Golden Age, August 3, 1932
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The Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
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in this issue GETTING RID OF NUISANCES EVENTS IN CANADA BUTTERCUPS AMID DAISIES SHUTTING THE MOUTHS OF LIONS HOLY SMOKE!
FEAST OF FAT THINGS FOR ALL PEOPLE
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every other WEDNESDAY five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25
Vol. XIII . No. 336
August 3, 1932
CONTENTS
LABOR AND ECONOMICS
Bay City and Saginaw .... 686
Electric Rates in Norwalk . . . 688
Installation of Dial Telephones . 689
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
Buttercups amid Daisies .... 685
Hoover's Talk with Editors . . 685
Just as You Would Expect . . . 687
Prohibition Sentiment Losing . 688
5,630,000 Handicapped Children 688
Keeping Up a Brave Front . . . 695
Milwaukee Unemployment Club 695
The Kidnaping at Harlan . . . 696
MANUFACTURING AND MINING
Potash in Texas and New Mexico 686
Washing Away a Mountain . . 691
Rolling Window Screens . . . 693
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
Recent Rapid Flights .... 685
Wealth of Mellon Family . . . 688
Extra Fares Abolished .... 692
Bowman Waxes Wroth .... 693
Ameringer's Sarcastic Pen . . 694
MacDougall Coffee Shops . . .700
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
( Jetting Rid of Nuisances . . .675
Events in Canada......681
Volumes No One Wants . . . 693
How They Do It in New Orleans 694
The Republican Convention . . 695
The Democratic Convention . . 695
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
Karoo Bush Plants as Forage . 686
Profits of Turnip Business . . . 689
Flow of Wealth to City .... 690
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
Expects to Dive Two Miles . . . 685
Artificial Diamonds and Wool . 686
Rayon from Sugar-Cane Waste . 687
The Farthest Nebula?
Automatic Radio Invented in France
HOME AND HEALTH
Nut Loaf like Meat Loaf . . . 684
No Aluminum at Vitamin Cafe . 686
Improvement in Tuberculosis Death Rate
Revolution of Food Economics . 697
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
Los Angeles Getting Nervous . . 680
Notes from Korea
In the Devil’s Islands
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Rev. Rogers and Ananias . . . 694
Shutting the Mouths of Lions . 696
Holy Smoke!
A Feast of Fat Things for All
People
Published every other Wednesday at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., U. S. A., by WOODWORTH, KNORR & MARTIN
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<jhe Golden Age
Volume XIII Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, August 3, 1932 Number 336
Getting Rid of the Nuisances
TN ARMAGEDDON we hope to get rid of the biggest Nuisance in all creation and at the same time get rid of his comrades, visible and invisible, that have done so much to defile the universe. But even if we could wake up tomorrow in a world in which “that old Serpent’’ Satan and his evil angels would no longer exercise a potent influence and in which there would be neither fraudulent nor oppressive big business, nor dishonest and unfaithful politicians, nor lying and hypocritical clergy, we would still have plenty of nuisances left, and this article has to do with them.
When is a thing a nuisance? The obvious answer is that it does not become a nuisance until it trespasses upon the rights of others. Smoke is not a nuisance of itself, but it may become so. Noise is not a nuisance of itself. Riveting or pile-driving machines are all right in their time and place, but it would be an annoyance to have oue in full operation in or near one's bedroom in the wee small hours of the night. Blasting is not of itself a nuisance. It is all right if done in a quarry, but if done next door to your dwelling it must be carefully done or it becomes a nuisance.
A fertilizer factory or chemical factory is all right in its place, yet it would be an intolerable nuisance in a residential neighborhood. And so we might go on down the list. There is a right and a wrong place for garbage, sewage, tin cans and old automobiles, as well as for the earthly representatives of the Devil, whose proper* place, all must admit, is the cemetery.
Every person who owns a piece of land has a right to the enjoyment of that land, without its soil's being unduly contaminated by sewage or chemicals, cans, automobiles or rubbish of any kind from adjoining properties. Moreover, he is entitled to the full enjoyment of the air above that land, and his neighbor may not fill that air with an unjust amount of smoke, soot, vapors or gases, obnoxious to the eye or the sense of smell, nor may it be filled by his neighbor with unpleasant or offensive sounds, especially in the hours usually devoted to slumber ; and what his neighbor may not do to him, he, in turn, must refrain from doing to his neighbor.
As the world gets more and more filled with people it becomes necessary that better and better arrangements should be made for conducting building, manufacturing and transportation operations with a minimum of noise or odors. It is encouraging that better and better methods are being put into operation for the disposal of the wastes inseparable from human life and activity, as garbage, sewage, ashes and litter of all sorts.
Disposal of Garbage
A generation ago, in all except the larger cities, the family garbage was fed to the family pig and eventually found its way back into the soil of the family garden as fertilizer. Even the bones of the pig were burned, and the ashes strewn upon the soil helped to maintain the fertility of the garden plot.
Even today a small portion of the garbage of New York city, particularly the refuse of restaurants, clubs and hotels, goes into the manufacture of pork. In Los Angeles county, California, in 1929, forty-four of the municipalities in the county disposed of their garbage in this manner, in some instances receiving revenue from it of fifty cents per ton.
In some places garbage is used directly as a fertilizer, without first feeding it to the pigs. When this is done, the best results are obtained if it is first pulverized. Several of the largest centers of population in the United States dispose of their garbage by the reduction method, but the value of the grease and oils recovered is not large and the method is no longer popular.
The larger cities in the country are committed to incineration. In Holland for centuries all the garbage has been towed out to sea and thrown away. New York city was originally settled by the Dutch, and it was perfectly natural for this system, or lack of system, to be transferred to these shores.
And that is exactly what has happened. The garbage of New York city has been transferred to the shores of New Jersey and Long Island with a vengeance. Take, for instance, Bath Beach; it is an excellent beach, but you are in luck if when you come up out of the water you do not have an old cabbage leaf for a headdress or a part of a carrot in your ear.
The Supreme Court of the United States has promised New Jersey that no more of New York city’s garbage will be strewn on their beaches after June 1,1933. As a consequence New York is building a number of huge garbage incinerators, to supplement those already in operation.
The inspection of garbage is forbidden in some cities on account of the degrading, repulsive and imhealthful employment. Yet in some cities this is carried to great lengths.
In Florence, Italy, the city has 204 concrete chambers or cells in which garbage is stored for six weeks until fermentation occurs and a fairly dry and useful fertilizer is secured.
Another way of disposal of garbage, and a good one, is to spread it six feet thick on flat ground and cover it immediately with six inches of fresh, clean earth.
New York city now has a number of covered garbage vans that are good to look at and are not offensive to the nostrils. They are finished in white enamel and are a credit to the city.
At Rotterdam the garbage is burned, and provides enough power to run the entire trolley system of the city. The entrance to the principal garbage destruction plant at Frankfort on the Main is decorated with an oil painting. At Fuerth the incinerator is surrounded by a beautiful garden.
Removal of Ashes
New York has a tremendous waste problem. It is estimated that last year’s bulk of ashes, garbage, boxes, papers and similar material totaled more than 20,000,000 cubic yards. The removal of several million cubic yards of ashes every year from all parts of a great city and in all kinds of weather is not exactly a nice job. The actual work of removal is considerable, but the noise and dust features make this one of the city’s difficult jobs.
Most of the ashes arc still dumped in open trucks with a clatter calculated to "wake the dead’, but with so much dust that if one were to awaken in the midst of it he would almost want to go back to where he came from.
Two dustless methods have been adopted, but no noiseless method exists. In one of the dustless methods the full cans and their contents are carried away and empty cans are left in their place. In the other method (almost dustless) the mouths of the cans are all of one size and are made to fit an opening in the truck into which they are dumped. Dustless vehicles of this description are now used in 136 cities.
Noise Abatement Commission
Studying cases of excessive noise in New York city it is estimated that 44 percent of the city’s schools are injured by noise that is retarding the development of 470,400 children. Conditions about the hospitals are still worse, as it is estimated that 80 percent of them are surrounded by noise conditions that interfere with the recovery of patients. Orders have recently been issued that no collections of ashes or garbage are to be made near schools during school hours or near hospitals except between the hours of 10 a. m. and 4 p. m.
A woman in Bridgeport, disturbed at four o’clock in the morning by the collection of ashes in her backyard, happened to know the contractor who has the ash collection contract and secured an abatement of the nuisance by getting the contractor out of bed at four o’clock in the morning by the persistent ringing of his telephone. When he came to the telephone she said, "‘Good morning. I have just been awakened by one of your workmen removing ashes from my backyard. So I thought I’d call you up and see how well you enjoy having your sleep disturbed at this hour of the morning.”
Keeping Streets Clean
It takes an army of 10,207 officers and men to operate the street-cleaning department of New York city. This number is about equally divided between sweepers and drivers. The per capita cost is greater than that for any other large city in the world, yet the condition of New York streets is not a matter in which New Yorkers take any pride. The pieces of newspaper which
GOLDEN AGE
are blowing about in every direction give New York the appearance of being dirtier than it really is.
Obviously one of the best ways of keeping 3,300 miles of streets reasonably clean is to keep the waste paper out of them, and therefore it was a step in the right direction to purchase 50,000 waste paper cans to be placed at 25,000 street intersections, two at each intersection.
Waste baskets should be of moderate size and be fastened to posts or walls, as otherwise they get knocked over; and they need to be emptied frequently, as otherwise their purpose is defeated.
In the spotless towns of Germany the litter baskets bear signs reading: “The cleanness of the city is in your hands.” Signs on British baskets read, “Litter, please.”
In Manchester an educational campaign was waged against the littering of the streets. Public utility bills and library cards bore labels urging the people not to litter the streets. Many other forms of publicity were used, and all with good results.
In Munich and Nuremberg and other German cities a person who drops anything in the streets is fined one mark and receives a receipt on the spot. The results are excellent.
In London notices are posted in the buses asking that tickets given in exchange for the penny or two-penny fare be thrown on the floor of the bus before the passenger alights, thus sparing the streets.
At Coney Island (New York) in the summer season more than 7,000 milk bottles are recovered daily from the beach.
Sweeping and Washing Up
In the cleanest cities of Europe householders have the sidewalks in front of their houses cleaned, as well as the streets. By this method all the sidewalks are kept clean and the litter of dirty sidewalks is never swept into clean streets.
It is a social sin to keep dogs in the city or to throw newspapers, fruit skins or other refuse into the street, into vacant lots or anywhere else than in a receptacle provided for the purpose; to spit in any place where other people must walk, or to mix garbage and papers, ashes or tin cans in the same receptacle. Outdoor cleanliness begins indoors. It is impossible for any city to be very clean where there are as many cigarette smokers as in New York city.
New York still depends largely on hand workers for keeping its streets clean, and this includes snow removal. But there are pick-up machines which do the work of sprinkling and sweeping and carrying away the fine dirt of the pavements. These do the work of a dozen men. Mechanical cleaners are not so well suited to the cleaning of cobblestone pavements, where the litter settles down between the paving stones. They are best used at night, when the streets are relatively free from motor cars, either traveling or at rest.
Water is the finishing process in the cleaning of streets, but the washing machine should not be used where the pavement is very dirty or there are many large particles present. A modern street-washing machine will thoroughly drench a street sixty feet wide or can be operated in such a way as to sprinkle a narrow path along the gutter. There are combinations of washers and driers.
In the University of Berlin and the University of London courses of instruction in municipal cleansing are provided which embrace instruction on a long list of subjects of interest to municipal engineers and municipal employees.
The Operation of Incinerators
American incinerators are built merely with the object of reducing waste to ashes with the least possible delay. They do not try to save any of the heat units the waste material may contain. In Europe disposition of this waste matter has been more carefully studied. Some of their plants produce enough electric current to operate all the refuse-collecting trucks which the city needs, supply all the power required to carry on the mechanical processes used at the plant to light the works and to pump the city’s water or sewage. In one instance the surplus heat is used to supply public buildings and dwelling houses.
In Manchester, England, magnetic separators extract all metal pieces and pass the rest of the material on to a rotary screen. Tin cans are baled, and bottles and broken glass are also salvaged and sold in bulk. In many places the cinders resulting from incineration are used for road-making material. In some other places the cinders are turned into bricks.
An item from Providence, R. I., says that every year 50,000 Christmas trees are burned in the municipal incinerator. Surely the heat these burning trees would generate could be used to accomplish some useful purpose.
The Smoke Nuisance
We inhale 37]/> pounds of air a day. This is more than five times the weight of the food and water we consume, and it makes a lot of difference what is contained in the air we take into our lungs. Not only does smoke in the air injure our lungs, but it sometimes shuts out as much as 46 percent of the available sunlight, including the ultra-violet rays so essential to good health. Sometimes there is a quantity of sulphur fumes in the air sufficient to be a real menace to plant and animal life.
In London in the eighteenth century the smoke was so thick that those musicians who came into the city from the country lost three whole notes in the ranges of their voices. Sudden drafts down the chimneys drove the smoke through the rooms and deposited the soot on everything. Today London has two smoke spotters, men whose business it is to watch factory chimneys and signal the operating firms when the smoke pouring from the chimneys becomes more dense than the law permits.
In Pittsburgh industrial plants a beam of light is kept constantly in the chimney and pointed at a photo-electric cell which is so sensitive that it provides the engine room with an exact record of the density of the smoke at all times.
By the careful use of auxiliary gas jets which accomplish the complete combustion of coal dust, Pittsburgh, once the smokiest city in the world, is now less so than some of the English cities.
It is estimated that in the year 1911 in the city of London 650 tons of dirt fell to the square mile. Liverpool is almost as bad, with 560 tons to the square mile. In the last twenty years the smoke evil in London has been lessened, until now it is about half of what it was twenty years ago. In New York city the evil has been reduced fifty percent within the past two years.
In England smoke is now estimated to do an annual damage of $250,000,000. In America the cost is estimated at $20 per family per year, or about $600,000,000 for the country as a whole. The cost is largely due to the decreased earning power of the family, owing to the sunlight's being shut out, but it is partly caused also by the increased cost of cleaning and laundering carpets, hangings and all kinds of fabrics.
In Brooklyn, in a few hours, desks and tables become so covered with soot and dust that they require to be wiped off at least twice a day. Of the large cities of the United States, Boston is the cleanest; and then in order come San Francisco, New Orleans, Denver, Washington, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Kansas City, New York, Philadelphia, and Columbus, Ohio.
Toledo is almost exactly twice as dirty as Boston, and Milwaukee and Baltimore are still worse. It is estimated that more than a ton of soot per square mile per day falls in the central part of Rochester, that smoke deprives Philadelphia of thirty percent of its sunshine, and that it shortens or destroys the life of trees and shrubs in St. Louis.
Not only is smoke a hazard to life by cutting off the sun’s life-giving rays and by filling the air we breathe with gas and dirt, but its soot also contains oil and tarry substances, sulphuric acid and hydrochloric acid sufficient to cause marbles, cements and stones to break down. Mortar subjected to soot-carrying smokes becomes brittle and useless as a binding medium.
An editorial writer in a British medical journal estimates that three million tons of soot are discharged into the air yearly in Britain alone, an amount equal in weight to three days’ output from all their mines. The constant breathing of sooty air causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and systemic poisoning. If this soot were not removed it would in time bury our cities. The life of paint and wall coverings is shortened by soot. The pine, fir and spruce refuse to grow where soot is deposited upon their foliage and where there are gases in the air. However, there is a Japanese tree, the ginkgo, which thrives in poisoned air, and can be planted in place of the nobler American trees forced out by our dirty methods of air pollution.
It is predicted that the city of the future will be heated, lighted and operated without any coal’s being consumed within its limits, and perhaps not within a hundred miles. The use of electricity in the service of man has only begun, and the proper use of fuel hardly that.
Disposal of Sewage
Disposal of the sewage of a city of seven million people is a real problem. At present all the waste from the bodies of these swarming millions goes into New York bay, into the North (or Hudson) river, which is a real river, and into the East river, which has practically no current but is in fact a lagoon open at both ends.
In some places in New York harbor the waterbed is covered with sewage sludge ten feet or more in thickness. Every space between the piers on the East and North rivers is a sewage trap. Some of the waters around New York already have more waste than they can neutralize, and New York knows that it must now undertake a modern system of sewage disposal. It is estimated that a sewage disposal plant that would make New York harbor as clean as it was forty years ago would cost $378,000,000.
There is probably no reason why the sewage of New York cannot be handled as in the suburbs of Nassau, N. P., Bahamas. There yeast produces fermentation in the sewage, the fermentation draws flies, the flies breed maggots, the maggots eat the sewage and wind up by eating one another. It is claimed that the results are perfectly pure water.
Dr. John Arthur Wilson, of Milwaukee, has proposed the same system of converting the sewage of our great cities into pure water and fertilizer worth twenty dollars a ton. As Doctor Wilson says, “when introduced in the sewage under proper conditions the protozoa eat all the bacteria, and, with their food supply gone, the protozoa die and their bodies settle, leaving water which is purer than the drinking water in many cities. The dead protozoa may be made into a fertilizer rich in nitrogen and phosphoric acid.”
New York knows what to do to settle its sewage problem, but, of course, it is held back from doing what it knows to do, and what it ought to do, by the consideration of cost. It needs, perforce, to use its millions for million-dollar blocks of pure graft, such as are exposed continually by the Seabury investigation.
The Tri-State Anti-Pollution Commission, representing New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, has agreed “that the waters of these shores shall be freed of all free solids; if such waters are used for bathing they shall have an oxygen content of at least fifty percent, and if they are used for commercial purposes the oxygen is never to fall below thirty percent”. It is believed that if this agreement is carried out fish will return to the Hudson and East rivers. As it is now, the rivers are so dirty that the fish are ashamed to be seen in them.
Ship Pollution
Aside from other causes of pollution above mentioned is the fact that some two million gallons of oil per day are poured into the ocean by the ever-increasing number of ships that use fuel oil. There are coves in Wales and Cornwall, and there are even places on the shores of New Jersey, where one cannot go for a swim without coming out more dirty than when going in. Thousands of seabirds have died after getting their feathers covered with oil; not able thereafter to fly, and getting quickly wet through to the skin, they soon die of pneumonia. Occasionally kind-hearted bird-lovers bathe these pitiful captives in gasoline and give them a fresh lease of life.
Off New York harbor there are eight patrol boats which watch for pollution of water by ships. In a recent five-month period $57,000 in fines were levied in one federal district alone for violation by ships of the pollution statutes. Vessels are not supposed to dump oil or refuse in the harbor waters, but must carry garbage, ashes and other waste at least twenty-five miles to sea.
Muffling the Noises
It is not possible to operate a great city without producing some noise, but when attention was given to the subject it was surprising how much was accomplished in New York city in noise abatement. Now if you toot an automobile horn unnecessarily it is likely to cost you a dollar. If your brakes are noisy, another dollar; if the cut-out is unmuffled, two dollars. Motor cycles receive the same attention, as do also trucks and buses. The clattering of garbage cans and ash cans costs two dollars; rattling of milkbottles and unnecessary noise in ice-delivery, two dollars; loud-speakers operated to the annoyance of neighbors, one dollar; noisy parties after midnight, two dollars; noisy pets, fifty cents; doormen’s whistles, one dollar. For operating a loud-speaker in front of a store a magistrate recently fined a radio dealer thirty dollars.
A man in Berlin, in an effort to get square with a noisy neighbor in the apartment above him, tried to see how much noise he could make by means of a violin string stretched immediately beneath the ceiling and belabored with a bow several hours daily, while standing on a stepladder. He was fined two hundred marks.
The whir of airplane motors at night has proven an annoyance to residents in the vicinity of airports, and a means must be found to muffle the noise or night flying will have to be reduced materially. A campaign of advertising by broadcasting from a plane with a loud-speaker over an area of several square miles seems to have been abandoned. Perhaps the Noise Abatement Commission compelled a cessation of that nuisance.
There is work yet to be done by the Noise Abatement Commission in regard to the noise of automobile horns. Evidently this whole subject of automobile noises should be considered from every angle.
A noise which can be entirely obviated is the one resulting from vehicles passing over manhole covers. The clack-clack that results can be overcome by placing a rubber washer in the ring in which the cover rests, and by having it rest upon a rubber gasket.
Motor boats and motor cycles have been a nuisance to many because of the noise they emit. We do not know whether the law passed, but in France there was recently a demand made for a law prohibiting the sale of toy trumpets and tin whistles. It seems that such a law would be a reasonable one.
When it comes to noise, the whole question resolves itself into the Golden Rule, ‘Whatsoever ye would that others should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.’ No one objects to reasonable and necessary noises incident to our machine civilization, but we can all look forward hopefully to a time when there will be an incomparably greater amount of work done in the earth than is now done, but without commotion and almost without noise.
All the great buildings in New York city are now equipped with automatic mufflers which prevent outside noises of the city, even of the immediate neighborhood, from finding access into the offices. In the offices themselves noiseless typewriters have reduced to a minimum the nervous strain imposed upon the workers.
Hail, happy day, when all earth's nuisances will be under perfect control!
Los Angeles Getting Nervous
SOMEBODY has sent us a nicely gotten up little book of G4 pages entitled Los Angeles County, California, Today. It is intended to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the county; it is published and copyrighted by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
We turn to the first page. It is the “Dedication”. It says a word or two about the sturdy pioneers of the county, and then it refers to their “decendents”. The Chamber of Commerce is unduly nervous. The Mooney case and the mild winter, along with the world-wide depression, have been too much for the learned men that prepare the literature for Eastern consumption.
First, let us explain that when a thing is “descendent” it is going down. The word should be spelled with an “s”. Now it may well enough be that Los Angeles county is going down, for it is more or less in the earthquake zone; but the thing should not be advertised to the world.
Maybe the Chamber of Commerce meant only to convey the thought that the county is going down financially, and that is probably true, but we comfort them with the thought that the whole world shares in their present anxiety; and, again, it is not best to advertise your woes and your fears.
Then, again, it may be that the word intended was “descendants”, a word with which most people are more familiar than they are with either “decendents” or “descendents”. It is best to be particular about little things like that, lest the booklet fall into the hands of somebody that is well posted on the Mooney frame-up and they fall into hilarity at the Chamber’s expense.
In the package of literature is a badly mimeographed circular letter or “Warning” advising job hunters to stay away from California, and we cannot say that we think this is bad advice. The “Warning” contains information that unless one has the means to live for three years without help from anybody except his parents, and then only if he is a minor, the best thing he can do is to be content to stay away. If he has money enough to last three years he is welcome to come, but if anybody gets it away from him before the three years are up he will be out of luck, and that doesn’t mean “maybe”.
FOTi a number of years the question of nationalizing radio in Canada lias been a matter of much discussion both in parliament and out. During that time the private interests have of course waged a relentless warfare against nationalizing culminating in a very active campaign of recent date. Despite this opposition, Parliament, on May 11, passed unanimously the report of the radio committee recommending nationalization, and now it is only a matter of determining in detail how the undertaking will be carried out. The recommendation of the committee is that a commission comprising three members be appointed, that a chairman be appointed for a period of ten years, a vice-chairman appointed for a nine-year period, and a third commissioner holding office for eight years. The headquarters will be Ottawa, with branches located wherever the commission deems advisable. Provision is made for the appointment of not more than nine assistant commissioners, and not more than one of these to be from one province, the intention being to have one assistant commissioner in each province, whose duties will be to organize provincial advisory boards to work with the commission.
The Show of Force at St. John’s
The determination of those in power to rule regardless of the wish of the people and regardless of the means used to do so is evidenced in a recent happening in Newfoundland concerning which we quote from an editorial appearing in the Star-Phoenix of Saskatoon:
The arrival at St. Jolin's, capital of Newfoundland and scene of recent riots, of a war vessel of the British navy is rather amusing in view of the fact that after the first flare of political temper the city and country have been quiet. It sounds almost as though Premier Squires views the row as a revolution instead of a parade which became rough when lack of consideration rasped the tempers of its members.
After disappearing from the scene for a few days Premier Squires returned to his office and announced that his government would not resign, but that he would stay in office regardless of public opinion until defeated on the floor of the house. There is little doubt about that defeat’s coming rapidly once parliament reassembles. In the meantime the government remains in office, and now has its authority supported by a warship.
Naturally the citizens of St. John’s were somewhat startled at the display of naval force. It must make them feel that Newfoundland is classified with some of the republics of South America where politics usually means violence and elections take the form of revolutions. As a matter of fact the people of Newfoundland are politically keen. Their party contests are carried on with much turbulence, although never before had they attained anything like the violence of the recent disturbance. But to bring a warship to the capital is hardly justified any more than the Canadian government was justified in posting a small army on Parliament Hill to receive a deputation of unemployed.
Wholesale Deportation from Edmonton
The dilemma in which the rulers find themselves in regard to the unemployment situation is somewhat reflected in an editorial appearing in the Saskatoon Star which reads:
The city of Edmonton is embarking on a policy of wholesale deportation. Applications have been made for the removal to their homelands of some 300 or 400 of the unemployed in that city, and it is said that 50 percent or more of those now drawing relief are fit subjects for similar action. The policy is being adopted as a means of making the unemployment load lighter, and possibly it will achieve that aim, temporarily at least.
The adoption of this plan may be taken as an indication that the civic authorities do not entertain an optimistic outlook as to the year 1932. If they did they might reasonably consider their quota of unemployed would be absorbed in the normal course of improvement. Other cities of the west appear to be more hopeful, and their hope seems to be based on good grounds.
It is commonly said that Canada’s industrial and transportation structure is built on too large a scale for the population and that the structure must either be torn down to an appropriate size or population must be increased until it justifies the equipment. The necessity of increased population was pointed out at the last meeting of the Canadian chamber of commerce. Of course, this is no time to encourage immigration, but equally truthfully it may be said it is no time to decrease population providing there is any possibility of the surplus’ being absorbed in selfsustaining occupation. Surely it would not be more expensive to give those who have been unfortunate a helping hand to establish themselves on the land on a sustenance basis than to ship them and their families across the Atlantic.
Royal Bank Abandons Hope
Under the caption, “The Royal Bank Joins the Bolsheviks,” The Furroiv has the following to say:
■When no less an institution than the Royal Bank of Canada circulates statements that the capitalist system is no longer intact and is fast falling into decay, the average reader is forced to “sit up and take notice”, though he might not be impressed by the same statement in the radical press. Exactly this has happened in a recent letter of the Royal Bank of Canada.
“The soundness of the general framework of capitalist society, which could be taken for granted in the normal depression,” says the author, “has been affected not only in Europe and Latin America but elsewhere as well. It is mere affectation to pretend that the world structure of today is sound in all respects, or to expect that things will recover merely as a consequence of hoping that somehow or other the world will ‘muddle through’.”
“There are evidences of decay,” continues the letter, “but they are not yet so serious as to warrant the conclusion that nothing can be done. ’ ’
Possible solutions, says the author, may be found along two lines. One is to reduce the rewards of labor in line with falling selling prices. (The farmer might decide that the experiment had been tried in his case.) This solution is a “doubtful one”, since it threatens “the further dissolution of the economic system through prolonged and disastrous wage conflicts ’ ’. Another plan, inflation to reduce the debt burden, seems equally dubious to the author, who fears there is not “enough will-power, imagination and determination” to carry it out.
Written by a European economist, the article takes a much closer view of conditions in the worst depressed capitalist countries than most articles circulated in Canada. The author makes no attempt to persuade his readers that cither of the two depression remedies he suggests can be made a practical success, rather points out that neither can be put into practice. One is left with the impression that the author feels that capitalism has about a 50-50 chance of coming through this crisis, in an impaired state which would seem to give it very little hope for the next crisis.
Cod Liver Oil by Freezing
People of all time have been much interested in fishing and its development, and no doubt many will be found interested in a recent experiment in Nova Scotia as reported in the following news item appearing in the Evening Telegram of Toronto:
While politicians discuss the relative advantage or disadvantages of trawlers in the fishing industry of the Atlantic province, and of the possibility of introducing new methods of fish smoking and refrigeration into one of the key industries of the Maritimes, a few scientists at the Fisheries Experimental Station here perform quietly and without publicity experiments of great value to this important industry.
Much progress has been made by Dr. Leim and his associates in the preparation of cod liver oil by freezing, as contrasted to the older method of cooking. Experiments at the station showed that much of the oil could be removed from the livers by freezing alone. The procedure was to freeze the livers, leave them in cold storage for a few days, and then run them through a meat chopper. The resulting oil had less color than that produced by cooking, and an examination at the University of Toronto indicated that the vitamin content was unchanged from that of oil obtained in the usual fashion. It was also found that more oil could be obtained from freezing alone than could be skimmed from a cooking kettle. These results will enable the extraction of oil from livers in plants which have cold storage, but are not equipped for steam cooking.
Results were also tabulated on the drying of fish in cold storage, and a method was developed whereby “freezing burn”, which at present time entails commercial losses, could be remedied by freezing under a new process. A “jacketed” room, associated with automatic temperature control, presents a method of preventing “freezing burn” without either glazing or packaging the fish or other commodities in storage.
At Halifax, the drying in such a room was compared with that in an ordinary room with visible coils. It was found that thin plates of iee lost weight five times as rapidly in the ordinary room as they did in the jacketed room, for the same time of exposure. There was only a slight loss of weight in the jacketed room, which indicated that the application of the principles had been almost perfect.
The Millar Estate Again
A Toronto lawyer with a certain sense of humor and who righteously despised self-righteous hypocrites died in 1926 and left an estate of over half a million. In his will he bequeathed to various preachers, strong advocates of prohibition, a share apiece in a brewery, and to one whom he apparently considered a hypocrite in his attitude towards horse racing, stock in the jockey club provided he registered as a member within a certain specified time. The balance of his estate he willed to the Ontario mother giving birth to the largest number of children in the ten years following his death. The irony and sarcasm of his will nettled some of the self-righteous politicians and a bill was presented in parliament with a view to making void the will and confiscating the property. The following Canadian Press report will no doubt be found interesting:
The Ontario government may have a legal fight on its hands with the mother of more than a score of children, after the expiry of the ten-year period, in 1936, fixed by the late Charles Millar in his unique will when he bequeathed the residue of his half-million-dollar estate to the Ontario mother having the greatest number of babies in the ten years following his death. He died October 31, 1926.
The government has introduced a bill in the legislature to set aside the will and appropriate the estate for the benefit of the University of Toronto.
The measure was given second reading in the legislature today. AV. E. N. Sinclair, K.C., Liberal leader, declared the province had no indication that the will was not perfectly valid or that Mr. Millar had any intention of leaving his money to the university.
In Toronto there are at least two women who are in the running for the estate under the provisions of the will, and others have been reported from time to time in various parts of the province.
Mrs. Henry Brown, of Toronto, who is the mother of 13 living children, six of them born since the death of Mr. Millar, and Mrs. Grace Bagnato, mother of 11 living children, six of them born since the death of Mr. Millar, are the Toronto women who expected to claim the estate after the allotted period. Each was disappointed today, but Mrs. Brown promised a fight with the government if she should have borne the largest family by 1936.
Senator George Lynch-Staunton, K.C., of Hamilton, expressed the opinion if the courts have not declared the will invalid, and there are no legal heirs, the action of the government “is unheard of”. The legislature can take any property in this country, he went on. “Humanly speaking, it is omnipotent.” He thought the action was not really an escheat but a confiscation, and the word confiscation “has a nasty sound”.
Numerous legal luminaries in Toronto, interviewed on the legal aspects of the matter, produced wide divergence of opinion. It seemed to be generally agreed, however, that while the action was probably without any precedent, the legislature would be within its rights.
To the credit of the Toronto press, it raised such a storm of protest that the bill was withdrawn.
Notes from Korea By Our Korean Correspondent
A New Leprosy Cure
KOREAN, Mr. Whan Tuk Chung, has perfectly cured more than fifty lepers with his medicine, named Shin Mak Whan (“Artery Pills of God”). The medicine is composed of nineteen kinds of drugs, most of which are herbs. The pills are now being analyzed, in the effort to discover the scientific reason for the cures.
Mr. Chung was himself a leper; he is one of the fifty that were perfectly cured; more than twenty lepers are now under his care. So impressed is the Government that a license to market the pills, requested on August 7, 1931, was granted the same month.
It is interesting to hear his story. Thirty-four years ago his younger brother was overtaken with leprosy and he was broken-hearted. In the effort to try to help him he decided to study Chinese medicine, with the aforementioned good result.
When he applied for a license to the governor of the Kang Won province, the police officers called on the former lepers, who are perfectly recovered, and examined them. They returned with many letters of thanksgiving to Mr. Chung, and certificates from the village master and subdistrict master. One of these letters was as follows :
February 9, 13th year of Taichung (1924). Whan Tuk Chung, Esq.: This is to thank you thousands of times that I am perfectly recovered from the leprosy with which I was in trouble since the first year of Taichung (1912), as a result of receiving your treatment. I will repay you in the future for your thankful merit. (Signed) Ryong Hak Choi, 25 Aninli, Kangtongmium, Kangnung district, Korea.
Certificate: Mr. Ryong Hak Choi, 25 Aninli, Kangtongmium, Kangnung district. This is to certify that the above-named person was overtaken by leprosy but was perfectly recovered from the same after he had received the treatment of Mr. Whan Tuk Chung, Kangnungmium, Kangnung district. (Signed) Doo Pio Hong, village master of Aninli, Kantongmium, Kangnung district, August 10th, second year of Sow-ha (1927). ~
Certificate: Mr. Ryong Hak Choi, Aninli, Kangtongmium, Kangnung district. Mr. Woon Suk Lee, the same village. This is to certify that the abovementioned persons were overtaken by leprosy, but were perfectly recovered from the same after they had received the treatment of Mr. Whan Tuk Chung, of 208 Wook Chung, Kangnungmium, Kangnung district. (Signed) Chin Tong Pak, sub-district master
t* GOLDEN AGE
of Kangtongmium, Kangnung district, April 12th, 5th year of Sowha (1930).
Marks of Public Gratitude
The above-mentioned more than fifty persons who recovered from leprosy by taking the Shin Mak Whan of Mr. Chung organized a Friendly Association of those who are perfectly recovered from the leprosy, and erected a stone monument on the side of a big road of the Limchung, Kangnung city, for the memorial of Mr. Chung’s merit, on which is inscribed: “A monument to remember everlastingly the merit of Master Whan Tuk Chung.”
Mr. Chung is undertaking to organize the Tai Miung Dang (Great Bright House) with a capital of 10,000 yen, to cure many lepers with his licensed Shin Mak Whan. If he can get the money, then he is going to enlarge his work and will establish an asylum for free treatment for the poor lepers too.
Mr. Chung said to a news editor, who asked him how he discovered such a medicine:
Thirty-four years ago I was studying Chinese medicine with Mr. Kiung Yil Lee of Milyang district. In October of the same year my younger brother, Whan Yung, was overtaken by leprosy. So I gathered many prescriptions for leprosy from everywhere, to treat him, but unfortunately I too was overtaken by the leprosy. I was greatly broken-hearted and left home for three years, wandering various places in search of remedies. Accidentally I discovered one kind of herb named Chun Yil Cho (thousand day plant). I added this herb to the medicine I had formerly taken, and after about one year was perfectly recovered. I then treated another person who recovered perfectly after two years. This gave me great faith in the remedy and I treated many and cured them perfectly. This is the outline of my discovery.
Oh how wonderful, and how thankful I am that the Lord Jehovah is moving His hands so as to make the most looked-down-upon, much abused and badly cursed people of Korea the discoverer of such a medicine, a preface to the Golden Age, when every people will say, “I am not sick.” Some may flatly refuse to believe that this is the work of Jehovah God, for it was discovered by a heathen Korean.
Compensating the Innocent
The Japanese Government has under way a law for redressing the losses of innocent prisoners. In Japan they will be paid five yen for every day they were falsely imprisoned, while in Korea they will be paid from two to five yen. Besides, they will be given back all their seized property. The “Christian” nations might well imitate this legislation of a heathen nation.
Slow Work, This
Let nobody say that the Japanese are not as much civilized as others! In January seven Japanese completely cleaned out a bank, which they entered from the back. For forty nights they drilled with an electric drill, and every morning picked up all the steel particles with magnets. They made away with 780,000 yen; but a girl, the white slave of one of the thieves, gave them away, and in no time they were in prison.
A Long-hatched Plot
Here in Korea we understand perfectly why the new government of Manchuria was announced on the 11th of February. That day is the anniversary of the accession of the first Japanese emperor Jimmu (“God’s military”), 2,581 years prior to A.D. 1932.
A Nut Loaf Which Cannot Be Told From a Meat Loaf By Mrs. L. W. Beach (Missouri)
TAKE 1 cup finely ground roasted peanuts
1 cup finely ground nut meats of any kind except walnuts
2}4 cups fine bread crumbs (toasted)
1 teaspoon salt and pepper, if wanted
1 tablespoon sage
1 large onion or 2 small ones, ground
Blend well, then bind together with 2 eggs (slightly beaten)
% cup milk
Mould with hands into a loaf and place in well greased roasting tin. Bake ten minutes. Then baste with a cup of water and butter every few minutes for half an hour. Make a brown sauce in pan in which loaf was baked.
Government Deficit Rapidly Mounting
INCLUDING loans by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the daily expenditures of the Government are at present running from three to five times as much as receipts.
Free Rent for Needy in Philadelphia
A PHILADELPHIA judge has decided that needy persons may occupy rent-free all houses in Philadelphia that have been padlocked for a year because of violations of the liquor laws. About a hundred houses are involved.
Expects to Dive Two Miles
A COLOGNE professor has invented a doubleshell electric-driven pollywog which he thinks will enable him to go down 10,000 feet into the sea. The inner pressure is automatically adjusted by liquid air evaporation.
Encouraging the Peace Experts
JUST to encourage the peace experts at Geneva, Hadfields, Limited, of Sheffield, announces that it has produced a projectile that will perforate hard-faced armor of the best quality and over a foot thick.
Western States as Cotton Raisers
IT WAS the three western states, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, that produced in 1931 the 2,800,000 bales of cotton over and above the production for the previous year. The bales average 514 pounds in weight.
An English Girl’s Plucky Flight
AN English girl of 22 has just distinguished herself by a lone flight of 4,000 miles from her native country to visit friends in Palestine. She took as baggage a small trunk, two valises, a hatbox and a water bottle.
A Remarkable Safety Record
IN THE year 1931 the railroads carried 600,372,000 passengers with a total loss of but four persons, three killed in a derailment and one in a collision. This is the lowest mark ever recorded in rail passengers killed.
Stealing a Million Barrels of Oil
TEALING a million barrels of oil seems like quite a trick, but it seems they did it down in Texas. The oil was taken from the wells by secretly installing by-passes around pipe line meters.
12,000 Murders a Year
A MERICA continues to set the murder pace for the world. The country now averages 12,000 a year, or one every 44 minutes, day and night, the year around. The figure has increased 350 percent since 1900.
New York State Roads
T AST year New York state built 1,000 miles of modern highway; this year it will build 300, and two-thirds of the men employed in road building last year will be really interested in looking for God’s kingdom as the only possible, way out of their troubles.
71333 Dry Law Violations in 9 Months
TN THE nine months from July 1, 1931, to February 29, 1932, there were 71,333 arrests for dry law violations in the United States. In that time ten civilians and six Federal agents were killed in the enforcement of the national prohibition act.
Recent Rapid Flights
TUCKED away in a British paper comes the news that a Mr. Mollison, a Scot, has just made the flight from England to Capetown in 4 days 17 hours 19 minutes, and that the Germans sent a Zeppelin full of mails all the way from Germany to Brazil in less than five days.
Hoover’s Talk with the Editors
FOR two hours on the night of April 21 President Hoover talked privately with thirty-five newspaper editors. It was understood that the meeting was a strictly not-for-publication affair, and, in view of some of the things these editors have done to us in the past, we all wonder what is being cooked up now.
In the Heart of New York City
TN THE heart of New York city, at 505 West
Fifty-first Street, two men invaded the home of a woman seventy-six years of age, and because they found but $5 they beat the aged woman so cruelly that she died. Probably the same pair killed two other aged women within a mile or so of the spot within the past few weeks. Under the circumstances, one wonders why some police, officers seem to think it important to throw into prison those who go from door to door calling attention to the fact that the people need a righteous government.
Yacht Owners Face a Dilemma
YACHT owners face a dilemma. Fully 25,000 of them fear to put their yachts into commission when there is so much want; yet there are fifty industries which depend more or less on the yacht trade, and at least 5,000 seamen and mechanics look in that direction for employment.
Hon. Rosamond Korndyke Pet
Rosamond korndyke pet, a Hoistein-Friesian cow confessing to ten years of age, owned by Albert Winter of Mahwah, N. J., and listed as Class B, last year produced 29,011.9 pounds of milk and 1,076 pounds of butter fat. We gave her the title of “Hon.” because we think she deserves it.
Karoo Bush Plants as Forage
KAROO bush plants, nutritious and palatable as forage, may soon be growing in southern Utah and Nevada. A quantity of the seeds has been imported, and if the plants grown from them thrive, as it is believed they will, the foodproducing area of the United States will be extended.
Ford Plants Not a Paradise
TT SOUNDS great to hear that in the Ford J- plants the minimum wage is $7 a day, yet in 1930 the average wage of Ford workers was less than a thousand dollars, and practically every worker must either own or be paying for a Ford car, and a new one at that, or is in danger of losing his job.
Bay City and Saginaw
IN ONE year seven concerns in Bay City, purchasing their current from a municipally operated plant, obtained a financial advantage of $5,412.94 over what they would have had to pay if they had purchased the same amount of current from the privately owned plant of Saginaw, next door.
Potash in Texas and New Mexico
DISCOVERY is announced of a bed of potash in Texas and New Mexico, extending north into Kansas and Colorado, which is some six hundred miles long and up to three hundred miles in width. It is sufficient to supply the potash needs of the world for an indefinite length of time.
X-Rays of Lungs of Students
X-RAY of lungs of students taken at Yale University showed that of 1,602 students examined 283, or 17.7 percent, gave evidence of having a certain amount of tuberculosis, thus confirming the information previously advanced that at some time nearly all of us have incipient lung trouble.
Head-on Collision Ahead
T^VERYBODY was hoping that there might be at least a few months of better times ahead before we land squarely in Armageddon, but now the pope has urged the whole world to join with him in prayer, and knowing from past experience what that means, we can see only a head-on collision ahead.
No Aluminum at the Vitamin Cafe
GRADUALLY the facts are spreading around the world. The Healthy Life, London magazine, in its issue for February, 1931, contains a page advertisement setting forth the merits of the Vitamin Cafe, London, and among the many inducements they hold forth is the terse statement, set off in a box by itself, “No aluminum vessels used for cooking.”
Artificial Diamonds and Artificial Wool
fTT\VO Columbia University professors have made a quantity of diamond dust, the largest artificial diamonds ever made, at costs estimated at $5 per carat. It is believed this dust will prove a valuable abrasive. The same pair of scientists have produced artificial wool which looks and feels and wears much the same as genuine wool. The substitute is made of jute.
Pinchot Denounces Big Business Rule
IN A SPEECH at Cleveland, Governor Pinchot, of Pennsylvania, said: “For years the big fellows have walked arm in arm with politics. For years these men have ordered, bought, and paid for the government policies and government practices that have guided this nation’s course. For years the American people have been lulled into the false faith that our national affairs were best left in the hands of these men. But the time of indifference seems to be about over. The depression is responsible for that. The beautiful dream that national affairs have been run by concentrated -wealth in the best interest of the plain people is wearing away.”
Rayon from Sugar-Cane Waste
BY THE use of low-priced nitric acid, chemists have worked out a plan for recovering rayon in large quantities from sugar-cane waste, and at the same time improving the waste for the insulating building material and other purposes for which the waste (bagasse) is used. Sugar mills accumulate from 250,000 to 500,000 tons of bagasse annually.
How Many Vegetables for $1,600,000?
THE editor of Labor says naughty things some of the time. One of the things he recently said was: '‘The Bethlehem Steel Company is graciously providing its half-starved workers with garden plots, 50 by 100 feet, in which to raise vegetables. How many vegetables would it take to equal the $1,600,000 bonus paid to a Bethlehem official a few years ago T’
Just as You Would Expect
REFERRING to the heavy shipments of explosives, bombs, machine guns, airplane parts, revolvers, and other war materials from Europe to Japan the New Statesman and Nation, a London weekly, asserts that the largest group of stockholders in British firms profiting of late from export of munitions of war are clergymen. This is what we would expect.
Veterans in Britain and America
IN TEN years Government expenditures on behalf of the veterans of the World War have increased almost 50 percent, whereas the British war pensions have decreased nearly 50 percent in the same time. In Britain the veterans are being reabsorbed into the civilian population, whereas in the United States they are being treated as a separate class.
Joy over Mr. Gifford's Appointment
JOY over President Hoover’s appointment of
Walter Gifford as chairman of his unemployment commission is heightened by the discovery that when his company (which made profits of $197,980,486 in 1930, and let out 39,702 employees) made a contribution of $233,000 to charity, the amount was charged to operating expenses, and thus collected from the consumers. Mr. Hoover can tell you in the dark where and how to find a good unemployment expert, and Mr. Gifford can tell you in the dark where and how to find a president.
Federal Control of Bus and Truck Lines
FEDERAL control of bus and truck lines is coming, and it must be said that it is only fair that these interstate competitors of the railroads should receive as close investigation and supervision as have been accorded the rails. The Interstate Commerce Commission has urged the immediate regulation of bus passenger transportation.
Railroads Fighting for Lost Business
THE railroads are putting up a stiff fight to regain some of the business lost to the autos. The new plan of making a cheap week-end excursion ticket between any two points on the line ought to be of considerable aid in restoring travel to the railroads. The trains have to go, anyway, and if they go loaded instead of empty the road makes money; otherwise it loses.
Reduction in Steamship Fares
WITH a third of the vessels of the world idle it is no wonder that all rates on the ocean have been reduced and are now at lowest ebb. A round trip to Havana is now but $110; and to Europe and back, even on the Bremen and Europa, is but $169. Continental hotels have lowered their rates. All the world is looking for L’ncle Sam to spend the money he hasn't got.
The Experts on Unemployment
TT IS the president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Air. Gifford, that is the chairman of President Hoover’s Unemployment Commission. He ought to make a good chairman, because he knows so much about what causes unemployment. His concern made a profit last year of $51,000,000 and celebrated by laying off 50,000 employees.
Long Wants Wealth Distributed
READING from the Scriptures the law of the jubilee which required that every fifty years the wealth of the land be redistributed in such a way as to keep the common people consuming and enjoying the fruit of the land, Senator Long of Louisiana, in a voice quivering with emotion, said in the United States Senate: “If you distribute this wealth, you will lie down in a land of safety and peace, and dwell in a land of comfort and plenty for all. But if you will not do it, there is no country that is going to survive with the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few people.”
Prohibition Sentiment Losing Ground
TEN years ago The Literary Digest polled 922,382 straw votes on the prohibition question, at which time 20.6 percent were for repeal and 79.4 percent were for enforcement or modification. The latest effort brought out 4,668,537 ballots, of which 73.5 percent were for repeal and only 26.5 percent were for enforcement. The conditions are almost reversed.
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