Golden Age, October 3, 1928
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The Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE ANDI COURAGE
in this issue
THE DEFAULT OF THE
RADIO COMMISSION
“THINKING WITH AFRICA”
an appeal in behalf of the African in his homeland '
LITTLE DISCOVERIES
how rare minerals affect the health of man and animals
THE NAME JEHOVAH correct pronunciation and meaning of the Sacred Na*'
WHAT IS MAN?
his creation, his downft of his recovery, dis Judge Rutherford
EVERY OTHER WEDNESDAY
FIVE CENTS A COPY OR ONE DOLLAR A YEAR
Volume X - No. 236 October 3, 19 2 8
Contents
Labor and Economics
Futile Sufferings of the Mi nebs ....
Social and Educational The Default of the Radio Commission . . . Did You Notice These? ......... What Is It to Be a Genius? ....... Everybody Can Do Something ....... Broadcasting Record ........... Most Successful Broadcast in Radio History .
Finance—Commerce—Transportation
Mellon Buys All Power Sites .........
What the Power Trust Would Like to Do to Tacoma .
Political—Domestic and Foreign Liberty in Galax, Virginia ..........
Britain Must Lose a Million ......... From Scotland ............... The Problem of Tax Exemption ........ The Beast on Parade ............
Science and
Little Discoveries of Far-Reaching
Invention
Value .
Home and
Alucol Not Approved ....
Aluminum in City Drinking Water Easier to Laugh Now ....
Health
Travel and Miscellany
The Five-Cent Air Rate..... . . .
“Thinking With Africa” .........
Religion and Philosophy
A Bishop on Den Hi.....
.0
What is 'Man? ..........
The Sacked Name .........
“Bi' Jlr Name Jehovah Was I Not Known” BriiLE Questions and Answers ....
The Children's Own Radio Story . . .
Published every other Wednesday at 117 Adains Street, Brooklyn, N. Y,, U, 8. A., by WOODWORTH, KNORR & MARTIN
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<Ae Golden Age
Volume X
Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, October 3, 1923
Number 236
The Default of the Radio Commission
JUNE 15, 1927, in an address to the Federal Radio Commission at Washington, Judge
Rutherford said to them:
“When WBBR began to operate we were tenth in the list of those licensed [in the New York metropolitan area]. Today, after being on the air for three and one-half years, we are twenty-fifth in the list of those allocated wave lengths of advantage. I want to call attention here to this, which is of far more public interest than merely one ease that is being heard by the Commission.”
“For some time there has been a concentration of money power in this land to control every business and every public interest. The predatory wealth controls the banks, the public press and the transportation systems; and now it is reaching its octopus arms out to control the air. It says to the people in effect: ‘Wo will take the air and do with it what we please. We will make all the money out of it we can, and then give you what "we do not want.’ ”
On September 10, 1928, the above warning that the radio is scheduled by Big Business to come 'wholly under its control, was verified. On that date the Radio Commission (which has been in existence only since March, 1927) made a reallocation in which all the choice wave lengths were assigned to Big Business and all attempts to educate the people were relegated to the graveyard.
From November 11, 1928, WBBR, now operating on 256.3 wave length and 1000 watts power, is designated to operate on 230.6 wave length and reduced to 500 watts power, although twenty-five miles from any congested district; while WORD, now7 operating on 252.0 wave length is designated to operate on 202.6, and it is forty miles out in the country from Chicago. The Radio Commission has defaulted in the great trust imposed upon it by the people.
Having an intimation that this reallocation was going to go in the direction which it finally did, Judge Rutherford on September 6 addressed a letter to the Radio Commission, a copy of which has now been handed to The Golden Age.
The letter and the action of the Commission shows a determined effort on the part of Big Business not only to control the commerce of the country and the politics of the country, but now it seems they are about to try to force the people to accept their “religion”. This is an insult to Jehovah God, and in His own due time He will surely take appropriate action. The Judge’s letter follows:
Sept. 6, 1928 To the Federal Radio Commission,
Department of Interior Building, Washington, D. C. .
Gentlemen:
It is hardly to be expected that this letter will accomplish any immediate good, but it will be on record to bear witness in the future. Since my interview with various members of your Commission on Tuesday last, I feel it my duty to write you. In the outset please be assured of my kind feeling toward you personally. Knowing me, I believe that you will bear witness that I am not erratic nor an extremist. I repeat my words uttered before your Commission on a former occasion: “What I say here is not a threat, but a warning.”
From my personal knowledge of you gentlemen I believe that each of you desires to do what is right, but I am wholly convinced that you are unable to do so because of yielding to
influences, some of which are visible and some invisible. It is well known that the great visible controlling factor of America is Big Business, and that Professional Politicians and an Apostate Clergy work in conjunction with that selfish interest. All of these yield unconsciously to an unseen and powerful influence.
I understand that it is now the purpose of the Federal Radio Commission to clear the choice radio frequency channels and assign them to the big commercial stations, which are properly designated the “Trust Stations”, while other stations are to be crowded into the less favorable and already congested broadcasting channels. That means that Big Business will exercise a monoply of the air and the people will be at their mercy. The “Trust Stations” are permitted to operate on super-power and to literally control the air. The people will be compelled to listen to what the “Trust Stations” give them or not listen at all. .
It is well known that Mr. Aylesworth, president of the National Broadcasting Co., is spokesman for the Radio Trust in America. In the opinion of many this is but a factor of the Power Trust. The public press recently quoted Mr.. Aylesworth as saying: “As part of the University of the Air project it is planned to institute a series of programs entitled ‘Great Messages of Religion’, in which the clergy of the Jewish, Protestant and Roman faiths will be invited to participate. Much as I would like to shun the mantle of prophet, I can not refrain from expressing the belief that the day is near when we shall have what I am pleased to term a ‘radio clergyman’. His creed is of no import; but his views shall he of the broad view’s of tolerance, and he shall represent the best of religious thought which the experience of twenty centuries has to offer. This ‘radio clergyman’ will devote his entire time and efforts to ministering to the spiritual needs of the vast radio family, and his shall be the greatest congregation the world has ever known. There is but one thing that we demand of the religious message that goes on the air, and that is that it be non-denominational andnon-seetarianin appeal. Be our broadcaster rabbi, priest or mini ster, we ask him only that he interpret the religious experience in broadest terms so that the individual listener, whoever he may be, may be brought to a fuller and. .finer realization, of his duty to his. own church and to his fellow men.”
Be it noted that according to the scheme outlined by the Radio Trust, Jehovah God is not taken into consideration. God’s will and His Word of Truth are to be pushed completely aside and a great “Message of Religion” is to be dished out that is pleasing to the Trust regardless of the interests of the people. That scheme is most intolerant because it would preclude anything being broadcast that does not meet the requirements of the Trust. Tolerance means that there shall be a full and fair opportunity for the discussion of all questions of importance.
It is well known that Big Business controls the commerce of America and the politics of the nation, and now it is boldly and blatantly announced that it will control the religious things that the people shall hear. Clergymen unfaithful to God and their vows yield and are yielding to the sinister influence of the Trust. '
Permit me to suggest that there are millions of people in America that are not at all in sympathy with the program of the clergymen and Big Business. These good, honest millions believe in the Bible as taught by Jesus Christ and the apostles, and by the good Christian ministers who during the early days of America taught the truth of the Bible then due to be understood and that without monetary consideration. This opinion is fully supported by the great flood of letters and telegrams which I have received from the people throughout America during the past few months.
The Federal Radio Law was enacted and you gentlemen were appointed to see that the people get what is of interest, necessity and convenience for them. The “Radio Trust” does not meet any of these requirements so far as the serious-minded people of the land are concerned. The Power Trust fleeces the people, the politicians direct the affairs of the government according to the wishes of Big Business, and the unfaithful clergy give the people a senseless harangue that is approved by the Trust. None of these things are of interest, convenience or necessity for the people. There is nothing in their programs that is uplifting and ennobling to the people, or that will cause them to know and to reverence the great Creator of the universe.
Applications of Stations WBBR and WORD filed with your Commission for an increase of power and for assignment, to more favorable broadcasting channels, that the plain teaching
of the Bible may be broadcast that will comfort, upbuild and aid the people and be an honor to the Name of Jehovah God, have been ignored. Stations built for this lawful purpose, although early in the field and broadcasting programs of interest, convenience and necessity to the general good and welfare of the American people, have been relegated to the unfavorable channels in order to make way for the Trust. The “Radio Trust” is not interested in the people’s welfare, but its chief objective is to increase its power in money and influence over the people.
It is of far greater importance to the people that they learn of Jehovah God and His plan for their salvation and blessing, than to listen to the speeches of clergymen that have been approved by the Power Trust. The mere fact of approval by the Power Trust is complete proof that such so-called “Great Messages of Religion” are not beneficial to mankind.
It is of far greater convenience and benefit to the people that they hear sacred songs that honor and praise the Name of Jehovah God than to be compelled to listen to jazz and dance music. It is of far greater importance to the nation that the Name of Jehovah God be honored than to aid the “Radio Trust” to forward its selfish interests. It is written in the Bible, and that for the guidance of men, “Blessed is the nation whose God is.Jehovah.” The converse of that statement must be true. What, then, is to be expected of a nation that makes Big Business its god and permits predatory interests to flourish at the expense of the general welfare of the people ?
The radio belongs to Jehovah God. It is not man’s invention. Certainly Big Business does not rightfully own and control it. Why,then, do men yield to this selfish influence of the Trust? I answer, There is an unseen and more powerful influence that controls all selfish interests and therefore controls the world. That invisible power and influence is Satan the Devil, whom the Bible designates as “the prince of the power of the air”, and again, “the prince of this world,” and again, “the god of this world.” The “Radio Trust” would never permit the clergymen to broadcast these Bible truths concerning the Devil and his power over the nations. How, then, are the people to learn of their unseen and sinister enemy and to learn who is their real friend, if the “Radio Trust” has its way?
I shall not burden you by here dwelling upon my reasons for this statement. While in your offices on Tuesday last, I noticed on your book shelves a copy of my recent book Government. If you can find the time to read that book you will ascertain my reasons for the above statement concerning the invisible power and also why the people are now denied their just rights, and what is to be the relief for mankind.
No longer can 'America boast of being the land of religious freedom as the Constitution guarantees. The fact that Big Business now controls the air and causes clergymen in the Name of the Lord to hypocritically serve up a “Great Message of Religion” that has the approval of the Power Trust and which ignores the Word of God, is but another proof that freedom of thought is done. It is also evidence that the end is near. No nation can continue to ignore God and continue to exist. The selfish predatory powers have the people by the throat and oppress them without mercy. Unfaithful to God, the clergy yield to that unrighteous influence, aiding in the oppression of the people and in keeping them in ignorance of God’s provision for their -welfare. God has promised to hear the cries of the people in due time. Their cries have reached unto His ears. The end of oppression is near at hand. It will be the most terrible day of reckoning that the world has ever known. God declares He will justly and fully recompense the oppressors by completely breaking them to pieces. It is my privilege to call your attention to these facts.
Your Commission can not entirely relieve the people now, but you can lend some aid to them by enabling them to hear what is for their good and comfort in a time of stress. To those who thus aid the poor and the oppressed, God gives a consoling promise; and it is also my privilege to call your attention to that, to wit: “Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.”-— Psalm 41:1, 2.
You gentlemen occupy a position of great responsibility to man and to God. You have the most golden opportunity to say to the selfish interests that the radio belongs to Jehovah God and that He has brought it into action for the, benefit of mankind, and that the people shall have the use of it to honor the Name of God and to upbuild, aid and comfort themselves. That responsibility you can not escape. Two ways are before you and between these you must choose, to wit: Yield to the powerful and selfish interest of the Trusts, which Trusts are under the influence and control of the enemy Satan, or grant a full and fair opportunity to the people to hear and learn of Jehovah God and His gracious provisions for them and thereby give honor to. His Name.
One of your members the other day said to me, “You. must pray for us.” I do pray that God will give you the courage to tell the Power Trust to stand aside and let the people have a full and fair opportunity to hear the Word of God freely discussed that they may know the way He has provided for their salvation and happiness. Because of the importance of your position relative to the teaching of the people, there is a far greater responsibility upon the Federal Radio Commission at this time than upon the President of the United States. It is of much more importance that the people know the Truth than that they possess all the money and honor that the world can afford.
Once more in the Name of Jehovah God, the author and creator of the radio, I ask that you grant unto radio stations WBBR and WORD more favorable broadcasting channels, to the end that the people may have a chance to hear the truth and that without money and without price.
Believe me, gentlemen, in all sincerity-Your friend,
J. F. Rutherford.
Did You Notice These?
The Five-Cent Air Rate
NOW that a five-cent rate on air letters has gone into effect it is highly probable that most business mail in the United States destined for points more than about five hundred miles distant will be sent by that means. About 210,000 pounds of mail were sent by air in .June and this is now increasing by leaps and bounds. .
Automatic Slotted Wing Device
AN A VIATOR writing in the New York Times explains the slotted wing device which automatically makes use of the force of gravity the moment an airplane engine stalls. In his opinion the general use of these slots will result in fewer accidents and far fever fatalities. The slotted wings serve to prevent spins and sideslips.
Mellon Buys All Power Sites
THE charge has been made in the Canadian parliament that the Mellon aluminum trust has purchased all desirable power sites on both sides of the St. Lawrence River and is already in position to completely grab the greatest power site in the world as soon as the necessary treaty is concluded between Canada and the United States. The St. Lawrence Power Company is believed to be owned by the Mellon and Morgan international corporation.
Mind Occupation Prevents Insanity
rOHE best preventive of insanity is to occupy the mind. Experience has shown that on ships not provided with reading matter men often go insane from the monotony, but on a ship well supplied with interesting books there are no cases of insanity whatever.
Two Thousand Television Sets
TT SEEMS but a little time since it was first
announced that television is practical. Now one of the New York stations, WRNY, will regularly send out televisions of its entertainers after they have finished their parts. It is claimed that there are two thousand television receiving sets in New York city.
Liberty in Galax, Virginia
SIX M. D.’s in the city. of Galax, Virginia, -over their own signature, warned a chiro- • praetor to take dovzn his shingle and leave all care of the sick to them. Whereupon he publicly quoted for their consideration the following act of Virginia, later approved by the United States Supreme Court: “To suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all liberty; because he being, of course, judge of that tendency, will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own. It is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order.”
Blind Man Regains Sight
JN PASSAIC, N. J., a man blind for two months received back his sight while being massaged by a barber. Anybody ought to be able to see 'from this that all the operations in the world, and all the mixtures he could possibly have poured down his neck would have done ■ this man no good. When doctors neglect the study and practice of mechanotherapy and pin their faith exclusively to surgical instruments and drugs they miss much and their patients miss more.
Britain Must Lose a Million
THE Industrial Transference Board of the British Isles has announced that after ten years' study of the problem it sees no way out of it but that Britain must lose a million population; two hundred thousand miners must seek work elsewdiere. Under present conditions this is no doubt true. Canada could take these and would be glad to get them. The problem is how to convince the million that they must move and how to help them in their new homes until they become self-supporting. How much we need the Lord’s kingdom!
A Bishop on Death
rpiIE Bishop of London has just said: “So far as death is concerned, I can only say that .1 regard it as one of the greatest blessings we have. Think of the state of the world today if no one ever died. It would be absolutely intolerable.” All this from the bishop in violation of the Scriptures, which call death a curse and an enemy and declare that this great enemy of mankind is to be destroyed. If the bishop were in the middle of a ten-acre lot with a red handkerchief sticking out of his pocket, and a mad bull were to take after him, we w-onder if he would run, or if he would just piously fold his hands and say: “I regard this as one of the greatest blessings I have ever had.”
Deer Crashes Poughkeepsie Stores
A DEEB owned by the City of Poughkeepsie leaped a high fence and made a night trip to the business district. He seemed to be greatly interested, for he jumped through no less than four plate glass windows, partly wrecking- a drug store, a department store and an automobile sales room. In the last place he visited he upset a show case, and it got his nerves so on edge that he had to postpone the remainder of his shopping; tour to another time.
Reverend Bevan’s Attack on the Bible
AT THE Congregational Conference held at Oxford, England, .Reverend John Bevan, . ignoring the reverence of our Savior and of the apostles for God’s Holy Word, ridiculed the Old Testament, declared it obsolete, stated that it should be kept out of the hands of the immature, urged that congregations should be told that it has no bearing- on revealed truth and that it could be dispensed -with. Is it any wonder the churches are empty? Why go to hear blatant infidels?
Reverend Kincheloe’s Confusion
REVEREND George Kincheloe, prominent
Methodist pastor, New York city, is reported as saying: “It is confusing today to know from wdiat source to expect the voice of God.” Sorry the Reverend is confused, but there is no excuse for it. The apostle tells us plainly that the Word of God liveth and abid-eth for ever, that it is able to make us wise unto salvation, and that it is sufficient that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to every good -work. What does the Reverend Kincheloe want any better than that?
Hierarchy Contradicts Itself
ON THE same day that Bishop Miguel de la
Mora admitted that the slayer of General Obregon did it because he wras a Catholic, and that he did it because he was under the influ-en.ee of a Mother Superior, The Osservatore Romano, semi-official organ of the Vatican, charged that General Obregon, was slain in accordance with the plans of President Calles himself. It only remains to be seen which is the bigger liar, for both statements certainly can not be true. The more the Vatican says about Mexico, the deeper it gets in the mud.
“Thinking with Africa”
ONE of our valuer! subscribers, an educated Cuban living in Pittsburgh, has sent us a copy of this little 184-page book, which contains an appeal for a more intelligent treatment of the African in his homeland on the part of missionaries from other lands. It is put out by the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions.
Page 5 tells us: “Tn cases tried in native courts there is more justice and less law than in European courts.” Something here to think about, and not greatly to the credit of the bar of Europe or America.
Page 13 tells us that “in uncontaminated African society, as it exists in some parts of the continent today, a most beautiful and complete altruism is practised. No orphanages or almshouses are needed, and best of all, perhaps, there are no old maids. Children are an asset and not a liability, and there would he competition among kinsmen for a deceased relative’s children did not their social organization, indicate clearly who was to be the guardian of the orphans. Similarly the care of one’s own old folks, of the aged generally, and of the halfwitted, is laid down clearly by traditional laws”. Might not be a bad idea to send some of our lawmakers over to the jungles to find out what those laws are. '
Page 47 says that “the .story of land in South Africa is neither a short one nor a pleasant one, and we must here be content with a plain tale. The Bantu are a land-hungry people”. We get some idea of why they are land-hungry when we read in the adjoining paragraph: “There are approximately four and one-half million Bantu distributed over the Union of South Africa today. Seven out of every eight still live in rural areas. Europeans own four-fifths of the land. Almost half of these four and a half million Bantu are to be found on farms which are mostly European-owned.”
That the Bantus could understand the principles of true Christianity without great difficulty seems conveyed by the statement on page 52: “The Bantu people are being Christianized, although not as swiftly as many would wish. About one-third of the people are professing Christians, and these form the progressive element in the population. As mentioned earlier, the Bantu quickly assimilated the doctrines of the Christian religion and are appreciative of Christian ethical values.” We hazard the suggestion that more Bantus would be Christians if the whites who are supposed to be Christians had taken a triflle less than four-fifths of everything in sight in the short time they have been in their midst.
How the Christians have treated their black brothers, doing unto them as they would not allow anybody to do to them in return, seems clear as we read on page 55: “So long as he was content to be a mine-boy, pastor, teacher in the schools, kitchen-boy, and even a lawyer or doctor practising among his own people, the white worker took little notice of him and cared less what he earned, being himself content to "ride on the back’ of the Bantu unskilled worker by drawing at least ten times the burden-bearers’ low wages.” .
Justice of the Dutch variety is set forth on page 56: “At the same time the government has been displacing non-European labor on the state railways and in other state departments on the specious plea that only "'civilized’ labor should be employed. In every case the term ‘civilized’ has been interpreted as synonymous with white or colored, i.e., mulatto,, labor: for because of their number, their voting strength, their habits of life and their Dutch nationality, the present government has driven a wedge between black and colored and awarded the mulatto section the dignity of being civilized for political and industrial purposes.” It was not a mulatto that Philip was sent to baptize. It was a black man. God considered him just as fit a receptacle for His own holy spirit as any •white man, no matter how ‘civilized’.
From a statement on page 63 we seem to get the thought that the black men of South Africa would like to have the Christians treat them like human beings: “What native Africans want is not social mixture with the "whites, but equal opportunities in the fields of industry and commerce. When they see their people economically losing ground and gradually coming to the border-line of starvation, they often lose the power of self-control and use violent language in an endeavor to force the attention of the authorities. In consequence they have been stigmatized as demagogues and agitators.” Ask almost any judge or college president around Boston and he will tell you right away, -with-out hesitation, that any black man that is peeved by starvation, and becomes disturbed and gets excited and wants things evened up a little, most certainly is a demagogue and an agitator.
We gather from page 69 that the opening up of Africa, while it has brought the natives and others many blessings, has brought them some other things too: “In opening up East. Africa to trade the white men also opened it up to disease. Old diseases once isolated in separate tribes have now clear lines of communication. Thus did sleeping sickness gain access to Uganda, destroying between two and three hundred thousand human beings before it was brought under control. Thus too have those pests, the jiggers, spread across the continent.”
One gathers from page 71 that the blacks have some preference as to the kind of people they work for: “If a European goes to East Africa uninvited by Africans, gets land, but not from Africans, and engages in coffee planting or maize growing, does this impose upon Africans a moral duty to supply him with the labor he needs ? The white man thinks it does. One of the most disturbing elements of life in East Africa as reflected in the local press is the marked exasperation of those who want African laborers and can not get them. The wages paid to laborers in Africa are altogether out of keeping with those paid in civilized countries. This is partly accounted for by the fact that the quality of the labor is below Western standards. When, however, allowance has been made for this, it still remains a fact that labor in East Africa is underpaid. Throughout large areas two and a half to three shillings a week (63e to 75c), plus food, constitutes the average wage of the manual worker. Employers say they can not pay more. It would seem that some one is exploiting native labor, and that the responsibility for this must lie somewhere between the consumer overseas and the employer in East Africa.”
Page 73 contains a hint that the blacks do not get just a square deal in. the matter of taxes: “Quite apart from questions of oppression in the methods of collection, there is the much graver question of whether or not the African receives adequate returns for the taxes he pays. In Uganda it is alleged that cotton-growing areas are developed partly by proceeds from taxable areas where cotton is not grown. In Kenya it is said by many that native Reserves have been neglected in order that European areas might have more money spent on improving them.” One can but wonder if anything like this goes on in other parts of the world!
Oddly the same page seems to convey the thought that the blacks do not appreciate the loss of their liberties: “Thirty years ago all the tribes throughout Kenya and Uganda were free people, under subjection to no foreigner, though some of them were often raided by their more powerful neighbors. Within the lifetime of many, these people have passed from the position of a free race to that of a subject race. And they do not like it.” How odd!
The blessings of sectarian evangelism are shown on page 75: “Some religious leaders unhesitatingly endeavor to isolate their converts from activities in which Africans of another sect take part. Such religious bigotry cuts clean across many cooperative movements for the common good. The policy whereby each mission stakes out an area for its evangelistic activities, resulting in. what are often called spheres of ecclesiastical influence, is fraught with ill as well as good. Like their forerunners in the political world, these spheres were assigned to the various denominations without any consultations with Africans. They constitute barriers to religious Africans of one denomination in seeking to evangelize those of their own tribe over the border. There arc many Africans 'whose spirit is in rebellion against these spheres of influence. They are challenging the moral right of missionaries to parcel out among themselves a country not their own, when such action automatically restricts the religious freedom of the natives in both thought and activity.”
How the World 'War changed things in Africa is shown' on page 79: “The Baganda are the most progressive of our East Africans, and have now four papers of their own. In these one finds a freedom of expression almost as great as exists in England. Meanwhile migrations of laborers contribute greatly to the dissemination of news and ideas. Thousands of men were conscripted during the late war. Those who survived came back to their tribes with a mental horizon incomparably wider than those who remained- at home.” The Africans are thinking and talking, the two things most dreaded by tyranny and hypocrisy. “The extraordinary thing about native life today is the number of meetings that are being held all over the country. The emerging leader is a great walker, or, it may be, a cyclist: he meets a group of from half a dozen to a hundred followers here today, and tomorrow, ten, twenty or even fifty miles away he meets another group.”
The pitiable state of sanitary conditions among the lowly Africans is shown on page 83: “It is part of the British policy to reduce as rapidly as possible the high infant mortality, which ranges, as far as can be ascertained in the absence of vital statistics, between 450 and 650 per 1,000.”
How even the natives untouched by civilization have been making their livelihood is shown on page 86: “In spite of the fact that Africa as a continent abounds with great game, few African people are pure hunters and almost all Bantu populations practise either hoe culture or a pastoral life or the two combined. Over a large part of the Congo area cattle and sheep can not be raised, and it is here that we find people practising pure hoe culture with a background of hunting, and raising a few domestic animals such as pigs, fowls and goats.”
Family life, in spite of the widespread polygamy, is of a definite sort: “Among all these people each married woman has her own home, and with her husband, who is the connecting link with other such houses, and her children forms an independent economic community. Each such little group feeds itself, clothes itself, houses itself, and makes all such implements and utensils as it may require.” Page 88.
The amenability of the African to instruction in the truth is suggested on page 107: “To help the African peoples to reverence God is not difficult; to introduce a worship of God is easy, for they already have, as I have stated, a belief in a supreme power, which so far has had little contact with the daily run of men’s lives but which nevertheless is fully real to them. To teach them to reverence a Christian God and to live a Christian life will be neither more nor less difficult than it is to teach the rest of humanity, once the great stumbling-block (devil-worship) is removed.”
The missionaries are accused of destroying much that was good in the abolishing of the ceremonies which formerly took place when children reached the age of puberty. Page 116 tells us: ‘’Nothing has been supplied of a Christian character to replace these age-long opportunities of youth to receive authoritative precepts on the code of adult conduct in a manner compatible with national tradition.”
The simple-minded natives have been unable to understand sectarian splits. “This has made it harder to make converts, because when the Africans are visited by rival mission bands they inevitably ask, ‘How many gods are there? Which god are we asked to believe?’ ” Page 11,7.
From the same page we get the native retorts as to the practical results which have come to them.: “They told you to close your eyes and pray, and the other whites came and took away the land from behind your back while you kept your eyes closed.” Another favorite saying is: “At first we had the land and the ’white man had the Bible: now we have the Bible and the white man has the land.” A conscientious objector to the Christian religion is reported as also saying: “If I take this religion, you whites will take my name down in your book, and a government magistrate will follow and take my land in your absence.”
The African heathens are thinking about this war business, which was so dear to all so-called Christians so recently as ten years ago: “The attitude of Christian missions toward war has always struck the African thinker as one of enigmatic inconsistency. While the New Testament exhorts, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’ the missionaries pray to the God of peace for victory in war.” Page 118. Apparently this war game is near its finish.
The inconsistency of the white man is shown up on page 121: “It is impossible to disagree with them on the failure of Western organizations to live up to the ideals of Christianity. They attack the snobbery of some modern missionaries. They unfavorably contrast the apparently luxurious life of some white missionaries who travel about in automobiles, with the humbleness of the earliest missionaries who lived the lowly life of Africans. They affirm that Christianity outside missionary circles fails to mollify the essential cruelty, coarseness and selfishness of the ordinary white man.”
One slip that the missionaries made is mentioned on page 122: “They did not start from the known and proceed to the unknown. They went hurry-skurry in condemning all that was
Bantu. In fact, some 'did not preach Christianity as such, but rather the destruction of Bantu customs, and used Christianity as an effective means toward that end, threatening people with hell-fire.”
How the natives regard the supposed superiority of the whites is shown on the next page: “Now that the natives, upon awakening from their sleep of ignorance, find they have been made to lose their initiative, to lose their inventive powers, which were starved to death by men who today scornfully censure them as of ‘non-inventive powers’, though they know truly that they found the Bantu with their inventions : now that the Bantu have to buy these utensils dearly from a European store; now that they see clearly how their land, with its ancient iron and tin mines, has been cuifningly taken from them in order to render them uninventive and to enrich the white man by making him the sole possessor of all the material resources and necessities of this life and of the best arable land: I say, when the natives observe all this they feel dizzy and find themselves resenting everything that is European and Western. So, without fairly testing Christianity and comparing it with their own religion in essence, they condemn it chiefly because it was introduced by Europeans, in whom they are fast losing confidence, if confidence is not already irrevocably lost. They blame the missionary most because he is the nearest white man whose mode of living they can study and be brought into direct contact with. They hear him preaching Christ Jesus, but do not see him or his state acting like Christ Jesus. They say that the state is Christian: it has sent this man to blindfold and hoodwink us with this mild religion to the advantage of the state. The missionary and the politician are brothers working in collusion for the same end.”
Long-faced religion does not appeal to the blacks, so says page 129: “Take the abolition of amusements and musical dances with nothing else put in their place. The non-eonvert natives taunt the Christians with being a lugubrious, long-faced and unamused community devoid of the fun-making entertainments of the good old times. This lack of gayety in native Christian communities has led to the other extreme and unconsciously abetted the evils of gambling, drunkenness and immorality.”
The South African legislature has been making all kinds of discriminatory and oppressive restrictions against the blacks, but there is another matter that comes even closer home and so, page 143: “Now the ‘civilized’ labor policy7 of the present government, which operates to the dismissing of the Africans from all skilled or semi-skilled employment to make room for ‘poor’ whites, still further intensifies the bitterness. The black laborer, who receives wages at the rate of two, three or four pounds sterling a month, sees his white fellow-laborer receiving that amount for a week, or it may be even for a day.”
Pages 147 onward give a comparison of past and present missionaries: “In the early days of mission work in this country, missionaries were devoted men and women whom natives followed blindly, as they considered them to be exemplary in regard to moral character, personal piety, devoutness, inner purity of heart, kindness and benevolence. They were not only respected and adored, but they were looked upon as true messengers of peace and good-will. Conditions are changed with the advent of the modern missionary. He is looked upon, rightly or wrongly, with some amount of suspicion by the natives as another representative of the aggressive system of the West.”
Page 150 tells us that the African is a human being just like the rest of us: “It is true that an African native is a curious compound of suspicion, superstition, childlike simplicity, and mulish obstinacy. If he knows and trusts his leader he may be guided gently toward civilization, may be made a useful member of society and even a Christian: but he will resist with the whole force of his nature any attempt to kick him from behind into comfort or into heaven.”
One can see plainly from the foregoing that all Africa needs is the truth, and until the missionaries themselves know what that is they had far better let the Africans alone. Thank God that the day is at hand when the truth is surely going to go to Africa and all the world. It is too good to keep. It is what all the world wants, and with the downfall of Satan’s empire, the principles of which are so clearly manifest in the foregoing, there will be nothing to prevent its eventualolessing of every son of Ham.
Little Discoveries of Far-Reaching Value By C. 'J. FeJcel
IT IS a well-established fact in science that the atom is the smallest complete particle of matter, and that it in turn, is composed of one or more charges of positive and negative electricity. There are some ninety odd different atoms to be found in all of earth’s matter, each, element having its peculiar kind of atom which differs structurally from its neighbor.
The simplest atom known is that of hydrogen. It is composed of one charge of positive and one charge of negative electricity. These swing about each other as dumb-bells. The other atoms resemble minute planetary systems, containing a center or nucleus of electrical charges about which rotate other negative charges called electrons, in similar fashion to that in which the earth and other planets of our solar system swing about the sun,
Although these atoms are infinitely small, they still have a definite size, mass, inertia, and charge. There is vast space between the nucleus of the atom and its planetary electrons traveling in their orbits about this center, just as there are great distances in our solar system between the sun and its planets. All of the known elements have been named and numbered according to the number of planetary electrons.
These range from hydrogen as No. 1 to uranium as No. 92. Three or four elements in this orderly list are yet to be found. Some of the known elements are: oxygen with eight planets, magnesium with twelve, phosphorus with fifteen, potassium with nineteen, iron with twenty-six, nickel with twenty-eight, copper with twenty-nine, zinc wTith thirty, silver with forty-seven, and lead with eighty-two.
In radium and certain other heavy atoms radio activity was discovered. It is that strange phenomenon whereby an atom continues to emit radiant energy, or to shoot off minute charges of electricity. In fact, it is believed that all matter is radio active to a greater or less extent.
Radiant energy, certain rare minerals, and vitamines generally associated with these minerals have a direct bearing on our health. The mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms are closely linked. Any unusual state in the mineral 'domain will directly affect the vegetable kingdom also. ..
For example, among thousands of plants there is one that grows only on zinc veins or in zincky belts. This zinc pansy, or “Viola Calimanaria”, is found all over the world, but always only in zinc districts or near zine mines. Naturally it is used as a guide by prospectors. This sweet little flower is supposed to be the parent or grandmother of all the violet and pansy family. It has seven percent of zinc in its ash, whereas the ash of pansy seeds contains one-half of one percent of zinc. This explains why they flourish in certain soils.
As another example, we may look at the tobacco plant. It has considerable lithia in its ash. Cuban tobacco has from two to three percent lithia, which is several times as much as the common, plant. These plants come from well-defined areas in which they flourish; whereas land outside of the zone will yield but a small quantity of this harmful weed.
Having traced the minerals to the vegetable kingdom, let us now trace them to the animal kingdom also. The South African plantaineater, the touraco, has seven percent of copper in the coloring matter of its feathers. Would it not be reasonable to suppose that this copper was assimilated largely through the kind of vegetation that was consumed?
Iodine is an element. Its effects are generally well known. Sea-weed takes out that trace of iodine found in sea-water and concentrates it in itself. The bodies of animals, including man, concentrate it in the thyroid gland from food. A very delicate and sure test of iodine is its property of turning starch blue.
A deficiency of iodine causes an enlargement of the neck called goiter. The goiter belt of the middle west corresponds well with that region where there is a low iodine content in water and soil. Iodine assists the body to produce thyroxin, which energizes the nerves and brain. It may be safely asserted that a constant tired feeling is due to little iodine, and that laziness is a sign of its deficiency.
The amount of iodine required for the daily need is unbelievably small. The entire human race has only a small carload in its system. The billion and a half consumers use only ten pounds an hour. And yet this small amount keeps us humans from degenerating to something worse than monkeys. The amount of iodine in the average thyroid is only one-sixth of a grain, and this is sufficient for a hundred days of normal human activity. At this rate, one six-hundredth of a grain is used daily.
Exhausted soldiers of the World War had their supply reduced to one sixty-fifth of a grain, while especially favored persons have as much as half a grain. The average one sixhundredth of a grain used daily by man is all that saves man from being an imbecile.
This is proven by the existence of a class of bodily deformed and mentally unsound children, called cretins, who are peculiar to mountain regions. They are born with an extremely weak thyroid gland and are well called human plants. They are a pitiful sight, unable to see, think, or act as other humans.
Since this is due to the fact that their thyroid will not work at all, they can, unless otherwise defective, be transformed into fairly nor-jujpl and happy children by feeding them thyroid glands of sheep. Stop the thyroid feeding, and they become human plants again.
There is another fact about iodine that is significant. It must be fed continuously and eliminated continuously. When it has been used up, it becomes inert or dead and has no .further beneficial effect on the body. Another item of inestimable value is the fact that iodine which has been through a vegetable or animal process, like that in sea-weed or cod-liver oil is some two hundred times as effective as iodine that -is purchased from a drug store.
It seems certain that iodine, or iodides (for it is always combined with sodium or potas-. sium in the.form of a neutral salt), must possess some peculiar radium-like quality, which it gains under the influence of sunlight, and which it imparts to animal life producing sanity and health.
Numerous examples of the great influence of a "wee bit of the iodide salts on health might be cited. For instance, the robust qualities of sea-faring men, who live on sea food, and breathe salt-air, are well known.
There is a striking example of this on the coast of China. At one place the mountain ranges come very close to the sea. The Chinese in the mountains are short, stocky, and lazy. The Chinese fishermen, only half a dozen miles away, are tall, rangy, energetic and quick; whereas half-way between the two areas there is an intermediate or transition type. Let a mountain family go to the sea, and in a generation they become quick-acting individuals; and, vice versa, "when a family from the sea goes to the mountains.
Did you ever notice what the Japs in downtown New York restaurants are eating! You will find nearly all of them eating fish. It is iodine and sea food that explains what quick eyes and brains the Japs have.
Now if iodine plays such an important part in imparting health, would it not seem reasonable that other rare elements would perform similarly necessary functions? Some of these rare elements belong to the most important class of catalyzers.
A catalyzer is a chemical go-between, or mediator, that, though not undergoing chemical change, plays the role of producing it. It inspires chemical changes, just as an orator stirs our feelings, and it creates an affinity betwmen chemical elements. Not only does it speed up the chemical processes, but without it these changes would not go on at all. All the processes of life depend on some sort of a living catalyzer, or enzyin, as it is called. Pepsin, trypsin, insulin, and bile, all possess catalytic powers.
Now assuming what has thus far been said as reasonably true, and that certain rare elements in the body are indispensable to sanity and health, and that the absence of such elements marks loss of health, would it not seem reasonable that the presence of wrong elements in the body would be marked by a malignant disease? This is exactly what we shall find.
By conducting a series of experiments and by prolonged research work Mr. W. McA. Johnson, of Hartford, Conn., brought some important points to light. Among other diseases, cancer was studied. To the average person this may seem most abhorrent, but to a biochemist it is a most fascinating sight, because it is a complete departure from health; and by studying the abnormal one sees such a caricature of the normal that the important points that govern the life of a normal cell can be readily learned. ~
For instance, how7 do the good and useful cells of the liver become replaced by the criminal cells of a cancer and finally kill that organization of cells called a body? Cells have, both the “habit of growth” and the “habit of work”. In a child, the former habit is most pronounced; but as the child attains to years this habit decreases until an equilibrium is reached, so that there is only enough growth to replace those cells which are being worn out.
These cells perform the required work of the body. Now then, cancer, the disease of diseases, gets a foothold and creates new cells which have not the “habit of work” but have only the “habit of growth”. These wild, selfish cells grow at the expense of other cells and finally cause the death of the human body by disrupting its organization.
Were these cells identified by the absence of certain rare minerals and the presence of certain wrong ones? Yes. The rare elements in certain parts of the body are caesium (a heavy and rare alkali like potash), lead, tin and zinc. In the cancerous cells there was not a bit of these, but only a very heavy amount of arsenic, with of course the usual lime, magnesia, soda, chlorine, etc. .
Now as a means of cheeking up the correctness of the former conclusions the thymus gland was studied. These glands in calves keep them from being cows or bulls before their time, and keep children children. When a child or young animal reaches its adult stage, this gland shrinks to one-quarter of its former size, and in a wasting disease it shrinks up altogether.
Now if the lead, tin and zinc found in normal healthy cells should not be in this healthy gland, one might conclude their presence was accidental; but if they also should be found in this gland of health and. joy, which ceases to exist in a state of wasting disease, then the conclusion must be that they serve some useful purpose of nature. These elements, as well as other rare elements, were found in the thymus or throat-sweetbread of a calf. One of these elements constituted twenty-five percent of its ash.
Thus the conclusion seems to be reasonably established, that with no rare minerals there is no health, and a condition comparable to that of an inactive tumor; with no rare minerals and some of the wrong ones, there is a positive state of disease; with the proper rare minerals there is health; and with them in abundance, there is excellent health and activity. In general the rare elements are found highest where the tissue has vitaministic, or other health-imparting properties.
Now let ns go a step further in our examination, to the yolk of an egg. The fertilized yolk is the foundation from ■which the organism of the new chick is developed. In that new chick there must be that organization of cells required for its body . to function.
If rare minerals serve in the proper functioning and upbuilding of an organism, then we should expect to find them in the yolk of an egg. These have been found. Scientific research testing the ash of a hen’s egg has brought over ten rare minerals to light. Their amount seems insignificant to us, only 0.75% of the ash of the yolk, but still they are there, and always there. There is an additional 99. 25% of nitrogen, potash, etc.
An interesting point in this connection is that although the scratch yard of the chickens may have only a very small quantity of certain rare minerals in its soil, perhaps a few ounces to the acre in some cases, yet each egg will never lack its very small portion. Su My the chicken has not procured these elements from its food and deposited them in the egg by chance. ■
The total amount of rare minerals is only twenty-two thousandths of a grain per whole egg. Three-fourths of this consists of one element, zinc, which is used commonly in dry batteries and to protect iron from rusting in galvanized coatings. The weight of this zinc in one yolk is about one milligram (metric) or 0.015 of a grain (troy). The other elements are in much smaller amount, for instance, the nickel of the egg totals only 0.0003 of a grain. Other elements are silver, lead, molydenum, copper, cobalt, and of course iodine.
Insignificantly small as these elements seem to be, they are not unimportant, for the average man requires but one six-hundredth of a grain of iodine daily, and one seven-millionth of a grain is one of the most important factors in keeping the little chicks so lively and quick. Poultrymen have learned to feed unrefined salt to chickens because of the iodine content which is removed by the refining process.
By feeding natural egg ash together with other food to chickens some remarkable results were noticed. One clucking hen stopped brooding within an hour and laid an egg. Treated food was all eaten up by a flock, while the untreated food by its side was left untouched.
It was found that by feeding the hens minerals the egg yield was increased; reducing the dope reduced the egg yield;, and stopping it altogether caused the stimulated hens to drop below normal in their egg yield and put them in a molt.
When synthetic ash, made from materials purchased in a supply house was tried, a noticeable improvement could be seen, but nothing to compare with the results obtainable from minerals which had been through the living process. Evidently the living processes brought- about some change which is not present in the ordinary mineral element.
Research to discover this change is now going on. It is not uncommon, even now, to find poultrymen feeding buttermilk and cod-liver oil to their flock. Learning the proper food to feed the birds will result in increased knowledge to us as to what we should eat; and as the golden age draws on, all the necessary knowledge will be revealed.
What Is It to Be a Genius ?
WAS it Edison, that said “Genius is an unusual capacity for hard work”? Somebody said it, anyway, and it sounds like Edison, the man who tried some eight hundred kinds of materials before he found that tungsten would make the best filaments for incandescent lamps.
One of the greatest pugilists in the history of the prize ring vfliipped a would-be champion after both of his hands were broken. The other man did not know7 it and never found it out because Fitzimmons kept on fighting and made up for his punches by scowling savagely instead.
A Bible Student who had started his morning’s work by making twenty-four calls without a sale finished the day by selling 105 books. When you quit, you are licked; and you never are licked until you do quit. Success lies right around the corner from the place where you lie down. Keep going and nothing can stop you. Stop and the world will make a door mat of you, wipe its feet on you, pile its baggage on you, spit on you and despise you. Keep going and they will step aside and give you the right of way. If you are in the right, and you know the world needs what you have to give, why stop? ■
The world may not call you a genius. You do not need to worry over that. One great author nailed all his chairs to the wall. Another could never sit still and wore holes in every carpet within reach. Another had a mania for throwing dishes at his friends, and another used to hire a cab and drive pell-mell throughout the night, trying to work up his inspiration. A great statesman wore corsets, and till the day of his death Avanted to appear to be a young man. A. great poet was proud of his feet. Why be a genius?
Physicians believe that George H. Wood, the human adding-machine, put such a strain on his system by concentrating on figures that he wore himself out and died prematurely. Don’t wear yourself out doing something foolish. You may never be able to show that you are a genius by adding figures faster than it’ can be done on an adding-machine; but you can work at something useful arid stick at it, and.improve, by keeping your eyes open.
If you wish to be a success in the Lord’s work, keep your eyes and ears open for new ideas, and make use of them; but never imagine that there is any substitute for hard work. Keep working and keep tabs on your own work and you will see where you can. improve and you will, have ideas for others. A man who spends his time sprouting ideas without work-, ing is a dreamer.
It is believed that a boy born wdien his father is twenty is more likely to have a robust body; but if born wdien his father is forty he is more likely to be of mental temperament. This seems not unreasonable. But nothing will prevent any man’s making the most of himself except an unwillingness to work, to get right down to it and bone away day after day at a task. The willingness to do that is the most there is to genius. Be a worker. >
An unusually active mind produces, changes in the facial expression, due to the fact that man is designed to think with but one lobe of his brain. A right-handed person thinks with the left lobe of his brain, and the right side of his face will be the most interesting, showing most his individuality. At least that is the claim now made, and it is probably true.
Alucol Not Approved
A LUCOL, made in Switzerland, is a fancy name for aluminum hydroxide, about which, at this time, the readers of The Golden Age probably know more than the readers of any other magazine in the world. It is put up in tablet form, an inert drag being used to enable it. to be handled as a tablet. Extravagant claims were made for it.
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