Golden Age, June 18, 1924

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OLD *VORLD DYING

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VoL V Bi.Weekly No. 124

June 18. 1924

NEVL

VORLD BEGINNING

Contents of the Golden Age

Labor and Economics Digest or World News

Economics: Labor Banks, Profits, Etc

Manufacturers and Miners

Finance—Commerce—Transportation Transportation Items

Peru from a Business Viewpoint

Political— Domestic and Foreign The Bonus BUI

Political Items ........... ......

A Hoi-d Job for Diogenes

Making the People Law-Abiding........ ....

Screens of Various Sorts .'..............

Canada, Mexico. Argentina, Hawaii, Great Britain

Denmark, Germany, Austria, Spain, Congo Free State. Etc. . .

Getting Ready fob Abmaueddon

Powerful Fbiends of Zionisit

Agriculture and Husbandry Agriculture and Forestry

Giant Tree Is Laid Low .

Science and Invention Some Modem Inventions ■ — .

Two Astronomical Excursions

Religion and Philosophy Modern "Medicine Men”

Nature of the “Cures”

Seven Years Late

Worshiping a Gorilla

The End of the Woklp

Importance of the Year 1914

Favor to Israel Returning

The Papal Jubilee.................;

llKAiic in the Office (No. 11) .

How the New Testament Was Formed...... . .

The Bible the Word of God (Poem)

Studies in "The Harp of God”

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Golden Age

Volume V

Brooklyn, N.Y., Wednesday, June 18, 1*24

Nub* 124

Modem “Medicine Men”

THROUGHOUT the least civilized parts of Asia, Africa, and America the untutored savage, ailing in body or mind, applies to the “medicine man” of his tribe for relief. The “medicine man” obtains what help he can from the demons to whose control he has surrendered himself. That is all there is to modern faith healing, faith cures, miraculous cures, and everything of the sort, except in so far as the mind of the patient may and does have an effect upon his body.

The cotton-saint scheme of the Holy Russian Greek Orthodox Church, exposed hitherto in these columns, was a crude piece of work as compared with the 'more subtle, intangible “faith” system of separating people from their money such as is now, and has for centuries, been worked by the Holy Roman Catholic Church in connection with various shrines like, for example, that of the Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes, in southern France.

. Our explanation of the apparition claiming to be the Immaculate Conception, which appeared to Bernadette Soubirous on February 11,1858, telling her to drink of the spring which is now enclosed within the Basilica, is simply that Bernadette was deceived by a demon.

Revelation 18:2 says of Mystical Babylon the Great, that it is “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit”; and we adhere to the principle of Biblical interpretation which applies this primarily to the Roman Catholic - Church and secondarily to the Protestant daughters. Lourdes claims first honors- in the number of “Holy Candles” sold annually.

Just after the war everything French was much sought after; and the Lourdes shrine did a large business, though with very little advantage to anybody except to those who were in the candle end of the trade. In 1923, in the month of May, 850 Britishers went all the way to Lourdes, hoping for some improvement in their condition, only to return disappointed. And later, in September, 1923, according to the London Herald, more than half that number again took the trip, only to come back disap* pointed, none of them having been cured.

It would seem that if Our Lady of Lourdes had any favors to bestow, she ought to be very impartial about it Why discriminate against -the British? Were they not the mainstay of Catholic France during the war against Protestant Germany! If it had not been for Protestant Britain and Protestant America, we may be sure that Protestant Germany would have (most unwisely) turned Catholic France into a German colony.

Nature of the “Cures”

THE only cures performed at Lourdes are of a mental sort; such as that of a cripple on his way there who was slowly hobbling across a track. He suddenly saw a railroad train bearing rapidly down upon him, and in dismay dropped his crutches and raced to safety. He was well from that moment.

One does not have to go to Lourdes to find cases of this kind, however. An officer in the Indian army was confined to his bed by asthma, and could breathe only in an erect position. A party of Maharattas broke into the camp; and, fearing death, he sprang out with amazing activity, mounted his horse and used his sword with great execution, though the day before he could not draw it from the scabbard.

Another instance is told by the London Daily Man of a performance being given before a company of wounded soldiers at a hospital in Bristol. A feature of the performance was a mirth-provoking lawyer, who gave an extremely; laughable sketch. Among those that joined in the merriment was a soldier who had been rendered deaf and dumb during the fighting in Flanders. The contagion of witnessing the mirth of those about him suddenly caused this man to regain his speech and hearing.

Despite the fact that the Lourdes shrine is a palpable fraud, Europe and America have many such, where the unfortunates go, and either are given temporary relief by the demons, or else in a moment of mental exhilaration throw away their crutches only to buy new ones when they get home, or else they are lifted out of what was in the first place only a mental condition, or else they get no relief at all. The majority are of the latter kind. There are such shrines at Montreal; St Anne, Illinois; and Holywell, England.

It seems that most of this healing business is done by Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary. How anybody knew that her name was Anne, when the Bible fails to mention it, is one of those “mysteries” which help to keep the religion business afloat; i. e., the regular paid religion trade. But the Bible does mention Ananias.

The New York World tells us that on a July day in 1921 it took four priests all day to apply a relic of St. Anne to the afflicted bodies of thousands who came to the church of St. Jean Baptiste, Lexington Ave. and 76th Street, New York city. Without a doubt the bbne that was applied was a chicken leg or an old soup bone; and when the performance was all over, the priests had an uproarious laugh behind the scenes over the whole farce.'

The Shrine of St Come

WE MIGHT as well call Cone, the French druggist, a saint as any of these other modern faith curists; for he uses the same methods. But Cone admits that he got his start by spending thirty francs for an American book on hypnotism, which latter is simply devil worship, nothing more nor less.

Coue visited England and America in 1922 and 1923; and the world went wild over him, because he invented a formula by which people could supposedly mesmerize themselves and thus call the demons to their aid by repeating over and over again, "Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.” If not satisfied to retain control of your own personality, and wishing to let unclean spirits dominate your being, all you have to do is to repeat this or something else designed by the same evil beings for their own delectation, as will be shown presently.

Coue was able to mesmerize whole crowds at once. Evidently this is a favorite method by which the demons perpetrate error. They are not interested in- getting a solitary convert now and then. What they want is to get the crowd all on their side, as they did during the war. Who was on the Lord’s side then? Who.was on the side of the demons?—Revelation 16:13,14.

Coue puts our Lord down to the low level of a common mesmerist, a panderer to the demons, in the folio-wing language: “My plan is quite simple. It is just the same as Christ’s. Christ possessed the gift of planting tremendous faith in sick people. When He said, ’Arise, you are cured,’ the patient was cured because he believed what Christ told him.”

Everybody who has read the Gospels knows that this statement is untrue. Christ would not even let the demons testify in His own favor. When they said: “We know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God,” He commanded them to be silent.

As showing the identity of Cone’s methods with those used for centuries by the Boman Catholic Church, and by the heathen medicine men in all countries, from the Ganges and the Congo to the Colorado and Amazon, the New York Times reports that Coue “had given up reciting his day-by-day formula, and he admitted that as long as the proper mental state is maintained the Litany of the Saints or any other litany would work just as well." Does not this statment of St Coue show why the Boman Catholic Church keeps its adherents continually reciting litanies?

But although Coue gets his powers from the cooperation of the demons, and although visits to fifteen of his patients, upon whom he had' laid his hands, showed that his treatment grew less and less efficacious with his absence, yet Doctor Beisner, pastor of the Chelsea Methodist Episcopal Church of New York city, says:

“Mr Cone has put before us a wonderful system. Without religion his sjs’em is like a motor with no electric power in it But the Church may make his system a great channel of power for helping humanity.

Jon IS, 192* TU QOlDEN AGE W

... It is a great mistake for ministers and churches to attack Mr. Coue. He has exalted God by enforcing the marvelous gifts with which the Creator has endowed men. It is well that he has not tied his system to any special religious cult or sect, but leaves it open for wise religious leaders to appropriate the truths he has uncovered by showing how religion can be related to these truths.”

This statement shows how readily some of these professional collection-basket passers are to endorse anything that looks as if it might bring them an occasional nickeL

The Shrine of St Cudney .

MAYBE it is incongruous to refer to an old houseboat on the Mississippi as a shrine; but the boat where John Cudney lived when he was at New Orleans in the spring of 1920 is as much of a shrine as any of the rest, and in the same sense.

John called himself “Brother Isaiah” for the same reason that some others call themselves “Father” and “Reverend.” It helped to give an air of piety and mystery, and was good advertising. It brought the crowds, scores of ailing and crippled men and women, in such uncontrol-able numbers that five policemen who endeavored to keep them in line were swept off their feet and pushed into the Mississippi river. They were easily dragged out, however.

Cudney’s description of how he came by his powers shows that he is under the control of demons. He declared that the sand upon which he walked became “sacred ground,” like the “holy ground” of a Roman Catholic cemetery; that it then possessed wonderful curative powers; and that when some of it was sprinkled over a worthless oyster-bed the bed became the finest in the south.

St. Cudney had the same ability as St. Coue to mesmerize whole crowds at once. One of his favorite stunts, as reported by the Jacksonville Times-Union, was to change the color of the sun, at will, to suit the whims of the crowd. As a matter of fact, the color of the sun remained the same all the time. The color changes, produced by the demons, were purely in the minds of the people.

Cudney worked all the tricks of those who are in league with the demons. He could tell at once the names of his visitors, what they had concealed about their persons, and what their-ailments were. All this is as old as demonism itself.

A careful census was taken after Cudney left New Orleans, with the result that not a single real cure could be found. Yet while he was in town the crowds became so great that the newspapers had to print a notice requesting that no more sufferers come; for the crowds had become so large that they could not be handled.

Referring directly to Cudney the Columbus Evening Dispatch very wisely and very truth* fully observed:

“All over the world are shrines to which people used to make pilgrimages to be cured of disease; in every age have appeared these healers; always there is a rumored place or person that has mysterious powers of healing. But time reveals the fact that there was really nothing in it The healers pass away after a brief reign, and it is seen that they did not really heal at all.”

About the same date another editor, not so wise, published the following as the opinion of the world’s most unreasonable and most foolish men: “Clergymen almost without exception, agree that ‘Brother Isaiah’s’ work has done good.”

The Shrine of St Hickson

THE Episcopal Church has gone wild over James Moore Hickson, who has been circumnavigating the globe during the last four years, leaving behind him the greatest number of disappointed sufferers that have ever followed in the wake of a modern “medicine man.”

Hickson began his work of healing at fourteen years of age, when he cured a neighbor’s child of neuralgia; at least so the story goes. If he healed the child at all, it is our conviction that he did so by the power of mental suggestion; and those powers are conveyed from one person to another by demons.

In 1919 Hickson was in New York city. He was endorsed by Bishop Manning; but that means nothing. He claimed to be an instrument of Christ. That means nothing. In one mail we have had letters from as many as three persons, each of whom claimed to be Christ himself. We sent copies of the letters around to each of the three, and asked them to straighten the matter out among themselves. They must have had a nice time adjusting things. We never heard from them afterwards. • - J

St. Hickson says that he has ‘‘found children the easiest to work upon because their minds are absolutely open.” That gives the whole scheme dead away. Moreover, when the most absolute faith has been shown by a child, as was done by a little cripple at Pasadena, California, February 14, 1920, nothing but disappointment resulted. ,

The poor little fellow, with his legs pitifully twisted and his body undersized and undeveloped, was brought out of the church; and his high childish voice was heard asking to be taken out to the grass where he would “walk alone and surprise everybody.” He made the attempt and fell in a heap. If Christ were back of St. Hickson, where was He then? The answer is that Hickson is mistaken. Christ has nothing to do with it, even if the board of Bishops of the Episcopal Church did endorse the movement. The Board is wrong, as it usually is.

Three months later the Baltimore Netvs said: “A sincere effort was made to find some absolute cures resulting from the healing service, but nothing could be discovered that could not be laid at the doors of hypnotism or sudden emotional exaltation and belief.”

That Hickson’s power is the same as that of Coue’s, namely hypnotism, is plainly evident from the following description of a Hickson mission service published in the Cleveland News-Leader. The writer does not mention hypnotism, but gives all the symptoms:

"I attended one of the sessions of Hickson’s Mission of Healing. I was not in the church five minutes when I felt myself to be in a most inflamed, abnormal, exalted state. I did not seem to be myself. The sight of the misshapen, the miserable, about me strained my emotions to the bursting-point. I found that I could use my rational faculty only with considerable exertion. I ▼as in a mood tb believe almost anything. If a crutch had risen before my eyes and danced, I would not have thought it strange. I was immersed in the supernatural. I felt I could do something extraordinary if I were called upon to do it. I felt an overwhelming yearning for God to come down in healing upon this tragic and stricken multitude. I cared not how He healed, whether by hands or feet, by straw or star, so long as He lifted the heads of those poor, paralytic infants, so long as He stilled the cry of those demented souls! I stood it for an hour, and could stand it no longer. I must leave or burst. I left?'

j From a journal published in Melbourne we cite the following regarding Hickson’s work in that city:

“Hickson, the healer, passes. In his world-wide tour there is no continuing city. About fifty cases of benefit are claimed in Melbourne. The church authorities pay no heed to the unuttered reflections of the 3,000 sufferers whose pilgrimage of pain to St. Paul’s Cathedral has led them into a pit of despair blacker than the night from which they emerged towards this newly-lit lamp of healing, which the Anglican Church lately discovered among the possessions it had thought to be lost. A young priest approaches a group and, in a voice of authority, asks them to desist from doing something— one does not hear what—as it may disturb this ‘atmosphere.’ It is apparent that the atmosphere plays a very important part in the proceedings. His appearance [Hickson’s] indicates phenomenal strength and animal magnetism, but no trace of spirituality.” •

One more newspaper clipping regarding St. Hickson, this time from the People’s Pulpit, an I. B. S. A. newspaper published in Australia; and we pass on to other members of the modern “medicine men” fraternity. There is a great deal of food for thought in what the People's Pulpit has to say:

“Without in any way impugning the honesty of heart or the sincerity of purpose of the gentleman who is the center of the healing mission, we do not hesitate to describe the whole movement as a carefully stage-managed endeavor on the part of the Anglican System to restore a fast waning prestige, to attempt to hide by magical performances the absurdity of its doctrinal errors, and to secure at all hazards some semblance of Divine (?) authority for-its preposterous claim to be jthe authorized custodian of Divine truth and mercy. To our certain knowledge, Mr. Hickson laid hands upon thirteen sufferers in the vicinity of Melbourne, none of whom were cured, and six of whom died before the healer left the city. Contrast this with the record of Jesus. (Matthew 4: 23, 24) ‘And Jesus went about aS Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people . . . and he healed them.’ No ninety percent disappointed there. But even if Mr. Hickson were able to heal all who came to him, that would not identify him as a man used of God. In the article referred to above we read: ‘Mr. Hickson points back to the early church, which accepted whole and entire Christ’s commission to preach the Gospel and to heal the sick, as the pattern for the church of today’; and in proof of this statement Maric 16:15-18 is quoted. • But that gentleman ought to know, and his clerical

confreres certainly do know, that the 16th chapter of Mark from verse 9 is spurious. If it be accepted that the power to Hay hands on the sick and they shall recover’ is truly a 'sign of belief’, then it would set the seal of Divine approval upon Spiritualists and Christian Scientists, whom Mr. Hickson has the presumption to describe as guides to 'blind alleys and fool’s paradises’, as well as to various heathen healers who are not Christian at all.”

Shrines of Miscellaneous Saints

Mrs. Annie Semple McPherson has been in the healing business in California. There is nothing more to be said for her than can be said for any of the others cited. The methods are the same. A three weeks’ investigation of supposed cures at Fresno resulted in the discovery of twelve cases of insanity and domestic strife following her mission there, but no cures. How does this come about if she is the special instrument of the Lord, as she thinks! Mrs. McPherson herself lays the source of her healing power open to suspicion when she claims no miraculous power; for Christ and the apostles did claim it. Mrs. McPherson makes her healings dependent upon conversion (submission of the will to the healer), while Christ and the apostles sought no such mesmeric advantage. ,

Dr. Charles S. Price, Vancouver, British Columbia, is another healer who has been attracting much attention. But a committee that investigated the basis for the excitement that his meetings have aroused there found that not one miracle of healing had been performed and that no organic lesion or defect had been helped. The only successes were in cases of functional or hysterical disturbances, such as the demons would be able to assist by influence on the mind. Another plain case of hypnotism.

Another modern medicine man is Mr. Smith Wigglesworth, who has been plying his trade in New Zealand. An account of this man’s life shows that he has been under the influence of evil spirits, who appeared before him, commissioning him for a limited time to heal the sick and demanding that his patients must all have implicit faith in the trinity, which, briefly stated, is that "the Father is the Son of-himself, and the Son is the Father of himself, and [that] each of these is another person, who is the same as and yet different from the other two.” No real cures are traceable here, either, except of the kind last mentioned. '

The Denver Times tells us that the Denver District of the Methodist Episcopal Church has formally approved faith healing, and has urged all ministers to “make this subject an integral part of their ministry.” We foresee a big boom in correspondence courses in hypnotism as a result. A San Francisco Rabbi is going in for the same thing. Just now Rev. Evangelist F. F. Bosworth advocates it also. Dogs travel in packs. See Isaiah 56:9-12.

Porto Rico has a “healer” who, under the influence of the demons, is aroused from her trances with great difficulty. The Detroit News reports that a prominent faith healer has been ordered back to the asylum. They will all be there yet. A New York healer declares that he got his powers by a revelation that came to him from heaven in flaming letters. He will soon be in a padded cell, you may be sure. Lewiston,- Maine, has a three-year-old healer. What a crime I Why carry this study in demonism further!

We close with a sane and sensible quotationi from the magazine Health Culture: -

“Approximately eight persons out of ten recover from their illness naturally, regardless of whether they receive treatment or not The tendency of most diseases is toward recovery. One patient out at ten will require expert, scientific care by a trained physician in order to avoid premature visit to the undertaker’s. One sick individual out of ten is suffering from a disease the tendency of which is to progress toward a fatal termination, regardless of any and all kinds of treatment Thus it appears that quacks of all varieties can successfully treat eight out of ten patients. Doubtless one-half of the people who seek relief from ailments of all kind* are not the victims of any real disease; the trouble lies entirely above the eyes. They imagine themselves sick when they are not. Obviously, any procedure in which they have faith and confidence willjjive relief to such sufferers. These medical frauds are as old as ancient history. They vary only to suit the times and whims of the people. In the sixth century the powder obtained by scraping the tombstones of saints, when placed in water or wine, was in great repute as a remedy. Eight out of ten persons who partook of that concoction experienced relief. The same number would have been relieved without taking any treatment."

Digest of World News

'(Broadcast from WATCHTOWER WBBR on a wave length of 273 meters, by the Editor)

TF IT had not been for President Cooliage’s veto the life insurance companies would have been granted the bonus. That is to say, it was hoped by some that the soldiers would be granted a bonus; but instead, the bonus bill which the President vetoed provided that the insurance companies were to have the money until the soldiers were dead.* *

In the meantime, of course, the great financiers who use the funds of the insurance companies as they please would have continued to corner the necessities of life so that by the time the soldier was dead, and his widow had paid his debts, there would be nothing left of the bonus; and he would not get it after all

Whoever was the apostle of big business that fixed up this plan so that the bonus would be paid by the American people, not to the soldiers who need it, but to the financiers who already have too much money, was a real 100 percent profit American. The President has done wisely in vetoing the bill.

A survey of the housing situation made by the National Industrial Conference Board discloses the fact that during the last ten years house rents have risen eighty-five percent, nine percent of which was during the last twelve months. This is the national average, despite the fact that during the last year there were substantial decreases in rents throughout the South and in smaller cities of the North. These figures indicate the rapid gathering of the great industries into a few centers of population.

Economica

WITHIN the past four years, twenty-two labor banks have been organized in the United States. Four of these banks in New York city have total resources of $12,000,000, while the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Cooperative National Bank of Cleveland, Ohio, has resources of approximately $25,000,000. All the labor banks are making money.

Senator Jones of New Mexico has made the statement that-the actuary of the United States Treasury declared that for the year 1923 the total profits of corporations in the United States amounted to between eight and one-half and

•Si«c« this article was written, the Benns Bill has been Baased over the President’s veto.

nine billion dollars, At this rate, in about three years these profits would equal the great debt assumed by the American people for its privilege of participating in the war that made the world safe for democracy.

Let us not look so closely at these profits that we forget profits made during the World War itself. An interesting item on this line has come to light in the testimony of an accountant of the Department of Justice, that one of the DuPont powder concerns was overpaid by the government at least $5,000,000 on war contracts. Who overpaid it, why they overpaid it, and how much they were paid for overpaying it is the affair of the Department of Justice, and not ours. It looks to us as if big business has the American people by the neck or by the heel; we are not sure which.

Within the past few years a number of instances have occurred in which men who have made fortunes out of their business have given the business away, lock, stock and barrel, to their old employes. Among the concerns that did this was a bleachery at Wappinger Falls, capitalized at $1,250,000; the Nash Clothing Company, Cincinnati; the Herman Handkerchief factory, New York city; the Bubin Clothing factory, New York city; besides several other large concerns in New York and Chicago. This is a healthful sign. It indicates that there are a few people in the world who have some other god besides the almighty dollar.

The Standard Oil Company, and many othei corporations that have made fabulous fortunes for their founders, are now pursuing the very wise course of taking in their employes as stock holders. A certain percentage of the employe’s salary is set aside for his investment in stock The company adds to this a like amount, and in the end the employe’s investment usually yields him a large return.

Manufacturing and Mining

THE Iron Age, spokesman for the iron and steel industry, acknowledges that in spite of all fears to the contrary, the abandonment of the eleven and twelve hour day has neither wrecked the steel industry nor hurt it in the slightest; but that on the contrary, the output is now equal to what it was while the long day was in force, and the steel trust’s earnings for the first quarter of 1924 were $50,000,000.

•M

The larger output of coal per miner in the United States over that of Europe is explained by the fact that in America the coal veins are thicker and more level than in Europe; and also by the fact that the American method of mining, which leaves one-third of the coal in the ground, enables the employment of more men at the coal face. By the method of mining in general use in Europe, all the coal is taken out of the mine.

Not only is Europe more economical in respect to the fuel, but it is more economical with respect to the men employed, the deaths due to mine accidents being much less in proportion to the number of miners employed than in America. A part of the large loss of life among the miners of America is traceable to. the use of black -powder instead of other explosives which would be safer. One hundred and fourteen men have just perished in a mine explosion in the Benwood, West Virginia, mine. This explosion occurred early in the morning, only a few minutes after the men had gone to work.

Transportation

AS THE steam turbine has largely displaced

* other forms of marine engines, it is not unlikely that the steam turbine locomotive may take the supremacy over other locomotive types in America, as it has already done in Sweden. Swedish engineers, famous for their ability, are now in the United States, claiming that with their new engine they can save the railroads of the country $200,000,000 a year. The new form of locomotive is being considered by the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads.

The automobile business has grown within two decades until now it is estimated that the passenger traffic carried in this way is two and one-half times the combined passenger traffic of all the railroads in the country put together. Auto trucks are estimated in the year 1923 to have performed about one-fiftieth as much freight service as was performed by the railroads. Railroad experts estimate that the railroad freight traffic will increase one-third and the passenger traffic one-fourth within the next ten years.

The Nautical Gazette calls attention to the fact that America’s rigid immigration policy is gradually driving the steamship lines away from New York city to the ports of Halifax,

Quebec, and Montreal. Of the twenty-seven ships in the Canadian service, nineteen are new vessels. The Canadian government gives a rebate of $15 on every immigrant.

On July 1, regular, permanent air mail service will be established between New York and San Francisco. Mails will leave New York at 10: 30 in the morning, arriving in San Francisco at about six o’clock on the evening of the following day.

Political Items ~

ONE of the most encouraging signs, of the times is that the Governor of Indiana, having been found guilty of using the mails to defraud, has resigned his office and has'been sent to prison. If this performance could be carried out with all the political crooks there are in America, there would be fewer office holders; and it would probably be necessary to make large additions to most of the prisons.

While public attention has been .largely centered upon Fall, Denby and Daugherty in the Republican capital because of their failure to protect the government’s interests in connection with the Teapot Dome, yet it is also pointed out that Lane, Gregory and McAdoo, all members of Wilson’s cabinet, as well as other Democratic officials of prominence, were given employment by the Doheny interests practically as soon as they were out of the cabinet.

The country has been stirred from end to end by the Teapot Dome oil scandal; but this is only one theft out of a great family of other thefts of public wealth, about which little or ■nothing is ever said. The following is an extract from the Federal Land Law Office Report of 1914. It is significant that although these California frauds were unearthed by the government thirty-six years ago, no person was ever sent to prison for perjury or for theft of the millions of dollars worth of valuable timber referred to in the report. The following is -a copy of the report:

"A new agent was appointed, who reached his field of operation about the first of January last (1886) and entered upon the discharge of his duties.. The agents of the company soon discovered his presence and business and attempted to defeat the investigation. Some of the witnesses were spirited out of the country; others were threatened and intimidated; spies were employed to wateh and follow the agent and report the nansee of all

persona who conversed with or called upon him; and on one occasion two persons who were about to enter the agent’s room at his hotel for the purpose of conferring with him in reference to'the entries were knocked down and dragged away. Notwithstanding this, the agent proceeded with his investigation, and succeeded in obtaining a large amount of evidence. He found ninety of the entrymen, and procured their affidavits as to the frauds and the manner in which they were induced to make the applications and affidavits. This testimony embraced forty-seven of the patented cases. Several employes of the company gave sworn statements of their connection with the illegal transactions and of facta within their knowledge. Affidavits were also made by citizens of Eureka and other reliable persons, among which are the affidavits of sixteen business men, who were asked to make entry applications in the interest of the company and offered $50 each, but who declined to do so. It appears that the persons composing this company went to work systematically and on an extensive scale; and to enable them to carry through their scheme they took into their association several wealthy men, who furnished the necessary means. Expert surveyors and men well informed in regard to the character and value of the timber were employed to locate and survey the lands. Others were then hired to go upon the streets of Eureka and elsewhere and find - persons who could be induced to sign applications for land and transfer their interests to the company, a consideration of $50 being paid for each tract of 160 acres so secured. The company’s agent received $5 for each applicant obtained. No effort seems to have been made to keep the matter secret, and all classes of people were approached by agents and principals of the company and asked to sign applications. Sailors were caught while in port, and hurried into a saloon or to a certain notary public’s office and induced to sign applications and convey the lands to a member of the firm. Farmers were stopped on their way to their homes, and merchants were called from their counters and persuaded to allow their names to be used to obtain title to the lands. The company's agents presented the applications to the registrar and receiver in blocks of as many as twenty-five at a time, paid the fees; had the proper notices published; hired men to make the proofs; paid for the lands and received the duplicate receipts; yet the registrar and receiver and some of the special agents appear to have been the only persons in the vicinity who were ignorant of the frauds.”

A Hard Job for Diogenes

Senator Brookhart o£ Iowa in a speech in

Congress, after expressing his opinion that there has been in the Department of Justice a conspiracy to protect criminals and to take money for doing it, said: “The people will not stop until these facts are known, and they will not stop until the last criminal practice in the administration of every department of this government is cleaned out.” The placing of a man like Harlan Stone at the head of the department is a long step in the right direction.

When the National Republican Committee sent a detective all the way to Montana to try to get something on Senator Wheeler, the Department of Justice, then under Mr. Daugherty, seems to have cooperated fully.

The Scranton Republican contains a despatch from Washington in which Frazer Edwards, United Press Staff Correspondent, says:

“Still shaking from the oil leasing scandal, official Washington today was shocked by a new sensation which involved the looting of the treasury of millions of dollars.

“Wholesale duplication of liberty bonds of every issue since 1918 in the bureau of engraving and printing, and the implication of treasury officials, are included in the startling charges made by Charles B. Brewer, special assistant to the attorney general, in a suit filed in the District of Columbia supreme court.

“Brewer sued after he had charged the department of justice with attempting to seize the evidence he had collected at the personal request of President Coolidge and the late President Harding. He said he had refused to surrender the documents to the department for fear they would be suppressed and he would be discredited. ' “Brewer, in his suit, asked for an injunction restraining Secretary Mellon, Attorney General Daugherty, Undersecretary of the Treasury Winston and Acting Attorney General Seymour from destroying nearly $1,000,000 in duplicate bonds in his possession.

“Immediately after filing his suit, Brewer met a score of Progressive senators and congressmen and laid his charges before them. Representative King of Illinois, announced that he would intervene and become a party to the suit."

Thinking people have been disturbed by the evidence repeatedly brought to light that big business does not object at all to corrupt practices in politics or business, but that it does object seriously and strenuously to having those corrupt practices brought to light Today, in America, the man who is most in danger is not the thief, but the one who dares to call attention to the theft.

Making the People Law-abiding

WHAT are the people to do when the agents of the Government are anarchists! The . papers are telling how Government agents in

Jmn 18, 1924

Washington told freely that they had broken into Senator LaFollette’s office and desk, in absolute violation of the Constitution and in violation of all decency as well. What honest man can feel safe when anarchists wearing Government badges can safely violate the law in this manner?

Mr. Vanderlip has taken out a $1,000,000 accident policy because of interference with his mail, the tapping of his telephone wires, and the placing of dictaphones in his room. How much longer the American people can and will stand for such acts of anarchy on the part of the Government officials has become a serious question.

During the Wilson administration a person who, when closely questioned, admitted that he had "previously" been employed as a detective by the Department of Justice, waited upon the Editor of The Golden Age with a silly scheme to entrap him into publishing some propaganda; and when told that he was easily identified as a detective, angrily informed the Editor that he might expect at any time to be lured to some place where he would be beaten into an unrecognizable pulp if he “made too much trouble for the government.”

The Editor’s reply was merely to ask this gentleman in a kindly way please to define an anarchist and to state whether or not men who ■would undertake to beat a law-abiding citizen into pulp are law-abiding men or whether they are anarchists. He admitted rather shamefacedly that it is quite possible in our day for those who have no regard for law and order to occupy positions in which they are paid well for maintaining law and order. Surely this is a strange condition of affairs.

Senator Borah, speaking in Washington on the growth of bureaucracy in the United States, takes a foreview of the next thirty years as follows:

“If these next thirty years are to be as the last thirty years, as everything indicates they are, at the end of thirty years we shall have one employ^ or officer for every ten citizens in the Republic. Every conceivable activity of body and mind will be under the surveillance of the bureau. Spies and inspectors, guides and counselors, will leer upon the citizen from every corner, and accompany him in his daily vocation of life. Our taxes

QOLDEN AQE

will be over $100 per capita. We shall be taking more

thin forty^percenl1 of ■ the national income for govern- a radio typewriter which, took words from th* -mental expenditures. We shall still be, of course, a air at the rate of sixty-five a minute "with only

Republic in theory; but we shall be a bureaucracy in reality, the most wasteful, the most extravagant, the ■most demoralizing and most deadly form of government which God in His inscrutable wisdom has ever permitted to torture the human family.”

Screens of Various Sorts

TT IS pathetic, in one way, to learn how excited •* the administration at Washington became at the mere-suggestion that an honest and capable and fearless man, Francis J. Heney, had been suggested by Governor Pinchot as a man suitable to investigate the Treasury Department, especially the prohibition section of that department.

It was openly admitted in the Senate that if the prohibition enforcement section of the Treasury Department was investigated by Heney, so much official crookedness would be uncovered that nobody would have a shred of respect for anything in the District of Columbia.

In the bright sunlight of Sunday afternoon, May 4, aviators in the chemical service of the United States army from a height of 700 feet laid a smoke screen around the lower part of New York city, completely hiding the city from view, and preventing the people on the lower part of the' island from being able to see more than a few hundred feet into the bay. It is expected that smoke screens of this nature will be of some assistance in protecting New York from immediate annihilation when the anticipated Battle of Armageddon occurs.

Some Modern Inventions

R. Richard B. Moore, former chief chemist of the United States Bureau of Mines, declares that the bituminous coal mines of the United States, stretching from Texas to West Virginia, contain the only large supply of helium-bearing gas in the world. Helium is non-inflammable. An airship filled with helium gas could remain afloat years, and would virtually need to be torn in pieces before it could be brought to the ground. In the case of an airship filled with hydrogen, a small leak would be sufficient to cause an explosion that would utterly destroy it.

A most remarkable machine, exhibited in New York, April 25, at the annual convention of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, is one-half of one percent of error. One of the inventors, speaking of this typewriter, made the statement: “We are proud to have been privileged to work out this fascinating problem of transmitting the printed word through the air to a sheet of typewriter paper. To have suggested such a thing a short decade ago would have been to invite the services of an alienist.” The system has been in use for a full ^year between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

By the simple device of what is called in electrical circles “booster stations” it is now entirely possible for a single broadcasting station to send messages to every part of the world. The messages, as they are received and enter the booster stations, are inaudible but are audible at the regular receiving stations. The plan is already partly in effect.

The courts have decided that a broadcasting station may broadcast a copyrighted piece of music without infringing the copyright. This decision, made in Cincinnati, will be appealed to the Supreme Court.

John Hays Hammond, Jr., the radio inventor, claims to have discovered a method of broadcasting by which only persons having specially constructed licensed sets can hear the program.

Dr. Carl L. Alsberg, director of the Food Research Institute of Stanford University, in an address in Washington, April 23rd, expresses his opinion that recent chemical advances make it probable that human foods, proteins, fats, and starches may be manufactured synthetically:

“The solution of the world’s food and fuel problem will be the same. When it is achieved, a more profound social revolution must follow than followed the invention of the steam engine, for the importance of land and agriculture will diminish and it will remove to a far more distant horizon the bounds that now tend to limit the growth of population.”

Agriculture and Forestry

DESPATCH from Syracuse states (hat students of the New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse University, are confident that they have discovered a means by which sawdust, old boxes, barrels, and odd pieces of boards, leaves, twigs, etc., can be transformed into new and valuable lumber.

Instruction in agriculture pays. A boy in Ellerbe, North Carolina, engaged in the study of agriculture, produced two 445-pound bales of cotton on one acre of land, while his father on an adjoining field produced less than one bale.

New York State will make a very sensible use of each of the six State schools of agriculture farms during the summer of 1924. Boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen will be given practical instruction in every variety of farm work at small expense. Their afternoons and evenings will be devoted to recreation and sports.

California is having an epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease. The states, one after another, are quarantining California products in the effort to prevent the spread of what is recognized as a very dangerous disease to cattle. New York State is among those that have issued such quarantine. Congress has voted $1,500,000 to fight the epidemic.

The effort to confine the foot-and-mouth disease in California is being prosecuted vigorously. No eastbound automobiles from California can now enter the state of Arizona, but are leaving for the east through the state of Nevada. The method of disinfecting tourists who enter Imperial County, California, is to have them step into canvas bags, which are drawn up over the body and tied tightly around the neck. The arms and the hat are required to be inside the bag. For three minutes the person to be disinfected remains in the bag while a powerful vapor destroys the germs. The automobiles themselves are disinfected by pools of disinfectant built into the roadway. Imperial County is the center of the cantaloup district, and hopes by these strict regulations to be allowed to market its crop in the eastern states.

The first year of the cooperative marketing resulted in the sale of 33,510 cars of vegetables and fruits in 772 cities and town&. This is a most extraordinary showing for one year’s work and demonstrates what can be accomplished by cooperation. It is estimated that the sales for 1924 will be at least twenty-five percent greater than the record for 1923.

Hygienic Notes

STUDIES made in Syracuse indicate that the chances of new babies are now very much better than they were twenty years ago, the rate of infant deaths per thousand births in Syracuse having decreased from 150 to 89.

The death rate from pneumonia in Pittsburgh is three and one-half times as great as the national average for this disease. It is supposed that this is partly due to the smoke and dust in the atmosphere, and partly to long hours, heavy work. and high temperatures in steel mills.

America has a new disease, Mah Jong. Perhaps we might say that it has two Mah Jong diseases. During the past winter, millions of Americans learned something of the mysteries of this peculiar Chinese game. Immense numbers of Mah Jong sets are made and sold; and it is now discovered that in the manufacture of the little pieces the kind of lacquer used causes an eruption of the skin similar to that caused in the dying of furs and the manufacture of those peculiar forms of cosmetics used liberally in the United States to hide the natural beauty of cheeks and lips.

• r • ' Seven Yean Laie

SEVEN years after the Bible Students made their declaration against war and went to prison for it, the Pittsburgh Conference of the Methodist Church has urged the general conference of that church to declare for an unalterable opposition to the entire war system and to inform the government that hereafter the church can take no part in any' movement toward war.

Bishop McConnell, of the Methodist Church of Pittsburgh, in a speech in Louisville, April 19th, advocating the adoption of the resolution said: “I don’t mind the man’s going to war, but I do object to trying to give that nasty, dirty, stinking business a halo of sanctity. You can’t get Christ into khaki, and prayers for success of the national arms are not a sweet odor before the Most High.” This is good; but it is seven years too late.

On the other hand, seventy-four oat of eighty-two bishops of the Episcopal Church bitterly opposed a similar pledge urging that war is un-Christian, brutal, suicidal; that the Episcopal Church will never again sanction or participate in it, will not again allow its pulpits and classrooms to be used as recruiting stations, and will not again give financial or moral support to any war. In view of this stand on the part of the Episcopal bishops, it is practically certain that in the next war every one of them will be put into the front line trendies, including the eight who for the present are in bad company.

Worshiping a Gorilla

THE West Side Unitarian Church of New

York of which the Reverend C. F. Potter is the pastor, has accepted a bronze statue of a young man emerging from the form of a gorilla. One cannot but wonder what use such people can have for a Bible which declares in the very first chapter that “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

The evident intent of the Biblical statement is to draw attention to the fact that man is a direct design of the Creator, with similar mental powers of reason, memory, judgment and will, and moral qualities of justice, benevolence and love. The very lowest form of man has sixtyeight cubic indies of brain capacity, as against thirty-four cubic inches in the highest form of ape. The gap has never been bridged. The missing link -will never be found.

The following account of the “service” of unveiling the statue of the new god is taken from the New York Times:

‘"The Chrysalis’ was unvailed while Miss Graee Leslie, the church soloist, sang William Herbert Carruth’s evolutionary poem, ‘A Fire Mist and a Planet,* in which occurs the line:

“‘A jellyfish and a saurian were in a cave where cavemen dwelt’

“The statue, which is about twenty-eight inches high,-had been placed on a table on the church platform. It was heavily draped with blue silk. As the poem commenced Mr. Potter’s three young sons removed the draperies. The congregation was obviously stirred.

“At the morning service Mr. Potter had spoken on the ‘Spiritual Significance of Evolution.’ Continuing this theme, he asserted that a new religion was about to sweep the world.

‘ ‘Theology and evolution are in conflict,’ said Mr. Potter. ‘One of them will perish. It won’t beevolution. In the Western and Southwestern universities .professors who teach evolution are expelled, but the new religion will wipe out these Fundamentalists. When I told Dr. John Roach Straton, my opponent in tonight’s debate at Carnegie Hall, of today’s unveiling, he said that it was a desecration of a holy place and that ‘the beast was in the sanctuary at last.’

“ ‘This church claims the distinction of being the oily church in the city openly to champion the doctrine of evolution. Through the very great courtesy a£ Mr. Akeley we have been permitted to unveil in this church auditorium his artistic conception of man’s emergent rise from lower creatures. I hope that some one will purchase this statue that it may be kept in our church perpetually in a place of honor. I know of no concrete

symbol which so well expresses the religious message and that the insects which destroy so much 0£ which I am trying to preach every Sunday.’ ’’ the United States crop are unknown.

Canada

THE Canadian Government has made a protest to the United States Government, and very appropriately we think, respecting the diversion of water from Lake Michigan through the Chicago drainage canal into the Mississippi Valley. The protest points out that the Great Lakes are the common heritage of the United States and of Canada; and that the water which has already been diverted has appreciably injured the Sault Ste Marie, Welland and St.' Lawrence Canals, and the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and the Sea. The Canadian Government thinks it right that Chicago should adopt some more modern, scientific system of disposing of its sewerage.

Mexico

President Obregon, having formed the opinion that the recent attempt to overthrow the Mexican Government was caused by the activities of the Knights of Columbus, has ordered the doors of their lodge rooms throughout Mexico sealed, and has expelled the Papal Nuncio as what he terms “a pernicious foreigner.” The reason for this latter step is said to have been the effort on the part of the Nuncio to prevent the introduction of a public school system into Mexico.

Peru

IT IS claimed that the northeastern part of Peru, lying on the head waters of the Amazon, is one of the world’s garden spots, with an ideal climate much like that of southern California, and would easily support 50,000,000 people, where at present there is only an average of about one native to each three square miles. Investigation made by representatives of a New York syndicate demonstrates that a railroad can be built over the Andes Mountains into this district at a cost of approximately $60,000,000. In this territory it is estimated that there are 500,000,000 tons of anthracite coal, and large quantities of iron, copper, gold, and other minerals. Grapes in this part of Peru mature twice a year, in July and December. Travelers who have visited it report that cotton here grows to the height of a small tree, yielding annually a ton to every two and a half acres;

Argentina

ARGENTINA is having difficulty enforcing its ■ new pension law. The law provides for a deduction of five percent from salaries to be applied to a pension fund, an equal amount to be contributed by the employers. This seems like a good law, but it is unpopular both with employers and employes, and Argentina is involved in serious strikes and lockouts.

Hawaii

PERHAPS it would not be truthful to say that the bottom has fallen out of the Hawiian Islands; but despatches show that in various places the roads have sunk from three to thirty-five feet, with approximately one hundred fissures a foot wide and thirty feet deep running toward the Kilauea volcano.

Great Britain

THE great exposition at Wembley was opened April 23rd. King George made a speech which was broadcast over the world and also was sent by cable around the world, the circuit via Canada, Australia, and South Africa back to London, requiring eighty seconds. The -speech was not generally heard well in most places in the earth, although it was picked up satisfactorily in Poughkeepsie, New York. The route by which the cable speech went around the earth was 31,500 miles long.

King George is cutting down the British payroll. Hereafter there will be no Master of Music, a job which has been in existence for 250 years. It is also probable that the present poet laureate will be the last.

The scrapping of the British plan to spend $55,000,000 in the construction of a naval base at Singapore has had immediate and wholesome results in the proposal now made by President Coolidge for another world conference to consider still further the question of disarmament All good men will wish well for this disarmament conference, if it is held.

Denmark

ANEW labor government has taken control of the affairs of Denmark; and among its distinguishing and interesting features it haa as a minister of education, a woman, Mrs. Nina

Bang, the first woman to hold a cabinet post in Denmark.

Germany _ '

THE Duke of Sagan, husband of the lady who used to be Anna Gould, wants to sell out Sagan is about one hundred miles southeast of Berlin. The auction posters advertise the sale as follows:

“Sagan is a complete independent principality, situated between Silesia and Brandenburg; area about 500 square miles; 65,000 inhabitants, capital city of 15,000; chateaux, gothic church, complete city hall with reception saloons, bronze statue of Frederick III; the river Bober with plenty of fish, and divers fields, forests, etc.”

Those who are watching for the Lord’s hand in the control of earth’s affairs have noted with considerable interest that within the past five months, death has removed the three men who have by some been called the evil spirit of Germany. One of these was the head of the Reichsbank who, after the war, gave unlimited credit to Hugo Stinnes and other great manufacturers, and then allowed them to pay these immense loans with depreciated paper money. The second was Stinnes-himself; and the third was Helffrich, a bosom friend of the Kaiser, and perhaps the greatest enemy in Germany to the payment of reparations to France. It is quite likely that with these three men out of the way, the Dawes plan will be generally accepted; and that those who have hitherto been saying, “Peace, peace,” will then be saying, “Peace and safety,” which up until now they have been unable to say.

Austria

REPORTS from Austria show that the efforts of the German banks in Vienna and elsewhere to depress the French franc have resulted most disastrously to the banks of Vienna and also of Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Zurich. It is expected that all the smaller banks of Vienna will collapse, as the total loss through the franc speculation is supposed to have been in the neighborhood of $100,000,000.

Spain

King Alfonso is credited with saying that he prefers a job as general of an army to being a king. It. is easy for him to say this since the government of his country was seized by the army. The army is really the ruler, and he is king only in name. Alfonso is said to be well pleased with the way the military dictatorship is working out.

Once a year Alfonso has the job of washing and kissing the feet of six male beggars, and the queen has the same job with six beggar women. These beggars, carefully selected by the priest, are thoroughly disinfected for one full week before the ceremony. The water for the washing is poured from a golden pitcher, and the drying is done with a silken towel.

A Zeppelin service is to be inaugurated soon with a non-stop service of 6,000 miles between Seville, Spain, and Buenos Aires, Argentine. The great aircraft will carry forty passengers, and expects to make the journey in three and one-half days. At present the trip requires two weeks by boat.

Philippines

NEWS despatches indicate that the Fascist! movement has spread to the Philippines, where secret societies are springing up like mushrooms all over the Roman Catholic provinces, with frequent skirmishes between the members of these societies and the authorities.

Congo Free State

AN INTERESTING item comes from the • Congo Free State, that on the appeal of a tribe of African natives the British Government surrendered control over their territory and allowed them to become joined to the Congo Free State, because they did not wish to be separated from other parts of their race living within the area controlled by Belgium. This is good news; for it shows an increasing disposition on the part of European governments to recognize the rights of others.

Palestine

DESPATCHES from London state that Professor Stewart McAlister, who has been engaged for some time in tracing the outlines of the city of Jerusalem as it was in the days of David, has found in a new excavation, evidence which convinces him that he has penetrated into the city of Melchisedec. We do not know upon what evidence this opinion of Mr. McAlister is based; but if his ideas are correct, this find will be of great interest to scientific men and students, especially Bible Students.

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