Golden Age, May 18, 1927
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Contents of the Golden Age
Labor and Economics
The World and its News . ......
Housing Problem Not Solved......
Cost of Living in New'York City ....
Social and Educational Negroes in the United States..... .
Child Suicides Shame the Professors .... Playing with Blasting Caps . ......
Will Help Widows of the Lynched ..... Fresno’s Handsome Ape . . , \ . . . . . Where the Fire Department Failed ....
Finance—Commerce—Transportation
Bank Run Averted by Airplane.........
Armours Must Repay $3,000,000 ........
America’s Most Attractive Highway .......
The Ten Largest Corporations .........
The Bank of Italy............- .
Orders from War—Man’s Anarchy in
Political—Domestic and Foreign New York...........
Greatest Industry........
Georgia . . . . ........
Britain’s Permanently Idle Miners South Africa and West Africa
Travel and Miscellany
From Coast to Coast in a Tin Lizzie .... I
Palestine the Archaeologist’s Paradise . • .
Religion and Philosophy
Is Man Immortal ? ............
What is Beyond the Grave?.......
Cardinal Will Try to Stop Crime.....
The First Skyscraper Ever Built.....
Little Studies for Little People......
Studies in “The Harp of God” .......
The Kingdom Voice (Poem) . .......
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Golden Age
Volume VIII Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, May 18, 1927 Number 200
The World and Its News
[Radiocast from WBBR on a wave length of
Orders from New York
IN AN effort to effect a common-sense solution of the oil situation in Mexico, a number of -^.western oil operators invited General Obregon, ex-president of Mexico, to meet them in San Francisco for a conference on the subject. When he arrived they told him that they had received orders from New York not to have the proposed conference. It seems that nothing can be done on this continent any more without orders from New York.
5,514 Marines in Nicaragua
LEVEN cruisers and 5,514 mariners represent the present determination of the
416.4 meters by the Editor.-}
He would not have followed the Texas Reverend’s example. The Reverend was acquitted of the murder; but the dead man is still dead, and the Reverend is still preaching—presumably on such themes as “Love Your Enemies”, and “Turn the Other Cheek,” and “Thou Shalt Not Kill”.
Alarming Absence from Public Worship
IX hundred ministers met in New York City and deplored the alarming absence of large
United States to have peace in Nicaragua if they have to fight for it. It seems that the three bombs that were dropped by one of our aviators in the streets of one of the Nicaraguan cities were dropped only in a playful mood, although one of them is alleged to have killed several people, including women. The United States is at peace with Nicaragua.
One Out of Ten Owns Stock
RANTING that the population of the United States is 120,000,000, it is a fair supposi
tion that there are approximately 24,000,000 families. In the year 1924 there were 2,358,000 stockholders in the dividend-paying corpora--tions of the United States, so that it may be said that one family out of ten has some stock interest in paying corporations.
Dangerous to Make Threats
N UNARMED man made threats in the study of the Reverend J. Frank Norris of
numbers of children from public worship. These clergymen will never get these children back, never, never, unless they develop the honesty to come out and repudiate the hell theory of the Dark Ages and explain what the Bible everywhere teaches—that hell is the grave only. The time has gone by when children or anybody else can be attracted by lies which even the clergymen themselves do not believe. Let them go back to the Bible and the return of the children will be simple enough. The clergy have held back this truth too long, and now the error has come to plague them and plague them to th© end. Honesty is best, after all.
World’s Greatest Fortunes
CCORDING to the New York Times the Ford fortune is $1,200,000,000; the Rockefel
Fort Worth, Texas. The Reverend shot and killed the unarmed man and fired at him after he had fallen. How glad we are that the Lord Jesus Christ did not affix the title of Reverend to His name! It can be set down as certain that
ler fortune half that; Andrew Mellon comes next with $200,000,000; the Duke of Westminster has a like amount and so has the Harkness oil family. Sir Basil Zaharoff, British munitions maker, is credited with $125,000,000 and the Gaekwar of Baroda has the same. In the $100,-000,000 class are the railway magnates Whitney and Vanderbilt, the banker George F. Baker, Vincent Astor, Walker the lumber magnate, Mitsui the Japanese ship owner, Patino the Bolivia tin producer, and Alfred Loewenstein of Belgium, who owns a large part of that small country.
Bank Run Averted by Airplane
A BANK run was averted in Illinois recently when two hundred thousand dollars were rushed to the bank from St. Louis in time to prevent the difficulty from becoming serious. The financial condition of the bank was good at the time the run was started by irresponsible parties.
Why Fight Doheny’s Battles?
IN VIEW of the fact that the United States
Supreme Court has annulled the Doheny oil leases in California, claiming that they were secured by fraud and the corruption of public officials, and in view of the fact that the Doheny oil interests in Mexico are among the very largest in that country, one wonders .why this government should get excited about what happens to Mr. Doheny’s interests there. Maybe the Mexican government also has a righteous kick coming.
Armours Must Repay $3,000,000
THE arbitrator in the dispute between the Armours and the Farmers Cooperative Grain Marketing Corporation has found the former guilty of fraud and conspiracy, to the extent of $3,000,000, which must be repaid.' The arbitrator found that the Armour-owned elevators juggled their figures so as to credit the Armours with wheat that did not exist. Maybe if the Armours tried to steal these $3,000,000 and got caught at it there are plenty of other millions that they tried to steal and did steal and still possess. Probably the men who engineered the $3,000,000 steal are horrified at the Russian bolshevist experiment which, however, as a matter of fact, they are doing their utmost to encourage.
Manning the Next War
IN THE Madison, Wisconsin, Capital Times a veteran of the World War proposes that in the next war the front line trenches be manned by the international bankers, the boards of directors and higher executive officers of the corporations whose investments in the country to be attacked are at stake, the diplomats who have brought about the impasse which resulted in the appeal to arms, and the Jingo editors. As a veteran he insists that these gentlemen be compelled to fight with soft-nosed bullets, poison gas, trench knives and flame throwers, so that they can get a full knowledge of war and make a full exhibit of their patriotism. Who shall say‘that this is a bad idea?
War—‘Man’s Greatest Industry
UNDER this title, in its issue of March 13th, the New York Times Magazine contains a complete resume of the stupendous efforts now being made by all the nations of the earth to get ready for the next war. Sixteen-inch guns now throw projectiles weighing over a ton, and throw them miles farther than in the World War. Submarines can now remain submerged two and one-half days. New poison gases drive their victims raving mad. France is equipping all her soldiers to throw liquid fire 150 feet, from tanks which they carry on their backs. Torpedoes have been designed to hit marks a hundred miles away. Some airplanes have capacity for fifty men; others have machine guns and disappearing turrets. Several tons of bombs may be carried by one of them. Some of the new tanks travel thirty miles an hour. Some of the tanks weigh up to seventy tons, and carry many men. In some of the armies of the next war every infantryman will be equipped with a machine gun. It is known that some of th© governments are planning to spread disease germs. The Devil said to the Lord, Fall down and worship me and you shall have all these things, for they belong to me. And who can deny that they do, and that the Lord did wisely in turning His back on him?
Negroes in the United States
NEGROES in the United States own 600,000 homes, 80 banks, 100 insurance companies, 400 newspapers and 70,000 other business enterprises. The Negro crime rate in America is’ lower than the crime rate among the aliens. It is higher in the North than in the South, for the reason that in the North most Negroes live in the cities in a very crowded condition.
Anarchy in Georgia
TOOMBS County, Georgia, seems to have lapsed into almost total anarchy, according to reports in the public press. Armed bands of masked men, or rather, we should say, masked cowards, roam through the county flogging, murdering, burning barns, boycotting and intimidating grand juries so that no one feels safe. It is estimated that one hundred persons have been flogged by these cowards.
Child Suicides Shame the Professors
THE professors who have been so busy now for several years doing everything in their power to undermine faith in a Creator are reaping a rich harvest of shame in the deluge of boy and girl suicides, which shows no signs of letting up. Destroy faith in a Creator and there is nothing left to live fot. Build faith in the Creator, study His Word and get a proper view of His — plan, and the world and everything in it is full of the most entrancing interest.. And in this connection it may be said that every preacher who doubts the inspiration of the Bible should be locked up as a criminal, an accessory before the fact.
Suicide Wave is Spreading
rpfiE suicide wave which at present seems to be at its peak in American colleges and universities is spreading in other lands. Britain, Germany, Austria and Turkey each report a great increase in the number of child suicides.
Eighty-Four Percent Crooked
THE tests which have been made at Teachers’ College, Columbia University, during the last two years seem to bear out pretty well the Scripture statement, “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Out of 263 children tested to see whether they would cheat on their examination papers when an inducement to do so was held out tb them, it transpired that eighty-four percent made at least one change in their papers. All honor to the sixteen percent of little ones who tried to stem the tide! But perhaps some of them were held back only by fear, and that makes the situation even worse.
No More Autos at Princeton
ON ACCOUNT of the fact that in the past year automobiles at Princeton University have led to seven fatalities, the dean of the university has forbidden any Princeton student to own or operate an automobile at Princeton, or dn the neighborhood, after July 1st of this year. About two hundred students are directly affected by the order.
The Babies Eave Us Gasping
THE babies have us gasping all right. Here in New York we have a baby less than two years old who identified forty musical compositions by tfie name of the composer or the name of the composition, while Chicago boasts of a baby that walked across a room unaided when only five weeks old! In the one case the parents are both musicians; in the other the baby’s father is a physician and has been specially treating the child to ultra violet rays fifteen minutes a day.
Playing with Blasting Caps
APPROXIMATELY five hundred children are crippled each year by playing with blasting caps which they have picked up in the vicinity of mines, quarries, or in the fields where agricultural blasting has been done. Some, of course, are killed, while others are blinded or go through life with mangled bodies. The bright copper of the blasting caps makes them peculiarly attractive to children who find some that have been carelessly left about, and they investigate them with terrible results.
Will Help Widows of the Lynched *
ON THE principle that boys-will be boys and will occasionally, when they get grown up, gather in mobs and murder somebody they do not like, the Delaware House has now voted that members of such mobs may be fined not more than $1,000 and imprisoned for not m?re than one year; also that the wife and minor children of the persons lynched'will be paid the magnanimous sum of $1,000 by the State. It seems too bad to gloss over and condone murder, whether done by one man or a hundred men; but perhaps this is the best that can be done in Delaware at this time.
The Pus Squirters’ Opportunity
A MASSACHUSETTS college professor has discovered thatT the laundries do not tear our shirts to pieces, but that it is bacteria which feed on the cloth. What a grand opportunity this presents to the “immunity” pus shooters! All they have to do now is to segregate, label them, and shoot new shirts full of them; and we may be sure that such vaccinated shirts will never wear out any more. *
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What Was Done at Framinghgjn *
AT FRAMINGHAM, Massachusetts," the death rate from tuberculosis was cut from 120 in every 100,000 inhabitants to less than one-third of that amount. This result was accomplished by a committee which took charge of the entire town, looking after the milk supply, the water supply and the general sanitation. It was not done by squirting pus into all the inhabitants.
New Teeth As Needed .
EVERY once in a while we read of old people cutting new teeth. A resident of New Brunswick, N. J., aged eighty-five, is the possessor of two new molars. It is our belief that in the Millennial Age now opening this will be a common occurrence and that, in the actual operation of the Lord’s kingdom, new teeth will be provided for all, as they are needed. '
The Thermionic Micro-Ammeter
THE new thermionic micro-ammeter, invented at Lynn, Massachusetts, will detect a change of electric current as small as the ten billionth part of an ampere. The use of the instrument will be in testing radio tubes, incandescent lamps and the currents in insulators, where the human eye is tod inaccurate to render correct answers with measuring devices heretofore in use.
Ph^ants Becoming Plentiful '
THE pheasants imported by the Department of Agriculture to fight the Japanese beetle are finding America a good place to live, and seem to be multiplying rapidly. These beautiful birds are now occasionally seen on highways and even in city streets. One was recently caught in the streets of New York. Unfortunately the boys and many grown people do not realize the great value of these beautiful birds and fail to lebthem alone.
Value of Birds Becoming Known
THE value of birds is becoming better known.
In North Carolina it was found that on a farm of 200 acres the birds destroyed at least a million bugs a day. These feathered friends of man are estimated to save, in the United States alone, at least $400,000,000 worth of food ’ for human oeings and livestock which would otherwise be destroyed. The birds are more / plentiful on the Atlantic seaboard than in other parts of the United States.
Not Enough Long Green
A PITTSBURGH evangelist, conducting a ' series of so-called revival services at Mar
tin’s Ferry, Ohio, was handed a collection of $400 at the conclusion of the meetings. Although this was at least $399.99 more than any real value he brought to the community, the gentleman was so enraged over the small offering that he abruptly concluded the service without the usual ceremony. The people should have kept their $400 and used it for better purposes.
Religion at New Haven
NEW HAVEN is bound to have religion, even if somebody has to pay for it. The Saturday - -* papers contain a full page which briefly advertises every gathering of a religious nature which is to be held in New Haven on the day following.
This advertisement is paid for by sixty of the leading business houses of the city, each also given one line, in large type, which tells their i name and address and the line they handle.
Fresno’s Handsome Ape '
A FRESNO college professor in a debate on evolution made the statement that he regarded himself as a tall and exceedingly handsome ape. The professor might have left off the -
word handsome. When it came to a vote three- '
fourths of the audience decided that there was nothing to his argument. The effort to crowbar mankind into a belief in the foolish evolution theory is not meeting with the success that . monkey worshipers would like to see. The average American has a little common sense _ left, after all, in spite of professors and such.’
Compulsory Training in Minnesota
THIRTY-EIGHT students of the University of Minnesota have been expelled for refus-; " ing to take part in compulsory military drill The government offers to give thirty days vacation at camp each summer for young mpn of its selection who will participate in military -drill. Their railway fares are paid and they? are given food, lodging, medical attention, and' ’ provided with uniforms and athletic equipment. ;
Instructions to Bootleggers
IT SEEMS that Uncle Sam has various, sundry and divers Congressmen; and that these men at various, sundry and divers times have delivered speeches in Congress in which they have explained in detail how to make whisky, brandy, gin and beer; and of course the speeches were all published in the “Congressional Record", as required by law. Recently there has beeif a rush for the “Congressional Record", so much so that ten thousand requests were received for the one that contained George Washington’s recipe for making beer. Uncle Sam has gratified this thirst for knowledge, and seems in a fair way to assuage other thirsts thereby. Nevertheless Uncle Sam will arrest anybody that makes use of the recipes which he so kindly furnishes. Poor Uncle Sam! No wonder recent cartoons show him with gray hair!
A Tribute to Pure Water
Representative Tillson, of Arkansas, in a recent address in the House of Representatives, paid the following tribute to pure water:
I have recently heard much for and against poison liquor. It is all poison. The surest way to avoid blindness or death is to refuse to buy or drink the stuff. As against poison liquor I recommend H20, nature’s wholesome, palatable, life-giving beverage, pure water. You can easily find the liquor which God brews for us. You can procure it without money and without price. You will not find it in the simmering still, over smoky fires, choked with poisonous gases and surrounded with the stench of sickening odors.
You will find it in the green glade, the grassy dell and down, low down in the deepest valleys, where fountains murmur and the rills sing; and high up on the • tall mountain tops, where the naked granite glitters like gold in the sun, where the storm clouds brood and the . thunders crash; and away far out on the wide wild sea, where the hurricane brawls music and the big waves roar, there He brews it, that beverage of life-giving water. And everywhere it is a thing of beauty, gleaming in the dewdrop, singing in the summer rain, shining in the lee gem, till the leaves seem turned to living jewels, spreading a golden vail over the setting sun or a white gauze around the silver moon; sporting in the cataract, sleeping in the glacier, dancing in the hail shower, folding its bright snow curtains about the wintry world, . and weaving the many colored iris, that seraph’s zone of the sky whose warp is the raindrop of earth and whose roof is the sunbeam of heaven.
Where the OU Comes From
THREE-FOURTHS of all the petroleum now produced comes from wells located in the United States. Mexico produces about orte-eighth as much, Russia about one-thirteenth, while the remaining producers, Persia, Dutch East Indies, Venezuela, Roumania, Peru, British India, Argentine, Poland and Colombia, altogether produce about as much in one year as is produced in the United States in seventy days.
America’s Most Attractive Highway
AMERICA’S most attractive highway is now completed. It is 2,800 miles in length and stretches from Quebec to Miami, via Montreal, Lake Champlain, Lake George, Glens Falls, Saratoga, Albany, Binghamton, Scranton, Harrisburg, Hagerstown, Winchester, Roanoke, Bristol, Asheville, Gainesville, Atlanta, Thomaston, Americus, Thomasville, Madison, Lake City, Tampa, Sebring, Okeechobee and Palm Beach. The road traverses the grandest scenery in the eastern part of the United States, including the Luray Caverns, Natural Bridge, Mount Mitchell, Blood Mountain Gorge and Stone Mountain. It is no- doubt destined to be the most traveled scenic highway in the world.
A Building Sixteen Miles Long
TT IS within the range of possibility that New York may have ere long a single building that will be sixteen miles in length. This building, plans for which have been prepared, would be twelve stories high. It would carry roadways and railways for freight and passenger accommodation of the people who would work and live and find recreation and amusement in the apartments adjacent. It would seem that the . plan is entirely practical.
How the People Travel
IT IS probable that America’s automobiles have to their credit or discredit annually about 75,000,000,000 passenger miles. Perhaps it is even more than that, for there are some 22,-000,000 cars; and they probably average at least ten miles per day, and average two persons to the car. On that basis the passenger mileage would be 160,600,000,000. Street railway annual passenger mileage is 48,000,000,000; steam railroads 36,250,000,000; motor buses 5,300,000,000; waterways 3,500,000,000; taxicabs 1,500,000,0001.
Women More Susceptible to Poisoning
WOMEN are more susceptible to poisoning than are men, in the proportion of two to one. When working side by side with men in white-lead factories one woman out of eight showed symptoms of poisoning, while only one man out of seventeen showed the symptoms. With women, also, the poisoning takes the severest forms—unconsciousness, delirium, convulsions and blindness. There are many new industrial poisons developed since the war, at the rate of about one a month. Thus far America has no bureau for the investigation of these poisons, such as exists in Britain and Germany.
Housing Problem Not Solved
NEW YORK'S housing problem is as far as ever from solution. Thirty-five percent of New York’s population now live in houses of a a type which it is illegal to build and which are unfit for human habitation. Halls are dark, rooms are ■without air, staircases are of wood, and back yards, if any, are small and filthy., New York needs Christ’s kingdom in order that the poor may get some of the blessings which present incomes deny to them.
Cost of Living in New York City
THE National Industrial Conference Board has made careful estimates of the average minimum living costs of office workers in New York City for maintaining a fair American standard of living, resulting in the following: For a man, wife and one child, $29.61 per week; for a man, wife and twp children, $36.60 per week; for a man, wife and three children, $40.75 per week; for a single man, living apart from a family group, $22.12 per week; for a single woman, living apart from a family group, $19.64 per week.
Boys Three Inches Taller
Db. Hobace Gbay has just concluded a series of investigations made for the Institute of Juvenile Research, in which a careful study of thousands of school boys, compared with similar figures obtained in the public schools of fifty years ago, shows that boys now are more than th rep, inches taller than they were then. This change is largely ascribed to the wider use now made of fruits and vegetables, in the average family.
Politeness Increases Efficiency
BY ACTUAL test it has been demonstrated that the new practice of telephone operators of responding with a cheery "Thank you”, instead of a repetition of the number called, has improved the service and increased the number of calls which an operator can handle. Ad«. ditionally, the operator's work is made happier,-because the politeness brings courtesies at the other end of the wire. Little by little the world is learning some great lessons, which in the Golden Age now dawning will result in great blessings all around.
Tetanus Serum Does Not Work —
WHEN Columbus, Ohio, had an epidemic of smallpox a while ago a physician of repute called on thirty of the patients and found that every one of them had been vaccinated from one to four times. Now comes an authority on tetanus, Dr. E. Kummer, of Geneva, Switzer-' land, and declares that the anti-tetanus serum does not work, and that the only cure for the. dreaded disease is the exposure of the infected, parts to plenty of fresh air, the best of all disinfectants.
The Ten Largest Corporations
HPHE ten largest corporations in America, in A the order of their total assets, which in each instance is over one billion dollars, are: United States Steel Corporation; Southern Pacific Kailroad; Pennsylvania Railroad; American Tele* phone and Telegraph Company; New York Central Railroad; Standard Oil Company of New Jersey; Union Pacific Railroad; Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe Railroad; General Motors. Corporation and Ford Motor Company. The average age of these corporations is 36 years; average number of employes 147,600; average number of stockholders 101,800; average annual dividends paid about $40,000,000. "
The Bank of Italy
IN 1904 two sons of an Italian fruit peddler opened the Bank of Italy in San Francisco, with a capital of $150,000. The next year came the earthquake, which virtually destroyed every other financial establishment in the city? The Italians loaned money to everybody. They prospered phenomenally, amazingly, astoundingly.f”
They have proven themselves the cleverest of Britain’s Permanently Idle Miners
the clever, and today the Bank of Italy is next ■ to the National City Bank of New York in assets, and, owns shares in successful banks in every corher of the world. California today is covered from end to end with branches of thes great system, built up in only^twe^tr r&feeyears by two Italians. • " ’ '
De Pinedo’s journeyS Through the Skies
F^cesco de Pinedo, Italian aviator, after - flying from Italy to Turkey, Persia, India, Australia, the Philippines and Japan, has now - flown from Italy westward to West Africa, across the Atlantic to Brazil and the Argentine, thence to the West Indies, Cuba, and the United States. He plans to return home via Newfound. land and the Azores, and is accounted the world’s greatest long-distance flyer.
German Air Service
LAST year the 110 planes of the German Air Service carried 56,268 passengers and collectively flew about 4,000,000 miles. During the year there was -but one accident, resulting in the death of one pilot and four passengers. It is supposed that the plane was struck by lightning. It fell on the island of Juist.
More Professional Men from Europe
CHANGES in immigration laws within recent years have resulted in a marked decrease in the proportion of unskilled workers arriving,' and a marked increase in the number of skilled workers and professional men. Before 1914 the proportion of unskilled labor was 41%; now it is only 19%.
, Mennonites Moving to Paraguay
AMONG the most industrious and desirable citizens of this country are 175,000 Mennonites. Canada has 25,000 more. These Mennonites are now heading for Paraguay, where they have been promised perpetual freedom
from military service, exemption from taking oaths, the privilege of conducting their own churches and schools and in general administering their own affairs. It is expected that more than 100,000 Mennonites will remove to Paraguay. ‘
AN UNFORESEEN result of the most de®6-perate coal strikg ever waged is that Britain seems now tp- nave on hand at least 200,000 pennanently idle miners. Over 30,000 of these "are to be found in the barren valleys of South Wales. There seems to be no hope for any of these men except in the kingdom which Christians daily pray for to the throne of heavenly grace. Oil, water power, and better methods of mining more accessible deposits, have all contributed to ruin the occupation of these men.
A Mechanical Sleep-Producer
A PARISIAN has invented a mechanical sleep-producer which will have great possibilities of usefulness if it does what is claimed for it. The patient dons a black hood which covers the eyes. The current is turned on and a rhythmic fatigue spreads to the eyes and ears and induces sleep in a few minutes. When sleep comes the current is automatically turned off.
Where the Fire Department Failed
TMMBNSE flames rising to the sky led the fire department of a Swiss village to rush to a neighboring village only to find that what they had supposed was a conflagration was a most brilliant and unusual display of the aurora borealis. Although urged to do so by the amused villagers they came to save, the firemen refused to put out the aurora.
The Beggar’s Disc
TN THE city of Prague, Czecho-Slovakia, the A citizens are supplied at a nominal cost with discs to give to beggars instead of coins. A half million discs have been issued, but only a small proportion have been turned in at the Welfare Committee station where the beggar was entitled to receive aid according to his needs. One of the beggars who came to the station with his discs for redemption was found to have $2,000 in the bank.
An Appeal to Poland
PROMINENT Britishers, including at least one member of Parliament, have issued an appeal to Marshal'Pilsudski, President of Poland, urging amnesty for 6,000 men and women->ho are now lying in Polish prisons for purely political offences. About half of these prisoners are less than twenty years - of age* Conditions in Polish prisons are horrible beyond words. Poland, so far as known, is the only codfitiv/11
the world in which political prisoners have beeTr-^fn-^-y ^d eri^n India and South Africa half the compelled to take their food in the containers in chance that America h?s given the Negro there which they ease themselves. " ' " — • • -
'Arab Opposition Lessening
ARAB opposition to the Jews in Palestine seems to be lessening, as may be judged from the fact that one of the most important of the Arab journals, which at the first was much opposed to the development of Palestinian water power by the Jews, has now made application to be served by this power as soon as it is available.
Palestine to Have a Great Port
OR generations the problem of making landings off the coast of Palestine has been a difficult one. When the weather is suitable the passengers and mails are taken off in small boats, but many times the boats are unable to land at all and have to carry passengers beyond their destination. Now the British government is building a twenty million dollar harbor in Haifa, and Palestine will have a real port.
South Africa and West Africa
CONTRASTING conditions in South Africa and West Africa the Manchester Guardian says: .
Hitherto, in almost every considerable South African town, two spectacles have presented themselves—on the one side the trim, well-kept European settlement; on the other, as far away as possible, a miserable, squalid collection of horrible hovels called the native location. Its people have been without political power and without municipal or any other power, except the grim power which comes to it when pestilence breaks out. And of late years there has been a tendency to adopt the same pernicious principle in the settlements of the West Coast.
The common fool, who thinks, or at least says, that all Africans are alike, all at the same stage, and all incapable of adopting for themselves the good points of our civilization, would, if he wishes to retain his theory, do well to avoid West Africa, with its African lawyers, doctors, teachers, editors, and officials, its independent traders, not a few of whom live in houses well built and in the European style, who import British motor cars, and whose general advancement in life has meant and is meaning “big business” to British manufacturers and British merchants.
To these words of the Manchester Guardian we feel like adding that if the British Govern-would not be today an idle man in the British Empire. Misgovernment brings own inev^* able course of failure and displacement
South Africa's Diamond Excitement
A NOTHER big find of diamonds in South Africa has led to one of the wildest stampedes in history. The official race for registration was to have begun at noon, February 25th; but in some unexplained way the line was broken twenty minutes ahead of time and the race, which had to be run over again, was on, willy fiilly. The new mines are expected to produce from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 of diamonds per month.
The Revolt of Asia
Prof. Upton Close has written a remarkable book, bristling full of facts, showing most ' conclusively that all Asia, from Egypt to Tokio, is in revolt against the white man’s rule by force and hypocrisy and his misplaced assumption of social superiority. One of the most interesting points made in the book is that Japan has discovered that the old method of Western Im- -perialism does not pay, and is in more conciliatory mood toward Russia and China. Moreover, Russian thought seems to have penetrated deeply into all Asia. Those who think that two-thirds of humanity can for ever be dominated by force and hypocrisy will have another think coming after they have made a careful study of Prof. Close’s book. '
Why China Is Aflame ’
IN AN illuminating article on China The Nation makes the following statement:
Those who charge the missionaries with responsibility for it have a measure of justice on their side; those who blame the penetration of foreign business are equally right; those who say the tens of thousands of returned students have brought back the revolutionary spark are also justified. The more troops the British ship to -China, the more bitter will be the resistance to the foreigners. They may hold Shanghai today} but what good will Shanghai do them if a nation of 400,000,000 people is roused against them, filled with hate, determined to boycott their products? Christian and non-Chnstian, banker and coolie, foreign graduate and native-trained Chinese stand shoulder to shoulder, all demanding that the foreigner give up, at once, all his special privileges.
China's Inquiry of the League
HINA is a member of the League of Abominations, and is in good and regular standing in that League; but it has now confused matters by inquiring of the League whether it is right for England, France, Italy and other countries to send troops to her soil, to fire on her citizens and to occupy her lands, without asking China’s permission. Of course the League-will do what it always does in such cases, and: that is nothing. The Chinese are too inquisitive,
Chinese Ladies Dolling Up
HE Chinese ladies have always been a good, deal like other ladies in that they enjoy dolling themselves up. Now it seems that they have begun to find out something about the way the Western ladies do it and are beginning to buy American face powders, hair lotions, nau polishes and other things so popular with femininity on this side of the world. The Japanese ladies are taking even more interest in these matters than are their Chinese sisters.
From Coast to Coast in a Tin Lizzie By R. Bayless
Notwithstanding an attack of flu, tonsilitis and “blues”—a bad combination— I will endeavor to write this belated report of our 3500-mile trip from Brooklyn, N. Y., to Long Beach, Calif., which we made in twenty-one days of actual driving, in the dead of winter, in a second-hand Ford car.
We had our last meal at the “Bethel Home” in Brooklyn at noon on December 1st last, and at 3:30 p. m. we climbed into our “Lizzie Limited” and shouted, “All aboard for California!” By nightfall we found ourselves safely beyond Philadelphia, but in a downpour of rain; so “we parked in the mud for the night and slept in the car until morning. Next night we were to the western edge of the long state of Pennsylvania, in the heart of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Our faithful Ford was carrying us up and down the slopes at a goodly pace when - our brakes gave way and we started to run wild on the side of a dangerous incline on top of a high cliff. We gasped and thought our end was near, but finally succeeded in coasting into the fence-posts and cable, which kept us from going over the precipice.
Although we escaped personal injury, our Ford jwas badly battered up; so we were laid up that night, all next day and the next night, at a nearby farm house, for repairs. We girls spent the day roaming over the farm, which was big and. well taken care of, while our husbands got the jG&r in order for the onward journey. .We also sold a full set of I.B.S.A. books to the farmer, had an interesting conversation on Bible topics with him and his family, and incidentally had some genuinely delicious Pennsylvania farm cooking. Early next morning we set sail for the far west, braving a blinding snowstorm. But fortunately it did not continue long enough to bother or hinder our driving.
We all heaved a sigh when we reached Ohio; for we were now past the Allegheny mountains and on level country again. We made splendid time through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. We came over the National trail, and the highway was excellent for motoring. We stopped in Kansas City, our former home, for three days and saw many of our old friends.
On the morning of the third day we left our friends behind us and began steering through Kansas mud, but fortunately we had no car trouble. In due course we reached Oklahoma, where we spent two nights. One night we camped in a pecan grove, a veritable paradise, and stocked up on the finest pecans at 12% cents a pound, such as would cost us 80 cents in New York City.
Across the Biggest State
CROSSING over the Oklahoma-Texas border into the Panhandle we were accompanied, by a real mid-winter “norther”. "We lived through it; and now that it is history I am glad for having had the experience, but it was a* terrific to endure as it was spectacular to behold. I had always associated Dixie cotton fields and colored folks with warm, sunny days •—and we did see some of that before we got out of the big state. But when we first entered Texas it was snowing and storming, and the cotton looked as cold as the snowbanks. We had to change tires early one morning on the snowy-pavement; and, 0 boy, but it was cold!
Finally the “norther” passed and melted away Into the southland, and as we drove onward through Texas it was most pleasant. Texas is really a wonderful state, an empire in itself. Not only is the state itself of gigantic proportions, but its ranches, fields and houses also are large. Everything is big in Texas, even the hats that the men wear; and you can look and look for inconceivable distances over the beautiful, level plains, with nothing to mar the evenness of the horizon. We also liked the people whom we met there, all so hospitable to strangers.
At Van Horn, Texas, we found a wonderful auto camp. The houses, built for campers, are made of adobe; and on entering them you find all modern conveniences just as you would expect to see in a high-class city apartment—running water, private bath, kitchen with sink and drainage, clothes closets, bedrooms and beds; a camp de luxe, all for $2 per night.
We stopped for repairs at a tiny town in western Texas, one afternoon. We had thought we were beyond civilization and out in the barren desert; and we expressed wonderment at the location of the town, and inquired what the population subsisted on out there in the desert. The garage man soon set us straight— it was not desert, it was the grazing country. We had not suspected it, as we had seen nothing all day but sand and an occasional clump of Email bushes here and there, with practically no signs of animal life anywhere about.
It was then explained to us that the grazing country of Texas is not what it used to be. The stockmen look forward to better conditions; but consequent to the general change and rearrangement of western climate during the past five years, the share of rainfall hitherto allotted to Western Texas has evidently been given to a neighbor state. The total rainfall there for the past five years has hot equalled that which formerly fell within five months. We were told that on those plains where as many as 1OO»QQQ head of cattle regularly grazed a few years ago, now there are not 10,000 head in all that district. But the rains are beginning to fall there again, and the rangers are hopeful of returning prosperity.
At one place in Texas, in the cotton belt, we had the privilege of inspecting a cotton gin. It was most interesting to see the ginning process from beginning to end. The superintendent was very courteous and explained everything. He was the only white man employed there—the workmen were all Mexicans. We gave him a copy of The Hasp of God, which he promised to read. Our car was searched twice by border officials, for raw cotton—once on leaving Texas and once in New Mexico. We had no cotton aboard. If we had it would have been taken from us.
Passing out of Texas, we made good time through New Mexico and Arizona. At Bisbee, Ariz., we saw pansies blooming in the gardens, notwithstanding it was late December—a refreshing sight. Just out of Bisbee we crossed over a high mountain which was posted every few feet with danger signs, cautioning motorists to drive slowly. It was a dangerous mountain pass, to be sure; and made more so for us because we had to drive through a heavy snowstorm. But the mountain was beautiful, though its wintry covering was in marked contrast to the blooming pansies which we had seen only an hour or so before. We were glad, however, when we reached its western base and were on the level desert again.
We had the unusual experience of encountering two rainstorms in the open desert. A keeper of one of the desert filling stations told us that a great change is taking place in the climatic conditions of Arizona. Ordinarily they have, had but one rainy spell a year—in July or August—and then only a little. But things changed in 1926; and now they are having some rains every month. The country there, which has been barren desert for so long, now begins to look like the grazing country of Texas, except that the principal vegetation is still cactus.
Can A Ford Ford? t
AT GILA BEND (pronounced Hela Bend), Ariz., we forded the river in our Ford, at night, a distance of one-third mile. The water, of course, was shallow where we crossed; but it was indeed exciting to plow through it in the darkness, with the high dam on one hand with its ominous roar of water spilling over it, and a realization that only a few feet away on the other hand the river was too deep to ford. And what if we should stick right in the middle of that 1700 foot-wide stream, here in the dead of 'night I But we made it, and heaved a sigh of relief when we finally reached the other side. Talk about thrills. This trip has held aplenty for a lifetime. .
Just beyond Yuma, Ariz., we were stopped for another official inspection, the same as we had been inspected in Texas and in New Mexico. But this time it was not merely cotton that the officers were after. California allows nothing to be brought into the state in the way of trees, fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, etc., unless first inspected; and sees to it that very little gets by.
We had been told in an Arizona auto camp not (t<rbuy more fruit than we would want to eat before we reached the state line, as we would not be allowed to take any of it into California. Had it not been for that information we would probably have had our car loaded down with fruit; for we had passed ranch after ranch where delicious oranges, apples and grapefruit could be had for only $1 per crate. So we passed all this up, and also sold our surplus pecans before reaching California. The inspectors make travelers unpack everything in their car. As we had no "contraband” we passed inspection without any trouble, and the officers were very courteous to ns.
After passing the California border inspectors we expected to be able to drive the rest of the way in peace, without further annoyance. But in about three hours we came to another of those big signs reading “STOP.—OFFICERS”. We drove up and stopped our car, and in another instant an officer stepped out in front of us, whipped out an automatic and seemed to be aiming at us but missing us. I was thoroughly disgusted by this time. It seemed that we were to be murdered in cold blood, but I wondered why the delay. Then he stepped a little to one side and began shooting at the car behind us. The driver of that car was attempting to drive past the sign without stopping, and that was the officer’s way of gently reminding him of his-error. The inspection this time was for contra- 7 band goods of all sorts. Probably he thought we had some Mexicans stowed away in our Ford.
From Waste Land to Wonderland
T> ASSING this inspection post alive, we soon plunged into the desert—a real, honest-to-goodness desert, the tail end of Death Valley, or a near relative to it. Here and there were mountains of sand, so fine that it was almost like powder. We stopped and took some kodak _ pictures in this desert waste. There is a fine concrete highway crossing this California des-' ert. It was just recently built, and alongside .it is the old board road still intact in many places.
Passing out of the desert we entered the famous Imperial Valley, the wonderland of the west—a living monument to the ingenuity of man. Only a few years ago it, too, was a desert waste. Now it is blossoming as the rose. (Isaiah . 35:1) We did*not tarry in the valley; but as we drove through it we could see the process of irrigation in its entirety, from the first preparation of the land to flooding of the crops. At one place we saw a beautiful modern ranch, well stocked with cattle and chickens, all made pos- _ sible by irrigation. And directly across the highway from it was primitive barren desert.
Emerging from the valley we began our ascent of the eastern slopes of the Sierras. As we crossed the divide we encountered snow. For about thirty miles We drove through snow and rain. Finally we reached our destination, Long Beach, Calif., at 11 o’clock at night, on the eve of Christmas, after twenty-one eventful days of actual driving across the American continent, and receiving a warm welcome from our people.
Southern California is a paradise. The days are usually warm the year around and the nights cool. Calla lilies, geraniums, roses, ferns and numerous other flowers and plants are now abloom, and the palm trees and other unusual growths make the easterner feel that he has been transported to a foreign clime. How wonderful it will be when the whole earth shall thus become “like the garden of Eden” I-— Ezekiel 36:35.
“God be with you till we meet again, By His counsel guide, uphold you,
With His sheep securely fold you;
God be with you till we meet again 1”
Is Man Immortal?
[Radiocast from Station WBBR on a wave length of 416.4 meters by Judge Rutherford.]
RECENTLY a well-known magazine propounded to a number of famous Americans the question: “Do you believe in immortality? Is man immortal?” Among those -who responded to the question, and whose replies were I published, there were at least seven clergymen. /The expressed opinions of these famous men tend to fix in the minds of many others a conclusion upon the question at issue. The less •learned are disposed'to indulge the presumption that the clergymen speak with authority. Such a presumption is usually without foundation. The clergymen, knowing that the people expect them to speak with authority, express their opinions usually without giving a reason therefor or without assigning any evidence in support thereof.
Thoughtful men have come to the conclusion that the opinion of a man upon any important subject is of little value unles§ there is known competent evidence upon which to base that opinion. In the courts of the land the opinion of an expert will be received as evidence only after he has proven that he is an expert and that his knowledge is far beyond that of an ordinary man. The clergy assume to be experts upon questions of this kind, but they do not first qualify as experts before giving their testimony.
If one man says that he'believes that there will be a rainstorm in New York City on the Fourth of July next, and another man says he does not believe there will be a rainstorm at that time, the inquiring mind asks, What evidence have you, gentlemen, upon which you base your conflicting opinions?
Man is of more importance than the weather; therefore when one man says that he believes that he is immortal and another says he does not believe that he has an immortal soul, the inquiring mind asks, What evidence, gentlemen, have you upon which you base your conclusions ? It must be apparent to anyone who pauses to consider, that something more than merely an expressed opinion must be given to be convincing. .
The question of immortality has to do with the condition of man at and after death. Of course not one of these famous Americans to whom the question was submitted, and who gave answer to the question, has ever died and then returned to give first-hand testimony as to the 8 condition after death. All of them were on this side of the grave when their answers were given.
How then could the expressed belief of any • one of them prove anything? Is that expressed belief sufficient to establish the fact? It must be conceded that not one of these famous Americans knows as much about mortality or immor- ' tality as a man could know about the weather next July. Is it not true then that the expressed opinion of each one, which is unsupported by any evidence, is merely a guess?
Tragic Absence of Proof " ~~
ROM the answer as given by one of these distinguished clergymen and published in the magazine I quote: “There is to me a wistful, almost a tragic, desire behind the myriad arguments for the immortality of the soul, to prove something which cannot be proved but which the writers so terribly wish to be true.”—Eaton.
Be it noted that it is the “tragic desire” for immortality upon which he bases his conclusion. It must be conceded that a desire for a thing is not proof that the one desiring it does possess or ever can possess that thing. The desire for immortality cannot be accepted as the slightest proof that the soul of man is immortal.
Another of these famous clergymen answers: “The forms of belief in some kind of existence after death, which we commonly summarize as the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, are phenomena which psychologists call ‘wish fancies’. These ideas have their origin in the mind of primitive man, and they are survivals of a kind of thinking known as sympathetic magic. The idea of immortality is such a device.”—Dean Martin.
Be it noted that this famous American clergyman says that while he believes in immortality, yet that it is known as “sympathetic magic”. Surely that does not prove anything.
Another distinguished clergyman answers: “There has always been an intuitive belief in some form of survival after death. Thus down the ages the human heart, terror-stricken at the thought of death, or burdened with sorrow at the parting from loved ones, has reached out with passionate longing and deathless hope toward this great truth of a hereafter.” (Straton)
Those words are high sounding, hut to the one who requires proof they mean nothing.
These famous Doctors of Divinity express without an exception, their belief in the immortality of the human soul. They also assume to be representatives of God and Christ and therefor^ to believe God and Christ. Because of their assumption to be representatives of God many people look to them to give authoritative answer to the vital questions involving eternal life. If these distinguished gentlemen do believe in God and Christ Jesus then they should believe what God says in His Word.
It is a lamentable fact that out of all of the answers published as given by these distinguished clergymen not one proof is quoted from God or from Christ bearing upon the question at issue. If Jehovah is God, and if Christ Jesus His beloved Son is the Savior of man, then the Word of God must be true, and that Word must be authoritative. If a man assumes to represent God and Christ Jesus then surely he should believe the Word of God. Jesus said concerning God’s Word, the Bible: “Thy Word is truth.” (John 17:17) If God’s Word deals with the question of immortality then that Word must be taken as conclusively answering the question.
Be it noted that each one who answers says: “I believe in immortality.” A conclusion based upon a wish to have a thing, and which conclusion is unsupported by any competent evidence, is not true belief or faith, but it is credulity. True belief and faith mean the same thing.
What Is Faith?
HERE can be no faith without knowledge, which knowledge must be based upon competent evidence. Faith must be founded upon evidence arising from a trustworthy source. One must have some knowledge and then confidently rely upon that knowledge in order to have faith. In the Scriptures faith is defined in these words: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) The English word “substance” here used is from two words, sub and stare fond literally means to stand under or support or understand; therefore faith may be defined as an understanding of things for which we hope, and the proof of things which we do not see.
A man has a desire to live for ever, and this desire results in a hope that he might attain unto everlasting life. He desires to understand all he can concerning the way that leads fib eternal life. He cannot see what the future holds for him. Is there any means by which he cafi obtain proof as to what the future holds ? If so, that proof of things unseen, and the understanding thereof, constitutes faith, within the definition given by the Bible. The proof is found in the Word of God; and that proof is true and „ correct, because it comes from a truthful source and is therefore reliable and trustworthy.
It is manifest that these distinguished clergymen are without faith in the Word of God. If they had faith or true belief then they would Cite to the people the Scriptural truths sustaining their points, if there should be any. If they assume a position which the Scriptures disprove, then of course they would not cite any scriptures in support of their contention. ‘ Probably that is the reason why they do not cite any in their answers to the foregoing questions.
When Jesus was on earth He said: “When -the Son qf man cometh [again], shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8) Surely that prophetic utterance of the Lord Jesus is being fulfilled now, in the answers given by the D. D.’s upon the question of immortality. All of them claim to be representatives of Christ; and yet not one of them exercises the slightest faith, because they do not know the Word of God.
Faith, How Acquired
AITH in the Word of God comes from learning what the Lord’s Word says and then confidently, relying upon that Word as true. The Scriptures, in Romans 10:14, read: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ?” This proves that there can be no real belief unless man first hears the Word of God and then relies upon it.
Then the Scriptures answer, in Romans 10: 17: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” If a man has faith in the Word of God he,.will find the correct answer to this question of immortality. If he has not faith in the Word of God he will grope about in darkness and his conclusion win be based upon merely wish or opinion, even as these clergymen have stated.
God foreknew the conditions that would exist at this time, when so many supposedly wise men would express themselves in utter disregard of His Word, and therefore He caused His prophet to write: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11) Because the clergymen assume to represent the Lord, and then fail and refuse to believe that Word or teach it to the people, there is therefore a famine in the land for the hearing of the Word of God.
Upon the question of mortality or immortality ~ Ahe Word of God is plain, clear and conclusive. To the one who studies His Word and believes therein, there is not left even a shadow of a doubt as to whether or not man has an immortal soul. Briefly summed up from the Scriptures, man is a mortal soul. No man inherently possesses immortality. Originally only God possessed immortality. But He has promised immortality as a reward to some, and these are .. they who shall be faithful under the test.
Definitions
MORTALITY means, liable to die, or subject to death. If a creature can die or be put to death he is mortal. Immortality means incorruptibility, an unending existence, that which is not subject to death or destruction.
Who Is God?
THE Scriptures disclose that Jehovah God created man. You may ask, then, Who is ~ God? He is the great First Cause. His name is Jehovah, as it is written in Psalm 83:18: “Whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth.” That name signifies, Self-existing and Eternal One. He is the Maker of heaven and earth. (Isaiah 42:5) Jehovah is not subject to death. His existence extends from „ everlasting to everlasting, as it is written in Psalm 90: 2: “Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
That is the proper definition of immortality, that which cannot be destroyed. Upon the point of who is immortal, it is expressly written concerning God, in 1 Timothy 6:16: “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting.”
What Is Man?
T ONG ago David, the prophet of Jehovah, propounded the question as to what is man, and gave the answer. In Psalm 8:4,5 it is written: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than, the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. . . . Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands.”
The statement here is that man is made lower than the angels. It is pertinent then to inquire, Are the angels immortal or are the angels subject to destruction? The angels were created pure and holy. Some of these angels became wicked at and before the time of the flood. It is written, in Mark 1: 24, that when Jesus was on earth some of these wicked angels, obsessing men, said to him: “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us ? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.”
In Psalm 145: 20 it is written: “All the wicked will he [God] destroy.” This includes the angels who became wicked. The chief amongst the angels who became wicked was Lucifer, whose name was changed to Satan the Devil. He is not immortal, because it is plainly stated in Hebrews 2:14: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.”
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