Golden Age, December 11, 1929
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Volume XI «■ No.267 December 11, 192 9
Contents
Labor and Economics
Julius Klein on Distribution
New Orleans Street Car Strike
Social and Educational
Indians Respond to Eight Treatment .
The Memphis Settlement Industrial Home The Gestatorial Chair ....... A Keen Nose for Garbage ...... WITHDRAWING FROM BABYLON .....
Finance—Commerc:
The Samuel Insull Interests .............. 170
Airplane Flies from France to China ........... 171
New York’s Largest Banks.............
Logansport and the Power Trust ............. 173
Political—Domestic and Fodu'on
Palestine in the Day’s News ....
Public Safety in Italy ................. 171
Egypt and Iraq ....
Polities and the Church Control Teachers . . . . . . . . . . 172
The Dictatorship in Yugoslavia ............. 172
Something More About Latvia. . .
. Science and Invention
The Fultograph Weather Chart ...
G-old Produced from Lead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .172
Home and Health
Blessed Are the Sincere and Courageous
Experience with the Grape Cure .......
Let Us Be Pair to the M.D.’s .............. 179
Tbavel and TJiscu.lant
Events in Canada ........
Religion and PniLosornw
THE AMERICAN-EV 3 31 KTuTmTH b urarra
Questions and Answer? is a r a ....... .
Administration of the :t
An Appreciation .................. 190
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Golden Age
Volume XI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, December 11, 1929 Number 267
Palestine in the Day’s News
THE little country at the eastern end of the
Mediterranean Sea was originally called Canaan, which name it evidently owed to the descent of its inhabitants from Canaan, a grandson of Noah. The present name of Palestine is from a Hebrew name which means “Land of the Philistines”.
Moses described it to Israel as “A good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills: a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of oil olive, and honey”. (Deut. 8: 7, 8) It is all of this today, with abundant evidence that it wras much more true centuries ago and will be more true again.
The whole land bears evidences of having once been well watered. The remains of terraces, cisterns, and wells show that the water was regulated and distributed. The forests which once covered considerable portions of the land have all been destroyed, but are being replanted.
The ancient wells, Hagar’s well, the fountain in Jezreel, the well of Abraham, at Beersheba, the three wells of Isaac, the well of Jacob, near Joseph’s tomb, the well of Bethlehem, which David knew so well, and the well of Sarah, near Hebron, all mentioned in the Scriptures, are still in use and held in veneration. Elisha’s fountain still pours out its refreshing current.
There are several permanent streams which do good service in the districts through which they pass, but the Jordan is the only one worthy of the name river. The Jordan originates in streams that come from Lebanon and Hermon and unite in the waters of Merom. In its course of seventy miles direct it winds nearly three times that distance. It is always well supplied with water, and is one of the country’s great assets, for Palestine has no coal and no oil deposits worthy of exploitation.
Palestine is well described by Moses as ‘a
land of hills and valleys’. There are plenty of both. Mount Hermon rises to a height of 9,100 feet. The land in general is mountainous. The Esdraelon plain, or valley of Jezreel, is a fine plain of considerable extent, fertile and well cultivated. The soil of limestone is hot and rich. The land is full of caverns and grottoes. .
The cave of Adullam, five miles south of Bethlehem, extends for miles and would accommodate hundreds of men. The air within it is remarkably dry and pure and warm. The one small entrance, half-way down the almost perpendicular face of a precipice, is reached by a shelf or ledge of rock, along which one has to find his way cautiously to the cave. Here David and his warriors hid from the pursuit of Saul.
Trees—Climate—Animals
Among the trees native to Palestine are the cedar, oak, ash, olive, palm, sycamore, oleander, and walnut. The Jaffa oranges have a worldwide reputation. Watermelons and almonds are grown for export, as are also barley, lentils, beans, lupines and sesame. Wheat production is rapidly increasing, but is still not large enough to satisfy local needs. Grape vines, long neglected, are being replanted. Early vegetables are grown to advantage in the Jordan valley near Jericho, and can later be exported in great quantities.
The climate is hot and irregular, ranging from 25 to 112 degrees Fahrenheit. The rain comes almost entirely in the period from November to April, inclusive, and varies from six inches in the south to twenty-six inches in the north. The soils in the valleys hold the water remarkably well. Plants are still green and vigorous after as much as four months of dry weather.
The lion and the unicorn, that is, the aurochs, are no longer found in Palestine, but the wild boar is common, and the wolf, hyena, jackal, leopard and bear can still be found. There are 163
GOLDEN AGE
over 350 species of birds, including an immense number and variety of the larger birds of prey. Reptiles are numerous. Fishes are abundant in the Jordan and are still to be found in the Sea of Galilee in immense shoals.
The human population is of a very heterogeneous character, and is constantly becoming more so. At one time the land sustained at least three million people. Today it provides homes for only 800,000, of whom about three-fourths are Arabs. The war gave it 774 miles of railways. There are 523 miles of public highways. When the breakwater at Haifa is completed, Palestine will have one of the finest harbors on the Mediterranean.
The Dead Sea Treasure-House
The Jordan and six other streams pour 6,500,000 tons of water daily into the Dead Sea, and there is no outlet. The lake is eight miles wide and forty-seven miles long. Its maximum depth is 1,278 feet. Its surface is 1,300 feet below sea level, making it the lowest and hottest surface in the world. The density of the waters, pure water being 1.000, varies from 1.160 to 1.230. There are ancient shore lines on the surrounding hills at a height of 1,200 feet above the present surface.
It is estimated that the ancient Asphaltis, as the Dead Sea was once called, contains 1.300,000,000 tons of potash, worth $70,000,000,000, besides vast quantities of asphalt, sulphur, magnesium, potassium, chloride, aluminum oxides, and common salt. The concession for working these deposits has been granted to Major Tulloch, a British engineer, and Novemeysky, a Palestinian chemist.
Work on the concession has already begun. The waters will be collected in huge shallow reservoirs and allowed to evaporate. The potash and other substances will be extracted by chemical processes from the solids which remain in the tanks. At first the minerals recovered will be taken by truck to Jerusalem, for shipment by rail; but if results warrant, a special railway will be built up the Jordan valley to Beit Shan, on whose walls the Philistines nailed the head of Saul. Beit Shan is on the railway line to Haifa.
With unlimited quantities of chemical fertilizers at her door at cost price, there is no reason why Palestine should not flourish even more than of old. The Dead Sea thus becomes Palestine’s treasure-house. The silvery sparkle of the waters of the Dead Sea, arising from their saline and bituminous composition, give them a remarkable brilliance and make the scene an attractive one to the eye.
Jews in the Promised Land
The best history of the Jews in the promised land is to be found in a book widely circulated, usually printed on thin paper and bound in limp covers. In bygone days it used to be on the parlor table, and was used as a place in which to press flowers, to keep locks of hair, and to hide money where there would be no danger of its being disturbed.
The city of Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70. Three years later the last remaining fortress, Masada, was taken, but not until its defenders had burned the palace and committed suicide. In despair of ever really conquering the Jews, the Romans expelled every la.st one of them from Palestine in the year* 134 A.D., after Bar Coeheba’s revolt.
During the Spanish Inquisition the Turkish sultans granted asylum to the Jews, and ever since that time there have been in Palestine a few thousand Jews who have eked out a miserable existence, supported largely by funds sent to them by their brethren in Europe. Pogroms in Russia speeded up Jewish immigration into Palestine in 1881-1882.
In 1919 the British government was given a 25-year mandate over Palestine, and before that, by the Balfour Declaration, had invited Jewish colonization. As a consequence, many thousands came in, the Jewish population more than doubled, and Zionists began in earnest the building'up of Palestine as their own homeland, and have made wonderful progress, as our readers well know.
At the present moment, and for some years past, conditions in Europe are favoring the emigration of the Jews to other lands. Six or seven million Jews are suffering in Russia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Rumania and Czechoslovakia as they have not suffered for centuries. Practically all avenues of employment are closed to them. America is closed by immigration restrictions. Emigration to Palestine is practical, and necessary, and in fulfilment of prophecy, but it has its obstacles.
In May, 1921, an Arab sheik suddenly swooped down on one of the new Jewish villages, Petach Tikvah, and killed four young men, hoping thus to drive the Jews from lands which they had purchased. There has been much unemployment, but that is now two years in the past.
A Few Notes on Zionism
The first Zionist Congress, called together at Basle, in 1897, by Theodor Herzl, laid down the famous Basle Program that “Zionism strives to create a legally secured, publicly recognized home in Palestine for the Jewish people”.
A previous effort to start Zionism in America almost broke up in a riot. America has never taken a proper interest in this subject. The Jews here are too prosperous. There are 80,000 Jewish farmers in America, tilling a million acres, worth $150,000,000, and they have no desire to leave these comforts for the struggles they would have to endure in Palestine.
Nathan Straus, the most prominent Jew in New ¥ork, and one of the finest men in the world, said recently:
While a few of the rich Jews, who serve every noble humanitarian cause, have also aided us in the task of rebuilding the Holy Land, too many of them have displayed shameful indifference toward this greatest of all causes with which the fate of the Jewish people is definitely identified. The enemies of Zion arc just now trying to magnify our difficulties in Palestine and the mistakes they claim have been made there. They are also endeavoring to minimize our achievements. The economic crisis in Palestine is interpreted by these enemies' of Zion as the collapse of the Zionist ideal. Nothing is further from the truth than this sinister propaganda. The only effective answer to all these attacks and criticisms against the rebuilders of Palestine is for all of us to consecrate ourselves with all our hearts and souls and our means to the sacred task which the Jewish people has assumed, which other nations expect us to perform, and which we dare not forsake.
On the celebration of his eightieth birthday, recently, Mr. Straus gave another hundred thousand dollars for reconstruction work in Palestine.
At the time of the last census of Palestine, in 1922, there were 591,000 Moslems, 73,000 Christians, and 83,794 Jews, but the number of Jews is now believed to be more than 150,000. Only 2,000 of these, however, are Americans, showing America’s lack of interest in the subject.
But Zionism as a whole is a reality. In ten years Jewish colonists in Palestine have doubled their numbers, doubled their holdings, and more than doubled their industries. Hebrew has been established as a national language. A Hebrew currency has been put in circulation, and immigrants are giving up their old Slavic and Teutonic for Hebraic names.
All in Palestine are equal. There are no upper and lower classes. Business and professional men and women have worked as laborers in building up the country. A great Jewish university has been established. An immense power plant has been installed in the upper Jordan. Nothing can stop the new era for Palestine that is under way.
An interesting fact about the Jewish colonies is that twenty of them are communal, which is the ancient and successful method of preventing extreme poverty. Individual settlers are given the usufruct, but not the outright ownership of the land: thus the ground rent accrues to the benefit of the community rather than to speculators.
There is a widespread belief among the Zionists in Palestine that the coming of the Messiah is at the door; and the best of it is that they are right. Not only are Zionists near the fulfilment of their hopes, but so are all the rest of the world.
Britain’s Promises in Palestine
In 1915, in order to disrupt the Turkish empire, Britain promised the Arabs that they should have title to Arab lands. The Arabs entered the war the next spring on the side of the Allies. A year later, November 2, 1917, Mr. Balfour, without submitting his declaration to either the British nation or British Parliament, made the following statement:
His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.
The Arabs were not honestly treated. Feisal’s Arab cavalry captured Damascus: it was given to the French. Arab troops helped to conquer Iraq: to all intents and purposes Britain took it for herself. They helped to take Palestine: Britain gave it to the Jews, and did it before it was even in her own possession.
When Lord Balfour realized the situation Britain was in, he opposed having England made the mandatory power for Palestine. He would have preferred the United States, or America and Britain conjointly, but the present British colonial minister states that the British government now has no intention of giving up its mandate or departing from the principles of the Balfour Declaration. Ultimately, however, the mandatory powers are supposed to retire from all the mandated countries ■—when they have to.
Inconsistency of Administration
Britain never closes her eyes to the fact that somehow she must get along with several millions of Moslems, in Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, India and elsewhere, and they are not the easiest people to get along with, especially when they have been lied to and deceived.
The British administration in Palestine has tried to get along by conciliating the 591,000 Moslems, at the expense of the 150,000 Jews. As a rule, government enterprises employ only Arabs, the Jewish workers being left out in the cold. No Jews have been employed on public works at Jerusalem, and out of 600 workers at the Haifa port excavations only four were Jews. This may bo good politics, but it is unfair, and provocative.
Under the British administration, and with the influx of Jews, the Arabs have greater markets for their produce, more money, more employment, rising standards of life. The charge has been made that their anti-Semitism has been encouraged by British administrative officials and high churchmen. If so, the latter are responsible for a great tragedy, and God will hold them responsible for what has recently taken place in Palestine.
Colonel F. II. Kisch, chief of the Palestine Zionist Executive, said: “We are convinced that were it not for the circulation of deliberately false reports calculated to stir their feelings in matters of religious sentiment, the Arabs of Palestine would have continued to live in peaceful relations with their Jewish neighbors, as is still the wish of an overwhelming majority of the Arab population.” We are not sure as to the meaning of these words. Probably Colonel Kisch feared to make them more pointed, more definite, but they plainly hint at treachery in high circles.
A writer in the San Antonio Express goes a step further and says:
After five extended visits to Palestine in the capacity of observer and student of events, I believe the first blame for the past, present and future tragedies in Palestine must fall upon the entire British policy in that unhappy little land. This is not said to clear Zionist or Arab leaders, and others, of their share, for they have a share, but primary responsibility rests with the British. Their entire policy in Palestine, from the famous Balfour "Declaration of November, 1917, up to the present controversy over the Wailing Wall, is false, self-contradictory, hypocritical and inevitably leading to the organized attacks upon Jews in Palestine.
That is plain enough and indicates that the two-faced hypocritical school of Tory statesmanship has about had its day. One thing is sure, and that is that in the recent troubles which have ravaged Palestine from Dan to Beersheba the British have failed to give the Jews the protection they promised.
Britishers themselves are calling attention to another item, and that is that the British Mandatory Government has done nothing to improve bad conditions of work of long standing, such as bad sanitary conditions, intolerable ill-treatment of workers by foremen, and changes for the worse in such matters as holidays, sickness pay, workmen’s compensation, low wages, long working hours and non-payment for overtime. .
Railwaymen in Palestine are refused trade union recognition and have no voice in fixing wages, and the circumstances under which they work are declared to be scandalous. The fixing of working conditions rests entirely and exclusively with the railway management, which, as usual, is selfish and cruel, and is humane only when it has to be.
On the subject of Britain’s responsibility for the recent massacres, a Jewish veteran of the World War, writing in the Detroit Neivs, said:
Regarding the present race riots between the Arabs and Jews in. Palestine (although the correct term would be massacre of Jews) I must say the blame does not rest on the Arabs but on the British government at large and especially on the local Palestine British officials.
We must go back in history to show the reason. In 1917 during the war, England was in a tight pinch and looked for help everywhere. There His Majesty’s government gave out a document known as the Balfour Declaration, promising the Jews to assist in establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Needless to say this buoyed up the hopes of the Jews and the British government got the sympathy of a good many Jews in all the allied lands. One of the helps it received was the forming of Jewish Legions of which about 6,000 enlisted from the United States and about 3,000 in Palestine, outside of other countries.
I, having been born in Russia, and having lived through two massacres there, was one of the fools who enlisted in the Jewish Legion. I know to a certain degree the nature of the Arab. As well as any half-civilized people, the Arab is not ripe to control himself and if he is shown that there is someone to take care of him he is the best behaved person. But should you give him the upper hand he doesn’t know where to stop. Of course I am not speaking of the educated Arab, but their number is very small.
Now the British administration, instead of helping to establish a Jewish homeland, did everything to hinder it. It suppressed manufacture by putting a tax on merchandise coming in and leaving the country, thereby making every article purchased in Palestine dearer than imported articles, so that most of the Jewish factories failed. As raw material had to be imported into the country, merchandise produced was double taxed.
Out of all the crown lands belonging to the government, thousands of acres were given free to the Arabs and not one inch to the Jews, not even to the Jewish former soldiers in the British army. Every piece of farm lands that the Jews settled had to be nircliased from the Arabs at double and triple the worth, making it almost impossible for the Jews to settle on land.
Every nationality and creed is allowed to come into Palestine in unrestricted numbers, but to hinder a Jewish homeland the British government has restricted the Jewish immigration to from 2,500 to 6,000 per year, whereas the native Arab increase is about 10,000 a year. And besides, every Jewish immigrant has to show 500 pounds, or $2,500, unless lie is backed by the Zionist organization with that amount.
Jews are taxed higher than Arabs but no help is received from the government for Jewish schools and hospitals, and the Arabs receive all the help necessary.
Hardly any Jews are employed on government work and almost all the Jews who got government jobs during 1917-18-19 were gradually squeezed out and the local British officers showed open hostility to the Jews.
When the Arabs started to build a gate in the Wailing Wall, the Jews protested and argued that it will give the Moslems an excuse to always pass through and disturb the Jews as they are praying, but the protest went unheard. The result was that as soon as the gate was opened the Arabs came and started to beat up the old Jews praying there, which gradually led to the present riot with its many killed and wounded.
Had the British government not made a scrap of paper of the Balfour Declaration and not openly shown its opposition to the Zionist aim to settle Palestine with Jews from countries where they were unable to live, or had it at least remained neutral like the Turkish government before them, it would never have come to the present crisis.
Lastly, about the British help to the Jews in Palestine. I’ll repeat the old proverb: “God save me from my friends—I’ll take care of my enemies myself.” The one who made that up must have had friendly dealings with the British government.
The Modern Jerusalem
Jerusalem is 33 miles from its port of Jaffa on the Mediterranean, 15 from the Dead Sea, 18 from the Jordan, 19 from Hebron, David’s first capital, and 35 from Samaria. It is 126 miles from Damascus. It is on the summit of the watershed between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean.
The original city was built on several hills, but in the lapse of ages the intervening valleys have become filled and the city is now nearly level. The streets of the older part of the city are crooked, narrow, ill-made and dirty, but a new city which is in every way up to date is arising about the walls of the old.
Jerusalem was once noted for its weaving, pottery, and glassware, but today there is little trade, except in souvenirs of olivewood and mother-of-pearl articles. The old city is unsanitary and plague-stricken from dirt, bad water, lack of sewerage, and the unhygienic habits of the people. The city lies in the midst of an infertile, ill-watered district, once prosperous by irrigation. The present water supply is from rain tanks or pools within and without the walls.
In 1922 Jerusalem contained 8,000 Mohammedans, 10,000 Christians, and 44,000 Jews. The care of the ‘holy places’, all of which are spurious, has occasioned no end of trouble between the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and other churches.
The “Patriarch of Jerusalem” is the keeper of relics which are valued into the millions. Aside from the gold and jewels with which these pieces of wood, supposed to be from the true cross, are embellished, they have a value in the eyes of millions which can not be computed in terms of money.
Much effort is made to attract and hold tourist traffic. There are municipal laws strictly limiting the size and location of billboards. Begging has been prohibited. Sight-seeing cars now speed the tourist to any part of Palestine to which he wishes to go. There is an ancient quarry beneath the city, from which its building materials were dug.
The Wailing Wall
The Wailing Wall is located on a pavement which belongs to the Arabs and is situated in an alley flanked on one side by the rear walls of yards and on the other by the western wall of the ancient temple, sixty feet high. This wall was a retaining wall of the temple proper.
For hundreds of years the Arabs have allowed the Jews to come here and mourn "for majesty that is departed, for walls that are overthrown”. Men and women mourned together, but a Galician rabbi started a trouble by insisting that a screen must be built between them. The Arabs, clearly within their rights, objected strenuously to the building of the screen. They said that if the Jews were allowed to build a screen, the next thing would be their putting a building over the screen, and soon the land would be lost to its rightful owners.
The matter was complicated by professional waiters, hired by less devout Jews to wail for them. AVailing steadily is hard work. The older men in the business started to build themselves benches. The Moslems objected to that also. A compromise was reached by allowing the professional waiters who are old to carry onelegged chairs strapped to their backs.
The quarrel was reopened this year. Some Jewish, youths held a meeting below the Wailing Wall to protest against last year’s interruption. The Arabs held a meeting to protest against the protest, and sent out word to all the countryside to come in and aid in the demonstration. The police were unable to cope with the trouble that followed. Indeed the Arab members of the force seem to have deserted their posts, knowing trouble would come.
Both Jews and Arabs lay blame on the others for the riots that ensued. Of the four stories that are told as to just how the trouble began it is hard to know which one is true, or if any of them is true. Two narrators seem to agree substantially that the actual riots began with a funeral of a Jewish boy killed by an Arab for stealing tomatoes from his garden.
A. commission of four members of Parliament is now conducting an inquiry into the causes of the uprisings, and the murders which followed. The sittings of the commission will be behind closed doors and it is not expected that a report can be issued before the end of the year.
Anti-Semitic Prejudice
It can not be denied that anti-Semitic prejudice is common the world over. Jewish doctors are discriminated against in hospitals and elsewhere. Hotels and apartment houses.will have no Hebrew patronage. Business concerns advertise that they want Christians only.
The Jew's, by their peculiarities, often invite trouble. In New York only two years ago an aged Jewess came to the synagogue in a taxicab. This is contrary to orthodox Jewish custom, and although she had been ill she was forced out into the rain and made ill again. Their conduct at the Wailing Wall is a sample of ecclesiastical foolishness.
Nevertheless, the Jews are progressive too, and their very progressiveness in Palestine has made them enemies. They are the most competent workers and got the best wages. Moreover, they have been doing their work with the aid of the latest machinery.
In the last three decades the number of Jews in the world has grown from 10,500,000 to 16,000,000. America, which had only 1,000,000 Jews in 1900, now has about 4,500,000. They are, in general, a law-abiding people. Of the 2,478 prisoners in Palestine prisons, only 81 are Jews.
The August riots in Palestine virtually amounted to a war. At one time there were 8,360 .Jewish refugees in Jerusalem, waiting until it was safe for them to return to their fields. At the same time forty-four Jews were imprisoned in the citadel of Acre, charged with murder by premeditated shooting.
The Jews have as many unfaithful teachers as other religionists have. The papers contain numerous accounts of their disbelief in the historical events narrated in the Bible.
Zionism, a Jewish Necessity
There are Jewish scholars who foresee that unless the Jews return to Palestine they will become extinct as a people. Some of the disintegrating forces are conversion to other faiths, intermarriage, a decreasing birth rate, and an unchanged mortality rate.
In spite of what has just happened, the Jewish people regard Palestine as the safest place in the world for them, and are dauntless and unafraid. They have faced pogroms in every country in the world except Britain and the United States, and some of them are putting their trust in the God of Israel that he will now deliver and bless his ancient people.
Items of interest to students of prophecy are that plans have been formulated for a concrete highway from Egypt to Palestine, via Sinai, following substantially the route taken by the Israelites in coming out of Egypt toward the promised land. Also that certain orthodox Jews have made application for a strip of land in Palestine whereon to build a temple estimated to cost $50,000,000. Neither of these enterprises is yet under construction, but the fact that they are contemplated is interesting.
Following the recent riots, and prior thereto, prayers have been offered daily in some of the Jewish settlements that their Messiah will make his appearance and put an end to wars and strife. The Jews were encouraged that in the severe earthquakes which shook Palestine two years ago not a Jew lost his life. The Arabs were much impressed by this at the time.
The Sons of Ishmael
Who are these that have recently been killing one another in Palestine? The answer is that they are all sons of Abraham: the Jews descendants of Isaac; the Arabs descendants of Ishmael. Is there any good reason why cousins should kill one another? None at all.
As a matter of fact, until the World War, there was an age-long friendship between the Jew and the Arab, and the Arabs usually looked up to the Jews as being the “People of the Bible”, the holy book which the Moslems reverence next to their own book, the Koran.
True, the Arabs have never become reconciled to the Balfour Declaration, and this is not to be entirely wondered at; yet if the Arabs can think of the Jews as their blood relatives, as is actually the case, it ought not to remain a permanent source of trouble.
The British claim, and they are right, that there is ample room for both the Jew and the Arab in Palestine, and that the presence of an active and industrious Jewish colony is good for both. The Jewish self-assurance that the country is theirs has created antagonism, as has also the fact that large sums of money have come into the country exclusively for their use.
The Urge of Progress
For.centuries the poor Arabs of Palestine have lived on next to nothing, fearing to produce more than their absolute necessities lest their Turkish rulers would take away al] they had. A home rich enough to have two candles was almost sure to be looted by Turkish soldiers.
Now, suddenly, m come a people from every part of the world, with plenty of money to live and live well, and establish industry and commerce where the Arabs but a short time ago were starving. This has been a great strain on the Arab disposition. And, moreover, seeing his Jewish cousin with a motor car, he wants one himself. And he knows, too, that he outnumbers the Jew six to one.
The Arab is a born fighter, a born dreamer, and a born religious fanatic. He can not forget the time when he had a great dominion all over northern Africa, western Asia, and far into Europe—so far that all Europe bid fair at one time to be turned into a Moslem community. The Arab still dreams that some time Allah may give this kingdom back to him. He resents the Jew’s coming right into the middle of it and taking away the Holy Land, almost as sacred to him as it is to the Jew himself.
A delegation of American citizens of Arab birth recently called upon the American secretary of state, declaring that the way to peace in Palestine is the abandonment of Zionism, which, they argued, means a government within a government. They are twelve years too late. The die is cast.
Jio one can accuse the Arabs of being interlopers in Palestine. They have lived there for thirteen centuries. They have become mightily stirred over the whole question of Jewish hopes and prospects and are stirring one another up from India to Gibraltar with inflammatory declarations that Arabs are as much entitled to bar Jews from Palestine as Americans are to bar Japanese from America. It is the educated Moslem notables that are fomenting the strife, not the poor illiterate fellaheens, who do not know what it is all about.
There are still many highway robberies in Palestine, and Arabs are adepts at that kind of business. Arabs and Jews show their dislike of one another and their distrust of one another when Hey pass in the open road. When the strife was at its height eight thousand trees were uprooted on one 'Jewish farm, but, in most instances, the trees were not harmed.
The August Massacres
Our readers have already seen in the daily press the accounts of the August massacres, and there have been some since then too. Up to the end of August the total killed and wounded were, Christians 14, Moslems 203, and Jews 291.
At least a thousand families had their houses, farms, cattle, crops and all their personal possessions destroyed, burned or stolen. The desolations inflicted have virtually ruined every Jew in Palestine, undoing the work of over half a century.
Situated in the heart of the Arab countries of the world, their land being the bridge which connects all parts of it, it is hard to see how the new Jewish state can ever be established and become what the Bible shows it is to become without the direct intervention of Almighty God. It has certainly been abundantly proven that the British arm is incompetent to afford the necessary protection. The seriousness of the situation lies in the fact that a religious twist has been given to the Arab propaganda, and it is well known that in a holy w*ar a Moslem courts death. But for God’s blessing upon it, the outlook for Zionism would be very dark.
In the City of Hebron
Hebron, the ancient Kirjath-arba, twenty miles south of Jerusalem, was David’s capital for seven years. In it is the cave of Machpelah, where rest the bodies of Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah. The Moslems have built a mosque over the cave, but will not enter it, dreading immediate death at the hand of Abraham’s spirit, which they believe to reside in it. Hebron is one of the Moslem’s holy cities. There is no town in Palestine that has been as little disturbed for centuries as Hebron. In Hebron every Moslem woman still wears a veil.
On August 24 a huge mob gathered in Hebron, crying, “We must kill the Jews.” Immediately the invasion of private homes began, followed by harrowing scenes of massacre and pillage. Eighteen men and women were killed in one house. A man and his wife escaped by rolling themselves in the blood of others and lying motionless on the flo< ". Women and girls, and even a baby, were slain by the heartless fanatics.
Sixty-six persons, one-fourth of the Jewish population of Hebron, were slain. Fifteen of these were American students at the Hebrew University. One of these was a Brooklyn boy. Two other Brooklyn boys were wounded at the same time.
The New York Times of September 24 contains the following item which may or may not be a mark of divine intervention to ward off further attacks upon Israel, at least for a time. We publish it for what it is worth, incidentally remarking that none of our readers will believe that Abraham’s spirit is lurking in a Moslem mosque. But the very superstitions of these poor fanatics may be used to hold them in check until God’s due time to bring about Israel’s final chastisement. .
From Hebron, the burial place of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which was recently the scene of a most barbaric slaughter, there comes an alarming’ story spread by Moslems there that is alleged to have struck great terror among’ them. Because of the slaying of 66 Jews, the report goes, the spirit of Abraham has been moved to wrath and nightly from his burial place at the Cave of Machpelah, over which now stands a large Moslem mosque, a low moaning is heard, followed by a wail, then words, uttered indistinctly at first, then clearer: “Why, Why did ye shed innocent blood? Ye sons of Israel, why have ye dishonored your Father’s name?” The emotional Arabs are said to be terrified and many of them are asserted to be seeking means to propitiate the wrath of the Patriarch.
The Samuel Insull Interests
THE Samuel Insull interests make electricity at about three-quarters of a cent a kilowatt hour and sell it to the millions of population of the Chicago metropolitan area at just about ten times what it costs. Meantime, Chicago city is broke and can not pay its own employees, but the Insull crowd has millions which it can use for any purpose whatsoever. It is now the pleasure of the simian press to explain to the people of Chicago why it is a good thing for Chicago to own nothing, but to have all its public utilities in the hands of a handful of private capitalists. And, furthermore, these private capitalists have shown their willingness to pay handsomely for service thus rendered to the cause of injustice and untruth.
The Fullograph Weather Chart
BY THE Fultograph apparatus an aviator may now receive within less than three minutes a wuather chart showing conditions of weather as they exist at the airport at which he is expecting to land. All German passenger planes will be equipped with this new invention.
Airplane Flies from France to China,
THE flight of Captain Coste, French aviator, from Le Bourget flying field to Tsitsihar, Manchuria, establishes a new record, covering 6,158 miles. The captain left France on Friday and landed in Manchuria on Sunday, after flying across two continents and a quarter of the way around the world.
Airplane Service to Boston
THE airplane service to Boston from New York city takes only one hour and forty-five minutes flying time. The planes carry four-teen.passengers and leave twice a clay, at 11.00 a.m. and 3.15 p.m. The Nev,7 York Central will soon install planes carrying thirty-two passengers by day and sixteen by night, for use on its transcontinental service of train and plane.
Keeping the Ancestors Posted
WHENEVER there is anything of real importance in Japan, like a declaration of war, the conclusion of a peace, the death of an emperor, etc., the matter is duly reported at a certain Shinto shrine, so that all the ancestors of the reigning sovereign will know about it. What a dull time those old birds must have sitting around in their tombs waiting for the latest news.
Public Safety in Italy
AN ENGLISH woman whose Italian husband had escaped from the island of Lipari, was seized, searched from head to foot, and locked in a damp and verminous cell in prison, and her husband’s brother was sent to the penal island of Lipari, all because of his escape. When a government has fallen so low that it must imprison the innocent in order to maintain itself in power, it has no depths to which to fall. It is groveling in the subcellar.
The Flower Fields of Grasse
BASSE, a city in the southern part of kJ" France, is the center of the perfume industry. In and about the city flowers of some sort are in bloom every month in the year. It takes five hundred pounds of roses to yield one pound of rose essence.
HBfiOO Stolen Automobiles
A UTOMOBILES to the number of 116,000 were stolen during the past year, of which number 85 percent were recovered, leaving the net loss from theft about $12,000,000. The thefts are greater in the fall than in the spring, due to the fact that owners take better care of new cars.
Values in New York Real Estate
NEW YORK has seven apartment houses the average assessment on which is $5,000,000; six theaters on which the average assessment is $4,000,000; eight department stores assessed each at $11,000,000; ten hotels assessed each at $13,000,000, and ten office buildings assessed each at $18,000,000. The Equitable Building is assessed at $31,750,000.
Skyscrapers Extraordinary
SKYSCRAPERS extraordinary are now in process of erection in New York city. The Bank of Manhattan Company has nearly completed a sixty-three story building which rises 840 feet above the street, while the City BankFarmers Trust Company will erect one seventy stories high which will have a height of 925 feet. Chicago has a garage twenty-eight stories high.
Indians Respond to Right Treatment
THE United States has 200,000 Indians in dire need, but when 3,000 of them were given employment as laborers in the cotton fields of Arizona, and thus were able to supply themselves with needed food, it was noticed that there was a remarkable decrease in trachoma and tuberculosis. It seems that to enable these red men to have sufficient food is the first duty of the white men that have taken away their lands.
Egypt and Iraq
THE Labor government of Britain has greatly improved conditions in the Near East by the new and liberal promises it has made to Egypt and Iraq. British troops will be transferred from Cairo to the Canal Zone, and British officers removed from the Egyptian army, and Britain will advocate the admission of both Egypt and Iraq into the League of Nations.
President Wilson’s War in Russia
THE bodies of 128 soldiers of the United
States army who fell in Archangel, Russia, in the private war which President Wilson fought with that country in 1918, are being returned to America for interment in a special cemetery in Detroit. This war was what was previously called the acid test of America’s friendship for a downtrodden and oppressed people trying to find a better form of government.
Politics and the Church Control Teachers
THE Teachers’ Union has issued a letter declaring that the schools of New York city are under the control of politics and the church. The letter in which the charges are made says: “Appointments to high-school principalships continue to go to candidates who are able to offer chiefly the qualifications .of having the direct support of a political organization—specifically, Tammany Hall or some important spokesman of that political power. If in addition a candidate has powerful religious affiliations, his chance of being selected is greatly increased.”
Julius Klein, on Distribution
Julius Klein, assistant secretary of commerce, recently said: “There are elements of a new industrial revolution in the United States. The yearly output of the American worker is $5,200, and of the European worker $1,500. Under such conditions, except for rare instances, there is no excuse for poverty in the United States. The problem before us is one of distributing income justly and equitably. Yet large numbers of American working people, both men and women, are not making a living wage. They are being thrown out of work instantly when orders slacken. They are considered too old to work at an early age.”
New York’s Largest Banks
TN GROWING- to their present size New
York’s fifteen largest banks have swallowed up one hundred and thirty-two other banking institutions and are now engaged in the absorption of one another. The year 1929 will stand out as the banner year for big bank mergers, and there is not much farther to go until all the credit of the country will be in the hands of one institution.
The Dictatorship in Yugoslavia
THE Manchester Guardian reports that for seven months Yugoslavia has been like a cemetery. Parliament is dead; the press is dead: the newspapers are allowed to express no opinions of their own, and newspaper men are allowed to stay in the country only if they pledge themselves to write only such articles as are favorable, or at least not unfavorable, to the dictatorship.
Gold Produced from Lead
fy. GERMAN plumber has been in prison nine months for having induced others to invest in a plan for extracting gold from lead. Insisting on his innocence he was brought out of prison, and in the presence of the mint director, an assistant, two detectives, the state’s attorney, and the examining judge he succeeded in producing one-tenth of a gram of purest gold from one and two-thirds grams of lead. The fact that the man has been imprisoned for his discovery suggests that it is genuine. That is a gentle way that the world has with its great inventors and discoverers.
Causes of Prison Outbreaks
Charles Brandon Booth, of the Salvation
Army, declares that the prisons of the United States are the most degrading and impractical of any prisons in the world: that in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth three thousand men must be housed and fed in quarters and on a food allowance originally designed for eighteen hundred, and that he knows of a cell block housing six hundred men where every man who goes into it is virtually doomed to consumption. It is interesting to observe that the Bible discountenances the whole prison system and that in the Mosaic law there is no provision for penal institutions at all.
New Orleans Street Car Strike
HE New Orleans street ear strike was peculiar in several respects. It is perhaps the first time that a street car strike has been the subject of adjudication by a federal judge, and the first time that federal troops have been called out to serve as strike breakers, and yet. after all, the carmen won their strike. They did this because, for sixty-five days, the public refused to patronize them. Business houses, owners of automobiles, and practically the entire city, cooperated to help the carmen.
The Memphis Settlement Industrial Borne
HE Memphis Settlement Industrial Home, recently burned, was, according to charges recently filed, a place where poor little Negro children were punished by being placed on hot stoves and made to stand on hot coals and in hot ashes. Further, it is alleged that seventyseven children were entered in the school, with no record of their discharge. Of the eightyeight children reported in the orphanage when it burned, only forty-four could be located. Many Memphis people are strong believers in eternal torture.
A Kind Chicago Judge
WHEN a former stage star became ill and friendless in Chicago and was finally brought into court for stealing a dress, she explained to the judge that she was forced into it, not being able togeta job unless well dressed. The judge, in kindly words, recalled her past usefulness, and offered help, but the woman, with fine pluck, merely asked to be dismissed, and promised to again face the world undaunted and unaided. Such a woman is morally miles above the millionaires that form the Power Trust.
A 79 Ad ear-Old Vagrant
FINE old man, 79 years of age, was in court the other clay in New York. He had been an orderly in a hospital, and a good one. Then he got a job taking care of a private patient, but at length the patient died. Friends and relatives had taken the old man’s money, and at length he was left upon the street. He slept for four nights in an untenanted house, when nuns in a parochial school across the street had him arrested for vagrancy. This reminds one of the story of The Good Samaritan. Or does it?
The Gestatorial Chair By Henry Ancketill
ON PAGE 589 of The Golden Age of June 12, 1929, in a paragraph dealing with the blessing of the world by the pope, the latter is described as being robed in white and wearing a gold tiara, seated within the “gestatorial chair”, borne by eight bearers, and the question is asked, “Can somebody tell us what the vrord 'gestatorial’ means, when used in this connection?” '
It is probable that it is related to the use of an ecclesiastical utensil, such as a portable shrine to be borne in religious processions, which in the Middle Ages was known as a ‘“gestatorium”; or possibly owing to the association of the w’ord with pregnancy in medical service, it may have a more interesting or vital historical origin.
It is a well authenticated fact that in the ■year 855 A.D. a woman was elected to.the papacy, and "was known as “Pope Joan”, otherwise John VIII. She is said to have been an English girl, who fell in love with a monk. Assuming masculine attire, she accompanied the monk to Rome, and the cardinals, believing her to be a man, elected her as Pope John VIII. The deception, however, was not of long duration; and on her secret being discovered, she was put to death.
Of course if there had been any real truth in the Roman Catholic doctrine of apostolic succession, this incident would have destroyed the validity of its claim for ever!
It is, however, I understand, an open secret, that to prevent possibility of its ever occurring again, the papal chair was constructed so as to allow a duly qualified official to determine the sex of the occupant before consecration, a portion of the seat of the chair being left open for that purpose. To distinguish such a chair from all ethers, may it not have acquired the name cf the “gestatorial chair”?
EVER and anon in “Toronto the good”, of which Scarboro is a suburb, the civic authorities, at the instigation of the clergy class and their simple-minded dupes, strive to stop the Kingdom message’s being proclaimed to the people by the Bible Students on Sunday. Recently the following item appeared in one of the local Toronto papers under a very prominent heading, “Loyal Scarboro Angered by Anti-League Booklets.” The item reads:
Loud protest is being made by the residents of South Scarboro over the distribution of booklets in Kennedy Heights and Sandown Park on Sunday that are alleged to contain anti-British propaganda. Particular objection is taken to a paragraph in which the following statement is made:
“The father of the League of Nations is Satan, the devil. The British Empire is its mother, and the other nations are wet-nurses. The preachers, professional politicians and the profiteers really form the League, and the clergy act as spellbinders to lend some sanctity to the arrangement. ’ ’
An examination of the booklet, which is named “The Last Days”, revealed that it was published in Brooklyn, New York, by the International Bible Students’ Association Watch Tower, Bible & Tract Society, and was distributed from the Toronto office at 40 Irwin Avenue.
A complaint has been made to the Scarboro police, ■who have announced their intention of making an investigation. Inspector David McKinney of the Moral- ■ ity Department, Toronto Police Department, when called tonight, stated he had not seen a copy of the booklet, but announced his intention of placing the matter before the Crown Attorney.
The opposition to the work of the Bible Students, however, is not confined to Toronto. The Chesley Enterprise contains an article telling of how the activity of a humble follower of the Master aroused the ire of a member of the “cloth” in Walkerton, Ontario. The article follows :
It is not often that a pulpit in Walkerton has rung out a greater denunciation against a member of either sex than that which emanated from Knox Presbyterian pulpit on Sunday morning last, when the pastor, Kev. R. G. McKay, launched a spiritual harpoon against the lineal descendant of the daughter of Eve who has been making a house-to-house canvass in ■Walkerton, selling what the minister maintains are veritable heresies against the fundamentals of the Bible.
A sample of the moral slush contained in the books that the lady has been selling around is found in a passage asking with much gusto, “Who is Immortal?” and which goes on to say:
“The Devil himself is not immortal, because the Scriptures show that God is going to destroy him in due time. (Hebrews 2:14; Ezekiel 28:18.) We might with propriety propound to the preachers this question : If hell is a place of eternal torment, and if the Devil is the chief fireman, who is going to keep up the fire when the Devil is destroyed?”
It’s enough to make more than preachers see red to be confronted with such blasphemy as has emanated from the late Pastor Russell’s Watch Tower at Brooklyn and which stuff is being sold about the country by a society parading under the imposing title of the “International Bible Students’ Association.”
As Rev. Mr. McKay said, he placed some of these books on his library shelves alongside “The Book of Mormon”, and he did so with sincere apologies to ‘ ‘ The Book of Mormon. ’ ’
And thus the Truth is spread abroad and God makes the wrath of man to praise Him.
The Border Liquor Traffic
The prohibition question has been a great question in Canada, even as it is in the United States, and the question of whether or not the Canadian government should give clearance papers to rum-running boats that ask clearance for Cuba and. other countries when it is well known the destiny is the States is one that is causing much controversy on both sides of the border. The Sentinel contains the following interesting article on the subject:
The House speeded up last week to the near finish of the session. It was an unusually interesting period, several matters engaging the attention of the House that have been exciting public discussion. The question of refusing clearance papers to rum-running boats carrying liquor to United States ports occupied a day. It produced information that was somewhat sensational, and which was used to justify the Government in refusing to accede to the request of the United States that Canada should prohibit the export of liquor. The debate was introduced by Mr. Woods-worth, who argued for the refusal of clearances. He was supported by but few members after Mr. Euler, the Minister of National Revenue, had given a long explanation of the activities of his department, and exposed the failure of the United States to enforce the law against the rum-runners. He startled the House when he told of going out from Windsor on a launch in the Detroit River and watching the operations of the rum-runners. He saw liquor cargoes carried across the river in boats owned and operated by American citizens, delivering the liquor a short distance from the American custom house, and no effort
being made to prevent the illegal traffic. His departmental officials reported to him that similar conditions prevail at Bridgeburg, on the Niagara frontier. He argued that if the United States authorities desired they could put a stop to the traffic in a week. That being the case, he did not feel that Canada was under obligation to enforce the laws of the neighboring country. At the present time American officials are permitted access to the docks on the Canadian side, and get the information as to when the boats are ■clearing for their ports. That, Mr. Euler said, was as far as the Government of Canada should go in cooperating with the Americans in the enforcement of their own laws. To refuse clearance to the boats carrying liquor cargoes across would put the onus for enforcement on Canada, while it rightly belonged to the Government of the United States.
One of Canada’s leading newspapers, the Toronto Star, although a supporter of the party in power, criticizes the government’s position in no uncertain terms. Editorially it says under the caption “A Dangerous Situation”:
A condition of affairs which everyone, even the most wilfully blind, must recognize as internationally dangerous has arisen on the rum-running border on the Detroit river.
The outlaws who carry contraband liquor across the water are armed. The officers of the law who come in ever-increasing numbers, bringing more and more preventative vessels into use, are armed. The shooting has begun in real earnest. Already it is charged that shots fired from the Canadian shore have struck United States revenue cutters in United States waters. The charge may not be true, but is little less serious for that reason. Already shots from revenue boats have struck houses on the Canadian shore. In one or two cases innocent persons have been killed or ■wounded. It is announced that 200 more men and 10 more vessels will at once be put on this “border war” work by orders from Washington. Deputy-Commissioner Cuddy advises the Ontario government that coast guard cutters should be placed on patrol in the affected Canadian waters.
The scene is being set in every detail, ready so that any born fool or malicious person may strike a match that will start a conflagration that would, on the instant, almost be beyond control.
For a year past the Star has been warning the government of Canada that this dangerous state of affairs was taking shape and was certain to arrive, and we have urged Canada to wash her hands of complicity in the lawless trade across her border—by refusing any longer to grant customs clearance to liquor that is to be smuggled by armed men into a friendly neighboring country.
Canada needs to have clean hands in the situation that is upon us. On one side of the border is a. nation of one hundred and twenty million people; on this side a people of ten million. Some tell us that the trouble is not ours, that we have nothing to do with it, that the conflict is between those people in the United States who v/ant liquor and those who do not want it. But one scarcely needs to have read any history at all to know that when real trouble starts along a border sooner or later the whole weight of the trouble falls the way it is shoved—the more powerful nation disposes of it by shoving it on the weaker. Let the situation increase in seriousness and we shall see this done.
This country needs clean hands at this time and hasn’t got them. Armed law-breakers are carrying liquor into the United States, battling with armed police (may be battling soon with U. S. Regulars) and the liquor shipments over which this war is fought is Canadian liquor sold to outlaws to be smuggled with the sanction of Canada into the United States contrary to its laws in defiance of its armed guards. Inspector Cuddj^ advises the Ontario government that a patrol of Canadian revenue cutters should be on the scene—ostensibly to prevent the short-circuiting back into Ontario of the liquor which Canada has sold the rum-runners and granted them clearance to smuggle into the United States. Would it not be simpler to go out of the business altogether? Inspector Cuddy assures his superiors that he does not believe a single Canadian boat or a single Canadian is engaged in the rum-running trouble. One would like to share this faith in one’s countrymen, but no doubt we have a few men as adventurous and as fond of big profits as anybody else. No doubt nearly all this traffic is now carried on by men from beyond the border, gun-toting, hard-boiled men who have, or who think they have, the backing of men higher up, who have political pull and able lawyers in the courts supposedly capable of getting their hirelings out of any trouble they may get into. With a new administration at Washington this reliance may prove to be a delusion.
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