Golden Age, November 5, 1924

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TRUTH

RI GH TE OUSNE S JS

A DIGEST OF WORLD NEWS

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LAND OF FLOWERS AND SPRINGS

PROGRESS OF CO-OPERATION

VoL VI Bi-Weekly No. 134

November 5, 1924

r PARADISE ON EARTH

OLD VQRLD DYING

a Journal of fact Rope and, courage

NEV VORLO BEGINNING

Contents of the Golden Age

«=^== ..... =caa£ct^=^=^==s==sare

■ LiABCS AND ECOMOMIOl

▲ Dioest ar Wtnu Nbws

Elimination of Employes by Age Limit

Social and 'Educattobai.

Miscellaneous Items

The Psooazas or Co-opebation

Finance—CoMxnca—Teanspobtatiox Manufacturing and Financial Items.......

Transportation

; Political—Doiomo m Fornax

U 3. Mail Service

■ ' Ups and Downs of Government

' ’ Europe, Great Britain

Fiance, Germany

Ciecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Russia ......

t . Italy, Spain, Miscellaneous

Reposts rrtni Tamas Cobxzspondcnts

How Pbohisition Cams on ths Statute Books

CmuzATioH (Poem) ........... ,

Travel and Miscellany.

. Miscellaneous Items..... ....

The Land or Flqwkbs ad Spbings

Eastern Texas as Viewed st a Nobthebnes . .

Expiation or Nosnr Pots Region

Hsligion and Philosophy

Miscellaneous Religious Items

The Test or Man .

St. Hickson Failed to Cubs

Introspection.............,,,,,,,,

' Religious Persecution in Russia

a pbkacheb Prostitutes His PsonssroN . . . ;

Paradise on Easth

Studies in “The Hasp or God’

In Memobiam (Poem)

PubHsbad every other Wedneoday at 18 Concord Street. Brooklyn. N. YM U. 8. A, by WOODWORTH. HVDGING3 A MARTIN

Copartner* and Proprietor* Addrue: IS Concord Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U. 8. A. CLATKM 1. WOODWORTH . . . Editor ROBERT J. MARTIN . BualDaae Manssar WM. F. HUDGINGS . . See-y and Trass.

rm cam a cnrr—ILOe a Yaas Masa BmmircM to TBB (KLDllt AGB yoaatoa Omens: Brtttefc.....*• Cravaa Terraco. Lancaster Gate, London W. a

Coeadiae.....«... S8-M Irwin Avenue, Toronto, Ontario

Aartraleotaw ....... 4M CoUlaa Street. Melbourne. AnatraUa tuM* African ...... • Laila Stroat; Cape Town. South Africa

Bstarad as aaaaaAaiaai wattar at Brooklyn, N. T, nndae the Act ot Moxcii 3, 1878

Golden Age

Vain* VI

A Digest of World News

[Radiocast from WATCHTOWER WBBR on a wav* length of 273 meters, by the Editor]

Labor and Economics

THE gradual process of the elimination of employes by reaching the “age limit” is attracting attention. Thirty years ago nothing was thought of the age if the work could be done. But with the coming demand for speed in industrial and business activities, the young and vigorous were sought. The age limit soon became “too old at 60”; later “too old at 50”; in a few instances it is now “too old at 40.” And where the children can do the work, those of 18 are being replaced by those of 14 and 15. The “efficiency experts” of our day are making our institutions a sausage mill for grinding the vitals and nerves of humanity, looking only at the profits of the present with no consideration of the future. Humanity is burning out.

The United States makes a bad showing in the number of men killed in mines. The situation is such that in a bituminous mine employing 476 men, where the average daily output of the men is ten tons each, one man is sure to be killed every nine months. In recent years defective electrical apparatus has caused the loss of 500 lives in American mines.

For the first eleven months of 1922 the net profits of the Reliance Manufacturing Co. were only $600 less than $1,000,000. . In seventeen prisons this company gets factories, power, heat and light, and pays five cents apiece for making shirts for workingmen. No wonder their profits are large, and their competitors have a hard time!

Walter P. Hedden, research agent for the Port of New York Authority, is responsible for the statement that out of each dollar that a New York family spends for fruit or vegetables it now costs forty-eight cents to handle, transport, and distribute it after it has reached New York

Social and Educational

TWENTY-FIVE healthy children have bee* adopted by Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Beals of Edgewood (a suburb of Pittsburgh), according to the Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph. A five-column cut of the group is shown, presenting a picture of health, happiness and contentment. Mr. and Mrs. Beals are of the type which make good fathers and mothers. Mr. Beals is a railroad engineer; so most of the care falls to Mrs. Beals and a maid. Seventeen attend school; none is over sixteen years of age.

Scientists have discovered that the constant talking of a mother to her baby is an exceedingly important factor in the development of the child. The child sees, but does not understand ; and in time learns to read speech from the lips and to speak as well.

France is reported as having a standing army of 700,000 men. Uncle Sam's armed soldiers are much fewer, but Uncle Sam does have a standing army of 700,000 school teachers—God bless them, one and all! These teachers, instead of being trained to shoot their fellow men, are teaching the young idea how to shoot. Three cheers for Uncle Sam’s army of teachers!

Acting upon the assumption that there is a natural law which automatically fits some for the highest and best-paid work and others for the hardest and least remunerative employment, some American educators, forgetting the histories of Lincoln, Garfield and Edison, are now deliberately proposing to separate the school children into groups, some of which would have held before them during school days only the prospect of a subsequent life of rough, hard and ill-paid labor.

Out in California Captain Edgar Thompson says: ‘'Beneath the radiance of our flag there is no place for a pacifist.... His manhood is stared and branded by the hot trident of the master of hell.” On the same day, in New York, the Editor of the Graphic wrote: "Many wellmeaning folks like to use the word ‘pacifist* as an ugly name. See him without prejudice; and you will find that he is merely one who has driven the fire-eating, world-smashing devil out of his soul ahead of the rest of us. We shall all get there in due time.” The report of Captain Thompson’s address says that he faced "his audience with burning eyes". What is wrong, Captain 1 Stick out your tongue, and let us feel your pulse, and take your temperature.

Manufacturing and Financial Items

TpOR many years the practice of the Steel -I- Trust has been such that if a customer, say in Illinois, purchased from one of the trust's plants located in his own community he was compelled to pay the same price as would be charged for the goods in Pittsburgh, and in addition was compelled to pay the freight from Pittsburgh* This practice has built up Pittsburgh at the expense of all other steel-producing centers, and has added millions of dollars to the prices charged the consumers. The Federal Trade Commission has ordered the practice discontinued.

The seventeen concerns which manufacture mill work in St. Louis have formed a bureau which prepares official lists of the material needed for every important job in the city. This takes away from the contractors all opportunity to exercise skill in figuring closely on the material required, and assures their having more material than they need, whether they like it or whether they do not The Government is proceeding to undertake the dissolution of this trust

The National Negro Business League is urging the founding of Negro banks, and the depositing in such institutions of the $100,000,000 now in the banks of the whites and the $20,000000 which is hidden at home. With these funds available for the use of their own race the progress of American Negroes would be much more rapid, and the whole country thereby benefited. ’ <

R. R. Batson* a financial writer in the New 'York World, speaking of certain prominent Wall Street bankers, says: “Much of the credit for securing an acceptance for the Dawes Plan is claimed by these bankers. They assert that it was a business arrangement, and that the presence of the various premiers was necessary only to give it their sanction.” This ought to make it clear who is running the world.

Transportation

WITH five motor bus companies contending for franchises in New York, it is evident that the street-car is doomed. Motor buses can take people on at the sidewalks, can go around obstacles, can operate on a new route at a moment’s notice, can turn out through fire, can maintain an express service without interfere ing in any way with the regular traffic; and if they break down they do not prevent other can of the line from operating as usual

The officials of the American City Government League, in an answer to advertisement* o£ the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Company urging higher car-fares, present evidence from Duluth, Olean, Kansas City, Syracuse, Romet White Plains, Albany, Jersey City and Philadelphia, showing that increased fares in thoe* cities decreased the net income of the operating companies. In Philadelphia during the year after the carfare was increased from 5 cents to 7 cents there were 75,000,000 less passengers carried.

On its recent 1,300 mile cruise over the Atlantic Ocean the Navy's giant dirigible, Shenandoah, consumed 9,500 pounds of gasoline, and released 4,000 pounds of water ballast; yet it came back to the hangar at Lakehurst heavier than when it went away. This was due to an apparatus which converts the engine exhaus' into water, this water, in turn, being pumped into the ballast tanks.

U.S. Mail Service

ALARMED by repeated robberies of mail - trains, especially the one near Chicago in June when the thieves led by a prominent official of the mail service, named Takey, obtained $2,000,000, the Government has now ordered 3,000 armored cars of such a design that it is believed future hold-ups will be impossible. The clerks inside the cars will be able to light up the neighborhood brilliantly and to shoot effectively at a distance and at short range. It is expected also that the clerks will be provided with gas masks, inasmuch as gas bombs were used in Inspector Taker’s raid.

The postal service of the United States as a whole is a marvel of faithfulness. In the last thirty months, fifty-five men have lost their lives in their efforts to live up to the high traditions of the Port Office department The two longest routes, located respectively in Minnesota and New Mexico, are each 143 miles in length.

On one of these routes in Oregon the carrier is compelled to travel down the beach at low tide. If, for some reason, the incoming tide catches him before completing his trip, he must either abandon his team and the mails and climb the rocks or be dashed in pieces against them.

Two of the most dangerous routes are to islands in Lake Erie and Lake Michigan, which can be reached in the winter only with greatest difficulty. At certain seasons a trip to these islands must be made partly on the ice and partly across open water, which all sounds very well until you have tried it once. One of the carriers reports that on one of these routes it has sometimes taken him eight hours to traverse a distance of four miles which at other times is made on the ice in twenty minutes.

In one instance in Lake Michigan a carrier with his team and equipment was blown out to sea on a cake of ice barely large enough to hold him. He was rescued by the United States life-saving guard, which towed his cake of ice to shore, where the mail was delivered as though nothing unusual had happened.

Ups and Downs of Government

IT 'WILL be a surprise to many to learn that so many as 12,000 prosecutions have been made for violations of the Pure Food and Drug Act. The list1 of adulterated foods contains practically everything used for that purpose, and is a sickening commentary on the low state of our civilization. One would think that regard for his own health and the health of his family would prevent anybody from adulterating food.

Admiral W. L. Rodgers, speaking at the American Institute of Politics, Williamstown, Mass., declared that when the population of the United States reaches 200,000,000 he expects that as a matter of course this country will go to war to keep its place in the world. It is plain that the Admiral has no use for the Bible, and does not believe at all that the time will ever come when the nations shall learn war no more. Thank God, he is wrong!

By the consent of Major General M. M. Patrick, head of the army air service, Father John J. Sullivan, of St. Augustine’s Church, Boston, has been given the use of a government airplane for a flight from New York to San Francisco. Similar favors in the use of the city's automobiles are extended to the same class by some of the officials, of a certain city we could name. It is surprising what generosity some politicians can show in loaning and giving away, public property. -

Travel and Mlscellanp

OVER a territory which a few generations ago was an ideal hunting ground for the Indians, who were then the only settlers of southern Michigan and northern Ohio, the Sioux and Chippewa tribes of Michigan went early in September over the trail that their forefathers used for centuries. They went in modern motor cars over concrete or asphalt highways, through busy cities, past immense workshops, across great railway lines, and through orchards and fields of a kind their fathers never knew. From some points of view this trip was a funeral procession of incalculable pathos, and yet the changes of the last century had to be.

Education and publicity have contributed materially in bringing about better living conditions in New York, with the result that during the past twenty-two years the tuberculosis death rate has fallen from 280 to 99 per hundred thousand of the population. It pays to point out things that are not right It helps to right them, to make the world better.

Near the Golden Age office in Brooklyn a German band was surrounded by a crowd of children sucking lemons, with the rather surprising result that the band was forced to stop playing. The leader complained to the police that the sight of lemons at the mouths of the children puckered the mouths of his musicians so that they could not play their instruments. He wanted to know what could be done about it. The advice received was that there was nothing to prevent the band from going somewhere else.

Mr. M. E. ThrailkiU, of Columbus, Ohio, offers three farms of forty to one hundred and fifty acres each, free of use to any farmer who will pay the taxes, keep the fences and buildings in repair, and maintain the fertility of the soiL In addition, he must pay the fire insurance on the buildings. These farms are within twelve miles of the city of Columbus, in the best part of one of the most fertile states in the Union.

Rtligioiu Itemt

THE daughter of Rev. Colin O’Farrell, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Butte, Montana, came home saying that her teacher had taught her that she was descended from a monkey. Rightly enough, Mr. O.’Farrell was indignant, and on a succeeding Sunday had his daughter sit in the pulpit chair, holding in her hand a stick to which a monkey was tied, while he urged the people to return to belief in the Creator. With some heat Mr. O’Farrell suggested that if evolution be true, then man must have descended from the ass rather than the monkey, which was merely another way of saying that in his judgment( and in ours) none are such complete asses as the evolutionists.

They insist that everybody take their preposterous ideas for granted, even though they know that evolution has not been proven and never can be. Their methods are not to prove, but to sneer at those who disbelieve them. In due time the Lord will turn all this supposed knowledge backward and illustrate that its wise men are indeed foolish, as the Prophet declares. —Isaiah 44:2 5.

Dr. W. Gray Jones, Methodist minister of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in a recent sermon on war said: .

“During the war I told of official German marriages, and waxed indignant and furiously outraged. I told of Belgian boys with their hands severed from their arms by the brutal German soldiery. I told of inhuman actions ©/submarine commanders, who wantonly killed non-combatanta. The only thing that saved me from being a colossal liar was that I believed it Recent evidence by Lloyd George and Bear Admiral Sims shows that most of these things were untrue.

“Now, since the war is a conflict of ideas and news, and lying is-an intrinsic, inseparable weapon of warfare, if I told those things again I would know they were untrue and I would be a liar. I have become convinced that the way of war and the way of Jesus are opposed the one to the other. Therefore the Church and wax have nothing in common. Never again can the government officials count on the Church as an asset of war. The way of Jesus is the way of peace, and for that way the Church of the future will stand. [Maybe.]”

Europe—Great Britain

ACCORDING to the Bankers Trust Company, Europe is all ready for the next war. The countries which have from 15,000 to 40,000 men under arms, ranging in order from the smallest, to the greatest armies are Lithuania, Norway, Esthonia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Hungary and Portugal The countries having from 86,000 to 163,000 in the order named are: Belgium, Turkey, Germany, Greece, Rumania, Jugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, and Holland.

The greatest armies of Europe are in the remaining countries: Russia with 1,000,000; and France three-fourths of a million; Switxer-land half a million; and Italy, Poland and Spain each a quarter o£ a million. Probably the German army could be made a million strong on short notice.

Premier MacDonald has summoned a special meeting of the Committee on Imperial Defense to reconsider the question of building a tunnel to France, recently abandoned. All former Premiers will attend the meeting. The tunnel will cost about $130,000,000.

One of the players in the International Polo Games was Major F. B. Hurndall, of the British Army, who was supposedly drowned October 10,1918. The ship upon which he was crossing the Irish Channel was torpedoed. A half hour later his body was discovered floating upon the surface of the water, with several other supposed corpses. He was carried to Dublin, where a surgeon pronounced him dead. But a nurse in the Dublin hospital, noticing some warmth about his heart, rubbed him with alcohol for three hours, with the result that at the end ol that time he opened his eyes.

Britith Rtligioiu Nota

THE cables contain an article of several hundred words from England to the effect that the new bishop of Birmingham, Canon Barnes, believes in evolution and denies absolutely the truthfulness of the book of Genesis. As a master of course, when he. denies the fall of mah he denies the need of a redeemer. But why take the trouble and expense to cable such news when practically all the clergy similarly repudiate the Word of God, of which they are paid to be the sworn defendants!

The Holy Trinity Church, Goodramsgate, York, England, has in front of it two noticeboards, on each of which appears the following doggerel:

“If aught thou hast to give or lend, This ancient parish church befriend;

If poor but yet in spirit willing, • Out with thy purse and give a shilling;

But if its depths should be profound,

• Bethink thee well and give a pound. Ask not for any record given, But look for thy receipt in heaven.”

To the foregoing we subjoin a text which we hope the Rector will use the first time it is brought to his attention, i.e., “If I were hungry I would not tell thee: for the world is mine and the fulness thereof.”—Psalm 50:12.

Miscellaneous Items

[’RING the strike of telegraph operators employed on news service in Canada, the papers throughout the country received their news by radio. Persons who owned radio sets got the news through the air several hours before the printed records of the same was available. What reforms will be possible when there is a radio station in every home and when absolutely truthful news alone is permitted to be radiocast!

According to a story we get from Mexico, Our Lady of Gaudaloupe is reappearing after an absence of 400 years. The last time she appeared, she is supposed to have miraculously painted her image on an Indian blanket This blanket has for generations been an object of reverence in one of the Mexican cathedrals, but of late the paint has been peeling off badly. Our Lady probably knows this, and is getting back on the job with some of the modern cosmetics which are warranted neither to peel nor to crack off.

For many years the San Blas Indians, whose home is on the coast of the Caribbean Sea, have not permitted a white man to enter their country; but because the whites know how to care for the sick, a group of San Blas girls are taking a complete course in nursing in a Panama hospital, so that they can return to their own land and care for their own people.

The discovery of White Indians in Panama has led some scientists to suggest that perhaps the natural color of man is swarthy, and that all the white people of the earth are white because they are suffering from some mild, hereditary disease. This identical thought appeared in the writings of Pastor C. T. Russell in 1902. Pastor Russell was just about twenty years ahead of his time.

France and Germany

SINCE the war there has been a tremendous immigration of Africans into France, a very . natural result of the using of so many soldiers from Africa and Madagascar. Hitherto, ths French Government has taken the most friendly view of this immigration; but the newcomer* work for such low wages and such long hours, and under such impossible housing and sanitary conditions that the French labor is feeling ths pinch, and is complaining to the Government that it can not compete. This places the Government in a quandary; for if immigration is restricted, it will make the recruiting of blade troops in the future much more difficult that it has been in the past.

Between Lyons, France, and Lausanne, Switzerland, a distance of about 100 miles, there is an aerial bus service. The aeroplanes make stops here and there to pick up passengers. Quite likely this is the next thing ahead in transportation. There will be stations where aerial passengers can send up rockets in the path of a flier to indicate that they wish to get aboard.

In the effort to balance the budget, Germany has within the last few months discharged 400,000 State employes. Just at present this is having a depressing effect, as many of those discharged have not been able to find work elsewhere.

Reports have it that 1,000,000 Germans are unemployed, half of whom are receiving a dole from the Government Reports from Britain show that over ten percent of British workers are unemployed, while the cost of living is seventy-two percent higher than it was at the outbreak of the World War.

Since 1876, Germany has had several Counts by the name of Von Schack. It seems that the Von Schacks were wealthy, and had a valuable collection of pictures They offered to present these pictures to the Kaiser if, as a reward, the title of Count would be given to two members of the Von Schack family. As a consequence, the Kaiser got the pictures; and the common people of the world got two more grand and glorious counts to whom they may look up, or upon whom they may look down, as they prefer.

The king business in in bad shape. Despite this, however, the kings who have lost their jobs 'do not take kindly to the idea of engaging in honest productive work. If they cannot get a job in the regular king business, they like to get as near to it as they can. Accordingly, we read that George of Saxony, the ex-Crown Prince of the defunct or "as-it-were” kingdom of, Saxony, has taken a job as priest in the Boman Catholic Church.

Following the example of Protestant churches of America which, while maintaining their separate identity, have united for political purposes in the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, the Protestant churches of Germany have perfected a similar federal organization.

Czechoslovakia—Rumania—Russia

VER since the new country of Czecho-Slo-vakia decided to have its own new church,

there has been a great falling off in the communicants of the two churches which have hitherto been dominant in that area. From 1911 to 1921 the Roman Catholics in Czechoslovakia decreased 1,290,915, and the Greek Catholics 60,097. x

The Bratiano Brothers, who are said to control the oil industry of Rumania and also to control the Rumanian government, are supposed to be behind the new law of Rumania which gives ten years for the Standard Oil and the Royal Dutch to sell sixty percent of their holdings to Rumanian citizens; i. e., presumably to the Bratiano Brothers. Probably this hold-up will be satisfactory to the Rumanian people, if it works.

Financiers in Paris, who once owned the immensely rich oil fields of Baku, did not succeed in their recent effort to overturn the Soviet system which now'prevails through what was once the territory of the Republic of Georgia. The Soviet Government put down the rebellion quickly and easily, and compelled the groups of dissatisfied with their rule to flee into the mountains.

Despatches in the New York Times state that since the days of the Czar eighteen successive governments have borne rule over the Ukraine, as Southwestern Russia is now called. The Jews are the principal sufferers. Most of the business of Russia has been at all times in the hands of the Jews; and with the advent of the Soviet into business, millions of Jews are without the means of livelihood. In the slaughters in the Ukraine, at least 70,000 Jews lost their lives.

Italy and Spain

TN THE ruins of a convent near Naples, Professor Mario di Martino-Fusco has found 150 unknown original manuscripts of the Roman historian, Livy. The professor has retired into the country, where he is busy translating works which will no doubt throw important light upon the history of the Roman Empire.

An American banker who had some reason for wanting to stand in with the Papacy has made the Pope a present of a chair of solid silver worth $60,000. This reminds us of the Christian religion, because it is so different. -The Son of God, when here upon earth, said: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man'hath not where to lay his head.” If somebody had offered Christ a $60,000 silver chair, we are sure that He would have followed His own advice to the rich man, “Go and sell all that thou hast and give to the poor.” We have no objection whatever to the Pope's following Christ's example.

Since 1912, Spain has nominally held control of a strip along the northern coast of Morocco, 200 miles long and 60 miles wide. Never having gotten any further along the path of civiliza<-tion than the attempt to rule by brute force, Spain has totally failed, with an army of 150,000 men, to hold her own against the 50,000 Moors she has been constantly fighting in this area. Nine hundred German mercenaries have been killed in the Spanish ranks, thirty of them for refusal to obey their Spanish officers. The Spaniards are sick unto death of their war in Morocco; but like the hunter who grabbed the bear by the tail, they dare not let go for fear of greater troubles to follow immediately.

The Moors are insisting that the Spanish leave their country, bag and baggage. They seem now in a fair way to have their wishes realized. Meantime, unemployment in Spain is growing at an appalling rate, the militarists having shown their utter incapacity to govern the country.

The Roman city of Leptis Magna, which has been buried in the sand of Tripoli for 1500 years, is now being slowly brought to light by Italian excavators. This city once had a population of about 300,000 inhabitants. Very probably it contains manuscripts which, when discovered, will be of value to Bible students, historians, and others. The buildings are found practically intact

The attack which led to the death of Major Imbrie, acting American Consul at the Persian capital, was directly due to the act of a Mohammedan priest who made the false accusation against Major Imbrie that “he had put poison into the well”, a sacred well where the priest was ministering. So savage was the attack upon Major Imbrie that he sustained 135 wounds. Perhaps even these would not have caused his death had not the mob broken into the hospital and renewed the attack.

The British Government has under construction an airship which is to have an cubic capacity of 5,000,000 feet, and will have a carrying capacity of 200 passengers. With this ship, which will be capable of making eighty miles an hour, the Government expects to make the journey from Britain to India in four days. The airdome at Cardington, near Bedford, will be located on a plot of level ground 1,000 acres in extent.

A gentleman just returned from China reports that in certain sections of the best part o£ that great country the graves appeared to occupy fully fifty percent of the best agricultural land. Every day adds proof of the fact that cremation is the only proper method of disposing of the dead.

It is estimated that 10,000,000 people in China face famine as a result of the recent floods there. There have also been serious floods in the nearby island of Formosa.

The Japanese officials whose business it is to deal with the Japanese gods have appealed to them to do something to prevent the Japanese women from bobbing their hair, but all to no purpose; for the bobbing still goes cheerfully on.

Sydney, Australia, has several thousand British immigrants not as yet assassinated. Recently they kicked over the traces and invaded the principal hotels, demanding food and accomodations and ordering it to be charged to the government This started something, right away. The local government made a grant of money for food, and the federal Government of Australia set aside $2,500,000 for work on national roads.

The New Zealand Worker publishes a list of twenty-eight clergymen, bishops, and arch deacons who are stock holders in the Bank of New Zealand, and then is mean enough to suggest that these dominies should take as their Bible lesson for the week Proverbs 28:8, “He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor”; and another one from Nehemiah 5:10, “I pray you, let us leave off this usury*

The Test of Man

THE place to take the true measure of a man is not the forum or the field, not the market place or the amen corner, but at his own fireside. There he lays aside his mask; and you may judge whether he’s imp or angel, king or cur, hero or - humbug. 1 care not what the world says of him, whether it crowds him with bays or pelts him . with bad eggs; I care never a copper what his reputation or religion may be; if his babes dread his homecoming and his better half swallows her heart every time she has to ask him for a $5 bill, he’s a fraud of the first water, even though he prays night and morn till he’s black in the face and howls hallelujah till he shakes the eternal hills. But if his children rush to the front gate to greet him and love’s own sunshine illumines the face of his wife when she hears his footfall, you may take it for granted that he’s true gold; for his home’s a heaven. And the humbug never gets that near the great white throne of God.

From the Kablegram.

The Progress of Co-operation

AMERICANS are not interested in cooperation ; but they ought to be, and the time will come when they will be. “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” may sound like a good philosophy to the selfish and the strong; but it is not even for the selfish and the strong. There is a better way for men to get things worth having and worth keeping. That way is the un-American, but nevertheless very desirable, way of cooperation.

In America individual profit-seeking has been carried to such lengths that a Congressional investigation discloses that for each $1 paid to the producer of food it is necessary to pay out $2 to other persons before the consumer can have his needs supplied.

In the Scriptures man is advised: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise.” (Proverbs 6:6) If we consider the ways of the ant sufficiently, we are amazed not only at her industry but at her spirit of cooperation. The ants are all working industriously, not for themselves individually, but for the common good; and in working for the common good they each have protection and comforts which no one of them could gain by working selfishly.

A thing that has hindered cooperation in the United States is the vicious attitude of the press, which is maintained largely for the purpose of effectively discouraging the people from doing anything for their own welfare. The more things people do collectively, the less chances there are for the grafters, who already own nearly the whole country, to get what is left

Real Need for Co-operation

FARMER in North Dakota received $1.4C as his reward for ploughing, planting, spraying and digging a carload of potatoes and carrying them to the railroad station. The railroads got $180.60. The other parties, the American business men that “assisted” the farmer to get his just dues for his labor, got $154.00. They do not believe in cooperation. It is un-American. It is Socialistic, so the newspapers say; and if the newspapers are to be believed, Socialism is next, door to Red Anarchy.

In fact, there are newspapers that would not hesitate to say that for the farmer to try to take away the chance of the Board of Trade or the Produce Exchange, or whatever crowd of prosperous citizens it was that got the $154, to do the same thing over again to every farmer every year, and to take another slice just as big, or twice as big, out of the consumers, is nothing but wildest anarchy.

We may be all wrong, but we cannot help feeling that the principle of cooperation is right; for it eliminates waste and does for the many what some of them, at least, could not do for themselves individually if working alone. One bee would have quite a task fixing up a hive for himself; and it would not be a very satisfactory hive when finished. It is the same with man.

Cooperation has usually failed in the United States, even when it has been well started, because the American people do not have the cooperative spirit They do not like to save money, and they do not like to see others save money. They like to be known as good sports, good spenders. This may be good Americanism, but it is not good sense.

At the other extreme are some true Americans who are so convinced that the fate of civilization, like the fate of the ant-hill and of the beehive, hangs upon cooperation that they declare that chaos is just ahead unless better counsels prevail; and they are for making cooperation compulsory. This does not seem to us to be practical, either. The bosses of cooperative societies in which the people were compelled to be members would be bosses indeed. They would probably be grafters of the worst sort.

A significant item respecting American cooperation movements is that on at least two occasions, and probably many others, the employes of such movements have had to go on strike in order to obtain adequate wages and fair treatment. On one occasion there was a strike of stenographers in the offices of the national headquarters of the American Federation of Labor at Washington, D. C., so we are informed. This shows how easy it is to be inconsistent, and brings out in strong relief a reason why cooperation is so successful in Europe and so unsuccessful here.

Co-operative Wheat Marketing

SPURRED on by necessity, the farmers of the United States have been virtually forced into doing something for themselves in the marketing of their wheat crop, with the result that

■wherever there are cooperative elevators established it has been demonstrated that the growers are saved three cents to five cents a bushel on their grain. In the aggregate this is a great sum.

There are now several cooperative wheat marketing societies: The Nebraska Farmers' Union, the Northwest Wheat Growers, Incorporated, and the Equity Cooperative Exchange. The latter society started in 1912, at St. Paul, Minnesota, with a handful of members and a paid-up capital of $14,600. Now it fras 25,000 members and a paid-up capital of $2,000,000.

It is estimated that in eight of the wheat states the cooperative wheat selling associations now handle one-eighth of the wheat crop. The farmers in these associations were virtually compelled to go into them because of the shark practices upon them of the “business men”, the gentlemen who previouslypurchasedtheir wheat “in the regular way”. The wheat selling organizations are run on a democratic basis of one vote for each member, regardless of the worth of the stock he holds.

Co-operative Milk Selling

IF THERE is one thing which it seems should lend itself to cooperation easier than another, it is the milk business. The supply of milk is constant, and the demand is constant. The milk is produced every day and used every day, in every street, and by every person on the street.

And yet, in New York city, where there would seem to be ideal conditions for putting some kind of common sense cooperative plan into operation, the consumers have been facing a steadily rising price of milk, almost none of which has gone to the producers, but practically all of which has gone to the grafters in between.

Just now the Dairymen’s League of that city is conducting a fight to try to get six cents a quart for the producers who, until recently, never received more than 4.4 cents per quart, even when milk formerly retailed at six cents was retailing regularly at sixteen cents. The Dairymen’s '■ League sells for its members according to the butter-fat in the milk, and pays the producers at the end of the month, deducting a percentage to pity the costs. Since these farmers are paid according to the quality of their milk, they make every effort to keep the milk at the highest grade.

What is claimed to be the largest single Bulk business in the world is the Franklin Cooperative Creamery of Minneapolis, Mimn, which was founded as a result of a lockout of the driven of those who had been theretofore monopolising the milk trade in that city.

The drivers went around'to their old customers, picked up what trade'they could, and started in business. This was in 1919. Now they are doing a business of many millions of dollars per year, and are branching out into ice-cream manufacture and the restaurant field.

On one occasion, when the autumn season came around and the price was due to go up one cent per quart, and the Franklin Creamery had already announced the increase, the old companies tried to get their business back by announcing that they would not make the customary increase. Thereupon the Franklin withdrew the increase and another one cent besides, and in four days the war was over, and the people were all getting their milk at the old price of eleven cents.

The Franklin Creamery has its own theatre, where plays are given for the benefit of employes and stockholders; its own cafeteria, where seventy-five can get their meals at one time; and its lockers and shower baths for its driven and other male employes. It also maintains * school for cooperative executives.

There are several other cooperative creameries in the country. There is one in Cleveland which does a $500,000 business per year. There is a large one in Vermont. There are several in Nebraska. The latter are estimated to produce a net gain to the farmers of two cents to four cents per pound of butter-fat.

Co-operative Fruit Marketing

IF MILK would seem to be specially easy of handling cooperatively, fruit would seem to be the opposite. The crop ripens all at once, and must be cared for without delay. The great problem of refrigeration comes up, and the equally great problem of wise distribution and adequate reception.

And yet California has made a world-wide name for itself by its success in the cooperative marketing of fruit, the sales by this method-, for* California alone, having amounted in 1919 to $225,000,000. In 1923, the sales were still larger, in the neighborhood of $350,000,000.

The so-called "California Plan" aims to control seventy-five percent of the crop. The members agree to market all their fruit through the association for a period of five years. An initial payment is made when the crop is delivered. Other payments are made as the sales proceed. At the end of the season there is a final settlement. All producers are paid alike for the same grades. ■

There are limits to what can be done. The California cooperatives tried to carry the pricefixing a little too far in the raisin and prune market. They had no difficulty in fixing the prices; for California has a monoply on raisins and prunes. But they were surprised to find that the people of the country turned away, and used other foods or went without There are two sides to cooperation. The customer must be considered, too.

The system of cooperative marketing developed in California has spread to such an extent that 1,200,000 farmers altogether are now handling their crops by this method, with a volume of business estimated at somewhat in excess of $1,500,000,000 for the entire country. All this has been done in about four years.

Many of the cooperative organizations have failed to make good. The Department of Agriculture has made a survey of 243 of the failures, and found that 200 of them did not have sufficient business to make them going concerns; 148 were badly managed; 73 did not have enough capital; 35 over-extended credit to consumers.

The subject of cooperative marketing is now being taught in eight state universities and eleven agricultural colleges in a very complete manner, including accounting, purchasing and credit There are fifty-nine other colleges and universities that give a considerable amount of attention to the subject in their regular courses in farm management

Co-operative Purehut of Education

A ME RIC ANS are as loath to save money by **• cooperation in buying as they are to save it in selling. ' But they are slowly making progress in some lines of guying, generally being driven to it by necessity.

Greater New York has three cooperative educational institutions. At least one of these came into existence because the private school which ■

several hundred young men were attending, was managed in such a grossly inefficient way, and so evidently had no motive except that of profit, that 200 of the young men went on a strike.

Now these young men, constituting the Cooperative Educational Institute of Brooklyn, New York, choose their own teachers, decide on their curriculum, determine their tuition fee, elect their own administrators, manage their own business aiiau^, ai d choose their own holidays. The attendance s now 400.

Co-operation i^rrhai sf Borneo

A BUILDING am’ Loan Association is noticing in the world but a cooperative plan < purchasing homes^ Where these associations have been efficiently managed they have turned out to be excellent channels of saving, turning into permanent investment large sums that otherwise would have been wasted in rents.

New York city now .has many cooperative apartment houses. The owners of the apartments are obliged to live in them. They can not lease them to others. They can not sell them except to the board of directors of the house and at the price paid for them. In one of these apartment houses there is a cooperative kitchen in which the cooking is done for all tenants. By means of dumb waiters the food leaves the apartment raw, and comes back cooked at the proper time. This is said to work out satisfactorily.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, under the guidance of a commission appointed by the mayor, there is a successful cooperative housing plan somewhat similar to the above, except that the homes are private homes. There are like arrangements at Endicott, New York, and elsewhere.

Co-operative Purchase of Fuel

IT IS evident that in the cooperative purchase of fuel only the first steps have been taken anywhere, as it is manifestly the wise thing and the economical thing to supply all the heat, light and electricity for a town from a single centrally located plant.

A few steps have been taken, however, toward reducing the fuel costs, which have become a great burden since the gigantic anthracite steals were pulled off during the war. We published in these columns notice of Governor Bryan’s state-owned coal yards in Nebraska, which are

estimated to save the Nebraskans about $4 per ton.

There have been some sporadic efforts made at cooperative coal purchasing elsewhere, always, however, because the people were really pressed into it. One of these cooperative coed yards is at Staunton, Illinois, where the employers of some miners attempted once too often to profiteer in selling coal to their own men.

Another illustration is at Lehighton, Pennsylvania, where some workers, mostly railroad men, had a fairly successful cooperative store. . They hit upon the coal idea, but could not at first find any way to get the coal At length they rented a siding, built some bins of concrete in their spare time, and finally arranged with an independent coal operator to sell them coal, with the result that they are saving about $4 per ton in their purchases.

Co-operative Purchase of Credit

CO-OPERATIVE purchase of credit is (he way we designate the workers' banks, which are operated as banks for the common people, and not intended or operated as adjuncts of big business. There are now twenty-three of these banks in various parts of America, only a pitiful few as compared with the hundreds that are to be found in various European countries; but it is a start.

These banks are a real foundation upon which the workers may build their own homes, their own factories, and their own educations. They are not run for profit, but for the good they can do to their own depositors and customers. The issues of stock are limited, the dividends on the stocks are kept low, and the surplus profits all go to the depositors.

The first cooperative bank in the United States was that of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, at Cleveland, Ohio, November 1,1920. "Seemingly this bank has either changed its original plan, or else it did not plan as we had hoped; for we observe that one of the directors of the Brotherhood Bank has been made a director of the Empire Trust Company of New York, and it is announced that the Brotherhood has acquired a large interest in the Trust Company. A

A man who was being swallowed by a shark might say that he had a great interest in the shark is a shark, and would not postpone the obsequies. This is not to say that the Empire Trust Company is a shark, but it is one of the great financial powers of the metropolis, .and its sympathies are that way.

shark; but it would not change the fact that a . thing to help. Yet in spite of all difficulties the

hfiseeilaneous Co-operative Purthaung

FpkLK farmers are doing well with their coSper-ative insurance companies. There are said to be over 2,000 such companies in existence, providing all classes of protection at the actual cost.

A case in point is the Farmers’ Cooperative Fire Insurance Company of Woodridge, New York. This concern has about $6,000,000 in force, and yet manages to do its business at a premium rate of $4.45 per $1,000, as against double that amount charged by other companies.

Terre Haute has a • cooperative laundry. Staunton, Illinois, has a cooperative motionpicture house. The town is a strictly mining community. All the men in town belong to the miners’ union; and six nights a week the union shows the best pictures in its hall, with the result that the other, theatres in town have had to close up and move on.

In the British Isles

IT IS to Great Britain that the whole world must look as the successful pioneer in the field of cooperation. In the little city of Rochdale, England, in 1844, the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers founded what is now the Rochdale Society, which supplies virtually all the necessaries of life to -4,500,000 families.

The credit for this great idea is due to Charles Howarth and the twenty-eight .flannel weavers whose first investment was in a barrel of oatmeal The Rochdale Society now has its own factories, and even its own steamship line. It conducts almost every sort of enterprise. The competition which the Rochdale Society has been able to give other concerns has prevented the profiteering in Britain which is such a feature of .-American life.

This-cooperative movement has grown in Britain not because it.was favored or pampered by the government, the press, the banks, or the pulpit Every one of these worked against it; and with rare exceptions none of them did a

Rochdale Society has doubled in the last twenty years, and now has a third of the British homes as members.

The men that are actually managing the Rochdale Society work for small wages. One of them being reminded of that fact, and being offered much larger remuneration, had the courage and the character to reply nobly: “My fellow cooperators pay me sufficient to satisfy my needs. I am happy serving the people. I should not be happy serving you at the expense of the people.” We wish every American business man was like this young man.

It can not be said that the Rochdale Society was absolutely the first cooperative institution, even in the British Isles. As early as 1830 there were in Scotland not less than 170 shops organized on what was then known as the Owen plan, but within the next four years most of these ceased to exist.

The Rochdale plan succeeds and grows, and accomplishes what is desired. Its first cooperative bank was founded in 1872. Now it is a gigantic institution with over 1,500 branches throughout the United Kingdom, and an annual business in excess of $2,418,000,000. Its motto is “Service instead of Profit”.

The Belfast (Ireland) Cooperative Society began the handling of milk ten years ago. In the early part of this year the milk business of the society reached a total of 20,000 gallons per week, and arrangements were made to increase the outlet to 50,000 gallons weekly.

In Scandinavia ‘

CO-OPERATION has made a new country out of Denmark. A generation ago it was common to see Danish women working in the fields; today it is a rare sight Cooperation is is what induced the change. One-half of all the Danish homes are in direct touch with the cooperative movement

The way it works out in agriculture is that Danish farmers can buy concentrated dairy feeds in this United States, transport them to Denmark, Mid then undersell American buttermakers right on their own soil. Moreover, they can and do undersell the great American packers in the London market.

Cooperation in Denmark operates the laundries and the bakeries, thus removing two of the greatest burdens from the home. The houses and their grounds are becoming more beautiful. Music, art, and education are all improving. Class and social distinctions are passing away.

The people of Denmark were agitating for cooperation for thirty years before it was finally obtained. What held them back? Why, the foes of every step of human progress, of course! You know who they are. Everybody knows who they are. The four P’s in one pod: Profiteers, Politicians, Press, and Preachers.

Cooperation has given Denmark regular supplies and stable prices. It has made the people happy by ridding them of the “snobocracy”. It has raised the per capita wealth from that of 27th place to second place. It has elected a farmer parliament, and it has a cooperative premier.

We use the term “cooperative” because so many Americans have been poisoned by the press that we hardly dare say “Socialistic”.

Norway reports a steady expansion of cooperative banking and cooperative stores. Sweden reports that of her six million inhabitants one-sixth are definitely committed to cooperative methods. The three countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, have a joint committee that buys the tea, coffee and other articles for the cooperators of the three nations.

Finland differs from the three countries just named in that the cooperative movement there (which is only twenty years old) was started not as a result of pressure from beneath, but as an act of public benefit from above, by those who were in charge of the country's affairs and who desired its welfare.

In Western Europt

CO-OPERATION is growing steadily in Western Europe. We give a few scattered items which have come to our attention.

Amsterdam, Holland, in spite of the almost prohibitive cost of building materials (brought from other countries) has since the war built on the cooperative plan a village of one thousand houses, attractively laid out, each in its own little garden. Both the city and the state advanced the funds necessary to help the cooperatives in this enterprise.

The tiny but densely populated country of Belgium is a great hive of industry. The workers planned a cooperative vacation resort and purchased one of the grand old castles, situated in a beautiful park in the hilly region. This has been transformed into an ideal summer home where hundreds of workers can be entertained at the same time nt a minimum of expense. Who can say that it ia not better every way •for this castle to be a source of joy and of health to hundreds of workers than to be merely the occasional home of an imaginary nobility!

In France, cooperative societies are accomplishing considerable, especially since the war, and are receiving some friendly aid from the

• state. Even in Spain there is something being accomplished, although the number of cooperators is comparatively small. Next to Denmark, Switzerland is the most thoroughly organized along cooperative lines of any country in the world.

Until the Fascisti anarchists seized the Italian government, the cooperators in Italy were making wonderful progress. They owned farms, ships and factories, and had constructed and were operating one railroad. They were building a great canal to connect Milan with the River Po; they had reclaimed large tracts of waste lands, had built and were operating irrigation systems, and had founded several thousand workers’ banks. In Milan they had built and were operating a model workingman’s hotel. The Milanese cooperators could even buy their dinners, all ready to serve, delivered to their own doors by the cooperative delivery wagon.

But with the advent of the black shirt anarchists much of this progress has been blocked, and in some instances the fruit of thirty yean of effort has been destroyed. Scores of cooperative stores have been burned; land, machinery, horses and oxen have been seized; all in the name of—what!

St. Hickson Failed To Cure -By Geo. E. Daily

IN The Golden Age, No. 124, your article on “Modern Medicine Men” was read with great interest, especially the one regarding the “Shrine of St. Hickson”.

The writer of this letter, who has been crippled a good many years with spinal trouble, attended one of St. Hickson’s healing services several years ago in Hartford, Conn. St. Hickson received a big ovation from the clergy, and his wondrous -work was broadcast throughout the country. The writer, having received no help or benefit from other sources, expected to see great works done by this Hickson, not for his benefit only but also for other poor cripples and afflicted persons.

The church in which the healings took place was crowded with the sickly and maimed, young and old, with all kinds of complaints. The writer was handed a card to be filled out, stating trouble, how long afflicted, etc; and was then seated at the extreme end of the church, where there were a few empty seats left.

At ten o’clock a. m. the healing service began, and until one o’clock a steady stream of afflicted humanity knelt at the altar, while St Hickson laid his hands npon them and blessed them. During the three hours’ service the only sound to be heard in the church was an organ playing, a low, solemn sound. In such an atmosphere one could expect great works to be done.

At one o’clock the service was ended, with more people waiting to be blessed, the writer included. St. Hickson requested the remaining ones to kneel in the aisle, while he passed through and laid his hands on their heads. This was done, and he touched each one with a "God bless you”. And thus ended, the service.

If any healing or miracle was done that day, it was not visible or made known. The writer saw the blind, deaf, lame, etc., leave as they entered, with their afflictions still with theem. As to the writer, he is still crippled and waiting for that day to come when Christ will reign, when all those who are afflicted will find relief ; for there will be no more pain, sickness, disease, or death and God himself will wipe away all tears from off all faces.

The Land of Flowers and Springs

FLORIDA the land of flowers might as well have been called the land of springs, or the land of waters; for it is as much one as the other. Other states may boast of their mountains, but not Florida. But no other state can truthfully boast of more water.

Florida is a giant thumb thrust down into the gulf of Mexico, which it separates from the Atlantic Ocean. It has 1,145 miles of coast line. Nowhere more than 300 feet above the sea, its scenery, while beautiful, is of necessity that of lake and river and seashore and forests.

Florida is unique in the number and size of its springs. A navigable stream bursts forth from the earth at Silver Springs. Another equally great spring emerges in the ocean a mile east of St Augustine. These springs are doubtless outlets of some of the rivers which here and there lose themselves in Kentucky, Missouri, and elsewhere.

Florida has countless lakes, countless islands, and several large rivers, the largest of which, the St Jolin's, is navigable for a distance of 250 miles. The St. John’s is a mile wide 150 miles from its mouth, and is six or seven miles w ide near its mouth. The Kissimmee, Suwanee and Apalachicola rivers are also navigable, two of them for a distance of ninety miles each.

Lake Okechobee in the south, twenty-five feet above sea level, covers 1,200 square miles and has served as a great reservoir to keep the Everglades filled with water. It is now being used otherwise, and the Everglades are being drained. They cover 3,600 square miles, much of which is recoverable for agricultural purposes. The Everglades throughout are dotted with dry hummocks, some of which cover over a square mile.

Key West, which always was an island until the courage and the genius of man connected it with the mainland by the Florida East Coast Railway, has one of the finest island harbors in the world. The railroad to Key West is amarvel of engineering, running 107 miles along coral reefs all the way from Florida mainland to Key West—a railroad at sea.

Florida’s Star Attraction—Climate

^VTOBODY would dare believe the things that A w Florida people themselves have to say about their climate; but one may quote from others, and this is wbat Collier's Weekly says:

At its best—no, even at its average—the Florida climate is a thing so wonderful that you sometimes scarcely believe at the end of a month that you hava really had thirty such golden days. Lying between two sun-wanned seas, aa it does, the peninsula is always fanned by salt air. Florida weather at its best, in those incredible spring days of warm, fresh sea winds, almost accomplishes the impossible. It is both tonic and soothing; it at once invigorates and ealms you. The calmness is accentuated by the inevitable sense of remoteness which the oranges and roses give you as you read your letters from home of frosts and blizzards in the North. The South, one must repeat in closing, is a. miracle, a pretty fairy tale which no one, if he can be carried aboard the Florida train on a litter, can afford to miss. What charm can there be in snows and the fire crackling on the hearth, when down yonder the moon is flooding the orange blossoms with light, showing golden fruit and white blossoms, and the mw* king.hirds, tricked into belief that it is day, are singing through the gorgeous southern night ?"

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