Golden Age, August 10, 1927

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MISSING LINKS

BEGINNING

THE ORIGIN

OF IDOLATRY

ALUMINUM

POISONING CASE

A RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT

FORESHADOWED

Vol. VIII Bi-Weekly No. 201

August 10,1927

OLD 'WORLD DYING.

a JouHtal of fae® nope awl courage

TRUTH

RI GHTEOUSNEJSS

O a>popy $ 100 a Ye ar

Canada*andjoreicrn Countries $. 1.50

Contents of the Golden Age

.........:..7C=====^^=^^

Labor and Economics

“Another Day—ob Mobe on Less’*

Ignorant Labor Is Costly Labor

Court Establishes Right to Picket ...... . • - • • •

Social and Educational

Summer Schools for Women Workers

Country Getting Religious ........... ♦ • • •

Finance—Commerce—Transportation

Miscellaneous Aviation Items ......... . ... . 707

Special Cars for Electrical Equipment

New I’s»s for Airplanes in Germany ........... 711

Foltttcal—Domestic and Foreign

Lon'lon In a Gas Raid ....... ...... . . -

Infoll’ble Pope Reverses Himself......

Llnjd George on the Anglo R wsi.m ” e ’s ......... 7 t

I irff on Who Won the War ............ 712

Rovr'a Got T PON G: EVANT - • • • 721

Scuidule or Am M'.t St.rwce

SciWCE AND lw.jWTION

Missing Links .............. s • . • • > 717

Hour and Health

Voerination end Sleeping Sickness ............ 712

The Aluminum. Poisoning C .se at Kansas Cwt ....... 716

Travel and Miscellany

Madeiba—-The Gem or- ths Atlantic ........... 714

Religion and Philosophy

“The Pabsons and tub Was" .............. 714

The Origin of IuolkThy ................ 718

A Rjghtbous GovEr.Mii.Nr Kowshadowed .......... 723

Growing tit in a New Woull- on Ekbth .......... 729

Moving Dat in Egto ................. 734

Lttitji Studies job Little Pr.opia ............. 73.3

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Golden Age

Volume VIII * Brooklyn, N, Y., Wednesday, August 10, 1927 Number 20®

"Another Day — Or More or Less”

[Radiocast from Station WBBR by the the Editor.]

Lindbergh's Consumption of Fuel

Lindbergh’s consumption of fuel on his flight to Paris averaged 8.4 miles to the gallon.

He left New York with 451 gallons and landed at Le Bourget with 17 gallons in the tank, enough to have carried him 200 miles further. This shows something of how narrow was the margin of safety, both for him and for Chamberlin and Levine.

Lindbergh’s Snow Storm

WHEN Colonel Llndbei„L went up Broad

way, New York shoveled him vitli such a volume of confetti and bits of paper that it required 110 motor trucks and 2,000 street cleaners to clear it up. The recovered bits of paper occupied a space of fifty thousand cubic feet, weighed 1,800 tons, and cost the city, for fathering, $16,000.

The Elder Lindbergh

THE elder Lindbergh served ten. years as representative of the people of Minnesota in the United States Congress. While there he introduced a resolution in which he sought to have an investigation made of the Boman Catholic Houses of the Good Shepherd as they then existed in k'liwiesota and which he declared in a book were a disgrace to that state, to the United States and to civilization. The elder Lindbergh was as much a credit to L s country as the younger.

Levines Finuneial Acuteness

NOBODY but a ■member of Levine’s race would ever have thought of doing what he did before he sailed for Europe as the first airplane passenger. He addressed some two hundred letters to himself at various European cities, got a country postmaster to affix and cancel air mail stamps, and took the letters along with him in the Bellanca. These cancelled stamps are now worth $1,000 apiece to stamp collectors, so that Levine paid for his trip and made a fortune besides, though he may get into trouble with the government for unauthorized carrying of the mails. However, as the letters were addressed to himself, he has a plausible excuse. Theoretically, mail that is addressed to a person belong's to that person.

Flight to the Persian Gulf

ON THE same day that Captain Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris two British pilots flew from Lincolnshire, England, to a point on the Persian Gulf 3,400 miles distant. This great achievement ought not to pass unnoticed. The descent at 3,400 miles was made necessary by the exhaustion of fuel. The effort was made to reach Karachi, India, 760 miles farther on. The Chamberlin-Levine flight to Germany was considerably farther than either this flight or the 3,610 mile flight of Lindbergh. All of them were marvelous.

The Grandpa of All Airplanes

rpiIE German Professor Junkers has designed an airplane with a wing 240 feet from tip to tip which is intended to carry one hundred passengers and a crew of twelve. It is fitted with bedrooms, baggage rooms, smoking, drawing, reading, writing and wireless rooms, a kitchen, a pantry and cabins for the crew. In the diningroom. seventy two persons can be accommodated at one sitting. The one wing of the plane is forty feet wide and nine feet in depth. Four engines of 1,000 horsepower each will drive the machine 125 miles an hour for sixteen hours. The new plane is expected to be ready late this fall.

Gems from Mussolini’s Speech ’

FROM Mussolini’s speech outlining his plans for Italy, to which the New York Times gives ten and one-half columns, we quote a few interesting sentences. Mr. Mussolini says in part:

I am convinced that, although a directing class is in formation and despite the ever-growing discipline of the people, I must take upon myself the task of governing the Italian nation from ten to fifteen years longer. It is necessary. My successor is not yet born. . . . Today, May 26, we solemnly bury the falsehood of universal democratic suffrage. . . . Fascist Italy is anti-democratic, anti-liberal, anti-Socialist, anti-Masonic. . . . Let nobody hope that after this speech he will see antiFascist newspapers appear again or that we shall permit anti-Fascist groups to form again. Never! . . .

Patting himself on the back for having engineered a good revolution instead of a bad one he gives a brief but terrible review ©f the French Revolution as follows:

What terror was it that guillotined twenty heads on an average every day in the Place de la Madeleine? What terror was it that drowned thousands of persons in rivers, that cut the throats of thousands more in prisons, that guillotined a great chemist like Lavoisier and a great poet like Chenier, not to mention tens of jurists, and that destroyed whole regions and scattered death everywhere broadcast and spared neither young nor old, nor men nor women, nor children nor civilians, nor priests, and that had as its maxim that to carry out a good revolution it was necessary to cut many heads? Is it necessary for me to rehearse what that terror meant? No.

As to what he has in mind when Italy is strong enough he says:

We must at a given moment be able to mobilize 5,000,000 mem thoroughly armed, we must strengthen our navy, while aviation, in which I believe more than ever, must be on such a large scale and so powerful that the noise of its motors must surpass any other noise and the area of the wings of our airplanes must obscure the sun from our land. Thon, between 1935 and 1940, when we shall reach the crucial point in European history, we will be able to make our voice heard and see at last our rights acknowledged.

The Fascist labor charter provides an annual period of vacation with pay for each worker; preference in employment must be given to members of the Fascisti party; steps are being taken for the insurance of all classes against all kinds of disease. In many ways this greatest of tyrannies is accomplishing marvels. We looi on and wonder where it will end.

Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President Columbia University, says: “Fascism represent® an attack upon democratic theory much mor® formidable than the attack of Bolshevism; it 1» more subtle, more serious, more powerful, and more difficult to deal with by far.”

There are seven thousand Italian Fascisti in the United States, where on several occasions they have intimidated other Italians, ruined on® printing office, caused at least two riots and otherwise made themselves objectionable. Mussolini’s order is that Italians must remain Italians no matter in what land they live, even to the seventh generation.

Long Hours Versus Short Hours

MANUFACTURER of lamps had an output of 5,000 lamps per week. He wanted to reduce his output for a time and so shortened the plant hours from 50 to 44. To his surprise he found the production remained the same. The result was that he permanently shortened the hours of work in his factory and suffered no diminution of output.

Summer Schools for Women Workers

UNDREDS of girls are finding a new joy in life now that several of the women’s colleges are opening to them for two months in the summer, giving them opportunities to study astronomy, biology and zoology and some other subjects for which no special preliminary education is necessary. For seven weeks these poor girls have all the advantages of college life and their outlook on the world cannot fail to b® greatly broadened.

Issuances of Injunctions Against Labor

IN THE effort to prevent the issuance of unfair injunctions the American Federation of Labor in convention assembled have made a declaration insisting that that which is lawful when done by other persons shall not be unlawful when done by wage earners, either as individuals or in association. The Federation point® out that no injunction has ever yet been issued prohibiting a crime, and that injunctions in labor disputes should not be used to accomplish that for which there is no law, to prevent til® doing of that which is no crime.

Ignorant Labor Is Costly Labor

b. Winthrop Talbot, educator and social investigator, writing on the growth of illiteracy in Connecticut says:

America has long since learned its costly lesson that slave labor does not pay. The illiterate is a slave in chains of ignorance. lie is more liable to accident and disease. He learns more slowly, requires more supervision and instruction, and is easily swayed by unscrupulous outsiders. The comparatively slight saving in wage payments to ignorant laborers is more than offset by increased expense for accidents, illness, mistakes, misunderstandings, spoiled material, friction, irritation and that slowing down of production that goes with low intelligence.

Newspapers for Morons

HE growth of tabloid papers in New York, papers which are suited only to the infantile or moron mind, has stirred the journal Commerce and Finance to the remark that the millions who read the tabloid papers are not, after all, the people who direct public affairs, nor can they do so. The superior intelligence of those whose minds crave superior food enables them to retain their position of leadership, regardless of the numerical superiority of the morons.

Man in America Before the Flood

WALL pictures discovered in Arizona by the

Doheny Scientific Expedition, under the direction of Samuel Hubbard, Curator of Archaeology of the Oakland, California, Museum, show an elephant attacking a large man standing in the water up to his knees. They also picture ibex and the dinosaur, the latter in an upright position. No ibex are now to be found in the western hemisphere, and the dinosaurs and all American elephants perished in the flood, so that it seems reasonable to hold that these wall writings or pictographs antedated that event.

Negroes Grateful for Rescue

A NE GRO preacher, publisher of a little Mississippi paper styled The Cotton Fanner, writes feelingly of the rescue of the colored people by the whites when the levees about Clarksdale went down in the great Mississippi flood. He says:

The white people, with but few exceptions, did nol flee to safety and leave us to perish. It required quick and intelligent work. The owners of the motorboats, from Clarksdale and other points, braved the raging waters to at were carrying a current almost equal to that of Niagara Falls, to’ reach Negro homes on the plantations and rescue them. The wiseacre Negroes of the North might as well stand and take notice, that tha good white people with their undying allegiance are our friends. Then, too, they have done something more than, talk. Had it not been for the white people many thousands of our race on the "Scott Syndicate would have perished. They not only rescued their own "niggers” but they rescued their "’nigger” neighbors, some on their own homes and some on the plantations of other white landlords. The halt, the crippled and the blind were rescued; and, so far as we know, only three are unao-counted for.

The Mongol Invasion of America

IN THE wall of a cave in Nevada there have been uncovered some ancient Chinese wall writings, identified immediately by a distinguished student of Oriental languages, Dr. John Endicott Gardner, of Berkeley, California, as the form of Chinese writing in general use about 1,500 years B. C. In this connection it is also of interest that in the gold rush of 1849 the remains of a Chinese junk were found in the Sacramento Valley.

The Real Rulers of the World

J A. Hobson, writing in Foreign Affairs,

* states what everybody is coming to see-" more and more clearly, namely, that the real rulers of the world are the able international business men who utilize the machinery of government for procuring for them what they want in the way of markets, concessions, loans and labor. He adds:

Mo-t national governments are so unpopular and international government so inchoate, that the normal attitude today is one almost of acquiescence in this strengthening of the capitalist grip.

Court Establishes Right to Picket

THE New York Court of Appeals has decided that a labor union has the right to organize the unorganized and to use peaceful picketing as a means. As soon as this decision was announced forty strikers in the fur industry in New York City tried their new-found rights. Pinning labels on their breasts announcing that Lindbergh’s father was a friend of labor, they trmd picketing a few days before the Lindbergh reception in the metropolis, with the result that the police landed the whole hunch in jail.

Little Fellows Stood the Cut

IN HIS questioning of the officers of the Interborough Railway Company, Samuel Untermeyer brought out the interesting fact that just before the employes of that company submitted to the ten percent cut in wages in order to save the company from going into bankruptcy the President and the General Counsel w»re granted such liberal raises of pay that when the ton percent cut came they were still alm ad of the game. The little fellows, the rank and file, were the ones that stood the cut. The big fellows not only did not suffer but actually profited.

He.n&eys Monkey with Matches

AMAN in Neptune City, N. J., overly fond of pots, had as gnesis of his Lome two mon-ke.'-s which he kept in the kitchen. Ou an occasion recently he and his wife vent out and left the monkeys in chai go. Tn their absence the monkeys got hold of the matches, set the house afire, and although they were saved the house was burned to the ground.

Twelve Thousond Murders a Year

FmPErncK L. IIorrMAN, LL. ])., consulting statistician of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, fells us Shat twelve tliou-Fand murders a'-e committed in the United St’-tes every j ear, end that tile number of persons e>eeuteu for these crimes are so few as to be next to net'i’:ng. Chicago hrs over 500 mur-deis a year; Xe« Yoik about fifiO.

Wheat Killed by Elecfrieity

DISPATCHES from Kansas show that large areas of vlieai in the western part of the state have been killed by electricity. During dry seasons the dust becomes so charged with electricity that sparks half an inch long may be given off from wires or other metal objects. This highly charged condition of the air causes growing plants to wither and die.

New York Will Try to End Slums

NEW YORK will make an attempt to end her slums. The Board of Estimate has passed the Mayor's bill granting tax exemption for twenty years on multiple-family dwellings to be erected by corporations whose earnings will b® limited to six percent. Sixty prominent men will at once undertake to find the necessary capital to demolish New York’s slums and rebuild them with model apartments which will have a low rental. The measure was fought by the Real Estate Board but went through anyway. It is a step in the right direction.

Large Berries in California

THIS has been a great year for large strawberries in California. Dispatches from Marysville, in the central part of that state, declare that the berries average two inches in length and are nearly as wide, and that they go eight to the quart basket. Fresh water coral from a lake in Nevada is use d. as fertilizer in the patch.

Los Angeles’ Autorncbilists Unfair

LOS ANGELES has a law giving pedestrians the riuht of va\ at crossings, The \nto-momle Club cf iliai city lacentiy made a 0 *v-k~ up to s<-e how the ante'>’obdists were Ihing up to the law and found that eighteen iwrcont of them w'wo doing so. Tl>o other eighty-tv,o percent ver* on tilting aid maiming m<n, women and children the same as before the law was passed. Everybody in the East is gla 1 that there are m> mi f'tir autimioNlmts her''! Yoi they wonder that so many pedestrians t ■? killed.

Cwnivy Getting itvligioas

npIIH United States is getting uiiy rJigious. It JL seems tim* th" n ot sacramental

wine, since pi<>ki•'’*ion has been in effect, has been 2-1/-O'',C'0»s gallons. This is several million ga’lcns wore tlx n was ever used for tl at purpose in a like per’od of time pod shows what a wonderfully p: ms p< oplo v,e are hceoi

Some Fasts About B ar win

Ai.bei’.tixe Nash, Ph. 1)., one of the lady editors on the staff of the San Franc'seo Examiner, has the following to say regarding Charles Darwin, and the article is of general interest:

He was a boy who was very average in his attainments. He was much, slower in learning than his younger sister, He could memorize rapidly but had little retentiv® power. He was something of a liar, too. He would in-< vent deliberate falsehoods for the sheer love of the ex« eftement they would cause. Charles was considered a very ordinary boy at school, rather below the common standard in intellect. He could not master any language and he loathed pretty nearly everything he studied. He came of a cultured professional family, whose one fear was that he would disgrace them through his lack of intellectual capacity.

Special Cars for Electrical Equipment

ON ACCOUNT of the growing need for immensely large and heavy electrical equipment the Pennsylvania Railroad Company lias arranged for the construction of twelve cars of mammoth proportions to carry these heavy parts. Two of these ears will each have a carrying capacity of 275,000 pounds. The Pennsylvania has just completed eighty years of unbroken cash dividends and calls attention to the fact that its total assets are now over two and one half billion dollars.

What BiUy Got for His Work

FOR his work in putting on an evangelistic show BiUy Sunday received $20,000 in Atlanta, $20,939 in Columbus, $21,000 in Louisville, $22,189 in Scranton, $22,398 in Wilkesbarre, $23,112.27 in Syracuse, $25,369 in Paterson, $32,000 in Kansas City, $32,000 in Richmond, $32,358 in Trenton, $32,500 in Baltimore, $42,294 in Buffalo, $46,000 in Pittsburgh, $46,097 in Detroit, $50,000 in Chicago, $50,528 in Boston, $51,137 in Philadelphia, $33,000 in Memphis and $120,000 in New York. New York contains more readers of moron newspapers than all the rest of the country7 put together.

New Uses for Airplanes in Germany

GERMANY is finding new uses for her airplanes. Teachers will be taken up so as to ghe them bett°r conceptions of their country, and an airplane taxi sen ice has been inaugurated which enables anybody to go anywhere he wishes, in a straight line, at 50 cents per mile.

Victims of the Inquisition

THE New York Ameiican contains a dispatch from Mexico City stating that on May 27th workmen excavating near the Santo Domingo Roman Catholic Church of that city found the skulls of two hundred human beings who had been decapitated in the days of the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition headquarters was ©lose to the spot where the skulls were found.

London in a Gm Raid

WHEN Thomas A. Edison was asked recently whether it is true that practically the entire population of London could be killed by gas within twelve hours, he replied:

It is not true. The thing could be done within three hours. There is in existence no means of preventing an airplane flotilla from flying over London tomorrow and spreading over the millions of Londoners a gas which would asphyxiate those millions in a relatively short time.

Four-Day Raid Yields Nothing

A RMED with oxy-acetylene blowpipes and pneumatic concrete-breakers the London police made a four days’ raid on the property of the All-Russian Cooperative Society of that city, including also the premises of the Russian Trade Delegation of the Russian Government. After four days of careful pawing over of this property of other people nothing was found to justify the raid. The Society whose premises were invaded has $50,000,000 to its credit in the Midland Bank, which amount it had expected to spend in Great Britain for British machinery and supplies. Much of this may now be spent elsewhere, and that is the net result of the raid made by these wise men. Also, the Russians now hate the British more than they did. That may be statesmanship, but it does not look like it from a distance. On the other side of the question there seems no doubt that the Russians have been and are provocative, and that their promises are no more to be trusted than are the promises of other diplomats.

Lloyd George on the Anglo-Russian Break

TpORMER Prime Minister Lloyd George, com-meriting on the Anglo-Russian break, said, dramatically:

The wires are cut between us. We have shot the last bolt except the thunderbolt of war. What folly' What madness I And a little more patience would have saved us. The decision of the government is the most momentous one since 1914. To bring about a diplomatic rupture with one of the greatest powers in the world is not a thing to throw up caps about. It is a thing to bend the knees about.

Infallible Pope Reverses Himself

THE pope only a few weeks ago placed the French newspaper L’Action Francaise on the black list, warning aU good Catholics to frain from reading it. They kept on reading it, an insurrection against the church was brewing, and in order to save the situation the order has been rescinded; and now bishops may let the faithful read the paper on such occasions and for such good and sufficient reasons as they may see fit to recognize.

Vaccination and Sleeping Sickness

A REPORT of the British Ministry of Health made at the end of 1924 shows that there were in England during 1822-1924 sixty-two cases of sleeping sickness following vaccination, and over thirty of the sufferers died. The London Lancet and the British Medical Journal have also published reports showing numerous instances where fatal cases of sleeping sickness followed vaccination. It seems to be rather hard to keep wandering microbes out of pus, no matter how pure the pus.

Progress of Spanish Women

THE dean of Madrid University got himself -L in Dutch with the women of Spain when he came out with the proposition that the women ought not to obtain higher educations, but that their place is at home. They have called his attention to the fact that in the last few years onefourth of the students at his university have been women, that these girls are taking most of the honors at the university, that there are now ten prominent and successful women lawyers in Spain, and that when it comes to government jobs and stenographic and secretarial positions the women are showing the men that they can take care of themselves in first-class shape.

Turkey Continues Us Reforms

ALL Turks will hereafter be required to plant three trees on a day selected by the government, once each year. Another interesting 'decree is that shopkeepers must now simplify their signs, all unnecessary verbiage being cut out Moreover, mistakes in spelling or in grammar are punishable by a fine.

Palestine?® Wonderful Oranges

LAST year, despite the lack of harbor facilities, twenty-five million dollars worth of Palestine oranges were transported from Jaffa to Liverpool. Referring to these oranges a Toronto tourist, just returned from Palestine, says that they are as big as grapefruit. H« describes the Arabs, also, as very much up-to-date, with plenty of motor ears now running all over the ancient Land of Promise.

An Undelivered Letter

SOMEBODY in Liptau, Germany, took too seriously the idea that the General Manager of heaven, earth and hell is in Rome and sent a letter to that city addressed to God. The postal authorities in Rome were practical and they were honest, and so instead of delivering the letter to the Vatican and taking chances on its reaching its destination they returned it to the sender stamped Inconnu, which means Addressee Unknown.

Ludendorff an Who Won the War

TIE New York American publishes a letter from General Ludendorff in which he says:

With, more than a million fresh, young, ardent Americans pressing forward into the battle the result was inevitable. America’s entrance into the war undoubtedly decided the war in favor of Great Britain, France and Italy. The tremendous superabundance of pent-up untapped nervous energy which America’s troops brought into the fray more than balanced the weakness of their allies, who were utterly exhausted. It was assuredly the Americans who bore the heaviest brunt of the fighting on the whole battle front during the last few months of the war. The German field army found them much mor® aggressive in attack than either the English or the French.

The American remarks that as General Ludendorff was the man who lost the war his opinion as to who won it ought to be a pretty good one.

Zoghu—-Dictator of Albania

THE world has many evil dictators at the present time, but probably Achmed Zoghu, dictator of Albania, is the worst of all. He recently hanged a priest who criticized the government for allowing old men, women and children to die of hunger in the prisons, and more recently has sentenced to death the Harvard graduate, Fan Noli, from whom he seized the premiership.

Chance for Another Balkan War

THOSE who love war will be interested to know that there is a good chance for another Balkan war, and as the last Balkan war became World War and took in everybody, the one now impending may do the same. Yugoslavia has withdrawn her minister from Albania. Italy is exercising a protectorate over Albania, and Italy is spoiling for war. The first shot in another World War may be fired at any time now.

Persecution of Jews in Rumania

RUMANIA does not dare lift the cover and show the treatment the Jews are receiving in that country. When. Jacob Landau, publisher of the Jewish Daily Bulletin of New York, attempted to land there the authorities were so frightened at what they knew he would discover that they arrested him, took his passports away and without doubt would have done violence to him except that a fellow passenger managed to get word to the American Minister, who demanded his release.

Opium Farce Still on at Geneva

THE Opium Committee of the League of Nations has had its ninth session, with the ' same results as before, which is nothing. The ? delegate from Italy made an earnest effort to \ get the countries interested to cut down the man- * ufacture of drugs so that it would not remain, I as now, vastly in excess of the world’s require-1 ments for medical purposes. Siam voted in' favor of the proposal, for Siam is being rained by opium. Great Britain, British India, Holland, France, Switzerland, Serbia and Japan voted No; so the manufacture of harmful drugs will in no way be curtailed. <

Afghanistan Still Practises Slavery

A FGHANISTAN is one of the few countries which still practise slavery. The matter came into print a short time ago when, in order to prevent the German widow of an Afghan chieftain being sold as a slave, the German minister at Cabul bought her in the name of his government. He is said to have paid the highest price ever paid for a female slave in Cabul.

Chinese in America

TN THE year 1885 anti-Chinese feeling ran high in these United States. Many murders of inoffensive Chinese occurred. There were twenty-eight such murders in Bock Springs, Wyoming, in one day. The Chinese government sent a note that they would like to have their citizens protected. They got word back, in substance, that if the Chinese who were here did not want to take their chances they could get out. The Chinese sent neither army nor navy to America.

Germans Getting Along in China

A MERICANS, British and Japanese are re-ported to be much disturbed because German vessels are going up and down the Chinese rivers unarmed and unmolested, and the Chinese are trading freely with them and ignoring to a large extent the citizens of the nations that shoot at them. The gunners that are so successful in blowing up Chinese cities seem never to think that the result of their shooting may be that the Chinese will wish to buy goods elsewhere.

Australia’s New Capital

OF AUSTRALIA’S new capital, Canberra, the Manchester Guardian says:

Canberra is in many respects unlike any other city in the world. It is owned in perpetuity by the people of Australia. Leases of 99 years duration will be granted to tenants, but the nation will remain in perpetuity tha ground landlord, and will reap the benefit of the increase of land values. The Commission insists on the original purchaser of a lease beginning to build within twelv® months of the date of the lease and completing the building within two years.

Wireless Service to Australia

TIE Marconi beam system of wireless transmission between England and Australia 18 a complete success. The beams are usually sent east over Europe and India; hut sometimes ths service is better by the longer route across the Atlantic and Pacific, and then the beams ar® turned in that direction. On the first day the signals were distinctly audible twenty-two hours out of twenty-four.

Children in Wolves’ Dens

IN THE past year three children who hav® grown to be ten or twelve years of age haw been discovered in wolves’ dens in India. Two of these were girls, one of whom has died arid the other has become humanized. The latest to be discovered is a boy, whose only language at present is a bark, and who snaps savagely at all who come within range of his teeth.

NO DOUBT many of our readers saw The

American Mercury for February, 1927, aontoining Granville Hicks’ now world-famous irtlele on the above subject. No review of this article could possibly do it justice. It is a re-ftew in itself. It tells its own story.

In his unapproachable manner Mr. Hicks has proven the truth of the contention often made or implied in these columns that, taken in the aggregate, the ministers of today are absolutely the worst collection of murderers and hypocrites that ever lived on the face of the earth.

Please do not write us about the matter. Wb have too much mail already.

Madeira—The Gem of the Atlantic By a South African

WHILE I was in Paris last year I received a cable to return to South Africa immediately. I went to the French airport to book an aeroplane ticket for London; but found that the French company had decided to take advantage ©f the strike in England, and were holding up the stranded tourists in Paris by deliberately doubling the fare from 700 to 1400 francs. Refusing to acquiesce to this profiteering and, after telling them what I thought of them, I went to The Imperial Airways, Ltd. (an 'English company) and happily found that they were still carrying passengers at the original rate of 800 francs, which at that time was equivalent to S5-10-0 English money.

The following morning I checked out from the Hotel Edward VII in Paris and, after a pleasant Charabanc ride of about half an hour, arrived at Le Bourget Aerodrome. After going through the customs and declaring that I had no higher sum than £45 on me (if I had the customs tvould have levied a special tax), I boarded, the waiting aeroplane which, by the way, was under orders to hasten to London to fetch the Prince of Wales and his suite to Paris on account of the English strike.

This particular machine was a large biplane with a spread of about fifty feet between the two wing tips. The body in the centre housed ths passenger cabin, which contained two rows ©f armchairs, alongside of which was a row ©f windows, through which the passengers could watch the scenery. Above the armchairs were nickle-plated cylinders containing cotton-wool for the passengers to put into their ears to deaden the noise and to prevent dizziness on ac-sount of change of altitude.

The machine had two engines; each containing twelve cylinders and, I believe, of about 450 h. p. Our luggage was carefully distributed to balance the aeroplane, the engines were then started to buzzing, our two pilots were at their posts, and we were now ready to leave the earth. By law every aeroplane carrying passengers must carry-two pilots, for service in case of one of them getting sick, and also that the one not actually operating the machine may act as observer, etc.

Riding on the Air

THE signal was now given, and with a roar we shot into the air. Soon we had reached 3,000 ft., which later on was increased to 4,000 ft., and the speed was accelerated to 100 miles per hour.

Strange to say, neither the speed nor the height seemed to be noticed by the passengers; and the sensation was a soothing one, as we were literally riding on the air. Going upward is a delightful sensation; but when the machine drops into an “air pocket”, which, however, was on a very few occasions, the sensation was most peculiar. The whole of one’s insides then seem to rise, one finds Lis mouth automatically opening, and there is an instant tightening of the muscles, waiting for the drop to stop.

The scenery was magnificent. The whole of France and England seemed to be under intense cultivation; and with the many irregular hedges and fences, odd-shaped pieces of green, numerous forests, ploughed fields, winding canals, and the many narrow, twisting white roads looking Ijke ribbons, it gave the whole country the appearance of a patch-work or a jazz pull-over.

We passed two other aeroplanes going the opposite way, looking for all the world like two big birds. Finally we were dver the English Channel, which was another delightful sensa-

tion; and our aeroplane seemed to ride the air over the water as smoothly as a ball on the surface of a halliard table, probably because of the absence of the undulations which are on the land surface, and which cause frequent changes in the air currents. In due time we arrived at Croydon field, from whence we were motored to London.

From London to South Africa

UPON inquiry at the London office of the

Union Castle Company I found that the steamer “Grantully Castle”, upon which I had booked to sail for South Africa, had been cancelled, owing to the firemen’s refusing to work consequent to the British coal strike. But, fortunately, I was able to book on the “Kildonan Castle”, which left on May 7th; but we had to go from London to Southampton by motor, on account of no railv ay trains running during that period of the strike.

On May 11th the “Kildonan Castle” arrived at Madeira, one of the large group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean. This island belongs to the Portuguese, and rises from the sea to a height of over 3.000 ft. The residential portion of Funchal, the township, is a very pretty sight from the ship's deck: most of the houses are standing by themselves, set in green patches of vegetation, and mostly covered with red-tiled roofs.

On landing at Madeira the first thing I noticed was the absence of sand, the beach being composed of large pebbles. The landing stage was a very small, primitive affair; and the streets of Funchal are exceedingly narrow, tortuous and paved with cobbles; while the shops are extremely old-fashioned and odd in shape, size and appearance.

I was surprised to find that most of the business men, though Portuguese, spoke fluent English and were very quick to ask profiteering prices when tourists appeared on the scene. Most of the buildings, business and private, were plain looking, poorly constructed and single story.

In some of the open spaces there were avenues of trees covered with a most beautiful heliotrope foliage, presenting a very picturesque sight. Most of the traffic seemed to represent the two extremes; there were the latest models of English and American motor-cars and also very primitive bullorfc-drawn sledges. Those of the latter which were used for passenger transport, were very ornamental, having covered tops and side curtains.

Regarding the people of Madeira: The majority were of a swarthy complexion, poor in physical development and awkward in deportment. The impression one gathered from their faces, both young and old, was that their fight for existence was a hard and precarious one; hardly a solitary handsome man or pretty woman was met with in the whole island.

The most attractive item on the island is the Mountain Rack Railway. It works on the Swiss system, of a steam-engine operating a central cog-driving wheel which engages in a rack rail lying between the two outer rails. The track runs from the outskirts of the town and winds its way through most picturesque scenery 1W the mountainside for over 3.000 ft., and every inch of the way provides a constantly changing, interesting view. As the train mounted higher, little Portuguese children were constantly running alongside throwing into the passenger carriage bunches of beautiful flowers and crying out for money; and the conductor was continually driving them off witli a stick.

Alongside the line, on both sides, was a continual stream of little houses, each one set in highly cultivated patches of ground, containing tomatoes, grapevines, figs, sugar-cane, apricots, cabbages, beans, loquats, banana-palms, and most beautiful flowers, with little rivulets running down carefully arranged channels to supply water to each .little property.

Where Farms Are “Built”

IT WAS wonderful to see the ingenious way in which the properties or little farms of Madeira were literally built into the mountainside. Every few yards a solid, high retaining stone wall had been built to hold the soil from being washed down the mountain, thus giving the appearance of a continual series of steps or terraced gardens. A tropical aspect was given to the scenery by many beautiful tall ferns, palms, cactus, sugarcane, bananas, etc.

After half an hour’s climb we arrived at the top of the mountain, to find a most modem hotel, fitted with electric lights, ball-room, all modem equipment, and surrounded by beautifully arranged terraced gardens. At this hotel we had an excellent breakfast, and then prepared to return.

The return journey was a most unique, thrilling and exhilarating one, consisting of a toboggan slide down a winding chute for a distance of about three miles. The toboggan consisted of a wicker-basket with a seat for two, mounted on wooden runners, controlled by two Portuguese guides, with two ropes attached to the front of the toboggan. The chute itself was about six feet wide, build in shallow steps of cobbles. The smooth running of the toboggan was a surprise.

We went through forests, along the edges of precipices, through lovely gardens with many tortuous turns and corners, which provided all the thrills we wanted. Alongside the chute ran a gurgling little stream in which we occasionally saw women washing clothes; and now and then appeared the usual old beggar, with everready hat held out for a few coppers.

About two-thirds of the way down we suddenly found ourselves stopped outside a wine shop, the proprietor of which came out and politely informed us that the guides were thirsty and wanted their tips with which to get some wine. And at the same time we were pestered with a dozen little boys and old beggars, all wanting pennies. From here the chute continued in the form of back lanes and narrow streets till we got to the Mountain Railway Station, where we were put into a motor and driven to the landing stage, ready for embarkation.

On arrival at the steamer “Kildonan Castle” we found numerous small boys in bathing costumes, inviting the passengers to throw money into the sea. Then the boys would dive overboard and catch the coins before they reached the bottom. Madeira is an ideal place in which to enjoy a pleasant holiday. Its quaint attractions will linger in the mind for many days to come.

It was quite obvious that the Portuguese inhabitants are under the control of the Roman Catholic Church; and the haggard, depressed, worn look on the people’s faces will no doubt quickly disappear when they know the truth about the Lord’s plan, and experience the blessings of restitution and the release from the yoke of the Devil’s organization.

The Alumimiin. Poisoning Case at Kansas City

ON FEBRUARY 17th, 1927, at a church dinner of the Kansas City Parent Teachers’ 'Association, Kansas City, Kansas, out of 554 guests at the dinner 150 became ill within twenty-four hours. The food was the best that could be procured, and was cooked by an organization which has hitherto never had the slightest trouble with any of its food. ALL THE FOOD WAS COOKED IN BRAND NEW ALUMINUM WARE.

Wew Aluminum

Beaders of Th® Golden Age who have paid attention to the articles of Dr. C. T. Betts, of Toledo, know already the cause of the illness of the 150 unfortunates who helped eat the first eoat of loose aluminum out of the new utensils; but none of the "officials” and ^authorities" and “health experts” of Kansas (W wffl «W b® able to find aut, nor wffl any Mffbi editor ctw dtasytt ft

There is a reason for this. Every hardware store, and plenty of other stores, sells aluminum ware. Every newspaper advertises it It is like the straw hat bunk. It is no good, and plenty of people know it very well, but it is a part and parcel of our civilization. And moreover soma of our ‘“best” people have money in aluminum corporations. Therefore any “health authority”' would consider it extremely inadvisable, from the point of view of holding his job, of incurring the ill-will of merchants, newspapermen, stockholders and other beneficiaries to even admit, much less proclaim, the self-evidestd; truth that here is a proven ease of aluminum poisoning.

Doctor Betts heard about this poisoning eas® and offered to post $500 with the Kansas City Star to defray the expenses of another banquet prepared in the same manner, with the sam® Hnds of foods, and prepared by the ssam® pao» with guarante® that at least one out would B® prfwne'd if the food is cooked fa absolutely new aluminum ware and with aluminum baking powder, and that the foods stand in the aluminum ware the same number of hours as before.

Needless to say, neither the Kansas City health authorities nor the Star could or did take up the doctor’s proposition, to uncover the poison case which still remains a “mystery” like the mental poisonings due to the much respected but absolutely crooked and dishonest infinite-love-but-etemal-torture and three-gods-in-one theories of ecclesiasticism.

Missing Links By Fred’k Scruton {England)

ACCORDING to the theory of spontaneous generation adopted by Dr. Haeckel the following stages must be passed through by.carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and possibly sulphur and phosphorus, in order to form protoplasm, the physical basis of all life on this planet.

1. The chemical elements must come together in their proper proportions.

2. They must then form the requisite chemical combinations.

3. They must form themselves into reticular textures, characteristic of protoplasm.

4. Then the substance must form itself into a cell with a nucleus.

How is this highly complicated series of operations performed without the assistance of intelligence? The answer to this question is an important link which is still “missing” in the chain of the evolutionists. It is missing link No. 1. Prof. Drummond quotes Huxley as follows :

I know nothing, and never hope to know anything, of the steps by which the passage from molecular movement to states of consciousness is effected.—“Ascent of Man,” page 158.

The theory of evolution cannot account for the production of organs in living organisms. Darwin does not discuss this matter. Perhaps this is only a little link; and he, together with others, thought the chain could get along quite nicely without it. However, we include it here as another missing link.

Evolutionists are unable to account for the origin of paternal or maternal instincts, nor for the origin of consciousness. No one, not even Darwin, seems to know where these important missing links have gotten to.

As yet no theory has satisfactorily explained the mystery of the production of a young an-mal out of an old one. No light has been thrown upon the question, What is the formative power which causes the whole process of gestation? The first living creatures which appeared on earth must have been already provided with means of producing creatures like themselves; otherwise at their death all life would have ceased.

It is almost impossible to conceive how the first rudiments of important organs could have been of any use; or how, if they were not of any use, they could have been preserved for further development by natural selection. But the evolutionist does not worry himself by making any such effort of imagination. He just shuts his eyes and carries on, until he finally comes to a link that happens not to be one of the missing variety.

The evolutionist cannot account for the absence of hair from the human back—the only case of its kind among mammals. Yet admittedly man is an animal, and one which easily may be stroked the wrong way.

Prof. William Bateson, the highest authority on genetics, in his “Problems of Genetics” says that we must recognize our almost entire ignorance of the process of evolution. As president of the British Association in 1914, he said:

Darwin speaks no more with philosophical authority. Knowledge of heredity has so reacted on our own conceptions of variations that very competent men are even denying that variation in the old sense is a genuine occurrence at all. The appearance of contemporary variation proves to be an illusion. Every theory of evolution must be such as to accord with the facts of physics and chemistry, a primary necessity to which our predecessors paid small heed. Of the physics and chemistry of life we know next to nothing.

The Scriptures stand for ever grandly inviolate and true, pointing the way to deliverance. Let us hold them firmly, while the evolutionists do a little more link hunting.

The Origin of Idolatry By 0. L. Rosenkrans, Jr.

A VIEW of the late Pastor Russell’s was that heathen mythology had its tap-root in vague and distorted traditions of the nephilim, those superhuman offspring of fallen angels and the daughters of men who suffered extinction in the flood. Of course such old-fashioned ideas are pooh-poohed by latter-day scholarship, and studiously ignored in our standard textbooks on mythology. According to the latter, polytheism represents one of a series of stops in the religious evolution of humanity—a step onward in the halting progress of the finite mind toward attainment of infinite comprehension!

However, all scholarship is not in agreement on this theory of religious evolution, some considering sun-worship to represent the primitive belief from which has ramified the numerous religions of mankind. Certain it is that sunworship has had in its day a world-wide distribution, evidences of it disclosing themselves in India, China, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome, among the Celtic and German nations, in Mexico and Peru, and elsewhere. Where direct adoration of the solar orb is absent, often indubitable traces remain of the concomitant phallic and serpent-worship. Almost universally, indeed, sex-worship is found as a phase of deification of the sun.

In antique mythologies the symbols of sun, sex, and serpent are commonly interchangeable. Thus, the phallus is equivalent to the sun or fire emblem, variations of the symbol being a bull, stallion, torch, pine cone, or any tall tree. Throughout the world we find this symbol erected in obelisks, pagodas, minarets, the May Poles of our ancestors, the mysterious Bound Towers of Ireland, the menhirs of Cornwall and Brittany, and, disagreeable as the thought may be "to some, in the cathedral spires and steeples of church edifices, which are recognized to be but conventionalizations of the phallic emblems which stood beside the doors of ancient heathen temples.

Since Luna is the female complement of the sun, her symbol is substituted by the negative attributes of his, such as waler, a cow, a mare, the date palm; also by a fish, dolphin, crescent, inverted triangle, ring, oval, ship, fountain, pomegranate, archway, cavern, rose or fig. The lotus is the characteristic female symbol, perpetuated by church ceremonial in the Eastw lily.

In the Hellenic mysteries and sacred festivals, the phallus, the egg and the serpent were carried in a basket. The first article typified the sun, the active generative power in nature; the second, the moon, the passive fecund principle; the third, that mysterious force which acts to unite the first two, perpetually renewing lif® through its destruction. Pagan philosophy may have intentionally personified in the serpent those actinic properties of the sunbeam which promote germination and growth ever in correlation to decay and death. Apollo’s arrows become the serpent of zEseulapius.

The widespread prevalence of sun-worship in antiquity is not difficult for even the modern mind to account for, since the solar orb is the source of terrestrial energy. But sun-worship becomes even more comprehensible when we assume that a canopy overshadowed the earih before the deluge; attended by a system of nature economy radically divergent from the present. Postdiluvian times witnessed an u’mr revolutionizing of the entire scheme of nature economy, ushering in such startling transformations in every aspect of nature as to leave indelible impressions on the imaginations of Noah and his family, and their seed after them, instilling in their minds the profoundest sense of the stupendous importance of solar phenomena and of the intimate relationship of solar-activity to every phase of life.

The annual cycle of the seasons, the diurnal intermittancy of light and darkness, the roseate flush of dawn, the splendors of the sunset, the waxing and waning of the moon, the apparent rotation of the starry sphere, the wind, the rain, thunder and lightning, the rainbow, all trite and commonplace to us through immemorial association, yet to the eight persons who emerged from the ark were strange and unfamiliar sights. Very soon they learned their owm absolute dependence on tire sun whose multifarious activities they were being continually reminded pervaded all nature, the whole of existence being inextricably involved therewith.

When mankind went astray into false religion, sun-worship seemed the logical course to follow. Hence an elaborate polytheism was formulated, •with personifications of the manifold aspects of solar-activity. The fructifying agency of the sun-bearer suggested sex-worship as a subsidiary feature. The first liar found a place for himself as the mediator between life and death in the false hope of immortality.

Nevertheless, in spite of its solar basis, another element may have contributed to make up the characters of the heathen pantheon—the old gods may have been composite creations, partly solar, partly composed of vague recollections of the mundane antediluvian gods, the hybrid progeny of women and angel"3, themselves perished but translated by hmrar ancy into pseudo-immortality in the sides, to reign invisibly as they had formerly regulated human affairs in the flesh.

The superhuman slrenirth and cunning of the nephilim, their remorselessness and aloofness from human sympathies and weaknesses, their transcending intelligence--all these qualities had inve-T.1 them uitt- d.o attributes of dreaded terrestrial demi-gods, ineffaneably registering themselves on the consciouciiess of primitive humanity. Shadowy traditions of the nophdim lincored on after the flood, identified eventually as incarnations of the solar functions.

In seeming’ corroboration of this view we find in the Koran or so-called Mohammedan Bible, in the sura or chapter entitled "'"Noah", an account of how the reprobate antediluvians flouted the warnings of that worthy prophet, and contumaciously persisted in rendering homage to Wadd, Sava, Yaghuth, Tank and Nasr. These names are elsewhere given as those of eminent personages whose statues were reverenced at first with merely a civil honor, until time inSen-idly pm veiled the rite into an idolatrous ©ne.

One legend relates that the image of Sawa, overthrown during the cataclysm and left lying Wider water for some time after the final subsidence, at length, had its whereabouts revealed by Eblis (Satan) to the inhabitants of Hodhail city. The latter established it as their tutelary god, and the idol urns made the center of pilgrimages from far and near.

In other instances the Devil assisted idolmakers to sculpture faithful portrait effigies of these defunct antediluvian notables, which were deliberately calculated to ensnare the nations Into idolatry. It is said that in former times there stood in the city of Bamiyan, near Kabul,

two huge idols, fifty cubits in height, representing Yaghuth and Yank. These were hollow inside, for the convenience of issuing secret oracles. '

The Arabians are a very ancient nation, one of the earliest of historic mention. Their language is reputed to have originated at the Confusion of Tongues. Hence their traditions are not without value to the antiquarian, though many of these traditions obviously have been plagiarized from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. The western Arabs were cousins to the Hebrews, revering Abraham as their common ancestor. The Koran relates that Mohammed when he took Mecca demolished in the Kaaba statues of Abraham and Ishmael, to vhich the tribe of Koreish accorded divine homo s. The image of Abraham was chiselled out of red jasper, having one golden hand holding spxen featherless arrows, such as the Arabs use for divination.

Even the Arabs of pre-Islami te days, during the “State of Ignorance” held many traditions in common with the Jews and Christians. Their religion at that time was Saheanism, or worship of the heavenly bodies, whoi’ein abode, as they imagined, angelic intelligences who exercised dominion over the earth as the divine deputies. Their sacred scriptures contained our “Book of Job”, besides their own spurious writings, which included a "Book of Seth”. Seth and his sons, Enoch and Sabi, were acknowledged by the ancient A^ahs as tlm founders of their faith; so they made pilgrimages to the reputed sepulchre of Seth at Mecca, and to the alleged tombs of his sons in the pyramids of Gizeh.

TAe Koran and Its Origin

TOOLATRY is abhorrent to Islam, the taboo J- against “graven images” being extended to include statues and pictures of any animate object. The “prophet” Mohammed announced as the chief ends of his mission, to purge the world of idolatry and restore the unity of God. Arabian paganism in his day had already been greatly modified by the infiltration of Jewish and Christian ideas, and Jewish and Christian colonies were scattered here and there, especially along the western coast But it was the leaven of a corrupted Judaism and Christianity which was modifying the Arabian paganism. The Arabs were becoming familiarized, not with the pure doctrine of the Old Testament and the Gospels, but with the spurious accretions of the Talmud and the Apocryphal books.

It wa^from the latter chiefly that Mohammed, in the seventh century, compiled his "bible”. He possessed acumen sufficient to reject trinitarian-ism, though he endorsed hell-fire as a fundamental article of faith.. Islam, indeed, began as a reform of the grossly corrupt and controversy-distracted eastern church, with its saint and image-worship and associated mariolatry — so integral a factor in Nicene orthodoxy that the virgin was accepted as the “complement of the trinity, itself incomplete without her”. One heretical sect, the Marianites, went so far as to include Mary in the trinity; another, the Col-lyridians, worshiped her as the First Cause.

Mohammedanism recognizes a true religion as distinguished from the many varieties of paganism. Mohammed is held by his followers to be the last of a succession of true prophets, including Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus, each one of whom has served in his day as God’s mouthpiece, the recipient of a divine message to mankind, even as expressed in the divinely-inspired Scriptures. Mohammedans believe that, in all, these Scriptures comprised 104 books, the major part of which have been lost, no authentic books surviving except those included in the Pentateuch, Psalms, Gospels and Koran. The last named, called “the Seal of the Prophets”, closes the divine revelations, they contend. They say that all the prophets enumerated above professed Islam, the “one true, indivisible, immutable religion”, but that the Jews and Christians have lost sight of this, and that their existing copies of the Scriptures are corrupted and unreliable.

Mohammedans comprehend themselves together with, the Jews and Christians, as the “people of the Book”, in contradistinction to the idolaters who place no reliance on any part of the sacred writings. They revere Jesus as a true Prophet and Apostle of God, but deny that He is the propitiation for our sins. They expect the Second Advent to occur as a prelude to the Resurrection, when Christ will destroy antiChrist, and then lie and Jewish adherents will reign for forty years over the earth—an era of unexampled peace and plenty, interrupted only by an inroad of Gog and Magog. But Christ will die once more before the Beast arises out of the ground to stamp in the forehead believers and infidels, separating them one from another, preparatory to the cool, odoriferous wind which will blow away every soul which retains even as little faith as a grain of mustard seed, with the Koran itself, leaving the world immersed in a night of ignorance and perplexity.

But we have not space for a dissertation on the tenets of Islam, nor to discuss its grotesque jumbling together and misapplication of the Ezekielian and Apocalyptic prophecies referring to the last days. Suffice to notice that Gabriel blows three blasts on his trumpet, the first one spreading terror over all the earth, the beasts running together and milling around in a mighty concourse, and humankind pretermitting its usual business to mourn. The second blast will extinguish the material universe, with all life, including angels and demons. Gabriel will puff out his own candle, as it were, and must be recreated by a special act of God before he can blow the third blast, of Resurrection. •

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