Golden Age, April 16, 1930
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oAs Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE ANDI COURAGE
in this issue
CHAIN BROADCAST APRIL 27
LAST OF THE KINGS
“BE YOUR OWN BOSS55
“CONSIDERED ADVICE35
THE BOOK OF MORMON '
SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST radio lecture by Judge Rutlierford
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Volume XI - No« 276
April 16, 193 0
1 Contents
I 1---------------- ---SC^B?=--- -----—---------
Labor and Economics
Oppressions of the Poor .
!‘Be Your Own Boss” .....
Social and Educational
Beneath the Lid ................... 455
Fraternal and Religious Heines ........
Welfare Work in Bockford ........... .
■ Finance—Commerce—Transportation
Bailway Construction in Siberia ............. 455
Jacksonville’s Municipal Plant ............ .
Increased Profits of Corporations ...
Catering to Through. Highway Traffic
Have You Your $15,000? ...........
Political—Domestic and Foreign
The Last of tub Kings ............... .
One Third Under Censorship
The District Leader and Crime
Stealing Judge Rutherford’s Thunder
Science and Invention
France’s Defensive Works ....
The Hanson Landing' Signal .
Air Pockets ..................■ • , 433
Home and Health ;,p .
A Good Joke on a Cancer . . . . . . . . . . \ ... . . 432
A Crawling Antiseptic (?) ..........
s‘Considered Advice”
Travel and Miscellany Is This Fair? ...
Religion and Pihlosoi’iiy
The Book of Mormon .................
The Gestatorial Chair ...........
Questions and Answers
Sufferings of Christ
The Children’s Own Radio Story .......
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The Golden Age
Volume XI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, April 16, 1930 . Number 276
The Last of the Kings
MANY others besides Bible Students believe that we are living on the threshhold of a new era, and that we are now seeing the last of the kings. “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.”—Dan. 2:44.
The stern facts of the past fifteen years would compel any thoughtful person, whether a student of the Bible or not, to come to the conclusion that the kings have ha,d their day, and yet there never was as great need as now of the rulership of a truly wise and benevolent despot. It is partly a comprehension of this that drives Spain, Italy and Hungary to retain their monarchical titles and claims while despots, but not wise and benevolent ones, rule in their stead.
Royalty is safer today in Great Britain than elsewhere in the world. Indeed, rvhat is left of royalty will go overboard quickly when the British do away with what now stands in the eyes of many of the rest of the world as strongevidence that kingship and stability are almost one and the same thing.
The king of Great Britain and Ireland and emperor of India is a useful and valuable man because he does nothing to irritate anybody. He keeps out of sight and lets other people do the actual ruling. Even the British Labor party is overwhelmingly for the retention of the royal family, and the rank and file of the British people believe that their government is one of the most stable in the world.
No matter what the -weather may be, when either the king or the queen of England leaves the royal palace to attend a function of some kind the crowds line the streets just as they have done in connection -with similar functions for hundreds of years. The king is recognized as the social head of the country. The present king and queen have the reputation of always keeping their engagements, regardless of fogs, rains, winds or cold weather. This has made them very popular with their subjects.
In the Life of a King
Theoretically, the king of England is completely immune from the jurisdiction of the courts and can not be tried for crime or sued for bad debts. He could disband the army and navy and sell all the barracks, ships, post offices, naval stores and arsenals. He could appoint any soldier to command the army, or any sailor to command the navy, and could release every prisoner in the realm, and raise to the peerage any person or persons.
When there are charity bazaars the king and other members of his family, particularly the Princess Mary, act as salesmen and always sell off everything they have in stock. The Princess Mary has had considerable experience as a trained nurse.
"When the king of England dies, the lords of the privy council (which is the real government of England), the lord mayor of London, the aidermen and other officials assemble and give the order for the proclamation of the new sovereign, after which the new king takes the prescribed oath.
England has had only one king who grew to manhood without marrying. That was William II, son of William the Conqueror. Edward V, and Edward VI were unmarried, but died before reaching their majority.
Rulers have to die, the same as other people, and they do not like the idea. Queen Elizabeth left 3,000 dresses behind her when she died, and for the last few years of her life would not allow a looking-glass in her presence, as she did not like the idea of growing old, and did not wish to see -the ravages of time revealed on her face, '
The Prince of Wales
Some time this year the prince of Wales will be thirty-six and he is still heart-whole and fancy-free, a bachelor. It takes ten thousand dollars a week to run his private residence, Marlborough House; so when he is in London he lives at a cheaper place and lets Marlborough House wait for the lady that may never come.
By tradition and in fact the prince of Wales sets the styles for the British Empire, and when he makes a mistake of 'wearing the wrong coat and vest, or when he leaves off his vest, as sometimes happens, the tailors of London, twelve of whom make his clothes, wring their hands and declare that the country is going to the dogs.
The prince has picked tip considerable good sense in his thirty-six years of life. When he accidently fell in with a group of radicals at Oxford University, he picked up a banjo and sang an ultra-radical song popular with British socialists and made a hit with his audience. He endeared himself to the miners by his statements of their sufferings. He recompensed thirteen hundred farmers at one time for possible damage done to their crops by fox hunts in which he engaged. '
He is widely traveled. Once when motoring in Australia he stopped his car to help a motorcyclist who had had a breakdown. The man thanked him, and when asked for his name he replied that he was the prince of Wales. The man laughed and said, ‘‘And I am the king of England.” A day or two later, at a big public affair in an adjoining city, the prince recognized his embarrassed fellow traveler and came up to him and said, "Glad to meet you again, dad,” and shook him warmly by the hand. Such things make him well-liked.
There may be worse horsemen than the prince, but there is no record of them at this writing. He is a great dancer; and has danced with girls in almost every country in the world, and has not seemed to care whether they were patricians or plebeians.
He is a good typewriter operator (he may make a living at that yet!), knows how to knit, crochet, stuff dolls, blow glass, make chocolates, and has many other diversified arts more or less under his command, as befits the prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, and ruler of its society.
King Michael, of Rumania
When the father of the present king of Rumania was the' crown prince of that country he distinguished himself by running away from wife and family with the daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant. They finally landed in Paris, with Carol dispossessed of his throne but with half a million dollars in cash on his person, which he is now having a merry time spending.
Little Michael, five years old when he was placed on the throne, did not like it very well. When, the ceremonies were over he said to his mother, “Let’s go home, mama: I am hungry.”-More recently, tiring of the tumult and shouting that follow him wherever he goes, he said, so it is reported, “I don’t like people; I like snails.” ’
The year in which he was crowned, 1927, he received five thousand Christmas gifts, but when he looked over the pile he failed to find either a motor boat or a fire engine, the only two things he wanted. Poor little kid! It is a tough job being a king.
After he was crowned king the servants stopped playing with him, which hurt his feelings very much. He formed the idea that his crown was one of his toys, and it took hours to convince him that he should not wear it on his head all the time when he is out at play.
The little boys of India who fall heir to thrones, have it harder than Michael. They are constantly watched, night and day, and must always be dressed according to their rank. They must not romp like other children. When the prince eats, two attendants prepare and put each morsel of food in his mouth. When lie is ill a dozen women are in attendance upon him at once.
The Down-and-out Club
The down-and-out club of kings includes rulers from the houses of Germany, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Persia, China, Afghanistan, Montenegro, and Hedjaz. Probably we have omitted many from the list. Alexander, of Yugoslavia, is liable to be on the list at any moment, and so are the royal potentates of Italy and Spain.
Former King George of Greece, and his mother, the former queen of the same country, are living’ in exile in Rumania. George is always hoping that the people of Greece will call him back, but he has half a million dollars laid by and does not know when he iswell off.
Prince Danilo and Prince Michael, of the little country of Montenegro, which was swallowed by Yugoslavia after the World War, are holding mock court at San Remo, on the Mediterranean. Their admirers call them “Your Royal Highness”, but the title is all they have left.
Queen Amelie, of Portugal, who was chased out of the country with her son Manuel, in 1910, is living modestly and obscurely at Versailles, France. Abdul Mejid Efendi, former sultancaliph of Turkey, is living at Paris, with the ex-shah of Persia and several other ex-rulers.
Hussein, the ex-king of Hedjaz, is in exile in a little house in Cyprus, where his enemies claim he has cached fifteen million dollars, and goes down into the cellar every night to count it over and make sure his fortune is still intact. He is much pestered by lawsuits from people who think they can get some of it.
Japan has just conferred nobility on a man that has been dead three hundred years. Some time soon, if He has not already done it, the Lord will confer permanent titles of nobility on people that have been dead longer than that. Wait for it! It is worth waiting for.
Robert Bruce left as his dying request that his heart should be embalmed and sent to Palestine ; but it was retained in Edinburgh. It has recently turned up missing, and it is believed some admirer has complied with his dying wish.
Kings find the formalities irksome. Stanislaus Leczinski, king of Poland in 1766, burned to death when his dressing gown caught fire. Though the guard outside the door smelled smoke, it was contrary to the rules and court etiquette to enter; and so his master had to burn to death.
Two unique kings of earth are the shah of Persia, who a few years ago was employed in British stables, and the tufele of Manua, Samoa, who at the age of 26, and at 200 pounds’ weight, is a star baseball player, tennis player, boxer, swimmer, ukulele and guitar player, and a singer of popular songs. Probably he has the best time of any of the kings that are left.
The Ex-Kaiser Wilhelm
Early last year the letters of the ex-kaiser’s mother were published, and they showed that she held him in contempt. When a man’s own mother holds him in contempt it is Hard for anybody else to have much respect for him. She was particularly bitter at the insolence which he showed toward his dying father. She believed that he would be a dangerous man to be entrusted with power; and she believed right.
Kaiser Wilhelm was in many respects a capable man, even if vain to the “nth” degree. Under his rule he spread a form of monarchical socialism over middle Europe that was the wonder and almost the despair of all the rest of the world. No doubt he intended to force that form of government on all the world, with himself as sole arbiter of humanity’s destinies. The voices which he heard whispering in his ear told him as much.
But at length the gas went out of his balloon, and on November 9, 1918, without much regret, on the part of anybody, he left the battle-front in great haste for the friendly border of Holland, in which country he has gradually become an aged man. He is now past seventy-one years of age, and engaged in planting and caring for roses.
The former kaiser can not quite forget that he was once emperor of Germany. He still keeps a force of police, which are of about as much necessity as a wart on a dog’s nose. He can not legally return to Germany, even as a visitor, until after he has passed his seventy-fourth birthday. There is no chance whatever that he will regain his throne. The expense of operation of the German government was seventy-five per cent greater under the kaiser than under President von Hindenburg.
For about ten years after the kaiser left Germany there was some sentiment for his return, and there was even an organization which planned to bring it about by force; but time has weakened all opposition to the present government and the kaiser’s friends have disbanded and given up hope of reinstating him on the throne.
The kaiser’s vanity, even at seventy years of age, was illustrated a year ago when he held court with his servants booted and spurred and his handmaids dressed in silks and satins bowing and scraping before him. On that occasion the kaiser had his former court chaplain compare him to Martin Luther and to Christ and he himself chose the theme of the sermon.
The Kaiser’s Relatives
When the kaiser lost his throne he dragged more than a score of lesser German dynasties with him, and some three hundred royal or titled persons can look back to the time when the kaiser ascended the throne as the beginning of most of theii' present troubles.
The greater number of these persons are allowed to live in Germany, and most of them have been allowed to retain their property. Among these are the seven sons and daughters of the former Emperor Wilhelm. The former crown prince is breeding horses in Silesia.
One of the kaiser’s sisters, at the age of sixty-one, married a Russian waiter thirty-four years her junior. Two years with him took all the romance out of it, and at the end of that time she wms glad to die. Meantime she had sued her hubby for divorce. One of the kaiser’s grandsons is known to have been in want of a new suit of clothes for a year, but probably has it by now. A former wife of one of the exkaiser’s sons is now an American citizen.
The ex-king of Saxony, Frederick Augustus, takes his removal from the throne in a philosophic spirit. He is said to have no regrets for his lost trappings of royalty, and no desire to rule. Not long ago he was recognized at the Plaun railway station by a crowd, which cheered him lustily. He poked his head out of the car window and said, “You are a fine lot of republicans, I’ll say.” The kaiser’s cousin, he never took the kaiser seriously, but considered him what he was, a conceited, vain and dangerous man.
The Hapsburgs of Austria can hardly be called the kaiser’s relatives, but he took them down to ruin too. About seventy-five of them are now making a living in different parts of Europe, most of them at humble occupations indeed, compared with the king business.
The Last of the Romanoffs
The last of the Romanoffs, Anastasia Tchaikovsky, youngest daughter of the czar of Russia, is now living in New York city. When the revolution swept Russia she followed her father and mother into exile, first to Obolsk and then to Ekaterinburg, where, according to her story, she was the only one to escape when the rest of the family were shot to death in the Ekaterinburg cellar.
Her story is that she was knocked down when her father and mother were put to death, that a young soldier threw straw over her body, and that the next she knew she was riding in a peasant cart toward Rumania. She married the young soldier, but he was subsequently killed in battle. In 1920 she attempted suicide in Berlin but -was rescued by the police and her statements checked up. She has been positively identified by the cousin of the late czar, by a former Russian officer, and by several others, as undoubtedly the czar’s daughter.
This claim is bitterly contested by the brother of the czarina, and he has repeatedly flooded the press with stories that the woman is an impostor, an insane peasant. Nevertheless, the brother of the czarina, the grand duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, has an axe to grind and is unv,filling to meet the lady. If she should convince him that she is what she herself seems to believe, he would lose property worth several million dollars. Much of the czar’s personal fortune of about $100,000,000 is now in the United States, where the Princess Anastasia has entered suit for possession.
When you come to think of it, what a strange thing it is that one human being should wish to lord it over others, take away the rights of others, take away their property, and even take away their lives, when he himself is debtor to God for every breath ha draws, and must, in the nature of things, shortly, very shortly, render up his accounts. How much better to have the opposite spirit, to wish to serve, to help, to bless, to give life and liberty and happiness. And that is already the spirit and will be the policy of earth’s new royalty, Christ Jesus and the divine family of sons and daughters of the Most High.
One Third Under Censorship
TT IS estimated that more than one-third of ■*- the people of the world are at the present moment living under conditions of censorship of the press, so that it is impossible for them to correctly inform themselves as to what is going-on in the world or even in their own country. The countries where these repressions are still in force are Spain, Italy, Hungary, Jugoslavia, Poland, Rumania, Lithuania, Russia, Albania, Turkey, Syria, and China.
Presbyterians in 'America,
DISCUSSING a church merger the New York
Times lists the membership of the Presbyterian church in the United States of America as $2,004,467. Now just why do you suppose they used that dollar mark?
Motorboats to Be Quiet
A T THE close of the season of 1929 an invention had been perfected which will muffle the sound of yacht motors, and hereafter all manufacturers of outboard motors will equip their output with the new muffling device.
New Scheme for Killing Flies
ANEW screen for doors and windows kills the flies by electric current the moment the screen is touched. The device is simple. The screens are insulated and are charged with the house current. One such screen has been known to kill 2,500 flies in one day.
The Blind City of Adiyaman
IT IS claimed that in the city of Adiyaman, Turkey, there are only 210 persons whose sight remains, all the remaining seven thousand people of the city being either wholly or partially blind from trachoma. The government is now treating the whole populace of the city.
Weeds by the Billion
IN ONE spring wheat area last season, besides the wheat, thirty-three million bushels of weed seed was harvested, or at least the farmers were docked for that many bushels. It is estimated that the annual national loss from weeds is in the neighborhood of three billion dolla.rs.
The Impossible Telephone Trust
EpHE impossible telephone trust earns over •A- twelve per cent on its investment, 12.11 per cent, to be exact. Rates in New York city have just been increased, clue to the increased value of the trust’s property, which is due to the increased population. The shameless trust now makes a charge of five cents for telling its patrons the time of day. Hereafter, if a man on the street asks you for the time, you will first ask him to give you a nickel, to pay you for your trouble. Do not do anything to indicate that you are human. It might make people like you, or at least feel like tolerating you.
Railway Construction in Siberia
ONE of the greatest railway developments now taking place in the world is the construction of an 869-miie line in southwestern Siberia. More than 50,000 workers are employed on this job, which is now7 three-fourths completed.
New York’s Twelve Hundred
TN BRAGGING about New York’s skyscrapers -*• let us not forget the twelve hundred families below fourteenth street that live in rear houses, without decent light or air, or bathtubs, with sanitation that is a farce, in rooms that look as unsightly as they smell. New York has plenty to be ashamed of.
Russia’s Great Generators
THERE are now in process of construction at Schenectady four giant electric generators which will be installed on the Dneiper river in Russia. The generators, when erected, will he forty feet in height and forty-two feet in diameter. Each wall be able to do the work of six million Russian peasants.
To Hunt for Inca Gold -
A SMALL party of Americans are accompanying to Peru a gentleman who says he is the last of the Incas and that he alone knows where is the great golden chain estimated to be worth from fifty million to five hundred million dollars and buried in one of the Peruvian lakes. They will try to get the chain.
Women in Africa
ALL over Africa women are considered as . property. When an African man dies, his wives belong to his next-of-kin and can be sold as chattels. A law has been passed in South Africa legalizing this custom of marriage by purchase, but the effect, nevertheless, is that all women in Africa are slaves.
Jacksonville’s Municipal Plant
TACRSONVILLE’S municipal electric plant made a profit of $1,600,000 in 1929. If Chicago, instead of listening to some of Samuel Insull’s political and editorial henchmen, had kept control of her own public utilities she would not now be bankrupt and in disgrace in the eyes of the world.
Lost Art of Making Mummies
BERLIN undertakers claim that they have discovered the lost art of making mummies and that they can now fix up a body which will look as good a thousand years from now as it does at the time of death. But who wants to wait a thousand years to see whether they are correct ?
France’s Defensive Works
THE defensive v-orks which France is building on her northeastern frontier are expected to be completed in about five years and to cost not less than five hundred million dollars. They are said to include everything needed to protect their occupants against the most powerful shells and against gas.
No Strikes in China
THE new order of the Chinese government, that there must be no more strikes, looks as if the Chinese government had imported one of America’s injunction judges and was taking its orders from him as to how not to run a country. Chinese workers are much dissatisfied with the new ruling.
No Sleep for Fifteen Years '
MPaul Kern, employed in one of the gov-
« ernment offices at Budapest, Hungary, has not slept a wink since he was wounded by a Russian bullet in 1915. For years he has never gone to bed. His work sho-ws no signs of depreciation. He suffers an occasional headache, but that is all.
Population of France and Italy
ONCE the most populous nation in Europe, France has now fallen to fifth place. The population of Italy is now 41,000,000, while that of France remains at 40,000,000. Germany now has 64,000,000, and the British Isles have 73,000,000. Japan has 60,000,000, and Russia 115,000,000. "
The English Law on Blasphemy
A MEMBER of the British Parliament has 2 x moved a bill to prevent criminal proceedings for blasphemy, heresy, and atheism, on the ground that if the existing laws were enforced it ■would be necessary to send to prison the present bishop of Birmingham and many of his modernist colleagues.
The British King’s Speech
THE British king’s speech at the opening of J- the naval armament conference was broadcast or rebroadcast over somewhere between 270 and 280 stations. Results were good in all parts of the world except South Africa and Australia. Excellent reception was reported from New Zealand and Japan.
A Ton of Forged Notes
A T THE trial in Berlin of the men accused of forging a ton of Russian bank notes it
■was brought out that German and English capitalists and oil men were endeavoring by the forgeries to raise funds to split the valuable Georgian oil fields away from Russia. The plot failed through one man’s talking too much during a journey from Munich to London.
Hatry Gets Fourteen Years
TT TOOK Britain’s labor government only four -*■ months to send to prison for fourteen years the president of the Hatry companies that at one time transacted five hundred million dollars’ worth of business a year. The group issued fake stock and sold it as collateral for loans. Sounds like Teapot Dome, except that the outcome is so different.
The Seventy-five-Mile Guns
TpROM the battery of seven guns that fired •*- on Paris from a distance of seventy-five miles there were, all together, 367 shots fired. The calculations were extraordinarily accurate. The shells, weighing 264 pounds, were sent twenty-five miles up into the air. One of them killed eighty-eight persons. Even the curvature of the earth was figured in the German calculations.
Fewer Prison Riots In Sight ■
NEW YORK state, suddenly discovering that it does not pay to be too parsimonious, has raised the food allowance per prisoner from 21 to 26 cents a day. This will enable the 6,300 prisoners confined in the state prisons to have allowances of butter, sugar, and milk, heretofore denied to them. Even the new allowance is stingy. What kind of meal can be prepared and set before a hungry man for less than nine cents? One can hardly buy anything at all for • so small a sum.
Increased Profits of Corporations
TN THE seven years from 1922 to 1929 the
combined profits of all American corporations increased from $5,183,000,000 to $9,900,-000,000, an advance of ninety-one per cent. Wages in the meantime advanced but nineteen per cent. It is evident that there will soon be in America a stentorian demand for a larger distribution of the profits of work.
Hebrew Free Loan Association
DURING the year 1929 the Hebrew Free Loan Association of Brooklyn loaned $135,-
380, without interest, to 1,650 persons. The losses of the association over a period of a quarter of a century have been less than one-tenth of one per cent, which confirms our suspicion that the poor are the most honest people in the country.
Wolves at Chicago’s Door
THE past winter was noteworthy in Chicago for the reason that on one occasion three wolves rvere driven from cover on the very edge of the city. The wolves, the tracks of which had been seen, were located by airplane. One of them escaped, wounded, but the other two were slain. The severe winter to the north is blamed for their appearance so close to the city.
Lengthening the Canning Season
SOME of the larger canneries are now lengthening the canning season by keeping fruits in cold storage until they can be put in the cans. This seems like a very good arrangement, not only for the preservation of the fruits, but for the workers, who are thus provided with steadier employment and more reasonable hours of work.
Catering to Through Highway 'Traffic
A FEW years ago some of the smaller chambers of commerce, and perhaps some of the larger ones, were accused of scheming to have traffic routed through the centers of their cities, even when such routing was unfavorable to the travelers. This attitude is now7 being reversed and efforts are now being made to :route the traffic around the city instead of through it, so that through passengers will not be delayed and business thoroughfares will not be congested by out-of-town cars.
Progressive Maryland
fW THE ten states that have old age pension
systems, Maryland is the only state east of the Allegheny mountains with sufficient courage and liberality to take a stand on the right side of the question. Other states having old age pension systems are Kentucky, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Montana, and California.
Bribing to Get Patients
USINESS must be getting hard for the medicos in New York city, according to the testimony of Miss Frances Perkins, state industrial commissioner, before a legislative committee at Albany. She stated that some doctors bribe foremen with liquor prescriptions to get them to send them their injured workmen, and resort to other improper means to secure business.
Safe Transit of Ambassadors
A S AN act of courtesy the Russian govern-ment has recently permitted the new American ambassador to Persia to pass through Russia en route to his post, but it is interesting to note that when the Russian government wished to have its ambassador to Mexico to pass through America en route to her post the American government refused to grant the permission.
Common Labor Wages in Steel Plants
THE wage rates of common labor in American steel plants are from twenty-four to fifty-six cents an hour; but if it be complained that these rates of pay are small it can not be charged that the hours of work are few, because a recent investigation reveals that forty-five per cent of the steel workers are still working ten hours a day and twenty-seven per cent of them work seven full clays a week.
The Armour Annual Dinners
BY MEANS of the radio and talking movie the president of the Armour Company, this year, at the time when the Armour dinner is usually held, was able to address, simultaneously, eleven dinners and the entire staff of 2,500 men who constitute the Armour official ■ family. The dinners were held in ten cities scattered all the way from New York to Fort orth.
Fishbein on White Flour
r. Morris Fishbein, of the 'American Medical Journal, has been addressing the Nebraska Millers’ Association on the value of white bread.
Men Displaced by Machines
AKING American industry as a whole, the average rvage earner, on account of larger, speedier, and more efficient machinery, pro
Doctor Fishbein knows that a greater consumption of white bread would be good for the millers, and exceedingly good for the doctors. That is why we recommend the entire wheat instead of the white, and why w-e are unpopular with both millers and doctors.
The European Power Trust
AGGING far behind, but nevertheless headed in the same direction, Europe is now
proceeding with the development of a power trust similar to that which has taken possession of Chicago and points east, north, south and west. The European trust is an infant as yet, having only $26,000,000 of stock value, but it will make a sizable and toothsome bite for the American Octopus when they get ready to take it over. There are several Americans in on the deal.
Vaccination Death at Bloomington
rank L. Pierce, Jr., 18 years of age, 306 South Linden St., Normal, Bloomington,
duced more than half again as much merchandise in 1927 as he did in 1919. In one automobile plant two hundred men now turn out eight thousand automobile frames a day. The race between man and the machine is now on, with the man losing the race.
How Many Idle Can Be Handled?
rthur Brisbane raises the question as to about how many idle men can be handled in
this country. Experience shows that five million can be handled. They are the older men, whose life work is more nearly done. The second five million would be younger men, more rebellious, harder hitters. They would be very hard to handle. He thinks the third five million would wreck the country, and it is better to so plan that they wall not be idle. We think so.
One Income in Ten Taxable
UT of twenty-four million heads of families in the United States, only ten per cent have
Ill., is dead from blood poisoning brought on by vaccination. He was vaccinated at the age of thirteen and has not had a well day since. Tuberculosis follow’ed the injection of the pus and was followed by a succession of abscesses. In this connection we mention that in England and Wales only 60 children under five died of smallpox in the last twenty-one years, but 202 died of vaccination.
A Broad-minded Judge
edebal Judge Charles C. Simons, of Detroit, recently rebuked agents of the department
annual incomes large enough to be included ■within the taxable list, but the number of persons paying taxes on annual incomes of one million dollars or more has about doubled in the past year. There are novz four hundred ninety-six such persons. Of this number, twenty-four persons had an average annual income of more than ten million dollars each, all unearned.
Hell Versus Tonsilitis
ean Si-iaileb Matthews, of the University
of Chicago, in a recent lecture on the train
of justice for hounding one Paczkowski for nearly ten years, because, back in the days of insanity, in 1920, he was found to have a membership card in the Communist party in his pocket. Since then, Paczkowski, -who denies that he ever believed in Communism, has been educating himself in English and in science and has been in business. The department of justice agents arrested him when he sought final citizenship as an American citizen. The chances are good that he will make a much better American citizen than the ones who tried to bring about his expulsion from the country.
ing of young ministers, said that the young minister of the future must stop searing people and substitute for threats of hell-fire an intelligent knowledge of what is psychologically or pathologically wrong with his parishioner-patient, so that the patient may be sent to the proper specialist for cure. Sinfulness may only be a ease of bad tonsils. If anything could be more silly than such a talk it would be hard to imagine it. The tonsils have their use, and the truth on the subject of hell-fire can be had free by anybody. There is no fire in the Bible hell; none at all.
The Five-Day Week
TN THE United States there are now 292 manufacturing plants that are operated on a five-day schedule. Seventy per cent of these are located in New York state, principally in the metropolitan area, the largest Jewish city in the world. The five-day week, no doubt originally a matter of convenience to Jewish manufacturers, is now becoming one of necessity for the country as a whole, on account of the inroads machinery is making in the field of labor.
Liberty in Alabama ■
T A coal mine in Dora, Alabama, no person may deliver groceries or other articles to the homes of miners without a permit signed by the company. The houses leased to the miners may house only the persons named in the leases. Visitors may not be entertained except with the employer’s approval. Possibly babies not named in the leases may be admitted to these homes; not sure about this. Dora must have some wonderful efficiency experts.
Einstein’s Idea of Peace
rofessor Einstein, who has set more people thinking than any other man of science of our day, suggests that nothing in the world would happen to any nation that made up its mind to disarm and did disarm. Everything indicates that Einstein has the right idea and that the only nations that really have reason to fear anybody or anything are those that have large armaments and depend upon the arm of force to retain their place in the sun.
Great Demand for Alarm Clocks Soon
HE Boston Transcript, wu'iting editorially of the great need for lay preachers, says: “The time may come when ministers will once again have to earn their living by the labor of their hands as did Paul. The support of the ministry is becoming an increasingly difficult task for depleted congregations. Unless one misreads them, the signs of the times point to a growing disinclination to support an adequately paid ministry. Something like a collapse of the present system may bo more imminent in some places than we choose to recognize.” The Transcript goes on to say: “Christ is not quoted as having said much about great church edifices and pulpit preachers. His command was that all believers should witness,”
Carbon Monoxide Deaths
EATH by the slow process of constipation, due to the eating of white bread, is very common. After the disease has sufficiently developed it is known by several hundred fancy names, all of which mean the same thing. Death by the breathing of carbon monoxide fumes is more rare, yet in the year 1929 one insurance company^ lost 32 policyffiolders who allowed their automobile engines to run in closed garages and died in consequence.
The Hanson Landing Signal
HE Hanson landing signal, for bringing an airplane safely to earth in the midst of a fog, consists of parallel cables laid on the ground leading to an airport. One gives off a succession of dots and the other a succession of dashes. The aviator flies down the lane between them. At the proper place he receives a final signal notifying him to shut off his engine and glide to earth. The signals disclose his correct height above the earth.
Moscow’s Huge Bells
JN THE demolition of churches which is taking place in Moscow the huge bells are in many eases so unwieldy7 that they are being demolished in the belfries. The bells are being melted, and their copper, silver, or bronze is being used for commercial purposes. The closing of churches is on the increase. In the Ukraine there were 202 closures in the last four months, as against only 364 in the preceding five-year period.
Thomas Lamont's Funny Speech
TT SEEMS that Thomas W. Lamont of the -*■ Morgan company made a speech in New York recently deploring and abhorring the slander that Big Business is for war because of the profits there are in it, and then the editor of the Detroit News got busy and dug up Lamont’s war record; and it is enough to keep Lamont quiet the rest of his life. It seems that it was Thomas W. Lamont that two weeks before the formal declaration of war notified the government and the people of America that if Congress would declare war the Morgan firm would start them off with a billion dollars in cash; so there is probably not another man in the Western World from whom such a speech would sound so inconsistent.
Skyscrapers Endangered
MOST New York skyscrapers rest on concrete foundations, some of which foundations have already been reduced to mush by the sulphur waters that are now prevalent in the city. One firm burns ten thousand tons of bituminous coal every day, three per cent of which, or three hundred tons, is sulphur. Besides being dangerous to foundations, this amount of sulphur burned daily in the congested area of a great city is inimical to public health.
Oppressions of the Poor
A CHEF, now employed in the state of Washington, but formerly and for twenty years a chef in California, writes:
“I was reading your employment agency swindle; and it is as you say, and worse. I was night steward at a prominent hotel in Santa Barbara for about a year; and while there the head waiter, head bus boy, head bell boy, and head steward received each $5 a month from the help under them, to hold their jobs; and not only that, but two or three from each department were fired every day, and new hands put on.
“One time, after securing a position as chef, the man-catcher (employment agent) called me back, took me behind a screen, and made a proposition that if I sent to her for help she would split the office fee with me. I felt so wounded that I never went to her agency any more.”
Fraternal and Religious Homes
THE Knights of Pythias, Pythian Sisters, Masons, Eastern Star, Odd Fellows, Rebekahs, and fourteen other fraternal organizations support in the United States 111 homes for the aged, about 70 persons in each home, with an average cost per inmate per year of $457.03. '
There are 475 homes for the aged and infirm run by religious organizations, about 67 persons in each home, with an average cost per inmate per year of $198, exclusive of contributions and donations in kind upon which it was difficult to obtain estimates of values. The average annual cost per capita of eight designated Methodist homes was about $358 and suggests that it costs about $1 a day to house an adult comfortably in an institutional home. There seems to be little economy in housing numbers of people in one large home.
Mrs. Eddy Mentally Murdered
T'HE Nation has an interesting story about Adam H. Dickey’s Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy. It seems that before her death she asked Mr. Dickey to write a history of her declining years and to say that she was mentally murdered, and he solemnly covenanted with her to do it, and did it. After the book was published the Christian Science dictatorship suppressed the book and regained possession of all except two copies which are in the Library of Congress at Washington, and a photostat copy which is in the possession of the New York Public Library. Just what it is to be “mentally murdered” we do not know, and if “all is good, there is no evil” it would be hard even to imagine such a thing.
In Danger over the Prayer Book
HRHE bishops of the Church of England now realize that they are in danger of losing their jobs as a result of putting into general use a prayer book which was several times rejected by the British House of Commons. The archbishop recently told his fellow bishops that the situation is precarious and that they are walking along a road beneath which are volcanic forces. At any moment a crack might occur. Doctor Temple declared that at present the church administration is conducted on the edge of a precipice, while the bishop of Winchester said, “We are face to face with the gravest conflict between the spiritual and the secular since the Reformation.” All the bishops see the alarm clock and the overalls in the distance, and they do not like it.
The District Leader and Crime
THE one that is directly responsible for the crime in his political district is the district leader himself; so the Boston Post tells us. It is his alliances with the gangsters in the district that make him their acknowledged leader. The Post tells us what happens when a gangster gets caught in a crime:
The moment he gets into “trouble” lie calls on the political leader for help. This is forthcoming at once. Whatever influence the leader can exert on the police, he uses. If that fails, then the magistrate who owes his office to the district leader is appealed to. If that appeal fails, then the district leader has his own man in the district attorney’s office, he being allmved to select one assistant district attorney.
GOLDEN AGE
The above paragraph explains in a few words ■why we have ten thousand murders a year in this country and so small a percentage of convictions for crime that they are not worth considering. It is well known that in America today murder is a regular profession, with its scale of prices, especially in Chicago, known to many persons.
Welfare Work in Rockford
SUBSCRIBER in Bockford, Illinois, sends us the following clipping from the Rockford Daily Register and calls our attention to the fact that Rockford has just recently completed a fund of $185,000, with the slogan, “A little for you, a lot for them.” He then adds that the clipping shows that an appeal for bread and groceries resulted in two pairs of old shoes for nine starving children, and wants to know what we think of it. But we prefer to reprint the clipping and let it tell its own story:
Editor, R-G: This afternoon, Thursday, Nov. 14th, I was referred to a family which needed attention. Here is what I found: Nine children, some pale and sick, father out of work, will do anything he can get. (Carpenter, cement work trade.) Needs everything. Mother was asked if Welfare sent any groceries, she said: “No, but I need them. They gave me two pairs of old shoes for my children and two pairs of old shoes for my husband.” Today she had two quarts of milk for those nine children. One child sleeps in a box with rags in it for a bed. That mother will enter the hospital shortly to give birth to another child. I did not see any clothes or necessities for that event. The immediate need is food and work for the husband. If you are interested, the paper will give you the name and address. READER.
Ga-gee Nee-dsu—My Own Jesus
ROM the American Bible Society Report for 1926 we subjoin an extract from one of their workers in China which we are sure will be read with interest. This comes to us from Shanghai, and refers to the experiences of Thomas Torrance among the Chiang tribesmen far in the interior:
I have told you before how in my researches I was the first to discover their Jewish-like worship. On this visit I made another remarkable discovery. You "will remember that they use a sheet of white paper in their houses and a white stone on the house-top as emblematic of the divine holiness.
I now found that a roll of white paper is carried to the altar as prophetic of the fact that God would send from heaven a man to be the real sacrificial Sin-Bearer. I could scarce believe my ears when I heard this. Once I was told, I made more inquiries, and priest after priest assured me that it was even so. They showed me the roll itself.
Every year, they explained, a new or fresh white sheet of paper was added to it. So definite is this significance of the white roll that a human likeness or figure, made of reddish grass, was inserted in the heart of it. .
The man sent from heaven -was to die for men’s sins. Within recent times this was changed for a skull, a miniature monkey’s skull being chosen to preserve, presumably, its non-bulky appearance. I made careful inquiries if this substitution of a skull was really a recent innovation and was assured it was.
The name given to the roll, which is ten inches long’ by five in diameter, is Ga-gee Nee-dsu; more often Nee-dsu. In two places it is Je-dsu. “Ga-gee” means my own or mine ■ my Nee-dsu. I have now a roll in my possession, bought from the family of a deceased priest.
The priests were astonished to hear that the sound of the name of their sin-bearer was not far removed from ours, Jesus. They have no explanation to offer of the origin of the custom; it is simply a time-immemorial one.
Stealing Judge Rutherford’s Thunder
HE Kirksville (Mo.) Weekly Graphic seems to think that somebody is trying to steal some of Judge Rutherford’s thunder. In its issue of December 6, 1929, it says:
George U. Harvey, president of Queens Borough, Long Island, in a letter to President Hoover, proposes the construction of a 200-foot coast-to-coast highway from Maine to Washington state to cost $900,000,000, as a means of promoting the prosperity of the country. He explains that the -work -would give employment to thousands of men in eighteen states and would be a real factor in promoting individual prosperity. Mr. Harvey states that Fred Shepherd, engineer of highways for Queens Borough, conceived the plan. The Graphic doubts the genuineness of that statement. In 1928 Judge Rutherford, of Brooklyn, the most profound Bible student of today, made the same proposition in one of his recent books as a beginning of the solution of the labor problem. However, it does not matter -who conceived the plan, it is worthy the attention of the profoundcst statesmen. This country has 350 billions of developed wealth with 1000 billions yet to develop. When the Government begins to develop this vast wealth for the benefit of all the people instead of permitting it to be exploited by the few for the benefit of the few, every able-bodied man will have employment at good wages for a hundred years to come,
If you have not' read the paragraph in Government (which the editor regards as Judge Rutherford’s most important book), you should see it. We could copy the paragraph here, but would prefer to have you get the book and read it for yourself. You will find it on page 314. However, not to be mean, we will give you one sentence out of that paragraph:
Suppose a great highway should be built from ocean to ocean; power lines paralleling boulevards; in the center part provision made for railways or rapid transit; on either side wide boulevards for heavy motor trucks: outside of this, and adjoining on either side, wide boulevards for pleasure ears; and beside each of these, and on the outside, footpaths for those who desire to walk; along the entire system of the highway, and at intervals of every few miles, lodgings provided wherein the people could find rest and comfort and food at a minimum cost..
A Good Joke on a Cancer By Mrs. H. M. Burnham
1M[Y HUSBAND has been afflicted for several years with what the doctors called skin cancers, on ears and lower lip. X-ray treatments seemed only to aggravate them. Two of them proved pretty serious and called for operations, causing scars and much suffering. Something over a year ago another appeared on the opposite ear and grew to be the size of a pea. Meantime I had been reading in The Golden Age of the wonderful cures through the discarding of aluminum cooking utensils.
As- my husband is a great coffee drinker, among the first to go was the percolator. About two months later, one evening as he sat reading, he happened to brush his ear with his hand and off dropped the cancer on the floor. Can you imagine that?
It left the ear as smooth as ever, and no sign of any since; and I am sure it is not imagination that we are all better in every way.
I am writing this in hope that it will help someone. No more aluminum in this house, and we say, Hurrah for The Golden Age and its good news! and give it a boost whenever we can,
Is This Fair?
IT WAS Herbert Drake who dug up from the
Boy's Own Paper the words antiundenomi-nationalistieally (29) and antiinterdenomina-tionalistically (32), and then Melvin Alair, of Michigan, the real trouble maker, came along with that evil word proantitransubstantiation-alistically (36), of his oven invention, but nevertheless apparently a good word. It was not, however, until after Boy Van Le Cair, of Michigan, dug up that Indian name of Lake Chaugog-a g o g in a n a h a ugagogchauhunagungamaug (40) that the thing took on a sinister aspect.
Pretty soon Monsieur Alair went down into his dictionary once more and when he emerged with his word chastising some for acting or thinking semiproantitransubstantiationalistical-ly (40) we all thought he was ultrasemiproanti-transubstantiationalistically (45) inclined, and said so. Perhaps it would have been just as well for us if the thing had stopped there. But along came H. B. Bladder, of Oregon, insinuating that if we keep this matter before our readers it may result in ultrasemiproantitransubstan-tiationalisticomaniacisms. And he may he right; for there are 52 letters in his word.
Thereupon D. Culbertson, of Virginia, reminded us that Wlanfairpwellgwyngyllgogery-chwyrndrobwlltysilliogogogoch is the name of a little village in the island of Anglesey, North. Wales, called Llanfair for short. The name is analyzed-by. Sir John Morris Jones, professor of Welsh at Bangor University, North Wales, and a native of Anglesey; and its meaning given as Alary-church of the Pool of White Hazels rather near the swift whirlpool of the church of Tysilio of the Red Cave’. The village is becoming popular as a vacation resort”.
After writing us like that, Mr. Culbertson, who is a successful business man, .wanted to know if this would qualify him as an entrant in the longest-word contest. Counting up and seeing that there are 56 letters in his word, we reply sadly that it will, and that he shall be placed in the same ward with Drake, Alair, Van Le Cair and Bladder.
Meantime The Oklahoma Hornet butted in, and in 72 letters gave us one of the worst-looking words we ever saw. We print all their insinuations without even replying to them, for we know what is coming :
A reader has sent us another long word. This word is Vierwaldstaedterseeinsehraubendampferaktiencon-currenzgesellschaftsbureau, and it means office of the stock company that runs a screw-propeller saloon steamboat on the lake of the four forest cantons—in Switzerland. The word is German, and no one can compete with them for word-joinery.
At this point Mr. Ripley, of cartoon fame, broke into our private playground and, “believe it or not,” stated that in his judgment the chemical name for the Swedish medicine “Gar-dan” should carry off the prize:
Natriumdimethylaminophenyldimethylpyraz-olonphenyldimethylpyrazoionmethylamiiiometh-ansyre, 87 letters.
But a disease like this spreads rapidly. The Baltimore 8-un was guilty of the following. Let them take full blame for it. What they have said may all be true. We do not know. Sauerkraut is a language not well spoken in this office. There are few here that can handle it successfully. It is Viorwaldstaedterseedampfschiff-fahrtsaktie n g e s ellschaf tsoberverwaltungsbu-reaudieneruniformsknopfpolitur, a German word of 102 letters, “Polish of the uniform buttons of the office servants of the main administration of the steamship society of Vierwald-staedter Lake.”
Then wo got the following letter from Willa1, m A. Vinson, of California; and we take readers into our confidence by letting them see this 99-letter word in all its monstrosity. Mr. Vinson starts out rationally enough, but we want everybody to see how he winds up:
I have just read with interest your comment on page 140 of The Golden Age of Nov. 27, in which you suggest that one Mr. Alair is “ ultrasemiproantitran-substantiationalistically inclined ’ ’.
.Your brief statement of the matter docs not make it clear whether he is psyehoultrasemiproantitransub-stantiationalistieally inclined or theologieoultrasemi-proantitransubstantiationalistieally inclined; but from the nature of the subject, one would naturally infer the latter.
May I ask if he is sufficiently aggressive and hopeful as to be really prognostieotheologieoultrasemipro-antitransubstantiationalistically active? If so, may we not get at the germ of the matter by asking if it is contagious, or infectious? Or is he idioprognostico-t h e o logicoultr asemiproantitr ansubstantiationalistical-ly inclined?
Since it does not appear, from what I have read of the matter, that he is a dummyhunkerer, I suggest that we grant that he is neither isonincoinidioprognos-ticotheologicoultrasemiproantitransubstantiationalisti-cally nor orthonincomidioprognosticotheologicoultra-semiproaiititransubstantiationalistically inclined, and that being otherwise relatively normal he is not autosub so ran am b ul o pathicinf rasui j urotranshadealultra-subecclesiastieoprotransubstantiationalistically prejudiced.
Here is where we have to take our readers aside and ask them a plain question: Do you think that Mr. Vinson is still sane; or, taking our cue from Mr. Bladder (and apologizing to him for it), are we forced to believe that this is just one of those superpseudopsycho-physiologicoautosomnambulopathicinfrasuijur-otranshadealultrasubecclesiasticotransubstanti-ationalisticalomaniacismatieal expressions that are liable to escape from him when unduly stirred dictionariwise? We fear so; and for his own sake, and for the sake of all the rest of us, we drop the whole thing right here. We hate to be forced into using a word of 136 letters in order to make our position clear. The thing cannot occur again.
P.S. In a moment of benevolence we sent this manuscript on to Mr. Vinson just to give him one more chance to repent or reform or something before we should expose him to the whole world and it would be for ever too late. And now just see what he has done in the paragraph below! It speaks for itself! We could have cut this paragraph off and saved him something of the fury and scorn that will come from Drake, Alair, Van Le Cair, Bladder and Culbertson and Ripley and the editor of the Hornet, and other editors, but we shall be just. He shall never send us another word (of 229 letters and get it published), not so long as he lives. He is all done, right now.
Dear Editor :
No, don’t “drop” it! Just lay it down carefully! Rough treatment might disrupt the delicate matter again and cause complications with some such infection as baciliostrcptostephylococcointracerebrogangli-onoelephanti oproultrahyperheterogcneologogiganti-hysteriocontranincomidiosubsomnambulopathicoinfra-suijurotransh adealultrasubecclesiastieoproantitran-substantiationalistiealographophrenia, which seems to be lurking about the office ready for a stimulus for action.:
Very respectfully,
William A. Vinson.
P.S. What about the poor believer? W.A.V. [P.P.S. .What about the poor typesetter????]
“Be Your Own Boss” By Theodore Milias {Wisconsin}
HAVING read “Ode to the Milkman”, by
Charles Morrell, I felt that you might be interested in the methods used by the companies putting out extracts, spices, toilet articles and
“I Have Set AVaichmen Upon Thy AValls, 0 Jerusalem—■
proprietary medicines through wagon-drivers and house-to-house salesmen. Their methods are quite similar to those enumerated by the milkman.
Before entering the subject I wish to state that the article, “Ode to the Milkman,” should be in the hands of every milk producer. The president of the condensary where I sold my milk some years ago advised me that the reason it was impossible to pay the farmers the cost of production for their milk was that the wagondrivers got it all, receiving six to eight dollars a day.
Now for the medicine manufacturers. Some years ago, being very hard up and having lost my alfalfa seeding, with no money to buy seed and consequently no hay, I reduced the milking herd and looked around for some cash income to help along with the living expenses.
I had seen advertisements from time to time announcing ‘large incomes in your own business’, “Make Big Money,” “Be Your Own Boss,” such captions in large type. These ads were being run by companies from whose representatives we were buying our flavoring extracts continually.
One day when the representative from one of the largest firms, one located in Freeport, Ill., stopped at my farm, I began questioning him as to the advisability of starting retailing for them. He was very anxious that I take up the work; and explained that he would help me on making out my first order, as he knew what I would sell in quantities and, instead of each carrying a dozen slow sellers, I could get one or two of each of those from him. Afterwards I found out that his interest was not in me as much as in the $50 promised him by the company for each new retailer. This proved merely a promise, however, as in reality he was given credit for $50 he owed the company for products put out on time for which he would never be paid.
“AVhich Shall Nevei Nor 1
I read their barrels of literature and decided to retail. My only hitch was that I couldn’t see the joke of going hopelessly into debt to the company for products which I would secure, and letting out these products in small time accounts to the customers, for which I would never get paid. I therefore refused to ask friends to sign as guarantors, and, after much correspondence, the company finding out that I had a satisfactory equity in a 120-acre farm, I was contracted up. The contract was not long. The main points in it were that I buy the goods of the company and they could take away my contract any minute they didn’t like to live up to it.
…