Golden Age, October 28, 1931
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Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
in this issue
SWITZERLAND ACORNS FROM THE OAK ON THE MORATORIUM A SHORT TOUR IN INDIA ALUMINUM POISONING ELECTRIC POWER RATES OBEDIENCE THE WAY TO LIFE
every other WEDNESDAY
five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25
Vol. XIII . No. 316
October 28, 1931
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
LABOR AND ECONOMICS
Drop in the Building Industry . 41
Victory of the Machine .... 41
West Palm Beach Hit Hard . . 41
The Rich Will Feed the Poor . 41
Good-bye to the Coopers . . . 42 West Virginia’s Sinking
Fund Commission . . . . .42
Manless Factory at Milwaukee . 42
Pinchot on Aiding the Poor . . 42
“No Right to Exist”
Why Mooney Is Kept in Prison . 45
African Natives Gut of Work . . 45
In a South Carolina Mill Town . 55
Russia Building World’s Largest Army
Pennsylvania Restive Under Blue Laws
MacDonald’s Day of Judgment . 53
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
Ford Workers Must Have Gardens 43
Tuberculin Testing of Cattle in Ohio . ......
Burned 75 Acres of Oats , . . .57
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
Acorns from the Oak . . . . . 41
Crimes of the Native-born . . . 41
In Harlan, Kentucky .... 4’2
Gold and Silver in the Streets . 42
Keeps the Property Up . . . . 43
More Radio Blessings Ahead . . 55
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
Printing Visagrapii for the Blind 53
HOME AND HEALTH
Public Health of Detroit . . . 46
Aluminum Poisoning ..... 54
MANUFACTURING AND MINING
Progress in Ten Years . . .
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
Six Billion Idle Dollars .... 41
“'Wrecked Within a Year” . . 41
Cutting Time of Ocean Mails . . 41
Dividends a Fourth Less . . . 41
Modern Uses of Tank Cars . . . 42
The Railways and the Highways 43
On the Moratorium
Union Pacific After Business . . 53
Georgia Power Company Rates . 56
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
Switzerland—The Fortress of Europe . .
What Made India Pook .... 40 “A Short Tour In India” . . . 47 Shaw on Russia . .
Depression in the Far East ... 57
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Charity Day in Cleveland . . . 43
Obedience the Way to Life . . . 58
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al™ Golden Age
Volume XHi Brooklyn, N. Y.9 Wednesday, October 23, 1331 Number 316
Switzerland—The Fortress of Europe
A BAILIFF is just a man that collects rent for the landlord by due process of law, but it is astonishing how impudent and overbearing such a joint servant of a landlord and his tenants can become. Sometimes he gets to feel that he is more important than either the landlord or the tenants whose joint interests he serves. It is all right for a servant to have the job of carrying your rent back to the landlord, but he does not need to think because of it that he is of any undue consequence.
In the 13th century the counts of Hapsburg were bailiffs for the emperors of the Holy (?) Roman Empire, and, among other things, were supposed to collect the rents of the foresters living in the cantons of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden.
As time went on they seemed to forget that their job was simply that of humble rent collectors and acted as if they thought that they were sovereign rulers. Hence it came about that in the year 1291 some of these foresters leagued themselves together- to oppose these usurpations.
A few years later, thirty-three of these men, among them William Tell, met at a solitary spot on the Lake of Uri and projected a rising of all the residents of the cantons for January 1,1308. On the day fixed the rising took place and the Hapsburgs were deposed and expelled.
It is ’ not now generally believed that the stories of William Tell have much historical value, yet the efforts to discredit what is told of his acts of heroism may be the result of the same evil influence that has tried in every country to magnify the clergy and the nobility and to minimize the achievements of the liberty-loving and independent common people.
For failing to remove his hat in the presence of a Hapsburg representative, Tell is said to have been compelled to shoot an apple from the head of his own son, but confessed that a second arrow -which he bore on his person was intended for the heart of the tyrant had he failed. Arrested, he escaped while being taken as a prisoner across Lake Luzerne, and shot his captor dead.
Switzerland did not fully gain its independence from the “Holy” Roman Empire until 1648. Its last Avar with Austria was fought in 1498, and the fight which the mountaineers put up at that time has left such an indelible impression upon the minds of the Austrians and their other neighbors on all sides that no country of Europe felt like violating Swiss neutrality in the World War even though such violation, if successful, might have been the means of winning the war.
In the 200 years in which they were waging their triumphant struggle against the Hapsburgs, one canton after another was added to the little group of three and there were accessions from France and Italy until now there are nineteen full cantons and six half cantons.
During the World War, on account of being hemmed in by belligerents’ land on all four sides, the country was in a position of extreme difficulty. It was compelled to obtain coal, iron and foodstuffs from the Central Powers and to maintain its army on a war footing to insure its neutrality. It became a natural clearing house for the refugees and prisoners of all nations.
At the close of the World War, the country took particular pains to serve notice on the incipient League of Nations that Swiss neutrality is not chosen according to circumstances, but is a permanent and fundamental principle of the state.
Surrounded by war-like neighbors and being naturally a courageous and hardy people, Swiss soldiers have been much in demand by the rulers of other nations. They formed the best soldiers to be had for hire, and became so eager for the booty -which thus came to them as to give rise to the saying throughout Europe, “No silver, no Swiss.”
Rather a surprising statement is made that these soldiers, though their services were for sale to the highest bidder, rendered to their paymasters as high a courage and as stubborn a fidelity as was ever manifested by the soldiers of any other country, regardless of the motives for which they fought.
This trait of being faithful to a paymaster, regardless of the sacrifice of one’s own life or the lives of one’s fellow men, is not set down to their credit, although if one is so avaricious as to be a soldier for money, it may be presumed that he would be more worthy of respect if he were a good soldier than if he were a poor one.
On account of the fact that the country is landlocked there are frequent jokes about the Swiss navy, yet it is a fact that in 1799 the country did have a small fleet on Lake Zurich commanded by an Englishman, Colonel Williams. At that time Switzerland was fighting to regain her liberty from the French, who had temporarily overrun the country. Williams was so disgusted with the French successes that he discharged his crew, scuttled his vessels and took to flight.
Aspirations for Religious Liberty
It is perhaps but natural that, holding the Hapsburgs in such disesteem, the Swiss, many of them, should have entertained the same unfavorable impression of the Hapsburg religion, Boman Catholicism, as they had of the Haps-burgs themselves. It was therefore natural when the Reformation got under way and the Protestants were driven from first one country and then another, that they should find Switzerland a good place to make their home and to proclaim their teachings.
Driven out of France, John Calvin fled to Geneva, and for twenty-three years was the virtual czar of the city, ruling it in all matters great and small. A hairdresser was imprisoned because he made one of his clients too beautiful; a man who swore was compelled to kneel in the place of his offense, clasp his hands and kiss the earth; and no one might wear silk or embroidered hose, nor might they adorn their persons with silver or gold. The citizens of Geneva were forbidden to eat or drink in taverns outside of the city. All citizens must be ’n their homes at nine o’clock at night. Because Servetus disagreed with Calvin, he was baked five hours by a slow fire, while Calvin sat at a nearby window to enjoy the scene. Calvin was the founder of the Presbyterian church.
The influence of Calvin still persists in Geneva, where even to this day if one drives an auto on Sunday he is arrested. Calvin’s memory is held in such respect in Geneva that because he at one time spoke on a street corner no one may indulge in street-speaking. To attempt it would mean to be locked up.
In commemoration of Calvin and other personages of the Reformation era, Geneva has its Wall of the Reformation, or Roman Wall, twenty feet high and a block long, crowded with statues- of such worthies as Calvin, Knox, Co-ligny, Cromwell, William the Silent, and others. The reason the wall is called the “Roman Wall" is that it designedly faces Rome.
There are many families in Switzerland called Sarrasin. The people of this name believe that they are descendants of the Saracens who overran southeastern Europe in the 10th century and in the year 920 occupied the pass in which is now located the hospice of St. Bernard.
According to the last census there are in Switzerland 2,230,597 Protestants, 1,585,311 Roman Catholics, and 20,979 Jews. The order of the Jesuits is not allowed in Switzerland, and the foundation of religious orders and new convents is prohibited.
At times in bygone centuries, the Swiss Catholics and Protestants have fought with each other, the last great conflict taking place in 1712, when victory rested with the Protestants. Swiss history since then has been a period of tranquillity favoring the progress of commerce, agriculture, manufacturing and the arts and sciences.
An Influx of New Ideas
One of the best things that can happen to a country is that it should become known as a haven for the. oppressed. Up until now the majorities in all countries have been influenced by the Devil, for “'the whole world lieth in the wicked one”. The majority do not do any thinking. The constant effort of their religious teachers is to persuade them against thinking, and to even threaten them against thinking, by saying or inferring, ‘This is a great mystery. We know all about it, but you cannot possibly understand it, and therefore you should not try to understand it. In fact, if you try to understand it, you will get all mixed up. Your only safety is in accepting just what we tell you. Regardless of.' whether or not it seems reasonable, it is your only path of safety.’
It is a little different with the minority. The minority may not think correctly, but it has to think; indeed it must think in order to live at all. Hence, it is a great boon to a country to have these people driven into it. This has been the making of America and Britain, and it has been the making of Switzerland.
In the year 1685 alone the revocation of the Edict of Nantes is credited with driving 60,000 Huguenots from France into Switzerland. These Huguenots were France’s most intelligent citizens. They founded the silk industry of Zurich and Bern and the watch business in Geneva. They also introduced banking and wholesaling.
At the time of the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of the Huguenots, 2,300 refugees from France crowded into Geneva in one day, and although the city at that time had but 1200 homes and was itself nearly bankrupt, Geneva shared what she had wuth the panic-stricken masses who were fleeing empty-handed from the Roman Catholic church’s relentless persecutions.
The natural result of expelling all the most intelligent people of a great country like France and of crowding them into a little country like Switzerland was to give a great spur to education. Prof. Thomas C. Hall, who for ten years has been lecturing upon the history of culture at the University of Goettingen, Germany, declares that Switzerland is today the most cultured nation in the world, due to the fact that in other countries the culture is limited to small groups, while in Switzerland it is diffused throughout the whole people.
A study of international patents shows that per million of population the Swiss obtain more than three times as many as those of any other nationality; and even in patents granted to their own nationals at home, their ranking as compared with citizens in the United States is as 542 to 382. In other words, the Swiss are the world’s foremost inventors.
Switzerland is one of the few nations, perhaps the only one, which observes the 24-hour system of time-keeping, beginning at the midnight hour. The twenty-four-hour time system controls the transportation lines, telegraph lines, custom service, and all institutions under federal control. Three o’clock p.m. is the 15th hour, etc.
As the country offers asylum to all kinds of political refugees, it has become a kind of international clearing house for thought and theory. For many years it has been the free and open laboratory in which every European scheme of government has been hatched. It is inevitable that the Swiss should be proficient in languages, and equally inevitable that education should be general, because the acquisition of languages is education in itself.
There are no government statistics on illiteracy, but out of 59,122 persons who became married there were only one Swiss woman and four Swiss men who could not write. Education is compulsory, and instruction, books and materials are provided free up to the age of fifteen years, when the annual fees amount to $12.00.
The Swiss technical schools are second to none in the world. They teach everything, from •waiting on tables to watchmaking. In all Swiss educational institutions special attention is paid to gymnastics and physical culture. In the mountain districts schools are kept open only during the long winters. In the summers the boys work in the fields, while the teachers attend to their own farms.
The German language is spoken in nineteen of the Swiss cantons. The French language is spoken in five, and Italian in the remaining one. Nearly all the cantons have alternate names in French and German. The Swiss German is a difficult dialect and is sometimes simply called Swiss. In some of the valleys there are still to be found those •who speak Rumonsh, an independent Latin tongue which is neither French nor Italian.
There are great differences in the Swiss people. The French Swiss are active and vivacious ; the Italian Swiss, fiery and irritable; the German Swiss, calm and thoughtful. Yet all are independent and liberty-loving and have no desire for governmental union with France, Italy or Germany.
Much of the soil is stony and sterile, but no spot that can be turned to good account is left unoccupied. The productive land is cut up into 300,000 small farm plots, about one-third of which is under grass and meadows. The majority of Swiss foodstuffs have to be imported.
In proportion to its population, Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world.
The Swiss are very jealous of their reputations. A rather comical incident brought this to light. It seems that in Germany the word “Schweizer*” docs double duty. It describes either a dairy worker or a citizen of Switzerland. Several years ago, when a notorious criminal in Germany gave his profession to the police as
QOLDEN AGE
that of a Schweizer, the envoy of the Swiss government in Berlin solemnly waited upon the German government and persuaded them to abolish the expression “Schweizer” as descriptive of a worker in the dairy business. The Swiss government did not intend that the world at large should consider that the country of their pride, instead of being a model republic, is a home of crooks.
Swiss Political Hems
The nineteen cantons and six half cantons are variously governed locally, but for federal purposes have the equivalent of a senate and a house of representatives and a cabinet of seven men. The cabinet, or federal council, is elected for a term of three years. Two members of this council hold respectively the office of president and vice-president for one year. After this brief term the vice-president is elected to the presidency, and in his turn another member of the council becomes vice-president.
The Swiss claim to possess the only truly democratic government in the world, and to have shown what plain men can do in the way of government without the help of- a ruling class of gentlemen of leisure, of millionaires, or of professional politicians. The principles of the referendum and of the initiative are in force. Any 50,000 citizens may demand a direct popular vote on any constitutional question. Clergymen are not eligible for deputies, but every other citizen over twenty-one years is eligible for election.
The country has compulsory old age pensions. All employees between the ages of nineteen and sixty-five are compelled to pay a certain amount into a fund, into which their employers pay a like amount. Everyone may draw his benefit upon reaching the age of sixty-five.
Military service is compulsory. Every would-be officer must start as a private, and promotion is by merit and not by seniority. The Swiss consider it an honor to serve in the army, and a misfortune to be rejected.
The postal service is prompt, reliable and efficient. The tourist’s baggage goes very cheaply by parcel post.
Capital punishment has been abolished in fifteen of the cantons. In one of the cantons a new law requires the sterilization of all the mentally unsound.
Some of the country districts are losing their population. The village of Balm, canton of So-leure, lost all its citizens except one old man named Gunsberg, who at last reports occupied all the offices of mayor, magistrate, municipal counselor, and a half dozen other posts. When he dies off, the village will cease to exist.
Because its frontiers are composed of mountains, rivers and lakes, and because it occupies the highest and most mountainous land on the continent the country is aptly styled the “Fortress of Europe”. It is believed to be impregnable in the hands of an armed garrison. It is but 226 miles in its greatest length, and 136 miles in its greatest width.
Four of the greatest rivers in Europe, the Rhine, Rhone, Po and Danube have their rise in the Alps. The highest mountain peaks are in the south and east. From Mount St. Gothard four mountain chains radiate to the north, south, east and west. .
The largest lake, that of Geneva, has an area of about 220 square miles, with Lake Constance nearly as large. Both of these lakes, as well as Maggiore on the south, belong partly to other countries. The bottoms of these lakes are below the level of the sea. Rapid mountain torrents, thick with sediment, feed nearly all the lakes, but the rivers which leave the lakes emerge as clear and limpid streams.
The avalanches are famous for their destructiveness. In many places stone galleries are built or tunnels are mined out of the solid rock to protect the roads. The avalanches are of three kinds: the stroke avalanche, which pours down the slopes like a swiftly flowing river, and which can be quite successfully regulated; the ground avalanche, which performs the beneficial task of bringing down soil from the heights to the plains; and the dust-snow avalanche, which is the most dangerous, on account of its suddenness, and the most difficult to provide against. The latter is a collection of loose, freshly fallen snow which is driven by the wind to the valley below. Inasmuch as the forests are the natural ramparts against avalanches, the forest laws of Switzerland are very strict, and no one is allowed to fell a tree, even on his own ground, without government consent.
In the higher regions of the Alps are several hundred varieties of flowers found only in the Arctic regions and in the upper Alps.
Diversity of Climate
In the wintertime, and more particularly in the valleys that are open to the east and closed to the wrest, Switzerland is a cold place. In the summertime you can get any climate you want. In midsummer, on the lowest levels it is very hot; while on the higher levels it is much lower in temperature, with dry, clear weather, suitable for those suffering from lung disease. In the latter portions there is a uniform morning wind blowing downhill in regular alternation with the evening wind blowing uphill.
One of the best known winds in the Alps is the foehn, a warm, moist south wind that blows with great velocity and is frequently followed by heavy rain. This wind is calculated to blow for seventeen days in the spring, five days in the summer, and sixteen days in the autumn. On its approach the thermometer rises and the barometer falls rapidly. Presently, a fierce storm breaks out.
The Playground of the World
It is needless to say to readers of The Golden 'Age that Switzerland is the playground of the world. In its 3,600 hotels, with invested capital of approximately $3,000,000,000, it employs an army of 61,000 persons, to look aftei' the needs and comforts of travelers from all parts of the globe. The Swiss are quoted as being the best hotel keepers in the business. If a good idea on hotel management is developed in the United States or any other part of the world, it is no time until it is being used in Switzerland. Moreover in normal times, the prices are extraordinarily moderate.
The country has 400 health resorts and every possible attraction for devotees of winter sports. A flourishing occupation is that of the professional guide, whose services are indispensable where glaciers are to be crossed. These guides are intelligent and respectable men and are well versed in their duties.
The scenery of the country is surrounded with stairways, bridges, railings and platforms until one almost feels that much of it is in captivity. Many of the mountains may now be ascended by cable or cog-wheeled railways.
Transportation Items
In the year 1929, 160,000 American tourists registered and in the previous year more than 100,000 foreign tourist autos entered the country. On the railways the windows along the sides are five feet wide. There is thus an unblocked expanse through which one can look upon the passing landscape. These windows run all the way to the top of the car without any cross bars to bisect and mutilate the view.
This is an item which the American railways could well consider. We have at least one railway in the United States the passenger car windows of which are so designed that they can be neither raised nor lowered and hardly a breath of air can get to the passengers in the hottest weather. This is not the case in Switzerland, because the big windows have comfortable handholds at top and bottom by which thej^ can be either raised or lowered.
In its aviation department, which is highly developed, the Swiss military has a section devoted to Alpine research. The aviators of this section scour the high mountains looking for lost tourists, and when found, if possible, drop food to them from the air.
Experienced travelers in Switzerland buy subscription tickets which permit an unlimited use of the railways for a week, a fortnight, or a month, as the case may be. Though the country is so small, it nevertheless has 3,670 miles of state railways. The distances between various points are much greater than it seems from the map they should be. This is owing to the great mountains that lie in the pathway and which the railroads can pass only by sneaking around as best they can.
Motor trucks are cutting into the business of the Swiss federal railways badly. In the effort to meet the competition, the freight rates have been reduced 10 percent. In the United States, in the effort to meet the same competition, the railroads have been foolish enough to ask for an advance of 15 percent.
The Simplon Tunnel, 12| miles in length, is the longest in Europe. In the building of this tunnel the engineers had to fight against rising temperatures, landslides, bursting rocks, eruptions of hot water, exhalations of mephitic gases, and terrible inundations.
Switzerland has the highest railway in Europe, the Jungfrau line, which goes up 11,240 feet, and is building a new railway connecting St. Moritz with the Piz Bernina, ■which will attain an altitude of 13,390 feet. Eighty-eight percent of all mileage of the railways is electrified, and about 95 percent of all the towns and villages are served by electricity.
An odd thing about the country is that it is almost impossible for a stranger to get a plain drink of water. He can always get carbonated or mineral water at 25c a bottle, whether he likes it or not; but if he wants plain water, it is almost impossible to get it.
Other Swiss Industries
Of course the country has some enterprises besides the tourist business; but, having only one small coal district, and the coal in that district being of very poor quality, it cannot hope to do any heavy manufacturing. Iron ore has been found and worked at various places, and at different times asphalt, sulphur, salt, silver, copper and lead ores have been extracted; but it cannot be said that the country is rich in minerals. It does, however, have a number of mineral spring’s, and thermal and medicinal baths are dotted all over the country. The hot springs at Baden have been celebrated since Roman times.
Switzerland is noted for the manufacture of cheese, condensed milk, chocolate, and watches, especially wrist watches. It has many hundreds of small factories employing only two or three persons, and some large ones, engaged in the production of preserved fruits, synthetic perfumery, parts of watches, jewelry, embroidery, music boxes, wood carvings, aniline dyes, artificial silk, cotton and textiles.
When Westerners visit the country they are amused to see the women scarecrows in the fields, due to the fact that here, as in many other parts of Europe, the field workers are commonly women.
Switzerland is famous for its good roads, some of them built by the Romans and some by Napoleon.
Though it is landlocked, it does have a port on the Rhine at Basel, and it also has port rights at Cette, in the Gulf of Lyons, on the French coast. Plying to and from the latter port, which is connected with the state railways by a special lino, the Swiss now have twenty-eight vessels of 105,000 tons total tonnage.
The Swiss Cities
The cities are all small, as shown by the accompanying table:
Zurich
215,640
Lausanne
76,200
Basel
141,650
Saint Gall
64,850
Geneva
126,700
Winterthur
52,700
Bern
109,020
Lucerne
45,700
Basel, chosen as the seat of the Bank for International Settlements, is advantageously situated on the Rhine, a little below the point where it becomes navigable. It is at the terminus of French, German and Swiss railways, also the St. Gothard line to Italy. It was the first, town to organize a police force. It has four air transportation companies which connect it directly with London, Paris and other cities, and it has been a prominent banking center for five hundred years.
Geneva, not the metropolis, and not the capital, is one of the most conspicuous cities in the world on account of being the home of the League of Nations. The city owns and operates its own gas and electric lighting plant. Genevans are great lovers of trees. There are blocks where one can walk under sycamore trees so closely interlaced that the sun can hardly peep through.
Bern, the capital, has streets which are adorned with fountains and purified by rills of water running beside them. A number of bears are maintained at the cost of the city. These bears are kept in a pit, and into the pit in recent years several persons have fallen. At least two of these persons were killed by the bears, the ancestors of which have lived in the pit for centuries.
Besides its bears, Switzerland has many other wild animals: wolves, chamois, goats, boars, stag, badgers, snipe, heathcock, cockoo, blackbird and woodpecker, and the lakes and rivers produce a varied abundance of fish.
What Made India Poor
TN HIS address to America, heard here over the radio, Mahatma Gandhi said, in part:
The time was, not very long ago, when every village was self-sufficient in regard to the two primary human wants, food and clothing. Unfortunately for us, the East India Company, by means which I would prefer not to describe, destroyed that supplementary village industry, and the millions of spinners who had become famous through the cunning of their deft, fingers for drawing the finest thread, such as has never yet been drawn by any modern machinery. These village spinners found themselves one fine morning with their noble occupation gone. From that day forward India has become progressively poor.
Acorns from the Oak
depression Hits Yellowstone Park
rHIS past summer, in the height of the tourist season, Yellowstone Park was virtually deserted. Hotels which ordinarily employ sixty or seventy maids did not have enough work to keep a tenth that many busy.
The Drop in the Building Industry
TN THE first half of 1928 the contracts let in the United States for public buildings, power plants, conduits, roads and bridges amounted to $3,444,867,000. In the first half of 1931, three years later, they were only about one-half that sum, or $1,808,226,000.
Frank Oxman Is Dead
TpBAKK Oxman, the cattleman whose perjured testimony caused Tom Mooney to be sentenced to death for the San Francisco Preparedness Day bombing, is dead. So far, so good. It is a blessing to mankind to have him dead. Mooney is still in prison and still innocent.
Crimes of the Native-born
^PHE Wickersham Commission surprised -A everybody by reporting that the foreign-born commit considerably fewer crimes than the native-born, and that in crimes for gain the native-born greatly exceed the foreign-born. The report states that the cost of crimes exceeds $1,207,565,821 a year.
Victory of the Machine
WITH the aid of labor-saving machinery the workers in the manufacturing industries in 1929 produced 42 percent more than in 1919. The men that produced the surplus 42 percent have just put that many people in the bread line. Despite all theories to the contrary, labor-saving machinery does indeed save labor.
Six Billion Idle Dollars
THAT the banks are bursting with money is admitted. That the big fellows that control it are nervous as to w7hat to do with it is also plain. They put as much as they are allowed in the saving’s banks, to earn 3 percent or so, and when the government recently offered $800,000,000 at 3% percent these men oversubscribed the 'mount seven or eight times in 24 hours.
“Wrecked Within a Year”
/N overnor Nobman of the Bank of England is . quoted as saying recently that “unless drastic measures are taken to save it, the capitalistic system throughout the world will be wrecked within a year”.
Drinking Water Carried 7,000 Miles
A NORWEGIAN steamer recently started with 835,200 gallons ofpure drinking water, from Cardiff, Wales, for delivery to the twenty whaling vessels now in the Antarctic. The water will be carried 7,000 miles.
Cutting Two Days from Time of Ocean Mails
OUT 650 miles at sea, west of Southampton, England, on August 12, a plane carrying European mails was catapulted from the decks of the Europa, and the same day landed mails at Southampton, at Amsterdam, Holland, and at Bremerhaven, Germany, thus saving forty-eight hours over the regular steamer time.
West Palm Beach Hard Hit
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., the so-called “playground of millionaires”, is hard hit. The millionaires are feeling the pinch so much that only 63 percent of last year’s taxes have been paid, and it has been necessary to pay city employees in scrip, and to declare a moratorium on running expenses.
The Rich Will Feed the Poor
IN AN address at Cottonwood, Idaho, Senator
Borah declared that during the coming winter the rich of America will feed her poor and that if they do not do it voluntarily they will, nevertheless, do it. He is in favor of greatly increasing the income taxes, particularly in the higher brackets.
Dividends a Fourth Less
AT LAST the big fellows are beginning to feel the depression, along with the common herd. When the dividend disbursements for September were made it was noted that they were only about three-fourths what they were a year ago. For 900 companies the dividends were $350,000,000, compared with $475,000,000 in September 1930.
Good-by to the Coopers .
OOD-BY to the coopers; it is their turn to go. A new machine makes paper barrels. It is said that they are lighter, stronger and cheaper than the wooden ones. For years the business has been slipping. The steel barrels took the best trade, and now the paper ones will take what is left.
West Virginia’s Sinking Fund Commission
IN THE past ten years the state of West Virginia has saved thirteen million dollars for its taxpayers by the way it has handled its county and municipal bonds. A district decides to build a school. In other states banking houses bid for the issue of bonds in its entirety, with the district paying interest on the entire sum, from the start. In West Virginia the bonds are purchased as the district needs the money. The savings in interest go to the district erecting the structure.
The Manless Factory at Milwaukee
T WHAT is commonly called The manless factory’ at Milwaukee engineers have designed a plant for the construction of automobile frames which is so complete and operates so perfectly that it turns out 10,000 frames a day almost without human aid. Here and there are policemen who watch to see that nothing goes wrong with the machinery. These machines have no hungry wives or children at home. When all factories are similarly equipped, what will become of the men who now work in those factories, and their families as well ?
In Harlan, Kentucky
IN HARLAN, Kentucky, while the coal strike was on, somebody blew up the soup kitchen where the destitute miners and their families were fed. One could hardly suppose the miners did this. An editor who was engaged in investigating charges of brutality against one of the miners’ lawyers was shot in the leg. It is hardly supposable that the miners did this. An auto of one of the miners’ lawyers was bombed and several cars of their lawyers were bombed with stink bombs in plain view of the sheriff’s office. It is hardly supposable that the miners did this. Apparently somebody in Harlan is determined that law and order must cease and ruin follow. Wonder who it is.
Modern Uses of Tank Cars
UNDREDS of tank cars, some of them linea with glass, some with nickel, and some with rubber, are being used for the transportation of milk, caustic soda, acetic acid, wood alcohol, formaldehyde, glycerin and ethyl fluid, and in Canada they are being used for the transportation of beer, -wine and other beverages.
Postage Stamps May Taste Better
HE Department of Agriculture is working on the problem of making the postage stamps taste better. The editor of The Post Office Cleric quaintly suggests that there be a 1-cent stamp with mint mucilage, a 2-cent with raspberry, a 4-cent brown gravy combination, and so on, thus affording stenographers a chance to save their lunch money and their employers’ time at noon, by taking a turn at licking the backs of the little adhesives that carry the mail around the country.
Pinchot on Aiding the Poor
IN AN address at Detroit Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania pointed out that it was easy for our government to declare a moratorium to help Germany, and to recommend a loan of $1,200,000,000 to help her, and that the federal government alone has the strength to feed America’s unemployed during this coming winter. Answering the objection that it pauperizes people to help them when they are unemployed, he called attention to the fact that the people the government saved from starving in the Mississippi flood were not pauperized by it.
Gold and Silver in the Streets
TN AN illuminating and convincing article in the Vancouver (B. C.) Sun, its editor says in part:
It may shock Americans to learn that their five-billion pile of gold is as valueless as the 143 earloads of silver cartwheels that today clutter up the treasury vaults of Washington. It may take the mining industry, as in the,case of silver, some time to become reconciled to the depreciated value of gold, but, viewing the trends of world trade and world credit, it is now clear that the fiction of gold and silver as money are fast being regarded as the folly of a rich and antiquated world. Incredible as it seems, and strange as it sounds when first heard, it is certain that the historic metallic fiction of gold and silver is vanishing.
Too Much of Everything
f'pOO much cotton; let's destroy a third. Too much corn; let’s destroy a third. Too much wheat; let’s destroy a third. Too many automobiles; let's destroy a third. Too many ships; let’s destroy a third. Too many houses; let’s destroy a third. Too many people; but hold on now, this thing has gone far enough. The real trouble is not that we have too many people, but too few, especially too few of the right kind.
Keeps the Property Up, Anyway
A Detroit landlord, William Trethaway, having difficulty in collecting rents in the 225 houses he controls, has hit on the novel scheme of having his tenants work out their rent by painting, repairing and otherwise improving his properties. Jobless tenants are paid 50c an hour for 50 hours a week. Of the $25 thus earned, $5 is given them in cash, and the rest is credited to the rent account. And the tenants are said to like the arrangement.
Mother Tortures Her Children
SUSPECTING that some of her children had taken some pennies a Los Angeles woman tortured them by burning their finger tips with matches. The palm of one of these, a five-year-old boy, was burned to the bone, and he will have a seared hand for life. Close scrutiny will show that this woman was a believer in the doctrine of eternal torture, and was trying to be like the god she worships, which god is the Devil, the inventor of the doctrine.
Progress in Ten Years
DESPITE hard times, there has been some progress in ten years. In 1921 pig iron production was 16,700,000 tons; in 1931 it will be 22,000,000 tons. In 1921 copper production was 305,000 tons; in 1931 it will be 700,000 tons. In 1920 the silk imports were 30 million pounds ; in 1931 they will be 60 million pounds. In 1920 the butter production was 800 million pounds; in 1931 it will be twice that much. In the first six months of 1921 sales of fabricated structural steel were 318,000 tons; in the first six months of 1931 they were 958,000 tons. In the year 1921 the tire companies made 22 million casings and a like number of inner tubes; in the year 1931 they produced the same number of casings and inner tubes in the first six months.
“No Right to Exist”
"TJk. Hjalmar Schacht, former president of •L' the Reichsbank, Germany, makes the following startling statements: “Never was the incapacity of the economic leaders of the capitalist world so glaringly demonstrated as today. The ruling classes of the world have completely failed, in political leadership as in economics. A capitalism which cannot feed the workers of the world has no right to exist.”
Ford Workers Must Have Own Gardens
THE automobile business being a seasonable business, Henry Ford has decided that hereafter the men who work for him must also work their own gardens and produce for their families at least a part of their own foodstuffs. Without doubt this will be a good thing for these men, and for Henry, who will have to pay them less, but the market gardeners will notice the difference.
Chanty Day in Cleveland
THEY have just had charity day at the race track in Cleveland, with the result that $9,347 net was raised toward caring for the unemployed. It is very wicked for horses to trot unless they wear white ties and have their collars on backward, and hence the Cleveland Methodist Ministerial Association asked to have the sheriff of the county removed from office. The sheriff only laughed and suggested that the ministers confine their activities to preaching the Word of God, when they would have less time to interfere with those who are trying to do something to help the poor.
The Railways and the Highways
THE Pennsylvania Railroad Company, defining its attitude toward the highways, expresses its belief that “the primary purpose for which the public highway system exists and is being extended is to meet those transportation needs of citizens which fall under the heads of pleasure and convenience, not to serve the purpose of heavy mass transportation, either passenger or freight”. The company then makes tlie proposition that “when all elements of real cost are considered, heavy transport service, over hauls of any considerable length, is, and will continue to be, much more economically and efficiently’ performed by rail”. Incidentally7, this last argument is a good one for low7 rates.
Russia Building the World’s Largest Army
AT ONE of the so-called peace conferences of the League of Nations the Russians proposed that all armies be immediately disbanded, and all navies and war material be destroyed. The conference was so flabbergasted that it did not know what to do, and so it declared the proposition out of order and proceeded with its program along the usual hypocritical lines.
From that moment the Russians turned in the other direction, and, though they still talk peace, they are preparing for war on the greatest scale on which any people have ever made ready for a great conflict.
In 1922-23 the Soviet spent 244 million gold roubles on armaments; in 1926-27, 692 million; in 1927-28, 814 million; in 1928-29, 930 million; in 1929-30, 1,113 million. This year’s budget is for 1,390 million gold roubles, which is five and one-half times as much as nine years ago.
There is now compulsory military service for the whole of the able-bodied population. Full mobilization would bring together a force of 12 million trained and partially trained men. The equipment of this huge force is improving every day. The air force is organized into 100 groups and commands about 1,600 planes. A great military headquarters is being built in Asia, beyond the Ural mountains.
The Russians are expecting to be attacked through the Baltic states. They are anticipating a war in which all capitalistic states will be arrayed against the Soviet order. In the preparation of their plans the Russians have the benefit of the best engineering talent in the world.
Pennsylvania Restive Under Blue Laws
OF THE 26,501,443 automobiles in the United States 1,733,283 are in Pennsylvania, and almost all of these are out on Sunday violating the ancient blue law’s. A considerable number of these cars that are illegally chasing up and down amidst some of the most beautiful scenery in the world belong to church members.
In the morning, when the solemn hour for hypocrisy draw’s near, they will be found ranged on all sides of the mausoleums dedicated to the god of this world; in the afternoons they will be found parked at the country clubs, the while their owners are ambling over the green turf chasing golf balls.
Now there is a vast and holy difference between golf balls and baseballs. Just what it is, we have not yet been able to discover, but it is vast enough to keep the hypocrites all on the side of Sunday golf and all the liberals on the side of Sunday baseball. There is a great gulf fixed between the two, so that those on the one side who would fain pass to the other are forbidden to do so by the long-nosed evangelical frauds that control piety in the Keystone state.
Recently, the liberals almost took the old blue laws away from the Grundy saints, but in the showdowm the Sarcophagus saints beat them by a vote of 101 to 99. However, these long-tailed roosters in black feathers had to hear some plain talk before they marched out of the Harrisburg barnyard as victors in the strife. We quote from some of the speeches of the liberals:
There is no member of this Legislature; there is not a single church leader who dare say that he would want the Blue Law enforced in its entirety. What we are now engaged in is enforcing a part of the law.
Our duty is clear. Let us stop this religious hypocrisy. Let us remove from the Blue Law those things we do not want to enforce. It is a pity that religion has crept into this matter. It is not the function of a Legislature to decide the conscience of man. That is his affair. If you believe that the people are still able to govern themselves, then you cannot continue the present Blue Law policy. Boys have been arrested for playing baseball on the Sabbath. The church is branding them as criminals—an awful indictment against the religious fanatics. Let us stop our methods and let us train our children to enjoy clean sports.
Be fair and prove that you are not hypocrites. Try to enforce the law against Sunday sale of gasoline. You dare not and you know it. If you attempted to prove your honesty and stopped a single gasoline station from operating on Sunday you would find at the next session of the Legislature the most powerful lobby ever assembled and there would be a bill wiping out every last vestige of the Blue Law’. And yet you arrest young boys. Lay aside your local prejudice. Lay aside your bigotry. Be men and pass this amendment.
Why Mooney Is Kept in Prison
Tom Mooney insists that he is being kept in prison by the influence of California labor leaders who fear his exposures of their alliance with Big Business if he is allowed his liberty. These labor leaders know that the judge who tried him, and the jury that convicted him, are agreed that he is entirely innocent of the crime for which he is serving a life sentence. They know he went to prison on perjured testimony, and that the prosecutors connived to have perjurers brought into the state to convict him. Behind his back these labor leaders have connived to keep this innocent man in prison. H. L. Mencken, editor of the American Mercury says of them:
What they fear is that if he is released unconditionally he’will upset their apple-cart. Things, at the moment, go well with them. They are on good terms with the Babbitts, keep the slaves they lead in order, and got their fair share of public jobs. Scores of them have their snouts in the trough. They are invited to all considerable banquets, and sit on innumerable boards and commissions. Not a few know where and how to get good tips on the stock market.
Mooney, turned loose, would spoil all that. He harbors what are called radical ideas, and does not believe that it is wise for labor leaders to be so complacent, lie would try to stir up the slaves against them, and hence against the Babbitts. So they refuse to ask Governor Young to pardon him, but content themselves with asking for a parole. Out on parole, Mooney would be safely hamstrung. The moment he uttered a word against the Babbitts or against the labor leaders who play their game, he would be clapped into prison again as a Bed, and there he would remain for life. Naturally enough, he protests against being-paroled. What, he demands is a free and unconditional pardon, as befits an innocent man.
The whole affair throws a curious light upon the present status of the whole American Labor movement. It has got so conservative that its chief dignitaries are quite as conservative as Andy Mellon himself. They are slick and shiny fellows, hobnobbing with bankers, bishops and such highly respectable fowl, and ready and eager to put down every sign of radicalism. They draw big salaries, travel incessantly and luxuriously, break up all strikes that look serious, and arc first over the top when there is a banquet. A few weeks ago a group of them went to West Point, reviewed the Regiment of Cadets, and were given royal honors. Simultaneously another group delivered the poor Rayon strikers at Elizabethtown, Tenn., to the mercies of the bosses.
It goes without saying that such elegant fellows have little sympathy with Mooney. He is frankly an agitatoi; and if he were set at large tomorrow he would undoubtedly have something to say about their sybaritic ways, and he would even go to the length of arguing that they ought to be kicked out, to make room for men less eager to curry favor with the enemy. Down the line in the rank and file of the unions he has plenty of partisans, but the men higher up know how to keep the lid on. When resolutions are passed, they are always mild ones. There must be no Bolshevism!
It may seem incredible, but I am assured on the highest authority that it is a fact, that during the 13 years Mooney has been in prison, the American Feder-ationist, the organ of the American Federation of Labor, has never so much as mentioned him. His imprisonment has been discussed elsewhere to the extent of acres of print, and even the most conservative newspapers have had to take notice of it. More, it has had repercussions all over the world, and at one time it threatened international complications. But though Mooney, without the slightest doubt, was railroaded in his character of a union man and would not have been accused at all had he not been one, the chief journal of the union movement in the United States is silent about him! -
African Natives Out of Work
FORMERLY, in the vineyards of northern Africa, thousands of natives were employed, each carrying on his back a copper cylinder from which poisonous dust was distributed over the vines to keep down minute forms of life hostile to the growing plant and its fruit. Now the spraying of the vineyards is being done by modern mechanical means; a single truck driver can do the work of scores of men, and the poor olored men are without the employment they
so much need. It is the same story all over the world. The man has been racing the machine, and now the machine has won the race and the poor man is no longer needed, except as a customer. But customers without money are poor customers; hence, in the Devil’s way of looking at things, the necessity for frequent wars. It helps to get rid of surplus humans, brother men, created, originally, in the image and likeness of God. "
On the Moratorium By E. E. Cassel (Florida)
THE last treasury report credits $7,500,000,000 in circulation, and as per demands of the federal reserve banks upon country banks this amount is increased or diminished at the option of the financial desires of New York bankers.
As a result of the deflation ordered on numerous occasions by the reserve banks, 7,000 banks were forced to close their doors. Of this number 2,500 were national banks. As fast as the national currency (paper money) reached the treasurer at Washington, it has been destroyed, thus reducing our money crop $3,000,000,000 during the past 11 years. Important in this connection is the fact that the crop of money left in the United States is apportioned as follows: Four percent of our people have 80 percent, and 96 percent of our people have 20 percent. Effective optimism, declarations nor advertising can compel either the 4 percent or the 96 percent of people to spend more than they are now spending.
This condition is the natural result of government by business executives instead of by the people. The international bankers of New York, who loaned foreign countries $17,000,000,000, it appears, caused Mr. Mellon, their representative, to get busy and have the president issue that moratorium only against further money being paid to our government for one year, seemingly and perhaps so the bankers would be sure to get theirs, regardless of the amount due the government. Many times I have related the power of business executives over congress, but in this case it was over the president, and if subsequently approved by congress it W’ill mean a tremendous hardship for the masses to pay the present deficit plus the complete loss of the foreign loan by our government.
Had the idea of protecting or accommodating either the United States government or the German government been entertained to any extent, the moratorium would have been issued subsequent to the election of Herbert Hoover.
How the newspapers and magazines could make the mistake of commending the moratorium issued by President Hoover, which means a complete loss of our loan, at least for one year, and does not apply to the $17,000,000,000 loaned Germany by financial speculators, is for you to answer or use as facts or circumstantial evidence amounting to an indictment against this alleged wonderful executive achievement.
In lieu of the condition in which the foreign loans were negotiated and the meager possibility of collecting, the ability of our president and of congress should first be directed to our own-financial situation, and either a moratorium issued or an accommodation such as granted the reserve banks amounting to the issuing of currency sufficient to meet our entire debt obligation for at least a 50-year period and without interest should be approved by congress.
The Public Health of Detroit
DETROIT is having a hard time taking care of its unemployed, but, right at a time when the poor need every dollar for the care of their families, the city was subjected to an expensive high-pressure publicity campaign in favor of toxin-antitoxin which additionally diverted more than $100,000 to the offices of private physicians.
Public funds were used to whoop up the campaign, including preparation and publication of newspaper stories, advertisements, posters, lectures, billboard advertisements, radio talks, free literature, and 251,960 visits of nurses to the homes. All this cost the city a lot of money.
When the doctors cashed in on this they were supposed to get $4 for each child, if they could contrive to get it out of the parents; otherwise they were paid $2.50 by the health department. One of the doctors who helped shove this over on Detroit is quoted in the August 8, 1931, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association as having said:
At no time was the question ever raised of the amount of money we were going to spend. The only question was on the results. We started out with $5,000 to pay physicians, and during the year we spent $120,000. We increased the $5,000 appropriation to $120,000. We estimate this year that the cost of payment to physicians will not be nearly so high. We have gone through the first difficulties and now it is merely a matter of taking care of children as they arrive. We have, in our budget, a definite appropriation of $45,000 to pay physicians for this work.
44A Short Tour in India” By one of Jehovah’s witnesses
INDIA is a land of complexities; a complexity of nations, languages and religions. It is a continent rather than a country. Its population of 319,000,000 people is divided into seven distinct races, which are subdivided into numerous tribes, each speaking a language peculiar to themselves and following different religious customs and beliefs.
Statistics show that there are 222 distinct languages, besides various local dialects, whilst in their religious world the variety of creeds is legion. Hinduism, which is divided into numerous sects, claims a following of 68 percent of the population, and Christianity one percent. Their Christianity is of the same variety as in other Christian (?) lands, and would be better labeled “Churchianity”.
For centuries enshrouded in superstitious ignorance, India is slowly beginning to awaken to the foolishness of some of her practices. Many are well educated,' intelligent people, ranking-on an equality with their Western brethren, but the masses are still held in the bondage of superstition instilled by religious fears.
Child marriage (and widowhood) still stands out as one of the most sorrowful practices. Statistics show that there are over 100,000 widows under five years of age, and 300,000 between the ages of ten and fifteen years.
Their religious laws forbid the remarrying of a widow. Thus a little girl may be married (or rather bethrothed) at the age of five, made a widow at six, and must remain so all her life. With these thoughts in mind one can realize the impotency of man to bring himself out of the terrible bondage into which he has fallen. Only Christ’s kingdom can possibly cope with such a problem.
Come with me now on a tour through a small portion of this vast land and we shall see firsthand how the people live, and talk to them about their real hope of deliverance, the kingdom of God.
A Glimpse at Bombay
Our tour commences from Bombay, and a word about this wonderful city may be of interest. Bombay is a modern, westernized city of one and a quarter million population. Situated on the western coast of India and in a central position, it forms the gateway to India from the Western world. It is a business-man’s city with its electric cars, automatic telephone systems and all modern conveniences. Its people are very cosmopolitan; two distinct peoples have settled there, and two distinct languages are spoken besides English.
Built on an island, its expansion is somewhat limited and in many localities there is considerable congestion, and the housing problem has been very acute. Its public buildings are palatial, as are many of the residences. On the other hand, it has a large amount of slum property where native Indians are huddled together in squalor. This, of course, is to be anticipated with such a population.
Bombay is the western terminus of two main railway systems, one serving the northern half of India, the other the central and southern areas; it is by the latter that we shall commence our journeyings. Luggage is packed, and includes a camp bed and blankets and pillow, for we shall not find these things supplied at the numerous sleeping-places encountered on the tour.
Passenger’ trains are divided into three services : Mail trains, Express passenger, and Local trains. The “Mails” offer the best service for those taking a long journey, and the fares are slightly more than the “Express passenger”. The local trains are, as the name implies, unsuitable for anything but a local trip.
The first part of our trip is from Bombay to Madras, a distance of 800 miles and occupying thirty-three hours, including two nights. Arriving at the Victoria Terminus Station, tickets are obtained, luggage weighed and a ticket given and we proceed to find vacant lower berth sleeping accommodation in a second class compartment. This is not difficult to find, and soon we are comfortably accommodated and saying “Good-bye” to those we leave behind.
Indian Train Equipment
Being a British possession, Indian railways have been developed upon the same general lines as those found in Britain, the construction and operation being very similar except where tropical conditions have called for some modification. As is the case on all occasions where long distances have to be covered, all the carriages are fitted with sleeping accommodation.
There are four “classes” on the Indian “Mail” trains: First, Second, Inter, and Third. The third class compartments are plainly fitted and are used exclusively by the native Indian of the lower castes; the “Inter” is a little better; “Secends” are a moderately comfortable compartment with upholstered scats, electric light and fans, and lavatory accommodation, and are used by the “better class” Indian and Europeans, and they compare favorably with the English “third class” coaches. The “First” class are not much better than the “Second”, but the fares make them more exclusive.
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