Golden Age, June 25, 1930

Download: PDF — Golden Age, June 25, 1930

Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

fflnnfflHmimimmmsmmmmimmsmmymmi

in this issue

PRESUMPTUOUS SINS

Complete text of second of a series of lectures by Judge Rutherford regarding “prohibition’', broadcast in a national chain program.

’’PEOPLE VS. WALL STREET”

WHEN THE WORLD WENT MAD

LESS LABOR FOR MOLDERS

W. C. T. U. HEAD "DEMANDS”

mmuimiimiiiiiiimmmmiiimmmHimmmHmmiiH.

every other WEDNESDAY

ftve cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign i.yo

Volume XI.No.2Sl

JUNE 25, 1930

C O N 1’ E N T S

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

Unemiiloyment in the

United States ...... 615

Old Age Pensions in New York 617

Reduced Labor eop. Molders . . 617

SOCIAL AND 'EDUCATIONAL

Pickings ......... 614

Fast Pace of the U. S. A. . . 615

Queens’ Traveling Library . . 616

In Toledo in February .... 619

Class op ’30 ........ 621

When the World Went Mad . 623

The Threat of the Chain Banks 615

Samuel Untermyer’s Big Fee . 616

Coffee Follows Rubber and Sugar 616

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

Britain and France to Violate

Belgium ........ 615

Massacre at Lipari Islands . . 615

Tyranny in Ohio . . . . .617

America’s Vast Military

Establishment ...... 627

W. C. T. U. President’s ‘1 Demand ’ ’ 638

HOME AND HEALTH

Comfrey Root

MANUFACTURING AND MINING

Oleo Made of Copra .... 615

End of Kitchen Coal Stoves . . 616

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

People vs. Wall Street . . . 611

Merging the Steamship Lines . 614

Income-Taxes in Britain . . . 614

All-Air Service to the Coast . 614

Fords eire Piling It Up . . . 614

Power Trust Grabs Greece . . 615

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

The Growth of Los Angeles . . 622

The Hotel St. George .... 628

Items of Interest from Daily Mail 632

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Religious Fakirs the Meanest

Kind .......... 628

A Question and Answer . . . 630

Why Reverend Pierce Was Peeved 632

Presumptuous Sins ..... 633

Published every oilier Wednesday at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., ,U. S. A., by WOODWORTH, KNORR & MARTIN

Copartners and Proprietors Address: 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., Z7. S. A„ CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH.. Editor ROBERT J. MARTIN.. Business Manager NATHAN H. KNORR.. Secretary and Treasurer’

Five Cents a Copy—$1.00 a Year Make Remittances to THE GOLDEN AGE Notice to Subscribers: We do not, as a mile, send an acknowledgment of a renewal or a new subscription. A renewal blank (carrying notice of expiration) is sent with the Journal one month before the subscription expires. Change of address, when requested, may be expected to appear on address label within one month.

The Golden Age is published in six languages: English, Finnish, German, Nor* wegian, Polish, and Swedish.

Foreign Offices -

British .......... , . 34 Craven Terrace, London, W. 2, England

Canadian .40 Irwin Avenue, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada

Australasian . . 7 Beresford Rd., Strathfield, Sydney, N. S. W«, Australia

South Africa............6 Lelie Street, Capo Town, South Africa

Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879«

Golden Age

Voluma XI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, June 25, 1930 Number 281

°People vs* Wall Street”

TN THIS 272-page $2.50 book, published by A The Vanguard Press, New York, William. Floyd, true American, able editor of The Arbitrator^ under the guise of a mock trial, has shown that it would not be possible to imagine more selfish and unreliable men than are at the head of practically every Big Business enterprise in this country; and the grimmest part of the trial is that the evidence is presented as collected from the public expressions and public acts of such men and named:

Calvin Coolidge Charles Evans Hughes Charles M. Schwab J. D. Rockefeller, Jr. George B. Cortelyou National City Bank J. P. Morgan Harrison Williams John D. Ryan A. W. Robertson Rob Roy McGregor Henry Ford Owen D. Young John J. Raskob George E. Roberts Roger W. Babson E. H. H. Simmons Herbert Hoover . Jacob Schiff Interborough Co.

organizations as here

A. W. Mellon

Arthur AV. Loasby Harold G. Aron Michael H. Cahill George Oxley J. Ogden Armour L. F. Loree

0. P. Van Sweringen Judge Elbert Gary Daniel G. Reed August Belmont

N. Y. Stock Exchange Nelson, Cook & Co. Thomas W. Lamont George F. Baker Bruce Barton .. Otto H. Kahn

M. H. Aylesworth Matthew S. Sloan

From this galaxy of talent, which will at once be recognized as fully fitted to speak for Wall Street, there is wrung the unwilling testimony that the much-vaunted “service” is self-service, that Big Business is controlled by persons that know nothing about it, that the great utilityholding companies could close their doors for a year without impairing service or interrupting dividends, that “paying the highest possible wage” means hiring at the lowest possible figure, and that those who most successfully mulct the public are most honored in Wall Street.

Glancing through the pages of this wonderfully interesting and informative book, we find the utter shamelessness and dishonesty of Big Business brought to light on every page. Lying is nothing, stealing is nothing, principle and even decency are laid aside in the mad rush to ‘heap treasure together for the last days’. Some extracts illustrate:

Q. After Robert A. Stewart had deceived the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, what happened? A. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., managed to have Stewart ousted, but the company gave him a pension of $50,000 a year.

Q. Bid the honest workers get pensions too? A. Don’t you understand? Stewart had managed the Standard of Indiana so that stockholders made enormous percentages each year. He deserved some recompense.

Q. So when his attempt to conceal $757,000 from his own company was detected after six years and he had to return the bonds, he was given a pension as an appreciation of his efforts in overcharging the public and in violating his sacred trust? A. Don’t bo too hard on Stewart. He was acquitted by the courts.

If you wonder why the Standard Oil Company of Indiana was able to pay such a handsome pension, and wander farther in the book, you find the explanation in another tilt between the witness and the counsel for the people, as follows:

Q. What has been your most successful investment? A. The $100,000 I put into Standard Oil of Indiana before 1903. That investment is now worth $215,000,000.

Q. I suppose you mean 215 thousand. A. No: 215 million is right. You can figure it yourself

from tho stock records. I bought the stock in the early days at par ($100) giving me 1,000 shares. I spent all the regular dividends, ranging from 10 to 32 percent a year, but I reinvested the extra cash dividends and kept all the stock dividends. The first big plum was in 1903, when the company gave me $850,000 as an extra cash dividend. I immediately bought 2,125 more shares of stock, which was all I could get with the price at $400. That gave me 3,125 shares. The next extra cash dividend was 450 percent in 1906, amounting to $1,405,250 on my 3,125 shares. With that I bought 1,400 more, the price then being about $1,000 a share. After that the price rose to $6,900 a share and I was tempted to sell out for $31,222,500, but I held on and was justified in my confidence for in 1912 came a stock dividend of 2,900 percent, giving me 131,225 additional shares, bringing my total to 135,750 shares. Soon after that the market value rose to $950 a share, bringing my investment to $128,962,500, but I did not sell. In 1920, a stock dividend of 159 percent was declared, giving me 203,625 additional shares and bringing my total to 339,375 shares of $100 each. The par was then split four for one, giving me 1.357,500 shares of $25 each. The next extra stock dividend was 100 percent in 1922, making my holdings 2,715,000 shares. In 1929, the company made me a present of 1,357,500 shares, by a 50 percent stock dividend, bringing my total to 4,072,500 shares which, at a price of $53 a share, are now worth $215,842,500. My income on the original $100,000 investment is $10,181,250 each year.

Q. That should astonish even Wall Street. A. Not at ail. I was a comparative piker. If I had bought on a margin instead of oatright, I would have made real money. John D. Rockefeller started with no capital and accumulated over a billion dollars. The possibilities are boundless.

Of the trimmings that Mr. Floyd has given United States Steel, Mr. Schwab, the Pennsylvania Bailroad Company, the Telephone Trust, the Power Trust, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the J. P. Morgan company, the Aluminum Trust, the United States Government and the strong and silent statesman, who was so strong and so silent that he never had an idea on any subject, any one is worth the price of the book.

Items that will catch the eye of the reader are Babson’s admission that forty million workers are controlled by fifteen thousand business men: that whenever there is a merger and new stock is issued it is John and Mary that have to dig down in their pockets and find the extra cash for the new dividends that have never before been paid; that though the Steel Trust had $40,000,000 increased business in 1928 its payroll was $17,000,000 less; and that in the reorganization of large enterprises the lawyers charge $500 a day and the banks make charges running into the millions, all of which must come out of the common people to whom the book is dedicated in a single line reading “To the Victims”.

It seems that in 1923 the average stockholder in General Motors received $467, but. in five years this annual payment was increased by $1,974. Meantime the average wages of employees ascended by the dizzying amount' of $62. This is about thirty-two times as much increase for the stockholder as it is for the employee, but it shows that John and Mary were not entirely forgotten.

It makes you love the Steel Trust when you read that in one year it spent ten million dollars in the construction of new buildings, in order to furnish employment; but it chills the ardor of your love when you learn that this -was directly after a cut in wages that saved the company $120,000,000. They still had $110,000,000 in change left over.

Referring to the slaughter in front of the Marion cotton mills, Marion, N. C., when 23 strikers wore shot in the back and six of them slain, there is the following by-pass:

Q. In the last slaughter you have mentioned, what casualties did your sheriffs sustain? A. Sheriff Adkins was attacked by a sixty-fivc-year-old man named Jonas with a stick and one of the deputies had his cheek cut by a bullet.

Q. What happened to Jonas? A. He was handcuffed and taken to a hospital where lie died with the handcuffs still on.

Q. Was Adkins injured sufficiently to need hospital attention? A. No.

For a glimpse at the “holy of holies” of American finance consider the following:

Q. How do you manage to evade the usury law? A. There is always some good way of evading every law. When Judge Gary was a comparatively inexperienced lawyer, he was asked by J. Pierpont Morgan how a certain transaction, could be put through. Mr. Gary investigated and reported back that it could not be done, as it was illegal, to which Mr. Morgan countered that he did not hire a lawyer to tell him what he could not do, but to find a method of doing it. We evade the usury law by purchasing the borrower ’s paper at a discount instead of lending’ to him direct, or by charging a premium or bonus for ths loan, or by dealing through' a corporation which exempts the loan from usury.

There is an embarrassing set of questions and answers on the distribution of wealth in the country—a question as to the sanity of a system under which fourteen men have incomes averaging $7,000,000 a year, while the average American has less than $1,300. Recent figures show that in 1915, 2 percent of the people owned 60 percent of the wealth, and that in 1925 ownership was narrowing dowm, only 1 percent of the people owning 59 percent of the wealth.

Judge Walter Clark said of the fortunes of millionaires that “none of the fortunes could have been accumulated except out of the enormous profits derived from public utilities; that these fortunes control politics, furnish the means of filling legislatures, Congress and public offices of all kinds with the agents of special privilege, and to execute the orders of predatory wealth; that they corrupt public life, destroy equality and debauch morality and public opinion by systematic propaganda”.

It makes you feel sick to find that during the World War the American people were urged to ‘give until it hurt’, and that out of the proceeds of the First Liberty Loan the tidy little sum of $400,000,000 was turned over to J. P. Morgan & Company to pay the debt which Britain ow’ed to them. It makes you feel sick too to know that Senate Document No. 259, which describes the colossal profits made by Big Business during the World War, cannot be had by the common people.

You love your country. Of course you do. But you do not feel altogether easy when you “remember that Diaz, put in power in Nicaragua by the United States, sanctioned the sale of 51 percent of his country’s national bank to the Guaranty Trust Company; that a commission, two of whom are appointed by American bankers, supervises the customs of Bolivia; that our Supreme Court is the arbiter of Salvador’s disputes; that an American financial adviser exercises control in Haiti; that Cuba can make no loan without consulting the United States; that two American corporations have in the past controlled Honduras; that American bankers control the business of Guatemala and Costa Rica; and that, all told, we dominate twenty-one Latin-American countries”.

It seems that by the device of the Pennroad Corporation the Pennsylvania Railroad has been able to do all kinds of things that would otherwise be illegal for it to do. The ownership of the two companies is identical. The consciences of all concerned have become seared. Here is another gem:

Q. Under the Esch-Cummins Act, what amount of the earnings of the railroads is the-Government entitled to ? A. Fifty percent of the net earnings above 6 percent.

Q. Is it true that the Toonerville Trolley has paid, but that at last reports the New York Central, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, Lehigh Valley, Union Pacific and Illinois Central had not paid? A. The Interstate Commerce Commission valued the New York Central at $2,080,363,422, and as its income was $124,821,805, the net return was exactly 6 percent to the dollar, so the Government got nothing.

Q. If the Company’s own book value had been taken, what would have been the result? A. The New York Central would have had to pay $9,500,000 to the Government. ,

Q. Does it appear sane to you that numerous experts should be paid salaries for many months to reach a conclusion that one clerk could have arrived at in one day? A. The exact capitalization value on a 6 percent basis was a coincidence.

We cannot undertake to make a more extended notice; but after you have read the Interborough story you will understand perfectly w’hy Mr. Charles Evans Hughes is back in the Supreme Court, and when you have read the story of the Telephone Trust you will see clearly that Big Business is utterly shameless and indecent, in its greed for profits.

The reader is let in for a treat in the expose of the Aluminum Trust, in which, by the way, The Golden Age comes in for honorable mention. He sees Mr. Hughes shining again as counsel for the American Woolen Company of polecat fame. His present position is a much more honorable one.

The section devoted to the Power Trust is wmrth much more than the price of the book; and in the chapter devoted to the inconsistent sayings of Mr. Coolidge and the Schwab-Shearer shipbuilding snarl there is enough material for a good-sized book, although it is all crammed into a few pointed, biting questions and answers.

Mr. Floyd has the rare faculty of putting more information in ten lines than some men can put in ten pages.

Pickings

Merging the Steamship Lines

fpHE Germans having merged the Hamburg-“L American and North German Lloyd lines, in order to cut down unnecessary expenses, it is now stated that the White Star and Cunard lines will make a similar arrangement.

The Value of Dandelion

ON ACCOUNT of the large percentage of iron which it contains, and the large amount of roughage it provides, the dandelion is said to be one of the‘most valuable gifts of nature. Its value iz greater if eaten raw, as salad.

Credit Around the World

OT only is the United States buying and selling on credit, but the practice is extending around the world. All over Asia cars

are being sold on credit, three-fourths of the cars being usually sold on that basis. In the Philippines it runs as high as 95 percent.

Income Taxes in Britain

TN BRITAIN, if a man’s income is $100,000' a year he must pay income taxes to the amount of $43,190; and it may be added that there is no reason why he should not do so. It is literally true in taxation that the "strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak”..

World’s Markets Overloaded

EFERRING to the world-wide slump in business following last fall’s financial

Using Bees as Detectives

HE police department of Wichita, Kansas, finding that bees have a liking for liquor mash, have added a hive of bees to their equipment to aid them in finding violators of ths liquor ordinances.

Police Suicides in Prussia

T) OLICE in Prussia do not find life any too •J- enjoyable, if one may judge from the fact that last year there were twenty-three suicides from their ranks. However, this number is much less than the fifty-two who ended their lives the preceding year. All the police are former army officers.

A Master of Forty-five Languages

ERMANY has recently lost by death a man who was a master of forty-five languages

panic the National City Bank of New York says: “The world’s industries have more than recovered their pre-war capacity, but the markets are overloaded with staple goods.”

All-Air Service to the Coast

N ALL-AIR service from coast to coast is now available, leaving Newark at 9.30 a.m.,

arriving Pittsburgh 1.45 p.m., leaving Chicago at 7.50 p.m. and arriving San Francisco at 4.30 p.m. the next day. Returning, one may leave San Francisco at 7.00 a.m. and by the same route arrive at Newark at 6.45 p.m. the next day.

and had a working knowledge of twenty more. He is said to have learned Icelandic in one week. He had mastered all the languages of Europe by the time he was twenty-five years of age.

Hunting Eagles by Airplane

TEXAS marksman hunted by airplane a flock of eagles that had been carrying off a

dozen sheep a day. The hunt wTas a complete success, five of the eagles having been overtaken and killed. The eagles seemed to pay no attention to the plane until it was upon them.

$1 for an Airplane Ride

AN OFFER of an airplane ride for $1, at the Holmes Airport, Jackson Heights, New York, caused 5,182 persons to go aloft in a single day. The special offer of a minute in the air for $1 was made to see if it is fear or expense that holds people back from traveling by airplane. It seems established that it is the dollars-and-cents end of the thing that controls the public mind.

Fords Are Piling It Up

NEITHER Henry nor Edsel Ford is liable to be in the bread line for some time. Their profits in 1929 were $81,797,861, over and above the dividends, if any, which were paid on their stock, all of which is privately owned by the Ford family. The Ford plants are now turning out 9,000 cars a day. They have made and sold 19,000,000 cars. The assets are fixed at $761,077,996.

Unemployment in the United States

T UNEMPLOYMENT in the United States is '-J set at 3,700,000 by the president of the American Federation of Labor. The new bills for government buildings and highways, signed April 1 and 4 by President Hoover, are expected to provide employment for 125,000 of these. This is about 4 percent of the total. Our great financiers must be proud of this shoving.

Power Trust Grabs Greece .

NE country after another falls into the maw of the Porver Trust. The last one to go overboard is Greece, where the first public utili ty holding company has just been organized. The holding company, be it explained, is one of the methods by which the Poxver Trust makes sure that the public cannot get justice in public utility matters.

Morgan Foots the Bills

DISPATCH from London states that the archbishop of Canterbury is not able to meet his running expenses on his meager salary of $75,000 a year, and that when he gets in the hole financially J. Pierpont Morgan, of New York, comes to his rescue by making up the difference. Big Business will stand by Big Church to the end.

Britain and France to Violate Belgium

rances Countess of Warwick, England, has admitted that she was interpreter at a conversation held between Lord French, of the

British army, and Georges Clemenceau, of France, in which it was agreed between them that in the event of war between France and Germany, Britain and France together would ignore the neutrality of Belgium, as, in fact, Germany actually did.

Fast Pace of the U. S. A.

HOUGH the United States contains but 6 percent of the population of the earth, it consumes more than half of the world’s coffee, silk, rubber, petroleum, automobiles and telephones; more than a quarter of the 'world’s cotton, pig iron, copper, lead, zinc, tin, coal, water poxver and electricity; and more than 15 percent of the world’s wheat and sugar. It sends 25 percent of the telegrams, and 34^ percent of the mail.

Massacre at Lipari Islands

TVTEWS is leaking out that the Fascist government has permitted a massacre of the political prisoners confined to the Lipari islands, and that the massacre did not even stop at the abuse of civilians, of whom twenty-five were wounded. The state doctor refused to attend any of the wounded, which gives one a fair idea of the present Italian civilization, or lack of it.

Precocity of Illiterate Adults

TN THE recent campaign in the South to make a better showing in the census on the subject of illiteracy, one Alabama man was so anxious to learn that, in a single lesson he learned to sign his name and to read eight pages of a special primer used in the work of instruction. It is noted that most adult negroes are anxious to learn to read the Bible.

Headed Toward Barbarity

EFERRING to the growing custom of

American -women of painting their finger nails in various shades of red, green, purple and mother of pearl, Jean Patou, fashion expert of France, declares American women are imitating the barbarians and in a few years, at present rate of decadence, will be wearing nose rings and lip plates.

Ole® Made of Copra

COPRA, the dried meat of the cocoanut, is handled in bulk, and after being shipped to America does not smell any too well on arrival. Formerly the oil extracted from it was used only for soap. Noax7 it is treated xvith sodium and ether, and after being mixed with skim milk and salt costs the oleo manufacturer about five cents a pound. It is said to have but onefifth the nutritive value of butter.

The Threat of the Chain Banks

xtther F. Symons, banking commissioner of Indiana, states that the threat of the impending chain banks is to wipe out local enterprise and local control and make the country districts mere sources of revenue for the financial centers like New York and Chicago. Mr. Symons has it right. Only a feAV years more will suffice to reduce the population of the entire Avorld to mere clerks and employees of the Wall Street croxvd.

Eflictent Russian Telegraph Service

IN THE recent Associated Press tests of news transmission about the world, in which all the principal cities of the world were involved, it was found that the very best service was through Russia and Siberia, and the very worst was between Paris and Geneva. It took the test message only two hours to go around the world twice.

Queens’ Traveling Library

HE Borough of Queens has a traveling library that really travels. A truck with 2,000 books, two librarians, and a chauffeur, travels the remoter parts of the borough, loaning books en route to any persons who furnish identification cards. Books not on the truck may be ordered for delivery a week later. Unemployment conditions have added greatly to the patronage of libraries of all sorts.

World Made Safe for Hypocrisy

VERYBODY knows about the great effort that was made some years back to make the world safe for hypocrisy; and how well it succeeded is told by the present-day record of unemployment among the poor and crime among the public utility, oil, and other interests. But now since all the peace conferences and pacts to celebrate the great event that 'war is to be no more’, some will wonder why 135 planes of the United States Anny should undergo the suffering of maneuvers at upwards of five miles in the air and temperatures of forty degrees below zero. There is a, reason.

Samuel Untermyer’s Big Fee

WHEN the Halsey Stuart crowd took away the control of the Fox Film Corporation from William Fox, the daddy of the motion picture business, Mr. Fox engaged Samuel Untermyer to look after his interests, and Mr. Untermyer no doubt made the best solution possible under the circumstances. For his three months’ work Mr. Fox paid Mr. Untermyer a million dollars; but when it is considered that strong-arm financiers often make much more than that in a few minutes, he was not, from their point of view, overpaid. Mr. Fox has been given an honorary job for five years at an annual salary of $500,000 a year, after which he will be ditched.

The Foundations of St. Paul’s

rpHE reason why St. Paul’s Cathedral is al"®- ways in jeopardy is that the foundations of the great structure are only four and a half feet deep. Beneath the foundation remain six feet of earth and twenty feet of wet sand. If the water were drained from the sand the building would collapse. Let’s see; who was it who warned against erecting a building on thetsand?

End of Kitchen Coal Stoves

OBESEEING that kitchen coal stoves are coining to their end the Bucks Stove and Range Company of St. Louis, founded in 1846, has decided to go out of business. For many years this concern was on the blacklist of the American Federation of Labor, and no doubt this had some effect on the company’s determination to discontinue business.

Coffee Follows Rubber and Sugar .

RITAIN’S artificial control of the rubber market and Cuba’s artificial control of the sugar market are now followed by Brazil’s artificial control of the coffee market. Each had its period of power, each overstimulated production elsewhere, and each came to its ruin, It looks to us very much as if wheat were headed the same way. Price-fixing looks all right at the start, but the world is too big for any one nation to try to control world prices for any one product. Sooner or later a way is found to produce the same thing elsewhere, and the monopoly is killed, off,

Jude's Bone in Australia

JF YOU send five shillings (about $1.25) to

Reverend Walter S. Cain, 267 Gregory Terrace, Brisbane, Australia, here, he tells you, is what you will get. “Would you like to have a medal of St. Jude? We will send such a medal to everyone that sends us in his subscription. This medal will be blessed and will have been applied to the relic of this dear apostle, kept at his shrine in our Chapel. This relic is a piece of the bone of the glorious St. Jude preserved throughout nineteen hundred years and recently received by us from Rome.” If you can think of any easier way of making $1.25 in these hard times let us know. The offer does not say who dug up St. Jude and took him apart in order to get the bone.

Old Age Pensions in New York

HE 51,000 (estimated) persons that will benefit by New York’s old age pension law must be 70 years of age, unemployed, childless, citizens of the IL S. A., and for ten years citizens of New York state. They may not be inmates of any public or private home for the aged, nor have made any transfer of their property to others. Relief will be from $5 to upward of $50 a month, depending upon the needs. It is not anticipated that many directors of public utility corporations will apply for these benefits.

First Steps in Honest Disarmament

WRITING- for British readers H. G. Wells recently said: “The first step in any honest disarmament of Great Britain would be, of course, mental and moral: the complete disuse of military uniforms by the monarch, for example, and the abolition of cadet corps in the public schools. It would be excellent, for example, if one of these peace conferences were to forbid men in official positions the use of gold lace and spurs and feathers, and to restrict each country to so many million brass buttons a year.”

Dead Bandits in Texas

INSPIRED by a deisre to make $5,000 easy money four white men in Texas, one of them a bank guard, induced two negroes to attempt a holdup of the bank. The guard then shot the negroes dead, with the expectation that he would divide among his three white pals the reward offered by the bankers’ association for dead bandits. The only sure thing about this is that the negroes are dead and that the white men who cruelly murdered them will go free, after some temporary inconvenience.

Tyranny in Ohio

NDER the heading “Tyranny in Ohio” the Pittsburgh Press calls attention to the fact that Lincoln, Jefferson, and many others asserted even the right of revolution if necessary to bring about a better government, but laments the fact that two girls in Ohio have now been sentenced to from one to five years in prison for expressing the belief that the workers, who constitute the vast majority of citizens, should organize to obtain control of the government. The Press wants to know why we have freedom of speech in the United States if we have to go to prison when wo dare to exercise it.

Reduced Labor for Molders By McKinley Wilkins

HAVING been employed in one of the leading manufacturing industries of the country since 1915,1 am prepared to give The Golden Age readers some interesting facts pertaining to this subject, obtained by practical experience, and observation. I am prepared to deal, however, with merely one phase of human progress, such as was made -within the last decade by the steel industries, which progress may serve as a criterion of that made by many similar industries.

Progress of One Decade

Fifteen years ago, employment of approximately 3,500 men in this particular industry was required to supply an order for from 10,000 to 20,000 steel castings within a given period. Today, as a result of the displacement of human labor by modern machinery, employment of 1500 men is sufficient to supply an order for from 30,000 to 50,000 steel castings within the same period.

As an indication of the increasing speed with which this and many similar industries are progressing in the general improvement and expansion of their manufacturing facilities (’which progress, unfortunately, adds year by year hundreds to the ranks of the army of unemployed), it is but necessary to state that prior to the beginning of the World War all molding and core-making was done by hand power; that is, hand rammers were used to compress the sand in the flask and core-boxes. During and following the war, which, more than anything else possibly could have, served to give added impetus to the increase of knowledge along all lines, particularly along the lines relative to the invention, development and perfection of modem manufacturing machinery, air power was introduced. That is, air rammers became the means of compressing the sand for purposes of both molding and core-making.

Within the year 1929, ten molding machines and what is Known ss the Harper Sand System were installed in the foundry department, and preparations are about to be undertaken for setting up similar machines in the core department.

Present Method of Operation

In this connection a brief detailed description of the operation of these machines and this unique sand system might be of interest to those employed in foundries using machinery of different designs. These machines are of three different sizes, namely, four 3x10 feet, four 3 x 6 feet, and two 18 x 18 inches. The first size makes car box bolsters, engine side frames and castings of a similar size. .

The second-size machine makes molds for castings too small for the larger machines to make. The third size makes molds for engine brakeheads, hinge-butts, draft lugs and other castings of similar’ size.

Eight men are necessary for the operation of the first-size machine; four for the two cope, and four for the two drag, machines. The. same number is necessary for the operation of the second size, and two men operate the two smaller machines; making a total of only eighteen operators. All ten machines working at full capacity turn out an approximate average of 1000 molds a day, whereas it formerly required a hundred men to turn out an equal average.

These machines are operated solely by air power, and compress the sand by the jolting and squeezing process. A runway two and a half feet wide and twenty feet long extends from each of the smaller machines, each having rollers which convey the molds as they are made from the machines to the end where they are lifted off and stacked three high, for casting. The molds are made at the rate of one every three minutes, and move down the runway at a rapid pace to the amazement of the spectator; whereas it formerly required at least five minutes to make one and five minutes to carry it from the bench whereon it was made for the purpose of stacking.

The Harper Sand system is such a complex piece of machinery that I feel I am not qualified to describe its construction. I can only describe its surface operation. It consists, first, of three sand mixing mills; second, of a giant and ingeniously constructed sand house having electrical switch boards and levers for operating purposes; third, of two sand conveying belts, one of which is elevated thirty feet above ground and the other is several feet under ground. The first extends from the sand house, which is situated at one end of the shop, to the other end, and then returns. The other extends from the sand house to the middle of the shop and returns. Both belts are operated by electric povTer and are moved forward by means of rollers. The belt above ground conveys the prepared sand to the machines. The belt in the tunnel conveys the unprepared sand to the mills. Two machines are situated over the tunnel belt which are used for shaking the unprepared sand out of the flask. Extending from the belt above ground to each of the smaller machines is a sand conveying trough having a door just above the machines, which is opened and closed by a lever. Similar sand conveyors extend to the four larger machines, but the method of their operation is so complex that it can hardly be described with pen. However, their operation is by electrical instead of hand power.

From 25 to 75 Percent Layoff

Although the departure from the use of hand rammers resulted in approximately a 25-percent reduction in the company’s operating force, the change from the use of air rammers to the use of machines, which is still in progress, has already resulted in at least a 75-percent reduction in the company’s operating force. -

Decreased Drudgery, Increased Poverty

While it is true that the few of us retained have, due to the company’s installation of modern machinery, been to a considerable extent relieved of drudgery, or manual labor, and are appreciative of the change, yet, being sympathetic toward our fellow workmen, we wonder ■what provision the thousands of discharged men will be able to make for themselves and their dependents. One thing is certain, and the unemployed will sooner or later realize it, and that is, that the big business men, big politicians and big preachers do not care whether any provisions are made for them or not. A great army of these return to the gates of this shop almost daily seeking, though in vain, reemployment if just for a day.

A Rare Privilege to Witness

Although I am one of the few retained on the pay roll, I do not consider it luck on my behalf; indeed, I consider it a great favor from Jehovah God, a favor extended me in order that I might have the privilege of witnessing to these "weary and heavy-laden” peoples that Jehovah is the true and almighty God and mankind’s greatest friend and benefactor, that Christ Jesus has now become earth’s rightful Governor and is moving toward the complete destruction of Satan's power over men and the ultimate liberation of the obedient of mankind from all oppression, poverty, fear, suffering, sickness, sorrow and death.

I have made a thorough canvass of this industry with Judge Rutherford’s publications, placing many sets of the volumes and numerous booklets, and am engaged in recanvassing with Scripture Studies, of which. I placed seven sets the first day. I am the only consecrated witness employed in this plant so far.

It may be of interest to some to learn that the haggard and care-worn faces of these rough, tough, hard-working laborers are seen to light up with smiles of joy and surprise as the good news of God’s incoming kingdom sinks into their ears and hearts; and many questions are asked by those meek of heart for the purpose of further enlightenment and guidance in Jehovah’s Word concerning the kingdom,

In Toledo in February

(Extract from a letter to a friend in Tennessee)

ASI watch passing events it seems to me that the great time of trouble is already upon the old w’orld. I have never read nor heard of such distress and suffering as the people in this place have had to endure this winter. And conditions in Toledo are said to be better than in most other large cities.

There has been very little w’ork here all winter. Weeks ago more than 40,000 men were out of work here, and I do not know what present figures are. The stock market disaster in the fall hit Toledo hard. We read something in a recent issue of The Golden ..Age about the loss the Overland- company had sustained at that time. It appears that this company is tottering: they ordinarily employ about 15,000 men, but part of the winter have been closed down entirely, and when they have worked it has been only short-time, with only a small percentage of their usual force of men.

At present the Chevrolet plant here is working full-force and full-time, but there are many, many industries at a standstill. There are hundreds of vacant store buildings all over town. I think I could count as many as ten empty stores, big ones, within one block of Sears Roebuck, right down in the heart of the business district. There are so many big banners out advertising “bankrupt sake”, “closing OUT SALE,” “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE,” “STOCK REDUCING SALE,” “FORCED TO SELL,” etc., that it looks like Fair time.

Since the people have no work they are buying only the barest necessities, and there are many hundreds of families that are simply down and out entirely. The stories of destitution reported every day in the papers would make the hardest heart sympathetic. One man appeared at the charity organization down town and told a story of woeful want in his home; he dropped dead on the street before he could get home. A collection was taken in the city to provide decent burial for him. There has been much cold and snow, and the city has spent $100,000 cleaning snow from the streets. That provided work for a few’. They worked day and night shifts when the snow was real bad.

The city makes an effort to provide to a small extent for some of the suffering people. Other organizations dole out second-hand clothing and, in some instances, food. One man, a professional boxer, has served bread and soup to all the hungry who applied, twice a day, for months. Weeks ago there were over six hundred men in his soup line. Recently he put on a boxing exhibition and charged admission, intending to use the money to feed the starving. Bandits appeared and took the money away.

Last week I stopped at a bakery and a man came in after me, asking the lady if she had any work he might do to earn a loaf of stale bread. She said she had no work to be done, but if he wanted bread she would gladly give him a loaf. He hesitated about accepting it, saying he would prefer to pay for it. He offered to clean out ashes or any chore she might have to be done. When he had gone with his loaf she told me she was sure that a few days previously she had turned away fully a hundred people who came asking for food.

Another family I have met keep a small grocery and live in rooms back of the store. They have an average of eleven or twelve a day begging food. They keep hot coffee and sandwiches and feed every one who comes. One day a man came in and asked for something to eat. The groceryman was busy, so told him to wait a few minutes till he finished his task, and he would feed him. The man stepped out the back door, and when the storekeeper went to look for him he was eating out of a pan of waste and scraps they had put out for their chickens. They gave him all he could eat and said they had never seen one person consume such a vast quantity of food. I could go on indefinitely telling you of individual cases I know about, but it is of no use doing that. You know what it is like, I have no doubt.

Many of the biggest business establishments are on a shaky foundation. All over the city are homes where the gas and electricity have been turned off because the people could not pay their bills. Our neighbor was just telling Irwin tonight something about a delegation’s asking the city to prohibit the gas and light companies’ turning off these necessities, on account of the children, etc., and also requesting that these suffering families be provided with bread and milk. . . . Our worthy mayor and his wife and daughter are sojourning in the West Indies at present.

The lack of money is not confined to the working classes alone. The well-to-do classes, or those who have been well to do, tell the same story. I talked with one woman who runs an exclusive boarding home. She had a large house and had paid $155 a month rent for the past eight years. She had had an average of twenty-five boarders. She said they were all out of work and all but five had left. She was not getting enough board money to meet her expenses. Another family, who made a practice of boarding one man to help out with their household expense, said their boarder was out of work and $110 in arrears with his board money.

Added to the suffering of the people, we endure a siege of banditry and robbery that I do not believe was ever equaled in a place of this size. Stores, homes, restaurants, oil stations, banks, hotels—anything is robbed that has any money about. The thugs are very defiant too, and if the police arrest any of them, those who are still at large retaliate by making a raid and scooping in more money than ordinarily.

Never a day or night passes without numbers of holdups. These bandits go in numbers, never less than two or three. In some instances they have gone into homes and made the people lie flat on the floor while they took every thing of value. I recall one case where the robbers took the shoes and part of the clothing from a family and threatened to shoot the small son of the family if the father did not disclose'the hiding place of his money. While this outrage 'was going on a friend happened to call on the besieged family. The robbers took part of his clothing and departed in his car, which he had parked outside the yard.

Last week three armed bandits held up a grocerywoman and shot her, near the heart, when she recognized one of them as a former customer. The chief of police issued an edict telling the police they must “either produce or be reduced”; meaning that if they did not bring in some of the desperadoes they would be demoted. They went forth and captured over two hundred men and clapped them into what they call “the bull pen”. It seems they had all the available prison space full to overflowing.

These men were crammed into this enclosure like sardines in a box, and without food or a place to sleep. The paper states that conditions in a Siberian prison were never any worse. They were mostly fellows out of work, and without homes, perhaps. Today they turned ninety of them out and brought in sixty more. So far as we are able to learn, there has not been a bandit in the lot.

The real bad men defied the police and proceeded to 'stick 'em up’ and rob more than ever. In one instance they cornered a policeman and took his gun away from him and used it in further holdups.

You see there is not much semblance to law and order. I talk with all classes of people, and all say they never have seen such conditions before. Some of their views about the cause of all these things vary a little, but I think I am safe in saying that around ninety percent curse the prohibition law with a right good will, and lay the blame for conditions to it.

One lady told me she and her husband belong to nine clubs and lodges and have a wide circle vof friends here. They cannot go to a meeting of any of these clubs where liquor does not flow freely, and on several occasions the officers have been called in to these meetings to quell the disturbances that the liquor caused. She also said of all their friends’ homes to which they were invited, there was just one home that did not pass the drinks. They themselves are strictly temperate and always have been.

Many have told me they never drank a drop till the prohibition law went into effect, but that then they began tippling with their neighbors, who were all in the same kind of game. ,

Conditions in Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago are much worse, we are told, than in Toledo.

Last week 1200 people out of work' and out of money gathered at the city hall in Cleveland to confer with the commission about their condition. They demanded work or money, and the police tried to disperse them and several were seriously injured. Now the jobless and communists (?) are preparing to stage a demonstration there soon, 10,000 strong. We hear rumors of such a demonstration here too, but I know nothing about it yet. '

Twice during the winter the public has been called on to donate clothing for hundreds of school children that could not attend school until somebody provided them with wearing apparel.

This is not half of what I could tell you about conditions in this place, but it is surely enough to give you a very vivid picture.

Class of ’30 By David Shulman

A GROUP of students were sitting in the senior alcove of the College of the City of New York. There was nothing unusual in this excepting that their expressions of worry and gloom attracted attention. Dejection seemed to have overwhelmed every one of them. What was the trouble? Had they failed in their exams? Had they been suspended, or, perhaps, expelled?

One of them threw down the newspaper he had been scanning closely. “No use.” he deplored, “not a job.” “Why didn’t I grab that chance to become an electrician?” said another ruefully; “I might have been earning some money now.” “To think that I wasted four years at this place,” despaired another. “If I were only a freshman now,” sighed a fourth, “I’d know what to do.”

Goodness! why the despair? Weren’t these seniors among the upper five percent of the population as regards intelligence? Didn’t their college education make them self-reliant and ready to shoulder all responsibilities? Were they not the ones about to enter professions of distinction? Should not they be determined, ♦ light-hearted, optimistic? 'Why then the gloom? Why the looking back into the past instead of the future ahead?

Why? Reason enough. They were members of the graduating class. No longer were they helpless children dependent on the parental hand to feed them. They were now thrown on their own responsibility. They were adults with a host of wants to satisfy. They were at the cross-roads of life.

Well, what of it? Didn’t a four-year college course fit them adequately for the struggle for existence? Didn’t it even give them an advantage over the non-college man ? Apparently n ot, if eighty percent of the graduates were in the same boat, a frail craft on a stormy sea, with neither a compass nor a port in sight.

This alarming percentage of graduates without a goal is applicable not only to the class of ’30, but to many past classes as well, and, for all we know, to classes in the future; applicable not only to the college in question, but to others too. But what in the world did they do at school during these years? What training did they receive ?

Four- years of academic cloisters and musty professors; four years of pretty theories and hypotheses removed from concrete situations and reality; four years of freedom and indifference toward the uncertain future that awaited them; no! these four years did not fit them adequately for any one task.

Many had studied to enter the teaching profession and taken the examination for a license to teach in the elementary schools. But competition in this field is very keen nowadays, the ratio of successful candidates being one to six. Even the few successful ones have to wait two or three years for an appointment. Those desiring to teach in the high schools must take graduate courses leading to a higher degree. This means more time and money and puts the poorer’ students out of the running.

Many simply took cultural courses leading to nothing definite, hoping to decide before they became seniors. But now they were graduates and without a goal. Some did have specific plans, only to have them disturbed by unexpected circumstances; as those who planned to enter a medical school, only to find themselves denied admission.

Well, whatever the cause of this unpreparedness or helplessness, these graduates are confronted with a grave problem. What are they to do now? Heaven knows how they'll end up, but most of these will work, or rather, try to find work. The familiar joke about the graduate is very fitting here.

College Man—Have you an opening for an ambitious college graduate?

Employer—Yes, and don’t bang it on your, way out.

The majority of these graduates entering the ■world of business and industry wall start at the bottom, there to remain or rise to the top. Some will find work during the day and attend a law school at night. Some will study for higher degrees and find all sorts of employment at night. Many will take civil .service tests.

The post office, which employs many students, is, for its heterogeneity of characters, a most unique institution. There one may find civilians and disabled war veterans. There the failures in every profession seek refuge from an unkind world. Thither, too, flock the aspirants for every profession, students of varied physical description, from different colleges, with different goals; all striving to earn the money that will bring them nearer their goal, to support them while they strive for the better jobs in life; all living a hectic and hurried existence: rushing from school to their dull, drab work, back home again for some sleep before repeating yesterday’s routine; all thrifty, almost ascetic, knowing in advance how every cent will be spent.

The questionable value of a college education is a much discussed topic, and I shall refrain from reiterating the pros and cons of a college career. Certainly not every boy and girl has the mental equipment for higher education, and colleges should refuse entrance to inferior students. But for those who do go to college there ought to be a vocational guide, an expert acquainted with the requirements, demands and supply of the various professions, to aid the student in setting a goal.

This is lacking at present. The student enters blindly into a profession without knowing its demands and his particular fitness for it. AYasting time and money, he abandons one premeditated career for another. For the student to experiment is too costly, and yet experimentation is what is needed. There ought to be some way of giving the student actual practice in the field he contemplates entering, enough to enable him to determine his liking and fitness for it.

Thus, prospective medical students should know of the rigors, sacrifices, unremitting labors of' research, the responsibilities, that the medical profession holds in store; not by hearsay, but by actual activity along these lines. This, to be sure, would take time, but would save much in the end by influencing the student’s choices before he has penetrated too deeply in that profession.

But who is to offer this opportunity for the student to explore himself? Who will provide a means of deciding whether or not he should undertake the career of his own choice? Who will help the student at the crossroads to avoid the path that leads to disillusionment? Nobody knows; very few care. And so, future generations of students, blissfully ignorant of the maze and blind alleys through which, past graduates had to wander, blunder through unfortunate college careers. And hence the perennial problem confronting every graduating class: What to do?

The Growth of Los Angeles

IN THE year 1900 Los Angeles had a population of 102,000: in 1905 it was 201,000: in 1.912 it was 427,000: in 1923 it was 890,000 and in 1929 it was 1,427,480, according to late estimates. Los Angeles county has 50 airports and landing fields. There are in the neighborhood 25 schools of aviation, with approximately 2,200 registered students taking up flying.

When the World Went Mad

A Thrilling Story of the Late War, Told in the Language of the Trenches

Copyright, 1930, by Daniel E. Morgan (Continued)

THE BATTLE OF SOISSONS

OVING up to the front, there is a strict order against smoking. Officers are at every hand to enforce the rule. It was cprite different at the front. We covered ourselves with blankets to hide the light, and smoked and smoked.

The mail goes out and every letter we write to our parents, friends, or sweethearts is censored. My girl in blue told me many times, “Your letters seem very cold.” It is too bad that a country you are laying down your life for will not trust you to write a letter to your lady friend without sticking in its nose. Lieutenant C----, after censoring some of the boys’

letters, added phraseology of his own. This letter-censoring at the front seems as cruel as the cold steel that crushes out existence.

The world marvels at the courage of soldiers, who keep on moving to their objectives despite the horrible fact that every weapon known to science is used against them. On they go, the wounded and dead falling on all sides. Their minds are in a whirl, their heads almost bursting from the terrible sound of flying and bursting shells; on and on; sometimes the gases and smoke from the bursting shells almost strangle one. Thank' God for a breath of fresh air!

Behind all this bravery, and this obedience under the most terrible conditions, lies the training of these men in peace time. My first fourteen weeks of discipline broke down my spirit as a free man. Known only to a marine is the order. He obeys without asking questions; squads right, squads left, salutes, marches, parades, like mechanical men, obeying orders and commands: an arrangement of a supermind.

Discipline is a necessity in any organization, yet under an arrangement of oft-repeated insults one felt lower than a dog. It is little wonder that men trained as these had at first a false idea that they were not only serving their country but serving their God, and, with a sham pride, took the mental position that one would be a coward to seek even the most scanty shelter. This all passed with the progress of the, war. But training counts, and we all felt at this time that we had absolutely no say of our own, but must march on even in the face of the most terrible of deaths.

Ringing in my ears are the cries of the boys as they dropped exhausted in the mud, cursing everybody like a blue streak, from the president down. “Who is the man, or who are the men, that demand that this murder be carried on? Wliy must we go on? We cannot stop. The dirty, rotten, sons of------ought to be hanging

up by their toes. The ones that order these onslaughts must have hearts of steel, void of any human sympathy, gambling with the lives of the poor innocents.” These and many like phrases were expressions of the nerve-racked and exhausted humans “obeying commands”.

Atop these horrible cries and tragedies rang the sounds of the long-nosed, pious-faced preachers, who cried to the youth of the land, “I could kill the man that insults that flag.” What a dream it all seems, the “dollar patriots” with flags in their buttonholes and their hands in the pocketbooks of the public!

Back to the Front

What front are we headed for now? We have been on forced marches for days, marching all night and hiding in the woods by day. Tramping feet going up and down, loaded sacks on our backs, the straps cutting into the flesh. At last a halt in the marching hordes. Every man flops in the mud, some going sound asleep in the ten minutes rest.

I sat on a pile of stones, common along the roadsides in France, in order that when the march began I could get started.. The human frame refused to move. Cursing and snarling, we pulled one another to our feet. With much effort and with aching feet and joints we forced ourselves on, swearing that we should drop in the mud ere we passed another mile post. There seems no limit to human endurance. We are forced ten miles farther.

Tramping feet going up and down, a neverending tramp, tramp, with a meal when you happen to get it. The gods of war and murder had blessings for their faithful subjects. It was along one of these forced marches that I kicked

‘‘Why Call Ye Me Lord, Lord—

something in the mud, and upon investigating found it to be a loaf of bread. Hurriedly we skinned the monster loaf, and ate it gratefully.

Training camp conception that the whole of America would look at us as disgraced if we fell out, kept us grinding like steel. However, some of the boys dropped by the wayside. A wreck, and deathly sick, I crawled into or between the hose coiled up on the water wagon, in order to be on hand for the next slaughter.

We were bound for another front, and it is with astonishment that I look, upon a system of mental training that could capture the minds of men, make them plan and scheme, forcing their bodies to unmerciful endurance, in order, in obedience to the commands of other humans, to be on hand for the next slaughter, to kill or be killed.

At daybreak we stopped. A pal and I climbed up on the bank alongside the road. We said nothing to each other. The dominant factor in each of our minds was rest, sweet rest. We wrapped ourselves in our slickers. It was raining. We slept the sleep of the dead. How long

we slept I do not know. Upon awaking we found that another outfit had moved in alongside of us. With them they had their rolling kitchen. A can of coffee was in the making. The gods were good to us. We gratefully accepted a canteen cup full of their coffee.

'Action!

The first wave had gone into action. Trucks and trucks full of ammunition pushed forward. Creepy and beastly-looking tanks crawled by. unit. More forced

We were in the support marches, burdened with heavy machine guns and cases of ammunition. A six-foot boy, known by four names, emptied out his ammunition and carried the empty cases in order to keep going with the crew.

A German who had been wounded lay by the wayside. He looked at us with piteous eyes as we passed by; but we could not bother with him.

The sky was filled with aeroplanes, both allied and enemy. The anti-aircraft, on fast motor cars, moved rapidly into action. Bang I Bang! They pounded out preparations of steel on the human birds in the air. Hordes of men with rifles and packs passed us on our right.

—And Do Not

We stopped near some trees. The ruins of a German first aid station were near by. I walked over, looking for souvenirs. A terrible feeling overtook me, as I watched the wounded coming back, knowing only too well that the same fate would be meted out to many of us. The attacking units pushed on. We knew what it meant, and looked at one another with an empty, silent look.

…