Golden Age, March 16, 1932
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The Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
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in this issue
WHAT IS WRONG AT BERGENFIELD?
JEHOVAH’S VICTORY AT WILMINGTON
JAPAN TAKES MANCHURIA
SEEDS IN THE WIND
OBEDIENCE ESSENTIAL TO LIFE
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every other WEDNESDAY L.J— ____ ‘“A
five cents a copy one dollar a year
Canada & Foreign 1.25
Vol. XIII No. 326
March 16, 1932
CONTENTS
LABOR AND ECONOMICS
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
Windowless Factory at Fitchburg 375 No Unemployment in Russia . . 37G
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
What Is Wrong at Bergenfield? 355
Jehovah’s Victory at Wilmington 359
Japan Takes Over Manchuria . 363
Seeds in the Wind . . . . 374
900 Applicants for One Job . . 374
Finland Disappointed with
Prohibition.......374
European Costs of Living . . . 374
Europe Unanimous Both Ways . 374
Monuments of Emptiness . . . 376
Eulogy Ahead of Time .... 376
Never Again Can Any Nation
Win a War.......377
Britain Mourns Lost Prestige . 377
British Pride Deeply Wounded . 377
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
Robbing the Jobless.....377
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
An Interesting Legal Decision . 361
MacDonald Feels the Pressure . 375
Europe’s Fruitless Conferences . 376
Inefficient, Cowardly World Court.........376
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
Brazil Growing Its Own Jute . 374
Bugs and Commission Merchants 377
World’s Biggest Dredge . . . 374 New Uses for Coffee .... 374 Vitamin D Believed Isolated . . 374 New Use for a Balloon . . . .375 Sterilization of Milk by Sound . 375 Crystallized Honey.....376
Court Reporters Must Pass . .376
HOME AND HEALTH
‘‘The More Intelligent of the
Laity”
Encephalitis Following Vaccination
Interesting Admission Regarding Diphtheria
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
Alfonso’s Horses Put to Death 358
Tiberias Now an Airport . . . 374
Great Fortunes in Germany . . 374
Lovers of Murder to the Front . 377
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Winslow Trades Police for Clergy’........361
Dry Weather a Blessing to Jehovah’s witnesses . . . 362
Lifting Gory Hands to Baal . . 375
Priestless Churches in Mexico . 376
Beckoning of the Overalls . . 377
Obedience Essential to life . . 378
The Radio Witness Work . . 383
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The Golden Age
Volume XIII Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, March 16, 1932 Number 326
What Is Wrong at Bergenfield, New Jersey ?
(Broadcast from WBBR
A CASE of incredible bigotry is at this moment being enacted by the civic authorities of Bergenfield, N. J. Under grotesquely ridiculous charges, the misguided administration of the Borough of Bergenfield has locked up behind prison bars four of the finest Christian men in the world and six of the finest Christian women, whose sole offense is that they accept the Holy Scriptures as their guide to life, and are conforming their lives to them by the preaching of the gospel from door to door as was done by Jesus Christ our Savior, by the Apostle Paul and by the other apostles.
These ten noble Christian men and women were charged with ‘distribution of advertising matter without first asking and obtaining permission’. We now give the public the information as to what this literature is which has been falsely described as “advertising matter”. It was and is merely an invitation to the people to listen in to the Watchtower International broadcast which is on the air each week on more than 300 stations.
The speaker on these occasions is Judge Rutherford, whose writings today constitute the greatest stabilizing force in the world, because aside from the Scriptures themselves they are the only writings that give the people any hope or encouragement. We have the proof of this statement in the thousands of letters of appreciation of Judge Rutherford’s speeches which have come in to this single station, WBBR.
Is it possible that in Bergenfield, N. J., or in any other part of America to which Judge Rutherford’s free lectures over the radio extend, he cannot notify the people from door to door where, when and how they can listen to his free lectures over the radio ? Most certainly the administration at Bergenfield is due for a rude awakening.
No doubt in Bergenfield on any Sunday one may purchase for a consideration newspapers, on Night of January 26) cigars, gasoline, and perhaps milk, groceries, drugs, fruit and other commodities; but be that as it may, Bergenfield cannot restrain Judge Rutherford or his friends from going from door to door and distributing a list of the radio stations in America, to say nothing of the stations in Alaska, Australasia, Canada, Cuba, Esthonia, France and Hawaii which every week have his lectures on the air.
Let us notice in particular the contents of this innocent little folder that caused four refined Christian men and six refined Christian women to be arrested in Bergenfield and then locked up behind prison bars in Hackensack.
First is a list by states of the 263 American radio stations over which Judge Rutherford lectures weekly and from not one of which has an appeal or even a hint gone out that anybody is invited to contribute one round red cent for the support of this great service to his fellow men.
Compare this with the so-called “religious” broadcasting of the so-called “religious” organizations and you can see in a moment that Judge Rutherford’s sole objective is to comfort the people in the Scriptures and to warn the unruly of God’s purposes; while the principal objective of most so-called “religious” work is to rake in the shekels and endeavor to maintain the prestige of institutions which have long since lost the respect of their fellow men and have become a stench in the nostrils of the honest and godly.
We now give you some further material from the innocent little program that was distributed from door to door in Bergenfield, N. J., and that caused the misguided men who are conducting Bergenfield’s affairs to lock up these, four Christian men and six Christian women. The program says on its face:
Judge Rutherford says that very few persons on the earth have ever received an opportunity for life. Billions have died in total ignorance of God’s provi-
sion for them. They are not lost, nor in torment, as the clergy have taught the people. They are dead, awaiting the due time to be called forth and receive the truth.
It is quite apparent that the preachers have misled the people by telling them that all good church members go to heaven at death. The clergy have also misled the people concerning those who do not go to heaven. No one goes to eternal torment, because God makes no provision for such a place. Eternal torment is a theory advanced by Satan.
Now we ask you, Is not every word of the foregoing true? And the answer, if you are familiar with God’s Word, is that most certainly every statement made is the truth. Then why would the administration of Bergenfield desire to prevent Judge Rutherford from putting that truth into the hands of the people? The only possible answer must be that the men who have done this thing are blinded to the truth.
We continue to read from this little folder that was passed from door to door in Bergenfield, N. J., and which caused the administration of Bergenfield to resort to the un-American course of locking up these four noble Christian men and six noble Christian women behind prison bars rather than permit them to tell the truth from door to door, to the shame of the clergy and to the blessing of the good people of Bergenfield. The folder continues:
Do you want to know what’s wrong with the world? God has a controversy with the nations. He will give them that are wicked to the sword. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: “Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation . . . And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth . . . Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock.” (Jer. 25:31-34) Thus does the Bible declare who the guilty ones are and what will be the punishment for those who are responsible for leading the nations of Christendom to the battle of Armageddon just ahead. But the pasture of these shepherds and their principals will soon be spoiled, promises the great Creator. More and more thinking people are beginning to see that these shepherds or clergymen are just what Jesus called them, ‘blind leaders, hypocrites,’ who have allied themselves with big business and professional politicians in exploiting and oppressing the people. Tune in on any radio lecture by Judge Rutherford and hear the logical, Scriptural explanations he gives of Bible prophecies relating to present conditions. Hear him give conclusive, irresistible proofs that God’s kingdom is the only Hope of the World. Listen to his plain, satisfying, Scriptural answers to important questions that no preacher or priest has ever given an explanation of that you could understand.
Who Is God? It has remained for the lawyer, Judge Rutherford, to clear away from around the Bible the fogs of clerical stupidity, the cobwebs of D. D. ignorance and superstition, the rubbish of creeds and religious fanaticism, and in his writings the Grand Old Book takes its rightful place, the unimpeachable, indisputable Word of Almighty God, the very fountain of reason, logic and light! In his books and weekly radio lectures Judge Rutherford conclusively proves that there is a logical, perfectly reasonable and entirely satisfactory answer to every question that any intelligent person has ever asked or can ask about the Bible or about its great theme, life itself, present and future. Hundreds of men and women are so appreciative of the comfort and benefit they themselves have received from reading these books that they are, without pay or remuneration of any kind, giving their time and labor to the production and distribution of this set of books. That is the reason we are enabled to make the offer of the entire set of ten clothbound books, 368 pages or more each, with many four-color illustrations, delivered postpaid to anyone, anywhere, for only $2.50, the entire set of ten. Or, if you prefer, send for catalog, with full description of each. Or, if any convenience to you, sent C. 0. D. Watch Tower, 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, New York.
Besides the foregoing, the folder contains a number of interesting questions such as Judge Rutherford, as a student of the Scriptures and as a lawyer, knows so well how to ask and which questions are fully answered in the books of which he is the author. The questions which are asked on the folder that was personally presented to the people at their homes in Bergenfield and which are supposed to have incited the administration of Bergenfield to lock up these four noble Christian men and six noble Christian women are as follows :
Is God or is the Devil the head of present governments of earth?
Will there ever be a righteous government on earth ?
Who is the Devil?
Why does not God kill the Devil?
Whence came the human family?
Why did Jesus call the clergy hypocrites?
Who was Jesus?
What did he mean when he said: ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven’?
Why are there so many creeds and religions? Do heads of governments rule by divine right?
Are the world-wide distress and unemployment signs of the early collapse of Christendom?
What was the original sin?
Where and what is heaven?
What are the angels?
What are evil spirits?
What is a soul?
Can a soul die?
Is hell the grave?
How can all the miracles be explained?
What becomes of murderers and thieves when they die?
Where are the dead?
Will the dead ever come back to earth?
What is the difference between religion and the Bible?
Does the Bible teach divine healing?
Why did God deal specially with the Jews?
What is the resurrection of the dead?
Does the Bible teach eternal torment?
Do good people really go to heaven?
What is wrong with the mental and moral atmosphere of Bergenfield, N. J., that it is afraid to have these important and common-sense questions presented to the attention of the people of that community? What is wrong? Is the administration of Bergenfield afraid that the people of Bergenfield will learn something? Does the administration of Bergenfield feel that it has the omniscient wisdom and omnipotent power that it can decide offhand for the people of Bergenfield what they may hear over the radio or what they may have presented to them from door to door?
This would be ridiculous in the extreme if it were not so serious, but it is a serious thing in America to lock up Christian men and women because they go from door to door helping the people to gain a knowledge of God’s purposes, especially at this time when everything shows that America and everything in it is going to the Devil as fast as it can go, and Judge Rutherford is doing more to prevent it than any other man in the country.
Of the four noble Christian men and six noble Christian women who were locked up by the administration of Bergenfield because they placed in the homes these invitations to listen in on the radio to Judge Rutherford, one of the ten was additionally charged with canvassing and soliciting without permission. It is not true that either the one so charged or any other of the ten was guilty of either canvassing or soliciting. Let us explain the facts:
Judge Rutherford’s books, each of which contains a dozen or more powerful lectures from his pen, are. in circulation to the extent of more than 100 million copies. These books, which are on the most important subjects that can engage the attention of men and women, are placed in the hands of the people who desire them for less than the cost of production and distribution. The following is the exact testimony that was given at Bergenfield and is being given or has been given or will be. given to every home in the United States:
No doubt you have heard Judge Rutherford, who lectures and broadcasts over more than 250 stations each week. As he well says, the people need a righteous government. Centuries ago Jehovah promised that He would provide the people on earth with a righteous government in His due time. That due time has now come, and as one of Jehovah’s witnesses I am here to give you the information. These books cover the entire matter, proving beyond any doubt that the government Jehovah has provided will bring to the peoples of earth lasting peace, prosperity, health, happiness and everlasting life. These books are really a gold mine of information. Other books of this size cost not less than fifteen dollars. We are preaching the gospel or good news of the Kingdom by putting these books in the hands of the people, and money is contributed by those who love the Lord to enable the people to have them so cheaply. If you contribute a dollar for any four, or $2.50 for the entire ten, I shall be pleased to leave these with you and take that amount. I am sure you will be greatly blessed by reading them and by helping some one else to learn about the blessings that are coming.
Is there any law in the United States which prevents or can prevent Judge Rutherford from preaching the gospel over the radio or inviting the people to listen to him over the radio, or that can prevent his friends from going around to the people and offering them his lectures in printed form for less than the cost of production and distribution, provided they so desire to obtain them? Most certainly no.
We still have preserved under glass at Washington or somewhere else an ancient document providing that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press”.*
* This fundamental principle is embodied in unmistakable language in the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. In Article I, Section 3, it is provided that
No person shall be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshiping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; . . . nor shall any person be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or other rates for . . . the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right, or has deliberately and voluntarily engaged to perform.
And even more pointed is the remarkable provision of the New Jersey Constitution, under which the men who administer the affairs of the Borough of Bergenfield hold their commission as servants (not lords) of the people who reside in that community;
For and Against Liberty of Speech
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, was of the opinion that “our first object should be to leave open to the people all avenues of truth”.
On the other hand, we are perfectly well aware of the fact that Leo XIII, one of the so-called ‘popes of Rome’, on June 20,1888, made the official statement for the Roman Catholic church that “it is hardly necessary to say that there can be no such right as liberty of speech and liberty of the press”.
Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, said, “As long as our government is administered for the good of the people and is regulated by their will; as long as it assures to us the rights of person and property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending.” We are perfectly well aware that one Pius IX, whatever his real name was, stated officially that “as far as the Roman Catholic church is concerned, liberty of speech and press is the liberty of perdition”. He said this on December 8, 1864.
William McKinley, twenty-fifth president of the United States, in 1897 said, “It is consoling and encouraging to realize that free speech, a free press, free thought, free schools, the free and unmolested rights of religious worship, and free and fair elections are dearer and more universally enjoyed today than ever before.”
We are perfectly well aware that the canon law of the Roman Catholic church says on the other hand that “the church has the right to practice the unconditional censure of books”.
Theodore Roosevelt, twenty-sixth president of the United States, said, in 1900, “We exact full religious toleration and the complete separation of church and state.” On the contrary, Pius IX, another so-called “pope”, in his declaration of December 8,1864, took the position that the Roman Catholic church has the right to require that the Catholic religion shall be the only religion of the state, to the exclusion of all others.
Section 5. . . . Every person may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right. A'o law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press.
Clearly and unquestionably it now appears to every fair-minded person that even as the Constitution of the United States provides that ‘ ‘ Congress shall make no law ’ ’ prohibiting the freedom of worship of God in the nation as a whole, so also the Constitution of New Jersey provides that “NO LAW SHALL BE PASSED’’ within the State that restrains or abridges the rights of anyone who resides in New Jersey to serve Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience.
We can tell the administration of Bergenfield, N. J., right now that they are endeavoring to combat the march of the truth of Jehovah God and that they will fail. In the first place, they are going to get nothing from the four noble Christian men and the six noble Christian women that they have locked up in their Hackensack jail. Those men and women know what their rights are and they will rot in jail rather than concede that anyone has the right to dictate to them how they shall serve their God.
In the second place, there are thousands of other equally noble Christian men and women who are ready to continue the fight for their rights to serve the Lord God according to the dictates of their consciences at Bergenfield and every other place in the country. As a matter of fact, after the ten were incarcerated, forty other workers covered the entire borough of Bergenfield and placed in every home the invitation to hear Judge Rutherford’s lectures over the radio, which was made the basis for the attack upon the four noble Christian men and six noble Christian women that were put behind prison bars.
Additionally, the people of Bergenfield gladly received from these workers more than 400 of Judge Rutherford’s wonderful books, and the workers distributed these without molestation. The reason why they did this in the face of possible arrest and imprisonment was that they are Jehovah’s witnesses in the earth, and the administration at Bergenfield has no more right to order the arrest of these innocent people while engaged in performing Jehovah’s work than the Roman police would have had to arrest Jesus Christ or the apostles or prophets while they were bearing witness to Israel of God’s purposes regarding the Jewish nation.
Alfonso’s Horses Put to Death
WHEN, in obedience to governmental decree, the property of Alfonso was put up at auction, some of Alfonso’s aristocratic friends bid in his horses and put the steeds to death so that no one else might ever ride them. If you can think of anything more narrow minded than that you will have to go some. Why murder the horses simply because Alfonso got to the end of his rope? The horses only carried Alfonso on their backs, and the whole Spanish people did the same thing.
Jehovah’s Victory at Wilmington By H. L. Rogers (Ohio)
ON SUNDAY, March 8, 1931, a company of about 25 of Jehovah’s witnesses were peaceably calling at the doors of the people at Wilmington, Ohio, telling them of God’s kingdom as the only hope for the world, offering them literature which would explain more fully, and inviting them to listen to the Watchtower radio programs each Sunday for their further encouragement.
Apparently, someone who was interested in keeping this comfort and hope from the people registered a complaint; for soon a police officer arrived on the scene and ordered the work stopped. At his request, those directing the work went with him to the mayor’s office and an explanation of the method used to preach the gospel to the people was given him.
It was pointed out that the witnesses were only making use of their constitutional rights in worshiping God according to the dictates of their own conscience and called upon him as an officer of the city to protect them in their rights. It was also called to his attention that the courts had repeatedly sustained such work as right and proper in similar cases.
The mayor, Chas. Q. Hildebrandt, at one time a member of Congress, a man of some intelligence, apparently wished to favor his ecclesiastical and political friends, refused to listen to reason or precedent, and warned the workers to take out a license, costing one dollar apiece, or to leave the city.
In answer to this, he was told that the workers proposed to continue the work as planned and they would be working on a certain street and that if he wished to make a test case of it he would have the opportunity. Two of the workers were selected to proceed with the work and the remainder awaited developments, not wishing to be required to furnish bond for all in case of arrest.
Shortly the chief of police appeared and found Forrest Grammar talking to a man at his door. Just as he finished, he was placed under arrest and charged with selling books without a city license and of disturbing the peace and quietude of the city. Grammar then turned to the man and asked him if he had disturbed him in any way by so calling on him. The man replied, “No,” and asked him to call again.
In spite of the fact that the United States constitution says that excessive bail shall not be required, the bail was fixed at one hundred dollars, and no amount of persuasion could alter it. Once when in doubt as to what he should do, the mayor phoned a minister of the city for instructions, which indicated the source of the opposition.
The required bail was posted and the hearing set for the following Wednesday. The defense employed an attorney, Mr. Frank Krehbiel, of Dayton, a one-time Socialist who is not afraid to stand for the rights of the under dog and who has had much experience in withstanding the unjust methods of organized politicians. The Society also engaged Edw. C. Wertz, of Cleveland, a personal friend of Judge Rutherford, to take charge of the case. An extension of time was asked for the proper preparation of the case, and this was granted.
Through a misunderstanding over the telephone regarding the date of the hearing, preparations were made and about fifty from Dayton accompanied the attorneys and witnesses to Wilmington for the trial, only to learn upon their arrival that the mayor was not ready and that the date of the trial bad been misunderstood. An attempt was made to persuade the mayor to hear the case at that time, but he refused.
Upon the correct date the hearing was held in the mayor's office. A noble defense was presented by the attorneys, but to no avail. The mayor seemed bent on having his way. No decision was given at that time. After about three weeks, the charge of selling without a license was dismissed, but the charge of disturbing the peace and quietude of the city was sustained, with a fine of fifty dollars and costs.
Sometime later, when a request for a new trial was made, the case was dismissed. The bail was returned with the notice that Wilmington had a “Blue Law” which would be invoked to prevent future Sunday work. Quite evidently, the mayor wished to prolong the case until public interest died, before he dismissed it, and to keep the people of Wilmington in ignorance of the results, as future developments showed.
On Decoration Day, fifty-four witnesses from Dayton returned to Wilmington and resumed the work. Shortly before noon one of the brethren was accosted by the chief of police, who asked him what he was doing. The brother replied that he was preaching the Gospel by printed page and word of mouth. The chief then stated that we had a case pending and were under bond. He was told that that was not the
case; that the same had been dismissed and the money refunded. The chief seemed much surprised and evidently had not been informed of the action. He then ordered those directing the work to see the mayor. Four of the witnesses called upon the mayor at his residence.
When he learned their mission he said he had informed our attorneys that he was dismissing the former case and that the workers should not again return to Wilmington. He wished to know why the order had been violated. He was told that the brethren were acting under orders from the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. At this, the mayor began to speak in an angry voice, declaring that he did not care anything about the Society’s orders and, further, that he did not believe in the work we were doing. He stated that if we persisted in this work, he would arrest each and every one and require a bond and that he was prepared to fight the case as far as we cared to go; that he simply did not want us there and that it seemed our sole purpose was to disobey his orders.
In spite of all the evidence furnished and decisions of higher courts that the license law does not pertain to such work, he insisted that his ordinance would stand.
At this point he was asked if the work could proceed in case each worker took out a city license and paid the fee of one dollar, and if such would be accorded police protection the same as would be due well respected citizens. He replied in the affirmative. This meant, in other words, that for one dollar apiece we could proceed to “disturb the peace and quietude of the city”, hut without the dollar we would be arrested.
While witnessing in various parts of the city on that day, the workers were told by the citizens of Wilmington that they were under the impression that we had been fined $100 and costs and that this had been paid, which leads us to the conclusion that the. mayor probably permitted wrong information to be circulated about the city to deceive the people and that he resented our calling upon the people, which might lead them to believe otherwise.
Not wishing to force an issue at that time, we let the matter rest until October. However, if Jehovah’s witnesses told of the incoming Kingdom only in territory granted by the adversary, not many people would know of it. When Jesus said this gospel of the Kingdom must be preached to all nations, he made no exceptions. Certainly we would wrong the good people, of Wilmington if we told others of this good news and left them in ignorance, just because a few selfish politicians or clergymen desired it.
Accordingly, October 24 was the day appointed to resume the work in Wilmington. As several witnesses from surrounding cities had offered to help with this work, they were notified of the plan of action and the date. To return to Wilmington in the face, of the mayor's threat and warning that he would jail every one who attempted to disobey his orders required no little courage.
Being fully determined that this work should be done regardless of all interference, every effort was put forth to provide for any emergency. No army ever advanced to battle with a more carefully planned campaign, or with a more orderly army. But, would there be enough workers to accomplish the work as planned? It was hoped that a company of one hundred workers could be secured, so as to cover the city in spite of interference.
What would the mayor do ? What would he do with one hundred prisoners? As few of the workers could furnish bail, would he be able to feed and house them, or would they receive any care?
On the appointed day, three divisions of this little army advanced on Wilmington from three different directions. Promptly at 10 a.m. each worker was in his territory ready for action and the work started. Reenforcements were provided to fill the gap in case of arrest or hindrance.
Within two hours, the entire city was covered, including the business section, office buildings, bankers, clergymen, public officials, millionaires and beggars. While every effort was made to be courteous, polite and orderly and to avoid any cause for offense, this attack was certainly enough to “disturb the peace and quietude” of the mayor. A count showed there were 166 workers in the city, and they were courteously treated by the citizens of Wilmington.
While the mayor's house was left to the last, a check-up of the experiences of the workers showed that he came in contact with three different workers. He was in the court house when it was being served. One who called upon him at his residence at the conclusion of the work reported that she. was most kindly treated. She presented to him a copy of Judge Rutherford’s booklet, The Kingdom, The Hope of the World, which he accepted with the request that she convey his kindest personal regards to Judge Rutherford. He also said he hoped we would again return to his city, to which she replied that we most certainly would.
What caused his changed attitude we cannot say. We hope he discovered that lie was on the wrong side of the controversy and had the courage to champion the cause of the Kingdom. While most of the workers had driven from 40 to 90 miles in order to be present for the work, they felt well repaid for this victory which Jehovah gave his people at Wilmington, Ohio.
As the cars formed in procession and approached the city in an orderly way, many observers seemed to think it a funeral procession, but could see no hearse. Indeed, there was no hearse, for this was not a death procession (except for the Devil and his crowd), but it was a part of that great procession which is now forming, which shall lead the people over the King’s highway, away from Satan’s kingdom of darkness and confusion, into God’s everlasting kingdom of joy, peace and contentment.
Winslow Trades
INFLUENCED by something they heard a Philadelphia preacher say over the radio, the selectmen of Winslow, N. J., have dismissed the police force of five men and have called upon the clergymen of the community to get together and implore divine aid in the present emergency in which one out of every five wage earners in the town is idle and many are in need of help to get through the winter.
Several questions intrude themselves. Is the community of Winslow sufficiently chastened by its experiences that it can get an audience with the Almighty? Is there any assurance, even if audience were gained, that the responses would be favorable? But most important question of all, What reason is there to believe that these men, who were a unit for war during the World War, and wanted those slain who were opposed to war, have any means of access into the divine presence ?
And how will it help the unemployment situation in Winslow to fire five officers of the law who hitherto have been able to support their own families? If the town has to support these men and their families anyway, why not let them continue to do the best they can to look for lawbreakers ?
Suppose now, for example, the directors of the largest financial institution in the community should conclude it was time to help themselves to what was left in the vaults. Who would arrest the misdemeanants? Or would the clergy who are on the payrolls of these men be used to implore the Almighty to so work on their feelings that they would return the funds wrongfully taken? And would that be sufficient? Suppose they offered to split 50-50?
Police for Clergy
Another suggestion is that since the clergy have now been made caretakers of Winslow they might as well be given the jobs which were vacated when the police were fired. It would give them something to do, which is something they do not now have, and it would make them of some use in the community, which now they conspicuously are not, for nobody outside of the Winslow Township committee is so foolish as to believe that their prayers to Baal will have any result. Baal is probably asleep or on a journey.
An Interesting Legal Decision
THE Court of Appeals of New York state, by -*• a unanimous vote of its nine judges, has just decided, in an altercation as to whether or not one James J. O’Connor, of Schenectady, was or was not guilty of reckless driving of an automobile, that a police officer has no right to arrest a citizen for a misdemeanor unless the police officer personally saw the offense complained of, or unless the complainant had filed a complaint with the Police Court and obtained a warrant. In other words, in New York state, nobody, no matter who he is, can get another person arrested without coming out in the open, like a man, and swearing out a warrant for his arrest. This is as it should be.
In the case in point, O'Connor resisted search by the arresting officer, and the Court of Appeals unanimously decided that as the arrest was illegally made, the officer had no right to search the prisoner, and that the prisoner did not resist an officer in the performance of any duty and therefore no crime was committed.
Dry Weather a Blessing to Jehovah’s witnesses By A. D. Haas (Pioneer)
WE READ in a recent Golden Age that in America most of Jehovah’s witnesses either have cars of their own or have friends who have their cars which are used in the Lord’s work. It also says: “If, today, Jehovah’s witnesses were to try to cover their territories on foot, there would not be one-fourth the work done that is done. The auto seems to have been developed in time that the witness work now under way could be properly done.”
And along comes the extremely dry weather, so that more work can be done with the auto. Many have complained that the extreme dry spell has hindered the witness work. In some cases it may have hindered, but on the other hand it has caused many to get the message that have never heard it before.
For several years we have witnessed in southern states. During the wet seasons, while driving through the rural we would notice little two-track roads running back through the woods. We would ask if people lived back there. They would answer, Wes, but they cannot be reached by auto’; and it was true. The only way you could reach them was on horseback. I have tried walking and was turned back. So many of this class were missed; but in the. last year or two it has been different.
We worked in one state when for eighty-five, days not a drop of rain fell, and it stayed from 90° to 100° in the shade every day. The air was dry and dusty; the creeks and springs were dry; no water in the wells. Farmers hauled water from the river for stock and house use. Still, with all that, we placed books, for we could drive anywhere. We would drive down the creek beds, and found many who had never heard. They gladly took the books, anxious to know what Jehovah’s purposes are, and how they would thank us for coming!
We are now in Florida, in a country that has many swamps or hammocks, and no rain has fallen in five months. Now in the morning when we. go to work we notice those little two-track roads leading into the forest; other years we would have passed them up, but now we just turn the old Ford down these tracks and go through some of the prettiest, wildest scenery one could ever wish to see. The pine needles cover the ground like a carpet. We drive through beautiful arches of pine and cypress trees, all covered with air ferns. The road winds around almost in circles; mocking birds singing; here
and there a squirrel, a rabbit, and occasionally a deer; and once we had the pleasure of seeing a bear cross our path. What a joy to serve Jehovah amid such beauty of nature!
Then in the distance we see the little southern home, buried in the. midst of large live oak trees. What a welcome! Chairs are placed on the porch; we are asked to come; then the witness is given. How glad they are to hear it! Next comes the chicken chase; the deal is made; and on we go down narrow lanes, across fields, into the woods again, looking for more homes that can now be reached because it is dry and we need fear no low places or dangerous water holes.
It surely is a joy to be in Jehovah’s service at this time, when many are so hungry for the truth, and every day it seems we have more joyful experiences. Today when we came back to our room we had chickens, eggs, pecans, peanuts, oranges, cane syrup, hickory nuts and money. We sell what we can and eat the rest.
After witnessing at one home today the lady took some of the books and, after thanking us for coming, she said she had lived there five years and we were the first to reach her; and this county was gone over each year. So we do thank the Lord even for the dry weather. Nothing the Devil can do will stop the people from getting the message; and how glad we are that we can have a part in hunting out these people and giving them this witness!
“The More Intelligent of the Laity”
IT MAY have been entirely unintentional, but that was a rather nice compliment that Dr. Theobald Smith of the Massachusetts Board of Health paid to somebody when he wrote in the Annual Report that “there is a widespread fear among the more intelligent of the laity of the dangers of vaccination”.
In the Encyclopedia Britannica Dr. Charles Creighton goes Dr. Smith one. better, when he says: “The anti-vaccinists are those who have found some motive for scrutinizing the evidence, generally the very human motive of vaccinal injuries or fatalities in their own families, or in those of their neighbors. Whatever their motive, they have scrutinized the evidence to some purpose ; they have mastered nearly the whole case; they have knocked the bottom out of a grotesque superstition.”
Japan Takes Over Manchuria (In Two Parts)
Part 2
JAPAN is in an earthquake zone, having 1,500 shocks a year. In Tokyo a shock is felt about once a week; a serious one occurs somewhere in Japan on an average of once in thirty months. In the disaster which occurred September 1, 1923, all railway trains speeding to or from the capital were wrecked en route; the water mains burst; gas tanks and oil tanks split their seams, and poured their liquid fuel over the doomed cities; the clocks all stopped; telephone and telegraph lines were wrecked; for several hours the only communication with the outside world was through a radio station 144 miles north of Tokyo where, by some strange freak, the towers 660 feet high remained standing.
In the narrow streets, usually but eighteen feet wide, the mass of wretched humanity was subjected to 216 distinct shocks on the day of greatest fatalities, with 57 shocks on the day following. In Tokyo, with an estimated population of 2,400,000, and in Yokohama, with a population of 450,000, only six buildings remained standing, although some of them were large modern buildings of steel construction, supposed to be quake-proof.
The known dead in the earthquake numbered 104,619, with as many more missing, some slain by falling buildings, some drowned in the tidal wave, some incinerated in the great conflagration which followed, and some swallowed up in the great fissures which opened in the ground.
Five hundred girls were killed in the crash of a single factory; seven hundred perished in the University Hospital; the former premier’ and twenty statesmen were killed at a council; the prince regent barely escaped with his life.
All the bridges of Tokyo, densely crowded with refugees from the fire, collapsed, hurling thousands into death in the waters beneath. A tidal wave of extraordinary height was followed by a typhoon which deluged everything with a torrent of wind and rain. The river Sumida, equaling the Hudson in size, changed its course; new islands appeared in the ocean; old islands disappeared.
Part of the Japanese fleet was destroyed; all the government buildings were destroyed; all the banks were destroyed; the fire which raged for two days was visible for two hundred miles, and was so intense that a temperature of 150 degrees was registered in many places. After ten days the steel vaults were still so hot that they could not be touched.
The principal prison opened its doors, and 1,500 prisoners were freed. The wTild animals confined in the zoos escaped, and added to the horrors of the street scenes. Before aid could reach the stricken cities, food riots had broken out; and military punishment was visited upon the transgressors.
In the most severe of the shocks the ground rose and dropped four inches. Imagine an entire building, and everything in it, dropped four inches vertically, and this operation repeated many times; and it will be understood why almost no structure was left standing in the stricken area.
Thirty thousand bales of silk, one-tenth of Japan’s output for an entire year, were destroyed, resulting in the closing down of many American factories.
The whole earth trembled with the shocks. By the seismograph, which is an instrument so delicate that it will record the earth tremors caused by starting a street car three miles away, the shocks were detected in San Francisco, London, Brussels, and in Florence, Italy.
The ocean waves caused by the earthquake traversed the six thousand miles from Japan to California in forty hours, or at the rate of one hundred fifty miles an hour. When they reached the California shores, they still retained a height of twenty feet near Los Angeles, the swells breaking completely over a fifteen-foot breakwater and carrying away lumber piled along the shore.
Within two days of the catastrophe American vessels loaded with 1,000,000 pounds of rice, 500,000 pounds of beans, 500,000 soldier rations for one day, medical supplies for 50,000 troops for three months, 400 large tents, and cots and blankets for 20,000 men were rushing to the scene.
This was but a handful, however, to what was needed; and funds were swiftly raised all over America, in response to presidential appeal, so that immense quantities of all kinds of supplies could be dispatched from Pacific Coast, Philippine, and Chinese ports with the least possible delay.
In New York city many physicians and nurses volunteered to go to Japan to give their serv-
ices free. The promptness, generosity, and effectiveness with which America responded seemingly removed completely all friction between the two peoples for the time being.
In the reconstruction of Tokyo wide and well-paved streets, with concrete bridges, take the place of the narrow streets and wooden bridges in use at the time of the earthquake. $369,500,000 was expended in the rebuilding of Tokyo.
The fortitude and untiring zeal of the Japanese people in rebuilding Tokyo and Yokohama with impressive civic improvements within seven years, and in spite of a severe financial depression in the meantime, has aroused the admiration of the entire world. The property damage of the earthquake is set at about two and a half billion dollars.
The fact that the Japanese islands are of volcanic origin and that serious earthquakes are of such frequent occurrence is the explanation of why it does not seem wise to the inhabitants to build their homes with walls which might come crashing in upon them.
The Food Supply
One of the gravest problems confronting Japan is the food supply. On account of the mountainous nature of the country, only oneseventh of the superficial area of Japan is susceptible of cultivation; yet more than 30,000,000 of the people are engaged in farming, and the farms have steadily shrunk until they average less than three acres each.
The number of acres planted in 1930 was 14,277,075, of which 7,300,021 acres were in rice, the principal food of the people. Japan annually produces 300,000,000 bushels of rice. Fish is a staple article of diet.
Seaweed is grown especially for food purposes, being cultivated with as much care as any other crop. After the typhoon season, the women may be seen bearing great loads of young trees which have been stripped of their leaves, though all the small branches are left intact. These are drawn into the weed on the shore, acres of brushy saplings being arranged in long, parallel rows where the tide ebbs over them twice daily. Gradually, the green, fern-like weed collects on the branches, and flourishes there until the farmers harvest it. It is then carefully picked over and dried for future use.
Terracing is employed on an extensive scale. The smallest scrap of barnyard litter or other material is saved and applied to the land. Even the sweepings of the highways are saved with care. The Japanese are probably the world’s most expert gardeners.
The plows in general use are the same as used in Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs.
When the emperor is on a tour his vegetables are sent to him every day in refrigerator cars.
Soils vary greatly, often changing within a mile. As a rule they are not very rich and need to be carefully cultivated and well manured. The farms are so small, averaging only two and one-half acres, and the crops in such constant peril by flood, drought, frost, hail and typhoon that the income of the farmers is not enough to live upon.
In order to make a living they have to engage in sericulture (the raising of silkworms), silk reeling, tea culture, mat making, sugar manufacturing, starch manufacture, weaving ricestraw mats, making strawplait from barley, weaving cotton and silk goods as commercial articles, making baskets from bamboo stem and making wood-shaving plait, etc.
Agricultural education is encouraged. There are more than 7,000 continuation schools for agriculture. Agricultural experiment stations are numerous. The government promotes cooperative societies, including growers’ societies. There is a common saying in Japan, translated from the Chinese, which means that agriculture is the foundation of the country.
As most of the people are Buddhists, the Japanese know little of meat, milk, butter or cheese. Though there are many landlords in Japan, three-fifths of the arable land is cultivated by peasant proprietors. Rents usually run to about one-half, sometimes to two-thirds of the produce. The climate is such that in some places two crops a year’ can he obtained. The landlord receives his entire rent from the first crop.
The silk industry is one of the most important in Japan, being extensively conducted by small farmers who have plenty of labor well suited to it. The silkworms are raised within the house. The eggs of the silkworm are raised by specialists, the art being a very difficult one.
Fowls are extensively kept by small farmers. Bees and sheep have been introduced, but do not do well. In the country, the houses often serve both as dwellings and farm buildings and are always grouped together into villages or built along the roadside. There are no enclosed farms with buildings in the center.
Japanese Industries
In a very brief time Japan has become one of the great manufacturing countries of the world. She has a few very large corporations which combine banking, shipping, mining, manufacturing and continental exploitation in their activities. These, with the army and navy, really constitute the government. Thus Big Business, ■with a few men, operates the government and controls the people.
There are half a dozen large steel works in Japan, the principal one being a government plant employing 15,000 men. This plant produces about 400,000 tons per year, and all other plants together about 600,000 tons more. This is a large output, especially when one considers the shortness of the time that Japan has been engaged in the iron business. The ore for these works is almost all imported from China and Manchuria.
Japan is up to the minute in mining, electrical, photographic and surgical work. She has a wireless station that sends and receives messages direct to and from Germany, and is able to communicate with Buenos Aires.
The war caused Japan to produce at home many things which she formerly imported, thereby greatly stimulating her development. One of her great steamship companies, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (Japanese Mail Steamship Company) has vessels running to most of the principal ports of the world.
The annual combined exports and imports are more than 100 times what they were sixty years ago. The value of raw silk exported was more than nine times as much in 1928 as it was a quarter of a century earlier. In fifteen years the bank deposits were multiplied by six.
Japanese drummers are in every market of Asia, Africa and Australasia, offering textiles, underwear, umbrellas, matches, lead pencils, collar buttons, toys, rubber boots, earthenware, glassware, and a thousand and one other products of a great manufacturing nation.
Visitors to Japan complain that the old beauty has been marred by the tall chimneys, the smoke, the slag, the noise and other concomitants of an industrial civilization.
In common with all the rest of the world, Japan is suffering much in the present depression. In May, 1930, the unemployed numbered 402,000, which number by now is probably several times that.
The government has been following a policy of sending unemployed workers from the country districts back to their own home communities so that they may receive more assistance from relatives and friends than would be the case if they remained in the industrial centers.
Japan does some things differently than they are done elsewhere in the world. It is the only place in the world where a workman would be willing to apply fifty coats of lacquer before he would consider it a finished job.
Nagasaki is the only place in the world where steamships are coaled by women. The women line up and pass the buckets of coal up by hand in a human chain. They do the work swiftly and cheerfully, and the scene constitutes one of the outstanding sights of a trip around the world.
The pearl farms employ more than a thousand people and have an output of more than a million pearls a year. On these farms scientific methods are followed, causing the oyster to produce pearls which are pronounced to be equal to natural pearls in shape, color and luster.
It is said that the beggars of Tokyo are so perfectly organized that they work in shifts of three hours each and at the close of the day the. total takings are divided equally among the entire number without discrimination as to age or sex.
Ninety percent of all buildings of Japan are equipped with electric lights, and Japan has developed and uses a greater percentage of her natural water power for generating electrical energy than is the case with any other country.
Japanese Labor and Economics
Japanese factories no longer operate continuously by working two shifts of twelve hours each. Hours have been reduced to eight and a half in the cotton mills, the shifts in which are now from 5: 00 a.m. to 2: 00 p.m. and from 2: 00 p.m. to 11: 00 p.m. The custom is still practiced of housing the girl workers in textile mills in dormitories under very close supervision. When strikes occur, the employer locks the strikers in instead of locking them out.
At least two strikes were settled by representatives of the strikers by climbing to the top of the factory chimney and refusing to eat or to descend until the strike was settled. One of these chimney martyrs remained aloft 314 hours. They finally had to let him down in a basket to get him off the stack. When taken down from the top of the chimney this man was so weak that he was unable to either speak or eat and it was necessary to take him at once to a hospital; but he won the strike for himself and his friends.
In another instance 200 men went on a hunger strike as a protest against the discharge of a fellow worker, and after two weeks 140 of them were still locked in a warehouse refusing food.
In a strike in Tokyo, street car employees secured a six-hour day. In that strike, and in others, the strikers reported for work, but operated every machine as slowly and inefficiently as possible until their demands were granted. In some cases they have demanded the right to elect and to discharge foremen.
Some years ago, in a protest against an unwarranted increase in electric light rates, 2,000 indignant citizens raided the residences of the directors of the electric light company. In America, instead of raiding such men, we put their names and their pictures on the front pages of the newspapers and send them to Congress as patriots and savers of the nation.
Wages in Formosa a year ago were 25c daily, but these wages are much below those usually paid in other parts of Japan. Carpenters, the last we knew, received 65c to $1.25 per day; laborers, 50c to 75c. The labor, although cheap in price, is said in American financial papers to be poor in quality. It is claimed that machinery made for Japan has to be virtually “fool-proof”.
Japanese Transportation
The Japanese are doing some migrating, but they are essentially a non-migratory people. The people wish to live and work in Japan and in the warmer islands belonging to her. One large island in the group, Hokkaido, with a climate about the same as that of New England, is quite sparsely populated, owing to the fact that the people do not like to live there during winter.
These conditions make Japan a manufacturing and, of necessity, an importing nation, but though she can make steel, and is making it in large quantities, yet at present it can be purchased more cheaply in America than it can be made at home. Japan has hardly any iron of her own, and the coal is of inferior quality. Her basis of supply for both coal and iron is and must be China and China’s neighbors to the north. This means that the coal and ores must be imported, and they cannot be imported without ships.
Japan has no cotton or wool or hides or oil.
All of these must be imported. In this respect she is in the same position in the Orient that Great Britain is in the Occident, but is without the raw materials that gave Britain a start, and is without other of the things that make for efficient industrial life.
The first railway in Japan wTas opened in 1872. The railway mileage was 641 in 1887, 12,000 in 1929. The first Japanese-built steamer was launched in 1898, yet by 1920 Japan’s merchant fleet ranked third among the world powers.
Ten years ago Tokyo had 20,000 jinrikishas; now it has but 5,000, the taxicab having largely taken their place.
There are 590,000 miles of roads and streets in Japan. These are being widened and equipped with stronger bridges as funds are available. Japan employs many motor tricycles, which are useful vehicles in a country whose streets and roads are very narrow and full of turns.
Tokyo is building a subway. The program calls for forty-one miles, of which one section of one and a half miles has been built.
Railroads in Japan provide third-class sleeping cars for the poor patrons.
Ship captains complain that in Japanese ports the officials deliberately delay foreign vessels, while all Japanese ships are promptly handled.
We do not know how true it is, but the Dearborn Independent claimed that the following traffic rules in English were posted in a police station in Tokyo:
“At the rise of the hand policeman stop rapidly. When a passenger of the foot hove in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet at him. Melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage, tootle him with vigor and express by word of mouth the warning, ‘ Hi I Hi! ’ Beware the wandering horse that he shall not take fright as you pass him by. Do not explode the exhaust box at him as you pass him by. Go soothingly by. Give big space to the festive dog that shall sport in the roadway. Go soothingly in the grease mud, as there lurks the skid demon.”
Cities
By the census of 1930, Tokyo is shown as having a population of 2,070,913, and in the metropolitan districts of which it is the center the population is 5,400,000. Plans to enlarge the city to an area the size of Chicago will make Tokyo the third largest city in the world.
Osaka has a population of 2,453,573; Nagoya, 907,404; and Kobe, 787,616.
In the year 1927, a village was discovered in the mountains of northern Japan which is said to have been lost to the world for about 700 years. The inhabitants, 150 in number, did not speak modern Japanese; were vegetarians; wore the costumes of a bygone age; and when discovered had never heard of the rest of the world.
Japan and Russia
Ten years ago it looked as if Japan meant to take over all the maritime provinces of Russia, but this plan, if it ever had an existence in the minds of the Japanese General Staff, has evidently been postponed as to its execution. Nominally the two nations, Japan and Russia, get along together all right, but there is no question that Japan knows she can take over the Russian maritime provinces any time she wants them and in taking over the whole of Manchuria she has the key to those provinces in her possession. Russia, of course, knows this, and is reported to be desirous to approach China from the rear through Mongolia and to find an allyear-round port on the Pacific, probably in the vicinity of Tsingtau.
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