Golden Age, December 7, 1932

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Golden Age

A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE

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in this issue

BIRDS

EARTH’S FIRST INHABITANTS LIGHTNING

DIET AND DENTAL DISEASE THE CANCER HOAX WORLD EVENTS IN BRIEF DEPRESSION IN AMERICA JEHOVAH THE PROVIDER

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every other WEDNESDAY

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

Vol.XIV - No. 345

December 7, 1932

CONTENTS

LABOR AND ECONOMICS

185% Increase iu Families of Needy 137 European Unemployment Worst

Ever

Conditions in Pittsburgh .... 140 The Share-the-Work Plan .... 141 The Depreciation of a Man . . .

Feeding Twenty-five Million . . .

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

At Edge of Whirlpool • . . . .

Bulgaria Dumps Theology . . .

Insull Advised to Find Zaharoff . 13<S No Forced Labor in Russian Lumber 138 Statistics of Greater London . . . 141 Chicago Exposition of 1933 . . . 142 Federal Churches Admit Truth . 143 The Great Insanity . . . . •. . 143 What America Still Has .... 144 Curious Kind of “Patriotic

Citizen’’.........153

Another Judgment at Rockville 155

MANUFACTURING AND MINING

Alcohol from Wood Waste . . . 137 The Man-Hour and the Automobile 139

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

New York’s New Subway . . . Chicago’s Shriveling Banks . . International Barter Becoming

Common........

Railroads Remove Many Trains Crookedness in Hungary . . . Big Business on Its Knees . . . What America Did for France .

. 137 . 138

. 138 . 138 . 142 . 142 . 143

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN

Spain’s Nobility in African Swamps 138

Political Prisoners in India . . . 140

Mooney Remains in Prison . . . 140

San Francisco’s Public Defender . 141

Depression in the U. S.....145

Proposal to Buy America . . . 151

AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY

Earliest Inhabitants of Terra Firm a—The Birds.....131

Giant Dam at Lake Albert . . .141

SCIENCE AND INVENTION

Soft Rock Makes Best Concrete . 143 Water Contraction and Expansion 143

Lightning

HOME AND HEALTH

Decline of Tuberculosis . . . .139

The Cancer Hoax

Diet and Dental Disease . . . 149

Ho, All Ye Callous

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY

18,000 Suicides in Germany . . . 137 Abyssinian Slave Raids into Sudan 137 Travel on the Amazon

Too Bad for Senator Davis . . . 144

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Church a Mimic of World .... 142

Gradually Coming Around . . . 144

The Radio Witness Work . . . 151

Jehovah’s witnesses in India . . 152

Jehovah Provider for People . . 156

Tithing..........158

“Blessed Are They That Hunger” 159

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CLAYTON J. WOODWORTH Editor E. .1 COWARD Business Manager NATHAN H. KNORR Secretary and Treasurer

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Entered as second-class matter at Brooklyn, N. Y.f under the Act of March 3, 1879.

crhe Golden Age

Volume XIV Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, December 7, 1932 Number 345

The Earliest Inhabitants of Terra Firma—The Birds

In Three Parts — Part 1

LOOKING at the account of creation, we see that the work of the fifth creative day •was to populate the sea and the air. After the denizens of the deep had been brought forth, there followed the creation of “every winged fowl after his kind”. Of birds, 12,000 species still exist; 500 species are extinct. The land animals were brought forth in the sixth creative day, man himself at its close. Birds had probably lived on the earth close to ten thousand years before man ever stepped foot on it.

Birds are queer things, almost as queer as men, but not quite. An odd thing about birds is that it is the males that are the best dressed. Some of the things about their migrations are so strange as to be unbelievable if they were not known to be true. There are no migrations toward the south polar regions, at breeding time. How is it that millions of birds that are mere infants, that have never migrated before, and whose parents are not with them, go unerringly thousands of miles to winter in the places where their parents wintered before them? This is true of certain species.

And how is it that a great flock of these birds, several different species, will start together but at the appropriate place one species will head straight south for Peru or Patagonia while another will head west for California and another east for Florida? A bird-lover in Panama observed that the same swallow returned to the same neighborhood three years in succession, and in each instance started to build its nest on January 8. The fourth year it was three days late, starting to build on the 11th.

In the three hundred and odd places in the Scriptures in which birds are mentioned, about thirty of the three hundred and forty-eight species which visit Palestine are mentioned by name: the dove, eagle, raven, cock, hen, owl, pigeon, sparrow, stork, pelican, quail, swallow, vulture, ostrich, bittern, peacock, cormorant, crane, partridge, ossifrage, osprey, kite, cuckoo, hawk, heron, night hawk, lapwing, glede, swan and gier eagle.

Birds have large inhabitiveness. Besides the two-legged birds that frequent the Rouen cathedral, it is said to be the permanent home of 900 pigeons, 250 bats, 60 hawks, 40 owls and 35 ravens. A Norwalk (Connecticut) farmer finds his home a center for about 3,000 birds which he has so far found no effective means of driving away. Birds prefer to live in homes that have a rustic or weathered look rather than in those gaily painted.

Many Friends and Many Enemies

Just why anybody would wish to live in a birdless world is hard to understand, but there are thousands of so-called ‘sportsmen’ whose one principal ambition seems to be to see how much of bird life they can slaughter. As a result, the number of large birds is rapidly decreasing. They are easier to hit, and they suffer more when woods and forests are cleared. In some portion of every year about 5,000,000 sportsmen go out to shoot waterfowl, and it is no wonder they are being thinned out.

Canada now has forty federal bird sanctuaries, and there are or have been about seventy in the United States. In this country 154,744 acres have been purchased at a cost of $4 to $6 an acre and 65,970 acres have been set aside by presidential proclamation, as safety zones for our feathered friends, and the birds are beginning to know where they are safe.

On an acre lot at South Deerfield, Mass., a bird-lover supplies short lengths of twine, short and narrow strips of white cloth, cotton batting and white tissue paper, and provides a free lunch counter, with the result that the place usually has fifteen or twenty nests and the proprietor is repaid for his work by the songs of thrushes, catbirds and rose-breasted grosbeaks, and an ever-decreasing number of insect pests. A ruby-crowned kinglet, yellow warblers, che-

bees, redstarts, orioles, robins and chipping sparrows have made use of the building materials and reared their babies on the place. It does not take much to make many birds happy.

At the age of thirteen a boy in the Ozarks, Guy Greenwell, Joplin, Mo., can identify seven hundred and fifty birds and animals from pictures, and describe their habits. He is in great demand every summer as an instructor of Boy Scout and Y.M.C.A. groups and is able to answer immediately and learnedly about 98 percent of all the questions put to him regarding bird life. His father is in the poultry business, and the boy himself seems to be a natural-born enthusiast on bird life in all its aspects.

Bird Life an Interesting Study

There are many things about birds that we cannot understand, and for this reason, and because they are so much like human creatures, they interest us. The higher types of birds are like the higher types of humankind: they select their mates and remain true to them throughout life. The qualities common among men are common among birds: love, jealousy, vanity, fear, courage, cowardice, sociability, playfulness, gluttony, and devotion to the home.

The study of bird life is as innocent a diversion and as fascinating as any in which humans engage; yet one who stands and watches the birds for a few minutes is often thought to be unbalanced. One gentleman in a town, suburban to New York, was questioned by a policeman concerning his peculiar conduct. The officer confided to him that the residents of the little town thought him so queer as to require watching. “Do they?” exclaimed the amazed old gentleman. “How very extraordinary! Here is my card. It may explain matters.” The card read, “Professor Malcolm Ogilvie, New York Ornithological Society, 53 Jane Street, New York.”

Government experts estimate that Maryland has the most numerous bird life, with an average of seven pairs to the acre, while the arid lands of the Southwest have the smallest bird population. The Eastern states are estimated to harbor over two billion native field birds. The Bronx Zoo, in New York city, contains 800 varieties, ranging in size from the tiny humming bird, but little over an inch in length, to the ostrich, seven feet in height.

The birds give us food to eat and clothes to wear. Without them successful agriculture w’ould be an impossibility. They insure the growth of our shade trees, and dispose of the caterpillars which otherwise would drop down the backs of our necks when we walk beneath.

An interesting and curious service which certain birds render in the Thana district of India is to plant the seeds of the tall Palmyra palms in the tops of Bengal fig trees, making it seem that one variety of tree is growing out of another ; and such, in fact, is actually the case. At all times these parasite palms look singular, but especially when young, the foliage being so different from that of the fig.

The Value of Birds

The Department of Agriculture estimates that the passage of the Migratory Bird Law, which forbids the shooting of game birds in the spring, has already gained in food to the nation not less than $20,000,000. In some districts where the birds had become almost extinct the numbers are rapidly increasing.

From a purely economic standpoint it may be said that there are six classes of birds which are useful to mankind: those that destroy insects, those that destroy weed seed, those that destroy small rodents, those that serve as scavengers, those that serve as game, and those that supply eggs.

From the standpoint of satisfaction of our senses of sight and sound there are few more pleasant things in nature than birds. They are graceful in repose and in flight, many of them beautifully colored and some of them with happy little songs that cheer the heart.

Knowledge of the value of birds has so progressed in the North that song birds are regarded as an asset, and farmers do not permit the killing of them on their lands. In the South there is much killing of birds for food and for sport, and some regard this as one explanation for the spread of the boll weevil, which has done so much to destroy the South’s best crop.

Realizing that cats are the natural enemies of birds and do more than any other creatures to decimate bird life, some bird-lovers are earning on a campaign for the extermination of all the cats in the world. Their claim is that cats never kill insects, and that but for the birds the insects would in a few years destroy all crops and all green things. (How about mice and rats?)

But there are other foes to birds. The marquis of Ripon, reputed to be the best shot in the world, killed 88,355 birds in the years 1889-1894, and was stricken with death at the end of a morning’s shooting in which he had bagged fifty-six brace of grouse. Perhaps He who ‘marks the sparrow’s fall’ gave the marquis something of poetic justice. When he awakens in the resurrection he will be less eager to take what he cannot give.

Slaughter of the birds has already made many species extinct. One of the best collections of stuffed birds is that of the American Museum of Natural History, recently enriched by the famous collection of birds of Baron Walter Rothschild, of Tring, England.

Our Feathered Friends

There are several things which almost any person can do for the birds. Winter birds can be fed; fruit-bearing shrubs can be planted that will furnish food for the birds, as well as be attractive in themselves; pans of water can be put out for the birds in times of drought; cats and air guns can be reduced in number or controlled; and nesting boxes can be put up for bluebirds, wrens, martins, tree swallows and other holenesting birds.

The tendency to drain every marsh and clean up every bit of underbrush can be restrained somewhat. If overdone it would leave almost no place in which the birds could find a natural home. It is getting harder and harder every year for the birds to find nesting places and feeding grounds.

The New York State College of Forestry recommends the native red cedar as not only an excellent tree for ornamental purposes, but as also providing an excellent shelter and nesting site for birds. They also find food in the berries and insects commonly found on the tree.

The native flowering dogwood and the Chinese flowering crab apple are two particularly beautiful trees that are favorites with the birds. The grey-stemmed dogwood, honeysuckle, American elder and sheepberry are also serviceable to the birds and ornamental. The Virginia creeper, one of the most popular vines, furnishes nesting sites for birds and draws the attention of the birds away from grapes, apples and peaches.

Teachers are doing something for the birds by teaching the young the value, the preciousness, of each little individual life, how easy it is to take it and how impossible to give it back. Children can be taught that it is a crime to molest the homes and steal and destroy the young of defenseless fellow creatures.

A Bird Tavern and a Bird Hospital

There is a bird tavern in New York, where choice birds are provided with fresh fruit, vegetables and salads, and entertained with dolls, bells and balls. One of the guests is a cockatoo, with a white coat, a beautiful crest and a salmon chest. This bird, Coca, laughs at a funny story, drinks from a glass, swears, washes and feeds a china doll, and wraps himself in a newspaper when he sleeps.

A Memphis woman who operates a pet shop specializes in restoring the voices of canaries. President Roosevelt was a great bird-lover and ■was responsible for several bird reservations, at the mouth of the Mississippi, in Florida, in Oregon, in the Aleutian islands, and elsewhere. Audubon societies for the preservation of birds have been formed in forty states. London is the headquarters of an international committee for carrying on propaganda for the preservation of birds. One of its proposals is governmental prohibition of the sale of feathers of rare birds.

The island of St. Kilda, seven miles in circumference, located off the Hebrides, will henceforth be a bird sanctuary for the sea birds which migrate there in large numbers. The owner will permit no buildings of any kind to be constructed on the island.

Many Bird Catastrophes

A bird-lover says: “Many perils beset the bird: cats, wild beasts, snakes, boys, gunners, parasites, disease, famine, thirst, windstorms, hail, sleet and snowstorms, forest fires, brush fires, and bandit birds, such as owls, hawks, crows, jays and other feathered pillagers that eat the eggs of other birds and kill fledglings and full-grown birds. Millions of land birds— the sparrows, warblers, redstarts, indigo buntings and all the other migrants—lose their lives in storms at sea.”

In order to avoid the larger birds, most of the smaller ones make their migrations at night. In the darkness they have several foes. Winds blow them out of their course. Tall, dark objects across their paths are not seen. As many as 150 bird corpses have been found at the base of Washington monument in a single morning. Lighthouses with a steady white light bewilder them; they turn aside and weary themselves going around and around the light until they fall to the ground or into the sea. Bird deaths at the Statue of Liberty run to 700 per month. English lighthouses are equipped with perches for the convenience of bewildered birds attracted by the lights. Many lives are thus saved. A flashing light frightens the birds away; they will not come near a red one.

Bird catastrophes are sometimes witnessed. In September, 1879, a violent storm over Lake Michigan strewed the eastern shore of the lake with about half a million dead birds, as nearly as could be estimated. On one occasion passengers on a vessel thirty miles off the mouth of the Mississippi river witnessed the death of hundreds of birds. They had been flying north across the gulf of Mexico, but encountered a “norther” with which they were unable to contend, and were compelled to drop into the gulf and drown.

In November, 1923, thousands of birds, blown out to sea by unfavorable winds, landed on the Cunard liner Scythia, and stayed on board until she docked in Liverpool. These birds were probably migrating from the North Atlantic states to the northern shores of South America.

Birds have some means of notifying each other of districts to be avoided. In the Sandwich islands are certain caves filled with volcanic gases. These caves are deadly to all life; but it is a noteworthy fact that no birds are ever seen in that vicinity, though everywhere else in the islands they are extremely plentiful.

Migrations of Birds

Unlike man, who seems more ready to shift his home to where he is afforded the most favorable conditions for existence, most birds cling tenaciously to the immediate surroundings in which they were cradled, when it comes to a selection of a nesting site. This fact was first demonstrated by sea birds known to breed on certain islands, and on these only. More recently it has been shown that many of the lesser birds cling persistently to their nesting site; and it has even been found that some not only seek the same general region, but the same shelf of rocks and even the same nest year after year.

It is only a few hundred years since people believed that the birds which disappeared on the edge of winter flew to some undiscovered satellite near the earth. Now the summer and winter habitats of many birds are known. Certain birds travel unerringly between certain portions of Chile and places in the United States. The winter resorts of Europe’s birds are the valleys of the Nile and Congo. Canadian birds are found in Brazil.

In Europe there are now some twenty organizations interested in bird banding. The device finally settled upon as most satisfactory is a numbered aluminum band or ring, attached to the tarsus, or bare portion of the leg. By this means much valuable information has been collected.

The greater number of birds migrate at altitudes about 3,000 feet above the earth, although by means of instruments so fixed as to scan the surface of the moon some have been discerned at 15,100 feet. The density of the air at such a height is only half what it is at sea level. In the South it is observed that birds which go north latest in the spring return earliest in the fall.

Migration is for food. Robins and certain other birds will not migrate from Connecticut to the South if fed regularly all winter. Birds are great eaters, many breeds eating several times the weight of their bodies in the course of a day. They can do this because much of their food consists of insects and worms, composed largely of water, which imposes very little tax on the digestive organs. Some birds in the Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, will eat nothing but snakes.

Bat—Bee-Eater—Bengalese—Bluebird

It is rather a joke, in an article on birds, to start with a bird that is a mammal and not a true bird; but a bat has wings, and for the moment he interests us. Bats’ wings are so exquisi-tively sensitive that when the eyes are completely destroyed the bat can still avoid strings or wires stretched across his path of flight, can approach a wall at ease, alight upon a perch, or even find a small cavity. When mama bat goes foraging she takes the little ones along and deposits them on the branch of a tree where they can witness her work in their behalf. A bat cannot rise from a perfectly level surface.

The bee-eater, a small, richly plumaged and graceful bird of southern Europe and northern Africa, has learned that an easy way to make a living is to hang around a beehive or a wasps’ nest and eat the bees or wasps as they come forth. It has learned how to avoid being stung. The bee or wasp is taken to a perch and beaten to death, and the sting removed before eating.

The Bengalese, a Japanese bird, is of peculiar interest to aviculturists because of the fact that it is willing to reproduce its species in a state of captivity. It has no song worth mentioning, but is very tame and docile. The bird is found only in the domesticated state, and is so thoroughly used to captivity that it does better in a small cage than a large one.

A bluebird is a bird to make you glad you are alive to see it and to hear its melodious song. Someone has said: “To associate with him and to gaze on his tender little ones is to give your broken spirit such a bath of beauty and wholesomeness, and to create such a consuming interest in the general plan of things in the world, that you are completely overwhelmed by everything as the Creator has made it.”

The bluebird is very common in the eastern part of the United States, and one of our earliest visitors to arrive from the South in the spring. The male is bright blue, with the breast reddish. Missouri has adopted the bluebird officially as its state bird.

Bluethroat—Bobolink—Bower Bird—Bustard

The bluethroat, called by the Laplanders “the bird of the hundred voices”, spends its winters in India or central Africa, and its summers in Alaska, Siberia, Russia or Scandinavia. It is never seen in intermediate countries, and is believed to take its three-thousand-mile journey at a single flight.

The bobolink has an interesting and eventful life. In the early spring he visits the Louisiana and South Carolina rice fields and does his part in destroying young plants. A little latei, dressed in his richest garb, he sings at the top of his voice, “Bob-o-link, bob-o-link, spink, spank, spink.” He is inordinately proud of his family. In August he visits the shores of Chesapeake bay, where his wife is shot and sent to market as a reedbird. A month or so later he is shot himself in a rice field farther south, where he is known as a ricebird. That is the last of him, except for the family of five he left behind him.

The bower bird of Australia and neighboring islands is so called because the males build bowers or playhouses, dome-shaped, a few inches long, floored with twigs. The ornaments are bright feathers, bits of glass, or anything bright. One variety builds a run three feet long, a platform of twigs with a hedge of upright twigs at either side.

The bustard. Well, that is an Old World wild turkey. A great pouch, opening under the tongue, is developed in the throat of the male during the breeding season, but we do not know the reason, and nobody knows the reason as yet, and that is "all there is to that.

Butcher Bird—Catbird—Condor—Cormorant

As we are running along in this little article in an alphabetical order, there are some who would expect some mention about here of the familiar blackbird, blackcap, bobwhite, and buzzard; but these birds are respectively the grackle, titmouse, quail, and vulture, and will come along in due time.

That is all bad enough, but we intended, next thing, to take up the birds whose names begin with the third letter in the alphabet, when, behold, it transpired that a canary is a finch, a cardinal is a finch, and a chaffinch is a finch. It seems that the birds have many aliases. We shall try to treat them under their proper names. The finch family must be a big family.

The butcher bird operates a meat shop. As fast as he kills small birds, mice, or other small forms of life he impales the bodies upon thorns and lets them hang there until wanted. Sometimes he has as many as nine pieces of meat hung up at one time. The Germans call the butcher birds “nine-killers”.

The catbird is a mighty interesting bird. In the first place, it has the power to meow like a cat; in the second place, it can imitate instrumental music; in the third place, it often feeds and raises the young of other birds; and in the fourth place, it is a sworn enemy of the common blacksnake, which, in the absence of the bird, seems to take a particular delight in rifling the catbird’s nest.

The condor is the largest bird that flies. The true condor is a native of the South American Andes, but specimens have been known to visit California and Europe. In 1922, high in the Alps mountains a mother engaged in weeding the garden left her baby sitting on a blanket on the grass. A condor swooped down and seized the child. Its father saw the act, ran for his gun, and, being an expert shot, brought the bird to the ground. It fell so slowly that the child was only slightly injured. The wing-spread of this bird was found to be seventeen feet and five inches. Condors fly at enormous altitudes, and have wonderful eyes and keen sense of smell. The name is derived from an old Indian word meaning ‘a good smeller’.

The cormorant is the prize fish-catcher, and pursues a fish under water with inconceivable rapidity. Chinese fishermen train cormorants to catch fish. A ring on the neck prevents the bird from swallowing the fish until the owner is satisfied. Cormorants find pleasure in playing with live fish in the same way that a cat plays with a mouse. The fish is tossed into the air and caught again and again in the spacious bill.

Cowbird—Crane—Creeper

The cowbird and the cuckoo are spongers. They build no nests of their own, but deposit their eggs among those of other birds, which do their work for them and furnish the home free of charge.

A whooping crane, when erect, holds his head nearly as high as a man. These birds make their homes in the marshes, where they seek their food. In flight they soar above the clouds, traveling in V-shaped formation, with the leader trumpeting instructions to those that follow. The call notes of the leader, and the responses of the flock, can often be heard when the entire flock is out of sight above the clouds.

Cranes migrate annually from the arctics to the tropics, and vice versa, varying their flights according to atmospheric conditions. When their flight is high and silent it is regarded as an indication of continued fine weather. In cloudy, wet or stormy weather they fly low and are noisy. The crane flies always with his neck extended straight ahead. The crowned crane of northern Africa has a tuft of feathers about his head which is larger than the head itself.

The common or brown creeper makes his living in the woods. He selects a tree, starts at the base and goes around and around in spirals all the way to the top. He clings to the bark with his feet, partially supporting himself by the aid of his twelve stiff tailfeathers, and, as he climbs, picks insects and their eggs from the crevices. If an egg is beyond the reach of his sharp bill lie has the power to protrude his tongue still farther and transport it to his palate with neatness and dispatch.

The Crow Family

The crow family, widely scattered over the world, includes the common crow, jay, magpie, raven and rook; and a bigger lot of thieves and crooks it would be hard to find outside of Wall Street, a theological seminary, or a political convention. While building their nest in the spring it is necessary for one of the pair to be constantly on watch while the other is bringing building materials, else the crow neighbors are liable to grab some of the structure and run off with it.

As soon as the nest is finished and the eggs produced (five bluish green, with dark blotches) the male takes it upon himself to supply the entire household with food. The same nests are repaired and used year after year. Intruders are most unwelcome.

Robert Sparks Walker, writing in Our Dumb Animals, says of crow intelligence:

Ten years ago, I tried to assist a movie-camera man to film the crow’s behavior about the common roosting place; and today we are as far from our objective as we were the day we ventured into his roosting quarters. We concealed ourselves in a dense thicket of pines in which thousands of crows were wont to roost, and when the first black fellow came in, he spied us before he alighted.

After a few unsavory accusations directed at us, he hurried away and met the incoming band and notified them of our presence in their camp; there other couriers were dispatched. As a result of this rapid precaution, not a single crow came into the thicket, but all of them moved on to oilier forest trees out of our reach.

Once in a while a crow carries off a young chicken, or maybe once in a while he eats the eggs of a wild bird, and he does get into the corn patch; but it is now believed that as a general rule he does more good to the farmer than he does harm. He can be frightened away from the corn patch, and the young chickens can be kept near the house. A small stone placed on each growing melon will keep him away from it.

One-fifth of a crow’s diet is of the most destructive insect pests known to the farmer. The stomachs of more than 2,000 crows have been examined. One of these contained 85 beetles, another contained 72 wireworms, a third contained 123 locusts, and a fourth contained no less than 483 small caterpillars.

The rook is a European crow, differing slightly in appearance from the American bird, and with a voice less harsh. The English rooks are true Britishers: they hate to leave the island where they were born. They are gregarious and loquacious, uttering thirty to forty different notes.

The crow’s appetite for the eyes of animals is particularly atrocious. He will eat the eyes of live kids, lambs and fawns, and has even been known to pick out the eyes of small children. Instances are on record where crows have been known to alight on the ears of a deer and peck at its eyes. While a hawk or an owl will endeavor to kill its prey as quickly as possible, the crow will leisurely eat its victims alive.

(To be continued)

At the Edge of the Whirlpool

Eighteen Thousand Suicides in Germany

SUICIDES in Germany continue to increase in an ever ascending scale. Eighteen thousand persons killed themselves in Germany last year. The intolerable economic miseries the people have to endure are at the bottom of it all.

Alcohol from Wood Waste

NEAR Hamburg, Germany, twenty tons of sawdust and wood chips are every day worked up into eight tons of sugar, which in its turn furnishes 1,300 gallons of alcohol. It is anticipated that the cost of alcohol will be reduced to one-half cent a quart.

Bulgaria Dumps Theology

NOT being able to see that the study of theology is of any special benefit in hard times, the Bulgarian Government has discharged the entire theological faculty of the University of Sophia, thus giving seventy theologians a chance to learn the meaning of honest labor.

30,000 Closed Protestant Churches

AT AN address at the Summit Avenue (Jersey City) Baptist church, Rev. L. J. Brace, of Brooklyn, is accredited with having said: “Since 1900, 30,000 Protestant churches have closed their doors. At present about 14,000 Baptist churches are marking time, and about 1,600 are nearer dead than alive.”

New York’s New Subway

NEW YORK is well pleased. It now has a third subway, city owned and city operated, besides the Interborough and Brooklyn-Manhattan transit lines. Twelve miles of the new road have been opened. Later there will be extensions into Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The express service the entire length of Manhattan island is cut to 33 minutes by the new line.

185% Increase in Families of Needy

TN THE city of New York, in July 1932, A there was a 185-percent increase over July 1931 in families cared for by public home relief. The report of the chairman of the State Temporary Relief Association says: “The comparison indicates that the needs of the unemployed have trebled in the last year, and the first signs of better times cannot keep from the relief list the huge number of unemployed who will not be reabsorbed into industry and business for many months.”

Marriage Fees in India

DISGUSTED with the avarice of the clergy, the Christian Untouchables’ Conference at Madras, India, has resolved that marriage fees must not exceed one rupee (the equivalent of several days work for a Hindu untouchable), as otherwise the marriages will take place without benefit of clergy.

New York City’s 500000 Needy

AS CHAIRMAN of the Emergency Unemployment Relief Committee, Harvey D. Gibson has broadcast the information that even now there are more than 500,000 men, women and children in New York city in need of some degree of community assistance. This number is expected to increase until February.

Abyssinian Slave Raids into the Sudan

WITHIN a few years there have been 140 slave raids from Abyssinia into the Sudan. In one district under British administration it costs $200,000 a year to patrol the frontier and prevent Abyssinian raiders from destroying villages and carrying off the inhabitants to be sold in the slave markets.

Uneasiness in Natal

NATAL, the most thoroughly British of the four provinces that go to make up the Union of South Africa, is dissatisfied with the Hertzog government and policies and is seriously considering the setting up of a government directly attached to the British Empire similar to that in northern Ireland. Hertzog’s expressed sympathies, and that of the Dutch in South Africa generally, are with De Valera, and away from Britain.

Nazi Hooligans in Germany

THE Manchester Guardian reports that all Germany is being delivered over to gangsters and hooligans of the Nazi or Hitler type. It says: “The Prussian Diet has become a kind of fighting-ring. The Nazi members are a yelling, gesticulating mob, threatening and sometimes doing physical violence. The vituperation which they continually pour on the women members is unprintable.” In numerous places these German Fascisti travel armed with pistols, ammunition and brass knuckles, which they use on the slightest provocation and on no provocation. The Nazis claim that they will soon have the exkaiser, Wilhelm, back on his throne.

European Unemployment Worst Ever

THE unemployment situation in Europe is the worst ever known. At the end of June, 1932, the official estimates showed 11,378,000 out of work, with Switzerland yet to hear from. The United States Department of Commerce, which furnishes the figures, states that the total unemployment in Europe is, in fact, greater than these official relief figures indicate.

Chicago’s Shriveling Banks

FROM a total of 225 banks the number in

Chicago has dropped to 72. But probably that is all that are needed to take care of present business. All through the West (and the East too) grass is growing in the factory yards, and mischievous boys have stoned out the window-panes until many a former factory town looks like a November scarecrow.

Injuries to Illinois Child Workers

I'\T THE year 1931 there were 432 workers under 18 years of age injured in the state of

Illinois. Sixty-four of the accidents were to boys and girls under 16; and out of that number, forty-seven of the workers were hired in violation of the state labor laws. Workers illegally employed are entitled to a 50-percent increase in benefits of the compensations law.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation Cruel

Governor Pinchot, because the Reconstruc

tion Finance Corporation first turned down Pennsylvania’s request for a loan for $45,000,000, and then would not lend $10,000,000, and then would not help at all in caring for the tens of thousands of families now living on $2 a week or less, says that they are cruel. But we have the proof that they are kind to somebody, and if you look at their huge salary list you know who it is.

Spain’s Nobility in African Fever Swamps

IN ITS savage treatment of its old nobility, the labor government of Spain seems trying to outdo even Russia. The cream of the Spanish nobility, 105 marquises, dukes and high army officers, who recently tried to start a revolt, were loaded on the Espana V and sent off to the fever-ridden African coast, to die in exile. They are said to have shown great courage, smiling as they went out of view of their weeping mothers, wives and sisters, left behind them on the docks.

Insull Advised to Find Zaharoff

JUST before that outstanding example of Big

Business, Samuel Insull, was locked up by the Greek police, somebody in America cabled him that he had better get in touch quickly with Zaharoff, the munition maker, the man believed to have been largely responsible for starting wars in many parts of the world. Seems like a good suggestion. A still better one would be to have the two of them occupy the same cell.

International Barter Becoming Common

SOME months ago the Grain Stabilization Corporation exchanged 25,000,000 bushels of wheat for 1,050,000 bags of coffee. More recently the Aluminum Company of Canada exchanged $1,000,000 of aluminum products for Russian oil. It is predicted that as monetary systems become less and less reliable international barter will likely become much more common than hitherto.

Torturers Jailed in Rumania

IN RUMANIA, which many of us fondly supposed to be only about half civilized, three police officers who tortured a Jew have been imprisoned, and on release will be shifted to another part of the country. The right of judicial interrogation has also been withdrawn from these officers who have abused their position. New Orleans, Mineola, and other points north, south, east, and wTest, please note.

No Forced Labor in Russian Lumber

A YEAR or so ago efforts were made to keep Russian lumber out of America on the ground that it had been made by forced labor. An investigation of all phases of the work, made by the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce and the Moscow representative of the New York Times, disclosed no guards, machine guns or barbed wire, and all workers said they were ■working voluntarily.

Railroads Remove Many Trains

ALL the big railroads are taking off many trains for which there is no longer any real need. They are consulting with one another and limiting the train movements to the needs of the traffic, without any direct regard as to which road gets the business. The services of the Pennsylvania and New York Central between New York and Chicago have been reduced by 45 percent.

The Jesters at Vatican City

TN HIS cartoons Mr. Ripley says that the famous “Swiss guards of the pope” are dressed in a jester’s uniform of red, yellow and black stripes. The uniform was designed by Michelangelo, and was an expression of his disgust at the order. However, even if the pope is monarch of the smallest country in the world, and does have the smallest railroad in the world, he has an income of $15,000,000 a year; and that is not to be sneezed at in these hard times.

Iodine in Long Island Sound?

WHAT is supposed to be an excess of iodine in the waters of Long Island sound is resulting in the disappearance of fish from those waters. In instances observers have seen fish at the surface gasping for air or trying to leap to shore to escape the effects of some brown substance discoloring the water. It is known that iodine is plentiful in seaweed, and it is doubted if the brown substance could be so plentiful and come from any other source.

Decline of Tuberculosis

Dr. Gerald B. Webb, of Colorado, in a recent speech before a middle western medical association, declares that tuberculosis is vanishing in the United States and in another five years it will be classed as a minor disease. No doubt the greater cleanliness of the present generation, especially the cleanliness of the digestive apparatus due to a larger amount of fruit and vegetables in the diet, have much to do with this.

The Man-Hour and the Automobile

AMAN-HOUR is the work of one man for one hour. In 1904 it took 1,291 man-hours to make an automobile; in 1919 it took 313 manhours ; in 1929 it took 92 man-hours, and the car was very much better than when it took fourteen times as many man-hours to produce it. In the ten years from 1919 to 1929 the output of automobiles was multiplied by three and one-half while the employment had dropped 14 percent. The machinery of today does the work that was done by the man ten years ago, and all the philosophizing in the world will not change the fact that a good proportion of the work has for ever been turned over to the machine. Only the great God has the wisdom to solve the stupendous problem thus created.

Recent Excavations in Palestine

THE year has been replete with thrilling discoveries in Palestine. Among these are the complete excavation of a temple of the “queen of heaven”, described by Jeremiah, chapter 44, verses 17 to 19; also the gate of ancient Mizpah, not completely destroyed when the city was overthrown by Sennacherib. There have also been interesting discoveries on the ancient site of the fortress of Sichem, which fortress guarded the narrow pass between mounts Ebal and Gerizim.

Ford Wages Take a Tumble

THE Ford minimum wage, which, during the boom years, was at one time up to $8 a day, has gradually been sliding down hill, and is now back to $4 for an eight-hour day. We hope that the great minds that run the big industrial enterprises of the country will not show the same anxiety and alarm over the $4 rate as they did over the $5 rate when it was first announced some years ago. They thought then that the huge wages of $5 a day for common labor would be the ruin of mankind.

The Insull Saints

THE Insull saints, that is, the prominent Illinois or national citizens that were stung when the Insull pyramid fell, are revealed to have been the mayor of Chicago, the chief investigator for the state’s attorney, the Illinois republican national committeeman, an Illinois state representative, the president of the First National Bank of Chicago, the chairman of the General Electric Company, the former secretary of President Wilson, a Studebaker, a Swift, and the speaker of the Illinois house of representatives.

Alas Poor China!

CHINA trusted to the League of Nations to save Manchuria, but now knows she must fight for it if she wants to get it back; cholera has broken out and hundreds have died, including twenty-seven foreigners at Shanghai. Meantime the opium traffic has increased sevenfold. The anti-opium laws throughout the country are ignored by officials and public alike. The League of Nations is responsible for this and has really encouraged it. In some places opium is grown not only with the connivance of officials but at their insistence.

Political Prisoners in India

OLITICAL prisoners in India are treated the same as ordinary convicts. Women are allowed no underclothes. Bedding consists of a mat and a very rough blanket. Letters may be written but once in three months. The prisoners are constantly abused in the most foul and filthy language by every official from the superintendent to the warders. To protest is to be shifted to another still worse prison, and to be segregated. When he learns of these things every true Britisher is expected to say, “God save the king.”

The Farmer and the Calf

FARMER in Napa valley, California, had a calf he could not afford to feed, so he took it to a slaughterhouse and butcher shop to have it killed and marketed. For himself he ordered one of the hind quarters, and besides taking the entire calf the butchers wanted to charge him $2 for the portion they returned to him. Business men have become so used to robbing farmers that they never even stop to think when it comes to a thing like this. In the South it is common for a man to drive to town loaded down with cotton and drive back home with almost or absolutely nothing to show for it.

Conditions in Pittsburgh

IN THE North Side of Pittsburgh is a freight depot of the Fort Wayne branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It has twenty doorways, the sills of which are covered with iron plates about twelve feet long by three feet wide. On the night of October 1, 1932, and for months prior thereto, nearly every one of those doorways had two pitiable specimens of humanity trying to sleep in it, with nothing under them but newspapers and nothing over them but newspapers. Hundreds of other men around Pittsburgh, on the same night, were sleeping out in the open, stretched on the sand and gravel of the river bank. Meantime, we understand, America’s leading distiller, and one of her very greatest financiers, Andrew Mellon, has contributed $3,000,000 for the construction of a colossal church in Pittsburgh which will be devoted to the worship of the Nazarene who said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” It is hoped that this $3,000,000 church will do the Pittsburgh crowd a lot of good.

Travel on the Amazon

IT IS said that the boats of the Amazon River

Navigation Company are commodious and clean, and that the cities and towns along its banks are among the most scrupulously clean to be found anywhere in the world. The trees which line the streets are kept neatly trimmed; the gardens in the parks bloom with gorgeous flowers; the poorest people dress in spotless white clothing; there is no shortage of food; the Amazon is alive with fish; and the garden plots are busy twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

The Cost of Rackets

ordon L. Hofstetter, executive director of the Employers’ Association of Chicago, in an address before the National Conference of Government, at Washington, said that in Chicago alone business men, labor leaders, criminals and politicians have organized and operated no less than 163 rackets, costing Chicago not less than $145,000,000 a year. Mr. Hofstetter defines a racket as a conspiracy to control an industry or a line of trade and to commit extortion by intimidation, force, violence, blackmail, arson, murder, kidnaping, bombing or other forms of coercion. At first the business men and labor leaders were the originators of rackets, but now, he says, the criminals are getting in control and running both ends.

Mooney Remains in Prison

aul M. Callicotte, guide on Mount Hood, in a signed statement, declares that on July 22,1916, as a lad then but sixteen years old, and without any knowledge of what it contained, he placed the suitcase which caused the “Preparedness Day” explosion for which Mooney is serving a life sentence. For his work he received $5. He remained silent for fifteen years ‘because his parents were Seventh Day Adventists, and he did not wish them to know he would attend a parade on their sabbath’. He came to a decision to make his statement, as a result of a fall, when he was left twenty-two hours alone with a broken leg on the slope of Mount Hood. Every honest person who has ever investigated this matter knows that Mooney is innocent; but they also know he will be compelled to die in prison if the Big Business crowd in California have their way. And they have had it thus far, in the face of overwhelming evidence of their nefariousness in this case.

Giant Dam at Lake Albert

Statistics of Greater London

BRITISH engineers project a giant dam at TJTITHIN a fifteen-mile radius of Charing Lake Albert, the object of which is to con- » » Cross is a total population of 8,203,942.

serve the waters of the lake, provide an even flow, and thus control the level of the Nile. By the same project it is hoped to eliminate the great Sudd swamp which clogs the Nile with vegetable matter twenty feet thick, and thus enable the people of Sudan and Egypt to make use of all the water now consumed in growing useless swamp vegetation. The dam will carry a highway and railroad tracks and be an important link in African transportation arrangements.

The Share-the-Work Plan

AS A BUSINESS proposition, the share-the-work plan of Big Business is clever enough. It simply proposes that all workers be put on, say, 80-percent time and paid accordingly, and that the money thus saved the employer be used by him to put on 20 percent more help. The net result is that he has five workers for every four he had before, and the total wages paid are the same. In other words, the remedy which Big Business has endorsed (and which is sponsored by Walter C. Teagle, president of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey) would let the big fellows go practically scot-free while it would lay directly upon the workers the burden of carrying on their backs a generous proportion of the unemployed.

A Freak Half Calf, Half Pig

ON THE farm of Frank Sanville, Lebanon,

N. H., is the freak son of a thoroughbred Guernsey cow and a Jersey bull, the general appearance of which is, for all the world, like a pig. The tail is a pig’s tail, the body is a pig’s body, the legs are pig’s legs, and the ears are pig’s ears. The hoofs, teeth, eyes, face, nose and hair resemble those of a cow. No doubt at a critical moment the mother saw a pig and the impression on her mind upset the normal course of nature. It is an interesting illustration of the power of prenatal influence. In a well authenticated instance a mare gave birth to a sharply-striped colt, the sire of which was a zebra. A year or so later she gave birth to a less sharply-striped colt, the sire of which was a stallion. The impression on her mind was so great in the first instance that it lingered, somewhat dimmed, for upwards of a year.

Of these, 3,832,916 are males and 4,371,026 are females. In London county proper, which comprises an area embracing a little more than half of the population of Greater London, there are 748,930 dwellings. This shows that though the British do sometimes double up, because they have to do so, yet they prefer, as far as possible, each family to live in its own separate home, even in so great a city as London. As a matter of fact 36.7 percent of the families in London county live in single occupation of the homes in which they reside.

The Depreciation of a Man

THERE is food for a great deal of thought in the following statement of Hiram S. Rivitz, president of the Industrial Rayon Company. He says:

There is little difference in a piece of machinery and a man. They are both assets of the corporation. When we get a new piece of machinery we immediately set up for depreciation on our books. A reserve* is created to take care of this machine when it is no longer of value. When a new employee enters the plant the same should be done for him. If he comes in and goes to work he becomes a very valuable asset to the employer and some fund should be set up to take care of him, either when idle or at such time when he has completed his service through years of work.

San Francisco’s Public Defender

SAN FRANCISCO’S ‘public defender’ had a friend and benefactor, a Mrs. Jessie Scott Hughes, but he does not have her any more. He hired a couple of good reliable murderers to kill the old lady in her garage and then put her body out in the street where it would look as if she had been knocked down by a truck. The scheme worked all right, except that when the old lady was found her house was locked and she had no key on her person. Then one of the murderers confessed, with the result that the ‘public defender’ was sent to prison for lifr>. It seems a little irregular, but perhaps it is all right in a city which shelters a man like Fickert. Seems too bad that a decent man like Mooney should have to associate with such people; still it would be worse if Fickert were to get what is honestly his due. But if Fickert got that, Mooney would go free.

Crookedness in Hungary

IN HUNGARY the manufacturer of a siphon hired a government official to issue an order prohibiting soda fountains in cafes and inns, thus making it necessary for these merchants to use his siphon. The scheme worked. In a town in eastern Ohio there is a spring famous for its purity. City officials had the spring con-demmed so as to force near-by families to put in the city water, but as soon as connections with the city water were made the ban on the spring was lifted. Meantime, the very officials that placed the spring under ban were known to obtain the drinking water for their own homes at the condemned fountain.

Chicago Exposition of 1933

EXT year Chicago will be 100 years old and will celebrate by an international exposition built on ground every foot of which was once fathoms under the surface of Lake Michigan, but is now located near the heart of the great city of 3,500,000 inhabitants. It is believed that this exposition will be unique in easy accessibility for visitors. The funds to build the exposition were raised by private subscription. The roof of the Travel and Transport building is hung by sky hooks from the tops of twelve steel columns built in a circle. There will be a sky ride, 200 feet above ground, between two huge 600-foot towers, for those seeking thrills. We shall have other items of interest later.

The Church a Mimic of the World

everend Dr. Frederick H. Knubel, president of the United Lutheran church in America, is pretty blue, and has reason to be, over the condition of the ecclesiastical organization over which he presides. In a recent report he is quoted as saying:

The United Lutheran church in America was born amid the frenzy of Armistice Day in 1918. Since then the world has lived constantly in some form of feverish excitement. The world has not sobered in the least, for its frenzy is now revealed in dazed bewilderment. Riches have flown and financiers have been found as fools. The bigness of material things and the bigness of man continue to control even in the depression. Has the world thought of God? It is more than a century since such a flood of atheism as is seen today has swept all nations. In all this the church has mimicked the world, in excitement, in huge undertakings for quick advance, in calls for great leaders, and, above all, in neglect of God.

Criticisms of the New Washington Quarters

fTHIE American Banker takes note of the criticisms that the new Washington quarters have Washington’s cheek, ear and wig so high that the coins do not stack properly, that the stars which symbolize the union are not clear cut and affirmative but are soft and indecisive, and that the words “In God we trust” do not stand out as though the Government really meant it. It wants to know, “Is there a dark and sinister plot at Washington to gradually let the emphasis on the States and trust in the Deity fade out of our national life, and are these coins a marker of this trend?”

Big Business on Its Knees

IG BUSINESS is on its knees these days, not to the Lord, to be sure, but to Uncle

Sam. There is the Illinois Central Railroad Company, one of the most prosperous transportation companies in the world. From 1853 to date it never missed a dividend, and the average over the entire period was 6.71 percent. But last year it lost money, and on June 1 needed $11,000,000 to refinance itself. It tried to get the money from Kuhn, Loeb & Company, which at one time would have jumped at the chance to loan it, and it was told that it was impossible to obtain a loan under the existing circumstances. The next move was to go to the Ke-construction Finance Corporation. That gives some idea of the way things are tightening up all around.

Chance for Canadian Witnesses

ev. Basil Thompson, pastor of Wesley church, London, Ont., Canada, is on record as saying: “I am at my wit’s end to know how best to interpret the Word of God in these trying times. I pray day and night; I spend many sleepless nights. We do not want to be puppets in our pulpits; we want some prophetic vision to show the way to the disturbed in soul.” Looks like a chance here for some good soul among the witnesses in London, Ont., to just go around and give this poor man a chance to read the message Jehovah God has for him in Judge Rutherford’s books. It may cost him his job, but what of that? It is no disgrace to be poor and honest, to rise with the whirr of the alarm clock and to work in overalls, but it is a disgrace to stick to lies that no longer alarm or even interest the hearers.

Federal Churches Admit the Truth

THE Federal Churches have not admitted all that they might have admitted, but they have made an encouraging start towards honesty when they say: “We have worshiped at the shrines of false gods: the false god of mammon, money, things; the false god of production, bigness; the false god of nationalism, individualism, social injustices; the false god of pleasure, amusement, disregard for things and times sacred ; the false god of success, high living, careless thinking; the false god of magic, reaping where we had not sowed, profiting where we had not toiled.”

Soft Rock Makes Best Concrete

EXPERIMENTS at Purdue University show that extremely hard, flinty rock does not make the best concrete. Such stones hold a wall of water around them, preventing the strongest union. Where the stone is slightly softer the water penetrates it and the stone and cement blend together into one. Concrete cylinders made of hardest rock burst at 3,600 pounds pressure per square inch, while those of soft rock stood 5,000 pounds pressure per square inch. The concrete made with the hardest stones broke unevenly, with the lines of cleavage following the face of the stones, while the concrete made with the softer stones broke evenly, the stones breaking with the cement, and showing that there had been a perfect blending of the two.

The Great Insanity

IF THOSE who died in the great insanity could come back and march past the reviewing stand of those who sent them to their doom, and if they were lined up ten abreast, and marched day and night, it would take 162 days for them to pass the stand. If those who died of disease and other causes attributable to the World War joined the procession, it would take a year and a half. If the money that was thrown away had been put into the making of good concrete roads, such roads could have been laid to within 2y2 miles of every point on the surface of the earth. In spite of these facts the munition makers of the greatest nations of the earth, after six months of haggling at Geneva, are unable to think of any reasons why we should not soon have another world war infinitely worse than the one we did have.

Water Contraction and Expansion

IT IS generally known that water expands on freezing and this causes the ice to form on top of the water and to float when broken in pieces. If it were not so, our oceans and lakes and deep rivers would freeze from the bottom up and remain so cold that they would never thaw out, and there would be no life in those waters. Besides this, the earth would be so frigid that vegetation and animal life as it now is could not exist on the earth.

But who knows that water also contracts? Water expands; water contracts. How can that be? All matter contracts, some more, some less, as it cools; and so does water, to a certain point Fahrenheit. Warm water will contract as it cools till it reaches 39.2° F. From there on to the freezing point it expands, and this explains why ice is lighter than water, for 1,000 parts of ice in melting produces only 917 parts of water. But no scientist has ever yet explained why water expands on cooling below 39.2° F., for this is contrary to all known laws of our benevolent Creator. And who knows why snow and even the most solid ice in the Arctic regions are continually evaporating!

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