Golden Age, November 11, 1931

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The Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

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in this issue

TRADE BARRIERS

FROST IN THE AIR

EVENTS IN CANADA

AMONG THE USURERS

STATUS LYMPHATICUS

ALUMINUM POISONING AGAIN

BLOCKS TO PROSPERITY ■

every other WEDNESDAY

five cents a copy one dollar a> year Canada & Foreign 1.25

VoL XIII • No. 317

November 11, 1931

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

HOME AND HEALTH

Norwich Municipal Light Piaui . 76 Result 01 High Electric Rates . .76 Dover Municipal Light Plant , . 76 Do Tax on English Vacant Land . 76 Electric Rates, Canada and U. S. 77 Mould Remonetize Silver . . . 77 Ten Cents for Food and Clothing 79

Child Labor Benefits No One , . 84

Teeth of Mexican Indians

Hospitals Belong to People . . 81) Status Lymphaticus . . . . .86 Good Board at 75c a Wesk ... 86 Aluminum Poisoning at

White Plains ...... 87 Poisons Generated by Aluminum

Cooking . .......87

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

Frost in the Air ......76

Penology in Russia.....76

Where the Radio Listeners Are 77

French Encourage Wine Drinking 79

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

Smuts on Financial Situation . . 76

Power Trust in Canada . . . 77

The Passing Financial Show . . 77

Gold Standard Overboard ... 78

Plenty of Money at 1-1/8 Percent 78

Air Freight Service . . . .

Shifting the Load . . . . .

Among the Usurers

To Drive the Government Out of Business

World’s Largest Drydock . . . 76

Moslems in India May Rebel . . 76

Social Feeding in Russia .... 77

. Conditions in South Africa . . .77

What Former Priests Are Doing . 79

Events in Canada ...... 81

Thousand Miles up the Amazon . 88

News Items from Korea . ‘ . . .89

Pioneering in Central America . 90

RELIGION and philosophy

What Reverend Wyandt Missed , 75

Jews Expect Fulfilment of Ezekiel 79

Blocks to Mankind’s Prosperity . 91

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

International Trade Barriers . , 67

Einstein's Cry for Peace ... 79

Wilson Planned World War Entry 80

It Seems So to Us

The Pope a Disappointed Mau . . 94

Tejeda Stands by His Law . . . 94

Admit They Are Roosters . . . 95

Published every other Wednesday tu 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. A., U, S. A., by woodworth. knurr & martin

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ofw Golden Age

Volume Xlh Brooklyn, N« Y.f Wednesday, November 1IS 1931 317

International Trade Barriers

A LARGE part of the time of our statesmen in Washington is occupied with discussing the tariff, which affects more or less directly every citizen in the country and is therefore properly the subject for a somewhat elementary article in The Golden Age. We do not claim to have the wisdom to go deeply into this subject.

The levying of a tariff is confessedly purely a selfish act of national legislation. There is no pretense that one is ever levied for the benefit of anybody else. The only question at issue is as to whether, as a purely selfish act, its operation is to the advantage or disadvantage of the one who levies it.

Customs duties on goods inbound, outbound, or in transit date back thousands of years. With the Greeks the usual rate of customs duties upon both imports and exports was about 2 percent. In the Dark Ages transit duties were imposed on all goods passing through the central part of Europe. The European continent thus became covered with a network of customs lines, which lines still persist and greatly ham -per trade.

Tarif himself was a Mussulman chief. In the year 709 (A. D.) he invaded Spain with a force of 500 Moors and founded the seaport city of Tarifa, which soon became the place where customs were collected; hence the word ‘’'tariff”.

In the formation of the German Empire one of the great problems was to abolish the local transit customs, but it was finally accomplished. Transit duties have disappeared^ except in China. Export duties are of importance only in Turkey and India.

In the United States the first tariff act was passed on July 4, 1789. The average rate of duty then was lore, being about 8| percent. By the year 1918 the percentage of free goods had increased until it reached 75.51 percent. This is the nearest the United States ever came to free trade. At present it is far removed from the position occupied in 1918.

Before the imposition of the income tax, import duties made up nearly one-half of the federal receipts. They now make up about 15 percent, or about the same as those of France and Italy.

European Tariff Walls

We Americans like to talk about Europe’s foolish tariff walls. In America we have fortyeight states, stretching three thousand miles from east to west and fifteen hundred miles north and south, without any intervening customs barriers. Of course, the United States Constitution forbids the separate states from doing so, but if any state in the United States were to undertake to levy an import duty, export duty or transit duty as respects any other state a roar of indignation would go up from all over the country. Europe may have all the barriers she pleases between her twenty states, bur not Uncle Sam. Unde Sam is most inconsistent in this, as all can plainly see.

Arthur Henderson, British foreign minister, declares that the tariffs which are strangling Europe are doing more to continue the existing world depression than any of the other six causes which are the major reasons for the world’s economic suffering at this time. M r. Henderson styles these conditions as a state of economic war, a policy of madness.

Mr. Henry Bell, director of Lloyd’s and of the Bank of England, terms these European imposts “the machine gun, the high explosive, the poison gas of economic well being”. Walter Leaf, late chairman of the Westminster Bank of London, speaking sarcastically of the same levies and the statesmen who drew them up, .-aid: “I desire to compliment the statesmen and politicians of Europe on the success of their policy. They have endeavored to impede trade by every means in their po^ver. They have imposed embargoes, credit restrictions, tariffs and licenses. In a word, they have done everything in their power to interfere with the free flow of trade between country and country; and no one can doubt their success. There is, however, one fatal drawback to that achievement. It has meant the suicide of Europe/'

Seeing clearly that Europe’s customs duties interfere with her prosperity and that since the war these tariff walls are not only more numerous than ever before, but also higher than ever before, Mr. Briand, minister of foreign affairs of France, urged the formation of a United States of Europe, the principal object of which was to get rid of these burdensome rates; but when at almost the same instant Austria and Germany took him at his word and got together and arranged to do what he had advocated, the French were alarmed and incensed and demanded that the plan be abolished.

Proceeding along somewhat similar lines Great Britain, through her board of trade, only this year has proposed to all Europe that they reduce their customs rates on certain imports from Britain by 25 percent. None of the countries approached refused, and none of them accepted. They said in effect that they would be willing to consider the matter further if England would adhere to her free trade policy.

Meantime, besides the Austro-German customs union, six nations, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Luxemburg, have signed an agreement binding them not to raise existing rates or introduce new ones without consulting one another. The population of these countries is 28,000,000, and the annual imports and exports of the group is surpassed only by the imports and exports of the United States and Great Britain. .

Meantime also, regardless of artificial barriers, there are great business cartels, such as aluminum, enamel, linen, linoleum and artificial silk, which are uniting corporations in trade unions all over Europe.

Many politicians in France act as if they thought the most important thing they can do is'to hinder the economic recovery of Germany, and therefore they do not hesitate to oppose the Austro-German customs union; and'even when Germany’s financial collapse was imminent and moments were precious if chaos was to be averted, they stubbornly insisted that the union must be given up or they would not lend a dollar.

With rare patience and common sense the

German statesmen ask, If the doing away with tariff barriers is desirable for the continent generally, as is contended by most economists, is it not commendable for two nations to make a beginning of the good work as Germany and Austria have done ?

The legality of the Austro-German customs union was referred to the Hague Court for an advisory opinion (and was condemned by it), but this would certainly not have been except for the hue and cry which France made. Germany is Austria’s best customer, and it is almost essential to the welfare of both countries that the duties between them should be abolished.

In Favor of Free Trade

We do not attempt to give all the arguments that are advanced in favor of free trade, but we give some of them. The free trader sees the ultimate consumer bearing a very much heavier load than he is aware of, which load is due to the fact that there is no way to control the prices which he must pay.

The free trader likens the American workman to the small boy on a hunting trip who is occasionally allowed-to hold the gun. The time when the workingman holds the gun is for the few minutes in which he is permitted to play with his pay envelope, but as soon as he begins to use the contents of it, he loses from 40 percent to 60 percent. Because it serves the purpose of giving the great concerns undue power to fix prices, the protective tariff has been called the mother of Socialism.

The natural operation of high duties in every country is to confine the economic life of the country strictly to its own borders and, carried to an extreme, it would mean that there would be no imports and no exports.

It is conceded that there, was a time when Europe had to have the foodstuffs and raw materials produced in America, but this necessity no longer exists. Nobody now has to buy anything from Uncle Sam. Since the war American business has been so organized as to demand a foreign outlet for a part of its products. The foreign markets provide the extra volume of sales needed for a profit. When these foreign markets are eliminated the profits are eliminated.

A few big financiers,'like Mr. Ford and Mr. Mellon, can afford to build factories abroad, but the small American manufacturer cannot do this, and the American workingman also has to stay at home. The' natural result is a sluggish home market, a greatly restricted foreign export market, and high prices on articles consumed.

The United States Chamber of Commerce has recently urged the lowering of American customs duties and the admission of a larger quantity of foreign competitive goods, believing that trade the world over would be advantaged thereby. The Nation believes that the . American rates are the partisan wheels of the " .....protective and privileged interests and that the

American imposts must be lowered in order to save Europe, to save the United States and “to __ restore to it not only the opportunity of economic well-being and progress at home but the — -........ good will of the world”. It also says bitingly,

“As a creator of ill will against the United ' States our tariff legislation is unsurpassed.”

..............In the United States the making of customs laws has always been largely a matter of poli-_ tics, and since the first protective tariff was passed, in 1816, the tendency of the rates has ever been upward. Up to 1922 the imposition of customs on foreign goods was undertaken on the basis of protecting American infant industries, but as these industries now dominate Z? ' the world this excuse no longer holds good and the rates are built on the idea of equalizing the ..... costs of production.

When the 1922 law was passed. Congress was in a panic for fear of German dumping. The idea of helping Germany to build up some business, so that she would have some way of paying debts, seems not to have been entertained.

The Present American Tariff Law

The present American customs law is a book of 366 pages. It required thirteen months of congressional debating, and cost in congressional salaries no less than $2,000,000.

Peter Fletcher, president of the National Council of American Importers and Traders, Inc., declares that the United States in its customs acts of 1922 and 1930 is responsible for having brought about the greatest world-wTide war of duties in history. He says, “If you will consider what has happened since we passed that iniquitous law and examine the tariffs of other countries, you will find that, with one exception, every important commercial country has built, in retaliation to our tariff of 1922, high tariff walls of its own, mainly aimed against us.”

The law of 1930 put in operation the highest rates in the 141 years of American protective duty history. The general level of rates of the 1930 law is 41 percent of the value of all dutiable imports. This is 20 percent above the law of 1922, 100 percent above the law of 1913, 500 percent above the law of 1789, and 2,000 percent above the rates commonly fixed in ancient Greece and Rome.

Sir George Paish, of London, one of the world’s best-known economists, in an address before the American Academy of Political and Social Science, made the statement that the last increase in American customs tolled around the world like a death knell, causing consternation to millions of people who wanted and needed American trade.

The enactment of the present American law was accompanied by more acts of shamelessness on the part of big business than any other tariff ever enacted in American history. The result that would follow the passage of this bill ■was so manifest that 1,028 economists and professors of economics sent a joint warning to President Hoover on the ill effects upon America which would follow the passage of the bill, and which have followed it.

It is said of the present bill that it was debated longer and reviled more than any other measure of its kind ever passed. When first started on its way through Congress it was supposed to be for the benefit of agriculture and the stimulation of industry, but confessedly has helped neither, but has operated to the disadvantage of both.

Specific Instances of Dissatisfaction,

Inasmuch as any customs legislation is purely selfish on the part of the government that enacts it, it is easy to find in any such legislation cases where injustices are done, and this becomes particularly easy in the case of the law now in force in the United States.

The Carded Woolen Manufacturers Association declares that wool growers and manufacturers have so fixed the duties that some rates are now as high as 387 percent, although because of the complexity of the schedules the public does not suspect this.

The American Manufacturers of Toilet Articles, always heretofore supporters of the high rate policy, at their annual convention this last spring reported that the huge American tariff walls have made Americans and their products unpopular the world over and that today it is a disadvantage to be an American with goods to sell in other countries.

The rates of the new law are so high that in one year 87 American companies opened branch factories in Canada, which they were forced to do because Canada retaliated against the United States by herself imposing high tariffs where formerly she was content with low ones. All together, 600 American companies have now established branches in Canada in order to avoid the consequences of the Canadian law.

In a book entitled Onward Industry, written by James D. Mooney, vice-president of the General Motors Corporation, and Allan C. Reiley, former advertising manager of the Remington Typewriter Company, the claim is boldly made that America's old traditional policy of protection has ceased to protect and has begun to destroy.

The rate on lace was made so high that 3,000 women in Vienna, left in reduced circumstances by the World War, lost their market when the duty on this form of needlework art was raised to 95 percent. The industry was completely killed until the treasury department rated this form of lace, petit point, as a work of art and reduced the tariff to 40 percent.

When the lace schedules were originally made the laceworkers at Calais, France, faced ruin. They prevailed upon the French government to threaten a prohibitive tariff on American autos and parts. The threat worked, and the rates were made less unreasonable than had been originally proposed.

For some reason that nobody can now explain, the Jewish people require black granite for grave markers. There are a few producers of this particular kind of granite in eastern Pennsylvania, and to please them the'rates were so hugely increased that now some of the poor Jewish people are obliged to use inferior substitutes.

As an illustration of how an exclusive tariff leads peace-loving people to retaliate, it is related that American ship manufacturers tried to get the millionaire yacht building business away from Hamburg by having the existing tax increased 500 percent. Immediately the yachtmakers went to the legislative body at Hamburg and proposed that licenses be refused on all American autos in the province. There were about 5,000 cars in the district which would have been banished, and the doors would have been closed to further importations. Thereupon American auto makers got busy with the Senate, with the result that the yacht builders were loft without any protection at all.

The Tariff Commission

After thirteen months of log-rolling unequaled in American legislation, Congress finally turned the result of its work over to the president. Having reason to feel none too sure of the wisdom and justice of some of the imposts levied, the president was given a measure of control of the situation through a commission which makes jobs for a number of politicians and gives opportunity for the modification of rates which are proven to be too burdensome or for other reasons unworkable. The president has the right, after investigation, to change rates within a margin of 50 percent set by Congress.

There are said to be 3,300 duties involved which affect no less than 21,000 items. After a little more than a year 110 investigations were completed and the results of twenty-two of these investigations were reported to the press. Critics have figured out that if the commission works as industriously for the next seventy years as it has for the past one, it will just about be able to make one complete investigation of the bill. Perhaps by that time America will need fresh legislation on this subject.

Declines in 'Foreign Trade

Something has hit American trade all over the world, and critics of the American tariff policy feel sure that they know what is the trouble. Almost all the nations of the world following the American policy are moving their rates upward, with the object of protecting home industries, and with the result of strangling trade in every direction. '

Harold Fields, chairman of the executive committee of the foreign affairs forum, says that since the adoption of the present law American foreign trade has fallen off 33 percent and motor exports have fallen to half their former value, and that tariff reprisals have either been put into effect or are contemplated in thirty nations.

Everywhere one turns there are heavy declines in America’s foreign trade. Exports to Japan, China, Australia, Philippine Islands, Cuba, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and France have fallen off sharply. Among the countries that have either revised their customs tariffs upward or are planning to do so are Spain, Mexico, Cuba, Italy, Chile, Austria and Switzerland.

As Respects Canada

The Canadians have become convinced that the United States does not properly value the $900,000,000 worth of goods which Canada has annually imported from this country. Within a year after the new law went into effect there was a decline which indicated that about one-third of this business was cut off, and tariff barriers were erected which it is expected will ultimately cut off another one-third. Thus Uncle Sam disposes of his best customer, the one that has hitherto provided a market for one-quarter of his exports.

If one visits Canada while tariff legislation is under way in the United States he immediately becomes aware of the great interest and concern which is felt. The Canadians have come to believe that high American duties are a menace to Canada’s economic independence. In consequence they have boosted their own rates, making 200 changes, which mostly affect the United States.

The new rates are intended to exclude from Canada millions of dollars’ worth of imports, canned goods, steel and coal. In the effort to square herself with Uncle Sam, Canada has herself hit countries that are retaliating in turn against Canada for what they regard as her now unreasonably high rates.

As to France

No doubt largely moved by America’s example, France has swung around into the list of countries that are following a protectionist policy. She watches American tariffs closely, retaliates plenty, and can hardly be blamed for so doing.

Since the Smoot-Hawley law went into effect she has made her rate on motor cars so high that it is extremely difficult for American cars to compete; and she has practically closed her market to American canned salmon. This latter was accomplished by the simple device of requiring American canned goods entering France to carry an indication in French of the country of origin, in raised or sunken letters.

As to Argentina

Our principal market in South America has been Argentina; but with the inauguration of the new law’ the South American countries made tariff reprisals on a large scale. Certain foods . which previously entered the country duty-free now carry a duty of 32 percent. The market was closed to American eggs by a new regulation requiring the individual stamping of every egg. Tractors formerly free must now pay a duty of 32 percent. Woolen and cotton yarns have been increased from 5 percent to 32 percent. .

These and other huge increases in the Argentinian tariff, brought on by Uncle Sani’s example, have led to much indignation in other South American countries, namely, Brazil and Paraguay, which are retaliating against Argentina as the latter retaliates against the United States.

The probable general effect as far as Argentina’s trade is concerned is that much of it that has been coming to the United States since the World War will now gradually return to Great Britain. Of course, Uncle Sam will put up a fight for it, and has just bought a palatial home for his ambassador in Buenos Aires and purchased land for the erection of an eightstory office building near by.

As to Britain and the Colonies

"While the influence of America’s high tariff has spread all around the world and has resulted in greatly increased rates in Australia and New Zealand, the same as it has done in Canada, yet Britain herself still stands for free trade, though there has been for some years a determined effort to swing; her over into the protectionist group. Most British statesmen still remain convinced that free trade is the best policy for Britain. David Lloyd George says, “If Britain abandons free trade now she will have abandoned a great trust. She will have bartered away a great inheritance for a mess of pottage; and what a mess!” He is fond of citing the United States as a horrible example of what protection can do to a country 'where from his point of view it results in temporarily distended pocketbooks and permanently extended breadlines.

The QOLDEN AGE

The London Morning Post calls on all men of British blood wherever they may live to unite against the peril of high tariffs as they united against the German peril in 1914.

As to Russia

Canada is. Uncle Sam’s best customer; the United Kingdom is the second best; and Russia is the third best. Last year Russia placed in America the largest order for farm machinery ever given for export at one time. In the past year the sales exceeded $20,000,000 a month. What Russia bought from America amounts to forty-six times as much as what America has bought from Russia.

It would seem that this is a pretty good kind of customer, but American big business (with which there is no similar aggregation of pigheaded short-sightedness to be compared) has done everything possible to discourage this business, which is now being gradually turned over to Germany. It is plainly evident that Russia resents American attempts to embargo and discriminate1 against the few products she sells us. She would be more or less than human if she did not at least give other nations a chance to get the business which America might otherwise have had.

Senator .Wheeler declares that the total amount of wheat imported into the United States from Russia during the year 1928 was only 29 bushels, and in 1929 it was only 12 bushels. He thinks the American people should know that whatever else the Russians are doing with their wheat they are not sending it to America. Incidentally we remark that the total Soviet wheat exported in 1.930 was 40,000,000 bushels; while the wheat exported from the United States in the same year was 182,000,000 bushels.

Possibly influenced by American big business the Canadian government has shut out all imports of Russian coal, wood pulp, lumber, timber of all descriptions, furs and asbestos. S. R. B. Bennett, the prime minister of Canada, gives as his reason for this embargo that “the government is convinced that there is forced labor in the cutting and transport of timber and in the mining of coal, that political prisoners are exploited, that the standard of living is below any level conceived of in Canada, and that, broadly speaking, all employment is in control of the Communist government, which regulates all conditions of work and seeks to impose its will on the whole world. This is communism, its creed and its fruits, which we. as a country oppose and must refuse to support by interchange of trade.”

The nearer a country is to Russia, the less it seems to be frightened as respects dealing with her. Germany does not seem to be afraid, and Italy has signed a renewal and expansion of commercial interchanges which is expected to result in about double the previous trade. Also, the British government is determined on maintaining its trade relations with the Soviet.

The import duties of Russia are probably the highest in the world, the intent manifestly being to compel the Russian people to produce within the borders of their own country everything they require.

The Protectionist Arguments

The argument of the protectionist is that a high tariff enables a manufacturer to concentrate on the production and marketing of goods without any danger of having to meet cheap foreign competition.. It will hardly be denied that under a protectionist policy America has become the workshop of the world and a place in which wages have been at an immensely higher level than elsewhere.

There seems to be no doubt that the textile industry was benefited by the rates of the Smoot-Hawley tariff law.

The protectionists claim that most civilized countries have protective tariff rates, many of them higher than most of the rates provided by the American law, and they ask the question, If we greatly lower our tariff laws while they steadfastly maintain theirs,' how are the American people to be benefited? This is selfish reasoning, and it is this kind of reasoning that has filled the world with armaments, but it cannot be denied that there is some truth to it.

The protectionist also points out that while American capitalists have'invested $17,500,000,-000 abroad upon which they would naturally like to make large profits, and upon which they surely would make large profits if America were suddenly to go on a free trade basis, yet the money which they have invested abroad is. only 5 percent of America’s wealth, and it is more important that the 95 percent should not be sacrificed than it is that the 5 percent should be especially eared for.

The protectionist points out that, unless a group of commodities is absolutely excluded by a customs law, the rates soon come to be taken as a matter of course and all quarrels are forgotten until a new bill is in the making. The protectionist also points out that lowering the American duties and admitting larger quantities of foreign goods would not lower a foreign tariff or create a market for a dollar’s worth of American goods in foreign lands.

The protectionist further claims that per capita the consuming power of Europe is one-quarter that of the United States, while the. consuming power of Asia is one-tenth that of the United States, and that therefore the United States market is inconceivably the best market in the world, and a market which should be protected at all hazards, regardless of what happens to foreign trade.

The shoe manufacturers claim that the protection which they now receive of 40c per pair is not enough, as the labor cost of a pair of shoes in America is 90c to $1.10: while in Czechoslovakia the labor cost of a pair of shoes is only 28c and the Czechoslovakian shoes can be brought in here and sold for less money than/ the American shoes on account of this great difference in labor cost.

Quite likely, also, when the rates go up again there will be higher duties on copper, to protect the copper interests of Arizona; and there will be higher rates on oil to protect the oil interests. It is hard to see how the United States is ever going to be brought down to a free trade basis.

Getting by the Customs Officer '

Once a customs law has been passed and the ■ customs officer is at his post, he straightway becomes a most unpopular man. Not infrequently the traveler whose baggage is to be examined looks upon him as almost a personal enemy. Importers are always trying to figure some way to get around the regulations.

The scheme which the sugar importers use is to start from Cuba with a boatload of sugar. On arrival at the United States, just outside the three-mile limit, they add waler until the contents of the vessel, instead of being sugar, become a watery syrup testing less than 50 percent sucrose and calling for a duty of only onefifth that of sugar. As soon as the ship has passed the customs it is rushed to the refinery, where its cargo is reconverted into sugar before fermentation can start.

Most returning Americans pay 75 percent to 100 percent more duty on the goods they bring back from Europe than they need to pay, because they are entitled to bring in these goods at the wholesale foreign value instead of the retail. As but a few of them know the wholesale price, and the customs officials do not tell them the difference, the United States government receives some $2,000,000 a year in customs duties to which it is not properly entitled. Some do not know that families have the right to travel as units and all dependents over twenty-one years of age may group their individual exemptions of $100 each.

The Italian government now examines baggage in fifteen cities and it leaves the country under seal, thus saving the trouble of having trunks examined at frontiers. Atlantic voyagers are now favored by arrangements for examining their baggage during the voyage up the St. Lawrence. No doubt the time will some time come when for most vessels there will be a regular customs service on board for the whole Atlantic.

The customs inspectors are under rigid rules, very severe rules it sometimes seems, too. For instance, the American people may not hear the orchestras which play on the French or German steamers, at least not on their own instruments (except over microphones rigged up in the ships on which they play). In other words, the customs regulations forbid the temporary removal of musical instruments from the ships because they are not manifested.

An aviator who came into New York with Iris aviation compass filled with four ounces of pure alcohol was forbidden to land the compass until the alcohol had been removed. However, when enough officials had been seen and it had been explained to each that to drain the alcohol from the compass would completely upset thecalibration of the instrument he was finally permitted to take it away.

A New York girl engaged to an Italian nobleman was not allowed to bring in her engagement ring for the month in which she then expected to remain upon American soil. She had to leave her ring with the customs official until she took her steamer back to Italy.

At the border land between Germany and Austria a young woman was asked to pay 35c for a handful of flowers which she was carrying with her. Annoyed, she flung the flowers out of the bus window; but as they landed on German ground she was compelled to climb out of the bus and throw them back into Austria before permitted to pass untaxed.

A college boy in Montreal sent back to his home in Chicago an overcoat four years old which had originally cost $24. The coat was sent back to be given to the poor. On arrival his mother was required to pay a customs tax of $7.55, and, when she protested, was told that the tax must be paid on old clothes the same as on new ones.

At the port of Brest, France, in the height of a storm, a tug, which had already saved a number of vessels but had broken all its tow ropes, put into port for new ones. For not attending to the customs formalities properly and for hurrying out to the rescue of another ship in trouble, the captain of the tug boat was lined $20 for violations of the rules of port.

Last fall, making up baskets for needy families, friends of the poor at Niagara Falls bought 75 pounds of turkeys across the border and were surprised on The return trip to find that they could not bring the turkeys in without having to pay $6 in duty charges. They finally persuaded the customs men to contribute the necessary $6 and the turkeys were admitted.

Seamen may not bring souvenirs into their home port if they are omitted from the ship’s manifest. Airships engaged in foreign commerce may not land except at designated ports of entry. When the Graf Zeppelin landed in America everything of a plant and vegetable nature aboard was confiscated and destroyed.

A 100-percent penalty is imposed by customs inspectors on undeclared articles in the baggage. Customs agents in America may not take tips. If they do, they lose their jobs. The job of customs officer has many disagreeable features connected with it; especially is this true of customs officers serving the United States, on account of the high tariff wall that surrounds the country and the great number of people that enter.

The Customs Bureau figures show that 646,-480 passengers arrived at the one port of New York by boat during the year ending Juno 30, 1930. The baggage of every one of these passengers had to be examined and passed by customs officers.

Smugglers of Diamonds and Jewelry

It is estimated that diamonds valued at from $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 are annually smuggled into the United States. At AnUverp, the center of the industry, the organized, legitimate diamond dealers united in testifying to the tariff commission that one diamond was smuggled into America for every one that went through the customs. The syndicate engaged in the smuggling "was so firmly entrenched and so sure of results that it furnished security for safe delivery equal to the value of the diamonds.

Because the smuggling of diamonds has such a powerful effect upon honest dealers, and because the government is virtually powerless to stop it, the American Jewelers Protective Association asked Congress, rather oddly, to give it less protection rather than more. They requested a return to the old rates of 10 percent for cut stones and free entry for uncut stones, which request was granted.

In the year ending October 1, 1930, fourteen illicit diamond merchants and carriers were caught by the customs service. A single carrier 'has been known to deliver $500,000 worth of diamonds on one trip. One sailor who brought in $25,000 worth of diamonds in a can of sinok- : ing tobacco received only $5 for the service which he rendered, and, when informed that most smugglers’ accomplices are better paid, he helped the authorities to trap his employers.

In 1929 a packet of cut diamonds valued at $10,000 was found in the mouth of an assistant pantry steward. The same year a nervous woman was caught with a diamond bracelet sewed in the fur collar of her coat. Sho kept putting her hand back to see if the bracelet was still there, and put it back once too often.

In the year 1931 uncut diamonds to the value of $7,000 were seized because they had not been, declared. Under the new laws, these diamonds were not dutiable, but the penalty for failure to declare them was not only the loss of the diamonds but an additional penalty equal to their value.

On one occasion the shoe of an employee aboard ship was used to bring in $12,000 worth of unset gems.

Every year the diamond squad has made the national treasury richer by about $700,000.

In the year 1930, two United States customs appraisers confessed to receiving more than $7,000 in bribes for allowing more than $1,000,-

000 worth of Swiss watches and watch movements to enter the country duty-free. These two men were on the payroll of a large smuggling ring and received $500 each for every shipment of contraband they allowed to enter.

Tobacco and Other Smugglers

In Belgium the cost of tobacco is 20c a pound: in France the price is $1.20. As a consequence, a widespread smuggling’ traffic has been built up. The smuggling is done by dogs that are carefully trained for the purpose. The smuggler’s dog carries ten pounds of tobacco. If the dog gets through the lines, the smuggler is $10 ahead.; but often the dog is killed, because the government employs powerful canines for just that purpose.

The smuggler’s dogs are always hungry when they start for home. They are fed well at home and not at all in Belgium. The French customs men have caught many of these by bending over a young sapling and hanging a loop of i'ope from it. A piece of meat suspended inside the rope serves as bait and releases the trap when it is touched. If a dog is poorly trained and stops to nibble at the meat he suddenly finds himself caught and jerked into the air.

The customs men get a bounty of 12c for the left hind foot of every tobacco-smuggling dog killed. ‘ ~

Another type of tobacco smuggler carries forty or fifty pounds of tobacco on his own back and depends on his own animal to pull him along at double the pace of his pursuers if he is detected.

The British have a tax on tobacco, and so it is smuggled into Cornwall as are cigarettes and other goods into Canada in exchange for the liquor smuggled into the United States. At Gibraltar, the British rock at the edge of Spain, one man at one time ran two tobacco factories and almost the entire output of both factories was smuggled into Spain.

Foreign piece goods, cotton yarns, metal wares and other foreign imported goods are being smuggled into South China in vast quantities. As Hongkong is a free port, and as the police searches along the Hongkong seacoast are confined to illicit opium, arms and ammunition, the smugglers are able to load their goods from one boat into another without the least difficulty. There is considerable smuggling of silks and laces in all parts of the world.

Some years ago a party of nuns bound from Montreal to Providence were discovered with several thousand dollars’ worth of lace sewed beneath their Mother Hubbard gowns, Their lawyer explained that they were leading such a holy life that they didn’t understand what they were doing; and they got away with it on that basis.

A Mr. Bernstein, who seemed a little bit overstout, was stopped by a customs guard in New York who discovered that he had sixty new silk neckties hung on little hooks inside his garments, and a search of his good lady disclosed a similar number of ties: also some silk handkerchiefs and articles of jewelry.

In 1930, the president of the Harriet Hubbard Aver Corporation, a cosmetics concern, turned over to the United States customs a certified check for $213,286, representing penalties, forfeiture values and duties on undeclared and undervalued goods brought in on the French liner He de France. This penalty is the largest smuggler’s penalty in the history of the port of New York.

What Reverend Wyandt Missed

ACCORDING to reports which reach us, on

August 27, 1931, Reverend Herbert L. Wyandt, 211 North West Third St., Richmond, Indiana, pastor of the Second Lutheran church of that city, punched R. B. Lathrop, of the same community, when the latter tried to bring to his attention the booklet The Kingdom, the Hope of the World. Lathrop was amused, and only smiled and went on. And only now, and by this means, are we telling Reverend Wyandt how nearly he missed something. The man that he smacked was light-weight champion boxer of the United States navy during the World War. Just suppose now that he had not been, as he is, one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Somebody’s tail feathers would surely have been eradicated and his black night shirt laid low in the. dust. He might even have got a black eye. But it would have given him something to talk about, and that would have been worth something, maybe another quarter or so in the tin cup. And his audience might have been bigger, too.

Frost in the Air

Baby Girls Slain in India

BECAUSE in years past the natives of

Northern India have been in the habit of slaying their baby girls, because the boys are prospectively of more value, the maharajah of Kashmir has offered an acre of land to every father of a baby girl.

Southampton to Have Largest Dock

SOUTHAMPTON, within the next four years, will have the largest drydock in the world, the largest caryard in the world, and the largest port in the world. The $40,000,000 job now under way will employ three thousand men and involves the shifting of 20,000.000 tons of sand.

Moslems in India May Rebel

THE Moslems, of whom there are 70,000,000

in India, are alarmed and exasperated by the possibilities of peace between the followers of Mahatma Ghandi and the British government over the conduct of Indian affairs. They threaten that if they are left to the mercy of the Hindus there will be civil war all over India.

Insanity Increases Among War Veterans

FIFTEEN years hence, at the present rate of increase, the number of American veterans of the World War who will be ill with nervous and mental diseases will approximate 42,000 cases. The increase in insanity among ex-service men accelerates with age. War destroys men, body and mind.

Norwich Municipal Plant

THE Norwich (Connecticut) municipal light -L and power plant is a money-maker, annually showing profits for the city of about a quarter of a million dollars. Power Trust men have been in the city recently trying to bluff the mayor into selling the plant to them. They can make good use of these profits.

Contest on Between Missouri and Kansas

HpiIE contest is on between Missouri and Kansas, to see which will have the more automobile wrecks. For two hours on August 23 the Rev. Martin J. Foley of Kansas City, spent his time blessing automobiles. The city is on the edge of the two states, Kansas and Missouri. Whichever state had the most autos in the procession will have the biggest bill for wrecks.

As a Result of High Electric Rates

AS A RESULT of high electric rates 30 percent of the population of the United States still live in unwired homes and the average home that is w’ired for electricity is compelled to keep its requirements down to about onetenth what it would like. Ninety percent of the farms are yet without electricity.

Dover Municipal Light Plant '

A T THE Dover (Ohio) municipal light and power plant, on a domestic rate of 6c per kilowatt hour they have made so much profit that $60,000 was used for paving the streets and the balance in the plant’s fund has increased to $78,000. Now they must make a further ent in the domestic rate. Isn’t that too bad?

General Smuts on the Financial Situation

General Jan Christian Smuts, of South

Africa, discussing the world financial situation, said recently: “Of the gravity of the situation, there is no doubt, and in some ways it is as dangerous as the World War itself, and may in the end call for the same spirit of national and personal sacrifice.”

Penology in Russia

NEW features in the treatment of criminals

in Russia are that there is a radio in every cell, and every prisoner is given two weeks’ vacation a year, in which he may go where he likes and do what he pleases. Every prisoner is trained for a job, so that when he comes out. he will be fitted for something.

Germany’s Population Shrinking

OF THE recent marriages in Berlin 60 percent are childless, and the average number of children per family is less than two, whereas a few years ago it was about four. It is estimated that in another thirty years the population of Germany will be down to about 45.000.- ■ 000. ' '

No Tax on English Vacant Laud

AMERICANS learn with surprise that in

England a man may hold thousands of acres idle for fox hunting, “shootings” and the like and never pay a cent of taxes on it. The owner merely pays taxes on the income he receives from the land, and not on the land itself, In America all land, idle or not, is taxed.

Electric Rates in Canada and U. S. ■

npiIE average rate for domestic electric light and power purposes is 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour. This results in American householders’ paying more than three times as much for house current as the householders of Ontario pay. In Canada 87.7 percent of the current sold to householders for lighting and cooking was at 1.9 cents or less per kilowatt hour.

The Power Trust in Canada .

THE Power Trust has made its appearance in Canada, in the effort to grab the flow of the St. Lawrence for power purposes. Before a spadeful of earth was turned it expended twenty million dollars in graft, in the effort to get as many political leaders as possible on its side. And then some honest Canadian scpiawked, and now the whole country is fighting mad.

The Teeth of Mexican Indians

THE Indians of Mexico never brush their teeth, but sometimes wash them with water, using the forefinger. As they live on fruits and vegetables, their teeth are perfect and beautiful, and able to crack almost all kinds of nuts. The fruit juices, especially of grapefruit, are natural tooth cleansers. There is no evidence that tooth pastes are of any value in the care of teeth.

The Low Electric Rates in Seattle

AT SEATTLE, Washington, in 1930, the average rate per kilowatt hour of the municipal electric light and power company was 1.784 cents; yet, despite these low rates, after all expenses had been paid there -was a net balance of $1,124,548. As a result of the low rates Seattle housewives use more electric ranges than any other city in the world, irrespective of population.

The Passing Financial Show

THE present financial show is passing, or seems to be, if one may judge from the figures. In the year 1928, in America there were 491 bank failures, involving deposits of $139,000,000. In the year 1929 there were 642 bank failures, involving deposits of $235,000,000; and in the year 1930 there were 1,345 bank failures, involving deposits of $86.5,000,000. In August, in the city of Toledo, the four largest banks in the city closed their doors at the same time.

Social Feeding in Russia

A PPROXIMATELY 12,000,000 workers and their families are now fed in Russia in public dining halls, where meals are obtained at rates of from 13c to 40c. Within the next three years 300 new factory kitchens and 4,000 dining halls will be built, to further provide social feeding of 25,000,000 people.

Where the Radio Listeners Are

npiIERE are 10} million radio sets in the

United States, 3} million each in Britain and Germany, 2 million in France, 1 million in Russia, and -} million each in Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Argentina and Japan. Denmark has the largest number in proportion to her population.

Would Remonetize Silver

PpiIE Foreign Policy Association, Washing--*■ ton, surprised everybody by expressing the fear that very probably the demonetization of silver was a mistake after all, and that, now that the world is all upset financially, perhaps one thing that might help it is to remonetize the white metal.

Paying Taxes with Bread and Milk

IN POMERANIA, Germany, farmers may pay a portion of their taxes in bread and milk, which are delivered to the unemployed at slightly less than the market prices. On account of elimination of the middleman the farmer receives better prices for the milk so marketed than for that which is sold through the usual channels.

Conditions in South Africa

TN SOUTH AFRICA 1,500,000 whites of British and Dutch ancestry live in close contact with 5,000,000 blacks. The whites have laws which bar the blacks from many occupations and services. The whites are paid $5 a day; the blacks, $5 a week. All the hardest work is done by the blacks, and the wages paid are in most cases insufficient for food and the barest necessities of life. Jobs in the railway and postal service formerly held by blacks are being made exclusively white jobs. Segregation is everywhere. It is illegal for a black man to ride in a motor car in which a European is riding. Seems as if the job of a missionary among the natives of Sout.fi Africa would be a hard one.

Getting Rid of God’s Mercies

T LOS ANGELES recently several shiploads of bananas were dumped into the sea, to improve the market. Off the coast of Brazil 530,000 sacks of coffee have been thrown into the ocean, to improve the market. Hundreds of carloads of lemons have been destroyed, to improve the market. Meantime millions are without the necessities of life. What a crazy house!

Patriarch of Jerusalem Dies

THE patriarch of Jerusalem is dead, leaving behind him a fortune of $20,000,000 made up of gifts brought by travelers. He once startled religionists by saying black people have no souls and therefore missionary work among them is wasted. The patriarch had no soul, either, and that is a joke on him. No man has a soul, but every man is a soul, be he black, white, red, blue, green or speckled.

Piling the Burdens on the Weak -

TN THE city of Dayton, Ohio, James M. Cox, -*■ once democratic candidate for president, has a home costing $507,850. It is assessed at $101,570, which is just 20 percent of its cost. In the same city, so the People’s League of that city declares, nine other homes, costing collectively $110,249, were assessed at $88,200, or 80 percent of what it cost to build them. Now won’t somebody please show us all just why a rich man should have his property taxed at 20 percent of its value while an ordinary man has to pay taxes on 80 percent?

Gold Standard Overboard

S WAS to bti expected, practically all the nations of earth have thrown the gold standard overboard and gone in for cheaper money. Following the lead of Great Britain, four nations went over in a single day, and at this writing only the United States, France and two other nations are holding the bag, and one of the remaining nations is expecting to follow the majority. Meantime, Uncle Sam has half the gold of the world in his storerooms. It will be nice to look at after all the rest of the nations of the world have thrown their gold into the streets. It is admitted among financiers that the straw which broke the back of the British financial camel was the mutiny in the British fleet when their wages were cut.

How the World’s Gold Is Shipped

HE world’s gold is shipped mostly in kegs of $50,000 each. The contents of the keg as it leaves New York are seven bars or slabs each of about $7,000, each slab enclosed in a linen bag. Foreign coins when received are all melted and converted into bullion. Gold from abroad usually comes to America packed in boxes, but it goes out in oak kegs that cost $3 apiece.

A Head of Lettuce a Day

r. St. Louis Estes, famous dietitian, recommends the eating of a head of lettuce a day. In it is found all the essential vitamins, together with calcium, phosphorus, iron, iodine and other minerals. Its heavy content of alkaline ash makes it a splendid food for counteracting acidosis. Lettuce is on the Bethel table once or twice a day, the year around, and eaten freely.

Plenty of Money at 1-1/8 Percent -

HE first of September the government offered $300,000,000 in debt certificates bearing 1-1/8 percent interest. The offering was oversubscribed four times, which again shows that there is an abundance of capital, and that the people that have it are extremely nervous for fear they will lose it, and are willing to take minimum earnings on it, only so that it remains as safe as possible.

Digging at the Foundations

enry Newton, evidently a policeman, writing in the Houston Press, says*. “No one in Texas or the United States denies that the working men and women are the foundation of our government, and furnish our food, but capital and public sentiment are busy day and night destroying this foundation and have set up a system of slavery that has long since put to shame anything that ever existed in any so-called civilized country. There ought to be a law to compel every man and woman to serve-three months each year at night twelve to fourteen hours on police duty before they would be allowed to preach, practice lav- or medicine or run for governor or president. We are heading straight into the bloodiest civil revolution in our history, brought on by the greed of our wealthy citizens without one protest from the so-called Christian ministers.”

What the Former Russian Priests Are Doing JACK HOWARD, newspaper correspondent, says of the former Russian priests: “They are working in factories along with the rest of the proletariat or doing other work that fits into Communist plans. Those who clung tenaciously to their church are not doing so well. Many of them have become beggars. Others are peddling papers or souvenirs on the Moscow streets.”

French Encourage 'Wine Drinking

OT unmindful of the fact that seven mil--A-^ lion of her citizens make a living in the wine business, and trade not being as good as it might be, with America, the French government, through its school inspectors, is making special efforts to impress upon the younger generation the importance and wisdom of drinking wine regularly. The claim is made that thus Ilie temptation is removed of imbibing drinks of stronger alcoholic content.

Einstein?s Cry for Peace

JN A LETTER to the Conference of the War Resisters’ International, held at Lyons, France, Professor Albert Einstein said:

All the nations of the world are talking about disarmament. You must lead them to do more than talk. The people must take this matter out of the hands of statesmen and diplomats. They must grip it in Their own hands. Those who think that the danger of war is past are living in a fool’s paradise. We have to face today a militarism far more powerful and destructive than the militarism which brought the disaster of the Great War.

How the Dole Works in Practice _

HA. L. Fisher, well known publicist, says of

® England, “There has never been any time in the history of this country in which the population lias been better fed, better clothed, better housed, better amused or better educated than at present.” Pointing in the same direction Rev. J. Ernest James, of Kensington Chapel, London, in a sermon at the Riverside Drive Church, New York, explained to his wealthy auditors that :job insurance was adopted before the World War and long before Great Britain had a Labor government: that it is here to stay, and that other countries must follow where Britain lias led the way: it is a plain duty which men owe to each other to banish the fear of unemployments

Taunton Rock Inscriptions Deciphered

Gp.HE Taunton rock inscriptions have been deciphered and disclose that they were placed there in the year 1511 by a Portuguese navigator, Capt. Miguel Gorte Real. They consist of the Latin words “Voluntate dei hie dux indorum” which, roughly translated, means: “By the will of God I became here the chief of the Indians.” The Portuguese were thus in New England more than a hundred years before the Pilgrim fathers.

Restoring Calmness in the Congo

TN A LARGE district of the Belgian Congo

the natives, since the depression, were given but three-fourths the amount they had previously received for oil nuts. Being worshipers of Satan, they cut up one European and dried the pieces to make charms. Soldiers were sent for, and in a few days 982 natives were killed. Now the natives are back at -work and calmness is restored. All the natives that were slain are still dead.

Ten Cents a Day for Food and Clothing

Dr. Ruth Fox recently made a study of conditions in the mining communities of Ward and Gallagher, West Virginia. She found Ward families to consist of nine persons; Gallagher, seven. When the miners are working there is left in Ward a budget of.77 cents a week for food and clothing. That is a total of eleven cents a day apiece. In Gallagher the conditions are not so good; there the total for food and clothing is only 71 cents a week, or about ten cents a day. “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.'"’

Jews Expect Fulfilment of Ezekiel

A DISPATCH from Jerusalem, under date of September 2, says significantly:

The. coming of a Kingly Messiah to restore the Biblical kingdom of David is imminent, in the belief of thousands of Jews in the Holy Land. Burdened-by many obstacles in trying to create a national home for their race and still involved in their bitter quarrel with Moslems there, the Jews believe the day is at hand for the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecy of Ezekiel. Daily prayers are said among the 50,000 orthodox Jews for the coming of their leader. Recent threats of conflict with Arabs have served to intensify the belief of both worshipers and priests that the prayers will be answered, despite the many historical instances of false Messiahs.

Wilson Planned World War Entry

IN HIS new book Frederic J. Stimson, American ambassador to Argentina from 1916 to

1921, discloses that Woodrow Wilson decided early in 1916 to throw the United States into the World 'War on the side of the Allies, and yet, nearly a year afterward, allowed himself to be blazoned on the bill boards with the slogan, “He kept us out of Avar.” If 'Wilson and Harding are in heaven they must be in some part of it Avhere the Ten Commandments are riot enforced.

Air Freight Service to Kansas City

ON AUGUST 1, 1931, the Transcontinental and Western Air, Incorporated, inaugurated an experimental air freight service for merchandise traffic, New York to Kansas City. The rate to Kansas City is approximately $11 per 100 pounds, being based on a rate of le per 100 pounds per mile. The service is typically freight; it is overnight, and the planes depart when loaded. They carry only air-freight merchandise and are distinct and separate from the planes carrying mail, passengers and express.

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