Golden Age, October 26, 1932
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<#•<> Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
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in this issue
POISONS FORMED BY ALUMINUM COOKING UTENSILS "CAN THESE THINGS BE?”
PAPER
THE GIVING OF GIFTS
WITNESSES IN BURMAH
TRUE OBEDIENCE IS TRUE VALOR
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every other
WEDNESDAY
five cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25
Vol. XIV - No. 342
October 26, 1932
CON T E N T S
LABOR AND ECONOMICS
Public-spirited Norway
3,000,000 Families Get Flour . . .
Half of Chicago Jobless
214,000 More Accept Relief . . .
Fn employment Grows
On the Other Hand
Women in Masculine Jobs ....
Mother Explains
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
Electrons
Hoover an Expensive Man . . . .4'1 Order of Woodcraft Chivalry . . 41 Unemployed Citizens League . . . J1 Rogers on Battle of Anacostia . . 41 Salaries of Railroad Presidents . . 42 Diversion of Charity Funds ... 43 Press Associations and the Hungry 44 Story of a Little Girl......45
The Giving of Gifts
About Books and Authors . . . 54
MANUFACTURING AND MINING
Iola’s Small Tax Rate
‘25,000 Digging for Gold
Paper
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
Japanese Goods in India .... 39
Palestine in World's Markets . . 39
Hungary's Merchant Fleet .... 40 How Dawes Made Good
Why the Railroads Merge .... 42
Finance Corporation Refuses Loan . 43
Associated Gas and Electric Properties
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
Brotherly Love in Yugoslavia . . 39
United States and League of Nations 40
Crooks in Pennsylvania
Pinchot for Free Speech
Economists Find Old Parties
Bankrupt
“Can These Things Be.’" . . .16
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
Progress on Hoover Dam .... 44
HOME AND HEALTH
Poisons Formed by Aluminum
Cooking Utensils
Osteopathic Treatment ur
Insanity
The Higher Quackery
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
Rebuilding the Yangtse Dikes . . 40
Progress at the Dead Sea .... 41
Sad Conditions in Virgin Islands . 42 Restlessness in New Zealand . . .43 Chinese Losses at Shanghai .... 43 Items from Soviet Russia . . . .45
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
Jehovah's witnesses in Burmaii . 56
True Obedience Is True Valor . . 59
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Golden Age
Volume XIV Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, October 26, 1932 Number 342
Poisons Formed by Aluminum Cooking Utensils
By H. J. Force, Ph.G. (Pennsylvania)1
MANY papers have been published showing that aluminum cooking utensils have formed poisonous products under certain conditions. Papers have also been published trying to show that aluminum is a safe material for general household use.
In the schools of pharmacy and medicine there are standard works on medicine and chemistry, as various Materia Medicas, the United States Dispensatory, etc. These books give the physiological action of most drugs and chemical compounds. Let us turn to the United States Dispensatory, 19th Edition, published in 1907, and based on the United States Pharmacopoeia. The United States Dispensatory will be found in all drug stores, hospitals, physicians’ offices, etc., and is recognized in the courts as an authority on the use and doses of medical substances. Its recommendations have never been questioned. We are going to let the Dispensatory speak for itself on Aluminum, page 112:
Uses. Alum is a powerful astringent, with very decided irritant qualities, owing to which, when taken internally in sufficient quantity, it is emetic and purgative, and may even cause fatal gastro-intestinal inflammation. . . .
Alum is sometimes used to adulterate bread, with the view to increase its whiteness and to conceal the defects of the flour. If the quantity used be sufficient, the alum acts as an irritant to the gastro-intestinal tract, and according to the results of experiments made by Bigelow and Hamilton, it actively checks peptic digestion.
Under Aluminum Sulphate, page 124 of the. Dispensatory, we find:
Uses. The soluble simple salts of aluminum have the property of opposing animal putrefaction, but the sulphate is probably the most powerful and certainly is the most used. . . . Aluminum sulphate in saturated solution has been used for the preservation of dead bodies for dissection.
We now turn to the 21st Edition of the United States Dispensatory, published in 1928, which is the last edition, and shows a number of revisions and changes from the 20th edition. In this edition, we turn to Alum, on page 109, and under Uses, we find the following:
Alum is a powerful astringent with very decided irritant qualities, and when taken internally in sufficient quantities is emetic and purgative, and may even cause gastro-intestinal inflammation. It is widely employed in various conditions in which an astringent or styptic is desired. . . . When small quantities of the soluble salts of aluminum are introduced into the circulation they produce a slow form of poisoning characterized by motor palsies and areas of local anesthesia with fatty degeneration in the kidney and liver. The nervous symptoms have been shown by Doellken to be due to anatomical changes in the nerve centers. There are also often symptoms of gastro-intestinal inflammation which is presumably the result of the effort of the glands of the intestinal tract to eliminate the poisoning. . . .
Under Aluminum Chloride, page 113 of the Dispensatory, we find:
Uses. Externally it is used as an astringent and antiseptic. . . .
On page 1192 of the Dispensatory, under Aluminum Acetate, we find that aluminum acetate is used for water-proofing fabrics, and that it is also used as an embalming fluid. Also used in the manufacture of colors and in dyeing.
(We think it would be very proper to state that aluminum acetate could be the cause of dying, especially if pickles were made in aluminum vessels. Vinegar contains acetic acid, and combines with aluminum to form aluminum acetate. Any preparation to be a satisfactory embalming fluid must be poisonous.)
The combination of aluminum chloride with aluminum acetate would make an ideal disinfectant and embalming fluid. This combination could easily be brought about by adding salt to the pickles when they are preparedin aluminum. Aluminum chloride compounds will be formed when vegetables are cooked in aluminum to which a small quantity of salt (chemically called sodium chloride) has been added. Many natural waters contain quite a little salt. It is evident that when such waters are used when cooking in aluminum, aluminum chloride will be formed.
It has been shown that aluminum compounds precipitate or destroy the pepsin, which is the principal ingredient in digestion. Alum is a compound of aluminum, potash, sulphur and oxygen, together with a small portion of water, and has the chemical formula Al K(S04) 2 + 12II2O. When vegetables are cooked in aluminum vessels, they often contain such compounds as sulphur, potash or soda, which could easily combine with the aluminum, forming small quantities of alum, also aluminum sulphate.
Many drinking waters through the United States are very hard, containing a large portion of sulphur compounds, also potash and soda. In fact, some waters which I have analyzed become alkaline on boiling. As potash and soda very readily dissolve aluminum, forming a compound similar to alum in its composition, it follows that this compound will be formed if aluminum utensils are used for any length of time to cook food products.
Sauerkraut when cooked in aluminum, will produce aluminum chloride, especially if allowed to stand for some tune. Many cases of poisoning have resulted from sauerkraut being cooked in aluminum, and some deaths.
From the preceding statements made in the. Dispensatory, it is evident that indigestion and constipation could he produced, and that the kidneys and liver could be affected with most serious results.
The editors of the Dispensatory are men of experience in medicine, chemistry and pharmacy, and they are considered authorities along these lines. They are as follows: II. C. Wood, M.D., LL.D., professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the University of Pennsylvania, president of the convention of 1900 for the Revision of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States; and Joseph P. Remington, Ph.M., F.C.S., professor of Theory and Practice of Pharmacy in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, chairman of the Committee of Revision of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States of America; and Samuel P. Sadtler, Ph.D., LL.D., professor of Chemistry in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, member of the Committee of Revision of the Pharmacopieia of the United States of America : and Albert B. Lyons, M.D., member of the Committee of Revision of the Pharmacopoeia; and II. C. Wood. Jr., M.D., demonstrator of the Pharmacodynamics in the University of Pennsylvania.
Here we have the highest authority in the United States telling us of the poisonous effects of aluminum. Alum and the various compounds contain a large percent of aluminum, in most cases in soluble form which can readily be absorbed in the stomach or the intestines, and may seriously affect the kidneys and liver.
Alum or any of its compounds should not be used in bread or general baking. As the Dispensatory points out, it may check the digestive process, due to its coagulating action on the pepsin compounds. Acute indigestion might follow, with the formation of gas which may press on the heart, producing death.
When aluminum cooking utensils are used, there is always some aluminum dissolved. The amount will depend upon the kind of water used. At picnics, church suppers and other places where large numbers are served, the foods are often allowed to stand for some time in aluminum. As a result we often read in the newspapers of numbers of people being stricken ill very soon after eating, becoming poisoned from the aluminum compounds formed, and death often following.
People often say they like aluminum, as foods do not burn when cooked in such utensils. The reason is that some aluminum is always dissolving, forming hydrogen gas, and so pushing the foods away from the aluminum. The same thing applies to an aluminum griddle. Salt and soda are generally used in the batter, and these increase the solubility of the aluminum.
Large doses of aluminum compounds are often fatal. Small quantities may be taken daily with little or no effect. But sooner or later, indigestion, constipation, Bright’s disease, or diabetes may develop as a result of the continued use of aluminum ware, due to its solubility.
Some claims have been made that aluminum is not soluble when used for general cooking purposes. Statements of this kind are absolutely false, and show the gross ignorance of such writers. There is not a single laboratory in the United States that would think of using aluminum vessels for making chemical analysis.
To show the solubility of aluminum, make the following simple test for yourself: Place in a well cleaned and scoured aluminum utensil one quart of water, a good pinch of salt and a pinch of baking soda, and let boil for one hour, adding water to make up the loss. Then remove from the fire and let stand for two or three hours, then pour into a glass jar and notice the milky condition caused by aluminum hydroxide. This will settle out in a day or so, but its presence is proof that aluminum is soluble.
Let us see what textbooks, such as are used in our medical colleges, say about aluminum. Take the Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacology, for example, by Alexander L. Blackwood, A.B., M.D., F.A.C.P., professor of Clinical Medicine and Therapeutics in the Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, published by Boericke & Tafel, 1923, Philadelphia. On page 111 of this volume, we find under Alum the following statement:
Physiological Action. This agent is actively astringent, coagulating the albumen of the tissues and of the blood, and produces a local constriction of the capillaries. It is mildly escharotic and produces a hardening of the skin and tissues in general. It excites and later diminishes the salivary secretions as well as those of the mucous surfaces; it diminishes the gastric fluid and precipitates pepsin. As a result of its action on the intestinal sections, constipation is produced. Through its irritating properties which may be in excess of its astringent properties gastroenteritis may result.
On page 112 in the same book, under Aluminum Hydroxide, the following statement is made:
Physiological Action. This agent produces profound prostration, with irritation of the mucous membranes, with diminished secretions, and as a result there is constipation and inactivity of the bowels. The nervous system is affected as is indicated by the extreme prostration with numbness of the parts and paralysis of the involuntary muscles.
To make the above clearer, wTe give the definitions of a few of the words mentioned:
Astringent. A medicine which causes contraction of the tissues and arrests the flow of secretions.
Coagulation. Changing to a curd-like mass; becoming clotted.
Escharotic. A substance which burns and destroys the life of the parts to which it is applied.
You had better read the above over again. Your life may depend on the statements made by Dr. Blackwood, for according to the doctor, you will sooner or later hang out the crape, and have the undertaker back up in front of your house; that is, if you continue to use aluminum ware for cooking purposes.
The coagulating of the albumen of the tissues and the blood is characteristic of most poisons, and would result in death. Such a condition could cause paralysis, insanity, cancer, rheumatism, neuritis, indigestion, ulcers of the stomach and intestines, some forms of skin diseases, etc.
In God’s Holy Word, the Bible, it states:
Deuteronomy 12: 23: “Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.”
Leviticus 17:14: “ . . . for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof. ...”
If your blood is being poisoned, which is your life, this condition is easily accounted for. The Bible is our only authority, and can be depended upon to state the facts.
From the Dispensatory and various Materia Medicas, it is apparent that the nation is being poisoned. There never was so much sickness and complaining, never so much stomach disorder, etc. Cancer has jumped from the tenth place to the second place as the cause of deaths in the last ten years. Yet at the same time we have more knowledge, more doctors, hospitals, radio lectures on health, and newspaper articles on how to keep well, etc., and sickness is still on the increase. There must he a reason.
Aluminum will affect the teeth, as this chemical has an affinity for calcium, and is so stated by dentists who have investigated the action of aluminum on the teeth. It is also possible for the aluminum to affect the calcium in the bones.
Try this test: Put one-half of a can of tomatoes in an aluminum vessel, and the other half in an agate-w’are vessel. Add the same amount of salt and baking soda to each. Cook, and then let stand for 24 hours, then reheat, and note the difference in taste. We would not advise you to eat the tomatoes cooked in the aluminum. Those cooked in the agate will still be good eating
If tomatoes are cooked in a dull-appearing aluminum utensil, the acid in the tomatoes will act upon the aluminum, give the aluminum a very clean appearance. The amount of aluminum removed is of course dissolved into the tomatoes.
To prove to your friends that aluminum ware is poisonous, give them the following dinner: Sauerkraut cooked in aluminum; beef and potatoes seasoned, cooked in aluminum; tomatoes with salt and baking soda, cooked in aluminum; bread baked with alum baking powder; custard pie baked in an aluminum pan; and coffee made in an aluminum percolator. Let all stand 24 hours, and then reheat and serve, but tell your friends what they are eating, and let them read this first. This should prove to anyone who is honest about aluminum that it is poisonous. If people will not believe the best authorities, then they must take the consequences.
People often ask why the doctors do not tell us about aluminum poisoning. Many of them do, and recommend that aluminum ware be not used. Many physicians have paid little or no attention to this, question, and that is just why we are writing this, so as to tell them where to find the information.
We have letters from the following physicians and surgeons, condemning the use of aluminum ware:
* Dr. George Starr White, Los Angeles, Calif. Dr. M. E. Lecocq, Siloam Springs, Ark.
Dr. AV. W. Fritz, Philadelphia, Pa.
Dr. D. R. Edwards, Montreal, Quebec, Can.
* Dr. W. F. Koch, Koch Cancer Hospital, Detroit, Mich.
Dr. J. M. Heimbach, Kane, Pa.
Dr. D. H. Roeder, Kansas City, Mo.
Dr. F. C. Schneider, Peru, Ill.
* Dr. C. R. PerDue, Indianapolis, Ind.
Dr. J. R. Newton, Olathe, Kans.
* Dr. M. Johnson Work, Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Dr. S. R. Love, St. Petersburg, Fla.
• Dr. Chas. T. Betts, Toledo, Ohio.
The above names marked with a star have published circulars on aluminum poisoning. Dr. C. T. Betts has several circulars and books published on aluminum poisoning. Many more names could be given if space permitted.
The Journal of the American Association for Medico-Physical Research, Kansas City, Mo., has published several articles on aluminum poisoning; also the Plain Talk magazine, Washington, D. C. The Golden Aye, of Brooklyn, N.Y., has published many articles on aluminum poisoning and has given much valuable information.
From our investigation, we can recommend: First, iron or steel utensils for general cooking; second, agate or enameled ware, glass or pyrex ware; also monell metal. You will notice that foods taste different when they are not cooked in aluminum. We are in no way interested in any kind of cooking utensils, as to their manufacture or sale.
In view of the facts set forth, especially in our standard works on medicine, we should call on our senators and congressmen to eliminate the use of all aluminum cooking utensils from the army and navy, from all hospitals and public institutions, from hotels, restaurants and all public places. People should not buy foods prepared in aluminum. Manufacturers of food products should stamp all canned goods ‘‘Not prepared in aluminum’’ when such is the case.
We know you will enjoy better health, have fewer colds and better digestion if you eliminate the use of aluminum.
Most vegetables contain a very small amount of aluminum, about one part in a million, but in an entirely different form from that which is dissolved when cooking foods in aluminum. The white powder often seen when cooking potatoes in aluminum is aluminum hydroxide, which is described in the Materia Medica in this paper.
Japanese Goods in India
RITONS complain that the Japanese are pushing their bleached goods into India, with a tendency to increasingly fine cloths, and at prices which the British find it hard to meet.
Dollar Bill Lasts Nine Months
N ITEM is going the rounds that the average life of a dollar bill is nine months. Must be something phoney about that, for no dollar ever survived that long in these times.
Signs of the Tinies in Brooklyn
SIGN in a shop window in Brooklyn, not far from the offices of The Golden Age, is surely a sign of the times. It reads, and who can doubt the sincerity hack of the plea: “Prosperity, come back. All is forgiven.”
Public-spirited Norway
IN NORWAY the railroads, telegraphs and telephones and electric plants are run to serve the people at cost; one hospital with 3,000 beds gives service, including surgical treatment, at 50c per day; and there are no slums.
Brotherly Love in Yugoslavia
IT IS said that the king of Yugoslavia, fearful of his older brother’s popularity, has imprisoned him in a fortress, and that the imprisoned man is in daily fear of being poisoned. Makes you glad it is 4,000 miles away.
3,000,000 Families Get Government Flour
EARLY three million families have received government relief flour, distributed through the agency of the Red Cross. One 24i/>-pound sack lasts a family of five for eleven days. Surely this is a better use for this flour than for it to spoil in the bins of the Farm Board.
Can You Beat This for Meanness?
rederick Bogare, New York printer, was unemployed for a year and a half. Then he got a job. Then he parked his ear in front of his home. Then the garage owners, who wanted his rent money, had him arrested. He had two small children to support. He could not pay his fine, and he was sent to jail for two days. No doubt the garage owners, those generous-hearted men, are contributors to such unemployment relief funds as will get their names in the papers, but if so, why did they not pay Bogare’s fine?
Half of Chicago Jobless
TN MIDSUMMER Mayor Cermak, of Chicago, declared that more than half of the 1,550,000 persons employed during normal times in Chicago were then jobless. In addition, 60 percent of those who were then working in the second largest city in America were on short time.
Palestine in the World’s Markets
ALESTINE grapefruit is coming into market. Early potatoes are being shipped to
France. Eggs are being marketed in England. Last year there were 2,600,000 cases of oranges shipped, and it is expected that by 1936 the shipments will be ten to twelve million cases.
Iola’s Small Tax Rate
TN IOLA, Kansas, the city tax rate for 1933 is 75c per $100 valuation, and it is expected that next year there will be no city taxes at all. The reason? Oh, the reason is the same as it always is in such cases: the city owns and operates its own water, light and gas systems.
10,000 False Fire Alarms Annually
IT SEEMS as if there could not possibly be that many even in the great city of New York, but there are 28 false fire-alarm calls per day, and that figures up 10,000 in a year. The cost of each false fire alarm is set at about $20; a clear waste of $200,000 a year.
214,000 More Accept Poor Relief
WHILE in some respects Britain seems better off since she went off the gold standard, yet in the six months from the end of September, 1931, to the end of March, 1932, the number of persons accepting poor relief rose from 1,005,813 to 1,220,000, an increase of more than 214,000.
Made $175,000 Shining Shoes
Ieradi, Italian boy, landed at the Battery 52 years ago at the age of 14, with just enough money to buy a shoe-shining outfit. In due time he came to have the shoe-shining concession at the Grand Central station, and when he died, recently, he left $175,000, all made in shining shoes. It is said he could stroll into almost any shoe-shining station in New York state and get his shoes shined for nothing, which gave him the edge on visiting kings and even the hero of the charge on Anacostia.
An Honest Man in the Navy
THERE is an honest man in the navy. Government engineers had estimated that it would cost $70,000 to supervise certain work at Taft, California. The honest man, a lieutenant by the name of Kelley, did the work for $2,000 and returned $68,000 to the treasury at Washington.
Rebuilding the Yangtse Dikes
IN THE rebuilding of the Yangtse dikes, just completed, an average of 670,000 men and women were employed. They were paid mostly in food. In the five months in which the work was in progress as much dirt was handled as would build a wall 6^ feet wide and 61k feet high all around the earth at the equator.
United States and League of Nations
Felix Mobley, for two years director of the
Geneva office of the League of Nations Association of the United States, points out that the United States is now represented in the work of more League committees than any regular League member except the five powers with permanent seats in the council.
Unemployment Grows by Leaps and Bounds
THE president of the American Federation of
Labor claims that 1,300,000 Americans lost their jobs from January to May inclusive and that in June the number laid off was more than 600,000. He thinks that the fourth winter under the great food administrator of the World War will show at least 13.000,000 out of work.
Hoover an Expensive Man
WHITE HOUSE expenses under four years of Harding were $1,377,840; under Coolidge they were $1,722,560; under Hoover they are $2,114,217. Coolidge got along with one $7,500 secretary; Hoover has to have four at $10,000 each. Wilson had three automobiles; Hoover has to have eleven. Great man!
Hungary’s Merchant Fleet
TO GET to the seacoast Hungary must go through Austria to the Italian port of Trieste, yet sailing from this port there are now several Hungarian steamship lines, traversing the seven seas. This development is due to the fact that Hungary was once a part of Austria and Austria’s principal port was at Trieste, now in Italy.
On the Other Hand
TN THE year 1928, which was the peak prosperity year, the total wages paid American workers were $650,000,000 more than they were the year previous. On the other hand, the profits and interest paid bond- and stockholders rose from $2,469,000,000 in 1922 to $7,888,000,000 in 1929.
Paris Has Gone Mad
REPORTS from Paris are that it has gone mad. In the effort to be more licentious than New York it is now practicing devil-worship in eleven temples. Three temples to Venus have been opened within a month. Shameless women are everywhere. Dancing has become open lewdness.
Longest Bar in the World
THE longest bar in the world is in the League of Nations building at Geneva, the location of the. "political expression of God’s kingdom on earth”. The Methodist General Conference at Atlantic City has just advocated entrance of the United States into the League of Nations, and is for a bone-dry world.
Improving American Figures
CALLING attention to the fact that in Russia, on account of slimmer rations, fat paunches have almost entirely disappeared, the American Freeman thinks the figures of the American people ought to be greatly improved by the time the 'victor of the siege of Anacostia’ retires, March 4 next.
25s000 Digging for Gold in California
THE Los Angeles Daily News claims that some 25,000 of the unemployed are reworking the old placer mines of California, their day’s toil sometimes not netting them more than 75c. By the time this is printed the weather will be too cold for outdoor life and these poor unfortunates will have to return to the cities to try to find some way to exist until spring.
The Burra Sahibs of Bombay
JN THE Tune.-; of India the hurra sahibs of
Bombay (the Big Business mon) are being criticized, not for the millions thattheymadedur-ing the World War, but for the way they are now discharging right and left the young men that they hounded into the trenches at that time. It seems as if the hurra sahibs were nearly all alike, wherever you find them.
We Do Not Vouch for This
IT IS said that one of the B.E.F. came from California with a printed slogan on his hack, ‘’Give me a lift or I will vote for Hoover'' and made the trip from the Coast all the way to Washington in five days. We do not guarantee the truthfulness of this report, but it represents fairly well the way the bonus men feel toward the present incumbent of the presidential office.
Plague of Mice in Australia
MILLIONS of mice arc overrunning part of northwestern Victoria, Australia. Factories are working overtime to keep up with the demand for mousetraps. In one instance the mice are said to have become so bold that a number of them attacked a cat and chewed off one of her ears and part of her tail. This story is vouched for by a Melbourne police officer.
The White Caps of New York
IN JUNE, 1932, two young men out of work went to a New York hatter and asked him to make up some white duck caps which they could sell at a profit for 25c each. They took 100 dozen to Coney Island and disposed of the entire lot in six hours. Within two weeks 700 workers were making white duck hats in New York and 2,000 men were, selling them on the street corners.
Order of Woodcraft Chivalry
BRITAIN is organizing an Order of Woodcraft Chivalry for unemployed young men between the ages of 18 and 25. These young men will be assisted to provide largely for their own wants in food, clothing and recreation, the idea being that they will be returned to industry refreshed instead of demoralized. They will surrender their unemployment benefits for the general use of the camp.
Seattle’s Unemployed Citizens League
SEATTLE'S Unemployed Citizens’ League is worrying the statesmen of the Teapot Dome and Jackass parties because it is showing so much common sense. It is operating shoe repair shops, making, remodeling and repairing clothing, giving free shaves and haircuts, cutting firewood, tilling municipal gardens, and doing about everything people need to do or have done in order to live. Just now Seattle has 50,000 men, women and children that are being helped by this organization, and are backing its political ideas.
Progress at the Dead Sea
THE visitor to Jerusalem may now proceed by motor car 26 miles to the Dead sea in the space of 50 minutes. A trip around the Dead sea, which is 10 miles wide and 53 miles long, can be made by motor boat in a few hours. The chemical works now employs 300 hands. Plans are afoot to build a resort for the workers, where there will be a golf course, tennis courts, swimming and yachting, all at a point 1,300 feet below sea level.
How Mr. Dawes Made Good
Tpx-Vice-President Charles G. Dawes made good as president of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. As soon as he made good he resigned. And as soon as he resigned he obtained from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation $80,000,000 whereby he saved his bank, the Central Republic, of Chicago; and that is how he made good. This is the biggest loan so far, and when it is compared with the Battle of Anacostia it does not look so good.
Cardinal Mundelein Could Not Go
Cardinal Mundelein could not go to the eucharistic congress at Dublin. The reason he could not get away was, so he said, “because he deemed it unwise to be absent from Chicago (the holy city) during the Republican and Democratic conventions there.” Also, economic conditions are bad; money is hard to get; people hate to pay mass money for dragging relatives out of fires that do not exist except in the mind of the collector.
Will Rogers on the Battle of Anacostia
TN A LETTER to the New York Times, Will
Rogers gives views on the bonus debacle at Anacostia which we hope reached the eyes of the hero of the Rapidan :
"No matter how you feel about the whole thing, you have got to admire the fine way that body of hungry men acted while they were there. They hold the record for being the best behaved of any fifteen thousand hungry men over assembled anywhere in the world. They were hungry and they were seeing our government wasting thousands and millions before their eyes, and yet they remained fair and sensible. Would 15,000 hungry bankers have done it, 15,000 farmers, 15,000 preachers? It’s easy to be a gentleman when you are well fed, but these boys did it on an empty stomach. So we at least owe them a vote of thanks, and it was too bad their fine record was marred at the finish by somebody blundering. ’ ’
Aftermaths of the Nan-War at Shanghai
EVERYBODY knows there was 'no war’ at Shanghai; it was only “a disturbed condition”, but the conditions that followed were as bad as if a regular war had been fought. Holdups and piracies have become common; 22 wealthy men have been kidnaped. In one instance a government launch armed with four machine guns was captured by the outlaws. China is every bit as bad as Chicago.
Sad Conditions in the Virgin Islands
A NEWSPAPER received from the Virgin Islands, Uncle Sam's acquisition from Denmark, in the West Indies, contains the little item tucked away in the midst of a paragraph on taxation that handicraftsmen cannot earn $1 a day during six months of the year, and that the children of the island are undernourished. The islands have no wealthy people. They are watered only by the rainfall.
The Pope Has It Right
THE pope is out with a statement that “money in itself is completely devoid of value” and that the right thing to do is to “regard wealth with complete contempt”. How happy this makes us! This shows that it won't be long now before the pope issues orders that no more shall the lowly poor be stung for masses for the dead, no more will they have to pay for bogus relics or religious gewgaws as charms to aid or prevent this or that, and, best of all, no more will they have to build 'churches’ or pay a lot of lazy parasites to rule over them at home and at Vatican City. Attaboy, Ratti!
Why the Railroads Merge
THE railroads merge so that they can get along with fewer employees. Every big merger of banks, railroads, or what not, means so many hundreds or so many thousands thrown out of work, and a big cutting down in the number of customers, and in their buying power. A man who is out of a job is a mighty poor customer of a bank. Thousands of banks have been wrecked because the big men at their head insisted upon mergers. The mergers took place; many persons lost their jobs; they began to live on their savings; they withdrew their money from the banks, and the banks went flat. It is not wise for a hog to try to get all the swill for himself; he may overturn the trough and then nobody will get any.
Many Women in Masculine Jobs
A CCORDING to the 1930 census 3,089 women were employed in the United States as workers in blast furnaces and steel rolling mills, 2,597 held jobs in sawmills, 435 were in car and railroad shops, 289 were steam railroad switchmen and flagmen, 127 were building laborers, 20 were machinists, 19 were molders, 9 were blacksmiths, 5 were sheet metal workers, 3 were sea captains, and 1 was a plumber. There was also one telephone lineman.
Ask Only $5 for a Leap for Life
TP H E regular stunt men employed by the moving picture magnates at Hollywood complain that their field is repeatedly invaded by persons who offer to make thrilling leaps for life from airplanes or to do other hair-raising stunts for as little as $5 a shmt. No doubt, in many instances, the unfortunates who make these leaps are secretly in hopes that each leap may be the last and are choosing an easy way out of the present widespread sorrows.
Salaries of Railroad Presidents
OF THE railroads running out of New York city, the following are the salaries of their presidents: Pennsylvania, $135,000; Baltimore & Ohio, $120,000; New York, New Haven & Hartford, $90,000; Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, $07,500; Erie, $67,500; Central Railroad of New Jersey, $64,800; Delaware & Hudson, $90,000; Lehigh Valley, $72,000; Philadelphia & Reading, $67,500; all together there are 1,104 railway executives that receive $10,000 or more a year.
Crooks in Pennsylvania?
CAN it be possible that there are crooks in the great Keystone State? Governor Pinchot, trying to stir certain politicians to a sense of common honesty, recently wrote to one of them: “The House has 17 sergeants-at-arms. Some of them don’t even report to Harrisburg to get their checks, but have them sent by mail, and so with the House pages and so with committee clerks. And why pass the judiciary by? Maybe you never heard how judges cause deficiencies and double their salaries by sitting in other jurisdictions than their own. As one example, Judge Barnett, of the Juniata-Perry district, collected $15,450 on a salary of $9,000 in one year.”
Exciting Fight for Control of a Plane
TWELVE THOUSAND feet over Chicago a break in the exhaust line of an airplane engine caused the pilot to faint while in full control of the machine. It required forty-five minutes of almost superhuman strength and effort to enable another occupant of the plane to gain control and get the collapsed man out of his seat. What a fight for life that was two miles over Chicago can only be faintly imagined by those who have never been up in a plane.
Finance Corporation Refuses Pennsylvania Loan THE Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which has been so generous to Big Business, as represented by the railroads and the banks, has been rather hard on the great state of which Mr. Pinchot is governor. Despite the fact that Pennsylvania has for years paid one-tenth of the expenses of the federal administration, amounting, on the average, to about $276,000,-000 a year, it was refused a temporary loan of $10,000,000 needed for relief work.
Restlessness in New Zealand
IN NEW ZEALAND the jobless are being herded into prison camps and are not taking their treatment well. On a Thursday night recently the crowd got out of control in Auckland and for two hours the city was at the mercy of a howling mob that looted stores and ended with injuries to 23 policemen and hundreds of citizens, with an estimated damage of $500,000. A few nights later a like mob smashed 150 plate glass windows in Wellington. In view of present conditions the bishop of New Zealand has offered to give up his episcopal residence and to take a cut in his salary. Wise man!
Diversion of Charity Funds in Philadelphia THE Philadelphia Transcript claims that thou--*• sands of dollars painfully collected through the sale of Christmas seals, and intended to he used solely for the benefit of the weak, the lowly and the very poor, with special reference to tuberculosis, were diverted from the poor to the very rich by the Philadelphia Health Council, who paid out $15,522.59 for special services to millionaire factory owners who paid back only $9,455.69. Thus the common people, who bought the Christmas seals, were really held up to the tune of $6,066.90. The more one comes to know of the ways of Big Business, the more he has to hold his nose.
Pinchot Does Not Admire Hoover
Governor Pinchot, of Pennsylvania, apparently does not admire Mr. Hoover. He says that the treatment of the bonus army in Washington was ‘•brutal, stupid and altogether unnecessary" and that "a little forbearance, a little common sense" “would have moved them if they had to be moved, without breaking any bones”. The bonus men have gone back home to snow Hoover under in November. Seems as if it ought not to be a very hard thing to do.
Chinese Losses at Shanghai
IN THE exhibit of a “disturbed condition” which Japan put on at Shanghai the Chinese lost factories worth $21,600,000; wharves which cost $3,262,500; other buildings which were valued at $78,300,000. Ten colleges and universities were closed, 30 secondary schools and 192 primary schools. School property worth $4,500,000 was destroyed; highways were damaged to the amount of $453,600. Railwav losses are put at $5,400,000.
Associated Gas and Electric Properties
A SSOCIATED Gas and Electric Properties, the shoestring arrangement by which two men with an actual investment of $308,318.19 control some sixty operating companies with assets totaling more than $900,000,000, has done much to reconcile intelligent persons to the taking over of all public utilities in the interests of the people. The top company, removed from the operating companies by a succession of five or six holding companies which hold the assets of the one beneath, managed to squeeze out for itself in the year 1929 a modest 265.61 percent of profit.
Death in the Garbage Can
A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy was killed and his two sisters were made seriously ill by food which was secured from the garbage pails of commission houses and restaurants of Oakland, California. Probably the food which poisoned them had been cooked or stored in aluminum containers, and that cannot be helped so long as aluminum utensil advertising is so profitable, but it does seem a little bit unfortunate that the rugged individualism of the Wall Street Soviet should have led these little American kids into such a peculiar place to get the food they had to have to live.
Upholding the Law in Detroit
IN DETROIT a young father, out of work, penniless, went out to steal milk for his baby girl. Detectives saw him, and the two brave men, realizing fully his awful crime, shot him in the back. If he recovers he will suffer lifelong paralysis. Just howT it comes that he was not murdered outright for his terrible crime of stealing a bottle of milk for his starving baby is not explained, but no doubt it was the kind-heartedness and manhood of the detectives that kept them from doing such a thing as that.
Reverend Larkey Kept Some for Himself
A GOOD place for a reverend is as chaplain in a prison; he gets a chance to swipe something on the side. Reverend Arthur G. Larkey was on the chaplain’s staff of the Michigan state prison at Jackson. He helped some of the incarcerated war veterans to cash their adjusted compensations, and then, to help himself, being a “reverend”, he kept part of the cash for himself. All of this would seem reasonable enough to a “reverend”, but not to an honest man, and so Reverend Larkey lost his job. Overalls? Yes, sir. Right this way, sir. Alarm clocks, counter number 13.
The Press Associations and the Hungry
HOUSE-TO-HOUSE visitation of the people with the message of God’s kingdom fully verifies the oft-printed reports that there are now 10,000,000 unemployed in the United States, and millions who are hungry. In the face of this fact, and the further revelation that communists are practically never met with, one marvels at the fact that every time an army of the unemployed and the hungry invades some capital or city hall, the press dispatches always refer to them as communists. The thing is so manifestly untrue and unfair that it is tiresome. The press associations are not trying to tell the truth; they are trying desperately to poison the minds of the public against those who have the misfortune to be unemployed and hungry. They even did that against the war veterans. The reason for their flood of propaganda against the hungry is so that when the time comes to use poison gas and machine guns the common, ordinary, every-day, average American bone-head will think that it was quite the right thing to do. The press associations are the worst enemies of the true lovers of justice and righteousness.
Progress on the Hoover Dam
WORK on the Hoover dam is in progress on an eleven-mile front. On both sides of the river there are now well-surfaced highways hewn out of the solid rock. In one instance five tunnels, one of them 450 feet long, had to be bored in the distance of a single mile in order to get the road through. The. largest cement mixing plant in the world is turning out 5,000 cubic yards of cement per day. Four diversion tunnels, each 55 feet in diameter, are in construction. They must be finished before work on the dam proper is begun. Eight locomotives and one hundred rock cars are kept busy. The dam, which will be 730 feet high, will back up the river 115 miles. In one place the shores will be eight miles apart. It will hold the flow of the Colorado for two years. The waters within the dam would cover Connecticut ten feet deep. The power development will be twice that of Niagara Falls. The 226-mile aqueduct to Los Angeles will cost $38,500,000 and will have 155 miles of feeder line.
Governor Pinchot for Free Speech
WRITING to Edwood K. Bean, burgess of Lansdale, Pa., who refused to permit the Hosiery Workers’ Union to meet in that borough, Governor Pinchot told him a few things that one would think would percolate through any bean, no matter how obtuse:
“If the Constitution of the State and the Nation mean what they say, then free speech is a fundamental right of every American citizen, and the denial of free speech is unlawful.
‘ ‘ Both you and I arc sworn to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States and this Commonwealth. I call your attention pointedly to this fact, and to the very fact that obedience to the Constitution is the duty of every American citizen, including yourself.
“Entirely apart from the constitutional right of free speech, it has been demonstrated times beyond number that the policy of denying this right is dangerous and ineffective and has the direct result of advancing instead of repressing the cause against which the denial is made. The surest way to spread any doctrine or to disseminate any set of opinions is to forbid people to mention them in public. Even savages who perpetuate the names of their dead chiefs by forbidding the speaking of their names, have learned this fact.
“To prevent meetings held in support of the right of labor to organize is to deny a right which the Constitution, the laws and the judicial decisions of Pennsylvania specifically recognize. ’ ’
Economists Find Old Parties Bankrupt
rofessor John Dewey, of Columbia University, and five hundred other leading economists have said: “We have at this time no real party government or responsibility because both old parties do the bidding of that invisible government created by the few to serve the interests of the few. The bankruptcy of the old parties is a challenge to the courage and intelligence of every American citizen.” Mr. Dewey and his friends will back the candidacy of Norman Thomas this year.
Paid $1 for a Bum Show
BELOIT councilman went to church and before he heard the sermon he was indiscreet enough to put $1 in the collection plate. He then heard a political talk, but no expounding of the Word of God. Feeling that he had been buncoed he went to the minister and demanded his dollar back. All he got was the air. He became ruffled and sued the minister for extracting one dollar under false pretense. We. do not think he will get his dollar back; he paid it for a bum show, and the show is over and gone, but if the experience has taught him something it will be worth more to him than many dollars. For the price he paid he could have got more information out of four of Judge Rutherford’s books than he could obtain in church in a hundred years. If the Jw's in Beloit let this case go by they are dead slow.
The Story of a Little Girl
IN 1825 the government of the United States made an offer of $1,000 for the most acceptable design to be placed upon the new cent coin soon to be issued.
Some Indian chiefs traveled from the Northwest to Washington to visit the “great father”, and then journeyed to Philadelphia to see the mint, whose chief engraver was James Barton Longacre, who invited them to his house.
The engraver’s daughter, Sarah, aged 10, greatly enjoyed the visit of her father’s guests, and during the evening, to please her, one of the chiefs took off his feathered helmet and war bonnet and placed it on her head. In the company was an artist, who immediately sketched her and handed the picture to her father.
Mr. Longacre, knowing of the competition for a likeness to go upon the cent projected, under the inspiration of the hour, resolved to contend for the prize offered by the government. To his delight the officials accepted it, and the face of his daughter appeared upon the coin, which was circulated about the nation for nearly a century. There were more than a hundred competitors. The cent bearing the face of Sarah Longacre has gone into more hands than any other American coin. Notice the hair projecting below the helmet and hanging down on her neck.
The Deflation of Big Business
EFERRING to the deflation of Big Business, the New York Times says of the man who makes such a perfect picture of the whole Big Business crowd: “If Kreuger did not believe in his own inflated values, he did believe, as so many did, in our illusory prosperity. He misled some of the best informed, including himself, because it was a time when few were not misled. His deceptions were the result of overconfidence in the future, for he counted upon rising profits to cover them up, and it was the relentless advance of deflation that proved his undoing.” To this we merely add that it is now perfectly apparent to the whole world that the Big Business crowd are merely a big collection of Kreugcrs, all cut off the same strip, all without any constructive ideas, and few of them any more honest than Kreuger turned out to be.
Items from Soviet Russia
ISPATCHES say the Russians are finding it hard to run a Ford auto factory as Ford runs it in America; and this may well be believed. The April production was to have been 1,075 cars, but as only one or two rear axles were produced and an auto without a rear axle leaves something to be desired, the month’s output was not a shining success. However, that will be rectified. There have been railroad accidents. In one case, where several were injured, they were thoughtlessly laid on the other track of a double-track railway and a freight train came along and killed fifty of them. A dispatch from Rumania says that persons on that side of the river witnessed the shooting down by Soviet troops on the Russian side of the river of 100 persons who were participating in nothing worse than some kind of Easter celebration. It is claimed that recently in Moscow 1,500,000 soldiers inarched, as a notice to the world that Soviet Russia will fight to keep every inch of her soil her own.
“Can These Things Be?”
IF YOU doubt the Scripture statement, “The whole world lieth in the wicked one,'’ you should read the illuminative and instructive book bearing- the above title by George Seldes, published by Brewer, Warren & Putnam, 6 E. 53d St., New York City. There is probably not a man alive who knows more about the terrors of Fascism than George Seldes, veteran European correspondent of the Chicago Tribune. Certainly no observer of the system ever analyzed this hideous substitute for a government better than Mr. Seldes has done in his book.
Imagine a country in which the school children are encouraged to come to school decked out in their fathers’ daggers and guns and to become braggarts and bullies, “a black terror edition of the League of Communist Youth.” The heads of the universities, the professors, and the teachers in the grade schools must all be members of the Fascist party. An official boycott is placed on all men of learning who are not active in Fascist polities. In Italy there is not a single nonFascist newspaper allowed, and therefore there can be no propaganda for liberty, democracy or freedom; yet at the same time Fascism has a fund of 5,000,000 lire to use for buying up newspaper space in other countries.
Americans generally do not know that in Europe it is a common practice for dictators to purchase newspaper space and editorial opinion for propaganda purposes in the principal cities of the continent, indeed, the practice is so general that even the European editions of American newspapers participate. On this point Mr. Seldes says:
Fascist Italy today is doing exactly what the Czar did from 1905 to 1917. The methods are not so crude, perhaps, but some day the Roman archives may show exactly what European and American newspapers have had subsidies of money, who has received decorations and honors, which newspapers and agencies have accepted the bribery of free cable and radio wordage, and just how and where the Fascist money was placed in advertising to buy up newspapers.
The incredible depths of meanness to which Fascism can go and has gone in its persecution of editors is illustrated in Albert Gianninni of the Becco Giallo. He published two photographs, one of an English bulldog and the other of Mussolini. They looked so much alike that a laugh went around the world — and Gianninni had to flee the country. His house was twice entered by Fascists; his entire life’s savings were stolen ; his wife fell ill, and during the long months of her illness two Fascist agents stood by her bedside until she died. Even the smallest of his children are under constant surveillance. They cannot go to lunch or play with other children or even go for a walk without the eyes of these agents of tyranny constantly upon them.
Not a foreign correspondent in Italy can send a dispatch which does not go to the Foreign Office to be copied. If anything displeasing is found the dispatch is delayed and sometimes it is garbled so that when it arrives at its destination it is unintelligible.
Travelers returning from Italy frequently report that the trains run on time, but Mr. Seldes gives a long list of other things which Mussolini has done to make Italy what it is today:
ACHIEVEMENTS OF FASCIST “GOVERNMENT”
Abolition of parliament;
Abolition of the constitutional power of the king;
Abolition of all the non-Fascist press;
Abolition of the right of public association, freemasonry, etc.;
Abolition of free suffrage;
Abolition of freedom of the magistrates;
Abolition of free speech;
Law courts placed under Fascist militia;
Abolition of the inviolability of private homes;
Abolition of the right to choose and exercise a business or a profession;
Abolition of the right of free movement (emigration, or peasants’ going from one part of the country to another) ;
Curtailment of the liberty of conscience and religion ; Abolition of the right to choose nationality;
Annulment of Article 30 of the Statutes guaranteeing no unjust taxation ;
Suppression of all municipal liberties.
And May 26, 1926, Mussolini said:
'It is I who have dictated these measures: recall of all passports; order to shoot without warning anyone trying to cross the frontier secretly; suppression of all anti-Fascist publications; dissolution of all groups, associations suspected of anti-Fascism; creating of a special police in all parts of the country; creation of secret investigation bureaus and special tribunals.’
On the other hand, says Mr. Seldes, there are numerous accidents, but, as under Fascism it is forbidden to report train wrecks or other railroad trouble, the knowledge of these things never gets out of the country or, for that matter, very far away from the locality where the accident happened.
About a thousand banks and credit organizations have gone bankrupt under the dictatorship and in most cases the creditors got only ten to twenty percent. When the stock crash came in 1929 the banks and great industries were required to distribute the same dividends as in the previous year, with the result that in many instances the dividends were paid entirely out of reserves and frequently out of capital.
Of the more, respectable acts of Mr. Mussolini’s “government” there can be set down his annual expenditure of 2,000,000,000 lire for police, gendarmes, city espionage and the six Fascist militias. There can be set down Mussolini’s demand that the families be increased as rapidly as possible so that a huge army can be produced for use in the promised day when Italy is to make the skies of Europe black with planes. As Italo Balbo, Fascist air minister, put the matter,
‘‘A modest aerial army of 300 planes carrying two tons of toxic bombs each, in a single flight can kill 50,000 inhabitants in ten different villages; that means in eight days they could put hors de jeii four million persons in eight places. Imagine the public services disorganized, the terrible anxiety to find out what gas the enemy is using, the anguish of violent lung troubles, and the panic! No anti-aircraft defense can prevent such an invasion. . . . We must give the enemy the precise sensation of our mastery of the air and the possibility of our aviation striking, without pity, the population of the country.”
Another achievement of what might be called the "regular and more legitimate aspects’ of Mr. Mussolini's government is that the maffia of Sicily and Calabria was broken up. Do you know how it was broken up? The larger branch of it was taken over bodily into Fascism. Stated otherwise, the little maffias have ceased to exist. A huge maffia covering the entire country has taken their place.
Treatment of Prisoners
It is in its treatment of prisoners that a government shows its true character. Concerning these Mr. Seldes says in the most matter-of-fact manner:
The tortures are used on political prisoners according to a method prepared in advance and identical in all Italian prisons. Besides the stabbing with sticks filled at the points with powdered lead, besides the fist blows with iron gloves, which are used in all police stations, we have information that the following methods are used upon political prisoners, ‘to make them talk.’
1. Blows drawing blood. (Cases of Triests and Mon-facone already denounced in the press)
2. The use of boiling water in which the prisoners’ hands are held to extort confessions through physical pain. (Cases of Milan and Brescia)
3. Starvation, total darkness and blows used alternately. (This system was first used in Brescia and later was adopted in all Fascist prisons.)
4. Injections of chemical substances in order to create a state of madness and obtain “information” from the prisoner during his delirium.
5. Pricking the testicles with pins until serious inflammation has begun. (Brescia and Genoa)
6. In some instances tying the testicles with chains or ropes, regulating the pain by steadily increasing pressure. (Rome, Naples and Genoa)
7. Thrusting pins deep under the nails. (Turin, Genoa, Milan)
8. Enemas of a solution of iodine, causing very painful blisters in the intestines. (Perugia)
9. Cutting the tongue with knives.
10. Pulling out the hair of the pubes. (As in Monfalcone and in Milan with Signorina Lina Morandotti, sent to a clinic insane from the pain)
11. Even making use of insects, as in Florence, where to secure “confessions” from political prisoners a black beetle under glass is kept on the victim three and four hours until he “talks”.
If you have read the foregoing a few times and pondered it, you will perhaps not want to know anything more of what is going on in Italy. Yet you must know that at Ustica, one of Mussolini’s penal islands, when a prisoner committed suicide by jumping into the water tank, the other prisoners were compelled to drink the water from the tank while the body was rotting in it. When a second one committed suicide by jumping into the same tank, a request of the prisoners that the tank should then he cleaned and covered was refused. You should also know that in Italy, “on information received,” it matters not how, a man may be seized without warning, taken away, cross-examined for long periods and handcuffed for from 50 to 150 hours, placed in a sealed car, horribly hot in summer and bitterly cold in winter, and taken away. The ablest men in Italy have been sentenced to a living death because of offenses, real or imaginary, against the dictatorship.
You should know that on Lipari the prisoners are beaten, spat upon, and the militiamen make the rounds of the prisoners’ sleeping quarters five times in a night. When the women begged that the rooms where the children were sleeping be exempt the monsters made ten inspection rounds every night so that sleep and rest became impossible. These militiamen even said in the presence of the prisoners that the day is coming when there will be a general massacre of the prisoners.
You should know that in Rome itself a young man named Milosh was “crucified-’, Mussolini’s militiamen undertaking to pull the arms out of the body, which resulted in the breaking of the aorta. Death relieved the poor man of his agony. You should also know that in Regio Emilia twenty-five anti-Fascist workingmen were massacred.
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