, which took place in the French army early in 1917. The knowledge of this mutiny was kept from the British troops, as well as the tierman troops, until after the close of the war.
Porto Rico
POBTO RICO, which has been making its own laws since 1917, is now asking the privilege of electing its own governor, hitherto appointed by the president of the United States. Governor Towner urges that the request of the Porto Ricans be granted. He considers their laws and their judicial system above reproach. He points out that Porto Rico is self-supporting, its trade with the outside world being now about fifteen times as great as it was twenty years ago.
Bolland ,
THE children of Holland are showing their love for their fellow children by collecting , money for the feeding of starving school children in Germany. When' the money reaches Germany, the food procured is cooked by students of domestic science, all unnecessary expense being eliminated.
Germany
BOTH Britain, and France have'been msist-' ing that German munition factories be transformed into industrial factories, and that superfluous officers who might become the framework of a great German army should be dismissed. Reports at hand indicate that these demands have been complied with, but in an ' entirely different way from what was expected.
The munition factories, some of them at least, have been moved to Russia; and some of the German officers are becoming generals of real armies in Russia, Turkey, and China. It is claimed that 2,000 airships for war service are now being built in Russia under the direction . of German engineers.
The Bishop of Zanzibar in an open letter to General Smuts, describes the cruelties which he claims were practised by.the Germans against the natives in what was, until the outbreak of-the World War, German East Africa. The floggings were administered with the condemned man lying face down on the earth, frequently as many as fifty lashes at a time. An iron hat was used. A band of iron was passed around the head and tightened by means of a vice-like
screw pressing especially on the temples. In chain gangs, each of the eight men was chained _ by the neck to one very heavy chain, and not «
released until his sentence was finished. Among A
other items of cruelty, a bridegroom was seized at the church door from the side of his bride.
and taken to a post of labor one hundred miles 1 away. On one occasion, 800 elderly men were assembled'; and an order was issued that hot one of them could return^to his home until a young man, a substitute, should be found who would take his place for work at the post. Slaves were bought and sold, but could be redeemed and could even redeem themselves for ' a small amount of money. The Bishop says that the Germans have an affable way with Africans ' to whom they are accustomed. This pamphlet * was written in 1918; we have no knowledge as to the Bishop’s truthfulness.
A despatch from Paris shows that Germany’s reparation payments up to the close of last year, were about eight and one-half billion gold marks, of which amount about two billion gold marks were in cash. Of this amount about one and one-half billion gold marks went to Bel- , gium, and about two billion gold marks to । France. Britain received of this sum about one f and one-third millions. The remainder was divided among Italy, Japan, Serbia, Greece, " Poland, Boumania, Czecho-Slovakia, and Por- , tugaL ‘
Czechoslovakia
THE latest reports are that there are only about 50,000 unemployed in the entire country of Czecho-Slovakia, and that the industrial situation in general is very. good. ..
Lithuania
LITHUANIA is under a dictatorship, not different in principle from the dictatorships which are still ruling over Spain, Italy, Hungary, and several other European countries. Freedom of speech and of the press is denied; trial by jury is practically at an end; and in general it may be said, ay is always the case under such conditions, that people who have any brains at all are afraid to make the least use of them. Without a doubt the same forces that are back of the European dictatorships would be well pleased to see all thinkers in A-marina get the same treatment as in Lithuania.
‘; What an encouragement to know that the ’ Lord's kingdom is at hand, when there will be • no possibility for anybody to ride roughshod * over the rights of others; but on the contrary, as the Prophet declares, justice will be laid to , ‘ jthe line and righteousness to the plummet, and - .the waters of truth on all subjects will over, Lflow the hiding-places of error and dishonor!
.Haste the happy day! ■■
Esthonia
THE New York Times contains an interesting article on the little republic of Esthonia, i population 1,200,000, which came into existence Jt with the break-up of the old Russian Govern-j. ment. Esthonia is busy re-learning the Estho-. * nian language, , the use of which was, forbidden . by the Czar while he lived. Esthonia is an agricultural country, but has a thriving cement in-
1 dustry. It also manufactures paper in consider. ,able quantity, and has a large woodworking . plant, as well as one of the largest cotton mills ; in the world. z ■
THE New York Times contains a despatch from a Moscow correspondent in which he
"After six years behind the walls of foreign indiffier-cnee, misinformation and hostility, Russian secrecy, cen' eorship and propaganda, work is being carried essentially <m Russian.lines.” “On the <me hand there is a tendency to discourage concessions to foreigners; on the '• other, an attempt to compete with native business men by a reduced-price selling campaign for State enterprises even at a net loss. This campaign has been successful, temporarily at least Prices have been reduced1 from about fifteen to twenty-five percent” “The monetary reform, which has actually achieved the reestablish-unent of Russian currency on a parity with the dollar, • has hitherto proceeded without a serious hitch.”
Austria
THE city of Vienna showed a large surplus in the year 1923. The city runs its own streetcars, controls all the advertisements and funerals, and runs a brewery. It makes large profits from all of these enterprises.
Greece
display of blue-and-white flags in the capital^ an official dethronement of the* reigning dynasty; and on the 103rd anniversary of her independeuce Greece is again a republic. Meanwhile, the ex-king is in Bulgaria, and has, been trying to broadcast a message to the Greek people urging them to give him back his job. Fat chance of getting it J _
HE new Turkish Government.is very much -in earnest in its decision not to have seen- .
lar subjects and religion taught in the same schools. It has just closed French and Italian schools in Constantinople and Asia Minor. Sixty-one institutions giving instruction to about 16,000 pupils are affected by the rule just put into force. ,
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Mesopotamia ’ ' :
THE British Government is.making careful studies of the Mesopotamian, valley with a view to the construction of dams which will provide water for a million and one-half’ acres . suitable for cotton and wheat culture. One of these dams, if constructed, will create a lake covering 400 square miles, submerging the present towns of Tizal and Bobafh. .
Palestine ' ... .. ‘
IT COMES with almost the nature of a shock' to read that in the city of Nazareth, Palestine, the early home of our Lord, an American factory will begin the manufacture, shortly, of' automobile tires. These tires will be used to supply the great number of automobiles now in Palestine, most of which are of American make.
More than 35,000 Jewish immigrants have gone to the Holy Land within the past three years. These are for the most part highly educated young men and women, many being high school and college graduates. It is .the Keren Hayesod, or Palestine Foundation Fund, made up of free contributions from Jews all over the world, that makes this immigration possible.. More than sixty percent of this fund has come from Jews in the United States. There are now about ninety Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine.
THE crowns have been removed from the-Greek military and naval uniform caps.
There has been a national salute of 100 guns, a
One of the purchases made by the Palestine Foundation Fund was 10,000 acres comprising the Valley of Jezreel, for which it paid over a
million dollars. Today this valley, which a little while ago was a wilderness, is a scene of great activity. Boads crisscross it in every direction, the swamps have been drained, stones have been removed, fences have been built, homes have
been erected, and the fields are being cultivated. - Therefore let the Jews look up and take courage, t
The fund supplies the immigrants with all the necessary building materials, farming, im-i' plements, live stock and other things necessary to begin the actual work of farming. In four of the settlements the new immigrants do everything on a cooperative basis; the settlers work ‘ the land in common and dispose of their surplus for the common interest of all
The purchases of all the Jewish colonies are on a cooperative basis, which is the only sensible way for anybody to buy, when he can. It may be said that Americans in general do not believe in cooperation; for, while cooperation flourishes all over Europe, it has obtained only a scanty foothold here.
’ The education of the children of these flew immigrants is well looked after, and the adult needs in this direction are supplied by traveling lecturers and a library of 15,000 volumes.
The Zionist Movement has opened, offices throughout eastern Central Europe to assist Jewish emigrants to go to Palestine. There are such offices in Berlin, Warsaw, Vienna, Kovno, and Trieste. The new arrivals are maintained free of charge until employment is found for • them. They are mostly young people, between the ages of nineteen and thirty. At first they live in tents. The American-Palestine fund has already reached four and one-half million dollars and has 70,000 contributors, although it is only three years old.
The suburbs of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, and Tiberias, have been laid out in accordance with carefully laid plans with wide streets and everything modern and up-to-date. Many of the Hebrew women are qualifying as bricklayers, stone masons and plasterers, work which it is generally supposed can be done only by men.
Jehovah has manifested Hi a favor to the Jews who have reposed confidence in His promises; and it may be expected that He will continue to do so. Such have looked forward to a time when they should be established as a people and a nation under a just Ruler, their Messiah, who would deliver them, and through them bring blessings to others. It has been the faith of the
Jew in the promises of Jehovah that has caused him to remain a Jew and not become absorbed i by other peoples and nationalities. The day of his deliverance is at hand. The time for the fulfilment of the words of the prophets has come.'
To them the Prophet now says: “Arise, give, light, for thy light is come; and the glory of * the Lord is shining forth over thee.”—Isaiah 60:1, Leeser. ■
Persia .
PERSIA is another of the countries of the world that have been seized by a dictator.
The Shah has been overthrown; and under a military dictator, Biza Khan, order has been established over the whole country.
Persia is about one-fifth as large as the United States, with about one-tenth the population. Most of the business is still done over . fifteen caravan routes. A group of American .. 1 capitalists is studying the situation with a view of building a railroad system that will coveij I the country. I
The adviser to Persia’s dictator is an American college man by the name of Arthur C. Mills- C paugh. He takes the place of W. Morgan Shus- • i ter, now president of the Century Company, who once filled that position with great credit to himself and benefit to the Persian people.
Persia has been for some years the scene of a battle royal between the principal oil companies, for the reason that beneath the soil are the richest lakes of petroleum known in the , world. A British company controls twentyeight of the thirty-three provinces, and recently refused an offer of $100,000,000 from one of the large international companies affiliated with Standard Oil
The control of the five remaining provinces has been obtained by the Sinclair Oil Company, * of Teapot Dome fame. The terms of lease require the Sinclair Oil Company to survey and map the company in three years, to spend $800,000 in eight years in development of the properties, to sell oil in Persia at cost plus ten percent, and to give the Persian Government a royalty of twenty percent on net profits, and representation on the Board of Directors.
India
BY AN interesting turn of affairs, Mahatma Gandhi, who became the idol of the population of India in 1921-22 through preaching
the policy of passive resistance to British, rale, has become an apostle of quite a different movement. As a result of his agitations Gandhi was in prison* where hg became ill with appendicitis. A British physician rushed, him to a hospital, performed a difficult operation by the light of a hurricane lantern, and saved' his life. A strong friendship grew np between Gandhi and the doctor, and meantime Gandhi was given his • liberty.
As a result, the traditional friendship of the Hindu for the British is being restored. But the caste system, which has been the curse of India in all ages, has been dealt quite a blow; for Gandhi is one of the common people, one of the lower castes. No doubt the Lord is back of this whole circumstance, gradually lifting np the Hindu people to a point where full citizen-/ ship privileges will be given to them. .
China —
THE holding up of a railroad train is always an expensive job for somebody. The bills have just been presented for the hold-up of a train in China a year ago. The bills for lost baggage-, medical attention, loss of liberty, and mental anguish amount to over $350,000, all of * which must be made good by the Chinese people.
=■ Japan ,
THE New York Telegram contains a despatch from Washington which states that the chief legal adviser to the Air Service Claims Board has been suspended by the War Department, and deprived of records which reveal overpayments to aircraft concerns totaling tons of mfl-lions of dollars. This gentleman, Air. Thomas F. Lane of Missouri, claims that Japan has _ been furnished blueprints, - specifications, and patterns embodying all that America has learned in the manufacture of airplanes.
Despatches from Tokio report having received clearly a speech made in Esperanto by James Denson Sayers, a contributor to The Golden Age, broadcast from Newark, New Jersey. The speech was broadcast from Newark at 6:15 P. M. and received at Tokio at 8:15 A. M., only a second afterward. This is one of the best long-distance broadcasting records yet made.
The number of Japanese now in the United States is set at 130,625. This is only a little
more than one-tenth at one percent of the totalpopulation of the country. -
In a letter to Secretary Hughes dated April 10th, the Japanese ambassador to America called attention to the "gentlemen’s agreement" between America and Japan by which Japanese coolies are excluded from America, _and in his letter of protest made the statement that if the bill then pending in Congress providing for the absolute exclusion of the Japanese was passed it would result in “grave consequences." The.’ House of Representatives passed the bill; and the. Senate, thoroughly angered by what it re» garded as a Japanese fhreat, also passed the bill by a vote of 76 to 2.
It was pointed out in the Senate that Japan exercises the right of excluding Koreans* Chi». nese, and Hindus; and-that all nations exercise the right of controlling immigration, without ■ asking the consent or permission, of other nations. One of the Senators stated that he voted far the exclusion of the Japanese with deep regret, but felt that the Ambassador’s letter, had made it necessary. This apparently, was the feeling-of practically the whole Senate. •
Mr. Hanihara, the Japanese Ambassador, has protested that when he used the expression -“grave consequences" he had not the remotest intention of conveying a threat, but was merely pointing out how difficult it would be for the Japanese people to understand the American attitude if the bill in question became a law.
The Federal Council of Churches has written letters to every Senator and Representative, pressing hard for the recognition in some manner of the “gentlemen’s agreement," purposely excluded from the new immigration law.
Incidentally, the same bill which excludes the Japanese altogether also limits the admissable. immigrants after July 1,1927, to 150,000 a year. Meantime, on the basis of the 1890 census, there may be admitted during the next three years two percent of the foreign-born residents of the ' United States as determined by the census of that year. This will practically exclude all immigration from Southern- and Eastern Europe.
Malaya
MALAYA is the new name for what used to be called the Straits Settlements, and which have Singapore as their metropolis.. From Singapore we get the interesting infor- •
mation that Mr. Robert Dollar, the famous shipowner of San Francisco, has started a line of * steamers which will provide passenger service around the world at fortnightly intervals. The route is from New York through the Panama Canal to Tokio, Nagasaki, Shanghai, Hongkong, Singapore, Colombo, Alexandria, Naples, Genoa, Marseilles, and thence back to New York.
Mr. Dollar is eighty years of age. Besides a great fleet of 100 ocean-going steamers, he con-itrols the water transportation in a district of China where 75,000,000 people have no communication with the outside world, except by steamers of his line.
South Africa
A TERRIBLE famine is prevailing in the central part of South Africa, due to drouth „ and the consequent entire failure of grazing - for cattle. Money-lenders in the district are reported as renewing loans at rates of interest running from 170 to 300 percent Farmers are killing their cattle to get the two dollars which they receive for the skins; and others are returning spans of oxen bought from the speculators and throwing in another span of their own, in order to pay only one-half the cost of the span originally bought and returned.
Australia
THE cotton-growing industry in Australia is making rapid strides, the value of the annual crop being now in the neighborhood of $4,000,000. During the past fqur years the acreage in cotton has increased eightfold. It is claimed that Australia has 15,000,000 acres that could, if necessary, be devoted to the production / of cotton. It is evident that from now henceforth the American cotton growers will find the Australian cotton fields an important factor with which they will have to contend.
On April 12th, just'outside of Sydney harbor with a very impressive ceremony, the battle cruiser "Australia” was sunk in accordance with the terms of the Washington treaty. When the desired spot was reached, officers and men were lined up in their white suits on the decks, the seacocks were opened, a bomb was exploded in the hold, the men were taken off, and straightway the vessel began to sink. In twenty-one minutes the ship turned turtle and disappeared. As it passed beneath the waves an aeroplane dropped a wreath on the place where it sank.
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