Golden Age, February 24, 1926
Download: PDF — Golden Age, February 24, 1926
Contents of the Golden Age
W*================================«^!»==================================»W
Labob and Economics
Index Pats Operators on Baek
Fixing Prices on Farm Products ............ 328
Britain in Tears
The Song of the Workers (Poem)
Social and Educational
At Home and Abroad
Legalized Crime ....
The Channel Islands
Radio Programs
Finance—Commebce—Transportation
“Common Sense” fob Common People .....
Loaning Five Times More Than They Have
Origin of Federal Reserve Banks ...
Debts of the World
Wall Street’s Most Prosperous Year
Political—Domestic and Foreign
V. S. Governed by Rich Men
Foreign Debt Settlements
British Interest in Mosul
Voting in Australia Compulsory
Science and Invention
Storms on the Sun . . . .
Diablo Canyon Meteor
Old and New World Dance Together ....
Interesting Items About Light ....
Important Lighting Inventions
Where the Tides Come From , .
Religion and Philosophy
Religious Affiliations of U.S. Government Heads
Goats Persecute Christians .............. 342
I What the Hindus Admit and Fear .....
A Card Circulates in Italy . .
The Honor of Christ Jesus and His Bride
The Church
Studies in “The Habb of God” ...
Published every other Wednesday at 18 Concord Street, Brooklyn, N. Y„ U. S. A., by WOODWORTH, HEDGINGS & MARTIN
Copartners and Proprietors Address: IS Coneord Street, Brooklyn, N.T., U.S.A, CLAXTON J. WOODWORTH . . . Editor ROBERT J. MARTIN . Business Manager Vii. 1'. HUDGINGS . . See’y and Treas.
Five Cents a Copy—$1.00 a Year Make Remittances to TUB GOLDISH AGB
Fobbion Owicbs : British.....34 Craven Terrace, Lancaster Gate, London W. 2
Canadian ......... S8-40 Irwin Avenue, Toronto, Ontario Australasian ....... 495 Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia South African......6 Lelie Street, Cape Town, South Africa
Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N. X., under the Act of March 3, 1870
Golden Age
Volume VII Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, February 4, 1926 Number 168
^Common Sense” for Common People By W. H. Harvey
ALL the people of the world can be put into a normal-sized county, say 20 by 30 miles, and each will have to himself ten square feet of the earth’s surface—with the whole wide, wide -world to go out in and make a home. The world is more than big enough for all. A county 20 by 30 miles has 600 square miles. A mile is 5,280 feet. Multiply this by itself and you have 27,878,400 square feet in a mile. Multiply this by 600, the number of square miles in the county, and you have 16,727,040,000. Divide this by 1,600,000,000, the number of people in the world, and you have a little more than ten square feet for each one.
In the organism of a civilization it was found to be necessary, and it is necessary, to have a medium of exchange, which we call money. Suppose for instance, all money were wiped out of existence today! There would be no method of paying for riding on a street car or a railroad train or buying a newspaper or magazine or practically anything. Bread riots would follow at once in all the large cities. Those who had what you wanted would not usually want what you have; and if they did in an occasional instance, there would be no method of making change. Civilization would be brought to a staggering halt. Coal mining would stop, as there would be no means of paying the miners for their services; trains would cease running and manufactories would shut down, for the same reason: farming in a crude way might go on indefinitely, but after their machinery wore out they would till the soil at a disadvantage, and in the meantime they would be without the many comforts and advantages that an interchangeable system, with the use of money, gives. We thus understand the necessity for money; that it has an indispensable, vitalizing function, making possible a civilization.
On account of its importance it has been wisely considered best i xat society, acting collectively should make it. Being intended solely as a medium of exchange, it was not intended to be trafficked in and treated as a commodity and a profit exacted therefor before permitting it to be used as a medium of exchange.
In every age men, unmindful of the danger it portended to the common good, have attempted to treat money as a commodity to be hired out with a charge for the use of it.
Usury
TTS deadly effect on civilization in past ages J- caused the writers of the Bible to denounce usury; and with the establishment of the Christian church it was universally denounced. It was then called usury—meaning interest. Usury as used in the Bible, meant interest, increase; any percent was usury. Up to sixty years ago there was but one definition in the dictionaries for usury, “interest on money." As late as the seventeenth century its prohibition was a cardinal doctrine of Christian religion.
Few people realize how money thus handled can make money off of the necessities of commerce and the people. Commission is paid to secure it, notes “shaved”, discounted at a heavy discount—poor farmers having been known to pay as much as twenty-five percent—with chattel mortgages on their stock to secure it.
Elliott in his work on “Usury”, page 182 says, “One cent loaned January 1, A. D. 1, drawing interest at the rate of 6 percent, compounded annually, on January 1, 1895, would amount to $8,497,840,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.000,000,000,000,000, (8,497,840,000 decilliondollars). To pay this in gold, 23.2 grains to the dollar, using it in spheres of pure gold the size of the earth, it would take 610,070,000,000,000,000 spheres of gold to pay the debt.”
With the coming of our Civil War, 1861, the ■ money-lenders of the United States, pressed for all restrictions on money-lending to b« thrown off, and conjointly with the money-lenders of Europe, succeeded under evasion and devices in accomplishing their purpose.
National and State Banks
CAPITALISTS induced the government to permit them to have a system of banks authorized to loan money, to be depositories of the money in circulation and of the money belonging to the government; permitting the banks to issue the money of the nation, guaranteed by the government. It was pressed by the moneylenders, 1862, as the condition upon which they would put up their money to finance the Union side of the war. It passed only by a bare majority, the vote in the Senate standing—twenty-three yeas to twenty-one nays.
The states followed with more liberal laws on the subject, till state banks and all forms of banking have steadily increased in number till now there are more than 30,000 banks in the United States. It became a business recognized and respected by law, with the money of the nation in their control and keeping. The bankers organized associations by districts and nationally. The American Bankers’ Association, with its controlling spirit in New York City, is today the strongest and most powerful organization in the United States. The first move of the organized bankers was to demonetize silver, 1873, and contract the money of the nation by one-half.
Loaning Five Times More Than They Have
ONE would naturally say that there could not be more money loaned than there is money in existence. If all the horses in the world were hired out, there would be no more horses to hire and the number of horses in the world would be the limit of horses to hire; but not so with money under usury. With, say, five billion dollars of money of all kinds in the United States, one would think that when the bankers had it all, the amount they could put out at interest would be limited to the five billion dollars.
They now have it all and are handling it so as to draw interest on twenty-five billion dollars. The banking system conferred on' them enables them to do this.
All the money in the United States outside of the U. S. Treasury vaults, October 1, 1919, was $5,806,571,880. This statement was furnished me by the Treasury Department at Washington. I have been unable to obtain a later report.
An official statement printed as follows with the 28,973 banks reporting, shows capital stock and surplus, of the 28,973 banks, $4,975,076,052. Surplus is profits additional to dividends, added to capital—compounding interest. With $4,975,076,052, in round figures, five billion dollars invested, their loans are, $25,222,849 814, a little in excess of twenty-five billion dollars.
CAPITAL, SURPLUS AND LOANS Of Banks in the United States, 1319. (Laie: Reports not available)
Date & Authority
Capital StocK
‘ Surplus
Loans
Federal Reserve Banks 12 banhs. From their stp’,'-meuts. June 30.
19111. in Rand Jie-
Nally Bar.!: Directory. July. 11'10 pages 25 to 33...
$ 82.756.000
$ 49 4(53 OOl
$ 2,112.231.000
Federal Farm Loan Bureau. Census Bulletin No. 367..
16,727,438
157.020,751
National Banks, 7.7S5 banks, June 30. 1910. Treasury Eenort, -‘-’V?
23. 1919, No 119
1.118 603.000
1,244.875 000
10,574,338,000
State Banks 16.596 banks, June 30 1918. Census Bulletin No. 371........
501.154.866
805.017 467
4 "33.930,854
Private Bank s, J .091 banks. Line 30. 1918. CC’.v-us Bulletin No 371..
18.803,ti"5
13.288,586
i
144.687.74?
Loan & Trust Com-piiE'ies. 1.669 Com panics. June 39. 1918 Census Bulletin No 371.......
525 236 5(5
646, !)«(■. Uh
4 398.814,70?
Stock Savings Banks, 1.194 banks. June 30. 1918 Census Bulletin No 3’’1 Federal Farm Loan
68.984 602
47,597.399
786.783,851
Mutual Savings Banks, 625 banks.
June 30. 1918. Census Bulletin No. 371
No Capital Stock Report
335.599,081
2.314,742,904
Banks r epo r t i ng.
28.973 ..................
$ 2.332.266 IM 1
$ 2.642,809,896
$25,222,849,814
It will be noiietd that loans are about 5 to 1 of capital stock and surplus The same statements give deposits about same as loans.
All the money deposited in the banks is borrowed money—if not borrowed by the depositor it has been borrowed by some one—as all the money in the United States is owned by the money-lenders. And those engaged in the banking business are drawing interest on it five or more times.
Origin of Federal Reserve Banks
IT AV AS found that the banks conducted as has been described, with a reserve of fifteen percent of deposits to meet checks, in time of panics some had to close their doors. In other words, in the stretching process of 5 for 1, there was a weakness in the system under adverse circumstances.
To cure this the money-lenders had congress authorize twelve Federal Reserve Banks, the stockholders in which to be the regular banks: in eiTeet to belong to and be owned by the banking syrieuu These twelve National Reserve Banks are authorized to issue paper money ad libitum as necessary-to take care of the situation and to loan it on any security taken by the b?. , system.
STATEMENTS
Of tht- tZ fU.fteral Reserve Banks, December 31, 1920.
Seventh report Federal Reserve Board, printed
1921. I.U. , /i poi 's not available. But- the profits are •»nnvniiy troubling higher.
Nawes Federal Banks
Capital Stock
Surplus
FUjnk Dxf-trict No. 1, Page 370
5 7,718,000
$ 15,711,000
New York City
N. 2, Page 394
26,372,650
56,414,456
PhUadelnhia Db-tBot *Xo.
Page 415
3,
8,485,000
17,010,000
Cleveland District No.
Page 430
4,
10,703,000
20,305,000
Richmond, Va. District No. 5, Page 449
0,269,000
10,561,000
Atlanta District No. Page 468
6.
4,053,050
8,343,465
Chicago District No. Page 485
7,
13,913,000
28,980,000
St. Louis District No. Page 506
8.
4,365,000
8,346,000
Minneapolis District No. Page 525
9,
3,461,000
5,178,000
Kansas City District No. Page 545
10,
4,-155,000
8,395.000
Dallas, Tex.
District No.
Page 566
11,
4,099,000
4,152,000
San Francisco District No. 12^ Page 588
6,926,000
14,194,228
Totals
$99,819,700.
$197,590,149
The Federal Reserve Bank Act provides that after all expenses are paid in the management of the Reserve Banks, six percent “Cumulative interest” (on capital and surplus) shall be paid to the stockholders and further profits paid into a surplus fund until the surplus is 100 percent of the paid-in capital stock. After that, ten percent of the excess profits to be added to surplus, dividends on stock and surplus to the stockholders to continue, and the remainder paid to the United States as a franchise tax.
In addition to the six percent dividends and two hundred percent profit (surplus) in six years, they are, from profits, building extravagantly expensive buildings, the one in New York City costing about $25,000,000, being more than the cost of the nation’s capitol at Washington; and paying enormous salaries to their officials ■—five times as much as the same officials ever received for like services before—all derived from the people through interest on enforced borrowing and from loans to profiteers, who add the interest to the price of products sold to the people. All this, additional to what the other 30,252 banks are doing.
The people are now in debt to the banking system'more than 30 billion dollars; and with the borrowers paying six percent to eight percent interest per annum, they are paying upward of twTo billion dollars interest, annually, to the banks, to keep a medium of exchange in circulation, that civilization may hold together.
Something to Think About
THE money-lenders’ interest is continuous through floods and droughts, crop failure and sickness of the debtor, and is working seven days in the week, Sunday included. It is only a question of time when money-lending gravitates to the money-lenders, and when the entire wealth of the nation and home-ownership and independent citizenship are replaced by tenantry and when a dependent citizenship is seeking employment from others.
The assessed value and the “true value” of all taxable property in the United States is given on page 118 of a publication by the Bureau of the Census, entitled “Financial Statistics of States, 1919”. For 45 states given, the total assessed value of all real and personal property is $83,202,153,672. For each state the percent of assessed to true value is given and
ranges from fifteen percent to one hundred percent, resulting in an estimate of true value of all taxable property in the 45 states at $138,115,-575,095—an average of $3,069,235,000 per state. The three states omitted are, California, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Adding ten billion dollars (something over the average) for the three omitted states, we have a total “true valuation” of all the taxable real and personal property in the United States at $148,115,575,095.
This is the only official and reliable estimate of the true value of the wealth of the United States. Propaganda for various purposes has been placing high estimates on the national wealth, but for sobeii, purposes of conservative estimate as to our debt-paying capacity it can not be placed beyond 150 billion dollars—and we now owe 101 billion dollars, or two-thirds of our resources.
Debts of and in the United States
National interest bearing debt, as per Treasurer’s statement, fluctuating at ..
States, Counties and “minor civil” divisions, less sinking fund, year 1913, Census Bulletin, No. 401, approximately—
There appears to be no compiled report since 1913. If Increase has been in same ratio as it increased from 1902 to 1913, then we should now add _________________________
Road bonds issued in last few years are not included in the last foregoing item, estimated ....... -............................
Railroad bonds and other interest bearing debts, year 1916, Census Bulletin, No. 221, $12,000,435,523, no data since, now estimated ----------------------------------------------------
Industrial Corporations, other than railroads, including street car companies, interurbnns, water and electric light companies, oil, gas, manufacturing and all other industrial companies, other than railroads, that have issued bonds, estimate—no data obtainable -----------------
Loans by banks, (see page 8 and authority there given) -------------------------------------------------
Interest bearing loans on other real estate, estimated -------------------------------------------------------
Farm mortgages, estimated, no data.........
Interest bearing endowments for colleges, universities and churches, estimated —
All other interest bearing loans, made by private money-lenders and not included in the above...................................................
$ 25,000,000,000
4,000,000,000
3,000,000,000
2,000,000,000
14,000,000,000
15,000,000,000
30,000,000,000
3,000,000,000
3,000,000,000
1,000,000,000
1,000,000,000
Total
...... $101,000,000,000
Any duplication that may be in this statement will be negligible; and much more than offset by interest bearing debts not included. Taken as a whole, this estimate of Interest bearing debts in the United States is conservative.
We now have the comparison of true value of all taxable property, 150 billion dollars; and the total interest-bearing debts of about 101 billion dollars. At an average interest rate of six percent, the annual interest to be paid is six billion dollars. What it means is that the money-lenders have a mortgage on the taxpayers and property owners for two-thirds of the tangible wealth of the nation—due to our monetary system that has hoarded the money where the people could not get it in exchange for their services and property, forcing them to borrow it from the money-lenders.
Debts of the World
ANY estimate to be made of the interest-bearing debts of the world must be a mere estimate, but something approaching what it is may be approximated. The same character of the banking system is world-wide, and on the older continent'usury had a start before it had a population to feed on in the Western Hemisphere.
The national debts of the nations late at war, are now being given by the press and magazine writers, and we get a very fair idea of what they are in part of them.
Germany, Britain, France, Italy
A press dispatch from Berlin gives the national debt of Germany, based on a budget estimate, at--------------------------------------
A statistician writer in the Saturday Evening Post of a late issue gives the national debt of Great Britain at'-----
He gives that of France, at -----------------------
That of Italy, at ............................................
Four nations given, the national debts,total
We have seen that the interest bearing national debt of the United States is $25,000,000,000; which is about onefourth the total interest bearing debts of all kinds in the United States. If this same proportion holds true, and it pro-ably wiil, for Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy, then the total interest bearing debts of all kinds, in these four nations, is approximately .........................
The same writer puts the wealth of these four nations as follows :
Great Britain -----------------------------------------------
France, before the war, (it must be less now) —-------------------------------------------------------—
The German Empire, before the war ---------
Italy, before the war ......................................
Total wealth ........................................
$ 51,000,000,000
36,000,000,000
36,000,000,000
12,600,000,000
$135,600,000,000
$540,000,000,000
120,000,000,000
62,000,000,000
80,000,000,000
25,000,000,000
$287,000,000,000
By this recent estimate, and it cannot be far
GOLDEN AGE
y«BRVA»T 24, iwa
wrong, the total interest-bearing debts in these four nations are, $253,000,000,000 more than their total wealth. With this estimate true of Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy, taken as a whole, the condition of Austria-Hungary, Russia, Turkey, Belgium, Roumania and the other smaller nations engaged in the war, must be about the same.
As to the balance of the world there is no data to go on, except we know that usury has been eating its way everywhere. We do know, however, that Egypt and India are in bondage to England and that the Transvaal is falling a prey to the money-lenders of London. Mexico, Central and South America, probably have, in proportion to wealth, less indebtedness than the other nations. But the world as a whole is hopelessly in the hands of the money-lenders.
At Home and Abroad
FFas7 Street's Most Prosperous Year
THE past year has been the most prosperous ever known in the history of Wall Street. The workers have received Christmas bonuses up to as high as twenty-five percent of their yearly salaries, in some instances, and it is believed that, including dividends and extras, not less, than >j M0.000 were distributed as extra compensation to financial workers at the close of 1925.
Concentration of Wealth
TN CLEVELAND, Ohio, 127 families own one-third of the assessed land values of that great city, i ms than 150 people own more than one-half o' ?he total real estate of New York City. The > ;enty largest shareholders in each railroad in the country have in the aggregate fifty-two pi-icent of the total shares outstanding. Sixty-two Standard Oil stockholders own sixty-four percent of the entire stock outstanding.
Index Pats Operators on Back ■
THE Index, published by the New York Trust
Company, ignoring the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been made by the anthracite coal operators, and forgetting the desperate conditions in millions of homes in the northern and eastern states brought about by the coal suspension, pats the operators on the back, tells them they must stand firm, and intimates that they have the backing of the President, the Supreme Court and the New York Chamber of Commerce. Incidentally, the resumption of negotiations between operators and workers was brought about by the simultaneous demand of forty Roman Catholic pastors of the foreign-speaking congregations in Scranton, Wilkesbarre and vicinity. The effect of the demand was immediate; so immediate, m fact, as to lead to the suggestion that the part had been rehearsed beforehand.
U. S. Governed by Rich Men
THE present United States Secretary of the A Treasury is estimated to be worth about $300,000,000. He has been into about every enterprise in Pittsburgh that had any money in it. The Secretary of Commerce is reputed to be worth $10,000,000, made in mining. The Secretary of State is said to have made $5,000,000 at the practice of law. The Secretary of the Interior is also a millionaire and the Secretary of Labor is a capitalist.
Religious Affiliations ofU. S. Government Heads
THE president, vice president, and the ten members of the official family are all Protestants. Five of the Cabinet are Masons. Of the nine members of the Supreme Court seven are Protestants; one is a Hebrew; one is a Catholic. In the United States Senate ninety-two are Protestants, and four are Catholics. In the House of Representatives, 395 are Protestants, seven are Hebrews and thirty-three are Catholies. In the House and Senate together there are 375 Masons.
Catholic Church Borrows Thirty Millions
THE Catholic Church of Bavaria is borrowing $30,000,000 from the bankers of New York City. It is expected that five or more of the leading banking houses of the city will act as under-
■writers of the loan, which is covered by mortgages on churches and assignments of funds supplied for educational and other purposes by the German government. The money will be used to build more churches. Cardinal Hayes has also arranged with the New York bankers for a large loan to the Vatican. Incidentally, this nlan ties the interests of these great financial mses to those of the Roman Church and mal s it certain that in a time of need their influence will be used in its behalf.
Fixing Prices on Farm Products
ARGUING that the Unites States Government should fix the freight rates so that the railroads get a fair return on their property, and the tariff so that the manufacturer will be protected, and the rate of interest so that money and credit can be protected, Senator Shipstead will introduce legislation having in view the fixing of prices on “farm products”! It is not likely that the bill will pass, but it would be about as fair as any of the other pricefixing measures that have been so common in recent years.
New York’s Fresh Vegetables
JUST as the market gardeners about New York City are digging the last of their celery, beets, turnips and. parsnips, the new crops of vegetables begin to come in from the south. Early in December the first new cabbages began to come in from Florida, onions arrived from Spain, beets and carrots came in from Texas, peas and beans from Calif ornia and Florida and hothouse rhubarb came from Canada. New York always has fresh vegetables on its table.
Dance Halls Liable to Collapse
DANCE halls, like print shops, are liable to collapse from the vibrations imparted to them by myriads of feet all moving in rhythmic unison. Several such catastrophes have occurred recently. It is on the principle of the child’s swing. Every push, after the swing is in motion, makes it swing farther and farther. Soldiers in marching over bridges are required by their officers to fall out of step, so that the bridges will not collapse while they cross. Structures built to sustain a given quiet load will not bear near that load if the load is vibrating, and especially if the rate of vibration is that of the building itself. Dance halls should be built with dancing in view.
Death from Alcohol Poisoning
HUIE Health Department of New York City shows that in the year 1918 the number of deaths in the city due to alcohol poisoning were 87; three years later the total for the year had risen to 127; in 1922 it doubled, and in 1923 doubled again. In 1924 the total was 499 and in 1925 it was considerably over 500. It is now claimed that 99% of bootleg liquor is poisonous.
An Accident Every Five Thousand Miles
k MOTORMAN on a street car can figure with almost mathematical certainty that every time he runs his car five thousand miles he is due for a collision with a motor vehicle. The total number of such collisions in the United States in 1923 was 179,301; in 1924 it was 173,479, a slight reduction.
Christmas Rush Too Heavy
THE annual Christmas rush is growing more burdensome year by year, and in 1925 was almost greater than could be borne. In Illinois a man of fifty who had given all his best years to the railway mail service, fearing that he would not be able to keep up with the rush this season committed suicide. All the railway mail service men and all other postal employes feel the strain of .so much work coming at one season of the year. And no remedy for the difficulty seems in sight.
Cost of a Five Thousand Dollar Dwelling
THE Department of Commerce has figured out that the principal items entering into the cost of a dwelling which sells for five thousand dollars are as follows: cost of land, $950; cost of building materials $1,465; cost of labor entering into construction, $1,300; cost of fees, finance and contractor’s profits, etc., $1,285.
Ventilation of Vehicular Tunnel
THE ventilation of the vehicular tunnel under the Hudson river will be accomplished by a battery of eighty-four great fans. These will drive the fresh air in at the bottom of the roadway every fifteen feet and suck out the foul air through openings into the air ports overhead. There will be two air stations at each end of the tunnel, and six sources of power, so that if one breaks down the others can be utilized.
Storms on the Sun
STORMS on the sun continue to increase in number and violence. Twenty-four of these storms were visibile on Wednesday, December 16th, one of them being 25,000 miles wide and 175,000 miles long. These storms come periodically, every eleven years. They have a marked effect on electrical and weather conditions on the earth. It is believed that the dust thrown up by these storms hangs suspended as a screen to shut off from the earth some of the heat which would otherwise come. Cold weather on earth for the next two years is anticipated largely because of these sun storms.
Mock Suns Appear to Boston
ON DECEMBER 23rd, Boston was treated to an atmospheric phenomenon which resulted in the appearance in the sky at one time of three suns and five rainbows. This phenomenon, brought about by the reflection of light from innumerable ice crystals in the upper air, is taken to indicate a hard winter. Certain Biblical phenomena, such as the going back of the sun ten degrees on the sun-dial of King Ahaz, are attributed to similar causes.
The Diablo Canyon Meteoi
THE New York American contains an inter
esting account of the discovery near Diablo Canyon, Arizona, of the greatest meteor of which science has any knowledge. This meteor, found at a distance of several hundred feet beneath the surface of the desert, is estimated to be about 550 feet in diameter—a twelve million ton projectile of solid iron, nickel and platinum. The platinum in it is believed to be worth a billion dollars. When the projectile hit the earth it formed a crater thirty-five hundred feet in diameter, with a rim two hundred feet high.
Old and New World Dance Together
ON THE evening of December 15th, the dance music provided by the Waldorf Astoria hotel was transmitted by telephone to Schenectady and Pittsburgh, and from those two points was broadcast. The music was picked up by the British Broadcasting Company’s station at Daventry, England, and there relayed so successfully that all over western Europe people were dancing to New York music. Present arrangements would now permit one person to address the whole world at once. At midnight, December 31st, the famous Liberty Bell in Philadelphia was tapped' with a hammer and the sound was broadcast throughout America and heard abroad.
Some Advantages of Small Ships
OF COURSE there are advantages in large ships. It is easy to add many tons of cargo space in a ship without any very considerable additions to the dimensions of the boat. But small ships have their advantages too. During the past year six ocean going ships of small size took their cargoes direct from Europe and South America into the heart of Chicago. In about two years, after certain restrictions in the St. Lawrence River have been removed, it is anticipated that larger ships and a greatly increased tonnage will visit Chicago and other cities on the Great Lakes.
May Let the Cooks In
rpiIE United States may let any European woman of good character come into the country, regardless of the quota, if she has had a year’s experience as a cook in her home]and. At least Uncle Sam will do this, if a bill proposed by representative Bloom, of New York, becomes a law. American women dislike housework, and domestics are very hard to get.
The League of Nations Founded upon Injustice
ARGUTNG against the United States entering the League of Nations direct by the front door, or indirect by the World Court back door, the Irish Republic in its December 12th issue said:
No thought, no provision, and no desire shows in the League for the liberating of small and weak nations. No question of human liberty enters into the League’s considerationn. The present territorial bounds claimed by the imperialistic nations that rule the League guaranteed and the might of the members is pleug^M. to maintain these boundaries. The League therefore is founded upon injustice. It is immoral, indefeasible and a fraud.
Foreign Debt Settlements
DEBT funding agreements have been made between the United States and the governments of Belgium, Czecho-Slovakia, Esthonia, Finland, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Rumania- No agreement has been made for the funding of debts owed by Armenia, Austria, Cuba, France, Greece, Liberia, Nicaragua, Russia and Jugoslavia. Armenia has no government, and Russia has none which America recognizes; so these debts will probably never be paid.
Standard Oil Loses Mosul
AT THE moment it looks as though the
Standard Oil Interests, operating through France and Turkey, had failed to retain the oil region about Mosul. The Anglo-Persia Oil Company, operating through Great Britain and the League of Nations, has decided to award Mosul to Irak, which means that the Dutch Shell Oil Company and not the Standard Oil Company gets Mosul. Turkey is making threats that she will fight to keep MosuL We wait to see.
British Interest in Mosul
COMMENTING on the differences between
Turkey and Great Britain over Mosul, the Manchester Guardian says:
However correct the diplomatic negotiations may be, there must always be a latent suspicion of a power which is at the same time a trustee and a beneficiary. One way out of the difficulty would be for the government to renounce its controlling interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which was certainly acquired without any reference to the potentialities of Mosul. If, for reasons of state policy, the government continues to invite trouble by entering into the international competition for oil, it must be all the more careful to avoid the appearance of pressing Irak’s claims to Mosul beyond a point which our duties as a trustee—a somewhat reluctant trustee—demand.
Turkish Atrocities Near Mosul
THE League of Nations Council was influenced to award Mosul to Irak rather than to Turkey, largely by the publication of the report of the Esthonian General Laidoner, who visited Mosul, interviewed hundreds of refugees, many of them before they had had a chance to see either the British or Irakian authorities, and declares that in their pillage of the country about Mosul, the Turkish troops had been guilty of every cruelty and every excess committed by Turks at any time in the past against Armenians, Greeks or others. One instance is cited where five women were buried alive under a pile of stones because they could not keep up with the column which was marching them away from their homes and into slavery.
Turkey Still Very Backward
ALTHOUGH Turkey has made extraordinary progress in the adoption of Western civilization, particularly within the past year, yet throughout the country districts bedsteads are still unknown, whole families feed out of one dish without knives or forks, and the ,joint living and sleeping room is without anything in the way of ornaments or luxuries. Headaches.are still cured by slashing the forehead. Many other equally foolish superstitions abound.
Heligoland’s Rise to Fame
TDOR centuries Britain owned the little island
of Heligoland, just off the coast of Germany. A quarter century ago, in a spasm of brotherly love, it gave the island to Germany. Germany at once turned it into a Gibraltar, a menace to the peace of the world. At the conclusion of the World War the fortifications were all demolished. Now Heligoland is raising lobsters and thus doing some good in the world. May all other Gibraltars do the same
American Soldier Tackles Alphonso
FOLLOWING the good old American maxim that one man is as good as another as long as he behaves himself as well, an American soldier, George Boyd of West Virginia, who had been wounded while fighting in the Spanish army in Morocco, called on King Alphonso the other day and told him that he was tired of waiting for his discharge from the army. He got it right away. Incidentally, the Spanish dictatorship has been followed by a civilian government of which General de Rivera remains the Premier. The constitution remains suspended, and the censorship is still on. Half of the cabinet are military men. All political meetings are forbidden.
Interesting Items About Light
NO MATTER how favorable other conditions may be, ordinary plants and animals cannot thrive in darkness. The exceptions to the rule seem to consist of certain fishes which manage to live in underground streams, or at great depths in the ocean. These fishes are blind, but they have the usual organs of sight; indicating that their ancestors were equipped with vision, but that they in some manner found their way into subterranean waters and there made their abode in the darkness until their eyes, through disuse, wasted away.
So important is light in the life of plants that government experts have now demonstrated that through its influence plants may be brought to maturity at any season of the year. This is done by subjecting them to alternate periods of light and darkness in carefully determined proportions. These successful experiments followed the discovery that plants depend for nourishment more upon light than they do upon temperature. The infra-red and ultra-violet rays from the sun have much to do with inducing growth and in promoting the chemical changes which bring both plant and animal life to maturity.
Camille Flammarion, French astronomer, says significantly that thanks to the successive transmissions of light across and through the vast regions of the infinite, the past life of all worlds that have ever existed and of all beings that have lived upon those worlds is always visible in space.
Flammarion suggests that the time will come when science will discover in light the principle of every movement, and the inner reason of things. If science ever makes such a discovery it will discover the Creator, but it will be done by the eye of faith. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
What fe Light?
OME might feel like saying, “What is the use of raising the question, What is light?
Everybody knows what light it.” But it would be nearer right to say that nobody knows -what it is. Modern scientists are not agreed. For a hundred and fifty years they held to Newton’s theory that it is caused by material particles or corpuscles, sent off in all directions from luminous bodies, and traversing space in right lines, with the known velocity of 186,000 miles per second.
This theory was followed by the theory which has mainly prevailed for the past hundred years, that light consists of the propagation of vibrations or undulations in a subtile, elastic medium, or ether, assumed to fill all space, and to be thus set in vibratory motion by the action of luminous bodies, as the atmosphere is by sonorous bodies. This theory is called the undulatory or wave theory.
A more recent theory held that light consists of electrical oscillations; this is known as the electro-magnetic theory of light. This theory is based upon the studies of Faraday, Maxwell and Hertz. The Einstein discoveries that light rays can he bent by gravitation has drawn attention afresh to the Newtonian corpuscular theory. There are also some new theories of light which have attracted the attention of certain scientists.
The discovery that the velocity of light is 186,324 miles per second was made by Ole Roemer, a Dane, in 1675. Professor Michaelson, after a year of experiments with mirrors between two mountain tops in California, has proven that the accepted velocity is substantially correct.
Light and radio waves travel at the same speed in a vacuum,'and the front of an electrical disturbance in a wire travels at the same speed, but the actual current is said to be considerably slower. It is thought that light is communicated by crosswise or transverse vibrations.
History of Lighting Apparatus
TN THE days of Moses, more thar +hou-sand years before the beginning vx the Christian era, the Lord gave the people of Israel detailed instructions regarding the making of a golden candlestick or lampstand, having seven lamps, used to illuminate the Holy of the Tab-ernacle. Quite probably simpler lamps were in use in Egypt long before.
In the days of Gideon, some two hundred years later, the three hundred chosen men of the Israelites were each equipped with lanterns, somewhat similar in structure to those that are used in Egypt at the present time for traveling at night. In the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, given by our Lord, there is mention of lamps which are supplied with oil. It is known that on the Island of Crete, about 1600 B. C., there were lamps of stone and clay, and within the past few years French archseol-ogists have recovered from the lakes of Switzerland bronze lamps that were used by the lake dwellers of long ago.
The most ancient lamps were all much alike. They were shallow bowls with broad rims, having diametrical depression for wick rests. Equidistant from the wick rests were “ears” by which the lamps might be picked up. The fuel was olive oil, or other vegetable or animal oils, and the illumination provided was what we today would regard as very inferior.
The first real improvement in lamps came in 1783, with the introduction of the flat wick in a close fitting support, and a spur wheel which by rotating adjusted the wick and regulated the flame. The use of chimneys on lamps was by accident. A workman in attempting to heat a bottle in the flame of a lamp cracked the bottom, and because the glass had become too hot for him to hold he momentarily placed it over the burner. The result was surprising; it was seen that the bottle increased the brilliancy of the flame and also made the light steady.
Lamps, Candles, Gas, Electricity
HE above is the order in which our progress in illumination has taken place. The lamps came first; and in some millions of homes, in improved forms, they continue to this day. The Erechtheum on the Acropolis, in Athens, had a gold lamp of special design which, when filled and trimmed, burned for a whole year. It was probably intended to imitate the golden lampstand in the Holy of the Tabernacle.
Before the discovery and general use of kerosene, which really inaugurated modem illumination, lamps burned whale oil, sperm oil, fish oil and lard oil. In 1834, camphene, a distillate of turpentine, was used to a certain extent.
Candles were known to the ancient Romans, but their use followed the use of lamps. About the fifteenth century wax became plentiful, and the silversmiths and the goldsmiths made such beautiful candlesticks that no one wanted to use lamps any more. The candle did not smoke as much as the old-style lamp, and as candles could be either purchased or made at home they came to be the accepted form of illumination, until about 1783.
With the revival and improvement of the lamp there came shortly afterward the use of gas, which had its public trial in the lighting of the Westminster Bridge, London, some time early in the nineteenth century. Gas is still used, though mostly for cooking purposes.
The discovery of the incandescent lamp by Thomas Edison in 1879 revolutionized lighting and has turned night into day. In some respects it has made the night even more beautiful than the day. Portions of some of our cities at night are like fairyland. At present about 161,000,000 lamp sockets a year are used in America, probably making more light than could be obtained from a billion oil lamps. There are 9,000,000 homes in the United States using electric lights.
From the New York Times we quote an interesting item about a form of lamp of which most of us know but little. The Times says:
The “ballo-burro”, or butter-ball lamp of the Sicilians, is still seen in some of the basements in Mulberry Street [New York’s Sicilian quarter]. The butter-ball is a lump of butter around which has been molded a sort of container of cheese, the whole gourdshaped. The melted cheese, worked while still plastic around an ice-cold ball of butter and then cooled quickly, retains its shape and the whole remains sweet indefinitely if kept cool. If, through changing temperature or other causes, the butter becomes rancid, does the thrifty Sicilian throw it into the garbage? Not he, or she. A bit of string for a wick and you have an excellent lamp. And when the butter has been all burned away, the dry cheese, which was the lamp, is grated up for soup or eaten on the family spaghetti.
The Necessity of Good Lights
XPERIENCE has shown the necessity of good light if good work is to be expected of workmen or if their output is to be kept up to normal. Immediate improvement in the output of a factory is noted when the windows are cleaned, in both the quality and the quantity.
Wherever the sunlight is kept out of rooms where it is needed, there is an increased expense for artificial lights, which are never so satisfactory, no matter how good they are. Unnecessary artificial lights mean waste of fuel, waste of eyesight, waste of health and waste of output.
Artificial lighting produces many problems. Lights should be so placed that the rays from them, falling on glazed or polished surfaces,
should not be reflected into the eyes. Flickering gas jets must be guarded against. Arc lamps and incandescent lamps may be very unsatisfactory if the current is obtained from a generator driven by an ordinary single cylinder gas engine. Another thing to be avoided is an arrangement of lights which throws streaks upon the work or makes too sharp a contrast between light colored or bright surface work and dark surroundings.
Within the past few years there has been an immense amount of interest in improved methods of lighting homes. Once the attempt was merely to get enough light. Now soft lights are the rule, and every attempt is made to have the general effect subdued and restful. Glaring lights are considered in bad taste and they are so in fact.
Humans were made to love light. It is said that when the Eskimos of North Greenland were first shown electric lights they were wild with delight. Perhaps if we could think of living in frigid darkness twenty-four hours a day for 117 days of the year without a let-up we could better appreciate their feelings.
For many years Scranton, Pa., claimed to be the most brilliantly lighted city in the world. Perhaps it could not claim this now. Paris and New York are both illuminated most brilliantly. New York’s White Way is the earth’s most elaborate night illumination. In the center of the Way is the Capitol Theatre, with 17,000 lamps, ranging in size from the 10-watt sign lamps to the 1,000-watt flood lighting units. The Capitol Theatre is the largest theatre in the world.
Even Sunlight Has Its Dangers
ALL know how beneficial is the sunlight.
Children who are deprived of their full share of it are stunted in body and mind. Prisoners shut away from its life-giving rays become pale and predisposed to consumption. Homes that have too much shade around them become breeding places for disease germs.
Sunlight is, of course, the most potent of all bacteriacides. But it is a bacteriacide because it has a destructive effect on all living cells too long subjected to its direct action. It is for that reason that city dwellers with their soft, pale, untanned skins cannot stand the full light of the sun for more than three or four hours without fatigue and discomfort. An extensive sunburn is not only uncomfortable but really dangerous.
The invisible rays of light, the ultra-violet and the infra-red, are as potent in their effects on the human organism as are the visible rays, and even more so. These invisible rays are also used for signalling purposes, by means of an invention called the “photophone”, which may be used in secrecy either day or night. A very narrow beam is focused upon the. point where the signal is to be given, and the visible portion of it is cut out by means of screens or filters. When signalling at night only the ultra-violet rays from the arc light are transmitted, and in the day time the infra-red rays are utilized. These rays can be picked up only by means of special receiving apparatus on which they are focused.
In Austria a new kind of glass has been invented which permits the passage of rays of ultra-violet light. It is of organic origin, about one-third the weight of ordinary glass and easily abraded. Though it is quite soft it is very transparent.
Improvements in Bulbs and Lamps
WITHIN recent years great improvements have taken place in the construction of the electric light bulb, and still others are on the way. It seems strange to think of electric light bulbs that handle 100 kilowatts of power, or about the equivalent of the work of 100 horses; but there are bulbs even more powerful. Those are used in radio transmission.
The largest electric light bulb ever made had a diameter of fifteen inches and required the power from four large cables to supply the 30,000 watts it required. The bulb gave a light of 150,000 candle power, but this was only for a few minutes, because the heat generated rapidly melted the glass. The smallest bulbs are those used to take photographs of the interior of the throat and stomach.
The most powerful artificial light ever made is a searchlight, the property of the Sperry Gyroscope Company of Brooklyn, N. Y. It has lighted up wet patches in the sky at a distance of fifteen miles above the earth. Its rays aro invisible in the transparent lower air. This searchlight has the brilliancy of one billion candles. A lighthouse off the coast of Australia has such powerful lights that the rays are visible for nearly one hundred miles.
A Newark, N. J., inventor has perfected an electric light bulb which has no filament. The light is produced on two poles, between which there is no connection. A London invention, consisting wholly of an ingenious arrangement of reflectors and screens, shows all colors almost as well as in full daylight. Delicate yellows, indigo blues, cobalts and violets all appear in their full values.
An improved oil lamp has recently been invented which burns ninety-four percent air and six percent kerosene. It is said to give a brilliant, soft, white light, better than gas or electricity and superior to ten ordinary oil lamps, and to burn without odor, smoke or noise. We understand that it has been approved by the United States government and thirty-five leading universities. Probably the Department of Agriculture at Washington could give information about this lamp.
Important Lighting Inventions
FTER ten years of work, a method has been found for shooting rays of light around a corner, or even bending them in a circle. Fused clear, quartz has the property of carrying- rays of either light or heat in the direction in which it is bent. Ordinary glass transmits 35% of light, optical glass 65% and fused quarts 92%. A solid bar of the quartz bt t in a semicircle carried the light of a match as well as if the quartz were a hose and the light water. As quartz is transparent to ultra-violet rays it is believed that quartz windows in sanitariums will have the same effect as daylight, and permit ultra-violet treatments to be given directly from the sun.
A new type of photometer makes it possible to read accurately the amount of light given off by an explosion of any sort. It consists of a small tube with a tiny electric lamp inside it at one end, and a metal strip upon which the letters of the alphabet are stenciled. When light from the outside is the same as the internal illumination of a given letter that letter will vanish. , ' recent adaptation of the photometer is the rr vetometer, which gives at once the reflection factor of the walls and enables more scientific lighting, painting, etc.
The “sun-valve” is an ingenious arrangement
Bsooklw, N. X,
by which the electric lights on buoys are automatically switched on at night and off at sunrise. Uncle Sam has 5,800 shore beacons and buoys fitted with automatically controlled electric lights, some of them so constructed that they need no attention for a year at a time.
The photophone, mentioned < above, enables ships at sea to converse with one another on rays of light which are invisible to others and therefore secret. This depends for its action upon the-selenium cell, the electrical resistance of which diminishes as the intensity of the light to which it is exposed increases.
The large electric lighting plants are equipped with “wireless storm announcers” which enable them to prepare ahead of time for the sudden demands for current which will be made when the expected storm arrives.
An electric light has been invented which stays lit for a full minute after the current is turned off. . ■
Transmission of light and power without cables or wires is claimed to have been accomplished, and tw’o inventors have made the claim that by their system power could be generated on one side of the continent and sent by wireless to the other for use.
Less spectacular, hut more .immediately valuable, is an electric flashlight opera4 oy a wet battery, so constructed that fl electrdyto comes in contact with the plates and provides current only when the light is in use.
Cold Light Sought and Promised
OR generations the Cubans have had the cheapest lights in the wo. .d. AU the Cuban has to do is to catch about a dozen large fireflies and put them in a case together. On each side of the beetle’s thorax is a luminous membraneous spot, and these flash at intervals so that a dozen fireflies together give a continuous illumination bright enough to read by. This light is accompanied by no perceptible heat, and is seemingly produced with almost no expenditure of energy.
If scientists can get such a light as the Cuban firefly gives, they feel that .it will be the world’s most important invention. It would enable the brilliant lighting of cities and highways at almost no expense except for the original installation. The lights once lit would go on indefinitely.
Italy, France, Germany and America all have scientists who have- produced cold light experimentally. Tomadelli, the Italian, claimed three years ago that he was about ready to put his lamp on the market, but he must have struck a snag, because we do not recall having seen anything further of his invention.
The German invention, must be ran on a 240-volt circuit, which renders it impracticable for most American cities, where the voltage is usually only 110. This lamp is strong enough for a reading lamp in its present undeveloped state. If it becomes commercially successful the claim is made that it will cut electrical bills ninety percent. It is produced with some waste of energy. .
The American invention of Dr. E. Newton Harvey, Princeton University, is based upon a Japanese phenomenon. The Japanese fishermen drop into the ocean the heads of fishes as bait. When hauled in they are covered with thousands of tiny shell fish, cypnidia as they are called, which contain a light-giving principle called “luciferin”. Dr. Harvey's discovery consists of a catalytic agent which keeps alive in- ' definitely the “luciferin”. The result is an unpleasant cold blue glare, but it has taken eight years of patient work to come this far and the result is considered well worth the effort.
In addition, one light-giving substance, “lophin”, has been produced synthetically, which gives out a faint light. If some way could be found to produce “luciferin” synthetically, the ocean would supply forever all the light that mankind would ever need.
The French claim to the invention of cold light comes from a young chemist named Eisler, former chief of a laboratory at Strasburg. Eisler coated with certain phosphorescent substance some glass tubes which were practically vacuums. When the elective current was passed through these tubes, instead of giving the usual faint-colored rose-violet glimmer of the ordinary vacuum, the result was a bright, satisfactory light, produced at small expense and with no harmful rays developed in the process.
No doubt the world will soon have this long-desired cold light. Such progress is a foregleam of the millennium, and is not to be accredited to the brilliancy of men. These discoveries could not have been made ahead of the Lord’s due time for them to be revealed.
Legalized Crime
IT IS a good thing to have public attention focused on the subject of crime, as is now being done in an effort to diminish it; but it is quite another thing to achieve results. It will be as impossible to check crime to any appreciable degree without removing its roots and causes, as it would be to stop an epidemic of typhoid while the community continues to get its water supply from a polluted source.
Crime does not just happen. It is a definite result of existing conditions. There are many psychological factors that enter into its continuance which only psychologists can adequately discuss. Here is where M. D.’s who specialize in mental conditions can render valuable service by enlightening the public on these lines. An intelligent public opinion based on the latest scientific knowledge is the great need of the day if crime is to be successfully combatted.
There is, hoAvever, one powerful factor in this crime problem that is easily recognizable and can be entirely eliminated if people are
By Lydia G. Wentworth
desirous of eliminating it. That factor is war. War is the sum total of evils. It is lawlessness let loose. From the evil passions engendered by it what wonder that crime is rampant during a Avar and seems to gather impetus after its close?
War is legalized crime. How shall we abate and prevent crime Avhen the greatest of all crimes is maintained as a lawful institution and its threat is held constantly before us by our army and navy chiefs?
What Wonder that the minds of the young are receptive to ideas of crime when, from their earliest childhood, they hear about war, and their minds are filled with thoughts of death by violence — and with suggestions of increasing these deaths by additional and more dreadful and subtle devices 1
What Wonder that children groAV up to become criminals of all grades of depravity when they are given pistols and small guns and toy soldiers to play with, and when mock battles and killings are part of the sports that leave an imprint upon their impressionable minds? And military training in high school and college makes the impressions of their childhood well-nigh indelible!
Experts in medicine and psychology should 'deliver strong messages about this to our good citizens — especially now that the tremendous effect of the mind on both moral and physical health are being so widely recognized.
Abolish war! It can be done! The Locarno treaties point a way. The cooperative spirit should be steadfastly championed to the exclusion of militarism. If the will to peace be strong enough, war- can be abolished. And with war eliminated criminality will lose one of its worst breeding-places. The wonder is that human nature shows up as favorably as it does when all the drawbacks to noble development under which it labors are considered! What are the influences for good or evil that are brought to bear on the great majority of our children who will be the adults of tomorrow? Think it over!
[While there is much to commend in the acts of certain statesmen who seek through conferences and treaties to establish peace throughout the world, yet it is evident that the Locarno effort and all similar human endeavors must result in disappointments and dismal failure. Prophetic testimony, corroborated by the entire course of human history, makes it certain that only the Lord holds the key to the situation, and that real peace on earth will come, not from state conferences and human pacts, but by the establishment of His kingdom, on earth by the true and rightful Prince of Peace. That time is not far away.—Editor.]
Britain in Tears By Frederick Lardent, D- B. 0. A. (London.)
BRITAIN is suffering! Over its industrial field the employers are making efforts to reduce wages and increase hours. The miners and the railwaymen are the first to suffer, while other groups of employers are watching and waiting to see who wins before they stipulate similar measures.
The attempt to cut down the wages of the miners has been defeated, but only for the time being. The struggle will be renewed later on with greater vigor. ■
Britain ponders! She has millions out of work, while France has none. Other nations are making tremendous efforts to get trade, and they are in a measure successful. To compete in the world’s market Britain must have cheaper and greater output. Men must therefore work harder at a lower rate of pay, at least this is the thought of some of Britain’s leaders.
Premier Baldwin made the statement on 'July 30th last:
Not only you [miners] but all the other workers in the country must have their wages reduced.
Sir W. Joynson Hicks, on August 3rd, voiced a similar thought:
However disagreeable it may be, I am going to say straight out, that in order to compete with the world, either the conditions of labor, hours or wages will have to be altered in this country.
A prominent labor leader foresees a struggle ahead and suggests a financial food fund on behalf of the workers, so that starvation will not be the cause of the workers’ defeat in the event of a prolonged strike.
…