Golden Age, August 13, 1924
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OLD^ ■ ’VORLD
DYING
a Journal of fact Lope and courage
VoL V Bi-Weekly No. 128
August 13, 1924
AFRICA—LAND OF GIANTS AND PYGMIES
DIGEST OF WORLD NEWS
ADVERTISING THE KING AND HIS KINGDOM
PHILOSOPHY OF THE FAILURE OF THE 'CHURCHES
TRUTH
righteousness
[mj| Km
50 a copy — $ 100 a.Year Canada, and Foreign-Countries $ 150
u^NEF
VORLD BEGINNING
Contents of the Golden Age
Laboe and Economics Unemployment tn Canada
I, Unemployment In Loa. Angelas ......
Orrm kn Smx? Industst at Biloxi, Miaaisam
ElNANCN—COMMENCE—TRANSPORTATION Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland.............
.Water-power Resources In Eathoula
Political—Doianxa abb Foxxzgn Lcttem non Fobbon ConsarownnNTs
The Japanese Question, Labor Party in Australia
Blazar or Wo«u> News Canada, Brazil, Africa, Great Britain .*
Cuba, Ireland, Spain, France..................
Lithuania and Poland
Italy, Hungary, Serbia
Oli Magnates Indicted....................
Scmrcx and Invention Sun’s Raya as a Preaervatlva of Food
Travel and Miscellant
AnicA—Land or Giants and Proioxa
Repatriation Impractical
Natural Abilities of the Blacks
Cannibalism and Demonology
Cruelty of White Savages
A MisuNtnasTANDiNO
Giant Skeleton Found in Jugoslavia
ADnxnsxNe tbs Kxno and Hu Kingdom
Religion and Philosophy Lack of Understanding of the Bible
PBoosorar or the Failurc or the Chvbches
HRabd in thx Omcz (No. 14)
Study or ths “Hasp or Gan”
PubUahod every ether Wednesday at 18 Concord Street, Brooklyn, N. y„ U. & A, Dy WOODWORTH, HUDGTNGS A MARTIN
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The Golden Age
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Africa—Land of Giants and Pygmies
AFRICA is the home of the tallest, strongest xl< men in the world, the Watussi tribe, whose medium height is six feet, and who often attain to seven feet. It is believed by travelers that these forest giants of the northeastern Congo region can outrun and outjump the trained athletes of any other people. Curiously, they live in proximity to the shortest, weakest men in the world, the Wambutti pygmies, made famous by H. M. Stanley.
This close relationship of giants and pygmies fairly well illustrates the relationship of blacks and whites to the problem of the development of Africa. It is essentially a black man’s country, essentially an indolent man’s country, because it contains such a store of easily obtainable food, and because the bulk of the natives are and will always be Africans.
The American Phelps-Stokes commission, after a ten months’ investigation, declares that. Africa is a land flowing with milk and honey; that not only does the continent even now produce over forty percent of the world’s gold supply, but that it has the largest forests in the world and the most enormous regions of undeveloped fertile soil. The same commission reports that native Africans who have graduated from European universities are occupying many of the most important positions in all countries on the continent.
Animal Life
AS MIGHT be expected in a country which has such a large area of rich soil, Africa has an excess of wild animals. Formerly there were many elephants, but their numbers have been reduced on account of slaughter to obtain ivory.
There are still plenty of lions, too many, indeed, in some districts, where they have become man eaters. The lions soon learn that with a few cuffs of their powerful paws they can break down the walls of a native hut, and get a good meal without the trouble of looking for one elsewhere. They have even been known to board a moving train and enter a sleeping-car without obtaining reservations in advance, and, moreover, to do the very impolite thing of jumping out of a window with a passenger by the head.
Leopards, panthers, hyenas, and jackals are found in most parts of Africa. Of antelopes there are fifty varieties. Giraffes are not found elsewhere. The ostrich is a native of the Dark . Continent; so also is the serpent-killer called the secretary bird, and the honey-guide, which points out the nests of bees. The ants in some districts are so savage that the only things safe from destruction are such articles as are packed in metal boxes. A pair of shoes left exposed for one night is riddled by morning. Even the floors of houses are eaten away. .
Climate
THERE is a great variety of climate. In the desert regions of the north it is extremely hot; but ip the central plateau, while it is hot in the direct rays of the sun, yet at night it is so cool that one must sleep under a blanket. Even in the Congo it seldom gets above 87* Fahrenheit. In South Africa the climate is ideal There are frosts in the winter season, but life out of doors is possible and enjoyable the year around.
During the rainy season, everything in Africa that is within the rain belt gets wet. There is no keeping the rain out. No rainproof garments work against the combination of heat and wet. Mails are sometimes undecipherable, because the mists penetrate the mailbags and reduce everything to pulp.'
During the rainy season the Congo river carries such vast quantities of soil that its color is a muddy brown. Before the water can be used for washing purposes, it must be treated with permanganate of potassium, which turns it blood color.
TOT
Cape to Cain a Reality
TRAVEL in Africa is now comparatively safe and comfortable. The much talked of Cape-to-Cairo route is a reality. The first man to make the complete trip was an undergraduate of Cambridge University, Ewart Scott Grogan, who left Cape Town in February, 1898, and ar-
rived at Cairo in August, 1899. Now the regu
lation time for the trip is fifty-three days. . Wonderfully Efficient Porten
At present the route is made up of railway trips aggregating 4,456 miles, steamer trips aggregating 2,004 miles; and the remaining 368 miles are covered by automobile or by caravan.
A writer in “The Mentor" gives the interesting details of the trip as he made it. He describes the famous Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, two thousand miles by rail from Cape Town, where a river over a mile wide plunges three times the height of Niagara, with a roar that can be heard nineteen miles. Next he tells os of the new and elegant city of Elizabethville, another thousand miles further north by rail, in the Congo Free State, where there are good hotels, banks, stores, residences, and a generous supply of automobiles. All this has come about in ten years, because a tremendously rich vein of copper lies on the surface of the ground. The railroad extends to the western shore of Lake Tanganyika, broken in one place by a steamer trip on the river Lualaba. '
In the Heart of Africa -
THE traveler crosses the lake by steamer to the point on the northern shore where Stanley found Livingstone, then takes a short railway journey eastward through territory which until recently belonged to the Germans; then he caravans north 200 miles to the southern shore of Victoria Nyanza. He crosses the lake on one of the three steamers now regularly plying it* waters, sees the birth of the Nile, where it rushes out of Victoria Nyanza over the Ripon Falls a full-grown river, takes a short railroad ride, another short steamer ride, and then goes by automobile to Albert Nyanza, where his ride down the Nile begins. ■ '
In the'journey down the Nile there is one place of eighty-qine miles where it is necessary to caravan, but the remainder of the trip is comfortably made up of steamer and railway journeys ending at Cairo. There are good hotels all the way; and almost anybody with a fairly good constitution who win take reasonable care of his food habits, as all must do in.the tropics, can make the trip without serious danger or even inconvenience. By this route most of the trip is on high ground, where there is little or no danger to the white man from sleeping sickness or the tsetze fly.
f iVtiE caravans plying over the routes indieaf-J- ed are under government supervision. Th* porters on these routes received sixty cent* a week only a few years ago, but now their wage* have gone up to two dollars. Their regulation load is sixty pounds. Groups of four negroes carry their own baggage, one and the traveler himself, unless he prefers to walk. They make fourteen to eighteen miles a day.
Porters on the mail routes which branch off here and there, carry fifty pounds of mail and travel twenty-five miles per day, sometimes for as much as twenty-four days in on* direction. They are so faithful that in a journey of 600 miles they are seldom more than an hour behind schedule time, and generally less than half that They make better time in the rainy season, when they can travel without the sandals.whidi. are needed in hot weather.
Tn the Sahara
THE railway development of Africa progresses, but not so rapidly as is customary in the Western World. In Algeria, on the north, ern edge of the Sahara, there are lines carrying sleeping-cars, as well as in South Africa. It is anticipated that the full journey from Cap* Tf'Wn to Cairo will be possible by rail ere long.
The rainlessness of the Sahara is due te the direction of the winds, which are deprived of their moisture before reaching these lands. But there are in the Sahara elevated plateaux and mountains with more or less permanent streams and habitable valleys in between, and artesian wells have been turned to account in Algeria. There is more vegetation in the Kalahari desert of South Africa than in the Sahara.
The Sahara, in one place in Algeria, is on*-hundred feet below sea level; but in the middl* of the desert, half way from the Atlantic to th* Nile, are mountains which are covered with snow for three months in the year.
I-I
GOLDEN AGE
70#
The Gold for the Temple
IT IS believed that Africa was first circumnavigated by the Phoenicians about 700 years before the beginning of the Christian era; and if so, it was a remarkable piece of courage and enterprise. There are reasons for believing that the rich gold mines of South Africa were those from which came the gold used in the construction of Solomon’s temple. The immansA granite ruins at Zimbabwe, some five hundred miles north of the mining district of Johannesburg, are believed to be Phoenician in origin. In the neighborhood hieroglyphics have been discovered which are not at present decipherable. Traces of an ancient road have also been discovered. In one place the mountains were terraced for seventy miles.
Vegetation
THE Belgian Congo is at this time probably the least known portion of Africa. It is in the Congo that the jungle is thickest. In area it is equal to all Europe west of Russia; it is the abode of about twelve million Africans and six thousand whites. Since the war the natives are complaining of the high cost of living, yet a whole bunch of bananas costs but five cents. Birds and beasts are everywhere.
Palms are to be found all over Africa. The date palm is the special characteristic of the desert, to which it is specially adapted, and in which it forms the principal means of subsistence. The Arabs, who make a living by carrying ivory and other treasures across the desert, carry dates with them as their sole food, counting out just so many to be taken at each meal, and not varying the number. They know in advance, to a certainty, how many meals they have provided for. As in Australia, the ferns grow to the size of small trees, being often twelve to fifteen feet in height. In the western part of tropical Africa coffee plants thrive so luxuriously as to form thick woods.
South Africa is the natural home of fruits of all sorts. Virtually every fruit used by man is grown in this region; and as the fruits mature at a time when the northern fruit season is closed, there is ready market for these products, although the spoliation is large on account of having to cross the equator. South African pears are in the markets of New York in May.
The Kalahari
WITH more water South Africa would be an ideal country for cattle-raising, but the water supply is a little too treacherous. In the rainy season the veldt becomes covered with a tall grass which, while it is green, burns the mouths of the cattle; but after it is mature it is eaten by them greedily. It will keep its nourishing power for years, and is stored by the natives against seasons of severe drought
A feature of the South African desert that makes it less dreadful than the Sahara is the Tsama, or wild watermelon, which affords a good substitute for water, and is widely dis-treated. As in the case of the Sahara, there is „ plenty of water beneath the surface; and when' wells are bored the life-giving underground streams are always found.
Egypt and Abyssinia .
AFRICA is the continent without a country,
• in the commonly accepted sense of th# term. Liberia, Egypt and Abyssinia are supposed to be independent; but in actual practice the United States controls Liberia, and Britain controls Egypt and Abyssinia. Whenever a European country wants a piece of Africa, it just helps itself, in the same way that any regular thief takes anything. France, Britain,. Belgium, and Portugal virtually own all of the Dark Continent. Italy has Tripoli, Eritrea and Somaliland. Spain has part of Morocco. Germany did have 1,000,000 square miles, but now does not have a foot of colonies anywhere.
The native name of Egypt is the Black Country, which term is used to describe the color of the soil brought down by the Nile. While Greece and Rome were both wrapped in barbarism, Egypt was a country of elegant roads, immense temples, palaces, and other great structures of which the remains are with us to this day. Earth’s greatest building, the Great Pyramid, is found there.
The upper part of the Nile Valley is expected to bring forth untenable riches, when once a railroad makes it's development profitable. It is known in advance that there are rich oil wells and phosphate deposits, coal and mineral deposits, all awaiting the advent of capital and modern methods of production.
Abyssinia is the Switzerland of Africa. It is a mountainous region, cut off from the sea by
GOLDEN AGE
B*oon.n, N. T.
British Somaliland and the Italian provinces of Eritrea and Somaliland. Its inhabitants are whites; and in all the wars that have ravaged the world it remains independent and unconquered. Its king, said to be a descendant of the Queen of Sheba, calls himself the King of kings. The Pope of Rome puts himself in the same class and uses the same title.
Kenya, Tanganyika, Mozambique
IMMEDIATELY south of Abyssinia is the British state of Kenya where, in the .effort to persuade or to compel' others to do the work which they should do for themselves, a number, of great landholders have been recently ac. ‘ cased of practising slavery. We will have something further to say on this subject later in this article. '
South of Kenya is Tanganyika territory, which until recently was German East Africa. ’ South of Tanganyika, for a thousand miles along the Indian Ocean, stretches the country of Mozambique, or Portuguese East Africa. The latter country is said to be one of the richest countries, in agricultural possibilities at least, of all undeveloped countries of the world. The land lies high above sea level, has no deserts, no salt sinks, no large swamps, no mountainous wastes and no impenetrable jungles; but it does have millions of acres of the finest alluvial soil, and without doubt will sometime support a vast population. At present it has about 3,000,000^ inhabitants, of whom only one percent are' , whites. •
Rhodesia and Southwest Africa
IMMEDIATELY west of Mozambique lies Southern Rhodesia, an area of 149,000 square miles, which Britain has just' decided to annex and furnish with a responsible government Until now it has been under the administration of the British South Africa Company.
West of Rhodesia lies what was once German Southwest Africa. The 8,000 Germans living there have been automatically made citizens of the South African Union, at the same time that they retain their German citizenship. Under the arrangement which, has been made they enjoy all the rights and duties of other citizens of South Africa, but will not have to bear arms against Germany for thirty years. By that time, however, there will be no more wars.
Repatriation Impractical
IT IS but natural that Africans and others who know of the riches of Africa, and who realize the adaptability of the black man to its climate^ should think of the possibility of repatriating upon its shores the millions of blacks who are now in America and the West Indies; but the thing is impractical It could be done, but the suffering it would cause would be incalculable and the cost incredible. *
In 1877 there was such a movement A stock company was formed. An old boat was bought; and thousands sold their belongings, with the expectation of going on the initial trip. The boat was legally permitted to carry 206; but when sailing time came, there were a thousand on board. Hundreds were sent ashore in rowboats. The food ran low, and so did the water supply. Twenty-one were buried at sea in ten days. At length Africa was reached, but both natives and newcomers were disappointed, and. many of the newcomers died. The boat got back to America and never made another trip.
Natives and Missions
THE natives of Africa are, generally speaking, the most peaceful, most trustful, and best tempered people to be found anywhere. This would be apparent from the fact that there never has been an invasion of other lands by an uprising of blacks; nor has the black race in America ever given any serious trouble. It has had trouble, plenty of it, but the fault has generally not been of its making.
Missions have not worked out for the African’s betterment Taught by the mission schools some of the elements of the white man's trades, the native breaks away from the school and obtains work in a railroad gang or in a mine, only to learn in a short time all that is worst in life. His habits become corrupted, his reliability and trustfulness disappear, and it is literally true that he becomes twofold more the child of gehenna than he was in the first place. i
Natural Ability of the Blacks
ON SUBJECTS with which they are familiar, it is generally admitted that there are no better reasoners than the black men. When following the trail of game they read accurately every break in the branches, every mark in the earth, every twist in the grass, every rustling
•j
of the leaves. They can even tell the kind of prey they are tracking, its height, and sometimes its sex.
By means of relays of wooden gongs the blacks in central Africa quickly send complicated information hundreds of miles. How it is done the whiteman cannot even understand; yet it is done. From time immemorial in certain districts the natives have been accustomed to working iron, making their own knives, bush hooks, hoes, and tomahawks. Every new white man is at once given a name which describes him perfectly, accentuating his peculiarities. The white man’s machines are named appropriately, to describe the sounds they emit or the work they do. The African is nothing if not original.
Cannibalism and Demonology
"VT2S; there are cannibals in Africa, in some ■A- places. And the worst of it is that some of these cannibals are said to be fine fellows to meet They are very pleasant, but they are fond of meat, and fresh meat is hard to get in the tropics. Some of the tribes buy prisoners of war, holding them in reserve, killing and eating them as they are needed. Others eat only their enemies; others eat only because they wish to assimilate the strength and other good qualities of those that have passed away. It is all very hideous, almost as much so as the diabolical doctrine of eternal torture believed by some savage whites in America and elsewhere.
Like his white brother, the African native has often been deceived by demons. Some are deluded into supposing that they are leopards, dress themselves in leopard hides, and leap upon their innocent and unsuspecting victims, killing them and subsequently devouring their bodies. This disease is called by scientists lycan-thropy, and has been known for ages. As in America, the black brother in Africa is easily misguided and misled; but for the most part he is an intelligent, simple-hearted, inoffensive man. x
Vanity! Vanity!
AS IN America (and in America it is not limited to the blacks) the Africans are inordinately vain, so much so that the world’s recognized market for second-hand uniforms, dress'suits, etc., is in that region. A pair of trousers makes all the difference in the world in the pstimate a man holds of himself in Africa, and in the estimate that others have of him. Put a pair of trousers on one who has never before worn them, and he at once becomes insufferably arrogant A good many strut when they get into fine clothes. What is the object of uniforms, robes, gowns, et% anyway, unless it is to attempt to convey to others a sense of the wearer’s superiority f In 1920 the United States exported to South Africa 585,819 pieces of second-hand clothing, in bales of fifty suits each, at an average value of about $4.50 per suit
There are tribes in Africa where the women paint as badly as they do in New York city. This may seem incredible to one who has ridden in a New York subway. It is probably not true, however, so far as lip-sticks are concerned. The African native woman has not fallen that far. But she does (in some places) paint herself with red paint from top to toe, staining even fingers, toes, and hair.
The African natives, in some places, devota much attention to their hair and teeth, as others do elsewhere. Styles vary. Some of these natives stain their teeth blue, yellow, and purple, leaving a white tooth here and there. Others file their teeth in patterns. The style of coloring or filing shows at a glance to what tribe one belongs. In some tribes the hair is plaited and wrapped with grass and clay so as to make the strands stick out “like quills upon a fretful porcupine." Bings and bones inserted in the lips, noses, ears and cheeks make a belle look as badly as some New York women look when they have put on overmuch paint; i. e., when they have painted not wisely but too well
Slattery: British, Portuguese, American
r? WOULD be good to say that there is no slavery in Africa; for no man was ever yet good enough to own another man. But the sad truth is that there is slavery in Af rica. In Abyssinia anybody can see it. British correspondents assert that it is also found in Kenya, bordering Abyssinia on the south. The Manchester Guard, ian summing up the Kenya situation in a few words said .*
“The system of forced labor introduced into the Kenya colony becomes, however unintentionally, slavery. The stages precedent to the inauguration of this system are familiar ones; namely, a vigorous campaign directed towards showing first, that the African is but a Tasy nig-
ger* and secondly, that the land he occupies is vastly in cxcers of his requirement!.” '
There is slavery in Portuguese East. Africa and Portuguese West Africa, commonly called Mozambique and Angola. A law is in effect requiring each native to obtain a certificate showing that he has done three months' hard work within the year. No one is obliged to hire him; but if he cannot produce a certificate, he is seized and forced to labor several months as a prisoner. What are virtually similar arrangements have been uncovered at various times in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. It will be noted that white men are the aggressors in these instances. -
Cruelty of White Saoayeu .
WHITE men, too, are responsible for the laws in South Africa where a native must get a pass to live with his wife, another pass to visit a family down the street, and another to work for his pittance of perhaps two shillings a week. These natives are all taxed, but the money is never used to benefit them. The schools are built for the whites only. Again, the whites are the aggressors.
In 1920 one upright judge in British East Africa astonished the white population when he sentenced an army captain to three months' imprisonment for flogging a dumb boy over the head, face, and body for an hour. Of course there was a provocation. The boy, with little to occupy his mind, had chased a pig to death, and was chasing another; but that was no excuse for the white man’s putting his mind on an even lower plane.
In the subjugation of Somaliland, the British government only three years ago resorted to the bombing of native quarters from airplanes in order to accomplish their ends. It does not seem to us that it is any less murder or any less thievery to subjugate a black man’s land than it is a white man’s land; and both are alike execrable. In the end "order” was established. Oh yes 1. . ... _
"Order, the hush of brooding slaves. ; .
Peace in the dungeon vaults and graves.” , _
"Bleuingt of Civilization”
PATHETIC feature of recent migrations of natives in Africa is that of a whole people that left their homes on the southern edge of the Sahara, in 1921, and came down into the notoriously unhealthy coast region near the mouth of the Congo, in the hopb that they might die. They expressed the wish that they might die on account of the ravages of the white man's liquor in their midst, and the spread of the white man’s disease, sometimes called the Frenchman’s disease, brought into their midst by their conquerors. Their women have refused to bear children, and the extinction of the tribe is slowly progressing.
Rewards ofPatriotim - •
f pHE London Daily Herald, about two years ago, reported the following extreme instance of cruelty and unwisdom on the part oh the British in dealing with a so-called native uprising. It can be seen at once who were the aggressors and who were the sufferers in thi* terrible campaign: *
"Numbering about 1,500 in all, the Bondeb live on a reserve on the southern border at Southwest Africa. They are extremely poor, and live largely on ‘gum sad goat's milk.' Their moat important possesions are their flocks and the dogs which protect them from jackala. On these dogs the Administrator imposed taxes which fax surpassed in most cases the total income of the whole family (a family powring five dogs, for instance, would be taxed £10.) In desperation, the tribe refused to puf its taxes. Thereupon the South African Government sent a force of 370 men with artillery, machine-guns and two bombing aeroplanes, to put down what it described as a 'rising.' The Bondels, it is officially admitted, had less than 200 men capable of fighting; and these mm possessed among than about seventy rifles, all told. It is not surprising, therefore, that forty-nine of them were killed, including their leader, Abraham Morris, who had been mentioned in despatches for his great bravery when fighting on the British side in the World War. Several women and children were killed, and about 700 takm prisoners. Over 13,000 head of stock were also captured.**
Subsequent despatdies showed that one of the chiefs who was captured was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for giving shelter to the brave British warrior above named, and also for carrying arms. It is. things like this that have filled the natives with distrust of the fairness and honesty of their white overlords. Accordingly, many of the young natives in Cape Town have taken to politics; and as they are allowed to vote when they have incomes of $250 per year, they are making their power felt.
Whites Are Distrusted
VRAR ago a missionary came from Kenya to the Colonial Office in London, urging that the withholding of the franchise from Indians who had settled there was in the interest of the native Africans. The Africans sent a cablegram to London reading as follows:
"We have no faith in Dr. Arthur, and believe that he' will harm our cause and favor white settlers. Our troubles emanate from white settlers only. We are afraid to declare our mind here, and fear imprisonment, trana-' portation, or hanging. We request to be afforded an opportunity for representative natives to wait upon th* Colonial Office before a decision is taken regarding th* fate of our country.”
Does not a despatch of this nature justify the' title we have given to this article! What will » happen to a minority of unwise and cruel whites when a vast majority of able Africans have educations equal to their own!
A Misunderstanding ■
(From Tike Latett, a ^porting paper published In Sooth Africa)
S' OME time ago, a gentleman called upon me at my office, introducing himself, as I thought he said, as a coal porter.
He seemed much too clean to have anything ’ to do with coal except in a. small way, such as putting a little bit of coal on the domestic hearth to keep the home fires burning.
I had no recollection of having seen him in charge of a coaling gang on the wharf, nor had I seen him asleep in the engineer’s cabin during bunkering operations.
Coal has a darkening tendency, whereas he, was wondrous fair, with blue eyes. .
At all events, he asked me for a few minutes of my time; and that being a commodity with which I am unfortunately too well endowed, I granted his request ~
Had he mentioned money, my attitude would have been different.
He seemed impressed with my concession. I offered him the choice of fourteen empty chairs; but he preferred to stand. His disinclination to sit down gave me apprehension.
Raising a warning finger, he placed an attach^ case on the table, and I thought I was going to • be involved in the purchase on easy terms of some valuable treatise. However, he only produced a circular which announced in bold type that "MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE.”
I immediately thought of the shares which
"Rejoicing I Rejoicing!
The kingdom who shall gain? Of all the peoples on the earth, Who with our King shall reign?
I held in the Crematorium, and which I hoped would maintain me in yny old age. '
He said that I might become one of the mil* lions, but I said that I would prefer otherwise^ as it would mean that I would have to wait to see the Durban Town Council come to a dedsioe about some subject In the ordinary course, I expect to pass away before such an event takes place. The Councillors are the men he should interview, as the ordinary threescore yean and ten are of no use to them; and a longer lease ' of life is what they require in order to come to a decision on anything.
My friend carried on a fervid discourse for a considerable time, as when I woke up an hour later he seemed to be warming up to his subject. He thanked me for my patient hearing; and I expressed my gratitude to him for his very lucid explanation of whatever it was all about.
Reviewing my position as a shareholder in the Crematorium, there seems a possibility of making a doss if millions now living will never die. On the other hand, I am doubtful if I shall ever live to see a return on my Grosvenor Syndicate shares, although I have heard that she will be refloated .next week and be moored in Durban Bay. A man told me so.
I asked my friend to leave his card in case I wanted him at any time. On it he described himself as a “colporteur.”
I knew all along that he knew nothing about coal.
"All those who toiled and overcame, Who service loved for Hia blest name, _ Who filled the measure, bore the shames These advertised the King.” .
Letters from Foreign Correspondents
from the Federal authorities, that about 8,000 more immigrants are getting ready to sail for Canada, as he writes, to swell the ranks of unemployed now within the Dominion-
“Upon the other hand,” he states, “thousand* of our best trained mechanics are flocking over to the United States, where work is now plentiful, where opportunity ! is greater and where wage* are much higher.”
He refers also to the fact that the Government figures show an exodus of 16,000 to 18,000 per month:
“If this record be maintained throughout the year, it will mean a loss of 200,000 of population.”
The Edmonton Journal reports the same condition, and comments on the local situation: 1
"A resolution was unanimously passed setting forth the council’s views that this was a matter for governments to deal with, Federal and Provincial."
A London (England) despatch to the sum . journal states that Tom Richardson, a former -member of the British House of Commons^ who has been in Canada for three years, severely attacks Canada’s immigration policy: ,
“It is an act of cruelty,” he says, “to encourage ' J people to seek work in Canada, where thousand* of unemployed.in the cities, and seventy-five percent of th* > immigrants who went to work on the land, went down.”
James Simpson, Secretary of the Federation of Labor for Canada, as reported in the London (Ont.) Free Press, stated that there were hun- / dreds of men walking the streets of the city, with no opportunity for employment, and that this was one of the chief contributing factors to the exodus of native Canadians from the conn-try. It was the speaker’s contention that unemployment conditions today were as bad as they had been all winter. Immigration had added to the problem in a serious way by the introduction of mechanics who at the first opportunity leave their farms and seek work in the cities.
The banking situation still focuses the eye of the intelligent observer, as everything indicates that, given a ghost of a chance, the failures of i the Banque Nationale and the Home Bank will be whitewashed, and all investigation dropped. ■
The recent death of H. J. Daly, the President
of the Home Bank, may offer a convenient
scapegoat upon which the entire matter can be 71* ’ ’
From Canada
YOUR correspondent sometimes wonders as to whether the people will ever awake to a sense of their personal responsibility. As to whether the effort in telling the people the truth about national conditions as nearly as that truth can be approximated is recompensed for by the desire aroused in the hearts of the people for something better, sometimes appears doubtful We pride ourselves, as a nation, on being sharp people; we can see just as far through a brick wall as most; it is hard to flimflam us with any scheme designed to delude us to our own hurt; and yet a casual perusal of our daily papers convince us that we are the most easily deluded of any. Your typical Canadian is a person of mixed national characteristics: Scottish carefulness, English obstinacy, American resourcefulness and push, and the shrewdness of the Irish all combine to make him a hard man to beat Today, much against his will be it said, he is being convinced that Canada is prosperous; and with triumphant flourish trade figures and bank clearings are published to show that she is getting steadily more prosperous.
Let us try once more.
If Canada is prosperous, its manufacturers are getting wealthy, without a doubt. The Toronto Telegram echoes its contemporary papers in the following: .
"Four hundred and fifty firms withdraw from Canadian Manufacturers Association during year. Thoma* Roden, Toronto, addressed a gathering [of the C. M. A.], hi* opening remark being that it was a 'tragic year*, and then went on to advise the assembled manufacturers that 201 houses had failed, 107 had resigned, and 27 had pleaded financial embarrassment as their reason for dropping out.” ,
No comment is necessary.
If Canada is prosperous, its people are content to stay here to work and to enjoy their prosperity. The newspaper comments on the exodus of workers to the U. S. A., which continues unabated, would seem to indicate that they seriously doubt this prosperity.
London Advertiser says:
“Toronto mayo^ asks all cities to assist. Deplore* exodus of young Canadians to United States."
Mayor Hiltz refers to recent announcements from the various provincial governments and
loaded, and no doubt an attempt will be made to do this.
In the meantime, the public show an exasperating determination to get to the bottom of things; and there yet seems room for hope that for once at least, monied bank-wreckers will share the sufferings of their poor victims.
From the Edmonton Journal:
"Half a million living on taxes of rest of people; Gratton O’Leary gives staggering National Debt figures.
“‘It is a conservative estimate that something like half a million people of this country are living on the taxes of the rest of us,’ declared Gratton O’Leary, Ottawa newspaperman, before the Canadian Credit Men’s Association. '
“The national debt of Canada is today $2,400,000,000. In other words, we have since the Armistice increased the national debt more than we increased it during the whole war. And this is not all. There are enormous railway securities which the Dominion of Canada has guaranteed, and which bring the gross public debt of the Dominion to $3,219,000,000, according to a statement of the Royal Bank of Canada. Adding the debt of our provinces and cities, we have the alarming total of $500 indebtedness for every man, woman, and child in the Dominion.” '
We think that there may be a tendency to confuse terms, in the minds of some. Please note that the gross public debt is variously stated in newspaper reports; for it is a term loosely used to indicate either the gross national debt (Federal or Dominion debts incurred through the activities of the Ottawa government), or the gross public debt, which would he the above, plus debts incurred by other governing bodies within the Dominion, such as Provincial, Municipal, and Civic governments.
The Edmonton Sunday Bulletin asks the question in a special article, “What’s Wrong with the World These Days!”
"And what ia the remedy for all its ills ? Everywhere government* are in difficulties; and all over North America we are discovering evidences of graft. What does it mean?—a sort of Jesting Paganism abroad.
“The world is hard to govern just now. Unroll the map of the world, look where you will, and you will see a country that is politically upset”
The article presents many questions to its readers:
“Have we got what the Allies fought for? One does not like to say yet that the world will not be the better
for its purging of war, but so far the benefit* are net visible.” - '
“Is there more dishonesty in public life? -Unfortunately, there is a popular levity about the charge* and exposures that have been made. The most shocking aspect of the whole shocking business is the attitude <rf the daily press, which, for the most part, rails at the accusers and investigators rather than at the men in high places who assisted in the looting of the nation and gathered in bribes and thefts shamelessly.” ’
We would expect little better from the suborned press that claims to represent the voice of the people, and is merely the logos of the exploiting big interests. .
However if the Edmonton Bulletin ia seriously looking for an answer, a postcard to this magazine will bring it a complete and satisfying one.
~ Political interferences of an extremely obnoxious character involving adverse criticism of the present provincial Government on the pari of the Roman Catholic Church has brought about a considerable coolness between Church and State.
The Montreal Daily Star announces “Breach between Church and Government of Quebec wider. Liberals may appeal to Rome against L’Action Catholique."
The offensive item apparently is an open letter written by Ferdinand Belanger, one of the " editorial staff of L’Action Catholique, in which he says that during the last provincial campaign Premier Taschereau had threatened Cardinal Begin with open warfare if L’Action Catholique was not ordered to stop interfering with politics.
The Boman Church tries to keep the steel daw well hidden by the velvet glove. But once in a while it slips and scratches the wrong man; and for a moment a glimpse can be caught of the medieval spirit of Rome, and her unholy ambition to establish her ghostly headship over nations and to regain her temporal power.
In the ranks of the Protestant Church the fight for legalized union goes merrily on. Ottawa is besieged by prelates and partisans for or against the union of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregationalist churches.
The spiritual angle of the controversy, the scrapping of ereeds held and taught tenaciously for many years, commands little attention, but the property and financial rights cause much bitterness. What more could be expected of a commercialized system but that its hardest fight would be over the Golden Calf that it has worshiped so long I
The question of peace is much in the public eye today.
Recently delegates from all over the world came to Canada to speak on peace. Presumably peace is the desire of all nations, and so long as soldiers and naval attaches et al are discussing it, no one says a word. These delegates were pacifists; so the Toronto City Council almost came to blows deciding whether it would be patriotic to let the word peace be spoken in the sacred precincts of Toronto's fair city.
The TorontoDcwly Star headlines an interesting account of the meeting that was ultimately held with “Preached Gospel of Peace While Police Held in Reserve”! Yes; we in Canada want to get rid of war, just as a drunken man wants to have his whisky taken away from him.
And so the weary world wags on. *
America and Japan
IT IS claimed that in California, in 1919, the Japanese who were in that state produced $67,000,000 worth of foodstuffs^ which would not have been produced if they had not been there. This shows that the Japanese issue is not all one-sided. Just how effective the so-called “Gentlemen's Agreement” is in preventing immigration from Japan may be judged from the fact that three steamers during the month of May made special trips from Japan to the United States to bring in the great number of brides selected by the photograph method by the men already in America.
The American ambassador to Japan has resigned, and the Japanese ambassador to the United States has also resigned, or will at least return to Japan temporarily or permanently; and while these resignations are explained away as having no particular significance, yet history shows that such resignations are common between countries that are on the brink of war. The news of the retirement or recall of the Japanese ambassador to the United States appeared in the press at the same time as the announcement that President Coolidge had signed the immigration bill, which includes the Japanese exclusion clause.
If the flight of the aviators around ths world does nothing else, it will probably convince the militarists of all nations of the possibility that their own aviators can visit other nations in time of war, with generous quantities of poison gas and those other adjuncts of our present civilization, while the people will be taught to believe that all wars are of divine arrangement and have divine sanction. Each different kind of gas will have its own flock of dominies to bless it
Along the lines of the proclamation of the true gospel it is encouraging to- read that the sale and distribution of the Bible is greatly on the increase, the distribution in Japan alone last year having been 343,588; while the increase in distribution in China watf more than a million copies.
Java _
THE Netherlands have a colonial empire of 50,000,000 people in the Dutch East Indien From generation to generation the Hollandish Government gets along peaceably with the natives. Java increases in population and in prosperity. One never hears of rebellions requiring the punitive expeditions so common in other colonial empires. Now we hear that the Dutch are founding a great Javanese university, in which the natives may be educated and fitted for the government of the islands when the time shall have come for Holland to place the control in their hands.
Australia
FOUR out of the six Australian states are now governed by the Labor Party, recent elections in South Australia and West Australia having both resulted in Labor victories. Tasmania came under the control of the Labor Party at the beginning of the year.
Between April 6 and May 19 two Australian aviators flew completely around Australia, most of the distance along the coast, traveling altogether 9,000 miles. While they were on the wing their average speed was ninety miles an hour. The Australian government is considering the use of airplanes in connection with a search for sites for meteorological stations, that is to say, weather stations, around the borders of the Antarctic continent
Digest of World News
(Badlo-ca*t FROM WATCHTOWER WBBB on a. wave length of 273 meters, by the Editor^
IT IS interesting to know that the great body of water called Baffin Bay to the north of the Canadian mainland has regular service to and from Quebec; but unless any wonder at this, we explain that the regular service is limited to one vessel each year, which leaves Quebec July 1. To the few human beings living on the desolate shores of Baffin Bay it must be a thrilling experience when the hull of the vessel first comes into sight. However, life in the far north is not the same now as it was before the invention of radio. The Arctic expedition of Captain MacMillan has been in quite frequent touch with civilization throughout the year during which he has been in the far north.
Brazil "
"DRAZIL is celebrating this year its first cen-■D tennial anniversary. It was in 1824, one hundred years ago, that Brazil proclaimed its independence of Portugal and organized aa a republic. ,
The governor of the Bank of England and other prominent capitalists have recently visited Brazil, and have advised the Brazilian Government to dispose of the present federal railways and steamship lines and to abandon the policy of constructing and operating railroads and to postpone the development of government-owned steel interests. In other words, the people of Brazil are invited to put all their assets into the hands of bankers who will see to it that thereafter the Brazilians have no claim to the assets and no share of the profits.
Africa
THE Reverend Doctor Elmer H. Richards, for thirty-five years a missionary in Africa, in an address at Binghamton, New York, said: “The white man took his Bible and Jesus Christ with him and invaded Africa and now the promised land ia his. The Mohammedan had swept the continent with fire and. sword, and got nothing but defeat and trouble for his pains. Other nations had tried to slice off the delicious African territory, but all to no avail. It took Christianity .to see the value of the black man, to give him a chance, just a chance; and now, all the land ia ours. \
“The white man ia the first to handle the diamond fields, and they all are ours. The white man ie the first to handle the gold, and the ivory, and the valuable oatrich feathers, and the wonderful white ivory; and it ia all ours. We brought the black man the Bible, and • sterling religion—and the Almighty hands ua the reins of control and possession of the land.”
rn
Commenting on this the Walton, N. Y., Reporter says:
“The black man geta ‘the Bible and a sterling religion/ but the white man walks off with the profits. When the black man geta intelligence, will he think the exchange fair and retain his love for the Bible? The attempt of the missionary to act in a dual capacity, that of taring the Lord and the commercial interests at the same time, can have but one outcome and that ia to discredit utterly the religion he professes. Commercialism and Chris* tianity an not twin religions; and the attempt of the Babsons and Richards to lure business men with the bait of profits to be supporters of the church is as sordid aa the gospel of the Tull dinner pail' -that the protective tariff was to give every workingman. It is an appeal to cupidity and nothing more, and the harvest will ba a crop of hypocrites.” .
How brief is human glory! General Smuts, the last of the great national war leaders, has lost his position, having been swept from power by a coalition of the Labor Party and the Nationalists. General Smuts had much to do with the drafting of the League of Nations covenant
Cuba '
ON ACCOUNT of the fact that the past winter has seen a good price for sugar, the island of Cuba has had a period of great prosperity with strikes of all sorts in all parts of the island to a degree never before experienced. The street-car lines have been tied up, and trains wrecked, and there has been some loss of life.
Gnat Britain
MRELY as a matter of news, and not because we approve its policies, we call attention to the program of the Co-mTn-nniaf. Party of Great Britain. The Communist Party, which is antagonistic to the Labor Party, but which is working to some extent in connection with it, has a program which includes the nationalization of mines and railways without paying anything to their present owners, control of industries by the workers, cancellation of the national, debt with compensation only to the small dapositors, state control of banks and of internal prices, old age pensions at sixty, and minimum wage laws. This is the immediate program, besides which there is proposed a state monoply of the press, the nationalization of all tea industries, and the general distribution of firearms among all classes, except those who happen to have a little property. To our way of thinking, the program is incomplete. It should provide for free admission to the insane asylum of all persons holding such impossible views.
The British and French Premiers have joined in a note to the German Government, protesting against the repeated open and secret activities of military associations throughout Germany. They have told the German Government that these activities gravely complicate the situation when the prospects of putting the Dawes Plan into operation has aroused hope of a settlement of the problems growing out of the World War.
The prohibition question is again advocated in England. The Bishop of Oxford has presented a bill providing that in certain districts a compulsory vote be taken every three years on the liquor question. It is not believed that the bill will be passed; but it is interesting to know that it has the support of thirty-two of the British Bishops, who by reason of their office are members of the British Government.
The quiet advance of luxuries to the tables of all classes continues in England as elsewhere. Ten years ago, grapefruit was practically unknown in England. The present consumption is estimated at about 1,600 tons annually, and is on the increase. The best grapefruit comes from Florida; but the English markets are also supplied from Texas, California, and South Africa.
The Imperial Defense Committee of the British Empire has decided that the tunnel to France must hot be built To this we can only say: What a pity that a tunnel which would mean so much in the way of convenience and benefit to millions of people in the British Isles, and on the Continent, should be held up by militarists. Arguments against the tunnel were that it might possibly be used to the disadvantage of British naval forces. This seems ridiculous.
The growth of cotton throughout the British Empire is increasing rapidly. Many of these cotton fields are in Africa, in East, West and
Central Africa. It is also raised in Queensland, Australia, and in the West Indies.
The British air force now has nearing completion a biplane with a wing span of seventy feet The engine is a one thousand horse-power. Their airplane, the largest ever built, has three floors; the top floor for pilot and guns, second floor for charts and officers, and the third floor for bombs and other similar adjuncts of present-day civilization.
Ireland s
J) BOFESSOR Timothy A. Smiddy, of Cork, has been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of the Irish Free State at Washington. This is with the full consent and approval of the British Government. The British Government has also expressed its willingness that the Irish Free State should have its own minister in France; but the French Government seems to fear that this might lead to complications, and is therefore holding off.
The north of Ireland has been visited by a severe tornado. It lasted only a few minutes, but did considerable damage. >
Spain
THE Spanish Government continues to get nowhere in its campaign against the Moors.
There is nothing for which the Spanish people are so anxious as that the war with Morocco should end, but the Moors continue to cut off Spain’s advance forces from their bases of supplies, thus imposing upon the Spaniards the necessity of surrendering and of retrenching for renewed defenses and fresh troops.
France — . •
RADICALS, when placed in power, find themselves often confronted with conditions which they cannot suddenly change. Such conditions confronted Herriot, France’s new Prime Minister, with respect to the continued French military occupation of the Ruhr. Against his wishes he felt obliged to continue the occupation; but in order to gain the consent of the Chamber of Deputies he was obliged to rely upon his political opponents.
Now that the radicals are in control, there is serious discussion of the removal of the statue of Napoleon from tile Place Vendome. This statue is made from cannon ■which Napoleon captured. Honest and decent human beings are wondering why they should allow to remain the statue of such a heartless butcher. It is a strange mental perversion that throughout the ages has glorified the men who are chiefly responsible for widows and orphans, armless, legless, sightless men, and millions of rotting corpses. In our judgment the statue should come down; and if it were not for the valuable metal it contains, it should be buried a mile deep under ashes and tin cans.
The descendants of the Huguenots throughout France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, and the Rhine country are celebrating the 300th anniversary of the founding of New York by their ancestors three hundred years ago. This year seems to see the Protestants of the world stirred remarkably; for it is said that this Huguenot mevement is attracting great attention throughout the countries involved.
* A French inventor, Camille Dussard, has invented a heatless electric light. In the presence of the Academy of Science he exhibited and handled without injury a two thousand candlepower lamp, receiving neither shock nor burn.
Jugoslavia
AT THE village of Chtit near Belgrade, Jugoslavia, workmen building a railroad are reported to have discovered the petrified skeleton of a man forty-five feet tall. The teeth, which are entirely preserved, are eighteen inches long. Without question this is one of the giants who lived in the earth before the flood, children of the improper union between the fallen angels and the daughters of men, referred to in the sixth chapter of Genesis, in the epistle of St. Jude, and in the epistles of St. Peter. Readers of The Golden Age will remember the extended description of such a giant discovered in Arizona, which appeared in our issue of November 21,1923.
Lithuania
RELATIONS between Lithuania and Poland are strained. The frontiers between the two countries have been closed while Lithuania is trying earnestly to find fifty convicts who have escaped from the Kovno prison. Several of these were Polish spies, who are under the death sentence; and although they are all armed, yet a number of them are still handcuffed. .
Denmark
THE Danish Cooperative Society by whose efficient work Denmark has become one of the most prosperous and progressive countries of Europe, is now putting on its own line of ships between the Danish coast and London, expecting thus to reduce the average traveling time between the two countries by twenty-four hours.
Norway .
VJ" ORWAY is hoping for a large attendance at its annual'fair at Christiania, which takes place in September. The fair is a very, small thing as compared with the colossal British enterprise at Wembley, but will no doubt attract many thousands of Americans, especially those of Scandinavian origin.
Sweden
SWEDEN also is to have a greatYair, August 4-10, at Gothenburg, hoping no doubt that many Americans who will visit the Wembley Fair will also come to Gothenburg, and leave some of their excess wealth behind them. While the fair is in progress, citizens of the United States and Canada who were formerly Swedish subjects will be allowed to visit Sweden without passports. .
Switzerland
INASMUCH as the Rhine, the Rhone and the
Po Rivers all rise in the Alps, Switzerland has become the power-house of Western Europe. But the Swiss people instead of keeping these plants under their own control, have sanctioned development under a control which is part Swiss, part German, part French, and part Italian. As a consequence, immense quantities of power are being exported from Switzerland at rates much less than those charged to the Swiss people themselves.' The natural result is the breaking down of Swiss industries. It has even been proposed to transfer Swiss industries into the border provinces of France and Germany, and there to operate them on the low wage scale and at low cost for raw materials with cheap power exported from Switzerland. In the face of such
a proposed remedy, it will not be long before some bright person will suggest moving the frontiers and leaving the plants right where they are, thus wiping Switzerland out of existence. .
Eathonia -
WITH remarkable enterprise the Department of Inland Waters of the Esthonian Government has carefully measured the rivers of that country with a view to determining their water-power resources. It has been determined that the streams will produce. 80,000 horse-power. A plan of distribution over the whole country has been formulated; and as soon as the necessary plants can be erected, it is expected that a great saving in fuel will take place.
Albania
THE Albanian Government has recently set aside 3,000 acres for a college of agriculture and mechanical arts. It is said that the soil of Albania is very rich, and that under proper methods of cultivation the country would easily maintain ten times its present population. During the last three years some five hundred schools have been started in Albania. A similar educational course has been successful in Serbia.
Italy
IT IS now established that the murder gang which assassinated the Italian patriot, Mat-teotti, made its headquarters at the Ministry of the Interior, where the Director General of Police also made his office. De Bono, Director of Police, is the head of the national militia.
The opposition parties have withdrawn from the Italian Parliament, leaving Mussolini and his friends in complete control. Mussolini has stated that, personally, he has no intention whatever of resigning or of disbanding the Fascist militia. Mussolini is having trouble in the controlling of his 600,000 black shirt warriors, many of whom are mere youths who have never done any real work, and who would not do it if it were offered to them. '
At Carnegie Hall, New York city, on June 26,2,500 Italiaiis demanded that the Italian ambassador to the' United States should be dismissed, characterizing Mussolini’s government as “government by murder and anarchy". . Mussolini has promised to transform the Fascist! into a strictly legal organization, to discipline them for any further outrages, and to govern the country hereafter through the party. One of the cartoonists of the anti-Fascist newspaper has been seized three times in the last year, and fed a pint of castor oil each time. If Mussolini’s promises are worth anything, nothing of this sort will occur in the future.
Hungary
A FEW days ago despatches appeared in the papers stating that Hungary’s new loan had all been subscribed for in Europe. More recent papers stated that, as a last-minute favor, American bankers had been let in to take one-fifth of the loan. It now appears that they have actually taken about one-half of it. The way in which this matter has been given publicity convinces us that this is all propaganda, and that it was the intention of the United States bankers from the very first to supply a large portion of this loan. AH this will help tc make it easier to sell Hungarian paper in ths United States.
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